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Dakota had not moved. He stood also, watching Langford, his face pale and grim, and he did not speak until Sheila had addressed him twice. "What are you going to do now?" she said dully. "It is for you to say, you know. You hold his life in your hands." "Do?" He smiled bitterly at her. "What would you do? I have waited ten years for this day. It must go on to the end." "The end?"
"Almost as much as Henrietta would like it herself, Busy Bee," said Aunt Mary; "but I think she should walk to Sutton Leigh to-day." "Walk to Sutton Leigh!" echoed old Mrs. Langford, entering at the moment; "not you, surely, Mary?" "O no, no, grandmamma," said Beatrice, laughing; "she was only talking of Henrietta's doing it."
"A village house is not like these summer lodgings, which are snapped up before you can look at them," said Mrs. Langford; "I have no fears but that it is to be had." But Henrietta could not help fancying that her mother would regard it somewhat as a reprieve, if the bargain was to go off independently of any determination of hers.
Fred performed a grimace, and remarked that if Henrietta continued to make her tea so scalding, there would soon be a verdict against her of fratricide; but the observation, being intended to conceal certain feelings of disappointment and heroism, only led to silence. After sleeping for some hours, Mrs. Langford awoke refreshed, and got up, but did not leave her room.
Langford did not answer him, stepping back against the desk and regarding him with a mirthless, forced smile which, Sheila was certain, he had assumed in order to conceal his fear of the man who stood before him. "So you haven't got any thoughts just at this minute," said Dakota with cold insinuation.
"We are, indeed we are, as happy as the day is long. Do not fancy we are discontented; do not think we want a change." Mrs. Langford replied by an arch though subdued smile. "But we would not have you to do it on our account," said Fred. "Pray put it out of your head, for we do very well here, and it was only a passing fancy." "You will not talk me out of it, my dears," said Mrs. Langford.
Langford had covered his face with his hands, and stood beside the desk, trembling, and Sheila cried aloud in protest when she saw Dakota draw the weapon that swung at his other hip, holding her off with the hand which she had seized. But when Dakota saw Langford's hands go to his face he hesitated, smiling scornfully.
"I believe I said that I 'started' for the doctor," said Sheila with a quiet smile. She was enjoying his excitement. "I met Dakota on the trail, and he went." Langford continued to stare at her; it seemed that he could not realize the truth. Then suddenly he was out of his chair and standing over her, his face bloated poisonously, his eyes ablaze with a malignant light. "Damn you!" he shrieked.
These, too, faded away amid the disregard of their owner, though the odalisque shed floods of tears of disappointment; and others succeeded, but they tempted Roseton vainly, and a glance at the clock showed that it was now ten o'clock by New Haven time. At this moment the Rev. George Langford experienced another biological sensation; Roseton had conceived a breakfast.
A very inconvenient arrangement, as everyone had said for the last twenty years, and might probably say for twenty years more. As usual, more than half the contents were for G. Langford, Esq., and Fred's face grew longer and longer as he saw the closely-written business-like sheets.
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