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"There's somebody on the 'phone for you, Mr. Estabrook," said the switchboard girl. "They're very anxious to talk." "Tell 'em I've gone home for the day," I called back to her and then went down and out of the building to the sunbaked street. I knew that I should put food in my stomach, so I ate a lunch somewhere.
They become ordinary. It is those undefined, doubtful things which run fear through the veins like a drug. Nevertheless I caught myself in time to conceal my nervousness. "Here, here, Estabrook!" I said in a sharp, businesslike tone. "We didn't come to watch drawn curtains. The question is, did you bring your keys?" Without asking me questions, he handed them over.
"I'm sure I don't know. I suppose he expects to, or he would not have traveled so far in search of him." "Shall you be glad to see him back, Mrs. Estabrook?" "Of course! What makes you doubt it?" demanded the housekeeper, sharply. "I thought you didn't like Herbert." "I wasn't always petting him. It isn't in my way to pet boys." "Do you often hear from Willis Ford?"
"She knows something," said I. "You have heard how she talked to me, how she tried to conceal her excitement, how she treated me as a spy, how guilty she seemed, and you have indicated that you, as well as I, believe that she knows what is at the bottom of this." "Yes, yes," cried Estabrook. "I am sure that she knows. But what then what then? What can we do?" "My dear fellow," I said, "why 'we'?"
Then, as on the former occasion, his optimistic good-nature seemed to rise again above whatever apprehensions he may have had. He smiled until all the multitude of wrinkles about his eyes were showing. "Estabrook," said he, "we have bad luck, eh? But I can offer a worthy substitute. Unless you find that you must go, you may discover my daughter to be as worthy an opponent as the Sheik of Baalbec."
Above all, I am one of those old fogies you have mentioned, who secretly mourn the dying-out of romance. Here! a glass! to adventure!" Estabrook smiled sourly, but he drank. "Thank you," he said. "I appreciate your spirit and, permit me to say, also your attempt to make me treat this terrible affair in a spirit of sport. But old Margaret is the superlative of stubbornness.
"And it has gone far enough. It's been more than I can bear. It's time for me to tell! If you, whoever you are, and Mr. Estabrook will hear, you shall have it all the living truth of it the bottom of what I know." "Good!" said I. "And now we'll go to my house." "No, no," she exclaimed. "There is no need for that. I would not be from the girl while these awful minutes is going by.
"But," said Haslam, "a man about to take leave of this life doesn't ordinarily waste time going to the opera." "Why not? He probably came here to think. One can do that well at the opera." "Tom Appleton think? I beg pardon again. But see, he's talking to a girl now, Miss Estabrook, of North Broad Street.
That evening, after Herbert had gone to bed, Mr. Reynolds invited Grant into his library. "My boy," he said, "I have settled accounts with Mrs. Estabrook; now I want to settle with you." "Not in the same way, I hope, sir," said Grant. "Yes, in the same way, according to your deserts. You have done me a service, that which none can be greater.
Let the thing be unspoken. My boy, don't dig up that which is all but buried forever. Listen to me, Estabrook. You trust me. And I, tell you that if I were in your place, knowing what I know " "Enough," I said, awed by his pleading. "Do you tell me that it is best for her and for me to make her my wife in ignorance of this thing?" "God help me," he said, falling back into his chair.
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