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Updated: June 25, 2025
He had, in fact, begun to entertain the very gravest anxiety about her health. Her face and figure had grown thin; they were becoming less and less like the face and figure of the ideal spouse. Poor Lucia's arms offered no reliable support for a tired man. To his annoyance Jewdwine found that he had to breakfast alone with his hostess, because of Lucia's headache.
It seemed likely that he would carry off the honours of the discussion by remaining severely polite while Rickman grew more and more perturbed and heated. Rickman, however, gained at the outset by making straight for his point. As Jewdwine gave him no opening he had to make one and make it as early as possible, before the great man's amenities had time to lure him from the track.
He first of all made arrangements for removing his patient to the hospital. Then in his uncertainty he telegraphed to Jewdwine, to Rankin and to Spinks. The news of Rickman's illness was thus spread rapidly among his friends. It brought Spinks that afternoon, and Flossie, the poor Beaver, dragged to Howland Street by her husband to see what her woman's hands could do.
I wrote to him ten days ago; and I haven't got any answer as yet." "What did you say to him?" "I invited him to step in and buy the library over our heads." "And how much would he have had to pay for it?" "Probably more than one thousand two hundred." "Well if you think that Mr. Jewdwine is the man to deal so lightly with two hundred pounds, let alone the thousand!
"I think," said he quietly, "this conversation had better cease." The owner of the back had moved, a little ostentatiously. He now got up and crossed the room. The back was still towards the group of talkers. Jewdwine followed its passage. He was fascinated. He gasped.
As far as he could see, Jewdwine was merely desperately anxious to protect his kinswoman from what he considered an undesirable acquaintance. And five years ago his fears and his behaviour would have been justifiable; for Rickman owned that at that period he had not been fit to sit in the same room with Lucia Harden, far less, if it came to that, than poor Soper.
"It may be arrogant to suppose that I'll succeed where better men might fail; still " He rose and drew himself up to all his slender height "in some impossible things I have succeeded." "They are not the same things." "No; but in both, you see, it all depends upon the man." With that he left him. As Rickman's back turned on him, Jewdwine perceived his own final error.
Jewdwine had created the horror for him as vividly as if he had shaped it into words. "You needn't tell me what it is. Do you mind telling me whether it's curable or not?" "My dear Rickman, if I knew why you are asking all these questions " "They must seem extraordinary. And my reason for asking them is more extraordinary still." They measured each other with their eyes.
Supposing, without it, she had met Keith Rickman and had yielded to the temptation to be kind to him! Even in the heat Jewdwine shivered at the thought. He put it from him, he put Rickman altogether from his mind. It was not to think about Rickman that he came down to Court House. On a day as hot as this, he wanted nothing but to keep cool.
He did not hold himself responsible for Lucia's father's debts, but he was willing, not to say glad, to take up Lucia's. It was certainly most improper that she should be under any obligation to Rickman. And personally he disliked indebtedness. But Jewdwine was incapable of that grossness. He gave the matter a fortnight's delicate consideration.
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