Part 6 (2/2)
”OFFICE OF WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO., NEW YORK, _July_ 24_th_, 187-.
”To MRS. I. M. ARGENTER, Dorbury, Ma.s.s.
”Mr. Argenter has had a sunstroke. Insensible. Very serious.
Will telegraph again.
”PHILIP BURKMAYER, M.D.”
Sylvie's eyes, so roundly innocent, so star-like in their usual bright uplifting, were raised now with a wide terror in them, first to Rodney, then to Amy; and ”O--O!” broke in short, subdued gasps from her lips.
Then they heard Mrs. Argenter's step up-stairs.
”What is the matter, Sylvie? What are you doing? Who is with you down there?” she said, over the bal.u.s.ter, from the hall above.
”O, mother!” cried Sylvie, ”they aren't gone! Something has _come_!
Go up and tell her, Amy, please!” And forgetting all about Amy as ”Miss Sherrett,” and all her fear of ”nice girls,” she dropped down on the lower step of the staircase after Amy had pa.s.sed her upon her errand, put her face between her hands and caught her breath with frightened sobs.
Rodney, leaning against the newel post, looked down at her, and said, after the manner of men,--”Don't cry. It mayn't be very bad, after all. You'll hear again in an hour or two. Can't I do something? I'll go to the telegraph office. I'll get somebody for your mother. Whom shall I go for?”
”O, you are very kind. I don't know. Wait a minute. They didn't say any place! We ought to go right to New York, and we don't know where! O, dear!” She had lifted her head a little, just to say these broken sentences, and then it went down again.
Rodney did not answer instantly. It occurred to him all at once what this ”not saying any place” might mean.
Just as he began,--”You couldn't go until to-morrow,”--came Mrs.
Argenter's sharp cry from her room above. Amy had walked right on into the open, lighted apartment, Mrs. Argenter following, not daring to ask what she came and did this strange thing for, till Amy made her sit down in her own easy chair, and taking her hands, said gently,--
”It is a telegram from New York. Mr. Argenter--is very ill.” Then Mrs. Argenter cried out, ”That's not all! I know how people bring news! Tell me the whole.” And Sylvie sprang to her feet, hearing the quick, excited words, and leaving Rodney Sherrett standing there, rushed up into the dressing-room.
This was the way the same sort of news came to Sylvie Argenter as had come to the baker's daughter. Did it really make any difference--the different surrounding of the two? The great house--the lights--the servants--the friends; and the open bake-shop door, the village street, the blunt, common-spoken neighbor-woman, and the boy with the brick loaf?
These two were to be fatherless: their mothers were both to be widows: that was all.
Did it happen strangely with the two--in this same story? Who know, always, when they are in the same story? These things are happening every day, and one great story holds us all. If one could see wide enough, one could tell the whole.
These things happen: and then the question comes,--alike in high and low places,--alike with money and without it,--what the women and the girls are to do?
Rodney Sherrett took his sister home; drove three miles round and brought Mrs. Argenter's sister to her from River Point, and then turned toward Dorbury Upper Village and the telegraph office. But he met Sim Atwill on the way, received the telegram from him, and hurried back.
It was the dispatch of the hour later, and this was it:--
”Mr. Argenter died at five o'clock. His remains will be sent home to-morrow, carefully attended.
”PHILIP BURKMAYER.”
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