Part 17 (1/2)
”Understand what, Uncle Buckley?” Lyman asked.
”Oh, nothin'. It's all right, I reckon. Young feller, jest keep on a shootin' your paper at me. We find some mighty interestin' readin' in it; and sometimes Lige he breaks out in a loud laugh over a piece, and he 'lows, 'if that ain't old Sammy, up and up, I don't want a cent.'
Well, boys, I've some knockin' around to do and I'll have to bid you good day.”
CHAPTER XIV.
NOTHING REMARKABLE IN IT.
Mr. McElwin put aside his newspaper and paced slowly up and down the room, his slippered feet falling with an emphatic pat on the carpet.
His wife sat near the window, watching the swallows cutting black circles in the dusky air. Eva was seated at the piano, half turned from it, while with one hand she felt about to touch the nerve of some half-forgotten tune. McElwin dropped down in an arm chair.
”I wonder if this newspaper will ever stop talking about that fellow's story,” said he. ”I read it over and I didn't see anything remarkable in it. Of course it's all right to feel a local pride in a thing, but gracious alive, we don't want to go into fits over it. Now, here's nearly half a column about it.”
”Let me see it,” said Eva. He picked up the paper and held it out to her. She got off the piano stool, took the paper and stood near her father, under the hanging lamp.
”Can't you find it? On the editorial page.”
”Yes, I have found it. But it is not written by the pen of local pride.”
”It is in the state paper.”
”Yes, but if you had read to the bottom you would have seen that it was from a New York paper.”
”Ah, well, it doesn't interest me, no matter what paper it is from.”
”What is it?” Mrs. McElwin asked, turning from the window.
”Something more about Mr. Lyman's story,” the daughter answered.
”It appears to have stirred up quite a sensation,” said Mrs. McElwin.
”One of those happy accidents.”
”It was not an accident,” the girl replied. ”It was genius.”
”Come, don't be absurd,” said her father. ”There is such a thing as a man finding a gold watch in the road. I call it an accident. I had quite a talk with him in my private office before our relations became strained, and I found him to be rather below the average. He surely has but a vague and confused idea regarding even the simplest forms of business. But I admit that his story is all well enough, and so are many little pieces of fancy work, but they don't amount to anything.
Educated man? Yes, that's all right, too, but the highways are full of educated men, looking for something to do. Sawyer is worth a dozen of him.”
Mrs. McElwin glanced at her daughter, as if she had heard a footstep on dangerous ground. She was not far wrong.
”Sawyer is a man, ready--”
”He has not shown it,” the girl was bold enough to declare. She stood under the lamp and the newspaper rattled as she held it now grasped tightly.
”Eva,” said her mother, in gentle reproof, ”don't say that.”
”But I want her to say it if she thinks it,” the banker spoke up, almost angrily. ”I want her to say it and prove it.”
”He proved it to me, but I may not be able to prove it to you. Mr.