Part 26 (2/2)
Another mighty encouraging symptom, isn't it?”
Not more than a day or two after this, and after the news of the ”purchase” of the Trescott estate was being whispered about, my telephone rang, just before my time for leaving the office, and, on answering, I found that Antonia was at the other end of the wire.
”Is this Mr. Barslow?” said she. ”How do you do? Alice is with us this afternoon, and she and mamma have given me authority to bring you home to dinner with us. Do you surrender?”
”Always,” said I, ”at such a summons.”
”Then I'll come for you in ten minutes, if you'll wait for me. It's ever so good of you.”
From her way of finis.h.i.+ng the conversation, I knew she was coming to the office. So I waited in pleasurable antic.i.p.ation of her coming, thinking of the perversity of the scheme of things which turned the eyes of both Jim and Cornish to Josie, while this girl coming to fetch me yearned so strongly toward one of them that her sorrow--borne lightly and cheerfully as it was--was an open secret. When she came she made her way past the clerks in the first room and into my private den. Not until the door closed behind her, and we were alone, did I see that she was not in her usual spirits. Then I saw that unmistakable quiver in her lips, so like a smile, so far from mirth, which my acquaintance with the girl, so sensitive and free from secretiveness, had made me familiar with.
”I want to know about some things,” said she, ”that papa hints about in a blind sort of a way, but doesn't tell clearly. Is it true that Josie and her mother are poor?”
”That is something which ought not to be known yet,” said I, ”but it is true.”
”Oh,” said she tearfully, ”I am so sorry, so sorry!”
”Antonia,” said I, as she hastily brushed her eyes, ”these tears do your kind heart credit!”
”Oh, don't, don't talk to me like that!” she exclaimed pa.s.sionately. ”My kind heart! Why, sometimes I hate her; and I would be glad if she was out of the world! Don't look like that at me! And don't pretend to be surprised, or say you don't understand me. I think every one understands me, and has for a long time. I think everybody on the street says, after I pa.s.s, 'Poor Antonia!' I _must_ talk to somebody! And I'd rather talk to you because, even though you are a man and can't possibly know how I feel, you understand _him_ better than any one else I know--and _you_ love him too!”
I started to say something, but the situation did not lend itself to words. Neither could I pat her on the shoulders, or press her hand, as I might have done with a man. Pale and beautiful, her jaunty hat a little awry, her blonde ringlets in some disorder, she sat unapproachable in her grief.
”You look at me,” said she, with a little gasping laugh, ”as if I were a drowning girl, and you chained to the bank. If you haven't pitied me in the past, Albert, don't pity me now; for the mere saying openly to some human being that I love him seems almost to make me happy!”
I lamely murmured some inanity, of which she took not the slightest notice.
”Is it true,” she asked, ”that Mr. Elkins is to pay their debts, and that they are to be--married?”
”No,” said I, glad, for some reason which is not very clear, to find something to deny. ”Nothing of the sort, I a.s.sure you.”
And again, this time something wearily, for it was the second time over it in so short a time, I explained the disposition of the Trescott estate.
”But he urged it?” she said. ”He insisted upon it?”
”Yes.”
She arose, b.u.t.toned her jacket about her, and stood quietly as if to test her mastery of herself, once or twice moving as if to speak, but stopping short, with a long, quivering sigh. I longed to take her in my arms and comfort her; for, in a way, she attracted me strongly.
”Mr. Barslow,” said she at last, ”I have no apology to make to you; for you are my friend. And I have no feeling toward Mr. Elkins of which, in my secret heart, and so long as he knows nothing of it, I am not proud.
To know him ... and love him may be death ... but it is honor!... I am sorry Josie is poor, because it is a hard thing for her; but more because I know he will be drawn to her in a stronger way by her poverty.
Shake hands with me, Albert, and be jolly, I'm jollier, away down deep, than I've been for a long, long time; and I thank you for that!”
We shook hands warmly, like comrades, and pa.s.sed down to her carriage together. At dinner she was vivacious as ever; but I was downcast. So much so that Mrs. Hinckley devoted herself to me, cheering me with a dissertation on ”s.e.x in Mind.” I asked myself if the atmosphere in which she had been reared had not in some degree contributed to the att.i.tude of Antonia toward the expression to me of her regard for Jim.
So the Trescott estate matter was arranged. In a few days the boom was strengthened by newspaper stories of the purchase, by heavy financial interests, of the entire list of a.s.sets in the hands of the administrator.
”This immense deal,” said the _Herald_, ”is new proof of the desirability of Lattimore property. The Acme Investment Company, which will handle the properties, has bought for investment, and will hold for increased prices. It may be taken as certain that in no other city in the country could so large and varied a list of holdings be so quickly and advantageously realized upon.”
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