Part 50 (2/2)
It was supper time before Jim could leave the business of the dam and get up to his house. He and Uncle Denny had finished supper when Pen came out of Mrs. Flynn's room. She was white and spent, but she had not been crying.
”Still,” she said, ”I want you to persuade Uncle Denny not to go back East with me and poor Sara. I am perfectly well and quite able to make the trip alone. Uncle Denny is needed here.”
”It's not to be thought of!” cried Dennis. ”When the first shock is over I'm looking for you to go to pieces and I propose to be on the job.”
”Uncle Denny,” said Pen quietly, ”I shall not go to pieces. I feel the tragedy of Sara's life very deeply and I am very sad over it all. But I'm not a widow. I'm a nurse and friend whose job is over. It will be a pitiful journey to take Sara back to his father. But I shall be with dear Aunt Mary in New York. I shall get no rest unless I know that you are with Jim in this critical moment of his career.”
The two men looked at each other uncertainly. Suddenly Pen's voice shook: ”Oh, don't make me argue!”
Jim spoke slowly: ”We never have regretted doing what Pen told us to, Uncle Denny. It looks heartless, but I guess we'll have to obey.”
”Me soul in me is like a whirling Dervish,” said Uncle Denny, ”with both of you needing me so. You'll have to decide betwixt you.”
”Then Uncle Denny will stay here and we will take you over for the five o'clock morning train, Pen. Mrs. Flynn has packed your trunk and poor Sara is ready for his last trip. When shall we look for your return, little Penelope?”
Pen looked a little bewildered. ”Why, there is no excuse for my coming back. I shall stay with your mother until I get rested and then I must find something to do.”
Uncle Denny jumped up and stood with his back to the fireplace while Jim leaned on the back of Pen's chair.
”Listen to me, children,” said Dennis. ”Of what use is it to beat about the bush and refuse to speak what's in the heart of each of us? How can we pretend that poor Sara's death is not G.o.d's own relief to him and us?
We can weep, as Pen says, over the tragedy of his life, but not that he is gone. Your talk of going to work is nonsense, me sweet Pen. After a few months you will marry Jim and have the happiness you have earned so dearly.”
Jim did not move. Pen's pale face turned scarlet. ”Oh, Uncle Denny,” she cried, ”don't talk to me of marriage! I love Jim dearly, but now this is all over I have left only a deadly fear of marriage!”
”Pen! Pen!” exclaimed Uncle Denny. ”What do you know of marriage? For every unhappy marriage we hear of there are three of such sweet companions.h.i.+p that its sharers hide it from the world as if 'twere too sacred for the common gaze. The perfect friends.h.i.+p is between man and woman and when you add to that the sacrament of body and soul, you have the only heaven humans may know on earth. And 'tis enough. 'Tis full compensation for all the ills of life.”
”Jane Ames has been talking to me that way lately,” said Pen, her eyes full of tears. ”But you nor she never really had your dreams destroyed as I have.” She paused and went on as if half to herself: ”And yet nothing has come into my life so revivifying and wholesome as Oscar and Jane's finding each other after all these years. Perhaps there is something in marriage I don't know. Jane says there is. But--Oh, I am so tired!”
Jim moved round to Uncle Denny's side. ”It's good of Uncle Denny to plead for me, isn't it, Penny? But you are in no state now to listen to him or me, either. Go back to mother, and don't work, but play. You've forgotten how to play. I remember that long ago when Uncle Denny wanted mother to marry him he told her that marrying him would give me my chance to play, that I couldn't come to my full strength without play.
Grown-ups need play, too, little Pen. Go back for a while and rest and take up your tennis again and go to Coney Island with mother. Go and play, Penny. And some day I'll come back and play with you.”
Pen gave a little sigh. Suddenly her tense nerves relaxed and she settled back in her chair with a little color in her cheeks.
Uncle Denny cleared his throat. ”Tell Mrs. Flynn to fetch her some tea and toast, me boy. Then she must go to bed for a few hours.”
The automobile, with Henderson at the wheel, was at the door before dawn. Jim had sent poor Sara on before midnight. Uncle Denny put Pen and Jim into the tonneau, then climbed up beside Henderson and the machine shot swiftly out on the great road.
Pen did not speak for some time and Jim did not disturb her. She looked back at the Elephant as long as she could discern the great meditative form in the starlight. Then, after they had gotten into the hills and were winging like night birds up the mountain road, Jim felt a cold little hand slip into his lean, warm paw.
Jim's heart gave a thud. He leaned forward to look into Pen's face. It was dim in the starlight, but he saw that she smiled slightly. Jim leaned back, feeling as if he could overturn worlds with this thrill in his veins.
The great road curled like a hair among the dim black mountain tops. The machine flew lightly. Uncle Denny and Henderson talked quietly, and at last, under cover of their speech and the whirr of the engine, Pen began to talk softly to Jim.
”I am hoping that in the years to come I can remember Sara as a college boy, so full of life and ambition! He was a beautiful boy, Still, wasn't he?”
”Yes, little Pen, I loved him very much, then.”
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