Part 14 (1/2)

”I can't let you alone,” she said brightly. ”I've come to stay with you till you feel quieter.... Would you rather I talked to you, or kept quiet?”

”Oh, do your wifely duty, whatever it is,” he said.... ”It was a mistake, the whole thing. You've done more than your duty, child, but--oh, you'd better go away.”

Phyllis's heart turned over. Was it as bad as this? Was he as sick of her as this?

”You mean--you think,” she faltered, ”it was a mistake--our marriage?”

”Yes,” he said restlessly. ”Yes.... It wasn't fair.”

She had no means of knowing that he meant it was unfair to her. She held on to herself, though she felt her face turning cold with the sudden pallor of fright.

”I think it can be annulled,” she said steadily. ”No, I suppose it wasn't fair.”

She stopped to get her breath and catch at the only things that mattered--steadiness, quietness, ability to soothe Allan!

”It can be annulled,” she said again evenly. ”But listen to me now, Allan. It will take quite a while. It can't be done to-night, or before you are stronger. So for your own sake you must try to rest now.

Everything shall come right. I promise you it shall be annulled. But forget it now, please. I am going to hold your wrists and talk to you, recite things for you, till you go back to sleep.”

She wondered afterwards how she could have spoken with that hard serenity, how she could have gone steadily on with story after story, poem after poem, till Allan's grip on her hands relaxed, and he fell into a heavy, tired sleep.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”BUT YOU SEE--HE'S--ALL I HAVE ... GOOD-NIGHT, WALLIS”]

She sat on the side of the bed and looked at him, lying still against his white pillows. She looked and looked, and presently the tears began to slide silently down her cheeks. She did not lift her hands to wipe them away. She sat and cried silently, openly, like a desolate, unkindly treated child.

”Mrs. Allan! Mrs. Allan, ma'am!” came Wallis's concerned whisper from the doorway. ”Don't take it as hard as that. It's just a little relapse.

He was overtired. I shouldn't have called you, but you always quiet him so.”

Phyllis brushed off her tears, and smiled. You seemed to have to do so much smiling in this house!

”I know,” she said. ”I worry about his condition too much. But you see--he's--all I have.... Good-night, Wallis.”

Once out of Allan's room, she ran at full speed till she gained her own bed, where she could cry in peace till morning if she wanted to, with no one to interrupt. That was all right. The trouble was going to be next morning.

But somehow, when morning came, the old routine was dragged through with. Directions had to be given the servants as usual, Allan's comfort and amus.e.m.e.nt seen to, just as if nothing had happened. It was a perfect day, golden and perfumed, with just that little tang of fresh windiness that June days have in the northern states. And Allan must not lose it--he must be wheeled out into the garden.

She came out to him, in the place where they usually sat, and sank for a moment in the hammock, that afternoon. She had avoided him all the morning.

”I just came to see if everything was all right,” she said, leaning toward him in that childlike, earnest way he knew so well. ”I don't need to stay here if I worry you.”

”I'd rather you'd stay, if you don't mind,” he answered. Phyllis looked at him intently. He was white and dispirited, and his voice was listless. Oh, Phyllis thought, if Louise Frey had only been kind enough to die in babyhood, instead of under Allan's automobile! What could there have been about her to hold Allan so long? She glanced at his weary face again. This would never do! What had come to be her dominant instinct, keeping Allan's spirits up, emboldened her to bend forward, and even laugh a little.

”Come, Allan!” she said. ”Even if we're not going to stay together always, we might as well be cheerful till we do part. We used to be good friends enough. Can't we be so a little longer?” It sounded heartless to her after she had said it, but it seemed the only way to speak. She smiled at him bravely.

Allan looked at her mutely for a moment, as if she had hurt him.

”You're right,” he said suddenly. ”There's no time but the present, after all. Come over here, closer to me, Phyllis. You've been awfully good to me, child--isn't there anything--_anything_ I could do for you--something you could remember afterwards, and say, 'Well, he did that for me, any way?'”

Phyllis's eyes filled with tears. ”You have given me everything already,” she said, catching her breath. She didn't feel as if she could stand much more of this.