Part 16 (1/2)

As for Olive and s.h.i.+rley, there was nothing lacking in the way they showed their joy in having him at home again. Murray himself, during this long year of absence, was not the only one who had learned a few enlightening truths about the great business of living.

To the full, also, Murray enjoyed the surprising fact that the Bells were grouped about the fire in a way which indicated that they were entirely at home. He rejoiced in the heartiness with which the male members of that family gripped his hand--they seemed like brothers. And when the sweet-faced, bright-eyed lady in gray pressed his hand in both her own and looked at him as if her pleasure in his return was very great, Murray, quite unable to help it, stooped and kissed her also.

Surely, homecoming was a happier thing than he had dared to picture it.

He was off upstairs to his room presently, while word was sent to an exasperated cook to delay the dinner yet a little longer. In less time than could have been expected, however, Murray was down again, and in his evening clothes showed even more plainly than before the astonis.h.i.+ng increase in his weight.

”These shoulders,” cried Peter, inspecting them, ”can they be the shoulders of the delicate young gentleman who went away last year looking so long and lean and lank? I wonder you could get them into your coat.”

”I could n't,” Murray answered, laughing. ”I had to borrow father's dinner-jacket and one of his waistcoats.”

”It was fortunate for you that the old coat was n't given away when the new one came home,” his father observed, regarding the shoulders in evidence with great satisfaction.

They went out to dinner in the gayest spirits, and if everybody remembered with regret the one absent, everybody still rejoiced that this promising son of the house was once more at its board. For there could be no question that the eldest son looked now a fit representative of the family of Townsend.

The dinner which followed was an elaborate one, for it was not within the range of the hostess's notions to entertain in any simple fas.h.i.+on, even when the occasion was the birthday of a fourteen-year-old. But the young people at the board succeeded in infusing so much of their own joyousness into the affair that the time pa.s.sed swiftly. There were birthday gifts at Jane's plate as well as at s.h.i.+rley's, and it would have been hard to tell, at the close of the feast, which pair of cheeks was the pinker, or which pair of eyes the brighter. It is safe to guess however, that there were elements in the pleasure of one recipient which must have been lacking in that of the other, and that the presence of one birthday guest counted for more to her than all the gifts put together. The fact that she could hardly look up without encountering the interested glance of the newly arrived traveller was just a trifle disconcerting, and it must be admitted that when Jane and s.h.i.+rley gathered up their gifts at the close of the dinner, the little girl knew better than the older one just what she had received.

Dinner over, a short and not especially dramatic little scene took place behind closed library doors. Scenes which mean the most are often quietest of all.

”I just wanted to tell you, sir,” said Murray to his father, ”something I thought you might like to know right away. I--went West to make myself strong enough to--to go into the business, if you care to have me. I mean,” he went on quickly, as his father looked at him as if he could not quite believe the purport of these words, ”I mean in whatever capacity you can use me. s.h.i.+pping-clerk, if you think I 'd better begin at the bottom”--and his smile was not a smile which supplied ”but of course you won't.”

Mr. Townsend stood looking at Murray, studying the straightforward gaze which met his; noting the tints of health, the signs of vigour in the fine face. ”Murray, do you mean it?” he asked.

”I do, sir.”

”And yet you don't like the prospect of a business life any more than you ever did, do you?”

”Not much, sir.”

”You make this offer knowing fully what it entails? I have little expectation that your brother will ever agree to my wishes.”

”That's what decided me.”

”You are willing to give up your books? You could complete your college course now, with your renewed health.”

If Murray winced at this he did not let it show.

”I think you need me now, sir. And as for the college course--and the books--I shall have my evenings.”

Mr. Townsend studied his son's face a full minute in silence. Then he held out his hand. Murray seized it with a grasp which banished the elder man's doubts and showed him that his boy's heart was in this offer of himself. The two shook hands without speaking. There seemed no need of further words just then.

It being s.h.i.+rley's birthday, that young person's wishes ruled the hour.

Prompted by Rufus, who thirsted for something lively, she decreed a game of hide-and-seek over the whole house, and succeeded in enticing the elder people into the frolic. Mr. Townsend and Murray, coming from the library, found things in full swing.

Mr. Bell was just emerging from a small closet under the staircase, his hair much rumpled. Mrs. Bell, laughing blithely, had run round a corner of the reception-room and touched ”goal” before her son Rufus could swing himself down the stairs and get in ahead of her. Mrs.

Townsend--and her husband could not quite credit his eyes as he saw her--was, with trailing skirts held close, squeezing out of a very small corner behind the grand piano in the drawing-room.

”Well, well!” cried the newcomers, enthusiastically. ”Let us into the game.”

”Come on!” shouted Rufus. ”Father 's 'it'! Let's play it in another way, and hide for keeps. Everybody stay hid till found, and each man found join the hunt. Makes it nice and exciting for the last fellow.”

”You 'll have to tell us our bounds pretty carefully,” said Mr. Bell, smiling at his hostess. ”In our excitement we may open the wrong doors.”