Part 24 (2/2)

”But, Mrs. Conner, please tell me about yourself,” urged Emmy. ”_Did_ she cure you?”

Mrs. Conner's left eyelid twitched in company with the left corner of her shapely mouth. ”You ask me no questions, Emmy, and I'll tell you no lies; but you can make up your mind Miss Keith can cure your ma--if she's _let_!” These orphic sentences were dropped with a slow and ponderous nod of the head, and ceased at the entrance of Miss Keith. The young lady looked very pretty in a crisp pink and white dimity frock and a large white hat with pink roses. She had none of the airs of an adept or a seer. There was nothing occult or intruding on the imagination in her presence. She sat on the front seat beside Mr. Conner and talked about cantaloupe melons. Mrs. Conner was amazingly silent; it was plain, however, from no unkindly motives, since often she cast an affectionate glance on Emmy, and, as the wagon stopped in front of the Darter gate, she patted the girl's shoulder, saying: ”It's all going to come right, _I_ guess. Jest you mind us and keep still.”

Emmy's bewilderment deepened, but she said, ”Yes'm,” in her docile way, and followed Mrs. Conner and Miss Keith down the walk, leaving Mr.

Conner to chuckle over some unknown mirth of his own, in the wagon.

Mrs. Darter, so Miss Bigelow told them, had been dozing all the while Emmy was gone. Her greeting to Miss Keith was a feeble moan. But on Miss Keith's part there was an amazing transformation. She bent her brows above eyes which shone out of them in a level, intent gaze. Emmy recalled Miss Ann's description, and understood it with a thrill. For a few seconds Miss Keith stood motionless, shedding that steady, unblinking gaze at the drawn face on the pillow. Mrs. Darter appeared to feel it through her eyelids; she winced, she ceased whimpering. Miss Keith smiled gently. She spoke, and her voice was like silk. ”You have suffered very much!”

Mrs. Darter opened her eyes; she gazed up at the eyes above her; her chin quivered and two tears slowly ran down her cheeks--the first tears seen on her cheeks during all her lamentations. ”Oh, I have,” she murmured, ”and n.o.body believes it--not my oldest friend, not my own children!”

”_I_ believe it,” said the girl; ”yet it is all a mistake.” Without turning her eyes, she made a little motion with her hands toward the door, and instantly Miss Ann marshaled the others out of the room. Mrs.

Conner shut the door.

In spite of herself, Emmy began to feel her nerves twitch with the excitement and mystery. ”Oh, Mrs. Conner,” she entreated that stanch friend, ”is it possible she _can_ cure mother?”

”Jest you keep quiet,” said Mrs. Conner, ”and set still. I'm going out to the kitchen to heat this beef tea.” For the first time, Emmy observed that Mrs. Conner carried a gla.s.s jar insufficiently wrapped in newspaper. Directly she was heard clattering among the saucepans. Miss Ann stiffened into a rigid att.i.tude, and her face a.s.sumed a rapt expression. Emmy locked her fingers and sat still. At this moment she was startled by a soft noise outside, and a young fellow pushed a handsome, flushed face into the triangle between the window curtains and beckoned with a look of entreaty. Emmy's heart jumped into her throat.

It was Albert. She didn't care whether he rode with Susan Baker or not; it was Albert who loved her; she knew it. If she could only go out to him! But Miss Ann shook her head and laid a mystic finger on her lips.

Emmy, too, laid a finger on her lips; but her finger trembled and her eyes swam in tears. Albert stood pa.s.sive and bewildered. The moments dragged on. Really there were not so many of them; a scant half an hour covered the flight of time; but to Emmy, uncertain whether her greatly tried lover might not have to go back to an expected train at any one of them, and to Albert, who did have a train on his mind and had ridden swiftly up to his sweetheart's for the briefest of interviews, those minutes seemed an hour. Yet Albert knew better, having his watch in hand and waving it and pointing at it, the better to explain his hurry.

Once Emmy mustered courage in an access of desperation to rise to her feet, but the look of horror on Miss Ann's features dropped her like a club.

Albert's mind darted blindly from one conjecture of disaster to another.

At one minute he was ready to march in rashly before Miss Ann and demand what was the matter; at another he was cold at the thought of blundering in on a deathbed.

He gasped with relief when the door opened and Miss Keith came out, smiling and calling: ”Mrs. Conner! Mrs. Conner! hurry up that beef tea, and make some strong coffee as soon as you can!”

Then he did venture to come into the room, essaying a general bow and smile.

”I hope Aunty Darter is better!” he stammered. The children of the old friends had always given them a brevet relations.h.i.+p. Mrs. Darter was ”Aunty Darter” to Albert, and Mrs. Glenn ”Aunty Lida” to the Darter girls.

”Mrs. Darter will be well to-morrow,” said Miss Keith, quietly; ”she is going to take some coffee--”

”And some toast and plum jam,” interrupted Mrs. Darter herself. ”I know Mrs. Conner has been making jam. The times I've hankered after jam these last months! I'm going to eat everything I didn't dast to--”

”By degrees,” said Miss Keith, ”as the mental power grows stronger.”

”Is that Albert?” said Mrs. Darter. ”Albert, lift me up while I drink that beef tea.”

Albert and Emmy held her while Mrs. Conner fed her a cup of the tea.

They laughed hysterically, with tears in their eyes, as Mrs. Darter sighed weakly. ”Oh, but that's good!” while Mrs. Conner radiated satisfaction and Miss Ann rocked to and fro, announcing that it was ”mirac'lus!” They did not comprehend what had happened; they could not look into the future and a time when Mrs. Darter should throw herself with energy into preparing for Emmy's marriage; they only dimly foresaw her recovery and reconciliation with the common pleasures of life; but it was enough for Emmy that her mother's black hour had pa.s.sed, and for Albert that he was close to Emmy, and that there was a vague omen of happiness in the atmosphere.

Mrs. Darter took her tea. She went to sleep, as Miss Keith directed her; and she partook with relish of coffee, toast, and jam that selfsame day, so rapidly had her state improved by evening. It was after this last meal, she being vastly strengthened by the food and drink, that she received Albert's messages from his mother--rather, that she cut them short.

”No, Albert, your ma shan't keep on feeling bad. She was right. It was all in my mind. All disease is in the mind, I guess. But I wasn't putting it on--”

”Oh, she _knows_; she didn't mean--”

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