Part 45 (2/2)

”Perhaps I had better telephone Judge Cutler and let him handle it--”

The judge promised to be down at once, and Mary turned to her mail. Near the bottom she found a letter addressed in Burdon's writing. It was unstamped and had evidently been left at the office. The date-line simply said ”Midnight.”

It was a long letter, some of it clear enough and some of it obscure.

Mary was puzzling over it when Judge Cutler and Hutchins entered. As far as she could remember, it was the first time that the butler had ever appeared at the factory.

”Anything wrong?” she asked in alarm.

”He was in my office when you telephoned,” said the judge. ”I'll let him tell his story as he told it to me.... I think I ought to ask you something first, though.... Did any one ever tell you that you had a brother Paul? ...”

”Yes,” said Mary, her heart contracting.

Throughout the recital she sat breathless. Now and then the colour rose to her cheeks, and more than once the tears came to her eyes, especially when Hutchins' voice broke, and when he said in tones of pride, ”Before we could stop him, Master Paul was over the rail and in the water--”

More than once Mary looked away to hide her emotion, glancing around the room at her forebears who had never seemed so attentive as then. ”You may well listen,” thought Mary. ”He may have been the black sheep of the family, but you see what he did in the end....”

Hutchins told them about the search which he and Archey had made up and down the banks, aided with a flashlight, climbing, calling, and sometimes all but falling in the stream themselves. ”But it was no use, Miss Mary,”

he concluded. ”Master Paul is past all finding, I'm afraid.”

For a long time Mary sat silent, her handkerchief to her eyes.

”Archey is still looking,” said the judge, rising. ”I'll start another searching party at once. And telephone the towns below, too. We are bound to find him if we keep on looking, you know--”

They found him sooner than they expected, in the gra.s.sy basin at the bend of the river, where the high water of the night before had borne him--in the place where he had loved to dream his dreams of youth and adventure when life was young and the future full of promise. He was lying on his side, his head on his arm, his face turned to the whispering river, and there perhaps he was dreaming again--those eternal dreams which only those who have gone to their rest can know.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

Time, quickly pa.s.sing, brought Mary to another wonderful morning in the Story of her life. Even as her father's death had broadened her outlook, so now Paul's heroism gave her a deeper glance at the future, a more tolerant view of the past.

On the morning in question, Helen brought Wally to the office. He was now entirely recovered, but Helen still mothered him, every touch a caress, every glance a look of love. Mary grew very thoughtful as she watched them. The next morning they were leaving for a tour of the Maine woods.

When they left, an architect called.

Under his arm he had a portfolio of plans for a Welfare Building which he had drawn exactly according to Mary's suggestions. As long as the idea had been a nebulous one--drawn only in fancy and coloured with nothing stronger than conversation, she had liked it immensely; but seeing now precisely how the building would look--how the s.p.a.ce would be divided, she found herself shaking her head.

”It's my own fault,” she said. ”You have followed out every one of my ideas--but somehow--well, I don't like it: that's all. If you'll leave these drawings, I'll think them over and call you up again in a few days.”

At Judge Cutler's suggestion, Archey had been elected treasurer to take Burdon's place. Mary took the plans into his office and showed them to him. They were still discussing them, sitting at opposite sides of his flat-top desk, when the twelve o'clock whistle blew. A few minutes later, the four-hour workers pa.s.sed through the gate, the men walking with their wives, the children playing between.

”I wonder how it's going to turn out,” said Archey.

”I wonder ...” said Mary. ”Of course it's too early to tell yet. I don't know.... Time will tell.”

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