Part 57 (2/2)

”Because,” he answered pa.s.sionately, ”you should know, and Lila should know and your mother should know. Your father and I and my father all think so.”

Mrs. Nesbit sat back further in her chair. Her face showed anxiety. She looked at the two others and when Laura's eyes met her mother's, there was a warning in the daughter's glance which kept her mother silent.

”Grant,” said Laura, as she stood beside the gaunt figure, on which a mantle of shame seemed to be falling, ”there is nothing in the world that should be hard for you to tell me--or mother.”

”It isn't you,” he returned, and then lifting his face and trying to catch the elder woman's eyes, he said slowly:

”Mrs. Nesbit--I'm Kenyon's father.”

He caught Laura's hand in his own, and held her from stepping back.

Laura did not speak. Mrs. Nesbit gazed blankly at the two and in the silence the little mantel clock ticked into their consciousnesses.

Finally the elder woman, who had grown white as some old suspicion or fatal recollection flashed through her mind, asked in an unsteady voice: ”And his mother?”

”His mother was Margaret Muller, Mrs. Nesbit,” answered the man.

Then anger glowed in the white face as Mrs. Nesbit rose and stepped toward the downcast man. ”Do you mean to tell me you--” She did not finish, but began again, not noticing that the door behind her had let in her husband: ”Do you mean to say that you have let me go on all these years nursing that--that, that--creature's child and--”

”Yes, my dear,” said the Doctor, touching her arm, and taking her hand, ”I have.” She turned on her husband her startled, hurt face and exclaimed, ”And you, Jim--you too--you too?”

”What else could I do in honor, my dear? And it has been for the best.”

”No,” she cried angrily; ”no, see what you have brought to us, Jim--that hussy's--her, why, her very--”

The years had told upon Doctor Nesbit. He could not rise to the struggle as he could have risen a decade before. His hands were shaking and his voice broke as he replied: ”Yes, my dear--I know--I know. But while she bore him, we have formed him.” To her darkening face he repeated: ”You have formed him--and made him--you and the Adamses--with your love. And love,” his soft, high voice was tender as he concluded, ”love purges everything--doesn't it, Bedelia?”

”Yes, father,--love is enough. Oh, Grant, Grant--it doesn't matter--not to me. Poor--poor Margaret, what she has lost--what she has lost!” said the younger woman, as she stood close to Grant and looked deeply into his anguished face. Mrs. Nesbit stood wet-eyed, and spent of her wrath, looking at the three before her.

”O G.o.d--my G.o.d, forgive me--but I can't--Oh, Laura--Jim--I can't, I can't, not that woman's--not her--her--” She stopped and cried miserably, ”You all know what he is, and whose he is.” Again she stopped and looked beseechingly around. ”Oh, you won't let Lila--she wouldn't do that--not take that woman's--that woman who disgraced Lila's mother--Lila must not take her child--Oh, Jim, you won't let that--”

As she spoke Mrs. Nesbit sank to a sofa near the door, and turned her face to the pillow. The three who watched her turned blank, inquiring faces to one another.

”Perhaps,” the Doctor began hesitatingly and impotently, ”Lila should--”

”What does she know--what can a child of twenty know,” answered the grandmother from her pillow, ”of the taint of that blood, of the devil she will transmit? Why, Jim--Oh, Jim--Lila's not old enough to decide.

She mustn't--she mustn't--we mustn't let her.” Mrs. Nesbit raised her body and asked as one who grasps a shadow, ”Won't you ask her to wait--to wait until she can understand?”

A question pa.s.sed from face to face among those who stood beside the elder woman, and Dr. Nesbit answered it. Strength--the power that came from a habit of forty years of dominating situations--came to him and he stepped to his wife's side. The two stood together, facing the younger pair. The Doctor spoke, not as an arbiter, but as an advocate:

”Laura, your mother has her right to be considered here. All three of you; Kenyon himself, and you and Lila--she has reared. She has made you all what you are. Her wishes must be regarded now.” Mrs. Nesbit rose while the Doctor was speaking. He took her hand as was his wont and turned to her, saying: ”Mother, how will this do: Let's do nothing now, not to-day at any rate. You must all adjust yourselves to the facts that reveal this new relation before you can make an honest decision. When we have done that, let Laura and her mother tell Lila the truth, and let each tell the child exactly how she feels; and then, if you can bring yourself to it, leave it to her; if she will wait for a time until she understands her grandmother's point of view--very well. If not--”

”If not, mother, Lila's decision must stand.” This came from Laura, who stepped over and kissed her mother's hand. The father looked tenderly at his daughter and shook his head as he answered softly: ”If not--no, I shall stand with mother--she has her right--the realest right of all!”

And so it came to pa.s.s that the course of true love in the hearts of Lila Van Dorn and Kenyon Adams had its first sharp turning. And all the world was overclouded for two souls. But they were only two souls and the world is full of light. And the light falls upon men and women without much respect for cla.s.s or station, for good deeds or bad deeds, for the weak or for the strong, for saints or sinners. For know well, truly beloved, that chance and circ.u.mstance fall out of the great machine of life upon us, hodge podge and helter skelter; good is not rewarded by prizes from the wheel of fortune nor bad punished by its calamities. Only as our hearts react on life, do we get happiness or misery, not from the events that follow the procession of the days.

Now for a moment let us peep through the clouds that lowered over the young souls aforesaid. Clouds in youth are vastly black; but they are never thick. And peering through those clouds, one may see the lovers, groping in the umbrage. It does not matter much to us, and far less does it matter to them how they have made their farewell meeting. It is night and they are coming from Captain Morton's.

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