Part 44 (1/2)
Phil, who knew only that Helen had stopped to speak with some one, had no means of knowing who. She was the same to him as any other person of millions in his silent night, unseen, unheard. His circle of actual human beings consisted of Helen, or Henriette, as he thought, Bricktop, the nurses, the specialists, and now his parents and Peter. They were the visible stars in the darkness. And Helen was taking him back to his chair now.
”You've heard that Smithers will leave all his fortune to Cousin Phil, w.i.l.l.y-nilly?” said Henriette, following them indoors. ”Mother wrote it from Paris. She had it from Truckleford.”
”Only they have not told him,” Helen said.
”Why not? I should think that if there were anything that would make him want to live it would be the thought that he was to have three millions.”
”Mr. Smithers decided not,” Helen replied.
”And how has he stood the day?” Henriette asked the stereotyped question of her sister.
”Very well!” was the answer. ”I'm afraid it may have tired and excited him, though.” She was careful not to let him overtax himself; and now, when he wanted his pad, she added: ”I must not let him write much.”
If Henriette prolonged her visits it was when Helen was writing him messages or he was writing to her. The process seemed to fascinate her.
”There is a question I want to ask,” Phil wrote. ”I have wondered about it a good deal. Helen never sends me any messages. She has not even shaken my hand and said h.e.l.lo to her seventeenth cousin. I can't see her new cartoons, but I remember all of her old ones. Tell me!”
Henriette had been looking over his shoulder as he wrote, Helen standing to one side till he had finished the first sheet. A number of times before he had asked where Helen was, and after a strange thrill that dried her throat she had replied:
”Drawing and in her ward. She inquires about you every day.”
It was Henriette who reached for the first sheet this time. When he had finished the second sheet she pa.s.sed both to Helen, with a studious inquiry on her face and without speaking. Then she looked around the room. It was empty, save for one form asleep on a cot in the far corner. Helen did not look up. She was motionless, staring at the sheets. He was hurt because she had never shaken his hand--she who had no thought except him! And, yes, he had thought of her for herself a little--a part of his kindness even when he was racked with pain. She folded the sheets gently, but without the stir of so much as an eyelash, when Henriette's voice brought her out of her daze.
”The hoax seems complete,” said Henriette. ”He is wholly convinced that you are I.”
”Yes,” said Helen. ”You wished it, didn't you, and it has helped him--yes, he has said that it kept him alive!”
”Kept him alive!” repeated Henriette, in a monotone.
”Yes, you, not I, kept him alive!”
When people knew this! Henriette was thinking of the Lady Truckleford lot. There were pitfalls ahead which she had not foreseen.
”Why didn't you undeceive him?” she demanded.
”I--I could not. It meant so much to him. As soon as he is well then I shall tell him.”
”And if he never gets well----”
”He will!” Helen insisted. ”But taking the view that he will not,” she added, ”only his father and mother know and Peter Smithers. They found it out inadvertently and have sworn to keep the secret.” Henriette half closed her eyes thoughtfully as the two sisters looked at each other.
”It seems safe,” breathed Henriette, raising her lashes and smiling in relief.
Phil was writing again:
”You do not answer. Helen wrote only one letter to me while I was at the front. I fear that I have offended her. Won't you tell me?”
”I--I must explain in some way!” said Helen.
”Let me!” Henriette interposed. ”I've never tried writing on his arm, but I think that I know how from watching you.”
She rolled up his sleeve and taking his hand to hold up the arm, as she had seen Helen do, traced the letters, slowly announcing each word as she wrote it: