Part 11 (1/2)
”Then come in to dinner.”
”I wasted the whole afternoon trying to find a boy down on the East Side, but when at last I reached the house I was told he had moved from that neighborhood. He is a soloist at St. Hyacinth's, and I had promised him a booklet.”
”Leighton Dane?”
”Yes. What do you know of him?”
”That he will sing no more at St. Hyacinth's. Henceforth his solos belong to choirs beyond the stars. The boy is slowly dying of consumption.”
”When did you see him?”
”A few days ago. He is at No. 980 ---- Street, Brooklyn. Your cousin Eglah asked me to keep an eye on him. Poor little lad! His battle with pain and loneliness is pathetic, and I rather think the end is not far off.”
”Loneliness? Who takes care of him?”
”His mother is away all day at her work, but an old German and his wife living on the same floor of the tenement look after him as best they can.”
”Could you deliver the book to him?”
”If you wish it; but why not make another effort to see him?”
”My hands are so full. In two days I must run down to Was.h.i.+ngton, and then back home, where I am needed. How luxurious your quarters are! Less like a bachelor's den than one would expect.”
”Next week I give up these rooms, and when I chance to be in the city shall live at the club.”
”Is not this decision rather sudden?”
”No. For some time I have contemplated another expedition to Arizona and Montana, in quest of prehistoric records needed for an anthropological paper that Professor De Wette asked me to contribute to the next volume of Reports.”
”What date have you fixed?”
”About the middle of July, immediately after the visit to 'Greyledge,'
which Senator Kent and Eglah have promised as soon as Congress adjourns.
I am sorry you could not arrange to join the small 'house party,' and rest yourself by fis.h.i.+ng in the Lake, instead of the turbid pools of humanity.”
”What about Calvary House? We expect you there.”
”That pleasure must be deferred; but I have thought a good deal about your need of more ground there, and believe I have found just what you want. Come into the library, it is cooler, and I have some papers for you. You know the Ravenal lands--some twenty acres--lie across ”Tangled Brook,” west of your lines. The property was sold recently by the trustees and my agent bought it. Now you can easily bridge the stream, using the foundation of the old paper-mill dam, and by extending your fences cover the whole. I know the old farmhouse was burned years ago, but those pasture lands are fine, and that hill sloping south will make a good vineyard. Here are all the papers, and my deed to the Brotherhood. Stop! No thanks, not a word, or I cancel the transfer. Some day, when I visit you, I may not be welcome, because I promise you now, if your stewards.h.i.+p does not suit me and things seem mismanaged, I will most certainly turn you all out.”
Father Temple laid the bundle of papers on the table and grasped Mr.
Herriott's hand, pressing it warmly, but something in the bright, steady grey eyes warned him to attempt no verbal expression of grat.i.tude.
His host lighted a cigar, and drew from a stand near his elbow a portfolio tied with purple tape.
”Does your reverence ever waste time now in sketches and water-color?”
”Life is far too strenuous for such trifling.”
”How do you know that some day you will not be required to dig up that buried talent and answer the charge of neglecting to bring in the expected interest? Nature intended you for one of her artistic interpreters, and if you had been loyal to her commission you might rank to-day as R.A. Last summer I was searching an old trunk for a college text-book, when I happened to find some of your drawings, that were packed by mistake with my luggage in the bustle of leaving the university.”