The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 94/212

At eleven o'clock. Judge Briscoe dropped wearily from his horse at his own

gate, and said to a wan girl who came running down the walk to meet him:

"There is nothing, yet. I sent the telegram to your mother--to Mrs.

Sherwood."

Helen turned away without answering. Her face was very white and looked

pinched about the mouth. She went back to where old Fisbee sat on the

porch, his white head held between his two hands; he was rocking himself

to and fro. She touched him gently, but he did not look up. She spoke to

him.

"There isn't anything--yet. He sent the telegram to mamma. I shall stay

with you, now, no matter what you say." She sat beside him and put her

head down on his shoulder, and though for a moment he appeared not to

notice it, when Minnie came out on the porch, hearing her father at the

door, the old scholar had put his arm about the girl and was stroking her

fair hair softly.

Briscoe glanced at them, and raised a warning finger to his daughter, and

they went tiptoeing into the house, where the judge dropped heavily upon a

sofa with an asthmatic sigh; he was worn and tired. Minnie stood before

him with a look of pale inquiry, and he shook his head.

"No use to tell them; but I can't see any hope," he answered her, biting

nervously at the end of a cigar. "I expect you better bring me some coffee

in here; I couldn't take another step to save me. I'm too old to tear

around the country horseback before breakfast, like I have to-day."

"Did you send her telegram?" Minnie asked, as he drank the coffee she

brought him. She had interpreted "coffee" liberally, and, with the

assistance of Mildy Upton (whose subdued nose was frankly red and who shed

tears on the raspberries), had prepared an appetizing table at his elbow.

"Yes," responded the judge, "and I'm glad she sent it. I talked the other

way yesterday, what little I said--it isn't any of our business--but I

don't think any too much of those people, somehow. She thinks she belongs

with Fisbee, and I guess she's right. That young fellow must have got

along with her pretty well, and I'm afraid when she gives up she'll be

pretty bad over it; but I guess we all will. It's terribly sudden,

somehow, though it's only what everybody half expected would come; only we

thought it would come from over yonder." He nodded toward the west. "But

she's got to stay here with us. Boarding at Sol Tibbs's with that old man

won't do; and she's no girl to live in two rooms. You fix it up with her--

you make her stay."

"She must," answered his daughter as she knelt beside him and patted his

coat and handed him several things to eat at the same time. "Mr. Fisbee

will help me persuade her, now that she's bound to stay in spite of him

and the Sherwoods, too. I think she is perfectly grand to do it. I've

always thought she was grand--ever since she took me under her wing at

school when I was terribly 'country' and frightened; but she was so sweet

and kind she made me forget. She was the pet of the school, too, always

doing things for the other girls, for everybody; looking out for people

simply heads and heads bigger than herself, and so recklessly generous and

so funny about it; and always thoughtful and--and--pleasant----"