Lloyd Pryor swore under his breath.
The front door was open to the hot June afternoon, and unannounced the
doctor walked into the hall. As he took off his hat, he glanced into
the parlor, and for a second of consternation stood staring with angry
eyes. Then he nodded stiffly. "I will be obliged if you will let Mrs.
Richie know I am here."
"She is with that boy," said Lloyd Pryor. He made no motion of
civility; he stood where Helena had left him, his hands still in his
pockets. "Will you be so good as to tell her to come down here to me?
The stage is due, and I must see her before I go."
William King, red and stolid, nodded again, and went up-stairs without
another look into the parlor.
While he waited Lloyd Pryor's anger slowly rose. The presence of the
doctor froze the tenderness that, for an idle moment, her face and
voice and touch had awakened. The annoyance, the embarrassment, the
danger of that call, returned in a gust of remembrance. When she came
down-stairs, full of eager excuses, the touch of his rage seared her
like a flame.
"If you will kindly take five minutes from that squalling brat--"
"Lloyd, he was in pain. I had to go to him. The instant the doctor
came, I left him. I--"
"Listen to me, please. I have only a minute. Helena, this friend of
yours, this Dr. King, saw fit to pry into my affairs. He came to
Philadelphia to look me up--" "What!"
"He came to my house"--he looked at her keenly through his curling
eyelashes--"to my house! Do you understand what that means?"
In her dismay she sat down with a sort of gasp; and looking up at him,
stammered, "But why? Why?"
"Why? Because he is a prying suspicious jackass of a country doctor!
He came at exactly six o'clock. it was perfectly evident that he meant
to give me the pleasure of his company at dinner."
At that she sprang to her feet, her impetuous hands upon his arm.
"Then he was not--suspicious! Don't you see? He was only friendly!"
She trembled with the reaction of that instant of dismay. "He was not
suspicious, or he wouldn't have been--been willing--" Her voice
trailed into shamed silence.
Lloyd Pryor pushed her hand away, impatiently. "I'm not anxious for
his friendship or even his acquaintance. You will please consider what
would have happened if I had not come home just as he arrived!" He
paused, his voice hardening: "My daughter saw him."