The Breaking Point - Page 256/275

At the Haverly station the agent stopped, stared at him and then nodded

gravely. There was something restrained in his greeting, like the

voices in the old house the night before, and Dick felt a chill of

apprehension. He never thought of Lucy, but David... The flowers and

ribbon at the door were his first intimation, and still it was David

he thought of. He went cold and bitter, standing on the freshly washed

pavement, staring at them. It was all too late. David! David!

He went into the house slowly, and the heavy scent of flowers greeted

him. The hall was empty, and automatically he pushed open the door to

David's office and went in. David was at the desk writing. David was

alive. Thank God and thank God, David was alive.

"David!" he said brokenly. "Dear old David!" And was suddenly shaken

with dry, terrible sobbing.

There was a great deal to do, and Dick was grateful for it. But first,

like David, he went in and sat by Lucy's bed alone and talked to her.

Not aloud, as David did, but still with that same queer conviction that

she heard. He told her he was free, and that she need not worry about

David, that he was there now to look after him; and he asked her, if she

could, to help him with Elizabeth. Then he kissed her and went out.

He met Elizabeth that day. She had come to the house, and after her

custom now went up, unwarned, to David's room. She found David there and

Harrison Miller, and--it was a moment before she realized it--Dick by

the mantel. He was greatly changed. She saw that. But she had no feeling

of pity, nor even of undue surprise. She felt nothing at all. It gave

her a curious, almost hard little sense of triumph to see that he had

gone pale. She marched up to him and held out her hand, mindful of the

eyes on her.

"I'm so very sorry, Dick," she said. "You have a sad home-coming."

Then she withdrew her hand, still calm, and turned to David.

"Mother sent over some things. I'll give them to Minnie," she said, her

voice clear and steady. She went out, and they heard her descending the

stairs.

She was puzzled to find out that her knees almost gave way on the

staircase, for she felt calm and without any emotion whatever. And she

finished her errand, so collected and poised that the two or three women

who had come in to help stared after her as she departed.