第120章

Laura rose, and all but groped her way towards him, her heart beating, the tears streaming down her face.

"My husband, my husband!"

Together they made their way to the divan, and sank down upon it side by side, holding to each other, trembling and fearful, like children in the night.

"Honey," whispered Jadwin, after a while."Honey, it's dark, it's dark.Something happened....I don't remember," he put his hand uncertainly to his head, "Ican't remember very well; but it's dark--a little.""It's dark," she repeated, in a low whisper."It's dark, dark.Something happened.Yes.I must not remember."They spoke no further.A long time passed.Pressed close together, Curtis Jadwin and his wife sat there in the vast, gorgeous room, silent and trembling, ridden with unnamed fears, groping in the darkness.

And while they remained thus, holding close by one another, a prolonged and wailing cry rose suddenly from the street, and passed on through the city under the stars and the wide canopy of the darkness.

"Extra, oh-h-h, extra! All about the Smash of the Great Wheat Corner! All about the Failure of Curtis Jadwin!"CONCLUSION

The evening had closed in wet and misty.All day long a chill wind had blown across the city from off the lake, and by eight o'clock, when Laura and Jadwin came down to the dismantled library, a heavy rain was falling.

Laura gave Jadwin her arm as they made their way across the room--their footsteps echoing strangely from the uncarpeted boards.

"There, dear," she said."Give me the valise.Now sit down on the packing box there.Are you tired? You had better put your hat on.It is full of draughts here, now that all the furniture and curtains are out.""No, no.I'm all right, old girl.Is the hack there yet?""Not yet.You're sure you're not tired?" she insisted.

"You had a pretty bad siege of it, you know, and this is only the first week you've been up.You remember how the doctor----""I've had too good a nurse," he answered, stroking her hand, "not to be fine as a fiddle by now.You must be tired yourself, Laura.Why, for whole days there--and nights, too, they tell me--you never left the room."She shook her head, as though dismissing the subject.

"I wonder," she said, sitting down upon a smaller packing-box and clasping a knee in her hands, "I wonder what the West will be like.Do you know I think I am going to like it, Curtis?""It will be starting in all over again, old girl," he said, with a warning shake of his head."Pretty hard at first, I'm afraid."She laughed an almost contemptuous note.

"Hard! Now?" She took his hand and laid it to her cheek.

"By all the rules you ought to hate me," he began.

"What have I done for you but hurt you and, at last, bring you to----"But she shut her gloved hand over his mouth.

"Stop!" she cried."Hush, dear.You have brought me the greatest happiness of my life."Then under her breath, her eyes wide and thoughtful, she murmured:

"A capitulation and not a triumph, and I have won a victory by surrendering.""Hey--what?" demanded Jadwin."I didn't hear.""Never mind," she answered."It was nothing.'The world is all before us where to choose,' now, isn't it?

And this big house and all the life we have led in it was just an incident in our lives--an incident that is closed.""Looks like it, to look around this room," he said, grimly."Nothing left but the wall paper.What do you suppose are in these boxes?""They're labelled 'books and portieres.'""Who bought 'em I wonder? I'd have thought the party who bought the house would have taken them.Well, it was a wrench to see the place and all go so _dirt_cheap, and the 'Thetis'," too, by George! But I'm glad now.It's as though we had lightened ship." He looked at his watch."That hack ought to be here pretty soon.

I'm glad we checked the trunks from the house; gives us more time.""Oh, by the way," exclaimed Laura, all at once opening her satchel."I had a long letter from Page this morning, from New York.Do you want to hear what she has to say? I've only had time to read part of it myself.It's the first one I've had from her since their marriage."He lit a cigar.

"Go ahead," he said, settling himself on the box.

"What does Mrs.Court have to say?"

"'My dearest sister,'" began Laura."'Here we are, Landry and I, in New York at last.Very tired and mussed after the ride on the cars, but in a darling little hotel where the proprietor is head cook and everybody speaks French.I know my accent is improving, and Landry has learned any quantity of phrases already.We are reading George Sand out loud, and are making up the longest vocabulary.To-night we are going to a concert, and I've found out that there's a really fine course of lectures to be given soon on "Literary Tendencies," or something like that._Quel chance._ Landry is intensely interested.You've no idea what a deep mind he has, Laura--a real thinker.

"'But here's really a big piece of news.We may not have to give up our old home where we lived when we first came to Chicago.Aunt Wess' wrote the other day to say that, if you were willing, she would rent it, and then sublet all the lower floor to Landry and me, so we could have a real house over our heads and not the under side of the floor of the flat overhead.And she is such an old dear, I know we could all get along beautifully.Write me about this as soon as you can.

I know you'll be willing, and Aunt Wess, said she'd agree to whatever rent you suggested.

"'We went to call on Mrs.Cressler day before yesterday.She's been here nearly a fortnight by now, and is living with a maiden sister of hers in a very beautiful house fronting Central Park (not so beautiful as our palace on North Avenue.Never, never will Iforget that house).She will probably stay here now always.She says the very sight of the old neighbourhoods in Chicago would be more than she could bear.Poor Mrs.Cressler! How fortunate for her that her sister'----and so on, and so on," broke in Laura, hastily.

"Read it, read it," said Jadwin, turning sharply away.