His Family by Ernest Poole (popular ebook readers txt) 📕

sleekly brushed. He showed Roger into his private room, a small place he had partitioned off, where over his desk was a motto in gold: “This is no place for your troubles or mine.”

“Lord, but you’ve got yourself fixed up fine in here,” said Roger. John smiled broadly. “And you’re looking like a new man, Johnny.”

“I had a great time at the seashore. Learned to sail a boat alone. What do you think of this chair of mine?” And John complacently displayed the ingenious contrivance in front of his desk, somewhat like a bicycle seat. It was made of steel and leather pads.

“Wonderful,” said Roger. “Where’d you ever pick it up?”

“I had it made,” was the grave reply. “When a fellow has got up in life enough to have a stenographer, it’s high time he was sitting down.”

“Let’s see you do it.” John sat down. “Now how is business?” Roger asked.

“Great. Since the little slump we had in August it has taken a new start⁠—and not only war business, at that⁠—the old people are sending in orders again. I tell you what it is, Mr. Gale, this country is right on the edge of a boom!”

And the junior member of the firm tilted triumphantly back in his chair.

With the solid comfort which comes to a man when he returns to find his affairs all going well, Roger worked on until five o’clock, and then he started for his home.

Deborah had not yet come in, and a deep silence reigned in the house. He looked through the rooms downstairs, and with content he noticed how little had been altered. His beloved study had not been touched. On the third floor, in the large back room, he found John comfortably installed. There were gay prints upon the walls, fresh curtains at the windows, a mandolin lying on a chair. And Roger, glancing down at the keen glad face of his partner, told himself that the doctor who had said this lad would die was a fool.

“These doctors fool themselves often,” he thought.

Deborah and Allan had the front room on the floor below. Roger went in, and for a moment he stood looking about him. How restful and how radiant was this large old-fashioned chamber, so softly lighted, waiting. Through a passageway lined with cupboards he went into his room at the back. Deborah had repapered it, but with a pattern so similar that Roger did not notice the change. He only felt a vague freshness here, as though even this old chamber, too, were making a new start in life. And he felt as though he were to live here for years. Slowly he unpacked his trunk and took a bath and dressed at his leisure. Then he heard Deborah’s voice at the door.

“Come in, come in!” he answered.

“Why, father! Dearie!” Deborah cried, “Oh, how well you’re looking, dad!” And she kissed him happily. “Oh, but I’m glad to have you back⁠—”

“That’s good,” he said, and he squeezed her hand “Here, come to the light, let me look at you.” He saw her cheeks a little flushed, the gladness in her steady eyes. “Happy? Everything just right?” His daughter nodded, smiling, and he gave a whimsical frown. “No ups and down at all? That’s bad.”

“Oh, yes, plenty⁠—but all so small.”

“Good fellow to live with.”

“Very.”

“And your work?”

“It’s going splendidly. I’ll tell you about it this evening, after you give me the news from the farm.”

They chatted on for a short while, but he saw she was barely listening.

“Can’t you guess what it means,” she asked him softly, “to a woman of my age⁠—after she has been so afraid she was too old, that she’d married too late⁠—to know at last⁠—to be sure at last⁠—that she’s to have a baby, dad?” He drew back a little, and a lump rose in his throat.

“By George!” he huskily exclaimed. “Oh, my dear, my dear!” And he held her close in his arms for some time, till both of them grew sensible.

Soon after she had gone to her room, he heard Allan coming upstairs. He heard her low sweet cry of welcome, a silence, then their voices. He heard them laughing together and later Deborah humming a song. And still thinking of what she had told him, he felt himself so close to it all. And again the feeling came to him that surely he would live here for years.

Allan came in and they had a talk.

“Deborah says she has told you the news.”

“Yes. Everything’s all right, I suppose⁠—her condition, I mean,” said Roger.

“Couldn’t be better.”

“Just as I thought.”

“Those six weeks we had up in Maine⁠—”

“Yes, you both show it. Working hard?”

“Yes⁠—”

“And Deborah?” Roger asked.

“You’ll have to help me hold her in.”

They talked a few moments longer and went down to the living room. John was there with Deborah. All four went in to dinner. And through the conversation, from time to time Roger noticed the looks that went back and forth between husband and wife; and again he caught Deborah smiling as though oblivious of them all. After dinner she went with him into his den.

“Well! Do you like the house?” she inquired.

“Better than ever,” he replied.

“I wonder if you’ll mind it. There’ll be people coming to dinner, you know⁠—”

“That won’t bother me any,” he said.

“And committee meetings now and then. But you’re safe in here, it’s a good thick door.”

“Let ’em talk,” he retorted, “as hard as they please. You’re married now⁠—they can’t scare me a bit. Only at ten o’clock, by George, you’ve got to knock off and go to bed.”

“Oh, I’ll take care of myself,” she said.

“If you don’t, Allan will. We’ve had a talk.”

“Scheming already.”

“Yes. When will it be?”

“In April, I think.”

“You’ll quit work in your schools?”

“A month before.”

“And in the meantime, not too hard.”

“No, and not too easy. I’m so sure now that I can do both.” And Deborah kissed him gently. “I’m so happy, dearie⁠—and oh, so very glad you’re here!”

There followed for Roger, after that, many quiet evenings at home,