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a colossus of steel and wholly blackened with soot. But Bibbs carried his fancy further⁠—for there was still a little poet lingering in the back of his head⁠—and he thought that up over the clouds, unseen from below, the giant labored with his hands in the clean sunshine; and Bibbs had a glimpse of what he made there⁠—perhaps for a fellowship of the children of the children that were children now⁠—a noble and joyous city, unbelievably white⁠—

It was the telephone that called him from his vision. It rang fiercely.

He lifted the thing from his desk and answered⁠—and as the small voice inside it spoke he dropped the receiver with a crash. He trembled violently as he picked it up, but he told himself he was wrong⁠—he had been mistaken⁠—yet it was a startlingly beautiful voice; startlingly kind, too, and ineffably like the one he hungered most to hear.

“Who?” he said, his own voice shaking⁠—like his hand.

“Mary.”

He responded with two hushed and incredulous words: “Is it?”

There was a little thrill of pathetic half-laughter in the instrument. “Bibbs⁠—I wanted to⁠—just to see if you⁠—”

“Yes⁠—Mary?”

“I was looking when you were so nearly run over. I saw it, Bibbs. They said you hadn’t been hurt, they thought, but I wanted to know for myself.”

“No, no, I wasn’t hurt at all⁠—Mary. It was father who came nearer it. He saved me.”

“Yes, I saw; but you had fallen. I couldn’t get through the crowd until you had gone. And I wanted to know.”

“Mary⁠—would you⁠—have minded?” he said.

There was a long interval before she answered.

“Yes.”

“Then why⁠—”

“Yes, Bibbs?”

“I don’t know what to say,” he cried. “It’s so wonderful to hear your voice again⁠—I’m shaking, Mary⁠—I⁠—I don’t know⁠—I don’t know anything except that I am talking to you! It is you⁠—Mary?”

“Yes, Bibbs!”

“Mary⁠—I’ve seen you from my window at home⁠—only five times since I⁠—since then. You looked⁠—oh, how can I tell you? It was like a man chained in a cave catching a glimpse of the blue sky, Mary. Mary, won’t you⁠—let me see you again⁠—near? I think I could make you really forgive me⁠—you’d have to⁠—”

“I did⁠—then.”

“No⁠—not really⁠—or you wouldn’t have said you couldn’t see me any more.”

“That wasn’t the reason.” The voice was very low.

“Mary,” he said, even more tremulously than before, “I can’t⁠—you couldn’t mean it was because⁠—you can’t mean it was because you⁠—care?”

There was no answer.

“Mary?” he called, huskily. “If you mean that⁠—you’d let me see you⁠—wouldn’t you?”

And now the voice was so low he could not be sure it spoke at all, but if it did, the words were, “Yes, Bibbs⁠—dear.”

But the voice was not in the instrument⁠—it was so gentle and so light, so almost nothing, it seemed to be made of air⁠—and it came from the air.

Slowly and incredulously he turned⁠—and glory fell upon his shining eyes. The door of his father’s room had opened.

Mary stood upon the threshold.

Colophon

The Turmoil
was published in 1915 by
Booth Tarkington.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Alex Cabal,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1997 by
Lois Heiser and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at
Google Books.

The cover page is adapted from
Randolph Street, Chicago,
a painting completed in 1905 by
Colin Campbell Cooper.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
October 4, 2020, 6:35 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/booth-tarkington/the-turmoil.

The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.

Uncopyright

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

Copyright pages exist to tell you can’t do something. Unlike them, this Uncopyright page exists to tell you, among other things, that the writing and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the U.S. public domain. The U.S. public domain represents our collective cultural heritage, and items in it are free for anyone in the U.S. to do almost anything at all with, without having to get permission. Public domain items are free of copyright restrictions.

Copyright laws are different around the world. If you’re not located in the U.S., check with your local laws before using this ebook.

Non-authorship activities performed on public domain items⁠—so-called “sweat of the brow” work⁠—don’t create a new copyright. That means nobody can claim a new copyright on a public domain item for, among other things, work like digitization, markup, or typography. Regardless, to dispel any possible doubt on the copyright status of this ebook, Standard Ebooks L3C, its contributors, and the contributors to this ebook release this ebook under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, thus dedicating to the worldwide public domain all of the work they’ve done on this ebook, including but not limited to metadata, the titlepage, imprint, colophon, this Uncopyright, and any changes or enhancements to, or markup on, the original text and artwork. This dedication doesn’t change the copyright status of the underlying works, which, though believed to already be in the U.S. public domain, may not yet be in the public domain of other countries. We make this dedication in the interest of enriching our global cultural heritage, to promote free and libre culture around the world, and to give back to the unrestricted culture that has given all of us so much.

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