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.