第48章

You'd have 'em there, I think." Theron had begun cheerfully enough, but the careworn, preoccupied look returned now to his face."I'm sorry if we've fallen out with the Barnums," he said."His brother-in-law, Davis, the Sunday-school superintendent, is a member of the Quarterly Conference, you know, and I've been hoping that he was on my side.I've been taking a good deal of pains to make up to him."He ended with a sigh, the pathos of which impressed Alice.

"If you think it will do any good," she volunteered, "I'll go and call on the Davises this very afternoon.

I'm sure to find her at home,--she's tied hand and foot with that brood of hers--and you'd better give me some of that candy for them."Theron nodded his approval and thanks, and relapsed into silence.When the meal was over, he brought out the confectionery to his wife, and without a word went back to that remarkable book.

When Alice returned toward the close of day, to prepare the simple tea which was always laid a half-hour earlier on Thursdays and Sundays, she found her husband where she had left him, still busy with those new scientific works.

She recounted to him some incidents of her call upon Mrs.Davis, as she took off her hat and put on the big kitchen apron--how pleased Mrs.Davis seemed to be;how her affection for her sister-in-law, the grocer's wife, disclosed itself to be not even skin-deep; how the children leaped upon the candy as if they had never seen any before;and how, in her belief, Mr.Davis would be heart and soul on Theron's side at the Conference.

To her surprise, the young minister seemed not at all interested.He hardly looked at her during her narrative, but reclined in the easy-chair with his head thrown back, and an abstracted gaze wandering aimlessly about the ceiling.When she avowed her faith in the Sunday-school superintendent's loyal partisanship, which she did with a pardonable pride in having helped to make it secure, her husband even closed his eyes, and moved his head with a gesture which plainly bespoke indifference.

"I expected you'd be tickled to death," she remarked, with evident disappointment.

"I've a bad headache," he explained, after a minute's pause.

"No wonder!" Alice rejoined, sympathetically enough, but with a note of reproof as well."What can you expect, staying cooped up in here all day long, poring over those books? People are all the while remarking that you study too much.I tell them, of course, that you're a great hand for reading, and always were;but I think myself it would be better if you got out more, and took more exercise, and saw people.You know lots and slathers more than THEY do now, or ever will, if you never opened another book."Theron regarded her with an expression which she had never seen on his face before."You don't realize what you are saying," he replied slowly.He sighed as he added, with increased gravity, "I am the most ignorant man alive!"Alice began a little laugh of wifely incredulity, and then let it die away as she recognized that he was really troubled and sad in his mind.She bent over to kiss him lightly on the brow, and tiptoed her way out into the kitchen.

"I believe I will let you make my excuses at the prayer-meeting this evening," he said all at once, as the supper came to an end.He had eaten next to nothing during the meal, and had sat in a sort of brown-study from which Alice kindly forbore to arouse him."I don't know--I hardly feel equal to it.They won't take it amiss--for once--if you explain to them that I--I am not at all well.""Oh, I do hope you're not coming down with anything!"Alice had risen too, and was gazing at him with a solicitude the tenderness of which at once comforted, and in some obscure way jarred on his nerves."Is there anything Ican do--or shall I go for a doctor? We've got mustard in the house, and senna--I think there's some senna left--and Jamaica ginger."

Theron shook his head wearily at her."Oh, no,--no!"he expostulated."It isn't anything that needs drugs, or doctors either.It's just mental worry and fatigue, that's all.An evening's quiet rest in the big chair, and early to bed--that will fix me up all right.""But you'll read; and that will make your head worse,"said Alice.

"No, I won't read any more," he promised her, walking slowly into the sitting-room, and settling himself in the big chair, the while she brought out a pillow from the adjoining best bedroom, and adjusted it behind his head."That's nice!

I'll just lie quiet here, and perhaps doze a little till you come back.I feel in the mood for the rest;it will do me all sorts of good."

He closed his eyes; and Alice, regarding his upturned face anxiously, decided that already it looked more at peace than awhile ago.

"Well, I hope you'll be better when I get back," she said, as she began preparations for the evening service.

These consisted in combing stiffly back the strands of light-brown hair which, during the day, had exuberantly loosened themselves over her temples into something almost like curls; in fastening down upon this rebellious hair a plain brown-straw bonnet, guiltless of all ornament save a binding ribbon of dull umber hue;and in putting on a thin dark-gray shawl and a pair of equally subdued lisle-thread gloves.Thus attired, she made a mischievous little grimace of dislike at her puritanical image in the looking-glass over the mantel, and then turned to announce her departure.

"Well, I'm off," she said.Theron opened his eyes to take in this figure of his wife dressed for prayer-meeting, and then closed them again abruptly."All right,"he murmured, and then he heard the door shut behind her.

Although he had been alone all day, there seemed to be quite a unique value and quality in this present solitude.