第10章 PIGEON PLACE(2)

"Of course nobody likes Mrs.Marian,and my father--when he's not quite himself--says dreadful things if I mention her name."Dennie's checks were crimson as she thought of her father.

"It's none of my business,but I've felt sorry for Mrs.Marian ever since she came here.She seems like an innocent outcast.""That is very pitiful."Lloyd Fenneben's voice was sympathetic.

"This morning,"continued Dennie,"Bug was playing with the dog outside,and I went into the house for the first time.Mrs.Marian is very pleasant.

She asked me about my work here and I told her about Sunrise and you,and your niece,Miss Elinor,being here.""All the interesting features.Did you mention Professor Burgess?"The query was innocently meant,but it brought the color to Dennie Saxon's cheek.

"No,I didn't think he was in that class,"she replied,quickly.

"But what surprised me was her interest in things.She is a pretty,refined,young-looking woman,with gray hair.When I was leaving Iturned back to ask about some eggs for Saturday.She thought I was gone,and she had dropped her head on the table and was crying,so I slipped out without her knowing."Dennie's gray eyes were full of tears now.

"Dr.Fenneben,if talking about Sunrise made her do that,maybe you might do something for her.I pity her so.Nobody seems to care about her.

My father is set against her when he is not responsible,and he might--"She stopped abruptly and did not finish the sentence.

The Dean looked out of the window at the purple mist melting along the horizon line.Down in the valley pigeons were circling above a wooded spot at a bend in the Walnut River.Fenneben remembered now that he had seen them there many times.He had a boyhood memory of a country home with pigeons flying about it.

"I wish,too,that I might do something,"he said at last.

"You say she will not let men inside her gate now.

I'll keep her in mind,though.The gate may open some time."It was mid-afternoon when Lloyd Fenneben left his study for a stroll.

As he approached the Saxon House,he saw old Bond Saxon slipping out of the side gate and with uncertain steps skulk down the alley.

"Poor old sinner!What a slave and a fool whisky can make of a man!"he thought.Then he remembered Dennie's anxiety of the morning.

"There must be some cause for his prejudice against this strange hermit woman when he is drunk.Bond Saxon is not a man to hate anybody when he is sober.""Is you Don Fonnybone?"Bug Buler's little piping voice from the doorstep haled the Dean."I finked Vic would turn,and he don't turn,and I 's hungry for somebody.May I go wis you,Don Fonnybone?"The baby lips quivered.

Lloyd Fenneben held out his hand and Bug put his little fist into it.

"Where shall we go,Bug?I 'm hungry for somebody,too.""Let's do find the bunny the bid dod ist scared away this morning.

Turn on!"

Lloyd Fenneben was hardly conscious that Bug was choosing their path as the two strolled away together.Everywhere there was the pathos of a waning autumn day,and a soft haze creeping out of the west was making a blood-red carbuncle of the sun,set as a jewel on the amber-veiled bosom of the sky.

The air was soft,wooing the spirit to a still,sweet peace.

The two were at the outskirts of Lagonda Ledge now.

The last board walk was three blocks back,and the cinder-made way had dwindled to a bare hard path by the roadside.

A bend in the river cutting close to the road shows a long vista of the Walnut bordered by vine-draped shrubbery and overhung with trees.A slab of limestone beside a huge elm tree had been placed at this bend to prevent the bank from breaking,or a chance misdriving into the water.

"I 's pitty tired,"Bug said as the two reached the stone.

"Will we tum to the bunny's house pitty soon?""We'll rest here a while and maybe the bunny will come out to meet us,"Dr.Fenneben said,and they sat down on the broad stone.

"It was somewhere here the bunny runned."Little Bug studied the roadside with a quaint puzzled face."Is you 'faid of snakes?""Not very much."The Dean's eyes were on the graceful flight of pigeons circling about the trees beyond the bend.

"Vic isn't 'faid.He killed bid one,two,five,free wattle,wattle snakes--"Bug caught his breath suddenly--"He told me not to tell that.I fordot.