There were two people in that house who ate a real breakfast the
following morning. One was Primmie and the other was Augustus Cabot. It
took much, very much, to counteract Miss Cash's attraction toward food,
and as for the Boston banker, the combination of Cape Cod air and
Martha Phipps' cooking had sharpened his appetite until, as he told his
hostess, he was thoroughly ashamed, but tremendously contented.
Martha smiled a faint recognition of the joke. Galusha, sitting opposite
her, did not smile; he was plainly quite unaware that there was humor
anywhere. The little archaeologist looked, so Primmie told Zach later
on, “like one of them wax string beans, thin and drawed-out and yeller.”
He kept his gaze fixed on his plate and, beyond wishing her an uncertain
good-morning, not once did he look at or venture to address Martha
Phipps.
While they were at table Lulie came in. Considering all that she had
undergone, the young lady was wonderfully radiant. Her eyes sparkled,
there was color in her cheeks, and Mr. Cabot, who, in his time, had
accounted himself a judge, immediately rated her as a remarkably pretty
girl. Her first move, after greeting the company, was to go straight to
Galusha and take his hand.
“Mr. Bangs,” she cried, “how can I thank you? How can Nelson and I ever,
ever thank you?”
Galusha's embarrassment managed to pump a little color into his wan
cheeks. “I--I--ah--dear me, it was nothing,” he stammered. “I--I
am--ah--yes, quite so. Please don't mention it.”
“But I shall mention it. Indeed, I shall. Why, Martha, do you realize
who was really responsible for father's being so suspicious of Marietta
Hoag last evening? It was Mr. Bangs here, and no one else. Do you
remember I told you that father had been receiving printed things,
booklets and circulars, in the mails for the past few days, and that he
had been reading them and they seemed to agitate him very much? Do you
remember that?”
Martha said of course she remembered it.
“Yes. Well, those circulars and books came from the Psychical Research
Society--the people who look up real spirit things and expose the other
kind, the fraud kind, you know. Those told all about lots of cases of
cheats like Marietta, and father read them, and he confessed to me this
morning that they disturbed his faith in her a lot and he was suspicious
when the seance began. Don't you know he hinted something about it?”
“Yes, yes, Lulie, I remember. But what did Mr. Bangs have to do with
those circulars and things?”
“He sent them. Or he had them sent, I am sure. They came from Washington
and who else could have done it? Who else would have had them sent--from
there--to father--and just at the right time? You did have them sent,
didn't you, Mr. Bangs?”
Of course, the others now looked at Galusha and also, of course, this
had the effect of increasing his embarrassment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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