Miss Phipps sighed heavily. “Maybe so, Jethro,” she said, “but what will
some of us live on while we're waitin'? THAT hasn't been revealed to
you, has it?”
For the rest of that afternoon Galusha sat by his bedroom window,
thinking. His thoughts were along the line of those interrupted by
Primmie's summons. When, at supper time, he again descended the stairs,
his mind was made up. He was going to make a suggestion, a suggestion
which seemed to him somewhat delicate. In one sense of the term it was
a business proposition, in another--well, he was not precisely certain
that it might not be considered presuming and perhaps intrusive. Galusha
Cabot Bangs was not a presuming person and he was troubled.
After the supper dishes were washed and Primmie sent to bed--“sent”
is the exact word, for Miss Cash, having had a taste of Egypt and
the Orient, was eagerly hoping for more--Miss Phipps and Galusha were
together in the sitting room. Doctor Powers had paid a brief visit. He
found his patient so much improved that he announced him well enough to
travel if he wished.
“If it is really necessary for you to go to-morrow, Mr. Bangs,” he said,
“I think you're strong enough to risk it.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” said Galusha. Then he added, with his little smile,
“I couldn't go before to-morrow. You see, I--ah--haven't any hat.”
In the sitting room, after supper, Galusha was idly turning the pages
of Camp, Battlefield and Hospital, a worn book of Civil War sketches,
printed immediately after that war, which he had found upon the shelf of
the closet in his room, along with another volume labeled Friendship's
Garland, a Nosegay of Verse. Of the two, although a peace-loving
individual, he preferred the camp and battlefield to the Nosegay; the
latter's fragrance was a trifle too sweet.
Suddenly Martha, who had been sitting quiet in the rocker, spoke.
“Mr. Bangs,” she said, “I saw Lulie Hallett when I was over at the light
this afternoon. We had a good talk together before Cap'n Jethro came
back. She told me about your bein' so kind to her and Nelson over by the
old church this mornin'. She was real grateful to you and she says she
shall thank you herself when she sees you. She asked me to do it for her
now.”
Galusha was confused. “Oh, it was nothing, really,” he hastened to
explain. “I--ah--Well, I intruded upon them somewhat suddenly. I see she
told you of that.”
Miss Phipps was smiling to herself. She looked a little guilty.
“Well,” she admitted, “Lulie did say that you kind of--er--flew over
the bank. She said no one was ever quite so surprised as she was at that
minute.”
Mr. Bangs thoughtfully shook his head.
“Except myself, perhaps,” he observed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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