Mrs. Ralston shook her head and said: “She persists in saying she saw
it. Seems on the verge of insanity. Something should be done.”
Miss Hansford had feared it, too, and after Mrs. Ralston was gone she
went to Elithe and asked if there was anything that would comfort her or
help her in any way.
“Yes,—father. It would not be so hard if he were here to tell me what to
do.”
“He shall come,” Miss Hansford replied, and that afternoon she wrote a
long letter to Roger, telling him the whole story and urging him to come
if possible. She would pay all the expenses and pay for some one to take
his place in church during his absence. “That’ll fetch him,” she said to
Elithe, who, buoyed up with this hope, slept that night the first quiet
sleep in a week.
Tom Drake came the next day, asking if she would go to the jail.
“No, Tom. I couldn’t bear to see him there,” she said, “and it would do
no good. Tell him I am so sorry,—that I’d take his place if I could.
When father comes perhaps I’ll go. Maybe they’ll let him out before that
time.”
Tom shook his head and went away discouraged. After that Elithe refused
absolutely to see any one. She was growing stronger with the hope of her
father’s coming. It was time now to expect him, or a letter. It was the
latter which came. Mr. Hansford was ill in bed with a malarial fever
which precluded the possibility of his leaving home for days and
possibly weeks. When he was able to come he would do so, if he were
still needed. The news which Miss Hansford had written had been received
with consternation and sorrow both in Samona and Deep Gulch. That Mr.
Pennington had another name was not a great surprise to any one, for
such complications were not uncommon, but all grieved for his violent
death. At the Deep Gulch the mourning was sincere and heartfelt. With
regard to Elithe the miners were pretty well posted by Rob, who told
them whatever he thought would interest them. They knew about the big
wedding she was to attend,—what she was to wear, and of the trip to
Boston. Elithe had secured a copy of the paper with the Personal
concerning herself and her aunt, and forwarded it to Rob, who, after
showing it to everybody in Samona, took it to Deep Gulch. To go to
Boston was not of so much importance as being mentioned with the
President and Joe Jefferson and Gen. Tracy, and the miners read and
re-read the paragraph many times, and the paper was passed from one to
another until it was worn so thin that Mrs. Stokes pasted a bit of plain
paper under it to keep it together. Elithe was having a gay old time,
they said, and they were very glad and proud because of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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