"Oh, Suzanna," she cried at once, a glad note in her voice. She ran
across the room and enfolded the little visitor close within her arms.
"And you've come back with a baby," Suzanna cried, after a time.
"Yes, come and see him. He's named after my father."
Suzanna went to the cradle and looked down. "He's a nice fat baby," she
admitted. She really didn't think that he was pretty, but that she did
not say.
"And don't you love Saturday nights when it rains and you're safe
indoors with Robert and the baby?" asked Suzanna, interestedly.
"Oh, dear girl, I do, I do. What a picture you painted, and how I've
tried to make it true."
"And have you a cross man with buttons to jump at your bidding?" Suzanna
pursued.
"No, dear; we have a little home with a garden, where in the summer all
the old-fashioned flowers bloom. I do most of my own work, and care
altogether for my baby. And I'm happier than ever before in my life. And
my father is no longer angry with me. He wrote asking me to pay him a
visit after he knew he had a grandson named for him."
She bent above her baby for a moment, then turned her shining face to
Suzanna. "And now, tell me about yourself, Suzanna, and your loved
ones."
Suzanna paused to think. "Well, you know father doesn't weigh out nails
any more; he's the Eagle Man's right-hand man." She remembered the
phrase and brought it out roundly. "And father helped build all those
nice new homes for the people who work in the Massey Steel Mills.
"My father's a great man," finished Suzanna, simply as always when
stating this incontrovertible fact. "And his Machine's nearly ready now
for the world to know about it."
"Oh, oh, Suzanna! And then?"
"And then many, many people are going to be happy ever after because my
father thought of that machine and worked on it for years and years."
After a moment Suzanna continued: "And my dear, dear Drusilla set off on
a far journey and didn't come back. And Graham cried, and went away for
a long time, and Bartlett Villa was closed. But they've come back now
and it's open again. And David and Daphne are quite well, thank you. And
Mrs. Reynolds has two little children of her own."
"I'm so glad," said Robert's wife. "You're a very happy little girl,
then, aren't you, dear?"
"Oh, very happy," said Suzanna. "I love so many people, you see. And I
have a sister, Maizie, who was once smiled upon by a very great Man."
Her listener was puzzled, but she asked no questions. It didn't seem to
her the right moment to ask an explanation. Some day she would. But
Suzanna told the story of Maizie's rare selection, dwelling upon it with
a degree of wondrous awe, for she believed the story now. It stood so
clear to her, so real, that it had a fine influence upon her inner life.
Often when swift anger surged through her, anger directed against the
little sister, she brought to bear a strong control, as she remembered
Maizie's great awakening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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