Lenore bade him good-by and went to her room, where calmness deserted
her for a while. Upon recovering, she found that the time set for her
father's departure had passed. Strangely, then the oppression that had
weighed upon her so heavily eased and lifted. The moment seemed one
beyond her understanding. She attributed her relief, however, to the
fact that her father would soon end her suspense in regard to Kurt Dorn.
In the succeeding days Lenore regained her old strength and buoyancy,
and something of a control over the despondency which at times had made
life misery.
A golden day of sunlight and azure blue of sky ushered in the month of
June. "Many Waters" was a world of verdant green. Lenore had all she
could do to keep from flying to the slopes. But as every day now brought
nearer the possibility of word from her father, she stayed at home. The
next morning about nine o'clock, while she was at her father's desk, the
telephone-bell rang. It did that many times every morning, but this ring
seemed to electrify Lenore. She answered the call hurriedly.
"Hello, Lenore, my girl! How are you?" came rolling on the wire.
"Dad! Dad! Is it--you?" cried Lenore, wildly.
"Sure is. Just got here. Are you an' the girls O.K.?"
"We're well--fine. Oh, dad ..."
"You needn't send the car. I'll hire one."
"Yes--yes--but, dad--Oh, tell me ..."
"Wait! I'll be there in five minutes."
She heard him slam up the receiver, and she leaned there, palpitating,
with the queer, vacant sounds of the telephone filling her ear.
"Five minutes!" Lenore whispered. In five more minutes she would know.
They seemed an eternity. Suddenly a flood of emotion and thought
threatened to overwhelm her. Leaving the office, she hurried forth to
find her sisters, and not until she had looked everywhere did she
remember that they were visiting a girl friend. After this her motions
seemed ceaseless; she could not stand or sit still, and she was
continually going to the porch to look down the shady lane. At last a
car appeared, coming fast. Then she ran indoors quite aimlessly and out
again. But when she recognized her father all her outward fears and
tremblings vanished. The broad, brown flash of his face was reality. He
got out of the car lightly for so heavy a man, and, taking his valise,
he dismissed the chauffeur. His smile was one of gladness, and his
greeting a hearty roar.
Lenore met him at the porch steps, seeing in him, feeling as she
embraced him, that he radiated a strange triumph and finality.
"Say, girl, you look somethin' like your old self," he said, holding her
by the shoulders. "Fine! But you're a woman now.... Where are the kids?"
"They're away," replied Lenore.
"How you stare!" laughed Anderson, as with arm round her he led her in.
"Anythin' queer about your dad's handsome mug?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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