"Build the hospital! What hospital?"
"The hospital near the Works, that your mother put that money aside
for."
Blair's hands tightened on his oars. Instinctively he knew that a
critical moment was confronting him. He did not know just what the
danger in it was, but he knew there was danger. "My mother changed her
mind about that, Elizabeth."
She lifted the parasol again, and looked full at him; the white shadow
of the silk made the dark amber of her unsmiling eyes singularly
luminous. "No," she said; "your mother did not change her mind. Nannie
thought she did, but it was not so." She spoke with stern certainty.
"Your mother didn't mean you to have that money. She meant it for--a
hospital."
Blair stopped rowing and leaned on his oars. "Why don't you speak his
name?" he said, between his teeth.
The parasol fell back on her shoulder; she grew very white; the hard
line that used to be a dimple was like a gash in her cheek; she looked
suddenly old. "I will certainly speak his name: _David Richie_. Your
mother meant the money for David Richie."
"That," said Blair, "is a matter of opinion. You think she did. I think
she didn't. I think she meant it for the person whose name she wrote on
the certificate. That person will keep it."
Elizabeth was silent. Blair began to row again, softly. The anger in
his face died out and left misery behind it. Oh, how she hated him; and
how she loved--_him_. At that moment Blair hated David as one only
hates the human creature one has injured. They did not speak again for
the rest of the slow drift down to Willis's. Once Blair opened his lips
to bid her notice that the overhanging willows and chestnuts mirrored
themselves so clearly in the water that the skiff seemed to cut through
autumnal foliage, and the sound of the ripple at the prow was like the
rustle of leaves; but the preoccupation in her face silenced him. It
was after four when, brushing past a fringe of willows, the skiff
bumped softly against a float half hidden in the yellowing sedge and
grass at Willis's landing. Blair got out, and drawing the boat
alongside, held up his hand to his wife, but she ignored his
assistance. As she sprang lightly out, the float rocked a little and
the water splashed over the planks. There was a dank smell of wet wood
and rankly growing water-weeds. A ray of sunshine, piercing the roof of
willow leaves, struck the single blossom of a monkey-flower, that
sparkled suddenly in the green darkness like a topaz.
"Elizabeth," Blair said in a low voice--he was holding the gunwale of
the boat and he did not look at her; "Elizabeth, all I want money for
is to give you everything you want." She was silent. He made the skiff
fast and followed her up the path to the little inn on the bank. There
were some tables out under the locust-trees, and a welcoming landlord
came hurrying to meet them with suggestions of refreshments.
"What will you have?" Blair asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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