Family -- Juvenile fiction; Fathers -- Death -- Juvenile fiction; Financial security -- Juvenile fiction
Mr. Armstrong had come and gone. Roberta had taken him into the
wainscoted room, and while her mother and Wythie listened in wondering
admiration, showed their guest the working of the models, explaining
each part, and making clear, through her memory of her dear Patergrey's
words, that which none other of the family had understood.
A strange half-consciousness took possession of Rob as she talked--she
imagined that it was not she herself, not young Rob Grey speaking, but
that she was the mouth-piece for the wistful eyes so often raised to
hers in that old room, and that Sylvester Grey spoke through her. As in
the office in New York, her self-diffidence dropped from her, and she
performed her part, absorbed in doing well her father's commission. Mr.
Armstrong, as before, had listened silently, but now he was gone, and
the Greys sat around the old mahogany dining-table, gazing, awestruck
and motionless at the slip of paper lying on it. It was Mr. Armstrong's
check for fifty thousand dollars.
The bricquette machine was sold, the arrangements made for packing and
shipping the models to its owner, and the result of Sylvester Grey's
"dreaming"--securing peace and plenty to his family--lay, radiating
hope and joy to his wife and daughters, on the old table where once the
baby Sylvester had sat by his father's side.
"I never expected to see so much money in all my life," said Prue,
speaking first, and sighing like one awakening from a dream.
"Oh, if only your dear, hard-working, misunderstood father could have
known!" cried Mrs. Grey, dropping her head beside the check, her whole
frame shaken by sobs.
Wythie arose and laid her own head softly on the heaving shoulder.
"Mardy, Mardy darling, we will be quite sure that he does know; we will
believe he helped Rob stand firm against us all, and win us this great
good--we say we believe in the communion of saints, and we will be
quite, quite sure that dear papa has this joy, with all the rest," she
whispered, her sweet face kindled into rapture, though her tears fell
fast.
Rob leaned across and took her mother's hand. "This has done something
wonderful for me, Mardy," she said, slowly. "I don't know that I can
explain, but it seems to me that all his dear, pathetic, dreaming
life Patergrey was but partly alive, and that now he is living, truly
living, and his life is complete. I feel as though he had come back to
us."
The door opened, and Aunt Azraella entered, stopping short, as she saw
the group around the table. "For pity's sake, Mary," she cried, "has
something else bad happened to you? I've only just got back, and I have
been frantic to hear how Roberta came out. I suppose you've lost that
offer, and see now how right I was. Well, I warned you."
"Rob has saved us, Azraella," said Mrs. Grey, raising her head
quickly--Aunt Azraella had the gift of drying tears. "Look at this."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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