“Mr. Gregory is here again?”
“He comes and goes. I think I ought to tell you that he is preparing to
press his claim against Colonel Craighill in that Sand Creek matter.
I have urged him not to, but he is old and ill and I sometimes think
his mind is unsettled. I ought to take him away. As long as I’m here he
has an excuse for coming. I ought to give up my work, and take him back
home--to our own home at Denbeigh.”
“It’s an unfortunate matter--the whole business. My father’s interest
in the Sand Creek Company is very small. He has nothing to do with the
management of the company.”
“That’s where the trouble comes in. It’s not the business side of it
any more; it’s the feeling grandfather has that it was a personal
matter between him and your father. He insists on looking at it that
way.”
“I think there’s a real claim. I will see what I can do with the
officers of the company. It will be no trouble whatever,” he said,
roused at the prospect of serving her.
“Please do not! I don’t think that would satisfy grandfather at all.
He wants the offer of a settlement to come from Colonel Craighill. I
appreciate your kind feeling about it, but please do nothing; it would
not help.”
A Russian woman with a shawl wrapped round her head entered the car
dragging a child of three by the hand. The little boy, planted on a
seat directly opposite Jean, fixed his great, wondering eyes upon her.
“The poor little dear,” she murmured; “I’ve been wanting just that
type, but now it doesn’t seem quite fair to try to catch him.”
She drew from the pocket of her long coat a small memorandum book and
a lead-pencil stub and began sketching. The mother stared and frowned,
not quite understanding, but Jean was all intent on the white, wistful
face opposite, and Wayne, watching her, marked her earnestness, her
complete absorption. She had snatched off her gloves in her haste
and he picked them up and unconsciously smoothed them as he watched
her hand fly over the paper. The lurching car did not trouble her;
she finished one sketch and began another, tearing the first sheet
from the pad and thrusting it into her pocket. Finally, she held this
second attempt up and inspected it, turning it so that Wayne might
see. It was his first glimpse of any of her work and he was amazed
at her cleverness; her few bold strokes had brought the sad little
face to paper; the folded baby hands were there, with pathos in their
tiny clasp. Jean thrust it away in her coat and crossed the aisle to
speak to the mother, who supplemented her scant English with smiles of
appreciation as the stranger praised her child. A little later as the
mother left the car Wayne dropped a silver dollar into the baby’s hand.
“You must always pay a model for sitting. What are you going to do with
the sketch?”
“Oh, I have use for it. Maybe you will see it again some day.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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