However, it will 'sustain life'!--Though you could go to
Dr. King's again," she ended gayly.
The instant irritation in his face sobered her. She began, carefully,
to talk of this or that: his journey, the Mercer business, his
health--anything to make him smile again. Plainly, it was not the
moment to speak of Mr. Benjamin Wright and her purpose of leaving Old
Chester.
"Now I must run up-stairs just one minute, and see David," she said in
the middle of a sentence. Her minute lengthened to ten, but when she
came back, explaining that she had stopped to wash David's face--"it
was all stained by tears"--he did not seem impatient.
"Your own would be improved by soap and water, my dear," he said with
an amused look. "No! no--don't go now; I want to talk to you, and I
haven't much time."
She knew him too well to insist; instead, she burst into what gayety
she could summon, for that was how he liked her. But back in her mind
there was a growing tremor of apprehension:--there was something
wrong; she could not tell what it was, but she felt it. She said to
herself that she would not speak of Mr. Benjamin Wright until after
dinner.
Little by little, however, her uneasiness subsided. It became evident
that the excitement of the morning had not been too much for Maggie;
things were very good, and Lloyd Pryor was very appreciative, and
Helena's charm more than once touched him to a caressing glance and a
soft word.
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