"
Silence again, and after a while a broken murmur: "'I here forget...
cancel all grudge, repeal thee...'" Then distinctly and quietly he
said: "Sam, will you forgive me?"
Samuel Wright nodded; he could not speak at first, and Simmons lifting
his head, looked at him, fiercely; then he swallowed several times,
and said, with ponderous dignity: "Certainly, father. Certainly." And
Simmons fell back into the shadows.
"Of course," murmured Benjamin Wright, "if I g-get well, it needn't
hold, you know."
After that he seemed to sleep a little, until, his eyes still closed,
he said, "The boy slapped my face. So it's all right."
Samuel started up from his chair at the bedside, shocked and
protesting.
"Gad-a-mercy!" said Benjamin Wright, fretfully, opening his eye and
looking at him--"that makes us square! Don't you see?"
There was a long silence. Once Dr. Lavendar spoke to him, and once
William King touched his wrist, but he seemed to sleep. Then abruptly,
and quite clearly, he spoke:
"'Crito, I owe a cock to Aesculapius'.... Lavendar?"
"Yes, Benjamin?"
"The debt is paid. Hey? I got the receipt."
"He is wandering," said Samuel. "Father, what do you want?"
But he did not speak again.
CHAPTER XXXII
Helena had asked Dr. Lavendar to keep David, out of abject fear of
William King. The doctor had granted her until Sunday to give him up
without explanations; if she had not done so then, he must, he said
doggedly, "tell.
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