Ruth was conscious of a momentary feeling of surprise that she should
be eulogizing Bailey in this fashion, and, stranger still, that she
should be really sincere in what she said. But to-day seemed to have
changed everything, and she was regarding her brother with a new-born
respect. She could still see Sybil's face as it had appeared in that
memorable moment of self-revelation. It had made a deep impression upon
her.
'A man like Bailey is worth a large salary to any one, even if he may
not be able to start out for himself again immediately. I'm not
worrying about you and Bailey. You will have forgotten all about this
crash this time next year.' Sybil brightened up. She was by nature
easily moved, and Ruth's words had stimulated her imagination.
'He is awfully clever,' she said, her eyes shining.
'Why, this sort of thing happens every six months to anybody who has
anything to do with Wall Street,' proceeded Ruth, fired by her own
optimism. 'You read about it in the papers every day. Nobody thinks
anything of it.'
Sybil, though anxious to look on the bright side, could not quite rise
to these heights of scorn for the earthquake which had shaken her
world.
'I hope not. It would be awful to go through a time like this again.'
Ruth reassured her, though it entailed a certain inconsistency on her
part. She had a true woman's contempt for consistency.
'Of course you won't have to go through it again. Bailey will be
careful in future not to, not to do whatever it is that he has done.'
She felt that the end of her inspiring speech was a little weak, but
she did not see how she could mend it. Her talk with Mr. Meadows on the
telephone had left her as vague as before as to the actual details of
what had been happening that day in Wall Street. She remembered stray
remarks of his about bulls, and she had gathered that something had
happened to something which Mr. Meadows called G.R.D.'s, which had
evidently been at the root of the trouble; but there her grasp of high
finance ended.
Sybil, however, was not exigent. She brightened at Ruth's words as if
they had been an authoritative pronouncement from an expert.
'Bailey is sure to do right,' she said. 'I think I'll creep in and see
if he's still asleep.'
Ruth, left alone on the porch, fell into a pleasant train of thought.
There was something in her mental attitude which amused her. She
wondered if anybody had ever received the announcement of financial
ruin in quite the same way before. Yet to her this attitude seemed the
only one possible.
How simple everything was now! She could go to Kirk and, as she had
said to Sybil, start again. The golden barrier between them had
vanished. One day had wiped out all the wretchedness of the last year.
They were back where they had started, with all the accumulated
experience of those twelve months to help them steer their little ship
clear of the rocks on its new voyage.
* * * * *
