“John, don’t you think I ought to send Katy away? We oughtn’t to spend so much money.” There was a tremor in Lucy’s voice.
“See here, Lucy, if I’m going to have to stand for curtain lectures every time I’m at home, I’m going out.”
“I’m not giving curtain lectures, John.”
“Well, I’m going out anyway. The atmosphere of this house is enough to drive a man to anything.”
He went into the hall and seized his hat.
Lucy and Dimmie were in Lucy’s room alone. Lucy bent her head and pressed her cheek to the little boy’s hair.
“Oh, Dimmie, Dimmie,” she said.
“You can tell me a story,” he replied consolingly.
About one o’clock John came in. Lucy had retired, but she was still awake, and the night lamp in the adjoining room, where Dimmie slept, was burning.
John’s step, as he mounted the stairs, was halting. He entered the room unsteadily, and did not greet Lucy as he opened the electric switch. When he turned toward her and she saw his flushed cheeks and dull bloodshot eyes, she buried her face in the pillows.
He swore over his refractory collar as he took it off, but refrained from addressing her.
Long after he lay, sleeping heavily on the pillow beside her, she remained with wide open eyes, staring at the night lamp.
XXXVI
It was more than a month after Nannie’s departure when Lucy visited the office again.
For the trip to town, she selected a morning when John had mentioned that Jim was going out of the city for several days. She entered the office timidly. John was working at an interior decoration scheme. He glanced up as she came in but did not trouble himself with more than a greeting. She went to the window and gazed out for a time, then sat down at Jim’s desk.
Suddenly Jim himself opened the door and came briskly into the office.
“I decided to wait till next week—” he began. Then, catching sight of Lucy, he stopped.
She rose.
The even red color flowed up over his face and he stood undecided an instant. Then he shook hands formally.
“Are you keeping well this hot weather?” he inquired stiffly.
“Very well, thank you.”
“And how is Dimmie?”
“He’s well, too, thank you,” she replied.
“Excuse me. I must see a man at Layard’s before lunch,” he explained awkwardly, going out.
He did not return.
“Jim Sprague is growing more peculiar every day,” John complained to Lucy, as the sound of Jim’s steps died away. “He’s become impossible to get along with, even in business.”
Lucy did not speak. She sat down near John, her face averted.
“I was going to tell you last night,” he continued, “but didn’t. He has offered me his share of the business—at a low price—in fact almost nothing—and on liberal terms: time payments. He has an offer from Layard’s and wants to get out. It’s far and away a better position than I had with them. That shows what kind of a friend he was.”
Lucy stared at the papers on the table before her.
“I think you’d better buy it,” she advised at last.
“I think so too,” John agreed. “I couldn’t do it alone because I’m very badly in debt now—” Lucy looked up at him startled—“but Mathews thinks he’s had enough of bookkeeping. He’s been at it fifteen years now, and has got something laid by, and he’ll go in with me. His experience with Layard’s will be very useful to us. What do you think?”
Lucy shivered slightly.
“I think that will be the best scheme,” she declared without hesitation.
“All right,” concluded John, “I’ll begin to make plans that way, then. Now you sit here a minute, Lucy, while I go across the hall to a lawyer’s office about this contract, and then we’ll go and get lunch together.” And John passed into the corridor.
Lucy rose again and, walking rather unsteadily to Jim’s desk, laid her hands softly upon it. She rested so for a minute. Then she went slowly to the window opposite the street and gazed across the roofs to the tall building in which Layard’s offices were situated.
Colophon
Blind Mice
was published in by
C. Kay Scott.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Alexander Keane,
and is based on a transcription produced in by
Hendrik Kaiber and Distributed Proofreaders
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
At the Milliner’s,
a painting completed in by
Edgar Degas.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in and by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/c-kay-scott/blind-mice.
The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.
Uncopyright
May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
Copyright pages exist to tell you that you can’t do something. Unlike them, this Uncopyright page exists to tell you that the writing and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the United States public domain; that is, they are believed to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The United States public domain represents our collective cultural heritage, and items in it are free for anyone in the United States to do almost anything at all with, without having to get permission.
Copyright laws are different all over the world, and the source text or artwork in this ebook may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you’re not located in the United States, you must check your local laws before using this ebook. Standard Ebooks makes no representations regarding the copyright status of the source text or artwork in this ebook in any
