Primmie departed and Martha, alone in the gathering dimness of the
afternoon, resumed her thinking. It was an endless round, that thinking
of hers--but, of course, it could end in but one way. Even to wish such
things was wicked. For his sake, that was what Mr. Cabot had said. Ah,
yes, but it was for his sake that she must remain firm.
A big drop of rain splashed, and exploded like a miniature watery
bombshell, against the windowpane. Martha looked up. Then she became
aware of a faint tinkling in the room below. The telephone bell was
ringing.
She hurried downstairs and put the receiver to her ear. It was Mr. Beebe
speaking and he wished to ask something concerning a message which had
been left in his care by Primmie Cash.
"It's signed by that Mr. Galushy Bangs of yours," explained Erastus.
"I've got to 'phone it to the telegraph office and there's a word in it
I can't make out. Maybe you could help me, Martha, long's Bangs isn't
there. 'Tain't nothin' private, I don't cal'late. I'll read it to you if
you want I should."
He began to read without waiting for permission. The message was
addressed to the Board of Directors of the National Institute at
Washington, D. C., and began like this:
"Deeply regret necessity of refusing your generous and flattering offer
to lead--"
It was just here that Mr. Beebe's ability to decipher the Bangs'
handwriting broke down.
"I can't make out the next word, Martha," he said. "It begins with an
F, but the rest of it ain't nothin' but a string of kinks. It's all head
and no tail, that word is."
"What does it look like?"
"Hey? Looks like a whiplash or an eel, more'n anything else. It might be
'epizootic' or--or--'eclipsin''--or--The word after it ain't very plain
neither, but I kind of think that it's 'expedition.'"
"'Expedition'? Is the word you can't make out 'Egyptian'?"
"Hey?... 'Egyptian?' Well, I snum, I guess 'tis! 'Egyptian.' . . .
Humph! I never thought of that. I--"
"Read me the whole of that telegram, Erastus. Read it."
Mr. Beebe read it. "Deeply regret necessity of refusing your generous
and flattering offer to lead Egyptian expedition. Do not feel equal to
the work. Decision final. Will write.--Galusha Bangs."
Martha's hand shook as it held the receiver to her ear. He had refused
the greatest honor of his life. He had declined to carry out the
wonderful "plan" concerning which he and she had so often speculated....
And she knew why he had refu
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