FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>  
d I never expect to. I guess only the Lord who made you can translate you." Theodosia stood up. The sun was getting low, and the valley beneath them, ripening to harvest, was like a river of gold. She folded up her sewing with a steady hand. "It's five o'clock, so I'll ask you to excuse me, Cecilia. I have a good deal to attend to. You can ask Emory if he'll drive me to the station in the morning. I'm going out to Wes." "Well, for the land's sake," said Cecilia Merritt feebly, as she tied on her gingham sunbonnet. She got up and went home in a daze. Theodosia packed her trunk and worked all night, dry-eyed, with agony and fear tearing at her heart. The iron will had snapped at last, like a broken reed, and fierce self-condemnation seized on her. "I've been a wicked woman," she moaned. A week from that day Theodosia climbed down from the dusty stage that had brought her from the station over the prairies to the unpretentious little house where Wesley Brooke lived. A young girl, so like what Ogden Greene's wife had been fifteen years before that Theodosia involuntarily exclaimed, "Phoebe," came to the door. Beyond her, Theodosia saw the white-capped nurse. Her voice trembled. "Does--does Wesley Brooke live here?" she asked. The girl nodded. "Yes. But he is very ill at present. Nobody is allowed to see him." Theodosia put up her hand and loosened her bonnet strings as if they were choking her. She had been sick with the fear that Wesley would be dead before she got to him. The relief was almost overwhelming. "But I must see him," she cried hysterically--she, the calm, easy-going Dosia, hysterical--"I am his wife--and oh, if he had died before I got here!" The nurse came forward. "In that case I suppose you must," she conceded. "But he does not expect you. I must prepare him for the surprise." She turned to the door of a room opening off the kitchen, but Theodosia, who had hardly heard her, was before her. She was inside the room before the nurse could prevent her. Then she stood, afraid and trembling, her eyes searching the dim apartment hungrily. When they fell on the occupant of the bed Theodosia started in bitter surprise. All unconsciously she had been expecting to find Wesley as he had been when they parted. Could this gaunt, haggard creature, with the unkempt beard and prematurely grey hair and the hollow, beseeching eyes, be the ruddy, boyish-faced husband of her youth? She gave a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>  



Top keywords:

Theodosia

 
Wesley
 

Cecilia

 
surprise
 
station
 

Brooke

 

expect

 

overwhelming

 
hysterically
 
trembled

hysterical
 

Nobody

 

choking

 

strings

 

bonnet

 

allowed

 

loosened

 

present

 
relief
 
nodded

parted

 

haggard

 

bitter

 

started

 

unconsciously

 

expecting

 
creature
 
unkempt
 

boyish

 
husband

beseeching

 
prematurely
 

hollow

 
occupant
 
opening
 

kitchen

 
turned
 

prepare

 

suppose

 
conceded

inside

 

apartment

 

hungrily

 

searching

 

trembling

 

prevent

 
afraid
 

forward

 

unpretentious

 

morning