human
I know! I know! And revolving back again in leisurely relief to face them, she said, with open amusement:
gpt
When I came home this afternoon, I found this drawer half open and the bills in my cash-box disturbed. They've --her voice was suddenly drowned in the rumble of a train on the spur track; the house shook slightly, and a gust of black smoke was vomited against the windows;--
human
Why, of course! he said,
gpt
The railroad!--_Oh_--
human
Nonsense, said Mrs. Maitland;
gpt
Of course everything is all right, he said.
human
I'll let you know the minute I find traces of them, Mrs. Richie. When he reached the door, he came back.
gpt
Now don't you worry; I could thrash those boys for bothering you!
human
Harris! Mrs. Maitland broke in,
gpt
Oh, I can't--
human
What? You are not saying _can't?_ 'Can't' is a 'bad word,' you know. She got up--a big, heavy woman, in a gray bag of a dress that only reached to the top of her boots--and stood with her hands on her hips; her gray hair was twisted into a small, tight knot at the back of her head, and her face looked like iron that had once been molten and had cooled into roughened immobility. It was not an unamiable face; as she stood there looking down at Mrs. Richie she even smiled the half-amused smile one might bestow on a puppy, and she put a kindly hand on the other mother's shoulder.
gpt
Don't be so scared, woman! They'll be found.
human
You don't think anything could have happened to him? Mrs. Richie said, trembling;
gpt
No, Mrs. Maitland said, dryly;
human
I don't think anything has happened to him.
gpt
Of course I meant Blair and Nannie, too,
human
You never thought of 'em! Mrs. Maitland said, chuckling;
gpt
Tell Mrs. Richie not to worry.
human
Doesn't seem much disturbed about my worry, said Mrs. Maitland, jocosely significant; then with loud cheerfulness she tried to rally her guest:
gpt
It's all right; what did I tell you? Where's my knitting? Come; I'll go over to the parlor with you; we'll sit there.
human
Herbert likes pictures, the bride said to herself when she purchased them.
gpt
That goose Molly Wharton wouldn't have been able to buy 'em for him! The only pleasant thing in the meaningless room was Nannie's drawing-board, which displayed the little girl's painstaking and surprisingly exact copy in lead-pencil, of some chromo--
human
Evangeline perhaps, or some popular sentimentality of the sixties. In the ten years which had elapsed since Mrs. Maitland had plunged into her debauch of furnishing--her one extravagance!--of course the parlors had softened; the enormous roses of the carpets had faded, the glitter of varnish had dimmed; but the change was not sufficient to blur in Mrs. Maitland's eyes, all the costly and ugly glory of the room. She cast a complacent glance about her as she motioned her nervous and preoccupied guest to a chair.
gpt
How do you like Mercer?
human
Oh, very well; it is a little--smoky,
gpt
Mercer would be in a bad way without its smoke. You ought to learn to like it, as I do! I like the smell of it, I like the taste of it, I like the feel of it!
human
Really?
gpt
That smoke, let me tell you Mrs. Richie is the pillar of cloud, to this country! (If you read your Bible, you'll know what that means.) I think of it whenever I look at my stacks.
human
I think I'll go down to the station and meet the children,
gpt
I'm afraid you are a very foolish woman, Sarah Maitland said;--and Mrs. Richie sat down.
human
Mr. Ferguson will bring 'em here. Anyway, this clock is half an hour slow. They'll be here before you could get to the station. She chuckled, slyly. Her sense of humor was entirely rudimentary, and never got beyond the practical joke.
gpt
I've been watching you look at that clock, she said; then she looked at it herself and frowned. She was wasting a good deal of time over this business of the children. But in spite of herself, glancing at the graceful figure sitting in tense waiting at the fireside, she smiled.
human
You are a pretty creature, she said; and Mrs. Richie started and blushed like a girl.
gpt
If Robert Ferguson had any sense! she went on, and paused to pick up a dropped stitch.
human
Queer fellow, isn't he? Mrs. Richie had nothing to say.
gpt
Something went wrong with him when he was young, just after he left college. Some kind of a crash. Woman scrape, I suppose. Have you ever noticed that women make all the trouble in the world? Well, he never got over it. He told me once that Life wouldn't play but one trick on him. 'We're always going to sit down on a chair--and Life pulls it from under us,' he said. 'It won't do that to me twice.' He's not given to being confidential, but that put me on the track. And now he's got Elizabeth on his hands.
human
She's a dear little thing, Mrs. Richie said, smiling;
gpt
She's a corked-up volcano. Robert Ferguson ought to get married, and give her an aunt to look after her. She glanced at Mrs. Richie again, with appraising eyes;
human
I think I hear a carriage, Mrs. Richie said, coldly. Then she forgot Mrs. Maitland, and stood waiting and trembling. A minute later Mr. Ferguson ushered the three sleepy, whimpering children into the room, and Mrs. Richie caught her grimy, crying little boy in her arms and cried with him.
gpt
Oh, David, oh, David--my darling! How could you frighten mother so!