Dawn Eleanor Porter (free novels to read txt) 📖

alone, how you can keepthrusting yourself—"

But Dorothy had gone. With a proud lifting of her head, and a sharp"Nonsense, Mazie, you are wild! We'll not discuss it any longer,please," she had turned and left the room.

But she remembered. She must have remembered, for she did not go nearthe Burton homestead for a week. Neither did the next week nor thenext see her there. Furthermore, though the little stand in her roomhad shown two new picture puzzles and a new game especially designedfor the blind, it displayed them no longer after those remarks ofMazie Sanborn's. Not that Keith had them, however. Indeed, no. Theywere buried deep under a pile of clothing in the farther corner ofDorothy's bottom bureau drawer.

At the Burton homestead Susan wondered a little at her absence. Sheeven said to Keith one day:

"Why, where's Dorothy? We haven't see her for two weeks."

"I don't know, I'm sure."

The way Keith's lips came together over the last word caused Susan tothrow a keen glance into his face.

"Now, Keith, I hope you two haven't been quarreling again," shefrowned anxiously.

"'Again'! Nonsense, Susan, we never did quarrel. Don't be silly." Theyouth shifted his position uneasily.

"I'm thinkin' tain't always me that's silly," observed Susan, withanother keen glance. "That girl was gettin' so she come over jestnatural-like again, every little while, bringin' in one thing oranother, if 'twas nothin' more'n a funny story to make us laugh. An'what I want to know is why she stopped right off short like this, for—"

"Nonsense!" tossed Keith again, with a lift of his chin. Then, with anattempt at lightness that was very near a failure, he laughed: "Ireckon we don't want her to come if she doesn't want to, do we,Susan?"

"Humph!" was Susan's only comment—outwardly. Inwardly she was vowingto see that young woman and have it out with her, once for all.

But Susan did not see her nor have it out with her; for, as ithappened, something occurred that night so all-absorbing and excitingthat even the unexplained absence of Dorothy Parkman became as nothingbeside it.

With the abrupt suddenness that sometimes makes the long-waited-forevent a real shock, came the news of the death of the poor old womanwhose frail hand had held the wealth that Susan had coveted for DanielBurton and his son.

The two men left the next morning on the four-hundred-mile journeythat would take them to the town where Nancy Holworthy had lived.

Scarcely had they left the house before Susan began preparations fortheir home-coming, as befitted their new estate. Her first move was toget out all the best silver and china. She was busy cleaning it whenMrs. McGuire came in at the kitchen door.

"What's the matter?" she began breathlessly.

"Where's Keith? John's been askin' for him all the mornin'. Is Mr.Burton sick? They just telephoned from the store that Mr. Burton hadsent word that he wouldn't be down for a few days. He isn't sick, ishe?—or Keith? I couldn't make out quite all they said; but there wassomethin' about Keith. They ain't either of 'em sick, are they?"

"Oh, no, they're both well—very well, thank you." There was an air,half elation, half superiority, about Susan that was vaguelyirritating to Mrs. McGuire.

"Well, you needn't be so secret about it, Susan," she began a littlehaughtily. But Susan tossed her head with a light laugh.

"Secret! I guess 't won't be no secret long. Mr. Daniel Burton an'

Master Keith have gone away, Mis' McGuire."

"Away! You mean—a—a vacation?" frowned Mrs. McGuire doubtfully.

Susan laughed again, still with that irritating air of superiority.

"Well, hardly. This ain't no pleasure exertion, Mis' McGuire. Still,on the other hand, Daniel Burton wouldn't be half humane if he didn'tget some pleasure out of it, though he wouldn't so demean himself asto show it, of course. Mis' Nancy Holworthy is dead, Mis' McGuire. Wehad the signification last night."

"Not—you don't mean THE Nancy Holworthy—the one that's got themoney!" The excited interest in Mrs. McGuire's face and voice was asgreat as even Susan herself could have desired.

Susan obviously swelled with the glory of the occasion, though shestill spoke with cold loftiness.

"The one and the same, Mis' McGuire."

"My stars an' stockin's, you don't say! An' they've gone to thefuneral?"

"They have."

"An' they'll get the money now, I s'pose."

"They will."

"But are you sure? You know sometimes when folks expect the money theydon't get it. It's been willed away to some one else."

"Yes, I know. But't won't be here," spoke Susan with decision. "Mis'Holworthy couldn't if she'd wanted to. It's all foreordained an' fixedbeforehand. Daniel Burton was to get jest the annual while she lived,an' then the whole in a plump sum when she died. Well, she's dead, an'now he gets it. An' a right tidy little sum it is, too."

"Was she awful rich, Susan?"

"More'n a hundred thousand. A hundred an' fifty, I've heard say."

"My gracious me! An' to think of Daniel Burton havin' a hundred andfifty thousand dollars! What in the world will he do with it?"

Susan's chin came up superbly.

"Well, I can tell you one thing he'll do, Mis' McGuire. He'll stoppeddlin' peas an' beans over that counter down there, an' retire to alife of ease an' laxity with his paint-brushes, as he ought to. An'he'll have somethin' fit to eat an' wear, an' Keith will, too. An'furthermore an' likewise you'll see SOME difference in this place, ormy name ain't Susan Betts. Them two men have got an awful lot to liveup to, an' I mean they shall understand it right away."

"Which explains this array of china an' silver, I take it," observed

Mrs. McGuire dryly.

"Eh? What?" frowned Susan doubtfully; then her face cleared. "Yes,that's jest it. They've got to have things now fitted up to their newestation. We shall get more, too. We need some new teaspoons an'forks. An' I want 'em to get some of them bunion spoons."

"BUNION spoons!"

"Yes—when you eat soup out of them two-handled cups, you know. Ormaybe you don't know," she corrected herself, at the odd expressionthat had come to Mrs. McGuire's face. "But I do. Mrs. ProfessorHinkley used to have 'em. They're awful pretty an' stylish, too. Andwe've got to