The Turmoil Booth Tarkington (best reads .txt) 📖

of! I like poor Bibbs, but if he’d only stop to think a minute himself he’d have to realize he isn’t the kind of man any girl would be apt to fall in love with. He’s better-looking lately, maybe, but you know how he was⁠—just kind of a long white rag in good clothes. And girls like men with some so to ’em⁠—some sort of dashingness, anyhow! Nobody ever looked at poor Bibbs before, and neither’d she⁠—no, sir! not till she’d tried both Roscoe and Jim first! It was only when her and her family got desperate that she⁠—”

Bibbs⁠—whiter than when he came from the sanitarium⁠—opened the door. He stepped across its threshold and stook looking at her. Both women screamed.

“Oh, good heavens!” cried Sibyl. “Were you in there? Oh, I wouldn’t⁠—” She seized Mrs. Sheridan’s arm, pulling her toward the stairway. “Come on, mother Sheridan!” she urged, and as the befuddled and confused lady obeyed, Sibyl left a trail of noisy exclamations: “Good gracious! Oh, I wouldn’t⁠—too bad! I didn’t dream he was there! I wouldn’t hurt his feelings! Not for the world! Of course he had to know some time! But, good heavens⁠—”

She heard his door close as she and Mrs. Sheridan reached the top of the stairs, and she glanced over her shoulder quickly, but Bibbs was not following; he had gone back into his room.

“He⁠—he looked⁠—oh, terrible bad!” stammered Mrs. Sheridan. “I⁠—I wish⁠—”

“Still, it’s a good deal better he knows about it,” said Sibyl. “I shouldn’t wonder it might turn out the very best thing could happened. Come on!”

And completing their descent to the library, the two made their appearance to Roscoe and his father. Sibyl at once gave a full and truthful account of what had taken place, repeating her own remarks, and omitting only the fact that it was through her design that Bibbs had overheard them.

“But as I told mother Sheridan,” she said, in conclusion, “it might turn out for the very best that he did hear⁠—just that way. Don’t you think so, father Sheridan?”

He merely grunted in reply, and sat rubbing the thick hair on the top of his head with his left hand and looking at the fire. He had given no sign of being impressed in any manner by her exposure of Mary Vertrees’s character; but his impassivity did not dismay Sibyl⁠—it was Bibbs whom she desired to impress, and she was content in that matter.

“I’m sure it was all for the best,” she said. “It’s over now, and he knows what she is. In one way I think it was lucky, because, just hearing a thing that way, a person can tell it’s so⁠—and he knows I haven’t got any ax to grind except his own good and the good of the family.”

Mrs. Sheridan went nervously to the door and stood there, looking toward the stairway. “I wish⁠—I wish I knew what he was doin’,” she said. “He did look terrible bad. It was like something had been done to him that was⁠—I don’t know what. I never saw anybody look like he did. He looked⁠—so queer. It was like you’d⁠—” She called down the hall, “George!”

“Yes’m?”

“Were you up in Mr. Bibbs’s room just now?”

“Yes’m. He ring bell; tole me make him fiah in his grate. I done buil’ him nice fiah. I reckon he ain’ feelin’ so well. Yes’m.” He departed.

“What do you expect he wants a fire for?” she asked, turning toward her husband. “The house is warm as can be, I do wish I⁠—”

“Oh, quit frettin’!” said Sheridan.

“Well, I⁠—I kind o’ wish you hadn’t said anything, Sibyl. I know you meant it for the best and all, but I don’t believe it would been so much harm if⁠—”

“Mother Sheridan, you don’t mean you want that kind of a girl in the family? Why, she⁠—”

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” the troubled woman quavered. “If he liked her it seems kind of a pity to spoil it. He’s so queer, and he hasn’t ever taken much enjoyment. And besides, I believe the way it was, there was more chance of him bein’ willin’ to do what papa wants him to. If she wants to marry him⁠—”

Sheridan interrupted her with a hooting laugh. “She don’t!” he said. “You’re barkin’ up the wrong tree, Sibyl. She ain’t that kind of a girl.”

“But, father Sheridan, didn’t she⁠—”

He cut her short. “That’s enough. You may mean all right, but you guess wrong. So do you, mamma.”

Sibyl cried out, “Oh! But just look how she ran after Jim⁠—”

“She did not,” he said, curtly. “She wouldn’t take Jim. She turned him down cold.”

“But that’s impossi⁠—”

“It’s not. I know she did.”

Sibyl looked flatly incredulous.

“And you needn’t worry,” he said, turning to his wife. “This won’t have any effect on your idea, because there wasn’t any sense to it, anyhow. D’you think she’d be very likely to take Bibbs⁠—after she wouldn’t take Jim? She’s a good-hearted girl, and she lets Bibbs come to see her, but if she’d ever given him one sign of encouragement the way you women think, he wouldn’t of acted the stubborn fool he has⁠—he’d ’a’ been at me long ago, beggin’ me for some kind of a job he could support a wife on. There’s nothin’ in it⁠—and I’ve got the same old fight with him on my hands I’ve had all his life⁠—and the Lord knows what he won’t do to balk me! What’s happened now’ll probably only make him twice as stubborn, but⁠—”

“Sh!” Mrs. Sheridan, still in the doorway, lifted her hand. “That’s his step⁠—he’s comin’ downstairs.” She shrank away from the door as if she feared to have Bibbs see her. “I⁠—I wonder⁠—” she said, almost in a whisper⁠—“I wonder what he’d goin’⁠—to do.”

Her timorousness had its effect upon the others. Sheridan rose, frowning, but remained standing beside his chair; and Roscoe moved toward Sibyl, who stared uneasily at the open doorway. They listened as the slow steps descended the stairs and came toward the library.

Bibbs stopped upon the threshold, and with sick