CHAPTER XXI

BAD NEWS

Peter Conant had told his wife that he wouldn’t be at the Lodge this week until Saturday, as business would prevent his coming earlier, yet the Thursday afternoon train brought him to Millbank and Bill Coombs’ stage took him to Hillcrest.

“Why, Peter!” exclaimed Aunt Hannah, when she saw him, “what on earth brought you—­”

Then she stopped short, for Peter’s eyes were staring more roundly than usual and the hand that fumbled at his locket trembled visibly.  He stared at Aunt Hannah, he stared at Irene; but most of all he stared at Mary Louise, who seemed to sense from his manner some impending misfortune.

“H-m,” said the lawyer, growing red and then paling; “I’ve bad news.”

He chopped the words off abruptly, as if he resented the necessity of uttering them.  His eyes, which had been fixed upon the face of Mary Louise, suddenly wavered and sought the floor.

His manner said more than his words.  Mary Louise grew white and pressed her hands to her heart, regarding the lawyer with eyes questioning and full of fear.  Irene turned a sympathetic gaze upon her friend and Aunt Hannah came closer to the girl and slipped an arm around her waist, as if to help her to endure this unknown trial.  And Mary Louise, feeling she could not bear the suspense, asked falteringly: 

“Has—­Gran’pa Jim—­been—­”

“No,” said Mr. Conant.  “No, my dear, no.”

“Then—­has anything happened to—­to—­mother?”

“Well, well,” muttered the lawyer, with a sort or growl, “Mrs. Burrows has not been in good health for some months, it seems.  She—­eh—­was under a—­eh—­under a nervous strain; a severe nervous strain, you know, and—­”

“Is she dead?” asked the girl in a low, hard voice.

“The end, it seems, came unexpectedly, several days ago.  She did not suffer, your grandfather writes, but—­”

Again he left his sentence unfinished, for Mary Louise had buried her face in Aunt Hannah’s bosom and was sobbing in a miserable, heart-breaking way that made Peter jerk a handkerchief from, his pocket and blow his nose lustily.  Then he turned and marched from the room, while his wife led the hapless girl to a sofa and cuddled her in her lap as if she had been a little child.

“She’s best with the women,” muttered Peter to himself.  “It’s a sorrowful thing—­a dreadful thing, in a way—­but it can’t be helped and--she’s best with the women.”

He had wandered into the dining room, where Sarah Judd was laying the table for dinner.  She must have overheard the conversation in the living room, for she came beside the lawyer and asked: 

“When did Mrs. Burrows die?”

“On Monday.”

“Where?”

“That’s none of your business, my girl.”

“Has the funeral been held?”

He regarded her curiously.  The idea of a servant asking such questions!  But there was a look in Sarah’s blue eyes that meant more than curiosity; somehow, it drew from him an answer.