Chapter 2

“You must come, Wilmot,” she whispered eagerly, “she asked for you. Peter is locked into his room, and neither of the children has been confirmed. Susy, of course, is a Presbyterian. Not that dear Mr. Burchard would object--he is so broad. But you have no excuse. Oh, it is beautiful, Wilmot! She looks so lovely!”

He followed her wearily. What did it matter? It seemed to him ominous, terrible--but it would please Caddy. She sat propped up in the bed. Her cheeks were crimson, her eyes bright. White chrysanthemums stood in silver vases, candles burned softly on the white-draped dresser. Mr. Burchard, in the hall just beyond, was slipping his surplice over his head. A faint odor of wine mingled with the flowers.

Belden dared not look at her. She was to him, in that moment, mystic, holy, a thing apart. He dropped on his knees beside a silvery white apron, his eyes on the floor, his heart beating hard.

The clergyman entered slowly, the service began. It was all a murmured maze to him. Aunt Lucia sobbed quietly beside him, but as he glanced at her he caught a light on her wet, uplifted face that thrilled him strangely. Her deep responses spoke a faith and surety that swallowed for the moment all her little sillinesses and obstinacies.

The solemn words grew in intensity, the candles flickered audibly in the sacred hush. The clergyman moved toward the bed, and they heard Caddy’s breath draw out in a deep, shuddering sob; her teeth chattered against the cup.

Belden set his jaw; it was cruel, brutal! They were killing her. His clinched fist moved blindly toward his neighbor: he touched her hand and gripped it fiercely.

In front of him on the wall hung a large photograph of Billy’s base-ball nine in full uniform. He could have drawn it from memory, afterwards. Billy, he remembered, was a great catcher. He held hard to that cool, firm hand.

“--be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.” There was a little stir. The hand was drawn from his.

“Come, now,” whispered Aunt Lucia, and he walked, stumbling and stiff from kneeling, from the room. At the door he glanced a second backward, but only Dr. Hitchcock was to be seen, bending over the bed. Miss Strong had already taken away candles and flowers, and Caddy’s triple mirror was back on the dresser.

Mr. Burchard, in his long black cassock, offered his hand cordially.

“I am glad you could be with us, Mr. Belden,” he began, but the other broke in:

“If you have tired her, if this--makes a difference--” he muttered fiercely, “you will have me to settle with. Mind that!”

He hurried down the stairs, his hands still clinched. Peter was starting off with the road-wagon. They nodded shortly at each other.

From then the time raced on incredibly. The great surgeon, with his two assistants, was in the hall; he was on the stairs; he was lost to sight. There was a momentary rush and bustle, the closing of a door. Peter came out, whispering to himself, and disappeared somewhere. The others, clustered in the library, spoke fitfully.

“They carried her on a cot into the west room,” somebody murmured close to Belden. It was little Margaret. “I saw her. She waved her hand at me! I threw her a kiss. Miss Strong smiled at me--I love Miss Strong.”

Aunt Lucia sobbed. Susy bit her lip and played with Billy’s unwilling hand.

“Where’s my father? Where’s he gone?” he demanded. “Who’s that other woman with the apron?”

Miss Strong appeared at the door. “She has taken the ether very well indeed; they are much pleased,” she said softly. They hung on her words, they overwhelmed her with questions. She soothed them like children.

It grew suddenly clear to Belden that Caddy would die. It must be so. He wondered that they had hoped for anything else. He was sorry for them all. He watched indifferently while Miss Strong led the children away--he knew she was taking them to their father. Later, while Aunt Lucia, on her knees, read through streaming eyes from her prayer-book, and Susy talked nervously to him, he watched the firm, full figure of the woman pacing up and down the piazza outside, her arm drawn through his restless boy’s.

“God bless her!” he said aloud.

Afterwards he could never recall the consecutive happenings of the end. He saw only separate pictures.

In one, a strange young man opened the door and said the words that frightened them with delight.

In another, a drawn, old, white-faced man--surely not Dr. Jameson--leaned weakly in a chair, while a woman handed him a tiny glass of colored liquid.

In yet another, a father hid his face in his little daughter’s bosom and sobbed, with shaking shoulders; his tall son smiled bravely over the bent head.

In the last picture he himself bore a part; for when he came upon his shy, suspicious boy clasped in the kind arms of the woman whose brown eyes, once seen, had haunted his thoughts ever since, he gathered them both to him irresistibly. As he laid his cheek against hers, he felt that it was wet with tears.

“It lies with you now,” he whispered in her ear, “to give her back to us, well and strong. He says you can. Afterwards--”

She drew away from him.

“I--I must go. I am so glad--I will do my best,” she answered unsteadily.

He caught her hand. “And afterwards?” he repeated, a growing mastery in his voice. She tried to meet his eyes, but her own fell, conquered.

End of Project Gutenberg’s In The Valley Of The Shadow, by Josephine Daskam