 | "The Scrubwoman" |  |
2. II
INTO this atmosphere of quivering agitation dropped suddenly the quiet, silvery tinkle of the door-bell. It shocked them all into attitudes of expectation. Mrs. Smithers stopped her sobbing with a convulsive effort and sat up straight, shivering uncontrollably and motioning the scrubwoman to hurry. "Oh, that must be Will! He mustn't see me so upset. Belle, hurry! Do hurry and open for him; he can't bear to be kept waiting. I'd go myself, but he doesn't like to see me do it. Oh, Belle, please, please hurry!"
The significance of her terror-stricken disquiet pierced the old man with a savage thrust of pity and sympathy, but the scrubwoman did not lift a heavy finger the quicker for it. She finished wiping up a spot on the floor, wrung her cloth out deliberately, and hung it over the pail before she rose to her feet and went down the long, narrow hall with the ungainly walk of women who have long worked beyond their strength. Randolph and his cousin waited and together caught a sudden breath when from the recesses of the hall came a smooth, penetrating voice saying with an indescribably insulting accent: "Out of my way, you hag!"
Rapid steps came down the hall, and a tall man with a very black beard and pale-blue eyes entered the room, bringing with him the lowering atmosphere of a thunder-storm. As he caught sight of Randolph his face smoothed itself into a cordial smile, and advancing, he insisted on taking the older man's hand in a hearty gasp. When he spoke, his voice had a warm intonation of pleased surprise. "Why, Cousin Henry, this is a welcome sight. I understood that you were to be off to-day, and that we were once more a desolate family, without a relative to our names."
He took off his coat and hat as he spoke and gave them to the scrubwoman, who stood with the apprehensive, repellent gaze of an ill-treated ash-cat. She turned to go out with them, and as she disappeared down the hall Randolph noticed, with a qualm of disgust, as another detail in the nightmare which surrounded him, that she spat fiercely on the hat. He roused himself and said to the newcomer stiffly: "There was some accident to the engines, and the boat won't sail until to-night, so I came back to —"
Smithers interrupted him with a cheery laugh as he began opening some letters on the table and glancing over them. "It's an ill wind, et cetera. I dare say little Allie was no end glad to see you again. She's not much company for herself at any time, and when the children are still in the country and she's been spoiled by so much of your delightful companionship, I fancy my little child-wife got pretty dull."
He looked them both full in the face as he delivered this speech, and smiled at their wincing under his accent. The scrubwoman, moving the furniture about, suddenly set a chair down with so furious an energy that they all started.
"Oblige me, Belle, by being a little quieter," said Smithers mildly, and laughed aloud as he caught Randolph's eye. Still smiling, he went rattling on, as he read a letter:
"Do you know, my dear Cousin Henry, you're the only relative who's been to see us since the very first years of our married life? Alice doesn't know her other forty-second cousins very well, and, to tell the truth, they
His voice dropped into an absent murmur, and he lost himself in the letter. Randolph crossed the room to the window where his cousin stood and drew her to him. "I'm going now, dear child," he said in a low tone, "but it's like tearing a piece of my heart out to leave you so. It seems to me, sometimes, I must go distracted thinking of you. But it's one ray of light in my darkness that you've promised to speak to Tom and appeal to him to help you. And remember, let me know if I can ever help and —"
Smithers laid down his letter and turned toward them with so openly black a look of suspicion that the old man answered as though he had been questioned.
"I'm telling Alice, William," he said defiantly, "that if she ever needs me I'll come from the ends of the earth."
The younger man smiled again, so that his wife caught her breath and clung convulsively to her cousin. He waved his hand genially. "Ah, very good of you — very kind, I'm sure. Alice will, of course, let you know at any time if there is something you can do for her." He added dryly: "I'll see that she does myself." Randolph turned his back on him and kissed Alice on the forehead. "Good-by, little girl. Heaven bless you!" he said, in an unsteady voice.
The scrubwoman stood up to show him the door, drying her distorted hands on her torn apron. She made a furtive wipe at her eyes, and sniffed loudly with a grotesque contortion of her face. Smithers turned on her suddenly, so that she dodged and lifted an arm in guard. He spoke with the most careful gentleness:
"Don't bother to show Mr. Randolph the door, Belle. I'll go myself. No, don't protest, my dear cousin. It's the last time. I'm not going to let a servant's face be the last one you see in my house — and such a face!" The two disappeared down the hall, Smithers ahead, talking animatedly.
| "The Scrubwoman" | |