Chapter VI
One morning when Drusilla was sitting in the small library reading the morning paper her eyes caught the words: "Funeral of General Fairmont." She read of his death in the little town in the Middle West, attended by a few of the officers of his regiment and his lifelong friend, John Brierly.
Drusilla dropped the paper with an exclamation.
"John! And he's alive!"
She spent the next few hours with folded hands, her mind far in the past that was recalled by seeing the name of John Brierly. She lived over again those girlhood years when the world with John in it seemed the most beautiful place on earth. She thought of her mother's failing health, her helplessness, her dependence. She could almost hear her cry, "Don't leave me, Drusilla, don't leave me!" when John went to her and asked that they might marry and meet life's battles together. Drusilla never for a moment blamed her mother for her selfishness in demanding all and giving nothing; and she never would admit, even to herself, that her mother's obstinacy in refusing either to go with John and Drusilla or to give her consent that they live with her, had ruined her life. Those years of bitterness were past, and now she remembered only the happy days when she and John were together and life seemed just one flowery path on which they walked together.
At last she rose and rang for the butler and asked him to telephone Mr. Thornton. She could never get used to the telephone herself. She wanted Mr. Thornton to come to her on his way home.
She passed the day impatiently awaiting his arrival. She could not occupy herself with the flowers, nor could the baby at the gardener's cottage evoke any enthusiasm, although she carefully looked over the clothing of one of the younger Donalds that kindly Mrs. Donald had contributed for the baby's use.
At last the lawyer arrived. Drusilla hardly allowed him to be seated before she broached the subject.
"Mr. Thornton, I want you to do me a great favor. I just read in the paper that an-- an old friend of mine that I thought dead long ago, is living in a little town in southern Ohio. I want to know how he is getting along, what he is doing, how he is living. I want you to send some one out there and find out all about it. I want to know if he's comfortable off, and happy. He may be poor, and he may be lonely. Find out all about him, and let me know."
The lawyer started to say something.
"No, don't say a word, and don't talk about writin' out. That ain't what I want. I want to know, and letters won't tell me nothing. Do this for me--send some one; 'cause if you don't I'll start myself to-morrow. I'm goin' to know how life's usin' John Brierly."
She leaned over and touched the lawyer's hand.
"Don't always be agin me, Mr. Thornton. I got my heart in this. John Brierly meant all the world to me once, and although I'm old now I ain't forgot. There's some things, you know, we don't forget."
Mr. Thornton looked at the flushed old face before him, and a softness came into his voice that surprised even himself.
"I'll do it at once, Miss Doane. I'm always glad to be of any service to you."
"I'm glad to hear you say it; though sometimes you have to be backed into the shafts. But you will send at once--to-morrow?"
"Yes, I'll--let me see--I'll send Mr. Burns."
"Send a bright young man, some one that'll nose around and find out everything. John's proud, and he may be poor, and I want to know jest how he's fixed; and I don't want him to feel that any one's inquiring into his affairs, 'cause then he'd shut up like a clam and I couldn't find out nothin'. Send some one with sense. Hadn't you better go yourself?"
Mr. Thornton laughed.
"That's the first compliment you ever gave me, Miss Doane; but I don't think it is necessary that I go myself. I have a very clever young man in the office who will do better than I would."
"Well, have him go at once. Can't he start to-night?"
"I don't think that is necessary either. He'd better wait until I give him all the details. But I'll start him off the first thing in the morning. Now you rest happy, and in a few days you'll know all about it."
Drusilla passed the days impatiently waiting for the return of the man from Ohio. Finally he arrived and Mr. Thornton brought him to see her.
Drusilla sat in her high-backed chair.
"Well, begin!" she said impatiently. "I'm nigh as curious as a girl."
The young clerk drew a bundle of papers from his pocket.
"I found out as much as I could regarding the present circumstances of John Brierly. He is--"
"What does he look like?" interrupted Drusilla. "I ain't seen him for mor'n forty years. Is he old lookin'? Is he sick?"
The young man smiled at her impatience.
"I should call him a singularly well preserved man for his years."
"That sounds as if he was apple-sass, or somethin' to eat. What does he look like? Is he stoop-shoulderd?"
"Not at all. He is a tall, spare man, with white hair and a gray Vandyke beard."
"What's a Vandyke beard? You mean whiskers?"
"Yes; whiskers trimmed to a point--rather aristocratic looking."
"John always was a gentleman and looked it. Is he well lookin'?"
"Yes, he was in the best of health."
"Is he--is he--married?"
"No; he never married."
Drusilla was quiet for a moment, her eyes seeing beyond the men to the lover who had remained true to her throughout the years.
"Does he live alone?"
"He has two rooms in the home of some people with whom he has lived for a great many years."
"Is he in business?"
"No; he was in business until the panic of 1893, when he lost his business."
"What does he live on? Is he poor?"
"He saved a little out of the wreck of his business and lives on that."
"How much has he?"
"I think he has about five hundred dollars a