第108章

The next forenoon he sat once more in the car of the morning train for Cape Cod, looking out of the window.He had made the journey from New York by the night boat and had boarded the Cape train at Middleboro.All the previous day, and in the evening as he tramped the cold wind-swept deck of the steamer, he had been trying to collect his thoughts, to readjust them to the new situation, to comprehend in its entirety the great change that had come in his life.The vague plans, the happy indefinite dreams, all the rainbows and roses had gone, shivered to bits like the reflection in a broken mirror.Madeline, his Madeline, was his no longer.

Nor was he hers.In a way it seemed impossible.

He tried to analyze his feelings.It seemed as if he should have been crushed, grief-stricken, broken.He was inclined to reproach himself because he was not.Of course there was a sadness about it, a regret that the wonder of those days of love and youth had passed.But the sorrow was not bitter, the regret was but a wistful longing, the sweet, lingering fragrance of a memory, that was all.Toward her, Madeline, he felt--and it surprised him, too, to find that he felt--not the slightest trace of resentment.And more surprising still he felt none toward Blanchard.He had meant what he said in his letter, he wished for them both the greatest happiness.

And--there was no use attempting to shun the fact--his chief feeling, as he sat there by the car window looking out at the familiar landscape, was a great relief, a consciousness of escape from what might have been a miserable, crushing mistake for him and for her.And with this a growing sense of freedom, of buoyancy.

It seemed wicked to feel like that.Then it came to him, the thought that Madeline, doubtless, was experiencing the same feeling.And he did not mind a bit; he hoped she was, bless her!

A youthful cigar "drummer," on his first Down-East trip, sat down beside him.

"Kind of a flat, bare country, ain't it?" observed the drummer, with a jerk of his head toward the window."Looks bleak enough to me.Know anything about this neck of the woods, do you?"Albert turned to look at him.

"Meaning the Cape?" he asked.

"Sure."

"Indeed I do.I know all about it."

"That so! Say, you sound as if you liked it."Albert turned back to the window again.

"Like it!" he repeated."I love it." Then he sighed, a sigh of satisfaction, and added: "You see, I BELONG here."His grandparents and Rachel were surprised when he walked into the house that noon and announced that he hoped dinner was ready, because he was hungry.But their surprise was more than balanced by their joy.Captain Zelotes demanded to know how long he was going to stay.

"As long as you'll have me, Grandfather," was the answer.

"Eh? Well, that would be a consider'ble spell, if you left it to us, but I cal'late that girl in New York will have somethin' to say as to time limit, won't she?"Albert smiled."I'll tell you about that by and by," he said.

He did not tell them until that evening after supper.It was Friday evening and Olive was going to prayer-meeting, but she delayed "putting on her things" to hear the tale.The news that the engagement was off and that her grandson was not, after all, to wed the daughter of the Honorable Fletcher Fosdick, shocked and grieved her not a little.

"Oh, dear!" she sighed."I suppose you know what's best, Albert, and maybe, as you say, you wouldn't have been happy, but I DID feel sort of proud to think my boy was goin' to marry a millionaire's daughter."Captain Zelotes made no comment--then.He asked to be told more particulars.Albert described the life at the Fosdick home, the receptions, his enforced exhibitions and readings.At length the recital reached the point of the interview in Fosdick's office.

"So he offered you to take you into the firm--eh, son?" he observed.

"Yes, sir."

"Humph! Fosdick, Williamson and Hendricks are one of the biggest brokerage houses goin', so a good many New Yorkers have told me.""No doubt.But, Grandfather, you've had some experience with me as a business man; how do you think I would fit into a firm of stockbrokers?"Captain Lote's eye twinkled, but he did not answer the question.

Instead he asked:

"Just what did you give Fosdick as your reason for not sayin' yes?"Albert laughed."Well, Grandfather," he said, "I'll tell you.Isaid that I appreciated his kindness and all that, but that I would not draw a big salary for doing nothing except to be a little, damned tame house-poet led around in leash and shown off at his wife's club meetings."Mrs.Snow uttered a faint scream."Oh, Albert!" she exclaimed.

She might have said more, but a shout from her husband prevented her doing so.

Captain Zelotes had risen and his mighty hand descended with a stinging slap upon his grandson's shoulder.

"Bully for you, boy!" he cried.Then, turning to Olive, he added, "Mother, I've always kind of cal'lated that you had one man around this house.Now, by the Lord A'Mighty, I know you've got TWO!"Olive rose."Well," she declared emphatically, "that may be; but if both those men are goin' to start in swearin' right here in the sittin' room, I think it's high time SOMEBODY in that family went to church."So to prayer meeting she went, with Mrs.Ellis as escort, and her husband and grandson, seated in armchairs before the sitting room stove, both smoking, talked and talked, of the past and of the future--not as man to boy, nor as grandparent to grandson, but for the first time as equals, without reservations, as man to man.