he was a thoroughly manly little fellow—nobody questioned that for a moment, not even ted; and yet there he sat, his head bowed upon his folded arms, while now and then something very like a sob seemed to shake the well-knit figure and give the boyish head an undignified little bob.
when at last he looked up, behold proof positive. there were tears not only in his eyes, but on the sleeve of his eton jacket; and there was no longer any question but that harold harris, sturdy little englishman though he was, had been having what is known on both sides of the water as a good, hard cry.
“how old was he?” asks young america, a little mistrustful as to the right sort of stuff; but what does it matter how old he was, since this is certain, that he was not the boy to cry under any circumstances without abundant reason. it was evident now, however, that he was fast getting the better of himself. he sat up, and resting his head on one hand, reached with the other for the paper-knife, and began cutting queer little geometrical figures on the big silver-cornered blotter that half covered the table. it was evident too that his thoughts were not at all on what he was doing, and that the hard cry was being followed by a good, hard think. but this did not last long; harold was simply trying to make up his mind, as the phrase goes, and that soon accomplished, he drew pen, paper and ink toward him and commenced writing a letter, with his head on one side and his lips tightly pursed together. indeed, he never unpursed them until that same letter was sealed and directed and the stamp affixed with a very determined little air, as though firmly resolved that the thing he had done should brook no undoing. then he slipped into his coat and hurried out to post it, and a few yards from the door he met ted, who was just coming home.
“hello, there!” cried ted, coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets; “where are you going this time of night?”
“out,” replied harold, starting off at a run, for it was wet and damp, and, to use england’s english, “quite nasty.” ted gave a low whistle of surprise, harold as a rule was such a civil fellow. but no matter. what did he care where he was going, and entering the house with a latch-key, he tossed his hat on to a hook and started upstairs, his thoughts already far afield from all that concerned his younger brother. back they came again, however, as he reached the landing, and the old clock struck twelve. “so late as that?” he said to himself, and deciding to wait for harold, he turned and went down again to the library. he hoped he should not have to wait long, for, since he was rather counting on a good night’s rest, nothing more exciting seemed to offer. in the mean time, he would make himself as comfortable as possible on the library lounge. indeed, to make himself as comfortable as possible had gradually grown to be the one thing worth striving for in the estimation of this young gentleman. a beautiful portrait of his mother hung over the library mantel, but it belonged to a closed chapter of his life, and he had almost forgotten its existence. he had never dreamed this would be so; he had never meant it should be; but that did not alter the fact that, flattered and made much of ever since he went up to oxford, he had somehow had little time to think of his mother, and, sorrier than that, little inclination. death was such a desperately gloomy thing to contemplate! besides, to keep thinking about it did not bring any one back. and yet, as much as in him lay, ted had loved his mother, and been very proud of her too. it seemed hard that she should not have lived a great while longer. but then she had been so very sad sometimes, and life of course wasn’t worth very much under those conditions. when it ceased to be awfully jolly, perhaps it was just as well to have done with it. for him, thank his stars! that unhappy period had not yet arrived. to be a christ church senior, with plenty of money and plenty of friends and a head that easily mastered enough learning to make a good showing, left little to be desired, especially when already endowed with a handsome face and a physique that every man envied—at least, so thought theodore harris, and so thought and affirmed the half score of intimate friends who enjoyed many of the good things of this life through his bounty. it was a pity that there was not one among them with insight enough to gauge the complacent fellow aright, and at the same time with honesty enough to take him to task for the profitless life he was leading. but nobody did, and so on he fared, thoughtless and selfish, and so wholly absorbed in the present that even alone and at midnight, with his eyes resting full upon his mother’s portrait, he had no thought to give it nor the worthier past that it stood for. indeed, to judge from the discontented look on his face, his mind did not rise for a moment above the level of his annoyance at being kept waiting.
“why don’t the fellow come back?” he muttered angrily, realizing, as he heard the clock strike half-past twelve, that he had been actually inconvenienced for a whole half hour; and shortly after “the fellow did come back,” the dearest little fellow in the world too, by the way, and shut to the big front door and locked it as he had done night after night during the last two years, while ted was up at oxford, and he had been living alone with the servants in the pretty little home there at windsor.
“harold!” rang out an impatient voice.
“what, you there, ted?” with unconcealed gladness; it seemed so cheery to have some one awake in the house.
“yes; of course i’m here. you didn’t suppose i’d go to bed, did you, with you prowling the streets this time of night?”
that is exactly what harold had supposed, but he had the grace not to say so as he threw himself into a great easy-chair opposite ted and clasped his hands behind his head in comfortable stay-awhile fashion, and as though quite ready to be agreeable if ted would only let him.
“i went out for a walk and to post a letter,” he said, after a moment, and with a perceptible little note of apology in his tone for his uncivil answer of the half hour before.
“it must have been important,” said ted, apparently amused at the thought of anything relating to that younger brother being in reality of any importance: “i should think though it possibly could have waited for the morning post.”
“yes, it could, but i couldn’t.” surprised at this, ted elevated his eyebrows.
“it was a letter to uncle fritz,” harold added.
“to uncle fritz!” with evident annoyance. “what in creation have you been writing to him about?”
“i have asked him to come over with aunt louise and marie-celeste and make us a visit this summer.” it took ted a moment to recover from his astonishment; then he answered curtly, “well, you can just write him another letter and take it all back. did it occur to you i might have other plans for this house for this summer?”
“i thought you might perhaps propose to have some of your friends down here, same as last year,” harold answered frankly.
0014
“well, that’s exactly what i do propose to do, and here you’ve gone ahead in this absurd fashion. what did you do it for, anyway?” and ted in his impatience got on to his feet and glared down at harold as though he would like to have eaten him up.
not a bit intimidated, harold looked him straight in the face. “if you want to know what i did it for i’ll tell you—i did it because i’m tired of the lonely life here. you haven’t any more interest in me, ted, than in a stick of wood; so i’m going to take things into my own hands now and begin to enjoy life in my own way. this little house is as much mine as yours, and i mean to have my turn this summer. i didn’t like your friends last year, and took myself off. if you don’t like mine this year you can do the same thing.” the role was such a new one for harold to play that ted stood utterly nonplussed. that harold should deliberately assert himself in this way was such an unprecedented performance that he knew not what to say.
“what did you tell uncle fritz about me?” he asked presently. “i suppose you painted me as black as the ace of spades.”
“i didn’t say a word about you. i wrote him it was awfully lonely here the last two years, and that it seemed to grow worse instead of better, and that if they’d only come over for the summer, we’d do all in our power to make them have a pleasant time of it.”
“well, that is cool. did you really say we’d do all in our power?”
“of course 1 did. you like uncle fritz, don’t you?”
“of course i like him, but the cheek of it all,” and theodore strode over to the window to think matters over. it was a fine thing anyway in harold, he admitted to himself, not to have run him down to uncle fritz. if he was angry enough to take matters into his own hands in this way, it was a wonder he stopped short of telling him the truth about himself—not that ted for a moment faced that truth in any honest fashion; for he was a very good fellow still in his own estimation. he had simply not taken harold into account—no one could have expected that he should; but now it seemed the boy was beginning to resent that state of affairs. there was some show of reason in it, too, and he rather admired his spirit. it was rather natural, perhaps, that he should want to have “his turn,” as he said; very well, he should have it. for that matter, he would be rather glad himself to see something of uncle fritz. he had not really decided to ask any of the fellows down for the summer, though he had angrily made a declaration to that effect. indeed, there was some talk of their going over the continent together instead, which would be a deal more fun. all this while harold sat motionless and silent.
“the mean part of it is, that you didn’t tell me beforehand what you wanted to do,” said ted, as the upshot of the thinking.
“what i wanted to do has not made any difference to you this long time. besides, you would have told me i couldn’t do it.”
“of course i would” (for, as it often happens, it is easier to be reasonable in thinking than in speaking); “and i can tell you one thing, harold, you’ll be sick enough of your own bargain before it is over. what do you know about marie-celeste? ten to one she’s a spoiled, forward sort of youngster. american children are a handful always.”
“i’ll risk it,” answered harold; “and i only ask one thing of you, ted, and that is that you’ll be decent to them when they come.”
“like as not i won’t be here.”
harold’s face fell. it would seem such a breach of hospitality for ted not to be at home, at least to welcome them. but, never mind, he could explain to uncle fritz, if he must, what an independent life ted had led these last few years. he would hurt himself more than any one else by acting so ungraciously.
“who’s going to pay for things here at home, i’d like to know?” said ted, after another few minutes of meditation. “there isn’t enough of my allowance left now to tide me over to the first of the year, let alone running the house in fine style all summer.”
“you need not bother about that—there’s enough of mine, and i can look after my own guests, which is more than you did for yours last year.” it was a mean little thrust, perhaps, on harold’s part, but ted deserved it, for harold had paid his half of the heavy expenses of the previous summer without a murmur.
be it said to ted’s honor that he appreciated the situation, and colored up to the roots of his hair.
“you know how to rub a thing in,” he said, which was as wide of the truth as could be, for harold had never alluded to the fact before, and made up his mind on the spot that he never would be mean enough to do it again. a little later the boys had said goodnight to each other, and not in an altogether unkindly spirit either. ted had not been as angry as harold had expected, and harold, sorry for his thrust about money matters, had wound up by being rather conciliatory, and he was happier, on the whole, than he had been any time for a twelvemonth. and so it happens with the children, as with grown folk, that sometimes when there is a climax in the heart the head rises to the emergency, and is able to think a possible way out from besetting difficulties.
