第24章

"Oh, I was goin' to make it smallpox, but I asked Doctor Parker if there was anything worse than smallpox and he said he cal'lated leprosy was about as bad as any disease goin'.It worked fine while it lasted, but the Board of Health made me take it down; said there wan't any leprosy on the premises.I told 'em no, but 'twas a good idea to beware of it anyhow, and I'd put up the sign just on general principles.No use; they hadn't much use for principles, general or otherwise, seemed so."The lady commented on the neatness and order in the little rooms.

They were in marked contrast to the workshop."I suppose you have a woman come here to clean and sweep," she said.

Jed shook his head.

"No-o," he answered."I generally cal'late to come in every little while and clean up.Mother was always a great one for keepin'

things slicked up," he added, apologetically, "and I--I kind of like to think 'twould please her.Foolish, I presume likely, but--well, foolish things seem to come natural to me.Got a kind of a gift for 'em, as you might say.I..."He lapsed into silence, his sentence only begun.Mrs.Armstrong, looking up, found him gazing at her with the absent, far-off look that his closest associates knew so well.She had not met it before and found it rather embarrassing, especially as it kept on and on.

"Well?" she asked, after a time.He started and awoke to realities.

"I was just thinkin'," he explained, "that you was the only woman that has been in this house since the summer I let it to the Davidson folks.And Mrs.Davidson wan't a mite like you."That was true enough.Mrs.Davidson had been a plump elderly matron with gray hair, a rather rasping voice and a somewhat aggressive manner.Mrs.Armstrong was young and slim, her hair and eyes were dark, her manner refined and her voice low and gentle.

And, if Jed had been in the habit of noticing such things, he might have noticed that she was pleasant to look at.Perhaps he was conscious of this fact, but, if so, it was only in a vague, general way.

His gaze wandered to Barbara, who, with Petunia, was curled up in a big old-fashioned rocker.

"And a child, too," he mused."I don't know when there's been a child in here.Not since I was one, I guess likely, and that's too long ago for anybody to remember single-handed."But Mrs.Armstrong was interested in his previous remark.

"You have let others occupy this house then?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am, one summer I did.Let it furnished to some folks name of Davidson, from Chicago.""And you haven't rented it since?"

"No, ma'am, not but that once."

She was silent for a moment.Then she said: "I am surprised that it hasn't been occupied always.Do you ask such a VERY high rent, Mr.Winslow?"Jed looked doubtful."Why, no, ma'am," he answered."I didn't cal'late 'twas so very high, considerin' that 'twas just for 'summer and furnished and all.The Davidsons paid forty dollars a month, but--""FORTY dollars! A month? And furnished like that? You mean a week, don't you?"Mr.Winslow looked at her.The slow smile wandered across his face.He evidently suspected a joke.

"Why, no, ma'am," he drawled."You see, they was rentin' the place, not buyin' it.""But forty dollars a month is VERY cheap.""Is it? Sho! Now you speak of it I remember that Captain Sam seemed to cal'late 'twas.He said I ought to have asked a hundred, or some such foolishness.I told him he must have the notion that I was left out of the sweet ile when they pickled the other thirty-nine thieves.Perhaps you've read the story, ma'am," he suggested.

His visitor laughed."I have read it," she said.Then she added, plainly more to herself than to him: "But even forty is far too much, of course."Jed was surprised and a little hurt.

"Yes--er--yes, ma'am," he faltered."Well, I--I was kind of 'fraid 'twas, but Colonel Davidson seemed to think 'twas about fair, so--""Oh, you misunderstand me.I didn't mean that forty dollars was too high a rent.It isn't, it is a very low one.I meant that it was more than I ought to think of paying.You see, Mr.Winslow, Ihave been thinking that we might live here in Orham, Barbara and I.

I like the town; and the people, most of those I have met, have been very pleasant and kind.And it is necessary--that is, it seems to me preferable--that we live, for some years at least, away from the city.This little house of yours is perfect.I fell in love with the outside of it at first sight.Now I find the inside even more delightful.I"--she hesitated, and then added--"I don't suppose you would care to let it unfurnished at--at a lower rate?"Jed was very much embarrassed.The idea that his caller would make such a proposition as this had not occurred to him for a moment.

If it had the lost key would almost certainly have remained lost.

He liked Mrs.Armstrong even on such short acquaintance, and he had taken a real fancy to Barbara; but his prejudice against tenants remained.He rubbed his chin.