He rose from his knees feeling that he was surely coming into his own again. It was more than a mere gasp of temporary relief with him, and his wife shared his optimism; but Mary would not let him buy back her piano, and as for furs--spring was on the way, she said. But they paid the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker, and hired a cook once more. It was this servitress who opened the door for Sheridan and presently assured him that Miss Vertrees would “be down.”
He was not the man to conceal admiration when he felt it, and he flushed and beamed as Mary made her appearance, almost upon the heels of the cook. She had a look of apprehension for the first fraction of a second, but it vanished at the sight of him, and its place was taken in her eyes by a soft brilliance, while color rushed in her cheeks.
“Don't be surprised,” he said. “Truth is, in a way it's sort of on business I looked in here. It'll only take a minute, I expect.”
“I'm sorry,” said Mary. “I hoped you'd come because we're neighbors.”
He chuckled. “Neighbors! Sometimes people don't see so much o' their neighbors as they used to. That is, I hear so--lately.”
“You'll stay long enough to sit down, won't you?”
“I guess I could manage that much.” And they sat down, facing each other and not far apart.
“Of course, it couldn't be called business, exactly,” he said, more gravely. “Not at all, I expect. But there's something o' yours it seemed to me I ought to give you, and I just thought it was better to bring it myself and explain how I happened to have it. It's this--this letter you wrote my boy.” He extended the letter to her solemnly, in his left hand, and she took it gently from him. “It was in his mail, after he was hurt. You knew he never got it, I expect.”
He sighed. “I'm glad he didn't. Not,” he added, quickly--“not but what you did just right to send it. You did. You couldn't acted any other way when it came right down TO it. There ain't any blame comin' to you--you were above-board all through.”
Mary said, “Thank you,” almost in a whisper, and with her head bowed low.
“You'll have to excuse me for readin' it. I had to take charge of all his mail and everything; I didn't know the handwritin', and I read it all--once I got started.”