"I am glad to know it;"--and his tone lost for the moment its jauntiness. "Henry Holbrook has gone to New York."
"Good riddance!" I exclaimed heartily. "And now--"
"--And now if I would only follow suit, everything would be joy plus for you!"
He laughed and slapped his knees at my discomfiture, for he had read my thoughts exactly.
"You certainly are the only blot on the landscape!"
"Quite so. And if I would only go hence the pretty little idyl that is being enacted in the delightful garden, under the eye of a friendly chaperon, would go forward without interruption."
He spoke soberly, and I had observed that when he dropped his chaff a note of melancholy crept into his talk. He folded his arms and went on: "She's a wonderful girl, Donovan. There's no other girl like her in all the wide world. I tell you it's hard for a girl like that to be in her position--the whole family broken up, and that contemptible father of hers hanging about with his schemes of plunder. It's pitiful, Donovan; it's pitiful!"
"It's a cheerless mess. It all came after the bank failure, I suppose."
"Practically, though the brothers never got on. You see my governor was bit by their bank failure; and Miss Pat resented the fact that he backed off when stung. But the Gillespies take their medicine; father never squealed, which makes me sore that your Aunt Pat gives me the icy eye."
"Their affairs are certainly mixed," I remarked non-committally.
"They are indeed; and I have studied the whole business until my near mind is mussed up, like scrambled eggs. Your own pretty idyl of the nunnery garden adds the note _piquante_. Cross my palm with gold and I'll tell you of strange things that lie in the future. I have an idea, Donovan; singular though it seem, I've a notion in my head."
"Keep it," I retorted, "to prevent a cranial vacuum."
"Crushed! Absolutely crushed!" he replied gloomily. "Kick me. I'm only the host."
We were silent while the few sounds of the village street droned in. He rose and paced the floor to shake off his mood, and when he sat down he seemed in better spirits.
"Holbrook will undoubtedly return," I said.
"Yes; there's no manner of doubt about that!"
"But I suppose there's no guessing when he will come back."