第44章 IN WHICH KEZIAH'S TROUBLES MULTIPLY(2)

She did not hear the back door of the parsonage open and close softly.Nor did she hear the cautious footsteps in the rooms below.What aroused her from her reading was her own name,spoken at the foot of the stairs.

Keziah!Keziah,are you there?

She started,sprang up,and ran out into the hall,the letter still in her hand.

Who is it?she asked sharply.Mr.Ellery,is that you?No,was the answer.It's me--Nat.Are you busy,Keziah?Iwant to see you for a minute.

The housekeeper hurriedly thrust the letter into her waist.

I'll be right down,Nat,she answered.I'm comin'.He was in the sitting room when she entered.He was wearing his Sunday suit of blue and his soft felt hat was on the center table.

She held out her hand and he shook it heartily.

Well!she observed,smiling,I declare if I don't believe you've got the tiptoe habit.This is the second time you've sneaked into the house and scared me 'most to death.I asked you before if you wa'n't ashamed of yourself and now I ask it again.Before he could reply she caught a glimpse of his face.

What is it?she asked.What is the matter?Is anybody sick?

Is your father--

No,he's all right.That is,he's as well as he has been lately,though that isn't sayin'much.Is Grace--

No,she's all right,too,I guess.Been sort of quiet and sorrowful for the last few weeks--or I've seemed to notice that she has--but I cal'late it's nothin'serious.I wouldn't wonder if the same thing that's troublin'her is what ails me.But what is it?Why don't you tell me?

I'm goin'to tell you,Keziah.That's what I come here for.I--Sit down,can't you?Don't stand up there like a lighthouse,shuttin'out the whole broadside of the room.You are the BIGGESTthing!

Captain Hammond selected the most substantial chair in the apartment and sat down upon it.He looked at his friend and shook his head.

No use,Keziah,he said.If I was as deep down in the blues as the bottom of the Whale Deep,a look at that face of yours would pull me to the top again.You're a good woman!Thanks!When I have spare time on my hands I'll practice tryin'

to believe that.But what is the trouble,Nat?Out with it.Well,Keziah,it's trouble enough.Dad and I have had a fallin'

out.

Mrs.Coffin's mouth and eyes opened.

What?she cried,in utter astonishment.

Yes.It's true.We had what was next door to a real quarrel after dinner to-day.It would have been a real one if I hadn't walked off and left him.He's as set as the rock of Gibraltar,and--And your foundations ain't given to slippin'much.Nat Hammond,I'm surprised at you!What was it all about?Religion?No,not a sliver of religion in it.If 'twas that,I could dodge,or haul down my colors,if I had to.But it's somethin'worse,enough sight worse.Somethin'I can't do--even for dad--and won't either.Keziah,he's dead set on my marryin'Grace.Says if Idon't he'll know that I don't really care a tin nickel for him,or for his wishes,or what becomes of the girl after he's gone.Nat!

It's a fact.You see,dad realizes,better'n I thought he did,that his health is pretty shaky and that he is likely to founder 'most any time.He says that don't worry him;if he knew Grace and I were provided for he'd slip his cable with a clean manifest.But the dream of his life,he says,has been that we should marry.And he wants to see it done.Keziah was silent for a moment.Then she said slowly:

And Grace herself?How does she feel about it?Has he spoken to her?I don't know.I guess likely he has.Perhaps that's why she's been so sort of mournful lately.But never mind whether he has or not;I won't do it and I told him so.He got red hot in a jiffy.

I was ungrateful and stubborn and all sorts of things.And I,bein'a Hammond,with some of the Hammond balkiness in me,I set my foot down as hard as his.And we had it until--until--well,until I saw him stagger and tremble so that I actually got scared and feared he was goin'to keel over where he stood.

'Why can't you?'he kept sayin'.'But WHY can't you?Ain't she a girl anyone would be proud to have for a wife?Course there was no answer to that but yes.Then back he comes again with 'Then why can't you?'At last,bein'frightened,as I said,that he might have another shock or somethin',I said I'd think it over and come away and left him.And I come straight to you.Keziah,what shall I do?What can you say to help me?Keziah was silent.She was looking,not at her companion,but at the carpet center of one of the braided rugs on the floor.Her face was very grave and the lines about her mouth seemed to deepen.

Her hands,clasped in her lap,tightened one upon the other.But her voice was calm when,at last,she spoke.

Nat,she said,there's only one thing I can say.And that's what your father said:Why can't you?The captain sprang from his chair.

What?he cried incredulously.What are you sayin'?Just what your father said,Nat.Why can't you marry Grace?

She's a dear,good girl and--

That be--keelhauled!Keziah Coffin,you sit there and ask me why I can't marry her!YOU do?Yes,Nat.

Keziah,you're crazy!Don't talk to me like that.We're not jokin'now.You know why I can't marry her,nor anyone else in this round world but you.Nat,I can't marry you.

I know,I know.You're always sayin'that.But you don't mean it.You can't mean it.Why,you and me have been picked out for each other by the Almighty,Keziah.I swear I believe just that.

We went together when we were boy and girl,to parties and such.

We was promised when I first went to sea.If it hadn't been for that fool row we had--and 'twas all my fault and I know it--you never would have let that da--that miserable Anse Coffin come near you.And when 'twas too late and you'd married him,the mean,drunken,cruel--Hush,Nat!hush!Stop it!

He was,and you know he was.Yes,and worse besides.Runnin'off and leavin'a wife like you to--Oh,my God!when I think I might have been your husband to look out for you and take care of you!