"Do you think I should be apt to broach this subject with any one,let alone with him,whose connection with it I shall need days to realise?I'm not so given to gossip.Besides,he and I have other topics of interest.I have an invention ready with which I propose to experiment in a place he has already prepared for me.We can talk about that."The irony,the hardy self-possession with which this was said struck Mr.Challoner to the heart.Without a word he wheeled about towards the door.Without a word,Brotherson stood,watching him go till he saw his hand fall on the knob when he quietly prevented his exit by saying:
"Unhappy truths cannot be long concealed.How soon does the doctor think my brother can bear these inevitable revelations?""He said this morning that if his patient were as well to-morrow as his present condition gives promise of,he might be told in another week."Orlando bowed his appreciation of this fact,but added quickly:
"Who is to do the telling?"
"Doris.Nobody else could be trusted with so delicate a task.""I wish to be present."
Mr.Challoner looked up,surprised at the feeling with which this request was charged.
"As his brother -his only remaining relative,I have that right.
Do you think that Dor -that Miss Scott,can be trusted not to forestall that moment by any previous hint of what awaits him?""If she so promises.But will you exact this from her?It surely cannot be necessary for me to say that your presence will add infinitely to the difficulty of her task.""Yet it is a duty I cannot shirk.I will consult the doctor about it.I will make him see that I both understand and shall insist upon my rights in this matter.But you may tell Miss Doris that Iwill sit out of sight,and that I shall not obtrude myself unless my name is brought up in an undesirable way."The hand on the door-knob made a sudden movement.
"Mr.Brotherson,I can bear no more to-night.With your permission,I will leave this question to be settled by others."And with a repetition of his former bow,the bereaved father withdrew.
Orlando watched him till the door closed,then he too dropped his mask.
But it was on again,when in a little while he passed through the sitting-room on his way upstairs.
No other day in his whole life had been like this to the hardy inventor;for in it both his heart and his conscience had been awakened,and up to this hour he had not really known that he possessed either.
XXXI
WHAT IS HE MAKING
Other boxes addressed to 0.Brotherson had been received at the station,and carried to the mysterious shed in the woods;and now,with locked door and lifted top,the elder brother contemplated his stores and prepared himself for work.
He had been allowed a short interview with Oswald,and he had indulged himself in a few words with Doris.But he had left those memories behind with other and more serious matters.Nothing that could unnerve his hand or weaken his insight should enter this spot sacred to his great hope.Here genius reigned.Here he was himself wholly and without flaw;-a Titan with his grasp on a mechanical idea by means of which he would soon rule the world.
Not so happy were the other characters in this drama.Oswald's thoughts,disturbed for a short time by the somewhat constrained interview he had held with his brother,had flown eastward again,in silent love and longing;while Doris,with a double dread now in her heart,went about her daily tasks,praying for strength to endure the horrors of this week,without betraying the anxieties secretly devouring her.And she was only seventeen and quite alone in her trouble.She must bear it all unassisted and smile,which she did with heavenly sweetness,when the magic threshold was passed and she stood in her invalid's presence,overshadowed though it ever was by the great Dread.
And Mr.Challoner?Let those endless walks of his through the woods and over the hills tell his story if they can;or his rapidly whitening hair,and lagging step.He had been a strong man before his trouble,and had the stroke which laid him low been limited to one quick,sharp blow he might have risen above it after a while and been ready to encounter life again.But this long drawn out misery was proving too much for him.The sight of Brotherson,though they never really met,acted like acid upon a wound,and it was not till six days had passed and the dreaded Sunday was at hand,that he slept with any sense of rest or went his way about the town without that halting at the corners which betrayed his perpetual apprehension of a most undesirable encounter.
The reason for this change will be apparent in the short conversation he held with a man he had come upon one evening in the small park just beyond the workmen's dwellings.
"You see I am here,"was the stranger's low greeting.
"Thank God,"was Mr.Challoner's reply."I could not have faced to-morrow alone and I doubt if Miss Scott could have found the requisite courage.Does she know that you are here?""I stopped at her door."
"Was that safe?"
"I think so.Mr.Brotherson -the Brooklyn one,-is up in his shed.
He sleeps there now,I am told,and soundly too I've no doubt.""What is he making?"
"What half the inventors on both sides of the water are engaged upon just now.A monoplane,or a biplane,or some machine for carrying men through the air.I know,for I helped him with it.
But you'll find that if he succeeds in this undertaking,and Ibelieve he will,nothing short of fame awaits him.His invention has startling points.But I'm not going to give them away.I'll be true enough to him for that.As an inventor he has my sympathy;but -Well,we will see what we shall see,to-morrow.You say that he is bound to be present when Miss Scott relates her tragic story.
