Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-15
CHAPTER XXI
After the storm.


After the storm.
INKY clouds were gathering over
L the sunlight when Shirley came
from Damory Court along the mar
row wood-path under the hemlocks,
and the way was striped with blue
black shadows and filled with
signing noises. She walked warily,
hating often at some leafy rustic TO
catch a quick breath of dread. AS
she approached the tree-roots, where
the cape jessamines lay, she had to
force her feet forward by sheer eff
fort of will. At little distance from
them she broke a stick and with it
managed to drag the bunch to her.
turning her eyes with shiver from
the trampled spot nearby She picked
up the flowers and, treading with eau
ton, retraced her steps to the wider
path.
She stepped into the Red road at
length in the teeth of a thunder storm,
which had arisen almost without
warning to break with the passionate
intensity of electric storms in the
South. The green-golden fields were
now a seethe of rain and the farther
peaks lifted like huge tumbled masses
of onyx against a sky stippled with
wan yellow and vicious violet. The
wind leaped and roared and swished
through the weeping foliage, lashing
the dull, Pompefan-red puddles, swirl
mig leaves and twigs from the hedges
and seeming to be intent on dragging
her very garments from her as she
ran.
There was no shelter, but even had
there been she would not have sought
it. The turbulence of nature around
her matched in way her over
strained feeling, and she welcomed the
fierce bulge of the wind in the up
blowing whirls of her hair and the
drenching wetness of the rain. At
length, out of breath, she crouched
down under a catalpa tree, watching
the fangs of lightning knot themselves
against the baleful gray-yellow dim
ness, making sudden flares of I'M
bearable brightness against which
twigs edged themselves with the I'M
relieved sharpness of black paper
silhouettes.
She tried to fix her mind on near
things. the bending grasses, the scur-
rying red runnels and Tapping shrub
berry, but her thoughts wilfully es-
capped the tether, turning again and
again to the events of the last two
hours. She pictured Unc' Jefferson's
eyes rolling up in ridiculous alarm.
his winnowing arm flashing his indig-
nant mule in his flight for the doctor.
At the mental picture she choked
with hystericaI laughter, then cringed
suddenly against the sopping bark.
She saw again the doctors gaze lift
from his first examination of the
tiny punctures to send a swift, pene-
trant glance straight at her before he
bent his great body to carry the I'M
conscious man to the house. Again
L i - r.
Then all at once, tears came, strang-
ling sobs that bent and swayed her.
1t was the discharge of the Leyden
jar the losing of the tense bow
string, and 1t brought relief.
After a time she grew quieter. He
would perhaps still be lying on the
couch in the dull-colored library. un-
der the one-eyed portrait, his hair
waving crisply against the white
blanket. his hands moving restlessly.
his lips muttering. Her magma
tion followed Aunt Daph shutting to
fetch this and that, nagged by the
doctors sharp admonitions.
He would get well! The thought
that perhaps she had saved his life
gave her a thrill that ran over her
whole body. And until yesterday she
had never seen him! She kneeled in
the blurred half light, pushing her
wet hair back from her forehead and
smiling UP in the rain that still fell
fast.
In a few moments she rose and
went on. The lightning came now at
longer and more irregular intervals
and the thunder pealed less heavily.
The wan yellow murk was lifting.
Here and there soaked sunbeam
peered half-frightened through the
racked mist-wreaths. as though to
smell the oversweet fragrance of the
wet jessamine in her arms.
At the gate of the Rosewood lane
stood mai1-box on a cedar post and
she paused to fish out dragg1ed
Richmond newspaper. AS she thrust
1t under her arm her eye caught a
word of headline With a flush
she tore it from it's soggy wrapper.
the wetted fiber parting in her eager
fingers, and resting her foot on the
lower rail of the gate, spread it open
on her knee.
She stood stock-still until she had
read the whole. It was the story of
John Valiant's sacrifice of his private
fortune to save the ruin of the in
volved Corporation.
Its effect upon her was a shock.
She felt her throat swell as she read;
then she was chilled by the memory
of what she had said to him. What
has he ever done except play polo and
furnish spicy paragraphs for the So
ciety columns?"
What a beast l was" she said,
addressing the wet hedge He had
Just done that splendid thing. 1t was
because of that that he was little
better than beggar, and | said those
horrible things!" Again she bent her
eyes. rereading the sentences: "Took
his detractors by surprise. had
just sustained a grilling at the hands
of the States examiner which might
we'll have dried at their fount the
springs of sympathy"