Galusha the Magnificent Part 45

Galusha deposited the last bank note upon the table. "There!" he exclaimed, with satisfaction; "that is all, I believe. And I have actually gotten it here--all of it. I am quite sure I haven't lost a--a penny. Dear me, that is a very remarkable thing to do--for me to do, I mean."

Miss Phipps did not answer and, turning, he saw that she was sitting in the rocking-chair, her hand to her forehead. Her face was white.

"Dear me!" he exclaimed, in alarm. "Miss Martha, are you ill?"

Still she did not answer and, very much frightened, he hastened to the door, opened it, and shouted for Primmie. The summons for her handmaiden acted as a complete restorative. Martha came to life at once.

"WHAT in the world are you callin' Primmie for?" she demanded. "I don't want her. I wouldn't have her see all that.... Oh, good heavens and earth!"

Primmie was already in the room. She, as Mr. Bangs would have described it, bounced in.

"Yes'm--I mean yes, sir," was her salutation. "Here I be.... Oh, my savin' soul of Isrul!"

She had seen the mound of money upon the table. Two minutes later Martha and her lodger were again alone in the sitting room. Primmie had been, gently but firmly, escorted to outer darkness and the door closed behind her. She was still asking questions and calling for her ransomed spirit and the ruler of Israel; they could hear her do so even through the door. The exclamations died away in the direction of the kitchen. Miss Phipps, who had done escort duty, turned toward Galusha and ruefully shook her head.

"I GUESS there isn't anybody I'd rather should not have been here just now than Primmie Cash," she observed. "If there is I can't think of their names. Mr. Bangs, I know you meant well, because you couldn't mean any other way, but would you mind tellin' me WHY you called for her?"

Galusha blinked in bewildered fas.h.i.+on behind his spectacles.

"Why--why," he stammered, "you--you see--why, I spoke to you several times and you did not answer--and you were so pale, I thought--I thought--"

"You thought I was sick and so you sung out for Primmie. Humph! that's a good deal like jumpin' into the well to get out of the rain. But there, never mind. So I looked pale and didn't answer when you spoke? Do you wonder? Mr. Bangs," she moved to the table and laid a hand, which trembled a good deal, upon the pile of bills, "is this money really mine?"

"Yes--oh, yes, indeed. It is yours, of course."

"All of it? It doesn't seem possible. How much is there here?"

He told her. She lifted the topmost bills from the heap and reverently laid them down again.

"Five thousand dollars!" she repeated. "It's like--it's like somethin'

in a dream, or a book, isn't it? I can hardly believe I am Martha Phipps. So they did think Wellmouth Development was worth somethin', after all. And they paid--why, Mr. Bangs, they paid the full price, didn't they! Twenty dollars a share; as much as father paid in the first place."

"Yes--ah--yes, of course. Yes, indeed. Are you sure you feel quite well again, Miss Martha?"

"I'm sure. But what did they say when they bought it, Mr. Bangs?"

"Say? Ah, say?... Why, they said--ah--um--they said there was the money and--and I counted it, you know, and--"

"Yes, yes. But didn't they say anything about the stock; about why they bought it, and like that?"

"Why, no... no, I think nothing was--ah--so to speak--ah--said.

They--ah--Won't you sit down again, Miss Martha? I think you had better."

"Sit down! Mr. Bangs, I'm too excited to sit down. I could fly, I think, a good deal easier than I could sit; at least, I feel as if I could.

And so they just bought that stock and said nothing more than that? Just bought it?"

"Yes--ah--yes, that's it. They--ah--bought it, you know."

"It seems strange. What did your cousin say?"

"Ah--my cousin? Cousin Gussie, you mean. Yes, yes, of course. Oh, he said--ah--all sorts of things."

"Did he? About the stock?"

"Oh, no, not about the stock so much. No, not so much about that, about... a sort of general conversation it was, about--about the weather, and--and the like."

"The weather? Did he write about the weather in his letter?"

He had for the moment forgotten that his relative was an invalid in the Far West and that Miss Phipps knew it. He turned red, coughed, stammered and then broke out in a series of fragmentary and involved explanations to the effect that Cousin Gussie was--ah--naturally much interested in the weather because of his state of health and--and--She paid little heed, for in the midst of his explaining she interrupted.

"Oh, never mind, never mind," she said. "It doesn't make one bit of difference and why I asked about it I don't know. You see, Mr. Bangs, I'm not back on earth yet, as you might say, and I don't suppose I shall be for a little while, so you'll have to be patient with me. All I can think of is that now I can live here in this house, for a while longer anyhow, and perhaps always. And I sha'n't have to turn Primmie away.

And--and maybe I won't have to lie awake night after night, plannin' how I can do this and do without that--and--and--"

She stopped, her sentence unfinished. Galusha said nothing. A moment later she turned to him.

"Should I write your cousin a letter and thank him, do you think?" she asked.

Galusha's reply was hurriedly given and most emphatic. "Oh, no, no," he protested. "It will be quite unnecessary, quite. Indeed, no. He--ah--he would not expect it."

"No, I presume likely he wouldn't. And, after all, it was just a matter of business with his firm. But it wasn't a matter of business with you, Mr. Bangs. And if it hadn't been for you, I--I--Well, I mustn't say any more or--or... Oh, you understand what I want to say, don't you?"

"Now--now, Miss Martha, please. I have done nothing, really, nothing but what any friend would have done."

"Any friend like you, you mean. I don't know where there are any more such friends, Mr. Bangs."

"Now, PLEASE. Miss Martha, I--I HOPE you won't mention this again. It will oblige me greatly if you will not. Really, I--I mean it."

She nodded, slowly. "Yes," she said, "bein' you, I think you do mean it.

So I won't say any more; but I shall think a great deal, Mr. Bangs, and I never shall stop thinkin'.... There! And now what shall I do with all this money? Of course, I'll put it in the bank to-morrow, but what will I do with it to-night? By the way," she added, "it seems queer they should have paid you in cash instead of a check. Why did they, I wonder?"

Here was a demand for more explaining. Galusha plunged headlong, foundered, and then emerged, like a dog, with an explanation, such as it was, between his teeth.

"They--ah--they thought the money would be safer," he said.

Martha laughed aloud. "Safer?" she repeated. "Why, that's funny. Perhaps they're right, but I know the only way I shall feel safe between now and bankin' time tomorrow is to stay awake and watch every minute. Oh, I sha'n't do that exactly, of course, but I'm beginnin' to realize the responsibility of havin' riches. Ah hum! I laugh, Mr. Bangs, but you mustn't think it's because I don't realize what you--I mean... well, I guess I laugh because I'm kind of hysterical and--happy. I haven't been so happy for a long, long time. I won't say it again because you don't want me to, but for this once more, thank you, Mr. Bangs."

As Galusha left her to go to his room, she said: "Now I must go out and get after Primmie again. I'm scared to death that she'll tell everybody from here to Provincetown about my bein' worth a million dollars. She won't make it any LESS than a million, and the chances are it will be consider'ble more."

"But, Miss Martha, you have already told her not to tell about the money. I heard you tell her just now when you sent her out of the room."

Martha shrugged her shoulders.

"When you pour water into a sieve," she said, "it doesn't do much good to tell the sieve not to leak. Father used to say that some folks' heads were built so that whatever was poured into their ears ran right out of their mouths. Primmie's is made that way, I'm afraid. She'll swear she won't tell, and she won't mean to tell, but... Well, good-night, Mr.

Bangs."

CHAPTER XII