Wallflowers by Temple Bailey

Author:Temple Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, romance, film adaptation
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1927-10-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter XXI

THE GIRL THAT RUFUS WOULDN’T MARRY

When Theodora reached home, it was very late. From the train she had gone out to the Maulsbys’ and had talked for a long time with Marcia and her husband. She found that they had more to discuss than the matter of the decorations. Felix had opened a branch on the North Shore and wanted Theodora to take entire charge of the Washington shop for the summer.

“The people I have here haven’t any idea of doing it properly. You know my requirements, and I shall be free from worry.”

Theodora was still tingling with the excitement of it all when Marcia’s big motor car set her down at her own doorstep. She went on tiptoe through the dim halls and turned the knob of the door of her apartment with caution. She expected to find her mother reading in bed and Sandra asleep. But her mother was not reading. She was lying high on her pillows, breathing with difficulty, and Sandra was bending over her.

At once Theodora’s own affairs fell from her. “Oh, what’s the matter?”

“She had a faint spell,” Sandra said. “I’ve sent for the doctor.”

Mrs. Claybourne tried to reassure them. “It’s nothing . . . I shall be all right . . . presently . . .”

But she was not all right presently, and when the doctor arrived, he gave one look and got out his hypodermic.

“I’ll have you comfortable before you know it,” he said cheerfully, and bent to his task.

She relaxed in a moment, and the color came back to her cheeks.

The doctor surveyed her. “Been working too hard?”

“Perhaps. And it’s so hot. Sandra and I went to a movie, and when we came back we were sitting on the balcony, and suddenly everything was black before me.”

“I see. Well, you must stay in bed tomorrow.”

“I ought to go to work.”

“Not until I let you.”

He wrote a prescription and said he would leave it at the drug store. “She must be kept quiet,” he told Sandra, who had followed him into the hall.

Sandra asked, “How serious is it?”

“I can’t be sure. If her heart is involved, she may have to take a long rest.”

Sandra told Doady later what he had said. Madge had gone to sleep, soothed by the drug which the doctor had given her. The two girls lay side by side in their little beds and talked in low tones.

“If she takes a long rest, it means giving up her position,” Theodora said.

They considered that in dismayed silence. It seemed to sweep from them the very foundations of stability to have their mother unable to be, in the future, at the helm of their domestic bark.

Out of the silence Theodora said: “The Maulsbys want me to take charge of their shop. They will give me better pay, but it won’t be enough for us to live on.”

Sandra, listening, let her sister plan. She felt she ought to tell Doady she was going to marry Rufus Fiske and that it would make a difference.

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