Satan's Stepson by Seabury Quinn

Author:Seabury Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
Published: 2013-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

“Once in my room I put her into bed, piled all the covers I could about her, heated water and soaked some flannel clothes in it and put the hot rolls to her feet, then mixed some cognac and water and forced several spoonfuls of it down her throat.

“I must have worked an hour, but finally my clumsy treatment began to show results. The faintest flush appeared in her cheeks, and a tinge of color came to the pale, wounded lips which I’d wiped clean of blood and bathed in water and cologne when I first put her into bed.

“As soon as I dared leave her for a moment I hustled out and roused the concierge and sent her scrambling for a doctor. It seemed a week before he came, and when he did he merely wrote me a prescription, looked importantly through his pince-nez and suggested that I have him call next morning.

“I pleaded illness at the bureau and went home from the surgeon’s office with advice to stay indoors as much as possible for the next week. I was a sort of privileged character, you see, and got away with shameless malingering which would have gotten any other fellow a good, sound roasting from the sawbones. Every moment after that which I could steal from the light duties at the bureau I spent with Sonia. Old Madame Couchin, the concierge, I drafted into service as a nurse, and she accepted the situation with the typical Frenchwoman’s aplomb.

“It was September before Sonia finally came back to full consciousness, and then she was so weak that the month was nearly gone before she could totter out with me to get a little sunshine and fresh air in the bois. We had a wonderful time shopping at the Galleries Lafayette, replacing the horrifying garments Madame Couchin had bought for us with a suitable wardrobe. Sonia took rooms at a little pension, and in October we were—”

“Ha, parbleu, married at last!” Jules de Grandin exclaimed with a delighted chuckle “Mille crapauds, my friend, I thought we never should have got you to the parson’s door!”

“Yes, and so we were married,” Tanis agreed with a smile.

The girl lifted her husband’s hand and cuddled it against her cheek. “Please, Donald dear,” she pleaded, “please don’t let Konstantin take me from you again.”

“But, darling,” the young man protested, “I tell you, you must be mistaken. “Mustn’t she, Doctor de Grandin?” he appealed. “If I saw Konstantin fall before a firing-party and saw the corporal blow his brains out, and saw them nail him in his coffin, he must be dead, mustn’t he? Tell her she can’t be right, sir!”

“But Donald, you saw me in my coffin, too—” the girl began.

“My friends,” de Grandin interrupted gravely, “it may be that you both are right, though the good God forbid that it is so.”

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