Dolliver

“ Little Pansie was the one earthly creature that inherited a drop of the Dolliver blood. The Doctor's only child, poor Bessie's offspring, had died the better part of a hundred years before, and his grandchildren, a numerous and dimly remembered brood, had vanished along his weary track in their youth, maturity, or incipient age, till, hardly knowing, how it had all happened, he found himself tottering onward with an infant's small fingers in his nerveless grasp. ”

“ Dolliver shrugged his shoulders. "They're 'men' out of high school these days!"
"But he is a man! He's as old as you are! He's thirty-two."
"Wha—what's that? Look here, my child, let's get to the bottom of this!" He waded toward her and put one hand on the door of the tonneau. "What does he look like—this 'man' you talk about?"
"He's big—and dark—and awfully good-looking!"
"Good God!" said Dolliver, and sat down suddenly on the running-board, dropping his face into his muddy hands.
"Why?" The girl slid across the seat and poked his shoulder, peering down at him over the edge of the car. ”

“ Why haven't we arrived at Meadowvale? We should have been there long ago! Mr. Dolliver, where are you taking us?"
"I don't think I can tell you exactly," replied Page, leaning forward to peer out into the darkness. "I must have taken the wrong turn somewhere, and I've been running around a little, trying various roads, thinking I might strike the right one somehow. We can't be very far from it now, I think."
"Why, Page, are we lost?" cried Marjorie. "How funny! How can we be?"
"This is very strange, indeed—very extraordinary, Mr. Dolliver," sternly said Mrs. Toland. ”

“ Doc! By gum, we got 'em!" a jubilant voice declared, as a runabout—of a breed which Dolliver scornfully called "tin bugs"—slid down the hill and stopped at the edge of the muddy stretch. Hearing new voices, Ruth again stepped out eagerly to the running-board of Dolliver's car, and the same voice exclaimed: "Hullo! There's two of 'em! What might your name be, miss?"
"Ruth Hazard."
"And shame on ye! Runnin' away with a married man!"
"I didn't!" she indignantly returned. "I was running away with somebody else! I thought Mr. Dolliver was taking me to him! He said he was! ”

“ Spencer nor Dolliver heard the sharp rending of silk, as her taffeta skirt caught on a point of broken metal protruding from the trunk upon which she had been seated, leaving a triangular hole in the left side of her skirt. She seemed so tired that he took her arm to steady her as they passed through the shed, and it chanced that he walked upon her left, thus unconsciously screening from observation the tear in her gown, until they reached the street. ”

“ Dolliver, while frolicking amid this throng of ghosts, where the one reality looked no more vivid than its shadowy sisters,—it often happened that his eyes filled with tears at a sudden perception of what a sad and poverty-stricken old man he was, already remote from his own generation, and bound to stray further onward as the sole playmate and protector of a child! ”

“ And there were seasons, it might be, happier than even these, when Pansie had been kissed and put to bed, and Grandsir Dolliver sat by his fireside gazing in among the massive coals, and absorbing their glow into those cavernous abysses with which all men communicate. Hence come angels or fiends into our twilight musings, according as we may have peopled them in by-gone years. Over our friend's face, in the rosy flicker of the fire-gleam, stole an expression of repose and perfect trust that made him as beautiful to look at, in his high-backed chair, as the child Pansie on her pillow ”

“ He shook his silvery head at his own image in the looking-glass, as if to impress the apothegm on that shadowy representative of himself; and, for his part, he determined to pluck up a spirit and live as long as he possibly could, if it were only for the sake of little Pansie, who stood as close to one extremity of human life as her great-grandfather to the other. This child of three years old occupied all the unfossilized portion of Dr. Dolliver's heart. ”

“ Again the brave, bright smile. "And I do have good times in spite of it all."
"And you give good times to so many other people," interpolated Dolliver.
"Not as often nor to as many as I'd like," she returned, her smile grown wistful. "One of the saddest things about being poor is one's inability to do things for other people. Do you know, that's the only thing I really envy you two? You have such wonderful opportunities, with your cozy home and your little car and all, to make other people happy. Yet nobody can begrudge you these things, for you share them so royally! ”

“ Be that as it may, Dolliver, driving alone along a mountain road in the dusk of a gray October day, stopped without second thought when he saw the distressed face of the young man working over a disabled car. He was a very young man, scarcely more than a boy. ”

“ Marjorie reminded them. "Did you ever ride in an automobile before?"
"Ho!" boasted the boy, from his seat beside Dolliver. "I ride in one every day. My father's got a big one, ever so much bigger'n yours."
"What's that?" questioned Dolliver, eying the child. "Your father owns an automobile?"
"Why, Jimmie McManus, you big story!" cried the little girl, who was in the tonneau with Marjorie. "He's just playing that he's Bobbie Cole," she explained to the Dollivers; "but he isn't, you know. He's only Jimmie McManus." ”

“ No sooner did these two espy Miriam and Bobbie than they began to clamor:
"Where's our butter 'n' eggs? You give us our money! You give us back our clo'es! Where's our basket? You give it back!"
"This your basket?" called a man in the crowd, holding up the one the children had given Dolliver. ”

“ Charlie Manning," said Holden, "is the son of a minister in my home town. Versatile, clever, fluent of speech, as you probably discovered—"
"We did," said Dolliver, dryly.
He has an inborn repugnance to real work, but his imagination is prolific, and he has a facility in lying that I have never seen equaled. He'd rather put over a good story than make a hundred dollars, and he actually makes 'em so plausible that he almost believes 'em himself!" ”

“ The next morning, promising to come back in time to motor out into the country again for luncheon, Dolliver cheerfully betook himself to the business district. Marjorie saw him no more until after twelve, when he returned less buoyantly, a deep wrinkle between his brows.
“This is young Mr. Golden-Rule Dolliver, isn't it?”
“What's the matter, dear?” asked his wife. “Didn't you get it?”
“I don't know whether I did or not. I think he thought I lied.”
“Who thought you lied?” she indignantly demanded.
“Corbin. Marjorie, do you know who our poor but proud old party was yesterday? ”

“ It might well be, indeed, on account of the suggested pensiveness; for the child's gayety had no example to sustain it, no sympathy of other children or grown people,—and her melancholy, had it been so dark a feeling, was but the shadow of the house, and of the old man. If brighter sunshine came, she would brighten with it. This morning, surely, as the three companions, Pansie, puss, and Grandsir Dolliver, emerged from the shadow of the house into the small adjoining enclosure, they seemed all frolicsome alike. ”

“ Dolliver, "he might fancy it his nostrum of long life, and insist on having the bottle for his own use. The foolish, fierce old gentleman! He has grown very earthly, of late, else he would not desire such a thing. And a strong desire it must be to make him feel it desirable. For my part, I only wish for something that, for a short time, may clear my eyes, so that I may see little Pansie's beauty, and quicken my ears, that I may hear her sweet voice, and give me nerve, while God keeps me here, that I may live longer to earn bread for dear Pansie. ”

“ When little Pansie was the companion of his walk, her childish gayety and freedom did not avail to bring him into closer relationship with men, but seemed to follow him into that region of indefinable remoteness, that dismal Fairy-Land of aged fancy, into which old Grandsir Dolliver had so strangely crept away. ”

“ Dolliver humorously regarded his retreating back. "If you don't even scent your quarry when you hold it in your hand, so to speak, far be it from me to call attention to its succulence!"
"Perhaps he isn't a policeman at all," Marjorie suggested. "He may be just a plain, ordinary citizen."
In that case, he's a menace to life and property. Nothing short of serving the majesty of the law can justify the use of one of those infernal things," declaimed Page, eying the bicycle with exaggerated disfavor. ”

“ Karr," he said. "My wife—here beside me. These other ladies, like yourself, we have just—"
Marjorie, who had twisted in her seat in an effort to help Karr with the rug, had seen him look for the first time at his companions in the tonneau, and now she clutched her husband's arm. Dolliver turned to see in the lightning's flickering glare the two young people staring into each other's agitated faces, while the grandmother's expression was one of stern rigidity. For a few seconds the only sound was of the pouring rain and the crashing thunder. Then the grandmother spoke. ”

“ In the end they attached a rope, which the doctor carried for such emergencies, to the rear axle of Holden's car, and the tin bug calmly and without undue effort hauled the big machine out of the mud, after which Dolliver turned it around and they all proceeded toward Crow Lake village, the indignant citizen insisting upon occupying the seat beside Dolliver, and the taciturn but vigilant doctor following. ”

“ Dolliver, cheerily, patting her brown hair with his tremulous fingers, "thou hast put some of thine own friskiness into poor old grandfather, this fine morning! Dost know, child, that he came near breaking his neck down-stairs at the sound of thy voice? What wouldst thou have done then, little Pansie?"
"Kiss poor grandpapa and make him well!" answered the child, remembering the Doctor's own mode of cure in similar mishaps to herself. "It shall do poor grandpapa good!" she added, putting up her mouth to apply the remedy. ”

“ They must—we must find them."
"We'll find them. Miss Manchester," said Dolliver, in a determined tone meant to be reassuring; but Holden, whose face was beginning to set in grave lines, instantly bent upon him a more searching glance. "We'll find them, if we have to hunt all night. Now, tell us, if you can, just when you remember actually having the purse last. You are positive you had it when you entered the car?" ”

“ Have we passed many?"
"Several," said Dolliver. Just then, by one of the coincidences in which life abounds, he leaned forward, attracted perhaps by some vague familiarity of outline or attitude, to look more sharply at a man standing in the comparative protection of the high hedge surrounding a country place, at the same time exclaiming: "Why, that looks like—no, it isn't. Yes," as a brilliant flash of lightning made everything distinct for an instant, "by George, it is!" He stopped the car, hastily explaining to the ladies in the tonneau: "Here's a man I know. ”

“ Dolliver and Comstock, each with a woman clinging to his arm, confronted each other furiously.
"Listen, can't you?" Marjorie flamed at Ruth's lover. "Aren't you man enough to listen to an explanation? He's suffered more than you have! ”

“ I just said I'd gone with—with the only man I—I could ever—" Weeping, she disappeared within the curtained tonneau.
"Good Lord!" said Dolliver, giving the self-starter a vicious punch.
He was standing in the mud, adding such persuasion as he could apply to the spokes of a rear wheel, while Marjorie manipulated the willing but outmatched engine, when he saw the lights of a car coming from the direction of Clear Brook, and exclaimed: "Thank God, here comes somebody! Perhaps they'll give us a boost!" ”

“ Dolliver, in spite of his advanced epoch of life, is likely to remain a considerable time longer upon our hands, we deem it expedient to give a brief sketch of his position, in order that the story may get onward with the greater freedom when he rises from the breakfast-table. Deeming it a matter of courtesy, we have allowed him the honorary title of Doctor, as did all his towns-people and contemporaries, except, perhaps, one or two formal old physicians, stingy of civil phrases and over-jealous of their own professional dignity. ”

“ So saying, he painfully finished the ascent, and came into the laboratory, where he let himself fall into the Doctor's easy-chair, with an anathema on the chair, the Doctor, and himself; and, staring round through the dusk, he met the wide-open, startled eyes of little Pansie, who had been reading a gilt picture-book in the corner.
"Send away that child, Dolliver," cried the Colonel, angrily. "Confound her, she makes my bones ache. I hate everything young."
"Lord, Colonel," the poor apothecary ventured to say, "there must be young people in the world as well as old ones. ”

“ Marjorie laughed. "Oh, well, a street-car isn't so bad if it has open sides," she defended. "At least, it's better than the Subway on a day like this."
"But who wants to run on rails, anyhow?" growled Dolliver, with enjoyment. "You're a poor-spirited, submissive sort of person, after all, Marjorie, content to poke along always on the same track, over a route somebody else has selected for you." ”

“ Get out o' that car before we pull you out!"
"Hold on, there!" shouted a man, as the crowd closed in with an ominous growl. "Give the feller a chance. Let him talk if he wants to. We've got the kids and we've got him. Let's hear what he has to say." He was evidently a person of some importance in the community, for the people paused, listening.
"Thank you," said Dolliver. "Now this is what happened. We found these children over on the turnpike, selling butter and eggs, which we bought—"
"Franklin Cole's boy sellin' butter 'n' eggs—in them clo'es! That's a likely story, ain't it?" ”