Fair Harbor | Page 4

been so erect and sturdy, the pity which
she had felt for him ever since they brought him into her sitting-room
on the day of the railway accident became keener than ever and with it
came an additional flash of insight. She realized more clearly than she
had before that it was not his bodily injuries which hurt most and were
the hardest to bear; it was his self-respect and the pride which were
wounded sorest. That he--he--Sears Kendrick, the independent autocrat
of the quarter deck, should be reduced to this! That it was wringing his
soul she knew. He had never complained except to her, and even to her
very, very seldom, but she knew. And she ventured to ask the question
she had wanted to ask ever since he had sufficiently recovered to listen
to conversation.
"Sears," she said "I haven't said a word before, and you needn't tell me
now if you don't want to--it isn't any of my business--but is it true that
you've lost a whole lot of money? It isn't true, is it?"
He had been standing by the open door, looking out into the yard. Now
he turned to look at her.
"What isn't true, Sarah?" he asked.
"That you've lost a lot of money in--in that--that business you went into.
It isn't true, is it, Sears? Oh, I hope it isn't! They say--why, some of 'em
say you've lost all the money you had put by. An awful sight of money,
they say. Sears, tell me it isn't true--please."
He regarded her in silence for a moment. Then he shook his head.
"Part of it isn't true, Sarah," he answered, with a slight smile. "I haven't

lost a big lot of money."
"Oh, I'm so glad. Now I can tell 'em a few things, I guess."
"I wouldn't tell 'em too much, because the other part is true. I have lost
about all I had put by."
"Oh, Sears!"
"Um--hm. And served me right, of course. You can't make a silk ear
out of a sow's purse, as old Cap'n Sam Doane used to love to say. You
can't, no matter how good a purse--or--ear--it is. I was a pretty good sea
cap'n if I do say it, but that wasn't any reason why I should have figured
I was a good enough business man to back as slippery an eel as Jim
Carpenter in the ship chandlery game ashore."
"But--you----" Mrs. Macomber hesitated to utter the disgraceful word,
"you didn't fail up, did you, Sears?" she faltered. "You know that's what
they say you did."
"Well, they say wrong. Carpenter failed, I didn't. I paid dollar for dollar.
That's why I've got next to no dollars now."
"But you--you've got some, Sears. You must have," hopefully, "because
you've been paying me board. So you must have some left."
The triumph in her face was pathetic. He hated to disturb her faith.
"Yes," he said dryly, "I have some left. Maybe seven hundred dollars or
some such matter. If I had my legs left it would be enough, or more
than enough. I wouldn't ask odds of anybody if I was the way I was
before that train went off the track. I'd lost every shot I had in the
locker, but I'm not very old yet--some years to leeward of forty--there
was more money to be had where that came from and I meant to have it.
And then--well, then this happened to me."
"I know. And to think that you was comin' down here on purpose to see
me when it did happen. Seems almost as if I was to blame, somehow."

"Nonsense! Nobody was to blame but the engineer that wrecked the
train and the three hundred pound woman that fell on my legs. And the
engineer was killed, poor fellow, and the woman was--well, she carried
her own punishment with her, I guess likely. Anyhow, I should call it a
punishment if I had to carry it. There, there, Sarah! Let's talk about
somethin' else. You do your dishes and, long as you won't let me help
you, I'll hop-and-go-fetch-it out to that settee in the front yard and look
at the scenery. Just think! I've been in Bayport almost four months and
haven't been as far as that gate yet--except when they lugged me in past
it, of course. And I don't recall much about that."
"I guess not, you poor boy. And I saw them bringin' you in, all
stretched out, with your eyes shut, and as white as---- Oh, my soul and
body! I don't want to think about it, let alone talk about it."
"Neither do I, Sarah, so we won't. Do you realize how little I know of
what's been goin' on in Bayport since