Arp, the good lady sprang to her feet as if she had been stung, regardlessly sending her work-basket and its contents scattering over the floor, and ran down the stairs three steps at a time.
At the front door she met her husband, entering for his dinner, and she leaped at him.Had he seen? What was it? What had happened?
Mr.Louden rubbed his chin-beard, indulging himself in a pause which was like to prove fatal to his companion, finally vouchsafing the information that the doctor's buggy was just turning the corner;Eskew Arp had suffered a "stroke," it was said, and, in Louden's opinion, was a mighty sick man.
His spouse replied in no uncertain terms that she had seen quite that much for herself, urging him to continue, which he did with a deliberation that caused her to recall their wedding-day with a gust of passionate self-reproach.Presently he managed to interrupt, reminding her that her dining-room windows commanded as comprehensive a view of the next house as did the front steps, and after a time her housewifely duty so far prevailed over her indignation at the man's unwholesome stolidity that she followed him down the hall to preside over the meal, not, however, to partake largely of it herself.
Mr.Louden had no information of Eugene's mishap, nor had Mrs.Louden any suspicion that all was not well with the young man, and, hearing him enter the front door, she called to him that his dinner was waiting.Eugene, however, made no reply and went up-stairs to his own apartment without coming into the dining-room.