The
women watched him in silence. Presently he stooped down and kissed his
mother's forehead, at the edge of her untidy, grizzled hair.
"Good-bye, Ma!" he said. "Good-bye, girls!"
"It'll be a judgment on your father," Mrs. Cox protested. "I don't know
what's gotten into him!"
But she made no further objection; she did not get up from her place at
table when Chester crossed the kitchen, opened the street door, and went
out.
"Grandpa's a prince, all right!" said Marguerite then, and Evelyn added,
"Wouldn't it give you a pain?"
"But I notice that none of us did anything about it!" Julia said
bitterly.
"If your grandpa found Chess here when he got home to-night, there'd be
a reckoning!" the old woman asserted dully.
"And what is Uncle Chess supposed to do?" Julia demanded.
"I betcher he kills himself," Evelyn submitted.
"I betcher he does," her sister agreed.
"Well, it'll be on your grandfather's head!" the old woman said. She
began to cry, still drinking her tea.
"I wonder if he has any money?" speculated Julia.
"Where'd he get money?" Evelyn said. Julia, following an uncomfortable
impulse, went to the window in the close little parlour and looked out
into the street.
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