Just then Ada came noiselessly into the room, and going over to the bed, asked gayly of her husband: “Did you like that piece? I think I will play it at the recital next week.”
“I would,” he replied, without a break in his voice, looking at her adoringly; and then, to Robert and Meg, who had exchanged glances, and were preparing to leave: “Must you go now? You will come again, won’t you?—Come soon—” he added, in a voice he tried to make expressionless.
After they were outside Meg could contain her grief no longer, and began to sob. “Oh, can’t _you_ see that he is dying?” she asked.
“And after he is gone, some one will have to shake that woman and say, ‘Wake up,—Charlie is dead!’”
“Life’s a short summer,—man a flower— He dies—alas! how soon he dies!”
For the next few weeks Meg and Robert were almost daily visitors at the Walker home. They could see that Charlie was failing very rapidly, but it was plain that his wife did not realize it, and that he did not wish her to.
One day Robert drove up to Mrs. Weston’s in his uncle’s phaeton, and Meg knew instinctively why he had come. Throwing on her hat, she ran out and asked breathlessly, “Oh, is it about Charlie?”
His face was grave as he answered, “The doctor has just told me that he cannot live through the day.”
“Poor, poor girl!” Meg said in quivering accents.
Robert looked at her with an expression he was himself unconscious of, but she did not meet his eyes.
Nothing more was said by either till they reached the home. Tossing a coin to a boy who was loafing in the yard, Robert asked him to take the horse back to the stable.
They went upstairs, and Ada came from the room with eyes swollen and red, and said, “You may go in,—he will want to see you.”
As they entered, and Charlie recognized them, he called out in his old cheery tones, much weakened by suffering, “My two young friends, I’m so glad to see you! Gertie, honey, get another chair so they can both sit down. How’s my little cousin?” he continued, looking at Meg. “What’s that, what’s that? No crying, little girl. We want to be cheerful and happy here.”
Meg dried her tears and tried to smile at him. “That’s it,” he said. “That’s one reason I’ve always loved this little cousin so much,” he explained, turning his eyes toward Robert. “She’s always cheerful,—never makes a fellow feel badly.”