The Gold of Chickaree Part 20

'A corner,' said Dane with critical gravity, 'is a place where your path is crossed by another. Which indeed usually makes two corners; perhaps four.'

'What do you do then?'

'Turn. That is, if I cannot go straight on.'

'Therefore you see that with a train of fifteen hundred men, a corner is an awkward place,' said Dr. Arthur.

Wych Hazel went back to her cus.h.i.+ons and her pondering, making no reply. And Dr. Arthur, waiting for the answer which came not, took out his pencil and a card and began idly sketching an imaginary house. 'There,' he said, handing it over to Rollo,?'see if you can execute that?'?Across the house was written:

'Make her talk. I want to hear her.'

'There is another sort of corner,' Dane went on meditatively, after glancing at the card;?'a corner where ways end instead of meeting. The corner of a wall, for instance, _inside_, where there is no way out but to jump the wall.'

'Yes,' said Hazel. 'I thought perhaps that sort existed only in _my_ experience.'

'What is your experience of corners?'

'I have seen two fences?meet.'

'Yes, but where were you?'

'Mr. Rollo, I am talking seriously. What corners may be "ahead,"

in this mill-work?'

'None, I hope, that I cannot get round. But if we are to speak seriously, suppose that there should be a sudden failure of orders?'

'So that he could make in two days more than he could sell in six,'

said Dr. Arthur, who with arms folded and eyes on the floor was listening keenly.

'But the men could not stop eating just because he stopped selling,'

said Hazel, with her usual short run to conclusions.

'Of course,' said Dane laconically.

'Then if the work went on as usual? But how long could you do it? _That_ is what Dr. Maryland means,' said Hazel.

'You see the corner.'

Hazel saw it, and retreated again to her own among the cus.h.i.+ons.

'I am not in it yet,'?said Dane looking at her.

'No. And I should not think you would call any place where you ought to be, "a corner," ' said Hazel, who was generally impartial in her reproofs.

'Not if it _was_ a corner?' said Rollo with the most innocent gravity.

'No.'?

She laid her hand up against the side of the chair, leaning her face upon it, watching the fire. Turning slightly, from under the shadow of his own hand, Dr. Arthur studied her.

'Meanwhile, let us consider the plan of the doctor's house. I cannot show you his card, for it is not all quite as straight as Dr. Arthur's plans generally are; but I wish you two ladies would make any suggestions that occur to you; and I will make a note of them.'

'It needn't be a large house, I suppose, Dane,' said Primrose.

'Mem. To be a small house.'

'O hush, Duke!' said Prim. 'That is not a suggestion. But this _is;_ have plenty of closet room.'

'Item; with large closets.'

'Hazel, do tell him something,' said Primrose. 'He is laughing at me.'

Hazel smiled, but she was not much inclined to enter the lists.

'I am sure he has been laughing at me,' she said. 'And I do not know about the house?only it ought to be perfectly bright and pretty in every way. Because Dr. Maryland will see so much pain in the course of his work, that he ought to find nothing but a welcome when he comes home.'

'Are you satisfied, Arthur?' said Dane, as he gravely added to his notes.

'Quite. One should be, with perfection,' said the doctor. 'If Prim will kindly let me arrange my own closets.'

Prim was silent, and what she was thinking of, this story does not tell; but her next words made rather a bound from these.

'Dane,' she said suddenly, 'is there any necessity for your going down to the mills to-night unless you are sent for?'

'I think it would be proper,' said Dane, making his notes.

'Then you will go?'

'I suppose so.'

'But if you had set men to watch, I should think they might have prevented all the trouble.'

'I did not want to prevent it.'

'_Not?_ Why, Duke?'

'If it is to come, I would rather it should come now, when I am here and expecting it.'

'Is there danger of any rough work?'

'Among the men? I cannot tell.'

'O Duke! if you had set men to watch, I should think they could have put out a fire without you.'

Hazel roused up suddenly. 'Prim, how can you talk so?' she said with quick emphasis. 'Of course he must go!'

Dr. Arthur smiled.

'I do not see the must,' Primrose answered. 'You don't know what a mill-fight is, Hazel.'