The Return of Peter Grimm Part 41

Dr. McPherson's heavy eyebrows met in an earnest frown as he studied Frederik.

"What?" he queried.

"To-night--here in this room," Frederik went on in a voice full of awe, "I thought I saw my uncle _there_----"

He pointed toward the desk with a little shudder.

"Eh?" said the doctor, with popping eyes, coming a step nearer. "You really mean that you thought you saw _Peter Grimm_?"

"And just before I--I saw him--I--I--had the strangest impulse to go to the foot of the stairs and call Kitty--give her the house--and run--run--get out."

"Oh!" cried the doctor sarcastically. "A good impulse. I see! Some one else _must_ have been thinking for you--certainly."

"When I wouldn't do it," the scared voice went on, "I thought he gave me a terrible look." He covered his eyes with his hand. "A _terrible_ look."

"Your uncle?" demanded Dr. McPherson.

"Yes," breathed Frederik. "_Och!_ G.o.d! I won't forget _that_ look!" he cried excitedly, uncovering his eyes again. "And as I started from the room--he blotted out--I mean I saw him blot out--Then I left the photograph on the desk, and----"

"Ah!" exclaimed the doctor triumphantly. "That's how Willem came by it.

Had you never had this impulse before--to give up Kathrien--to let her have the cottage?"

"_Not much_--I hadn't!" said Frederik decidedly, walking back and forth a moment.

Then, looking toward the desk, he reached out his hand until it touched the back of a chair beside it, and, giving the chair a quick pull out of what was evidently to him a danger zone, he sat down.

"I told you some one else was _thinking_ for me," he said. "I don't want to give her up. I love her." (His eyes went dark.) "But if she's going to turn against me for--well, I'm not going to sit _here_ and cry about it. But I'll tell you one thing: from this time I propose to think for myself. I've done with this house," he cried, getting up. "I'd like to sell it along with the rest and let a stranger"--he flung the chair recklessly against the desk--"raze it to the ground.

"When I walk out of here to-night she can have it."

He looked thoughtfully at the desk a moment.

"Oh, I wouldn't sleep here--I give her the house because--well, I----"

"You want to be on the safe side in case he _was_ there!" scoffed Dr.

McPherson.

Frederik dropped his voice almost to a whisper, and there was perplexity in it as well as awe.

"How do you account for it anyway, Doctor?" he asked.

Instead of answering, the doctor asked another question.

"Frederik," he said, "when did you see Anne Marie last?"

"Now," said Frederik disagreeably, "I'm not answering questions."

"I think it only fair to tell you," said Dr. McPherson, "that it won't matter a d.a.m.n whether you answer me or not. Don't fret yourself that I'm not going to find her. This has come home to me. I'm off to the city to-morrow. I'll have the truth from her; if I have to call in the police to trace her."

Frederik looked drearily at the doctor, then took up his gloves and began to put them on. After a pause he said dully, mechanically:

"Oh, I saw her about three years ago."

"Never since?" probed the doctor.

"No."

"What occurred the last time you saw her?"

"Oh," said Frederik lifelessly. "What _always_ occurs when a young man realises that he has his life before him--and that he must be respected, must think of his future?"

"A scene took place, eh?"

"Yes," Frederik agreed laconically.

"Was Willem present?" went on the interrogation.

"Yes, she held him in her arms."

"And then--what happened?" the doctor insisted.

Frederik dropped his eyes.

"Oh," he said, "then I left the house."

He found his hat and cane as he spoke, and walked slowly toward the door.

"Then it's all true," cried Dr. McPherson in wonderment, staring abstractedly at the floor. He raised his head suddenly and looked with stern eyes at Frederik.

"What are you going to do for Willem?" he demanded.

"Well," temporised that n.o.ble soul, "I'm a rich man now--and if I recognise him--there might be trouble. His mother's gone to the dogs anyway----"

He left the speech unfinished and turned his head away uncomfortably. He could not say such things and meet the doctor's scorching look.

"You d.a.m.ned young scoundrel!" bellowed McPherson in wrath. "Oh, what an act of charity if the good Lord took Willem!--And I say it with all my heart. Out of all you have--not a crumb for----"

"I want you to know that I've sweated for that money," Frederik turned on the doctor long enough to say. "I've sweated for it, and I'm going to keep it!"

"You _what_?" howled Dr. McPherson jeeringly.

"Yes," Frederik cried in the greatest excitement, all his calmness forsaking him utterly. "I've sweated for it! I went to jail for it.

Every day I have been in this house has been spent in prison. I've been doing time. Do you think it didn't get on my nerves? What haven't I had to do! I've gone to bed at nine o'clock and lain there thinking how New York was just waking up at that time, and how miserably I was out of it all. Lord! I've got up at c.o.c.k-crow to be in time for grace at the breakfast table. Why, didn't I take a Sunday-school cla.s.s to please him?

"Lord! Didn't I hand out the infernal cornucopias at the Church's silly old Christmas tree," he went on quickly, "while he played Santa Claus?

What more can a fellow do to earn his money? Don't you call that sweating? No, sir! I've danced like a d.a.m.ned hand-organ monkey for the pennies he left me, and I had to grin and touch my hat and make believe I liked it. Now I'm going to spend every cent for my own personal pleasure."

Once more Frederik started to go.