§ 4
The door at the foot of his bed opened, and Mrs. Huss appeared.
She had an effect of appearing suddenly, and yet she moved slowly into the room, clutching a crumpled bit of paper in her hand. Her face had undergone some extraordinary change; it was dead white, and her eyes were wide open and very bright. She stood stiffly. She might have been about to fall. She did not attempt to close the door behind her.
Mrs. Croome became audible rattling her pans downstairs.
When Mrs. Huss spoke, it was in an almost noiseless whisper. “Job!”
He had a strange idea that Mrs. Croome must have given them notice to quit instantly or perpetrated some such brutality, a suspicion which his wife’s gesture seemed to confirm. She was shaking the crumpled scrap of paper in an absurd manner. He frowned in a gust of impatience.
“I didn’t open it,” she said at last, “not till I had eaten some breakfast. I didn’t dare. I saw it was from the bank and I thought it might be about the overdraft.... All the while....”
She was weeping. “All the while I was eating my egg....”
“Oh what is it?”
She grimaced.
“From him.”
He stared.
“A cheque, Job—come through—from him. From our boy.”
His mouth fell open, he drew a deep breath. His tears came. He raised himself, and was reminded of his bandaged state and dropped back again. He held out his lean hand to her.
“He’s a prisoner?” he gasped. “Alive?”
She nodded. She seemed about to fling herself violently upon his poor crumpled body. Her arms waved about seeking for something to embrace.
Then she flopped down in the narrow space between bed and paper-adorned fireplace, and gathered the counterpane together into a lump with her clutching hands. “Oh my baby boy!” she wept. “My baby boy....
“And I was so wicked about the mourning.... I was so wicked....”
Mr. Huss lay stiff, as the doctor had ordered him to do; but the hand he stretched down could just touch and caress her hair.
Printed in the United States of America.
The following pages contain advertisements of Macmillan books by the same author.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Joan and Peter
Cloth, 12mo, $1.75
“Joan and Peter. The Story of an Education,” is an important achievement, from many points of view. Mr. Wells’ craftsmanship is at its height in his skillful arrangement of the plot which carries these two interesting young people through school and college. The sturdy Joan, at the period when she “cheeks” Peter’s week-end guests, the delightful Joan at the time when life seems to hold little for her but dancing, is an entrancing character. Not less so Peter, eager and sensitive, thrilling over Hamlet at Moscow, rebellious at the Irish complications. The revealing and brilliant writing that traces their growth makes every crisis in their lives, sport-ethics, love affairs, or politics, a vivid dramatic climax. “Uncle Nobby” is a fine drawing of the liberal-minded optimistic Briton. His braveness and humor in interviewing Dons and Deans make good reading. His travels with Peter are recorded with illuminating comments on the conditions of pre-war Europe; the comradeship of the two, so far apart in age, is cleverly analyzed. Undoubtedly these characters will appeal even more than the heroes and heroines in Mr. Wells’ widely discussed novels of other years, for they step from his most mature and fertile imagination.
“A triumphant achievement. Never has Mr. Wells spread for such a gorgeous panorama ... a living story ... a vivacious narrative imperturbable in interest on every page, always fresh and personal and assured.... This is not a novel—it is a library. It is everything that one needs to know about the public life of the significant classes in England for last twenty-five years.”—The Dial.
“Mr. Wells, at his highest point of attainment.... An absorbingly interesting book ... consummate artistry ... here is Wells, the story teller, the master of narrative.”—N. Y. Evening Sun.
In the Fourth Year
Cloth, 12mo, $1.25
Mr. Wells in this revealing study of the future politics of Europe takes up the subject of a League of Free Nations. He deals with every aspect of the plan in a strongly practical light, and makes a striking analysis of the world that will grow out of this war, bringing clearly into view every vital element contributing to its growth.
Italy, France, and Britain at War
Cloth, 12mo, $1.50
Here Mr. Wells discusses conditions as he has seen them in three of the great countries engaged in the European War. The book is divided into four main sections: I. The Passing of the Effigy; II. The War in Italy; III. The Western War; and IV. How People Think about the War.
New Worlds for Old
Cloth, 12mo, $1.50
“... is a readable, straightaway account of Socialism; it is singularly informing and all in an undidactic way.”—Chicago Evening Post.
“The book impresses us less as a defence of Socialism than as a work of art. In a literary sense, Mr. Wells has never done anything better.”—Argonaut.
What is Coming
Cloth, 12mo, $1.50
This book is a forecast of the consequences of the war. Out of the materials of the past and the history-making present, he constructs a brilliant and persuasive picture of the future, as sure of touch as his daring, imaginative essays, as full of interest as his novels.
Mr. Britling Sees It Through
Cloth, 12mo, $1.60
“The most thoughtfully and carefully worked out book Mr. Wells has given us for many a year. A veritable cross-section of contemporary English life, admirable, full of color, and utterly convincing.”—New York Times.
The Research Magnificent
Cloth, 12mo, $1.60
“A notable novel, perhaps its author’s greatest; might almost be called an epitome of human existence.”—Chicago Herald.
“Abounds in stimulating ideas.”—New York Times.
Bealby
With frontispiece. Cloth, 12mo, $1.50
“‘Bealby’ because of its sprightly style and multitude of incidents is never wearisome.”—Boston Transcript.
“Mr. Wells has written a book as unpolitical as ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and as innocent of economics as of astrology. A deliciously amusing comedy of action swift, violent, and fantastic.”—New York Times.
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman
Cloth, 12mo, $1.50
“A novel of unusual excellence told with fine literary skill. Mr. Wells has a way of going under the surface of things while presenting his incidents and characters.”—Boston Globe.
“The book has all the attractive Wells whimsies, piquancies, and fertilities of thought, and the story is absolutely good to read.”—New York World.
The Soul of a Bishop
Cloth, 12mo, $1.50
“As brilliant a piece of writing as Mr. Wells has ever offered the public; it is entertaining from beginning to end.”—N. Y. Sun.
“Its portrait of the Bishop is masterly. It has power and interest.”—N. Y. Times.
“Enormously suggestive.”—Philadelphia Public Ledger.
“A tour de force, a power, that will make people think, that will, perhaps, start a vast movement. In any event, it is a vital, compelling contribution to the life of these times. It is the ‘Robert Elsmere’ of its day.”—Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
God the Invisible King
Cloth, 12mo, $1.25
“Eloquent, acute and honest.”—Chicago Evening Post.
“One knows Mr. Wells better through ‘God the Invisible King’ than one could hope to know him through all his other work. He has accomplished his task with singular frankness and lack of self-consciousness. He reveals a courageous faith, an upstanding faith, to which a courageous, upstanding man can subscribe as he goes about his work.”—Springfield Union.
“Serious and earnest. The force with which he urges the possibility of a personal and vivifying consciousness of God must be admitted even by those who would dispute his ecclesiastical history.”—The Living Age.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Publishers 64–66 Fifth Avenue New York
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.