“Only a day or two ago. I was going around to see you to-morrow, about it, if you hadn’t come this afternoon. I’ve about made up my mind to go. My business is all up there now. There’s no sense living in Virginia two-thirds of the time and running a house down here.”
“How about Rosamund’s wedding?” the Colonel asked.
“Have it up there. You can have a wedding in Virginia just as well as you can in San Francisco. I can rent a house—a first-rate house, furnished and all ready, and give her just as good a send-off as any girl in California. That’s what I calculate to do. It’ll require money up there or down here, but that’s an expense that’s got to be.”
“June says you’ve had an offer for this house. Who made it, and what’s he offered?”
Allen leaned forward to knock off the ash of his cigar on the tray beside him.
“That’s what I wanted to see you about,” he said slowly. “Yes, I’ve had an offer. It’s from a man named Spencer from Sacramento. Just come down here to settle. He’s got a big family, and wants a good sized house and garden for the kids to play in. Fashionable locality doesn’t count for much with him. He’s offered twenty-five thousand down for the place as it stands, furniture and all.”
There was a slight pause and the speaker added:
“It’s what decided me to go to Virginia, get rid of this—and—and—get some ready money. I’m pretty close to the ragged edge, Jim.”
“I don’t see how it’s going to benefit you,” said the Colonel. “My mortgage and the interest for two years back, paid in full, doesn’t leave you much more than your fares to Virginia.”
Allen got up, walked a few steps away, then came back and stood by the Colonel’s chair. His face was deeply flushed, but it had lost its embarrassed air. He looked resolute and determined.