“You were happy,” ventured George.
“Of course,” Storm hastened to acquiesce. “That made all the difference. But alone——”
He shrugged and turned away lest the other read too clearly the change which had come with his escape from the scene of his crime. Significant of that change was the fact that he could think of his deed as a crime now without shrinking. After the first shock of horror and remorse had passed together with the fear of detection, a sense of triumph began to dominate him, a sort of pride in himself and his achievement. He had hoodwinked them all! He, who had fancied himself a weakling merely because luck had been against him in the past, had proved his strength, his invincibility now. Old George, sitting there so placidly, blinking at him with those good-natured, near-sighted eyes of his: how little he suspected, how little he could ever suspect of the truth! The rest of them, with their smug condolences and pity!
Gad, how easy it had been!
“What do you think of Homachi?” George’s question broke in upon his self-congratulation.
“The Jap you got for me? He’s an improvement on Agnes, I can tell you!” Storm opened the bronze humidor and offered it. “Smoke?—You’ve no idea how that girl’s sniffling got on my nerves! Of course I appreciated her feelings, but hang it all, a man can’t buck up and carry on with other people constantly thrusting his own sorrow at him! Homachi is a cheerful, grinning little cuss, and he certainly can make an omelette. Come up and have breakfast some Sunday morning and you’ll see.”
“Thanks.” George spoke a trifle drily. “Glad you like him. Have you made any plans yet about the disposition of the Greenlea house?”
The constraint in his tone warned Storm that for the second time he had shown his hand too plainly, and he forced a look of pained surprise.
“Disposition of the house?” he echoed. “Heavens, no! It’s closed up, of course, and I’ve left MacWhirter there as caretaker. It was one of Leila’s last wishes, you know, to give him employment when he came out of the Base Hospital. I hadn’t dreamed of disposing of it; I couldn’t bear to think of strangers in her garden, under her roof, in the home she loved! If I’m glad to be out of it, it’s not that I am callous, but that everything about it affects me too much, George. You ought to be able to understand. If I hug my grief I’ll just simply go under, and Leila herself wouldn’t want that.”
“I do understand, old man.” George’s voice trembled now with quick sympathy, and Storm hid a smile of relief. “You’re trying to be brave for her sake, and it is fine of you! Stay away from the place by all means while it makes you feel that way. You could do worse than take a lease here for yourself next year when Jim’s expires.”