"I did it for you, child, and for us all," and in the look that Poppea turned on him he read a gratefulness beyond words.
CHAPTER XIX
JOHN ANGUS
In the early part of July, a lift having been added to the house to accommodate his wheel-chair, Miss Felton and Caleb brought Mr. Esterbrook to Quality Hill. The homecoming was in itself pathetic, but not to be compared with the starved and yearning affection that beamed from Miss Felton's eyes every time she looked at him, followed by an expression of gratitude when he managed to express the simplest wish.
In appearance the old man was as trim and dapper as of old; he never was allowed to be seen below stairs without his light gray or buff spats, and this toilet was made afresh every afternoon, though as to the evening there was no change, for he supped in his room and was put to bed by eight o'clock.
Of waistcoats and neckties he had a fresh assortment and appeared to take pleasure in them, and in some way express his choice to Caleb; but aside from the physical difficulty of speech, such as he could command had the aphasia warp, so that he usually said the opposite of what he meant, thus bringing an added bitterness to Miss Elizabeth. When she was in the room, he followed her with his eyes and sometimes refused to eat at all unless she fed him, and he often held and patted her hand when she walked beside his chair under the old shade trees, but when he tried to call her by name, it was always Emmy that he said and not Elizabeth, or Beth, as she had been called in childhood.
Sometimes Miss Felton would try to argue, saying:—
"This is Elizabeth. You know Elizabeth, do you not?" but still he would laugh noiselessly, the laugh of senility not mirth, and nod his head to and fro, saying:—
"Know Emmy? know Emmy? yes, yes, Emmy!" and sometimes throw kisses to her with the hand that he could move. So finally she let it pass unnoticed. But Miss Emmy, being once within hearing of it, conceived an intense aversion to the poor man, and afterward kept entirely out of his sight.