IV
Johnathan was especially jovial and agreeable about the house that night. He came in whistling. He cracked a couple of ancient jokes and talked about “sparing the money” to get the hall papered. His family looked at one another in puzzled astonishment. Mrs. Forge asked for ten dollars to spend on clothes and got five, three of which were promptly appropriated by Edith for a waist to wear to a dance that she was going to attend unbeknown to her parents. All of them felt electrically that some extraordinary business was afoot.
The family retired about ten o’clock. The lights went out. Johnathan fell asleep almost at once. He said it was easy for him to fall asleep because he always had a clear conscience.
But Nathan, sitting in his room, heard a sudden familiar whistle on the walk outside, about midnight. He escaped by the usual method to find his sweetheart in tears. They had walked a considerable distance before Nathan learned the cause. Now her grandfather was “cruel” to her.
“Oh, Nathan! I’ve got to go back to A-higher. He—he—doesn’t want me around here any more.”
Nathan heard this with a clammy throttling of his heart. Then his mind leaped intuitively to his father’s unusual affability that night.
“Carrie—I’ll bet five dollars my father’s seen your gramp and they’ve clubbed together to bust us up!”
“I’m sick and disgusted with being treated like children by two old bigots!” the girl cried vehemently. “I’m almost ready to quit!”
“Quit?” cried Nathan in alarm.
“Yes—quit! We’re grown up, now! What difference does a couple of years make, anyhow?”