reported to be engaged to her; and as some of these reports got into the
newspapers occasionally, he had to keep writing to Louise that they were
lies and she must believe in him and not mind them or allow them to
grieve her.
Washington was as much in the dark as anybody with regard to the great
wealth that was hovering in the air and seemingly on the point of
tumbling into the family pocket. Laura would give him no satisfaction.
All she would say, was:
“Wait. Be patient. You will see.”
“But will it be soon, Laura?”
“It will not be very long, I think.”
“But what makes you think so?”
“I have reasons–and good ones. Just wait, and be patient.”
“But is it going to be as much as people say it is?”
“What do they say it is?”
“Oh, ever so much. Millions!”
“Yes, it will be a great sum.”
“But how great, Laura? Will it be millions?”
“Yes, you may call it that. Yes, it will be millions. There, now–does
that satisfy you?”
“Splendid ! I can wait. I can wait patiently-ever so patiently. Once I
was near selling the land for twenty thousand dollars; once for thirty
thousand dollars; once after that for seven thousand dollars; and once
for forty thousand dollars–but something always told me not to do it.
What a fool I would have been to sell it for such a beggarly trifle! It
is the land that’s to bring the money, isn’t it Laura? You can tell me
that much, can’t you?”
“Yes, I don’t mind saying that much. It is the land.
But mind–don’t ever hint that you got it from me. Don’t mention me in
the matter at all, Washington.”
“All right–I won’t. Millions! Isn’t it splendid! I mean to look
around for a building lot; a lot with fine ornamental shrubbery and all
that sort of thing. I will do it to-day. And I might as well see an
architect, too, and get him to go to work at a plan for a house. I don’t
intend to spare and expense; I mean to have the noblest house that money
can build.” Then after a pause–he did not notice Laura’s smiles “Laura,
would you lay the main hall in encaustic tiles, or just in fancy patterns
of hard wood?”
Laura laughed a good old-fashioned laugh that had more of her former
natural self about it than any sound that had issued from her mouth in
many weeks. She said:
“You don’t change, Washington. You still begin to squander a fortune
right and left the instant you hear of it in the distance; you never wait
till the foremost dollar of it arrives within a hundred miles of you,”–
and she kissed her brother good bye and left him weltering in his dreams,
so to speak.
He got up and walked the floor feverishly during two hours; and when he
sat down he had married Louise, built a house, reared a family, married
them off, spent upwards of eight hundred thousand dollars on mere
luxuries, and died worth twelve millions.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Laura went down stairs, knocked at/the study door, and entered, scarcely
waiting for the response. Senator Dilworthy was alone–with an open
Bible in his hand, upside down. Laura smiled, and said, forgetting her
acquired correctness of speech,
“It is only me.”
“Ah, come in, sit down,” and the Senator closed the book and laid it
down. “I wanted to see you. Time to report progress from the committee
of the whole,” and the Senator beamed with his own congressional wit.
“In the committee of the whole things are working very well. We have
made ever so much progress in a week. I believe that you and I together
could run this government beautifully, uncle.”
The Senator beamed again. He liked to be called “uncle” by this
beautiful woman.
“Did you see Hopperson last night after the congressional prayer
meeting?”
“Yes. He came. He’s a kind of–”
“Eh? he is one of my friends, Laura. He’s a fine man, a very fine man.
I don’t know any man in congress I’d sooner go to for help in any
Christian work. What did he say?”