store by
you."
"Thank you, madam. You are very kind. Of course, I shall strive to make
myself useful while I remain. I dare say Murray can find something for me
to do. Temporarily, at least, I might undertake the duties of the furnace
man and handy-man about the house. He is leaving to-morrow, I hear. If you
will be so good as to tell Murray that I am to take O'Toole's
place,--temporarily, of course,--I shall be very grateful. It will give me
time to collect my thoughts, ma'am."
"It will not be necessary, Wade, for you to take on O'Toole's work. I am
not asking you to perform hard, manual labor. You must not feel that my--"
"Pardon me, madam," interrupted he; "I very much prefer to do some sort of
regular work, if I may be permitted."
She smiled. "You will find Murray a hard task-master, I am afraid."
He took a long breath, as of relief--or could it have been pleasure? "I
quite understand that, madam. He is a martinet. Still, I shall not mind."
The same thought was in the mind of each: he was accustomed to serving a
hard task-master. "If you don't mind, I shall take O'Toole's place until
you find some one else. To-morrow I shall move my belongings from the room
upstairs to O'Toole's room off the furnace-room. Thank--"
"No!" she exclaimed. "You are not to do that. Keep your old room, Wade.
I--I cannot allow you to go down there. Mr. Thorpe would never forgive me
if he knew that--" He lifted his eyes at the sudden pause and saw that she
was very white. Was she too afraid of ghosts?
"It's very good of you," he said after a moment. "I shall do as you wish
in everything, and I shall let you know the instant I find another place."
He cleared his throat. "I fear, madam, that in the confusion of the past
few days I have failed to express to you my sympathy. I assure you the
oversight was not--"
She was looking straight into his eyes. "Thank you, Wade," she interrupted
coldly. "Your own grief would be sufficient excuse, if any were necessary.
If you will send Murray to me I will tell him that you have withdrawn your
notice and will stay on in O'Toole's place. It will not be necessary for
him to engage another furnace-man at present."
"No, ma'am," said Wade, and then added without a trace of irony in his
voice: "At any rate not until cold weather sets in."
And so it was that this man solved the greatest problem that had ever
confronted him. He went down into the cellars to take orders from the man
he hated, f
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