The family Author:Edward Marshall Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XXII THE two had gone into the other bedroom when, a few moments later, Dave, thinking they had had enough time for their sentiment, came back. He loo... more »ked around the empty room with a wise grin. Then called, softly: "Madeline!" Having no reply, he smiled more wisely still and hazarded: "I guess the soft stuff is coming off." He did not think or say this with contempt. The family affection was as strong in Dave as in any of the others, although he hid it more successfully than they could. His mother heard him and came slowly through the door of the extra bedroom, closing it behind her, and, with a white, drawn face, standing with her back to it, as if to guard the miserable child within from all intruders. "Yes, David?" she said, calmly. "I stuck the old man at pool," the boy announced. "Did you?" she inquired, and, before she left the door, turned the key in its lock and slipped it deep into the pocket of her skirt. Then she crossed the room with slow, firm tread, and sank upon the tete-a-tete. There was something in her manner which alarmed her son, or, at least, tremendously astonished him. He wondered if the happiness of seeing her had madeMadeline ill, he wondered half-a-dozen things. "What is it, ma ?" he asked. She did not answer him, but sat there, gazing fixedly at him as though she did not see him, but as though his presence, none the less, suggested certain thoughts to her—thoughts which were unpleasant, worrisome. Then, slowly, the tears began to furrow down her face—a face, which, as he looked at it, seemed years older than it had before he went downstairs, leaving her alone with Madeline. "You cryin' ?" he asked quickly, in distress. "Don't do that, ma." Only once or twice, in all his life, had he seen her in tears. She had been the stro...« less