THE RETURN OF 
 & PETER GRIMM & 
 
 PS 1085 B23 R42 
 
 3 1822 01203 8220 
 
 DAVID BELASCO
 

 
 3 1822 01203 8220 
 
 I^MLti UfcNlA I 
 
 C A l\ r-M - ,-.-. 
 
 J 
 
 i 
 
 SAN
 
 The Return of Peter Grimm
 
 "Sleep well," said Peter Grimm. "I wish you the very 
 pleasantest of dreams a boy could have in this 
 world" (page 3 21 )
 
 The Return of Peter Grimm 
 
 NOVELISED FROM THE PLAY 
 BY 
 
 DAVID BELASCO 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 JOHN RAE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 1912
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 
 Published, September, 1912 
 
 THE CUINN H BOOEN CO. PRESS 
 
 RAH'A'AY, N. J.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I A MAN AND A MAID .... 
 
 II THE HEIR 
 
 III PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN . 
 
 IV A WARNING AND A THEORY 
 
 V A QUEER COMPACT .... 
 
 VI BREAKING THE NEWS .... 
 
 VII THE HAND RELAXES .... 
 
 VIII AFTERWARD 
 
 IX THE EVE OF A WEDDING 
 
 X A WASTED PLEA ..... 
 
 XI THE LEGACIES 
 
 XII MOSTLY CONCERNING GRATITUDE 
 
 XIII THE RETURN 
 
 XIV "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" . 
 XV A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 
 
 XVI THE "SENSITIVE" 
 
 XVII MR. BATHOLOMMEY TESTIFIES 
 
 XVIII DR. MCPHERSON'S STATEMENT 
 
 XIX BACK TO THE STORY .... 
 
 XX THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 
 
 XXI "ONLY ONE THING REALLY COUNTS" 
 
 XXII "ALL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS AGAIN" 
 
 XXIII THE DAWNING 
 
 XXIV THE GOOD-BYE
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "Sleep well," said Peter Grimm. "I wish you 
 the very pleasantest of dreams a boy could 
 have in this world" (page 321) . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 "I believe," said Peter irrelevantly, "that St. 
 
 Paul was a single man, was he not, Pastor?" 86 
 
 "Who's in the room!" he demanded . . 202
 
 The Return of Peter Grimm
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A MAN AND A MAID 
 
 THE train drew to a halt at the Junction. There 
 was a fine jolt that ran the length of the cars, fol 
 lowed by a clank of couplings and a half-intelli 
 gible call from the conductor. 
 
 The passengers, dusty, jaded, crossly annoyed 
 at the need of changing cars, gathered up their 
 luggage and filed out onto the bare, roofless station 
 platform. There, after a look down the long 
 converging rails in vain hope of sighting the train 
 they were to take, they fell to glancing about the 
 cheerless station environs. 
 
 Far away were rolling hills, upland fields of 
 wind-swept wheat, cool, dark stretches of wood 
 land. But around the station were areas of ill- 
 kept lots, with here and there a jerry-built cot 
 tage, sadly in need of shoring, and bereft of 
 paint. Across the road on one side stood the 
 general store with its clump of porch-step loaf 
 ers and its windows full of gaudy advertise 
 ments. To the side, and parallel with the tracks, 
 
 3
 
 4 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 sprawled a huge, weather-buffeted signboard that 
 read: 
 
 " Grimm's Botanical Gardens and Nurseries. 
 
 i Mile." 
 
 The passengers eyed the half-defaced lettering, 
 pessimistically. But almost at once they received 
 a far pleasanter reminder of the botanical gar 
 dens. A boy, flushed with running, and evidently 
 distressed at being late, pattered up the road and 
 onto the platform. From one of his fragile arms 
 hung a great basket. The lid had fallen aside and 
 showed the basket piled to the brim with fresh 
 flowers. 
 
 Hurrying to the nearest passenger an obese 
 travelling man who mopped a very red face, 
 the boy timidly held a Gloire de Dijon rose up to 
 him and recited with parrot-like glibness: 
 
 " With the compliments of Peter Grimm." 
 
 The fat man half unconsciously took the rose 
 from the little hand and stood looking as though 
 in dire doubt what to do with it. The boy did 
 not help him out. Already he had moved on to 
 the next passenger, this time a man of clerical 
 bearing and suspiciously vivid nose, and handed 
 him a gleaming Madonna lily.
 
 A MAN AND A MAID 5 
 
 " With the compliments of Peter Grimm," he 
 announced, passing on to the next. 
 
 And so on down the bunched line of waiting 
 men and women the lad made his way. In front 
 of each, he paused, presented a flower taken at 
 random from the basket, recited his droning for 
 mula, and passed on. 
 
 The fat travelling man stared stupidly at his 
 rose. Then he looked about him, half shame 
 facedly and in wonder. 
 
 " What in blazes ? " he began. 
 
 " You must be a stranger in this part of the 
 state," volunteered a big young fellow, who had 
 just come out of the waiting-room. " Did you 
 never hear of the flower-giving at the Junction? " 
 
 " No. What's the idea? Is it done on a bet? 
 Or is it an * ad ' for the man on the sign over 
 there?" 
 
 " Neither. It has been Peter Grimm's custom 
 for twenty years or more. Ever since I first 
 knew him." 
 
 "And it isn't an ad?" 
 
 " No," was the enigmatic answer as the big 
 young man moved off in the wake of the lad. 
 " It's Peter Grimm." 
 
 The boy meanwhile had reached the last of the
 
 6 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 passengers. She was middle-aged and motherly- 
 looking. She peered down at him with more 
 than common interest as he went through his 
 pat little presentation formula. A psychologist 
 would have gathered much from the lad's tense, 
 flushed face and in the oddly strained look of the 
 big blue eyes. To this woman, he was only a 
 thin, lonely looking youngster, whose face held an 
 unconscious appeal that she answered without read 
 ing it. 
 
 " I am very much obliged to Mr. Peter Grimm 
 for sending me this lovely flower," she said, a little 
 patronisingly, as she sniffed at the half-opened 
 Killarney rose she held. 
 
 " You need not be," answered the boy. " He 
 didn't really send it to you. In fact, I'm quite 
 sure he never even heard of you. He just sent 
 it because he is good and because " 
 
 " Because he loves flowers," suggested the 
 woman as the boy hesitated. 
 
 " No," corrected the boy, in his gentle, old- 
 fashioned diction, wherein lurked the faintest 
 trace of foreign accent, " I never heard him say 
 anything about loving flowers. But I know the 
 flowers love him." 
 
 "What?"
 
 A MAN AND A MAID 7 
 
 " You see, they grow for him as they don't grow 
 for any one else. Much better I am sure," he 
 added a little bitterly, " than they will ever grow 
 for Frederik. I don't think flowers love Fred- 
 erik." 
 
 " What queer ideas you have ! " she laughed, 
 embarrassed at his quiet statement of facts that 
 seemed to her absurd. " Are you Mr. Grimm's 
 son?" 
 
 " No, ma'am. He is not married. I don't 
 think he has any sons at all. I'm Anne Marie's 
 
 son." 
 
 "Anne Marie? Anne Marie what?" 
 
 " Just Anne Marie. I'm Willem, you know." 
 
 " William?" 
 
 " No, ma'am. Willem." 
 
 "Willem Grimm?" 
 
 " No, ma'am. Anne Marie's Willem. I Oh, 
 Mr. Hartmann ! " he broke off, catching sight of 
 the big young man who drew near, " Mynheer 
 Peter said you'd be on this train. Now I can 
 have some one to walk back with." 
 
 Slipping his hand into Hartmann's, Willem 
 turned his back on the platformful of perspiring 
 beneficiaries and, together, the two struck off down 
 the yellow, dusty road toward the double row of
 
 8 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 giant elms that marked the beginning of the vil 
 lage street. 
 
 William shuffled in high contentment alongside 
 his big companion. And as he walked, he stole 
 upward and sidelong glances of furtive hero wor 
 ship at the tall, plainly clad figure. Jim Hart- 
 mann was of a build and aspect to rouse such 
 worship in the frail little fellow. He had the 
 shoulders, the chest girth, the stride of an athlete, 
 tempered by the slight roundness of those same 
 shoulders, the non-expansiveness of chest, and the 
 heavy tread of the large man whose strength and 
 physique have been acquired at manual labour in 
 stead of in athletics. A figure more common east 
 of the Atlantic than in America. 
 
 His dark suit was neat and fitted honestly well. 
 But it was palpably not the suit of a man whose 
 father had worn custom-made clothes or whose 
 own earlier youth had been blessed with such 
 garments. Yet there was a breezy, staunch out- 
 doorness about the whole man that reminded one 
 of a breath of mountain air in a close room and 
 left half unnoticed the details of costume and 
 bearing. 
 
 " Weren't you glad to get away from New 
 York City?" queried the boy as they came into
 
 A MAN AND A MAID 9 
 
 the elm shade of Grimm Manor's one real street. 
 " A week is an awful long time to be away from 
 here." 
 
 " You bet it is. You're a lucky chap to be able 
 to stay at Grimm Manor all the time instead of 
 being sent here, there, and everywhere on busi 
 ness." 
 
 "I shouldn't like that," assented the boy; "I 
 think people would be very liable of losing their 
 way. I wonder if Mynheer Peter will send me 
 ' here, there, and everywhere on business ' when 
 I'm older." 
 
 " Perhaps," agreed Hartmann, catching the 
 slight note of wistfulness in Willem's voice. 
 " You're beginning the way I began. It wasn't 
 more than a week after my father got his garden 
 ing job with Mr. Grimm that I used to be sent 
 up to meet the trains with a basket of flowers 
 and ' the compliments of Peter Grimm.' It seems 
 more like yesterday than eighteen years ago." 
 
 " I'm glad you're back from New York City," 
 said the boy, circling back to the conversation's 
 starting-point. " It's been rather lonely. Myn 
 heer Peter has been so busy. And Frederik " 
 
 " Well," queried Jim as the boy checked him 
 self and looked nervously behind him, " what
 
 io THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 about Frederik? And why do you always look 
 like that when you speak of him?" 
 
 "Like what?" 
 
 " As if you were afraid some one would slap 
 you. Is Frederik ever unkind to you ? " 
 
 " No," denied the boy, in scared haste. " No, 
 he never is. He he doesn't notice me at all. 
 That's what I was going to say. He doesn't 
 seem to care to. But he likes to be with Kathrien, 
 I think. Yes, I'm sure he does. I think Kathrien 
 missed you, too, Mr. Hartmann." 
 
 The big man grew of a sudden vaguely em 
 barrassed. He cast back along the trail of 
 the talk for some divergent path, and found 
 one. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " it's good to be back from 
 New York. The city always seems to cramp me 
 and make it hard for me to breathe. The pave 
 ments hurt my feet and I have a silly feeling as 
 though the skyscrapers were going to topple in 
 ward." 
 
 He was talking to himself rather than to the 
 boy. But Willem rejoined sympathetically: 
 
 " I don't like New York City either." 
 
 " You, why you surely can't remember when 
 you used to live there? "
 
 A MAN AND A MAID n 
 
 The boy's fair brow creased in an effort of 
 memory. 
 
 " Sometimes," he hesitated, " I can. And 
 
 / 
 
 sometimes I don't seem able to. But I remember 
 Anne Marie. She cried." 
 
 "How is Mynheer Peter?" demanded Hart- 
 mann with galvanic suddenness. " And how are 
 that last lot of Madonna lilies coming on ? They 
 ought to be " 
 
 " Sometimes," went on the boy, still following 
 his own line of thought and oblivious of the in 
 terruption, " sometimes I wonder why she cried. 
 Sometimes for a minute or two mostly at night, 
 when I'm nearly asleep I seem to remember why. 
 |But I always forget. Mr. Hartmann, did you see 
 Anne Marie when you were in New York City? " 
 
 " No, of course not. How are Lad and Rex 
 and Paddy? And do they still dig for moles in 
 the flower-beds? Or did the dose of red pepper 
 my father scattered over the beds cure them of 
 digging?" 
 
 " I wonder," observed Willem, " why every 
 body always talks about everything else when I 
 want to talk about Anne Marie. And if other 
 fellows' mothers come to see them and live with 
 them, why doesn't Anne Marie come and live
 
 12 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 with me? I asked Oom Peter once and he 
 said " 
 
 " I've got to leave you now and hurry over 
 to Mynheer Grimm's office with my report," broke 
 in Hartmann. " My train was a little late any 
 how and you know how he hates to be kept wait- 
 ing." 
 
 They had entered a wide gateway and had 
 come from suburban America, at a step, into rural 
 Holland. The prim gravelled drive led between 
 acres of prosaically regular flower-beds, flanked 
 on one side by a domed green house and on the 
 other by a creaking Dutch windmill with weather- 
 browned sails. 
 
 Straight ahead and absurdly near the road for 
 a country house that boasted so much land about 
 it, was the stone and yellow stucco cottage that for 
 centuries had sheltered successive generations of 
 Grimms. Painfully neat, unpicturesquely ugly, the 
 house stood among its great oaks. It did not 
 nestle among them. It stood. As well expect a 
 breadth of starched brown holland to nestle. To 
 deprive the abode of any lingering taint of pic- 
 turesqueness, a blue and white signboard, thirty 
 feet long, stretching between it and the main street, 
 flashed to all the passing world the news that this
 
 A MAN AND A MAID 13 
 
 was the headquarters of the celebrated " Grimm's 
 Botanical Gardens and Nurseries." 
 
 The interior of the house was as delightful as 
 its outside was hideous. Here, neatness raised to 
 the wth power chanced to strike the keynote of a 
 certain beauty. The big living-room, with its 
 stairway leading to the bedroom gallery above, 
 was a repository of curios that would have set an 
 antiquary mad. From the ancient clock to the 
 priceless old blue china, three-fourths of the room's 
 appointments might have served to deck a Holland 
 museum. The remaining fourth contained such 
 articles as a glaringly modern telephone on a non 
 descript desk, and a compromise between old and 
 new in the shape of a square piano in the bay 
 window, an ancient table. And several patently 
 twentieth century articles helped still further to 
 rob the place of any harmony or unison in effect. 
 
 An altogether charming Dutch maiden was 
 dusting, and occasionally stopping to restore some 
 slightly disarranged article to its mathematically 
 neat position. In her blue Dutch cap, her blue 
 delft gown, and white kerchief, she seemed to 
 have danced down out of the past to strike the 
 one note of vivid life in all that sombre-furnished 
 place.
 
 14 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 She paused in the sweep of sunshine that poured 
 through the muslin-curtained bay window. A 
 step had sounded in the passage leading from the 
 rear of the house; a step she evidently knew. 
 For the full young lips broke into an involuntary 
 smile of expectancy, while the big eyes grew all 
 at once eager and happy. Jim Hartmann, a pen 
 behind his ear, a bundle of mail in his hand, came 
 into the room. He had reached the desk and de 
 posited his packet there before he caught sight 
 of her. Then, wide-eyed, silent, tense, he halted, 
 gazing at the sunshine-bathed figure in the window 
 embrasure. For an instant neither of them spoke. 
 It was the girl who broke the silence, her voice 
 charged with a strange shyness. 
 
 " Good-morning, James," she said primly. 
 
 " Good-morning, Miss Katie," he answered me 
 chanically, his eyes still wide with the loveliness 
 of the sun-kissed face that so suddenly broke in 
 upon his workaday routine. 
 
 " I wondered if you'd gotten back yet," she con 
 tinued, seeming to hunt industriously for a phrase 
 of sufficiently meaningless decorum. 
 
 " I got back ten minutes ago. I reported to 
 Mr. Grimm and brought the morning mail in here 
 to look over for him. It seems strange to find the
 
 A MAN AND A MAID 15 
 
 day so far advanced at this hour," he went on, talk 
 ing at random. " After a week in New York, 
 where no one thinks of doing business before nine 
 in the morning, it's like coming into another world 
 to be back here where the day's work begins at 
 five." 
 
 He sat down, pleasantly regardless of the fact 
 that she was still standing, and began to open 
 and sort the letters before him. The girl noticed 
 that his big hands fumbled at the unfamiliar task. 
 But she noticed far more keenly the strength and 
 massive shapeliness of the hands themselves. 
 
 " Do you like being secretary? " she queried. 
 
 " Yes, in a way. I've walked ' outside ' in the 
 gardens and nurseries so many years, it seems queer 
 to be penned up indoors and have to scribble 
 letters and open mail. But I'd sooner shovel dirt 
 than not be here at all. I couldn't last a month 
 at a job where there wasn't gardening going on 
 all around me and where I couldn't sneak off once 
 in a while and do a bit of it myself." 
 
 " That's the way I feel," she said simply, 
 " though I never thought to put it in words before. 
 I must live where things are growing. Where, 
 every time I look out of the window, I can see 
 orchards and shrubs and hothouses. Oh, it's all
 
 1 6 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 so beautiful ! And, James, our orchids this season 
 but I forgot. You don't care for orchids/' 
 
 " They're pretty enough, I suppose," vouch 
 safed Hartmann. " But the big men in the busi 
 ness are doing wonderful things with potatoes these 
 days. And look at what Father Burbank's done in 
 creating an edible cactus ! Sometimes it makes me 
 feel bitter when I think what I might have done 
 with vegetables if I hadn't squandered so much 
 God'given time studying Greek." 
 
 But" 
 
 " Oh, yes. It made a hit with father to have 
 me study a lot of things that would only help a 
 college professor. He's worked in the dirt, in 
 overalls, all his life. And like most people who 
 never had one, he sets a crazy value on so-called 
 ' education.' But all this can't interest you," he 
 finished ruefully. 
 
 " It does interest me. You know it does. But 
 there's something I'd like to say to you if you 
 won't be angry." 
 
 " At you? Why " 
 
 " It's this : I want you so much to get on. Why 
 won't you try harder to to please Uncle Peter? " 
 
 " I do try. I'm square with him. That's the 
 trouble. That's why I don't make more of a hit.
 
 A MAN AND A MAID 17 
 
 He asks me my ' honest opinion ' about something 
 or other. I give it. Then he blows up." 
 
 " But if you'd try to be more tactful " 
 
 " You said that once before to me, Miss Katie. 
 I asked you what ' tactful ' meant. And when you 
 told me " 
 
 " When I told you, you said it was ' just a 
 fancy name for being hypocritical.' But it isn't, 
 a bit. Can't you try not to be quite so so ? " 
 
 "Cranky?" 
 
 " No, blunt. It will smooth things over so 
 much with Uncle Peter. He's really the gentlest, 
 dearest " 
 
 " I've noticed it," said Hartmann drily. " But 
 I'll try if you want me to. I promise." 
 
 ;< Thank you," she answered. 
 
 And, perhaps to seal the pledge, their hands met. 
 The sealing of a pledge is not a matter to slur 
 over with careless haste, but requires due time. 
 And it was but natural that the handclasp should 
 be symbolic of that deliberation. Indeed, it is 
 hard to say just how long his big hand and her 
 little one might have remained clasped together 
 had inclination been allowed to prevail. But, as 
 usual in Hartmann's life, inclination was not con 
 sulted. ,The door behind them opened sharply,
 
 1 8 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 and the clasped hands parted as if at a signal. 
 Hartmann slipped back into his chair at the desk, 
 while the girl busied herself with a new and com 
 mendable activity in her task of setting the im 
 maculate room to rights. 
 
 Both seemed to realise without turning around 
 that one more of their too brief interviews had 
 been unceremoniously cut short. 
 
 The man whose advent caused the curtailment 
 of the promise's sealing was as foreign looking 
 as the room itself. Dapper, dressed in a sort of 
 elaborate carelessness, his figure alone carried with 
 it an air of assurance that Hartmann always found 
 almost as irritating as the man's gracefully exag 
 gerated manner and speech. His blonde hair was 
 brushed back from a high, narrow forehead. A 
 turned-up moustache and a close-trimmed and 
 pointed Van Dyke beard added to the foreign 
 aspect. 
 
 The newcomer took in the scene with a glance 
 that apparently grasped none of its details. He 
 nodded curtly to Hartmann, then crossed to where 
 the girl was dusting.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE HEIR 
 
 " HELLO, Kitty," he said. " Good-morning." 
 
 " Good-morning, Frederik," responded the girl, 
 and started toward the stairs. 
 
 But the man intercepted her. Catching her 
 playfully by the arm he tried to draw her toward 
 him. 
 
 " You're pretty as a June rose to-day," he 
 laughed. 
 
 Hartmann, instinctively, had half-risen from his 
 chair. The girl, noting his movement and the 
 frown gathering on his face, checked her impulse 
 to retort, quietly disengaged herself from the 
 newcomer's familiar grasp, and ran up the short 
 stair flight that led into the gallery. 
 
 In no way offended, the man glanced after 
 her with another short laugh, then turned to 
 Hartmann. 
 
 " Where's my uncle? " he asked. 
 
 Hartmann looked up with elaborate slowness 
 from the notes he was making of the newly opened 
 mail. His eyes at last rested on the dapper figure 
 
 19
 
 20 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 before him, with the impersonal, faintly irritated 
 gaze one might bestow on a yelping puppy. 
 
 " Mr. Grimm is outside," he answered. " He's 
 watching my father spray the plum trees. The 
 black knot's getting ahead of us this year." 
 
 " I wonder," grumbled Frederik, lounging 
 across to the window, " if it's possible once a year 
 to ask a simple question of any inmate of this 
 cursedly dreary old place without getting a botan 
 ical answer." 
 
 " That's what we are here for those of us 
 that work," said Hartmann, returning to his note 
 making. 
 
 " Work, work, work I " mocked Frederik. 
 " When I inherit my beloved uncle's fortune, I 
 shall buy up all the dictionaries and have that 
 wretched word crossed out of them." 
 
 Hartmann made no reply. He did not seem 
 to have heard. But Frederik, absently ripping 
 to atoms a Richmond rose from the window table 
 vase, continued his muttered tirade. An inatten 
 tive audience was better than none. 
 
 "Work!" he growled. "When people here 
 aren't talking about it, they're doing it. Grubby, 
 earthy work. And it was to prepare for this sort 
 of thing that I loafed through Leyden and Heidel-
 
 THE HEIR 21 
 
 berg! Yes, and loafed through, creditably, too; 
 even if Oom Peter did bully me into making a 
 specialty of botany. Botany! Dry as dust. 
 After the Univerrity and after my wanderjahr, 
 I thought it would be another easy task to come 
 here, and ' learn the business.' Easy ! As easy 
 as the treadmill. And as congenial." 
 
 " I wonder you don't tell Mr. Grimm all that. 
 I'm sure it would interest him." 
 
 " My dear, worthy uncle, who builds such 
 wonderful hopes on me? Not I. It would break 
 his noble heart. I hope you quite understand, 
 Hartmann, that I keep quiet only through fear of 
 wounding him and not with any fear that he 
 might bequeath the business elsewhere." 
 
 u Quite," returned Hartmann drily. " That's 
 why I keep my mouth shut when he holds you up 
 to me as a paragon of zeal and industry and 
 asks me why I don't pattern myself after you. 
 But, for all that, you're taking chances when you 
 talk to me about him as you do." 
 
 " I'm not," contradicted Frederik. " I may 
 not know botany. But I know men. You love 
 me about as much as you love smallpox. But 
 you belong to the breed that doesn't tell tales. 
 Besides, I've got to speak the truth to some one,
 
 22 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 once in a while, if I don't want to explode. You're 
 a splendid safety valve, Hartmann." 
 
 The secretary bent over his notes. His fore 
 head veins swelled, and his face darkened. But 
 he gave no overt sign of offence. Frederik, 
 watching keenly, seemed disappointed. 
 
 " In New York," he pursued with a sigh, 
 " they're just about thinking of waking up. And 
 look at the time I'm routed out of bed! Say, 
 Hartmann, I wish you would give Oom Peter a 
 hint to oil his shoes. Every morning he wakes 
 me up at five o'clock, creaking down the stairs. 
 It's a sort of pedal alarm clock. Creak 1 Creak ! 
 Creak ! Ach, Gottf Even yet I can hardly keep 
 one eye open. If ever it pleases Providence to 
 give me my heritage, the first thing I'll do will 
 be to sleep till noon. And then to go to sleep 
 again." 
 
 He stared moodily out of the window into the 
 glowing, flower-starred June world. 
 
 " How I loathe this pokey, dead old village ! " 
 he complained. " And what wouldn't I give to 
 be back with the old Leyden crowd for one little 
 night!" 
 
 He lurched over to the piano, sat carelessly, 
 sidewise, on its stool, and, thrumming at the key-
 
 THE HEIR 23 
 
 board, fell to humming in a slurring, reminiscent 
 fashion, the old Leyden University chorus: 
 
 " Ach, daar koonet ye amuseeren! lo vivat lo vivat 
 Nostorum sanitas, hoc estamoris forculum, 
 Dolores est anti gotumIo vivat lo vivat 
 Nostorum sanitas / 
 
 " Say, Hartmann," he broke off from his jumble 
 of Dutch and Hollandised Latin, " the old man 
 is aging. He's aging fast." 
 
 "Who?" asked Hartmann absently, glancing 
 up from his work. "Oh, your uncle? Yes, he 
 is mellowing. He is changing foliage with the 
 years." 
 
 " Changing foliage? Not he. He changes 
 nothing. What was good enough forty years ago 
 seems to him quite good enough to-day. He's 
 as old-fashioned as his hats. And they're the 
 oldest things since Noah's time. He's just as old- 
 fashioned in his financial ways. In my opinion, 
 for instance, this would be a capital time to sell 
 out the business. But he " 
 
 " Sell out? " echoed Hartmann in genuine hor 
 ror. " Sell out a business that's been in his family 
 for why, man, he'd as soon sell his soul. This 
 business is his religion." 
 
 " Yes, and that's why it is so flourishing in 
 spite of his back-date customs. It's at the very
 
 24 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 acme of its prosperity now. Why, the plant must 
 be worth an easy half million. Yes, and more. 
 Lord, but it would sell now! One, two, three, - 
 Augenblick! By the way, speaking of selling, 
 what was the last offer the dear old gentleman 
 turned down from Hicks of Rochester?" 
 
 But Hartmann did not hear the question. He 
 was staring at Frederik in open-mouthed astonish 
 ment. 
 
 "Sell out?" he repeated dully. "This is a 
 new one even from you. There isn't a day your 
 uncle doesn't tell me how triumphantly you are 
 going to carry on the business after he is gone. 
 He " 
 
 " Oh, I am ! " sneered Frederik. " I am. Of 
 course I am. How can you doubt it. Wait and 
 see. It's a big name ' Peter Grimm.' And the 
 old gentleman knows his business. He assuredly 
 knows his business." 
 
 " I don't mind being the repository of your 
 confidences about hating work," burst out Hart 
 mann, " any more than I mind listening to the 
 mewing of a sick cat. But when you strike this 
 new vein, you'll have to choose another audience. 
 I'm afraid I'd be likely to take sudden charge of 
 the meeting and break the talented orator's neck."
 
 THE HEIR 25 
 
 He gathered up some of his papers and stamped 
 out Frederik looked after him uncertainly, took 
 a step toward the door through which the secretary 
 had just vanished, then thought better of the idea, 
 laughed shortly, and drew out a cigarette. But a 
 creaking of heavy shoes on the walk outside led 
 him to slip the cigarette back into its case, and 
 to bend interestedly over the pile of office mail 
 Hartmann had opened. 
 
 If Kathrien had typified all that was dainty and 
 alluring in the room's Dutch art, the man who 
 now stamped in from the front vestibule, assuredly 
 was typical of all old Holland's solidity. Stocky, 
 of medium height, he was clad more as though 
 he had copied the fashions depicted in a daguerro- 
 type than those of the twentieth century. His 
 black broadcloth was of no recent cut. His low, 
 upright collar and broad cravat were of stock-like 
 aspect, while a high hat such as he wore has cer 
 tainly appeared in no show window since 1870. 
 
 Withal, there was nothing ludicrous or even 
 incongruous about the costume. It belonged with 
 the wearer. And while on another man it would 
 have been absurd, on him it seemed the only log 
 ical apparel. 
 
 Peter Grimm halted in the vestibule, laboriously
 
 26 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 removed his rubbers, and dropped his heavy ash 
 stick into its place on the rack. Then he care 
 fully lifted the antique hat from his head, de 
 posited it on a peg, and came forward into the 
 room. The face, revealed as he left the vesti 
 bule's gloom for the bright sunlight, was at first 
 glance hard, deeply lined, and stubborn; the effect 
 accented by a set mouth, the little truculently alert 
 eyes under bushy brows, and the slightly uptilted 
 nose. 
 
 A second look, however, would have revealed, 
 to any one who could read faces, a lovable and 
 almost tender light behind the eye's sharp twinkle 
 and a kindly, humorous twist to the stubborn 
 mouth. Hot temper, the physiognomist would 
 have read, and obstinacy. But there the catalogue 
 of faults would have ended abruptly. The rest 
 was warm heart, trustfulness, eager sympathy, 
 an almost child-like friendliness toward the world 
 at large that forever battled for mastery with 
 native Dutch shrewdness. 
 
 There was far more kindness than shrewdness 
 in the square old face just now, as Grimm noted 
 his nephew's presence and his deep absorption in 
 the contents of the mail. Frederik looked up as 
 Grimm came forward.
 
 THE HEIR 27 
 
 " Good-morning, Oom Peter," said he. 
 
 " Good-morning, Fritzy," returned Grimm. 
 " Hard at work, I see." 
 
 " Not so hard but that you were ahead of me. 
 I felt unpardonably lazy when I heard you come 
 downstairs at five." 
 
 " I'm sorry I woke you. Youngsters need their 
 sleep. We old fellows have done about all the 
 dozing we need to do; and we are coming so 
 close to our Long Sleep that God gives us extra 
 wakefulness for the little time left; so we may see 
 as much as possible of this glorious old world of 
 His." 
 
 " I ran over from the office " 
 
 " Oh, I know why you ran over, Fritzy. A 
 word with Kathrien yes?" 
 
 " No, sir, I try to forget everything but work 
 during business hours. I came to look for you. 
 I've a suggestion " 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 Grimm's face lighted with the rare smile that 
 played over its harsh outlines like sunshine. Each 
 proof of his nephew's interest in the work was 
 as tonic to him. 
 
 " I came over," went on Frederik, by hard 
 mental calisthenics creating an impromptu sugges-
 
 28 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 tion, " to propose that we insert a full-page 
 cut of your new tulip in our midsummer floral 
 almanac." 
 
 " H' m ! " muttered Grimm doubtfully. " I 
 don't see why we " 
 
 " Oh, sir, the public's expecting it." 
 
 "What makes you think so?" 
 
 " Why," now quite at home with his newly 
 evolved notion, " you've no idea the stir the 
 tulip has made. We get letters from every 
 where " 
 
 " It didn't seem to me anything so extraordi 
 nary," said Grimm modestly, albeit hugely grati 
 fied. " I'll think over the plan. What have you 
 been doing all day? " 
 
 Frederik glanced at the clock. It registered 
 three minutes before nine. 
 
 " Oh, I've had a busy morning," he answered. 
 " In the packing house. Lots of orders to attend 
 to. It's never safe to trust the more important 
 ones to subordinates." 
 
 " That's right," approved Grimm. " Fritzy, it 
 does me good, all through, to see you taking hold 
 of the business the way you're doing." 
 
 Further praise was cut short by old Marta, the 
 housekeeper, who bustled in to attend to her reg-
 
 THE HEIR 29 
 
 ular nine o'clock duty of winding the chain- 
 weighted Dutch clock. 
 
 As she drew up the weights with a grate and a 
 whirr that made audible conversation quite out 
 of the question, she formed a study, in clothes and 
 visage, that might have stepped direct from a 
 Franz Hals canvas. 
 
 There was nothing American or modern about 
 the old woman. Nothing about her save her face 
 had changed since the day, sixty years back, when 
 an earlier Grimm, returning from a visit from the 
 Fatherland, had brought her to Grimm Manor as 
 maid for his young American wife. Her task 
 accomplished, Marta turned dutifully to courtesy 
 to her master. 
 
 " Huge moroche, Mynheer Grimm" she saluted 
 him. " Komt ujuist eut dl teumf " 
 
 " Ja" replied Peter, dropping into the tongue 
 of his fathers, yet with an odd twinkle in his little 
 eyes. " En ik bin hongerig. Taking her morn 
 ing exercise," he added, noting the performance 
 with the clock weights. 
 
 " You are always making fun of me! " sniffed 
 Marta, trying not to grin as she swept indignantly 
 out of the room. 
 
 In her departure she nearly collided with Hart-
 
 30 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 mann, who was entering from the offices. Seating 
 himself at the desk, dictation pad in hand, Hart- 
 mann asked: 
 
 " Are you ready for me, sir? " 
 
 " Yes," answered Grimm. " No, I'm not. But 
 I will be in a minute. There's something I'd for 
 gotten. Wait " 
 
 Cupping his hands about his mouth, Grimm 
 wheeled to face the gallery and shouted a curiously 
 high-pitched dissyllable : 
 
 "Ouhoof" 
 
 And, as though a sweeter, more silvery echo of 
 the rough old voice, came from one of the gallery 
 rooms an answering hail. Kathrien herself fol 
 lowed close upon her reply to the familiar signal 
 call. 
 
 "Oh, Oom Peter!" she exclaimed, running 
 lightly down the stairs and throwing her arms 
 about his neck. " Good-morning. How careless 
 I was not to come sooner and make your coffee. 
 I didn't know you were in yet. You must be half 
 starved." 
 
 She started for the dining-room. But Grimm's 
 arm was about her waist, detaining her. 
 
 " This is the very busiest little woman you ever 
 saw, Frederik," he announced. " She is forever
 
 THE HEIR 31 
 
 thinking of things to do for me. And I'm never 
 remembering to do anything for her." 
 
 " Shame! " cried Kathrien, " you do everything 
 in this big world for me, Oom Peter, and you know 
 it. I've got everything any girl's heart could ask." 
 
 " Oh, no, you haven't though," sagely contra 
 dicted Grimm. " Before you say that, wait till 
 I give you some fine young chap for a husband. 
 Hey, Frederik?" 
 
 She drew away from his embrace with gentle 
 impatience. 
 
 "Don't, Oom Peter," she begged. "You're 
 always talking about weddings lately. I don't 
 know what's come over you." 
 
 " It's nesting time," Grimm defended himself. 
 " Weddings are in the air. And then, I keep 
 thinking of all the linen packed in my grand 
 mother's chest upstairs. We must use it again 
 some day. There, there, little girl! You shan't 
 be teased any more. Only, I'll leave it to you, 
 Fritzy, if she doesn't deserve a grand husband, 
 this little girl of mine. If for no other reason, 
 to pay for all she's done for me." 
 
 " Done for you ? " laughed Kathrien. " Truly, 
 I was forgetting that. I do you the great favour 
 of letting you do everything for me."
 
 32 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Nonsense ! Who lays out my linen and 
 brushes my clothes and fixes wonderful little 
 dishes for me, and puts my slippers and dressing 
 gown in front of the fire on cold nights, and puts 
 flowers on my desk every day? And, best of all, 
 Kindchen, who floods this old house of mine with 
 the glory of Youth?" 
 
 "Youth?" she mocked with the true scorn of 
 the young for their supreme gift. " Youth can't 
 do very much. What does it amount to ? " 
 
 " Nothing much," gravely answered her uncle. 
 ' Youth, as you say, is not anything worth men 
 tioning. It is only the most priceless and most 
 perishable treasure in God's storehouse. It is 
 only the thing that means Beauty and Strength 
 and Hope. It is the thing we all despise as long 
 as we have it and would give our souls to get 
 back as soon as we have lost it. No, as you say, 
 Youth doesn't amount to much. It is only the 
 nearest approach to Immortality that mortals have 
 ever known. Why, where should I be now, a 
 grouchy old bachelor like me without Youth in 
 my house? Why, Frederik, this girl has made 
 me feel kindlier toward all other women." 
 
 "Oh, I have, have I?" demanded Kathrien, 
 " that's more than I bargained for."
 
 THE HEIR 33 
 
 " Don't flatter yourself," he joked. " It's only 
 the way one feels about a pet. One likes all the 
 rest of the breed." 
 
 " That's true," broke in Hartmann, throwing 
 himself into the conversation on impulse. " It's 
 so. A man studies one girl and then presently 
 he begins to notice the same little traits in them 
 all. It makes one feel differently toward the rest 
 of them." 
 
 He glanced shamefacedly back at his dictation 
 pad as the others turned and stared at him in 
 astonishment. But not before he had noted the 
 shy smile that crept over Kathrien's face or the 
 unpleasant glint in Frederik's pale eyes. 
 
 Hartmann so seldom took part in general con 
 versation and was so reticent concerning every 
 phase of sentiment, that Grimm was for the mo 
 ment almost as astounded as though one of his 
 own bulbs had burst into speech. 
 
 " An expert opinion," commented Frederik 
 sneeringly. " And from a confirmed bachelor 
 like James ! " 
 
 "A confirmed bachelor?" Grimm innocently 
 caught up the slur. "What a life! I know. 
 I have been one ever since I can remember. 
 When a bachelor wants to order a three-rib stand-
 
 34 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 ing roast, who is to eat it? Why, I never had 
 the right sort of a roast on my table until Katje 
 came into the family. And now that you're here 
 too, Fritzy, the roasts get bigger. But not big 
 enough, even yet. Oh, we must find the hus 
 band for " 
 
 "Oom Peter!" protested Kathrien. "You 
 promised you wouldn't tease " 
 
 " Tease? " repeated Grimm, as though he heard 
 the word for the first time. " Why, how could 
 you have imagined such a thing, child? I was 
 only telling Frederik about the sort of roasts I 
 like on my table. And speaking of tables, 
 Fritzy, I like a nice long table with plenty of 
 young people at it. And myself at the head, 
 carving and carving, and seeing the plates passed 
 round and round and round; getting them back 
 and back and back There, there, Katje! They 
 shan't tease you. We'll keep the table just as it is. 
 For you and Fritz and me. A nice little circle. 
 All in the family." 
 
 The telephone bell set up a purring. Hart- 
 mann picked up the receiver. 
 
 "Hello," he called. "Yes, this is Mr. 
 Grimm's house. Yes. Wait one moment, 
 please."
 
 THE HEIR 35 
 
 He put his palm over the transmitter and 
 turned to Grimm. 
 
 " It's Hicks again, sir," he reported. " He 
 wants to talk more with you about buying the 
 business." 
 
 "Buying the business, hey?" snorted Grimm 
 in sudden rage. " No ! No ! I've told him ten 
 million times it's not on the market and never 
 will be. Tell him so again." 
 
 " Mr. Grimm says," called Hartmann into the 
 transmitter, " that the business is not for sale. 
 He says what? Wait a minute. Mr. Grimm, 
 he insists on speaking to you personally." 
 
 "He does, hey?" growled Peter, advancing 
 upon the telephone as though upon an enemy that 
 must be crushed at a blow. 
 
 "Hello!" he roared wrathfully into the in 
 strument. " Hello ? What ? Why, my old 
 friend, how are you? And how are your plum 
 trees doing? Mine, too. Well, we can only 
 pray and use Bordeaux Mixture. What?" 
 
 He paused to listen. Then he went on as if 
 to humour a cross child. 
 
 " No, no, it's nonsense. Why, this business 
 has been in the Grimm family for over a hundred 
 years. Why should I sell? I'm going to arrange
 
 36 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 for it to stay in the family a hundred years longer. 
 -Hey? What's that? No, no. Of course not. 
 Of course I don't propose to live a hundred years 
 longer. But I propose that my plans shall. How 
 can I make certain? Never mind how. I'm go 
 ing to arrange all that. Yes, I know I'm a bache 
 lor. You don't need to spend good money on 
 long distance phoning, to remind me of that. Oh 
 good-bye ! " 
 
 Grimm turned away from the table with a 
 growl, to confront Kathrien. 
 
 "Why, girl! " he exclaimed, in quick concern. 
 " You look as if you are going to cry. What is 
 it? Tell Oom Peter!"
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 
 
 "THAT man! " panted Kathrien. "He actually 
 wants to buy our home our gardens! Oh!" 
 slipping for a moment back into the Dutch that 
 was ever nearer to her heart than English, " Stel 
 je zoon brutali tat! " 
 
 "Don't you worry!" consoled Peter. "He 
 won't get a stick or a stone of ours. Wouldn't 
 you think that girl had been born a Grimm, Fritzy ? 
 She's got the true spirit. No, no, dear. Of 
 course we won't sell. Never. Never. Never. 
 Hey, Fritz?" 
 
 "Certainly not!" declared Frederik. "The 
 idea is preposterous." 
 
 " Fritzy ! " exclaimed Grimm. " Speaking of 
 ideas, I've got one, too. We'll print the Grimm 
 history in our new Midsummer Almanac. That's 
 better than a full-page cut of any tulip that ever 
 sprouted. Katie, go get the Staaten Bible and 
 read it aloud to us. We can tell, then, how it 
 will strike the public." 
 
 The girl went to the side table where lay the 
 
 37
 
 38 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 great Bible, drew a chair up to it, seated herself, 
 turned over the leaves until she found what she 
 sought, then began to read in a manner that argued 
 many previous renditions of the quaint old phrase 
 ology. 
 
 " In the spring of 1709 there settled on Quassic 
 Creek, New York Colony, Johann Grimm, aged 
 twenty-two husbandman and vinedresser. Also, 
 Johanna, his wife. To him Queen Anne furnished 
 one square, one rule, one compass, two whipping 
 saws, and several small pieces " 
 
 " You left out ' two augers,' ' prompted 
 Grimm. 
 
 " Yes, ' and two augers.' To him was born a 
 son and " 
 
 " See? " cried Grimm. " That was the founda 
 tion of our family and our business here. And 
 here we are, still. After seven generations. 
 We'll print it. Hey, Fritzy?" 
 
 " Certainly, sir," approved Frederik, stifling a 
 yawn with an access of filial enthusiasm. " By all 
 means, we'll print it." 
 
 " And, Fritzy," continued Grimm, with heavy 
 significance, " we're relying on you for the next 
 line in the book." 
 
 Frederik glanced around him. Hartmann,
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 39 
 
 during the reading, had gone from the room to 
 get some papers he had left at the office. But 
 Kathrien still lingered, restoring the Bible to its 
 wonted place. 
 
 " Oh, by the way, Oom Peter," said Frederik, 
 lowering his voice so as not to reach the girl's 
 ears, " I want to speak to you about a private 
 matter when you can spare me a moment. When 
 I come back from the packing house will be time 
 enough. I just want to give a glance to those 
 last shipments." 
 
 " All right, lad," agreed Grimm. " Any time." 
 
 He looked fondly after the dapper figure. 
 
 " Isn't he a splendid, handsome, hustling young 
 chap, Katje?" he demanded. "If only his 
 mother had lived to see him now, wouldn't she 
 have been proud of him? And what a complete 
 little family we three make ! " 
 
 " We three? " hesitated the girl. 
 
 " Surely. That's all there are of us at pres 
 ent, isn't it? I don't think I have made a mis 
 count." 
 
 "You don't count in James!" 
 
 " James? " he queried sharply. " Why should 
 I?" 
 
 " Why shouldn't you ? " she retorted eagerly.
 
 40 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Oom Peter, if you don't mind my saying so, I 
 think you're just a little unfair to James. He 
 used to have dinner with us nearly every day. 
 Can't you make him a little more at home more 
 like one of the family?" 
 
 "Why, you good, unselfish little girl!" ap 
 plauded Grimm. " You think of everybody. 
 James is " 
 
 Hartmann came in with several newly typed 
 letters to be signed, and Grimm turned to meet 
 him with something akin to cordiality. 
 
 " James," said he, " will you have dinner with 
 us to-day? " 
 
 " Why, yes," answered Hartmann, in pleased 
 surprise. " Certainly. Thank you very much. 
 Will you glance over these and sign them?" he 
 added, wondering at the grateful smile Kathrien 
 flashed at Peter as she passed into the dining-room 
 and left the two men alone together. 
 
 Grimm, too, wondered a little at the warmth of 
 the girl's smile. 
 
 " She has bloomed out lately like a rose," he 
 mused as he looked over the letters the secretary 
 proffered him. 
 
 "Yes, sir! " involuntarily agreed Hartmann. 
 
 "So you've noticed it, too?"
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 41 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied Hartmann stiffly as he re 
 covered his self-control. 
 
 " Ach! " murmured Grimm, as he signed letter 
 after letter and passed them over to Hartmann for 
 sealing. " What a grip she has taken on my 
 heart! A good girl, James. A good little girl. 
 And I've sheltered her, ever since she came to me, 
 as I shelter my violets from the cold. That's as 
 it should be, hey? " 
 
 " Y-e-s, in a way." 
 
 "What's that?" bristled Grimm, looking up 
 at the unexpected answer to the question that had 
 seemed to him to require none. " What do you 
 mean? Oh, speak out, manl" as the secretary 
 hesitated. " Never be afraid to express an honest 
 opinion." 
 
 " I mean just this. No one can shape any one 
 else's life. All people should be made to under 
 stand that they are free." 
 
 "Free? Nonsense! Katje's free. Free as 
 air. Do you mean to tell me a girl should be 
 more free than she is? We must think for young 
 people who can't think for themselves. And no 
 girl can." 
 
 " But I believe " 
 
 " Bah 1 Who cares what you believe. James,
 
 42 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 I'm sometimes afraid you're just a little bit set 
 in your ways; almost obstinate." 
 
 " But in this," stoutly maintained Hartmann, 
 " I know I'm right. We can't think for other 
 people any more than we can eat or sleep for 
 them. Every happy creature is bound, by na 
 ture, to lead its own life. And, first of all, it 
 must be free! " 
 
 " James," asked Grimm in amused contempt, 
 " where on earth do you get these wild ideas? " 
 
 " By reading what modern thinkers write, 
 sir." 
 
 " H' m ! I thought so. Change your men 
 tal diet. There's a set of Jost Vanden Vandell 
 over on the shelves. Read it. Cultivate senti 
 ment." 
 
 Hartmann shrugged his big shoulders and went 
 on sealing and stamping letters. But Grimm 
 would not let this topic drop so easily. 
 
 " Free! " he scoffed. " Maybe you've thought 
 you noticed Katje was not happy?" 
 
 " No, sir. I can't honestly say I have." 
 
 "I should think not!" chimed in Peter. 
 " These are the happiest hours of her whole life. 
 Don't I know ? Can't I tell ? Don't I know her 
 and love her better than any one else does ? She's
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 43 
 
 happy. Beautifully happy. And why shouldn't 
 she be ? She's young. She's in love. She's soon 
 to be married. What girl wouldn't be happy? " 
 
 There was a long pause. Peter was reading 
 over the last letter of the budget. Hartmann was 
 staring at him aghast. 
 
 " Soon to be married? " breathed the secretary 
 when he could steady his voice. " Then then it's 
 all settled, sir?" 
 
 " No," replied Peter. " But it soon will be. 
 I'm going to settle it. Any one can see how she 
 feels toward Frederik." 
 
 " But," faltered Hartmann lamely, " isn't she 
 very very young to be married? " 
 
 " Not when she marries into the family. Not 
 when I'm here to watch over her. You see Sit 
 down again, James. I like to talk about it to 
 some one who is interested. And you are in 
 terested, aren't you?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," the secretary managed to say. 
 
 " Very good. Now, in following out my 
 plans " 
 
 " Oom Peter," called Kathrien from the dining- 
 room, " I have your coffee all ready. Shall I 
 bring it in? " 
 
 " By and by, dear. By and by. I am busy
 
 44 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 now. I'll let you know. Shut the door, won't 
 you?" 
 
 She obeyed. And to the hungrily watching 
 secretary it seemed as if the door were closing, in 
 his very face, upon the gates of Paradise. 
 
 " In following my plans," Grimm was repeat 
 ing, " I've had to be pretty shrewd and secretive. 
 For it wouldn't do to let either of them suspect 
 too soon. And I flatter myself they didn't. 
 Here's my notion. I made up in my mind to keep 
 Katje in the family. I'm a rich man. And so 
 I've had to guard against young fellows who 
 would dangle around after a girl for her money. 
 I've guarded that point rather well. The whole 
 town, for instance, understands that Katje hasn't 
 a penny. Doesn't it?" 
 
 " I believe so." 
 
 " I've made a number of wills. But I've de 
 stroyed them all, one after another. And any 
 time any of her boy friends called, I've well, I've 
 had business that kept me here in the room. When 
 she goes to a dance, how does she go? With 
 me. When she goes to the theatre, how does 
 she go? With me. When she has had candy 
 or any other present, who gave it to her? / did. 
 And so it has been from the first. Every pleasure
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 45 
 
 < she's had 'em all. And she had 'em all from 
 me. What's the result? She's perfectly happy 
 and " 
 
 " But," argued Hartmann, " did you want her 
 to be happy simply because you were happy? 
 Didn't you want her to be happy because 
 she ?" 
 
 " So long as she is happy," retorted Grimm, 
 " why should I care what does it? " 
 
 " If she's happy," repeated the secretary. 
 
 "If she's happy?" mocked Grimm, his Dutch 
 temper beginning to smoulder behind his gentle, 
 obstinate little eyes. "If? What do you mean ? 
 That's the second time you've Why do you harp 
 on that iff" 
 
 His voice rose threateningly. The silver grey 
 mane on his head bristled like a boar's. Hart 
 mann rose and started quietly for the door. 
 
 " Where are you going? " shouted Grimm. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir," said the secretary, continu 
 ing his doorward progress. 
 
 " Come back here ! " ordered Grimm fiercely. 
 " Come back here, I say! Sit down! So! Now, 
 tell me what you mean ! What do you know or 
 think you know? " 
 
 " Mr. Grimm," answered Hartmann, cornered
 
 46 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 and desperate, " you are the greatest living author 
 ity on tulips. You can perform miracles with 
 them. But you can't mate people as you graft 
 tulips. You can't do it. More than once I have 
 caught Miss Katie crying. And I've " 
 
 " Pooh ! " snorted Grimm. " Caught her cry 
 ing, have you? Of course. So have I. What 
 does that amount to? Was there ever a girl that 
 didn't cry? All women cry until they have some 
 thing to cry about. Then they're too busy living 
 to waste time in such luxuries as tears. Why, 
 time and time again, I've asked her why she was 
 crying. And always she'd answer: ' For no 
 reason at all. For nothing.' And that is the 
 answer. They love to cry. But that's what 
 they all cry over; ' Nothing! ' " 
 
 Hartmann did not answer. Grimm's gust of 
 anger had been blown away by the wind of his 
 own words. He went on in a half-amused remi 
 niscent tone : 
 
 " James, did I ever tell you how I happened 
 to get Katje? She was prescribed for me by 
 Dr. McPherson." 
 
 "Prescribed?" 
 
 " Yes, just that. As an antidote for getting to 
 be a fussy old bachelor with queer notions in my
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 47 
 
 head. And the cure worked to perfection. When 
 my old friend Staats died " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I've often heard " 
 
 But Peter Grimm was no more to be balked in 
 the repetition of his favourite narrative merely 
 because his hearer chanced to be familiar with its 
 every detail, than he would have been balked in 
 hearing the Grimm genealogy re-read for the 
 thousandth time. 
 
 " When my old friend Staats died," he said, 
 " McPherson brought Staats's motherless baby 
 over here ; and he said : ' Peter, this is what you 
 need in the house.' Those were his very words: 
 * Peter, this is what you need in the house.' And, 
 sure enough, the very first time I carried her up 
 those stairs over there, all my fine, cranky, crotch 
 ety bachelor notions flew out of my head. I knew 
 then, in a flash, that all my knowledge and all 
 my queer ideas of life were just humbug! I had 
 missed the Child in the House. Yes," his voice 
 dropped with a strain of soft regret, " I had 
 missed many children in the house. James, I was 
 born in that little room up there. The room I 
 sleep in. And one day, please God, Katje's chil 
 dren shall play in the room where I was born." 
 
 " Yes," acquiesced Hartmann as Grimm ceased,
 
 48 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 and the secretary's voice and words grated like 
 a file on the old man's tender mood, " it's a very 
 pretty picture if it turns out at all the way you 
 are trying to paint it." 
 
 "How can it turn out wrong?" demanded 
 Peter, in fresh irritation. " What's the matter 
 with the way I'm ' painting the picture ' ? " 
 
 " From your standpoint, as I say, it's very 
 pretty. But it's more than a mere question of 
 sentiment. Her children can play anywhere." 
 
 "What? You're talking rubbish! I pick out 
 a husband here and her children can play in 
 China if they want to? Are you crazy? Pshaw," 
 turning away in disgust, " I just waste words in 
 opening my heart's dear secrets to a dolt like 
 you." 
 
 " Perhaps," assented Hartmann, quite un 
 ruffled, as he set to work enveloping some seed 
 catalogues that lay on the table. Grimm evidently 
 was about to pursue the flying foe with fresh in 
 vective. But Marta came in from the kitchen, 
 and, with her, Willem. At sight of the boy, 
 Grimm's frown softened into a smile of wel 
 come. 
 
 " Come seg huge moroche tegen, Mynheer 
 Grimm," said Marta, while Willem, walking over
 
 49 
 
 to Peter, held out a thin little hand in greeting, 
 with the salutation: 
 
 "Huge moroche, Mynheer Grimm." 
 
 " Huge moroche, Willem" replied Grimm 
 kindly, pressing the boy's hand. 
 
 " I'm all ready to take the flowers over to the 
 rectory," announced Willem, drifting into Eng 
 lish. 
 
 " If you're tired after going to the station, Otto 
 can take them," said Grimm. 
 
 " Oh, I'm not a bit tired." 
 
 "And you're getting real well again?" 
 
 " Ja, Mynheer. The doctor says I'm all right 
 now." 
 
 " That's good. Tell Otto to give you a big 
 armful of flowers for the rectory. A big armful, 
 remember." 
 
 Malta's grandmotherly gaze fancied it detected 
 a twist in the boy's neatly tied cravat. So she 
 swooped down upon him and bore him away to 
 the window seat, where her blurring eyes would 
 have light enough to readjust the tie to her satis 
 faction. Grimm, with a quick glance to make sure 
 they were not in earshot, tapped Hartmann on the 
 shoulder and whispered: 
 
 " There's a nice result of the * freedom ' you
 
 50 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 said young girls ought to have. Marta's Anne 
 Marie had nothing but freedom. She was the 
 worst spoiled child in town. Marta let her come 
 and go as she pleased. Come and go Heaven 
 knows where. And Heaven knows where the 
 poor shamed girl is now. Every time I look at 
 Willem," raising his voice to normal pitch as 
 Marta and her grandson passed into the kitchen, 
 " I realise how right I've been in the way I've 
 brought up Katje. H' m! Want me to give 
 Katje a chance for more freedom, do you? 
 Why " 
 
 " Mr. Grimm," interrupted Hartmann, sud 
 denly getting to his feet and facing his employer, 
 " I'd like to be transferred to your Florida head 
 quarters. At once, if it is convenient to you. I 
 want to work out in the open for a while." 
 
 "What?" exclaimed Grimm dumfounded. 
 " Florida? At this time of the year? And you 
 were so glad to get back here to Pshaw I You've 
 just got a cranky fit on you, lad. Get rid of it. 
 Put on your overalls and go out and potter around 
 among those beloved vegetables of yours. Change 
 your ideas, I say. Change the whole lot of them. 
 They're all wrong. You don't know what you 
 want."
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 51 
 
 Hartmann's lips were parted for a retort. But 
 he closed them, turned on his heel, and left the 
 room. Grimm shook his head as over a problem 
 he could not solve and did not greatly care to. 
 Then he fell to sorting a box full of bulbs. 
 
 But in a minute or two he was interrupted by 
 Frederik. 
 
 " I saw Hartmann crossing the yard," said the 
 younger man, " so I stepped over for a lit 
 tle chat with you, if you've time to listen to 
 me." 
 
 " I've always got time to listen to you, Fritzy," 
 replied Grimm, still busy with his bulbs. " It'll 
 be a relief after that pig-headed James. Lord, 
 how I do hate an obstinate man! You said a 
 while ago you wanted to see me on a private 
 matter. What was it? If it's that full-page 
 coloured cut of the new tulip, I may as well tell 
 you " 
 
 " It isn't. It's about your pig-headed friend, 
 James." 
 
 "James? What about him?" 
 
 " Just this, Oom Peter: I think he is interested 
 in Kathrien." 
 
 "Who? James? Bah! You're dreaming. 
 [That's just like a lover. Thinks every one is try-
 
 52 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 ing to steal his sweetheart. Why, James is too 
 much wrapped up in his work to care about any 
 thing else. His work and his crazy theories that 
 he gets out of books. Interested in Kathrien? 
 Just to show you how foolish you are to think 
 that, he asked me not five minutes ago to transfer 
 him to the Florida headquarters. And, even if 
 he weren't so absorbed in the business, he'd never 
 even presume to think of Kathrien. It's prepos 
 terous ! " 
 
 "Is it?" said Frederik, quite unconvinced. 
 ' Yet I've reason to believe he has been making 
 love to her." 
 
 There was a quiet certainty in his nephew's 
 voice that caught Grimm's reluctant credence. 
 
 " We'll find out mighty soon," he declared. 
 " Katje ! " 
 
 " No, no ! " expostulated Frederik. " It would 
 be better not to bring her into it or give her the 
 idea that " 
 
 "Katje!" 
 
 " Yes, Oom Peter," answered the girl, hurrying 
 in from the dining-room in response to the bellowed 
 summons. "What's the matter?" 
 
 " Katje," began the old man in visible embar 
 rassment, " has has James ? "
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 53 
 
 "What?" queried Kathrien, as Grimm paused 
 and broke into a shamefaced laugh. 
 
 " Has has James ever shown any special in 
 terest in you? Ever made love to you, or ? " 
 
 " Oh, Oom Peter! " expostulated Kathrien, red 
 dening to the roots of her hair. " Whatever gave 
 you such an idea as that?" 
 
 " Nothing at all," he answered her. " It was 
 just a bit of silly nonsense. A joke. I can't help 
 teasing you. Because you blush so prettily. But 
 but has he?" 
 
 " Why, of course not. I've always known 
 James. Ever since I can remember. He's never 
 shown any interest in me that he ought not to, 
 if that's what you mean. He's always been very 
 respectful; in a perfectly a perfectly friendly 
 way." 
 
 She was scarlet and stammering. But Grimm 
 apparently did not notice her confusion. 
 
 " Respectful," he repeated musingly. "In a 
 perfectly friendly way. Surely we couldn't ask 
 for anything more than that. Thank you, little 
 girl. That's all I wanted to know. Run along." 
 
 Casting a puzzled look at Grimm and then at 
 Frederik who, since she first entered the room 
 had been seated near the window, deeply absorbed
 
 54 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 in a book, Kathrien returned to her work in the 
 other part of the house. 
 
 Grimm's kind eyes had never for an instant left 
 her troubled face, nor had they failed to note her 
 evident relief at escaping from the room. As 
 the door closed behind her, the kindly look faded 
 from the old eyes, leaving them hard and cold. 
 The firm jaw set more tightly. Yet, as he turned 
 toward Frederik, there was no trace in his tone 
 of anything but pleasant banter. 
 
 " There, Fritzy ! " said he. " You see James 
 was only ' respectful to her in a perfectly friendly 
 way.' I hope you are quite satisfied? " 
 
 " I am," answered Frederik. " Quite. In 
 fact I'm every bit as satisfied as you are, uncle." 
 
 Grimm sat very still for a moment or so, staring 
 blindly into space, his head on his breast. Then, 
 with a sigh, he roused himself. Reaching for the 
 telephone he called up his office. 
 
 " Send Mr. Hartmann over here," he com 
 manded. 
 
 He set down the instrument and resumed his 
 blank stare into nothingness. Frederik was once 
 more wholly engrossed in the book he was not 
 reading. Hartmann broke in upon the strained 
 silence.
 
 PETER GRIMM HAS A PLAN 551 
 
 " You sent for me, sir? " he asked, his breezy 
 bigness waking the still room to life. 
 
 " Yes," replied Peter Grimm. " James, it has 
 occurred to me to ask it has occurred to me 
 that James, please tell me your reason for asking 
 a few minutes ago to be transferred to Florida? " 
 
 James made no immediate reply. He seemed 
 ransacking his mind for the right words. Grimm 
 eyed him closely, asking with sudden directness: 
 
 " Was it on account of my little girl? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied Hartmann. 
 
 The secretary's confusion had fled. Calm, self- 
 contained, flinching not at all from the shrewd, 
 searching eyes that were fixed on his own, he stood 
 awaiting the breaking of the storm.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 
 
 BUT, to Hartmann's surprise, the storm did not 
 break. Instead, Peter Grimm sat gazing at him 
 with impassive face, gazing long and without a 
 word. And when at last Grimm spoke, the old 
 man's voice was as emotionless as his face. 
 
 " You love her? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered Hartmann, as calmly as 
 though stating some fact in botany. 
 
 " H' m 1 " rumbled Grimm, half to himself. 
 "Ja vis! Ja vis!" 
 
 Hartmann still waited for the storm. And still 
 it did not come. 
 
 "You love her?" repeated Grimm. "Does 
 she know? " 
 
 " No. She doesn't know. She need never 
 know. I had not meant to say a word to any 
 one." 
 
 Grimm rose and came toward him. The hard 
 face was gentle again. The inquisitorial voice 
 was once more kindly. 
 
 " James," said the old man, " go to the office 
 56
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 57 
 
 and get your money. Then start for Florida head 
 quarters. Good-bye." 
 
 " Good-bye, sir," replied James, grasping the 
 outstretched hand. " I'm very sorry." 
 
 " I'm sorry, too, James. Good-bye ! " 
 
 As Hartmann left the room, Grimm turned to 
 Frederik, and his eyes were full of pain. 
 
 " That is settled, thank Heaven!" he an 
 nounced; but there was no jubilance in his voice. 
 " I wish Hello, there's old McPherson! " 
 
 Glad to divert his mind he hurried to the front 
 door to welcome the visitor and drew him into 
 the room with friendly roughness. 
 
 Dr. McPherson would have borne the stamp, 
 " Family physician of the Old School," even had 
 he been found in the ranks of the Matabele army. 
 Big, shaggy, bearded, he was of the ancient and 
 puissant type that, under the tidal wave of " spe 
 cialism " is fast being swept towards the shores 
 whera live the last survivors of the Great Auk, the 
 Dinosaur, and the Spread Eagle Orator tribes. 
 
 " Good-morning, Peter," hailed the doctor, a 
 Scotch burr faintly rasping his bluff voice. 
 " Morning, Fred. I passed young Hartmann at 
 the gate. He looks as if he was taking a pleasure 
 trip to his own funeral. What ails him?"
 
 58 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 No one answered. 
 
 " He's about the finest lad that ever I brought 
 into the world. What's happened to make him 
 
 so ? Good-morning, Kathrien," he broke off, 
 
 as the girl, followed by Marta, came in with 
 Grimm's long delayed breakfast. 
 
 " Good-morning, Doctor," she answered. 
 
 " Oom Peter, you forgot to send for this. So 
 j 
 
 "What's that?" roared McPherson, sniffing 
 the air like a bull that scents an enemy. " Coffee? 
 Why, damn it, Peter, I forbade you to touch 
 coffee. It's rank poison to you. And you know 
 it is. I told you " 
 
 "Wouldn't you like a cup, Doctor?" asked 
 Kathrien innocently. 
 
 T >J 
 
 " Of course he'll take a cup," interrupted 
 Grimm. " He'll damn it. But he'll drink it." 
 
 "And look here!" proceeded McPherson, 
 pointing an accusing finger at the breakfast tray. 
 "Waffles! Actually waffles! And after I told 
 you " 
 
 " Yes, Katje," explained Grimm, " he'll damn 
 the waffles, too. But, if you watch closely, you'll 
 notice he'll eat some. Sit down, Andrew."
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 59 
 
 " I tell you," fumed the doctor, " I didn't come 
 here to encourage you, by my example, in wrecking 
 your system. I came for a serious talk with you, 
 Peter." 
 
 Kathrien, at the hint, discreetly effaced herself. 
 Frederik followed her example. 
 
 " Well? well? " queried Peter in mock despair, 
 seating himself opposite his old crony and tyrant. 
 " What new horrors of diet have you thought up 
 for my misery? Out with it. Let me know the 
 worst." 
 
 " It isn't your body this time, Peter," was the 
 troubled answer. " It's something that means 
 more. The matter's been keeping me awake all 
 night. Tell me: how is every one provided for 
 in this house? " 
 
 "Provided for?" echoed Peter in bewilder 
 ment. "How do you mean? Everybody gets 
 
 enough to eat and we are " 
 
 ' Why, you don't understand me. You're a 
 wonderful man for making plans, Peter. But 
 what have you done? " 
 
 "Done?" 
 
 "If you if you were to die say to-morrow, 
 or or any other time," went on the doctor with 
 an effort at carelessness that sat on his rough hon-
 
 6o THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 esty as ill as his Sunday broadcloth adorned his 
 rugged shoulders, "if you die unexpectedly, 
 how would it be with the rest of them here? " 
 
 Grimm set down his coffee cup with slow pre 
 cision. And slowly he raised his eyes to McPher- 
 son's worried gaze. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " he asked with some 
 thing very like awe in his tone. " If I were to 
 die to-morrow " 
 
 " You won't ! " declared McPherson emphatic 
 ally. " You won't. So don't worry. You're 
 good for a long time yet. A score of years, per 
 haps. You're all right, if you take decent care of 
 yourself. Which you never do. But we've all 
 got to come to it, sooner or later. And it's well 
 to make provision. For instance, what would 
 Kathrien's position be in this house, in case you 
 were taken out of it? Kathrien is a little 'pre 
 scription ' of mine, you'll remember. And I 
 suppose your heart is still set on her marrying 
 Frederik, so that what is one's will be the other's. 
 'Personally I've always thought it was rather a pity 
 that Frederik wasn't James and James wasn't 
 Frederik." 
 
 " Eh? " cried Peter. " What's that? " 
 
 " It's none of my business," answered McPher-
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 61 
 
 son. " And it's all very well as it stands if she 
 wants Frederik. But if you want to do anything 
 for her future welfare, take my advice, and do it 
 now." 
 
 " You mean," Peter said evenly, between stiffen 
 ing lips, " you mean that I could die ? " 
 
 " Every one can," replied McPherson with ele 
 phantine lightness. " And at one time or another, 
 every one does. It's a thing to be prepared 
 for." 
 
 " One moment," urged Grimm, the keen little 
 eyes piercing the other's badly woven cloak of in 
 difference. " You think that I ! " 
 
 " I mean nothing more nor less, Peter, than that 
 the machinery is wearing out. There's absolutely 
 no cause for apprehension. Still, I thought I had 
 better tell you." 
 
 " But," asked Grimm with a pathetic insistence, 
 " if there's no cause for apprehension ? " 
 
 "Listen, Peter: when I cured you of that cold 
 the other day the cold you got by tramping 
 around like an idiot among the wet flower-beds 
 without rubbers I made a discovery of of some 
 thing I can't cure." 
 
 Grimm studied his friend's unreadable face for 
 an instant with an almost painful intensity. Then
 
 62 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 a smile swept away the worry from his own 
 visage. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew, you old croaking Scotch raven," 
 he cried. " Your professional ways will be the 
 death of some one yet. But the ' some one ' won't 
 be Peter Grimm. That sick bed manner is splen 
 did for bullying old maids into taking their tonic. 
 But it's wasted on a grown man. No, no, An 
 drew. You can't make me out an invalid. You 
 doctors are a sorry lot. You pour medicines of 
 which you know little into systems of which you 
 know nothing. You condemn people to death as 
 the old Inquisition would have blushed to. Why, 
 every day we read in the papers about some frisky 
 boy a hundred years old whom the doctors gave 
 up for lost when he was twenty-five. And," the 
 forced gaiety in his voice merging into aggressive 
 resolve, " I'm going to live to see children in this 
 old house of mine. Katje's babies creeping about 
 this very floor; sliding down those bannisters over 
 there, pulling the ears of Lad, my collie." 
 
 " Good Lord, Peter! That dog is fifteen years 
 old now! Argue yourself into miraculous longev 
 ity if you want to. But don't argue old Lad into 
 it. Do you expect nothing will ever change in 
 your home? "
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 63 
 
 " Perhaps," agreed Peter, with unshaken de 
 fiance. " But not before I live to see a new line 
 of rosy-faced, fluffy-haired little Grimms." 
 
 McPherson leaned back with a sigh of discour 
 agement. Then, with professional insight, he 
 noted for the first time the gallant fight the old 
 man opposite him was making to keep up that 
 obstinate gay courage whose outward expression 
 had so irritated the doctor. And, all at once, 
 McPherson ceased to become the gruff friend and 
 assumed the role that Ananias's physician probably 
 acquired from his famous patient and which, most 
 assuredly, he has handed down to all his medical 
 successors. 
 
 " I see no reason, Peter," said he with judicial 
 ponderousness, " why you shouldn't reach a ripe 
 old age. You're quite likely to outlive me and a 
 host of younger men. Only, take better care of 
 yourself. And, no matter how many probable 
 years of life a man has before him, it does him 
 no harm to set his house in order. Think over 
 that part of my advice and forget the rest of 
 it." 
 
 " Forget the rest of it," echoed Grimm ab 
 sently. " The rest " 
 
 McPherson hesitated ; then as though overcome
 
 64 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 by a temptation too strong for him to battle 
 against, he blurted out half-shamefacedly : 
 
 " Peter don't laugh at me. I want to make 
 a strange compact with you. As I've told you, 
 you're quite likely to outlive me. But will you 
 agree that whichever of us happens to to go first, 
 shall come back and and let the other fellow 
 know ? Let the other fellow know ; so as to settle 
 the Great Question once and for all?" 
 
 Grimm stared at him for a moment. Then he 
 set the room ringing with a laugh of whose mock 
 ing heartiness there could be no doubt. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew ! Andrew ! " he cried, when he 
 could get his breath. " Still riding your one 
 crazy hobby! And you so sane in other ways! " 
 
 "But you'll make the compact?" begged 
 McPherson. " You're a man of your word, " 
 
 " Make a compact to ? Oh, no, no, man. 
 
 No! I'd be ashamed to have people know I was 
 such a fool." 
 
 " But," urged the doctor, " no one else need 
 know anything about it. It'll be just between our 
 selves." 
 
 " No, no, dear old Andrew," laughed Grimm 
 indulgently. " Positively no! I refuse, point- 
 blank. I'll do you any favour in reason. But I
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 65 
 
 draw the line at being dragged into any of your 
 absurd spook tests." 
 
 " You sneer at ' spooks,' as you call them," re 
 torted the doctor. " Most people do. Just as 
 people scoffed when Columbus told them there was 
 an America. But how many times do you think 
 you have been a spook, yourself?" 
 
 " A spook? I can't remember that I ever " 
 
 " Yes, a ghost." 
 
 " A ghost," repeated Grimm with the utmost 
 solemnity and wrinkling his forehead as in an 
 effort of memory. " I can't just now recall " 
 
 "That's right! Make fun of me! But you 
 can't tell that man is complete that he doesn't 
 live more than one life; that the soul doesn't pass 
 on and on. Smile if you like. Wiser men than 
 yourself have believed it. Why, man alive, every 
 human being is surcharged with a persistent per 
 sonal energy. And that energy must continue for 
 ever." 
 
 " Oh, Doctor, Doctor ! " exclaimed Kathrien, 
 coming in with a fresh supply of hot waffles. 
 " Have you started on spooks again? " 
 
 " Yes, Katje," sighed Peter dolorously. 
 " There can be no possible redeeming doubt 
 about that. He's started."
 
 66 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " And," laughed the girl, " I wasn't on hand 
 to hear him. Have I missed very much of it? " 
 
 "No," answered her uncle. "We're still in 
 the painful early stages of the squabble. I'll tell 
 you what I'll do, Andrew: I'll compromise with 
 you. Instead of making the bargain you pro 
 posed, I'll stand aside and let you go ahead of me 
 into the next world. Then you can come back at 
 your leisure and keep the spook compact. It'll 
 be quite interesting. Every time a knock sounds 
 or a chair creaks or a door bangs or Lad growls 
 in his sleep, I'll strike an attitude and say : ' Ssh 1 
 There's Doc!'" 
 
 " Don't guy me, old friend," urged McPherson. 
 " I'm entirely serious. I'll make the promise and 
 I want you to make it, too. Understand, I'm no 
 so-called Spiritist. I'm just a groping seeker after 
 the Truth." 
 
 " That's what they all say," scoffed Grimm. 
 " Seekers after the truth ! And madly eager to 
 believe everything they hear or read except the 
 commonsense truth. And you, a level-headed 
 Scotchman, old enough to be your own father, 
 actually gulp down such tomfoolery! Next we'll 
 have you chasing around the streets at night, look 
 ing with a dark lantern for the bogey man."
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 67 
 
 " Laugh at me if you like. I know I'm right. 
 I know the dead are alive. They're here. Right 
 here. They're all about us, watching us, suffer 
 ing with us, rejoicing with us, trying no doubt to 
 speak the warnings and encouragements that our 
 world-deafened mortal ears cannot hear. I'm not 
 alone in the theory. Some of the greatest scien 
 tists the wisest men of the century are of the 
 same opinion." 
 
 " Dreamers," smiled Grimm indulgently. 
 " Dreamers like yourself." 
 
 " Dreamers, eh? " The doctor caught him up 
 vehemently. "Dreamers? You can't call Sir 
 William Crookes, the inventor of the Crookes' 
 Tubes, a dreamer! No, nor Sir Oliver Lodge, 
 the great biologist; or Curie, who discovered ra 
 dium ; or Dr. Lombroso, the founder of the science 
 of criminology. Are Maxwell, Dr. Vesine, 
 Richet, and our own American, Dr. Hyslop, 
 dreamers? Why, even Professor James, the 
 mighty Harvard psychologist, took a peep at 
 ghosts. And, instead of laughing at ' spooks,' the 
 big scientific men are trying to lay hold of them. 
 I tell you, Peter, Science is just beginning to peer 
 through the half-open door that a few years ago 
 was shut tight."
 
 68 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 "Trying to lay hold of ghosts, are they?" 
 said Grimm. " I'd like to lay hold of one. I'd 
 lug it to the nearest police station. That's the 
 place for 'em. Just as the asylum's the place for 
 folks who believe in 'em. When you ' pass over,' 
 Andrew, you'd better not come back. You won't 
 enjoy prowling around a world where sane people 
 don't believe you exist." 
 
 " Peter," reproved McPherson, " I'm sorry 
 very, very sorry that you and others like you 
 think it's smart to make a joke of something you 
 can't understand. Hyslop was right when he said 
 Man will spend millions of dollars to discover the 
 North Pole, but not one cent to throw a ray of 
 light upon his immortal destiny." 
 
 " And, after the millions of times they've been 
 exposed, you blame me for not joining in your 
 belief in spook mediums ! " 
 
 " A lot of mediums are humbugs, I grant you. 
 Just as there are fakers in every profession. If 
 there were no such thing as real money, there 
 would be no object in making counterfeits. And 
 some of the mediums have proven clearly that they 
 are capable of real demonstrations." 
 
 "They are, hey? What's the use of mediums 
 at all if the dead can really come back? If my
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 69 
 
 friends who have died return to earth, why don't 
 they walk straight up to me and say, * Well, 
 Peter Grimm. Here we are ! ' When they do 
 that, I shall gladly be the first man to take off 
 my hat to them and hold out my hand. But as 
 long as they have to employ greasy mediums to 
 make their presence known, and try to prove they 
 are with me by knocking on tables and tipping 
 chairs and scratching on slates, there is only one 
 of two things to believe: Either mediums are 
 fakes, or else folks all become imbecile practical 
 jokers as soon as they die." 
 
 "Imbecile practical jokers!" repeated Kath- 
 rien, shocked. 
 
 "Yes," reiterated Peter Grimm. "That's 
 what I said. And it's a mild way of putting it. 
 Would any sane man play such tricks as the 
 spiritualists attribute to our dead? It shatters 
 every thought of the majesty of death. Would 
 a sane live man walk into my house and announce 
 his presence to me by rapping on a wall or tip 
 ping a table or scrawling idiotic messages on a 
 slate or talking to me through some half-educated 
 'medium 1 ? Would he ?" 
 
 " Yes, he would ! " asserted the doctor. " He'd 
 do all those things and more, if he couldn't make
 
 70 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 you see him or hear him in any other way. As 
 to mediums, why doesn't a telegram travel 
 through the air as well as on a wire? Your 
 friends could come back to you in the old way 
 if you could but put yourself in a receptive con 
 dition. But you can't. So you must depend on 
 a non-professional medium, a ' sensitive ' " 
 
 " See, Katje," interpolated Grimm, " he has 
 names for them all. All neatly classified like so 
 many germs in a bottle. Well, Andrew, how 
 many ghosts did you see last night? He has 
 only to shut his eyes, Katje, and along comes the 
 parade. Spooks I Spooks ! Spooks ! Nice, 
 grisly, shivering, spooky spooks ! And now he 
 wants me to put my house in order and settle 
 up my affairs and join the parade." 
 
 "Settle your affairs?" asked Kathrien puz 
 zled. 
 
 " Oh, it's just his nonsense," Grimm hastened 
 to assure her. " Andrew," he hurried on to turn 
 the subject from dangerous personalities, " you've 
 seen a whole lot of people pass over to the Other 
 Side. In fact, your patients seem to have quite 
 a habit of doing that. Tell me: did you ever 
 see one out of all that number come back again? 
 Just one? "
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 71 
 
 " No," answered McPherson reluctantly,. " I 
 never did, but " 
 
 " No," cried Grimm in triumph, " and what's 
 more, you never will. Yet you " 
 
 " There was not perhaps the intimate bond be 
 tween doctor and patients to bring them back to 
 me. But in my own family, I've known of a 
 4 return ' such as you speak of. A distant cousin 
 of mine died in London. And at almost that 
 very instant, she was seen in New York." 
 
 "Rubbish!" 
 
 " Rubbish? Why? A century ago, if any one 
 had tried to describe the telephone, people of 
 your sort would have grunted ' Rubbish ! ' But 
 if my voice can carry thousands of miles over the 
 telephone, why cannot a soul, with God-given 
 force behind it, dart over the entire universe? Is 
 Thomas Edison greater than God? " 
 
 " Oh, Doctor," gasped the horrified Kathrien. 
 
 " And what's more," rushed on McPherson, un 
 heeding, " they can't lay it all to telepathy. In 
 the case of a spirit message giving the contents 
 of a sealed letter known only to the person who 
 has died telepathy, eh? Not a bit of it. Here's 
 a case you must have heard of, Peter. An officer 
 on the Polar vessel Jeannette sent out by a New
 
 72 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 York newspaper, appeared one night at his wife's 
 bedside. She was in Brooklyn. She knew per 
 fectly well that he was on the Polar Sea. He said 
 to her: 'Count!' Then she distinctly heard a 
 ship's bell and her husband's voice saying again, 
 ' Count ! ' She had counted ' six ' when his voice 
 said: 'Six bells! And the Jeannette is lost!' 
 The ship, it turned out later, was really lost at 
 the very time the woman had the vision. There ! 
 Account for that by telepathy or trickery if you 
 can!" 
 
 " A bad dream ! " was Grimm's unshaken ver 
 dict. " I have them every now and then. ' Six 
 bells and ' suet pudding brings me messages 
 from the North Pole. And I can get messages 
 from Kingdom Come when I've had half a hot 
 mince pie with melted cheese on it for supper. 
 That disposes of your Jeannette case." 
 
 " Scoff if you like. There have been more than 
 seventeen thousand other cases which the London 
 Society of Psychical Research has found worth 
 investigating." 
 
 " Well, Andrew," asked Grimm, with a covert 
 wink at Kathrien, " supposing, for the sake of 
 argument, that I did want to ' come back,' how 
 could I manage it? "
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 73 
 
 At the question the doctor's rising irritation at 
 the other's friendly mockery was swept away by 
 the zeal of prospective proselyting. 
 
 " In this way, Peter," he declared. " Let me 
 make it clear as simply as I can. In hypnotism 
 our thoughts take possession of the person we 
 hypnotise. When our personalities enter their 
 bodies, something goes out of them: a sort of 
 Shadow Self. This ' Self ' can be sent out of the 
 room out of the house even to a long distance. 
 This ' Self ' is the force that, I firmly believe, 
 departs from us entirely on the first or second or 
 third day after death. This is the force you could 
 send back. The astral envelope. Do I make it 
 plain?" 
 
 " Plain? Plain as a flower in the mud on a 
 dark night. But how do you know I've got an 
 4 envelope '? " 
 
 " Every one has. Why, De Roche has actu 
 ally photographed one, by means of radio-pho 
 tography." 
 
 Grimm lay back in his chair and shouted aloud 
 with laughter. 
 
 " Mind you," went on McPherson, laboriously 
 anxious to make clear his point, " they could not 
 see it when they were photographing it."
 
 74 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " No, I should imagine not. Nor the picture 
 after it was taken. But in other respects, I don't 
 doubt it was a splendid likeness." 
 
 " Wait, before you try to be funny. Wait till 
 I tell you about it. This ' envelope ' or Shadow 
 Self stood a few feet away from the sleeper. It 
 was invisible, of course, to the eye. It was only 
 located by striking the air and watching for the 
 corresponding portion of the sleeper's body to re 
 coil. By pricking a certain part of the Shadow 
 Self with a pin, the cheek of the patient could be 
 made to bleed. It was at that spot that the 
 camera was focussed for fifteen minutes ! The 
 result was " 
 
 " A spoiled film." 
 
 " No, the profile of a head ! " contradicted Dr. 
 McPherson. 
 
 Grimm stared at him wonderingly. 
 
 "And you actually believe such idiocy?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 " It isn't a mere question of belief," declared 
 McPherson, " but of absolute knowledge. De 
 Roche, who took the picture, is not a fraud, but 
 a lawyer of high standing. A room full of fa 
 mous scientists saw the picture taken." 
 
 " If they were honest, they were hypnotised."
 
 A WARNING AND A THEORY 75 
 
 " Perhaps you think the camera was hypno 
 tised, too," retorted the doctor. " Lombroso says 
 that once under similar circumstances an unnatural 
 current of cold air went through the room 
 and lowered the thermometer several degrees. 
 These are facts. Can you hypnotise a thermo 
 meter?" 
 
 "Oh, isn't that wonderful?" breathed Kath- 
 rien. 
 
 Grimm patted her shoulder gently, smiling as 
 one might smile who sees a dearly loved child 
 taken in by a wonder-story. Then he turned to 
 McPherson, the banter in face and voice changed 
 to mild reproof. 
 
 " No, Andrew," said he, reaching for his long 
 meerschaum pipe and holding its coffee-brown bowl 
 lovingly between his thick fingers, as he proceeded 
 to fill it from a pouch on the mantel, " No, An 
 drew. I refuse your compact. I'll have no part 
 or parcel in it. Because it's an impossible thing 
 you ask of me. We don't come back. One can 
 not pick the lock of Heaven's gate. It is no part 
 of our terms with the Almighty. God did enough 
 for us when He gave us life and gave us the 
 strength to work, and then gave us work to do. 
 He owes us no explanation. I'll take my chances
 
 76 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 on the old-fashioned Paradise with a locked gate. 
 No bogies for me." 
 
 With another reassuring smile at Kathrien as 
 she went out with the tray of breakfast things, he 
 lighted his pipe and repeated musingly: 
 
 " No bogies for me, I say. Who are you that 
 you should take the Kingdom of Heaven by vio 
 lence? Why," he broke out, "what ails you, 
 man?"
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A QUEER COMPACT. 
 
 " HAVE you done? " rasped McPherson. " Have 
 you quite done? " 
 
 "Why, what ?" 
 
 " Then listen to me. Abuse is not argument. 
 Neither is silly mockery. I console myself with 
 the thought that men have laughed at the theory 
 of the earth going round, and at vaccination, and 
 lightning rods, and magnetism, and daguerreo 
 types, and steamboats, and cars, and telephones, 
 and at the theory of the circulation of the blood, 
 and at wireless telegraphy, and at flying in the air. 
 So your gibing is forgivable. But I'm very, very 
 much disappointed, Peter, that so old a friend 
 should refuse such a simple request. I'll be wish 
 ing you a very good day." 
 
 " Hold on, Andrew ! Hold on ! " cried Grimm, 
 hastily setting down his pipe and hurrying forward 
 to intercept his angrily departing guest. " Man, 
 man, can't you keep your temper? I didn't mean 
 to rile you. Come back. If you take the thing 
 so seriously, I'll I'll make the compact with you. 
 
 77
 
 78 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Here's my hand on it. I know you're an old fool. 
 And I'm another. So we're both in bad company. 
 Shake hands. Now then ! Whichever of us does 
 go first is to come back and try to make himself 
 known to the other. And " 
 
 A fit of uncontrollable laughter cut across his 
 words. The doctor frowned pettishly and made 
 as though to turn away. But Peter still held his 
 hand and would not let it go. 
 
 " There, Andrew! " he said remorsefully, as he 
 wiped the laughter tears from his eyes. " I've 
 riled you again. I'm sorry. We'll leave the mat 
 ter this way: if I go first and if I can come back, 
 I will come back and I'll apologise to you for 
 being in the wrong. There! Does that satisfy 
 you, Andrew? I say I'll come back and apolo 
 gise." 
 
 "You mean it, Peter?" asked McPherson 
 eagerly. " You're not joking? " 
 
 " No, I mean it. If I can, I'll come back. And 
 if I come back I'll apologise to you. It's a deal. 
 Now let's have a nip of my plum brandy to seal 
 the compact." 
 
 "Good!" 
 
 " I'll step down to the cellar and get a fresh 
 bottle of it. That one on the sideboard hasn't got
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 79 
 
 two man's size drinks left in it. I'll be back 
 in a minute and then we'll drink to spooks. Espe 
 cially to spooks that come back and apologise." 
 
 With a chuckle at his own odd conceit, he van 
 ished cellarward. As the door closed behind him, 
 Kathrien came in from the dining-room, where 
 evidently she had been awaiting a chance for a 
 word alone with McPherson. 
 
 " Doctor," she asked almost breathlessly, " do 
 you really believe the dead can come back?" 
 
 " Why not ? " demanded McPherson, beginning 
 to bristle for a new argument. " Why shouldn't 
 they?" 
 
 " But you mean to say you could come back 
 to this room if you were dead, and I could see 
 you?" 
 
 " You might not see me. I don't say you could. 
 But I could come back." 
 
 " And and could you talk to me? " 
 
 " I think so." 
 
 " But, could I hear you? " 
 
 " That I don't know. You see, that's what we 
 gropers after the light are trying to make possible. 
 Hello ! " he interrupted himself, in a none too 
 pleased whisper. " Here are some people that can 
 talk and that one can't help hearing! "
 
 8o THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Ushered in by Willem, the Rev. Mr. Batholom- 
 mey, the local Episcopal clergyman of Grimm 
 Manor, and his placid, portly wife, swept in from 
 the vestibule on clerical visitation bent. 
 
 " Good-morning, Doctor," sighed Mrs. Bathol- 
 ommey, comprising the whole sunlit room in one 
 all-compassionate glance. 
 
 " Good-morning, Kathrien." 
 
 " Good-morning, Mrs. Batholommey," an 
 swered Kathrien, loudly enough to drown McPher- 
 son's growl of unwelcoming welcome. " Good- 
 morning, Pastor. Oom Peter will be back directly. 
 I'll tell him you're here." 
 
 She hurried out of the room. McPherson 
 showed strong inclination to follow her. But 
 Mrs. Batholommey had already singled him out 
 for her prey and bore down upon him with a be 
 comingly woe-begone face. 
 
 " Oh, Doctor," she panted, wiping her eyes. 
 " Does he know it yet? Does he? " 
 
 u Does who know what? " snapped the doctor, 
 his glance straying wrathfully toward the rotund 
 clergyman, who all at once assumed an abjectly 
 apologetic air and interested himself in a picture 
 on the farther wall. 
 
 " Poor dear Mr. Grimm," pursued Mrs. Bath-
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 81 
 
 olommey. " Does he know he's going to 
 die?" 
 
 Willem, who was halfway out of the room by 
 this time, halted, turned back and, unobserved, 
 stood listening with wide eyes and open mouth. 
 
 " What in blue blazes are you talking about? " 
 thundered McPherson, glowering down on his rec 
 tor's wife in a most unadmiring manner. 
 
 " About Mr. Grimm. Does he know yet that 
 he must die? " 
 
 "Does the whole damned town know it?" 
 roared the doctor. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Mrs. Batholommey in prim hor 
 ror at the explosive adjective. 
 
 " You see, Doctor," put in the rector with 
 urbane haste, before his spouse could recover 
 breath to rebuke the blasphemer or return to the 
 attaclc. "You see, it's this way: You consulted 
 Mr. Grimm's lawyer. And his wife told my 
 wife." 
 
 " Gabbed, did he ? " snorted McPherson. " To 
 perdition with the professional man who gabs to 
 his wife!" 
 
 " Oh, Doctor ! " expostulated Mrs. Batholom 
 mey. "Ho wean ?" 
 
 " I am inexpressibly grieved," said her husband,
 
 82 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " to learn that Mr. Grimm has an incurable mal 
 ady. And is it true that the nature of it is ? " 
 
 " The nature of the whole affair is this" re 
 turned McPherson. " He isn't to be told. Un 
 derstand that, please. He must not know. I 
 didn't say he had to die at once. He may outlive 
 us all. He probably will. And, in any event, 
 no one must speak to him about it." 
 
 " I should think," said Mrs. Batholommey in 
 lofty rebuke, " that a man's rector might be 
 allowed to talk to him on such a theme. It seems 
 to me, Dr. McPherson, if you can't do any more, 
 it's his turn. From the way you doctors assume 
 control of everything, it's a wonder to me you 
 don't want to baptise the babies, too." 
 
 " Rose ! " murmured the doctor in mild reproof. 
 
 " At the last moment," Mrs. Batholommey in 
 sisted, ignoring her husband, " Mr. Grimm will 
 want to make a will. And you know he hasn't. 
 He'll want to remember the Episcopal Church of 
 Grimm Manor, and his charities and his 
 friends. If he doesn't, the rector will be blamed 
 as usual. You're not doing right, Doctor, in 
 keeping " 
 
 "Rosef My dear!" interjected her husband, 
 " These private matters "
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 83 
 
 " But " 
 
 " I'll trouble you, Mrs. Batholommey," shouted 
 McPherson, " to attend to your own affairs, 
 and " 
 
 "Doctor!" bleated the rector. 
 
 "Oh, let him talk, Henry!" sniffed Mrs. 
 Batholommey in semi-tearful exaltation. " I can 
 bear it. Besides," coming to earth level, " no one 
 in town pays any attention to what he says since 
 he has taken up with spiritualism." 
 
 "Oh, Rose! My dear!" 
 
 " Shut up ! " whispered McPherson wrathfully. 
 " Here he comes. Remember what I " 
 
 Peter Grimm put an end to the warning by 
 reappearing from the cellar with a small demijohn 
 in his hand. His face brightened into a smile 
 of pleasant greeting as he saw his two new 
 guests. 
 
 " Why," he exclaimed, " this is the jolliest 
 sort of a surprise. I hope I haven't kept you 
 waiting long? " 
 
 The rector and his wife glanced at each other 
 in embarrassment. Mrs. Batholommey turned 
 toward Peter with a lachrymose grimace, intended 
 doubtless for a consoling smile, and seemed about 
 to break into a torrent of speech. But the rector,
 
 84 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 after a timid look at McPherson, nervously fore 
 stalled her by coming hurriedly to the front. 
 
 " Good-morning, dear friend," said he. " This 
 is just a little impromptu visit of gratitude. We 
 wish to thank you for the lovely flowers that 
 Willem brought us a few minutes ago, and for the 
 noble check you sent yesterday." 
 
 " Why," laughed Peter uncomfortably, " please 
 don't even think of thanking me. I " 
 
 " And," nervously pursued the rector, sparring 
 for time, " I want to let you know how much we 
 are still enjoying the delicious vegetables you so 
 generously provided. I did relish that squash. If 
 I were obliged to say offhand what my favourite 
 vegetable is, I " 
 
 " Pardon me," interposed Peter, his glance 
 straying past the rector and resting with swift con 
 cern upon Mrs. Batholommey's quivering expanse 
 of face, " but is anything distressing you, Mrs. 
 Ba ?" 
 
 "No, no!" interjected the rector with break 
 neck haste. 
 
 "No, no!" responded Mrs. Batholommey in 
 the same breath. 
 
 A half inaudible growl from Dr. McPherson 
 completed the triple chord of negation. A chord
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 85 
 
 so explosive, so crassly out of keeping with the 
 simple question that evoked it that Grimm stared 
 amazed from one of the trio to another. 
 
 Willem, strolling from his retreat, crossed to 
 the table, picked up a picture book, and in leisurely 
 fashion mounted with it to the gallery landing that 
 overlooked the room. There he threw himself 
 on a settee between the bedroom doors and opened 
 the book at random. 
 
 His lower lip quivered ever so little and his 
 blue eyes were big with a troubled wonder. From 
 time to time his glance would stray from the 
 gaudy pages of the picture book down to Grimm 
 in the room below. And each time the wonder 
 in his eyes became tinged with a new sorrow. 
 
 Meantime, Peter Grimm's look of questioning, 
 perplexed sympathy toward her tumult ridden self 
 was becoming far too much for Mrs. Batholom- 
 mey's jellylike self-control. The jelly began to 
 quake quite visibly. 
 
 " I was afraid," Peter went on kindly, " that 
 something unpleasant might have happened. And 
 I hoped perhaps I might be able " 
 
 " Oh, no ! No, no, no! " denied the utterly 
 flustered woman. " I I hope you are feeling 
 well, Mr. Grimm. No no I don't mean that.
 
 86 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 I I don't mean that I hope you are well. Of 
 course not. I that is " 
 
 " Of course she hopes it," boomed her husband, 
 coming to the rescue with heavy and uncertain 
 cheeriness that rang as false as the ring of a 
 leaden dollar. " And of course all of us hope it, 
 dear Mr. Grimm. With all our hearts. And we 
 wish you many, many years of life and " 
 
 " Oh, indeed we do," chimed in Mrs. Batholom- 
 mey. " And, as Dr. McPherson just said, there 
 may perhaps be no reason, with proper care 
 why you shouldn't " 
 
 " A blundering rector must be put up with be 
 cause of his cloth. But when it comes to a blun 
 dering recto rette, there ought to be a line drawn ! " 
 
 It was McPherson who said it. He addressed 
 no one, but seemed to be confining his heretical 
 sentiments to the window seat. Also he spoke in 
 a gruff undertone that filled the room like far off 
 thunder. 
 
 Peter Grimm flung himself into the breach, even 
 before the wave of outraged red could gush to 
 Mrs. Batholommey's shaking visage. 
 
 " Will you will you have a glass of plum 
 brandy?" he asked her, and then caught himself 
 with the scared grin of a very guilty schoolboy.
 
 "I believe," said Peter irrelevantly, "that St. Paul was 
 a single man, was he not, Pastor?"
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 87 
 
 " I thank you," she retorted, safe for the mo 
 ment in the full majesty of Temperance. " I do 
 not take such things. Perhaps you forget I am 
 the President of our local W. C. T. U. and 
 the " 
 
 " The Little Brothers of the Artesian Well," 
 added Grimm, " or whatever they call it. I re 
 member. And I'm sorry. I wouldn't tempt you 
 from your principles for the world. Forgive me. 
 How about you, Pastor? A little drop of plum 
 brandy, for for let's see, what is it St. Paul says 
 about ?" 
 
 '' Thank you, no," declined the rector, with an 
 apprehensive gesture towards his wife. 
 
 "Oh, come, come!" urged Peter hospitably. 
 ; ' Why, the other evening when you dropped over 
 here after the vespers, sir, you " 
 
 " I only use it when absolutely needful for 
 medicinal purposes," insisted the rector hurriedly. 
 " Not to-day, I thank you." 
 
 " I believe," said Peter irrelevantly, " that St. 
 Paul was a single man, was he not, Pastor?" 
 
 " I I believe so. It is not definitely known. 
 But why?" 
 
 " I was only wondering," mused Peter, " how 
 he would have accounted to St. Pauline, or what-
 
 88 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 ever his wife's name would have been, for what 
 he wrote in favour of ' a little wine for ' ' 
 
 " Oh," explained Mrs. Batholommey, still safe, 
 and ever feeling safer, now that temperance was 
 again the theme, " St. Paul referred to unfer- 
 mented wine, you know. Every one ought to un 
 derstand that. It is so hard to make people see 
 the difference." 
 
 " One bottle would convince them," said Peter 
 very gravely. 
 
 " No," Mrs. Batholommey corrected him with 
 serene loftiness. " You do not quite get my point, 
 dear Mr. Grimm. For instance, when the poets, 
 even good men like the late Mr. Longfellow and 
 Mr. Whittier speak of ' wine,' they use the word 
 of course in its poetical sense. They use it merely 
 to typify " 
 
 " Booze," growled McPherson. 
 
 " Good cheer," amended Mrs. Batholommey, 
 withering him with a single frown. " And yet it 
 is terribly misleading. I remember when we had 
 the Walter Scott Tableaux and Recitations at the 
 church last fall, and old Mr. Bertholf from Pomp- 
 ton was going to recite ' Lochinvar,' I had to sug 
 gest a change in the poem, lest the ignorant people 
 in the village might get a wrong impression of
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 89 
 
 dear Sir Walter Scott's principles. You remem 
 ber the couplet occurs : 
 
 " ' And now I have come with this lost love of mine 
 To tread one last measure, drink one cup of wine.' 
 
 " So I asked Mr. Bertholf to alter the words 
 into something like this: 
 
 " ' And now I have come with this beautiful maid 
 To tread one last measure, drink one lemonade.' 
 
 " It left the poetry just as beautiful and it took 
 away the dangerous reference to wine. Mr. Ber 
 tholf didn't like it very much, I'm afraid. But I 
 insisted, and at last " 
 
 " And at last," snarled McPherson, to whom the 
 thought of any mutilation of his fellow Scotch 
 man's verse was as sacrilege, " and at last, poor 
 Bertholf got so mixed up that he clean forgot the 
 silly rot you'd taught him. And when he came 
 to that part of the poem, he stammered for a 
 second and then blurted out: 
 
 " ' And now I have come with my lovely lost mate 
 
 To tread one last measure, drink one whiskey straight."* 
 
 " Yes," blazed Mrs. Batholommey, " and I 
 have always believed you put him up to it." 
 
 " Well," shrugged the noncommittal McPher 
 son, " if I had, it would at least be more in keep-
 
 90 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 ing with what Sir Walter intended than your 
 straining an immortal poem through a lemon- 
 squeezer." 
 
 " Andrew and I," announced Peter, hastening 
 to pour oil on the troubled waters of conversa 
 tion, by filling two glasses and handing one of 
 them to McPherson, " are going to drink a toast 
 to spooks." 
 
 " What? " squealed Mrs. Batholommey, in the * 
 accents of a rabbit that has been stepped on. 
 
 " To spooks we " 
 
 " Oh, how can you? " she gasped. " How can 
 you ? To spooks ! You of all men ! The very 
 idea ! " 
 
 " Mrs. Batholommey! " exclaimed Peter in real 
 alarm, setting down his glass and moving to 
 ward her. " Something has happened ! You are 
 quite " 
 
 " No, no! " she wailed helplessly. 
 
 " It is nothing, Mr. Grimm," soothed the rector. 
 " Nothing at all, I assure you. My wife is a trifle 
 overwrought this morning. Nothing of any con 
 sequence. I mean that is, of course we must 
 all keep our spirits up, Mr. Grimm." 
 
 " Good Lord, deliver us! " intoned McPherson 
 in mingled fervour and disgust.
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 91 
 
 " I know what it is," declared Peter with sud 
 den enlightenment. " You've just come from a 
 wedding! That's it! I know. Women love 
 weddings better than anything on earth. They'll 
 talk about it for months beforehand. They'll 
 walk miles to attend one. And they'll weep all 
 the rest of the day. I don't know why. But they 
 do it. I should be grateful, I suppose, that no 
 women were ever called upon to shed tears at my 
 wedding. But I hope, before so very long " 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey had not in the very least 
 caught the drift of the laughing speech whereby 
 he had sought to put the poor woman at her ease. 
 And now all at once, the last sagging vestige of 
 self-control went from her. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Grimm! " she moaned, breaking in 
 upon his words. " You were always so kind to 
 us. There never was a better, kinder, gentler man 
 in all this -world than you were." 
 
 " Than I was? " asked Peter bewildered. " Is 
 my character changing or ? " 
 
 " No, no! " she corrected herself flounderingly. 
 " I don't mean that. I mean I meant " 
 
 Her gaze fluttered helplessly about the big room 
 and chanced at last to fall upon the reading boy, 
 asprawl on the gallery bench above them.
 
 92 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " I meant," she plunged along, " what would 
 become of poor little Willem if you ? " 
 
 This time her glance was caught and transfixed 
 by McPherson's furious glare, much as a great 
 flopping beetle might be pierced by the sting of a 
 wasp. Mrs. Batholommey prided herself upon 
 her tact. That glare nerved her to another effort. 
 
 " You see," she shrilled, wildly and awkwardly 
 clambering out of the slough, " it's fearful he 
 had such a ' M.' " 
 
 " Such a ' M ' ? " queried Peter. " What does 
 that mean? " 
 
 With a warning glance toward the absorbed boy 
 she shaped her lips noiselessly into the word 
 " Mother." 
 
 "Oh! "said Peter. " I understand. But " 
 
 " She ought to have told Mr. Batholommey or 
 me," went on Mrs. Batholommey, climbing still 
 higher on to solid ground, " who the ' F ' was." 
 
 " ' F ' ? What does that mean ? " 
 
 And again the rabbit-like lips shaped themselves 
 into a soundless word, this time * Father.' ' 
 
 " Oh," grunted Peter, " the word you want isn't 
 ' Father,' but ' Scoundrel ! ' Whoever he is " 
 
 Willem flung aside his book and leaped to his 
 feet as though his little body were galvanised.
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 93 
 
 The others looked at him in guilty dread, fearing 
 he had heard and had somehow understood their 
 awkwardly veiled allusions to his parentage. But 
 they were mistaken. A sound, far more potent to 
 every normal child's ear than the fiercest thunders 
 of morality, had reached his keen senses as he 
 lounged up there. And a moment later they all 
 heard it. 
 
 It was the braying of a distant but steadily 
 approaching brass band. With it came a confused 
 but ever louder medley of shouts, handclapping, 
 raucous voices, and the higher tones of delighted 
 children. As Kathrien came running in at one 
 door, followed by Marta, and Frederik sauntered 
 in from the office, Willem rushed down the stair 
 way and into the window seat, where he sprang 
 upon a chair and craned his neck to see the stretch 
 of village street beyond. Nearer and louder came 
 the music and the attendant vocal Babel. 
 
 " It's the circus parade ! " shouted Willem. 
 " The one they tell about in the advertisements 
 and pictures on the fences. I didn't know the 
 parade would start so early. There come some of 
 them now. Oh, look! Oom Peter 1 Look! 
 It's a clown! See! He's coming right toward 
 us I"
 
 94 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 The band in full brazen force was discoursing 
 a " Dutch Ditties " waltz as it turned the corner 
 above. And now, the voices of the barkers were 
 heard in the land. 
 
 " Ladies and Gentlemen," came the leathern 
 tones of one unseen announcer, " one hour before 
 the big show begins in the main tent we will give 
 a grand free balloon ascension ! " 
 
 " Remember," adjured a second Unseen, " one 
 price admits you to all parts of the big show 1 " 
 
 " Lemo lemo ice cold lemonade five cents a 
 glass ! " shouted a youthful vender. 
 
 " You ought to quaff one beaker of it to Sir 
 Walter Scott's memory, Mrs. Batholommey," ob 
 served McPherson. 
 
 But the din of the oncoming parade drowned 
 his voice. The whole roomful, from Marta 
 down to Willem, were thronging into the bay win 
 dow. They were all children again. A touch of 
 circus had renewed their youth as by the wave of 
 a magic wand. Willem broke into a cry of utter 
 joy and pointed ecstatically at the open window. 
 
 The next moment a clown, white and vermilion 
 of face, clad in the traditional white, black, and 
 scarlet motley of his tribe, had leaped cat-like upon 
 the window sill and swept the room with his
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 95 
 
 painted grin. In his hands he held a great bunch 
 of variegated circus bills. Tossing a half-dozen 
 of these at the feet of the all-absorbed spectators, 
 he cried in high cracked falsetto : 
 
 " Well, well, WELL! Here we are again, good 
 people! Billy Miller's Big Show! Larger 
 greater grander than ever. Everything new! 
 Come and see the wild animals ! Hear the lions 
 roar!" 
 
 Wheeling suddenly towards Mrs. Batholommey 
 he pointed a whitened forefinger at her and broke 
 into a truly frightful roar. The good lady jumped 
 at least six inches from the ground. 
 
 "Steady, ma'am!" exhorted the clown. "I 
 won't let him bite you ! Come one, come all I 
 Come see the diving deer! The human fly, Made 
 moiselle Zarella ! " he added, addressing the rector. 
 " She walks suspended from the ceiling ! One ring 
 and no confusion ! " he confided to the delightedly 
 smiling Peter. " And all for the price of admis 
 sion ! Remember the grand free exhibition one 
 hour before the big show! " 
 
 He paused, catching sight of Willem for the 
 first time. Now, it is a well-grounded tradition 
 in one-ring circus life that no clown stays long in 
 the business or scores a hit in it unless he is genu-
 
 96 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 inely fond of children. Noting the all-absorbing 
 bliss and adoration in Willem's wide eyes, the 
 clown grinned at the boy in right brotherly 
 fashion. 
 
 " Howdy ! " said he cordially. " Shake ! " 
 Marvelling, overcome with rapture, feeling as 
 though the proffered honour was one far too won 
 derful to be real, Willem shyly extended his hand 
 and met the friendly grasp of the flour-dusted 
 fingers. The clown, striking an attitude, began 
 in shrill, exaggerated diction, to chant the anti 
 quated " Frog Opera " song: 
 
 " Uncle Rat has gone to town, Ha-ff'JHf 
 Uncle Rat has gone to town," 
 
 he sang on, addressing Willem, 
 
 " To buy his niece a wedding gown." 
 
 "Ha-H'Mf" intoned Willem, delightedly; 
 laughing aloud as he realised he was actually sing 
 ing with a real live clown. 
 
 "What shall the wedding breakfast be?" 
 
 continued the clown, interrogating the equally 
 youthful and delighted Peter Grimm. And this 
 time more voices than Peter's and Willem's caught 
 up the refrain:
 
 A QUEER COMPACT 97 
 
 Hard-boiled eggs and a cup of tea," 
 
 sang the clown. And again from Willem and the 
 rest came the answering: 
 
 "Ha-H'M/" 
 
 " Billy Miller's Big Show! " yelled the clown. 
 "Come one, come all! So long, Sonny!" 
 
 He was gone. The others came back to earth. 
 But Willem was still in the wonder clouds. It 
 had been to him an experience to rehearse a thou 
 sand times, to dream over, to remember forever. 
 Peter Grimm, reading the boy's thoughts as could 
 only a heart that must ever be boyish, beckoned 
 Willem to him, as Kathrien and Marta departed 
 to their interrupted work in the dining-room and 
 the rest looked half ashamed at their momentary 
 excitement over so garish and trivial a thing. 
 
 "Willem!" called Grimm. 
 
 " Ja, Mynheer," answered the boy, coming 
 slowly, his face still alight with his tremendous 
 adventure of a moment ago. 
 
 " Willem," repeated Grimm, " you wouldn't 
 care to go to that circus, would you? Wouldn't 
 it be pretty stupid? " 
 
 " Stupid! " gasped the boy. " Oh ! "
 
 98 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 "Well," said Peter, "suppose you go, then?" 
 
 " Go? Really, Mynheer Grimm? " 
 
 " Go get the seats," ordered Grimm. " Here's 
 the money. Get two front seats. Two. We'll 
 both go. We'll make a night of it, you and I. 
 We'll stay out till till ten o'clock! " 
 
 The vision of this bliss was too much for Wil- 
 lem's English. 
 
 " Ekar, ekar na hat circus! " he babbled dazedly. 
 
 Then he rushed up impulsively to Peter and 
 seized the big, kindly hand in both his own. 
 
 " Oh, Mynheer Grimm! " he squealed in ecstasy. 
 " There ain't any one else like you in the world. 
 And and when the other fellows laugh at your 
 funny hat, / don't." 
 
 "What?" asked Grimm, perplexed. "Is my 
 hat funny? " 
 
 The boy was vibrant with laughter, drunk with 
 anticipation. But, momentarily straightening his 
 glowing face with a cast of semi-gravity, he said : 
 
 "And and Mynheer Grimm it's too bad 
 you've got to die ! "
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 BREAKING THE NEWS 
 
 THERE was an instant of stark, palsied silence. 
 The rector, his wife, and McPherson looked at 
 the all-unconscious boy with dumb horror. A hor 
 ror that for the time crowded out indignation. 
 Frederik, ignorant as he was of any cause for 
 emotion, was struck by the tense bearing of the 
 trio and looked from one to the other with the 
 air of the only man in the room who does not catch 
 a joke's point. 
 
 Peter Grimm alone was not affected by Willem's 
 words. He was used to the child's oddities, his 
 alternating high spirits, and dashes of sadness; his 
 old-fashioned phrases and his queer lapses. Grimm 
 broke the ominous silence with an amused chuckle. 
 
 " Most people die, sooner or later, Willem," he 
 answered, stroking the boy's shock of soft yellow 
 hair. " I'll live to see you in the business though. 
 And we'll go to dozens of circuses together, too. 
 Don't worry your little head over your Oom 
 Peter's dying. I " 
 
 He paused. The electrified atmosphere gen- 
 
 99
 
 ioo THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 crated by the three conspirators began to reach 
 his non-sensitive brain. A quick glance at Mr. 
 Batholommey and a second at the rector's wife 
 confirmed his vague feeling that something was 
 wrong. He turned back to Willem, in time to in 
 tercept a blighting scowl of warning the doctor was 
 trying to flash to the boy. 
 
 " Willem," asked Grimm gently, " how did you 
 happen to say such a queer thing just now ? What 
 made you think I'm going to die? " 
 
 A concerted and unintelligible interruption from 
 the trio was voiced too late to prevent Willem's 
 reply. 
 
 "He said so," replied the boy, pointing at 
 McPherson. 
 
 Then he caught the doctor's annihilating frown. 
 And, simultaneously the rector cried in stern admo 
 nition : 
 
 "Willem!" 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey, too, was making quite 
 awful and wholly incomprehensible faces at him. 
 Under the triple menace the boy wilted. Like 
 every child, since Cain, he had a thousand times 
 been reproved for things he had said or done in 
 perfect innocence. In fact, the more unconscious 
 the offence, the more dire was the reproof. Chil-
 
 BREAKING THE NEWS 101 
 
 dren do not reason in such matters. It is enough 
 for them to know they have said or done the wrong 
 thing; without stopping to discover why or how 
 that thing chanced to be wrong. 
 
 The non-linguist traveller in a foreign land can 
 not read the " Keep off the Grass " or " No 
 Thoroughfare " signs. But the policeman's threat 
 ening club has a universal language that he under 
 stands and intuitively obeys. SoWillem (ignorant 
 of death save as an empty name that vaguely 
 carried a note of sorrow, and wholly unaware why 
 he should not have imparted the news of Grimm's 
 coming demise), saw he had said something very 
 terrible. And a look of abject panic came into his 
 face. 
 
 But Grimm's hand was still on his head, 
 gentle, caressing, infinitely tender in its touch. 
 
 " No, don't stop the boy," commanded Peter, 
 meeting the variously anguished glances of the 
 others with a half smile that began and ended in 
 the suddenly widened eyes. " Don't stop him. 
 Only children speak the truth nowadays. It used 
 to be ' children and fools.' But fools have learned 
 to tell fool-lies, and they have left children the 
 monopoly of truth telling. Go on, Willem. You 
 heard the doctor say that I am going to ?"
 
 102 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Willem's fragile little body was trembling from 
 head to foot. Under Mrs. Batholommey's dis 
 torted glare and threatening noiseless mouthings 
 his puny courage had gone to pieces. Big tears 
 began to roll down his cheeks. And noting the 
 child's terror, Grimm fell to soothing him. 
 
 " There, there, jounker," comforted Peter. 
 " Don't let them frighten you. Oom Peter will 
 stand by you. You haven't done anything wrong 
 and nobody's going to scold you. Don't be 
 scared." 
 
 Under the strangely gentle voice and the con 
 soling touch of the rough, kindly hand, Willem's 
 fears subsided. With Oom Peter on his side, he 
 could brave the frowns of all Grimm Manor if 
 need be. For who was so strong, so wise as Oom 
 Peter? 
 
 Did not every one bend to his orders and come 
 running to him for advice and aid, as troubled 
 children seek out a loving father? The boy 
 ceased to tremble. He looked up into Grimm's 
 face for something that should confirm the words 
 and the touch. 
 
 And he found it. The rugged old visage had 
 never before been so kindly, so unruffled. And 
 in the little eyes that could flash so obstinately
 
 BREAKING THE NEWS 103 
 
 and irritably, there was nothing but friendli 
 ness. 
 
 Yes something more that the boy had never 
 before seen. Something he could not read, but that 
 seemed to draw him strangely close to the old man, 
 and freed him of his last vestige of fear. 
 
 " Don't be scared, dear lad," repeated Grimm. 
 " So you heard Dr. McPherson say I am going 
 to die?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 Grimm turned slowly to the doctor, who still 
 stood glowering, red, speechless, furiously miser 
 able. 
 
 " Andrew," asked Grimm quietly, " what did 
 you mean? " 
 
 Before McPherson could speak, Grimm checked 
 him with a move of the head and glanced down 
 at the boy. 
 
 " Never mind just now," said he. " Willem 
 didn't mean any harm in telling me. It just 
 popped out, didn't it, Willem? The only person 
 who never says the wrong thing at the wrong time 
 is a deaf mute whose fingers are paralysed. We'll 
 forget all about it. Now run along, lad, and get 
 those circus tickets before all the best ones are 
 gone. Front row seats, remember. We're go-
 
 104 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 ing to have the finest sort of a spree, you and I. 
 Hurry now." 
 
 " Ja, Oom Peter ! " cried the boy, all laughter 
 once more. 
 
 He snatched his cap from the rack, in his haste 
 almost upsetting Grimm's antiquated tile that hung 
 beside it; and, with a farewell shout, was gone. 
 His feet padded joyously on the gravel outside; 
 then silence fell again in the big room. It was 
 Mr. Batholommey who broke the spell. Walk 
 ing solemnly up to Peter, who stood looking with 
 a sort of stunned wistfulness straight in front of 
 him, the rector held out his hand. 
 
 " Good-bye, dear brave friend," he said, with an 
 air gruesomely if unconsciously reminiscent of his 
 burial service manner. " Any time you telephone 
 for me, day or night, I'll run over immediately. 
 God bless you, sir! " his rounded voice shaking 
 uncontrollably. " I have never come to you in 
 behalf of any worthy charity and been refused. 
 You have set an example in upright living, in 
 generosity, in true manliness, and in constant 
 church attendance that should be an example to> 
 all my vestrymen and to the town at large. I 
 have never seen a nobler man. Never. Good 
 good-morning."
 
 BREAKING THE NEWS 105 
 
 He moved toward the door, winking very fast 
 and clearing his throat. At the threshold he beck 
 oned to his wife. But she had already borne down 
 upon Peter. 
 
 " Mr. Grimm! " she sobbed. " The best the 
 kindest the the Oh, I don't see how we are 
 going to bear it." 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Batholommey," answered Grimm. 
 " Please don't be so overcome. I may outlive 
 you all. Nevertheless, I am grateful to your 
 husband for letting me hear my funeral eulogy 
 in advance, and to you for " 
 
 "Oh, how can you make light of it?" she 
 sobbed. " Yes, dear, I'm coming. Good-bye,. 
 Mr. Grimm." 
 
 Like a confused and somewhat elderly hen she 
 scuttled off in her husband's wake, while Peter 
 Grimm stared after the two with a half-amused, 
 half-perplexed smile. 
 
 " Of all the wall-eyed, semi-anthropoid congen 
 ital idiots," roared McPherson as the door closed 
 behind them, " those two are " 
 
 " You're mistaken, Andrew," contradicted 
 Grimm. " They're kind-hearted, good people, 
 who spend their lives and their substance in help 
 ing others. If you and they can't get on together
 
 106 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 It's no one's fault. Any more than because 
 fuchsias and sunflowers won't thrive in the same 
 bed. Now calm down a bit, old friend, and 
 tell me " 
 
 " Nothing ! It was nothing. Just nonsense. 
 Don't give it another thought, Peter. You said, 
 yourself, a while ago, that many a man who was 
 given up by the doctors at twenty-five lives to be 
 a hundred. And there is no reason on earth why 
 y ou " 
 
 " Don't! " urged Grimm. " I don't need that. 
 
 " Don't fret yourself, Peter," insisted McPher- 
 son. " You mustn't get the idea that you are 
 worse off than you really are. Don't get cold feet 
 or let this thing worry you to death. You must 
 live for " 
 
 " Andrew ! " chided Grimm, with tolerant re 
 proof. " Are you so tangled up that you think 
 you're talking to Willem instead of to a full-grown 
 man? If it's got to be, it's got to be. And you 
 were wrong not to tell me at once. That is the 
 way with you doctors. You are so in the habit 
 of dealing with hysterical women and hypochon 
 driacs that you forget that a man is shaped by 
 nature to bear the naked truth without having it
 
 BREAKING THE NEWS 107 
 
 rigged up beforehand in a lot of fluff to disguise 
 its shape. I think I understand. I may live a 
 while longer. And I may not. The same thing 
 could be said of every one." 
 
 McPherson tried to speak, then turned and made 
 blindly for the door. 
 
 " Wait a minute! " called Grimm. 
 
 McPherson halted. Peter crossed to where his 
 friend stood. With an effort at his old-time 
 whimsical banter he held out his hand. 
 
 " I just want to promise again, Andrew," he 
 said, " that if there's anything in this spook busi 
 ness of yours, I'll come back. And I'll apologise. 
 Good-bye and good luck." 
 
 McPherson wrung his hand, without speaking, 
 and strode noisily out.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE HAND RELAXES 
 
 PETER GRIMM walked slowly back into the room. 
 He paused at his desk and laid his hand on a sheaf 
 of papers piled there. He looked about the big 
 sunlit apartment almost as if he were trying to 
 stamp the image of each of its familiar, pleasant 
 features upon his memory. 
 
 Frederik, in the window seat, had been a silent 
 onlooker to the strange scene. His pallid, thin 
 face was set in an aspect of grieved wonder. And 
 Peter Grimm, meeting his glance, sought to soften 
 the young man's sorrow. 
 
 " Brace up, Fritzy," he said gaily. " It's noth 
 ing to look so down-in-the-mouth about. Doctors 
 are apt to be wrong. They guess too much. 
 When the guess is right they win a reputation for 
 wisdom. When it's wrong as it is nine times 
 out of eight, they say they knew it all along but 
 thought h wasn't wise to tell the patient and his 
 friends. Doctoring is a grand game, for the 
 man who has no sense of humour and can play it 
 with a straight face. Now let's forget old An- 
 
 108
 
 THE HAND RELAXES 109 
 
 drew's croakings. Go and get me some change 
 for the circus, Fritzy. Enough for Willem and 
 me to buy all the red-ink lemonade and popcorn 
 and peanuts and candy we can eat. Get me a 
 whole dollar, anyhow. And then, if there's any 
 left over after the show, I can " 
 
 " Oh, sir ! " cried Frederik protestingly. " Are 
 you going after all, Uncle? And with that child? 
 Do you think it's wise to ? " 
 
 " Wise? " echoed Peter gleefully. " Of course 
 it isn't wise. That's the glory of a circus. It's 
 almost the one place where people can go and 
 forget they were ever meant to be wise. And 
 that's why I am going. That and because I 
 wouldn't disappoint Willem. Miss a circus? 
 Miss Billy Miller's Big Show? Not I. You 
 may be too old for such follies, Fritz. But I'll 
 never be." 
 
 " But, sir," said Frederik, " in case you should 
 be taken ill " 
 
 " I won't be." 
 
 " With no companion but that half-witted " 
 
 " Willem is not half-witted. He has as 
 much sense as any boy of his age. And more r 
 in many ways. Why do you dislike him so, 
 Fritz?"
 
 no THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Dislike him? " echoed Frederik uneasily. " I 
 don't Why should I?" 
 
 " When you came back from Europe and found 
 him living with us," pursued Grimm, " you seemed 
 annoyed. He tried to make friends with you at 
 first. But you seemed always to rebuff him. 
 Why? He's a lovable, interesting little chap. 
 One would think you had some strong prejudice 
 against him or some reason " 
 
 ' Why, of course not. How could I have ? 
 The boy is nothing to me, one way or another, 
 Uncle. As you're so fond of him, I'd be glad to 
 do anything I could for him. As there's nothing 
 I can do, and as he seems actually afraid of me, 
 for some silly childish reason or other, I let him 
 alone." 
 
 Grimm's attention had already wandered and 
 that same new look which Willem had first de 
 tected crept back into his lined face. But the 
 sight of Kathrien coming in from her preparations 
 for the one o'clock dinner brought him back to 
 himself. 
 
 " Katje ! " he hailed her. " Do you want to 
 go to the circus with Willem and me?" 
 
 " Jal " she laughed joyously. " Natiirlich" 
 
 " Goodl One more member of the family who
 
 THE HAND RELAXES in 
 
 5s no more grown up than I am! I want to see 
 Mademoiselle Zarella, the human fly, and " 
 
 He stopped to light the big meerschaum he had 
 just filled. Then, going over to his favourite 
 big armchair a Dutch importation of a hundred 
 years earlier, with pulpit back and high solid arms 
 he settled himself comfortably in it. 
 
 Peter Grimm was tired. And he wanted to 
 think over the news he had so recently heard; to 
 dissect and analyse it and, if need be, to adjust 
 himself to its awesome import. He sat back with 
 half-closed eyes, puffing now and then mechanic 
 ally at his pipe, his veiled glance resting here, 
 there, and everywhere among the surroundings he 
 loved. 
 
 The stable clock chimed the noon hour. The 
 big, slow-swinging arms of the windmill slackened 
 motion and stood still. A hush was in the air. 
 The warm, lazy, wonderful hush of summer noon. 
 
 The midday sunlight gushed in unchecked 
 through the wide windows, flooding the room with 
 a glory of hazy golden light; bathing the dark 
 old furniture with tints of rich warmth; glowing 
 upon the roses that were arranged on desk and 
 piano. 
 
 The Dutch clock on the wall struck twelve. A
 
 ii2 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 moment later, the little clock on the mantel jing- 
 lingly endorsed the sentiment. Then, save for 
 the drowsy droning of the bees among the blossoms 
 outside the open windows, there was no sound in 
 all Grimm's world. 
 
 Even Kathrien and Frederik seemed silenced 
 by the spell of summer noon magic. The girl was 
 looking out across the sun-kissed gardens. Fred 
 erik was eyeing her in complacent satisfaction, his 
 nimble brain busy with the tidings that might 
 mean so much for him. 
 
 Kathrien turned from the window at last and 
 seated herself idly at the piano. Her slender 
 fingers drifted half-aimlessly over the keys. Fred 
 erik lounged over to the piano and stood looking 
 down at her. 
 
 Presently she began to sing. Frederik joined 
 in the song and their young voices blended sweetly 
 in the old Dutch and English words: 
 
 " Van een twee, een twee, nu 
 Ste-ken -wij van wal: 
 The bird so free in the heavens 
 Is but the slave of the nest. 
 For all must toil as God wills it, 
 Must laugh and toil and rest. 
 
 " The rose must blow in the gardens, 
 The bee must gather its store. 
 The cat must watch the mousehole, 
 And the dog must guard the door! "
 
 THE HAND RELAXES 113 
 
 As the voices died away, Peter Grimm came 
 out of his tortuous reverie. He had reached a 
 decision. And, having once made up his mind, he 
 was not a man to delay the execution of any plan. 
 
 " Katje! " he called, with sharp eagerness. 
 
 Startled at his unwonted tone, the girl hurried 
 across to him. 
 
 u Yes, Oom Peter?" she asked. 
 
 " Get me the Staaten Bible, please. Quickly." 
 
 Wondering at the peremptory tone of the famil 
 iar request, Kathrien obeyed, bringing the heavy 
 old book to the table at his side; and opening it, 
 from long habit, at the closely written pages of 
 the Grimm family genealogy. 
 
 ' There ! " said Peter, running his finger down 
 the last record page until it stopped at the blank 
 space just below his own name. 
 
 " Frederik! " he called. " Come here." 
 
 The young people stood, one at each side of 
 his chair, awaiting the next move, more than a 
 little astonished at the unwonted haste and eager 
 ness in his tone. 
 
 " Katje," went on Grimm, almost feverishly, as 
 he pointed again at the blank line beneath his 
 birth announcement, " I want to see you married 
 and happy."
 
 ii4 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " I am happy, Uncle," she protested, 
 and " 
 
 " And I want to see you happily married," he 
 said. 
 
 " II don't know," she faltered. " I " 
 
 " But / know for you, little girl," he insisted, 
 tapping the open page. " And under my name 
 here, I want to see written: 'Married: Kathrien 
 and Frederik.' You will do as I wish, dear? It 
 would make me so happy! " 
 
 " Why, Oom Peter," she faltered in distress, 
 " of course there isn't anything I wouldn't do 
 gladly to make you happy. But " 
 
 " Kitty," urged Frederik, " you know I love 
 you! You know " 
 
 " Yes, yes, yes. Certainly she does," snapped 
 Grimm, fretted at the interruption. " Everybody 
 knows that." 
 
 Grimm caught the girl's look of dumb entreaty, 
 misread it, manlike, and hurried on: 
 
 " Come, girl, we've no time to be coy. Promise 
 me you'll consent, Katje. We'll make it a June 
 wedding. We have ten days yet. And " 
 
 " Oh, I couldn't! " protested the poor girl. 
 "Really, I couldn't." 
 
 " Nonsense, little girl. It's the easiest thing
 
 THE HAND RELAXES 115 
 
 in the world to get ready to be happy. Ten days 
 is plenty. And you " 
 
 " We can get your trousseau later," put in 
 Frederik eagerly. 
 
 "Fritz!" cried the old man, exasperated. 
 " Will you keep out of this? Who is managing it? 
 You or I? In ten days, then, Katje? Please!" 
 
 ;< Why," she stammered, wretchedly at a loss, 
 " if it will make you so happy, Oom Peter if it 
 means so much to you " 
 
 "It does. It does!" 
 
 " I owe everything to you " 
 
 " Then give me the privilege of seeing you a 
 happy, contented wife, and we will write ' Paid ' 
 across the bill." 
 
 " But why need I marry so terribly soon ? " 
 
 " To gratify a cranky old man's whim, Katje. 
 It means more to me than I can tell you. Frederik 
 understands." 
 
 She looked from one to the other. On each 
 face she read a fatuous eagerness. She knew the 
 futility of pleading with Frederik. She knew still 
 more surely the uselessness of trying to make Peter 
 Grimm change his stubborn wishes. With a little 
 catch in her breath, she gave up the hopeless, 
 unequal fight.
 
 " Very well," she assented. 
 
 " You will do it? " cried Peter Grimm joyfully. 
 
 " Yes, I promise," she answered; and her voice 
 was dead. 
 
 " Good ! " sighed Grimm, as he picked up his 
 pipe and leaned back again in the big chair's re 
 cesses, a smile of utter peace and contentment irra 
 diating his square old face. " You've made me 
 very, very happy, Katje," he murmured, his eyes 
 half-shut, his words trailing away almost into in 
 coherence. " Very, very happy. I'm happier 
 than ever I was in all my life happier than ever 
 I dreamed a man could be. I " 
 
 He ceased to speak. The light on his face grew 
 brighter, then slowly faded as a peaceful summer 
 day fades. He settled a little lower in his chair 
 and lay back there, very still. The gnarled hand 
 that held the meerschaum relaxed. 
 
 The pipe fell clattering to the floor. Frederik 
 stooped to pick it up. Kathrien, her eyes chanc 
 ing to fall on Grimm's face, cried aloud in 
 horror. 
 
 Frederfk followed the direction of her gaze. 
 He sprang toward his uncle, laid a hand over the 
 old man's heart, and bent down toward the still, 
 grey face that was upturned to his.
 
 THE HAND RELAXES 117 
 
 "Good God, Kitty!" he gasped. "He's 
 dead! " 
 
 ,The girl had already flown toward the front 
 door. Jerking it open she ran out on the steps. 
 As she did so, she caught sight of McPherson 
 coming away from a professional call at a house 
 across the street. 
 
 "Doctor!"" screamed Kathrien frantically. 
 "Doctor!" 
 
 McPherson, next moment, had pushed past her 
 into the living-room. Kneeling beside Grimm's 
 body he made a swift examination. 
 
 As he rose to face the others, Willem burst into 
 the house. 
 
 " Oom Peter! Oom Peter! " shrilled the child 
 happily. " I got them ! " 
 
 " Hush ! " exclaimed McPherson. 
 
 The boy halted in the doorway, looking in 
 puzzled dismay at the huddled form in the chair. 
 
 " What what is ? " he began. 
 
 " He is dead," replied Frederik shortly. 
 
 Willem stood aghast for a second, while the curt 
 announcement sank into his senses. Then in a 
 burst of angry, rebellious wonder, the child cried: 
 
 " Dead? He can't be. He can't! Why, I've 
 got our circus tickets I "
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AFTERWARD 
 
 GRIMM MANOR was in mourning. And, far more 
 to the dead man's honour, Grimm Manor was 
 mourning. 
 
 The last of the ancient line was dead. The 
 Grimms had been the ruling spirits in the drowsy 
 little up-State town for more than two centuries. 
 From father to son, the hierarchy had been handed 
 down. 
 
 In days when the district was a wilderness and 
 when the Grimms fought wild animal and Indian, 
 and in the days when it was a prosperous suburb 
 and the Grimms fought " scale " and locust, it had 
 been the same: ever a Grimm had swayed the 
 little community. 
 
 Quiet in spite of his eccentric ways and dress, 
 Peter Grimm had been known chiefly as a kindly 
 neighbour and a shrewd business man. But now, 
 after his death, all sorts and conditions of people 
 came forward with queer stories of his private 
 dealings. 
 
 There was a crotchety old Civil War veteran, 
 
 118
 
 AFTERWARD 119 
 
 for instance, who lived " on the Mountain " and 
 who was a reputed miser. He now told how Peter 
 Grimm had eked out his $8 a month pension for 
 the past forty years and had made it possible for 
 him to live in comfort. A crippled woman who, 
 with her four children, had at one time seemed 
 likely to become a public charge and who had been 
 relieved in the nick of time by a legacy, now told 
 the real source of that providential " legacy." 
 
 A farm boy who had yearned to study engineer 
 ing and who had been helped unexpectedly by a 
 secret fund, revealed the name of the fund's 
 donor. 
 
 A market gardener whose house, barns, and 
 horses had been destroyed by fire, proclaimed that 
 insurance had not enabled him to make good his 
 loss. For he had not been insured. Peter Grimm 
 had set him on his feet again. And as in every 
 other case, Grimm had imposed but one condition 
 upon the gift: absolute secrecy. 
 
 These were but a few cases out of dozens that 
 were made known within the week after Grimm's 
 death. 
 
 The little stone church of Grimm Manor was 
 packed to the doors on the day that six big 
 awkward men with tear blotched faces bore a
 
 120 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 silent burden up its aisle. A burden so covered 
 with masses of fragrant blossoms as to blot out 
 its gruesome oblong shape. The flowers were 
 from Peter Grimm's own gardens, then in the riot 
 of their June-tide glory. 
 
 And so, covered and drifted over with the glow 
 ing blooms he loved so well, the dead man went 
 to his burial. 
 
 In the Grimm pew, with its silver plate and high r 
 box-like sides, sat Frederik, Kathrien, and old 
 Marta. The heir was as woe begone of face and 
 as crassly sombre of raiment as even the most 
 captious could have desired. The unostentatious 
 pressure of his black bordered handkerchief to his 
 eyes once or twice during the service attested to a 
 sorrow that could not be kept wholly within stoic 
 bounds. 
 
 Yet, oddly enough, it was Kathrien, rather 
 than Frederik or the frankly blubbering old house 
 keeper, on whom people's eyes most often rested 
 rested and then dimmed with a haze of sym 
 pathy. The girl did not weep. Her face was 
 very pale. But it was set and expressionless. 
 Save for its big eyes it seemed a lifeless mask. 
 The eyes alone were alive. And never for one 
 instant did they move from the flower banked
 
 AFTERWARD 121 
 
 casket in front of the altar rail. They were tear 
 less. But in their soft depths lurked the awed, 
 unbelieving horror of a little child's that is for the 
 first time brought face to face with the Black Half 
 of life. 
 
 Kathrien was not in mourning. Her simple 
 white dress caused no comment. For, by this 
 time, it was known she was acting on what she 
 believed to be Grimm's wishes. The dead man 
 had ever had a loathing of all the hideous visible 
 trappings of grief. He had been wont to hold 
 forth on his aversion after every funeral he had 
 been forced to attend. 
 
 " When it comes my time to fall asleep," he 
 had said, during one of these Philippics, " I don't 
 want anybody that cares for me to make death 
 horrible by going around dressed like an under 
 taker. I'd as soon expect a mother to put on 
 black after she had kissed her child good-night. 
 There'd be just as much sense in it. If it's done 
 because we're grieved to think where our friends 
 have gone, well and good. But if we're willing 
 to give them the benefit of the doubt, why dress 
 as if we were sorry for them? " 
 
 Wherefore, Kathrien was wearing one of the 
 white summer dresses he had loved. She had tim-
 
 122 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 idly suggested that Frederik also honour the dead 
 man's prejudices. But the sad, reproachful look 
 he had bent upon her at her first hint of the sub 
 ject had silenced the girl and had left her half- 
 convicted of heartlessness because of her own 
 avoidance of black. 
 
 Willem was not at the funeral. After that first 
 strange outburst on learning that Grimm was dead, 
 the child had said no word all day. At night 
 when Kathrien came to take him to bed, she found 
 him in a high fever. 
 
 Dr. McPherson had been sent for, and had ex 
 amined the child closely, but could find no palpable 
 cause for the malady. 
 
 " He's an odd little fellow," he told Kathrien. 
 " Like no other boy I've ever known. The Scotch 
 call such children * fey ' and prophesy short lives 
 for them. And the prophecy usually comes true. 
 There's always been something psychic about Wil 
 lem. A hypnotist or a medium would look on 
 him as a treasure. 
 
 " All the diagnosis I can make is that Peter's 
 death caused a shock to the boy's never strong 
 nerves and that the shock has caused the fever. 
 Keep him in bed for a few days. He'll probably 
 come around all right. There doesn't seem to
 
 AFTERWARD 123 
 
 be anything really serious except that in a con 
 stitution like his everything is apt to be more or 
 less serious." 
 
 After the funeral, life went on outwardly much 
 as before at the Grimm home. The only change 
 was the impalpable one which occurs in a room 
 when a clock stops. 
 
 And, in fulfilment of Peter Grimm's last request, 
 preparations for the " June wedding " were begun. 
 It was Frederik who tactfully broached the theme. 
 Kathrien, after a look of helpless fear, nodded 
 acquiescence. 
 
 " I promised him," she said faintly. " And 
 he died while the promise was still scarcely spoken. 
 The smile of happiness it brought to his dear old 
 face was on it when they laid him to sleep. I 
 couldn't break that promise." 
 
 " And you wouldn't, if you could. I know 
 that," said Frederik tenderly. " Dear one, I 
 would not urge the wedding at a time like this if 
 it had not been his last wish that we should be 
 married this very month." 
 
 " Yes," she agreed lifelessly. " It was his wish. 
 And we must do it." 
 
 And with this unenthusiastic assent Frederik 
 was forced to be satisfied. So the preparations
 
 124 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 were pushed on with a furtive, almost apologetic, 
 haste. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey entered into the spirit of 
 the affair with a lugubrious zest that would have 
 sickened Kathrien had it not taken so much of 
 the burden of arrangement-making off her own 
 tired young shoulders. 
 
 It was to Frederik and Mrs. Batholommey that 
 every one at length turned for directions in de 
 tails for the wedding, not to the still-faced girl 
 who seemed to know or to care nothing about 
 the way matters were to be conducted. 
 
 And this gave Kathrien surcease, a breathing 
 space wherein to try to think with a brain from 
 which sorrow had driven the power of clear 
 thought; a time to plan, to realise, to remember, 
 with faculties too numb to carry out the will 
 power's intent. The days crept past her like 
 shadows. And the wedding day drew near. But 
 still she could not wholly rouse herself from the 
 dumb inertia that gripped her.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE EVE OF A WEDDING 
 
 TEN days later the household, which had been 
 Peter Grimm's and was his no longer, had suffi 
 ciently adjusted itself to new conditions to en 
 deavour to carry out his dearest wish the mar 
 riage of Kathrien to Frederik. 
 
 It was near the close of a rainy afternoon, and 
 Mrs. Batholommey (installed in the house as 
 temporary chaperone and adviser to Kathrien) 
 was busily engaged in drilling four little girls 
 from her own Sunday-school class to sing the 
 Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin. 
 
 Standing at the piano, and playing with a sure, 
 determined touch, she gazed over her shoulder 
 at the children and sang vigorously, nodding her 
 head to emphasise the tempo: 
 
 " Faithful and true we lead ye forth 
 Where love triumphant shall lead the way. 
 Bright star of love, flower of the earth, 
 Shine on ye both on your love's perfect day." 
 
 As the last line was reached, Mrs. Batholommey 
 
 raised her hand in a signal to stop. 
 
 125
 
 126 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " That's better. Now, children not too loud. 
 Remember, this is a very quiet wedding. You're 
 to be here at noon to-morrow. You mustn't speak 
 as you enter the room, and take your places near 
 the piano. Now we'll sing as though the bride 
 were here. I'll represent the bride." 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey pointed at Kathrien's door 
 as she spoke, and started toward it with subdued 
 but undeniable enthusiasm. 
 
 " Miss Kathrien will come down the stairs 
 from her room, I suppose and will stand I 
 don't know where but you've got to stop when 
 I look at you. Watch me now " 
 
 Bending her knees, she stood bobbing up and 
 down in time to the children's singing, until 
 she caught the step, then started down the 
 stairs, unconsciously raising and lowering her 
 dress skirt to emphasise the rhythm of the 
 song. 
 
 Across the room she marched, head bent and 
 eyes cast down, while the children repeated the 
 familiar verse over and over. 
 
 Having marched herself into a corner she halted 
 and faced the little singers. At that moment, 
 however, Frederik entered, and the rehearsal was 
 over for the day. Mrs. Batholommey quickly
 
 THE EVE OF A WEDDING 127 
 
 left her role of bride and dismissed the chorus 
 with many warnings and instructions. 
 
 " That will do, children. Hurry home between 
 showers and don't forget what I've told you about 
 to-morrow! " 
 
 While she busied herself helping them into their 
 rubbers and waterproofs, Frederik puffed at a 
 cigarette in silence and was seemingly without the 
 slightest interest in what was going on around 
 him. A great change had taken place in his de 
 meanour since his uncle's death. He had come 
 into his own. The place, and everything, includ 
 ing Kathrien herself, would be his. He did not 
 even try to veil his feeling of mastership. Walk 
 ing over to his uncle's desk-chair, he sat down and 
 began to pull off his gloves, looking at the children 
 a trifle superciliously. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey felt it necessary to explain, 
 and murmured with deprecatory haste: 
 
 " My Sunday-school children. I thought your 
 dear uncle wouldn't like it if he knew there wasn't 
 going to be any singing during the marriage cere 
 mony to-morrow. I know how bright and cheery 
 he liked everything," she purred. " If he were 
 alive it would be a church wedding! Dear, 
 happy, charitable soul!"
 
 128 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 As she spoke she handed the children their 
 umbrellas and, exchanging good-byes, the little 
 choir hurried out into the rain. 
 
 "Where's Kathrien?" said Frederik. 
 
 " Still upstairs with Willem," answered Mrs. 
 Batholommey, glancing up toward the little boy's 
 room apprehensively as she spoke, and lowering 
 her voice a bit. 
 
 Frederik made an inarticulate sound of annoy 
 ance, and putting his hand into his pocket, took 
 out two steamer tickets and examined them. His 
 one idea was to get away from the simple, quaint 
 surroundings that his uncle had kept and beauti 
 fied for him in the fond, proud hope that his 
 nephew would love and care for the place as he 
 had done. 
 
 To Frederik it meant nothing but a humdrum 
 existence, full of annoying detail. The money for 
 which it stood had been his goal that, and Kath 
 rien, his uncle's very brightest flower a flower 
 which he was about to tear up by the roots and 
 transplant to foreign soil. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey sat down in the big chair 
 by the fire, and took up her crochet work with a 
 sigh. Occasionally she looked at Frederik, and 
 finally she spoke.
 
 THE EVE OF A WEDDING 129 
 
 " Of course I'm glad to stay here and chaperone 
 Kathrien; but poor Mr. Batholommey has been 
 alone at the parsonage for ten days ever since 
 your dear uncle it will be ten days to-morrow 
 since he di oh, by the way, some mail came for 
 your uncle. I put it in the drawer." 
 
 Frederik did not trouble to answer. He merely 
 nodded. 
 
 " Curious how long before people know a man's 
 gone," soliloquised Mrs. Batholommey. 
 
 Opening the drawer carelessly Frederik took 
 out his uncle's mail two business letters and one 
 in a plain blue envelope. He looked at them a 
 moment, put them down, and proceeded to light 
 another cigarette. Then he rose, and picking 
 up his gloves looked toward the office. 
 
 " Did Hartmann come? " he said. 
 
 " Yes," answered Mrs. Batholommey, holding 
 up a corner of the shawl she was crocheting, and 
 surveying it critically. With a coquettish glance 
 toward the bridegroom, she hummed a little bit 
 of the wedding march. 
 
 Frederik paid no attention to her, but, turning, 
 gazed out of the window. Mrs. Batholommey, 
 however, as the wife of a clergyman, was not used 
 to being ignored; moreover, she was naturally
 
 130 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 of a persevering disposition and, added to that, 
 she had something on her mind and could keep 
 still about it no longer. 
 
 " Er " (Mrs. Batholommey coughed ex 
 pressively.) " By the way, Mr. Batholommey 
 was very much excited when he heard that your 
 uncle had left a personal memorandum concerning 
 us. We're anxious to have it read." 
 
 She might as well have addressed herself to a 
 stone. Frederik made no sort of a response. 
 Instead, he lounged over to the piano and exam 
 ined some of the wedding presents piled up there. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey rose with decision and ap 
 proached the piano. 
 
 " We are anxious to have it read! " 
 
 No answer. 
 
 With a scorching glance at Frederik, Mrs. 
 Batholommey, her work gathered in a fluffy white 
 bunch in her arms, marched quickly out of the 
 room and slammed the door. 
 
 A moment later James, newly returned from 
 the South, entered the room from the office. Fred 
 erik had found it impossible to get on without 
 him in the matter of winding up his uncle's busi 
 ness and had sent an urgent and somewhat per 
 emptory call for his immediate return.
 
 THE EVE OF A WEDDING 131 
 
 As, just then, he needed James, he was rather 
 more civil to him than usual; but, from the first, 
 he did not fail to sound the employer-employee 
 note. 
 
 He came forward and shook hands cordially. 
 
 " Good-afternoon. Good-afternoon. How do 
 you do, Hartmann? I'm very glad you consented 
 to come back and straighten out a few matters. 
 Naturally, there's some business correspondence I 
 don't understand." 
 
 " I've already gone over some of it," answered 
 Hartmann. 
 
 " I appreciate the fact that you came over on 
 my uncle's account." 
 
 So saying, Frederik turned away with a cere 
 monious bow. 
 
 Hartmann went over to the desk and took a 
 letter from the file. Then he said coldly: 
 
 " Oh, I see that Hicks of Rochester has written 
 you. I hope you don't intend to sell out your 
 uncle before his monument is set up." 
 
 Frederik turned toward Hartmann and put 
 down his cigarette. 
 
 "I? Sell out? My intention is to carry out 
 every wish of my dear uncle's." 
 
 James, at this moment catching sight of Fred-
 
 132 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 erik's black-bordered handkerchief, said sceptic 
 ally: 
 
 " I hope so," and vanished into the office with 
 a handful of papers. 
 
 He wished as few words as possible with Fred- 
 erik. He could not bear to look at him for the 
 thought that to-morrow Kathrien was to marry 
 the man and go out of his own life for all time 
 was almost more than he could stand. He had 
 watched her grow from a lovely little girl to a 
 lovelier woman he understood her as did no one 
 else, not even Oom Peter, who, too, had loved 
 her so devotedly. 
 
 And he felt that she loved him, though no word 
 had ever been said. And now he must let her 
 go he must let this worthless fellow take her 
 to a life of unhappiness; for knowing the sweet 
 soul of Kathrien, who could doubt that such a 
 marriage would bring her unhappiness? 
 
 Frederik's eyes rested thoughtfully on Hart- 
 mann's retreating figure. Then a slight sound 
 attracted his attention, and he looked up in time 
 to see Kathrien coming downstairs. Her simple 
 white dress held no touch of mourning, yet she 
 was a wistful, pathetic little figure, full of sadness. 
 
 "Ah, Kitty! See " (taking out the tickets
 
 THE EVE OF A WEDDING 133 
 
 as he spoke). "Here's the steamship tickets for 
 Europe. I've arranged everything." 
 
 He took a step forward to meet her. 
 
 " Well, to-morrow's our wedding day, lievling, 
 yes?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Kathrien in a breathless way. 
 
 " It'll be a June wedding," Frederik went on, 
 " just as Oom Peter wished." 
 
 Kathrien forced herself to speak brightly. 
 
 " Yes just as he wished. Everything is just 
 
 as he " she broke off suddenly with a change 
 
 of manner, and gazed at Frederik with beseeching 
 earnestness. 
 
 " Frederik, I don't want to go away. I don't 
 want to take this journey to Europe. If only I 
 could stay quietly in in my own dear home ! "
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 A WASTED PLEA 
 
 FREDERIK concealed his annoyance as best he 
 could, and smiled affectionately at the little bride- 
 to-be, trying to coax her out of her mood. He 
 looked around the familiar room a bit scorn 
 fully. 
 
 " Huh ! This old cottage with its candles and 
 lamps and shadows! What does it amount to? 
 Wait until I've shown you the home I want you 
 to have the house Mrs. Frederik Grimm should, 
 live in." 
 
 He patted her arm once or twice as he spoke, 
 to give further weight to his words; but they 
 seemed lost on Kathrien. Her eyes grew more 
 and more troubled and her sweet face increasingly 
 wistful. 
 
 " I don't want to leave this house," she said. 
 " I don't want any home but this. I should be 
 wretched if you took me away." 
 
 As she spoke, she glanced helplessly at the fresh 
 flowers on Oom Peter's desk, placed there daily 
 by her faithful, loving little fingers. 
 
 134
 
 A WASTED PLEA 135 
 
 " I'm sure Oom Peter would like to think of 
 me as here, among our dear, dear flowers ! " 
 
 Frederik tried to reassure her as one does a 
 child, and answered soothingly: 
 
 " Of course but what you need is a change, 
 yes?" 
 
 Kathrien turned away and traced a pattern on 
 the newel post with her slender fingers. She 
 found it very hard to talk. After a moment, she 
 went on: 
 
 " I I've always wanted to please Oom Peter. 
 I always felt that I owed everything to him 
 if he had lived and I could have seen his happiness 
 over our marriage, that would have made me 
 happy, almost. But he's gone and every day 
 the longer he's away from me, the more I see 
 for myself that I don't feel toward you as I 
 ought. You know it. But I want to tell you 
 again. I'm perfectly willing to marry you. 
 Only I'm afraid I can't make you happy." 
 
 Looking at him with sorrowful, perplexed eyes, 
 she went on : 
 
 " It's so disloyal to speak like this after I prom 
 ised him; but, Frederik, it's true" 
 
 Frederik found it hard to keep his patience; yet 
 he continued to reason with Kathrien in a voice
 
 136 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 even gentler than before, though with an accent 
 of finality in it that she could not disregard as he 
 said: 
 
 " But you did promise Uncle Peter you'd marry 
 me, yes? " 
 
 Her answering " Yes " was barely audible. 
 
 Frederik continued insistently: 
 
 "And he died believing you, yes?" 
 
 Kathrien merely nodded; she could not look at 
 him, could not speak. After a moment she went 
 on, her eyes still averted: 
 
 " That's what makes me try to live up to it. 
 Still, I cannot help feeling that if Oom Peter 
 knew how hard everything seems how alone I 
 feel " 
 
 " You are not alone while I am here, lieu- 
 ling " 
 
 Kathrien smiled pathetically. 
 
 " You don't understand, Frederik. You mean 
 to be kind and you are kind. And I thank you 
 for it; but if only my mother had lived ! As long 
 as dear Oom Peter was here he was father, mother, 
 everything to me. I felt no lack; but now oh, 
 I want my mother to turn to " 
 
 The girl's eyes were suddenly suffused with tears.
 
 A WASTED PLEA 137 
 
 " Don't you see? Try to know how I feel. 
 Try to understand " 
 
 Suddenly Frederik stopped her torrent of words. 
 He took her in his arms before she realised it, 
 and, kissing her, he said: 
 
 " Naturlich I understand. I love you and 
 in time Wait! You shall see! You must not 
 worry, sweetheart. These things will come right, 
 all in good time." 
 
 But Kathrien had released herself with nervous 
 if quiet haste. 
 
 " Willem is feeling so much better," she said, 
 with a change of tone to the ordinary. 
 
 " Tel " 
 
 With his usual display of annoyance at the 
 mention of Willem, Frederik left Kathrien and 
 walked over to Oom Peter's desk, where he 
 began to pick up and lay down the various articles 
 strewn about its surface; without in the least real 
 ising what he was doing. 
 
 " I do hope that child will be kept out of the 
 way to-morrow," he said roughly. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 Oh oh, I " 
 
 Frederik found it hard to tell why.
 
 138 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " You have always disliked poor little Willem, 
 haven't you?" demanded Kathrien. 
 
 N no " answered Frederik. " But " 
 
 His nervousness was very evident as he still 
 moved fussily about the desk. 
 
 " Yes, you have," continued Kathrien calmly. 
 " I remember how angry you were when you came 
 back from Leyden University and found him liv 
 ing here. How could you help being drawn to a 
 little blue-eyed, golden-haired baby such as he was 
 then? Only five years old, and such a darling! 
 He won us all at once, except you. And in all 
 the three years he has been here, we've only grown 
 more and more fond of him each day. You love 
 children you go out of your way to pick up a 
 child and pet it. Why do you dislike Anne 
 Marie's little boy?" 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Frederik impatiently, " he has a 
 way of staring at people as though he had a per 
 petual question on his lips " 
 
 He was interrupted by a vivid flash of light 
 ning and a long roll of thunder. 
 
 " Oh, a little child ! " said Kathrien reproach 
 fully. " He has only kindness from everybody. 
 Why shouldn't he look at one?" 
 
 ''And then his mother!" went on Frederik,
 
 A WASTED PLEA 139 
 
 gazing into the fire, while the rain, steadily in 
 creasing with the nearer approach of thunder and 
 lightning, blotted away the pleasant landscape out 
 side the windows. 
 
 " Uncle and I loved Anne Marie, and we had for 
 given her. Why should you blame her so bitterly? 
 Surely she has suffered enough to expiate " 
 
 " I don't want to be hard upon any woman. 
 I've never seen her since she left the house, but 
 Hear that rain ! It's pouring again ! The third 
 day. You're wise to have a fire in here. This 
 old house would be damp otherwise in a long 
 storm like this. By the way, Hartmann is back 
 for a few hours to straighten things out I'm 
 going to see what he's doing." 
 
 Frederik went up to Kathrien, and putting his 
 arms about her, led her up to the piano, saying: 
 
 " Kitty, have you seen all the wedding presents ? 
 Wait for me a while here and look at them till 
 I come back. I'll be with you again in a few 
 minutes." 
 
 Smiling, and giving her cheek a tender pat, he 
 left her alone. 
 
 As she stood there, surrounded by all her gay 
 presents, she looked anything but the picture of a 
 happy bride. Giving no thoughts to the gifts, she
 
 140 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 stood, motionless, her eyes slowly filling with tears. 
 
 Suddenly the outer door slammed, and a mo 
 ment afterward Dr. McPherson entered. His 
 tweed shawl and cap proclaimed the recent vio 
 lence of the storm as he hurriedly took them off 
 and hung them up, and placed his soaked um 
 brella in the rack. With a book under his arm, 
 he came quickly toward the girl, saying: 
 
 " Good-evening, Kathrien. How's Willem ? " 
 
 Kathrien tried to hide her tears; but it was 
 impossible to elude the keen eyes of Dr. McPher 
 son. In one quick glance he caught the situation. 
 
 " What's the matter? " he said curtly. 
 
 " Nothing," said Kathrien in a voice whose 
 tremble she could not control; yet bravely wiping 
 away her tears as she spoke. " I was only think 
 ing I was hoping that those we love and lose 
 can't see us here. I'm beginning to believe there's 
 not much happiness in this world." 
 
 The doctor looked at her with affectionate re 
 proof, much as if she had been a naughty child. 
 
 " Why, you little snip ! " he said whimsically, 
 as he pulled her toward him determinedly. " I've 
 a notion to chastise you ! Talking like that with 
 the whole of life before you ! Such cluttered non 
 sense ! "
 
 A WASTED PLEA 141 
 
 Still talking he started toward the stairs and 
 Willem's room, and Kathrien sank into a chair; 
 but the doctor changed his mind, turned, and came 
 back to her again. 
 
 " Kathrien, I understand you've not a penny to 
 your name," he said gruffly, " unless you marry 
 Frederik. He has inherited you along with the 
 orchids and the tulips." 
 
 He put his arm around her with a gentle, pro 
 tective movement as he went on: 
 
 " Don't let that influence you. If Peter's plans 
 bind you and you look as if they did my door's 
 open. Don't let the neighbours' opinions and a 
 few silver spoons," glancing towards the wedding 
 gifts, " stand in the way of your whole future." 
 
 Having thus opened his warm Scotch heart and 
 his home to the motherless girl, it was indicative 
 of his character that he should give her no chance 
 to thank him. Before she could speak, he had 
 run up the stairs, placed his cigar on the little 
 table in the upper hall, and hurried into Willem's 
 room. 
 
 Outside the sky grew blacker and blacker, dark 
 ening the room where Kathrien sat. Suddenly she 
 rose from her chair, and stretching out her arms, 
 gave a cry that was dragged from her very soul.
 
 142 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Oh ! Oom Peter, Oom Peter, why did you 
 do it? Why did you do it? " 
 
 She looked all at once a woman. No longer 
 the carefree, happy girl she had been but a few 
 short weeks before. Standing thus, her beautiful 
 face full of agony, she did not hear Marta as she 
 came in from the dining-room to carry upstairs 
 the dainty wedding clothes for the morrow a 
 mass of filmy, fluffy white, laid carefully over 
 both arms. 
 
 At first Marta did not see her in the dim yellow 
 gloom of the large room; but a moment later, in 
 alarm, she dropped the clothes in a careful heap on 
 a chair, and ran to Kathrien as fast as her stocky 
 figure and many Dutch petticoats would allow. 
 
 " Och," she cried sympathetically. At her pity 
 ing touch, Kathrien suddenly buried her face on 
 Marta's broad breast, and broke into convulsive 
 sobs. Marta hushed her as she would a baby, 
 with many sweet, caressing Dutch words. 
 
 "Sh! Sh! Lievling, Sh! Sh! Old Marta is 
 
 here! Cry all you want to 'Twill do you 
 
 good! A bride to cry on her wedding eve! 
 Who ever heard such things! You should be 
 happy the good Mynheer Grimm would wish 
 his child happy on her wedding eve ! Sh ! You
 
 A WASTED PLEA 143 
 
 will have a fine day to-morrow, for it storms to 
 night a good sign ! You must have a bright face 
 to show your husband, and a face of happiness I 
 Not a swollen little face like this ! What a face 
 to take to a bridegroom ! Marta has fixed the 
 dress 'tis wonderful ! See there over the chair, 
 so filmy like a cloud you will be like a lily in 
 a cloud of dew to-morrow. Think how beautiful 1 
 Do not spoil it all, lievling! Be happy, Kathrien, 
 Kathrien wees, bedard, kindje lievling. Be happy 
 among those who love you so ! " 
 
 Comforted by Marta's soothing words, and re 
 lieved by a good cry, Kathrien wiped her eyes. 
 
 " There, there, Marta," she said, drawing a 
 long, quivering breath, " others have troubles too, 
 haven't they?" 
 
 Marta nodded her head vigorously. 
 
 " Ach! " she sighed. " GutJa! Others have 
 their troubles ! " 
 
 Kathrien kissed Marta gently, then said: 
 
 " I had hoped, Marta, that Anne Marie would 
 have heard of uncle, and come back to us at this 
 time you are so brave you never complain 
 Poor Marta ! " 
 
 Once more Marta sighed. 
 
 " If it could have brought us all together once
 
 144 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 more but no message nothing I cannot under 
 stand my only child." 
 
 Nearer and nearer came the storm. The rain 
 pounded on the shingles and pattered loudly 
 against the windows. The wind howled around 
 the eves, and the old house rattled and shook in 
 spite of its solid foundation. 
 
 Marta, still brooding over Kathrien like a 
 motherly hen over her chicken, shuddered at the 
 rattling of the window blinds. 
 
 From the midst of the general tumult a new 
 sound detached itself a sharp double rap from 
 the old-fashioned knocker. 
 
 "Och!" cried Marta. "It must be Pastor 
 and the others! You don't feel much like seeing 
 visitors, my lamb. Run away now before I 
 let 'em in and bathe your eyes in lavender 
 water." 
 
 She hurried to the front door, and Kathrien, 
 at once brought to herself, hastened upstairs to 
 her room. 
 
 As Marta opened wide the door, Mr. Bathol- 
 ommey and Colonel Lawton (Peter Grimm's 
 former lawyer) seemed fairly blown into the 
 hall. 
 
 " Good-evening, Marta," boomed the clergy-
 
 A WASTED PLEA 145 
 
 man's unctuous tones. " The elements are indeed 
 at war to-night ! I trust the household is well ? " 
 
 Marta curtseyed bobbingly to both men as she 
 said: 
 
 " Yes, sir, thank you, Mr. Batholommey, only 
 poor little Willem, sir. He's strange and not 
 like himself, sir. The doctor was in and out 
 through the day, and now he's here again up 
 stairs with Willem." 
 
 As Marta talked, Mr. Batholommey divested 
 himself of his long black rainproof coat, and 
 Colonel Lawton (who had not felt it necessary 
 to reply to Malta's civil greeting) hastily took 
 off his rubber poncho, giving it a vigorous shake 
 that sent the raindrops flying. He was a tall, 
 middle-aged man, loosely put together, who wore 
 his clothes very badly. One somehow got the 
 idea that they were never pressed. 
 
 "Brr!" he cried, taking off his overshoes. 
 "What a storm for June! It's more like fall! 
 Look at my rubbers and yours are just as 
 bad mud-soaked! Get 'em off, quick. They're 
 enough to give any one a chill ! " 
 
 Marta had slipped out unnoticed, and now 
 Frederik came in just in time to see the dripping 
 coats hung up on the hat rack.
 
 146 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Good-evening," he said in what he intended 
 for a cordial tone. 
 
 " Ah, just in time," answered Colonel Lawton. 
 " Gee Whillikins ! What a day 1 " 
 
 Then turning again to Mr. Batholommey he 
 went on jocularly: 
 
 " Great weather for baptisms Parson." 
 
 Having successfully disentangled himself at last 
 from all his water-soaked outer coverings, Mr. 
 Batholommey turned and offered a damp and rainy 
 hand to Frederik. 
 
 " Good-evening, good-evening, Frederik," he 
 said impressively. " I'm glad to see you. We 
 are pleased to be here, in spite of the weather." 
 
 " Well, here we are, Frederik, my boy, " 
 
 put in Colonel Lawton. " At the time you set." 
 
 After shaking hands with both men, Frederik, 
 perhaps unconsciously, wiped his own on his hand 
 kerchief. Then going to the desk, he took a 
 paper from under the paperweight. After study 
 ing it a moment, he said (smiling a bit to himself 
 and turning that the others might not see the 
 smile) : 
 
 " I sent for you to hear a memorandum left 
 by my uncle. I came across it only this morn- 
 ing."
 
 A WASTED PLEA 147 
 
 Both Mr. Batholommey and Colonel Lawton 
 tried to conceal their excitement. 
 
 " I must have drawn up ten wills for the old 
 gentleman," announced Colonel Lawton, " but he 
 always tore 'em up." 
 
 Then, throwing back his head and peering at 
 Frederik through his spectacles: 
 
 " May I have a drink of his plum brandy, Fred 
 erik?" 
 
 " Certainly," answered Frederik carelessly. 
 "Help yourself. Pastor, will you have some?" 
 
 Colonel Lawton poured out a glass of brandy 
 and offered it to Mr. Batholommey, then helped 
 himself with alacrity. In the roll of thunder 
 which came at that moment, no one heard the foot 
 steps of Mrs. Batholommey, as she entered from 
 the " front parlour." 
 
 The tableau that met her vision caused her to 
 give a little shriek as she stopped short, and 
 gazed with horror-struck eyes at her husband and 
 his brandy glass. 
 
 "Why, Henry! What are you doing? Are 
 your feet wet? " 
 
 Mr. Batholommey did not get a drink every 
 day, and this one was much too nearly his to be 
 relinquished now. It was not a case for self-
 
 148 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 denial. It was not a case where it was necessary 
 to be a good example for any one. Therefore the 
 pastor gave place to the husband for a moment, 
 and when Mrs. Batholommey repeated: 
 
 " Are your feet wet, Henry? " 
 
 He answered with decision : 
 
 " No, Rose, they're not. I want a drink and 
 I'm going to take it. It's a bad night." 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey said no more, but closing 
 her mouth tightly, turned away with lifted eye 
 brows and downcast eyes, reproachful indignation 
 bristling at every point. 
 
 Her husband, well pleased at his little victory, 
 smacked his lips with enjoyment; returned the now 
 empty glass to the Colonel and, rubbing his hands 
 together, went toward the fireplace. Mrs. Bath 
 olommey, her indignation quickly forgotten, joined 
 him there and sat down beside him. Colonel 
 Lawton, hastily replacing decanter and glasses on 
 the table, also drew up a chair in front of the 
 fire and waited.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE LEGACIES 
 
 FREDERIK, glancing at the backs of the three eager, 
 huddled figures crouching almost literally in the 
 fireplace, smiled again to himself and allowed 
 them to wait. 
 
 Finally, Colonel Lawton could stand it no 
 longer. Still with his back to the heir, and his 
 eyes toward the fire, he cried: 
 
 "Well, go ahead, Frederik." 
 
 No response. Mr. Batholommey tried next. 
 
 " I knew your uncle would remember his friends 
 and his charities," he said smugly. " He gave it 
 in such a free-handed, princely way." 
 
 Frederik could not resist a sarcastic chuckle, 
 as he glanced toward the three backs once more, 
 and then began to read the memorandum aloud. 
 
 "For Mrs. Batholommey:" 
 
 He got no further for, at the first word, the 
 three chairs were turned around to face Frederik, 
 quickly and simultaneously; so that the beneficiaries 
 might not have even their own backs between them 
 and their coming fortune. 
 
 149
 
 150 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 At hearing her name, Mrs. Batholommey burst 
 out: 
 
 "The dear man! To think he remembered 
 me! I knew he'd remember the church and Mr. 
 Batholommey of course but to think he'd re 
 member me! " 
 
 Here she cast her eyes up to heaven in grateful 
 recognition. 
 
 " He knew that our income was very limited," 
 she went on comfortably. " He was so thought 
 ful. His purse," she sighed with feeling, " was 
 always open." 
 
 Having delivered this eulogism of the dead, the 
 lady folded her hands placidly, and with eyes cast 
 down, but attentive, settled herself to await de 
 velopments. 
 
 Frederik looked at her a moment, grinned to 
 himself, then continued: 
 
 "For Mr. Batholommey:" 
 
 The clergyman nodded solemnly, but a pleased 
 expression crept about the corners of his mouth 
 and his face took on an extra look of smugness. 
 
 " Our reward is laid up for us," he murmured 
 sententiously, " where we least expect it." 
 
 " Quite so " said Frederik shortly. " And 
 
 as the doctor isn't here well, the next is you,
 
 THE LEGACIES 151 
 
 Colonel. The others mentioned are people in his 
 employ." 
 
 Colonel Lawton settled lower in his chair, until 
 he might almost be said to be lying on his back. 
 He crossed his legs luxuriously and took a cigar 
 from his pocket, saying as he lighted it: 
 
 " He knew I did the best I could for him 
 the grand old man! " Then dropping the eulogis 
 tic tone for one of strict business: 
 
 "What'd he leave me?" 
 
 Frederik kept them waiting a moment longer. 
 He was having the time of his life. He had pur 
 posely strung out the situation to its last thread, 
 for the joy of witnessing the self-satisfied eagerness 
 of the three legatees. Silent now, but acutely at 
 tentive, they sat with watchful eyes trained on 
 Frederik and the all-important paper which he 
 was holding so carelessly in his hand the paper 
 that was presently to tell them so much of moment. 
 Then it came. 
 
 " Mrs. Batholommey, he wishes you to have his 
 miniature with his affectionate regard." 
 
 Frederik took a miniature from the desk drawer 
 and offered it to Mrs. Batholommey with much 
 ceremony. She did not take it, but sat waiting as 
 before, merely folding her hands as she purred:
 
 152 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Dear old gentleman and er yes ? " 
 
 Frederik seemed not to hear her, and laying 
 the miniature on the desk, went on reading: 
 
 " To Mr. Batholommey " 
 
 The clergyman's wife broke in quickly. 
 
 " But er you didn't finish mine! " 
 
 Frederik turned around in his chair and looked 
 directly at her. 
 
 " You're finished," he said. 
 
 " I'm finished? " cried Mrs. Batholommey, in 
 a voice trembling with indignation. 
 
 " Rose ! " her husband remonstrated in severe 
 rebuke. 
 
 " Oh, it's all very well for you to say ' Rose ! * 
 How would you like it to get nothing but an old 
 picture ? Tell me that ! " 
 
 Here she had recourse to her handkerchief, 
 and her lips trembled as she wiped her eyes, 
 sniffling sorrowfully and all unheeded by the 
 others. 
 
 Frederik took a watch fob from the drawer 
 before he continued his reading. 
 
 " To Mr. Batholommey : my antique watch fob 
 with profound respect." 
 
 The executor rolled the words under his 
 tongue.
 
 THE LEGACIES 153 
 
 Mr. Batholommey rose, bowed graciously, and 
 accepted the watch fob without looking at it. 
 Then he sat down. 
 
 The voice of Fate went on: 
 
 " To Colonel Lawton " 
 
 Before Frederik could get any farther, Mrs. 
 Batholommey was again at the front: 
 
 " His watch fob? Is that what he left Henry? 
 
 Is that all? His Why! Well! I can't 
 
 believe it! If he had no wish to make our life 
 easier, at least he should have left something for 
 the church. Oh, Henry! " she cried in consterna 
 tion. " Won't the congregation have a crow to 
 pick with you ! " 
 
 Frederik no longer made any effort to conceal 
 his pleasure at the part he had to play. He smiled 
 broadly and maliciously and he was quite willing 
 that they should all see him smile. 
 
 It must be said of Mr. Batholommey that he 
 took his disappointment rather well. He said 
 nothing at all, and he tried not to show how he 
 felt. In fact he tried not to feel any resentment 
 toward his late parishioner. It was one of the 
 hardest moments of his life; but he knew that as 
 a clergyman he should be able to forgive and he 
 tried very hard.
 
 154 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 It would have been so comfortable to have a 
 tidy sum to put by for his old age! He had 
 expected it so confidently! He had flattered and 
 praised and praised and flattered ! And now, after 
 all, he was left high and dry with a watch fob 
 to look to for comfort in his declining years ! He 
 would keep his feelings to himself if possible, 
 however. He did not care to make Frederik's 
 triumph any greater, or his smile any broader on 
 his account; so he compelled himself to listen to 
 the third part of the memorandum with an ex 
 pression of polite interest. 
 
 " To my lifelong friend, Colonel Lawton, I 
 leave my most cherished possession." 
 
 The Colonel preened himself. He stuck his 
 thumbs into the armholes of his vest and wagged 
 his crossed foot complacently. This was to be 
 the real kernel of the memorandum. 
 
 His appearance of security was too much for 
 Mrs. Batholommey. 
 
 "Oh! When the church hears " 
 
 She was interrupted by Colonel Lawton: 
 
 " I don't know why he was called upon to leave 
 anything to the church," he said truculently, un 
 crossing his legs and leaning forward. " He gave 
 it thousands, and only last month he put in chimes.
 
 THE LEGACIES 155 
 
 As I look at it, he wished to give you something 
 he had used something personal. Perhaps the 
 miniature and the fob ain't worth three whoops 
 in hell it's the sentiment/ " 
 
 He lay back in his chair again as he fairly 
 chewed on the word ' sentiment.' Once more he 
 crossed his legs, and peered at Frederik through 
 his glasses. 
 
 " Drive on, Fred," he ordered. 
 
 " To Colonel Lawton, my father's prayer 
 book." 
 
 As he read, Frederik put one hand into the 
 drawer, and took out a worn prayer book. 
 
 Mr. Batholommey smiled, and chuckled be 
 hind his hand, but Colonel Lawton seemed dazed. 
 His jaw dropped, and he looked helplessly at 
 Frederik and the others. 
 
 "What?" he said in a choking voice. "His 
 prayer book me?" 
 
 As in a dream he slowly leaned forward and 
 took it gingerly between two fingers as one might 
 a June bug gazing at it in amazed horror and 
 incredulity the while. 
 
 "Is that all?" demanded Mrs. Batholommey. 
 
 '' That's all," answered Frederik, bowing to 
 Mrs. Batholommey and smiling radiantly.
 
 156 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Colonel Lawton, still dazed, could only reiter 
 ate: 
 
 "A prayer book. Me? What for?" 
 
 Then he got up slowly. 
 
 "Well, I'll be Here, Parson." As an 
 
 idea struck him, he turned quickly toward Mr. 
 Batholommey. " Let's shift you take the prayer 
 book and I'll take the old fob ! " 
 
 Mr. Batholommey smiled and waved away the 
 offered book. 
 
 " Thank you," he said smoothly, " I already 
 have a prayer book." 
 
 At this retort, the Colonel wilted completely. 
 Drawing his chair close to the fire he sat down 
 limply and gave himself up to bitter reflection. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey seemed the least able of 
 the three to bear the shattering of her high hopes. 
 She moved around the room restlessly. 
 
 "Well, all I can say is" (her voice shook 
 and her eyes reproached Frederik) " I'm disap 
 pointed in your uncle." 
 
 No one paid any attention to her remark, each 
 person being engrossed in his own thoughts. For 
 some moments the air was pregnant with unspoken 
 invective.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 MOSTLY CONCERNING GRATITUDE 
 
 FINALLY Colonel Lawton turned toward Fred- 
 erik. He was now sitting astride his chair and 
 puffing violently at his cigar. 
 
 " Is this what you hauled us out in the rain 
 for? " he snarled. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey, all unheeding, went on with 
 her own train of thought. 
 
 " I see it all now," she whimpered. " He only 
 gave to the church to show off ! " 
 
 " Rose ! " her husband cried, aghast. " I my 
 self am disappointed, but " 
 
 " He did! " interrupted Mrs. Batholommey in 
 tears of wrath. " Oh, why didn't he continue 
 his work? He was not generous. He was a 
 hard, uncharitable, selfish old man." 
 
 "Rose, my dear!" remonstrated Mr. Bathol 
 ommey. " Think what you are saying! " 
 
 " He was ! If he were here, I'd say it to his 
 face. The congregation sicked you after him. 
 And now he's gone and you'll get nothing more. 
 And they'll call you slow slow and pokey! 
 
 157
 
 158 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 You'll see ! To-morrow you'll wake up ! " 
 
 "My dear!" expostulated her husband once 
 more. 
 
 But Mrs. Batholommey paid no attention to 
 his words or to the beseeching look that accom 
 panied them. She waved an arm dramatically. 
 
 " Here's a man the rector spent half his time 
 with and for what? A watch fob! " 
 
 The ineffable scorn with which she pronounced 
 these last words caused Mr. Batholommey to hang 
 his head. 
 
 " You'll see ! " she went on. " This will be the 
 end of you ! It's not what you preach that counts 
 nowadays. It's what you coax out of the rich 
 parishioners' pockets." 
 
 "Mrs. Batholommey!" thundered the clergy 
 man, taking a step forward; but he might as well 
 have tried to stem the ocean. 
 
 " The church needs funds to-day. Religion 
 doesn't stand where it did, when a college pro 
 fessor is saying that that " (here her voice 
 broke) " the Star of Bethlehem was only a 
 comet." 
 
 The end of the sentence resolved itself into a 
 veritable wail and she sat down quickly and sub 
 sided into her handkerchief.
 
 MOSTLY CONCERNING GRATITUDE 159 
 
 " My dear ! " reiterated the helpless husband. 
 
 "Oh!" she wailed through her tears, "if I 
 said all the things I feel like saying about Peter 
 Grimm " (here it almost sounded as if she 
 ground her teeth) "well I shouldn't be a fit 
 clergyman's wife. Not to leave his dear friends 
 a " 
 
 Again her voice was muffled in the folds of the 
 handkerchief, and Colonel Lawton took advan 
 tage of the temporary lull to put in a word. 
 
 " He wasn't liberal'' he said, rising, " but for 
 God's sake, Madam, think what he ought to have 
 done for me after my patiently listening to his 
 plans for twenty years ! Mind, I'm not complain 
 ing, but what have I got out of it? A Bible! " 
 
 "Oh, you've feathered your nest, Colonel!" 
 cried Mrs. Batholommey, recovering somewhat. 
 
 " I never came here," retorted Colonel Lawton 
 spitefully, "that you weren't begging!" 
 
 " See here, Lawton," the clergyman interrupted 
 truculently, " don't forget who you are speak 
 ing to! " 
 
 Colonel Lawton waved his hand patronisingly 
 at the clergyman. 
 
 " That's all right, Parson. I know who I'm 
 speaking to. We're all in the same boat one's
 
 160 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 as good as another when we're all up against a 
 thing like this. If anything, you two are worse 
 than I am, for you stand for better things. What 
 would your congregation think of either of you 
 if they could look into your hearts this moment 
 and see 'em as they really are?" 
 
 " Really are really are ! " cried Mrs. Bathol- 
 ommey. " I'm not ashamed to have any one see 
 my heart as it really is ! " 
 
 (And Mrs. Batholommey was telling the truth, 
 for she was a good woman at heart, and it was 
 not her fault that she had a human desire for this 
 world's goods for those she loved, for the church, 
 and for herself.) 
 
 Here Frederik, who had watched the scene with 
 much amusement at first, came forward through 
 the increasing gloom. He was getting tired of 
 the childish bickering. 
 
 " Well, well, well, I'm disgusted," he said, 
 *' when I see such heartlessness ! He was putty 
 in all your hands." 
 
 " Oh, you can defend his memory. You got 
 the money ! " cried Mrs. Batholommey, with as 
 perity. " He liked flattery and you gave him 
 what he wanted and you gave him plenty 
 of it."
 
 MOSTLY CONCERNING GRATITUDE 161 
 
 " Why not? " retorted Frederik calmly, getting 
 a cigarette out of his case. " The rest of you 
 were at the same thing yes ? " 
 
 He struck a match and lighted his cigarette as 
 he continued in a disagreeable tone: 
 
 " And I had the pleasure of watching him hand 
 out the money that belonged to me to me" he 
 repeated. " My money! What business had he 
 to be generous with my money? " 
 
 Still talking, Frederik sat down at the 
 desk. 
 
 " If he'd lived much longer, I'd have been a 
 pauper. It's a lucky thing for me he di " 
 
 Frederik had the grace to leave the word un 
 finished. 
 
 Mr. Batholommey broke the slight pause. 
 
 " Young man," he said solemnly, " it might 
 have been better if Mr. Grimm had given all he 
 had to charity for he left his money to an Mi 
 grate." 
 
 The " ingrate " laughed derisively. 
 
 " Ha ! Ha ! Ha ! " he cried. " You amuse one I 
 You don't know how amusing you are." 
 
 No one cared to add further to Frederik's 
 amusement, so they all sat still. The room was 
 now perfectly dark, except for an occasional flash
 
 1 62 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 of heat-lightning from the vanished storm. 
 
 Night had crept upon them unheeded, so intent 
 had they been on their petty wrangling. 
 
 Finally Mrs. Batholommey got up and went 
 towards the desk. 
 
 " Where is the miniature ? " she demanded. " I 
 don't want it but I'll take it." 
 
 Frederik lighted a match, and by its flickering 
 blaze found the discarded miniature lying face 
 downward on the desk. Mrs. Batholommey 
 snatched it from his fingers, and made her way 
 back to the fireplace. 
 
 " Ha! Ha! Ha! " laughed Frederik again. 
 
 " Rose, my dear," began Mr. Batholommey, 
 the min " 
 
 "Sh!" interrupted Frederik. 
 
 There was a pause. Then he rose. 
 
 " Who came into the room?" he asked in a 
 strange voice. 
 
 He lit a match and waved it slowly in the 
 direction of the hall door. It was extinguished 
 instantly as if the wind had blown it out. He 
 lighted another, saying: 
 
 " We're sitting in the darkness like owls. 
 Who came in? " he demanded again. 
 
 There was no answer as he peered around the
 
 MOSTLY CONCERNING GRATITUDE 163 
 
 room, holding the match toward first one corner 
 and then another. 
 
 " I didn't hear any one," said the Colonel. 
 
 " Nor I," added Mrs. Batholommey. 
 
 " No," said Mr. Batholommey. 
 
 " I was sure some one came in," Frederik said 
 in a strange voice. 
 
 " You must have imagined it," suggested Mr. 
 Batholommey. " Our nerves are all upset." 
 
 " I'll get a light," Frederik said, starting to 
 ward the dining-room. 
 
 At that moment, Marta entered with the wel 
 come lamps. She carried two of them, one al 
 ready lighted, which she put upon the table. The 
 other Frederik took quickly from her and carried 
 to the chain-bracket over the desk. This he ad 
 justed with Marta's help, and then lighted. 
 
 After which he glanced apprehensively about 
 the room once more. Even under the reassur 
 ing flood of light his impression that some one 
 had stolen in upon the dim-lit conference would 
 not wholly vanish.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE RETURN 
 
 .< 
 
 THE Dead Man came home. 
 
 The old collie, lying stretched in the deep 
 porch, safe from the storm, knew him. As the 
 Dead Man came up the walk between the trim 
 beds of rain-soaked flowers, the old dog crawled 
 rheumatically to its feet, the bleared eyes bright 
 ening, the feathered tail awag in joyous greeting 
 to the loved master who had been so long and 
 so unaccountably absent. 
 
 Peter Grimm laid a hand caressingly on his 
 old pet's head; then passed into his former home. 
 
 And so, at Frederik's frightened demand, 
 "Who came into the room?" the Dead Man 
 stood among his own again. Before him was 
 the nephew he had loved. Nearby were the hus 
 band and wife whose follies and harmless affecta 
 tions he had forgiven with a laugh of amusement, 
 for the sake of their goodness and for the devo 
 tion they bore himself. Lounging in the chair 
 that had been his own was the lawyer who had 
 
 been his dear friend and adviser. The friends 
 
 164
 
 THE RETURN 165 
 
 he had cared for, the nephew on whom his every 
 hope had been set. 
 
 With a wistful half-smile, Peter Grimm sur 
 veyed the group. 
 
 And, as Marta brought in one lighted lamp and 
 then bustled about lighting another, he stood in 
 clear view of them all. Clad in the same old- 
 fashioned garb with which they were so familiar, 
 he was unchanged, save. that all age and all care 
 lines were wiped from his face. 
 
 He was not a wraith, no grisly spectre, no half- 
 nebulous Shape. He was Peter Grimm, rugged, 
 homespun, the man whose iron individuality had 
 undergone and could undergo no change. 
 
 He stood there in the lamplight, plainly visible 
 to such as had eyes to see him. 
 
 The dog, with that sense which God gives to 
 all animals and withholds from all humans, had 
 had no more difficulty in recognising him than 
 when Peter Grimm had walked the earth in the 
 flesh. 
 
 The faculty which makes a sleeping dog awake, 
 raise its head, wag its tail and follow with its 
 eyes the movements of some invisible form that 
 moves from place to place in a room, which 
 makes a flock of chickens scatter squawking and
 
 1 66 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 fluttering when no human being can discern cause 
 for their flight which makes a horse shy violently 
 when travelling a patch of road, apparently barren 
 of anything to alarm him, which makes a cat 
 suddenly arch its back and spit and strike at the 
 Unseen, or else rub purringly against an invisible 
 hand this faculty made Peter Grimm very real 
 to his blear-eyed, asthmatic old collie. 
 
 But the inmates of the room, being but human, 
 had seen and heard nothing. Frederik, it is true, 
 being in a constant state of nervous tension that 
 rendered his senses less dense and earthy than 
 usual, had fancied he heard or felt some one 
 enter the room. But at the disclaimers of the 
 rest, the notion vanished as such notions do. And 
 the warm flood of lamplight dispelled whatever 
 of the psychic may have brooded over the little 
 group, bringing back their comfortable material 
 ism with a rush. 
 
 Wherefore, in his old home and among his own, 
 Peter Grimm stood unseen ; that deprecatory half- 
 smile on his square, ageless face. 
 
 The lighting of the lamps and Marta's noisy 
 return to her own culinary domain served as sig 
 nals to break up the group about the desk. Mr. 
 Batholommey crossed the room and took his hat
 
 THE RETURN 167 
 
 and coat from the rack, passing within a hand's- 
 breadth of the smiling, expectant Peter Grimm as 
 he did so. 
 
 " Well, Frederik," said the rector doubtfully by 
 way of farewell, " I hope that you'll follow your 
 uncle's example at least as far as our parish poor 
 are concerned, and keep on with some of his 
 charities." 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey, dutifully following her 
 husband to the rack and helping him on with his 
 coat, turned to hear Frederik answer the ques 
 tion she and the rector had so often and so 
 anxiously discussed during the past ten days. The 
 heir did his best to settle their every doubt in the 
 fewest possible words. 
 
 " I may as well tell you now, as any time," 
 said he, " that you needn't look to me for any 
 charitable graft at all. Your parish poor will 
 have to begin hustling for a living now. I don't 
 intend to waste good money in feeding what you 
 Americans call ' a bunch of panhandlers.' ' 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Mrs. Batholommey, inexpressibly 
 disappointed. 
 
 The smile died on Peter Grimm's face and the 
 light of happy expectancy was gone from his eyes. 
 
 " I am very sorry, Frederik," said the rector
 
 1 68 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 stiffly, " not only that you can speak so of God's 
 poor, but that you are not willing to continue 
 your uncle's splendid philanthropies. It it 
 doesn't seem possible that he never told you how 
 dear his chanties were to him. Well," he broke 
 off with a shrug, and glancing at his watch, " I've 
 got thirty minutes to make a call before tea 
 time." 
 
 " I must be toddling, too," said Colonel Law- 
 ton. " Are you going my way, Mr. Batholom- 
 mey? It's queer, Frederik," he added, bidding 
 his host good-bye, " it's queer deucedly queer 
 how things turn out. There's one thing certain: 
 the old gentleman should have made a will. But 
 it's too late now for us to grumble about that, 
 By the way, what are you going to do with all 
 his relics and family heirlooms, Frederik? Have 
 you thought of it? I supposed, of course, you'd 
 keep everything just as he left it. But from the 
 way you've talked this afternoon, I wonder " 
 
 " Heirlooms? Relics? " queried Frederik, puz 
 zled. "Oh you mean all this junk?" with a 
 comprehensive hand wave that included Dutch 
 clock, Dutch warming pans, Dutch bric-a-brac, and 
 Dutch furniture. " This junk all over the house? 
 Oh, I'll have it carted to the nearest ash heap.
 
 THE RETURN 169 
 
 It isn't worth a red cent of any one's money." 
 
 Peter Grimm strode forward, his lips parted 
 in quick protest. But Colonel Lawton was al 
 ready answering, with an appraising look about 
 the room: 
 
 " I don't know about that, Frederik. It may 
 not be as worthless as you seem to think. Better 
 let me send for a dealer to sort it over after you've 
 gone on your honeymoon. I've heard that some 
 people are fools enough to pay a lot of good 
 money for this sort of antique trash." 
 
 " Not a bad idea," approved Frederik. " See 
 what you can do about it, won't you? I want it 
 cleared out. And if I can get rid of it and do it 
 at a profit, too, why, all the better." 
 
 " If I could get that old clock," put in Mrs. 
 Batholommey, the light of the bargain hunt shin 
 ing in her large face, " I might consent to take 
 it off your hands. Of course it isn't really worth 
 anything. But " 
 
 " I've an idea," replied Frederik, with charm* 
 ing dearth of civility, " that it's worth a lot more 
 than you'd pay me for it." 
 
 " I hope," she snapped angrily as she glared 
 at Frederik, " that your poor dear uncle is where 
 he can see his mistake now ! "
 
 170 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " I am where I can see several," said the Dead 
 Man to ears that could not hear. 
 
 " Do you know," pursued Mrs. Batholommey, 
 whose depths of professional sweetness had been 
 turned faintly sub-acid by the events of the day 
 " do you know, Frederik, what I would like to 
 say to your uncle if I could just once stand face 
 to face with him, this very minute? " 
 
 " Yes," smiled Peter Grimm sadly, as he looked 
 -deep into her eyes, " I know." 
 
 " I should say to him " began Mrs. Bathol 
 ommey. 
 
 Then she checked herself as at some impulse 
 she herself did not understand, and finished some 
 what lamely: 
 
 " No, I wouldn't say it, either. He's dead. 
 And we're told we must speak no ill of the dead. 
 Though, for my part, I never could see what right 
 we gain to immunity just by dying. And oh, by 
 the way, Henry," she broke off as her husband 
 and the lawyer passed out of the vestibule, " Kath- 
 rien expects you back for supper. Don't forget, 
 will you, dear? Good-night, Colonel Lawton." 
 
 She followed them, closed the front door be 
 hind them, and bustled off to look after the 
 arrangements for supper.
 
 THE RETURN 171 
 
 Frederik yawned, lighted a cigarette, and saun 
 tered out into the office, Peter Grimm watching 
 him with infinitely sad reproach in his luminous 
 eyes. 
 
 Then, left alone in the room he had loved, the 
 Dead Man looked about him at the dear old bits 
 of furniture and ornaments that had meant so 
 much to him and whose fate he had just heard 
 weighed between auctioneer's hammer and rubbish 
 heap. 
 
 He moved across to the rack, as if by lifelong 
 instinct, and hung his antique hat on its accus 
 tomed peg. The simple, everyday action brought 
 him so vividly close to older days that, as Marta 
 pottered in with another newly filled lamp, he 
 accosted her. 
 
 " Marta ! " he called, as she gave no sign of 
 recognition to his kindly nod and smile. 
 
 She set down the lamp in its place on the piano, 
 crossed to the pulley-weight clock, and noisily 
 wound it. As the old woman started back toward 
 her kitchen, the Dead Man put himself once more 
 in her way. 
 
 " Marta ! " said he, then more loudly and per 
 emptorily, "Marta!" 
 
 She passed within an inch of his outstretched
 
 172 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 hand and entered the kitchen, shutting the door 
 behind her. Peter Grimm stared blankly after 
 his housekeeper. 
 
 " I seem to be a stranger in my own house," 
 he murmured. " My friends pass me by. Their 
 gross eyes cannot see me. Their gross ears will 
 not hear me. But Lad knew me. He came to 
 meet me, wagging his tail just as he used to. I 
 I remember I've more than once noticed his going 
 to meet other people like that. People / couldn't 
 see in those days." 
 
 Frederik lounged back from the office, cigarette 
 in mouth. He took out his watch, compared it 
 with the clock on the wall, slipped it back into 
 his pocket, and was crossing to the outer door 
 when the telephone bell on the desk jangled. 
 
 Frederik laid down his cigarette, seated himself 
 at the desk, and picked up the receiver. 
 
 "Hello!" he called. 
 
 At the reply, he glanced around hastily, to make 
 sure he was not likely to be overheard. Then, 
 sinking his voice almost to a whisper and speak 
 ing with a nervous, almost guilty eagerness, he 
 answered : 
 
 " Yes. Yes. This is Mr. Grimm. Mr. Fred- 
 erik Grimm. I've been waiting all day to hear
 
 THE RETURN 173 
 
 from you, Mr. Hicks. How are you ? Wait one 
 moment, please." 
 
 He rose, crossed the room, closed the door into 
 the dining-room, the only door that had been 
 open, glanced up into the bedroom gallery to 
 make certain it was empty, then hurried back to 
 the telephone. 
 
 " Yes," said he. " Go ahead." 
 
 There was a brief pause while he listened. 
 Then he replied, in a tone of laboured indiffer 
 ence: 
 
 " Oh, no. You're quite mistaken. I am not 
 ' eager to sell.' Not at all. As a matter of fact," 
 he continued unctuously, " I much prefer to carry 
 out my dear uncle's wishes and keep the business 
 in the family. You must surely remember how 
 determined he was that it should be kept on. 
 What? 'If I could get my price,' eh? That's 
 different, of course. It puts a new aspect on the 
 whole affair. What? Oh, well, an offer such as 
 that deserves careful thought. I could not decline 
 it offhand. No, I admit it is very tempting. 
 'Talk it over?' Certainly." 
 
 He paused, then went on in answer to a query 
 from the other end of the wire: 
 
 "To-morrow? No, I'm afraid not. You
 
 174 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 see, I'm going to be married to-morrow. A man 
 does not want to be bothered with business deals 
 on his wedding day. No, the next day won't do, 
 either, I'm afraid. You see, we are sailing directly 
 for Europe. Thank you. Yes, I deserve all the 
 congratulations you can offer me. What? Very 
 well. This evening, then. That will suit me per 
 fectly. You're in New York, I suppose? What 
 time will it be convenient to you to get to Grimm 
 Manor? What? Yes, that's all right. No. 
 Not here at the house. I'll meet you at the hotel. 
 The tavern. Yes, I'll be there promptly. 
 What?" 
 
 He listened a moment, then laughed in evident, 
 if subdued, amusement. 
 
 " So the dear old gentleman used to tell you 
 his plans never failed, did he?" he questioned. 
 " Yes, I've heard the same boast from him hun 
 dreds of times. That's one reason why I want the 
 deal kept quiet till it's settled. So I asked you 
 to meet me at the tavern instead of here at the 
 house. I don't want it thought by other people 
 that I'd run counter to his plans in any way. God 
 rest his soul! Hey? ' What would he say if he 
 knew?' I hate to think. He could express 
 himself very forcibly when his dear, stubborn old
 
 THE RETURN 175 
 
 will was crossed. You may remember that. Oh r 
 well, it's life. Everything must change." 
 
 There was a roll of thunder. At the same 
 instant the windows flared pink-white with light 
 ning. A flash of electricity ran purring and crack 
 ling along the telephone itself. 
 
 Frederik, with a sharp cry of surprise, dropped 
 the instrument, and squeezed his electrically 
 shocked arm. Then gingerly he picked up the 
 telephone, replaced the receiver, and turned away 
 toward the window seat. 
 
 Peter Grimm stood eyeing the telephone as if 
 the man who had so lately been at the other end 
 of the wire were directly in front of him. 
 
 " You don't know it, Hicks," said the Dead 
 Man quietly, " but you will never carry this plan 
 of yours through. We are going to meet very 
 soon, you and I." 
 
 As if in response to his strange prophecy, the 
 telephone jangled once more. Frederik returned 
 to the desk and put the receiver to his ear. 
 
 "Hello!" he called. "Oh, it's you, Mr. 
 Hicks? No, they didn't cut us off. I thought 
 you were through. What? A little louder, 
 please. I can't hear you very well. What? 
 You're feeling ill? Oh, I'm sorry. What?
 
 176 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Oh, yes, it will do just as well to send your lawyer 
 instead, if you find you're too sick to make the 
 journey. Your lawyer will be empowered to at 
 tend to everything in your name, I suppose? 
 Good. Then we can close the deal to-night. At 
 the hotel and at the same time. All right. What 
 did you say his name was? Shelp? All right. 
 Good-bye. I hope you'll feel much better in the 
 morning, Mr. Hicks." 
 
 He relighted his cigarette, humming a little tune 
 under his breath as he walked from the desk. His 
 narrow face was very content. 
 
 " And that's the boy I loved and trusted ! " said 
 Peter Grimm, half aloud, watching Frederik take 
 his hat and umbrella from the rack and leave the 
 house. " I wonder if I am to unearth many more 
 of my mistakes. I come upon a new one at every 
 turn." 
 
 His wandering gaze rested on the door of 
 Kathrien's room, in the gallery above. His lips 
 parted in the old whimsical smile. Lifting his 
 voice, he gave the odd call that had for years 
 been a signal to Kathrien of his presence in the 
 house and his desire to see her. 
 
 " Ou-oof " rang out the familiar cry. 
 
 And, before its echoes could die away, Kathrien
 
 THE RETURN 177 
 
 was out of her room and at the stairhead. She 
 stood there an instant, dazed, wondering, like some 
 one half-awakened from heavy sleep. 
 
 Looking down into the room below, she slowly 
 descended the stairs. 
 
 " I thought some one called me," she said. 
 
 And though she spoke the words in her own 
 brain and not from the lips, Peter Grimm heard 
 and answered her. 
 
 " You did," said he. " I called you." 
 
 Filled with a sense that she was not alone, yet 
 seeing and hearing no one, she came down into 
 the seemingly vacant room. And, still without 
 words, she said : 
 
 " I thought I heard a voice like like " 
 
 " Yes," answered the Dead Man again, " you 
 wanted me, little girl. That's why I have come. 
 There, there ! " he soothed, as she stood with 
 troubled face trying to formulate and understand 
 the strange sensation that had suddenly taken pos 
 session of her. " Don't worry, Katje. It'll come 
 out all right. We'll arrange things very differ 
 ently. I've come back to " 
 
 She moved away, unhearing. She passed un 
 seeing from the loving outstretched arms. 
 
 " Katje ! " he called tenderly.
 
 178 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 But she did not turn at the loving appeal in his 
 soundless voice. 
 
 " Oh, Katje ! Katje ! " he pleaded, following 
 her. " Can't I make my presence known to you? 
 Oh, don't cry I" 
 
 For the tears had welled up, unbidden, in her 
 eyes. 
 
 And this time his words, in a vague, roundabout 
 way, seemed to reach her understanding. 
 
 " Oh, well," she sighed, drying her eyes. " Cry 
 ing doesn't help." 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed Peter Grimm eagerly. 
 "Good! Good! She hears me! Smile, little 
 girl! Smile, I say." 
 
 A trembling ghost of a smile played about her 
 sad lips. 
 
 "That's right!" he encouraged. "Smile! 
 Smile! You haven't smiled before since I since 
 I found there was a place a million times happier 
 and lovelier and more wonderful than this world 
 that I left. Listen, little girl! Listen, Katje r 
 and try to understand me. There are no dead. 
 We never really die. We couldn't if we tried to. 
 See the gardens out there. Look!" 
 
 As if in response to his words, Kathrien's half- 
 smiling face was turned toward the flowering gar-
 
 THE RETURN 179 
 
 den beds that stretched away on every hand, just 
 outside the window. 
 
 " See the gardens," he went on, glad at his own 
 seeming success in catching and holding her atten 
 tion. " They die. But they come back all the 
 better for it. All the fresher and younger and 
 more beautiful. What people call death is noth 
 ing more than a nap. We wake from it fresh 
 ened rested made over again. It's a wonderful 
 sleep that people fall into, old and slow and tired 
 out. And they spring up from it like happy chil 
 dren tumbling out of bed, ready to frolic through 
 another world. It is as foolish and wrong to 
 mourn for people who fall into that dear sleep 
 as to mourn for the children when they close 
 their eyes at the end of the day. There is no 
 death. There are no dead. It is all rest and 
 wonder and beauty and perfect bliss. So stop be 
 ing sad for me, my own little girl! 
 
 " There ! " he cried in triumph, as the smile 
 deepened on her pale face. " You're happier al 
 ready! And you begin to understand me. You 
 can hear what I am saying. Because no sin, no 
 grossness has ever shut your ears to all but earthly 
 sounds. Now listen to me carefully: Katje, I want 
 you to break that silly, wicked promise I wheedled
 
 i8o THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 you into making. I want you to break it. You 
 mustn't ruin your life and James's by marrying 
 Frederik. It would mean misery for every one. 
 Most of all for you, little girl. That's why I 
 came here. To undo the harm that my blindness 
 and obstinacy brought about. When that is 
 settled I can take my journey back in peace. I 
 can't go until you break that promise. And and 
 oh, I long to go, Katje ! Katje! " his voice rising 
 in yearning entreaty, as the smile faded from her 
 face and her big eyes once more filled. " Isn't my 
 message any clearer to you? " 
 
 " Oh," sighed Kathrien, half aloud. " I'm so 
 alone so alone! " 
 
 "Alone?" he echoed. "You are not alone, 
 Katje. I'm here. Can't you feel my presence? 
 And then there's your mother. The mother you 
 were too little to remember. I have met her, 
 Katje. I have met your mother. She knew me 
 at once. After all those years. ' You are Peter 
 Grimm ! ' she said. I told her you had a happy 
 home here. And she said she knew that. Then 
 I told her about the future I had arranged, and 
 the plans I'd made for you and Frederik. And 
 she said : ' Peter Grimm, you have overlooked the 
 most important thing in the world: Love! Give
 
 THE RETURN 181 
 
 her the right to the choice of her lover. It is 
 her right.' Then it came over me all at once 
 that I had made a terrible mistake. That I had 
 been presumptuous and had tried to play Provi 
 dence and shape the future of another. At that 
 moment, Katje, you called to me. And I came 
 back to show you the way." 
 
 He moved nearer to her. 
 
 " Your mother," he whispered, bending over the 
 girl as she sank into a chair by the fire, her eyes 
 dreaming and full of a new joy, " your mother 
 told me to lay my hand on your dear head and 
 give you her blessing. And she said I must tell 
 you she will be with you, close close to you 
 in heart and thought, until the day shall come when 
 she can hold you in her arms. You and your 
 loved husband." 
 
 Kathrien's dreamy gaze strayed from the fire- 
 flicker on the hearth to the office door, on whose 
 farther side she knew Hartmann was at work. 
 
 " Yes," smiled Peter Grimm, noting her glance. 
 " You and James. And the message ended in this 
 kiss." 
 
 He touched his lips to her forehead. And, at 
 the unfelt contact, the light again sprang into her 
 eyes.
 
 1 82 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Can't you see I'm trying to help you, Katje? n 
 he begged. "Can't you even hope? Come, 
 come! Hope! Why, anybody can hope. It is 
 the very easiest and most natural thing on earth. 
 Especially when one is young as you and I are. 
 What is Youth but perpetual Hope? " 
 
 The light in her eyes deepened. Her look 
 strayed again to the closed office door. She rose 
 and took a step toward it, then turned, passed her 
 hand caressingly over the flowers on the desk, and 
 moved over to the piano. 
 
 She seated herself on the music stool and, for 
 the first time in ten endless days, let her fingers 
 stray over the keys. In a hushed little voice she 
 began to sing: 
 
 " The bird so free in the heavens 
 Is but the slave of the nest. 
 For all things must toil as God wills it, 
 Must laugh and toil and rest. 
 The rose must bloom in the garden, 
 The bee must gather its store. 
 The cat must watch the mousehole, 
 And the dog must guard the door." 
 
 "Oh! " she broke off in sudden self-reproach. 
 " How can I sit here singing, at a time like 
 this!" 
 
 " Sing! " urged the Dead Man. " Why not? 
 Why not at a time like this as well as at any other
 
 THE RETURN 183 
 
 time? Is it because you are afraid you are not 
 being sad enough at losing me? You haven't 
 lost me. Nothing is ever lost. The old uncle 
 you loved doesn't sleep out in the churchyard dust. 
 That is only a dream. He is here alive ! More 
 alive than ever he was. A thousandfold more 
 alive. All his age and weaknesses and faults are 
 gone. Youth is glowing in his heart. He is 
 bathed in it. It radiates from him. Eternal 
 Youth that no one still on earth can know. Oh, 
 little girl of mine, if only I could tell you what 
 is ahead of you ! It's the wonderful secret of the 
 Universe. And you won't hear me? You won't 
 understand? " 
 
 Still smiling, but without turning toward the 
 loving, eager Spirit close beside her, Kathrien was 
 looking out into the fragrant June dusk. Peter 
 Grimm shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " I must try some other way of making you 
 hear," said he. 
 
 He looked up at the closed door of Willem's 
 sick room for a moment, then nodded. 
 
 " Here comes some one," he announced, with 
 the old whimsical twist of his lips, " who will know 
 all about it. The secrets of the other world are as 
 plain as day to him. He has told me so himself."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 " i CAN'T GET IT ACROSS " 
 
 THE door of Willem's room opened, and Dr. 
 McPherson came out on the landing. He moved 
 slowly, hesitatingly, as though impelled by some 
 force outside his logical comprehension. 
 
 Still walking as if drawn forward half against 
 his will, the doctor descended the stairs to the 
 big living-room. At the stair-foot stood Peter 
 Grimm, with outstretched hands to receive him. 
 
 " Well, Andrew," said the Dead Man, in the 
 tone of banter that had never in life failed to " get 
 a rise " out of his medical crony, " I apologise. 
 You were right. I was mistaken. I didn't know 
 what I was talking about. So I've come back, as 
 I promised, to keep our compact and to apologise. 
 You see, I " 
 
 " Well, Doctor," asked Kathrien, looking back 
 into the room at sound of McPherson's steps, 
 "how is Willem?" 
 
 " Better," answered McPherson. " He's 
 dropped off to sleep again. I'm still a bit puzzled 
 
 about his case. It's " 
 
 184
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 185 
 
 "Andrew! Andrew!" interrupted the Dead 
 Man, almost fiercely. " I've got a message to de 
 liver, but I can't get it across. This sort of thing 
 is your own beloved specialty. Now's your 
 chance. The chance you've always been longing 
 for. Tell her I don't want her to marry Frederik ! 
 Tell her I " 
 
 " A puzzling condition," continued McPherson, 
 unhearing. " I can't quite grasp the mean 
 ing " 
 
 "What meaning?" demanded Peter Grimm. 
 " Mine? Try again. Tell her I don't want her 
 
 <T _____" 
 
 " But," went on McPherson, drawing out pad 
 and fountain pen, " I'll leave this prescription for 
 one of the gardeners to take over to the druggist's. 
 I'll leave it as I go out. I'll be back in Why, 
 what's up, Kathrien ? What has happened? Oh, 
 you've thought it over, eh ? That's good. That's 
 the way it should be. I left you all tears and 
 now I find you all smiles. It " 
 
 " Yes," answered Kathrien, half ashamed at her 
 own oddly changed spirits. " I am happier for 
 some reason. Much, much happier than I've been 
 for days and days. I've I've had such a strange 
 feeling this past few minutes I "
 
 1 86 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 "Have, eh?" asked McPherson curiously. 
 " H'm ! So have I. It's in the air, I suppose. 
 I've been as restless as a hungry mouse. Some 
 thing, for instance, seemed to draw me downstairs 
 here. I can't explain it." 
 
 " I can," exulted Peter Grimm. " I'm begin 
 ning to be felt! " 
 
 " Doctor," hesitated Kathrien, looking ner 
 vously about her into the dimmer corners of the 
 lamplit room, " just a little while ago, I I 
 thought I heard Oom Peter call me. I was up 
 stairs in my room. And it seemed to me I could 
 hear that dear old call he used to give. It was 
 so vivid, so distinct, so real ! It was my imagina 
 tion, of course. I'm so used to hearing Oom 
 Peter's voice in this room that sometimes I forget 
 for a moment that he isn't here. But but some 
 one must have called me. I couldn't have imag 
 ined it all. Isn't it strange to hear a call like that 
 and then look around and find no one is there? " 
 
 " It is a phenomenon well recognised in mod 
 ern science," affirmed McPherson. " I could cite 
 you a hundred instances of it. Not all from imag 
 inative persons either, Kathrien ! " he added sol 
 emnly. " I have the firm conviction that in a very 
 short time I shall hear from Peter ! "
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 187 
 
 " I hope so," sighed the Dead Man in whim 
 sical despair. 
 
 " He made the compact I told you about," con 
 tinued McPherson, " and Peter Grimm never 
 broke his word. He will come back. Be sure of 
 that. But what I want is some positive proof, 
 some absolute test to prove his presence when he 
 comes. Poor old Peter! Bless his kind, obsti 
 nate heart! If he keeps that compact with me 
 and comes back, do you know what I shall ask 
 him first?" 
 
 "You poor, blind, deaf, old Scotchman!" 
 laughed Peter Grimm. " Open your eyes and 
 your ears! You are like the man who 
 lay down at the edge of the river and died of 
 thirst." 
 
 " What would you ask him first, Doctor? " 
 queried the girl as McPherson paused with dra 
 matic effect, awaiting the question. 
 
 " First of all," said the doctor, " I shall ask 
 him : ' Peter, in the next world does our work go 
 on just where we left it off here? ' 
 
 "Well," returned Peter Grimm thoughtfully, 
 " that question is rather a poser, isn't it?" 
 
 " It is a difficult question to answer, I admit,'* 
 mused McPherson, following what he deemed to
 
 1 88 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 be the trend of his own thoughts. " I realise 
 that." 
 
 "You heard me?" cried the Dead Man, 
 with sudden excitement. " You heard? Come 1 
 We're getting results at last, you and I ! " 
 
 " Results," murmured the doctor abstractedly, 
 
 "are What was I saying? Oh, yes. In 
 
 the life-to-come, for instance, am I to be a bone- 
 setter and is he to keep on being a tulip man ? " 
 
 " It stands to reason, Andrew, doesn't it ? " 
 suggested Peter Grimm. " What chance would a 
 beginner have with a fellow who knew his business 
 before he was born? Hey?" 
 
 With the merrily victorious air that he had ever 
 assumed when he had scored a telling point in 
 their old-time discussions, Peter surveyed the 
 doctor. 
 
 " I believe, Katje," mused McPherson after a 
 moment's consideration, " that it is possible to 
 have more than one chance at our life work. It 
 never occurred to me before, but " 
 
 " There ! " exclaimed the Dead Man. " You 
 caught that! Now, why can't you get that mes 
 sage about Kathrien's marriage? Try, man! 
 Try!" 
 
 " Kathrien," said McPherson, suddenly shifting
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 189 
 
 from conjecture to everyday conditions, " have 
 you thought over what I said to you about this 
 marriage with Frederik? " 
 
 " He did get it! " muttered Peter Grimm. 
 
 " Yes," rejoined Kathrien, " I have thought it 
 over, Doctor. And I thank you with all my 
 heart. But " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " I shall go on with it. I shall be married, just 
 as Oom Peter wished me to. I shan't go back 
 on my promise." 
 
 McPherson growled in futile disgust. 
 
 "Don't give up, Andrew!" exhorted Peter 
 Grimm. " Don't give up ! Make her see it your 
 way. A girl can always change her mind. Try 
 again. Andrew! " 
 
 The last word was almost a cry. For McPher 
 son, with a shrug of his shoulders, accepted defeat 
 in surly silence and was tramping across to the hat 
 rack, where he began to gather up his outdoor 
 raiment. 
 
 " Oh, Andrew ! Andrew! " he pleaded, follow 
 ing him up. " Don't throw away the fight so 
 easily! Tell her to " 
 
 " Good-bye, Kathrien," said the doctor at the 
 threshold. " If you choose to make toad-pie of
 
 190 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 your life, it's no business of mine. I'll drop in 
 later for a good-night look at Willem." 
 
 " Good-night, Doctor," answered Kathrien, 
 " and thank you again." 
 
 With a wordless grunt, McPherson went out, 
 leaving Peter Grimm staring hopelessly after him. 
 
 " I see I can't depend on you, Andrew," mur 
 mured the Dead Man, " in spite of your psychic 
 lore and your belief in my return. Why is it they 
 can all understand or half understand the un 
 important things I say, and yet be deaf to my 
 message? It is like picking out the simple words 
 in a foreign book and then not know what the story 
 is about. Marta Kathrien McPherson they 
 all fail me. I must find some other way." 
 
 He turned slowly toward the door of the office. 
 [The door almost immediately opened and James 
 Hartmann came into the room. The young man 
 had a pen behind his ear and a half-written mem 
 orandum of sales in his hand. He had evidently 
 risen from his work and entered the living-room 
 on an unplanned impulse. 
 
 Kathrien had seated herself in a chair by the 
 fire and was gazing drearily into the red 
 embers. 
 
 "Look at her, lad!" breathed Peter Grimm.
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 191 
 
 " She is so pretty so young so lonely! Look! 
 There are kisses tangled in that gold hair of hers 
 where it curls about her forehead and neck. Hun 
 dreds of them. And her lips are made for kisses. 
 See how dainty and sweet and heart-broken she is. 
 She is dreaming of you, James. Are you going 
 to let her go ? Why, who could resist such a girl? 
 You're not going to let her go! You feel what 
 I am saying to you. You won't give her up. 
 She loves you, boy. And you realise now that 
 you can't live without her. Speak! Speak to 
 her!" 
 
 "Miss Kathrien!" said Hartmann earnestly; 
 then halted, frightened at his own temerity. 
 
 The girl looked up quickly. At sight of him 
 she flushed and rose impulsively to face him. 
 
 " Oh, James ! " she cried. " I'm so glad so 
 glad to see you ! " 
 
 As their hands met the man's hesitancy fled. 
 
 " I felt that you were in here," said he. " All 
 at once I seemed to know you were here and alone. 
 And before I realised what I was doing, I came 
 in. I didn't mean to." 
 
 " Didn't mean to come and see me while you 
 were here?" she echoed in reproach. "Why 
 not?"
 
 192 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " For the same reason I didn't stay when I was 
 here before. I " 
 
 "Why did you go away that time?" she de 
 manded. " Why did you go without a word of 
 good-bye to to any of us? " 
 
 " Tell her, boy," adjured Peter Grimm. 
 " Don't mind my feelings." 
 
 *' Your uncle sent me away," blurted Hartmann, 
 " but it was partly at my own request." 
 
 " Oom Peter sent you away? Why? " 
 
 " I told him the truth again." 
 
 " Oh ! One of your usual hot arguments that 
 used to worry me so? I remember how excited 
 you both used to get. Was it about the superi 
 ority of potatoes to orchids this time?" 
 
 " No. The superiority of one person to the 
 whole world." 
 
 But she did not catch his meaning. She was 
 looking up at the big athletic body and the clean, 
 strong face, with an absurd longing to creep into 
 the man's arms for shelter as might a tired child. 
 
 " It's so good to see you back," she said. 
 
 " I'm only here for a few hours," he answered. 
 " Just long enough to put one or two details of 
 the business to rights. Then I'm going away 
 again this time for good."
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 193 
 
 .. 
 
 No! Where are you going?" 
 
 " Father and I are going to try our luck on 
 our own account. I've a few thousands from a 
 legacy that came to me last month from my grand 
 mother. And father has saved a tidy little sum, 
 too. We're going to start in with small fruits 
 and market gardening. We haven't decided just 
 where." 
 
 " It will be so strange so different so lonely 
 and empty when I come back," she mourned, 
 " with Uncle and you both gone. It seems as if 
 the blessed old home was all broken up. It can 
 never be the same again. I don't know how I can 
 muster courage to come into this house after " 
 
 " It will be easier after the first wrench. Every 
 thing is easier than we think it's going to be. And, 
 Kathrien," he went on, steadying his voice by a 
 supreme effort, " I hope you'll be happy beauti 
 fully happy." 
 
 Neither of them realised that her hand had 
 somehow slipped into his and was resting very 
 contentedly in the big, firm grasp. 
 
 " Whether I'm happy or not," replied Kathrien 
 miserably, " it's the only thing to do. Please try 
 to believe that. Oh, James, he died smiling at 
 me thinking of me loving me. And just be-
 
 194 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 fore he went he had begged me to marry Frederik. 
 I shall never forget the wonderful look of happi 
 ness in his eyes when I promised. It was all he 
 wanted in life. He said he'd never been so happy 
 before. He smiled up at me for the very last 
 time, with his dear face all alight. And there he 
 sat, smiling, after he was gone. The smile of a 
 man leaving this life absolutely satisfied at 
 peace ! " 
 
 " I know. Marta told me. I " 
 
 " It's like a hand on my heart, hurting it almost 
 unbearably when I question doing anything he 
 wanted. It has always been so with me ever since 
 I was a baby. I never could bear to go against 
 his wishes. And now that he's gone why, I 
 must keep my word. I couldn't meet him in the 
 Hereafter if I didn't keep that last sacred promise 
 to him. I couldn't say my prayers at night. I 
 couldn't speak his name in them. Oom Peter 
 trusted me. He depended on me. He did every 
 thing for me. I must do this for him." 
 
 " No, no ! " exclaimed the Dead Man. " You 
 are wrong. Tell her so, James ! " 
 
 " I wanted you to know this, James," finished 
 Kathrien, " because because " 
 
 A gush of tears blotted out Hartmann's tense,
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 195 
 
 wretched face and choked her hesitating utterance. 
 
 " Have you told Frederik that you don't love 
 him?" asked Hartmann, forcing himself to resist 
 the yearning to gather her into his arms and kiss 
 away her tears. " Does he know? " 
 
 She nodded, her face buried in her hands. 
 
 "And Frederik is willing to take you like 
 that? On those terms ?" 
 
 Another dumb nod of the pretty, fluffy little 
 head, with its face still convulsed and hidden. 
 
 " The yellow dog ! " burst forth Hartmann. 
 
 " You flatter him," sadly assented Peter Grimm. 
 
 " Look here, Kathrien," hurried on Hartmann, 
 " I didn't mean to say a word of this to-day, or 
 ever. Not a word. But the instant I came in 
 here from the office just now, something made me 
 change my mind. I knew all at once I must talk 
 to you. You looked so little, so young, so help 
 less, all huddled up there by the fire. Kathrien, 
 you've never had to think for yourself. You don't 
 know what you are doing in going on with this 
 blasphemous, loveless marriage. Why, dear, you 
 are making the most terrible mistake possible to 
 a woman. Marriage with love is often a tragedy. 
 Without love it is a hell. A horror that will 
 deepen and grow more dreadful with every year."
 
 196 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 "Do you suppose I don't understand that?" 
 she whispered. " Don't make it harder for me." 
 
 " Your uncle was wrong to ask such a sacrifice. 
 Why should you wreck your life to carry out his 
 pig-headed plans? " 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 " Not strong enough yet," advised Peter 
 Grimm. " Go on, lad." 
 
 " You are going to be wretched for the rest of 
 your days, just to please a dead man who can't 
 even know about it," insisted Hartmann. " Or 
 if he does know, you may be certain he sees the 
 affair more sanely by this time and is bitterly sorry 
 he made you promise." 
 
 "He assuredly is," acquiesced Peter Grimm. 
 " I wish I'd known in other days that you had 
 so much sense. Go ahead ! " 
 
 " You mustn't speak so, James," reproved Kath- 
 rien, deeply shocked. " I " 
 
 " Yes, he must," contradicted the Dead Man. 
 " Go on, James. Stronger! " 
 
 "But I must speak so!" declared Hartmann, 
 swept on by a power he could not understand. 
 " I'll speak my mind. I don't care how fond you 
 were of your uncle or how much he did for you. 
 It was not right for him to ask this sacrifice of
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 197 
 
 you. ,The whole thing was the blunder of an 
 obstinate old man ! " 
 
 "No! You mustn't!" 
 
 " I loved him, too," said Hartmann. " As 
 much in my own way, perhaps, as you did. 
 Though he and I never agreed on any subject 
 under the sun. But, in spite of all my affection 
 for him, I know and always knew he was an 
 obstinate old man. Obstinate as a mule. It was 
 the Dutch in him, I suppose." 
 
 Peter Grimm nodded emphatic approval. 
 
 " Do you know why I was sent away? " rushed 
 on Hartmann, still upheld and goaded along by 
 that incomprehensible impulse. " Do you know 
 why I quarrelled with your uncle?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Because I told him I loved you. He asked 
 me. I didn't tell him because I had any hopes. 
 I hadn't. I haven't now. Oh, girl, I don't know 
 why I'm talking to you like this. I love you. 
 And my arms are aching for you." 
 
 He stepped toward her, arms out as he spoke. 
 She retreated, frightened, to where Peter Grimm 
 stood surveying the lover with keen approbation. 
 
 " No, no ! " she warned. " You mustn't, 
 James. It isn't right don't."
 
 198 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Her next backward step brought her close to 
 Peter Grimm. And the Dead Man, with a swift 
 motion of his hand, waved her forward into her 
 lover's outstretched arms. 
 
 Through no conscious volition of her own, 
 Kathrien sped straight onward, unswerving, un 
 faltering into the strong circle of those arms for 
 whose warm refuge she had so guiltily felt herself 
 longing. 
 
 " No ! " she panted, in dutiful resistance. 
 
 But the negation was lost against Hart- 
 mann's broad breast as he pressed her closely to 
 him. 
 
 " I love you ! " he repeated over and over in a 
 daze of rapture. 
 
 Then in awed wonder: 
 
 " And you love me, Kathrien ! " 
 
 " No, no don't make me say it, dear heart! " 
 
 " I shall make you say it. It is true. You 
 do love me ! " 
 
 " What matter if I do? " wailed the girl. " It 
 wouldn't change matters." 
 
 "Kathrien!" 
 
 " Please don't say anything more. I can't bear 
 it." 
 
 Gently, reluctantly, she sought to release herself
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 199 
 
 from that wonderful embrace. But Hartmann 
 now needed no Spirit Guest to urge him to hold 
 his own. 
 
 " I'm not going to let you go," he cried, kiss 
 ing her white, upturned face till the red glowed 
 back into it. " I won't give you up, Kathrien. 
 I won't give you up ! " 
 
 " You must," she insisted, struggling more 
 fiercely against herself than against him. " You 
 must, dear. I can't break my promise to Oom 
 Peter. I " 
 
 The front door opened. The lovers sprang 
 apart. Frederik entered, glancing quickly from 
 one to the other of them. 
 
 "Oh!" he observed. "You in here, Hart 
 mann? I thought I'd find you in the office. I've 
 some unopened mail of my uncle's to glance over. 
 Then I'll join you there." 
 
 Hartmann took the broad hint, nodded, and 
 left the room. Frederik's eyes followed him 
 steadily until the door closed behind the young 
 intruder. Then he turned to where Kathrien 
 crouched, panting, bewildered, trembling. Fred 
 erik abruptly went over to her, and, before she 
 could guess his purpose, kissed her full on the 
 lips.
 
 200 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Involuntarily the girl recoiled as from some 
 loathly thing. 
 
 " Don't ! " she exclaimed, fighting for her 
 shaken self-control. "Please don't!" 
 
 " Why not? " he snapped. 
 
 She did not answer. 
 
 "Has Hartmann been talking to you?" 
 
 She moved toward the stairfoot. 
 
 " Just a moment, please," Frederik interposed, 
 hurrying forward to catch up with her before 
 she could gain the safety of the stairway. 
 
 " Hartmann has been talking to you. What 
 has he been saying? " 
 
 He had seized her hand as she made to mount 
 the stairway. As she did not reply to his ques 
 tion, he repeated it, adding: 
 
 " Do you really imagine, Kathrien, that you 
 care for that fellow? " 
 
 " I'd rather not talk about it, please, Frederik," 
 she pleaded. 
 
 "No? But it is necessary. Do you " 
 
 She broke away from his suddenly rough grip 
 and fled up the stairway to her own room. As 
 the door shut behind her, Frederik, with clouded 
 face and working lips, strode over to the desk. 
 He passed close by Peter Grimm. But the Dead
 
 "I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS" 201 
 
 Man was still staring blankly after Kathrien. 
 
 " Oh, Katje," he muttered, " even Love could 
 not get my message to you ! Less influence would 
 be needed to change the fate of a nation than the 
 mind of one good woman. I think a good woman 
 a good woman, is more stubborn than any 
 thing else in the Universe. Not excepting myself. 
 When she has made up her mind to do right, 
 which invariably means to sacrifice herself and 
 thereby make as many other people wretched as 
 possible not even a Spirit from the Other World 
 can influence her." 
 
 With a despairing shrug of the shoulders he 
 turned toward his nephew, and his face hardened. 
 Frederik had seated himself at the desk. He 
 had drawn out the little handful of personal letters 
 that had arrived that afternoon for Peter Grimm 
 and those that Mrs. Batholommey had put into the 
 drawer for safe keeping. 
 
 One letter after another Frederik cut open, 
 glanced over, and either put back into the drawer 
 or laid under a paperweight on the desk. Peter 
 Grimm crossed to the opposite side of the desk 
 and stood looking down at him with set face 
 and sad, reproving gaze. 
 
 " Frederik Grimm," said the Dead Man at
 
 202 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 last, his voice low but infinitely impressive, " my 
 beloved nephew ! You sit there opening my mail 
 with the heart of a stone. You are saying to 
 yourself: 'He is gone; there will be fine times 
 ahead.' But there is one thing you have for 
 gotten, Frederik: The Law of Reward and Pun 
 ishment. Your hour has come to think!" 
 
 Frederik, unheeding, continued to open, read, 
 and sort the letters before him. 
 
 At the Dead Man's last words, his nephew 
 picked from the heap a blue envelope, ripped it 
 open, and pulled out the enclosures: a single 
 sheet of blue paper and a cheap photograph. 
 
 "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" he babbled 
 over and over, foolishly, staring from letter to 
 photograph. "Here's luck! What luck it is! 
 Anne Marie to my uncle! Lord \ If he'd lived 
 to read it! If he had read it! Out I'd have 
 been kicked ! One two three Augenblick! 
 Out into the street ! Oh, what unbelievable luck ! 
 If she'd written to him ten days earlier! Ten 
 little days ! " 
 
 His hand shaking, he picked up the letter again, 
 spread it wide, and began to read it, Peter Grimm 
 standing behind him, looking over the reader's 
 shoulder.
 
 "Who's in the room!" he demanded
 
 " I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS " 203 
 
 " Dear Mr. Grimm," the letter ran, " I have 
 not written because I can't help Willem. And I 
 am ashamed. Don't be too hard upon me, sir, 
 in your thoughts. At first I often went hungry. 
 And then the few pennies I had saved for him 
 were spent. Now I see that I can never hope 
 to get him back. Willem is far better off with 
 you. I know he is. But, oh, how I wish I could 
 just see him again! Once. Perhaps I could 
 come there in the night time and no one would 
 know " 
 
 " Oh ! " breathed Peter Grimm, between tight 
 clenched teeth. " The pity of it ! The pity of it ! " 
 
 "Who's that?" cried Frederik, looking up 
 with a start of terror from his perusal of the 
 letter. 
 
 The young man peered about the shadows be 
 yond the radius of the lamp, a nervous dread at 
 his heart. 
 
 " Who's in the room ! " he demanded, glanc 
 ing behind him. 
 
 Then with a self-contemptuous shake of his head 
 he muttered angrily: 
 
 " That's queer. I could have sworn somebody 
 was looking over my shoulder. Bah! My 
 nerves are going bad ! "
 
 204 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 He returned to the reading of the letter. 
 
 " I met some one from home to-day," went on 
 Anne Marie's epistle. " If there's any truth in 
 the rumour that Kathrien is going to marry Fred- 
 erik, it mustn't be, Mr. Grimm. It must not. 
 She must not marry him. For Frederik is my 
 little boy's fa " 
 
 " There is some one here ! " muttered Frederik, 
 laying down the letter. 
 
 Calming his disordered nerves once more, he 
 glanced furtively up toward Willem's room in 
 the bedroom gallery above his head. Then he 
 picked up the photograph and looked at it long 
 with eyes full of trouble and apprehension. It 
 was the full-length cabinet likeness of a plainly 
 dressed young woman with a pretty, slack face. 
 And the face's weakness was half redeemed by 
 a stamp of settled sadness that was not devoid 
 of a certain dignity. 
 
 Frederik turned the photograph over. On the 
 back he read: 
 
 "For my little boy, from Anne Marie." 
 
 His mouth twitched. Throngs of memories 
 were crowding in upon him. And the eyes of 
 the Dead Man were boring to his very soul. 
 Something very like Conscience was stirring within
 
 " I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS " 205 
 
 him. He laid the photograph face downward 
 on the table and he bent his head forward upon 
 his hands. 
 
 The young man was not a melodrama villain. 
 He was not even a scoundrel, in the broad sense 
 of the term. Weak, lazy, pleasure loving, he 
 was what Peter Grimm had all unconsciously made 
 him. As a dilettante, a man of leisure, or even 
 comfortably engaged in some easy, congenial life 
 work and with pleasant home surroundings, he 
 would probably have developed few undesirable 
 traits. 
 
 From boyhood he had been under the influence 
 and orders of Peter Grimm. To be under Peter 
 Grimm's supervision entailed one of three courses, 
 according to the character of the person concerned: 
 either to yield gracefully and gratefully to the old 
 man's kindly but iron domination and find therein 
 love and protection, as had Kathrien; or to use 
 the right of personal thought and individuality, 
 and therefore to clash forever with Peter, as 
 had James Hartmann; or to seem for policy's 
 sake to bend, while really living one's own life; 
 as had Frederik. 
 
 Peter Grimm was the slave and apostle of 
 Order, Work, and Method. Frederik loved ease,
 
 2o6 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 luxury, artistic surroundings. Yet he was too wise 
 to antagonise his uncle, who had the power to leave 
 him one day the master of all these pleasant things 
 he craved. So he had adapted himself outwardly 
 to a path he loathed. And, by the wayside, he 
 had secretly sought such pleasures as his nature 
 craved. 
 
 Anne Marie had chanced to be by the wayside. 
 
 What had followed was rendered tragic chiefly 
 by Anne Marie's innate goodness and by Peter 
 Grimm's fierce morality. 
 
 Frederik dared not risk the loss of a future 
 fortune by admitting his fault or by marrying 
 the woman for whom, at the time, he had really 
 cared. In a shiftless way and with straitly lim 
 ited income, he had done what he could do for 
 her. The sacrifices these helps had entailed and 
 the constant fear of exposure and of consequent 
 disinheritance had in time made the thought of 
 Anne Marie a horror to him. 
 
 When he had gone, at Peter Grimm's com 
 mand, to Leyden and Heidelberg to study botany, 
 Frederik had hoped to close the unsavoury in 
 cident for all time. 
 
 On his return he had found Willem installed 
 at the Grimm home, a living, ever-present menace
 
 " I CAN'T GET IT ACROSS " 207 
 
 and reminder to him. And, despite a soft heart 
 and a normally decent nature, Frederik had, little 
 by little, been forced by his own past and his own 
 hopes into a course that at times was hateful to 
 him. Ten thousand men, far worse than he, walk 
 the streets of every big city and sleep snug o' 
 nights with no grinning Conscience-Skull to break 
 their rest. A thousand well-meaning, harmless 
 sons of dominating and domineering parents are 
 forced, as was he, into by-roads as hateful to them. 
 To be cast by Fate to enact the Villain, when one 
 has not the temperament, the aptitude, nor the 
 desire for the unsavoury role, falls to more men's 
 lot than the world realises. 
 
 It had fallen to Frederik Grimm's. Where 
 fore, sick at heart, he sat with his head in his 
 hands. And Peter Grimm read his thoughts as 
 from a printed page. 
 
 " Once more a spark of manhood is alight in 
 your soul," whispered the Dead Man. " It is 
 not too late. Nothing is ever too late. Turn 
 back!" 
 
 Frederik looked up, half-listening. His hand 
 crept out to the letter. 
 
 " Follow the impulse that is in your heart," 
 begged the Dead Man. " Follow it ! Take the
 
 2o8 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 little boy in your arms. Declare him to all the 
 world as your own. Go down on your knees 
 and ask his mother's forgiveness. Ah, do it, lad, 
 so that I can go back still trusting you, still be 
 lieving in you, blessing you! Frederikf" 
 
 " Yes," answered Frederik, starting up. 
 "What is it?" 
 
 He glanced about the room unseeingly, then 
 looked toward the outer door and called : 
 
 " Come in ! " 
 
 " That's curious ! " he mused, settling back in 
 his chair. " I thought I heard some one at 
 Who's at the door?" he called again. 
 
 "/ am at the door," replied the Dead Man 
 in solemn vehemence. " /, Peter Grimm. The 
 uncle who loved you and whom you tricked. 
 Anne Marie is at the door, the little girl who 
 is ashamed to come home. Willem is at the door 
 your own flesh and blood nameless! Katje, 
 sobbing her heart out, James all of us. All! 
 We are all at the door, Frederik! At the door 
 of your conscience. Ah, don't keep us waiting! "
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 
 
 FREDERIK rose slowly from his chair. His face 
 was working. Instinctively his glance lifted to 
 Kathrien's door. His eyes grew bright and his 
 weak mouth strong with a wondrous resolve. He 
 crossed the room to the stair-foot; that light of 
 pure sacrifice deepening in his whole upraised 
 face. 
 
 " Yes ! " urged the Dead Man, keeping eager 
 pace with him in body and in thought. " Yes ! 
 Call her. Give her back her promise." 
 
 The flabby muscles of a self-indulgent man may 
 sometimes perform a single prodigious feat of 
 strength. Wherein they have an infinite advan 
 tage over the far flabbier resolutions of a self- 
 indulgent man. And Frederik Grimm's weak, 
 atrophied better self was not equal to the strain 
 thrown upon it. 
 
 At the stair-foot, his step faltered. He halted 
 irresolutely, while the Dead Man watched him 
 in an anguish of hope and fear. 
 
 Then came surrender to long habit; and with 
 209
 
 210 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 it a gush of weak rage. Not at himself. He 
 had not the strength left for that. But at the 
 cause of his distress. He brought down his fist 
 upon the desk with a resounding thwack. His 
 eye fell on the open page with its pathetic scrawl 
 of appeal. 
 
 " Damn her! " he growled, snatching up the 
 letter and tearing it across and across. " I wish 
 to God I'd never seen her I " 
 
 Peter Grimm gazed down upon him with eyes 
 wherein lurked a slowly rising fire. 
 
 " Frederik Grimm ! " commanded the Dead 
 Man. " Get up I Stand up before me ! Stand 
 up, I say! " 
 
 Frederik made as though to rise, then swore 
 under his breath and sat down again. 
 
 " Stand up ! " flashed the Dead Man. 
 
 Frederik got shamblingly to his feet, and 
 looked around with a frown, as though wonder 
 ing why he had risen. His gaze swept the desk 
 for some cause for his action, then rested moodily 
 on the dying embers in the hearth. 
 
 The Dead Man at the far side of the desk 
 confronted him like some unearthly Judge from 
 whose heart pity, humanity, and all else but rght- 
 eous wrath were banished.
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 211 
 
 " You shall not have my little girl ! " thundered 
 Peter Grimm. " I have come back to take her 
 away from you. And you cannot put me to rest. 
 I have come back. You cannot drive me from 
 your thoughts." 
 
 He touched Frederik's damp forehead with his 
 forefinger. 
 
 " I am there" he said. " I am looking over 
 your shoulder as you read or write or think. I 
 am looking in at the window when you deem 
 you are alone and unseen. / have come back. 
 You are breathing me in the air. I am hammer 
 ing at your heart in each of your pulse beats. 
 Wherever you are, I am there." 
 
 His forced calmness gave way to a gust of 
 helpless rage as he felt his words falling upon 
 world-deafened ears. 
 
 " Hear me ! " he commanded furiously. " Hear 
 me ! You shall hear me ! " 
 
 At each frenzied repetition of the command, 
 the Dead Man hurled his arms aloft and brought 
 down his clenched fist with all his power upon 
 the desk in mighty blows of utterly soundless 
 violence. 
 
 Impotently he cried aloud: 
 
 " Oh, will no one hear me? Has my journey
 
 212 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 been all in vain? Has it been useless? worse 
 than useless? " 
 
 The Dead Man looked upward, in an anguish 
 of desperation. He seemed to be entreating the 
 Unseen in his clamour of wild, hopeless appeal. 
 
 "Has it all been for nothing?" he wailed. 
 " Must we forever stand or fall by the mistakes 
 we make in this world? Is there no second 
 chance ? " 
 
 Frederik shook his head angrily as though to 
 banish clinging unwelcome thoughts from his 
 brain, got up and crossed to the sideboard, where 
 he poured himself a double drink of liquor and 
 swigged it down with feverish eagerness. 
 
 As he left the desk, Marta entered from the 
 kitchen with the light supper he had ordered: 
 coffee, with sugar and cream, and a plate of little 
 cakes. She went to the desk and began clearing 
 a space among the scattered papers for the supper 
 tray. As her free hand moved among the papers, 
 the Dead Man was at her elbow. 
 
 " Marta ! " he whispered, as though fear 
 ing his words might reach Frederik. "Look! 
 Look!" 
 
 He pointed excitedly to the torn letter and 
 the photograph that lay face downward under
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 213 
 
 her hand. And she picked up both letter and 
 picture, to make room for the tray. 
 
 " Marta ! " urged the Dead Man, almost in 
 coherent in his wild haste. " See what you have 
 there ! Look down at that picture in your hand ! 
 Turn it over and look at it! Look at the hand 
 writing on that torn letter ! Look quickly ! Then 
 run with them to Miss Kathrien. Make her piece 
 the letter together and read it ! Quick ! It's the 
 only way she can learn the truth. Frederik will 
 never tell her. Marta! Ah!" 
 
 His wild plea broke off in a cry of chagrin. 
 For Frederik, turning from the sideboard, had 
 seen the old woman. 
 
 " Your coffee, Mynheer Frederik," said she, 
 laying down the photograph and letter without a 
 glance at them. 
 
 " Yes, yes. Of course," answered Frederik. 
 "I forgot. Thanks." 
 
 She turned to leave the room. Frederik, com 
 ing over to the desk, caught sight of the torn 
 blue envelope and the picture, where she had laid 
 them. 
 
 Hurriedly covering them with his hand, he 
 glanced at her in quick, terrified suspicion. But 
 the face she turned to him as she hesitated for a
 
 2i4 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 moment at the kitchen door showed him at once 
 that he was safe. Nevertheless, Marta lingered 
 on the threshold. 
 
 "Well?" queried Frederik, seating himself be 
 side the tray. 
 
 " Is there," she stammered, " is there no no 
 word no letter ? " 
 
 "Word? Letter?" he echoed nervously. 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " From " began the old woman in timid 
 
 hesitation, then in a rush of courage : " From my 
 little girl. From Anne Marie." 
 
 " No 1 " he snapped. " Of course not. I " 
 
 " But at a time like this if she knows oh, 
 I felt it, I hoped that there would be some 
 message from her! Every day I have hoped " 
 
 " No," he broke in. " Nothing's come. No 
 letter. No word of any sort from her. I'd have 
 let you know if there had. By the way, I have 
 an appointment at the hotel in a few minutes. 
 Tell Miss Kathrien, if she asks for me." 
 
 He busied himself with the tray. Marta looked 
 at him a moment longer, held by some power 
 that she could not explain. Then years of habit 
 overcame impulse. She courtesied and withdrew 
 to her kitchen.
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 215 
 
 As the door shut behind her, Frederik caught 
 up the torn blue letter. Tossing it in a metal 
 ash tray he struck a match. Peter Grimm, divin 
 ing his intent, sprang forward with a wordless 
 cry to stop him. The Dead Man's hands tore 
 at the wrists of the Living; sought by main 
 strength to snatch the paper out of his reach; with 
 pitiful helplessness tried to thrust back the hand 
 that held the lighted match. 
 
 Unknowingly, Frederik touched the flame to the 
 paper, shook out the match, and watched the torn 
 letter blaze and curl. Then he tossed the charred 
 bits into a jardiniere on the floor, and picked up 
 the picture. 
 
 " There's an end to that! " he murmured, turn 
 ing to throw the photograph into the smoking 
 embers of the fireplace. 
 
 Peter Grimm stood erect. A new hope drove 
 the sick despair from his face. Looking toward 
 Willem's room he raised his arm and beckoned. 
 
 At once the door stealthily opened. A white 
 little figure slipped out onto the gallery and to 
 ward the stairs. Down the flight of steps, clad 
 in his white flannel pajama suit, his eyes wide, 
 his yellow hair tumbled, Willem ran. 
 
 Frederik, in the act of consigning the photo-
 
 216 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 graph to the fire, was arrested by the sound of 
 pattering feet. Laying the picture on the desk, he 
 turned guiltily, in time to see Willem speeding 
 across the room toward the bay window. 
 
 " What are you doing down here? " demanded 
 Frederik. " If you're so sick, you ought not to 
 get out of bed. That's the place for sick 
 boys." 
 
 " The circus ! " mumbled Willem in the queer, 
 strained voice of a sleep walker. " The circus 
 music waked me up. So I had to come and hear 
 it." 
 
 "Circus music?" repeated Frederik amazedly, 
 as he watched the boy tugging at the rain-tightened 
 window sash to force it upward. 
 
 " Yes, it woke me. I can see the parade if I 
 can get this window open. It " 
 
 " Why, you're half asleep ! " exclaimed Fred 
 erik. " The circus left town ten days ago 1 " 
 
 " No, no 1 " insisted Willem, raising the win 
 dow with one final wrench of his frail arms. 
 " The band's playing now. Hear it? " 
 
 A gust of chilly, wet air dashed in through 
 the open window, sending a sharp draught across 
 the room and waking the boy wide as it beat into 
 his hot face.
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 217 
 
 " Why," babbled Willem, rubbing his eyes, and 
 staring about him, " why, it's night time ! I won 
 der what made me think the circus was here. I 
 I guess it was a dream." 
 
 Frederik strode to the window impatiently and 
 slammed it shut. As he passed Willem on the 
 way back to the desk the boy intuitively cowered 
 away from him. 
 
 " You've had a fever," said Frederik crossly, 
 " and you're liable to catch cold, wandering around 
 this draughty old barn in your night clothes. Go 
 back to bed." 
 
 " Yes, sir," whimpered the boy, cringing under 
 the sharp tone and starting back for the stairs. 
 But, before he reached the lowest step, he halted. 
 Peter Grimm stood barring his way. For a mo 
 ment the Dead Man and the child stood face to 
 face. Then, still frightened but unable to resist, 
 Willem turned back toward Frederik, who had 
 just picked up the photograph once more; to put 
 it in the smouldering ashes. 
 
 " Mynheer Frederik," asked the boy in a voice 
 not his own, "where is Anne Marie?" 
 
 " What? " barked Frederik with an uncontroll 
 able start and whipping the photograph around 
 behind his back like a guilty child caught in theft.
 
 218 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " What's that ? Anne Marie ? Why do you ask 
 me about her? How should / know?" 
 
 He turned his back on the boy and began to 
 tear the photograph into tiny bits. Willem hesi 
 tated, then went back to the stairway. Again at 
 the foot of the steps he confronted the Dead Man. 
 Again they stood for an instant, looking word 
 lessly into each other's eyes. And again Willem 
 turned back into the room. 
 
 " Mynheer Frederik," he asked in a sort 
 of dazed bewilderment, " where is Mynheer 
 Grimm? " 
 
 "Eh? Mynheer Grimm? Dead, of course. 
 Dead." 
 
 " Are are you sure? Because just now " 
 
 " Oh, go to bed! At once, do you hear! Go, 
 or I'll have you punished! " 
 
 Under this dire threat and the scowl that went 
 with it, not even the Dead Man's power could 
 stem Willem's defeat. Up the stairs he scuttled. 
 At the door of his room, the fever thirst in his 
 hot, parched throat for the moment overcame 
 fear. 
 
 " Could could I have a drink of water?" he 
 whimpered, gazing longingly down at the full ice- 
 water pitcher on the sideboard.
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 219 
 
 An angry glance from Frederik sent him into 
 his own room like a rabbit into its warren. 
 
 Frederik, the fragments of the picture clenched 
 in his sweat-damp hand, glowered after the re 
 treating lad and took a step toward the fire. The 
 movement brought him close to the desk. The 
 lamp had suddenly burned very low. But for 
 the faint gleam of firelight the room was in almost 
 total darkness. 
 
 And out of that gloom leaped a Face. A Face 
 close to Frederik's own; a Face indescribably 
 awful in its aspect of unearthly menace. The face 
 of Peter Grimm. Not kindly and rugged as in 
 life, or even as since the Dead Man's return. But 
 terrible, accusing, bathed in a lurid glow. 
 
 Frederik, with a scream of crass horror, reeled 
 back. The bits of cardboard tumbled from his 
 fear-loosened grip and strewed the surface of the 
 desk. 
 
 " My God ! " croaked Frederik, his throat 
 sanded with terror. "My God! Oh, my 
 God! " 
 
 The Face was gone. The room was in shadow 
 again and very silent. The dropping of a charred 
 ember from andiron to hearth made the panic- 
 stricken man jump convulsively.
 
 220 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Scarce breathing, crouched in a position of gro 
 tesque fright, the fear-sweat streaming down his 
 face, Frederik Grimm peered about him through 
 the flickering gloom. The place seemed peopled 
 with elusive Shapes. His teeth clicked together 
 as his loosened jaw was nerve-racked. He shiv 
 ered from head to foot. 
 
 " I I thought " he began, half aloud. 
 
 Then he fell silent, afraid of his own voice in 
 that dreadful silence. For a moment he cowered, 
 numb, inert. Then he remembered the frag 
 ments of the photograph that still strewed the 
 table. 
 
 " I must. get rid of them," he thought. 
 
 He took an apprehensive step toward the desk. 
 But the memory of what he had seen there was 
 too potent. He knew he could no more approach 
 that spot than he could walk into a den of rattle 
 snakes. He halted, sweating, aghast. Again he 
 crept forward, a step two steps in the direc 
 tion of the torn picture. But his fears clogged 
 his feet and brought him to a shivering stand 
 still. Had the wealth of the world lain strewed 
 on that desk instead of a mere handful of scat 
 tered pasteboard bits he could not have summoned 
 courage to step forth and seize it.
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 221 
 
 The Dead Man, in the shadows, read his mind 
 and smiled. 
 
 " No one's likely to come in here till I get 
 back," Frederik told himself, in self-excuse for 
 his cowardice. " And if any one does, the pic 
 ture is too badly torn to be recognised. I " 
 
 He found that his terror-ridden subconsciousness 
 was backing his trembling body toward the outer 
 door. The door that led from that haunted 
 room from the desk he dared not go near, 
 out into the safe, peace-giving night of summer. 
 
 And, snatching up his hat and stick, the shud 
 dering, white-faced young master of the Grimm 
 fortune half-stumbled, half-ran, from his home. 
 
 " Hicks's lawyer will be waiting," he said to 
 his battered self-respect. " I'm late as it is. I 
 must hurry." 
 
 And hurry he did, nor checked his rapid pace 
 until he had reached his destination. 
 
 Scarce had the door banged shut after Frederik 
 when Peter Grimm raised his eyes once more to 
 ward Willem's room. And again the little white- 
 clad figure appeared, and tiptoed toward the stair 
 head. 
 
 Willem paused a moment, looked over the ban 
 isters to make certain that Frederik had gone, then
 
 222 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 stole down to the big living-room. His cheeks 
 were flushed with fever. He was tired all over. 
 His head throbbed. And his throat was unbear 
 ably dry. The perpetual thirst of childhood, 
 augmented by the gnawing, unbearable thirst of 
 fever, sent him speeding to the sideboard. He 
 picked up the big ice-water pitcher, chilled and 
 frosted by inner cold and outer dampness and 
 poured out a glassful of the stingingly cold water. 
 The boy gulped down the contents of the glass 
 in almost a single draught. Then he filled a sec 
 ond glass and, with epicurean delight, let the water 
 trickle slowly and coolingly down his hot throat. 
 Peter Grimm stood beside him, a gentle hand on 
 the thin little shoulder. His thirst slaked, Wil- 
 lem glanced fearfully toward the front door. 
 
 " Oh, he won't come back for a long time," 
 Peter Grimm soothed him. " Don't be afraid. 
 He went out in a hurry and he hasn't yet stopped 
 hurrying. He thought he saw me." 
 
 Willem, reassured, laid his burning cheek 
 against the frosted, icy side of the pitcher. A 
 smile of utter bliss overspread his face. 
 
 " My, but it feels good ! " sighed the boy. 
 
 The Dead Man continued to look down at him 
 with an infinite pity.
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 223 
 
 " Willem," said he, stroking the tousled head 
 and smoothing away its stabbing pain, " there are 
 some little soldiers in this world who are handi 
 capped when they come into Life's battlefield. 
 Their parents haven't fitted them for the fight. 
 Poor little moon-moths ! They look in at the 
 lighted windows. They beat at the panes. They 
 see the glow of happy firesides, the lamps of 
 bright homes. But they can never get in. You 
 are one of those little wanderers, Willem. And 
 children like you are a million times happier when 
 they are spared the truth. So it's the most beauti 
 ful thing that can happen for you, that before 
 your playing time is over before you begin a 
 man's bitterly hard, grinding toil, all the care 
 all the tears, all the worries, all the sorrows are 
 going to pass you by forever. God is going to 
 lay His dear hand on your head. There is al 
 ways a place for such little children as you at His 
 side. There is none in this small, harsh, unpity- 
 ing old world. If people knew if they under 
 stood I don't think they could be so cruel 
 as to bring such children into the world, to 
 carry terrible burdens. They don't know. But 
 God does. And that is why He is going to take 
 you to Him. It will be the most wonderful
 
 224 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 the most beautiful thing that could happen to 
 you." 
 
 Willem smiled dreamily. Then he took a long, 
 ecstatic drink out of the pitcher itself, set it down, 
 and rose to his feet. He felt suddenly better. 
 For the time the water had cooled him. The 
 racking headache was smoothed away. And, 
 childlike, he had no desire whatever to cut short 
 his surreptitious good time by going to bed. He 
 looked about him for new objects of interest. 
 
 " Willem," went on the Dead Man, " of all this 
 whole household, you are the only one who really 
 feels I am here. The only one who can almost 
 see me. The only one who can help me. I have 
 a little message for you to give Katje, and I've 
 something to show you." 
 
 He pointed toward the desk, where lay the 
 fragments of the picture. The firelight was 
 strong enough now to make them plainly visible. 
 Willem's eyes followed the direction of the point 
 ing hand. But his glance, as it reached the desk, 
 fell upon something infinitely more attractive than 
 any mere photograph. He saw the tray placed 
 there by Marta and left untouched by Frederik. 
 
 " I'm awful hungry ! " observed the boy. 
 
 " H'm 1 " commented Peter Grimm, as Willem
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 225 
 
 started across the room to investigate the mys 
 teriously alluring tray. " I see I can't get any 
 help from a youngster as long as his stomach is 
 calling." 
 
 "Good!" ejaculated Willem as he spied the 
 plate of cakes. 
 
 "Help yourself!" invited Peter Grimm. 
 
 The boy obeyed the suggestion before it was 
 made. Already his mouth was full of cake and 
 his jaws were working rapturously. 
 
 " Das is lecker! " he murmured, biting into an 
 other of the cakes. 
 
 He picked a large and obese raisin from a third, 
 swallowed it, then reached for the sugar bowl. 
 Two lumps of sugar went the way of the raisin. 
 After which a handful of sugar lumps were stuffed 
 into his night-clothes' pocket for future delecta 
 tion in bed. The cream pitcher next met the 
 forager's eye. Willem looked at it longingly. 
 
 "Take it," said Peter Grimm. "It's good, 
 thick, sweet cream. Drink it down. That's right. 
 It won't hurt you. Nothing can hurt you now." 
 
 " I haven't had such a good time," Willem 
 confided to his inner consciousness, " since 
 Mynheer Grimm died. Why " he broke off, 
 his roving gaze concentrating on the hat-rack
 
 226 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " there's his hat! It's he's here! Oh, Mynheer 
 Grimm ! " he wailed aloud in utter longing. 
 " Take me back with you ! " 
 
 " You know I'm here? " asked the Dead Man 
 joyously. " Can you see me? " 
 
 " No, sir," came the answer without a breath 
 of hesitation or any hint of misunderstanding. 
 
 " Here," ordered Peter Grimm, his face alight, 
 "take my hand. Have you got it?" 
 
 He placed his right hand around the boy's 
 groping palm. 
 
 " No, sir," replied Willem. 
 
 " Now," urged Peter Grimm, enclosing the 
 boy's hand in both his own, "do you feel it?" 
 
 " I I feel something" returned Willem, in 
 doubt. "Yes, sir. But where is your hand? 
 There's there's nothing there ! " 
 
 "But you hear me?" asked the Dead Man 
 anxiously. 
 
 " I I can't really hear you. It's some kind of 
 a dream, I suppose. Isn't it? Oh, Mynheer 
 Grimm ! " he pleaded brokenly. " Take me back 
 with you ! " 
 
 " You're not quite ready to go with me, yet," 
 said the Dead Man in gentle denial. " Not till 
 you can see me."
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 227 
 
 The boy reached out for another cake. Still 
 looking straight ahead where he imagined his 
 unseen protector might be, he asked: 
 
 " What did you come back for, Mynheer 
 Grimm? Wasn't it nice where you went? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! Beyond all belief, dear lad. But 
 I had to come back. Willem, do you think you 
 could take a message for me? Listen very care 
 fully now. Because I want you to remember every 
 word of it. I want you to try to understand. 
 You are to tell Miss Kathrien " 
 
 " It's too bad you died before you could go to 
 the circus, Mynheer Grimm," broke in Willem, 
 munching the cake. 
 
 " Willem," persisted the Dead Man, patiently 
 starting his plan of campaign all over again 
 from another angle, " there must be a great 
 many things you remember, things that hap 
 pened when you lived with your mother. Aren't 
 there?" 
 
 " I was very little," hesitated Willem, echoing 
 a phrase he had once heard Marta use in speaking 
 of his earlier days. 
 
 " Still," pursued the Dead Man, " you remem 
 ber? " 
 
 " I I was afraid," replied the boy, groping
 
 228 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 back in the blurred past for a fact and seizing on 
 a gruesomely prominent one. 
 
 " Try to think back to that time," urged Peter 
 Grimm. "You loved her?" 
 
 " Oh, I did love Anne Marie ! " exclaimed the 
 child. 
 
 " Now," pointed out the Dead Man, " through 
 that one little miracle of love you can remember 
 many things that are tucked away in the back of 
 your baby brain. Hey? Things that a single 
 spark could kindle and light up and make clear 
 to you. It comes back? Think! There were 
 you and Anne Marie " 
 
 " And the Other One," suggested Willem on 
 impulse. 
 
 " So ! And who was the ' Other One ' ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid " babbled the child. 
 
 And again the Dead Man shifted the form of 
 his questions to quiet the nervous dread that had 
 sprung into the big eyes. 
 
 " Willem," said he, " what would you rather 
 see than anything else in all this world? Think. 
 Something that every little boy loves? " 
 
 " I I like the circus," hazarded Willem, setting 
 his tired wits to work at this possible conundrum, 
 " and the clowns, and "
 
 A HALF-HEARD MESSAGE 229 
 
 He hesitated. Peter Grimm motioned toward 
 the photograph's fragments on the desk. 
 
 " and my mother," finished the boy. 
 
 Then, his gaze following the Dead Man's ges 
 ture, he caught sight of part of a pictured face, 
 torn diagonally across. With a cry he picked it 
 up. 
 
 " Why," he exclaimed, " there she is ! There's 
 her face, part of it. And," fumbling among 
 the torn bits of cardboard, " there's the other part. 
 It's a picture of Anne Marie. All torn up." 
 
 " It would be fun to put it together," suggested 
 Peter Grimm, " the way you did with those picture 
 puzzles I got you once. Suppose we try?" 
 
 The idea caught the child's fancy. With 
 knitted brows and puckered lips he bent over the 
 desk and began the task of piecing the scraps into 
 a whole. 
 
 " That's right," approved the Dead Man. 
 " Put it all together until the picture is all perfect. 
 See, there's the bit you are looking for to finish 
 off the shoulder, and then we must show it to 
 everybody in the house, and set them all to think 
 ing." 
 
 With an apprehensive glance over his shoulder 
 toward the front door Willem proceeded more
 
 230 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 hurriedly with his work of joining the strewn 
 pieces. 
 
 " I must get it put together before he comes 
 back," he muttered. 
 
 " Ah ! " mutely rejoiced the Dean Man, " I'm 
 making you think about him at last ! I'll succeed 
 in getting your mind to connect him with Anne 
 Marie by the time the others " 
 
 " ' Uncle Rat has gone to town! UsL-H'M!' " 
 
 chanted Willem under his breath as his fingers 
 moved from part to part of the nearly completed 
 picture. " ' To buy his niece a wedding gown.' 
 There's her hand ! " he interrupted himself as an 
 elusive scrap of the photograph was at last dis 
 covered and put into place. 
 
 Peter Grimm's eyes were fixed on the door of 
 Kathrien's room in a compelling stare. 
 
 " Her other hand I " mused Willem. " ' What 
 shall the wedding breakfast be? Ha-H'M! 
 
 What shall the ?' Where's here's the last 
 
 two parts. There ! It's done! Oh, Anne Marie 1 
 Mamma ! I " 
 
 The door of Kathrien's room opened. The 
 girl, under a spell of the Dead Man's will, came 
 out to the banisters.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 
 
 KATHRIEN, looking down into the firelit room, 
 saw the white-clad boy starting up in triumph 
 with his work. 
 
 " Why, Willem ! " she cried, dumfounded at 
 sight of the invalid out of bed at such an hour. 
 "What are you doing down there? You ought 
 to " 
 
 " Oh, Miss Kathrien ! " exclaimed the child, 
 pointing toward the picture. " Come down, 
 quick!" 
 
 " You mustn't get out of bed like this when 
 you're ill," gently reproved Kathrien. " I had 
 a feeling that you weren't in your room. That 
 is why I came out to look. Come " 
 
 "But, look!" insisted Willem, pointing again 
 at the picture puzzle he had so painstakingly 
 pieced together. "Look, Miss Kathrien!" 
 
 " Come, dear! " admonished Kathrien. " You 
 must not play down there. Wait a minute, and 
 
 I'll make your bed again. It will be more com- 
 
 231
 
 232 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 fortable for you if it's made over. Then you 
 must come right upstairs." 
 
 She went to the sick room and set to work 
 with deft speed rearranging the tumbled sheets 
 and smoothing the rumpled pillows. Willem 
 looked down at his disregarded picture and his 
 lip trembled. He gazed about the room in the 
 hope of seeing Peter Grimm. He strained his 
 keen ears for sound of the Dead Man's gentle, 
 comforting voice. 
 
 But Peter Grimm was looking fixedly toward 
 the dining-room door. And in a moment it 
 opened and Mrs. Batholommey bustled in. 
 
 " I thought I heard some one call," observed 
 the rector's wife for the benefit of any one who 
 might be in the half-lighted room. 
 
 Then, as her eyes grew accustomed to the 
 gloom, she espied Willem. 
 
 " Why! " she cackled. " Of all things ! You 
 naughty, naughty child! You ought to be in bed 
 and asleep ! " 
 
 Willem shrank under the rebuke, but a touch 
 of Peter Grimm's hand and a whispered word 
 of encouragement braced him to reply: 
 
 " Old Mynheer Grimm's come back." 
 
 In the midst of her tirade Mrs. Batholommey
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 233 
 
 stopped, open-mouthed. She stared at the boy in 
 dismay. His face, as well as his voice, was un 
 perturbed. He had stated merely what seemed 
 to him a perfectly natural but very welcome truth. 
 He had supposed she would be pleased, not petri 
 fied. He had told her the news in the hope of 
 averting a scolding. But she did not seem to 
 take it in the sense of his simple declaration. So 
 he repeated it. 
 
 " Old Mynheer Grimm's come back, Mrs. 
 Batholommey." 
 
 She gurgled wordlessly, then sputtered: 
 
 "What are you talking about, child? 'Old 
 Mynheer Grimm,' as you call him, is dead. You 
 know that." 
 
 " No, he isn't," stoutly contradicted Willem. 
 " He's come back. He's in this room right now. 
 At least," he added as he glanced about and could 
 not feel the Dead Man's presence, " at least he 
 was a minute ago. I know, because I've been 
 talking to him." 
 
 "Absurd!" 
 
 " I've been talking to him. He was standing 
 just where you are now." 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey instinctively started. In 
 fact, despite her age and bulk and the fact that
 
 234 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 she was built for endurance rather than for speed, 
 she jumped high into the air, with an incredible 
 lightness and agility, and came to earth several 
 feet away from the spot Willem had desig 
 nated. 
 
 " At least," explained the boy, " he seemed to 
 be about there. But he seemed to be everywhere." 
 
 Recovering her smashed self-poise, Mrs. Bath- 
 olommey frowned with lofty majesty, tempered 
 by womanly concern. 
 
 " You are feverish again," she said. " I hoped 
 you were all over it. You're light-headed, you 
 poor little fellow." 
 
 Kathrien, the bed being re-made, hurried down 
 stairs to get Willem. 
 
 " His mind is wandering," said Mrs. Batholom- 
 mey. " He imagines all sorts of ridiculous, im 
 possible things." 
 
 Kathrien dropped into a chair by the fire and 
 gathered the fragile little body into her lap. 
 
 " Yes," went on Mrs. Batholommey, " he is 
 out of his head. I think I'll run over and get 
 the doctor." 
 
 " You need not trouble to," said Peter Grimm. 
 " / have sent for him. Though he doesn't know 
 it. He is coming up the walk."
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 235 
 
 The Dead Man turned toward the front door, 
 the old quizzical smile on his lips. 
 
 " Come in, Andrew," he said. " I'm going to 
 give you one more chance at the theory you were 
 wise enough to form and are not wise enough to 
 practise." 
 
 Dr. McPherson entered. 
 
 " I thought I'd just drop in for a minute before 
 bedtime," said he, " to see how Willem " 
 
 "Oh, Doctor!" cried Mrs. Batholommey. 
 " This is providential. I was just coming to get 
 you. Here's Willem. We found he'd gotten 
 out of bed and wandered down here. He 
 is worse. Much worse. He's quite deliri 
 ous." 
 
 " H'm ! " commented Dr. McPherson, touch 
 ing the child's face and then laying a finger on the 
 fast, light pulse. " He doesn't look it. He has 
 a slight fever again, but " 
 
 "Oh, he said old Mr. Grimm was here!" 
 bleated Mrs. Batholommey. " Here in this room 
 with him." 
 
 "What?" gasped Kathrien. 
 
 But the doctor seemed to regard the statement 
 as the most natural thing imaginable. 
 
 "In this room?" he repeated in a matter of
 
 236 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 fact tone. " Well, very possibly he is. There's 
 nothing so remarkable about that, is there?" 
 
 " Nothing remarkable?" squealed Mrs. Bathol- 
 ommey; then, bridling, she scoffed: "Oh, of 
 course. I forgot. You believe in " 
 
 " In fact," pursued McPherson, getting under 
 weigh with his pet idea, " you'll remember, both 
 of you, that I told you he and I made a compact 
 to " 
 
 " Oh! " cried Mrs. Batholommey with a shud 
 der. " That absurd, horrible ' compact ' you told 
 us about! It was positively blasphemous!" 
 
 But McPherson was looking speculatively down 
 at Willem, and did not accept nor even hear the 
 challenge to combat. 
 
 " I've sometimes had the idea," said he, " that 
 the boy was a ' sensitive.' And this evening, I've 
 been wondering " 
 
 " No, you haven't, Andrew," denied Peter 
 Grimm. " It's / who have been doing the ' won 
 dering ' ; through that Scotch brain of yours. I'm 
 making use of that Spiritualistic hobby of yours 
 because you're too dense to hear me except through 
 some rarer mortal's voice." 
 
 " Wondering," continued the doctor, 
 
 " whether perhaps "
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 237 
 
 " Yes," declared Peter Grimm, as McPherson 
 hesitated, " the boy is a ' sensitive,' as you call it" 
 
 " I really believe," declared McPherson, his 
 last doubts vanishing, " that Willem is a * sensi 
 tive.' I'm certain of it. And " 
 
 " A ' sensitive ' ? " queried Kathrien. " What's 
 that?" 
 
 14 Well," reflected the doctor, " it is rather hard 
 to define in simple language. A ' sensitive ' is 
 what is sometimes known as a ' medium.' A 
 human organism so constructed that it can be ' in 
 formed,' or 'controlled' (as the phrases go) by 
 those who are who have er who have passed 
 over." 
 
 He looked apologetically about as if to assure 
 the possibly-present Peter Grimm that he had 
 absolutely no intent of using so non-technical a 
 word as " dead." 
 
 Peter Grimm acknowledged the compliment 
 with a laugh. 
 
 " Oh, say it, Andrew ! Say it ! " he adjured. 
 " .There is no * death ' and there are no ' dead,* 
 as this world understands the words. So one term 
 is as good as another. ' Dead ' or ' passed over.* 
 It's all one. Neither phrase means anything. 
 Don't be afraid of offending me."
 
 238 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 "And Willem is like that?" asked Kathrien. 
 
 " I am sure of it," answered McPherson. 
 " Now, Willem " 
 
 " I think I'd better put the boy to bed ! " hastily 
 interposed Mrs. Batholommey, coming between 
 the doctor and his proposed " subject." 
 
 "Please!" rapped McPherson. "I propose 
 to find out what ails Willem. That is what I'm 
 here for. And I'll thank you not to interfere, 
 Mrs. Batholommey. I never break in on your 
 good husband's pulpit platitudes, and I'll ask you 
 to show the same courtesy toward me. Now 
 then, Willem " 
 
 " Kathrien," expostulated Mrs. Batholommey, 
 "you surely aren't going to permit ?" 
 
 A peremptory gesture from McPherson momen 
 tarily checked the pendulum of her tongue. Kath 
 rien, too, was very evidently on the doctor's 
 side. 
 
 " Willem," said McPherson quietly, " you said 
 just now that Mr. Grimm was in this room. 
 What made you think so ? " 
 
 " The things he said to me," returned Willem, 
 readily enough. 
 
 His simple reply had a galvanic effect on his 
 three hearers.
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 239 
 
 "Said to you?" bleated Mrs. Batholommey. 
 "SM? Did you say 'said'?" 
 
 " Why, Willcm ! " gasped Kathrien. 
 
 "Old Mr. Grimm?" insisted Dr. McPherson. 
 " Willem, you're certain you mean old Mr. 
 Grimm? Not Frederik?" 
 
 " Why, yes," assented Willem with calm assur 
 ance. " Old Mynheer Grimm." 
 
 And now, even Mrs. Batholommey's awed 
 curiosity dulled her chronic conscience-pains into 
 momentary rest. And, with Kathrien, she sat 
 silent, eager, awaiting the doctor's next move. 
 
 " And," continued McPherson, " what did Mr. 
 Grimm say to you? Think carefully before you 
 answer." 
 
 " Oh," replied Willem, in the glorious 
 vagueness of childhood, " lots and lots of 
 things." 
 
 " Oh, really? " mocked Mrs. Batholommey, the 
 disappointing answer freeing her from the grip 
 of awe. 
 
 Again McPherson raised a warning hand that 
 balked further comment from her. And he re 
 turned to the examination. 
 
 "Willem," said he, "how did Mr. Grimm 
 look?"
 
 240 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " I didn't see him," answered the child. 
 
 "H'm!" sniffed Mrs. Batholommey. 
 
 " But, Willem," urged McPherson, " you must 
 have seen something." 
 
 " I I thought I saw his hat on the peg," hes 
 itated the boy. 
 
 All eyes turned involuntarily and in some fear 
 toward the hat-rack. 
 
 " No," went on Willem, looking at the vacant 
 peg, " it's gone now." 
 
 " Doctor," remonstrated Mrs. Batholommey, 
 impatiently, " this is so silly ! It " 
 
 " I wonder," whispered Kathrien to McPher 
 son over the boy's head, " I wonder if he really 
 did do you think ?" 
 
 She did not finish the sentence. A growing 
 look of disappointment and troubled doubt on 
 McPherson's grim face made her reluctant to voice 
 the question that her mind had formed. 
 
 " Willem ! " said the Dead Man earnestly, 
 pointing towards the pieced-together picture as 
 he spoke. " Look! Show it to her! " 
 
 "Look! " echoed Willem, pointing in turn to 
 the photograph. " Look, Miss Kathrien ! That's 
 what I wanted to show you when you called to 
 me to go to bed."
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 241 
 
 " Why ! " exclaimed Kathrien, following the 
 direction of the eager little finger. " It's his 
 mother ! It's Anne Marie 1 " 
 
 "His mother!" echoed Mrs. Batholommey, 
 focussing her near-sighted eyes on the likeness. 
 "Why, so it is! Well, of all things! I didn't 
 know you'd heard from Anne Marie." 
 
 " We haven't," said Kathrien. 
 
 ' Then how did the photograph get into the 
 house? " 
 
 " I don't know," answered the girl. " I never 
 saw the picture before. It is none we've had. 
 How strange ! We've all been waiting for news 
 of Anne Marie. Even her own mother doesn't 
 know where she is, and hasn't heard from her in 
 years. Or or maybe Marta has received the 
 picture since I " 
 
 " I'll ask her," said Mrs. Batholommey, all 
 eagerness now that something tangible was before 
 her. 
 
 She bustled off into the kitchen in search of the 
 old housekeeper. 
 
 " If Marta didn't get it," mused Kathrien, her 
 face strained with puzzling thoughts, " who did 
 have this picture? And why weren't the rest of 
 us told? Every one knew how eager we were for
 
 242 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 news of Anne Marie. And who tore up the pic 
 ture? Did you, Willem?" 
 
 " No ! " declared the boy. " It was lying here, 
 torn. I mended it." 
 
 " But," persisted Kathrien, " there's been no one 
 at this desk, except Frederik. Except Fred- 
 erik," she repeated, half under her breath. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey came back from her kitchen 
 interview, bubbling with importance. 
 
 " No," she announced, " Marta hasn't heard a 
 word from Anne Marie. And only a few minutes 
 ago she asked Frederik if any message had come. 
 And he said, no, there hadn't." 
 
 " I wonder," suggested Kathrien, " if there was 
 any message with the photograph." 
 
 " I remember," volunteered Mrs. Batholom 
 mey, " one of the letters that came for poor old 
 Mr. Grimm was in a blue envelope and felt as 
 if it had a photograph in it. I put it with 
 some others in the desk and I told Frederik about 
 it this evening." 
 
 Kathrien glanced over the desk and at the floor 
 around it in search of further clues. She saw, 
 in the jardiniere, the charred remnants of a letter 
 and pointed it out to the others. She drew from 
 the debris the unburned corner of a blue envelope.
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 243 
 
 " That's the one ! " cried Mrs. Batholommey. 
 " That's it ! The same colour." 
 
 4 You say the envelope was addressed to my 
 uncle?" 
 
 ' Yes. It gave me such a turn to see those 
 letters all addressed to a man who wasn't alive 
 to " 
 
 "Oh, what does it all mean?" cried the girl. 
 
 " We are going to find out," said McPherson 
 with sudden determination. " Kathrien, draw 
 those window shades close. I want the room 
 darkened as much as possible." 
 
 " Oh, Doctor," protested Mrs. Batholommey 
 as Kathrien hastened to obey, " you're surely not 
 going to ? " 
 
 " Be quiet. You needn't stay unless you want 
 to." 
 
 "Oh, I'll stay. It's my duty. But I don't 
 approve. Please understand that." 
 
 Kathrien had returned to her place by the fire 
 and had lifted Willem back on her lap. The 
 doctor, gazing into space, said in a low, reveren 
 tial tone: 
 
 " Peter Grimm ! If you have come back to us, 
 if you are in this room if this boy has spoken 
 truly, give us some sign, some indication "
 
 244 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Why, Andrew, I can't," answered the Dead 
 Man. " Not to you. I have, to the boy. I can't 
 make you hear me, Andrew. The obstacles are 
 too strong for me." 
 
 " Peter Grimm," went on the doctor after a 
 moment of dead silence, " if you cannot make 
 your presence known to me and I realise there 
 must be great difficulties will you try to send your 
 message by Willem ? I presume you have a mes 
 sage? " 
 
 Another space of tense silence. 
 
 " Well, Peter," resumed McPherson patiently, 
 " I am waiting. We are all waiting." 
 
 " Then stop talking and listen to Willem,'* 
 ordered Peter Grimm. 
 
 The doctor involuntarily glanced at the boy. 
 Willem's wide-open eyes were glazed like a sleep 
 walker's. The hands that had been folded in his 
 lap now hung limply at his sides. His lips parted, 
 and droning, mechanical, lifeless words came from 
 between them. 
 
 ' There was Anne Marie and me and the 
 Other One," said he. 
 
 " What Other One? " asked McPherson, speak 
 ing in a low, emotionless voice so as not to break 
 in on the thought current.
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 245 
 
 " The man that came there," droned the boy. 
 
 "Whatman?" 
 
 " The man that made Anne Marie cry." 
 
 " What man made Anne Marie cry? " 
 
 " I I can't remember," returned the boy, a 
 hesitant note of trouble creeping into his dead 
 voice. 
 
 " Yes, you can," prompted Peter Grimm. 
 " You can remember, Willem. You're afraid ! " 
 
 " So you do remember the time when you were 
 with Anne Marie?" whispered Kathrien as the 
 lad hesitated. " You always told me you didn't. 
 Doctor, I have the strangest feeling. A feeling 
 that all this somehow concerns me, and that I 
 must sift it to the bottom. Think, Willem. 
 Who was it that came and went at the house where 
 you lived with Anne Marie?" 
 
 ' That is what 7 asked you, Willem," said 
 Peter Grimm. 
 
 ; ' That is what he asked me," replied Willem 
 mechanically. 
 
 "Who?" demanded McPherson. "Who 
 asked you that question, Willem? " 
 
 " Mynheer Grimm." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " Just now."
 
 246 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Just now ! " cried Kathrien and Mrs. Bathol- 
 ommey in a breath. 
 
 "S-sh!" admonished the doctor. "So you 
 both asked the same question, eh? The man 
 that came to see ?" 
 
 " It can't be possible," expostulated Mrs. 
 Batholommey, " that the boy has any idea what 
 he is talking about." 
 
 A glare from McPherson silenced her. Then 
 the doctor asked: 
 
 "What did you tell Mr. Grimm, Willem?" 
 
 The boy hesitated. 
 
 " Better make haste," adjured the Dead Man, 
 " Frederik is coming back." 
 
 Willem, with a shudder, glanced fearfully to 
 ward the outer door. 
 
 "Why does he do that? " wondered Kathrien. 
 11 He looked that way at the door when he spoke 
 of ' the Other One.' Why should he? " 
 
 " He's afraid," answered Peter Grimm. 
 
 " I'm afraid," echoed Willem. 
 
 Kathrien gathered him more closely in her 
 warm young arms and whispered soothingly to 
 him. The fear died out of his eyes. 
 
 " You're not afraid, any more ? " she reassured 
 him.
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 247 
 
 "N-no," he faltered, "but oh, please don't 
 let Mynheer Frederik come back, Miss Kathrien ! 
 Please, don't! Because because then I'll be 
 afraid again. I know I will." 
 
 McPherson whistled low and long. A light 
 was beginning to break upon his shrewd Scotch 
 brain. 
 
 "Willem!" pleaded the Dead Man. " W& 
 lem!" 
 
 1 Yes, sir," answered the boy. 
 
 ' You must say I am very unhappy." 
 
 " He is very unhappy," repeated Willem, par 
 rot-like. 
 
 " Why is he unhappy? " demanded McPherson. 
 "Ask him?" 
 
 "Why are you unhappy, Mynheer Grimm?" 
 droned the boy. 
 
 " On account of Kathrien's future," replied 
 Peter Grimm. 
 
 "What?" questioned Willem, who did not 
 quite understand the meaning of the words " ac 
 count " and " future." 
 
 " To-morrow " began the Dead Man. 
 
 ;< To-morrow " droned Willem. 
 
 " Kathrien's " continued Peter Grimm. 
 
 ' Your " said the boy, glancing at Kathrien.
 
 248 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Kathrien's ? " asked the doctor. "Is he 
 speaking about Kathrien?" 
 
 "What is it, Willem?" begged the girl. 
 " What about me, to-morrow? " 
 
 " Kathrien must not marry Frederik," said 
 Peter Grimm, as if teaching a simple lesson to a 
 very stupid pupil. 
 
 " Kathrien " began the boy, then flinching, 
 
 and once more glancing fearfully over his shoul 
 der toward the door, he whimpered: 
 
 " Oh, I must not say that ! " 
 
 "Say what, Willem?" urged McPherson. 
 
 "What what he wanted me to say! " 
 
 " Kathrien must not marry Frederik Grimm," 
 repeated the Dead Man. "Say it, Willem?" 
 
 " Speak up, Willem," exhorted McPherson. 
 " Don't be scared. No one will hurt you." 
 
 " Oh, yes," denied Willem, in terror, " he will. 
 I don't want to say his name ! Because be 
 cause " 
 
 "Why won't you tell his name?" insisted 
 McPherson. 
 
 " Hurry, Willem ! Hurry ! " begged the Dead 
 Man. 
 
 " Oh," wailed Willem, with another terrified 
 glance at the door, "I'm afraid! I'm afraid!
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 249 
 
 He'll make Anne Marie cry again. And me I 
 And me!" 
 
 "Why are you afraid of him?" asked Kath- 
 rien. " Was Frederik the man that came to see 
 Anne Marie ?" 
 
 " Kathrien I " primly reproved Mrs. Batholom- 
 mey. 
 
 Kathrien caught hold of the boy's hand as he 
 rose, shaking, to his feet. She knelt before him. 
 
 "Willeml" she implored. "Was Frederik 
 the man who came to see Anne Marie? Tell 
 me!" 
 
 " Surely," expostulated Mrs. Batholommey in 
 pious horror, " surely, Kathrien, you don't be 
 lieve ?" 
 
 " I have thought of a great many things this 
 evening," replied Kathrien, vibrant with excite 
 ment, yet instinctively lowering her voice so as 
 not to break in on Willem's semi-trance. " Little 
 things that I've never noticed before. I'm put 
 ting them together. Just as Willem put that pic 
 ture together. And I must know who the Other 
 One was." 
 
 " Hurry, Willem ! " exhorted the Dead Man. 
 " Hurry ! Frederik is listening at the door." 
 
 The announcement brought Willem around with
 
 250 
 
 a gasp toward the door. He stared at Its panels, 
 quaking, aghast. 
 
 " I won't say any more ! " he whimpered, point 
 ing at the door. "He's there ! " 
 
 " Who was the man, Willem?" entreated 
 McPherson. "Come, lad! Out with it 1" 
 
 " Quick, Willem ! " supplemented Peter Grimm. 
 
 Kathrien, acting on an unexplained impulse as 
 Wiliem stared terror-stricken at the door, hastened 
 toward the vestibule. 
 
 "No! No!" shrieked the boy in anguished 
 falsetto as he divined what she was about to do. 
 " Please, pleas* don't ! Don't! Don't let him 
 in, I'm afraid of him, He made Anne Marie 
 cry." 
 
 But Kathrien's hand was already at the latch. 
 She threw the outer door wide open. Frederik 
 Grimm stood on the threshold, his head still a 
 little forward. His ear had evidently been 
 pressed close to the pandL 
 
 ** You're sure Frederik's the man?" almost 
 shouted McPherson. 
 
 " I won't tell! I won't tell! / won't telU" 
 screamed the boy, taking one look at Frederik, 
 then tearing loose from McPherson's restraining 
 hand and dashing up the stairs.
 
 THE " SENSITIVE " 251 
 
 " I must go to bed now," sobbed Willem from 
 the gallery above. " He told me to." 
 
 He ran into his own room and shut the door 
 quickly behind him. 
 
 ' You're a good boy, Willem ! " Peter Grimm 
 called approvingly after him. 
 
 The cloud of grief was gone from the Dead 
 Man's face, leaving it wondrously bright and 
 young. With no trace of anxiety, he turned to 
 witness the consummation of his labours. 
 
 Frederik Grimm was standing, nerveless, dazed, 
 where Kathrien's impulsive opening of the door 
 had disclosed him. Dully, he stared from one to 
 another of the three who confronted him. It was 
 Kathrien who first spoke. Pointing toward the 
 photograph that still lay on the desk, she said: 
 
 " Frederik, you have heard from Anne Marie." 
 
 His lips parted in denial. Then he saw the 
 picture, started slightly, and lapsed into a sullen 
 silence. 
 
 ' You have had a letter from her," pursued 
 Kathrien. " You burned it. And you tore that 
 picture so that we would not recognise it. Why 
 did you tell Marta that you had had no message 
 no news? You told her so, since that letter 
 and photograph came. You went to Anne
 
 252 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Mane's home, too. Why did you tell me you 
 had never seen her since she left here? Why 
 did you lie to me? Why do you hate her 
 child?" 
 
 Frederik made one dogged effort to regain what 
 he had so bewilderingly lost. 
 
 " Are are you going to believe what that brat 
 says?" he muttered. 
 
 " No," retorted Kathrien. " But I'm going to 
 find out for myself. I am going to find out where 
 Anne Marie is before I marry you. And I am 
 going to learn the truth from her. Willem may 
 be right or wrong in what he thinks he remembers. 
 But 7 am going to find out, past all doubt, what 
 Anne Marie was to you. And, if what I think 
 is true " 
 
 " It is true," interposed McPherson. " It is 
 true, Kathrien. I believe we got that message 
 direct." 
 
 " Andrew is right, Katje," prompted the Dead 
 Man. " Believe him." 
 
 " Yes 1 " cried Kathrien, as if in reply. " It 
 is true. I believe Oom Peter was in this room 
 to-night ! " 
 
 " What? " blurted Frederik. " You saw him, 
 too?"
 
 THE "SENSITIVE" 253 
 
 His unguarded query was lost in Mrs. Bathol- 
 ommey's gasp of: 
 
 " Oh, Kathrien, that's quite impossible. It 
 was only a coincidence that " 
 
 " I don't care what any one else may think," 
 rushed on Kathrien, swept along upon the wave of 
 a strange exultation that bore her far out of her 
 wonted timid self. " People have the right to 
 think for themselves. I believe Oom Peter has 
 been here, to-night!" 
 
 " I am here, Katje," breathed the Dead Man. 
 
 " I believe he is here, now! " declared Kathrien, 
 her eyes aglow, and her face flushed. " He is 
 here. Oh, Oom Peter I " she cried, her arms 
 stretched wide in appeal, her face alight, her voice 
 rising like that of a prophetess of old. " Oom 
 Peter, if you can hear me now, give me back my 
 promise! Give it back to me or I'll take it 
 back/" 
 
 " I did give it back to you, dear," answered 
 Peter Grimm happily. " But, oh, what a time 
 I've had putting it across ! "
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 MR. BATHOLOMMEY TESTIFIES 
 
 To Whom It May Concern: 
 
 I am Henry Batholommey, rector of the Protes 
 tant Episcopal church at Grimm Manor, New 
 York State. My neighbour, Andrew McPherson, 
 M.D., has asked me to substantiate, so far as lies 
 in my power, certain statements in a paper he 
 is preparing for the Society of Psychical Research, 
 concerning certain recent happenings in the house 
 of my former parishioner, the late Peter Grimm 
 of this place. 
 
 I refuse. 
 
 I understand, also, that in telling the story 
 broadcast, as he has done, he has made free use 
 of my name and that of my wife, as witnesses 
 to these happenings. Wherefore, I am daily in 
 receipt of fully a dozen letters of enquiry. Re 
 porters, so-called scientists, mystics with long hair 
 and unclean nails, and cranks and practical jokers 
 of every sort and description have taken to call 
 ing at the rectory, at inconvenient hours, to cross- 
 question me. 
 
 254
 
 MR. BATHQLGMMEY TESTIFIES 255 
 
 For example : one disreputable man, reeking of 
 cheap liquor, came to me yesterday with the in 
 formation that the story of Peter Grimm's return 
 had converted him and that (with some slight 
 temporary financial assistance from me) he was 
 prepared to renounce liquor and mend his ways. 
 He looked like a penitent. He talked like a pen 
 itent. But he most assuredly did not smell like 
 a penitent. And I sent him about his business. 
 
 This was but one of many irritating interrup 
 tions upon my parish work to which Dr. McPher- 
 son's use of my name has subjected me. 
 
 In view of all this, I deem it advisable to save 
 myself from further annoyance and to stop the 
 rumour that a minister of the Gospel has turned 
 Spiritualist, by issuing the following brief state 
 ment : 
 
 Dr. McPherson is desirous that my wife and 
 myself endorse his belief that the occurrences at 
 the home of the late Peter Grimm were of a super 
 natural nature. 
 
 We shall do no such thing. 
 
 For the single reason that neither Mrs. Bathol- 
 ommey nor myself, after mature reflection and dis 
 passionate discussion, can find one atom of the 
 Supernatural in any of the events that transpired
 
 256 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 there. Perhaps I can best make clear my point of 
 view by rehearsing the case and my own very small 
 connection therewith. 
 
 sThe fact that Dr. McPherson is of a different 
 denomination from myself in no way biases my 
 feelings in this case. I am an Episcopalian. 
 And I am of liberal views toward those who are 
 not; with the possible exception of Baptists, 
 Presbyterians, Congregntionalists, Methodists, and 
 members of a few other denominations outside 
 the direct Apostolic Succession. Yet I confess I 
 was shocked at the conversion (or perversion) of 
 my old neighbour, McPherson, to a cult which, 
 for want of a better word, I must designate as 
 " Spiritualism." 
 
 He told me of a compact he had made with 
 my dear friend and parishioner, Peter Grimm, to 
 the effect that whichever of them should first leave 
 this mortal life was to return and make known his 
 presence to the other. I told McPherson to his 
 face that I regarded such a compact as being even 
 more sacrilegious than senseless. My good wife 
 echoed my sentiments. McPherson, who has not 
 the admirable control over his temper so needful 
 to a medical man, chose to become angry at my 
 outspoken opinion and said several cruelly unjust
 
 MR. BATHOLOMMEY TESTIFIES 257 
 
 things concerning my own behaviour toward the 
 late Peter Grimm. 
 
 I shall not stoop to denying or even repeating 
 what he said; far less to justify myself. Yet I 
 should like to mention, in passing, that his coarse 
 gibe concerning my fawning on a rich man is the 
 most unjust of all his abominable assertions. 
 
 I was in the habit of bringing cases of need 
 before Peter Grimm's notice, it is true. And he 
 responded right generously to every such appeal. 
 I enlisted his financial aid for the local poor, for 
 the Church Building Fund, for missions (home 
 and foreign), and for the other worthy and needy 
 cases. 
 
 But for myself or for my family I have never 
 asked for one penny, either from Peter Grimm or 
 from any other man. And as the gifts I have 
 begged were in my Master's name and solely for 
 my Master's service, I do not consider I have 
 demeaned myself. Be that my sole defence. I 
 am content with it. 
 
 The public, of late years, has looked askance 
 at the attitude of clergymen toward the wealthier 
 members of their congregation. And, in ninety- 
 nine instances out of a hundred, with absolutely 
 no cause. The Church is in need. The poor
 
 258 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 are in dire distress. Missions languish for the 
 few paltry thousands that would carry the Word 
 triumphant throughout the earth. 
 
 Who is to supply these needs? Who but the 
 clergyman ? Out of his own scanty salary ? That 
 hardly supports him and his. Yet, in proportion, 
 he gives from it as never did a multimillionaire. 
 To whom can he turn for financial help in carry 
 ing out his Master's work? To the Rich Man. 
 And, in many cases, the day is past when he can 
 do so without first winning the personal liking 
 of that same rich man. Yes, and often by flatter 
 ing him and smiling approvingly at his vulgar 
 humour or soothing his equally vulgar rages. 
 
 Shame that the deathless Church of God should 
 have been brought to such a pass 1 
 
 Yes, and tenfold shame to those that sneer at 
 the clergyman who sacrifices and tortures all that 
 is sensitive and sacred in himself, in the effort to 
 wheedle from the wealthy boor the money to save 
 God's poor and God's souls! Is it pleasant for 
 him to fawn and to be patronised ? Others do it, 
 I know. But for themselves. The clergyman 
 must do it in his Master's name and for no per 
 sonal gain. 
 
 Let the rector refuse to lower himself thus
 
 MR. BATHOLOMMEY TESTIFIES 259 
 
 What happens? The rich man goes to a church 
 where flattery and subservience are more plentiful. 
 The stiff-necked rector seeks in vain for funds. 
 For lack of money his church runs down. It 
 cannot keep up its charities and its other 
 work. 
 
 Who is to blame ? The rector, of course. Let 
 us get an up-to-date man in his place. And the 
 clergyman who refused to cringe finds himself not 
 only without a church but with a record that bars 
 him from getting another one. I do not say this 
 state of affairs is universal. But I do say, from 
 bitter experience, that it is far too prevalent For 
 give my digression. I will get back to my state 
 ment with all speed. 
 
 I have told of the " compact " between Peter 
 Grimm and Andrew McPherson. Mr. Grimm 
 died. Kathrien had promised him to marry his 
 nephew, Frederik. She did not love him. She 
 did love James Hartmann. She has admitted 
 both those facts to me. 
 
 As the time for the wedding drew near, she was 
 more and more loath to carry out her promise. 
 McPherson attributes that distaste to the spiritual 
 promptings of Peter Grimm. Can any normal 
 woman (who has been forced to marry one man
 
 260 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 while loving another) see the remotest hint of 
 the Supernatural in it? No! 
 
 Willem, a boy of epileptic tendencies as 
 McPherson himself admits had taken his bene 
 factor's death terribly to heart, and had brooded 
 over it day and night. Is there any reason to 
 doubt that in such an unbalanced nature, this 
 brooding, coupled by fever, should have produced 
 a delirium in which he believed he heard Peter 
 Grimm speaking to him ? 
 
 He also believed, Kathrien tells me, that he 
 heard the circus parade pass the house ten days 
 after it had left town. Is one belief entitled to 
 greater credence than the other? Or did the 
 ghost of a circus parade meander through our 
 Main street at night, accompanied by a Spook 
 brass band? Each idea is quite as probable as the 
 other. 
 
 And, from the boy's own statement, Peter 
 Grimm said to him nothing original or even be 
 tokening a mind more developed than a child's. 
 Willem knew Kathrien was going to marry Fred- 
 erik. He knew she did not want to and that he 
 himself disliked and feared Frederik. What 
 more likely than that he should imagine he heard 
 Peter forbid the match?
 
 MR. BATHOLOMMEY TESTIFIES 261 
 
 What more likely, in his own fevered unhappi- 
 ness, than that he should think Peter Grimm said 
 " I am very unhappy "? Would a man of Peter 
 Grimm's strength and shrewdness come back to 
 earth and tell the child nothing of greater im 
 portance than Willem says he told? And, if he 
 could make Willem understand such phrases as 
 " I am very unhappy " and " Kathrien must not 
 marry Frederik," could he not have made the boy 
 understand anything else? 
 
 As to Frederik Grimm: Frederik, we know, 
 was nervous and overwrought. His uncle's death 
 had been a shock if not a grief. He had the 
 added worry of knowing Kathrien did not really 
 love him. He was in constant fear lest Anne 
 Marie, on hearing of Peter's death, might com 
 municate with her mother and lest the secret of his 
 own relations with the poor girl be exposed. This 
 suspense added to his nervousness. 
 
 The sight of her picture and the reading of 
 her pathetic letter stirred his conscience. He 
 forced himself to destroy both bits of evidence. 
 And the action strongly brought before his nerve- 
 racked senses the thought of what honourable old 
 Peter Grimm would have said of such conduct. 
 So strongly, in fact, that in the dark he fancied
 
 262 THE RETURN OP PETER GRIMM 
 
 he saw Grimm's eyes glaring at him. The phe 
 nomenon is by no means uncommon and has been 
 explained by scientists upon perfectly natural 
 grounds. 
 
 As to Willem's sudden remembrance of half- 
 forgotten facts concerning his own childhood, 
 there is no parent living who cannot cite instances 
 of newly awakened memory, in his or her own 
 child, that are quite as remarkable. The seeing 
 of his mother's photograph brought before Willem 
 the recollection of scenes in which she had played 
 a part; scenes that had been crowded from his 
 mind by later events. 
 
 Frederik had just spoken harshly to him. And 
 that recalled harsh words Frederik had spoken 
 to the woman in the picture. And thus, quite 
 simply, his memory supplied the one needful link. 
 What is remarkable in all the foregoing? In fact, 
 Shakespeare's Horatio says: 
 
 " There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave, to 
 tell us this ! '* 
 
 So much for Dr. McPherson's efforts to sur 
 round a series of normal occurrences with a halo 
 of the Supernatural! Now, let me add a word 
 on my own account, and I am done.
 
 MR. BATHOLOMMEY TESTIFIES 263 
 
 The Dead do not return to the scene of their 
 toil and pain and tears. Would a freed convict 
 sneak back to his prison house or the ex-galley 
 slave to his oar ? The convalescent does not crawl 
 into the contagion ward again of his free choice. 
 Nor, I believe, would the Lord permit the return 
 of the Dead; even to bear a warning to those left 
 behind. 
 
 Glance at the sixteenth chapter of St. Luke for 
 confirmation of my belief; at the parable of the 
 " certain rich man who was clothed in purple and 
 fine linen and fared sumptuously every day "; and 
 who, in torment, after death, called to Abraham 
 to send Lazarus from Heaven to visit the Tor 
 tured One's five brethren : 
 
 " That he may testify unto men, lest they also 
 come into this place of torment. 
 
 " Abraham said to him : ' They have Moses and 
 the prophets. Let them hear them.' 
 
 "And he said: 'Nay, Father Abraham, but if 
 one went unto them from the dead they would 
 repent' 
 
 "And he said unto him: 'If they hear not 
 Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per 
 suaded through one rise from the dead.' " 
 
 No, the whole idea is preposterous. It is far
 
 264 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 outside of God's justice and infinitely farther be 
 yond His boundless mercy. 
 
 " He giveth His Beloved sleep " ; not weary, 
 hopeless wanderings upon the face of the earth. 
 
 Peter Grimm did not return. And this is the 
 only comment I care to make upon Andrew 
 McPherson's amazing theory.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 DR. MCPHERSON'S STATEMENT 
 
 DR. JAMES HYSLOP. 
 
 My Dear Sir: After reading the account which 
 I am mailing to you under separate cover, will 
 you kindly forward it to the American Branch of 
 the Society of Psychical Research? As you will 
 observe, it is a verbatim report of a " seance." 
 
 For your personal information, I beg to make 
 the following supplementary statement. 
 
 At the residence of Peter Grimm, I should say 
 the late Peter Grimm (the well-known horticul 
 turist of Grimm Manor, N. Y.) certain phe 
 nomena occurred this evening which would clearly 
 indicate the Return of Peter Grimm, ten days after 
 his decease. At my first free moment after the 
 manifestation, I jotted down in shorthand the 
 exact dialogue, etc., which I have since transcribed 
 into the enclosed report. 
 
 While Peter Grimm was invisible to all, three 
 people were present besides myself; including the 
 " recipient," a child of eight, who had been ill, 
 but was almost normal at the time. 
 
 265
 
 266 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 No spelling out of signals nor automatic writ 
 ing was employed, but word of mouth. 
 
 I made a compact with Peter Grimm while he 
 was in the flesh that whichever one of us should 
 go first was to return and give the other some 
 sign. And I propose, by the enclosed report, to 
 show positive proof that Peter Grimm kept his 
 compact and that I assisted in the carrying out 
 of his instructions. 
 
 Let me introduce myself and briefly recount the 
 circumstances which led up to the seance, as well 
 as my own state of mind concerning manifesta 
 tions: 
 
 I am a practising physician in the town of 
 Grimm Manor, a suburb of New York City, 
 settled at the time of the Dutch occupation of 
 Manhattan, and named after the family, the 
 Grimms, which first owned the farm that is now 
 the town site. 
 
 I have always been greatly interested in Spirit 
 ualism. I have read nearly all that has been 
 written on this subject and have known, person 
 ally, most all the so-called mediums. I have at 
 tended seances in this country and abroad and 
 have by turns been convinced that they were gen 
 uine or frauds.
 
 DR. MCPHERSON'S STATEMENT 267 
 
 Up to the time when the events which I am 
 about to narrate began to occur, I had been un 
 able to come to a definite decision, as far as my 
 own belief was concerned, as to whether or not 
 the spirits of the dead could communicate with 
 the living. At one time I would be led to believe 
 they could, but then the exposure of some well- 
 known medium as a trickster would change my 
 opinion and I would again find myself puzzling 
 vainly over the answer to this problem. 
 
 You doubtless remember the furore which was 
 created in Spiritualistic circles by the announce 
 ment of an English physician that, in accordance 
 with a compact, a friend had communicated with 
 him after death. 
 
 This idea fascinated me. There is an old Jap 
 anese myth to the effect that if a dying man re 
 solves to do a certain act the body will, after 
 death, perform that act. It seemed to me that 
 if a man could die and return to earth in spirit 
 it must be as the result of a resolution to return 
 made just before death and constituting the ruling 
 passion at the time of death itself. I determined 
 that I would put this theory to the test. 
 
 We of this materialistic world of barter and 
 sale give little time to the consideration of the
 
 Hereafter. There are occasions with most of us 
 when the unanswerable Why and Whence obtrudes 
 itself on our vision, but it is a fleeting impression 
 which vanishes with the rising of the sun on 
 the day's work. The wonder and mystery of life 
 may come home to us at the birth of a child or 
 the death of a loved one, but we soon cease to 
 marvel at the miracle of the former and a new 
 joy banishes grief. 
 
 For, we say, what avails it, this search after 
 the Land of the Hereafter, if there be such a 
 place? No one has ever come back to tell us 
 that there is; or what it is and where. It is all 
 a matter of conjecture in which we are following 
 round the circle trod by man since the world began. 
 
 One man believes that there is a Hereafter, a 
 spirit land in which the Soul, stripped of all evil, 
 reaches a state of perfection and divine happiness 
 which justifies the stupendous feat of the Creation 
 and the travail of those who are bound to the 
 treadmill of life. 
 
 Another believes, pointing for proof to the 
 dead branches from which new leaves spring, that 
 life is endless, and that the soul, leaving the worn- 
 out shell, takes up its dwelling in another form. 
 Another with scorn tells us that all life is a joke
 
 DR. McPHERSON's STATEMENT 269 
 
 and we are the butts of the cruel will of an Om 
 nipotent power. And still another says : 
 
 " Any and all beliefs in this matter are good, 
 for none can be proved. Let each believe that 
 which gives him the most happiness, so long as 
 it be noble and sweet and true." 
 
 And with this last I hold. So that if it bring 
 peace and love and contentment into the heart of 
 man, woman, or child to believe that the spirit 
 of a loved one, who has solved the Problem mor 
 tal cannot solve, can return to earth and communi 
 cate by some sign or token with those who were 
 its companions when it inhabited a human house, 
 I say it is wrong to scoff and rail at this belief. 
 
 There has now come to me the proof that such 
 a belief does bring peace and love and content 
 ment, that it does cast out evil. With regard to 
 the Psychological aspects of the circumstances 
 which are related in the enclosed transcript, I ex 
 press no opinion. I have never before had the 
 feeling that a person dead so far as mortal ex 
 istence was concerned was endeavouring to com 
 municate with me. The debates and wrangles 
 which go on continually between those who affirm 
 and deny the possibility of spirit messages have 
 always impressed me, but beyond a theory, I had
 
 270 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 no knowledge as to the right or wrong of it. 
 However, I was strongly inclined to believe. 
 
 The fact that on many occasions so-called rap- 
 pings, table liftings, writings, and other supposed 
 spirit manifestations have been shown to be the 
 result of mere human trickery does not necessarily 
 prove that such demonstrations may not be the 
 efforts of an immortal soul to make its presence 
 known. 
 
 I say this because I want it understood that I 
 have not allowed any prejudice, favourable or 
 otherwise, to creep into the report that I send 
 herewith. I go no further than to say that if 
 my report helps to prove that the spirit of one 
 we have loved and revered can come back and 
 bring peace and love and happiness to mortals 
 who are in dire need, if it can banish blighting evil 
 from their lives; then life, for all its burdens, is 
 not lived in vain. 
 
 Among my dearest friends was Peter Grimm, 
 direct descendant of the founders of the village, 
 who still occupied the old Manor House and was 
 engaged in horticulture. Grimm's tulips were 
 known throughout the country and his business 
 was a large one. 
 
 There lived with him Kathrien, whom he had
 
 DR. MCPHERSON'S STATEMENT 271 
 
 adopted at my suggestion (made at a time when 
 he seemed to be getting morose and verging on 
 becoming a recluse) that he needed a child in 
 the house; Frederik, his nephew and heir; James 
 Hartmann, his secretary, and Willem, the son of 
 Anne Marie, the daughter of Marta, the house 
 keeper. 
 
 Anne Marie had left home in disgrace and had 
 sent Willem to her mother after his father had 
 deserted her. Who this man was had never been 
 revealed, and the whereabouts of Anne Marie 
 herself were unknown at the time I am writ 
 ing of. 
 
 At those times when I leaned toward the con 
 viction that communication between earth and 
 spirit land was possible, I was prone to think that 
 if it could be, it must be between a spirit and a 
 mortal who in life typified in their affection for 
 each other the highest type of pure love. If any 
 mortal, I thought, could receive a spirit message, 
 it must be one whose heart and soul are spotless, 
 whose love is as that of a little child before it 
 has grown to manhood and plucked at the leaves 
 of the Tree of Knowledge. 
 
 In the day Kathrien entered his home there was 
 born in Peter Grimm a great love for mankind,
 
 272 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 but especially for children. Not but that he had 
 always been kindly and charitable to those who 
 deserved his aid, but where before his life had 
 been given up to his business, to making the brown 
 earth do his will, he now devoted his chief thought 
 to making Kathrien happy. This love for chil 
 dren was increased when Willem came to him, and 
 I think the most perfect affection that ever existed 
 among three persons was that which these three 
 bore to each other. 
 
 Peter came to me recently to be treated for 
 a cold which, while severe, was not in itself danger 
 ous. But in examining him I found that his heart 
 was in such a condition that a strong emotion, 
 such as intense joy, anger, or fear might cause 
 instant death. 
 
 I determined, on discovering this, to ask him 
 to enter into a compact with me that whichever 
 of us should die first should, after death, com 
 municate with the survivor. While I was not 
 sure (although a strong bond of affection existed 
 between us) that I was a person fitted to receive 
 such a communication, I was convinced that either 
 Kathrien or Willem would understand a message 
 sent to me from the spirit land by Peter, and, if 
 the thing were possible, that he, if he could not
 
 DR. MCPHERSON'S STATEMENT 273 
 
 reach me directly, would do so through one or 
 the other of them. 
 
 I made the mistake of telling Colonel Lawton 
 of Peter's condition. I might have known that 
 he would tell his wife. She told Mrs. Batholom- 
 mey, the wife of the rector. 
 
 When I suggested the compact to Peter Grimm, 
 he pooh-poohed the whole idea, laughed at me, 
 told me to get such nonsense out of my head. 
 
 But I stuck to it. I told him of the incident 
 of the English doctor and his friend, of the great 
 service that would be done to humanity and sci 
 ence if he or I could prove that signals could be 
 exchanged between a land inhabited by the souls 
 of the dead and this mortal earth. At last he 
 consented. 
 
 The rector and his wife called after we had 
 finished our argument, and Mrs. Batholommey 
 as much as told Peter during the course of the 
 conversation that he was doomed. Then poor 
 little Willem blabbed the truth. He had over 
 heard us discussing the matter. Peter reiterated 
 that he would make the compact with me. 
 
 We shook hands on it, we sealed it with a touch 
 of our glasses filled with Peter Grimm's famous 
 plum brandy.
 
 274 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 There was a circus in town, one of those travel 
 ling country affairs, and the parade had passed , 
 by the house. Peter gave Willem money to buy 
 tickets. 
 
 That was the last I saw or heard in this life 
 of mortal Peter Grimm, standing there with a 
 smile on his face. 
 
 I had been absent but a few minutes when I 
 heard Kathrien crying my name. I ran back to 
 the house. Peter Grimm was dead. 
 
 Ten days later came the seance described in my 
 enclosure. Later in the evening I went to Wil- 
 lem's room and had a quiet little talk with him. 
 He was calm again and spoke freely of what 
 seemed to him an utterly natural experience. And 
 from that conversation I believe I confirmed still 
 further what was already established as a fact, so 
 far as I was concerned. Peter Grimm had kept 
 his compact with me. He had returned! 
 
 I wanted to talk with Willem at a time when 
 he was in a normal condition and not in the thrall 
 of fear. I found him without fever, though 
 weaker than he had been for several days. I 
 assured him that he had nothing to fear from 
 Frederik, that all of us were his friends, and that 
 no harm could come to him.
 
 DR. MCPHERSON'S STATEMENT 275 
 
 " Now tell me, Willem," I said, " all about your 
 seeing Uncle Peter this evening." 
 
 " I awoke very thirsty and went downstairs for 
 a drink," the boy told me in effect. " The ice 
 pitcher felt so cool that I rested my cheek against 
 it and then I drank some more water. Then I 
 heard some one calling me. 
 
 " ' Willem, Willem,' a voice said, ' can you hear 
 me? Is there no one in this house that can hear 
 me?' 
 
 " I couldn't make out at first who it was. Then 
 I heard it again: 
 
 " ' Willem, Willem,' it said, * you must hear 
 me.' 
 
 " Then I looked around and saw Mynheer 
 Peter's hat on the rack, and I knew he must have 
 come back. But I couldn't see him. 
 
 "'Where are you, Mynheer Peter?' I asked 
 him. 
 
 " ' You cannot see me, Willem, but I 
 am here. I want you to tell them all I am 
 here.' 
 
 " That's as near as I can remember it. We 
 talked a while longer. .Then he said something 
 like: 
 
 " * Go over and look on the table, Willem.'
 
 276 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " I went to the table and saw some torn pieces 
 of paper. 
 
 " * Put them together, Willem,' said Mynheer 
 Grimm. 
 
 " When I had got it all pasted together I saw 
 it was my mother, Anne Marie ; and then you and 
 Miss Kathrien came down. 
 
 " Uncle Peter was standing over there about in 
 the middle of the room. I could tell from his 
 voice, but I couldn't see him. 
 
 " * Tell them about the man who made Anne 
 Marie cry,' Mynheer Peter told me. And he 
 kept saying, * Hurry, Willem, before it is too late ; 
 he is coming. Hurry, Willem, hurry,' and just 
 before Mr. Frederik came in Mynheer Peter said, 
 * Tell them now, Willem ; he is listening at the 
 door.' 
 
 " Before you came down I asked Mynheer 
 Peter to take me back with him when he went 
 and he said he would." 
 
 Now, mind you, Willem knew nothing of the 
 compact Peter and I had made. 
 
 Peter Grimm had said he would return, if he 
 could. I believe he did so. 
 
 My studies of the so-called " Occult " have done 
 my reputation in this narrow provincial town much
 
 DR. McPnERSON's STATEMENT 277 
 
 harm. I have been sneered at as a " spiritualist," 
 a " spook hunter," an " agnostic." I am none of 
 the three. I am a seeker after Truth; even while 
 fully aware of the impossibility of absolutely 
 finding that elusive quality. Nor do my researches 
 in any way conflict with revealed religion, nor in 
 the simple Bible faith that has ever been mine 
 and that shall forever sustain me. 
 
 Having thus set forth my personal position in 
 the matter perhaps tediously and to an undue 
 length, I beg to call your attention to my report. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 ANDREW MCPHERSON, M.D.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 BACK TO THE STORY 
 
 DR. McPHERSON occasionally gave a vigorous 
 shake to his fountain pen, and made corrections 
 here and there. 
 
 It was nearly midnight, and he had been writ 
 ing almost uninterruptedly since he had followed 
 Willem upstairs after the boy's flight. 
 
 Willem had been restless and feverish, and had 
 asked repeatedly to be brought down to the living- 
 room. He seemed irresistibly drawn toward the 
 place where he had talked with Peter Grimm and 
 had " almost seen him." 
 
 So the sofa had been drawn up to the fire and 
 a bed made for him there. Now, however, he 
 was at last sleeping peacefully in his little upstairs 
 room, and the whole house was quiet, though no 
 one else had gone to bed, and there was every 
 where a subdued feeling of excitement. 
 
 The doctor had drawn a little table close to 
 the vacant side of the fireplace (for the coals still 
 smouldered, and the night was damp and chill). 
 
 278
 
 BACK TO THE STORY 279 
 
 He had placed Willem's medicines there; and a 
 lamp, the only bright spot in the big room. 
 
 Outside, the world was bathed in moonlight, 
 and through the window the arms of the windmill 
 could be seen, waving solemnly round and round 
 like some strange, black mysterious creature beck 
 oning silently from another world. 
 
 McPherson was preparing a formal statement 
 of the " seance " while it was still fresh in his 
 mind. And as Willem might need him, he was 
 filling in a waiting hour by writing. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey's anxious face, encased in 
 a scarf, broke in upon his concentration. 
 
 " Oh I'm so nervous ! " exclaimed the rector's 
 wife, shudderingly, as she came into the room and 
 going to the piano, turned up the second lamp. 
 
 " How can you sit here in such a dim light, 
 after all that has happened in this room just a 
 few hours ago, too?" 
 
 Dr. McPherson, intent upon his work, was 
 determined not to be interrupted. His only re 
 ply to Mrs. Batholommey was the scratching of 
 his pen and the rattle of paper as he turned over 
 a page. 
 
 " I thought perhaps Frederik had come back," 
 she went on.
 
 280 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " So Willem's feeling better again? " she asked, 
 advancing on the doctor. 
 
 " Yes," he answered abstractedly. " I took 
 him upstairs a few minutes ago." 
 
 " Strange how the boy wants to remain in this 
 room ! " said Mrs. Batholommey. 
 
 "M'm " grunted Dr. McPherson shortly, 
 
 without looking up at all. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey came nearer and sat down. 
 
 "Oh, Doctor! Doctor!" she cried. "The 
 scene that took place here to-night has completely 
 upset me." 
 
 The doctor's only reply was to turn his back 
 on Mrs. Batholommey and begin reading his man 
 uscript aloud in an undertone, scratching out a 
 word here, adding something there. 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey, quite unconscious that she 
 was a nuisance, leaned back in her chair and let 
 her words flow on. 
 
 " Well, Doctor, the breaking off of the engage 
 ment is er sudden, isn't it? We've been talk 
 ing it over in the front parlour, Mr. Batholommey 
 and I." 
 
 The doctor darted a withering look at her over 
 his spectacles. 
 
 11 1 suggest sending out a card " she purred,
 
 BACK TO THE STORY 281 
 
 "just a neat card" (here she measured off an 
 imaginary card with her fingers), "saying that 
 owing to the bereavement in the family the wed 
 ding has been indefinitely postponed. Of course," 
 she sighed, " it isn't exactly true." 
 
 " Won't take place at all," exploded the doctor, 
 going on at once with his reading. 
 
 " Evidently not," said Mrs. Batholommey, 
 " but if the whole matter looks very strange to 
 me How is it going to look to other people 
 especially when we haven't any any rational ex 
 planation as yet? We must get out of it in some 
 fashion. I'm sure I don't know how else we can 
 explain I don't like telling anything that isn't 
 true but there was to be a wedding." Mrs. 
 Batholommey waved her right hand. " There 
 isn't to be any wedding," she waved her left hand. 
 " At least, Frederik isn't to be in it and one must 
 account for it somehow?" 
 
 "Whose business is it?" fired the doctor, in a 
 voice that made Mrs. Batholommey start like a 
 frightened rabbit. 
 
 For one moment his eyes peered fiercely at her 
 under their shaggy brows, and then he returned 
 to his narrative. 
 
 " Nobody's at all," she made great haste to
 
 say. " Nobody's at all nobody's at all, of 
 course. But Kathrien's position is certainly un 
 usual; and the strangest part of it is she doesn't 
 appear to feel her situation. She's sitting alone in 
 the library seemingly placid and happy. She acts 
 as if a weight were off her mind. But the main 
 point I've been arguing is this: Should the card 
 we're going to send out have a narrow black bor 
 der, or not? " 
 
 She turned toward the doctor and indicated 
 with her fingers the width of black border that 
 seemed to her to fit the occasion. But her trouble 
 was entirely wasted. 
 
 Dr. McPherson was once more engrossed in 
 his writing, and had forgotten her existence. 
 
 " Well, Doctor," she said in an injured tone, 
 " you don't appear to be interested. You don't 
 even answer! " 
 
 " I couldn't," snapped Dr. McPherson. " I 
 didn't know whether you were talking again or 
 still.'' 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey was hurt, and she showed 
 it in the reproachful look she cast at the doctor's 
 unassailable, uninterested back. 
 
 " Oh, of course," she said, " all these little 
 matters sound trivial to you. But men like you
 
 BACK TO THE STORY 283 
 
 couldn't look after the workings of the next world, 
 if other people didn't attend to this one. Some 
 body has to do it," she ended triumphantly. 
 
 " I fully appreciate the fact, Mistress Bathol- 
 ommey, that other people are making it possible 
 for me to be myself " 
 
 Here the conversation was interrupted by a 
 couple of raps on the window pane. 
 
 "What's that?" cried Mrs. Batholommey, 
 jumping up in alarm. 
 
 '* Telegram for Frederik Grimm," came a voice 
 from the darkness, and a form was silhouetted 
 against the moonlight. 
 
 " Mr. Grimm's down at the hotel," said Mrs. 
 Batholommey, hastily throwing up the window, 
 " but I'll sign for it. Where do I sign ? " she 
 fluttered. " Oh, yes, I see, here! " 
 
 She wrote Frederik's name, then handed back 
 the book to the telegraph boy, and closed 
 the window. Just as she laid the telegram 
 on the desk, Mr. Batholommey came into the 
 room. 
 
 " Well, Doctor," he said with veiled sarcasm, 
 " I would by all means suggest that we don't judge 
 Frederik until the information Willem has volun 
 teered can be verified."
 
 284 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Umph ! " grunted the doctor. 
 
 Then he got up and went to the telephone. 
 
 " Four red," he called to " Central." 
 
 Mr. Batholommey betook himself to the vesti 
 bule and began to put on his rubbers with method 
 ical care. 
 
 "However, I regret" (he went on as easily 
 as if the doctor had not grunted) " that Frederik 
 has left the house without offering some sort of 
 explanation." 
 
 "Four red?" pursued the doctor. "That 
 you, Marget? I'm at Peter's. I mean I'm at 
 the Grimms'. No, don't wait up for me. Send 
 me my bag here. I'll stay the night with Willem. 
 Bye." 
 
 He put up the receiver and began to collect his 
 scattered papers. 
 
 " Good-night, Doctor," said the clergyman. 
 " Good-night, Rose." 
 
 He started toward the door, but the doctor 
 called him back. 
 
 " Hold on, Mr. Batholommey! " he interposed. 
 41 I'm writing an account of all that's happened 
 here to-night from the very beginning. I've an 
 idea it's going to make a stir. It's just the sort 
 of thing the Society has been after "
 
 BACK TO THE STORY 285 
 
 " Indeed! " said Mr. Batholommey in a doubt 
 ful tone. 
 
 " When I have verified every word of the evi 
 dence by Willem's mother " 
 
 Here the Rev. Mr. Batholommey smiled behind 
 his hand in a decidedly secular way. 
 
 " 1 shall send in my report," continued the 
 
 doctor. " Would you have any objection to the 
 name of Mrs. Batholommey being used as a wit 
 ness?" 
 
 Mr. Batholommey hesitated. His usually 
 placid eyes were full of perplexity. 
 
 " Well Doctor I I " 
 
 But Mrs. Batholommey, unlike her temporising 
 husband, did not hesitate. She rushed into the 
 conversation all unasked. 
 
 " Oh, no, you don't ! " she cried. " You may 
 flout our beliefs, but wouldn't you like to bolster 
 up your report with an endorsement by the wife 
 of a clergyman! It sounds so respectable and 
 sane, doesn't it? No, sir! You can't prop up 
 your wild-eyed theories against the good black of 
 one minister's coat. Not by any means ! I think 
 myself that you have probably stumbled on the 
 truth about Willem's mother; but that doesn't 
 prove there's anything in all your notions, for
 
 286 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 that child knew the truth all along. He's eight 
 years old and he was with her until he was five ; 
 and five's the age of memory. He's a precocious 
 boy, besides. Every incident of his mother's life 
 lingered in his little mind. Suppose you prove 
 by her that it's all true? Still, Willem remem 
 bered! And that's all there is to it." 
 
 Confident that she had made a good point, 
 Mrs. Batholommey gave her head a toss and 
 left the field, or to be more exact, went out to get 
 her husband's umbrella. 
 
 Mr. Batholommey felt that after this display 
 of colours on the part of his consort, he must needs 
 testify also. 
 
 " Don't you think, Doctor, (mind, I'm not 
 opposing your ideas. I'm just echoing just what 
 everybody else thinks) don't you believe these 
 ideas are leading away from the heaven we were 
 taught to believe in; that they tend toward irre 
 sponsibility toward eccentricity? Is it healthy 
 that's the idea. Is it healthy?" 
 
 Dr. McPherson shook himself like a shaggy 
 dog. 
 
 " Well, Batholommey," he said, " religion has 
 frequently led to the stake, and I never heard the 
 Spanish Inquisition called healthy for anybody
 
 BACK TO THE STORY 287 
 
 taking part in it. Still, religion flourishes. But 
 your old-fashioned, unscientific, gilt, gingerbread 
 idea of heaven blew up ten years ago went out. 
 My heaven's just coming in. It's new. Dr. Funk 
 and a lot of clergymen are in already. You'd 
 better get used to it, Batholommey, and join in 
 the procession." 
 
 Having delivered this ultimatum the doctor be 
 came oblivious to the existence of the Batholom 
 mey family and gave his whole attention once 
 more to his writing. 
 
 " H'm ! " said Mr. Batholommey tolerantly. 
 " When you can convince me! " (He lapsed into 
 Dutch.) "Well, ton roustin, Doctor." 
 
 The clergyman started for the door, but his 
 dutiful wife was there before him, his umbrella 
 in her hand. 
 
 " Good-night, Henry," she said, beaming affec 
 tionately on him. " I'll be home to-morrow." 
 
 Then with a most coquettish glance, she purred 
 coyly : 
 
 "You'll be glad to see me, dear, won't you?" 
 
 Mr. Batholommey beamed in his turn, and 
 patted her on the cheek. 
 
 " Yes, my church mouse I " he said as he kissed 
 her good-bye and went out into the night.
 
 288 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey closed the doors after him, 
 but immediately opened them a trifle and peered 
 through the crack. 
 
 " Look out, Henry, for the trolley cars," she 
 cried. " It's dark out there And be careful you 
 don't step into a mud puddle! They must be as 
 deep as mill ponds after this rain, and there aren't 
 half enough street lamps in this neighbourhood 
 you'll be in over your ankles before you know 
 it!" 
 
 " All right ! " came in a diminuendo from the 
 clergyman's receding form. " I'll be careful. 
 Don't stand there taking cold. Good-night ! " 
 
 " Woman," thundered Dr. McPherson in a 
 terrible voice, "close that door! Do you want 
 my lamp to blow clean out? How can a body 
 write with such goings-on in his ears? St. Paul 
 was a wise man. ' Let the woman learn in silence,' 
 he said, ' with all subjection.' Will you be good 
 enough to heed that, and let me write in peace ? " 
 
 Mrs. Batholommey fastened the door with elab 
 orate and most deliberate care; then, as she passed 
 the doctor's table on her way to the front parlour, 
 she fired a parting shot. 
 
 " Write as much as you like, Doctor," she said 
 loftily. " Words are but air. You know and /
 
 BACK TO THE STORY 289 
 
 know and everybody knows that seeing is believ- 
 ing." 
 
 " Damn everybody ! " growled the doctor, 
 frowning at the lady's retreating figure. " It's 
 * everybody's ' ignorance that's set the world back 
 five hundred years. Where was I, before?" he 
 said to himself. "Oh! Yes." 
 
 And he went back to his Statement.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 
 
 FREDERIK came impatiently up the home walk. 
 The old house was bathed in moonlight; the 
 walk itself leading up to it was sweet with the 
 scent of 'wet flowers. The whole place carried 
 a peaceful air, as if a blessing rested upon it. 
 But Frederik heeded nothing saw none of the 
 beauty and mystery. His mind was filled with 
 quite different things. 
 
 He had waited for hours at the hotel, expecting 
 Hicks or his lawyer. When no one arrived at 
 the hour agreed upon, Frederik felt a bit uneasy, 
 but he tried to persuade himself that Hicks had 
 merely missed the train and would come on the 
 next one. With growing apprehension he waited, 
 smoking innumerable cigarettes while the evening 
 wore on, till finally the last train had come and 
 gone. There was nothing to do but go back to 
 the house, and face the other matter. And he 
 dreaded it! Oh, how he dreaded it! 
 
 He could not bear the thought of Kathrien's 
 eyes that had first doubted, then accused, then 
 
 290
 
 THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 291 
 
 condemned him. All the while he had waited at 
 the hotel, he had remembered those eyes. If he 
 had not loved her sincerely the situation would 
 have been comparatively easy for him; he could 
 simply have cleared out spent the rest of his days 
 in Europe, if necessary, so that he might never 
 see or hear of any one connected with Grimm 
 Manor again in all his life. 
 
 But Kathrien ! Who could have been near her 
 and ever forget her? The turn of her head, the 
 absolute sweetness of her the sunshine she radi 
 ated, made it utterly impossible for one to think 
 of forgetting of living all one's long life without 
 her. Frederik threw away his cigarette and 
 lighted another as he stood outside the windows 
 of the house and looked in. 
 
 Oom Peter was there how could he go in then ? 
 Common sense told him that he had been smoking 
 too much and his nerves had gone bad that he 
 had become an old woman with his fears and 
 tremblings ; yet he knew Oom Peter was there 
 Well (he shrugged his shoulders), about all the 
 harm that could be done had been done, and he 
 had the money now, anyway, so he might as well 
 go in and find out the present state of affairs. 
 There might be, there ought to be, some word
 
 292 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 from Hicks by this time. With tight-shut lips, 
 he walked quickly up the " stoop " steps and into 
 the house. 
 
 As he came into the living-room he glanced at 
 the doctor, who, with bulky form crouched over 
 the little table, was still busily writing and heard 
 nothing. 
 
 Fredcrik half-unconsciously looked toward 
 Kathrien's room, then removed his silk hat with 
 its mourning band, and his black gloves, and laid 
 them with his cane on the hall table. 
 
 Then he turned toward Dr. McPherson. 
 
 " Good-evening, Doctor," he said shortly. 
 " Any of them come to their senses yet? " 
 
 There was a defiant ring in the last sentence, 
 though he knew in his heart that his cause was 
 lost. 
 
 The doctor looked up long enough to 
 say: 
 
 "Oh, Frederik, you're back again, are you?'* 
 then went on with his writing. 
 
 Frederik glanced furtively around the shadowy 
 room, and then lighted some candles in an effort 
 to make the place more cheerful. Suddenly his 
 eye was riveted on the telegram resting conspicu 
 ously on his uncle's desk. On the very spot, so
 
 THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 293 
 
 it happened, where he had burned Anne 
 Marie's letter. He put down his cigarette 
 quickly. 
 
 "Is that telegram for me?" he asked in an 
 eager tone. 
 
 " Yes," snorted Dr. McPherson. 
 
 "Oh " Frederik said. "It will explain 
 
 perhaps why I I've been kept waiting at the 
 hotel I had an appointment to meet a man who 
 wanted to buy this business." 
 
 " Ha ! " The doctor grunted indignantly. 
 
 Frederik cleared his throat. 
 
 " I may as well tell you I'm thinking of sell 
 ing out root and branch." 
 
 At this amazing news the doctor got up slowly, 
 and turning his bushy head toward Frederik, fixed 
 his keen eyes upon him. He was all attention 
 now. 
 
 "Yes ?" 
 
 Then with a sheepish laugh Frederik abruptly 
 changed the subject. 
 
 " You'll think it strange," he said, " but I simply 
 cannot make up my mind to go near the old desk 
 of my uncle's peculiar, yes isn't it?" 
 
 He smiled rather a sickly smile at the doctor, 
 and hesitated.
 
 294 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " I've got a perfect Ha ! Ha ! terror of the 
 thing!" 
 
 His laughter was quite mirthless and his fear 
 made him a pitiable object. 
 
 The doctor, not trying to hide his contempt 
 for him, went to the desk, took the telegram, and 
 threw it in Frederik's direction, not even troubling 
 to aim accurately. 
 
 It hit the floor about two feet away from the 
 younger man's trimly shod feet, and he quickly 
 reached over sideways and seized it. He tore it 
 open. Then, as his eyes took in the message it 
 contained, he drew a long breath. 
 
 He sat down mechanically, looking straight 
 ahead of him. 
 
 " Billy Hicks," he said slowly in a dazed voice, 
 " Billy Hicks, the man I was to sell out to, is de 
 I knew it This afternoon when he phoned some 
 thing told me but I wouldn't believe it." 
 
 Slowly he put the telegram in its envelope, and 
 then put the envelope into his pocket; but the dazed 
 look never left his eyes, and his face was grey 
 white. 
 
 " Doctor," he said, turning his eyes at last, 
 " as sure as you live, somebody else is doing my 
 thinking for me in this house."
 
 THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 295 
 
 Dr. McPherson's heavy eyebrows met in an 
 earnest frown as he studied Frederik. 
 
 "What?" he queried. 
 
 " To-night here in this room," Frederik went 
 on in a voice full of awe, " I thought I saw my 
 uncle there " v 
 
 He pointed toward the desk with a little 
 shudder. 
 
 "Eh?" said the doctor, with popping eyes, 
 coming a step nearer. " You really mean that 
 you thought you saw Peter Grimm?" 
 
 " And just before I I saw him I I had 
 the strangest impulse to go to the foot of the 
 stairs and call Kitty give her the house and 
 run run get out." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried the doctor sarcastically. " A 
 good impulse. I seel Some one else must have 
 been thinking for you certainly." 
 
 " When I wouldn't do it," the scared voice went 
 on, " I thought he gave me a terrible look." He 
 covered his eyes with his hand. " A terrible 
 look." 
 
 "Your uncle?" demanded Dr. McPherson. 
 
 " Yes," breathed Frederik. " Och! God ! I 
 won't forget that look ! " he cried excitedly, un 
 covering his eyes again. " And as I started from
 
 296 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 the room he blotted out I mean I saw him blot 
 out Then I left the photograph on the desk, 
 and " 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed the doctor triumphantly. 
 " That's how Willem came by it. Had you never 
 had this impulse before to give up Kathrien 
 to let her have the cottage? " 
 
 "Not much I hadn't!" said Frederik de 
 cidedly, walking back and forth a moment. 
 
 Then, looking toward the desk, he reached out 
 his hand until it touched the back of a chair beside 
 it, and, giving the chair a quick pull out of what 
 was evidently to him a danger zone, he sat down. 
 
 " I told you some one else was thinking for 
 me," he said. " I don't want to give her up. I 
 love her." (His eyes went dark.) " But if 
 she's going to turn against me for well, I'm not 
 going to sit here and cry about it. But I'll tell 
 you one thing: from this time I propose to think 
 for myself. I've done with this house," he cried, 
 getting up. " I'd like to sell it along with the rest 
 and let a stranger " he flung the chair recklessly 
 against the desk " raze it to the ground. 
 
 " When I walk out of here to-night she can 
 have it." 
 
 He looked thoughtfully at the desk a moment.
 
 THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 297 
 
 " Oh, I wouldn't sleep here I give her the 
 house because well, I " 
 
 ' You want to be on the safe side in case he 
 was there ! " scoffed Dr. McPherson. 
 
 Frederik dropped his voice almost to a whis 
 per, and there was perplexity in it as well as 
 awe. 
 
 " How do you account for it anyway, Doctor? '* 
 he asked. 
 
 Instead of answering, the doctor asked another 
 question. 
 
 " Frederik," he said, " when did you see Anne 
 Marie last?" 
 
 " Now," said Frederik disagreeably, " I'm not 
 answering questions." 
 
 " I think it only fair to tell you," said Dr. 
 McPherson, " that it won't matter a damn whether 
 you answer me or not. Don't fret yourself that 
 I'm not going to find her. This has come home 
 to me. I'm off to the city to-morrow. I'll have 
 the truth from her; if I have to call in the police 
 to trace her." 
 
 Frederik looked drearily at the doctor, then 
 took up his gloves and began to put them on. 
 After a pause he said dully, mechanically: 
 
 " Oh, I saw her about three years ago."
 
 298 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 "Never since?" probed the doctor. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " What occurred the Jast time you saw her? " 
 
 " Oh," said Frederik lifelessly. " What always 
 occurs when a young man realises that he has his 
 life before him and that he must be respected, 
 must think of his future? " 
 
 "A scene took place, eh? " 
 
 " Yes," Frederik agreed laconically. 
 
 "Was Willem present?" went on the interro 
 gation. 
 
 " Yes, she held him in her arms." 
 
 "And then what happened?" the doctor in 
 sisted. 
 
 Frederik dropped his eyes. 
 
 " Oh," he said, " then I left the house." 
 
 He found his hat and cane as he spoke, and 
 walked slowly toward the door. 
 
 " Then it's all true," cried Dr. McPherson in 
 wonderment, staring abstractedly at the floor. 
 He raised his head suddenly and looked with stern 
 eyes at Frederik. 
 
 " What are you going to do for Willem? " he 
 -demanded. 
 
 "Well," temporised that noble soul, "I'm a 
 rich man now and if I recognise him there
 
 THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 299 
 
 might be trouble. His mother's gone to the dogs 
 anyway " 
 
 He left the speech unfinished and turned his head 
 away uncomfortably. He could not say such 
 things and meet the doctor's scorching look. 
 
 "You damned young scoundrel!:" bellowed 
 McPherson in wrath. " Oh, what an act erf 
 charity if the good Lord took Willem ! And I 
 say it with all my heart. Out of all yotr have 
 not a crumb for- " 
 
 " I want you to know that I've sweated for 
 that money," Frederik turned 1 on the doctor long 
 enough to say. " I've sweated for it, and I'm 
 going to keep it! " 
 
 "You -what?" howled Dr. McPherson jeer- 
 mgly. 
 
 ' Yes," Frederik cried in the greatest excite 
 ment, all his calmness forsaking him utterly. 
 "I've sweated for it! I went to Jail for it. 
 Every day I have been in this house has been spent 
 in prison. I've been doing time. Do you think 
 it didn't get on my nerves? What haven't I had 
 to do ! I've gone to bed at nine o'clock and lain 
 there thinking how New York was just waking 
 up at that tfme, and how miserably I was out of 
 it all. Lord! I've got up at cock-crow to be
 
 300 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 in time for grace at the breakfast table. Why, 
 didn't I take a Sunday-school class to please 
 him? 
 
 " Lord ! Didn't I hand out the infernal cornu 
 copias at the Church's silly old Christmas tree," 
 he went on quickly, " while he played Santa Claus? 
 What more can a fellow do to earn his money? 
 Don't you call that sweating? No, sir! I've 
 danced like a damned hand-organ monkey for the 
 pennies he left me, and I had to grin and touch 
 my hat and make believe I liked it. Now I'm 
 going to spend every cent for my own personal 
 pleasure." 
 
 Once more Frederik started to go. 
 
 "Will rich men never learn wisdom?" solilo 
 quised Dr. McPherson as he began to prepare some 
 medicine for Willem. 
 
 " No, they won't," Frederik flung back over 
 his shoulder. " But in every fourth generation 
 there comes along a wise fellow a spender. 
 Well, I'm the spender here." 
 
 He pulled out another cigarette, lighted it, and 
 put on his hat. 
 
 " Shame on you ! " cried the doctor indignantly. 
 " Your breed ought to be exterminated ! " 
 
 " Oh, no," Frederik declared. " We're as nee-
 
 THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT 301 
 
 essary as you are. We're the real wealth dis 
 tributors. I wish you good-night, Doctor." 
 
 And he was gone. 
 
 Disgust was still written all over the doctor's 
 face as he measured the medicine carefully and 
 emptied it into a glass of water. He picked up 
 the candelabrum in his other hand, and was just 
 starting toward the stairs and Willem's room when 
 Kathrien came in. 
 
 " Kathrien ! " he cried in a ringing voice. 
 " Burn up your wedding dress! We've made no 
 mistake. I can tell you that ! " 
 
 A moment more and he climbed the stairs and 
 had disappeared into Willem's room, leaving 
 Kathrien motionless, her face lighted with happy 
 serenity. Then she went softly to Oom Peter's 
 worn old desk chair, and, standing behind it, put 
 her arms around its sides lovingly, almost pro- 
 tectingly quite as if its former owner were sitting 
 there and could feel her gentle caress. 
 
 " Oom Peter," she whispered tenderly, and her 
 dreamy eyes grew dreamier, " Oom Peter I know 
 I am doing what you would have me do."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 " ONLY ONE THING REALLY COUNTS " 
 
 AND Peter Grimm, standing in the shadows, 
 nodded happy assent to her cry. The Dead 
 Man's ageless face was wondrous bright. It 
 shone with a joy that made the rugged features 
 beautiful. 
 
 His work was done. His long journey from 
 the Unknown had not failed. The one deed of 
 his mortal life that could have wrought ill was 
 undone. He had atoned for a single fault and 
 had seen the ill effects of that fault brought to 
 nothing. He could go back with a calm mind. 
 All was well in his earthly home. 
 
 But he was not yet wholly content. One task 
 remained. A light task, and, to guess from his 
 radiant face, a welcome one. And even now he 
 was bringing to pass its completion. For his eyes 
 turned from their loving scrutiny of Kathrien and 
 rested on the outer door. And, as in response 
 to an unspoken summons, footfalls were heard in 
 the entry. 
 
 At the sound, Kathrien's drooping figure 
 302
 
 "ONLY ONE THING REALLY COUNTS" 303 
 
 straightened. And a glow came into her tired 
 eyes. The outer door opened and James Hart- 
 mann came in. He took an impulsive step to 
 ward the girl. Then he remembered himself. 
 Turning aside to the rack, he hung his coat and 
 hat on it, and asked, as to a casual acquaintance: 
 
 " Have you seen Frederik anywhere ? He told 
 me hours ago that he'd join me in the office in a 
 few minutes. I waited, but he didn't come. Then 
 Marta told me he had gone down to the hotel. 
 I went over to see father, and' I stopped at the 
 hotel on my way back. They said Frederik had 
 been there, but that he had just gone. I'm- rather 
 tired of playing hide-and-seek with him. Has he 
 come in yet? " 
 
 " He has come in. But I think he has gone 
 again. And and, James, I think he will not 
 come here again." 
 
 "What? Then the wedding won't be at the 
 house?" 
 
 " The wedding won't be anywhere." 
 
 "Kathrien!" 
 
 He stared at her, seeking to read grief, humilia 
 tion, or, at the very least, the anger engendered 
 of a lovers' quarrel. But her face was serene, 
 even happy. The worry was gone that had lurked
 
 304 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 behind her gentle eyes. The furrow had been 
 smoothed from the low, white brow, and even 
 the pathetic aura of sorrow that had clung to her 
 as a garment since Peter Grimm's death had de 
 parted. 
 
 " Kathrien! " he repeated doubtfully, his heart 
 thumping in an unruly fashion that well-nigh 
 choked him. 
 
 The serene calm of the girl's face fled beneath 
 his eager, troubled gaze. 
 
 " Frederik has gone," she said briefly. " I am 
 not going to marry him. I broke our engagement 
 this evening." 
 
 " And you are free free to ? " 
 
 He checked himself, fearful to believe in the 
 marvellous fortune that seemed to have come all 
 at once from the Unattainable into his very grasp. 
 And, girl-like, Kathrien was, of a sudden, panic 
 stricken. 
 
 " It is late," she said hastily, " very late. 
 Good-night!" 
 
 She made as though to go to her room. And 
 James Hartmann, still full of that new fear of 
 his own good fortune, dared not stay her. 
 
 But Peter Grimm did not hesitate. 
 
 " Katje ! " pleaded the Dead Man. " Is Hap-
 
 "ONLY ONE THING REALLY COUNTS" 305 
 
 piness so common that we can toy with it? Is 
 life's greatest joy so cheap that we can thrust it 
 aside when by a miracle it is laid at our feet? 
 Can we afford to risk everything by putting off 
 love when it is in our very grasp? " 
 
 The girl hesitated, paused, and seemed to busy 
 herself with straightening some disarranged arti 
 cles on the desk. The Dead Man came and stood 
 beside her. 
 
 " He loves you, Katje," he murmured. " And 
 only one thing really counts Love ! It is the 
 only thing that tells, in the long run. Nothing else 
 endures to the end. Perhaps, if you are shy now 
 and do not let him speak, he may find courage to 
 speak to-morrow. But perhaps he may not. And 
 are you willing to take that chance?" 
 
 11 No! " cried the girl in quick fear. " No! " 
 
 "What?" asked Hartmann, startled by the 
 frightened denial, so meaningless to him. 
 
 " I I didn't know I spoke," she faltered, em 
 barrassed. " It was foolish of me. I had some 
 strange thought. And " 
 
 " I don't understand." 
 
 " You understand less and less every minute, 
 James," laughed Peter Grimm. " She loves you. 
 Are you going to let her slip through your fingers
 
 306 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 just because you haven't the courage to speak? 
 You were brave enough early this evening when 
 you didn't have a chance. Now that she's yours 
 for the asking, why be tongue-tied? It was the 
 fear of losing you that made her cry out ' No ! ' 
 just now." 
 
 " Katje," demanded Hartmann, abashed at his 
 own audacity, yet unable to keep back the words, 
 " were you afraid I wouldn't be here in the morn 
 ing to tell you I loved you? Was that why you 
 said ?" 
 
 "How did you know?" she gasped appalled. 
 " You read my mind" 
 
 Before she could realise the meaning of what 
 she had said, she found herself whirled bodily 
 from the floor and caught close in the grip of 
 two strong arms that crushed her to a heaving 
 breast And Hartmann was raining kisses on her 
 hair, her eyes, her upturned face. 
 
 "James!" she panted, "Don't! Put me 
 down." 
 
 " Not till you say you love me," came the an 
 swer in a voice from whence all timidity had 
 forever fled. 
 
 The tone of glad, adoring rulership thrilled her. 
 She ceased her half-hearted struggles to free her-
 
 " ONLY ONE THING REALLY COUNTS " 307 
 
 self. Her arms, through no conscious effort of 
 her own, crept upward .until .they encircled his 
 neck. 
 
 " Say you love me ! " ire demanded again, in 
 that glorious Mastery of the Loved. 
 
 " I love you," she answered obediently. " I 
 have always loved you, I think. it's it's very 
 wonderful to be held like this and and to be glad 
 not to be let go. I I I don't really think I 
 wanted you to let me go, even when I told you to." 
 
 " There is something else you must say before 
 I let you go," he demanded, drunk with his new 
 born power and happiness. 
 
 " Yes? Fll say it." 
 
 " Say you will marry me to-morrow." 
 
 This time, from sheer amazement, she sprang 
 back, out of the loosened clasp of his arms. 
 
 " To-morrow ? " she gasped. " Are you crazy ? 
 Why," with a little shudder, " to-morrow was to 
 be the day I was to " 
 
 " To marry a man you didn't love. That 
 would have made it forever a day of shame. You 
 owe ' to-morrow ' something to atone for that. 
 Pay its debt by marrying me then." 
 
 " I I can't," she protested. " What what 
 would people say? "
 
 308 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 "Katje!" broke in the Dead Man. "When 
 you shall have learned that ' what people say ' is 
 the most senseless bugbear in all this wide world of 
 senseless bugbears, you will be far on the road to 
 true greatness. You will have broken the heavi 
 est, most galling, most idiotically useless fetter 
 that weights down humanity. Being a woman 
 you will never be able wholly to free yourself 
 from that same fetter. But lift its weight from 
 your soul just this once ! You were going to curse 
 your life with a blasphemously wicked, loveless 
 marriage to-morrow. And the world would have 
 approved. You have a chance to atone for an 
 attempted wrong and to win happiness for your 
 self and the man you love, to-morrow, by marry 
 ing James then. A few representatives of the 
 world will hold up their hands and squawk : * How 
 scandalously sudden! I suppose she did it to 
 show she didn't mind Frederik's jilting her.' And 
 for the sake of the people who would have ap 
 proved a crime and who will sneer at a good and 
 wise deed, you are going to throw away many days 
 of bliss, and senselessly postpone the one perfect 
 Event of your life. Is this my wise little girl or 
 is it some one just as stubborn and foolish as her 
 old uncle used to be? Tell me."
 
 " ONLY ONE THING REALLY COUNTS " 309 
 
 " Why should we care what ' people say ' ? " 
 urged Hartmann as Kathrien hesitated. " The 
 opinions of other people wreck lots of lives. Let's 
 be great enough and wise enough to choose our 
 own happiness ! Don't let's be stubborn like poor 
 old Mr. Grimm, and " 
 
 " James ! " she cried in wonder. " Those are 
 just the very things I was thinking. That's the 
 second time in a few minutes that you have read 
 my mind." 
 
 " Perhaps it was you who were reading mine," 
 said Hartmann. " That's what people call * Tel 
 epathy,' isn't it?" 
 
 " Yes," smiled the Dead Man. " That is what 
 * people ' call it who know no better. Oh, what 
 a jumble people do make of the simple things of 
 the Universe ! " 
 
 " Anyway," went on Hartmann, without wait 
 ing for Kathrien to reply to his question, " it 
 doesn't matter which of us thought of it first. It's 
 enough to know it's true. And you will marry 
 me to-morrow? " 
 
 " Yes!" vociferated Peter Grimm. 
 
 " Y-yes," faltered the girl. 
 
 " Listen, dear," continued Hartmann, " we 
 won't be very well off, I'm afraid. I've a little
 
 310 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 money but not much. I know scientific garden 
 ing as not many men know it. So we won't starve. 
 But it won't be as if you were going to marry a 
 rich man like Frederik Grimm." 
 
 "Thank Heaven, it won't! " she breathed fer 
 vently. " And do you suppose it will matter one 
 bit to me that we won't be rich ? I wish, of course, 
 that we didn't have to leave this dear old house,, 
 but " 
 
 " If we had both the house and the little capital: 
 that belongs to me," answered Hartmann, " we 
 could stay on here and make a splendid living. 
 But what's the use of building air castles? " 
 
 " Why not ? " urged the Dead Man. " They're 
 as cheap to build as air dungeons ; and a million 
 times pleasanter to- live in. But, don't fret about 
 the house. Frederik is going to turn it over ta 
 you I've seen to that. And you will prosper, 
 you two, here in the home I loved." 
 
 " I believe it will come out all right! " declared, 
 the girl. " I have a feeling that it will. Intui 
 tion if you like." 
 
 * Intuition,' " repeated the Dead Man whim 
 sically. " Yes. Call it that, if you choose. ' In 
 tuition ' and fc telepathy' are both pretty synonyms 
 for the words spoken to you that mortal ears are
 
 "ONLY ONE THING REALLY COUNTS" 311 
 
 too gross to understand and whose sense sometimes 
 finds vague resting-place in mortal brains." 
 
 '" It will come out all right," she reiterated, 
 smiling up at her lover. 
 
 " It's good to see you smile again," said Hart- 
 mann, once more drawing her close to him. " I'm 
 glad your cloud of grief is 'beginning to lift" 
 
 " It has lifted," she returned. " When Oom 
 Peter went away, and seemed utterly lost to .me 
 forever, I thought my heart would break. But 
 now now I know he hasn't gone. I know he has 
 "been here with me this very evening." 
 
 " I I don't understand." 
 
 " It is true," she insisted. " You must believe 
 it, dear. For it is very real to me. I believe he 
 came back to set me free from my promise to 
 Frederik. Some time some time, I'll tell you 
 all about it." 
 
 11 In the meanwhile," adjured the Dead Man, 
 " believe lier, James. If men would put less faith 
 in their own four-square logic and more faith in 
 their wives' illogical beliefs, there'd be fewer mis 
 takes made." 
 
 " Don't ask me any more about it to-night," 
 begged the girl in response to the amazed ques 
 tioning in her lover's eyes. " I can't speak of it
 
 312 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 just yet. It's all too near too wonderful." 
 
 " Just as you like," he agreed. " Now I must 
 go, for I want to catch Mr. Batholommey before 
 he goes to sleep, and make the arrangements with 
 him for the wedding." 
 
 His arm around her, they crossed to where his 
 hat and coat were hanging. 
 
 "I wonder if Oom Peter can see us now?" 
 she mused, as Hartmann stooped to kiss her good 
 night. 
 
 " That's the great mystery of the ages," an 
 swered Hartmann. " Who can tell? But I wish 
 he might know. I think, seen as he must see 
 things now, he would be glad. Good-night, sweet 
 heart." 
 
 She watched him stride down the walk. Then 
 she came back into the room, her eyes alight. 
 
 " Oh, Oom Peter," she murmured, half aloud. 
 
 " I see," returned Peter Grimm. " I know all 
 about it. I know, little girl. I know."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 " ALL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS AGAIN " 
 
 LATE as was the hour, Kathrien yet lingered a 
 few minutes longer in the room where that night 
 her freedom and her life's crown had come to her. 
 
 She paused by the desk and lovingly caressed 
 the rich, red mass of roses which, in memory of 
 her uncle, she daily placed there. The cool, vel 
 vety touch of the blossoms was like a living re 
 sponse to her caress. And from the crimson petals 
 arose a faint, drowsy fragrance. 
 
 Kathrien sank into the worn desk chair and 
 gazed dreamily into the dying fire. She seemed 
 to read there a wonderful story. Or else the grey- 
 red embers shaped themselves into beautiful pic 
 tures. For her face was joyous beyond all belief. 
 
 " To-morrow 1 " she murmured to herself. 
 
 And Peter Grimm, looking down at her, smiled 
 as he caught the whispered word. 
 
 " Yes, lievling," he answered. " To-morrow. 
 Isn't it a marvellous word? It holds all the hopes 
 and fears of the whole world." 
 
 " I'm so happy ! I'm so happy! " she breathed. 
 313
 
 314 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 The Dead Man laid his hand gently on the soft 
 lustre of her hair. 
 
 " Then, good-night to you, my darling," he 
 said in the old tender voice that had comforted 
 her childish griefs and shared her childish de 
 lights in the bygone days. " Good-night, my dar 
 ling. Love can never say ' good-bye.' I am go 
 ing, little girl. I am leaving you here in your 
 dear home that shall always be yours. Here, in 
 the years that are to come, the way will lie clear 
 before you. May pleasure and peace go with 
 you, little girl of mine." 
 
 Her eyes were luminous. There was a half- 
 smile on her lips. Peter Grimm's own eyes re 
 flected her smile as he stroked her hair and con 
 tinued to look down into her rapt face as though 
 to impress its every detail upon his memory. 
 
 " Here on sunny, blossoming days," he went 
 on, " when you look out on my old gardens, as 
 a happy wife, all the flowers and trees and shrubs 
 shall bloom enchanted to your eyes. For, love 
 gives a heaven-light to everything. And when 
 the home we love is our own, it becomes doubly 
 fair." 
 
 The light in her eyes grew brighter and he 
 stooped to brush his lips to her forehead.
 
 " ALL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS AGAIN " 315 
 
 " All that happens, happens again," he went 
 on in that same caressing voice as though loath 
 to leave her, and seeking to prolong his stay 
 at her side. " And when, as a mother, you ex 
 plain each leaf and bud, and the miracle of the 
 growing flowers to your own little people, you 
 will sometimes think of the days when you and 
 I walked through the gardens and the leafy lanes 
 together, and how I taught you all those things 
 even as you shall be teaching your own children. 
 Yes, all that happens, happens again and has 
 happened before. You will teach them, just as 
 I taught you. And so I shall always linger in 
 your heart. Here, in our home, everything will 
 keep on reminding you of me. Not in sadness 
 nor in gloom. But as a wonderful, golden mem 
 ory. You will forget only the part of me that 
 was stubborn and unreasonable and ill-tempered 
 and you will remember me only as I wished 
 to be. That is one of the gifts of God to 
 those who have left this world. Their dear 
 ones remember them only as kind, as lov 
 ing, as good. Their faults fade from the mem 
 ory and the good ever glows more and more 
 brightly." 
 
 He paused. And still he could not leave the
 
 316 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 happy girl as she sat there in her blissful, fireside 
 reverie. 
 
 " I shall be waiting for you, Katje," he said. 
 " And I shall be knowing all of your life, its 
 joys, its happy toil and its sweet rest, its lights 
 and its passing shadows. I shall love your chil 
 dren with all my whole heart. And I shall be 
 their grandfather just as though I were here. I 
 shall be everywhere about you and yours, Katje. 
 Always. In the stockings at Christmas, in the 
 big, busy, teeming world of shadows, just outside 
 your threshold; or whispering to you in the still 
 ness of the night. And, as the years drift on, you 
 can never know what pride I shall take in your 
 middle life the very best age of all ! After the 
 luxuries and the eager gaieties and the vanities 
 and the possessions and the hot strife for gain 
 cease to be important, we return to very simple 
 things. For then, sunset is at hand, and the peace 
 of Home calls to us far more clearly than the 
 roar of the outer world. The evening of life 
 comes bearing its own lamp." 
 
 Her face had grown graver, but still was radi 
 ant. The Dead Man smiled as he said: 
 
 " Then, as a little old grandmother a little old 
 child whose bedtime is drawing near, I shall still
 
 " ALL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS AGAIN " 317 
 
 see you; happy to sit out in the sunlight of an 
 other day; asking no more of life than a few 
 hours still to be spent with those you lovej tell 
 ing your grandchildren how much more brightly 
 the flowers used to blossom when you were young. 
 All that happens, happens again. 
 
 "And then, one glad day, glorified, radiant, 
 young once more divinely young, you will come 
 to us. And your mother and I shall take you in 
 our arms again. Oh, what a meeting it will be! 
 To you, many happy years away. To us, only a 
 brief hour of waiting. We shall meet so perfectly 
 then the flight of Love to Love. And now," 
 bending down once more and kissing her, " good 
 night, my own little girl." 
 
 She rose, half-dazzled by the brightness that 
 filled her soul. Pausing to bury her face 
 for a moment in the bowl of roses, she mur 
 mured: 
 
 " Dear, dear Oom Peter! " 
 
 Then, slowly, smilingly, she made her way up 
 the stairs to her own room. The Dead Man's 
 eyes followed her every light step. The Dead 
 Man's hand was raised in unspoken benediction. 
 Marta bustled in from the kitchen on her nightly 
 round of window-locking and door-barring. As
 
 318 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 she passed the big wall clock, she stopped, sighed 
 right lugubriously, and proceeded to wind the 
 ancient timepiece by the simple old-time process 
 of drawing down its pulley chain. 
 
 " Poor old Marta ! " said Peter Grimm quiz 
 zically, as she departed. " Every time she thinks 
 of me, she winds my clock. We're not quite for 
 gotten after all, it seems. Good-night, old 
 friend! There are a few tears ahead of you. 
 But there is plenty of sunshine beyond them." 
 
 He glanced about the room, his eyes resting at 
 last on Willem's door in the gallery above. The 
 door swung open, and Dr. McPherson appeared 
 on the threshold. In one hand he held a candle 
 stick. In the hollow of his right arm lay Willem, 
 a Dutch patchwork bedquilt wrapped around him. 
 
 " All right, laddie," McPherson was saying in 
 a voice whose softness would have amazed the 
 Batholommeys. " Since you want so badly to 
 sleep downstairs, you shall. The sofa by the 
 fire is just as snug as your own bed. What Mis 
 tress Batholommey will say to my giving in to a 
 sick little boy's whim, I don't know. But we 
 don't care. Do we, Willem? And," he added, 
 reaching the living-room and carrying the child 
 across to the sofa, " if you want to be down here,
 
 " ALL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS AGAIN " 319 
 
 and if you won't be happy anywhere else, here 
 you shall be." 
 
 He laid Willem gently on the couch and cov 
 ered him with the quilt. 
 
 " How do you feel, now? " he asked. 
 
 11 I'm sleepy," answered Willem. " It's good 
 to be in this room. I'll sleep finely here. Could 
 could I have a drink of water, please? " 
 
 The doctor crossed to the sideboard. The 
 ice-water pitcher was empty. McPherson took 
 up a glass. 
 
 " I'll find you some," said he. " I suppose I'll 
 never learn my way around the labyrinths of this 
 old house. But if I can't get to the nearest faucet, 
 I'll wake Marta and ask her to help me. Lie 
 still. I'll be back in a minute." 
 
 He picked up the lighted candle again, and 
 started off on his quest. As he left the room he 
 passed close by Peter Grimm. 
 
 " Good-night, Andrew," said the Dead Man. 
 " I'm afraid the world will have to wait a little 
 longer for the Big Guesser. The secret you've 
 delved for so long and so loudly was in your 
 own hands this evening. And you didn't know 
 what to do with it." 
 
 The doctor left the room without hearing him.
 
 320 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 But Willem heard. Starting up on the couch, the 
 boy cried: 
 
 " Oh, Mynheer Grimm 1 Where are you ? I 
 knew you were down here That's why I wanted to 
 
 come." 
 
 " Here I am," answered the Dead Man, 
 ing forward into the range of the anxiously wan 
 dering blue eyes. 
 
 " Oh ! " gleefully exclaimed the child. " I see 
 you now ! I see you now ! " 
 
 "Yes? At last?" 
 
 "Oh, you've got your hat!" went on the 
 boy excitedly. " It's off the peg. You're going! " 
 
 " Yes, Willem," replied the Dead Man. " I'm 
 going." 
 
 " Need you go right away, Mynheer Grimm? " 
 coaxed the child. " Can't you wait just a little 
 while?" 
 
 " I'll wait for you, dear lad," returned Peter 
 Grimm. 
 
 " Oh, can I go with you ? " asked the boy in 
 glad surprise. " Thank you, Mynheer Grimm ! 
 I couldn't find the way without you." 
 
 " Oh, yes, you could, Willem. God's signal 
 light is the surest thing in all the universe. But 
 I'll wait for you, just the same."
 
 " ALL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS AGAIN " 321 
 
 The boy's drowsiness, overcome for the mo 
 ment by his sight of the Dead Man's loved face, 
 had crept in upon him once more. He lay back 
 on the couch with a happy little sigh. 
 
 And at once he was off in the wonder-aisles of 
 dreamland a dreamland full of circuses, of im 
 possibly funny and friendly clowns, of street 
 parade glories, of marvellous animals and thrill 
 ing equestrian feats. 
 
 " Sleep well," said Peter Grimm. " I wish you 
 the very pleasantest of dreams a boy could have 
 in this world." 
 
 The doctor's step sounded presently in the ad 
 joining kitchen. As though awakened by it, Wil- 
 lem opened his eyes and sat up. The fever flush 
 was gone from his cheeks, the fever glaze from 
 his look. The lassitude that had weighted every 
 joint in his sick little body had fled, to be replaced 
 by a strange, glorious buoyancy. 
 
 With a glad shout, Willem sprang up and 
 raced across the floor into Peter's Grimm's out 
 stretched arms. 
 
 " Huge moroche, Mynheer Grimm ! " he cried. 
 " Oh, I am well! I never was so well before. 
 It's wonderful to be like this." 
 
 " You are happy, too? "
 
 322 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Oh ! Happy? It's like school being over ! " 
 
 "Good!" laughed Peter Grimm. "It will 
 always be like that now. Come ! Let's be off." 
 
 He lifted the exalted, eager boy lightly from 
 the floor, and swung him to a perch on his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Uncle Rat has come to town! " sang Willem, 
 too rapturously happy to keep still. 
 
 " Ha-H'M/ " he and Peter Grimm chorused as 
 they moved toward the door. 
 
 " ' Uncle Rat has come to town, 
 To buy ' " 
 
 McPherson came in. 
 
 " Here's the water, Willem," he announced, 
 going over to the couch. " I got it at last, after 
 barking my shins over " 
 
 He glanced at the sofa and its occupant. Then 
 the glass fell from his nerveless hand. He knelt 
 in horror beside the still, white little body that 
 lay there. 
 
 "Dead I" gasped McPherson. 
 
 " No I " exulted Peter Grimm from the door 
 way. " Not dead, Andrew, old friend. There 
 never was so fair a prospect for life! " 
 
 " Oh," sighed Willem blissfully, his arm about 
 Peter Grimm's neck, "I'm so happy! I didn't
 
 " ALL THAT HAPPENS, HAPPENS AGAIN " 323 
 
 know any one could be so happy as this or so 
 well" 
 
 " If only the rest of them knew what they are 
 missing! Hey, Willem? " assented Peter Grimm, 
 
 " What is Dr. McPherson looking at there on 
 the sofa?" demanded Willem. "He seema 
 scared and and unhappy. What is he looking 
 at, Mynheer Grimm?" 
 
 " He is looking at nothing. And he doesn't 
 know it. Come ! " 
 
 " It's it's so wonderful to be alive! " cried 
 Willem. 
 
 They passed out, and the door of the house 
 closed noiselessly behind them.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE DAWNING 
 
 NlGHT had given place to red dawn, and red 
 dawn to white day. 
 
 Dr. McPherson came out of the Grimm house 
 and sat down on the edge of the vine-bordered 
 stoop. He was very tired. He had had a hard 
 and trying night. In his ears were still ringing 
 the sobs of old Marta, hastily awakened to learn 
 of her only grandson's death; Kathrien's quiet 
 grief; Mrs. Batholommey's excited, high-pitched 
 questionings that jangled on the death hush as 
 horribly as breaks the Venus music through the 
 Pilgrims' Chorus. 
 
 It had been a night of stark wakefulness, of a 
 myriad details. And McPherson had borne the 
 brunt of it all. Now, under an opiate, Marta 
 was asleep. Mrs. Batholommey had trotted pon 
 derously home to bear the black tidings of a pris 
 oned child's Release to her husband. And Kath- 
 rien had gone to her own room under the doctor's 
 gruff command to snatch an hour's rest. McPher 
 son himself had come out into the cool and fresh- 
 
 324
 
 THE DAWNING 325 
 
 ness of the new-born world for a breathing space, 
 and to think. 
 
 The June day was young. Very young. Under 
 the early sun the grass was afire with dew dia 
 monds. The flowers, dripping and fragrant, held 
 up their cups to the light. The town still lay 
 asleep. Over the suburb brooded the Hush of 
 the primal Wilderness, creeping back furtively and 
 momentarily to its long-lost domain. 
 
 And presently the quiet was broken by the swift 
 recurring click of heels on the sidewalk. Some 
 one was coming along the slumbrous Main street; 
 and coming with nervous haste. The steps turned 
 in at the ,Grimm gate. McPherson raised his 
 blood-shot, sleep-robbed eyes and stared crossly 
 toward the newcomer. 
 
 It was Frederik Grimm. And, recognising 
 him, McPherson's frown deepened into a scowl. 
 
 " Is it true ? " asked Frederik as he stopped in 
 front of the doctor. " I met Mrs. Batholommey. 
 She was just passing the hotel on her way home. 
 I hadn't been able to sleep, so I was starting out 
 for a walk. She told me " 
 
 "That Willem's dead?" finished McPherson, 
 with brutal frankness. " Yes, it's true. Did you 
 suppose that it was a new vaudeville joke? "
 
 326 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 Frederik stood blinking, blank-faced, appar 
 ently failing to grasp the sense of the doctor's 
 words. The younger man's aspect dully irritated 
 McPherson. 
 
 " Yes," he reiterated, " the boy's dead. The 
 problem of supporting him needn't bother you 
 now. Not that it ever did. He's dead. And 
 it's the luckiest thing that ever happened to 
 him." 
 
 Frederik raised one hand in instinctive protest. 
 But he might as well have sought to stem Niagara 
 with a straw. 
 
 The doctor's strained nerves, his genuine grief, 
 his dislike for the dapper young man before him, 
 combined to open wide the floodgates of honest 
 Scottish wrath. And he saw no cause to exercise 
 self-control. 
 
 "You're in luck!" he growled. "The law 
 could have compelled you to pay some such munif 
 icent sum as four dollars a week for his mainten 
 ance. You're safe from that now. And I con 
 gratulate you. It'll mean an extra weekly quart 
 of champagne or a brace of musical comedy seats 
 for you. The law is stringent and I was going 
 to invoke it in your case. You smashed a decent 
 girl's life. You helped bring a nameless boy into
 
 THE DAWNING 327 
 
 a world that would have made his life a hell as 
 long as he lived. Just because his father hap 
 pened to be a yellow cur. And, in penalty for 
 that sin, the power and majesty of an outraged 
 law would have assessed you about one per cent 
 of your yearly income. You're lucky." 
 
 Frederik winced as though he had been lashed 
 across the face. 
 
 " I sometimes wonder," continued McPherson, 
 urged to fresh vehemence by sight of the effect he 
 was scoring, " if hell holds a worse criminal or 
 a more mercilessly punished one than the man or 
 woman who lets a little child suffer needlessly 
 who makes it suffer. And of all the suffering that 
 can be heaped upon a child, everything else is like 
 a feather's weight compared to sending it out in 
 life with a name such as Willem would have borne. 
 Oh, but God's merciful when He finds little chil 
 dren crying in the dark and leads them Home! 
 Batholommey and the rest of them sneer at me 
 for sticking to the old hell-fire Calvin doctrines 
 in these days of pew-cushion religion. But I tell 
 you, in all reverence, if there's no hell for the 
 people who torture children, then it's time the 
 Almighty turned awhile from pardoning sinners 
 and built one."
 
 328 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 " Don't worry," said Frederik shortly. " There 
 is one. I know. I am in it." 
 
 "'Mourner's bench talk,' eh? It's cheap. 
 Penitence is always on the free list. And in your 
 case, as in most, it comes too late to do any good, 
 except to salve the penitent's feelings. Willem 
 lived in the same house with you for three years. 
 All around him was Love. Except from the one 
 person whose sacred duty it was to give that 
 Love. We pitied him. We knew what he'd be 
 facing if he lived. We made his childhood as 
 happy as we could, so that he'd have at least one 
 bright thing to look back on afterward. He was 
 nothing to any of us. Except that he was a child 
 crippled and maimed and fore-damned for life in 
 the worst way any Unfortunate could be. We 
 pitied him and we loved him. Did he ever hear 
 a harsh word or see a forbidding face? Yes; he 
 did. From one person alone. From you, his 
 father. Even last night when he crept downstairs 
 parched with thirst, and begged you for a drink 
 of water " 
 
 "Don't!" cried Frederik, in sharp agony. 
 " Do you suppose you can tell me anything about 
 that? Do you suppose I haven't gone over it all 
 yes, and over all the three years a hundred times
 
 THE DAWNING 329 
 
 since I heard he was dead? Do you think you 
 can make me feel it any more damnably than I do ? 
 If so, go ahead and try. You spoke of the need 
 for a hell. You can spare your advice to the 
 Almighty. He has made one. And I can't even 
 wait until I'm dead before I walk through it." 
 
 " Through it," assented McPherson sardonic 
 ally. " Through it with many a lamentable groan 
 and a beating of the breast, and with squeaky 
 little wails of remorse and on through it, out 
 onto the pleasant slopes of forgetfulness and new 
 mischief. Take my condolences on your fearful 
 passage through your purgatory. I fear me it 
 will take you the best part of a week to pass 
 entirely out of it. It's only a man-built hell, that 
 of yours. And, according to the modern theo 
 logians, God has no worse one for you later 
 on." 
 
 With twitching, pallid face, and anguished 
 eyes, Frederik Grimm looked dumbly at his tor 
 mentor. Even in his agony, he felt, subconsciously, 
 far down in his atrophied soul, that the doctor's 
 forecast as to the duration of his remorse's torture 
 was little exaggerated. 
 
 Yet, for the moment, his " man-built hell " was 
 grilling and racking the stricken penitent to a point
 
 330 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 that the Spanish Inquisition's ingenuity could never 
 have devised. 
 
 McPherson, with a sombre satisfaction, noted 
 the younger man's misery. Then a wistful look 
 flitted across his gnarled, bearded face. 
 
 " I wonder," he mused, his angry voice sink 
 ing to a rumble, " I wonder if you can guess 
 and of course you can't what a prize you spent 
 eight years in throwing away. You had a son. 
 And you disowned him and turned your back on 
 him. I've had no son. I shall never have a son. 
 And when I go out into the dark, there'll be no 
 man-child to carry on my name. No lad to in 
 herit this brute body of mine with all its strength 
 and giant endurance; this brain of mine, that has 
 tried so hard to perfect itself and to give its 
 possible successor the faculty for thought and 
 work and self-mastery. My father was a strong 
 man, a great man. And much of the little power 
 and goodness and worthiness that exist in me, I 
 owe to him. No man in future years can say 
 that of me. It must be something that no child 
 less man can understand or dream of, to feel the 
 fingers of one's little son tugging at one. To, 
 Lord! What would Mother Batholommey say 
 if she could hear me maundering and havering
 
 THE DAWNING 331 
 
 away like this! It means nothing to you, either. 
 Except that you've had, and hated, and thrown 
 away what many a better man would give half 
 his life for." 
 
 There was a short silence. McPherson, 
 ashamed of blurting his sacred heart secrets to a 
 fellow he detested, sat gnawing angrily at his 
 ragged grey moustache. Frederik, to whom the 
 last part of the doctor's tirade had passed un 
 heard, stood gazing sightlessly at the ground be 
 fore him. And for a space, neither of them 
 spoke. 
 
 At length Frederik looked up, almost timidly. 
 
 " Could might I see him? " he asked. 
 
 "H'm?" grunted McPherson, starting from 
 the maze of his own unhappy thoughts. 
 
 " I say, may I go in and see ? " 
 
 " Had three years to see him in, didn't you? " 
 demanded McPherson. " I can't recall now that 
 I ever saw you glance at him when you could help 
 it. Why should you go in and see him now? 
 You can't frighten him any more." 
 
 He checked himself. 
 
 ' That last was a rotten thing for me to say," 
 he muttered grudgingly. " I'm sorry." 
 
 But Frederik showed no signs of resentment.
 
 332 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 He was looking moodily at the ground once more, 
 apparently engrossed in the fruitless efforts of a 
 red ant on the walk's edge to lug away a dead 
 caterpillar forty times its size. The doctor peered 
 at him almost apologetically from under his grey 
 thatch of eyebrow. The younger man's face still 
 wore that same blank, dazed mask, as though 
 horror had wiped it clean of expression. Again 
 it was Frederik who broke the silence. 
 
 " I remember once," said he, in a dreary mon 
 otone, " when he was four years old. He saw a 
 woolly lamb in a shop window and wanted it. 
 I'd lost ninety dollars that day at the races and 
 I was sore. He begged me to buy him the lamb. 
 It cost only a quarter. I wouldn't. I told him 
 he ought to be content to sponge on me for food 
 and clothes without wanting presents, too. I re 
 member he cried when I pulled him away from 
 the shop window. And I hit him. I wish I 
 wish I'd " 
 
 " If there's anything worse than a hardened 
 criminal," snorted McPherson, " it's a silly, sen 
 timental one. You say you want to go in and 
 see him? Go ahead then. You don't have to 
 ask my leave. It's your own house, isn't it? " 
 
 " No," answered Frederik, " it isn't."
 
 THE DAWNING 333 
 
 " Huh? Oh, I remember now. You said last 
 night you were going to give it to Kathrien. 
 Don't worry. A promise like that isn't binding 
 in law. And you'll repent of it almost as soon 
 as you'll stop repenting for Willem." 
 
 " Perhaps so," agreed Frederik. " But it will be 
 too late then. Here," he went on, pulling a long 
 envelope from his pocket, " take charge of this, 
 will you, and give it to Kathrien for her signature 
 in case I don't see her? " 
 
 "What is it?" asked McPherson, mechanic 
 ally taking the envelope as Frederik thrust it into 
 his hand. 
 
 " Before I went to the hotel for a room last 
 night," answered the other, " I called on Colonel 
 Lawton and got him to draw it up. All it lacks 
 is her signature." 
 
 "What ?" 
 
 " It is a deed for the house and the twelve-acre 
 * home plot ' it stands on. That includes the two 
 cottages over on Mclntyre Street. They're both 
 rented and in good condition. They'll bring her 
 in nearly eight hundred a year. It's less than 
 my uncle would have left her if he'd known " 
 
 " He knew," interrupted McPherson decisively. 
 " And that's why you did it. As you said last
 
 334 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 night, ' somebody has been doing your thinking 
 for you.' " 
 
 " I'm glad for your own peace of mind that you 
 aren't forced to give me credit for it," said Fred- 
 erik in lifeless irony. " I'll go in now, if I may. 
 I shall not stay long. And then for New York. 
 It's the best place I know of for hastening one's 
 journey through and out of the ' man-built hell ' 
 you spoke about. Oh, and I gave Lawton direc 
 tions about Anne Marie, too. She can come home 
 now if she wants to without being dependent upon 
 any one for her support. You're quite right, 
 Doctor. Somebody has been doing my thinking. 
 I'm glad it stopped before I went broke." 
 
 With something of his old jaunty air he 
 mounted the steps and went into the house. 
 McPherson stared after him with a glower that 
 somehow would not remain ferocious. Then he 
 got up, stretched his great shaggy bulk, yawned, 
 and started homeward for breakfast. 
 
 On the way he met Mr. Batholommey, hastily 
 awakened and hurrying to the house of mourn 
 ing. 
 
 " Doctor! " exclaimed the clergyman in agita 
 tion. " This is very distressing. Very." 
 
 " As usual," drawled McPherson, " I find I
 
 THE DAWNING 335 
 
 can't agree with you. To me it seems a blessed 
 release." 
 
 " And on Kathrien's wedding day, too ! " went 
 on Mr. Batholommey, to whom McPherson's eter 
 nal disagreement had become so chronic he scarce 
 noticed it. " At least, on the day that was to 
 have been her wedding day! Young Hartmann 
 waked me out of a sound sleep last night to tell 
 me she had promised to marry him to-day. And 
 he asked me to be at the house promptly at eleven. 
 But, of course, now " 
 
 " Of course, now," put in the doctor, " the 
 wedding is going to take place just the same." 
 
 "But 1" 
 
 " I argued with Kathnen a whole half-hour 
 this morning before she would agree to it," went 
 on the doctor. " But at last I persuaded her it 
 was the only thing to do. If ever she needs a 
 husband's help and advice, now is the time. And 
 at last I made her understand that. So, she and 
 James will be married to-day. Just as they 
 planned to. The only difference will be that 
 they'll come to the rectory for the ceremony." 
 
 "It seems almost shall I say indecorous?" 
 protested Mr. Batholommey. 
 
 u The real things of life generally do," replied
 
 336 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 the doctor. " Good-morning. I'm going to be 
 so indecorous as to hurry home for a bath and a 
 breakfast instead of catching cold standing out 
 here on a wet street discussing other people's 
 business." 
 
 He strode on. Mr. Batholommey, murmuring 
 dazedly to himself, took up his own journey.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE GOOD-BYE 
 
 FREDERIK GRIMM turned away from looking down 
 at the pathetically small figure in the darkened 
 room. His face was expressionless. He had 
 stood there but a few minutes. And his eyes, 
 riveted on the still, white little form, had not 
 softened nor blurred with tears. 
 
 Wearily he descended the gallery stairs into the 
 living-room, where the morning sunlight was al 
 ready turning the desk bowl of roses into a riot of 
 burning colour. 
 
 He was halfway across the room, toward the 
 door, when he was aware that Kathrien had risen 
 from the desk chair and was looking at him. 
 Her look was cold and devoid of pity as she 
 surveyed him. But as he halted, hesitant, the 
 sunlight fell full on his face. And in the visage 
 that had seemed so vapidly blank to McPherson, 
 she read much. 
 
 The cold glint died from her eyes and she 
 stepped forward with hand outstretched. 
 
 " Frederik," she said gently. 
 337
 
 338 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 He came haltingly toward her. He held out 
 his hand to meet hers. But he could not touch 
 the fingers that were waiting to press his own. 
 His hand fell Kmply to his side. 
 
 She understood. And the warm pity in her 
 face deepened. 
 
 " I am sorry," she said simply. 
 
 " He is happier," muttered the man. 
 
 " I don't mean for Willem. For you. You 
 understand what it all means at last." 
 
 " And, too late," he assented. " It is always 
 too late when one understands." 
 
 " It is never too late," she denied eagerly. 
 " Frederik, you have everything ahead of you. 
 You can " 
 
 " I have nothing ahead of me," he contradicted 
 dully. 
 
 " You have wealth, youth, the power to undo 
 what wrong you did, to start afresh " 
 
 u As the broken-winged bird has the power to 
 start a new flight. Don't waste your divine sym 
 pathy on me, Kitty. It would be thrown away. 
 In a very little time, as Dr. McPherson has 
 kindly pointed out to me, I shall be convales 
 cent from my attack of remorse. And then 
 all life will lie before me, as you say. All
 
 THE GOOD-BYE 339 
 
 life except the one thing that makes life worth 
 living." 
 
 He stopped. For he saw she understood. 
 
 " You always understood," he went on, voic 
 ing his thought. " That was one of the wonder 
 ful things about you, Kitty. Even now, you saw 
 the pain I am in. And it made you forget what 
 you believe I am. It was sweet of you. It will 
 be good to remember." 
 
 " I wish I could help you," she said. 
 
 " You have helped me," he answered. " For 
 you've given me a Memory to carry till I can 
 shake off the load till I can get clear of McPher- 
 son's ' man-built hell.' It won't be long. So 
 don't worry. Even now, my common sense tells 
 me I've made a fool of myself. And I'm human 
 enough to be more ashamed of being a fool than 
 of being a knave. I had everything in my own 
 hands. And I threw away the game because an 
 attack of fright kept me from playing my win 
 ning cards. Last night I was afraid of a ghost. 
 This morning I'm sane enough to know that 
 ghosts were invented by the first nervous man who 
 was alone at night. This morning I am heart 
 broken because my little boy lies dead. To-mor 
 row I shall be sane enough to know that it is as
 
 340 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 lucky for me as it is for him, that he died. And 
 in a week I'll be congratulating myself over it all 
 and revelling in a freedom and a fortune I've 
 always craved. So you see I'm quite incur 
 able." 
 
 "Why do you say such things?" she cried. 
 " You know they aren't true." 
 
 " When I said you ' always understand,' Kitty, 
 I was wrong. You don't understand. No 
 woman understands that a man doesn't reform. 
 A good man may have taken a wrong twist. And 
 when he finds his way back to the straight road, 
 they say he has * reformed.' He hasn't. He's 
 only struck his own natural gait again. As he 
 was bound to. And my kind of man sometimes 
 takes a momentary twist in the right direction. 
 Then people say he has reformed. And they are 
 just as much mistaken as they were in the other 
 case. For, water won't run uphill after the first 
 pressure is withdrawn." 
 
 " But in the fires of affliction " 
 
 ;< The fires of affliction," he retorted sadly, 
 " have burned away the dross from the pure gold 
 of many a soul, I suppose. But no fires were ever 
 heated that could burn dross fiercely enough to 
 turn it into gold. Yet "
 
 THE GOOD-BYE 341 
 
 He hesitated, then said, without daring to look 
 at her: 
 
 " There's one thing I do want you to know, 
 Kitty. Whatever I was and am, and whatever 
 shams went to make up my daily life here you 
 know my love for you was true and absolute and 
 that I loved and love you more than the whole 
 world besides? " 
 
 " Yes," she returned, unembarrassed. " I be 
 lieve that, Frederik. In part. You loved me as 
 much as you could love any one. But " 
 
 "Why must there be a 'but'?" he entreated. 
 
 " But," she went on with the relentlessness of 
 the Young, " not as much as you loved your 
 self." 
 
 " More! Ten thousand times more! " he de 
 clared vehemently. 
 
 " No," she contradicted. " For you didn't 
 love me enough to give me up when you knew I 
 cared for another man. The Perfect Love would 
 have " 
 
 " The ' perfect love ' ! " he scoffed. " I have 
 read of it But I have yet to see it." 
 
 " You cannot see it," she replied, " for the 
 same reason I could not see Oom Peter when 
 he was fighting my battle here last night. My
 
 342 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 eyes were blinded by the world I live in. Perfect 
 love is everywhere. It is within and about us. 
 But " 
 
 " But I would be too ignoble to recognise it 
 if I chanced upon it? Perhaps. But why strip 
 me of my last illusion? In the torment of my 
 self-abasement this morning, I have clung to that 
 one comfort: That I love you with a love which 
 a truly worthless man could not feel. And 
 now " 
 
 "Don't misunderstand me," she begged, half- 
 tearfully. " I" 
 
 ' You have shown me the truth. And I ought 
 to thank you for it. Perhaps some day I can. If 
 I still remember it then. Good-bye, dear. I 
 shan't be here again. I've I've left you a little 
 present. Dr. McPherson will give it to 
 you." 
 
 " But I can't take " 
 
 " Oh, yes, you can. It isn't really from me. 
 That's just another of my lies to make a good 
 impression. I've gotten so in the habit of telling 
 them that it is going to take me a long time to 
 realise that one of the chief advantages of being 
 a rich man is the immunity from the need to lie. 
 The present isn't really from me. It's from Oom
 
 THE GOOD-BYE 343 
 
 Peter. You can't refuse it from him. If you 
 doubt it's Oom Peter's own direct gift, ask Dr. 
 McPherson. It was bad enough," he sighed, in 
 mock despair, " for Oom Peter to squander so 
 much of my money while he was alive, without 
 keeping on doing it after he died. I hope he 
 has stopped it at last. Or I'll soon be reduced 
 to standing at the subway steps with a tin cup in 
 my hand." 
 
 Through the forced lightness, whose effort 
 wrung sweat from the man's forehead, Kathrien 
 was woman enough to see the mortal agony that 
 lay beneath. And again she held out her 
 hand. 
 
 " Good-bye, Frederik," she said gently. " And 
 may you be happy! " 
 
 He looked doubtfully at the shapely little hand. 
 Then, with an awkwardness strangely foreign to 
 his normal grace, he took the hand in both his 
 own and stood a moment, looking down at it as 
 though not knowing what to do with it. 
 
 Then, very simply, he fell on his knees, touched 
 the warm, roseleaf palm to his lips, got up and, 
 without looking back, hurried out of the house. 
 
 Kathrien watched his slender, carefully 
 groomed figure until it was lost at a turn in the
 
 344 THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM 
 
 rose bushes. Then she came back into the room 
 and stood beside Peter Grimm's old chair. 
 
 " Oom Peter!" sKe whispered. "This is my 
 wedding day. You know it, don't you? And 
 oh, please let me think you are close close 
 beside me all the time 1 " 
 
 THE END
 
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