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026 - Ghosts That Walked For Bertram · Miss Billy Married

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six of Miss Billy Married. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information are to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Phil Schinever. Miss Billy Married by Eleanor H. Porter,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six. Ghosts that Walked for Bertram. October proved
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  Speaker 1: to be unusually mild, and about the middle of the
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  Speaker 1: month Bertram, after much unselfish urging on the part of Billy,
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  Speaker 1: went to a friend's camp in the Adirondacks for a
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  Speaker 1: week's stay. He came back with an angry, lugubrious face
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  Speaker 1: and a broken arm. Oh, Bertram, and you're right one
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  Speaker 1: to the same one you broke before, mourned Billy tearfully,
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  Speaker 1: of course, retorted Bertram, trying in vain to give an
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  Speaker 1: air of jauntiness to his reply. Didn't want to be
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  Speaker 1: too changeable, you know. But how did you do it? Dear?
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  Speaker 1: Fell into a silly little hole covered with underbrush? But oh, Billy,
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  Speaker 1: what's the use? I did it, and I can't undo it.
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  Speaker 1: More's the pity, of course you can't, you poor boy,
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  Speaker 1: sympathized to Billy. And you shan't be tormented with questions.
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  Speaker 1: We'll just be thankful. Twas no worse. You can't paint
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  Speaker 1: for a while, of course, but we won't mind that.
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  Speaker 1: It'll just give baby and me a chance to have
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  Speaker 1: you all to ourselves for a time. And we'll love that, yes,
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  Speaker 1: of course, sighed Bertram, so abstractedly that Billy bridled with
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  Speaker 1: pretty resentment. Well, I like your enthusiasm, sir, she frowned.
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  Speaker 1: I'm afraid you don't appreciate the blessings you do have
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  Speaker 1: young men. Do you realize what I said? I remarked
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  Speaker 1: that you could be with baby and me, she emphasized.
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  Speaker 1: Bertram laughed and gave his wife an affection the kiss. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: I do appreciate my blessings, dear, when those blessings are
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  Speaker 1: such treasures as you and baby. But only his doleful
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  Speaker 1: eyes fixed on his injured arm, finished his sentence. I know, dear,
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  Speaker 1: of course, and I understand, murmured Billy all tenderness at once.
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  Speaker 1: They were not easy for Bertram those following days. Once
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  Speaker 1: again he was obliged to accept the little intimate personal
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  Speaker 1: services that he's so disliked. Once again, he could do
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  Speaker 1: nothing but read or wander disconsolately into his studio and
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  Speaker 1: gaze at his half finished face of a girl. Occasionally,
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  Speaker 1: it is true, driven nearly to desperation by the haunting
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  Speaker 1: vision in his mind's eye, he picked up a brush
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  Speaker 1: and attempted to make his left hand serve his will.
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  Speaker 1: But a bare half dozen irritating, ineffectual strokes were usually
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  Speaker 1: enough to make him throw down his brush in disgust.
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  Speaker 1: He never could do anything with his left hand, he
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  Speaker 1: told himself dejectedly. Many of his hours, of course, he
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  Speaker 1: spent with Billy and his son, and they were happy
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  Speaker 1: hours too, but they always came to be restless ones
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  Speaker 1: before the day was half over. Billy was always devotion
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  Speaker 1: itself to him when she was not attending to the baby.
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  Speaker 1: He had no fault to find with Billy, and the
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  Speaker 1: baby was delightful. He could find no fault with the baby.
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  Speaker 1: But the baby was fretful. He was teething, Billy said,
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  Speaker 1: and he needed a great deal of attention. So naturally
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  Speaker 1: Bertram drifted out of the nursery after a time and
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  Speaker 1: went down into his studio, where were his dear empty pellet,
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  Speaker 1: his orderly brushes, and his tantalizing faces. Of a girl
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  Speaker 1: from the studio. Generally Bertram went out onto the street.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes he dropped into a fellow artist's studio. Sometimes he
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  Speaker 1: strolled into a club or cafe where he knew he
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  Speaker 1: would be likely to find some friends who would help
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  Speaker 1: him while away at tiresome hour. Bertram's friends quite vied
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  Speaker 1: with each other in rendering this sort of aid, so
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  Speaker 1: much so indeed, that naturally, perhaps Bertram came to call
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  Speaker 1: on their services more and more frequently. Particularly was this
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  Speaker 1: the case when, after the splints were removed, Bertram found,
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  Speaker 1: as the days passed that his arm was not improving
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  Speaker 1: as it should improve. This not only disappointed and annoyed him,
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  Speaker 1: but worried him. He remembered sultry, disquieting warnings given by
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  Speaker 1: the physician at the time of the farmer break, warnings
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  Speaker 1: concerning the probable seriousness of a repetition of the injury
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  Speaker 1: to Billy. Of course, Bertram said nothing of all this,
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  Speaker 1: but just before Christmas he went to see a noted specialist.
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  Speaker 1: An hour later, almost in front of the learned surgeon's door,
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  Speaker 1: Bertram met Bob sever Great Scott Bertie, what's up, ejaculated?
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  Speaker 1: Sever You look as if you'd seen a ghost, I
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  Speaker 1: have answered Bertram with grim bitterness. I've seen the ghost
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  Speaker 1: of of every face of a girl I ever painted,
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  Speaker 1: gory so bad as that. Now, wonder you look as
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  Speaker 1: if you'd been disporting in graveyards. Chuckles sever laughing at
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  Speaker 1: his own joke. What's the matter arm on a rampage today?
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  Speaker 1: He paused for reply, but as Bertram did not answer
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  Speaker 1: it at once, he resumed with gay insistence. Come on, you
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  Speaker 1: need cheering up. Suppose we go down to Trentini's and
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  Speaker 1: see who's there? All right, agreed Bertram. Dully suit yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Bertram was not thinking of seber Trentini's or whom he
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  Speaker 1: might find there. Bertram was thinking of certain words he
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  Speaker 1: had heard less than half an hour ago. He was wondering, too,
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  Speaker 1: if ever again he could think of anything but those words,
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  Speaker 1: The truth, the great surgeon had said. Well, the truth is.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to tell you the truth, mister Henshaw, but
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  Speaker 1: if you will have it, you've painted the last picture
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  Speaker 1: you'll ever paint with your right hand. I fear it's
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  Speaker 1: a bad case. This break, coming as it did on
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  Speaker 1: top of the serious injury of two or three years ago,
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  Speaker 1: was bad enough. But to make matters worse, the bone
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  Speaker 1: was imperfectly set and wrongly treated, which could not be helped,
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  Speaker 1: of course, as you were miles away from skilled surgeons
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  Speaker 1: at the time the injury. We'll do the best we can,
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  Speaker 1: of course, But well you asked for the truth, you remember,
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  Speaker 1: so I had to give it to you. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six. Recording by Phil Shinever Pat and Rouge,
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  Speaker 1: Louisiana