Page:Teeftallow-1926.djvu/176

By this Mrs. Nannie knew that her sacrifice had been accepted and that she had received absolution from Irontown's patron saint.

Mrs. Biggers hurried out on the street and commandeered the first four Negroes she saw to move Tug from the Scovell House to the banker's home. The physician objected at first, but Mrs. Roxie pointed out the bugs and the heat of the room. The medic yielded the point and went with the good woman to prepare the unconscious man for the journey on a stretcher—that is, a wire cot used for a stretcher.

The change was made that afternoon.

When Abner returned to his lodging he found his landlady, Miss Scovell, in tears. Upon inquiry he learned she had been insulted and abused by that meddlesome cat, Roxie Biggers. Miss Scovell controlled her sobs barely long enough to fling out these maledictions, and then she began her queer dry hacking again, without a film of moisture in her eyes.

Abner went out to the porch swing to await the coming of Nessie. So filled had the intervening hours been with shock and excitement, that it seemed to Abner he had not seen Nessie for months. When finally she came from her work and joined him, he felt he could never leave off looking at the glory of her pale glossy hair, her rose complexion, and pansy eyes. He wished he could put his arms about her and draw her to him, so sweet and intimate did she seem.

And Nessie kept glancing at him from time to time with her bosom rising and falling under her low-cut blouse, and a faint smile playing perpetually on her lips; a smile that had in it not the least hint of that inherently vulgar thing called humour or mirth; she smiled because of her happiness, her tenderness, her wistfulness for him, and because she was upon the verge of tears.

That night when Mr. Biggers was going to bed, he asked, in his shaking tones, "Roxie—i-is this my n-night-gown?"

And Mrs. Roxie snapped, "Put it on an' don't worry me!"