This morning the doctor found him opening his mail and reading a pile of advertising5 circulars with deep attention.
“Good-morning, Mr. Kronborg,” said Dr. Archie, sitting down. “I came to see you on business. Poor Kennedy asked me to look after his affairs for him. Like most railroad men he spent his wages, except for a few investments in mines which don’t look to me very promising6. But his life was insured for six hundred dollars in Thea’s favor.”
Mr. Kronborg wound his feet about the standard of his desk-chair. “I assure you, doctor, this is a complete surprise to me.”
“Well, it’s not very surprising to me,” Dr. Archie went on. “He talked to me about it the day he was hurt. He said he wanted the money to be used in a particular way, and in no other.” Dr. Archie paused meaningly.
Mr. Kronborg fidgeted. “I am sure Thea would observe his wishes in every respect.”
“No doubt; but he wanted me to see that you agreed to his plan. It seems that for some time Thea has wanted to go away to study music. It was Kennedy’s wish that she should take this money and go to Chicago this winter. He felt that it would be an advantage to her in a business way: that even if she came back here to teach, it would give her more authority and make her position here more comfortable.”
Mr. Kronborg looked a little startled. “She is very young,” he hesitated; “she is barely seventeen. Chicago is a long way from home. We would have to consider. I think, Dr. Archie, we had better consult Mrs. Kronborg.”
“I think I can bring Mrs. Kronborg around, if I have your consent. I’ve always found her pretty level-headed. I have several old classmates practicing in Chicago. One is a throat specialist. He has a good deal to do with singers. He probably knows the best piano teachers and could recommend a boarding-house where music students stay. I think Thea needs to get among a lot of young people who are clever like herself. Here she has no companions but old fellows like me. It’s not a natural life for a young girl. She’ll either get warped7, or wither8 up before her time. If it will make you and Mrs. Kronborg feel any easier, I’ll be glad to take Thea to Chicago and see that she gets started right. This throat man I speak of is a big fellow in his line, and if I can get him interested, he may be able to put her in the way of a good many things. At any rate, he’ll know the right teachers. Of course, six hundred dollars won’t take her very far, but even half the winter there would be a great advantage. I think Kennedy sized the situation up exactly.”
“Perhaps; I don’t doubt it. You are very kind, Dr. Archie.” Mr. Kronborg was ornamenting9 his desk-blotter with hieroglyphics10. “I should think Denver might be better. There we could watch over her. She is very young.”
Dr. Archie rose. “Kennedy didn’t mention Denver. He said Chicago, repeatedly. Under the circumstances, it seems to me we ought to try to carry out his wishes exactly, if Thea is willing.”
“Certainly, certainly. Thea is conscientious11. She would not waste her opportunities.” Mr. Kronborg paused. “If Thea were your own daughter, doctor, would you consent to such a plan, at her present age?”
“I most certainly should. In fact, if she were my daughter, I’d have sent her away before this. She’s a most unusual child, and she’s only wasting herself here. At her age she ought to be learning, not teaching. She’ll never learn so quickly and easily as she will right now.”
“Well, doctor, you had better talk it over with Mrs. Kronborg. I make it a point to defer12 to her wishes in such matters. She understands all her children perfectly13. I may say that she has all a mother’s insight, and more.”
Dr. Archie smiled. “Yes, and then some. I feel quite confident about Mrs. Kronborg. We usually agree. Good-morning.”
Dr. Archie stepped out into the hot sunshine and walked rapidly toward his office, with a determined14 look on his face. He found his waiting-room full of patients, and it was one o’clock before he had dismissed the last one. Then he shut his door and took a drink before going over to the hotel for his lunch. He smiled as he locked his cupboard. “I feel almost as gay as if I were going to get away for a winter myself,” he thought.
Afterward15 Thea could never remember much about that summer, or how she lived through her impatience16. She was to set off with Dr. Archie on the fifteenth of October, and she gave lessons until the first of September. Then she began to get her clothes ready, and spent whole afternoons in the village dressmaker’s stuffy17, littered little sewing-room. Thea and her mother made a trip to Denver to buy the materials for her dresses. Ready-made clothes for girls were not to be had in those days. Miss Spencer, the dressmaker, declared that she could do handsomely by Thea if they would only let her carry out her own ideas. But Mrs. Kronborg and Thea felt that Miss Spencer’s most daring productions might seem out of place in Chicago, so they restrained her with a firm hand. Tillie, who always helped Mrs. Kronborg with the family sewing, was for letting Miss Spencer challenge Chicago on Thea’s person. Since Ray Kennedy’s death, Thea had become more than ever one of Tillie’s heroines. Tillie swore each of her friends to secrecy18, and, coming home from church or leaning over the fence, told them the most touching19 stories about Ray’s devotion, and how Thea would “never get over it.”
Tillie’s confidences stimulated20 the general discussion of Thea’s venture. This discussion went on, upon front porches and in back yards, pretty much all summer. Some people approved of Thea’s going to Chicago, but most people did not. There were others who changed their minds about it every day.
Tillie said she wanted Thea to have a ball dress “above all things.” She bought a fashion book especially devoted21 to evening clothes and looked hungrily over the colored plates, picking out costumes that would be becoming to “a blonde.” She wanted Thea to have all the gay clothes she herself had always longed for; clothes she often told herself she needed “to recite in.”
“Tillie,” Thea used to cry impatiently, “can’t you see that if Miss Spencer tried to make one of those things, she’d make me look like a circus girl? Anyhow, I don’t know anybody in Chicago. I won’t be going to parties.”
Tillie always replied with a knowing toss of her head, “You see! You’ll be in society before you know it. There ain’t many girls as
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