"Put on your things," he said gayly, "and we'll take a ride on the
hill-tops. I've arranged for a moon."
And when she hesitated: "It makes you sleep, you know. I'm going, if I have to ride alone and
talk to an imaginary lady beside me."
She rather imagined that that had been his first idea, modified by his
thought of her. She went over and put a wrinkled hand on his arm.
"You look happy, Dick," she said wistfully.
"I am happy, Aunt Lucy," he replied, and bending over, kissed her.
On Wednesday he was in a state of alternating high spirits and periods
of silence. Even Minnie noticed it.
"Mr. Dick's that queer I hardly know how to take him." she said to
Lucy. "He came back and asked for noodle soup, and he put about all the
hardware in the kitchen on him and said he was a knight in armor. And
when I took the soup in he didn't eat it."
It was when he was ready to go out that Lucy's fears were realized. He
came in, as always when anything unusual was afoot, to let her look him
over. He knew that she waited for him, to give his tie a final pat, to
inspect the laundering of his shirt bosom, to pick imaginary threads off
his dinner coat.
"Well?" he said, standing before her, "how's this? Art can do no more,
Mrs. Crosby."
"I'll brush your back," she said, and brought the brush. He stooped to
her, according to the little ceremony she had established, and she made
little dabs at his speckless back. "There, that's better."
He straightened.
"How do you think Uncle David is?" he asked, unexpectedly.
"Better than he has been in years. Why?"
"Because I'm thinking of taking a little trip. Only ten days," he added,
seeing her face. "You could house-clean my office while I'm away. You
know you've been wanting to."
She dropped the brush, and he stooped to pick it up. That gave her a
moment.
"'Where?" she managed.
"To Dry River, by way of Norada."
"Why should you go back there?" she asked, in a carefully suppressed
voice. "Why don't you go East? You've wanted to go back to Johns Hopkins
for months?"
"On the other hand, why shouldn't I go back to Norada?" he asked, with
an affectation of lightness. Then he put his hand on her shoulders. "Why
shouldn't I go back and clear things up in my own mind? Why shouldn't I
find out, for instance, that I am a free man?"