第38章

Night after night he lay tossing to the music of the hideous snoring of the honest bread-winners until two and three o'clock in the morning, then got up and took refuge on the roof, where he sometimes got a nap and sometimes failed entirely.His appetite was leaving him and the zest of life was going along with it.Finally, owe day, being near the imminent verge of total discouragement, he said to himself--and took occasion to blush privately when he said it, "If my father knew what my American name is,--he--well, my duty to my father rather requires that I furnish him my name.I have no right to make his days and nights unhappy, I can do enough unhappiness for the family all by myself.Really he ought to know what my American name is." He thought over it a while and framed a cablegram in his mind to this effect:

"My American name is Howard Tracy."

That wouldn't be suggesting anything.His father could understand that as he chose, and doubtless he would understand it as it was meant, as a dutiful and affectionate desire on the part of a son to make his old father happy for a moment.Continuing his train of thought, Tracy said to himself, "Ah, but if he should cable me to come home! I--I--couldn't do that--I mustn't do that.I've started out on a mission, and I mustn't turn my back on it in cowardice.No, no, I couldn't go home, at--at--least I shouldn't want to go home." After a reflective pause: "Well, maybe--perhaps--it would be my duty to go in the circumstances; he's very old and he does need me by him to stay his footsteps down the long hill that inclines westward toward the sunset of his life.Well, I'll think about that.Yes, of course it wouldn't be right to stay here.If I--well, perhaps I could just drop him a line and put it off a little while and satisfy him in that way.It would be--well, it would mar everything to have him require me to come instantly." Another reflective pause--then: "And yet if he should do that I don't know but--oh, dear me--home!

how good it sounds! and a body is excusable for wanting to see his home again, now and then, anyway."He went to one of the telegraph offices in the avenue and got the first end of what Barrow called the "usual Washington courtesy," where "they treat you as a tramp until they find out you're a congressman, and then they slobber all over you." There was a boy of seventeen on duty there, tying his shoe.He had his foot on a chair and his back turned towards the wicket.He glanced over his shoulder, took Tracy's measure, turned back, and went on tying his shoe.Tracy finished writing his telegram and waited, still waited, and still waited, for that performance to finish, but there didn't seem to be any finish to it; so finally Tracy said:

"Can't you take my telegram?"

The youth looked over his shoulder and said, by his manner, not his words:

"Don't you think you could wait a minute, if you tried?"However, he got the shoe tied at last, and came and took the telegram, glanced over it, then looked up surprised, at Tracy.There was something in his look that bordered upon respect, almost reverence, it seemed to Tracy, although he had been so long without anything of this kind he was not sure that he knew the signs of it.

The boy read the address aloud, with pleased expression in face and voice.

"The Earl of Rossmore! Cracky! Do you know him?""Yes."

"Is that so! Does he know you?"

"Well--yes."

"Well, I swear! Will he answer you?"

"I think he will."

"Will he though? Where'll you have it sent?""Oh, nowhere.I'll call here and get it.When shall I call?""Oh, I don't know--I'll send it to you.Where shall I send it? Give me your address; I'll send it to you soon's it comes."But Tracy didn't propose to do this.He had acquired the boy's admiration and deferential respect, and he wasn't willing to throw these precious things away, a result sure to follow if he should give the address of that boarding house.So he said again that he would call and get the telegram, and went his way.

He idled along, reflecting.He said to himself, "There is something pleasant about being respected.I have acquired the respect of Mr.

Allen and some of those others, and almost the deference of some of them on pure merit, for having thrashed Allen.While their respect and their deference--if it is deference--is pleasant, a deference based upon a sham, a shadow, does really seem pleasanter still.It's no real merit to be in correspondence with an earl, and yet after all, that boy makes me feel as if there was."The cablegram was actually gone home! the thought of it gave him an immense uplift.He walked with a lighter tread.His heart was full of happiness.He threw aside all hesitances and confessed to himself that he was glad through and through that he was going to give up this experiment and go back to his home again.His eagerness to get his father's answer began to grow, now, and it grew with marvelous celerity, after it began.He waited an hour, walking about, putting in his time as well as he could, but interested in nothing that came under his eye, and at last he presented himself at the office again and asked if any answer had come yet.The boy said, "No, no answer yet," then glanced at the clock and added, "I don't think it's likely you'll get one to-day.""Why not?"

"Well, you see it's getting pretty late.You can't always tell where 'bouts a man is when he's on the other side, and you can't always find him just the minute you want him, and you see it's getting about six o'clock now, and over there it's pretty late at night.""Why yes," said Tracy, "I hadn't thought of that.""Yes, pretty late, now, half past ten or eleven.Oh yes, you probably won't get any answer to-night."