<h2 id="c21"><br/>CHAPTER XXI <br/><span class="sc">Misfortune</span></h2>
<p>Several days later Dick Ashton,
walking out to the Sunrise cabin from
Woodford, unexpectedly caught up
with Esther making the same journey.
He came up to her side very quickly and
with one look in his face the girl gave a
cry of dismay. Dick was always serious
and yet in spite of his seriousness there
was no one with a keener appreciation of
humorous situations and people, but to-day
his face was drawn and there was a set
look about his lips.</p>
<p>“I didn’t mean to startle you, Esther,”
Dick said quietly, “but I am very glad
it is you I have met rather than any one
of the other girls. I have bad news for
Betty.”</p>
<p>Did Esther’s face for a fleeting instant
show surprise and almost alarm?</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_235">[235]</div>
<p>“It has nothing to do with me, has it?”
she asked, but Dick, shaking his head and
hardly heeding her question, went on:</p>
<p>“I have just received news of my father’s
death and must break it to Betty. It
is going to be very hard; Betty has never
known anything but happiness and in spite
of—in spite of everything, I believe my
father loved her almost better than either
my mother or me.”</p>
<p>After her first exclamation of sympathy
Esther continued silent, feeling it wiser to
let Dick talk himself out to a sympathetic
listener than to pour forth her own regrets.</p>
<p>“It isn’t only the loss of my father that
Betty and mother will have to endure,”
he continued, “but the entire loss of my
father’s fortune. The trouble has been
brewing for some time, but a few weeks
ago the crash came and it must have
hastened the end.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_236">[236]</div>
<p>“You don’t mean to say they will have
nothing?” Esther inquired in a frightened
voice. The thought of Betty, whom her
friends had always called “Princess” because
of her careless generosity, her indifference,
her absolute ignorance of the
whole money question, now to face poverty
without any training or preparation for
it,—the thought fairly made Esther gasp,
and Dick who had some idea of what was
passing in her mind added:</p>
<p>“Yes, it is pretty rough to bring a girl
up to live like a Princess and then suddenly
to leave her a pauper. I have always been
afraid we have not been quite fair with
Betty, maybe it would have been easier
for her to have known the truth about
things from the beginning. Still it can’t
be helped now. But the worst of it is
that I know nothing about business either;
I have never cared for anything but my
profession and it takes a long time for a
man to be able to support even himself
in medicine until he has had several years
of experience at least. I must give it up.”</p>
<p>Dick’s face went whiter than ever at
this and Esther, who in spite of a certain
shyness and nervousness when she found
herself the center of observation, had a
really good judgment and self-control, now
replied quietly: “I wouldn’t think too
much of this now, Mr. Ashton, things are
pretty sure to turn out a little better than
you feel they can at present and in any
case I am sure something will be arranged
so that you can go on with your profession.
It would be too great a pity, when you have
studied so long and are now so near your
graduation, to have to give it up.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_237">[237]</div>
<p>Dick Ashton looked at Esther gratefully,
thinking of how their positions had been
reversed in a little less than a year. Had
he not, when first he came upon the shy,
homely girl among his sister’s group of
friends, done his best to make her more
comfortable, less of a stranger and an
outsider, and now he felt strangely strengthened
and calmed by her presence and
advice. He too saw that there were times
when Esther’s self-forgetfulness gave her a
kind of beauty which was more important
than mere lines and color, since it was a
beauty that would last far longer.</p>
<p>So the young people walked on for a
little time in silence, until Dick Ashton
colored and then hesitated.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_238">[238]</div>
<p>“I hope you won’t think me rude, Miss
Esther, that in my own trouble I have
forgotten to congratulate you on having
found your father. Betty has written me
all about it and I certainly hope it may
add to your happiness. I used to wonder
even when I was a little boy if you felt
very lonely at the asylum without a—a
single relative.”</p>
<p>“You wondered about me; then you
knew about <i>me</i>?” Esther asked quietly,
and turned, stopping short in the path
to give Dick Ashton a long, quiet look.
Something passed between them without
words, one of those subtle and silent
communications of thought for which
there has been no satisfactory explanation.
Yet in the instant each one of them knew
that the other had guessed his and her
secret, or if not quite guessing it, at least
had very reasonable foundations for their
suspicion.</p>
<p>Dick’s formerly pale face crimsoned and
he looked down at the ground, beginning
to walk slowly on. “We—we thought it
best this way, Miss Esther, and still think
so. It has been hard upon you perhaps,
but isn’t it better that one person should
suffer than that a number should be made
unhappy?” There was almost entreaty
in Dick Ashton’s voice and at the same time
he meant to make no betrayal if Esther
did not know what he supposed she might
possibly have learned within the past few
weeks.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_239">[239]</div>
<p>Esther’s reply left no room for doubt.
“It is best this way now,” she answered
slowly. “I can’t say that I think it
altogether fair or just at the beginning.
But so far as I am concerned, why you need
never worry.”</p>
<p>“I wish there were some way in which
we could make it up to you, but we have
nothing now to be of any assistance to
anybody. It is what my mother meant
in a measure when——”</p>
<p>Esther nodded. “I understand and
there is no need of talking about repaying
me. Betty has already done more than
that and there is nothing in the world
I would not do or give up for her sake.
I care for her more than she may ever
know.”</p>
<p>His companion’s voice trembled so that
Dick feared she might be losing her self-control
and knew that they had a hard
enough task before them.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_240">[240]</div>
<p>They were not very far from Sunrise cabin
now and feared that at any moment Betty
Ashton might come out to meet them,
since Dick had telegraphed that he was
coming to see her on important business
in order that she might be a little bit
prepared for what was to follow.</p>
<p>“It is a pretty dark road for all of us
just now, Miss Esther, but some day
perhaps without our having to make the
decision things will right themselves <i>somehow</i>,”
he returned kindly.</p>
<p>And at this instant the young man and
girl discovered Betty flying along the path
in their direction. It was a fairly warm
April afternoon and she wore her blue
cape, the cape which Esther remembered
so well during the spring of her own coming
to the big Ashton house. She had on no
hat and her hair was tied back in a loose
bunch of red-brown curls.</p>
<p>Evidently Betty had suspected no trouble
from Dick’s telegram (Betty and trouble
were so far apart these days), for she laughed
and waved both hands in joyous welcome
at her brother’s approach.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_241">[241]</div>
<p>“Where did you two people find one
another? I believe it was all arranged
beforehand and Dick Ashton’s visits to
our cabin are quite as much to see Miss
Esther Clark—Crippen I meant to say—as
they are to see poor little me.” Betty
had always enjoyed teasing Esther and
now she expected this silly remark of hers
to make her friend blush and scold, but
Esther seemed not to have paid the least
attention, not even to have heard her.
And in the same instant Betty guessed
that something serious had occurred.</p>
<p>Her expression changed instantly. Betty
looked suddenly older and unlike any one
had ever seen her look before.</p>
<p>She took her brother’s hand. “Never
mind, Dick, I think I know already,”
she whispered, and unexpectedly it seemed
to be Dick who was having to be upheld
and consoled.</p>
<p>Esther slipped silently away, leaving the
brother and sister together in their sorrow,
and somehow in her loneliness she felt
almost envious of them in the closeness
of their grief.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_242">[242]</div>
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