p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"One afternoon, a week after the accident, Eugene came in; Lucy kissed her father on the cheek and departed. They had obviously discussed it beforehand - George hadn't been alone with Eugene yet, but the older man took a seat and leaned forward with obvious purpose on his face. George's mouth went suddenly dry; he was still a little bit afraid of Eugene Morgan, and figured he probably always would be./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""How are the legs?" Eugene opened./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Still broken," George said dryly. "Shoulder's better, though." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Ah. Yes, I see." The noted industrialist rubbed the back of his neck, awkward. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""But that's not why you came here," George prompted./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""No." Eugene relaxed perceptibly - the one thing he could do with confidence was talk shop. "I came to tell you that I paid a visit to my old friend Floyd Akers." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"At 'my old friend' George's heart sank, in spite of himself. He hadn't known he'd been employed by anyone who knew Morgan - he remembered just in time that Morgan didn't hate him anymore. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""He showed me around the works - it's quite a going concern. I talked to some of the men - I saw your office -"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""It's not really an office," George protested, "just a desk and a few shelves." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""And I was asked, no fewer than seventeen times," Morgan went on, smiling, "if I'd visited you today, and if there's any way to know when you'd be back! The men are all at sixes and sevens without you, it seems. Even the horses are sulking."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh, they'll have to get used to it," George said without thinking. "I'm sure he'll have my position filled long before the plaster comes off." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Morgan seemed surprised at this. "You don't think they'll still be wanting you?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh, maybe once I'm back on my feet again I can get hired to sweep the floors. But I don't flatter myself that I'm irreplaceable." George smiled, though his tone was bitter. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Floyd didn't seem to think so," Morgan said, amused. "In fact, I could hardly get a word in edgewise." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Really?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh, yes - he says there hasn't been an accident since you've taken over running things, and you've found a half-a-dozen ways to improve efficiency, and -" Morgan stopped. "Well, emyou /emknow." He laughed at himself. "Akers told me you took a night course at Butler - what was it?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George couldn't help the note of pride that crept into his voice. "Organic chemistry!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Well, you see, that's where I think you can help me out." Morgan made the comment casually, but George couldn't imagine a world in which he served any purpose to Morgan. "I've been in conversation with Akers, and Carl Fisher, and several other interesting men, and we've got an ingenious idea we're cooking up."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What is that, sir?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Auto racing!" Morgan chuckled, and slapped his knee. "Fisher has this idea that we can make Indianapolis the center of the racing industry - there are a lot of moving parts, of course, but I think he's got the drive, so to speak, to make it work."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""That sounds… interesting, sir." George was baffled as to why Eugene Morgan would be sharing business plans with the likes of him./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Anyway,"Morgan went on, "Akers and I are establishing an experimental laboratory - gasoline additives, rubber substitutes, that sort of thing. I'm more of a silent partner, you see, but Akers respects my opinion on matters of staffing - and I'd like you to run it."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George blinked. "What?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Bring over whoever you'd like from the nitroglycerin works," Morgan said. "It seems you've got quite a loyal following over there."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Well, sir, I don't know what to say."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Call me Eugene," the other man said with a smile. "And give it some thought; you don't have to answer me right away."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I don't mind admitting that it would be a tremendous weight off," George said. "But perhaps Aunt Fanny hasn't told you - the news regarding my legs is, ah, not encouraging."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Fanny told me," said Morgan. "And I have every reason to believe we'll get you on your feet eventually." George smiled ruefully, not appearing to share Morgan's optimism. "But in the meantime? It will take some months to build the lab, and equip it, and so on. I'd need to bring you on early in a consultancy role, and you can do that from right here in the hospital, provided you feel up to it, of course. Now how does that sound?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George felt suddenly dizzy with relief. It was the first good news he'd had in a while. "It sounds very good, sir. Ah, Mr. Morgan, sir."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I'll pay you the going rate for the industry, of course."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Not a penny more?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Morgan grinned. "Not a penny emless./em" He offered his hand, and George shook it. "I'll have my assistant draw up some papers - no hurry, of course. Anyway, that wasn't the only thing I wanted to talk to you about."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What else could there be?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Well, Lucy, of course." And there it was, thought George. The job offer was a bribe, or perhaps a threat. Eugene Morgan, it was said, drove a hard bargain. And he had every right to warn George off of his daughter./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George hadn't meant to fall in love with Lucy all over again. She had made it so easy, the companionable way she came and went as she pleased, the kiss she would drop on his cheek in greeting. It had been so pleasant, only an hour before, to doze while she held his hand and read aloud from a book of poems. She must have thought he was asleep, then, because she had turned his hand palm up and traced a finger over the calluses she found there. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"It would make all the pain he had suffered so far seem like no more than a pin prick, to give her up; but give her up he must. He had no claim on her, he could only offer her a fraction of what she deserved. And he doubted Eugene's forgiveness extended as far as the things he wanted to do - the emkisses /emhe wanted to give Lucy -/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George was so absorbed in his self-pitying reverie that he completely missed the chewing-out he assumed Morgan was giving him. Eugene noticed the younger man's distraction, and mercifully repeated himself without being asked./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I said, I've been thinking lately of Lucy's mother. My, ah, my late wife." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"That was not what George had expected. Rather a roundabout way to begin. "Sir?" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Mary, her name was. Mary Lewis." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George didn't follow. "Yes, sir," he said as some reply seemed to be expected of him. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Do you know, from the day I first laid eyes on her till the day I buried her was only seventeen months." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I… I'm sorry to hear that?" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""All I can think now," Morgan went on, "all I can think is how much better she deserved than I ever gave her." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I'm sure you weren't unkind to her… sir," George replied, remembering only at the last moment to tack on the honorific. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Perhaps not," Morgan agreed, "but I was so consumed with - well, I don't mind saying it, consumed with wishing she was someone else. And I think, in time, I would have come to love and respect her the way a husband ought. But time was not on our side, it seemed. She lived long enough to bring Lucy into the world, but she was dead three days later." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George nodded, silent. A chill ran over him, which was strange because a moment ago the room had felt uncomfortably hot. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""You see, George, I didn't emcherish /emher. A wife deserves to be cherished, to be treasured, to be loved for who she is and not resented for who she isn't. And you see, George, I have this whole little speech prepared - have had it for years. Whatever young man is lucky to win my Lucy's heart - I was going to tell that young man, whomever he is, that Lucy should be the most important thing in all the world to him." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I see, sir," George said, vaguely wondering what on earth this had to do with emhim. /emAlso he was wondering why the room was spinning./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""And now, well, I find I don't need it." Morgan was smiling. "All of those things that I want Lucy's young man to do and feel for her - you do all of them, George, and more." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh no, sir, I'm not so conceited as to think -" He stopped, blinking. He couldn't remember what he was going to say./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Morgan looked at him strangely, and then did something neither one of them would have predicted a week before. He laid a practiced hand across George's brow - and withdrew it quickly. "My God, George, you're burning up." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George blinked, and said, "Tell father I'll be right in, I've got to stable Pendennis," and promptly threw up on himself. But Morgan had already gone to find a doctor./p
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p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""You aren't supposed to be here," said the nurse who came in and found Lucy. "He's not allowed to have visitors."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I'll keep that in mind," said Lucy, making no attempt to leave. George had been ill for two days; he wasn't delirious yet, but lethargic and miserable. Practical Lucy had cleared away the flowers and imported several electric fans. As usual, she was reading - this time to herself, as George couldn't have been less interested./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Are you his wife?" the nurse demanded. She was red-headed and broad-shouldered, and was secretly very fond of George./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""No."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""His sweetheart, then?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Not exactly."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Hmph." The nurse twisted her mouth wryly. "Could have fooled me." Lucy was unconcerned. "Well then, since you're here, I have to change that dressing."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What can I do?" Lucy said, marking her place in her book. "Will it hurt him very much?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""It's not pleasant," said the nurse, and Lucy liked her straightforwardness. "Just keep him calm. He's always better when you're here, anyway."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Between the two of them, they unbuttoned and removed a rough cotton shirt which was soaked with perspiration. Lucy had her first real sighting of the bandages, then, and did not find it especially comforting. "Should it be bleeding that much?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Sweat mixes with blood," the nurse told her. "Looks worse than it really is." George was evidently familiar with the routine; he hooked his right arm above his head, and turned slightly onto his left side. The nurse efficiently rolled away the bandages, and Lucy tried hard not to gasp. The long incision on his right side, partly healed, looked intolerably painful. Lucy remembered Fanny telling her how George had nearly bled to death in the ambulance; the surgeon had repaired his internal organs just in time. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George's eyes were locked on Lucy's; his breathing was ragged, and he was making little pained noises in the back of his throat. Lucy looked down, and realized she was squeezing his hand so tightly with both of hers that her knuckles were turning white. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George murmured something that Lucy didn't quite understand. "What was that, sweetheart?" She thought he was going to be sick again, and cast about for a basin. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"" 'S ugly," he said. "Sorry you have to see it."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy laughed shakily. "Honestly, George, I'm just happy you're alive." She watched as the nurse applied fresh bandages, and helped thread his nerveless limbs into a clean shirt. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George tried gamely to fasten the buttons himself, but his shaking fingers wouldn't cooperate. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Sorry," George said again while Lucy was doing up his buttons. "I'm sorry about..." He furrowed his brow, trying to finish the sentence. Lucy thought she had never seen a human being look so pitiful. "All of this."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Don't give it another thought," Lucy said brightly, and within a few minutes George had fallen into a fitful sleep. Lucy tried to return to her book, but after looking at the same paragraph three times without comprehending a word of it she gave up./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Somehow the sight of that ugly gash on his torso brought it home in a way that the casts on his legs hadn't: that George would never be the same again. Fanny had passed along the discouraging news from the orthopedist, but Lucy hadn't brought it up in conversation and neither had he. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy pictured George at eighteen: everything had come easily to him then, whether it was dancing or running and chasing or flying through the snow in a sled going much too fast. He had been so unconscious of his physical strength, taking it for granted as one does in one's youth, and Lucy had loved him for his arrogance. It was a good thing, Lucy thought, that the mental change had come to him before the physical one; the George of old would have simply self-destructed if the present set of circumstances had been visited upon him before he had learned unselfishness and forebearance. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Still, it would be a challenge for them both. George would have pain as his daily companion, and Lucy, who was so used to having things her way, couldn't solve the problem by any of her usual methods. It was a lot to take on, even for someone so determined as she. And yet, Lucy thought, taking a long look at the only man she had ever loved, there was nothing in the world that could dissuade her./p
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p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy's heart stopped when the phone rang at four in the morning; it had only begun beating again upon hearing that George was dangerously ill and apparently hallucinating, but still alive. She threw on her oldest and plainest dress of brown cambric - the one she wore when visiting tenements - and braided her hair in the car on the way over, Eugene Morgan himself at the wheel. Certainly, she was as far removed from the Lucy Morgan of the society pages as it was possible to be./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""If you don't stop trying to get up, they're going to tie you to the bed," Lucy said in a low voice when he was at his most agitated. She'd spent the last half hour feeding him bits of ice on a spoon, but his temperature would not come down. Lucy was truly alarmed for the first time since she'd opened the paper to the news of his disaster. "You don't want that, do you? Won't you try and lie still?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""The doors," George said, looking through Lucy rather than at her. "It's the – she's in there, she can't open –"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What doors, George dear?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""The library," he answered, "the doors are shut and she can't – she can't get in!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Is she in the library?" Lucy asked. She was fairly positive who the 'she' was, but despaired of his realizing that the 'she' in his mind was no more!/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""She's calling to me," George said, trying to push himself off the mattress, and failing. "I have to go to her."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;" "Suppose," Lucy said with a quavering chin, "suppose you stay here, and I go to her, instead?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I have to tell her-" George plucked at Lucy's sleeve, piteously weak. "I have to tell her-" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Yes," Lucy encouraged, "I'll pass the message along, if you'll only lie still!" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Tell her I'm sorry!" George said finally, and started to cry, and Lucy cried then, too. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"She stayed until he fell asleep, and laid a hand against his tear-wet cheek, pressed a kiss to his burning forehead. "Come back to me, George," she said, so low the nurse couldn't hear her. "Come back."/p
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p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Miss?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy jerked awake with a gasp to find the red-headed nurse standing over her. "I wasn't asleep," she said breathlessly. Sunlight was streaming through the window, and George was motionless. "Is he-"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Temperature's ninety-nine and a half, miss, and falling." Lucy breathed a sigh of relief; it was the first time in four days he'd been under a hundred. "He'll be asleep for a good long time. You need to take care of yourself, Miss; you look terrible."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy stood up and stretched. The metal chair was possibly the least comfortable place she had ever rested. "You'll call me when he wakes?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I will. But don't be in a hurry." The nurse looked her over critically. "Aren't you Lucy Morgan?" Lucy nodded mutely. "Well, God bless you, miss. You've been a brick."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy was as good as her word. The groundskeeper at Crown Hill cemetery that afternoon saw a highly fashionable young woman enter the unfashionable quarter of the cemetery; she knelt at a particular grave and remained there for a good twenty or thirty minutes. And while the watcher was discreet enough not to approach within earshot, he noticed that she had cleared the grass around the headstone, and left behind a veritable garden of flowers./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""How are the legs?" Eugene opened./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Still broken," George said dryly. "Shoulder's better, though." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Ah. Yes, I see." The noted industrialist rubbed the back of his neck, awkward. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""But that's not why you came here," George prompted./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""No." Eugene relaxed perceptibly - the one thing he could do with confidence was talk shop. "I came to tell you that I paid a visit to my old friend Floyd Akers." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"At 'my old friend' George's heart sank, in spite of himself. He hadn't known he'd been employed by anyone who knew Morgan - he remembered just in time that Morgan didn't hate him anymore. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""He showed me around the works - it's quite a going concern. I talked to some of the men - I saw your office -"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""It's not really an office," George protested, "just a desk and a few shelves." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""And I was asked, no fewer than seventeen times," Morgan went on, smiling, "if I'd visited you today, and if there's any way to know when you'd be back! The men are all at sixes and sevens without you, it seems. Even the horses are sulking."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh, they'll have to get used to it," George said without thinking. "I'm sure he'll have my position filled long before the plaster comes off." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Morgan seemed surprised at this. "You don't think they'll still be wanting you?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh, maybe once I'm back on my feet again I can get hired to sweep the floors. But I don't flatter myself that I'm irreplaceable." George smiled, though his tone was bitter. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Floyd didn't seem to think so," Morgan said, amused. "In fact, I could hardly get a word in edgewise." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Really?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh, yes - he says there hasn't been an accident since you've taken over running things, and you've found a half-a-dozen ways to improve efficiency, and -" Morgan stopped. "Well, emyou /emknow." He laughed at himself. "Akers told me you took a night course at Butler - what was it?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George couldn't help the note of pride that crept into his voice. "Organic chemistry!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Well, you see, that's where I think you can help me out." Morgan made the comment casually, but George couldn't imagine a world in which he served any purpose to Morgan. "I've been in conversation with Akers, and Carl Fisher, and several other interesting men, and we've got an ingenious idea we're cooking up."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What is that, sir?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Auto racing!" Morgan chuckled, and slapped his knee. "Fisher has this idea that we can make Indianapolis the center of the racing industry - there are a lot of moving parts, of course, but I think he's got the drive, so to speak, to make it work."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""That sounds… interesting, sir." George was baffled as to why Eugene Morgan would be sharing business plans with the likes of him./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Anyway,"Morgan went on, "Akers and I are establishing an experimental laboratory - gasoline additives, rubber substitutes, that sort of thing. I'm more of a silent partner, you see, but Akers respects my opinion on matters of staffing - and I'd like you to run it."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George blinked. "What?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Bring over whoever you'd like from the nitroglycerin works," Morgan said. "It seems you've got quite a loyal following over there."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Well, sir, I don't know what to say."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Call me Eugene," the other man said with a smile. "And give it some thought; you don't have to answer me right away."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I don't mind admitting that it would be a tremendous weight off," George said. "But perhaps Aunt Fanny hasn't told you - the news regarding my legs is, ah, not encouraging."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Fanny told me," said Morgan. "And I have every reason to believe we'll get you on your feet eventually." George smiled ruefully, not appearing to share Morgan's optimism. "But in the meantime? It will take some months to build the lab, and equip it, and so on. I'd need to bring you on early in a consultancy role, and you can do that from right here in the hospital, provided you feel up to it, of course. Now how does that sound?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George felt suddenly dizzy with relief. It was the first good news he'd had in a while. "It sounds very good, sir. Ah, Mr. Morgan, sir."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I'll pay you the going rate for the industry, of course."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Not a penny more?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Morgan grinned. "Not a penny emless./em" He offered his hand, and George shook it. "I'll have my assistant draw up some papers - no hurry, of course. Anyway, that wasn't the only thing I wanted to talk to you about."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What else could there be?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Well, Lucy, of course." And there it was, thought George. The job offer was a bribe, or perhaps a threat. Eugene Morgan, it was said, drove a hard bargain. And he had every right to warn George off of his daughter./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George hadn't meant to fall in love with Lucy all over again. She had made it so easy, the companionable way she came and went as she pleased, the kiss she would drop on his cheek in greeting. It had been so pleasant, only an hour before, to doze while she held his hand and read aloud from a book of poems. She must have thought he was asleep, then, because she had turned his hand palm up and traced a finger over the calluses she found there. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"It would make all the pain he had suffered so far seem like no more than a pin prick, to give her up; but give her up he must. He had no claim on her, he could only offer her a fraction of what she deserved. And he doubted Eugene's forgiveness extended as far as the things he wanted to do - the emkisses /emhe wanted to give Lucy -/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George was so absorbed in his self-pitying reverie that he completely missed the chewing-out he assumed Morgan was giving him. Eugene noticed the younger man's distraction, and mercifully repeated himself without being asked./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I said, I've been thinking lately of Lucy's mother. My, ah, my late wife." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"That was not what George had expected. Rather a roundabout way to begin. "Sir?" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Mary, her name was. Mary Lewis." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George didn't follow. "Yes, sir," he said as some reply seemed to be expected of him. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Do you know, from the day I first laid eyes on her till the day I buried her was only seventeen months." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I… I'm sorry to hear that?" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""All I can think now," Morgan went on, "all I can think is how much better she deserved than I ever gave her." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I'm sure you weren't unkind to her… sir," George replied, remembering only at the last moment to tack on the honorific. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Perhaps not," Morgan agreed, "but I was so consumed with - well, I don't mind saying it, consumed with wishing she was someone else. And I think, in time, I would have come to love and respect her the way a husband ought. But time was not on our side, it seemed. She lived long enough to bring Lucy into the world, but she was dead three days later." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George nodded, silent. A chill ran over him, which was strange because a moment ago the room had felt uncomfortably hot. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""You see, George, I didn't emcherish /emher. A wife deserves to be cherished, to be treasured, to be loved for who she is and not resented for who she isn't. And you see, George, I have this whole little speech prepared - have had it for years. Whatever young man is lucky to win my Lucy's heart - I was going to tell that young man, whomever he is, that Lucy should be the most important thing in all the world to him." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I see, sir," George said, vaguely wondering what on earth this had to do with emhim. /emAlso he was wondering why the room was spinning./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""And now, well, I find I don't need it." Morgan was smiling. "All of those things that I want Lucy's young man to do and feel for her - you do all of them, George, and more." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Oh no, sir, I'm not so conceited as to think -" He stopped, blinking. He couldn't remember what he was going to say./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Morgan looked at him strangely, and then did something neither one of them would have predicted a week before. He laid a practiced hand across George's brow - and withdrew it quickly. "My God, George, you're burning up." /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George blinked, and said, "Tell father I'll be right in, I've got to stable Pendennis," and promptly threw up on himself. But Morgan had already gone to find a doctor./p
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p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""You aren't supposed to be here," said the nurse who came in and found Lucy. "He's not allowed to have visitors."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I'll keep that in mind," said Lucy, making no attempt to leave. George had been ill for two days; he wasn't delirious yet, but lethargic and miserable. Practical Lucy had cleared away the flowers and imported several electric fans. As usual, she was reading - this time to herself, as George couldn't have been less interested./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Are you his wife?" the nurse demanded. She was red-headed and broad-shouldered, and was secretly very fond of George./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""No."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""His sweetheart, then?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Not exactly."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Hmph." The nurse twisted her mouth wryly. "Could have fooled me." Lucy was unconcerned. "Well then, since you're here, I have to change that dressing."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What can I do?" Lucy said, marking her place in her book. "Will it hurt him very much?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""It's not pleasant," said the nurse, and Lucy liked her straightforwardness. "Just keep him calm. He's always better when you're here, anyway."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Between the two of them, they unbuttoned and removed a rough cotton shirt which was soaked with perspiration. Lucy had her first real sighting of the bandages, then, and did not find it especially comforting. "Should it be bleeding that much?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Sweat mixes with blood," the nurse told her. "Looks worse than it really is." George was evidently familiar with the routine; he hooked his right arm above his head, and turned slightly onto his left side. The nurse efficiently rolled away the bandages, and Lucy tried hard not to gasp. The long incision on his right side, partly healed, looked intolerably painful. Lucy remembered Fanny telling her how George had nearly bled to death in the ambulance; the surgeon had repaired his internal organs just in time. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George's eyes were locked on Lucy's; his breathing was ragged, and he was making little pained noises in the back of his throat. Lucy looked down, and realized she was squeezing his hand so tightly with both of hers that her knuckles were turning white. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George murmured something that Lucy didn't quite understand. "What was that, sweetheart?" She thought he was going to be sick again, and cast about for a basin. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"" 'S ugly," he said. "Sorry you have to see it."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy laughed shakily. "Honestly, George, I'm just happy you're alive." She watched as the nurse applied fresh bandages, and helped thread his nerveless limbs into a clean shirt. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"George tried gamely to fasten the buttons himself, but his shaking fingers wouldn't cooperate. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Sorry," George said again while Lucy was doing up his buttons. "I'm sorry about..." He furrowed his brow, trying to finish the sentence. Lucy thought she had never seen a human being look so pitiful. "All of this."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Don't give it another thought," Lucy said brightly, and within a few minutes George had fallen into a fitful sleep. Lucy tried to return to her book, but after looking at the same paragraph three times without comprehending a word of it she gave up./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Somehow the sight of that ugly gash on his torso brought it home in a way that the casts on his legs hadn't: that George would never be the same again. Fanny had passed along the discouraging news from the orthopedist, but Lucy hadn't brought it up in conversation and neither had he. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy pictured George at eighteen: everything had come easily to him then, whether it was dancing or running and chasing or flying through the snow in a sled going much too fast. He had been so unconscious of his physical strength, taking it for granted as one does in one's youth, and Lucy had loved him for his arrogance. It was a good thing, Lucy thought, that the mental change had come to him before the physical one; the George of old would have simply self-destructed if the present set of circumstances had been visited upon him before he had learned unselfishness and forebearance. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Still, it would be a challenge for them both. George would have pain as his daily companion, and Lucy, who was so used to having things her way, couldn't solve the problem by any of her usual methods. It was a lot to take on, even for someone so determined as she. And yet, Lucy thought, taking a long look at the only man she had ever loved, there was nothing in the world that could dissuade her./p
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p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy's heart stopped when the phone rang at four in the morning; it had only begun beating again upon hearing that George was dangerously ill and apparently hallucinating, but still alive. She threw on her oldest and plainest dress of brown cambric - the one she wore when visiting tenements - and braided her hair in the car on the way over, Eugene Morgan himself at the wheel. Certainly, she was as far removed from the Lucy Morgan of the society pages as it was possible to be./p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""If you don't stop trying to get up, they're going to tie you to the bed," Lucy said in a low voice when he was at his most agitated. She'd spent the last half hour feeding him bits of ice on a spoon, but his temperature would not come down. Lucy was truly alarmed for the first time since she'd opened the paper to the news of his disaster. "You don't want that, do you? Won't you try and lie still?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""The doors," George said, looking through Lucy rather than at her. "It's the – she's in there, she can't open –"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""What doors, George dear?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""The library," he answered, "the doors are shut and she can't – she can't get in!"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Is she in the library?" Lucy asked. She was fairly positive who the 'she' was, but despaired of his realizing that the 'she' in his mind was no more!/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""She's calling to me," George said, trying to push himself off the mattress, and failing. "I have to go to her."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;" "Suppose," Lucy said with a quavering chin, "suppose you stay here, and I go to her, instead?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I have to tell her-" George plucked at Lucy's sleeve, piteously weak. "I have to tell her-" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Yes," Lucy encouraged, "I'll pass the message along, if you'll only lie still!" /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Tell her I'm sorry!" George said finally, and started to cry, and Lucy cried then, too. /p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"She stayed until he fell asleep, and laid a hand against his tear-wet cheek, pressed a kiss to his burning forehead. "Come back to me, George," she said, so low the nurse couldn't hear her. "Come back."/p
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p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Miss?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy jerked awake with a gasp to find the red-headed nurse standing over her. "I wasn't asleep," she said breathlessly. Sunlight was streaming through the window, and George was motionless. "Is he-"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""Temperature's ninety-nine and a half, miss, and falling." Lucy breathed a sigh of relief; it was the first time in four days he'd been under a hundred. "He'll be asleep for a good long time. You need to take care of yourself, Miss; you look terrible."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy stood up and stretched. The metal chair was possibly the least comfortable place she had ever rested. "You'll call me when he wakes?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;""I will. But don't be in a hurry." The nurse looked her over critically. "Aren't you Lucy Morgan?" Lucy nodded mutely. "Well, God bless you, miss. You've been a brick."/p
p style="font-family: 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"Lucy was as good as her word. The groundskeeper at Crown Hill cemetery that afternoon saw a highly fashionable young woman enter the unfashionable quarter of the cemetery; she knelt at a particular grave and remained there for a good twenty or thirty minutes. And while the watcher was discreet enough not to approach within earshot, he noticed that she had cleared the grass around the headstone, and left behind a veritable garden of flowers./p