I paid the driver, opened the gate and went in. The trees were so thick at not until I was half way up the path did I get a good view of the house. It was three stories high, built of brick, in fairly good repair, at lonely and deserted-looking. The binds were closed in all of the windows with the exception of two, one on the first, one on the second floor. Not a sign of life anywhere, not a cat nor a milk bottle to break the monotony of the leaves that carpeted the porch.
But, overcoming my feeling of uneasiness, I resolutely set my suitcase on the porch, caught at the old-fashioned bell, and gave an energetic jerk. A startling peal jangled through the silence. I waited, but there was no answer.
After a minute I rang again. Then from the interior I heard a queer dragging sound, as if someone was coming slowly down the hall. The knob was turned and the door opened. I saw before me an old woman, wrinkled, withered, and filmy-eyed, who leaned on a crutch.
"Does Mr. Barker live here?" I asked.
She nodded, staring at me in a curious way, but made no move to invite me in.
"Well, I've come to see him," I said. "I'm a friend of his. He sent for me."
At that she drew slightly aside.
"He's upstairs," she said in a cracked voice that was little more than a whisper. "I can't show you up. Hain't been up a stair now in ten year."
"That's all right," I replied, and, seizing my suitcase, I strode down the long hall.
"At the head of the steps," came the whispering voice behind me. "The door at the end of the hall,"
I climbed the cold dark stairway, passed along the short hall at the top, and stood before a closed door. I knocked.
"Come in." It was Arthur's voice, and yet—not his.
I opened the door and saw Arthur sitting on a couch, his shoulders hunched over, his eyes raised to mine.
After all, ten years had not changed him so much. As I remembered him, he was of medium height, inclined to be stout, and ruddy-faced with keen gray eyes. He was still stout, but had lost his color, and his eyes had dulled.
"And where have you been all this time?" I demanded, when the first greetings were over.
"Here," he answered.
"In this house?"
"Yes."
"But why didn't you let us hear from you?"
He seemed to be making an effort to speak.
"What did it matter? I didn't suppose any one cared."
Perhaps it was my imagination, but I could not get rid of the thought that Arthur's pale eyes fixed tenaciously upon my face, were trying to tell me something, something quite different from what his lips said.
I felt chilled. Although the blinds were open, the room was almost darkened by the branches of the trees that pressed against the window. Arthur had not given me his hand, had seemed troubled to know how to make me welcome. Yet of one thing I was certain: He needed me and he wanted me to know he needed me.
As I took a chair I glanced about the room. It was a typical lodging-house room, medium sized, flowered wall paper, worn matting, nondescript rugs, a wash-stand in one corner, a chiffonier in another, a table in the center, two or three chairs, and the couch which evidently served Arthur as a bed. But it was cold, strangely cold for such a warm day.
