Arrow Pointing Nowhere Read Online Free

haven’t been back again, but you know what it’s like in New York, and now there’s all the war work. I’m on at least four committees, and I never do anything else. Blake Fenway was an angel to them, Belle said; wouldn’t hear of her taking Alden to a hotel. Of course she can’t run a house or an apartment while she’s tied to a wheel chair, and she wouldn’t dream of putting Alden in an institution, even the best private one. She’s never been parted from him since he was born.”
    â€œHow badly hurt is she? Can she get about on crutches?”
    â€œNot yet; the injury was partly to her back, and some nerves were involved. But she’s much better; she’s had regular surgical treatment and massage, and of course their old family doctor, Thurley, takes the best care of her. He brought Alden into the world. He says she’ll be walking in another year or less; he told me so himself when I met him at the movies only a month ago.”
    â€œThe boy has an attendant of some kind, I suppose?”
    â€œBelle was very lucky about that. While they were trying to get to Marseilles—such an awful experience—ghastly—an old school friend of ours turned up; when I knew her she was Alice Horton. She’s a widow now, Alice Grove. She had a young niece in tow, or rather her husband’s niece, who’d been at school in Switzerland. Alice’s money was all tied up in Paris, so Belle instantly took her on as courier and companion. Most fortunately; because Belle was injured before they ever left the dock at Marseilles. Alice Grove took care of her on the voyage, and takes care of her now; she doesn’t need a nurse any more.”
    â€œWhat became of the niece?”
    â€œShe’s at Number 24 too, doing some kind of secretarial work for Blake Fenway; or didn’t they say that she was very outdoor, and spends her time up at Fenbrook? Well; who should turn up on the dock but a young fellow named Craddock, whom Alice knew. His parents were old friends of her husband’s. He was a newspaperman in China, and he was going home because he’d acquired some obscure kind of germ, and had intermittent fever. He was the perfect companion for Alden, Belle says he’s wonderful with him. She dreads the time when he’ll be well enough to be drafted.”
    â€œAnd he’s at Number 24?”
    â€œOh, yes; a fixture.”
    â€œAnd this Mr. Mott Fenway—”
    â€œHe’s always been there, or at Fenbrook. He failed in business when he was a young man, and he’s lived with his cousin Blake ever since. I believe he does estate work and accounts for him.”
    â€œThe household consists, then, of Mr. Blake Fenway, from whom all blessings flow; his daughter Caroline, whom Clara thinks sarcastic, and who may have some reason for being so; Mr. Mott Fenway, an elderly dependent; Mrs. Cort Fenway, crippled and tied to an invalid chair; her son, a mental invalid; his attendant, a semi-invalid with recurrent fever; her companion and the companion’s niece, indigent.”
    â€œYou sound so grim, Henry!”
    â€œIt can’t be a jolly house, now can it?”
    â€œBut the Fenways never think of Mott as a poor relation, they love having him there; and the Fenway sense of family obligation is very great—of course they’d have Belle and Alden. They’re as well off as Blake, you know; probably better off than he is, because they haven’t his expenses. And Alden is no trouble; I told you he’d had all those specialists—Viborg here, until he was four, and then everybody in Europe. Belle said he had the best men in Austria, and Fagon in Paris. She was with him at the most wonderful sanatoria. And then this fearful war came, and it set him back. The travelling and the hardships were bad for him. He’s more silent now.”
    â€œStill, he’s a liability in a household.”
    â€œBelle insists