He had told
Edith, after his ineffective effort to be useful in her affairs, that
he had decided that he was "a member of the family"; but he appeared
to have relapsed to the retired list after that one attempt at
participancy--he was far enough detached from membership now. These
were turbulent days in the New House, but Bibbs had no part whatever
in the turbulence--he seemed an absent-minded stranger, present by
accident and not wholly aware that he was present. He would sit,
faintly smiling over pleasant imaginings and dear reminiscences of
his own, while battle raged between Edith and her father, or while
Sheridan unloosed jeremiads upon the sullen Roscoe, who drank heavily
to endure them. The happy dreamer wandered into storm-areas like a
somnambulist, and wandered out again unawakened. He was sorry for
his father and for Roscoe, and for Edith and for Sibyl, but their
sufferings and outcries seemed far away.
Sibyl was under Gurney's care. Roscoe had sent for him on Sunday
night, not long after Bibbs returned the abandoned wraps; and during
the first days of Sibyl's illness the doctor found it necessary to be
with her frequently, and to install a muscular nurse.
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