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diff --git a/old/30759.txt b/old/30759.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c82877 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30759.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6052 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Exit Betty, by Grace Livingston Hill + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Exit Betty + + +Author: Grace Livingston Hill + + + +Release Date: December 25, 2009 [eBook #30759] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXIT BETTY*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +EXIT BETTY + +by + +GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL + + + * * * * * + +BOOKS BY + +GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL + + + April Gold + Happiness Hill + The Beloved Stranger + The Honor Girl + Bright Arrows + Kerry + Christmas Bride + Marigold + Crimson Roses + Miranda + Duskin + The Mystery of Mary + Found Treasure + Partners + A Girl to Come Home To + Rainbow Cottage + The Red Signal + White Orchids + Silver Wings + The Tryst + The Strange Proposal + Through These Fires + The Street of the City + All Through the Night + The Gold Shoe + Astra + Homing + Blue Ruin + Job's Niece + Challengers + The Man of the Desert + Coming Through the Rye + More Than Conqueror + Daphne Deane + A New Name + The Enchanted Barn + The Patch of Blue + Girl from Montana + The Ransom + Rose Galbraith + The Witness + Sound of the Trumpet + Sunrise + Tomorrow About This Time + Amorelle + Head of the House + Ariel Custer + In Tune with Wedding Bells + Chance of a Lifetime + Maris + Crimson Mountain + Out of the Storm + Exit Betty + Mystery Flowers + The Prodigal Girl + Girl of the Woods + Re-Creations + The White Flower + Matched Pearls + Time of the Singing of Birds + Ladybird + The Substitute Guest + Beauty for Ashes + Stranger Within the Gates + The Best Man + Spice Box + By Way of the Silverthorns + The Seventh Hour + Dawn of the Morning + The Search + Brentwood + Cloudy Jewel + The Voice in the Wilderness + + * * * * * + + +EXIT BETTY + +BY + +GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL + +Author of +Marcia Schuyler, The Search, Dawn of the Morning, Etc. + + + + + + + +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers New York + +Made in the United States of America + +Copyright, 1919, by The Christian Herald + +Copyright, 1920, by J. B. Lippincott Company + + + + +EXIT BETTY + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +THE crowd gave way and the car glided smoothly up to the curb at the +canopied entrance to the church. The blackness of the wet November night +was upon the street. It had rained at intervals all day. + +The pavements shone wetly like new paint in the glimmer of the street +lights, and rude shadows gloomed in every cranny of the great stone +building. + +Betty, alone in the midst of her bridal finery, shrank back from the +gaze of the curious onlookers, seeming very small like a thing of the +air caught in a mesh of the earth. + +She had longed all day for this brief respite from everyone, but it had +passed before she could concentrate her thoughts. She started forward, a +flame of rose for an instant in her white cheeks, but gone as quickly. +Her eyes reminded one of the stars among the far-away clouds on a night +of fitful storm with only glimpses of their beauty in breaks of the +overcast sky. Her small hands gripped one another excitedly, and the +sweet lips were quivering. + +A white-gloved hand reached out to open the car door, and other hands +caught and cared for the billow of satin and costly lace with which she +was surrounded, as if it, and not she, were the important one. + +They led her up the curtained way, where envious eyes peeped through a +furtive rip in the canvas, or craned around an opening to catch a better +glimpse of her loveliness, one little dark-eyed foreigner even reached +out a grimy, wondering finger to the silver whiteness of her train; but +she, all unknowing, trod the carpeted path as in a dream. + +The wedding march was just beginning. She caught the distant notes, felt +the hush as she approached the audience, and wondered why the ordeal +seemed so much greater now that she was actually come to the moment. If +she had known it would be like this--! Oh, why had she given in! + +The guests had risen and were stretching their necks for the first +vision of her. The chaplet of costly blossoms sat upon her brow and +bound her wedding veil floating mistily behind, but the lovely head was +bowed, not lifted proudly as a bride's should be, and the little white +glove that rested on the arm of the large florid cousin trembled +visibly. The cousin was almost unknown until a few hours before. His +importance overpowered her. She drooped her eyes and tried not to wish +for the quiet, gray-haired cousin of her own mother. It was so strange +for him to have failed her at the last moment, when he had promised long +ago to let nothing hinder him from giving her away if she should ever be +married. His telegram, "Unavoidably detained," had been received but an +hour before. He seemed the only one of her kind, and now she was all +alone. All the rest were like enemies, although they professed deep +concern for her welfare; for they were leagued together against all her +dearest wishes, until she had grown weary in the combat. + +She gave a frightened glance behind as if some intangible thing were +following her. Was it a hounding dread that after all she would not be +free after marriage? + +With measured tread she passed the long white-ribboned way, under arches +that she never noticed, through a sea of faces that she never saw, to +the altar smothered in flowers and tropical ferns. It seemed +interminable. Would it never end? They paused at last, and she lifted +frightened eyes to the florid cousin, and then to the face of her +bridegroom! + +It was a breathless moment, and but for the deep tones of the organ now +hushing for the ceremony, one of almost audible silence. No lovelier +bride had trod those aisles in many a long year; so exquisite, so +small, so young--and so exceeding rich! The guests were entranced, and +every eye was greedily upon her as the white-robed minister advanced +with his open book. + +"Beloved, we are met together to-night to join this man----!" + +At that word they saw the bride suddenly, softly sink before them, a +little white heap at the altar, with the white face turned upward, the +white eyelids closed, the long dark lashes sweeping the pretty cheek, +the wedding veil trailing mistily about her down the aisle, and her big +bouquet of white roses and maiden-hair ferns clasped listlessly in the +white-gloved hands. + +For a moment no one stirred, so sudden, so unexpected it was. It all +seemed an astonishing part of the charming spectacle. The gaping throng +with startled faces stood and stared. Above the huddled little bride +stood the bridegroom, tall and dark and frowning, an angry red surging +through his handsome face. The white-haired minister, with two red spots +on his fine scholarly cheeks, stood grave with troubled dignity, as +though somehow he meant to hold the little still bride responsible for +this unseemly break in his beautiful service. The organ died away with +a soft crash of the keys and pedals as if they too leaped up to see; the +scent of the lilies swept sickeningly up in a great wave on the top of +the silence. + +In a moment all was confusion. The minister stooped, the best man sprang +into the aisle and lifted the flower-like head. Some one produced a fan, +and one of the ushers hurried for a glass of water. A physician +struggled from his pew across the sittings of three stout dowagers, and +knelt, with practiced finger on the little fluttering pulse. The bride's +stepmother roused to solicitous and anxious attention. The organ came +smartly up again in a hopeless tangle of chords and modulations, trying +to get its poise once more. People climbed upon their seats to see, or +crowded out in the aisle curiously and unwisely kind, and in the way. +Then the minister asked the congregation to be seated; and amid the +rustle of wedding finery into seats suddenly grown too narrow and too +low, the ushers gathered up the little inert bride and carried her +behind the palms across a hall and into the vestry room. The stepmother +and a group of friends hurried after, and the minister requested the +people to remain quietly seated for a few minutes. The organ by this +time had recovered its poise and was playing soft tender melodies, but +the excited audience was not listening: + +"I thought she looked ghastly when she came in," declared the mother of +three frowsy daughters. "It's strange she didn't put on some rouge." + +"Um-mm! What a pity! I suppose she isn't strong! What did her own mother +die of?" murmured another speculatively, preparing to put forth a theory +before any one else got ahead of her. + +"Oh! The poor child!" sympathized a romantic friend. "They've been +letting her do too much! Didn't they make a handsome couple? I'm crazy +to see them come marching down the aisle. They surely wouldn't put off +the wedding just for a faint, would they?" + +And all over the church some woman began to tell how her sister's child, +or her brother's niece, or her nephew's aunt had fainted just before her +wedding or during it, till it began to seem quite a common performance, +and one furnishing a unique and interesting part of the program for a +wedding ceremony. + +Meanwhile on a couch in the big gloomy vestry room lay Betty with a +group of attendants about her. Her eyes were closed, and she made no +move. She swallowed the aromatic ammonia that some one produced, and she +drew her breath a little less feebly, but she did not open her eyes, nor +respond when they spoke to her. + +Her stepmother stooped over finally and spoke in her ear: + +"Elizabeth Stanhope! sit up and control yourself!" she said sharply in a +low tone. "You are making a spectacle of yourself that you can never get +over. Your father would be ashamed of you if he were here!" + +It was the one argument that had been held a successful lash over her +poor little quivering heart for the last five years, and Betty flashed +open her sorrowful eyes and looked around on them with a troubled +concentration as if she were just taking in what had happened: + +"I'm so tired!" she said in a little weary voice. "Won't you just let me +get my breath a minute?" + +The physician nodded emphatically toward the door and motioned them out: + +"She'll be all right in just a minute. Step outside and give her a +chance to get calm. She's only worn out with excitement." + +She opened her eyes and looked furtively about the room. There was no +one there, and the door was closed. She could hear them murmuring in low +tones just beyond it. She looked wildly about her with a frantic thought +of escape. The two windows were deeply curtained, giving a narrow +glimpse of blank wall. She sprang softly to her feet and looked out. +There was a stone pavement far below. She turned silently and tried a +door. It opened into a closet overflowing with musty hymn-books. She +closed it quickly and slipped back to her couch just in time as the door +opened and the doctor came back. She could catch a glimpse of the others +through the half open door, anxiously peering in. She gathered all her +self-control and spoke: + +"I'm all right now, Doctor," she said quite calmly. "Would you just ask +them to send Bessemer here a minute?" + +"Certainly." The doctor turned courteously and went back to the door, +half closing it and making her request in a low tone. Then her +stepmother's excited sibilant whisper: + +"Bessemer! Why, he isn't here! He went down to the shore last night." + +"Sh-h-h!" came another voice, and the door was shut smartly. + +Betty's eyes grew wide with horror as she lay staring at the closed +door, and a cold numbness seemed to envelop her, clutching at her +throat, her heart and threatening to overwhelm her. + +Bessemer not here! What could it mean? Her mind seemed unable to grasp +and analyze the nameless fear that awaited her outside that door. In a +moment more they would all swarm in and surround her, and begin to +clamor for her to go back into that awful church--and _she could +not_--EVER! She would far rather die! + +She sprang to her feet again and glided noiselessly to the only +remaining uninvestigated door in the room. If this was another closet +she would shut herself inside and stay till she died. She had read tales +of people dying in a small space from lack of air. At least, if she did +not die she could stay here till she had time to think. There was a key +in the lock. Her fingers closed around it and drew it stealthily from +the keyhole, as she slid through the door, drawing her rich draperies +ruthlessly after. Her fingers were trembling so that she scarcely could +fit the key in the lock again and turn it, and every click of the metal, +every creak of the door, sounded like a gong in her ears. Her heart was +fluttering wildly and the blood seemed to be pouring in torrents behind +her ear-drums. She could not be sure whether there were noises in the +room she had just left or not. She put her hand over her heart, turned +with a sickening dread to look about her prison, and behold, it was not +a closet at all, but a dark landing to a narrow flight of stone steps +that wound down out of sight into the shadows. With a shudder she +gathered her white impediment about her and crept down the murky way, +frightened, yet glad to creep within the friendly darkness. + +There were unmistakable sounds of footsteps overhead now, and sharp +exclamations. A hand tried the door above and rattled it violently. For +an instant her heart beat frightfully in her throat at the thought that +perhaps after all she had not succeeded in quite locking it, but the +door held, and she flew on blindly down the stairs, caring little where +they led only so that she might hide quickly before they found the +janitor and pried that door open. + +The stairs ended in a little hall and a glass door. She fumbled wildly +with the knob. It was locked, but there was a key! It was a large one +and stuck, and gave a great deal of trouble in turning. Her fingers +seemed so weak! + +Above the noises grew louder. She fancied the door was open and the +whole churchful of people were after her. She threw her full weight with +fear in the balance, and the key turned. She wrenched it out of the +rusty keyhole, slid out shutting the door after her, and stooping, +fitted in the key again. With one more Herculean effort she locked it +and stood up, trembling so that she could scarcely keep her balance. At +least she was safe for a moment and could get her breath. But where +could she go? She looked about her. High walls arose on either hand, +with a murky sky above. A stone walk filled the space between and ran +down the length of the church to a big iron gate. The lights of the +street glistened fitfully on the puddles of wet in the depressions of +the paving-stones. The street looked quiet, and only one or two people +were passing. Was that gate locked also, and if so could she ever climb +it, or break through? Somehow she must! She shuddered at the thought of +what would happen if she did not get away at once. She strained at the +buttons on her soft white gloves and pulled the fingers off, slipping +her hands out and letting the glove hands hang limp at her wrists. Then +with a quick glance backward at a flicker of light that appeared +wavering beyond the glass door, she gathered her draperies again and +fled down the long stone walk. Silently, lightly as a ghost she passed, +and crouched at the gate as she heard footsteps, her heart beating so +loudly it seemed like a bell calling attention to her. An old man was +shuffling past, and she shrank against the wall, yet mindful of the +awful glass door back at the end of the narrow passage. If they should +come now she could not hope to elude them! + +She stooped and studied the gate latch. Yes, it was a spring lock, and +had no key in it. Stealthily she tried it and found to her relief that +it swung open. She stepped around it and peered out. The gateway was not +more than a hundred feet from the brightly lighted corner of the main +avenue where rows of automobiles were lined up waiting for the wedding +ceremony to be over. She could see the chauffeurs walking back and forth +and chatting together. She could hear the desultory wandering of the +organ, too, from the partly open window near by. A faint sickening waft +of lily sweetness swept out, mingled with a dash of drops from the maple +tree on the sidewalk. In a panic she stepped forth and drew back again, +suddenly realizing for the first time what it would be to go forth into +the streets clad in her wedding garments? How could she do it and get +away? It could not be done! + +Down the street, with a backward, wistful glance at the church, hurried +a large woman with a market basket. Her curious eyes shone in the +evening light and darkness of the street. There was something about her +face that made Betty know instantly that this woman would love to tell +how she had seen her, would gather a crowd in no time and pursue her. +She shrank farther back, and then waited in awful fear and tried to +listen again. Was that a rattling at the glass door? She must get away +no matter what happened! Where? Was there an alleyway or anything across +the block? Could she hope to cross the street between the shadows +unnoticed? + +She looked out fearfully once more. A girl of her own age was +approaching around the corner, paddling along in rubbers, and a long +coat. She was chewing gum. Betty could see the outline of a strong +good-natured jaw working contentedly as she was silhouetted against the +light. She had her hands in her pockets, and a little dark hat worn +boyishly on the back of her head, and she was humming a popular song. +Betty had slipped behind the half open gate again and was watching her +approach, her desperation driving her to thoughts that never would have +entered her mind at another time. Suddenly, as the girl passed directly +in front of the gate, Betty leaned forward and plucked at her sleeve: + +"Wait!" she said sharply; and then, with a pitiful pleading in her +voice, "Won't you help me just a minute, please?" + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +THE girl came to a standstill abruptly and faced about, drawing away +just a hair's-breadth from the detaining hand, and surveying her +steadily, the boyish expression in her eyes changing to an amused +calculation such as one would fancy a cowboy held up on his native +plains by a stray lamb might have worn. + +"What's the little old idea!" asked the girl coldly, her eyes narrowing +as she studied the other girl in detail and attempted to classify her +into the known and unknown quantities of her world. Her face was +absolutely expressionless as far as any sign of interest or sympathy was +concerned. It was like a house with the door still closed and a +well-trained butler in attendance. + +"I've got to get away from here at once before anybody sees me," +whispered Betty excitedly, with a fearful glance behind her. + +"Do you want me to call a cab for you?" sneered the girl on the +sidewalk, with an envious glance at the white satin slippers. + +"Oh, no! Never!" cried Betty, wringing her hands in desperation. "I want +you to show me somewhere to go out of sight, and if you will I'd like +you to walk a block or so with me so I won't be so--so conspicuous! I'm +so frightened I don't know which way to go." + +"What do you want to go at all for?" asked the girl bluntly, with the +look of an inquisitor, and the intolerance of the young for its +contemporary of another social class. + +"Because I _must_!" said Betty with terror in her voice. "They're +coming! Listen! Oh, help me quick! I can't wait to explain!" + +Betty dashed out of the gate and would have started up the street but +that a strong young arm came out like a flash and a firm young fist +gripped her arm like a vise. The girl's keen ears had caught a sound of +turning key and excited voices, and her quick eyes pierced the darkness +of the narrow court and measured the distance back. + +"Here! You can't go togged out like that!" she ordered in quite a +different tone. She flung off her own long coat and threw it around the +shrinking little white figure, then knelt and deftly turned up the long +satin draperies out of sight and fixed them firmly with a pin extracted +from somewhere about her person. Quickly she stood up and pulled off her +rubbers, her eye on the long dark passageway whence came now the +decided sound of a forcibly opened door and footsteps. + +"Put these on, quick!" she whispered, lifting first one slippered foot +and then the other and supporting the trembling Betty in her strong +young arms, while she snapped on the rubbers. + +Lastly, she jerked the rakish hat from her own head, crammed it down +hard over the orange-wreathed brow and gave her strange protegee a hasty +shove. + +"Now beat it around that corner and wait till I come!" she whispered, +and turning planted herself in an idle attitude just under the church +window, craning her neck and apparently listening to the music. A second +later an excited usher, preceded by the janitor, came clattering down +the passageway. + +"Have you seen any one go out of this gate recently?" asked the usher. + +The girl, hatless and coatless in the chill November night, turned +nonchalantly at the question, surveyed the usher coolly from the point +of his patent leather shoes to the white gardenia in his buttonhole, +gave his features a cursory glance, and then shook her head. + +"There might have been an old woman come out a while back. Dressed in +black, was she? I wasn't paying much attention. I think she went down +the avenoo," she said, and stretched her neck again, standing on her +tiptoes to view the wedding guests. Her interest suddenly became real, +for she spied a young man standing in the church, in full view of the +window, back against the wall with his arms folded, a fine handsome +young man with pleasant eyes and a head like that of a young nobleman, +and she wanted to make sure of his identity. He looked very much like +the young lawyer whose office boy was her "gentleman friend." Just to +make sure she gave a little spring from the sidewalk that brought her +eyes almost on a level with the window and gave her a brief glimpse, +enough to see his face quite clearly; then she turned with satisfaction +to see that the janitor and the usher had gone back up the passageway, +having slammed the gate shut. Without more ado the girl wheeled and +hurried down the street toward the corner where Betty crouched behind a +tree trunk, watching fearfully for her coming. + +"Aw! You don't need to be that scared!" said the girl, coming up. +"They've gone back. I threw 'em off the scent. Come on! We'll go to my +room and see what to do. Don't talk! Somebody might recognize your +voice. Here, we'll cut through this alley and get to the next block. +It's further away and not so many folks passing." + +Silently they hurried through the dark alley and down the next street, +Betty holding the long cloak close that no gleam of her white satin +might shine out and give away her secret, her heart beating like a trip +hammer in her breast, her eyes filled with unshed tears, the last words +of her stepmother ringing in her ears. Was she making her father +ashamed? Her dear dead father! Was she doing the wrong thing? So long +that thought had held her! But she could not go back now. She had taken +an irrevocable step. + +Her guide turned another corner abruptly and led her up some stone steps +to the door of a tall, dingy brick house, to which she applied a +latchkey. + +The air of the gloomy hall was not pleasant. The red wall-paper was +soiled and torn, and weird shadows flickered from the small gas taper +that blinked from the ceiling. There were suggestions of old dinners, +stale fried potatoes and pork in all the corners, and one moving toward +the stairs seemed to stir them up and set them going again like old +memories. + +The stairs were bare and worn by many feet, and not particularly clean. +Betty paused in dismay then hurried on after her hostess, who was +mounting up, one, two, three flights, to a tiny hall bedroom at the +back. A fleeting fear that perhaps the place was not respectable shot +through her heart, but her other troubles were so great that it found no +lodgment. Panting and trembling she arrived at the top and stood looking +about her in the dark, while the other girl found a match and lighted +another wicked little flickering gas-burner. + +Then her hostess drew her into the room and closed and locked the door. +As a further precaution she climbed upon a chair and pushed the transom +shut. + +"Now," she said with a sigh of evident relief, "we're safe! No one can +hear you here, and you can say what you please. But first we'll get this +coat and hat off and see what's the damage." + +As gently as if she were undressing a baby the girl removed the hat and +coat from her guest, and shook out the wonderful shining folds of satin. +It would have been a study for an artist to have watched her face as she +worked, smoothing out wrinkles, shaking the lace down and uncrushing it, +straightening a bruised orange-blossom, and putting everything in place. +It was as if she herself were an artist restoring a great masterpiece, +so silently and absorbedly she worked, her eyes full of a glad wonder +that it had come to her once to be near and handle anything so rare and +costly. The very touch of the lace and satin evidently thrilled her; the +breath of the exotic blossoms was nectar as she drew it in. + +Betty was still panting from her climb, still trembling from her flight, +and she stood obedient and meek while the other girl pulled and shook +and brushed and patted her into shape again. When all was orderly and +adjusted about the crumpled bride, the girl stood back as far as the +limits of the tiny room allowed and surveyed the finished picture. + +"There now! You certainly do look great! That there band of flowers +round your forehead makes you look like some queen. 'Coronet'--ain't +that what they call it? I read that once in a story at the Public +Library. Say! Just to think I should pick that up in the street! Good +night! I'm glad I came along just then instead o' somebody else! This +certainly is some picnic! Well, now, give us your dope. It must've been +pretty stiff to make you cut and run from a show like the one they got +up for you! Come, tune up and let's hear the tale. I rather guess I'm +entitled to know before the curtain goes up again on this little old +stage!" + +The two tears that had been struggling with Betty for a long time +suddenly appeared in her eyes and drowned them out, and in dismay she +brought out a faint little sorry giggle of apology and amusement and +dropped on the tiny bed, which filled up a good two-thirds of the room. + +"Good night!" exclaimed the hostess in alarm, springing to catch her. +"Don't drop down that way in those glad rags! You'll finish 'em! Come, +stand up and we'll get 'em off. You look all in. I'd oughta known you +would be!" She lifted Betty tenderly and began to remove her veil and +unfasten the wonderful gown. It seemed to her much like helping an angel +remove her wings for a nap. Her eyes shone with genuine pleasure as she +handled the hooks deftly. + +"But I've nothing else to put on!" gurgled Betty helplessly. + +"I have!" said the other girl. + +"Oh!" said Betty with a sudden thought. "I wonder! Would you be willing +to exchange clothes? Have you perhaps got some things you don't need +that I could have, and I'll give you mine for them? I don't suppose +perhaps a wedding dress would be very useful unless you're thinking of +getting married soon, but you could make it over and use it for the +foundation of an evening dress----" + +The other girl was carefully folding the white satin skirt at the +moment, but she stopped with it in her arms and sat down weakly on the +foot of the bed with it all spread out in her lap and looked at her +guest in wonder: + +"You don't mean you _wantta give it up_!" she said in an awed tone. "You +don't mean you would be willing to take some of my old togs for it?" + +"I certainly would!" cried Betty eagerly. "I never want to see these +things again! _I hate_ them! And besides, I want to get away somewhere. +I can't go in white satin! You know that! But I don't like to take +anything of yours that you might need. Do you think these things would +be worth anything to you? You weren't thinking of getting married +yourself some time soon, were you?" + +"Well, I might," said the other girl, looking self-conscious. "I got a +gentleman friend. But I wasn't expectin' to get in on any trooso like +this!" She let her finger move softly over the satin hem as if she had +been offered a plume of the angel's wing. "Sure, I'll take it off you if +I've got anything you're satisfied to have in exchange. I wouldn't mind +havin' it to keep jest to look at now and then and know it's mine. It'd +be somethin' to live for, jest to know you had that dress in the +house!" + +Suddenly Betty, without any warning even to herself, dropped upon her +knees beside the diminutive bed and began to weep. It seemed somehow so +touching that a thing like a mere dress could make a girl glad like +that. All the troubles of the days that were past went over her in a +great wave of agony, and overwhelmed her soul. In soft silk and lace +petticoat and camisole with her pretty white arms and shoulders shaking +with great sobs she buried her face in the old patchwork quilt that her +hostess had brought from her village home, and gave way to a grief that +had been long in growing. The other girl now thoroughly alarmed, laid +the satin on a chair and went over to the little stranger, gathering her +up in a strong embrace, and gradually lifting her to the bed. + +"You poor little Kid, you! I oughtta known better! You're just all in! +You ben gettin' ready to be married, and something big's been troubling +you, and I bet they never gave you any lunch--er else you wouldn't eat +it,--and you're jest natcheraly all in. Now you lie right here an' I'll +make you some supper. My name's Jane Carson, and I've got a good mother +out to Ohio, and a nice home if I'd had sense enough to stay in it; only +I got a chance to make big money in a fact'ry. But I know what 'tis to +be lonesome, an' I ain't hard-hearted, if I do know how to take care of +misself. There! There!" + +She smoothed back the lovely hair that curled in golden tendrils where +the tears had wet it. + +"Say, now, you needn't be afraid! Nobody'll getcha here! I know how to +bluff 'em. Even if a policeman should come after yeh, I'd get around him +somehow, and I don't care what you've done or ain't done, I'll stand by +yeh. I'm not one to turn against anybody in distress. My mother always +taught me that. After you've et a bite and had a cup of my nice tea with +cream and sugar in it you'll feel better, and we'll have a real +chin-fest and hear all about it. Now, you just shut your eyes and wait +till I make that tea." + +Jane Carson thumped up the pillow scientifically to make as many of the +feathers as possible and shifted the little flower-head upon it. Then +she hurried to her small washstand and took a little iron contrivance +from the drawer, fastening it on the sickly gas-jet. She filled a tiny +kettle with water from a faucet in the hall and set it to boil. From +behind a curtain in a little box nailed to the wall she drew a loaf of +bread, a paper of tea and a sugar-bowl. A cup and saucer and other +dishes appeared from a pasteboard box under the washstand. A small +shelf outside the tiny window yielded a plate of butter, a pint bottle +of milk, and two eggs. She drew a chair up to the bed, put a clean +handkerchief on it, and spread forth her table. In a few minutes the +fragrance of tea and toast pervaded the room, and water was bubbling +happily for the eggs. As cosily as if she had a chum to dine with her +she sat down on the edge of the bed and invited her guest to supper. As +she poured the tea she wondered what her co-laborers at the factory +would think if they knew she had a real society lady visiting her. It +wasn't every working girl that had a white satin bride thrust upon her +suddenly this way. It was like a fairy story, having a strange bride +lying on her bed, and everything a perfect mystery about her. She eyed +the white silk ankles and dainty slippers with satisfaction. Think of +wearing underclothes made of silk and real lace! + +It seemed to Betty as if never before in all her life had she tasted +anything so delicious as that tea and toast and soft boiled egg cooked +by this wonderful girl on a gaslight and served on a chair. She wanted +to cry again over her gladness at being here. It didn't seem real after +all the trouble she had been through. It couldn't last! Oh, of course it +couldn't last! + +This thought came as she swallowed the last bite of toast, and she sat +up suddenly! + +"I ought to be doing something quick!" she said in sudden panic. "It is +getting late and I must get away. They'll be watching the trains, +perhaps. I ought to have gone at once. But I don't know where I can go. +Give me some old things, please. I must get dressed at once." + +"Lie down first and tell me who you are and what it's all about. I can't +do a thing for you till I know. I've got to go into this with my eyes +open or I won't stir one step," she declared stubbornly. + +Betty looked at her with wide eyes of trouble and doubt. Then the doubt +suddenly cleared away, and trust broke through. + +"I can trust you, I'm sure! You've been so good to me! But it seems +dreadful to tell things about my family, even to one who has been so +kind. My father would be so hurt----" + +"Your father? Where is your father? Why didn't he take care of you and +keep you from getting into such big trouble, I'd like to know?" + +The blue eyes clouded with tears again. + +"My father died five years ago," she said, "but I've always tried to do +as he would want to have me do. Only--this--I _couldn't_." + +"H'm!" said Jane Carson. "Then he prob'ly wouldn't of wanted you to. +Suppose you take the rest of those togs off. I'll find you a warm +nightgown and we'll get to bed. It's turning cold here. They take the +heat off somewhere about six o'clock in the evening, and it gets like +ice up here sometimes." + +Jane shivered and went to her small trunk, from which she produced a +coarse but clean flanellete nightgown, and Betty, who had never worn +anything but a dainty lingerie one before in all her life, crept into it +thankfully and cuddled down with a warm feeling that she had found a +real friend. It was curious why she did not shrink from this poor girl, +but she did not, and everything looked clean and nice. Besides, this was +a wonderful haven of refuge in her dire necessity. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +MEANWHILE, in the stately mansion that Betty had called home, a small +regiment of servants hastened with the last tasks in preparation for the +guests that were soon expected to arrive. The great rooms had become a +dream of paradise, with silver rain and white lilies in a mist of soft +green depending from the high ceilings. In the midst of all, a fairy +bower of roses and tropical ferns created a nook of retirement where +everyone might catch a glimpse of the bride and groom from any angle in +any room. The spacious vistas stretched away from an equally spacious +hallway, where a wide and graceful staircase curved up to a low gallery, +smothered in flowers and palms and vines; and even so early the +musicians were taking their places and tuning their instruments. On the +floor above, where room after room shone in beauty, with costly +furnishings, and perfect harmonies, white-capped maids flitted about, +putting last touches to dressing tables and pausing to gossip as they +passed one another: + +"Well, 'twill all be over soon," sighed one, a wan-faced girl with +discontented eyes. "Ain't it kind of a pity, all this fuss just for a +few minutes?" + +"Yes, an' glad I'll be!" declared another, a fresh young Irish girl with +a faint, pretty brogue. "I don't like the look of my Lady Betty. A +pretty fuss Candace her old nurse would be makin' if she was here the +night! I guess the madam knew what she was about when she give her her +walkin' ticket! Candace never could bear them two bys, and _him_ was the +worse of the two, she always said." + +"Well, a sight of good it would do for old Candace to make a fuss!" said +the discontented one. "And anyhow, he's as handsome as the devil, and +she's got money enough, so she oughtn't complain." + +"Money ain't everything!" sniffed Aileen. "I wouldn't marry a king if I +wasn't crazy about him!" + +"Oh, you're young!" sneered Marie with disdain. "Wait till your looks +go! You don't know what you'd take up with!" + +"Well I'd never take up with the likes of _him_!" returned the Irish +girl grandly, "and what's more he knows it!" She tossed her head +meaningfully and was about to sail away on her own business when a stir +below stairs attracted their attention. A stout, elderly woman, dressed +in a stiff new black silk and an apoplectic hat, came panting up the +stairs looking furtively from side to side, as if she wished to escape +before anyone recognized her: + +"It's Candace!" exclaimed Aileen. "As I live! Now what d'ye wantta know +about that! Poor soul! Poor soul! Candy! Oh!--Candy! What iver brought +ye here the night? This is no place for the loikes of you. You better +beat it while the beatin' is good if ye know which side yer bread's +buthered!" + +But the old nurse came puffing on, her face red and excited: + +"Is she here? Has she come, yet, my poor wee Betty?" she besought them +eagerly. + +"Miss Betty's at the church now gettin' married!" announced Marie +uppishly, "and you'd best be gettin' out of here right away, for the +wedding party's due to arrive any minute now and madam'll be very angry +to have a servant as doesn't belong snoopin' round at such a time!" + +"Be still, Marie! For shame!" cried Aileen. "You've no need to talk like +that to a self-respectin' woman as has been in this house more years +than you have been weeks! Come along, Candace, and I'll slip you in my +room and tell you all about it when I can get away long enough. You see, +Miss Betty's being married----" + +"But she's _not_!" cried Candace wildly. "I was at the church myself. +Miss Betty sent me the word to be sure and come, and where to sit and +all, so she'd see me; and I went, and she come up the aisle as white as +a lily and dropped right there before the poolpit, just like a little +white lamb that couldn't move another step, all of a heap in her pretty +things! And they stopped the ceremony and everybody got up, and they +took her away, and we waited till bime-by the minister said the bride +wasn't well enough to proceed with the ceremony and would they all go +home, and I just slipped out before the folks got their wraps on and +took a side street with wings to my feet and got up here! Haven't they +brought her home yet, the poor wee thing? I been thinkin' they might +need me yet, for many's the time I've brought her round by my nursin'." + +The two maids looked wildly at one another, their glances growing into +incredulity, the eyebrows of Marie moving toward her well-dressed hair +with a lofty disapproval. + +"Well, you'd better come with me, Candy," said Aileen drawing the +excited old servant along the hall to the back corridor gently. "I guess +there's some mistake somewheres; anyway, you better stay in my room till +you see what happens. We haven't heard anything yet, and they'd likely +send word pretty soon if there's to be any change in the program. You +say she fell----?" + +But just then sounds of excitement came distantly up to them and Aileen +hastened back to the gallery to listen. It was the voice of Madam +Stanhope angrily speaking to her youngest son: + +"You must get Bessemer on the 'phone at once and order him home! I told +you it was a great mistake sending him away. If he had been standing +there, where she could see him, everything would have gone through just +as we planned it----" + +"Aw! Rot! Mother. Can't you shut up? I know what I'm about and I'm going +to call up another detective. Bessemer may go to the devil for all I +care! How do you know but he has, and taken her with him? The first +thing to do is to get that girl back! You ought to have had more sense +than to show your whole hand to my brother. You might have known he'd +take advantage----" + +Herbert Hutton slammed into the telephone booth under the stairs and +Madam Stanhope was almost immediately aware of the staring servants who +were trying not to seem to have listened. + +Mrs. Stanhope stood in the midst of the beautiful empty rooms and +suddenly realized her position. Her face froze into the haughty lines +with which her menage was familiar, and she was as coldly beautiful in +her exquisite heliotrope gown of brocaded velvet and chiffon with the +glitter of jewels about her smooth plump neck, and in her carefully +marcelled black hair as if she were quietly awaiting the bridal party +instead of facing defeat and mortification: + +"Aileen, you may get Miss Betty's room ready to receive her. She has +been taken ill and will be brought home as soon as she is able to be +moved," she announced, without turning an eyelash. "Put away her things, +and get the bed ready!" One could see that she was thinking rapidly. She +was a woman who had all her life been equal to an emergency, but never +had quite such a tragic emergency been thrust upon her to camouflage +before. + +"James!" catching the eye of the butler, "there will be no reception +to-night, of course, and you will see that the hired people take their +things away as soon as possible, and say that I will agree to whatever +arrangements they see fit to make, within reason, of course. Just use +your judgment, James, and by the way, there will be telephone calls, of +course, from our friends. Say that Miss Betty is somewhat better, and +the doctor hopes to avert a serious nervous breakdown, but that she +needs entire rest and absolute quiet for a few days. Say that and +nothing more, do you understand, James?" + +The butler bowed his thorough understanding and Madam Stanhope sailed +nobly up the flower-garlanded staircase, past the huddled musicians, to +her own apartment. Aileen, with a frightened glance, scuttled past the +door as she was closing it: + +"Aileen, ask Mr. Herbert to come to my room at once when he has finished +telephoning, and when Mr. Bessemer arrives send him to me at once!" Then +the door closed and the woman was alone with her defeat, and the placid +enameled features melted into an angry snarl like an animal at bay. In a +moment more Herbert stormed in. + +"It's all your fault, mother!" he began, with an oath. "If you hadn't +dragged Bessemer into this thing I'd have had her fixed. I had her just +about where I wanted her, and another day would have broken her in. +She's scared to death of insane asylums, and I told her long ago that it +would be dead easy to put a woman in one for life. If I had just hinted +at such a thing she'd have married me as meek as a lamb!" + +"Now look here, Bertie," flared his mother excitedly, "you've got to +stop blaming me! Haven't I given in to you all your life, and now you +say it's all my fault the least little thing that happens! It was for +your sake that I stopped you; you know it was. You couldn't carry out +any such crazy scheme. Betty's almost of age, and if those trustees +should find out what you had threatened, you would be in jail for life, +and goodness knows what would become of me." + +"Trustees! How would the trustees find it out?" + +"Betty might tell them." + +"Betty might _not_ tell them, not if she was _my wife_!" He bawled out +the words in a way that boded no blissful future to the one who should +have the misfortune to become his wife. "I think I'd have her better +trained than that. As for you, Mother, you're all off, as usual! What do +you think could possibly happen to _you_? You're always saying you do +everything for me, but when it comes right down to brass tacks I notice +you're pretty much of a selfish coward on your own account." + +For a moment the baffled woman faced her angry uncontrolled son in +speechless rage, then gathered command of the situation once more, an +inscrutable expression on her hard-lined face. Her voice took on an +almost pitiful reproach as she spoke in a low, even tone that could +hardly fail to bring the instant attention of her spoiled son: + +"Bertie, you don't know what you're talking about!" she said, and there +was a strained white look of fear about her mouth and eyes as she spoke. +"I'm going to tell you, in this great crisis, what I did for you, what I +risked that you might enjoy the luxury which you have had for the last +five years. Listen! The day before Mr. Stanhope died he wrote a letter +to the trustees of Betty's fortune giving very explicit directions about +her money and her guardianship, tying things up so that not one cent +belonging to her should pass through my hands, which would have left us +with just my income as the will provided, and would have meant +comparative poverty for us all except as Betty chose to be benevolent. I +kept a strict watch on all his movements those last few days, of course, +and when I found he had given Candace a letter to mail, I told her I +would look after it, and I brought it up to my room and read it, for I +suspected just some such thing as he had done. He was very fussy about +Betty and her rights, you remember, and he had always insisted that this +was Betty's house, her mother's wedding present from the grandfather, +and therefore not ours at all, except through Betty's bounty. I was +determined that we should not be turned out of here, and that you should +not have to go without the things you wanted while that child had +everything and far more than she needed. So I burned the letter! Now, do +you see what the mother you have been blaming has done for you?" + +But the son looked back with hard glittering eyes and a sneer on his +handsome lustful lips: + +"I guess you did it about as much for your own sake as mine, didn't +you?" he snarled. "And I don't see what that's got to do with it, +anyway. Those trustees don't know what they missed if they never got the +letter, and you've always kept in with them, you say, and made them +think you were crazy about the girl. They pay you Betty's allowance till +she's of age, don't they? They can't lay a finger on you. You're a fool +to waste my time talking about a little thing like that when we ought to +be planning a way to get hold of that girl before the trustees find out +about it. If we don't get her fixed before she's of age we shall be in +the soup as far as the property is concerned. Isn't that so? Well, then, +we've got to get her good and married----" + +"If you only had let her marry Bessemer quietly," whimpered his mother, +"and not have brought in all this deception. It will look so terrible if +it ever comes out. I shall never be able to hold up my head in society +again----!" + +"There you are again! Thinking of yourself----!" sneered the dutiful +son, getting up and stamping about her room like a wild man. "I tell +you, Mother, that girl is _mine_, and I won't have Bessemer or anybody +else putting in a finger. _She's mine!_ I told her so a long time ago, +and she knows it! She can't get away from me, and it's going to go the +harder with her because she's tried. I'm never going to forgive her +making a fool out of me before all those people! I'll get her yet! +Little fool!" + +Herbert was well on his way into one of those fits of uncontrollable +fury that had always held his mother in obedience to his slightest whim +since the days when he used to lie on the floor and scream himself black +in the face and hold his breath till she gave in; and the poor woman, +wrought to the highest pitch of excitement already by the tragic events +of the evening, which were only the climax of long weeks of agitation, +anxiety and plotting, dropped suddenly into her boudoir chair and began +to weep. + +But this new manifestation on the part of his usually pliable mother +only seemed to infuriate the young man. He walked up to her, and seizing +her by the shoulder, shook her roughly: + +"Cut that out!" he said hoarsely. "This is no time to cry. We've got to +make some kind of a plan. Don't you see we'll have the hounds of the +press at our heels in a few hours? Don't you see we've got to make a +plan and stick to it?" + +His mother looked up, regardless for once of the devastation those few +tears had made of her carefully groomed face, a new terror growing in +her eyes: + +"I've told James to answer all telephone calls and say that Betty is +doing as well as could be expected, but that the doctor says she must +have perfect quiet to save her from a nervous breakdown----" she +answered him coldly. "I'm not quite a fool if you do think so----" + +"Well, that's all right for to-night, but what'll we say to-morrow if we +don't find her----" + +"Oh! She'll come back," said the stepmother confidently. "She can't help +it. Why, where would she go? She hasn't a place on earth since she's +lost confidence in that cousin of her mother's because he didn't come to +her wedding. She hasn't an idea that he never got her note asking him to +give her away. Thank heaven I got hold of that before it reached the +postman! If that old granny had been here we should have had trouble +indeed. I had an experience with him once just before I married Betty's +father, and I never want to repeat it. But we must look out what gets in +the papers!" + +"It's rather late for that, I suspect. The bloodhounds 'ill be around +before many minutes and you better think up what you want said. But I'm +not so sure she wouldn't go there, and we better tell the detectives +that. What's the old guy's address? I'll call him up long distance and +say she was on a motoring trip and intended to stop there if she had +time. I'll ask if she's reached there yet." + +"That's a good idea, although I'm sure she was too hurt about it to go +to him. She cried all the afternoon. It's a wonder she didn't look +frightful! But that's Betty! Cry all day and come out looking like a +star without any paint either. It's a pity somebody that would have +appreciated it couldn't have had her complexion." + +"That's you all over, Mother, talking about frivolous things when +everything's happening at once. You're the limit! I say, you'd better be +getting down to business! I've thought of another thing. How about that +old nurse, Candace? Betty used to be crazy about her? What became of +her?" + +Mrs. Stanhope's face hardened, and anxiety grew in her eyes. + +"She might have gone to her, although I don't believe she knows where +she is. I'm sure I don't. I sent her away just before we began to get +ready for the wedding. I didn't dare have her here. She knows too much +and takes too much upon herself. I wouldn't have kept her so long, only +she knew I took the trustee's letter, and she was very impudent about it +once or twice, so that I didn't really dare to let her go until just a +few days ago. I thought things would all be over here before she could +do any harm, and Betty would be of age and have her money in her own +right, and being your wife, of course there wouldn't be any more trouble +about it." + +"Well, you better find out what's become of her!" said the young man +with darkening face. "_She_ ought to be locked up somewhere! She's +liable to make no end of trouble! You can't tell what she's stirred up +already! Ring for a servant and find out if they know where she is. Ten +to one that's where Betty is." + +Mrs. Stanhope, with startled face, stepped to the bell and summoned +Aileen: + +"Aileen, have you any idea where we could find Miss Betty's old nurse, +Candace?" she asked in a soothing tone, studying the maid's countenance. +"I think it might be well to send for her in case Miss Betty needs her. +She was so much attached to her!" + +Aileen lifted startled eyes to her mistress' face. There was reserve and +suspicion in her glance: + +"Why, she was here a few minutes ago," she said guardedly. "It seems +Miss Betty sent her an invitation, and when Miss Betty took sick she was +that scared she ran out of the church and come here to find out how she +was. She might not have gone yet. I could go see." + +"Here! Was she here?" Mrs. Stanhope turned her head to her son and her +eyes said: "That's strange!" but she kept her face well under control. + +"Yes, you might go and see if you can find her, Aileen, and if you do, +tell her I would like to see her a moment." + +Aileen went away on her errand and Mrs. Stanhope turned to her son: + +"Betty can't have gone to her unless there was some collusion. But in +any case I think we had better keep her here until we know something." + +Quick trotting steps were heard hurrying along the hall and a little +jerky knock announced unmistakably the presence of Candace. + +Mrs. Stanhope surveyed the little red-faced creature coolly and sharply: + +"Candace, you have broken one of my express commands in returning here +without permission from me, but seeing it was done in kindness I will +overlook it this time and let you stay. You may be useful if they bring +my daughter home to-night and I presume she will be very glad to see +you. Just now she is--umm----" she glanced furtively at her son, and +lifting her voice a trifle, as if to make her statement more +emphatic--"she is at a private hospital near the church where they took +her till she should be able to come home. It will depend on her +condition whether they bring her to-night or to-morrow or in a few days. +Meantime, if you like you may go up to your old room and wait until I +send for you. I shall have news soon and will let you know. Don't go +down to the servant's quarters, I wish to have you where I can call you +at a moment's notice." + +Candace gave her ex-mistress a long, keen suspicious stare, pinned her +with a glance as steely as her own for an instant, in search of a +possible ulterior motive, and then turning on her little fat heel, +vanished like a small fast racer in the direction of her old room. + +"Now," said Mrs. Stanhope, turning with a sigh of relief, "she's safe! +I'll set Marie to watch her and if there's anything going on between +those two Marie will find it out." + +But Herbert Hutton was already sitting at his mother's desk with the +telephone book and calling up Long Distance. + +All the long hours when he had expected to have been standing under the +rose bower downstairs in triumph with his bride, Herbert Hutton sat at +that telephone in his mother's boudoir alternately raging at his mother +and shouting futile messages over the 'phone. The ancient cousin of +Betty's mother was discovered to be seriously ill in a hospital and +unable to converse even through the medium of his nurse, so there was +nothing to be gained there. Messages to the public functionaries in his +town developed no news. Late into the night, or rather far toward the +morning, Bessemer was discovered at a cabaret where his persistent +mother and brother had traced him, too much befuddled with his evening's +carouse to talk connectedly. He declared Betty was a good old girl, but +she might go to thunder for all he cared; he knew a girl "worth twice of +her." + +His mother turned with disgust from his babbling voice, convinced that +he knew nothing of Betty's whereabouts. Nevertheless, by means of a +financial system of threats and rewards which she had used on him +successfully for a number of years, she succeeded in impressing upon him +the necessity of coming home at once, and just as the pink was beginning +to dawn in the gray of the morning, Bessemer drove up in a hired car, +and stumbled noisily into the house, demanding to know where the wedding +was. He wanted to kiss the bride. + +Candace, still in her stiff black silk, stood in the shadowy hall, as +near as she dared venture, and listened, with her head thoughtfully on +one side. Betty in her note about the wedding had said she was going to +be married to Bessemer. But Bessemer didn't sound like a bridegroom. Had +Bessemer run away then, or what? But some things looked queer. She +remembered that Aileen had spoken as if Herbert was the bridegroom, but +she had taken it for a mere slip of the tongue and thought nothing of +it. When Aileen next came that way, she asked her if she happened to +have got hold of one of the invitations, and Aileen, with her finger on +her lips, nodded, and presently returned with something under her apron: + +"I slipped it from the waste-basket," she said, "and Miss Betty got a +holt of it, and there was a tremenjus fuss about something, I couldn't +make out what; but I heard the missus say it was all a mistake as she +gave the order over the 'phone, and she must have misspoke herself, but +anyhow she thought she'd destroyed them all and given a rush order and +they would be all right and sent out in plenty of time. So she sticks +this back in the waste-basket and orders me to take the basket down and +burn it, but I keeps this out and hides it well. I couldn't see nothin' +the matter with it, can you?" + +"There's _all_ the matter with it!" declared the angry nurse as she +glared at the name of Herbert Hutton thoughtfully, and read between the +lines more than she cared to tell. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +NOT two miles away, Betty lay safe and warm in the flanellette +nightgown, and watched Jane Carson turn out the light and open the +window. A light leaped up from the street and made a friendly spot of +brightness on the opposite wall, and Betty had a sense of cosiness that +she had not felt since she was in boarding school with a roommate. + +"Now," said Jane, climbing into bed and pulling up the covers carefully +lest she should let the cold in on her guest, "let's hear!--You warm +enough?" + +There was a curious tenderness in her voice as if she had brought home a +young princess and must guard her carefully. + +"Oh, perfectly!" said Betty, giving a little nervous shiver. "And I'm so +glad to be here safe away from them all! Oh, I've needed some one to +advise with _so_ much! I haven't had a soul since they sent my old nurse +away because she dared to take my part sometimes." + +Suddenly Betty buried her face in the pillow and began to sob and Jane +reached out quick gentle arms and gathered her in a close comforting +embrace. In a moment more Betty had gained control of herself and began +to explain: + +"You see," she said, catching her breath bravely, "they were determined +I should marry a man I can't _endure_, and when I wouldn't they tried to +_trick_ me into it anyway. I never suspected until I got into the church +and looked around and couldn't see Bessemer anywhere; only the other one +with his evil eyes gloating over me, and then I knew! They thought they +would get me there before all that church full of people and I wouldn't +dare do anything. But when I realized it, I just dropped right down in +the aisle. I couldn't stand up, I was so frightened." + +"But I don't understand," said Jane. "Were there _two_ men?" + +"Oh, yes," sighed Betty, "there were two." + +"Well, where was the other one, the one you _wanted_ to marry?" + +"I don't know----" said Betty with a half sob in her voice. "That's just +what frightened me. You see they were my stepmother's two sons, and it +was my father's dying wish that I should marry one of them. I didn't +really _want_ to marry Bessemer, but I simply _loathed_ Herbert, the +younger one, who was so determined to marry me. I was terribly afraid +of him. He had been frightfully cruel to me when I was a child and when +he grew up he was always tormenting me; and then when he tried to make +love to me he was so repulsive that I couldn't bear to look at him. It +really made me sick to think of ever marrying him. Oh--I _couldn't_--no +matter who asked me. So Bessemer and I decided to get married to stop +the trouble. They were always nagging him, too, and I was kind of sorry +for him." + +"But why should you marry anybody you didn't want to, I'd like to know!" +exclaimed Jane in horror. "This is a free country and nobody ever makes +people marry anybody they don't like any more. Why didn't you just beat +it?" + +"I thought about that a good many times," said Betty, pressing her tired +eyes with her cold little fingers, "but I couldn't quite bring myself to +do it. In the first place, I didn't know where to go, nor what to do. +They never would let me learn to do anything useful, so I couldn't have +got any work; and anyhow I had a feeling that it wouldn't be possible to +get away where Herbert couldn't find me if he wanted to. He's that way. +He always gets what he wants, no matter whom it hurts. He's +_awful_--Jane--really!" + +There was a pitiful note in her voice that appealed to the mother in +Jane, and she stooped over her guest and patted her comfortingly on the +shoulder: + +"You poor little kid," she said tenderly, "you must have been worried +something awful, but still I don't get you; what was the idea in +sticking around and thinking you _had_ to marry somebody you didn't +like? You coulda gone to some one and claimed pertection. You could uv +appealed to the p'lice if worst came to worst----!" + +"Oh! But Jane I couldn't! That would have brought our family into +disgrace, and father would have felt so _dreadfully_ about it if he had +been alive! I couldn't quite bring myself, either, to go against his +dying request. We had always been so much to each other, Daddy and I. +Besides, I didn't mind _Bessemer_ so _much_--he was always kind--though +we never had much to do with each other----" + +"Well, I don't think I'd have stopped around long to please a father +that didn't care any more for me than to want me to marry somebody I +felt that way about!" said Jane, indignantly. "I haven't much use for a +father like that!" + +"Oh, but he wasn't like that!" said Betty, rising up in her eagerness +and looking at Jane through her shining curls that were falling all +about her eager, troubled young face, "and he did love me, Jane, he +loved me better than anything else in the whole world! That was why I +was willing to sacrifice almost anything to please him." + +"Well, I'll be darned!" said Jane Carson, sitting up squarely in bed and +staring at the spot of light on the wall. "That gets my goat! How could +a man love you and yet want to torment you?" + +"Well, you see, Jane, he hadn't been very fond of them when they were +boys"--she spoke it with dignity and a little gasp as if she were +committing a breach of loyalty to explain, but realized that it was +necessary--"and he felt when he was dying that he wanted to make +reparation, so he thought if I should marry one of them it would show +them that he had forgiven them----" + +"It--may--be--so," drawled Jane slowly, nodding her head deliberately +with each word, "but--I don't see it that _way_! What kind of a man was +this father of yours, anyway?" + +"Oh, a wonderful man, Jane!" Betty eagerly hastened to explain. "He was +all the world to me, and he used to come up to school week-ends and take +me on beautiful trips and we had the best times together, and he would +tell me about my own dear mother----" + +Betty's hand grasped Jane's convulsively and her voice died out, in a +sudden sob. Jane's hand went quickly to the bright head on the pillow: + +"There! there!" she whispered tenderly, "don't take on so, I didn't mean +anything. I was just trying to dope it out; get it through my bean what +in thunder----! Say! Did _he_ TELL _you_ he wanted you to marry those +guys?" + +"Oh, no, he left word--it was his dying request." + +"Who'd he request it to?" + +"My stepmother." + +"H'm! I thought so! How'd you know he did? How'd you know but she was +lyin'?" + +"No," said Betty sorrowfully, "she wasn't lying, she showed me the paper +it was written on. There couldn't be any mistake. And his name was +signed to it, his dear hand-writing, just as he always wrote it with the +little quirl to the S that wasn't like anybody else. It went through me +just like a knife when I saw it, that my dear father should have asked +me to do what was so very very hard for me to think of. It was so much +harder to have it come that way. If he had only asked me himself and we +could have talked it over, perhaps he would have helped me to be strong +enough to do it, but to have _her_ have to _tell me_! She felt that +herself. She tried to be kind, I think. She said she wanted to have him +wake me up and tell me himself, but she saw his strength was going and +he was so anxious to have her write it down quick and let him sign it +that she did as he asked----" + +"Well, you may depend on it he never wrote it at all--or anyhow, never +knew what he was signing. Like as not she dragged it out of him some way +while he was out of his mind or so near dying he didn't know what he was +about. Besides, they mightta some of 'em forged his name. It's easy to +copy signatures. Lotsa people do it real good. If I was you I wouldn't +think another mite about it. If he was a man like you say he is, he +couldn'ta done a thing like that to his own little girl, not on his +life! It ain't like real fathers and mothers to. I know, fer I've got a +mother that's a peach and no mistake! No, you may depend on it, he never +knew a thing about that, and marrying a guy like that is the last thing +on earth he'd want you to do." + +"Oh, do you really think so? Oh, are you _sure_?" cried Betty, clinging +to Jane eagerly, the tears raining down her white cheeks. "I've thought +so a thousand times, but I didn't dare trust myself to decide." + +"Yes, I'm sure!" said Jane, gathering her in her arms and hugging her +tight, just as she would have done with a little sister who had waked up +in the night with a bad dream. "Now, look here, you stop crying and +don't you worry another bit. Just tell me the rest if there's any rest, +so I'll know what to bank on. Who is the other guy, the one you didn't +mind marryin'? What became of him?" + +"Why, that's the queer part," said Betty, troubled again. "He didn't +seem to be anywhere, and when they carried me into the room back of the +church and fanned me and got water to bathe my face, a doctor came and +gave me some medicine and sent them all out, and I asked him to send +Bessemer to me. I wanted to find out why he hadn't been standing up +there by the minister the way I expected. I heard the doctor go out and +ask for Bessemer and I heard my stepmother's voice say, 'Why Bessemer +isn't here! He's gone down to the shore!' and then somebody said, +'Hush,' and they shut the door, and I was so frightened that I got up +and tried all the doors till I found one that led down some stairs, and +I locked it behind me and ran and found you!" + +"You poor little kid!" cried Jane, cuddling her again. "I sure am glad I +was on the job! But now, tell me, what's your idea? Will they make a +big noise and come huntin' you?" + +"Oh, yes!" said Betty wearily. "I suppose they will. I _know_ they will, +in fact. Herbert won't be balked in anything he wants----Bessemer won't +count. He never counts. I'm sort of sorry for him, though I don't like +him much. You see they had been making an awful fuss with him, too, +about some actress down at the shore that he was sending flowers to, and +I knew he didn't have a very easy time. So when he came in one day and +asked me why I didn't marry _him_ and settle the whole thing that way, I +was horrified at first, but I finally thought perhaps that would be the +best thing to do. He said he wouldn't bother me any, if I wouldn't +bother him; and we thought perhaps the others would let us alone then. +But I might have known Herbert wouldn't give in! Bessemer is easily +led--Herbert could have hired him to go away to-night--or they may have +_made_ him ask me to marry him. He's like that," sadly. "You can't +depend on him. I don't know. You see, it was kind of queer about the +invitations. They came with Herbert's name in them first, and my +stepmother tried to keep me from seeing them. She said they were late +and she had them all sent off; but I found one, and when I went to my +stepmother with it she said it was a mistake. She hadn't meant me to be +annoyed by seeing it; and she didn't know how it happened; she must have +misspoken herself--but it had been corrected and they would rush it +through and send them right from the store this time so there wouldn't +be any delay. I tried to think it was all right, but it troubled me, for +I saw that Herbert hadn't given up at all--though he pretended to go +away, and I hoped I wouldn't have any more trouble--but I might have +known! Herbert never gave up anything in his life, not even when father +was living. He always managed to get his way, somehow----" + +"Did he love you so much?" Jane asked awesomely. + +Betty shuddered: + +"Oh, I don't know whether it was love or hate! It was all the same. I +hate to think about him--he is--_unbearable_, Jane! Why, Jane, once he +told me if he ever got me in his power he'd break my will or kill me in +the attempt!" + +"Well, now, there, Kid! Don't you think another bit about him, the old +brute! You just lie down and sleep as easy as if you was miles away. +They won't any of 'em ever find you here with me, and I've pulled the +washstand in front of the door, so you needn't be dreaming of anybody +coming in and finding you. Now go to sleep, and to-morrow I'll sneak you +away to a place where they can't ever find you. Good night, Kid!" and +Jane leaned down and kissed the soft hair on the pillow beside her. +Betty flung her arms about her new-found friend and kissed her tenderly: + +"Oh, you've been so good to me! What should I ever have done if I hadn't +found you. You were like an angel. I think surely God must have sent you +to help me." + +"I shouldn't wonder if he did!" said Jane thoughtfully. "An angel in a +mackintosh! Some angel!" + +Jane Carson with her eyes wide open lay staring into the darkness and +thinking it all over. She did not waste much time marvelling over the +wonder that it had all happened to her. That would do for afterward when +there was nothing else to be done about it. Now there must be some plans +made and she was the one to make them. It was quite plain that the +wonderful and beautiful Elizabeth Stanhope, the plans for whose wedding +had been blazoned in the papers for days beforehand, was not at present +capable of making or carrying out anything effective. Jane was. She knew +it. She was a born leader and promoter. She liked nothing better than +to work out a difficult situation. But this was the most difficult +proposition that she had ever come up against. When her father died and +her mother was left with the little house and the three younger children +to support in a small country village, and only plain sewing and now and +then a boarder to eke out a living for them all, she had sought and +found, through a summer visitor who had taught her Sunday school class +for a few weeks, a good position in this big Eastern city. She had made +good and been promoted until her wages not only kept herself with strict +economy, but justified her in looking forward to the time when she might +send for her next younger sister. Her deft fingers kept her meagre +wardrobe in neatness--and a tolerable deference to fashion, so that she +had been able to annex the "gentleman friend" and take a little outing +with him now and then at a moving picture theatre or a Sunday evening +service. She had met and vanquished the devil on more than one +battlefield in the course of her experience with different department +heads; and she was wise beyond her years in the ways of the world. But +this situation was different. Here was a girl who had been brought up +"by hand," as she would have said with a sneer a few hours before, and +she would have despised her for it. She raised up on one elbow and +leaned over once more to watch the delicate profile of this gentle +maiden, in the dim fitful light of the city night that came through the +one little window. There had been something appealing in the beauty and +frankness of the girl bride, something appalling in the situation she +had found herself in. Jane Carson didn't know whether she was doing +right or not to help this stray bride. It made her catch her breath to +think how she might be bringing all the power of the law and of money +upon her reckless young head, but she meant to do it, just the same. + +Elizabeth Stanhope! What a beautiful name! It fitted right in with all +the romance Jane had ever dreamed. If she only could write scenarios, +what a thriller this would make! + +Then she lay down and fell to planning. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +THE morning dawned, and still no word from the missing bride. But the +brief guarded sentences which Herbert Hutton had telephoned to the +newspapers had been somehow sidetracked, and in their place a ghastly +story had leaked out which some poor, hard-pressed reporter had gleaned +from the gossip in the church and hurried off to put into type before +there was time for it to be denied. Hot foot the story had run, and +great headlines proclaimed the escape of Betty even while the family +were carefully paving the way for the report of a protracted illness and +absence, if need be, till they could find trace of her. The sun rose +brightly and made weird gleaming of the silver wire on which the dying +roses hung. The air was heavy with their breath, and the rooms in the +early garish light looked out of place as if some fairy wand had failed +to break the incantation at the right hour and left a piece of Magicland +behind. The parlor maid went about uncertainly, scarcely knowing what to +do and what to leave undone, and the milk cars, and newsboys, and early +laborers began to make a clatter of every day on the streets. The +morning paper, flung across the steps with Betty's picture, where +Betty's reluctant feet had gone a few hours before, seemed to mock at +life, and upstairs the man that Betty thought she went out to marry, lay +in a heavy stupor of sleep. Happy Betty, to be resting beneath the +coarse sheet of the kindly working girl, sleeping the sleep of +exhaustion and youth in safety, two miles from the rose-bowered rooms! + +Long before day had really started in the great city Jane Carson was up +and at work. She dressed swiftly and silently, then went to her little +trunk, and from it selected a simple wardrobe of coarse clean garments. +One needed mending and two buttons were off. She sat by the dingy window +and strained her eyes in the dawn to make the necessary repairs. She +hesitated long over the pasteboard suit-box that she drew from under the +bed. It contained a new dark blue serge dress for which she had saved a +long time and in which she had intended to appear at church next +Sabbath. She was divided between her desire to robe the exquisite little +guest in its pristine folds and her longing to wear it herself. There +was a sense of justice also which entered into the matter. If that +elegant wedding dress was to be hers, and all those wonderful silk +underclothes, which very likely she would never allow herself to wear, +for they would be out of place on a poor working girl, it was not fair +to repay their donor in old clothes. She decided to give the runaway +bride her new blue serge. With just a regretful bit of a sigh she laid +it out on the foot of the bed, and carefully spread out the tissue +papers and folded the white satin garments away out of sight, finishing +the bundle with a thick wrapping of old newspapers from a pile behind +the door and tying it securely. She added a few pins to make the matter +more sure, and got out a stub of a pencil and labeled it in large +letters, "My summer dresses," then shoved it far back under the bed. If +any seeking detective came he would not be likely to bother with that, +and he might search her trunk in vain for white satin slippers and +wedding veils. + +Breakfast was next, and she put on her cloak and hurried out for +supplies for the larder had been heavily depleted the night before to +provide for her guest. With a tender glance toward the sleeper she +slipped the key from the lock and placed it in the outside of the door, +silently locking her guest within. Now there would be no danger of any +one spiriting her away while she was gone, and no danger that the girl +might wake up and depart in her absence. + +She stopped a newsboy on his way to the subway and bought a paper, +thrilling at the thought that there might be something in it about the +girl who lay asleep in her little hall bedroom. + +While she waited for her bundles she stole a glance at her paper, and +there on the front page in big letters ran the heading: + + STANHOPE WEDDING + HELD UP AT ALTAR BY + UNCONSCIOUS BRIDE + + _Relatives Seek Runaway Girl Who is + Thought to be Insane_ + +She caught her breath and rolled the paper in a little wad, stuffing it +carelessly into her pocket. She could not read any more of that in +public. She hastened back to her room. + +Betty was still sleeping. Jane stood watching her for a full minute with +awe in her face. She could not but recognize the difference between +herself and this fine sweet product of civilization and wealth. With the +gold curls tossed back like a ripple of sunshine, and a pathetic little +droop at the corners of her sweet mouth, nothing lovelier could be. Jane +hurried to the window and turned her back on the bed while she perused +the paper, her rage rising at the theories put forth. It was even +hinted that her mother had been insane. Jane turned again and looked +hard at the young sleeper, and the idea crossed her mind that even she +might be deceived. Still, she was willing to trust her judgment that +this girl was entirely sane, and anyhow she meant to help her! She +stuffed the paper down behind the trunk and began to get breakfast. When +it was almost ready she gently awoke the sleeper. + +Betty started at the light touch on her shoulder and looked wildly +around at the strange room and stranger face of the other girl. In the +dim light of the evening she had scarcely got to know Jane's face. But +in a moment all the happenings of the day before came back, and she sat +up excitedly. + +"I ought to have got away before it was light," she said gripping her +hands together. "I wonder where I could go, Jane?" It was pleasant to +call this girl by her first name. Betty felt that she was a tower of +strength, and so kind. + +"I have this ring," she said, slipping off an exquisite diamond and +holding it out. "Do you suppose there would be any way I could get money +enough to travel somewhere with this? If I can't I'll have to walk, and +I can't get far in a day that way." + +Betty was almost light-hearted, and smiling. The night had passed and no +one had come. Perhaps after all she was going to get away without being +stopped. + +Jane's face set grimly. + +"I guess there won't be any walking for you. You'll have to travel +regular. It wouldn't be safe. And you don't want no rich jewelry along +either. Was that your wedding ring?" + +"Oh, no; father gave it to me. It was mother's, but I guess they'd want +me to use it now. I haven't anything else." + +"Of course," said Jane shortly to hide the emotion in her voice. "Now +eat this while I talk," thrusting a plate of buttered toast and a glass +of orange marmalade at her, and hastening to pour an inviting cup of +coffee. + +"Now, I been thinking," she said sitting down on the edge of the bed and +eating bits of the piece of toast she had burned--Betty's was toasted +beautifully--"I got a plan. I think you better go to Ma. She's got room +enough for you for a while, and I want my sister to come over and take a +place I can get fer her. If you was there she could leave. Mebbe you +could help Ma with the kids. Of course we're poor and you ain't used to +common things like we have them, but I guess you ain't got much choice +in your fix. I got a paper this morning. They're huntin' fer you hot +foot. They say you was temperary insane, an' 'f I was you I'd keep out +o' their way a while. You lay low an' I'll keep my eye out and let you +know, I've got a little money under the mattrass I can let you have till +that ring gets sold. You can leave it with me an' I'll do the best I can +if you think you can trust me. Of course I'm a stranger, but then, land! +So are you! We just _gotta_ trust each other. And I'm sending you to my +mother if you'll go!" + +"Oh!" said Betty, springing up and hugging her impulsively, "you're so +good! To think I should find somebody just like that right in the street +when I needed you so. I almost think God did it!" + +"Well, mebbe!" said Jane, in her embarrassment turning to hang up a +skirt that had fallen from its hook. "That's what they say sometimes in +Chrishun Deavor meetin'. Ever go to Chrishun Deavor? Better go when you +get out home. They have awful good socials an' ice cream, and you'll +meet some real nice folks. We've got a peach of a minister, and his wife +is perfec'ly dandy. I tell you I missed 'em when I came to the city! +They was always doing something nice fer the young folks." + +"How interesting!" said Betty, wondering if she might really be going to +live like other girls. Then the shadow of her danger fell over her once +more, and her cheek paled. + +"If I can only get there safely," she shuddered. "Oh, Jane! You can't +understand what it would be to have to go back!" + +"Well, you're not going back. You're going to Tinsdale, and nobody's +going to find you ever, unless you want 'em to! See? Now, listen! We +haven't any time to waste. You oughtta get off on the ten o'clock train. +I put out some clothes there for yeh. They ain't like yours, but it +won't do fer you to go dressed like a millionairess. Folks out to +Tinsdale would suspect yeh right off the bat. You gotta go plain like +me, and it's this way: You're a friend I picked up in the city whose +mother is dead and you need country air a while, see? So I sent you home +to stay with Ma till you got strong again. I'm wirin' Ma. She'll +understand. She always does. I kinda run Ma anyhow. She thinks the sun +rises an' sets in me, so she'll do just what I say." + +"I'm afraid I oughtn't to intrude," said Betty soberly, taking up the +coarse, elaborately trimmed lingerie with a curious look, and trying not +to seem to notice that it was different from any she had ever worn +before. + +"Say! Looka here!" said Jane Carson, facing round from her coffee cup on +the washstand. "I'm sorry to criticize, but if you could just talk a +little slang or something. Folks'll never think you belong to me. +_'Intrude!'_ Now, that sounds stuck up! You oughtta say 'be in the way,' +or something natural like that. See?" + +"I'm afraid I don't," said Betty dubiously, "but I'll try." + +"You're all right, Kid," said Jane with compunction in her voice. "Just +let yourself down a little like I do, and remember you don't wear silk +onderclothes now. I'm afraid those stockings won't feel very good after +yours, but you gotta be careful. An' 'f I was you I'd cut my hair off, I +really would. It's an awful pity, it's so pretty, but it'll grow again. +How old are you?" + +"Almost twenty-one," said Betty thoughtfully. "Just three months more +and I'll be twenty-one." + +"H'm! Of age!" said Jane with a sharp significant look at her, as if a +new thought had occurred. "Well, you don't look it! You could pass for +fifteen, especially if you had your hair bobbed. I can do it for you if +you say so." + +"All right," said Betty promptly without a qualm. "I always wanted it +short. It's an awful nuisance to comb." + +"That's the talk!" said Jane. "Say 'awful' a lot, and you'll kinda get +into the hang of it. It sounds more--well, _natural_, you know; not like +society talk. Here, sit down and I'll do it quick before you get cold +feet. I sure do hate to drop them curls, but I guess it's best." + +The scissors snipped, snipped, and the lovely strands of bright hair +fell on the paper Jane had spread for them. Betty sat cropped like a +sweet young boy. Jane stood back and surveyed the effect through her +lashes approvingly. She knew the exact angle at which the hair should +splash out on the cheek to be stylish. She had often contemplated +cutting her own, only that her mother had begged her not to, and she +realized that her hair was straight as a die and would never submit to +being tortured into that alluring wave over the ear and out toward the +cheekbone. But this sweet young thing was a darling! She felt that the +daring deed had been a success. + +"I got a bottle of stuff to make your hair dark," she remarked. "I guess +we better put it on. That hair of yours is kinda conspicuous, you know, +even when it's cut off. It won't do you any harm. It washes off soon." +And she dashed something on the yellow hair. Betty sat with closed eyes +and submitted. Then her mentor burnt a cork and put a touch to the +eyebrows that made a different Betty out of her. A soft smudge of dark +under her eyes and a touch of talcum powder gave her a sickly complexion +and when Betty stood up and looked in the glass she did not know +herself. Jane finished the toilet by a smart though somewhat shabby +black hat pulled well down over Betty's eyes, and a pair of gray cotton +gloves, somewhat worn at the fingers. The high-laced boots she put upon +the girl's feet were two sizes too large, and wobbled frightfully, but +they did well enough, and there seemed nothing more to be desired. + +"Now," said Jane as she pinned on her own hat, "you've gotta have a name +to go by. I guess you better be Lizzie Hope. It kinda belongs to yeh, +and yet nobody'd recognize it. You don't need to tell Ma anything you +don't want to, and you can tell her I'll write a letter to-night all +about it. Now come on! We gotta go on the trolley a piece. I don't see +havin' you leave from the General Station. We'll go up to the Junction +and get the train there." + +With an odd feeling that she was bidding good-by to herself forever and +was about to become somebody else, Betty gave one more glance at the +slim boylike creature in the little mirror over the washstand and +followed Jane out of the room, shuffling along in the big high-heeled +boots, quite unlike the Betty that she was. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +WARREN REYBURN laid down his pen and shoved back his office chair +impatiently, stretching out his long muscular limbs nervously and +rubbing his hands over his eyes as if to clear them from annoying +visions. + +James Ryan, his office boy and stenographer, watched him furtively from +one corner of his eye, while his fingers whirled the typewriter on +through the letter he was typing. James wanted to take his girl to the +movies that evening and he hadn't had a chance to see her the day +before. He was wondering if Mr. Reyburn would go out in time for him to +call her up at her noon hour. He was a very temperamental stenographer +and understood the moods and tenses of his most temperamental employer +fully. It was all in knowing how to manage him. James was most +deferential, and knew when to keep still and not ask questions. This was +one of the mornings when he went to the dictionary himself when he +wasn't sure of a word rather than break the ominous silence. Not that +Mr. Reyburn was a hard master, quite the contrary, but this was James's +first place straight from his brief course at business school, and he +was making a big bluff of being an old experienced hand. + +There was not much business to be done. This was Warren Reyburn's "first +place" also in the world of business since finishing his law course, and +he was making a big bluff at being very busy, to cover up a sore heart +and an anxious mind. It was being borne in upon him gradually that he +was not a shouting success in business so far. The rosy dreams that had +floated near all through his days of hard study had one by one left him, +until his path was now leading through a murky gray way with little hope +ahead. Nothing but sheer grit kept him at it, and he began to wonder how +long he could stick it out if nothing turned up. + +True, he might have accepted an offer that even now lay open on his +desk; a tempting offer, too, from a big corporation who recognized the +influence of his old family upon their particular line of business; but +it was a line that his father and his grandfather had scorned to touch, +and he had grown up with an honest contempt for it. He just could not +bring himself to wrest the living from the poor and needy, and plunder +the unsuspecting, and he knew that was what it would be if he closed +with this offer. Not yet had he been reduced to such depths, he told +himself, shutting his fine lips in a firm curve. "No, not if he +starved!" + +That was the legitimate worry that ruffled his handsome brow as he sat +before his desk frowning at that letter. He meant to begin dictation on +its answer in another five minutes or so, but meantime he was forcing +himself to go over every point and make it strong and clear to himself, +so that he should say, "No!" strongly and clearly to the corporation. It +might do harm to make his reason for declining so plain, but he owed it +to his self-respect to give it nevertheless, and he meant to do so. +After all, he had no business so far to harm, so what did it matter? If +nothing turned up pretty soon to give him a start he would have to +change his whole plan of life and take up something else where one did +not have to wait for a reputation before he could have a chance to show +what was in him. + +But underneath the legitimate reason for his annoyance this morning +there ran a most foolish little fretting, a haunting discomfort. + +He had taken his cousin to a wedding the night before because her +husband had been called away on business, and she had no one to escort +her. They had been late and the church was crowded. He had had to +stand, and as he idly looked over the audience he suddenly looked full +into the great sad eyes of the sweetest little bride he had ever seen. +He had not been a young man to spend his time over pretty faces, +although there were one or two nice girls in whom he was mildly +interested. He had even gone so far as to wonder now and then which of +them he would be willing to see sitting at his table day after day the +rest of his life, and he had not yet come to a satisfactory conclusion. +His cousin often rallied him about getting married, but he always told +her it would be time enough to think about that when he had an income to +offer her. + +But when he saw that flower-face, his attention was held at once. +Somehow he felt as if he had not known there was a face like that in all +the world, so like a child's, with frank yet modest droop to the head, +and the simplicity of an angel, yet the sadness of a sacrificial +offering. Unbidden, a great desire sprang up to lift for her whatever +burden she was bearing, and bring light into those sad eyes. Of course +it was a passing sensation, but his eyes had traveled involuntarily to +the front of the church to inspect the handsome forbidding face of the +bridegroom, and with instant dissatisfaction he looked back to the girl +once more and watched her come up to the altar, speculating as those +who love to study humanity are wont to do when they find an interesting +subject. How had those two types ever happened to come together? The +man's part in it was plain. He was the kind who go about seeking whom +they may devour, thought Warren Reyburn. But the woman! How could a +wise-eyed child like that have been deceived by a handsome face? Well, +it was all speculation of course, and he had nothing to do with any of +them. They were strangers to him and probably always would be. But he +had no conception at that time what a small world he lived in, nor how +near the big experiences of life lie all about us. + +He watched the lovely bride as all the audience watched her until he saw +her fall, and then he started forward without in the least realizing +what he was doing. He found himself half way up the side aisle to the +altar before he came to himself and forced his feet back to where his +cousin was sitting. Of course he had no right up there, and what could +he do when there were so many of her friends and relatives about her? + +His position near the side door through which they carried her made it +quite possible for him to look down into her still face as they took her +to the vestry room, and he found a great satisfaction in seeing that +she was even more beautiful at close hand than at a distance. He +wondered afterward why his mind had laid so much stress upon the fact +that her skin was lovely like a baby's without any sign of cosmetics. He +told himself that it was merely his delight to learn that there was such +a type, and that it ran true. + +He was therefore not a little disappointed that the minister, after the +congregation had waited an unconscionable time for the return of the +bride, came out and announced that owing to her continued collapse the +ceremony would have to be postponed. The clatter of polite wonder and +gossip annoyed him beyond measure, and he was actually cross with his +cousin on the way home when she ranted on about the way girls nowadays +were brought up, coddled, so that a breath would blow them away. Somehow +she had not looked like that kind of a girl. + +But when the morning papers came out with sensational headlines +proclaiming that the bride had run away, and suggesting all sorts of +unpleasant things about her, he felt a secret exultation that she had +been brave enough to do so. It was as if he had found that her spirit +was as wise and beautiful as her face had been. His interest in the +matter exceeded all common sense and he was annoyed and impatient with +himself more than he cared to own. Never before had a face lured his +thoughts like this one. He told himself that his business was getting on +his nerves, and that as soon as he could be sure about one or two little +matters that he hoped would fall into his hands to transact, he would +take a few days off and run down to the shore. + +Again and again the little white bride came across his vision and +thoughts, and hindered the courteous but stinging phrases with which he +had intended to illumine his letter. At last he gave it up and taking +his hat went out in the keen November air for a walk to clear his brain. + +This was James Ryan's opportunity. It was almost twelve o'clock and no +harm in calling the "forelady" in the cotton blouse department of the +big factory. He swung to the telephone with alacrity. + +"I want to speak with Miss Carson, please. Yes, Miss J. Carson. Is that +Miss Carson? Oh, hello, Jane, is that you?" + +"Yes, it is _Mister_ Ryan," answered Jane sweetly. + +"Jane!" + +"Well, didn't you 'Miss Carson' me?" + +"Give it up, Jane. You win. Say, Jane!" + +"Well, Jimmie?" + +"That's my girl, say how about that wedding veil? Been thinking any more +about it?" + +There was silence for a moment, then a conscious giggle, the full +significance of which James Ryan was not in a position to figure out. + +"Say, Jimmie, quit your kiddin'! You mustn't say things like that over +the 'phone." + +"Why not?" + +"'Cause. Folks might listen." + +"I should worry! Well, since you say so. How about seein' a show +together to-night?" + +"Fine an' dandy, Jimmie! I'll be ready at the usual time. I gotta go +now, the boss is comin'. So long, Jimmie!" + +"So long, darling!" + +But the receiver at the other end hung up with a click, while Jane with +a smile on her lips thought of the pasteboard box under her bed and +wondered what Jimmie would say if he could know. For Jane had fully made +up her mind that Jimmie was not to know. Not at present, anyhow. Some +time she might tell him if things turned out all right, but she knew +just what lordly masculine advice and criticism would lie upon James +Ryan's lips if she attempted to tell him about her strange and wonderful +guest of the night before. Maybe she was a fool to have trusted a +stranger that way. Maybe the girl would turn out to be insane or wrong +somehow, and trouble come, but she didn't believe it; and anyhow, she +was going to wait, until she saw what happened next before she got +Jimmie mixed up in it. Besides, the secret wasn't hers to tell. She had +promised Betty, and she always kept her promises. That was one reason +why she was so slow in promising to think about a wedding veil in +response to James Ryan's oft repeated question. + +That evening on the way to the movies Jane instituted an investigation. + +"Jimmie, what kind of a man is your boss?" + +"White man!" said Jimmie promptly. + +"Aw! Cut it out, James Ryan! I don't mean how'd s'e look, or what color +is he; I mean what kind of a _man_ is he?" + +"Well, that's the answer. White man! What's the matter of that? I said +it and I meant it. He's white if there ever was one!" + +"Oh, that!" said Miss Carson in scorn. "Of course I know he's a peach. +If he wasn't you wouldn't be workin' for him. What I mean, is he a +_snob_?" + +"No chance!" + +"Well, I saw him _with_ 'em last night. I was passin' that big church +up Spruce Street and I saw him standin' with his arms folded so----" she +paused on the sidewalk and indicated his pose. "It was a swell weddin' +and the place was full up. He had a big white front an' a clawhammer +coat. I know it was him 'cause I took a good look at him that time you +pointed him out at church that evenin'. I wondered was he _in with_ them +swells?" + +Her tone expressed scorn and not a little anxiety, as if she had asked +whether he frequented places of low reputation. + +"Oh, if you mean, _could_ he be, why that's a diffrunt thing!" said +James the wise. "_Sure_, he could be if he wanted, I guess. He's got a +good family. His uncle's some high muckymuck, and you often see his +aunts' and cousins' names in the paper giving teas and receptions and +going places. But he don't seem to go much. I often hear folks ask him +why he wasn't some place last night, or 'phone to know if he won't come, +and he always says he can't spare the time, or he can't afford it, or +something like that." + +"Ain't he rich, Jimmie?" + +"Well, no, not exactly. He may have some money put away, or left him by +some one. If he don't have I can't fer the life of me see how he lives. +But he certainly don't get it in fees. I often wonder where my salary +comes from, but it always does, regular as the clock." + +"Jimmie, doesn't he have _any_ business at all?" + +"Oh, yes he has business, but it ain't the paying kind. Fer instance, +there was a man in to-day trying to get his house back that another man +took away from him, and my boss _took the case_! He took it _right off +the bat_ without waiting to see whether the man could pay him anything +or not! He can't! He's only a poor laboring man, and a rich man stole +his house. Just out an' out stole it, you know. It's how he got rich. +Like as not we'll lose it, too, those rich men have so many ways of +crawling out of a thing and making it look nice to the world. Oh, he'll +get a fee, of course--twenty-five dollars, perhaps--but what's +twenty-five dollars, and like as not never get even the whole of that, +or have to wait for it? Why, it wouldn't keep _me_ in his office long! +Then there was a girl trying to get hold of the money her own father +left her, and her uncle frittered away and pertends it cost him all +that, and _he's_ been supporting _her_! Well, we took that, too, and we +won't get much out of that even if we do win. Then there come along one +of these here rich guys with a pocket full of money and a nice slick +tongue wanting to be protected from the law in some devilment, and _him +we turned down flat_! That's how it goes in our office. I can't just +figger out how it's coming out! But he's a good guy, a white man if +there ever was one!" + +"I should say!" responded Jane with shining eyes. "Say, Jimmie, what's +the matter of us throwin' a little business in his way--real, payin' +business, I mean?" + +"Fat chance!" said Jimmie dryly. + +"You never can tell!" answered Jane dreamily. "I'm goin' to think about +it. Our fact'ry has lawyers sometimes. I might speak to the boss." + +"Do!" said Jimmie sarcastically! "And have yer labor for yer pains! +We'll prob'ly turn _them_ down. Fact'ries are _always_ doing things they +hadn't ought to." + +But Jane was silent and thoughtful, and they were presently lost in the +charms of Mary Pickford. + +The evening papers came out with pictures of Elizabeth Stanhope and her +bridegroom that was to have been. Jane cut away the bridegroom and +pasted the bride's picture in the flyleaf of her Bible, then hid it away +in the bottom of her trunk. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +WHEN Betty found herself seated on the day coach of a way train, jogging +along toward a town she had never seen and away from the scenes and +people of her childhood, she found herself trembling violently. It was +as if she had suddenly been placed in an airplane all by herself and +started off to the moon without any knowledge of her motor power or +destination. It both frightened and exhilarated her. She wanted to cry +and she wanted to laugh, but she did neither. Instead she sat demurely +for the first hour and a half looking out of the window like any +traveler, scarcely turning her head nor looking at anything in the car. +It seemed to her that there might be a detective in every seat just +waiting for her to lift her eyes that he might recognize her. But +gradually as the time dragged by and the landscape grew monotonous she +began to feel a little more at her ease. Furtively she studied her +neighbors. She had seldom traveled in a common car, and it was new to +her to study all types as she could see them here. She smiled at a dirty +baby and wished she had something to give it. She studied the careworn +man and the woman in black who wept behind her veil and would not smile +no matter how hard the man tried to make her. It was a revelation to her +that any man would try as hard as that to make a woman smile. She +watched the Italian family with five children and nine bundles, and +counted the colors on a smart young woman who got in at a way station. +Every minute of the day was interesting. Every mile of dreary November +landscape that whirled by gave her more freedom. + +She opened the little shabby handbag that Jane had given her and got out +the bit of mirror one inch by an inch and a half backed with pasteboard +on which lingered particles of the original green taffeta lining and +studied her own strange face, trying to get used to her new self and her +new name. Jane had written it, Lizzie Hope, on the back of the envelope +containing the address of Mrs. Carson. It seemed somehow an +identification card. She studied it curiously and wondered if Lizzie +Hope was going to be any happier than Betty Stanhope had been. And then +she fell to thinking over the strange experiences of the last +twenty-four hours and wondering whether she had done right or not, and +whether her father would have been disappointed in her, "ashamed of +her," as her stepmother had said. Somehow Jane had made her feel that +he would not, and she was more light-hearted than she had been for many +a day. + +Late in the afternoon she began to wonder what Tinsdale would be like. +In the shabby handbag was her ticket to Tinsdale and eight dollars and a +half in change. It made her feel richer than she had ever felt in her +life, although she had never been stinted as to pocket money. But this +was her very own, for her needs, and nobody but herself to say how she +should spend either it or her time. + +Little towns came in sight and passed, each one with one or two +churches, a schoolhouse, a lot of tiny houses. Would Tinsdale look this +way? How safe these places seemed, yet lonely, too! Still, no one would +ever think of looking for her in a lonely little village. + +They passed a big brick institution, and she made out the words, "State +Asylum," and shuddered inwardly as she thought of what Jane had told her +about the morning paper. Suppose they should hunt her up and _put her in +an insane asylum_, just to show the world that it had not been their +fault that she had run away from her wedding! The thought was appalling. +She dropped her head on her hand with her face toward the window and +tried to pretend she was asleep and hide the tears that would come, but +presently a boy came in at the station with a big basket and she bought +a ham sandwich and an apple. It tasted good. She had not expected that +it would. She decided that she must have been pretty hungry and then +fell to counting her money, aghast that the meager supper had made such +a hole in her capital. She must be very careful. This might be all the +money she would have for a very long time, and there was no telling what +kind of an impossible place she was going to. She might have to get away +as eagerly as she had come. Jane was all right, but that was not saying +that her mother and sisters would be. + +It was growing dark, and the lights were lit in the car. All the little +Italian babies had been given drinks of water, and strange things to +eat, and tumbled to sleep across laps and on seats, anywhere they would +stick. They looked so funny and dirty and pitiful with their faces all +streaked with soot and molasses candy that somebody had given them. The +mother looked tired and greasy and the father was fat and dark, with +unpleasant black eyes that seemed to roll a great deal. Yet he was kind +to the babies and his wife seemed to like him. She wondered what kind of +a home they had, and what relation the young fellow with the shiny dark +curls bore to them. He seemed to take as much care of the babies as did +their father and mother. + +The lights were flickering out in the villages now and gave a friendly +inhabited look to the houses. Sometimes when the train paused at +stations Betty could see people moving back and forth at what seemed to +be kitchen tables and little children bringing dishes out, all working +together. It looked pleasant and she wondered if it would be like that +where she was going. A big lump of loneliness was growing in her throat. +It was one thing to run away from something that you hated, but it was +another to jump into a new life where one neither knew nor was known. +Betty began to shrink inexpressibly from it all. Not that she wanted to +go back! Oh, no; far from it! But once when they passed a little white +cemetery with tall dark fir trees waving guardingly above the white +stones she looked out almost wistfully. If she were lying in one of +those beside her father and mother how safe and rested she would be. She +wouldn't have to worry any more. What was it like where father and +mother had gone? Was it a real place? Or was that just the end when one +died? Well, if she were sure it was all she would not care. She would be +willing to just go out and not be. But somehow that didn't seem to be +the commonly accepted belief. There was always a beyond in most people's +minds, and a fear of just what Betty didn't know. She was a good deal of +a heathen, though she did not know that either. + +Then, just as she was floundering into a lot of theological mysteries of +her own discovery the nasal voice of the conductor called out: +"Tinsdale! Tinsdale!" and she hurried to her feet in something of a +panic, conscious of her short hair and queer clothes. + +Down on the platform she stood a minute trying to get used to her feet, +they felt so numb and empty from long sitting. Her head swam just a +little, too, and the lights on the station and in the houses near by +seemed to dance around her weirdly. She had a feeling that she would +rather wait until the train was gone before she began to search for her +new home, and then when the wheels ground and began to turn and the +conductor shouted "All aboard!" and swung himself up the step as she had +seen him do a hundred times that afternoon, a queer sinking feeling of +loneliness possessed her, and she almost wanted to catch the rail and +swing back on again as the next pair of car steps flung by her. + +Then a voice that sounded a little like Jane's said pleasantly in her +ear: "Is this Lizzie Hope?" and Betty turned with a thrill of actual +fright to face Nellie Carson and her little sister Emily. + +"Bobbie'll be here in a minute to carry your suitcase," said Nellie +efficiently; "he just went over to see if he could borrow Jake Peter's +wheelbarrow in case you had a trunk. You didn't bring your trunk? O, but +you're going to stay, aren't you? I'm goin' up to the city to take a +p'sition, and Mother'd be awful lonesome. Sometime of course we'll send +fer them to come, but now the children's little an' the country's better +fer them. They gotta go to school awhile. You'll stay, won't you?" + +"How do you know you'll want me?" laughed Betty, at her ease in this +unexpected air of welcome. + +"Why, of course we'd want you. Jane sent you. Jane wouldn't of sent you +if you hadn't been a good scout. Jane knows. Besides, I've got two eyes, +haven't I? I guess I can tell right off." + +Emily's shy little hand stole into Betty's and the little girl looked +up: + +"I'm awful glad you come! I think you're awful pretty!" + +"Thank you!" said Betty, warmly squeezing the little confiding hand. It +was the first time in her life that a little child had come close to her +in this confiding way. Her life had not been among children. + +Then Bob whirled up, bareheaded, freckled, whistling, efficient, and +about twelve years old. He grabbed the suitcase, eyed the stranger with +a pleasant grin, and stamped off into the darkness ahead of them. + +It was a new experience to Betty to be walking down a village street +with little houses on each side and lights and warmth and heads bobbing +through the windows. It stirred some memory of long ago, before she +could scarcely remember. She wondered, had her own mother ever lived in +a small village? + +"That's our church," confided Emily, as they passed a large frame +building with pointed steeple and belfry. "They're goin' to have a +entertainment t'morra night, an' we're all goin' and Ma said you cud go +too." + +"Isn't that lovely!" said Betty, feeling a sudden lump like tears in her +throat. It was just like living out a fairy story. She hadn't expected +to be taken right in to family life this way. + +"But how did you know I was coming on that train?" she asked the older +girl suddenly. "Jane said she was going to telegraph, but I expected to +have to hunt around to find the house." + +"Oh, we just came down to every train after the telegram came. This is +the last train to-night, and we were awful scared for fear you wouldn't +come till morning, an' have to stay on the train all night. Ma says it +isn't nice for a girl to have to travel alone at night. Ma always makes +Jane and me go daytimes." + +"It was just lovely of you," said Betty, wondering if she was talking +"natural" enough to please Jane. + +"Did you bob you hair 'cause you had a fever?" asked Nellie enviously. + +"No," said Betty, "that is, I haven't been very well, and I thought it +might be good for me," she finished, wondering how many questions like +that it was going to be hard for her to answer without telling a lie. A +lie was something that her father had made her feel would hurt him more +deeply than anything else she could do. + +"I just love it," said Nellie enthusiastically. "I wanted to cut mine, +an' so did Jane, but Ma wouldn't let us. She says God gave us our hair, +an' we oughtta take care of it." + +"That's true, too," said Betty. "I never thought about that. But I guess +mine will grow again after a while. I think it will be less trouble this +way. But it's very dirty with traveling. I think I'll have to wash it +before I put it on a pillow." + +That had troubled Betty greatly. She didn't know how to get rid of that +hair dye before Jane's family got used to having it dark. + +"Sure, you can wash it, if you ain't 'fraid of takin' cold. There's lots +of hot water. Ma thought you'd maybe want to take a bath. We've got a +big tin bath-tub out in the back shed. Ma bought it off the Joneses when +they got their porcelain one put into their house. We don't have no +runnin' water but we have an awful good well. Here's our house. I guess +Bob's got there first. See, Ma's out on the steps waitin' fer us." + +The house was a square wooden affair, long wanting paint, and trimmed +with little scrollwork around the diminutive front porch. The color was +indescribable, blending well into the surroundings either day or night. +It had a cheerful, decent look, but very tiny. There was a small yard +about it with a picket fence, and a leafless lilac bush. A cheerful +barberry bush flanked the gate on either side. The front door was open +into a tiny hall and beyond the light streamed forth from a glass lamp +set on a pleasant dining-room table covered with a red cloth. Betty +stepped inside the gate and found herself enveloped in two motherly +arms, and then led into the light and warmth of the family dining-room. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +THERE was a kettle of stew on the stove in the kitchen, kept hot from +supper for Betty, with fresh dumplings just mixed before the train came +in, and bread and butter with apple sauce and cookies. They made her sit +right down and eat, before she even took her hat off, and they all sat +around her and talked while she ate. It made her feel very much at home +as if somehow she was a real relative. + +It came over her once how different all this was from the house which +she had called home all her life. The fine napery, the cut glass and +silver, the stately butler! And here was she eating off a stone china +plate thick enough for a table top, with a steel knife and fork and a +spoon with the silver worn off the bowl. She could not help wondering +what her stepmother would have said to the red and white tablecloth, and +the green shades at the windows. There was an old sofa covered with +carpet in the room, with a flannel patchwork pillow, and a cat cuddled +up cosily beside it purring away like a tea-kettle boiling. Somehow, +poor as it was, it seemed infinitely more attractive than any room she +had ever seen before, and she was charmed with the whole family. Bobbie +sat at the other end of the table with his elbows on the table and his +round eyes on her. When she smiled at him he winked one eye and grinned +and then wriggled down under the table out of sight. + +The mother had tired kind eyes and a firm cheerful mouth like Jane's. +She took Betty right in as if she had been her sister's child. + +"Come, now, get back there, Emily. Don't hang on Lizzie. She'll be tired +to death of you right at the start. Give her a little peace while she +eats her supper. How long have you and Jane been friends, Lizzie?" she +asked, eager for news of her own daughter. + +Betty's cheeks flushed and her eyes grew troubled. She was very much +afraid that being Lizzie was going to be hard work: + +"Why, not so very long," she said hesitatingly. + +"Are you one of the girls in her factory?" + +"Oh, no!" said Betty wildly, wondering what would come next. "We--just +met--that is--why--_out one evening_!" she finished desperately. + +"Oh, I see!" said the mother. "Yes, she wrote about going out sometimes, +mostly to the movies. And to church. My children always make it a point +to go to church wherever they are. I brought 'em up that way. I hope you +go to church." + +"I shall love to," said Betty eagerly. + +"Is your mother living?" was the next question. + +"No," answered Betty. "Mother and father are both dead and I've been +having rather a hard time. Jane was kind to me when I was in trouble." + +"I'll warrant you! That's Jane!" beamed her mother happily. "Jane always +was a good girl, if I do say so. I knew Jane was at her tricks again +when she sent me that telegram." + +"Ma's got you a place already!" burst out Nellie eagerly. + +"Now, Nellie, you said you'd let Ma tell that!" reproached Bob. "You +never can keep your mouth shut." + +"There! There! Bob, don't spoil the evening with anything unkind," +warned the mother. "Yes, Lizzie, I got you a position. It just happened +I had the chance, and I took it, though I don't really b'lieve that +anythin' in this world just happens, of course. But it did seem +providential. Mrs. Hathaway wanted somebody to look after her little +girl. She's only three years old and she is possessed to run away every +chance she gets. Course I s'pose she's spoiled. Most rich children are. +Now, my children wouldn't have run away. They always thought too much +of what I said to make me trouble. But that's neither here nor there. +She does it, and besides her Ma is an invalid. She had an operation, so +she has to lie still a good bit, and can't be bothered. She wants +somebody just to take the little girl out walking and keep her happy in +the house, an' all." + +"How lovely!" exclaimed Betty. "I shall enjoy it, I know." + +"She's awful pretty!" declared Emily eagerly. "Got gold curls and blue +eyes just like you, and she has ever an' ever so many little dresses, +and wears pink shoes and blue shoes, an' rides a tricycle." + +"How interesting!" said Betty. + +"You'll get good wages," said the mother. "She said she'd give you six +dollars a week, an' mebbe more, an' you'd get some of your meals." + +"Then I can pay my board to you," cried Betty. + +"Don't worry about that, child. We'll fix that up somehow. We're awful +glad to have you come, and I guess we shall like each other real well. +Now, children, it's awful late. Get to bed. Scat! Lizzie can have her +bath an' get to bed, too. Come, mornin's half way here already!" + +The children said good night and Betty was introduced to the tin bath +tub and improvised bathroom--a neat little addition to the kitchen +evidently intended originally for a laundry. She wanted to laugh when +she saw the primitive makeshifts, but instead the tears came into her +eyes to think how many luxuries she had taken all her life as a matter +of course and never realized how hard it was for people who had none. In +fact it had never really entered her head before that there were people +who had no bathrooms. + +Betty was not exactly accustomed to washing her own hair, and with the +added problem of the dye it was quite a task; but she managed it at +last, using all the hot water, to get it so that the rinsing water was +clear, and her hair felt soft. Then, attired in the same warm nightgown +she had worn the night before, which Jane had thoughtfully put in the +suitcase--otherwise filled with old garments she wished to send +home--Betty pattered upstairs to the little room with the sloping roof +and the dormer window and crept into bed with Nellie. That young woman +had purposely stayed awake, and kept Betty as long as she could talk, +telling all the wonderful things she wanted to know about city life, and +Betty found herself in deep water sometimes because the city life she +knew about was so very different from the city life that Jane would +know. But at last sleep won, and Nellie had to give up because her last +question was answered with silence. The guest was deep in slumber. + +The next morning the children took her over the house, out in the yard, +showing her everything. Then they had to take her down to the village +and explain all about the little town and its people. They were crazy +about Betty's beautiful hair and much disappointed when she would insist +on wearing her hat. It was a bright sunny morning, not very cold, and +they told her that nobody wore a hat except to church or to go on the +train, but Betty had a feeling that her hair might attract attention, +and in her first waking hours a great shadow of horror had settled upon +her when she realized that her people would leave no stone unturned to +find her. It was most important that she should do or be nothing whereby +she might be recognized. She even thought of getting a cap and apron to +wear when attending her small charge, but Nellie told her they didn't do +that in the country and she would be thought stuck up, so she desisted. +But she drew the blue serge skirt up as high above her waistband as +possible when she dressed in the morning so that she might look like a +little girl and no one would suspect her of being a runaway bride. Also +she had a consultation with herself in the small hours of the morning +while Nellie was still fast asleep, and settled with her conscience just +what she would tell about her past and what she would keep to herself. +There was a certain reserve that any one might have, and if she was +frank about a few facts no one would be likely to question further. + +So next morning she told Mrs. Carson that since her parents' death she +had lived with a woman who knew her father well, but lately things had +been growing very unpleasant and she found she had to leave. She had +left under such conditions that she could not bring away anything that +belonged to her, so she would have to work and earn some more clothes. + +Mrs. Carson looked into her sweet eyes and agreed that it was the best +thing she could do; they might follow her up and make all sorts of +trouble for her in her new home if she wrote for her things; and so the +matter dropped. They were simple folks, who took things at their face +value and were not over inquisitive. + +On the third day there arrived a long letter from Jane in which she gave +certain suggestions concerning the new member of the family, and ended: +"Ma, she's got a story, but don't make her tell any more of it than she +wants. She's awful sensitive about it, and trust me, she's all right! +She's been through a lot. Just make her feel she's got some folks that +loves and trusts her." + +Ma, wise beyond her generation and experience, said no more, and took +the little new daughter into her heart. She took the opportunity to +inform the village gossips that a friend of Jane's had come to rest up +and get a year's country air, boarding with them; and so the +amalgamation of Betty Stanhope into the life of the little town began. + +The "job" proved to be for only part of the day, so that Betty was free +most of the mornings to help around the house and take almost a +daughter's place. That she was a rare girl is proved by the way she +entered into her new life. It was almost as if she had been born again, +and entered into a new universe, so widely was her path diverging from +everything which had been familiar in the old life. So deep had been her +distress before she came into it that this new existence, despite its +hard and unaccustomed work, seemed almost like heaven. + +It is true there was much bad grammar and slang, but that did not +trouble Betty. She had been brought up to speak correctly, and it was +second nature to her, but no one had ever drummed it into her what a +crime against culture an illiterate way of speaking could be. She never +got into the way of speaking that way herself, but it seemed a part of +these people she had come to know and admire so thoroughly, as much as +for a rose to have thorns, and so she did not mind it. Her other world +had been so all-wrong for years that the hardships of this one were +nothing. She watched them patch and sacrifice cheerfully to buy their +few little plain coarse new things. She marveled at their sweetness and +content, where those of her world would have thought they could not +exist under the circumstances. + +She learned to make that good stew with carrots and celery and parsley +and potatoes and the smallest possible amount of meat, that had tasted +so delicious the night she arrived. She learned the charms of the common +little bean, and was proud indeed the day she set upon the table a +luscious pan of her own baking, rich and sweet and brown with their +coating of molasses well baked through them. She even learned to make +bread and never let any one guess that she had always supposed it +something mysterious. + +During the week that Nellie was preparing to go to the city, Betty had +lessons in sewing. Nellie would bring down an old garment, so faded and +worn that it would seem only fit for the rag-bag. She would rip and +wash, dye with a mysterious little package of stuff, press, and behold, +there would come forth pretty breadths of cloth, blue or brown or green, +or whatever color was desired. It seemed like magic. And then a box of +paper-patterns would be brought out, and the whole evening would be +spent in contriving how to get out a dress, with the help of trimmings +or sleeves of another material. Betty would watch and gradually try to +help, but she found there were so many strange things to be considered. +There, for instance, was the up and down of a thing and the right and +wrong of it. It was exactly like life. And one had to plan not to have +both sleeves for one arm, and to have the nap of the goods running down +always. It was as complicated as learning a new language. But at the end +of the week there came forth two pretty dresses and a blouse. Betty, as +she sat sewing plain seams and trying to help all she could, kept +thinking of the many beautiful frocks she had thrown aside in the years +gone by, and of the rich store of pretty things that she had left when +she fled. If only Nellie and Jane and little Emily could have them! Ah, +and if only she herself might have them now! How she needed them! For a +girl who had always had all she wanted it was a great change to get +along with this one coarse serge and aprons. + +But the sewing and other work had not occupied them so fully that they +had not had time to introduce Betty into their little world. The very +next evening after she arrived she had been taken to that wonderful +church entertainment that the girls had told her about on the way from +the station, and there she had met the minister's wife and been invited +to her Sabbath school class. + +Betty would not have thought of going if Nellie and her mother had not +insisted. In fact, she shrank unspeakably from going out into the little +village world. But it was plain that this was expected of her, and if +she remained here she must do as they wanted her to do. It was the least +return she could make to these kind people. + +The question of whether or not she should remain began to come to her +insistently now. The children clamored every day for her to bind herself +for the winter, and Jane's mother had made her most welcome. She saw +that they really wanted her; why should she not stay? And yet it did +seem queer to arrange deliberately to spend a whole year in a poor +uncultured family. Still, where could she go and hope to remain unknown +if she attempted to get back into her own class? It was impossible. Her +mother had just the one elderly cousin whom she had always secretly +looked to to help her in any time of need, but his failing her and +sending that telegram without even a good wish in it, just at the last +minute, too, made her feel it was of no use to appeal to him. Besides, +that was the first place her stepmother would seek for her. She had many +good society friends, but none who would stand by her in trouble. No one +with whom she had ever been intimate enough to confide in. She had been +kept strangely alone in her little world after all, hedged in by +servants everywhere. And now that she was suddenly on her own +responsibility, she felt a great timidity in taking any step alone. +Sometimes at night when she thought what she had done she was so +frightened that her heart would beat wildly as if she were running away +from them all yet. It was like a nightmare that pursued her. + +Mrs. Hathaway had sent for her and made arrangements for her to begin +her work with the little Elise the following week when the present +governess should leave, and Betty felt that this might prove a very +pleasant way to earn her living. The Hathaways lived in a great brick +house away back from the street in grounds that occupied what in the +city would have been a whole block. There was a high hedge about the +place so that one could not see the road, and there were flower-beds, a +great fountain, and a rustic summerhouse. Betty did not see why days +passed in such a pleasant place would not be delightful in summertime. +She was not altogether sure whether she would like to have to be a sort +of servant in the house--and of course these cold fall days she would +have to be much in the house--but the nursery had a big fireplace in it, +a long chest under the window where toys were kept, and many comfortable +chairs. That ought to be pleasant, too. Besides, she was not just out +looking for pleasant things on this trip. She was trying to get away +from unbearable ones, and she ought to be very thankful indeed to have +fallen on such comfort as she had. + +There was another element in the Carson home that drew her strongly, +although she was shy about even thinking of it, and that was the frank, +outspoken Christianity. "Ma" tempered all her talk with it, adjusted all +her life to God and what He would think about her actions, spoke +constantly of what was right and wrong. Betty had never lived in an +atmosphere where right and wrong mattered. Something sweet and pure like +an instinct in her own soul had held her always from many of the ways +of those about her, perhaps the spirit of her sweet mother allowed to be +one of those who "bear them up, lest at any time they dash their feet +against a stone." Or it might have been some memory of the teachings of +her father, whom she adored, and who in his last days often talked with +her alone about how he and her own mother would want her to live. But +now, safe and quiet in this shelter of a real home, poor though it was, +the God-instinct stirred within her, caused her to wonder what He was, +why she was alive, and if He cared? One could not live with Mrs. Carson +without thinking something about her God, for He was an ever-present +help in all her times of need, and she never hesitated to give God the +glory for all she had achieved, and for all the blessings she had +received. + +The very first Sabbath in the little white church stirred still deeper +her awakening interest in spiritual things. The minister's wife was a +sweet-faced woman who called her "my dear" and invited her to come and +see her, and when she began to teach the lesson Betty found to her +amazement that it was interesting. She spoke of God in much the same +familiar way that "Ma" had done, only with a gentler refinement, and +made the girls very sure that whatever anybody else believed, Mrs. +Thornley was a very intimate friend of Jesus Christ. Betty loved her at +once, but so shy was she that the minister's wife never dreamed it, and +remarked to her husband Sunday night after church, when they were having +their little, quiet Sabbath talk together, that she was afraid she was +going to have a hard time winning that little new girl that had come to +live with Mrs. Carson. + +"Somehow I can't get away from the thought that she comes from +aristocracy somewhere," she added. "It's the way she turns her head, or +lifts her eyes or the quiet assurance with which she answers. And she +smiles, Charles, never grins like the rest. She is delicious, but +somehow I find myself wondering if I have remembered to black my shoes +and whether my hat is on straight, when she looks at me." + +"Well, maybe she's the daughter of some black sheep who has gone down a +peg, and our Father has sent her here for you to help her back again," +said her husband with an adorable look at his helper. "If anyone can do +it you can." + +"I'm not so sure," she said, shaking her head. "She maybe doesn't need +me. She has Mrs. Carson, remember, and she is a host in herself. If +anybody can lead her to Christ she can, plain as she is." + +"Undoubtedly you were meant to help, too, dear, or she would not have +been sent to you." + +His wife smiled brilliantly a look of thorough understanding: "Oh, I +know. I'm not going to shirk any but I wish I knew more about her. She +is so sad and quiet, I can't seem to get at her." + +Even at that moment Betty lay in her little cot bed under the roof +thinking about the minister's wife and what she had said about Christ +being always near, ready to show what to do, if one had the listening +heart and the ready spirit. Would Christ tell her what to do, she +wondered, now right here, if she were to ask him? Would He show her +whether to stay in this place or seek further to hide herself from the +world? Would He show her how to earn her living and make her life right +and sweet as it ought to be. + +Then she closed her eyes and whispered softly under the sheltering +bedclothes, "O Christ, if you are here, please show me somehow and teach +me to understand." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +WHEN Betty had been in Tinsdale about a month it was discovered that she +could play the piano. It happened on a rainy Sunday in Sunday school, +and the regular pianist was late. The superintendent looked about +helplessly and asked if there was anybody present who could play, +although he knew the musical ability of everybody in the village. The +minister's wife had already pleaded a cut finger which was well wrapped +up in a bandage, and he was about to ask some one to start the tune +without the piano when Mrs. Thornton leaned over with a sudden +inspiration to Betty and asked: + +"My dear, you couldn't play for us, could you?" + +Betty smiled assent, and without any ado went to the instrument, not +realizing until after she had done so that it would have been better +policy for her to have remained as much in the background as possible, +and not to have shown any accomplishments lest people should suspect her +position. However, she was too new at acting a part to always think of +these little things, and she played the hymns so well that they gathered +about her after the hour was over and openly rejoiced that there was +another pianist in town. The leader of Christian Endeavor asked her to +play in their meeting sometimes, and Betty found herself quite popular. +The tallest girl in their class, who had not noticed her before, smiled +at her and patronized her after she came back from playing the first +hymn, and asked her where she learned to play so well. + +"Oh, I used to take lessons before my father died," she said, realizing +that she must be careful. + +Emily and Bob came home in high feather and told their mother, who had +not been able to get out that morning, and she beamed on Betty with as +warm a smile as if she had been her own daughter: + +"Now, ain't that great!" she said, and her voice sounded boyish just +like Jane's. "Why, we'll have to get a pianna. I heard you could get 'em +cheap in the cities sometimes--old-fashioned ones, you know. I heard +they have so many old-fashioned ones that they have to burn 'em to get +rid of 'em, and they even give 'em away sometimes. I wonder, could we +find out and get hold of one?" + +"I guess 'twould cost too much to get it here," said Bob practically. +"My! I wisht we had one. Say, Lizzie, 'f we had a pianna would you show +me how to read notes?" + +"Of course," said Betty. + +"Well, we'll get one somehow! We always do when we need anything +awfully. Look at the bathtub! Good-night! I'm goin' to earn one myself!" +declared Bob. + +"Mrs. Crosby's gotta get a new one. P'raps she'll sell us her old one +cheap." + +That was the way the music idea started, and nothing else was talked of +at the table for days but how to get a piano. Then one day Emily came +rushing home from school all out of breath, her eyes as bright as stars, +and her cheeks like roses. "Mrs. Barlow came to our school to-day and +talked to the teacher, and I heard her say she was going away for the +winter. She's going to store her goods in the Service Company barn, but +she wants to get somebody to take care of her piano. I stepped right up +and told her my mother was looking for a piano, and we'd be real careful +of it, and she's just delighted; and--it's coming to-morrow morning at +nine o'clock! The man's going to bring it!" + +She gasped it out so incoherently that they had to make her tell it over +twice to get any sense out of it; but when Bob finally understood he +caught his little sister in his arms and hugged her with a big smacking +kiss: + +"You sure are a little peach, Em'ly!" he shouted. "You're a pippin of +the pippins! I didn't know you had that much nerve, you kid, you! I sure +am proud of you! My! Think of havin' a pianna! Say, Betty, I can play +the base of chopsticks now!" + +The next evening when Betty got home from the Hathaways there was the +piano standing in the big space opposite the windows in the dining-room. +Ma had elected to have it there rather than in the front room, because +it might often be too cold in the front room for the children to +practice, and besides it wouldn't be good for the piano. So the piano +became a beloved member of the family, and Betty began to give +instructions in music, wondering at herself that she knew how, for her +own music had been most desultory, and nobody had ever cared whether she +practiced or not. She had been allowed to ramble among the great masters +for the most part unconducted, with the meagerest technique, and her own +interpretation. She could read well and her sense of time and rhythm +were natural, else she would have made worse work of it than she did. +But she forthwith set herself to practicing, realizing that it might yet +stand her in good stead since she had to earn her living. + +Little Emily and Bob stood one on either side and watched her as she +played, with wondering admiration, and when Betty went to help their +mother Bob would sit down and try to imitate what she had done. Failing, +he would fall headlong into the inevitable chopsticks, beating it out +with the air of a master. + +It was the piano that brought to Betty's realization the first real +meaning of the Sabbath day. Bob came down early and went at the piano as +usual banging out chopsticks, and a one-fingered arrangement of "The +Long, Long Trail," while his mother was getting breakfast. Betty was +making the coffee, proud of the fact that she had learned how. But Bob +had accomplished only a brief hint of his regular program when the music +stopped suddenly and Betty glanced through the kitchen door to see Ma +standing with her hand on her son's shoulder and a look on her face she +had not seen before: It was quite gentle, but it was decided: + +"No, Bob! We won't have that kinda music on Sunday," she said. "This is +God's day, an' we'll have all we can rightly do to keep it holy without +luggin' in week-day music to make us forget it. You just get t' work an' +learn 'Safely Through Another Week,' an' if you can't play it right you +get Lizzie to teach you." + +Bob pouted: + +"There ain't nothin' wrong with chopsticks, Ma. 'Tain't got words to +it." + +"Don't make any diffrence. It b'longs to weekdays an' fun, an' anyhow it +makes you think of other things, an' you can't keep your mind on God. +That's what Sunday was made fer, to kinda tone us up to God, so's we +won't get so far away in the week that we won't be any kind of ready for +heaven some time. An' anyhow, 'tisn't seemly. You better go learn your +Golden Text, Bob. The minister'll be disappointed if you don't have it +fine." + +Betty stood by the window thoughtfully looking out. Was that what Sunday +was made for, or was it only a quaint idea of this original woman? She +wished she knew. Perhaps some time she would know the minister's wife +well enough to ask. She would have liked to ask Ma more about it, but +somehow felt shy. But Ma herself was started now, and when she came back +to the kitchen, as if she felt some explanation was due the new inmate +of the family, she said: + +"I don't know how you feel about it. I know city folks don't always hold +to the old ways. But it always seemed to me God meant us to stick to +Sunday, and make it diff'rent from other days. I never would let my +children go visitin', nor play ball an' we always tried to have +something good for supper fixed the night before. I heard somebody say a +long time ago that it says somewhere in the Bible that Sunday was meant +to be a sign forever between God and folks. The ones that keeps it are +his'n, an' them as don't aren't. Anyhow, that's the only day we have got +to kinda find out what's wanted of us. You wouldn't mind just playin' +hymns and Sunday things t'day, would you?" + +"Oh, no," said Betty, interested. "I like it. It sounds so kind of safe, +and as if God cared. I never thought much about it before. You think God +really thinks about us and knows what we're doing then, don't you?" + +"Why, sure, child. I don't just think, I _know_ He does. Hadn't you +never got onto that? Why, you poor little ducky, you! O' course He +does." + +"I'd like to feel sure that He was looking out for me," breathed Betty +wistfully. + +"Well, you can!" said Ma, hurrying back to see that her bacon didn't +burn. "It's easy as rollin' off a log." + +"What would I have to do?" + +"Why, just b'lieve." + +"Believe?" asked Betty utterly puzzled. "Believe what?" + +"Why, believe that He'll do it. He said 'Come unto me, an' I will give +you rest,' an' He said, 'Cast your burden on the Lord,' an' He said +'Castin' all yer care 'pon Him, fer He careth fer you,' an' a whole lot +more such things, an' you just got to take it fer straight, an' act on +it." + +"But how could I?" asked Betty. + +"Just run right up to your room now, while you're feelin' that way, an' +kneel down by your bed an' tell Him what you just told me," said Mrs. +Carson, stirring the fried potatoes with her knife to keep them from +burning. "It won't take you long, an' I'll tend the coffee. Just you +tell Him you want Him to take care of you, an' you'll believe what I +told you He said. It's all in the Bible, an' you can read it for +yourself, but I wouldn't take the time now. Just run along an' speak it +out with Him, and, then come down to breakfast." + +Betty was standing by the kitchen door, her hand on her heart, as if +about to do some great wonderful thing that frightened her: + +"But, Mrs. Carson, suppose, maybe, He might not be pleased with me. +Suppose I've done something that He doesn't like, something that makes +Him ashamed of me." + +"Oh, why, didn't you know He fixed for all that when He sent His Son to +be the Saviour of the world? We all do wrong things, an' everybody has +sinned. But ef we're rightly sorry, He'll fergive us, and make us His +children." + +Betty suddenly sat down in a chair near the door: + +"But, Mrs. Carson, I'm not sure I _am_ sorry--at least I know I'm _not_. +I'm afraid I'd do it all over again if I got in the same situation." + +Mrs. Carson stood back from the stove and surveyed her thoughtfully a +moment: + +"Well, then, like's not it wasn't wrong at all, and if it wasn't He +ain't displeased. You can bank on that. You better go talk it out to +Him. Just get it off your mind. I'll hold up breakfast a minute while +you roll it on Him and depend on it he'll show you in plenty of time for +the next move." + +Betty with her cheeks very red and her eyes shining went up to her +little cot, and with locked door knelt and tried to talk to God for the +first time in her life. It seemed queer to her, but when she arose and +hurried back to her duties she had a sense of having a real Friend who +knew all about her and could look after things a great deal better than +she could. + +That night she went with Bob and Emily to the young people's meeting and +heard them talk about Christ familiarly as if they knew Him. It was all +strange and new and wonderful to Betty, and she sat listening and +wondering. The old question of whether she was pleasing her earthly +father was merging itself into the desire to please her Heavenly Father. + +There were of course many hard and unpleasant things about her new life. +There were so many things to learn, and she was so awkward at work of +all kinds! Her hands seemed so small and inadequate when she tried to +wring clothes or scrub a dirty step. Then, too, her young charge, Elise +Hathaway, was spoiled and hard to please, and she was daily tried by the +necessity of inventing ways of discipline for the poor little neglected +girl which yet would not bring down a protest from her even more +undisciplined mother. If she had been independent she would not have +remained with Mrs. Hathaway, for sometimes the child was unbearable in +her naughty tantrums, and it took all her nerve and strength to control +her. She would come back to the little gray house too weary even to +smile, and the keen eye of Ma would look at her wisely and wonder if +something ought not to be done about it. + +Betty felt that she must keep this place, of course, because it was +necessary for her to be able to pay some board. She could not be +beholden to the Carsons. And they had been so kind, and were teaching +her so many things, that it seemed the best and safest place she could +be in. So the days settled down into weeks, and a pleasant life grew up +about her, so different from the old one that more and more the +hallucination was with her that she had become another creature, and the +old life had gone out forever. + +Of course as striking-looking a girl as Betty could not enter into the +life of a little town even as humbly as through the Carson home, without +causing some comment and speculation. People began to notice her. The +church ladies looked after her and remarked on her hair, her complexion, +and her graceful carriage, and some shook their heads and said they +should think Mrs. Hathaway would want to know a little more about her +before she put her only child in her entire charge; and they told weird +stories about girls they had known or heard of. + +Down at the fire-house, which was the real clearing-house of Tinsdale +for all the gossip that came along and went the rounds, they took up the +matter in full session several evenings in succession. Some of the +younger members made crude remarks about Betty's looks, and some of the +older ones allowed that she was entirely too pretty to be without a +history. They took great liberties with their surmises. The only two, +the youngest of them all, who might have defended her, had been +unconsciously snubbed by her when they tried to be what Bobbie called +"fresh" with her, and so she was at their mercy. But if she had known it +she probably would have been little disturbed. They seemed so far +removed from her two worlds, so utterly apart from herself. It would not +have occurred to her that they could do her any harm. + +One night the fire-house gang had all assembled save one, a little +shrimp of a good-for-nothing, nearly hairless, toothless, cunning-eyed, +and given to drink when he could lay lips on any. He had a wide loose +mouth with a tendency to droop crookedly, and his hands were always +clammy and limp. He ordinarily sat tilted back against the wall to the +right of the engine, sucking an old clay pipe. He had a way of often +turning the conversation to imply some deep mystery known only to +himself behind the life of almost any one discussed. He often added +choice embellishments to whatever tale went forth as authentic to go the +rounds of the village, and he acted the part of a collector of themes +and details for the evening conversations. + +His name was Abijah Gage. + +"Bi not come yet?" asked the fire chief settling a straw comfortably +between his teeth and looking around on the group. "Must be somepin' +doin'. Don't know when Bi's been away." + +"He went up to town this mornin' early," volunteered Dunc Withers. +"Reckon he was thirsty. Guess he'll be back on the evenin' train. That's +her comin' in now." + +"Bars all closed in the city," chuckled the chief. "Won't get much +comfort there." + +"You bet Bi knows some place to get it. He won't come home thirsty, +that's sure." + +"I donno, they say the lid's down pretty tight." + +"Aw, shucks!" sneered Dunc. "Bet I could get all I wanted." + +Just then the door opened and Abijah Gage walked in, with a toothless +grin all around. + +"Hello, Bi, get tanked up, did yeh?" greeted the chief. + +"Well, naow, an' ef I did, what's that to you?" responded Bi, slapping +the chief's broad shoulder with a folded newspaper he carried. "You +don't 'spose I'm goin' to tell, an' get my frien's in trouble?" + +"Le's see yer paper, Bi," said Dunc, snatching at it as Bi passed to his +regular seat. + +Bi surrendered his paper with the air of one granting a high favor and +sank to his chair and his pipe. + +"How's crops in the city?" asked Hank Fielder, and Bi's tale was set +a-going. Bi could talk; that was one thing that always made him welcome. + +Dunc was deep in the paper. Presently he turned it over: + +"Whew!" he said speculatively. "If that don't look like that little +lollypop over to Carson's I'll eat my hat! What's her name?" + +They all drew around the paper and leaned over Dunc's shoulder squinting +at the picture, all but Bi, who was lighting his pipe: + +"They're as like as two peas!" said one. + +"It sure must be her sister!" declared another. + +"Don't see no resemblance 'tall," declared the chief, flinging back to +his comfortable chair. "She's got short hair, an she's only a kid. This +one's growed up!" + +"She might a cut her hair," suggested one. + +Bi pricked up his ears, narrowed his cunning eyes, and slouched over to +the paper, looking at the picture keenly: + +"Read it out, Dunc!" he commanded. + +"Five thousand dollars reward for information concerning Elizabeth +Stanhope!" + +There followed a description in detail of her size, height, coloring, +etc. + +An inscrutable look overspread Bi's face and hid the cunning in his +eyes. He slouched to his seat during the reading and tilted back +comfortably smoking, but he narrowed his eyes to a slit and spoke little +during the remainder of the evening. They discussed the picture and the +possibility of the girl in the paper being a relative of the girl at +Carson's, but as Bi did not come forward with information the subject +languished. Some one said he had heard the Carson kid call her Lizzie, +he thought, but he wasn't sure. Ordinarily Bi would have known the full +name, but Bi seemed to be dozing, and so the matter was finally dropped. +But the hounds were out and on the scent, and it was well for Betty +sleeping quietly in her little cot beneath the roof of the humble Carson +home, that she had committed her all to her heavenly Father before she +slept. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"WELL, he gave me notice t'day," said James Ryan sadly as Jane and he +rounded the corner from her boarding-house and turned toward their +favorite movie theater. "I been expectin' it, an' now it's come!" + +Jane stopped short on the sidewalk appalled: + +"He gave you notice!" she exclaimed, as if she could not believe it was +true. "Now, Jimmie! You don't mean it? Did he find any fault? He'd +better not! B'leeve me, if he did he gets a piece of _my_ mind, even if +I am a poor workin' girl!" + +"Oh, no, he didn't find any fault," said Jimmie cheerfully. "He was +awful nice! He said he'd recommend me away up high. He's gonta give me +time every day to hunt a new place, an' he's gonta recommend me to some +of his rich friends." + +"But what's the matter of him keepin' you? Did you ast him that?" + +"Oh, he told me right out that things wasn't working the way he hoped +when he started; the war and all had upset his prospects, and he +couldn't afford to keep me. He's gonta take an office way down town and +do his own letters. He says if he ever succeeds in business and I'm free +to come to him he'll take me back. Oh, he's pleased with me all right! +He's a peach! He certainly is." + +"Jimmie, what d'you tell him?" + +"Tell him? There wasn't much for me to tell him, only I was sorry, and I +thanked him, and I told him I was gonta stick by him as long as I didn't +have a place. Of course I can't live on air, but seeing he's willing I +should go out and hunt a place every day, why I ain't that mean that I +can't write a few letters for him now and then. He don't have that many, +and it keeps me in practice. I s'pose I've got to get another place but +I haven't tried yet. I can't somehow bring myself to give him up. I kind +of wanted to stick in my first place a long time. It doesn't look well +to be changing." + +"Well, if it ain't your fault, you know, when you can't help it," +advised Jane. + +They were seated in the theater by this time, and the screen claimed +their attention. It was just at the end of the funny reel, and both +forgot more serious matters in following the adventures of a dog and a +bear who were chasing each other through endless halls and rooms, to say +nothing of bathtubs, and wash boilers, and dining tables, and anything +that came in their way, with a shock to the people who happened to be +around when they passed. But suddenly the film ended and the +announcements for the next week began to flash on the screen. + +"We must go to that, sure!" said Jimmie, nudging Jane, as the Mary +Pickford announcement was put on. + +Then immediately afterward came the photograph of a beautiful girl, and +underneath in great letters: + + FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS' REWARD FOR ACCURATE + INFORMATION AS TO THE PRESENT WHEREABOUTS + OF ELIZABETH STANHOPE + +There followed further particulars and an address and the showing stayed +on the screen for a full minute. + +Jane sat gripping the arms of the seat and trying to still the wild +excitement that possessed her, while her eyes looked straight into the +eyes of the little bride whom she had helped to escape on the night of +her wedding. + +Jimmie took out his pencil and wrote down the address in shorthand, but +Jane did not notice. She was busy thinking what she ought to do. + +"What do you s'pose they want her for?" she asked in a breathless +whisper, as a new feature film began to dawn on the screen. + +"Oh, she's mebbe eloped," said the wise young man, "or there might be +some trouble about property. There mostly is." + +Jane said no more, and the pictures began again, but her mind was not +following them. She was very quiet on the way home, and when Jimmie +asked her if she had a grouch on she shivered and said, no, she guessed +she was tired. Then she suddenly asked him what time he was going out to +hunt for another job. He told her he couldn't be sure. He would call her +up about noon and let her know. Could she manage to get out a while and +meet him? She wasn't sure either, but would see when he called her up. +And so they parted for the night. + +The next morning when Reyburn entered his office Jimmie was already +seated at his typewriter. On Reyburn's desk lay a neatly typed copy of +the announcement that had been put on the screen the night before. + +"What's this, Ryan?" he questioned as he took his seat and drew the +paper toward him. + +"Something I saw last night on the screen at the movies, sir. I thought +it might be of interest." + +"Were you thinking of trying for the reward?" asked Reyburn with a +comical smile. "What is it, anyway?" And he began to read. + +"Oh, no sir!" said Jimmie. "_I_ couldn't, of course; but I thought mebbe +_you'd_ be able to find out something about her and get all that money. +That would help you through until you got started in your own business." + +"H'm! That's kind of you, Ryan," said the young lawyer, reading the +paper with a troubled frown. "I'm afraid it's hardly in my line, +however. I'm not a detective, you know." He laid the paper down and +looked thoughtfully out of the window. + +"Oh, of course not, sir!" Jimmie hastened to apologize. "Only you know a +lot of society folks in the city, and I thought you might think of some +way of finding out where she is. I know it isn't up to what you ought to +be doing, sir, but it wouldn't do any harm. You could work it through +me, you know, and nobody need ever know 'twas you got the reward. I'd be +glad to help you out doing all I could, but of course it would take your +brains to get the information, sir. You see, it would be to my interest, +because then you could afford to keep me, and--I like you, Mr. Reyburn, +I certainly do. I would hate to leave you." + +"Well, now, I appreciate that, Ryan. It's very thoughtful of you. I +scarcely think there would be any possibility of my finding out anything +about this girl, but I certainly appreciate your thoughtfulness. I'll +make a note of it, and if anything turns up I'll let you know. I don't +believe, however, that I would care to go after a reward even through +someone else. You know, I was at that wedding, Ryan!" His eyes were +dreamily watching the smoke from a distant funnel over the roof-tops in +line with his desk. + +"You were!" said Jimmie, watching his employer with rapt admiration. He +had no higher ambition than to look like Warren Reyburn and have an +office of his own. + +"Yes, I was there," said Reyburn again, but his tone was so far off that +Jimmie dared approach no nearer, and resumed the letter he was typing. + +About noon Jimmie called up the factory while Reyburn was out to lunch +and told Jane that he expected to go out at two o'clock. Could she meet +him and walk a little way with him? Jane said no, she couldn't, but she +would try and see him the next day, then he could tell her how he had +"made out." + +At exactly five minutes after two, Jane, having watched from a telephone +booth in a drug store until Jimmie went by, hurried up to Reyburn's +office and tapped on the door, her heart in her mouth lest he should be +occupied with some one else and not be able to see her before her few +minutes of leave which she had obtained from the factory should have +expired. + +Reyburn himself opened the door to her, and treated her as if she had +been a lady every inch, handing her a chair and speaking quite as if she +were attired in sealskin and diamonds. + +She looked him over with bright eyes of approval. Jane was a born +sentimentalist, fed on the movies. Not for anything would she have had a +knight rescue her lady fair who did not look the part. She was entirely +satisfied with this one. In fact, she was almost tongue-tied with +admiration for the moment. + +Then she rallied to the speech she had prepared: + +"Mr. Reyburn," she said, "I came to see you about a matter of very great +importance. I heard you was a great lawyer, and I've got a friend that's +in trouble. I thought mebbe you could do something about it. But first, +I want to ast you a question, an' I want you to consider it perfectly +confidential!" + +Jane took great credit to herself that she had assembled all these words +and memorized them so perfectly. + +"Certainly!" said Reyburn gravely, wondering what kind of a customer he +had now. + +"I don't want you to think I can't pay for it," said Jane, laying down a +five-dollar bill grandly. "I know you can't afford to waste your +valuable time even to answer a question." + +"Oh, that's all right," said Reyburn heartily. "Let me hear what the +question is first. There may be no charge." + +"No," said Jane hastily, laying the bill firmly on the desk before him. +"I shan't feel right astin' unless I know it's to be paid for." + +"Oh, very well," said Reyburn, taking the bill and laying it to one +side. "Now, what is the question?" + +"Well, Mr. Reyburn, will you please tell me what would anybody want to +offer a reward, a big reward, like a thousand dollars--or several of +them,--for information about any one? Could you think of any reason?" + +Reyburn started. Reward again! This was uncanny. Probably this girl had +been to the movies and seen the same picture that Ryan had told him +about. But he smiled gravely and answered, watching her quizzically the +while: + +"Well, they might love the person that had disappeared," he suggested at +random. + +"Oh, no!" said Jane decidedly. "They didn't! I know that fer a fac'! +What else could it be?" + +"Well, they might have a responsibility!" he said thoughtfully. + +"No chance!" said Jane scornfully. + +"Couldn't they be anxious, don't you think?" + +"Not so's you'd notice it." + +"Well, there might be some property to be divided, perhaps." + +"I'd thought of that," said Jane, her face growing practical. "It would +have to be a good deal of property to make them offer a big reward, +wouldn't it?" + +"I should think so," answered Reyburn politely, watching her plain eager +face amusedly. He could not quite get at her idea in coming to him. + +"Would her coming of age have anything to do with it?" put Jane, +referring to a much folded paper she carried in her hand, as if she had +a written catechism which she must go through. + +"It might." Reyburn was growing interested. This queer visitor evidently +had thought something out, and was being very cautious. + +"I really can't answer very definitely without knowing more of the +circumstances," he said with sudden alarm lest the girl might take some +random answer and let serious matters hinge on his word. + +"Well, there's just one more," she said, looking down at her paper. "If +a man was trying to make a girl marry him when she just hated him, could +anybody make her do it, and would anybody have a right to put her in an +insane 'sylum or anythin' ef she wouldn't?" + +"Why, no, of course not! Where did you ever get such a ridiculous idea?" +He sat up suddenly, annoyed beyond expression over disturbing +suggestions that seemed to rise like a bevy of black bats all around the +borders of his mind. + +"See here," he said, sitting up very straight. "I really can't answer +any more blind questions. I've got to know what I'm talking about. Why, +I may be saying the most impossible things without knowing it." + +"I know," said Jane, looking at him gravely. "I've thought of that, but +you've said just the things I thought you would. Well, say, if I tell +you about it can you promise on yer honor you won't ever breathe a word +of it? Not to nobody? Whether you take the case or not?" + +"Why, certainly, you can trust me to look out for any confidence you may +put in me. If you can't I should prefer that you say nothing more." + +"Oh, I c'n trust you all right," said Jane smiling. "I just mean, would +you be 'lowed to keep it under yer hat?" + +"Would I be allowed? What do you mean?" + +"I mean would the law let you? You wouldn't _have_ to go an' tell where +she was or nothin' an' give her away? You'd be 'lowed to keep it on the +q. t. an' take care of her?" + +"You mean would it be right and honorable for me to protect my client? +Why, certainly." + +"Well, I mean you wouldn't get into no trouble if you did." + +"Of course not." + +"Well, then I'll tell you." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +JANE opened a small shabby handbag, and took out a folded newspaper, +opening it up and spreading it on the desk before him. "There!" she +said, and then watched his face critically. + +Reyburn looked, and found himself looking into Betty's eyes. Only a +newspaper cut, and poor at that, but wonderfully real and mournful, as +they had struck him when she lifted them for that swift glance before +she sank in the church aisle. + +"Where did you get this?" he asked, his voice suddenly husky. + +"Out o' the mornin' paper." Her tone was low and excited. "Were you +wanting to try for the reward?" Reyburn asked. + +There was a covert sneer in the question from which the girl shrank +perceptibly. She sprang to her feet, her eyes flashing: + +"If that's what you take me for, I better be goin'!" she snapped and +reached out her hand for the paper. But Reyburn's hand covered the +paper, and his tone was respectful and apologetic as he said: + +"Excuse me, I didn't quite understand, I see. Sit down, please. You and +I must understand each other or there is no use in our talking. You can +trust me to keep this conversation entirely to myself, whatever the +outcome. Will you tell me what it is you want of me?" + +Jane subsided into a chair, tears of excitement springing into her eyes. + +"Well, you see, it's pretty serious business," she said, making a dab at +the corner of one eye. "I thought I could trust you, or I wouldn't a +come. But you gotta take me on trust, too." + +"Of course," said Reyburn. "Now, what have you to do with this girl? Do +you know where she is?" + +"I certainly do!" said Jane, "but I ain't a-goin' ta tell until you say +if there's anything you can do fer her. 'Cause you see, if you can't +find a way to help her, I've gotta do it myself, an' it might get you +into trouble somehow fer you to know what you ain't supposed to know." + +"I see," said Reyburn, meekly. "Well, what are you going to tell me? Am +I allowed to ask that?" + +Jane grinned. + +"Say, you're kiddin' me! I guess you are all right. Well, I'll just tell +you all about it. One night last November,--you can see the date there +in the paper, I was goin' home to my boardin' house in Camac Street, +an' I was passin' the side of that church on 18th an' Spruce, where the +weddin' was--you know, fer you was there!" + +Reyburn looked at her astonished. + +"How did you know I was there?" + +"I saw you through the window, over against the wall to the street side +of the altar," said Jane calmly. + +"How did you know me?" + +"Oh, somebody I know pointed you out once an' said you was goin' to be +one of the risin' lawyers of the day," she answered nonchalantly, her +face quite serious. + +A flicker of amusement passed like a ray of light through his eyes, but +his face was entirely grave as he ignored the compliment. + +"Go on!" + +"I saw there was a weddin' an' I stopped to watch a minute, 'cause I +expect to get married myself some day, an' I wanted to see how they did +things. But I couldn't get near the door, an' the windows were all high +up. I could only see folks who were standing up like you were. So I +thought I'd go on. I turned the corner and went long-side the church +listenin' to the music, an' just as I passed a big iron gate at the +back end of the church somebody grabbed me an' begged me to help 'em. I +looked round, an' there was the bride, all in her white togs, with the +prettiest white satin slippers, in the wet an' mud! I tried to get her +line, but she cried out somebody was comin' back in the passageway, so I +slipped off my coat an' hat and whisked her into 'em an' clapped my +rubbers over her satin shoes, and we beat it round the corner. I took +her to my room, an' gave her some supper. She was all in. Then I put her +to bed, an' she told me a little bit about it. She didn't tell me much. +Only that they had been tryin' fer a long time back to make her marry a +man she hated, an' now they'd almost tricked her into it, an' she'd die +if she had to do it. She wanted to exchange clothes with me, cause, of +course, she couldn't get anywhere togged out that way, so we changed +things, an' I fixed her up. In the mornin' I ran out an' got a paper, +an' found they was sayin' she was temporary insane, an' stuff like that, +an' so I saw their game was tryin' to get her in a 'sylum till they +could make her do what they wanted. I fixed her up an' got her off to a +place I know where she'd be safe. An' she's got a job an' doin' real +well. But now they've got this here reward business out everywhere in +the papers an' the movies, she ain't safe nowhere. An' I want somebody +that's wiser'n me to take a holt an' do somethin'. I can't pay much, but +I'll pay a little every month as long's I live ef it takes that long to +pay yer bill, an' I have a notion she may have some money herself, +though she didn't say nothin' about it. But there's a ring she left with +me to sell, to pay fer what I gave her. It oughtta be worth somethin'. +It looks real. I ain't sold it. I couldn't. I thought she might want it +sometime----" + +But Reyburn interrupted her excitedly. + +"Do you mean to say that Miss Stanhope is in the city and you know where +she is?" + +"Now, don't get excited," warned Jane coolly. "I didn't say she was in +this city, did I? I didn't say where she was, did I? I said she was +safe." + +"But are you aware that you have told me a very strange story? What +proof can you give me that it is true?" + +Jane looked at him indignantly. + +"Say, I thought you was goin' to trust me? I have to trust you, don't I? +Course you don't know who I am, an' I haven't told you, but I've got a +good p'sition myself, an' I don't go round tellin' privarications! An' +there's the weddin' dress, an' veil and fixin's! I got them. You can see +'em if you like,--that is pervided I know what you're up to! I ain't +taking any chances till I see what you mean to do." + +"I beg your pardon," said Reyburn, trying to smile assurance once more. +"You certainly must own this whole thing is enough to make anybody +doubt." + +"Yes, it is," said Jane. "I was some upset myself, havin' a thing like +that happen to me, a real millionairess bride drop herself down on my +hands just like that, an' I 'spose it _is_ hard to b'lieve. But I can't +waste much more time now. I gotta get back to my job. Is there anything +can be done to keep 'em from gettin' her again?" + +"I should most certainly think so," said Reyburn, "but I would have to +know her side of the story, the whole of it, before I could say just +what!" + +"Well, s'pose you found there wasn't anythin' you could do to help her, +would you go an' tell on her?" + +Reyburn leaned back in his chair and smiled at his unique client: + +"I shall have to quote your own language. 'What do you take me for?'" + +"A white man!" said Jane suddenly, and showed all her fine teeth in an +engaging smile. "Say, you're all right. Now, I gotta go. When will you +tell me what you can do?" She glanced anxiously at her little +leather-bound wrist watch. It was almost time for Jimmie to return. +Jimmie mustn't find her here. He wouldn't understand, and what Jimmie +didn't know wouldn't hurt him. + +"Well, this ought to be attended to, at once, if anything is to be +done," he said eagerly. "Let me see. I have an engagement at five. How +would seven o'clock do? Could I call at your boarding-house? Would there +be any place where we could talk uninterrupted?" + +"Sure," said Jane, rising. "I'll get my landlady to let me have her +settin' room fer an hour." + +"Meantime, I'll think it over and try to plan something." + +Jane started down the long flights of stairs, not daring to trust to the +elevator, lest she should come face to face with Jimmie and have to +explain. + +Reyburn stood with his back to the room, his hands in his pockets, +frowning and looking out the window, when Jimmie entered a moment later. + +"I hope I'm not late, sir?" he said anxiously, as he hung up his hat and +sat down at his typewriter. "I had to wait. The man was out." + +"Oh, that's all right, Ryan," said his employer, obviously not listening +to his explanation. "I'm going out now, Ryan. I may not be back this +afternoon. Just see that everything is all right." + +"Very well, sir." + +Reyburn went out, then opened the door and put his head back in the +room. + +"I may have to go out of town to-night, Ryan. I'm not sure. Something +has come up. If I'm not in to-morrow, could you--would you mind just +staying here all day and looking after things? I may need you. Of course +you'll lock up and leave the card out when you go to lunch." + +"Very well, sir." + +"I'll keep in touch with you in case I'm delayed," and Reyburn was off +again. When the elevator had clanked down to the next floor Jimmie went +to the window and looked dreamily out over the roofs of the city: + +"Aw!" he breathed joyously. "Now I'll bet he's going to do something +about that reward!" + +Reyburn hurried down the street to the office of an old friend where he +had a bit of business as an excuse, and asked a few casual questions +when he was done. Then he went on to a telephone booth and called up a +friend of his mother's, with whom he had a brief gossip, ostensibly to +give a message from his mother, contained in her last letter to him. +None of the questions that he asked were noticeable. He merely led the +conversation into certain grooves. The lady was an old resident and well +known in the higher social circles. She knew all there was to know about +everybody and she loved to tell it. She never dreamed that he had any +motive in leading her on. + +He dropped into a bank and asked a few questions, called up an address +they gave him and made another inquiry, then dropped around to his +cousin's home for a few minutes, where he allowed her to tell all she +knew about the Stanhope wedding they had attended together, and the +different theories concerning the escaped bride. Quite casually he asked +if she knew whether the bride had property of her own, if so who were +her guardians. His cousin thought she knew a lot, but, sifting it down, +he discovered that it was nearly all hearsay or surmise. + +When he reached Jane Carson's boarding house he found that young woman +ensconced in a tiny room, nine by twelve, a faded ingrain carpet on the +floor, a depressed looking bed lounge against the bleary wall-paper, +beneath crayon portraits of the landlady's dead husband and sons. There +was a rocking-chair, a trunk, a cane-seat chair, and an oil stove turned +up to smoking point in honor of the caller, but there was little room +left for the caller. On the top of the trunk reposed a large pasteboard +box securely tied. + +Jane, after a shy greeting, untied the strings and opened the cover, +having first carefully slipped the bolt of the door. + +"You can't be too careful," she said. "You never can tell." + +Reyburn stood beside her and looked in a kind of awe at the glistening +white, recognized the thick texture of the satin, the rare quality of +the rose-point lace with which it was adorned, caught the faint +fragrance of faded orange blossoms wafting from the filmy mist of the +veil as Jane lifted it tenderly; then leaned over and touched a finger +to the pile of whiteness, reverently, as though he were paying a tribute +at a lovely shrine. + +Jane even unwrapped the little slippers, one at a time, and folded them +away again, and they said no word until it was all tied back in its +papers, Reyburn assisting with the strings. + +"Now, ef you don't mind waitin' a minute I guess it would be safer to +put it away now," she said as she slipped the bolt and ran upstairs. + +She was back in a minute and sat down opposite to him, drawing out from +the neck of her blouse a ribbon with a heavy glittering circlet at its +end. + +"Here's the ring." She laid it in his palm. He took it, wondering, a +kind of awe still upon him that he should be thus handling the intimate +belongings of that little unknown bride whom he had seen lying +unconscious in a strange church a few short months before. How strange +that all this should have come to him when many wiser, more nearly +related, were trying their best to get some clue to the mystery! + +He lifted the ring toward the insufficient gas jet to make out the +initials inside, and copied them down in his note-book. + +"Take good care of that. It is valuable," he said as he handed it back +to her. + +"Mebbe I better give it to you," she half hesitated. + +"You've taken pretty good care of it so far," he said. "I guess you've a +better right to it than I. Only don't let anybody know you've got it. +Now, I've been making inquiries, and I've found out a few things, but +I've about come to the conclusion that I can't do much without seeing +the lady. Do you suppose she would see me? Is she very far away?" + +"When do you want to go?" asked Jane. + +"At once," he answered decidedly. "There's no time to waste if she is +really in danger, as you think." + +Jane's eyes glittered with satisfaction. + +"There's a train at ten-thirty. You'll get there in the morning. I've +written it all down here on a paper so you can't make any mistakes. I've +written her a letter so she'll understand and tell you everythin'. I'll +wire Ma, too, so she'll let you see her. Ma might not size you up +right." + +Reyburn wondered at the way he accepted his orders from this coolly +impudent girl, but he liked her in spite of himself. + +In a few minutes more he was out in the street again, hurrying to his +own apartment, where he put together a few necessities in a bag and went +to the train. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +IT was one of those little ironies of fate that are spoken about so +much, that when Warren Reyburn alighted from the train in Tinsdale +Abijah Gage should be supporting one corner of the station, and +contributing a quid now and then to the accumulations of the week +scattered all about his feet. + +He spotted the stranger at once and turned his cunning little eyes upon +him, making it obvious that he was bulging with information. It was, +therefore, quite natural, when Reyburn paused to take his bearings, that +Bi should speak up and inquire if he was looking for some one. Reyburn +shook his head and passed on, but Bi was not to be headed off so easily +as that. He shuffled after him: + +"Say!" he said, pointing to a shackley horse and buckboard that stood +near, belonging to a pal over at the freight house. "Ef you want a lift +I'll take you along." + +"Thank you, no," said Reyburn, smiling; "I'm not going far." + +"Say!" said Bi again as he saw his quarry about to disappear. "You name +ain't Bains, is it?" + +"No!" said Reyburn, quite annoyed by the persistent old fellow. + +"From New York?" he hazarded cheerfully. + +"No," answered Reyburn, turning to go. "You must excuse me. I'm in a +hurry." + +"That's all right," said Bi contentedly. "I'll walk a piece with you. I +was lookin' fer a doctor to take down to see a sick child. A doctor from +New York. You ain't by any chance a doctor, are you?" Bi eyed the big +leather bag inquiringly. + +"No," said Reyburn, laughing in spite of his annoyance. "I'm only a +lawyer." And with a bound he cleared the curb and hurried off down the +street, having now recognized the direction described in Jane's diagram +of Tinsdale. + +Abijah Gage looked after him with twinkling eyes of dry mirth, and +slowly sauntered after him, watching him until he entered the little +unpainted gate of the Carson house and tapped at the old gray door. Then +Bi lunged across the street and entered a path that ran along the +railroad track for a few rods, curving suddenly into a stretch of vacant +lots. On a convenient fence rail with a good outlook toward the west end +of the village he ensconced himself and set about whittling a whistle +from some willow stalks. He waited until he saw Bobbie Carson hurry off +toward Hathaway's house and return with Lizzie Hope; waited hopefully +until the stranger finally came out of the house again, touching his hat +gracefully to the girl as she stood at the open door. Then he hurried +back to the station again, and was comfortably settled on a tub of +butter just arrived by freight, when Reyburn reached there. He was much +occupied with his whistle, and never seemed to notice, but not a +movement of the stranger escaped him, and when the Philadelphia express +came by, and the stranger got aboard the parlor car, old Bi Gage swung +his lumbering length up on the back platform of the last car. The hounds +were hot on the trail now. + +It was several years since Bi Gage had been on so long a journey, but he +managed to enjoy the trip, and kept in pretty good touch with the parlor +car, although he was never in evidence. If anybody had told Warren +Reyburn as he let himself into his apartment late that night that he was +being followed, he would have laughed and told them it was an +impossibility. When he came out to the street the next morning and swung +himself into a car that would land him at his office, he did not see the +lank flabby figure of the toothless Bi standing just across the block, +and keeping tab on him from the back platform, nor notice that he slid +into the office building behind him and took the same elevator up, +crowding in behind two fat men and effacing himself against the wall of +the cage. Reyburn was reading his paper, and did not look up. The figure +slid out of the elevator after him and slithered into a shadow, watching +him, slipping softly after, until sure which door he took, then waited +silently until sure that the door was shut. No one heard the slouching +footsteps come down the marble hall. Bi Gage always wore rubbers when he +went anywhere in particular. He had them on that morning. He took +careful note of the name on the door: "_Warren Reyburn_, +Attorney-at-Law," and the number. Then he slid down the stairs as +unobserved as he had come, and made his way to a name and number on a +bit of paper from his pocket which he consulted in the shelter of a +doorway. + +When Warren Reyburn started on his first trip to Tinsdale his mind was +filled with varying emotions. He had never been able to quite get away +from the impression made upon him by that little white bride lying so +still amid her bridal finery, and the glowering bridegroom above her. It +epitomized for him all the unhappy marriages of the world, and he felt +like starting out somehow in hot pursuit of that bridegroom and making +him answer for the sadness of his bride. Whenever the matter had been +brought to his memory he had always been conscious of the first gladness +he had felt when he knew she had escaped. It could not seem to him +anything but a happy escape, little as he knew about any of the people +who played the principal parts in the little tragedy he had witnessed. + +Hour after hour as he sat in the train and tried to sleep or tried to +think he kept wondering at himself that he was going on this "wild goose +chase," as he called it in his innermost thoughts. Yet he knew he had to +go. In fact, he had known it from the moment James Ryan had shown him +the advertisement. Not that he had ever had any idea of trying for that +horrible reward. Simply that his soul had been stirred to its most +knightly depths to try somehow to protect her in her hiding. Of course, +it had been a mere crazy thought then, with no way of fulfilment, but +when the chance had offered of really finding her and asking if there +was anything she would like done, he knew from the instant it was +suggested that he was going to do it, even if he lost every other +business chance he ever had or expected to have, even if it took all his +time and every cent he could borrow. He knew he had to try to find that +girl! The thought that the only shelter between her and the great awful +world lay in the word of an untaught girl like Jane Carson filled him +with terror for her. If that was true, the sooner some one of +responsibility and sense got to her the better. The questions he had +asked of various people that afternoon had revealed more than he had +already guessed of the character of the bridegroom to whom he had taken +such a strong dislike on first sight. + +Thus he argued the long night through between the fitful naps he caught +when he was not wondering if he should find her, and whether he would +know her from that one brief sight of her in church. How did he know but +this was some game put up on him to get him into a mix-up? He must go +cautiously, and on no account do anything rash or make any promises +until he had first found out all about her. + +When morning dawned he was in a state of perturbation quite unusual for +the son and grandson of renowned lawyers noted for their calmness and +poise under all circumstances. This perhaps was why the little incident +with Abijah Gage at the station annoyed him so extremely. He felt he was +doing a questionable thing in taking this journey at all. He certainly +did not intend to reveal his identity or business to this curious old +man. + +The little gray house looked exactly as Jane had described it, and as he +opened the gate and heard the rusty chain that held it clank he had a +sense of having been there before. + +He was pleasantly surprised, however, when the door was opened by Emily, +who smiled at him out of shy blue eyes, and stood waiting to see what he +wanted. It was like expecting a viper and finding a flower. Somehow he +had not anticipated anything flower-like in Jane's family. The mother, +too, was a surprise when she came from her ironing, and, pushing her +wavy gray hair back from a furrowed brow lifted intelligent eyes that +reminded him of Jane, to search his face. Ma did not appear flustered. +She seemed to be taking account of him and deciding whether or not she +would be cordial to him. + +"Yes, I had a telegram from Jane this morning," she was scanning his +eyes once more to see whether there was a shadow of what she called +"shiftiness" in them. "Come in," she added grudgingly. + +He was not led into the dining-room, but seated on one of the best +varnished chairs in the "parlor," as they called the little unused front +room. He felt strangely ill at ease and began to be convinced that he +was on the very wildest of wild goose chases. To think of expecting to +find Elizabeth Stanhope in a place like this! If she ever had been here +she certainly must have flown faster than she had from the church on her +wedding night. + +So, instead of beginning as he had planned, to put a list of logically +prepared keen questions to a floundering and suspecting victim, he found +the clear eyes of Ma looking into his unwaveringly and the wise tongue +of Ma putting him through a regular orgy of catechism before she would +so much as admit that she had ever heard of a girl named Lizzie Hope. +Then he bethought him of her daughter's letter and handed it over for +her to read. + +"Well," she admitted at last, half satisfied, "she isn't here at +present. I sent her away when I found you was comin'. I wasn't sure I'd +let you see her at all if I didn't like your looks." + +"That's right, Mrs. Carson," he said heartily, with real admiration in +his voice. "I'm glad she has some one so careful to look out for her. +Your daughter said she was in a good safe place, and I begin to see she +knew what she was talking about." + +Then the strong look around Ma's lips settled into the sweeter one, and +she sent Bob after the girl. + +"Are you a friend of hers?" she asked, watching him keenly. + +"No," said Reyburn. "I've never seen her but once. She doesn't know me +at all." + +"Are you a friend of her--family?" + +"Oh, no!" + +"Or any of her friends or relations?" Ma meant to be comprehensive. + +"No. I'm sorry I am not. I am a rather recent comer to the city where +she made her home, I understand." + +Ma looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. It wouldn't have been called +a stare, it was too kindly for that, but Reyburn thought to himself that +he would not have liked to have borne her scrutiny if he had anything to +conceal, for he felt as if she might read the truth in his eyes. + +"Are you--please excuse me for askin'--but are you a member of any +church?" + +Reyburn flushed, and wanted to laugh, but was embarrassed in spite of +himself: + +"Why, yes--I'm a member," he said slowly, then with a frank lifting of +his eyes to her troubled gaze, "I united with the church when I was a +mere kid, but I'm afraid I'm not much of a member. I really am not what +you'd call 'working' at it much nowadays. I go to morning service +sometimes, but that's about all. I don't want to be a hypocrite." + +He wondered as he spoke why he took the trouble to answer the woman so +fully. Her question was in a way impertinent, much like the way her +daughter talked. Yet she seemed wholly unconscious of it. + +"I know," she assented sorrowfully. "There's lots of them in the church. +We have 'em, too, even in our little village. But still, after all, you +can't help havin' confidence more in them that has 'named the name' than +in them that has not." + +Reyburn looked at her curiously and felt a sudden infusion of respect +for her. She was putting the test of her faith to him, and he knew by +the little stifled sigh that he had been found wanting. + +"I s'pose lawyers don't have much time to think about being Christians," +she apologized for him. + +He felt impelled to be frank with her: + +"I'm afraid I can't urge that excuse. Unfortunately I have a good deal +of time on my hands now. I've just opened my office and I'm waiting for +clients." + +"Where were you before that? You did not just get through studying?" + +He saw she was wondering whether he was wise enough to help her protege. + +"No, I spent the last three years in France." + +"Up at the front?" The pupils of her eyes dilated eagerly. + +"Yes, in every drive," he answered, wondering that a woman of this sort +should be so interested now that the war was over. + +"And you came back safe!" she said slowly, looking at him with a kind of +wistful sorrow in her eyes. "My boy was shot the first day he went over +the top." + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Reyburn gently, a sudden tightness in his throat. + +"But it was all right." She flashed a dazzling smile at him through the +tears that came into her eyes. "It wasn't as if he wasn't ready. Johnny +was always a good boy, an' he joined church when he was fourteen, an' +always kep' his promises. He used to pray every night just as faithful, +an' read his Bible. I've got the little Testament he carried all +through. His chaplain sent it to me. It's got a bullet hole through it, +and blood-marks, but it's good to me to look at, 'cause I know Johnny's +with his Saviour. He wasn't afraid to die. He said to me before he left, +he says: 'Ma, if anythin' happens to me it's all right. You know, Ma, I +ain't forgettin' what you taught me, an' I ain't forgettin' Christ is +with me.'" + +Mrs. Carson wiped her eyes furtively, and tried to look cheerful. +Reyburn wished he knew how to comfort her. + +"It makes a man feel mean," he said at last, trying to fit his toe into +the pattern of the ingrain carpet, "to come home alive and whole when so +many poor fellows had to give their lives. I've often wondered how I +happened to get through." + +She looked at him tenderly: + +"Perhaps your Heavenly Father brought you back to give you more chance +to do things for Him, an' get ready to die when your time comes." + +There was something startling to this self-composed city chap in hearing +a thing like this from the lips of the mother whose beloved son was gone +forever beyond her teaching but had "been ready." Reyburn looked at her +steadily, soberly, and then with a queer constriction in his throat he +looked down at the floor thoughtfully and said: + +"Perhaps He did." + +"Well, I can't help bein' glad you're a church member, anyhow," said +Mrs. Carson, rising to look out of the window. "She needs a Christian to +help her, an' I'd sooner trust a Christian. If you really meant it when +you joined church you've got somethin' to fall back on anyhow. Here she +comes. I'll just go an' tell her you're in here." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +BETTY, her eyes wide with fear, her face white as a lily, appeared like +a wraith at the parlor door and looked at him. It gave Reyburn a queer +sensation, as if a picture one had been looking at in a story book +should suddenly become alive and move and stare at one. As he rose and +came forward he still seemed to see like a dissolving view between them +the little huddled bride on the floor of the church. Then he suddenly +realized that she was trembling. + +"Please don't be afraid of me, Miss Stanhope," he said gently. "I have +only come to help you, and if after you have talked with me you feel +that you would rather I should have nothing to do with your affairs I +will go away and no one in the world shall be the wiser for it. I give +you my word of honor." + +"Oh!" said Betty, toppling into a chair near by. "I--guess--I'm not +afraid of you. I just didn't know who you might be----!" She stopped, +caught her breath and tried to laugh, but it ended sorrily, almost in a +sob. + +"Well, I don't wonder," said Reyburn, trying to find something +reassuring to say. "The truth is, I was rather upset about you. I +didn't quite know who you might turn out to be, you see!" + +"Oh!" Betty's hand slipped up to her throat, and her lips quivered as +she tried to smile. + +"Please don't feel that way," he said, "or I'll go away at once." He was +summoning all his courage and hoping she wasn't going to break down and +cry. How little she was, and sweet! Her eyes pleaded, just as they did +in that one look in the church. How could anybody be unkind to her? + +"I'm quite all right," said Betty with a forced smile, siting up very +straight. + +"Perhaps I'd better introduce myself," he said, trying to speak in a +very commonplace tone. "I'm just a lawyer that your friend Miss Jane +Carson sent out to see if I could be of any service to you. It may +possibly make things a little easier for you if I explain that while I +never had heard of you before, and have no possible connection with your +family or friends, I happened to be at your wedding!" + +"Oh!" said Betty with a little agonized breath. + +"Do you know Mrs. Bryce Cochrane?" he asked. + +Betty could not have got any whiter, but her eyes seemed to blanch a +trifle. + +"A little," she said in a very small voice. + +"Well, she is my cousin." + +"Oh!" said Betty again. + +"Her husband was unable to accompany her to the wedding, and so I went +in his place to escort Isabel. I knew nothing of your affairs either +before or after the wedding, until this announcement was brought to my +notice, and Miss Carson called on me." + +Betty took the paper in her trembling fingers, and looked into her own +pictured eyes. Then everything seemed to swim before her for a moment. +She pressed her hand against her throat and set her white lips firmly, +looking up at the stranger with a sudden terror and comprehension. + +"You want to get that five thousand dollars!" she said, speaking the +words in a daze of trouble. "Oh, I haven't got five thousand dollars! +Not now! But perhaps I could manage to get it if you would be good +enough to wait just a little, till I can find a way. Oh, if you knew +what it means to me!" + +Warren Reyburn sprang to his feet in horror, a flame of anger leaping +into his eyes. + +"Five thousand dollars be hanged!" he said fiercely. "Do I look like +that kind of a fellow? It may seem awfully queer to you for an utter +stranger to be butting into your affairs like this unless I did have +some ulterior motive, but I swear to you that I have none. I came out +here solely because I saw that you were in great likelihood of being +found by the people from whom you had evidently run away. Miss Stanhope, +I stood where I could watch your face when you came up the aisle at your +wedding, and something in your eyes just before you dropped made me wish +I could knock that bridegroom down and take care of you somehow until +you got that hurt look out of your face. I know it was rather ridiculous +for an utter stranger to presume so far, but when I saw that the sleuths +were out after you, and when the knowledge of your whereabouts was put +into my hands without the seeking, I wouldn't have been a man if I +hadn't come and offered my services. I'm not a very great lawyer, nor +even a very rising one, as your Miss Carson seems to think, but I'm a +man with a soul to protect a woman who is in danger, and if that's you, +I'm at your service. If not, you've only to say so and I'll take the +next train home and keep my mouth shut!" + +He took his watch out and looked at it hastily, although he had not the +slightest idea what it registered, nor what time the next train for home +left. He looked very tall and strong and commanding as he stood in his +dignity waiting for her answer, and Betty looked up like a little child +and trusted him. + +"Oh! Please forgive me!" she cried. "I've been so frightened ever since +Bob came after me. I couldn't think you had come for any good, because I +didn't know any one in the world who would want to help me." + +"Certainly!" said Warren Reyburn with a lump in his throat, sitting down +quickly to hide his emotion. "Please consider me a friend, and command +me." + +"Thank you," said Betty taking a deep breath and trying to crowd back +the tears. "I'm afraid there isn't any way to help me, but I'm glad to +have a friend, and I'm sorry I was so rude." + +"You weren't rude, and that was a perfectly natural conclusion from my +blundering beginning," he protested, looking at the adorable waves of +hair that framed her soft cheeks. "But there is always a way to help +people when they are in trouble, and I'm here to find out what it is. Do +you think you could trust me enough to tell me what it's all about? Miss +Carson didn't seem to know much or else she didn't feel free to say." + +"I didn't tell her much," said Betty, lifting her sea-blue eyes. "She +was a stranger, too, you know." + +"Well, she's a mighty good friend of yours, I'll say, and she's acted +in a very wise manner. She took more precautions than an old detective +would have done. She told me only that some one was trying to make you +marry a man you did not wish to marry. Is that correct?" + +Betty shivered involuntarily and a wave of color went over her white +face. + +"It sounds queer," she said, "as if I hadn't any character or force +myself, but you don't understand. No one would understand unless they +knew it all, and had been through it for years. At first I didn't quite +understand it myself. I'd better tell you the story. I thought I never +could tell any one, because they were my father's family, and I know he +would shrink so from having it known, but I'm sure he wouldn't blame me +now." + +"He certainly would not blame you, Miss Stanhope. I have heard that your +father was a wonderful man, with high principles. I feel sure he would +justify you in appealing to some one who was willing to advise you in a +strait like this. You know no woman need ever marry any man against her +will." + +"Not if it were her father's dying wish?" + +"Certainly not. Miss Stanhope, did your father love you?" + +"Oh, I'm sure he did. He was the most wonderful father! I've often +thought that he would never have asked it of me if he had realized----" + +"Did he ever during his lifetime seem to wish you to be unhappy?" + +"Never! That was the strange part of it. But you see he didn't know how +I felt. I think I'd better tell you all about it." + +"That would be the better way, if it won't be too hard for you." + +Betty clasped her small hands together tightly and began: + +"My own mother died when I was quite a little girl, so father and I were +a great deal to each other. He used to look after my lessons himself, +and was always very careful what kind of teachers I had. He was mother +and father both to me. When I was ten years old my governess died +suddenly while father was away on a business trip, and one of our +neighbors was very kind to me, coming in and looking after the servants +and everything and keeping me over at her house for a few days till +father got back. She had a widowed sister visiting her, a rather young +woman who was very beautiful. At least I thought she was beautiful then, +and she made a great pet of me, so that I grew fond of her, although I +had not liked her at first. + +"After father came home she used to slip over every day to see me while +he was at his business, and he was grateful to her for making me happy. +Then he found out that she was in trouble, had lost her money or +something, and wanted to get a position teaching. He arranged to have +her teach me, and so she came to our house to stay. + +"Somehow after that I never seemed to see so much of my father as I used +to do, for she was always there, but at first I didn't care, because she +was nice to me, and always getting up things to keep me busy and happy. +She would make my father buy expensive toys and books and games for me, +and fine clothes, and so of course I was pleased. In about a year my +father married her, and at first it seemed very beautiful to me to have +a real mother, but little by little I began to see that she preferred to +be alone with my father and did not want me around so much. It was very +hard to give up the companionship of my father, but my stepmother kept +me busy with other things, so that I really didn't think much about it +while it was first happening. + +"But one day there came a letter. I remember it came while we were at +breakfast, and my father got very white and stern when he read it, and +handed it over to my mother and asked whether it was true, and then she +began to cry and sent me from the table. I found out a few days after +that that my stepmother had two sons, both older than myself, and that +she had not told my father. It was through some trouble they had got +into at school which required quite a large sum of money to cover +damages that my father discovered it, and he was terribly hurt that she +should have concealed it from him. I learned all this from the servants, +who talked when they thought I was not within hearing. There were days +and days when my father scarcely spoke at the table, and when he looked +at me it made a pain go through my heart, he looked so stern and sad. My +stepmother stayed a great deal in her room and looked as if she had been +crying. But after a few weeks things settled down a good deal as they +had been, only that my father never lost that sad troubled look. There +was some trouble about my stepmother's sons, too, for there was a great +deal of argument between her and my father, of which I only heard +snatches, and then one day they came home to stay with us. Something had +happened at the school where they were that they could not stay any +longer. I can remember distinctly the first night they ate dinner with +us. It seemed to me that it was like a terrific thunderstorm that never +quite broke. Everybody was trying to be nice and polite, but underneath +it all there was a kind of lightning of all kinds of feelings, hurt +feelings and wrong ones and right ones all mixed up. + +"Only the two boys didn't seem to feel it much. They sort of took things +for granted, as if that had always been their home, and they didn't act +very polite. It seemed to trouble my father, who looked at them so +severely that it almost choked me, and I couldn't go on eating my +dinner. He didn't seem like my dear father when he looked like that. I +always used to watch my father, and he seemed to make the day for me. If +he was sad, then I was sad; and if he was glad then I was happy all +over, until one day my stepmother noticed me and said: 'See, dear little +Elizabeth is trembling. You ought not to speak that way before her, +Charles.' And then father looked at me, and all suddenly I learned to +smile when I didn't feel like it. I smiled back to him just to let him +know it didn't matter what he did, I would love him anyhow!" + +During the recital Reyburn had sat with courteous averted gaze as though +he would not trouble her with more of his presence than was absolutely +necessary. Now he gave her a swift glance. + +Betty's eyes were off on distance, and she was talking from the depths +of her heart, great tears welling into her eyes. All at once she +remembered the stranger: + +"I beg your pardon," she said, and brushed her hand across her eyes. "I +haven't gone over it to any one ever, and I forgot you would not be +interested in details." + +"Please don't mind me. I am interested in every detail you are good +enough to give me. It all makes the background of the truth, you know, +and that is what I am after," said Reyburn, deeply touched. "I think you +are wonderful to tell me all this. I shall regard it most sacredly." + +Betty flashed a look of gratitude at him, and noticed the sympathy in +his face. It almost unnerved her, but she went on: + +"The oldest boy was named Bessemer, and he wasn't very good-looking. He +was very tall and awkward, and always falling over things. He had little +pale eyes, and hardly any chin. His teeth projected, too, and his hair +was light and very straight and thin. His mother didn't seem to love him +very much, even when he was a little boy. She bullied him and found +fault with him continually, and quite often I felt very sorry for him, +although I wasn't naturally attracted to him. He wasn't really +unpleasant to me. We got along very nicely, although I never had much to +do with him. There wasn't much to him. + +"The other brother, Herbert, was handsome like his mother, only dark, +with black curly hair, black wicked eyes, and a big, loose, cruel mouth. +His mother just idolized him, and he knew it. He could make her do +anything on earth. He used to force Bessemer into doing wrong things, +too, things that he was afraid to do himself, because he knew father +would not be so hard on Bessemer as on him. For father had taken a great +dislike to Herbert, and it was no wonder. He seemed to have no idea at +all that he was not owner of the house. He took anything he pleased for +his own use, even father's most sacred possessions, and broke them in a +fit of anger, too, sometimes, without ever saying he was sorry. He +talked very disrespectfully of father and to him, and acted so to the +servants that they gave notice and left. Every few days there would be a +terrible time over something Herbert had done. Once I remember he went +to the safe and got some money out that belonged to father and went off +and spent it in some dreadful way that made father very angry. Of course +I was still only a little girl, and I did not know all that went on. +Father was very careful that I should not know. He guarded me more than +ever, but he always looked sad when he came to kiss me good-night. + +"Herbert took especial delight in tormenting me," she went on with a sad +far-away look in her eyes as if she were recalling unpleasant memories. +She did not see the set look on Reyburn's face nor notice his low +exclamation of anger. She went steadily on: "He found out that I did not +like June-bugs, and once he caught hundreds of them and locked me into a +room with them with all the lights turned on. I was almost frightened to +death, but it cured me of being afraid of June-bugs." A little smile +trembled out on Betty's lips. "Just because I wouldn't give him the +satisfaction of letting him hear me scream." She finished. "Then he +caught a snake and put it in my room, and he put a lot of burdocks in my +hat so they would get in my hair. Foolish things those were, of course, +but he was a constant nightmare to me. Sometimes he would tie a wire +across the passages in the upper hall where I had to pass to my room, +and when I fell my hands went down against a lot of slimy toads in the +dark, for he always somehow managed to have the light go out just as I +fell. There were hundreds of things like that, but I needn't multiply +them. That's the kind of boy he was. And because he discovered that my +father loved me very much, and because he knew my father disliked him, +he spent much time in trying to torment me in secret. I couldn't tell my +father, because he always looked so sad whenever there was trouble, and +there was sure to be trouble between him and my stepmother if my father +found out that Herbert had done anything wrong. One day my father came +upon us just as Herbert had caught me and was trying to cut my curls +off. I didn't care about the curls, but I knew my father did. I began to +scream. Herbert gripped me so I thought I would die with the pain, +putting his big strong fingers around my throat and choking me so I +could not make any noise." + +Reyburn clenched his hands until the knuckles went white and uttered an +exclamation, but Betty did not notice: + +"There was a terrible time then, and I was sent away to a school, a good +many miles from home, where I stayed for several years. Father always +came up to see me every week end, for a few hours at least, and we had +wonderful times together. Sometimes in vacation he would bring my +stepmother along and she would bring me beautiful presents and smile and +pet me, and say she missed me so much and she wished I would ask my +father to let me come back and go to school in the city. But I never +did, because I was afraid of Herbert. As I grew older I used to have an +awful horror of him. But finally one vacation father and mother both +came up and said they wanted me at home. My stepmother went to my room +with me and told me I needn't be afraid of Herbert any more, that he was +quite grown up and changed and would be good to me, and that it would +please my father to have all his family together happily again. I +believed her and I told father I would like to go. He looked very happy, +and so I went home. Herbert had been away at school himself most of the +time, and so had Bessemer, although they had been in trouble a good many +times, so the servants told me, and had to change to new schools. They +were both away when I got home. I had a very happy time for three weeks, +only that I never saw father alone once. My stepmother was always there. +But she was kind and I tried not to mind. Then all of a sudden one night +I woke up and heard voices, and I knew that the boys were back from the +camp to which they had been sent. I didn't sleep much the rest of the +night, but in the morning I made up my mind that it was only a little +while before I could go back to school, and I would be nice to the boys +and maybe they wouldn't trouble me. + +"I found that it was quite true that Herbert had grown up and changed. +He didn't want to torment me any more, he wanted to make love to me, +and I was only a child yet. I wasn't quite fifteen. It filled me with +horror, and after he had caught me in the dark--he always loved to get +people in the dark--and tried to kiss me, I asked father to let me go +back to school at once. I can remember how sad he looked at me as if I +had cut him to the heart when I asked him." + +During this part of the tale Reyburn sat with stern countenance, his +fingers clenched around the arms of the chair in which he sat, but he +held himself quiet and listened with compressed lips, watching every +expression that flitted across the sweet pale face. + +"That was the last time I was at home with my father," she said, trying +to control her quivering lips. "He took me back to school, and he came +three times to see me, though not so often as before. The last time he +said beautiful things to me about trying to live a right life and being +kind to those about me, and he asked me to forgive him if he had ever +done anything to hurt me in any way. Of course I said he hadn't. And +then he said he hoped I wouldn't feel too hard at him for marrying again +and bringing those boys into my life. I told him it was all right, that +some day they would grow up and go away and he and I would live together +again! And he said some awful words about them under his breath. But he +asked me to forgive him again and kissed me and went away. + +"He was taken very sick when he got home, and they never let me know +until he was dead. Of course I went home to the funeral, but I didn't +stay; I couldn't. I went back to school alone. My stepmother had been +very kind, but she said she knew it was my father's wish that I should +finish my school year. When vacation came she was traveling for her +health. She wrote me a beautiful letter telling me how she missed me, +and how much she needed me now in her bereavement, and how she hoped +another summer would see us together; but she stayed abroad two years +and the third year she went to California. I was sent to another school, +and because I was not asked about it and there didn't seem anything else +to do, I went. Every time I would suggest doing something else my +stepmother would write and say how sorry she was she could not give her +consent, but my father had left very explicit directions about me and +she was only trying to carry out his wishes. She knew me well enough to +be sure I would want to do anything he wished for me. And I did, of +course." + +Reyburn gave her a look of sympathy and getting up began to pace the +little room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +"IT was not until last spring that she sent for me to come home," went +on Betty, "and was very effusive about how much she needed me and how +she was so much better, and meant to be a real mother to me now, helping +me see the world and have a good time. She took me from one summer +resort to another. Of course it was pleasant after having been shut up +in school all those years, but she kept me close with her all the time, +and I met only the people she chose to have me meet. All the time she +kept talking about 'dear Herbert' and telling how wonderful he was and +how he had grown to be 'such a dear boy.' Finally he arrived and began +the very first evening he was with us to coax me to marry him. At first +he was very courteous and waited upon me whenever I stirred, and I +almost thought his mother was right about his being changed. But when I +told him that I did not love him and could not ever marry him I caught a +look on his face like an angry snarl, and I heard him tell his mother I +was a crazy little fool, and that he would break my neck for me after he +got me good and married. Then his mother began to come to me and cry +and tell me how dear Herbert was almost heart-broken, that he would +never lift up his head again, and that I would send him to ruin. It was +simply awful, and I didn't know how to endure it. I began to wonder +where I could go. Of course I had never been brought up to do anything, +so I could not very well expect to go out into the world and make my +living." + +"Didn't you have any money at all?" interrupted Reyburn suddenly. + +"Oh, yes," she said, looking up as if she had just remembered his +presence. "I had always plenty of spending money, but if I went away +where they couldn't find me, why, of course, I would have to give that +up." + +"Why, where did your money come from? Was it an allowance from your +stepmother, or did your father leave it to you, or what?" + +"I'm not just sure," said Betty, with troubled brow. "I never really +knew much about the money affairs. When I asked, they always put me off +and said that I was too young to be bothered with business yet, I would +be told all about it when I came of age. My stepmother harped a great +deal on keeping me young as long as possible. She said it was my +father's wish that I should be relieved of all care until I came of +age. But there were some trustees in Boston. I know that, because I had +to write to them, about once or twice a year. My stepmother was most +particular about that. I think they were old friends of my own mother, +though I don't know when I learned that. Father told me once that mother +had left me enough to keep me comfortably even without what he would +leave me, so I'm sure I shall have enough to repay you if I could once +get it." + +"Don't worry about me!" he exclaimed. "It seems so terrible for you to +have been alone in a situation like that! Wasn't there any one you could +appeal to for help?" + +"No, not any one whom I thought it would be right to tell. You see, in a +way it was my father's honor. She was his wife, and I'm sure he loved +her--at least at first--and she really was very good to me, except when +it was a question of her son." + +"I'm afraid I can't agree with you there!" he said sternly. "I think she +was a clever actress. But excuse me. Go on, please." + +"At last, when things had got so bad that I thought I must run away +somewhere, my stepmother came into my room one morning and locked the +door. She had been weeping, and she looked very sweet and pitiful. She +said she had something to tell me. She had tried not to have to do it, +for she was afraid it would grieve me and might make me have hard +feelings against my father. I told her that was impossible. Then she +told me that my father on his deathbed had called her to him and told +her that it was his wish that I should marry one of her sons, and he +wanted her to tell me. He felt that he had wronged them by hating them +for my sake and he felt that I could make it all right by marrying one +of them. My stepmother said that when she saw how infatuated dear +Herbert was with me she hoped that she would be spared having to tell +me, but now that I was treating him so she felt bound to deliver the +message. Then she handed me a paper which said virtually the same thing +which she had told me, and was signed by my father in his own +handwriting." + +"Was the paper written or printed?" interrupted Reyburn. + +"I think it was typewritten, but the signature was papa's. There could +be no mistake about that, and he wouldn't have signed something he +didn't mean." Betty sighed as if it were a subject she had worn into her +heart by much sorrowful thought. + +"It might be quite possible for him to have done that under influence +or delirium, or when he was too sick to realize." + +"Oh, do you think so?" Betty caught at the hope. "It seems so awful to +go against papa's last request." + +"There is nothing awful but the idea of your being tied to that--beast!" +said Reyburn with unexpected fervor. Betty looked at him gratefully and +went on: + +"I was simply appalled. I couldn't think, and I made my stepmother go +away and leave me for a little while, but things got blacker and blacker +and I thought I was going crazy. I couldn't marry Herbert even to please +my father. The next day Bessemer arrived. He had been worrying his +mother a lot about money, and when he arrived I couldn't help hearing +what they said to him. They charged him with all sort of dreadful +things. They called him a disgrace, and threatened to let him be +arrested, and a great many more such things. Finally his mother ended up +by telling him she never had loved him and that if he made any more +trouble about money she would cut him off without a cent. I was sitting +upstairs in my room with my windows open, and all their talk floated +right up to me. It made me feel sick, and yet I felt sorry for Bessemer, +for lately whenever he had been around he had been kind to me, and +sometimes I had stayed near him to get rid of Herbert. We often talked +over our troubles together and sympathized with one another. He felt +sorry for me, but he was weak himself and couldn't see any way out for +either of us. + +"They had pretty stormy times all that day. Late in the afternoon +Herbert and Bessemer went to their mother's room and were closeted with +her for two hours, after which Herbert went away in the car with his +suitcase and bags as if he were not coming back soon. I watched him from +my window, and in great relief went down to take a little walk, for I +had stayed closely in my room all day trying to plan what to do. One +thing that held me from running away was that it would be such a +disgrace to the family, and I knew my father would have felt it so +keenly. That was always the great trouble when the boys got into scrapes +at college, my father would groan and say he felt disgraced to be so +conspicuous before the world. So I hesitated to do what would have been +a sorrow to him had he been alive. + +"Half an hour later I was sitting alone in the twilight on one of the +porches, and Bessemer came out and sat down beside me. + +"He looked so sort of homely and lonesome that I put my hand on his arm +and told him I was awfully sorry for him, and suddenly he turned around +and said: + +"'Say, Betty, why don't you marry _me_? Then they can't say a word to +either of us. Your father's wishes will be carried out and Herb'll have +to whistle.' + +"At first I was horrified, but we talked a long time about it, and he +told me how lonely he had always been, and how nobody had ever loved +him, and he knew he wasn't attractive, and all that; and then he said +that if I married him we would go away and live by ourselves and he +would let me do just as I wanted to. He wouldn't bother me about +anything. If I didn't love him he would keep out of my sight, and things +like that, till I got very sorry for him, and began to think that +perhaps after all it was the best thing that would ever come for either +of us. So I said I would. + +"It surprised me a little that my stepmother took it so calmly when we +told her. She cried a little, but did it very prettily, and kissed +Bessemer, and told him he was fortunate. Then she kissed me and said I +was a darling, and that she would be so happy if it only weren't for +poor dear Herbert. + +"But after that they began to rush things for a grand wedding, and I let +them do it because I didn't see anything else in the world for me." + +Betty raised her eyes and encountered the clear grave gaze of Reyburn +fixed on her, and the color flew into her cheeks: + +"I know you think I'm dreadful," she said, shrinking. "I've thought so +myself a thousand times, but truly I didn't realize then what an awful +thing it would be to marry a man I didn't love. I only wanted to hurry +up and get it done before Herbert came home. They said he had been +called away by important business and might be at home any day. I gave +my consent to everything they wanted to do, and they fixed it all just +as they pleased. One thing that happened upset me terribly. When the +wedding invitations came home my stepmother carried them off to her +room. I was too sad to pay much attention anyway. But the next morning I +happened to be down in the kitchen looking over the papers that the maid +had taken down from the waste baskets to search for a missing letter and +there in the pile I found one of the invitations partly addressed and +flung aside, and the invitation was still in the envelope. I pulled it +out with a ghastly kind of curiosity to see how I looked on paper, and +there it read, Mrs. Charles Garland Stanhope invites you to be present +at the marriage of her daughter Elizabeth to _Mr. Herbert Hutton_! + +"My heart just stood still. With the paper in my hand I rushed up to my +stepmother's room and demanded to know what that meant. She smiled and +said she was so sorry I had been annoyed that way, that that was a +mistake, the invitations had come wrongly engraved and she had had to +send them back and have them done over again. She was afraid I might be +superstitious about it, so she hadn't told me. She was very gentle and +sweet and tried to soothe me, and called me 'Betty,' the name my father +always had for me, and at last I went back to my room feeling quite +comfortable. She had said she always felt troubled for poor Bessemer, +that nobody could love him right, he was so homely, and now I was going +to make everything right by marrying him. She was going to try to forget +what I had done to poor dear Herbert, and just be happy about Bessemer. +She talked so nicely that I kissed her, a thing I hadn't done in years, +not since she was first married to father. But somehow the shock of +seeing Herbert's name on the invitation stayed with me, and I began to +feel gloomier about it all and to wonder if perhaps I had done right. +The last day I was terribly depressed and when I got to the church that +night it suddenly came to me that perhaps after all I was not going to +be free at all as I had hoped, but was just tying myself up to them all +for life. I was thinking that as I walked up the aisle, and my throat +had a big lump in it the way it always does when I am frightened, and +then I looked up hoping a glimpse of poor Bessemer's face would steady +me and he wasn't there at all! And right over me, waiting beside the +minister, to marry me stood _Herbert_! My knees just gave way under me, +and everything got black so I couldn't go on another step, nor even +stand up. I had to drop. I wasn't unconscious as you all thought--I +heard everything that went on, but I couldn't do anything about it. + +"After they had carried me into the other room and given me things to +drink, and I could get my breath again I saw it all clearly. Herbert +hadn't given up at all. He meant to marry me anyway. He had had the +invitations printed with his name on purpose and they probably hadn't +been changed at all. Everybody in that great church out there was +_expecting_ me to marry Herbert Hutton, and I _was not going to do it_! +I didn't quite know how I was going to stop it, but I knew I had to! You +see I was brought up to think a great deal about what people would think +of me if I did anything out of the usual, and it seemed to me I had +disgraced myself forever by dropping down in the aisle. I knew Herbert +well enough to be sure he would carry that wedding through now if he had +to hold me up in his arms till the ceremony was over, and I was +desperate. I would have given everything I had in the world if the floor +had opened and swallowed me up then, but of course I knew wild thoughts +like that wouldn't get me anywhere, so I just shut my eyes and tried to +think of a way; and then I asked them all to go out a minute and let me +be quiet. The doctor who had come out of the church told them to go. I +shall always bless that man, whoever he was! Then when they were gone I +opened a door that had a key in it, and I locked it behind me and ran +away down some stairs and out a passage that led to the street. That +girl, Jane Carson, was passing and she put her own coat on me and took +me to her room and sent me here. Oh, it's been so good to get here! Do +you think they can take me away against my will?" + +"Certainly not!" said the young man. "Not without some foul play, but I +don't intend to give them any chance for that. By the way, when do you +come of age?" + +"In three weeks," said Betty, looking troubled. "Why, would I be safe +after I was of age?" + +"You certainly would not be under their guardianship any longer," said +the young lawyer, "and they would have no right to control your actions, +unless of course you were incapacitated somehow and unfit to manage your +own affairs." + +Betty looked troubled. + +"I've thought sometimes, ever since I saw that paper in which they +hinted that I was temporarily insane, that they might try to shut me up +in an insane asylum. Herbert wouldn't stop at anything. Could he do +that?" + +"They would have to get a doctor to swear that you were mentally +unsound," said Reyburn, looking troubled. "Does he really love you, do +you think or does he only want to get you in his power for some reason?" + +"It is more like that," said Betty sorrowfully, "he couldn't really love +anybody but himself." + +"Well, don't you worry. I'm going at the case at once, and I'll put +those people where they'll have to walk a chalk line before many hours +are over. The first thing I must do is to see those trustees of yours. +Can you give me the names and addresses?" + +He got out his fountain pen, and Betty told him all he wanted to know, +that is, all she knew herself, and then suddenly it was train time and +he hurried away. On the steps he paused and said in a low tone: + +"Are you perfectly comfortable with these people for a few days until I +can get you better accommodations where you will be safe?" + +"Entirely," said Betty eagerly. "I wouldn't want to go elsewhere." + +"But it must be very hard for one like you to be thrown constantly with +illiterate, uncultured people." + +Betty smiled dreamily: + +"I don't think they are exactly uncultured," she said slowly. +"They--well, you see, they make a friend of God, and somehow I think +that makes a difference. Don't you think it would?" + +"I should think it would," said Warren Reyburn reverently with a light +in his eyes. "I think, perhaps, if you don't mind my saying it, that +you, too, have been making a friend of God." + +"I've been trying to," said Betty softly, with a shy glow on her face +that he remembered all the way back to the city. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +CANDACE CAMERON paced her little gabled room restively, with face +growing redder and more excited at every step. For several weeks now she +had been virtually a prisoner--albeit a willing enough one--in the house +of Stanhope. But the time had come when she felt that she must do +something. + +She had gone quietly enough about a proscribed part of the house, doing +little helpful things, making herself most useful to the madam, slipping +here and there with incredible catlike tread for so plump a body, +managing to overhear important conversations, and melting away like a +wraith before her presence was discovered. She had made herself so +unobtrusive as to be almost forgotten by all save the maid Marie, who +had been set to watch her; and she had learned that if she went to bed +quite early in the evening, Marie relaxed her watch and went down to the +servants' quarters, or even sometimes went out with a lover for a while, +that is, if the madam herself happened to be out also. On several such +occasions she had made valuable tours of investigation through the +madam's desk and private papers. + +That she was overstepping her privileges as a servant in the house went +without saying, but she silenced her Scotch conscience, which until this +period of her existence had always kept her strictly from meddling with +other people's affairs, by declaring over and over again to herself that +she was doing perfectly right because she was doing it for the sake of +"that poor wee thing that was being cheated of her rights." + +Several weeks had passed since her sudden re-establishment in the +family, and the reports of Betty, so hastily readjusted and refurbished +to harmonize with the newspaper reports, had not been any more +satisfying. Mrs. Stanhope had explained to the servants the day after +the excitement that Miss Betty had become temporarily deranged, and +later that she had escaped from the private hospital where she had been +taken, and they were doing all in their power to find her. In reply to +Candace's gimlet-like questions she had given the name of a hospital +where she said Betty had been taken at first, and everything seemed +altogether plausible. But as the days went by and the horror of her +absence grew into the soul of the lonely woman whose care Betty had been +for years, Candace became more and more restive and suspicious. It was +these suspicions which sent her on her investigations, and made her +uncannily wise to pry open secret locks and cover all trace of her +absence after she had gleaned what knowledge she sought. + +On this particular evening her excitement was due to having come across +some correspondence bearing the signature of a man to whom a certain +letter had been addressed, which had been entrusted to her charge by +Betty's dying father and taken from her by his wife. For years she had +been worried about that, and yet she had no absolute reason to doubt +that the madam had not sent it to its destination, except as she knew +its contents and read Mrs. Stanhope's character beneath the excellent +camouflage. But to-night, even the briefest glance through the bundle of +letters showed plainly that those men in Boston never knew the master's +wishes, or at least, if they knew them, they were utterly disregarding +them. + +Aroused on one point, her suspicions began to extend further. Where was +Betty? Did her stepmother know, and was she somewhere suffering, alone, +perhaps being neglected because she had not done as they wanted her to +do? If the stepmother was capable of destroying a letter, was she +perhaps not also capable of putting Betty out of the way? There were +points of detail which of course did not harmonize with any such theory +as this. Candace was no logician, but she was keen enough to feel that +something was wrong. As for that theory of Betty's insanity she scouted +it with a harsh laugh whenever it was mentioned in her hearing. +Betty--keen, sweet, trusting little Betty _insane_! Nonsense! It was +unthinkable. If she was in an asylum anywhere she was there without +warrant, and it behoved her faithful old nurse to find a way out for +her. This she meant to do against all odds, for she was thoroughly +aroused now. + +She went to the window and looked down into the lighted street. Over +there not four blocks away rose the steeple of the church where Betty +had gone to be married! Around the corner was the great brick pile of +the hospital where her stepmother said she had been taken from the +church, and from which she was believed by the other servants to have +escaped. + +Standing thus looking out into the light-starred city, Candace began to +form a plan, her plump tightly garmented chest rising and falling +excitedly as she thought it all out. It was up to her to find out what +had become of Betty. But how was she to get away without being +suspected? Somehow she must do it. She knew perfectly the address that +had been on that letter. She had written it down carefully from memory +as soon as it had been taken away from her. She must go to Boston and +find that man to whom it had been written, and discover whether he had +ever received it. But she could not go until she found out certainly +whether or not Betty had ever really escaped from the hospital. Who knew +but that she was shut up there yet, and the madam telling this tale all +about and advertising with a five thousand dollar reward! In the movies, +too! Such a disgrace on the family! How the master would have writhed at +the publicity of his beloved daughter--"poor wee thing!" + +Candace turned from the window with her lips set, and tiptoeing to the +door, listened. Yes, it was Aileen who was coming lightly up the stairs, +singing in a low tone. It was Aileen's evening out. That meant that +Marie would be more than usually active on the upper floor. She must +manage it before Aileen left and Marie was called upstairs, or there +would be no opportunity to get away without Marie seeing her. + +Hastily she gathered her silk dress, her cloak and her apoplectic hat +into a bundle with her purse and her gloves, and tied them into an old +apron, with the strings hanging free. Then stealthily opening the +window, she dropped them out into the kitchen area below, close to the +region of the ash cans. It was a risk, of course, but one must take some +chances, and the servants would all be in the kitchen just now, laughing +and talking. They would scarcely have heard it fall. + +She listened a tense instant, then closed the window, and possessing +herself of a few little things, gathered hastily about the room, which +she could stuff in her pockets, she opened her door softly, closed it +behind her, and trotted off down the stairs just as if she were going +about her ordinary duty. Listening a minute outside the kitchen door she +slipped stealthily down the cellar stairs, and tiptoed over to the area +door where the ashman took out the ashes. Softly slipping the bolt she +opened the door and drew in her bundle. Then standing within, she +quickly slipped the black silk over her housemaid's gown, donned her +coat and hat and gloves, and sallied forth. A moment more and she was in +the next street with the consciousness that she "might have done the +like any time sooner, if she'd wanted, in spite of that little spy-cat +Marie." + +"If I want to go back I'll just say I went after my insurance book," she +chuckled to herself as she sped down the street in the direction of the +hospital. + +Arrived at the big building she asked to see the list of patients taken +in on the day of Betty's wedding, and succeeded in getting a pretty +accurate description of each one, sufficient at least to satisfy her +that Betty was not among them. Then she asked a few more bold questions, +and came away fully convinced that Betty had never been in that +hospital. + +By this time it was nine o'clock, and she meant to take the evening +train for Boston, which left, she was sure, somewhere near midnight. She +took a trolley to her old lodgings where she had been since Mrs. +Stanhope had sent her away the first time, and hastily packed a small +hand bag with a few necessities, made a few changes in her garments, +then went to see a fellow lodger whom she knew well, and where she felt +sure she could easily get a check cashed, for she had a tidy little bank +account of her own, and was well known to be reliable. + +Having procured the necessary funds, she made her way to the station and +found that she had still an hour to spare before the Boston train left. + +Settled down at last in the back seat of a common car, she made herself +as comfortable as her surroundings would allow, and gave herself up to +planning the campaign that was before her. + +Canny Candace did not go at once to the office of the brothers, James +and George McIntyre, though she looked them up in the telephone book the +very first thing when the train arrived in Boston even before she had +had a bite to eat, and her cup of tea which meant more to her than the +"bite." She reasoned that they would be busy in the early hours and not +be able to give her their undivided attention. She had not lived out all +her life for nothing. She knew the ways of the world, and she had very +strict ideas about the best ways of doing everything. So it happened +that when she was at last shown into the office of the McIntyres, Warren +Reyburn who had traveled to Boston on the sleeper of the same train that +she had taken the night before, was just arising from an earnest +conference with the two men. With her first glance, as the three emerged +from the inner office, Candace saw that the two elder gentlemen were +much disturbed and it flitted through her mind that she had come at an +inopportune moment. Then her quick eye took in the younger man and her +little alert head cocked to one side with a questioning attitude. Where +had she seen him before? Candace had the kind of a mind that kept people +and events card-indexed even to the minutest detail, and it didn't take +many seconds for her to place Warren Reyburn back in the church at the +wedding, standing against the wall with his arms folded. She had noticed +him particularly because he was so courteous to a little old lady who +came in too late to get a seat. She had studied him as he stood there, +waiting for the wedding march, and she had thought how handsome he +looked and how fine it would have been if her wee Betty had been getting +a man like that in place of the weak-faced Bessemer Hutton. She had +watched to see who he was with, and felt deep satisfaction when she +noticed him lean over and speak to Mrs. Bryce Cochrane as if he belonged +to her. He wasn't her husband, because she knew Mr. Cochrane, who had +been a favorite with Mr. Stanhope and much at the house. This man might +be Mrs. Cochrane's brother "or the likes," and she had pleased herself +watching him till Betty arrived and took all her thoughts. So now she +stood with her little round head in its hectic hat tilted interestedly +to one side, watching, ears on the keen to catch any word, for all the +world like a "bit brown sparrow" saucily perched on another man's +window, where it really had no right to be. + +At last one of the McIntyre's shook hands gravely with the younger man, +and the other one attended him to the door, talking in low tones. The +McIntyre thus set at liberty, turned questioningly toward the stranger, +who was not slow in getting to her feet and coming forward. + +"You will maybe be Mr. James McIntyre?" she asked, lifting her sea-blue +eyes set in her apple-red face, and fixing her firm little lips in +dignity. Candace was a servant and knew her place, but she felt the +importance of her mission, and meant to have no disrespect done to it. + +"I am Mr. George McIntyre," the gentleman replied, and, indicating the +man at the door, "Mr. James McIntyre will be at liberty in a moment, but +perhaps I will do as well?" + +Candace cocked a glance toward the elderly back at the door; and then +returned her look to Mr. George: + +"You'll maybe be knowing Mr. Charles Stanhope?" she propounded, as if +she were giving him a riddle, and her blue eyes looked him through and +through: + +"Oh, surely, surely! He was a very close friend! You--knew him?" + +"I was Miss Betty's nurse who cooked the griddle cakes for you the +morning after the funeral----" she said, and waited with breathless +dignity to see how he would take it. + +"Oh! Is that so!" He beamed on her kindly. "Yes, yes, I remember those +cakes. They were delicious! And what can I do for you? Just sit down. +Why, bless me, I don't know but that your coming may be very opportune! +Can you tell me anything of Miss Betty?" + +Candace pressed her lips together with a knowing smile as much as to say +she might tell volumes if it were wise, and she cast a glance at the +other brother who was shaking hands now with his visitor and promising +to meet him a little later: + +"Yon man'll be knowing a bit, too, I'll be thinking," she hazarded +nodding toward Reyburn as he left. "He was at the wedding, I'm most +sure----!" + +The elder McIntyre gave her a quick glance and signalled to his brother +to come near: + +"This is Miss Stanhope's nurse, the one who cooked breakfast for us at +the time of the funeral," he said, and to Candace, "This is Mr. James +McIntyre." + +Candace fixed him with another of her inquisitive little glances: + +"I've some bit papers put by that I thought ye might like to see," she +said with a cautious air. "I've kept them fer long because I thought +they might be wanted sometime, yet I've never dared bring them to your +notice before lest I would be considered meddlin', and indeed I wasn't +sure but you had them already. Will you please to look over them papers +and see if you've ever seen them before?" She drew forth an envelope +from her bag and handed it to them. "It's a bit letter that Mr. Stanhope +wrote the day he was dyin' an' then copied and give to me to mail, and +his lady took it away, sayin' she would attend to it. What I want to +know is, did ye ever get the letter? If ye did it's all right and none +of my business further, an' I'll go on my way back home again and think +no more about it; but if ye didn't then there it is, an' you ought to +see it, that's sure!" + +The two men drew eagerly together and studied the trembling lines: + +"It's his writing all right," murmured one, under his breath, and the +brother nodded gravely: + +"You say that this was the original of a letter that was given to you to +mail to us?" + +Candace nodded. + +"It's what he wrote first, and got ink on it, an' then wrote it over. I +can't say what changes he made, as I didn't read it, but this he gave to +me to burn, and before I gets it burned my lady comes in and takes the +letter from me while he was sleepin'; and so I hid the bit papers, +thinkin' they might be a help to wee Betty sometime. And oh, can ye +tell me anything of my little Lady Betty? Is she safe? Did she come to +you for refuge? You needn't be afraid to tell me. I'll never breathe a +word----!" + +The two brothers exchanged quick glances of warning and the elder man +spoke: + +"My good woman, we appreciate your coming, and these papers may prove +very useful to us. We hope to be able to clear up this matter of Miss +Stanhope's disappearance very soon. She did not come to us, however, and +she is not here. But if you will step into the room just beyond and wait +for a little while we may be able to talk this matter over with you." + +Very courteously he ushered the plump, apprehensive little woman into +the next room and established her in an easy leather chair with a +quantity of magazines and newspapers about her, but she kept her little +head cocked anxiously on one side, and watched the door like a dog whose +master has gone in and shut the way behind him; and she never sat back +in her chair nor relaxed one iota during the whole of the two hours that +she had to wait before she was called at last to the inner office where +she found the handsome young man whom she remembered seeing at the +wedding. + +She presently found that Reyburn was as keen as he was handsome, but if +she hadn't remembered him at the wedding as a friend of that nice Mrs. +Cochrane, she never would have made it as easy as she did for him to +find out things from her, for she could be canny herself on occasion if +she tried, and she did not trust everybody. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +THE mysterious disappearance of Candace from the Stanhope house caused +nothing short of a panic. Herbert and his mother held hourly wrangles, +and frantically tried one thing and then another. Day after day the +responses came in from the advertisements they had caused to be put +forth. Everyone was hot-foot for the reward, but so far little of +encouragement had been brought out. More and more the young man was +fixing his mind on the idea that Candace had something to do with +Betty's disappearance, so he was leaving no stone unturned to find the +nurse as well as the girl. To this end he insisted on seeing personally +and cross-examining every person who came claiming to have a clue to the +lost girl. + +That morning, at about the same hour when Candace walked into the office +of the McIntyre Brothers in Boston, James, the butler, much against his +dignity, was ushering a curious person into the presence of the son of +the house. James showed by every line of his noble figure that he +considered this duty beneath his dignity, and that it was only because +the occasion was unusual that he tolerated it for a moment, but the man +who ambled observantly behind him, stretching his neck to see everything +that was to be seen in this part of the great house, that he might tell +about it at the fire-house, failed to get the effect. He was wondering +why in thunder such rich people as these seemed to be, couldn't afford +carpets big enough to cover their whole floors, instead of just having +skimpy little bits of pieces dropped around here and there, that made +you liable to skid all over the place if you stepped on one of them +biasly. + +Herbert Hutton lifted his head and watched Abijah Gage slouch into the +room. He measured him keenly and remained silent while Abijah opened up. +There had been many other applicants for that reward that day, with +stories cunningly woven, and facts, substantiated by witnesses, in one +case a whole family brought along to swear to the fabrication; but as +yet Herbert had not found a promising clue to his missing bride, and the +time was going by. In a few days it would be too late, and his +undisciplined spirit raged within him. It was not only his bride he +wanted, it was her fortune, which was worth any trouble he might take; +and every day, every hour, every minute now, it was slipping, slipping, +slipping from his eager grasp. + +Abijah was a little overawed in the presence of this insolent man of the +world, but he felt he had, for almost the first time in his life, Truth +on his side, and he was strong in the power of it. With a cunning equal +to the one that matched him he dealt out his information bit by bit, +giving only enough at a time to make his victim sure it was the real +thing this time; and then he halted stubbornly and would say no more +until that five thousand dollars was signed and sealed over to him. They +had a long argument, but in the end Bi won, and was given certain +documents which he was satisfied would stand in court. A little later +the telephone in Reyburn's office rang sharply, and when Jimmie Ryan +responded a voice that he had never heard before asked for Mr. Warren +Reyburn. + +"He's out of town," Jimmie replied. + +"How soon will he be back?" The voice was like a snarl. + +"I'm not quite sure. He's called to Boston on business," swelled Jimmie +loyally. + +An oath ripped over the wire, and Jimmie raged within and quailed. Was +his idol then losing a great case? + +"He might be back in a few hours," insinuated Jimmie. "Who shall I say +called up if he should have me over long distance?" + +"You needn't say anybody! I'll call up again," growled the voice, and +the man hung up. + +Jimmie sat for a long time in blissful reverie. "He's getting there!" he +whispered to himself. "He'll get the big cases yet, and I can keep my +first place. I must see Jane to-night and tell her." + +Meanwhile, back at Tinsdale improvements had been going on at the +Carsons'. Bob, always handy with tools, had been putting in a tank over +the bathtub. They had one at the house on the hill, only it was run by a +windmill. Bob had a friend who was a plumber's son, and from him had +obtained some lengths of second-hand water-pipe and an old faucet. He +had conceived the idea of a tank on the roof, and his first plan had +been only a rainwater tank, but gradually as his vision widened he +included a force pump in the outfit of desires. He hung around the +plumber's until they unearthed an old force pump somewhat out of repair, +and for a few days' assisting the plumber Bob acquired it, together with +after-hour help to put it into operation. The next object was a tank, +which seemed at first to represent the impossible; but the grocer at +last offered a suggestion in the shape of several large empty hogsheads +which he readily accepted at the price of four Saturdays' work in the +store. + +All Bob's extra time was put into these improvements, and he was as +excited every night when it grew dark and he was forced to come to +supper because he couldn't see any longer to work, as if he had been +building an airship. + +The day the hogsheads were marshaled and connected and the force pump +sent its first stream into them was a great occasion. The family +assembled in the yard, with Elise Hathaway, who had been allowed to come +over for a few minutes with Betty. Bob and his plumber friend pumped, +and Emily climbed to the attic window, which overlooked the row of +hogsheads, ranged so that the water would flow from one to the other, +and acted as pilot to the new enterprise. As the first stream from the +force pump, which Bob had lavishly painted red, crept its way up the +pipes and began to wet the bottom of the first and highest hogshead +Emily gave a little squeal of delight and shouted "It's come! It's come! +The water's come!" and the family below fairly held their breath with +the wonder of it. Not that such a thing could be, but that their own +freckled, grinning Bob should have been able to achieve it. + +There was an elaborate system of tin conductors which conveyed the waste +water from the bathtub out through a hole in the wall of the little +laundry bathroom, and distributed it along the garden beds wherever its +controller desired to irrigate. Thus the system became practical as well +as a luxury. There was also an arrangement of gutter pipes for carrying +off any surplus water from the hogsheads, so saving the Carson house +from possible inundation at any time of heavy storms. + +After the plumbing was finished Bob painted the laundry neatly inside +with beautiful white paint and robin's-egg blue for the ceiling, and +Betty told him it almost made one think of going swimming in the ocean. +Next he began to talk about a shower bath. Betty told him what one was +like and he began to spend more days down at the plumber's asking +questions and picking up odd bits of pipe, making measurements, and +doing queer things to an old colander for experiment's sake. The day +that Warren Reyburn came for the first time Bob had the shower part +finished and ready to erect, and the next day saw it complete with a rod +for the rubber curtain that Betty had promised to make for him. He and +she were planning how they would make further improvements on the house +before Jane and Nellie should come home for their summer vacation week. +Betty had thoroughly entered into the life of the little household now, +and was a part of it. She saved her own small wages, and grudged all +she had to spend for necessary clothes, that she might contribute +further to the comfort and beauty of the general home. + +After Warren Reyburn's visit the last barrier between Betty and Ma +seemed to be broken down. As soon as she had closed the door she flew +into the other room and flung her arms around Ma's neck, bursting into +soft weeping on her motherly shoulder. Ma had done a rapid turning act +when she heard her coming, for in truth she had been peeping behind the +green window-shade to watch the handsome stranger go down the street, +but she would have dropped the iron on her foot and pretended to be +picking it up rather than let Betty suspect her interest in the visitor. + +"Oh, mother," she murmured in Mrs. Carson's willing ear, "I have been so +frightened----" + +"I know, dearie!" soothed the mother, quite as if she had been her own. +"I know!" + +"But he was very kind," she said lifting her head with an April effect +of tears. "He's going to try to fix things for me so that I don't need +ever to be afraid of any one making trouble for me any more. You see, I +sort of ran away. There was somebody I was afraid of who troubled me a +great deal." + +"Yes, dearie, I thought as much," said Ma. "Jane kind of gave me to +understand there was something like that. I'm real glad there's +somebody goin' to look into your affairs an' fix things right for you. I +knew you was restless an' worried. Now it'll get all straightened out. +He's got a nice face. I trusted him first off. He's a church member, an' +that's somethin'. They ain't all spiritual, but they're mostly clean an' +just an' kindly, when they're anythin' at all but just plain hypocrites, +which, thank the Lord, there ain't so many as some would have us +believe. Now wash your face, dearie, an' run back to your place so you +can come home early, for we're goin' to have the old hen with dumplin's +for supper to celebrate." + +That was one charming thing about that household: they celebrated every +blessed little trifle that came into their lives, so that living with +them was like a procession of beautiful thanksgivings. + +It was while Betty was eating the gala "hen," delicious in its festive +gravy and dumplings, that she looked off across the little dining-room +to the dark window with its twinkling village lights in the distance and +thought of the stranger. A dark fear flashed across her sweet face and +sparkled in the depths of her eyes for just an instant. Was it perhaps +the distant bay of the hounds on her trail, coming nearer every moment? +Then she remembered the heavenly Father and her new-found faith, and +turned back to the cheery little room and the children's pleasant +clatter, resolved to forget the fear and to trust all to Him who cared +for her. Perhaps he had sent the pleasant stranger, and the thought +brought a quiet little smile to settle about her lips. She laughed with +Bob and Emily at how they had got wet with a sudden unexpected shower +from the new bath while they were arranging the curtain on the rod, and +Emily had turned the faucet on without knowing it. The patient-eyed +mother watched them all and was satisfied. + +How good it is that we cannot hear all the noises of the earth at the +same time, nor know of every danger that lurks near as we are passing +by! We grumble a great deal that God does not send us as much as we +think he might, but we give scarce a thought to our escape from the many +perils, lying close as our very breath, of which we never even dream. + +At that moment, as they sat quietly eating their happy meal, a deadly +particular peril was headed straight for Tinsdale. + +Abijah Gage and Herbert Hutton boarded the evening train for Tinsdale +together and entered the sleeper. Abijah shuffled behind, carrying the +bags, a most extraordinary and humiliating position for him. He had +never been known to carry anything, not even himself if he could help +it, since the day his mother died and ceased to force him to carry in +wood and water for her at the end of a hickory switch. He glanced +uneasily round with a slight cackle of dismay as he arrived in the +unaccustomed plush surroundings and tried to find some place to dump his +load. But the well-groomed Herbert strode down the long aisle unnoticing +and took possession of the section he had secured as if he owned the +road. + +"You can sit there!" he ordered Bi with a condescending motion, dropping +into his own seat and opening a newspaper. + +Bi sat down on the edge of the seat, and held on to the arm in a +gingerly way as if he were afraid to trust himself to anything so +different. He looked furtively up and down the car, eyed the porter, who +ignored him contemptuously and finally came back and demanded his +sleeper ticket with a lordliness that Bi did not feel he could take from +a negro. But somehow the ticket got tangled in his pocket, and Bi had a +hard time finding it, which deepened his indignation at the porter. + +"I ain't takin' no sass from no one. My seat's paid fer all right," he +said distinctly for the enlightenment of the other passengers, and +Herbert Hutton reached out a discreet arm and dropped something in the +porter's hand which sent him on his way and left Bi snorting audibly +after him. + +"You'd better shut up!" growled the dictator to Bi. "We don't want to be +conspicuous, you know. If you can't hold your tongue and act as if you +had ever traveled before, I'll get off this train at the next station +and you can whistle for your reward. Do you understand?" + +Bi dropped his toothless lower jaw a trifle and his little eyes grew +narrow. This was no way to manage affable Bi. He loved a good visit, and +he had counted on one all the way to Tinsdale. He had no idea of sitting +silent. + +"I understand," he drawled, "an' I'll be gormed ef I'll agree. I ain't +told you yet where we get off, an' I don't have to ef I don't wantta. Ef +you can't treat me like a gen'l'man you know where you can get off, an' +I ain't havin' to state it." + +Herbert Hutton drew his arrogant brows in a frown of annoyance, and +whirled around to placate his guide: + +"Now see here, you old popinjay, what's got into you?" + +"No, sir, I ain't nobody's papa," babbled Bi, seeing he had scored a +point. "I have enough to do to support myself without any family." + +"That's all right, have it your own way, only shut up or we'll have +somebody listening. Have a cigar. Take two. But you can't smoke 'em in +here, you'll have to go to the smoking-room. Wait! I'll see if we can +get the drawing-room." + +The porter appeared and the change was effected, to the great +disappointment of Bi, who kept continually poking his head out to get a +glimpse of the fine ladies. He would much have preferred staying out in +the main car and getting acquainted with people. His cunning had +departed with the need. He had put things in the hands of this surly +companion, and now he meant to have a good time and something to tell +the gang about when he got home. + +About midnight the train drew into a station and Herbert Hutton roused +himself and looked out of the window. Bi, whose cunning had returned, +followed his example. Suddenly he leaned forward excitedly and tapped +the glass with a long finger: + +"That's him! That's the guy," he whispered excitedly as another train +drew in and passengers began to hurry down the platform and across to +the waiting sleeper. + +"Are you sure?" + +"Sartin!" + +"You mean the one with the coat over his arm, and the two men behind?" +He stopped short with an exclamation. + +Bi looked up cunningly. Now what was up? He saw a thunder-cloud on the +face of his companion. + +With embellishments Herbert Hutton asked if Bi had ever seen the two +tall gray-haired men who were walking with their prey. + +Bi narrowed his eyes and denied any knowledge, but perceived there were +more sides than two to the enigma. Now, what could he figure out of +those two guys? Were there more rewards to be offered? If so, he was a +candidate. He wondered what chance there was of getting away from H. H. +and sauntering through the train. He found, however, a sudden +willingness on the part of his companion to vanish and let him do the +scout work for the rest of the night. + +With a sense of being on a vacation and a chance at catching big fish Bi +swung out through the train. Bumping down among the now curtained +berths, adjusting his long form to the motion of the express, lurching +to right and to left as they went round a curve, falling over an +occasional pair of shoes and bringing down lofty reproaches from the +sleepy porter, he penetrated to the day coaches and at last located his +quarry. + +They were sitting in a double seat, the younger man facing the two older +ones, and had evidently been unable to get sleepers. Bi hung around the +water-cooler at the far end of the car until he had laid out his plans; +then he sauntered up to the vacant seat behind the three men and dropped +noiselessly into its depths, drawing his hat down well over his face, +and apparently falling into instant slumber, with a fair sample of +Tinsdale snoring brought in at moderate distances. + +The conversation was earnest, in well-modulated voices, and hard to +follow connectedly, for the men knew how to talk without seeming to the +outside world to be saying anything intelligible. Occasionally a +sentence would come out clear cut in an interval of the rhythm of the +train, but for the most part Bi could make little or nothing of it. + +"In all the years we've been trustees of that estate we haven't seen her +but twice," said one of the older men; "once at her father's second +marriage, and again at his funeral. Then we only saw her at a distance. +Her stepmother said she was too grief-stricken to speak with any one, +and it was by the utmost effort she could be present at the service." + +"She looked very frail and young," said the other old man; "and her +hair--I remember her hair!" + +Bi changed his position cautiously and tried to peer over the back of +his seat, but the voices were crowded together now, and the younger man +was talking earnestly. He could not catch a syllable. "Trustees!" That +word stayed with him. "Estate" was another promising one, and the fact +that her hair had been remembered. He nodded his old head sagaciously, +and later when the three men settled back in their seats more +comfortably with their eyes closed he slid back to the water-cooler and +so on through the sleeper to the drawing-room. + +Hutton was sleeping the sleep of the unjust, which means that he woke at +the slightest breath, and Bi's breath was something to wake a heavier +sleeper. So they sat and planned as the train rushed on through the +night. Now and again Bi took a pilgrimage up to the day coach and back +to report the three travelers still asleep. + +About six o'clock in the morning the train slowed down, and finally came +to a thrashing halt, waking the sleepers uncomfortably and making them +conscious of crunching feet in the cinders outside, and consulting +voices of trainmen busy with a hammer underneath the car somewhere. Then +they drowsed off to sleep again and the voices and hammering blended +comfortably into their dreams. + +The passengers in the day coach roused, looked at their watches, +stretched their cramped limbs, squinted out to see if anything serious +was the matter, and settled into a new position to sleep once more. + +Bi, stretched for the nonce upon the long couch of the drawing-room +while his superior occupied the more comfortable berth, roused to +instant action, slipped out to the platform and took his bearings. He +had lived in that part of the country all his life and he knew where +they ought to be by that time. Yes, there was the old saw mill down by +Hague's Crossing, and the steeple over by the soft maple grove just +beyond Fox Glove. It would not be a long walk, and they had a garage at +Fox Glove! + +He sauntered along the cinder path; discovered that the trouble with the +engine was somewhat serious, requiring to wait for help, took a glimpse +into the day coach ahead to assure himself that the three men were still +safely asleep, and sauntered back to the drawing-room. + +His entrance roused the sleeper, who was on the alert instantly. + +"Say, we got a hot box an' a broken engyne!" Bi announced. "It'll take +us some time. We ain't fur from Fox Glove. We could santer over an' git +a car an' beat 'em to it!" + +"We could?" said Hutton. "You sure? No chances, mind you!" + +"Do it easy. Those guys are asleep. They won't get to the Junction 'fore +ten o'clock, mebbe later, an' they can't possibly get to our place 'fore +'leven." + +"Lead the way!" ordered Hutton, cramming himself into his coat and hat. + +"Better slide down on the other side," whispered Bi as they reached the +platform. "We kin go back round the train an' nobody'll notice." + +As if they were only come out to see what was the matter they idled +along the length of the train around out of sight, slid down the bank, +took a shortcut across a meadow to a road, and were soon well on their +way to Fox Glove in the early cool of the spring morning, a strangely +mated couple bent on mischief. + +Back on the cinder track the express waited, dreamily indifferent, with +a flagman ahead and behind to guard its safety, and while men slept the +enemy took wings and flew down the white morning road to Tinsdale, but +no one ran ahead with a little red flag to the gray cottage where slept +Betty, to warn her, though perchance an angel with a flaming sword stood +invisibly to guard the way. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +BOB had just finished feeding the chickens when the automobile drew up +at the door, and he hurried around the house to see who it might be. He +was rather looking for the return of that nice lawyer again. He felt the +family expected him some time soon. Perhaps he would be to breakfast and +mother would want some fresh eggs. + +They had dropped Bi at the edge of the village and there were only +Hutton and the driver who had brought them. Bi had no mind to get mixed +up in this affair too openly. He valued his standing in his home town, +and did not wish to lose it. He had an instinct that what he was doing +might make him unpopular if it became known. Besides, he had another ax +to grind. + +Bob did not like the looks of the strange dark man who got out of the +car and came into the yard with the air of a thrashing machine bolting +into whatever came in his way. He stood sturdily and waited until he was +asked who lived there, and admitted with a stingy "yes" that it was Mrs. +Carson's house. A thundering knock on the front door followed, and the +other man in the car got out and came into the yard behind the first. + +"Well, you needn't take the door down," snapped Bob, and scuttled around +the house to warn his mother, aware that he had been rude, and glad of +it. + +It was Betty who came to the door, for Ma was frying bacon and eggs for +breakfast, and Bob hadn't been quite soon enough. She started back with +a scream, and eluding the hand that reached for her arm, fairly flew +back to the kitchen, taking refuge behind Mrs. Carson, with her eyes +wild with fear and her hand on her heart, while Hutton strode after her. + +Mrs. Carson wheeled around with her knife in her hand and faced him: + +"What do you mean by coming into my house this way, I'd like to know?" +she demanded angrily, putting her arm around Betty. + +"I beg your pardon," said Hutton, a poor apology for courtesy slipping +into his manner. "I don't suppose you know it, but that is my wife you +are harboring there, and she ran away from home several months ago! I +have just discovered her whereabouts and have come to take her away!" + +Ma straightened up with the air of a queen and a judge, while Betty +stifled a scream and in a small voice full of terror cried: "It isn't +true, Mrs. Carson, it isn't true! Oh, _mother_, don't let him take me!" + +Mrs. Carson pushed Betty behind her, the knife still in her other hand, +and answered with dignity: + +"You've made a big mistake, Mr. Herbert Hutton; this isn't your wife at +all. I know all about you." + +Hutton put on a look of instant suavity. + +"Oh, of course, madam, she has told you that, but I'm sorry to have to +tell you that she is not in her right mind. She made her escape from the +insane asylum." + +"Oh, rats!" shouted Bob, and vanished out the kitchen door, slamming it +behind him. + +Emily, frightened and white, stood just outside, and he nearly knocked +her over in his flight. He pulled her along with him, whispering in her +ear excitedly: + +"You beat it down to the fire gong and hit it for all you're worth! +Quick!" + +Emily gave him one frightened look and sprang to action. Her little feet +sped down the path to the lot where hung the big fire gong, like two +wild rabbits running for their life, and in a moment more the loud whang +of alarm rang through the little town, arousing the "gang" and greatly +disconcerting Bi, who was craning his neck at the station and watching +the fast-growing speck down the railroad track. That sure was the train +coming already. How had they made it so soon? + +But Bob was on his stomach in the road scuttling the ship that was to +have carried away the princess. The chauffeur was fully occupied in the +house, for he had been ordered to follow and be ready to assist in +carrying away an insane person, and he had no thought for his car at +present. It was an ugly job, and one that he didn't like, but he was +getting big pay, and such things had to be done. + +Bob's knife was sharp. He always kept it in good condition. It did many +of the chores about the house, and was cunning in its skill. It cut +beautiful long punctures in the four tires, until there was no chance at +all of that car's going on its way for some time to come. Then he +squirmed his way out on the opposite side from the house, slid along by +the fence to the side door, around to the back like a flash and without +an instant's hesitation hauled up his elaborate system of drainage. He +stuck the longest conductor pipe through the open window of the old +laundry, clutched at the sill and swung inside, drawing the pipe in +after him. + +The altercation in the kitchen had reached white heat. Hutton's suavity +was fast disappearing behind a loud angry tone. He had about sized up +Ma and decided to use force. + +It was a tense moment when Bob, his hasty arrangements made, silently +swung open the laundry door in full range of the uninvited guests and +waited for the psychological moment. Mrs. Carson had dropped her knife +and seized the smoking hot frying-pan of bacon as a weapon. She was cool +and collected, but one could see in her eyes the little devil of battle +that sometimes sat in Bob's eyes as she swung the frying-pan back for a +blow. Suddenly out flashed a cold steel eye, menacing, unanswerable, +looking straight into her own. + +At that instant, unannounced and unobserved, through the laundry door +lumbered a long ugly tin conductor pipe, and the deluge began. Straight +into the eyes of the would-be husband it gushed, battering swashingly +down on the cocked revolver, sending it harmlessly to the floor, where +it added to the confusion by going off with a loud report, and sending +the chauffeur to the shelter of the parlor. Bob never knew how near he +came to killing some one by his hasty service, and Ma never had the +heart to suggest it. Instead she acted promptly and secured the weapon +before the enemy had time to recover from his shock. + +Bob, in the laundry, standing on a chair mounted on a board across the +bathtub, sturdily held his wobbling conductor pipe and aimed it straight +to the mark. Of course he knew that even a well-filled phalanx of +hogsheads could not hold the enemy forever, but he was counting on the +fire company to arrive in time to save the day. + +Gasping, clawing the air, ducking, diving here and there to escape the +stream, Herbert Hutton presented a spectacle most amusing and satisfying +to Bob's boy mind. + +"Beat it, Lizzie, beat it! Beat it!" he shouted above the noise of the +pouring waters. But Betty, white with horror, seemed to have frozen to +the spot. She could not have moved if she had tried, and her brain +refused to order her to try. She felt as if the end of everything had +come and she were paralyzed. + +Down the street with dash and flourish, licking up excitement like a +good meal, dashed the gang, the fire chief ostentatiously arraying +himself in rubber coat and helmet as he stood on the side of the engine, +while the hysterical little engine bell banged away, blending with the +sound of the bell of the incoming train at the station. Bi, with his +mouth stretched wide, and one foot holding him for the train while the +other urged toward the fire and excitement, vibrated on the platform, a +wild figure of uncertainty. Where Duty and Inclination both called, +Cupidity still had the upper hand. + +For once Bi did not have to act a part as he stood watching the three +travelers descend from the train. The excitement in his face was real +and his gestures were quite natural, even the ones made by his one and +only long waving top-lock of gray hair that escaped all bounds as his +hat blew off with the suction of the train. Bi rushed up to the three +men wildly: + +"Say, was you goin' down to Carson's house after that Hope girl?" he +demanded loudly. + +The three men surveyed him coldly, and the young one gave him a decided +shove: + +"That will do, my friend," he said firmly. "We don't need any of your +assistance." + +"But I got a line on this thing you'll want to know," he insisted, +hurrying alongside. "There's a guy down there in a car goin' to take her +away. He ain't been gone long, but you won't find her 'thout my help. +He's goin' to take her to a insane institution. I let on I was helpin' +him an' I found out all about it." + +"What's all this?" said Reyburn, wheeling about and fixing the old +fellow with a muscular young shake that made his toothless jaws chatter. +"How long ago did he go? What kind of a looking man was he?" + +"Lemme go!" whined Bi, playing to make time, one cunning eye down the +road. "I ain't as young as I used to be, an' I can't stand gettin' +excited. I got a rig here a purpose, an' I'll take you all right down, +an' then ef he's gone, an' I s'pose he must be, 'cause your train was +late, why, we'll foller." + +"Well, quick, then!" said Reyburn, climbing into the shackley spring +wagon that Bi indicated, the only vehicle in view. The two trustees +climbed stiffly and uncertainly into the back seat as if they felt they +were risking their lives, and Bi lumbered rheumatically into the +driver's place and took up the lines. It appeared that the only living +thing in Tinsdale that wasn't awake and keen to go to the fire was that +horse, and Bi had to do quite a little urging with the stump of an old +whip. So, reluctantly, they joined the procession toward the Carson +house. + +As the stream from the hogshead gurgled smaller, and the victim writhed +out of its reach and began to get his bearings, suddenly the outside +kitchen door burst open and a crew of rubber-coated citizens sprang in, +preceded by a generous stream of chemicals which an ardent young member +of the company set free indiscriminately in his excitement. It struck +the right man squarely in the middle and sent him sprawling on the +floor. + +Bob dropped the conductor pipe in exhausted relief and flew to the scene +of action. It had been fearful to be held from more active service so +long. Emily, outside, could be seen dancing up and down excitedly and +directing the procession, with frightened shouts, "In there! In the +kitchen! Quick!" as the neighbors and townsmen crowded in and filled the +little kitchen demanding to know where the fire was. + +Mrs. Carson with dignity stepped forward to explain: + +"There ain't any fire, friends, an' I don't know how you all come to get +here, but I reckon the Lord sent you. You couldn't a-come at a better +moment. We certainly was in some trouble, an' I'll be obliged to you all +if you'll just fasten that man up so't he can't do any more harm. He +came walkin' in here tryin' to take away a member of my family by force, +an' he pointed this at me!" + +She lifted the incriminating weapon high where they could all see. + +Herbert Hutton, struggling to his feet in the crowd, began to understand +that this was no place for him, and looked about for an exit, but none +presented itself. The chauffeur had vanished and was trying to make out +what had happened to his car. + +Hutton, brought to bay, turned on the crowd like a snarling animal, +although the effect was slightly spoiled by his drabbled appearance, and +roared out insolently: + +"The woman doesn't know what she's talking about, men; she's only +frightened. I came here after my wife, and I intend to take her away +with me! She escaped from an insane asylum some time ago, and we've been +looking for her ever since. This woman is doing a very foolish and +useless thing in resisting me, for the law can take hold of her, of +course." + +The crowd wavered and looked uncertainly at Mrs. Carson and at Betty +cowering horrified behind her, and Hutton saw his advantage: + +"Men," he went on, "there is one of your own townsmen who knows me and +can vouch for me. A Mr. Gage. Abijah Gage. If you will just look him +up--he was down at the station a few minutes ago. He knows that all I am +saying is true!" + +A low sound like a rumble went over the little audience and they seemed +to bunch together and look at one another while some kind of an +understanding traveled from eye to eye. An articulate syllable, "Bi!" +breathed in astonishment, and then again "Bi!" in contempt. Public +opinion, like a panther crouching, was forming itself ready to spring, +when suddenly a new presence was felt in the room. Three strangers had +appeared and somehow quietly gotten into the doorway. Behind them, +stretching his neck and unable to be cautious any longer, appeared Bi's +slouching form. Crouching Public Opinion caught sight of him and showed +its teeth, but was diverted by the strangers. + +Then suddenly, from the corner behind Ma, slipped Betty with +outstretched hands, like a lost thing flying to its refuge, straight to +the side of the handsome young stranger. + +He put out his hands and drew her to his side with a protecting motion, +and she whispered: + +"Tell, them, please; oh, make them understand." + +Then Reyburn, with her hand still protectingly in his, spoke: + +"What that man has just said is a lie!" + +Hutton looked up, went deadly white and reeled as he saw the two elderly +men. + +The crowd drew a united breath and stood straighter, looking relieved. +Bi blanched, but did not budge. Whatever happened he was in with both +crowds. Reyburn continued: + +"I carry papers in my pocket which give authority to arrest him. If the +sheriff is present will he please take charge of him. His name is +Herbert Hutton, and he is charged with trying to make this lady marry +him under false pretenses in order to get control of her property. She +is not his wife, for she escaped before the ceremony was performed. I +know, for I was present. These two gentlemen with me are the trustees of +her estate." + +Estate! + +The neighbors looked at Betty respectfully. + +Bi dropped his jaw perceptibly and tried to figure out how that would +affect him. The sheriff stepped forward to magnify his office, and the +silence was impressive, almost reverent. In the midst of it broke Bob's +practical suggestion: + +"Shut him in the coal shed. It's got a padlock an' is good an' strong. +He can't kick it down." + +Then the law began to take its course, the fire gang stepped out, and +Mrs. Carson set to work to clean up. In the midst of it all Reyburn +looked down at Betty, and Betty looked up at Reyburn, and they +discovered in some happy confusion that they still had hold of hands. +They tried to cover their embarrassment by laughing, but something had +been established between them that neither could forget. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +THE days that followed were full of bliss and peace to Betty. With +Hutton safely confined in the distant city, and a comfortable sum of her +accumulated allowance in the Tinsdale bank, with a thorough +understanding between herself and her trustees and the knowledge that +her estate was large enough to do almost anything in reason that she +wished to do with it, and would be hers in three weeks, life began to +take on a different look to the poor storm-tossed child. The days in the +Carson home were all Thanksgivings now, and every member of the family +was as excited and happy as every other member. There were arguments +long and earnest between Betty and her benefactor as to how much she +might in reason be allowed to do for the family now that she had plenty +of money, but in the end Betty won out, declaring that she had wished +herself on this family in her distress, and they took her as a man does +when he marries, for better for worse. Now that the worse had passed by +she was theirs for the better, and she intended to exercise the +privilege of a daughter of the house for the rest of her natural life. + +Bi Gage was worried. He was still trying to get something out of the +estate for his part in the exercises, and he vibrated between Tinsdale +and Warren Reyburn's office working up his case. The five-thousand-dollar +reward was as yet unpaid, and the papers he held didn't seem to impress +the functionaries nearly so much as he had expected. It began to look as +though Bi had missed his chances in life once more, and when he took his +old seat in the fire-house and smoked, he said very little. Popular +Opinion was still crouching with her eye in his direction and it +behooved him to walk cautiously and do nothing to offend. So while he +smoked he cogitated in his cunning little brain, and hatched out a plan +by which he might get in with the heiress later, perhaps, when things +had quieted down a little and she had her money. + +Betty received a pitiful letter from her stepmother, trying to explain +away her part in the affair and professing to be so relieved at the news +that Betty was still alive and well that she cared nothing about +anything else, not even the fact that poor dear Herbert was landed in +jail, or that the fortune which she had schemed so long to keep in her +own power was wrested from her so ignominiously. She begged Betty to +come back to their home and "be happy again together." + +But Betty was so happy where she was that she could afford to be +generous and try to forget her wrongs. She wrote a decent little note +gently but firmly declining to come "home" ever again, making it quite +plain that she was no longer deceived by honeyed phrases, and closing +with a request that if in future any communication might be necessary it +should be made through her lawyer, Mr. Warren Reyburn. + +This same Warren Reyburn had returned to his city office in a very much +exalted state of mind. He could not get away from that little hand of +Betty's that had been laid so tremblingly and confidingly in his; and +yet how could he, a poverty-stricken lawyer with absolutely no prospects +at all, ever dare to think of her, a lady of vast estates. Still, there +was some comfort in the fact that he had still some business to transact +for her, and would have to return to Tinsdale again. He might at least +see her once more. So he solaced himself on his return trip, feeling +that he had done some good work, and that he would have a pleasant +report to give to Jane Carson when he called upon her, as he meant to do +the next day. + +He arrived at home to find James Ryan in a great state of excitement. A +pile of mail had arrived, and he had memorized the return addresses on +the outside of all the envelopes. One was from a big corporation, and +another bore a name widely spoken of in the circles of the world of +finance, Jimmie in close council with Jane Carson, had decided that it +must be from that person who called up twice on the 'phone and swore +such terrible oaths when he found that Reyburn was away. + +Jimmie hovered nervously about, putting things to rights, while Reyburn +read his mail. He had come to the smallest envelope of all, a plain +government envelope now, and nothing had developed. Jimmie saw his first +place fast slipping away from him and his heart grew heavy with fear. +Perhaps after all nothing good had turned up yet. + +Suddenly Reyburn sprang up and came toward him with an open letter, +holding out his hand in a joyous greeting: + +"Read that, Ryan! We're made at last, and I shan't have to let you go +after all!" + +Ryan read, the letters dancing before his delighted eyes, every one +wearing an orange blossom on its brow. It was from an old established +and influential firm, asking Reyburn to take full charge of all their +law business, and saying they had been referred to him by two old +friends in Boston, who by the way were Betty's two trustees. + +"Come on, Ryan, come out to lunch with me! We've got to celebrate," said +Reyburn. "I have a hunch somehow that you have been the one that brought +me this good luck. You and a Miss Jane Carson. You both share alike, I +guess, but you were the first with your five-thousand-dollar reward +story." + +"Jane Carson!" said Jimmie mystified. "Why, _she's_ my _girl_!" + +"Your girl?" said Reyburn, a queer look coming in his eyes. "You don't +say! Well, you're in some luck, boy, with a girl like that! And, by the +way, next time you see her, ask her to show you her wedding dress!" + +And not another word would Reyburn tell him, though he recurred +frequently to the subject during the very excellent lunch which they had +together in friendly companionship. + +They spent the afternoon composing the brief and comprehensive letter in +response to the momentous one of the morning, and in the evening +together they sought out Jane Carson, Reyburn staying only long enough +to outline the ending of the Elizabeth Stanhope story, while Jimmie +remained to hear the beginning, and get a glimpse of the wedding gown, +which Reyburn assured Jane he was sure she need never return. He said he +thought if the owner of it was married ever in the future she would be +likely to want a gown that had no unpleasant associations. + +Great excitement prevailed in Tinsdale as the weeks went by. Betty had +bought the lots either side of the Carson house, and wonderful +improvements were in progress. A windmill was being erected and water +pipes laid scientifically. Workmen arrived, some of them from the +village, some from the city. Extensive excavations went on about the old +house, and stone arrived. It began to be whispered about that "Miss +Stanhope," as Betty was now called, was going to build the house all +over and all of stone. + +The work went forward rapidly as work can go when there is money enough +behind it, and the family, living in the little old part of the house, +and still using the faithful tin bath-tub and shower of Bob's +manufacture, now looked forward to real bathrooms on the bedroom floor, +with tiled floors and porcelain fittings. Large windows cropped out on +the new walls that were going up, a wide stone chimney and porches. A +charming little stone affair in the back yard that went up so quietly it +was hardly noticed until it was done suddenly became the home of a big +gray car that arrived in town one morning. Betty gave up her position at +the Hathaways so that she could have more time to superintend the work +and see that it was just as she wanted it, and she and Bob spent hours +going over the plans together, he making many wise suggestions. Mrs. +Hathaway called her "Miss Stanhope" with elaborate ceremony, and made +Elise kiss her whenever she met her. + +Betty went to a near-by town and bought some pretty clothes, and a lot +of things for Ma and Emily and Bob. A beautiful new piano came by +express and took the place of Mrs. Barlow's tinpanny one. + +Then Betty went up to the city and bought more things, furniture and +silver and curtains and rugs, and brought Jane back with her to take a +rest and see the little old house once more before it became the big new +house, and stay until she was ready to be married; for Betty was +determined to have the house ready for Jane's wedding. + +When all the new beautiful things began to arrive Betty told Ma that she +had taken her in when she was poor and homeless and absolutely +penniless, and now all these things were her reward, and Betty couldn't +do enough ever to thank her for what she had done for her. They had +offered a five-thousand-dollar reward for news of her, and Ma had done +more than ten thousand and thousands of thousands of dollars' worth of +holding back news about her, and she was never going to get done giving +her her reward. + +Of course Betty brought Nellie home, too, and established her in a +lovely new room just fit for a young girl, and began to pet her and fix +her up with pretty things as any loving sister might do if she had money +of her own. + +All this time Reyburn had much business to transact in Tinsdale, for +Betty had asked him to look after all the little details about the +building for her, and he had to come down every week-end and look things +over to see that she was not being cheated. And once he brought Jimmie +down with him for Ma to look over and approve and they had a wonderful +time with the two best hens in the hen-coop for dinner. Ryan +incidentally gave his approval to Betty. + +During these visits Reyburn was making great strides in the wisdom and +the knowledge of the love of God. One could not be in that family over +Sunday and not feel the atmosphere of a Christian home. Even Jimmie felt +it and said he liked it; that he wanted his house to be that way when +he had one. He went obediently to church with Jane, and marveled at the +way social classes were getting all muddled up in his world. + +The Christmas time was coming on when the house finally got itself +completed and was ready for living, and with holly and mistletoe and +laurel they made it gay for the wedding. Betty spent several days with +Jane in New York picking out Jane's "trooso" things, and then a few more +days doing some shopping of her own, and at last the wedding day +arrived. + +Nobody thought it queer, though Jimmie felt just the least bit shy when +the two trustees of Betty's estate arrived the night before from Boston +and incorporated themselves into the wedding party. Ma seemed to think +it was all right, so nobody said anything about it. + +But after the ceremony when Jane and Jimmie were happily married, Jane +looking very young and pretty indeed in Betty's old wedding gown, veil +and slippers and all, and standing under the holly bell in the laurel +arch to be congratulated just as it had been arranged, there suddenly +came a hush over everybody. Jane noticed for the first time that Betty +was not anywhere in the room. Then everybody's eyes went to the wide +staircase, and here came Betty trailing down the stairs on the arm of +Reyburn, wearing still the little white organdie she had worn a few +minutes before as a bridesmaid, only she had thrown aside the +rose-colored sash and put over her brow a simple tulle veil, and her +arms were full of little pink rosebuds and lilies of the valley. + +Up they walked in front of the minister just where the others had stood, +and were married with the same sweet simple service, and everybody was +so surprised and delighted and excited and breathless that Bob simply +couldn't stand it. He slipped into the little music room where the piano +had been installed, turned a handspring on the floor, and then sat down +and played chopsticks on the piano with all the pedals on, till Ma had +to send Emily in to stop him. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected. + +Repeated book title was removed. + +Page 30, "posible" changed to "possible" (the feathers as possible) + +Page 36, "Pood" changed to "Poor" (Poor soul! Candy!) + +Page 71, "beter" changed to "better" (you better go to) + +Page 77, "ominious" changed to "ominous" (the ominous silence) + +Page 90, repeated word "an" removed from text. Original read (by an an +inch and) + +Page 121, "hrurrying" changed to "hurrying" (said Ma, hurrying) + +Page 131, "wante" changed to "wanted" (I kind of wanted) + +Page 131, "l" changed to "look". The space was there it just was not +printed. (It doesn't look) + +Page 131, as above, "wh" changed to "when you" (you know, when you) + +Page 196, "suspicians" changed to "suspicions" (these suspicions which) + +Page 199, "tiptoing" changed to "tiptoeing" (and tiptoeing to the door) + +Page 220, "disapointment" changed to "disappointment" (great +disappointment of Bi) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXIT BETTY*** + + +******* This file should be named 30759.txt or 30759.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/7/5/30759 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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