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diff --git a/77832-0.txt b/77832-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6414417 --- /dev/null +++ b/77832-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6289 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77832 *** + Transcriber’s Notes: Italicized text is surrounded by + underscores: _italics_. Bold text is surrounded by equal signs: + =bold=. + + + + +[Illustration: JANE’S EYES WERE FIXED WITH A FRIGHTENED LOOK ON BILLY. + + _Plain Jane and Pretty Betty._ _Page 76_] + + + + + Plain Jane and + Pretty Betty + + OR + + The Girl Who Won Out + + BY + + MAY HOLLIS BARTON + + AUTHOR OF “THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY,” “NELL + GRAYSON’S RANCHING DAYS,” ETC. + + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + + NEW YORK + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + Books for Girls + + BY MAY HOLLIS BARTON + + 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. + + + THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY + Or Laura Mayford’s City Experiences + + THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL + Or The Mystery of the School by the Lake + + NELL GRAYSON’S RANCHING DAYS + Or A City Girl in the Great West + + FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY + Or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way + + PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY + Or The Girl Who Won Out + + (_Other volumes in preparation._) + + + CUPPLES & LEON CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY + + PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY + + Made in the U. S. A. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. ON THE MOVING VAN 1 + + II. A BAD SPILL 10 + + III. MAD MARION 19 + + IV. THE NEW HOME 24 + + V. JANE MEETS PRETTY BETTY 32 + + VI. INVENTIONS 39 + + VII. THE GREAT FIRE 46 + + VIII. BENEATH THE WRECKAGE 52 + + IX. DISASTER 57 + + X. SUSPECTED 66 + + XI. BILLY ANSWERS 73 + + XII. A GENEROUS THOUGHT 81 + + XIII. JANE LOOKS FOR WORK 89 + + XIV. A FIRST REFUSAL 96 + + XV. A TASTE OF SUCCESS 104 + + XVI. A BUSINESS DAY 112 + + XVII. BETTY MAKES HER CHOICE 120 + + XVIII. A DREADFUL DISCOVERY 128 + + XIX. A CHANGE OF EMPLOYERS 136 + + XX. BETTY COMES THROUGH 143 + + XXI. THE NEW HOME 153 + + XXII. BETTY IS JEALOUS 159 + + XXIII. JANE AND BILLY 167 + + XXIV. A SURPRISE 177 + + XXV. THE REVELATION 188 + + + + + PLAIN JANE AND + PRETTY BETTY + + + CHAPTER I + + ON THE MOVING VAN + + +“Here’s the moving van now!” + +Jane Cross ran into the front room where Mrs. Powell was sitting +patiently on one of the many roped boxes that was to go with the load. + +“It isn’t more than half an hour late, at that,” Jane added, as Mrs. +Powell looked up at her questioningly. + +“Pretty good for a moving van,” said the latter, with a faint smile. +“Especially in Coal Run. Is it here?” + +For answer, Jane pointed to the big van that had backed its yawning +doors close to the broken boardwalk that led from the road to the +Powell front porch. + +Mrs. Powell got up with a gesture of weariness and went out to two +burly men who dropped from the van. Jane followed and remained on the +porch, watching. + +Queer thoughts were running through Jane’s head, jubilant thoughts, +almost. + +She was leaving Coal Run! That dirty, dreary little town the +population of which consisted to a great extent of miners with their +more or less dirty and stupid families. + +Jane was not at home with these people, with the boys and girls who +attended the dingy schoolhouse on Cattle Creek. For some reason that +she could not fathom, the crude ways, the uncouth manners of the +inhabitants of the mining town offended and puzzled her. + +Jane had fought against this inherent difference, this instinctive +shrinking. She had been brought up to believe that pride was sinful. +She believed this, and honestly tried to change herself since she +alone was odd among the children of Coal Run. + +It was hard, though; and Jane Cross had succeeded but indifferently. +If one had asked her schoolmates, they would have said that she +succeeded not at all, would have given her no credit for a hard fight. + +Meanwhile, they felt her difference and resented it. + +No matter how poor her clothes, Jane was always neat, her hands and +face were scrubbed to a shining cleanliness, her bobbed brown hair +was brushed sleekly close to her small round head until it shone. + +Though she was not homely, was even nice looking in a simple +unobtrusive way, the school children of Coal Run had retaliated by +calling her “Plain Jane,” jeering at her and taunting her in a way +that made the sensitive girl’s life miserable. + +There was nothing that she could regret leaving behind in Coal Run +except, perhaps, the little house where she had lived contentedly +with Mrs. Cross for as long back as she could remember. + +The latter had been a widow--this, too, for as long as Jane could +remember. Mr. Cross, a miner, had been killed in a mine explosion. +The company he had worked for had provided for his widow during her +lifetime and would have continued to provide for her if she had lived +twenty years longer. + +But Mrs. Cross had died quietly one night in her sleep, and Jane +awoke to find herself alone in the world and--penniless. + +Things might have gone very hard for the girl--then only ten--had it +not been for the prompt friendliness of Mr. and Mrs. Powell. This +plump and kindly couple took the heartbroken girl into their home, +and into their hearts as well, and from that time on treated her as +though she were their own. + +Now Jane was sixteen, though looking and seeming younger by a year or +two, and misfortune had come to Mr. Powell. There was a merger and +a change of officers in the coal company for which Mr. Powell had +worked in their local office for years, with the result that Jane’s +benefactor presently found himself without a position and with only a +little money in the bank. + +It was hard on him, a change like this coming late in life, and for +a time it seemed as though the blow had paralyzed him. He rallied +soon, emerging from his dazed state to find himself a position in the +thriving town of Greenville, forty miles from Coal Run. + +It was a bookkeeper’s job that did not pay much that had been offered +him, but it was a raft to cling to until he could look about and +find something better. Mr. Powell accepted the post gratefully and +immediately made preparations for the removal of Mrs. Powell and Jane +to their future home. + +Jane was not sorry to leave Coal Run. Greenville might prove little +better, but at least it would be a change from the mining town, and +youth is hopeful. Jane would try to be very pleasant and patient and +helpful in Greenville. She would truly try to make people like her. + +The wounds inflicted by the thoughtlessly cruel children of Coal Run +went deeper than even Jane thought, and, unless quickly healed, +promised to leave scars that might gravely affect her future. + +Even now she was shy, shrinking, super-sensitive, quick to see a +slight even where none was intended. It was good for her that she was +leaving Coal Run before the habit of thinking herself inferior became +a fixed obsession. + +Now as she watched the moving-men and Mrs. Powell from the vantage +point of the porch she was surprised to see Mr. Powell descend from +the truck, his short legs dangling so far from the ground that he had +to jump to reach it. + +Mr. Powell was so short and round and comfortable-looking generally +that few suspected him of possessing the temper of a lean six-footer. +This temper would blaze out at times, blasting all before it, only to +retire as suddenly as it had come, leaving Mr. Powell as bland and +round and smiling as ever. It was a righteous temper however, and +only flashed forth in a righteous cause. Therefore, people feared +it and were wont to treat its owner with a respect they might not +otherwise have accorded him. + +Jane loved him, as indeed she loved both these kindly people, and +would have gone on hands and knees to serve either one of them. + +Mr. Powell was not in a temper now, Jane was glad to see. In fact, +he appeared very much pleased with himself and was on exceedingly +friendly terms with both the burly moving-men. + +“You see I came with them, to make sure they got here before night, +Lou,” the girl heard him call to Mrs. Powell. “And what’s more, I’m +going all the way to Greenville with them, to make sure of the same +thing.” + +“What’s to become of Jane and me?” Mrs. Powell retorted. + +“You will go on the train, of course,” returned her husband. +“Unless,” jokingly, “you’d like to ride on top of the van.” + +It was then that Jane had her bold thought. How she dared put it +into words she never afterward could tell. But in a moment she found +herself running over the broken boards of the walk toward Mr. Powell. + +“Oh!” she cried, “I don’t suppose you really would let me go with you +on the van?” + +“Bless us!” cried Mr. Powell, appealing to the cheerfully grinning +moving-men to share the joke with him. “Jane has taken me seriously. +She really does want to ride on the top of the van.” + +“Not on the top of the van,” Jane wheedled--and she knew just how to +do it, too, with those she loved. “In the front seat, or in the van, +or on the furniture itself--anywhere, so long as I can go with you.” + +“Bless us!” said Mr. Powell again. “The child’s in earnest. After +all,” shaking his head and looking attentively at the moving-men, +“what’s to prevent?” + +“Nothing, sir,” said one of the latter, grinning broadly. “I can sit +up behind with the load and there’s room for three on the front seat, +if the young lady wants to go along.” + +Jane’s eyes began to dance. There was color in her usually pale face. +She looked appealingly at Mrs. Powell. + +“Do you mind?” she asked. “Will it be very lonesome for you, going up +without me on the train?” + +Mrs. Powell smiled reassuringly. + +“I am so tired that I shall probably sleep all the way to Greenville, +anyway,” she said. “If it will be any pleasure to you, go along on +the truck, my dear child, by all means!” + +So it was settled, and Jane waited impatiently while the furniture +was piled on the truck and securely fastened in at the back with +ropes. + +This took only a short time, for the possessions of the Powells were +limited, and Jane was soon standing beside the truck, her hat and +coat on, waiting for one of the men to hand her to the high seat. + +While she stood there, her eyes happened to turn up the road. + +She became suddenly white and grasped at the arm of the man nearest +her. + +“Oh, please!” she gasped. “Can’t we get away from here? Oh, I must +get away from here, in a hurry!” + +Alarmed by her look and manner, the good-hearted fellow half lifted +Jane to the high seat and swung himself up after her. + +“All set, Bill!” he called to his mate. “Mr. Powell, ready?” + +At the words Mr. Powell himself appeared at the side of the truck and +swung himself up into the seat beside Jane. The girl huddled down +between the two men, her eyes fixed steadily on the road ahead of her. + +As the engine of the truck turned over with a grumbling roar the +sound of children’s shrill voices raised tauntingly came from the +road behind them. + +“Plain Jane! Plain Jane! Had to ride in the van! Couldn’t ride in the +train! Plain Jane! Plain Jane!” + +Long after the voices had been drowned by distance and by the roaring +of the motor they rang in Jane’s ears, filled her eyes with tears and +her heart with an aching pain. + +Oh, she was glad to leave Coal Run! Glad! Glad! + +After a while the cool air on her face and Mr. Powell’s gently +tactful and very funny conversation soothed her and brought a faint +smile to her lips. + +After all, she was a very lucky girl to have such dear, kind friends +as the Powells. And she was leaving Coal Run! Greenville could not be +worse. It might be much, much better. + +A half-hour passed. Coal Run was left far behind when a sudden lurch +of the truck caused her to grip the seat with both hands. The driver +was taking a sharp curve on a rough, hilly road at a perilous rate of +speed, Jane thought. She wished he would not be quite so daring. + +Then came a noise like the exploding of a cannon in her ears. + +Jane cried out in terror as the truck lurched, then skidded +sickeningly across the road. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + A BAD SPILL + + +If the tree had not been directly in the way a serious accident might +have been avoided. + +But the tree was in the way. The driver wrenched at his wheel in an +effort to right the van and regain the road. + +No use! + +With a terrific impact van and tree came together, and Jane was +hurled from her seat. For an instant that seemed an eternity she felt +herself flying through the air, then came with a crash and a crackle +of broken twigs into a mass of bushes fifteen feet from the road. + +She lay there dazed for a moment, the breath knocked out of her body. +She was almost afraid to try to move, for fear she would find she +could not do so. + +It had been an accident, a pretty bad accident. She ought, by all +rights, she thought, to have been killed! + +It was consideration for Mr. Powell and what might have happened to +him that made her decide to get up. This, she found, was by no means +an easy matter! + +She seemed to be lying on a bed of thistles, and her slightest +gesture dug a sharp point deeper into her shrinking flesh. She was +becoming increasingly conscious that her body was all one dull ache. +Her nerves were jumping, and she had an absurd desire to cry. + +Some one was breaking through the bushes behind her. + +They were not all dead then! Some one had survived! + +That some one was lifting her up from her uncomfortable couch, some +one who chuckled softly. + +“Well, we’re all alive, anyway,” said the author of the chuckle as +he set Jane gently on her feet. “And, judgin’ from the sounds back +there, some of us are kickin’, too!” + +Jane saw nothing to laugh about, or even chuckle over. She was sore +all over and her legs wabbled painfully. The thought came to her +that perhaps moving-men were used to knocking trees over with their +moving vans, and so did not take such incidents as seriously as more +ordinary people. + +“Is--is--Mr. Powell--all right?” Jane asked tremulously. Her lips +would quiver. + +“Yes, Miss. Hale and hearty as ever and in full possession of his +lungs, as you’ll hear if you listen quiet for a minute.” + +Jane listened, and was inclined to believe that the moving-man was +right. Mr. Powell was evidently in one of his towering rages and was +giving the unfortunate driver of the truck full benefit of it. + +Shakily, with the arm of the moving-man through hers, Jane made her +way back to the road. + +She was not badly hurt. In fact, it seemed a miracle to her that none +of them was badly hurt. Except for a good many bruises, a severe +shaking up, and the shock, they seemed as good as ever! + +The furniture appeared to have got the worst of it. Not new to start +with and showing an irritating tendency to fall apart even before +they had been loaded into the van, several of the chairs and other +articles of furniture belonging to the Powells had been rather +severely damaged. + +It was this fact that Mr. Powell was pointing out to a bruised and +sheepish moving-man when Jane and her rescuer reappeared on the road. + +“But I couldn’t help it if a tire burst,” the man pointed out, not +unreasonably. “That’s likely to happen to any one. We was on a hill +and I couldn’t keep the blamed thing from skiddin’.” + +“Yes, that may be all very well! But why were going so fast on the +hill?” cried Mr. Powell, his point not unreasonable either. “I +thought you were going too fast and, if you will remember, I said so +several times.” + +“It wouldn’t have made no difference,” the man persisted doggedly. +“When a tire busts a truck skids, and the heavier the truck the worse +the skid.” + +“Then do you mean to tell me,” Mr. Powell rose on tiptoes and fairly +towered in his wrath over the taller man, “that you and your company +don’t hold yourself responsible for my broken furniture? Do you +mean to tell me that because a tire is likely to burst and cause an +accident, I will have to pay for the damages that result from that +accident? Do you mean to tell me----” + +“I ain’t meanin’ to tell you anything!” the moving-man interrupted +belligerently. He was evidently a good-tempered, easy-going fellow, +but almost any one will lose his natural good temper if a wrathful +finger is shaken long enough beneath his nose. “It ain’t my business +to tell you anything! If you’ve got to fight any one, go fight the +company. I ain’t got nothing to say about it! Anyway----” + +“No, but if I have anything to say about it, you’ll lose your job!” +cried Mr. Powell, his anger whetted by opposition. “When I do put in +a complaint to your company, I’ll tell them----” + +“What will you tell ’em?” growled the moving-man, and moved a little +closer. + +Here Jane thought it was time for her to take a hand in the +discussion. This she did literally, taking Mr. Powell’s hand that was +doubled into a belligerent fist and clinging to it resolutely. + +“Please don’t, Uncle Dink,” she begged. Mr. Powell’s first name was +Dickinson, but every one called him “Dink” and it seemed, somehow, to +fit him. + +Mr. Powell tried to take his hand away, but Jane still clung to it. + +“I’m sure he didn’t mean it, Uncle Dink----” + +“Who said he meant it?” Mr. Powell pretended to growl at the girl, +but he was weakening. Jane followed up her advantage. + +“It was an accident, Uncle Dink. I’m sure the company will make good +on any damage----” + +“Sure, it will,” broke in the moving-man, for he was a peaceable +fellow when given half a chance. “It don’t want no dissatisfied +customers, and it’ll make good on all the damage. Although lot of the +makin’ good will come out of my pocket,” he added ruefully. + +“And serve you right!” snapped Mr. Powell, still irate, though +softened. “Now if you’ll get busy and try to make up for lost time +I’ll be obliged to you. We’ve a long way to go and I’d like to reach +there before dark.” + +“So would I,” growled the driver, with a doubtful glance at the van. +“The question right now is--will the old bus run?” + +In the next few minutes that proved to be a very pertinent question +indeed! Something had been done to the engine of the “old bus” that +made it very doubtful if it would ever run again. + +As the two men several times declared in the exasperating hour that +followed, they had been employed to move furniture, not to repair +engines. + +“You’ve been employed to get me to Greenville this afternoon,” said +Mr. Powell irascibly. “How are you going to do it?” + +The driver glared at the smaller man. + +“If you could tell us that, you might save us a lot of trouble,” he +grumbled. “And now if you want to get to Greenville at all, you’d +better stop talking.” + +Again Jane acted the part of peacemaker. + +“If we could get some horses to tow us,” she suggested, “maybe we +could find some place where we could get help.” + +“There ain’t no sech animal, Miss,” the second man assured her +gloomily. “As for horses, it would take about six to tow this load. +And where are we going to get ’em?” + +Another question, and still unanswerable. + +It seemed to Jane as time passed and the driver still tinkered +vainly with his engine that they might spend the night in that lonely +place. + +Once one of the men suggested that the two passengers might walk on +to the railway station. It was only about a mile-and-a-half away, he +said, and Mr. Powell and the young girl could go on to Greenville, +leaving them to follow with the disabled van, as soon as they could. + +This suggestion Mr. Powell would not listen to for a moment. + +“I’ll stick with the furniture,” he said. “Though you can go, Jane, +if you like. I’ll take you to the station.” + +But Jane was game and decided to stick, too. + +It was about an hour after that that the engine gave a few puffs and +then turned over once or twice. This was at least more encouraging +than dead silence, and Jane began to view the efforts of the +moving-men with more hopefulness. + +They finally managed to get the motor to running haltingly. Then the +damaged tire was replaced by a spare, and everybody climbed hastily +aboard, determined to make the best of their luck while it lasted. + +It was a never-to-be-forgotten trip. The van stopped every quarter of +a mile or so, and every time it stopped Jane held her breath for fear +it would never start on again. + +Mr. Powell did not hold his breath--nor his tongue. If Jane had not +been there to act as peacemaker, it is quite certain that “Uncle +Dink” and the driver of the truck would have come to blows at some +point along the road to Greenville. + +When they finally reached the fringe of the town it was well after +dark. Jane was tired and ravenously hungry. Also she was disappointed +that her first acquaintance with their adopted town could not have +been made by daylight. + +“If Lou has reached here before us I hope she had sense enough to go +to an inn or a hotel, or at least to a neighbor’s house,” said Mr. +Powell, voicing a thought that had been worrying Jane for some time. +“Kind of dreary going to an empty house and waiting and having no one +come. I suppose,” with a worried frown, “she’s had us killed some +dozen times already!” + +They--or rather the van--limped through the streets of Greenville and +finally stopped in a street devoid of lights. + +“Here we are, boss,” said the driver, flashing his electric torch on +an empty, dreary-looking little house set well back from the street. +“This is the address you gave me. Guess you might say we’re here!” + +“And small thanks to you,” Mr. Powell would have added had not a +gentle squeeze of Jane’s hand reminded him that it was foolish to +irritate the fellow needlessly. + +“Well, we’re lucky to get here at all--with whole necks, anyway,” he +said, descending with difficulty. + +Jane tried to stand, and gave an involuntary cry of pain. + +“I can’t find my feet,” she explained when Mr. Powell came around to +help her to the ground. “They’re asleep, I guess.” + +“As the rest of you should have been long ago,” grumbled Mr. Powell. + +In spite of his own sore stiff muscles, he half-lifted Jane down from +the high seat and set her gently on her feet. + +“If you’ll make a light in the house, we’ll unload your stuff,” +suggested one of the men. + +“I’m going to see where my wife is first,” said Mr. Powell in a +worried tone. “She couldn’t have got here or she would have had a +light going herself.” + +He started up the walk toward the dark house when suddenly Jane +caught at his sleeve. A broad band of yellow light streamed from the +open door of the house next door. + +“Look, Uncle Dink,” cried Jane. “Some one is calling to us!” + + + + + CHAPTER III + + MAD MARION + + +Some one was certainly calling to the new arrivals. And that some +one proved, to their delighted surprise, to be none other than Mrs. +Powell herself! + +The latter came halfway to meet them as they hurried across the lawn +toward the band of yellow light. + +“Oh, I’m so relieved!” cried Mrs. Powell, as she hugged Jane and +threw her arms about her husband’s neck. “I have the key to the house +right here, Dink, if you want to let the moving-men in. The people +next door have been just lovely to me! You’d never guess how nice +they’ve been! But why, why have you been so long on the road?” + +“I’ll tell you everything, my dear,” Mr. Powell promised, “as soon as +I get these men started to unloading the stuff. I suppose they are +hungry and tired as well as we,” he added in a kinder voice than he +had used during that whole wearisome, exasperating journey. + +“Well, they must come in and get something to eat, too. No--no +refusals. I won’t take any. I positively insist!” + +No one had noticed the approach of a light bobbing and blinking in +the hand of some one from the house next door. + +Now every one turned, startled, to see an odd little person winking +and smiling in the fitful light of the lantern. + +“This is our very kind neighbor,” said Mrs. Powell, referring to the +little old lady. “You’ve no idea how kind she is.” + +“Not kind--only thoughtful once in a while,” said the queer person, +with an odd simpering laugh. “Here’s a light!” thrusting it abruptly +at Mr. Powell. “Hard to find one in a dark house at this time of +night. Might help to have a light!” + +Mr. Powell was frankly staring at this odd apparition. His wife +brought him to his senses with a sharp dig of her elbow in his ribs. + +“Take the light,” she ordered in a whisper for his ear alone. “Poor +thing’s a little touched in the head. Can’t you do anything but stand +there staring like a wooden soldier?” + +Mr. Powell took the light with a stammered thanks and went into the +empty house with the moving-men, who had told the queer woman that +they would be expected in their own homes and, as much as they would +like to, could not eat with her. + +This new abode in Greenville had been rented by the Powells, “sight +unseen.” Martin and Hull, wholesale grain dealers with whom Mr. +Powell had secured his position as bookkeeper through the kindly +intercession of a mutual friend, had suggested that they be allowed +to procure quarters for their new employee; some house within walking +distance of the company’s storehouses and one that could be procured +at a modest rental. + +Mr. Powell had been glad to accept this suggestion, and the result +was this little house on a side street of the town of Greenville. + +It would not look so dismal by daylight. They all knew that, and +as the moving-men began to growl about the difficulty of unloading +furniture at night, Mrs. Powell had a suggestion to make. + +“Why not wait until morning to unload?” she said. “It will be so much +easier then.” + +It was not hard to come to terms on this, since all were tired and +disgruntled and badly in need of food. + +“If you will tell us of some hotel or boarding house in town where +we can put up for the night we will be very much obliged,” said Mr. +Powell to the odd little person from next door (the moving-men had +already departed gladly toward the center of town and a hot dinner). +“We can’t very well sleep without beds and we are badly in need of +refreshment.” + +“And you can have both by coming next door,” said the queer person, +bobbing and smiling. “Dinner is hot on the stove. I believe you can +smell it from here. As for beds,” with another bob and another smile, +“we have plenty of beds, a great many beds. Yes, indeed, plenty.” + +Still mumbling a little to herself and bobbing and smiling, she +preceded them over the small patch of lawn toward the light that +streamed from the still-open door. + +Mr. Powell hesitated and glanced sharply at his wife. Even Jane hung +back a little. + +“It’s all right,” Mrs. Powell explained in a quick, hurried whisper. +“She has a nice sister. The sister told me all about this poor thing. +She is really as harmless as a kitten and never happy unless she is +doing something for somebody. Come along, do! Don’t hold back or +you’ll hurt her feelings!” + +Mr. Powell no longer held back, though it was evident he was +unconvinced. With a great deal of curiosity Jane accompanied her two +kind friends to the open door of the house next door. + +“Mad Marion,” for so the poor, afflicted little woman was known to +the people of Greenville, waved them gleefully into a warm brightly +lighted room. + +It was a large room, and seemed to combine sitting room, dining room, +and kitchen. It ran along the front of a house that was as queer as +the sisters who lived in it. + +Afterward Jane was to learn that, back of this +kitchen-dining-room-living-room were a series of some five or six +rooms strung out in a row and connected by doors and tiny, odd +flights of stairs that seemed to have no use or purpose other than to +provide stumbling blocks for the unwary visitor. + +At the moment, sight of that one large room was enough for the +bruised and weary travelers. + +A large table in the center of the room was neatly set for two. A +woman bent over a stove, stirring a savory mixture in a large pot. + +At the sound of movement in the doorway the latter turned. + +“Bring them in, Marion,” she said in a harsh, strident voice that +made Jane jump. “What are you waiting for?” + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE NEW HOME + + +The sisters were certainly the oddest pair that Jane had ever +seen--these two who were to be their near neighbors while Jane and +the Powells lived in Greenville. + +Lydia, the elder of the two, was as different from her poor +half-demented sister as it was possible for any one to be. + +Lydia was tall, built on heroic lines with a breadth of shoulder +amazing in a woman. She had a face that matched the rest of her, +large featured, rugged, with a mouth that seldom smiled. When Lydia +Terrin did smile, Jane was reminded of a sunbeam shining for a +transient moment on a slab of jagged granite. The smile never lighted +up her features, but lingered for a moment and then vanished, leaving +one to wonder if she had really smiled at all. + +Such was the woman who faced the weary travelers now over a pot of +savory beef stew. + +She did not smile. Her manner was almost forbidding. But the gesture +of her long wooden spoon toward the table was unmistakable. + +“Sit down,” she said. “We have been waiting for you as one pig waits +for another. I hope you will like the stew, though it is not as good +as the pot we made last week. Do you think so, Marion?” + +“Mad Marion,” who had been pulling out the chairs of her guests, +bowing and smiling all the time in a truly remarkable manner, started +at the abrupt question. She looked bewildered, Jane thought, and a +little frightened. + +“Certainly, my dear! I mean certainly not!” cried the poor creature. +“Oh dear, I’m not sure what I mean!” + +“Don’t act so silly,” retorted sister Lydia sternly. “The trouble +with you, Marion, is that you talk too much!” + +Jane had an hysterical desire to giggle. She checked the desire since +to have laughed at that moment would have been neither polite nor +kind. + +As she sank into a chair and allowed the “granite sister,” as she +ever afterward called Lydia Terrin in her thoughts, fill a great +plate with the steaming savory stew, Jane felt like Alice in her +famous adventures in Wonderland. + +“The poor little crazy sister could be the Mad Hatter,” she thought, +as she accepted and buttered a slice of delicious bread. “And the +other--well I don’t know who she’d be unless it was the Duchess who +had a baby that turned into a pig. Oh, dear, maybe I’m crazy too!” + +However, no eccentricities of the Terrin sisters could make that meal +any other than a delicious, wonderfully satisfactory one. + +“Guess I had better go to bed, if you’ll show me where I am to +sleep,” Jane said, almost as soon as the meal was over and struggling +to keep her heavy eyes open, and in a few minutes more was ushered to +a room. + +It did not take her long to undress, and then she slipped in between +the caressing sheets of a bed as soft as the fleeciest cloud and +breathed a deep sigh of utter weariness. + +Then came morning, with a hot sun streaming in at her windows. + +Jane’s first impulse was to jump up quickly and dress. She would be +late for school! + +Then came the swift realization that there would be no school this +morning. They had left Coal Run, its dirt and confusion and misery +behind them. This was Greenville, and though it might not be better +than the mining town, it might be kinder. + +She winced at the memory of her departure from Coal Run--of the +children running down the road and calling after her tauntingly. + +There was a stir in the room. Jane turned over quickly and saw poor +Marion bobbing and smiling in the doorway. + +“Breakfast’s ready. Oh, dear, yes! Been ready for some time.” + +Jane jumped up, confused and sorry. She winced at the sudden action +and felt tentatively her stiff muscles. She had forgotten the +accident of yesterday and that she must expect to be lame and sore +for some time to come. + +“Oh, I’m sorry to have been so lazy,” she apologized, as the little +woman continued to bob and smile in the doorway. “What must you think +of me, coming here and sleeping so late?” + +“Perfectly all right, my dear--perfectly. Tired out after yesterday. +Yes, yes! Natural! Youth must be served!” + +“Marion!” cried Lydia sternly from the kitchen. “Come out here! You +talk too much!” + +Poor Marion disappearing on the instant, Jane looked with wonder +about the bare little room with its comfortable bed. + +Who were these queer, eccentric women who kept house all alone, who +seemed, by the furnishings of their house and the clothes they wore, +to be very poor, and yet who were so hospitable to strangers? + +She pondered the question as she dressed slowly and painfully. + +There were purple bruises all over her and every joint and muscle +protested as she moved. + +“I’d better rub something on me or I won’t be of any use at all,” she +thought ruefully. + +In a few moments she had done all she could toward making herself +presentable. Her clothes were torn from the accident of the previous +day, and though she wore a comb in her sleek bobbed hair, there was +no brush to smooth it to its usual plain neatness. + +She felt uncomfortable and unlike her usual clean, neat self when she +entered the large cozy front room of the Terrin sisters. + +A delicious, plentiful breakfast served from the stove by Lydia +helped to raise her spirits, and her heart warmed more than ever +toward these two hospitable people. + +Mr. and Mrs. Powell had breakfasted long before, Lydia told Jane, +while Marion nodded and beamed at her from a chair across the table. + +Jane could see from the window that the moving-men had returned and +were unloading the furniture. Instantly she was impatient to be +off and help Mrs. Powell with the hundred and one tasks she knew +confronted her. + +She finished a cup of hot chocolate and her second egg in hurried, +grateful gulps, then pushed back her chair. + +“You’ve both been awfully good,” she said, looking from Marion to her +sister. “When we get settled you must come over and have dinner with +us. I must run and help Mrs. Powell now.” + +When she was gone both eccentric sisters stared after her for a +moment. + +“Old-fashioned little thing,” said Lydia, as she jerked a plate from +the table and set it in the sink. “Plain but capable. I’ll bet my +life she’s capable.” + +“Oh, yes, by all means, very. Surely,” murmured Marion. She was +muttering on vaguely when a stern glance from her sister sent her +into deep confusion. + +“You talk too much, Marion,” said Lydia. “Come, help me with the +dishes.” + +Next door at the house that had seemed so dreary the night before +Jane found everything bustle and confusion and--sunshine. As she went +from room to room Jane’s heart warmed to this sunniness, for there +was scarcely a spot in the little house that did not receive a share +of it. She wondered how she could ever have thought it dreary! + +When she asked harassed, dust-grimed Mrs. Powell to set her to work, +that lady confronted her with a list of things she needed from the +general store. + +“You will help me more by doing the shopping than in any other way, +Jane. Why,” with a dramatic gesture of the hand, “I haven’t a thing +to clean with, even.” + +Jane smiled, for this indeed was tragedy to Mrs. Powell. She took the +list and pledged herself to secure the articles on it. One of the +moving men, a resident of Greenville, took it upon himself to direct +her to “the best store in town.” + +“You go down two short blocks,” he said, indicating the direction +with the wave of a dirty, stubby forefinger. “Then you turn to your +left and go up two long blocks until you come to the foot of Rose +Hill, where all the swells live. There you’ll find Mason’s general +store and you can get everything at Mason’s from canned soup to fish +hooks.” + +Jane thanked him and set out, glad to be free of the noise and +confusion for a little while and have a look at the town from which +she hoped so much. + +Nor did Greenville disappoint her. It was as different from Coal +Run as night is from day. Where in Coal Run were squalor, dirt, +disorder; here was neatness, cleanliness, beauty. Greenville was a +thriving town, and showed it. Its inhabitants shared in the general +prosperity, and showed that too. The plainest little house was +freshly painted and displayed its patch of carefully tended garden. + +There was a poorer section in Greenville over beyond the railroad +tracks, but Jane did not know this until some time later. + +As she proceeded toward the center of town the girl’s delight grew. +Here the houses became more pretentious until, at the foot of Rose +Hill Jane could look up at handsome houses that seemed palatial to +the dazzled eyes of the girl from Coal Run. + +There was a store at hand, and a sign proclaimed it as Mason’s. This +was the store, thought Jane, where one could get everything from +“canned soup to fish hooks.” + +Jane suddenly remembered her torn dress, her dusty shoes, her +unbrushed hair. Mason’s was so immaculate that she hated to enter it +as she was. Still, Mrs. Powell needed those things---- + +She marched resolutely to the door of the store and pulled it open. +There was a gasp and a protest in a high, petulant, very pretty +feminine voice. + +“Oh, how stupid! You have made me drop my package!” + + + + + CHAPTER V + + JANE MEETS PRETTY BETTY + + +The owner of the petulant voice was the most beautiful being Jane had +ever seen; she was quite sure of that. + +This was a girl of about her own age, perhaps a little older. It was +hard for Jane to judge, dazzled as she was by the magnificence of the +girl. + +The latter was dressed in sheer, rose-colored organdy that set off +the heavenly blue of her eyes and made them appear a deep violet. She +wore white shoes and stockings and no hat whatever on her head. Her +hair was thick and curling and the color of imprisoned sunshine. + +Jane had never seen anything so lovely as this girl, and for a moment +she could only stand in helpless admiration. + +But the eyes of the pretty girl did not return this admiration. Oh, +dear, no! They stared angrily at Jane and the pretty lips were caught +for a moment in a very unlovely droop. + +“Stupid!” the girl muttered again angrily. + +Jane saw what she had done. In opening the store door so abruptly she +had evidently jerked the door knob from the hand of the girl in the +pretty frock, causing her to drop her bundle. + +With a murmured apology, Jane stooped now, picked up the package, and +handed it to the other girl. + +“I’m awfully sorry,” she said. “I did not know you were just coming +out.” + +The pretty fair-haired girl accepted the package without comment. +She seemed to think the service unworthy even of a “thank you,” and +without another word stepped daintily from the store and out into the +sunshine, leaving Jane to stare after her with a hurt, questioning +look on her face. + +“I would at least have said ‘thank you,’” she thought. “If people are +going to be as unkind to me here in Greenville as they were in Coal +Run, then I--I--don’t know what I shall do!” + +The hurt, miserable tears of angry humiliation were in her eyes as +she turned back into the store. + +It happened that Billy Dobson was behind the counter at that moment +and it happened also that Billy Dobson had witnessed the encounter +between the two girls. He was sorry for the plain, poor girl, and his +humorous eyes proclaimed his sympathy. + +“Polite, wasn’t she?” he commented as Jane slowly approached the +counter. “But then, if you live in Greenville long you’ll find that +the Rose Hillites don’t think they need politeness like common +folks.” + +“Rose Hillites?” repeated Jane, as she spread Mrs. Powell’s long list +out on the counter. + +“Folks that live on Rose Hill--swell folks,” Billy elucidated as he +cast an experienced eye over the list. “They have plenty of money and +put on a lot of dog and don’t notice folks that haven’t a French car +and a tiled bathroom--or six or eight of ’em! Let’s see, you want +five bars of laundry soap----” + +There was no one else in the store, and Jane’s mind was still filled +with the vision of the beautiful girl with sulky eyes who had not +thought it worth her while to be polite to one less fortunate than +herself. She could not resist the temptation to question this +good-looking, amiable young man who offered her sympathy and seemed +to share her resentment. + +“Does she,” with a little jerk of her head toward the door, “live on +Rose Hill?” + +“Betty Browning? I’ll say she does! The Brownings are the swellest +of the swell. They have the biggest house, the biggest car, and the +worst manners. That goes for Miss Betty and her mother. The old man’s +all right, though. A pretty good sport.” + +“The old man?” Jane prompted. + +Billy had made a neat pile of the articles on Mrs. Powell’s order. +Now he wrapped them in a piece of stout paper and bound them about +with twine, skilfully inserting a handle in the top of the bundle. + +“By the old man I mean Mr. Browning.” Billy grinned good-naturedly +at her. “He’s all right, nice to everybody in town. I bet if he’d +seen Betty hand you that haughty stare this morning he’d have wanted +to spank her. He wouldn’t have done it, though,” he added, with a +chuckle. “Miss Betty and her mother have pretty much everything to +say in their house, I shouldn’t wonder! Say, now, this bundle’s +pretty heavy,” he added, as Jane lifted the package from the counter +and her young shoulder sagged under the weight of it. “If there was +any one else in the store I’d walk home with you and carry it.” + +Jane smiled and shook her head. + +“That’s nice of you,” she said. “But I don’t live far and--and I’m +used to heavy bundles.” + +Despite the attempted lightness of her tone there was a quaver in her +voice as she said this that made good-natured Billy Dobson spring to +the door and hold it open for her. + +“You’re new in town, aren’t you?” he asked, as she smiled her thanks. + +“Yes,” returned Jane. “We just came last night.” + +“Hope to see you again, then,” said Billy, with his cheerful grin. +“Deal at Mason’s. Best store in town. We carry a full line of +merchandise and will cheerfully refund money on all articles not +meeting with your entire, complete, and unqualified approval!” + +“Sounds good,” admitted Jane, smiling at his nonsense. “I’ll be +back--probably this afternoon.” + +But once away from Mason’s and Billy Dobson’s cheerful smile, +Jane’s spirits drooped. The first person she had met in +Greenville--excepting her eccentric next door neighbors, of +course--had treated her with disdain, as some one not even important +enough to merit ordinary politeness. + +What was it about her that made people treat her so? she wondered. +Was it her plain clothes or her plain face or something, perhaps, +inherently lacking in her make-up? + +Jane longed for a chance to make something of herself, to prove to +disdainful, pretty Betty Browning that even Plain Jane Cross was +worth a little notice! + +“I have a fine chance of that,” Jane thought, laughing bitterly at +herself. “I suppose if I live in Greenville all the rest of my life +Betty Browning will not even know that I am here!” + +Having arrived at the little house where everything was still in an +appalling state of confusion, Jane tried to forget the unpleasant +incident of the morning by throwing herself with feverish energy into +the work of getting settled. + +They really did accomplish wonders, and as the shadows of the long +afternoon began to lengthen into dusk, Mrs. Powell was able to +announce that “by this time to-morrow afternoon we’ll be able to live +in the place, anyway.” + +They had found in unloading the furniture that fewer objects had been +damaged by the smash the day before than they had feared. A rocker +was off one chair, the whole side of another was staved in, and some +of the smaller pieces of furniture were rather severely scratched. +But aside from that the damage was negligible. + +Mr. Powell, recovering his good temper, had told the moving-men +before he started for his new place of business that morning that he +would say nothing concerning the accident. Such a complaint might +lose the men their jobs, whereas he himself would be able to repair +the damage done to the furniture. + +This was a relief to all concerned and to Jane in particular. She had +liked the good-natured driver of the moving van and the man who had +picked her out of the bushes after the accident, and was reluctant to +see them punished for what really might have happened to any one. + +At noontime Marion came bobbing and smiling in, carrying a tray +heaped with sandwiches. She set this down on a table and vanished to +return almost immediately with a teapot and three cups. + +Jane hugged the poor little woman, for she was becoming very fond of +these kindly, eccentric next-door neighbors, and she and Mrs. Powell +sat down gratefully to the appetizing lunch, not waiting for Mr. +Powell, who came in later. + +“There are kind people in Greenville,” Jane thought, as she tried +valiantly to banish the unpleasant memory of the morning. “There are +these neighbors; there is the pleasant clerk behind the counter at +Mason’s!” + +And yet--there was Betty Browning, pretty Betty Browning who had not +noticed plain Jane Cross except to call her stupid! + +“I’m not stupid!” thought Jane, in a sudden rush of hot anger. “And +some day I’ll show Betty Browning that I’m not, that I’m worth +knowing and speaking to politely, even if I am ‘plain Jane.’” + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + INVENTIONS + + +The settling down in Greenville of the Powell family, lately of Coal +Run, was very easy and pleasant. + +The little house on the side street was as cozy and comfortable as +Mrs. Powell’s energy and Jane’s helpful hands could make it. + +There were only five rooms, but these were sufficient for the needs +of the small family. + +The front room was small, but once dressed with Mrs. Powell’s mission +furniture, red tablecover, cushions and rugs, with immaculate muslin +curtains covering no less immaculate windows, the room was very +homelike and pleasant. + +Back of the sitting room was the dining room. Though the furniture +in it was more or less rickety--containing the staved-in chair and +the one-rockered rocker which Mr. Powell had not yet had time to +fix--this room, like the other, had a cozy, pleasant air. + +Rents in the brown rug had been patiently mended by Mrs. Powell +before the moving, and now pieces of furniture were placed in such +a way as to cover the most conspicuous patches. It was a nice room, +and there was hardly any time in the day when it was not flooded with +sunshine. + +Back of the dining room was the kitchen--a small kitchen for a +country house but all the better for that. + +Mrs. Powell had scrubbed the dingy paint until it shone. Even then, +though the walls were a cheerful cream-color, the woodwork was a dull +brown that gave a gloomy tone to the room. + +One day, after a short excursion into the town, Jane appeared with a +can of paint and a new paint brush. + +She smiled when Mrs. Powell stared at her. + +“I thought I’d give the wood in the kitchen a coat of cream-colored +paint,” she said. “Do you mind?” + +“Mind!” cried the older woman delightedly. “Why, it’ll be just the +thing! But take care you don’t tire yourself out, Jane Cross,” she +added warningly. “There’s more work in that kitchen than you think +for, most likely.” + +But Jane to whom a can of paint, a paint brush, and something to +paint were an unmitigated joy, set to work with a will on the kitchen +woodwork. + +The result was more delightful than even she had dared to hope. Not +only the woodwork of the little kitchen but the kitchen table and the +chairs as well, blossomed out in two coats of ivory paint that was a +joy to behold. + +“They look just as good as new!” Mrs. Powell exclaimed, as she +and Jane hung yellow curtains at the window. These last had been +an inspiration of Jane’s as well, and with the sunlight streaming +through them, they made the kitchen indescribably pretty and cheerful. + +“I declare, Jane Cross, you’re a wonder!” + +The transformation of the kitchen was complete and Mrs. Powell +surveyed the pleasant result, one arm about Jane. She turned +and regarded the girl’s face steadily and affectionately for a +moment, marked the clear steady purpose of the eyes, the streak of +ivory-colored paint at the corner of her mouth--a mouth too wide for +beauty--and suddenly Mrs. Powell smiled. + +“You’re the kind of girl, Jane Cross,” she said, “that does +everything well that she wants to. You’re a sweet child and a great +comfort to me. Now run along and get that streak of paint off your +face!” + +Upstairs were two bedrooms. One thought, looking at the two rooms, +that the builder when planning the house might well have spared a +slice of the larger room to add to the smaller and so arranged his +space in a more impartial manner. + +As it was, the big room was very, very big--like the little girl with +the curl--and the small room, if not exactly horrid, was certainly +very small. + +The small room, of course, was turned over to Jane, and she did the +best she could with it. Her single iron bed took up an alarming +amount of space. She had just room to squeeze a tiny table and a +chair in beside it and leave space enough at the foot of the bed for +the dresser. + +The builder had been unfair in the matter of windows, too. + +While the front room had four of these--rather a superfluous number +one would think--Jane’s room had only one, and that not in the best +position to catch the sun. For the greater part of the day the room +was gloomy, and Jane seldom visited it except to go to bed. + +She thought of Betty Browning in the richest, most palatial house on +Rose Hill and wondered what her room was like. She would have liked +just once to have been allowed to look inside it. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Powell became enthusiastic about his new position with +Martin and Hull. + +“They’re old men, but square shooters, both of them!” he exclaimed. +“I like ’em and if I have luck I may be able to rise before long to +a much better position than I have now. It may be the luckiest thing +that ever happened to us that we had to leave Coal Run.” + +Jane thought so too. She could have been quite happy in her new +environment had it not been for her meeting with Betty Browning and +that pretty girl’s insolent, disdainful attitude toward her. + +Meanwhile, Jane became friendly with Billy Dobson, the grocer’s +clerk. She found out that he was not an ordinary grocer’s clerk at +all, and this is how it happened: + +About a week after her arrival with the Powells at Greenville Jane +was on her usual round of marketing--Mrs. Powell declared that she +could trust Jane to pick out a chicken or any other kind of fowl, +fish, or meat, far more readily than she could trust herself!--and, +with a large bundle already in her arms, entered Mason’s store to +complete her purchases. + +A loud guffaw of laughter greeted her entrance, and Jane thought +sensitively that some one was laughing at her. But she saw her +mistake almost instantly. + +It was Billy Dobson who was being laughed at, and by the jovial owner +of the store himself, large, fat, jolly Mr. Mason. + +Billy, Jane thought, looked as though he disliked being laughed at. +The young fellow’s usual cheerful grin was absent and he scowled at +his employer. + +“You can laugh all right,” Billy retorted, anger in his voice. “All +the inventors that ever lived have had to be laughed at by people +that couldn’t understand their inventions.” + +“Go on, my boy, I don’t mean to make you mad.” Mr. Mason laid a +kindly hand on the lad’s shoulder. “Maybe you have got a good idea, I +don’t know. But you take your inventions so seriously that sometimes +it strikes me funny.” + +“It’s only one invention,” said Billy, irritably rubbing the back of +his head. “And I must say it never struck me as funny.” + +Here Billy espied Jane and his face smoothed to its usual expression +as he took her order. + +Jane had an opportunity to speak to him while Mr. Mason was taking +care of another customer. + +“I didn’t know you invented things,” she said. “I think it’s +wonderful!” + +Billy’s face brightened and he looked at Jane with increased +interest. Here was a girl who was evidently as sensible as she +looked! He pretended modesty. + +“I wish I could find some one else who would think it’s +wonderful--some one with stacks of money.” + +“You probably will,” said Jane, and added innocently: “Inventors have +to, don’t they?” + +“They do,” said Billy, looking suddenly grim and quite old, Jane +thought, much older than he really was. “And that, let me tell you, +is the hard part of inventing--not the invention itself.” + +Jane thought about Billy a great deal after that. Billy was an +inventor, one of those wonderful beings to whom ordinary people could +only look up with awe and wonder. Suppose Billy should be lucky +and make a fortune from his invention? Wonderful! After that Billy +Dobson, the grocer’s clerk, carried about with him an aura of romance +which, in Jane’s mind at least, set him apart from the crowd as a +wonderful and superior being. + +“Maybe some day I can say ‘I knew him when he was only a grocer’s +clerk,’” she thought, and thrilled to the thought. + +It was not so very long after this remarkable discovery that Jane was +awakened one night by a strange light in her room. The red glow came +through her one window and danced eerily on the walls. + +Jane sprang from the bed, her heart in her mouth. + +“Fire!” she cried, unaware that she had spoken the word aloud. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE GREAT FIRE + + +A startled exclamation came from the front room. A moment later Mr. +Powell, wrapped in a bathrobe, stumbled sleepily into Jane’s room. + +Jane could see Mrs. Powell’s face peering at her, white and startled, +over her husband’s shoulder. + +Jane pointed with unsteady hand at the dancing red light on the wall. + +“Fire!” she cried again, in a breathless voice. “It must be a +terrible one!” + +Mr. Powell flung himself across the room to peer from the window. At +the same moment the hideous shriek of a siren rent the air. + +“The fire department is on the job,” muttered Mr. Powell. “It’s a +regular blaze, all right! Look at that sky!” + +“Is it near by, Dink?” Mrs. Powell’s teeth chattered with excitement. +“Can you see where it is?” + +Jane had ducked beneath Mr. Powell’s arm and was staring out with +dilated eyes at the sky that was stained bright red. + +“Maybe it’s the grocery store!” she cried. “Oh, I do hope Billy +Dobson doesn’t keep his invention there!” + +With an exclamation of anxiety and dread Mr. Powell jerked himself +from the window and started to leave the room. His wife caught him by +the arm. + +“Where do you think it is?” she cried. + +“Seems to be right in the center of town,” returned her husband. “I’m +worried about Martin and Hull!” + +“Oh!” cried Jane, following out into the hall. “Do you think it’s the +feed and grain place?” + +“I think it is!” replied Mr. Powell, as he flung into his room. “But +you can bet I’m going to find out! I’ve got some papers in my desk +that I’m going after, if it is!” + +In a short time he came out of the room again fully dressed and Jane +heard him clatter down the stairs. + +“Don’t bother to dress,” he called up to his wife. “The fire will +probably be out soon and not much damage done. I’ll be home as soon +as I can.” The door slammed behind him. + +All this time Jane had been standing at her window looking out, +fascinated by the illuminated sky. Now she heard a noise in the +doorway and turned sharply. + +Mrs. Powell was there. + +“I’m going out, Jane,” said the older woman in a strained voice. “I’m +dreadfully worried. If it really is Martin and Hull’s, nobody--police +nor fireman--can keep Dink from rushing in for those papers.” + +“Wait a minute and I’ll be with you,” Jane cried. + +It never took long for Jane to dress. This time it did not take as +long as usual. She flung on her clothes and ran down the stairs +two at a time just after Mrs. Powell had opened the front door and +stepped into the street. + +Other people had been alarmed by the red glow in the sky and by the +wailing siren of Greenville’s fire department. + +Mad Marion and her sister Lydia joined Mrs. Powell and Jane almost +immediately. The former was in a pitiful state of excitement and +alarm while the “granite sister” appeared entirely unmoved. Lydia +scarcely spoke except to tell Marion not “to talk so much.” + +People began to straggle from the houses, looking sleepy and +frightened. + +A large fire in Greenville might easily prove a serious thing. + +The small fire department was probably inadequate to cope with +anything but small unimportant fires. And to make things worse, a +brisk breeze had sprung up--a breeze that might whip the flames from +house to house, perhaps destroying the entire town. + +Such was the anxious prophecy that fell in fragmentary sentences from +the lips of passersby--people who were running toward the fire. + +Mrs. Powell and Jane started to run, too, caught in the general +hysteria. + +Jane clutched at the arm of a man who seemed to have come from the +scene of the fire and whose face was grave and anxious. + +“What is it?” cried the girl. “Is it the grocery store?” + +The man shook his head. + +“Feed and grain place--Martin and Hull’s,” he replied briefly. +“Better keep away from there, girl. The walls are apt to cave in any +minute, and then some one may get hurt!” + +Mrs. Powell gave a cry that was very terrible to Jane’s ears. + +“He’s in there! He’s in there, fighting that fire! I knew it!” Mrs. +Powell muttered, as she took Jane’s arm and hurried her along. “Oh, +what shall I do? What shall I do?” + +“He won’t get hurt. Uncle Dink won’t get hurt!” Jane’s teeth were +chattering so that she could scarcely force the words between them. +“P--probably the man doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Oh, please +don’t look that way, Aunt Lou! Please d--don’t!” + +“Hurry, Jane! Hurry!” Mrs. Powell’s grip upon the girl’s arm was +almost painful. She broke into a swift run. “We may be too late!” + +Other people were running, other faces were lined and anxious, but +Mrs. Powell did not seem to notice them. + +At the next corner she stopped short and her voice rose almost to a +shriek as she pointed ahead of them. + +“Look! It _is_ the feed and grain place! Oh, Dink, Dink, where are +you?” + +It was a magnificent spectacle for any one who could enjoy it. + +The granaries of Martin and Hull were one mass of flame, shooting +skyward. Showers of sparks and burning brands fell on the roofs of +buildings near by only to hiss and go out on timbers watered by the +fire-fighters. + +Against the flaming background black figures crawled or ran, +pigmy-like, against the unleashed giant they were fighting. It seemed +an unfair battle with only one result possible. + +Before Jane could stop her Mrs. Powell broke away and ran toward the +burning buildings. The heat almost blistered her face, but she did +not stop until a fireman caught her and pushed her backward. + +“Can’t go any nearer, lady,” said the man, looking pityingly at her +haggard face. “You’ve got to get back. Do you walk or will I have to +carry you? Say which, quick I ain’t got no time to waste!” + +“My husband!” gasped Mrs. Powell. “He’s in there! I’ve got to get to +him----” + +There was a wild shout. People began running backward. + +The burning wall of the building nearest the street swayed for an +awful second; then, like the wall of a card house, toppled to the +street. + +A wild wailing sound that was horrible to hear rose from the +spectators. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + BENEATH THE WRECKAGE + + +“There are men under those burning walls!” some one yelled, hoarse +with horror. “I saw them! They couldn’t get quite clear!” + +Mrs. Powell reeled, a hand across her eyes. + +She found Jane’s arm about her, Jane’s reassuring voice in her ear. + +“It isn’t Uncle Dink! I know it isn’t! Oh, help me some one! +She’s--she’s fainted!” + +Many willing, kindly hands came to Jane’s aid and helped carry Mrs. +Powell into a shoe store near by. Her temporary faintness was perhaps +a good thing for both Mrs. Powell and Jane, since they were saved the +harrowing sight of the frenzied rescue work that followed. + +Men rushed to the scene of the calamity, carrying axes, saws, any +implement with which they could hope to cut away the timbers that +held the imprisoned men. + +The thick stream from the hose of the fire department was turned upon +this spot, and here the flames were quickly conquered. The men who +had been caught beneath this outer edge of the falling wall would not +be burned to death. It remained to be seen how badly they had been +crushed by the weight of the débris. + +“Here they are, Bill,” one of the firemen cried. “Just give me a +hand, will you, with this board? Ataboy! Heave away, now!” + +Several others came to the aid of these two, and, with the push of +broad backs beneath it, the board heaved and gave back, carrying +with it other timbers that had been either partly or wholly leaning +against it. + +At the moment a figure came flying toward them, the figure of a woman. + +She was a wild apparition, her staring eyes and wild disordered hair +redly illumined by the darting flames of the burning building. + +At her elbow, holding her arm, vainly trying to comfort her, was a +young girl. + +“My husband!” cried the woman. “Where is he? Have you found him yet?” + +One of the men held her off kindly but firmly, while the others went +feverishly on with the work of rescue. + +“Don’t come any closer, ma’am,” said the man who was holding poor +frenzied Mrs. Powell. “You can’t do anything and you’ll only get in +the way. If I was you,” he added after a moment when the shouts of +the rescuers and their increased activity proclaimed that they had +found one of the victims, “I’d look the other way.” + +“My husband!” muttered Mrs. Powell, and to save her life she could +not have taken her eyes from that awful scene. “Have they found him? +Is he dead? Oh, let me go!” + +“Please, please look away,” cried Jane, scarcely knowing what she +said. “Oh, if we could only have kept you in that shop a little while +longer! If you had only stayed there! If you would only come away +now!” + +Mrs. Powell took no more notice of her than if she had not spoken. + +She started forward suddenly with a wild cry. + +They had taken somebody from the wreck--were carrying him away. + +The man who was holding her drew her back. + +“If your name’s Powell, that ain’t your man,” he said. “Don’t look.” + +Mrs. Powell was moaning now like an animal in pain. + +Jane, agonized, took the cold hand in one of hers and pressed it to +her face. + +The expression of the older woman did not change. She continued to +stare at the mass of wreckage where men worked, hacking, lifting, +smashing, striving desperately to save the lives of the two men they +thought were still imprisoned there. + +Again they lifted something from the wreckage, and again Mrs. Powell +started forward. + +“Not yet, ma’am,” said the man at her side. “That ain’t your husband. +Probably ain’t here at all,” he said in a voice he tried to make +reassuringly matter-of-fact. “Probably out there in the crowd lookin’ +for you, or maybe he’s home now, wondering where you’re at.” + +Mrs. Powell took no more notice of him than she had of Jane. + +“There’s another one under here, boys,” she heard one of the rescue +workers say. “But I don’t think he’s hurt bad. Seems like a lot of +those timbers have jammed and made a sort of shed over him. We’ve got +to watch out we don’t loosen one of them and let the whole thing down +on him.” + +After that the men worked swiftly and silently while Jane held tight +to Mrs. Powell’s hand, trembling, and the woman herself stared +straight before her, uttering that queer heartbroken sound that Jane +was to hear in imagination many times afterward. + +“Here he is!” cried a voice suddenly. “And it’s like I said. He ain’t +scarcely hurt!” + +“Only my hands, boys,” came a voice that was faint and weak but +striving to be jocular. “Be easy on ’em. They feel as if they were +broken in sixteen places at once.” + +Seeing that the third victim when helped by the men could stand +shakily on his feet, Mrs. Powell’s captor released his hold on her +arm. + +“There’s your husband, ma’am,” he said in a relieved voice. “And +lucky for you he wasn’t one of the other two fellows. Seems like they +got a bit more than their share.” + +Mrs. Powell was not listening. She had reached her husband’s side and +was patting him all over incredulously. + +“They say you’re not hurt badly,” she said, her lips quivering. +“Is--is that true?” + +“Let go my hand, old girl,” he said, as his wife grasped it in her +eagerness. “My hands got caught under a couple of weights that felt +like a ton apiece. Guess they got bunged up good and plenty.” + +Mrs. Powell gasped as she held up one of the poor crushed bleeding +hands. Her own hand was sticky with blood. + +“Oh get a doctor, some one, quick!” she cried. + +“Well, old lady,” Jane heard Mr. Powell say, as she ran to find some +one who could attend to him, “I guess your husband’s out of a job +now, for good and all!” + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + DISASTER + + +Meanwhile in the finest house on Rose Hill the shrill sound of the +siren had roused pretty Betty Browning from scented rose-colored +slumber. + +With a petulant exclamation the girl sat up in bed, prettier than +ever with her curling, golden hair disordered and her lovely eyes +dewy with sleep. + +“What is all the noise about?” she cried, and would have stamped her +foot had she been on the floor instead of in bed. “Something ought +to be done about that siren, waking people up in the middle of the +night!” + +Something in the red of the sky and shouts from without that came to +her faintly penetrated through her self-centered irritation. + +With a slight shiver of dread--or perhaps the breeze from the window +was unexpectedly cool--she slipped on a filmy negligee, inserted +her pretty feet into satin mules, and padded across the room to the +window. + +“It seems to be a rather serious fire at that,” thought Betty, as +she leaned from the window. Every one in town appeared to be abroad. + +Still there was nothing, it seemed to her, to make such a fuss +about. The fire department would put out the fire. That’s what fire +departments were for! + +She yawned, and her petulance returned. + +She pattered back to the bed, kicked off the mules and prepared once +more to woo sweet slumber. But she was disturbed again, this time by +the sound of voices. + +She heard her father speak in a quick agitated tone. He seemed to be +in the hall just outside her door, while her mother’s languid, bored +voice came from the direction of her bedroom. + +Then suddenly the telephone rang and Betty heard her father go +quickly to answer it. + +There was a moment of excited conversation, unintelligible to Betty. +Then she heard her father slam up the receiver and fairly run through +the hall. + +“They say it’s Martin and Hull’s!” he cried. “If it is, I’m about +ruined!” + +This brought Betty to her feet in earnest. + +She slipped on the mules again, ran to the door, and flung it open. +She was still petulant, a little bewildered, yet vaguely alarmed. + +She heard her mother’s voice say sharply: + +“What do you mean by that preposterous statement? You, ruined! You? +Why, I never heard anything so absurd!” + +“Maybe, my dear. But true, nevertheless.” Her father’s voice was +grim, so changed from its ordinary tone that Betty could scarcely +recognize it. + +The girl could hear her mother stirring languidly, could guess at the +look of annoyance on her handsome face. + +“If you must speak in riddles, Clyde Browning,” said Mrs. Browning, +still more sharply, “perhaps you will not object to giving me an +answer to this one.” + +There was a moment of silence. Then Mr. Browning spoke in a slow +measured tone that struck a queer dread to the heart of the girl who +listened. + +“I would give you an answer quickly enough, Lily, if I thought you +could understand or would even care to try. As it is, I can only tell +you that I have met with some rather heavy losses lately. Before I +knew of these losses----” + +“You are always having losses, Clyde,” Mrs. Browning’s voice broke +in, bored and angry. “You have had losses ever since I married you, +yet we continue to live in the handsomest house on Rose Hill. We have +two cars and servants still. You must know that I am rather well +seasoned to your false alarms by this time.” + +“This is no false alarm,” returned Mr. Browning in that same grim +voice. “I wish to heaven it were. If I could get back that thirty +thousand----” + +“What thirty thousand?” asked his wife sharply. + +“Thirty thousand dollars that I lent Martin and Hull only two weeks +ago,” Mr. Browning returned. “If Martin and Hull’s has burned down, +then my thirty thousand has probably burned with it, for their +building was not fireproof, and if they had any insurance it was +little. That--try to understand this, Lily--wipes out just about +everything I had left in the world!” + +Betty gave a strangled cry and pressed her hands to her lips. She +listened, expecting to hear her mother cry out in alarm. It was with +an odd shock then that she heard a laugh, a mocking, tinkling laugh. + +“Surely, you don’t intend me to think that you haven’t something more +than that to fall back upon, Clyde?” she said. “You, who, from a +small beginning, amassed a fortune. You are joking, of course.” + +Mr. Browning gave a harsh, exasperated exclamation and came down the +hall. Betty could see that he was fully dressed and ready for the +street. She ran to him. + +“Dad, I didn’t mean to listen--I hardly knew what I was doing,” she +gasped. “It--what you said--isn’t true?” + +“I’m afraid it is, Betty.” Mr. Browning stood for a moment, looking +at her oddly. “But don’t bother your pretty head about it. Young +girls can’t understand such things. Go to bed now and see if you +can’t finish your sleep. I’ll be back soon.” + +“Are you going to the fire?” Betty asked as he turned away. + +“I’m going to see if that burning building is really Martin and +Hull’s,” her father returned grimly. + +Betty was left standing in the hall, shivering. + +“Betty!” + +It was her mother’s voice, high, querulous. + +“Yes, mother?” + +“Is that you in the hall?” + +“Yes, mother.” + +“Then come in here. Shut the door, too. I do hope,” she continued +when Betty had obeyed, “that none of the servants heard what your +father was saying.” + +“Why?” + +Betty’s tone was distant. She was trying vaguely to understand +something that was new and bewildering to her, something that +frightened her. + +That new thing in her father’s tone and manner! What if he were not +joking, as her mother seemed to think? What if he were really in +danger of losing all his money? What if they were really to be poor? + +“Why!” Her mother’s sharp voice broke into her unpleasant +meditations. “It isn’t like you to ask such a silly question, +Elizabeth.” Mrs. Browning only called her daughter by her full name +when she was in a state of extreme annoyance with her. This seemed +to be one of those occasions. “Why, indeed! Because it is vulgar to +let the servants know one’s private affairs--especially when they are +unpleasant.” + +“Mother,” Betty spoke in an odd tone, a tone odd enough, indeed, to +catch even Mrs. Browning’s languid attention, “suppose what dad said +is true? Suppose we _have_ lost all our money?” + +“Nonsense, child!” A dark frown marred Mrs. Browning’s otherwise +perfect forehead. “You ought to know your father well enough by this +time to know that he is always worrying about something. I don’t +think he would be happy,” she said, with an impatient movement of her +handsome shoulders, “if he hadn’t something to worry about.” + +“He didn’t seem happy to-night,” said Betty in a monotonous voice. + +Mrs. Browning switched on her bed-light, and in its rose-shaded, +flattering light surveyed her daughter. + +Betty was amazingly pretty in her lacy blue negligee with her yellow +hair rumpled charmingly and her lovely eyes wide and thoughtful. She +was a vision to soothe even Mrs. Browning’s irate heart. For with all +her failings, and they were many, this lady was inordinately fond and +proud of her pretty daughter. + +“What can be the matter with you, child?” she said, but not as +sharply as she had intended. “You are far too pretty and much too +young to bother your head with money matters. Run along now and get +your beauty sleep.” + +“But I don’t want to go to sleep,” Betty persisted. “I’d like to talk +about dad, mother. I never saw him like that before. I’m sure he +really is worried.” + +“Worried!” Mrs. Browning spoke lightly and even laughed a little. “Of +course he’s worried. I think I remember saying before that that is +how he takes his pleasure. Now run along, like a good girl. You may +speak lightly of beauty sleep, but I, never! To-morrow we’ll write +to Chevot’s, darling, and order several of those sports frocks you +fancied. That’s right--leave the door open just a crack as you go.” + +Doubtless her mother was asleep soon after that. Betty did not go +back to see; though, oddly enough, she would have liked to. + +What she did not know was that her mother had attached more +importance to Mr. Browning’s announcement of money losses than +she had pretended to. Although she refused entirely to credit his +statement that if Martin and Hull’s burned, her husband would lose +the great bulk of his fortune, Mrs. Browning did believe that he had +suffered more or less severe reverses in some of his investments. + +“I do wish he would be careful,” she thought, as she switched off the +rosy bed-light and settled herself impatiently in a luxurious, downy +bed. “I may have to do without that jet evening gown I admired. Of +course this had to come at a time when Chevot’s offerings are almost +irresistible!” + +Mrs. Browning fell asleep shortly after that with nothing weighing +more heavily upon her mind, apparently, than the loss of the jet +evening gown. + +Betty, on the contrary, was suffering a rare experience. She could +not sleep. + +The reflection of the flames still danced on the walls of her pretty +room. For a time they seemed to burn more brightly, and objects of +furniture stood out almost as clearly as though it were day. + +“Suppose the whole town should go up in flames,” thought Betty. + +Such things had happened before, she knew. + +But after what seemed to her--and, in reality, were--hours of +waiting, the menacing glare of the flames wavered, lessened, changed +from red to salmon, from salmon to a faint yellow, and then merged, +sullen and beaten, into the dreary gray of early dawn. + +Betty heard her father come in soon after that. His step dragged. In +that halting sound was weariness--defeat. + +Betty wanted to go to him, but did not dare. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + SUSPECTED + + +It seemed a miracle to Jane when she thought of it afterward that Mr. +Powell had not been more seriously injured. The other two men who +had been taken from under the ruins of the wall were much more badly +hurt. It was rumored that one might die and that the other would be +forced to keep to his bed for many weeks to come. + +Doctor Pendleton, a busy physician and surgeon, dressed Mr. Powell’s +injured hands. He looked grave when the work was done. + +“The bruises on your body will get well quickly,” he told him. “But +the hands are a different matter. Some of the small bones are broken, +the tendons are stretched. You will have to give your hands a good +long rest before they will be of any use to you again.” + +They went home then, although the fire was still blazing and sparks +from it, despite all the precautions of the firemen, had set fire to +the roof of the building nearest it. + +“Looks as if the whole town might go,” muttered Mr. Powell +unhappily, as he allowed his wife and Jane to lead him homeward. + +“I don’t care if it does,” said Mrs. Powell, “as long as you are +safe----” + +“And out of a job,” said the man, with a short bitter laugh. “Don’t +forget that, Lou!” + +“I’m not forgetting it,” returned Mrs. Powell stoutly. “But even if +you had a job you couldn’t work at it with those poor hands. As soon +as you’re well there will be plenty more jobs for you.” + +She spoke bravely, far more bravely, Jane imagined, than she felt. + +Jane was very thoughtful during the rest of the walk home and +afterward when she sat by the one window in her room, watching the +flames paint strange pictures in the sky. + +“If Uncle Dink has no position and couldn’t possibly work at one if +he had it until his hands are well, I wonder what we’ll do?” she +asked herself. “I don’t suppose Aunt Lou has much money laid by, and +even if she had, it wouldn’t last long with nothing coming in. And +I’ll just be an extra expense to them. Oh, dear, Jane, I wish you +could think of something!” + +So it came to pass that two girls in Greenville, one the girl they +called “Plain Jane,” the other, “Pretty Betty,” spent that night in +anxious wakefulness, pondering in their different ways the same +puzzling question, “What does one do when one has no money?” To +neither of them then came the only answer, the very simple answer, +really, to the query. + +As the first gray light of dawn dimmed the fire-reddened sky, +the firemen conquered the blaze. An early sun rose upon an ugly, +blackened scene of desolation. + +The two buildings adjoining Martin and Hull’s were almost as badly +damaged as their neighbor’s. The actual loss in dollars had not been +figured as yet, but one could guess that it would be enormous, for +the insurance companies had only lately refused to carry the risk on +these buildings. + +Those most interested in the calamity, having retired for a few hours +of much-needed rest, returned, one after another, to the scene of +desolation. + +A crowd gathered, gesticulating, speculating. + +Poor Mr. Martin, of Martin and Hull, was wandering about the ruins +in a dazed way. He seemed only to half realize the extent of the +calamity, yet could not drag himself away from the scene of it. He +answered questions put to him vaguely--if he answered them at all. + +After vainly trying to exact some plausible explanation of the fire +from him, Mr. Browning went in search of Hull. + +“Maybe I can get some sense out of him,” he muttered. “Though I doubt +it.” + +Mr. Browning did not know that Betty was following him. If he had, he +would, in all probability, have ordered her back home again for fear +that she would realize too soon the extent of the misfortune that had +come to the house of Browning. + +But Betty was following somewhat after the manner of a Persian kitten +at the heels of a mastiff, and those who saw her wondered that she +should be there at all. + +Though her face was unnaturally pale and her eyes unnaturally large, +Betty Browning made a very pleasing picture in a woolly white sport +coat and a white felt hat pulled down close over her golden bobbed +hair. + +Many of the curious who were among the crowds at the scene of the +fire nudged each other as the pretty girl passed, and speculated as +to what would happen if the rumor, already mysteriously spreading +about town, that Mr. Browning had lost his money should prove true. + +Meanwhile Betty was unconscious of the curious scrutiny of these +people. Her eyes were only for her father, for the unremembered +lines in his handsome face, for the unaccustomed stoop of his broad +shoulders. + +If it had not been for these things, Betty might have thought she +had dreamed that conversation last night between her father and +mother. She was bewildered, frightened, but, more than anything else, +incredulous. She had been so long accustomed to think of money as +something that was her right, as something as certain as the rolls +and coffee that were served to her in her bedroom each morning, that +she could not imagine herself without it. + +Only the change in her father fed the bewilderment and fright in her +heart and fought the incredulity. + +So Betty Browning followed where her father went, stopped when he +stopped, watching him always with puzzled eyes, while her anxiety +grew. + +Mr. Browning found the junior partner of Martin and Hull in the +remains of what had once been an office and was now only a dreary +ruin of sodden débris. + +Hull had been searching for something. He straightened up as he saw +Mr. Browning and his face became a dull red. He turned away, fiddling +futilely with the remains of an old leather case. + +“I’m sorry, Browning,” he muttered. “There was a bare chance that I +might recover some at least of those securities of yours----” + +“But you haven’t?” + +From a distance where she could see but not hear, Betty could see her +father’s broad shoulders sag, noticed his hand go out gropingly like +a blind man feeling for support. + +“The small safe is gone completely,” Hull said dully. “Melted, I +suppose by the intense heat of the fire. I was going to take your +thirty thousand up to the city to-day, Browning. Couldn’t possibly +get away before.” + +“To-day is too late!” said Clyde Browning in a hard voice. + +Mr. Hull looked up. There was something pathetic in the helpless +appeal of his voice. + +“I’m sorry! I can’t say more. After all I had no reason to anticipate +the ruin of my business before to-day----” + +Mr. Browning cut him short with an impatient gesture. + +“How about yourself?” he said. “Are you insured?” + +“Partly,” replied the grain dealer. “You know the insurance company +pulled in on us. Although my loss will be a heavy one. I doubt,” he +added, with a quiver in his voice, “whether either Martin or I will +have the courage to start all over again.” + +There was a momentary silence between the two men. + +“Have you any idea as to how the fire started?” + +Hull looked at his questioner’s shaggy white eyebrows lowering over +wrathful eyes. + +“I think it was that young fool, Billy Dobson!” he said. + +Mr. Browning started and looked more closely at the other man. + +“Billy Dobson! Why, I have always said that boy was honest as the +day----” + +“I never said he wasn’t honest, did I?” the older man protested +testily. “But he’s a fool just the same--a visionary young fool. And +a temper with a dangerous flash and bang to it, let me tell you.” + +“He came in here asking me to finance some invention or other,” +continued the grain dealer, while Mr. Browning listened with absorbed +interest. “Offered to make a million for me in a year or two. I +reckon he expected there’d be several millions in it for himself, +young fool----” + +“And you laughed at him, I suppose,” broke in Mr. Browning’s cool, +curt voice. + +“Of course I did! Who wouldn’t? I told him to take his child’s toy +elsewhere and be quick about it. The lad went but his parting words +were a promise that I’d be ‘sorry some day.’” + +“H’m--I see! Well, come along, Hull. Something tells me this hunch of +yours will bear looking into!” + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + BILLY ANSWERS + + +Outside, the two men found several others formerly employed by Martin +and Hull ruefully inspecting the ruins. + +These Mr. Browning questioned circumspectly but could gather no +information that might substantiate the theory that Billy Dobson had +started the fire. + +Finally when they had just about given up hope of finding anything +there, one man came up and of his own accord volunteered the +information they had been looking for. + +“Beg pardon, Mr. Hull,” the fellow said, touching his cap, “but it’s +been on my mind to tell you something ever since the fire happened.” + +“All right, Higgins. Speak out,” said Mr. Hull, trying not to show +too great an interest. + +“It’s only this. I was coming home pretty late--I’d been to the +doctor’s to get him for my little girl who is very sick, as you can +find out to be the truth by inquiring--and on my way I had to pass +the place. I saw some one sort of hangin’ around the buildings and I +got curious.” + +“Yes, go on!” cried his two listeners together. + +“Well, gentlemen, I came a little closer and I could easy see who the +feller was. It was Dobson, Mr. Hull, the feller who clerks over at +Mason’s store.” + +A glance passed between Mr. Browning and Mr. Hull. + +Then the latter said calmly: + +“You’re sure you couldn’t have been mistaken, Higgins?” + +“I’m so sure,” the man returned, “that I’d be willin’ to stake my +chances of a long and happy life on it. No, sir, there ain’t no +mistake about it, Mr. Hull. I made sure of my man!” + +A crowd had gathered about the three men and listened curiously to +the conversation. Rapidly, as news always spreads in a crowd, the +word passed from mouth to mouth that Billy Dobson was suspected of +starting the fire. + +There was a great amount of excitement, for in Greenville Billy +Dobson was a favorite. Everybody liked him and a great many people +believed in him. Still, there was, of course, always the possibility +of his being guilty. + +Mr. Hull thanked the man Higgins and dismissed him. By a common +impulse Mr. Browning and his companion turned their steps in the +direction of Mason’s grocery store. + +Some of the crowd followed, eager, curious, some convinced already +of the guilt of Billy Dobson, some stubbornly incredulous. + +On the outskirts of this crowd came Betty, not of it, but with it +in spirit. She had caught enough of the rumor to know that it was +Billy Dobson who was suspected, and Betty was in a mood just then to +condemn almost any one. + +It happened that as this crowd reached the corner upon which Mason’s +grocery store was situated Jane also reached it, coming from a +different direction. + +Jane had been sent to the store for butter and eggs. Her mind was +still preoccupied with what they should do now that Mr. Powell was +incapacitated, and in this anxiety she had temporarily forgotten the +fire that had wiped out Martin and Hull’s. + +Now she was shocked rudely from her unhappy reverie by sight of the +crowd. She saw Betty Browning on the edge of it, and her color flamed +high. + +What did it all mean? That excited crowd! Betty Browning with the +white face and strained expression, so unlike the girl that Jane +remembered! + +She guessed instantly that this strange sight had some bearing on +the calamity of the night before, but she had no way of knowing the +actual cause. + +The crowd turned in at Mason’s store. So did Jane--a little in the +rear of it. + +Billy Dobson was behind the counter waiting upon Mad Marion with all +the kindness and deference he would have given to one of the richest +patrons from Rose Hill. + +Mr. Mason himself was in the rear of the store, stacking up fresh +groceries on the immaculate shelves. + +Both men looked surprised as the crowd entered the store and Marion +turned, bobbing and smiling delightedly at something that promised +excitement. + +Mr. Browning wasted no time. With Mr. Hull at his elbow he went +direct to the counter and himself addressed Billy Dobson. His eyes +were keen and cold as they rested on the frank blue eyes of the lad. + +“Were you in the vicinity of Martin and Hull’s before the fire last +night?” he asked. + +Jane had pushed her way through the crowd until she was close enough +to hear the question distinctly. She was so close to Betty that she +could hear the girl’s quick, indrawn breath as she waited for the +answer. + +Jane’s eyes were fixed with a frightened look on Billy. What did it +all mean? + +Billy looked surprised for a moment at the question. + +“Why, yes, sir,” he said then, his eyes unwavering. “I believe I was. +In fact, I know I passed there last night.” + +A sigh arose from the crowd, a queer sound that was almost like an +accusation. + +Jane felt her heart beat fast. She did not yet fully understand, +but she did realize instinctively that Billy was in danger of some +sort--Billy who had been kind to her, who had stood as her friend +from the very first day in Greenville. + +Mr. Hull spoke now. Something of the dull hopelessness of his manner +had gone and been replaced by anger. + +“Will you kindly explain then,” he said, “what you were doing there +after twelve o’clock last night--it was that late, was it not?” he +interrupted himself to ask. + +“Fully that,” said Billy, his gaze unflinching. “I should say nearer +half-past twelve.” + +“Better be a little careful what you say, Billy,” cautioned Mr. +Mason, with an impulse of true friendliness toward the young man. +“Don’t talk too fast, lad. Better keep a guard on your tongue.” + +“I have no reason to keep a guard on my tongue,” Billy retorted +quietly. “Now, Mr. Hull, if you have any more questions to ask me----” + +“I have several,” said Mr. Hull dryly. + +Mr. Browning’s keen, searching gaze never once left the lad’s face. + +“The most important among them is,” Mr. Hull proceeded, “What were +you doing skulking about my place at a time that was nearer half-past +twelve than twelve o’clock last night?” + +“I object to the word ‘skulking’,” Billy returned furiously. Jane +clenched her hands. She was proud of him. “If you will take that +back, I’ll answer your question--not otherwise!” + +Mr. Hull was plainly annoyed. The crowd was growing restive. Betty, +close to Jane, gave an impatient shrug of her shoulders. Her pretty +mouth was set in a straight line. + +Only Mr. Browning betrayed a slight change in his distrustful +attitude toward Billy Dobson. Jane thought she detected a faint gleam +of admiration in his eyes. + +“All right, cut it out, then,” said Hull, snapping angrily at the +words. “Only answer my question. What were you doing near my place +late last night--just before the fire started?” + +Again there was a murmur from the crowd. Billy’s glance swept it +wonderingly before he answered. + +“I often walk for miles at night,” he said quietly. “It’s been a +habit with me for a long time, because that is when I get my good +ideas.” + +There was a titter in the crowd. Some one laughed outright. Another +cried jeeringly: + +“That’s a fine line, that is!” + +“My lad, you’ll get nowhere with an explanation like that,” Mr. Hull +stated. But Mr. Browning cut him short, with a gesture. He turned to +Billy, his gaze never leaving the clerk’s face. + +“What ideas do you mean?” he asked, not unkindly. + +For the first time Billy’s glance wavered. When he spoke his tone was +almost sullen. + +“You’ll laugh,” he said. “Everybody laughs. But since I see it’s +important for me to tell the truth right now----” + +“_Very_ important!” broke in the grain dealer dryly. + +“I’ll give you a chance to laugh,” finished Billy, looking not at Mr. +Hull but at Mr. Browning. “I’ve invented a couple of things that I +think are pretty good, and I’ve got the ideas for them when I’ve been +walking about at night. Now,” bitterly as the titter spread through +the crowd, “go ahead and laugh. Have a good one on me!” + +Mr. Browning said nothing. He was looking very thoughtful. Hull was +irate. + +“A pretty explanation that is!” he said. “I don’t mind telling you, +my boy, that it would stand about two half-seconds in a court of law. +Now suppose you tell me the real reason. And be quick about it. I’m +getting impatient!” + +Billy gripped the edge of the counter and leaned forward. + +“I’ve told you the truth of how I happened to pass your place last +night,” he said. “Though why I should have to answer your questions, +I don’t know--and I don’t care. If you don’t believe what I’ve told +you, then you know what you can do, don’t you?” + +“I know what I will do,” said the irate grain dealer, shaking his +finger under Billy’s nose. “I’ll put you in jail!” + +“But before you do it,” Billy’s voice was still calm but there was +a glint in his eye, “I’d be obliged if you’d tell me just what I’m +accused of!” + +“I’ll tell you what you’re accused of!” Mr. Hull was shaking with +wrath, and he went on, though Mr. Browning tried vainly to stop him. +“You’re accused of deliberately setting fire to my property last +night in revenge for my having refused you a loan! That is what you +are accused of! Now, deny it, if you dare!” + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + A GENEROUS THOUGHT + + +“Deny it, if you dare!” + +The cry rang through the suddenly still, tense store like the crack +of a whip. + +Billy Dobson straightened up and looked steadily at his accuser. + +“I do deny it! It’s a lie!” + +There was something in the fearless honesty of the young man’s eyes +that convinced most of those in the crowd. There were some who +doubted, however; one who doubted openly, and that one was Hull. + +“Well, my lad, we’ll see,” said the latter, with a dubious shake of +his head. “But I warn you, if you try to get away, it may go hard +with you.” + +“I won’t try to get away,” said Billy proudly. “You can find me any +time you want me, either here or at my own house.” + +Jane was indignant. She turned to poor Marion who had been looking +rather frightened during the inquisition. + +“It’s an outrage!” said Jane, loud enough for those about her to +hear. “Why, Billy Dobson couldn’t do a thing like that!” + +“You seem very sure!” + +The words were uttered in a low tone, but there was an icy quality +in them that caused Jane to wheel about suddenly. She found herself +looking into the disdainful eyes of pretty Betty Browning. + +“If I were you,” said Betty in the same icy tone, “I would be a +little careful what I said. Billy Dobson is guilty, and you may get +yourself in trouble by defending him!” + +Before Jane could recover from her astonishment and retort, Betty +turned her back upon the plain girl and walked from the store. + +Mr. Browning had been deep in a conversation with Hull and had not +appeared to notice his daughter. The latter’s going seemed a signal +for the breaking up of the crowd. They straggled off reluctantly, +going in groups of two and three and talking excitedly about the new +turn events had taken. + +Jane stood rooted to the spot, her eyes following the figure of +pretty Betty as the girl proceeded slowly up the slope of Rose Hill. + +Jane became aware suddenly that Marion was tugging at her sleeve. + +“Lovely girl, Betty Browning,” said the latter, bobbing and smiling +wistfully. “Lovely girl, but cold--cold and proud like her mother. +No heart, they say. All ice. Yes, yes, all ice.” + +Jane smiled at the poor little woman and patted her hand. + +“Well, we needn’t worry, Miss Marion,” she said, biting her lips to +keep them from trembling. “It isn’t our fault if some people are +unkind, is it?” + +“No, no! Of course, not at all!” simpered Marion. She squeezed Jane’s +hand and with many backward glances and smiles and nods managed to +get herself out of the store. + +Mr. Browning had gone out too, in earnest conversation with Hull. + +Jane found herself alone with Billy when his employer followed Mr. +Browning and Mr. Hull to the street. + +Jane’s impulse was to go away, for Billy looked as if he wanted to be +alone. But there were the things that Mrs. Powell needed right away, +and then Jane thought that she must speak to Billy and assure him of +her friendship, at least. + +“Billy!” + +The young man, who had turned away and pretended to be absorbed in +contemplation of the goods on the shelves, turned toward her. + +Jane was startled at the sight of his face. It seemed to have aged +incredibly in the past ten minutes. He was white, there were lines +about his mouth and suffering had left a cloud in his usually merry +eyes. + +“Billy, I’m so sorry!” she cried, impulsively, reaching a hand across +the counter to him. “It was all a trumped-up charge, and they ought +to be ashamed of themselves! I’ll tell them so, too, any old time I +happen to meet them!” + +“You did,” said Billy, his face softening into a smile of +comradeship. “I heard you stand up for me, and I heard what Betty +Browning said, too. You’re a good little sport, Jane, and, believe +me, I’m not going to forget it!” + +He took her outstretched hand of friendship and pressed it so hard it +hurt. Dear Billy! He was badly in need of comfort just then. Jane’s +heart ached for him. + +“They can’t do anything to you, Billy.” The words were more a +fearful question than a statement, though Jane tried her best to +seem confident. “They certainly couldn’t convict a person on no more +evidence than they have!” + +“I don’t suppose so,” said Billy, and sighed, rubbing a hand across +his forehead. “But it really doesn’t matter so much whether they get +out a formal charge against me or not. I’m just about done for in +this town.” + +“What do you mean?” gasped Jane, alarmed at his tone. + +Billy looked at her queerly. + +“You’re only a kid, after all, Jane, in spite of the sixteen years +you claim, and I don’t suppose you know what a thing like this can +do to a fellow in a small town. Suspicion is almost as bad as proved +guilt.” + +“Oh, no!” cried Jane. “How could it be?” + +“It puts a fellow under a cloud,” explained Billy. Jane could see +that it did him good to talk to some one, and so she encouraged him +with all her might. “It puts a fellow under a cloud,” Billy repeated, +“and turn as he will he finds the cloud following him, wrapping him +in a mist of doubt and suspicion. In the city a fellow can get away +from it, but in a place like Greenville--never!” + +“But I’m quite sure that most of the people in Greenville don’t +believe a word that that old Mr. Hull said!” Jane protested. “And if +they are like me, Billy, it will only make them feel more friendly to +you because you have been treated so unjustly.” + +“But there aren’t many like you, Jane,” said Billy, fervently +grateful for the girl’s loyal friendship. “If there were, I shouldn’t +wonder if the world would be a much better place to live in. But +Greenville is Greenville, and as far as any future for me here is +concerned, I might as well stop trying.” + +“But your inventions!” exclaimed Jane. + +“It’s my inventions I’m thinking of,” Billy retorted grimly. “Do +you suppose any one is going to lend me money to back my ideas now, +when I’ve been accused of setting one place on fire already because +the proprietors wouldn’t finance me? No sir, I never had much of a +chance, but that’s gone now.” + +Jane was silent for a moment, thinking hard, while Billy beat a +restless tattoo with his fingers on the edge of the counter. + +“Billy, if you could get away from Greenville, you’d have a chance of +getting some one to back you, wouldn’t you?” + +“Yes,” agreed the lad. “But with the wages I’m getting here and no +prospect of ever getting any more as far as I can see,” he added +bitterly, “I might as well try to get to Mars. But never mind, +Jane,” he added in a different tone, seeing how worried and really +distressed the girl looked, “it’ll all come out in the wash. And +anyway,” with another grateful pressure of the small friendly hand, +“I’ll always remember you stood up for me when I was down and needed +friends. It’s the people who stand by you at a time like this that +you know you can count on. And now,” with a faint return of his old +cheerful grin, “what can I do for you this morning?” + +So the girl gave her order and left the store with her purchases. + +But Jane had other things to think of that morning beside Billy’s +troubles. Things had begun to look black at home with Mr. Powell +laid up for an indefinite period. She had noticed how careful Mrs. +Powell had been in ordering things from the store. She knew it was a +question of money. + +So she was very thoughtful on her way back to the Powell cottage. An +idea was forming in her mind. + +She had not started to school in Greenville. It was too near the end +of the term. The whole summer stretched before her. + +Why not? + +Bustling in with her bundles from the store, eager to win Aunt Lou’s +consent to her new idea, Jane found that good woman in the sunshiny +kitchen dissolved in tears. + +“Why, Aunt Lou!” she cried, alarmed. “What is the matter?” + +Mrs. Powell dried her eyes hastily and tried to smile. + +“N-nothing, Jane,” she said. “I--did you get everything from the +store?” + +Jane knew only too well the meaning of those tears. Mrs. Powell could +easily stand up against the added task of caring for her husband +during his illness. But where was the money coming from with which +to pay the rent, the doctor, the store bills? She rightly suspected +that the moving alone had cut deeply into the Powells’ savings. + +A sudden flood of gratitude for this good woman who had been so kind +to her overwhelmed Jane. She went over to Mrs. Powell and laid a hand +lightly on her shoulder. + +“Aunt Lou,” she challenged, with a little thrill in her voice, “I bet +you don’t know who I am!” + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + JANE LOOKS FOR WORK + + +To say that Aunt Lou was surprised at this change in her sober little +mouse would not adequately express her state of mind as she stared at +Jane. + +“Of course I know who you are!” she cried. “You’re Jane Cross and one +of the best and dearest girls alive.” + +Jane shook her head gaily. + +“That’s only half of it,” she cried. “Try again!” + +Mrs. Powell was so completely puzzled that Jane decided to keep her +in suspense no longer. + +She pushed the bundles aside so as to make room for herself on the +kitchen table; then sat on the edge of the table, one foot swinging. + +“It’s so simple I must have been sound asleep not to think of it long +ago,” she said. “Aunt Lou, I’ve decided to be a business woman!” + +“A--what?” gasped Mrs. Powell. + +“Well, anyway, a business girl,” Jane compromised. “Yes, ma’am, I’m +going to get a job, and I think I’ll start out looking for it no +later than to-morrow morning. Now, Mrs. Powell, what have you got to +say to that?” + +This was such a different Jane that the poor lady was utterly +bewildered. + +“Why, Jane dear, what can you do? A girl like you? Why,” protesting, +“you’re scarcely more than a child!” + +“I’m sixteen, if I don’t look it,” Jane said stoutly. “And I’m +sure there ought to be something I can do in this town, if I only +find out what it is. Anyway,” the swinging foot stopped swinging +and Jane looked suddenly very sober, “I can’t be a drag on you and +Uncle Dink when you have been so kind to me. Don’t you suppose,” she +added quickly when Mrs. Powell would have interrupted, “that I know +what you were crying about when I came in? You were worried because +expenses are going on just the same and there is no money coming in +to meet them. Well, I’m going out and make some money!” + +It was a valiant resolve, but when Jane thought of actually putting +it into practice she quailed. + +She was so shy and sensitive that it was actual pain for her to meet +strangers. The thought of asking any one of these for work filled her +with dread. + +Still, it seemed the only thing for her to do. + +“I’ll be killing three birds with one stone if I can only get work +somewhere,” she thought. “First of all, I can help Aunt Lou. Then +I can show that Betty Browning that I am somebody, even though +she thinks she can talk to me as if I were some sort of bug. And +then,” color tinged her face and her eyes began to shine with the +thought, “maybe I can put a little bit aside to help Billy get out +his invention. I don’t think he’d mind taking help from plain Jane, +especially if he knew how happy it made her to be able to help him. +Anyway,” with a resolution that made her heart thump wildly, “I’m +going to try!” + +When Mr. Powell heard of Jane’s determination, his round, +good-natured face shone with something more than gratitude and he +proposed three cheers and a tiger in a husky voice. + +“It won’t be for long, Jane,” he told the girl, regarding his +bandaged hands ruefully. “I’ll get a job again pretty soon, and then +you can give yours up. You’re a plucky youngster and a good one. +You’ll make good in anything you try, Jane Cross.” + +It was a great occasion, that Monday on which Jane started to look +for work. + +Mrs. Powell, good soul, had spent two whole days making a dress which +she said would “look modest and businesslike and, at the same time, +not too plain,” and the seeking for a position had been postponed +until this should be finished. + +The effect was not bad, considering the fact that the dress had +originally been one of Mrs. Powell’s, new three seasons back. It was +of gray, light-weight jersey and was made on long boyish lines that +suited Jane. + +Mrs. Powell had found an old hat, too, which she and Jane remodeled +rather cleverly. It was small and fitted Jane’s sleek head closely, +giving her a well-groomed look. + +Then the Monday morning came that they had set for the great attempt. + +Jane’s new things were hung as carefully in her neat bare closet as +though they had just come from a Fifth Avenue fashion shop, and it is +safe to say that Jane prized them almost as much as though they had +been of such aristocratic origin. + +It was a long time since she had had anything she thought so pretty +as that simple gray jersey frock and the close-fitting hat. + +“I’ll feel quite grown up,” she said, as she did up buttons with +fingers that trembled on that eventful Monday morning. “Oh, I do hope +nobody guesses that I’m barely sixteen! I’m sure I look much older +than that!” + +She did not look even that, however, and for all her hopeful speech, +she knew it. But her very youth was appealing and could be counted on +to plead for her far more effectively than any number of added years +could have done. + +When the gray dress had been put on and adjusted to a nicety, Jane +regarded herself in the glass. + +Her hair was mussed a little and she smoothed it to a glossier +neatness. Her face was flushed with excitement and her eyes sparkled. + +She put on the little hat, pulled it far down over her hair, then +went to the head of the stairs and called Mrs. Powell. + +The latter came, hands sudsy with dish water, to “pass on Jane.” + +Her first glance was one of pleasure and astonishment. + +“I declare to goodness, Jane, you’re certainly good to look at!” +she said. “And smart, too, in that dress, if I do say it of my own +dressmaking!” + +Mr. Powell was brought in to marvel and to praise, which he did +with such heartiness that Jane glowed with happiness and felt a new +confidence in herself. + +“I’ll bring home a job to-night,” she told them, laughing. “The new +dress is bound to bring good luck!” + +Poor Jane! She was soon to find that getting work was a much more +difficult matter than she supposed it would be. + +First, there was Haley’s tea room to visit. + +This place, just opened and trying to be as smart as its city +cousins, was actually more restaurant than tea room. One could have +eaten three good meals a day there and have been satisfied--which +is proof that the name “tea room” did not adequately describe +it. Jane thought she could be a waitress. Not so much to being a +waitress--just a matter of wearing a black dress and a smart white +apron and cap and passing around good things on a tray to hungry +people. Jane thought she could learn the trick quickly and be a very +good waitress. She supposed that sort of work brought very little +money to begin with, but then, if she looked sharp and proved herself +reliable, she might find herself in the position of head-waitress and +from that on up to--well, who knew what? + +Jane did not, nor did she know many other things that she was to +learn within the next few hours. + +The shop was on Main street, about two blocks west of Rose Hill. + +Jane had to pass Mason’s grocery store on the way. She saw Billy +through the plate-glass door and nodded gaily. She might soon have +good news for Billy! + +There was the tea shop. + +She opened the door with her first feeling of timidity. + +Whom did one approach, she wondered, on an errand of this sort? It +was all very bewildering. + +Jane hesitated within the door of the shop. + +There were several people at the daintily appointed tables and some +looked curiously at Jane. Among those who did not look at Jane at +all, was Betty Browning. + +Betty appeared to be having either a late breakfast or an early lunch +of cinnamon rolls and coffee. There were deep circles under her eyes +and she buttered a roll absently as though her mind were miles away. + +If Jane had needed anything to stiffen her courage, the sight of +Betty was enough. She lifted her chin and marched straight to the +rear of the store where a self-sufficient young person was sitting +behind a counter and a wire cage. + +“I’d like to get work here,” Jane said in a steady voice to this +young person. “Do you know where I can ask about it?” + +The girl behind the counter treated Jane to a cool, appraising gaze; +then rose and opened a door marked “Office. Private.” + +She disappeared, leaving Jane to stand there, feeling hot and cold by +turns. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + A FIRST REFUSAL + + +Minutes, that seemed ages to Jane, passed. + +Then the self-sufficient young person, who chewed gum so +nonchalantly, returned and pointed with her thumb toward the open +door. + +“She’ll see you,” said the latter with a sigh of exquisite boredom. +“Walk in!” + +Jane was not sure she could walk. Her knees were feeling very wabbly. + +She managed the distance to the door very creditably, however, pushed +the door open, and stepped within the room beyond. + +A gray-haired, bespectacled, sharp-nosed person sat very still in +a chair near a desk. She looked up as Jane entered, frowned, and +pointed toward the door. + +“Shut it!” she commanded. + +Hardly a very promising beginning, thought Jane. + +Nevertheless, she obeyed the command and approached the desk with a +firmer step. + +She was about to speak when the grim-faced individual gave her a +quick glance and said sharply: + +“What is your business, young woman? Be quick, for I have a great +deal to do.” + +Jane had supposed the girl in the iron cage had explained her errand. +It was a shock to find that she was to be forced to break the ice +twice over. + +“I’d like a position,” she said bravely. “I--I hope you have an +opening. I’d try to be very careful and give good service.” + +“Good gracious!” The spectacles glared at Jane as though she had +committed some heinous offense. “Do I hear aright? Do you want to +become a waitress--_here_?” + +The emphasis on the “here” was so marked that Jane at once felt how +presumptuous she had been even to think of such a thing! She faltered: + +“I did hope that--that you might have an opening.” + +“Well, I haven’t!” The words were snapped out smartly. “Next time +please explain your business at the desk before you force your way in +here and waste my time. It is valuable, young woman, though you may +not know it.” + +Jane did not stop to explain to this sharp-tongued woman that she had +told her business to the girl at the desk and that the last thought +in her mind was to force herself in anywhere. + +She only wanted to get away from there. + +She found her way blindly to the door, opened it, closed it, and +stumbled through the store toward the entrance. + +In passing the table where Betty Browning sat she stumbled over an +uneven spot in the rug and lurched against the elbow of the pretty +girl. + +The latter cried out in annoyance as the coffee slopped over in her +saucer. Instantly a waitress was at her side. + +“I’ll get you a fresh cup, Miss,” said the girl, all solicitude for +Betty and all hard looks for Jane. “It’s a pity some people can’t +watch where they’re going!” + +“Yes,” Jane heard Betty’s bored voice say as she opened the door, +“isn’t it!” + +Jane ran for two whole blocks and drew up at the corner of the second +one rather out of breath but far more normal in mind. + +“Well, I’ve got that out of my system,” she thought, trying to laugh +and making a bad business of it. “Now I’ll try again. Better luck +next time.” + +But her confidence was severely shaken. + +The attitude of the sharp woman with the spectacles was discouraging. +She had not even given Jane a real answer to her request for a +position. Of course what she had said was a plain enough refusal, but +Jane’s sense of justice was outraged. The woman might at least have +told her that she had no vacancy at the present but that she would +keep her in mind and perhaps have a place for her at some future date. + +As it was, she had been positively insulting. Hot color rushed to +Jane’s face as she thought of the interview. And as though that were +not enough, she had been awkward and gawkish before pretty Betty +Browning again. + +How quick the waitress had been to serve Betty--how quick to blame +Jane! + +Jane put a hand to her burning face and walked on swiftly. + +There was all the difference in the world between Plain Jane and +Pretty Betty. But she would show them--she would show them all yet! + +She went to Greenville’s largest drygoods store then. She might be +able to get a position there. + +Mr. Grey, the proprietor, received her pleasantly enough but was +discouraging when she mentioned her need of work. + +“I’m sorry, my dear young lady,” he said. “But we have all the clerks +we need. One of ’em might die and leave a vacancy, but that’s about +the only chance there would be for you. And right now, they’re a +pretty healthy lot.” + +Jane understood that he meant this pleasantry in a kindly way, but it +grated just the same. Jane was in no mood for pleasantries. + +From this store she went to the Palace, Greenville’s one moving +picture house. + +“I thought you might need some one to give out tickets or to act +as usher,” she said timidly to Max Rosenberg, the florid-faced, +thick-lipped proprietor of the Palace. + +Max Rosenberg was one of those men who think themselves charmingly +humorous but are, in reality, only offensive. Jane left the place +wearily, and without her position, feeling for the first time faintly +apprehensive. + +“Suppose I can’t get a job, after all?” she thought. “I always +supposed any one could find work to do if they really wanted to do it +badly enough. _Now_--where do I go?” + +She went to many places during the remainder of that long afternoon +and met with no success anywhere. + +She was hot, tired, and hungry. Several times she had been on the +point of returning home for a little rest and refreshment, but each +time stopped herself with the thought that she would try one more +place before giving up for the day. + +“I won’t go home without something to do!” she told herself, and the +more weary she became, the brighter burned her resolution. + +At the corner of Cherry and Blossom Streets she paused for a moment +to rest her feet. The afternoon was hot and she had walked a long +way. + +While she rested, a sign across the street caught her attention. She +started and looked more closely. + +This was Garwick’s Real Estate Agency. Jane had heard Mr. Powell +speak of John Garwick as the most successful realtor in town. + +She had not thought of applying to him for a position, principally +because she had not thought of herself as being useful in a real +estate office. + +What made her think of it now was a feeling of desperation and a +sign that had been inserted in one end of the street window. It was +a large sign, blackly lettered. Jane had no difficulty in reading it +from across the street. The sign said merely, “Clerk Wanted.” But +that was enough for Jane. + +Marshaling what was left of her courage and leaving herself no time +for thought, Jane crossed the street and pushed open the door of +Garwick’s Real Estate Agency. + +Two men were in earnest conversation, heads close together, voices +low. + +Jane felt that she was interrupting and gasped an embarrassed apology. + +The gray-haired man in the swivel chair near the desk glanced up at +her and smiled pleasantly. + +The black-haired man leaned back in the wicker chair and looked +curious. + +Jane’s face was red, but she could not back out now. + +“What can I do for you?” asked the gray-haired man pleasantly. + +“I--I saw your sign in the window,” Jane said. “I thought, +perhaps----” + +“It meant what it said and that I really wanted a clerk?” finished +the gray-haired man, taking pity on her confusion. “Well, so I do. +If you will be kind enough to take a seat while I finish my business +with this gentleman, I will be very glad to talk to you.” + +Jane sank down in one of the wicker chairs with a quick intake of +breath that was almost a sob. + +Here was something that seemed to hold out a little hope. She was +grateful to John Garwick and loved him from that moment with the love +of a child for the first person who has been truly kind. + +If only she could suit him! If only she might be allowed to work for +him! + +Mr. Garwick’s business with the black-haired man was soon finished. +The two seemed on the best of terms and parted in a very friendly +manner. + +When the door had closed upon his client, Mr. Garwick turned to Jane. + +“Well, young lady,” he said, “so you saw my sign in the window. I +presume you came in answer to it. Am I right?” + +“Yes, sir!” Jane felt breathless. It was all she could do to speak +at all. “I want a position so much, and when I saw your sign I +thought--well, I thought maybe I might do your work. I’m willing to +try very hard. Indeed I am!” + +The half-bantering smile on Mr. Garwick’s face faded at the vehemence +of her tone and his expression took on an answering earnestness. + +“I believe you,” he said, and added slowly, as he continued to study +Jane’s face: “I shouldn’t wonder if you are exactly the type of young +person I want.” + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + A TASTE OF SUCCESS + + +Jane Cross could not believe that she had heard the real estate +dealer correctly. She tried to smile, but her lips trembled. She +pressed them tight together and continued to look at Mr. Garwick, her +eyes very large and dark. + +“You see,” the pleasant-faced gentleman continued, “the young fellow +I had with me here for a long time deserted me for a New York firm +that offered him broader opportunities. You can’t blame the boy, but +at the same time you can see that his desertion left me in rather a +hole.” + +“A man!” gasped Jane. “Do--why do you think--I could possibly take +the place of a--man?” + +By this speech it may be seen how very unaccustomed indeed Jane was +to the ways of a modern business world. But Mr. Garwick liked her +none the less for it, though he was amused. + +“Of course, that remains to be seen,” he pointed out. “You are the +first person to answer my sign, which was placed in the window only +this noon, and I’m inclined to give you a chance. + +“The work isn’t difficult,” he went on, seeing that Jane looked a bit +frightened. “It will be mostly a matter of taking telephone messages +at first and of attending to clients while I am forced to be away +from the office.” + +“I’m quite sure that I could do that!” Jane said earnestly. + +“So am I,” smiled Mr. Garwick. “You look like a young person who +would put her mind to whatever she attempted. Well, suppose we do +this.” He swung about in his chair and placed the fingers of his two +hands together in a meditative gesture. “Suppose we try you out for a +month and see how you like us? At the end of that time--well, we may +even raise the salary.” + +Jane knew what the other alternative would be--what would happen--in +case Mr. Garwick did not like her! + +But she was grateful for a chance. That was all, she told herself +breathlessly, that she asked. + +“Well, what do you say?” asked Mr. Garwick, smiling. + +“Oh, thank you! I’ll try so hard to do what you want me to. When--” +Jane hesitated, then plunged boldly: “When will you want me to start?” + +“The sooner the better.” Mr. Garwick fumbled restlessly with some +papers on his desk. “I’ve fallen behind in my collections, and now +it’s necessary for me to make up for lost time. Can you start +to-morrow morning? I will start you at twelve dollars a week.” + +Could she! And twelve dollars a week! + +Jane almost clapped her hands, but remembered just in time that that +would be childish. She was practically grown up now and about to +embark upon a career! She must be careful. + +So instead of clapping her hands she merely looked her gladness and +said “Yes, indeed!” in such an eager voice that Mr. Garwick seemed +satisfied. + +“All right,” he said. “Nine o’clock sharp, for we’ll have a busy day +before us.” + +He opened the door for her with his pleasant smile and Jane found +herself once more in the hot street. But with what a difference! + +Main Street, baking in the mid-afternoon heat of the sun, was no +longer merely the main business street of a small town. It was, +to Jane’s happy fancy, a thoroughfare of romance, and if she had +suddenly awakened to find the streets paved with gold she would +not have been surprised. So had life changed for her in one scant +half-hour! + +“I’ve got a job! I’ve got a job!” The triumphant refrain sang itself +over and over again in her mind, banishing all feeling of fatigue, +filling her with a desire to dance, to sing, to tell her happiness to +every one she met. + +If she had encountered Betty Browning now, her eyes would not +have fallen beneath the glance of the rich girl. She had grown +immeasurably in her own estimation during the past half-hour. She +was no longer just Plain Jane, but Plain Jane _with a job at twelve +dollars a week_, and again, what a difference! + +On the way home she had to pass Mason’s store again. + +She remembered that Mrs. Powell had said something in the morning +about needing sugar and flour and a dozen eggs. Jane would just stop +in and see whether Mrs. Powell had been to market yet, and, if not, +she would take the provisions home herself. + +She felt very gay and independent as she opened the familiar door. +A customer came out as she entered, and for a moment the store was +empty of all but herself and Billy. + +The latter had his back turned toward her as he straightened some +packages on the shelves and Jane’s heart was touched by the pathetic +droop of his shoulders. + +Billy was having a hard time of it. Nothing had been proved against +him in connection with the Martin and Hull disaster, but he was under +a cloud, a heavy dark cloud that could not be dispelled until some +solution of the mystery had been reached. + +Rumors were that Martin and Hull had collected enough insurance to +permit of their building again on a small scale. But they were both +old men, and it was hard for them to start again at their time of +life, forced as they were to pocket a loss that made it extremely +doubtful whether the feed and grain business would ever function +again on its old-time scale of prosperity. + +Small wonder that they were bitter against the one they thought +responsible for their misfortune. And, to do the old men justice, +they were both firmly convinced in their hearts that Billy Dobson was +the one responsible. + +They considered all would-be inventors slightly mad to begin with, +and they knew Billy’s excitable temper as well as his passionate +desire to find some one who would finance his latest invention. They +fully believed that in a fit of vengeful rage against them he had +set fire to their place. What was worse, they intended that all of +Greenville should believe it. Not all of Greenville did, of course, +but Billy was destined to remain under a cloud, nevertheless, until +his innocence was proved. + +“Billy!” + +There was something so breathless and triumphant in Jane’s voice that +the lad whirled about, half startled. + +“Hello, Jane! What’s up?” + +“Billy, I’ve got a job--a life-sized job--with Mr. Garwick!” + +“With John Garwick?” asked Billy, and as Jane nodded, whistled his +amazement. + +“Say, that’s great! But say, Jane, I didn’t know you wanted a job!” + +“Neither did I until a little time ago,” laughed Jane, pleased by +Billy’s unfeigned delight and astonishment. “But now I’ve got it, +wild horses couldn’t drag me away from it. I’m so happy I just had to +tell somebody or go crazy.” + +“I always said you were a game kid,” said Billy, looking at her +approvingly. “Now I know it. Go in, Jane, and win!” + +There were more customers then and no chance for further conversation. + +After he had done up her bundle for her, however, Billy’s hand +squeezed hers in comradely fashion and he said under his breath: + +“How about going to the movies some night, Jane? I want to hear more +about the big job.” + +“All right.” + +“How about to-morrow night?” + +Jane nodded, and, feeling rather breathless, hurried from the store. + +Her first job and her first invitation to the movies, all in one day! +It was too much! Jane thought she must burst with joy! + +She entered the house calling for Mrs. Powell, and at the sound of +her voice the latter came running. + +One glance at Jane’s face was enough. + +“Jane, you don’t mean to tell me you’ve got it!” + +“Oh, Aunt Lou--here, let me get this package out of my arms--there, +now I’m going to hug you, look out! I’ve got it; yes, I have! You +needn’t look at me as if I’d gone crazy. It’s my first job, you know, +and I’ve got to get used to the feel of having it. Aunt Lou, aren’t +you glad? Quick! Say you’re as glad as I am!” + +“You crazy child! If you’ll stop squeezing my neck and let me catch +my breath! There, that’s better! Now tell me again, Jane. You’re sure +you’re not joking?” + +So Jane told her to the minutest detail what had happened from the +moment she stepped inside the real estate office up to that happy +moment when she stepped out of it again. + +Mr. Powell came in from a visit to the doctor and a redressing of his +bandaged hands in time to hear the end of the recital, and of course +the story had to be told all over again for his benefit. + +Mr. and Mrs. Powell were very proud of Jane and, looking upon her +with fond eyes, thought she could not have been dearer to them if she +had been their own. + +On her part, Jane was thinking how generous and kind they had always +been to her and that nothing she could do in return could more than +partly pay her debt to them. + +The next day, the first of Jane’s altered life, dawned gloriously. +She took this as a good omen and sallied forth to work filled with +enthusiasm and hope. + +“I’ve got to please him!” she told herself, remembering Mr. Garwick’s +words of yesterday. “I’m only on trial, really, and to lose a +position I should think would be even worse than not finding one at +all!” + +She was even a little ahead of time, and Mr. Garwick greeted her in +friendly fashion and set her to work at once. + +“We won’t let any grass grow under our feet,” he told her, with a +pleasant smile. “Now let me show you what you are to do.” + +Half an hour later Jane was left alone with her responsibility and +the telephone--and she was not sure which frightened her the more! + +“If you ring,” she told the telephone, “I’ll run a mile--Oh, my good +gracious,” as the bell rang shrilly, insistently, “there you go now!” + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + A BUSINESS DAY + + +That ’phone was a nightmare to Jane that first day. It seemed to ring +incessantly--though of course it did not--and the girl’s fingers +became tired holding the pencil. + +Some of those disembodied voices over the wire were so soft that Jane +could scarcely hear them, and she disliked to ask them to repeat too +many times, for fear of appearing stupid. + +She took the messages, and, what is even more remarkable, she took +them correctly. + +There were personal callers, too, of course, and these interested +Jane. + +She was shy and self-conscious at first, but soon lost this shyness +and self-consciousness in the fascination of the work she was doing. + +It was wonderful to feel herself part of the hum and swing of +business. Seeing how much business Mr. Garwick handled, she soon +began to take pride in her employer and in the fact that she was his +representative. + +People who entered the real estate office of John Garwick found +a young woman plainly but neatly dressed who rose to greet them +pleasantly and asked their business in a professional voice. + +Those clients liked her and talked freely to her--more freely, +perhaps, than they would have talked to John Garwick himself. + +As for Jane, she took a personal interest in each one of them +and listened to the recital of their individual problems with a +flattering interest. + +From fright at the responsibility that had been placed on her young +shoulders, Jane came to delight in her new importance. + +By the time Mr. Garwick returned from his round of rent collecting, +Jane’s face was flushed, her over-neat hair rather tousled here and +there. Altogether she looked like a different girl. + +“Well, how did you get along?” asked her employer, with a smile. +“Many people been here? How about ’phone messages?” + +Jane showed him her neat memorandum list of telephone calls and the +notes she had made of personal calls. + +“Here they all are,” she said, and added anxiously: “I do hope they +are all right!” + +Contrary to Mr. Garwick’s expectations, founded on rather long +experience of new clerks, they were. + +He called up his various clients and verified Jane’s report on them. +Then he smiled at her. + +“I see we are going to get along, young lady,” he said. “You have +done a good day’s work!” + +Jane was happier than she had ever been in her life as she sat beside +Billy that evening in the moving picture house and watched the +impossibly handsome hero of the picture go through impossibly heroic +“stunts” on the screen. + +“I’m going to love the work, Billy,” she said, in response to the +latter’s sympathetic questions. “Mr. Garwick said some mighty nice +things to me to-day, and if I don’t make him like me and my work lots +better in the next few weeks, it won’t be because I haven’t tried!” + +Later she attempted to get Billy to talk about his inventions. But +the youth was unexpectedly gruff and taciturn when the subject was +broached and Jane soon dropped it. + +“He’s discouraged--poor Billy!” she thought, and became even more set +in her determination to help him if such a thing were possible. + +So matters went on for about a week. + +Jane became so different from the quiet mouse-like girl she had been +that those who knew her best marveled. + +She got up in the morning with a song on her lips. She fairly danced +through her dressing, the tidying of her own room, and breakfast. +She was all smiles and sunny good humor to Mr. and Mrs. Powell, +insisted on helping the latter with the dishes before she ran off +to work, prophesying the most optimistic things about Mr. Powell’s +injured hands and the probability of his soon finding work again, and +generally acting like a streak of sunshine in the house. + +Also, responsibility was changing her quickly from the child she had +always been, younger in seeming than her years, to a young woman. + +“We thought we were doing Jane a kindness to take her in and give her +a home when Sarah Cross died,” Mrs. Powell said to her husband one +morning after Jane had run off, throwing a kiss to them as she turned +the corner on her way to work. “If we did, we’ve surely been paid for +it. What would we do now without that girl I’d like to know, since +we’ve had such bad luck?” + +“She’s one in a thousand,” Mr. Powell agreed. “And if we weather this +hard period, it’ll be because of her.” + +By this time Jane and Mr. Garwick were firm friends. The girl was so +careful, so painstaking, so eager to learn, and, withal, so clever +that the genial realtor began to feel that he had found a treasure. +Her pay was raised to fifteen dollars a week. + +For one so young, Jane picked up the rudiments of the business in +a surprisingly short time, and she handled clients or prospective +clients with a tact and ease that surprised her employer. + +She was eager to learn details concerning the property handled by +the Garwick Agency, and several times went out to inspect various +tracts or blocks of buildings after working hours simply because she +was interested in the business and wanted to find out all she could +about it. First, second, and purchase mortgages became of fascinating +interest to her, and she pored over papers and contracts until her +employer laughingly declared she would ruin her eyes and would +perhaps have to wear a pair of those great horn-rimmed spectacles +that made a young person look like an owl. + +Then one morning Mr. Garwick had news for her. + +“We’ve got a new house to list,” he says, glancing at her oddly. “The +kind of house this agency hasn’t handled for a long while.” + +The very word “house” was enough to rouse Jane’s interest. She looked +her question. + +“It’s the very finest of all the places on Rose Hill,” said Mr. +Garwick. “Clyde Browning’s house.” + +“Oh!” The exclamation came from between Jane’s lips. “Then--oh, why +does he wish to sell his house?” + +“I guess it isn’t a case of wish,” said Mr. Garwick, and Jane could +see that he was genuinely sorry. “It’s a case, I take it, of stark +necessity. He has to sell.” + +“Then it’s true,” Jane said slowly. “It’s true what I’ve heard people +say--that Mr. Browning has lost all his money?” + +“I don’t know much about all of it,” said Mr. Garwick, tapping +thoughtfully with his pencil on the edge of his desk. “I imagine he +must have some left. But not nearly enough to keep up that big house +on the hill with its servants and motor cars. It will be quite a come +down for Browning, and I’m sorry. He’s always been a good fellow and +a mighty popular one in town. Every one likes him--and pities him.” + +“Because he’s lost his money?” Jane asked. + +“That, of course.” Mr. Garwick nodded, but his face darkened as he +added: “What Browning is to be most pitied for are those two selfish +extravagant women of his. They’ll do nothing to help him through this +crisis, you can bank on that.” + +Jane was silent for a moment. She was thinking of Betty Browning--of +the pretty, petulant face, the disdainful, almost rude manner of the +girl who had lived in the finest house on Rose Hill. + +Jane had no reason to love Betty Browning. Yet, being Jane, she took +no pleasure in the contemplation of the downfall of the pretty, +spoiled girl. She felt only how hard it would be for a person like +that to meet poverty and accustom herself to it. + +She said something of this to Mr. Garwick, and he looked at her +curiously. + +“I wouldn’t waste any pity on conceited doll-faced Betty Browning,” +he said, with a grimace of distaste. “From the airs that girl puts +on, any one might think she owned Greenville. No, I’m not in the +least sorry for her or for that extravagant selfish mother of hers. +I’m thinking of Browning, and I tell you I wouldn’t be in that +fellow’s shoes just now for a million dollars!” + +Outside of business hours Jane thought of little else that day and +for many days to follow. + +The beautiful house on Rose Hill to be sold! Betty Browning no longer +able to lord it over the small town like a royal princess! What would +she do? + +Meanwhile, that was the very thing that Betty Browning was wondering, +pretty Betty in the big house on Rose Hill. + +Since that nightmare night of the fire at Martin and Hull’s when her +world had threatened to topple about her feet, Betty had lived in a +daze of unreality. + +At first she hoped that her father would tell her it had all been a +big mistake--that his investments had turned out well in spite of his +fears, and that the horror of financial ruin was farther off than it +had ever been. + +But this Mr. Browning failed to do. He kept silence, going about +his business with a grim face and set lips that told nothing. Betty +watched him covertly and wondered how her mother could be so blind to +the tragedy in his every look and gesture. + +Mrs. Browning conducted herself to all intents and purposes as though +the revealing conversation of that awful night had not been. The only +sacrifice she made was to relinquish thought of the black gown that +had caught her fancy. + +Then one day, the final blow fell. + +A maid knocked on Betty’s door while the girl was dressing to go out +to a tea at one of the neighboring houses on Rose Hill. + +Betty looked very lovely in a dress the color of a summer sky. + +She turned to the maid and said curtly: + +“Well, Nanette?” + +“Mr. Browning is in the library,” said Nanette, with a curious stare +at her pretty mistress. “He says, will you please come down at once.” + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + BETTY MAKES HER CHOICE + + +Nothing unusual nor very alarming in this summons, thought Betty, as +she turned for a final look at her pretty reflection in the glass. + +Her father often called her into the library when he had anything +special to speak to her about. The summons usually meant a row about +her allowance, she thought, with a suggestion of a pout on her pretty +mouth. + +What if she did sometimes spend a month’s allowance in a week? +Were they not the owners of the best house, the best cars, the +most expensive clothes in Greenville? Did they not employ the +highest-waged servants? Surely they had a position to keep up! + +How like your mother, Betty! Mr. Browning would have said, and smiled +could he have read his daughter’s thoughts just then, but it would +not have been a happy smile! + +One more fluffing up of the fair hair and with an added droop of +discontent on her pretty mouth Betty turned toward the door. + +Halfway there a thoughtful look came into her eyes. + +This summons might mean more than the ordinary bi-monthly “row,” +which Betty almost invariably won, having her mother on her side. + +Perhaps her father meant to break his silence concerning his involved +affairs. Perhaps the time had come---- + +She did not complete the thought, but hurried toward the stairway, +vague panic in her heart. + +There was the sound of voices in the library, her mother’s petulant +but controlled, her father’s, a gruff undertone. + +As Betty descended the stairs silence fell, and the girl read +something dreadful into that silence. + +She knocked at the closed door of the library and her father called a +brief, “Come in.” + +Betty stood just within the doorway and looked upon the scene with +widening eyes. + +It was a luxurious room, this library in the finest house on Rose +Hill. + +There was a big open fireplace where, in the winter, burning logs +blazed cheerily. The floor was brightly polished and animal skins +were scattered in an effect of careless beauty over its polished +surface. + +A davenport was drawn up before the fireplace, and this, heaped with +cushions, backed up against a long slender table that bore a lamp of +exquisite design and workmanship. + +Books there were lining three sides of the room, well-thumbed books +that looked as if they had been well read by at least one member of +the family. + +Easy chairs were scattered about, and the whole room bore an air of +homeliness not characteristic of the rest of the house. + +This was Mr. Browning’s room. He had insisted that one place in +the house that had been built with his money should be furnished +according to his taste. He loved books, and so had chosen the library +as his room. + +In one of the big easy chairs reposed Mrs. Browning--though Betty +thought at the moment that the expression on her mother’s face was +anything but reposeful. But since it was Mrs. Browning’s private +boast that nothing could disturb her self-control or poise, she +reclined gracefully now, even in face of the truly devastating shock +just dealt her by her husband. + +Mrs. Browning’s face was sullen and angry and as her daughter entered +the room she turned away so that only her profile was visible. + +Mr. Browning had evidently been striding up and down the room. + +He paused as Betty came in and motioned her to a seat. + +“I’ll keep you but a few moments,” he said in a curiously hard, dry +voice. “I thought you ought to know this, Betty, and, since your +mother desired me to tell you, now is as good a time as any.” + +Betty sat down on the edge of a chair while her father resumed his +restless pacing up and down, up and down, the room. + +What was he about to say? What could that look on his face mean? + +For several moments her father did not speak, and the room was tense +with suspense. Betty glanced at her mother and saw that the latter +was stubbornly looking the other way. A small, exquisitely shod foot +was tapping, tapping on the polished floor. + +Mr. Browning came and stood before his daughter, his eyes steadily +meeting hers. + +“The long and short of it is, Betty, I’ve lost practically all my +money. That’s the simple truth, and the sooner we all get used to it, +the better.” + +“Your father can speak of it like that!” Mrs. Browning whirled +about and faced her daughter, hand upraised. “To drag us down into +poverty--and then to speak of it like that!” + +“I--I don’t think I quite understand, dad,” Betty was groping, +bewildered. Her eyes had never once left her father’s face. “Shall we +be really poor?” + +“I’m afraid so, Betty.” The father’s tone had softened; there were +deep unhappy lines about his mouth. “We have very little left.” + +“We shall have to--leave this house?” Betty passed a hand before her +eyes as though to brush aside a curtain that obscured her sight. + +“Assuredly.” + +Mr. Browning was watching her intently. Even Mrs. Browning’s foot +stopped its restless tapping as she watched, with angry attention, +the scene between father and daughter. + +“And the servants will have to go, I suppose,” said Betty, still +groping her way. “And we can’t have either of the cars?” + +“Good gracious, Betty! Can’t you understand that your father has +ruined us, that he has dragged us down to poverty!” + +“Wait!” commanded Mr. Browning, his hand uplifted, his eyes on Betty. +“Give the girl a chance. It’s all pretty new--and pretty rotten, eh, +Betty?” + +“I--I don’t know.” + +Betty got up and walked over to the window, the eyes of both her +parents following her. She stood for a long time looking out at the +beautifully kept grounds that had, for almost as long as she could +remember, formed the boundaries of her life and wondered what life +would seem like without all the luxurious things to which she had +been accustomed. + +She had always had money, and so her imagination failed her when she +tried to consider life without it. + +Still, other people had no money and they seemed to get along. When +you lost your money you didn’t just die. You must get along some way. + +Behind her she heard her mother recommence her high-pitched, nagging +accusations. She listened to them absently, still turning the problem +over and over in her own mind, trying to understand. + +“You have always been reckless,” she heard her mother say. “You have +always taken chances with your money----” + +“And those chances made us a fortune,” her father interrupted, in +hopeless, dogged tones. + +“Yes, and where is it now? I always told you you would lose +everything you had if you didn’t stop gambling.” + +“Who was it drove me on and on to wilder chances by extravagance, by +demands out of all proportion to my income? But this must stop,” he +caught himself up harshly. “Recriminations never did help, and they +can’t help now. The fact is that we shall have to give up this house +at once.” + +“Now?” cried his wife, startled from her languid pose. “Why, that’s +impossible!” + +“At once!” repeated Mr. Browning, as though he had not heard her. +“Everything else must go. Our two cars, servants, everything.” + +“I never heard such nonsense! Give up both cars? Never!” + +“Then what are you going to do, dad?” Betty spoke quietly from the +window, startling her parents to attention. + +“I am going into business,” said Mr. Browning with a promptness that +showed he had thought the thing out long before. “And I am going to +start right in this town where I first made my money.” + +Mrs. Browning gave a shriek and sank back among the cushions. + +“Oh, the disgrace! The disgrace of it!” she moaned. “I shall never be +able to hold up my head again!” + +“Oh, mother, don’t! Can’t you see how you are worrying dad?” + +“Worrying him?” Mrs. Browning looked at her daughter in honest +bewilderment. “You can speak of worrying him after what he has +done to me--to us! Have you no thought for yourself, if you cannot +consider your poor mother?” + +“Why,” said Betty, her eyes wandering to the grim, haunted-eyed face +of her father, “just then I was thinking of dad!” + +Mr. Browning tried to speak, but sank down heavily in a chair near +the table, holding his head in his hands. + +The drooping of his shoulders, the struggling of emotion she had seen +in his lined face before he hid it from her, did something queer to +Betty. + +She could see with a sudden startling plainness all that her father +had passed through during that last week or two, could see that he +had faced his trouble all alone, but bravely. There had been no one +to care, no one to help him, no one to do anything but blame and +reproach him. + +Slowly she crossed the room and laid a hand on his broad shoulder. + +“It must have been awfully hard, dad. I’m sorry.” + +“Sorry--for me, Betty?” Mr. Browning looked up incredulously into +the lovely face of his daughter. His fingers reached up until they +grasped the slender hand on his shoulder. + +“So sorry, dad! Is there anything I can do to help?” + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + A DREADFUL DISCOVERY + + +The look that dawned in her father’s face, Betty Browning was to +remember for many a long day. The face that had been so stern and set +softened magically. + +“So you want to help, do you, Betty? You want to help your old dad?” + +Betty nodded, and Mr. Browning got up suddenly and walked to the +window. + +He stood for a moment, looking, but seeing nothing, then turned and +held out his arms. + +“Come here, Betty,” he said in a voice that, for all his failure, had +a ring of triumph in it. “Come here and get hugged!” + +Mrs. Browning could not understand. She was honestly bewildered by +Betty’s attitude, by what she called her “desertion.” + +“No one sympathizes with me,” she moaned. “No one! The fact that I +must give up my home, my servants, my cars, means nothing to any +one. Betty, to whom it should mean as much as it means to me, seems +to think it will all be a pleasant adventure, losing everything and +being as poor as church mice!” + +“I don’t expect it to be pleasant,” Betty began patiently, only to +have her mother wave her aside with an angry, impatient gesture. + +“Oh, don’t speak to me! Don’t talk to me! I know just how it is! +Don’t think I can’t understand! You care more for your father than +you do for me! You will stand up for him, no matter what he has done!” + +“But he hasn’t done anything, purposely,” Betty cried, exasperated, +only to have her mother throw up her hands and moan: + +“You see? She stands up for her father against everything and +everybody--even her poor mother!” + +Against this, of course, Betty could do nothing. Nor could Mr. +Browning. They gave up trying after a while and left Mrs. Browning to +her lamentations, while together, father and daughter, they tried to +pick up the pieces of their ruined fortunes in the hope of salvaging +something from the wreck. + +Meanwhile, Jane was very busy in Mr. Garwick’s office. While she +wondered a great deal about unfortunate Mr. Browning and his pretty +daughter, she heard nothing further concerning them and so allowed +herself to become absorbed in her work. + +She saw a great deal of Billy, even though she knew that Greenville +talked about her friendship with him and was prone to extend the dark +cloud of suspicion that hovered over him to include her also if she +flaunted her championship of him too openly. + +The Powell front porch became a veritable “parking place” for Billy, +as he himself expressed it. While both Mr. and Mrs. Powell liked the +young fellow very much and were in their hearts convinced that Billy +knew no more of the origin of the Martin and Hull fire than they did +themselves, they disliked to see Jane too intimate with him. + +Mr. Powell ventured a gentle protest one night, but Jane flamed +out right royally in defense of her friend and Mr. Powell retired, +defeated, in chuckling admiration of her loyalty. + +“She’s true blue, that girl,” he told his wife. “I took a chance for +her sake. But I’m glad she didn’t listen to me. I’d have thought the +worse of her for it if she had.” + +Then came the wonderful day when Mr. Garwick gave Jane her second +increase in salary. This gave her twenty dollars a week, and it +wafted Jane to the seventh heaven of delight and hopefulness. + +Without saying anything to anybody, Jane started a little fund. + +“We managed to get along fairly well on my salary before I got the +increase,” she told herself, experiencing all the delight of a +cheerful conspirator. “It won’t be so very long before I have quite a +little sum, and then--oh just wait till I tell Billy!” + +After that she worked harder than ever for her employer. Mr. Garwick +came more and more to depend upon the quick-witted sensible girl. He +even began to discuss little business problems with her that bothered +him and was amazed and delighted by her quick grasp of the subject +and her clear reasoning. + +As a matter of fact, Jane was head over ears in love with the +business and welcomed the occasional confidences of Mr. Garwick more +eagerly than she would the reading of an adventure story--and Jane +loved stories of adventure, especially when there was a spice of +mystery in them. + +Delighted at the eager interest of his young assistant, Mr. Garwick +initiated her more and more into his confidences until there came a +day when he admitted to his wife that he scarcely knew who ran the +business, himself or Jane! + +While she lost herself in her absorbing work, things were happening +in the Powell cottage that were to effect Jane’s entire future. + +When Mrs. Cross had died in Coal Run, leaving Jane to the kindly Mrs. +Powell’s care, there had been a trunk of the girl’s things that were +to be used for Jane by Mrs. Powell as the latter saw fit. + +The trunk had remained in the Powell’s storeroom from that day, +untouched and practically forgotten. Jane, who knew of her mother’s +habit of saving practically worthless things, had felt no interest +in it. When they moved from Coal Run the trunk had come too, and had +been put in the open attic of the new house. + +It would in all probability have remained there indefinitely, to be +covered with dust and cobwebs and finally forgotten if Mrs. Powell +had not been reminded of it by necessity. + +Jane must have clothes. That much was certain, but where to get them +was the problem. + +Mrs. Powell thought that she could do with her old clothes at home, +but Jane, as temporary wage-earner of the family, should be well +dressed--if such a thing were possible. + +Dubiously, Mrs. Powell examined her own wardrobe and Jane’s, only to +decide finally that they were hopeless. Everything Jane had, had been +changed and made over and dyed so often that they were only fit now +for the rag-bag. + +“Poor child, she must have some new clothes! But how?” + +It was here that Mrs. Powell thought of the old trunk in the attic. + +“Just the very thing! Why didn’t I think of it before?” + +Mrs. Powell had the key of the trunk somewhere. It took her a +considerable time to find it, but finally, armed and triumphant, she +ascended to the attic to examine the things left by Mrs. Cross. + +There was something almost eerie about the proceeding. The attic +seemed very close and dusty, the silence of the empty house +oppressive as Mrs. Powell fitted the key in the lock of the trunk and +flung back the lid. + +The contents lay revealed to her, clothing neatly folded, laid there +by the hands of the dead woman. + +Mrs. Powell felt a curious reluctance to disturb those things. She +wanted suddenly to close the lid of the trunk, lock it, and leave the +trunk, contents and all, to the accumulative cobwebs and dust of the +attic. + +“Nonsense!” she scolded, ashamed of her mood. “The things belong to +Jane, they were to be used for her. Don’t be such a fool, Lou Powell!” + +She took out layer after layer of faded, worn dresses, things that +had been carefully laid away by a careful woman as having some +possible use in time to come. + +“Nothing for Jane here,” Mrs. Powell muttered, disappointed. “The +clothes she has now are better than these old things. Hello--what’s +this?” + +“This” was a carefully folded piece of dark blue serge. + +Here was a discovery! Enough for a new dress for Jane, probably. + +Mrs. Powell shook it out eagerly, and to her amazement a large white +envelope fell from the folds of it. + +She picked up the envelope curiously and examined the words that were +scrawled across it in pencil. + + “To be read by Jane’s guardian and the contents to be disclosed + to Jane, should the guardian see fit. + + “Sarah Cross.” + +Mrs. Powell stared at the envelope for a long time, her brow wrinkled +with bewilderment. Then, suddenly making up her mind, she tore open +the flap of the envelope and drew forth a folded slip of paper. + +Whatever the message of the dead woman, it disturbed Mrs. Powell +profoundly. + +She read and re-read the words on the paper, the frown on her face +growing, the look of pain in her eyes deepening. + +“My poor Jane! My poor, dear, loyal little Jane. Oh, this is +dreadful, dreadful!” she moaned. + +She sat there on the floor of the attic, the bit of paper in her +hand, until the lengthening shadows warned her that the afternoon was +almost gone. + +She roused herself then and, with a deep sigh, she thrust the paper +back into the envelope. + +“Awful, awful! What shall I do?” + +Automatically she replaced the faded dresses in the trunk, keeping +out only the piece of dark serge that was to make Jane the +much-needed new dress. + +Then she rose wearily and stumbled down the steep steps of the attic. + +She went into Jane’s room, that little barrack of a room with the +one window where the sun seldom penetrated. Slowly Mrs. Powell +looked about the room. In spite of its bareness, it was neat, clean, +cheerful--like Jane herself. + +“Dear child! I can’t tell her! I won’t tell her! Why, it would break +her heart!” + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + A CHANGE OF EMPLOYERS + + +All unconscious that anything unusual had happened, Jane came home +that night, beaming with happiness. + +“Everything is going so beautifully at the office,” she told her +kind friend, and added, as she took off her hat and put on her apron +preparatory to helping with the dinner: + +“What do you think? Pretty Betty Browning’s house has been sold!” + +Mrs. Powell put down the potato masher and looked at Jane +thoughtfully. + +“Is that so? Who bought it?” she asked. + +“A man named Ridgeway. I understand from Mr. Garwick that he is a +business acquaintance of Mr. Browning’s. Anyway,” with a smile, “he +seemed to have plenty of money. And I guess he had to have, to be +able to buy the Browning place. He paid a big price for it, I can +tell you.” + +“H’m!” Mrs. Powell was thoughtful for some time. Then she said +slowly: “I wonder what the Browning family will do now.” + +“I don’t know.” Jane took off the cover of the teapot to see if +she had filled it too full, found she had, and poured out some of +the amber-colored liquid. “They may take a small house in town, I +suppose.” + +Mrs. Powell gave a short, scornful laugh. + +“I can’t imagine Mrs. Browning being content to live in a small house +anywhere,” she said. “And from all I can hear, that daughter of hers +is just like her. I feel sorry for poor Mr. Browning, I tell you!” + +In spite of the fact that she tried to keep up a cheerful +conversation, Jane could see that Mrs. Powell was worried about +something and several times tried to draw her around to the subject. + +But Mrs. Powell insisted there was nothing at all the matter--except +perhaps with Jane’s imagination! + +“How can I tell you what’s troubling me, Jane Cross, when there isn’t +a thing?” she cried at last in simulated exasperation. + +Faced with this unanswerable query, Jane was silenced, but +unconvinced. Mrs. Powell found the girl looking thoughtfully at her +several times that evening and realized that she must guard her +secret very carefully if she was to guard it at all! + +After that several days passed uneventfully--though they were always +eventful enough for Jane, absorbed as she was in the fascination of +her work. The only cloud on the girl’s horizon at this time was +Billy. + +The young man was downhearted and morose much of the time. When he +was out with her his attempts at cheerfulness were pathetic. He would +not talk about his inventions, and Jane was afraid that he had become +definitely discouraged. + +She thought wistfully of the little pile of money growing in her +bureau drawer. It grew so slowly and Billy’s need was so great! If +she could only think of a way to make a big sum of money all at once! + +Poor Jane! How many people before her had felt that way and been just +as hopeless as she of attaining their heart’s desire! + +Jane was bitter against the people of Greenville for treating Billy +so. Why could not some one with money see the real worth of his +inventions as she did and believe in him enough to back him and +give him his chance? If she could only prove him innocent of any +connection with the Martin and Hull fire some one might give him that +chance. But in this she was powerless, too. + +Then one day Mr. Garwick brought startling news to her. + +Jane had barely entered the office and taken off her hat when he +announced it. + +“I’m going to sell out, Jane,” he said, holding her with his +twinkling gaze. “You are going to have a new boss.” + +Jane stared at him for a moment, thinking he must be joking. + +“A new boss!” she repeated dazedly. “Why, I don’t understand!” + +“I’ve sold out the business,” Mr. Garwick repeated, enjoying her +mystification. “I’ve sold out to Clyde Browning!” + +Jane sat down hard in a chair. If Mr. Garwick had told her the world +was coming to an end she could not have been much more surprised, nor +startled. + +“But why? I don’t understand!” she cried. + +“Well, now, I’ll tell you.” Mr. Garwick put the tips of his fingers +together as he always did when about to launch into an explanation of +some importance. “I’m getting old, Jane----” + +“Old!” cried Jane impulsively. “Oh, you’re not!” + +Mr. Garwick pretended to smile at this, but he was pleased just the +same. + +“You are a flatterer, young woman, but we’ll let that pass. Even if +I’m not old, I often feel old and pretty tired. I want to rest a +little, travel, and see something of the world; in other words get a +little good out of the money I’ve been piling up all these years. Do +you see?” + +“Why, yes--but I--oh, I’m sorry! We--I--I was so happy working for +you, Mr. Garwick!” + +Mr. Garwick was touched by her sincerity. He patted her hand in +fatherly fashion and smiled on her with genuine affection. + +“Well, there, Jane, I’m glad you’ve been happy in your work and that +I’ve been able to make things pleasant for you. But this won’t be a +question at all of your losing your position, you know.” + +Jane looked at him questioningly. + +“Why, I don’t know what you mean?” she said slowly. “Do you think +that after Mr. Browning has taken over the business he’ll want me +here?” + +“I’m quite sure of it--especially when I tell your new boss that he +has a chance of getting the best go-getter in the business. That’s +what I’m going to tell him, Jane. And furthermore,” he paused and +regarded her with twinkling eyes, “I don’t know but what I’ll make +that a provision of the sale. Take Jane Cross, too, or nothing!” + +Jane laughed, unsteadily. + +“You’re awfully kind,” she said in a low voice. “I don’t know how to +thank you for all your kindness, but--it won’t seem the same at all!” + +She met Billy on the way home from work that evening and talked it +over with him. + +“I wouldn’t let it worry me much,” said the latter reassuringly. “Mr. +Garwick meant what he said about recommending you to Mr. Browning. +He’s a mighty good sort, Jane, and I’ve not a bit of doubt that +after he gets through talking, Mr. Browning will be only too glad to +get you.” + +“Mr. Garwick is awfully good,” said Jane thoughtfully, her eyes on +the street ahead. “And from what I’ve seen and heard of Mr. Browning, +he’s a mighty nice man, too. I might be able to keep my position +there if it wasn’t for----” + +She paused, and Billy looked at her curiously. + +“I bet you’re thinking of Betty Browning,” he said after a minute. +Then he added: “Don’t worry, Jane. Pretty Betty isn’t going to +stick her curly head into old dad’s office. I heard some people in +the store to-day say that Mrs. Browning has already gone to some +relatives out of town, and I’ve no doubt our lovely Betty will soon +follow. Soft, rich folks like those, Jane, don’t show up very well +when they have to come up against a few of the hard knocks of life,” +he philosophized, kicking a stone out of the way and watching it +intently as it went spinning over and over in the roadway. “They +don’t know how to take ’em--the hard knocks, that is--and their first +instinct is to get as far from the scene of disaster as possible. Oh, +no, Betty’ll be flying to those rich relatives of hers, don’t you +worry, and she won’t even know that there is such a person as Jane +Cross in her dad’s office.” + +“They’ve sold their house, Billy. Do you know where they are going +to live? Oh, yes, I remember! Mr. Garwick said they were making a +deal for that empty cottage on Maple Street where the Devoes used to +live.” + +Billy whistled softly. + +“Quite a change from Rose Hill!” he said. “Poor old Browning! I sure +pity him!” + +Jane was very thoughtful for the rest of that evening and for the +next few days--the time that had necessarily to elapse before the +final consummation of the deal between Mr. Garwick and Clyde Browning. + +Jane hoped that Billy had been right about Betty, but she was not by +any means sure. + +Then one day her employer and Mr. Browning came into the office, +laughing and joking in friendly fashion. + +“Browning,” said Mr. Garwick, turning to Jane with his pleasant, +twinkling smile, “this is the young lady I’ve been telling you +about and whose services you can’t afford to lose. Miss Cross--Mr. +Browning!” + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + BETTY COMES THROUGH + + +Apparently Jane was very much at ease as she gave her hand to Mr. +Browning and smiled at him. In reality she was only a frightened girl +wondering what would happen next. + +But Mr. Browning was very nice, very courteous and pleasant, and +before they had been in conversation five minutes Jane felt that they +would get along together and that the change she had so dreaded was +not going to be so dreadful after all. + +For the rest of that day Jane remained in almost complete charge of +the office while her old employer and new went over details of the +business together. + +Mr. Garwick was very nice, often referring to her and asking her for +certain details that he knew she had right at her tongue’s end. + +Jane felt that he was doing this to impress Mr. Browning with her +worth, and she appreciated and in her heart thanked him for it even +while tears of regret rose often to her eyes at thought of severing +the old connection. + +The day was over at last. Mr. Garwick slapped down a huge sheaf of +papers on the desk and rose to his feet. He held out a hand to Mr. +Browning. + +Jane watched them, her heart beating rapidly, knowing that the moment +of parting had come. + +“Well, I’ve done all I can for you, Browning,” Mr. Garwick said, as +the two men shook hands heartily. “If there’s anything you want to +know about, you know where you can get in touch with me at a moment’s +notice. Although,” and here he turned to Jane, “I’m quite sure you +will find I am leaving you a veritable dictionary of information in +the person of Miss Cross here. Call on her for anything, Browning, +and if you’re ever disappointed in her, then my name’s not John +Garwick!” + +Feeling embarrassed but very grateful to her old employer, Jane found +herself shaking hands with him and saying with a little catch behind +the words: + +“Thank you for--everything, Mr. Garwick. I wish you the best luck in +the world!” + +There was a pleasant response, and then the door closed behind John +Garwick and Jane was left alone with her new employer. + +“Well, Miss Cross,” Mr. Browning was speaking and Jane liked the way +he included her in his sweeping gesture about the office, “we seem to +have been left in possession of the field. We’ve done about enough +work for one day, I should think. Suppose we close the office and +start fresh again to-morrow morning?” + +Jane gave him a smile that said she would be perfectly willing, +and went for her hat. She put it on and went toward the door. Mr. +Browning rose and came over to her, holding out his hand. + +“Mr. Garwick has given me a most excellent recommendation of you,” he +said. Jane thought how handsome he was but how tired he looked with +those deep lines about the corners of his mouth. “I am convinced that +I could not have a worthier helper than Miss Jane Cross. I hope you +will find things just as pleasant here as you did under Mr. Garwick’s +regime.” + +Jane thanked him and went out. She was very thoughtful all the way +home. + +“I like him--and I’m very sorry for him,” she told herself, +remembering the lines of suffering in the face of her new employer. +“What a shame that his wife and daughter can’t stand by him now! I’d +like to go to that Betty Browning and give her a piece of my mind!” + +Meanwhile, the subject of Jane’s rather strenuous reflections was +living through a period in her life that seemed to the former rich +girl as bewildering and tantalizing as a dream. + +Her solid world had been knocked from beneath her feet. Everything +was new, unreal. The only solid fact of her existence was her father, +and to him she clung with a desperation that soon ripened into a +beautiful affection. + +“I never knew dad before,” she told herself, wondering. “He seemed +always to be there, but I just never--thought about him!” + +That had been the fault of her up-bringing, though Betty did not +realize it. Brought close to the hard facts of existence, she could +see her father as an individual, not merely the holder of the +money-bags to whom one went when the allowance ran short and a new +dress seemed an absolute necessity. + +Viewed as an individual, Betty found her father very interesting and, +more than anything else, lovable. He responded to her new personal +dependence upon him in a wonderful way, and Betty began to wonder +vaguely if, in losing everything she had heretofore regarded as +necessary to her very existence, she had not found something far more +precious and desirable in the new relationship between herself and +her father. + +The parting with her mother was a wrench--a bad one. Betty loved +her mother despite the fact that she was bewildered by the selfish +indifference with which she treated the man who had suffered so much. + +Mrs. Browning’s father had evidently known his daughter, and he had +left her the little he had to leave in the form of an annuity. It +was a meager income according to Mrs. Browning’s standards, but at +least it would not leave her a penniless dependent on her relatives, +to whom she now went for the sake of the ease and luxury of their +homes and to escape the narrow life her husband could give her in the +little cottage. + +“You don’t think of dad at all, mother,” Betty protested the day +before Mrs. Browning was to leave Greenville for an indefinite stay +with her relatives. “Don’t you suppose he is having a bad time, at +all?” + +“He deserves it,” Mrs. Browning snapped back at her. “He has been +criminally careless, and he deserves everything he gets! In a case +like this it’s the innocent family that suffers every time.” + +“I don’t know as we have been so innocent,” said Betty slowly. + +Her mother whirled about and stared at her for all the world, thought +Betty, as though she were looking at a stranger. And so she was, for +Mrs. Browning, who thought she knew her daughter so well, was looking +at this Betty for the first time. + +“Not innocent! What do you mean, Elizabeth?” + +Betty turned and met her mother’s cold glance steadily. + +“Well, we have gone on spending money just the same, haven’t we?” +said the girl. “Even when dad said we were too extravagant and asked +us to be careful, we never tried to help him. I am only trying to +say,” she added, seeing that her mother’s stony gaze never wavered +from her, “that perhaps dad isn’t altogether to blame for--what +happened.” + +“This is your father’s work,” said Mrs. Browning angrily. “He has +turned you against me!” + +“Oh, never!” cried Betty. “He has never said a word!” + +“Silence!” Mrs. Browning held up a white, jeweled hand--she had +refused to part with any of her jewels. “I’ll not listen to another +word. If you prefer your father to me, Elizabeth, you are free +to make your choice. Stay here with him--and may you enjoy the +experience more than I think you will!” + +That was the first wrench. The second came with the actual selling +and vacating of their house. + +That was hard, for pretty Betty had loved her home, and the thought +of moving into strange quarters, poor ones, filled her with terror. + +She shrank from the solicitude of her friends. Some of them, to +whom the social leadership of the Brownings had always been a thorn +in the flesh, gloated almost openly. Others pretended sympathy and +patronizingly gave Betty to understand that a mere loss of fortune +need make no difference in their relations. + +But it scarcely mattered which group they belonged to, for Betty was +to realize with an aching sense of loss that among all her so-called +friends there was not one--not one!--who had an actual claim to that +term! She began to realize dimly that just as she had failed to think +of her father, so she had failed, by her selfishness, to make true +and lasting friends. + +She came to long only for the time when she and her father might be +alone together in whatever place he might choose for them. There +would be some privacy at least, a place where they could shut the +door against the cruel curiosity of their “friends.” + +Again her father was the only solid, real, unchanging thing on her +horizon. + +Despite his absorption in the winding up of his affairs and +preparation for a new start in business, he watched her closely with +those understanding eyes of his and seemed ever at her side when she +needed comfort. + +There was that time after Gladys Vane had been to call and had left +Betty wincing beneath the venomous thrusts of her poisonous tongue. + +Mr. Browning came in as Gladys went out. He made straight for the +library and found Betty crouched in one of the big chairs, staring +unseeingly before her. + +“Never mind, Betty,” her father said and touched her cheek gently as +he sat on the arm of her chair. “The life we’re going to, you and I, +may not be as glittery as the one we’re leaving but it’s a lot more +real. You will make real friends from now on, Betty girl, friends +that are worthy of the name.” + +“Well,” said Betty bravely as she cuddled her cheek against his hand, +“I’ve got one mighty good friend, already! Daddy,” she added after +a pause, “I don’t see quite how it was, but I guess it was in part +my fault. I wasn’t always nice to the girls, and if we don’t give +friendship I suppose we don’t get it--not the real kind.” + +Then there was the day when they were to move into their “new +quarters” as Mr. Browning always called the cottage he had rented for +himself and Betty. + +Betty had never seen it--she could not bring herself to speak of it +even to her father. + +No one ever learned how she had pictured the place in her mind, nor +just what kind of life she thought she was to be called upon to +endure, now that they were poor. + +Her mother had so harped upon their poverty and pictured the horrors +of it so vividly that it was not at all strange if, in trying to +picture it to herself, Betty beheld in her mind the ugly vision of +the tenements across the railroad where herded a drifting, lazy class +of occasional workers and sometimes beggars of Greenville with their +slipshod families. + +However that may be, when the day of her actual parting with the old +life arrived Betty found herself in sore need of comfort. + +She was standing by the window in her own sitting room, watching for +the van that was to take a few--a very few--of their belongings to +the new home, when she heard her father’s quick step in the hall. + +Betty felt her father’s hands on her shoulders, turning her about so +that she must face him. There were telltale tears in her eyes, but +she smiled, hoping that he would not notice them. + +He did notice them, as he noticed everything about her now. The lines +about his eyes and mouth deepened and he looked very tired, almost +old. + +“The van will be here in a few minutes, Betty,” he said. “And before +it comes, I want to tell you a few things about our new home--I want +to prepare you.” + +“It’s coming!” thought Betty. She braced her shoulders for the shock, +but even then did not forget to smile. How tired he looked, how +weary and discouraged. She would not make things harder for him! + +“It’s very different from this; but it’s not so bad, Betty. It’s a +little cottage set well back from the street, and it has five rooms +in it that could be made into a home--if anybody cared--” His voice +broke but he went on quickly. “It has a pleasant kitchen and a +nice porch with neglected roses that might be coaxed into blooming +sometime--perhaps next spring. It isn’t so bad, Bettykin. We might be +pretty happy there----” + +Looking into his pleading, tired eyes, Betty forgot herself, forgot +everything but that he was appealing to her for hope and comfort and +that she must not fail him. + +“Why, then, daddy,” she said, putting her arms about him, “I’ll make +a home for you. We’ll make it together. And, daddy dear, I do love +roses!” + +If Betty had wanted any reward she got it in the strength of his arms +about her and his muffled cry. + +“Betty, I knew you had it in you--you good little sport!” + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + THE NEW HOME + + +That was the beginning of a happier time for Betty Browning. + +After having imagined such terrible things about her new home, she +found the reality strangely unappalling. + +The cottage, set well back from the street, was not pretentious, +certainly, but neither was it unbeautiful. It had a good-natured, +flat, comfortable look like a fat, jolly, woman who needs only a +white apron to make her perfect. + +A coat of paint--white paint--thought Betty, would work wonders. + +Inside the rooms were pleasant. Bare at first, of course, but the +distribution of the furniture brought from the house on Rose Hill +soon remedied that. + +Betty took a curious delight in putting the new home to rights. If +any one had told her two months before that she would actually enjoy +swathing herself in an unbecoming gingham apron and doing tasks that +then the more superior of her mother’s servants would have scorned, +she would have laughed at the joker. + +But she did enjoy these things now, not so much for the sake of the +tasks themselves as in her anticipation of the smile on her father’s +tired face when, in triumph, she brought him in to exclaim over some +further proof of her unsuspected housewifely talents. + +He never failed to exclaim and, even on the occasions when the roast +was overdone or the biscuits underdone, ate on manfully under Betty’s +half-proud, half-fearful eye. In thinking of it afterward, Betty was +convinced that he would have died of indigestion if need be, rather +than disappoint her in the slightest thing! + +There were disappointments, of course, and mistakes, some of them +ludicrous and some of them almost tragic. But, in all, it was a happy +time in which Betty and her father grew very close together and the +cottage became a real home. + +Meanwhile, time was passing swiftly. Late summer merged into fall, +fall into early winter. + +As Betty was Mr. Browning’s “right-hand man” at home, so Jane had +become his “right-hand man” at the office. + +Mrs. Powell had made up the dark blue serge she had found in the +trunk--not without many unhappy thoughts of the secret she had +discovered there at the same time. + +Jane needed a coat, but she would have to wait for that. Meanwhile, +the old one, carefully brushed and mended in a place or two where its +shabbiness was most glaringly apparent, would have to do. + +Mr. Powell’s hands were well at last, and, though he would always be +dreadfully scarred and the left hand would always be a trifle stiff, +he was able to look for work again. + +The business of Martin and Hull had never been reopened. The two old +men, without the heart to start again in the business fight, had +pocketed their losses and were living in comparative obscurity on the +outskirts of the town. + +No chance for Mr. Powell there. But there must be other places in +town where his services would be needed. With his usual optimism, Mr. +Powell started on the dreary round of job hunting. + +Mrs. Powell tried to be hopeful, too. With another wage earner in the +family to lift the burden from Jane’s shoulders, the girl could have +the clothes she needed. + +Poor child! What if she could guess that secret hidden in the trunk +upstairs! With all her heart, Mrs. Powell prayed that Jane might +never know it! + +In time the day came when Betty made her first visit to her father’s +place of business. + +In the talks between father and daughter, business news had crept in, +too. Mr. Browning had mentioned Jane’s name occasionally, and Betty +had become faintly jealous of this assistant of whom her father spoke +in such glowing terms. + +Betty longed to know this person, and finally decided that there was +no reason why she should not. + +It was on a dazzlingly bright day when the nippy tang of fall had +given place to more bitter winter weather that Betty finally decided +to visit her father’s office. + +Her beautiful clothes and personal jewelry Betty had brought with her +from the old life. She had found very little use for them since she +had become her father’s housekeeper. + +Now she took the clothes from her closet almost with a feeling of +wonder that she had ever worn those things as a matter-of-course. +She selected a beautiful jade-green dress that set off her brilliant +fairness to perfection. Then she found the prettiest pair of black +suede slippers she had and cobweb thin silk stockings. + +She got out her squirrel coat with the silver fox collar. It was a +beautiful thing, that coat. Betty thought of the many times she had +worn it with her mother, and her heart was sore. + +Betty wanted her mother more than she confessed, and many nights she +could not sleep for wondering if that mother would ever come to her. +There was dad. He needed her, too. Was he to be separated from his +wife forever? + +On these points Mrs. Browning herself did not enlighten Betty. She +wrote often, but her letters were one long reproach to her daughter +and the girl received little comfort from them. + +That her father had letters too, Betty knew. They often came in the +morning mail and Betty put them beside her father’s plate at dinner +time, hoping that he would read them then and perhaps tell her +something that was in them. + +But this her father never did, and when his long silence on the +subject of her mother continued Betty began to fear that the +separation between the two people she loved best in the world was +indeed final and that she would have to choose definitely between +them in the end. + +Now she fingered the squirrel coat caressingly, thinking of her +mother, and at last put it on and pulled a small velvet hat of the +same shade as the coat down tight over her ears. + +The close-fitting hat hid all but a few distracting tendrils of +golden hair. Betty arranged these in a still more becoming fluff +about her face and regarded her reflection approvingly. + +She was certainly as pretty a girl as one would see in a long +winter’s walk, and, to do Betty justice, she knew it. + +With a high heart she left the modest little cottage looking like +the daughter of a millionaire, and walked downtown. People turned to +stare at her as she went, and those who knew her wondered if Clyde +Browning had got his money back or made another fortune. + +“Certainly, pretty Betty looks like ready money!” observed one +admiring youth. + +Betty paused before the real estate office upon whose window her +father’s name was emblazoned in large gold letters. It seemed a +modest place to the girl, and there was resentment in her heart at +the thought that her father must work there. + +With a toss of her head and a discontented droop to her mouth, Betty +turned the knob of the door and entered the office. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII + + BETTY IS JEALOUS + + +Betty was about to call out a greeting to her father when something +stopped her. That something was the sight of her father bending over +a desk and smiling into the delighted eyes of--“that girl!” + +For in the flash of a second Betty recognized in her father’s +assistant that awfully plain girl who was always stumbling against +people and knocking bundles out of their hands! + +She was not so awfully plain now, though, thought Betty, and was +suddenly conscious of a keen stab of jealousy. + +“What right has that girl to look at my dad like that!” her jealousy +whispered. + +As a matter of fact, neither Jane nor Mr. Browning was aware of +Betty’s presence at the moment. In fact, Jane was living through one +of the most wonderful moments of her life. + +Just a short time before Mr. Browning had said with that nice look in +his tired eyes: + +“I believe you know almost more of the business than I do, Miss +Cross. You are a born realtor. You are so full of enthusiasm that +you communicate it to our customers. I’ve kept tabs on you, young +lady, and I know that you have brought actual business into this +office, and that that business is computed in terms of gratifying +profit on our books. We are doing well--better than I dared to hope. +Now, under the circumstances, what do you think I ought to do about +it?” + +Jane, who had flushed beneath her employer’s commendation, smiled +demurely at this. + +“I really--don’t know,” she said, and tried not to look as pleased +and proud as she felt. + +“Well then, I’ll tell you.” + +It was at this point that Mr. Browning rose and went over to her +desk--yes, Jane had risen to the dignity of a desk of her own by this +time--and it was at this point also that Betty chanced to come into +the office. + +“The first thing I’m going to do,” Betty heard her father’s pleasant +voice say, “is to raise your salary five dollars a week.” + +“Mr. Browning, that--that’s marvelous!” There was a choke of sheer +joy in Jane’s voice. + +But Mr. Browning raised a hand and smiled. + +“But that isn’t all,” he said. “I’ve noticed, too, that you have +a knack in handling people, of getting a lot out of them without +letting them guess it. I don’t know whether you’ve guessed what +a valuable asset that is in the real estate business, but it is +extremely valuable just the same--especially when it comes to a +question of collecting rents.” + +Jane sat very still and looked at him. + +Betty stood very still and looked at him, too. Probably that is the +reason Mr. Browning and Jane remained unaware of her presence. + +“How would you like to have a rent route to collect?” asked Jane’s +employer, smiling at her just as calmly as if he were not paying +her the greatest compliment in his power. “That will mean a small +percentage on all the rents you collect--just a little encouragement +for you to use all your tact on those slippery customers who +invariably run and hide the moment a rent-collector shows his--or +her--nose about the corner. Come now--what do you say?” + +Jane drew a long breath. + +“Say!” she repeated. “What can I say except that you are giving me +the chance of a lifetime, and I--when shall I start?” + +Mr. Browning laughed and broke the tension. + +Betty started forward from her place beside the door. + +“Dad!” she cried. + +Mr. Browning wheeled about and his face lit up with pleasure at the +unexpected visit. + +Jane, who had flushed a bright red upon recognizing Betty, busied +herself absorbedly with the papers on her desk. + +But after his first greeting of his daughter, Mr. Browning showed no +intention of leaving Jane out of things. He drew Betty, the latter +reluctant but not quite liking to protest, over to Jane’s desk and +introduced the two girls. + +There was the barest conventional murmur from Jane accompanied by a +steady look at Betty that showed her on the defensive. From Betty a +condescending nod and a frigid, “Charmed, I’m sure!” that etched a +line between her father’s brows. + +Then Betty promptly and pointedly ignored the plain girl. It was +time, she thought, to teach that girl a lesson, to put her in her +place! So Betty perched herself like a charming butterfly on the edge +of her father’s desk and chatted merrily. + +She found her father disappointing. He did not play up to her mood. +After his first pleased greeting of her he became moody and distrait +and did not seem to hear half of what she said. + +When Betty taxed him with this a little pettishly he looked up at her +and smiled, the old patient, tired look in his eyes. + +“You’ll have to bear with me, my dear,” he said. “It’s been a very +busy day and there is still a great deal to do before I can relax. +Just a moment, daughter.” + +He swung about in his chair and his glance fell on Jane. The girl met +his look, smiled and half rose. + +“Do you want me to see Mr. Bleeker now and arrange for his lease?” +she asked, in her clear bright voice. + +“If you please.” Another sharp pang of jealousy stabbed Betty as she +saw how the tired look left her father’s eyes as he spoke to this +other girl, how his shoulders straightened and the years seemed to +fall from him. + +“And while you’re out, Miss Cross, you might just scout about a +bit and get used to your rent route. You won’t be able to do much +to-day--in the way of collecting rents I mean--although you might +try your hand at it if you like. Here, I’ll give you that list of +addresses----” + +“But Mrs. Buell, who was coming in to-day to arrange terms for the +Haddock house----” + +“Don’t worry.” Mr. Browning smiled teasingly at Jane, thought Betty, +as her small foot in the pretty suede slipper tapped the floor. There +was an air of comradery, of perfect understanding, between these two +that puzzled Betty as much as it angered her. + +“I’ll take care of Mrs. Buell; though I admit I probably shan’t be +able to handle her as well as you. Still, I’ll do my best! Meanwhile, +here’s the list of the tenements you will have to visit. I’m afraid +you won’t find it the finest or most exclusive neighborhood in +Greenville.” + +So, on and on, with their heads close together while Betty must +sit in idleness and simulated patience while that plain Jane Cross +monopolized her father! + +There--it was over at last! + +Jane slipped into her shabby old coat, crushed the shabby old hat +down over her shining hair, and, laughing, thrust the paper of +addresses into her pocket. + +“I’ll do my best,” she said, in answer to some remark of her +employer. “And if I don’t come back with more money than I’m taking +away with me, it certainly won’t be my fault!” + +“That shouldn’t be hard,” murmured Betty, her head in the air as a +draught of cold air advertised Jane’s exit into the street. “From the +look of her she couldn’t very well have less money than she has right +now.” + +Mr. Browning turned his slow, thoughtful gaze upon his daughter. +Betty, for some reason she could not understand, became restless and +ill-at-ease under the scrutiny. + +“Why do you look at me like that, daddy?” she pettishly broke out at +last. “Is there anything wrong with my clothes?” + +“No,” said Mr. Browning. His eyes were very weary again, a little +quizzical. “I was merely thinking, Bettykin, how impossible it would +have been for Jane Cross to have made a remark like that one of yours +a moment ago.” + +“Jane Cross!” Betty jumped to her feet, her hands clenched at her +side, her pretty mouth hard with sudden fury. “I suppose that +plain-faced, frumpy-looking girl is everything fine and wonderful! I +suppose you’d like to have a girl like that for your daughter!” + +The eyes of father and daughter met. Betty’s were the first to waver +and fall before that encounter. + +“Jane Cross is the salt of the earth,” said Mr. Browning quietly. +“She is the kind of girl who goes around making the world a better +and happier place for the rest of us to live in. If she wears shabby +clothes, it is because she loves others a little better than herself. +Her clothes make no difference to me, nor to any one else who really +knows her. Pretty clothes are a good thing to have, but a heart and +courage like Jane’s are a better thing. Think it over, Bettykin--it’s +true.” + +Betty ran out of the office then with a hand childishly covering her +ears as though she could not bear to hear another word. + +The unbelievable had happened. She had gone to conquer and had come +away conquered! Jane Cross in her shabby clothes with her plain face +was strong where she, Betty Browning, was weak. Betty was tasting +defeat, and at first it made her bitter. + +She got home and walked the floor thinking of Jane Cross and hating +her. + +Jane had turned her father against her! Jane was responsible for +everything! Her father, her beloved dad, had actually held this +plain-faced chit up to her, Betty, as an example to be followed! Oh, +it was dreadful, incredible! + +Then she thought of how hard she had tried to gain her father’s love +and complete confidence and sat down in his favorite easy chair and +cried. + +The tears softened Betty’s anger, and gradually a different mood came +to her. + +By the time Mr. Browning came home that night she had definitely +decided what she would do. + +“Dad,” she said, meeting him at the door, “I--I want a job!” + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + JANE AND BILLY + + +At first Mr. Browning laughed at the suggestion. But he was wise +enough to see that Betty was in dead earnest and, realizing his +mistake, laughed no more. + +He tried reasoning. + +“You have all you can do at home here, Betty,” he told her. “What +would I do without my housekeeper?” + +“I have ever so much time to spare,” Betty returned. “There are hours +when I have to sit with my hands folded and nothing to do, or else go +for a walk and take a chance of meeting people who--well, who make it +a point to be nice to me. It isn’t very pleasant, daddy--and I really +want to help.” + +That was the way it started. + +Mr. Browning could not see at first how he could use Betty in his own +business, and he was reluctant to have her try for work anywhere else. + +Finally he compromised by saying that she might take charge of the +office during Jane’s absence. She could be of real use there when +Mr. Browning himself was forced to be absent on business. + +A bitter pill for Betty! But she swallowed it bravely and reported +promptly Monday morning for work. + +It says much for Betty’s change of mood--and mind--that she did not +wear an ornate dress in the hope of impressing plain Jane Cross with +her superiority, but selected one of plain cloth instead. The very +simplicity of this frock made it distinguished, and one could see at +a glance that it had never been designed for wear in an office. But +it was the most appropriate thing Betty had, and it at least showed a +desire to improve. + +Mr. Browning regarded the dress approvingly as Betty took off her +coat and the line between his brows smoothed out a little. + +“She’s true blue,” he thought. “Trust her to make the grade all +right.” + +Jane took Betty in hand and “showed her the ropes.” + +“There really isn’t anything very hard about it,” Jane would say when +Betty’s pretty forehead puckered in bewilderment over rows of figures +and realty terms that were as clear as day to Jane. “You simply have +to get used to it, that’s all. Now, here’s this deed of Mr. Small’s. +Suppose he wanted to take up a two-thousand-dollar mortgage on it. +What would he do?” + +So on and on, coaching, explaining, impervious to Betty’s fits of +temper and her pettish moods, until gradually Betty’s tolerance for +Jane grew into grudging admiration and finally into a reluctant +liking. + +“She’s clever,” said Betty, watching the pleasant, energetic girl +at her work. “Whatever else she may be, you’ve got to admit she’s +clever!” + +If Jane had not been Jane, she might have gloated a little at her +ascendency over the pretty girl. Instead, she was sorry for her and +sincerely wanted to help her. + +About the time of the first deep winter snow Jane became conscious +of a change in Billy Dobson. Billy had finished and patented a new +invention--a new type of store scales that he was enthusiastic over. + +He showed the scales to Jane, and she shared his enthusiasm. + +“What I need now is money enough to get away from here and interest +some big company in the thing,” he told Jane, the old wistful hunger +in his eyes. “I know I can put it over this time, Jane! I’m sure I +could, if I only had a chance!” + +Jane thought of that steadily growing secret fund that she had put +away in her drawer against just this emergency. Her rent commissions +had increased this some. Now as she waded through the first heavy +snowfall of the winter, she decided the time was ripe. + +Billy was coming to-night! To-night she would tell him! + +Jane was filled with a strange excitement as she went down to the +cozy living room that night to wait for Billy. Would he understand +what she was trying to do, she wondered, or would he, in his stubborn +pride, resent it? + +She had not long to ask herself this question, for she had just +settled comfortably in one of the mission armchairs when a sharp ring +at the bell announced Billy’s arrival. + +She ran to answer the doorbell and the young man swept into the house +laughing and bringing a draft of cold air with him. + +“You look like Santa Claus!” cried Jane, as he shook the snow from +his overcoat. + +“And feel like it,” laughed Billy. + +His face was ruddy from the cold, his blue eyes snapped. He took +Jane’s hand and drew her into the living room where he laughingly +seated her in a big chair and drew up another close before her. + +“Jane,” he announced, “something wonderful has happened! I’ve got my +big chance!” + +Jane’s heart skipped a beat, two beats! + +“Oh, I might have known it by the way you looked! Tell me, Billy! +Hurry!” + +“I found the names of several big men in the city,” said Billy, “men +I thought might be interested in my new type of scales. I described +it to them or, at least, just enough to whet their appetites for +more--so I hoped. Well,” Billy paused and Jane could see by the +tightening of his jaw and the grip of his hand on the chair arm +what a great thing this was to him, “I got a letter from one of +them to-day, Jane, saying he was interested and would like to see +me. He hinted that if my scales were as good as I had led him to +believe--and I’ve no doubt on that score, Jane!--he might be ready to +talk business!” + +“Billy!” + +“So I’ve wired to him that I’ll be in town to-morrow! Say, Jane, I +want to know--how’s that?” + +“Oh, marvelous, Billy! I’m so glad for you! If this man likes your +scales, just what will that mean? I’m so ignorant about these things, +you know!” + +“Mean!” Billy got up and strode about the room, hands thrust deep +in his pockets. “It will mean everything, Jane. It means that this +man will back my patent by putting up hard cash and in return will +get a certain percentage of the profits. But I’ll get a percentage, +too--enough probably, if everything goes well, to about fix me for +life. How’s that, Jane?” + +“I always told you you’d do it, Billy, didn’t I?” Jane looked up at +him proudly and Billy, pausing in his restless pacing of the room, +sat down again and took her hand gently in his. + +“You bet you did, Jane!” he said exuberantly. “And don’t think I’m +forgetting the little pal that backed me when every one else was dead +set against me. I haven’t won out yet, Jane, but if I do--and I begin +to feel now as though I would--I want you to know that a good deal of +it is your doing! I don’t think even you know just how much you’ve +helped.” + +“I’m glad Billy. And--it gives me courage to say something else.” +Her voice was little more than a murmur and Billy had to lean close +to catch her words. “I thought the time might come when you would +need--a little practical help--from your friends. So I--I--oh, here, +Billy, take it--and please don’t be offended with me!” + +Jane thrust a little packet into his hand, rose quickly and went to +the window where she stood looking out into the stormy night. + +Billy looked at her wonderingly, then back again to the packet in his +hand. Slowly he unwrapped the covering. + +A roll of neatly folded bills--that slowly accruing little fund that +had lain for so long at the back of Jane’s dresser drawer! + +Billy looked at it for a long moment; then he crushed it in his hand +and turned to Jane. She was still watching the storm outside the +window. + +“You meant this for me, Jane?” said Billy slowly. + +Wordlessly Jane nodded. She did not turn about or look at him. + +Billy got up softly and went over to her. He took her hand, put the +roll of bills in it, then closed her fingers over it gently, one by +one. + +Jane said, in a stifled voice: + +“Then--then you don’t need it, Billy?” + +“I’ve a little of my own saved up. But, Jane--say, Jane,” his voice +had lowered and was very gruff, “I can’t say what I’m feeling. Guess +you’ll have to guess at it. But that was more than good of you, Jane!” + +The warm clasp of his hand, the look in his eyes, was answer enough +for Jane. Billy did not need her money, perhaps, but he did need her +friendship. + +The next day when she started for her rent route she met Billy. He +was going to the station, and if ever any one looked buoyant and +hopeful and headed for success, that young man was Billy Dobson. + +Betty, from the windows of her father’s office, saw the meeting, and +a frown puckered her white forehead. + +“I never knew Billy Dobson was so good looking,” she thought. “And +there seems to be no doubt whatever what he thinks of Jane. It’s +wonderful how that girl, plain as she is, can wind men around her +little finger! She has something you haven’t, Betty Browning, for +all that your eyes are blue and your hair naturally curly! I wonder +if it really was Billy Dobson that set Martin and Hull’s on fire and +started all our bad luck! I must say, he doesn’t look like that sort +of person.” + +Betty saw Jane hold out both her hands impulsively and saw the eager +way the youth grasped them. Then Billy was gone, with a buoyant lift +of his hat, and Jane, in her shabby coat, disappeared around the +corner. + +With a sigh Betty turned to the tiresome work of straightening up +Jane’s desk and her father’s and laying the latter’s letters close to +his hand. + +It was several hours later, and Mr. Browning had been in, consulted +with several clients and gone out again with one of them to arrange a +new lease on some property or other--Betty could never remember the +details of these transactions as Jane did--and Betty was once more +alone and feeling rather bored when the door opened and a shabby, +poorly dressed old woman entered the office. + +Betty looked up, surprised as the newcomer paused at the door and +seemed in doubt whether to advance or retreat. + +“Come in,” said Betty. “Is there something I can do for you?” + +“Well,” hesitated the woman, “I was hoping to see Mr. Browning--or +Miss Jane Cross.” + +Betty winced inwardly, as she still did when any one expressed a +preference for Jane, but she said politely enough: + +“Mr. Browning and Miss Cross are both out at present. If you will +leave a message with me, I’ll see that it gets to them safely.” + +“We--ell--” The woman came forward and seated herself gingerly on the +edge of a chair. “I came to tell you what started the Martin and Hull +fire.” + +Betty could be pardoned for her stare of amazement. + +“You have?” she asked incredulously. + +“Leastways, my husband says he thinks he knows what started it,” the +old woman continued, taking no note of Betty’s amazement. “He never +listens much to what people are sayin’ or what gossip goes about the +town but the other evenin’ when he heard some of the men talkin’ +about Billy Dobson and sayin’ as how the lad had set Martin and +Hull’s on fire, why, that sort of got him right het up, as you might +say, and he says right off that he knowed what set the place afire.” + +“What did?” cried Betty excitedly. Here, miraculously, it seemed, was +the answer to the question she had asked herself only that morning! + +“The wires was all wrong,” said the woman, whose name was Mrs. Shiff. +“Martin Shiff--that’s my man--and he’s a lineman for the electric +light company--says as how he told Mr. Hull time and again there’d be +trouble if they didn’t get busy and have some new wirin’ done. But +the old man kept puttin’ it off and off, and Martin says it looks +like he just got what was coming to him.” + +Betty had jumped to her feet. Her face was flushed, her eyes bright. + +“Is your husband sure of this?” + +“He’s as sure,” said Mrs. Shiff dryly, “as he can be of anything on +this earth!” + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + A SURPRISE + + +Betty Browning waited until she and her father were seated at dinner +that night before she told of the electrician’s important disclosures +concerning the defective wiring of Martin and Hull’s place. + +Mr. Browning was greatly interested and promised Betty that he would +set an investigation afoot at once to discover whether there was any +truth in Mr. Shiff’s assertions. + +“First of all, we’ll get a signed statement from this electrician. +Then with that we’ll confront Mr. Hull and ask him to confirm it. If +he will and if we can also find some one else who will testify that +the wiring was defective or can even testify that he heard Shiff say +as much previous to the blaze, we’ll have gone a long way toward +clearing Billy Dobson’s name. Jane will be glad,” he finished. “She +has always championed Billy.” + +“I know.” Betty played with a spoon and did not look toward her +father. “And that brings me to something else I want to say, dad. I’d +just a little rather Jane didn’t know until--until we’ve got it all +fixed up.” + +Mr. Browning regarded his daughter’s pretty profile thoughtfully a +moment. Then he put his hand understandingly over the hand that still +played restlessly with the spoon. + +“A surprise? All right, honey; that’s an easy promise.” + +Several days later--when Jane’s surprise was almost ready for +her--Jane herself received a shock that sent her little world +crashing about her ears. + +It happened one day when she was out collecting rents from the +tenement dwellers on the farther side of the railroad tracks. + +There was a new family in 18 Blecker Street, so Mr. Browning had told +her. Jane was to collect the first month’s rent from them that day +and in addition had been commissioned to look them over and report as +to their general character, reliableness, etc. Mr. Browning had long +ago found that Jane’s judgment in such matters was almost infallible. +If Jane found any one trustworthy in her estimation, Mr. Browning +regarded her recommendation more highly than the best references. +References he must have, of course, but Jane’s intuition, in her +employer’s opinion, was even more to be trusted. + +So Jane toiled up the steps of the tenement house at 18 Blecker +Street, and with a feeling of curiosity rang the bell of Apartment 18. + +A thin, dark-haired woman came to the door and regarded the girl with +suspicion. Jane was used to this. She supposed most rent collectors +had to be. She did not allow it to affect her friendly attitude nor +the pleasant way she stated her errand. + +She was conscious that the woman was regarding her very intently, but +at that was scarcely prepared for the latter’s next statement, or +rather question. + +“You’re the girl who used to live with Mrs. Cross, ain’t you?” + +Jane was startled by the abrupt change of subject, but she said, +still pleasantly: + +“I am Mrs. Cross’s daughter, yes.” + +“Her daughter!” blurted the woman. “Why, she never had no daughter!” + +“Never had a daughter!” Jane cried, anger mingling with her +astonishment. “What are you talking about? _I_ am her daughter!” + +The woman appeared to be one of those little souls who delight in +creating a sensation, no matter who may be wounded or hurt during the +process. + +“Me and my husband came to Coal Run about the same time as Mrs. Cross +and her man,” the woman continued, while Jane stood staring at her +in a daze. “But before that we lived in Walling--you mind that’s not +more than twenty miles from Coal Run. The Crosses lived there too, +and one day when the orphan asylum burned they adopted a little girl +who had been brought to the asylum when she was a baby.” + +“A little girl,” said Jane dazedly. “And that little girl +was--was----” + +“You,” said the woman, with a sharp laugh. “They called you Janet at +the asylum, but seems like that struck Mrs. Cross too fancy-like, so +she changed it to Jane.” + +Since she had not given her name to this woman the fact that the +latter knew it seemed a sort of confirmation of her incredible story. +Jane felt numbed, and yet her brain was acting with extraordinary +clearness. + +“If this thing is true,” she said slowly, “how is it that I don’t +recognize you?” + +“We didn’t live in Coal Run long,” said the woman, with a shrug of +her shoulders. “Probably you was so little when we moved away that +you couldn’t remember us. Well, might as well get down to business. I +suppose you’ve got to have the rent?” + +“Yes,” said Jane, speaking automatically, “I’ve got to have the rent.” + +But after the woman had given her the money--her name was +Hensel--Jane collected no more rents that day. + +She went straight home and walked in suddenly upon Mrs. Powell, who +was working in the kitchen. + +The latter looked at Jane’s white, stricken face and dried her hands. + +“My dear child! What is it?” + +Jane dropped into one of the straight kitchen chairs and looked at +this kind friend, the friend that had tried to take a mother’s place +to her--a mother’s place---- + +“Aunt Lou! Aunt Lou!” she cried, her lips quivering, “who is my +mother?” + +Mrs. Powell paused and looked strangely at Jane. Then with a cry she +sank to her knees and gathered the white-faced girl into her arms. + +“Oh, my poor child! You’ve found out then----” + +Jane pushed Mrs. Powell gently away from her and held her at arm’s +length for a moment. Her brown eyes were oddly still as they met the +pitying gaze of the older woman. + +“It’s true then?” she said slowly. “I was--taken from an orphan +asylum by the one I thought was--my mother? My name--is not--Jane +Cross, at all?” + +“I’m afraid not, Jane.” Mrs. Powell was abashed by the girl’s +quietness, by the intentness of her look. “Mrs. Cross took you from +an asylum in Walling when you were a small child. If she had lived +you might never have found out the truth.” + +“When did you find this out?” asked Jane in the same quiet voice. + +“Just a short time ago, Jane.” Mrs. Powell’s tone had become +pleading. She was more alarmed by the quietness of Jane’s manner than +she would have been by the most hysterical outburst of tears. “It was +when I found the material for your serge dress.” + +“As long ago as that!” said Jane softly. “And you never told me?” + +“I didn’t dare, Jane,” pleaded Mrs. Powell. “I was afraid it would +break your heart. You are not angry with me for keeping the secret +from you, Jane?” + +“No--oh, no!” In the same dazed way, Jane pushed Mrs. Powell gently +from her, got up, and walked over to the window. “How could I be +angry with you, who have been so good to me always? No, no, I’m not +angry.” + +But when Mrs. Powell would have gone to her to take her in her arms +again and try to comfort her, Jane raised her hand in a weary little +gesture. + +“Please,” she said very softly, “I want to be alone for a little +while, dear Aunt Lou. You don’t mind?” + +Jane went toward the door, hand outstretched before her as though she +could not see. + +Mrs. Powell watched her pityingly and heard her murmur just before +she crossed the threshold, “Mother! Who--was--my mother?” + +Jane did not cry that day or the next while she went mechanically +about the business of collecting rents--the business she had +neglected the day before. She could not cry, but something within her +that had been bright and warm and laughter-loving had frozen into a +cold aching indifference to everything but her pain. + +Because she was out of the office almost all the next day, Betty +had no chance to spring the “surprise” upon her that had been so +carefully prepared by her father and herself with the invaluable help +of Martin Shiff and several friends of the latter. These friends were +ready to swear at a moment’s notice that Shiff had made in their +presence much the same statement concerning the faulty wiring of +Martin and Hull’s that Mrs. Shiff had made to Betty. + +Betty had been impatiently awaiting Jane’s arrival all afternoon, and +when the latter came at last, almost at closing time, Betty turned +eagerly toward the sound of the opening door. + +“Oh, I’m so glad you came!” she cried, advancing eagerly toward Jane. +“I’ve got a surprise for you, Jane, a marvelous surprise!” + +Jane regarded the vision of Betty’s flushed cheeks and dancing eyes +wonderingly. Betty had never approached her in this way before. Jane +took off her hat and coat and turned a wan, listless face to the +pretty girl. + +“That’s nice,” she said, trying to smile. “What is it?” + +Betty bore her triumphantly to the desk and picked up the paper that +had been written and signed by Martin Shiff, the electrician. + +“Read that!” she said, thrusting the paper into Jane’s hand. “Read +that and tell me what you think of it!” + +Jane read the paper at first indifferently and then with growing +interest. + +“Why,” she said, looking up at Betty, who pressed laughingly close to +her shoulder, “this man seems to think it was defective wiring that +caused the Martin and Hull fire!” + +Betty nodded. + +“And what’s more, we’ve found lots of others who think so, Jane--now +that this electrician has had the courage to come out into the open +and declare himself. Even Mr. Hull admits that Shiff urged him time +and again to have his place newly wired!” + +“Why, then,” said Jane, a thrill in her voice, “this thing +practically clears Billy----” + +“Practically clears Billy! Hear the girl!” cried Betty gayly. “Why, +it clears Billy altogether! By this time next week I’m willing to +wager that not a person in town will believe that silly accusation +old Hull made against him!” + +Jane had been reading the paper again. Now she glanced up at Betty. + +“This was your surprise for me?” she asked slowly. “You did this for +me--because you knew it would please me?” + +“Dad and I did--with the able assistance of this electrician person. +Why, Jane, I believe you’re crying!” + +Jane got up quickly and walked over to her desk, where she stood with +her back to Betty, struggling with herself. + +Betty hesitated a minute, then went over to the other girl and took +her cold hand within her own warm one. + +“Jane--I--I believe there was something wrong when you came in just +now.” She hesitated, but a warm rush of pity urged her on. “Something +dreadful has happened to you, Jane, to make you look like that. +I--I know you--have reasons for not caring to confide in me. I’m +ashamed of the way I’ve acted sometimes. But, Jane, if--if you feel +like--letting me--help a little--I want to, really.” + +“How would you like to find out suddenly that you had no mother?” +Jane’s fingers suddenly curled about Betty’s hand in a way that +hurt. Her voice was harsh with pain. “How would you like to find +out that the person you had loved as your mother, the person you +had mourned as your mother after her death, was not your mother at +all, but some one who, out of pity, had taken you from an orphan +asylum and brought you up in ignorance of the truth? How would you +like to feel,” Jane’s voice broke, but her grip on Betty’s hand did +not relax, “that--that you had never known your mother--or your +father----” + +“Jane, dear!” pleaded Betty, but Jane rushed on, unheeding. + +“To feel that you did not even know your right name--that--that you +had no real place in the world? Just an orphan, picked up out of an +asylum--no--no good to any one----” + +“Why, Jane, do you know what I think?” + +Betty at last broke through the rush of words and put her arm tight +about the trembling girl. Jane’s eyes were downcast and she traced +strange designs on the top of her desk with her finger. + +“I think,” said Betty in a curiously sweet voice, “that there are +lots of people who know all about themselves--their names and +everything--that aren’t half the use in the world that you are, Jane. +Why, just look at me!” with a quiver of laughter that was half a +sob in her voice. “See what you’ve done to me, Jane! You’ve made me +see that the people who are really worth while are the people who +do things and don’t just sit around and watch other people do them. +You go around making life bright for people until they just can’t do +without you. Yes, you do! I’ve watched you, and I know! Dad’s one. +Billy’s another. And I--I’m another, Jane! If I had a sister I’d want +her just like you. Now, look here--this silly girl’s crying again. +Where _did_ I put that hanky!” + + + + + CHAPTER XXV + + THE REVELATION + + +When Mr. Browning entered the office a few moments later he found the +two girls clasped in each other’s arms. + +Betty was wiping Jane’s eyes with her inadequate little handkerchief +and Jane was trying to laugh and making a poor business of it. + +No wonder that he paused in amazement at this sight. No wonder, +either, that his heart leaped with pride and hope as he saw his +pretty Betty in the new role of comforter to Jane. + +“She’s come through!” he told himself. “I knew she’d make the grade!” + +Then he coughed by way of tactfully announcing his presence. + +Betty pulled him down on the settee beside them and, still holding on +to Jane, told the latter’s story. + +Mr. Browning was wonderful to her, Jane thought afterward, and so +comforting. He said that he would try at once to find out more about +her parentage, that he would write to the orphan asylum, or perhaps +go to Walling personally. + +“Their records are usually pretty accurate,” he told Jane. “In the +meantime, don’t worry, young lady. A girl like you can’t have sprung +from any but good stock. When we find out who your parents were, I’ll +guarantee you can be proud of them. Meantime, I think I’ll have a +talk with Mr. Powell.” + +This he did, and his conference with Mr. Powell resulted immediately +in one good thing, at least. He was able to find the latter a +position in Drake’s big hardware store, where he started at a salary +equal to the one he had had with Martin and Hull and where, he was +assured, there was good opportunity for advancement. + +About Jane, neither Mr. Powell nor Mr. Browning was so sure. They +were almost afraid to investigate for fear they would find out +something concerning the girl’s parents that might cast a shadow over +her entire life. Nevertheless, they pledged themselves to help her, +and went about it with a will. + +When Mr. Browning could not obtain satisfactory information by mail +he announced to Jane and Betty one day his intention of going to +Walling in person. + +He seemed vaguely excited about something, but though both girls +questioned him, Betty more insistently than Jane, he would give them +no satisfaction, merely saying that when he found out anything +definite he would tell it to them at once but that at present he had +gained no really authentic information. + +He left the office in charge of Jane, and that meant that the girl +was kept “on her toes all day” doing both her own work and the work +of her employer. This was perhaps just as well, since it kept her +from useless brooding. But it was a trying time, even though an +exciting one, for both the girls left behind. + +Meanwhile, Billy Dobson came back to Greenville triumphant. He had +been gone for some time, and since he had not written, Jane was +beginning to worry for fear his mission had ended in failure after +all. + +He burst unceremoniously into the office one morning just as Jane was +putting her hat on to go out. + +Billy was handsomer than ever and there was an air of success about +him just now that was rather thrilling. At least, so thought Betty +from the modest obscurity of her own little desk in the rear of the +office. + +Billy rushed directly to Jane and swallowed up both her outstretched +hands in his two great brown ones. + +“Congratulations, Jane! Give ’em to me quick! I’ve done it!” + +“Billy!” + +Jane’s face was shining; her heart was thumping gloriously. + +“You mean that man has really accepted your invention?” + +“Accepted! Oh, boy, I’ll say he has! And at a price--oh, such a +price! Jane, feast your eyes upon me, for you’re looking at a rich +man--a man, moreover, who some day will be much richer! Are you +getting an eyeful?” + +“You’re crazy, of course!” Jane laughed helplessly as Billy continued +to hold on to her hands and beam upon her. “But I don’t blame you at +all, Billy. I feel sort of--unbalanced--myself!” + +They had a perfectly marvelous, idiotic time after that, and Jane +drew Betty into it, telling Billy of the investigation the latter had +instigated and giving him the signed statement of Martin Shiff to +read. + +Billy looked thoughtfully at Betty after he read it, and then quietly +offered his hand. + +“Thanks!” he said. “That was a mighty fine thing for you to do, and +it means a lot to me.” + +Betty accepted the hand but nodded mischievously at Jane, all her +pretty dimples in evidence. + +“I did it for Jane,” she said demurely. “I knew how pleased she’d be.” + +Billy turned to Jane, a slow smile on his lips. + +“Were you?” he asked. + +Jane flushed, and was surprised and angry at herself for doing it. + +“Of course I was glad,” she returned almost shortly. “Who wouldn’t +be?” + +“I’d be very sorry,” said Billy gravely, “if Jane wasn’t just a +little bit more pleased than--any one else.” + +Jane smiled, her own bright, cordial smile, and gave him her hand +again. + +“Of course I am glad, Billy,” she said. “You know how much, without +my telling you.” + +Betty smiled knowingly and hid her face so that the mischievous +dimples would not betray her thought. For who can say that all +women--even quite young ones--are not matchmakers at heart! + +It was some days before Mr. Browning came home again, and the +suspense made Jane thin and etched dark circles under her eyes. + +Billy, of course, had been let into her confidence, and he and Betty +between them did all they could to comfort and encourage her. But +Jane could not sleep at night for the question that said itself over +and over in her mind. “Who was my mother? Who was my father? Oh, what +will Mr. Browning find out about them?” + +Then came the night when Mr. Browning arrived quite unexpectedly in +Greenville. + +He had engaged a woman in the neighborhood--a bustling wiry person +by the name of Joyce--to stay with Betty during his absence. The +latter protested that she would be perfectly safe without the wiry +Mrs. Joyce, but Mr. Browning would not hear of her staying alone in +the house. + +On this particular night Betty was just about ready for bed when +a familiar step on the porch and a key in the door announced the +arrival of her father. + +She ran down to him. The flood of questions trembling on her lips was +checked by the look on her father’s face. He shut the door quietly +and then, with a hand on Betty’s arm, drew her into the front room. + +“Dad, is anything wrong? Has anything----” + +“Listen, Betty.” Mr. Browning seated himself in a chair and drew +Betty down on his knee as though she were a little child again. He +had not even thought to take off his overcoat. “I have something very +important to tell you. I wanted you to know before I saw Jane. That’s +why I timed my arrival after dark. Are you listening?” + + * * * * * + +The next day Betty entered her father’s office, trying to mask her +excitement. Jane was at her desk, sorting and arranging the morning +mail. Betty went directly to her. + +“Jane, dear,” she said, “daddy is in town and he wants very much to +see you.” + +Jane started to her feet, her face suddenly very white. + +“Where is he?” she asked. + +“At home. He thought that perhaps he’d better tell you--what he wants +to--there. Come along.” + +“But the office----” + +“Oh, bother the old office! It can take care of itself for a little +while!” + +Jane was in her coat, her hat on her head in a moment. She closed and +locked the office and automatically put the key in her pocket. + +The girls had almost reached Betty’s house, walking swiftly and in +silence, when Jane put a hand on the pretty girl’s arm. + +“Tell me just one thing, Betty,” she begged. “Is this news--very bad?” + +“Bad? No! Don’t ask me any questions, Jane Cross, or I’ll never keep +the secret--never!” + +They said no more until they stepped up on the porch and the door was +opened by Mr. Browning from the inside. Mrs. Joyce had been dismissed +that morning. + +Jane was trembling when Mr. Browning helped her off with her coat, +and then led her into the front room. + +“Oh, whatever you have to tell me, please tell me quickly,” she +cried, her breath catching. “I can’t bear this a moment longer!” + +“All right, then.” Mr. Browning pushed the girl gently down on the +couch and drew up a chair near her. Betty sat down close to Jane, one +arm about her. + +“My news isn’t bad news, Jane; so don’t look like that, my dear girl. +But it is strange, so strange that it may be something of a shock to +you. Are you ready to listen?” + +“Oh, yes, yes!” cried Jane. + +“Well then, this is the story of a girl I know.” Mr. Browning took +a cigar from his pocket and lighted it, feigning an ease he did not +feel. “She was brought up by a woman whom she thought to be her +mother. When she found out this woman was not her mother but had +taken her from an orphan asylum, the truth came, naturally, as a +great shock to her.” + +Jane sat very still now, her eyes fixed on Mr. Browning. + +“There was a man who took a great interest in her, and who promised +to solve the mystery of her parentage for her. He went to the town +where the orphan asylum was located in the hope of finding out from +the authorities there something concerning this girl’s parents. He +did find out something.” + +Mr. Browning paused and regarded the tip of his cigar intently for a +moment. Jane neither moved nor spoke, but sat with her eyes intently +on him. + +“He found out something so strange and startling,” Mr. Browning +continued, “that he could not bring himself to believe the truth of +it at first, but must first satisfy himself with absolute proofs. +He found the proofs.” He paused, and for the first time his eyes +met Jane’s. The girl stirred, reached out her hands toward him +imploringly. + +“He found,” said Mr. Browning slowly, “that the child’s real name was +not Jane, but Janet, and that her mother was Martha Harper and that +her father was Mark Harper, a sailor who lost his life in a great +gale off the coast.” + +Jane was trembling again and Betty’s arm tightened about her. + +“The mother,” continued Mr. Browning in a low voice, and even amid +the whirling of her own thought, Jane wondered why he became so +agitated, so distressed at the mention of her mother’s name, “tried +to make her living and support her baby, but her heart was broken +and she died, leaving the baby, the little girl, to the charity of +strangers.” + +Jane found herself speaking. + +“That girl was I?” she asked. + +“I am coming to that,” said Mr. Browning. He bent forward and held +Jane’s gaze with his own. “This is the strange part, the almost +unbelievable part of it. I once had a sister, a gay, high-spirited +girl, who fell in love with--and finally married--a sailor. My +parents opposed the match, and when the girl married against their +wishes, declared they would have nothing more to do with her.” + +“Oh, they were cruel!” cried Jane, with a catch in her voice. “Cruel!” + +“Yes, it was cruel,” said Mr. Browning. He regarded the end of his +cigar for a moment, then turned his gaze again to Jane. “I want you +to listen very carefully to what I am saying now.” His tone was so +grave that Jane stared at him fascinated, her heart pounding. “That +sister of whom I have not until now been able to find a trace, though +I have tried, bore the name of Martha, and the man she married was +Mark Harper! Now, Jane, do you understand?” + +Jane did not understand for a moment. She was so slow, in fact, that +Betty’s patience could not stand the strain. + +“Jane, don’t you see?” she cried. “Your mother and my father were +brother and sister! That makes us--well, what does it make us, you +big silly?” + +Jane stared at her, while the almost incredible truth flashed to her +mind. + +“Why, Betty, it can’t be! It isn’t possible! That makes us cousins!” + +“First cousins, you old darling! And, Jane, I feel as if I’d found a +million dollars!” + +Betty hugged Jane and hugged her father--whose face was no longer +lined and weary--then went back to Jane and put a mischievous finger +under her chin, lifting up her serious, still incredulous face. + +“I wanted you for a sister, Jane,” she said. “’Member? Well, I +couldn’t have you for my sister. But I can have you for my cousin, +and that’s almost as good, now, isn’t it?” + +“Almost as good!” + +It was a long time before Jane could realize the fact that she and +Betty--pretty Betty Browning who had once lived in the finest house +on Rose Hill--were cousins. It was a still longer time before she +could drag her mind away from that marvelous fact. + +Mr. Browning had papers to prove his assertion, but Jane only glanced +at them. His word was enough. + +Mr. Browning, fine, distinguished Mr. Browning, was her uncle--the +next best thing to one’s own father, thought Jane, and tried +wistfully to picture that Mark Harper who had died at sea. Mr. +Browning was to be Uncle Clyde after this. How intimate it sounded +and how she loved Uncle Clyde and Betty for being so good to her! + +That mother, that impetuous pretty girl Martha, who had braved the +displeasure of her family to marry the man she loved! What of her? + +Mr. Browning had brought a tiny locket, a pretty baby’s locket, and +in it was a sweet smiling face whose loveliness brought the tears +smarting to Jane’s longing eyes. + +It had been part of the possessions of the little girl, Janet Harper, +when she came to the asylum and had been forgotten when she left. +The authorities had lost sight of her, but had kept the tiny locket, +thinking that some day some one belonging to her would come and claim +it, as some one did! + +“Mother! Mother!” whispered Jane, and looking at the lovely pictured +face, gradually lost it in a swimming mist of tears. + +It is to be feared that very little work was done at Mr. Browning’s +real estate office that day. True, there was some one there most of +the day and Mr. Browning went about his duties in a perfunctory way, +but Jane and Betty were somewhere in the clouds together and could +not come down to earth. + +Mrs. Powell had to be told the wonderful news, of course, and laughed +and cried and exclaimed over Jane to her heart’s content. Marion +came in in the midst of the jubilation and almost had hysterics in +her joy. + +“Best girl in the world!” she cried, bobbing and smiling. “Deserves +everything good! Yes, indeed. You have my blessing, Jane--or I should +say, Janet! Good luck go with you, my dear. Yes indeed, I wish it. +Truly.” + +“Marion!” Lydia spoke sternly from the doorway. She had followed her +sister to the door and looked with disapproval upon the scene. “Do +come away, Marion! You talk too much!” + +“Aren’t they funny?” giggled Betty a few moments later, as she linked +her arm through Jane’s and started toward home. It had been arranged +that Jane should celebrate by having dinner with her newly acquired +relatives. + +“But Marion and Lydia are good-hearted,” said Jane. “They will do +anything in the world for you if they think you need help. I’ll never +forget how good they were to us when we first came to Greenville.” + +“Well, if you love ’em, Jane, I suppose I’ll have to love ’em too,” +said Betty, with a sigh of mock resignation. “Here’s the butcher +store. We’ll have to stop and get the makings of a dinner.” + +“Here’s the whole day gone and I’ve hardly done a stroke of work,” +said Jane. “Mr. Brown----” + +“Uncle Clyde!” corrected Betty. + +“Uncle Clyde,” repeated Jane with a heightened color and a quick +squeeze of Betty’s hand, “will be firing me!” + +“He can’t now,” chuckled Betty, and displayed all her dimples. +“Because, you see, you’re in the family!” + +A short time later the girls let themselves into Betty’s house, +chatting gayly, their arms full of bundles. + +“Here comes dad,” said Betty, pausing on the threshold and looking +back to wave to her father as he turned the corner and came swiftly +toward them. “Let’s wait for him.” + +So it happened that they entered the house together, Mr. Browning +with an arm about each of “his girls,” as he proudly called them. + +Something unusual in the atmosphere halted them just within the door. + +It was the appetizing smell of a roast browning in the oven. + +“Why, dad, you didn’t tell Mrs. Joyce to come back, did you?” asked +Betty, staring at him. + +“No,” answered her father briefly, and started toward the kitchen. +The girls followed, wondering. + +Through the kitchen doorway they saw some one slip a pan of biscuits +in the oven--a tall handsome some one, swathed in a gingham kitchen +apron. + +Mr. Browning paused as if stupefied and stood staring. + +Betty drew her arm from Jane’s, shrieked wildly: + +“Mother! Mother! Mother!” + +She flung herself like a young meteor past her father and into the +arms of the tall, handsome woman in the gingham apron. + +“Mother! Dear, darling mother! It isn’t you, is it? It’s some one +that looks like you all dressed up in my funny old apron! Oh, mother, +tell me it’s you and that I’m not dreaming!” + +“You foolish child, stop mauling me so! You nearly made me spoil the +soup, and the roast will burn----” + +“Oh, bother the roast! Dad--daddy, she’s come back to us!” + +All this time Jane had stood, frozen by surprise, scarcely able to +move. + +She saw Mr. Browning go forward slowly and take his wife’s hand, saw +the questioning look in his eyes. + +“I couldn’t stay away any longer, Clyde,” she heard the proud woman +say, her eyes humble, almost pleading. “What Betty can do I can do, +and I’m ashamed that I let the child teach me this lesson. I’d like +to stay and--do my part--if you want me----” + +“Well,” said Mr. Browning slowly, “I guess we won’t exactly put her +out, shall we, Bettykin?” + +Jane realized then that this scene was not for her, and she turned +away, feeling for the moment just a little lonely. + +But only for a moment. + +Betty came flying after her, took her hand, and drew her toward the +kitchen. + +“Mother!” she cried in her merry voice, all her dimples flashing, +“allow me to present another member of the family!” + + * * * * * + +Several years passed by, and Jane, wandering in the garden that +she and Mrs. Powell had coaxed into a riot of color, smiled as she +thought of the changes those years had seen. + +She still worked in Mr. Browning’s office, and Betty, not to be +outdone in anything by her beloved cousin, worked side by side with +her. + +The business had prospered. Mr. Browning was well on the way to +becoming a rich man again, and it began to look as though before long +he would be able to buy back the big house on Rose Hill if he cared +to. But they were so happy in the little cottage where the roses over +the door no longer drooped their heads in sad neglect that it is +doubtful whether they would ever have the heart to leave it. + +Although Mr. and Mrs. Browning urged Jane to come and live with them +and pretty Betty tried all her dimples and all her wiles, Jane would +not leave the Powells, those good friends who had been kind to her +when she needed kindness most. Mr. Browning had been able to throw a +little business in the way of Mr. Powell now and then that he could +look after in his leisure hours, so that he, as well, was better off +than he had ever dreamed of being. + +Billy had prospered too--oh, mightily. + +Jane’s smile deepened when she thought of Billy. He was off on one of +his many important trips to the city now, but Jane expected him back +almost any time. The marketing of his one invention had made much +easier the placing of the others. There had been something in that +last letter of his---- + +A quick footstep on the gravel path behind her. + +Jane turned to see Billy coming toward her, his fair hair shining in +the sun. + +“’Lo Jane! Aunt Lou said I’d find you here talking to the posies. +Thought maybe you’d rather talk to me.” + +“Well, so I would, perhaps. How was the trip, Billy?” + +“Pretty slick. All I had to do was tell ’em to sign on the dotted +line. We’re going to be rich, Jane!” + +“We?” queried Jane, with a smile. + +“Yes, I said we! Because you’re going to marry me, whether you +know it or not. Don’t you think, Jane, you’ve kept me waiting long +enough?” he went on more soberly. + +Perhaps it was the smell of the flowers or perhaps it was the spring +sunshine or perhaps--it was only Billy. Anyway, Jane said, “Perhaps I +have,” and Billy seemed to think he had his answer. + +“Oh-h, excuse me!” A pretty face was poked about the edge of the rose +arbor, a face framed in lovely flyaway golden hair. “You ought to +hang out a sign, you two, warning everybody off the premises!” + +“Come in,” grinned Billy. “You’re just in time to be invited to our +wedding.” + +“When’s it to be?” came with a chuckle from Betty. + +“Next week.” + +“Oh, Billy!” + +“Don’t talk, darling.” Betty put a hand over Jane’s mouth. “He’s +made up his mind, and when a man makes up his mind there’s no use +arguing with him. You might just as well submit as unprotestingly as +possible.” + +“But, Billy, I can’t possibly----” + +“No but, young lady. I have to go to the city again next week, and +you’re going with me. We’ll buy what you need when we get there.” + +“No,” said Jane. “I must have at least a month, Billy.” + +“A month!” cried Billy reproachfully. “How can I wait a month?” + +Betty sighed and turned away. + +“I see you don’t need _me_,” she murmured, with a mischievous glance. +She picked a rose from a bush near by and leveled it at them sternly. +“I’ll let you have this wedding on one condition!” + +“What’s that?” they asked her, smiling. + +“That you’ll let me be the bridesmaid.” + +“Betty! As though we’d have any one else!” + +They watched the pretty figure in the rose-colored frock until it was +out of sight, then Jane and Billy turned to walk slowly down the path +toward the garden of their dreams. + + + THE END + + + + + THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS + + =BY MAY HOLLIS BARTON= + +[Illustration: (cover of ‘Nell Grayson’s Ranching Days’)] + +_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket_ + +_=Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid=_ + +_May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls who is bound to win +instant popularity. Her style is somewhat of a mixture of that of +Louise M. Alcott and Mrs. L. T. Meade, but thoroughly up-to-date in +plot and action. Clean tales that all girls will enjoy reading._ + + + =1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY= + _or Laura Mayford’s City Experiences_ + +Laura was the oldest of five children and when daddy got sick she +felt she must do something. She had a chance to try her luck in +New York, and there the country girl fell in with many unusual +experiences. + + + =2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL= + _or The Mystery of the School by the Lake_ + +When the three chums arrived at the boarding school they found the +other students in the grip of a most perplexing mystery. How this +mystery was solved, and what good times the girls had, both in school +and on the lake, go to make a story no girl would care to miss. + + + =3. NELL GRAYSON’S RANCHING DAYS= + _or A City Girl in the Great West_ + +Showing how Nell, when she had a ranch girl visit her in Boston, +thought her chum very green, but when Nell visited the ranch in the +great West she found herself confronting many conditions of which she +was totally ignorant. A stirring outdoor story. + + + =4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY= + _or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way_ + +Four sisters are keeping house and having trouble to make both ends +meet. One day there wanders in from a stalled express train an old +lady who cannot remember her identity. The girls take the old lady +in, and, later, are much astonished to learn who she really is. + + + =5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY= + _or The Girl Who Won Out_ + +The tale of two girls, one plain but sensible, the other pretty but +vain. Unexpectedly both find they have to make their way in the +world. Both have many trials and tribulations. A story of a country +town and then a city. + + + + + THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES + + =BY ALICE B. EMERSON= + +[Illustration: (cover of ‘Ruth Fielding in Alaska’)] + +_12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_ + +_=Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid=_ + +Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. +Her adventures and travels make stories that will hold the interest +of every reader. + +Ruth Fielding is a character that will live in juvenile fiction. + + + =1. RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL= + =2. RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL= + =3. RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP= + =4. RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT= + =5. RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH= + =6. RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND= + =7. RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM= + =8. RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES= + =9. RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES= + =10. RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE= + =11. RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE= + =12. RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE= + =13. RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS= + =14. RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT= + =15. RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND= + =16. RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST= + =17. RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST= + =18. RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE= + =19. RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING= + =20. RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH= + =21. RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS= + =22. RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA= + =23. RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREAT SCENARIO= + + + + + THE BETTY GORDON SERIES + + =BY ALICE B. EMERSON= + +[Illustration: (cover of ‘Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm’)] + +_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_ + +_=Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid=_ + + + =1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE= + FARM _or The Mystery of a Nobody_ + +At twelve Betty is left an orphan. + + + =2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON= + _or Strange Adventures in a Great City_ + +Betty goes to the National Capitol to find her uncle and has several +unusual adventures. + + + =3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL= + _or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune_ + +From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of our +country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of to-day. + + + =4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL= + _or The Treasure of Indian Chasm_ + +Seeking treasures of Indian Chasm makes interesting reading. + + + =5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP= + _or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne_ + +At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery +involving a girl whom she had previously met in Washington. + + + =6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK= + _or School Chums on the Boardwalk_ + +A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot. + + + =7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS= + _or Bringing the Rebels to Terms_ + +Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies make +a fascinating story. + + + =8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH= + _or Cowboy Joe’s Secret_ + +Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle. + + + =9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS= + _or The Secret of the Mountains_ + +Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held +for ransom in a mountain cave. + + + =10. BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARL= + _or A Mystery of the Seaside_ + +Betty and her chums go to the ocean shore for a vacation and there +Betty becomes involved in the disappearance of a string of pearls +worth a fortune. + + + + + THE LINGER-NOT SERIES + + =BY AGNES MILLER= + +[Illustration: (cover of ‘The Linger-Nots and the Mystery House’)] + +_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_ + +_=Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid=_ + +_This new series of girls’ books is in a new style of story writing. +The interest is in knowing the girls and seeing them solve the +problems that develop their character. Incidentally, a great deal of +historical information is imparted._ + + + =1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE= + _or The Story of Nine Adventurous Girls_ + +How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace, +but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their +club serve a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and +introduces a new type of girlhood. + + + =2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD= + _or The Great West Point Chain_ + +The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds +or mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in +some surprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made +the valley better because of their visit. + + + =3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST= + _or The Log of the Ocean Monarch_ + +For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into +the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the +reader sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their +friends to come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine +story. + + + =4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARMS= + _or The Secret from Old Alaska_ + +Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or +occupied with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work +unitedly to solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted +American freedom to a sad young stranger, and brought happiness to +her and to themselves. + + + + + BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES + + =BY JANET D. WHEELER= + +[Illustration: (cover of ‘Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes’)] + +_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_ + +_=Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid=_ + + +=1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE= + +_or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners_ + +Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead that was unoccupied +and located far away in a lonely section of the country. How Billie +went there, accompanied by some of her chums, and what queer things +happened, go to make up a story no girl will want to miss. + + + =2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL= + _or Leading a Needed Rebellion_ + +Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short time +after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the +school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge +of two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in +very, very plain food and little of it--and then there was a row! The +girls wired for the head to come back--and all ended happily. + + + =3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND= + _or The Mystery of the Wreck_ + +One of Billie’s friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island, +near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the +Island. There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were +washed ashore. They could tell nothing of themselves, and Billie and +her chums set to work to solve the mystery of their identity. + + + =4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES= + _or The Secret of the Locked Tower_ + +Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children +who have broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost +invention, and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower. + + + =5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES= + _or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore_ + +A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a +great variety of adventures. They visit an artists’ colony and there +fall in with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her +constantly. Billie befriended Hulda and the mystery surrounding the +girl was finally cleared up. + + + + + THE CURLYTOPS SERIES + + =BY HOWARD R. GARIS= + +[Illustration: (cover of ‘The Curlytops at Cherry Farm’)] + +_=Author of the famous “Bedtime Animal Stories”=_ + +_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_ + +_=Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid=_ + + + =1. THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM= + _or Vacation Days in the Country_ + +A tale of happy vacation days on a farm. + + + =2. THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND= + _or Camping out with Grandpa_ + +The Curlytops camp on Star Island. + + + =3. THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN= + _or Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds_ + +The Curlytops on lakes and hills. + + + =4. THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK’S RANCH= + _or Little Folks on Ponyback_ + +Out West on their uncle’s ranch they have a wonderful time. + + + =5. THE CURLYTOPS AT SILVER LAKE= + _or On the Water with Uncle Ben_ + +The Curlytops camp out on the shores of a beautiful lake. + + + =6. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS= + _or Uncle Toby’s Strange Collection_ + +An old uncle leaves them to care for his collection of pets. + + + =7. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PLAYMATES= + _or Jolly Times Through the Holidays_ + +They have great times with their uncle’s collection of animals. + + + =8. THE CURLYTOPS IN THE WOODS= + _or Fun at the Lumber Camp_ + +Exciting times in the forest for Curlytops. + + + =9. THE CURLYTOPS AT SUNSET BEACH= + _or What Was Found in the Sand_ + +The Curlytops have a fine time at the seashore. + + + =10. THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND= + _or The Missing Photograph Albums_ + +The Curlytops get in some moving pictures. + + + =11. THE CURLYTOPS IN A SUMMER CAMP= + _or Animal Joe’s Menagerie_ + +There is great excitement as some mischievous monkeys break out of +Animal Joe’s Menagerie. + + + _Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_ + + + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + +Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been +silently corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences +within the text and consultation of external sources. Some hyphens +in words have been silently removed and some silently added when +a predominant preference was found in the original book. Except +for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text and +inconsistent or archaic usage have been retained. + + Page 5: “as suddenly at is” replaced by “as suddenly as it”. + + Page 13: “It you’ve got to” replaced by “If you’ve got to”. + + Page 14: “clinging to its” replaced by “clinging to it”. + + Page 14: “every one called his” replaced by “every one called + him”. + + Page 15: “driver glared as” replaced by “driver glared at”. + + Page 31: “suddenly remembed” replaced by “suddenly remembered”. + + Page 40: “paint until is” replaced by “paint until it”. + + Page 50: “and buring brands” replaced by “and burning brands”. + + Page 60: “that I leant” replaced by “that I lent”. + + Page 82: “struggled off” replaced by “straggled off”. + + Page 106: “triumphant refran” replaced by “triumphant refrain”. + + Page 107: “to marked yet” replaced by “to market yet”. + + Page 111: “he told herself” replaced by “she told herself”. + + Page 116: “she poured over” replaced by “she pored over”. + + Page 166: “The tears softend” replaced by “The tears softened”. + + Page 201: “with a hightened” replaced by “with a heightened”. + + Page 203: “shall be, Bettykin” replaced by “shall we, Bettykin”. + + Advertisement for Ruth Fielding series: “BRIARWOODHALL” replaced by + “BRIARWOOD HALL”. + +Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. Bold text is +surrounded by equal signs: =bold=. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77832 *** |