ONE DISASTROUS AFTERNOON
"I do practise," said Rosemary desperately.
"Well not enough, or Miss Mason wouldn't say your work was falling
below your usual standard," Aunt Trudy insisted. "She was here this
afternoon, Hugh, and she asked me whether Rosemary was giving as
much time as usual to the piano."
"Oh, let her slow up this kind of weather, if she wants to,"
responded the doctor lazily. "I think she's stuck pretty faithfully
to the scales and finger exercises myself."
Rosemary flashed him a grateful look.
"Of course I don't want to find fault," said Aunt Trudy to this,
"but you know I feel responsible. And Winnie was saying this morning
that Sarah and Shirley are left too much to themselves."
"Oh, that's all right," declared Sarah hastily and Shirley echoed,
"Yes, that's all right."
Doctor Hugh laughed and even Rosemary smiled faintly. How could she
explain that she had no time left from the babies in the afternoon
to spend with the little sisters, or that the reason her music was
showing neglect was because her morning practise hours were given
over to the odds and ends of duties she dared not leave undone for
fear of comment and question and now had no other time to do?
"I imagine Sarah and Shirley amuse themselves," said the doctor,
smiling, "but Rosemary dear, I don't want you to get in the habit of
being out of the house too much. Three afternoons I've called you up
and you weren't home."
Doctor Hugh wondered if Nina Edmonds was absorbing Rosemary's
attention again, but he thought it wiser not to ask. As a matter of
fact, had he but known it, the voluble Nina had been away at the
seashore for several weeks.
"Well, all I can say," remarked Aunt Trudy after a pause, "is that I
hope, Rosemary, your sense of duty will be strong enough to cause
you to pay a little attention to the children while I am away. I am
going to-morrow morning to spend two days with my cousin, you know,
Hugh. She is sailing for London, Wednesday."
"Yes, you told me," acknowledged the doctor. "We'll manage all
right, Aunt Trudy. Rosemary will keep us all in order."
But in spite of his cheerful faith, Aunt Trudy departed the next
morning "worried to death" as she confided to Winnie.
"I have a feeling that Sarah and Shirley will get into some
mischief, the minute my back is turned," declared the good lady.
"And Rosemary will be mooning around and not catch them until it is
too late."
Aunt Trudy's doleful prediction proved only too true. That very
afternoon, when Rosemary left to take care of the Simmons baby while
his proud mother attended the fortnightly meeting of her card club,
Sarah and Shirley decided to sail boats in the bath-tub.
Unfortunately, when the tub was half filled, Ray Anderson called
them to come and see his new kiddie car and when that was duly
inspected, Sarah pressed Shirley into service to help her feed the
rabbits.
"Let's go up to the store and buy 'em some fresh carrots," Sarah
suggested. "I'll get the money out of the tin bank--Rosemary won't
mind, 'cause I'll pay her back soon as I can."
Rosemary was putting the money she earned into the little tin
chimney bank which stood on the mantel shelf in her room. She
called it the "ring fund" and to Sarah it seemed that there must be
money enough already in it to buy several rings. But Rosemary was
positive she still needed a great deal more.
Sarah and Shirley, by dint of much shaking and banging the bank
against the shelf edge, succeeded in extracting ten cents and with
this they purchased fresh young carrots, a delicacy much beloved by
the pampered rabbits. They had fed the rabbits and were swinging in
the porch swing, when they heard a cry from Winnie.
"For mercy's sake, where is the water coming from!" she shrieked.
"Look at it, leaking down through the ceiling and dripping on my
clean tablecloth--have the pipes sprung a leak?"
She dashed madly upstairs, Sarah and Shirley at her heels. The
bath-tub was overflowing and the floor was a lake.
"Don't ever let me hear of you sailing boats again, as long as I
live in this house!" Winnie scolded, as she rolled up her sleeves
and pulled out the plug. "Sarah, go down and get me the mop--quick!
It'll be a wonder if the plaster doesn't fall in the dining-room,
it's that soaked!"
Dinner was delayed because of the catastrophe and when Doctor Hugh
came in, hungry and tired, it was to find Winnie spreading a fresh
cloth on the table and scolding Rosemary vigorously.
"The time to be helping me is before such a thing happens,"
announced Winnie, twitching the linen angrily. "Is that you, Hughie?
Heaven alone knows when dinner will be ready to-night--I've been
made to set the table twice over and the potatoes boiled dry while I
was mopping up the bathroom."
In a few words she sketched the incident.
"Rosemary, can't you look after the children a little better, just
till your aunt gets back?" asked the doctor wearily. "Where were you
when they were letting the water run?"
"I was--out," said Rosemary lamely. "Just around," she added
hastily, seeing a question forming on his lips.
"Well you'll have to stay in to-morrow," he said decisively. "Aunt
Trudy will be home to-morrow night, and I want you to be with Sarah
and Shirley till then. That isn't asking too much--one day. And
we'll see if we can get along without any more accidents. No éclairs
to-night, Winnie, for Shirley and Sarah."
The two culprits, deprived of dessert, were excused early, but
Rosemary left alone with Hugh was too busy with her own thoughts to
talk much though ordinarily she loved an opportunity for a chat with
him.
"I simply have to go to Mrs. Hepburn's to-morrow," she thought
panic-stricken. "I promised faithfully to come, rain or shine. She
is going somewhere with her husband and that's the only day he has
off. I'll have to go--that is all there is about it. If Hugh finds
it out, he will be furious, but perhaps he won't know. Anyway, I'm
going! I promised."
Sarah and Shirley playing their favorite game of dominoes on the
porch after dinner, were startled by a sudden rush from Rosemary.
She whirled through the doorway and demanded of her sister, "Sarah,
have you been meddling with my tin bank?"
Sarah got up from the floor slowly.
"I borrowed ten cents," she admitted, trying to back away and
backing into a rocking chair.
"You 'borrowed' ten cents!" cried Rosemary, advancing upon her. "And
you know I want to save every cent! Of all the selfish, mean girls I
ever knew, you're the worst!"
She clutched the unhappy Sarah by her broad sailor collar and
proceeded to shake her fiercely. Sarah retaliated by kicking
viciously and they were in eminent danger of upsetting the wicker
table and porch lamp when Doctor Hugh strode out and separated them.
"Rosemary!" he said in surprise. "What do you call it you are doing?
And Sarah, too--kicking and fighting like two small boys! What ails
you, anyway?"
"She took ten cents out of my bank--it's just the same as stealing,
because she never pays back anything she borrows," panted Rosemary,
almost crying. "I found a penny on the floor where she dropped it.
And she knows how hard I'm trying to save every cent, too."
"Well, Sarah, I think robbing a bank is a pretty mean trick,"
pronounced Doctor Hugh judiciously. "Where is this bank, Rosemary?
I've never seen it. Seems to me you're beginning to get ready for
Christmas rather far in advance."
Rosemary looked at Sarah who gazed at her imploringly. Both girls
had forgotten for the moment the ring fund and its object.
"I'll pay you back to-morrow Rosemary, honestly I will," said Sarah
hurriedly. "Aunt Trudy owes me ten cents for not melting her letter
sealing wax. She will pay me to-morrow night and I'll give it to
you."
"Sarah, Sarah," groaned her brother, half in amusement, half in
despair, "I'm afraid your ethics are pretty wobbly. So Aunt Trudy
has to bribe you, does she, to let her desk alone? Well, see that
you turn the bribe over to Rosemary, though I should call it robbing
Peter to pay Paul, with a vengeance."
"Goodness, suppose he had made you tell why you were saving the
money!" whispered Sarah, when the doctor had gone back to his
office. "I was just shaking in my shoes."
"Sarah, wouldn't you rather tell, anyway?" said Rosemary suddenly.
"I don't believe Hugh would be so very cross, because you didn't
mean to lose the ring. And I am afraid it will take me a perfect age
to earn enough money to buy another."
"I won't tell, ever!" declared Sarah, shaking her dark head
obstinately. "And if you tell, Rosemary Willis, I'll never speak to
you as long as I live! You don't have to buy another ring--that's
silly. Aunt Trudy doesn't even know this one is lost."
"I don't care if she doesn't," insisted Rosemary. "You lost it, and
we have to get another one for her; that's all there is to it."
The next afternoon Doctor Hugh repeated his request that Rosemary
should stay with Sarah and Shirley till Aunt Trudy came home on the
5:46 train. Then he left on a long round of calls and Rosemary, not
without many regrets and a thrill of fear when she thought what her
brother would say if he found her out, sped up the street to the
pleasant house where Mrs. Hepburn, hatted and gloved eagerly waited
her coming.
"I was so afraid you wouldn't come," she greeted the little girl.
"Baby is asleep, and I want to get away before he wakes up and sees
me go. I'll be back at half-past five, sharp, but of course you
won't go till I come. You mustn't leave Baby alone in the house."
As luck would have it, Aunt Trudy decided to come home on an earlier
train and found herself in the midst of bundle-laden Eastshore
shoppers who had spent the day in the city and were returning with
their spoils. Motherly Mrs. Dunning occupied a seat with Aunt Trudy
and what more natural than that she should speak of how much help
Rosemary had been to her that summer? The wonder was that Aunt Trudy
had so long escaped hearing but she went about very little in the
town and had met comparatively few of the neighbors even those
living on her own street.
"Yes indeed I've been able to go away an afternoon or two a week,"
babbled Mrs. Dunning, "something I haven't done since Baby came.
Your niece is such a nice child and so reliable. I wanted her this
afternoon, but Mrs. Hepburn had engaged her first."
"My niece? Mrs. Hepburn engaged her?" repeated Aunt Trudy faintly.
Mrs. Dunning explained and Aunt Trudy managed to keep from fainting
though as she told Doctor Hugh afterward, she would never know how
the strength was given her. She looked nearer to apoplexy than
fainting when she walked into the house a half hour later and,
purple-faced and choking, demanded to be told the instant the doctor
came in.
Doctor Hugh and his car rolled up a few moments later and Aunt Trudy
sobbed out the "miserable story" as she characterized it.
"To think of Rosemary, acting as a nurse-maid, and we never knew
it!" she wailed. "What would her mother say? What must the neighbors
think?"
"Bother the neighbors!" said Doctor Hugh testily. "When Rosemary
comes home tell her I want to see her."
Though his aunt did not suspect it, he had seldom been as angry in
his life. Not only had Rosemary deliberately defied him and gone off
that afternoon, but she had most certainly furnished topic for
gossip in Eastshore for it was not possible in so small a town that
her occupation had been unnoticed. And Doctor Hugh was very proud of
his pretty sister. What could have possessed the child to do such a
wild thing?
He had himself in hand by the time Rosemary came running in, late,
for Mrs. Hepburn had been delayed and nothing could have induced the
young worker to desert her charge.
"Your brother wants you--he's in the office," said Aunt Trudy
stiffly.
And as soon as she saw Hugh the most awful sinking sensation went
through Rosemary. He had found out, how, she could not guess, but
somehow, that was plain.