JACK STRAIGHTENS THINGS OUT
"You--you wanted to see me Hugh?" Rosemary faltered.
"Please come in and close the door," he said quietly. Then as she
obeyed, "Now what is this Mrs. Dunning has been telling Aunt Trudy,
Rosemary? Have you been taking care of babies in the neighborhood
for fifteen cents an hour?"
Rosemary nodded.
"How long has this been going on?" asked her brother.
"A--a couple of weeks," answered Rosemary faintly.
"What was the idea?"
Rosemary said nothing.
"I asked you a question, Rosemary. Please answer me. What made you
do a thing like this without consulting some one? Did Winnie know?"
"No," said Rosemary reluctantly, "Winnie didn't know. No one did. I
wanted to earn some money, Hugh."
Then came the question she had been dreading.
"What for?"
Rosemary nervously knotted and unknotted her handkerchief. Her blue
eyes roved around the familiar room and came back to the grim face
and the dark eyes which watched her relentlessly.
"Oh, Hugh!" she cried desperately, "PLEASE!"
Her brother picked up a paper weight and studied it intently.
"Look here, Rosemary," he began more gently, "you deliberately
disobeyed this afternoon when I asked you to stay in the house--"
"Because I had absolutely promised Mrs. Hepburn, Hugh," Rosemary
broke in eagerly. "I'd _promised_! She was depending on me and I had
to go."
"Very well, a promise is a promise," admitted the doctor, "though
when wrongly given sometimes they must be broken. We'll set aside
the fact that you disobeyed and consider only this wild scheme
apparently undertaken because you wanted to earn money. I want you
to tell me why you thought you needed money and why you couldn't
come to me and ask for it."
"Because," whispered Rosemary unhappily, "Because."
"That's no reason," said the doctor brusquely. "Come, 'fess up,
Rosemary, and I'll help you out of the scrape, whatever it is. My
dear little girl, you can't go around among the neighbors like
this--families help each other and stand by each other. I don't care
a hoot what other people may think--as Aunt Trudy seems to believe I
should--but I care a great deal that my little sister should go to
outsiders instead of coming to me."
Rosemary touched his sleeve timidly. She longed to throw herself in
his arms, cry that she was tired of taking care of silly,
uninteresting babies (though as a matter of fact when she wasn't
tired she loved them all, the cross as well as the good-natured
ones), and tell him the whole story about the lost ring. But there
was her promise to Sarah. A promise was a promise--Hugh himself had
said so. And families were to stand by each other, and she must
stand by Sarah and Shirley.
"I can't tell you, Hugh," said Rosemary earnestly. "I just can't."
"You mean you won't," said the doctor sternly. "Well, go up and
bring me down this bank--I suppose that was the one you and Sarah
were quarreling over the other night? And you put the money you
earned in that? I thought so; bring it down to me."
Wondering what he meant to do, Rosemary went up to her room and
returned with the bank. Doctor Hugh dropped it into one of the lower
drawers of his desk and turned the key.
"I want you to bring me a list of the women for whom you have taken
care of children," he said, pushing a block of paper and a pencil
toward Rosemary, "and, as nearly as you can remember, the number of
hours you worked for each. Then we'll count out this money and you
will have to return it. I want that list by to-morrow night."
Winnie sounded the dinner gong just then and Rosemary went silently
to the table. Aunt Trudy's eyes were red from crying and Sarah and
Shirley looked frightened. Their aunt had told them the "awful
thing" Rosemary had been doing and Sarah was in terror lest Hugh
already knew her part in it. But dinner, uncomfortable meal as it
was, reassured Sarah. Hugh would not have allowed her to leave the
table without a word if he had known about the ring.
Rosemary went to her room directly after dinner and Sarah and
Shirley followed.
"Was he mad?" asked Shirley, her eyes round with excitement.
"Aunt Trudy was crying and wringing her hands," volunteered Sarah.
"She says the family is disgraced and Hugh will be ashamed to show
his face in Eastshore."
"What a silly thing to say!" cried Rosemary. "Thank goodness, Hugh
is no snob. But he is furious because I can't tell him why I wanted
the money. And, oh, girls, I have to take it all back. How can I
ever buy the ring now, and what will the people say when I bring
back the money they paid me?"
She hurriedly outlined what Doctor Hugh had said, and Sarah
immediately suggested that they get hold of the bank and bury it.
"Hugh would only punish us again," said Rosemary practically. "Let's
tell him about the ring, Sarah. He said he'd help me out of the
scrape, no matter what it was, if I'd tell him."
But Sarah set her chin obstinately and refused to go to her brother.
She reminded Rosemary of her promise and Shirley, too, began to cry
and say that she was afraid of Hugh. So it ended by Rosemary
renewing her promise not to tell and then crying herself to sleep
because she remembered how patient Hugh had been and she knew she
had both hurt and disappointed him.
"And I can't go around and give the money back," she wept, tossing
about on her wet pillow, "What will people think? But Hugh will make
me, if he goes along to see me do it. Oh, dear, the Willis will
makes all the trouble in this family!"
But in the morning the Willis will helped Rosemary to remain
unshaken in her determination not to tell any more than she had
told. Doctor Hugh called her into the office before breakfast--he
had had his early and was ready to leave when the girls came down
stairs--and asked her again why she wanted the money, patiently at
first and then, as Rosemary stubbornly refused to give a reason, he
lost his temper and began to storm. Rosemary finally flew out of the
office and banged the door and the morning was unhappily begun.
Winnie, who had heard the story from Aunt Trudy, thought it her duty
to lecture Rosemary during breakfast--at which Aunt Trudy did not
appear--and Rosemary, whose nerves were already strained to the
breaking point, answered snappishly.
"I should think you'd be ashamed to speak to me like that before
your little sisters," said Winnie indignantly. "Shirley wouldn't
talk to Winnie like that, would you dear?"
"Oh, my no," said Shirley angelically.
This was too much for Rosemary. She fled from the table to indulge
in a good cry up in her mother's room. Doctor Hugh had trusted the
key to her, after he had locked the room and Rosemary sometimes went
there when she wanted to be quiet and think. The room was in perfect
order, sweet and clean and well-aired and the things on the dresser
and shelves were exactly as her mother usually kept them. Rosemary
had arranged them so because she thought her mother would like to
find them ready for her when she came home.
After the tears had stopped, Rosemary sat quietly for a few minutes
in the little low white rocker. Something of the peace and stillness
of the room stole into her troubled mind. Presently she rose and
went out, locking the door carefully behind her.
"Anything the matter, Rosemary--you look a little woozy," said Jack
Welles with neighborly frankness, seeing her across the hedge later
that morning as she was spreading out handkerchiefs to bleach for
Winnie.
In a rush of words, Rosemary told him the "matter."
"Well, you do have a merry time," Jack commented when she had
finished. "But the solution is simple after all."
"I can't take back that money," said Rosemary miserably. "But what
can I do? Hugh will never give in."
"Do? There's nothing for you to do," answered Jack vigorously.
"Sarah and Shirley have the next act on the program and it's up to
me to see that they realize it, if you can't show them their duty.
Where's Sarah now?"
"Teaching the cat to sit up," said Rosemary without interest. "It
won't do you any good to argue with her, Jack. She's afraid of Hugh
and she won't ever tell him. Besides, you know, I only told you if
you would promise not to tell."
"Oh, I haven't forgotten that you nailed me firmly before you would
say a word," Jack replied grimly. "But I still think I can persuade
Sarah to confess her share and if she will, Shirley will admit that
she also was present. I'll go begin my good work now."
He was gone half an hour and when he came back he was smiling.
"Everything's all fixed," he announced. "Sarah and Shirley are going
to march up to the guns like good soldiers to-night, and I'm going
to do the talking for them. Sarah, sensibly enough, wants to get it
over before dinner, so I've promised to come over right after lunch
and sit on your porch so I'll be here no matter how early Hugh gets
home. You and I have to bolster up the weak spots in their courage."
"I don't see how you ever persuaded Sarah," marveled Rosemary. "I
argued and argued, and she wouldn't listen to me."
Jack looked very wise.
"I used moral suasion," he declared. "Told her if she didn't own up
to-night, I'd go to Doctor Hugh and tell him everything myself."
"Is that moral suasion?" asked Rosemary doubtfully.
"Of course it is," said Jack with confidence. "If it isn't it ought
to be. I've never broken a promise yet and I'm mighty glad Sarah
didn't make me, but I'll be jiggered if I don't think there are
times when it is worse to keep a promise than to break it."
A promise "wrongly given"--Doctor Hugh's words came back to
Rosemary. Had she given her promise wrongly?
Doctor Hugh did not come home till nearly five o'clock and the four
solemn young people on the front porch were getting decidedly
fidgety before his roadster appeared at the curb and he jumped out
and hurried up the walk. He said "Hello" to the four as he passed
them and he was surprised, therefore, when he turned from his desk
to see them enter the office and advance toward him.
"Hugh," said Jack clearly, "I've something to tell you. Sarah really
ought to, but she asked me to do it."
"Suppose you sit down," said the doctor gravely.
Sarah sat down gingerly on a chair near the door, ready for instant
flight, and the others ranged themselves near the desk. Jack began
with the loss of the ring and told everything that had happened
since. He spoke rapidly, but without excitement, and he was not
interrupted once.
"I am really to blame, as much as anyone," he declared, when he had
reached the point where Rosemary had confided in him about the
missing ring and her determination to replace it. "I had no business
to promise not to tell before I heard what I was not to tell. That's
a fool stunt."
"Yes, I think it is," agreed Doctor Hugh, but smilingly.
"Rosemary thought she had to go on taking care of cranky babies till
she could buy another ring. If I'd had any money of my own--and I
don't know why I never do--" Jack paused for a moment to consider
this new idea--"I would have bought a ring myself and helped her out
of the hole."
Doctor Hugh listened silently to the remainder of the recital, his
eyes studying the four expressive faces before him.
"So Rosemary really couldn't tell you what she wanted the money for,
because she had promised," finished Jack. "And Sarah was afraid, and
so was Shirley."
"I see," the doctor said. "I'm sorry they were afraid. Sarah dear,
do you really think you have saved yourself anything by not telling
me when you lost the ring?" he went on, turning to Sarah. "Haven't
you had more trouble and worry and unhappiness trying to keep me
from finding out and don't you think it is better to own up right
away and take your punishment and have it all over?"
"Yes," admitted Sarah in a very small voice.
"Well, then, next time tell me at once," said Doctor Hugh earnestly.
"And don't ever let me hear of four of you making a chain of
promises like this. We'll see what can be done about the ring
to-morrow, Sarah, and you and I will talk it over with Aunt Trudy."
He held out his hand to Jack and put an arm around Rosemary, whose
face was radiant with relief and happiness.
"I wish you had spoken up a little sooner, Jack," growled the
doctor. "I find that keeping track of three girls isn't the easiest
task in the world."
"But we won't lose any more rings," said the practical Sarah.
"No, we won't lose any more rings, Hugh," whispered Rosemary,
standing on tip-toe to kiss him.