The kitchen wasn't _redd up_ that day nor the next. It remained,
indeed, a sight to make a good housekeeper weep, and closets,
cupboards, clothes-presses, and the celebrated servants' parlor
remained untidy conglomerations of rubbish; but the general appearance
of the place continued to improve. Kate's gratitude for the regular
receipt of her wages was continual and practical. A chance visitor now
could enter any room in the front of the house at any hour, and there
was much comment among the people upon the change.
It was generally agreed that Elsie Moss must have been very carefully
trained by her stepmother to bring about such a marvel. And presently
some of the creditors of the household began to wonder if her influence
couldn't be extended. One and another began to drop hints to Elsie
which became so broad that even one quite unaccustomed to any such
thing could not fail to understand. The butcher's wife, the grocer's
sister, and the draper's head bookkeeper had all but informed her in so
many words that unless their respective relatives or patrons were paid
in full by the 1st of November, they would present their bills to Mr.
Middleton, if they had to do so in the vestibule of the church.
And they were only three out of a number that seemed legion. Others
spoke more plainly to Kate, and Elsie began to dread seeing certain
people enter the library during her hours there. The days being
shorter, the Howe baby went to bed at five o'clock, and little Mattie,
who had taken a violent fancy to Elsie, used to run to the library the
moment he was off her hands, remaining until six to walk home with her.
And Elsie, who was devoted to the child and never tired of her company,
was also relieved because her presence protected her from any but
veiled hints.
The situation wore upon her, and finally she decided to have a frank
talk with Mrs. Middleton. She wasn't, it is true, on terms of
frankness with her, and in a sense it wasn't her place to interfere.
But she knew that Mrs. Middleton wouldn't want the bills presented to
her husband any more than Kate did--nor, indeed, than Elsie herself.
Not that she would have cared, except for Mr. Middleton's sake. It
would serve Mrs. Middleton right to be brought up short, but she
dreaded the thought of his being so distressed; she didn't want him to
give up the few little comforts he allowed himself, and she knew it
would hurt him cruelly to have to retrench in his giving.
She wrote to Mr. Bliss, her lawyer, asking him to send her five hundred
dollars, mailing the letter to the other Elsie to be forwarded from New
York. That seemed to her inexperience a large sum and able to work
wonders. But before her letter had reached New York she began to feel
as if it wouldn't be sufficient to make everything straight for a new
start; and before there was time for an answer from San Francisco, she
was sadly convinced that it would be only a drop in the bucket.
Whereupon she decided that if Mr. Bliss sent it to her without comment,
and didn't evidently consider it a very large sum, she would ask him to
duplicate it.
With a certain relief, she put off the frank talk with Mrs. Middleton
until she should have received the money. It did not arrive so soon as
she expected it, and she was still waiting when Kate came to her in
excitement one morning saying that the iceman wouldn't leave any ice
unless he were paid cash. Elsie produced her portemonnaie.
"Oh, Miss Elsie, I hate to take your money," protested Kate with tears
in her eyes. "I wouldn't 'a' come to you only I'm strapped myself,
what with buyin' the hat with all them plumes, and the missus after
borrowin' my last five-dollar bill."
"Katy Flanagan, what made you let her have it?" cried the girl almost
fiercely.
"Well, Miss Elsie, the truth is, I couldn't resist her. There's
something about her, you know--a-askin' so airy like, and forgettin'
how--goodness, the man'll clear out with his ice if I don't fly."
Thereafter, Elsie paid also for the ice and the milk, leaving, out of
her allowance and the money she received for the library work, barely
enough for postage. But she didn't mind that; it was really a slight
sacrifice. She cared so much for the work at the library that she
would have paid for the privilege of doing it; and she had come so well
provided with all the accessories of clothing that she hadn't even to
buy gloves for another year.
Looking forward, she began to speculate on the possibility of starting
anew after finances were once straightened out. It appeared doubtful,
she being herself more ignorant than Kate, but presently a happy
suggestion presents itself to her. One afternoon she asked Mrs. King,
a kind, motherly, grey-haired lady who taught domestic science at the
high school and came to the library frequently, whether there were any
book to teach one how much to spend each week on different articles for
a household.
"Oh, Miss Moss, I'm so glad you spoke, for I've been wanting to tell
you about our seniors in domestic science this year at the high school.
I think I have the nicest class I've ever had. We meet three times a
week at eleven o'clock, and I have wondered if you might not like to
join? Knowing that your aunt is an invalid, I thought you might want
to take the care off her shoulders, and I feel sure our course would
help you. You know all the girls, I think, and I should be more than
pleased to help you make up what they have been over already."
Elsie could scarcely express her delight. She spoke to Mr. Middleton
that evening. He had no idea of her ultimate purpose; indeed, he did
not realize the confusion in which he lived, and was rather amused at
the idea, but considered it an excellent method of getting better
acquainted with the young people, and was pleased at her eagerness.
She entered the class at once, found the study delightful and very
helpful, and the days fairly flew by. She was, after all, only
sixteen, and extraordinarily immature in many ways; and it was not
perhaps remarkable that after a few lessons, with extra help from Mrs.
King, she began to feel quite capable of shouldering the housekeeping
at the parsonage. But the more ready she felt, the less did she desire
to propose it to Mrs. Middleton.
Such a step was not made easier by the fact that the latter took a keen
interest in her lessons at the school. She endeavored, not always
successfully, to draw the girl out upon the subject, questioning her
with some felicity, praising her ambition, and taking it for granted
that she was an unusual pupil and a great addition to the class. And
she constantly bemoaned the fact that it had been necessary for Elsie
to go outside for the instruction that she would herself have delighted
to give her, had her strength permitted. Nothing could have gratified
her more, she declared, clasping her hands and raising her eyes to the
ceiling, but she didn't even dare allow herself to dwell upon it. For
she had just enough strength to manage her own household (as every lady
should do), and she hadn't the moral right to use it for other purposes.
Meantime, three weeks had passed since Elsie had written to ask her
lawyer for the five hundred dollars, and she began to feel troubled.
Of course, she had to allow for letter and answer going through Elsie
Moss's hands, but three weeks should have covered that. She watched
the mails anxiously. As she returned from the library on the
twenty-fourth day since she had sent her request, she decided that
unless she should hear that night, she would have Elsie Moss telegraph
from New York. For the end of October approached, and she felt she
couldn't face the crisis of the 1st of November, without the aid and
the moral support of the money.
She was surprised to see the doctor's motor-car standing at the door,
and startled when Kate, wild-eyed and dishevelled, met her at the
threshold.
"Uncle John? Has anything happened?" she faltered.
"No, it ain't him. He's in the city, pore lamb, and it's myself is
thankful you'll be here to tell him. It's her. Riggs was here
a-dunnin' me for his money soon after you left, and nothin' would do
but that I should go up to her whiles he waits in the kitchen. And a
lucky thing it was, too, for there he was to go for the doctor--we both
forgot clean about the telephone."
"But what is it?" cried Elsie.
"I found her on the floor like a log, Miss Elsie. She ain't dead at
all, but she ain't come to, and maybe won't from taking of too many of
them headache-powders as I knew was no good but didn't think no harm
of."
On a sudden, without warning, Kate dropped her head upon Elsie's
shoulder and began to sob wildly.
"Oh, Katy, don't," begged Elsie, truly distressed. "You and I must
keep up for the sake of----"
"Of himself, miss, I know," sobbed Kate, "but, oh, I feel as if it was
my own mother--or my own baby, I don't know which."