A week passed. In one corner of the _Times-Leader_ office there was an
old-fashioned letter-press. You put the letters between two iron plates
and slowly turned a bar that pressed a lever that squeezed the plates
together tighter and tighter. A grimy office boy was forever grinding,
and as Mabel had many a long wait for her chief, Miss Gere, she
commenced to be fascinated by the operation. Her vivid imagination
commenced to trouble her. She saw her hand, her arm, her whole self
being pressed flat by that dreadful boy. The boy, by the way, being
about Mabel's age and totally unconscious of his grubby appearance,
noticed Mabel's fascinated stare and accepted it as a personal
compliment. He turned the press with a grand flourish and squeezed it
close with a darkly frowning brow as though to call attention to his
strength.
Life, after being so eagerly called, was beginning to squeeze Mabel a
little. Saturday noon found her half ill for food, as she had spent her
small allowance almost at once and had had to live on the faithful box
of shredded wheat biscuit and the milk for which she did not have to pay
the milkman until the first of the month.
After luncheon, consisting of a nut sundae which took all her remaining
change, she spent a few moments peering in at the vegetables and
chickens displayed in a grocer's window. She did not see Miss Gere pass.
When Mabel returned to the office, Miss Gere sent her up Fourth Street
to study the delicatessens and bread shops. It was agony. Mabel had
never seen such delicious articles of food, had never dreamed of such
penetrating and tantalizing odors. Mabel wondered if she could ever
stand it until six o'clock when she would be paid. She jotted down her
notes and, wending her way back to the office, settled down in a corner
to put her material in shape. It did not take long, and while she waited
for Miss Gere who was almost always out, she reviewed the experiences
that had beset her during the past few days. Of them all this day had
been the worst. And Mabel, who had fondly expected to have most of her
Saturdays to herself, reflected that after six o'clock she would have to
take her hungry and weary self back to the apartment and attempt to
clean things up.
The dainty rooms looked as though a whirlwind had struck them. Poor
Mabel was not wholly to blame. She was carrying too great a load. She
had school to think of, and as soon as she was released at noon she was
obliged to rush off to the dusty office for her orders for the rest of
the day. She never reached home again until six and later, and on
several occasions she had been obliged to accompany Miss Gere on long
tiresome night trips by automobile or trolley into the surrounding
country. Of her mother she had seen but little. Twice her mother had
called while she was out with Miss Gere, and Mabel, not knowing that
this had been by arrangement between Mrs. Brewster and Miss Gere, was
honestly disappointed. Several times she had met her mother down town,
and once they had had luncheon together at a cafeteria.
On these occasions Mabel was forced to notice that her mother, whom she
had rather looked down on as a common or garden variety of parent, was
really a most attractive and charming woman. She treated Mabel not at
all like a little girl, spoke only of the surface things that interested
Mrs. Brewster herself and lightly passed over all Mabel's wistful
references to home and Frank. Mrs. Brewster did say that they missed
Mabel and added with a rather sad smile that she had never thought to
lose her little daughter and so on. Mabel felt herself saddened by these
meetings. She found that she was thinking of her mother all the time,
and sometimes she almost wished that she was just an ordinary girl and
not a genius, so she could stay at home and be taken care of. When the
second Sunday came Mabel permitted herself the luxury of a good cry. She
was too stubborn to confess that she was desperately sick of her
foolishness and wholly and utterly homesick, but angrily dried her tears
and started to dress.
The telephone rang. It was Mrs. Brewster. She sent a cheery good-morning
over the wire and asked if Mabel had had breakfast. Mabel hopefully said
no, that she was just commencing to dress.
"Why, we are all through!" laughed Mrs. Brewster. "We are getting an
early start, because the Morrissons have asked us to drive to Lexington
with them. They wanted to ask you too, but I told them that you were
always too taken up with your other affairs and your writing to accept
any invitations and they were so disappointed."
"Who is going?" asked Mabel.
"Just the two Morrisson boys and Frank and myself."
The two Morrisson boys were quite the most popular young fellows in
Louisville and Mabel saw, with a sense of defeat, that her biggest
social chance had slipped from her grasp.
Her mother went cheerily on: "So Frank and I got up early and fixed our
share of the luncheon, and prepared and ate our own breakfast, and now
we are all ready."
Mabel was furious. It was on her tongue's end to tell her mother that of
course she would be glad to go, but her stubbornness held her back, so
she said a brief and snippy good-bye and hung up the receiver. But she
did not leave the phone. A moment later she gave central Mrs.
Morrisson's number, and flushed rather foolishly as she heard Mrs.
Morrisson call hello.
"I want to thank you for having thought to ask me on your ride today
Mrs. Morrisson," she said smoothly, in her best manner. "I was just
talking to mother, and she told me about it." Mabel stopped here and
listened eagerly for Mrs. Morrisson to renew the coveted invitation. But
alas, poor Mabel!
"We were all sorry that you could not go," said Mrs. Morrisson in a
sweet voice that you would never think could deal a blow to a girl's
hopes. "And it is almost going to spoil the day for your mother, I know.
She is always so happy when you are with her, my dear."
"It is dear of you all to want me," said Mabel, "and perhaps I can
arrange things so I can go after all."
"Oh, my dear," exclaimed Mrs. Morrisson in a most distressed voice,
"that is too awful! You see we never thought you would think of it, so I
asked another girl, a new girl the boys have met in dancing school. She
is a Girl Scout and your mother thought it was just the thing to do."
Mabel swallowed hard.
"Well, I am sure she will have a good time," she replied in a thin
voice. "Is she a girl I know?"
"Her name is Claire Maslin," said Mrs. Morrisson, "and I think she is
really charming."
"I know her," said Mabel briefly and with a noticeable lack of
enthusiasm.
She was glad when the conversation came to an end, and rushing back to
her tumbled bed, she threw herself down and wept loudly and long. When
finally she found that she could cry no more she dragged on her dress
anyhow and went out to look in the tiny ice-chest. She knew what it
contained. There was the usual ready-to-eat cereal and milk for her
breakfast, and two discouraged looking pieces of cold boiled ham, her
unfailing standby, on a saucer; but she had neglected to do any shopping
the day before in the rush of necessary tasks, and there was nothing
else to eat. For all day! Sunday! And mother and Frank were off on a
glorious picnic! Once more Mabel wept. She set the cereal back and went
wearily into the living-room. The bell rang, but Mabel did not care who
it was; she did not want to see anyone. She heard a rush of feet on the
stairs, and the door knob was shaken violently as her brother Frank
called through the crack:
"Hey, Mabe, let me in a second! Hurry up! Here's something for you!"
Mabel rushed to the door and let him in. He had a large box in his hand.
"Hello, sis!" he roared cheerfully. "Here's a box mother sent you. She
is down in the car, but I told her not to come upstairs. I don't want
her to get tired. She sent you some dinner. It's good, I can tell you!
Helped to fix it myself. She thought it would be a change from the swell
eats you must be buying yourself. Just notice the chicken salad. And
she said for you to--but there is a note inside. Sorry you can't come!
Strange girl going, and I don't like 'em. Nuisance to get acquainted.
Why, what's wrong, Mabe?" he asked as he looked at her for the first
time and noticed her tear stained face. "Gosh, what's wrong? Are you
sick? Shall I call mother?" He put an awkward but loving arm around his
sister, but she shoved him violently away.
"Nothing's wrong!" she jerked out, her lips trembling in spite of her.
"Go along, and don't mind me!" She fairly pushed him toward the door and
Frank, dazed and astonished, allowed himself to be hurried into the
small hallway.
There he faced her. "Why don't you get some common sense into your
head?" he asked savagely. "I think it's a crime your coming here and
trying to live by yourself! I am ashamed to have the fellows know about
it. They think it is awfully queer. Fellows like to look after their
sisters. It isn't right! I don't care if you _are_ a smart kid! You can
be just as smart over home as you can here. You don't seem to think of
mother at all. You don't care how _she_ feels. She would skin me if she
knew I was saying this to you, but I'll say you are the most selfish
girl I ever knew and that's the truth! Well, go ahead! We don't care; we
can rustle along without you!" He started for the stairs and flung this
over his shoulder: "But I bet you will be sorry some day!"
He hurried out of sight as a shrill whistle sounded from the street
where the Morrisson boys fretted in the waiting car.
Mabel picked up the box and carried it into the kitchen. Then for the
third time that day she rushed into her bed-room, fell on the
long-suffering bed and cried; cried tears of mingled rage and
disappointment. She could not understand why Frank's ravings, as she
called his outburst, should make her feel so strangely mean and small
and in the wrong when she positively _knew_ that she was on the right
track. But you cannot live principally on cold boiled ham, olives and
shredded wheat day in and out, you cannot leave a comfy, homey sort of
home even for the luxury of a modern apartment without a pang of
homesickness hitting you sooner or later, and Mabel was pierced with it.
And you can't have good reason for tears three times in one morning
without losing a little of your courage, at least for the time being.
Mabel thought of the jolly party motoring along the level roads, all
laughing over the sallies of the older Morrisson boy. She could almost
see Claire Maslin in her lovely green motor coat and close hat set tight
over the shining red hair.
Mabel burrowed her wet face deeper in the moist pillow. Her sobs rose.
"Oh, oh, I wish I was home!" she whispered finally, and then, like the
martyr that she felt herself, she sat up, wiped her eyes, and wondered
what was in the box her mother had sent over. Things to eat, Mabel
reflected, as she opened parcel after parcel and found that a whole
Sunday dinner was hers. She put it in the ice-box and wearily started to
clear up the dusty and untidy rooms. The sink was full of dishes, and as
soon as the water was hot in the boiler, she attacked the piles of
plates and cereal dishes. By the time they were washed and dried and put
away and the rooms swept and dusted, Mabel was too tired to think of
getting herself any dinner, even though it was waiting for her in the
box her mother had sent over. So she curled up in a corner of the divan
and tried to read. She could not interest herself in her novel, and at
last she sat staring moodily at the room, studying its complicated and
fussy furnishings and comparing them with the simple, quiet arrangement
of her mother's house. Mabel had had occasion to see a number of homes
during the time she had worked with Miss Gere and it was dawning on Miss
Mabel that there was a certain charm and beauty about her mother's
simple and unpretentious arrangements that were sadly lacking in many of
the most luxurious places. She had never thought of this until a woman
who stood very high in the social world of Louisville had asked her if
she was related to the Mrs. Brewster who was doing interior decorating.
Mabel flushed with embarrassment and said in a small voice that Mrs.
Brewster was her mother.
"How fortunate you are!" said the great lady. "Your mother is the most
artistic person I have ever known. She is perfectly wonderful and will
certainly make a fortune. I am trying to get her to go to New York where
she can have a studio and command top prices. I don't see why she did
not go into this years and years ago."
Mabel, almost too surprised to reply, managed to mumble that she
supposed her mother had been pretty busy bringing up her brother Frank
and herself.
"Well, I suppose she feels that she is really free now," said the lady
with a smile, "since you are starting out for yourself. Although," she
added, "I think your mother is very brave to let you start out of the
nest so soon. You seem such a young girl to be off by yourself. Of
course it is not at all my affair, but I should think that you would
hate to be away from such a talented mother as yours."
As Mabel recalled this conversation, she saw her mother in a new light
and somehow the new light blazed almost too strongly on Mabel herself.
She felt strangely small. She had this disagreeable dwindling sensation
more and more as she compared her mother with other women in
professional and business and social circles, the three great groups
that made their influence strongly felt throughout the city.
Mabel found too that her Great Experiment, instead of bringing her the
envy and admiration of her mates, seemed in some strange way to make
her the object of a kind of scorn that was very hard to bear. The very
girls who had applauded her most loudly at first showed her in
unmistakable small ways that she was doing something foolish instead of
something brave and grand. But Mabel would not give in. She was not
brave enough.
It was an endless Sunday. She did not go to church, no one came to see
her, and she would not go for her usual afternoon walk. Several times
she started for the phone, intending to call Rosanna or Helen, then
decided against it. Finally she took up the long neglected Girl Scout
Manual and read steadily as far as the page that had caught Claire's
attention.
"Loyalty." The word stood out black and threatening on the page.
"Loyalty to father and mother." Was she loyal to her talented mother,
the mother who had laid aside all her gifts in order to give all her
time and strength to her two children? Wasn't it her place now to
lighten some of her mother's household cares and make it possible for
her to gain the reward she deserved?
Mabel, like Claire, threw the book angrily away from her. But unlike
Claire, she could not throw her thoughts away. She was very unhappy.