Uncle Bob had very little to say until Colonel Maslin came in and they
gathered around the dinner table. Then, with a smile, he commenced his
little story.
"Rosanna has been asking me about a million questions. It would take a
week or so, hard labor, to answer them all, and then Colonel Maslin and
Claire would want to hear about things, so I will make my little speech
now.
"We were all settled for the summer in a beautiful old place in the
older part of Paris. Just the sort of a place you would love,
Rosanna--high walls, and a park with sheep cropping the grass, and
woods, and all that. Deer, too. It's too bad you are not there."
Rosanna flushed. "I don't mind, Uncle Bob," she said, and Claire
squeezed her hand.
"Well," continued Uncle Bob, "Culver's invention is a bigger thing than
we thought, and we thought it was pretty big. I was being worked to
death with meetings and presentations and contracts, and all that. It is
the one thing that commercial Europe needs today, and there was more
work than I could carry.
"Besides that, there was a lot of blueprints, material and so on that I
needed, and I wanted to get a look at Rosanna here. I'll say, sweetness,
that your poor old Uncle Bob missed you something scandalous! So as long
as I had to come as far as New York I thought I would run along and see
you all.
"Culver is going back with me. He is the one man to help out over there,
and it is too much for me. Besides," he added abruptly, "I thought if
she didn't have any pressing engagement on hand, I would take Rosanna
back with me."
"Oh, Uncle Bob!" cried Rosanna. "It is too good to be true! Are you
truly in earnest?" It was almost what Rosanna had said months before
when Mr. Robert had first announced the trip, and he must have
remembered it, because with a smile he answered, "Hope to live and _haf_
to die, Rosanna!" and Rosanna seemed satisfied.
"Oh, Rosanna, I am _so_ glad!" cried Claire. "You have been so good to
me, and now you will still have your good time, only it will be much
better because you have been so good to me. I am so glad, and mother
will be so glad too when I tell her. Do you know about my mother, Mr.
Horton?"
"Your father told me this afternoon. We met downtown, and I congratulate
you with all my heart."
"It is all due to Rosanna," said Claire softly. "Not one of the
specialists or doctors discovered anything wrong with her skull, and I
was so young when she fell from her horse that I never once connected it
with her trouble. I should think you would be the next happiest girl in
the world, Rosanna. _I_ am the happiest."
"I am very, very happy," confessed Rosanna. "It seems too good to be
true that I am to go to France and the other places after all, and it is
so good to go and remember what a happy summer you are having with your
mother. I wish Helen Culver was here, so I could tell her how fortunate
I am."
"You won't see her until you reach New York," said Uncle Bob with a
twinkle in his eye, but looking very severely at the end of his
cigarette.
"New York!" stammered Rosanna.
"That's right; I forgot to mention that she is going with us."
Rosanna leaned back in her chair and gasped.
"Uh, huh," said Uncle Bob. "Mrs. Culver wants to stay with her sister
who is seriously ill, and so poor Helen will have to go with us."
"Oh, my!" gasped Rosanna.
"Everything is settled," said Uncle Bob.
"Oh, my!" said Rosanna again. "When do we go?"
"It will take me about a week to get ready," said Uncle Bob. "As soon as
you can get packed, Rosanna, you may come down to the Seelbach with me.
I know Claire will have a lot to do to get ready for her mother. I
notice whenever any of our family goes away and gets ready to come back,
it is a signal for a mad bout of housecleaning. Everything the poor
innocent absentee has or owns is torn up and hung out on the line, and
beaten and dusted, and sent to the cleaners. And then all the chairs are
set in new places so you don't dare come in in the dark and throw
yourself down on your favorite divan, because it isn't there. Perhaps a
tea-wagon full of china catches you or a frail, skiddy smoking stand,
but the divan is gone."
Everyone laughed.
"You _are_ abused," said Rosanna.
"It is true," persisted Uncle Robert. "And when the absent one comes in,
everyone stands around waiting to hear him or her say, 'Oh, my, how nice
it looks.' Anyway, Rosanna, you come down and join me, and as soon as we
hear from Culver, who has already gone to see his family, we will be off
for New York. It will be hot traveling."
"I won't mind," said Rosanna, "and you really don't need me any longer,
Claire, dear, and I think you ought to have your mother all to
yourself."
"She will have to be very quiet for a good while," said Colonel Maslin,
"but we won't mind that. Just to see her here or, if she is resting, to
know that she is with us, will be happiness enough for us."
"I should think so!" said Rosanna. "Well, Uncle Bobby, I will come down
tomorrow, and you can commence by taking me to the movies."
"Hear that?" cried Mr. Horton. "Indeed, your grandmother said, says she,
'Robert,' she says, 'see that Rosanna goes to bed at sharp seven every
night. And also,' says she, 'no movies, or ice-cream sodas, or such!'"
"That sounds so like grandmother!" laughed Rosanna. "Well, I will see
about things. Oh, Claire, dinner is over, let's go start packing now. I
am _so_ excited!"
The girls excused themselves and raced upstairs, where Rosanna commenced
laying things in neat piles on the divan to be placed in her trunk the
first thing in the morning. There was a good deal to do the next day.
Cita had sent a list of things she wanted Rosanna to see about, and Mrs.
Horton had gone off without her favorite pair of glasses which she
thought might be found in one of a number of places she named. So the
house had to be opened, and Rosanna found the glasses, not in any of the
places mentioned, but on the telephone stand where Mrs. Horton usually
lost them. But as Rosanna looked there first, it really didn't matter.
She reached the Seelbach just in time to dress for dinner. It was great
fun.
Uncle Bob sent up word that he would meet her at half-past six and
Rosanna, feeling thrilled and grown up, finished dressing and sat down
to wait. When Mr. Horton came in, he brought a little box with a bunch
of sweet peas for Rosanna to wear. He was that kind of a man.
Time did not hang heavily on Rosanna's hands for the next few days. She
spent one day with Mabel, and another in Lexington with Elise Hargrave.
Uncle Bob made but one rule, and that was an ironclad one. She must lie
down for an hour each day. Uncle Bob did not want to start across the
ocean with a worn-out little girl.
Jane and Estella came to see her, and there was talk of a picnic on Bald
Mountain, but there was no time to put it through. One afternoon Rosanna
gave a tea. It was a Girl Scout tea and was suggested by Uncle Bob, who
seemed able to attend to an enormous amount of business and run the
affairs of a little girl as well. It was served in the sitting-room that
Rosanna and Uncle Bob shared. Elise came up from Lexington, and Rosanna
found that about fifteen of their Troop were still in the city. The
hotel people set a very pretty table for her, and Uncle Robert came in
at noon with a box which he himself carefully opened. Inside were rows
of tiny kewpie dolls dressed like little Girl Scouts. Rosanna was
delighted.
"They just need one thing," said Uncle Robert, getting out his fountain
pen and carefully inking some little dots on their sleeves.
"There!" he exclaimed when the deed was done. "Any Girl Scouts of
_mine_ must have Merit badges."
Every one came, and after the first little stiffness it was a great
success, especially when Uncle Robert came in bringing Colonel Maslin
with him. You wouldn't believe how nice two grown men could be to a lot
of Girl Scouts.
Jane was the first to say she must go. "We will see you tomorrow," she
said, but Uncle Bob shook his head.
"It is good-bye today," he explained. "I am through with the business
that brought me over on this side, and we will take the 8:40 through
train tonight for the East, if Rosanna can get ready."
"I can be ready in an hour!" cried Rosanna. "Especially if Claire will
stay and help me."
Claire looked at her father. "Of course I will help you, Rosanna dear,
but I must go home first. Is the car here, dad?"
"Yes; I thought we could take some of these young ladies home," said the
Colonel.
"And I will take the rest," offered Mr. Horton. There was a gust of
good-byes and good wishes, and Rosanna was alone. It was almost six
o'clock.
Rosanna had kept her trunk nearly packed, and by the time Claire
returned the things that had been in her dresser were laid on the bed
ready to put in the trays. Claire brought her a gorgeous embroidered
kimono, a good-bye present from Mrs. Maslin. Just the loveliest thing
to wear to the dressing-room, thought Rosanna, revelling in its deep
color and beautiful handwork. The girls worked swiftly, and before Uncle
Bob returned for dinner everything was ready, even to Rosanna's coat and
hat and gloves and little change purse. She had put on her plain pongee
traveling dress, fine cotton stockings that exactly matched her brown
oxfords with their sensible low heels, and looked every inch a
well-dressed traveler. Everything was simple and there were no tag ends,
ribbons or floating lace collars to get mussed and untidy.
After dinner Uncle Bob excused himself to attend to some last things,
and Claire and Rosanna returned to the rooms. There was an empty-looking
spot where Rosanna's trunk had stood. Rosanna gave a last look at her
things on the bed. Hat, coat, gloves, purse, suitcase; all there.
"Oh, _do_ come into the sitting-room!" cried Claire. "Everything is as
all right as you can make it. Dad and Mr. Horton will be coming in
before you know it, and there is something I want to tell you."
"Something nice?" asked Rosanna, following Claire into the sitting-room,
and curling up in the big armchair she had wheeled around to face its
mate.
"I hope so," said Claire with a queer little smile. "Now, Rosanna, I
want you to promise on your Scout Honor that you will not interrupt me."
"Word of honor!" promised Rosanna.
"Remember!" warned Claire. "Well, there was once a girl, a Girl Scout,
who was very troubled and unhappy. And she had a _perfectly horrid_
disposition and every time she went into a tantrum or had the blues she
excused herself by thinking that because her dear mother was thought to
be insane, she was going to be so too, and she never tried to control
herself. She wouldn't make friends, and 'most _hated_ other girls
because she thought they were so much luckier than she was. Oh, Rosanna,
she treated her darling daddy just awfully. She feels so ashamed when
she thinks of it."
Rosanna opened her mouth, but Claire laid her hand over it.
"Remember!" she warned. "So she met, through the Girl Scouts, a girl who
tried to be her friend. And the bad, sad girl grew to see how much
better it was to be gentle and keep her temper under control. Then one
day Rosanna--for that was the nice girl's name--discovered the reason
why this girl's mother was sick and why her poor head had gone wrong.
She found out why Claire's mother could not speak or remember anything
and why she sat all day and stared and stared into space, and never knew
her little girl any more.
"Well, anyway, now Claire's mother is _well_, all _well_, and just as
sweet and bright and loving as ever, and _so_ happy! But surely not so
happy as Claire is to have her mother back.
"And once, Rosanna, a wise old man who must have looked into the future,
gave Claire a gold box to give to the one who should give to Claire a
'gift beyond price.' My mother is that, Rosanna. The Mandarin's box is
yours!"
Claire drew a packet from her pocket and laid it in Rosanna's lap.
Rosanna clasped her hands over it. "Oh, Claire!" was all she could say
at first. Then, "But it was the doctor's operation that cured her; it
belongs to him."
Claire shook her red head and smiled. "No, it is yours by rights. All
the doctors failed to discover the injury to her head. The box is yours,
dear, dear Rosanna! Open it and see what the old Mandarin has hidden
there."
Rosanna undid the paper and exclaimed over the wonderful carven casket.
But Claire urged her to open the box, and with a nail file Rosanna broke
the fine cords that held the seal. She pressed the tiny knob on the
front, and the glittering cover sprang open. A little object wrapped in
silk lay inside. It proved to be a queer carved figure seated on a sort
of stool. It was exquisitely colored and overlaid in parts with gold
leaf, and the funny brown face wore a beaming smile. A large cloak of
gold leaf enveloped it, and this had a ruby set in the front like a
large clasp.
"I know that figure," said Claire. "It is the god of good luck. I can't
remember his name."
"See the way that cunning cloak or robe is fastened with a jewel," said
Rosanna, fingering the ruby. There was a little click, and the cloak
parted and flew open, disclosing in the unexpected hiding-place another
small carved box.
With trembling fingers Rosanna opened it. There, inside, rested the mate
to the beautiful jade ring that Claire always wore.
"Oh, how lovely! How perfectly lovely!" cried Rosanna. "Just like yours!
Oh, I have always almost envied you that gorgeous ring."
"If it is like mine, there is another surprise in store for you," said
Claire, taking the jewel in her hands and pressing on the stone with a
swift turning motion. Sure enough the stone raised on tiny hidden
springs, and disclosed an opening or socket about the size of a silver
three-cent piece. "What is that for?" asked Rosanna.
"We don't know, but dad thinks these rings are royal, and this place was
made for a single dose of poison to be concealed in case the wearer was
going to be tortured or something like that. But I don't like to think
of anything so horrid. I keep mother's picture in mine." She opened the
ring, and showed a tiny colored miniature of her mother.
"It is too perfect!" sighed Rosanna.
"There is one thing I hope you will never forget, Rosanna," said Claire,
"and that is why the Mandarin gave you the box. Just to thank you, you
know, because you have given me a gift beyond price. This is what has
come of your sacrifice. I wish I could tell the old Mandarin about it."
"I will if I see him," laughed Rosanna.
Just as the train started off with Uncle Bob and Rosanna, Claire threw
her arms around Rosanna's neck and whispered, "Oh, Rosanna, you _do_
know that I love you, and thank you with every breath, don't you?"
"You thank me too much, dear Claire," said Rosanna, "and I love you
too."
The whistle blew, the conductor waved his arms and called, "All aboard!"
Rosanna threw kisses after Colonel Maslin and Claire as they fell
behind. They rolled slowly out of the city. Night fell. The
white-jacketed porter went up and down the aisle looking his charges
over. He pounced on Rosanna's hat and put it in a paper bag. Rosanna
scarcely noticed. Nothing about her seemed real. The jarring train, the
lights, the people, all seemed like a dream. Yet it was real, and she,
Rosanna, was moving eastward, ever eastward to her grandmother, to Cita,
to dear Helen, and the Ports of the World!
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Girl Scout's Triumph, by Katherine Keene Galt