STELLA'S PRIDE.
As a rule, an employer feels no diffidence in offering one of his
employes a rise in salary; but Mr. James Jones found himself wondering
how he was to tell Miss Wharton that the three months being up, her
salary would be raised to two pounds. He always enclosed her cheque in
an envelope, and sent it by the housekeeper with some other letters
every Saturday morning. But this Saturday he wrote out the cheque for
the increased amount, and tried to compose a civil note to inform her
that the time for the usual rise had arrived. To begin with, he did not
know how to address her. 'Dear Madam' sounded too formal, and he did not
dare to say 'Dear Miss Wharton.' So he pushed the cheque on one side,
and began opening his letters and giving them to Stella.
When she had gone, a knock came to the door, and Vava's bright face
appeared.
'What a surprise; I thought you had given me up and got another
mathematical master!' cried Mr. Jones, looking very pleased to see his
young pupil again.
'Indeed I haven't; only I got lazy about coming up to the City on
Saturday when there was a nice cosy fire to sit by and old nursie to
talk to; but the examinations are next week, and I wanted to ask you to
explain one or two rules to me,' said Vava, bringing her book up to the
junior partner's desk.
'I shall be delighted; but I want you to explain to me first how to do
something,' replied Mr. Jones.
'Me? But I can't explain anything you can't understand!' she exclaimed
incredulously.
'Yes you can; you understand your sister,' he observed.
'Oh Stella'----began Vava, rather embarrassed; for Stella had requested
her since the episode of the letter not to discuss her or her private
affairs with Mr. James Jones or any one else.
'And I don't--I don't want to hurt her feelings,' continued Mr. James
Jones.
'Oh well, I don't suppose you would; she says you are very civil and
gentlemanly, and'----Here Vava stopped.
'Did she say that? I am very glad to hear it. What were you going to
say?' he inquired.
'I think I had better not say any more. You know I got into an awful row
about that letter, and nursie was cross with me too; so I really have
begun to be very careful what I say now,' announced Vava.
'You need not be careful with me; still, I don't want you to say what
you think you ought not. Now will you explain my difficulty to me? I
want to write to your sister, and I don't know how to begin the letter,'
he told her.
Vava opened her eyes wide. 'But she is in the next room!'
'I know; but I really could not say it to her,' said the junior partner,
looking uncomfortable.
Vava looked at him keenly. 'I can't imagine why not; she's not so
frightening as all that, unless you want to propose to her,' she added
with a laugh.
Mr. Jones laughed too, although he coloured and looked fearfully at the
door, as if Stella might by some evil chance be there. 'Would she be
frightening if one proposed?' he asked in joke.
'I hope you won't, because she would not marry you, you know,' responded
Vava.
'Thank you,' said Mr. Jones. And then he added, in a dry tone, 'As a
matter of fact, I was not going to take any such liberty; I was going to
tell her'----Here he stopped.
'That you didn't want her any more?' suggested Vava.
'On the contrary, that her services were worth more to the firm than she
was being paid for them, and that her salary would be raised,' he
observed.
'How jolly! Why can't you tell Stella that straight out? She isn't
ashamed of earning money,' declared Vava.
Mr. Jones was not so sure of that. However, he so far took Vava's advice
as not to write, but simply to send the cheque of the increased amount,
and leave Stella to speak of it.
Meanwhile Mr. Jones set to work to explain not only one or two rules,
but to go through all the term's work, and spent, not half-an-hour, but
two hours at it; and Stella, who came in with her letters, could not
help feeling grateful, and admiring the young man for his good-nature
and the interest he was evidently taking in his pupil.
'Now if that does not bring you out first in the examination I shall be
surprised, that's all!' he exclaimed, when, having come to the last
rule, Vava declared that she understood them all.
'Then I shall have to give the prize to you,' she replied, laughing, and
went off.
Now it happened that Stella did not open her cheque at all that morning,
being very busy translating a long communication from a French firm, and
on the way home she took it out of its large business envelope to put
into her pocket-book, when her eye fell on the amount. 'Dear me! how
stupid of Mr. Jones; he has made this cheque out wrong. If I wanted to
cash this money it would be very inconvenient,' said Stella, who was
very particular about paying all bills and accounts regularly every
week.
'It's all right; he's raised your salary,' put in Vava.
Stella grew crimson with anger. 'How do you know? And what have you been
telling him to make him do it? If it is because I couldn't afford to
take you to the seaside, I may as well tell you it won't make any
difference, and I am surprised at your complaining of not having enough
money; it's just asking for it, that's what it is, and I never thought a
sister of mine would beg!' she cried scornfully.
Vava's anger was roused by this injustice, and a wicked desire to tease
her sister made her say, instead of denying the accusation, 'There was
no need to beg; he says you are worth it to the firm.'
'I shall return it on Monday,' said Stella.
'Then you will be very silly. To tell you the truth, I wonder Mr. Jones
puts up with you, and I should not be surprised if he gets tired of your
nasty pride, and tells you to go,' remarked Vava.
Stella said nothing in answer to this impertinence. She was very angry
with Vava; but now that she had time to think she felt that she had been
too hasty, and should have asked an explanation from her sister, whom
she could hardly believe had really asked for a rise; still it looked
like it, its coming that morning. In a different tone she asked, 'What
made Mr. Jones tell you about this cheque? I thought I told you not to
discuss me?'
'I didn't--at least, how could I help it; he began it, and I had to
answer him,' protested Vava.
'You ought to have declined to talk about me. One thing is certain, you
will not have the chance again, for you shall not go to him with your
sums or anything else. Our relations with Mr. Jones are simply business
ones, and I don't want him to think we wish them to be anything else,'
said Stella.
'That's just what I told him, and I said you would not marry him if he
asked you!' cried Vava impulsively.
Many a time during the following week did Vava ask herself why she did
such a silly thing as to repeat that foolish remark; but at the time she
had no idea of the trouble it would cause.
Stella stared at her sister as if she could hardly believe her ears.
'You discussed my marrying Mr. Jones with him?' she asked, red and white
in turns.
'I said you wouldn't marry him, so it's all right; you need not go
upsetting yourself,' she replied, half-frightened at the effect her
remark had had upon her elder sister.
'I do not want to hear anything more that you said. I have begged you to
be more careful of what you say, but it seems to be hopeless; other
arrangements will have to be made.' And she relapsed into cold silence;
but Vava saw that tears of mortification were in her eyes.
The girl made one or two attempts to speak to Stella, but without
success, and they walked home in silence from the station. Oh how glad
Vava was to have 'nursie' there, into whose ears she poured the whole
story.
'You should not have said it, Miss Vava; of course Miss Stella is vexed
at your suggesting such a thing,' said the old woman.
'But she does not know that I suggested it; she only knows half the
story, and I can't make her listen,' objected Vava.
'You must leave her alone till she comes round; her pride is hurt, and
no wonder. What I do wonder at is your talking about such things as
marriage to a strange gentleman; it's very unbecoming in a young lady of
your age,' said the housekeeper.
But 'nursie' could say what she liked to her 'bairn,' who took it quite
meekly, and did as she was told, and left Stella alone.
After dinner, at which they were all rather silent, Stella wrote a
letter, which she took out and posted, not at the pillar but at the
post-office.
'There now, she's written Mr. Jones a horrid letter, I'm quite sure!'
exclaimed Vava to the housekeeper.
'It's none of your business if she has,' replied the latter.
'I don't know so much about that. Mr. Jones will think I repeated the
conversation all wrong, and I'm certain she is sending back the extra
money,' retorted Vava.
'You can't help that; your elder sister must do what she thinks right,'
insisted the housekeeper.
'I can help it; I can write to Mr. Jones and tell him the truth,'
declared Vava.
But Mrs. Morrison would not hear of this. 'You wrote once, and it vexed
her; and now that she has forbidden you to go to see Mr. Jones any more
you have nothing to do but obey, even if it is hard.'
'But he will think horrid things of me,' protested Vava.
'I do not think he will; but even so, you must abide by it. Dearie me,
what bairns you all are! You are nothing but children, all of you, and
making trouble for yourselves, as if there were not enough in the world
without your adding to it,' said the good woman with a sigh, for she had
taken Amy and Eva to her warm heart, and their troubles as well, and
just now her keen eyes saw that there was trouble with them as well as
with her own two 'bairns.'
Stella's walk had done her good, for she seemed more cheerful at tea,
and spoke a few words to Vava, whose buoyant spirits revived at once. As
Mrs. Morrison had said, they were all young; and when after tea Stella
suggested a round game, they all joined in, and one would have thought
to hear their merry laughter that they had not a care among them.
However, when Monday morning came, Stella came down to breakfast in her
indoor clothes, and seemed to be taking things very easily.
'Stella, make haste, you will be late for the train, and I must be in
time this morning, because it is the examination!' cried Vava
impatiently.
'I am not coming with you to-day,' said Stella quietly.
'Then why did you not tell me? I let Doreen go past, and I must run now
to catch the train!' cried Vava, rushing off in a great hurry.
Stella certainly thought she had made Vava understand that she was not
going to town that day; but Vava very certainly did not understand it,
and remarked to Doreen, 'Stella is coming by a later train; she is
rather vexed with me for something stupid I said, so I dare say that's
why she did not come with us.'
'I'm sorry; she's so pretty, and I like to look at her,' said Doreen;
and then, Stella not being there to look at, she opened her books and
began looking over work for the examination.
The day went very well. Vava answered every question in the algebra
paper, and was only uncertain about two problems, and she decided when
she went to call for her sister to show her the paper and ask her if she
might not give it to Mr. Jones and just tell him how much he had helped
her. The last event was always uppermost with Vava, and her examination
seemed to be of much more importance than her sister's annoyance of
Saturday, and it was with a very bright face that she went to her
sister's little office at Baines, Jones and Co.'s to tell her how well
she had got on. She walked in as usual without knocking, and to her
surprise found Mr. Jones sitting at her sister's typewriter, or rather
the typewriter her sister had used.
'What! you, Vava? Haven't you washed your hands of me too?' he said
rather bitterly.
'I haven't washed my hands of you. Where is Stella?' she inquired in
surprise, looking round, and determined to be very careful what she said
to-day.
'Don't you know then?' he demanded.
'Know what? Have you quarrelled?' she inquired.
'I have not quarrelled, and as it takes two to make a quarrel I suppose
we have not; but your sister has left, and I cannot imagine why, except
that I raised her salary without explaining the reason,' he said.
'Left you! What reason did she give? When did she leave--just before I
came?' asked Vava.
'She never came to-day. I had a letter instead, simply saying as there
were only a few days to the holidays she begged to be excused from
returning, as she wished to leave my employ.'
'Oh dear! it's all my fault,' sighed Vava, and she told the story of her
conversation with Stella.
'Well, I am glad about one thing, and that is that I have seen you and
had this explanation,' said Mr. Jones.
'But I ought not to be here; Stella said I wasn't to come and see you
any more!' cried Vava, just remembering this fact.
'You did not come to see me--fate brought me to this room at this
minute; but I won't keep you. I have written to your sister; but since
you have explained matters I will write a different letter,' he
observed.
'I do hope she'll come back to you,' sighed Vava.
'I doubt it; pride is very strong with your sister; but I hope we shall
be friends in spite of it. Now, good-bye, don't miss your train,' he
said, holding out his hand before Vava had time to ask how they could be
friends without ever seeing each other.
As it was, she missed Doreen, who had gone by the earlier train, so she
had to go home alone, a thing she had never done before; and she felt a
little surprised and hurt at the indifferent way Mr. Jones had said
good-bye to her for ever, as she believed.