AN UNPREJUDICED VIEW
HAPPIE could not help feeling a little bit important and very much
grown up as she brushed her gleaming hair before the mirror in her
shady Patty-Pan chamber, preparing to go to business to take her
brother's place.
The next room was Bob's, and, in spite of the portière over the
connecting door, it was easy to hear Mrs. Scollard's voice as she
anxiously consulted the man of the house and he replied.
"Do you think it is necessary, Bob? Can she really be useful? I so
strongly dislike her going," Mrs. Scollard was saying.
"Well, I'll tell you, mother," Bob began. "Would you just hand my old
coat out of the wardrobe, like the angel mother you are? There's no
use lolling about in my business suit. Thanks. I'll tell you: it isn't
precisely necessary, but I think--I know--it will please Mr. Felton to
have Happie down. You see it shows a desire on our part to serve him,
and he has been mighty nice to me. All the other three fellows there
think he's inclined to favor me. And of course she can be useful, even
if she can't go ahead as I could."
"She's so young, Bob,--only fifteen! And she's such a frank, friendly
creature that she's sure to expect to find friends in an office as she
finds them everywhere. And I am troubled lest she encounter something
unpleasant." Mrs. Scollard's soft voice was not enough stifled by the
door and portière to disguise its anxiety.
"Not down there, motherums. Those are three nice young chaps in the
office; they'll be all right to Happie. One might be fresh--Dan
Lipton--but I guess he'll be civil. It isn't like going to business, to
go down to Felton's in my place. I know just what she'll be up against,
you know, or I wouldn't let her do it. Maybe the little experience will
be good for her; you can see she's delighted to try to help me out."
Bob dropped his voice, but still Happie heard him, with a sensation of
having been reduced in age some five years by the conversation.
How manly Bob was, and how businesslike in tone without trying to be
so! Happie felt like a little girl who had suddenly discovered that the
grown people did not enjoy playing house with her just as she enjoyed
having them. But how fortunate she was in her brother who would not let
her face anything untried except he first knew what she "would be up
against!"
She came out to the savory breakfast which Margery and Gretta had
prepared, somewhat subdued, but still ready to do her best to be useful
in Mr. Felton's office, if not to be a thoroughly competent substitute
for Bob.
For the next two days everything went smoothly and Happie secretly
cherished the conviction that she was attaining her ambition and was
really useful. The three young men, or "the two young men and that
boy," as Happie mentally classified Mr. Felton's clerks, for she
cordially disliked pert Dan Lipton, were most polite, ready to serve
her, plainly desirous of being friendly, but treating "Scollard's nice
little sister," as they called her among themselves, with a respect
that convinced Happie of her success in playing her rôle with dignity.
The fourth day of her business career was Friday. It was also to be
her last day, for Bob thought he should be able to resume his desk on
Saturday, if one of the girls came with him to the door to give him a
supporting shoulder in case of need.
Happie announced the joyful tidings on her arrival, and somehow it
seemed to change the atmosphere around her. The two elder clerks
became assiduous in their desire to serve her, and openly expressed
their regret at the prospect of losing what one of them, inclined to
sentiment and poetry, styled "the daily inspiration of her sunny face."
But Dan Lipton was affected differently. Apparently he felt that there
was no time to be lost if he wished to try his hand at teasing the
vanishing little substitute, and he revealed, not only that teasing was
his preferred amusement, but that his idea of teasing was that of the
practical joker.
The livelong morning he made himself a nuisance to Happie, who bore
good-naturedly jarrings of her stool which cost her blots; the loss
of pen, paper, pencils, blotters; a low whistling close by her side
that made addition next to impossible, and the copying of letters very
difficult.
At noon there came into the office a man who went up to the eldest
clerk's table and asked if he had on his list any desirable apartment
for a young man--himself, he added--who had just arrived in New York
and hoped to stay for many weeks. "I want good rooms with bath, in
a thoroughly well-kept house," he said. "I don't care to turn in
anywhere; I want the place recommended. A friend of mine told me I
could rely on the house to which I might be sent by Mr. Felton's
office."
Happie looked up, her attention attracted by the beautiful voice in
which the stranger made known his wants, the pleasant accent, with the
r's elided or softened, and the slight drawl, which, without being
lazy, was most attractive in its leisurely effect. She saw a man much
younger than she had looked for. She had been conscious of his unusual
height as he entered, and expected to see him burdened with years
proportioned to his inches. Instead she saw a man under thirty, lightly
but strongly built, the grace of repose in his motions, which were, at
the same time, lithe and alert. His face was handsome, rather from its
expression and refinement than from regular beauty. His eyes, hair and
mustache were uniformly brown, and the eyes were so filled with spirit
and intelligence that they would have redeemed a face lacking the many
charms possessed by this one.
"How nice he is!" thought Happie, surveying the newcomer from the
vantage ground of his oblivion to her. "He looks as though he had been
made just to illustrate the word gentleman. Even his clothes," this
sharp-eyed young critic added in her thoughts.
"We don't carry men's apartments on our books," the clerk was
saying, in the meantime. "But I can give you the addresses of two or
three,--more if you like,--first-class places, where you will find what
you want, if you find a vacancy at all."
"Thank you very much. I should like it exceedingly, if it isn't too
much trouble," said the stranger. "It hardly seems fair to let you
bother with it if the houses are not in your hands."
"It isn't very much trouble to jot down a few addresses," returned the
clerk with a smile. "Dan, suppose you do it. Copy the numbers and names
marked on this list." He tossed a paper over on Dan's desk as he spoke,
then pushed a chair forward for the tall young man, with a gesture
inviting him to take it, and returned to his own work.
Dan Lipton was sharpening a pencil. He shifted the knife into his left
hand holding the pencil, and with his right reached across and laid the
list of bachelor apartments on Happie's desk. "Here, junior clerk," he
said. "That's about your size job. You do it."
Happie flushed. She was entirely ready to do anything any one asked of
her, but she did not like the manner of the asking, and the fact that
neither of Mr. Felton's older assistants had heard the saucy transfer,
while the stranger had and was regarding her with surprise, and for the
first time, made it particularly trying.
"If you don't care to do what you are told, Dan Lipton, you must speak
to me properly if you hope to get me to help you," she said softly.
The boy laughed insolently. "Come, puss, don't get your back up," he
said, leaning so far over the desk at which Happie sat that she almost
fell off the other side of her stool, retreating from him. "You know
you'll do anything I ask you. Don't pretend you're mad, just to get me
to notice you. You're a nice little puss, if you're not stroked the
wrong way."
Happie flushed scarlet. "Get off this desk," she said. "And if you dare
to speak one more impertinent word I'll box your ears, and tell Mr.
Felton why I did it."
She looked perfectly capable of carrying out her threat, but her anger
delighted Dan's impish mood. He lolled forward a little further instead
of obeying Happie's order to get back from her desk. He was evidently
rolling up some sweet morsel of impertinence under his tongue, and
there is no telling what form it might have taken but that a strong,
nervous hand took him by the shoulder, while another stole up and
seized him somewhere under his coat with a refreshing twist. Master
Dan was straightened up vigorously, lifted from his stool, set down
on it again with emphasis, and a sound cuff was administered first to
his right and then to his left ear by the hand that relinquished his
waistband.
"Now, then, sir," said the stranger in his delicious English, all
labials, aspirates and vowels, apparently, "now, then, sir, you're
only a cub but you need licking into shape, and I should be delighted
to help in the task if I ever heard you speaking again to a young girl
as I just heard you speak to this one." He turned to the amazed other
two who had seen or heard nothing that preceded Dan's elevation and
punishment, and smiled as he settled his cuffs. "I beg your pardon, I'm
sure, if I've interfered in the discipline of this office, but this
little girl was being annoyed by that stupid boy of yours, and I took
it on myself to cuff him. I hope you don't mind."
The two clerks glanced at each other, at Happie, crimson, half
laughing, half crying, at Dan, furious, but cowed, and they beamed
appreciatively. "Not a bit!" they cried together.
"This young lady has been good enough to help us out here for the past
four days, because her brother was laid up and she took his place.
Dan has not been disagreeable till now. If we had caught him making a
nuisance of himself--to her especially--we should have pounded him to
pulp," said the elder.
"Certainly," agreed the visitor. "Fun is all right, but a boy must
never forget what is due a lady. The trouble with you, Master Cub, is
a wrong sense of humor. You'll have to learn that rudeness is never
funny, much less clever. If you've copied the list I'll take it now,
please."
"Copy your own lists," growled Dan. "I'll never touch a pen for you."
"A pencil would do as well," returned the stranger unperturbed, while
Happie cried, "Let me copy the addresses, please. I am ever and ever so
much obliged to you."
The tall young man laid the papers from Dan's desk on hers, bowing and
laughing. "It wasn't the copying you minded then? And you're entirely
welcome. We do enjoy a little muscle play once in a while, don't we?"
"Sometimes we do, when they're needed, and our own aren't strong
enough," returned Happie, copying away for dear life, with her flushed
cheek bent low over her paper. She finished the few lines of addresses
quickly, and handed them to her defender with a grateful smile,
slipping from her stool as she did so.
The young man took them, thanking her, and noting how youthful she was
with her reddish brown hair standing out around her dimpled cheeks, and
her skirt at ankle length. Then he took his departure, with renewed
thanks to the senior clerk and a nod to Dan, who glared at him with a
soul far from forgivingly at peace.
He left the office to a perturbed atmosphere. Happie was glad that this
was her last day, though when it ended the two elder clerks bade her
good-bye with unmistakable regret, and Mr. Felton thanked her solemnly
for her great kindness in filling her brother's place and for her
fidelity and cleverness in his interests.
At the tea room, when Happie arrived to go home with Margery and Laura,
they were half shocked, half amused, and wholly impressed by her
adventure of that day. Happie described her rescuer in enthusiastic
terms and Margery was greatly interested.
"I should really think, from what you say, that it was some one I
know!" she cried, as they started homeward and Happie paused for breath.
Happie caught the note in her voice as she made the discovery, and
tossed her head. "No, indeed, Margery!" she declared positively. "This
man was not a bit like any one you ever described. He is simple,
has lovely manners, is not the least speck solemn nor affected. And
handsome, and as manly!"
"Yes," said Margery quietly. "All that is precisely like some one I
know, but of course I don't know your knight. How funny the boy must
have looked, getting set down and his ears boxed! And how thoroughly
he deserved it! But it was rather horrid, Happie dear. I'm glad that
to-morrow Bob can resume his desk."
In the morning there was a little stir of excitement in the Patty-Pans,
for Bob was going out, and it takes no more than that to agitate a
family wrapped up in one another, as was this family of boy and girls,
"and one dear mother," Polly added.
Gretta was to go with Bob to the office door, her strong shoulder,
strengthened by hay-making and gardening, was the most reliable in case
Bob's foot proved weak and played him false. The girls all hovered
around seeing them start, till Bob laughed at their anxious faces.
"You'd think I was valuable bric-à-brac!" he cried, bursting in on
Margery's grandmotherly injunctions to watch for stray bits of ice on
the sidewalk, and to be sure the car was stopped before he left it.
"The man of the house is more than bric-à-brac," said Happie.
"Man! He isn't seventeen!" cried Laura.
"Just as much a man as this is a house," retorted Happie. And they all
laughed, for the beloved little Patty-Pans flat was small, and nobody
could deny it was crowded.
Happie was glad to get back to the tea room. It was a busy day, but
she flew to and fro enjoying the rush. She was tempted to sing as she
poured tea like a rosy American goddess of plenty. Mrs. Jones-Dexter
came in and vouchsafed a smile of cordial welcome to Happie, though
Margery had been her favorite since her increased acquaintance with the
girls. Hans Lieder came too, and Happie was surprised to find herself
rather glad to see the mysterious man who had once made her pity him.
"We missed you, little Miss Sonnenschein," he said. "You are such
different young sisters that each leaves her own place vacant when she
goes. You are the one to do and to be, the warmth and dependence; the
oldest one is the sweetness, the soul of you, and the third, ah, she is
gifted; she is little Clara Schumann! I wish that I could spirit her to
Germany, there to be made what she was meant to be."
Happy felt alarmed. There was something about the great cloak and
drooping hat of this mysterious Herr Lieder which gave her the feeling
that he might bewitch Laura into Germany, and she more than half
disliked his interest in their sentimental girl.
"Oh, that is kind, of course," she said hastily. "But Laura could never
go away from mother; she needs mother most of all of us."
"_Natürlich_, being the genius," said Hans Lieder, with a laugh.
"How funny it is to see your dislike to her genius! My good little
Sonnenschein, your sister is not made for the safe homelife, and
whether it is better or worse for her you cannot help it. She will find
her way to her place in the world, mark me."
"Well," sighed Happie with a resigned philosophy, "if it is her place
truly, it must be the best place for her."
Gretta came in at that moment; she had left Bob undamaged at Mr.
Felton's door, had done a few errands, and came in bright and shining
from the cold wind, and with pride in her new ability to thread the
bewildering streets and shops of New York alone. Margery was staying
at home until afternoon, when she would bring Polly and Penny to Mrs.
Stewart.
"A little music, Clara Schumann?" hinted Herr Lieder to Laura, passing
him. Laura shook her head.
"Not mine," she said. "I've got to help the girls. If you would----"
She stopped, hesitating to ask for his wonderful playing during the
hour when his audience would surely be large.
But to-day the mood for music was upon this strange man, and he nodded
to Laura and went to the piano. Mrs. Jones-Dexter, who had lingered,
forgot her original objection to music with her tea, and sat listening
with tears streaming down her face, a face lined by her seventy years
of hard battling with everything and everybody in her world; which came
to mean, after all, but one thing: perpetual strife with herself.
Gradually the tea room filled. Those who came did not go away, and more
and more kept coming, and still Herr Lieder played, forgetful of time,
place, human beings, everything but his music. It seemed to Happie that
he had not played before, when they had thought he played perfectly,
as he played this day. Laura was entirely useless; the music made her
hopeless as an assistant, and Happie and Gretta were at their wits'
ends. There was an hour lacking to the time when Margery was due, the
room was crowded, and they were hardly better fitted than Laura to
look after their guests, with Herr Lieder playing as Orpheus must have
played to call back the soul of Eurydice.
Happie looked about her wildly, and there in the doorway stood the tall
young man, the hero of her adventure in Mr. Felton's office the day
before.
He bowed and smiled as they recognized each other, looking much less
surprised than she as he made his way forward and said: "Very glad to
see you again. You seem to be an all around genius. Are you one of the
six maidens of the card in the window?"
"Yes, I am the second of the six, I suppose," said Happie. "I hope you
are well?"
The young man laughed. Plainly she had not meant to say that, and was
quite demoralized by her responsibilities.
"Perfectly well, thank you, Miss Happie Scollard," he said, and Happy
was too confused to wonder at his knowledge of her name. "You have
marvelous music for your tea room."
"It doesn't belong to it," said Happie. "That is a mysterious German
gentleman who comes here a great deal and has played for us once
before. I never heard such playing. But I don't know what to do.
Nobody goes, Laura--my sister--is delirious from it, and can't help us,
and people keep on coming----" Happie broke off with a gesture that
came near ignoring the little tray with its burden of teacups which she
held.
The tall young man took it from her. "Allow me," he said as coolly as
if they had been at a party and he was offering to bring her cream.
"Now if you will tell me where you want these I will get them there.
And you may as well let me help you. I am sure I can serve tea quite
as well as you girls do. I have often served harder things than
tea--tennis balls, for instance."
His brown eyes laughed into Happie's lighter brown ones so merrily and
with such friendly confidence that she would accept his offer, that she
yielded up her tray involuntarily with but a feeble protest.
"Oh, how can I? I don't even----"
"Know me," the stranger finished for her. "Let me help you,
nevertheless. I assure you, upon my word and honor, that it is all
right. If you will let me help you, before the afternoon is over you
will know me well, and I hope you will know me all your life."
"That sounds more mysterious than Herr Lieder," said Happie with a
frank laugh. There was something about this young man that carried
conviction with whatever he said or did. He was so unmistakably
well-bred, so simple, frank and honest that no one could doubt him.
Laura aroused herself from her musical delirium to stare open-eyed and
open-mouthed at the spectacle, which at the same time nearly cost a
pale woman a bath of hot tea at the hands of Gretta, who also saw it
suddenly to her total undoing. It was that of a tall and very elegant
young man gravely making his way through the crowded room, bearing
tea, in Happie's wake, to the various little tables, while Happie
supplemented him with more tea and little cakes, looking immensely
relieved and quite as though there were nothing unusual in the
situation.
"My goodness! Who is he? What can it mean?" whispered Laura to Gretta,
who shook her head so hard that the end of her braid of hair slipped
out of its confining bow, as she offered to an indignant customer a
slice of lemon that had already been used. Margery came in at the door
and stopped short, amazed to find the room so full. As she stood there,
flushed and lovely, Polly and Penny in either hand, her eyes fell on
Happie's assistant, and the color rushed up to her hair, while eyes
and lips smiled radiantly. "Why, Mr. Gaston, what are you doing, and
how did you find us?" she said, to Happie's consternation, as the tall
young man dashed towards her.