Rosanna turned pale, but she looked steadily into her grandmother's cold
eyes.
"I have done nothing wrong, grandmother," she said. "I--"
"Go to your room!" repeated Mrs. Horton, pointing to the stairs. "I will
attend to you later."
Rosanna slowly climbed the broad staircase, clinging to the handrail and
dragging her feet like a very tired old woman instead of a dear little
happy girl. She felt herself trembling. Over and over she thought of
what she had just said to Helen of her grandmother: "I am sure she means
to be kind." Yet here, without a word of explanation, she was ordered to
her room without a single greeting, as though she had indeed done
something _very_ naughty. Reaching her room, she sat down on the side of
her bed and tried to think it out. What had she done? Where was Minnie?
Minnie: where was she? _Minnie_ could tell her what had come to pass to
make her grandmother so angry. She walked unsteadily over to the table
and pressed the electric button by which she always summoned Minnie when
she needed her.
Almost at once the door opened; but it was not Minnie. Mrs. Horton came
in and closed the door.
"What do you want?" she asked harshly.
"I rang for Minnie," said Rosanna in a low voice.
"You can get to bed as best you can," said Mrs. Horton. "Minnie will not
be allowed to see you. Minnie has been discharged. She is untrustworthy,
and I would have sent her packing to-night, but she insisted on her
right to stay under this roof until morning. So she is in her room where
I have ordered her to remain."
"Can't I see her again ever, grandmother?" asked Rosanna, with trembling
lips.
"Certainly not!" said Mrs. Horton. "You are a bad, ungrateful child. Get
to bed as best you can! I cannot trust myself to talk to you to-night.
Tomorrow I will tell you what I think of the way you have acted in my
absence."
"I have not been naughty," said Rosanna. "I did just as you told me I
could do. I saved your letter so I could show you if you said anything
about it. Oh, grandmother, please, I have not been naughty! I have been
so happy."
"_Happy!_" sneered Mrs. Horton. "_Happy!_ There is a low streak in you.
To think of the way you have been acting--I will see you to-morrow after
I have seen Mrs. Hargrave, and when I can control myself."
She swept from the room without saying good-night, and Rosanna remained
seated on the bed, her head whirling, her mouth dry and quivering.
Rosanna did not try to undress. Warm as it was, she was chilled to the
bone. What would happen to Helen? And of course Mr. Culver would have to
go. An hour went by, and another. She heard her grandmother coming up
the stairs. Quick as thought she pressed the button and the room was
pitch dark. Her grandmother approached her door, opened it a crack and
listened. Hearing nothing, seeing nothing, she closed it and went on to
her own room.
Rosanna breathed freely again, and turned on the light. An overpowering
desire to see Minnie swept over her. She _must_ see Minnie, must comfort
her and be comforted. She felt that she would go mad if she had to spend
the night alone. She looked at the little gold clock on her table. It
was eleven o'clock.
She slipped off her shoes, and noticed for the first time that she was
still wearing her coat and hat. She tossed them aside, once more put out
the light, and tiptoed toward the door. She was going to Minnie.
With the greatest care she turned the knob and opened the door a crack.
She opened the door wide and stepped into the blackness of the hall.
Something soft and warm and human collided with her. Hands clutched her,
and a well-known voice whispered, "Dearie!"
After the first moment of fright, Rosanna felt herself go limp. She
clung fast.
"Oh, Minnie, Minnie!" she choked.
"Hush!" whispered Minnie. She drew Rosanna into her own room, closed the
door, and switched on the light.
"Oh, my precious lamb!" she said. "What did she do to you? Oh, why
didn't I come sooner? You look fit to die. Come, dearie, and let your
Minnie do for you to-night."
She took Rosanna on her lap and tenderly undressed her. Then she folded
a warm kimono around the shivering, nervous child and, sitting down in a
deep chair, took her on her lap and held her tight.
Rosanna stiffened and sat up. "Suppose she comes in?" she said.
"No danger!" said Minnie. "I turned the key." She laughed. "If she wants
to see you again she will have to wait until to-morrow, no matter what.
I don't intend to see that look on your pretty dear face much longer.
Now tell your Minnie just what happened."
"I don't seem to be able to remember much about it," said the tired and
frightened child; "only when I came home,--and oh, Minnie, we _did_ have
such a good time!--there was grandmother at the door instead of you. And
she seems to think that I have done something that has disgraced her,
and she won't tell me anything at all until to-morrow, only she told me
to come to my room and go to bed if I could get to bed without you and
she said you were untrustworthy--and--and that she had sent you to your
room to stay until to-morrow, and then she is going to make you go, and
oh, Minnie, Minnie, what _shall_ I ever do without you?"
"There, there! Minnie will find some way of staying near you if she has
to wear a wig and make believe she is somebody else entirely."
"What _have_ I done?" asked Rosanna. "Was it all because we went to
Fontaine Ferry? Mrs. Hargrave said I might go."
"A little of it is that," said Minnie, "but the worst of her madness is
because you have been playing with a little girl clean out of your own
class, as she puts it, and she blames everybody. Everybody that she can
discharge has got to go--and I guess that will be about everybody but
you."
"Then I might as well die," said Rosanna. "I can't go back and live the
way I used to live. You know I can't do it, Minnie. I can't; I just
_can't_! Oh, Minnie, it seems as though I had only been happy for three
weeks in all my life, and what shall I do? I do love Helen, and she is
just as nice as I am, and so are her mother and father. Oh, don't you
suppose Uncle Robert can fix it?"
"He didn't come home with her," said Minnie. "When he does the mischief
will be done. It is just her sinful pride, if I do say it about your
grandmother, and sure as sure there will come a day and that soon, when
her pride will have a fall. I only wish I could run away with you,
dearie. But you will have to be brave, and I will see you as soon as
ever I can. You know my telephone number, and if she ever goes out you
just call me up."
"I don't feel brave," whispered Rosanna, hiding her face on Minnie's
shoulder. "I don't see how I will ever bear to stay alone all night."
"That you needn't if you would like your Minnie," said she. "Just you
get into your bed and be quiet, and I will be back in a minute." She
tucked Rosanna between the sheets, and hurried away as silent as a
shadow.
In a few minutes she returned, ready for the night. She drew a big couch
close beside Rosanna's little bed and lay down.
"There we are!" she said, taking Rosanna's hand. "Now look here,
Rosanna. In the morning when your grandmother talks to you, don't try to
talk back, and whatever you do, _don't be afraid_. Just let her talk,
and tell her to see Mrs. Hargrave. She has seen me all she ever wants
to, I guess, but Mrs. Hargrave is not afraid of anybody. I wish she was
here. Now you will remember what I say, won't you, dear? Don't be
afraid."
"What will she do to Helen?" asked Rosanna.
"Do to Helen?" said Minnie, sitting up. "Do to Helen? Well, she won't
get within shouting distance of Helen. I guess I have not been shut up
in my room all evening so as anyone would notice it. The Culvers are all
prepared, and Helen won't know anything about it until long after it is
all over."
"That is good," sighed Rosanna. "I can't bear to have Helen unhappy as I
am. It does seem as though I have to be unhappy such a lot, don't you
think so, Minnie?"
Minnie leaned over and kissed her.
"Poor child!" she said softly. "Never you mind! I have a feeling that
there is something good coming out of this. I don't know what, but you
must bear whatever your grandmother says to you with that thought in
mind, and remember what I say."
"I will try," promised Rosanna, and then because she was exhausted with
the shock of the evening after the tiresome but glorious day Rosanna,
clasping Minnie's hand tight, went to sleep immediately.
When she awoke next day it was very late, and the sun was shining
through the flowered chintz curtains. She felt something queer and
crackly in the bed by her foot, and threw back the covers. There was a
letter tied to her ankle by a piece of ribbon. Rosanna could not help
laughing, it was such a funny place to put a letter.
"Dearie," it read, "we slept like tops both of us, and now I must get
out of here before your grandmother wakes up. I am going to tie this to
your ankle because that is the only place she would never think to look
if she should come in while you are still asleep, and go to looking
through things, though the saints know there is nothing she is not
welcome to see as we have every button on, and not a rip anywhere.
"I take this pencil in hand to tell you that I stayed all night and held
your hand. At any rate you were holding mine when I woke up not long
ago.
"Now I am going to leave right off, as I do not care to eat again under
this roof, things being as they are. I don't know about your going down
to breakfast. If you wake late enough, she will be over at Mrs.
Hargrave's and you could have your breakfast up here. Just ring the bell
three times. I will fix it with Hannah to bring you a tray as soon as
ever you call.
"Don't forget what I told you last night about being afraid. There is
nothing for you to be afraid of, and you can do for yourself now just as
nicely as though you were a grown-up young lady. And don't forget that
just as soon as your Minnie is married you can come to see me just as
often as you please, and I don't think it will hurt you to come and see
your own nursemaid in her own little house which is already being paid
for in instalments, and you can cook candy in my kitchen which is to be
blue and white in honor of the playhouse, and we will feel honored to
have you, and no one to object whatever you do.
"I must go now. Oh, dear, I'll worry every second: but don't you fret
one mite, Rosanna dear, as there is nothing at all to worry about.
"Your Minnie."
Her kind, good Minnie! There was one who loved her anyway. And she knew
Helen loved her.
She determined to be brave. When she thought everything over, she could
not feel that she had done anything wrong in the least. But when her
grandmother talked to her, she always felt guilty of everything that her
grandmother wanted her to feel guilty about. She dreaded seeing Mrs.
Horton. There was a knock on the door and there was her breakfast, the
best that cook could send up.
Rosanna was very hungry, and there was nothing left but plates and cups
and saucers when she finished and pressed the bell button. Hannah
hurried up and took the tray.
"We think you had better not say anything about this until you see what
your grandmother is going to do," said Hannah and hurried off while
Rosanna settled herself to wait.
Presently the door opened. Mrs. Horton, more pale and angry than ever,
came in. She was carrying a plate. There was a glass of water and a
slice of bread on it. She set it down hard on the table.