Jerry Longworthy went up the steps of the Washington and eyed the long
row of mail boxes that ran down two sides of the vestibule, until he
came to one whose card read, "Miss Elizabeth Thorley, Miss Blanche
Carter." He touched the bell beneath.
"Is Miss Thorley in? This is Jerry Longworthy. I want to speak to you
about Mary Rose."
"Oh, do come up!" The voice was very eager and hospitable as it came
swiftly down the tube, and Mr. Jerry obeyed it almost as swiftly.
Miss Thorley met him in the hall on the third floor. She wore a little
lingerie frock of white voile, tucked and inset with lace and girdled
with pink satin. It was collarless and her hair was done high on her
head so that little locks escaped from the pins and rested on her white
neck. She looked about eighteen as she greeted Mr. Jerry.
He held her hand much longer than she thought was necessary and she
flushed as she drew it from him. He looked around the big pleasant
room as if he were glad to be in it.
"It's a long time since I was here," he said in a low voice, not as if
he meant to say it but as if he had to.
It seemed long to her now, too, and when she answered, it was as Mr.
Jerry had spoken, as if the words came of their own will.
"It is a long time." If Aunt Kate had seen her then she would not have
worried over any lack of red "corpuskles." A goodly number of them
slipped into Miss Thorley's face and dyed it pinker than her girdle.
A flame was lighted in Mr. Jerry's eyes and he stepped quickly forward.
She shrank back behind the high morris chair and he stopped suddenly.
"Long enough to prove to you that love is the biggest thing in the
world?" he asked gently, but there was a tremble in his voice that
thrilled her down to her very heels. "Oh, my dear, has it? Work and
independence are all well enough but they can't take the place of
love." His eyes watched her hungrily, but as the color left her cheeks
as quickly as it had come and she shook her head, he went on more
slowly and there was no longer a wistful tremble in his voice to thrill
her to her heels. "You remember the night when you offered me
friendship instead of love and I scornfully refused the half loaf?"
She nodded almost mechanically, her eyes on her fingers as they pleated
a fold of her frock. "Well, I've changed my mind. Mary Rose has shown
me that friends may have a big place in one's life and if you can't
give me anything more I'm going to be satisfied with your friendship.
May I have that?" He held out his hand.
"Oh!" It was a startled little gasp and it was a startled little
glance that she gave him. "Is--is that what you came for?" If his
ears had been sharper he would have caught a tiny note of
disappointment in the question as if she had expected him to ask for
more.
"It isn't what I came for," he acknowledged honestly. "But I wanted to
tell you so you wouldn't keep on avoiding me as if I had the plague.
The other afternoon you wouldn't have come over if you had thought I
would be back?"
A red banner in each cheek convicted her.
"We're neighbors and friends of Mary Rose," he went on slowly, "so
we'll doubtless meet more or less and I'd like to feel that you trust
me, that we are friends. But, honestly, I came tonight to talk of Mary
Rose."
She would be glad to talk of Mary Rose, glad to talk of anyone but
herself, and she left the morris chair that had proved such a safe
shelter and took a gaily cushioned wicker one on the other side of the
room.
"Isn't it a shame?" she asked a bit breathlessly. "I can't imagine how
anyone who has seen that ducky child with her birdcage could have had
the heart to steal her canary."
"Surely you don't think anyone who knew her took Jenny Lind?" He was
astonished.
"Everyone says that Mr. Wells has acted very oddly. And Mary Rose told
me herself that he swore at Jenny Lind. He's as hard as nails, you can
see it in his face. I've heard that he has complained to Brown and
Lawson that the leases are not lived up to and that there is a child in
the house. When you put two and two together you can't make much but
four out of the result."
"The old murderer!" scowled Mr. Jerry. "If that's true I'd like--I'd
like----"
"So would I!" Miss Thorley agreed with him heartily.
"Jim said something of the sort, but I told him he was crazy. He said
he was going up the fire escape and see if he couldn't find the bird in
Wells' flat, but I laughed at him. I didn't know the old man had
complained of Mary Rose. Of Mary Rose!" he repeated, as if he could
not understand how anyone could complain of Mary Rose. Mary Rose had
been a joy to him ever since he had looked up from his car and seen her
standing there in the boys' blue serge and with George Washington in
her arms.
Miss Thorley nodded. "I'd hate to think what this house would be
without her. She seems to have warmed it from the top to the basement.
Perhaps you won't understand when I say it's as if she had humanized
it. I'd hate to have it overrun with children!" hastily as she caught
the sudden flash of Mr. Jerry's eyes. "But Mary Rose--Mary Rose is
different."
"Why don't you tenants get up a petition of some kind? It wouldn't do
any harm to let the owner know that the rest of you are strong for the
Donovans and Mary Rose."
"No one knows who the owner is. All business is transacted through the
agents."
"The agents know," wisely. "It won't do any harm and it might do some
good. The complaints of one tenant won't weigh as much as the requests
of a dozen, believe me."
Miss Thorley drew her black brows together until they formed a line
across her white forehead.
"I believe you're right," she said after a pause. "I'll ask Mr.
Strahan to write one and we'll have all the tenants sign it. But that
won't bring back the canary," forlornly.
"No, it won't bring back the canary," he repeated. "We'll have to get
another pet for Mary Rose, one that she may have in the flat. No, not
a canary. That wouldn't do at all. But I thought perhaps some
goldfish. She loves to watch a couple Aunt Mary has. Once she
borrowed them."
"I know, for company for Mr. Wells when he was ill."
"Goldfish would give her something to think of until school opens.
After that she'll have enough to do to keep her occupied."
Miss Thorley looked at him with surprise. "Do you know, that's really
very thoughtful. I've been trying to think what I could do and I
couldn't get beyond another bird. I had sense enough to see that that
would never do."
"No, another bird wouldn't do. And tomorrow--I wondered if tomorrow
you and Mary Rose wouldn't go off for the day in the car with Aunt Mary
and me? We might run down to Blue Heron Lake for dinner. Mary Rose
loves to motor."
"Why not take your aunt and Mary Rose? I'm afraid I----"
"Nothing doing!" he interrupted firmly. "Can't you trust me?" He
looked her straight in the eyes as he asked. "I swear I won't say a
word of love. We're friends now, you know, not--not lovers. And Mary
Rose adores you. She'd go through fire and water for you. Honest, she
wouldn't be contented with me and Aunt Mary, but I know it would be all
right if you were along."
She hesitated and bit her lip before she finally shrugged her shoulders
and said: "Oh, very well. I'll go for Mary Rose."
"I knew you would. I knew you'd see the big sister, the humanitarian
philanthropic friendly side of it." There was more than the hint of a
twinkle in his eyes. "And one more thing." Mr. Jerry firmly believed
in striking the iron before it had any chance to cool. "They have
goldfish for sale over at the drug store on Twenty-eighth Street.
Won't you walk over with me and help pick out a few? I'd like Mary
Rose to find them when she wakes up in the morning."
She did not hesitate over this request. Perhaps she realized what a
very persuasive way he had, for she laughed softly.
"I'll go. I'd do more than that for Mary Rose."
On the way they met Miss Carter and Bob Strahan returning from a
fruitless quest among the bird stores. But if they had not found Jenny
Lind they had explained the situation to the proprietors of the shops
and each of them had promised on his word of honor to telephone to Mr.
Strahan the very minute that a canary was offered for sale.
The four went together to the drug store and after the globe had been
bought and they had selected the half-dozen fish that were to live in
it, they loitered at a little table over their ice cream.
"Gosh!" suddenly exclaimed Bob Strahan. "I'm glad I'm not built on the
plans and specifications that produced old Wells. I shouldn't want the
theft of a kid's canary on my conscience."
"He will insist that Mr. Wells knows all about it," Miss Carter said
mournfully. She could not help but feel that she was to blame. If she
hadn't asked Mary Rose to bring up the parcel post package Jenny Lind
might never have disappeared.
"Why?" asked Mr. Jerry curiously.
"Because!" Miss Carter and Bob Strahan made the rather unsatisfactory
explanation a duet.