DISCLOSURE.
"Can you oblige me by putting this bill in the window Miss?" asked a
pleasant-looking young woman, who often came into the shop for a loaf
or a few buns.
"I daresay we can," said Kate, taking the bill and reading it. It was
the announcement of a tea-meeting at a Sunday school in the
neighbourhood, and Kate forthwith determined to speak to this young
woman when she came in again, and ask her if there was a Bible-class
there for elder girls and young women.
"Look here, Marion," she said, holding up the bill to her cousin, "I
suppose I can put this into the window?"
"I suppose you can, but I shouldn't; I should throw it under the
counter!" said Marion in a tone of contempt.
"But why?" asked Kate.
"Well, we can't put in all the bills that are brought, and so I never
put that Sunday-school rubbish anywhere but under the counter."
"Well, I shall put it in the window," said Kate, decidedly, and as she
had charge of the one where the piles of loaves where placed, she put
it in the most conspicuous corner. "I did not know there was a
Sunday-school so near," she went on; "I shall ask that young person
when she comes in again if they have got a nice Bible-class there.
Perhaps she goes to it herself, and would take me with her for the
first time."
"You seem to forget Mrs. Maple's rule about making friends of the
customers," said Marion quickly.
"So do you, I should think," retorted Kate.
"I am not a new hand: I have been here some months, and know the ways
of London better than a country girl," replied Marion.
"Well, I don't believe Mrs. Maple would mind me speaking to this young
woman about a Bible-class; you don't know anything about it, and I must
ask someone. She would not mind it so much as our talking to those
young men as we do."
"Well, ask her and see!" said Marion, scornfully.
"I've a great mind to," said Kate.
"Do; go now! Kate, you are the greatest simpleton that ever came to
London, I think. I do believe you would go and ask this, as though you
were afraid your tongue was not your own. Talk to her if you like,
only don't grumble any more about me talking to my friends, as you do
sometimes."
If Kate had only known it, Mrs. Maple would readily have granted a
breaking of her rule in favour of this customer, for she knew her to be
a good, industrious young woman, who would influence her aright; for
although not a Christian herself she had a great respect for those who
were, and knew they were the most trustworthy and reliable in business.
But Kate was laughed out of her intention of speaking to Mrs. Maple
about this, and as she happened to be in the shop each time this
customer came in during the next week, she had no opportunity of asking
her what she wished, and so another Sunday came round without any
effort being made to discover the Bible-class she had told her mother
she would find.
During this week Marion's friends came in nearly every day, and Kate
noticed that they ate a good deal of pastry as they stood laughing and
chatting with them, for Kate was easily drawn into the talk now, but
Marion always took the money for what they had, so that she did not
know what money really was paid.
One day she ventured to say, "I suppose William has a very high salary,
as he can afford to spend so much in buns and cakes, and go out for
Sunday excursions?"
"And pay for people who are so foolish as to lose their purses, you
should add," laughed Marion.
But it was no laughing matter to Kate. Already she had been obliged to
borrow a postage-stamp from her cousin to send her customary letter to
her mother, and she had a keen suspicion that it had been taken from
Mrs. Maple's desk, of which Marion kept the key. The following Sunday
it was arranged that they should go to Greenwich again, and though Kate
protested at first that she would not go, she was at last persuaded to
join the party, Marion offering to pay for her, or to lend her the
money to pay for herself. This time Kate enjoyed herself almost as
much as any of them. She had succeeded in quieting her conscience, so
that it did not trouble her as much as it did at first. How she
succeeded in keeping her mother quiet and hopeful too, she alone knew,
but she did not write home quite so frequently now, and made excuses
for shorter letters by saying she had so little time to write.
Marion contrived that she should not have an opportunity of saying much
to the young woman who brought the Sunday school bill, for she always
went forward to serve her if they were by themselves in the shop. Once
Kate got so far as to ask her if they had a Bible-class at the Sunday
school, but Marion came up and interposed at once.
"What is the use of your asking questions about a Bible-class here? We
are not here on Sunday, and it would be too far for you to walk
backwards and forwards three or four times a day."
"Yes, I suppose it would," assented Kate slowly.
"We have a very nice class, and the lady who teaches would be glad to
see you if you would come," ventured the customer.
"But she can't; it is impossible," said Marion; and this ended the
conversation, for the young woman did not like to press it further,
and, truth to tell, Kate was beginning to enjoy the Sunday walks and
excursions, and therefore was not so anxious to join a Bible-class as
she had been at first.
So the pleasant days and weeks of autumn slipped away, and when Kate
sometimes asked her cousin what she had meant by saying she must make
it up to William for paying for her steamboat fare, she laughed, and
said she would find out some day if she only kept her eyes open.
Kate had kept her eyes open, as she thought, but Marion had not allowed
her to see too much, for she did not quite feel sure how far Kate might
be trusted with their secret yet; but her friends were not aware of
this, and one day, Marion having gone out on business for Mrs. Maple,
Kate was alone in the shop when William and a companion came in.
"Marion has gone out," said Kate.
"Has she? Something unusual, isn't it?" said the young man carelessly.
"Yes, very unusual," said Kate, "it is not often we get sent out."
"The old lady is out of the way, I suppose?" said William
confidentially, as he helped himself to a sponge-cake from a plate on
the counter.
"Yes, or else I dare not talk to you," said Kate, laughing.
"Well, we came in to ask if you couldn't both manage to go to the
theatre one night," said William, helping himself to something else
from the counter, and handing the plate to his friend.
"Me go to a theatre!" exclaimed Kate; "I have never been in my life."
"Just the reason why you should go now, then," said William, with his
mouth full of lemon cheese-cake. "Tell Marion what I say, and I know
she will agree with me. Tell her I have a chance of some orders this
winter, and you two shall have the first I can get hold of."
"You are very kind," said Kate. "I am sure Marion will be pleased, if
she can only manage to go."
"And won't you be pleased too?" said the young man, looking round for
another untasted dainty.
"I--I don't know, I don't think I shall be able to go; I don't see how
we can both get out together."
"Oh, Marion will manage that, I daresay. You must go, Kate, if I can
get the orders."
After a little more talk and a little more persuasion, William said he
would take two pennyworth of buns, and gave Kate twopence as he spoke.
Kate handed him two buns and glanced over the impoverished plates on
the counter, trying to reckon how many had been taken, while he in
equal astonishment looked at the small bag she handed to him.
"Miss Kate, I am a wholesale customer, you know," he said at last.
"Wholesale?" repeated Kate; "I don't understand. Of course I know we
supply a few shops at a different rate--at wholesale, as you call it,
but----"
"You don't mean to say Marion has never let you into the secret of our
wholesale trade," whispered William.
"I don't know what you mean, I'm sure."
"Well, never mind, it don't matter; I've got two buns, and I've paid
for them;" and William was turning away from the counter, but Kate said
quickly--
"Stop a minute; there are those other things you've had off the plates."
"Oh, it's all right, I'll settle with Marion for them. Good
afternoon." And the next minute he was gone, leaving Kate in a state
of bewildered astonishment not easily described. She knew that Marion
often helped herself to stamps, envelopes, and paper out of her
mistress's desk, but she could not think that she would rob her to such
an extent as William's words would imply, for it was robbery, nothing
less, to give away their employer's property for favours bestowed on
themselves. _This_, then, was how such favours were to be made up to
them.
Kate longed for, and yet dreaded, her cousin's return, that she might
talk to her about this, yet wondering at the same time how she should
begin, how she should tell her what she thought of it. But, as it
often happens, Marion herself helped her out of the difficulty, for as
she came into the shop she said, in a hurried whisper, "Anyone been in,
Kate?"
Kate nodded. "Go and get your things off, and I will tell you all
about it," she said.
"Oh, I can guess your news, I think; he can get us some orders for the
theatre? Isn't that it?"
"Yes, that and something else," said Kate rather gravely.
"Oh, never mind the 'something else,' that's enough. Kate, it will be
splendid; he always gets orders for the best seats in the first-rate
theatres. You must go."
"I don't know whether I shall, I must talk to you about things first.
How are these orders to be paid for?"
"Paid for? That's nothing to do with you or me either, Kate. Orders
are always presents."
"Yes, but we are expected to make it up, and to rob Mrs. Maple to do
it."
"Rob her? What do you mean, Kate? If you were not my own cousin I'd
make you prove your words," said Marion angrily. "What do you mean, I
say? If you are a thief, begging me to give you her postage-stamps, I
am not; I can buy postage-stamps for myself."
"I did not ask you for Mrs. Maple's stamps," said Kate indignantly; "I
asked you to lend me your own until I could pay you for them."
"Lend you my own! why, you knew I had not got any," exclaimed Marion.
"Where was I to get them but out of the desk?"
"Well, I've kept account of how many stamps I have had, and you shall
put them back. But it was not the stamps I was thinking of, Marion."
"Oh, no, of course not; we never see ourselves as other people see us."
"I told you William came in this afternoon. Well, he ate a good deal
of pastry off the plates, and then gave me twopence for some buns,
expecting half a dozen, I suppose, for he was very much surprised that
I only gave him two, and said he was always served at the wholesale
price, and then went away without paying for anything he had eaten."
"Well, suppose he did?" said Marion, coolly, "didn't he tell you he was
keeping an account with me?"
"He told me to tell you he would settle with you about that."
"Well, what more do you want? How dare you charge me with being a
thief? The idea of your coming here and saying such things of me, who
was here long before you were! It only shows what a bad, wicked girl
you must be, and what you would do yourself if you only had the chance.
I have a great mind to go to Mrs. Maple this minute, and tell her what
a dangerous person she has in her house, and how we have all been
deceived in you."
Marion had almost talked herself out of breath, and Kate out of her
suspicions. As her cousin went upstairs to take off her things Kate
began to feel like a culprit in the matter, as though she ought to beg
her cousin's pardon for judging her unjustly; and yet when she was left
alone again calmly to think over all that had happened that afternoon
and many previous afternoons, she could not but think that her
suspicions were correct; she rather dreaded Marion coming down again,
but, to her surprise, Marion seemed to have forgotten her anger by the
time she appeared, and came into the shop smiling and pleasant as
though nothing had happened.
"I have not told Mrs. Maple anything about our quarrel, Kate," she
said, quite coolly; "I am sure you do not mean what you said just now,
and it would vex her, I know, if she knew we had begun quarrelling."
"I almost wish you had told her," said Kate.
"Well, my dear, I am not so fond of making other people uncomfortable
as you are, and so I think we had better keep the affair to ourselves.
I don't mind telling you this much, I do sometimes give William a bun
over what he pays for, at the retail price--let him have them at the
wholesale rate, as he is a pretty good customer."
"But now let me try and remember what William had, for I went to the
drawers and filled up the plates again."
"That was right; never let your plates be half empty if you can fill
them. Now you had better tell me what William had," and Marion took a
note-book from her pocket, and appeared to set done the items as Kate
could recall them.
"I don't think he had anything else," said Kate, when nearly a
shilling's worth had been called over.
"Well, we'll forgive him if he has," said Marion, replacing the book in
her pocket with a smile. "Don't look so grave, Kate; I'm not going to
rob Mrs. Maple, as you accused me of doing a little while ago.
Everybody in business lets their own friends have things at a wholesale
rate. Mrs. Maple sells to the shops on those terms, and why shouldn't
I let William have them at the same price? it makes no difference to
her."
"Oh, yes it does--it must; and, besides, the things are not ours, but
hers, and we ought to sell them at the regular price, and no other."
"You are too strict, but you will find out that such strict notions
won't do in business. I tell you everybody does it--show their friends
a little favour in buying and selling, and we must do the same or we
might as well be in a convent."