THE PRICE OF A BRACELET.
Eva obeyed. Perhaps she was glad to accept the respite which Mrs. Carter
offered her. Still her hands trembled as she fastened the tiny bonnet on
her head, and covered her face with a veil, with a vain effort to hide
all traces of the tears that still welled up to her eyes, spite of all
her efforts.
“Come now, let us be off. Just keep cool, and don’t fret yourself into a
fever, till we come back,” said Mrs. Carter, kissing Ruth before she
went out, “and not a word to the grim—I mean nice old lady in yonder.
There, there, no more sobbing—she’ll hear you.”
Bright as a sunbeam, and full of energy, which contrasted with Eva’s
mournful lassitude, Mrs. Carter swept through the little yard, and for
once defied Battles’ evident ill-temper.
“Drive to Carter’s office,” she said, “and be quick about it. Don’t dare
to let the grass grow under them horses’ hoofs, when I’m in the
carriage. Get in, my dear; don’t wait for me. There now, we are ever so
comfortable—you and I.”
Away went the carriage at full speed, for Battles, not daring to disobey
orders entirely, resolved to vent his ill-temper by overdoing them. At
another time the sulky coachman might have terrified the good lady
within, by the reckless speed with which he crashed into the carts and
omnibuses on his way toward Wall Street. As it was, this hidden motive
seemed nothing more than prompt obedience.
“Tell Carter to come out; I want to speak to him,” said the lady, when
Battles drew up near the office-door, and the footman looked in for
orders.
In a few moments, Carter came down the steps, rosy and smiling, his
heavy watch-chain swinging loosely down from the pocket of his white
vest, and the diamonds in his bosom glistening richly.
“Well, what is it?” he inquired, looking into the carriage, and nodding
kindly to Eva. “Brought the article down for me to look at, I suppose.
It is of no use; if you like it, that’s enough.”
Mrs. Carter took out her reticule-purse, opened the gold clasp, and took
a scrap of paper from it.
“Just cut that in two, and give me half. I’ve changed my mind about the
bracelet. It isn’t much of an affair, after all, that is, considering
the price asked. I’ve made up my mind to invest in real estate. So, just
cut down the check, and let me go.”
Carter laughed till the diamonds in his bosom shook off quick flashes of
light.
“Well, this is a new idea. Cut down a check half, because one’s wife is
going into real estate! Haven’t made so much money on one job in a week.
Here, come along, you fellow.”
Beckoning joyously to the footman, Carter went into his office with the
check in his hand. Directly the servant came out with the abridged paper
neatly folded, which Mrs. Carter put into her purse, and gave another
order regarding the route her carriage was to take on its way home. The
good woman got out once or twice, leaving Eva alone, and at last came
from a lawyer’s office with a folded paper in her hand, which was
hurried into her pocket, when she saw Eva looking at it.
Once more Battles drew up his horses at Mrs. Laurence’s gate, and with
his heavy face clouded with disgust, waited gloomily for his mistress to
go into that shanty, as he was pleased to call it.
Mrs. Carter, oblivious of her servant’s discontent, bustled out of her
carriage. She almost lifted Eva to the ground, and opened the gate for
herself, absolutely pushing the footman on one side, and bursting her
delicate mauve glove in the operation.
“Now, my dears, you can call that mother of yours! Don’t stop to take
off your bonnet, Eva, but bring her in. That’s right. Here she comes,
looking as if she expected a policeman. Mrs. Laurence, my dear neighbor,
my darling good woman! here is something for you; just a trifle—a little
mite of a present. Take it, and chuck it, neck and heels, into the
hottest corner of your cooking-stove.”
Mrs. Laurence took the paper in her hand, looked at the indorsement,
looked at Mrs. Carter. The color flushed into her face; tears, that
imprisonment and wrong had failed to wring from her, came, drop by drop,
into her hard eyes.
“Why, why this is the mortgage!” she said. “The old mortgage, that was
eating up everything!”
“Exactly. Put it in the stove, and never think of it again. It is mine,
and I give it to you for a nice little bonfire. Eva, dear, come and kiss
me. Ruthie, why what are you crying for, child?”
Down by the invalid’s couch Mrs. Carter sank upon her knees, folded her
arms around the startled girl, and began to sob like a great
warm-hearted baby, as she was—God bless her!
After a little she lifted her face, all wet and smiling, like a
full-blown rose, with rain trembling on it, and got up, ashamed of her
own goodness, and the emotion that sprung out of it.
“You see I always was such a goose—crying when I ought to laugh, and
hard as a rock when I ought to cry. Don’t let anybody know that you ever
saw me like this. But I tell you, girls, it isn’t every day that one can
get so much joy out of a trumpery bracelet, and save half the price too.
You have no idea how much money that old paper has saved for Carter.
I’ll be bound he’s chuckling over it yet.”