RESCUE WORK
The lead thus unexpectedly opened by Bess was promptly followed up by
Margaret, who was growing quick to see openings and to take advantage of
them. At her suggestion a note was despatched the next day to Senator
Black, asking for an interview. At the hour appointed the two girls,
chaperoned by Mrs. Pennybacker, were there.
It would be hardly possible for a story like Margaret's, heard from the
quivering lips of the chief actor in the tragedy and listened to under
the spell of her sad, beautiful eyes, to fail of reaching the heart of a
man like Senator Black. At its close he reached over and took her hand.
"Mrs. De Jarnette," he said, with genuine feeling, "you have suffered
greatly. Let me assure you of my sincerest sympathy and, what will be
more to you, I am sure, of my cordial support of this bill. The story of
your wrongs under the old law has done for your cause with me what
volumes of arguments about property rights could not have effected. To
my mind a mother's right to her child is not a question that admits of
discussion. You can rely upon me to do what I can for you. I shall
esteem it a pleasure to introduce you to some of my colleagues and let
them hear your story also."
She was expressing her earnest thanks for this offer when he added, "I
only wish it were possible for the bill to do for you personally as much
as you can do for the bill."
Somehow the words chilled the glow at Margaret's heart. What did he
mean? Why, the bill would do everything for her if it passed. Before she
could recover herself sufficiently to ask an explanation the Senator had
gone on gallantly, with a wave of the hand toward Bess, "You certainly
have an able pleader in this young lady, Mrs. De Jarnette. I am not sure
that my support should not be credited at least half to her." And Bess
went home on air.
As they were going out of the committee-room they came upon Richard De
Jarnette, face to face. He was just going in. They passed each other
with the briefest acknowledgment of acquaintance.
"What do you suppose he is doing there?" asked Margaret, much startled.
"Isn't that the district committee-room? He may be there on business
with the Commissioners."
"He is there to fight this bill! I know it!"
"Well, there's one good thing," said Mrs. Pennybacker,--"he will
interview Senator Black at an auspicious moment."
When they were seated in the carriage Margaret said thoughtfully. "What
do you suppose Senator Black meant by wishing that the passage of the
bill might help me? Of course it will help me. It will give me Philip if
it passes."
"I wondered about that myself," Mrs. Pennybacker replied. Then after a
pause she said casually, "There is no doubt that this law, if it ever
becomes one, will apply to cases that occurred before it was enacted, is
there?"
"Why, no!" said Margaret, with a startled look. "I shouldn't think so."
After Bess, even, had thus "broken into the Senate," as John Harcourt
expressed it in his congratulatory speech delivered when--amid her
blushes--the story was repeated to him, Mrs. Pennybacker felt almost
cowardly in so persistently refraining her hand (figurative for tongue).
It really had not been so dreadful to beard the lion in his den as she
had supposed. Perhaps she owed it to the cause, or to Margaret at any
rate, to give any assistance in her power. True, she had been more or
less occupied with Rosalie since Margaret had taken up this new work,
but of late the girl had taken a fancy to be alone more anyway. She
certainly would not miss her if she should take an afternoon off.
So one day late in the winter--one of Margaret's days at Elmhurst--when
Mrs. Greuze came around in the morning to drum up recruits for a raid on
Senator Southard in the afternoon Mrs. Pennybacker was persuaded into
going. They were to meet in the Rotunda and proceed in a body to the
Senator's committee-room.
On her way to the capitol Mrs. Pennybacker stopped at the home of Mrs.
Van Dorn. Mrs. Greuze had said, "It is desirable to interest as many
women as possible, from different walks of life, in the passage of this
bill--women who will make the Committee see by their presence and their
persistency how vital a thing it is to them. There is some truth in what
Senator Southard says about many women not caring. It is to the
indifference of the women themselves that most of the failures of the
woman cause can be traced. We must get a number to go, not necessarily
to talk--judgment must be exercised in the selection of the ones to do
that--but to give the moral support of their presence." Mrs. Pennybacker
determined when she heard this that she would try to induce her niece to
go with them.
"Maria will _look_ all right," she said reflectively, recalling
whimsically as she said it the young woman who had once shown her "The
History of the World" in sixty volumes brilliantly bound in red and
gold. She had not had time to acquaint herself with the names of the
authors, but the friendly agent had assured her that they were the
proper ones, and she said to Mrs. Pennybacker with considerable pride,
"They will look all right in a library, won't they?"
Yes, if there was no talking to be done Maria would be a very desirable
acquisition. But, the matter being laid before her, it appeared that she
could not be acquired.
"I should be willing to go--I think it would be quite interesting to
meet some of those gentlemen--of course I don't know anything about the
bill--but I really can't, don't you know. I am going to give Toddlekyns
a party this afternoon, a birthday party. He is eight, and I have
invited eight ladies with their dogs. The birthday cake has just come
in. Isn't it lovely! I am going to have eight pink candles on it. Then
Mrs. Thompson has sent me the cutest gift--eight lamb chops on a dish
with a ruff of paper tied with pink ribbon around each bone. Aren't they
dear! She asked me what my color scheme was, but I thought of course it
was flowers. I didn't think of such a thing as a gift like this. So
appropriate, wasn't it?"
"Very!" returned Mrs. Pennybacker, dryly. "I have often given a plate of
chops myself (with the meat removed) to the dog next door, but I have
never thought of putting on the flub-dubs. I will do so when I get home.
I want to go back with all the Washington kinks!"
Mrs. Van Dorn looked at her suspiciously, saying, "Aunt Mary, I cannot
understand your aversion to dogs."
"I have no aversion to dogs. It's doglets I hate. I don't call that
thing a dog. Look at him now!"
Toddlekyns, put upon his feet at this moment, looked for all the world
like an animated, decorated monkey muff. His silky tail was tied with a
blue ribbon and a long forelock combed down over his eyes was adorned in
like manner; his face and legs were lost in a mass of curling silky
hair; and really it was difficult for one confronting Toddlekyns to tell
whether he was in danger of a head end or rear end collision.
"Now a real dog," continued Mrs. Pennybacker, reflectively, "is
different. There is no more beautiful sight than a child hanging about a
Scotch Collie or a big Newfoundland. A _child_ might hug a dog and I
would think it was all right.... I don't wonder that a shepherd is fond
of an animal that can round up sheep with the intelligence of a man. A
mastiff in a back yard--one that has to be chained up to keep him from
chewing up any intruder--has something almost human about him. He knows
that his home is his castle. There is character about such a dog as
that.... And the St. Bernards! Why, Maria, I hope I am not
irreverent--when I think of those noble creatures plowing through snow
and storm to rescue some poor perishing mortal, it seems to me almost a
type of the Divine love that came to seek and to save the lost. It does,
indeed. But it's a far cry from the monks and dogs of St. Bernard to the
idle women and the poodles of the cities."
"The very best people," said Mrs. Van Dorn firmly, "make much of dogs.
It is the thing to do. Why, Aunt Mary, the bench shows of New York are
simply immense."
"I know it. I've read about them. There certainly is something strange
about how people that have this dog craze let it run away with them.
Mrs. Joel Bennett used to tell a story on a Kansas City minister who was
very fond of dogs. She was living with her son George who had a lot of
them and was a good hand to train them. She was very sick at one time
and this minister, who was her pastor, used to come out often to see
her--giving spiritual comfort to her and dog talk to George, I suppose.
Well, one day he had but a short time to stay, having to catch a train,
and he asked her if there was any special subject she would like to have
him converse upon. Mrs. Bennett was a very old-fashioned Christian, so
she said yes, she would like to have him talk to her about the plan of
salvation. 'Mrs. Bennett,' he said, 'there is nothing I feel so sure of,
and nothing that it delights me more to talk about than the plan of
salvation.' Just then George came in with one of the dogs. Naturally
they fell to talking about it. 'And,' Mrs. Bennett used to say with a
twinkle of her eye, 'that was the last I heard of the plan of
salvation!'"
She smiled to herself reminiscently, as she always did in recalling her
friend.
"How is Margaret?" asked Mrs. Van Dorn, after a pause. The dog story did
not seem to require comment. It was rather pointless, but she politely
ignored that. "I suppose she is still lonely without Philip. Or does she
get over it?"
"I can't say that she has got entirely over it."
"Aunt Mary, I don't know that you will agree with me," Mrs. Van Dorn
said with some firmness, "but _I_ think if Margaret would get her mind
on something besides herself--society or something of that kind--she
would be a great deal better off. Or philanthropy would be a good thing
for her." Mrs. Van Dorn had never yet been told about Rosalie and her
child. "Some of those things are in excellent form. I was just reading
as you came in about one that seems to me so beautiful. So--so
inspiring."
"What is it?" Mrs. Pennybacker was glad to know of any phase of
philanthropy that interested her niece.
"It is a form of rescue work. The article is headed
'Permanent Refuge for Homeless Dogs.'
I'll read it to you.
"'At a recent meeting of the Bullion Society for Homeless Dogs, held at
the residence of Mrs. Sarah Holden, it was unanimously agreed to change
the original name of the organization to Animal Rescue League of
Washington, in view of the widened scope of the work. Arrangements were
completed for the purchase of a home in the neighborhood of Hyattsville,
Md., where a permanent refuge will be established for the care of dogs.
It is the intention of the league to remove the home to their new
quarters at Hyattsville early in the autumn, where they will keep open
house throughout the year.'
"Isn't that a beneficent charity!" she exclaimed, a rapt expression on
her unlined face.
"Beneficent fiddlesticks!" returned Mrs. Pennybacker, "If I were called
upon to characterize that proceeding with exactness, Maria, I should
call it sentimental gush gone to seed. What are they going to save these
dogs from? a dependent old age--or a life of shame?"
Like most persons of her calibre Mrs. Van Dorn was deficient in a sense
of humor. She missed the satirical note and answered literally, "They
are going to provide a home for the homeless and befriend the
friendless."
"That sounds well."
"It is Christlike!" exclaimed Mrs. Van Dorn, with more enthusiasm than
she usually exhibited. "Why, the officers elected--I didn't read you
their names--are away up in society."
"It is certainly Christlike to befriend the friendless," returned Mrs.
Pennybacker, ignoring the social status of the officers elected--"but it
strikes me there needs to be a modicum of sense displayed in the choice
of subjects. As I remember it, Christ always gave the preference to
those that do not perish like the beasts. He came looking after the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, it is true, but they were sheep with
souls. I don't seem to remember that he spent much time hunting up stray
dogs. Indeed, the only case I recall in which He paid attention to
animals at all was in the Gadarene country, and that was rather
disastrous to the animals. You remember he sacrificed a whole herd of
swine (two thousand in number, Mark says) to save the reason of one poor
suffering lunatic. I think that was about the right proportion. To my
mind it shows the relative importance he attaches to the two.... How
Christian women can walk around here in the southwest quarter of
Washington, and then give their energies to rescuing _dogs_ is more than
I can understand!"
When she had got a block or so away from the house she opened her rather
tightly set lips to remark to herself,
"It is just as well. She might have been tempted to say something. Some
of these brilliantly bound volumes do have such fool things in them!"