"Well," said Laura graciously, "I'm glad to see that you have kept out
of the fighting for one little while. I was supposing that you were
down on the Barbary Coast getting your head smashed. Take that big
easy-chair; it's the softest, and I'm sure you ought to appreciate it
after all the knocks you've had."
"Oh, it looks as though there was no more fighting to be done. The
hoodlums have taken to their holes, and the Vigilante pick-handles rule
the city."
"Well, if it's all over it will be a great relief to my mind," she
replied. "And I suppose you'll be glad to hear that uncle is better.
He has come to his senses again, and I've set his mind at rest about the
business, and Doctor Roberts says he will be out in a few weeks."
"Well, all our troubles are coming to an end at once then," I said with
a lightened spirit.
"Yes, I got your note saying that the worst was over, and the business
safe. It was good of you to send it. That was a shocking thing about
Mr. Bolton. He was an old--well, I won't say what, for he's dead and
gone--but I believe I feel sorry for him, after all."
"Yes," said Mercy, with a grave nod, "whomever he injured, we know that
it was himself he injured most of all. What will they do with Mr.
Merwin?"
"They've turned him loose already. The committing magistrate called it
justifiable homicide, which is bad law, though there's some elemental
justice about it, and the crowd carried Merwin out of the court on their
shoulders. The Grand Jury may take it up, but Bolton was not a popular
character. At any rate Merwin is free now."
"Well, he is a much injured man," said Laura, "though I don't see that
he has bettered himself. And now what did you mean in your note about
having a very important communication from Big Sam? I have some
curiosity left after all the excitement."
"It's highly interesting. Moon Ying turns out to be the long-lost
daughter of a Somebody. Also Big Sam has a suitor for her hand."
"Who is he? What is he?" came in a breath from the two girls.
"A merchant, a Chinaman and a widower," I replied. And then I gave them
the information that Big Sam had confided to me.
"Well," said Laura decisively, "that's very interesting about Moon
Ying's family, but I don't see that it can do her much good. And that
widower can come up here, and we'll look him over. I can tell you right
now that he will have to pass a very rigid examination, and he shan't
have Moon Ying unless she wants him."
"Hm-m! I suspect he will have to acquire some new ideas on the
qualifications of an expectant husband, and I'm afraid he's rather old
to learn."
"Well, if the ideas are new to him, it's time he learned 'em," said
Laura, "and if he's too old to learn, why, so much the worse for him.
He can go back where he came from."
"Yes," said Mercy quietly, "if it is to be worse for him or worse for
her, why, he is the one who must give way."
"I'm afraid you are in a fair way to upset the whole scheme of Chinese
domesticity," I said.
"Well, it's high time it was upset," returned Laura. "And if I'm not
much mistaken, Moon Ying has learned a thing or two since she has been
here that will upset it for at least one household. So Mr. No-Name
Chinaman had better be preparing his credentials and studying up to pass
his examinations." And she thereupon gave such a list of qualifications
for a possible husband for Moon Ying that I was disposed to condole with
Big Sam's candidate on his chances of election to the blessed state of
matrimony.
Mercy Fillmore expressed a somewhat less exalted ideal of the suitor who
would fill the measure of Moon Ying's maiden fancies, though I was
certain that it was one that would astonish the celestial widower. And
then in sudden concern, lest her patients should be in need of her
attention, she excused herself, and Laura and I were left alone.
For a little time she was silent, gazing dreamily at the floor, and I
was content to watch her without speech. The storm and stress of the
past few weeks had given something more of womanliness to the delicately
cut features, and, to my eyes at least, there was an added grace to the
attitude and movements of the small figure. It seemed as though the
woman in her had suddenly bloomed into the strength that the girl had
only suggested.
At last a little smile dimpled the corners of her mouth, and without
raising her eyes she said:
"Don't you know it's rude to stare at one so?"
"I beg your pardon," I returned impenitently, "but it's impossible to
help it."
"Oh," she said, with a quick return to her matter-of-fact tone, "that's
ruder yet. And now I want to know how much longer you're going to keep
this pack of men around the house. They're rather a responsibility for
a housekeeper, and it's something like living in a public square."
"I'm going to cut the force in half to-morrow, but the rest of them will
stay till Moon Ying is out of the place. I'm taking no more risks."
"I suppose you are right," she said slowly. Then she looked up
impulsively, and added: "How good you have been to us! I don't see how
we should have got through without you. We are through, aren't we? I'm
hoping you feel that you have our thanks, at least."