CHAPTER XII
"I wonder," meditated Gus, "where the surplus will land next?"
"It has been most everywhere except to the police court," said Bobby.
""Spect "twill land there next!"
His prophecy was fulfilled. Mrs. Jenkins washed the lucrative garment late one afternoon and left it on the line all night. The next morning, to the great consternation of the family and the wild distress of Amarilly, the beloved surplice, that friend of friends in time of need, had vanished. Other clotheslines in the vicinity had also been deprived of their burdens, and a concerted complaint was made to the police, who promptly located the offender and brought him summarily to trial. Mrs.
Jenkins was subpoenaed as a witness, which caused quite a ripple of excitement in the family. Divided between dread of appearing in public and pride at the importance with which she was regarded by her little flock, Mrs. Jenkins was quite upset by the occasion. She hadn"t attended a function for so long that her costuming therefor was of more concern than had been Amarilly"s church raiment.
Mrs. Hudgers loaned her mourning bonnet and veil, which was adjusted at half mast. They appeared in direct contradiction to the skirt of bilious green she wore, but the Jenkinses were as unconventional in attire as they were in other things.
The family attended the trial _en ma.s.se_, and were greatly elated at the prominence their mother had attained. The culprit was convicted and the surplice duly restored. The misfortune was not without profit. Mrs.
Jenkins received thirty-five cents as a witness fee.
They had managed to pay their household expenses through the summer, but when the rent for August was due there was not quite enough cash on hand to meet this important item of expenditure. Noting the troubled brows of Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly at breakfast time, the Boarder insisted on knowing the cause.
"We"re broke, and the rent"s overdue," tersely explained Amarilly.
"I"m broke, too," sighed the Boarder, "except what I"ve got in the savin"s bank towards--"
"Lily Rose," suggested Amarilly softly.
"Yes," he admitted, with a beaming look. "But when I go broke, all other things failin", I allers tackle a p.a.w.nbroker."
"We ain"t got nothin" to p.a.w.n," sighed Amarilly.
She recalled the lace waist, but that, like the Lily Rose fund, was sacred. There was always, to-day, yesterday, and forever, the surplice, and her scruples regarding that article had of necessity become case- hardened; still, Amarilly hesitated. A p.a.w.nshop seemed lower than a police court.
"It"s been everywhere else," she said loudly to the accusing, still, small voice, "and it might jest as well go the limit. "T won"t bring much, but "twill help."
Through byways and highways Amarilly sought the region of the three- balled porticoes. The shop of one Max Solstein attracted her, and she entered his open door. Max, rat-eyed and frog-mouthed, came forward propitiatingly.
"What"ll you gimme on this?" came with directness from the small importuner.
He took the garment, shook it, and held it up for falcon-gaze inspection.
"Not worth much. A quarter of a dollar."
Amarilly s.n.a.t.c.hed it from his grasp and fled. Not because of his low- figured offer; she had fully expected to have to "beat him up." But when she had entered, a youth who had all the recognized earmarks of a reporter was lounging in the doorway. At sight of the uplifted garment he had come eagerly forward, scenting a story. She knew his kind from s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversation she had heard between the leading lady and Lord Algernon. In the lore of the stage at Barlow"s, reporters were "hovering vultures" who always dropped down when least wanted, and they had a way of dragging to light the innermost thoughts of their victims.
"You read your secrets," Lord Algernon had dramatically declared, "in blazoned headlines."
Hitherto Amarilly had effectually silenced her instinctive rebellion against the profaning of St. John"s surplice, but she had reached the limit. No Max Solstein, no threatening landlord, no ruthless reporter should thrust the sacred surplice into the publicity of print.
She darted from the shop, the reporter right at her heels, but the chasing of his covey to corner was not easily accomplished. He was a newly fledged reporter, and Amarilly had all the instinct of the lowly for localities. She turned and doubled and dodged successfully. By a course circuitous she returned to Hebrew haunts, this time to seek, one Abram Canter, a little wizened, gnome-like Jew. a.s.suring herself that there was no other than the proprietor within, Amarilly entered and handed over the surplice for appraisal.
Once more the garment was held aloft. At that psychological moment an elderly man of buxom build, benevolent in mien, and with smooth, long hair that had an upward rolling tendency at the ends, looked in the shop as he was pa.s.sing. He halted, hesitated, and then entered. Of him, however, Amarilly felt no apprehension.
"Looks like Quaker Oats, or mebby it"s the Jack of Spades," she thought after a searching survey.
"My child, is that yours?" he asked of Amarilly, indicating the garment by a protesting forefinger.
"Sure thing!" she acknowledged frankly.
"Where did you get it?"
If he had been a young man, Amarilly would have cheerfully reminded him that it was none of his business, but, a respecter of age, she loftily informed him that it had been "give to her."
"By whom?" he persisted.
Perceiving her reluctance to answer, he added gently:
"I am a bishop of the Episcopal Church, and I cannot endure to see a surplice in such a place as this."
A bishop! This was worse than a reporter even. St. John would surely hear of it! But she felt that an explanation was due the calling of her interlocutor.
She lifted righteous eyes to his.
"My mother works for one of the churches, and the minister, he give us this to cut up into clo"es fer the chillern, but we didn"t cut it up.
I"m agoin" to leave it here till the rent"s paid, and we git the money to take it outen hock."
The bishop"s eyes softened, and lost their look of shocked dignity.
"I will advance you the money," he offered. "I would much prefer to do so than to have it left here. How much money do you need to pay your rent?"
"We need five dollars," said Amarilly, "to pay the balance of it. But I wouldn"t take it from you. I ain"t no beggar. I don"t believe, nuther,"
she continued, half to herself, "that Mr. St. John would like it."
"Who is Mr. St. John?" he asked curiously. "I know of no such rector in this diocese. My child, you have an honest face. Since you won"t accept a gift of money, I will lend, you the amount. I want you to tell me all about yourself and this surplice."
"Well, mebby he"d want me to," reflected Amarilly.
"Gimme back that surplus," she said to the Jew, who seemed loath to relinquish his booty.
As she walked up the street with the bishop, she frankly related the family history and the part Mr. Meredith and the surplice had played therein.
The bishop had generous instincts, and a desire to reach the needy directly instead of through the medium of inst.i.tutions, but he had never known just how to approach them. His presence in this unknown part of the city had been unpremeditated, but he welcomed the chance that had led his steps. .h.i.ther to perform an errand of mercy. He handed Amarilly five dollars, and wrote down her address. He was most reluctant to receive the surplice as security, but Amarilly"s firm insistence was not to be overcome. She returned home, rejoicing in the knowledge that she had the price of their happy home in her pocket. The bishop had given her his card, which she laid in a china saucer with other bits of pasteboard she had collected from Derry Phillips, Mr. Vedder, and Pete Noyes. The saucer adorned a small stand in the dining-room part of the house.
"It"s the way Mrs. Hubbleston kep" her keerds," Amarilly explained to the family.
Meantime the bishop was walking in an opposite direction toward his home, wondering if he should find he was mistaken in his estimate of human nature; and a query arose in his mind as to what he should do with the surplice if it were left on his hands.
CHAPTER XIII
Bud sat in the park,--Clothes-line Park, Amarilly had dubbed it--one Monday afternoon, singing a song of gladness. The park was confined by a clothes-line stretched between three tottering poles and the one solitary poplar tree of the Jenkins estate. The line was hung with white linen garments, and smaller articles adorned the gra.s.s plot within the park.