Well, the long and short of it was that I was wrong, and should not have jumped to conclusions. Because the Gray"s house had been robbed the night before, taking all the silver and Mr. Gray"s dress suit, as well as shirts and so on, and as their CHAUFFEUR had taken one of the maids out INCOGNITO and gone over a bank, returning at seven A. M. in a hired hack, there was no way to follow the theif. So Tom had taken my car and would have caught him, having found Mr. Gray"s trowsers on a fense, although torn, but that he ran into a tree because of going very fast and skiding.
He would have gone through the wind-shield, but that it was down.
I was by that time mollafied and sorry I had been so angry, especialy as Tom said:
"Father ofered a hundred dollars reward for his capture, and as you have been adviseing me to save money, I went after the hundred."
At this thought, that my FIANCEE had endangered his hand and the rest of his person in order to acquire money for our ultamate marriage, my anger died.
I therfore submitted to an embrase, and washed the car, which was covered with mud, as Tom had but one hand and that holding a cigarette.
Now and then, Dear Reader, when not to much worried with finances, I look back and recall those halycon days when Love had its place in my life, filling it to the exclusion of even suficient food, and rendering me immune to the questions of my Familey, who wanted to know how I spent my time.
Oh, magic eyes of afection, which see the beloved object as containing all the virtues, including strong features and intellagence! Oh, dear dead Dreams, when I saw myself going down the church isle in white satin and Dutchess lace! O Tempora O Mores! Farewell.
What would have happened, I wonder, if father had not discharged Smith that night for carrying pa.s.sengers to the Club from the railway station in our car, charging them fifty cents each and scraching the varnish with golf clubs?
I know not.
But it gave me the idea that ultamately ruined my dearest hopes. This was it. If Smith could get fifty cents each for carrying pa.s.sengers, why not I? I was unknown to most, having been expatriated at School for several years. But also there were to stations, one which the summer people used, and one which was used by the so-called locals.
I was desparate. Money I must have, whether honestly or not, for mother had bought me some more things and sent me the bill.
"Because you will not do it yourself," she said. "And I cannot have it said that we neglect you, Barbara."
The bill was ninety dollars! Ye G.o.ds, were they determined to ruin me?
With me to think is to act. I am always like that. I always, alas, feel that the thing I have thought of is right, and there is no use arguing about it. This is well known in my Inst.i.tution of Learning, where I am called impetuus and even rash.
That night, my Familey being sunk in sweet slumber and untroubled by finances, I made a large card which said: "For Hire." I had at first made it "For Higher," but saw that this was wrong and corected it.
Although a natural speller, the best of us make mistakes.
I did not, the next day, confide in my betrothed, knowing that he would object to my earning Money in any way, unless perhaps in large amounts, such as the stock market, or, as at present, in Literature. But being one to do as I make up my mind to, I took the car to the station, and in three hours made one dollar and a fifteen cent tip from the Gray"s butler, who did not know me as I wore large gogles.
I was now embarked on a Commercial Enterprize, and happier than for days. Although having one or to narrow escapes, such as father getting off the train at my station instead of the other, but luckily getting a cinder in his eye and unable to see until I drove away quickly. And one day Carter Brooks got off and found me changing a tire and very dusty and worried, because a new tube cost five dollars and so far I had made but six-fifteen.
I did not know he was there until he said:
"Step back and let me do that, Bab."
He was all dressed, but very firm. So I let him and he looked terrible when finished.
"Now" he said at last, "jump in and take me somewhere near the Club. And tell me how this happened."
"I am a bankrupt, Carter," I responded in a broken tone. "I have sold my birthright for a mess of porridge."
"Good heavens!" he said. "You don"t mean you"ve spent the whole business?"
I then got my Check Book from the tool chest, and held it out to him.
Also the unpaid bills. I had but $40.45 in the Bank and owed $90.00 for the things mother had bought.
"Everything has gone wrong," I admitted. "I love this car, but it is as much expence as a large familey and does not get better with age, as a familey does, which grows up and works or gets married. And Leila is getting to be a Man-hater and acts very strange most of the time."
Here I almost wept, and probably would have, had he not said:
"Here! Stop that, Or I----" He stopped and then said: "How about the engagement, Bab? Is it a failure to?"
"We are still plited," I said. "Of course we do not agree about some things, but the time to fuss is now, I darsay, and not when to late, with perhaps a large familey and unable to seperate."
"What sort of things?"
"Well," I said, "he thinks that he ought to play around with other girls so no one will suspect, but he does not like it when I so much as sit in a hammick with a member of the Other s.e.x."
"Bab," he said in an ernest tone, "that, in twenty words, is the whole story of all the troubles between what you call the s.e.xes. The only diference between Tommy Gray and me is that I would not want to play around with any one else if--well, if engaged to anyone like you. And I feel a lot like looking him up and giving him a good thrashing."
He paid me fifty cents and a quarter tip, and offered, although poor, to lend me some Money. But I refused.
"I have made my bed," I said, "and I shall occupy it, Carter. I can have no companion in misfortune."
It was that night that another house near the Club was robed, and everything taken, including groceries and a case of champane. The Summer People got together the next day at the Club and offered a reward of two hundred dollars, and engaged a night watchman with a motor-cycle, which I considered silly, as one could hear him coming when to miles off, and any how he spent most of the time taking the maids for rides, and broke an arm for one of them.
Jane spent the night with me, and being unable to sleep, owing to dieting again and having an emty stomache, wakened me at 2 A. M. and we went to the pantrey together. When going back upstairs with some cake and canned pairs, we heard a door close below. We both shreiked, and the Familey got up, but found no one except Leila, who could not sleep and was out getting some air. They were very unpleasant, but as Jane observed, families have little or no grat.i.tude.
I come now to the Stranger again.
On the next afternoon, while engaged in a few words with the station hackman, who said I was taking his trade although not needing the Money--which was a thing he could not possably know--while he had a familey and a horse to feed, I saw the Stranger of the milk wagon, et cetera, emerge from the one-thirty five.
He then looked at a piece of MAUVE NOTE PAPER, and said:
"How much to take me up the Greenfield Road?"
"Where to?" I asked in a pre-emptory manner.
He then looked at a piece of MAUVE NOTE PAPER, and said:
"To a big pine tree at the foot of Oak Hill. Do you know the Place?"
Did I know the Place? Had I not, as a child, rolled and even turned summersalts down that hill? Was it not on my very ancestrial acres? It was, indeed.
Although suspicous at once, because of no address but a pine tree, I said nothing, except merely:
"Fifty cents."
"Suppose we fix it like this," he suggested. "Fifty cents for the trip and another fifty for going away at once and not hanging around, and fifty more for forgetting me the moment you leave?"
I had until then worn my gogles, but removing them to wipe my face, he stared, and then said:
"And another fifty for not running into anything, including milk wagons."