How my heart sank!
"About what time would he be coming?" he said. "Things have been kind of mixed-up around here today, owing to a little trouble this morning. But perhaps I"ll remember him."
But, although Adrian is of an unusual tipe, I felt that I could not describe him, besides having a terrable headache. So I asked if he would lend me carfare, which he did with a strange look.
"You"re not feeling sick, Miss, are you?" he said. But I could not stay to converce, as it was then time for the curtain to go up, and still no Adrian.
I had but one refuge in mind, Carter Brooks, and to him I fled on the wings of misery in the street car. I burst into his advertizing office like a furey.
"Where is he?" I demanded. "Where have you and your plotting hidden him?"
"Who? Beresford?" he asked in a placid maner. "He is at his hotel, I beleive, putting beefstake on a bad eye. Beleive me, Bab----"
"Beresford!" I cried, in scorn and wrechedness. "What is he to me? Or his eye either? I refer to Mr. Egleston. It is time for the curtain to go up now, and unless he has by this time returned, there can be no performence."
"Look here," Carter said sudenly, "you look awfuly queer, Bab. Your face----"
I stamped my foot.
"What does my face matter?" I demanded. "I no longer care for him, but I have ruined Miss Everett"s couzin"s play unless he turns up. Am I to be sent to Switzerland with that on my Soul?"
"Switzerland!" he said slowly. "Why, Bab, they"re not going to do that, are they? I--I don"t want you so far away."
Dear Dairy, I am unsuspisious by nature, beleiving all mankind to be my friends until proven otherwise. But there was a gloating look in Carter Brooks" eyes as they turned on me.
"Carter!" I said, "you know where he is and you will not tell me. You WISH to ruin him."
I was about to put my hand on his arm, but he drew away.
"Look here," he said. "I"ll tell you somthing, but please keep back.
Because you look like smallpox to me. I was at the mill this morning.
I do not know anything about your Actor-friend. He"s probably only been run over or somthing. But I saw Beresford going in, and I--well, I sugested that he"d better walk in on your father or he wouldn"t get in.
It worked, Bab. HOW IT DID WORK! He went in and said he had come to ask your father for somthing, and your father blew up by saying that he knew about it, but that the world only owed a living to the man who would hustle for it, and that he would not be forced to take any one he did not want.
"And in to minutes Beresford hit him, and got a responce. It was a Million dollars worth."
So he babbled on. But what were his words to me?
Dear Dairy, I gave no thought to the smallpox he had mentioned, although fatle to the complexion. Or to the fight at the mill. I heard only Adrian"s possable tradgic fate. Sudenly I colapsed, and asked for a drink of water, feeling horible, very wobbley and unable to keep my knees from bending.
And the next thing I remember is father taking me home, and Adrian"s fate still a deep mystery, and remaining such, while I had a warm sponge to bring out the rest of the rash, folowed by a sleep--it being meazles and not smallpox.
Oh, dear Dairy, what a story I learned when haveing wakened and feeling better, my father came tonight and talked to me from the doorway, not being allowed in.
Adrian had gone to the mill, and father, haveing thrown Beresford out and a.s.serted his princ.i.p.als, had not thrown him out, BUT HAD GIVEN HIM A JOB IN THE MILL. And the Policeman had given him no chance to escape, which he atempted. He was dragged to the sh.e.l.l plant and there locked in, because of spies. The plant is under Milatary Guard.
AND THERE HE HAD BEEN COMPELED TO DRAG A WHEELBARROW BACK AND FORTH, CONTAINING CHARCOAL FOR A SMALL FURNASE, FOR HOURS!
Even when Carter found him he could not be releaced, as father was in hiding from Reporters, and would not go to the telephone or see callers.
HE LABORED UNTIL TEN P. M., while the theater remained dark, and people got their money back.
I have ruined him. I have also ruined Miss Everett"s couzin.
The nurse is still asleep. I think I will enter a hospitle. My career is ended, my Life is blasted.
I reach under the mattress and draw out the picture of him who today I have ruined, compeling him to do manual labor for hours, although unacustomed to it. He is a great actor, and I beleive has a future. But my love for him is dead. Dear Dairy, he decieved me, and that is one thing I cannot forgive.
So now I sit here among my pillows, while the nurse sleeps, and I reflect about many Things. But one speach rings in my ears over and over.
Carter Brooks, on learning about Switzerland, said it in a strange maner, looking at me with inscrutible eyes.
"Switzerland! Why, Bab--I don"t want you to go so far away."
WHAT DID HE MEAN BY IT?
Dear Dairy, you will have to be burned, I darsay. Perhaps it is as well.
I have p o r e d out my H-e-a-r-t----
CHAPTER IV
BAB"S BURGLAR
"MONEY is the root of all Evil."
I do not know who said the above famous words, but they are true. I know it but to well. For had I never gone on an Allowence, and been in debt and always worried about the way silk stockings wear out, et cetera, I would be having a much better time. For who can realy enjoy a dress when it is not paid for or only partialy so?
I have decided to write out this story, which is true in every particuler, except here and there the exact words of conversation, and then sell it to a Magazine. I intend to do this for to reasons. First, because I am in Debt, especialy for to tires, and second, because parents will then read it, and learn that it is not possable to make a good appearence, including furs, theater tickets and underwear, for a Thousand Dollars a year, even if one wears plain uncouth things beneath.
I think this, too. My mother does not know how much clothes and other things, such as manacuring, cost these days. She merely charges things and my father gets the bills. Nor do I consider it fair to expect me to atend Social Functions and present a good appearence on a small Allowence, when I would often prefer a simple game of tennis or to lie in a hammick, or to converce with some one I am interested in, of the Other s.e.x.
It was mother who said a Thousand dollars a year and no extras. But I must confess that to me, after ten dollars a month at school, it seemed a large sum. I had but just returned for the summer holadays, and the Familey was having a counsel about me. They always have a counsel when I come home, and mother makes a list, begining with the Dentist.
"I should make it a Thousand," she said to father. "The child is in shameful condition. She is never still, and she fidgits right through her clothes."
"Very well," said father, and got his Check Book. "That is $83.33 1/3 cents a month. Make it thirty four cents. But no bills, Barbara."
"And no extras," my mother observed, in a stern tone.
"Candy, tennis b.a.l.l.s and matinee tickets?" I asked.
"All included," said father. "And Church collection also, and ice cream and taxicabs and Xmas gifts."