"CHANCE at me!" Mr. Smith laughed,--but unmistakably he blushed. "The first--But, my dear woman, it is just possible that Miss Maggie may wish to--er--decline this great honor which is being conferred upon her, and she may hesitate, for the sake of my feelings, to do it before me. NOW I"m very sure I ought to have left at once."
"Nonsense!" (Was Miss Maggie blushing the least bit, too?) "I shall be very glad to take Mr. Smith as a boarder if he wants to come--but HE"S got something to say about it, remember. But tell me, why are you letting him go, Jane?" "Now this surely WILL be embarra.s.sing," laughed Mr. Smith again nervously. "Do I eat too much, or am I merely noisy, and a nuisance generally?"
But Mrs. Jane did not appear to have heard him. She was looking at Miss Maggie, her eyes somber, intent.
"Well, I"ll tell you. It"s Hattie." "Hattie!" exclaimed two amazed voices.
"Yes. She says it"s perfectly absurd for me to take boarders, with all our money; and she"s making a terrible fuss about where we live. She says she"s ashamed--positively ashamed of us--that we haven"t moved into a decent place yet."
Miss Maggie"s lips puckered a little.
"Do you want to go?"
"Y-yes, only it will cost so much. I"ve always wanted a house--with a yard, I mean; and "twould be nice for Mellicent, of course."
"Well, why don"t you go? You have the money."
"Y-yes, I know I have; but it"ll cost so much, Maggie. Don"t you see?
It costs not only the money itself, but all the interest that the money could be earning. Why, Maggie, I never saw anything like it." Her face grew suddenly alert and happy. "I never knew before how much money, just MONEY, could earn, while you didn"t have to do a thing but sit back and watch it do it. It"s the most fascinating thing I ever saw. I counted up the other day how much we"d have if we didn"t spend a cent of it for ten years--the legacy, I mean."
"But, great Scott, madam!" expostulated Mr. Smith. "Aren"t you going to spend any of that money before ten years" time?"
Mrs. Jane fell back in her chair. The anxious frown came again to her face.
"Oh, yes, of course. We have spent a lot of it, already. Frank has bought out that horrid grocery across the street, and he"s put a lot in the bank, and he spends from that every day, I know. And I"m WILLING to spend some, of course. But we had to pay so much inheritance tax and all that it would be my way not to spend much till the interest had sort of made that up, you know; but Frank and Mellicent--they won"t hear to it a minute. They want to move, too, and they"re teasing me all the time to get new clothes, both for me and for her. But Hattie"s the worst. I can"t do a thing with Hattie. Now what shall I do?"
"I should move. You say yourself you"d like to," answered Miss Maggie promptly.
"What do you say, Mr. Smith?"
Mr. Smith leaped to his feet and thrust his hands into his pockets as he took a nervous turn about the room, before he spoke.
"Good Heavens, woman, that money was given you to--that is, it was probably given you to use. Now, why don"t you use it?"
"But I am using it," argued Mrs. Jane earnestly. "I think I"m making the very best possible use of it when I put it where it will earn more.
Don"t you see? Besides, what does the Bible say about that man with one talent that didn"t make it earn more?"
With a jerk Mr. Smith turned on his heel and renewed his march.
"I think the only thing money is good for is to exchange it for something you want," observed Miss Maggie sententiously.
"There, that"s it!" triumphed Mr. Smith, wheeling about. "That"s exactly it!"
Mrs. Jane sighed and shook her head. She gazed at Miss Maggie with fondly reproving eyes.
"Yes, we all know your ideas of money, Maggie. You"re very sweet and dear, and we love you; but you ARE extravagant."
"Extravagant!" demurred Miss Maggie.
"Yes. You use everything you have every day; and you never protect a thing. Actually, I don"t believe there"s a tidy or a linen slip in this house." (DID Mr. Smith breathe a fervent "Thank the Lord!" Miss Maggie wondered.) "And that brings me right up to something else I was going to say. I want you to know that I"m going to help you."
Miss Maggie looked distressed and raised a protesting hand; but Mrs.
Jane smilingly shook her head and went on.
"Yes, I am. I always said I should, if I had money, and I shall--though I must confess that I"d have a good deal more heart to do it if you weren"t quite so extravagant. I"ve already given you Mr. Smith to board."
"Oh, I say!" spluttered Mr. Smith.
But again she only smilingly shook her head and continued speaking.
"And if we move, I"m going to give you the parlor carpet, and some rugs to protect it."
"Thank you; but, really, I don"t want the parlor carpet," refused Miss Maggie, a tiny smouldering fire in her eyes.
"And I shall give you some money, too," smiled Mrs. Jane, very graciously,--"when the interest begins to come in, you know. I shall give you some of that. It"s too bad you should have nothing while I have so much."
"Jane, PLEASE!" The smouldering fire in Miss Maggie"s eyes had become a flame now.
"Nonsense, Maggie, you mustn"t be so proud. It"s no shame to be poor.
Wasn"t I poor just the other day? However, since it distresses you so, we won"t say any more about it now. I"ll go back to my own problems.
Then, you advise me--you both advise me--to move, do you?"
"I do, most certainly," bowed Miss Maggie, still with a trace of constraint.
"And you, Mr. Smith?"
Mr. Smith turned and threw up both his hands.
"For Heaven"s sake, lady, go home, and spend--some of that money!"
Mrs. Jane laughed a bit ruefully.
"Well, I don"t see but what I shall have to, with everybody against me like this," she sighed, getting slowly to her feet. "But if you knew--if either of you knew--how really valuable money is, and how much it would earn for you, if you"d only let it, I don"t believe you"d be quite so fast to tell me to go and spend it."
"Perhaps not; but then, you see, we don"t know," smiled Miss Maggie, once again her cheery self.
Mr. Smith said nothing. Mr. Smith had turned his back just then.
When Mrs. Jane was gone, Mr. Smith faced Miss Maggie with a quizzical smile.
"Well?" he hazarded.
"You mean--"
"I"m awaiting orders--as your new boarder."
"Oh! They"ll not be alarming, I a.s.sure you. Do you really want to come?"
"Indeed I do! And I think it"s mighty good of you to take me.