Eleanor Kemp, who had been ill and away from the city, sent for Milly on her return. She proved to be the most sympathetic of all her friends, and Milly decided that Eleanor was her best, as she was her oldest, friend. At the conclusion of Milly"s tale, rendered partly in the comic vein, Mrs. Kemp sighed, "It"s too bad, Milly." The sigh implied that Milly had damaged herself for the provincial marriage market, perhaps irretrievably. She might marry, of course, probably would, being sobered by this fiasco, but after such a failure, nothing "brilliant" might be expected.
"I just couldn"t sit opposite that cold, fishy creature all my life,"
Milly protested. "He got on my nerves--that was it."
"Yes, I understand--but--"
Milly suspected that banking and bankers might get on a woman"s nerves, too, though Walter Kemp was a much more human man than Clarence Albert ever would be.
"And now what will you do?" her friend inquired. (Milly had confided to her Horatio"s coming disaster.)
"I don"t know--something quick!"
"You might help me with my mail and buying--I never seem to get through with everything--and this New Hospital committee."
"Could I, do you think?" Milly responded eagerly.
So it was arranged that Milly should become a sort of informal lady secretary and a.s.sistant to the banker"s wife, with unstated hours, duties, and compensation,--one of those flexible, vague business and social arrangements that women were more likely to make with one another twenty years ago than now.
Milly"s spirits revived quickly, and she left the Kemps buoyant. It seemed easier than she had expected to "get something to do." She kissed Eleanor Kemp with genuine grat.i.tude.
"You"ve always been the kindest, dearest thing to me, Nelly."
"I"m very fond of you, dear, and always shall be."
"I know--and you were my first real friend."
Milly had a pleasant sense of returning to old ideals and ties in thus drawing near once more to the Kemps, whom latterly she had found a trifle dull.... Leaving the house, she b.u.mped into old Mrs. Jonas Haggenash, one of the Kemps" neighbors. The Haggenashes had made their way in lumber and were among the most considered of the older, unfashionable people in the city. Mrs. H. had a reputation as a wit, of the kind that "has her say" under any and all circ.u.mstances. Latterly she had rather taken up Milly Ridge, who fished in many pools.
"So you and your young man had a falling out, Milly," Mrs. Haggenash rasped nasally.
"Our engagement has been broken," Milly acknowledged with dignity.
"That"s a pity. It ain"t every day a poor girl can marry a millionaire.
They don"t grow on every bush."
"When I marry, it will be some one I can respect and love too."
The old lady smiled dubiously at the pretty sentiment.
"Most women want to. But they"ve got to be fed and clothed first."
She looked at Milly"s smart walking costume and smiled again. Milly always managed to have a becoming street dress and hat, even in her poorest days, and lately she had let herself out, as the pile of unopened bills on her dressing-table would show.
"I expect to eat and dress," Milly retorted, and trotted off with a curse near her lips for Mrs. Jonas Haggenash and all her tribe.
The way home took Milly near the office of the tea and coffee business, and she thought to surprise her father and give him the good news of Mrs. Kemp"s offer. She would also get him to walk home with her. Horatio had been very doleful of late and she wished to cheer him up. She had not visited the office for many months, but its outward appearance was much the same as it had been that first time when she had visited it with her father. The sign had become dingy, was almost undecipherable, as if it had antic.i.p.ated the end of its usefulness. The same dreary little cart for "city deliveries" stood before the door, but the thin horse drooped disconsolately between the shafts, as if he too knew that he was not there for long.
Horatio was not in the office. Snowden stood beside the bookkeeper, looking over a ledger. As Milly opened the door both he and the bookkeeper looked up. Milly recognized the hatchet-faced woman of uncertain age, with the forbidding stare through her large spectacles.
This time when Milly came forward with a pleasant smile and "Miss Simpson, how are you?" the stony face did not relax a muscle. Miss Simpson looked her employer"s daughter over as if she were about to accuse her of being the cause for the firm"s disaster. "Mr. Snowden,"
Milly continued, ignoring the woman"s hostility, "I came for my father.... How are you and Mrs. Snowden?"
"Your father"s gone," the bookkeeper snapped with an unpleasant smile.
She eyed Milly"s fashionable attire unsympathetically. It was the second time that afternoon that Milly was made to feel apologetic for her good clothes.
"Oh," she said hesitantly.
"Anything I can do for you, Miss Ridge?" Snowden asked, glancing down at the ledger indifferently.
Milly had an inspiration.
"Why, yes, Mr. Snowden," she exclaimed pleasantly. "I should like to talk with you a few moments, if I am not interrupting your work," she added, for Snowden made no move.
"Well?" he said gruffly.
Milly turned towards the rear of the loft where there were a number of little tables dotted with unwashed china cups, and grains of tea and coffee. Snowden followed her slowly, and leaned against a table.
"What is it?"
"Mr. Snowden," Milly began gently, "you are my father"s oldest friend in the city."
"Guess I know that."
"He"s very unhappy."
"Has good reason to be."
She made the direct appeal.
"Why do you do this thing, Mr. Snowden? Why do you want to ruin my father--your old friend?"
"Guess you don"t understand--he"s pretty nearly ruined _me_!" Snowden emitted with a snort.
"Yes, I understand," Milly replied glibly. "Business had been very bad.
My friends tell me all business has been dreadful since the Fair--everybody feels poor. But why make things worse? A little time, and it will be different."
She smiled at him persuasively.
"I want to save my own skin, what there is left to save," he grumbled.
"Your father"s made a pretty bad mess of things, Milly."
"We won"t discuss what my father has done," Milly retorted with dignity.
"He"s been deceived--he"s too trusting with men. He trusted you!"
At this thrust Snowden laughed loudly.