CHAPTER III
The next day, in a whirling rainstorm, well protected by a trim raincoat, overshoes, and a close-fitting little hat about which spirals of bright hair clung in a halo, Susan crossed the ferry and climbed up the long stairs that rise through the very heart of Sausalito. The sky was gray, the bay beaten level by the rain, and the wet gardens that Susan pa.s.sed were dreary and bare. Twisting oak trees gave vistas of wind-whipped vines, and of the dark and angry water; the steps she mounted ran a shallow stream.
The Carrolls" garden was neglected and desolate, chrysanthemum stalks lay across the wet flagging of the path, and wind screamed about the house. Susan"s first knock was lost in a general creaking and banging, but a second brought Betsey, grave and tired-looking, to the door.
"Oh, h.e.l.lo. Sue," said Betsey apathetically. "Don"t go in there, it"s so cold," she said, leading her caller past the closed door of the sitting-room. "This hall is so dark that we ought to keep a light here," added Betsey fretfully, as they stumbled along. "Come out into the dining-room, Sue, or into the kitchen. I was trying to get a fire started. But Jim NEVER brings up enough wood! He"ll talk about it, and talk about it, but when you want it I notice it"s never there!"
Everywhere were dust and disorder and evidences of neglect. Susan hardly recognized the dining-room; it was unaired, yet chilly; a tall, milk-stained gla.s.s, and some crumbs on the green cloth, showed where little Betsey had had a lonely luncheon; there were paper bags on the sideboard and a litter of newspapers on a chair. Nothing suggested the old, exquisite order.
The kitchen was even more desolate, as it had been more inviting before. There were ashes sifting out of the stove, rings of soot and grease on the table-top, more soot, and the prints of muddy boots on the floor. Milk had soured in the bottles, odds and ends of food were everywhere, Betsey"s book was open on the table, propped against the streaked and stained coffee-pot.
"Your mother"s ill?" asked Susan. She could think of no other explanation.
"Doesn"t this kitchen look awful?" said Betsey, resuming operations with books and newspapers at the range. "No, Mother"s all right. I"m going to take her up some tea. Don"t you touch those things, Sue. Don"t you bother!"
"Has she been in bed?" demanded Susan.
"No, she gets up every day now," Betsey said impatiently. "But she won"t come downstairs!"
"Won"t! But why not!" gasped Susan.
"She--" Betsey glanced cautiously toward the hall door. "She hasn"t come down at all," she said, softly. "Not--since!"
"What does Anna say?" Susan asked aghast.
"Anna comes home every Sat.u.r.day, and she and Phil talk to Mother," the little sister said, "but so far it"s not done any good! I go up two or three times a day, but she won"t talk to me.--Sue, ought this have more paper?"
The clumsy, roughened little hands, the sad, patient little voice and the subst.i.tution of this weary little woman for the once-radiant and noisy Betsey sent a pang to Susan"s heart.
"Well, you poor little old darling, you!" she burst out, pitifully. "Do you mean that you"ve been facing this for a month? Betsey--it"s too dreadful--you dear little old heroic sc.r.a.p!"
"Oh, I"m all right!" said Betsey, beginning to tremble. She placed a piece or two of kindling, fumbled for a match, and turned abruptly and went to a window, catching her ap.r.o.n to her eyes. "I"m all right--don"t mind me!" sobbed Betsey. "But sometimes I think I"ll go CRAZY! Mother doesn"t love me any more, and everybody cried all Thanksgiving Day, and I loved Jo more than they think I did--they think I"m too young to care--but I just can"t BEAR it!"
"Well, you poor little darling!" Susan was crying herself, but she put her arms about Betsey, and felt the little thing cling to her, as they cried together.
"And now, let me tackle this!" said Susan, when the worst of the storm was over a few moments later. She started the fire briskly, and tied an ap.r.o.n over her gown, to attack the disorder of the table. Betsey, breathing hard, but visibly cheered, ran to and fro on eager errands, fell upon the sink with a vigorous mop.
Susan presently carried a tea-tray upstairs, and knocked on Mrs.
Carroll"s door. "Come in," said the rich, familiar voice, and Susan entered the dim, chilly, orderly room, her heart beyond any words daunted and dismayed. Mrs. Carroll, gaunt and white, wrapped in a dark wrapper, and idly rocking in mid-afternoon, was a sight to strike terror to a stouter heart than Susan"s.
"Oh, Susan?" said she. She said no more. Susan knew that she was unwelcome.
"Betsey seems to have her hands full," said Susan gallantly, "so I brought up your tea."
"Betts needn"t have bothered herself at all," said Mrs. Carroll. Susan felt as if she were in a bad dream, but she sat down and resolutely plunged into the news of Georgie and Virginia and Mary Lou. Mrs.
Carroll listened attentively, and asked a few nervous questions; Susan suspected them asked merely in a desperate effort to forestall the pause that might mean the mention of Josephine"s name.
"And what are your own plans, Sue?" she presently asked.
"Well, New York presently, I think," Susan said. "But I"m with Georgie now,--unless," she added prettily, "you"ll let me stay here for a day or two?"
Instant alarm darkened the sick eyes.
"Oh, no, dear!" Mrs. Carroll said quickly. "You"re a sweet child to think of it, but we mustn"t impose on you. No, indeed! This little visit is all we must ask now, when you are so upset and busy--"
"I have nothing at all to do," Susan said eagerly. But the older woman interrupted her with all the cunning of a sick brain.
"No, dear. Not now! Later perhaps, later we should all love it. But we"re better left to ourselves now, Sue! Anna shall write you--"
Susan presently left the room, sorely puzzled. But, once in the hall, she came quickly to a decision. Phil"s door was open, his bed unaired, an odor of stale cigarette smoke still in the air. In Betsey"s room the windows were wide open, the curtains streaming in wet air, everything in disorder. Susan found a little old brown gingham dress of Anna"s, and put it on, hung up her hat, brushed back her hair. A sudden singing seized her heart as she went downstairs. Serving these people whom she loved filled her with joy. In the dining-room Betsey looked up from her book. Her face brightened.
"Oh, Sue--you"re going to stay overnight!"
"I"ll stay as long as you need me," said Susan, kissing her.
She did not need Betsey"s ecstatic welcome; the road was clear and straight before her now. Preparing the little dinner was a triumph; reducing the kitchen to something like its old order, she found absorbing and exhilarating. "We"ll bake to-morrow--we"ll clean that thoroughly to-morrow--we"ll make out a list of necessities to-morrow,"
said Susan.
She insisted upon Philip"s changing his wet shoes for slippers when the boys came home at six o"clock; she gave little Jim a sisterly kiss.
"Gosh, this is something like!" said Jim simply, eyes upon the hot dinner and the orderly kitchen. "This house has been about the rottenest place ever, for I don"t know how long!"
Philip did not say anything, but Susan did not misread the look in his tired eyes. After dinner they kept him a place by the fire while he went up to see his mother. When he came down twenty minutes later he seemed troubled.
"Mother says that we"re imposing on you, Sue," he said. "She made me promise to make you go home tomorrow. She says you"ve had enough to bear!"
Betsey sat up with a rueful exclamation, and Jimmy grunted a disconsolate "Gosh!" but Susan only smiled.
"That"s only part of her--trouble, Phil," she said, rea.s.suringly. And presently she serenely led them all upstairs. "We"ve got to make those beds, Betts," said Susan.
"Mother may hear us," said Betsey, fearfully.
"I hope she will!" Susan said. But, if she did, no sound came from the mother"s room. After awhile Susan noticed that her door, which had been ajar, was shut tight.
She lay awake late that night, Betts" tear-stained but serene little face close to her shoulder, Betts" hand still tight in hers. The wind shook the cas.e.m.e.nts, and the unwearied storm screamed about the house.
Susan thought of the woman in the next room, wondered if she was lying awake, too, alone with sick and sorrowful memories?
She herself fell asleep full of healthy planning for to-morrow"s meals and house-cleaning, too tired and content for dreams.
Anna came quietly home on the next Sat.u.r.day evening, to find the little group just ready to gather about the dinner-table. A fire glowed in the grate, the kitchen beyond was warm and clean and delightfully odorous.
She said very little then, took her share, with obvious effort at first, in their talk, sat behind Betsey"s chair when the four presently were coaxed by Jim into a game of "Hearts," and advised her little sister how to avoid the black queen.
But later, just before they went upstairs, when they were all grouped about the last of the fire, she laid her hands on Susan"s shoulders, and stood Susan off, to look at her fairly.
"No words for it, Sue," said Anna steadily.
"Ah, don"t, Nance--" Susan began. But in another instant they were in each other"s arms, and crying, and much later that evening, after a long talk, Betsey confided to Susan that it was the first time Anna had cried.