by Oliver Optic
XXVII
A MISTAKE
Brenda, herself, was too sleepy that night when she reached home, toexpress her surprise at Julia's having bought the picture. Yet shecertainly wondered that the cousin whom she had hitherto regarded asbound down to economy, should have been able to spend so large a sum fora single purchase. Julia on her part was not surprised at her cousin'sindifference, for Brenda had a way of seeming curious or especiallyinterested only in relation to things that immediately concerned her.When they had separated, and Julia was alone in her own room, she hadopportunity for the first time since the morning for thinking over allthe events of the day. Her place at the Bazaar had been a very pleasantone, and while she had not had much to do with any of the girls exceptRuth, her attention had been constantly occupied in disposing of herflowers. Philip and his friends had been especially good patrons, andthe former had taken the chances that came to him of going up to thetable and talking to Julia on one thing and another, not alwaysconnected with the Bazaar or with the Rosas. In spite of a certainamount of conceit--and what young sophomore is without thisquality--Philip was really a very agreeable fellow, and in Julia he hadsome one ready to listen to him more attentively than was Edith's habit,or indeed that of the other girls. For Belle, for example, although sheliked what she called "attention" from the boys of her set, wished tohave the conversation turn entirely upon herself and her own affairs,and she always showed impatience when the person with whom she wastalking turned to any other subject. Now Philip--though in this he wasnot so very different from other young men--liked to have some one totalk to who would listen sympathetically to his tales of collegetriumphs, or grievances, and occasionally give him a word of advice. InJulia he found not only an attentive listener, but an intelligentadviser. So although the Bazaar was not just the place for confidences,he had been able to have several pleasant little snatches ofconversation with Julia. She had enjoyed these little fragmentary talksas much as Philip had, and they both had had much amusement from hisrather clumsy attempts to help her in arranging bouquets for hercustomers.
Julia, therefore, had many pleasant things to recall connected with theBazaar, and not the least pleasant was the fact that she had been ableto contribute a good deal toward helping the Rosas.
The one strange feature of the whole affair had been the suddendeparture of Madame Du Launy. "And why," mused Julia, "did Miss South goaway without bidding me good-bye? I know that she meant to stay untilevening. Well, perhaps it will all be explained. Though certainly now Icannot understand it all. Perhaps to-morrow--" and here Julia fellasleep with the question still unsettled.
Early the next morning--as soon at least as she had had her breakfast,Julia started off to find Miss South, but the maid at her boarding-housesaid that she had gone out and probably would not be back beforeevening; with this she had to be content, although in addition togeneral enquiries about the strange event of the day before, she wishedto talk over with Miss South some of the plans which they had beendiscussing for the assistance of the Rosa family. They had been finallysuccessful in getting Mrs. Rosa to promise to go to the country for thesummer, if for no longer a time. They had found a house in Shiloh, asmall village with elevated land not so very far from Boston, and theywere sure that a residence there would benefit the sick woman. A manwhom Miss South knew, who had been at one time given up by the doctorsas in hopeless consumption, had moved to this village, and after a yearhad been pronounced almost well. He had opened a little shop there, hischildren had found employment for their spare hours, and the family hadat last started on the high road to prosperity. This was a great changefor them, for during their father's illness in town, they had often hadto have charitable relief. Miss South's plan for Mrs. Rosa included acertain amount of work for the family. A farmer had been found whopromised to employ the oldest boy, and a woman who took summer boarderssaid that she could pay Angelina two dollars a week, to help in herkitchen, if she could sleep at home. The house which they had selectedhad a small piece of land where it was hoped that Mrs. Rosa could raisesome vegetables.
To accomplish what they wished, considerable money was needed, and theyhad enlisted Brenda's interest to so great an extent that she professedherself perfectly willing to have the money raised at the Bazaar used torent and equip the house, and pay the many little expenses that would becaused by the enterprise. "As Brenda really has been interested inManuel, it would be hardly fair to leave her out of this plan,although," said Julia, "although we might get on without her help."
"Oh, dear, no," Miss South had said, "it would never in the world do tooverlook Brenda. She is an impulsive little thing, and although Mrs.Rosa and the children might have fared badly this winter, had they hadno one but Brenda to depend on, still it is a great advance for Brendato be interested in some one besides herself, and it is excellentdiscipline for her to have a certain share in carrying out this plan. Itis not altogether a matter of money."
Now, Brenda, of course, in deciding to favor the plan proposed by MissSouth was not acting entirely for herself. Edith, Nora, and Belle wereas much concerned as she, and Nora in fact, as the rescuer of Manuel,was more interested than any of the others. Belle, the only one whomight have been expected to oppose Miss South's plan, really had noobjection to it. Her one thought in the whole matter had been to get asmuch pleasure and glory as possible out of the Bazaar itself. Edith,while practical about some things,--needlework for example, andlessons,--seldom put her mind on money matters, and Nora was as heedlessabout this as about other things. Brenda was almost as heedless, and yetThe Four had thought it perfectly proper that she should be treasurer oftheir little fund.
So it happened that on the very morning when Julia was trying to findMiss South, Brenda had received from Mrs. Blair's hands four crisp onehundred dollar notes. This was a little more than had been taken at theBazaar. But in getting the loose bills and cheques changed into morecompact form, Mrs. Blair had added enough to make the sum an even fourhundred dollars.
The other three girls were with Brenda as she received the money fromMrs. Blair, and immediately they sat down to count up the expenses thatmust be paid from their receipts. Rather to Mrs. Blair's surprise theseexpenses mounted up to more than one hundred dollars, and she scoldedThe Four a little for having engaged an expensive orchestra for themusic of the preceding evening, when music was not really needed at all.The ices and other things furnished the refreshment room made anotherlarge item in the bills, although there had been some profit from thisdepartment.
"I will take one of your one hundred dollar bills, and with it pay theexpenses," said Mrs. Blair, "and I would advise you to take care of thethree hundred dollars, for after all it is not a large sum to be usedtoward the support of a sick woman and five children."
"Of course we'll take care of it, at least Brenda will," cried Nora, asBrenda folded the money away carefully in her purse, and placed thepurse in a small leather bag. Then they went home with Brenda, and theysaw her lock the bag into her top bureau drawer.
After this they sat for a while as girls will, idly talking about theaffairs of the day, while Mrs. Barlow's French maid bustled about,laying away some new waists and skirts of Brenda's that had just comehome from the dressmaker's.
"Look," at last cried Brenda, jumping up from her seat impetuously,"look, Marie, did you ever see so much money," and opening the drawerand the purse she brandished the three hundred dollar bills before theeyes of the young Frenchwoman.
"Oh, my! Mees," cried Marie, "three dollars, that is not so very much!"
"Three dollars!" shouted Brenda, "three hundred dollars, what you calltwelve hundred francs."
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Marie, her eyes almost jumping out of her head, "oh,my! I never did see so much money, let me look." So they let her touchthe bills, and they laughed at the comments she made, and especiallywhen she cried, "Louis would marry me if that money was mine."
"I thought he was going to anyway," said Belle, "you have always saidthat you were engaged."
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"Oh, yes," she replied. "Oh, yes, sometime, perhaps, but it takes muchmoney to get married. If I have to wait too long, perhaps Louis willfind another girl with more money. But no matter." And she went out ofthe room looking much less cheerful than before she had seen the money.
"How mercenary!" said Belle as she disappeared, for Belle always had aword large enough to fit every happening.
"Well, it must be hard not to have any money but just what you earnevery week," interposed Edith sympathetically.
"Oh it's better not to have much money than to have a man think only ofthat in marrying you," responded Belle in her most worldly-wise voice.
"Come, I think that we are talking of things that we know nothingabout," said Nora, "but if I were you, Brenda, I would not let every onein the house know where that money is."
"Nonsense, I always carry the key with me, and anyway it won't be herelong," answered Brenda.
"No matter, if I were you I would give it to Mr. Barlow to take downtown."
"Yes, you ought to," added Edith.
"Oh, what fusses you are!" cried Brenda, "any one would think that I wasa two-year-old baby."
Just then there was a tap at the door.
"May I come in?" said a voice, which they at once recognized as Julia's.
"Yes, indeed," cried Nora and Edith, and the former flung the door wideopen and greeted Julia with a kiss.
"Where have you been, but of course you have been to see Miss South. Itwas so funny that she did not stay last evening. What was the reason?"
"Well I did not find her; she was not expected home to-day," answeredJulia.
"How queer!"
"Why, to tell you the truth, I was a little surprised myself, for we hadan appointment together this morning, although if we had not had one, Ishould have gone up there to find out if she was ill yesterday."
"Oh, tell me," enquired Edith, "have you heard anything about Madame DuLauny? Mamma said that she would send there to enquire this morning, butI have not been home since she sent."
"Yes," said Julia, "I did make enquiries at the house, and was told thatshe was feeling pretty well to-day, but that she could not see anybody."
"Not even you!" exclaimed Belle, a little sarcastically.
"Not even me," replied Julia pleasantly. "I suppose for one thing thatthe Bazaar yesterday tired her. They tell me that it is the first timein twenty years that she has been inside of any house in Boston besidesher own."
"I wonder if that is true," said Edith, reflectively.
"Yes, I believe that it is," answered Julia. "Madame Du Launy saidalmost as much to me, although I must admit that she never talks verymuch about that kind of thing. As often as I have seen her this spring,she has never said a word to me on the subject of Boston people andtheir attitude to her,--or her attitude to them--" she hastened to add.
"You talk like a book, Julia," said Brenda, who had complained once ortwice that Julia talked too precisely, "like a school-teacher," shegenerally said, when she spoke on the subject to Belle.
Julia laughed good-naturedly. Brenda's little arrows did less harm nowthan in the earlier part of the season.
"So long as I make myself clear, it is all right, isn't it?" she asked.
"Oh, of course," answered Brenda, "but you and Belle always do use suchalarmingly correct expressions."
"Brenda," called Mrs. Barlow from the floor below. The girls exchangedglances. There was something ominous in the tone, and even the dilatoryBrenda decided that it would be best to respond as quickly as possibleto the summons.
Thereupon the other girls rose to go. In fact, the morning was almostover, and during the two or three hours which The Four had spenttogether they had talked about everything connected with the Bazaaruntil there was little more for them to say. The late hours which theyhad been keeping were telling upon them all, and if any one of them hadbeen asked to tell what she felt the most need of at that particularmoment, she would probably have said, "A good nap."
Julia, however, was the only one to say frankly that she felt sleepy,and she excused herself as the others went downstairs, while they badeher good-bye at the door of her own room. She had been there but a fewminutes seated in a wicker easy-chair before the long window whichafforded a beautiful view of the river, when the door was hastily flungopen, and in a second Brenda stood before her.
"I think that you are just as mean as you can be, Julia Bourne," shecried angrily. "It does seem as if I ought not to have spies in my ownhouse watching everything that I do and carrying tales just as if I werea baby."
"Why, what do you mean, Brenda?" asked Julia in genuine astonishment.
"You know very well what I mean. You and Miss South, you saw me withBelle the other afternoon; oh, it wasn't so long ago that you couldforget it, you saw us down there by the Music Hall and you told mammathat we had been there. Anyway, I do not see whose business it is. Weare old enough to go about by ourselves, but I think that you are justas mean as you can be," and with this final outburst Brenda flungherself from the room without giving Julia time to reply.
The latter for a moment sat in her chair completely puzzled. Then sheremembered the day on which she and Miss South returning from the NorthEnd had seen Belle and Brenda in Winter Street. The two girls haddisappeared so quickly that she did not suppose at the time that theyhad seen her. Now, however, it seemed that they had been merely inhiding. But of one thing she was sure, she had never spoken of theencounter to her aunt, and all this torrent of anger on Brenda's partwas wholly uncalled for. It did seem too bad that Brenda should havetaken this tone just as she had begun to hope that she and her cousinwere to understand each other. On the other hand the case was not veryserious, since to Brenda in a calmer mood it would be very easy to givean explanation. Yet if it were not for her uncle and aunt, who werealways considerate, Julia now felt that it would be hard for her tocontinue under the same roof with Brenda. Julia herself, had always beenclosely observant of the golden rule. Nor was her piety of the kind thatwas displayed only on occasions. She had been most regular in herattendance at Sabbath-school, and she and Nora and Edith never thoughtof letting rain, or heat, or any other thing prevent their attendance atthe morning service as well. But besides these outward observances shekept the spirit of the teachings of her Church, or tried to keep them inher daily life. Neither Brenda, therefore, nor any one else could accuseher of hypocrisy. She believed strongly in the soft answer that turnethaway wrath, and yet no one could say that behind any one else's back sheindulged in harsh criticism.
At luncheon Brenda did not come to the table, and a question or two fromMrs. Barlow brought out the fact that Brenda had vented on her cousinpart of the annoyance that she had felt at her mother's reproof.
"Of course I shall make it clear to Brenda that I did not get myinformation from you. Indeed I do not see how she could have thought so.I certainly intimated that I had had my information from some one whohad seen her in the hall. In going there with Belle, Brenda broke twowell-understood rules of mine. In the first place she is not allowed togo down town except with some older person. It the second place Idisapprove of young girls going to matinees of any kind, and theperformance they went to see was not at all a proper one for them. Iknow that I had previously declined to take them. Brenda knew my opinionof this particular performance, and two friends of mine who saw her andBelle there were exceedingly surprised that I had permitted them to goalone. They spoke of the matter incidentally to me, and in that way Ilearned of Brenda's disobedience. But I am sorry that Brenda should havetroubled you about the affair, for I know that when she is angry she cansay very disagreeable things."
"It is not of very much consequence, Aunt Anna," replied Julia, "as longas it is a thing that can be straightened out. If I really had seenBrenda at the Hall, I might have mentioned the fact without realizingthat it could make her so angry, but when she understands about this Iam sure that we shall be as good friends as ever."
"I hope so," responded Mrs. Barlow.
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