CHAPTER XVIII
HOMEWARD BOUND
When Betsy Foster awoke that morning she was full of excitement.
She assisted Mrs. Bruce as usual with her toilet, and at the first possible moment hastened to the apartment of her contraband protégée.
She found Rosalie in her cheap traveling dress of golden brown, and with her hat on.
She was sitting before a table on which was a breakfast-tray, and she was sipping coffee.
“That’s right, Betsy. Come and see the lay-over,” she said. “I feel still as if I needed identification.”
The night before, her supper had been served in the same way and place by Mr. Derwent’s order, and he and Betsy had, unsuspected, spent an hour here with the girl, planning her movements, and allowing her new benefactor to become somewhat acquainted with his old friend’s daughter.
Mr. Derwent had no desire to stir up questioning, and there was every chance now that Rosalie would get off by the morning stage without being observed.
“Is it really I, Betsy, sitting here and being waited on like this, and being cared for by such adorable people?”
The girl had risen on Betsy’s entrance, and embraced her, pressing her fresh cheek against the thin one where a bright spot burned.
“Now, now, you can hug me a fortnight hence,” said Betsy. “Sit down and finish your breakfast.”
She glanced at the bed. The coverings were neatly laid over the foot-board, and the pillows were plump and smooth.
“How did you sleep, child?” she continued as Rosalie returned to her coffee. “The pillows look as if you hadn’t touched ’em.”
“I don’t always use a pillow,” returned the girl evasively.
“You look kind o’ pale. I don’t believe you slept real good.”
“What does it matter?” Rosalie held her friend with wistful, glowing eyes. “Why should one lose the consciousness of happiness even for ten minutes?”
There was a little contraction of Betsy’s heart. So young a creature to be economical of happiness; but the intensity of the girl’s eyes disturbed her.
“Now you mustn’t get so wrought up over things, Rosalie. Make it a rule to be mejum in everything. I always have, and I find it the best way.”
A low laugh escaped the girl as she met the kind gaze. Had Betsy ever stood in the midst of roaring immensity, an atom in the whirl of colossal, dreadful beauty, and fallen from dire panic into the close embrace of safety, with the beat of a kingly heart upon hers? Poor Betsy! Poor everybody in the wide universe except Rosalie Vincent!
The good woman went on talking, and the girl heard not a word. She was back beneath the pines watching the eagles at their nest, in a rainbow chasm.
“Gracious, child!” said Betsy at last, laughing and pulling the suit-case out of Rosalie’s hands. “You look like a sleep-walker; let me put those things in there. And now you stay right here until I come back and tell you when to come downstairs. What have you got to keep you warm? It’ll be cold stagin’ to-day.”
“I had a sweater,” said Rosalie absently. “I lost it somewhere in the canyon.”
“In the canyon?” repeated Betsy mechanically. Then she repeated the words explosively. “What do you mean, Rosalie Vincent? Have you been out there this mornin’?”
Rosalie looked the picture of detected guilt.
“Well I guess you are a genius! You’re as crazy as the best of ’em.”
“You wouldn’t have had me leave this place without seeing it?” said the girl.
Betsy bit her lip. “Well, I guess that’s about so,” she said. “It would seem cruelty; but you see Mr. Derwent thought you’d better be ahead of us, and he and I both know, if anybody does, what it is to stir up a strife o’ tongues! And I s’pose in the hurried arrangement everything sort o’ slipped into insignificance compared to smugglin’ you out o’ the Park.”
Betsy’s tone had turned from accusation to apology. “So you really have seen the canyon,” she added, pausing, and regarding the pale face.
“I saw the sunrise there,” returned Rosalie.
“My stars!” ejaculated Betsy. “If I could see that, seems if I wouldn’t care if I never saw another sight in this world.”
“I don’t,” returned Rosalie quietly; and the blue gaze went far beyond Betsy’s sallow, wondering countenance. “I was born again in the canyon.”
Her look startled Betsy. “Be mejum, Rosalie,” she said. “You’ll wear yourself out if you feel too much. Be mejum. It’s a splendid rule.”
It came about that Mr. Derwent effected his protégée’s departure without disturbance.
Betsy complained to Mrs. Bruce of the cold of the morning and advised her not to stand on the veranda to view the loading of the stages. Mrs. Nixon would not do this in any case, and Robert had taken Helen out for a stroll.
Only Irving Bruce paced the piazza among the crowd, and when Mr. Derwent put Rosalie into the stage he met her eyes once.
Mr. Derwent saw him, and wondered if he had recognized the brown bird. He prepared himself for an explanation, and approached the young man.
“Pretty snappy drive they’re in for this morning,” he said.
“It is rather fresh,” replied the latter. “I was just wondering if Miss Vincent had wraps enough.”
Mr. Derwent regarded him curiously. “You recognized her then?”
“Yes.”
“I take great interest in that girl,” said Mr. Derwent.
“I am not surprised.”
“I am sending her out of the Park.”
“If you hadn’t, I should,” said Irving.
“It’s scarcely a case for your assistance,” returned Mr. Derwent dryly. “But I wish to say that I appreciate your refraining from approaching her just now.”
Irving thought of the white dove that had clung to his breast.
“You showed good taste,” went on Mr. Derwent, “and an appreciation of the fact that this is a case where ‘the least said, the soonest mended,’ applies.”
“Quite so,” answered Irving equably; and Mr. Derwent, once more nodding approval of him, went into the house.
What a drive it was that morning for Rosalie! Betsy had wrapped around her, beneath her coat, a woolly “fascinator” of her own, and even without it, it is doubtful if the girl would have recognized temperature. Every little creature of the woods, as it came fearlessly from its covert, seemed to congratulate her on being alive with them; like them safe from being hunted, free to love, to work.
Arrived at Norris for luncheon, who should come to wait on her at table but Miss Hickey.
The young woman stood above the blonde girl’s chair, and impersonally called the menu to whomever it might concern.
Rosalie looked slowly around at her, her golden-brown veil pushed up from her face.
“Miss Hickey,” she said softly.
“Goodness, Baby! You!”
The waitress’s eyes stared and snapped; but business pressed, and it was not until the end of the meal, when Rosalie lingered for the purpose, that Miss Hickey had opportunity to slake her burning thirst for information.
“Been fired?” she asked sympathetically.
“No, I left.”
“Struck a gold mine? How are you goin’ to pay your way back?”
“Some friends are sending me back.”
Miss Hickey eyed her scrutinizingly. “You look as happy as if you’d lost twenty-five cents, and found ten dollars.”
“I am happy. Oh, Miss Hickey, I’m so happy!”
“Who’s with you, Baby? I’ll skin ’em if they’re doin’ you mean.”
“No one’s with me. I’m all alone. I’m going to Boston alone.”
“Sent? Or sent for?” inquired the other, still unsatisfied.
“Sent,” returned Rosalie with a seraphic smile.
“By those folks you were scared of?” asked Miss Hickey, with sudden inspiration.
“No, the other people. Do you remember the deaf gentleman with gray hair?”
“No, I don’t, Blue-eyes.” Miss Hickey spoke sharply. “The grayer they are, the worse they are. That’s my experience.”
“Oh, he’s so good!” exclaimed Rosalie, “and he is a friend of my father’s, and he wants to help me.”
“Well, I hope he does. How’s that grand young feller, Mr. Bruce. Seen him lately?”
“Yes, I’ve seen them all. They’re enjoying the Park. How have you been, Miss Hickey? I can’t realize it’s only a few days since I saw you. It seems years.”
“Oh, I’ve been busier’n a nest o’ snakes, doin’ nothin’. Been laid up most ever since you were here.”
“I’m afraid the Swattie ball was too much,” returned Rosalie, smiling; “and I’m sorry, so sorry!”
She put out her hand.
“I didn’t want to go without seeing you again,” she went on, giving Miss Hickey’s a tight pressure. “I shall always remember you gratefully.”
“Well, I’m glad to see you too; and see you in so much luck. I hope it’s all right.” The black-eyed girl spoke doubtfully.
“The rightest thing in the world,” returned Rosalie; and black eyes, no matter how sophisticated, could not meet hers and doubt it.
“You’re goin’ right on to the Mammoth?” inquired Miss Hickey.
“Yes, and leave there to-night.”
“Ain’t you the grand lady! What’s your hurry?”
“Why,” Rosalie smiled mischievously, “those other people – the ones I was afraid of – will be here to-morrow.”
“Hot on your trail, eh?” said the other. “Well, you’re a galoot to go alone, when you might be in the stage with Mr. Bruce. If he’s comin’ here to-morrow I’ll be on the watch for him, believe me!”
There were showers of rain and hail all the afternoon while Rosalie coached to the Mammoth Hot Springs. When the girl saw again the veranda where she had trembled behind Miss Hickey’s shoulder, it seemed to her that a magic wand had transformed her life; and so it was. All the way she found her path smoothed by the forethought of her benefactor; and the long journey to Boston was made with no consciousness of care or tedium.
The newly-fledged, exultant heiress left behind at the Colonial Hotel little knew that the famous lawyer through whom her own fortune had found its rightful owner had bestowed still greater relief and courage upon her humble school friend.
Clever Betsy kept her poise admirably. She did not approach Mr. Derwent, nor ask him a question.
When the party returned to Norris they little suspected how a pair of black eyes in the dining-room were, in Miss Hickey’s vernacular, “sizing them up.”
Had burning glances visible effect, Mr. Derwent’s scrupulously brushed head would have shown several bald spots. The examination was on the whole satisfactory, and, joyous to relate, Miss Hickey succeeded in waiting upon Irving Bruce.
He came to luncheon a little late, and thus sat away from his party.
As he ate his dessert, to his surprise the waitress lingering beside his chair opened her lips and spoke.
“I remember you folks real well,” she said. “I was in your stage when you come on from Mammoth.”
Irving glanced up, and as her words reached his abstracted consciousness, he looked suddenly interested.
“You were with Miss Vincent, then,” he replied.
“M’hm,” admitted Miss Hickey with elegant ease. “I seen her yesterday,” she added, as the young man did not press the matter. “She’s quit.”
“You saw her yesterday?” he repeated eagerly. “How was she?”
“Oh-ho!” ejaculated Miss Hickey, mentally. “You take notice, do you?”
“Perter’n a chipmunk,” she returned aloud. “Say,” meeting Irving’s uplifted gaze, “is that gent with the bum ear, the deef gent, I mean, – is he on the level?”
“Why – certainly. Did – did Miss Vincent – ”
“Yes, she did. She told me he was sendin’ her back. Say; do you know her?”
“Yes, slightly.”
“Then you know that she’d believe Satan if he smiled on her. I’d like to know that she’s in good hands. That’s what I’d like to know.”
Irving Bruce smiled upon Miss Hickey, a bright light in his eyes.
“Do you see the thin-faced lady over there, the one with the brown waist?” he asked.
“Sure. The hatchet-faced one.”
“Miss Vincent is in her hands,” said Irving; “and they’re the best hands in the world.”
He rose.
“Well, believe me, I’m glad to hear it,” was the hearty response.
Irving smiled upon Rosalie’s friend again, and gave her a tip which not only supplied her with candy for weeks to come, but gave her food for thought as well.
“Maybe I didn’t butt in just right!” she reflected. “Oh, he’s just grand! Good for Baby! I guess she’s goin’ some!”
Betsy bided her time. She was sure that before the party reached Boston, Mr. Derwent would again open the subject of their mutual interest.
Irving’s silence upon it awakened no suspicion in her faithful breast. She had assured him that all was well, and adjured him to trust her; and, his mind set at rest, the thought of Rosalie had slipped out of it, which, considering that he belonged to Mrs. Bruce, was the best thing that could happen.
Betsy’s expectation was well-founded. One afternoon after their train had left Chicago, and there came a lull in the interminable games of bridge which had whiled the hours away, Mr. Derwent approached the seat where Betsy sat alone, viewing the flying landscape – flat but not unprofitable.
“May I sit here a minute?” he asked.
She gave him a one-sided smile of welcome. A veil was wrapped around her head in much the same fashion in which she wore a cheese-cloth on cleaning days at home.
They talked for half an hour; the noise of the train increasing, as it always did, the ease of Mr. Derwent’s hearing.
Mrs. Bruce glanced at them more than once, well pleased with the satisfied expression on her handmaid’s countenance.
She addressed Mrs. Nixon.
“What an extraordinarily kindly man your brother is!” she said.
“The best in the world,” agreed Mrs. Nixon impressively.
Had either of them heard the directions he was giving Betsy at that moment, they would have edited their praise.
Helen Maynard and both the young men were occupying a section opposite, showing one another card tricks, and Mrs. Nixon and Mrs. Bruce with quiet minds discussed their summer wardrobes, and the Fairport Inn.
By a strange coincidence the subjects being discussed by Betsy and Mr. Derwent were precisely the same.
CHAPTER XIX
MRS. BRUCE’S HEADACHE
“Be it ever so humble,” said Mrs. Bruce, “there’s no place like home!”
She was standing again on the veranda of her summer cottage, where Betsy was airing and beating pillows.
“Pretty good place,” agreed Betsy. “I’m glad I ain’t goin’ to see a trunk for months; but – ” she hesitated unwontedly, and then continued, “I’d like to go to Boston for a couple o’ days, Mrs. Bruce, if you can spare me.”
“Dear me, when we’ve just arrived?”
“The cook’s all right, and you’ve got Mr. Irving and his friend both here – ”
“A lot of good they are,” retorted Mrs. Bruce. “They’ve lived with Captain Salter ever since we came.”
Betsy said nothing. Mrs. Bruce had the uncomfortable realization which seized her at times that, although her None-such went through the form of asking her permission, she would in fact do exactly what she thought best.
“It’s such a queer thing for you to want to do, Betsy,” she continued, “to go back into the heart of the city immediately. Of course Mrs. Nixon felt obliged to stay a few days with Miss Maynard, to order some gowns – ”
“Do you want to send her any word?”
“Yes, I promised to look at the rooms at the inn and see what they had.”
“Can’t I do that for you?” asked Betsy.
“Why, yes, I wish you would.”
“I can go this afternoon just as well as not,” remarked Betsy quietly.
“Don’t it beat all, the way things come round all right if you just don’t fidget?” she thought.
The middle of the afternoon found her on the way to the pretty inn, set on a slight rise of ground above the river. Mr. Beebe, the proprietor, was a Fairport man, an old friend of Betsy’s, whose provincial ideas had for years been in process of changing and forming by contact with the summer people for whom he catered; and what had once been a barn-like structure known as the Fairport Hotel, now showed as a modern inn, with verandas and a pretense to fashion.
Mr. Beebe welcomed Betsy with effusion, rallied her on her travels and her worldly experience, and at last settled down to listen to her business.
When finally she arose to go, he remarked: —
“Well, seems if there wasn’t any end to the new-fangled notions a feller’s got to listen to and adopt to keep up with the times. I haven’t forgot how clever you were to my wife when she was sick a couple o’ years ago, and I don’t like to turn down anything you ask of me.”
“I appreciate your kindness, Sam, but you ain’t goin’ to lose money by this plan. You know we are all pretty proud o’ the Inn. If Mrs. Bruce wasn’t she’d never a recommended it to the Nixons. They’re folks that are used to the best; and we’d like to see it have all the attractions any resort has. Mark my words, you’ll thank me for this, instead o’ me you, though I ain’t underratin’ your good feelin’. Good-by, Sam.”
Clever Betsy left the place with a springing step.
She found her mistress in a rather injured frame of mind when she reached the cottage. It wore upon the lady that the None-such was going to desert her post for two days.
“That’s the worst of having a person like Betsy,” she thought; “one gets so dependent. It’s humiliating. I feel just like asking her not to go, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.”
So Mrs. Bruce compromised by being silent and wearing an abused air.
“Once in a while Betsy will do a real selfish thing,” she reflected; and she demanded of memory to stand and deliver the last occasion when her housekeeper had displayed base ingratitude. Memory appearing to find the task difficult, she resorted to deep sighs and an ostentatious headache.
Betsy was amused, but also somewhat touched.
“She ain’t anything but a child, never was, and never will be,” she thought. “You can’t get out of a barrel what ain’t in it.”
She told her mistress of the pleasant rooms at the inn available because of having suddenly been given up by their usual occupants. “I’ll go see Mrs. Nixon and tell her about ’em,” she added. “Mr. Beebe’s promised to hold ’em till Wednesday.”
Mrs. Bruce put her hand to her forehead, but apparently was too far gone, sunk among her cushions, to reply.
“I think it would be real nice for you to do a lot o’ sailin’ while I’m gone,” said Betsy cheerfully.
“That’s just about as considerate as you are!” returned Mrs. Bruce, with remarkable fire for one in the languorous stage of headache. “You know very well that at the best of times I don’t care very much for sailing.”
“I thought with Mr. Irving and Cap’n Salter both, you felt real safe, and enjoyed it,” said Betsey pacifically; and Mrs. Bruce had sundry disconcerting memories of hiking hilariously with her hand on her boy’s shoulder.
“Don’t you suppose,” she said with a superior air, “that I ever make a pretense of enjoying things for Irving’s sake?”
Betsy’s lips twitched. “You acted so natural you took me in,” she returned meekly.
Mrs. Bruce sank back again among her pillows.
“I’ll make out a list for all the meals while I’m gone,” said Betsy comfortingly, “and give it to the cook. You see, Mrs. Bruce, one o’ my friends that’s lived in the country and is very inexperienced, wants to get a few clothes in the city. She don’t know where to go or what to pay, and I told her I’d come in for a couple o’ days and help her. You won’t scarcely miss me before I’m back.”
“I must say, Betsy,” declared her mistress faintly, “some people would have waited until there was no guest in the house.”
“I’m real sorry I can’t wait,” returned Betsy gently; “but I’m goin’ to arrange for the meals, as I say, so you won’t have a mite o’ trouble, and Mr. Nixon always makes everything jolly.”
Mrs. Bruce made no reply, and Betsy left the room.
Going out on the street, she heard a piercing whistle down the street, executing a classic which would inspire a bronze image to cake-walk.
Betsy did not attempt any fancy steps, but she started on a long, energetic stride in the direction of the shrill ragtime.
She waved her hand with a gesture which she knew would check Robert’s effervescence.
He waved his cap in return.
“Where’s Mr. Irving?” she asked as soon as he could hear her.
“He’s helping Cap’n Salter with the sail. They didn’t appreciate my services, so I came away.”
“I just wanted to tell you, Mr. Nixon, that I’m goin’ to Boston.”
“Giddy creature! The whirl of the city drawing you so soon?”
“I’m goin’ to tell your mother what rooms there are at the inn, and if you have any message – ”
“I have. Tell her it’s great here, and to let me know as soon as she’s through using the car, because I want to bring it down – or up.”
“I will. Say, Mr. Nixon,” – they were strolling toward the house, Betsy hanging back unaccountably, – “I hope you and Mr. Irving’ll be sort of attentive to Mrs. Bruce for a couple o’ days.”
“Sure thing. I’m eternally attentive to her. What’s up?”
“Well – she doesn’t like to have me go; has the habit of me, you know; and I’ve got to go, that’s all there is about it.”
“Sad! sad!” ejaculated Robert. “Frightful thing – habit. You seemed so mild out in the Yellowstone I hadn’t an idea you couldn’t endure the quiet of the country a week.”
“Now I’m relyin’ quite a lot,” said Betsy, “on your foolishness.”
“What?” inquired the young man, his voice breaking.
“Mrs. Bruce can impose on Mr. Irving – I mean, – you know what I mean, she can make him fall in with her moods; while you – well, you’re just as good as a rattle to – ”
“Betsy, – now, Betsy, beware! I have average poise, I hope, still I’m only human. My head can be turned!”
Betsy smiled. “I don’t know as I exactly make you understand what I mean – ”
“Oh, yes, you do. Your meaning is as clear as clear limping water. Please don’t be any more definite or I may burst into tears; and it’s in every etiquette book that I ever read, that it isn’t proper to make the company cry.”
“Yes, that’s the way,” said Betsy with satisfaction. “Just chatter to her like that, and she’ll – ”
“Betsy! Cruel one! How can I impress you!”
“Now listen,” – they were drawing near the house – “Mrs. Bruce’ll act sick when you go in. I don’t mean she’s actin’, but she don’t like things to go the way she hasn’t planned ’em; and she’s a real dependent little lady, and you and Mr. Irving must keep her as happy as a lark while I’m gone. I’ve got to get off early in the mornin’, and I may not get a chance to see him alone at all; so you tell him I’m real sorry, and I’ll hurry back, and you take her with you everywhere, and look out for her and – and I’m goin’ around this back way. She’s right in the livin’-room. You’ll find her.”
Betsy disappeared with guilty haste, and Robert, smiling to himself and whistling softly, mounted the steps.
“Once there was a book,” he thought, “named ‘Pink and White Tyranny.’ Madama’s an anachronism. She belongs in it.”
He presented himself cap in hand at the door of the room where Mrs. Bruce lay motionless on a thickly pillowed divan.
“Any admittance?” he asked.
The sufferer stirred. “Is that you, Nixie?” she returned faintly.
He advanced to the divan. “Dear me, what’s this? You were so fit this morning.”
“Oh, I’ve been quite upset.”
“You look it. Absolutely knocked down. Nothing serious, I hope?”
“Where’s Irving?”
“Mending a sail with Captain Salter. They were so disrespectful to me that I came home.”
“I’m very poor company, I’m afraid,” said the hostess languidly.
“But at least you appreciate me, Mrs. Bruce. You don’t hurt my feelings every second word you utter. Mayn’t I sit here by you,” – the speaker took a chair close to the divan, – “and rub your head, perhaps? My mother will tell you I’m a cracker-jack at it.”
Mrs. Bruce gave an inarticulate exclamation of dissent.
“I should expect you to rub my hair off,” she exclaimed faintly.
“It doesn’t look like that kind,” returned Robert innocently.
Her eyes were closed, but she could feel his, brightly curious, fixed upon her coiffure.
“You make me nervous, Nixie. Would you mind taking a book?”
“A thousand pardons, dear hostess! Of course I will. I did just want to ask your advice about the car, though.”
“What car?” Mrs. Bruce’s eyes opened.
“Ours. I think when mother gets through dressing Miss Maynard, we’d better have it here. Don’t you?”
“The roads are excellent,” replied the prostrate one.
“Of course it’s Uncle Henry’s car, but it’s all in the family.”
“We haven’t one, just now,” said Mrs. Bruce. “We sold it when we went to Europe; and Irving is such a merman we thought we wouldn’t do anything about a new one till we went back to town.”
“I suppose you have an electric for yourself,” said Robert.
“I’m going to have one as soon as we get back. I’ve always thought I was too timid to drive it, but of late I’ve come to feel that I don’t like to be the only woman that hasn’t one.”
“Oh, you are just the person to drive an electric,” said Robert, his eyes twinkling as Mrs. Bruce unconsciously raised herself to a sitting posture among the pillows. “You’ll spin down to the bank every afternoon and bring Brute home.”
“I really do think you’re right, Nixie,” returned his hostess plaintively. “I have a very cool head, and it’s all nonsense that I couldn’t drive an electric even in the Boston cowpaths, while in the Parks – ”
“Oh, my dear Mrs. Bruce, never think that Brute will accompany you there!”
“Why not?” The question had all the usual crispness.
“Such a stately method of locomotion will not commend itself for his sportive hours. What car does he think of getting?”
The question opened a flood-gate; and for the next fifteen minutes, talk of pros and cons regarding different high-class motors snapped with an ever-increasing vivacity in the erstwhile chamber of suffering.
Once Betsy came near the door and listened.
“But that car doesn’t have to be cranked,” she heard her mistress declare in bright tones.
She nodded with satisfaction and ran upstairs to put her belongings in a suit-case.