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+Project Gutenberg's Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley, by Belle K. Maniates
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
+
+Author: Belle K. Maniates
+
+Posting Date: November 3, 2011 [EBook #9988]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: November 6, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tony Browne and PG
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+BY BELLE K. MANIATES
+
+AUTHOR OF DAVID DUNNE.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. HENRY
+
+1915
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work"
+
+To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope with her caprices
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker
+
+
+
+[Illustration: He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of
+adoration]
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The tiny, trivial touch of Destiny that caused the turn in Amarilly's
+fate-tide came one morning when, in her capacity as assistant to the
+scrub ladies at the Barlow Stock Theatre, she viewed for the first time
+the dress rehearsal of _A Terrible Trial_. Heretofore the patient little
+plodder had found in her occupation only the sordid satisfaction of
+drawing her wages, but now the resplendent costumes, the tragedy in the
+gestures of the villain, the languid grace of Lord Algernon, and the
+haughty treble of the leading lady struck the spark that fired ambition
+in her sluggish breast.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped in wistful-voiced soliloquy, as she leaned against her
+mop-stick and gazed aspiringly at the stage, "I wonder if I couldn't
+rise!"
+
+"Sure thing, you kin!" derisively assured Pete Noyes, vender of gum at
+matinées. "I'll speak to de maniger. Mebby he'll let youse scrub de
+galleries."
+
+Amarilly, case-hardened against raillery by reason of the possession of
+a multitude of young brothers, paid no heed to the bantering scoffer,
+but resumed her work in dogged dejection.
+
+"Say, Mr. Vedder, Amarilly's stage-struck!" called Pete to the ticket-
+seller, who chanced to be passing.
+
+The gray eyes of the young man thus addressed softened as he looked at
+the small, eager face of the youngest scrubber.
+
+"Stop at the office on your way out, Amarilly," he said kindly, "and
+I'll give you a pass to the matinée this afternoon."
+
+Amarilly's young heart fluttered wildly and sent a wave of pink into her
+pale cheeks as she voiced her gratitude.
+
+She was the first to enter when the doors opened that afternoon, and she
+kept close to the heels of the usher.
+
+"He ain't agoin' to give me the slip," she thought, keeping wary watch
+of his lithe form as he slid down the aisle.
+
+In the blaze of light and blare of instruments she scarcely recognized
+her workaday environment.
+
+"House sold out!" she muttered with professional pride and enthusiasm as
+the signal for the raising of the curtain was given. "Mebby I'd orter
+give up my seat so as they could sell it."
+
+There was a moment's conflict between the little scrubber's conscience
+and her newly awakened desires.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to, though," she decided. And having so determined, she
+gave her conscience a shove to the remotest background, yielding herself
+to the full enjoyment of the play.
+
+The rehearsal had been inspiring and awakening, but this, "the real
+thing," as Amarilly appraised it, bore her into a land of enchantment.
+She was blind and deaf to everything except the scenes enacted on the
+stage. Only once was her passionate attention distracted, and that was
+when Pete in passing gave her an emphatic nudge and a friendly grin as
+he munificently bestowed upon her a package of gum. This she instantly
+pocketed "fer the chillern."
+
+At the close of the performance Amarilly sailed home on waves of
+excitement. She was the eldest of the House of Jenkins, whose scions,
+numbering eight, were all wage-earners save Iry, the baby. After school
+hours Flamingus was a district messenger, Gus milked the grocer's cow,
+Milton worked in a shoe-shining establishment, Bobby and Bud had paper
+routes, while Cory, commonly called "Co," wiped dishes at a boarding-
+house. Notwithstanding all these contributions to the family revenue, it
+became a sore struggle for the widow of Americanus Jenkins to feed and
+clothe such a numerous brood, so she sought further means of
+maintenance.
+
+"I've took a boarder!" she announced solemnly to Amarilly on her return
+from the theatre. "He's a switchman and I'm agoin' to fix up the attic
+fer him. I don't jest see how we air agoin' to manage about feedin' him.
+Thar's no room to the table now, and thar ain't dishes enough to go
+around, but you're so contrivin' like, I thought you might find out a
+way." Memories of the footlights were temporarily banished upon hearing
+this wonderful intelligence. A puzzled pucker came between the brows of
+the little would-be prima donna and remained there until at last the
+exigency was triumphantly met.
+
+"I hev it, ma! When's he comin'?"
+
+"To-morrer fer breakfast."
+
+"Then we must rayhearse to-night afore we kin put it on right. Come, all
+you-uns, to the kitchen table."
+
+The Jenkins children, accustomed to the vernacular of the profession,
+were eager to participate in a rehearsal, and they scampered
+boisterously to the kitchen precincts. Amarilly, as stage director,
+provided seats at the table for herself, her mother, Flamingus, Gus, the
+baby, and the Boarder, the long-suffering, many-rôled family cat
+personating the latter as understudy. Behind their chairs, save those
+occupied by the Boarder and the baby, were stationed Milton, Bobby, Bud,
+and Cory. This outer row, Amarilly explained, was to be fed from the
+plates of their elders with food convenient as was Elijah by the
+Scriptural ravens. This plan lifted the strain from the limited table
+appointments, but met with opposition from the outpost who rebelled
+against their stations.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to stand behind Flam or Gus," growled Milton. "I won't
+stand no show fer grub at all."
+
+"I ain't, neither," and "Nit fer me!" chorused the near twins, Bobby and
+Bud.
+
+"I want to set at the table and eat like folks!" sobbed Cory.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins advocated immediate surrender, but the diplomatic little
+general, whose policy was pacification, in shrill, appealing voice
+reassured and wheedled the young mutineers back into the ranks.
+
+"It's the only way we can take a boarder," she persuaded, "and if we git
+him, we'll hev more to eat than jest hot pertaters and bread and gravy.
+Thar'll be meat, fresh or hotted up, onct a day, and pie on Sundays."
+
+The deserters to a man returned from their ignominious retreat.
+
+"Now, Co, you stand behind me, and when you git tired, you kin set on
+half my chair. Milt, git behind ma, and Bud and Bobby, stand back of
+Flamingus and Gus. If they don't divvy up even they'll hev to change
+places with you. Now, to places!" This conciliatory arrangement proving
+satisfactory, supper was served on the new plan with numerous directions
+and admonitions from Amarilly.
+
+"No self-helpin's, Milt. Bud, if you knock Flammy's elbow, he needn't
+give you anything to eat. Bobby, if you swipe another bite from Gus,
+I'll spank you. Co, quit yer self-reachin's! Flammy, you hev got to pass
+everything to the Boarder fust. Now, every meal that I don't hev to
+speak to one of youse in the back row, youse kin hev merlasses spread on
+yer bread."
+
+The rehearsal supper finished and the kitchen "red up," Amarilly's
+thoughts again took flight and in fancy she winged her way toward a
+glorious future amid the glow and glamor of the footlights. To the
+attentive family, who hung in an ecstasy of approval on her vivid
+portrayal, she graphically described the play she had witnessed, and
+then dramatically announced her intention of going on the stage when she
+grew up.
+
+"You kin do it fine, Amarilly," said the mother admiringly.
+
+"And we-uns kin git in free!" cried Bobby jubilantly. In the morning the
+Boarder, a pleasant-voiced, quiet-faced man with a look of kindliness
+about his eyes and mouth, made his entrance into the family circle. He
+commended the table arrangements, praised the coffee, and formed
+instantaneous friendships with the children. All the difficulties of the
+cuisine having been smoothed over or victoriously met, Amarilly went to
+the theatre with a lightened heart. When Mr. Vedder came up to her and
+asked how she had enjoyed the performance, she felt emboldened to
+confide to him her professional aspirations.
+
+The young ticket-seller did not smile. There was nothing about this
+diligent, ill-fed, little worker that appealed to his sense of humor.
+
+"It will be a long time yet, Amarilly, before you can go on the stage,"
+he counselled. "Besides, you know the first thing you must have is an
+education."
+
+Amarilly sighed hopelessly.
+
+"I can't git to go to school till the boys hev more larnin'. I hev to
+work here mornin's and help ma with the washin's in the arternoon.
+Mebby, arter a little, I kin git into some night-school." A stage-hand
+working near by overheard this conversation and displayed instant
+interest in the subject of Amarilly's schooling.
+
+"Couldn't you git off Saturday arternoons?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I could do that," assured Amarilly eagerly. "Is thar a Saturday
+arternoon school?"
+
+"Yes," replied the man. "There is a church guild, St. Mark's, that has a
+school. My little gal goes. She larns sewin' and singin' and waitin' on
+table and such like. You'd better go with her to-morrow."
+
+"I kin sew now," said Amarilly, repeating this conversation to the
+family circle that night, "and I'd like to sing, fer of course I'll hev
+to when I'm on the stage, but I git enough waitin' on table to hum. I'd
+ruther larn to read better fust of all."
+
+"I ain't much of a scholar," observed the Boarder modestly, "but I can
+learn you readin', writin', and spellin' some, and figgerin' too. I'll
+give you lessons evenin's."
+
+"We'll begin now!" cried the little tyro enthusiastically.
+
+The Boarder approved this promptness, and that night gave the first
+lesson from Flamingus's schoolbooks.
+
+The next morning Amarilly proudly informed the ticket-seller that her
+education had begun. She was consequently rather lukewarm in regard to
+the Guild school proposition, but the little daughter of the stagehand
+pictured the school and her teacher in most enticing fashion.
+
+"You kin be in our class," she coaxed persuasively. "We hev a new
+teacher. She's a real swell and wears a diamon' ring and her hair is
+more yaller than the wig what the play lady wears. She bed us up to her
+house to a supper last week, and thar was velvit carpits and ice-cream
+and lots of cake but no pie."
+
+Amarilly's curiosity was aroused, and her red, roughened hand firmly
+grasped the confiding one of her little companion as she permitted
+herself to be led to the Guild school.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The teacher at the Guild was even more beautiful than Amarilly's fancy,
+fed by the little girl's vivid description, had pictured.
+
+"Her hair ain't boughten," decided the keen-eyed critic as she gazed
+adoringly at the golden braids crowning the small head. The color of her
+eyes was open to speculation; when they had changed from gray to green,
+from green to hazel, and from hazel to purple, Amarilly gave up the
+enigma. The color of her complexion changed, too, in the varying tints
+of peaches.
+
+"I do b'lieve she ain't got no make-up on," declared Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+The little daughter of the stage-hand had not overappraised the diamond.
+It shone resplendent on a slender, shapely hand.
+
+"Miss King, I've brung a new scholar," introduced the little girl
+importantly. "She's Amarilly."
+
+As she glanced at her new pupil, the young teacher's eyes brightened
+with spontaneous interest, and a welcoming smile parted her lips.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Amarilly. Here's a nice little pile of blue carpet
+rags to sew and make into a ball. When you have made a lot of balls I'll
+have them woven into a pretty blue rug for you to take home and keep."
+
+"For the Boarder's room!" thought Amarilly joyously, as she went at her
+work with the avidity that marked all her undertakings.
+
+Presently a small seamstress asked for instruction as to the proper
+method of putting the strips together. The fair face of the young
+teacher became clouded for a moment, and she was unmistakably confused.
+Her wavering, dubious glance fell upon Amarilly sitting tense and
+upright as she made quick, forceful, and effective stabs with her
+needle, biting her thread vigorously and resonantly. The stitches were
+microscopic and even; the strips symmetrically and neatly joined.
+
+The teacher's face cleared as she saw and seized her avenue of escape.
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work and sew the strips
+just as she does. Hers are perfect."
+
+[Illustration: "You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work."]
+
+Amarilly's wan little face brightened, and she proceeded to show the
+children how to sew, bringing the same ease and effectiveness into her
+tutoring that she displayed when instructing her brothers and Cory.
+
+The sewing lesson continued for an hour. Then the children sang songs to
+a piano accompaniment, and there followed a lesson in cooking and the
+proper setting of a table. All this instruction was succeeded by an
+informal chat.
+
+"I want you all to tell me what you are going to do when you grow to be
+women," said Miss King.
+
+In most cases the occupations of their parents were chosen, and the
+number of washerwomen, scrubbers, and seamstresses in embryo was
+appalling.
+
+"And you, Amarilly?" she asked, addressing the new pupil last of all.
+
+Amarilly's mien was lofty, her voice consequential, as she replied in
+dramatic dénouement:
+
+"I'm goin' on the stage!"
+
+The young teacher evinced a most eager interest in this declaration.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly! We all have a stage-longing period. When did you first
+think of such a career?"
+
+"I'm in the perfesshun now," replied Amarilly pompously.
+
+"Really! Tell me what you do, Amarilly."
+
+"I scrub at the Barlow Theatre, and I went to the matinee day afore
+yisterday. I hed a pass give to me."
+
+These statements made such a visible impression on her audience that
+Amarilly waxed eloquent and proceeded to describe the play, warming to
+her work as she gained confidence. The gestures of Lord Algernon and the
+leading lady were reproduced freely, fearlessly, and faithfully.
+
+With a glimmer of mischief dancing in her eyes, the young teacher
+listened appreciatively but apprehensively as she noted the amazed
+expression on the faces of the teachers of adjacent classes when
+Amarilly's treble tones were wafted toward them. Fortunately, the
+realistic rendering of Lord Algernon's declaration of love was
+interrupted by the accompaniment to a song, which was followed by the
+dismissal of the school.
+
+"Kin I take my strips home to sew on?" asked Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Miss King. "That is not permitted."
+
+Seeing the look of disappointment in the child's eyes, she asked in
+kindly tone:
+
+"Why are you in such a hurry to finish the work, Amarilly?"
+
+"We've took a Boarder," explained Amarilly, "and I want the rug fer his
+room. It'll take an orful long time to git it done if I only work on it
+an hour onct a week. He's so good to me, I want to do something to make
+his room look neat, so he'll feel to hum."
+
+The young teacher reflected a moment.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do, Amarilly. I will buy one of the rugs that
+are to be on sale at the church fair this week. They have some very nice
+large ones. I will give it to you, and when yours is finished you may
+give it to me in return."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried Amarilly, her countenance brightening, "But won't
+you need it afore I kin git this one done?"
+
+"No; I am sure I shall not," replied the young lady gravely.
+
+When they left the building the teacher paused as she was about to step
+into her electric brougham. "Where do you live, Amarilly?"
+
+Amarilly gave her street and number.
+
+"You must live farther away than any of the other children. Get in,
+dear; I will take you home."
+
+She had opened the door as she spoke, and the little scrubber's eyes
+were dazzled by the elegance of the appointments--a silver vase filled
+with violets, a silver card-case, and--but Amarilly resolutely shut her
+eyes upon this proffered grandeur and turned to the lean but longing
+little daughter of the stage-hand.
+
+"You see, I come with her," she explained simply and loyally.
+
+"There is room for you both. Myrtie can sit on this little seat."
+
+Overawed by the splendor of her environment, Amarilly held her breath as
+they glided swiftly through the streets. There was other glory, it
+seemed, than that of the footlights. When the happy little Myrtle had
+been left at her humble home the young teacher turned with eager
+anticipation to Amarilly.
+
+"Tell me more about yourself, Amarilly. First of all, who is the
+Boarder?"
+
+Amarilly explained their affairs, even to the "double-decker diner," as
+the Boarder had called the table arrangement.
+
+"And what has he done for you, Amarilly, that you are so anxious he
+should have a rug?"
+
+"He's larnin' me readin', writin', spellin', and figgers."
+
+"Don't you go to school?"
+
+"No; I hev to bring in wages and help ma with the washin's."
+
+"I'll teach you, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I'm sure I'm more
+proficient in those branches than the Boarder."
+
+"He sez," admitted Amarilly, "that it won't take him long to larn me all
+he knows; but you see--" She spoke with delicate hesitancy and evident
+embarrassment. "It's orful good in you to want to larn me--but he might
+feel hurt-like if I was to quit him."
+
+"You are right, Amarilly. You are a loyal little girl. But I tell you
+what we will do about it. When you have learned all that the Boarder
+feels he can teach you, you shall go to night-school. There is one in
+connection with St. Mark's. I will see that you enter there."
+
+"I didn't know thar was one fer girls," said Amarilly. "I'm glad thar's
+a way fer me to git eddicated, fer I must hev larnin' afore I kin go on
+the stage. Mr. Vedder, the ticket-seller to Barlow's, told me so."
+
+"Amarilly,"--and an earnest note crept into the gay, young voice--"you
+may find things that you will like to do more than to go on the stage."
+
+"No!" asserted the youthful aspirant, "Thar ain't nuthin' else I'd like
+so well."
+
+"Amarilly, I am going to tell you something. Once, not long ago, I had
+the stage fever, but I think I know now there is something--something I
+should like better."
+
+"What?" queried Amarilly skeptically.
+
+"I can't tell you now, but you have a long time yet in which to decide
+your future. Tell me what I can do to help your mother."
+
+"If you could git us more washin's," exclaimed Amarilly eagerly, "it
+would help heaps. We could take in lots more than we do now."
+
+"Let me think. You see we keep a laundress; but--does your mother do up
+very fine things--like laces--carefully?"
+
+"She does," replied Amarilly glibly. "She kin do 'em orful keerful, and
+we dry the colored stuffs in the shade. And our clo'es come out snow-
+white allers, and we never tears laces nor git in too much bluin' or
+starch the way some folks does."
+
+"Then I'll give you my address and you can come for my fine waists; and
+let me see, I am sure I can get St. Mark's laundry work for you, too."
+
+"You're orful good, Miss King. This is where we hev to turn down this
+'ere court."
+
+The "court" appeared to Miss King more like an alley. The advent of the
+brougham in the little narrow right-of-way filled every window with
+hawk-eyed observers. About the Jenkins's doorstep was grouped the entire
+household from the Boarder to the baby, and the light, musical voices of
+children floating through the soft spring air fell pleasantly upon the
+ears of the young settlement worker.
+
+"So this is where you live, Amarilly?" she asked, her eyes sparkling as
+she focussed them on the family. "You needn't come for the washing the
+first time. I will bring it myself so I can see all your little
+brothers. Be sure to come to the Guild next Saturday, and then I'll have
+the rug for you to take home. Goodbye, dear."
+
+Knowing that she was observed by myriad eyes, Amarilly stepped loftily
+from the brougham and made a sweeping stage courtesy to her departing
+benefactress.
+
+"Are you on the stage now, Amarilly?" asked Co eagerly as she came to
+meet her sister.
+
+"No; but she," with a wave of her hand toward the swiftly gliding
+electric, "is agoin to help me git eddicated, and she has give me a
+beautiful rug fer the Boarder, and we're agoin' to hev her waists to
+wash, and Mr. St. Mark's clo'es, and she told all the scholars to sew
+like me 'cause' I sewed the best, and I've larned how to set our table.
+We mustn't stack up the knife and fork and spoon on ends any more. The
+knife goes to the right, the fork to the left of the plate, and the
+spoon goes back of it and the tumbler and the napkin, when you has 'em,
+to the right."
+
+"I do declare, Amarilly, if it ain't jest like a fairy story!" cried
+Mrs. Jenkins enthusiastically. "You allers did strike luck."
+
+"You bet!" cried Bobby admiringly. "Things go some where Amarilly is."
+
+Amarilly was happier even than she had been on the night of the eventful
+matinée day. The electric brougham had seemed a veritable fairy
+godmother's coach to her. But it was not the ride that stood uppermost
+in her memory as she lay awake far into the night; it was the little
+word of endearment uttered in caressing cadence.
+
+"No one ain't ever called me that afore," she murmured wistfully. "I
+s'pose ma ain't hed time, and thar was no one else to keer."
+
+Impulsively and tenderly her thin little arm encircled the baby sleeping
+beside her.
+
+"Dear!" she whispered in an awed tone. "Dear!"
+
+Iry answered with a sleepy, cooing note.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Colette King was not one whom the voice of the people of St. Mark's
+would proclaim as the personification of their ideal of a pastor's wife,
+yet John Meredith loved her with the love that passeth all
+understanding. Perhaps the secret of her charm for him lay in the fact
+that she treated him as she did other men--men who did not wear a
+surplice. And yet his surplice and all that pertained thereto were
+matters of great moment to the rector of St. Mark's. Little traces of
+his individuality were evident in the fashioning of this clerical
+garment. A pocket for his handkerchief was stitched on the left side.
+
+The flowers, the baptismal font, the altar cloth, and the robes of the
+vested choir he insisted should be immaculate in whiteness. White, the
+color of the lily, he declared, was the emblem of purity. There were
+members of his flock so worldly minded as to whisper insinuatingly that
+white was extremely becoming to Colette King. Many washerwomen had
+applied for the task of laundering the ecclesiastical linen; many had
+been tried and found wanting. So after her interview with Amarilly,
+Colette asked the rector of St. Mark's to call at her house "on
+important business."
+
+From the time he was ten years old until he became rector of St. Mark's,
+John Meredith had been a member of the household of his guardian, Henry
+King, and had ever cheerfully and gladly borne with the caprices of the
+little Colette.
+
+He answered the present summons promptly and palpitatingly. It had been
+two weeks since he had remonstrated with Colette for the surprisingly
+sudden announcement, made in seeming seriousness, that she was going to
+study opera with a view to going on the stage. The fact that she had a
+light, sweet soprano adapted only to the rendition of drawing-room
+ballads did not lessen in his eyes the probability of her carrying out
+this resolve.
+
+She had met his reproving expostulations in a spirit of bantering
+raillery and replied with a defiance of his opinion that had pierced his
+heart with arrow-like swiftness. Since then she had studiously avoided
+meeting him, and he was not sure whether he was now recalled to listen
+to a reiteration of her intentions or to receive an anodyne for the
+bitterness of her remarks at their last interview.
+
+"I sent for you, John," she said demurely and without preamble, "to see
+if you have found a satisfactory laundress yet for the surplices."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed in rebuking tone, his face reddening at her
+question which he supposed to be made in mere mockery.
+
+"I am not speaking to you as Colette King," she replied with a look half
+cajoling, half flippant, "but as a teacher in the Young Woman's
+Auxiliary Guild to the rector of St. Mark's. You see I no longer lead a
+foolish, futile life. Here is the evidence in the case," holding up a
+slender pink forefinger. "See how it is pricked! For three Saturday
+afternoons I have shown little girls that smelled of fried potatoes how
+to sew. I shall really learn something myself about the feminine art of
+needlework if I continue in my present straight, domestic path."
+
+"Colette, you cannot know how glad I am to hear this. Why did you try to
+make me think the laundry work was--"
+
+"But the laundry work _is_ the main issue. Yesterday I had quite decided
+to give up this uninteresting work."
+
+Watching him warily, she let the shadow in his eyes linger a moment
+before she continued:
+
+"And then there came into my class a new pupil, poorly clad and
+ignorant, but so redolent of soapsuds and with such a freshly laundered
+look that I renewed my inclinations to charity. I took her home in my
+electric, and she lived at a distance that gave me ample time to listen
+to the complete chronicles of her young life. Her father is dead. Her
+mother was left with eight children whom she supports by taking in
+washing. They have a boarder and they go around the dining-room table
+twice. My new pupil's name is Amarilly Jenkins, and she has educational
+longings which cannot be satisfied because she has to work, so I am
+going to enter her in St. Mark's night-school when she has finished a
+special course with the private tutor she now has."
+
+"Colette," said the young minister earnestly, "why do you continually
+try to show yourself to me in a false light? It was sweet in you to take
+this little girl home in your brougham and to feel an interest in her
+improvement."
+
+"Not at all!" protested Colette. "My trend at present may appear to be
+charitable, but Amarilly and I have a common interest--a fellow
+feeling--that makes me wondrous kind. We both have longings to appear in
+public on the stage."
+
+At this sudden challenge, this second lowering of the red flag, John's
+face grew stern.
+
+"Amarilly," continued the liquid voice,--"has had more experience in
+stage life than I have had. She has commenced at the lowest round of the
+dramatic ladder of fame. She scrubs at the Barlow Theatre, and she is
+quite familiar with stage lore. Her hero is the man who plays the role
+of Lord Algernon in _A Terrible Trial_."
+
+He made no reply, and Colette presently broke the silence.
+
+"Seriously, John," she said practically and in a tone far different from
+her former one, "the Jenkins family are poor and most deserving. I am
+going to give them some work, and if you would give them a trial on the
+church linen, it would help them so much. There was a regular army of
+little children on the doorstep, and it must be a struggle to feed them
+all. I should like to help them--to give them something--but they seem
+to be the kind of people that you can help only by giving them work to
+perform. I have learned that true independence is found only among the
+poor."
+
+John took a little notebook from his pocket.
+
+"What is their address, Colette?"
+
+She took the book from him and wrote down the street and number.
+
+"Colette, you endeavor to conceal a tender heart--"
+
+"And will you give them--Mrs. Jenkins--a trial?"
+
+"Yes; this week."
+
+"That will make Amarilly so happy," she said, brightening. "I am going
+there to-morrow to take them some work, and I will tell Mrs. Jenkins to
+send Flamingus--his is the only name of the brood that my memory
+retains--for the church laundry."
+
+"He may call at the rectory," replied John, "and get the house laundry
+as well."
+
+"That will be good news for them. I shall enjoy watching Amarilly's face
+when she hears it."
+
+"And now, Colette, will you do something for me?"
+
+"Maybe. What is it?" she asked guardedly.
+
+"Will you abandon the idea of going on the stage, or studying for that
+purpose?"
+
+"Perforce. Father won't consent."
+
+A look of relief drove the trouble from the dark eyes fixed on hers.
+
+"I'll be twenty-one in a year, however," she added carelessly.
+
+John was wise enough to perceive the wilfulness that prompted this
+reply, and he deftly changed the subject of conversation.
+
+"About this little girl, Amarilly. We must find her something in the way
+of employment. The atmosphere of a theatre isn't the proper one for a
+child of that age. Do you think so?"
+
+"Theoretically, no; but Amarilly is not impressionable to atmosphere
+altogether. She seems a hard-working, staunch little soul, and all that
+relieves the sordidness of her life and lightens the dreariness of her
+work is the 'theayter,' as she calls it. So don't destroy her illusions,
+John. You'll do her more harm than good."
+
+"Not if I give her something real in the place of what you rightly term
+her illusions."
+
+"You can't. Sunday-school would not satisfy a broad-minded little
+proletarian like Amarilly, so don't preach to _her_."
+
+He winced perceptibly.
+
+"Do I preach to _you_, Colette? Is that how you regard me--as a prosy
+preacher who--"
+
+"No, John. Just as a disturber of dreams--that is all."
+
+"A disturber of dreams?" he repeated wistfully. "It is you, Colette, who
+are a disturber of dreams. If you would only let my dreams become
+realities!"
+
+"Then, to be paradoxical, your realities might change back to dreams, or
+even nightmares. Returning to soapsuds and Amarilly Jenkins, will you go
+there with me to-morrow and make arrangements with Mrs. Jenkins for the
+laundry work?"
+
+"Indeed I will, Colette, and--"
+
+"Don't look so serious, John. Until that dreadful evening, the last time
+you called, you always left your pulpit punctilio behind you when you
+came here."
+
+"Colette!" he began in protest.
+
+But she perversely refused to fall in with his serious vein. Chattering
+gayly yet half-defiantly, on her face the while a baffling smile, partly
+tender, partly amused, and wholly coquettish--the smile that maddened
+and yet entranced him--she brought the mask of reserve to his face and
+man. At such times he never succeeded in remembering that she was but
+little more than a child, heart-free, capricious, and wilful. Despairing
+of changing her mood to the serious one that he loved yet so seldom
+evoked, he arose and bade her good-night.
+
+When he was in the hall she softly called him back, meeting him with a
+half-penitent look in her eyes, which had suddenly become gazelle-like.
+
+"You may preach to me again some time, John. There are moments when I
+believe I like it, because no other man dares to do it" "Dares?" he
+queried with a smile.
+
+"Yes; dares. They all fear to offend. And you, John, you fear nothing!"
+
+"Yes, I do," he answered gravely, as he looked down upon her. "There is
+one thing I fear that makes me tremble, Colette."
+
+But her mood had again changed, and with a mischievous, elusive smile
+she bade him go. Inert and musing, he wandered at random through the
+lights and shadows of the city streets, with a wistful look in his eyes
+and just the shadow of a pang in his heart.
+
+"She is very young," he said condoningly, answering an accusing thought.
+"She has been a little spoiled, naturally. She has seen life only from
+the side that amuses and entertains. Some day, when she realizes, as it
+comes to us all to do, that care and sorrow bring their own sustaining
+power, she will not dally among the petty things of life; the wilful
+waywardness will turn to winning womanliness."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The next afternoon when Amarilly came home from the theatre, her mother
+met her with another burst of information.
+
+"Miss King and the preacher was here. He's agoin' to give us all the
+church surpluses to wash and his house-wash, too. Flamingus is to go fer
+them to the rectry to-night, and you're to go to Miss King's and get the
+waists she has to be did up. She left two car tickets fer you."
+
+"We air jest astubbin' our toes on luck," gasped Amarilly.
+
+"The fust pay from the new washin's shall go fer a new hat and dress fer
+you, Amarilly. It's acomin' to you all right. 'Twas you as got this work
+fer us."
+
+"No!" was the emphatic reply. "We'll git some more cheers, knives,
+spoons, plates, cups, and two more leaves fer the table, so's the
+chillern kin all set to table to onct."
+
+"That'll be a hull lot more convenient," admitted Mrs. Jenkins
+hopefully. "Co spills things so, and the boys quarrel when you and the
+Boarder ain't here to keep peace. It was jest orful this noon. You
+wasn't here and the Boarder kerried his dinner. 'Cause Flam put too much
+vinegar on Milt's beans, Milt poured it down Flam's neck, and when I
+sent him away from the table he sassed me."
+
+"Jiminy!" protested Amarilly indignantly. "I'd make Milt go without his
+supper to-night."
+
+"'Tain't his stummick I'm agoin' to punish," said Mrs. Jenkins
+sarcastically. "I've laid by a willer switch that'll feel sharper than
+the vinegar he wasted. You'd better go to Miss King's right away--and,
+Amarilly, mind you ride both ways. It's too far to walk. Don't you sell
+the tickets!"
+
+This last prohibitory remark was made in remembrance of Amarilly's
+commercial instincts.
+
+When Amarilly was admitted to the basement of her young benefactress's
+home a trimly-capped little maid took her to Colette's boudoir.
+
+"Sit down and talk to me, Amarilly. I want to hear more about Lord
+Algernon and Mr. Vedder and Pete. Here's a box of chocolate creams that
+must be eaten while they are fresh."
+
+Amarilly was slightly awed at first by the luxurious appointments of the
+room, but she soon recovered her ease and devoured the novel sweets with
+appreciative avidity. Then she proved herself a fascinating raconteur of
+the annals of a world unknown to Colette. It was a matter of course to
+Amarilly that the leading lady should be supporting an invalid sister;
+that the languid Lord Algernon should be sending his savings to his old
+mother who lived in the country; that the understudy should sew
+industriously through rehearsals and behind the scenes between parts for
+her two little fatherless girls; that Pete Noyes should "bank" to buy a
+wheeled chair for his rheumatic father; that the villain was "layin' by"
+for his parents to come from the Fatherland, and that the company should
+all chip in to send the property woman's sick child to the seashore. But
+to Colette the homely little stories were vignettes of another side of
+life.
+
+"Have you been to the rectory yet, Amarilly?" she asked presently, when
+Amarilly's memories of stage life lagged.
+
+"No; Flammy has went fer Mr. St. Mark's things."
+
+"Mr. St. Mark's!"
+
+Colette laughed delightedly.
+
+"I thought you told me that the preacher's name was Mr. St. Marks. You
+said mebby you could git his wash fer us."
+
+"No, Amarilly. I did not mean that. St. Mark's is the name of the church
+where he officiates. He could never under any conditions be a St. Mark."
+
+"Wat's his name?"
+
+"St. John, of course. And most people call him a rector, but really your
+name suits him best. He does preach--sometimes--to me."
+
+At the end of the week Colette again sent for John--to call "on laundry
+business"--her little note read.
+
+"I couldn't wait," she said when he came, "to learn how Mrs. Jenkins
+pleased you. My waists were most beautifully laundered. She is certainly
+a Madonna of the Tubs."
+
+"You have indeed secured a treasure for me, Colette. The linen is
+immaculate, and she shall have the laundering of it regularly."
+
+"I am so glad!" exclaimed Colette fervently. "They need it so much, and
+they are so anxious to please. Amarilly was so apprehensive--"
+
+John's face had become radiant.
+
+"It is sweet in you to be interested, Colette, and--"
+
+"I wish you would see her," said Colette, ignoring his commendatory
+words and voice. "She's an odd little character. I invited her to
+luncheon the other day, and the courses and silver never disturbed her
+apparently. She watched me closely, however, and followed my moves as
+precisely as a second oarsman. By the way, she called you St. Mark. I
+know some people consider you and St. Mark's as synonymous, but I
+explained the difference. She tells me absorbingly interesting stories
+of theatre life--the life behind the scenes. You see the 'scent of the
+roses,' John!"
+
+The shadow fell again, but he made no response.
+
+The following Monday the young minister chanced to be in the culinary
+precincts of the rectory when Amarilly called for the laundry, none of
+the boys having been available for the service.
+
+An instant gleam of recognition came into his kindly eyes.
+
+"You must be Amarilly Jenkins. I have heard very good accounts of you--
+that you are industrious and a great help to your mother."
+
+Amarilly looked at him shrewdly.
+
+"_She_ told you," she affirmed positively.
+
+There was but one "she" in the world of these two, and John Meredith
+naturally comprehended.
+
+"She's orful good to us," continued Amarilly, "and it was through her,
+Mr. St. John, that we got the surpluses."
+
+"It was, indeed, Amarilly; but my name is not St. John. It is John
+Meredith."
+
+"She was jest kiddin' me, then!" deduced Amarilly appreciatively. "I
+thought at fust as how yer name was St. Mark, and she said you could
+never be a St. Mark, that you was St. John. She likes a joke. Mr.
+Reeves-Eggleston (he's playin' the part of the jilted man in the new
+play this week) says it's either folks as never hez hed their troubles
+or them as hez hed more'n their share what laughs at everything, only,
+he says, it's diffrent kinds of laughs."
+
+The reference to the play reminded John of a duty to perform.
+
+"Miss King told me, Amarilly, that you want to go on the stage when you
+grow up."
+
+"I did plan to go on, but she said when I got eddicated, I might hear of
+other things to do--things I'd like better. So mebby I'll change my
+mind."
+
+A beautiful smile lightened John's dark eyes.
+
+"She, was right, Amarilly. There _are_ things that would be better for
+you to do, and I--we--will try to help you find them."
+
+"Every one gits the stage fever some time," remarked Amarilly
+philosophically, "She said so. She said she had it once herself, but
+she knew now that there was something she would like better."
+
+His smile grew softer.
+
+"She wouldn't tell me what it was," continued Amarilly musingly. Then a
+troubled look came into her eyes.
+
+"Mebby I shouldn't tell you what she says. Flamingus says I talk too
+much."
+
+"It was all right to tell me, Amarilly," he replied with radiant eyes,
+"as long as she said nothing personal."
+
+Amarilly looked mystified.
+
+"I mean," he explained gently, "that she said nothing of me, nothing
+that you should not repeat. I am glad, though, to see that you are
+conscientious. Miss King tells me you are to go to the night-school. Do
+you attend Sunday-school?"
+
+Amarilly looked apologetic.
+
+"Not reg'lar. Thar's a meetin'-house down near us that we go to
+sometimes. Flamingus and me and Gus give a nickel apiece towards gittin'
+a malodeyon fer it, but it squeaks orful. 'Tain't much like the
+orchestry to the theayter. And then the preacher he whistles every time
+he says a word that has an 's' in it. You'd orter hear him say: 'Let us
+sing the seventy-seventh psalm.'"
+
+At the succession of the sibilant sounds, John's brown eyes twinkled
+brightly, and about his mouth came crinkly, telltale creases of humor.
+
+"And they sing such lonesome tunes," continued Amarilly, "slower than
+the one the old cow died on. I was tellin' the stage maniger about it,
+and he said they'd orter git a man to run the meetin'-houses that
+understood the proper settin's. Everything, he says, is more'n half in
+the settin's."
+
+"Amarilly," was the earnest response, "will you come to St. Mark's next
+Sunday to the morning service? The music will please you, I am sure, and
+there are other things I should like to have you hear."
+
+Amarilly solemnly accepted this invitation, and then went home,
+trundling a big cart which contained the surplices and the rectory
+laundry.
+
+Colette's remarks, so innocently repeated to him, made John take himself
+to task.
+
+"I knew," he thought rapturously, "that she was pure gold at heart. And
+it is only her sweet willfulness that is hiding it from me."
+
+That evening he found Colette sitting before an open fire in the
+library, her slender little feet crossed before the glowing blaze. She
+was in a gentle, musing mood, but at his entrance she instantly rallied
+to her old mirth-loving spirit.
+
+"I have made Amarilly's acquaintance," he said. "She is coming to church
+next Sunday."
+
+"A convert already! And you will try to snatch poor Amarilly, too, from
+her footlight dreams?"
+
+"Colette," he replied firmly, "you can't play a part with me any longer.
+You, the real Colette, made it unnecessary for me to remonstrate with
+Amarilly on her choice of professions. She is wavering because of your
+assurance that there are better things in life for her to engage in."
+
+He was not very tall, but stood straight and stalwart, with the air of
+one born to command. At times he seemed to tower above all others.
+
+She regarded him with an admiring look which changed to wonder at what
+she read in his eyes. In a flash she felt the strength and depth of his
+feeling, but her searching scrutiny caused him to become tongue-tied,
+and he assumed the self-conscious mien peculiar to the man not yet
+assured that his love is returned. Once more a golden moment slipped
+away with elfish elusiveness, and Colette, secure in her supremacy,
+resumed her tantalizing badinage.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+The Jenkins family was immediately summoned in council to discuss
+Amarilly's invitation to attend divine service at St. Mark's.
+
+"You air jest more'n hevin' advantages," said Mrs. Jenkins exultingly.
+"Fust the matinée, then the Guild, and now St. Mark's is open to you.
+But you'd orter hev a few fixin's to go to sech a grand place,
+Amarilly."
+
+Amarilly shook her determined little head resolutely.
+
+"We can't afford it," she said decisively. "I'd stay to hum afore I'd
+spend anything on extrys now when we're aketchin' up and layin' by."
+
+"'Twould be good bookkeepin' fer you ter go," spoke up Flamingus. "You
+see the preacher's givin' us his business, and we'd orter return the
+favor and patrynize his church. You've gotter hustle to hold trade arter
+you git it these days. It's up to you ter go, Amarilly." Mrs. Jenkins
+looked proudly at her eldest male offspring.
+
+"I declare, Flamingus, you've got a real business head on you jest like
+your pa hed. He's right, Amarilly. 'Twouldn't be treating Mr. Meredith
+fair not ter go, and it's due him that you go right, so he won't be
+ashamed of you. I'll rig you up some way."
+
+The costuming of Amarilly in a manner befitting the great occasion was
+an all-absorbing affair for the next few days. Finally, by the
+combination of Mrs. Jenkins's industry and Amarilly's ingenuity, aided
+by the Boarder and the boys, an elaborate toilet was devised and
+executed. Milton donated a "shine" to a pair of tan shoes, the gift of
+the girl "what took a minor part." Mrs. Jenkins looked a little askance
+at the "best skirt" of blue which had shrunk from repeated washings to a
+near-knee length, but Amarilly assured her that it was not as short as
+the skirts worn by the ballet girls. She cut up two old blouses and
+fashioned a new, bi-colored waist bedizened with gilt buttons. The
+Boarder presented a resplendent buckle, and Flamingus provided a gawdy
+hair-ribbon.
+
+The hat was the chief difficulty. On week days she wore none, but of
+course St. Mark's demanded a headgear of some kind, and at last Mrs.
+Jenkins triumphantly produced one of Tam o' Shanter shape manufactured
+from a lamp mat and adorned with some roses bestowed by the leading
+lady. The belligerent locks of the little scrub-girl refused to respond
+to advances from curling iron or papers, but one of the neighbors whose
+hair was a second cousin in hue to Amarilly's amber tresses, loaned some
+frizzes, which were sewed to the brim of the new hat. The problem of
+hand covering was solved by Mr. Vedder, as a pair of orange-tinted
+gloves had been turned in at the box-office by an usher, and had
+remained unclaimed. They proved a perfect fit, and were the supreme
+triumph of the bizarre costume.
+
+Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed in splendor greater than
+that displayed by Amarilly when she set forth on Sunday morning for St.
+Mark's. Promptness was ever Amarilly's chief characteristic, and she
+arrived long in advance of the ushers. This gave her an opportunity to
+sample several pews before finally selecting one whose usual occupants,
+fortunately, were out of the city.
+
+The vastness and stillness of the edifice, disturbed now and then by
+silken rustle and soft-shod foot were bewildering to Amarilly. She
+experienced a slight depression until the vibrating tones of the organ
+fell softly upon the air. The harmony grew more subdued, ceased, and was
+succeeded by another moment of solemn silence. Then a procession of
+white-robed choristers came down the aisle, their well-trained voices
+ringing out in carolling cadence.
+
+"Them's the chorus," thought Amarilly.
+
+Entranced, she listened to the service, sitting upright and very still.
+The spiritual significance of the music, the massing of foliage and
+flowers in the chancel, the white altars with their many lighted
+candles, were very impressive to the little wide-eyed worshipper.
+
+"Their settin's is all right," she said to herself critically, "and it
+ain't like the theayter. It's--"
+
+A sudden revealing light penetrated the shadows of her little being.
+
+"This is the real thing!" she acknowledged.
+
+There was only one disappointment to mar the perfection. She felt quite
+aggrieved that Mr. Meredith--or Mr. St. John as she still called him in
+her thoughts--did not "come on" in the first act.
+
+"Mebby he don't hev the leadin' part to-day," she thought
+disappointedly, as a callow youth, whose hair was pompadoured and whose
+chin receded, began to read the lessons for the day. Amarilly was kept
+in action by her effort to follow the lead of the man in front of her.
+
+"It's hard to know jest when to set or stand or pray, but it keeps
+things from draggin'," she thought, "and thar's no chanct to git sleepy.
+It keeps me jest on the hump without no rayhearsal fer all this scene
+shiftin'."
+
+Her little heart quickened in glad relief when the erect form of John
+Meredith ascended the pulpit to deliver the sermon.
+
+"That other one was jest the understudy," she concluded.
+
+The sermon, strong, simple, and sweet like John himself, was delivered
+in a rich, modulated voice whose little underlying note of appeal found
+entrance to many a hard-shell heart. The theology was not too deep for
+the attentive little scrubber to comprehend, and she was filled with a
+longing to be good--very good. She made ardent resolutions not to "jaw"
+the boys so much, and to be more gentle with Iry and Go. Her conscience
+kept on prodding until she censured herself for not mopping the corners
+at the theatre more thoroughly.
+
+At the conclusion of the sermon the rector with a slight tremor in his
+mellifluous voice pronounced the benediction. Amarilly's eyes shone with
+a light that Lord Algernon's most eloquent passages could never have
+inspired.
+
+The organ again gave forth its rich tones, and a young, fair-haired boy
+with the face of a devotee arose and turned toward the congregation, his
+face uplifted to the oaken rafters. A flood of sunshine streamed through
+the painted window and fell in long slanting rays upon the spiritual
+face. The exquisite voice rose and fell in silvery cadence, the soft
+notes fluting out through the vast space and reaching straight to
+Amarilly's heart which was beating in unison to the music. "Oh," she
+thought wistfully, "if Pete Noyes was only like him!"
+
+She responded to the offertory with a penny, which lay solitary and
+outlawed on the edge of a contribution plate filled with envelopes and
+bank bills. The isolated coin caught the eye of the young rector as he
+received the offerings, and his gaze wandered wonderingly over his
+fashionable congregation. It finally rested upon the small, eager-eyed
+face of his washerwoman's daughter, and a look of angelic sweetness came
+into his brown eyes with the thought: "Even the least of these!"
+
+Colette, statuesque and sublime, caught the flash of radiance that
+illumined the face of her pastor, and her heart-strings responded with a
+little thrill.
+
+There was another fervent prayer in low, pleading tones, after which
+followed the recessional, the choir-boys chanting their solemn measures.
+
+Amarilly in passing out saw John, clad in a long, tight-fitting black
+garment, standing at the church door.
+
+"He's got another costume fer the afterpiece," she thought admiringly.
+"He must be a lightning change artist like the one down to the vawdyveel
+that Pete was tellin' of!"
+
+Then two wonderful, heart-throbbing things happened. John took
+Amarilly's saffron-clad hand in his and told her in earnest, convincing
+tones how glad he was that she had come, and that he should look for her
+every Sunday.
+
+"He held up the hull p'rade fer me!" she thought exultingly.
+
+As he was speaking to her his gaze wandered away for a second; in that
+infinitesimal space of time there came into his eyes a dazzling flash of
+light that was like a revelation to the sharp-eyed little girl, who,
+following the direction of his glance, beheld Colette. Then came the
+second triumph. Colette, smiling, shook hands with her and praised her
+attire.
+
+"Did you like the service, Amarilly?" she whispered. "Was it like the
+theatre?"
+
+"It was diffrent," said Amarilly impressively. "I think it's what heaven
+is!"
+
+"And did you like the sermon St. John preached?"
+
+Amarilly's lips quivered.
+
+"I liked it so much, I liked him so much, I'd ruther not talk about it."
+
+Colette stooped and kissed the freckled little face, to the utter
+astonishment of those standing near and to the complete felicity of John
+Meredith, who was a witness of the little scene though he did not hear
+the conversation.
+
+Amarilly walked homeward, her uplifted face radiant with happiness.
+
+"The flowers, the lights, oh, it was great!" she thought. "Bud could
+sing like that if he was learnt. He couldn't look like that surplused
+boy, though. He sorter made me think of Little Eva in the play they give
+down to Milt's school. I wish Bud's hair was yaller and curly instead of
+black and straight!"
+
+Amarilly's reminiscences next carried her to the look she had seen in
+the rector's eyes when he beheld Colette coming out of the church.
+
+"It was the look Lord Algernon tried to give Lady Cecul," she thought,
+"only he couldn't do it, 'cause it wasn't in Him to give. And it
+couldn't never be in him the same as 't is in Mr. St. John and Miss
+King. It ain't in her yet to see what was in his eyes. Some day when she
+gits more feelin's, mebby 't will be, though."
+
+When Amarilly had faithfully pictured the service to the household,
+Bud's anaemic face grew eager.
+
+"Take me with yer, Amarilly, next time, won't yer?" he pleaded.
+
+"It's too fer. You couldn't walk, Buddy," she answered, "and we can't
+afford car-fare fer two both ways."
+
+"I'll take him to-night," promised the Boarder. "We'll ride both ways,
+so fur as we kin. I'd like to hear a sermon now and then, especially by
+a young preacher."
+
+The little family stayed up that night until the return of Bud and the
+Boarder who were vociferous in approval of the service.
+
+"It ain't much like our meetin'-house," said Bud. "It was het and lit.
+And the way that orgin let out! Say, Amarilly, thar wasn't no man in
+sight to play it! I s'pose they've got one of them things like a
+pianner-player. Them surplused boys sung fine!"
+
+"He give us a fine talk," reported the Boarder. "I've allers thought if
+a man paid a hundred cents on the dollar, 't was all that was expected
+of him. But I believe it's a good idee to go to church and keep your
+conscience jogged up so it won't rust. I'll go every Sunday, mebby, and
+take Bud so he kin larn them tunes."
+
+"I never go to no shows nor nuthin'!" wailed Cory.
+
+"I'll take you next time," soothed Amarilly. "I kin work you'se off on
+the kinductor as under age, I guess, if you'll crouch down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Monday's mops and pails broke in upon the spell of Amarilly's spiritual
+enchantment to some extent, but remembrance of the scenic effects
+lingered and was refreshed by the clothes-line of vestal garb which
+manifested the family prosperity, and heralded to the neighborhood that
+the Jenkins's star was in the ascendant.
+
+"Them Jenkinses," said Mrs. Hudgers, who lived next door, "is orful
+stuck up sence they got the sudsin' of them surpluses."
+
+This animadversion was soon conveyed to Amarilly, who instantly and
+freely forgave the critic.
+
+"She's old and rheumatic," argued the little girl. "She can't git to go
+nowhars, and folks that is shut in too long spiles, jest like canned
+goods. Besides, her clock has stopped. Nobody can't go on without no
+clock."
+
+Out of pity for the old woman's sequestered life, Amarilly was wont to
+relate to her all the current events, and it was through the child's
+keen, young optics that Mrs. Hudgers saw life. An eloquent and vivid
+description of St. Mark's service was eagerly related.
+
+"I allers thought I'd like to see them Episcopals," she remarked
+regretfully. "Ef church air wa'n't so bad fer my rheumatiz, I'd pay
+car-fare jest to see it onct. I was brung up Methodist though."
+
+This desire suggested to Amarilly's fertile little brain a way to make a
+contribution to John Meredith's pet missionary scheme, whose merits he
+had so ardently expounded from the pulpit.
+
+"I'll hev a sacrud concert like the one he said they was goin' to hev to
+the church," she decided.
+
+She was fully aware of the sensation created by the Thursday clothes-line
+of surplices, and she resolved to profit thereby while the garments
+were still a novelty. Consequently the neighborhood was notified that a
+sacred concert by a "surplused choir" composed of members of the Jenkins
+household, assisted by a few of their schoolmates, would be given a week
+from Wednesday night. This particular night was chosen for the reason
+that the church washing was put to soak late on a Wednesday.
+
+There was a short, sharp conflict in Amarilly's conscience before she
+convinced herself it would not be wrong to allow the impromptu choir to
+don the surplices of St. Mark's.
+
+"They wouldn't spile 'em jest awearin' 'em onct," she argued sharply,
+for Amarilly always "sassed back" with spirit to her moral accuser.
+"'Tain't as if they wa'n't agoin' into the wash as soon as they take 'em
+off. Besides," as a triumphant clincher, "think of the cause!"
+
+Amarilly had heard the Boarder and a young socialist exchanging views,
+and she had caught this slogan, which was a tempting phrase and adequate
+to whitewash many a doubtful act. It proved effectual in silencing the
+conscience which Amarilly slipped back into its case and fastened
+securely.
+
+She held nightly rehearsals for the proposed entertainment. After the
+first the novelty was exhausted, and on the next night there was a
+falling off in attendance, so the young, director diplomatically
+resorted to the use of decoy ducks in the shape of a pan of popcorn, a
+candy pull, and an apple roast. By such inducements she whipped her
+chorus into line, ably assisted by Bud, who had profited by his
+attendance at St. Mark's.
+
+The Jenkins dwelling was singularly well adapted for a public
+performance, as, to use Mrs. Wint's phraseology, "it had no insides."
+The rooms were partitioned off by means of curtains on strings. These
+were taken down on the night of the concert. So the "settin'-room," the
+"bedroom off" and the kitchen became one. Seats were improvised by means
+of boards stretched across inverted washtubs.
+
+At seven o'clock on the night set for the concert the audience was
+solemnly ushered in by the Boarder. No signs of the performers were
+visible, but sounds of suppressed excitement issued from the woodshed,
+which had been converted into a vestry.
+
+Presently the choir, chanting a hymn, made an impressive and effective
+entrance. To Amarilly's consternation this evoked an applause, which
+jarred on her sense of propriety.
+
+"This ain't no show, and it ain't no time to clap," she explained to the
+Boarder, who cautioned the congregation against further demonstration.
+
+Flamingus read a psalm in a sing-song, resonant voice, and then Amarilly
+announced a hymn, cordially inviting the neighbors to "jine in." The
+response was lusty-lunged, and there was a unanimous request for another
+tune. After Amarilly had explained the use to which the collection was
+to be put, Gus passed a pie tin, while an offertory solo was rendered by
+Bud in sweet, trebled tones.
+
+The sacred concert was pronounced a great success by the audience, who
+promptly dispersed at its close. While the Boarder was shifting the
+curtains to their former positions, and Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly were
+busily engaged in divesting the choir of their costumes, the front door
+opened and disclosed a vision of loveliness in the form of Colette.
+
+"I knocked," she explained apologetically to the Boarder, "but no one
+heard me. Are the family all away?"
+
+"They are in the woodshed. Walk right out," he urged hospitably.
+
+Colette stepped to the door and, on opening it, gazed in bewilderment at
+the disrobing choir.
+
+"These are not St. Mark's choir-boys, are they?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins felt herself growing weak-kneed. She looked apprehensively
+at Amarilly, who stepped bravely to the front with the air of one who
+feels that the end justifies the means.
+
+"It was fer him--fer Mr. St. John I done it," she began in explanation,
+and then she proceeded to relate the particulars of her scheme and its
+accomplishment.
+
+She had but just finished this narrative when suddenly in the line of
+her vision came the form of the young rector himself. He had been
+ushered out by the Boarder, who was still actively engaged in "redding
+up."
+
+"I came to call upon you, for I consider you one of my parishioners
+now," he said to Amarilly, his face flushing at the unexpected encounter
+with Colette.
+
+Amarilly breathed a devout prayer of thankfulness that the last surplice
+had been removed and was now being put to soak by her mother.
+
+Colette's eyes were dancing with the delight of mischief-making as she
+directed, in soft but mirthful tones:
+
+"Tell Mr. St. John about your choir and concert."
+
+Amarilly's eyes lowered in consternation. She was in great awe of this
+young man whose square chin was in such extreme contradiction to his
+softly luminous eyes, and she began to feel less fortified by the
+reminder of the "cause."
+
+"I'd ruther not," she faltered.
+
+"Then don't, Amarilly," he said gently.
+
+"Mebby that's why I'd orter," she acknowledged, lifting serious eyes to
+his. "You said that Sunday that we wa'n't to turn out of the way fer
+hard things."
+
+"I don't want it to be hard for you to tell me anything, Amarilly," he
+said reassuringly. "Suppose you show me that you trust me by telling me
+about your concert."
+
+So once more Amarilly gave a recital of her plan for raising money for
+the mission, and of its successful fulfilment. John listened with
+varying emotions, struggling heroically to maintain his gravity as he
+heard of the realization of the long-cherished, long-deferred dream of
+Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+"And we took in thirty-seven cents," she said in breathless excitement,
+as she handed him the contents of the pie tin.
+
+"Amarilly," he replied fervently, with the look that Colette was
+learning to love, "you did just right to use the surplices, and this
+contribution means more to me than any I have received. It was a sweet
+and generous thought that prompted your concert."
+
+Amarilly's little heart glowed with pride at this acknowledgment.
+
+At that moment came Bud, singing a snatch of his solo.
+
+"Is this the little brother that sang the offertory?"
+
+"Yes; that's him--Bud."
+
+"Bud, will you sing it again for me, now?"
+
+"Sure thing!" said the atom of a boy, promptly mounting a soap box.
+
+He threw back a mop of thick black hair, rolled his eyes ceilingward,
+and let his sweet, clear voice have full sway.
+
+"Oh, Bud, you darling! Why didn't you tell me he could sing like that,
+Amarilly?" cried Colette at the close of the song.
+
+"We must have him in St. Mark's choir," declared Mr. Meredith. "You may
+bring him to the rectory to-morrow, Amarilly, and I will have the
+choirmaster try his voice. Besides receiving instruction and practice
+every week, he will be paid for his singing."
+
+Money for Bud's voice! So much prosperity was scarcely believable.
+
+"Fust the Guild school, Miss King's washing, the surpluses, and now
+Bud!" thought Amarilly exuberantly. "Next thing I know, I'll be on the
+stage."
+
+"I must go," said Colette presently. "My car is just around the corner
+on the next street. John, will you ride uptown with me?"
+
+He accepted the invitation with alacrity. Colette's sidelong glance
+noted a certain masterful look about his chin, and there was a warning,
+metallic ring in his voice that denoted a determination to overcome all
+obstacles and triumph by sheer force of will. She was not ready to
+listen to him yet, and, a ready evader of issues, chatted incessantly on
+the way to the car. He waited in grim patience, biding his time. As they
+neared the turn in the alley, she played her reserve card.
+
+"Henry didn't think it prudent to bring the big car into the Jenkins's
+_cul-de-sac,_ so he waited in the next street. I expect father will be
+there by this time. We dropped him at a factory near by, where he was to
+speak to some United Workmen."
+
+Colette smiled at the drooping of John's features as he beheld her
+father ensconced in the tonneau.
+
+"Oh, John! I am glad you were here to protect my little girl through
+these byways. I was just on the point of looking her up myself."
+
+When the car stopped at the rectory and Colette bade John good-night,
+the resolute, forward thrust was still prominent in his chin.
+
+He went straight to his study and wrote an ardent avowal of his love.
+Then he sealed the letter and dispatched it by special messenger. There
+would be no more suspense, he thought, for she would have to respond by
+a direct affirmation or negation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+In the tide of the Jenkins's prosperity there came the inevitable ebb.
+On the fateful Friday morning succeeding the concert, Mrs. Hudgers,
+looking from her window, saw a little group of children with books under
+their arms returning from school. Having no timepiece, she was
+accustomed to depend on the passing to and fro of the children for
+guidance as to the performance of her household affairs.
+
+"My sakes, but twelve o'clock come quick to-day," she thought, as she
+kindled the fire and set the kettle over it in preparation of her midday
+meal.
+
+A neighbor dropping in viewed these proceedings with surprise.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Hudgers, ain't you et yer breakfast yet?"
+
+"Of course I hev. I'm puttin' the kittle over fer my dinner."
+
+"Dinner! why, it's only a half arter nine."
+
+Mrs. Hudgers looked incredulous.
+
+"I seen the chillern agoin' hum from school," she maintained.
+
+"Them was the Jenkinses, Iry hez come down with the scarlit fever, and
+they're all in quarrytine."
+
+"How you talk! Wait till I put the kittle offen the bile."
+
+The two neighbors sat down to discuss this affliction with the ready
+sympathy of the poor for the poor. Their passing envy of the Jenkins's
+good fortune was instantly skimmed from the surface of their
+friendliness, which had only lain dormant and wanted but the touch of
+trouble to make them once more akin.
+
+When the city physician had pronounced Iry's "spell" to be scarlet
+fever, the other members of the household were immediately summoned by
+emergency calls. The children came from school, Amarilly from the
+theatre, and the Boarder from his switch to hold an excited family
+conference.
+
+"It's a good thing we got the washin's all hum afore Iry was took,"
+declared the optimistic Amarilly.
+
+"Thar's two things here yet," reported Mrs. Jenkins. "Gus come hum too
+late last night to take the preacher's surplus and Miss King's lace
+waist. You was so tired I didn't tell you, 'cause I know'd you'd be sot
+on goin' with them yourself. They're all did up."
+
+"Well, they'll hev to stay right here with us and the fever," said
+Amarilly philosophically.
+
+At heart she secretly rejoiced in the retaining of these two garments,
+for they seemed to keep her in touch with their owners whom she would be
+unable to see until Iry had recovered.
+
+"I don't see what we are going to do, Amarilly," said her mother
+despairingly. "Thar'll be nuthin' comin' in and so many extrys."
+
+"No extrys," cheerfully assured the little comforter. "The city
+doctor'll take keer of Iry and bring the medicines. We hev laid by some
+sence we got the church wash. It'll tide us over till Iry gits well. We
+all need a vacation from work, anyhow."
+
+At the beginning of the next week a ten-dollar bill came from Colette,
+"to buy jellies and things for Iry," she wrote. A similar contribution
+came from John Meredith.
+
+"We air on Easy Street onct more!" cried Amarilly joyfully.
+
+"I hate to take the money from them," sighed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'll make it up to them when we kin work agin," consoled Amarilly.
+"Better to take from friends than from the city. It won't be fer long.
+Iry seems to hev took it light, the doctor said."
+
+This diagnosis proved correct, but it had not occurred to Amarilly in
+her prognostications that the question of the duration of the quarantine
+was not entirely dependent upon Iry's convalescence. Like a row of
+blocks the children, with the exception of Flamingus and Amarilly, in
+rapid succession came down with a mild form of the fever. Mrs. Jenkins
+and Amarilly divided the labors of cook and nurse, but the mainstay of
+the family was the Boarder. He aided in the housework, and as an
+entertainer of the sick he proved invaluable. He told stories, drew
+pictures, propounded riddles, whittled boats and animals, played "Beggar
+my Neighbor," and sang songs for the convalescent ward.
+
+When the last cent of the Jenkins's reserve fund and the contributions
+from the rector and Colette had been exhausted, the Boarder put a
+willing hand in his pocket and drew forth his all to share with the
+afflicted family. There was one appalling night when the treasury was
+entirely depleted, and the larder was a veritable Mother Hubbard's
+cupboard.
+
+"Something will come," prophesied Amarilly trustfully.
+
+Something did come the next day in the shape of a donation of five
+dollars from Mr. Vedder, who had heard of the prolonged quarantine.
+Amarilly wept from gratitude and gladness.
+
+"The perfesshun allers stand by each other," she murmured proudly.
+
+This last act of charity kept the Jenkins's pot boiling until the
+premises were officially and thoroughly fumigated. Again famine
+threatened. The switch remained open to the Boarder, and he was once
+more on duty, but he had as yet drawn no wages, one morning there was
+nothing for breakfast.
+
+"I'll pawn my ticker at noon," promised the Boarder, "and bring home
+something for dinner."
+
+"There is lots of folks as goes without breakfast allers, from choice,"
+informed Amarilly. "Miss Vail, the teacher at the Guild, says it's
+hygeniack."
+
+"It won't hurt us and the boys," said Mrs. Jenkins, "but Iry and Co is
+too young to go hungry even if it be hygeniack."
+
+"They ain't agoin' hungry," declared Amarilly. "I'll pervide fer them."
+
+With a small pitcher under her cape she started bravely forth on a
+foraging expedition. After walking a few blocks she came to a white
+house whose woodhouse joined the alley. Hiding behind a barrel she
+watched and waited until a woman opened the back door and set a soup
+plate of milk on the lowest step.
+
+"Come a kits! Come a kits!" she called shrilly, and then went back into
+the house.
+
+The "kits" came on the run; so did Amarilly. She arrived first, and
+hastily emptied the contents of the soup plate into her pitcher. Then
+she fled, leaving two dismayed maltese kittens disconsolately lapping an
+empty dish.
+
+"Here's milk for Iry," she announced, handing the pitcher to her mother.
+"Now I'll go and get some breakfast for Co."
+
+
+She returned presently with a sugared doughnut.
+
+"Where did you borry the milk and nut-cake?" asked her mother
+wonderingly.
+
+"I didn't borry them," replied Amarilly stoically. "I stole them."
+
+"Stole them! Am-a-ril-ly Jenk-ins!"
+
+"Twan't exackly stealin'," argued Amarilly cheerfully. "I took the milk
+from two little cats what git stuffed with milk every morning and night.
+The doughnut had jest been stuck in a parrot's cage. He hedn't tetched
+it. My! he swore fierce! I'd ruther steal, anyway, than let Iry and Co
+go hungry."
+
+"What would the preacher say!" demanded her mother solemnly. "He would
+say it was wrong."
+
+"He don't know nothin' about bein' hungry!" replied Amarilly defiantly.
+"If he was ever as hungry as Iry, I bet he'd steal from a cat."
+
+The season was now summer. Some time ago John Meredith had gone to the
+seashore and the King family to their summer home in the mountains,
+unaware that the fever had spread over so wide an area in the Jenkins
+domain. The theatre and St. Mark's were closed for the rest of the
+summer. The little boys found that their positions had been filled
+during the period of quarantine. None of these catastrophes, however,
+could be compared to the calamity of the realization that Bud alone of
+all the patients had not convalesced completely. He was a delicate
+little fellow, and he grew paler and thinner each day. In desperation
+Amarilly went to the doctor.
+
+"Bud don't pick up," she said bluntly.
+
+"I feared he wouldn't," replied the doctor.
+
+"Can't you try some other kinds of medicines?"
+
+"I can, but I am afraid that there is no medicine that will help him
+very much."
+
+Amarilly turned pale.
+
+"Is there anything else that will help him?" she demanded fiercely.
+
+"If he could go to the seashore he might brace up. Sea air would work
+wonders for him."
+
+"He shall go," said Amarilly with determination.
+
+"I can get a week for him through the Fresh Air Fund," suggested the
+doctor.
+
+He succeeded in getting two weeks, and, that time was extended another
+fortnight through the benevolence of Mr. Vedder.
+
+Bud returned a study in reds and browns.
+
+"The sea beats the theayter and the church all to smitherines,
+Amarilly!" he declared jubilantly. "I kin go to work now."
+
+"No!" said Amarilly resolutely. "You air goin' to loaf through this hot
+weather until church and school open."
+
+The family fund once more had a modest start. Mrs. Jenkins obtained a
+few of her old customers, Bobby got a paper route, Flamingus and Milton
+were again at work, but Amarilly, Gus, and Cory were without vocations.
+
+Soon after the quarantine was lifted Amarilly went forth to deliver the
+surplice and the waist which had hung familiarly side by side during the
+weeks of trouble. The housekeeper at the rectory greeted her kindly and
+was most sympathetic on learning of the protracted confinement. She made
+Amarilly a present of the surplice.
+
+"Mr. Meredith said you were to keep it. He thought your mother might
+find it useful. It is good linen, you know, and you can cut it up into
+clothes for the children. He has so many surplices, he won't miss this
+one."
+
+"I'll never cut it up!" thought Amarilly as she reverently received the
+robe. "I'll keep it in 'membrance of him."
+
+"It's orful good in him to give it to us," she said gratefully to the
+housekeeper.
+
+That worthy woman smiled, remembering how the fastidious young rector
+had shrunk from the thought of wearing a fumigated garment.
+
+At the King residence Amarilly saw the caretaker, who gave her a similar
+message regarding the lace waist.
+
+"I'll keep it," thought Amarilly with a shy little blush, "until I'm
+merried. It'll start my trousseau."
+
+She took the garments home, not mentioning to anyone the gift of the
+waist, however, for that was to be her secret--her first secret. She hid
+this nest-egg of her trousseau in an old trunk which she fastened
+securely.
+
+On the next day she was summoned to help clean the theatre, which had
+been rented for one night by the St. Andrew's vested choir, whose
+members were to give a sacred concert. A rehearsal for this
+entertainment was being held when Amarilly arrived.
+
+"These surplices are all too long or too short for me," complained the
+young tenor, who had recently been engaged for the solo parts.
+
+Amarilly surveyed him critically.
+
+"He's jest about Mr. St. John's size," she mused, "only he ain't so fine
+a shape."
+
+With the thought came an inspiration that brought a quickly waged
+battle. It seemed sacrilegious, although she didn't express it by that
+word, to permit another to wear a garment so sacred to the memory of Mr.
+Meredith, but poverty, that kill-sentiment, had fully developed the
+practical side of Amarilly.
+
+She made answer to her stabs of conscience by action instead of words,
+going straight to her friend, the ticket-seller.
+
+"That feller," she said, indicating the tenor, "ain't satisfied with the
+fit of his surplus. I've got one jest his size. It's done up spick and
+span clean, and I'll rent it to him fer the show. He kin hev it fer the
+ev'nin' fer a dollar. Would you ask him fer me?"
+
+"Certainly, Amarilly," he agreed.
+
+He came back to her, smiling.
+
+"He'll take it, but he seems to think your charge rather high--more than
+that of most costumers, he said."
+
+"This ain't no common surplus," defended Amarilly loftily. "It was wore
+by the rector of St. Mark's, and he give it to me. It's of finer stuff
+than the choir surpluses, and it hez got a cross worked onto it, and a
+pocket in it, too."
+
+"Of course such inducements should increase the value," confirmed Mr.
+Vedder gravely, and he proceeded to hold another colloquy with the
+twinkling-eyed tenor. Amarilly went home for the surplice and received
+therefor the sum of one dollar, which swelled the Jenkins's purse
+perceptibly.
+
+And here began the mundane career of the minister's surplice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Ever apt in following a lead, Amarilly at once resolved to establish a
+regular costuming business. It even occurred to her to hire out the lace
+waist, but thoughts of wedding bells prevailed against her impulse to
+open this branch of the business.
+
+When the young tenor returned the surplice he informed Amarilly that two
+young ladies of his acquaintance were going to give a home entertainment
+for charity. Among the impromptu acts would be some tableaux, and the
+surplice was needed for a church scene. So the new venture brought in
+another dollar that week.
+
+One day Bud came home capless, having crossed a bridge in a high wind.
+
+"I seen an ad," said the thrifty Flamingus, "that the Beehive would give
+away baseball caps to-day."
+
+Amarilly immediately set out for the Beehive, an emporium of fashion in
+the vicinity of the theatre. It was the noon hour, and there were no
+other customers in evidence.
+
+The proprietor and a clerk were engaged in discussing the design for a
+window display, and were loath to notice their would-be beneficiary.
+Finally the clerk drawled out:
+
+"Did you want anything, little girl?"
+
+"I called," explained Amarilly with grandiose manner, "to git one of
+them caps you advertised to give away."
+
+"Oh, those were all given out long ago. You should have come earlier,"
+he replied with an air of relief, as he turned to resume the
+all-absorbing topic with the proprietor.
+
+Amarilly's interest in the window display dispelled any disappointment
+she might have had in regard to Bud's head covering.
+
+"Now," said the clerk didactically, "my idea is this. Have a wedding--a
+church wedding. I can rig up an altar, and we'll have the bride in a
+white, trailing gown; the groom, best man, and ushers in dress suits to
+advertise our gents' department, the bridesmaids and relatives in
+different colored evening dresses, and in this way we can announce our
+big clearing sale of summer goods in the ready-to-wear department. It'll
+make a swell window and draw crowds. Women can never get by a wedding."
+
+"That's a dandy idea, Ben," approved the proprietor.
+
+"Oh, I am a winner on ideas," vaunted the clerk chestily.
+
+So was Amarilly. She stepped eagerly up to the window designer.
+
+"Do you keep surpluses?"
+
+"No; don't know what they are," replied the clerk shortly, turning from
+her. "We'll get a wreath of orange flowers for the bride, and then we
+can have a child carrying the ring, so as to call attention to our
+children's department."
+
+"A surplus," explained Amarilly, scornful of such avowed ignorance, "is
+the white gown that Episcopal ministers wear."
+
+"No; we don't keep them," was the impatient rejoinder.
+
+"Well, I hev one," she said, addressing the proprietor this time, "a
+real minister's, and I'll rent it to you to put on your figger of the
+minister in your wedding window. He'll hev to wear one."
+
+"I am not an Episcopalian," said the proprietor hesitatingly. "What do
+you think, Ben?"
+
+"Well, it hadn't occurred to me to have an Episcopal wedding, but I
+don't know but what it would work out well, after all. It would make it
+attract notice more, and women are always daffy over Episcopal weddings.
+They like classy things. We could put a card in the window, saying all
+the clergy bought the linen for their surplices here. How," turning to
+Amarilly, "did you happen to have such an article?"
+
+"We do the washin' fer St. Mark's church, and the minister give us one
+of his surpluses."
+
+"The display will be in for six days. What will you rent it for that
+long?"
+
+"I allers git a dollar a night fer it," replied Amarilly.
+
+"Too much!" declared the clerk. "I'll give you fifty cents a day."
+
+"I'll let it go six days fer four dollars," bargained Amarilly.
+
+"Well, seeing you have come down on your offer, I'll come up a little on
+mine. I'll take it for three-fifty."
+
+Amarilly considered.
+
+"I will, if you'll throw in one of them caps fer my brother."
+
+"All right," laughed the proprietor. "I think we'll call it a bargain.
+See if you can't dig up one of those caps for her, Ben."
+
+Without much difficulty Ben produced a cap, and Amarilly hurried home
+for the surplice. She went down to the Beehive every day during the
+wedding-window week and feasted her eyes on the beloved gown. She took
+all the glory of the success of the display to her own credit, and her
+feelings were very much like those of the writer of a play on a first
+night.
+
+From a wedding to a funeral was the natural evolution of a surplice, but
+this time it did not appear in its customary rôle. Instead of adorning a
+minister, it clad the corpse. Mrs. Hudgers's only son, a scalawag, who
+had been a constant drain on his mother's small stipend, was taken ill
+and died, to the discreetly disguised relief of the neighborhood.
+
+"I'm agoin' to give Hallie a good funeral," Mrs. Hudgers confided to
+Amarilly. "I'm agoin' to hev hacks and flowers and singin' If yer St.
+Mark's man was to hum now, I should like to have him fishyate."
+
+"Who will you git?" asked Amarilly interestedly.
+
+"I'll hev the preacher from the meetin'-house on the hill, Brother
+Longgrass."
+
+"I wonder," speculated Amarilly, "if he'd like to wear the surplus?"
+
+Foremost as the plumes of Henry of Navarre in battle were the surplice
+and the renting thereof in Amarilly's vision.
+
+"I don't expect he could do that," replied Mrs. Hudgers doubtfully. "His
+church most likely wouldn't stand fer it. Brother Longgrass is real kind
+if he ain't my sort. He's agoin' to let the boys run the maylodeun down
+here the night afore the funyral."
+
+"Who's agoin' to sing?"
+
+"I dunno yit. I left it to the preacher. He said he'd git me a picked
+choir, whatever that may be."
+
+"My! But you'll hev a fine funeral!" exclaimed Amarilly admiringly.
+
+"I allers did say that when Hallie got merried, or died, things should
+be done right. Thar's jest one thing I can't hev."
+
+"What's that, Mrs. Hudgers?"
+
+"Why, you see, Amarilly, Hallie's clo'es air sort of shabby-like, and
+when we git him in that shiny new caskit, they air agoin' to show up
+orful seedy. But I can't afford ter buy him a new suit jest for this
+onct."
+
+"Couldn't you rent a suit?" asked Amarilly, her ruling passion for
+business still dominating.
+
+"No; I jest can't, Amarilly. It's costin' me too much now."
+
+"I know it is," sympathized Amarilly, concentrating her mind on the
+puzzling solution of Hallie's habiliment.
+
+"Mrs. Hudgers," she exclaimed suddenly, "why can't you put the surplus
+on Hallie? You kin slip it on over his suit, and when the funeral's
+over, and they hev all looked at the corpse, you kin take it offen him."
+
+"Oh, that would be sweet!" cried Mrs. Hudgers, brightening perceptibly.
+"Hallie would look beautiful in it, and 'twould be diffrent from any one
+else's funeral. How you allers think of things, Amarilly! But I ain't
+got no dollar to pay you fer it."
+
+"If you did hev one," replied Amarilly Indignantly, "I shouldn't let you
+pay fer it. We're neighbors, and what I kin do fer Hallie I want ter
+do."
+
+"Well, Amarilly, it's certainly fine fer you to feel that way. You don't
+think," she added with sudden apprehension, "that they'd think the
+surplus was Hallie's nightshirt, do you?"
+
+"Oh, no!" protested Amarilly, shocked at such a supposition. "Besides,
+you kin tell them all that Hallie's laid out in a surplus. They all seen
+them to the concert."
+
+The funeral passed off with great éclat. The picked choir had resonant
+voices, and Brother Longgrass preached one of his longest sermons,
+considerately omitting reference to any of the characteristics of the
+deceased. Mrs. Hudgers was suitably attired in donated and dusty black.
+The extremely unconventional garb of Hallie caused some little comment,
+but it was commonly supposed to be a part of the Episcopalian spirit
+which the Jenkinses seemed to be inculcating in the neighborhood.
+Brother Longgrass was a little startled upon beholding the white-robed
+corpse, but perceiving what comfort it brought to the afflicted mother,
+he magnanimously forbore to allude to the matter.
+
+After the remains had been viewed for the last time, the surplice was
+removed. In the evening Amarilly called for it.
+
+"He did look handsome in it," commented Mrs. Hudgers with a satisfied,
+reminiscent smile. "I wish I might of hed his likeness took. I'm agoin'
+to make you take hum this pan of fried cakes Mrs. Holdock fetched in.
+They'll help fill up the chillern."
+
+"I don't want to rob you, Mrs. Hudgers," said Amarilly, gazing longingly
+at the doughnuts, which were classed as luxuries in the Jenkins's menu.
+
+"I dassent eat 'em, Amarilly. If I et jest one, I'd hev dyspepsy orful,
+and folks hez brung in enough stuff to kill me now. It does beat all the
+way they bring vittles to a house of mournin'! I only wish Hallie could
+hev some of 'em."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The surplice, carefully laundered after the funeral, was ready for new
+fields of labor. The tenor, first patron of Amarilly's costuming
+establishment, was wont to loiter in the studio of an artist he knew and
+relate his about-town adventures. This artist was interested in the
+annals of the little scrub-girl and her means of livelihood.
+
+"I have in mind," he said musingly, "a picture of a musician, the light
+to be streaming through a stained window on his uplifted head as he sits
+at an organ."
+
+"The Lost Chord?" inquired the tenor.
+
+"Nothing quite so bromidic as that," laughed the artist. "I have my
+model engaged, and I had intended to have you borrow a surplice for me,
+but you may ask your little customer to rent me her gown for a couple of
+days."
+
+On receipt of this request delivered through the medium of the ticket-
+seller, Amarilly promptly appeared at the studio. She was gravely and
+courteously received by the artist, Derry Phillips, an easy-mannered
+youth, slim and supple, with dark, laughing eyes. When they had
+transacted the business pertaining to the rental of the surplice,
+Amarilly arose from her chair with apparent reluctance. This was a new
+atmosphere, and she was fascinated by the pictures and the general air
+of artistic disarrangement which she felt but could not account for.
+
+"'Tain't exactly the kind of place to tidy," she reflected, "but it
+needs cleaning turrible."
+
+"Do you like pictures?" asked the young artist, following her gaze.
+"Stay a while and look at them, if you wish."
+
+Amarilly readily availed herself of this permission, and rummaged about
+the rooms while Derry pursued his work. Upon the completion of her tour
+of inspection, he noticed a decided look of disapproval upon her face.
+
+"What is the matter, Miss Jenkins? Aren't the pictures true to life?" he
+inquired with feigned anxiety.
+
+"The picters is all right," replied Amarilly, "but--"
+
+"But what?" he urged expectantly.
+
+"Your rooms need reddin' up. Thar's an orful lot of dust. Yer things
+will spile."
+
+"Oh, dust, you know, to the artistic temperament, is merely a little
+misplaced matter."
+
+"'Tain't only misplaced. It's stuck tight," contended Amarilly.
+
+"Dear me! And to think that I was contemplating a studio tea to some
+people day after to-morrow, I suppose it really should be 'red up'
+again. Honestly though, I engage a woman who come every week and clean
+the rooms."
+
+"She's imposed on you," said Amarilly indignantly. "She's swept the dirt
+up agin the mopboards and left it thar, and she hez only jest skimmed
+over things with a dust-cloth. It ain't done thorough."
+
+"And are you quite proficient as a _blanchisseuse?"_
+
+Amarilly looked at him unperturbed.
+
+"I kin scrub," she remarked calmly.
+
+"I stand rebuked. Scrubbing is what they need. If you will come
+to-morrow morning and put these rooms in order, I will give you a dollar
+and your midday meal."
+
+Amarilly, well satisfied with her new opening, closed the bargain
+instantly.
+
+The next morning at seven o'clock she rang the studio bell. The artist,
+attired in a bathrobe and rubbing his eyes sleepily, opened the door.
+
+"This was the day I was to clean," reminded Amarilly reprovingly.
+
+"To be sure. But why so early? I thought you were a telegram."
+
+"Early! It's seven o'clock."
+
+"I still claim it's early. I have only been in bed four hours."
+
+"Well, you kin go back to bed. I'll work orful quiet."
+
+"And I can trust you not to touch any of the pictures or move anything?"
+
+"I'll be keerful," Amarilly assured him. "Jest show me whar to het up
+the water. I brung the soap and a brush."
+
+The artist lighted a gas stove, and, after carefully donning a long-
+sleeved apron, Amarilly put the water on and began operations. Her eyes
+shone with anticipation as she looked about her.
+
+"I'm glad it's so dirty," she remarked. "It's more interestin' to clean
+a dirty place. Then what you do shows up, and you feel you earnt your
+money."
+
+With a laugh the artist returned to his bedroom, whence he emerged three
+hours later.
+
+"This room is all cleaned," announced Amarilly. "It took me so long
+'cause it's so orful big and then 'twas so turrible dirty."
+
+"You must have worked like a little Trojan. Now stop a bit while I
+prepare my breakfast."
+
+"Kin you cook?" asked Amarilly in astonishment.
+
+"I can make coffee and poach eggs. Come into my butler's pantry and
+watch me."
+
+Amarilly followed him into a small apartment and was initiated into the
+mysteries of electric toasters and percolators.
+
+He tried in vain to induce her to share his meal with him, but she
+protested.
+
+"I hed my breakfast at five-thirty. I don't eat agin till noon."
+
+"Oh, Miss Jenkins! You have no artistic temperament or you would not
+cling to ironclad rules."
+
+"My name's Amarilly," she answered shortly. "I ain't old enough to be
+'missed' yet."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Amarilly. You seem any age," he replied, sitting
+down to his breakfast, "You are not too old, then, for me to ask what
+your age is--in years?"
+
+"I jest got into my teens."
+
+"Thirteen. And I am ten years older. When is your birthday?"
+
+"It's ben. It was the fust of June."
+
+"Why, Amarilly," jumping up and holding out his hand, "we are twins!
+That is my birthday."
+
+"And you are twenty-three."
+
+"Right you are. That is my age at the present moment. Last night I was
+far older, and to-morrow, mayhap, I'll be years younger."
+
+"Be you a Christian Science?" she asked doubtfully.
+
+"Lord, no, child! I am an artist. What made you ask that?"
+
+"'Cause they don't believe in age. Miss Jupperskin told me about 'em.
+She's workin' up to it. But I must go back to my work."
+
+"So must I, Amarilly. My model will be here in a few moments to don your
+surplice. If you want to clean up my breakfast dishes you may do so, and
+then tackle the bedroom and the rest of the apartment."
+
+Three hours later, Amarilly went into the studio. The model had gone,
+and the artist stood before his easel surveying his sketch with
+approval.
+
+"This is going to be a good picture, Amarilly. The model caught my idea.
+There is some fore--"
+
+"Mr. Phillips!"
+
+"My name is Derry. I am too young to be 'mistered.'"
+
+There was no response, and with a smile he turned inquiringly toward
+her. There was a wan little droop about the corners of her eyes and lips
+that brought contrition to his boyish heart.
+
+"Amarilly you are tired! You have worked too steadily. Sit down and rest
+awhile."
+
+"'Tain't that! I'm hungry. Kin I het up the coffee and--"
+
+"Good gracious, Amarilly! I forgot you ate at regular, stated intervals.
+We will go right out now to a nice little restaurant near by and eat our
+luncheon together."
+
+Amarilly flushed.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry. That's orful nice in you, but I'd ruther eat
+here. Thar's the toast and coffee to het, and an aig--"
+
+"No! You are going to have a good, square meal and eat it with me. You
+see I had to eat my birthday dinner all alone, so we'll celebrate the
+first of June now, together. Slip off your apron. By the way, some day I
+shall paint a picture of you in that apron scrubbing my 'mopboard.'"
+
+Amarilly shook her head.
+
+"I don't look fit to go nowhars with you, Mr. Derry."
+
+"Vanitas, and the rest of it! Oh, Amarilly, only thirteen, and the
+ruling passion of your sex already in full sway!"
+
+"It's on your account that I'm ashamed," she said in defence of his
+accusation. "I'd want ter look nice fer you."
+
+"That's sweet of you, Amarilly; but if you really want to look nice,
+don't think of your clothes. It's other things. Think of your hair, for
+instance. It's your best point, and yet you hide it under a bushel and,
+worse than that, you braid it so tight I verily believe it's wired."
+
+"I'm used to bein' teased about my red head," she replied. "I don't
+keer."
+
+"It's a glorious red, Amarilly. The color the vulgar jeer at, and
+artists like your friend and twin, Derry, rave over. You're what is
+called 'Titian-haired,'"
+
+"Are you makin' fun, Mr. Derry?" she asked suspiciously.
+
+"No, Amarilly; seriously, I think it the loveliest shade of hair there
+is, and now I am going to show you how you should wear it. Unbind it,
+all four of those skin-tight braids."
+
+She obeyed him, and a loosened, thick mass of hair fell below her waist.
+
+"Glorious!" he cried fervidly. "Take that comb from the top of your head
+and comb it out. There! Now part it, and catch up these strands
+loosely--so. I must find a ribbon for a bow. What color would you
+suggest, Amarilly?"
+
+"Brown."
+
+"Bravo, Amarilly. If you had said blue, I should have lost all faith in
+your future upcoming. Here are two most beautiful brown bows on this
+thingamajig some one gave me last Christmas, and whose claim on creation
+I never discovered. Let me braid your hair loosely for two and
+one-quarter inches. One bow here--another there. Look in the glass,
+Amarilly. If I give you these bows will you promise me never to wear
+your hair in any other fashion until you are sixteen at least? Off with
+your apron! It's picturesque, but soapy and exceedingly wet. You won't
+need a hat. It's only around the corner, and I want your hair to be
+observed and admired."
+
+Amarilly gained assurance from the reflection of her hair in the mirror,
+and they started gayly forth like two school children out for a lark. He
+ushered her into a quiet little café that had an air of pronounced
+elegance about it. In a secluded corner behind some palms came the
+subdued notes of stringed instruments. Derry seemed to be well known
+here, and his waiter viewed his approach with an air of proprietorship.
+
+"It's dead quiet here," thought Amarilly wonderingly. "Like a church."
+
+It was beginning to dawn upon her alert little brain that real things
+were all quiet, not noisy like the theatre.
+
+"What shall we have first, Amarilly?" inquired her new friend with mock
+deference. "Bouillon?"
+
+Amarilly, recalling the one time in her life when she had had
+"luncheon," replied casually that she preferred fruit, and suggested a
+melon.
+
+"Good, Amarilly! You are a natural epicure. Fruit, certainly, on a warm
+day like this. I shall let you select all the courses. What next?"
+
+"Lobster," she replied nonchalantly.
+
+"Fine! And then?"
+
+"Grapefruit salad."
+
+He looked at her in amazement, and reflected that she had doubtless been
+employed in some capacity that had made her acquainted with luncheon
+menus.
+
+"And," concluded Amarilly, without waiting for prompting, "I think an
+ice would be about right. And coffee in a little cup, and some cheese."
+
+"By all means, Amarilly," he responded humbly. "And what kind of cheese,
+please?"
+
+"Now I'm stumped," thought Amarilly ruefully, "fer I can't 'member how
+to speak the kind she hed."
+
+"Most any kind," she said loftily, "except that kind you put in
+mousetraps."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you are a true aristocrat! How comes it that you scrub
+floors? Is it on a bet?"
+
+The waiter came up and said something to the artist in a low tone, and
+Derry replied hastily:
+
+"Nothing to-day." Then, turning to Amarilly, he asked her if she would
+like a glass of milk. Upon her assent, he ordered two glasses of milk,
+to the veiled surprise of the waiter.
+
+When the luncheon was served, Amarilly, by reason of her good memory,
+was still at ease. The children at the Guild school had been given a few
+general rules in table deportment, but Amarilly had followed every
+movement of Colette's so faithfully at the eventful luncheon that she
+ate very slowly, used the proper forks and spoons, and won Derry's
+undisguised admiration.
+
+"Mr. Vedder's, good," she thought. "Mr. St. John's grand, but this 'ere
+Mr. Derry's folksy. I'd be skeert settin' here eatin' with Mr. St. John,
+but this feller's only a kid, and I feel quite to hum with him."
+
+"Amarilly," he said confidentially, as they were sipping their coffee
+from "little cups," "you are truthful, I know. Will you be perfectly
+frank with me and answer a question?"
+
+"Mebby," she replied warily.
+
+"Did you ever eat a luncheon like this before?"
+
+"I never seen the inside of a restyrant afore," she replied.
+
+"Now you are fencing. I mean, did you ever have the same things to eat
+that we had just now?"
+
+Amarilly hesitated, longing to mystify him further, but it came over her
+in a rush how very kind he had been to her.
+
+"Yes, I hev. I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"Good! An after-dinner story! Beat her up, Amarilly!"
+
+So she told him of her patroness and the luncheon she had eaten at her
+house.
+
+"And I watched how she et and done, and she tole me the names of the
+things we hed. I writ them out, and that was my lesson that night with
+the Boarder."
+
+Then, of course, Derry must know all about the Boarder and the brothers.
+After she had finished her faithful descriptions, it was time to return
+to the studio. Her quick, keen eyes had noted the size of the bill Derry
+had put on the salver, and the small amount of change he had received.
+She walked home beside him in troubled silence.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly?" he asked as she was buttoning on her
+apron preparatory to resuming work. "Didn't the luncheon agree with you,
+or are you mad at me? And for why, pray?"
+
+Amarilly's thin little face flushed and a tear came into each thoughtful
+eye.
+
+"I hedn't orter to hev tole you ter git all them things. I was atryin'
+ter be smart and show off, but, honest, I didn't know they was agoin'
+ter cost so much. I ain't agoin' ter take no money fer the cleanin', and
+that'll help some."
+
+Derry laughed rapturously.
+
+"My dear child!" he exclaimed, when he could speak. "You are a veritable
+little field daisy. You really saved me money by going with me. If I had
+gone alone, I should have spent twice as much."
+
+"How could that be?" she asked unbelievingly. "You would only hev give
+one order, so 'twould hev ben jest half as much."
+
+"But if you had not been with me, I should have had a cocktail and a
+bottle of wine, which would have cost more than our meal. Out of
+deference to your youth and other things, I forbore to indulge. So you
+see I saved money by having you along. And then it was much better for
+me not to have had those libations."
+
+"Honest true?"
+
+"Honest true, hope to die! Cross my heart and all the rest of it! I'd
+lie cheerfully to some people, but never to you, Amarilly."
+
+"My. Reeves-Eggleston--he's on the stage--said artists was allers poor."
+
+"That's one reason why I am not an artist--a great artist. I am hampered
+by an inheritance that allows me to live without working, so I don't do
+anything worth while. I only dabble at this and that. Some day, maybe,
+I'll have an inspiration."
+
+"Go to work now," she admonished.
+
+"I must perforce. My model's foot is on the stair."
+
+Amarilly left the studio to resume her cleaning. At five o'clock she
+came back. Derry stood at the window, working furiously at some fleecy
+clouds sailing over a cerulean sky. She was about to speak, but
+discerning that he must work speedily and uninterruptedly to keep pace
+with the shifting clouds, she refrained.
+
+"There!" he said. "I got it. You were a good little girl not to
+interrupt me, Amarilly."
+
+"It's beautiful!" gasped Amarilly. "I was afeard you'd git the sky blue
+instead of purplish and that you'd make the clouds too white."
+
+"Amarilly, you've the soul of an artist! In you I have found a true
+critic."
+
+"Come and see if the rooms is all right. I got 'em real clean. Every
+nook and corner. And--"
+
+"I know you did, Amarilly, without looking. I can smell the clean from
+here."
+
+"If thar's nothin' more you want did, I'll go hum."
+
+"Here's a dollar for the rooms and two dollars for the surplice.
+Amarilly, you were glad to learn table manners from Miss King, weren't
+you?"
+
+"Yes; I like to larn all I kin."
+
+"Then, will you let me teach you something?"
+
+"Sure!" she acquiesced quickly.
+
+"There are two things you must do for me. Never say 'et'; say 'ate'
+instead. Then you must say 'can'; not 'kin.' It will be hard to remember
+at first, but every time you forget and make a mistake, remember to-day
+and our jolly little luncheon, will you?"
+
+"I will, and I _can_, Mr. Derry."
+
+"You're an apt little pupil, Amarilly, and I am going to teach you two
+words every time you come."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Amarilly, brightening. "Will you want me ter come agin?"
+
+"Indeed I shall. I am going away next week to the mountains for a couple
+of months. When I come back, I am going to have you come every morning
+at nine o'clock. You can prepare and serve my simple breakfast and clean
+my rooms every day. Then they won't get so disreputable. I will pay you
+what they do at the theatre, and it will not be such hard work. Will you
+enjoy it as well?"
+
+"Oh, better!" exclaimed Amarilly.
+
+And with this naive admission died the last spark of Amarilly's
+stage-lust.
+
+"Then consider yourself engaged. You can call for the surplice to-morrow
+afternoon at this hour."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry."
+
+She hesitated, and then awkwardly extended her hand, which he shook most
+cordially.
+
+"Thank you for a day's entertainment, Amarilly. I haven't been bored
+once. You have very nice hands," looking down at the one he still held.
+
+She reddened and jerked her hand quickly away.
+
+"Now you _are_ kiddin'! They're redder than my hair, and rough and big."
+
+"I repeat, Amarilly, you have nice hands. It isn't size and color that
+counts; it's shape, and from an artist's standpoint you have shapely
+hands. Now will you be good, and shake hands with me in a perfectly
+ladylike way? Thank you, Amarilly."
+
+"Thank _you_, Mr. Derry. It's the beautifulest day I ever hed. Better'n
+the matinée or the Guild or--" she drew a quick breath and said in a
+scared whisper--"the church!"
+
+"I am flattered, Amarilly. We shall have many ruby-lettered days like
+it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The next afternoon Amarilly called at the studio for the surplice.
+
+"I am glad to see you have your hair fixed as I told you, Amarilly," was
+Derry's greeting. "And have you remembered the other things I told you?"
+
+"I hev' writ out 'can' and 'ate' in big letters and pinned 'em up on the
+wall. I can say 'em right every time now."
+
+"Of course you can! And for a reward here's a dollar with which to buy
+some black velvet hair-ribbons. Never put any color but black or brown
+near your hair, Amarilly."
+
+"No, Mr. Derry; but I don't want to take the dollar."
+
+"See here, Amarilly! You're to be my little housemaid, and the uniform
+is always provided. Instead of buying you a cap and apron, I prefer to
+furnish velvet hair-ribbons. Take it, and get a good quality silk
+velvet. And now, good-by for two months. I will let you know when I am
+home so that you may begin on your duties."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry," said the little girl artlessly. "And thar's
+something I'd like to say to you, if you don't mind."
+
+"You may say anything--everything--to me, Amarilly."
+
+"When you go to eat, won't you order jest as ef I was with you--nothin'
+more?"
+
+His fair boyish face reddened slightly, and then a serious look came
+into his dancing eyes.
+
+"By Jove, Amarilly! I've been wishing some girl who really meant it, who
+really cared, would say that to me. You put it very delicately and
+sweetly. I'll--yes, I'll do it all the time I'm gone. There's my hand on
+it. Good-by, Amarilly."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry."
+
+Amarilly walked home very slowly, trying to think of a way to realize
+again from the surplice.
+
+"I'm afeerd I won't find a place to rent it right away," she sighed.
+
+Looking up, she saw the Boarder. A slender, shy slip of a girl had his
+arm, and he was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration.
+
+"Oh, the Boarder is in love!" gasped Amarilly; her responsive little
+heart leaping in sympathetic interest. "That's why he's wore a blue
+necktie the last few days. Lord Algernon said that was allers a sure
+sign."
+
+She tactfully slipped around a corner, unseen by the entranced couple.
+
+That night, as he was lighting his after-supper pipe, the Boarder
+remarked casually:
+
+"I'd like to rent the surplus fer an hour to-morrer, Amarilly."
+
+"Why, what on airth can you do with it?" was the astonished query.
+
+The Boarder looked sheepish.
+
+"You see, Amarilly, I'm akeepin' stiddy company with a little gal."
+
+"I seen you and her this arternoon. She's orful purty," said Amarilly
+reflectively. "She looked kinder delikit, though. What's her name?"
+
+"Lily--Lily Rose. Ain't that a purty name?"
+
+"Beautiful. The lily part jest suits her. She's like a flower--a white
+flower. But what do you want the surplus fer?"
+
+"You see," began the Boarder, coming by circuitous route to his subject,
+"gals git notions in their heads sometimes when they air in--"
+
+"Love," promptly supplied the comprehending little girl.
+
+"Yes," he assented with a fiery blush. "And she wants fer me to hev my
+likeness took so I kin give it to her."
+
+"Thar ain't nothin' foolish about that!" declared Amarilly.
+
+"No; but I never sot fer one yet. I wouldn't mind, but you see she's got
+it in her head that I am good-looking--"
+
+"Well, you be," corroborated Amarilly decisively.
+
+"And she wants me fer to dress up like a preacher. I told her about
+Hallie Hudgers lookin' so swell in the surplus, and she wants, as I
+should dress up in it and set fer my likeness in it."
+
+"I think it would be fine!" approved Amarilly. "You sure would look
+nicer nor Hallie did."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't look like a dead one," admitted the Boarder. "But I
+was orful afraid you'd laugh. Then I kin rent it fer an hour to-morrer
+ef it ain't got no other dates."
+
+"You can't _rent_ it. You can take it fer an hour, or so long as you
+like," she assured him.
+
+"You'll hev to take a quarter anyway, fer luck. Mebby 'twill bring me
+luck awinnin' her."
+
+The photograph of the Boarder in saintly attire was pronounced a great
+success. Before the presentation he had it set in a frame made of gilt
+network studded with shells.
+
+Lily Rose spent her leisure moments gazing upon it with the dream-
+centred eyes of a young devotee before a shrine.
+
+The next wearing of the surplice was more in accord with its original
+design. In the precinct adjoining the one in which lived and let live
+the Jenkins family, a colored Episcopal church had recently been
+established. The rector had but one surplice, and that had been stolen
+from the clothes-line, mayhap by one of his dusky flock; thus it was
+that Amarilly received a call from the Reverend Virgil Washington, who
+had heard of the errant surplice, which he offered to purchase.
+
+Naturally his proposition was met by a firm and unalterable refusal. It
+would have been like selling a golden goose to dispose of such a
+profitable commodity. He then asked to rent it for a Sunday while he was
+having one made. This application, being quite in Amarilly's line of
+business, met with a ready assent.
+
+"You can hev it fer a dollar," she offered.
+
+The bargain was finally closed, although it gave Amarilly more than a
+passing pang to think of the snowy folds of Mr. St. John's garment
+adorning an Ethiopian form.
+
+One day there came to the Jenkins home a most unusual caller. The novel
+presence of the "mailman" at their door brought every neighbor to post
+of observation. His call was for the purpose of leaving a gayly-colored
+postal card addressed to "Miss Amarilly Jenkins." It was from Derry, and
+she spent many happy moments in deciphering it. His writing was
+microscopic, and he managed to convey a great deal of information in the
+allotted small space. He inquired solicitously concerning the surplice,
+and bade her be a good girl and not forget the two words he had taught
+her. "I have ordered all my meals as though you were with me," he wrote
+in conclusion.
+
+Amarilly laid the card away with her wedding waist. Then, with the
+Boarder's aid, she indited an answer on a card that depicted the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+The next event for Amarilly was an invitation to attend the wedding of
+Mrs. Hubbleston, a buxom, bustling widow for whom Mrs. Jenkins washed.
+In delivering the clothes, Amarilly had come to be on very friendly
+terms with the big, light-hearted woman, and so she had been asked to
+assist in the serving of refreshments on the eventful night.
+
+"I've never been to a wedding," said Amarilly wistfully. "I've been to
+most everything else, and I would like to see you wed, but I ain't got
+no clo'es 'cept my hair-ribbons."
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston looked at her contemplatively.
+
+"My last husband's niece's little girl left a dress here once when she
+was going home after a visit. She had hardly worn it, but she had
+outgrown it, and her ma told me to give it away. I had 'most forgotten
+about it. I believe it would just fit you. Let us see."
+
+She produced a white dress that adjusted itself comfortably to
+Amarilly's form.
+
+"You look real pretty in white, Amarilly. You shall have this dress for
+your own."
+
+On the nuptial night Amarilly, clad in the white gown and with black
+velvet hair-ribbons, went forth at an early hour to the house of
+festivity.
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston, resplendent in a glittering jetted gown, came into the
+kitchen to see that things were progressing properly.
+
+"Ain't you flustered?" asked Amarilly, looking at her in awe.
+
+"Land, no, child! I have been married four times before this, you see,
+so it comes natural. There goes the doorbell. It must be Mr. Jimmels and
+the minister."
+
+In a few moments she returned to the kitchen for sympathy.
+
+"I am so disappointed," she sighed, "but then, I might have expected
+something would happen. It always does at my weddings."
+
+"What is it?" asked Amarilly, apprehensive lest the wedding might be
+declared off.
+
+"I've been married once by a Baptist minister, once by a Methodist, and
+the third time by a Congregationalist; last time a Unitarian tied the
+knot. So this once I thought I would have an Episcopal, because their
+white robe lends tone. And Rev. Mr. Woodthorn has come without his. He
+says he never brings it to the house weddings unless specially
+requested. He lives clear across the city, and the carriage has gone
+away."
+
+"Oh, I have a surplus!" cried Amarilly enthusiastically. "I'll telephone
+our grocer. Milt's ahelpin' him to-night, and he can ride over here on
+the grocer's wheel and fetch it."
+
+"Why, how in the world did you come by such a thing as a surplice?"
+asked the widow in surprise.
+
+Amarilly quickly explained, and then telephoned to her brother.
+
+"He says he'll be over here in a jiffy," she announced. "And ain't it
+lucky, it's jest been did up clean!"
+
+"My, but that's fortunate! It'll be the making of my wedding. I shall
+give you a dollar for the use of it, the same as those others did."
+
+"No!" objected Amarilly. "Ill be more than glad to let you hev it arter
+your givin' me this fine dress."
+
+"I'll have Mr. Jimmels pay you for it. He can take a dollar out of the
+fee for the minister. It will serve him right for not bringing all his
+trappings with him."
+
+Amarilly's sense of justice was appeased by this arrangement. She went
+into the double parlors to witness the ceremony, which gave her a few
+little heart thrills.
+
+"Them words sounds orful nice," she thought approvingly. "The Boarder
+and Lily Rose must hev an Episcopal fer to marry them. I wonder if I'll
+ever get to Miss King's and Mr. St. John's weddin' or Mr. Derry's; but I
+guess he'll never be married. He jokes too much to be thinkin' of sech
+things." Then came the thought of her own wedding garment awaiting its
+destiny.
+
+"I ain't even hed a beau, yet," she sighed, "but the Boarder says that I
+will--that red-headed girls ain't never old maids from ch'ice."
+
+With this sustaining thought, she proceeded to the dining-room. She had
+been taught at the Guild how to wait on table, and she proved herself to
+be very deft and capable in putting her instructions into effect.
+
+"Here's two dollars," the complacent bride said to Amarilly before
+departing. "One is for serving so nicely, and one is for the surplice. I
+told them in the kitchen to put you up a basket of things to take home
+to the children."
+
+Amarilly thanked her profusely and then went home. She deposited her two
+dollars in the family exchequer, and proceeded to distribute the
+contents of the basket.
+
+"Now, set around the table here, and take what I give you. Thar ain't
+enough of one thing to go hull way round, except fer ma. She's agoin' to
+hev some of each. Yes, you be, ma. This here baskit's mine. Here's a
+sandwich, some chicken, salid, jell, two kinds of cake, and some ice-
+cream fer you. Bud can hev first pick now, 'cause he ain't so strong as
+the rest of you. All right, Bud; take the rest of the ice-cream and some
+cake."
+
+"'Tain't fair! I'm a girl, and I'm younger than Bud. I'd orter choose
+first," sobbed Cory.
+
+"Shut up, Co! You'll wake Iry, and then he'll hev to hev something, and
+if he sleeps right through, thar'll be jest so much more fer you.
+'Twon't hurt him to miss what he don't know about. All right, Cory, you
+can hev cake and jell. That's a good boy, Bud, to give her two tastes of
+the cream, and ma'll give you two more. Bobby? Sandwiches and pickle.
+Milt? Chicken and salid. Flammy and Gus, pickle and sandwich is all
+that's left fer you. The rest of this chicken is agoin' into the
+Boarder's dinner pail to-morrer."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Milton came home from the grocery one night with a telephone message
+from Mr. Vedder requesting Amarilly to bring the surplice to his rooms
+on the next day.
+
+"How is business?" asked the ticket-seller kindly, when the little girl
+appeared in answer to his summons.
+
+"Fine! The surplus has brung in nine dollars and seventy-five cents
+a'ready. It's kept things goin'."
+
+"The theatre will open in a couple of weeks, and then you will have
+steady work, though I wish we might get an easier and pleasanter
+occupation for you."
+
+"I'm agoin' to hev one, Mr. Vedder," and she proceeded to tell him of
+Derry and her engagement at his studio.
+
+"It kinder seems as if I b'longed to the theayter, and you've been so
+orful kind to me, Mr. Vedder, that it'll seem strange-like not to be
+here, but Mr. Phillips's work'll be a snap fer me."
+
+"You've been a good, faithful little girl, Amarilly, and I shall want to
+keep track of you and see you occasionally, so I am going to give you a
+pass to every Saturday matinée during the winter."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Vedder, there's been no one so good as you've been to me! And
+you never laugh at me like other folks do."
+
+"No, indeed, child! Why should I? But I never knew before that you had
+such beautiful hair!"
+
+"It's 'cause it's fixed better," said Amarilly with a blush. "But who
+wants the surplus this time?"
+
+"I do," he replied smiling. "I am invited to a sheet and pillow-case
+party. I thought this surplice would be more comfortable than a sheet.
+Here's a dollar for it."
+
+"No," declined Amarilly firmly. "Not arter all you've done fer us. I
+won't take it."
+
+"Amarilly," he said earnestly. "I have no one in the world to do
+anything for, and sometimes, when I get to thinking about it, I am very
+lonely. So if you want to be kind to me, you will give me the pleasure
+of helping you a little now and then. I shall not enjoy the party unless
+you will take the money."
+
+Amarilly cried a little that night, thinking how good he was.
+
+"I hed orter like him best of all," she thought reproachfully.
+
+Two or three days later Pete Noyes came to the house.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly! I ain't seen yer in so long I'd fergit how you looked.
+Say, why didn't you ever fix yer hair that way afore? It looks swell,
+even if it is red!"
+
+"I am older now," she explained in superior, lofty tones, "and of course
+I hev to think more about my looks than I used ter."
+
+He gazed at her with such ardent admiration that she was seized with an
+impulse to don her white dress and impress his young fancy still
+further.
+
+"He ain't wuth it, though," her sober second thought decided.
+
+"What does yer think I come fer, Amarilly?"
+
+"I dunno, 'less Mr. Vedder sent you."
+
+"He did, sorter. You see, I'm invited to one of them kind of parties
+whar you dress up ter be the name of a book. One of the stock company is
+givin' it fer her kids. I don't know the name of any book except
+_Diamond Dick_ and _The Curse of Gold_, and I didn't know how to rig up
+fer them. I went to Vedder, and he sez thar's a book what's called _The
+Little Minister_, and I could rent yer surplus and tog out in it. He
+said you would take tucks in it fer me."
+
+"Sure I will. I'll fix it now while you wait, Pete."
+
+"Say, Amarilly, I thought as how, seein' we are both in the perfesshun,
+sorter, you'd come down on your price."
+
+"Sure thing, Pete. I won't charge you nothin' fer it."
+
+"Yes; I wanter pay. I'll tell you what, Amarilly, couldn't you take it
+out in gum? I hed a hull lot left over when the theayter shut down.
+It'll git stale ef I keep it much longer, and I'd like to git some of it
+offen my hands."
+
+"Sure, I will, Pete. We all like gum, and we can't afford to buy it very
+often. That'll be dandy."
+
+Thus it was that for the next fortnight the Jenkins family revelled in
+the indulgence of a hitherto denied but dearly prized luxury. Their jaws
+worked constantly and joyously, although differently. Mrs. Jenkins, by
+reason of depending upon her third set of teeth, chewed cautiously and
+with camel-like precision. The Boarder, having had long practice in the
+art, craunched at railway speed. The older boys munched steadily and
+easily, while Bud and Bobby pecked intermittently in short nibbles.
+Amarilly had the "star method," which they all vainly tried to emulate.
+At short and regular intervals a torpedo-like report issued from the gum
+as she snapped her teeth down upon it. Cory kept hers strung out
+elastically from her mouth, occasionally rolling it back.
+
+The liberal supply of the luxury rapidly diminished, owing to the fact
+that Iry swallowed his allowance after ineffectual efforts to retain it
+in his mouth, and then like Oliver Twist pleaded for more.
+
+"I declare fer it!" remarked Mrs. Hudgers to Amarilly. "That child's
+insides will all be stuck together. I should think yer ma would be
+afeard to let him chaw so much."
+
+"He's ateethin', and it sorter soothes his gums," explained Amarilly.
+
+During the summer season, Pete had pursued his profession at a
+vaudeville theatre, and one day, not long after his literary
+representation, he came to Amarilly with some good tidings.
+
+"I hev another job fer yer surplus. Down to the vawdyville they're goin'
+to put on a piece what has a preacher in it, and I tole them about yer
+surplus, and the leadin' man, who is to be the preacher, says 'twould
+lend to the settin's to wear it. I told him mebby you'd let him hev the
+use on it fer a week fer five dollars. He said he could buy the stuff
+and make a dozen fer that price, but they gotter start the piece
+to-night so that'd be no time to make one. I'll take it down to them
+to-night."
+
+This was the longest and most remunerative act of the surplice, and
+served to pay for a very long accruing milk bill. When the engagement at
+the vaudeville ended, the Boarder came to the rescue.
+
+"Thar's a friend of mine what brakes, and he wants the surplus to wear
+to a maskyrade. I told him he could go as a preacher. He's asavin' to
+git merried, so he don't want to give much."
+
+"He shell hev it fer a quarter," said Amarilly, friend to all lovers,
+"and I'll lend him a mask. I hev one the property man at the theayter
+give me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"I wonder," meditated Gus, "where the surplus will land next?"
+
+"It has been most everywhere except to the police court," said Bobby.
+"'Spect 'twill land there next!"
+
+His prophecy was fulfilled. Mrs. Jenkins washed the lucrative garment
+late one afternoon and left it on the line all night. The next morning,
+to the great consternation of the family and the wild distress of
+Amarilly, the beloved surplice, that friend of friends in time of need,
+had vanished. Other clotheslines in the vicinity had also been deprived
+of their burdens, and a concerted complaint was made to the police, who
+promptly located the offender and brought him summarily to trial. Mrs.
+Jenkins was subpoenaed as a witness, which caused quite a ripple of
+excitement in the family. Divided between dread of appearing in public
+and pride at the importance with which she was regarded by her little
+flock, Mrs. Jenkins was quite upset by the occasion. She hadn't attended
+a function for so long that her costuming therefor was of more concern
+than had been Amarilly's church raiment.
+
+Mrs. Hudgers loaned her mourning bonnet and veil, which was adjusted at
+half mast. They appeared in direct contradiction to the skirt of bilious
+green she wore, but the Jenkinses were as unconventional in attire as
+they were in other things.
+
+The family attended the trial _en masse_, and were greatly elated at the
+prominence their mother had attained. The culprit was convicted and the
+surplice duly restored. The misfortune was not without profit. Mrs.
+Jenkins received thirty-five cents as a witness fee.
+
+They had managed to pay their household expenses through the summer, but
+when the rent for August was due there was not quite enough cash on hand
+to meet this important item of expenditure. Noting the troubled brows of
+Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly at breakfast time, the Boarder insisted on
+knowing the cause.
+
+"We're broke, and the rent's overdue," tersely explained Amarilly.
+
+"I'm broke, too," sighed the Boarder, "except what I've got in the
+savin's bank towards--"
+
+"Lily Rose," suggested Amarilly softly.
+
+"Yes," he admitted, with a beaming look. "But when I go broke, all other
+things failin', I allers tackle a pawnbroker."
+
+"We ain't got nothin' to pawn," sighed Amarilly.
+
+She recalled the lace waist, but that, like the Lily Rose fund, was
+sacred. There was always, to-day, yesterday, and forever, the surplice,
+and her scruples regarding that article had of necessity become case-
+hardened; still, Amarilly hesitated. A pawnshop seemed lower than a
+police court.
+
+"It's been everywhere else," she said loudly to the accusing, still,
+small voice, "and it might jest as well go the limit. 'T won't bring
+much, but 'twill help."
+
+Through byways and highways Amarilly sought the region of the three-
+balled porticoes. The shop of one Max Solstein attracted her, and she
+entered his open door. Max, rat-eyed and frog-mouthed, came forward
+propitiatingly.
+
+"What'll you gimme on this?" came with directness from the small
+importuner.
+
+He took the garment, shook it, and held it up for falcon-gaze
+inspection.
+
+"Not worth much. A quarter of a dollar."
+
+Amarilly snatched it from his grasp and fled. Not because of his low-
+figured offer; she had fully expected to have to "beat him up." But when
+she had entered, a youth who had all the recognized earmarks of a
+reporter was lounging in the doorway. At sight of the uplifted garment
+he had come eagerly forward, scenting a story. She knew his kind from
+snatches of conversation she had heard between the leading lady and Lord
+Algernon. In the lore of the stage at Barlow's, reporters were "hovering
+vultures" who always dropped down when least wanted, and they had a way
+of dragging to light the innermost thoughts of their victims.
+
+"You read your secrets," Lord Algernon had dramatically declared, "in
+blazoned headlines."
+
+Hitherto Amarilly had effectually silenced her instinctive rebellion
+against the profaning of St. John's surplice, but she had reached the
+limit. No Max Solstein, no threatening landlord, no ruthless reporter
+should thrust the sacred surplice into the publicity of print.
+
+She darted from the shop, the reporter right at her heels, but the
+chasing of his covey to corner was not easily accomplished. He was a
+newly fledged reporter, and Amarilly had all the instinct of the lowly
+for localities. She turned and doubled and dodged successfully. By a
+course circuitous she returned to Hebrew haunts, this time to seek, one
+Abram Canter, a little wizened, gnome-like Jew. Assuring herself that
+there was no other than the proprietor within, Amarilly entered and
+handed over the surplice for appraisal.
+
+Once more the garment was held aloft. At that psychological moment an
+elderly man of buxom build, benevolent in mien, and with smooth, long
+hair that had an upward rolling tendency at the ends, looked in the shop
+as he was passing. He halted, hesitated, and then entered. Of him,
+however, Amarilly felt no apprehension.
+
+"Looks like Quaker Oats, or mebby it's the Jack of Spades," she thought
+after a searching survey.
+
+"My child, is that yours?" he asked of Amarilly, indicating the garment
+by a protesting forefinger.
+
+"Sure thing!" she acknowledged frankly.
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+If he had been a young man, Amarilly would have cheerfully reminded him
+that it was none of his business, but, a respecter of age, she loftily
+informed him that it had been "give to her."
+
+"By whom?" he persisted.
+
+Perceiving her reluctance to answer, he added gently:
+
+"I am a bishop of the Episcopal Church, and I cannot endure to see a
+surplice in such a place as this."
+
+A bishop! This was worse than a reporter even. St. John would surely
+hear of it! But she felt that an explanation was due the calling of her
+interlocutor.
+
+She lifted righteous eyes to his.
+
+"My mother works for one of the churches, and the minister, he give us
+this to cut up into clo'es fer the chillern, but we didn't cut it up.
+I'm agoin' to leave it here till the rent's paid, and we git the money
+to take it outen hock."
+
+The bishop's eyes softened, and lost their look of shocked dignity.
+
+"I will advance you the money," he offered. "I would much prefer to do
+so than to have it left here. How much money do you need to pay your
+rent?"
+
+"We need five dollars," said Amarilly, "to pay the balance of it. But I
+wouldn't take it from you. I ain't no beggar. I don't believe, nuther,"
+she continued, half to herself, "that Mr. St. John would like it."
+
+"Who is Mr. St. John?" he asked curiously. "I know of no such rector in
+this diocese. My child, you have an honest face. Since you won't accept
+a gift of money, I will lend, you the amount. I want you to tell me all
+about yourself and this surplice."
+
+"Well, mebby he'd want me to," reflected Amarilly.
+
+"Gimme back that surplus," she said to the Jew, who seemed loath to
+relinquish his booty.
+
+As she walked up the street with the bishop, she frankly related the
+family history and the part Mr. Meredith and the surplice had played
+therein.
+
+The bishop had generous instincts, and a desire to reach the needy
+directly instead of through the medium of institutions, but he had never
+known just how to approach them. His presence in this unknown part of
+the city had been unpremeditated, but he welcomed the chance that had
+led his steps hither to perform an errand of mercy. He handed Amarilly
+five dollars, and wrote down her address. He was most reluctant to
+receive the surplice as security, but Amarilly's firm insistence was not
+to be overcome. She returned home, rejoicing in the knowledge that she
+had the price of their happy home in her pocket. The bishop had given
+her his card, which she laid in a china saucer with other bits of
+pasteboard she had collected from Derry Phillips, Mr. Vedder, and Pete
+Noyes. The saucer adorned a small stand in the dining-room part of the
+house.
+
+"It's the way Mrs. Hubbleston kep' her keerds," Amarilly explained to
+the family.
+
+Meantime the bishop was walking in an opposite direction toward his
+home, wondering if he should find he was mistaken in his estimate of
+human nature; and a query arose in his mind as to what he should do with
+the surplice if it were left on his hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Bud sat in the park,--Clothes-line Park, Amarilly had dubbed it--one
+Monday afternoon, singing a song of gladness. The park was confined by a
+clothes-line stretched between three tottering poles and the one
+solitary poplar tree of the Jenkins estate. The line was hung with white
+linen garments, and smaller articles adorned the grass plot within the
+park.
+
+This to Bud was the most beautiful spot in the world. He looked up into
+the sapphire blue of the sky flecked with soft patches of white, then
+down upon the waving grass latticed by sun and shade; he listened to the
+soothing rustle of the poplar leaves, the soft flapping of linen in the
+breeze, the birds in the tree tops, and felt his heart and throat
+bursting with all the harmony and melody about him. Not always was Bud's
+refrain one of joy. There were songs of sorrow on the damp days when the
+washings must be dried within the house, and he could not venture forth
+because he still was regarded as the delicate one of the family. There
+were days, too, when the number of garments was not adequate to complete
+the boundary to the park, and that meant less to eat and worry about the
+rent and a harassed look in his mother's anxious eyes.
+
+But there was no sob in Bud's song this afternoon. The clothes had been
+hung out unusually early, and were nearly dry, so his mother had brought
+out her little lean-back rocker and sat beside him for a few moments to
+listen to his carol and to hark back to the days when his lusty-voiced
+father had sung to her in the shadows of a vine clad porch.
+
+It was not upon Amarilly, the sharer of her burdens, nor upon the baby
+that Mrs. Jenkins lavished her tenderness. Bud crept closest because he
+had been the one most dependent upon her care.
+
+When the little singer ceased, the mother arose and unpinned the
+garments, carrying them in armfuls to the huge basket in the middle of
+the park. Bud watched her thin, fatigued hands as they performed their
+accustomed task, and a sudden inspiration came to him. His future field
+of labor had troubled him. Now his way seemed clear. He stepped nimbly
+to the grass plot and gathered up the pieces spread thereon.
+
+"Ma," he said, as they met at the basket, "I've jest thought what I kin
+do, when I grow up, to support you."
+
+"What is it, Bud?" she asked interestedly.
+
+"The teacher said we must plan to do what we knew the most about. I know
+more about washin' than anything else."
+
+"You'd orter," she replied with a sigh.
+
+"I kin run a laundry," he declared.
+
+"That would be a fine business."
+
+Happy in the hope of this new horoscope, Bud resumed his seat in the
+amphitheatre, and in a voice of clarion clearness ecstatically rendered
+one of the hymns he had learned at St. Mark's. Ever since he had become
+a member of the choir, Clothes-line Park had rung with echoes of the
+Jubilate and Venite instead of the popular old-time school airs. The
+wringer was turned to the tune of a Te Deum, the clothes were rubbed to
+the rhythm of a Benedictus, and the floor mopped to the melody of a
+Magnificat.
+
+On the happy, by-gone Thursdays, cloistered by snow-white surplices,
+with the little chorister enthroned in the midst, Clothes-line Park had
+seemed a veritable White Chapel.
+
+Bud was snatched from his carols by the arrival of Amarilly, who was far
+too practical to hearken to hymns when there was work to be performed.
+
+"I got the money Miss Ormsby's owed us so long," she announced in a tone
+of satisfaction, "and that jest makes up the money to git back the
+surplus. I'll give you carfare one way, Bud, and you must go to the
+bishop's and git it. I'm too beat to go. I've walked most five miles
+sence dinner."
+
+Bud was scoured and brushed, the pocket of his blouse tagged with a
+five-dollar bill carefully secured by a safety pin, and he started on
+his way for the address Amarilly had given him. He stopped at the corner
+drug store to spend his car-fare for an ice-cream soda.
+
+When the lad's quest was repeated to the bishop by his housekeeper, he
+instructed her to send Bud up to the library, being kindly-disposed
+towards all boy-kind. While he was questioning his young visitor, the
+organ of Grace Church, which was next to the bishop's house, pealed
+forth, and a man's voice began to chant a selection from an oratorio Bud
+had learned at St. Mark's. A high, childish soprano voice was essaying
+to carry the sustained note an octave above the man's voice; once it
+sharped.
+
+"Oh!" shuddered Bud in dismay. "He can't keep the tune."
+
+"He isn't our regular soloist," explained the bishop apologetically. "He
+is ill, and this boy is trying to learn the part for an organ recital to
+be given next week."
+
+Again the choirmaster's voice, patient and wearied, began the refrain.
+Instinctively Bud's little chest swelled, and involuntarily his clear,
+high treble took the note and sustained it without break through the
+measures, and then triumphantly broke into the solo. The bishop's eyes
+shone.
+
+"Come," he said, rising and going towards the door, "come with me."
+
+Wonderingly and obediently, Bud followed him into the church and up to
+the organ where the choirmaster sat.
+
+"This is one of the boys from St. Mark's. Try him on the solo. He just
+sang it for me."
+
+"I thought I heard it sung just now, but I feared it was only an echo of
+my dreams. Let me hear you again, my lad."
+
+Easily and confidently Bud attacked the high C in alt. At the end of the
+solo, the long-suffering choirmaster looked as if he were an Orpheus,
+who had found his Eurydice.
+
+"Who taught you to sing that solo?" he demanded.
+
+"My school teacher. She is studying fer an opery singer, and she helps
+me with my Sunday singing."
+
+"I thought the style was a little florid for the organist of St.
+Mark's," said the choirmaster whimsically. "My boy, if you will sing it
+for us at the recital as well as you did just now, you shall have ten
+dollars."
+
+The laundry now loomed as a fixed star in Bud's firmament. When he went
+home and told his mother the good news she moved joyfully among her mops
+and tubs. The turn of the wringer never seemed so easy, and she
+frequently paused in the rubbing of a soaped garment to wring the suds
+from her swollen hands and listen anew to the recital of Bud's call upon
+the bishop and the choirmaster of Grace Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The next day the flood-tide of the Jenkins's fortunes bid fair to flow
+to fullness. Word came to the little home that Mr. Meredith had returned
+to the city and desired the laundry work to be resumed. Bud was summoned
+to choir practice the following Friday, and Miss King sent her chauffeur
+with a fair-sized washing.
+
+"Everything comes so to onct, it takes your breath away," said Amarilly,
+quite overcome by this renewal of commercial activity, "and next thing I
+know,"--there her heart gave a deer-like leap--"Mr. Derry'll be hum, and
+sendin' fer me. Then we'll all be earnin' excep' Gus."
+
+At the end of the week Amarilly eagerly went to deliver the washings at
+the rectory and Miss King's, but in both instances she was doomed to
+disappointment, as her friends were not in.
+
+"I'll go to church and see 'em," she resolved.
+
+This time her raiment was very simple, but more effective than upon the
+occasion of her previous attendance.
+
+Before Amarilly's artistic temperament was awakened by the atmosphere of
+the studio, she had been wont to array herself in things convenient
+without regard to color or style, believing herself to be hopelessly
+homely and beyond the aid of personal adornment; but since Derry had
+praised her hair, she had scrupulously cared for it and allowed no
+conflicting color in proximity thereto. On this occasion she fastened it
+with the black velvet bows, and arrayed herself in the white dress Mrs.
+Jimmels had given her.
+
+"I declar, Amarilly," exclaimed her mother, "I believe you're agrowin'
+purty!"
+
+Amarilly's eyes danced, and she gave her mother a spontaneous and
+rewarding hug.
+
+She didn't do her own ushering this time, and was consequently seated
+most inconspicuously near the entrance. Her heart beat rapturously at
+the sight of John Meredith in the pulpit.
+
+"His vacation didn't freshen him up much," she thought, after a shrewd
+glance. "He's paler and don't look real peart. Sorter like Bud arter he
+got up from the fever."
+
+Her attention was diverted from the rector by the vision of Colette
+coming down the aisle. The change in her appearance was even more
+startling to the little anxious-eyed girl than in John's case. There
+were violet shadows under the bright eyes, a subtle, subdued air about
+her fresh young beauty that had banished the little touch of wilfulness.
+As soon as she was seated, which was after the service had begun, she
+became entirely absorbed in her prayer-book.
+
+"Vacation ain't agreed with her, nuther," pondered Amarilly perplexedly.
+
+She turned her gaze again to John, who was sitting back of the choir,
+while his "understudy" conducted the service. His face was shaded by his
+hand, but Amarilly's gimlet glance noted that he frequently sent a
+fleeting, troubled look toward the King pew.
+
+"Thar's something up atwixt 'em," deduced Amarilly, "and they air both
+too proud to say nuthin' about it to the other."
+
+John's sermon was on the strength that renunciation brings, and the duty
+of learning resignation. There was a pervasive note of sadness in his
+deliverance of the theme, and Amarilly felt her joyousness in the return
+of her friends slipping from her.
+
+She went out of church somewhat depressed, but was cheered by the
+handclasp of the rector and his earnest assurance that he would see her
+very soon. While he was saying this, Colette slipped past without
+vouchsafing so much as a glance in their direction. Hurt through and
+through, the little girl walked sadly to the pavement with head and eyes
+downcast.
+
+"Amarilly," dulcetly spoke a well-loved voice.
+
+Her eyes turned quickly. Colette stood at the curb, her hand on the door
+of the electric.
+
+"I waited to take you home, dear. Why, what's the matter, Amarilly?
+Tears?"
+
+"I thought you wan't goin' to speak to me," said Amarilly, as she
+stepped into the brougham and took the seat beside Colette.
+
+"I didn't want to interrupt you and Mr. Meredith, but it's a wonder I
+knew you. You look so different. You have grown so tall, and what a
+beautiful dress! Who showed you how to fix your hair so artistically? I
+never realized you had such beautiful hair, child!"
+
+"I didn't nuther, till he told me."
+
+"Who, Amarilly? Lord Algernon?"
+
+"No!" scoffed Amarilly, suddenly realizing that her former hero had
+toppled from his pedestal in her thoughts. "'Tain't him. It's a new
+friend I have made. An artist."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you have such distinguished acquaintances! All in the
+profession, too. Tell me who the artist is."
+
+"Mr. Derry Phillips. I cleaned his rooms, and he took me to lunch. We
+ate things like we had to your house."
+
+"Derry Phillips, the talented young artist! Why, Amarilly, girls are
+tumbling over each other trying to get attention from him, and he took
+you to luncheon! Where?"
+
+"To Carter's, and I'm to serve his breakfast and take care of his rooms,
+and he showed me how to fix my hair and to say 'can' and 'ate.' He's
+fired the woman what red his rooms."
+
+"'Merely Mary Ann,'" murmured Colette.
+
+"No," said Amarilly positively. "Her name is Miss O'Leary, and she
+didn't clean the mopboards."
+
+Colette's gay laughter pealed forth.
+
+"Amarilly, this is the first time, I've laughed this summer, but I must
+explain something to you. The housekeeper told me that all the children
+had scarlet fever and were quarantined a long time after we left. I wish
+I had known it and thought more about you, but--I've had troubles of my
+own. How did you manage so long with nothing coming in?"
+
+"It was purty hard, but we fetched it," sighed Amarilly, thinking of the
+struggles, "We're doin' fine now again."
+
+"But, tell me; how did you buy food and things when none of you were
+working?"
+
+"When your ten dollars was gone, we spent his'n."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+"Mr. Meredith's. He sent us a ten, too."
+
+"Oh!" replied Colette frigidly.
+
+"Then the Boarder give us all he hed. Arterwards come dark days until
+Mr. Vedder sent us a fiver.--Then thar was an orful day when thar wa'n't
+a cent and we didn't know whar to turn, and then--It saved us."
+
+"It? What?"
+
+"The surplus. Mr. St. John's surplus. It brung in lots."
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly?"
+
+"You see 'twas at our house when Iry was fust took sick--same as the
+waist you gimme was. They couldn't nuther on 'em be sent hum till they
+was fumygated. Then Mrs. Winders said as how he, Mr. St. John, said as
+how we was to keep it and cut it up fer the chillern, but we didn't."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly," asked Colette faintly, "do you mean to tell me that the
+surplice was never delivered to Mr. Meredith?"
+
+"No. Gus didn't take it that night, and in the mornin' when Iry was took
+it was too late. And then when it got fumygated, Mr. St. John had gone
+away and he left word we was to keep it."
+
+The transformation in Colette's mobile face during this explanation was
+rapid and wonderful. With a radiant smile she stopped the brougham and
+put her arms impulsively about Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, I'm so happy, and I've had such a wretched summer! Now,
+we will go right to your house and you'll let me see the surplice."
+Amarilly looked surprised.
+
+"Why, yes, you can see it, of course, though it ain't no diffrent from
+his other ones."
+
+"Oh yes it is! Far, far different, Amarilly. It has a history."
+
+"Yes, I guess it has," laughed Amarilly, "It's been goin' some these
+last two months!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly? and I forgot in my excitement to ask
+how it helped you. But first tell me. You know there is a pocket in it?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King."
+
+"Have you noticed anything in the pocket?"
+
+"Never looked onct. But then if thar was 'twould hev come out in the
+wash. It's been did up heaps of times. You see, rentin' it out so
+much--"
+
+"Renting it out!"
+
+Amarilly gave a graphic account of the adventures of the errant garment
+to date. Meanwhile Colette's countenance underwent kaleidoscopic
+changes.
+
+"Amarilly," she asked faintly, "have you the addresses of all those
+people to whom you rented it?"
+
+"Yes; I keep books now, and I put it down in my day ledger the way the
+Boarder showed me."
+
+"There was something--of mine--in--that pocket. Will you ask your mother
+to look for it, and hunt the house over for it?"
+
+Amarilly, greatly distressed at the loss, promised faithfully to do so.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As soon as Amarilly had been deposited at her door, Colette tore a leaf
+from the tablet reposing in its silver case, hastily wrote a few lines,
+and then ran her brougham at full speed back to St. Mark's. A chorister
+was just coming out.
+
+"Walter!" she called.
+
+The lad came down to the curb.
+
+"Will you please take this to Mr. Meredith? He is probably in the
+Sunday-school now."
+
+"Sure. Will you wait for an answer, Miss King?".
+
+"No, thank you, Walter."
+
+She rode home and waited anxiously for the personal answer to her note,
+which came with most unclerical alacrity.
+
+"Colette," he said, his voice tense, "if you knew what your little note
+meant! Did--"
+
+"Wait until I explain, John. I must tell you about the surplice."
+
+She repeated Amarilly's account of the peregrinations of the robe.
+
+"Well?" he asked bewildered, "I don't see what that has to do with--"
+
+"Everything. There was something of mine--" she turned a deep
+crimson--"in the pocket of that surplice."
+
+"Yours! Why, how did it get there, Colette? Was it--"
+
+"I am not going to tell you--not until I have it back. Oh, I could die
+of shame when I think who may have found it. You must get it."
+
+"Colette," he answered gravely, "the surplice must have passed through
+many hands, but if it is possible to trace this--article, I will do so.
+Still, how can I make inquiries unless I know what it is?"
+
+"You can ask them, each and all, if they found anything in the pocket,"
+she replied. "And you must tell them you left it there."
+
+"And you won't trust me, Colette? Not after my long unhappy summer. And
+won't you give me an answer now to the note I wrote you last spring?"
+
+"No; I won't tell you anything! Not until you find that."
+
+"Be reasonable, Colette."
+
+His choice of an adjective was most unfortunate for his cause. It was
+the word of words that Colette detested; doubtless because she had been
+so often entreated to cultivate that quality.
+
+"I will not," she answered, "if to tell you is being reasonable. I must
+have it back. I think no one will really know to whom it belongs, though
+they may guess. You must, assume the ownership."
+
+"I certainly shall, if it can be found," he assured her.
+
+Seeing the utter futility of changing her mood, he took his departure;
+perhaps a little wiser if not quite so sad as he had been before he saw
+her. The next morning he called upon Amarilly, whom he found alone with
+Iry.
+
+"I am very sorry to learn that you had such a hard summer," he said
+kindly, "and I regret that I didn't know more about your affairs before
+I left the city, but I was too absorbed, I fear, in my own troubles."
+
+"How did you hear about us?" she asked curiously.
+
+"From Miss King."
+
+"Oh," said Amarilly happily, imagining that their trouble must have been
+patched up. Then another thought occurred to her which gave her a little
+heart palpitation. With intense anxiety depicted on her lineaments she
+asked tremulously: "Did she tell you about the surplus?"
+
+"Amarilly," and the tone was so reassuring that the little wrinkles of
+anxiety vanished, "when I gave you the surplice, I gave it to you
+unconditionally, and I am very glad that you put it to profit. But, you
+know, as Miss King told you, that there was something of value--of
+importance--in that pocket; something that must be found. My happiness
+depends entirely upon its recovery. Now, she tells me that you can give
+me the names and addresses of all the people through whose hands it
+passed."
+
+"Sure thing!" she replied with business-like alacrity. "You see the
+Boarder has been larnin' me bookkeepin', and so I keep all our accounts
+now in a big book the grocer give me."
+
+She produced a large, ledger-like book and laid it on the table for his
+inspection. He examined her system of bookkeeping with interest. Under
+the head of "Cr.," which she explained to him meant "brung in," was
+"Washins," "Boarder," "Flamingus," "Milt," "Bobby," "Bud." Below each
+of these subheads were dates and accounts. The page opposite, headed
+"Dr.," she translated, "means paid out."
+
+She turned a few leaves, and in big letters he read the word "Surplus."
+
+"This bein' a sort of extry account, the Boarder said to run it as a
+special and keep it seprut. If you'll set down, I'll read offer to you
+whar it has went."
+
+She began to read laboriously and slowly from the book, adding
+explanatory notes in glib tones.
+
+"'July 8. Mister Carrul, tenner, 1 doller. Pade.' He's the tenor, you
+know, to Grace Church. He wanted it to sing in at a sacred concert. His
+was too short or too long.
+
+"'July 11. Miss Lyte and Miss Bobson. 'Tablos. 1 doller. Pade.' Mr.
+Carul knows where they live. 'Twaz him as got the job fer me.
+
+"'July 15 to July 19. The Beehive. 3 dollers and 1/2 Pade.' That's a
+bargain store down in our parts. I went in fer to git Bud a cap and I
+hearn the clerk askin' the boss about fixin' up a winder show with wax
+figgers fer a weddin'. I step up to him and ask him if he kep surpluses,
+and he sez as he didn't. I told him I could rent him one to put on the
+minister, and he hedn't thought fer to hev it an Episcopal show, but he
+sed he'd do it fer an ad fer his white goods. He wouldn't stand fer no
+dollar a day. He beat me down to three-fifty, but he throwed in a cap
+fer Bud.
+
+"Next come Mrs. Hudgers. I didn't put it down in the ledger, though,
+cause it didn't bring nuthin' but a pan of doughnuts. Her son Hallie
+died, and he didn't hev no nice clo'es ter be laid out in, and she was
+agoin' to hev quite a funyral, so jest afore folks come, she slipped the
+surplus on ter him over his old clo'es, and then when 'twas over, she
+took it offen him again. He made a swell lookin' corpse. Bein' a
+neighbor we didn't go fer to ask her nuthin', but she give us the nut
+cakes. They give her dyspepsy, anyhow."
+
+The muscles of John Meredith's face grew rigid in his endeavor to
+maintain a serious expression. He had taken out a notebook at the
+beginning of the interview to jot down the addresses, but he copied
+Amarilly's comments as well, for the future entertainment of Colette.
+
+"'July 25 and 26. Mr. Derry Phillips, The Navarre. 2 dollers. Pade.' He
+paints picters. He painted the surplus onto a man playin' on a orgin."
+
+She hesitated a moment, and then continued: "I'm agoin' to work reg'lur
+fer him instead of to the theayter. I'm agoin' to git his breakfast and
+clean his rooms. He'll pay me the same as I got. He's a sort of
+eddicatin' me too."
+
+"Why, how is that, Amarilly?" asked John in perplexity.
+
+"He larnt me not to say 'et' and 'kin.'"
+
+The rector's eyes twinkled.
+
+"And," pursued Amarilly, after another moment of hesitancy, "he's larnt
+me how to fix my hair. He says red hair is beautiful! He took me to a
+restyrant."
+
+John looked troubled at this statement, and felt that his call at the
+studio would now be for a double purpose.
+
+"'July 27,'" resumed Amarilly. "'The Boarder. 25 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Why, what possible use could he have for a surplice?"
+
+"He's akeepin' company with a young gal--Lily Rose--and she wanted his
+likeness tooken sorter fancy-like, so he wuz took in the surplus, and he
+got himself framed in a gilt and shell frame, and she hez it ahangin'
+over her bed. I didn't want no pay from him, cause he give us his money
+when yours and Miss King's was gone, but he says as how it might bring
+him luck in gittin' her, so I took a quarter of a dollar.
+
+"'July 29. Mister Vergil Washington. Reckter Colered Church. 1 doller.
+Pade.' Some one stole his'n off en the clo'es-line, and he only hed one.
+
+"'July 31. Widder Hubbleston, 56 Wilkins St. 1 Doller. Pade.' She got
+merried by an Episcopal minister, and he furgot his surplus, and that
+was all she hed hired him fer, so she rented our'n fer him, and Mr.
+Jimmels, her new husband, took it outen the minister's pay. Somethin'
+allers goes wrong to her weddin's."
+
+"Does she have them often?" interrupted John gravely.
+
+"Quite frequent." "'Aug. 3, Mister Vedder, Ticket Seller to the
+Theayter. 1 doller. Pade.' He wore it to a sheet and piller case party.
+I didn't want fer to take nuthin' from him, cause he give us money when
+we hed the fever, but he wouldn't hev it that way.
+
+"'Aug. 5. Pete Noyes. Gum.' He's the boy what sells gum to the theayter.
+He was agoin' to a party whar you hev to be the name of a book. He wore
+the surplus so his name was the Little Minister. We took it out in gum--
+spruce and pepsin. Iry swallered his'n every time, and Miss Hudgers was
+afeard he'd be stuck together inside.
+
+"'Aug. 9-23. Vawdevil Theayter. 5 dollers. Pade.' They put it on fer a
+sketch.
+
+"'Aug. 25. Mister Cotter. 25 cents. Pade.' He's a brakeman friend of the
+Boarder. He wore it to a maskyrade.
+
+"'Aug. 27. Poleece. 35 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Police!" ejaculated John faintly.
+
+"Some one swiped it offen our clo'es-line, and when the police ketched
+the thief, we was subpenyed, or ma was. She got thirty-five cents, and
+all on us 'cept Iry went to hear her."
+
+"'Aug, 29. Bishop Thurber. 5 dollers. Pade.'"
+
+"Bishop Thurber!" the name was repeated with the force of an expletive.
+
+"Seems to mind that more'n he did the police," thought Amarilly.
+
+"It's quite a story," she explained, "and though it was orful at the
+beginnin' it come out all right, jest as the plays all do. I jest
+thought, I shouldn't hev put that down in the account, cause we give
+back the five, so we didn't make nuthin' in a way. We wuz dead broke. I
+suppose," she ruminated, "you don't know jest how orful it is to be
+that."
+
+"I don't, Amarilly, from my own experience," replied John
+sympathetically, "but I can imagine how terrible it must be, and I am
+very sorry--"
+
+"Well, as long as it come out all right, it don't make no difference.
+We'd got to pay our rent or else git put out, and I was up a stump till
+the Boarder said to tackle a pawnshop. I didn't hev nuthin' but the
+surplus to pawn, and I hated to pawn it on your account."
+
+"I don't care, my child," was the fervent assurance, "where you took it
+as long as it helped you in your troubles."
+
+"Well, I was in a pawnshop, and the man was holdin' it up, and the
+bishop went by, and when he seen what it was he come in, and asked me
+all about it, and I told him. He took it worse than you do that I would
+pawn it, and to save it he lent me five dollers. Course I made him take
+the surplus till I hed the money to git it outen hock, and when we was
+able to pay fer it, Bud went arter it. Thar was a boy practicin' at the
+church next door, and he warn't singin' it right, and Bud he couldn't
+keep still noway, so he up and sings the soler, and when the man at the
+orgin hearn him, he fired the boy what was tryin' to sing, and hired Bud
+in his place. He's agoin' to sing to a recital at Grace Church day arter
+to-morrer, and git ten dollers. And we air goin' to make Bud bank all he
+gits cause he ain't so strong as the rest of us. He may need it some
+time. That's all the places the surplus went to. I guess I'll go outen
+the costumin' business now, 'cause I'll be startin' in with Mr. Derry
+soon."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+There was one little ominous cloud in the serene sky of Mrs. Jenkins's
+happiness. She had nothing suitable for the occasion of the organ
+recital in the way of wearing apparel.
+
+"I feel as if gloves was due you, Bud," she lamented, "but I kin't
+afford 'em. I guess I kin put my hands under my mantilly, though, and
+folks won't know."
+
+"She'd orter hev 'em, and she'd orter hev a new hat, too," reflected
+Bud, and his song became a requiem. He manfully resolved to sacrifice
+his future to present needs and curtail the laundry fund. After some
+meditation he called upon the bishop, and asked if he might have an
+advance of half the amount he would receive for his solo.
+
+The bishop readily assented, but sought the reason for the request.
+
+"My mother is comin' to the recital, but she ain't got no fixin's. I'm
+goin' to buy her a hat."
+
+"I am glad you think of your mother, my lad, but it would be well to let
+some older person select it for you. My housekeeper--"
+
+Bud's refusal was emphatic. He knew the kind of hat his mother wanted,
+and he had noted her quickly suppressed look of disappointment at the
+sombre hat donated by Mrs. Hudgers on the day of the police-court
+attendance.
+
+Upon receiving the five dollars he went directly to the Fashion
+Emporium, where the windows were filled with a heterogeneous assortment
+of gayly trimmed hats, marked enticingly with former and present prices.
+
+"I want a hat kivered with flowers," he announced.
+
+"Who for?" asked the young saleswoman.
+
+"For my mother."
+
+"How would you like a nice flower toque like this?" displaying a
+headgear of modest forget-me-nots.
+
+"That's all faded. Ain't you got any red flowers? If you haven't, I know
+a store where they keep 'em."
+
+The girl instantly sacrificed her ideas of what was fitting to the
+certainty of a sale, and quickly produced a hat of green foliage from
+which rose long-stemmed, nodding red poppies, "a creation marked down to
+three-ninety-eight," she informed him.
+
+"That's the kind! I'll take it and a pair of white gloves, too, if
+you've got some big ones fer a dollar."
+
+Bud hastened home with his purchases. His mother was quite overcome by
+the sight of such finery.
+
+"I never thought to be dressed up again," she exclaimed on the eventful
+night, "No one has bought me nuthin' to wear sence your pa died. I feel
+like I was some one outen a book."
+
+The entire family, save Iry, who was put to bed at a neighbor's, went to
+the recital. The Boarder took Lily Rose, who was quite flustered at her
+first appearance with the family.
+
+John and Colette occupied a pew directly opposite the family. Mr. Vedder
+and Pete were also in attendance.
+
+When the bishop came from the vestry and walked down the aisle to his
+pew, his eyes fell upon the worn, seamed face of Bud's mother, the weary
+patient eyes in such odd contrast to the youthful turban with its
+smartly dancing flowers. Something stirred in his well-regulated heart,
+and he carefully wiped his glasses.
+
+At the signal from the choirmaster for the solo of the oratorio, Bud
+arose. An atom of a boy he looked in the vast, vaulted chancel, and for
+the first time he knew fear at the thought of singing. It was a terrible
+thing, after all, to face this sea of staring, dancing people. As
+lightning reaches to steel, the gay poppies nodding so nervously above
+his mother's white, anxious face sought the courage place within, and
+urged him on. He felt himself back in Clothes-line Park, alone with his
+mother and the blue sky.
+
+The little figure filled itself with a long, deep breath. The high,
+clear note merged into one with the notes of the chorus. It touched the
+tones of the accompaniment in harmony true, and swelled into grand,
+triumphant music.
+
+"He looks like he did arter the fever," thought Amarilly anxiously.
+
+When he came down the aisle with the choir, the ethereal look had left
+his face, and he was again a happy little boy. He gave his mother a gay
+nod, and bestowed a wink upon the Boarder. He waited outside and the
+family wended their way homeward.
+
+There had not been time to bring in the clothes before leaving, but a
+willing neighborhood had guarded the premises for them, so Clothes-line
+Park was shrouded in a whiteness that looked ghostly in the moonlight.
+
+They made quite an affair of the evening in honor of Bud's song, and
+their introduction to Lily Rose. There were fried sausages, coffee,
+sandwiches, and pork cake.
+
+"The organist told me," announced Bud at supper, "that he was agoin' to
+train my voice, and I could be soloist at Grace Church and git five
+dollars a Sunday, and after a while I could git ten."
+
+"You'll be a millynaire," prophesied Bobby in awed tones.
+
+"Guess we'll be on Easy Street now," shouted Cory.
+
+"We won't be nuthin' of the kind," snapped Amarilly. "It's agoin' to all
+be banked fer Bud."
+
+"I guess," said Bud, in his quiet, little old-man way, "I'm the one to
+hev the say. I'm agoin' to give ma two dollars a week and bank the
+rest."
+
+Meanwhile John was having an uncomfortable time as he walked home with
+Colette. He had started on the trail of the surplice the day before. The
+"tenner" and the young ladies who had given the tableaux had been
+interviewed, but in neither case had the mysterious pocket been
+discovered. To-day he had visited the Beehive, but no one in the store
+had paid any attention to the pocket, or knew of its existence. Colette
+remained obdurate to his pleadings. She assumed that he was entirely to
+blame for the loss, and seemed to take a gleeful delight in showing him
+how perverse and wilful she could be. To-night he found himself less
+able than usual to cope with her caprices, so he began to talk of
+impersonal matters and dwelt upon the beauties of Bud's voice, and the
+astonishing way in which it had developed.
+
+She admitted that Bud's voice was indeed wonderful, but maintained that
+Mrs. Jenkins's poppy hat and white gloves had been far surpassing in the
+way of surprises.
+
+"Did you ever, John, see anything more shoutingly funny?"
+
+"It wasn't funny, Colette," he said wistfully, and he proceeded to
+relate the history of the hat as he had heard it from the bishop that
+day.
+
+[Illustration: To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope
+with her caprices]
+
+And though in the depths of her heart Colette was touched by the pathos
+of the purchase, she must needs tread again the feminine labyrinth
+instead of following the more natural and open path.
+
+"Who was the young girl with the Boarder?" John next vouchsafed.
+
+"Why, Lily Rose, of course. The Lily for whom he 'sot for his likeness
+in the surplus.' That awful surplice," she burst forth in irritation at
+the mere mention of the unfortunate word. "Some of these people must
+have it. John, you don't half try to find it."
+
+"I am following out the list in order," he assured her. "I shall go to
+see Mrs. Hudgers to-morrow."
+
+"And the next one to her," reminded Colette, "is Derry Phillips,
+Amarilly's new benefactor. She told me to-day that she had a note from
+him, asking her to begin work at the studio in a few days."
+
+"I have a double duty in my call there," said John didactically. "If he
+is like some of the young artists I know, his studio will hardly be a
+proper place for Amarilly."
+
+"As it happens," returned Colette coldly, "Derry Phillips, for all his
+nonsense, is reported to be a true gentleman; but it would make no
+difference with Amarilly if he were not. Her inherent goodness would
+counteract the evil of any atmosphere. She can take care of his rooms
+until she is a little older. Then she can become a model."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed protestingly.
+
+"Why not?" she returned. "Why shouldn't Amarilly be a model, or go on
+the stage? Neither place would be below her station in life."
+
+John sought refuge in utter silence which admonished and exasperated
+Colette far more than any reproof would have done.
+
+"You might as well go, if you have nothing to say," she remarked
+stiffly, as he lingered in the portico, evidently expecting an
+invitation to enter.
+
+"I have _too_ much to say, Colette."
+
+Her sidelong glance noted his dejection, and her flagging spirits rose
+again.
+
+"Too much, indeed, when you are so critical of what I say!"
+
+"Colette, hear me!"
+
+"No, I won't listen--never when you preach!"
+
+"I don't mean to preach, Colette, but don't you think--"
+
+"Good night, John," she said, smiling.
+
+"Good night!" he echoed dolefully, but making no move to leave.
+"Colette, will you never tell me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied unexpectedly, with a dancing light in her beautiful
+eyes.
+
+"When?"
+
+"When you restore to me what was in the pocket."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Jason never sought the Golden Fleece with more unwearying perseverance
+than John displayed in the pursuit of the lost article which Colette
+refused to describe. His calls of inquiry didn't mean merely putting the
+question politely and taking his departure after receiving an answer. It
+meant, in the case of Mrs. Hudgers, a martyr's test of patience in
+listening to the devious and manifold routes taken by her rheumatic
+pains; a rehearsal of the late lamented Hallie's idiosyncracies; the
+details of his last illness; his death; and his wearing of the surplice
+at the obsequies.
+
+Throughout her harangue he preached patience unto himself and remembered
+that she was an old woman, desolate in her "lone lornness," so he
+counselled not, neither did he pray, but comforted her with the
+gentleness of voice and speech that won him a fond place in her memory
+for all time.
+
+"No," she assured him decisively, as in departing he reminded her of his
+original question, "I didn't go fer to look in no pockit. I didn't
+suppose them things had pockits."
+
+Then the scene shifted to Derry Phillips's studio, and this visit was
+fraught with more difficulties, for there was the case of Amarilly which
+must be approached delicately and with subtlety.
+
+After stating his errand concisely and receiving assurance that the
+pocket had not been examined, but that the model should be interviewed
+by him, John still lingered.
+
+"It's very kind in you to give employment to Amarilly, Mr. Phillips."
+
+Derry shook his head.
+
+"I am the one to be congratulated, Mr. Meredith. I really feel
+apologetic to Amarilly for accepting her services. They are so
+conscientiously and faithfully rendered that I feel she should be given
+a higher scope of work than she can find here. She is an honest, amusing
+little soul, and if by giving her employment I can encourage her desire
+to be industrious and earn something, I am very glad of the opportunity
+to do so."
+
+This was a long and serious observation for the gay-hearted Derry to
+make, but he shrewdly fathomed the pastoral duty underlying the
+seemingly casual remark.
+
+John's keen perception recognized the sincerity in the ring of the
+pleasant young voice, and he was quite won by the boyish directness. An
+instinctive confidence moved him to extend the right hand of trust and
+fellowship.
+
+"You have been instructive as well as benevolent," he remarked
+smilingly. "Two of Amarilly's errors of speech have been eradicated."
+
+The young Artist flushed in slight confusion, and then with a half-
+embarrassed laugh, he replied lightly: "Amarilly gave full measure of
+correction in return."
+
+Responding to the nameless something in John that so insistently and
+irresistibly invited confidence, he related the little incident of the
+luncheon and her request in regard to temperate orders in the future.
+
+"And I don't mean to say," he replied with winning frankness, "that it
+was merely the request of a little scrub-girl that has kept me temperate
+through two months of vacation and temptation, but the guileless
+suggestion was the spark that fired the flame of a dormant desire to
+change--certain conditions."
+
+John again extended his hand, this time in a remorseful spirit of
+apology.
+
+Derry partially understood.
+
+"Amarilly has ardently interested friends," he observed whimsically.
+"There was one Vedder, a solemn young German, here to-day in my little
+maid's interest."
+
+John's call upon the sable-hued preacher, Brother Washington, also
+demanded strategic approach. The question of pockets must be delicately
+handled lest any reflection be cast upon the integrity of the race, and
+their known penchant for pockets.
+
+Brother Washington's sympathies were at once enlisted, however, when he
+scented a romance, for John became more confidential in this than in any
+of his prior visitations, in his desire to propitiate. But his search
+was fruitless here as elsewhere, and he went away convinced that Brother
+Washington had not tampered with the pocket.
+
+He went on to the house of the Reverend James Woodville, who had
+performed the marriage ceremony at the nuptials of Mrs. Jimmels, née
+Hubbleston. In this instance also no pocket had been discovered in the
+garment, so John wended his discouraged way to the office of the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+Mr. Vedder was likewise surprised to learn that surplices possessed
+pockets.
+
+The young rector's face brightened at the next name on his list--Pete
+Noyes. Of course a boy and a pocket would not long remain unacquainted.
+Again he was doomed to disappointment. Pete's dismay when he learned
+that there had been an overlooked pocket was convincingly genuine.
+
+"You see," he explained, "I wore it over my pants, of course, and I had
+the pockets in them, so I didn't look for no more."
+
+Pete escorted the rector to the "Vawdyville," and by good fortune the
+clerical impersonator in the sketch was still on the board, though in a
+different act. He instantly and decidedly disclaimed all knowledge of a
+pocket.
+
+"It's like that game," grinned Pete. "Button, button, who's got the
+button?"
+
+"Yes," agreed John, with a sigh, "only in this case I fear I shall
+continue to be 'it.'"
+
+The brakeman, when he came in from his run, was located and he joined in
+the blockade that was conspiring against John's future happiness.
+
+The clothes-line thief was very sensitive on the subject, and felt
+greatly aggrieved that he should be accused of picking his own pocket,
+for he protested that he had "found" the garment. The fancied
+insinuation indeed was so strongly resented that John wondered if it
+might not be a proverbial case of "hit birds flutter."
+
+Neither police nor court of justice had examined the pocket; nor had
+they been aware of the existence of one. The bishop could throw no light
+on the missing article, and this call ended the successless tour of
+investigation.
+
+"It was truly a profitable investment for the Jenkins family," thought
+John, "but a sorry one for me."
+
+Having now wended his weary and unavailing way into all the places
+listed, John made his final report to Colette who remained adamant in
+her resolve.
+
+"Of course some of those people did find it," she maintained. "It stands
+to reason they must have done so, and it is up to you now to find out
+which one of them is the guilty person."
+
+"How can I find that out, Colette?"
+
+"How? Anyhow!" she replied, her mien betraying great triumph at her
+powers of logic.
+
+"It must be found!" she asserted with a distinct air of finality. "And
+until it is found--"
+
+She stopped abruptly.
+
+"Was it of value? No, I am not trying to find out what it was since you
+don't wish me to know, but if I knew its value, it might help me to
+decide who would be the most likely to have a motive for taking it. But
+my belief is that the article slipped from the pocket and is lost."
+
+"It must be found then" she persisted obstinately.
+
+John went home to ponder over his hopeless task. It remained for
+Amarilly with her optimistic spirit to cheer him.
+
+"It'll turn up some place whar you never looked fer it and when you
+ain't thinkin' nuthin' about it," she asserted believingly. "Lost things
+allers do."
+
+Despite her philosophy she was greatly distressed over the disappearance
+of the mysterious article whose loss was keeping John so unhappy. She
+ransacked the house from the cellar to the Boarder's room, but found no
+trace of it.
+
+"I wonder what it was," she mused.
+
+"Mebby Miss King dreamt she put something in there, and when could she
+have done it anyhow? Mebby she give him a present, and he slipped it in
+there and fergot to take it out when he sent it to us. But then it would
+have come out in the wash. She don't seem to feel so bad as he does--
+jest sorter stubborn about it."
+
+The members of the household were put through the third degree, but each
+declared his innocence in the matter.
+
+"'Twas most likely Iry took it," said Cory, who found the baby a
+convenient loophole for any accusations, "and most likely he hez
+swallered it."
+
+Gus persisted in his oft-repeated statement, that there was nothing in
+the pocket when it was hung up during quarantine. This assurance was
+conveyed to Colette by John, who hoped she might find solace in the
+thought that none of the renters could have had it, if this were true,
+but to his chagrin she found in his information an implied reflection on
+her veracity.
+
+"Colette," he said whimsically, "only three persons connected with this
+affair have taken my remarks as personal, you, Brother Washington, and
+the thief."
+
+With this remark John, despairing of his ability to fathom the mystery
+of the article or to follow the caprices of Colette, dropped the matter
+completely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+At half past eight on the morning indicated, Amarilly's ring at the door
+of the studio was answered by Derry, whose face was covered with lather.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly!" he exclaimed heartily, extending his hand in genial
+comradeship. "I am glad to see you again. Been pretty well through the
+summer? Well, come on into the butler's pantry, and see what you can do
+in a coffee way while I finish shaving."
+
+Amarilly had been receiving instruction in domestic science, including
+table service, at the Guild school. Colette, interested in the studio
+work, had provided some minute muslin aprons and a little patch of linen
+for the head covering of the young waitress, advising her that she must
+wear them while serving breakfast. So when Derry emerged from his
+dressing-room, a trimly equipped little maid stood proudly and anxiously
+awaiting him.
+
+"Why, bless your heart, Amarilly! I feel really domesticated. You look
+as natty as a new penny, and the little white cap is great on your hair.
+I see you have remembered how to fix it."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry, but please sit down while your coffee is hot."
+
+"'Deed I will, and if it tastes as good as it smells, I shall raise your
+remuneration."
+
+He pronounced the coffee delicious, the grapefruit fixed to his liking,
+the toast crisp, and the eggs boiled just to the right consistency.
+
+"And have you had breakfast, Amarilly?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Derry, at half past five."
+
+"Jiminy! you should be ready for another. Now talk to me while I eat.
+Tell me about your reverend friend who was so daffy on the subject of
+pockets. Has he located any yet?"
+
+Amarilly looked troubled.
+
+"Miss King said I wa'n't to talk to you while I was serving."
+
+"Tell Miss King with Mr. Phillips' compliments that artists are not
+conventional, and that you and I are not in the relation to each other
+of master and maid. We are good friends, and quite _en famille_. You are
+such a fine cook, I think I shall have you serve me luncheon at one
+o'clock. Can you?" "Oh, yes; I should love to, Mr. Derry."
+
+"I'll stock the larder, then. No; I can't be bothered, and I'd feel too
+much like a family man if I went about marketing. I'll give you _carte
+blanche_ to order what you will."
+
+"What's that, Mr. Derry?"
+
+"Good! We mustn't neglect your education. I am glad you asked me. You
+might have always supposed it a breakfast-food."
+
+He proceeded to explain elaborately what the words meant, and then asked
+her if she had remembered her previous lesson.
+
+"Yes; ain't you--goin'--"
+
+"Stop right there. Your next word to be eliminated is 'ain't.' You must
+say 'aren't' or 'isn't.' And you must remember to put 'g' on the end of
+every word ending in 'ing.' Don't let me hear you say 'goin', again,
+I'll teach you one new word every day now. You see the measure of a maid
+is her pure English."
+
+Amarilly looked distressed.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly? Don't you want to learn to speak
+properly?"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry; but Miss King--she don't want me to speak
+diff'rent. She likes to hear me talk ignorant, and she said she was
+afeard you'd make me brom--"
+
+"Brom?" he repeated.
+
+"There was some more to it, but I fergit."
+
+"Bromidic," he said triumphantly, after an instant's pondering. "You can
+never under any circumstances be that, and I shall develop your
+imagination and artistic temperament at the same time. Miss King is
+selfish to wish to keep you from cultivating yourself for the purpose of
+furnishing her entertainment. By the way, I am to meet her to-night at a
+dinner, and I think we shall have a mutual subject for conversation. I
+must get to work, now. Clear away the dishes. And finish the rest of
+this toast and coffee. It would be wicked to waste it."
+
+Amarilly substituted a work apron for the little white covering, and was
+soon engaged in "redding."
+
+At eleven o'clock the place was in perfect order, and she went into the
+studio where Deny was at work.
+
+"Shall I go get the things fer lunch?"
+
+"Luncheon, if you please, Amarilly. I like that word better. It seems to
+mean daintier things. Here's a five-dollar bill. Get what you consider
+proper for a simple little home luncheon, you know. Nothing elaborate."
+
+Amarilly, feeling but not betraying her utter inability to construct the
+menu for a "simple little home luncheon," walked despondently down the
+street.
+
+"The Boarder," she reflected, "takes bread and meat and hard biled eggs
+when they ain't--aren't too high, and pie when we hev it."
+
+Some vague instinct of the fitness of things warned her that this would
+not be a suitable repast for Derry. Then a light shone through her
+darkness.
+
+"I'll telephone Miss Vail," she decided.
+
+So she called up her teacher at the Guild, and explained the situation.
+She received full instructions, made her purchases, and went back to the
+studio.
+
+At one o'clock she again garbed herself in cap and apron and called
+Derry to a luncheon which consisted of bouillon, chops, French peas,
+rolls, a salad, and black tea served with lemon.
+
+"Amarilly," he announced solemnly, "you are surely the reincarnation of
+a chef. You are immediately promoted from housemaid to housekeeper with
+full charge over my cuisine, and your wages doubled."
+
+"And that's going some for one day!" Amarilly gleefully announced to the
+family circle that night.
+
+Her teacher, greatly interested and gratified at her pupil's ability to
+put her instruction to practical use and profit, made out on each Monday
+a menu for the entire week. She also gave her special coaching in
+setting table and serving, so Derry's domestic life became a thing of
+pride to himself and his coterie of artists. He gave little luncheons
+and studio teas in his apartments, Amarilly achieving great success in
+her double role of cook and waitress.
+
+Her work was not only profitable financially, but it developed new
+tastes and tendencies. Every day there was the new word eagerly grasped
+and faithfully remembered. "Fer," "set," "spile," "orter," and the like
+were gradually entirely eliminated from her vocabulary. Unconsciously
+she acquired "atmosphere" from her environment. In her spare moments
+Amarilly read aloud to Derry, while he painted, he choosing the book at
+random from his library.
+
+"I want to use you for a model this afternoon," he remarked one day as
+she was about to depart. "Braid your hair just as tight as you can, the
+way you had it the first day you came. Put on your high-necked, long-
+sleeved apron, and get it wet and soapy as it was that first day, and
+then come back to the studio with your scrubbing brush and pail."
+
+Amarilly did as she was bidden with a reluctance which the artist,
+absorbed in his preparations for work, did not notice.
+
+"Yes; that's fine," he said, glancing up as she came to him. "Now get
+down here on your knees by the--what kind of boards did you call them,
+Amarilly? Mopboards? Yes, that was it. Now try and put your whole mind
+on the memory of the horror you felt at the accumulation of dirt on that
+first day, and begin to scrub. Turn your head slightly toward me, tilted
+just a little--so--There, that's fine! Keep that position just as long
+and just as well as you possibly can."
+
+Derry began to paint, mechanically at first, and then as he warmed to
+his subject and became interested in his conception, with rapidity and
+absorption.
+
+"There!" he finally exclaimed, "you can rest now! This may be my chef-
+d'oeuvre, after all, Amarilly. Won't you be proud to be well hung in the
+Academy and have a group constantly before your picture. Why, what's the
+matter, child," springing to her side, "tears? I forgot it was your
+first experience in posing. Why didn't you tell me you were tired?"
+
+"I wan't tired," she half sobbed.
+
+"Well, what is it? Tell me."
+
+"I'm afeerd you'll laugh at me."
+
+"Not on your life! And your word for to-day, Amarilly, is afraid.
+Remember. Never _afeerd_."
+
+"I'll remember," promised Amarilly meekly, as she wiped her dewy eyes.
+
+"Now tell me directly, what is the matter."
+
+"It'll be such a humbly picture with my hair that way. I'd ought to look
+my best. I'd rather you'd paint me waiting on your table."
+
+"But a waitress is such a trite subject. It would be what your friend, I
+mean, our friend, Miss King, calls bromidic. An artist, a real artist,
+with a soul, Amarilly, doesn't look for pretty subjects. It's the truth
+that he seeks. To paint things as they are is what he aims to do. A
+little scrub-girl appeals to the artistic temperament more than a little
+waitress, don't you think? But only you, Amarilly, could look the part
+of the Little Scrub-Girl as you did. And it would be incongruous--
+remember the word, please, Amarilly, in-con-gru-ous--to paint her with
+stylishly dressed hair. You posed so easily, so perfectly, and your
+expression was so precisely the one I wanted, and your patience in
+keeping the pose was so wonderful, that I thought you had really caught
+the spirit of the thing, and were anxious to help me achieve my really
+great picture."
+
+"I have--I will pose for you as long as you wish," she cried penitently,
+"and I will braid my hair on wire, and then it will stand out better."
+
+"Good! You are a dear, amenable little girl. To-morrow afternoon we will
+resume. Here, let me loosen your braids. Goodness, what thick strands!"
+
+She stood by the open window, and the trembling, marginal lights of a
+setting sun sent gleams and glints of gold through her loosened hair
+which fell like a flaming veil about her.
+
+"Amarilly," exclaimed Derry rapturously, "I never saw anything quite so
+beautiful. Some day I'll paint you, not as a scrub-girl nor as a
+waitress, but as Sunset. You shall stand at this window with your hair
+as it is now, and you'll outshine the glory of descending Sol himself. I
+will get a filmy, white dress for you to pose in and present it to you
+afterward. And as you half turn your head toward the window, you must
+have a dreamy, reflective expression! You must think of something sad,
+something that might have been a tragedy but for some mitigating--but
+there, you don't know what I am talking about!"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry. I know what you mean, even if I didn't ketch--"
+
+"Catch, Amarilly; not ketch."
+
+"But my word for to-day is 'afraid,'" she said stubbornly. "I wasn't to
+have but one word a day. I'll say 'ketch' until to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, such system as you have! You are right though; but tell
+me what it was I meant." "You mean I am to think of something awful that
+would have been more awful but for something nice that happened. I'll
+think of the day last summer when we couldn't pay the rent. That was sad
+until the bishop came along and things got brighter."
+
+"Exactly. You have the temperament, Amarilly, but you should have
+written to your twin brother in such a dilemma. It's late now, or it
+will be when you get home. I am going to walk with you."
+
+"No; I am not afraid."
+
+"It makes no difference; I am going with you. To think that, intimate
+friends as we are, I have never seen your home, your numerous brothers,
+and the Boarder. I am going to spend the evening with you."
+
+"Oh, no!" she protested, appalled at the prospect. "You mustn't."
+
+"Why, Amarilly, how inhospitable you are! I thought you would be
+pleased."
+
+"I guess you couldn't stand for it."
+
+"Stand for what, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, you see, I am not ashamed of it, but it's so diff'rent from what
+you're used to, and you wouldn't like it, and I'd feel uncomfortable
+like with you there." "Why, Amarilly!" A really pained look came into
+his boyish eyes. "I thought we were friends. And you let Miss King and
+your minister come--"
+
+"But you see," argued Amarilly, "it's diff'rent with them. A minister
+has to go everywhere, and he's used to seeing all kinds of houses; and
+then Miss King, she's a sort of a--settlement worker."
+
+"I see," said Derry. "But, Amarilly, to be a true artist, or a writer,
+one must see all sorts and conditions of life. But I am not coming for
+that. I am coming because I like you and want to meet your family."
+
+"Well," agreed Amarilly, resigned, but playing her last trump, "you
+haven't had your dinner yet."
+
+"We had a very late luncheon, if you remember, and I am invited to a
+supper after the theatre to-night, so I am not dining."
+
+Amarilly did not respond to his light flow of chatter on the way home.
+She halted on the threshold of her home, and looked at him with despair
+in her honest young eyes.
+
+"Our house hasn't got any insides or any stairs even. Just a ladder."
+
+"Good! I knew you wouldn't--that you couldn't have a house like anyone's
+else. It sounds interesting and artistic. Open your door to me,
+Amarilly."
+
+Slowly she opened the door, and drew a sigh of relief. The big room was
+"tidied" ("redded" having been censored by Derry some time ago) and a
+very peaceful, homelike atmosphere prevailed. The Boarder, being an
+amateur carpenter, had made a very long table about which were grouped
+the entire family. Her mother was darning socks; the Boarder, reading
+the paper preliminary to his evening call on Lily Rose; the boys, busy
+with books and games; Cory, rocking her doll to sleep.
+
+Their entrance made quite a little commotion. There was a scattering of
+boys from the table until Derry called "Halt" in stentorian tones. "If
+there's any gap in the circle, I shall go."
+
+Then he joined the group, and described to the boys a prize-fight so
+graphically that their eyes fastened on him with the gaze of one
+witnessing the event itself. He praised Amarilly to the mother, gave
+Cory a "tin penny" which she at once recognized as a silver quarter, and
+talked politics so eloquently with the Boarder that for once he was
+loath to leave when the hour of seven-thirty arrived.
+
+"You've gotter go now," reminded Cory sternly. "You see," turning to
+Derry. "he's gotter go and spend his ev'nin' with Lily Rose. She's his
+gal."
+
+"Oh! Well, why not bring her here to spend the evening?" suggested
+Derry. "Then you'll have an excuse for two nice walks and an evening
+thrown in."
+
+"That's a fine, idee!" acknowledged the Boarder with a sheepish grin.
+
+He at once set out on his quest accompanied by Bobby, whom Derry had
+dispatched to the corner grocery for a supply of candy and peanuts.
+
+The Boarder and Lily Rose came in laden with refreshments. The Boarder
+bore a jug of cider "right on the turn," he declared, "so it stings your
+throat agoin' down."
+
+Lily Rose had brought a bag of sugared doughnuts which she had made that
+afternoon (a half holiday) in her landlady's kitchen.
+
+When Mrs. Jenkins learned from Amarilly that Derry and she had had
+nothing to eat since half past one, she brought forth a pan of beans and
+a pumpkin pie, and they had a genuine New England supper. The Boarder
+recited thrilling tales of railroad wrecks. Derry listened to a solo by
+Bud, whose wild-honeyed voice was entrancing to the young artist.
+Altogether they were a jolly little party, Lily Rose saying little, but
+looking and listening with animated eyes. Mrs. Jenkins declared
+afterwards that it was the time of her life.
+
+"Amarilly," said Derry, as he was taking leave, "I wouldn't have missed
+this evening for any other engagement I might have made."
+
+"That's because it was something new to you," said Amarilly sagely. "You
+wouldn't like it for keeps."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+When Cory secured a place as dish-wiper at a new boarding-house near,
+and Gus realized that he and Iry alone were dependent upon the others
+for their keep, shame seared his young soul. He had vainly tried to
+secure steady employment, but had succeeded only in getting occasional
+odd jobs. He had a distinct leaning towards an agricultural life and
+coveted the care of cows.
+
+"The grocer has sold his'n," he lugubriously lamented; "thar ain't no
+one else as wants a caretaker for their critters around here."
+
+After a long rumination on the discouraging problem of his future, he
+sought his confessor, the corner grocer.
+
+"I'm too big to peddle papers or be runnin' about with telergrafs," he
+declared. "I'd orter be goin' into business on my own account. I ain't
+goin' ter be allers workin' fer other folks."
+
+"Well, you'll have to wait a while before you can work for yourself,"
+counselled his confidant. "You are young yet."
+
+"This is a hurry-up age," was the sagacious assertion, "and ef you air
+agoin' to git any-whar, you've got ter go by wire instead of by mail,
+and you can't start too soon."
+
+"You can't start nothing without capital," argued the grocer
+conservatively.
+
+"Oh," admitted the young financier, "a little capital mebby. I've got a
+dollar I've saved up from odd jobs."
+
+"What line was you thinking of taking up?"
+
+"I'm going into the dairy business. Thar's money in milk and butter, and
+it's nice, clean work."
+
+"The dairy business on one dollar! How many cows and wagons and horses
+was you figuring on buying with your dollar?"
+
+"Don't git funny," warned Gus impatiently. "Some day I'll hev a farm of
+my own and a city office, but I'll begin on one cow in our back lot and
+peddle milk to the neighbors."
+
+"That wouldn't be a bad beginning, but I reckon you'll find the start
+will cost you more than a dollar. You can't get a cow at that figure."
+
+"Then I'll start with a calf."
+
+"Well, I guess calves cost more than a dollar."
+
+"Say, you've got that dollar on the brain, I guess," retorted the lad
+with the easy familiarity that betokened long acquaintance with the
+lounging barrels and boxes of the corner grocery. "I bet it'll build a
+shed in our back yard. Thar's the lumber out of our shed that blowed
+down, and the Boarder can build purty near anything."
+
+"But how are you going to buy a cow?" persisted his inquisitor.
+
+"I ain't got that fer yet," admitted the young dairyman.
+
+"Your dollar'll buy more than the nails for your cow-house. You can put
+the balance into feed," said the grocer, with an eye to his own trade.
+
+He wanted to add that it wouldn't cost much to feed an imaginary
+critter, but he was a little fearful of the temper back of the lad's
+hair, which was the same hue as Amarilly's.
+
+"That's a good idea. Well, the shed starts to-morrow, and of course you
+won't say nothin' about it."
+
+"Trust me for not talking in this neighborhood. It ain't safe even to
+think. First you know your thoughts are being megaphoned down the
+street."
+
+Gus consulted the Boarder who instantly and obligingly began the
+erection of a building in the farthest corner of the Jenkins's domain.
+This structure was a source of mystery and excitement to the neighbors.
+
+"What on airth do you suppose them Jenkinses air aputtin' up now? Mebby
+it's a wash-house for the surpluses," speculated Mrs. Huce.
+
+"It can't be they air agoin' to keep a hoss!" ejaculated Mrs. Wint.
+
+"You never kin tell nuthin' about them Jenkinses. They're so sort of
+secretin' like," lamented Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+The Jenkins family were fully as ignorant as were their neighbors of the
+nature of the contemplated occupant of the new edifice commonly referred
+to as the "cow-house," The Boarder put up a very substantial shed with a
+four-paned window and a door that locked though not very securely. The
+grocer had on hand a small quantity of green paint which he donated to
+the cause of the coming cow.
+
+"Thar ain't enough to more'n paint two sides of it," criticized Gus, "so
+I'll paint the front and west sides."
+
+"Thar's a can of yaller paint out in the woodshed," informed Mrs.
+Jenkins. "You can paint the other two sides with that."
+
+Then the Boarder made a suggestion:
+
+"If I was you, I'd paint a strip of yaller and then one of green.
+That'll even it up and make it fancy-like."
+
+Amarilly protested against this combination of colors so repellent to
+artistic eyes, but the family all agreed that it "would be perfickly
+swell," so she withdrew her opposition and confided her grievance to
+Derry's sympathizing, shuddering ears.
+
+Gus proceeded to bicolor the shed in stripes which gave the new building
+a bedizened and bilious effect that delighted Colette, who revelled in
+the annals of her protegés.
+
+Each member of the Jenkins family had a plan for utilising this fine
+domicile, as there seemed to be a general feeling of skepticism
+regarding the ability of Gus to produce a cow in the flesh. This
+sentiment, however, was not openly expressed, as the lad was found to be
+decidedly sensitive and touchy on the subject.
+
+"Mebby a cow'll jest walk right into the back yard and make herself to
+hum in the new shed," prognosticated Mrs. Jenkins optimistically. "It's
+such a beautiful place. I'll bet there is cows as would ef they knowed
+about it."
+
+"I perpose," suggested Flamingus patronizingly, "that we start a cow
+fund and all chip in and help Gus out."
+
+"Sure thing!" declared the generous Amarilly. "He can have all my
+savings. We ought to all help Gus get a start."
+
+"I'm in," cried Bobby.
+
+"You kin hev all you want from me, Gus," offered Bud.
+
+Firmly and disdainfully Gus rejected all these offers and suggestions.
+
+"Thar ain't agoin' to be no pardner business about this," he announced.
+"The cow won't come till she's mine--all mine--and when she does, I'm
+agoin' to pay the Boarder for his work."
+
+"If he wants to be so all-fired smart, we won't help him git no cow,"
+declared Flamingus, "and the shed kin be used for a summer kitchen arter
+all."
+
+This use of the new building had been the fondest dream of Mrs. Jenkins,
+who deemed it an ideal place in which to keep her tubs, mops, boiler,
+and wringer. Milt had designs upon it for a boy's reading-room and club;
+Flamingus coveted a gymnasium. Bobby, Bud, Cory, and Iry had already
+appropriated it as a playhouse.
+
+Amarilly openly and ably defended Gus and his cherished, illusory plan.
+Of all her brothers, he was the one to whom her heart most inclined. For
+Bud she possibly had a more tender, maternal feeling on account of his
+being so delicate. She paid homage to the good points of Flamingus, but
+he was too cut and dried, "bromidic," she classified him, for Derry had
+carefully explained the etymology of the word. Milt was honest, but
+selfish and "near." Bobby was disposed to be fresh, but Gus was just
+such a boy as Amarilly herself would have been, reincarnated. He was
+practical, industrious, thrifty, and shrewd, and yet possessed of the
+imagination and optimism of his sister. She called him aside one day for
+a private consultation.
+
+"Say, Gus, your scheme's all right. Go ahead and get your cow. I'll let
+you have my savings, and the other boys needn't know. You can pay me
+when you get ready to."
+
+"That's bully in you, Amarilly, but I'm agoin' to see this thing through
+alone and start in without no help front no one," firmly refused Gus,
+and his sturdy little sister could but admire him for his independence.
+
+He locked up his new possession very carefully, putting the key in his
+pocket every morning before going to the business precincts to pick up a
+job. The children, however, were not dispossessed by this precaution,
+finding ingress and egress through the window. Gus most opportunely
+secured a week's job driving a delivery-wagon, and he instantly invested
+his wages in the provisioning of the cow quarters.
+
+"The feed'll git stale by the time the cow comes," objected Milt.
+
+"Mebby it's fer bait to ketch a critter with," offered Bobby.
+
+After all, it was the miracle predicted by Mrs. Jenkins that came to
+pass and delivered the cow. Early one morning, when Gus went as usual
+with fond pride to view his sole asset, he found installed therein a
+young, corpulent cow, bland and Texas-horned, busily engaged in
+partaking of the proceeds of Gus's last week's wages. She turned
+inquiring, meditative eyes toward the delighted lad, who promptly locked
+the door and rushed into the house to inform the family of the new
+arrival.
+
+"She's lost or strayed, but not stolen," said Amarilly.
+
+"Bobby, you put an ad in that paper you deliver at once," commanded Mrs.
+Jenkins. "Some poor people air feelin' bad over the loss of their cow."
+
+It was considered only fair that the cow should pay for her meal. She
+was overstocked with milk, and graciously and gratefully yielded to
+Gus's efforts to relieve her of her load. The children were each given a
+taste of the warm milk, and then the little dairyman started right in
+for business. The milkman had not yet made his morning rounds, and the
+neighbors were so anxious to cross-examine Gus that they were more than
+willing to patronize him. Excitement prevailed when it was learned that
+the Jenkins family had a cow, and the lad's ingenuity in dodging
+questions was severely taxed. He avoided direct replies, but finally
+admitted that it was "one they was keepin' fer some folks."
+
+A week went by, with no claim filed for the animal that had come so
+mysteriously and seemed so perfectly at home. Gus established a
+permanent milk route in the immediate neighborhood, and with his ability
+once more to "bring in" came the restoration of his self-respect.
+
+"It's funny we don't git no answer to that ad," mused Mrs. Jenkins
+perplexedly. "How many times did you run it, Bobby?"
+
+For a moment silence, deep, profound, and charged with expectancy
+prevailed. Then like a bomb came Bobby's reply:
+
+"I ain't put it in at all."
+
+Everybody was vociferous in condemnation, but Bobby, unabashed, held his
+ground, and logically defended his action.
+
+"I got the news-agent to look in the 'losts' every night, and thar want
+nothin' about no cow. 'Twas up to them as lost it to advertise instead
+of us. If they didn't want her bad enough to run an ad, they couldn't
+hev missed her very much."
+
+"That's so," agreed the Boarder, convinced by Bobby's able argument.
+
+"Most likely she doesn't belong to any one," was Amarilly's theory. "She
+just came to stay a while, and then she'll go away again."
+
+"She won't git no chanst to 'scape, unless she kin go out the way the
+chillern does," laughed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+One day the Boarder brought home some information that seemed to throw
+light on the subject.
+
+"One of the railroad hands told me that a big train of cattle was
+sidetracked up this way somewhar the same night the cow come here. The
+whole keerload got loose, but they ketched them all, or thought they
+did. Mebby they didn't miss this ere one, or else they couldn't wait to
+look her up. Their train pulled out as soon as they rounded up the
+bunch."
+
+"I guess the cow-house looked to her like it was a freight car,"
+observed Milt, "and she thought she hed got back where she belonged."
+
+The cow, meanwhile, quietly chewed her cud, and continued to endear
+herself to the hearts of all the Jenkins family save Cory. Every time
+Bobby spoke her name he called to her, "Co, boss! Co, boss," just as Gus
+did when he greeted the cow.
+
+As for the little dairyman himself, he gave his charge the best of care.
+He took her for a little outing every day to a near-by lot where she
+could graze, being careful to keep a stout rope attached to her,
+although they walked to and from the recreation ground side by side.
+Derry painted a little picture of the pair as he saw them returning from
+a jaunt. Gus's arm was lovingly thrown around the neck of the gentle
+creature, and her Texas horns were adorned with a wreath of brown-eyed
+Susans woven by Cory.
+
+It remained for Mrs. Jenkins to christen the creature.
+
+"'Cowslip,'" she declared triumphantly, "'cause she just slipped in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Amarilly's pace in learning English from Derry during the following
+winter was only excelled by her proficiency in mathematics. "Figgerin'"
+the Boarder declared to be his long suit, and his young pupil worked
+every example in Flamingus's arithmetic, and employed her leisure
+moments in solving imaginary problems. Then came an evening when she put
+her knowledge to practical use and application. She had been working
+absorbedly with pencil and paper for some time when she looked up from
+her sheet of figures with a flushed race and a Q.E.D. written in each
+shining eye.
+
+"Say!" she announced to the family who were gathered about the long
+table.
+
+Instantly they were all attention, for they always looked to Amarilly
+for something startling in the way of bulletins.
+
+"I've been setting down and adding up what we all bring in each week.
+Ma's washings, the Boarder's board, my studio work, Flamingus' and
+Milt's wages, Gus's cow, Bud's singing, Co's dish-washing, and Bobby's
+papers. What do you suppose it all amounts to?"
+
+She allowed a few seconds of tragic silence to ensue before she gave the
+electrifying total.
+
+"Land sakes! Who'd 'a thought it!" exclaimed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'd orter hev ice-cream and pie every day," reproached Cory.
+
+"It would be reckoned a purty big salary if one man got it all,"
+speculated the Boarder.
+
+"We are rich!" exclaimed Bobby decisively.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do," pursued Amarilly. "We must start a
+syndicate."
+
+"What's that, a show?" demanded Flamingus.
+
+"No; I heard the artists down to the studio talking about it, and Mr.
+Derry explained it. He said when a lot of folks put their cash on hand
+together in one pile, they can buy something big and do more than as if
+they spent it separate."
+
+"Well, I ain't a goin' to put my money in with Co's," said Milt
+sarcastically. "Wouldn't be much profit for me in that."
+
+"You don't catch on," replied Amarilly. "If you should put in one
+dollar, and Co should put in ten cents, at the end of a certain time,
+you'd draw out ten dollars and Co would only draw out one. See?"
+
+"I do," said the practical Gus.
+
+"Well, now let's put our money into something and all own it together,
+each one's share according to what we put in. Let's buy this house!"
+
+They all stared in amazement.
+
+"Buy a house! You are sure crazy, Amarilly!" exclaimed Milt.
+
+"We could buy it cheap," continued Amarilly unabashed. "I heard the
+grocer saying yesterday that property around here was at a low figure
+now. We could put our savings together and make a payment down, and
+instead of paying rent let it go on the balance each month. Before we
+knew it we'd own the house, and the deed could be made out to show how
+much of it each one owned."
+
+"I choose the pantry!" cried Cory.
+
+"I guess if you could buy a window-pane with what you've got, you'd do
+well," observed Milt in a withering tone.
+
+"That's a splendid idee, Amarilly!" declared the Boarder
+enthusiastically. "I don't know what better investment you could make."
+
+"It would be fine," sighed Mrs. Jenkins, "to own your own place and feel
+that no one could turn you out."
+
+"You've got a great head, Amarilly," complimented Gus.
+
+"We could borrow on the house if we ever got hard up, or the fever
+struck us again," said Flamingus.
+
+"Well," proposed Amarilly, the ever-ready, "let's get right at it. I'll
+set down our names, and when I call the roll, tell me how much you've
+saved and will put in the house."
+
+There was a general rush for bank-books, for ever since the preceding
+fall, the six oldest children had paid their board, clothed themselves,
+and saved the balance of their earnings.
+
+From her washings, the revenue from the board of the children and
+Boarder, Mrs. Jenkins had paid the rent and the household expenses. By
+thrifty management she had also acquired a bank account herself.
+
+"Ma!" called Amarilly expectantly.
+
+There had been much urging on the part of
+
+Deny in his zeal for language reform to induce his young pupil to say
+"mother," but in this sole instance Amarilly had refused to take his
+will for law.
+
+"She's always been 'ma' to me, and she always will be," declared
+Amarilly emphatically. "If I were to call her anything else I'd feel as
+if I had lost her--as if she didn't belong to me."
+
+Ma triumphantly announced: "Forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents."
+
+"A fine starter," commended Amarilly, "Flamingus?"
+
+"Forty dollars," he announced with pride.
+
+"Milt?" Amarilly called his name in faint voice. He was the only tight-
+tendencied member of the household, and she feared he might decline to
+give. But Milt was envious and emulative.
+
+"Forty-two dollars and sixty-nine cents," he declared in a voice
+rendered triumphant by the fact of his having beaten Flam.
+
+Amarilly drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"It's going to add up fine, now. Guess I'll take my own account next. I
+haven't got as much as you boys, though." "Shouldn't think you would
+have," said Gus sympathizingly. "You don't earn so much, and yet you pay
+ma as much, and don't take out nuthin' fer your noon meal. And you give
+Co things."
+
+"I've earned quite a bit," replied Amarilly cheerfully. "Besides what
+Mr. Derry gives me, there's what I've had from odd jobs like letting the
+artists paint my hair, and taking care of Mrs. Wick's baby afternoons
+when she goes to card parties. I've got thirty dollars to put in. Gus?"
+
+"Thirty-five dollars," he replied in a pleased tone.
+
+"Bud?"
+
+They all looked expectantly. Bud received ten dollars each Sunday now,
+and he had been singing at concerts, organ recitals, and entertainments
+all winter. On account of these latter engagements, he had been obliged
+to expend a considerable amount in clothes suitable to the occasion.
+When Bud donned his "evening clothes," which consisted of black silk
+hose, patent leather pumps, black velvet suit with Irish crochet collar
+and cuffs, purchased under the direction of Mr. Derry, Amarilly always
+felt uncomfortable.
+
+"Don't seem fair to Bobby when they're so near twins," she thought.
+
+One day, however, she overheard Bud sweetly offer to buy his near half a
+similar outfit. Amarilly listened eagerly for Bobby's answer which
+brought a sigh of relief.
+
+"I wouldn't wear one of them rigs on a bet," he had scoffingly answered.
+
+"One hundred and twenty-five dollars," Bud now replied modestly.
+
+"Gee! you take the cake!" said Bobby.
+
+Amarilly was sorry that she had to call Bobby's name next. But Bobby had
+a surprise in store for them all.
+
+"Forty-eight dollars!" he cried gleefully, giving Flam, Milt and Gus
+exultant glances, "Beat the hull of ye, except Bud!"
+
+"How in the world did you ever do it on paper routes?" asked Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+Bobby winked at his mother.
+
+"Shall we tell our secret?" he asked. "You tell, Ma."
+
+"You see," she explained, "when the clo'es are bilin' arter you hev all
+gone to work and to school, I've made twenty little pies and when Bobby
+got out of school, he'd come hum and git 'em and take 'em up to the High
+School. The girls bought 'em at five cents apiece. The stuff to make 'em
+cost about two cents a pie."
+
+"And Bobby got all the profit!" expostulated Milt indignantly.
+
+"Bobby paid me by taking the clo'es offen the line and bringin' them in
+every night, and fetchin' the water," she replied chidingly. "We was
+goin' to keep it a secret till he got enough to buy a pony."
+
+"But I'd ruther buy a house," said Bobby.
+
+"I ain't got enough to come in no snidikit," sobbed Co. "I ain't saved
+much."
+
+"That's because you spend all you earn on candy," rebuked Milt.
+
+"I ain't nuther. I bought me some rubbers and Iry some playthings."
+
+"How much have you got, Co?" asked Amarilly gently.
+
+"Two dollars and ninety-seven cents," she said, weeping profusely.
+
+"I think that's pretty good for a little girl," said Amarilly. "All you
+strapping boys ought to chip in out of your cash on hand what isn't in
+the bank and give her some so she could be in on it. Here is fifty cents
+from me, Co."
+
+"I'll give you fifty, Co," said her mother.
+
+"Me, too," said Flamingus.
+
+The other boys followed with equal contributions, Bud generously
+donating a five-dollar bill he had received that day for a solo at a
+musicale given by Miss Lyte.
+
+"Here's fifty cents from me," said the Boarder, who had remained very
+thoughtful during this transaction.
+
+"Eleven dollars and forty-seven cents for Co," announced Amarilly.
+
+The little girl's eyes shone through her tears.
+
+"Seems too bad that Iry is the only one left out," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"When he gits old enough to work, he can come in," said Milt. "Add her
+up, Amarilly."
+
+"Three hundred and sixty-nine dollars and sixty-seven cents!" almost
+screamed Amarilly.
+
+"Gee!" chorused the boys.
+
+"Purty near buy the old shack," said Flamingus.
+
+"Our landlord," said Amarilly sagaciously, "is a shark, and he'll try to
+get the best of us. I am going to get Mr. Vedder to do the business for
+us, and he'll get the deed in all our names."
+
+"Put in Iry's too," pleaded Mrs. Jenkins solicitous for her Benjamin.
+
+"I'll put it to vote," said parliamentary Amarilly. "Who's for Iry?"
+
+"Me, me, me," came from all, though Milt's response was reluctant.
+
+"I will see Mr. Vedder to-morrow, so we can begin to let the rent apply
+right off," said Amarilly.
+
+"We'll take more pride in keeping it fixed up now," remarked Flamingus.
+"I'll mend the windowpanes and the door hinges."
+
+"And I'll build some stairs and put up a partition or two," promised the
+Boarder.
+
+"I'll paint it," said Gus, proud of his former work in this direction.
+Amarilly secretly resolved to select the color.
+
+"I'll make curtains and rag rugs and sofa pillows," she observed.
+
+"And I'll buy some cheers and a hangin' lamp," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Don't
+all this talk make you want to housekeep?" she asked with a knowing
+glance in the Boarder's direction.
+
+He shook his head thoughtfully, but when the boys and Cory had gone to
+bed, he unfolded a proposition that he had been evolving during their
+financial discussion, and which now found overwhelming favor and
+enthusiasm with his hearers.
+
+The next day Amarilly called upon Mr. Vedder at the theatre.
+
+"He's got more sound business to him than Mr. Derry or Mr. St. John,"
+she shrewdly decided.
+
+"When she told him her plan and showed him her figures, he most heartily
+approved.
+
+"The house, of course, isn't worth anything," he said, "but land down
+that way is a good investment. Who is your, landlord?"
+
+She gave him the name and address.
+
+"I am glad you came to me, Amarilly, instead of to your newer friends."
+
+"Oh, you know more about it than they do," she replied, "and besides,
+some way I wouldn't feel as if I were bothering you."
+
+"Not a bit of bother, Amarilly, and I hope you will always feel that
+way."
+
+The ticket-seller was prompt, thorough, and shrewd in the matter. He had
+a friend in the real estate business, who appraised the property for
+him, and he proved most diplomatic in his dealing with the surprised
+landlord, who fortunately chanced to be in dire need of some ready cash.
+In an incredibly short space of time the bargain was closed.
+
+The Jenkins family including the Boarder and Iry left the house one
+noon, each bearing a red bank-book. To the onlookers in the
+neighborhood, this Armada was all-impressive.
+
+"Looks like a run on the bank," said the Boarder facetiously, as they
+all trooped up the steps to the big stone building.
+
+The payment was made, and the deeds drawn in the names of all the
+family, but to the list was also added the name of the Boarder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+"I don't see," observed Colette, on learning of the existence and
+development of the syndicate, "why the Boarder is in on it. I thought he
+was going to have a Lily Rose garden all his own."
+
+"We thought so, too," replied Amarilly. "He's been saving up to get
+married, and he's got a raise now, so the day is set for some time in
+June; but he told us the night we were first planning to buy the house
+that he wanted to be one of the syndicate. You see Lily Rose works--I
+mean she overworks--in a factory, and so the Boarder--you know he is
+awful gentle-like to her--says that she mustn't keep house or do
+anything but real light work after this. He has an interest in the house
+now, and he is going to build on a sort of an annex with a sitting-room
+and a bedroom and furnish it up fine, and when they are married, they
+are going to live there and take their meals with us. And they want Mr.
+St. John to marry them, and they want you to come. And Mr. Derry is
+coming. He asked to be invited."
+
+For once Colette did not laugh at the chronicles of the Jenkins family.
+A very tender look came into her flashing eyes.
+
+"That is very sweet in him--in the Boarder--to feel that way and to be
+so tender with Lily Rose. She ought to be very happy with a love and
+protection like that awaiting her."
+
+"Yes," assented Amarilly; "it must be very nice to feel like that, and
+Mr. Derry says he really believes that it is only with poor folks like
+us and the Boarder and Lily Rose that love runs smooth."
+
+"Then," said Colette musingly, "I wish I were poor--like you and the
+Boarder and Lily Rose!"
+
+Amarilly secretly divined that this was merely a thought spoken aloud,
+so she made no comment. She had pondered a great deal over the attitude
+of her two friends towards each other. The only place she ever
+encountered them together was at church and to her observing eyes it was
+quite apparent that there was a restraint in their bearing. Amarilly
+remained so preoccupied with her thoughts that Colette, looking at her
+searchingly, became curious as to the cause.
+
+"Amarilly," she commanded, "tell me what you were thinking of just now--
+I mean since I spoke last. I shall know by; your eyes if you don't tell
+me exactly."
+
+"Mr. Derry says my eyes will always give me away," evaded Amarilly.
+
+"Of course they will. You can never be a flirt, Amarilly."
+
+"I don't want to," she replied indignantly.
+
+Colette laughed.
+
+"Well, tell me what you were thinking about?"
+
+"I was wondering if Mr. St. John wasn't trying any more to find that
+thing you lost in the surplice pocket."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, has Mr. Phillips censored that word, too? I was in hopes
+he would never hear you say 'surplus,' so he could not correct you."
+
+"I told him you didn't want me to speak correctly," said Amarilly a
+little resentfully.
+
+"You did!" cried Colette, looking rather abashed. "And what did he say?"
+
+"He said it was selfish in you to think more of your amusement than of
+my improvement."
+
+Colette colored and was silent a moment.
+
+"He's right, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I _am_ selfish to
+everyone. All I have ever cared for is to be entertained and made to
+laugh. I have been as selfish to St. John as I have to you and--I'll
+tell you a secret, Amarilly, because I know that I can trust you. I've
+gone just a little bit too far with St. John. I told him he needn't ever
+come to see me again until he found what was in the pocket of the
+surplice, and he took me at my word."
+
+"He did all he could to find it," said Amarilly, immediately on the
+defence for the rector.
+
+"I know he did, but you see before this I've always had everything I've
+asked for, even impossible things, and I didn't want to have him fail
+me. I have been selfish and exacting with him, and I think he realizes
+it now."
+
+"Well, when you're in the wrong, all you've got to do is to say so."
+
+"That isn't easy, Amarilly."
+
+"But it's right."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you're like a man with your right and your wrong!"
+
+"But you would make yourself happy, too, if you told him you knew it
+wasn't up to him any more to find that."
+
+"I'd rather be unhappy and stick to what I said. I must have my own way,
+Amarilly."
+
+"Well," said Amarilly, abandoning an apparently hopeless subject, "I
+came to ask you to do me--us--the Boarder and Lily Rose, I mean, a
+favor."
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, as I said, they want Mr. St. John to marry them, and they're
+afraid he won't want to because he--well--because he isn't their kind,
+you know, and he has such a fashionable church."
+
+"And you don't know St. John better than that?"
+
+"Why, yes; of course _I_ do, but they don't know him at all, you know.
+And the Boarder is real shy, anyhow. And so I told him I'd ask you to
+ask him."
+
+"Why don't you ask him?"
+
+"I think it would please him so to have you ask. He likes to have you
+take interest in others."
+
+"Amarilly, you are a regular little Sherlock! Well, yes, I will,"
+promised Colette, secretly glad of this opportunity for friendly
+converse with John once more, "but if the--Annex has to be built first,
+there's no hurry."
+
+"Yes, there is. The Boarder wants everything settled now, so they can be
+looking forward to it."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I'll see him to-morrow night. Will that do?"
+
+"Oh, yes; thank you, Miss King."
+
+"Tell me more about the wedding plans. Are you to be bridesmaid?"
+
+"She isn't going to have one. It won't be a stylish wedding, you know.
+Just quiet--like one of our neighborhood evenings. Only when I told Mr.
+Derry about it, he said he should come up that afternoon and trim the
+house up with greens, and that he should come to see them married."
+
+"And I shall furnish the flowers and the bride's bouquet. Let me see, I
+think lilies of the valley and pink roses would suit Lily Rose, don't
+you?"
+
+"They will be beautiful," said Amarilly, beaming. "And we are going to
+have a real swell meal. I have learned to make salads and ices, and then
+we'll have coffee and sandwiches and bride's cake beside."
+
+"Some one has to give the bride away, you know, Amarilly, in Episcopal
+weddings."
+
+"I know it. But poor Lily Rose has no one that belongs to her. Her
+relations are all dead. That's another reason why the Boarder is so nice
+to her. So ma is going to give her away. We're going to ask the
+neighbors and you and Mr. Derry and Mr. Cotter, of course. He's the
+brakeman friend of the Boarder."
+
+"And are the Boarder and Lily Rose going away?"
+
+"Yes; the Boarder can get a pass to Niagara Falls. They are going to
+stay there a week. Lily Rose has never been on the cars. And they are
+going to ride to the train in a hack."
+
+"Why, it's going to be quite an affair," said Colette enthusiastically.
+"We'll throw an old shoe and some rice after them. And will she be
+married in white?"
+
+Amarilly's face fell.
+
+"I am afraid she can't afford a wedding dress. She's got to get a
+travelling suit and hat and gloves and shoes, and with other things it
+will take all she has saved. She'd like a white dress and a veil and get
+her picture taken in it to hang up by the side of the Boarder's in the
+surplice. And that makes me think, we want you to ask Mr. St. John if he
+will wear our surplice instead of bringing one of his. We'll do it up
+nice before the wedding."
+
+"Oh, that prophetic surplice!" groaned Colette. "It's yesterday, to-day
+and forever; I wish something would happen to it, Amarilly. I hate that
+surplice!"
+
+"I'm sorry, Miss King, but we all love it. And you see it means a good
+deal to Lily Rose; because she has looked at its photograph so long."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I yield. St. John shall wear his surplice once
+more, and when he does--"
+
+A sudden thought illumined her face. "I believe I will tell him--"
+
+Amarilly deemed it a fitting time to depart, and she hastened to assure
+Lily Rose that it was "all right."
+
+"Miss King will speak to Mr. St. John about marrying you, and she will
+ask him to wear our surplice. She's going to send you flowers--lilies of
+the valley and roses. It all would be perfect, Lily Rose, if only you
+had a white dress!"
+
+Lily Rose smiled sweetly, and told Amarilly she was glad to be married
+in any dress, and that she should not miss the "reg'ler weddin' fixin's"
+nearly as much as Amarilly would mind her not having them. When Amarilly
+set her head and heart on anything, however, it was sure to be
+accomplished. It was a puzzling problem to equip Lily Rose in the
+conventional bridal white vestments, for the bride-to-be was very proud
+and independent and wouldn't hearken to Amarilly's plea to be allowed to
+contribute toward a new dress.
+
+"We're under obligations to _him_, you know," argued Amarilly "and I'd
+like to help him by helping you."
+
+Lily Rose was strong of will despite her sweet smile.
+
+Deep down in her heart Amarilly, throughout all her scheming, knew there
+was a way, but she chose to ignore it until the insistent small voice
+spoke louder and louder. With a sigh of renunciation she yielded to the
+inevitable and again sought Lily Rose.
+
+"I've thought out a way to the white dress," she announced.
+
+Lily Rose's eyes sparkled for a moment, and their light died out.
+
+"Yes, there's really a way," persisted Amarilly, answering the unspoken
+denial. "You said you could squeeze out slippers and stockings, didn't
+you?"
+
+"Yes," she admitted.
+
+"Well, there's your new white dress skirt, and for a waist there is my
+lovely lace waist that I told you about--the one Miss King gave me."
+
+"Your weddin' waist! No, Amarilly. It's like you to offer, but I
+couldn't take it from you."
+
+"No, I'm not giving it to you. Just lending it to you for your wedding.
+You couldn't hurt it any wearing it two hours. Then I'll lay it by again
+till I'm married. And I'll like wearing it all the more because you wore
+it to your wedding. Come over some day and we'll try it on. Then Miss
+King is going to give you the bouquet, and for a veil--"
+
+"Oh, the veil! Amarilly, I would love a veil!" Lily Rose cried
+wistfully.
+
+"Well, I've got one spoken for. You see, Mrs. Jimmels has been married
+so many different ways, I felt sure she must have worn a veil at one of
+her weddings, and seeing she had been married so many times, I thought
+she couldn't have any special feeling about any one of them, so I asked
+her if she wouldn't lend hers to you, and she's glad to have it put to
+use again. You'll look just perfectly swell, Lily Rose. And she's going
+to give you a pair of white gloves that she had when she was slim-like."
+
+The little renunciator went home feeling amply rewarded by the look of
+shining content in the blue eyes of Lily Rose.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next night Colette in accordance with her promise to Amarilly
+summoned John to council. It was not easy to bridge the distance which
+had been steadily increasing with the months that had rolled by since
+the surplice dénouement, and Colette, formerly supreme in her sway, was
+perceptibly timid in making the advance. After writing and tearing up
+several notes she called him up by telephone and asked him in a
+consciously casual tone if he could find it convenient to call that
+evening with reference to a little matter pertaining to their mutual
+charge, the Jenkinses.
+
+The grave voice in which he accepted the invitation was tinged with
+pleasure.
+
+When he came Colette, fearful lest he should misinterpret her action in
+making this overture, plunged at once into the subject.
+
+"I promised Amarilly I would see you and ask you for something in her
+friends' behalf."
+
+"Then it is to Amarilly I am indebted for this call," he remarked
+whimsically.
+
+"It's about the Boarder," she continued, gaining ease at the softening
+of his brown eyes. "You know he is to be married to Lily Rose, the girl
+we saw at the organ recital where Bud made his debut."
+
+"I inferred as much at the time. When are they to be married?"
+
+"In June. Just as soon as the Annex can be added to the Jenkins's
+upright. They are to build on two new rooms or rather the Boarder will
+do so and he will furnish them for his new abiding-place. But because
+she is 'delicate like' and overworked she is to become a Boarderess
+instead of a housekeeper, and they will 'eat' with the Jenkins family,
+thus increasing the prosperity of the latter. Amarilly says the Boarder
+is 'awful gentle of Lily Rose and wants to take good care of her.'"
+
+The expression that moved the frostiest of his flock came into the still
+depths of his eyes and brought the wild rose to Colette's cheeks.
+
+"They are going to make quite an affair of the wedding," she continued,
+speaking hurriedly and a little breathlessly. "You and I and Mr.
+Phillips are to be guests. There is to be a hack to take the bride and
+groom to the train and a trip to Niagara Falls, because Lily Rose has
+never been on the cars. They are to have salad and ice-cream and
+sandwiches and coffee. Mr. Phillips is to act as florist and I shall
+furnish the decorations and the bride's bouquet. I'd love to throw in a
+bridal gown and veil, but Lily Rose, it seems, is proud and won't accept
+them."
+
+"I can find it quite in my heart to admire the reluctance of Lily Rose
+to accept them."
+
+"And so can I," replied Colette, the rare sweetness coming into her
+eyes. "Underneath all my jests about this wedding, it is all very sweet
+and touching to me--the Boarder's consideration for her, the
+preparations for the wedding which appear so elaborate to them. And then
+the wedding itself seems to mean so much to them. It's so different from
+the weddings in our class which often mean so little."
+
+"Colette, I know--I have always known in spite of your endeavor to have
+me believe otherwise--anything really true and genuine appeals to you.
+I--"
+
+"But I haven't told you yet," she said, seized with an unaccountable
+shyness, "what your part is to be. The Boarder, Lily Rose, and naturally
+all the Jenkinses, want you to perform the ceremony. The Boarder, being
+shy and retiring, forbore to ask you, and Amarilly for some reason
+desired me to ask you if you would officiate, and I assured her you
+would gladly do so."
+
+"I should have felt hurt," replied John with a happy smile, "if they had
+asked anyone else to marry them. And you will be there, Colette?"
+
+"Certainly," she declared. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."
+
+"And--you will go with me, Colette?"
+
+She colored, and her eyes drooped beneath his fixed gaze.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I will go with you."
+
+"Thank you, Colette," he answered gently, realizing what a surrender
+this was, and deeming it wise not to follow up his victory immediately.
+
+And at his reticence Colette was conscious of a shade of disappointment.
+She began to feel an uncomfortable atmosphere in the silence that
+ensued, so she broke it, speaking hastily and confusedly.
+
+"Oh, John, there is something else they want of you. The request is made
+by unanimous desire that you wear their surplice--that awful surplice!"
+
+A shadow not unlike a frown fell athwart John's brow, and he made no
+immediate reply.
+
+The introduction of the unfortunate topic made them both self-conscious,
+and for the first time Colette acknowledged to herself that she had been
+in the wrong in the matter of the surplice. John, misinterpreting her
+constraint, and fearing that the reference to the garment had revived
+all her old resentment, arose to depart.
+
+"I will wear it if they wish," he said stiffly.
+
+"I, too, wish you would wear it," she said in a voice scarcely audible.
+
+He looked at her in surprise, hope returning.
+
+"To please them," she added, coloring.
+
+"Colette!" There was a pleading in his voice that told her all she
+longed to know. "Colette, don't you think I have been patient? Won't you
+be friends again?"
+
+"I will," she said, "after--the Boarder's and Lily Rose's wedding!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Work on the Boarder's Annex was begun with frantic zeal, each and every
+member of the Jenkins family lending a helping hand. The Boarder, as
+boss carpenter, worked after switching hours until it grew dark; then
+the children took turns, in holding a lantern for him. The savings of
+the Boarder being taxed by the trip to "Niagry" and the furnishing of
+the apartment, great economy had to be exercised in the erecting of the
+Annex. He strictly adhered to his determination not to touch the "rainy
+day fund."
+
+Amarilly pleaded for a bay window, but the Boarder felt this
+ornamentation to be quite beyond his means, so they finally compromised
+on a small and simple porch on which Lily Rose could sit of a summer
+night while the Boarder smoked by her side. Mrs. Jenkins, moved to
+memories long dormant of the home of her youth, suggested blinds instead
+of window-shades, but the Boarder after much figuring proved adamantine
+in resistance to this temptation.
+
+Lily Rose was the only one who made no suggestions. Anything the Boarder
+might construct in the way of a nesting place was beautiful in her eyes.
+
+"She'd be too sorter modist-like to tell me if she was sot on any
+perticler thing about the new place," he confided wistfully to Amarilly,
+"You're so sharp I wish you'd kinder hint around and find out what she
+wants. Jest put out some feelers."
+
+Amarilly diplomatically proceeded to put out "feelers," and after much
+maneuvering joyously imparted to the Boarder the information that Lily
+Rose loved to look at the one solitary tree that adorned the Jenkins
+lot, because to her it meant "the country."
+
+"So that's the way she loves to look out," informed Amarilly, "and, you
+see there isn't any window on that side of your rooms."
+
+"There shall be one," declared the Boarder firmly.
+
+"Couldn't you make it a bay?" again coaxed Amarilly, "It's on the side
+the sun comes in most, and the doctor said Lily Rose should get all the
+sunlight she could. If she could sit in that bay window sunny days next
+winter it would be better than medicine for her."
+
+The Boarder sighed.
+
+"Don't tempt me, Amarilly. There ain't a cent more I kin squeeze out."
+
+"I'll think out a way," thought Amarilly confidently.
+
+She took the matter to Colette, who instantly and satisfactorily solved
+the problem, and Amarilly returned radiant.
+
+"She says you've saved too much out for furniture, and to build the bay
+window from the furniture fund."
+
+The Boarder shook his head.
+
+"I thought of that, but thar ain't a thing I can take out of that. I got
+the figgers on the price of everything from the House Furnishers'
+Establishment."
+
+"But you see, Miss King says no one ever comes to a wedding without
+bringing a present. That it wouldn't be et--,--dear me! I have forgotten
+what the word is. And she says not to buy any furniture till all the
+presents come, and then I can settle the rooms for you while you and
+Lily Rose are away. Lots of the things you are expecting to buy will be
+given you."
+
+"It's risky," said the Boarder dubiously. "We'll most likely git casters
+and bibles and tidies. That's what I've allers seen to weddin's."
+
+"Well, I see I have got to put a flea in your ear, but don't tell Lily
+Rose. Let it be a surprise to her. Miss King is going to give you a
+handsome base-burner coal stove. So you can take that off your list."
+
+The Boarder looked pleased and yet distressed.
+
+"She shouldn't go fer to do that!" he protested.
+
+"Well, she wants to give you a nice present because you've been nice to
+us, and she thinks Lily Rose is sweet, and she says she believes in
+making sensible presents. She asked Mr. Meredith what to get, and he
+told her to get the stove so you see it's all right if he says so. She
+thought you wouldn't need a stove till next winter, but I told her you
+wanted the rooms furnished complete now."
+
+"Then," said the Boarder beamingly, "the bay winder shall be cut out
+ter-morrer."
+
+"Don't cut it _out_!" said Amarilly alarmed.
+
+"I don't mean in a slang way," he said, laughing. "I mean cut out with a
+saw."
+
+When Lily Rose was brought over one starlight night in budding May to
+see the beautiful aperture that would eventually become a bay window and
+face the solitary tree, two dewy drops of joy came into her eyes. Before
+them all she raised her pale, little face for a kiss which the Boarder
+bestowed with the solemn air of one pronouncing a benediction, for Lily
+Rose was chary of outward and visible expressions of affection, and he
+was deeply moved by this voluntary offering.
+
+The Annex grew rapidly, but its uprising was not accomplished without
+some hazard and adventure. There was an exciting day when Cory fell
+through the scaffolding where she had been climbing. She suffered a
+moment of unconsciousness and a bump on her head.
+
+"An inch nigher her brain, and it would have killed her!" exclaimed the
+mother in tragic tones.
+
+"An inch of miss is as good as a mile," said the Boarder
+philosophically.
+
+There was also a thrilling moment when Iry thrust his head through the
+railings of the new porch. Satisfied with his outlook, he would fain
+have withdrawn, but was prevented by an unaccountable swelling of his
+pate. Flamingus, coming to the rescue and working seemingly on the
+theory that his skull might be compressible, tried to pull him backward,
+but the frantic shrieks of Iry caused this plan of ejection to be
+abandoned.
+
+"The rest of him is smaller than his head," observed Amarilly
+practically, as she arrived upon the scene and took a comprehensive view
+of the case, "Push him through, Flam, and I'll go around on the other
+side and get him."
+
+Iry, safely landed in Amarilly's arms, laughed his delight, and thinking
+it a sort of game, was about to repeat his stunt of "in and out."
+
+"It's time something was done to you," said Amarilly determinedly,
+"before you get killed in this place. I am going to spank you, Iry, and
+Co, too. I am going to spank you both fierce. And you are to keep away
+from the new part."
+
+In spite of wailing protests, Amarilly administered a spanking to the
+two younger children that worked effectually against further repetition
+of their hazardous performances. But Bobby tobogganed down the roof
+during its shingling and sprained his ankle, which necessitated the use
+of crutches.
+
+"He can break his neck if he wants to," remarked Amarilly, when besought
+by Co to punish him too.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins lost a finger-nail by an injudicious use of the hammer. Bud
+sat down in the paint pot, and had to go to bed while his clothes were
+cleaned. In fact Lily Rose was the only one of the whole family circle
+to suffer no injury, but the Boarder guided her so tenderly over every
+part and plank of the Annex that there was no chance for mishap.
+
+When the lathing and plastering were completed, the little bride-elect
+began to tremble with timidity and happiness at the consciousness of the
+nearness of her approaching transfer to the Home.
+
+The plan of the Boarder had been to leave the walls rough and unfinished
+till their settling process should be accomplished, but Amarilly,
+absorbed heart and soul in this first experience of making a nesting
+place, pleaded for paper--"quiet, pretty paper with soft colors," she
+implored, Derry's teachings now beginning to bear fruit in Amarilly's
+development of the artistic.
+
+"Amarilly, we can't hev everything to onct," he rebuked solemnly. "The
+paper'll crack as sure as fate, if you put it on now."
+
+"Let it crack!" defied Amarilly. "Then you can put on more. You're away
+nearly all day, and the rest of us are at work, but if Lily Rose has to
+sit here all day and look at these white walls that look just like sour
+bread that hasn't riz"--Derry had not yet discovered this word in
+Amarilly's vocabulary--"she'll go mad."
+
+"Amarilly," sighed the Boarder, "you'll hev me in the poorhouse yit!"
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Amarilly. "I'll have to let you into another secret.
+Mr. Meredith is going to give you and Lily Rose a handsome centre-table
+and an easy-chair. There won't be any surprises left for you by the time
+the wedding is over, but you're so set, I have to keep giving things
+away to you."
+
+"That makes me think," remarked the Boarder. "I was going to ask you
+what I'd orter give the preacher fer marryin' Lily Rose and me. The
+fireman of Number Six told me he give two dollars when he was spliced,
+but you see Mr. Meredith is so swell, I'd orter give more."
+
+Amarilly gazed reflectively into space while she grappled with this
+proposition.
+
+"Do you know," she said presently, with the rare insight that was her
+birthright, "I don't think Mr. Meredith would like money--not from you--
+for Lily Rose. You see he's a sort of a friend, and you'd better give
+him a present because money, unless it was a whole lot, wouldn't mean
+anything to him."
+
+"That's so," admitted the Boarder, "but what kin I give him?"
+
+Amarilly had another moment of thought.
+
+"Make him a bookrack. Mr. Derry will draw you the design, and you can
+carve it out. You can do it noons after you eat your luncheon, then you
+won't lose any time building the house."
+
+"That's jest what I'll do. So with the fee saved and the cheer and table
+out, I kin paper the rooms. You find out what kind Lily Rose wants and
+help her pick it out."
+
+"She'll choose blue," lamented Amarilly, "and that fades quick."
+
+Lily Rose was easily persuaded to let Derry be consulted. He promptly
+volunteered to tint the walls, having studied interior decorations at
+one time in his career. He wrought a marvellous effect in soft grays and
+browns with bordering graceful vines.
+
+Lily Rose by taking advantage of a bargain sale on suits saved enough
+from her trousseau to curtain the windows in dainty blue and white
+muslin.
+
+Derry then diverted the appropriation for an ingrain carpet to an
+expenditure for shellac and paint with which he showed Amarilly how to
+do the floors. Some cheap but pretty rugs were selected in place of the
+carpet.
+
+At last the Annex was ready for painting. Lily Rose wistfully stated
+that she had always longed to live in a white house, so despite the fact
+that the Jenkins house proper was a sombre red, the new part was painted
+white.
+
+"'Twill liven the place up," Amarilly consoled herself, while Colette
+breathed a sigh of relief that the Annex was not to be entirely
+conventional.
+
+At Amarilly's suggestion, the woodwork was also painted white.
+
+"Hard to keep clean," warned Amarilly, divided in her trend of
+practicality and her loyalty to St. John's favorite color. White won.
+
+The moment the paint was dry and the Annex announced "done," the Boarder
+took Lily Rose to view their prospective domicile. They were
+unaccompanied by any of the family, but it took the combined efforts of
+Mrs. Jenkins, Amarilly, and Flamingus, whose recent change in voice and
+elongation of trousers gave him an air of authority, to prevent a
+stampede by the younger members.
+
+Lily Rose returned wet-eyed, sweetly smiling, and tremulous of voice,
+but the Boarder stood erect, proud in his possessions.
+
+Colette vetoed the plan for Amarilly to settle in the absence of the
+groom and bride.
+
+"If you have it all furnished beforehand," she argued, "there will be
+just so much more room to entertain in on the night of the wedding."
+
+And then Lily Rose confessed that "she'd love to be 'to hum' in her own
+place."
+
+"But they won't be furnished," argued Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, yes, they will," assured Colette. "It's etiquette--" she paused to
+note Amarilly writing the word down in a little book she carried--"for
+people to send their presents before they come, and you can settle as
+fast as they come in."
+
+The wedding gifts all arrived the day before the wedding. The base-
+burner, though not needed for some months, was set up, because the
+Boarder said he would not feel at home until he could put his feet on
+his own hearth. John Meredith sent an oaken library table and an
+easy-chair. Derry's offering was in the shape of a beautiful picture
+and a vase for the table.
+
+The best man, who fortunately had appealed to Amarilly for guidance,
+gave a couch. The Jenkins family, assessed in proportion to their
+respective incomes, provided a bedroom set. Lily Rose's landlady sent a
+willow rocker; the girl friends at the factory a gilt clock; the
+railroad hands, six silver spoons and an equal number of forks. Lily
+Rose's Sunday-school teacher presented a lamp. A heterogeneous
+assortment of articles came from the neighbors.
+
+These presents were all arranged in the new rooms by Lily Rose, and the
+elegance of the new apartment was overwhelming in effect to the
+household.
+
+"It looks most too fine to feel to hum in," gasped the Boarder. "It
+makes me feel strange!"
+
+"It won't look strange to you," assured the bride-elect, looking shyly
+into his adoring eyes, "when you come home and find me sitting here in
+my blue dress waiting for you, will it?"
+
+"No!" agreed the Boarder with a quick intake of breath, "'Twill be home
+and heaven, Lily Rose."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Shyly and perversely Lily Rose had postponed the trying on of her
+borrowed wedding waist until the day preceding the great event.
+
+"There won't be time to fit it," pleaded Amarilly.
+
+And Lily Rose had smiled a faraway smile and said her veil would cover
+it anyway. But finally Amarilly's pleas prevailed and the beloved
+garment was brought forth.
+
+Amarilly took it reverently from its wrappings and held it up to view.
+After many exclamations of wonder and admiration, Lily Rose, who had
+removed her dress, essayed to try it on.
+
+"Why, Amarilly," she said, struggling to get her arm into the sleeve,
+"there's something the matter! It's sewed together, or something."
+
+Amarilly hastened to investigate.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped, after thrusting her hand within, "to think it should
+be in here, for I am sure this is what Miss King has been looking for so
+long. Wait until I go and ask ma about it."
+
+She hurried to the kitchen precinct of the house.
+
+"Oh, Ma, do you know how this came in Miss King's lace waist? The one
+that was here through the fever?"
+
+"Why, didn't you ever take that home?"
+
+"Yes," informed Amarilly, "but she made me a present of it, and I put it
+away to keep till I was--grown up. And I want to lend it to Lily Rose to
+be married in. And when she went to try it on, she found this in the
+sleeve."
+
+Mrs. Jenkins paused in the sudsing of a garment.
+
+"Let me see!" she said, surveying the object with reminiscent scrutiny.
+"Oh, yes, I remember now. I found it on the floor the day she was here,
+afore the waist was ready for her. I thought she had dropped it, and so
+I pinned it in the sleeve of her dress, and was goin to tell Gus to give
+it to her, but he didn't take the waist hum, and then so much happened,
+it went clean out of my mind."
+
+"I'll go right over to her house with it now," said Amarilly.
+
+Lily Rose, adorned in the filmy, white waist, entered the kitchen.
+
+"See, Amarilly," she said delightedly. "It's a beautiful fit!"
+
+But Amarilly had something on her mind of more moment even than Lily
+Rose's wedding garments.
+
+"I am glad it fits," she said hurriedly, scarcely vouchsafing a glance
+toward Lily Rose as she caught up her hat, and hastened as fast as the
+street-cars would take her to Colette. Orders had been given for the
+admittance of Amarilly at any hour and to any room her young patroness
+might chance to be occupying. This morning she was in her boudoir.
+
+"Oh, Miss King!" cried Amarilly, her face aglow. "I guess I have found
+it!"
+
+Colette's heart began to flutter and the wavering beat became a steady
+throb when Amarilly handed her the long lost article.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you darling! Yes, yes, this is it! And it evidently has
+not been touched. Where did you find it? Who had it?" Amarilly related
+the story of its discovery.
+
+"Then, but for your generosity, Amarilly, this would have been in the
+waist for years, so I am going to reward you. You shall make Lily Rose a
+wedding present of the waist, and when you are married, I shall give you
+a real, white wedding gown of white satin with a bridal train!"
+
+"Oh, Miss King! I must get married then, even if I have to do it in a
+leap year!"
+
+"Of course you will marry. I shall pick out the bridegroom myself. I
+feel like doing almost anything for you, Amarilly."
+
+"Do you, truly?" asked Amarilly. "Then I wish you would--"
+
+"Tell me, dear!" urged Colette. "I'll do anything for you to-day."
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker.
+
+"Amarilly! I will, indeed--nicer than you can imagine, or he either. And
+tell me, is Lily Rose still happy--very happy?"
+
+"Yes," replied Amarilly. "So happy, and so scared-like, and she's going
+to dress at our house and could you come early and fix on the veil? We
+don't just know how it goes."
+
+[Illustration: "Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little
+peacemaker.]
+
+"Of course I will. And now will you take a little note to St. John for
+me on your way home?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King. And are you going to tell him it is found?"
+
+"No, Amarilly; not until to-morrow night, so don't say anything about it
+to him."
+
+The rector looked up with a welcoming smile when Amarilly was shown into
+his study.
+
+"I came with a note from her," she said with a glad little intonation in
+her voice.
+
+John took it eagerly. His face fell at the first few words which told
+him not to call for her to-morrow night on the way to the wedding, but
+it brightened amazingly when he read the reason--the adjusting of Lily
+Rose's bridal veil; it fairly radiated joy when he read:
+
+"I am not going to be disagreeable to--anyone to-morrow. I shall 'let my
+light shine' on Lily Rose and--every one. If you will keep your carriage
+to-morrow night, I will send mine away and ride home with you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+On the night of the auspicious occasion, Mrs. Jenkins's home presented a
+scene of festivity. Neighbors had loaned their lamps, and the brakeman
+had hung out his red lantern in token of welcome and cheer. It was,
+however, mistaken by some of the guests as a signal of danger, and they
+were wary of their steps lest they be ditched. Mrs. Hudgers ventured the
+awful prognostication that "mebby some of them Jenkins brats had gone
+and got another of them ketchin' diseases."
+
+When they entered the house there was a general exclamation of
+admiration. The curtain partitions had been removed, and the big room
+was beautifully decorated with festoons and masses of green interspersed
+with huge bunches of June roses.
+
+Derry and Flamingus received the guests. Upstairs the Boarder and the
+brakeman were nervously awaiting the crucial moment. The door into the
+Annex was closed, for in the sitting-room was the little bride, her pale
+cheeks delicately tinted from excitement as Colette artistically
+adjusted the bridal veil, fastening it with real orange blossoms.
+Amarilly hovered near in an ecstasy which was perforce silent on account
+of her mouth being full of pins.
+
+"There's Mr. St. John's carriage," she managed to murmur as she peered
+from the window.
+
+Colette dropped her paper of pins, went hastily into the adjoining
+bedroom and slipped out again before John Meredith was ushered in where
+the surplice immaculately laundered, was waiting to be donned by its
+original owner.
+
+After slipping it on, John's hand from force of habit sought the pocket
+and there encountered something. He drew it forth wonderingly. It was a
+small, silver-monogrammed envelope sealed and addressed to him in
+Colette's handwriting. He read the note once, twice, thrice. Then there
+was a knock at the door that led into the Annex sitting-room. He opened
+it to admit Amarilly.
+
+"Are you ready?" she asked. "You're to go in with them. They--"
+
+She paused and stared at him. The transformation in his face was
+wonderful.
+
+"Yes, I am ready, Amarilly," he replied, and something in his voice
+sounded strange to her.
+
+He followed her into the next room where the Boarder, awkward in his
+Sunday clothes, but regal in his pride in the little, white-veiled
+figure at his side, was awaiting him.
+
+John walked out into the Jenkins's part of the house with them, while
+Amarilly slipped home by way of the Annex bedroom.
+
+The entrance was certainly effective to the neighbors.
+
+"Ain't she a lily though!" "Look at that long veil onct!" "Jest like 'a
+picter!" "What a swell waist" "That big bo'quet!" "I niver seed sech
+flowers afore." "That surplus makes it look like picters!"
+
+All these comments were sweet music in Amarilly's ear. Only one person
+had regrets. Mrs. Hudgers was visibly disappointed.
+
+"I thought they'd hev candles a-burnin'," she confided to Mrs. Huce.
+
+"Don't you know no better than that?" scoffed Mrs. Huce with a superior
+air. "Them things is only used by Irish folks."
+
+Derry's dancing eyes looked to Colette for appreciation of this
+statement, but her eyes and attention were entirely for John.
+
+The ceremony began. John's impressive voice, with its new pervading note
+of exultant gladness, reached them all, tempering even Derry's light-
+hearted mirth. It gave courage to the little bride whose drooping head
+rose like a flower, and a light shone in her eyes as she made the
+responses sweetly and clearly. It found echo in the Boarder, whose
+stooping shoulders unconsciously straightened and his voice grew clear
+and strong as he promised to have and to hold. It found a place in
+Colette's heart which sent illumining lights into her starry eyes.
+
+When the solemn ceremony ended, and the Boarder and Lilly Rose were
+pronounced man and wife, the guests flocked forward to offer
+congratulations. Then they were bidden to adjourn to the Annex that they
+might view the bride's domain, while Mrs. Jenkins assisted by many
+helping hands set the long tables, a small one being reserved for the
+Boarder, the bride, Mr. Cotter, and Mrs. Jenkins and Iry.
+
+"I thought they could eat more natural," whispered the considerate
+little Amarilly to Colette, "if there weren't no strangers with them."
+
+Colette, John, and Derry were also honored with a separate table. Mrs.
+Hudgers and Amarilly "dished up and poured" in the woodshed, while the
+boys acted as waiters, having been thoroughly trained by Amarilly for
+the occasion.
+
+"Do you know," laughed Derry, "I was so surprised and relieved to find
+that the Boarder had a cognomen like other people. It never occurred to
+me before that he must of course have a name."
+
+Colette smiled politely but perfunctorily. She was living too deeply
+to-night to appreciate wit. John, too, was strangely silent, his eyes
+resting often and adoringly upon Colette. Shrewdly Derry divined the
+situation and relieved it by rattling on with a surface banter that
+demanded no response.
+
+"These refreshments," he observed, "are certainly the handiwork of my
+little maid. They have a flavor all her own. I am proud of Amarilly's
+English, too."
+
+"I wonder," said Colette, "if you are doing quite right, Mr. Phillips,
+in improving Amarilly to such an extent? I am afraid she will grow
+beyond her family."
+
+"No; even you, pardon me, Miss King, don't know Amarilly as I do. She
+couldn't get beyond them in her heart, although she may in other
+directions. Her heart is in the right place, and it will bridge any
+distance that may lie between them."
+
+John looked up attentively and approvingly.
+
+"Amarilly has too much aptitude for learning not to be encouraged, and I
+shall do more for her before long. We have pursued a select course of
+reading this winter. She has read aloud while I painted. We began
+stumblingly with Alice in Wonderland and are now groping through
+mythology."
+
+After refreshments had been served, Lily Rose went to her bedroom to don
+her travelling gown, and when the happy couple had driven away amid a
+shower of rice and shouts from the neighbors, John's carriage drew up.
+
+"John," asked Colette, after a happy little moment in his arms, "did you
+read my note and did you see what the date was?"
+
+"Colette, surely it was the dearest love-letter a man ever received. If
+I could have had it all these dreary months!"
+
+"Do you wonder that I feared its falling into strange hands?"
+
+"Tell me its history, Colette. How you recovered it, and why you thought
+it was in the surplice in the first place?"
+
+"I wrote it the day after you asked me--you know--"
+
+There was another happy disappearance and silence before she resumed:
+
+"I was sentimental enough to want to deliver it in an unusual way. I
+took it to Mrs. Jenkins's house the day your surplice was to be returned
+to you, and I slipped it inside the pocket. I wanted you to find it
+there on Sunday morning. I didn't know what to think when you looked at
+me so oddly that Sunday--yes, I know now that you were wondering at my
+silence. And when we came home in the fall and I learned from Amarilly
+that strangers might be reading and laughing at my ardent love-letter,
+which must have passed through many and alien hands, I was so horrified
+I couldn't act rational or natural. I was--yes, I will 'fess up, John,--
+I was unreasonable, as you said and--No, John! wait until I finish
+before you--"
+
+"You want to know how and where it was found? It seems at the same time
+your surplice was laundered, a lace waist of mine was at their house. I
+didn't care for a 'fumigated waist' so, like you, I made Amarilly a
+present perforce. She laid it away in its wrappings to keep until her
+wedding day. Out of the goodness of her generous little heart she loaned
+it to Lily Rose and yesterday, when they were trying it on, Amarilly
+found my note in the sleeve. Mrs. Jenkins was appealed to and remembered
+that when the things were ready to be sent home, she found the note on
+the floor, and supposing it had fallen from the waist slipped it inside
+and forgot all about it. I decided that it should be delivered in the
+manner originally planned."
+
+"But, Colette," he asked wistfully, a few moments later, "if you had
+never found it would you have kept me always in suspense and never have
+given me an answer? I began to hope, that night I called, that you were
+relenting."
+
+"I was, John. Amarilly had been telling me of the Boarder's love for
+Lily Rose, and it made me lonely for you, and I determined in any event
+to give you your answer--this answer--to-night. And so I did, and--I
+think that is all, John."
+
+"Not all, Colette."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+The dairy business continued to prove profitable to Gus, the cow
+remaining contented, loving and giving. One night, however, there came
+the inevitable reaction, and the gentle creature in the cow-shed felt
+the same stifling she had rebelled against on the night of the stampede
+when she had made her wild dash for liberty. Moved by these
+recollections, the sedate, orderly cow became imbued with a feeling of
+unrest, and demolishing the frail door was once more at large. In a
+frenzy of freedom she dashed about the yard. Her progress was somewhat
+impeded by contact with the surplice which, pinned to the clothes-line,
+was flapping in the breezes. Maddened by this obstruction which hung,
+veil-like, over her bovine lineaments, she gave a twist of her Texas
+horns, a tug, and the surplice was released, but from the line only; it
+twined itself like a white wraith about the horns.
+
+Then the sportive animal frisked over the low back fence and across the
+hill, occasionally stepping on a released end of the surplice and
+angrily tearing her way through the garment. She made her road to the
+railroad track. That sight, awakening bitter memories of a packed
+cattle-car, caused her to slacken her Mazeppa-like speed. While she
+paused, the night express backed onto the side track to await the coming
+of the eastbound train. The cow, still in meditation, was silhouetted in
+the light of a harvest moon.
+
+"This 'ere," a home-bound cattleman was saying to a friend on the
+platform, "is nigh onto whar we dropped a cow. I swar if thar ain't that
+blasted cow now, what? Know her from hoof to horn, though what kind of a
+Christmas tree she's got on fer a bunnit, gits me! Ki, yi! Ki, yi!"
+
+At the sound of the shrill, weird cry, the animal stood at bay. Again
+came the well-known strident halloo. A maelstrom of memories was
+awakened by the call. Instinctively obeying the old summons she started
+toward the train, when from over the hill behind her she heard another
+command.
+
+"Co, boss! Co, boss!"
+
+The childish anxious treble rose in an imploring wail.
+
+The cow paused irresolute, hesitating between the lure of the old life
+on the plains and the recent domestic existence.
+
+"Co, boss!"
+
+There was a note of entreaty, of affection, in the cry.
+
+After all, domesticity was her birthright. With an answering low of
+encouragement the black cow turned and trotted amiably back to meet the
+little dairyman.
+
+"Well, I'll be jiggered," said the cattleman, as the train pulled out.
+"I'd a swore it was old Jetblack. Maybe 'twas. She was only a milker
+anyway, and I guess she's found a home somewhere."
+
+Gus with arm lovingly about the cow's neck walked home.
+
+"Bossy," he said in gently reproaching tones, "how could you give me
+such a skeer? I thought I'd lost you, and I'd hev sure missed you--you,
+yerself--more'n I would the money your milk brings us."
+
+Then for the first time, the lad's eyes noted the decorated horns.
+
+"What in thunder--"
+
+He began to unwind the ribbons of white cloth, the stringed remnants of
+the surplice.
+
+"Gracious Peter! It's the surplus! What will Amarilly say--and Lily
+Rose? It's only fit fer carpet rags now. Well, if this ain't the end of
+the surplus after all it has went through! I wonder what bossy wanted of
+it? Thought jest cause she was a cow, she must be a cow ketcher, I
+suppose."
+
+Great was the joy of the Jenkinses at the restoration of the cow, but
+there was grievous lament from Amarilly for the fate of the precious
+garment.
+
+"It was our friend--our friend in need!" she mourned.
+
+"I'm so glad we hev a picter of it," said Lily Rose, gazing fondly at
+the photograph of the Boarder in the saintly robes.
+
+"I'll go and tell Miss King," said Amarilly the next morning. "She said
+she felt that the surplice would come to some tragic end."
+
+"It was a fitting fate for so mysterious a garment," commented Colette.
+"You couldn't expect any ordinary, common-place ending for the surplice.
+After officiating at funerals, weddings, shop-windows, theatres,
+pawnshops, and bishops' dwellings, it could never have simply worn out,
+or died of old age."
+
+"I don't see," meditated Amarilly, "what possessed the cow. She's been
+so gentle always, and then to fly to pieces that way, and riddle the
+surplice to bits! It was lucky there was nothing else on the line."
+
+"It's very simple," said Colette. "I suppose she wanted to go to the
+train. Maybe she expected to meet a friend. And as nearly everyone else
+had worn the surplice on special occasions, she thought she could do the
+same; only, you see, never having been to church she didn't quite know
+how to put it on, and I suppose got mad at it because it didn't fit her
+and gave vent to her anger by trampling on it."
+
+Amarilly's doleful little face showed no appreciation of this conceit.
+
+"Don't look so glum, Amarilly. I have something to show you that will
+please you."
+
+She opened a desk and took a thick, white square envelope from it, and
+handed it to the little girl.
+
+Wonderingly Amarilly opened it and took out a folded, engraved sheet of
+thick paper. She read eagerly, and two little spots of pink came into
+her cheeks.
+
+"Oh, oh!" she cried, looking up with shining eyes, which in another
+moment glistened through tears.
+
+"Why, Amarilly, aren't you glad that I am going to be--"
+
+"Mrs. St. John?" smiled Amarilly. "I think it's beautiful. And,"
+anxiously, "you will surely be good to--him?"
+
+"Yes," replied Colette softly "I will be good--very good--to St. John.
+Don't fear, Amarilly."
+
+A card had fallen from the envelope. Amarilly picked it up and read:
+
+"To be presented at the church."
+
+"What's that?" she asked curiously.
+
+"You have to show that at the church door. If you didn't have it, you
+couldn't get in to see us married. It's the same as a ticket to a
+theatre. And St. John doesn't like it; but if we didn't have them there
+would be a mob of curious people who don't know us. I shall give all of
+you tickets to come to the church, the Boarder and Lily Rose, too."
+
+"Oh," cried Amarilly, "that will be lovely, and we shall all come."
+
+"Of course you will all come. Your friend, the bishop, is to marry us,
+and Bud is going to sing a solo. The choirmaster told me his voice was
+developing wonderfully."
+
+"I must go home and tell them all about it," said Amarilly excitedly.
+
+"Wait! There's more to hear. I am going to invite you to the reception
+here at the house, and I am going to have a lovely white dress made for
+you to wear, and you shall have white silk stockings and slippers and
+white gloves."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Amarilly, shutting her eyes. "I can't believe it."
+
+The next morning at the studio she announced the wonderful news to
+Derry.
+
+"I just received an invitation, myself," he replied. "We will go
+together, Amarilly. I'll send you flowers and call for you with a
+taxicab."
+
+"Things must stop happening to me," said Amarilly solemnly. "I can't
+stand much more."
+
+Derry laughed.
+
+"When things once begin to happen, Amarilly, they never stop. You are to
+go from here now every day after luncheon to this address," handing her
+a card.
+
+"'Miss Varley,'" Amarilly read. "'1227, Winter Street.' Will she have
+work for me, too?"
+
+"Yes; work in schoolbooks. She takes a few private pupils, and I have
+engaged her to teach you. I really think you should have instruction in
+other branches than English and art and arithmetic."
+
+Amarilly turned pale but said nothing for a moment. Then she held out
+her hand.
+
+"I will study hard--to pay you," she said simply.
+
+"And can you stand another piece of exciting news, Amarilly? Sunset,
+which I have dawdled over for so long, drew first prize."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, that is best of all!"
+
+"And do you know what I am going to give Mrs. St. John for a wedding
+present from you and me? The picture of The Little Scrub-girl."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Another spring found the members of the Jenkins Syndicate still banking
+regularly and flourishing in their various walks in life. The Boarder
+had received a "raise"; Lily Rose was spending her leisure time in
+fashioning tiny garments which she told Cory were for a doll baby; Iry
+was wearing his first trousers cut over from a pair discarded by Bud;
+and Amarilly was acquiring book lore with an ease and rapidity which
+delighted Miss Varley and Derry. Through the medium of Mr. Vedder the
+attention of the manager of a high class vaudeville had been drawn to
+Bud, and he was now singing every night with a salary that made the
+neighbors declare that "them Jenkinses was getting to be reg'ler
+Rockyfellers."
+
+Amarilly coming home one Monday evening found the family grouped about
+the long table listening with bulging eyes and hectic cheeks to the
+Boarder, who had before him a sheet of figures. Amarilly was at once
+alert, although somewhat resentful of this encroachment upon her
+particular province.
+
+"Oh, come and hear, Amarilly!" "Amarilly, we've bought a farm!"
+"Amarilly, we air agoin' to live in the country!"
+
+"Let me explain," said the Boarder, usually slow and easy going, but now
+alert and enthusiastic of mien and speech. "We've got a chance,
+Amarilly, to sell this place and make quite a profit. That new factory
+that's agoin' up acrost the alley has sent real estate scootin'. With
+what we git fer it, we kin make a big payment on a farm. I took a run
+down yesterday to look at one we kin git cheap, cause the folks on it
+hez gotter go west fer the man's health. What we hev all saved up sence
+we bought the place will keep us agoin' till we git in our fust summer
+crops."
+
+"Tell her about the house," prompted Mrs. Jenkins, her quick, maternal
+eye noting the bewilderment and disapproval in her daughter's expressive
+eyes.
+
+"It's all green meaders and orcherds and lanes," said the Boarder with
+the volubility of one repeating an oft-told and well-loved tale, while
+the young Jenkinses with the rapt, intense gaze of moving picture
+beholders sat in pleased expectancy, "and the house sets on a little
+rise of ground. It's a white house with a big chimbley and two stoops,
+and thar's a big barn with two white hosses in it, and a cow and an
+animal in the paster lot. A big pen of pigs, fifty hens in the henhouse,
+and a few sheep. Thar's a piece of woods and the river."
+
+"I'm a little fearful of the river on Iry's account," said Mrs. Jenkins,
+"but we kin spank him up good as soon as we git thar, and then he'll
+understand he's to keep away."
+
+"We kin git a good dog to keep track of Iry and the cattle," said the
+Boarder, and then he paused expectantly to listen to Amarilly's
+approbation. But she was strangely silent.
+
+"It will be a fust class investment," he continued sagely.
+
+"Why will it? We don't know anything about farming," objected Amarilly.
+"We'll have to hire someone to run it."
+
+"I was brought up on a farm," replied the Boarder. "Thar ain't a thing I
+don't know about farm work."
+
+"I was raised on a farm, too," said Mrs. Jenkins. "I can make good
+butter and I know all about raisin' chickens. I'll get some young
+turkeys and have them ready to sell for Thanksgiving, and I'll set out
+strawberries and celery plants."
+
+"I kin larn, and I'll work hard and do just what he tells me to," said
+Flamingus, motioning toward the Boarder.
+
+"I kin have my dairy all right, all right," said Gus joyfully. "I'll
+have a hull herd of cattle soon."
+
+"I shall go in heavy on hens," said Milt importantly. "The grocer give
+me a book about raising them. There's money in hens."
+
+"I choose to take keer of the sheep," cried Bobby.
+
+"I'll help ma do the work in the house and the garden," volunteered
+Cory.
+
+"And I'm strong enough to work outdoors now," said Lily Rose. "I shall
+help with the garden and with the housework."
+
+"We'll all pitch in and work," said Flamingus authoritatively, "and
+we're all partners and we won't hire no help. It will be clear profit."
+
+"Ain't it lovely, Amarilly?" asked the mother, apprehensive lest the
+little leader might blackball the project.
+
+"We're all doing so well here, why change? Why not let well enough
+alone?" she asked.
+
+There was a general and surprised protest at this statement. It was
+something new for Amarilly to be a kill-joy.
+
+"Do you like to live in this alley when we kin hev all outdoors and git
+a chanst to be somebody?" demanded Flamingus, who was rapidly usurping
+his sister's place as head of the house.
+
+"And think of the money we'll make!" reminded Milton.
+
+"And the milk and butter and cream and good things to eat without buying
+them!" exclaimed Gus.
+
+"And huntin' f'r eggs and swimmin' in the river and skatin' and gettin'
+hickory nuts and all the apples you kin eat," persuaded Bobby, who had
+evidently been listening to the Boarder's fancies of farm life.
+
+"Thar's a school close by, and all the chillern kin go," said the mother
+anxiously. "Mebby you kin git to teach it after a while, Amarilly."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly!" cried Lily Rose ecstatically, "to think of all the
+trees, and all the sky, and all the green grass and all the birds--oh,
+Amarilly!"
+
+Words failed Lily Rose, but she sighed a far-seeing blissful sigh of
+exquisite happiness at her horoscope. The Boarder looked at her, his
+heart eloquent in his eyes, but he said nothing.
+
+"Amarilly," cried Cory, "we kin hev real flowers fer nuthin' and pies
+and ice-cream, and we kin cuddle little chicks like ma told me, and make
+daisy chains, and hev picnics in the woods. Oh--"
+
+Words also proved inadequate to Co's anticipations.
+
+"Amawilly, we kin play wiv little lambs," lisped Iry.
+
+"Bud, you haven't made your speech, yet," said Amarilly, wistfully,
+realizing that the majority was against her.
+
+"Bud won't go till fall," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"Till fall!" cried Amarilly faintly. "Why, when are we going?"
+
+"Next week," answered the Boarder jubilantly. "The folks want to leave
+right away, and we must get busy plantin'. I went to Vedder's friend,
+the real estate man, this mornin' as soon as I got back, and he says
+it's a real bargain."
+
+"But why isn't Bud going?"
+
+"This morning," informed Mrs. Jenkins proudly, "Bud had an offer. As
+soon as the theatre shuts down, Mr. Vedder is going to take Bud to a big
+resort and manage him for the season. He'll git lots of money. I
+wouldn't let Bud go off with no one else, but Mr. Vedder is so nice, and
+he says when Bud goes to the country in the fall he kin come into the
+city Saturday nights on the Interurban and sing in the choir Sundays and
+come back Monday. He kin stay with him, Mr. Vedder says. And the country
+air and the fresh milk and eggs, will make a diff'rent boy of him. It's
+what the doctor says he'd orter hev."
+
+"Then, we'll go, of course," declared Amarilly resolutely.
+
+"And, Amarilly," said the Boarder gravely, "your ma ain't said why she
+wanted to go, but think of the diff'rence it will make in her life. To
+be sure, she will have to work hard, but with you, Lily Rose, and Co to
+help her, it won't be so hard, and it'll be higher class work than
+slushing around in tubs and water, and she'll hev good feedin' and good
+air, and we'll all feel like we was folks and our own bosses."
+
+"Ma, I was selfish!" cried Amarilly remorsefully. "I'll work like a
+hired man!"
+
+Amarilly thereupon bravely assumed a cheerful mien and looked over the
+Boarder's figures, listening with apparently great enthusiasm to the
+plans and projects. But when she was upstairs in her own little bed and
+each and every other Jenkins was wrapt in happy slumber, she turned her
+face to the wall, and wept long, silently, and miserably. Far-away
+fields and pastures did not look alluring to this little daughter of the
+city who put bricks and mortar and lighted streets above trees and
+meadows, for Amarilly was entirely metropolitan; sky-scrapers were her
+birthright, and she loved every inch of her city.
+
+"But it's best for them," she acknowledged.
+
+A little pang came with the realization that they who had been so
+dependent upon her guardianship for guidance were entirely competent to
+act without her.
+
+"It's Flam. He's growed up!" she sobbed, correctness of speech slipping
+from her in her grief. "And he don't know near so much as I do, only
+he's a man--or going to be--so what he says goes."
+
+And with this bitter but inevitable recognition of the things that are,
+Amarilly sobbed herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+The next morning Amarilly served Derry's breakfast in heavy-hearted
+silence, replying in low-voiced monosyllables to his gay, conversational
+advances. She performed her household duties about the studio listlessly
+though with conscientious thoroughness. When it came time to prepare
+luncheon, Derry called her into the studio.
+
+"Come here to the light, where I can see you best, Amarilly."
+
+Reluctantly she came.
+
+He turned his searching, artist's eyes upon her unsparingly, noting the
+violet shadows under the white-lidded eyes, and the hard, almost tragic
+lines in the drooping of her mobile mouth. She bore his gaze
+unflinchingly, with indrawn breath and clenched hands.
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?" he asked gently. "You will tell me, _nicht
+wahr_?"
+
+These two last words were in deference to her new study of German.
+
+At the genuine sympathy in his voice, Amarilly's composure gave way and
+there was a rush of tears.
+
+He led her to a divan and sat beside her.
+
+"Yes, of course you will tell me, Amarilly. I knew there was an
+emotional side to my practical, little maid, and I noticed at breakfast
+that there was something wrong."
+
+"Yes," she replied, with an effort, wiping away the rising tears, "I
+will tell you, but no one else. If I told Mr. Vedder, he would not
+understand; he would say I must do what was sensible. If I told Mr. St.
+John, he would be shocked, and tell me that duty was hard, and that was
+why it must be done,--to strengthen. Mrs. St. John would laugh, and say:
+'Oh, what a foolish Amarilly!'"
+
+"And what will I say, Amarilly?" he asked interestedly.
+
+"You! Oh, you will understand what I feel, and you will be sorry."
+
+"Then spin away, Amarilly. You'll have my sympathy and help in
+everything that makes you feel bad, whether it's right or wrong."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, we are all going away--way off to the country--to live
+on a farm!"
+
+"Amarilly, you little city brat! You'd be a misfit on a farm. Tell me
+what has sent the Jenkins family into the open."
+
+Faithfully Amarilly enumerated the pros and cons of the agricultural
+venture. When she had concluded her narrative, Derry, to her surprise
+and sorrow, looked positively jubilant.
+
+"And you don't want to live in the country, eh, Amarilly?"
+
+"No, Mr. Derry," she protested. "I don't. I have never been there, but I
+know the woods and the fields and--all that--must be beautiful--in
+patches--but I couldn't bear it all the time--not to see all the bright
+and white lights at night and the hurry, and the people, and the
+theatres. No! I'd rather be the poorest little speck here than to own
+and live on the biggest farm in the world."
+
+He laughed delightedly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you little gamin! You have the right idea, though. We
+don't want anything, however perfect it may be, all the time. We want it
+just 'in patches'--as you say. You'll love the country with your whole
+heart and soul when you come to see it if you know that you can leave
+it. But this is a big change in your affairs, and we must talk it over.
+We'll go to Carter's again for luncheon. Take off your apron and cap.
+You won't have to fix your hair this time. It's even more beautiful than
+it was then. Your frock, if it is cheap and plain, is artistic in cut
+and color."
+
+Amarilly felt cheered in spite of herself at his exuberant manner, but
+burst into tears when on leaving the studio he casually remarked:
+
+"So this is almost the last of your work here! I can never hope to get
+such another housekeeper as you. I shall have to eat out again."
+
+At sight of her grief he took hold of her arm almost roughly.
+
+"Amarilly, you little goose, do you suppose I am going to let you be
+exiled to a farm and lapse into the vernacular of the Boarder? Now, buck
+up and trust to the judgment and affection of your twin brother."
+
+Amarilly, wondering but hopeful, "bucked up," and they walked in silence
+to Carter's, where Derry ordered a private dining-room and luncheon.
+Then:
+
+"Now, listen my child, and you shall hear, not of the midnight ride of
+Paul Revere, but of the sad story of the life of your twin brother. My
+parents died when I was too young to grieve for them. They are only a
+faint memory. I had a cold-blooded, sensible guardian who put me into a
+boys' school, from which I went to college, and then for a year in
+Paris. He didn't let me know the amount of my inheritance. Consequently
+I really worked and worked hard at the only thing I cared for and formed
+no extravagant tastes. Neither was I courted and flattered by parasites.
+
+"On my return from Paris, a year before I met you, I came into my
+mother's fortune, and recently I have received the one left me by my
+father. Having been brought up to live a comparatively simple life, in
+the belief that I would be dependent on my own exertions, I have more
+money than I know what to do with as yet. I have no one, not even a
+fifth cousin, to be interested in. I have any number of acquaintances,
+but no really intimate friends, so I have no one to help me spend and
+enjoy my money.
+
+"There was something about you, Amarilly, that appealed to me that first
+day you came up to the studio. It couldn't have been your looks, for
+aside from your hair, your expressive eyes, and your hands; you are
+quite ordinary looking; but something about you amused me, then
+interested me, and, now fascinates me. I have thought about it a good
+deal, and have come to the conclusion that it is your direct naturalness
+and earnestness. I have really come to feel as if you were a sort of a
+younger sister of mine. I have done a very little for you in the way of
+education, and I have intended to do more. The reason I have been slow
+about it was--for reasons. I have discussed your future with the
+Merediths a great many times.
+
+"What I wished to do was to put you in the best girls' school I could
+find and when you were finished there, to send you abroad, and give you
+the same advantages that a sister of mine would have. But as I say, I
+hesitated. It didn't seem exactly wise to separate you from your family,
+surround you with different environments and then have you come home
+to--the alley. I know your loyal little heart would never waver in its
+affection for them, but such a decided change would not be wise.
+
+"Now, you see, this farm business simplifies things wonderfully. With
+the thrift and industry of your brothers and the Boarder I can easily
+see the farm is going to be a prosperous undertaking, and by the time
+you are finished--say five years--for Miss Varley tells me you are quite
+up with the girls of your age in your studies, they will have a
+substantial country home which you will enjoy immensely between times.
+You will find that a country home, however humble, is not sordid like an
+obscure home in the city. So next week, Amarilly, or as soon as Mrs.
+Meredith can fit you out properly, you will be packed off to an ultra-
+smart school. There will be one term this year, but I think you should
+remain through the summer vacation and have private tutoring."
+
+The waiter entered with the first course. When he had again gone out,
+Amarilly looked up at Derry, her eyes full of a yearning that touched
+him.
+
+"It would be lovely, Mr. Derry. Too lovely to happen, you know."
+
+"There, Amarilly," he said with a combination of frown and smile, "there
+it is again--your contradiction of eyes and mouth--the one of a gazelle;
+the other, of a mule. I'll answer your objections before you make them,
+for it is determined that you are to go."
+
+The look he had ascribed to Amarilly's mouth came into the forward
+thrust of his chin.
+
+"First, you think you are too proud and independent to accept. From your
+viewpoint it seems a good deal to do. From mine, proved by my bank
+account, it is an absurdly small thing to do, but if you are truly
+grateful for what you are pleased to think I have done for you, you will
+let me do this, because you feel sorry for me that I am so alone in the
+world. And St. John, himself, would tell you it was your duty to make
+the most of your talents and opportunities. You can also do a little
+charity work in keeping me straight, for you see, Amarilly, I am going
+to Paris for two years to study, and I will have an incentive to work
+and not play too hard if I know I have a little sister over here in
+school who would be sorry if her brother went wrong and didn't get to be
+a great artist. So for your sake, and for my sake--"
+
+"But there's ma's sake," she said wistfully. "The Boarder says woman's
+work on the farm is hard."
+
+"There's the Boarderess and Co--"
+
+"Lily Rose is not strong and doesn't know much about farm work, and Co's
+only a kid."
+
+"Well, I hadn't finished. You have an interest in the farm as one of the
+syndicate, and you have some money saved."
+
+"Yes," admitted Amarilly bewildered, not following his train of thought.
+
+"Well, you won't need that now, and it can go towards a woman to help,--
+a hired girl in country vernacular--during the busy seasons. And you can
+go home summers. Every week you are to write me a long letter and tell
+me about yourself and them."
+
+Amarilly was gazing into space, and in silence he watched the odd,
+little signs of conflict. It was the same sort of a struggle, only
+harder and more prolonged, that she had passed through two years before
+at the theatre when her untutored conscience bade her relinquish her
+seat. Suddenly her countenance became illumined.
+
+"I am going to do it, Mr. Derry! I am going to let you send me to
+school, and abroad and wherever you think best."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley, by 
+Belle K. Maniates
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley, by Belle K. Maniates
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
+
+Author: Belle K. Maniates
+
+Posting Date: November 3, 2011 [EBook #9988]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: November 6, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tony Browne and PG
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+BY BELLE K. MANIATES
+
+AUTHOR OF DAVID DUNNE.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. HENRY
+
+1915
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work"
+
+To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope with her caprices
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker
+
+
+
+[Illustration: He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of
+adoration]
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The tiny, trivial touch of Destiny that caused the turn in Amarilly's
+fate-tide came one morning when, in her capacity as assistant to the
+scrub ladies at the Barlow Stock Theatre, she viewed for the first time
+the dress rehearsal of _A Terrible Trial_. Heretofore the patient little
+plodder had found in her occupation only the sordid satisfaction of
+drawing her wages, but now the resplendent costumes, the tragedy in the
+gestures of the villain, the languid grace of Lord Algernon, and the
+haughty treble of the leading lady struck the spark that fired ambition
+in her sluggish breast.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped in wistful-voiced soliloquy, as she leaned against her
+mop-stick and gazed aspiringly at the stage, "I wonder if I couldn't
+rise!"
+
+"Sure thing, you kin!" derisively assured Pete Noyes, vender of gum at
+matinees. "I'll speak to de maniger. Mebby he'll let youse scrub de
+galleries."
+
+Amarilly, case-hardened against raillery by reason of the possession of
+a multitude of young brothers, paid no heed to the bantering scoffer,
+but resumed her work in dogged dejection.
+
+"Say, Mr. Vedder, Amarilly's stage-struck!" called Pete to the ticket-
+seller, who chanced to be passing.
+
+The gray eyes of the young man thus addressed softened as he looked at
+the small, eager face of the youngest scrubber.
+
+"Stop at the office on your way out, Amarilly," he said kindly, "and
+I'll give you a pass to the matinee this afternoon."
+
+Amarilly's young heart fluttered wildly and sent a wave of pink into her
+pale cheeks as she voiced her gratitude.
+
+She was the first to enter when the doors opened that afternoon, and she
+kept close to the heels of the usher.
+
+"He ain't agoin' to give me the slip," she thought, keeping wary watch
+of his lithe form as he slid down the aisle.
+
+In the blaze of light and blare of instruments she scarcely recognized
+her workaday environment.
+
+"House sold out!" she muttered with professional pride and enthusiasm as
+the signal for the raising of the curtain was given. "Mebby I'd orter
+give up my seat so as they could sell it."
+
+There was a moment's conflict between the little scrubber's conscience
+and her newly awakened desires.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to, though," she decided. And having so determined, she
+gave her conscience a shove to the remotest background, yielding herself
+to the full enjoyment of the play.
+
+The rehearsal had been inspiring and awakening, but this, "the real
+thing," as Amarilly appraised it, bore her into a land of enchantment.
+She was blind and deaf to everything except the scenes enacted on the
+stage. Only once was her passionate attention distracted, and that was
+when Pete in passing gave her an emphatic nudge and a friendly grin as
+he munificently bestowed upon her a package of gum. This she instantly
+pocketed "fer the chillern."
+
+At the close of the performance Amarilly sailed home on waves of
+excitement. She was the eldest of the House of Jenkins, whose scions,
+numbering eight, were all wage-earners save Iry, the baby. After school
+hours Flamingus was a district messenger, Gus milked the grocer's cow,
+Milton worked in a shoe-shining establishment, Bobby and Bud had paper
+routes, while Cory, commonly called "Co," wiped dishes at a boarding-
+house. Notwithstanding all these contributions to the family revenue, it
+became a sore struggle for the widow of Americanus Jenkins to feed and
+clothe such a numerous brood, so she sought further means of
+maintenance.
+
+"I've took a boarder!" she announced solemnly to Amarilly on her return
+from the theatre. "He's a switchman and I'm agoin' to fix up the attic
+fer him. I don't jest see how we air agoin' to manage about feedin' him.
+Thar's no room to the table now, and thar ain't dishes enough to go
+around, but you're so contrivin' like, I thought you might find out a
+way." Memories of the footlights were temporarily banished upon hearing
+this wonderful intelligence. A puzzled pucker came between the brows of
+the little would-be prima donna and remained there until at last the
+exigency was triumphantly met.
+
+"I hev it, ma! When's he comin'?"
+
+"To-morrer fer breakfast."
+
+"Then we must rayhearse to-night afore we kin put it on right. Come, all
+you-uns, to the kitchen table."
+
+The Jenkins children, accustomed to the vernacular of the profession,
+were eager to participate in a rehearsal, and they scampered
+boisterously to the kitchen precincts. Amarilly, as stage director,
+provided seats at the table for herself, her mother, Flamingus, Gus, the
+baby, and the Boarder, the long-suffering, many-roled family cat
+personating the latter as understudy. Behind their chairs, save those
+occupied by the Boarder and the baby, were stationed Milton, Bobby, Bud,
+and Cory. This outer row, Amarilly explained, was to be fed from the
+plates of their elders with food convenient as was Elijah by the
+Scriptural ravens. This plan lifted the strain from the limited table
+appointments, but met with opposition from the outpost who rebelled
+against their stations.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to stand behind Flam or Gus," growled Milton. "I won't
+stand no show fer grub at all."
+
+"I ain't, neither," and "Nit fer me!" chorused the near twins, Bobby and
+Bud.
+
+"I want to set at the table and eat like folks!" sobbed Cory.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins advocated immediate surrender, but the diplomatic little
+general, whose policy was pacification, in shrill, appealing voice
+reassured and wheedled the young mutineers back into the ranks.
+
+"It's the only way we can take a boarder," she persuaded, "and if we git
+him, we'll hev more to eat than jest hot pertaters and bread and gravy.
+Thar'll be meat, fresh or hotted up, onct a day, and pie on Sundays."
+
+The deserters to a man returned from their ignominious retreat.
+
+"Now, Co, you stand behind me, and when you git tired, you kin set on
+half my chair. Milt, git behind ma, and Bud and Bobby, stand back of
+Flamingus and Gus. If they don't divvy up even they'll hev to change
+places with you. Now, to places!" This conciliatory arrangement proving
+satisfactory, supper was served on the new plan with numerous directions
+and admonitions from Amarilly.
+
+"No self-helpin's, Milt. Bud, if you knock Flammy's elbow, he needn't
+give you anything to eat. Bobby, if you swipe another bite from Gus,
+I'll spank you. Co, quit yer self-reachin's! Flammy, you hev got to pass
+everything to the Boarder fust. Now, every meal that I don't hev to
+speak to one of youse in the back row, youse kin hev merlasses spread on
+yer bread."
+
+The rehearsal supper finished and the kitchen "red up," Amarilly's
+thoughts again took flight and in fancy she winged her way toward a
+glorious future amid the glow and glamor of the footlights. To the
+attentive family, who hung in an ecstasy of approval on her vivid
+portrayal, she graphically described the play she had witnessed, and
+then dramatically announced her intention of going on the stage when she
+grew up.
+
+"You kin do it fine, Amarilly," said the mother admiringly.
+
+"And we-uns kin git in free!" cried Bobby jubilantly. In the morning the
+Boarder, a pleasant-voiced, quiet-faced man with a look of kindliness
+about his eyes and mouth, made his entrance into the family circle. He
+commended the table arrangements, praised the coffee, and formed
+instantaneous friendships with the children. All the difficulties of the
+cuisine having been smoothed over or victoriously met, Amarilly went to
+the theatre with a lightened heart. When Mr. Vedder came up to her and
+asked how she had enjoyed the performance, she felt emboldened to
+confide to him her professional aspirations.
+
+The young ticket-seller did not smile. There was nothing about this
+diligent, ill-fed, little worker that appealed to his sense of humor.
+
+"It will be a long time yet, Amarilly, before you can go on the stage,"
+he counselled. "Besides, you know the first thing you must have is an
+education."
+
+Amarilly sighed hopelessly.
+
+"I can't git to go to school till the boys hev more larnin'. I hev to
+work here mornin's and help ma with the washin's in the arternoon.
+Mebby, arter a little, I kin git into some night-school." A stage-hand
+working near by overheard this conversation and displayed instant
+interest in the subject of Amarilly's schooling.
+
+"Couldn't you git off Saturday arternoons?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I could do that," assured Amarilly eagerly. "Is thar a Saturday
+arternoon school?"
+
+"Yes," replied the man. "There is a church guild, St. Mark's, that has a
+school. My little gal goes. She larns sewin' and singin' and waitin' on
+table and such like. You'd better go with her to-morrow."
+
+"I kin sew now," said Amarilly, repeating this conversation to the
+family circle that night, "and I'd like to sing, fer of course I'll hev
+to when I'm on the stage, but I git enough waitin' on table to hum. I'd
+ruther larn to read better fust of all."
+
+"I ain't much of a scholar," observed the Boarder modestly, "but I can
+learn you readin', writin', and spellin' some, and figgerin' too. I'll
+give you lessons evenin's."
+
+"We'll begin now!" cried the little tyro enthusiastically.
+
+The Boarder approved this promptness, and that night gave the first
+lesson from Flamingus's schoolbooks.
+
+The next morning Amarilly proudly informed the ticket-seller that her
+education had begun. She was consequently rather lukewarm in regard to
+the Guild school proposition, but the little daughter of the stagehand
+pictured the school and her teacher in most enticing fashion.
+
+"You kin be in our class," she coaxed persuasively. "We hev a new
+teacher. She's a real swell and wears a diamon' ring and her hair is
+more yaller than the wig what the play lady wears. She bed us up to her
+house to a supper last week, and thar was velvit carpits and ice-cream
+and lots of cake but no pie."
+
+Amarilly's curiosity was aroused, and her red, roughened hand firmly
+grasped the confiding one of her little companion as she permitted
+herself to be led to the Guild school.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The teacher at the Guild was even more beautiful than Amarilly's fancy,
+fed by the little girl's vivid description, had pictured.
+
+"Her hair ain't boughten," decided the keen-eyed critic as she gazed
+adoringly at the golden braids crowning the small head. The color of her
+eyes was open to speculation; when they had changed from gray to green,
+from green to hazel, and from hazel to purple, Amarilly gave up the
+enigma. The color of her complexion changed, too, in the varying tints
+of peaches.
+
+"I do b'lieve she ain't got no make-up on," declared Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+The little daughter of the stage-hand had not overappraised the diamond.
+It shone resplendent on a slender, shapely hand.
+
+"Miss King, I've brung a new scholar," introduced the little girl
+importantly. "She's Amarilly."
+
+As she glanced at her new pupil, the young teacher's eyes brightened
+with spontaneous interest, and a welcoming smile parted her lips.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Amarilly. Here's a nice little pile of blue carpet
+rags to sew and make into a ball. When you have made a lot of balls I'll
+have them woven into a pretty blue rug for you to take home and keep."
+
+"For the Boarder's room!" thought Amarilly joyously, as she went at her
+work with the avidity that marked all her undertakings.
+
+Presently a small seamstress asked for instruction as to the proper
+method of putting the strips together. The fair face of the young
+teacher became clouded for a moment, and she was unmistakably confused.
+Her wavering, dubious glance fell upon Amarilly sitting tense and
+upright as she made quick, forceful, and effective stabs with her
+needle, biting her thread vigorously and resonantly. The stitches were
+microscopic and even; the strips symmetrically and neatly joined.
+
+The teacher's face cleared as she saw and seized her avenue of escape.
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work and sew the strips
+just as she does. Hers are perfect."
+
+[Illustration: "You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work."]
+
+Amarilly's wan little face brightened, and she proceeded to show the
+children how to sew, bringing the same ease and effectiveness into her
+tutoring that she displayed when instructing her brothers and Cory.
+
+The sewing lesson continued for an hour. Then the children sang songs to
+a piano accompaniment, and there followed a lesson in cooking and the
+proper setting of a table. All this instruction was succeeded by an
+informal chat.
+
+"I want you all to tell me what you are going to do when you grow to be
+women," said Miss King.
+
+In most cases the occupations of their parents were chosen, and the
+number of washerwomen, scrubbers, and seamstresses in embryo was
+appalling.
+
+"And you, Amarilly?" she asked, addressing the new pupil last of all.
+
+Amarilly's mien was lofty, her voice consequential, as she replied in
+dramatic denouement:
+
+"I'm goin' on the stage!"
+
+The young teacher evinced a most eager interest in this declaration.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly! We all have a stage-longing period. When did you first
+think of such a career?"
+
+"I'm in the perfesshun now," replied Amarilly pompously.
+
+"Really! Tell me what you do, Amarilly."
+
+"I scrub at the Barlow Theatre, and I went to the matinee day afore
+yisterday. I hed a pass give to me."
+
+These statements made such a visible impression on her audience that
+Amarilly waxed eloquent and proceeded to describe the play, warming to
+her work as she gained confidence. The gestures of Lord Algernon and the
+leading lady were reproduced freely, fearlessly, and faithfully.
+
+With a glimmer of mischief dancing in her eyes, the young teacher
+listened appreciatively but apprehensively as she noted the amazed
+expression on the faces of the teachers of adjacent classes when
+Amarilly's treble tones were wafted toward them. Fortunately, the
+realistic rendering of Lord Algernon's declaration of love was
+interrupted by the accompaniment to a song, which was followed by the
+dismissal of the school.
+
+"Kin I take my strips home to sew on?" asked Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Miss King. "That is not permitted."
+
+Seeing the look of disappointment in the child's eyes, she asked in
+kindly tone:
+
+"Why are you in such a hurry to finish the work, Amarilly?"
+
+"We've took a Boarder," explained Amarilly, "and I want the rug fer his
+room. It'll take an orful long time to git it done if I only work on it
+an hour onct a week. He's so good to me, I want to do something to make
+his room look neat, so he'll feel to hum."
+
+The young teacher reflected a moment.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do, Amarilly. I will buy one of the rugs that
+are to be on sale at the church fair this week. They have some very nice
+large ones. I will give it to you, and when yours is finished you may
+give it to me in return."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried Amarilly, her countenance brightening, "But won't
+you need it afore I kin git this one done?"
+
+"No; I am sure I shall not," replied the young lady gravely.
+
+When they left the building the teacher paused as she was about to step
+into her electric brougham. "Where do you live, Amarilly?"
+
+Amarilly gave her street and number.
+
+"You must live farther away than any of the other children. Get in,
+dear; I will take you home."
+
+She had opened the door as she spoke, and the little scrubber's eyes
+were dazzled by the elegance of the appointments--a silver vase filled
+with violets, a silver card-case, and--but Amarilly resolutely shut her
+eyes upon this proffered grandeur and turned to the lean but longing
+little daughter of the stage-hand.
+
+"You see, I come with her," she explained simply and loyally.
+
+"There is room for you both. Myrtie can sit on this little seat."
+
+Overawed by the splendor of her environment, Amarilly held her breath as
+they glided swiftly through the streets. There was other glory, it
+seemed, than that of the footlights. When the happy little Myrtle had
+been left at her humble home the young teacher turned with eager
+anticipation to Amarilly.
+
+"Tell me more about yourself, Amarilly. First of all, who is the
+Boarder?"
+
+Amarilly explained their affairs, even to the "double-decker diner," as
+the Boarder had called the table arrangement.
+
+"And what has he done for you, Amarilly, that you are so anxious he
+should have a rug?"
+
+"He's larnin' me readin', writin', spellin', and figgers."
+
+"Don't you go to school?"
+
+"No; I hev to bring in wages and help ma with the washin's."
+
+"I'll teach you, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I'm sure I'm more
+proficient in those branches than the Boarder."
+
+"He sez," admitted Amarilly, "that it won't take him long to larn me all
+he knows; but you see--" She spoke with delicate hesitancy and evident
+embarrassment. "It's orful good in you to want to larn me--but he might
+feel hurt-like if I was to quit him."
+
+"You are right, Amarilly. You are a loyal little girl. But I tell you
+what we will do about it. When you have learned all that the Boarder
+feels he can teach you, you shall go to night-school. There is one in
+connection with St. Mark's. I will see that you enter there."
+
+"I didn't know thar was one fer girls," said Amarilly. "I'm glad thar's
+a way fer me to git eddicated, fer I must hev larnin' afore I kin go on
+the stage. Mr. Vedder, the ticket-seller to Barlow's, told me so."
+
+"Amarilly,"--and an earnest note crept into the gay, young voice--"you
+may find things that you will like to do more than to go on the stage."
+
+"No!" asserted the youthful aspirant, "Thar ain't nuthin' else I'd like
+so well."
+
+"Amarilly, I am going to tell you something. Once, not long ago, I had
+the stage fever, but I think I know now there is something--something I
+should like better."
+
+"What?" queried Amarilly skeptically.
+
+"I can't tell you now, but you have a long time yet in which to decide
+your future. Tell me what I can do to help your mother."
+
+"If you could git us more washin's," exclaimed Amarilly eagerly, "it
+would help heaps. We could take in lots more than we do now."
+
+"Let me think. You see we keep a laundress; but--does your mother do up
+very fine things--like laces--carefully?"
+
+"She does," replied Amarilly glibly. "She kin do 'em orful keerful, and
+we dry the colored stuffs in the shade. And our clo'es come out snow-
+white allers, and we never tears laces nor git in too much bluin' or
+starch the way some folks does."
+
+"Then I'll give you my address and you can come for my fine waists; and
+let me see, I am sure I can get St. Mark's laundry work for you, too."
+
+"You're orful good, Miss King. This is where we hev to turn down this
+'ere court."
+
+The "court" appeared to Miss King more like an alley. The advent of the
+brougham in the little narrow right-of-way filled every window with
+hawk-eyed observers. About the Jenkins's doorstep was grouped the entire
+household from the Boarder to the baby, and the light, musical voices of
+children floating through the soft spring air fell pleasantly upon the
+ears of the young settlement worker.
+
+"So this is where you live, Amarilly?" she asked, her eyes sparkling as
+she focussed them on the family. "You needn't come for the washing the
+first time. I will bring it myself so I can see all your little
+brothers. Be sure to come to the Guild next Saturday, and then I'll have
+the rug for you to take home. Goodbye, dear."
+
+Knowing that she was observed by myriad eyes, Amarilly stepped loftily
+from the brougham and made a sweeping stage courtesy to her departing
+benefactress.
+
+"Are you on the stage now, Amarilly?" asked Co eagerly as she came to
+meet her sister.
+
+"No; but she," with a wave of her hand toward the swiftly gliding
+electric, "is agoin to help me git eddicated, and she has give me a
+beautiful rug fer the Boarder, and we're agoin' to hev her waists to
+wash, and Mr. St. Mark's clo'es, and she told all the scholars to sew
+like me 'cause' I sewed the best, and I've larned how to set our table.
+We mustn't stack up the knife and fork and spoon on ends any more. The
+knife goes to the right, the fork to the left of the plate, and the
+spoon goes back of it and the tumbler and the napkin, when you has 'em,
+to the right."
+
+"I do declare, Amarilly, if it ain't jest like a fairy story!" cried
+Mrs. Jenkins enthusiastically. "You allers did strike luck."
+
+"You bet!" cried Bobby admiringly. "Things go some where Amarilly is."
+
+Amarilly was happier even than she had been on the night of the eventful
+matinee day. The electric brougham had seemed a veritable fairy
+godmother's coach to her. But it was not the ride that stood uppermost
+in her memory as she lay awake far into the night; it was the little
+word of endearment uttered in caressing cadence.
+
+"No one ain't ever called me that afore," she murmured wistfully. "I
+s'pose ma ain't hed time, and thar was no one else to keer."
+
+Impulsively and tenderly her thin little arm encircled the baby sleeping
+beside her.
+
+"Dear!" she whispered in an awed tone. "Dear!"
+
+Iry answered with a sleepy, cooing note.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Colette King was not one whom the voice of the people of St. Mark's
+would proclaim as the personification of their ideal of a pastor's wife,
+yet John Meredith loved her with the love that passeth all
+understanding. Perhaps the secret of her charm for him lay in the fact
+that she treated him as she did other men--men who did not wear a
+surplice. And yet his surplice and all that pertained thereto were
+matters of great moment to the rector of St. Mark's. Little traces of
+his individuality were evident in the fashioning of this clerical
+garment. A pocket for his handkerchief was stitched on the left side.
+
+The flowers, the baptismal font, the altar cloth, and the robes of the
+vested choir he insisted should be immaculate in whiteness. White, the
+color of the lily, he declared, was the emblem of purity. There were
+members of his flock so worldly minded as to whisper insinuatingly that
+white was extremely becoming to Colette King. Many washerwomen had
+applied for the task of laundering the ecclesiastical linen; many had
+been tried and found wanting. So after her interview with Amarilly,
+Colette asked the rector of St. Mark's to call at her house "on
+important business."
+
+From the time he was ten years old until he became rector of St. Mark's,
+John Meredith had been a member of the household of his guardian, Henry
+King, and had ever cheerfully and gladly borne with the caprices of the
+little Colette.
+
+He answered the present summons promptly and palpitatingly. It had been
+two weeks since he had remonstrated with Colette for the surprisingly
+sudden announcement, made in seeming seriousness, that she was going to
+study opera with a view to going on the stage. The fact that she had a
+light, sweet soprano adapted only to the rendition of drawing-room
+ballads did not lessen in his eyes the probability of her carrying out
+this resolve.
+
+She had met his reproving expostulations in a spirit of bantering
+raillery and replied with a defiance of his opinion that had pierced his
+heart with arrow-like swiftness. Since then she had studiously avoided
+meeting him, and he was not sure whether he was now recalled to listen
+to a reiteration of her intentions or to receive an anodyne for the
+bitterness of her remarks at their last interview.
+
+"I sent for you, John," she said demurely and without preamble, "to see
+if you have found a satisfactory laundress yet for the surplices."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed in rebuking tone, his face reddening at her
+question which he supposed to be made in mere mockery.
+
+"I am not speaking to you as Colette King," she replied with a look half
+cajoling, half flippant, "but as a teacher in the Young Woman's
+Auxiliary Guild to the rector of St. Mark's. You see I no longer lead a
+foolish, futile life. Here is the evidence in the case," holding up a
+slender pink forefinger. "See how it is pricked! For three Saturday
+afternoons I have shown little girls that smelled of fried potatoes how
+to sew. I shall really learn something myself about the feminine art of
+needlework if I continue in my present straight, domestic path."
+
+"Colette, you cannot know how glad I am to hear this. Why did you try to
+make me think the laundry work was--"
+
+"But the laundry work _is_ the main issue. Yesterday I had quite decided
+to give up this uninteresting work."
+
+Watching him warily, she let the shadow in his eyes linger a moment
+before she continued:
+
+"And then there came into my class a new pupil, poorly clad and
+ignorant, but so redolent of soapsuds and with such a freshly laundered
+look that I renewed my inclinations to charity. I took her home in my
+electric, and she lived at a distance that gave me ample time to listen
+to the complete chronicles of her young life. Her father is dead. Her
+mother was left with eight children whom she supports by taking in
+washing. They have a boarder and they go around the dining-room table
+twice. My new pupil's name is Amarilly Jenkins, and she has educational
+longings which cannot be satisfied because she has to work, so I am
+going to enter her in St. Mark's night-school when she has finished a
+special course with the private tutor she now has."
+
+"Colette," said the young minister earnestly, "why do you continually
+try to show yourself to me in a false light? It was sweet in you to take
+this little girl home in your brougham and to feel an interest in her
+improvement."
+
+"Not at all!" protested Colette. "My trend at present may appear to be
+charitable, but Amarilly and I have a common interest--a fellow
+feeling--that makes me wondrous kind. We both have longings to appear in
+public on the stage."
+
+At this sudden challenge, this second lowering of the red flag, John's
+face grew stern.
+
+"Amarilly," continued the liquid voice,--"has had more experience in
+stage life than I have had. She has commenced at the lowest round of the
+dramatic ladder of fame. She scrubs at the Barlow Theatre, and she is
+quite familiar with stage lore. Her hero is the man who plays the role
+of Lord Algernon in _A Terrible Trial_."
+
+He made no reply, and Colette presently broke the silence.
+
+"Seriously, John," she said practically and in a tone far different from
+her former one, "the Jenkins family are poor and most deserving. I am
+going to give them some work, and if you would give them a trial on the
+church linen, it would help them so much. There was a regular army of
+little children on the doorstep, and it must be a struggle to feed them
+all. I should like to help them--to give them something--but they seem
+to be the kind of people that you can help only by giving them work to
+perform. I have learned that true independence is found only among the
+poor."
+
+John took a little notebook from his pocket.
+
+"What is their address, Colette?"
+
+She took the book from him and wrote down the street and number.
+
+"Colette, you endeavor to conceal a tender heart--"
+
+"And will you give them--Mrs. Jenkins--a trial?"
+
+"Yes; this week."
+
+"That will make Amarilly so happy," she said, brightening. "I am going
+there to-morrow to take them some work, and I will tell Mrs. Jenkins to
+send Flamingus--his is the only name of the brood that my memory
+retains--for the church laundry."
+
+"He may call at the rectory," replied John, "and get the house laundry
+as well."
+
+"That will be good news for them. I shall enjoy watching Amarilly's face
+when she hears it."
+
+"And now, Colette, will you do something for me?"
+
+"Maybe. What is it?" she asked guardedly.
+
+"Will you abandon the idea of going on the stage, or studying for that
+purpose?"
+
+"Perforce. Father won't consent."
+
+A look of relief drove the trouble from the dark eyes fixed on hers.
+
+"I'll be twenty-one in a year, however," she added carelessly.
+
+John was wise enough to perceive the wilfulness that prompted this
+reply, and he deftly changed the subject of conversation.
+
+"About this little girl, Amarilly. We must find her something in the way
+of employment. The atmosphere of a theatre isn't the proper one for a
+child of that age. Do you think so?"
+
+"Theoretically, no; but Amarilly is not impressionable to atmosphere
+altogether. She seems a hard-working, staunch little soul, and all that
+relieves the sordidness of her life and lightens the dreariness of her
+work is the 'theayter,' as she calls it. So don't destroy her illusions,
+John. You'll do her more harm than good."
+
+"Not if I give her something real in the place of what you rightly term
+her illusions."
+
+"You can't. Sunday-school would not satisfy a broad-minded little
+proletarian like Amarilly, so don't preach to _her_."
+
+He winced perceptibly.
+
+"Do I preach to _you_, Colette? Is that how you regard me--as a prosy
+preacher who--"
+
+"No, John. Just as a disturber of dreams--that is all."
+
+"A disturber of dreams?" he repeated wistfully. "It is you, Colette, who
+are a disturber of dreams. If you would only let my dreams become
+realities!"
+
+"Then, to be paradoxical, your realities might change back to dreams, or
+even nightmares. Returning to soapsuds and Amarilly Jenkins, will you go
+there with me to-morrow and make arrangements with Mrs. Jenkins for the
+laundry work?"
+
+"Indeed I will, Colette, and--"
+
+"Don't look so serious, John. Until that dreadful evening, the last time
+you called, you always left your pulpit punctilio behind you when you
+came here."
+
+"Colette!" he began in protest.
+
+But she perversely refused to fall in with his serious vein. Chattering
+gayly yet half-defiantly, on her face the while a baffling smile, partly
+tender, partly amused, and wholly coquettish--the smile that maddened
+and yet entranced him--she brought the mask of reserve to his face and
+man. At such times he never succeeded in remembering that she was but
+little more than a child, heart-free, capricious, and wilful. Despairing
+of changing her mood to the serious one that he loved yet so seldom
+evoked, he arose and bade her good-night.
+
+When he was in the hall she softly called him back, meeting him with a
+half-penitent look in her eyes, which had suddenly become gazelle-like.
+
+"You may preach to me again some time, John. There are moments when I
+believe I like it, because no other man dares to do it" "Dares?" he
+queried with a smile.
+
+"Yes; dares. They all fear to offend. And you, John, you fear nothing!"
+
+"Yes, I do," he answered gravely, as he looked down upon her. "There is
+one thing I fear that makes me tremble, Colette."
+
+But her mood had again changed, and with a mischievous, elusive smile
+she bade him go. Inert and musing, he wandered at random through the
+lights and shadows of the city streets, with a wistful look in his eyes
+and just the shadow of a pang in his heart.
+
+"She is very young," he said condoningly, answering an accusing thought.
+"She has been a little spoiled, naturally. She has seen life only from
+the side that amuses and entertains. Some day, when she realizes, as it
+comes to us all to do, that care and sorrow bring their own sustaining
+power, she will not dally among the petty things of life; the wilful
+waywardness will turn to winning womanliness."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The next afternoon when Amarilly came home from the theatre, her mother
+met her with another burst of information.
+
+"Miss King and the preacher was here. He's agoin' to give us all the
+church surpluses to wash and his house-wash, too. Flamingus is to go fer
+them to the rectry to-night, and you're to go to Miss King's and get the
+waists she has to be did up. She left two car tickets fer you."
+
+"We air jest astubbin' our toes on luck," gasped Amarilly.
+
+"The fust pay from the new washin's shall go fer a new hat and dress fer
+you, Amarilly. It's acomin' to you all right. 'Twas you as got this work
+fer us."
+
+"No!" was the emphatic reply. "We'll git some more cheers, knives,
+spoons, plates, cups, and two more leaves fer the table, so's the
+chillern kin all set to table to onct."
+
+"That'll be a hull lot more convenient," admitted Mrs. Jenkins
+hopefully. "Co spills things so, and the boys quarrel when you and the
+Boarder ain't here to keep peace. It was jest orful this noon. You
+wasn't here and the Boarder kerried his dinner. 'Cause Flam put too much
+vinegar on Milt's beans, Milt poured it down Flam's neck, and when I
+sent him away from the table he sassed me."
+
+"Jiminy!" protested Amarilly indignantly. "I'd make Milt go without his
+supper to-night."
+
+"'Tain't his stummick I'm agoin' to punish," said Mrs. Jenkins
+sarcastically. "I've laid by a willer switch that'll feel sharper than
+the vinegar he wasted. You'd better go to Miss King's right away--and,
+Amarilly, mind you ride both ways. It's too far to walk. Don't you sell
+the tickets!"
+
+This last prohibitory remark was made in remembrance of Amarilly's
+commercial instincts.
+
+When Amarilly was admitted to the basement of her young benefactress's
+home a trimly-capped little maid took her to Colette's boudoir.
+
+"Sit down and talk to me, Amarilly. I want to hear more about Lord
+Algernon and Mr. Vedder and Pete. Here's a box of chocolate creams that
+must be eaten while they are fresh."
+
+Amarilly was slightly awed at first by the luxurious appointments of the
+room, but she soon recovered her ease and devoured the novel sweets with
+appreciative avidity. Then she proved herself a fascinating raconteur of
+the annals of a world unknown to Colette. It was a matter of course to
+Amarilly that the leading lady should be supporting an invalid sister;
+that the languid Lord Algernon should be sending his savings to his old
+mother who lived in the country; that the understudy should sew
+industriously through rehearsals and behind the scenes between parts for
+her two little fatherless girls; that Pete Noyes should "bank" to buy a
+wheeled chair for his rheumatic father; that the villain was "layin' by"
+for his parents to come from the Fatherland, and that the company should
+all chip in to send the property woman's sick child to the seashore. But
+to Colette the homely little stories were vignettes of another side of
+life.
+
+"Have you been to the rectory yet, Amarilly?" she asked presently, when
+Amarilly's memories of stage life lagged.
+
+"No; Flammy has went fer Mr. St. Mark's things."
+
+"Mr. St. Mark's!"
+
+Colette laughed delightedly.
+
+"I thought you told me that the preacher's name was Mr. St. Marks. You
+said mebby you could git his wash fer us."
+
+"No, Amarilly. I did not mean that. St. Mark's is the name of the church
+where he officiates. He could never under any conditions be a St. Mark."
+
+"Wat's his name?"
+
+"St. John, of course. And most people call him a rector, but really your
+name suits him best. He does preach--sometimes--to me."
+
+At the end of the week Colette again sent for John--to call "on laundry
+business"--her little note read.
+
+"I couldn't wait," she said when he came, "to learn how Mrs. Jenkins
+pleased you. My waists were most beautifully laundered. She is certainly
+a Madonna of the Tubs."
+
+"You have indeed secured a treasure for me, Colette. The linen is
+immaculate, and she shall have the laundering of it regularly."
+
+"I am so glad!" exclaimed Colette fervently. "They need it so much, and
+they are so anxious to please. Amarilly was so apprehensive--"
+
+John's face had become radiant.
+
+"It is sweet in you to be interested, Colette, and--"
+
+"I wish you would see her," said Colette, ignoring his commendatory
+words and voice. "She's an odd little character. I invited her to
+luncheon the other day, and the courses and silver never disturbed her
+apparently. She watched me closely, however, and followed my moves as
+precisely as a second oarsman. By the way, she called you St. Mark. I
+know some people consider you and St. Mark's as synonymous, but I
+explained the difference. She tells me absorbingly interesting stories
+of theatre life--the life behind the scenes. You see the 'scent of the
+roses,' John!"
+
+The shadow fell again, but he made no response.
+
+The following Monday the young minister chanced to be in the culinary
+precincts of the rectory when Amarilly called for the laundry, none of
+the boys having been available for the service.
+
+An instant gleam of recognition came into his kindly eyes.
+
+"You must be Amarilly Jenkins. I have heard very good accounts of you--
+that you are industrious and a great help to your mother."
+
+Amarilly looked at him shrewdly.
+
+"_She_ told you," she affirmed positively.
+
+There was but one "she" in the world of these two, and John Meredith
+naturally comprehended.
+
+"She's orful good to us," continued Amarilly, "and it was through her,
+Mr. St. John, that we got the surpluses."
+
+"It was, indeed, Amarilly; but my name is not St. John. It is John
+Meredith."
+
+"She was jest kiddin' me, then!" deduced Amarilly appreciatively. "I
+thought at fust as how yer name was St. Mark, and she said you could
+never be a St. Mark, that you was St. John. She likes a joke. Mr.
+Reeves-Eggleston (he's playin' the part of the jilted man in the new
+play this week) says it's either folks as never hez hed their troubles
+or them as hez hed more'n their share what laughs at everything, only,
+he says, it's diffrent kinds of laughs."
+
+The reference to the play reminded John of a duty to perform.
+
+"Miss King told me, Amarilly, that you want to go on the stage when you
+grow up."
+
+"I did plan to go on, but she said when I got eddicated, I might hear of
+other things to do--things I'd like better. So mebby I'll change my
+mind."
+
+A beautiful smile lightened John's dark eyes.
+
+"She, was right, Amarilly. There _are_ things that would be better for
+you to do, and I--we--will try to help you find them."
+
+"Every one gits the stage fever some time," remarked Amarilly
+philosophically, "She said so. She said she had it once herself, but
+she knew now that there was something she would like better."
+
+His smile grew softer.
+
+"She wouldn't tell me what it was," continued Amarilly musingly. Then a
+troubled look came into her eyes.
+
+"Mebby I shouldn't tell you what she says. Flamingus says I talk too
+much."
+
+"It was all right to tell me, Amarilly," he replied with radiant eyes,
+"as long as she said nothing personal."
+
+Amarilly looked mystified.
+
+"I mean," he explained gently, "that she said nothing of me, nothing
+that you should not repeat. I am glad, though, to see that you are
+conscientious. Miss King tells me you are to go to the night-school. Do
+you attend Sunday-school?"
+
+Amarilly looked apologetic.
+
+"Not reg'lar. Thar's a meetin'-house down near us that we go to
+sometimes. Flamingus and me and Gus give a nickel apiece towards gittin'
+a malodeyon fer it, but it squeaks orful. 'Tain't much like the
+orchestry to the theayter. And then the preacher he whistles every time
+he says a word that has an 's' in it. You'd orter hear him say: 'Let us
+sing the seventy-seventh psalm.'"
+
+At the succession of the sibilant sounds, John's brown eyes twinkled
+brightly, and about his mouth came crinkly, telltale creases of humor.
+
+"And they sing such lonesome tunes," continued Amarilly, "slower than
+the one the old cow died on. I was tellin' the stage maniger about it,
+and he said they'd orter git a man to run the meetin'-houses that
+understood the proper settin's. Everything, he says, is more'n half in
+the settin's."
+
+"Amarilly," was the earnest response, "will you come to St. Mark's next
+Sunday to the morning service? The music will please you, I am sure, and
+there are other things I should like to have you hear."
+
+Amarilly solemnly accepted this invitation, and then went home,
+trundling a big cart which contained the surplices and the rectory
+laundry.
+
+Colette's remarks, so innocently repeated to him, made John take himself
+to task.
+
+"I knew," he thought rapturously, "that she was pure gold at heart. And
+it is only her sweet willfulness that is hiding it from me."
+
+That evening he found Colette sitting before an open fire in the
+library, her slender little feet crossed before the glowing blaze. She
+was in a gentle, musing mood, but at his entrance she instantly rallied
+to her old mirth-loving spirit.
+
+"I have made Amarilly's acquaintance," he said. "She is coming to church
+next Sunday."
+
+"A convert already! And you will try to snatch poor Amarilly, too, from
+her footlight dreams?"
+
+"Colette," he replied firmly, "you can't play a part with me any longer.
+You, the real Colette, made it unnecessary for me to remonstrate with
+Amarilly on her choice of professions. She is wavering because of your
+assurance that there are better things in life for her to engage in."
+
+He was not very tall, but stood straight and stalwart, with the air of
+one born to command. At times he seemed to tower above all others.
+
+She regarded him with an admiring look which changed to wonder at what
+she read in his eyes. In a flash she felt the strength and depth of his
+feeling, but her searching scrutiny caused him to become tongue-tied,
+and he assumed the self-conscious mien peculiar to the man not yet
+assured that his love is returned. Once more a golden moment slipped
+away with elfish elusiveness, and Colette, secure in her supremacy,
+resumed her tantalizing badinage.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+The Jenkins family was immediately summoned in council to discuss
+Amarilly's invitation to attend divine service at St. Mark's.
+
+"You air jest more'n hevin' advantages," said Mrs. Jenkins exultingly.
+"Fust the matinee, then the Guild, and now St. Mark's is open to you.
+But you'd orter hev a few fixin's to go to sech a grand place,
+Amarilly."
+
+Amarilly shook her determined little head resolutely.
+
+"We can't afford it," she said decisively. "I'd stay to hum afore I'd
+spend anything on extrys now when we're aketchin' up and layin' by."
+
+"'Twould be good bookkeepin' fer you ter go," spoke up Flamingus. "You
+see the preacher's givin' us his business, and we'd orter return the
+favor and patrynize his church. You've gotter hustle to hold trade arter
+you git it these days. It's up to you ter go, Amarilly." Mrs. Jenkins
+looked proudly at her eldest male offspring.
+
+"I declare, Flamingus, you've got a real business head on you jest like
+your pa hed. He's right, Amarilly. 'Twouldn't be treating Mr. Meredith
+fair not ter go, and it's due him that you go right, so he won't be
+ashamed of you. I'll rig you up some way."
+
+The costuming of Amarilly in a manner befitting the great occasion was
+an all-absorbing affair for the next few days. Finally, by the
+combination of Mrs. Jenkins's industry and Amarilly's ingenuity, aided
+by the Boarder and the boys, an elaborate toilet was devised and
+executed. Milton donated a "shine" to a pair of tan shoes, the gift of
+the girl "what took a minor part." Mrs. Jenkins looked a little askance
+at the "best skirt" of blue which had shrunk from repeated washings to a
+near-knee length, but Amarilly assured her that it was not as short as
+the skirts worn by the ballet girls. She cut up two old blouses and
+fashioned a new, bi-colored waist bedizened with gilt buttons. The
+Boarder presented a resplendent buckle, and Flamingus provided a gawdy
+hair-ribbon.
+
+The hat was the chief difficulty. On week days she wore none, but of
+course St. Mark's demanded a headgear of some kind, and at last Mrs.
+Jenkins triumphantly produced one of Tam o' Shanter shape manufactured
+from a lamp mat and adorned with some roses bestowed by the leading
+lady. The belligerent locks of the little scrub-girl refused to respond
+to advances from curling iron or papers, but one of the neighbors whose
+hair was a second cousin in hue to Amarilly's amber tresses, loaned some
+frizzes, which were sewed to the brim of the new hat. The problem of
+hand covering was solved by Mr. Vedder, as a pair of orange-tinted
+gloves had been turned in at the box-office by an usher, and had
+remained unclaimed. They proved a perfect fit, and were the supreme
+triumph of the bizarre costume.
+
+Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed in splendor greater than
+that displayed by Amarilly when she set forth on Sunday morning for St.
+Mark's. Promptness was ever Amarilly's chief characteristic, and she
+arrived long in advance of the ushers. This gave her an opportunity to
+sample several pews before finally selecting one whose usual occupants,
+fortunately, were out of the city.
+
+The vastness and stillness of the edifice, disturbed now and then by
+silken rustle and soft-shod foot were bewildering to Amarilly. She
+experienced a slight depression until the vibrating tones of the organ
+fell softly upon the air. The harmony grew more subdued, ceased, and was
+succeeded by another moment of solemn silence. Then a procession of
+white-robed choristers came down the aisle, their well-trained voices
+ringing out in carolling cadence.
+
+"Them's the chorus," thought Amarilly.
+
+Entranced, she listened to the service, sitting upright and very still.
+The spiritual significance of the music, the massing of foliage and
+flowers in the chancel, the white altars with their many lighted
+candles, were very impressive to the little wide-eyed worshipper.
+
+"Their settin's is all right," she said to herself critically, "and it
+ain't like the theayter. It's--"
+
+A sudden revealing light penetrated the shadows of her little being.
+
+"This is the real thing!" she acknowledged.
+
+There was only one disappointment to mar the perfection. She felt quite
+aggrieved that Mr. Meredith--or Mr. St. John as she still called him in
+her thoughts--did not "come on" in the first act.
+
+"Mebby he don't hev the leadin' part to-day," she thought
+disappointedly, as a callow youth, whose hair was pompadoured and whose
+chin receded, began to read the lessons for the day. Amarilly was kept
+in action by her effort to follow the lead of the man in front of her.
+
+"It's hard to know jest when to set or stand or pray, but it keeps
+things from draggin'," she thought, "and thar's no chanct to git sleepy.
+It keeps me jest on the hump without no rayhearsal fer all this scene
+shiftin'."
+
+Her little heart quickened in glad relief when the erect form of John
+Meredith ascended the pulpit to deliver the sermon.
+
+"That other one was jest the understudy," she concluded.
+
+The sermon, strong, simple, and sweet like John himself, was delivered
+in a rich, modulated voice whose little underlying note of appeal found
+entrance to many a hard-shell heart. The theology was not too deep for
+the attentive little scrubber to comprehend, and she was filled with a
+longing to be good--very good. She made ardent resolutions not to "jaw"
+the boys so much, and to be more gentle with Iry and Go. Her conscience
+kept on prodding until she censured herself for not mopping the corners
+at the theatre more thoroughly.
+
+At the conclusion of the sermon the rector with a slight tremor in his
+mellifluous voice pronounced the benediction. Amarilly's eyes shone with
+a light that Lord Algernon's most eloquent passages could never have
+inspired.
+
+The organ again gave forth its rich tones, and a young, fair-haired boy
+with the face of a devotee arose and turned toward the congregation, his
+face uplifted to the oaken rafters. A flood of sunshine streamed through
+the painted window and fell in long slanting rays upon the spiritual
+face. The exquisite voice rose and fell in silvery cadence, the soft
+notes fluting out through the vast space and reaching straight to
+Amarilly's heart which was beating in unison to the music. "Oh," she
+thought wistfully, "if Pete Noyes was only like him!"
+
+She responded to the offertory with a penny, which lay solitary and
+outlawed on the edge of a contribution plate filled with envelopes and
+bank bills. The isolated coin caught the eye of the young rector as he
+received the offerings, and his gaze wandered wonderingly over his
+fashionable congregation. It finally rested upon the small, eager-eyed
+face of his washerwoman's daughter, and a look of angelic sweetness came
+into his brown eyes with the thought: "Even the least of these!"
+
+Colette, statuesque and sublime, caught the flash of radiance that
+illumined the face of her pastor, and her heart-strings responded with a
+little thrill.
+
+There was another fervent prayer in low, pleading tones, after which
+followed the recessional, the choir-boys chanting their solemn measures.
+
+Amarilly in passing out saw John, clad in a long, tight-fitting black
+garment, standing at the church door.
+
+"He's got another costume fer the afterpiece," she thought admiringly.
+"He must be a lightning change artist like the one down to the vawdyveel
+that Pete was tellin' of!"
+
+Then two wonderful, heart-throbbing things happened. John took
+Amarilly's saffron-clad hand in his and told her in earnest, convincing
+tones how glad he was that she had come, and that he should look for her
+every Sunday.
+
+"He held up the hull p'rade fer me!" she thought exultingly.
+
+As he was speaking to her his gaze wandered away for a second; in that
+infinitesimal space of time there came into his eyes a dazzling flash of
+light that was like a revelation to the sharp-eyed little girl, who,
+following the direction of his glance, beheld Colette. Then came the
+second triumph. Colette, smiling, shook hands with her and praised her
+attire.
+
+"Did you like the service, Amarilly?" she whispered. "Was it like the
+theatre?"
+
+"It was diffrent," said Amarilly impressively. "I think it's what heaven
+is!"
+
+"And did you like the sermon St. John preached?"
+
+Amarilly's lips quivered.
+
+"I liked it so much, I liked him so much, I'd ruther not talk about it."
+
+Colette stooped and kissed the freckled little face, to the utter
+astonishment of those standing near and to the complete felicity of John
+Meredith, who was a witness of the little scene though he did not hear
+the conversation.
+
+Amarilly walked homeward, her uplifted face radiant with happiness.
+
+"The flowers, the lights, oh, it was great!" she thought. "Bud could
+sing like that if he was learnt. He couldn't look like that surplused
+boy, though. He sorter made me think of Little Eva in the play they give
+down to Milt's school. I wish Bud's hair was yaller and curly instead of
+black and straight!"
+
+Amarilly's reminiscences next carried her to the look she had seen in
+the rector's eyes when he beheld Colette coming out of the church.
+
+"It was the look Lord Algernon tried to give Lady Cecul," she thought,
+"only he couldn't do it, 'cause it wasn't in Him to give. And it
+couldn't never be in him the same as 't is in Mr. St. John and Miss
+King. It ain't in her yet to see what was in his eyes. Some day when she
+gits more feelin's, mebby 't will be, though."
+
+When Amarilly had faithfully pictured the service to the household,
+Bud's anaemic face grew eager.
+
+"Take me with yer, Amarilly, next time, won't yer?" he pleaded.
+
+"It's too fer. You couldn't walk, Buddy," she answered, "and we can't
+afford car-fare fer two both ways."
+
+"I'll take him to-night," promised the Boarder. "We'll ride both ways,
+so fur as we kin. I'd like to hear a sermon now and then, especially by
+a young preacher."
+
+The little family stayed up that night until the return of Bud and the
+Boarder who were vociferous in approval of the service.
+
+"It ain't much like our meetin'-house," said Bud. "It was het and lit.
+And the way that orgin let out! Say, Amarilly, thar wasn't no man in
+sight to play it! I s'pose they've got one of them things like a
+pianner-player. Them surplused boys sung fine!"
+
+"He give us a fine talk," reported the Boarder. "I've allers thought if
+a man paid a hundred cents on the dollar, 't was all that was expected
+of him. But I believe it's a good idee to go to church and keep your
+conscience jogged up so it won't rust. I'll go every Sunday, mebby, and
+take Bud so he kin larn them tunes."
+
+"I never go to no shows nor nuthin'!" wailed Cory.
+
+"I'll take you next time," soothed Amarilly. "I kin work you'se off on
+the kinductor as under age, I guess, if you'll crouch down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Monday's mops and pails broke in upon the spell of Amarilly's spiritual
+enchantment to some extent, but remembrance of the scenic effects
+lingered and was refreshed by the clothes-line of vestal garb which
+manifested the family prosperity, and heralded to the neighborhood that
+the Jenkins's star was in the ascendant.
+
+"Them Jenkinses," said Mrs. Hudgers, who lived next door, "is orful
+stuck up sence they got the sudsin' of them surpluses."
+
+This animadversion was soon conveyed to Amarilly, who instantly and
+freely forgave the critic.
+
+"She's old and rheumatic," argued the little girl. "She can't git to go
+nowhars, and folks that is shut in too long spiles, jest like canned
+goods. Besides, her clock has stopped. Nobody can't go on without no
+clock."
+
+Out of pity for the old woman's sequestered life, Amarilly was wont to
+relate to her all the current events, and it was through the child's
+keen, young optics that Mrs. Hudgers saw life. An eloquent and vivid
+description of St. Mark's service was eagerly related.
+
+"I allers thought I'd like to see them Episcopals," she remarked
+regretfully. "Ef church air wa'n't so bad fer my rheumatiz, I'd pay
+car-fare jest to see it onct. I was brung up Methodist though."
+
+This desire suggested to Amarilly's fertile little brain a way to make a
+contribution to John Meredith's pet missionary scheme, whose merits he
+had so ardently expounded from the pulpit.
+
+"I'll hev a sacrud concert like the one he said they was goin' to hev to
+the church," she decided.
+
+She was fully aware of the sensation created by the Thursday clothes-line
+of surplices, and she resolved to profit thereby while the garments
+were still a novelty. Consequently the neighborhood was notified that a
+sacred concert by a "surplused choir" composed of members of the Jenkins
+household, assisted by a few of their schoolmates, would be given a week
+from Wednesday night. This particular night was chosen for the reason
+that the church washing was put to soak late on a Wednesday.
+
+There was a short, sharp conflict in Amarilly's conscience before she
+convinced herself it would not be wrong to allow the impromptu choir to
+don the surplices of St. Mark's.
+
+"They wouldn't spile 'em jest awearin' 'em onct," she argued sharply,
+for Amarilly always "sassed back" with spirit to her moral accuser.
+"'Tain't as if they wa'n't agoin' into the wash as soon as they take 'em
+off. Besides," as a triumphant clincher, "think of the cause!"
+
+Amarilly had heard the Boarder and a young socialist exchanging views,
+and she had caught this slogan, which was a tempting phrase and adequate
+to whitewash many a doubtful act. It proved effectual in silencing the
+conscience which Amarilly slipped back into its case and fastened
+securely.
+
+She held nightly rehearsals for the proposed entertainment. After the
+first the novelty was exhausted, and on the next night there was a
+falling off in attendance, so the young, director diplomatically
+resorted to the use of decoy ducks in the shape of a pan of popcorn, a
+candy pull, and an apple roast. By such inducements she whipped her
+chorus into line, ably assisted by Bud, who had profited by his
+attendance at St. Mark's.
+
+The Jenkins dwelling was singularly well adapted for a public
+performance, as, to use Mrs. Wint's phraseology, "it had no insides."
+The rooms were partitioned off by means of curtains on strings. These
+were taken down on the night of the concert. So the "settin'-room," the
+"bedroom off" and the kitchen became one. Seats were improvised by means
+of boards stretched across inverted washtubs.
+
+At seven o'clock on the night set for the concert the audience was
+solemnly ushered in by the Boarder. No signs of the performers were
+visible, but sounds of suppressed excitement issued from the woodshed,
+which had been converted into a vestry.
+
+Presently the choir, chanting a hymn, made an impressive and effective
+entrance. To Amarilly's consternation this evoked an applause, which
+jarred on her sense of propriety.
+
+"This ain't no show, and it ain't no time to clap," she explained to the
+Boarder, who cautioned the congregation against further demonstration.
+
+Flamingus read a psalm in a sing-song, resonant voice, and then Amarilly
+announced a hymn, cordially inviting the neighbors to "jine in." The
+response was lusty-lunged, and there was a unanimous request for another
+tune. After Amarilly had explained the use to which the collection was
+to be put, Gus passed a pie tin, while an offertory solo was rendered by
+Bud in sweet, trebled tones.
+
+The sacred concert was pronounced a great success by the audience, who
+promptly dispersed at its close. While the Boarder was shifting the
+curtains to their former positions, and Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly were
+busily engaged in divesting the choir of their costumes, the front door
+opened and disclosed a vision of loveliness in the form of Colette.
+
+"I knocked," she explained apologetically to the Boarder, "but no one
+heard me. Are the family all away?"
+
+"They are in the woodshed. Walk right out," he urged hospitably.
+
+Colette stepped to the door and, on opening it, gazed in bewilderment at
+the disrobing choir.
+
+"These are not St. Mark's choir-boys, are they?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins felt herself growing weak-kneed. She looked apprehensively
+at Amarilly, who stepped bravely to the front with the air of one who
+feels that the end justifies the means.
+
+"It was fer him--fer Mr. St. John I done it," she began in explanation,
+and then she proceeded to relate the particulars of her scheme and its
+accomplishment.
+
+She had but just finished this narrative when suddenly in the line of
+her vision came the form of the young rector himself. He had been
+ushered out by the Boarder, who was still actively engaged in "redding
+up."
+
+"I came to call upon you, for I consider you one of my parishioners
+now," he said to Amarilly, his face flushing at the unexpected encounter
+with Colette.
+
+Amarilly breathed a devout prayer of thankfulness that the last surplice
+had been removed and was now being put to soak by her mother.
+
+Colette's eyes were dancing with the delight of mischief-making as she
+directed, in soft but mirthful tones:
+
+"Tell Mr. St. John about your choir and concert."
+
+Amarilly's eyes lowered in consternation. She was in great awe of this
+young man whose square chin was in such extreme contradiction to his
+softly luminous eyes, and she began to feel less fortified by the
+reminder of the "cause."
+
+"I'd ruther not," she faltered.
+
+"Then don't, Amarilly," he said gently.
+
+"Mebby that's why I'd orter," she acknowledged, lifting serious eyes to
+his. "You said that Sunday that we wa'n't to turn out of the way fer
+hard things."
+
+"I don't want it to be hard for you to tell me anything, Amarilly," he
+said reassuringly. "Suppose you show me that you trust me by telling me
+about your concert."
+
+So once more Amarilly gave a recital of her plan for raising money for
+the mission, and of its successful fulfilment. John listened with
+varying emotions, struggling heroically to maintain his gravity as he
+heard of the realization of the long-cherished, long-deferred dream of
+Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+"And we took in thirty-seven cents," she said in breathless excitement,
+as she handed him the contents of the pie tin.
+
+"Amarilly," he replied fervently, with the look that Colette was
+learning to love, "you did just right to use the surplices, and this
+contribution means more to me than any I have received. It was a sweet
+and generous thought that prompted your concert."
+
+Amarilly's little heart glowed with pride at this acknowledgment.
+
+At that moment came Bud, singing a snatch of his solo.
+
+"Is this the little brother that sang the offertory?"
+
+"Yes; that's him--Bud."
+
+"Bud, will you sing it again for me, now?"
+
+"Sure thing!" said the atom of a boy, promptly mounting a soap box.
+
+He threw back a mop of thick black hair, rolled his eyes ceilingward,
+and let his sweet, clear voice have full sway.
+
+"Oh, Bud, you darling! Why didn't you tell me he could sing like that,
+Amarilly?" cried Colette at the close of the song.
+
+"We must have him in St. Mark's choir," declared Mr. Meredith. "You may
+bring him to the rectory to-morrow, Amarilly, and I will have the
+choirmaster try his voice. Besides receiving instruction and practice
+every week, he will be paid for his singing."
+
+Money for Bud's voice! So much prosperity was scarcely believable.
+
+"Fust the Guild school, Miss King's washing, the surpluses, and now
+Bud!" thought Amarilly exuberantly. "Next thing I know, I'll be on the
+stage."
+
+"I must go," said Colette presently. "My car is just around the corner
+on the next street. John, will you ride uptown with me?"
+
+He accepted the invitation with alacrity. Colette's sidelong glance
+noted a certain masterful look about his chin, and there was a warning,
+metallic ring in his voice that denoted a determination to overcome all
+obstacles and triumph by sheer force of will. She was not ready to
+listen to him yet, and, a ready evader of issues, chatted incessantly on
+the way to the car. He waited in grim patience, biding his time. As they
+neared the turn in the alley, she played her reserve card.
+
+"Henry didn't think it prudent to bring the big car into the Jenkins's
+_cul-de-sac,_ so he waited in the next street. I expect father will be
+there by this time. We dropped him at a factory near by, where he was to
+speak to some United Workmen."
+
+Colette smiled at the drooping of John's features as he beheld her
+father ensconced in the tonneau.
+
+"Oh, John! I am glad you were here to protect my little girl through
+these byways. I was just on the point of looking her up myself."
+
+When the car stopped at the rectory and Colette bade John good-night,
+the resolute, forward thrust was still prominent in his chin.
+
+He went straight to his study and wrote an ardent avowal of his love.
+Then he sealed the letter and dispatched it by special messenger. There
+would be no more suspense, he thought, for she would have to respond by
+a direct affirmation or negation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+In the tide of the Jenkins's prosperity there came the inevitable ebb.
+On the fateful Friday morning succeeding the concert, Mrs. Hudgers,
+looking from her window, saw a little group of children with books under
+their arms returning from school. Having no timepiece, she was
+accustomed to depend on the passing to and fro of the children for
+guidance as to the performance of her household affairs.
+
+"My sakes, but twelve o'clock come quick to-day," she thought, as she
+kindled the fire and set the kettle over it in preparation of her midday
+meal.
+
+A neighbor dropping in viewed these proceedings with surprise.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Hudgers, ain't you et yer breakfast yet?"
+
+"Of course I hev. I'm puttin' the kittle over fer my dinner."
+
+"Dinner! why, it's only a half arter nine."
+
+Mrs. Hudgers looked incredulous.
+
+"I seen the chillern agoin' hum from school," she maintained.
+
+"Them was the Jenkinses, Iry hez come down with the scarlit fever, and
+they're all in quarrytine."
+
+"How you talk! Wait till I put the kittle offen the bile."
+
+The two neighbors sat down to discuss this affliction with the ready
+sympathy of the poor for the poor. Their passing envy of the Jenkins's
+good fortune was instantly skimmed from the surface of their
+friendliness, which had only lain dormant and wanted but the touch of
+trouble to make them once more akin.
+
+When the city physician had pronounced Iry's "spell" to be scarlet
+fever, the other members of the household were immediately summoned by
+emergency calls. The children came from school, Amarilly from the
+theatre, and the Boarder from his switch to hold an excited family
+conference.
+
+"It's a good thing we got the washin's all hum afore Iry was took,"
+declared the optimistic Amarilly.
+
+"Thar's two things here yet," reported Mrs. Jenkins. "Gus come hum too
+late last night to take the preacher's surplus and Miss King's lace
+waist. You was so tired I didn't tell you, 'cause I know'd you'd be sot
+on goin' with them yourself. They're all did up."
+
+"Well, they'll hev to stay right here with us and the fever," said
+Amarilly philosophically.
+
+At heart she secretly rejoiced in the retaining of these two garments,
+for they seemed to keep her in touch with their owners whom she would be
+unable to see until Iry had recovered.
+
+"I don't see what we are going to do, Amarilly," said her mother
+despairingly. "Thar'll be nuthin' comin' in and so many extrys."
+
+"No extrys," cheerfully assured the little comforter. "The city
+doctor'll take keer of Iry and bring the medicines. We hev laid by some
+sence we got the church wash. It'll tide us over till Iry gits well. We
+all need a vacation from work, anyhow."
+
+At the beginning of the next week a ten-dollar bill came from Colette,
+"to buy jellies and things for Iry," she wrote. A similar contribution
+came from John Meredith.
+
+"We air on Easy Street onct more!" cried Amarilly joyfully.
+
+"I hate to take the money from them," sighed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'll make it up to them when we kin work agin," consoled Amarilly.
+"Better to take from friends than from the city. It won't be fer long.
+Iry seems to hev took it light, the doctor said."
+
+This diagnosis proved correct, but it had not occurred to Amarilly in
+her prognostications that the question of the duration of the quarantine
+was not entirely dependent upon Iry's convalescence. Like a row of
+blocks the children, with the exception of Flamingus and Amarilly, in
+rapid succession came down with a mild form of the fever. Mrs. Jenkins
+and Amarilly divided the labors of cook and nurse, but the mainstay of
+the family was the Boarder. He aided in the housework, and as an
+entertainer of the sick he proved invaluable. He told stories, drew
+pictures, propounded riddles, whittled boats and animals, played "Beggar
+my Neighbor," and sang songs for the convalescent ward.
+
+When the last cent of the Jenkins's reserve fund and the contributions
+from the rector and Colette had been exhausted, the Boarder put a
+willing hand in his pocket and drew forth his all to share with the
+afflicted family. There was one appalling night when the treasury was
+entirely depleted, and the larder was a veritable Mother Hubbard's
+cupboard.
+
+"Something will come," prophesied Amarilly trustfully.
+
+Something did come the next day in the shape of a donation of five
+dollars from Mr. Vedder, who had heard of the prolonged quarantine.
+Amarilly wept from gratitude and gladness.
+
+"The perfesshun allers stand by each other," she murmured proudly.
+
+This last act of charity kept the Jenkins's pot boiling until the
+premises were officially and thoroughly fumigated. Again famine
+threatened. The switch remained open to the Boarder, and he was once
+more on duty, but he had as yet drawn no wages, one morning there was
+nothing for breakfast.
+
+"I'll pawn my ticker at noon," promised the Boarder, "and bring home
+something for dinner."
+
+"There is lots of folks as goes without breakfast allers, from choice,"
+informed Amarilly. "Miss Vail, the teacher at the Guild, says it's
+hygeniack."
+
+"It won't hurt us and the boys," said Mrs. Jenkins, "but Iry and Co is
+too young to go hungry even if it be hygeniack."
+
+"They ain't agoin' hungry," declared Amarilly. "I'll pervide fer them."
+
+With a small pitcher under her cape she started bravely forth on a
+foraging expedition. After walking a few blocks she came to a white
+house whose woodhouse joined the alley. Hiding behind a barrel she
+watched and waited until a woman opened the back door and set a soup
+plate of milk on the lowest step.
+
+"Come a kits! Come a kits!" she called shrilly, and then went back into
+the house.
+
+The "kits" came on the run; so did Amarilly. She arrived first, and
+hastily emptied the contents of the soup plate into her pitcher. Then
+she fled, leaving two dismayed maltese kittens disconsolately lapping an
+empty dish.
+
+"Here's milk for Iry," she announced, handing the pitcher to her mother.
+"Now I'll go and get some breakfast for Co."
+
+
+She returned presently with a sugared doughnut.
+
+"Where did you borry the milk and nut-cake?" asked her mother
+wonderingly.
+
+"I didn't borry them," replied Amarilly stoically. "I stole them."
+
+"Stole them! Am-a-ril-ly Jenk-ins!"
+
+"Twan't exackly stealin'," argued Amarilly cheerfully. "I took the milk
+from two little cats what git stuffed with milk every morning and night.
+The doughnut had jest been stuck in a parrot's cage. He hedn't tetched
+it. My! he swore fierce! I'd ruther steal, anyway, than let Iry and Co
+go hungry."
+
+"What would the preacher say!" demanded her mother solemnly. "He would
+say it was wrong."
+
+"He don't know nothin' about bein' hungry!" replied Amarilly defiantly.
+"If he was ever as hungry as Iry, I bet he'd steal from a cat."
+
+The season was now summer. Some time ago John Meredith had gone to the
+seashore and the King family to their summer home in the mountains,
+unaware that the fever had spread over so wide an area in the Jenkins
+domain. The theatre and St. Mark's were closed for the rest of the
+summer. The little boys found that their positions had been filled
+during the period of quarantine. None of these catastrophes, however,
+could be compared to the calamity of the realization that Bud alone of
+all the patients had not convalesced completely. He was a delicate
+little fellow, and he grew paler and thinner each day. In desperation
+Amarilly went to the doctor.
+
+"Bud don't pick up," she said bluntly.
+
+"I feared he wouldn't," replied the doctor.
+
+"Can't you try some other kinds of medicines?"
+
+"I can, but I am afraid that there is no medicine that will help him
+very much."
+
+Amarilly turned pale.
+
+"Is there anything else that will help him?" she demanded fiercely.
+
+"If he could go to the seashore he might brace up. Sea air would work
+wonders for him."
+
+"He shall go," said Amarilly with determination.
+
+"I can get a week for him through the Fresh Air Fund," suggested the
+doctor.
+
+He succeeded in getting two weeks, and, that time was extended another
+fortnight through the benevolence of Mr. Vedder.
+
+Bud returned a study in reds and browns.
+
+"The sea beats the theayter and the church all to smitherines,
+Amarilly!" he declared jubilantly. "I kin go to work now."
+
+"No!" said Amarilly resolutely. "You air goin' to loaf through this hot
+weather until church and school open."
+
+The family fund once more had a modest start. Mrs. Jenkins obtained a
+few of her old customers, Bobby got a paper route, Flamingus and Milton
+were again at work, but Amarilly, Gus, and Cory were without vocations.
+
+Soon after the quarantine was lifted Amarilly went forth to deliver the
+surplice and the waist which had hung familiarly side by side during the
+weeks of trouble. The housekeeper at the rectory greeted her kindly and
+was most sympathetic on learning of the protracted confinement. She made
+Amarilly a present of the surplice.
+
+"Mr. Meredith said you were to keep it. He thought your mother might
+find it useful. It is good linen, you know, and you can cut it up into
+clothes for the children. He has so many surplices, he won't miss this
+one."
+
+"I'll never cut it up!" thought Amarilly as she reverently received the
+robe. "I'll keep it in 'membrance of him."
+
+"It's orful good in him to give it to us," she said gratefully to the
+housekeeper.
+
+That worthy woman smiled, remembering how the fastidious young rector
+had shrunk from the thought of wearing a fumigated garment.
+
+At the King residence Amarilly saw the caretaker, who gave her a similar
+message regarding the lace waist.
+
+"I'll keep it," thought Amarilly with a shy little blush, "until I'm
+merried. It'll start my trousseau."
+
+She took the garments home, not mentioning to anyone the gift of the
+waist, however, for that was to be her secret--her first secret. She hid
+this nest-egg of her trousseau in an old trunk which she fastened
+securely.
+
+On the next day she was summoned to help clean the theatre, which had
+been rented for one night by the St. Andrew's vested choir, whose
+members were to give a sacred concert. A rehearsal for this
+entertainment was being held when Amarilly arrived.
+
+"These surplices are all too long or too short for me," complained the
+young tenor, who had recently been engaged for the solo parts.
+
+Amarilly surveyed him critically.
+
+"He's jest about Mr. St. John's size," she mused, "only he ain't so fine
+a shape."
+
+With the thought came an inspiration that brought a quickly waged
+battle. It seemed sacrilegious, although she didn't express it by that
+word, to permit another to wear a garment so sacred to the memory of Mr.
+Meredith, but poverty, that kill-sentiment, had fully developed the
+practical side of Amarilly.
+
+She made answer to her stabs of conscience by action instead of words,
+going straight to her friend, the ticket-seller.
+
+"That feller," she said, indicating the tenor, "ain't satisfied with the
+fit of his surplus. I've got one jest his size. It's done up spick and
+span clean, and I'll rent it to him fer the show. He kin hev it fer the
+ev'nin' fer a dollar. Would you ask him fer me?"
+
+"Certainly, Amarilly," he agreed.
+
+He came back to her, smiling.
+
+"He'll take it, but he seems to think your charge rather high--more than
+that of most costumers, he said."
+
+"This ain't no common surplus," defended Amarilly loftily. "It was wore
+by the rector of St. Mark's, and he give it to me. It's of finer stuff
+than the choir surpluses, and it hez got a cross worked onto it, and a
+pocket in it, too."
+
+"Of course such inducements should increase the value," confirmed Mr.
+Vedder gravely, and he proceeded to hold another colloquy with the
+twinkling-eyed tenor. Amarilly went home for the surplice and received
+therefor the sum of one dollar, which swelled the Jenkins's purse
+perceptibly.
+
+And here began the mundane career of the minister's surplice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Ever apt in following a lead, Amarilly at once resolved to establish a
+regular costuming business. It even occurred to her to hire out the lace
+waist, but thoughts of wedding bells prevailed against her impulse to
+open this branch of the business.
+
+When the young tenor returned the surplice he informed Amarilly that two
+young ladies of his acquaintance were going to give a home entertainment
+for charity. Among the impromptu acts would be some tableaux, and the
+surplice was needed for a church scene. So the new venture brought in
+another dollar that week.
+
+One day Bud came home capless, having crossed a bridge in a high wind.
+
+"I seen an ad," said the thrifty Flamingus, "that the Beehive would give
+away baseball caps to-day."
+
+Amarilly immediately set out for the Beehive, an emporium of fashion in
+the vicinity of the theatre. It was the noon hour, and there were no
+other customers in evidence.
+
+The proprietor and a clerk were engaged in discussing the design for a
+window display, and were loath to notice their would-be beneficiary.
+Finally the clerk drawled out:
+
+"Did you want anything, little girl?"
+
+"I called," explained Amarilly with grandiose manner, "to git one of
+them caps you advertised to give away."
+
+"Oh, those were all given out long ago. You should have come earlier,"
+he replied with an air of relief, as he turned to resume the
+all-absorbing topic with the proprietor.
+
+Amarilly's interest in the window display dispelled any disappointment
+she might have had in regard to Bud's head covering.
+
+"Now," said the clerk didactically, "my idea is this. Have a wedding--a
+church wedding. I can rig up an altar, and we'll have the bride in a
+white, trailing gown; the groom, best man, and ushers in dress suits to
+advertise our gents' department, the bridesmaids and relatives in
+different colored evening dresses, and in this way we can announce our
+big clearing sale of summer goods in the ready-to-wear department. It'll
+make a swell window and draw crowds. Women can never get by a wedding."
+
+"That's a dandy idea, Ben," approved the proprietor.
+
+"Oh, I am a winner on ideas," vaunted the clerk chestily.
+
+So was Amarilly. She stepped eagerly up to the window designer.
+
+"Do you keep surpluses?"
+
+"No; don't know what they are," replied the clerk shortly, turning from
+her. "We'll get a wreath of orange flowers for the bride, and then we
+can have a child carrying the ring, so as to call attention to our
+children's department."
+
+"A surplus," explained Amarilly, scornful of such avowed ignorance, "is
+the white gown that Episcopal ministers wear."
+
+"No; we don't keep them," was the impatient rejoinder.
+
+"Well, I hev one," she said, addressing the proprietor this time, "a
+real minister's, and I'll rent it to you to put on your figger of the
+minister in your wedding window. He'll hev to wear one."
+
+"I am not an Episcopalian," said the proprietor hesitatingly. "What do
+you think, Ben?"
+
+"Well, it hadn't occurred to me to have an Episcopal wedding, but I
+don't know but what it would work out well, after all. It would make it
+attract notice more, and women are always daffy over Episcopal weddings.
+They like classy things. We could put a card in the window, saying all
+the clergy bought the linen for their surplices here. How," turning to
+Amarilly, "did you happen to have such an article?"
+
+"We do the washin' fer St. Mark's church, and the minister give us one
+of his surpluses."
+
+"The display will be in for six days. What will you rent it for that
+long?"
+
+"I allers git a dollar a night fer it," replied Amarilly.
+
+"Too much!" declared the clerk. "I'll give you fifty cents a day."
+
+"I'll let it go six days fer four dollars," bargained Amarilly.
+
+"Well, seeing you have come down on your offer, I'll come up a little on
+mine. I'll take it for three-fifty."
+
+Amarilly considered.
+
+"I will, if you'll throw in one of them caps fer my brother."
+
+"All right," laughed the proprietor. "I think we'll call it a bargain.
+See if you can't dig up one of those caps for her, Ben."
+
+Without much difficulty Ben produced a cap, and Amarilly hurried home
+for the surplice. She went down to the Beehive every day during the
+wedding-window week and feasted her eyes on the beloved gown. She took
+all the glory of the success of the display to her own credit, and her
+feelings were very much like those of the writer of a play on a first
+night.
+
+From a wedding to a funeral was the natural evolution of a surplice, but
+this time it did not appear in its customary role. Instead of adorning a
+minister, it clad the corpse. Mrs. Hudgers's only son, a scalawag, who
+had been a constant drain on his mother's small stipend, was taken ill
+and died, to the discreetly disguised relief of the neighborhood.
+
+"I'm agoin' to give Hallie a good funeral," Mrs. Hudgers confided to
+Amarilly. "I'm agoin' to hev hacks and flowers and singin' If yer St.
+Mark's man was to hum now, I should like to have him fishyate."
+
+"Who will you git?" asked Amarilly interestedly.
+
+"I'll hev the preacher from the meetin'-house on the hill, Brother
+Longgrass."
+
+"I wonder," speculated Amarilly, "if he'd like to wear the surplus?"
+
+Foremost as the plumes of Henry of Navarre in battle were the surplice
+and the renting thereof in Amarilly's vision.
+
+"I don't expect he could do that," replied Mrs. Hudgers doubtfully. "His
+church most likely wouldn't stand fer it. Brother Longgrass is real kind
+if he ain't my sort. He's agoin' to let the boys run the maylodeun down
+here the night afore the funyral."
+
+"Who's agoin' to sing?"
+
+"I dunno yit. I left it to the preacher. He said he'd git me a picked
+choir, whatever that may be."
+
+"My! But you'll hev a fine funeral!" exclaimed Amarilly admiringly.
+
+"I allers did say that when Hallie got merried, or died, things should
+be done right. Thar's jest one thing I can't hev."
+
+"What's that, Mrs. Hudgers?"
+
+"Why, you see, Amarilly, Hallie's clo'es air sort of shabby-like, and
+when we git him in that shiny new caskit, they air agoin' to show up
+orful seedy. But I can't afford ter buy him a new suit jest for this
+onct."
+
+"Couldn't you rent a suit?" asked Amarilly, her ruling passion for
+business still dominating.
+
+"No; I jest can't, Amarilly. It's costin' me too much now."
+
+"I know it is," sympathized Amarilly, concentrating her mind on the
+puzzling solution of Hallie's habiliment.
+
+"Mrs. Hudgers," she exclaimed suddenly, "why can't you put the surplus
+on Hallie? You kin slip it on over his suit, and when the funeral's
+over, and they hev all looked at the corpse, you kin take it offen him."
+
+"Oh, that would be sweet!" cried Mrs. Hudgers, brightening perceptibly.
+"Hallie would look beautiful in it, and 'twould be diffrent from any one
+else's funeral. How you allers think of things, Amarilly! But I ain't
+got no dollar to pay you fer it."
+
+"If you did hev one," replied Amarilly Indignantly, "I shouldn't let you
+pay fer it. We're neighbors, and what I kin do fer Hallie I want ter
+do."
+
+"Well, Amarilly, it's certainly fine fer you to feel that way. You don't
+think," she added with sudden apprehension, "that they'd think the
+surplus was Hallie's nightshirt, do you?"
+
+"Oh, no!" protested Amarilly, shocked at such a supposition. "Besides,
+you kin tell them all that Hallie's laid out in a surplus. They all seen
+them to the concert."
+
+The funeral passed off with great eclat. The picked choir had resonant
+voices, and Brother Longgrass preached one of his longest sermons,
+considerately omitting reference to any of the characteristics of the
+deceased. Mrs. Hudgers was suitably attired in donated and dusty black.
+The extremely unconventional garb of Hallie caused some little comment,
+but it was commonly supposed to be a part of the Episcopalian spirit
+which the Jenkinses seemed to be inculcating in the neighborhood.
+Brother Longgrass was a little startled upon beholding the white-robed
+corpse, but perceiving what comfort it brought to the afflicted mother,
+he magnanimously forbore to allude to the matter.
+
+After the remains had been viewed for the last time, the surplice was
+removed. In the evening Amarilly called for it.
+
+"He did look handsome in it," commented Mrs. Hudgers with a satisfied,
+reminiscent smile. "I wish I might of hed his likeness took. I'm agoin'
+to make you take hum this pan of fried cakes Mrs. Holdock fetched in.
+They'll help fill up the chillern."
+
+"I don't want to rob you, Mrs. Hudgers," said Amarilly, gazing longingly
+at the doughnuts, which were classed as luxuries in the Jenkins's menu.
+
+"I dassent eat 'em, Amarilly. If I et jest one, I'd hev dyspepsy orful,
+and folks hez brung in enough stuff to kill me now. It does beat all the
+way they bring vittles to a house of mournin'! I only wish Hallie could
+hev some of 'em."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The surplice, carefully laundered after the funeral, was ready for new
+fields of labor. The tenor, first patron of Amarilly's costuming
+establishment, was wont to loiter in the studio of an artist he knew and
+relate his about-town adventures. This artist was interested in the
+annals of the little scrub-girl and her means of livelihood.
+
+"I have in mind," he said musingly, "a picture of a musician, the light
+to be streaming through a stained window on his uplifted head as he sits
+at an organ."
+
+"The Lost Chord?" inquired the tenor.
+
+"Nothing quite so bromidic as that," laughed the artist. "I have my
+model engaged, and I had intended to have you borrow a surplice for me,
+but you may ask your little customer to rent me her gown for a couple of
+days."
+
+On receipt of this request delivered through the medium of the ticket-
+seller, Amarilly promptly appeared at the studio. She was gravely and
+courteously received by the artist, Derry Phillips, an easy-mannered
+youth, slim and supple, with dark, laughing eyes. When they had
+transacted the business pertaining to the rental of the surplice,
+Amarilly arose from her chair with apparent reluctance. This was a new
+atmosphere, and she was fascinated by the pictures and the general air
+of artistic disarrangement which she felt but could not account for.
+
+"'Tain't exactly the kind of place to tidy," she reflected, "but it
+needs cleaning turrible."
+
+"Do you like pictures?" asked the young artist, following her gaze.
+"Stay a while and look at them, if you wish."
+
+Amarilly readily availed herself of this permission, and rummaged about
+the rooms while Derry pursued his work. Upon the completion of her tour
+of inspection, he noticed a decided look of disapproval upon her face.
+
+"What is the matter, Miss Jenkins? Aren't the pictures true to life?" he
+inquired with feigned anxiety.
+
+"The picters is all right," replied Amarilly, "but--"
+
+"But what?" he urged expectantly.
+
+"Your rooms need reddin' up. Thar's an orful lot of dust. Yer things
+will spile."
+
+"Oh, dust, you know, to the artistic temperament, is merely a little
+misplaced matter."
+
+"'Tain't only misplaced. It's stuck tight," contended Amarilly.
+
+"Dear me! And to think that I was contemplating a studio tea to some
+people day after to-morrow, I suppose it really should be 'red up'
+again. Honestly though, I engage a woman who come every week and clean
+the rooms."
+
+"She's imposed on you," said Amarilly indignantly. "She's swept the dirt
+up agin the mopboards and left it thar, and she hez only jest skimmed
+over things with a dust-cloth. It ain't done thorough."
+
+"And are you quite proficient as a _blanchisseuse?"_
+
+Amarilly looked at him unperturbed.
+
+"I kin scrub," she remarked calmly.
+
+"I stand rebuked. Scrubbing is what they need. If you will come
+to-morrow morning and put these rooms in order, I will give you a dollar
+and your midday meal."
+
+Amarilly, well satisfied with her new opening, closed the bargain
+instantly.
+
+The next morning at seven o'clock she rang the studio bell. The artist,
+attired in a bathrobe and rubbing his eyes sleepily, opened the door.
+
+"This was the day I was to clean," reminded Amarilly reprovingly.
+
+"To be sure. But why so early? I thought you were a telegram."
+
+"Early! It's seven o'clock."
+
+"I still claim it's early. I have only been in bed four hours."
+
+"Well, you kin go back to bed. I'll work orful quiet."
+
+"And I can trust you not to touch any of the pictures or move anything?"
+
+"I'll be keerful," Amarilly assured him. "Jest show me whar to het up
+the water. I brung the soap and a brush."
+
+The artist lighted a gas stove, and, after carefully donning a long-
+sleeved apron, Amarilly put the water on and began operations. Her eyes
+shone with anticipation as she looked about her.
+
+"I'm glad it's so dirty," she remarked. "It's more interestin' to clean
+a dirty place. Then what you do shows up, and you feel you earnt your
+money."
+
+With a laugh the artist returned to his bedroom, whence he emerged three
+hours later.
+
+"This room is all cleaned," announced Amarilly. "It took me so long
+'cause it's so orful big and then 'twas so turrible dirty."
+
+"You must have worked like a little Trojan. Now stop a bit while I
+prepare my breakfast."
+
+"Kin you cook?" asked Amarilly in astonishment.
+
+"I can make coffee and poach eggs. Come into my butler's pantry and
+watch me."
+
+Amarilly followed him into a small apartment and was initiated into the
+mysteries of electric toasters and percolators.
+
+He tried in vain to induce her to share his meal with him, but she
+protested.
+
+"I hed my breakfast at five-thirty. I don't eat agin till noon."
+
+"Oh, Miss Jenkins! You have no artistic temperament or you would not
+cling to ironclad rules."
+
+"My name's Amarilly," she answered shortly. "I ain't old enough to be
+'missed' yet."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Amarilly. You seem any age," he replied, sitting
+down to his breakfast, "You are not too old, then, for me to ask what
+your age is--in years?"
+
+"I jest got into my teens."
+
+"Thirteen. And I am ten years older. When is your birthday?"
+
+"It's ben. It was the fust of June."
+
+"Why, Amarilly," jumping up and holding out his hand, "we are twins!
+That is my birthday."
+
+"And you are twenty-three."
+
+"Right you are. That is my age at the present moment. Last night I was
+far older, and to-morrow, mayhap, I'll be years younger."
+
+"Be you a Christian Science?" she asked doubtfully.
+
+"Lord, no, child! I am an artist. What made you ask that?"
+
+"'Cause they don't believe in age. Miss Jupperskin told me about 'em.
+She's workin' up to it. But I must go back to my work."
+
+"So must I, Amarilly. My model will be here in a few moments to don your
+surplice. If you want to clean up my breakfast dishes you may do so, and
+then tackle the bedroom and the rest of the apartment."
+
+Three hours later, Amarilly went into the studio. The model had gone,
+and the artist stood before his easel surveying his sketch with
+approval.
+
+"This is going to be a good picture, Amarilly. The model caught my idea.
+There is some fore--"
+
+"Mr. Phillips!"
+
+"My name is Derry. I am too young to be 'mistered.'"
+
+There was no response, and with a smile he turned inquiringly toward
+her. There was a wan little droop about the corners of her eyes and lips
+that brought contrition to his boyish heart.
+
+"Amarilly you are tired! You have worked too steadily. Sit down and rest
+awhile."
+
+"'Tain't that! I'm hungry. Kin I het up the coffee and--"
+
+"Good gracious, Amarilly! I forgot you ate at regular, stated intervals.
+We will go right out now to a nice little restaurant near by and eat our
+luncheon together."
+
+Amarilly flushed.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry. That's orful nice in you, but I'd ruther eat
+here. Thar's the toast and coffee to het, and an aig--"
+
+"No! You are going to have a good, square meal and eat it with me. You
+see I had to eat my birthday dinner all alone, so we'll celebrate the
+first of June now, together. Slip off your apron. By the way, some day I
+shall paint a picture of you in that apron scrubbing my 'mopboard.'"
+
+Amarilly shook her head.
+
+"I don't look fit to go nowhars with you, Mr. Derry."
+
+"Vanitas, and the rest of it! Oh, Amarilly, only thirteen, and the
+ruling passion of your sex already in full sway!"
+
+"It's on your account that I'm ashamed," she said in defence of his
+accusation. "I'd want ter look nice fer you."
+
+"That's sweet of you, Amarilly; but if you really want to look nice,
+don't think of your clothes. It's other things. Think of your hair, for
+instance. It's your best point, and yet you hide it under a bushel and,
+worse than that, you braid it so tight I verily believe it's wired."
+
+"I'm used to bein' teased about my red head," she replied. "I don't
+keer."
+
+"It's a glorious red, Amarilly. The color the vulgar jeer at, and
+artists like your friend and twin, Derry, rave over. You're what is
+called 'Titian-haired,'"
+
+"Are you makin' fun, Mr. Derry?" she asked suspiciously.
+
+"No, Amarilly; seriously, I think it the loveliest shade of hair there
+is, and now I am going to show you how you should wear it. Unbind it,
+all four of those skin-tight braids."
+
+She obeyed him, and a loosened, thick mass of hair fell below her waist.
+
+"Glorious!" he cried fervidly. "Take that comb from the top of your head
+and comb it out. There! Now part it, and catch up these strands
+loosely--so. I must find a ribbon for a bow. What color would you
+suggest, Amarilly?"
+
+"Brown."
+
+"Bravo, Amarilly. If you had said blue, I should have lost all faith in
+your future upcoming. Here are two most beautiful brown bows on this
+thingamajig some one gave me last Christmas, and whose claim on creation
+I never discovered. Let me braid your hair loosely for two and
+one-quarter inches. One bow here--another there. Look in the glass,
+Amarilly. If I give you these bows will you promise me never to wear
+your hair in any other fashion until you are sixteen at least? Off with
+your apron! It's picturesque, but soapy and exceedingly wet. You won't
+need a hat. It's only around the corner, and I want your hair to be
+observed and admired."
+
+Amarilly gained assurance from the reflection of her hair in the mirror,
+and they started gayly forth like two school children out for a lark. He
+ushered her into a quiet little cafe that had an air of pronounced
+elegance about it. In a secluded corner behind some palms came the
+subdued notes of stringed instruments. Derry seemed to be well known
+here, and his waiter viewed his approach with an air of proprietorship.
+
+"It's dead quiet here," thought Amarilly wonderingly. "Like a church."
+
+It was beginning to dawn upon her alert little brain that real things
+were all quiet, not noisy like the theatre.
+
+"What shall we have first, Amarilly?" inquired her new friend with mock
+deference. "Bouillon?"
+
+Amarilly, recalling the one time in her life when she had had
+"luncheon," replied casually that she preferred fruit, and suggested a
+melon.
+
+"Good, Amarilly! You are a natural epicure. Fruit, certainly, on a warm
+day like this. I shall let you select all the courses. What next?"
+
+"Lobster," she replied nonchalantly.
+
+"Fine! And then?"
+
+"Grapefruit salad."
+
+He looked at her in amazement, and reflected that she had doubtless been
+employed in some capacity that had made her acquainted with luncheon
+menus.
+
+"And," concluded Amarilly, without waiting for prompting, "I think an
+ice would be about right. And coffee in a little cup, and some cheese."
+
+"By all means, Amarilly," he responded humbly. "And what kind of cheese,
+please?"
+
+"Now I'm stumped," thought Amarilly ruefully, "fer I can't 'member how
+to speak the kind she hed."
+
+"Most any kind," she said loftily, "except that kind you put in
+mousetraps."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you are a true aristocrat! How comes it that you scrub
+floors? Is it on a bet?"
+
+The waiter came up and said something to the artist in a low tone, and
+Derry replied hastily:
+
+"Nothing to-day." Then, turning to Amarilly, he asked her if she would
+like a glass of milk. Upon her assent, he ordered two glasses of milk,
+to the veiled surprise of the waiter.
+
+When the luncheon was served, Amarilly, by reason of her good memory,
+was still at ease. The children at the Guild school had been given a few
+general rules in table deportment, but Amarilly had followed every
+movement of Colette's so faithfully at the eventful luncheon that she
+ate very slowly, used the proper forks and spoons, and won Derry's
+undisguised admiration.
+
+"Mr. Vedder's, good," she thought. "Mr. St. John's grand, but this 'ere
+Mr. Derry's folksy. I'd be skeert settin' here eatin' with Mr. St. John,
+but this feller's only a kid, and I feel quite to hum with him."
+
+"Amarilly," he said confidentially, as they were sipping their coffee
+from "little cups," "you are truthful, I know. Will you be perfectly
+frank with me and answer a question?"
+
+"Mebby," she replied warily.
+
+"Did you ever eat a luncheon like this before?"
+
+"I never seen the inside of a restyrant afore," she replied.
+
+"Now you are fencing. I mean, did you ever have the same things to eat
+that we had just now?"
+
+Amarilly hesitated, longing to mystify him further, but it came over her
+in a rush how very kind he had been to her.
+
+"Yes, I hev. I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"Good! An after-dinner story! Beat her up, Amarilly!"
+
+So she told him of her patroness and the luncheon she had eaten at her
+house.
+
+"And I watched how she et and done, and she tole me the names of the
+things we hed. I writ them out, and that was my lesson that night with
+the Boarder."
+
+Then, of course, Derry must know all about the Boarder and the brothers.
+After she had finished her faithful descriptions, it was time to return
+to the studio. Her quick, keen eyes had noted the size of the bill Derry
+had put on the salver, and the small amount of change he had received.
+She walked home beside him in troubled silence.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly?" he asked as she was buttoning on her
+apron preparatory to resuming work. "Didn't the luncheon agree with you,
+or are you mad at me? And for why, pray?"
+
+Amarilly's thin little face flushed and a tear came into each thoughtful
+eye.
+
+"I hedn't orter to hev tole you ter git all them things. I was atryin'
+ter be smart and show off, but, honest, I didn't know they was agoin'
+ter cost so much. I ain't agoin' ter take no money fer the cleanin', and
+that'll help some."
+
+Derry laughed rapturously.
+
+"My dear child!" he exclaimed, when he could speak. "You are a veritable
+little field daisy. You really saved me money by going with me. If I had
+gone alone, I should have spent twice as much."
+
+"How could that be?" she asked unbelievingly. "You would only hev give
+one order, so 'twould hev ben jest half as much."
+
+"But if you had not been with me, I should have had a cocktail and a
+bottle of wine, which would have cost more than our meal. Out of
+deference to your youth and other things, I forbore to indulge. So you
+see I saved money by having you along. And then it was much better for
+me not to have had those libations."
+
+"Honest true?"
+
+"Honest true, hope to die! Cross my heart and all the rest of it! I'd
+lie cheerfully to some people, but never to you, Amarilly."
+
+"My. Reeves-Eggleston--he's on the stage--said artists was allers poor."
+
+"That's one reason why I am not an artist--a great artist. I am hampered
+by an inheritance that allows me to live without working, so I don't do
+anything worth while. I only dabble at this and that. Some day, maybe,
+I'll have an inspiration."
+
+"Go to work now," she admonished.
+
+"I must perforce. My model's foot is on the stair."
+
+Amarilly left the studio to resume her cleaning. At five o'clock she
+came back. Derry stood at the window, working furiously at some fleecy
+clouds sailing over a cerulean sky. She was about to speak, but
+discerning that he must work speedily and uninterruptedly to keep pace
+with the shifting clouds, she refrained.
+
+"There!" he said. "I got it. You were a good little girl not to
+interrupt me, Amarilly."
+
+"It's beautiful!" gasped Amarilly. "I was afeard you'd git the sky blue
+instead of purplish and that you'd make the clouds too white."
+
+"Amarilly, you've the soul of an artist! In you I have found a true
+critic."
+
+"Come and see if the rooms is all right. I got 'em real clean. Every
+nook and corner. And--"
+
+"I know you did, Amarilly, without looking. I can smell the clean from
+here."
+
+"If thar's nothin' more you want did, I'll go hum."
+
+"Here's a dollar for the rooms and two dollars for the surplice.
+Amarilly, you were glad to learn table manners from Miss King, weren't
+you?"
+
+"Yes; I like to larn all I kin."
+
+"Then, will you let me teach you something?"
+
+"Sure!" she acquiesced quickly.
+
+"There are two things you must do for me. Never say 'et'; say 'ate'
+instead. Then you must say 'can'; not 'kin.' It will be hard to remember
+at first, but every time you forget and make a mistake, remember to-day
+and our jolly little luncheon, will you?"
+
+"I will, and I _can_, Mr. Derry."
+
+"You're an apt little pupil, Amarilly, and I am going to teach you two
+words every time you come."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Amarilly, brightening. "Will you want me ter come agin?"
+
+"Indeed I shall. I am going away next week to the mountains for a couple
+of months. When I come back, I am going to have you come every morning
+at nine o'clock. You can prepare and serve my simple breakfast and clean
+my rooms every day. Then they won't get so disreputable. I will pay you
+what they do at the theatre, and it will not be such hard work. Will you
+enjoy it as well?"
+
+"Oh, better!" exclaimed Amarilly.
+
+And with this naive admission died the last spark of Amarilly's
+stage-lust.
+
+"Then consider yourself engaged. You can call for the surplice to-morrow
+afternoon at this hour."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry."
+
+She hesitated, and then awkwardly extended her hand, which he shook most
+cordially.
+
+"Thank you for a day's entertainment, Amarilly. I haven't been bored
+once. You have very nice hands," looking down at the one he still held.
+
+She reddened and jerked her hand quickly away.
+
+"Now you _are_ kiddin'! They're redder than my hair, and rough and big."
+
+"I repeat, Amarilly, you have nice hands. It isn't size and color that
+counts; it's shape, and from an artist's standpoint you have shapely
+hands. Now will you be good, and shake hands with me in a perfectly
+ladylike way? Thank you, Amarilly."
+
+"Thank _you_, Mr. Derry. It's the beautifulest day I ever hed. Better'n
+the matinee or the Guild or--" she drew a quick breath and said in a
+scared whisper--"the church!"
+
+"I am flattered, Amarilly. We shall have many ruby-lettered days like
+it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The next afternoon Amarilly called at the studio for the surplice.
+
+"I am glad to see you have your hair fixed as I told you, Amarilly," was
+Derry's greeting. "And have you remembered the other things I told you?"
+
+"I hev' writ out 'can' and 'ate' in big letters and pinned 'em up on the
+wall. I can say 'em right every time now."
+
+"Of course you can! And for a reward here's a dollar with which to buy
+some black velvet hair-ribbons. Never put any color but black or brown
+near your hair, Amarilly."
+
+"No, Mr. Derry; but I don't want to take the dollar."
+
+"See here, Amarilly! You're to be my little housemaid, and the uniform
+is always provided. Instead of buying you a cap and apron, I prefer to
+furnish velvet hair-ribbons. Take it, and get a good quality silk
+velvet. And now, good-by for two months. I will let you know when I am
+home so that you may begin on your duties."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry," said the little girl artlessly. "And thar's
+something I'd like to say to you, if you don't mind."
+
+"You may say anything--everything--to me, Amarilly."
+
+"When you go to eat, won't you order jest as ef I was with you--nothin'
+more?"
+
+His fair boyish face reddened slightly, and then a serious look came
+into his dancing eyes.
+
+"By Jove, Amarilly! I've been wishing some girl who really meant it, who
+really cared, would say that to me. You put it very delicately and
+sweetly. I'll--yes, I'll do it all the time I'm gone. There's my hand on
+it. Good-by, Amarilly."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry."
+
+Amarilly walked home very slowly, trying to think of a way to realize
+again from the surplice.
+
+"I'm afeerd I won't find a place to rent it right away," she sighed.
+
+Looking up, she saw the Boarder. A slender, shy slip of a girl had his
+arm, and he was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration.
+
+"Oh, the Boarder is in love!" gasped Amarilly; her responsive little
+heart leaping in sympathetic interest. "That's why he's wore a blue
+necktie the last few days. Lord Algernon said that was allers a sure
+sign."
+
+She tactfully slipped around a corner, unseen by the entranced couple.
+
+That night, as he was lighting his after-supper pipe, the Boarder
+remarked casually:
+
+"I'd like to rent the surplus fer an hour to-morrer, Amarilly."
+
+"Why, what on airth can you do with it?" was the astonished query.
+
+The Boarder looked sheepish.
+
+"You see, Amarilly, I'm akeepin' stiddy company with a little gal."
+
+"I seen you and her this arternoon. She's orful purty," said Amarilly
+reflectively. "She looked kinder delikit, though. What's her name?"
+
+"Lily--Lily Rose. Ain't that a purty name?"
+
+"Beautiful. The lily part jest suits her. She's like a flower--a white
+flower. But what do you want the surplus fer?"
+
+"You see," began the Boarder, coming by circuitous route to his subject,
+"gals git notions in their heads sometimes when they air in--"
+
+"Love," promptly supplied the comprehending little girl.
+
+"Yes," he assented with a fiery blush. "And she wants fer me to hev my
+likeness took so I kin give it to her."
+
+"Thar ain't nothin' foolish about that!" declared Amarilly.
+
+"No; but I never sot fer one yet. I wouldn't mind, but you see she's got
+it in her head that I am good-looking--"
+
+"Well, you be," corroborated Amarilly decisively.
+
+"And she wants me fer to dress up like a preacher. I told her about
+Hallie Hudgers lookin' so swell in the surplus, and she wants, as I
+should dress up in it and set fer my likeness in it."
+
+"I think it would be fine!" approved Amarilly. "You sure would look
+nicer nor Hallie did."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't look like a dead one," admitted the Boarder. "But I
+was orful afraid you'd laugh. Then I kin rent it fer an hour to-morrer
+ef it ain't got no other dates."
+
+"You can't _rent_ it. You can take it fer an hour, or so long as you
+like," she assured him.
+
+"You'll hev to take a quarter anyway, fer luck. Mebby 'twill bring me
+luck awinnin' her."
+
+The photograph of the Boarder in saintly attire was pronounced a great
+success. Before the presentation he had it set in a frame made of gilt
+network studded with shells.
+
+Lily Rose spent her leisure moments gazing upon it with the dream-
+centred eyes of a young devotee before a shrine.
+
+The next wearing of the surplice was more in accord with its original
+design. In the precinct adjoining the one in which lived and let live
+the Jenkins family, a colored Episcopal church had recently been
+established. The rector had but one surplice, and that had been stolen
+from the clothes-line, mayhap by one of his dusky flock; thus it was
+that Amarilly received a call from the Reverend Virgil Washington, who
+had heard of the errant surplice, which he offered to purchase.
+
+Naturally his proposition was met by a firm and unalterable refusal. It
+would have been like selling a golden goose to dispose of such a
+profitable commodity. He then asked to rent it for a Sunday while he was
+having one made. This application, being quite in Amarilly's line of
+business, met with a ready assent.
+
+"You can hev it fer a dollar," she offered.
+
+The bargain was finally closed, although it gave Amarilly more than a
+passing pang to think of the snowy folds of Mr. St. John's garment
+adorning an Ethiopian form.
+
+One day there came to the Jenkins home a most unusual caller. The novel
+presence of the "mailman" at their door brought every neighbor to post
+of observation. His call was for the purpose of leaving a gayly-colored
+postal card addressed to "Miss Amarilly Jenkins." It was from Derry, and
+she spent many happy moments in deciphering it. His writing was
+microscopic, and he managed to convey a great deal of information in the
+allotted small space. He inquired solicitously concerning the surplice,
+and bade her be a good girl and not forget the two words he had taught
+her. "I have ordered all my meals as though you were with me," he wrote
+in conclusion.
+
+Amarilly laid the card away with her wedding waist. Then, with the
+Boarder's aid, she indited an answer on a card that depicted the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+The next event for Amarilly was an invitation to attend the wedding of
+Mrs. Hubbleston, a buxom, bustling widow for whom Mrs. Jenkins washed.
+In delivering the clothes, Amarilly had come to be on very friendly
+terms with the big, light-hearted woman, and so she had been asked to
+assist in the serving of refreshments on the eventful night.
+
+"I've never been to a wedding," said Amarilly wistfully. "I've been to
+most everything else, and I would like to see you wed, but I ain't got
+no clo'es 'cept my hair-ribbons."
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston looked at her contemplatively.
+
+"My last husband's niece's little girl left a dress here once when she
+was going home after a visit. She had hardly worn it, but she had
+outgrown it, and her ma told me to give it away. I had 'most forgotten
+about it. I believe it would just fit you. Let us see."
+
+She produced a white dress that adjusted itself comfortably to
+Amarilly's form.
+
+"You look real pretty in white, Amarilly. You shall have this dress for
+your own."
+
+On the nuptial night Amarilly, clad in the white gown and with black
+velvet hair-ribbons, went forth at an early hour to the house of
+festivity.
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston, resplendent in a glittering jetted gown, came into the
+kitchen to see that things were progressing properly.
+
+"Ain't you flustered?" asked Amarilly, looking at her in awe.
+
+"Land, no, child! I have been married four times before this, you see,
+so it comes natural. There goes the doorbell. It must be Mr. Jimmels and
+the minister."
+
+In a few moments she returned to the kitchen for sympathy.
+
+"I am so disappointed," she sighed, "but then, I might have expected
+something would happen. It always does at my weddings."
+
+"What is it?" asked Amarilly, apprehensive lest the wedding might be
+declared off.
+
+"I've been married once by a Baptist minister, once by a Methodist, and
+the third time by a Congregationalist; last time a Unitarian tied the
+knot. So this once I thought I would have an Episcopal, because their
+white robe lends tone. And Rev. Mr. Woodthorn has come without his. He
+says he never brings it to the house weddings unless specially
+requested. He lives clear across the city, and the carriage has gone
+away."
+
+"Oh, I have a surplus!" cried Amarilly enthusiastically. "I'll telephone
+our grocer. Milt's ahelpin' him to-night, and he can ride over here on
+the grocer's wheel and fetch it."
+
+"Why, how in the world did you come by such a thing as a surplice?"
+asked the widow in surprise.
+
+Amarilly quickly explained, and then telephoned to her brother.
+
+"He says he'll be over here in a jiffy," she announced. "And ain't it
+lucky, it's jest been did up clean!"
+
+"My, but that's fortunate! It'll be the making of my wedding. I shall
+give you a dollar for the use of it, the same as those others did."
+
+"No!" objected Amarilly. "Ill be more than glad to let you hev it arter
+your givin' me this fine dress."
+
+"I'll have Mr. Jimmels pay you for it. He can take a dollar out of the
+fee for the minister. It will serve him right for not bringing all his
+trappings with him."
+
+Amarilly's sense of justice was appeased by this arrangement. She went
+into the double parlors to witness the ceremony, which gave her a few
+little heart thrills.
+
+"Them words sounds orful nice," she thought approvingly. "The Boarder
+and Lily Rose must hev an Episcopal fer to marry them. I wonder if I'll
+ever get to Miss King's and Mr. St. John's weddin' or Mr. Derry's; but I
+guess he'll never be married. He jokes too much to be thinkin' of sech
+things." Then came the thought of her own wedding garment awaiting its
+destiny.
+
+"I ain't even hed a beau, yet," she sighed, "but the Boarder says that I
+will--that red-headed girls ain't never old maids from ch'ice."
+
+With this sustaining thought, she proceeded to the dining-room. She had
+been taught at the Guild how to wait on table, and she proved herself to
+be very deft and capable in putting her instructions into effect.
+
+"Here's two dollars," the complacent bride said to Amarilly before
+departing. "One is for serving so nicely, and one is for the surplice. I
+told them in the kitchen to put you up a basket of things to take home
+to the children."
+
+Amarilly thanked her profusely and then went home. She deposited her two
+dollars in the family exchequer, and proceeded to distribute the
+contents of the basket.
+
+"Now, set around the table here, and take what I give you. Thar ain't
+enough of one thing to go hull way round, except fer ma. She's agoin' to
+hev some of each. Yes, you be, ma. This here baskit's mine. Here's a
+sandwich, some chicken, salid, jell, two kinds of cake, and some ice-
+cream fer you. Bud can hev first pick now, 'cause he ain't so strong as
+the rest of you. All right, Bud; take the rest of the ice-cream and some
+cake."
+
+"'Tain't fair! I'm a girl, and I'm younger than Bud. I'd orter choose
+first," sobbed Cory.
+
+"Shut up, Co! You'll wake Iry, and then he'll hev to hev something, and
+if he sleeps right through, thar'll be jest so much more fer you.
+'Twon't hurt him to miss what he don't know about. All right, Cory, you
+can hev cake and jell. That's a good boy, Bud, to give her two tastes of
+the cream, and ma'll give you two more. Bobby? Sandwiches and pickle.
+Milt? Chicken and salid. Flammy and Gus, pickle and sandwich is all
+that's left fer you. The rest of this chicken is agoin' into the
+Boarder's dinner pail to-morrer."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Milton came home from the grocery one night with a telephone message
+from Mr. Vedder requesting Amarilly to bring the surplice to his rooms
+on the next day.
+
+"How is business?" asked the ticket-seller kindly, when the little girl
+appeared in answer to his summons.
+
+"Fine! The surplus has brung in nine dollars and seventy-five cents
+a'ready. It's kept things goin'."
+
+"The theatre will open in a couple of weeks, and then you will have
+steady work, though I wish we might get an easier and pleasanter
+occupation for you."
+
+"I'm agoin' to hev one, Mr. Vedder," and she proceeded to tell him of
+Derry and her engagement at his studio.
+
+"It kinder seems as if I b'longed to the theayter, and you've been so
+orful kind to me, Mr. Vedder, that it'll seem strange-like not to be
+here, but Mr. Phillips's work'll be a snap fer me."
+
+"You've been a good, faithful little girl, Amarilly, and I shall want to
+keep track of you and see you occasionally, so I am going to give you a
+pass to every Saturday matinee during the winter."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Vedder, there's been no one so good as you've been to me! And
+you never laugh at me like other folks do."
+
+"No, indeed, child! Why should I? But I never knew before that you had
+such beautiful hair!"
+
+"It's 'cause it's fixed better," said Amarilly with a blush. "But who
+wants the surplus this time?"
+
+"I do," he replied smiling. "I am invited to a sheet and pillow-case
+party. I thought this surplice would be more comfortable than a sheet.
+Here's a dollar for it."
+
+"No," declined Amarilly firmly. "Not arter all you've done fer us. I
+won't take it."
+
+"Amarilly," he said earnestly. "I have no one in the world to do
+anything for, and sometimes, when I get to thinking about it, I am very
+lonely. So if you want to be kind to me, you will give me the pleasure
+of helping you a little now and then. I shall not enjoy the party unless
+you will take the money."
+
+Amarilly cried a little that night, thinking how good he was.
+
+"I hed orter like him best of all," she thought reproachfully.
+
+Two or three days later Pete Noyes came to the house.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly! I ain't seen yer in so long I'd fergit how you looked.
+Say, why didn't you ever fix yer hair that way afore? It looks swell,
+even if it is red!"
+
+"I am older now," she explained in superior, lofty tones, "and of course
+I hev to think more about my looks than I used ter."
+
+He gazed at her with such ardent admiration that she was seized with an
+impulse to don her white dress and impress his young fancy still
+further.
+
+"He ain't wuth it, though," her sober second thought decided.
+
+"What does yer think I come fer, Amarilly?"
+
+"I dunno, 'less Mr. Vedder sent you."
+
+"He did, sorter. You see, I'm invited to one of them kind of parties
+whar you dress up ter be the name of a book. One of the stock company is
+givin' it fer her kids. I don't know the name of any book except
+_Diamond Dick_ and _The Curse of Gold_, and I didn't know how to rig up
+fer them. I went to Vedder, and he sez thar's a book what's called _The
+Little Minister_, and I could rent yer surplus and tog out in it. He
+said you would take tucks in it fer me."
+
+"Sure I will. I'll fix it now while you wait, Pete."
+
+"Say, Amarilly, I thought as how, seein' we are both in the perfesshun,
+sorter, you'd come down on your price."
+
+"Sure thing, Pete. I won't charge you nothin' fer it."
+
+"Yes; I wanter pay. I'll tell you what, Amarilly, couldn't you take it
+out in gum? I hed a hull lot left over when the theayter shut down.
+It'll git stale ef I keep it much longer, and I'd like to git some of it
+offen my hands."
+
+"Sure, I will, Pete. We all like gum, and we can't afford to buy it very
+often. That'll be dandy."
+
+Thus it was that for the next fortnight the Jenkins family revelled in
+the indulgence of a hitherto denied but dearly prized luxury. Their jaws
+worked constantly and joyously, although differently. Mrs. Jenkins, by
+reason of depending upon her third set of teeth, chewed cautiously and
+with camel-like precision. The Boarder, having had long practice in the
+art, craunched at railway speed. The older boys munched steadily and
+easily, while Bud and Bobby pecked intermittently in short nibbles.
+Amarilly had the "star method," which they all vainly tried to emulate.
+At short and regular intervals a torpedo-like report issued from the gum
+as she snapped her teeth down upon it. Cory kept hers strung out
+elastically from her mouth, occasionally rolling it back.
+
+The liberal supply of the luxury rapidly diminished, owing to the fact
+that Iry swallowed his allowance after ineffectual efforts to retain it
+in his mouth, and then like Oliver Twist pleaded for more.
+
+"I declare fer it!" remarked Mrs. Hudgers to Amarilly. "That child's
+insides will all be stuck together. I should think yer ma would be
+afeard to let him chaw so much."
+
+"He's ateethin', and it sorter soothes his gums," explained Amarilly.
+
+During the summer season, Pete had pursued his profession at a
+vaudeville theatre, and one day, not long after his literary
+representation, he came to Amarilly with some good tidings.
+
+"I hev another job fer yer surplus. Down to the vawdyville they're goin'
+to put on a piece what has a preacher in it, and I tole them about yer
+surplus, and the leadin' man, who is to be the preacher, says 'twould
+lend to the settin's to wear it. I told him mebby you'd let him hev the
+use on it fer a week fer five dollars. He said he could buy the stuff
+and make a dozen fer that price, but they gotter start the piece
+to-night so that'd be no time to make one. I'll take it down to them
+to-night."
+
+This was the longest and most remunerative act of the surplice, and
+served to pay for a very long accruing milk bill. When the engagement at
+the vaudeville ended, the Boarder came to the rescue.
+
+"Thar's a friend of mine what brakes, and he wants the surplus to wear
+to a maskyrade. I told him he could go as a preacher. He's asavin' to
+git merried, so he don't want to give much."
+
+"He shell hev it fer a quarter," said Amarilly, friend to all lovers,
+"and I'll lend him a mask. I hev one the property man at the theayter
+give me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"I wonder," meditated Gus, "where the surplus will land next?"
+
+"It has been most everywhere except to the police court," said Bobby.
+"'Spect 'twill land there next!"
+
+His prophecy was fulfilled. Mrs. Jenkins washed the lucrative garment
+late one afternoon and left it on the line all night. The next morning,
+to the great consternation of the family and the wild distress of
+Amarilly, the beloved surplice, that friend of friends in time of need,
+had vanished. Other clotheslines in the vicinity had also been deprived
+of their burdens, and a concerted complaint was made to the police, who
+promptly located the offender and brought him summarily to trial. Mrs.
+Jenkins was subpoenaed as a witness, which caused quite a ripple of
+excitement in the family. Divided between dread of appearing in public
+and pride at the importance with which she was regarded by her little
+flock, Mrs. Jenkins was quite upset by the occasion. She hadn't attended
+a function for so long that her costuming therefor was of more concern
+than had been Amarilly's church raiment.
+
+Mrs. Hudgers loaned her mourning bonnet and veil, which was adjusted at
+half mast. They appeared in direct contradiction to the skirt of bilious
+green she wore, but the Jenkinses were as unconventional in attire as
+they were in other things.
+
+The family attended the trial _en masse_, and were greatly elated at the
+prominence their mother had attained. The culprit was convicted and the
+surplice duly restored. The misfortune was not without profit. Mrs.
+Jenkins received thirty-five cents as a witness fee.
+
+They had managed to pay their household expenses through the summer, but
+when the rent for August was due there was not quite enough cash on hand
+to meet this important item of expenditure. Noting the troubled brows of
+Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly at breakfast time, the Boarder insisted on
+knowing the cause.
+
+"We're broke, and the rent's overdue," tersely explained Amarilly.
+
+"I'm broke, too," sighed the Boarder, "except what I've got in the
+savin's bank towards--"
+
+"Lily Rose," suggested Amarilly softly.
+
+"Yes," he admitted, with a beaming look. "But when I go broke, all other
+things failin', I allers tackle a pawnbroker."
+
+"We ain't got nothin' to pawn," sighed Amarilly.
+
+She recalled the lace waist, but that, like the Lily Rose fund, was
+sacred. There was always, to-day, yesterday, and forever, the surplice,
+and her scruples regarding that article had of necessity become case-
+hardened; still, Amarilly hesitated. A pawnshop seemed lower than a
+police court.
+
+"It's been everywhere else," she said loudly to the accusing, still,
+small voice, "and it might jest as well go the limit. 'T won't bring
+much, but 'twill help."
+
+Through byways and highways Amarilly sought the region of the three-
+balled porticoes. The shop of one Max Solstein attracted her, and she
+entered his open door. Max, rat-eyed and frog-mouthed, came forward
+propitiatingly.
+
+"What'll you gimme on this?" came with directness from the small
+importuner.
+
+He took the garment, shook it, and held it up for falcon-gaze
+inspection.
+
+"Not worth much. A quarter of a dollar."
+
+Amarilly snatched it from his grasp and fled. Not because of his low-
+figured offer; she had fully expected to have to "beat him up." But when
+she had entered, a youth who had all the recognized earmarks of a
+reporter was lounging in the doorway. At sight of the uplifted garment
+he had come eagerly forward, scenting a story. She knew his kind from
+snatches of conversation she had heard between the leading lady and Lord
+Algernon. In the lore of the stage at Barlow's, reporters were "hovering
+vultures" who always dropped down when least wanted, and they had a way
+of dragging to light the innermost thoughts of their victims.
+
+"You read your secrets," Lord Algernon had dramatically declared, "in
+blazoned headlines."
+
+Hitherto Amarilly had effectually silenced her instinctive rebellion
+against the profaning of St. John's surplice, but she had reached the
+limit. No Max Solstein, no threatening landlord, no ruthless reporter
+should thrust the sacred surplice into the publicity of print.
+
+She darted from the shop, the reporter right at her heels, but the
+chasing of his covey to corner was not easily accomplished. He was a
+newly fledged reporter, and Amarilly had all the instinct of the lowly
+for localities. She turned and doubled and dodged successfully. By a
+course circuitous she returned to Hebrew haunts, this time to seek, one
+Abram Canter, a little wizened, gnome-like Jew. Assuring herself that
+there was no other than the proprietor within, Amarilly entered and
+handed over the surplice for appraisal.
+
+Once more the garment was held aloft. At that psychological moment an
+elderly man of buxom build, benevolent in mien, and with smooth, long
+hair that had an upward rolling tendency at the ends, looked in the shop
+as he was passing. He halted, hesitated, and then entered. Of him,
+however, Amarilly felt no apprehension.
+
+"Looks like Quaker Oats, or mebby it's the Jack of Spades," she thought
+after a searching survey.
+
+"My child, is that yours?" he asked of Amarilly, indicating the garment
+by a protesting forefinger.
+
+"Sure thing!" she acknowledged frankly.
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+If he had been a young man, Amarilly would have cheerfully reminded him
+that it was none of his business, but, a respecter of age, she loftily
+informed him that it had been "give to her."
+
+"By whom?" he persisted.
+
+Perceiving her reluctance to answer, he added gently:
+
+"I am a bishop of the Episcopal Church, and I cannot endure to see a
+surplice in such a place as this."
+
+A bishop! This was worse than a reporter even. St. John would surely
+hear of it! But she felt that an explanation was due the calling of her
+interlocutor.
+
+She lifted righteous eyes to his.
+
+"My mother works for one of the churches, and the minister, he give us
+this to cut up into clo'es fer the chillern, but we didn't cut it up.
+I'm agoin' to leave it here till the rent's paid, and we git the money
+to take it outen hock."
+
+The bishop's eyes softened, and lost their look of shocked dignity.
+
+"I will advance you the money," he offered. "I would much prefer to do
+so than to have it left here. How much money do you need to pay your
+rent?"
+
+"We need five dollars," said Amarilly, "to pay the balance of it. But I
+wouldn't take it from you. I ain't no beggar. I don't believe, nuther,"
+she continued, half to herself, "that Mr. St. John would like it."
+
+"Who is Mr. St. John?" he asked curiously. "I know of no such rector in
+this diocese. My child, you have an honest face. Since you won't accept
+a gift of money, I will lend, you the amount. I want you to tell me all
+about yourself and this surplice."
+
+"Well, mebby he'd want me to," reflected Amarilly.
+
+"Gimme back that surplus," she said to the Jew, who seemed loath to
+relinquish his booty.
+
+As she walked up the street with the bishop, she frankly related the
+family history and the part Mr. Meredith and the surplice had played
+therein.
+
+The bishop had generous instincts, and a desire to reach the needy
+directly instead of through the medium of institutions, but he had never
+known just how to approach them. His presence in this unknown part of
+the city had been unpremeditated, but he welcomed the chance that had
+led his steps hither to perform an errand of mercy. He handed Amarilly
+five dollars, and wrote down her address. He was most reluctant to
+receive the surplice as security, but Amarilly's firm insistence was not
+to be overcome. She returned home, rejoicing in the knowledge that she
+had the price of their happy home in her pocket. The bishop had given
+her his card, which she laid in a china saucer with other bits of
+pasteboard she had collected from Derry Phillips, Mr. Vedder, and Pete
+Noyes. The saucer adorned a small stand in the dining-room part of the
+house.
+
+"It's the way Mrs. Hubbleston kep' her keerds," Amarilly explained to
+the family.
+
+Meantime the bishop was walking in an opposite direction toward his
+home, wondering if he should find he was mistaken in his estimate of
+human nature; and a query arose in his mind as to what he should do with
+the surplice if it were left on his hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Bud sat in the park,--Clothes-line Park, Amarilly had dubbed it--one
+Monday afternoon, singing a song of gladness. The park was confined by a
+clothes-line stretched between three tottering poles and the one
+solitary poplar tree of the Jenkins estate. The line was hung with white
+linen garments, and smaller articles adorned the grass plot within the
+park.
+
+This to Bud was the most beautiful spot in the world. He looked up into
+the sapphire blue of the sky flecked with soft patches of white, then
+down upon the waving grass latticed by sun and shade; he listened to the
+soothing rustle of the poplar leaves, the soft flapping of linen in the
+breeze, the birds in the tree tops, and felt his heart and throat
+bursting with all the harmony and melody about him. Not always was Bud's
+refrain one of joy. There were songs of sorrow on the damp days when the
+washings must be dried within the house, and he could not venture forth
+because he still was regarded as the delicate one of the family. There
+were days, too, when the number of garments was not adequate to complete
+the boundary to the park, and that meant less to eat and worry about the
+rent and a harassed look in his mother's anxious eyes.
+
+But there was no sob in Bud's song this afternoon. The clothes had been
+hung out unusually early, and were nearly dry, so his mother had brought
+out her little lean-back rocker and sat beside him for a few moments to
+listen to his carol and to hark back to the days when his lusty-voiced
+father had sung to her in the shadows of a vine clad porch.
+
+It was not upon Amarilly, the sharer of her burdens, nor upon the baby
+that Mrs. Jenkins lavished her tenderness. Bud crept closest because he
+had been the one most dependent upon her care.
+
+When the little singer ceased, the mother arose and unpinned the
+garments, carrying them in armfuls to the huge basket in the middle of
+the park. Bud watched her thin, fatigued hands as they performed their
+accustomed task, and a sudden inspiration came to him. His future field
+of labor had troubled him. Now his way seemed clear. He stepped nimbly
+to the grass plot and gathered up the pieces spread thereon.
+
+"Ma," he said, as they met at the basket, "I've jest thought what I kin
+do, when I grow up, to support you."
+
+"What is it, Bud?" she asked interestedly.
+
+"The teacher said we must plan to do what we knew the most about. I know
+more about washin' than anything else."
+
+"You'd orter," she replied with a sigh.
+
+"I kin run a laundry," he declared.
+
+"That would be a fine business."
+
+Happy in the hope of this new horoscope, Bud resumed his seat in the
+amphitheatre, and in a voice of clarion clearness ecstatically rendered
+one of the hymns he had learned at St. Mark's. Ever since he had become
+a member of the choir, Clothes-line Park had rung with echoes of the
+Jubilate and Venite instead of the popular old-time school airs. The
+wringer was turned to the tune of a Te Deum, the clothes were rubbed to
+the rhythm of a Benedictus, and the floor mopped to the melody of a
+Magnificat.
+
+On the happy, by-gone Thursdays, cloistered by snow-white surplices,
+with the little chorister enthroned in the midst, Clothes-line Park had
+seemed a veritable White Chapel.
+
+Bud was snatched from his carols by the arrival of Amarilly, who was far
+too practical to hearken to hymns when there was work to be performed.
+
+"I got the money Miss Ormsby's owed us so long," she announced in a tone
+of satisfaction, "and that jest makes up the money to git back the
+surplus. I'll give you carfare one way, Bud, and you must go to the
+bishop's and git it. I'm too beat to go. I've walked most five miles
+sence dinner."
+
+Bud was scoured and brushed, the pocket of his blouse tagged with a
+five-dollar bill carefully secured by a safety pin, and he started on
+his way for the address Amarilly had given him. He stopped at the corner
+drug store to spend his car-fare for an ice-cream soda.
+
+When the lad's quest was repeated to the bishop by his housekeeper, he
+instructed her to send Bud up to the library, being kindly-disposed
+towards all boy-kind. While he was questioning his young visitor, the
+organ of Grace Church, which was next to the bishop's house, pealed
+forth, and a man's voice began to chant a selection from an oratorio Bud
+had learned at St. Mark's. A high, childish soprano voice was essaying
+to carry the sustained note an octave above the man's voice; once it
+sharped.
+
+"Oh!" shuddered Bud in dismay. "He can't keep the tune."
+
+"He isn't our regular soloist," explained the bishop apologetically. "He
+is ill, and this boy is trying to learn the part for an organ recital to
+be given next week."
+
+Again the choirmaster's voice, patient and wearied, began the refrain.
+Instinctively Bud's little chest swelled, and involuntarily his clear,
+high treble took the note and sustained it without break through the
+measures, and then triumphantly broke into the solo. The bishop's eyes
+shone.
+
+"Come," he said, rising and going towards the door, "come with me."
+
+Wonderingly and obediently, Bud followed him into the church and up to
+the organ where the choirmaster sat.
+
+"This is one of the boys from St. Mark's. Try him on the solo. He just
+sang it for me."
+
+"I thought I heard it sung just now, but I feared it was only an echo of
+my dreams. Let me hear you again, my lad."
+
+Easily and confidently Bud attacked the high C in alt. At the end of the
+solo, the long-suffering choirmaster looked as if he were an Orpheus,
+who had found his Eurydice.
+
+"Who taught you to sing that solo?" he demanded.
+
+"My school teacher. She is studying fer an opery singer, and she helps
+me with my Sunday singing."
+
+"I thought the style was a little florid for the organist of St.
+Mark's," said the choirmaster whimsically. "My boy, if you will sing it
+for us at the recital as well as you did just now, you shall have ten
+dollars."
+
+The laundry now loomed as a fixed star in Bud's firmament. When he went
+home and told his mother the good news she moved joyfully among her mops
+and tubs. The turn of the wringer never seemed so easy, and she
+frequently paused in the rubbing of a soaped garment to wring the suds
+from her swollen hands and listen anew to the recital of Bud's call upon
+the bishop and the choirmaster of Grace Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The next day the flood-tide of the Jenkins's fortunes bid fair to flow
+to fullness. Word came to the little home that Mr. Meredith had returned
+to the city and desired the laundry work to be resumed. Bud was summoned
+to choir practice the following Friday, and Miss King sent her chauffeur
+with a fair-sized washing.
+
+"Everything comes so to onct, it takes your breath away," said Amarilly,
+quite overcome by this renewal of commercial activity, "and next thing I
+know,"--there her heart gave a deer-like leap--"Mr. Derry'll be hum, and
+sendin' fer me. Then we'll all be earnin' excep' Gus."
+
+At the end of the week Amarilly eagerly went to deliver the washings at
+the rectory and Miss King's, but in both instances she was doomed to
+disappointment, as her friends were not in.
+
+"I'll go to church and see 'em," she resolved.
+
+This time her raiment was very simple, but more effective than upon the
+occasion of her previous attendance.
+
+Before Amarilly's artistic temperament was awakened by the atmosphere of
+the studio, she had been wont to array herself in things convenient
+without regard to color or style, believing herself to be hopelessly
+homely and beyond the aid of personal adornment; but since Derry had
+praised her hair, she had scrupulously cared for it and allowed no
+conflicting color in proximity thereto. On this occasion she fastened it
+with the black velvet bows, and arrayed herself in the white dress Mrs.
+Jimmels had given her.
+
+"I declar, Amarilly," exclaimed her mother, "I believe you're agrowin'
+purty!"
+
+Amarilly's eyes danced, and she gave her mother a spontaneous and
+rewarding hug.
+
+She didn't do her own ushering this time, and was consequently seated
+most inconspicuously near the entrance. Her heart beat rapturously at
+the sight of John Meredith in the pulpit.
+
+"His vacation didn't freshen him up much," she thought, after a shrewd
+glance. "He's paler and don't look real peart. Sorter like Bud arter he
+got up from the fever."
+
+Her attention was diverted from the rector by the vision of Colette
+coming down the aisle. The change in her appearance was even more
+startling to the little anxious-eyed girl than in John's case. There
+were violet shadows under the bright eyes, a subtle, subdued air about
+her fresh young beauty that had banished the little touch of wilfulness.
+As soon as she was seated, which was after the service had begun, she
+became entirely absorbed in her prayer-book.
+
+"Vacation ain't agreed with her, nuther," pondered Amarilly perplexedly.
+
+She turned her gaze again to John, who was sitting back of the choir,
+while his "understudy" conducted the service. His face was shaded by his
+hand, but Amarilly's gimlet glance noted that he frequently sent a
+fleeting, troubled look toward the King pew.
+
+"Thar's something up atwixt 'em," deduced Amarilly, "and they air both
+too proud to say nuthin' about it to the other."
+
+John's sermon was on the strength that renunciation brings, and the duty
+of learning resignation. There was a pervasive note of sadness in his
+deliverance of the theme, and Amarilly felt her joyousness in the return
+of her friends slipping from her.
+
+She went out of church somewhat depressed, but was cheered by the
+handclasp of the rector and his earnest assurance that he would see her
+very soon. While he was saying this, Colette slipped past without
+vouchsafing so much as a glance in their direction. Hurt through and
+through, the little girl walked sadly to the pavement with head and eyes
+downcast.
+
+"Amarilly," dulcetly spoke a well-loved voice.
+
+Her eyes turned quickly. Colette stood at the curb, her hand on the door
+of the electric.
+
+"I waited to take you home, dear. Why, what's the matter, Amarilly?
+Tears?"
+
+"I thought you wan't goin' to speak to me," said Amarilly, as she
+stepped into the brougham and took the seat beside Colette.
+
+"I didn't want to interrupt you and Mr. Meredith, but it's a wonder I
+knew you. You look so different. You have grown so tall, and what a
+beautiful dress! Who showed you how to fix your hair so artistically? I
+never realized you had such beautiful hair, child!"
+
+"I didn't nuther, till he told me."
+
+"Who, Amarilly? Lord Algernon?"
+
+"No!" scoffed Amarilly, suddenly realizing that her former hero had
+toppled from his pedestal in her thoughts. "'Tain't him. It's a new
+friend I have made. An artist."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you have such distinguished acquaintances! All in the
+profession, too. Tell me who the artist is."
+
+"Mr. Derry Phillips. I cleaned his rooms, and he took me to lunch. We
+ate things like we had to your house."
+
+"Derry Phillips, the talented young artist! Why, Amarilly, girls are
+tumbling over each other trying to get attention from him, and he took
+you to luncheon! Where?"
+
+"To Carter's, and I'm to serve his breakfast and take care of his rooms,
+and he showed me how to fix my hair and to say 'can' and 'ate.' He's
+fired the woman what red his rooms."
+
+"'Merely Mary Ann,'" murmured Colette.
+
+"No," said Amarilly positively. "Her name is Miss O'Leary, and she
+didn't clean the mopboards."
+
+Colette's gay laughter pealed forth.
+
+"Amarilly, this is the first time, I've laughed this summer, but I must
+explain something to you. The housekeeper told me that all the children
+had scarlet fever and were quarantined a long time after we left. I wish
+I had known it and thought more about you, but--I've had troubles of my
+own. How did you manage so long with nothing coming in?"
+
+"It was purty hard, but we fetched it," sighed Amarilly, thinking of the
+struggles, "We're doin' fine now again."
+
+"But, tell me; how did you buy food and things when none of you were
+working?"
+
+"When your ten dollars was gone, we spent his'n."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+"Mr. Meredith's. He sent us a ten, too."
+
+"Oh!" replied Colette frigidly.
+
+"Then the Boarder give us all he hed. Arterwards come dark days until
+Mr. Vedder sent us a fiver.--Then thar was an orful day when thar wa'n't
+a cent and we didn't know whar to turn, and then--It saved us."
+
+"It? What?"
+
+"The surplus. Mr. St. John's surplus. It brung in lots."
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly?"
+
+"You see 'twas at our house when Iry was fust took sick--same as the
+waist you gimme was. They couldn't nuther on 'em be sent hum till they
+was fumygated. Then Mrs. Winders said as how he, Mr. St. John, said as
+how we was to keep it and cut it up fer the chillern, but we didn't."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly," asked Colette faintly, "do you mean to tell me that the
+surplice was never delivered to Mr. Meredith?"
+
+"No. Gus didn't take it that night, and in the mornin' when Iry was took
+it was too late. And then when it got fumygated, Mr. St. John had gone
+away and he left word we was to keep it."
+
+The transformation in Colette's mobile face during this explanation was
+rapid and wonderful. With a radiant smile she stopped the brougham and
+put her arms impulsively about Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, I'm so happy, and I've had such a wretched summer! Now,
+we will go right to your house and you'll let me see the surplice."
+Amarilly looked surprised.
+
+"Why, yes, you can see it, of course, though it ain't no diffrent from
+his other ones."
+
+"Oh yes it is! Far, far different, Amarilly. It has a history."
+
+"Yes, I guess it has," laughed Amarilly, "It's been goin' some these
+last two months!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly? and I forgot in my excitement to ask
+how it helped you. But first tell me. You know there is a pocket in it?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King."
+
+"Have you noticed anything in the pocket?"
+
+"Never looked onct. But then if thar was 'twould hev come out in the
+wash. It's been did up heaps of times. You see, rentin' it out so
+much--"
+
+"Renting it out!"
+
+Amarilly gave a graphic account of the adventures of the errant garment
+to date. Meanwhile Colette's countenance underwent kaleidoscopic
+changes.
+
+"Amarilly," she asked faintly, "have you the addresses of all those
+people to whom you rented it?"
+
+"Yes; I keep books now, and I put it down in my day ledger the way the
+Boarder showed me."
+
+"There was something--of mine--in--that pocket. Will you ask your mother
+to look for it, and hunt the house over for it?"
+
+Amarilly, greatly distressed at the loss, promised faithfully to do so.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As soon as Amarilly had been deposited at her door, Colette tore a leaf
+from the tablet reposing in its silver case, hastily wrote a few lines,
+and then ran her brougham at full speed back to St. Mark's. A chorister
+was just coming out.
+
+"Walter!" she called.
+
+The lad came down to the curb.
+
+"Will you please take this to Mr. Meredith? He is probably in the
+Sunday-school now."
+
+"Sure. Will you wait for an answer, Miss King?".
+
+"No, thank you, Walter."
+
+She rode home and waited anxiously for the personal answer to her note,
+which came with most unclerical alacrity.
+
+"Colette," he said, his voice tense, "if you knew what your little note
+meant! Did--"
+
+"Wait until I explain, John. I must tell you about the surplice."
+
+She repeated Amarilly's account of the peregrinations of the robe.
+
+"Well?" he asked bewildered, "I don't see what that has to do with--"
+
+"Everything. There was something of mine--" she turned a deep
+crimson--"in the pocket of that surplice."
+
+"Yours! Why, how did it get there, Colette? Was it--"
+
+"I am not going to tell you--not until I have it back. Oh, I could die
+of shame when I think who may have found it. You must get it."
+
+"Colette," he answered gravely, "the surplice must have passed through
+many hands, but if it is possible to trace this--article, I will do so.
+Still, how can I make inquiries unless I know what it is?"
+
+"You can ask them, each and all, if they found anything in the pocket,"
+she replied. "And you must tell them you left it there."
+
+"And you won't trust me, Colette? Not after my long unhappy summer. And
+won't you give me an answer now to the note I wrote you last spring?"
+
+"No; I won't tell you anything! Not until you find that."
+
+"Be reasonable, Colette."
+
+His choice of an adjective was most unfortunate for his cause. It was
+the word of words that Colette detested; doubtless because she had been
+so often entreated to cultivate that quality.
+
+"I will not," she answered, "if to tell you is being reasonable. I must
+have it back. I think no one will really know to whom it belongs, though
+they may guess. You must, assume the ownership."
+
+"I certainly shall, if it can be found," he assured her.
+
+Seeing the utter futility of changing her mood, he took his departure;
+perhaps a little wiser if not quite so sad as he had been before he saw
+her. The next morning he called upon Amarilly, whom he found alone with
+Iry.
+
+"I am very sorry to learn that you had such a hard summer," he said
+kindly, "and I regret that I didn't know more about your affairs before
+I left the city, but I was too absorbed, I fear, in my own troubles."
+
+"How did you hear about us?" she asked curiously.
+
+"From Miss King."
+
+"Oh," said Amarilly happily, imagining that their trouble must have been
+patched up. Then another thought occurred to her which gave her a little
+heart palpitation. With intense anxiety depicted on her lineaments she
+asked tremulously: "Did she tell you about the surplus?"
+
+"Amarilly," and the tone was so reassuring that the little wrinkles of
+anxiety vanished, "when I gave you the surplice, I gave it to you
+unconditionally, and I am very glad that you put it to profit. But, you
+know, as Miss King told you, that there was something of value--of
+importance--in that pocket; something that must be found. My happiness
+depends entirely upon its recovery. Now, she tells me that you can give
+me the names and addresses of all the people through whose hands it
+passed."
+
+"Sure thing!" she replied with business-like alacrity. "You see the
+Boarder has been larnin' me bookkeepin', and so I keep all our accounts
+now in a big book the grocer give me."
+
+She produced a large, ledger-like book and laid it on the table for his
+inspection. He examined her system of bookkeeping with interest. Under
+the head of "Cr.," which she explained to him meant "brung in," was
+"Washins," "Boarder," "Flamingus," "Milt," "Bobby," "Bud." Below each
+of these subheads were dates and accounts. The page opposite, headed
+"Dr.," she translated, "means paid out."
+
+She turned a few leaves, and in big letters he read the word "Surplus."
+
+"This bein' a sort of extry account, the Boarder said to run it as a
+special and keep it seprut. If you'll set down, I'll read offer to you
+whar it has went."
+
+She began to read laboriously and slowly from the book, adding
+explanatory notes in glib tones.
+
+"'July 8. Mister Carrul, tenner, 1 doller. Pade.' He's the tenor, you
+know, to Grace Church. He wanted it to sing in at a sacred concert. His
+was too short or too long.
+
+"'July 11. Miss Lyte and Miss Bobson. 'Tablos. 1 doller. Pade.' Mr.
+Carul knows where they live. 'Twaz him as got the job fer me.
+
+"'July 15 to July 19. The Beehive. 3 dollers and 1/2 Pade.' That's a
+bargain store down in our parts. I went in fer to git Bud a cap and I
+hearn the clerk askin' the boss about fixin' up a winder show with wax
+figgers fer a weddin'. I step up to him and ask him if he kep surpluses,
+and he sez as he didn't. I told him I could rent him one to put on the
+minister, and he hedn't thought fer to hev it an Episcopal show, but he
+sed he'd do it fer an ad fer his white goods. He wouldn't stand fer no
+dollar a day. He beat me down to three-fifty, but he throwed in a cap
+fer Bud.
+
+"Next come Mrs. Hudgers. I didn't put it down in the ledger, though,
+cause it didn't bring nuthin' but a pan of doughnuts. Her son Hallie
+died, and he didn't hev no nice clo'es ter be laid out in, and she was
+agoin' to hev quite a funyral, so jest afore folks come, she slipped the
+surplus on ter him over his old clo'es, and then when 'twas over, she
+took it offen him again. He made a swell lookin' corpse. Bein' a
+neighbor we didn't go fer to ask her nuthin', but she give us the nut
+cakes. They give her dyspepsy, anyhow."
+
+The muscles of John Meredith's face grew rigid in his endeavor to
+maintain a serious expression. He had taken out a notebook at the
+beginning of the interview to jot down the addresses, but he copied
+Amarilly's comments as well, for the future entertainment of Colette.
+
+"'July 25 and 26. Mr. Derry Phillips, The Navarre. 2 dollers. Pade.' He
+paints picters. He painted the surplus onto a man playin' on a orgin."
+
+She hesitated a moment, and then continued: "I'm agoin' to work reg'lur
+fer him instead of to the theayter. I'm agoin' to git his breakfast and
+clean his rooms. He'll pay me the same as I got. He's a sort of
+eddicatin' me too."
+
+"Why, how is that, Amarilly?" asked John in perplexity.
+
+"He larnt me not to say 'et' and 'kin.'"
+
+The rector's eyes twinkled.
+
+"And," pursued Amarilly, after another moment of hesitancy, "he's larnt
+me how to fix my hair. He says red hair is beautiful! He took me to a
+restyrant."
+
+John looked troubled at this statement, and felt that his call at the
+studio would now be for a double purpose.
+
+"'July 27,'" resumed Amarilly. "'The Boarder. 25 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Why, what possible use could he have for a surplice?"
+
+"He's akeepin' company with a young gal--Lily Rose--and she wanted his
+likeness tooken sorter fancy-like, so he wuz took in the surplus, and he
+got himself framed in a gilt and shell frame, and she hez it ahangin'
+over her bed. I didn't want no pay from him, cause he give us his money
+when yours and Miss King's was gone, but he says as how it might bring
+him luck in gittin' her, so I took a quarter of a dollar.
+
+"'July 29. Mister Vergil Washington. Reckter Colered Church. 1 doller.
+Pade.' Some one stole his'n off en the clo'es-line, and he only hed one.
+
+"'July 31. Widder Hubbleston, 56 Wilkins St. 1 Doller. Pade.' She got
+merried by an Episcopal minister, and he furgot his surplus, and that
+was all she hed hired him fer, so she rented our'n fer him, and Mr.
+Jimmels, her new husband, took it outen the minister's pay. Somethin'
+allers goes wrong to her weddin's."
+
+"Does she have them often?" interrupted John gravely.
+
+"Quite frequent." "'Aug. 3, Mister Vedder, Ticket Seller to the
+Theayter. 1 doller. Pade.' He wore it to a sheet and piller case party.
+I didn't want fer to take nuthin' from him, cause he give us money when
+we hed the fever, but he wouldn't hev it that way.
+
+"'Aug. 5. Pete Noyes. Gum.' He's the boy what sells gum to the theayter.
+He was agoin' to a party whar you hev to be the name of a book. He wore
+the surplus so his name was the Little Minister. We took it out in gum--
+spruce and pepsin. Iry swallered his'n every time, and Miss Hudgers was
+afeard he'd be stuck together inside.
+
+"'Aug. 9-23. Vawdevil Theayter. 5 dollers. Pade.' They put it on fer a
+sketch.
+
+"'Aug. 25. Mister Cotter. 25 cents. Pade.' He's a brakeman friend of the
+Boarder. He wore it to a maskyrade.
+
+"'Aug. 27. Poleece. 35 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Police!" ejaculated John faintly.
+
+"Some one swiped it offen our clo'es-line, and when the police ketched
+the thief, we was subpenyed, or ma was. She got thirty-five cents, and
+all on us 'cept Iry went to hear her."
+
+"'Aug, 29. Bishop Thurber. 5 dollers. Pade.'"
+
+"Bishop Thurber!" the name was repeated with the force of an expletive.
+
+"Seems to mind that more'n he did the police," thought Amarilly.
+
+"It's quite a story," she explained, "and though it was orful at the
+beginnin' it come out all right, jest as the plays all do. I jest
+thought, I shouldn't hev put that down in the account, cause we give
+back the five, so we didn't make nuthin' in a way. We wuz dead broke. I
+suppose," she ruminated, "you don't know jest how orful it is to be
+that."
+
+"I don't, Amarilly, from my own experience," replied John
+sympathetically, "but I can imagine how terrible it must be, and I am
+very sorry--"
+
+"Well, as long as it come out all right, it don't make no difference.
+We'd got to pay our rent or else git put out, and I was up a stump till
+the Boarder said to tackle a pawnshop. I didn't hev nuthin' but the
+surplus to pawn, and I hated to pawn it on your account."
+
+"I don't care, my child," was the fervent assurance, "where you took it
+as long as it helped you in your troubles."
+
+"Well, I was in a pawnshop, and the man was holdin' it up, and the
+bishop went by, and when he seen what it was he come in, and asked me
+all about it, and I told him. He took it worse than you do that I would
+pawn it, and to save it he lent me five dollers. Course I made him take
+the surplus till I hed the money to git it outen hock, and when we was
+able to pay fer it, Bud went arter it. Thar was a boy practicin' at the
+church next door, and he warn't singin' it right, and Bud he couldn't
+keep still noway, so he up and sings the soler, and when the man at the
+orgin hearn him, he fired the boy what was tryin' to sing, and hired Bud
+in his place. He's agoin' to sing to a recital at Grace Church day arter
+to-morrer, and git ten dollers. And we air goin' to make Bud bank all he
+gits cause he ain't so strong as the rest of us. He may need it some
+time. That's all the places the surplus went to. I guess I'll go outen
+the costumin' business now, 'cause I'll be startin' in with Mr. Derry
+soon."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+There was one little ominous cloud in the serene sky of Mrs. Jenkins's
+happiness. She had nothing suitable for the occasion of the organ
+recital in the way of wearing apparel.
+
+"I feel as if gloves was due you, Bud," she lamented, "but I kin't
+afford 'em. I guess I kin put my hands under my mantilly, though, and
+folks won't know."
+
+"She'd orter hev 'em, and she'd orter hev a new hat, too," reflected
+Bud, and his song became a requiem. He manfully resolved to sacrifice
+his future to present needs and curtail the laundry fund. After some
+meditation he called upon the bishop, and asked if he might have an
+advance of half the amount he would receive for his solo.
+
+The bishop readily assented, but sought the reason for the request.
+
+"My mother is comin' to the recital, but she ain't got no fixin's. I'm
+goin' to buy her a hat."
+
+"I am glad you think of your mother, my lad, but it would be well to let
+some older person select it for you. My housekeeper--"
+
+Bud's refusal was emphatic. He knew the kind of hat his mother wanted,
+and he had noted her quickly suppressed look of disappointment at the
+sombre hat donated by Mrs. Hudgers on the day of the police-court
+attendance.
+
+Upon receiving the five dollars he went directly to the Fashion
+Emporium, where the windows were filled with a heterogeneous assortment
+of gayly trimmed hats, marked enticingly with former and present prices.
+
+"I want a hat kivered with flowers," he announced.
+
+"Who for?" asked the young saleswoman.
+
+"For my mother."
+
+"How would you like a nice flower toque like this?" displaying a
+headgear of modest forget-me-nots.
+
+"That's all faded. Ain't you got any red flowers? If you haven't, I know
+a store where they keep 'em."
+
+The girl instantly sacrificed her ideas of what was fitting to the
+certainty of a sale, and quickly produced a hat of green foliage from
+which rose long-stemmed, nodding red poppies, "a creation marked down to
+three-ninety-eight," she informed him.
+
+"That's the kind! I'll take it and a pair of white gloves, too, if
+you've got some big ones fer a dollar."
+
+Bud hastened home with his purchases. His mother was quite overcome by
+the sight of such finery.
+
+"I never thought to be dressed up again," she exclaimed on the eventful
+night, "No one has bought me nuthin' to wear sence your pa died. I feel
+like I was some one outen a book."
+
+The entire family, save Iry, who was put to bed at a neighbor's, went to
+the recital. The Boarder took Lily Rose, who was quite flustered at her
+first appearance with the family.
+
+John and Colette occupied a pew directly opposite the family. Mr. Vedder
+and Pete were also in attendance.
+
+When the bishop came from the vestry and walked down the aisle to his
+pew, his eyes fell upon the worn, seamed face of Bud's mother, the weary
+patient eyes in such odd contrast to the youthful turban with its
+smartly dancing flowers. Something stirred in his well-regulated heart,
+and he carefully wiped his glasses.
+
+At the signal from the choirmaster for the solo of the oratorio, Bud
+arose. An atom of a boy he looked in the vast, vaulted chancel, and for
+the first time he knew fear at the thought of singing. It was a terrible
+thing, after all, to face this sea of staring, dancing people. As
+lightning reaches to steel, the gay poppies nodding so nervously above
+his mother's white, anxious face sought the courage place within, and
+urged him on. He felt himself back in Clothes-line Park, alone with his
+mother and the blue sky.
+
+The little figure filled itself with a long, deep breath. The high,
+clear note merged into one with the notes of the chorus. It touched the
+tones of the accompaniment in harmony true, and swelled into grand,
+triumphant music.
+
+"He looks like he did arter the fever," thought Amarilly anxiously.
+
+When he came down the aisle with the choir, the ethereal look had left
+his face, and he was again a happy little boy. He gave his mother a gay
+nod, and bestowed a wink upon the Boarder. He waited outside and the
+family wended their way homeward.
+
+There had not been time to bring in the clothes before leaving, but a
+willing neighborhood had guarded the premises for them, so Clothes-line
+Park was shrouded in a whiteness that looked ghostly in the moonlight.
+
+They made quite an affair of the evening in honor of Bud's song, and
+their introduction to Lily Rose. There were fried sausages, coffee,
+sandwiches, and pork cake.
+
+"The organist told me," announced Bud at supper, "that he was agoin' to
+train my voice, and I could be soloist at Grace Church and git five
+dollars a Sunday, and after a while I could git ten."
+
+"You'll be a millynaire," prophesied Bobby in awed tones.
+
+"Guess we'll be on Easy Street now," shouted Cory.
+
+"We won't be nuthin' of the kind," snapped Amarilly. "It's agoin' to all
+be banked fer Bud."
+
+"I guess," said Bud, in his quiet, little old-man way, "I'm the one to
+hev the say. I'm agoin' to give ma two dollars a week and bank the
+rest."
+
+Meanwhile John was having an uncomfortable time as he walked home with
+Colette. He had started on the trail of the surplice the day before. The
+"tenner" and the young ladies who had given the tableaux had been
+interviewed, but in neither case had the mysterious pocket been
+discovered. To-day he had visited the Beehive, but no one in the store
+had paid any attention to the pocket, or knew of its existence. Colette
+remained obdurate to his pleadings. She assumed that he was entirely to
+blame for the loss, and seemed to take a gleeful delight in showing him
+how perverse and wilful she could be. To-night he found himself less
+able than usual to cope with her caprices, so he began to talk of
+impersonal matters and dwelt upon the beauties of Bud's voice, and the
+astonishing way in which it had developed.
+
+She admitted that Bud's voice was indeed wonderful, but maintained that
+Mrs. Jenkins's poppy hat and white gloves had been far surpassing in the
+way of surprises.
+
+"Did you ever, John, see anything more shoutingly funny?"
+
+"It wasn't funny, Colette," he said wistfully, and he proceeded to
+relate the history of the hat as he had heard it from the bishop that
+day.
+
+[Illustration: To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope
+with her caprices]
+
+And though in the depths of her heart Colette was touched by the pathos
+of the purchase, she must needs tread again the feminine labyrinth
+instead of following the more natural and open path.
+
+"Who was the young girl with the Boarder?" John next vouchsafed.
+
+"Why, Lily Rose, of course. The Lily for whom he 'sot for his likeness
+in the surplus.' That awful surplice," she burst forth in irritation at
+the mere mention of the unfortunate word. "Some of these people must
+have it. John, you don't half try to find it."
+
+"I am following out the list in order," he assured her. "I shall go to
+see Mrs. Hudgers to-morrow."
+
+"And the next one to her," reminded Colette, "is Derry Phillips,
+Amarilly's new benefactor. She told me to-day that she had a note from
+him, asking her to begin work at the studio in a few days."
+
+"I have a double duty in my call there," said John didactically. "If he
+is like some of the young artists I know, his studio will hardly be a
+proper place for Amarilly."
+
+"As it happens," returned Colette coldly, "Derry Phillips, for all his
+nonsense, is reported to be a true gentleman; but it would make no
+difference with Amarilly if he were not. Her inherent goodness would
+counteract the evil of any atmosphere. She can take care of his rooms
+until she is a little older. Then she can become a model."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed protestingly.
+
+"Why not?" she returned. "Why shouldn't Amarilly be a model, or go on
+the stage? Neither place would be below her station in life."
+
+John sought refuge in utter silence which admonished and exasperated
+Colette far more than any reproof would have done.
+
+"You might as well go, if you have nothing to say," she remarked
+stiffly, as he lingered in the portico, evidently expecting an
+invitation to enter.
+
+"I have _too_ much to say, Colette."
+
+Her sidelong glance noted his dejection, and her flagging spirits rose
+again.
+
+"Too much, indeed, when you are so critical of what I say!"
+
+"Colette, hear me!"
+
+"No, I won't listen--never when you preach!"
+
+"I don't mean to preach, Colette, but don't you think--"
+
+"Good night, John," she said, smiling.
+
+"Good night!" he echoed dolefully, but making no move to leave.
+"Colette, will you never tell me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied unexpectedly, with a dancing light in her beautiful
+eyes.
+
+"When?"
+
+"When you restore to me what was in the pocket."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Jason never sought the Golden Fleece with more unwearying perseverance
+than John displayed in the pursuit of the lost article which Colette
+refused to describe. His calls of inquiry didn't mean merely putting the
+question politely and taking his departure after receiving an answer. It
+meant, in the case of Mrs. Hudgers, a martyr's test of patience in
+listening to the devious and manifold routes taken by her rheumatic
+pains; a rehearsal of the late lamented Hallie's idiosyncracies; the
+details of his last illness; his death; and his wearing of the surplice
+at the obsequies.
+
+Throughout her harangue he preached patience unto himself and remembered
+that she was an old woman, desolate in her "lone lornness," so he
+counselled not, neither did he pray, but comforted her with the
+gentleness of voice and speech that won him a fond place in her memory
+for all time.
+
+"No," she assured him decisively, as in departing he reminded her of his
+original question, "I didn't go fer to look in no pockit. I didn't
+suppose them things had pockits."
+
+Then the scene shifted to Derry Phillips's studio, and this visit was
+fraught with more difficulties, for there was the case of Amarilly which
+must be approached delicately and with subtlety.
+
+After stating his errand concisely and receiving assurance that the
+pocket had not been examined, but that the model should be interviewed
+by him, John still lingered.
+
+"It's very kind in you to give employment to Amarilly, Mr. Phillips."
+
+Derry shook his head.
+
+"I am the one to be congratulated, Mr. Meredith. I really feel
+apologetic to Amarilly for accepting her services. They are so
+conscientiously and faithfully rendered that I feel she should be given
+a higher scope of work than she can find here. She is an honest, amusing
+little soul, and if by giving her employment I can encourage her desire
+to be industrious and earn something, I am very glad of the opportunity
+to do so."
+
+This was a long and serious observation for the gay-hearted Derry to
+make, but he shrewdly fathomed the pastoral duty underlying the
+seemingly casual remark.
+
+John's keen perception recognized the sincerity in the ring of the
+pleasant young voice, and he was quite won by the boyish directness. An
+instinctive confidence moved him to extend the right hand of trust and
+fellowship.
+
+"You have been instructive as well as benevolent," he remarked
+smilingly. "Two of Amarilly's errors of speech have been eradicated."
+
+The young Artist flushed in slight confusion, and then with a half-
+embarrassed laugh, he replied lightly: "Amarilly gave full measure of
+correction in return."
+
+Responding to the nameless something in John that so insistently and
+irresistibly invited confidence, he related the little incident of the
+luncheon and her request in regard to temperate orders in the future.
+
+"And I don't mean to say," he replied with winning frankness, "that it
+was merely the request of a little scrub-girl that has kept me temperate
+through two months of vacation and temptation, but the guileless
+suggestion was the spark that fired the flame of a dormant desire to
+change--certain conditions."
+
+John again extended his hand, this time in a remorseful spirit of
+apology.
+
+Derry partially understood.
+
+"Amarilly has ardently interested friends," he observed whimsically.
+"There was one Vedder, a solemn young German, here to-day in my little
+maid's interest."
+
+John's call upon the sable-hued preacher, Brother Washington, also
+demanded strategic approach. The question of pockets must be delicately
+handled lest any reflection be cast upon the integrity of the race, and
+their known penchant for pockets.
+
+Brother Washington's sympathies were at once enlisted, however, when he
+scented a romance, for John became more confidential in this than in any
+of his prior visitations, in his desire to propitiate. But his search
+was fruitless here as elsewhere, and he went away convinced that Brother
+Washington had not tampered with the pocket.
+
+He went on to the house of the Reverend James Woodville, who had
+performed the marriage ceremony at the nuptials of Mrs. Jimmels, nee
+Hubbleston. In this instance also no pocket had been discovered in the
+garment, so John wended his discouraged way to the office of the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+Mr. Vedder was likewise surprised to learn that surplices possessed
+pockets.
+
+The young rector's face brightened at the next name on his list--Pete
+Noyes. Of course a boy and a pocket would not long remain unacquainted.
+Again he was doomed to disappointment. Pete's dismay when he learned
+that there had been an overlooked pocket was convincingly genuine.
+
+"You see," he explained, "I wore it over my pants, of course, and I had
+the pockets in them, so I didn't look for no more."
+
+Pete escorted the rector to the "Vawdyville," and by good fortune the
+clerical impersonator in the sketch was still on the board, though in a
+different act. He instantly and decidedly disclaimed all knowledge of a
+pocket.
+
+"It's like that game," grinned Pete. "Button, button, who's got the
+button?"
+
+"Yes," agreed John, with a sigh, "only in this case I fear I shall
+continue to be 'it.'"
+
+The brakeman, when he came in from his run, was located and he joined in
+the blockade that was conspiring against John's future happiness.
+
+The clothes-line thief was very sensitive on the subject, and felt
+greatly aggrieved that he should be accused of picking his own pocket,
+for he protested that he had "found" the garment. The fancied
+insinuation indeed was so strongly resented that John wondered if it
+might not be a proverbial case of "hit birds flutter."
+
+Neither police nor court of justice had examined the pocket; nor had
+they been aware of the existence of one. The bishop could throw no light
+on the missing article, and this call ended the successless tour of
+investigation.
+
+"It was truly a profitable investment for the Jenkins family," thought
+John, "but a sorry one for me."
+
+Having now wended his weary and unavailing way into all the places
+listed, John made his final report to Colette who remained adamant in
+her resolve.
+
+"Of course some of those people did find it," she maintained. "It stands
+to reason they must have done so, and it is up to you now to find out
+which one of them is the guilty person."
+
+"How can I find that out, Colette?"
+
+"How? Anyhow!" she replied, her mien betraying great triumph at her
+powers of logic.
+
+"It must be found!" she asserted with a distinct air of finality. "And
+until it is found--"
+
+She stopped abruptly.
+
+"Was it of value? No, I am not trying to find out what it was since you
+don't wish me to know, but if I knew its value, it might help me to
+decide who would be the most likely to have a motive for taking it. But
+my belief is that the article slipped from the pocket and is lost."
+
+"It must be found then" she persisted obstinately.
+
+John went home to ponder over his hopeless task. It remained for
+Amarilly with her optimistic spirit to cheer him.
+
+"It'll turn up some place whar you never looked fer it and when you
+ain't thinkin' nuthin' about it," she asserted believingly. "Lost things
+allers do."
+
+Despite her philosophy she was greatly distressed over the disappearance
+of the mysterious article whose loss was keeping John so unhappy. She
+ransacked the house from the cellar to the Boarder's room, but found no
+trace of it.
+
+"I wonder what it was," she mused.
+
+"Mebby Miss King dreamt she put something in there, and when could she
+have done it anyhow? Mebby she give him a present, and he slipped it in
+there and fergot to take it out when he sent it to us. But then it would
+have come out in the wash. She don't seem to feel so bad as he does--
+jest sorter stubborn about it."
+
+The members of the household were put through the third degree, but each
+declared his innocence in the matter.
+
+"'Twas most likely Iry took it," said Cory, who found the baby a
+convenient loophole for any accusations, "and most likely he hez
+swallered it."
+
+Gus persisted in his oft-repeated statement, that there was nothing in
+the pocket when it was hung up during quarantine. This assurance was
+conveyed to Colette by John, who hoped she might find solace in the
+thought that none of the renters could have had it, if this were true,
+but to his chagrin she found in his information an implied reflection on
+her veracity.
+
+"Colette," he said whimsically, "only three persons connected with this
+affair have taken my remarks as personal, you, Brother Washington, and
+the thief."
+
+With this remark John, despairing of his ability to fathom the mystery
+of the article or to follow the caprices of Colette, dropped the matter
+completely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+At half past eight on the morning indicated, Amarilly's ring at the door
+of the studio was answered by Derry, whose face was covered with lather.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly!" he exclaimed heartily, extending his hand in genial
+comradeship. "I am glad to see you again. Been pretty well through the
+summer? Well, come on into the butler's pantry, and see what you can do
+in a coffee way while I finish shaving."
+
+Amarilly had been receiving instruction in domestic science, including
+table service, at the Guild school. Colette, interested in the studio
+work, had provided some minute muslin aprons and a little patch of linen
+for the head covering of the young waitress, advising her that she must
+wear them while serving breakfast. So when Derry emerged from his
+dressing-room, a trimly equipped little maid stood proudly and anxiously
+awaiting him.
+
+"Why, bless your heart, Amarilly! I feel really domesticated. You look
+as natty as a new penny, and the little white cap is great on your hair.
+I see you have remembered how to fix it."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry, but please sit down while your coffee is hot."
+
+"'Deed I will, and if it tastes as good as it smells, I shall raise your
+remuneration."
+
+He pronounced the coffee delicious, the grapefruit fixed to his liking,
+the toast crisp, and the eggs boiled just to the right consistency.
+
+"And have you had breakfast, Amarilly?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Derry, at half past five."
+
+"Jiminy! you should be ready for another. Now talk to me while I eat.
+Tell me about your reverend friend who was so daffy on the subject of
+pockets. Has he located any yet?"
+
+Amarilly looked troubled.
+
+"Miss King said I wa'n't to talk to you while I was serving."
+
+"Tell Miss King with Mr. Phillips' compliments that artists are not
+conventional, and that you and I are not in the relation to each other
+of master and maid. We are good friends, and quite _en famille_. You are
+such a fine cook, I think I shall have you serve me luncheon at one
+o'clock. Can you?" "Oh, yes; I should love to, Mr. Derry."
+
+"I'll stock the larder, then. No; I can't be bothered, and I'd feel too
+much like a family man if I went about marketing. I'll give you _carte
+blanche_ to order what you will."
+
+"What's that, Mr. Derry?"
+
+"Good! We mustn't neglect your education. I am glad you asked me. You
+might have always supposed it a breakfast-food."
+
+He proceeded to explain elaborately what the words meant, and then asked
+her if she had remembered her previous lesson.
+
+"Yes; ain't you--goin'--"
+
+"Stop right there. Your next word to be eliminated is 'ain't.' You must
+say 'aren't' or 'isn't.' And you must remember to put 'g' on the end of
+every word ending in 'ing.' Don't let me hear you say 'goin', again,
+I'll teach you one new word every day now. You see the measure of a maid
+is her pure English."
+
+Amarilly looked distressed.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly? Don't you want to learn to speak
+properly?"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry; but Miss King--she don't want me to speak
+diff'rent. She likes to hear me talk ignorant, and she said she was
+afeard you'd make me brom--"
+
+"Brom?" he repeated.
+
+"There was some more to it, but I fergit."
+
+"Bromidic," he said triumphantly, after an instant's pondering. "You can
+never under any circumstances be that, and I shall develop your
+imagination and artistic temperament at the same time. Miss King is
+selfish to wish to keep you from cultivating yourself for the purpose of
+furnishing her entertainment. By the way, I am to meet her to-night at a
+dinner, and I think we shall have a mutual subject for conversation. I
+must get to work, now. Clear away the dishes. And finish the rest of
+this toast and coffee. It would be wicked to waste it."
+
+Amarilly substituted a work apron for the little white covering, and was
+soon engaged in "redding."
+
+At eleven o'clock the place was in perfect order, and she went into the
+studio where Deny was at work.
+
+"Shall I go get the things fer lunch?"
+
+"Luncheon, if you please, Amarilly. I like that word better. It seems to
+mean daintier things. Here's a five-dollar bill. Get what you consider
+proper for a simple little home luncheon, you know. Nothing elaborate."
+
+Amarilly, feeling but not betraying her utter inability to construct the
+menu for a "simple little home luncheon," walked despondently down the
+street.
+
+"The Boarder," she reflected, "takes bread and meat and hard biled eggs
+when they ain't--aren't too high, and pie when we hev it."
+
+Some vague instinct of the fitness of things warned her that this would
+not be a suitable repast for Derry. Then a light shone through her
+darkness.
+
+"I'll telephone Miss Vail," she decided.
+
+So she called up her teacher at the Guild, and explained the situation.
+She received full instructions, made her purchases, and went back to the
+studio.
+
+At one o'clock she again garbed herself in cap and apron and called
+Derry to a luncheon which consisted of bouillon, chops, French peas,
+rolls, a salad, and black tea served with lemon.
+
+"Amarilly," he announced solemnly, "you are surely the reincarnation of
+a chef. You are immediately promoted from housemaid to housekeeper with
+full charge over my cuisine, and your wages doubled."
+
+"And that's going some for one day!" Amarilly gleefully announced to the
+family circle that night.
+
+Her teacher, greatly interested and gratified at her pupil's ability to
+put her instruction to practical use and profit, made out on each Monday
+a menu for the entire week. She also gave her special coaching in
+setting table and serving, so Derry's domestic life became a thing of
+pride to himself and his coterie of artists. He gave little luncheons
+and studio teas in his apartments, Amarilly achieving great success in
+her double role of cook and waitress.
+
+Her work was not only profitable financially, but it developed new
+tastes and tendencies. Every day there was the new word eagerly grasped
+and faithfully remembered. "Fer," "set," "spile," "orter," and the like
+were gradually entirely eliminated from her vocabulary. Unconsciously
+she acquired "atmosphere" from her environment. In her spare moments
+Amarilly read aloud to Derry, while he painted, he choosing the book at
+random from his library.
+
+"I want to use you for a model this afternoon," he remarked one day as
+she was about to depart. "Braid your hair just as tight as you can, the
+way you had it the first day you came. Put on your high-necked, long-
+sleeved apron, and get it wet and soapy as it was that first day, and
+then come back to the studio with your scrubbing brush and pail."
+
+Amarilly did as she was bidden with a reluctance which the artist,
+absorbed in his preparations for work, did not notice.
+
+"Yes; that's fine," he said, glancing up as she came to him. "Now get
+down here on your knees by the--what kind of boards did you call them,
+Amarilly? Mopboards? Yes, that was it. Now try and put your whole mind
+on the memory of the horror you felt at the accumulation of dirt on that
+first day, and begin to scrub. Turn your head slightly toward me, tilted
+just a little--so--There, that's fine! Keep that position just as long
+and just as well as you possibly can."
+
+Derry began to paint, mechanically at first, and then as he warmed to
+his subject and became interested in his conception, with rapidity and
+absorption.
+
+"There!" he finally exclaimed, "you can rest now! This may be my chef-
+d'oeuvre, after all, Amarilly. Won't you be proud to be well hung in the
+Academy and have a group constantly before your picture. Why, what's the
+matter, child," springing to her side, "tears? I forgot it was your
+first experience in posing. Why didn't you tell me you were tired?"
+
+"I wan't tired," she half sobbed.
+
+"Well, what is it? Tell me."
+
+"I'm afeerd you'll laugh at me."
+
+"Not on your life! And your word for to-day, Amarilly, is afraid.
+Remember. Never _afeerd_."
+
+"I'll remember," promised Amarilly meekly, as she wiped her dewy eyes.
+
+"Now tell me directly, what is the matter."
+
+"It'll be such a humbly picture with my hair that way. I'd ought to look
+my best. I'd rather you'd paint me waiting on your table."
+
+"But a waitress is such a trite subject. It would be what your friend, I
+mean, our friend, Miss King, calls bromidic. An artist, a real artist,
+with a soul, Amarilly, doesn't look for pretty subjects. It's the truth
+that he seeks. To paint things as they are is what he aims to do. A
+little scrub-girl appeals to the artistic temperament more than a little
+waitress, don't you think? But only you, Amarilly, could look the part
+of the Little Scrub-Girl as you did. And it would be incongruous--
+remember the word, please, Amarilly, in-con-gru-ous--to paint her with
+stylishly dressed hair. You posed so easily, so perfectly, and your
+expression was so precisely the one I wanted, and your patience in
+keeping the pose was so wonderful, that I thought you had really caught
+the spirit of the thing, and were anxious to help me achieve my really
+great picture."
+
+"I have--I will pose for you as long as you wish," she cried penitently,
+"and I will braid my hair on wire, and then it will stand out better."
+
+"Good! You are a dear, amenable little girl. To-morrow afternoon we will
+resume. Here, let me loosen your braids. Goodness, what thick strands!"
+
+She stood by the open window, and the trembling, marginal lights of a
+setting sun sent gleams and glints of gold through her loosened hair
+which fell like a flaming veil about her.
+
+"Amarilly," exclaimed Derry rapturously, "I never saw anything quite so
+beautiful. Some day I'll paint you, not as a scrub-girl nor as a
+waitress, but as Sunset. You shall stand at this window with your hair
+as it is now, and you'll outshine the glory of descending Sol himself. I
+will get a filmy, white dress for you to pose in and present it to you
+afterward. And as you half turn your head toward the window, you must
+have a dreamy, reflective expression! You must think of something sad,
+something that might have been a tragedy but for some mitigating--but
+there, you don't know what I am talking about!"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry. I know what you mean, even if I didn't ketch--"
+
+"Catch, Amarilly; not ketch."
+
+"But my word for to-day is 'afraid,'" she said stubbornly. "I wasn't to
+have but one word a day. I'll say 'ketch' until to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, such system as you have! You are right though; but tell
+me what it was I meant." "You mean I am to think of something awful that
+would have been more awful but for something nice that happened. I'll
+think of the day last summer when we couldn't pay the rent. That was sad
+until the bishop came along and things got brighter."
+
+"Exactly. You have the temperament, Amarilly, but you should have
+written to your twin brother in such a dilemma. It's late now, or it
+will be when you get home. I am going to walk with you."
+
+"No; I am not afraid."
+
+"It makes no difference; I am going with you. To think that, intimate
+friends as we are, I have never seen your home, your numerous brothers,
+and the Boarder. I am going to spend the evening with you."
+
+"Oh, no!" she protested, appalled at the prospect. "You mustn't."
+
+"Why, Amarilly, how inhospitable you are! I thought you would be
+pleased."
+
+"I guess you couldn't stand for it."
+
+"Stand for what, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, you see, I am not ashamed of it, but it's so diff'rent from what
+you're used to, and you wouldn't like it, and I'd feel uncomfortable
+like with you there." "Why, Amarilly!" A really pained look came into
+his boyish eyes. "I thought we were friends. And you let Miss King and
+your minister come--"
+
+"But you see," argued Amarilly, "it's diff'rent with them. A minister
+has to go everywhere, and he's used to seeing all kinds of houses; and
+then Miss King, she's a sort of a--settlement worker."
+
+"I see," said Derry. "But, Amarilly, to be a true artist, or a writer,
+one must see all sorts and conditions of life. But I am not coming for
+that. I am coming because I like you and want to meet your family."
+
+"Well," agreed Amarilly, resigned, but playing her last trump, "you
+haven't had your dinner yet."
+
+"We had a very late luncheon, if you remember, and I am invited to a
+supper after the theatre to-night, so I am not dining."
+
+Amarilly did not respond to his light flow of chatter on the way home.
+She halted on the threshold of her home, and looked at him with despair
+in her honest young eyes.
+
+"Our house hasn't got any insides or any stairs even. Just a ladder."
+
+"Good! I knew you wouldn't--that you couldn't have a house like anyone's
+else. It sounds interesting and artistic. Open your door to me,
+Amarilly."
+
+Slowly she opened the door, and drew a sigh of relief. The big room was
+"tidied" ("redded" having been censored by Derry some time ago) and a
+very peaceful, homelike atmosphere prevailed. The Boarder, being an
+amateur carpenter, had made a very long table about which were grouped
+the entire family. Her mother was darning socks; the Boarder, reading
+the paper preliminary to his evening call on Lily Rose; the boys, busy
+with books and games; Cory, rocking her doll to sleep.
+
+Their entrance made quite a little commotion. There was a scattering of
+boys from the table until Derry called "Halt" in stentorian tones. "If
+there's any gap in the circle, I shall go."
+
+Then he joined the group, and described to the boys a prize-fight so
+graphically that their eyes fastened on him with the gaze of one
+witnessing the event itself. He praised Amarilly to the mother, gave
+Cory a "tin penny" which she at once recognized as a silver quarter, and
+talked politics so eloquently with the Boarder that for once he was
+loath to leave when the hour of seven-thirty arrived.
+
+"You've gotter go now," reminded Cory sternly. "You see," turning to
+Derry. "he's gotter go and spend his ev'nin' with Lily Rose. She's his
+gal."
+
+"Oh! Well, why not bring her here to spend the evening?" suggested
+Derry. "Then you'll have an excuse for two nice walks and an evening
+thrown in."
+
+"That's a fine, idee!" acknowledged the Boarder with a sheepish grin.
+
+He at once set out on his quest accompanied by Bobby, whom Derry had
+dispatched to the corner grocery for a supply of candy and peanuts.
+
+The Boarder and Lily Rose came in laden with refreshments. The Boarder
+bore a jug of cider "right on the turn," he declared, "so it stings your
+throat agoin' down."
+
+Lily Rose had brought a bag of sugared doughnuts which she had made that
+afternoon (a half holiday) in her landlady's kitchen.
+
+When Mrs. Jenkins learned from Amarilly that Derry and she had had
+nothing to eat since half past one, she brought forth a pan of beans and
+a pumpkin pie, and they had a genuine New England supper. The Boarder
+recited thrilling tales of railroad wrecks. Derry listened to a solo by
+Bud, whose wild-honeyed voice was entrancing to the young artist.
+Altogether they were a jolly little party, Lily Rose saying little, but
+looking and listening with animated eyes. Mrs. Jenkins declared
+afterwards that it was the time of her life.
+
+"Amarilly," said Derry, as he was taking leave, "I wouldn't have missed
+this evening for any other engagement I might have made."
+
+"That's because it was something new to you," said Amarilly sagely. "You
+wouldn't like it for keeps."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+When Cory secured a place as dish-wiper at a new boarding-house near,
+and Gus realized that he and Iry alone were dependent upon the others
+for their keep, shame seared his young soul. He had vainly tried to
+secure steady employment, but had succeeded only in getting occasional
+odd jobs. He had a distinct leaning towards an agricultural life and
+coveted the care of cows.
+
+"The grocer has sold his'n," he lugubriously lamented; "thar ain't no
+one else as wants a caretaker for their critters around here."
+
+After a long rumination on the discouraging problem of his future, he
+sought his confessor, the corner grocer.
+
+"I'm too big to peddle papers or be runnin' about with telergrafs," he
+declared. "I'd orter be goin' into business on my own account. I ain't
+goin' ter be allers workin' fer other folks."
+
+"Well, you'll have to wait a while before you can work for yourself,"
+counselled his confidant. "You are young yet."
+
+"This is a hurry-up age," was the sagacious assertion, "and ef you air
+agoin' to git any-whar, you've got ter go by wire instead of by mail,
+and you can't start too soon."
+
+"You can't start nothing without capital," argued the grocer
+conservatively.
+
+"Oh," admitted the young financier, "a little capital mebby. I've got a
+dollar I've saved up from odd jobs."
+
+"What line was you thinking of taking up?"
+
+"I'm going into the dairy business. Thar's money in milk and butter, and
+it's nice, clean work."
+
+"The dairy business on one dollar! How many cows and wagons and horses
+was you figuring on buying with your dollar?"
+
+"Don't git funny," warned Gus impatiently. "Some day I'll hev a farm of
+my own and a city office, but I'll begin on one cow in our back lot and
+peddle milk to the neighbors."
+
+"That wouldn't be a bad beginning, but I reckon you'll find the start
+will cost you more than a dollar. You can't get a cow at that figure."
+
+"Then I'll start with a calf."
+
+"Well, I guess calves cost more than a dollar."
+
+"Say, you've got that dollar on the brain, I guess," retorted the lad
+with the easy familiarity that betokened long acquaintance with the
+lounging barrels and boxes of the corner grocery. "I bet it'll build a
+shed in our back yard. Thar's the lumber out of our shed that blowed
+down, and the Boarder can build purty near anything."
+
+"But how are you going to buy a cow?" persisted his inquisitor.
+
+"I ain't got that fer yet," admitted the young dairyman.
+
+"Your dollar'll buy more than the nails for your cow-house. You can put
+the balance into feed," said the grocer, with an eye to his own trade.
+
+He wanted to add that it wouldn't cost much to feed an imaginary
+critter, but he was a little fearful of the temper back of the lad's
+hair, which was the same hue as Amarilly's.
+
+"That's a good idea. Well, the shed starts to-morrow, and of course you
+won't say nothin' about it."
+
+"Trust me for not talking in this neighborhood. It ain't safe even to
+think. First you know your thoughts are being megaphoned down the
+street."
+
+Gus consulted the Boarder who instantly and obligingly began the
+erection of a building in the farthest corner of the Jenkins's domain.
+This structure was a source of mystery and excitement to the neighbors.
+
+"What on airth do you suppose them Jenkinses air aputtin' up now? Mebby
+it's a wash-house for the surpluses," speculated Mrs. Huce.
+
+"It can't be they air agoin' to keep a hoss!" ejaculated Mrs. Wint.
+
+"You never kin tell nuthin' about them Jenkinses. They're so sort of
+secretin' like," lamented Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+The Jenkins family were fully as ignorant as were their neighbors of the
+nature of the contemplated occupant of the new edifice commonly referred
+to as the "cow-house," The Boarder put up a very substantial shed with a
+four-paned window and a door that locked though not very securely. The
+grocer had on hand a small quantity of green paint which he donated to
+the cause of the coming cow.
+
+"Thar ain't enough to more'n paint two sides of it," criticized Gus, "so
+I'll paint the front and west sides."
+
+"Thar's a can of yaller paint out in the woodshed," informed Mrs.
+Jenkins. "You can paint the other two sides with that."
+
+Then the Boarder made a suggestion:
+
+"If I was you, I'd paint a strip of yaller and then one of green.
+That'll even it up and make it fancy-like."
+
+Amarilly protested against this combination of colors so repellent to
+artistic eyes, but the family all agreed that it "would be perfickly
+swell," so she withdrew her opposition and confided her grievance to
+Derry's sympathizing, shuddering ears.
+
+Gus proceeded to bicolor the shed in stripes which gave the new building
+a bedizened and bilious effect that delighted Colette, who revelled in
+the annals of her proteges.
+
+Each member of the Jenkins family had a plan for utilising this fine
+domicile, as there seemed to be a general feeling of skepticism
+regarding the ability of Gus to produce a cow in the flesh. This
+sentiment, however, was not openly expressed, as the lad was found to be
+decidedly sensitive and touchy on the subject.
+
+"Mebby a cow'll jest walk right into the back yard and make herself to
+hum in the new shed," prognosticated Mrs. Jenkins optimistically. "It's
+such a beautiful place. I'll bet there is cows as would ef they knowed
+about it."
+
+"I perpose," suggested Flamingus patronizingly, "that we start a cow
+fund and all chip in and help Gus out."
+
+"Sure thing!" declared the generous Amarilly. "He can have all my
+savings. We ought to all help Gus get a start."
+
+"I'm in," cried Bobby.
+
+"You kin hev all you want from me, Gus," offered Bud.
+
+Firmly and disdainfully Gus rejected all these offers and suggestions.
+
+"Thar ain't agoin' to be no pardner business about this," he announced.
+"The cow won't come till she's mine--all mine--and when she does, I'm
+agoin' to pay the Boarder for his work."
+
+"If he wants to be so all-fired smart, we won't help him git no cow,"
+declared Flamingus, "and the shed kin be used for a summer kitchen arter
+all."
+
+This use of the new building had been the fondest dream of Mrs. Jenkins,
+who deemed it an ideal place in which to keep her tubs, mops, boiler,
+and wringer. Milt had designs upon it for a boy's reading-room and club;
+Flamingus coveted a gymnasium. Bobby, Bud, Cory, and Iry had already
+appropriated it as a playhouse.
+
+Amarilly openly and ably defended Gus and his cherished, illusory plan.
+Of all her brothers, he was the one to whom her heart most inclined. For
+Bud she possibly had a more tender, maternal feeling on account of his
+being so delicate. She paid homage to the good points of Flamingus, but
+he was too cut and dried, "bromidic," she classified him, for Derry had
+carefully explained the etymology of the word. Milt was honest, but
+selfish and "near." Bobby was disposed to be fresh, but Gus was just
+such a boy as Amarilly herself would have been, reincarnated. He was
+practical, industrious, thrifty, and shrewd, and yet possessed of the
+imagination and optimism of his sister. She called him aside one day for
+a private consultation.
+
+"Say, Gus, your scheme's all right. Go ahead and get your cow. I'll let
+you have my savings, and the other boys needn't know. You can pay me
+when you get ready to."
+
+"That's bully in you, Amarilly, but I'm agoin' to see this thing through
+alone and start in without no help front no one," firmly refused Gus,
+and his sturdy little sister could but admire him for his independence.
+
+He locked up his new possession very carefully, putting the key in his
+pocket every morning before going to the business precincts to pick up a
+job. The children, however, were not dispossessed by this precaution,
+finding ingress and egress through the window. Gus most opportunely
+secured a week's job driving a delivery-wagon, and he instantly invested
+his wages in the provisioning of the cow quarters.
+
+"The feed'll git stale by the time the cow comes," objected Milt.
+
+"Mebby it's fer bait to ketch a critter with," offered Bobby.
+
+After all, it was the miracle predicted by Mrs. Jenkins that came to
+pass and delivered the cow. Early one morning, when Gus went as usual
+with fond pride to view his sole asset, he found installed therein a
+young, corpulent cow, bland and Texas-horned, busily engaged in
+partaking of the proceeds of Gus's last week's wages. She turned
+inquiring, meditative eyes toward the delighted lad, who promptly locked
+the door and rushed into the house to inform the family of the new
+arrival.
+
+"She's lost or strayed, but not stolen," said Amarilly.
+
+"Bobby, you put an ad in that paper you deliver at once," commanded Mrs.
+Jenkins. "Some poor people air feelin' bad over the loss of their cow."
+
+It was considered only fair that the cow should pay for her meal. She
+was overstocked with milk, and graciously and gratefully yielded to
+Gus's efforts to relieve her of her load. The children were each given a
+taste of the warm milk, and then the little dairyman started right in
+for business. The milkman had not yet made his morning rounds, and the
+neighbors were so anxious to cross-examine Gus that they were more than
+willing to patronize him. Excitement prevailed when it was learned that
+the Jenkins family had a cow, and the lad's ingenuity in dodging
+questions was severely taxed. He avoided direct replies, but finally
+admitted that it was "one they was keepin' fer some folks."
+
+A week went by, with no claim filed for the animal that had come so
+mysteriously and seemed so perfectly at home. Gus established a
+permanent milk route in the immediate neighborhood, and with his ability
+once more to "bring in" came the restoration of his self-respect.
+
+"It's funny we don't git no answer to that ad," mused Mrs. Jenkins
+perplexedly. "How many times did you run it, Bobby?"
+
+For a moment silence, deep, profound, and charged with expectancy
+prevailed. Then like a bomb came Bobby's reply:
+
+"I ain't put it in at all."
+
+Everybody was vociferous in condemnation, but Bobby, unabashed, held his
+ground, and logically defended his action.
+
+"I got the news-agent to look in the 'losts' every night, and thar want
+nothin' about no cow. 'Twas up to them as lost it to advertise instead
+of us. If they didn't want her bad enough to run an ad, they couldn't
+hev missed her very much."
+
+"That's so," agreed the Boarder, convinced by Bobby's able argument.
+
+"Most likely she doesn't belong to any one," was Amarilly's theory. "She
+just came to stay a while, and then she'll go away again."
+
+"She won't git no chanst to 'scape, unless she kin go out the way the
+chillern does," laughed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+One day the Boarder brought home some information that seemed to throw
+light on the subject.
+
+"One of the railroad hands told me that a big train of cattle was
+sidetracked up this way somewhar the same night the cow come here. The
+whole keerload got loose, but they ketched them all, or thought they
+did. Mebby they didn't miss this ere one, or else they couldn't wait to
+look her up. Their train pulled out as soon as they rounded up the
+bunch."
+
+"I guess the cow-house looked to her like it was a freight car,"
+observed Milt, "and she thought she hed got back where she belonged."
+
+The cow, meanwhile, quietly chewed her cud, and continued to endear
+herself to the hearts of all the Jenkins family save Cory. Every time
+Bobby spoke her name he called to her, "Co, boss! Co, boss," just as Gus
+did when he greeted the cow.
+
+As for the little dairyman himself, he gave his charge the best of care.
+He took her for a little outing every day to a near-by lot where she
+could graze, being careful to keep a stout rope attached to her,
+although they walked to and from the recreation ground side by side.
+Derry painted a little picture of the pair as he saw them returning from
+a jaunt. Gus's arm was lovingly thrown around the neck of the gentle
+creature, and her Texas horns were adorned with a wreath of brown-eyed
+Susans woven by Cory.
+
+It remained for Mrs. Jenkins to christen the creature.
+
+"'Cowslip,'" she declared triumphantly, "'cause she just slipped in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Amarilly's pace in learning English from Derry during the following
+winter was only excelled by her proficiency in mathematics. "Figgerin'"
+the Boarder declared to be his long suit, and his young pupil worked
+every example in Flamingus's arithmetic, and employed her leisure
+moments in solving imaginary problems. Then came an evening when she put
+her knowledge to practical use and application. She had been working
+absorbedly with pencil and paper for some time when she looked up from
+her sheet of figures with a flushed race and a Q.E.D. written in each
+shining eye.
+
+"Say!" she announced to the family who were gathered about the long
+table.
+
+Instantly they were all attention, for they always looked to Amarilly
+for something startling in the way of bulletins.
+
+"I've been setting down and adding up what we all bring in each week.
+Ma's washings, the Boarder's board, my studio work, Flamingus' and
+Milt's wages, Gus's cow, Bud's singing, Co's dish-washing, and Bobby's
+papers. What do you suppose it all amounts to?"
+
+She allowed a few seconds of tragic silence to ensue before she gave the
+electrifying total.
+
+"Land sakes! Who'd 'a thought it!" exclaimed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'd orter hev ice-cream and pie every day," reproached Cory.
+
+"It would be reckoned a purty big salary if one man got it all,"
+speculated the Boarder.
+
+"We are rich!" exclaimed Bobby decisively.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do," pursued Amarilly. "We must start a
+syndicate."
+
+"What's that, a show?" demanded Flamingus.
+
+"No; I heard the artists down to the studio talking about it, and Mr.
+Derry explained it. He said when a lot of folks put their cash on hand
+together in one pile, they can buy something big and do more than as if
+they spent it separate."
+
+"Well, I ain't a goin' to put my money in with Co's," said Milt
+sarcastically. "Wouldn't be much profit for me in that."
+
+"You don't catch on," replied Amarilly. "If you should put in one
+dollar, and Co should put in ten cents, at the end of a certain time,
+you'd draw out ten dollars and Co would only draw out one. See?"
+
+"I do," said the practical Gus.
+
+"Well, now let's put our money into something and all own it together,
+each one's share according to what we put in. Let's buy this house!"
+
+They all stared in amazement.
+
+"Buy a house! You are sure crazy, Amarilly!" exclaimed Milt.
+
+"We could buy it cheap," continued Amarilly unabashed. "I heard the
+grocer saying yesterday that property around here was at a low figure
+now. We could put our savings together and make a payment down, and
+instead of paying rent let it go on the balance each month. Before we
+knew it we'd own the house, and the deed could be made out to show how
+much of it each one owned."
+
+"I choose the pantry!" cried Cory.
+
+"I guess if you could buy a window-pane with what you've got, you'd do
+well," observed Milt in a withering tone.
+
+"That's a splendid idee, Amarilly!" declared the Boarder
+enthusiastically. "I don't know what better investment you could make."
+
+"It would be fine," sighed Mrs. Jenkins, "to own your own place and feel
+that no one could turn you out."
+
+"You've got a great head, Amarilly," complimented Gus.
+
+"We could borrow on the house if we ever got hard up, or the fever
+struck us again," said Flamingus.
+
+"Well," proposed Amarilly, the ever-ready, "let's get right at it. I'll
+set down our names, and when I call the roll, tell me how much you've
+saved and will put in the house."
+
+There was a general rush for bank-books, for ever since the preceding
+fall, the six oldest children had paid their board, clothed themselves,
+and saved the balance of their earnings.
+
+From her washings, the revenue from the board of the children and
+Boarder, Mrs. Jenkins had paid the rent and the household expenses. By
+thrifty management she had also acquired a bank account herself.
+
+"Ma!" called Amarilly expectantly.
+
+There had been much urging on the part of
+
+Deny in his zeal for language reform to induce his young pupil to say
+"mother," but in this sole instance Amarilly had refused to take his
+will for law.
+
+"She's always been 'ma' to me, and she always will be," declared
+Amarilly emphatically. "If I were to call her anything else I'd feel as
+if I had lost her--as if she didn't belong to me."
+
+Ma triumphantly announced: "Forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents."
+
+"A fine starter," commended Amarilly, "Flamingus?"
+
+"Forty dollars," he announced with pride.
+
+"Milt?" Amarilly called his name in faint voice. He was the only tight-
+tendencied member of the household, and she feared he might decline to
+give. But Milt was envious and emulative.
+
+"Forty-two dollars and sixty-nine cents," he declared in a voice
+rendered triumphant by the fact of his having beaten Flam.
+
+Amarilly drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"It's going to add up fine, now. Guess I'll take my own account next. I
+haven't got as much as you boys, though." "Shouldn't think you would
+have," said Gus sympathizingly. "You don't earn so much, and yet you pay
+ma as much, and don't take out nuthin' fer your noon meal. And you give
+Co things."
+
+"I've earned quite a bit," replied Amarilly cheerfully. "Besides what
+Mr. Derry gives me, there's what I've had from odd jobs like letting the
+artists paint my hair, and taking care of Mrs. Wick's baby afternoons
+when she goes to card parties. I've got thirty dollars to put in. Gus?"
+
+"Thirty-five dollars," he replied in a pleased tone.
+
+"Bud?"
+
+They all looked expectantly. Bud received ten dollars each Sunday now,
+and he had been singing at concerts, organ recitals, and entertainments
+all winter. On account of these latter engagements, he had been obliged
+to expend a considerable amount in clothes suitable to the occasion.
+When Bud donned his "evening clothes," which consisted of black silk
+hose, patent leather pumps, black velvet suit with Irish crochet collar
+and cuffs, purchased under the direction of Mr. Derry, Amarilly always
+felt uncomfortable.
+
+"Don't seem fair to Bobby when they're so near twins," she thought.
+
+One day, however, she overheard Bud sweetly offer to buy his near half a
+similar outfit. Amarilly listened eagerly for Bobby's answer which
+brought a sigh of relief.
+
+"I wouldn't wear one of them rigs on a bet," he had scoffingly answered.
+
+"One hundred and twenty-five dollars," Bud now replied modestly.
+
+"Gee! you take the cake!" said Bobby.
+
+Amarilly was sorry that she had to call Bobby's name next. But Bobby had
+a surprise in store for them all.
+
+"Forty-eight dollars!" he cried gleefully, giving Flam, Milt and Gus
+exultant glances, "Beat the hull of ye, except Bud!"
+
+"How in the world did you ever do it on paper routes?" asked Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+Bobby winked at his mother.
+
+"Shall we tell our secret?" he asked. "You tell, Ma."
+
+"You see," she explained, "when the clo'es are bilin' arter you hev all
+gone to work and to school, I've made twenty little pies and when Bobby
+got out of school, he'd come hum and git 'em and take 'em up to the High
+School. The girls bought 'em at five cents apiece. The stuff to make 'em
+cost about two cents a pie."
+
+"And Bobby got all the profit!" expostulated Milt indignantly.
+
+"Bobby paid me by taking the clo'es offen the line and bringin' them in
+every night, and fetchin' the water," she replied chidingly. "We was
+goin' to keep it a secret till he got enough to buy a pony."
+
+"But I'd ruther buy a house," said Bobby.
+
+"I ain't got enough to come in no snidikit," sobbed Co. "I ain't saved
+much."
+
+"That's because you spend all you earn on candy," rebuked Milt.
+
+"I ain't nuther. I bought me some rubbers and Iry some playthings."
+
+"How much have you got, Co?" asked Amarilly gently.
+
+"Two dollars and ninety-seven cents," she said, weeping profusely.
+
+"I think that's pretty good for a little girl," said Amarilly. "All you
+strapping boys ought to chip in out of your cash on hand what isn't in
+the bank and give her some so she could be in on it. Here is fifty cents
+from me, Co."
+
+"I'll give you fifty, Co," said her mother.
+
+"Me, too," said Flamingus.
+
+The other boys followed with equal contributions, Bud generously
+donating a five-dollar bill he had received that day for a solo at a
+musicale given by Miss Lyte.
+
+"Here's fifty cents from me," said the Boarder, who had remained very
+thoughtful during this transaction.
+
+"Eleven dollars and forty-seven cents for Co," announced Amarilly.
+
+The little girl's eyes shone through her tears.
+
+"Seems too bad that Iry is the only one left out," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"When he gits old enough to work, he can come in," said Milt. "Add her
+up, Amarilly."
+
+"Three hundred and sixty-nine dollars and sixty-seven cents!" almost
+screamed Amarilly.
+
+"Gee!" chorused the boys.
+
+"Purty near buy the old shack," said Flamingus.
+
+"Our landlord," said Amarilly sagaciously, "is a shark, and he'll try to
+get the best of us. I am going to get Mr. Vedder to do the business for
+us, and he'll get the deed in all our names."
+
+"Put in Iry's too," pleaded Mrs. Jenkins solicitous for her Benjamin.
+
+"I'll put it to vote," said parliamentary Amarilly. "Who's for Iry?"
+
+"Me, me, me," came from all, though Milt's response was reluctant.
+
+"I will see Mr. Vedder to-morrow, so we can begin to let the rent apply
+right off," said Amarilly.
+
+"We'll take more pride in keeping it fixed up now," remarked Flamingus.
+"I'll mend the windowpanes and the door hinges."
+
+"And I'll build some stairs and put up a partition or two," promised the
+Boarder.
+
+"I'll paint it," said Gus, proud of his former work in this direction.
+Amarilly secretly resolved to select the color.
+
+"I'll make curtains and rag rugs and sofa pillows," she observed.
+
+"And I'll buy some cheers and a hangin' lamp," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Don't
+all this talk make you want to housekeep?" she asked with a knowing
+glance in the Boarder's direction.
+
+He shook his head thoughtfully, but when the boys and Cory had gone to
+bed, he unfolded a proposition that he had been evolving during their
+financial discussion, and which now found overwhelming favor and
+enthusiasm with his hearers.
+
+The next day Amarilly called upon Mr. Vedder at the theatre.
+
+"He's got more sound business to him than Mr. Derry or Mr. St. John,"
+she shrewdly decided.
+
+"When she told him her plan and showed him her figures, he most heartily
+approved.
+
+"The house, of course, isn't worth anything," he said, "but land down
+that way is a good investment. Who is your, landlord?"
+
+She gave him the name and address.
+
+"I am glad you came to me, Amarilly, instead of to your newer friends."
+
+"Oh, you know more about it than they do," she replied, "and besides,
+some way I wouldn't feel as if I were bothering you."
+
+"Not a bit of bother, Amarilly, and I hope you will always feel that
+way."
+
+The ticket-seller was prompt, thorough, and shrewd in the matter. He had
+a friend in the real estate business, who appraised the property for
+him, and he proved most diplomatic in his dealing with the surprised
+landlord, who fortunately chanced to be in dire need of some ready cash.
+In an incredibly short space of time the bargain was closed.
+
+The Jenkins family including the Boarder and Iry left the house one
+noon, each bearing a red bank-book. To the onlookers in the
+neighborhood, this Armada was all-impressive.
+
+"Looks like a run on the bank," said the Boarder facetiously, as they
+all trooped up the steps to the big stone building.
+
+The payment was made, and the deeds drawn in the names of all the
+family, but to the list was also added the name of the Boarder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+"I don't see," observed Colette, on learning of the existence and
+development of the syndicate, "why the Boarder is in on it. I thought he
+was going to have a Lily Rose garden all his own."
+
+"We thought so, too," replied Amarilly. "He's been saving up to get
+married, and he's got a raise now, so the day is set for some time in
+June; but he told us the night we were first planning to buy the house
+that he wanted to be one of the syndicate. You see Lily Rose works--I
+mean she overworks--in a factory, and so the Boarder--you know he is
+awful gentle-like to her--says that she mustn't keep house or do
+anything but real light work after this. He has an interest in the house
+now, and he is going to build on a sort of an annex with a sitting-room
+and a bedroom and furnish it up fine, and when they are married, they
+are going to live there and take their meals with us. And they want Mr.
+St. John to marry them, and they want you to come. And Mr. Derry is
+coming. He asked to be invited."
+
+For once Colette did not laugh at the chronicles of the Jenkins family.
+A very tender look came into her flashing eyes.
+
+"That is very sweet in him--in the Boarder--to feel that way and to be
+so tender with Lily Rose. She ought to be very happy with a love and
+protection like that awaiting her."
+
+"Yes," assented Amarilly; "it must be very nice to feel like that, and
+Mr. Derry says he really believes that it is only with poor folks like
+us and the Boarder and Lily Rose that love runs smooth."
+
+"Then," said Colette musingly, "I wish I were poor--like you and the
+Boarder and Lily Rose!"
+
+Amarilly secretly divined that this was merely a thought spoken aloud,
+so she made no comment. She had pondered a great deal over the attitude
+of her two friends towards each other. The only place she ever
+encountered them together was at church and to her observing eyes it was
+quite apparent that there was a restraint in their bearing. Amarilly
+remained so preoccupied with her thoughts that Colette, looking at her
+searchingly, became curious as to the cause.
+
+"Amarilly," she commanded, "tell me what you were thinking of just now--
+I mean since I spoke last. I shall know by; your eyes if you don't tell
+me exactly."
+
+"Mr. Derry says my eyes will always give me away," evaded Amarilly.
+
+"Of course they will. You can never be a flirt, Amarilly."
+
+"I don't want to," she replied indignantly.
+
+Colette laughed.
+
+"Well, tell me what you were thinking about?"
+
+"I was wondering if Mr. St. John wasn't trying any more to find that
+thing you lost in the surplice pocket."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, has Mr. Phillips censored that word, too? I was in hopes
+he would never hear you say 'surplus,' so he could not correct you."
+
+"I told him you didn't want me to speak correctly," said Amarilly a
+little resentfully.
+
+"You did!" cried Colette, looking rather abashed. "And what did he say?"
+
+"He said it was selfish in you to think more of your amusement than of
+my improvement."
+
+Colette colored and was silent a moment.
+
+"He's right, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I _am_ selfish to
+everyone. All I have ever cared for is to be entertained and made to
+laugh. I have been as selfish to St. John as I have to you and--I'll
+tell you a secret, Amarilly, because I know that I can trust you. I've
+gone just a little bit too far with St. John. I told him he needn't ever
+come to see me again until he found what was in the pocket of the
+surplice, and he took me at my word."
+
+"He did all he could to find it," said Amarilly, immediately on the
+defence for the rector.
+
+"I know he did, but you see before this I've always had everything I've
+asked for, even impossible things, and I didn't want to have him fail
+me. I have been selfish and exacting with him, and I think he realizes
+it now."
+
+"Well, when you're in the wrong, all you've got to do is to say so."
+
+"That isn't easy, Amarilly."
+
+"But it's right."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you're like a man with your right and your wrong!"
+
+"But you would make yourself happy, too, if you told him you knew it
+wasn't up to him any more to find that."
+
+"I'd rather be unhappy and stick to what I said. I must have my own way,
+Amarilly."
+
+"Well," said Amarilly, abandoning an apparently hopeless subject, "I
+came to ask you to do me--us--the Boarder and Lily Rose, I mean, a
+favor."
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, as I said, they want Mr. St. John to marry them, and they're
+afraid he won't want to because he--well--because he isn't their kind,
+you know, and he has such a fashionable church."
+
+"And you don't know St. John better than that?"
+
+"Why, yes; of course _I_ do, but they don't know him at all, you know.
+And the Boarder is real shy, anyhow. And so I told him I'd ask you to
+ask him."
+
+"Why don't you ask him?"
+
+"I think it would please him so to have you ask. He likes to have you
+take interest in others."
+
+"Amarilly, you are a regular little Sherlock! Well, yes, I will,"
+promised Colette, secretly glad of this opportunity for friendly
+converse with John once more, "but if the--Annex has to be built first,
+there's no hurry."
+
+"Yes, there is. The Boarder wants everything settled now, so they can be
+looking forward to it."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I'll see him to-morrow night. Will that do?"
+
+"Oh, yes; thank you, Miss King."
+
+"Tell me more about the wedding plans. Are you to be bridesmaid?"
+
+"She isn't going to have one. It won't be a stylish wedding, you know.
+Just quiet--like one of our neighborhood evenings. Only when I told Mr.
+Derry about it, he said he should come up that afternoon and trim the
+house up with greens, and that he should come to see them married."
+
+"And I shall furnish the flowers and the bride's bouquet. Let me see, I
+think lilies of the valley and pink roses would suit Lily Rose, don't
+you?"
+
+"They will be beautiful," said Amarilly, beaming. "And we are going to
+have a real swell meal. I have learned to make salads and ices, and then
+we'll have coffee and sandwiches and bride's cake beside."
+
+"Some one has to give the bride away, you know, Amarilly, in Episcopal
+weddings."
+
+"I know it. But poor Lily Rose has no one that belongs to her. Her
+relations are all dead. That's another reason why the Boarder is so nice
+to her. So ma is going to give her away. We're going to ask the
+neighbors and you and Mr. Derry and Mr. Cotter, of course. He's the
+brakeman friend of the Boarder."
+
+"And are the Boarder and Lily Rose going away?"
+
+"Yes; the Boarder can get a pass to Niagara Falls. They are going to
+stay there a week. Lily Rose has never been on the cars. And they are
+going to ride to the train in a hack."
+
+"Why, it's going to be quite an affair," said Colette enthusiastically.
+"We'll throw an old shoe and some rice after them. And will she be
+married in white?"
+
+Amarilly's face fell.
+
+"I am afraid she can't afford a wedding dress. She's got to get a
+travelling suit and hat and gloves and shoes, and with other things it
+will take all she has saved. She'd like a white dress and a veil and get
+her picture taken in it to hang up by the side of the Boarder's in the
+surplice. And that makes me think, we want you to ask Mr. St. John if he
+will wear our surplice instead of bringing one of his. We'll do it up
+nice before the wedding."
+
+"Oh, that prophetic surplice!" groaned Colette. "It's yesterday, to-day
+and forever; I wish something would happen to it, Amarilly. I hate that
+surplice!"
+
+"I'm sorry, Miss King, but we all love it. And you see it means a good
+deal to Lily Rose; because she has looked at its photograph so long."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I yield. St. John shall wear his surplice once
+more, and when he does--"
+
+A sudden thought illumined her face. "I believe I will tell him--"
+
+Amarilly deemed it a fitting time to depart, and she hastened to assure
+Lily Rose that it was "all right."
+
+"Miss King will speak to Mr. St. John about marrying you, and she will
+ask him to wear our surplice. She's going to send you flowers--lilies of
+the valley and roses. It all would be perfect, Lily Rose, if only you
+had a white dress!"
+
+Lily Rose smiled sweetly, and told Amarilly she was glad to be married
+in any dress, and that she should not miss the "reg'ler weddin' fixin's"
+nearly as much as Amarilly would mind her not having them. When Amarilly
+set her head and heart on anything, however, it was sure to be
+accomplished. It was a puzzling problem to equip Lily Rose in the
+conventional bridal white vestments, for the bride-to-be was very proud
+and independent and wouldn't hearken to Amarilly's plea to be allowed to
+contribute toward a new dress.
+
+"We're under obligations to _him_, you know," argued Amarilly "and I'd
+like to help him by helping you."
+
+Lily Rose was strong of will despite her sweet smile.
+
+Deep down in her heart Amarilly, throughout all her scheming, knew there
+was a way, but she chose to ignore it until the insistent small voice
+spoke louder and louder. With a sigh of renunciation she yielded to the
+inevitable and again sought Lily Rose.
+
+"I've thought out a way to the white dress," she announced.
+
+Lily Rose's eyes sparkled for a moment, and their light died out.
+
+"Yes, there's really a way," persisted Amarilly, answering the unspoken
+denial. "You said you could squeeze out slippers and stockings, didn't
+you?"
+
+"Yes," she admitted.
+
+"Well, there's your new white dress skirt, and for a waist there is my
+lovely lace waist that I told you about--the one Miss King gave me."
+
+"Your weddin' waist! No, Amarilly. It's like you to offer, but I
+couldn't take it from you."
+
+"No, I'm not giving it to you. Just lending it to you for your wedding.
+You couldn't hurt it any wearing it two hours. Then I'll lay it by again
+till I'm married. And I'll like wearing it all the more because you wore
+it to your wedding. Come over some day and we'll try it on. Then Miss
+King is going to give you the bouquet, and for a veil--"
+
+"Oh, the veil! Amarilly, I would love a veil!" Lily Rose cried
+wistfully.
+
+"Well, I've got one spoken for. You see, Mrs. Jimmels has been married
+so many different ways, I felt sure she must have worn a veil at one of
+her weddings, and seeing she had been married so many times, I thought
+she couldn't have any special feeling about any one of them, so I asked
+her if she wouldn't lend hers to you, and she's glad to have it put to
+use again. You'll look just perfectly swell, Lily Rose. And she's going
+to give you a pair of white gloves that she had when she was slim-like."
+
+The little renunciator went home feeling amply rewarded by the look of
+shining content in the blue eyes of Lily Rose.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next night Colette in accordance with her promise to Amarilly
+summoned John to council. It was not easy to bridge the distance which
+had been steadily increasing with the months that had rolled by since
+the surplice denouement, and Colette, formerly supreme in her sway, was
+perceptibly timid in making the advance. After writing and tearing up
+several notes she called him up by telephone and asked him in a
+consciously casual tone if he could find it convenient to call that
+evening with reference to a little matter pertaining to their mutual
+charge, the Jenkinses.
+
+The grave voice in which he accepted the invitation was tinged with
+pleasure.
+
+When he came Colette, fearful lest he should misinterpret her action in
+making this overture, plunged at once into the subject.
+
+"I promised Amarilly I would see you and ask you for something in her
+friends' behalf."
+
+"Then it is to Amarilly I am indebted for this call," he remarked
+whimsically.
+
+"It's about the Boarder," she continued, gaining ease at the softening
+of his brown eyes. "You know he is to be married to Lily Rose, the girl
+we saw at the organ recital where Bud made his debut."
+
+"I inferred as much at the time. When are they to be married?"
+
+"In June. Just as soon as the Annex can be added to the Jenkins's
+upright. They are to build on two new rooms or rather the Boarder will
+do so and he will furnish them for his new abiding-place. But because
+she is 'delicate like' and overworked she is to become a Boarderess
+instead of a housekeeper, and they will 'eat' with the Jenkins family,
+thus increasing the prosperity of the latter. Amarilly says the Boarder
+is 'awful gentle of Lily Rose and wants to take good care of her.'"
+
+The expression that moved the frostiest of his flock came into the still
+depths of his eyes and brought the wild rose to Colette's cheeks.
+
+"They are going to make quite an affair of the wedding," she continued,
+speaking hurriedly and a little breathlessly. "You and I and Mr.
+Phillips are to be guests. There is to be a hack to take the bride and
+groom to the train and a trip to Niagara Falls, because Lily Rose has
+never been on the cars. They are to have salad and ice-cream and
+sandwiches and coffee. Mr. Phillips is to act as florist and I shall
+furnish the decorations and the bride's bouquet. I'd love to throw in a
+bridal gown and veil, but Lily Rose, it seems, is proud and won't accept
+them."
+
+"I can find it quite in my heart to admire the reluctance of Lily Rose
+to accept them."
+
+"And so can I," replied Colette, the rare sweetness coming into her
+eyes. "Underneath all my jests about this wedding, it is all very sweet
+and touching to me--the Boarder's consideration for her, the
+preparations for the wedding which appear so elaborate to them. And then
+the wedding itself seems to mean so much to them. It's so different from
+the weddings in our class which often mean so little."
+
+"Colette, I know--I have always known in spite of your endeavor to have
+me believe otherwise--anything really true and genuine appeals to you.
+I--"
+
+"But I haven't told you yet," she said, seized with an unaccountable
+shyness, "what your part is to be. The Boarder, Lily Rose, and naturally
+all the Jenkinses, want you to perform the ceremony. The Boarder, being
+shy and retiring, forbore to ask you, and Amarilly for some reason
+desired me to ask you if you would officiate, and I assured her you
+would gladly do so."
+
+"I should have felt hurt," replied John with a happy smile, "if they had
+asked anyone else to marry them. And you will be there, Colette?"
+
+"Certainly," she declared. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."
+
+"And--you will go with me, Colette?"
+
+She colored, and her eyes drooped beneath his fixed gaze.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I will go with you."
+
+"Thank you, Colette," he answered gently, realizing what a surrender
+this was, and deeming it wise not to follow up his victory immediately.
+
+And at his reticence Colette was conscious of a shade of disappointment.
+She began to feel an uncomfortable atmosphere in the silence that
+ensued, so she broke it, speaking hastily and confusedly.
+
+"Oh, John, there is something else they want of you. The request is made
+by unanimous desire that you wear their surplice--that awful surplice!"
+
+A shadow not unlike a frown fell athwart John's brow, and he made no
+immediate reply.
+
+The introduction of the unfortunate topic made them both self-conscious,
+and for the first time Colette acknowledged to herself that she had been
+in the wrong in the matter of the surplice. John, misinterpreting her
+constraint, and fearing that the reference to the garment had revived
+all her old resentment, arose to depart.
+
+"I will wear it if they wish," he said stiffly.
+
+"I, too, wish you would wear it," she said in a voice scarcely audible.
+
+He looked at her in surprise, hope returning.
+
+"To please them," she added, coloring.
+
+"Colette!" There was a pleading in his voice that told her all she
+longed to know. "Colette, don't you think I have been patient? Won't you
+be friends again?"
+
+"I will," she said, "after--the Boarder's and Lily Rose's wedding!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Work on the Boarder's Annex was begun with frantic zeal, each and every
+member of the Jenkins family lending a helping hand. The Boarder, as
+boss carpenter, worked after switching hours until it grew dark; then
+the children took turns, in holding a lantern for him. The savings of
+the Boarder being taxed by the trip to "Niagry" and the furnishing of
+the apartment, great economy had to be exercised in the erecting of the
+Annex. He strictly adhered to his determination not to touch the "rainy
+day fund."
+
+Amarilly pleaded for a bay window, but the Boarder felt this
+ornamentation to be quite beyond his means, so they finally compromised
+on a small and simple porch on which Lily Rose could sit of a summer
+night while the Boarder smoked by her side. Mrs. Jenkins, moved to
+memories long dormant of the home of her youth, suggested blinds instead
+of window-shades, but the Boarder after much figuring proved adamantine
+in resistance to this temptation.
+
+Lily Rose was the only one who made no suggestions. Anything the Boarder
+might construct in the way of a nesting place was beautiful in her eyes.
+
+"She'd be too sorter modist-like to tell me if she was sot on any
+perticler thing about the new place," he confided wistfully to Amarilly,
+"You're so sharp I wish you'd kinder hint around and find out what she
+wants. Jest put out some feelers."
+
+Amarilly diplomatically proceeded to put out "feelers," and after much
+maneuvering joyously imparted to the Boarder the information that Lily
+Rose loved to look at the one solitary tree that adorned the Jenkins
+lot, because to her it meant "the country."
+
+"So that's the way she loves to look out," informed Amarilly, "and, you
+see there isn't any window on that side of your rooms."
+
+"There shall be one," declared the Boarder firmly.
+
+"Couldn't you make it a bay?" again coaxed Amarilly, "It's on the side
+the sun comes in most, and the doctor said Lily Rose should get all the
+sunlight she could. If she could sit in that bay window sunny days next
+winter it would be better than medicine for her."
+
+The Boarder sighed.
+
+"Don't tempt me, Amarilly. There ain't a cent more I kin squeeze out."
+
+"I'll think out a way," thought Amarilly confidently.
+
+She took the matter to Colette, who instantly and satisfactorily solved
+the problem, and Amarilly returned radiant.
+
+"She says you've saved too much out for furniture, and to build the bay
+window from the furniture fund."
+
+The Boarder shook his head.
+
+"I thought of that, but thar ain't a thing I can take out of that. I got
+the figgers on the price of everything from the House Furnishers'
+Establishment."
+
+"But you see, Miss King says no one ever comes to a wedding without
+bringing a present. That it wouldn't be et--,--dear me! I have forgotten
+what the word is. And she says not to buy any furniture till all the
+presents come, and then I can settle the rooms for you while you and
+Lily Rose are away. Lots of the things you are expecting to buy will be
+given you."
+
+"It's risky," said the Boarder dubiously. "We'll most likely git casters
+and bibles and tidies. That's what I've allers seen to weddin's."
+
+"Well, I see I have got to put a flea in your ear, but don't tell Lily
+Rose. Let it be a surprise to her. Miss King is going to give you a
+handsome base-burner coal stove. So you can take that off your list."
+
+The Boarder looked pleased and yet distressed.
+
+"She shouldn't go fer to do that!" he protested.
+
+"Well, she wants to give you a nice present because you've been nice to
+us, and she thinks Lily Rose is sweet, and she says she believes in
+making sensible presents. She asked Mr. Meredith what to get, and he
+told her to get the stove so you see it's all right if he says so. She
+thought you wouldn't need a stove till next winter, but I told her you
+wanted the rooms furnished complete now."
+
+"Then," said the Boarder beamingly, "the bay winder shall be cut out
+ter-morrer."
+
+"Don't cut it _out_!" said Amarilly alarmed.
+
+"I don't mean in a slang way," he said, laughing. "I mean cut out with a
+saw."
+
+When Lily Rose was brought over one starlight night in budding May to
+see the beautiful aperture that would eventually become a bay window and
+face the solitary tree, two dewy drops of joy came into her eyes. Before
+them all she raised her pale, little face for a kiss which the Boarder
+bestowed with the solemn air of one pronouncing a benediction, for Lily
+Rose was chary of outward and visible expressions of affection, and he
+was deeply moved by this voluntary offering.
+
+The Annex grew rapidly, but its uprising was not accomplished without
+some hazard and adventure. There was an exciting day when Cory fell
+through the scaffolding where she had been climbing. She suffered a
+moment of unconsciousness and a bump on her head.
+
+"An inch nigher her brain, and it would have killed her!" exclaimed the
+mother in tragic tones.
+
+"An inch of miss is as good as a mile," said the Boarder
+philosophically.
+
+There was also a thrilling moment when Iry thrust his head through the
+railings of the new porch. Satisfied with his outlook, he would fain
+have withdrawn, but was prevented by an unaccountable swelling of his
+pate. Flamingus, coming to the rescue and working seemingly on the
+theory that his skull might be compressible, tried to pull him backward,
+but the frantic shrieks of Iry caused this plan of ejection to be
+abandoned.
+
+"The rest of him is smaller than his head," observed Amarilly
+practically, as she arrived upon the scene and took a comprehensive view
+of the case, "Push him through, Flam, and I'll go around on the other
+side and get him."
+
+Iry, safely landed in Amarilly's arms, laughed his delight, and thinking
+it a sort of game, was about to repeat his stunt of "in and out."
+
+"It's time something was done to you," said Amarilly determinedly,
+"before you get killed in this place. I am going to spank you, Iry, and
+Co, too. I am going to spank you both fierce. And you are to keep away
+from the new part."
+
+In spite of wailing protests, Amarilly administered a spanking to the
+two younger children that worked effectually against further repetition
+of their hazardous performances. But Bobby tobogganed down the roof
+during its shingling and sprained his ankle, which necessitated the use
+of crutches.
+
+"He can break his neck if he wants to," remarked Amarilly, when besought
+by Co to punish him too.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins lost a finger-nail by an injudicious use of the hammer. Bud
+sat down in the paint pot, and had to go to bed while his clothes were
+cleaned. In fact Lily Rose was the only one of the whole family circle
+to suffer no injury, but the Boarder guided her so tenderly over every
+part and plank of the Annex that there was no chance for mishap.
+
+When the lathing and plastering were completed, the little bride-elect
+began to tremble with timidity and happiness at the consciousness of the
+nearness of her approaching transfer to the Home.
+
+The plan of the Boarder had been to leave the walls rough and unfinished
+till their settling process should be accomplished, but Amarilly,
+absorbed heart and soul in this first experience of making a nesting
+place, pleaded for paper--"quiet, pretty paper with soft colors," she
+implored, Derry's teachings now beginning to bear fruit in Amarilly's
+development of the artistic.
+
+"Amarilly, we can't hev everything to onct," he rebuked solemnly. "The
+paper'll crack as sure as fate, if you put it on now."
+
+"Let it crack!" defied Amarilly. "Then you can put on more. You're away
+nearly all day, and the rest of us are at work, but if Lily Rose has to
+sit here all day and look at these white walls that look just like sour
+bread that hasn't riz"--Derry had not yet discovered this word in
+Amarilly's vocabulary--"she'll go mad."
+
+"Amarilly," sighed the Boarder, "you'll hev me in the poorhouse yit!"
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Amarilly. "I'll have to let you into another secret.
+Mr. Meredith is going to give you and Lily Rose a handsome centre-table
+and an easy-chair. There won't be any surprises left for you by the time
+the wedding is over, but you're so set, I have to keep giving things
+away to you."
+
+"That makes me think," remarked the Boarder. "I was going to ask you
+what I'd orter give the preacher fer marryin' Lily Rose and me. The
+fireman of Number Six told me he give two dollars when he was spliced,
+but you see Mr. Meredith is so swell, I'd orter give more."
+
+Amarilly gazed reflectively into space while she grappled with this
+proposition.
+
+"Do you know," she said presently, with the rare insight that was her
+birthright, "I don't think Mr. Meredith would like money--not from you--
+for Lily Rose. You see he's a sort of a friend, and you'd better give
+him a present because money, unless it was a whole lot, wouldn't mean
+anything to him."
+
+"That's so," admitted the Boarder, "but what kin I give him?"
+
+Amarilly had another moment of thought.
+
+"Make him a bookrack. Mr. Derry will draw you the design, and you can
+carve it out. You can do it noons after you eat your luncheon, then you
+won't lose any time building the house."
+
+"That's jest what I'll do. So with the fee saved and the cheer and table
+out, I kin paper the rooms. You find out what kind Lily Rose wants and
+help her pick it out."
+
+"She'll choose blue," lamented Amarilly, "and that fades quick."
+
+Lily Rose was easily persuaded to let Derry be consulted. He promptly
+volunteered to tint the walls, having studied interior decorations at
+one time in his career. He wrought a marvellous effect in soft grays and
+browns with bordering graceful vines.
+
+Lily Rose by taking advantage of a bargain sale on suits saved enough
+from her trousseau to curtain the windows in dainty blue and white
+muslin.
+
+Derry then diverted the appropriation for an ingrain carpet to an
+expenditure for shellac and paint with which he showed Amarilly how to
+do the floors. Some cheap but pretty rugs were selected in place of the
+carpet.
+
+At last the Annex was ready for painting. Lily Rose wistfully stated
+that she had always longed to live in a white house, so despite the fact
+that the Jenkins house proper was a sombre red, the new part was painted
+white.
+
+"'Twill liven the place up," Amarilly consoled herself, while Colette
+breathed a sigh of relief that the Annex was not to be entirely
+conventional.
+
+At Amarilly's suggestion, the woodwork was also painted white.
+
+"Hard to keep clean," warned Amarilly, divided in her trend of
+practicality and her loyalty to St. John's favorite color. White won.
+
+The moment the paint was dry and the Annex announced "done," the Boarder
+took Lily Rose to view their prospective domicile. They were
+unaccompanied by any of the family, but it took the combined efforts of
+Mrs. Jenkins, Amarilly, and Flamingus, whose recent change in voice and
+elongation of trousers gave him an air of authority, to prevent a
+stampede by the younger members.
+
+Lily Rose returned wet-eyed, sweetly smiling, and tremulous of voice,
+but the Boarder stood erect, proud in his possessions.
+
+Colette vetoed the plan for Amarilly to settle in the absence of the
+groom and bride.
+
+"If you have it all furnished beforehand," she argued, "there will be
+just so much more room to entertain in on the night of the wedding."
+
+And then Lily Rose confessed that "she'd love to be 'to hum' in her own
+place."
+
+"But they won't be furnished," argued Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, yes, they will," assured Colette. "It's etiquette--" she paused to
+note Amarilly writing the word down in a little book she carried--"for
+people to send their presents before they come, and you can settle as
+fast as they come in."
+
+The wedding gifts all arrived the day before the wedding. The base-
+burner, though not needed for some months, was set up, because the
+Boarder said he would not feel at home until he could put his feet on
+his own hearth. John Meredith sent an oaken library table and an
+easy-chair. Derry's offering was in the shape of a beautiful picture
+and a vase for the table.
+
+The best man, who fortunately had appealed to Amarilly for guidance,
+gave a couch. The Jenkins family, assessed in proportion to their
+respective incomes, provided a bedroom set. Lily Rose's landlady sent a
+willow rocker; the girl friends at the factory a gilt clock; the
+railroad hands, six silver spoons and an equal number of forks. Lily
+Rose's Sunday-school teacher presented a lamp. A heterogeneous
+assortment of articles came from the neighbors.
+
+These presents were all arranged in the new rooms by Lily Rose, and the
+elegance of the new apartment was overwhelming in effect to the
+household.
+
+"It looks most too fine to feel to hum in," gasped the Boarder. "It
+makes me feel strange!"
+
+"It won't look strange to you," assured the bride-elect, looking shyly
+into his adoring eyes, "when you come home and find me sitting here in
+my blue dress waiting for you, will it?"
+
+"No!" agreed the Boarder with a quick intake of breath, "'Twill be home
+and heaven, Lily Rose."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Shyly and perversely Lily Rose had postponed the trying on of her
+borrowed wedding waist until the day preceding the great event.
+
+"There won't be time to fit it," pleaded Amarilly.
+
+And Lily Rose had smiled a faraway smile and said her veil would cover
+it anyway. But finally Amarilly's pleas prevailed and the beloved
+garment was brought forth.
+
+Amarilly took it reverently from its wrappings and held it up to view.
+After many exclamations of wonder and admiration, Lily Rose, who had
+removed her dress, essayed to try it on.
+
+"Why, Amarilly," she said, struggling to get her arm into the sleeve,
+"there's something the matter! It's sewed together, or something."
+
+Amarilly hastened to investigate.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped, after thrusting her hand within, "to think it should
+be in here, for I am sure this is what Miss King has been looking for so
+long. Wait until I go and ask ma about it."
+
+She hurried to the kitchen precinct of the house.
+
+"Oh, Ma, do you know how this came in Miss King's lace waist? The one
+that was here through the fever?"
+
+"Why, didn't you ever take that home?"
+
+"Yes," informed Amarilly, "but she made me a present of it, and I put it
+away to keep till I was--grown up. And I want to lend it to Lily Rose to
+be married in. And when she went to try it on, she found this in the
+sleeve."
+
+Mrs. Jenkins paused in the sudsing of a garment.
+
+"Let me see!" she said, surveying the object with reminiscent scrutiny.
+"Oh, yes, I remember now. I found it on the floor the day she was here,
+afore the waist was ready for her. I thought she had dropped it, and so
+I pinned it in the sleeve of her dress, and was goin to tell Gus to give
+it to her, but he didn't take the waist hum, and then so much happened,
+it went clean out of my mind."
+
+"I'll go right over to her house with it now," said Amarilly.
+
+Lily Rose, adorned in the filmy, white waist, entered the kitchen.
+
+"See, Amarilly," she said delightedly. "It's a beautiful fit!"
+
+But Amarilly had something on her mind of more moment even than Lily
+Rose's wedding garments.
+
+"I am glad it fits," she said hurriedly, scarcely vouchsafing a glance
+toward Lily Rose as she caught up her hat, and hastened as fast as the
+street-cars would take her to Colette. Orders had been given for the
+admittance of Amarilly at any hour and to any room her young patroness
+might chance to be occupying. This morning she was in her boudoir.
+
+"Oh, Miss King!" cried Amarilly, her face aglow. "I guess I have found
+it!"
+
+Colette's heart began to flutter and the wavering beat became a steady
+throb when Amarilly handed her the long lost article.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you darling! Yes, yes, this is it! And it evidently has
+not been touched. Where did you find it? Who had it?" Amarilly related
+the story of its discovery.
+
+"Then, but for your generosity, Amarilly, this would have been in the
+waist for years, so I am going to reward you. You shall make Lily Rose a
+wedding present of the waist, and when you are married, I shall give you
+a real, white wedding gown of white satin with a bridal train!"
+
+"Oh, Miss King! I must get married then, even if I have to do it in a
+leap year!"
+
+"Of course you will marry. I shall pick out the bridegroom myself. I
+feel like doing almost anything for you, Amarilly."
+
+"Do you, truly?" asked Amarilly. "Then I wish you would--"
+
+"Tell me, dear!" urged Colette. "I'll do anything for you to-day."
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker.
+
+"Amarilly! I will, indeed--nicer than you can imagine, or he either. And
+tell me, is Lily Rose still happy--very happy?"
+
+"Yes," replied Amarilly. "So happy, and so scared-like, and she's going
+to dress at our house and could you come early and fix on the veil? We
+don't just know how it goes."
+
+[Illustration: "Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little
+peacemaker.]
+
+"Of course I will. And now will you take a little note to St. John for
+me on your way home?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King. And are you going to tell him it is found?"
+
+"No, Amarilly; not until to-morrow night, so don't say anything about it
+to him."
+
+The rector looked up with a welcoming smile when Amarilly was shown into
+his study.
+
+"I came with a note from her," she said with a glad little intonation in
+her voice.
+
+John took it eagerly. His face fell at the first few words which told
+him not to call for her to-morrow night on the way to the wedding, but
+it brightened amazingly when he read the reason--the adjusting of Lily
+Rose's bridal veil; it fairly radiated joy when he read:
+
+"I am not going to be disagreeable to--anyone to-morrow. I shall 'let my
+light shine' on Lily Rose and--every one. If you will keep your carriage
+to-morrow night, I will send mine away and ride home with you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+On the night of the auspicious occasion, Mrs. Jenkins's home presented a
+scene of festivity. Neighbors had loaned their lamps, and the brakeman
+had hung out his red lantern in token of welcome and cheer. It was,
+however, mistaken by some of the guests as a signal of danger, and they
+were wary of their steps lest they be ditched. Mrs. Hudgers ventured the
+awful prognostication that "mebby some of them Jenkins brats had gone
+and got another of them ketchin' diseases."
+
+When they entered the house there was a general exclamation of
+admiration. The curtain partitions had been removed, and the big room
+was beautifully decorated with festoons and masses of green interspersed
+with huge bunches of June roses.
+
+Derry and Flamingus received the guests. Upstairs the Boarder and the
+brakeman were nervously awaiting the crucial moment. The door into the
+Annex was closed, for in the sitting-room was the little bride, her pale
+cheeks delicately tinted from excitement as Colette artistically
+adjusted the bridal veil, fastening it with real orange blossoms.
+Amarilly hovered near in an ecstasy which was perforce silent on account
+of her mouth being full of pins.
+
+"There's Mr. St. John's carriage," she managed to murmur as she peered
+from the window.
+
+Colette dropped her paper of pins, went hastily into the adjoining
+bedroom and slipped out again before John Meredith was ushered in where
+the surplice immaculately laundered, was waiting to be donned by its
+original owner.
+
+After slipping it on, John's hand from force of habit sought the pocket
+and there encountered something. He drew it forth wonderingly. It was a
+small, silver-monogrammed envelope sealed and addressed to him in
+Colette's handwriting. He read the note once, twice, thrice. Then there
+was a knock at the door that led into the Annex sitting-room. He opened
+it to admit Amarilly.
+
+"Are you ready?" she asked. "You're to go in with them. They--"
+
+She paused and stared at him. The transformation in his face was
+wonderful.
+
+"Yes, I am ready, Amarilly," he replied, and something in his voice
+sounded strange to her.
+
+He followed her into the next room where the Boarder, awkward in his
+Sunday clothes, but regal in his pride in the little, white-veiled
+figure at his side, was awaiting him.
+
+John walked out into the Jenkins's part of the house with them, while
+Amarilly slipped home by way of the Annex bedroom.
+
+The entrance was certainly effective to the neighbors.
+
+"Ain't she a lily though!" "Look at that long veil onct!" "Jest like 'a
+picter!" "What a swell waist" "That big bo'quet!" "I niver seed sech
+flowers afore." "That surplus makes it look like picters!"
+
+All these comments were sweet music in Amarilly's ear. Only one person
+had regrets. Mrs. Hudgers was visibly disappointed.
+
+"I thought they'd hev candles a-burnin'," she confided to Mrs. Huce.
+
+"Don't you know no better than that?" scoffed Mrs. Huce with a superior
+air. "Them things is only used by Irish folks."
+
+Derry's dancing eyes looked to Colette for appreciation of this
+statement, but her eyes and attention were entirely for John.
+
+The ceremony began. John's impressive voice, with its new pervading note
+of exultant gladness, reached them all, tempering even Derry's light-
+hearted mirth. It gave courage to the little bride whose drooping head
+rose like a flower, and a light shone in her eyes as she made the
+responses sweetly and clearly. It found echo in the Boarder, whose
+stooping shoulders unconsciously straightened and his voice grew clear
+and strong as he promised to have and to hold. It found a place in
+Colette's heart which sent illumining lights into her starry eyes.
+
+When the solemn ceremony ended, and the Boarder and Lilly Rose were
+pronounced man and wife, the guests flocked forward to offer
+congratulations. Then they were bidden to adjourn to the Annex that they
+might view the bride's domain, while Mrs. Jenkins assisted by many
+helping hands set the long tables, a small one being reserved for the
+Boarder, the bride, Mr. Cotter, and Mrs. Jenkins and Iry.
+
+"I thought they could eat more natural," whispered the considerate
+little Amarilly to Colette, "if there weren't no strangers with them."
+
+Colette, John, and Derry were also honored with a separate table. Mrs.
+Hudgers and Amarilly "dished up and poured" in the woodshed, while the
+boys acted as waiters, having been thoroughly trained by Amarilly for
+the occasion.
+
+"Do you know," laughed Derry, "I was so surprised and relieved to find
+that the Boarder had a cognomen like other people. It never occurred to
+me before that he must of course have a name."
+
+Colette smiled politely but perfunctorily. She was living too deeply
+to-night to appreciate wit. John, too, was strangely silent, his eyes
+resting often and adoringly upon Colette. Shrewdly Derry divined the
+situation and relieved it by rattling on with a surface banter that
+demanded no response.
+
+"These refreshments," he observed, "are certainly the handiwork of my
+little maid. They have a flavor all her own. I am proud of Amarilly's
+English, too."
+
+"I wonder," said Colette, "if you are doing quite right, Mr. Phillips,
+in improving Amarilly to such an extent? I am afraid she will grow
+beyond her family."
+
+"No; even you, pardon me, Miss King, don't know Amarilly as I do. She
+couldn't get beyond them in her heart, although she may in other
+directions. Her heart is in the right place, and it will bridge any
+distance that may lie between them."
+
+John looked up attentively and approvingly.
+
+"Amarilly has too much aptitude for learning not to be encouraged, and I
+shall do more for her before long. We have pursued a select course of
+reading this winter. She has read aloud while I painted. We began
+stumblingly with Alice in Wonderland and are now groping through
+mythology."
+
+After refreshments had been served, Lily Rose went to her bedroom to don
+her travelling gown, and when the happy couple had driven away amid a
+shower of rice and shouts from the neighbors, John's carriage drew up.
+
+"John," asked Colette, after a happy little moment in his arms, "did you
+read my note and did you see what the date was?"
+
+"Colette, surely it was the dearest love-letter a man ever received. If
+I could have had it all these dreary months!"
+
+"Do you wonder that I feared its falling into strange hands?"
+
+"Tell me its history, Colette. How you recovered it, and why you thought
+it was in the surplice in the first place?"
+
+"I wrote it the day after you asked me--you know--"
+
+There was another happy disappearance and silence before she resumed:
+
+"I was sentimental enough to want to deliver it in an unusual way. I
+took it to Mrs. Jenkins's house the day your surplice was to be returned
+to you, and I slipped it inside the pocket. I wanted you to find it
+there on Sunday morning. I didn't know what to think when you looked at
+me so oddly that Sunday--yes, I know now that you were wondering at my
+silence. And when we came home in the fall and I learned from Amarilly
+that strangers might be reading and laughing at my ardent love-letter,
+which must have passed through many and alien hands, I was so horrified
+I couldn't act rational or natural. I was--yes, I will 'fess up, John,--
+I was unreasonable, as you said and--No, John! wait until I finish
+before you--"
+
+"You want to know how and where it was found? It seems at the same time
+your surplice was laundered, a lace waist of mine was at their house. I
+didn't care for a 'fumigated waist' so, like you, I made Amarilly a
+present perforce. She laid it away in its wrappings to keep until her
+wedding day. Out of the goodness of her generous little heart she loaned
+it to Lily Rose and yesterday, when they were trying it on, Amarilly
+found my note in the sleeve. Mrs. Jenkins was appealed to and remembered
+that when the things were ready to be sent home, she found the note on
+the floor, and supposing it had fallen from the waist slipped it inside
+and forgot all about it. I decided that it should be delivered in the
+manner originally planned."
+
+"But, Colette," he asked wistfully, a few moments later, "if you had
+never found it would you have kept me always in suspense and never have
+given me an answer? I began to hope, that night I called, that you were
+relenting."
+
+"I was, John. Amarilly had been telling me of the Boarder's love for
+Lily Rose, and it made me lonely for you, and I determined in any event
+to give you your answer--this answer--to-night. And so I did, and--I
+think that is all, John."
+
+"Not all, Colette."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+The dairy business continued to prove profitable to Gus, the cow
+remaining contented, loving and giving. One night, however, there came
+the inevitable reaction, and the gentle creature in the cow-shed felt
+the same stifling she had rebelled against on the night of the stampede
+when she had made her wild dash for liberty. Moved by these
+recollections, the sedate, orderly cow became imbued with a feeling of
+unrest, and demolishing the frail door was once more at large. In a
+frenzy of freedom she dashed about the yard. Her progress was somewhat
+impeded by contact with the surplice which, pinned to the clothes-line,
+was flapping in the breezes. Maddened by this obstruction which hung,
+veil-like, over her bovine lineaments, she gave a twist of her Texas
+horns, a tug, and the surplice was released, but from the line only; it
+twined itself like a white wraith about the horns.
+
+Then the sportive animal frisked over the low back fence and across the
+hill, occasionally stepping on a released end of the surplice and
+angrily tearing her way through the garment. She made her road to the
+railroad track. That sight, awakening bitter memories of a packed
+cattle-car, caused her to slacken her Mazeppa-like speed. While she
+paused, the night express backed onto the side track to await the coming
+of the eastbound train. The cow, still in meditation, was silhouetted in
+the light of a harvest moon.
+
+"This 'ere," a home-bound cattleman was saying to a friend on the
+platform, "is nigh onto whar we dropped a cow. I swar if thar ain't that
+blasted cow now, what? Know her from hoof to horn, though what kind of a
+Christmas tree she's got on fer a bunnit, gits me! Ki, yi! Ki, yi!"
+
+At the sound of the shrill, weird cry, the animal stood at bay. Again
+came the well-known strident halloo. A maelstrom of memories was
+awakened by the call. Instinctively obeying the old summons she started
+toward the train, when from over the hill behind her she heard another
+command.
+
+"Co, boss! Co, boss!"
+
+The childish anxious treble rose in an imploring wail.
+
+The cow paused irresolute, hesitating between the lure of the old life
+on the plains and the recent domestic existence.
+
+"Co, boss!"
+
+There was a note of entreaty, of affection, in the cry.
+
+After all, domesticity was her birthright. With an answering low of
+encouragement the black cow turned and trotted amiably back to meet the
+little dairyman.
+
+"Well, I'll be jiggered," said the cattleman, as the train pulled out.
+"I'd a swore it was old Jetblack. Maybe 'twas. She was only a milker
+anyway, and I guess she's found a home somewhere."
+
+Gus with arm lovingly about the cow's neck walked home.
+
+"Bossy," he said in gently reproaching tones, "how could you give me
+such a skeer? I thought I'd lost you, and I'd hev sure missed you--you,
+yerself--more'n I would the money your milk brings us."
+
+Then for the first time, the lad's eyes noted the decorated horns.
+
+"What in thunder--"
+
+He began to unwind the ribbons of white cloth, the stringed remnants of
+the surplice.
+
+"Gracious Peter! It's the surplus! What will Amarilly say--and Lily
+Rose? It's only fit fer carpet rags now. Well, if this ain't the end of
+the surplus after all it has went through! I wonder what bossy wanted of
+it? Thought jest cause she was a cow, she must be a cow ketcher, I
+suppose."
+
+Great was the joy of the Jenkinses at the restoration of the cow, but
+there was grievous lament from Amarilly for the fate of the precious
+garment.
+
+"It was our friend--our friend in need!" she mourned.
+
+"I'm so glad we hev a picter of it," said Lily Rose, gazing fondly at
+the photograph of the Boarder in the saintly robes.
+
+"I'll go and tell Miss King," said Amarilly the next morning. "She said
+she felt that the surplice would come to some tragic end."
+
+"It was a fitting fate for so mysterious a garment," commented Colette.
+"You couldn't expect any ordinary, common-place ending for the surplice.
+After officiating at funerals, weddings, shop-windows, theatres,
+pawnshops, and bishops' dwellings, it could never have simply worn out,
+or died of old age."
+
+"I don't see," meditated Amarilly, "what possessed the cow. She's been
+so gentle always, and then to fly to pieces that way, and riddle the
+surplice to bits! It was lucky there was nothing else on the line."
+
+"It's very simple," said Colette. "I suppose she wanted to go to the
+train. Maybe she expected to meet a friend. And as nearly everyone else
+had worn the surplice on special occasions, she thought she could do the
+same; only, you see, never having been to church she didn't quite know
+how to put it on, and I suppose got mad at it because it didn't fit her
+and gave vent to her anger by trampling on it."
+
+Amarilly's doleful little face showed no appreciation of this conceit.
+
+"Don't look so glum, Amarilly. I have something to show you that will
+please you."
+
+She opened a desk and took a thick, white square envelope from it, and
+handed it to the little girl.
+
+Wonderingly Amarilly opened it and took out a folded, engraved sheet of
+thick paper. She read eagerly, and two little spots of pink came into
+her cheeks.
+
+"Oh, oh!" she cried, looking up with shining eyes, which in another
+moment glistened through tears.
+
+"Why, Amarilly, aren't you glad that I am going to be--"
+
+"Mrs. St. John?" smiled Amarilly. "I think it's beautiful. And,"
+anxiously, "you will surely be good to--him?"
+
+"Yes," replied Colette softly "I will be good--very good--to St. John.
+Don't fear, Amarilly."
+
+A card had fallen from the envelope. Amarilly picked it up and read:
+
+"To be presented at the church."
+
+"What's that?" she asked curiously.
+
+"You have to show that at the church door. If you didn't have it, you
+couldn't get in to see us married. It's the same as a ticket to a
+theatre. And St. John doesn't like it; but if we didn't have them there
+would be a mob of curious people who don't know us. I shall give all of
+you tickets to come to the church, the Boarder and Lily Rose, too."
+
+"Oh," cried Amarilly, "that will be lovely, and we shall all come."
+
+"Of course you will all come. Your friend, the bishop, is to marry us,
+and Bud is going to sing a solo. The choirmaster told me his voice was
+developing wonderfully."
+
+"I must go home and tell them all about it," said Amarilly excitedly.
+
+"Wait! There's more to hear. I am going to invite you to the reception
+here at the house, and I am going to have a lovely white dress made for
+you to wear, and you shall have white silk stockings and slippers and
+white gloves."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Amarilly, shutting her eyes. "I can't believe it."
+
+The next morning at the studio she announced the wonderful news to
+Derry.
+
+"I just received an invitation, myself," he replied. "We will go
+together, Amarilly. I'll send you flowers and call for you with a
+taxicab."
+
+"Things must stop happening to me," said Amarilly solemnly. "I can't
+stand much more."
+
+Derry laughed.
+
+"When things once begin to happen, Amarilly, they never stop. You are to
+go from here now every day after luncheon to this address," handing her
+a card.
+
+"'Miss Varley,'" Amarilly read. "'1227, Winter Street.' Will she have
+work for me, too?"
+
+"Yes; work in schoolbooks. She takes a few private pupils, and I have
+engaged her to teach you. I really think you should have instruction in
+other branches than English and art and arithmetic."
+
+Amarilly turned pale but said nothing for a moment. Then she held out
+her hand.
+
+"I will study hard--to pay you," she said simply.
+
+"And can you stand another piece of exciting news, Amarilly? Sunset,
+which I have dawdled over for so long, drew first prize."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, that is best of all!"
+
+"And do you know what I am going to give Mrs. St. John for a wedding
+present from you and me? The picture of The Little Scrub-girl."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Another spring found the members of the Jenkins Syndicate still banking
+regularly and flourishing in their various walks in life. The Boarder
+had received a "raise"; Lily Rose was spending her leisure time in
+fashioning tiny garments which she told Cory were for a doll baby; Iry
+was wearing his first trousers cut over from a pair discarded by Bud;
+and Amarilly was acquiring book lore with an ease and rapidity which
+delighted Miss Varley and Derry. Through the medium of Mr. Vedder the
+attention of the manager of a high class vaudeville had been drawn to
+Bud, and he was now singing every night with a salary that made the
+neighbors declare that "them Jenkinses was getting to be reg'ler
+Rockyfellers."
+
+Amarilly coming home one Monday evening found the family grouped about
+the long table listening with bulging eyes and hectic cheeks to the
+Boarder, who had before him a sheet of figures. Amarilly was at once
+alert, although somewhat resentful of this encroachment upon her
+particular province.
+
+"Oh, come and hear, Amarilly!" "Amarilly, we've bought a farm!"
+"Amarilly, we air agoin' to live in the country!"
+
+"Let me explain," said the Boarder, usually slow and easy going, but now
+alert and enthusiastic of mien and speech. "We've got a chance,
+Amarilly, to sell this place and make quite a profit. That new factory
+that's agoin' up acrost the alley has sent real estate scootin'. With
+what we git fer it, we kin make a big payment on a farm. I took a run
+down yesterday to look at one we kin git cheap, cause the folks on it
+hez gotter go west fer the man's health. What we hev all saved up sence
+we bought the place will keep us agoin' till we git in our fust summer
+crops."
+
+"Tell her about the house," prompted Mrs. Jenkins, her quick, maternal
+eye noting the bewilderment and disapproval in her daughter's expressive
+eyes.
+
+"It's all green meaders and orcherds and lanes," said the Boarder with
+the volubility of one repeating an oft-told and well-loved tale, while
+the young Jenkinses with the rapt, intense gaze of moving picture
+beholders sat in pleased expectancy, "and the house sets on a little
+rise of ground. It's a white house with a big chimbley and two stoops,
+and thar's a big barn with two white hosses in it, and a cow and an
+animal in the paster lot. A big pen of pigs, fifty hens in the henhouse,
+and a few sheep. Thar's a piece of woods and the river."
+
+"I'm a little fearful of the river on Iry's account," said Mrs. Jenkins,
+"but we kin spank him up good as soon as we git thar, and then he'll
+understand he's to keep away."
+
+"We kin git a good dog to keep track of Iry and the cattle," said the
+Boarder, and then he paused expectantly to listen to Amarilly's
+approbation. But she was strangely silent.
+
+"It will be a fust class investment," he continued sagely.
+
+"Why will it? We don't know anything about farming," objected Amarilly.
+"We'll have to hire someone to run it."
+
+"I was brought up on a farm," replied the Boarder. "Thar ain't a thing I
+don't know about farm work."
+
+"I was raised on a farm, too," said Mrs. Jenkins. "I can make good
+butter and I know all about raisin' chickens. I'll get some young
+turkeys and have them ready to sell for Thanksgiving, and I'll set out
+strawberries and celery plants."
+
+"I kin larn, and I'll work hard and do just what he tells me to," said
+Flamingus, motioning toward the Boarder.
+
+"I kin have my dairy all right, all right," said Gus joyfully. "I'll
+have a hull herd of cattle soon."
+
+"I shall go in heavy on hens," said Milt importantly. "The grocer give
+me a book about raising them. There's money in hens."
+
+"I choose to take keer of the sheep," cried Bobby.
+
+"I'll help ma do the work in the house and the garden," volunteered
+Cory.
+
+"And I'm strong enough to work outdoors now," said Lily Rose. "I shall
+help with the garden and with the housework."
+
+"We'll all pitch in and work," said Flamingus authoritatively, "and
+we're all partners and we won't hire no help. It will be clear profit."
+
+"Ain't it lovely, Amarilly?" asked the mother, apprehensive lest the
+little leader might blackball the project.
+
+"We're all doing so well here, why change? Why not let well enough
+alone?" she asked.
+
+There was a general and surprised protest at this statement. It was
+something new for Amarilly to be a kill-joy.
+
+"Do you like to live in this alley when we kin hev all outdoors and git
+a chanst to be somebody?" demanded Flamingus, who was rapidly usurping
+his sister's place as head of the house.
+
+"And think of the money we'll make!" reminded Milton.
+
+"And the milk and butter and cream and good things to eat without buying
+them!" exclaimed Gus.
+
+"And huntin' f'r eggs and swimmin' in the river and skatin' and gettin'
+hickory nuts and all the apples you kin eat," persuaded Bobby, who had
+evidently been listening to the Boarder's fancies of farm life.
+
+"Thar's a school close by, and all the chillern kin go," said the mother
+anxiously. "Mebby you kin git to teach it after a while, Amarilly."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly!" cried Lily Rose ecstatically, "to think of all the
+trees, and all the sky, and all the green grass and all the birds--oh,
+Amarilly!"
+
+Words failed Lily Rose, but she sighed a far-seeing blissful sigh of
+exquisite happiness at her horoscope. The Boarder looked at her, his
+heart eloquent in his eyes, but he said nothing.
+
+"Amarilly," cried Cory, "we kin hev real flowers fer nuthin' and pies
+and ice-cream, and we kin cuddle little chicks like ma told me, and make
+daisy chains, and hev picnics in the woods. Oh--"
+
+Words also proved inadequate to Co's anticipations.
+
+"Amawilly, we kin play wiv little lambs," lisped Iry.
+
+"Bud, you haven't made your speech, yet," said Amarilly, wistfully,
+realizing that the majority was against her.
+
+"Bud won't go till fall," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"Till fall!" cried Amarilly faintly. "Why, when are we going?"
+
+"Next week," answered the Boarder jubilantly. "The folks want to leave
+right away, and we must get busy plantin'. I went to Vedder's friend,
+the real estate man, this mornin' as soon as I got back, and he says
+it's a real bargain."
+
+"But why isn't Bud going?"
+
+"This morning," informed Mrs. Jenkins proudly, "Bud had an offer. As
+soon as the theatre shuts down, Mr. Vedder is going to take Bud to a big
+resort and manage him for the season. He'll git lots of money. I
+wouldn't let Bud go off with no one else, but Mr. Vedder is so nice, and
+he says when Bud goes to the country in the fall he kin come into the
+city Saturday nights on the Interurban and sing in the choir Sundays and
+come back Monday. He kin stay with him, Mr. Vedder says. And the country
+air and the fresh milk and eggs, will make a diff'rent boy of him. It's
+what the doctor says he'd orter hev."
+
+"Then, we'll go, of course," declared Amarilly resolutely.
+
+"And, Amarilly," said the Boarder gravely, "your ma ain't said why she
+wanted to go, but think of the diff'rence it will make in her life. To
+be sure, she will have to work hard, but with you, Lily Rose, and Co to
+help her, it won't be so hard, and it'll be higher class work than
+slushing around in tubs and water, and she'll hev good feedin' and good
+air, and we'll all feel like we was folks and our own bosses."
+
+"Ma, I was selfish!" cried Amarilly remorsefully. "I'll work like a
+hired man!"
+
+Amarilly thereupon bravely assumed a cheerful mien and looked over the
+Boarder's figures, listening with apparently great enthusiasm to the
+plans and projects. But when she was upstairs in her own little bed and
+each and every other Jenkins was wrapt in happy slumber, she turned her
+face to the wall, and wept long, silently, and miserably. Far-away
+fields and pastures did not look alluring to this little daughter of the
+city who put bricks and mortar and lighted streets above trees and
+meadows, for Amarilly was entirely metropolitan; sky-scrapers were her
+birthright, and she loved every inch of her city.
+
+"But it's best for them," she acknowledged.
+
+A little pang came with the realization that they who had been so
+dependent upon her guardianship for guidance were entirely competent to
+act without her.
+
+"It's Flam. He's growed up!" she sobbed, correctness of speech slipping
+from her in her grief. "And he don't know near so much as I do, only
+he's a man--or going to be--so what he says goes."
+
+And with this bitter but inevitable recognition of the things that are,
+Amarilly sobbed herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+The next morning Amarilly served Derry's breakfast in heavy-hearted
+silence, replying in low-voiced monosyllables to his gay, conversational
+advances. She performed her household duties about the studio listlessly
+though with conscientious thoroughness. When it came time to prepare
+luncheon, Derry called her into the studio.
+
+"Come here to the light, where I can see you best, Amarilly."
+
+Reluctantly she came.
+
+He turned his searching, artist's eyes upon her unsparingly, noting the
+violet shadows under the white-lidded eyes, and the hard, almost tragic
+lines in the drooping of her mobile mouth. She bore his gaze
+unflinchingly, with indrawn breath and clenched hands.
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?" he asked gently. "You will tell me, _nicht
+wahr_?"
+
+These two last words were in deference to her new study of German.
+
+At the genuine sympathy in his voice, Amarilly's composure gave way and
+there was a rush of tears.
+
+He led her to a divan and sat beside her.
+
+"Yes, of course you will tell me, Amarilly. I knew there was an
+emotional side to my practical, little maid, and I noticed at breakfast
+that there was something wrong."
+
+"Yes," she replied, with an effort, wiping away the rising tears, "I
+will tell you, but no one else. If I told Mr. Vedder, he would not
+understand; he would say I must do what was sensible. If I told Mr. St.
+John, he would be shocked, and tell me that duty was hard, and that was
+why it must be done,--to strengthen. Mrs. St. John would laugh, and say:
+'Oh, what a foolish Amarilly!'"
+
+"And what will I say, Amarilly?" he asked interestedly.
+
+"You! Oh, you will understand what I feel, and you will be sorry."
+
+"Then spin away, Amarilly. You'll have my sympathy and help in
+everything that makes you feel bad, whether it's right or wrong."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, we are all going away--way off to the country--to live
+on a farm!"
+
+"Amarilly, you little city brat! You'd be a misfit on a farm. Tell me
+what has sent the Jenkins family into the open."
+
+Faithfully Amarilly enumerated the pros and cons of the agricultural
+venture. When she had concluded her narrative, Derry, to her surprise
+and sorrow, looked positively jubilant.
+
+"And you don't want to live in the country, eh, Amarilly?"
+
+"No, Mr. Derry," she protested. "I don't. I have never been there, but I
+know the woods and the fields and--all that--must be beautiful--in
+patches--but I couldn't bear it all the time--not to see all the bright
+and white lights at night and the hurry, and the people, and the
+theatres. No! I'd rather be the poorest little speck here than to own
+and live on the biggest farm in the world."
+
+He laughed delightedly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you little gamin! You have the right idea, though. We
+don't want anything, however perfect it may be, all the time. We want it
+just 'in patches'--as you say. You'll love the country with your whole
+heart and soul when you come to see it if you know that you can leave
+it. But this is a big change in your affairs, and we must talk it over.
+We'll go to Carter's again for luncheon. Take off your apron and cap.
+You won't have to fix your hair this time. It's even more beautiful than
+it was then. Your frock, if it is cheap and plain, is artistic in cut
+and color."
+
+Amarilly felt cheered in spite of herself at his exuberant manner, but
+burst into tears when on leaving the studio he casually remarked:
+
+"So this is almost the last of your work here! I can never hope to get
+such another housekeeper as you. I shall have to eat out again."
+
+At sight of her grief he took hold of her arm almost roughly.
+
+"Amarilly, you little goose, do you suppose I am going to let you be
+exiled to a farm and lapse into the vernacular of the Boarder? Now, buck
+up and trust to the judgment and affection of your twin brother."
+
+Amarilly, wondering but hopeful, "bucked up," and they walked in silence
+to Carter's, where Derry ordered a private dining-room and luncheon.
+Then:
+
+"Now, listen my child, and you shall hear, not of the midnight ride of
+Paul Revere, but of the sad story of the life of your twin brother. My
+parents died when I was too young to grieve for them. They are only a
+faint memory. I had a cold-blooded, sensible guardian who put me into a
+boys' school, from which I went to college, and then for a year in
+Paris. He didn't let me know the amount of my inheritance. Consequently
+I really worked and worked hard at the only thing I cared for and formed
+no extravagant tastes. Neither was I courted and flattered by parasites.
+
+"On my return from Paris, a year before I met you, I came into my
+mother's fortune, and recently I have received the one left me by my
+father. Having been brought up to live a comparatively simple life, in
+the belief that I would be dependent on my own exertions, I have more
+money than I know what to do with as yet. I have no one, not even a
+fifth cousin, to be interested in. I have any number of acquaintances,
+but no really intimate friends, so I have no one to help me spend and
+enjoy my money.
+
+"There was something about you, Amarilly, that appealed to me that first
+day you came up to the studio. It couldn't have been your looks, for
+aside from your hair, your expressive eyes, and your hands; you are
+quite ordinary looking; but something about you amused me, then
+interested me, and, now fascinates me. I have thought about it a good
+deal, and have come to the conclusion that it is your direct naturalness
+and earnestness. I have really come to feel as if you were a sort of a
+younger sister of mine. I have done a very little for you in the way of
+education, and I have intended to do more. The reason I have been slow
+about it was--for reasons. I have discussed your future with the
+Merediths a great many times.
+
+"What I wished to do was to put you in the best girls' school I could
+find and when you were finished there, to send you abroad, and give you
+the same advantages that a sister of mine would have. But as I say, I
+hesitated. It didn't seem exactly wise to separate you from your family,
+surround you with different environments and then have you come home
+to--the alley. I know your loyal little heart would never waver in its
+affection for them, but such a decided change would not be wise.
+
+"Now, you see, this farm business simplifies things wonderfully. With
+the thrift and industry of your brothers and the Boarder I can easily
+see the farm is going to be a prosperous undertaking, and by the time
+you are finished--say five years--for Miss Varley tells me you are quite
+up with the girls of your age in your studies, they will have a
+substantial country home which you will enjoy immensely between times.
+You will find that a country home, however humble, is not sordid like an
+obscure home in the city. So next week, Amarilly, or as soon as Mrs.
+Meredith can fit you out properly, you will be packed off to an ultra-
+smart school. There will be one term this year, but I think you should
+remain through the summer vacation and have private tutoring."
+
+The waiter entered with the first course. When he had again gone out,
+Amarilly looked up at Derry, her eyes full of a yearning that touched
+him.
+
+"It would be lovely, Mr. Derry. Too lovely to happen, you know."
+
+"There, Amarilly," he said with a combination of frown and smile, "there
+it is again--your contradiction of eyes and mouth--the one of a gazelle;
+the other, of a mule. I'll answer your objections before you make them,
+for it is determined that you are to go."
+
+The look he had ascribed to Amarilly's mouth came into the forward
+thrust of his chin.
+
+"First, you think you are too proud and independent to accept. From your
+viewpoint it seems a good deal to do. From mine, proved by my bank
+account, it is an absurdly small thing to do, but if you are truly
+grateful for what you are pleased to think I have done for you, you will
+let me do this, because you feel sorry for me that I am so alone in the
+world. And St. John, himself, would tell you it was your duty to make
+the most of your talents and opportunities. You can also do a little
+charity work in keeping me straight, for you see, Amarilly, I am going
+to Paris for two years to study, and I will have an incentive to work
+and not play too hard if I know I have a little sister over here in
+school who would be sorry if her brother went wrong and didn't get to be
+a great artist. So for your sake, and for my sake--"
+
+"But there's ma's sake," she said wistfully. "The Boarder says woman's
+work on the farm is hard."
+
+"There's the Boarderess and Co--"
+
+"Lily Rose is not strong and doesn't know much about farm work, and Co's
+only a kid."
+
+"Well, I hadn't finished. You have an interest in the farm as one of the
+syndicate, and you have some money saved."
+
+"Yes," admitted Amarilly bewildered, not following his train of thought.
+
+"Well, you won't need that now, and it can go towards a woman to help,--
+a hired girl in country vernacular--during the busy seasons. And you can
+go home summers. Every week you are to write me a long letter and tell
+me about yourself and them."
+
+Amarilly was gazing into space, and in silence he watched the odd,
+little signs of conflict. It was the same sort of a struggle, only
+harder and more prolonged, that she had passed through two years before
+at the theatre when her untutored conscience bade her relinquish her
+seat. Suddenly her countenance became illumined.
+
+"I am going to do it, Mr. Derry! I am going to let you send me to
+school, and abroad and wherever you think best."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley, by
+Belle K. Maniates
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+Project Gutenberg's Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley, by Belle K. Maniates
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+Title: Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
+
+Author: Belle K. Maniates
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9988]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 6, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tony Browne and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+BY BELLE K. MANIATES
+
+AUTHOR OF DAVID DUNNE.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. HENRY
+
+1915
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work"
+
+To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope with her caprices
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker
+
+
+
+[Illustration: He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of
+adoration]
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The tiny, trivial touch of Destiny that caused the turn in Amarilly's
+fate-tide came one morning when, in her capacity as assistant to the
+scrub ladies at the Barlow Stock Theatre, she viewed for the first time
+the dress rehearsal of _A Terrible Trial_. Heretofore the patient little
+plodder had found in her occupation only the sordid satisfaction of
+drawing her wages, but now the resplendent costumes, the tragedy in the
+gestures of the villain, the languid grace of Lord Algernon, and the
+haughty treble of the leading lady struck the spark that fired ambition
+in her sluggish breast.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped in wistful-voiced soliloquy, as she leaned against her
+mop-stick and gazed aspiringly at the stage, "I wonder if I couldn't
+rise!"
+
+"Sure thing, you kin!" derisively assured Pete Noyes, vender of gum at
+matinees. "I'll speak to de maniger. Mebby he'll let youse scrub de
+galleries."
+
+Amarilly, case-hardened against raillery by reason of the possession of
+a multitude of young brothers, paid no heed to the bantering scoffer,
+but resumed her work in dogged dejection.
+
+"Say, Mr. Vedder, Amarilly's stage-struck!" called Pete to the ticket-
+seller, who chanced to be passing.
+
+The gray eyes of the young man thus addressed softened as he looked at
+the small, eager face of the youngest scrubber.
+
+"Stop at the office on your way out, Amarilly," he said kindly, "and
+I'll give you a pass to the matinee this afternoon."
+
+Amarilly's young heart fluttered wildly and sent a wave of pink into her
+pale cheeks as she voiced her gratitude.
+
+She was the first to enter when the doors opened that afternoon, and she
+kept close to the heels of the usher.
+
+"He ain't agoin' to give me the slip," she thought, keeping wary watch
+of his lithe form as he slid down the aisle.
+
+In the blaze of light and blare of instruments she scarcely recognized
+her workaday environment.
+
+"House sold out!" she muttered with professional pride and enthusiasm as
+the signal for the raising of the curtain was given. "Mebby I'd orter
+give up my seat so as they could sell it."
+
+There was a moment's conflict between the little scrubber's conscience
+and her newly awakened desires.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to, though," she decided. And having so determined, she
+gave her conscience a shove to the remotest background, yielding herself
+to the full enjoyment of the play.
+
+The rehearsal had been inspiring and awakening, but this, "the real
+thing," as Amarilly appraised it, bore her into a land of enchantment.
+She was blind and deaf to everything except the scenes enacted on the
+stage. Only once was her passionate attention distracted, and that was
+when Pete in passing gave her an emphatic nudge and a friendly grin as
+he munificently bestowed upon her a package of gum. This she instantly
+pocketed "fer the chillern."
+
+At the close of the performance Amarilly sailed home on waves of
+excitement. She was the eldest of the House of Jenkins, whose scions,
+numbering eight, were all wage-earners save Iry, the baby. After school
+hours Flamingus was a district messenger, Gus milked the grocer's cow,
+Milton worked in a shoe-shining establishment, Bobby and Bud had paper
+routes, while Cory, commonly called "Co," wiped dishes at a boarding-
+house. Notwithstanding all these contributions to the family revenue, it
+became a sore struggle for the widow of Americanus Jenkins to feed and
+clothe such a numerous brood, so she sought further means of
+maintenance.
+
+"I've took a boarder!" she announced solemnly to Amarilly on her return
+from the theatre. "He's a switchman and I'm agoin' to fix up the attic
+fer him. I don't jest see how we air agoin' to manage about feedin' him.
+Thar's no room to the table now, and thar ain't dishes enough to go
+around, but you're so contrivin' like, I thought you might find out a
+way." Memories of the footlights were temporarily banished upon hearing
+this wonderful intelligence. A puzzled pucker came between the brows of
+the little would-be prima donna and remained there until at last the
+exigency was triumphantly met.
+
+"I hev it, ma! When's he comin'?"
+
+"To-morrer fer breakfast."
+
+"Then we must rayhearse to-night afore we kin put it on right. Come, all
+you-uns, to the kitchen table."
+
+The Jenkins children, accustomed to the vernacular of the profession,
+were eager to participate in a rehearsal, and they scampered
+boisterously to the kitchen precincts. Amarilly, as stage director,
+provided seats at the table for herself, her mother, Flamingus, Gus, the
+baby, and the Boarder, the long-suffering, many-roled family cat
+personating the latter as understudy. Behind their chairs, save those
+occupied by the Boarder and the baby, were stationed Milton, Bobby, Bud,
+and Cory. This outer row, Amarilly explained, was to be fed from the
+plates of their elders with food convenient as was Elijah by the
+Scriptural ravens. This plan lifted the strain from the limited table
+appointments, but met with opposition from the outpost who rebelled
+against their stations.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to stand behind Flam or Gus," growled Milton. "I won't
+stand no show fer grub at all."
+
+"I ain't, neither," and "Nit fer me!" chorused the near twins, Bobby and
+Bud.
+
+"I want to set at the table and eat like folks!" sobbed Cory.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins advocated immediate surrender, but the diplomatic little
+general, whose policy was pacification, in shrill, appealing voice
+reassured and wheedled the young mutineers back into the ranks.
+
+"It's the only way we can take a boarder," she persuaded, "and if we git
+him, we'll hev more to eat than jest hot pertaters and bread and gravy.
+Thar'll be meat, fresh or hotted up, onct a day, and pie on Sundays."
+
+The deserters to a man returned from their ignominious retreat.
+
+"Now, Co, you stand behind me, and when you git tired, you kin set on
+half my chair. Milt, git behind ma, and Bud and Bobby, stand back of
+Flamingus and Gus. If they don't divvy up even they'll hev to change
+places with you. Now, to places!" This conciliatory arrangement proving
+satisfactory, supper was served on the new plan with numerous directions
+and admonitions from Amarilly.
+
+"No self-helpin's, Milt. Bud, if you knock Flammy's elbow, he needn't
+give you anything to eat. Bobby, if you swipe another bite from Gus,
+I'll spank you. Co, quit yer self-reachin's! Flammy, you hev got to pass
+everything to the Boarder fust. Now, every meal that I don't hev to
+speak to one of youse in the back row, youse kin hev merlasses spread on
+yer bread."
+
+The rehearsal supper finished and the kitchen "red up," Amarilly's
+thoughts again took flight and in fancy she winged her way toward a
+glorious future amid the glow and glamor of the footlights. To the
+attentive family, who hung in an ecstasy of approval on her vivid
+portrayal, she graphically described the play she had witnessed, and
+then dramatically announced her intention of going on the stage when she
+grew up.
+
+"You kin do it fine, Amarilly," said the mother admiringly.
+
+"And we-uns kin git in free!" cried Bobby jubilantly. In the morning the
+Boarder, a pleasant-voiced, quiet-faced man with a look of kindliness
+about his eyes and mouth, made his entrance into the family circle. He
+commended the table arrangements, praised the coffee, and formed
+instantaneous friendships with the children. All the difficulties of the
+cuisine having been smoothed over or victoriously met, Amarilly went to
+the theatre with a lightened heart. When Mr. Vedder came up to her and
+asked how she had enjoyed the performance, she felt emboldened to
+confide to him her professional aspirations.
+
+The young ticket-seller did not smile. There was nothing about this
+diligent, ill-fed, little worker that appealed to his sense of humor.
+
+"It will be a long time yet, Amarilly, before you can go on the stage,"
+he counselled. "Besides, you know the first thing you must have is an
+education."
+
+Amarilly sighed hopelessly.
+
+"I can't git to go to school till the boys hev more larnin'. I hev to
+work here mornin's and help ma with the washin's in the arternoon.
+Mebby, arter a little, I kin git into some night-school." A stage-hand
+working near by overheard this conversation and displayed instant
+interest in the subject of Amarilly's schooling.
+
+"Couldn't you git off Saturday arternoons?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I could do that," assured Amarilly eagerly. "Is thar a Saturday
+arternoon school?"
+
+"Yes," replied the man. "There is a church guild, St. Mark's, that has a
+school. My little gal goes. She larns sewin' and singin' and waitin' on
+table and such like. You'd better go with her to-morrow."
+
+"I kin sew now," said Amarilly, repeating this conversation to the
+family circle that night, "and I'd like to sing, fer of course I'll hev
+to when I'm on the stage, but I git enough waitin' on table to hum. I'd
+ruther larn to read better fust of all."
+
+"I ain't much of a scholar," observed the Boarder modestly, "but I can
+learn you readin', writin', and spellin' some, and figgerin' too. I'll
+give you lessons evenin's."
+
+"We'll begin now!" cried the little tyro enthusiastically.
+
+The Boarder approved this promptness, and that night gave the first
+lesson from Flamingus's schoolbooks.
+
+The next morning Amarilly proudly informed the ticket-seller that her
+education had begun. She was consequently rather lukewarm in regard to
+the Guild school proposition, but the little daughter of the stagehand
+pictured the school and her teacher in most enticing fashion.
+
+"You kin be in our class," she coaxed persuasively. "We hev a new
+teacher. She's a real swell and wears a diamon' ring and her hair is
+more yaller than the wig what the play lady wears. She bed us up to her
+house to a supper last week, and thar was velvit carpits and ice-cream
+and lots of cake but no pie."
+
+Amarilly's curiosity was aroused, and her red, roughened hand firmly
+grasped the confiding one of her little companion as she permitted
+herself to be led to the Guild school.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The teacher at the Guild was even more beautiful than Amarilly's fancy,
+fed by the little girl's vivid description, had pictured.
+
+"Her hair ain't boughten," decided the keen-eyed critic as she gazed
+adoringly at the golden braids crowning the small head. The color of her
+eyes was open to speculation; when they had changed from gray to green,
+from green to hazel, and from hazel to purple, Amarilly gave up the
+enigma. The color of her complexion changed, too, in the varying tints
+of peaches.
+
+"I do b'lieve she ain't got no make-up on," declared Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+The little daughter of the stage-hand had not overappraised the diamond.
+It shone resplendent on a slender, shapely hand.
+
+"Miss King, I've brung a new scholar," introduced the little girl
+importantly. "She's Amarilly."
+
+As she glanced at her new pupil, the young teacher's eyes brightened
+with spontaneous interest, and a welcoming smile parted her lips.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Amarilly. Here's a nice little pile of blue carpet
+rags to sew and make into a ball. When you have made a lot of balls I'll
+have them woven into a pretty blue rug for you to take home and keep."
+
+"For the Boarder's room!" thought Amarilly joyously, as she went at her
+work with the avidity that marked all her undertakings.
+
+Presently a small seamstress asked for instruction as to the proper
+method of putting the strips together. The fair face of the young
+teacher became clouded for a moment, and she was unmistakably confused.
+Her wavering, dubious glance fell upon Amarilly sitting tense and
+upright as she made quick, forceful, and effective stabs with her
+needle, biting her thread vigorously and resonantly. The stitches were
+microscopic and even; the strips symmetrically and neatly joined.
+
+The teacher's face cleared as she saw and seized her avenue of escape.
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work and sew the strips
+just as she does. Hers are perfect."
+
+[Illustration: "You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work."]
+
+Amarilly's wan little face brightened, and she proceeded to show the
+children how to sew, bringing the same ease and effectiveness into her
+tutoring that she displayed when instructing her brothers and Cory.
+
+The sewing lesson continued for an hour. Then the children sang songs to
+a piano accompaniment, and there followed a lesson in cooking and the
+proper setting of a table. All this instruction was succeeded by an
+informal chat.
+
+"I want you all to tell me what you are going to do when you grow to be
+women," said Miss King.
+
+In most cases the occupations of their parents were chosen, and the
+number of washerwomen, scrubbers, and seamstresses in embryo was
+appalling.
+
+"And you, Amarilly?" she asked, addressing the new pupil last of all.
+
+Amarilly's mien was lofty, her voice consequential, as she replied in
+dramatic denouement:
+
+"I'm goin' on the stage!"
+
+The young teacher evinced a most eager interest in this declaration.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly! We all have a stage-longing period. When did you first
+think of such a career?"
+
+"I'm in the perfesshun now," replied Amarilly pompously.
+
+"Really! Tell me what you do, Amarilly."
+
+"I scrub at the Barlow Theatre, and I went to the matinee day afore
+yisterday. I hed a pass give to me."
+
+These statements made such a visible impression on her audience that
+Amarilly waxed eloquent and proceeded to describe the play, warming to
+her work as she gained confidence. The gestures of Lord Algernon and the
+leading lady were reproduced freely, fearlessly, and faithfully.
+
+With a glimmer of mischief dancing in her eyes, the young teacher
+listened appreciatively but apprehensively as she noted the amazed
+expression on the faces of the teachers of adjacent classes when
+Amarilly's treble tones were wafted toward them. Fortunately, the
+realistic rendering of Lord Algernon's declaration of love was
+interrupted by the accompaniment to a song, which was followed by the
+dismissal of the school.
+
+"Kin I take my strips home to sew on?" asked Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Miss King. "That is not permitted."
+
+Seeing the look of disappointment in the child's eyes, she asked in
+kindly tone:
+
+"Why are you in such a hurry to finish the work, Amarilly?"
+
+"We've took a Boarder," explained Amarilly, "and I want the rug fer his
+room. It'll take an orful long time to git it done if I only work on it
+an hour onct a week. He's so good to me, I want to do something to make
+his room look neat, so he'll feel to hum."
+
+The young teacher reflected a moment.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do, Amarilly. I will buy one of the rugs that
+are to be on sale at the church fair this week. They have some very nice
+large ones. I will give it to you, and when yours is finished you may
+give it to me in return."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried Amarilly, her countenance brightening, "But won't
+you need it afore I kin git this one done?"
+
+"No; I am sure I shall not," replied the young lady gravely.
+
+When they left the building the teacher paused as she was about to step
+into her electric brougham. "Where do you live, Amarilly?"
+
+Amarilly gave her street and number.
+
+"You must live farther away than any of the other children. Get in,
+dear; I will take you home."
+
+She had opened the door as she spoke, and the little scrubber's eyes
+were dazzled by the elegance of the appointments--a silver vase filled
+with violets, a silver card-case, and--but Amarilly resolutely shut her
+eyes upon this proffered grandeur and turned to the lean but longing
+little daughter of the stage-hand.
+
+"You see, I come with her," she explained simply and loyally.
+
+"There is room for you both. Myrtie can sit on this little seat."
+
+Overawed by the splendor of her environment, Amarilly held her breath as
+they glided swiftly through the streets. There was other glory, it
+seemed, than that of the footlights. When the happy little Myrtle had
+been left at her humble home the young teacher turned with eager
+anticipation to Amarilly.
+
+"Tell me more about yourself, Amarilly. First of all, who is the
+Boarder?"
+
+Amarilly explained their affairs, even to the "double-decker diner," as
+the Boarder had called the table arrangement.
+
+"And what has he done for you, Amarilly, that you are so anxious he
+should have a rug?"
+
+"He's larnin' me readin', writin', spellin', and figgers."
+
+"Don't you go to school?"
+
+"No; I hev to bring in wages and help ma with the washin's."
+
+"I'll teach you, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I'm sure I'm more
+proficient in those branches than the Boarder."
+
+"He sez," admitted Amarilly, "that it won't take him long to larn me all
+he knows; but you see--" She spoke with delicate hesitancy and evident
+embarrassment. "It's orful good in you to want to larn me--but he might
+feel hurt-like if I was to quit him."
+
+"You are right, Amarilly. You are a loyal little girl. But I tell you
+what we will do about it. When you have learned all that the Boarder
+feels he can teach you, you shall go to night-school. There is one in
+connection with St. Mark's. I will see that you enter there."
+
+"I didn't know thar was one fer girls," said Amarilly. "I'm glad thar's
+a way fer me to git eddicated, fer I must hev larnin' afore I kin go on
+the stage. Mr. Vedder, the ticket-seller to Barlow's, told me so."
+
+"Amarilly,"--and an earnest note crept into the gay, young voice--"you
+may find things that you will like to do more than to go on the stage."
+
+"No!" asserted the youthful aspirant, "Thar ain't nuthin' else I'd like
+so well."
+
+"Amarilly, I am going to tell you something. Once, not long ago, I had
+the stage fever, but I think I know now there is something--something I
+should like better."
+
+"What?" queried Amarilly skeptically.
+
+"I can't tell you now, but you have a long time yet in which to decide
+your future. Tell me what I can do to help your mother."
+
+"If you could git us more washin's," exclaimed Amarilly eagerly, "it
+would help heaps. We could take in lots more than we do now."
+
+"Let me think. You see we keep a laundress; but--does your mother do up
+very fine things--like laces--carefully?"
+
+"She does," replied Amarilly glibly. "She kin do 'em orful keerful, and
+we dry the colored stuffs in the shade. And our clo'es come out snow-
+white allers, and we never tears laces nor git in too much bluin' or
+starch the way some folks does."
+
+"Then I'll give you my address and you can come for my fine waists; and
+let me see, I am sure I can get St. Mark's laundry work for you, too."
+
+"You're orful good, Miss King. This is where we hev to turn down this
+'ere court."
+
+The "court" appeared to Miss King more like an alley. The advent of the
+brougham in the little narrow right-of-way filled every window with
+hawk-eyed observers. About the Jenkins's doorstep was grouped the entire
+household from the Boarder to the baby, and the light, musical voices of
+children floating through the soft spring air fell pleasantly upon the
+ears of the young settlement worker.
+
+"So this is where you live, Amarilly?" she asked, her eyes sparkling as
+she focussed them on the family. "You needn't come for the washing the
+first time. I will bring it myself so I can see all your little
+brothers. Be sure to come to the Guild next Saturday, and then I'll have
+the rug for you to take home. Goodbye, dear."
+
+Knowing that she was observed by myriad eyes, Amarilly stepped loftily
+from the brougham and made a sweeping stage courtesy to her departing
+benefactress.
+
+"Are you on the stage now, Amarilly?" asked Co eagerly as she came to
+meet her sister.
+
+"No; but she," with a wave of her hand toward the swiftly gliding
+electric, "is agoin to help me git eddicated, and she has give me a
+beautiful rug fer the Boarder, and we're agoin' to hev her waists to
+wash, and Mr. St. Mark's clo'es, and she told all the scholars to sew
+like me 'cause' I sewed the best, and I've larned how to set our table.
+We mustn't stack up the knife and fork and spoon on ends any more. The
+knife goes to the right, the fork to the left of the plate, and the
+spoon goes back of it and the tumbler and the napkin, when you has 'em,
+to the right."
+
+"I do declare, Amarilly, if it ain't jest like a fairy story!" cried
+Mrs. Jenkins enthusiastically. "You allers did strike luck."
+
+"You bet!" cried Bobby admiringly. "Things go some where Amarilly is."
+
+Amarilly was happier even than she had been on the night of the eventful
+matinee day. The electric brougham had seemed a veritable fairy
+godmother's coach to her. But it was not the ride that stood uppermost
+in her memory as she lay awake far into the night; it was the little
+word of endearment uttered in caressing cadence.
+
+"No one ain't ever called me that afore," she murmured wistfully. "I
+s'pose ma ain't hed time, and thar was no one else to keer."
+
+Impulsively and tenderly her thin little arm encircled the baby sleeping
+beside her.
+
+"Dear!" she whispered in an awed tone. "Dear!"
+
+Iry answered with a sleepy, cooing note.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Colette King was not one whom the voice of the people of St. Mark's
+would proclaim as the personification of their ideal of a pastor's wife,
+yet John Meredith loved her with the love that passeth all
+understanding. Perhaps the secret of her charm for him lay in the fact
+that she treated him as she did other men--men who did not wear a
+surplice. And yet his surplice and all that pertained thereto were
+matters of great moment to the rector of St. Mark's. Little traces of
+his individuality were evident in the fashioning of this clerical
+garment. A pocket for his handkerchief was stitched on the left side.
+
+The flowers, the baptismal font, the altar cloth, and the robes of the
+vested choir he insisted should be immaculate in whiteness. White, the
+color of the lily, he declared, was the emblem of purity. There were
+members of his flock so worldly minded as to whisper insinuatingly that
+white was extremely becoming to Colette King. Many washerwomen had
+applied for the task of laundering the ecclesiastical linen; many had
+been tried and found wanting. So after her interview with Amarilly,
+Colette asked the rector of St. Mark's to call at her house "on
+important business."
+
+From the time he was ten years old until he became rector of St. Mark's,
+John Meredith had been a member of the household of his guardian, Henry
+King, and had ever cheerfully and gladly borne with the caprices of the
+little Colette.
+
+He answered the present summons promptly and palpitatingly. It had been
+two weeks since he had remonstrated with Colette for the surprisingly
+sudden announcement, made in seeming seriousness, that she was going to
+study opera with a view to going on the stage. The fact that she had a
+light, sweet soprano adapted only to the rendition of drawing-room
+ballads did not lessen in his eyes the probability of her carrying out
+this resolve.
+
+She had met his reproving expostulations in a spirit of bantering
+raillery and replied with a defiance of his opinion that had pierced his
+heart with arrow-like swiftness. Since then she had studiously avoided
+meeting him, and he was not sure whether he was now recalled to listen
+to a reiteration of her intentions or to receive an anodyne for the
+bitterness of her remarks at their last interview.
+
+"I sent for you, John," she said demurely and without preamble, "to see
+if you have found a satisfactory laundress yet for the surplices."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed in rebuking tone, his face reddening at her
+question which he supposed to be made in mere mockery.
+
+"I am not speaking to you as Colette King," she replied with a look half
+cajoling, half flippant, "but as a teacher in the Young Woman's
+Auxiliary Guild to the rector of St. Mark's. You see I no longer lead a
+foolish, futile life. Here is the evidence in the case," holding up a
+slender pink forefinger. "See how it is pricked! For three Saturday
+afternoons I have shown little girls that smelled of fried potatoes how
+to sew. I shall really learn something myself about the feminine art of
+needlework if I continue in my present straight, domestic path."
+
+"Colette, you cannot know how glad I am to hear this. Why did you try to
+make me think the laundry work was--"
+
+"But the laundry work _is_ the main issue. Yesterday I had quite decided
+to give up this uninteresting work."
+
+Watching him warily, she let the shadow in his eyes linger a moment
+before she continued:
+
+"And then there came into my class a new pupil, poorly clad and
+ignorant, but so redolent of soapsuds and with such a freshly laundered
+look that I renewed my inclinations to charity. I took her home in my
+electric, and she lived at a distance that gave me ample time to listen
+to the complete chronicles of her young life. Her father is dead. Her
+mother was left with eight children whom she supports by taking in
+washing. They have a boarder and they go around the dining-room table
+twice. My new pupil's name is Amarilly Jenkins, and she has educational
+longings which cannot be satisfied because she has to work, so I am
+going to enter her in St. Mark's night-school when she has finished a
+special course with the private tutor she now has."
+
+"Colette," said the young minister earnestly, "why do you continually
+try to show yourself to me in a false light? It was sweet in you to take
+this little girl home in your brougham and to feel an interest in her
+improvement."
+
+"Not at all!" protested Colette. "My trend at present may appear to be
+charitable, but Amarilly and I have a common interest--a fellow
+feeling--that makes me wondrous kind. We both have longings to appear in
+public on the stage."
+
+At this sudden challenge, this second lowering of the red flag, John's
+face grew stern.
+
+"Amarilly," continued the liquid voice,--"has had more experience in
+stage life than I have had. She has commenced at the lowest round of the
+dramatic ladder of fame. She scrubs at the Barlow Theatre, and she is
+quite familiar with stage lore. Her hero is the man who plays the role
+of Lord Algernon in _A Terrible Trial_."
+
+He made no reply, and Colette presently broke the silence.
+
+"Seriously, John," she said practically and in a tone far different from
+her former one, "the Jenkins family are poor and most deserving. I am
+going to give them some work, and if you would give them a trial on the
+church linen, it would help them so much. There was a regular army of
+little children on the doorstep, and it must be a struggle to feed them
+all. I should like to help them--to give them something--but they seem
+to be the kind of people that you can help only by giving them work to
+perform. I have learned that true independence is found only among the
+poor."
+
+John took a little notebook from his pocket.
+
+"What is their address, Colette?"
+
+She took the book from him and wrote down the street and number.
+
+"Colette, you endeavor to conceal a tender heart--"
+
+"And will you give them--Mrs. Jenkins--a trial?"
+
+"Yes; this week."
+
+"That will make Amarilly so happy," she said, brightening. "I am going
+there to-morrow to take them some work, and I will tell Mrs. Jenkins to
+send Flamingus--his is the only name of the brood that my memory
+retains--for the church laundry."
+
+"He may call at the rectory," replied John, "and get the house laundry
+as well."
+
+"That will be good news for them. I shall enjoy watching Amarilly's face
+when she hears it."
+
+"And now, Colette, will you do something for me?"
+
+"Maybe. What is it?" she asked guardedly.
+
+"Will you abandon the idea of going on the stage, or studying for that
+purpose?"
+
+"Perforce. Father won't consent."
+
+A look of relief drove the trouble from the dark eyes fixed on hers.
+
+"I'll be twenty-one in a year, however," she added carelessly.
+
+John was wise enough to perceive the wilfulness that prompted this
+reply, and he deftly changed the subject of conversation.
+
+"About this little girl, Amarilly. We must find her something in the way
+of employment. The atmosphere of a theatre isn't the proper one for a
+child of that age. Do you think so?"
+
+"Theoretically, no; but Amarilly is not impressionable to atmosphere
+altogether. She seems a hard-working, staunch little soul, and all that
+relieves the sordidness of her life and lightens the dreariness of her
+work is the 'theayter,' as she calls it. So don't destroy her illusions,
+John. You'll do her more harm than good."
+
+"Not if I give her something real in the place of what you rightly term
+her illusions."
+
+"You can't. Sunday-school would not satisfy a broad-minded little
+proletarian like Amarilly, so don't preach to _her_."
+
+He winced perceptibly.
+
+"Do I preach to _you_, Colette? Is that how you regard me--as a prosy
+preacher who--"
+
+"No, John. Just as a disturber of dreams--that is all."
+
+"A disturber of dreams?" he repeated wistfully. "It is you, Colette, who
+are a disturber of dreams. If you would only let my dreams become
+realities!"
+
+"Then, to be paradoxical, your realities might change back to dreams, or
+even nightmares. Returning to soapsuds and Amarilly Jenkins, will you go
+there with me to-morrow and make arrangements with Mrs. Jenkins for the
+laundry work?"
+
+"Indeed I will, Colette, and--"
+
+"Don't look so serious, John. Until that dreadful evening, the last time
+you called, you always left your pulpit punctilio behind you when you
+came here."
+
+"Colette!" he began in protest.
+
+But she perversely refused to fall in with his serious vein. Chattering
+gayly yet half-defiantly, on her face the while a baffling smile, partly
+tender, partly amused, and wholly coquettish--the smile that maddened
+and yet entranced him--she brought the mask of reserve to his face and
+man. At such times he never succeeded in remembering that she was but
+little more than a child, heart-free, capricious, and wilful. Despairing
+of changing her mood to the serious one that he loved yet so seldom
+evoked, he arose and bade her good-night.
+
+When he was in the hall she softly called him back, meeting him with a
+half-penitent look in her eyes, which had suddenly become gazelle-like.
+
+"You may preach to me again some time, John. There are moments when I
+believe I like it, because no other man dares to do it" "Dares?" he
+queried with a smile.
+
+"Yes; dares. They all fear to offend. And you, John, you fear nothing!"
+
+"Yes, I do," he answered gravely, as he looked down upon her. "There is
+one thing I fear that makes me tremble, Colette."
+
+But her mood had again changed, and with a mischievous, elusive smile
+she bade him go. Inert and musing, he wandered at random through the
+lights and shadows of the city streets, with a wistful look in his eyes
+and just the shadow of a pang in his heart.
+
+"She is very young," he said condoningly, answering an accusing thought.
+"She has been a little spoiled, naturally. She has seen life only from
+the side that amuses and entertains. Some day, when she realizes, as it
+comes to us all to do, that care and sorrow bring their own sustaining
+power, she will not dally among the petty things of life; the wilful
+waywardness will turn to winning womanliness."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The next afternoon when Amarilly came home from the theatre, her mother
+met her with another burst of information.
+
+"Miss King and the preacher was here. He's agoin' to give us all the
+church surpluses to wash and his house-wash, too. Flamingus is to go fer
+them to the rectry to-night, and you're to go to Miss King's and get the
+waists she has to be did up. She left two car tickets fer you."
+
+"We air jest astubbin' our toes on luck," gasped Amarilly.
+
+"The fust pay from the new washin's shall go fer a new hat and dress fer
+you, Amarilly. It's acomin' to you all right. 'Twas you as got this work
+fer us."
+
+"No!" was the emphatic reply. "We'll git some more cheers, knives,
+spoons, plates, cups, and two more leaves fer the table, so's the
+chillern kin all set to table to onct."
+
+"That'll be a hull lot more convenient," admitted Mrs. Jenkins
+hopefully. "Co spills things so, and the boys quarrel when you and the
+Boarder ain't here to keep peace. It was jest orful this noon. You
+wasn't here and the Boarder kerried his dinner. 'Cause Flam put too much
+vinegar on Milt's beans, Milt poured it down Flam's neck, and when I
+sent him away from the table he sassed me."
+
+"Jiminy!" protested Amarilly indignantly. "I'd make Milt go without his
+supper to-night."
+
+"'Tain't his stummick I'm agoin' to punish," said Mrs. Jenkins
+sarcastically. "I've laid by a willer switch that'll feel sharper than
+the vinegar he wasted. You'd better go to Miss King's right away--and,
+Amarilly, mind you ride both ways. It's too far to walk. Don't you sell
+the tickets!"
+
+This last prohibitory remark was made in remembrance of Amarilly's
+commercial instincts.
+
+When Amarilly was admitted to the basement of her young benefactress's
+home a trimly-capped little maid took her to Colette's boudoir.
+
+"Sit down and talk to me, Amarilly. I want to hear more about Lord
+Algernon and Mr. Vedder and Pete. Here's a box of chocolate creams that
+must be eaten while they are fresh."
+
+Amarilly was slightly awed at first by the luxurious appointments of the
+room, but she soon recovered her ease and devoured the novel sweets with
+appreciative avidity. Then she proved herself a fascinating raconteur of
+the annals of a world unknown to Colette. It was a matter of course to
+Amarilly that the leading lady should be supporting an invalid sister;
+that the languid Lord Algernon should be sending his savings to his old
+mother who lived in the country; that the understudy should sew
+industriously through rehearsals and behind the scenes between parts for
+her two little fatherless girls; that Pete Noyes should "bank" to buy a
+wheeled chair for his rheumatic father; that the villain was "layin' by"
+for his parents to come from the Fatherland, and that the company should
+all chip in to send the property woman's sick child to the seashore. But
+to Colette the homely little stories were vignettes of another side of
+life.
+
+"Have you been to the rectory yet, Amarilly?" she asked presently, when
+Amarilly's memories of stage life lagged.
+
+"No; Flammy has went fer Mr. St. Mark's things."
+
+"Mr. St. Mark's!"
+
+Colette laughed delightedly.
+
+"I thought you told me that the preacher's name was Mr. St. Marks. You
+said mebby you could git his wash fer us."
+
+"No, Amarilly. I did not mean that. St. Mark's is the name of the church
+where he officiates. He could never under any conditions be a St. Mark."
+
+"Wat's his name?"
+
+"St. John, of course. And most people call him a rector, but really your
+name suits him best. He does preach--sometimes--to me."
+
+At the end of the week Colette again sent for John--to call "on laundry
+business"--her little note read.
+
+"I couldn't wait," she said when he came, "to learn how Mrs. Jenkins
+pleased you. My waists were most beautifully laundered. She is certainly
+a Madonna of the Tubs."
+
+"You have indeed secured a treasure for me, Colette. The linen is
+immaculate, and she shall have the laundering of it regularly."
+
+"I am so glad!" exclaimed Colette fervently. "They need it so much, and
+they are so anxious to please. Amarilly was so apprehensive--"
+
+John's face had become radiant.
+
+"It is sweet in you to be interested, Colette, and--"
+
+"I wish you would see her," said Colette, ignoring his commendatory
+words and voice. "She's an odd little character. I invited her to
+luncheon the other day, and the courses and silver never disturbed her
+apparently. She watched me closely, however, and followed my moves as
+precisely as a second oarsman. By the way, she called you St. Mark. I
+know some people consider you and St. Mark's as synonymous, but I
+explained the difference. She tells me absorbingly interesting stories
+of theatre life--the life behind the scenes. You see the 'scent of the
+roses,' John!"
+
+The shadow fell again, but he made no response.
+
+The following Monday the young minister chanced to be in the culinary
+precincts of the rectory when Amarilly called for the laundry, none of
+the boys having been available for the service.
+
+An instant gleam of recognition came into his kindly eyes.
+
+"You must be Amarilly Jenkins. I have heard very good accounts of you--
+that you are industrious and a great help to your mother."
+
+Amarilly looked at him shrewdly.
+
+"_She_ told you," she affirmed positively.
+
+There was but one "she" in the world of these two, and John Meredith
+naturally comprehended.
+
+"She's orful good to us," continued Amarilly, "and it was through her,
+Mr. St. John, that we got the surpluses."
+
+"It was, indeed, Amarilly; but my name is not St. John. It is John
+Meredith."
+
+"She was jest kiddin' me, then!" deduced Amarilly appreciatively. "I
+thought at fust as how yer name was St. Mark, and she said you could
+never be a St. Mark, that you was St. John. She likes a joke. Mr.
+Reeves-Eggleston (he's playin' the part of the jilted man in the new
+play this week) says it's either folks as never hez hed their troubles
+or them as hez hed more'n their share what laughs at everything, only,
+he says, it's diffrent kinds of laughs."
+
+The reference to the play reminded John of a duty to perform.
+
+"Miss King told me, Amarilly, that you want to go on the stage when you
+grow up."
+
+"I did plan to go on, but she said when I got eddicated, I might hear of
+other things to do--things I'd like better. So mebby I'll change my
+mind."
+
+A beautiful smile lightened John's dark eyes.
+
+"She, was right, Amarilly. There _are_ things that would be better for
+you to do, and I--we--will try to help you find them."
+
+"Every one gits the stage fever some time," remarked Amarilly
+philosophically, "She said so. She said she had it once herself, but
+she knew now that there was something she would like better."
+
+His smile grew softer.
+
+"She wouldn't tell me what it was," continued Amarilly musingly. Then a
+troubled look came into her eyes.
+
+"Mebby I shouldn't tell you what she says. Flamingus says I talk too
+much."
+
+"It was all right to tell me, Amarilly," he replied with radiant eyes,
+"as long as she said nothing personal."
+
+Amarilly looked mystified.
+
+"I mean," he explained gently, "that she said nothing of me, nothing
+that you should not repeat. I am glad, though, to see that you are
+conscientious. Miss King tells me you are to go to the night-school. Do
+you attend Sunday-school?"
+
+Amarilly looked apologetic.
+
+"Not reg'lar. Thar's a meetin'-house down near us that we go to
+sometimes. Flamingus and me and Gus give a nickel apiece towards gittin'
+a malodeyon fer it, but it squeaks orful. 'Tain't much like the
+orchestry to the theayter. And then the preacher he whistles every time
+he says a word that has an 's' in it. You'd orter hear him say: 'Let us
+sing the seventy-seventh psalm.'"
+
+At the succession of the sibilant sounds, John's brown eyes twinkled
+brightly, and about his mouth came crinkly, telltale creases of humor.
+
+"And they sing such lonesome tunes," continued Amarilly, "slower than
+the one the old cow died on. I was tellin' the stage maniger about it,
+and he said they'd orter git a man to run the meetin'-houses that
+understood the proper settin's. Everything, he says, is more'n half in
+the settin's."
+
+"Amarilly," was the earnest response, "will you come to St. Mark's next
+Sunday to the morning service? The music will please you, I am sure, and
+there are other things I should like to have you hear."
+
+Amarilly solemnly accepted this invitation, and then went home,
+trundling a big cart which contained the surplices and the rectory
+laundry.
+
+Colette's remarks, so innocently repeated to him, made John take himself
+to task.
+
+"I knew," he thought rapturously, "that she was pure gold at heart. And
+it is only her sweet willfulness that is hiding it from me."
+
+That evening he found Colette sitting before an open fire in the
+library, her slender little feet crossed before the glowing blaze. She
+was in a gentle, musing mood, but at his entrance she instantly rallied
+to her old mirth-loving spirit.
+
+"I have made Amarilly's acquaintance," he said. "She is coming to church
+next Sunday."
+
+"A convert already! And you will try to snatch poor Amarilly, too, from
+her footlight dreams?"
+
+"Colette," he replied firmly, "you can't play a part with me any longer.
+You, the real Colette, made it unnecessary for me to remonstrate with
+Amarilly on her choice of professions. She is wavering because of your
+assurance that there are better things in life for her to engage in."
+
+He was not very tall, but stood straight and stalwart, with the air of
+one born to command. At times he seemed to tower above all others.
+
+She regarded him with an admiring look which changed to wonder at what
+she read in his eyes. In a flash she felt the strength and depth of his
+feeling, but her searching scrutiny caused him to become tongue-tied,
+and he assumed the self-conscious mien peculiar to the man not yet
+assured that his love is returned. Once more a golden moment slipped
+away with elfish elusiveness, and Colette, secure in her supremacy,
+resumed her tantalizing badinage.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+The Jenkins family was immediately summoned in council to discuss
+Amarilly's invitation to attend divine service at St. Mark's.
+
+"You air jest more'n hevin' advantages," said Mrs. Jenkins exultingly.
+"Fust the matinee, then the Guild, and now St. Mark's is open to you.
+But you'd orter hev a few fixin's to go to sech a grand place,
+Amarilly."
+
+Amarilly shook her determined little head resolutely.
+
+"We can't afford it," she said decisively. "I'd stay to hum afore I'd
+spend anything on extrys now when we're aketchin' up and layin' by."
+
+"'Twould be good bookkeepin' fer you ter go," spoke up Flamingus. "You
+see the preacher's givin' us his business, and we'd orter return the
+favor and patrynize his church. You've gotter hustle to hold trade arter
+you git it these days. It's up to you ter go, Amarilly." Mrs. Jenkins
+looked proudly at her eldest male offspring.
+
+"I declare, Flamingus, you've got a real business head on you jest like
+your pa hed. He's right, Amarilly. 'Twouldn't be treating Mr. Meredith
+fair not ter go, and it's due him that you go right, so he won't be
+ashamed of you. I'll rig you up some way."
+
+The costuming of Amarilly in a manner befitting the great occasion was
+an all-absorbing affair for the next few days. Finally, by the
+combination of Mrs. Jenkins's industry and Amarilly's ingenuity, aided
+by the Boarder and the boys, an elaborate toilet was devised and
+executed. Milton donated a "shine" to a pair of tan shoes, the gift of
+the girl "what took a minor part." Mrs. Jenkins looked a little askance
+at the "best skirt" of blue which had shrunk from repeated washings to a
+near-knee length, but Amarilly assured her that it was not as short as
+the skirts worn by the ballet girls. She cut up two old blouses and
+fashioned a new, bi-colored waist bedizened with gilt buttons. The
+Boarder presented a resplendent buckle, and Flamingus provided a gawdy
+hair-ribbon.
+
+The hat was the chief difficulty. On week days she wore none, but of
+course St. Mark's demanded a headgear of some kind, and at last Mrs.
+Jenkins triumphantly produced one of Tam o' Shanter shape manufactured
+from a lamp mat and adorned with some roses bestowed by the leading
+lady. The belligerent locks of the little scrub-girl refused to respond
+to advances from curling iron or papers, but one of the neighbors whose
+hair was a second cousin in hue to Amarilly's amber tresses, loaned some
+frizzes, which were sewed to the brim of the new hat. The problem of
+hand covering was solved by Mr. Vedder, as a pair of orange-tinted
+gloves had been turned in at the box-office by an usher, and had
+remained unclaimed. They proved a perfect fit, and were the supreme
+triumph of the bizarre costume.
+
+Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed in splendor greater than
+that displayed by Amarilly when she set forth on Sunday morning for St.
+Mark's. Promptness was ever Amarilly's chief characteristic, and she
+arrived long in advance of the ushers. This gave her an opportunity to
+sample several pews before finally selecting one whose usual occupants,
+fortunately, were out of the city.
+
+The vastness and stillness of the edifice, disturbed now and then by
+silken rustle and soft-shod foot were bewildering to Amarilly. She
+experienced a slight depression until the vibrating tones of the organ
+fell softly upon the air. The harmony grew more subdued, ceased, and was
+succeeded by another moment of solemn silence. Then a procession of
+white-robed choristers came down the aisle, their well-trained voices
+ringing out in carolling cadence.
+
+"Them's the chorus," thought Amarilly.
+
+Entranced, she listened to the service, sitting upright and very still.
+The spiritual significance of the music, the massing of foliage and
+flowers in the chancel, the white altars with their many lighted
+candles, were very impressive to the little wide-eyed worshipper.
+
+"Their settin's is all right," she said to herself critically, "and it
+ain't like the theayter. It's--"
+
+A sudden revealing light penetrated the shadows of her little being.
+
+"This is the real thing!" she acknowledged.
+
+There was only one disappointment to mar the perfection. She felt quite
+aggrieved that Mr. Meredith--or Mr. St. John as she still called him in
+her thoughts--did not "come on" in the first act.
+
+"Mebby he don't hev the leadin' part to-day," she thought
+disappointedly, as a callow youth, whose hair was pompadoured and whose
+chin receded, began to read the lessons for the day. Amarilly was kept
+in action by her effort to follow the lead of the man in front of her.
+
+"It's hard to know jest when to set or stand or pray, but it keeps
+things from draggin'," she thought, "and thar's no chanct to git sleepy.
+It keeps me jest on the hump without no rayhearsal fer all this scene
+shiftin'."
+
+Her little heart quickened in glad relief when the erect form of John
+Meredith ascended the pulpit to deliver the sermon.
+
+"That other one was jest the understudy," she concluded.
+
+The sermon, strong, simple, and sweet like John himself, was delivered
+in a rich, modulated voice whose little underlying note of appeal found
+entrance to many a hard-shell heart. The theology was not too deep for
+the attentive little scrubber to comprehend, and she was filled with a
+longing to be good--very good. She made ardent resolutions not to "jaw"
+the boys so much, and to be more gentle with Iry and Go. Her conscience
+kept on prodding until she censured herself for not mopping the corners
+at the theatre more thoroughly.
+
+At the conclusion of the sermon the rector with a slight tremor in his
+mellifluous voice pronounced the benediction. Amarilly's eyes shone with
+a light that Lord Algernon's most eloquent passages could never have
+inspired.
+
+The organ again gave forth its rich tones, and a young, fair-haired boy
+with the face of a devotee arose and turned toward the congregation, his
+face uplifted to the oaken rafters. A flood of sunshine streamed through
+the painted window and fell in long slanting rays upon the spiritual
+face. The exquisite voice rose and fell in silvery cadence, the soft
+notes fluting out through the vast space and reaching straight to
+Amarilly's heart which was beating in unison to the music. "Oh," she
+thought wistfully, "if Pete Noyes was only like him!"
+
+She responded to the offertory with a penny, which lay solitary and
+outlawed on the edge of a contribution plate filled with envelopes and
+bank bills. The isolated coin caught the eye of the young rector as he
+received the offerings, and his gaze wandered wonderingly over his
+fashionable congregation. It finally rested upon the small, eager-eyed
+face of his washerwoman's daughter, and a look of angelic sweetness came
+into his brown eyes with the thought: "Even the least of these!"
+
+Colette, statuesque and sublime, caught the flash of radiance that
+illumined the face of her pastor, and her heart-strings responded with a
+little thrill.
+
+There was another fervent prayer in low, pleading tones, after which
+followed the recessional, the choir-boys chanting their solemn measures.
+
+Amarilly in passing out saw John, clad in a long, tight-fitting black
+garment, standing at the church door.
+
+"He's got another costume fer the afterpiece," she thought admiringly.
+"He must be a lightning change artist like the one down to the vawdyveel
+that Pete was tellin' of!"
+
+Then two wonderful, heart-throbbing things happened. John took
+Amarilly's saffron-clad hand in his and told her in earnest, convincing
+tones how glad he was that she had come, and that he should look for her
+every Sunday.
+
+"He held up the hull p'rade fer me!" she thought exultingly.
+
+As he was speaking to her his gaze wandered away for a second; in that
+infinitesimal space of time there came into his eyes a dazzling flash of
+light that was like a revelation to the sharp-eyed little girl, who,
+following the direction of his glance, beheld Colette. Then came the
+second triumph. Colette, smiling, shook hands with her and praised her
+attire.
+
+"Did you like the service, Amarilly?" she whispered. "Was it like the
+theatre?"
+
+"It was diffrent," said Amarilly impressively. "I think it's what heaven
+is!"
+
+"And did you like the sermon St. John preached?"
+
+Amarilly's lips quivered.
+
+"I liked it so much, I liked him so much, I'd ruther not talk about it."
+
+Colette stooped and kissed the freckled little face, to the utter
+astonishment of those standing near and to the complete felicity of John
+Meredith, who was a witness of the little scene though he did not hear
+the conversation.
+
+Amarilly walked homeward, her uplifted face radiant with happiness.
+
+"The flowers, the lights, oh, it was great!" she thought. "Bud could
+sing like that if he was learnt. He couldn't look like that surplused
+boy, though. He sorter made me think of Little Eva in the play they give
+down to Milt's school. I wish Bud's hair was yaller and curly instead of
+black and straight!"
+
+Amarilly's reminiscences next carried her to the look she had seen in
+the rector's eyes when he beheld Colette coming out of the church.
+
+"It was the look Lord Algernon tried to give Lady Cecul," she thought,
+"only he couldn't do it, 'cause it wasn't in Him to give. And it
+couldn't never be in him the same as 't is in Mr. St. John and Miss
+King. It ain't in her yet to see what was in his eyes. Some day when she
+gits more feelin's, mebby 't will be, though."
+
+When Amarilly had faithfully pictured the service to the household,
+Bud's anaemic face grew eager.
+
+"Take me with yer, Amarilly, next time, won't yer?" he pleaded.
+
+"It's too fer. You couldn't walk, Buddy," she answered, "and we can't
+afford car-fare fer two both ways."
+
+"I'll take him to-night," promised the Boarder. "We'll ride both ways,
+so fur as we kin. I'd like to hear a sermon now and then, especially by
+a young preacher."
+
+The little family stayed up that night until the return of Bud and the
+Boarder who were vociferous in approval of the service.
+
+"It ain't much like our meetin'-house," said Bud. "It was het and lit.
+And the way that orgin let out! Say, Amarilly, thar wasn't no man in
+sight to play it! I s'pose they've got one of them things like a
+pianner-player. Them surplused boys sung fine!"
+
+"He give us a fine talk," reported the Boarder. "I've allers thought if
+a man paid a hundred cents on the dollar, 't was all that was expected
+of him. But I believe it's a good idee to go to church and keep your
+conscience jogged up so it won't rust. I'll go every Sunday, mebby, and
+take Bud so he kin larn them tunes."
+
+"I never go to no shows nor nuthin'!" wailed Cory.
+
+"I'll take you next time," soothed Amarilly. "I kin work you'se off on
+the kinductor as under age, I guess, if you'll crouch down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Monday's mops and pails broke in upon the spell of Amarilly's spiritual
+enchantment to some extent, but remembrance of the scenic effects
+lingered and was refreshed by the clothes-line of vestal garb which
+manifested the family prosperity, and heralded to the neighborhood that
+the Jenkins's star was in the ascendant.
+
+"Them Jenkinses," said Mrs. Hudgers, who lived next door, "is orful
+stuck up sence they got the sudsin' of them surpluses."
+
+This animadversion was soon conveyed to Amarilly, who instantly and
+freely forgave the critic.
+
+"She's old and rheumatic," argued the little girl. "She can't git to go
+nowhars, and folks that is shut in too long spiles, jest like canned
+goods. Besides, her clock has stopped. Nobody can't go on without no
+clock."
+
+Out of pity for the old woman's sequestered life, Amarilly was wont to
+relate to her all the current events, and it was through the child's
+keen, young optics that Mrs. Hudgers saw life. An eloquent and vivid
+description of St. Mark's service was eagerly related.
+
+"I allers thought I'd like to see them Episcopals," she remarked
+regretfully. "Ef church air wa'n't so bad fer my rheumatiz, I'd pay
+car-fare jest to see it onct. I was brung up Methodist though."
+
+This desire suggested to Amarilly's fertile little brain a way to make a
+contribution to John Meredith's pet missionary scheme, whose merits he
+had so ardently expounded from the pulpit.
+
+"I'll hev a sacrud concert like the one he said they was goin' to hev to
+the church," she decided.
+
+She was fully aware of the sensation created by the Thursday clothes-line
+of surplices, and she resolved to profit thereby while the garments
+were still a novelty. Consequently the neighborhood was notified that a
+sacred concert by a "surplused choir" composed of members of the Jenkins
+household, assisted by a few of their schoolmates, would be given a week
+from Wednesday night. This particular night was chosen for the reason
+that the church washing was put to soak late on a Wednesday.
+
+There was a short, sharp conflict in Amarilly's conscience before she
+convinced herself it would not be wrong to allow the impromptu choir to
+don the surplices of St. Mark's.
+
+"They wouldn't spile 'em jest awearin' 'em onct," she argued sharply,
+for Amarilly always "sassed back" with spirit to her moral accuser.
+"'Tain't as if they wa'n't agoin' into the wash as soon as they take 'em
+off. Besides," as a triumphant clincher, "think of the cause!"
+
+Amarilly had heard the Boarder and a young socialist exchanging views,
+and she had caught this slogan, which was a tempting phrase and adequate
+to whitewash many a doubtful act. It proved effectual in silencing the
+conscience which Amarilly slipped back into its case and fastened
+securely.
+
+She held nightly rehearsals for the proposed entertainment. After the
+first the novelty was exhausted, and on the next night there was a
+falling off in attendance, so the young, director diplomatically
+resorted to the use of decoy ducks in the shape of a pan of popcorn, a
+candy pull, and an apple roast. By such inducements she whipped her
+chorus into line, ably assisted by Bud, who had profited by his
+attendance at St. Mark's.
+
+The Jenkins dwelling was singularly well adapted for a public
+performance, as, to use Mrs. Wint's phraseology, "it had no insides."
+The rooms were partitioned off by means of curtains on strings. These
+were taken down on the night of the concert. So the "settin'-room," the
+"bedroom off" and the kitchen became one. Seats were improvised by means
+of boards stretched across inverted washtubs.
+
+At seven o'clock on the night set for the concert the audience was
+solemnly ushered in by the Boarder. No signs of the performers were
+visible, but sounds of suppressed excitement issued from the woodshed,
+which had been converted into a vestry.
+
+Presently the choir, chanting a hymn, made an impressive and effective
+entrance. To Amarilly's consternation this evoked an applause, which
+jarred on her sense of propriety.
+
+"This ain't no show, and it ain't no time to clap," she explained to the
+Boarder, who cautioned the congregation against further demonstration.
+
+Flamingus read a psalm in a sing-song, resonant voice, and then Amarilly
+announced a hymn, cordially inviting the neighbors to "jine in." The
+response was lusty-lunged, and there was a unanimous request for another
+tune. After Amarilly had explained the use to which the collection was
+to be put, Gus passed a pie tin, while an offertory solo was rendered by
+Bud in sweet, trebled tones.
+
+The sacred concert was pronounced a great success by the audience, who
+promptly dispersed at its close. While the Boarder was shifting the
+curtains to their former positions, and Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly were
+busily engaged in divesting the choir of their costumes, the front door
+opened and disclosed a vision of loveliness in the form of Colette.
+
+"I knocked," she explained apologetically to the Boarder, "but no one
+heard me. Are the family all away?"
+
+"They are in the woodshed. Walk right out," he urged hospitably.
+
+Colette stepped to the door and, on opening it, gazed in bewilderment at
+the disrobing choir.
+
+"These are not St. Mark's choir-boys, are they?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins felt herself growing weak-kneed. She looked apprehensively
+at Amarilly, who stepped bravely to the front with the air of one who
+feels that the end justifies the means.
+
+"It was fer him--fer Mr. St. John I done it," she began in explanation,
+and then she proceeded to relate the particulars of her scheme and its
+accomplishment.
+
+She had but just finished this narrative when suddenly in the line of
+her vision came the form of the young rector himself. He had been
+ushered out by the Boarder, who was still actively engaged in "redding
+up."
+
+"I came to call upon you, for I consider you one of my parishioners
+now," he said to Amarilly, his face flushing at the unexpected encounter
+with Colette.
+
+Amarilly breathed a devout prayer of thankfulness that the last surplice
+had been removed and was now being put to soak by her mother.
+
+Colette's eyes were dancing with the delight of mischief-making as she
+directed, in soft but mirthful tones:
+
+"Tell Mr. St. John about your choir and concert."
+
+Amarilly's eyes lowered in consternation. She was in great awe of this
+young man whose square chin was in such extreme contradiction to his
+softly luminous eyes, and she began to feel less fortified by the
+reminder of the "cause."
+
+"I'd ruther not," she faltered.
+
+"Then don't, Amarilly," he said gently.
+
+"Mebby that's why I'd orter," she acknowledged, lifting serious eyes to
+his. "You said that Sunday that we wa'n't to turn out of the way fer
+hard things."
+
+"I don't want it to be hard for you to tell me anything, Amarilly," he
+said reassuringly. "Suppose you show me that you trust me by telling me
+about your concert."
+
+So once more Amarilly gave a recital of her plan for raising money for
+the mission, and of its successful fulfilment. John listened with
+varying emotions, struggling heroically to maintain his gravity as he
+heard of the realization of the long-cherished, long-deferred dream of
+Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+"And we took in thirty-seven cents," she said in breathless excitement,
+as she handed him the contents of the pie tin.
+
+"Amarilly," he replied fervently, with the look that Colette was
+learning to love, "you did just right to use the surplices, and this
+contribution means more to me than any I have received. It was a sweet
+and generous thought that prompted your concert."
+
+Amarilly's little heart glowed with pride at this acknowledgment.
+
+At that moment came Bud, singing a snatch of his solo.
+
+"Is this the little brother that sang the offertory?"
+
+"Yes; that's him--Bud."
+
+"Bud, will you sing it again for me, now?"
+
+"Sure thing!" said the atom of a boy, promptly mounting a soap box.
+
+He threw back a mop of thick black hair, rolled his eyes ceilingward,
+and let his sweet, clear voice have full sway.
+
+"Oh, Bud, you darling! Why didn't you tell me he could sing like that,
+Amarilly?" cried Colette at the close of the song.
+
+"We must have him in St. Mark's choir," declared Mr. Meredith. "You may
+bring him to the rectory to-morrow, Amarilly, and I will have the
+choirmaster try his voice. Besides receiving instruction and practice
+every week, he will be paid for his singing."
+
+Money for Bud's voice! So much prosperity was scarcely believable.
+
+"Fust the Guild school, Miss King's washing, the surpluses, and now
+Bud!" thought Amarilly exuberantly. "Next thing I know, I'll be on the
+stage."
+
+"I must go," said Colette presently. "My car is just around the corner
+on the next street. John, will you ride uptown with me?"
+
+He accepted the invitation with alacrity. Colette's sidelong glance
+noted a certain masterful look about his chin, and there was a warning,
+metallic ring in his voice that denoted a determination to overcome all
+obstacles and triumph by sheer force of will. She was not ready to
+listen to him yet, and, a ready evader of issues, chatted incessantly on
+the way to the car. He waited in grim patience, biding his time. As they
+neared the turn in the alley, she played her reserve card.
+
+"Henry didn't think it prudent to bring the big car into the Jenkins's
+_cul-de-sac,_ so he waited in the next street. I expect father will be
+there by this time. We dropped him at a factory near by, where he was to
+speak to some United Workmen."
+
+Colette smiled at the drooping of John's features as he beheld her
+father ensconced in the tonneau.
+
+"Oh, John! I am glad you were here to protect my little girl through
+these byways. I was just on the point of looking her up myself."
+
+When the car stopped at the rectory and Colette bade John good-night,
+the resolute, forward thrust was still prominent in his chin.
+
+He went straight to his study and wrote an ardent avowal of his love.
+Then he sealed the letter and dispatched it by special messenger. There
+would be no more suspense, he thought, for she would have to respond by
+a direct affirmation or negation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+In the tide of the Jenkins's prosperity there came the inevitable ebb.
+On the fateful Friday morning succeeding the concert, Mrs. Hudgers,
+looking from her window, saw a little group of children with books under
+their arms returning from school. Having no timepiece, she was
+accustomed to depend on the passing to and fro of the children for
+guidance as to the performance of her household affairs.
+
+"My sakes, but twelve o'clock come quick to-day," she thought, as she
+kindled the fire and set the kettle over it in preparation of her midday
+meal.
+
+A neighbor dropping in viewed these proceedings with surprise.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Hudgers, ain't you et yer breakfast yet?"
+
+"Of course I hev. I'm puttin' the kittle over fer my dinner."
+
+"Dinner! why, it's only a half arter nine."
+
+Mrs. Hudgers looked incredulous.
+
+"I seen the chillern agoin' hum from school," she maintained.
+
+"Them was the Jenkinses, Iry hez come down with the scarlit fever, and
+they're all in quarrytine."
+
+"How you talk! Wait till I put the kittle offen the bile."
+
+The two neighbors sat down to discuss this affliction with the ready
+sympathy of the poor for the poor. Their passing envy of the Jenkins's
+good fortune was instantly skimmed from the surface of their
+friendliness, which had only lain dormant and wanted but the touch of
+trouble to make them once more akin.
+
+When the city physician had pronounced Iry's "spell" to be scarlet
+fever, the other members of the household were immediately summoned by
+emergency calls. The children came from school, Amarilly from the
+theatre, and the Boarder from his switch to hold an excited family
+conference.
+
+"It's a good thing we got the washin's all hum afore Iry was took,"
+declared the optimistic Amarilly.
+
+"Thar's two things here yet," reported Mrs. Jenkins. "Gus come hum too
+late last night to take the preacher's surplus and Miss King's lace
+waist. You was so tired I didn't tell you, 'cause I know'd you'd be sot
+on goin' with them yourself. They're all did up."
+
+"Well, they'll hev to stay right here with us and the fever," said
+Amarilly philosophically.
+
+At heart she secretly rejoiced in the retaining of these two garments,
+for they seemed to keep her in touch with their owners whom she would be
+unable to see until Iry had recovered.
+
+"I don't see what we are going to do, Amarilly," said her mother
+despairingly. "Thar'll be nuthin' comin' in and so many extrys."
+
+"No extrys," cheerfully assured the little comforter. "The city
+doctor'll take keer of Iry and bring the medicines. We hev laid by some
+sence we got the church wash. It'll tide us over till Iry gits well. We
+all need a vacation from work, anyhow."
+
+At the beginning of the next week a ten-dollar bill came from Colette,
+"to buy jellies and things for Iry," she wrote. A similar contribution
+came from John Meredith.
+
+"We air on Easy Street onct more!" cried Amarilly joyfully.
+
+"I hate to take the money from them," sighed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'll make it up to them when we kin work agin," consoled Amarilly.
+"Better to take from friends than from the city. It won't be fer long.
+Iry seems to hev took it light, the doctor said."
+
+This diagnosis proved correct, but it had not occurred to Amarilly in
+her prognostications that the question of the duration of the quarantine
+was not entirely dependent upon Iry's convalescence. Like a row of
+blocks the children, with the exception of Flamingus and Amarilly, in
+rapid succession came down with a mild form of the fever. Mrs. Jenkins
+and Amarilly divided the labors of cook and nurse, but the mainstay of
+the family was the Boarder. He aided in the housework, and as an
+entertainer of the sick he proved invaluable. He told stories, drew
+pictures, propounded riddles, whittled boats and animals, played "Beggar
+my Neighbor," and sang songs for the convalescent ward.
+
+When the last cent of the Jenkins's reserve fund and the contributions
+from the rector and Colette had been exhausted, the Boarder put a
+willing hand in his pocket and drew forth his all to share with the
+afflicted family. There was one appalling night when the treasury was
+entirely depleted, and the larder was a veritable Mother Hubbard's
+cupboard.
+
+"Something will come," prophesied Amarilly trustfully.
+
+Something did come the next day in the shape of a donation of five
+dollars from Mr. Vedder, who had heard of the prolonged quarantine.
+Amarilly wept from gratitude and gladness.
+
+"The perfesshun allers stand by each other," she murmured proudly.
+
+This last act of charity kept the Jenkins's pot boiling until the
+premises were officially and thoroughly fumigated. Again famine
+threatened. The switch remained open to the Boarder, and he was once
+more on duty, but he had as yet drawn no wages, one morning there was
+nothing for breakfast.
+
+"I'll pawn my ticker at noon," promised the Boarder, "and bring home
+something for dinner."
+
+"There is lots of folks as goes without breakfast allers, from choice,"
+informed Amarilly. "Miss Vail, the teacher at the Guild, says it's
+hygeniack."
+
+"It won't hurt us and the boys," said Mrs. Jenkins, "but Iry and Co is
+too young to go hungry even if it be hygeniack."
+
+"They ain't agoin' hungry," declared Amarilly. "I'll pervide fer them."
+
+With a small pitcher under her cape she started bravely forth on a
+foraging expedition. After walking a few blocks she came to a white
+house whose woodhouse joined the alley. Hiding behind a barrel she
+watched and waited until a woman opened the back door and set a soup
+plate of milk on the lowest step.
+
+"Come a kits! Come a kits!" she called shrilly, and then went back into
+the house.
+
+The "kits" came on the run; so did Amarilly. She arrived first, and
+hastily emptied the contents of the soup plate into her pitcher. Then
+she fled, leaving two dismayed maltese kittens disconsolately lapping an
+empty dish.
+
+"Here's milk for Iry," she announced, handing the pitcher to her mother.
+"Now I'll go and get some breakfast for Co."
+
+
+She returned presently with a sugared doughnut.
+
+"Where did you borry the milk and nut-cake?" asked her mother
+wonderingly.
+
+"I didn't borry them," replied Amarilly stoically. "I stole them."
+
+"Stole them! Am-a-ril-ly Jenk-ins!"
+
+"Twan't exackly stealin'," argued Amarilly cheerfully. "I took the milk
+from two little cats what git stuffed with milk every morning and night.
+The doughnut had jest been stuck in a parrot's cage. He hedn't tetched
+it. My! he swore fierce! I'd ruther steal, anyway, than let Iry and Co
+go hungry."
+
+"What would the preacher say!" demanded her mother solemnly. "He would
+say it was wrong."
+
+"He don't know nothin' about bein' hungry!" replied Amarilly defiantly.
+"If he was ever as hungry as Iry, I bet he'd steal from a cat."
+
+The season was now summer. Some time ago John Meredith had gone to the
+seashore and the King family to their summer home in the mountains,
+unaware that the fever had spread over so wide an area in the Jenkins
+domain. The theatre and St. Mark's were closed for the rest of the
+summer. The little boys found that their positions had been filled
+during the period of quarantine. None of these catastrophes, however,
+could be compared to the calamity of the realization that Bud alone of
+all the patients had not convalesced completely. He was a delicate
+little fellow, and he grew paler and thinner each day. In desperation
+Amarilly went to the doctor.
+
+"Bud don't pick up," she said bluntly.
+
+"I feared he wouldn't," replied the doctor.
+
+"Can't you try some other kinds of medicines?"
+
+"I can, but I am afraid that there is no medicine that will help him
+very much."
+
+Amarilly turned pale.
+
+"Is there anything else that will help him?" she demanded fiercely.
+
+"If he could go to the seashore he might brace up. Sea air would work
+wonders for him."
+
+"He shall go," said Amarilly with determination.
+
+"I can get a week for him through the Fresh Air Fund," suggested the
+doctor.
+
+He succeeded in getting two weeks, and, that time was extended another
+fortnight through the benevolence of Mr. Vedder.
+
+Bud returned a study in reds and browns.
+
+"The sea beats the theayter and the church all to smitherines,
+Amarilly!" he declared jubilantly. "I kin go to work now."
+
+"No!" said Amarilly resolutely. "You air goin' to loaf through this hot
+weather until church and school open."
+
+The family fund once more had a modest start. Mrs. Jenkins obtained a
+few of her old customers, Bobby got a paper route, Flamingus and Milton
+were again at work, but Amarilly, Gus, and Cory were without vocations.
+
+Soon after the quarantine was lifted Amarilly went forth to deliver the
+surplice and the waist which had hung familiarly side by side during the
+weeks of trouble. The housekeeper at the rectory greeted her kindly and
+was most sympathetic on learning of the protracted confinement. She made
+Amarilly a present of the surplice.
+
+"Mr. Meredith said you were to keep it. He thought your mother might
+find it useful. It is good linen, you know, and you can cut it up into
+clothes for the children. He has so many surplices, he won't miss this
+one."
+
+"I'll never cut it up!" thought Amarilly as she reverently received the
+robe. "I'll keep it in 'membrance of him."
+
+"It's orful good in him to give it to us," she said gratefully to the
+housekeeper.
+
+That worthy woman smiled, remembering how the fastidious young rector
+had shrunk from the thought of wearing a fumigated garment.
+
+At the King residence Amarilly saw the caretaker, who gave her a similar
+message regarding the lace waist.
+
+"I'll keep it," thought Amarilly with a shy little blush, "until I'm
+merried. It'll start my trousseau."
+
+She took the garments home, not mentioning to anyone the gift of the
+waist, however, for that was to be her secret--her first secret. She hid
+this nest-egg of her trousseau in an old trunk which she fastened
+securely.
+
+On the next day she was summoned to help clean the theatre, which had
+been rented for one night by the St. Andrew's vested choir, whose
+members were to give a sacred concert. A rehearsal for this
+entertainment was being held when Amarilly arrived.
+
+"These surplices are all too long or too short for me," complained the
+young tenor, who had recently been engaged for the solo parts.
+
+Amarilly surveyed him critically.
+
+"He's jest about Mr. St. John's size," she mused, "only he ain't so fine
+a shape."
+
+With the thought came an inspiration that brought a quickly waged
+battle. It seemed sacrilegious, although she didn't express it by that
+word, to permit another to wear a garment so sacred to the memory of Mr.
+Meredith, but poverty, that kill-sentiment, had fully developed the
+practical side of Amarilly.
+
+She made answer to her stabs of conscience by action instead of words,
+going straight to her friend, the ticket-seller.
+
+"That feller," she said, indicating the tenor, "ain't satisfied with the
+fit of his surplus. I've got one jest his size. It's done up spick and
+span clean, and I'll rent it to him fer the show. He kin hev it fer the
+ev'nin' fer a dollar. Would you ask him fer me?"
+
+"Certainly, Amarilly," he agreed.
+
+He came back to her, smiling.
+
+"He'll take it, but he seems to think your charge rather high--more than
+that of most costumers, he said."
+
+"This ain't no common surplus," defended Amarilly loftily. "It was wore
+by the rector of St. Mark's, and he give it to me. It's of finer stuff
+than the choir surpluses, and it hez got a cross worked onto it, and a
+pocket in it, too."
+
+"Of course such inducements should increase the value," confirmed Mr.
+Vedder gravely, and he proceeded to hold another colloquy with the
+twinkling-eyed tenor. Amarilly went home for the surplice and received
+therefor the sum of one dollar, which swelled the Jenkins's purse
+perceptibly.
+
+And here began the mundane career of the minister's surplice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Ever apt in following a lead, Amarilly at once resolved to establish a
+regular costuming business. It even occurred to her to hire out the lace
+waist, but thoughts of wedding bells prevailed against her impulse to
+open this branch of the business.
+
+When the young tenor returned the surplice he informed Amarilly that two
+young ladies of his acquaintance were going to give a home entertainment
+for charity. Among the impromptu acts would be some tableaux, and the
+surplice was needed for a church scene. So the new venture brought in
+another dollar that week.
+
+One day Bud came home capless, having crossed a bridge in a high wind.
+
+"I seen an ad," said the thrifty Flamingus, "that the Beehive would give
+away baseball caps to-day."
+
+Amarilly immediately set out for the Beehive, an emporium of fashion in
+the vicinity of the theatre. It was the noon hour, and there were no
+other customers in evidence.
+
+The proprietor and a clerk were engaged in discussing the design for a
+window display, and were loath to notice their would-be beneficiary.
+Finally the clerk drawled out:
+
+"Did you want anything, little girl?"
+
+"I called," explained Amarilly with grandiose manner, "to git one of
+them caps you advertised to give away."
+
+"Oh, those were all given out long ago. You should have come earlier,"
+he replied with an air of relief, as he turned to resume the
+all-absorbing topic with the proprietor.
+
+Amarilly's interest in the window display dispelled any disappointment
+she might have had in regard to Bud's head covering.
+
+"Now," said the clerk didactically, "my idea is this. Have a wedding--a
+church wedding. I can rig up an altar, and we'll have the bride in a
+white, trailing gown; the groom, best man, and ushers in dress suits to
+advertise our gents' department, the bridesmaids and relatives in
+different colored evening dresses, and in this way we can announce our
+big clearing sale of summer goods in the ready-to-wear department. It'll
+make a swell window and draw crowds. Women can never get by a wedding."
+
+"That's a dandy idea, Ben," approved the proprietor.
+
+"Oh, I am a winner on ideas," vaunted the clerk chestily.
+
+So was Amarilly. She stepped eagerly up to the window designer.
+
+"Do you keep surpluses?"
+
+"No; don't know what they are," replied the clerk shortly, turning from
+her. "We'll get a wreath of orange flowers for the bride, and then we
+can have a child carrying the ring, so as to call attention to our
+children's department."
+
+"A surplus," explained Amarilly, scornful of such avowed ignorance, "is
+the white gown that Episcopal ministers wear."
+
+"No; we don't keep them," was the impatient rejoinder.
+
+"Well, I hev one," she said, addressing the proprietor this time, "a
+real minister's, and I'll rent it to you to put on your figger of the
+minister in your wedding window. He'll hev to wear one."
+
+"I am not an Episcopalian," said the proprietor hesitatingly. "What do
+you think, Ben?"
+
+"Well, it hadn't occurred to me to have an Episcopal wedding, but I
+don't know but what it would work out well, after all. It would make it
+attract notice more, and women are always daffy over Episcopal weddings.
+They like classy things. We could put a card in the window, saying all
+the clergy bought the linen for their surplices here. How," turning to
+Amarilly, "did you happen to have such an article?"
+
+"We do the washin' fer St. Mark's church, and the minister give us one
+of his surpluses."
+
+"The display will be in for six days. What will you rent it for that
+long?"
+
+"I allers git a dollar a night fer it," replied Amarilly.
+
+"Too much!" declared the clerk. "I'll give you fifty cents a day."
+
+"I'll let it go six days fer four dollars," bargained Amarilly.
+
+"Well, seeing you have come down on your offer, I'll come up a little on
+mine. I'll take it for three-fifty."
+
+Amarilly considered.
+
+"I will, if you'll throw in one of them caps fer my brother."
+
+"All right," laughed the proprietor. "I think we'll call it a bargain.
+See if you can't dig up one of those caps for her, Ben."
+
+Without much difficulty Ben produced a cap, and Amarilly hurried home
+for the surplice. She went down to the Beehive every day during the
+wedding-window week and feasted her eyes on the beloved gown. She took
+all the glory of the success of the display to her own credit, and her
+feelings were very much like those of the writer of a play on a first
+night.
+
+From a wedding to a funeral was the natural evolution of a surplice, but
+this time it did not appear in its customary role. Instead of adorning a
+minister, it clad the corpse. Mrs. Hudgers's only son, a scalawag, who
+had been a constant drain on his mother's small stipend, was taken ill
+and died, to the discreetly disguised relief of the neighborhood.
+
+"I'm agoin' to give Hallie a good funeral," Mrs. Hudgers confided to
+Amarilly. "I'm agoin' to hev hacks and flowers and singin' If yer St.
+Mark's man was to hum now, I should like to have him fishyate."
+
+"Who will you git?" asked Amarilly interestedly.
+
+"I'll hev the preacher from the meetin'-house on the hill, Brother
+Longgrass."
+
+"I wonder," speculated Amarilly, "if he'd like to wear the surplus?"
+
+Foremost as the plumes of Henry of Navarre in battle were the surplice
+and the renting thereof in Amarilly's vision.
+
+"I don't expect he could do that," replied Mrs. Hudgers doubtfully. "His
+church most likely wouldn't stand fer it. Brother Longgrass is real kind
+if he ain't my sort. He's agoin' to let the boys run the maylodeun down
+here the night afore the funyral."
+
+"Who's agoin' to sing?"
+
+"I dunno yit. I left it to the preacher. He said he'd git me a picked
+choir, whatever that may be."
+
+"My! But you'll hev a fine funeral!" exclaimed Amarilly admiringly.
+
+"I allers did say that when Hallie got merried, or died, things should
+be done right. Thar's jest one thing I can't hev."
+
+"What's that, Mrs. Hudgers?"
+
+"Why, you see, Amarilly, Hallie's clo'es air sort of shabby-like, and
+when we git him in that shiny new caskit, they air agoin' to show up
+orful seedy. But I can't afford ter buy him a new suit jest for this
+onct."
+
+"Couldn't you rent a suit?" asked Amarilly, her ruling passion for
+business still dominating.
+
+"No; I jest can't, Amarilly. It's costin' me too much now."
+
+"I know it is," sympathized Amarilly, concentrating her mind on the
+puzzling solution of Hallie's habiliment.
+
+"Mrs. Hudgers," she exclaimed suddenly, "why can't you put the surplus
+on Hallie? You kin slip it on over his suit, and when the funeral's
+over, and they hev all looked at the corpse, you kin take it offen him."
+
+"Oh, that would be sweet!" cried Mrs. Hudgers, brightening perceptibly.
+"Hallie would look beautiful in it, and 'twould be diffrent from any one
+else's funeral. How you allers think of things, Amarilly! But I ain't
+got no dollar to pay you fer it."
+
+"If you did hev one," replied Amarilly Indignantly, "I shouldn't let you
+pay fer it. We're neighbors, and what I kin do fer Hallie I want ter
+do."
+
+"Well, Amarilly, it's certainly fine fer you to feel that way. You don't
+think," she added with sudden apprehension, "that they'd think the
+surplus was Hallie's nightshirt, do you?"
+
+"Oh, no!" protested Amarilly, shocked at such a supposition. "Besides,
+you kin tell them all that Hallie's laid out in a surplus. They all seen
+them to the concert."
+
+The funeral passed off with great eclat. The picked choir had resonant
+voices, and Brother Longgrass preached one of his longest sermons,
+considerately omitting reference to any of the characteristics of the
+deceased. Mrs. Hudgers was suitably attired in donated and dusty black.
+The extremely unconventional garb of Hallie caused some little comment,
+but it was commonly supposed to be a part of the Episcopalian spirit
+which the Jenkinses seemed to be inculcating in the neighborhood.
+Brother Longgrass was a little startled upon beholding the white-robed
+corpse, but perceiving what comfort it brought to the afflicted mother,
+he magnanimously forbore to allude to the matter.
+
+After the remains had been viewed for the last time, the surplice was
+removed. In the evening Amarilly called for it.
+
+"He did look handsome in it," commented Mrs. Hudgers with a satisfied,
+reminiscent smile. "I wish I might of hed his likeness took. I'm agoin'
+to make you take hum this pan of fried cakes Mrs. Holdock fetched in.
+They'll help fill up the chillern."
+
+"I don't want to rob you, Mrs. Hudgers," said Amarilly, gazing longingly
+at the doughnuts, which were classed as luxuries in the Jenkins's menu.
+
+"I dassent eat 'em, Amarilly. If I et jest one, I'd hev dyspepsy orful,
+and folks hez brung in enough stuff to kill me now. It does beat all the
+way they bring vittles to a house of mournin'! I only wish Hallie could
+hev some of 'em."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The surplice, carefully laundered after the funeral, was ready for new
+fields of labor. The tenor, first patron of Amarilly's costuming
+establishment, was wont to loiter in the studio of an artist he knew and
+relate his about-town adventures. This artist was interested in the
+annals of the little scrub-girl and her means of livelihood.
+
+"I have in mind," he said musingly, "a picture of a musician, the light
+to be streaming through a stained window on his uplifted head as he sits
+at an organ."
+
+"The Lost Chord?" inquired the tenor.
+
+"Nothing quite so bromidic as that," laughed the artist. "I have my
+model engaged, and I had intended to have you borrow a surplice for me,
+but you may ask your little customer to rent me her gown for a couple of
+days."
+
+On receipt of this request delivered through the medium of the ticket-
+seller, Amarilly promptly appeared at the studio. She was gravely and
+courteously received by the artist, Derry Phillips, an easy-mannered
+youth, slim and supple, with dark, laughing eyes. When they had
+transacted the business pertaining to the rental of the surplice,
+Amarilly arose from her chair with apparent reluctance. This was a new
+atmosphere, and she was fascinated by the pictures and the general air
+of artistic disarrangement which she felt but could not account for.
+
+"'Tain't exactly the kind of place to tidy," she reflected, "but it
+needs cleaning turrible."
+
+"Do you like pictures?" asked the young artist, following her gaze.
+"Stay a while and look at them, if you wish."
+
+Amarilly readily availed herself of this permission, and rummaged about
+the rooms while Derry pursued his work. Upon the completion of her tour
+of inspection, he noticed a decided look of disapproval upon her face.
+
+"What is the matter, Miss Jenkins? Aren't the pictures true to life?" he
+inquired with feigned anxiety.
+
+"The picters is all right," replied Amarilly, "but--"
+
+"But what?" he urged expectantly.
+
+"Your rooms need reddin' up. Thar's an orful lot of dust. Yer things
+will spile."
+
+"Oh, dust, you know, to the artistic temperament, is merely a little
+misplaced matter."
+
+"'Tain't only misplaced. It's stuck tight," contended Amarilly.
+
+"Dear me! And to think that I was contemplating a studio tea to some
+people day after to-morrow, I suppose it really should be 'red up'
+again. Honestly though, I engage a woman who come every week and clean
+the rooms."
+
+"She's imposed on you," said Amarilly indignantly. "She's swept the dirt
+up agin the mopboards and left it thar, and she hez only jest skimmed
+over things with a dust-cloth. It ain't done thorough."
+
+"And are you quite proficient as a _blanchisseuse?"_
+
+Amarilly looked at him unperturbed.
+
+"I kin scrub," she remarked calmly.
+
+"I stand rebuked. Scrubbing is what they need. If you will come
+to-morrow morning and put these rooms in order, I will give you a dollar
+and your midday meal."
+
+Amarilly, well satisfied with her new opening, closed the bargain
+instantly.
+
+The next morning at seven o'clock she rang the studio bell. The artist,
+attired in a bathrobe and rubbing his eyes sleepily, opened the door.
+
+"This was the day I was to clean," reminded Amarilly reprovingly.
+
+"To be sure. But why so early? I thought you were a telegram."
+
+"Early! It's seven o'clock."
+
+"I still claim it's early. I have only been in bed four hours."
+
+"Well, you kin go back to bed. I'll work orful quiet."
+
+"And I can trust you not to touch any of the pictures or move anything?"
+
+"I'll be keerful," Amarilly assured him. "Jest show me whar to het up
+the water. I brung the soap and a brush."
+
+The artist lighted a gas stove, and, after carefully donning a long-
+sleeved apron, Amarilly put the water on and began operations. Her eyes
+shone with anticipation as she looked about her.
+
+"I'm glad it's so dirty," she remarked. "It's more interestin' to clean
+a dirty place. Then what you do shows up, and you feel you earnt your
+money."
+
+With a laugh the artist returned to his bedroom, whence he emerged three
+hours later.
+
+"This room is all cleaned," announced Amarilly. "It took me so long
+'cause it's so orful big and then 'twas so turrible dirty."
+
+"You must have worked like a little Trojan. Now stop a bit while I
+prepare my breakfast."
+
+"Kin you cook?" asked Amarilly in astonishment.
+
+"I can make coffee and poach eggs. Come into my butler's pantry and
+watch me."
+
+Amarilly followed him into a small apartment and was initiated into the
+mysteries of electric toasters and percolators.
+
+He tried in vain to induce her to share his meal with him, but she
+protested.
+
+"I hed my breakfast at five-thirty. I don't eat agin till noon."
+
+"Oh, Miss Jenkins! You have no artistic temperament or you would not
+cling to ironclad rules."
+
+"My name's Amarilly," she answered shortly. "I ain't old enough to be
+'missed' yet."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Amarilly. You seem any age," he replied, sitting
+down to his breakfast, "You are not too old, then, for me to ask what
+your age is--in years?"
+
+"I jest got into my teens."
+
+"Thirteen. And I am ten years older. When is your birthday?"
+
+"It's ben. It was the fust of June."
+
+"Why, Amarilly," jumping up and holding out his hand, "we are twins!
+That is my birthday."
+
+"And you are twenty-three."
+
+"Right you are. That is my age at the present moment. Last night I was
+far older, and to-morrow, mayhap, I'll be years younger."
+
+"Be you a Christian Science?" she asked doubtfully.
+
+"Lord, no, child! I am an artist. What made you ask that?"
+
+"'Cause they don't believe in age. Miss Jupperskin told me about 'em.
+She's workin' up to it. But I must go back to my work."
+
+"So must I, Amarilly. My model will be here in a few moments to don your
+surplice. If you want to clean up my breakfast dishes you may do so, and
+then tackle the bedroom and the rest of the apartment."
+
+Three hours later, Amarilly went into the studio. The model had gone,
+and the artist stood before his easel surveying his sketch with
+approval.
+
+"This is going to be a good picture, Amarilly. The model caught my idea.
+There is some fore--"
+
+"Mr. Phillips!"
+
+"My name is Derry. I am too young to be 'mistered.'"
+
+There was no response, and with a smile he turned inquiringly toward
+her. There was a wan little droop about the corners of her eyes and lips
+that brought contrition to his boyish heart.
+
+"Amarilly you are tired! You have worked too steadily. Sit down and rest
+awhile."
+
+"'Tain't that! I'm hungry. Kin I het up the coffee and--"
+
+"Good gracious, Amarilly! I forgot you ate at regular, stated intervals.
+We will go right out now to a nice little restaurant near by and eat our
+luncheon together."
+
+Amarilly flushed.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry. That's orful nice in you, but I'd ruther eat
+here. Thar's the toast and coffee to het, and an aig--"
+
+"No! You are going to have a good, square meal and eat it with me. You
+see I had to eat my birthday dinner all alone, so we'll celebrate the
+first of June now, together. Slip off your apron. By the way, some day I
+shall paint a picture of you in that apron scrubbing my 'mopboard.'"
+
+Amarilly shook her head.
+
+"I don't look fit to go nowhars with you, Mr. Derry."
+
+"Vanitas, and the rest of it! Oh, Amarilly, only thirteen, and the
+ruling passion of your sex already in full sway!"
+
+"It's on your account that I'm ashamed," she said in defence of his
+accusation. "I'd want ter look nice fer you."
+
+"That's sweet of you, Amarilly; but if you really want to look nice,
+don't think of your clothes. It's other things. Think of your hair, for
+instance. It's your best point, and yet you hide it under a bushel and,
+worse than that, you braid it so tight I verily believe it's wired."
+
+"I'm used to bein' teased about my red head," she replied. "I don't
+keer."
+
+"It's a glorious red, Amarilly. The color the vulgar jeer at, and
+artists like your friend and twin, Derry, rave over. You're what is
+called 'Titian-haired,'"
+
+"Are you makin' fun, Mr. Derry?" she asked suspiciously.
+
+"No, Amarilly; seriously, I think it the loveliest shade of hair there
+is, and now I am going to show you how you should wear it. Unbind it,
+all four of those skin-tight braids."
+
+She obeyed him, and a loosened, thick mass of hair fell below her waist.
+
+"Glorious!" he cried fervidly. "Take that comb from the top of your head
+and comb it out. There! Now part it, and catch up these strands
+loosely--so. I must find a ribbon for a bow. What color would you
+suggest, Amarilly?"
+
+"Brown."
+
+"Bravo, Amarilly. If you had said blue, I should have lost all faith in
+your future upcoming. Here are two most beautiful brown bows on this
+thingamajig some one gave me last Christmas, and whose claim on creation
+I never discovered. Let me braid your hair loosely for two and
+one-quarter inches. One bow here--another there. Look in the glass,
+Amarilly. If I give you these bows will you promise me never to wear
+your hair in any other fashion until you are sixteen at least? Off with
+your apron! It's picturesque, but soapy and exceedingly wet. You won't
+need a hat. It's only around the corner, and I want your hair to be
+observed and admired."
+
+Amarilly gained assurance from the reflection of her hair in the mirror,
+and they started gayly forth like two school children out for a lark. He
+ushered her into a quiet little cafe that had an air of pronounced
+elegance about it. In a secluded corner behind some palms came the
+subdued notes of stringed instruments. Derry seemed to be well known
+here, and his waiter viewed his approach with an air of proprietorship.
+
+"It's dead quiet here," thought Amarilly wonderingly. "Like a church."
+
+It was beginning to dawn upon her alert little brain that real things
+were all quiet, not noisy like the theatre.
+
+"What shall we have first, Amarilly?" inquired her new friend with mock
+deference. "Bouillon?"
+
+Amarilly, recalling the one time in her life when she had had
+"luncheon," replied casually that she preferred fruit, and suggested a
+melon.
+
+"Good, Amarilly! You are a natural epicure. Fruit, certainly, on a warm
+day like this. I shall let you select all the courses. What next?"
+
+"Lobster," she replied nonchalantly.
+
+"Fine! And then?"
+
+"Grapefruit salad."
+
+He looked at her in amazement, and reflected that she had doubtless been
+employed in some capacity that had made her acquainted with luncheon
+menus.
+
+"And," concluded Amarilly, without waiting for prompting, "I think an
+ice would be about right. And coffee in a little cup, and some cheese."
+
+"By all means, Amarilly," he responded humbly. "And what kind of cheese,
+please?"
+
+"Now I'm stumped," thought Amarilly ruefully, "fer I can't 'member how
+to speak the kind she hed."
+
+"Most any kind," she said loftily, "except that kind you put in
+mousetraps."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you are a true aristocrat! How comes it that you scrub
+floors? Is it on a bet?"
+
+The waiter came up and said something to the artist in a low tone, and
+Derry replied hastily:
+
+"Nothing to-day." Then, turning to Amarilly, he asked her if she would
+like a glass of milk. Upon her assent, he ordered two glasses of milk,
+to the veiled surprise of the waiter.
+
+When the luncheon was served, Amarilly, by reason of her good memory,
+was still at ease. The children at the Guild school had been given a few
+general rules in table deportment, but Amarilly had followed every
+movement of Colette's so faithfully at the eventful luncheon that she
+ate very slowly, used the proper forks and spoons, and won Derry's
+undisguised admiration.
+
+"Mr. Vedder's, good," she thought. "Mr. St. John's grand, but this 'ere
+Mr. Derry's folksy. I'd be skeert settin' here eatin' with Mr. St. John,
+but this feller's only a kid, and I feel quite to hum with him."
+
+"Amarilly," he said confidentially, as they were sipping their coffee
+from "little cups," "you are truthful, I know. Will you be perfectly
+frank with me and answer a question?"
+
+"Mebby," she replied warily.
+
+"Did you ever eat a luncheon like this before?"
+
+"I never seen the inside of a restyrant afore," she replied.
+
+"Now you are fencing. I mean, did you ever have the same things to eat
+that we had just now?"
+
+Amarilly hesitated, longing to mystify him further, but it came over her
+in a rush how very kind he had been to her.
+
+"Yes, I hev. I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"Good! An after-dinner story! Beat her up, Amarilly!"
+
+So she told him of her patroness and the luncheon she had eaten at her
+house.
+
+"And I watched how she et and done, and she tole me the names of the
+things we hed. I writ them out, and that was my lesson that night with
+the Boarder."
+
+Then, of course, Derry must know all about the Boarder and the brothers.
+After she had finished her faithful descriptions, it was time to return
+to the studio. Her quick, keen eyes had noted the size of the bill Derry
+had put on the salver, and the small amount of change he had received.
+She walked home beside him in troubled silence.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly?" he asked as she was buttoning on her
+apron preparatory to resuming work. "Didn't the luncheon agree with you,
+or are you mad at me? And for why, pray?"
+
+Amarilly's thin little face flushed and a tear came into each thoughtful
+eye.
+
+"I hedn't orter to hev tole you ter git all them things. I was atryin'
+ter be smart and show off, but, honest, I didn't know they was agoin'
+ter cost so much. I ain't agoin' ter take no money fer the cleanin', and
+that'll help some."
+
+Derry laughed rapturously.
+
+"My dear child!" he exclaimed, when he could speak. "You are a veritable
+little field daisy. You really saved me money by going with me. If I had
+gone alone, I should have spent twice as much."
+
+"How could that be?" she asked unbelievingly. "You would only hev give
+one order, so 'twould hev ben jest half as much."
+
+"But if you had not been with me, I should have had a cocktail and a
+bottle of wine, which would have cost more than our meal. Out of
+deference to your youth and other things, I forbore to indulge. So you
+see I saved money by having you along. And then it was much better for
+me not to have had those libations."
+
+"Honest true?"
+
+"Honest true, hope to die! Cross my heart and all the rest of it! I'd
+lie cheerfully to some people, but never to you, Amarilly."
+
+"My. Reeves-Eggleston--he's on the stage--said artists was allers poor."
+
+"That's one reason why I am not an artist--a great artist. I am hampered
+by an inheritance that allows me to live without working, so I don't do
+anything worth while. I only dabble at this and that. Some day, maybe,
+I'll have an inspiration."
+
+"Go to work now," she admonished.
+
+"I must perforce. My model's foot is on the stair."
+
+Amarilly left the studio to resume her cleaning. At five o'clock she
+came back. Derry stood at the window, working furiously at some fleecy
+clouds sailing over a cerulean sky. She was about to speak, but
+discerning that he must work speedily and uninterruptedly to keep pace
+with the shifting clouds, she refrained.
+
+"There!" he said. "I got it. You were a good little girl not to
+interrupt me, Amarilly."
+
+"It's beautiful!" gasped Amarilly. "I was afeard you'd git the sky blue
+instead of purplish and that you'd make the clouds too white."
+
+"Amarilly, you've the soul of an artist! In you I have found a true
+critic."
+
+"Come and see if the rooms is all right. I got 'em real clean. Every
+nook and corner. And--"
+
+"I know you did, Amarilly, without looking. I can smell the clean from
+here."
+
+"If thar's nothin' more you want did, I'll go hum."
+
+"Here's a dollar for the rooms and two dollars for the surplice.
+Amarilly, you were glad to learn table manners from Miss King, weren't
+you?"
+
+"Yes; I like to larn all I kin."
+
+"Then, will you let me teach you something?"
+
+"Sure!" she acquiesced quickly.
+
+"There are two things you must do for me. Never say 'et'; say 'ate'
+instead. Then you must say 'can'; not 'kin.' It will be hard to remember
+at first, but every time you forget and make a mistake, remember to-day
+and our jolly little luncheon, will you?"
+
+"I will, and I _can_, Mr. Derry."
+
+"You're an apt little pupil, Amarilly, and I am going to teach you two
+words every time you come."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Amarilly, brightening. "Will you want me ter come agin?"
+
+"Indeed I shall. I am going away next week to the mountains for a couple
+of months. When I come back, I am going to have you come every morning
+at nine o'clock. You can prepare and serve my simple breakfast and clean
+my rooms every day. Then they won't get so disreputable. I will pay you
+what they do at the theatre, and it will not be such hard work. Will you
+enjoy it as well?"
+
+"Oh, better!" exclaimed Amarilly.
+
+And with this naive admission died the last spark of Amarilly's
+stage-lust.
+
+"Then consider yourself engaged. You can call for the surplice to-morrow
+afternoon at this hour."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry."
+
+She hesitated, and then awkwardly extended her hand, which he shook most
+cordially.
+
+"Thank you for a day's entertainment, Amarilly. I haven't been bored
+once. You have very nice hands," looking down at the one he still held.
+
+She reddened and jerked her hand quickly away.
+
+"Now you _are_ kiddin'! They're redder than my hair, and rough and big."
+
+"I repeat, Amarilly, you have nice hands. It isn't size and color that
+counts; it's shape, and from an artist's standpoint you have shapely
+hands. Now will you be good, and shake hands with me in a perfectly
+ladylike way? Thank you, Amarilly."
+
+"Thank _you_, Mr. Derry. It's the beautifulest day I ever hed. Better'n
+the matinee or the Guild or--" she drew a quick breath and said in a
+scared whisper--"the church!"
+
+"I am flattered, Amarilly. We shall have many ruby-lettered days like
+it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The next afternoon Amarilly called at the studio for the surplice.
+
+"I am glad to see you have your hair fixed as I told you, Amarilly," was
+Derry's greeting. "And have you remembered the other things I told you?"
+
+"I hev' writ out 'can' and 'ate' in big letters and pinned 'em up on the
+wall. I can say 'em right every time now."
+
+"Of course you can! And for a reward here's a dollar with which to buy
+some black velvet hair-ribbons. Never put any color but black or brown
+near your hair, Amarilly."
+
+"No, Mr. Derry; but I don't want to take the dollar."
+
+"See here, Amarilly! You're to be my little housemaid, and the uniform
+is always provided. Instead of buying you a cap and apron, I prefer to
+furnish velvet hair-ribbons. Take it, and get a good quality silk
+velvet. And now, good-by for two months. I will let you know when I am
+home so that you may begin on your duties."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry," said the little girl artlessly. "And thar's
+something I'd like to say to you, if you don't mind."
+
+"You may say anything--everything--to me, Amarilly."
+
+"When you go to eat, won't you order jest as ef I was with you--nothin'
+more?"
+
+His fair boyish face reddened slightly, and then a serious look came
+into his dancing eyes.
+
+"By Jove, Amarilly! I've been wishing some girl who really meant it, who
+really cared, would say that to me. You put it very delicately and
+sweetly. I'll--yes, I'll do it all the time I'm gone. There's my hand on
+it. Good-by, Amarilly."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry."
+
+Amarilly walked home very slowly, trying to think of a way to realize
+again from the surplice.
+
+"I'm afeerd I won't find a place to rent it right away," she sighed.
+
+Looking up, she saw the Boarder. A slender, shy slip of a girl had his
+arm, and he was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration.
+
+"Oh, the Boarder is in love!" gasped Amarilly; her responsive little
+heart leaping in sympathetic interest. "That's why he's wore a blue
+necktie the last few days. Lord Algernon said that was allers a sure
+sign."
+
+She tactfully slipped around a corner, unseen by the entranced couple.
+
+That night, as he was lighting his after-supper pipe, the Boarder
+remarked casually:
+
+"I'd like to rent the surplus fer an hour to-morrer, Amarilly."
+
+"Why, what on airth can you do with it?" was the astonished query.
+
+The Boarder looked sheepish.
+
+"You see, Amarilly, I'm akeepin' stiddy company with a little gal."
+
+"I seen you and her this arternoon. She's orful purty," said Amarilly
+reflectively. "She looked kinder delikit, though. What's her name?"
+
+"Lily--Lily Rose. Ain't that a purty name?"
+
+"Beautiful. The lily part jest suits her. She's like a flower--a white
+flower. But what do you want the surplus fer?"
+
+"You see," began the Boarder, coming by circuitous route to his subject,
+"gals git notions in their heads sometimes when they air in--"
+
+"Love," promptly supplied the comprehending little girl.
+
+"Yes," he assented with a fiery blush. "And she wants fer me to hev my
+likeness took so I kin give it to her."
+
+"Thar ain't nothin' foolish about that!" declared Amarilly.
+
+"No; but I never sot fer one yet. I wouldn't mind, but you see she's got
+it in her head that I am good-looking--"
+
+"Well, you be," corroborated Amarilly decisively.
+
+"And she wants me fer to dress up like a preacher. I told her about
+Hallie Hudgers lookin' so swell in the surplus, and she wants, as I
+should dress up in it and set fer my likeness in it."
+
+"I think it would be fine!" approved Amarilly. "You sure would look
+nicer nor Hallie did."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't look like a dead one," admitted the Boarder. "But I
+was orful afraid you'd laugh. Then I kin rent it fer an hour to-morrer
+ef it ain't got no other dates."
+
+"You can't _rent_ it. You can take it fer an hour, or so long as you
+like," she assured him.
+
+"You'll hev to take a quarter anyway, fer luck. Mebby 'twill bring me
+luck awinnin' her."
+
+The photograph of the Boarder in saintly attire was pronounced a great
+success. Before the presentation he had it set in a frame made of gilt
+network studded with shells.
+
+Lily Rose spent her leisure moments gazing upon it with the dream-
+centred eyes of a young devotee before a shrine.
+
+The next wearing of the surplice was more in accord with its original
+design. In the precinct adjoining the one in which lived and let live
+the Jenkins family, a colored Episcopal church had recently been
+established. The rector had but one surplice, and that had been stolen
+from the clothes-line, mayhap by one of his dusky flock; thus it was
+that Amarilly received a call from the Reverend Virgil Washington, who
+had heard of the errant surplice, which he offered to purchase.
+
+Naturally his proposition was met by a firm and unalterable refusal. It
+would have been like selling a golden goose to dispose of such a
+profitable commodity. He then asked to rent it for a Sunday while he was
+having one made. This application, being quite in Amarilly's line of
+business, met with a ready assent.
+
+"You can hev it fer a dollar," she offered.
+
+The bargain was finally closed, although it gave Amarilly more than a
+passing pang to think of the snowy folds of Mr. St. John's garment
+adorning an Ethiopian form.
+
+One day there came to the Jenkins home a most unusual caller. The novel
+presence of the "mailman" at their door brought every neighbor to post
+of observation. His call was for the purpose of leaving a gayly-colored
+postal card addressed to "Miss Amarilly Jenkins." It was from Derry, and
+she spent many happy moments in deciphering it. His writing was
+microscopic, and he managed to convey a great deal of information in the
+allotted small space. He inquired solicitously concerning the surplice,
+and bade her be a good girl and not forget the two words he had taught
+her. "I have ordered all my meals as though you were with me," he wrote
+in conclusion.
+
+Amarilly laid the card away with her wedding waist. Then, with the
+Boarder's aid, she indited an answer on a card that depicted the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+The next event for Amarilly was an invitation to attend the wedding of
+Mrs. Hubbleston, a buxom, bustling widow for whom Mrs. Jenkins washed.
+In delivering the clothes, Amarilly had come to be on very friendly
+terms with the big, light-hearted woman, and so she had been asked to
+assist in the serving of refreshments on the eventful night.
+
+"I've never been to a wedding," said Amarilly wistfully. "I've been to
+most everything else, and I would like to see you wed, but I ain't got
+no clo'es 'cept my hair-ribbons."
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston looked at her contemplatively.
+
+"My last husband's niece's little girl left a dress here once when she
+was going home after a visit. She had hardly worn it, but she had
+outgrown it, and her ma told me to give it away. I had 'most forgotten
+about it. I believe it would just fit you. Let us see."
+
+She produced a white dress that adjusted itself comfortably to
+Amarilly's form.
+
+"You look real pretty in white, Amarilly. You shall have this dress for
+your own."
+
+On the nuptial night Amarilly, clad in the white gown and with black
+velvet hair-ribbons, went forth at an early hour to the house of
+festivity.
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston, resplendent in a glittering jetted gown, came into the
+kitchen to see that things were progressing properly.
+
+"Ain't you flustered?" asked Amarilly, looking at her in awe.
+
+"Land, no, child! I have been married four times before this, you see,
+so it comes natural. There goes the doorbell. It must be Mr. Jimmels and
+the minister."
+
+In a few moments she returned to the kitchen for sympathy.
+
+"I am so disappointed," she sighed, "but then, I might have expected
+something would happen. It always does at my weddings."
+
+"What is it?" asked Amarilly, apprehensive lest the wedding might be
+declared off.
+
+"I've been married once by a Baptist minister, once by a Methodist, and
+the third time by a Congregationalist; last time a Unitarian tied the
+knot. So this once I thought I would have an Episcopal, because their
+white robe lends tone. And Rev. Mr. Woodthorn has come without his. He
+says he never brings it to the house weddings unless specially
+requested. He lives clear across the city, and the carriage has gone
+away."
+
+"Oh, I have a surplus!" cried Amarilly enthusiastically. "I'll telephone
+our grocer. Milt's ahelpin' him to-night, and he can ride over here on
+the grocer's wheel and fetch it."
+
+"Why, how in the world did you come by such a thing as a surplice?"
+asked the widow in surprise.
+
+Amarilly quickly explained, and then telephoned to her brother.
+
+"He says he'll be over here in a jiffy," she announced. "And ain't it
+lucky, it's jest been did up clean!"
+
+"My, but that's fortunate! It'll be the making of my wedding. I shall
+give you a dollar for the use of it, the same as those others did."
+
+"No!" objected Amarilly. "Ill be more than glad to let you hev it arter
+your givin' me this fine dress."
+
+"I'll have Mr. Jimmels pay you for it. He can take a dollar out of the
+fee for the minister. It will serve him right for not bringing all his
+trappings with him."
+
+Amarilly's sense of justice was appeased by this arrangement. She went
+into the double parlors to witness the ceremony, which gave her a few
+little heart thrills.
+
+"Them words sounds orful nice," she thought approvingly. "The Boarder
+and Lily Rose must hev an Episcopal fer to marry them. I wonder if I'll
+ever get to Miss King's and Mr. St. John's weddin' or Mr. Derry's; but I
+guess he'll never be married. He jokes too much to be thinkin' of sech
+things." Then came the thought of her own wedding garment awaiting its
+destiny.
+
+"I ain't even hed a beau, yet," she sighed, "but the Boarder says that I
+will--that red-headed girls ain't never old maids from ch'ice."
+
+With this sustaining thought, she proceeded to the dining-room. She had
+been taught at the Guild how to wait on table, and she proved herself to
+be very deft and capable in putting her instructions into effect.
+
+"Here's two dollars," the complacent bride said to Amarilly before
+departing. "One is for serving so nicely, and one is for the surplice. I
+told them in the kitchen to put you up a basket of things to take home
+to the children."
+
+Amarilly thanked her profusely and then went home. She deposited her two
+dollars in the family exchequer, and proceeded to distribute the
+contents of the basket.
+
+"Now, set around the table here, and take what I give you. Thar ain't
+enough of one thing to go hull way round, except fer ma. She's agoin' to
+hev some of each. Yes, you be, ma. This here baskit's mine. Here's a
+sandwich, some chicken, salid, jell, two kinds of cake, and some ice-
+cream fer you. Bud can hev first pick now, 'cause he ain't so strong as
+the rest of you. All right, Bud; take the rest of the ice-cream and some
+cake."
+
+"'Tain't fair! I'm a girl, and I'm younger than Bud. I'd orter choose
+first," sobbed Cory.
+
+"Shut up, Co! You'll wake Iry, and then he'll hev to hev something, and
+if he sleeps right through, thar'll be jest so much more fer you.
+'Twon't hurt him to miss what he don't know about. All right, Cory, you
+can hev cake and jell. That's a good boy, Bud, to give her two tastes of
+the cream, and ma'll give you two more. Bobby? Sandwiches and pickle.
+Milt? Chicken and salid. Flammy and Gus, pickle and sandwich is all
+that's left fer you. The rest of this chicken is agoin' into the
+Boarder's dinner pail to-morrer."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Milton came home from the grocery one night with a telephone message
+from Mr. Vedder requesting Amarilly to bring the surplice to his rooms
+on the next day.
+
+"How is business?" asked the ticket-seller kindly, when the little girl
+appeared in answer to his summons.
+
+"Fine! The surplus has brung in nine dollars and seventy-five cents
+a'ready. It's kept things goin'."
+
+"The theatre will open in a couple of weeks, and then you will have
+steady work, though I wish we might get an easier and pleasanter
+occupation for you."
+
+"I'm agoin' to hev one, Mr. Vedder," and she proceeded to tell him of
+Derry and her engagement at his studio.
+
+"It kinder seems as if I b'longed to the theayter, and you've been so
+orful kind to me, Mr. Vedder, that it'll seem strange-like not to be
+here, but Mr. Phillips's work'll be a snap fer me."
+
+"You've been a good, faithful little girl, Amarilly, and I shall want to
+keep track of you and see you occasionally, so I am going to give you a
+pass to every Saturday matinee during the winter."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Vedder, there's been no one so good as you've been to me! And
+you never laugh at me like other folks do."
+
+"No, indeed, child! Why should I? But I never knew before that you had
+such beautiful hair!"
+
+"It's 'cause it's fixed better," said Amarilly with a blush. "But who
+wants the surplus this time?"
+
+"I do," he replied smiling. "I am invited to a sheet and pillow-case
+party. I thought this surplice would be more comfortable than a sheet.
+Here's a dollar for it."
+
+"No," declined Amarilly firmly. "Not arter all you've done fer us. I
+won't take it."
+
+"Amarilly," he said earnestly. "I have no one in the world to do
+anything for, and sometimes, when I get to thinking about it, I am very
+lonely. So if you want to be kind to me, you will give me the pleasure
+of helping you a little now and then. I shall not enjoy the party unless
+you will take the money."
+
+Amarilly cried a little that night, thinking how good he was.
+
+"I hed orter like him best of all," she thought reproachfully.
+
+Two or three days later Pete Noyes came to the house.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly! I ain't seen yer in so long I'd fergit how you looked.
+Say, why didn't you ever fix yer hair that way afore? It looks swell,
+even if it is red!"
+
+"I am older now," she explained in superior, lofty tones, "and of course
+I hev to think more about my looks than I used ter."
+
+He gazed at her with such ardent admiration that she was seized with an
+impulse to don her white dress and impress his young fancy still
+further.
+
+"He ain't wuth it, though," her sober second thought decided.
+
+"What does yer think I come fer, Amarilly?"
+
+"I dunno, 'less Mr. Vedder sent you."
+
+"He did, sorter. You see, I'm invited to one of them kind of parties
+whar you dress up ter be the name of a book. One of the stock company is
+givin' it fer her kids. I don't know the name of any book except
+_Diamond Dick_ and _The Curse of Gold_, and I didn't know how to rig up
+fer them. I went to Vedder, and he sez thar's a book what's called _The
+Little Minister_, and I could rent yer surplus and tog out in it. He
+said you would take tucks in it fer me."
+
+"Sure I will. I'll fix it now while you wait, Pete."
+
+"Say, Amarilly, I thought as how, seein' we are both in the perfesshun,
+sorter, you'd come down on your price."
+
+"Sure thing, Pete. I won't charge you nothin' fer it."
+
+"Yes; I wanter pay. I'll tell you what, Amarilly, couldn't you take it
+out in gum? I hed a hull lot left over when the theayter shut down.
+It'll git stale ef I keep it much longer, and I'd like to git some of it
+offen my hands."
+
+"Sure, I will, Pete. We all like gum, and we can't afford to buy it very
+often. That'll be dandy."
+
+Thus it was that for the next fortnight the Jenkins family revelled in
+the indulgence of a hitherto denied but dearly prized luxury. Their jaws
+worked constantly and joyously, although differently. Mrs. Jenkins, by
+reason of depending upon her third set of teeth, chewed cautiously and
+with camel-like precision. The Boarder, having had long practice in the
+art, craunched at railway speed. The older boys munched steadily and
+easily, while Bud and Bobby pecked intermittently in short nibbles.
+Amarilly had the "star method," which they all vainly tried to emulate.
+At short and regular intervals a torpedo-like report issued from the gum
+as she snapped her teeth down upon it. Cory kept hers strung out
+elastically from her mouth, occasionally rolling it back.
+
+The liberal supply of the luxury rapidly diminished, owing to the fact
+that Iry swallowed his allowance after ineffectual efforts to retain it
+in his mouth, and then like Oliver Twist pleaded for more.
+
+"I declare fer it!" remarked Mrs. Hudgers to Amarilly. "That child's
+insides will all be stuck together. I should think yer ma would be
+afeard to let him chaw so much."
+
+"He's ateethin', and it sorter soothes his gums," explained Amarilly.
+
+During the summer season, Pete had pursued his profession at a
+vaudeville theatre, and one day, not long after his literary
+representation, he came to Amarilly with some good tidings.
+
+"I hev another job fer yer surplus. Down to the vawdyville they're goin'
+to put on a piece what has a preacher in it, and I tole them about yer
+surplus, and the leadin' man, who is to be the preacher, says 'twould
+lend to the settin's to wear it. I told him mebby you'd let him hev the
+use on it fer a week fer five dollars. He said he could buy the stuff
+and make a dozen fer that price, but they gotter start the piece
+to-night so that'd be no time to make one. I'll take it down to them
+to-night."
+
+This was the longest and most remunerative act of the surplice, and
+served to pay for a very long accruing milk bill. When the engagement at
+the vaudeville ended, the Boarder came to the rescue.
+
+"Thar's a friend of mine what brakes, and he wants the surplus to wear
+to a maskyrade. I told him he could go as a preacher. He's asavin' to
+git merried, so he don't want to give much."
+
+"He shell hev it fer a quarter," said Amarilly, friend to all lovers,
+"and I'll lend him a mask. I hev one the property man at the theayter
+give me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"I wonder," meditated Gus, "where the surplus will land next?"
+
+"It has been most everywhere except to the police court," said Bobby.
+"'Spect 'twill land there next!"
+
+His prophecy was fulfilled. Mrs. Jenkins washed the lucrative garment
+late one afternoon and left it on the line all night. The next morning,
+to the great consternation of the family and the wild distress of
+Amarilly, the beloved surplice, that friend of friends in time of need,
+had vanished. Other clotheslines in the vicinity had also been deprived
+of their burdens, and a concerted complaint was made to the police, who
+promptly located the offender and brought him summarily to trial. Mrs.
+Jenkins was subpoenaed as a witness, which caused quite a ripple of
+excitement in the family. Divided between dread of appearing in public
+and pride at the importance with which she was regarded by her little
+flock, Mrs. Jenkins was quite upset by the occasion. She hadn't attended
+a function for so long that her costuming therefor was of more concern
+than had been Amarilly's church raiment.
+
+Mrs. Hudgers loaned her mourning bonnet and veil, which was adjusted at
+half mast. They appeared in direct contradiction to the skirt of bilious
+green she wore, but the Jenkinses were as unconventional in attire as
+they were in other things.
+
+The family attended the trial _en masse_, and were greatly elated at the
+prominence their mother had attained. The culprit was convicted and the
+surplice duly restored. The misfortune was not without profit. Mrs.
+Jenkins received thirty-five cents as a witness fee.
+
+They had managed to pay their household expenses through the summer, but
+when the rent for August was due there was not quite enough cash on hand
+to meet this important item of expenditure. Noting the troubled brows of
+Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly at breakfast time, the Boarder insisted on
+knowing the cause.
+
+"We're broke, and the rent's overdue," tersely explained Amarilly.
+
+"I'm broke, too," sighed the Boarder, "except what I've got in the
+savin's bank towards--"
+
+"Lily Rose," suggested Amarilly softly.
+
+"Yes," he admitted, with a beaming look. "But when I go broke, all other
+things failin', I allers tackle a pawnbroker."
+
+"We ain't got nothin' to pawn," sighed Amarilly.
+
+She recalled the lace waist, but that, like the Lily Rose fund, was
+sacred. There was always, to-day, yesterday, and forever, the surplice,
+and her scruples regarding that article had of necessity become case-
+hardened; still, Amarilly hesitated. A pawnshop seemed lower than a
+police court.
+
+"It's been everywhere else," she said loudly to the accusing, still,
+small voice, "and it might jest as well go the limit. 'T won't bring
+much, but 'twill help."
+
+Through byways and highways Amarilly sought the region of the three-
+balled porticoes. The shop of one Max Solstein attracted her, and she
+entered his open door. Max, rat-eyed and frog-mouthed, came forward
+propitiatingly.
+
+"What'll you gimme on this?" came with directness from the small
+importuner.
+
+He took the garment, shook it, and held it up for falcon-gaze
+inspection.
+
+"Not worth much. A quarter of a dollar."
+
+Amarilly snatched it from his grasp and fled. Not because of his low-
+figured offer; she had fully expected to have to "beat him up." But when
+she had entered, a youth who had all the recognized earmarks of a
+reporter was lounging in the doorway. At sight of the uplifted garment
+he had come eagerly forward, scenting a story. She knew his kind from
+snatches of conversation she had heard between the leading lady and Lord
+Algernon. In the lore of the stage at Barlow's, reporters were "hovering
+vultures" who always dropped down when least wanted, and they had a way
+of dragging to light the innermost thoughts of their victims.
+
+"You read your secrets," Lord Algernon had dramatically declared, "in
+blazoned headlines."
+
+Hitherto Amarilly had effectually silenced her instinctive rebellion
+against the profaning of St. John's surplice, but she had reached the
+limit. No Max Solstein, no threatening landlord, no ruthless reporter
+should thrust the sacred surplice into the publicity of print.
+
+She darted from the shop, the reporter right at her heels, but the
+chasing of his covey to corner was not easily accomplished. He was a
+newly fledged reporter, and Amarilly had all the instinct of the lowly
+for localities. She turned and doubled and dodged successfully. By a
+course circuitous she returned to Hebrew haunts, this time to seek, one
+Abram Canter, a little wizened, gnome-like Jew. Assuring herself that
+there was no other than the proprietor within, Amarilly entered and
+handed over the surplice for appraisal.
+
+Once more the garment was held aloft. At that psychological moment an
+elderly man of buxom build, benevolent in mien, and with smooth, long
+hair that had an upward rolling tendency at the ends, looked in the shop
+as he was passing. He halted, hesitated, and then entered. Of him,
+however, Amarilly felt no apprehension.
+
+"Looks like Quaker Oats, or mebby it's the Jack of Spades," she thought
+after a searching survey.
+
+"My child, is that yours?" he asked of Amarilly, indicating the garment
+by a protesting forefinger.
+
+"Sure thing!" she acknowledged frankly.
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+If he had been a young man, Amarilly would have cheerfully reminded him
+that it was none of his business, but, a respecter of age, she loftily
+informed him that it had been "give to her."
+
+"By whom?" he persisted.
+
+Perceiving her reluctance to answer, he added gently:
+
+"I am a bishop of the Episcopal Church, and I cannot endure to see a
+surplice in such a place as this."
+
+A bishop! This was worse than a reporter even. St. John would surely
+hear of it! But she felt that an explanation was due the calling of her
+interlocutor.
+
+She lifted righteous eyes to his.
+
+"My mother works for one of the churches, and the minister, he give us
+this to cut up into clo'es fer the chillern, but we didn't cut it up.
+I'm agoin' to leave it here till the rent's paid, and we git the money
+to take it outen hock."
+
+The bishop's eyes softened, and lost their look of shocked dignity.
+
+"I will advance you the money," he offered. "I would much prefer to do
+so than to have it left here. How much money do you need to pay your
+rent?"
+
+"We need five dollars," said Amarilly, "to pay the balance of it. But I
+wouldn't take it from you. I ain't no beggar. I don't believe, nuther,"
+she continued, half to herself, "that Mr. St. John would like it."
+
+"Who is Mr. St. John?" he asked curiously. "I know of no such rector in
+this diocese. My child, you have an honest face. Since you won't accept
+a gift of money, I will lend, you the amount. I want you to tell me all
+about yourself and this surplice."
+
+"Well, mebby he'd want me to," reflected Amarilly.
+
+"Gimme back that surplus," she said to the Jew, who seemed loath to
+relinquish his booty.
+
+As she walked up the street with the bishop, she frankly related the
+family history and the part Mr. Meredith and the surplice had played
+therein.
+
+The bishop had generous instincts, and a desire to reach the needy
+directly instead of through the medium of institutions, but he had never
+known just how to approach them. His presence in this unknown part of
+the city had been unpremeditated, but he welcomed the chance that had
+led his steps hither to perform an errand of mercy. He handed Amarilly
+five dollars, and wrote down her address. He was most reluctant to
+receive the surplice as security, but Amarilly's firm insistence was not
+to be overcome. She returned home, rejoicing in the knowledge that she
+had the price of their happy home in her pocket. The bishop had given
+her his card, which she laid in a china saucer with other bits of
+pasteboard she had collected from Derry Phillips, Mr. Vedder, and Pete
+Noyes. The saucer adorned a small stand in the dining-room part of the
+house.
+
+"It's the way Mrs. Hubbleston kep' her keerds," Amarilly explained to
+the family.
+
+Meantime the bishop was walking in an opposite direction toward his
+home, wondering if he should find he was mistaken in his estimate of
+human nature; and a query arose in his mind as to what he should do with
+the surplice if it were left on his hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Bud sat in the park,--Clothes-line Park, Amarilly had dubbed it--one
+Monday afternoon, singing a song of gladness. The park was confined by a
+clothes-line stretched between three tottering poles and the one
+solitary poplar tree of the Jenkins estate. The line was hung with white
+linen garments, and smaller articles adorned the grass plot within the
+park.
+
+This to Bud was the most beautiful spot in the world. He looked up into
+the sapphire blue of the sky flecked with soft patches of white, then
+down upon the waving grass latticed by sun and shade; he listened to the
+soothing rustle of the poplar leaves, the soft flapping of linen in the
+breeze, the birds in the tree tops, and felt his heart and throat
+bursting with all the harmony and melody about him. Not always was Bud's
+refrain one of joy. There were songs of sorrow on the damp days when the
+washings must be dried within the house, and he could not venture forth
+because he still was regarded as the delicate one of the family. There
+were days, too, when the number of garments was not adequate to complete
+the boundary to the park, and that meant less to eat and worry about the
+rent and a harassed look in his mother's anxious eyes.
+
+But there was no sob in Bud's song this afternoon. The clothes had been
+hung out unusually early, and were nearly dry, so his mother had brought
+out her little lean-back rocker and sat beside him for a few moments to
+listen to his carol and to hark back to the days when his lusty-voiced
+father had sung to her in the shadows of a vine clad porch.
+
+It was not upon Amarilly, the sharer of her burdens, nor upon the baby
+that Mrs. Jenkins lavished her tenderness. Bud crept closest because he
+had been the one most dependent upon her care.
+
+When the little singer ceased, the mother arose and unpinned the
+garments, carrying them in armfuls to the huge basket in the middle of
+the park. Bud watched her thin, fatigued hands as they performed their
+accustomed task, and a sudden inspiration came to him. His future field
+of labor had troubled him. Now his way seemed clear. He stepped nimbly
+to the grass plot and gathered up the pieces spread thereon.
+
+"Ma," he said, as they met at the basket, "I've jest thought what I kin
+do, when I grow up, to support you."
+
+"What is it, Bud?" she asked interestedly.
+
+"The teacher said we must plan to do what we knew the most about. I know
+more about washin' than anything else."
+
+"You'd orter," she replied with a sigh.
+
+"I kin run a laundry," he declared.
+
+"That would be a fine business."
+
+Happy in the hope of this new horoscope, Bud resumed his seat in the
+amphitheatre, and in a voice of clarion clearness ecstatically rendered
+one of the hymns he had learned at St. Mark's. Ever since he had become
+a member of the choir, Clothes-line Park had rung with echoes of the
+Jubilate and Venite instead of the popular old-time school airs. The
+wringer was turned to the tune of a Te Deum, the clothes were rubbed to
+the rhythm of a Benedictus, and the floor mopped to the melody of a
+Magnificat.
+
+On the happy, by-gone Thursdays, cloistered by snow-white surplices,
+with the little chorister enthroned in the midst, Clothes-line Park had
+seemed a veritable White Chapel.
+
+Bud was snatched from his carols by the arrival of Amarilly, who was far
+too practical to hearken to hymns when there was work to be performed.
+
+"I got the money Miss Ormsby's owed us so long," she announced in a tone
+of satisfaction, "and that jest makes up the money to git back the
+surplus. I'll give you carfare one way, Bud, and you must go to the
+bishop's and git it. I'm too beat to go. I've walked most five miles
+sence dinner."
+
+Bud was scoured and brushed, the pocket of his blouse tagged with a
+five-dollar bill carefully secured by a safety pin, and he started on
+his way for the address Amarilly had given him. He stopped at the corner
+drug store to spend his car-fare for an ice-cream soda.
+
+When the lad's quest was repeated to the bishop by his housekeeper, he
+instructed her to send Bud up to the library, being kindly-disposed
+towards all boy-kind. While he was questioning his young visitor, the
+organ of Grace Church, which was next to the bishop's house, pealed
+forth, and a man's voice began to chant a selection from an oratorio Bud
+had learned at St. Mark's. A high, childish soprano voice was essaying
+to carry the sustained note an octave above the man's voice; once it
+sharped.
+
+"Oh!" shuddered Bud in dismay. "He can't keep the tune."
+
+"He isn't our regular soloist," explained the bishop apologetically. "He
+is ill, and this boy is trying to learn the part for an organ recital to
+be given next week."
+
+Again the choirmaster's voice, patient and wearied, began the refrain.
+Instinctively Bud's little chest swelled, and involuntarily his clear,
+high treble took the note and sustained it without break through the
+measures, and then triumphantly broke into the solo. The bishop's eyes
+shone.
+
+"Come," he said, rising and going towards the door, "come with me."
+
+Wonderingly and obediently, Bud followed him into the church and up to
+the organ where the choirmaster sat.
+
+"This is one of the boys from St. Mark's. Try him on the solo. He just
+sang it for me."
+
+"I thought I heard it sung just now, but I feared it was only an echo of
+my dreams. Let me hear you again, my lad."
+
+Easily and confidently Bud attacked the high C in alt. At the end of the
+solo, the long-suffering choirmaster looked as if he were an Orpheus,
+who had found his Eurydice.
+
+"Who taught you to sing that solo?" he demanded.
+
+"My school teacher. She is studying fer an opery singer, and she helps
+me with my Sunday singing."
+
+"I thought the style was a little florid for the organist of St.
+Mark's," said the choirmaster whimsically. "My boy, if you will sing it
+for us at the recital as well as you did just now, you shall have ten
+dollars."
+
+The laundry now loomed as a fixed star in Bud's firmament. When he went
+home and told his mother the good news she moved joyfully among her mops
+and tubs. The turn of the wringer never seemed so easy, and she
+frequently paused in the rubbing of a soaped garment to wring the suds
+from her swollen hands and listen anew to the recital of Bud's call upon
+the bishop and the choirmaster of Grace Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The next day the flood-tide of the Jenkins's fortunes bid fair to flow
+to fullness. Word came to the little home that Mr. Meredith had returned
+to the city and desired the laundry work to be resumed. Bud was summoned
+to choir practice the following Friday, and Miss King sent her chauffeur
+with a fair-sized washing.
+
+"Everything comes so to onct, it takes your breath away," said Amarilly,
+quite overcome by this renewal of commercial activity, "and next thing I
+know,"--there her heart gave a deer-like leap--"Mr. Derry'll be hum, and
+sendin' fer me. Then we'll all be earnin' excep' Gus."
+
+At the end of the week Amarilly eagerly went to deliver the washings at
+the rectory and Miss King's, but in both instances she was doomed to
+disappointment, as her friends were not in.
+
+"I'll go to church and see 'em," she resolved.
+
+This time her raiment was very simple, but more effective than upon the
+occasion of her previous attendance.
+
+Before Amarilly's artistic temperament was awakened by the atmosphere of
+the studio, she had been wont to array herself in things convenient
+without regard to color or style, believing herself to be hopelessly
+homely and beyond the aid of personal adornment; but since Derry had
+praised her hair, she had scrupulously cared for it and allowed no
+conflicting color in proximity thereto. On this occasion she fastened it
+with the black velvet bows, and arrayed herself in the white dress Mrs.
+Jimmels had given her.
+
+"I declar, Amarilly," exclaimed her mother, "I believe you're agrowin'
+purty!"
+
+Amarilly's eyes danced, and she gave her mother a spontaneous and
+rewarding hug.
+
+She didn't do her own ushering this time, and was consequently seated
+most inconspicuously near the entrance. Her heart beat rapturously at
+the sight of John Meredith in the pulpit.
+
+"His vacation didn't freshen him up much," she thought, after a shrewd
+glance. "He's paler and don't look real peart. Sorter like Bud arter he
+got up from the fever."
+
+Her attention was diverted from the rector by the vision of Colette
+coming down the aisle. The change in her appearance was even more
+startling to the little anxious-eyed girl than in John's case. There
+were violet shadows under the bright eyes, a subtle, subdued air about
+her fresh young beauty that had banished the little touch of wilfulness.
+As soon as she was seated, which was after the service had begun, she
+became entirely absorbed in her prayer-book.
+
+"Vacation ain't agreed with her, nuther," pondered Amarilly perplexedly.
+
+She turned her gaze again to John, who was sitting back of the choir,
+while his "understudy" conducted the service. His face was shaded by his
+hand, but Amarilly's gimlet glance noted that he frequently sent a
+fleeting, troubled look toward the King pew.
+
+"Thar's something up atwixt 'em," deduced Amarilly, "and they air both
+too proud to say nuthin' about it to the other."
+
+John's sermon was on the strength that renunciation brings, and the duty
+of learning resignation. There was a pervasive note of sadness in his
+deliverance of the theme, and Amarilly felt her joyousness in the return
+of her friends slipping from her.
+
+She went out of church somewhat depressed, but was cheered by the
+handclasp of the rector and his earnest assurance that he would see her
+very soon. While he was saying this, Colette slipped past without
+vouchsafing so much as a glance in their direction. Hurt through and
+through, the little girl walked sadly to the pavement with head and eyes
+downcast.
+
+"Amarilly," dulcetly spoke a well-loved voice.
+
+Her eyes turned quickly. Colette stood at the curb, her hand on the door
+of the electric.
+
+"I waited to take you home, dear. Why, what's the matter, Amarilly?
+Tears?"
+
+"I thought you wan't goin' to speak to me," said Amarilly, as she
+stepped into the brougham and took the seat beside Colette.
+
+"I didn't want to interrupt you and Mr. Meredith, but it's a wonder I
+knew you. You look so different. You have grown so tall, and what a
+beautiful dress! Who showed you how to fix your hair so artistically? I
+never realized you had such beautiful hair, child!"
+
+"I didn't nuther, till he told me."
+
+"Who, Amarilly? Lord Algernon?"
+
+"No!" scoffed Amarilly, suddenly realizing that her former hero had
+toppled from his pedestal in her thoughts. "'Tain't him. It's a new
+friend I have made. An artist."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you have such distinguished acquaintances! All in the
+profession, too. Tell me who the artist is."
+
+"Mr. Derry Phillips. I cleaned his rooms, and he took me to lunch. We
+ate things like we had to your house."
+
+"Derry Phillips, the talented young artist! Why, Amarilly, girls are
+tumbling over each other trying to get attention from him, and he took
+you to luncheon! Where?"
+
+"To Carter's, and I'm to serve his breakfast and take care of his rooms,
+and he showed me how to fix my hair and to say 'can' and 'ate.' He's
+fired the woman what red his rooms."
+
+"'Merely Mary Ann,'" murmured Colette.
+
+"No," said Amarilly positively. "Her name is Miss O'Leary, and she
+didn't clean the mopboards."
+
+Colette's gay laughter pealed forth.
+
+"Amarilly, this is the first time, I've laughed this summer, but I must
+explain something to you. The housekeeper told me that all the children
+had scarlet fever and were quarantined a long time after we left. I wish
+I had known it and thought more about you, but--I've had troubles of my
+own. How did you manage so long with nothing coming in?"
+
+"It was purty hard, but we fetched it," sighed Amarilly, thinking of the
+struggles, "We're doin' fine now again."
+
+"But, tell me; how did you buy food and things when none of you were
+working?"
+
+"When your ten dollars was gone, we spent his'n."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+"Mr. Meredith's. He sent us a ten, too."
+
+"Oh!" replied Colette frigidly.
+
+"Then the Boarder give us all he hed. Arterwards come dark days until
+Mr. Vedder sent us a fiver.--Then thar was an orful day when thar wa'n't
+a cent and we didn't know whar to turn, and then--It saved us."
+
+"It? What?"
+
+"The surplus. Mr. St. John's surplus. It brung in lots."
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly?"
+
+"You see 'twas at our house when Iry was fust took sick--same as the
+waist you gimme was. They couldn't nuther on 'em be sent hum till they
+was fumygated. Then Mrs. Winders said as how he, Mr. St. John, said as
+how we was to keep it and cut it up fer the chillern, but we didn't."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly," asked Colette faintly, "do you mean to tell me that the
+surplice was never delivered to Mr. Meredith?"
+
+"No. Gus didn't take it that night, and in the mornin' when Iry was took
+it was too late. And then when it got fumygated, Mr. St. John had gone
+away and he left word we was to keep it."
+
+The transformation in Colette's mobile face during this explanation was
+rapid and wonderful. With a radiant smile she stopped the brougham and
+put her arms impulsively about Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, I'm so happy, and I've had such a wretched summer! Now,
+we will go right to your house and you'll let me see the surplice."
+Amarilly looked surprised.
+
+"Why, yes, you can see it, of course, though it ain't no diffrent from
+his other ones."
+
+"Oh yes it is! Far, far different, Amarilly. It has a history."
+
+"Yes, I guess it has," laughed Amarilly, "It's been goin' some these
+last two months!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly? and I forgot in my excitement to ask
+how it helped you. But first tell me. You know there is a pocket in it?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King."
+
+"Have you noticed anything in the pocket?"
+
+"Never looked onct. But then if thar was 'twould hev come out in the
+wash. It's been did up heaps of times. You see, rentin' it out so
+much--"
+
+"Renting it out!"
+
+Amarilly gave a graphic account of the adventures of the errant garment
+to date. Meanwhile Colette's countenance underwent kaleidoscopic
+changes.
+
+"Amarilly," she asked faintly, "have you the addresses of all those
+people to whom you rented it?"
+
+"Yes; I keep books now, and I put it down in my day ledger the way the
+Boarder showed me."
+
+"There was something--of mine--in--that pocket. Will you ask your mother
+to look for it, and hunt the house over for it?"
+
+Amarilly, greatly distressed at the loss, promised faithfully to do so.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As soon as Amarilly had been deposited at her door, Colette tore a leaf
+from the tablet reposing in its silver case, hastily wrote a few lines,
+and then ran her brougham at full speed back to St. Mark's. A chorister
+was just coming out.
+
+"Walter!" she called.
+
+The lad came down to the curb.
+
+"Will you please take this to Mr. Meredith? He is probably in the
+Sunday-school now."
+
+"Sure. Will you wait for an answer, Miss King?".
+
+"No, thank you, Walter."
+
+She rode home and waited anxiously for the personal answer to her note,
+which came with most unclerical alacrity.
+
+"Colette," he said, his voice tense, "if you knew what your little note
+meant! Did--"
+
+"Wait until I explain, John. I must tell you about the surplice."
+
+She repeated Amarilly's account of the peregrinations of the robe.
+
+"Well?" he asked bewildered, "I don't see what that has to do with--"
+
+"Everything. There was something of mine--" she turned a deep
+crimson--"in the pocket of that surplice."
+
+"Yours! Why, how did it get there, Colette? Was it--"
+
+"I am not going to tell you--not until I have it back. Oh, I could die
+of shame when I think who may have found it. You must get it."
+
+"Colette," he answered gravely, "the surplice must have passed through
+many hands, but if it is possible to trace this--article, I will do so.
+Still, how can I make inquiries unless I know what it is?"
+
+"You can ask them, each and all, if they found anything in the pocket,"
+she replied. "And you must tell them you left it there."
+
+"And you won't trust me, Colette? Not after my long unhappy summer. And
+won't you give me an answer now to the note I wrote you last spring?"
+
+"No; I won't tell you anything! Not until you find that."
+
+"Be reasonable, Colette."
+
+His choice of an adjective was most unfortunate for his cause. It was
+the word of words that Colette detested; doubtless because she had been
+so often entreated to cultivate that quality.
+
+"I will not," she answered, "if to tell you is being reasonable. I must
+have it back. I think no one will really know to whom it belongs, though
+they may guess. You must, assume the ownership."
+
+"I certainly shall, if it can be found," he assured her.
+
+Seeing the utter futility of changing her mood, he took his departure;
+perhaps a little wiser if not quite so sad as he had been before he saw
+her. The next morning he called upon Amarilly, whom he found alone with
+Iry.
+
+"I am very sorry to learn that you had such a hard summer," he said
+kindly, "and I regret that I didn't know more about your affairs before
+I left the city, but I was too absorbed, I fear, in my own troubles."
+
+"How did you hear about us?" she asked curiously.
+
+"From Miss King."
+
+"Oh," said Amarilly happily, imagining that their trouble must have been
+patched up. Then another thought occurred to her which gave her a little
+heart palpitation. With intense anxiety depicted on her lineaments she
+asked tremulously: "Did she tell you about the surplus?"
+
+"Amarilly," and the tone was so reassuring that the little wrinkles of
+anxiety vanished, "when I gave you the surplice, I gave it to you
+unconditionally, and I am very glad that you put it to profit. But, you
+know, as Miss King told you, that there was something of value--of
+importance--in that pocket; something that must be found. My happiness
+depends entirely upon its recovery. Now, she tells me that you can give
+me the names and addresses of all the people through whose hands it
+passed."
+
+"Sure thing!" she replied with business-like alacrity. "You see the
+Boarder has been larnin' me bookkeepin', and so I keep all our accounts
+now in a big book the grocer give me."
+
+She produced a large, ledger-like book and laid it on the table for his
+inspection. He examined her system of bookkeeping with interest. Under
+the head of "Cr.," which she explained to him meant "brung in," was
+"Washins," "Boarder," "Flamingus," "Milt," "Bobby," "Bud." Below each
+of these subheads were dates and accounts. The page opposite, headed
+"Dr.," she translated, "means paid out."
+
+She turned a few leaves, and in big letters he read the word "Surplus."
+
+"This bein' a sort of extry account, the Boarder said to run it as a
+special and keep it seprut. If you'll set down, I'll read offer to you
+whar it has went."
+
+She began to read laboriously and slowly from the book, adding
+explanatory notes in glib tones.
+
+"'July 8. Mister Carrul, tenner, 1 doller. Pade.' He's the tenor, you
+know, to Grace Church. He wanted it to sing in at a sacred concert. His
+was too short or too long.
+
+"'July 11. Miss Lyte and Miss Bobson. 'Tablos. 1 doller. Pade.' Mr.
+Carul knows where they live. 'Twaz him as got the job fer me.
+
+"'July 15 to July 19. The Beehive. 3 dollers and 1/2 Pade.' That's a
+bargain store down in our parts. I went in fer to git Bud a cap and I
+hearn the clerk askin' the boss about fixin' up a winder show with wax
+figgers fer a weddin'. I step up to him and ask him if he kep surpluses,
+and he sez as he didn't. I told him I could rent him one to put on the
+minister, and he hedn't thought fer to hev it an Episcopal show, but he
+sed he'd do it fer an ad fer his white goods. He wouldn't stand fer no
+dollar a day. He beat me down to three-fifty, but he throwed in a cap
+fer Bud.
+
+"Next come Mrs. Hudgers. I didn't put it down in the ledger, though,
+cause it didn't bring nuthin' but a pan of doughnuts. Her son Hallie
+died, and he didn't hev no nice clo'es ter be laid out in, and she was
+agoin' to hev quite a funyral, so jest afore folks come, she slipped the
+surplus on ter him over his old clo'es, and then when 'twas over, she
+took it offen him again. He made a swell lookin' corpse. Bein' a
+neighbor we didn't go fer to ask her nuthin', but she give us the nut
+cakes. They give her dyspepsy, anyhow."
+
+The muscles of John Meredith's face grew rigid in his endeavor to
+maintain a serious expression. He had taken out a notebook at the
+beginning of the interview to jot down the addresses, but he copied
+Amarilly's comments as well, for the future entertainment of Colette.
+
+"'July 25 and 26. Mr. Derry Phillips, The Navarre. 2 dollers. Pade.' He
+paints picters. He painted the surplus onto a man playin' on a orgin."
+
+She hesitated a moment, and then continued: "I'm agoin' to work reg'lur
+fer him instead of to the theayter. I'm agoin' to git his breakfast and
+clean his rooms. He'll pay me the same as I got. He's a sort of
+eddicatin' me too."
+
+"Why, how is that, Amarilly?" asked John in perplexity.
+
+"He larnt me not to say 'et' and 'kin.'"
+
+The rector's eyes twinkled.
+
+"And," pursued Amarilly, after another moment of hesitancy, "he's larnt
+me how to fix my hair. He says red hair is beautiful! He took me to a
+restyrant."
+
+John looked troubled at this statement, and felt that his call at the
+studio would now be for a double purpose.
+
+"'July 27,'" resumed Amarilly. "'The Boarder. 25 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Why, what possible use could he have for a surplice?"
+
+"He's akeepin' company with a young gal--Lily Rose--and she wanted his
+likeness tooken sorter fancy-like, so he wuz took in the surplus, and he
+got himself framed in a gilt and shell frame, and she hez it ahangin'
+over her bed. I didn't want no pay from him, cause he give us his money
+when yours and Miss King's was gone, but he says as how it might bring
+him luck in gittin' her, so I took a quarter of a dollar.
+
+"'July 29. Mister Vergil Washington. Reckter Colered Church. 1 doller.
+Pade.' Some one stole his'n off en the clo'es-line, and he only hed one.
+
+"'July 31. Widder Hubbleston, 56 Wilkins St. 1 Doller. Pade.' She got
+merried by an Episcopal minister, and he furgot his surplus, and that
+was all she hed hired him fer, so she rented our'n fer him, and Mr.
+Jimmels, her new husband, took it outen the minister's pay. Somethin'
+allers goes wrong to her weddin's."
+
+"Does she have them often?" interrupted John gravely.
+
+"Quite frequent." "'Aug. 3, Mister Vedder, Ticket Seller to the
+Theayter. 1 doller. Pade.' He wore it to a sheet and piller case party.
+I didn't want fer to take nuthin' from him, cause he give us money when
+we hed the fever, but he wouldn't hev it that way.
+
+"'Aug. 5. Pete Noyes. Gum.' He's the boy what sells gum to the theayter.
+He was agoin' to a party whar you hev to be the name of a book. He wore
+the surplus so his name was the Little Minister. We took it out in gum--
+spruce and pepsin. Iry swallered his'n every time, and Miss Hudgers was
+afeard he'd be stuck together inside.
+
+"'Aug. 9-23. Vawdevil Theayter. 5 dollers. Pade.' They put it on fer a
+sketch.
+
+"'Aug. 25. Mister Cotter. 25 cents. Pade.' He's a brakeman friend of the
+Boarder. He wore it to a maskyrade.
+
+"'Aug. 27. Poleece. 35 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Police!" ejaculated John faintly.
+
+"Some one swiped it offen our clo'es-line, and when the police ketched
+the thief, we was subpenyed, or ma was. She got thirty-five cents, and
+all on us 'cept Iry went to hear her."
+
+"'Aug, 29. Bishop Thurber. 5 dollers. Pade.'"
+
+"Bishop Thurber!" the name was repeated with the force of an expletive.
+
+"Seems to mind that more'n he did the police," thought Amarilly.
+
+"It's quite a story," she explained, "and though it was orful at the
+beginnin' it come out all right, jest as the plays all do. I jest
+thought, I shouldn't hev put that down in the account, cause we give
+back the five, so we didn't make nuthin' in a way. We wuz dead broke. I
+suppose," she ruminated, "you don't know jest how orful it is to be
+that."
+
+"I don't, Amarilly, from my own experience," replied John
+sympathetically, "but I can imagine how terrible it must be, and I am
+very sorry--"
+
+"Well, as long as it come out all right, it don't make no difference.
+We'd got to pay our rent or else git put out, and I was up a stump till
+the Boarder said to tackle a pawnshop. I didn't hev nuthin' but the
+surplus to pawn, and I hated to pawn it on your account."
+
+"I don't care, my child," was the fervent assurance, "where you took it
+as long as it helped you in your troubles."
+
+"Well, I was in a pawnshop, and the man was holdin' it up, and the
+bishop went by, and when he seen what it was he come in, and asked me
+all about it, and I told him. He took it worse than you do that I would
+pawn it, and to save it he lent me five dollers. Course I made him take
+the surplus till I hed the money to git it outen hock, and when we was
+able to pay fer it, Bud went arter it. Thar was a boy practicin' at the
+church next door, and he warn't singin' it right, and Bud he couldn't
+keep still noway, so he up and sings the soler, and when the man at the
+orgin hearn him, he fired the boy what was tryin' to sing, and hired Bud
+in his place. He's agoin' to sing to a recital at Grace Church day arter
+to-morrer, and git ten dollers. And we air goin' to make Bud bank all he
+gits cause he ain't so strong as the rest of us. He may need it some
+time. That's all the places the surplus went to. I guess I'll go outen
+the costumin' business now, 'cause I'll be startin' in with Mr. Derry
+soon."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+There was one little ominous cloud in the serene sky of Mrs. Jenkins's
+happiness. She had nothing suitable for the occasion of the organ
+recital in the way of wearing apparel.
+
+"I feel as if gloves was due you, Bud," she lamented, "but I kin't
+afford 'em. I guess I kin put my hands under my mantilly, though, and
+folks won't know."
+
+"She'd orter hev 'em, and she'd orter hev a new hat, too," reflected
+Bud, and his song became a requiem. He manfully resolved to sacrifice
+his future to present needs and curtail the laundry fund. After some
+meditation he called upon the bishop, and asked if he might have an
+advance of half the amount he would receive for his solo.
+
+The bishop readily assented, but sought the reason for the request.
+
+"My mother is comin' to the recital, but she ain't got no fixin's. I'm
+goin' to buy her a hat."
+
+"I am glad you think of your mother, my lad, but it would be well to let
+some older person select it for you. My housekeeper--"
+
+Bud's refusal was emphatic. He knew the kind of hat his mother wanted,
+and he had noted her quickly suppressed look of disappointment at the
+sombre hat donated by Mrs. Hudgers on the day of the police-court
+attendance.
+
+Upon receiving the five dollars he went directly to the Fashion
+Emporium, where the windows were filled with a heterogeneous assortment
+of gayly trimmed hats, marked enticingly with former and present prices.
+
+"I want a hat kivered with flowers," he announced.
+
+"Who for?" asked the young saleswoman.
+
+"For my mother."
+
+"How would you like a nice flower toque like this?" displaying a
+headgear of modest forget-me-nots.
+
+"That's all faded. Ain't you got any red flowers? If you haven't, I know
+a store where they keep 'em."
+
+The girl instantly sacrificed her ideas of what was fitting to the
+certainty of a sale, and quickly produced a hat of green foliage from
+which rose long-stemmed, nodding red poppies, "a creation marked down to
+three-ninety-eight," she informed him.
+
+"That's the kind! I'll take it and a pair of white gloves, too, if
+you've got some big ones fer a dollar."
+
+Bud hastened home with his purchases. His mother was quite overcome by
+the sight of such finery.
+
+"I never thought to be dressed up again," she exclaimed on the eventful
+night, "No one has bought me nuthin' to wear sence your pa died. I feel
+like I was some one outen a book."
+
+The entire family, save Iry, who was put to bed at a neighbor's, went to
+the recital. The Boarder took Lily Rose, who was quite flustered at her
+first appearance with the family.
+
+John and Colette occupied a pew directly opposite the family. Mr. Vedder
+and Pete were also in attendance.
+
+When the bishop came from the vestry and walked down the aisle to his
+pew, his eyes fell upon the worn, seamed face of Bud's mother, the weary
+patient eyes in such odd contrast to the youthful turban with its
+smartly dancing flowers. Something stirred in his well-regulated heart,
+and he carefully wiped his glasses.
+
+At the signal from the choirmaster for the solo of the oratorio, Bud
+arose. An atom of a boy he looked in the vast, vaulted chancel, and for
+the first time he knew fear at the thought of singing. It was a terrible
+thing, after all, to face this sea of staring, dancing people. As
+lightning reaches to steel, the gay poppies nodding so nervously above
+his mother's white, anxious face sought the courage place within, and
+urged him on. He felt himself back in Clothes-line Park, alone with his
+mother and the blue sky.
+
+The little figure filled itself with a long, deep breath. The high,
+clear note merged into one with the notes of the chorus. It touched the
+tones of the accompaniment in harmony true, and swelled into grand,
+triumphant music.
+
+"He looks like he did arter the fever," thought Amarilly anxiously.
+
+When he came down the aisle with the choir, the ethereal look had left
+his face, and he was again a happy little boy. He gave his mother a gay
+nod, and bestowed a wink upon the Boarder. He waited outside and the
+family wended their way homeward.
+
+There had not been time to bring in the clothes before leaving, but a
+willing neighborhood had guarded the premises for them, so Clothes-line
+Park was shrouded in a whiteness that looked ghostly in the moonlight.
+
+They made quite an affair of the evening in honor of Bud's song, and
+their introduction to Lily Rose. There were fried sausages, coffee,
+sandwiches, and pork cake.
+
+"The organist told me," announced Bud at supper, "that he was agoin' to
+train my voice, and I could be soloist at Grace Church and git five
+dollars a Sunday, and after a while I could git ten."
+
+"You'll be a millynaire," prophesied Bobby in awed tones.
+
+"Guess we'll be on Easy Street now," shouted Cory.
+
+"We won't be nuthin' of the kind," snapped Amarilly. "It's agoin' to all
+be banked fer Bud."
+
+"I guess," said Bud, in his quiet, little old-man way, "I'm the one to
+hev the say. I'm agoin' to give ma two dollars a week and bank the
+rest."
+
+Meanwhile John was having an uncomfortable time as he walked home with
+Colette. He had started on the trail of the surplice the day before. The
+"tenner" and the young ladies who had given the tableaux had been
+interviewed, but in neither case had the mysterious pocket been
+discovered. To-day he had visited the Beehive, but no one in the store
+had paid any attention to the pocket, or knew of its existence. Colette
+remained obdurate to his pleadings. She assumed that he was entirely to
+blame for the loss, and seemed to take a gleeful delight in showing him
+how perverse and wilful she could be. To-night he found himself less
+able than usual to cope with her caprices, so he began to talk of
+impersonal matters and dwelt upon the beauties of Bud's voice, and the
+astonishing way in which it had developed.
+
+She admitted that Bud's voice was indeed wonderful, but maintained that
+Mrs. Jenkins's poppy hat and white gloves had been far surpassing in the
+way of surprises.
+
+"Did you ever, John, see anything more shoutingly funny?"
+
+"It wasn't funny, Colette," he said wistfully, and he proceeded to
+relate the history of the hat as he had heard it from the bishop that
+day.
+
+[Illustration: To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope
+with her caprices]
+
+And though in the depths of her heart Colette was touched by the pathos
+of the purchase, she must needs tread again the feminine labyrinth
+instead of following the more natural and open path.
+
+"Who was the young girl with the Boarder?" John next vouchsafed.
+
+"Why, Lily Rose, of course. The Lily for whom he 'sot for his likeness
+in the surplus.' That awful surplice," she burst forth in irritation at
+the mere mention of the unfortunate word. "Some of these people must
+have it. John, you don't half try to find it."
+
+"I am following out the list in order," he assured her. "I shall go to
+see Mrs. Hudgers to-morrow."
+
+"And the next one to her," reminded Colette, "is Derry Phillips,
+Amarilly's new benefactor. She told me to-day that she had a note from
+him, asking her to begin work at the studio in a few days."
+
+"I have a double duty in my call there," said John didactically. "If he
+is like some of the young artists I know, his studio will hardly be a
+proper place for Amarilly."
+
+"As it happens," returned Colette coldly, "Derry Phillips, for all his
+nonsense, is reported to be a true gentleman; but it would make no
+difference with Amarilly if he were not. Her inherent goodness would
+counteract the evil of any atmosphere. She can take care of his rooms
+until she is a little older. Then she can become a model."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed protestingly.
+
+"Why not?" she returned. "Why shouldn't Amarilly be a model, or go on
+the stage? Neither place would be below her station in life."
+
+John sought refuge in utter silence which admonished and exasperated
+Colette far more than any reproof would have done.
+
+"You might as well go, if you have nothing to say," she remarked
+stiffly, as he lingered in the portico, evidently expecting an
+invitation to enter.
+
+"I have _too_ much to say, Colette."
+
+Her sidelong glance noted his dejection, and her flagging spirits rose
+again.
+
+"Too much, indeed, when you are so critical of what I say!"
+
+"Colette, hear me!"
+
+"No, I won't listen--never when you preach!"
+
+"I don't mean to preach, Colette, but don't you think--"
+
+"Good night, John," she said, smiling.
+
+"Good night!" he echoed dolefully, but making no move to leave.
+"Colette, will you never tell me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied unexpectedly, with a dancing light in her beautiful
+eyes.
+
+"When?"
+
+"When you restore to me what was in the pocket."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Jason never sought the Golden Fleece with more unwearying perseverance
+than John displayed in the pursuit of the lost article which Colette
+refused to describe. His calls of inquiry didn't mean merely putting the
+question politely and taking his departure after receiving an answer. It
+meant, in the case of Mrs. Hudgers, a martyr's test of patience in
+listening to the devious and manifold routes taken by her rheumatic
+pains; a rehearsal of the late lamented Hallie's idiosyncracies; the
+details of his last illness; his death; and his wearing of the surplice
+at the obsequies.
+
+Throughout her harangue he preached patience unto himself and remembered
+that she was an old woman, desolate in her "lone lornness," so he
+counselled not, neither did he pray, but comforted her with the
+gentleness of voice and speech that won him a fond place in her memory
+for all time.
+
+"No," she assured him decisively, as in departing he reminded her of his
+original question, "I didn't go fer to look in no pockit. I didn't
+suppose them things had pockits."
+
+Then the scene shifted to Derry Phillips's studio, and this visit was
+fraught with more difficulties, for there was the case of Amarilly which
+must be approached delicately and with subtlety.
+
+After stating his errand concisely and receiving assurance that the
+pocket had not been examined, but that the model should be interviewed
+by him, John still lingered.
+
+"It's very kind in you to give employment to Amarilly, Mr. Phillips."
+
+Derry shook his head.
+
+"I am the one to be congratulated, Mr. Meredith. I really feel
+apologetic to Amarilly for accepting her services. They are so
+conscientiously and faithfully rendered that I feel she should be given
+a higher scope of work than she can find here. She is an honest, amusing
+little soul, and if by giving her employment I can encourage her desire
+to be industrious and earn something, I am very glad of the opportunity
+to do so."
+
+This was a long and serious observation for the gay-hearted Derry to
+make, but he shrewdly fathomed the pastoral duty underlying the
+seemingly casual remark.
+
+John's keen perception recognized the sincerity in the ring of the
+pleasant young voice, and he was quite won by the boyish directness. An
+instinctive confidence moved him to extend the right hand of trust and
+fellowship.
+
+"You have been instructive as well as benevolent," he remarked
+smilingly. "Two of Amarilly's errors of speech have been eradicated."
+
+The young Artist flushed in slight confusion, and then with a half-
+embarrassed laugh, he replied lightly: "Amarilly gave full measure of
+correction in return."
+
+Responding to the nameless something in John that so insistently and
+irresistibly invited confidence, he related the little incident of the
+luncheon and her request in regard to temperate orders in the future.
+
+"And I don't mean to say," he replied with winning frankness, "that it
+was merely the request of a little scrub-girl that has kept me temperate
+through two months of vacation and temptation, but the guileless
+suggestion was the spark that fired the flame of a dormant desire to
+change--certain conditions."
+
+John again extended his hand, this time in a remorseful spirit of
+apology.
+
+Derry partially understood.
+
+"Amarilly has ardently interested friends," he observed whimsically.
+"There was one Vedder, a solemn young German, here to-day in my little
+maid's interest."
+
+John's call upon the sable-hued preacher, Brother Washington, also
+demanded strategic approach. The question of pockets must be delicately
+handled lest any reflection be cast upon the integrity of the race, and
+their known penchant for pockets.
+
+Brother Washington's sympathies were at once enlisted, however, when he
+scented a romance, for John became more confidential in this than in any
+of his prior visitations, in his desire to propitiate. But his search
+was fruitless here as elsewhere, and he went away convinced that Brother
+Washington had not tampered with the pocket.
+
+He went on to the house of the Reverend James Woodville, who had
+performed the marriage ceremony at the nuptials of Mrs. Jimmels, nee
+Hubbleston. In this instance also no pocket had been discovered in the
+garment, so John wended his discouraged way to the office of the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+Mr. Vedder was likewise surprised to learn that surplices possessed
+pockets.
+
+The young rector's face brightened at the next name on his list--Pete
+Noyes. Of course a boy and a pocket would not long remain unacquainted.
+Again he was doomed to disappointment. Pete's dismay when he learned
+that there had been an overlooked pocket was convincingly genuine.
+
+"You see," he explained, "I wore it over my pants, of course, and I had
+the pockets in them, so I didn't look for no more."
+
+Pete escorted the rector to the "Vawdyville," and by good fortune the
+clerical impersonator in the sketch was still on the board, though in a
+different act. He instantly and decidedly disclaimed all knowledge of a
+pocket.
+
+"It's like that game," grinned Pete. "Button, button, who's got the
+button?"
+
+"Yes," agreed John, with a sigh, "only in this case I fear I shall
+continue to be 'it.'"
+
+The brakeman, when he came in from his run, was located and he joined in
+the blockade that was conspiring against John's future happiness.
+
+The clothes-line thief was very sensitive on the subject, and felt
+greatly aggrieved that he should be accused of picking his own pocket,
+for he protested that he had "found" the garment. The fancied
+insinuation indeed was so strongly resented that John wondered if it
+might not be a proverbial case of "hit birds flutter."
+
+Neither police nor court of justice had examined the pocket; nor had
+they been aware of the existence of one. The bishop could throw no light
+on the missing article, and this call ended the successless tour of
+investigation.
+
+"It was truly a profitable investment for the Jenkins family," thought
+John, "but a sorry one for me."
+
+Having now wended his weary and unavailing way into all the places
+listed, John made his final report to Colette who remained adamant in
+her resolve.
+
+"Of course some of those people did find it," she maintained. "It stands
+to reason they must have done so, and it is up to you now to find out
+which one of them is the guilty person."
+
+"How can I find that out, Colette?"
+
+"How? Anyhow!" she replied, her mien betraying great triumph at her
+powers of logic.
+
+"It must be found!" she asserted with a distinct air of finality. "And
+until it is found--"
+
+She stopped abruptly.
+
+"Was it of value? No, I am not trying to find out what it was since you
+don't wish me to know, but if I knew its value, it might help me to
+decide who would be the most likely to have a motive for taking it. But
+my belief is that the article slipped from the pocket and is lost."
+
+"It must be found then" she persisted obstinately.
+
+John went home to ponder over his hopeless task. It remained for
+Amarilly with her optimistic spirit to cheer him.
+
+"It'll turn up some place whar you never looked fer it and when you
+ain't thinkin' nuthin' about it," she asserted believingly. "Lost things
+allers do."
+
+Despite her philosophy she was greatly distressed over the disappearance
+of the mysterious article whose loss was keeping John so unhappy. She
+ransacked the house from the cellar to the Boarder's room, but found no
+trace of it.
+
+"I wonder what it was," she mused.
+
+"Mebby Miss King dreamt she put something in there, and when could she
+have done it anyhow? Mebby she give him a present, and he slipped it in
+there and fergot to take it out when he sent it to us. But then it would
+have come out in the wash. She don't seem to feel so bad as he does--
+jest sorter stubborn about it."
+
+The members of the household were put through the third degree, but each
+declared his innocence in the matter.
+
+"'Twas most likely Iry took it," said Cory, who found the baby a
+convenient loophole for any accusations, "and most likely he hez
+swallered it."
+
+Gus persisted in his oft-repeated statement, that there was nothing in
+the pocket when it was hung up during quarantine. This assurance was
+conveyed to Colette by John, who hoped she might find solace in the
+thought that none of the renters could have had it, if this were true,
+but to his chagrin she found in his information an implied reflection on
+her veracity.
+
+"Colette," he said whimsically, "only three persons connected with this
+affair have taken my remarks as personal, you, Brother Washington, and
+the thief."
+
+With this remark John, despairing of his ability to fathom the mystery
+of the article or to follow the caprices of Colette, dropped the matter
+completely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+At half past eight on the morning indicated, Amarilly's ring at the door
+of the studio was answered by Derry, whose face was covered with lather.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly!" he exclaimed heartily, extending his hand in genial
+comradeship. "I am glad to see you again. Been pretty well through the
+summer? Well, come on into the butler's pantry, and see what you can do
+in a coffee way while I finish shaving."
+
+Amarilly had been receiving instruction in domestic science, including
+table service, at the Guild school. Colette, interested in the studio
+work, had provided some minute muslin aprons and a little patch of linen
+for the head covering of the young waitress, advising her that she must
+wear them while serving breakfast. So when Derry emerged from his
+dressing-room, a trimly equipped little maid stood proudly and anxiously
+awaiting him.
+
+"Why, bless your heart, Amarilly! I feel really domesticated. You look
+as natty as a new penny, and the little white cap is great on your hair.
+I see you have remembered how to fix it."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry, but please sit down while your coffee is hot."
+
+"'Deed I will, and if it tastes as good as it smells, I shall raise your
+remuneration."
+
+He pronounced the coffee delicious, the grapefruit fixed to his liking,
+the toast crisp, and the eggs boiled just to the right consistency.
+
+"And have you had breakfast, Amarilly?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Derry, at half past five."
+
+"Jiminy! you should be ready for another. Now talk to me while I eat.
+Tell me about your reverend friend who was so daffy on the subject of
+pockets. Has he located any yet?"
+
+Amarilly looked troubled.
+
+"Miss King said I wa'n't to talk to you while I was serving."
+
+"Tell Miss King with Mr. Phillips' compliments that artists are not
+conventional, and that you and I are not in the relation to each other
+of master and maid. We are good friends, and quite _en famille_. You are
+such a fine cook, I think I shall have you serve me luncheon at one
+o'clock. Can you?" "Oh, yes; I should love to, Mr. Derry."
+
+"I'll stock the larder, then. No; I can't be bothered, and I'd feel too
+much like a family man if I went about marketing. I'll give you _carte
+blanche_ to order what you will."
+
+"What's that, Mr. Derry?"
+
+"Good! We mustn't neglect your education. I am glad you asked me. You
+might have always supposed it a breakfast-food."
+
+He proceeded to explain elaborately what the words meant, and then asked
+her if she had remembered her previous lesson.
+
+"Yes; ain't you--goin'--"
+
+"Stop right there. Your next word to be eliminated is 'ain't.' You must
+say 'aren't' or 'isn't.' And you must remember to put 'g' on the end of
+every word ending in 'ing.' Don't let me hear you say 'goin', again,
+I'll teach you one new word every day now. You see the measure of a maid
+is her pure English."
+
+Amarilly looked distressed.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly? Don't you want to learn to speak
+properly?"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry; but Miss King--she don't want me to speak
+diff'rent. She likes to hear me talk ignorant, and she said she was
+afeard you'd make me brom--"
+
+"Brom?" he repeated.
+
+"There was some more to it, but I fergit."
+
+"Bromidic," he said triumphantly, after an instant's pondering. "You can
+never under any circumstances be that, and I shall develop your
+imagination and artistic temperament at the same time. Miss King is
+selfish to wish to keep you from cultivating yourself for the purpose of
+furnishing her entertainment. By the way, I am to meet her to-night at a
+dinner, and I think we shall have a mutual subject for conversation. I
+must get to work, now. Clear away the dishes. And finish the rest of
+this toast and coffee. It would be wicked to waste it."
+
+Amarilly substituted a work apron for the little white covering, and was
+soon engaged in "redding."
+
+At eleven o'clock the place was in perfect order, and she went into the
+studio where Deny was at work.
+
+"Shall I go get the things fer lunch?"
+
+"Luncheon, if you please, Amarilly. I like that word better. It seems to
+mean daintier things. Here's a five-dollar bill. Get what you consider
+proper for a simple little home luncheon, you know. Nothing elaborate."
+
+Amarilly, feeling but not betraying her utter inability to construct the
+menu for a "simple little home luncheon," walked despondently down the
+street.
+
+"The Boarder," she reflected, "takes bread and meat and hard biled eggs
+when they ain't--aren't too high, and pie when we hev it."
+
+Some vague instinct of the fitness of things warned her that this would
+not be a suitable repast for Derry. Then a light shone through her
+darkness.
+
+"I'll telephone Miss Vail," she decided.
+
+So she called up her teacher at the Guild, and explained the situation.
+She received full instructions, made her purchases, and went back to the
+studio.
+
+At one o'clock she again garbed herself in cap and apron and called
+Derry to a luncheon which consisted of bouillon, chops, French peas,
+rolls, a salad, and black tea served with lemon.
+
+"Amarilly," he announced solemnly, "you are surely the reincarnation of
+a chef. You are immediately promoted from housemaid to housekeeper with
+full charge over my cuisine, and your wages doubled."
+
+"And that's going some for one day!" Amarilly gleefully announced to the
+family circle that night.
+
+Her teacher, greatly interested and gratified at her pupil's ability to
+put her instruction to practical use and profit, made out on each Monday
+a menu for the entire week. She also gave her special coaching in
+setting table and serving, so Derry's domestic life became a thing of
+pride to himself and his coterie of artists. He gave little luncheons
+and studio teas in his apartments, Amarilly achieving great success in
+her double role of cook and waitress.
+
+Her work was not only profitable financially, but it developed new
+tastes and tendencies. Every day there was the new word eagerly grasped
+and faithfully remembered. "Fer," "set," "spile," "orter," and the like
+were gradually entirely eliminated from her vocabulary. Unconsciously
+she acquired "atmosphere" from her environment. In her spare moments
+Amarilly read aloud to Derry, while he painted, he choosing the book at
+random from his library.
+
+"I want to use you for a model this afternoon," he remarked one day as
+she was about to depart. "Braid your hair just as tight as you can, the
+way you had it the first day you came. Put on your high-necked, long-
+sleeved apron, and get it wet and soapy as it was that first day, and
+then come back to the studio with your scrubbing brush and pail."
+
+Amarilly did as she was bidden with a reluctance which the artist,
+absorbed in his preparations for work, did not notice.
+
+"Yes; that's fine," he said, glancing up as she came to him. "Now get
+down here on your knees by the--what kind of boards did you call them,
+Amarilly? Mopboards? Yes, that was it. Now try and put your whole mind
+on the memory of the horror you felt at the accumulation of dirt on that
+first day, and begin to scrub. Turn your head slightly toward me, tilted
+just a little--so--There, that's fine! Keep that position just as long
+and just as well as you possibly can."
+
+Derry began to paint, mechanically at first, and then as he warmed to
+his subject and became interested in his conception, with rapidity and
+absorption.
+
+"There!" he finally exclaimed, "you can rest now! This may be my chef-
+d'oeuvre, after all, Amarilly. Won't you be proud to be well hung in the
+Academy and have a group constantly before your picture. Why, what's the
+matter, child," springing to her side, "tears? I forgot it was your
+first experience in posing. Why didn't you tell me you were tired?"
+
+"I wan't tired," she half sobbed.
+
+"Well, what is it? Tell me."
+
+"I'm afeerd you'll laugh at me."
+
+"Not on your life! And your word for to-day, Amarilly, is afraid.
+Remember. Never _afeerd_."
+
+"I'll remember," promised Amarilly meekly, as she wiped her dewy eyes.
+
+"Now tell me directly, what is the matter."
+
+"It'll be such a humbly picture with my hair that way. I'd ought to look
+my best. I'd rather you'd paint me waiting on your table."
+
+"But a waitress is such a trite subject. It would be what your friend, I
+mean, our friend, Miss King, calls bromidic. An artist, a real artist,
+with a soul, Amarilly, doesn't look for pretty subjects. It's the truth
+that he seeks. To paint things as they are is what he aims to do. A
+little scrub-girl appeals to the artistic temperament more than a little
+waitress, don't you think? But only you, Amarilly, could look the part
+of the Little Scrub-Girl as you did. And it would be incongruous--
+remember the word, please, Amarilly, in-con-gru-ous--to paint her with
+stylishly dressed hair. You posed so easily, so perfectly, and your
+expression was so precisely the one I wanted, and your patience in
+keeping the pose was so wonderful, that I thought you had really caught
+the spirit of the thing, and were anxious to help me achieve my really
+great picture."
+
+"I have--I will pose for you as long as you wish," she cried penitently,
+"and I will braid my hair on wire, and then it will stand out better."
+
+"Good! You are a dear, amenable little girl. To-morrow afternoon we will
+resume. Here, let me loosen your braids. Goodness, what thick strands!"
+
+She stood by the open window, and the trembling, marginal lights of a
+setting sun sent gleams and glints of gold through her loosened hair
+which fell like a flaming veil about her.
+
+"Amarilly," exclaimed Derry rapturously, "I never saw anything quite so
+beautiful. Some day I'll paint you, not as a scrub-girl nor as a
+waitress, but as Sunset. You shall stand at this window with your hair
+as it is now, and you'll outshine the glory of descending Sol himself. I
+will get a filmy, white dress for you to pose in and present it to you
+afterward. And as you half turn your head toward the window, you must
+have a dreamy, reflective expression! You must think of something sad,
+something that might have been a tragedy but for some mitigating--but
+there, you don't know what I am talking about!"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry. I know what you mean, even if I didn't ketch--"
+
+"Catch, Amarilly; not ketch."
+
+"But my word for to-day is 'afraid,'" she said stubbornly. "I wasn't to
+have but one word a day. I'll say 'ketch' until to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, such system as you have! You are right though; but tell
+me what it was I meant." "You mean I am to think of something awful that
+would have been more awful but for something nice that happened. I'll
+think of the day last summer when we couldn't pay the rent. That was sad
+until the bishop came along and things got brighter."
+
+"Exactly. You have the temperament, Amarilly, but you should have
+written to your twin brother in such a dilemma. It's late now, or it
+will be when you get home. I am going to walk with you."
+
+"No; I am not afraid."
+
+"It makes no difference; I am going with you. To think that, intimate
+friends as we are, I have never seen your home, your numerous brothers,
+and the Boarder. I am going to spend the evening with you."
+
+"Oh, no!" she protested, appalled at the prospect. "You mustn't."
+
+"Why, Amarilly, how inhospitable you are! I thought you would be
+pleased."
+
+"I guess you couldn't stand for it."
+
+"Stand for what, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, you see, I am not ashamed of it, but it's so diff'rent from what
+you're used to, and you wouldn't like it, and I'd feel uncomfortable
+like with you there." "Why, Amarilly!" A really pained look came into
+his boyish eyes. "I thought we were friends. And you let Miss King and
+your minister come--"
+
+"But you see," argued Amarilly, "it's diff'rent with them. A minister
+has to go everywhere, and he's used to seeing all kinds of houses; and
+then Miss King, she's a sort of a--settlement worker."
+
+"I see," said Derry. "But, Amarilly, to be a true artist, or a writer,
+one must see all sorts and conditions of life. But I am not coming for
+that. I am coming because I like you and want to meet your family."
+
+"Well," agreed Amarilly, resigned, but playing her last trump, "you
+haven't had your dinner yet."
+
+"We had a very late luncheon, if you remember, and I am invited to a
+supper after the theatre to-night, so I am not dining."
+
+Amarilly did not respond to his light flow of chatter on the way home.
+She halted on the threshold of her home, and looked at him with despair
+in her honest young eyes.
+
+"Our house hasn't got any insides or any stairs even. Just a ladder."
+
+"Good! I knew you wouldn't--that you couldn't have a house like anyone's
+else. It sounds interesting and artistic. Open your door to me,
+Amarilly."
+
+Slowly she opened the door, and drew a sigh of relief. The big room was
+"tidied" ("redded" having been censored by Derry some time ago) and a
+very peaceful, homelike atmosphere prevailed. The Boarder, being an
+amateur carpenter, had made a very long table about which were grouped
+the entire family. Her mother was darning socks; the Boarder, reading
+the paper preliminary to his evening call on Lily Rose; the boys, busy
+with books and games; Cory, rocking her doll to sleep.
+
+Their entrance made quite a little commotion. There was a scattering of
+boys from the table until Derry called "Halt" in stentorian tones. "If
+there's any gap in the circle, I shall go."
+
+Then he joined the group, and described to the boys a prize-fight so
+graphically that their eyes fastened on him with the gaze of one
+witnessing the event itself. He praised Amarilly to the mother, gave
+Cory a "tin penny" which she at once recognized as a silver quarter, and
+talked politics so eloquently with the Boarder that for once he was
+loath to leave when the hour of seven-thirty arrived.
+
+"You've gotter go now," reminded Cory sternly. "You see," turning to
+Derry. "he's gotter go and spend his ev'nin' with Lily Rose. She's his
+gal."
+
+"Oh! Well, why not bring her here to spend the evening?" suggested
+Derry. "Then you'll have an excuse for two nice walks and an evening
+thrown in."
+
+"That's a fine, idee!" acknowledged the Boarder with a sheepish grin.
+
+He at once set out on his quest accompanied by Bobby, whom Derry had
+dispatched to the corner grocery for a supply of candy and peanuts.
+
+The Boarder and Lily Rose came in laden with refreshments. The Boarder
+bore a jug of cider "right on the turn," he declared, "so it stings your
+throat agoin' down."
+
+Lily Rose had brought a bag of sugared doughnuts which she had made that
+afternoon (a half holiday) in her landlady's kitchen.
+
+When Mrs. Jenkins learned from Amarilly that Derry and she had had
+nothing to eat since half past one, she brought forth a pan of beans and
+a pumpkin pie, and they had a genuine New England supper. The Boarder
+recited thrilling tales of railroad wrecks. Derry listened to a solo by
+Bud, whose wild-honeyed voice was entrancing to the young artist.
+Altogether they were a jolly little party, Lily Rose saying little, but
+looking and listening with animated eyes. Mrs. Jenkins declared
+afterwards that it was the time of her life.
+
+"Amarilly," said Derry, as he was taking leave, "I wouldn't have missed
+this evening for any other engagement I might have made."
+
+"That's because it was something new to you," said Amarilly sagely. "You
+wouldn't like it for keeps."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+When Cory secured a place as dish-wiper at a new boarding-house near,
+and Gus realized that he and Iry alone were dependent upon the others
+for their keep, shame seared his young soul. He had vainly tried to
+secure steady employment, but had succeeded only in getting occasional
+odd jobs. He had a distinct leaning towards an agricultural life and
+coveted the care of cows.
+
+"The grocer has sold his'n," he lugubriously lamented; "thar ain't no
+one else as wants a caretaker for their critters around here."
+
+After a long rumination on the discouraging problem of his future, he
+sought his confessor, the corner grocer.
+
+"I'm too big to peddle papers or be runnin' about with telergrafs," he
+declared. "I'd orter be goin' into business on my own account. I ain't
+goin' ter be allers workin' fer other folks."
+
+"Well, you'll have to wait a while before you can work for yourself,"
+counselled his confidant. "You are young yet."
+
+"This is a hurry-up age," was the sagacious assertion, "and ef you air
+agoin' to git any-whar, you've got ter go by wire instead of by mail,
+and you can't start too soon."
+
+"You can't start nothing without capital," argued the grocer
+conservatively.
+
+"Oh," admitted the young financier, "a little capital mebby. I've got a
+dollar I've saved up from odd jobs."
+
+"What line was you thinking of taking up?"
+
+"I'm going into the dairy business. Thar's money in milk and butter, and
+it's nice, clean work."
+
+"The dairy business on one dollar! How many cows and wagons and horses
+was you figuring on buying with your dollar?"
+
+"Don't git funny," warned Gus impatiently. "Some day I'll hev a farm of
+my own and a city office, but I'll begin on one cow in our back lot and
+peddle milk to the neighbors."
+
+"That wouldn't be a bad beginning, but I reckon you'll find the start
+will cost you more than a dollar. You can't get a cow at that figure."
+
+"Then I'll start with a calf."
+
+"Well, I guess calves cost more than a dollar."
+
+"Say, you've got that dollar on the brain, I guess," retorted the lad
+with the easy familiarity that betokened long acquaintance with the
+lounging barrels and boxes of the corner grocery. "I bet it'll build a
+shed in our back yard. Thar's the lumber out of our shed that blowed
+down, and the Boarder can build purty near anything."
+
+"But how are you going to buy a cow?" persisted his inquisitor.
+
+"I ain't got that fer yet," admitted the young dairyman.
+
+"Your dollar'll buy more than the nails for your cow-house. You can put
+the balance into feed," said the grocer, with an eye to his own trade.
+
+He wanted to add that it wouldn't cost much to feed an imaginary
+critter, but he was a little fearful of the temper back of the lad's
+hair, which was the same hue as Amarilly's.
+
+"That's a good idea. Well, the shed starts to-morrow, and of course you
+won't say nothin' about it."
+
+"Trust me for not talking in this neighborhood. It ain't safe even to
+think. First you know your thoughts are being megaphoned down the
+street."
+
+Gus consulted the Boarder who instantly and obligingly began the
+erection of a building in the farthest corner of the Jenkins's domain.
+This structure was a source of mystery and excitement to the neighbors.
+
+"What on airth do you suppose them Jenkinses air aputtin' up now? Mebby
+it's a wash-house for the surpluses," speculated Mrs. Huce.
+
+"It can't be they air agoin' to keep a hoss!" ejaculated Mrs. Wint.
+
+"You never kin tell nuthin' about them Jenkinses. They're so sort of
+secretin' like," lamented Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+The Jenkins family were fully as ignorant as were their neighbors of the
+nature of the contemplated occupant of the new edifice commonly referred
+to as the "cow-house," The Boarder put up a very substantial shed with a
+four-paned window and a door that locked though not very securely. The
+grocer had on hand a small quantity of green paint which he donated to
+the cause of the coming cow.
+
+"Thar ain't enough to more'n paint two sides of it," criticized Gus, "so
+I'll paint the front and west sides."
+
+"Thar's a can of yaller paint out in the woodshed," informed Mrs.
+Jenkins. "You can paint the other two sides with that."
+
+Then the Boarder made a suggestion:
+
+"If I was you, I'd paint a strip of yaller and then one of green.
+That'll even it up and make it fancy-like."
+
+Amarilly protested against this combination of colors so repellent to
+artistic eyes, but the family all agreed that it "would be perfickly
+swell," so she withdrew her opposition and confided her grievance to
+Derry's sympathizing, shuddering ears.
+
+Gus proceeded to bicolor the shed in stripes which gave the new building
+a bedizened and bilious effect that delighted Colette, who revelled in
+the annals of her proteges.
+
+Each member of the Jenkins family had a plan for utilising this fine
+domicile, as there seemed to be a general feeling of skepticism
+regarding the ability of Gus to produce a cow in the flesh. This
+sentiment, however, was not openly expressed, as the lad was found to be
+decidedly sensitive and touchy on the subject.
+
+"Mebby a cow'll jest walk right into the back yard and make herself to
+hum in the new shed," prognosticated Mrs. Jenkins optimistically. "It's
+such a beautiful place. I'll bet there is cows as would ef they knowed
+about it."
+
+"I perpose," suggested Flamingus patronizingly, "that we start a cow
+fund and all chip in and help Gus out."
+
+"Sure thing!" declared the generous Amarilly. "He can have all my
+savings. We ought to all help Gus get a start."
+
+"I'm in," cried Bobby.
+
+"You kin hev all you want from me, Gus," offered Bud.
+
+Firmly and disdainfully Gus rejected all these offers and suggestions.
+
+"Thar ain't agoin' to be no pardner business about this," he announced.
+"The cow won't come till she's mine--all mine--and when she does, I'm
+agoin' to pay the Boarder for his work."
+
+"If he wants to be so all-fired smart, we won't help him git no cow,"
+declared Flamingus, "and the shed kin be used for a summer kitchen arter
+all."
+
+This use of the new building had been the fondest dream of Mrs. Jenkins,
+who deemed it an ideal place in which to keep her tubs, mops, boiler,
+and wringer. Milt had designs upon it for a boy's reading-room and club;
+Flamingus coveted a gymnasium. Bobby, Bud, Cory, and Iry had already
+appropriated it as a playhouse.
+
+Amarilly openly and ably defended Gus and his cherished, illusory plan.
+Of all her brothers, he was the one to whom her heart most inclined. For
+Bud she possibly had a more tender, maternal feeling on account of his
+being so delicate. She paid homage to the good points of Flamingus, but
+he was too cut and dried, "bromidic," she classified him, for Derry had
+carefully explained the etymology of the word. Milt was honest, but
+selfish and "near." Bobby was disposed to be fresh, but Gus was just
+such a boy as Amarilly herself would have been, reincarnated. He was
+practical, industrious, thrifty, and shrewd, and yet possessed of the
+imagination and optimism of his sister. She called him aside one day for
+a private consultation.
+
+"Say, Gus, your scheme's all right. Go ahead and get your cow. I'll let
+you have my savings, and the other boys needn't know. You can pay me
+when you get ready to."
+
+"That's bully in you, Amarilly, but I'm agoin' to see this thing through
+alone and start in without no help front no one," firmly refused Gus,
+and his sturdy little sister could but admire him for his independence.
+
+He locked up his new possession very carefully, putting the key in his
+pocket every morning before going to the business precincts to pick up a
+job. The children, however, were not dispossessed by this precaution,
+finding ingress and egress through the window. Gus most opportunely
+secured a week's job driving a delivery-wagon, and he instantly invested
+his wages in the provisioning of the cow quarters.
+
+"The feed'll git stale by the time the cow comes," objected Milt.
+
+"Mebby it's fer bait to ketch a critter with," offered Bobby.
+
+After all, it was the miracle predicted by Mrs. Jenkins that came to
+pass and delivered the cow. Early one morning, when Gus went as usual
+with fond pride to view his sole asset, he found installed therein a
+young, corpulent cow, bland and Texas-horned, busily engaged in
+partaking of the proceeds of Gus's last week's wages. She turned
+inquiring, meditative eyes toward the delighted lad, who promptly locked
+the door and rushed into the house to inform the family of the new
+arrival.
+
+"She's lost or strayed, but not stolen," said Amarilly.
+
+"Bobby, you put an ad in that paper you deliver at once," commanded Mrs.
+Jenkins. "Some poor people air feelin' bad over the loss of their cow."
+
+It was considered only fair that the cow should pay for her meal. She
+was overstocked with milk, and graciously and gratefully yielded to
+Gus's efforts to relieve her of her load. The children were each given a
+taste of the warm milk, and then the little dairyman started right in
+for business. The milkman had not yet made his morning rounds, and the
+neighbors were so anxious to cross-examine Gus that they were more than
+willing to patronize him. Excitement prevailed when it was learned that
+the Jenkins family had a cow, and the lad's ingenuity in dodging
+questions was severely taxed. He avoided direct replies, but finally
+admitted that it was "one they was keepin' fer some folks."
+
+A week went by, with no claim filed for the animal that had come so
+mysteriously and seemed so perfectly at home. Gus established a
+permanent milk route in the immediate neighborhood, and with his ability
+once more to "bring in" came the restoration of his self-respect.
+
+"It's funny we don't git no answer to that ad," mused Mrs. Jenkins
+perplexedly. "How many times did you run it, Bobby?"
+
+For a moment silence, deep, profound, and charged with expectancy
+prevailed. Then like a bomb came Bobby's reply:
+
+"I ain't put it in at all."
+
+Everybody was vociferous in condemnation, but Bobby, unabashed, held his
+ground, and logically defended his action.
+
+"I got the news-agent to look in the 'losts' every night, and thar want
+nothin' about no cow. 'Twas up to them as lost it to advertise instead
+of us. If they didn't want her bad enough to run an ad, they couldn't
+hev missed her very much."
+
+"That's so," agreed the Boarder, convinced by Bobby's able argument.
+
+"Most likely she doesn't belong to any one," was Amarilly's theory. "She
+just came to stay a while, and then she'll go away again."
+
+"She won't git no chanst to 'scape, unless she kin go out the way the
+chillern does," laughed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+One day the Boarder brought home some information that seemed to throw
+light on the subject.
+
+"One of the railroad hands told me that a big train of cattle was
+sidetracked up this way somewhar the same night the cow come here. The
+whole keerload got loose, but they ketched them all, or thought they
+did. Mebby they didn't miss this ere one, or else they couldn't wait to
+look her up. Their train pulled out as soon as they rounded up the
+bunch."
+
+"I guess the cow-house looked to her like it was a freight car,"
+observed Milt, "and she thought she hed got back where she belonged."
+
+The cow, meanwhile, quietly chewed her cud, and continued to endear
+herself to the hearts of all the Jenkins family save Cory. Every time
+Bobby spoke her name he called to her, "Co, boss! Co, boss," just as Gus
+did when he greeted the cow.
+
+As for the little dairyman himself, he gave his charge the best of care.
+He took her for a little outing every day to a near-by lot where she
+could graze, being careful to keep a stout rope attached to her,
+although they walked to and from the recreation ground side by side.
+Derry painted a little picture of the pair as he saw them returning from
+a jaunt. Gus's arm was lovingly thrown around the neck of the gentle
+creature, and her Texas horns were adorned with a wreath of brown-eyed
+Susans woven by Cory.
+
+It remained for Mrs. Jenkins to christen the creature.
+
+"'Cowslip,'" she declared triumphantly, "'cause she just slipped in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Amarilly's pace in learning English from Derry during the following
+winter was only excelled by her proficiency in mathematics. "Figgerin'"
+the Boarder declared to be his long suit, and his young pupil worked
+every example in Flamingus's arithmetic, and employed her leisure
+moments in solving imaginary problems. Then came an evening when she put
+her knowledge to practical use and application. She had been working
+absorbedly with pencil and paper for some time when she looked up from
+her sheet of figures with a flushed race and a Q.E.D. written in each
+shining eye.
+
+"Say!" she announced to the family who were gathered about the long
+table.
+
+Instantly they were all attention, for they always looked to Amarilly
+for something startling in the way of bulletins.
+
+"I've been setting down and adding up what we all bring in each week.
+Ma's washings, the Boarder's board, my studio work, Flamingus' and
+Milt's wages, Gus's cow, Bud's singing, Co's dish-washing, and Bobby's
+papers. What do you suppose it all amounts to?"
+
+She allowed a few seconds of tragic silence to ensue before she gave the
+electrifying total.
+
+"Land sakes! Who'd 'a thought it!" exclaimed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'd orter hev ice-cream and pie every day," reproached Cory.
+
+"It would be reckoned a purty big salary if one man got it all,"
+speculated the Boarder.
+
+"We are rich!" exclaimed Bobby decisively.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do," pursued Amarilly. "We must start a
+syndicate."
+
+"What's that, a show?" demanded Flamingus.
+
+"No; I heard the artists down to the studio talking about it, and Mr.
+Derry explained it. He said when a lot of folks put their cash on hand
+together in one pile, they can buy something big and do more than as if
+they spent it separate."
+
+"Well, I ain't a goin' to put my money in with Co's," said Milt
+sarcastically. "Wouldn't be much profit for me in that."
+
+"You don't catch on," replied Amarilly. "If you should put in one
+dollar, and Co should put in ten cents, at the end of a certain time,
+you'd draw out ten dollars and Co would only draw out one. See?"
+
+"I do," said the practical Gus.
+
+"Well, now let's put our money into something and all own it together,
+each one's share according to what we put in. Let's buy this house!"
+
+They all stared in amazement.
+
+"Buy a house! You are sure crazy, Amarilly!" exclaimed Milt.
+
+"We could buy it cheap," continued Amarilly unabashed. "I heard the
+grocer saying yesterday that property around here was at a low figure
+now. We could put our savings together and make a payment down, and
+instead of paying rent let it go on the balance each month. Before we
+knew it we'd own the house, and the deed could be made out to show how
+much of it each one owned."
+
+"I choose the pantry!" cried Cory.
+
+"I guess if you could buy a window-pane with what you've got, you'd do
+well," observed Milt in a withering tone.
+
+"That's a splendid idee, Amarilly!" declared the Boarder
+enthusiastically. "I don't know what better investment you could make."
+
+"It would be fine," sighed Mrs. Jenkins, "to own your own place and feel
+that no one could turn you out."
+
+"You've got a great head, Amarilly," complimented Gus.
+
+"We could borrow on the house if we ever got hard up, or the fever
+struck us again," said Flamingus.
+
+"Well," proposed Amarilly, the ever-ready, "let's get right at it. I'll
+set down our names, and when I call the roll, tell me how much you've
+saved and will put in the house."
+
+There was a general rush for bank-books, for ever since the preceding
+fall, the six oldest children had paid their board, clothed themselves,
+and saved the balance of their earnings.
+
+From her washings, the revenue from the board of the children and
+Boarder, Mrs. Jenkins had paid the rent and the household expenses. By
+thrifty management she had also acquired a bank account herself.
+
+"Ma!" called Amarilly expectantly.
+
+There had been much urging on the part of
+
+Deny in his zeal for language reform to induce his young pupil to say
+"mother," but in this sole instance Amarilly had refused to take his
+will for law.
+
+"She's always been 'ma' to me, and she always will be," declared
+Amarilly emphatically. "If I were to call her anything else I'd feel as
+if I had lost her--as if she didn't belong to me."
+
+Ma triumphantly announced: "Forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents."
+
+"A fine starter," commended Amarilly, "Flamingus?"
+
+"Forty dollars," he announced with pride.
+
+"Milt?" Amarilly called his name in faint voice. He was the only tight-
+tendencied member of the household, and she feared he might decline to
+give. But Milt was envious and emulative.
+
+"Forty-two dollars and sixty-nine cents," he declared in a voice
+rendered triumphant by the fact of his having beaten Flam.
+
+Amarilly drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"It's going to add up fine, now. Guess I'll take my own account next. I
+haven't got as much as you boys, though." "Shouldn't think you would
+have," said Gus sympathizingly. "You don't earn so much, and yet you pay
+ma as much, and don't take out nuthin' fer your noon meal. And you give
+Co things."
+
+"I've earned quite a bit," replied Amarilly cheerfully. "Besides what
+Mr. Derry gives me, there's what I've had from odd jobs like letting the
+artists paint my hair, and taking care of Mrs. Wick's baby afternoons
+when she goes to card parties. I've got thirty dollars to put in. Gus?"
+
+"Thirty-five dollars," he replied in a pleased tone.
+
+"Bud?"
+
+They all looked expectantly. Bud received ten dollars each Sunday now,
+and he had been singing at concerts, organ recitals, and entertainments
+all winter. On account of these latter engagements, he had been obliged
+to expend a considerable amount in clothes suitable to the occasion.
+When Bud donned his "evening clothes," which consisted of black silk
+hose, patent leather pumps, black velvet suit with Irish crochet collar
+and cuffs, purchased under the direction of Mr. Derry, Amarilly always
+felt uncomfortable.
+
+"Don't seem fair to Bobby when they're so near twins," she thought.
+
+One day, however, she overheard Bud sweetly offer to buy his near half a
+similar outfit. Amarilly listened eagerly for Bobby's answer which
+brought a sigh of relief.
+
+"I wouldn't wear one of them rigs on a bet," he had scoffingly answered.
+
+"One hundred and twenty-five dollars," Bud now replied modestly.
+
+"Gee! you take the cake!" said Bobby.
+
+Amarilly was sorry that she had to call Bobby's name next. But Bobby had
+a surprise in store for them all.
+
+"Forty-eight dollars!" he cried gleefully, giving Flam, Milt and Gus
+exultant glances, "Beat the hull of ye, except Bud!"
+
+"How in the world did you ever do it on paper routes?" asked Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+Bobby winked at his mother.
+
+"Shall we tell our secret?" he asked. "You tell, Ma."
+
+"You see," she explained, "when the clo'es are bilin' arter you hev all
+gone to work and to school, I've made twenty little pies and when Bobby
+got out of school, he'd come hum and git 'em and take 'em up to the High
+School. The girls bought 'em at five cents apiece. The stuff to make 'em
+cost about two cents a pie."
+
+"And Bobby got all the profit!" expostulated Milt indignantly.
+
+"Bobby paid me by taking the clo'es offen the line and bringin' them in
+every night, and fetchin' the water," she replied chidingly. "We was
+goin' to keep it a secret till he got enough to buy a pony."
+
+"But I'd ruther buy a house," said Bobby.
+
+"I ain't got enough to come in no snidikit," sobbed Co. "I ain't saved
+much."
+
+"That's because you spend all you earn on candy," rebuked Milt.
+
+"I ain't nuther. I bought me some rubbers and Iry some playthings."
+
+"How much have you got, Co?" asked Amarilly gently.
+
+"Two dollars and ninety-seven cents," she said, weeping profusely.
+
+"I think that's pretty good for a little girl," said Amarilly. "All you
+strapping boys ought to chip in out of your cash on hand what isn't in
+the bank and give her some so she could be in on it. Here is fifty cents
+from me, Co."
+
+"I'll give you fifty, Co," said her mother.
+
+"Me, too," said Flamingus.
+
+The other boys followed with equal contributions, Bud generously
+donating a five-dollar bill he had received that day for a solo at a
+musicale given by Miss Lyte.
+
+"Here's fifty cents from me," said the Boarder, who had remained very
+thoughtful during this transaction.
+
+"Eleven dollars and forty-seven cents for Co," announced Amarilly.
+
+The little girl's eyes shone through her tears.
+
+"Seems too bad that Iry is the only one left out," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"When he gits old enough to work, he can come in," said Milt. "Add her
+up, Amarilly."
+
+"Three hundred and sixty-nine dollars and sixty-seven cents!" almost
+screamed Amarilly.
+
+"Gee!" chorused the boys.
+
+"Purty near buy the old shack," said Flamingus.
+
+"Our landlord," said Amarilly sagaciously, "is a shark, and he'll try to
+get the best of us. I am going to get Mr. Vedder to do the business for
+us, and he'll get the deed in all our names."
+
+"Put in Iry's too," pleaded Mrs. Jenkins solicitous for her Benjamin.
+
+"I'll put it to vote," said parliamentary Amarilly. "Who's for Iry?"
+
+"Me, me, me," came from all, though Milt's response was reluctant.
+
+"I will see Mr. Vedder to-morrow, so we can begin to let the rent apply
+right off," said Amarilly.
+
+"We'll take more pride in keeping it fixed up now," remarked Flamingus.
+"I'll mend the windowpanes and the door hinges."
+
+"And I'll build some stairs and put up a partition or two," promised the
+Boarder.
+
+"I'll paint it," said Gus, proud of his former work in this direction.
+Amarilly secretly resolved to select the color.
+
+"I'll make curtains and rag rugs and sofa pillows," she observed.
+
+"And I'll buy some cheers and a hangin' lamp," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Don't
+all this talk make you want to housekeep?" she asked with a knowing
+glance in the Boarder's direction.
+
+He shook his head thoughtfully, but when the boys and Cory had gone to
+bed, he unfolded a proposition that he had been evolving during their
+financial discussion, and which now found overwhelming favor and
+enthusiasm with his hearers.
+
+The next day Amarilly called upon Mr. Vedder at the theatre.
+
+"He's got more sound business to him than Mr. Derry or Mr. St. John,"
+she shrewdly decided.
+
+"When she told him her plan and showed him her figures, he most heartily
+approved.
+
+"The house, of course, isn't worth anything," he said, "but land down
+that way is a good investment. Who is your, landlord?"
+
+She gave him the name and address.
+
+"I am glad you came to me, Amarilly, instead of to your newer friends."
+
+"Oh, you know more about it than they do," she replied, "and besides,
+some way I wouldn't feel as if I were bothering you."
+
+"Not a bit of bother, Amarilly, and I hope you will always feel that
+way."
+
+The ticket-seller was prompt, thorough, and shrewd in the matter. He had
+a friend in the real estate business, who appraised the property for
+him, and he proved most diplomatic in his dealing with the surprised
+landlord, who fortunately chanced to be in dire need of some ready cash.
+In an incredibly short space of time the bargain was closed.
+
+The Jenkins family including the Boarder and Iry left the house one
+noon, each bearing a red bank-book. To the onlookers in the
+neighborhood, this Armada was all-impressive.
+
+"Looks like a run on the bank," said the Boarder facetiously, as they
+all trooped up the steps to the big stone building.
+
+The payment was made, and the deeds drawn in the names of all the
+family, but to the list was also added the name of the Boarder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+"I don't see," observed Colette, on learning of the existence and
+development of the syndicate, "why the Boarder is in on it. I thought he
+was going to have a Lily Rose garden all his own."
+
+"We thought so, too," replied Amarilly. "He's been saving up to get
+married, and he's got a raise now, so the day is set for some time in
+June; but he told us the night we were first planning to buy the house
+that he wanted to be one of the syndicate. You see Lily Rose works--I
+mean she overworks--in a factory, and so the Boarder--you know he is
+awful gentle-like to her--says that she mustn't keep house or do
+anything but real light work after this. He has an interest in the house
+now, and he is going to build on a sort of an annex with a sitting-room
+and a bedroom and furnish it up fine, and when they are married, they
+are going to live there and take their meals with us. And they want Mr.
+St. John to marry them, and they want you to come. And Mr. Derry is
+coming. He asked to be invited."
+
+For once Colette did not laugh at the chronicles of the Jenkins family.
+A very tender look came into her flashing eyes.
+
+"That is very sweet in him--in the Boarder--to feel that way and to be
+so tender with Lily Rose. She ought to be very happy with a love and
+protection like that awaiting her."
+
+"Yes," assented Amarilly; "it must be very nice to feel like that, and
+Mr. Derry says he really believes that it is only with poor folks like
+us and the Boarder and Lily Rose that love runs smooth."
+
+"Then," said Colette musingly, "I wish I were poor--like you and the
+Boarder and Lily Rose!"
+
+Amarilly secretly divined that this was merely a thought spoken aloud,
+so she made no comment. She had pondered a great deal over the attitude
+of her two friends towards each other. The only place she ever
+encountered them together was at church and to her observing eyes it was
+quite apparent that there was a restraint in their bearing. Amarilly
+remained so preoccupied with her thoughts that Colette, looking at her
+searchingly, became curious as to the cause.
+
+"Amarilly," she commanded, "tell me what you were thinking of just now--
+I mean since I spoke last. I shall know by; your eyes if you don't tell
+me exactly."
+
+"Mr. Derry says my eyes will always give me away," evaded Amarilly.
+
+"Of course they will. You can never be a flirt, Amarilly."
+
+"I don't want to," she replied indignantly.
+
+Colette laughed.
+
+"Well, tell me what you were thinking about?"
+
+"I was wondering if Mr. St. John wasn't trying any more to find that
+thing you lost in the surplice pocket."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, has Mr. Phillips censored that word, too? I was in hopes
+he would never hear you say 'surplus,' so he could not correct you."
+
+"I told him you didn't want me to speak correctly," said Amarilly a
+little resentfully.
+
+"You did!" cried Colette, looking rather abashed. "And what did he say?"
+
+"He said it was selfish in you to think more of your amusement than of
+my improvement."
+
+Colette colored and was silent a moment.
+
+"He's right, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I _am_ selfish to
+everyone. All I have ever cared for is to be entertained and made to
+laugh. I have been as selfish to St. John as I have to you and--I'll
+tell you a secret, Amarilly, because I know that I can trust you. I've
+gone just a little bit too far with St. John. I told him he needn't ever
+come to see me again until he found what was in the pocket of the
+surplice, and he took me at my word."
+
+"He did all he could to find it," said Amarilly, immediately on the
+defence for the rector.
+
+"I know he did, but you see before this I've always had everything I've
+asked for, even impossible things, and I didn't want to have him fail
+me. I have been selfish and exacting with him, and I think he realizes
+it now."
+
+"Well, when you're in the wrong, all you've got to do is to say so."
+
+"That isn't easy, Amarilly."
+
+"But it's right."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you're like a man with your right and your wrong!"
+
+"But you would make yourself happy, too, if you told him you knew it
+wasn't up to him any more to find that."
+
+"I'd rather be unhappy and stick to what I said. I must have my own way,
+Amarilly."
+
+"Well," said Amarilly, abandoning an apparently hopeless subject, "I
+came to ask you to do me--us--the Boarder and Lily Rose, I mean, a
+favor."
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, as I said, they want Mr. St. John to marry them, and they're
+afraid he won't want to because he--well--because he isn't their kind,
+you know, and he has such a fashionable church."
+
+"And you don't know St. John better than that?"
+
+"Why, yes; of course _I_ do, but they don't know him at all, you know.
+And the Boarder is real shy, anyhow. And so I told him I'd ask you to
+ask him."
+
+"Why don't you ask him?"
+
+"I think it would please him so to have you ask. He likes to have you
+take interest in others."
+
+"Amarilly, you are a regular little Sherlock! Well, yes, I will,"
+promised Colette, secretly glad of this opportunity for friendly
+converse with John once more, "but if the--Annex has to be built first,
+there's no hurry."
+
+"Yes, there is. The Boarder wants everything settled now, so they can be
+looking forward to it."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I'll see him to-morrow night. Will that do?"
+
+"Oh, yes; thank you, Miss King."
+
+"Tell me more about the wedding plans. Are you to be bridesmaid?"
+
+"She isn't going to have one. It won't be a stylish wedding, you know.
+Just quiet--like one of our neighborhood evenings. Only when I told Mr.
+Derry about it, he said he should come up that afternoon and trim the
+house up with greens, and that he should come to see them married."
+
+"And I shall furnish the flowers and the bride's bouquet. Let me see, I
+think lilies of the valley and pink roses would suit Lily Rose, don't
+you?"
+
+"They will be beautiful," said Amarilly, beaming. "And we are going to
+have a real swell meal. I have learned to make salads and ices, and then
+we'll have coffee and sandwiches and bride's cake beside."
+
+"Some one has to give the bride away, you know, Amarilly, in Episcopal
+weddings."
+
+"I know it. But poor Lily Rose has no one that belongs to her. Her
+relations are all dead. That's another reason why the Boarder is so nice
+to her. So ma is going to give her away. We're going to ask the
+neighbors and you and Mr. Derry and Mr. Cotter, of course. He's the
+brakeman friend of the Boarder."
+
+"And are the Boarder and Lily Rose going away?"
+
+"Yes; the Boarder can get a pass to Niagara Falls. They are going to
+stay there a week. Lily Rose has never been on the cars. And they are
+going to ride to the train in a hack."
+
+"Why, it's going to be quite an affair," said Colette enthusiastically.
+"We'll throw an old shoe and some rice after them. And will she be
+married in white?"
+
+Amarilly's face fell.
+
+"I am afraid she can't afford a wedding dress. She's got to get a
+travelling suit and hat and gloves and shoes, and with other things it
+will take all she has saved. She'd like a white dress and a veil and get
+her picture taken in it to hang up by the side of the Boarder's in the
+surplice. And that makes me think, we want you to ask Mr. St. John if he
+will wear our surplice instead of bringing one of his. We'll do it up
+nice before the wedding."
+
+"Oh, that prophetic surplice!" groaned Colette. "It's yesterday, to-day
+and forever; I wish something would happen to it, Amarilly. I hate that
+surplice!"
+
+"I'm sorry, Miss King, but we all love it. And you see it means a good
+deal to Lily Rose; because she has looked at its photograph so long."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I yield. St. John shall wear his surplice once
+more, and when he does--"
+
+A sudden thought illumined her face. "I believe I will tell him--"
+
+Amarilly deemed it a fitting time to depart, and she hastened to assure
+Lily Rose that it was "all right."
+
+"Miss King will speak to Mr. St. John about marrying you, and she will
+ask him to wear our surplice. She's going to send you flowers--lilies of
+the valley and roses. It all would be perfect, Lily Rose, if only you
+had a white dress!"
+
+Lily Rose smiled sweetly, and told Amarilly she was glad to be married
+in any dress, and that she should not miss the "reg'ler weddin' fixin's"
+nearly as much as Amarilly would mind her not having them. When Amarilly
+set her head and heart on anything, however, it was sure to be
+accomplished. It was a puzzling problem to equip Lily Rose in the
+conventional bridal white vestments, for the bride-to-be was very proud
+and independent and wouldn't hearken to Amarilly's plea to be allowed to
+contribute toward a new dress.
+
+"We're under obligations to _him_, you know," argued Amarilly "and I'd
+like to help him by helping you."
+
+Lily Rose was strong of will despite her sweet smile.
+
+Deep down in her heart Amarilly, throughout all her scheming, knew there
+was a way, but she chose to ignore it until the insistent small voice
+spoke louder and louder. With a sigh of renunciation she yielded to the
+inevitable and again sought Lily Rose.
+
+"I've thought out a way to the white dress," she announced.
+
+Lily Rose's eyes sparkled for a moment, and their light died out.
+
+"Yes, there's really a way," persisted Amarilly, answering the unspoken
+denial. "You said you could squeeze out slippers and stockings, didn't
+you?"
+
+"Yes," she admitted.
+
+"Well, there's your new white dress skirt, and for a waist there is my
+lovely lace waist that I told you about--the one Miss King gave me."
+
+"Your weddin' waist! No, Amarilly. It's like you to offer, but I
+couldn't take it from you."
+
+"No, I'm not giving it to you. Just lending it to you for your wedding.
+You couldn't hurt it any wearing it two hours. Then I'll lay it by again
+till I'm married. And I'll like wearing it all the more because you wore
+it to your wedding. Come over some day and we'll try it on. Then Miss
+King is going to give you the bouquet, and for a veil--"
+
+"Oh, the veil! Amarilly, I would love a veil!" Lily Rose cried
+wistfully.
+
+"Well, I've got one spoken for. You see, Mrs. Jimmels has been married
+so many different ways, I felt sure she must have worn a veil at one of
+her weddings, and seeing she had been married so many times, I thought
+she couldn't have any special feeling about any one of them, so I asked
+her if she wouldn't lend hers to you, and she's glad to have it put to
+use again. You'll look just perfectly swell, Lily Rose. And she's going
+to give you a pair of white gloves that she had when she was slim-like."
+
+The little renunciator went home feeling amply rewarded by the look of
+shining content in the blue eyes of Lily Rose.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next night Colette in accordance with her promise to Amarilly
+summoned John to council. It was not easy to bridge the distance which
+had been steadily increasing with the months that had rolled by since
+the surplice denouement, and Colette, formerly supreme in her sway, was
+perceptibly timid in making the advance. After writing and tearing up
+several notes she called him up by telephone and asked him in a
+consciously casual tone if he could find it convenient to call that
+evening with reference to a little matter pertaining to their mutual
+charge, the Jenkinses.
+
+The grave voice in which he accepted the invitation was tinged with
+pleasure.
+
+When he came Colette, fearful lest he should misinterpret her action in
+making this overture, plunged at once into the subject.
+
+"I promised Amarilly I would see you and ask you for something in her
+friends' behalf."
+
+"Then it is to Amarilly I am indebted for this call," he remarked
+whimsically.
+
+"It's about the Boarder," she continued, gaining ease at the softening
+of his brown eyes. "You know he is to be married to Lily Rose, the girl
+we saw at the organ recital where Bud made his debut."
+
+"I inferred as much at the time. When are they to be married?"
+
+"In June. Just as soon as the Annex can be added to the Jenkins's
+upright. They are to build on two new rooms or rather the Boarder will
+do so and he will furnish them for his new abiding-place. But because
+she is 'delicate like' and overworked she is to become a Boarderess
+instead of a housekeeper, and they will 'eat' with the Jenkins family,
+thus increasing the prosperity of the latter. Amarilly says the Boarder
+is 'awful gentle of Lily Rose and wants to take good care of her.'"
+
+The expression that moved the frostiest of his flock came into the still
+depths of his eyes and brought the wild rose to Colette's cheeks.
+
+"They are going to make quite an affair of the wedding," she continued,
+speaking hurriedly and a little breathlessly. "You and I and Mr.
+Phillips are to be guests. There is to be a hack to take the bride and
+groom to the train and a trip to Niagara Falls, because Lily Rose has
+never been on the cars. They are to have salad and ice-cream and
+sandwiches and coffee. Mr. Phillips is to act as florist and I shall
+furnish the decorations and the bride's bouquet. I'd love to throw in a
+bridal gown and veil, but Lily Rose, it seems, is proud and won't accept
+them."
+
+"I can find it quite in my heart to admire the reluctance of Lily Rose
+to accept them."
+
+"And so can I," replied Colette, the rare sweetness coming into her
+eyes. "Underneath all my jests about this wedding, it is all very sweet
+and touching to me--the Boarder's consideration for her, the
+preparations for the wedding which appear so elaborate to them. And then
+the wedding itself seems to mean so much to them. It's so different from
+the weddings in our class which often mean so little."
+
+"Colette, I know--I have always known in spite of your endeavor to have
+me believe otherwise--anything really true and genuine appeals to you.
+I--"
+
+"But I haven't told you yet," she said, seized with an unaccountable
+shyness, "what your part is to be. The Boarder, Lily Rose, and naturally
+all the Jenkinses, want you to perform the ceremony. The Boarder, being
+shy and retiring, forbore to ask you, and Amarilly for some reason
+desired me to ask you if you would officiate, and I assured her you
+would gladly do so."
+
+"I should have felt hurt," replied John with a happy smile, "if they had
+asked anyone else to marry them. And you will be there, Colette?"
+
+"Certainly," she declared. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."
+
+"And--you will go with me, Colette?"
+
+She colored, and her eyes drooped beneath his fixed gaze.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I will go with you."
+
+"Thank you, Colette," he answered gently, realizing what a surrender
+this was, and deeming it wise not to follow up his victory immediately.
+
+And at his reticence Colette was conscious of a shade of disappointment.
+She began to feel an uncomfortable atmosphere in the silence that
+ensued, so she broke it, speaking hastily and confusedly.
+
+"Oh, John, there is something else they want of you. The request is made
+by unanimous desire that you wear their surplice--that awful surplice!"
+
+A shadow not unlike a frown fell athwart John's brow, and he made no
+immediate reply.
+
+The introduction of the unfortunate topic made them both self-conscious,
+and for the first time Colette acknowledged to herself that she had been
+in the wrong in the matter of the surplice. John, misinterpreting her
+constraint, and fearing that the reference to the garment had revived
+all her old resentment, arose to depart.
+
+"I will wear it if they wish," he said stiffly.
+
+"I, too, wish you would wear it," she said in a voice scarcely audible.
+
+He looked at her in surprise, hope returning.
+
+"To please them," she added, coloring.
+
+"Colette!" There was a pleading in his voice that told her all she
+longed to know. "Colette, don't you think I have been patient? Won't you
+be friends again?"
+
+"I will," she said, "after--the Boarder's and Lily Rose's wedding!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Work on the Boarder's Annex was begun with frantic zeal, each and every
+member of the Jenkins family lending a helping hand. The Boarder, as
+boss carpenter, worked after switching hours until it grew dark; then
+the children took turns, in holding a lantern for him. The savings of
+the Boarder being taxed by the trip to "Niagry" and the furnishing of
+the apartment, great economy had to be exercised in the erecting of the
+Annex. He strictly adhered to his determination not to touch the "rainy
+day fund."
+
+Amarilly pleaded for a bay window, but the Boarder felt this
+ornamentation to be quite beyond his means, so they finally compromised
+on a small and simple porch on which Lily Rose could sit of a summer
+night while the Boarder smoked by her side. Mrs. Jenkins, moved to
+memories long dormant of the home of her youth, suggested blinds instead
+of window-shades, but the Boarder after much figuring proved adamantine
+in resistance to this temptation.
+
+Lily Rose was the only one who made no suggestions. Anything the Boarder
+might construct in the way of a nesting place was beautiful in her eyes.
+
+"She'd be too sorter modist-like to tell me if she was sot on any
+perticler thing about the new place," he confided wistfully to Amarilly,
+"You're so sharp I wish you'd kinder hint around and find out what she
+wants. Jest put out some feelers."
+
+Amarilly diplomatically proceeded to put out "feelers," and after much
+maneuvering joyously imparted to the Boarder the information that Lily
+Rose loved to look at the one solitary tree that adorned the Jenkins
+lot, because to her it meant "the country."
+
+"So that's the way she loves to look out," informed Amarilly, "and, you
+see there isn't any window on that side of your rooms."
+
+"There shall be one," declared the Boarder firmly.
+
+"Couldn't you make it a bay?" again coaxed Amarilly, "It's on the side
+the sun comes in most, and the doctor said Lily Rose should get all the
+sunlight she could. If she could sit in that bay window sunny days next
+winter it would be better than medicine for her."
+
+The Boarder sighed.
+
+"Don't tempt me, Amarilly. There ain't a cent more I kin squeeze out."
+
+"I'll think out a way," thought Amarilly confidently.
+
+She took the matter to Colette, who instantly and satisfactorily solved
+the problem, and Amarilly returned radiant.
+
+"She says you've saved too much out for furniture, and to build the bay
+window from the furniture fund."
+
+The Boarder shook his head.
+
+"I thought of that, but thar ain't a thing I can take out of that. I got
+the figgers on the price of everything from the House Furnishers'
+Establishment."
+
+"But you see, Miss King says no one ever comes to a wedding without
+bringing a present. That it wouldn't be et--,--dear me! I have forgotten
+what the word is. And she says not to buy any furniture till all the
+presents come, and then I can settle the rooms for you while you and
+Lily Rose are away. Lots of the things you are expecting to buy will be
+given you."
+
+"It's risky," said the Boarder dubiously. "We'll most likely git casters
+and bibles and tidies. That's what I've allers seen to weddin's."
+
+"Well, I see I have got to put a flea in your ear, but don't tell Lily
+Rose. Let it be a surprise to her. Miss King is going to give you a
+handsome base-burner coal stove. So you can take that off your list."
+
+The Boarder looked pleased and yet distressed.
+
+"She shouldn't go fer to do that!" he protested.
+
+"Well, she wants to give you a nice present because you've been nice to
+us, and she thinks Lily Rose is sweet, and she says she believes in
+making sensible presents. She asked Mr. Meredith what to get, and he
+told her to get the stove so you see it's all right if he says so. She
+thought you wouldn't need a stove till next winter, but I told her you
+wanted the rooms furnished complete now."
+
+"Then," said the Boarder beamingly, "the bay winder shall be cut out
+ter-morrer."
+
+"Don't cut it _out_!" said Amarilly alarmed.
+
+"I don't mean in a slang way," he said, laughing. "I mean cut out with a
+saw."
+
+When Lily Rose was brought over one starlight night in budding May to
+see the beautiful aperture that would eventually become a bay window and
+face the solitary tree, two dewy drops of joy came into her eyes. Before
+them all she raised her pale, little face for a kiss which the Boarder
+bestowed with the solemn air of one pronouncing a benediction, for Lily
+Rose was chary of outward and visible expressions of affection, and he
+was deeply moved by this voluntary offering.
+
+The Annex grew rapidly, but its uprising was not accomplished without
+some hazard and adventure. There was an exciting day when Cory fell
+through the scaffolding where she had been climbing. She suffered a
+moment of unconsciousness and a bump on her head.
+
+"An inch nigher her brain, and it would have killed her!" exclaimed the
+mother in tragic tones.
+
+"An inch of miss is as good as a mile," said the Boarder
+philosophically.
+
+There was also a thrilling moment when Iry thrust his head through the
+railings of the new porch. Satisfied with his outlook, he would fain
+have withdrawn, but was prevented by an unaccountable swelling of his
+pate. Flamingus, coming to the rescue and working seemingly on the
+theory that his skull might be compressible, tried to pull him backward,
+but the frantic shrieks of Iry caused this plan of ejection to be
+abandoned.
+
+"The rest of him is smaller than his head," observed Amarilly
+practically, as she arrived upon the scene and took a comprehensive view
+of the case, "Push him through, Flam, and I'll go around on the other
+side and get him."
+
+Iry, safely landed in Amarilly's arms, laughed his delight, and thinking
+it a sort of game, was about to repeat his stunt of "in and out."
+
+"It's time something was done to you," said Amarilly determinedly,
+"before you get killed in this place. I am going to spank you, Iry, and
+Co, too. I am going to spank you both fierce. And you are to keep away
+from the new part."
+
+In spite of wailing protests, Amarilly administered a spanking to the
+two younger children that worked effectually against further repetition
+of their hazardous performances. But Bobby tobogganed down the roof
+during its shingling and sprained his ankle, which necessitated the use
+of crutches.
+
+"He can break his neck if he wants to," remarked Amarilly, when besought
+by Co to punish him too.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins lost a finger-nail by an injudicious use of the hammer. Bud
+sat down in the paint pot, and had to go to bed while his clothes were
+cleaned. In fact Lily Rose was the only one of the whole family circle
+to suffer no injury, but the Boarder guided her so tenderly over every
+part and plank of the Annex that there was no chance for mishap.
+
+When the lathing and plastering were completed, the little bride-elect
+began to tremble with timidity and happiness at the consciousness of the
+nearness of her approaching transfer to the Home.
+
+The plan of the Boarder had been to leave the walls rough and unfinished
+till their settling process should be accomplished, but Amarilly,
+absorbed heart and soul in this first experience of making a nesting
+place, pleaded for paper--"quiet, pretty paper with soft colors," she
+implored, Derry's teachings now beginning to bear fruit in Amarilly's
+development of the artistic.
+
+"Amarilly, we can't hev everything to onct," he rebuked solemnly. "The
+paper'll crack as sure as fate, if you put it on now."
+
+"Let it crack!" defied Amarilly. "Then you can put on more. You're away
+nearly all day, and the rest of us are at work, but if Lily Rose has to
+sit here all day and look at these white walls that look just like sour
+bread that hasn't riz"--Derry had not yet discovered this word in
+Amarilly's vocabulary--"she'll go mad."
+
+"Amarilly," sighed the Boarder, "you'll hev me in the poorhouse yit!"
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Amarilly. "I'll have to let you into another secret.
+Mr. Meredith is going to give you and Lily Rose a handsome centre-table
+and an easy-chair. There won't be any surprises left for you by the time
+the wedding is over, but you're so set, I have to keep giving things
+away to you."
+
+"That makes me think," remarked the Boarder. "I was going to ask you
+what I'd orter give the preacher fer marryin' Lily Rose and me. The
+fireman of Number Six told me he give two dollars when he was spliced,
+but you see Mr. Meredith is so swell, I'd orter give more."
+
+Amarilly gazed reflectively into space while she grappled with this
+proposition.
+
+"Do you know," she said presently, with the rare insight that was her
+birthright, "I don't think Mr. Meredith would like money--not from you--
+for Lily Rose. You see he's a sort of a friend, and you'd better give
+him a present because money, unless it was a whole lot, wouldn't mean
+anything to him."
+
+"That's so," admitted the Boarder, "but what kin I give him?"
+
+Amarilly had another moment of thought.
+
+"Make him a bookrack. Mr. Derry will draw you the design, and you can
+carve it out. You can do it noons after you eat your luncheon, then you
+won't lose any time building the house."
+
+"That's jest what I'll do. So with the fee saved and the cheer and table
+out, I kin paper the rooms. You find out what kind Lily Rose wants and
+help her pick it out."
+
+"She'll choose blue," lamented Amarilly, "and that fades quick."
+
+Lily Rose was easily persuaded to let Derry be consulted. He promptly
+volunteered to tint the walls, having studied interior decorations at
+one time in his career. He wrought a marvellous effect in soft grays and
+browns with bordering graceful vines.
+
+Lily Rose by taking advantage of a bargain sale on suits saved enough
+from her trousseau to curtain the windows in dainty blue and white
+muslin.
+
+Derry then diverted the appropriation for an ingrain carpet to an
+expenditure for shellac and paint with which he showed Amarilly how to
+do the floors. Some cheap but pretty rugs were selected in place of the
+carpet.
+
+At last the Annex was ready for painting. Lily Rose wistfully stated
+that she had always longed to live in a white house, so despite the fact
+that the Jenkins house proper was a sombre red, the new part was painted
+white.
+
+"'Twill liven the place up," Amarilly consoled herself, while Colette
+breathed a sigh of relief that the Annex was not to be entirely
+conventional.
+
+At Amarilly's suggestion, the woodwork was also painted white.
+
+"Hard to keep clean," warned Amarilly, divided in her trend of
+practicality and her loyalty to St. John's favorite color. White won.
+
+The moment the paint was dry and the Annex announced "done," the Boarder
+took Lily Rose to view their prospective domicile. They were
+unaccompanied by any of the family, but it took the combined efforts of
+Mrs. Jenkins, Amarilly, and Flamingus, whose recent change in voice and
+elongation of trousers gave him an air of authority, to prevent a
+stampede by the younger members.
+
+Lily Rose returned wet-eyed, sweetly smiling, and tremulous of voice,
+but the Boarder stood erect, proud in his possessions.
+
+Colette vetoed the plan for Amarilly to settle in the absence of the
+groom and bride.
+
+"If you have it all furnished beforehand," she argued, "there will be
+just so much more room to entertain in on the night of the wedding."
+
+And then Lily Rose confessed that "she'd love to be 'to hum' in her own
+place."
+
+"But they won't be furnished," argued Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, yes, they will," assured Colette. "It's etiquette--" she paused to
+note Amarilly writing the word down in a little book she carried--"for
+people to send their presents before they come, and you can settle as
+fast as they come in."
+
+The wedding gifts all arrived the day before the wedding. The base-
+burner, though not needed for some months, was set up, because the
+Boarder said he would not feel at home until he could put his feet on
+his own hearth. John Meredith sent an oaken library table and an
+easy-chair. Derry's offering was in the shape of a beautiful picture
+and a vase for the table.
+
+The best man, who fortunately had appealed to Amarilly for guidance,
+gave a couch. The Jenkins family, assessed in proportion to their
+respective incomes, provided a bedroom set. Lily Rose's landlady sent a
+willow rocker; the girl friends at the factory a gilt clock; the
+railroad hands, six silver spoons and an equal number of forks. Lily
+Rose's Sunday-school teacher presented a lamp. A heterogeneous
+assortment of articles came from the neighbors.
+
+These presents were all arranged in the new rooms by Lily Rose, and the
+elegance of the new apartment was overwhelming in effect to the
+household.
+
+"It looks most too fine to feel to hum in," gasped the Boarder. "It
+makes me feel strange!"
+
+"It won't look strange to you," assured the bride-elect, looking shyly
+into his adoring eyes, "when you come home and find me sitting here in
+my blue dress waiting for you, will it?"
+
+"No!" agreed the Boarder with a quick intake of breath, "'Twill be home
+and heaven, Lily Rose."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Shyly and perversely Lily Rose had postponed the trying on of her
+borrowed wedding waist until the day preceding the great event.
+
+"There won't be time to fit it," pleaded Amarilly.
+
+And Lily Rose had smiled a faraway smile and said her veil would cover
+it anyway. But finally Amarilly's pleas prevailed and the beloved
+garment was brought forth.
+
+Amarilly took it reverently from its wrappings and held it up to view.
+After many exclamations of wonder and admiration, Lily Rose, who had
+removed her dress, essayed to try it on.
+
+"Why, Amarilly," she said, struggling to get her arm into the sleeve,
+"there's something the matter! It's sewed together, or something."
+
+Amarilly hastened to investigate.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped, after thrusting her hand within, "to think it should
+be in here, for I am sure this is what Miss King has been looking for so
+long. Wait until I go and ask ma about it."
+
+She hurried to the kitchen precinct of the house.
+
+"Oh, Ma, do you know how this came in Miss King's lace waist? The one
+that was here through the fever?"
+
+"Why, didn't you ever take that home?"
+
+"Yes," informed Amarilly, "but she made me a present of it, and I put it
+away to keep till I was--grown up. And I want to lend it to Lily Rose to
+be married in. And when she went to try it on, she found this in the
+sleeve."
+
+Mrs. Jenkins paused in the sudsing of a garment.
+
+"Let me see!" she said, surveying the object with reminiscent scrutiny.
+"Oh, yes, I remember now. I found it on the floor the day she was here,
+afore the waist was ready for her. I thought she had dropped it, and so
+I pinned it in the sleeve of her dress, and was goin to tell Gus to give
+it to her, but he didn't take the waist hum, and then so much happened,
+it went clean out of my mind."
+
+"I'll go right over to her house with it now," said Amarilly.
+
+Lily Rose, adorned in the filmy, white waist, entered the kitchen.
+
+"See, Amarilly," she said delightedly. "It's a beautiful fit!"
+
+But Amarilly had something on her mind of more moment even than Lily
+Rose's wedding garments.
+
+"I am glad it fits," she said hurriedly, scarcely vouchsafing a glance
+toward Lily Rose as she caught up her hat, and hastened as fast as the
+street-cars would take her to Colette. Orders had been given for the
+admittance of Amarilly at any hour and to any room her young patroness
+might chance to be occupying. This morning she was in her boudoir.
+
+"Oh, Miss King!" cried Amarilly, her face aglow. "I guess I have found
+it!"
+
+Colette's heart began to flutter and the wavering beat became a steady
+throb when Amarilly handed her the long lost article.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you darling! Yes, yes, this is it! And it evidently has
+not been touched. Where did you find it? Who had it?" Amarilly related
+the story of its discovery.
+
+"Then, but for your generosity, Amarilly, this would have been in the
+waist for years, so I am going to reward you. You shall make Lily Rose a
+wedding present of the waist, and when you are married, I shall give you
+a real, white wedding gown of white satin with a bridal train!"
+
+"Oh, Miss King! I must get married then, even if I have to do it in a
+leap year!"
+
+"Of course you will marry. I shall pick out the bridegroom myself. I
+feel like doing almost anything for you, Amarilly."
+
+"Do you, truly?" asked Amarilly. "Then I wish you would--"
+
+"Tell me, dear!" urged Colette. "I'll do anything for you to-day."
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker.
+
+"Amarilly! I will, indeed--nicer than you can imagine, or he either. And
+tell me, is Lily Rose still happy--very happy?"
+
+"Yes," replied Amarilly. "So happy, and so scared-like, and she's going
+to dress at our house and could you come early and fix on the veil? We
+don't just know how it goes."
+
+[Illustration: "Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little
+peacemaker.]
+
+"Of course I will. And now will you take a little note to St. John for
+me on your way home?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King. And are you going to tell him it is found?"
+
+"No, Amarilly; not until to-morrow night, so don't say anything about it
+to him."
+
+The rector looked up with a welcoming smile when Amarilly was shown into
+his study.
+
+"I came with a note from her," she said with a glad little intonation in
+her voice.
+
+John took it eagerly. His face fell at the first few words which told
+him not to call for her to-morrow night on the way to the wedding, but
+it brightened amazingly when he read the reason--the adjusting of Lily
+Rose's bridal veil; it fairly radiated joy when he read:
+
+"I am not going to be disagreeable to--anyone to-morrow. I shall 'let my
+light shine' on Lily Rose and--every one. If you will keep your carriage
+to-morrow night, I will send mine away and ride home with you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+On the night of the auspicious occasion, Mrs. Jenkins's home presented a
+scene of festivity. Neighbors had loaned their lamps, and the brakeman
+had hung out his red lantern in token of welcome and cheer. It was,
+however, mistaken by some of the guests as a signal of danger, and they
+were wary of their steps lest they be ditched. Mrs. Hudgers ventured the
+awful prognostication that "mebby some of them Jenkins brats had gone
+and got another of them ketchin' diseases."
+
+When they entered the house there was a general exclamation of
+admiration. The curtain partitions had been removed, and the big room
+was beautifully decorated with festoons and masses of green interspersed
+with huge bunches of June roses.
+
+Derry and Flamingus received the guests. Upstairs the Boarder and the
+brakeman were nervously awaiting the crucial moment. The door into the
+Annex was closed, for in the sitting-room was the little bride, her pale
+cheeks delicately tinted from excitement as Colette artistically
+adjusted the bridal veil, fastening it with real orange blossoms.
+Amarilly hovered near in an ecstasy which was perforce silent on account
+of her mouth being full of pins.
+
+"There's Mr. St. John's carriage," she managed to murmur as she peered
+from the window.
+
+Colette dropped her paper of pins, went hastily into the adjoining
+bedroom and slipped out again before John Meredith was ushered in where
+the surplice immaculately laundered, was waiting to be donned by its
+original owner.
+
+After slipping it on, John's hand from force of habit sought the pocket
+and there encountered something. He drew it forth wonderingly. It was a
+small, silver-monogrammed envelope sealed and addressed to him in
+Colette's handwriting. He read the note once, twice, thrice. Then there
+was a knock at the door that led into the Annex sitting-room. He opened
+it to admit Amarilly.
+
+"Are you ready?" she asked. "You're to go in with them. They--"
+
+She paused and stared at him. The transformation in his face was
+wonderful.
+
+"Yes, I am ready, Amarilly," he replied, and something in his voice
+sounded strange to her.
+
+He followed her into the next room where the Boarder, awkward in his
+Sunday clothes, but regal in his pride in the little, white-veiled
+figure at his side, was awaiting him.
+
+John walked out into the Jenkins's part of the house with them, while
+Amarilly slipped home by way of the Annex bedroom.
+
+The entrance was certainly effective to the neighbors.
+
+"Ain't she a lily though!" "Look at that long veil onct!" "Jest like 'a
+picter!" "What a swell waist" "That big bo'quet!" "I niver seed sech
+flowers afore." "That surplus makes it look like picters!"
+
+All these comments were sweet music in Amarilly's ear. Only one person
+had regrets. Mrs. Hudgers was visibly disappointed.
+
+"I thought they'd hev candles a-burnin'," she confided to Mrs. Huce.
+
+"Don't you know no better than that?" scoffed Mrs. Huce with a superior
+air. "Them things is only used by Irish folks."
+
+Derry's dancing eyes looked to Colette for appreciation of this
+statement, but her eyes and attention were entirely for John.
+
+The ceremony began. John's impressive voice, with its new pervading note
+of exultant gladness, reached them all, tempering even Derry's light-
+hearted mirth. It gave courage to the little bride whose drooping head
+rose like a flower, and a light shone in her eyes as she made the
+responses sweetly and clearly. It found echo in the Boarder, whose
+stooping shoulders unconsciously straightened and his voice grew clear
+and strong as he promised to have and to hold. It found a place in
+Colette's heart which sent illumining lights into her starry eyes.
+
+When the solemn ceremony ended, and the Boarder and Lilly Rose were
+pronounced man and wife, the guests flocked forward to offer
+congratulations. Then they were bidden to adjourn to the Annex that they
+might view the bride's domain, while Mrs. Jenkins assisted by many
+helping hands set the long tables, a small one being reserved for the
+Boarder, the bride, Mr. Cotter, and Mrs. Jenkins and Iry.
+
+"I thought they could eat more natural," whispered the considerate
+little Amarilly to Colette, "if there weren't no strangers with them."
+
+Colette, John, and Derry were also honored with a separate table. Mrs.
+Hudgers and Amarilly "dished up and poured" in the woodshed, while the
+boys acted as waiters, having been thoroughly trained by Amarilly for
+the occasion.
+
+"Do you know," laughed Derry, "I was so surprised and relieved to find
+that the Boarder had a cognomen like other people. It never occurred to
+me before that he must of course have a name."
+
+Colette smiled politely but perfunctorily. She was living too deeply
+to-night to appreciate wit. John, too, was strangely silent, his eyes
+resting often and adoringly upon Colette. Shrewdly Derry divined the
+situation and relieved it by rattling on with a surface banter that
+demanded no response.
+
+"These refreshments," he observed, "are certainly the handiwork of my
+little maid. They have a flavor all her own. I am proud of Amarilly's
+English, too."
+
+"I wonder," said Colette, "if you are doing quite right, Mr. Phillips,
+in improving Amarilly to such an extent? I am afraid she will grow
+beyond her family."
+
+"No; even you, pardon me, Miss King, don't know Amarilly as I do. She
+couldn't get beyond them in her heart, although she may in other
+directions. Her heart is in the right place, and it will bridge any
+distance that may lie between them."
+
+John looked up attentively and approvingly.
+
+"Amarilly has too much aptitude for learning not to be encouraged, and I
+shall do more for her before long. We have pursued a select course of
+reading this winter. She has read aloud while I painted. We began
+stumblingly with Alice in Wonderland and are now groping through
+mythology."
+
+After refreshments had been served, Lily Rose went to her bedroom to don
+her travelling gown, and when the happy couple had driven away amid a
+shower of rice and shouts from the neighbors, John's carriage drew up.
+
+"John," asked Colette, after a happy little moment in his arms, "did you
+read my note and did you see what the date was?"
+
+"Colette, surely it was the dearest love-letter a man ever received. If
+I could have had it all these dreary months!"
+
+"Do you wonder that I feared its falling into strange hands?"
+
+"Tell me its history, Colette. How you recovered it, and why you thought
+it was in the surplice in the first place?"
+
+"I wrote it the day after you asked me--you know--"
+
+There was another happy disappearance and silence before she resumed:
+
+"I was sentimental enough to want to deliver it in an unusual way. I
+took it to Mrs. Jenkins's house the day your surplice was to be returned
+to you, and I slipped it inside the pocket. I wanted you to find it
+there on Sunday morning. I didn't know what to think when you looked at
+me so oddly that Sunday--yes, I know now that you were wondering at my
+silence. And when we came home in the fall and I learned from Amarilly
+that strangers might be reading and laughing at my ardent love-letter,
+which must have passed through many and alien hands, I was so horrified
+I couldn't act rational or natural. I was--yes, I will 'fess up, John,--
+I was unreasonable, as you said and--No, John! wait until I finish
+before you--"
+
+"You want to know how and where it was found? It seems at the same time
+your surplice was laundered, a lace waist of mine was at their house. I
+didn't care for a 'fumigated waist' so, like you, I made Amarilly a
+present perforce. She laid it away in its wrappings to keep until her
+wedding day. Out of the goodness of her generous little heart she loaned
+it to Lily Rose and yesterday, when they were trying it on, Amarilly
+found my note in the sleeve. Mrs. Jenkins was appealed to and remembered
+that when the things were ready to be sent home, she found the note on
+the floor, and supposing it had fallen from the waist slipped it inside
+and forgot all about it. I decided that it should be delivered in the
+manner originally planned."
+
+"But, Colette," he asked wistfully, a few moments later, "if you had
+never found it would you have kept me always in suspense and never have
+given me an answer? I began to hope, that night I called, that you were
+relenting."
+
+"I was, John. Amarilly had been telling me of the Boarder's love for
+Lily Rose, and it made me lonely for you, and I determined in any event
+to give you your answer--this answer--to-night. And so I did, and--I
+think that is all, John."
+
+"Not all, Colette."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+The dairy business continued to prove profitable to Gus, the cow
+remaining contented, loving and giving. One night, however, there came
+the inevitable reaction, and the gentle creature in the cow-shed felt
+the same stifling she had rebelled against on the night of the stampede
+when she had made her wild dash for liberty. Moved by these
+recollections, the sedate, orderly cow became imbued with a feeling of
+unrest, and demolishing the frail door was once more at large. In a
+frenzy of freedom she dashed about the yard. Her progress was somewhat
+impeded by contact with the surplice which, pinned to the clothes-line,
+was flapping in the breezes. Maddened by this obstruction which hung,
+veil-like, over her bovine lineaments, she gave a twist of her Texas
+horns, a tug, and the surplice was released, but from the line only; it
+twined itself like a white wraith about the horns.
+
+Then the sportive animal frisked over the low back fence and across the
+hill, occasionally stepping on a released end of the surplice and
+angrily tearing her way through the garment. She made her road to the
+railroad track. That sight, awakening bitter memories of a packed
+cattle-car, caused her to slacken her Mazeppa-like speed. While she
+paused, the night express backed onto the side track to await the coming
+of the eastbound train. The cow, still in meditation, was silhouetted in
+the light of a harvest moon.
+
+"This 'ere," a home-bound cattleman was saying to a friend on the
+platform, "is nigh onto whar we dropped a cow. I swar if thar ain't that
+blasted cow now, what? Know her from hoof to horn, though what kind of a
+Christmas tree she's got on fer a bunnit, gits me! Ki, yi! Ki, yi!"
+
+At the sound of the shrill, weird cry, the animal stood at bay. Again
+came the well-known strident halloo. A maelstrom of memories was
+awakened by the call. Instinctively obeying the old summons she started
+toward the train, when from over the hill behind her she heard another
+command.
+
+"Co, boss! Co, boss!"
+
+The childish anxious treble rose in an imploring wail.
+
+The cow paused irresolute, hesitating between the lure of the old life
+on the plains and the recent domestic existence.
+
+"Co, boss!"
+
+There was a note of entreaty, of affection, in the cry.
+
+After all, domesticity was her birthright. With an answering low of
+encouragement the black cow turned and trotted amiably back to meet the
+little dairyman.
+
+"Well, I'll be jiggered," said the cattleman, as the train pulled out.
+"I'd a swore it was old Jetblack. Maybe 'twas. She was only a milker
+anyway, and I guess she's found a home somewhere."
+
+Gus with arm lovingly about the cow's neck walked home.
+
+"Bossy," he said in gently reproaching tones, "how could you give me
+such a skeer? I thought I'd lost you, and I'd hev sure missed you--you,
+yerself--more'n I would the money your milk brings us."
+
+Then for the first time, the lad's eyes noted the decorated horns.
+
+"What in thunder--"
+
+He began to unwind the ribbons of white cloth, the stringed remnants of
+the surplice.
+
+"Gracious Peter! It's the surplus! What will Amarilly say--and Lily
+Rose? It's only fit fer carpet rags now. Well, if this ain't the end of
+the surplus after all it has went through! I wonder what bossy wanted of
+it? Thought jest cause she was a cow, she must be a cow ketcher, I
+suppose."
+
+Great was the joy of the Jenkinses at the restoration of the cow, but
+there was grievous lament from Amarilly for the fate of the precious
+garment.
+
+"It was our friend--our friend in need!" she mourned.
+
+"I'm so glad we hev a picter of it," said Lily Rose, gazing fondly at
+the photograph of the Boarder in the saintly robes.
+
+"I'll go and tell Miss King," said Amarilly the next morning. "She said
+she felt that the surplice would come to some tragic end."
+
+"It was a fitting fate for so mysterious a garment," commented Colette.
+"You couldn't expect any ordinary, common-place ending for the surplice.
+After officiating at funerals, weddings, shop-windows, theatres,
+pawnshops, and bishops' dwellings, it could never have simply worn out,
+or died of old age."
+
+"I don't see," meditated Amarilly, "what possessed the cow. She's been
+so gentle always, and then to fly to pieces that way, and riddle the
+surplice to bits! It was lucky there was nothing else on the line."
+
+"It's very simple," said Colette. "I suppose she wanted to go to the
+train. Maybe she expected to meet a friend. And as nearly everyone else
+had worn the surplice on special occasions, she thought she could do the
+same; only, you see, never having been to church she didn't quite know
+how to put it on, and I suppose got mad at it because it didn't fit her
+and gave vent to her anger by trampling on it."
+
+Amarilly's doleful little face showed no appreciation of this conceit.
+
+"Don't look so glum, Amarilly. I have something to show you that will
+please you."
+
+She opened a desk and took a thick, white square envelope from it, and
+handed it to the little girl.
+
+Wonderingly Amarilly opened it and took out a folded, engraved sheet of
+thick paper. She read eagerly, and two little spots of pink came into
+her cheeks.
+
+"Oh, oh!" she cried, looking up with shining eyes, which in another
+moment glistened through tears.
+
+"Why, Amarilly, aren't you glad that I am going to be--"
+
+"Mrs. St. John?" smiled Amarilly. "I think it's beautiful. And,"
+anxiously, "you will surely be good to--him?"
+
+"Yes," replied Colette softly "I will be good--very good--to St. John.
+Don't fear, Amarilly."
+
+A card had fallen from the envelope. Amarilly picked it up and read:
+
+"To be presented at the church."
+
+"What's that?" she asked curiously.
+
+"You have to show that at the church door. If you didn't have it, you
+couldn't get in to see us married. It's the same as a ticket to a
+theatre. And St. John doesn't like it; but if we didn't have them there
+would be a mob of curious people who don't know us. I shall give all of
+you tickets to come to the church, the Boarder and Lily Rose, too."
+
+"Oh," cried Amarilly, "that will be lovely, and we shall all come."
+
+"Of course you will all come. Your friend, the bishop, is to marry us,
+and Bud is going to sing a solo. The choirmaster told me his voice was
+developing wonderfully."
+
+"I must go home and tell them all about it," said Amarilly excitedly.
+
+"Wait! There's more to hear. I am going to invite you to the reception
+here at the house, and I am going to have a lovely white dress made for
+you to wear, and you shall have white silk stockings and slippers and
+white gloves."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Amarilly, shutting her eyes. "I can't believe it."
+
+The next morning at the studio she announced the wonderful news to
+Derry.
+
+"I just received an invitation, myself," he replied. "We will go
+together, Amarilly. I'll send you flowers and call for you with a
+taxicab."
+
+"Things must stop happening to me," said Amarilly solemnly. "I can't
+stand much more."
+
+Derry laughed.
+
+"When things once begin to happen, Amarilly, they never stop. You are to
+go from here now every day after luncheon to this address," handing her
+a card.
+
+"'Miss Varley,'" Amarilly read. "'1227, Winter Street.' Will she have
+work for me, too?"
+
+"Yes; work in schoolbooks. She takes a few private pupils, and I have
+engaged her to teach you. I really think you should have instruction in
+other branches than English and art and arithmetic."
+
+Amarilly turned pale but said nothing for a moment. Then she held out
+her hand.
+
+"I will study hard--to pay you," she said simply.
+
+"And can you stand another piece of exciting news, Amarilly? Sunset,
+which I have dawdled over for so long, drew first prize."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, that is best of all!"
+
+"And do you know what I am going to give Mrs. St. John for a wedding
+present from you and me? The picture of The Little Scrub-girl."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Another spring found the members of the Jenkins Syndicate still banking
+regularly and flourishing in their various walks in life. The Boarder
+had received a "raise"; Lily Rose was spending her leisure time in
+fashioning tiny garments which she told Cory were for a doll baby; Iry
+was wearing his first trousers cut over from a pair discarded by Bud;
+and Amarilly was acquiring book lore with an ease and rapidity which
+delighted Miss Varley and Derry. Through the medium of Mr. Vedder the
+attention of the manager of a high class vaudeville had been drawn to
+Bud, and he was now singing every night with a salary that made the
+neighbors declare that "them Jenkinses was getting to be reg'ler
+Rockyfellers."
+
+Amarilly coming home one Monday evening found the family grouped about
+the long table listening with bulging eyes and hectic cheeks to the
+Boarder, who had before him a sheet of figures. Amarilly was at once
+alert, although somewhat resentful of this encroachment upon her
+particular province.
+
+"Oh, come and hear, Amarilly!" "Amarilly, we've bought a farm!"
+"Amarilly, we air agoin' to live in the country!"
+
+"Let me explain," said the Boarder, usually slow and easy going, but now
+alert and enthusiastic of mien and speech. "We've got a chance,
+Amarilly, to sell this place and make quite a profit. That new factory
+that's agoin' up acrost the alley has sent real estate scootin'. With
+what we git fer it, we kin make a big payment on a farm. I took a run
+down yesterday to look at one we kin git cheap, cause the folks on it
+hez gotter go west fer the man's health. What we hev all saved up sence
+we bought the place will keep us agoin' till we git in our fust summer
+crops."
+
+"Tell her about the house," prompted Mrs. Jenkins, her quick, maternal
+eye noting the bewilderment and disapproval in her daughter's expressive
+eyes.
+
+"It's all green meaders and orcherds and lanes," said the Boarder with
+the volubility of one repeating an oft-told and well-loved tale, while
+the young Jenkinses with the rapt, intense gaze of moving picture
+beholders sat in pleased expectancy, "and the house sets on a little
+rise of ground. It's a white house with a big chimbley and two stoops,
+and thar's a big barn with two white hosses in it, and a cow and an
+animal in the paster lot. A big pen of pigs, fifty hens in the henhouse,
+and a few sheep. Thar's a piece of woods and the river."
+
+"I'm a little fearful of the river on Iry's account," said Mrs. Jenkins,
+"but we kin spank him up good as soon as we git thar, and then he'll
+understand he's to keep away."
+
+"We kin git a good dog to keep track of Iry and the cattle," said the
+Boarder, and then he paused expectantly to listen to Amarilly's
+approbation. But she was strangely silent.
+
+"It will be a fust class investment," he continued sagely.
+
+"Why will it? We don't know anything about farming," objected Amarilly.
+"We'll have to hire someone to run it."
+
+"I was brought up on a farm," replied the Boarder. "Thar ain't a thing I
+don't know about farm work."
+
+"I was raised on a farm, too," said Mrs. Jenkins. "I can make good
+butter and I know all about raisin' chickens. I'll get some young
+turkeys and have them ready to sell for Thanksgiving, and I'll set out
+strawberries and celery plants."
+
+"I kin larn, and I'll work hard and do just what he tells me to," said
+Flamingus, motioning toward the Boarder.
+
+"I kin have my dairy all right, all right," said Gus joyfully. "I'll
+have a hull herd of cattle soon."
+
+"I shall go in heavy on hens," said Milt importantly. "The grocer give
+me a book about raising them. There's money in hens."
+
+"I choose to take keer of the sheep," cried Bobby.
+
+"I'll help ma do the work in the house and the garden," volunteered
+Cory.
+
+"And I'm strong enough to work outdoors now," said Lily Rose. "I shall
+help with the garden and with the housework."
+
+"We'll all pitch in and work," said Flamingus authoritatively, "and
+we're all partners and we won't hire no help. It will be clear profit."
+
+"Ain't it lovely, Amarilly?" asked the mother, apprehensive lest the
+little leader might blackball the project.
+
+"We're all doing so well here, why change? Why not let well enough
+alone?" she asked.
+
+There was a general and surprised protest at this statement. It was
+something new for Amarilly to be a kill-joy.
+
+"Do you like to live in this alley when we kin hev all outdoors and git
+a chanst to be somebody?" demanded Flamingus, who was rapidly usurping
+his sister's place as head of the house.
+
+"And think of the money we'll make!" reminded Milton.
+
+"And the milk and butter and cream and good things to eat without buying
+them!" exclaimed Gus.
+
+"And huntin' f'r eggs and swimmin' in the river and skatin' and gettin'
+hickory nuts and all the apples you kin eat," persuaded Bobby, who had
+evidently been listening to the Boarder's fancies of farm life.
+
+"Thar's a school close by, and all the chillern kin go," said the mother
+anxiously. "Mebby you kin git to teach it after a while, Amarilly."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly!" cried Lily Rose ecstatically, "to think of all the
+trees, and all the sky, and all the green grass and all the birds--oh,
+Amarilly!"
+
+Words failed Lily Rose, but she sighed a far-seeing blissful sigh of
+exquisite happiness at her horoscope. The Boarder looked at her, his
+heart eloquent in his eyes, but he said nothing.
+
+"Amarilly," cried Cory, "we kin hev real flowers fer nuthin' and pies
+and ice-cream, and we kin cuddle little chicks like ma told me, and make
+daisy chains, and hev picnics in the woods. Oh--"
+
+Words also proved inadequate to Co's anticipations.
+
+"Amawilly, we kin play wiv little lambs," lisped Iry.
+
+"Bud, you haven't made your speech, yet," said Amarilly, wistfully,
+realizing that the majority was against her.
+
+"Bud won't go till fall," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"Till fall!" cried Amarilly faintly. "Why, when are we going?"
+
+"Next week," answered the Boarder jubilantly. "The folks want to leave
+right away, and we must get busy plantin'. I went to Vedder's friend,
+the real estate man, this mornin' as soon as I got back, and he says
+it's a real bargain."
+
+"But why isn't Bud going?"
+
+"This morning," informed Mrs. Jenkins proudly, "Bud had an offer. As
+soon as the theatre shuts down, Mr. Vedder is going to take Bud to a big
+resort and manage him for the season. He'll git lots of money. I
+wouldn't let Bud go off with no one else, but Mr. Vedder is so nice, and
+he says when Bud goes to the country in the fall he kin come into the
+city Saturday nights on the Interurban and sing in the choir Sundays and
+come back Monday. He kin stay with him, Mr. Vedder says. And the country
+air and the fresh milk and eggs, will make a diff'rent boy of him. It's
+what the doctor says he'd orter hev."
+
+"Then, we'll go, of course," declared Amarilly resolutely.
+
+"And, Amarilly," said the Boarder gravely, "your ma ain't said why she
+wanted to go, but think of the diff'rence it will make in her life. To
+be sure, she will have to work hard, but with you, Lily Rose, and Co to
+help her, it won't be so hard, and it'll be higher class work than
+slushing around in tubs and water, and she'll hev good feedin' and good
+air, and we'll all feel like we was folks and our own bosses."
+
+"Ma, I was selfish!" cried Amarilly remorsefully. "I'll work like a
+hired man!"
+
+Amarilly thereupon bravely assumed a cheerful mien and looked over the
+Boarder's figures, listening with apparently great enthusiasm to the
+plans and projects. But when she was upstairs in her own little bed and
+each and every other Jenkins was wrapt in happy slumber, she turned her
+face to the wall, and wept long, silently, and miserably. Far-away
+fields and pastures did not look alluring to this little daughter of the
+city who put bricks and mortar and lighted streets above trees and
+meadows, for Amarilly was entirely metropolitan; sky-scrapers were her
+birthright, and she loved every inch of her city.
+
+"But it's best for them," she acknowledged.
+
+A little pang came with the realization that they who had been so
+dependent upon her guardianship for guidance were entirely competent to
+act without her.
+
+"It's Flam. He's growed up!" she sobbed, correctness of speech slipping
+from her in her grief. "And he don't know near so much as I do, only
+he's a man--or going to be--so what he says goes."
+
+And with this bitter but inevitable recognition of the things that are,
+Amarilly sobbed herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+The next morning Amarilly served Derry's breakfast in heavy-hearted
+silence, replying in low-voiced monosyllables to his gay, conversational
+advances. She performed her household duties about the studio listlessly
+though with conscientious thoroughness. When it came time to prepare
+luncheon, Derry called her into the studio.
+
+"Come here to the light, where I can see you best, Amarilly."
+
+Reluctantly she came.
+
+He turned his searching, artist's eyes upon her unsparingly, noting the
+violet shadows under the white-lidded eyes, and the hard, almost tragic
+lines in the drooping of her mobile mouth. She bore his gaze
+unflinchingly, with indrawn breath and clenched hands.
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?" he asked gently. "You will tell me, _nicht
+wahr_?"
+
+These two last words were in deference to her new study of German.
+
+At the genuine sympathy in his voice, Amarilly's composure gave way and
+there was a rush of tears.
+
+He led her to a divan and sat beside her.
+
+"Yes, of course you will tell me, Amarilly. I knew there was an
+emotional side to my practical, little maid, and I noticed at breakfast
+that there was something wrong."
+
+"Yes," she replied, with an effort, wiping away the rising tears, "I
+will tell you, but no one else. If I told Mr. Vedder, he would not
+understand; he would say I must do what was sensible. If I told Mr. St.
+John, he would be shocked, and tell me that duty was hard, and that was
+why it must be done,--to strengthen. Mrs. St. John would laugh, and say:
+'Oh, what a foolish Amarilly!'"
+
+"And what will I say, Amarilly?" he asked interestedly.
+
+"You! Oh, you will understand what I feel, and you will be sorry."
+
+"Then spin away, Amarilly. You'll have my sympathy and help in
+everything that makes you feel bad, whether it's right or wrong."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, we are all going away--way off to the country--to live
+on a farm!"
+
+"Amarilly, you little city brat! You'd be a misfit on a farm. Tell me
+what has sent the Jenkins family into the open."
+
+Faithfully Amarilly enumerated the pros and cons of the agricultural
+venture. When she had concluded her narrative, Derry, to her surprise
+and sorrow, looked positively jubilant.
+
+"And you don't want to live in the country, eh, Amarilly?"
+
+"No, Mr. Derry," she protested. "I don't. I have never been there, but I
+know the woods and the fields and--all that--must be beautiful--in
+patches--but I couldn't bear it all the time--not to see all the bright
+and white lights at night and the hurry, and the people, and the
+theatres. No! I'd rather be the poorest little speck here than to own
+and live on the biggest farm in the world."
+
+He laughed delightedly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you little gamin! You have the right idea, though. We
+don't want anything, however perfect it may be, all the time. We want it
+just 'in patches'--as you say. You'll love the country with your whole
+heart and soul when you come to see it if you know that you can leave
+it. But this is a big change in your affairs, and we must talk it over.
+We'll go to Carter's again for luncheon. Take off your apron and cap.
+You won't have to fix your hair this time. It's even more beautiful than
+it was then. Your frock, if it is cheap and plain, is artistic in cut
+and color."
+
+Amarilly felt cheered in spite of herself at his exuberant manner, but
+burst into tears when on leaving the studio he casually remarked:
+
+"So this is almost the last of your work here! I can never hope to get
+such another housekeeper as you. I shall have to eat out again."
+
+At sight of her grief he took hold of her arm almost roughly.
+
+"Amarilly, you little goose, do you suppose I am going to let you be
+exiled to a farm and lapse into the vernacular of the Boarder? Now, buck
+up and trust to the judgment and affection of your twin brother."
+
+Amarilly, wondering but hopeful, "bucked up," and they walked in silence
+to Carter's, where Derry ordered a private dining-room and luncheon.
+Then:
+
+"Now, listen my child, and you shall hear, not of the midnight ride of
+Paul Revere, but of the sad story of the life of your twin brother. My
+parents died when I was too young to grieve for them. They are only a
+faint memory. I had a cold-blooded, sensible guardian who put me into a
+boys' school, from which I went to college, and then for a year in
+Paris. He didn't let me know the amount of my inheritance. Consequently
+I really worked and worked hard at the only thing I cared for and formed
+no extravagant tastes. Neither was I courted and flattered by parasites.
+
+"On my return from Paris, a year before I met you, I came into my
+mother's fortune, and recently I have received the one left me by my
+father. Having been brought up to live a comparatively simple life, in
+the belief that I would be dependent on my own exertions, I have more
+money than I know what to do with as yet. I have no one, not even a
+fifth cousin, to be interested in. I have any number of acquaintances,
+but no really intimate friends, so I have no one to help me spend and
+enjoy my money.
+
+"There was something about you, Amarilly, that appealed to me that first
+day you came up to the studio. It couldn't have been your looks, for
+aside from your hair, your expressive eyes, and your hands; you are
+quite ordinary looking; but something about you amused me, then
+interested me, and, now fascinates me. I have thought about it a good
+deal, and have come to the conclusion that it is your direct naturalness
+and earnestness. I have really come to feel as if you were a sort of a
+younger sister of mine. I have done a very little for you in the way of
+education, and I have intended to do more. The reason I have been slow
+about it was--for reasons. I have discussed your future with the
+Merediths a great many times.
+
+"What I wished to do was to put you in the best girls' school I could
+find and when you were finished there, to send you abroad, and give you
+the same advantages that a sister of mine would have. But as I say, I
+hesitated. It didn't seem exactly wise to separate you from your family,
+surround you with different environments and then have you come home
+to--the alley. I know your loyal little heart would never waver in its
+affection for them, but such a decided change would not be wise.
+
+"Now, you see, this farm business simplifies things wonderfully. With
+the thrift and industry of your brothers and the Boarder I can easily
+see the farm is going to be a prosperous undertaking, and by the time
+you are finished--say five years--for Miss Varley tells me you are quite
+up with the girls of your age in your studies, they will have a
+substantial country home which you will enjoy immensely between times.
+You will find that a country home, however humble, is not sordid like an
+obscure home in the city. So next week, Amarilly, or as soon as Mrs.
+Meredith can fit you out properly, you will be packed off to an ultra-
+smart school. There will be one term this year, but I think you should
+remain through the summer vacation and have private tutoring."
+
+The waiter entered with the first course. When he had again gone out,
+Amarilly looked up at Derry, her eyes full of a yearning that touched
+him.
+
+"It would be lovely, Mr. Derry. Too lovely to happen, you know."
+
+"There, Amarilly," he said with a combination of frown and smile, "there
+it is again--your contradiction of eyes and mouth--the one of a gazelle;
+the other, of a mule. I'll answer your objections before you make them,
+for it is determined that you are to go."
+
+The look he had ascribed to Amarilly's mouth came into the forward
+thrust of his chin.
+
+"First, you think you are too proud and independent to accept. From your
+viewpoint it seems a good deal to do. From mine, proved by my bank
+account, it is an absurdly small thing to do, but if you are truly
+grateful for what you are pleased to think I have done for you, you will
+let me do this, because you feel sorry for me that I am so alone in the
+world. And St. John, himself, would tell you it was your duty to make
+the most of your talents and opportunities. You can also do a little
+charity work in keeping me straight, for you see, Amarilly, I am going
+to Paris for two years to study, and I will have an incentive to work
+and not play too hard if I know I have a little sister over here in
+school who would be sorry if her brother went wrong and didn't get to be
+a great artist. So for your sake, and for my sake--"
+
+"But there's ma's sake," she said wistfully. "The Boarder says woman's
+work on the farm is hard."
+
+"There's the Boarderess and Co--"
+
+"Lily Rose is not strong and doesn't know much about farm work, and Co's
+only a kid."
+
+"Well, I hadn't finished. You have an interest in the farm as one of the
+syndicate, and you have some money saved."
+
+"Yes," admitted Amarilly bewildered, not following his train of thought.
+
+"Well, you won't need that now, and it can go towards a woman to help,--
+a hired girl in country vernacular--during the busy seasons. And you can
+go home summers. Every week you are to write me a long letter and tell
+me about yourself and them."
+
+Amarilly was gazing into space, and in silence he watched the odd,
+little signs of conflict. It was the same sort of a struggle, only
+harder and more prolonged, that she had passed through two years before
+at the theatre when her untutored conscience bade her relinquish her
+seat. Suddenly her countenance became illumined.
+
+"I am going to do it, Mr. Derry! I am going to let you send me to
+school, and abroad and wherever you think best."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
+by Belle K. Maniates
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley, by Belle K. Maniates
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+Title: Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
+
+Author: Belle K. Maniates
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9988]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 6, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tony Browne and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+BY BELLE K. MANIATES
+
+AUTHOR OF DAVID DUNNE.
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. HENRY
+
+1915
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work"
+
+To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope with her caprices
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker
+
+
+
+[Illustration: He was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of
+adoration]
+
+
+
+AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The tiny, trivial touch of Destiny that caused the turn in Amarilly's
+fate-tide came one morning when, in her capacity as assistant to the
+scrub ladies at the Barlow Stock Theatre, she viewed for the first time
+the dress rehearsal of _A Terrible Trial_. Heretofore the patient little
+plodder had found in her occupation only the sordid satisfaction of
+drawing her wages, but now the resplendent costumes, the tragedy in the
+gestures of the villain, the languid grace of Lord Algernon, and the
+haughty treble of the leading lady struck the spark that fired ambition
+in her sluggish breast.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped in wistful-voiced soliloquy, as she leaned against her
+mop-stick and gazed aspiringly at the stage, "I wonder if I couldn't
+rise!"
+
+"Sure thing, you kin!" derisively assured Pete Noyes, vender of gum at
+matinées. "I'll speak to de maniger. Mebby he'll let youse scrub de
+galleries."
+
+Amarilly, case-hardened against raillery by reason of the possession of
+a multitude of young brothers, paid no heed to the bantering scoffer,
+but resumed her work in dogged dejection.
+
+"Say, Mr. Vedder, Amarilly's stage-struck!" called Pete to the ticket-
+seller, who chanced to be passing.
+
+The gray eyes of the young man thus addressed softened as he looked at
+the small, eager face of the youngest scrubber.
+
+"Stop at the office on your way out, Amarilly," he said kindly, "and
+I'll give you a pass to the matinée this afternoon."
+
+Amarilly's young heart fluttered wildly and sent a wave of pink into her
+pale cheeks as she voiced her gratitude.
+
+She was the first to enter when the doors opened that afternoon, and she
+kept close to the heels of the usher.
+
+"He ain't agoin' to give me the slip," she thought, keeping wary watch
+of his lithe form as he slid down the aisle.
+
+In the blaze of light and blare of instruments she scarcely recognized
+her workaday environment.
+
+"House sold out!" she muttered with professional pride and enthusiasm as
+the signal for the raising of the curtain was given. "Mebby I'd orter
+give up my seat so as they could sell it."
+
+There was a moment's conflict between the little scrubber's conscience
+and her newly awakened desires.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to, though," she decided. And having so determined, she
+gave her conscience a shove to the remotest background, yielding herself
+to the full enjoyment of the play.
+
+The rehearsal had been inspiring and awakening, but this, "the real
+thing," as Amarilly appraised it, bore her into a land of enchantment.
+She was blind and deaf to everything except the scenes enacted on the
+stage. Only once was her passionate attention distracted, and that was
+when Pete in passing gave her an emphatic nudge and a friendly grin as
+he munificently bestowed upon her a package of gum. This she instantly
+pocketed "fer the chillern."
+
+At the close of the performance Amarilly sailed home on waves of
+excitement. She was the eldest of the House of Jenkins, whose scions,
+numbering eight, were all wage-earners save Iry, the baby. After school
+hours Flamingus was a district messenger, Gus milked the grocer's cow,
+Milton worked in a shoe-shining establishment, Bobby and Bud had paper
+routes, while Cory, commonly called "Co," wiped dishes at a boarding-
+house. Notwithstanding all these contributions to the family revenue, it
+became a sore struggle for the widow of Americanus Jenkins to feed and
+clothe such a numerous brood, so she sought further means of
+maintenance.
+
+"I've took a boarder!" she announced solemnly to Amarilly on her return
+from the theatre. "He's a switchman and I'm agoin' to fix up the attic
+fer him. I don't jest see how we air agoin' to manage about feedin' him.
+Thar's no room to the table now, and thar ain't dishes enough to go
+around, but you're so contrivin' like, I thought you might find out a
+way." Memories of the footlights were temporarily banished upon hearing
+this wonderful intelligence. A puzzled pucker came between the brows of
+the little would-be prima donna and remained there until at last the
+exigency was triumphantly met.
+
+"I hev it, ma! When's he comin'?"
+
+"To-morrer fer breakfast."
+
+"Then we must rayhearse to-night afore we kin put it on right. Come, all
+you-uns, to the kitchen table."
+
+The Jenkins children, accustomed to the vernacular of the profession,
+were eager to participate in a rehearsal, and they scampered
+boisterously to the kitchen precincts. Amarilly, as stage director,
+provided seats at the table for herself, her mother, Flamingus, Gus, the
+baby, and the Boarder, the long-suffering, many-rôled family cat
+personating the latter as understudy. Behind their chairs, save those
+occupied by the Boarder and the baby, were stationed Milton, Bobby, Bud,
+and Cory. This outer row, Amarilly explained, was to be fed from the
+plates of their elders with food convenient as was Elijah by the
+Scriptural ravens. This plan lifted the strain from the limited table
+appointments, but met with opposition from the outpost who rebelled
+against their stations.
+
+"I ain't agoin' to stand behind Flam or Gus," growled Milton. "I won't
+stand no show fer grub at all."
+
+"I ain't, neither," and "Nit fer me!" chorused the near twins, Bobby and
+Bud.
+
+"I want to set at the table and eat like folks!" sobbed Cory.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins advocated immediate surrender, but the diplomatic little
+general, whose policy was pacification, in shrill, appealing voice
+reassured and wheedled the young mutineers back into the ranks.
+
+"It's the only way we can take a boarder," she persuaded, "and if we git
+him, we'll hev more to eat than jest hot pertaters and bread and gravy.
+Thar'll be meat, fresh or hotted up, onct a day, and pie on Sundays."
+
+The deserters to a man returned from their ignominious retreat.
+
+"Now, Co, you stand behind me, and when you git tired, you kin set on
+half my chair. Milt, git behind ma, and Bud and Bobby, stand back of
+Flamingus and Gus. If they don't divvy up even they'll hev to change
+places with you. Now, to places!" This conciliatory arrangement proving
+satisfactory, supper was served on the new plan with numerous directions
+and admonitions from Amarilly.
+
+"No self-helpin's, Milt. Bud, if you knock Flammy's elbow, he needn't
+give you anything to eat. Bobby, if you swipe another bite from Gus,
+I'll spank you. Co, quit yer self-reachin's! Flammy, you hev got to pass
+everything to the Boarder fust. Now, every meal that I don't hev to
+speak to one of youse in the back row, youse kin hev merlasses spread on
+yer bread."
+
+The rehearsal supper finished and the kitchen "red up," Amarilly's
+thoughts again took flight and in fancy she winged her way toward a
+glorious future amid the glow and glamor of the footlights. To the
+attentive family, who hung in an ecstasy of approval on her vivid
+portrayal, she graphically described the play she had witnessed, and
+then dramatically announced her intention of going on the stage when she
+grew up.
+
+"You kin do it fine, Amarilly," said the mother admiringly.
+
+"And we-uns kin git in free!" cried Bobby jubilantly. In the morning the
+Boarder, a pleasant-voiced, quiet-faced man with a look of kindliness
+about his eyes and mouth, made his entrance into the family circle. He
+commended the table arrangements, praised the coffee, and formed
+instantaneous friendships with the children. All the difficulties of the
+cuisine having been smoothed over or victoriously met, Amarilly went to
+the theatre with a lightened heart. When Mr. Vedder came up to her and
+asked how she had enjoyed the performance, she felt emboldened to
+confide to him her professional aspirations.
+
+The young ticket-seller did not smile. There was nothing about this
+diligent, ill-fed, little worker that appealed to his sense of humor.
+
+"It will be a long time yet, Amarilly, before you can go on the stage,"
+he counselled. "Besides, you know the first thing you must have is an
+education."
+
+Amarilly sighed hopelessly.
+
+"I can't git to go to school till the boys hev more larnin'. I hev to
+work here mornin's and help ma with the washin's in the arternoon.
+Mebby, arter a little, I kin git into some night-school." A stage-hand
+working near by overheard this conversation and displayed instant
+interest in the subject of Amarilly's schooling.
+
+"Couldn't you git off Saturday arternoons?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I could do that," assured Amarilly eagerly. "Is thar a Saturday
+arternoon school?"
+
+"Yes," replied the man. "There is a church guild, St. Mark's, that has a
+school. My little gal goes. She larns sewin' and singin' and waitin' on
+table and such like. You'd better go with her to-morrow."
+
+"I kin sew now," said Amarilly, repeating this conversation to the
+family circle that night, "and I'd like to sing, fer of course I'll hev
+to when I'm on the stage, but I git enough waitin' on table to hum. I'd
+ruther larn to read better fust of all."
+
+"I ain't much of a scholar," observed the Boarder modestly, "but I can
+learn you readin', writin', and spellin' some, and figgerin' too. I'll
+give you lessons evenin's."
+
+"We'll begin now!" cried the little tyro enthusiastically.
+
+The Boarder approved this promptness, and that night gave the first
+lesson from Flamingus's schoolbooks.
+
+The next morning Amarilly proudly informed the ticket-seller that her
+education had begun. She was consequently rather lukewarm in regard to
+the Guild school proposition, but the little daughter of the stagehand
+pictured the school and her teacher in most enticing fashion.
+
+"You kin be in our class," she coaxed persuasively. "We hev a new
+teacher. She's a real swell and wears a diamon' ring and her hair is
+more yaller than the wig what the play lady wears. She bed us up to her
+house to a supper last week, and thar was velvit carpits and ice-cream
+and lots of cake but no pie."
+
+Amarilly's curiosity was aroused, and her red, roughened hand firmly
+grasped the confiding one of her little companion as she permitted
+herself to be led to the Guild school.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The teacher at the Guild was even more beautiful than Amarilly's fancy,
+fed by the little girl's vivid description, had pictured.
+
+"Her hair ain't boughten," decided the keen-eyed critic as she gazed
+adoringly at the golden braids crowning the small head. The color of her
+eyes was open to speculation; when they had changed from gray to green,
+from green to hazel, and from hazel to purple, Amarilly gave up the
+enigma. The color of her complexion changed, too, in the varying tints
+of peaches.
+
+"I do b'lieve she ain't got no make-up on," declared Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+The little daughter of the stage-hand had not overappraised the diamond.
+It shone resplendent on a slender, shapely hand.
+
+"Miss King, I've brung a new scholar," introduced the little girl
+importantly. "She's Amarilly."
+
+As she glanced at her new pupil, the young teacher's eyes brightened
+with spontaneous interest, and a welcoming smile parted her lips.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Amarilly. Here's a nice little pile of blue carpet
+rags to sew and make into a ball. When you have made a lot of balls I'll
+have them woven into a pretty blue rug for you to take home and keep."
+
+"For the Boarder's room!" thought Amarilly joyously, as she went at her
+work with the avidity that marked all her undertakings.
+
+Presently a small seamstress asked for instruction as to the proper
+method of putting the strips together. The fair face of the young
+teacher became clouded for a moment, and she was unmistakably confused.
+Her wavering, dubious glance fell upon Amarilly sitting tense and
+upright as she made quick, forceful, and effective stabs with her
+needle, biting her thread vigorously and resonantly. The stitches were
+microscopic and even; the strips symmetrically and neatly joined.
+
+The teacher's face cleared as she saw and seized her avenue of escape.
+
+"You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work and sew the strips
+just as she does. Hers are perfect."
+
+[Illustration: "You may all," she directed, "look at Amarilly's work."]
+
+Amarilly's wan little face brightened, and she proceeded to show the
+children how to sew, bringing the same ease and effectiveness into her
+tutoring that she displayed when instructing her brothers and Cory.
+
+The sewing lesson continued for an hour. Then the children sang songs to
+a piano accompaniment, and there followed a lesson in cooking and the
+proper setting of a table. All this instruction was succeeded by an
+informal chat.
+
+"I want you all to tell me what you are going to do when you grow to be
+women," said Miss King.
+
+In most cases the occupations of their parents were chosen, and the
+number of washerwomen, scrubbers, and seamstresses in embryo was
+appalling.
+
+"And you, Amarilly?" she asked, addressing the new pupil last of all.
+
+Amarilly's mien was lofty, her voice consequential, as she replied in
+dramatic dénouement:
+
+"I'm goin' on the stage!"
+
+The young teacher evinced a most eager interest in this declaration.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly! We all have a stage-longing period. When did you first
+think of such a career?"
+
+"I'm in the perfesshun now," replied Amarilly pompously.
+
+"Really! Tell me what you do, Amarilly."
+
+"I scrub at the Barlow Theatre, and I went to the matinee day afore
+yisterday. I hed a pass give to me."
+
+These statements made such a visible impression on her audience that
+Amarilly waxed eloquent and proceeded to describe the play, warming to
+her work as she gained confidence. The gestures of Lord Algernon and the
+leading lady were reproduced freely, fearlessly, and faithfully.
+
+With a glimmer of mischief dancing in her eyes, the young teacher
+listened appreciatively but apprehensively as she noted the amazed
+expression on the faces of the teachers of adjacent classes when
+Amarilly's treble tones were wafted toward them. Fortunately, the
+realistic rendering of Lord Algernon's declaration of love was
+interrupted by the accompaniment to a song, which was followed by the
+dismissal of the school.
+
+"Kin I take my strips home to sew on?" asked Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Miss King. "That is not permitted."
+
+Seeing the look of disappointment in the child's eyes, she asked in
+kindly tone:
+
+"Why are you in such a hurry to finish the work, Amarilly?"
+
+"We've took a Boarder," explained Amarilly, "and I want the rug fer his
+room. It'll take an orful long time to git it done if I only work on it
+an hour onct a week. He's so good to me, I want to do something to make
+his room look neat, so he'll feel to hum."
+
+The young teacher reflected a moment.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do, Amarilly. I will buy one of the rugs that
+are to be on sale at the church fair this week. They have some very nice
+large ones. I will give it to you, and when yours is finished you may
+give it to me in return."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" cried Amarilly, her countenance brightening, "But won't
+you need it afore I kin git this one done?"
+
+"No; I am sure I shall not," replied the young lady gravely.
+
+When they left the building the teacher paused as she was about to step
+into her electric brougham. "Where do you live, Amarilly?"
+
+Amarilly gave her street and number.
+
+"You must live farther away than any of the other children. Get in,
+dear; I will take you home."
+
+She had opened the door as she spoke, and the little scrubber's eyes
+were dazzled by the elegance of the appointments--a silver vase filled
+with violets, a silver card-case, and--but Amarilly resolutely shut her
+eyes upon this proffered grandeur and turned to the lean but longing
+little daughter of the stage-hand.
+
+"You see, I come with her," she explained simply and loyally.
+
+"There is room for you both. Myrtie can sit on this little seat."
+
+Overawed by the splendor of her environment, Amarilly held her breath as
+they glided swiftly through the streets. There was other glory, it
+seemed, than that of the footlights. When the happy little Myrtle had
+been left at her humble home the young teacher turned with eager
+anticipation to Amarilly.
+
+"Tell me more about yourself, Amarilly. First of all, who is the
+Boarder?"
+
+Amarilly explained their affairs, even to the "double-decker diner," as
+the Boarder had called the table arrangement.
+
+"And what has he done for you, Amarilly, that you are so anxious he
+should have a rug?"
+
+"He's larnin' me readin', writin', spellin', and figgers."
+
+"Don't you go to school?"
+
+"No; I hev to bring in wages and help ma with the washin's."
+
+"I'll teach you, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I'm sure I'm more
+proficient in those branches than the Boarder."
+
+"He sez," admitted Amarilly, "that it won't take him long to larn me all
+he knows; but you see--" She spoke with delicate hesitancy and evident
+embarrassment. "It's orful good in you to want to larn me--but he might
+feel hurt-like if I was to quit him."
+
+"You are right, Amarilly. You are a loyal little girl. But I tell you
+what we will do about it. When you have learned all that the Boarder
+feels he can teach you, you shall go to night-school. There is one in
+connection with St. Mark's. I will see that you enter there."
+
+"I didn't know thar was one fer girls," said Amarilly. "I'm glad thar's
+a way fer me to git eddicated, fer I must hev larnin' afore I kin go on
+the stage. Mr. Vedder, the ticket-seller to Barlow's, told me so."
+
+"Amarilly,"--and an earnest note crept into the gay, young voice--"you
+may find things that you will like to do more than to go on the stage."
+
+"No!" asserted the youthful aspirant, "Thar ain't nuthin' else I'd like
+so well."
+
+"Amarilly, I am going to tell you something. Once, not long ago, I had
+the stage fever, but I think I know now there is something--something I
+should like better."
+
+"What?" queried Amarilly skeptically.
+
+"I can't tell you now, but you have a long time yet in which to decide
+your future. Tell me what I can do to help your mother."
+
+"If you could git us more washin's," exclaimed Amarilly eagerly, "it
+would help heaps. We could take in lots more than we do now."
+
+"Let me think. You see we keep a laundress; but--does your mother do up
+very fine things--like laces--carefully?"
+
+"She does," replied Amarilly glibly. "She kin do 'em orful keerful, and
+we dry the colored stuffs in the shade. And our clo'es come out snow-
+white allers, and we never tears laces nor git in too much bluin' or
+starch the way some folks does."
+
+"Then I'll give you my address and you can come for my fine waists; and
+let me see, I am sure I can get St. Mark's laundry work for you, too."
+
+"You're orful good, Miss King. This is where we hev to turn down this
+'ere court."
+
+The "court" appeared to Miss King more like an alley. The advent of the
+brougham in the little narrow right-of-way filled every window with
+hawk-eyed observers. About the Jenkins's doorstep was grouped the entire
+household from the Boarder to the baby, and the light, musical voices of
+children floating through the soft spring air fell pleasantly upon the
+ears of the young settlement worker.
+
+"So this is where you live, Amarilly?" she asked, her eyes sparkling as
+she focussed them on the family. "You needn't come for the washing the
+first time. I will bring it myself so I can see all your little
+brothers. Be sure to come to the Guild next Saturday, and then I'll have
+the rug for you to take home. Goodbye, dear."
+
+Knowing that she was observed by myriad eyes, Amarilly stepped loftily
+from the brougham and made a sweeping stage courtesy to her departing
+benefactress.
+
+"Are you on the stage now, Amarilly?" asked Co eagerly as she came to
+meet her sister.
+
+"No; but she," with a wave of her hand toward the swiftly gliding
+electric, "is agoin to help me git eddicated, and she has give me a
+beautiful rug fer the Boarder, and we're agoin' to hev her waists to
+wash, and Mr. St. Mark's clo'es, and she told all the scholars to sew
+like me 'cause' I sewed the best, and I've larned how to set our table.
+We mustn't stack up the knife and fork and spoon on ends any more. The
+knife goes to the right, the fork to the left of the plate, and the
+spoon goes back of it and the tumbler and the napkin, when you has 'em,
+to the right."
+
+"I do declare, Amarilly, if it ain't jest like a fairy story!" cried
+Mrs. Jenkins enthusiastically. "You allers did strike luck."
+
+"You bet!" cried Bobby admiringly. "Things go some where Amarilly is."
+
+Amarilly was happier even than she had been on the night of the eventful
+matinée day. The electric brougham had seemed a veritable fairy
+godmother's coach to her. But it was not the ride that stood uppermost
+in her memory as she lay awake far into the night; it was the little
+word of endearment uttered in caressing cadence.
+
+"No one ain't ever called me that afore," she murmured wistfully. "I
+s'pose ma ain't hed time, and thar was no one else to keer."
+
+Impulsively and tenderly her thin little arm encircled the baby sleeping
+beside her.
+
+"Dear!" she whispered in an awed tone. "Dear!"
+
+Iry answered with a sleepy, cooing note.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Colette King was not one whom the voice of the people of St. Mark's
+would proclaim as the personification of their ideal of a pastor's wife,
+yet John Meredith loved her with the love that passeth all
+understanding. Perhaps the secret of her charm for him lay in the fact
+that she treated him as she did other men--men who did not wear a
+surplice. And yet his surplice and all that pertained thereto were
+matters of great moment to the rector of St. Mark's. Little traces of
+his individuality were evident in the fashioning of this clerical
+garment. A pocket for his handkerchief was stitched on the left side.
+
+The flowers, the baptismal font, the altar cloth, and the robes of the
+vested choir he insisted should be immaculate in whiteness. White, the
+color of the lily, he declared, was the emblem of purity. There were
+members of his flock so worldly minded as to whisper insinuatingly that
+white was extremely becoming to Colette King. Many washerwomen had
+applied for the task of laundering the ecclesiastical linen; many had
+been tried and found wanting. So after her interview with Amarilly,
+Colette asked the rector of St. Mark's to call at her house "on
+important business."
+
+From the time he was ten years old until he became rector of St. Mark's,
+John Meredith had been a member of the household of his guardian, Henry
+King, and had ever cheerfully and gladly borne with the caprices of the
+little Colette.
+
+He answered the present summons promptly and palpitatingly. It had been
+two weeks since he had remonstrated with Colette for the surprisingly
+sudden announcement, made in seeming seriousness, that she was going to
+study opera with a view to going on the stage. The fact that she had a
+light, sweet soprano adapted only to the rendition of drawing-room
+ballads did not lessen in his eyes the probability of her carrying out
+this resolve.
+
+She had met his reproving expostulations in a spirit of bantering
+raillery and replied with a defiance of his opinion that had pierced his
+heart with arrow-like swiftness. Since then she had studiously avoided
+meeting him, and he was not sure whether he was now recalled to listen
+to a reiteration of her intentions or to receive an anodyne for the
+bitterness of her remarks at their last interview.
+
+"I sent for you, John," she said demurely and without preamble, "to see
+if you have found a satisfactory laundress yet for the surplices."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed in rebuking tone, his face reddening at her
+question which he supposed to be made in mere mockery.
+
+"I am not speaking to you as Colette King," she replied with a look half
+cajoling, half flippant, "but as a teacher in the Young Woman's
+Auxiliary Guild to the rector of St. Mark's. You see I no longer lead a
+foolish, futile life. Here is the evidence in the case," holding up a
+slender pink forefinger. "See how it is pricked! For three Saturday
+afternoons I have shown little girls that smelled of fried potatoes how
+to sew. I shall really learn something myself about the feminine art of
+needlework if I continue in my present straight, domestic path."
+
+"Colette, you cannot know how glad I am to hear this. Why did you try to
+make me think the laundry work was--"
+
+"But the laundry work _is_ the main issue. Yesterday I had quite decided
+to give up this uninteresting work."
+
+Watching him warily, she let the shadow in his eyes linger a moment
+before she continued:
+
+"And then there came into my class a new pupil, poorly clad and
+ignorant, but so redolent of soapsuds and with such a freshly laundered
+look that I renewed my inclinations to charity. I took her home in my
+electric, and she lived at a distance that gave me ample time to listen
+to the complete chronicles of her young life. Her father is dead. Her
+mother was left with eight children whom she supports by taking in
+washing. They have a boarder and they go around the dining-room table
+twice. My new pupil's name is Amarilly Jenkins, and she has educational
+longings which cannot be satisfied because she has to work, so I am
+going to enter her in St. Mark's night-school when she has finished a
+special course with the private tutor she now has."
+
+"Colette," said the young minister earnestly, "why do you continually
+try to show yourself to me in a false light? It was sweet in you to take
+this little girl home in your brougham and to feel an interest in her
+improvement."
+
+"Not at all!" protested Colette. "My trend at present may appear to be
+charitable, but Amarilly and I have a common interest--a fellow
+feeling--that makes me wondrous kind. We both have longings to appear in
+public on the stage."
+
+At this sudden challenge, this second lowering of the red flag, John's
+face grew stern.
+
+"Amarilly," continued the liquid voice,--"has had more experience in
+stage life than I have had. She has commenced at the lowest round of the
+dramatic ladder of fame. She scrubs at the Barlow Theatre, and she is
+quite familiar with stage lore. Her hero is the man who plays the role
+of Lord Algernon in _A Terrible Trial_."
+
+He made no reply, and Colette presently broke the silence.
+
+"Seriously, John," she said practically and in a tone far different from
+her former one, "the Jenkins family are poor and most deserving. I am
+going to give them some work, and if you would give them a trial on the
+church linen, it would help them so much. There was a regular army of
+little children on the doorstep, and it must be a struggle to feed them
+all. I should like to help them--to give them something--but they seem
+to be the kind of people that you can help only by giving them work to
+perform. I have learned that true independence is found only among the
+poor."
+
+John took a little notebook from his pocket.
+
+"What is their address, Colette?"
+
+She took the book from him and wrote down the street and number.
+
+"Colette, you endeavor to conceal a tender heart--"
+
+"And will you give them--Mrs. Jenkins--a trial?"
+
+"Yes; this week."
+
+"That will make Amarilly so happy," she said, brightening. "I am going
+there to-morrow to take them some work, and I will tell Mrs. Jenkins to
+send Flamingus--his is the only name of the brood that my memory
+retains--for the church laundry."
+
+"He may call at the rectory," replied John, "and get the house laundry
+as well."
+
+"That will be good news for them. I shall enjoy watching Amarilly's face
+when she hears it."
+
+"And now, Colette, will you do something for me?"
+
+"Maybe. What is it?" she asked guardedly.
+
+"Will you abandon the idea of going on the stage, or studying for that
+purpose?"
+
+"Perforce. Father won't consent."
+
+A look of relief drove the trouble from the dark eyes fixed on hers.
+
+"I'll be twenty-one in a year, however," she added carelessly.
+
+John was wise enough to perceive the wilfulness that prompted this
+reply, and he deftly changed the subject of conversation.
+
+"About this little girl, Amarilly. We must find her something in the way
+of employment. The atmosphere of a theatre isn't the proper one for a
+child of that age. Do you think so?"
+
+"Theoretically, no; but Amarilly is not impressionable to atmosphere
+altogether. She seems a hard-working, staunch little soul, and all that
+relieves the sordidness of her life and lightens the dreariness of her
+work is the 'theayter,' as she calls it. So don't destroy her illusions,
+John. You'll do her more harm than good."
+
+"Not if I give her something real in the place of what you rightly term
+her illusions."
+
+"You can't. Sunday-school would not satisfy a broad-minded little
+proletarian like Amarilly, so don't preach to _her_."
+
+He winced perceptibly.
+
+"Do I preach to _you_, Colette? Is that how you regard me--as a prosy
+preacher who--"
+
+"No, John. Just as a disturber of dreams--that is all."
+
+"A disturber of dreams?" he repeated wistfully. "It is you, Colette, who
+are a disturber of dreams. If you would only let my dreams become
+realities!"
+
+"Then, to be paradoxical, your realities might change back to dreams, or
+even nightmares. Returning to soapsuds and Amarilly Jenkins, will you go
+there with me to-morrow and make arrangements with Mrs. Jenkins for the
+laundry work?"
+
+"Indeed I will, Colette, and--"
+
+"Don't look so serious, John. Until that dreadful evening, the last time
+you called, you always left your pulpit punctilio behind you when you
+came here."
+
+"Colette!" he began in protest.
+
+But she perversely refused to fall in with his serious vein. Chattering
+gayly yet half-defiantly, on her face the while a baffling smile, partly
+tender, partly amused, and wholly coquettish--the smile that maddened
+and yet entranced him--she brought the mask of reserve to his face and
+man. At such times he never succeeded in remembering that she was but
+little more than a child, heart-free, capricious, and wilful. Despairing
+of changing her mood to the serious one that he loved yet so seldom
+evoked, he arose and bade her good-night.
+
+When he was in the hall she softly called him back, meeting him with a
+half-penitent look in her eyes, which had suddenly become gazelle-like.
+
+"You may preach to me again some time, John. There are moments when I
+believe I like it, because no other man dares to do it" "Dares?" he
+queried with a smile.
+
+"Yes; dares. They all fear to offend. And you, John, you fear nothing!"
+
+"Yes, I do," he answered gravely, as he looked down upon her. "There is
+one thing I fear that makes me tremble, Colette."
+
+But her mood had again changed, and with a mischievous, elusive smile
+she bade him go. Inert and musing, he wandered at random through the
+lights and shadows of the city streets, with a wistful look in his eyes
+and just the shadow of a pang in his heart.
+
+"She is very young," he said condoningly, answering an accusing thought.
+"She has been a little spoiled, naturally. She has seen life only from
+the side that amuses and entertains. Some day, when she realizes, as it
+comes to us all to do, that care and sorrow bring their own sustaining
+power, she will not dally among the petty things of life; the wilful
+waywardness will turn to winning womanliness."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The next afternoon when Amarilly came home from the theatre, her mother
+met her with another burst of information.
+
+"Miss King and the preacher was here. He's agoin' to give us all the
+church surpluses to wash and his house-wash, too. Flamingus is to go fer
+them to the rectry to-night, and you're to go to Miss King's and get the
+waists she has to be did up. She left two car tickets fer you."
+
+"We air jest astubbin' our toes on luck," gasped Amarilly.
+
+"The fust pay from the new washin's shall go fer a new hat and dress fer
+you, Amarilly. It's acomin' to you all right. 'Twas you as got this work
+fer us."
+
+"No!" was the emphatic reply. "We'll git some more cheers, knives,
+spoons, plates, cups, and two more leaves fer the table, so's the
+chillern kin all set to table to onct."
+
+"That'll be a hull lot more convenient," admitted Mrs. Jenkins
+hopefully. "Co spills things so, and the boys quarrel when you and the
+Boarder ain't here to keep peace. It was jest orful this noon. You
+wasn't here and the Boarder kerried his dinner. 'Cause Flam put too much
+vinegar on Milt's beans, Milt poured it down Flam's neck, and when I
+sent him away from the table he sassed me."
+
+"Jiminy!" protested Amarilly indignantly. "I'd make Milt go without his
+supper to-night."
+
+"'Tain't his stummick I'm agoin' to punish," said Mrs. Jenkins
+sarcastically. "I've laid by a willer switch that'll feel sharper than
+the vinegar he wasted. You'd better go to Miss King's right away--and,
+Amarilly, mind you ride both ways. It's too far to walk. Don't you sell
+the tickets!"
+
+This last prohibitory remark was made in remembrance of Amarilly's
+commercial instincts.
+
+When Amarilly was admitted to the basement of her young benefactress's
+home a trimly-capped little maid took her to Colette's boudoir.
+
+"Sit down and talk to me, Amarilly. I want to hear more about Lord
+Algernon and Mr. Vedder and Pete. Here's a box of chocolate creams that
+must be eaten while they are fresh."
+
+Amarilly was slightly awed at first by the luxurious appointments of the
+room, but she soon recovered her ease and devoured the novel sweets with
+appreciative avidity. Then she proved herself a fascinating raconteur of
+the annals of a world unknown to Colette. It was a matter of course to
+Amarilly that the leading lady should be supporting an invalid sister;
+that the languid Lord Algernon should be sending his savings to his old
+mother who lived in the country; that the understudy should sew
+industriously through rehearsals and behind the scenes between parts for
+her two little fatherless girls; that Pete Noyes should "bank" to buy a
+wheeled chair for his rheumatic father; that the villain was "layin' by"
+for his parents to come from the Fatherland, and that the company should
+all chip in to send the property woman's sick child to the seashore. But
+to Colette the homely little stories were vignettes of another side of
+life.
+
+"Have you been to the rectory yet, Amarilly?" she asked presently, when
+Amarilly's memories of stage life lagged.
+
+"No; Flammy has went fer Mr. St. Mark's things."
+
+"Mr. St. Mark's!"
+
+Colette laughed delightedly.
+
+"I thought you told me that the preacher's name was Mr. St. Marks. You
+said mebby you could git his wash fer us."
+
+"No, Amarilly. I did not mean that. St. Mark's is the name of the church
+where he officiates. He could never under any conditions be a St. Mark."
+
+"Wat's his name?"
+
+"St. John, of course. And most people call him a rector, but really your
+name suits him best. He does preach--sometimes--to me."
+
+At the end of the week Colette again sent for John--to call "on laundry
+business"--her little note read.
+
+"I couldn't wait," she said when he came, "to learn how Mrs. Jenkins
+pleased you. My waists were most beautifully laundered. She is certainly
+a Madonna of the Tubs."
+
+"You have indeed secured a treasure for me, Colette. The linen is
+immaculate, and she shall have the laundering of it regularly."
+
+"I am so glad!" exclaimed Colette fervently. "They need it so much, and
+they are so anxious to please. Amarilly was so apprehensive--"
+
+John's face had become radiant.
+
+"It is sweet in you to be interested, Colette, and--"
+
+"I wish you would see her," said Colette, ignoring his commendatory
+words and voice. "She's an odd little character. I invited her to
+luncheon the other day, and the courses and silver never disturbed her
+apparently. She watched me closely, however, and followed my moves as
+precisely as a second oarsman. By the way, she called you St. Mark. I
+know some people consider you and St. Mark's as synonymous, but I
+explained the difference. She tells me absorbingly interesting stories
+of theatre life--the life behind the scenes. You see the 'scent of the
+roses,' John!"
+
+The shadow fell again, but he made no response.
+
+The following Monday the young minister chanced to be in the culinary
+precincts of the rectory when Amarilly called for the laundry, none of
+the boys having been available for the service.
+
+An instant gleam of recognition came into his kindly eyes.
+
+"You must be Amarilly Jenkins. I have heard very good accounts of you--
+that you are industrious and a great help to your mother."
+
+Amarilly looked at him shrewdly.
+
+"_She_ told you," she affirmed positively.
+
+There was but one "she" in the world of these two, and John Meredith
+naturally comprehended.
+
+"She's orful good to us," continued Amarilly, "and it was through her,
+Mr. St. John, that we got the surpluses."
+
+"It was, indeed, Amarilly; but my name is not St. John. It is John
+Meredith."
+
+"She was jest kiddin' me, then!" deduced Amarilly appreciatively. "I
+thought at fust as how yer name was St. Mark, and she said you could
+never be a St. Mark, that you was St. John. She likes a joke. Mr.
+Reeves-Eggleston (he's playin' the part of the jilted man in the new
+play this week) says it's either folks as never hez hed their troubles
+or them as hez hed more'n their share what laughs at everything, only,
+he says, it's diffrent kinds of laughs."
+
+The reference to the play reminded John of a duty to perform.
+
+"Miss King told me, Amarilly, that you want to go on the stage when you
+grow up."
+
+"I did plan to go on, but she said when I got eddicated, I might hear of
+other things to do--things I'd like better. So mebby I'll change my
+mind."
+
+A beautiful smile lightened John's dark eyes.
+
+"She, was right, Amarilly. There _are_ things that would be better for
+you to do, and I--we--will try to help you find them."
+
+"Every one gits the stage fever some time," remarked Amarilly
+philosophically, "She said so. She said she had it once herself, but
+she knew now that there was something she would like better."
+
+His smile grew softer.
+
+"She wouldn't tell me what it was," continued Amarilly musingly. Then a
+troubled look came into her eyes.
+
+"Mebby I shouldn't tell you what she says. Flamingus says I talk too
+much."
+
+"It was all right to tell me, Amarilly," he replied with radiant eyes,
+"as long as she said nothing personal."
+
+Amarilly looked mystified.
+
+"I mean," he explained gently, "that she said nothing of me, nothing
+that you should not repeat. I am glad, though, to see that you are
+conscientious. Miss King tells me you are to go to the night-school. Do
+you attend Sunday-school?"
+
+Amarilly looked apologetic.
+
+"Not reg'lar. Thar's a meetin'-house down near us that we go to
+sometimes. Flamingus and me and Gus give a nickel apiece towards gittin'
+a malodeyon fer it, but it squeaks orful. 'Tain't much like the
+orchestry to the theayter. And then the preacher he whistles every time
+he says a word that has an 's' in it. You'd orter hear him say: 'Let us
+sing the seventy-seventh psalm.'"
+
+At the succession of the sibilant sounds, John's brown eyes twinkled
+brightly, and about his mouth came crinkly, telltale creases of humor.
+
+"And they sing such lonesome tunes," continued Amarilly, "slower than
+the one the old cow died on. I was tellin' the stage maniger about it,
+and he said they'd orter git a man to run the meetin'-houses that
+understood the proper settin's. Everything, he says, is more'n half in
+the settin's."
+
+"Amarilly," was the earnest response, "will you come to St. Mark's next
+Sunday to the morning service? The music will please you, I am sure, and
+there are other things I should like to have you hear."
+
+Amarilly solemnly accepted this invitation, and then went home,
+trundling a big cart which contained the surplices and the rectory
+laundry.
+
+Colette's remarks, so innocently repeated to him, made John take himself
+to task.
+
+"I knew," he thought rapturously, "that she was pure gold at heart. And
+it is only her sweet willfulness that is hiding it from me."
+
+That evening he found Colette sitting before an open fire in the
+library, her slender little feet crossed before the glowing blaze. She
+was in a gentle, musing mood, but at his entrance she instantly rallied
+to her old mirth-loving spirit.
+
+"I have made Amarilly's acquaintance," he said. "She is coming to church
+next Sunday."
+
+"A convert already! And you will try to snatch poor Amarilly, too, from
+her footlight dreams?"
+
+"Colette," he replied firmly, "you can't play a part with me any longer.
+You, the real Colette, made it unnecessary for me to remonstrate with
+Amarilly on her choice of professions. She is wavering because of your
+assurance that there are better things in life for her to engage in."
+
+He was not very tall, but stood straight and stalwart, with the air of
+one born to command. At times he seemed to tower above all others.
+
+She regarded him with an admiring look which changed to wonder at what
+she read in his eyes. In a flash she felt the strength and depth of his
+feeling, but her searching scrutiny caused him to become tongue-tied,
+and he assumed the self-conscious mien peculiar to the man not yet
+assured that his love is returned. Once more a golden moment slipped
+away with elfish elusiveness, and Colette, secure in her supremacy,
+resumed her tantalizing badinage.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+The Jenkins family was immediately summoned in council to discuss
+Amarilly's invitation to attend divine service at St. Mark's.
+
+"You air jest more'n hevin' advantages," said Mrs. Jenkins exultingly.
+"Fust the matinée, then the Guild, and now St. Mark's is open to you.
+But you'd orter hev a few fixin's to go to sech a grand place,
+Amarilly."
+
+Amarilly shook her determined little head resolutely.
+
+"We can't afford it," she said decisively. "I'd stay to hum afore I'd
+spend anything on extrys now when we're aketchin' up and layin' by."
+
+"'Twould be good bookkeepin' fer you ter go," spoke up Flamingus. "You
+see the preacher's givin' us his business, and we'd orter return the
+favor and patrynize his church. You've gotter hustle to hold trade arter
+you git it these days. It's up to you ter go, Amarilly." Mrs. Jenkins
+looked proudly at her eldest male offspring.
+
+"I declare, Flamingus, you've got a real business head on you jest like
+your pa hed. He's right, Amarilly. 'Twouldn't be treating Mr. Meredith
+fair not ter go, and it's due him that you go right, so he won't be
+ashamed of you. I'll rig you up some way."
+
+The costuming of Amarilly in a manner befitting the great occasion was
+an all-absorbing affair for the next few days. Finally, by the
+combination of Mrs. Jenkins's industry and Amarilly's ingenuity, aided
+by the Boarder and the boys, an elaborate toilet was devised and
+executed. Milton donated a "shine" to a pair of tan shoes, the gift of
+the girl "what took a minor part." Mrs. Jenkins looked a little askance
+at the "best skirt" of blue which had shrunk from repeated washings to a
+near-knee length, but Amarilly assured her that it was not as short as
+the skirts worn by the ballet girls. She cut up two old blouses and
+fashioned a new, bi-colored waist bedizened with gilt buttons. The
+Boarder presented a resplendent buckle, and Flamingus provided a gawdy
+hair-ribbon.
+
+The hat was the chief difficulty. On week days she wore none, but of
+course St. Mark's demanded a headgear of some kind, and at last Mrs.
+Jenkins triumphantly produced one of Tam o' Shanter shape manufactured
+from a lamp mat and adorned with some roses bestowed by the leading
+lady. The belligerent locks of the little scrub-girl refused to respond
+to advances from curling iron or papers, but one of the neighbors whose
+hair was a second cousin in hue to Amarilly's amber tresses, loaned some
+frizzes, which were sewed to the brim of the new hat. The problem of
+hand covering was solved by Mr. Vedder, as a pair of orange-tinted
+gloves had been turned in at the box-office by an usher, and had
+remained unclaimed. They proved a perfect fit, and were the supreme
+triumph of the bizarre costume.
+
+Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed in splendor greater than
+that displayed by Amarilly when she set forth on Sunday morning for St.
+Mark's. Promptness was ever Amarilly's chief characteristic, and she
+arrived long in advance of the ushers. This gave her an opportunity to
+sample several pews before finally selecting one whose usual occupants,
+fortunately, were out of the city.
+
+The vastness and stillness of the edifice, disturbed now and then by
+silken rustle and soft-shod foot were bewildering to Amarilly. She
+experienced a slight depression until the vibrating tones of the organ
+fell softly upon the air. The harmony grew more subdued, ceased, and was
+succeeded by another moment of solemn silence. Then a procession of
+white-robed choristers came down the aisle, their well-trained voices
+ringing out in carolling cadence.
+
+"Them's the chorus," thought Amarilly.
+
+Entranced, she listened to the service, sitting upright and very still.
+The spiritual significance of the music, the massing of foliage and
+flowers in the chancel, the white altars with their many lighted
+candles, were very impressive to the little wide-eyed worshipper.
+
+"Their settin's is all right," she said to herself critically, "and it
+ain't like the theayter. It's--"
+
+A sudden revealing light penetrated the shadows of her little being.
+
+"This is the real thing!" she acknowledged.
+
+There was only one disappointment to mar the perfection. She felt quite
+aggrieved that Mr. Meredith--or Mr. St. John as she still called him in
+her thoughts--did not "come on" in the first act.
+
+"Mebby he don't hev the leadin' part to-day," she thought
+disappointedly, as a callow youth, whose hair was pompadoured and whose
+chin receded, began to read the lessons for the day. Amarilly was kept
+in action by her effort to follow the lead of the man in front of her.
+
+"It's hard to know jest when to set or stand or pray, but it keeps
+things from draggin'," she thought, "and thar's no chanct to git sleepy.
+It keeps me jest on the hump without no rayhearsal fer all this scene
+shiftin'."
+
+Her little heart quickened in glad relief when the erect form of John
+Meredith ascended the pulpit to deliver the sermon.
+
+"That other one was jest the understudy," she concluded.
+
+The sermon, strong, simple, and sweet like John himself, was delivered
+in a rich, modulated voice whose little underlying note of appeal found
+entrance to many a hard-shell heart. The theology was not too deep for
+the attentive little scrubber to comprehend, and she was filled with a
+longing to be good--very good. She made ardent resolutions not to "jaw"
+the boys so much, and to be more gentle with Iry and Go. Her conscience
+kept on prodding until she censured herself for not mopping the corners
+at the theatre more thoroughly.
+
+At the conclusion of the sermon the rector with a slight tremor in his
+mellifluous voice pronounced the benediction. Amarilly's eyes shone with
+a light that Lord Algernon's most eloquent passages could never have
+inspired.
+
+The organ again gave forth its rich tones, and a young, fair-haired boy
+with the face of a devotee arose and turned toward the congregation, his
+face uplifted to the oaken rafters. A flood of sunshine streamed through
+the painted window and fell in long slanting rays upon the spiritual
+face. The exquisite voice rose and fell in silvery cadence, the soft
+notes fluting out through the vast space and reaching straight to
+Amarilly's heart which was beating in unison to the music. "Oh," she
+thought wistfully, "if Pete Noyes was only like him!"
+
+She responded to the offertory with a penny, which lay solitary and
+outlawed on the edge of a contribution plate filled with envelopes and
+bank bills. The isolated coin caught the eye of the young rector as he
+received the offerings, and his gaze wandered wonderingly over his
+fashionable congregation. It finally rested upon the small, eager-eyed
+face of his washerwoman's daughter, and a look of angelic sweetness came
+into his brown eyes with the thought: "Even the least of these!"
+
+Colette, statuesque and sublime, caught the flash of radiance that
+illumined the face of her pastor, and her heart-strings responded with a
+little thrill.
+
+There was another fervent prayer in low, pleading tones, after which
+followed the recessional, the choir-boys chanting their solemn measures.
+
+Amarilly in passing out saw John, clad in a long, tight-fitting black
+garment, standing at the church door.
+
+"He's got another costume fer the afterpiece," she thought admiringly.
+"He must be a lightning change artist like the one down to the vawdyveel
+that Pete was tellin' of!"
+
+Then two wonderful, heart-throbbing things happened. John took
+Amarilly's saffron-clad hand in his and told her in earnest, convincing
+tones how glad he was that she had come, and that he should look for her
+every Sunday.
+
+"He held up the hull p'rade fer me!" she thought exultingly.
+
+As he was speaking to her his gaze wandered away for a second; in that
+infinitesimal space of time there came into his eyes a dazzling flash of
+light that was like a revelation to the sharp-eyed little girl, who,
+following the direction of his glance, beheld Colette. Then came the
+second triumph. Colette, smiling, shook hands with her and praised her
+attire.
+
+"Did you like the service, Amarilly?" she whispered. "Was it like the
+theatre?"
+
+"It was diffrent," said Amarilly impressively. "I think it's what heaven
+is!"
+
+"And did you like the sermon St. John preached?"
+
+Amarilly's lips quivered.
+
+"I liked it so much, I liked him so much, I'd ruther not talk about it."
+
+Colette stooped and kissed the freckled little face, to the utter
+astonishment of those standing near and to the complete felicity of John
+Meredith, who was a witness of the little scene though he did not hear
+the conversation.
+
+Amarilly walked homeward, her uplifted face radiant with happiness.
+
+"The flowers, the lights, oh, it was great!" she thought. "Bud could
+sing like that if he was learnt. He couldn't look like that surplused
+boy, though. He sorter made me think of Little Eva in the play they give
+down to Milt's school. I wish Bud's hair was yaller and curly instead of
+black and straight!"
+
+Amarilly's reminiscences next carried her to the look she had seen in
+the rector's eyes when he beheld Colette coming out of the church.
+
+"It was the look Lord Algernon tried to give Lady Cecul," she thought,
+"only he couldn't do it, 'cause it wasn't in Him to give. And it
+couldn't never be in him the same as 't is in Mr. St. John and Miss
+King. It ain't in her yet to see what was in his eyes. Some day when she
+gits more feelin's, mebby 't will be, though."
+
+When Amarilly had faithfully pictured the service to the household,
+Bud's anaemic face grew eager.
+
+"Take me with yer, Amarilly, next time, won't yer?" he pleaded.
+
+"It's too fer. You couldn't walk, Buddy," she answered, "and we can't
+afford car-fare fer two both ways."
+
+"I'll take him to-night," promised the Boarder. "We'll ride both ways,
+so fur as we kin. I'd like to hear a sermon now and then, especially by
+a young preacher."
+
+The little family stayed up that night until the return of Bud and the
+Boarder who were vociferous in approval of the service.
+
+"It ain't much like our meetin'-house," said Bud. "It was het and lit.
+And the way that orgin let out! Say, Amarilly, thar wasn't no man in
+sight to play it! I s'pose they've got one of them things like a
+pianner-player. Them surplused boys sung fine!"
+
+"He give us a fine talk," reported the Boarder. "I've allers thought if
+a man paid a hundred cents on the dollar, 't was all that was expected
+of him. But I believe it's a good idee to go to church and keep your
+conscience jogged up so it won't rust. I'll go every Sunday, mebby, and
+take Bud so he kin larn them tunes."
+
+"I never go to no shows nor nuthin'!" wailed Cory.
+
+"I'll take you next time," soothed Amarilly. "I kin work you'se off on
+the kinductor as under age, I guess, if you'll crouch down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Monday's mops and pails broke in upon the spell of Amarilly's spiritual
+enchantment to some extent, but remembrance of the scenic effects
+lingered and was refreshed by the clothes-line of vestal garb which
+manifested the family prosperity, and heralded to the neighborhood that
+the Jenkins's star was in the ascendant.
+
+"Them Jenkinses," said Mrs. Hudgers, who lived next door, "is orful
+stuck up sence they got the sudsin' of them surpluses."
+
+This animadversion was soon conveyed to Amarilly, who instantly and
+freely forgave the critic.
+
+"She's old and rheumatic," argued the little girl. "She can't git to go
+nowhars, and folks that is shut in too long spiles, jest like canned
+goods. Besides, her clock has stopped. Nobody can't go on without no
+clock."
+
+Out of pity for the old woman's sequestered life, Amarilly was wont to
+relate to her all the current events, and it was through the child's
+keen, young optics that Mrs. Hudgers saw life. An eloquent and vivid
+description of St. Mark's service was eagerly related.
+
+"I allers thought I'd like to see them Episcopals," she remarked
+regretfully. "Ef church air wa'n't so bad fer my rheumatiz, I'd pay
+car-fare jest to see it onct. I was brung up Methodist though."
+
+This desire suggested to Amarilly's fertile little brain a way to make a
+contribution to John Meredith's pet missionary scheme, whose merits he
+had so ardently expounded from the pulpit.
+
+"I'll hev a sacrud concert like the one he said they was goin' to hev to
+the church," she decided.
+
+She was fully aware of the sensation created by the Thursday clothes-line
+of surplices, and she resolved to profit thereby while the garments
+were still a novelty. Consequently the neighborhood was notified that a
+sacred concert by a "surplused choir" composed of members of the Jenkins
+household, assisted by a few of their schoolmates, would be given a week
+from Wednesday night. This particular night was chosen for the reason
+that the church washing was put to soak late on a Wednesday.
+
+There was a short, sharp conflict in Amarilly's conscience before she
+convinced herself it would not be wrong to allow the impromptu choir to
+don the surplices of St. Mark's.
+
+"They wouldn't spile 'em jest awearin' 'em onct," she argued sharply,
+for Amarilly always "sassed back" with spirit to her moral accuser.
+"'Tain't as if they wa'n't agoin' into the wash as soon as they take 'em
+off. Besides," as a triumphant clincher, "think of the cause!"
+
+Amarilly had heard the Boarder and a young socialist exchanging views,
+and she had caught this slogan, which was a tempting phrase and adequate
+to whitewash many a doubtful act. It proved effectual in silencing the
+conscience which Amarilly slipped back into its case and fastened
+securely.
+
+She held nightly rehearsals for the proposed entertainment. After the
+first the novelty was exhausted, and on the next night there was a
+falling off in attendance, so the young, director diplomatically
+resorted to the use of decoy ducks in the shape of a pan of popcorn, a
+candy pull, and an apple roast. By such inducements she whipped her
+chorus into line, ably assisted by Bud, who had profited by his
+attendance at St. Mark's.
+
+The Jenkins dwelling was singularly well adapted for a public
+performance, as, to use Mrs. Wint's phraseology, "it had no insides."
+The rooms were partitioned off by means of curtains on strings. These
+were taken down on the night of the concert. So the "settin'-room," the
+"bedroom off" and the kitchen became one. Seats were improvised by means
+of boards stretched across inverted washtubs.
+
+At seven o'clock on the night set for the concert the audience was
+solemnly ushered in by the Boarder. No signs of the performers were
+visible, but sounds of suppressed excitement issued from the woodshed,
+which had been converted into a vestry.
+
+Presently the choir, chanting a hymn, made an impressive and effective
+entrance. To Amarilly's consternation this evoked an applause, which
+jarred on her sense of propriety.
+
+"This ain't no show, and it ain't no time to clap," she explained to the
+Boarder, who cautioned the congregation against further demonstration.
+
+Flamingus read a psalm in a sing-song, resonant voice, and then Amarilly
+announced a hymn, cordially inviting the neighbors to "jine in." The
+response was lusty-lunged, and there was a unanimous request for another
+tune. After Amarilly had explained the use to which the collection was
+to be put, Gus passed a pie tin, while an offertory solo was rendered by
+Bud in sweet, trebled tones.
+
+The sacred concert was pronounced a great success by the audience, who
+promptly dispersed at its close. While the Boarder was shifting the
+curtains to their former positions, and Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly were
+busily engaged in divesting the choir of their costumes, the front door
+opened and disclosed a vision of loveliness in the form of Colette.
+
+"I knocked," she explained apologetically to the Boarder, "but no one
+heard me. Are the family all away?"
+
+"They are in the woodshed. Walk right out," he urged hospitably.
+
+Colette stepped to the door and, on opening it, gazed in bewilderment at
+the disrobing choir.
+
+"These are not St. Mark's choir-boys, are they?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins felt herself growing weak-kneed. She looked apprehensively
+at Amarilly, who stepped bravely to the front with the air of one who
+feels that the end justifies the means.
+
+"It was fer him--fer Mr. St. John I done it," she began in explanation,
+and then she proceeded to relate the particulars of her scheme and its
+accomplishment.
+
+She had but just finished this narrative when suddenly in the line of
+her vision came the form of the young rector himself. He had been
+ushered out by the Boarder, who was still actively engaged in "redding
+up."
+
+"I came to call upon you, for I consider you one of my parishioners
+now," he said to Amarilly, his face flushing at the unexpected encounter
+with Colette.
+
+Amarilly breathed a devout prayer of thankfulness that the last surplice
+had been removed and was now being put to soak by her mother.
+
+Colette's eyes were dancing with the delight of mischief-making as she
+directed, in soft but mirthful tones:
+
+"Tell Mr. St. John about your choir and concert."
+
+Amarilly's eyes lowered in consternation. She was in great awe of this
+young man whose square chin was in such extreme contradiction to his
+softly luminous eyes, and she began to feel less fortified by the
+reminder of the "cause."
+
+"I'd ruther not," she faltered.
+
+"Then don't, Amarilly," he said gently.
+
+"Mebby that's why I'd orter," she acknowledged, lifting serious eyes to
+his. "You said that Sunday that we wa'n't to turn out of the way fer
+hard things."
+
+"I don't want it to be hard for you to tell me anything, Amarilly," he
+said reassuringly. "Suppose you show me that you trust me by telling me
+about your concert."
+
+So once more Amarilly gave a recital of her plan for raising money for
+the mission, and of its successful fulfilment. John listened with
+varying emotions, struggling heroically to maintain his gravity as he
+heard of the realization of the long-cherished, long-deferred dream of
+Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+"And we took in thirty-seven cents," she said in breathless excitement,
+as she handed him the contents of the pie tin.
+
+"Amarilly," he replied fervently, with the look that Colette was
+learning to love, "you did just right to use the surplices, and this
+contribution means more to me than any I have received. It was a sweet
+and generous thought that prompted your concert."
+
+Amarilly's little heart glowed with pride at this acknowledgment.
+
+At that moment came Bud, singing a snatch of his solo.
+
+"Is this the little brother that sang the offertory?"
+
+"Yes; that's him--Bud."
+
+"Bud, will you sing it again for me, now?"
+
+"Sure thing!" said the atom of a boy, promptly mounting a soap box.
+
+He threw back a mop of thick black hair, rolled his eyes ceilingward,
+and let his sweet, clear voice have full sway.
+
+"Oh, Bud, you darling! Why didn't you tell me he could sing like that,
+Amarilly?" cried Colette at the close of the song.
+
+"We must have him in St. Mark's choir," declared Mr. Meredith. "You may
+bring him to the rectory to-morrow, Amarilly, and I will have the
+choirmaster try his voice. Besides receiving instruction and practice
+every week, he will be paid for his singing."
+
+Money for Bud's voice! So much prosperity was scarcely believable.
+
+"Fust the Guild school, Miss King's washing, the surpluses, and now
+Bud!" thought Amarilly exuberantly. "Next thing I know, I'll be on the
+stage."
+
+"I must go," said Colette presently. "My car is just around the corner
+on the next street. John, will you ride uptown with me?"
+
+He accepted the invitation with alacrity. Colette's sidelong glance
+noted a certain masterful look about his chin, and there was a warning,
+metallic ring in his voice that denoted a determination to overcome all
+obstacles and triumph by sheer force of will. She was not ready to
+listen to him yet, and, a ready evader of issues, chatted incessantly on
+the way to the car. He waited in grim patience, biding his time. As they
+neared the turn in the alley, she played her reserve card.
+
+"Henry didn't think it prudent to bring the big car into the Jenkins's
+_cul-de-sac,_ so he waited in the next street. I expect father will be
+there by this time. We dropped him at a factory near by, where he was to
+speak to some United Workmen."
+
+Colette smiled at the drooping of John's features as he beheld her
+father ensconced in the tonneau.
+
+"Oh, John! I am glad you were here to protect my little girl through
+these byways. I was just on the point of looking her up myself."
+
+When the car stopped at the rectory and Colette bade John good-night,
+the resolute, forward thrust was still prominent in his chin.
+
+He went straight to his study and wrote an ardent avowal of his love.
+Then he sealed the letter and dispatched it by special messenger. There
+would be no more suspense, he thought, for she would have to respond by
+a direct affirmation or negation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+In the tide of the Jenkins's prosperity there came the inevitable ebb.
+On the fateful Friday morning succeeding the concert, Mrs. Hudgers,
+looking from her window, saw a little group of children with books under
+their arms returning from school. Having no timepiece, she was
+accustomed to depend on the passing to and fro of the children for
+guidance as to the performance of her household affairs.
+
+"My sakes, but twelve o'clock come quick to-day," she thought, as she
+kindled the fire and set the kettle over it in preparation of her midday
+meal.
+
+A neighbor dropping in viewed these proceedings with surprise.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Hudgers, ain't you et yer breakfast yet?"
+
+"Of course I hev. I'm puttin' the kittle over fer my dinner."
+
+"Dinner! why, it's only a half arter nine."
+
+Mrs. Hudgers looked incredulous.
+
+"I seen the chillern agoin' hum from school," she maintained.
+
+"Them was the Jenkinses, Iry hez come down with the scarlit fever, and
+they're all in quarrytine."
+
+"How you talk! Wait till I put the kittle offen the bile."
+
+The two neighbors sat down to discuss this affliction with the ready
+sympathy of the poor for the poor. Their passing envy of the Jenkins's
+good fortune was instantly skimmed from the surface of their
+friendliness, which had only lain dormant and wanted but the touch of
+trouble to make them once more akin.
+
+When the city physician had pronounced Iry's "spell" to be scarlet
+fever, the other members of the household were immediately summoned by
+emergency calls. The children came from school, Amarilly from the
+theatre, and the Boarder from his switch to hold an excited family
+conference.
+
+"It's a good thing we got the washin's all hum afore Iry was took,"
+declared the optimistic Amarilly.
+
+"Thar's two things here yet," reported Mrs. Jenkins. "Gus come hum too
+late last night to take the preacher's surplus and Miss King's lace
+waist. You was so tired I didn't tell you, 'cause I know'd you'd be sot
+on goin' with them yourself. They're all did up."
+
+"Well, they'll hev to stay right here with us and the fever," said
+Amarilly philosophically.
+
+At heart she secretly rejoiced in the retaining of these two garments,
+for they seemed to keep her in touch with their owners whom she would be
+unable to see until Iry had recovered.
+
+"I don't see what we are going to do, Amarilly," said her mother
+despairingly. "Thar'll be nuthin' comin' in and so many extrys."
+
+"No extrys," cheerfully assured the little comforter. "The city
+doctor'll take keer of Iry and bring the medicines. We hev laid by some
+sence we got the church wash. It'll tide us over till Iry gits well. We
+all need a vacation from work, anyhow."
+
+At the beginning of the next week a ten-dollar bill came from Colette,
+"to buy jellies and things for Iry," she wrote. A similar contribution
+came from John Meredith.
+
+"We air on Easy Street onct more!" cried Amarilly joyfully.
+
+"I hate to take the money from them," sighed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'll make it up to them when we kin work agin," consoled Amarilly.
+"Better to take from friends than from the city. It won't be fer long.
+Iry seems to hev took it light, the doctor said."
+
+This diagnosis proved correct, but it had not occurred to Amarilly in
+her prognostications that the question of the duration of the quarantine
+was not entirely dependent upon Iry's convalescence. Like a row of
+blocks the children, with the exception of Flamingus and Amarilly, in
+rapid succession came down with a mild form of the fever. Mrs. Jenkins
+and Amarilly divided the labors of cook and nurse, but the mainstay of
+the family was the Boarder. He aided in the housework, and as an
+entertainer of the sick he proved invaluable. He told stories, drew
+pictures, propounded riddles, whittled boats and animals, played "Beggar
+my Neighbor," and sang songs for the convalescent ward.
+
+When the last cent of the Jenkins's reserve fund and the contributions
+from the rector and Colette had been exhausted, the Boarder put a
+willing hand in his pocket and drew forth his all to share with the
+afflicted family. There was one appalling night when the treasury was
+entirely depleted, and the larder was a veritable Mother Hubbard's
+cupboard.
+
+"Something will come," prophesied Amarilly trustfully.
+
+Something did come the next day in the shape of a donation of five
+dollars from Mr. Vedder, who had heard of the prolonged quarantine.
+Amarilly wept from gratitude and gladness.
+
+"The perfesshun allers stand by each other," she murmured proudly.
+
+This last act of charity kept the Jenkins's pot boiling until the
+premises were officially and thoroughly fumigated. Again famine
+threatened. The switch remained open to the Boarder, and he was once
+more on duty, but he had as yet drawn no wages, one morning there was
+nothing for breakfast.
+
+"I'll pawn my ticker at noon," promised the Boarder, "and bring home
+something for dinner."
+
+"There is lots of folks as goes without breakfast allers, from choice,"
+informed Amarilly. "Miss Vail, the teacher at the Guild, says it's
+hygeniack."
+
+"It won't hurt us and the boys," said Mrs. Jenkins, "but Iry and Co is
+too young to go hungry even if it be hygeniack."
+
+"They ain't agoin' hungry," declared Amarilly. "I'll pervide fer them."
+
+With a small pitcher under her cape she started bravely forth on a
+foraging expedition. After walking a few blocks she came to a white
+house whose woodhouse joined the alley. Hiding behind a barrel she
+watched and waited until a woman opened the back door and set a soup
+plate of milk on the lowest step.
+
+"Come a kits! Come a kits!" she called shrilly, and then went back into
+the house.
+
+The "kits" came on the run; so did Amarilly. She arrived first, and
+hastily emptied the contents of the soup plate into her pitcher. Then
+she fled, leaving two dismayed maltese kittens disconsolately lapping an
+empty dish.
+
+"Here's milk for Iry," she announced, handing the pitcher to her mother.
+"Now I'll go and get some breakfast for Co."
+
+
+She returned presently with a sugared doughnut.
+
+"Where did you borry the milk and nut-cake?" asked her mother
+wonderingly.
+
+"I didn't borry them," replied Amarilly stoically. "I stole them."
+
+"Stole them! Am-a-ril-ly Jenk-ins!"
+
+"Twan't exackly stealin'," argued Amarilly cheerfully. "I took the milk
+from two little cats what git stuffed with milk every morning and night.
+The doughnut had jest been stuck in a parrot's cage. He hedn't tetched
+it. My! he swore fierce! I'd ruther steal, anyway, than let Iry and Co
+go hungry."
+
+"What would the preacher say!" demanded her mother solemnly. "He would
+say it was wrong."
+
+"He don't know nothin' about bein' hungry!" replied Amarilly defiantly.
+"If he was ever as hungry as Iry, I bet he'd steal from a cat."
+
+The season was now summer. Some time ago John Meredith had gone to the
+seashore and the King family to their summer home in the mountains,
+unaware that the fever had spread over so wide an area in the Jenkins
+domain. The theatre and St. Mark's were closed for the rest of the
+summer. The little boys found that their positions had been filled
+during the period of quarantine. None of these catastrophes, however,
+could be compared to the calamity of the realization that Bud alone of
+all the patients had not convalesced completely. He was a delicate
+little fellow, and he grew paler and thinner each day. In desperation
+Amarilly went to the doctor.
+
+"Bud don't pick up," she said bluntly.
+
+"I feared he wouldn't," replied the doctor.
+
+"Can't you try some other kinds of medicines?"
+
+"I can, but I am afraid that there is no medicine that will help him
+very much."
+
+Amarilly turned pale.
+
+"Is there anything else that will help him?" she demanded fiercely.
+
+"If he could go to the seashore he might brace up. Sea air would work
+wonders for him."
+
+"He shall go," said Amarilly with determination.
+
+"I can get a week for him through the Fresh Air Fund," suggested the
+doctor.
+
+He succeeded in getting two weeks, and, that time was extended another
+fortnight through the benevolence of Mr. Vedder.
+
+Bud returned a study in reds and browns.
+
+"The sea beats the theayter and the church all to smitherines,
+Amarilly!" he declared jubilantly. "I kin go to work now."
+
+"No!" said Amarilly resolutely. "You air goin' to loaf through this hot
+weather until church and school open."
+
+The family fund once more had a modest start. Mrs. Jenkins obtained a
+few of her old customers, Bobby got a paper route, Flamingus and Milton
+were again at work, but Amarilly, Gus, and Cory were without vocations.
+
+Soon after the quarantine was lifted Amarilly went forth to deliver the
+surplice and the waist which had hung familiarly side by side during the
+weeks of trouble. The housekeeper at the rectory greeted her kindly and
+was most sympathetic on learning of the protracted confinement. She made
+Amarilly a present of the surplice.
+
+"Mr. Meredith said you were to keep it. He thought your mother might
+find it useful. It is good linen, you know, and you can cut it up into
+clothes for the children. He has so many surplices, he won't miss this
+one."
+
+"I'll never cut it up!" thought Amarilly as she reverently received the
+robe. "I'll keep it in 'membrance of him."
+
+"It's orful good in him to give it to us," she said gratefully to the
+housekeeper.
+
+That worthy woman smiled, remembering how the fastidious young rector
+had shrunk from the thought of wearing a fumigated garment.
+
+At the King residence Amarilly saw the caretaker, who gave her a similar
+message regarding the lace waist.
+
+"I'll keep it," thought Amarilly with a shy little blush, "until I'm
+merried. It'll start my trousseau."
+
+She took the garments home, not mentioning to anyone the gift of the
+waist, however, for that was to be her secret--her first secret. She hid
+this nest-egg of her trousseau in an old trunk which she fastened
+securely.
+
+On the next day she was summoned to help clean the theatre, which had
+been rented for one night by the St. Andrew's vested choir, whose
+members were to give a sacred concert. A rehearsal for this
+entertainment was being held when Amarilly arrived.
+
+"These surplices are all too long or too short for me," complained the
+young tenor, who had recently been engaged for the solo parts.
+
+Amarilly surveyed him critically.
+
+"He's jest about Mr. St. John's size," she mused, "only he ain't so fine
+a shape."
+
+With the thought came an inspiration that brought a quickly waged
+battle. It seemed sacrilegious, although she didn't express it by that
+word, to permit another to wear a garment so sacred to the memory of Mr.
+Meredith, but poverty, that kill-sentiment, had fully developed the
+practical side of Amarilly.
+
+She made answer to her stabs of conscience by action instead of words,
+going straight to her friend, the ticket-seller.
+
+"That feller," she said, indicating the tenor, "ain't satisfied with the
+fit of his surplus. I've got one jest his size. It's done up spick and
+span clean, and I'll rent it to him fer the show. He kin hev it fer the
+ev'nin' fer a dollar. Would you ask him fer me?"
+
+"Certainly, Amarilly," he agreed.
+
+He came back to her, smiling.
+
+"He'll take it, but he seems to think your charge rather high--more than
+that of most costumers, he said."
+
+"This ain't no common surplus," defended Amarilly loftily. "It was wore
+by the rector of St. Mark's, and he give it to me. It's of finer stuff
+than the choir surpluses, and it hez got a cross worked onto it, and a
+pocket in it, too."
+
+"Of course such inducements should increase the value," confirmed Mr.
+Vedder gravely, and he proceeded to hold another colloquy with the
+twinkling-eyed tenor. Amarilly went home for the surplice and received
+therefor the sum of one dollar, which swelled the Jenkins's purse
+perceptibly.
+
+And here began the mundane career of the minister's surplice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Ever apt in following a lead, Amarilly at once resolved to establish a
+regular costuming business. It even occurred to her to hire out the lace
+waist, but thoughts of wedding bells prevailed against her impulse to
+open this branch of the business.
+
+When the young tenor returned the surplice he informed Amarilly that two
+young ladies of his acquaintance were going to give a home entertainment
+for charity. Among the impromptu acts would be some tableaux, and the
+surplice was needed for a church scene. So the new venture brought in
+another dollar that week.
+
+One day Bud came home capless, having crossed a bridge in a high wind.
+
+"I seen an ad," said the thrifty Flamingus, "that the Beehive would give
+away baseball caps to-day."
+
+Amarilly immediately set out for the Beehive, an emporium of fashion in
+the vicinity of the theatre. It was the noon hour, and there were no
+other customers in evidence.
+
+The proprietor and a clerk were engaged in discussing the design for a
+window display, and were loath to notice their would-be beneficiary.
+Finally the clerk drawled out:
+
+"Did you want anything, little girl?"
+
+"I called," explained Amarilly with grandiose manner, "to git one of
+them caps you advertised to give away."
+
+"Oh, those were all given out long ago. You should have come earlier,"
+he replied with an air of relief, as he turned to resume the
+all-absorbing topic with the proprietor.
+
+Amarilly's interest in the window display dispelled any disappointment
+she might have had in regard to Bud's head covering.
+
+"Now," said the clerk didactically, "my idea is this. Have a wedding--a
+church wedding. I can rig up an altar, and we'll have the bride in a
+white, trailing gown; the groom, best man, and ushers in dress suits to
+advertise our gents' department, the bridesmaids and relatives in
+different colored evening dresses, and in this way we can announce our
+big clearing sale of summer goods in the ready-to-wear department. It'll
+make a swell window and draw crowds. Women can never get by a wedding."
+
+"That's a dandy idea, Ben," approved the proprietor.
+
+"Oh, I am a winner on ideas," vaunted the clerk chestily.
+
+So was Amarilly. She stepped eagerly up to the window designer.
+
+"Do you keep surpluses?"
+
+"No; don't know what they are," replied the clerk shortly, turning from
+her. "We'll get a wreath of orange flowers for the bride, and then we
+can have a child carrying the ring, so as to call attention to our
+children's department."
+
+"A surplus," explained Amarilly, scornful of such avowed ignorance, "is
+the white gown that Episcopal ministers wear."
+
+"No; we don't keep them," was the impatient rejoinder.
+
+"Well, I hev one," she said, addressing the proprietor this time, "a
+real minister's, and I'll rent it to you to put on your figger of the
+minister in your wedding window. He'll hev to wear one."
+
+"I am not an Episcopalian," said the proprietor hesitatingly. "What do
+you think, Ben?"
+
+"Well, it hadn't occurred to me to have an Episcopal wedding, but I
+don't know but what it would work out well, after all. It would make it
+attract notice more, and women are always daffy over Episcopal weddings.
+They like classy things. We could put a card in the window, saying all
+the clergy bought the linen for their surplices here. How," turning to
+Amarilly, "did you happen to have such an article?"
+
+"We do the washin' fer St. Mark's church, and the minister give us one
+of his surpluses."
+
+"The display will be in for six days. What will you rent it for that
+long?"
+
+"I allers git a dollar a night fer it," replied Amarilly.
+
+"Too much!" declared the clerk. "I'll give you fifty cents a day."
+
+"I'll let it go six days fer four dollars," bargained Amarilly.
+
+"Well, seeing you have come down on your offer, I'll come up a little on
+mine. I'll take it for three-fifty."
+
+Amarilly considered.
+
+"I will, if you'll throw in one of them caps fer my brother."
+
+"All right," laughed the proprietor. "I think we'll call it a bargain.
+See if you can't dig up one of those caps for her, Ben."
+
+Without much difficulty Ben produced a cap, and Amarilly hurried home
+for the surplice. She went down to the Beehive every day during the
+wedding-window week and feasted her eyes on the beloved gown. She took
+all the glory of the success of the display to her own credit, and her
+feelings were very much like those of the writer of a play on a first
+night.
+
+From a wedding to a funeral was the natural evolution of a surplice, but
+this time it did not appear in its customary rôle. Instead of adorning a
+minister, it clad the corpse. Mrs. Hudgers's only son, a scalawag, who
+had been a constant drain on his mother's small stipend, was taken ill
+and died, to the discreetly disguised relief of the neighborhood.
+
+"I'm agoin' to give Hallie a good funeral," Mrs. Hudgers confided to
+Amarilly. "I'm agoin' to hev hacks and flowers and singin' If yer St.
+Mark's man was to hum now, I should like to have him fishyate."
+
+"Who will you git?" asked Amarilly interestedly.
+
+"I'll hev the preacher from the meetin'-house on the hill, Brother
+Longgrass."
+
+"I wonder," speculated Amarilly, "if he'd like to wear the surplus?"
+
+Foremost as the plumes of Henry of Navarre in battle were the surplice
+and the renting thereof in Amarilly's vision.
+
+"I don't expect he could do that," replied Mrs. Hudgers doubtfully. "His
+church most likely wouldn't stand fer it. Brother Longgrass is real kind
+if he ain't my sort. He's agoin' to let the boys run the maylodeun down
+here the night afore the funyral."
+
+"Who's agoin' to sing?"
+
+"I dunno yit. I left it to the preacher. He said he'd git me a picked
+choir, whatever that may be."
+
+"My! But you'll hev a fine funeral!" exclaimed Amarilly admiringly.
+
+"I allers did say that when Hallie got merried, or died, things should
+be done right. Thar's jest one thing I can't hev."
+
+"What's that, Mrs. Hudgers?"
+
+"Why, you see, Amarilly, Hallie's clo'es air sort of shabby-like, and
+when we git him in that shiny new caskit, they air agoin' to show up
+orful seedy. But I can't afford ter buy him a new suit jest for this
+onct."
+
+"Couldn't you rent a suit?" asked Amarilly, her ruling passion for
+business still dominating.
+
+"No; I jest can't, Amarilly. It's costin' me too much now."
+
+"I know it is," sympathized Amarilly, concentrating her mind on the
+puzzling solution of Hallie's habiliment.
+
+"Mrs. Hudgers," she exclaimed suddenly, "why can't you put the surplus
+on Hallie? You kin slip it on over his suit, and when the funeral's
+over, and they hev all looked at the corpse, you kin take it offen him."
+
+"Oh, that would be sweet!" cried Mrs. Hudgers, brightening perceptibly.
+"Hallie would look beautiful in it, and 'twould be diffrent from any one
+else's funeral. How you allers think of things, Amarilly! But I ain't
+got no dollar to pay you fer it."
+
+"If you did hev one," replied Amarilly Indignantly, "I shouldn't let you
+pay fer it. We're neighbors, and what I kin do fer Hallie I want ter
+do."
+
+"Well, Amarilly, it's certainly fine fer you to feel that way. You don't
+think," she added with sudden apprehension, "that they'd think the
+surplus was Hallie's nightshirt, do you?"
+
+"Oh, no!" protested Amarilly, shocked at such a supposition. "Besides,
+you kin tell them all that Hallie's laid out in a surplus. They all seen
+them to the concert."
+
+The funeral passed off with great éclat. The picked choir had resonant
+voices, and Brother Longgrass preached one of his longest sermons,
+considerately omitting reference to any of the characteristics of the
+deceased. Mrs. Hudgers was suitably attired in donated and dusty black.
+The extremely unconventional garb of Hallie caused some little comment,
+but it was commonly supposed to be a part of the Episcopalian spirit
+which the Jenkinses seemed to be inculcating in the neighborhood.
+Brother Longgrass was a little startled upon beholding the white-robed
+corpse, but perceiving what comfort it brought to the afflicted mother,
+he magnanimously forbore to allude to the matter.
+
+After the remains had been viewed for the last time, the surplice was
+removed. In the evening Amarilly called for it.
+
+"He did look handsome in it," commented Mrs. Hudgers with a satisfied,
+reminiscent smile. "I wish I might of hed his likeness took. I'm agoin'
+to make you take hum this pan of fried cakes Mrs. Holdock fetched in.
+They'll help fill up the chillern."
+
+"I don't want to rob you, Mrs. Hudgers," said Amarilly, gazing longingly
+at the doughnuts, which were classed as luxuries in the Jenkins's menu.
+
+"I dassent eat 'em, Amarilly. If I et jest one, I'd hev dyspepsy orful,
+and folks hez brung in enough stuff to kill me now. It does beat all the
+way they bring vittles to a house of mournin'! I only wish Hallie could
+hev some of 'em."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+The surplice, carefully laundered after the funeral, was ready for new
+fields of labor. The tenor, first patron of Amarilly's costuming
+establishment, was wont to loiter in the studio of an artist he knew and
+relate his about-town adventures. This artist was interested in the
+annals of the little scrub-girl and her means of livelihood.
+
+"I have in mind," he said musingly, "a picture of a musician, the light
+to be streaming through a stained window on his uplifted head as he sits
+at an organ."
+
+"The Lost Chord?" inquired the tenor.
+
+"Nothing quite so bromidic as that," laughed the artist. "I have my
+model engaged, and I had intended to have you borrow a surplice for me,
+but you may ask your little customer to rent me her gown for a couple of
+days."
+
+On receipt of this request delivered through the medium of the ticket-
+seller, Amarilly promptly appeared at the studio. She was gravely and
+courteously received by the artist, Derry Phillips, an easy-mannered
+youth, slim and supple, with dark, laughing eyes. When they had
+transacted the business pertaining to the rental of the surplice,
+Amarilly arose from her chair with apparent reluctance. This was a new
+atmosphere, and she was fascinated by the pictures and the general air
+of artistic disarrangement which she felt but could not account for.
+
+"'Tain't exactly the kind of place to tidy," she reflected, "but it
+needs cleaning turrible."
+
+"Do you like pictures?" asked the young artist, following her gaze.
+"Stay a while and look at them, if you wish."
+
+Amarilly readily availed herself of this permission, and rummaged about
+the rooms while Derry pursued his work. Upon the completion of her tour
+of inspection, he noticed a decided look of disapproval upon her face.
+
+"What is the matter, Miss Jenkins? Aren't the pictures true to life?" he
+inquired with feigned anxiety.
+
+"The picters is all right," replied Amarilly, "but--"
+
+"But what?" he urged expectantly.
+
+"Your rooms need reddin' up. Thar's an orful lot of dust. Yer things
+will spile."
+
+"Oh, dust, you know, to the artistic temperament, is merely a little
+misplaced matter."
+
+"'Tain't only misplaced. It's stuck tight," contended Amarilly.
+
+"Dear me! And to think that I was contemplating a studio tea to some
+people day after to-morrow, I suppose it really should be 'red up'
+again. Honestly though, I engage a woman who come every week and clean
+the rooms."
+
+"She's imposed on you," said Amarilly indignantly. "She's swept the dirt
+up agin the mopboards and left it thar, and she hez only jest skimmed
+over things with a dust-cloth. It ain't done thorough."
+
+"And are you quite proficient as a _blanchisseuse?"_
+
+Amarilly looked at him unperturbed.
+
+"I kin scrub," she remarked calmly.
+
+"I stand rebuked. Scrubbing is what they need. If you will come
+to-morrow morning and put these rooms in order, I will give you a dollar
+and your midday meal."
+
+Amarilly, well satisfied with her new opening, closed the bargain
+instantly.
+
+The next morning at seven o'clock she rang the studio bell. The artist,
+attired in a bathrobe and rubbing his eyes sleepily, opened the door.
+
+"This was the day I was to clean," reminded Amarilly reprovingly.
+
+"To be sure. But why so early? I thought you were a telegram."
+
+"Early! It's seven o'clock."
+
+"I still claim it's early. I have only been in bed four hours."
+
+"Well, you kin go back to bed. I'll work orful quiet."
+
+"And I can trust you not to touch any of the pictures or move anything?"
+
+"I'll be keerful," Amarilly assured him. "Jest show me whar to het up
+the water. I brung the soap and a brush."
+
+The artist lighted a gas stove, and, after carefully donning a long-
+sleeved apron, Amarilly put the water on and began operations. Her eyes
+shone with anticipation as she looked about her.
+
+"I'm glad it's so dirty," she remarked. "It's more interestin' to clean
+a dirty place. Then what you do shows up, and you feel you earnt your
+money."
+
+With a laugh the artist returned to his bedroom, whence he emerged three
+hours later.
+
+"This room is all cleaned," announced Amarilly. "It took me so long
+'cause it's so orful big and then 'twas so turrible dirty."
+
+"You must have worked like a little Trojan. Now stop a bit while I
+prepare my breakfast."
+
+"Kin you cook?" asked Amarilly in astonishment.
+
+"I can make coffee and poach eggs. Come into my butler's pantry and
+watch me."
+
+Amarilly followed him into a small apartment and was initiated into the
+mysteries of electric toasters and percolators.
+
+He tried in vain to induce her to share his meal with him, but she
+protested.
+
+"I hed my breakfast at five-thirty. I don't eat agin till noon."
+
+"Oh, Miss Jenkins! You have no artistic temperament or you would not
+cling to ironclad rules."
+
+"My name's Amarilly," she answered shortly. "I ain't old enough to be
+'missed' yet."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Amarilly. You seem any age," he replied, sitting
+down to his breakfast, "You are not too old, then, for me to ask what
+your age is--in years?"
+
+"I jest got into my teens."
+
+"Thirteen. And I am ten years older. When is your birthday?"
+
+"It's ben. It was the fust of June."
+
+"Why, Amarilly," jumping up and holding out his hand, "we are twins!
+That is my birthday."
+
+"And you are twenty-three."
+
+"Right you are. That is my age at the present moment. Last night I was
+far older, and to-morrow, mayhap, I'll be years younger."
+
+"Be you a Christian Science?" she asked doubtfully.
+
+"Lord, no, child! I am an artist. What made you ask that?"
+
+"'Cause they don't believe in age. Miss Jupperskin told me about 'em.
+She's workin' up to it. But I must go back to my work."
+
+"So must I, Amarilly. My model will be here in a few moments to don your
+surplice. If you want to clean up my breakfast dishes you may do so, and
+then tackle the bedroom and the rest of the apartment."
+
+Three hours later, Amarilly went into the studio. The model had gone,
+and the artist stood before his easel surveying his sketch with
+approval.
+
+"This is going to be a good picture, Amarilly. The model caught my idea.
+There is some fore--"
+
+"Mr. Phillips!"
+
+"My name is Derry. I am too young to be 'mistered.'"
+
+There was no response, and with a smile he turned inquiringly toward
+her. There was a wan little droop about the corners of her eyes and lips
+that brought contrition to his boyish heart.
+
+"Amarilly you are tired! You have worked too steadily. Sit down and rest
+awhile."
+
+"'Tain't that! I'm hungry. Kin I het up the coffee and--"
+
+"Good gracious, Amarilly! I forgot you ate at regular, stated intervals.
+We will go right out now to a nice little restaurant near by and eat our
+luncheon together."
+
+Amarilly flushed.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry. That's orful nice in you, but I'd ruther eat
+here. Thar's the toast and coffee to het, and an aig--"
+
+"No! You are going to have a good, square meal and eat it with me. You
+see I had to eat my birthday dinner all alone, so we'll celebrate the
+first of June now, together. Slip off your apron. By the way, some day I
+shall paint a picture of you in that apron scrubbing my 'mopboard.'"
+
+Amarilly shook her head.
+
+"I don't look fit to go nowhars with you, Mr. Derry."
+
+"Vanitas, and the rest of it! Oh, Amarilly, only thirteen, and the
+ruling passion of your sex already in full sway!"
+
+"It's on your account that I'm ashamed," she said in defence of his
+accusation. "I'd want ter look nice fer you."
+
+"That's sweet of you, Amarilly; but if you really want to look nice,
+don't think of your clothes. It's other things. Think of your hair, for
+instance. It's your best point, and yet you hide it under a bushel and,
+worse than that, you braid it so tight I verily believe it's wired."
+
+"I'm used to bein' teased about my red head," she replied. "I don't
+keer."
+
+"It's a glorious red, Amarilly. The color the vulgar jeer at, and
+artists like your friend and twin, Derry, rave over. You're what is
+called 'Titian-haired,'"
+
+"Are you makin' fun, Mr. Derry?" she asked suspiciously.
+
+"No, Amarilly; seriously, I think it the loveliest shade of hair there
+is, and now I am going to show you how you should wear it. Unbind it,
+all four of those skin-tight braids."
+
+She obeyed him, and a loosened, thick mass of hair fell below her waist.
+
+"Glorious!" he cried fervidly. "Take that comb from the top of your head
+and comb it out. There! Now part it, and catch up these strands
+loosely--so. I must find a ribbon for a bow. What color would you
+suggest, Amarilly?"
+
+"Brown."
+
+"Bravo, Amarilly. If you had said blue, I should have lost all faith in
+your future upcoming. Here are two most beautiful brown bows on this
+thingamajig some one gave me last Christmas, and whose claim on creation
+I never discovered. Let me braid your hair loosely for two and
+one-quarter inches. One bow here--another there. Look in the glass,
+Amarilly. If I give you these bows will you promise me never to wear
+your hair in any other fashion until you are sixteen at least? Off with
+your apron! It's picturesque, but soapy and exceedingly wet. You won't
+need a hat. It's only around the corner, and I want your hair to be
+observed and admired."
+
+Amarilly gained assurance from the reflection of her hair in the mirror,
+and they started gayly forth like two school children out for a lark. He
+ushered her into a quiet little café that had an air of pronounced
+elegance about it. In a secluded corner behind some palms came the
+subdued notes of stringed instruments. Derry seemed to be well known
+here, and his waiter viewed his approach with an air of proprietorship.
+
+"It's dead quiet here," thought Amarilly wonderingly. "Like a church."
+
+It was beginning to dawn upon her alert little brain that real things
+were all quiet, not noisy like the theatre.
+
+"What shall we have first, Amarilly?" inquired her new friend with mock
+deference. "Bouillon?"
+
+Amarilly, recalling the one time in her life when she had had
+"luncheon," replied casually that she preferred fruit, and suggested a
+melon.
+
+"Good, Amarilly! You are a natural epicure. Fruit, certainly, on a warm
+day like this. I shall let you select all the courses. What next?"
+
+"Lobster," she replied nonchalantly.
+
+"Fine! And then?"
+
+"Grapefruit salad."
+
+He looked at her in amazement, and reflected that she had doubtless been
+employed in some capacity that had made her acquainted with luncheon
+menus.
+
+"And," concluded Amarilly, without waiting for prompting, "I think an
+ice would be about right. And coffee in a little cup, and some cheese."
+
+"By all means, Amarilly," he responded humbly. "And what kind of cheese,
+please?"
+
+"Now I'm stumped," thought Amarilly ruefully, "fer I can't 'member how
+to speak the kind she hed."
+
+"Most any kind," she said loftily, "except that kind you put in
+mousetraps."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you are a true aristocrat! How comes it that you scrub
+floors? Is it on a bet?"
+
+The waiter came up and said something to the artist in a low tone, and
+Derry replied hastily:
+
+"Nothing to-day." Then, turning to Amarilly, he asked her if she would
+like a glass of milk. Upon her assent, he ordered two glasses of milk,
+to the veiled surprise of the waiter.
+
+When the luncheon was served, Amarilly, by reason of her good memory,
+was still at ease. The children at the Guild school had been given a few
+general rules in table deportment, but Amarilly had followed every
+movement of Colette's so faithfully at the eventful luncheon that she
+ate very slowly, used the proper forks and spoons, and won Derry's
+undisguised admiration.
+
+"Mr. Vedder's, good," she thought. "Mr. St. John's grand, but this 'ere
+Mr. Derry's folksy. I'd be skeert settin' here eatin' with Mr. St. John,
+but this feller's only a kid, and I feel quite to hum with him."
+
+"Amarilly," he said confidentially, as they were sipping their coffee
+from "little cups," "you are truthful, I know. Will you be perfectly
+frank with me and answer a question?"
+
+"Mebby," she replied warily.
+
+"Did you ever eat a luncheon like this before?"
+
+"I never seen the inside of a restyrant afore," she replied.
+
+"Now you are fencing. I mean, did you ever have the same things to eat
+that we had just now?"
+
+Amarilly hesitated, longing to mystify him further, but it came over her
+in a rush how very kind he had been to her.
+
+"Yes, I hev. I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"Good! An after-dinner story! Beat her up, Amarilly!"
+
+So she told him of her patroness and the luncheon she had eaten at her
+house.
+
+"And I watched how she et and done, and she tole me the names of the
+things we hed. I writ them out, and that was my lesson that night with
+the Boarder."
+
+Then, of course, Derry must know all about the Boarder and the brothers.
+After she had finished her faithful descriptions, it was time to return
+to the studio. Her quick, keen eyes had noted the size of the bill Derry
+had put on the salver, and the small amount of change he had received.
+She walked home beside him in troubled silence.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly?" he asked as she was buttoning on her
+apron preparatory to resuming work. "Didn't the luncheon agree with you,
+or are you mad at me? And for why, pray?"
+
+Amarilly's thin little face flushed and a tear came into each thoughtful
+eye.
+
+"I hedn't orter to hev tole you ter git all them things. I was atryin'
+ter be smart and show off, but, honest, I didn't know they was agoin'
+ter cost so much. I ain't agoin' ter take no money fer the cleanin', and
+that'll help some."
+
+Derry laughed rapturously.
+
+"My dear child!" he exclaimed, when he could speak. "You are a veritable
+little field daisy. You really saved me money by going with me. If I had
+gone alone, I should have spent twice as much."
+
+"How could that be?" she asked unbelievingly. "You would only hev give
+one order, so 'twould hev ben jest half as much."
+
+"But if you had not been with me, I should have had a cocktail and a
+bottle of wine, which would have cost more than our meal. Out of
+deference to your youth and other things, I forbore to indulge. So you
+see I saved money by having you along. And then it was much better for
+me not to have had those libations."
+
+"Honest true?"
+
+"Honest true, hope to die! Cross my heart and all the rest of it! I'd
+lie cheerfully to some people, but never to you, Amarilly."
+
+"My. Reeves-Eggleston--he's on the stage--said artists was allers poor."
+
+"That's one reason why I am not an artist--a great artist. I am hampered
+by an inheritance that allows me to live without working, so I don't do
+anything worth while. I only dabble at this and that. Some day, maybe,
+I'll have an inspiration."
+
+"Go to work now," she admonished.
+
+"I must perforce. My model's foot is on the stair."
+
+Amarilly left the studio to resume her cleaning. At five o'clock she
+came back. Derry stood at the window, working furiously at some fleecy
+clouds sailing over a cerulean sky. She was about to speak, but
+discerning that he must work speedily and uninterruptedly to keep pace
+with the shifting clouds, she refrained.
+
+"There!" he said. "I got it. You were a good little girl not to
+interrupt me, Amarilly."
+
+"It's beautiful!" gasped Amarilly. "I was afeard you'd git the sky blue
+instead of purplish and that you'd make the clouds too white."
+
+"Amarilly, you've the soul of an artist! In you I have found a true
+critic."
+
+"Come and see if the rooms is all right. I got 'em real clean. Every
+nook and corner. And--"
+
+"I know you did, Amarilly, without looking. I can smell the clean from
+here."
+
+"If thar's nothin' more you want did, I'll go hum."
+
+"Here's a dollar for the rooms and two dollars for the surplice.
+Amarilly, you were glad to learn table manners from Miss King, weren't
+you?"
+
+"Yes; I like to larn all I kin."
+
+"Then, will you let me teach you something?"
+
+"Sure!" she acquiesced quickly.
+
+"There are two things you must do for me. Never say 'et'; say 'ate'
+instead. Then you must say 'can'; not 'kin.' It will be hard to remember
+at first, but every time you forget and make a mistake, remember to-day
+and our jolly little luncheon, will you?"
+
+"I will, and I _can_, Mr. Derry."
+
+"You're an apt little pupil, Amarilly, and I am going to teach you two
+words every time you come."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Amarilly, brightening. "Will you want me ter come agin?"
+
+"Indeed I shall. I am going away next week to the mountains for a couple
+of months. When I come back, I am going to have you come every morning
+at nine o'clock. You can prepare and serve my simple breakfast and clean
+my rooms every day. Then they won't get so disreputable. I will pay you
+what they do at the theatre, and it will not be such hard work. Will you
+enjoy it as well?"
+
+"Oh, better!" exclaimed Amarilly.
+
+And with this naive admission died the last spark of Amarilly's
+stage-lust.
+
+"Then consider yourself engaged. You can call for the surplice to-morrow
+afternoon at this hour."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry."
+
+She hesitated, and then awkwardly extended her hand, which he shook most
+cordially.
+
+"Thank you for a day's entertainment, Amarilly. I haven't been bored
+once. You have very nice hands," looking down at the one he still held.
+
+She reddened and jerked her hand quickly away.
+
+"Now you _are_ kiddin'! They're redder than my hair, and rough and big."
+
+"I repeat, Amarilly, you have nice hands. It isn't size and color that
+counts; it's shape, and from an artist's standpoint you have shapely
+hands. Now will you be good, and shake hands with me in a perfectly
+ladylike way? Thank you, Amarilly."
+
+"Thank _you_, Mr. Derry. It's the beautifulest day I ever hed. Better'n
+the matinée or the Guild or--" she drew a quick breath and said in a
+scared whisper--"the church!"
+
+"I am flattered, Amarilly. We shall have many ruby-lettered days like
+it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+The next afternoon Amarilly called at the studio for the surplice.
+
+"I am glad to see you have your hair fixed as I told you, Amarilly," was
+Derry's greeting. "And have you remembered the other things I told you?"
+
+"I hev' writ out 'can' and 'ate' in big letters and pinned 'em up on the
+wall. I can say 'em right every time now."
+
+"Of course you can! And for a reward here's a dollar with which to buy
+some black velvet hair-ribbons. Never put any color but black or brown
+near your hair, Amarilly."
+
+"No, Mr. Derry; but I don't want to take the dollar."
+
+"See here, Amarilly! You're to be my little housemaid, and the uniform
+is always provided. Instead of buying you a cap and apron, I prefer to
+furnish velvet hair-ribbons. Take it, and get a good quality silk
+velvet. And now, good-by for two months. I will let you know when I am
+home so that you may begin on your duties."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry," said the little girl artlessly. "And thar's
+something I'd like to say to you, if you don't mind."
+
+"You may say anything--everything--to me, Amarilly."
+
+"When you go to eat, won't you order jest as ef I was with you--nothin'
+more?"
+
+His fair boyish face reddened slightly, and then a serious look came
+into his dancing eyes.
+
+"By Jove, Amarilly! I've been wishing some girl who really meant it, who
+really cared, would say that to me. You put it very delicately and
+sweetly. I'll--yes, I'll do it all the time I'm gone. There's my hand on
+it. Good-by, Amarilly."
+
+"Good-by, Mr. Derry."
+
+Amarilly walked home very slowly, trying to think of a way to realize
+again from the surplice.
+
+"I'm afeerd I won't find a place to rent it right away," she sighed.
+
+Looking up, she saw the Boarder. A slender, shy slip of a girl had his
+arm, and he was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration.
+
+"Oh, the Boarder is in love!" gasped Amarilly; her responsive little
+heart leaping in sympathetic interest. "That's why he's wore a blue
+necktie the last few days. Lord Algernon said that was allers a sure
+sign."
+
+She tactfully slipped around a corner, unseen by the entranced couple.
+
+That night, as he was lighting his after-supper pipe, the Boarder
+remarked casually:
+
+"I'd like to rent the surplus fer an hour to-morrer, Amarilly."
+
+"Why, what on airth can you do with it?" was the astonished query.
+
+The Boarder looked sheepish.
+
+"You see, Amarilly, I'm akeepin' stiddy company with a little gal."
+
+"I seen you and her this arternoon. She's orful purty," said Amarilly
+reflectively. "She looked kinder delikit, though. What's her name?"
+
+"Lily--Lily Rose. Ain't that a purty name?"
+
+"Beautiful. The lily part jest suits her. She's like a flower--a white
+flower. But what do you want the surplus fer?"
+
+"You see," began the Boarder, coming by circuitous route to his subject,
+"gals git notions in their heads sometimes when they air in--"
+
+"Love," promptly supplied the comprehending little girl.
+
+"Yes," he assented with a fiery blush. "And she wants fer me to hev my
+likeness took so I kin give it to her."
+
+"Thar ain't nothin' foolish about that!" declared Amarilly.
+
+"No; but I never sot fer one yet. I wouldn't mind, but you see she's got
+it in her head that I am good-looking--"
+
+"Well, you be," corroborated Amarilly decisively.
+
+"And she wants me fer to dress up like a preacher. I told her about
+Hallie Hudgers lookin' so swell in the surplus, and she wants, as I
+should dress up in it and set fer my likeness in it."
+
+"I think it would be fine!" approved Amarilly. "You sure would look
+nicer nor Hallie did."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't look like a dead one," admitted the Boarder. "But I
+was orful afraid you'd laugh. Then I kin rent it fer an hour to-morrer
+ef it ain't got no other dates."
+
+"You can't _rent_ it. You can take it fer an hour, or so long as you
+like," she assured him.
+
+"You'll hev to take a quarter anyway, fer luck. Mebby 'twill bring me
+luck awinnin' her."
+
+The photograph of the Boarder in saintly attire was pronounced a great
+success. Before the presentation he had it set in a frame made of gilt
+network studded with shells.
+
+Lily Rose spent her leisure moments gazing upon it with the dream-
+centred eyes of a young devotee before a shrine.
+
+The next wearing of the surplice was more in accord with its original
+design. In the precinct adjoining the one in which lived and let live
+the Jenkins family, a colored Episcopal church had recently been
+established. The rector had but one surplice, and that had been stolen
+from the clothes-line, mayhap by one of his dusky flock; thus it was
+that Amarilly received a call from the Reverend Virgil Washington, who
+had heard of the errant surplice, which he offered to purchase.
+
+Naturally his proposition was met by a firm and unalterable refusal. It
+would have been like selling a golden goose to dispose of such a
+profitable commodity. He then asked to rent it for a Sunday while he was
+having one made. This application, being quite in Amarilly's line of
+business, met with a ready assent.
+
+"You can hev it fer a dollar," she offered.
+
+The bargain was finally closed, although it gave Amarilly more than a
+passing pang to think of the snowy folds of Mr. St. John's garment
+adorning an Ethiopian form.
+
+One day there came to the Jenkins home a most unusual caller. The novel
+presence of the "mailman" at their door brought every neighbor to post
+of observation. His call was for the purpose of leaving a gayly-colored
+postal card addressed to "Miss Amarilly Jenkins." It was from Derry, and
+she spent many happy moments in deciphering it. His writing was
+microscopic, and he managed to convey a great deal of information in the
+allotted small space. He inquired solicitously concerning the surplice,
+and bade her be a good girl and not forget the two words he had taught
+her. "I have ordered all my meals as though you were with me," he wrote
+in conclusion.
+
+Amarilly laid the card away with her wedding waist. Then, with the
+Boarder's aid, she indited an answer on a card that depicted the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+The next event for Amarilly was an invitation to attend the wedding of
+Mrs. Hubbleston, a buxom, bustling widow for whom Mrs. Jenkins washed.
+In delivering the clothes, Amarilly had come to be on very friendly
+terms with the big, light-hearted woman, and so she had been asked to
+assist in the serving of refreshments on the eventful night.
+
+"I've never been to a wedding," said Amarilly wistfully. "I've been to
+most everything else, and I would like to see you wed, but I ain't got
+no clo'es 'cept my hair-ribbons."
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston looked at her contemplatively.
+
+"My last husband's niece's little girl left a dress here once when she
+was going home after a visit. She had hardly worn it, but she had
+outgrown it, and her ma told me to give it away. I had 'most forgotten
+about it. I believe it would just fit you. Let us see."
+
+She produced a white dress that adjusted itself comfortably to
+Amarilly's form.
+
+"You look real pretty in white, Amarilly. You shall have this dress for
+your own."
+
+On the nuptial night Amarilly, clad in the white gown and with black
+velvet hair-ribbons, went forth at an early hour to the house of
+festivity.
+
+Mrs. Hubbleston, resplendent in a glittering jetted gown, came into the
+kitchen to see that things were progressing properly.
+
+"Ain't you flustered?" asked Amarilly, looking at her in awe.
+
+"Land, no, child! I have been married four times before this, you see,
+so it comes natural. There goes the doorbell. It must be Mr. Jimmels and
+the minister."
+
+In a few moments she returned to the kitchen for sympathy.
+
+"I am so disappointed," she sighed, "but then, I might have expected
+something would happen. It always does at my weddings."
+
+"What is it?" asked Amarilly, apprehensive lest the wedding might be
+declared off.
+
+"I've been married once by a Baptist minister, once by a Methodist, and
+the third time by a Congregationalist; last time a Unitarian tied the
+knot. So this once I thought I would have an Episcopal, because their
+white robe lends tone. And Rev. Mr. Woodthorn has come without his. He
+says he never brings it to the house weddings unless specially
+requested. He lives clear across the city, and the carriage has gone
+away."
+
+"Oh, I have a surplus!" cried Amarilly enthusiastically. "I'll telephone
+our grocer. Milt's ahelpin' him to-night, and he can ride over here on
+the grocer's wheel and fetch it."
+
+"Why, how in the world did you come by such a thing as a surplice?"
+asked the widow in surprise.
+
+Amarilly quickly explained, and then telephoned to her brother.
+
+"He says he'll be over here in a jiffy," she announced. "And ain't it
+lucky, it's jest been did up clean!"
+
+"My, but that's fortunate! It'll be the making of my wedding. I shall
+give you a dollar for the use of it, the same as those others did."
+
+"No!" objected Amarilly. "Ill be more than glad to let you hev it arter
+your givin' me this fine dress."
+
+"I'll have Mr. Jimmels pay you for it. He can take a dollar out of the
+fee for the minister. It will serve him right for not bringing all his
+trappings with him."
+
+Amarilly's sense of justice was appeased by this arrangement. She went
+into the double parlors to witness the ceremony, which gave her a few
+little heart thrills.
+
+"Them words sounds orful nice," she thought approvingly. "The Boarder
+and Lily Rose must hev an Episcopal fer to marry them. I wonder if I'll
+ever get to Miss King's and Mr. St. John's weddin' or Mr. Derry's; but I
+guess he'll never be married. He jokes too much to be thinkin' of sech
+things." Then came the thought of her own wedding garment awaiting its
+destiny.
+
+"I ain't even hed a beau, yet," she sighed, "but the Boarder says that I
+will--that red-headed girls ain't never old maids from ch'ice."
+
+With this sustaining thought, she proceeded to the dining-room. She had
+been taught at the Guild how to wait on table, and she proved herself to
+be very deft and capable in putting her instructions into effect.
+
+"Here's two dollars," the complacent bride said to Amarilly before
+departing. "One is for serving so nicely, and one is for the surplice. I
+told them in the kitchen to put you up a basket of things to take home
+to the children."
+
+Amarilly thanked her profusely and then went home. She deposited her two
+dollars in the family exchequer, and proceeded to distribute the
+contents of the basket.
+
+"Now, set around the table here, and take what I give you. Thar ain't
+enough of one thing to go hull way round, except fer ma. She's agoin' to
+hev some of each. Yes, you be, ma. This here baskit's mine. Here's a
+sandwich, some chicken, salid, jell, two kinds of cake, and some ice-
+cream fer you. Bud can hev first pick now, 'cause he ain't so strong as
+the rest of you. All right, Bud; take the rest of the ice-cream and some
+cake."
+
+"'Tain't fair! I'm a girl, and I'm younger than Bud. I'd orter choose
+first," sobbed Cory.
+
+"Shut up, Co! You'll wake Iry, and then he'll hev to hev something, and
+if he sleeps right through, thar'll be jest so much more fer you.
+'Twon't hurt him to miss what he don't know about. All right, Cory, you
+can hev cake and jell. That's a good boy, Bud, to give her two tastes of
+the cream, and ma'll give you two more. Bobby? Sandwiches and pickle.
+Milt? Chicken and salid. Flammy and Gus, pickle and sandwich is all
+that's left fer you. The rest of this chicken is agoin' into the
+Boarder's dinner pail to-morrer."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Milton came home from the grocery one night with a telephone message
+from Mr. Vedder requesting Amarilly to bring the surplice to his rooms
+on the next day.
+
+"How is business?" asked the ticket-seller kindly, when the little girl
+appeared in answer to his summons.
+
+"Fine! The surplus has brung in nine dollars and seventy-five cents
+a'ready. It's kept things goin'."
+
+"The theatre will open in a couple of weeks, and then you will have
+steady work, though I wish we might get an easier and pleasanter
+occupation for you."
+
+"I'm agoin' to hev one, Mr. Vedder," and she proceeded to tell him of
+Derry and her engagement at his studio.
+
+"It kinder seems as if I b'longed to the theayter, and you've been so
+orful kind to me, Mr. Vedder, that it'll seem strange-like not to be
+here, but Mr. Phillips's work'll be a snap fer me."
+
+"You've been a good, faithful little girl, Amarilly, and I shall want to
+keep track of you and see you occasionally, so I am going to give you a
+pass to every Saturday matinée during the winter."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Vedder, there's been no one so good as you've been to me! And
+you never laugh at me like other folks do."
+
+"No, indeed, child! Why should I? But I never knew before that you had
+such beautiful hair!"
+
+"It's 'cause it's fixed better," said Amarilly with a blush. "But who
+wants the surplus this time?"
+
+"I do," he replied smiling. "I am invited to a sheet and pillow-case
+party. I thought this surplice would be more comfortable than a sheet.
+Here's a dollar for it."
+
+"No," declined Amarilly firmly. "Not arter all you've done fer us. I
+won't take it."
+
+"Amarilly," he said earnestly. "I have no one in the world to do
+anything for, and sometimes, when I get to thinking about it, I am very
+lonely. So if you want to be kind to me, you will give me the pleasure
+of helping you a little now and then. I shall not enjoy the party unless
+you will take the money."
+
+Amarilly cried a little that night, thinking how good he was.
+
+"I hed orter like him best of all," she thought reproachfully.
+
+Two or three days later Pete Noyes came to the house.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly! I ain't seen yer in so long I'd fergit how you looked.
+Say, why didn't you ever fix yer hair that way afore? It looks swell,
+even if it is red!"
+
+"I am older now," she explained in superior, lofty tones, "and of course
+I hev to think more about my looks than I used ter."
+
+He gazed at her with such ardent admiration that she was seized with an
+impulse to don her white dress and impress his young fancy still
+further.
+
+"He ain't wuth it, though," her sober second thought decided.
+
+"What does yer think I come fer, Amarilly?"
+
+"I dunno, 'less Mr. Vedder sent you."
+
+"He did, sorter. You see, I'm invited to one of them kind of parties
+whar you dress up ter be the name of a book. One of the stock company is
+givin' it fer her kids. I don't know the name of any book except
+_Diamond Dick_ and _The Curse of Gold_, and I didn't know how to rig up
+fer them. I went to Vedder, and he sez thar's a book what's called _The
+Little Minister_, and I could rent yer surplus and tog out in it. He
+said you would take tucks in it fer me."
+
+"Sure I will. I'll fix it now while you wait, Pete."
+
+"Say, Amarilly, I thought as how, seein' we are both in the perfesshun,
+sorter, you'd come down on your price."
+
+"Sure thing, Pete. I won't charge you nothin' fer it."
+
+"Yes; I wanter pay. I'll tell you what, Amarilly, couldn't you take it
+out in gum? I hed a hull lot left over when the theayter shut down.
+It'll git stale ef I keep it much longer, and I'd like to git some of it
+offen my hands."
+
+"Sure, I will, Pete. We all like gum, and we can't afford to buy it very
+often. That'll be dandy."
+
+Thus it was that for the next fortnight the Jenkins family revelled in
+the indulgence of a hitherto denied but dearly prized luxury. Their jaws
+worked constantly and joyously, although differently. Mrs. Jenkins, by
+reason of depending upon her third set of teeth, chewed cautiously and
+with camel-like precision. The Boarder, having had long practice in the
+art, craunched at railway speed. The older boys munched steadily and
+easily, while Bud and Bobby pecked intermittently in short nibbles.
+Amarilly had the "star method," which they all vainly tried to emulate.
+At short and regular intervals a torpedo-like report issued from the gum
+as she snapped her teeth down upon it. Cory kept hers strung out
+elastically from her mouth, occasionally rolling it back.
+
+The liberal supply of the luxury rapidly diminished, owing to the fact
+that Iry swallowed his allowance after ineffectual efforts to retain it
+in his mouth, and then like Oliver Twist pleaded for more.
+
+"I declare fer it!" remarked Mrs. Hudgers to Amarilly. "That child's
+insides will all be stuck together. I should think yer ma would be
+afeard to let him chaw so much."
+
+"He's ateethin', and it sorter soothes his gums," explained Amarilly.
+
+During the summer season, Pete had pursued his profession at a
+vaudeville theatre, and one day, not long after his literary
+representation, he came to Amarilly with some good tidings.
+
+"I hev another job fer yer surplus. Down to the vawdyville they're goin'
+to put on a piece what has a preacher in it, and I tole them about yer
+surplus, and the leadin' man, who is to be the preacher, says 'twould
+lend to the settin's to wear it. I told him mebby you'd let him hev the
+use on it fer a week fer five dollars. He said he could buy the stuff
+and make a dozen fer that price, but they gotter start the piece
+to-night so that'd be no time to make one. I'll take it down to them
+to-night."
+
+This was the longest and most remunerative act of the surplice, and
+served to pay for a very long accruing milk bill. When the engagement at
+the vaudeville ended, the Boarder came to the rescue.
+
+"Thar's a friend of mine what brakes, and he wants the surplus to wear
+to a maskyrade. I told him he could go as a preacher. He's asavin' to
+git merried, so he don't want to give much."
+
+"He shell hev it fer a quarter," said Amarilly, friend to all lovers,
+"and I'll lend him a mask. I hev one the property man at the theayter
+give me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+"I wonder," meditated Gus, "where the surplus will land next?"
+
+"It has been most everywhere except to the police court," said Bobby.
+"'Spect 'twill land there next!"
+
+His prophecy was fulfilled. Mrs. Jenkins washed the lucrative garment
+late one afternoon and left it on the line all night. The next morning,
+to the great consternation of the family and the wild distress of
+Amarilly, the beloved surplice, that friend of friends in time of need,
+had vanished. Other clotheslines in the vicinity had also been deprived
+of their burdens, and a concerted complaint was made to the police, who
+promptly located the offender and brought him summarily to trial. Mrs.
+Jenkins was subpoenaed as a witness, which caused quite a ripple of
+excitement in the family. Divided between dread of appearing in public
+and pride at the importance with which she was regarded by her little
+flock, Mrs. Jenkins was quite upset by the occasion. She hadn't attended
+a function for so long that her costuming therefor was of more concern
+than had been Amarilly's church raiment.
+
+Mrs. Hudgers loaned her mourning bonnet and veil, which was adjusted at
+half mast. They appeared in direct contradiction to the skirt of bilious
+green she wore, but the Jenkinses were as unconventional in attire as
+they were in other things.
+
+The family attended the trial _en masse_, and were greatly elated at the
+prominence their mother had attained. The culprit was convicted and the
+surplice duly restored. The misfortune was not without profit. Mrs.
+Jenkins received thirty-five cents as a witness fee.
+
+They had managed to pay their household expenses through the summer, but
+when the rent for August was due there was not quite enough cash on hand
+to meet this important item of expenditure. Noting the troubled brows of
+Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly at breakfast time, the Boarder insisted on
+knowing the cause.
+
+"We're broke, and the rent's overdue," tersely explained Amarilly.
+
+"I'm broke, too," sighed the Boarder, "except what I've got in the
+savin's bank towards--"
+
+"Lily Rose," suggested Amarilly softly.
+
+"Yes," he admitted, with a beaming look. "But when I go broke, all other
+things failin', I allers tackle a pawnbroker."
+
+"We ain't got nothin' to pawn," sighed Amarilly.
+
+She recalled the lace waist, but that, like the Lily Rose fund, was
+sacred. There was always, to-day, yesterday, and forever, the surplice,
+and her scruples regarding that article had of necessity become case-
+hardened; still, Amarilly hesitated. A pawnshop seemed lower than a
+police court.
+
+"It's been everywhere else," she said loudly to the accusing, still,
+small voice, "and it might jest as well go the limit. 'T won't bring
+much, but 'twill help."
+
+Through byways and highways Amarilly sought the region of the three-
+balled porticoes. The shop of one Max Solstein attracted her, and she
+entered his open door. Max, rat-eyed and frog-mouthed, came forward
+propitiatingly.
+
+"What'll you gimme on this?" came with directness from the small
+importuner.
+
+He took the garment, shook it, and held it up for falcon-gaze
+inspection.
+
+"Not worth much. A quarter of a dollar."
+
+Amarilly snatched it from his grasp and fled. Not because of his low-
+figured offer; she had fully expected to have to "beat him up." But when
+she had entered, a youth who had all the recognized earmarks of a
+reporter was lounging in the doorway. At sight of the uplifted garment
+he had come eagerly forward, scenting a story. She knew his kind from
+snatches of conversation she had heard between the leading lady and Lord
+Algernon. In the lore of the stage at Barlow's, reporters were "hovering
+vultures" who always dropped down when least wanted, and they had a way
+of dragging to light the innermost thoughts of their victims.
+
+"You read your secrets," Lord Algernon had dramatically declared, "in
+blazoned headlines."
+
+Hitherto Amarilly had effectually silenced her instinctive rebellion
+against the profaning of St. John's surplice, but she had reached the
+limit. No Max Solstein, no threatening landlord, no ruthless reporter
+should thrust the sacred surplice into the publicity of print.
+
+She darted from the shop, the reporter right at her heels, but the
+chasing of his covey to corner was not easily accomplished. He was a
+newly fledged reporter, and Amarilly had all the instinct of the lowly
+for localities. She turned and doubled and dodged successfully. By a
+course circuitous she returned to Hebrew haunts, this time to seek, one
+Abram Canter, a little wizened, gnome-like Jew. Assuring herself that
+there was no other than the proprietor within, Amarilly entered and
+handed over the surplice for appraisal.
+
+Once more the garment was held aloft. At that psychological moment an
+elderly man of buxom build, benevolent in mien, and with smooth, long
+hair that had an upward rolling tendency at the ends, looked in the shop
+as he was passing. He halted, hesitated, and then entered. Of him,
+however, Amarilly felt no apprehension.
+
+"Looks like Quaker Oats, or mebby it's the Jack of Spades," she thought
+after a searching survey.
+
+"My child, is that yours?" he asked of Amarilly, indicating the garment
+by a protesting forefinger.
+
+"Sure thing!" she acknowledged frankly.
+
+"Where did you get it?"
+
+If he had been a young man, Amarilly would have cheerfully reminded him
+that it was none of his business, but, a respecter of age, she loftily
+informed him that it had been "give to her."
+
+"By whom?" he persisted.
+
+Perceiving her reluctance to answer, he added gently:
+
+"I am a bishop of the Episcopal Church, and I cannot endure to see a
+surplice in such a place as this."
+
+A bishop! This was worse than a reporter even. St. John would surely
+hear of it! But she felt that an explanation was due the calling of her
+interlocutor.
+
+She lifted righteous eyes to his.
+
+"My mother works for one of the churches, and the minister, he give us
+this to cut up into clo'es fer the chillern, but we didn't cut it up.
+I'm agoin' to leave it here till the rent's paid, and we git the money
+to take it outen hock."
+
+The bishop's eyes softened, and lost their look of shocked dignity.
+
+"I will advance you the money," he offered. "I would much prefer to do
+so than to have it left here. How much money do you need to pay your
+rent?"
+
+"We need five dollars," said Amarilly, "to pay the balance of it. But I
+wouldn't take it from you. I ain't no beggar. I don't believe, nuther,"
+she continued, half to herself, "that Mr. St. John would like it."
+
+"Who is Mr. St. John?" he asked curiously. "I know of no such rector in
+this diocese. My child, you have an honest face. Since you won't accept
+a gift of money, I will lend, you the amount. I want you to tell me all
+about yourself and this surplice."
+
+"Well, mebby he'd want me to," reflected Amarilly.
+
+"Gimme back that surplus," she said to the Jew, who seemed loath to
+relinquish his booty.
+
+As she walked up the street with the bishop, she frankly related the
+family history and the part Mr. Meredith and the surplice had played
+therein.
+
+The bishop had generous instincts, and a desire to reach the needy
+directly instead of through the medium of institutions, but he had never
+known just how to approach them. His presence in this unknown part of
+the city had been unpremeditated, but he welcomed the chance that had
+led his steps hither to perform an errand of mercy. He handed Amarilly
+five dollars, and wrote down her address. He was most reluctant to
+receive the surplice as security, but Amarilly's firm insistence was not
+to be overcome. She returned home, rejoicing in the knowledge that she
+had the price of their happy home in her pocket. The bishop had given
+her his card, which she laid in a china saucer with other bits of
+pasteboard she had collected from Derry Phillips, Mr. Vedder, and Pete
+Noyes. The saucer adorned a small stand in the dining-room part of the
+house.
+
+"It's the way Mrs. Hubbleston kep' her keerds," Amarilly explained to
+the family.
+
+Meantime the bishop was walking in an opposite direction toward his
+home, wondering if he should find he was mistaken in his estimate of
+human nature; and a query arose in his mind as to what he should do with
+the surplice if it were left on his hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Bud sat in the park,--Clothes-line Park, Amarilly had dubbed it--one
+Monday afternoon, singing a song of gladness. The park was confined by a
+clothes-line stretched between three tottering poles and the one
+solitary poplar tree of the Jenkins estate. The line was hung with white
+linen garments, and smaller articles adorned the grass plot within the
+park.
+
+This to Bud was the most beautiful spot in the world. He looked up into
+the sapphire blue of the sky flecked with soft patches of white, then
+down upon the waving grass latticed by sun and shade; he listened to the
+soothing rustle of the poplar leaves, the soft flapping of linen in the
+breeze, the birds in the tree tops, and felt his heart and throat
+bursting with all the harmony and melody about him. Not always was Bud's
+refrain one of joy. There were songs of sorrow on the damp days when the
+washings must be dried within the house, and he could not venture forth
+because he still was regarded as the delicate one of the family. There
+were days, too, when the number of garments was not adequate to complete
+the boundary to the park, and that meant less to eat and worry about the
+rent and a harassed look in his mother's anxious eyes.
+
+But there was no sob in Bud's song this afternoon. The clothes had been
+hung out unusually early, and were nearly dry, so his mother had brought
+out her little lean-back rocker and sat beside him for a few moments to
+listen to his carol and to hark back to the days when his lusty-voiced
+father had sung to her in the shadows of a vine clad porch.
+
+It was not upon Amarilly, the sharer of her burdens, nor upon the baby
+that Mrs. Jenkins lavished her tenderness. Bud crept closest because he
+had been the one most dependent upon her care.
+
+When the little singer ceased, the mother arose and unpinned the
+garments, carrying them in armfuls to the huge basket in the middle of
+the park. Bud watched her thin, fatigued hands as they performed their
+accustomed task, and a sudden inspiration came to him. His future field
+of labor had troubled him. Now his way seemed clear. He stepped nimbly
+to the grass plot and gathered up the pieces spread thereon.
+
+"Ma," he said, as they met at the basket, "I've jest thought what I kin
+do, when I grow up, to support you."
+
+"What is it, Bud?" she asked interestedly.
+
+"The teacher said we must plan to do what we knew the most about. I know
+more about washin' than anything else."
+
+"You'd orter," she replied with a sigh.
+
+"I kin run a laundry," he declared.
+
+"That would be a fine business."
+
+Happy in the hope of this new horoscope, Bud resumed his seat in the
+amphitheatre, and in a voice of clarion clearness ecstatically rendered
+one of the hymns he had learned at St. Mark's. Ever since he had become
+a member of the choir, Clothes-line Park had rung with echoes of the
+Jubilate and Venite instead of the popular old-time school airs. The
+wringer was turned to the tune of a Te Deum, the clothes were rubbed to
+the rhythm of a Benedictus, and the floor mopped to the melody of a
+Magnificat.
+
+On the happy, by-gone Thursdays, cloistered by snow-white surplices,
+with the little chorister enthroned in the midst, Clothes-line Park had
+seemed a veritable White Chapel.
+
+Bud was snatched from his carols by the arrival of Amarilly, who was far
+too practical to hearken to hymns when there was work to be performed.
+
+"I got the money Miss Ormsby's owed us so long," she announced in a tone
+of satisfaction, "and that jest makes up the money to git back the
+surplus. I'll give you carfare one way, Bud, and you must go to the
+bishop's and git it. I'm too beat to go. I've walked most five miles
+sence dinner."
+
+Bud was scoured and brushed, the pocket of his blouse tagged with a
+five-dollar bill carefully secured by a safety pin, and he started on
+his way for the address Amarilly had given him. He stopped at the corner
+drug store to spend his car-fare for an ice-cream soda.
+
+When the lad's quest was repeated to the bishop by his housekeeper, he
+instructed her to send Bud up to the library, being kindly-disposed
+towards all boy-kind. While he was questioning his young visitor, the
+organ of Grace Church, which was next to the bishop's house, pealed
+forth, and a man's voice began to chant a selection from an oratorio Bud
+had learned at St. Mark's. A high, childish soprano voice was essaying
+to carry the sustained note an octave above the man's voice; once it
+sharped.
+
+"Oh!" shuddered Bud in dismay. "He can't keep the tune."
+
+"He isn't our regular soloist," explained the bishop apologetically. "He
+is ill, and this boy is trying to learn the part for an organ recital to
+be given next week."
+
+Again the choirmaster's voice, patient and wearied, began the refrain.
+Instinctively Bud's little chest swelled, and involuntarily his clear,
+high treble took the note and sustained it without break through the
+measures, and then triumphantly broke into the solo. The bishop's eyes
+shone.
+
+"Come," he said, rising and going towards the door, "come with me."
+
+Wonderingly and obediently, Bud followed him into the church and up to
+the organ where the choirmaster sat.
+
+"This is one of the boys from St. Mark's. Try him on the solo. He just
+sang it for me."
+
+"I thought I heard it sung just now, but I feared it was only an echo of
+my dreams. Let me hear you again, my lad."
+
+Easily and confidently Bud attacked the high C in alt. At the end of the
+solo, the long-suffering choirmaster looked as if he were an Orpheus,
+who had found his Eurydice.
+
+"Who taught you to sing that solo?" he demanded.
+
+"My school teacher. She is studying fer an opery singer, and she helps
+me with my Sunday singing."
+
+"I thought the style was a little florid for the organist of St.
+Mark's," said the choirmaster whimsically. "My boy, if you will sing it
+for us at the recital as well as you did just now, you shall have ten
+dollars."
+
+The laundry now loomed as a fixed star in Bud's firmament. When he went
+home and told his mother the good news she moved joyfully among her mops
+and tubs. The turn of the wringer never seemed so easy, and she
+frequently paused in the rubbing of a soaped garment to wring the suds
+from her swollen hands and listen anew to the recital of Bud's call upon
+the bishop and the choirmaster of Grace Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The next day the flood-tide of the Jenkins's fortunes bid fair to flow
+to fullness. Word came to the little home that Mr. Meredith had returned
+to the city and desired the laundry work to be resumed. Bud was summoned
+to choir practice the following Friday, and Miss King sent her chauffeur
+with a fair-sized washing.
+
+"Everything comes so to onct, it takes your breath away," said Amarilly,
+quite overcome by this renewal of commercial activity, "and next thing I
+know,"--there her heart gave a deer-like leap--"Mr. Derry'll be hum, and
+sendin' fer me. Then we'll all be earnin' excep' Gus."
+
+At the end of the week Amarilly eagerly went to deliver the washings at
+the rectory and Miss King's, but in both instances she was doomed to
+disappointment, as her friends were not in.
+
+"I'll go to church and see 'em," she resolved.
+
+This time her raiment was very simple, but more effective than upon the
+occasion of her previous attendance.
+
+Before Amarilly's artistic temperament was awakened by the atmosphere of
+the studio, she had been wont to array herself in things convenient
+without regard to color or style, believing herself to be hopelessly
+homely and beyond the aid of personal adornment; but since Derry had
+praised her hair, she had scrupulously cared for it and allowed no
+conflicting color in proximity thereto. On this occasion she fastened it
+with the black velvet bows, and arrayed herself in the white dress Mrs.
+Jimmels had given her.
+
+"I declar, Amarilly," exclaimed her mother, "I believe you're agrowin'
+purty!"
+
+Amarilly's eyes danced, and she gave her mother a spontaneous and
+rewarding hug.
+
+She didn't do her own ushering this time, and was consequently seated
+most inconspicuously near the entrance. Her heart beat rapturously at
+the sight of John Meredith in the pulpit.
+
+"His vacation didn't freshen him up much," she thought, after a shrewd
+glance. "He's paler and don't look real peart. Sorter like Bud arter he
+got up from the fever."
+
+Her attention was diverted from the rector by the vision of Colette
+coming down the aisle. The change in her appearance was even more
+startling to the little anxious-eyed girl than in John's case. There
+were violet shadows under the bright eyes, a subtle, subdued air about
+her fresh young beauty that had banished the little touch of wilfulness.
+As soon as she was seated, which was after the service had begun, she
+became entirely absorbed in her prayer-book.
+
+"Vacation ain't agreed with her, nuther," pondered Amarilly perplexedly.
+
+She turned her gaze again to John, who was sitting back of the choir,
+while his "understudy" conducted the service. His face was shaded by his
+hand, but Amarilly's gimlet glance noted that he frequently sent a
+fleeting, troubled look toward the King pew.
+
+"Thar's something up atwixt 'em," deduced Amarilly, "and they air both
+too proud to say nuthin' about it to the other."
+
+John's sermon was on the strength that renunciation brings, and the duty
+of learning resignation. There was a pervasive note of sadness in his
+deliverance of the theme, and Amarilly felt her joyousness in the return
+of her friends slipping from her.
+
+She went out of church somewhat depressed, but was cheered by the
+handclasp of the rector and his earnest assurance that he would see her
+very soon. While he was saying this, Colette slipped past without
+vouchsafing so much as a glance in their direction. Hurt through and
+through, the little girl walked sadly to the pavement with head and eyes
+downcast.
+
+"Amarilly," dulcetly spoke a well-loved voice.
+
+Her eyes turned quickly. Colette stood at the curb, her hand on the door
+of the electric.
+
+"I waited to take you home, dear. Why, what's the matter, Amarilly?
+Tears?"
+
+"I thought you wan't goin' to speak to me," said Amarilly, as she
+stepped into the brougham and took the seat beside Colette.
+
+"I didn't want to interrupt you and Mr. Meredith, but it's a wonder I
+knew you. You look so different. You have grown so tall, and what a
+beautiful dress! Who showed you how to fix your hair so artistically? I
+never realized you had such beautiful hair, child!"
+
+"I didn't nuther, till he told me."
+
+"Who, Amarilly? Lord Algernon?"
+
+"No!" scoffed Amarilly, suddenly realizing that her former hero had
+toppled from his pedestal in her thoughts. "'Tain't him. It's a new
+friend I have made. An artist."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you have such distinguished acquaintances! All in the
+profession, too. Tell me who the artist is."
+
+"Mr. Derry Phillips. I cleaned his rooms, and he took me to lunch. We
+ate things like we had to your house."
+
+"Derry Phillips, the talented young artist! Why, Amarilly, girls are
+tumbling over each other trying to get attention from him, and he took
+you to luncheon! Where?"
+
+"To Carter's, and I'm to serve his breakfast and take care of his rooms,
+and he showed me how to fix my hair and to say 'can' and 'ate.' He's
+fired the woman what red his rooms."
+
+"'Merely Mary Ann,'" murmured Colette.
+
+"No," said Amarilly positively. "Her name is Miss O'Leary, and she
+didn't clean the mopboards."
+
+Colette's gay laughter pealed forth.
+
+"Amarilly, this is the first time, I've laughed this summer, but I must
+explain something to you. The housekeeper told me that all the children
+had scarlet fever and were quarantined a long time after we left. I wish
+I had known it and thought more about you, but--I've had troubles of my
+own. How did you manage so long with nothing coming in?"
+
+"It was purty hard, but we fetched it," sighed Amarilly, thinking of the
+struggles, "We're doin' fine now again."
+
+"But, tell me; how did you buy food and things when none of you were
+working?"
+
+"When your ten dollars was gone, we spent his'n."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+"Mr. Meredith's. He sent us a ten, too."
+
+"Oh!" replied Colette frigidly.
+
+"Then the Boarder give us all he hed. Arterwards come dark days until
+Mr. Vedder sent us a fiver.--Then thar was an orful day when thar wa'n't
+a cent and we didn't know whar to turn, and then--It saved us."
+
+"It? What?"
+
+"The surplus. Mr. St. John's surplus. It brung in lots."
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly?"
+
+"You see 'twas at our house when Iry was fust took sick--same as the
+waist you gimme was. They couldn't nuther on 'em be sent hum till they
+was fumygated. Then Mrs. Winders said as how he, Mr. St. John, said as
+how we was to keep it and cut it up fer the chillern, but we didn't."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly," asked Colette faintly, "do you mean to tell me that the
+surplice was never delivered to Mr. Meredith?"
+
+"No. Gus didn't take it that night, and in the mornin' when Iry was took
+it was too late. And then when it got fumygated, Mr. St. John had gone
+away and he left word we was to keep it."
+
+The transformation in Colette's mobile face during this explanation was
+rapid and wonderful. With a radiant smile she stopped the brougham and
+put her arms impulsively about Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, I'm so happy, and I've had such a wretched summer! Now,
+we will go right to your house and you'll let me see the surplice."
+Amarilly looked surprised.
+
+"Why, yes, you can see it, of course, though it ain't no diffrent from
+his other ones."
+
+"Oh yes it is! Far, far different, Amarilly. It has a history."
+
+"Yes, I guess it has," laughed Amarilly, "It's been goin' some these
+last two months!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Amarilly? and I forgot in my excitement to ask
+how it helped you. But first tell me. You know there is a pocket in it?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King."
+
+"Have you noticed anything in the pocket?"
+
+"Never looked onct. But then if thar was 'twould hev come out in the
+wash. It's been did up heaps of times. You see, rentin' it out so
+much--"
+
+"Renting it out!"
+
+Amarilly gave a graphic account of the adventures of the errant garment
+to date. Meanwhile Colette's countenance underwent kaleidoscopic
+changes.
+
+"Amarilly," she asked faintly, "have you the addresses of all those
+people to whom you rented it?"
+
+"Yes; I keep books now, and I put it down in my day ledger the way the
+Boarder showed me."
+
+"There was something--of mine--in--that pocket. Will you ask your mother
+to look for it, and hunt the house over for it?"
+
+Amarilly, greatly distressed at the loss, promised faithfully to do so.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As soon as Amarilly had been deposited at her door, Colette tore a leaf
+from the tablet reposing in its silver case, hastily wrote a few lines,
+and then ran her brougham at full speed back to St. Mark's. A chorister
+was just coming out.
+
+"Walter!" she called.
+
+The lad came down to the curb.
+
+"Will you please take this to Mr. Meredith? He is probably in the
+Sunday-school now."
+
+"Sure. Will you wait for an answer, Miss King?".
+
+"No, thank you, Walter."
+
+She rode home and waited anxiously for the personal answer to her note,
+which came with most unclerical alacrity.
+
+"Colette," he said, his voice tense, "if you knew what your little note
+meant! Did--"
+
+"Wait until I explain, John. I must tell you about the surplice."
+
+She repeated Amarilly's account of the peregrinations of the robe.
+
+"Well?" he asked bewildered, "I don't see what that has to do with--"
+
+"Everything. There was something of mine--" she turned a deep
+crimson--"in the pocket of that surplice."
+
+"Yours! Why, how did it get there, Colette? Was it--"
+
+"I am not going to tell you--not until I have it back. Oh, I could die
+of shame when I think who may have found it. You must get it."
+
+"Colette," he answered gravely, "the surplice must have passed through
+many hands, but if it is possible to trace this--article, I will do so.
+Still, how can I make inquiries unless I know what it is?"
+
+"You can ask them, each and all, if they found anything in the pocket,"
+she replied. "And you must tell them you left it there."
+
+"And you won't trust me, Colette? Not after my long unhappy summer. And
+won't you give me an answer now to the note I wrote you last spring?"
+
+"No; I won't tell you anything! Not until you find that."
+
+"Be reasonable, Colette."
+
+His choice of an adjective was most unfortunate for his cause. It was
+the word of words that Colette detested; doubtless because she had been
+so often entreated to cultivate that quality.
+
+"I will not," she answered, "if to tell you is being reasonable. I must
+have it back. I think no one will really know to whom it belongs, though
+they may guess. You must, assume the ownership."
+
+"I certainly shall, if it can be found," he assured her.
+
+Seeing the utter futility of changing her mood, he took his departure;
+perhaps a little wiser if not quite so sad as he had been before he saw
+her. The next morning he called upon Amarilly, whom he found alone with
+Iry.
+
+"I am very sorry to learn that you had such a hard summer," he said
+kindly, "and I regret that I didn't know more about your affairs before
+I left the city, but I was too absorbed, I fear, in my own troubles."
+
+"How did you hear about us?" she asked curiously.
+
+"From Miss King."
+
+"Oh," said Amarilly happily, imagining that their trouble must have been
+patched up. Then another thought occurred to her which gave her a little
+heart palpitation. With intense anxiety depicted on her lineaments she
+asked tremulously: "Did she tell you about the surplus?"
+
+"Amarilly," and the tone was so reassuring that the little wrinkles of
+anxiety vanished, "when I gave you the surplice, I gave it to you
+unconditionally, and I am very glad that you put it to profit. But, you
+know, as Miss King told you, that there was something of value--of
+importance--in that pocket; something that must be found. My happiness
+depends entirely upon its recovery. Now, she tells me that you can give
+me the names and addresses of all the people through whose hands it
+passed."
+
+"Sure thing!" she replied with business-like alacrity. "You see the
+Boarder has been larnin' me bookkeepin', and so I keep all our accounts
+now in a big book the grocer give me."
+
+She produced a large, ledger-like book and laid it on the table for his
+inspection. He examined her system of bookkeeping with interest. Under
+the head of "Cr.," which she explained to him meant "brung in," was
+"Washins," "Boarder," "Flamingus," "Milt," "Bobby," "Bud." Below each
+of these subheads were dates and accounts. The page opposite, headed
+"Dr.," she translated, "means paid out."
+
+She turned a few leaves, and in big letters he read the word "Surplus."
+
+"This bein' a sort of extry account, the Boarder said to run it as a
+special and keep it seprut. If you'll set down, I'll read offer to you
+whar it has went."
+
+She began to read laboriously and slowly from the book, adding
+explanatory notes in glib tones.
+
+"'July 8. Mister Carrul, tenner, 1 doller. Pade.' He's the tenor, you
+know, to Grace Church. He wanted it to sing in at a sacred concert. His
+was too short or too long.
+
+"'July 11. Miss Lyte and Miss Bobson. 'Tablos. 1 doller. Pade.' Mr.
+Carul knows where they live. 'Twaz him as got the job fer me.
+
+"'July 15 to July 19. The Beehive. 3 dollers and 1/2 Pade.' That's a
+bargain store down in our parts. I went in fer to git Bud a cap and I
+hearn the clerk askin' the boss about fixin' up a winder show with wax
+figgers fer a weddin'. I step up to him and ask him if he kep surpluses,
+and he sez as he didn't. I told him I could rent him one to put on the
+minister, and he hedn't thought fer to hev it an Episcopal show, but he
+sed he'd do it fer an ad fer his white goods. He wouldn't stand fer no
+dollar a day. He beat me down to three-fifty, but he throwed in a cap
+fer Bud.
+
+"Next come Mrs. Hudgers. I didn't put it down in the ledger, though,
+cause it didn't bring nuthin' but a pan of doughnuts. Her son Hallie
+died, and he didn't hev no nice clo'es ter be laid out in, and she was
+agoin' to hev quite a funyral, so jest afore folks come, she slipped the
+surplus on ter him over his old clo'es, and then when 'twas over, she
+took it offen him again. He made a swell lookin' corpse. Bein' a
+neighbor we didn't go fer to ask her nuthin', but she give us the nut
+cakes. They give her dyspepsy, anyhow."
+
+The muscles of John Meredith's face grew rigid in his endeavor to
+maintain a serious expression. He had taken out a notebook at the
+beginning of the interview to jot down the addresses, but he copied
+Amarilly's comments as well, for the future entertainment of Colette.
+
+"'July 25 and 26. Mr. Derry Phillips, The Navarre. 2 dollers. Pade.' He
+paints picters. He painted the surplus onto a man playin' on a orgin."
+
+She hesitated a moment, and then continued: "I'm agoin' to work reg'lur
+fer him instead of to the theayter. I'm agoin' to git his breakfast and
+clean his rooms. He'll pay me the same as I got. He's a sort of
+eddicatin' me too."
+
+"Why, how is that, Amarilly?" asked John in perplexity.
+
+"He larnt me not to say 'et' and 'kin.'"
+
+The rector's eyes twinkled.
+
+"And," pursued Amarilly, after another moment of hesitancy, "he's larnt
+me how to fix my hair. He says red hair is beautiful! He took me to a
+restyrant."
+
+John looked troubled at this statement, and felt that his call at the
+studio would now be for a double purpose.
+
+"'July 27,'" resumed Amarilly. "'The Boarder. 25 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Why, what possible use could he have for a surplice?"
+
+"He's akeepin' company with a young gal--Lily Rose--and she wanted his
+likeness tooken sorter fancy-like, so he wuz took in the surplus, and he
+got himself framed in a gilt and shell frame, and she hez it ahangin'
+over her bed. I didn't want no pay from him, cause he give us his money
+when yours and Miss King's was gone, but he says as how it might bring
+him luck in gittin' her, so I took a quarter of a dollar.
+
+"'July 29. Mister Vergil Washington. Reckter Colered Church. 1 doller.
+Pade.' Some one stole his'n off en the clo'es-line, and he only hed one.
+
+"'July 31. Widder Hubbleston, 56 Wilkins St. 1 Doller. Pade.' She got
+merried by an Episcopal minister, and he furgot his surplus, and that
+was all she hed hired him fer, so she rented our'n fer him, and Mr.
+Jimmels, her new husband, took it outen the minister's pay. Somethin'
+allers goes wrong to her weddin's."
+
+"Does she have them often?" interrupted John gravely.
+
+"Quite frequent." "'Aug. 3, Mister Vedder, Ticket Seller to the
+Theayter. 1 doller. Pade.' He wore it to a sheet and piller case party.
+I didn't want fer to take nuthin' from him, cause he give us money when
+we hed the fever, but he wouldn't hev it that way.
+
+"'Aug. 5. Pete Noyes. Gum.' He's the boy what sells gum to the theayter.
+He was agoin' to a party whar you hev to be the name of a book. He wore
+the surplus so his name was the Little Minister. We took it out in gum--
+spruce and pepsin. Iry swallered his'n every time, and Miss Hudgers was
+afeard he'd be stuck together inside.
+
+"'Aug. 9-23. Vawdevil Theayter. 5 dollers. Pade.' They put it on fer a
+sketch.
+
+"'Aug. 25. Mister Cotter. 25 cents. Pade.' He's a brakeman friend of the
+Boarder. He wore it to a maskyrade.
+
+"'Aug. 27. Poleece. 35 cents. Pade.'"
+
+"Police!" ejaculated John faintly.
+
+"Some one swiped it offen our clo'es-line, and when the police ketched
+the thief, we was subpenyed, or ma was. She got thirty-five cents, and
+all on us 'cept Iry went to hear her."
+
+"'Aug, 29. Bishop Thurber. 5 dollers. Pade.'"
+
+"Bishop Thurber!" the name was repeated with the force of an expletive.
+
+"Seems to mind that more'n he did the police," thought Amarilly.
+
+"It's quite a story," she explained, "and though it was orful at the
+beginnin' it come out all right, jest as the plays all do. I jest
+thought, I shouldn't hev put that down in the account, cause we give
+back the five, so we didn't make nuthin' in a way. We wuz dead broke. I
+suppose," she ruminated, "you don't know jest how orful it is to be
+that."
+
+"I don't, Amarilly, from my own experience," replied John
+sympathetically, "but I can imagine how terrible it must be, and I am
+very sorry--"
+
+"Well, as long as it come out all right, it don't make no difference.
+We'd got to pay our rent or else git put out, and I was up a stump till
+the Boarder said to tackle a pawnshop. I didn't hev nuthin' but the
+surplus to pawn, and I hated to pawn it on your account."
+
+"I don't care, my child," was the fervent assurance, "where you took it
+as long as it helped you in your troubles."
+
+"Well, I was in a pawnshop, and the man was holdin' it up, and the
+bishop went by, and when he seen what it was he come in, and asked me
+all about it, and I told him. He took it worse than you do that I would
+pawn it, and to save it he lent me five dollers. Course I made him take
+the surplus till I hed the money to git it outen hock, and when we was
+able to pay fer it, Bud went arter it. Thar was a boy practicin' at the
+church next door, and he warn't singin' it right, and Bud he couldn't
+keep still noway, so he up and sings the soler, and when the man at the
+orgin hearn him, he fired the boy what was tryin' to sing, and hired Bud
+in his place. He's agoin' to sing to a recital at Grace Church day arter
+to-morrer, and git ten dollers. And we air goin' to make Bud bank all he
+gits cause he ain't so strong as the rest of us. He may need it some
+time. That's all the places the surplus went to. I guess I'll go outen
+the costumin' business now, 'cause I'll be startin' in with Mr. Derry
+soon."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+There was one little ominous cloud in the serene sky of Mrs. Jenkins's
+happiness. She had nothing suitable for the occasion of the organ
+recital in the way of wearing apparel.
+
+"I feel as if gloves was due you, Bud," she lamented, "but I kin't
+afford 'em. I guess I kin put my hands under my mantilly, though, and
+folks won't know."
+
+"She'd orter hev 'em, and she'd orter hev a new hat, too," reflected
+Bud, and his song became a requiem. He manfully resolved to sacrifice
+his future to present needs and curtail the laundry fund. After some
+meditation he called upon the bishop, and asked if he might have an
+advance of half the amount he would receive for his solo.
+
+The bishop readily assented, but sought the reason for the request.
+
+"My mother is comin' to the recital, but she ain't got no fixin's. I'm
+goin' to buy her a hat."
+
+"I am glad you think of your mother, my lad, but it would be well to let
+some older person select it for you. My housekeeper--"
+
+Bud's refusal was emphatic. He knew the kind of hat his mother wanted,
+and he had noted her quickly suppressed look of disappointment at the
+sombre hat donated by Mrs. Hudgers on the day of the police-court
+attendance.
+
+Upon receiving the five dollars he went directly to the Fashion
+Emporium, where the windows were filled with a heterogeneous assortment
+of gayly trimmed hats, marked enticingly with former and present prices.
+
+"I want a hat kivered with flowers," he announced.
+
+"Who for?" asked the young saleswoman.
+
+"For my mother."
+
+"How would you like a nice flower toque like this?" displaying a
+headgear of modest forget-me-nots.
+
+"That's all faded. Ain't you got any red flowers? If you haven't, I know
+a store where they keep 'em."
+
+The girl instantly sacrificed her ideas of what was fitting to the
+certainty of a sale, and quickly produced a hat of green foliage from
+which rose long-stemmed, nodding red poppies, "a creation marked down to
+three-ninety-eight," she informed him.
+
+"That's the kind! I'll take it and a pair of white gloves, too, if
+you've got some big ones fer a dollar."
+
+Bud hastened home with his purchases. His mother was quite overcome by
+the sight of such finery.
+
+"I never thought to be dressed up again," she exclaimed on the eventful
+night, "No one has bought me nuthin' to wear sence your pa died. I feel
+like I was some one outen a book."
+
+The entire family, save Iry, who was put to bed at a neighbor's, went to
+the recital. The Boarder took Lily Rose, who was quite flustered at her
+first appearance with the family.
+
+John and Colette occupied a pew directly opposite the family. Mr. Vedder
+and Pete were also in attendance.
+
+When the bishop came from the vestry and walked down the aisle to his
+pew, his eyes fell upon the worn, seamed face of Bud's mother, the weary
+patient eyes in such odd contrast to the youthful turban with its
+smartly dancing flowers. Something stirred in his well-regulated heart,
+and he carefully wiped his glasses.
+
+At the signal from the choirmaster for the solo of the oratorio, Bud
+arose. An atom of a boy he looked in the vast, vaulted chancel, and for
+the first time he knew fear at the thought of singing. It was a terrible
+thing, after all, to face this sea of staring, dancing people. As
+lightning reaches to steel, the gay poppies nodding so nervously above
+his mother's white, anxious face sought the courage place within, and
+urged him on. He felt himself back in Clothes-line Park, alone with his
+mother and the blue sky.
+
+The little figure filled itself with a long, deep breath. The high,
+clear note merged into one with the notes of the chorus. It touched the
+tones of the accompaniment in harmony true, and swelled into grand,
+triumphant music.
+
+"He looks like he did arter the fever," thought Amarilly anxiously.
+
+When he came down the aisle with the choir, the ethereal look had left
+his face, and he was again a happy little boy. He gave his mother a gay
+nod, and bestowed a wink upon the Boarder. He waited outside and the
+family wended their way homeward.
+
+There had not been time to bring in the clothes before leaving, but a
+willing neighborhood had guarded the premises for them, so Clothes-line
+Park was shrouded in a whiteness that looked ghostly in the moonlight.
+
+They made quite an affair of the evening in honor of Bud's song, and
+their introduction to Lily Rose. There were fried sausages, coffee,
+sandwiches, and pork cake.
+
+"The organist told me," announced Bud at supper, "that he was agoin' to
+train my voice, and I could be soloist at Grace Church and git five
+dollars a Sunday, and after a while I could git ten."
+
+"You'll be a millynaire," prophesied Bobby in awed tones.
+
+"Guess we'll be on Easy Street now," shouted Cory.
+
+"We won't be nuthin' of the kind," snapped Amarilly. "It's agoin' to all
+be banked fer Bud."
+
+"I guess," said Bud, in his quiet, little old-man way, "I'm the one to
+hev the say. I'm agoin' to give ma two dollars a week and bank the
+rest."
+
+Meanwhile John was having an uncomfortable time as he walked home with
+Colette. He had started on the trail of the surplice the day before. The
+"tenner" and the young ladies who had given the tableaux had been
+interviewed, but in neither case had the mysterious pocket been
+discovered. To-day he had visited the Beehive, but no one in the store
+had paid any attention to the pocket, or knew of its existence. Colette
+remained obdurate to his pleadings. She assumed that he was entirely to
+blame for the loss, and seemed to take a gleeful delight in showing him
+how perverse and wilful she could be. To-night he found himself less
+able than usual to cope with her caprices, so he began to talk of
+impersonal matters and dwelt upon the beauties of Bud's voice, and the
+astonishing way in which it had developed.
+
+She admitted that Bud's voice was indeed wonderful, but maintained that
+Mrs. Jenkins's poppy hat and white gloves had been far surpassing in the
+way of surprises.
+
+"Did you ever, John, see anything more shoutingly funny?"
+
+"It wasn't funny, Colette," he said wistfully, and he proceeded to
+relate the history of the hat as he had heard it from the bishop that
+day.
+
+[Illustration: To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope
+with her caprices]
+
+And though in the depths of her heart Colette was touched by the pathos
+of the purchase, she must needs tread again the feminine labyrinth
+instead of following the more natural and open path.
+
+"Who was the young girl with the Boarder?" John next vouchsafed.
+
+"Why, Lily Rose, of course. The Lily for whom he 'sot for his likeness
+in the surplus.' That awful surplice," she burst forth in irritation at
+the mere mention of the unfortunate word. "Some of these people must
+have it. John, you don't half try to find it."
+
+"I am following out the list in order," he assured her. "I shall go to
+see Mrs. Hudgers to-morrow."
+
+"And the next one to her," reminded Colette, "is Derry Phillips,
+Amarilly's new benefactor. She told me to-day that she had a note from
+him, asking her to begin work at the studio in a few days."
+
+"I have a double duty in my call there," said John didactically. "If he
+is like some of the young artists I know, his studio will hardly be a
+proper place for Amarilly."
+
+"As it happens," returned Colette coldly, "Derry Phillips, for all his
+nonsense, is reported to be a true gentleman; but it would make no
+difference with Amarilly if he were not. Her inherent goodness would
+counteract the evil of any atmosphere. She can take care of his rooms
+until she is a little older. Then she can become a model."
+
+"Colette!" he exclaimed protestingly.
+
+"Why not?" she returned. "Why shouldn't Amarilly be a model, or go on
+the stage? Neither place would be below her station in life."
+
+John sought refuge in utter silence which admonished and exasperated
+Colette far more than any reproof would have done.
+
+"You might as well go, if you have nothing to say," she remarked
+stiffly, as he lingered in the portico, evidently expecting an
+invitation to enter.
+
+"I have _too_ much to say, Colette."
+
+Her sidelong glance noted his dejection, and her flagging spirits rose
+again.
+
+"Too much, indeed, when you are so critical of what I say!"
+
+"Colette, hear me!"
+
+"No, I won't listen--never when you preach!"
+
+"I don't mean to preach, Colette, but don't you think--"
+
+"Good night, John," she said, smiling.
+
+"Good night!" he echoed dolefully, but making no move to leave.
+"Colette, will you never tell me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied unexpectedly, with a dancing light in her beautiful
+eyes.
+
+"When?"
+
+"When you restore to me what was in the pocket."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Jason never sought the Golden Fleece with more unwearying perseverance
+than John displayed in the pursuit of the lost article which Colette
+refused to describe. His calls of inquiry didn't mean merely putting the
+question politely and taking his departure after receiving an answer. It
+meant, in the case of Mrs. Hudgers, a martyr's test of patience in
+listening to the devious and manifold routes taken by her rheumatic
+pains; a rehearsal of the late lamented Hallie's idiosyncracies; the
+details of his last illness; his death; and his wearing of the surplice
+at the obsequies.
+
+Throughout her harangue he preached patience unto himself and remembered
+that she was an old woman, desolate in her "lone lornness," so he
+counselled not, neither did he pray, but comforted her with the
+gentleness of voice and speech that won him a fond place in her memory
+for all time.
+
+"No," she assured him decisively, as in departing he reminded her of his
+original question, "I didn't go fer to look in no pockit. I didn't
+suppose them things had pockits."
+
+Then the scene shifted to Derry Phillips's studio, and this visit was
+fraught with more difficulties, for there was the case of Amarilly which
+must be approached delicately and with subtlety.
+
+After stating his errand concisely and receiving assurance that the
+pocket had not been examined, but that the model should be interviewed
+by him, John still lingered.
+
+"It's very kind in you to give employment to Amarilly, Mr. Phillips."
+
+Derry shook his head.
+
+"I am the one to be congratulated, Mr. Meredith. I really feel
+apologetic to Amarilly for accepting her services. They are so
+conscientiously and faithfully rendered that I feel she should be given
+a higher scope of work than she can find here. She is an honest, amusing
+little soul, and if by giving her employment I can encourage her desire
+to be industrious and earn something, I am very glad of the opportunity
+to do so."
+
+This was a long and serious observation for the gay-hearted Derry to
+make, but he shrewdly fathomed the pastoral duty underlying the
+seemingly casual remark.
+
+John's keen perception recognized the sincerity in the ring of the
+pleasant young voice, and he was quite won by the boyish directness. An
+instinctive confidence moved him to extend the right hand of trust and
+fellowship.
+
+"You have been instructive as well as benevolent," he remarked
+smilingly. "Two of Amarilly's errors of speech have been eradicated."
+
+The young Artist flushed in slight confusion, and then with a half-
+embarrassed laugh, he replied lightly: "Amarilly gave full measure of
+correction in return."
+
+Responding to the nameless something in John that so insistently and
+irresistibly invited confidence, he related the little incident of the
+luncheon and her request in regard to temperate orders in the future.
+
+"And I don't mean to say," he replied with winning frankness, "that it
+was merely the request of a little scrub-girl that has kept me temperate
+through two months of vacation and temptation, but the guileless
+suggestion was the spark that fired the flame of a dormant desire to
+change--certain conditions."
+
+John again extended his hand, this time in a remorseful spirit of
+apology.
+
+Derry partially understood.
+
+"Amarilly has ardently interested friends," he observed whimsically.
+"There was one Vedder, a solemn young German, here to-day in my little
+maid's interest."
+
+John's call upon the sable-hued preacher, Brother Washington, also
+demanded strategic approach. The question of pockets must be delicately
+handled lest any reflection be cast upon the integrity of the race, and
+their known penchant for pockets.
+
+Brother Washington's sympathies were at once enlisted, however, when he
+scented a romance, for John became more confidential in this than in any
+of his prior visitations, in his desire to propitiate. But his search
+was fruitless here as elsewhere, and he went away convinced that Brother
+Washington had not tampered with the pocket.
+
+He went on to the house of the Reverend James Woodville, who had
+performed the marriage ceremony at the nuptials of Mrs. Jimmels, née
+Hubbleston. In this instance also no pocket had been discovered in the
+garment, so John wended his discouraged way to the office of the Barlow
+Theatre.
+
+Mr. Vedder was likewise surprised to learn that surplices possessed
+pockets.
+
+The young rector's face brightened at the next name on his list--Pete
+Noyes. Of course a boy and a pocket would not long remain unacquainted.
+Again he was doomed to disappointment. Pete's dismay when he learned
+that there had been an overlooked pocket was convincingly genuine.
+
+"You see," he explained, "I wore it over my pants, of course, and I had
+the pockets in them, so I didn't look for no more."
+
+Pete escorted the rector to the "Vawdyville," and by good fortune the
+clerical impersonator in the sketch was still on the board, though in a
+different act. He instantly and decidedly disclaimed all knowledge of a
+pocket.
+
+"It's like that game," grinned Pete. "Button, button, who's got the
+button?"
+
+"Yes," agreed John, with a sigh, "only in this case I fear I shall
+continue to be 'it.'"
+
+The brakeman, when he came in from his run, was located and he joined in
+the blockade that was conspiring against John's future happiness.
+
+The clothes-line thief was very sensitive on the subject, and felt
+greatly aggrieved that he should be accused of picking his own pocket,
+for he protested that he had "found" the garment. The fancied
+insinuation indeed was so strongly resented that John wondered if it
+might not be a proverbial case of "hit birds flutter."
+
+Neither police nor court of justice had examined the pocket; nor had
+they been aware of the existence of one. The bishop could throw no light
+on the missing article, and this call ended the successless tour of
+investigation.
+
+"It was truly a profitable investment for the Jenkins family," thought
+John, "but a sorry one for me."
+
+Having now wended his weary and unavailing way into all the places
+listed, John made his final report to Colette who remained adamant in
+her resolve.
+
+"Of course some of those people did find it," she maintained. "It stands
+to reason they must have done so, and it is up to you now to find out
+which one of them is the guilty person."
+
+"How can I find that out, Colette?"
+
+"How? Anyhow!" she replied, her mien betraying great triumph at her
+powers of logic.
+
+"It must be found!" she asserted with a distinct air of finality. "And
+until it is found--"
+
+She stopped abruptly.
+
+"Was it of value? No, I am not trying to find out what it was since you
+don't wish me to know, but if I knew its value, it might help me to
+decide who would be the most likely to have a motive for taking it. But
+my belief is that the article slipped from the pocket and is lost."
+
+"It must be found then" she persisted obstinately.
+
+John went home to ponder over his hopeless task. It remained for
+Amarilly with her optimistic spirit to cheer him.
+
+"It'll turn up some place whar you never looked fer it and when you
+ain't thinkin' nuthin' about it," she asserted believingly. "Lost things
+allers do."
+
+Despite her philosophy she was greatly distressed over the disappearance
+of the mysterious article whose loss was keeping John so unhappy. She
+ransacked the house from the cellar to the Boarder's room, but found no
+trace of it.
+
+"I wonder what it was," she mused.
+
+"Mebby Miss King dreamt she put something in there, and when could she
+have done it anyhow? Mebby she give him a present, and he slipped it in
+there and fergot to take it out when he sent it to us. But then it would
+have come out in the wash. She don't seem to feel so bad as he does--
+jest sorter stubborn about it."
+
+The members of the household were put through the third degree, but each
+declared his innocence in the matter.
+
+"'Twas most likely Iry took it," said Cory, who found the baby a
+convenient loophole for any accusations, "and most likely he hez
+swallered it."
+
+Gus persisted in his oft-repeated statement, that there was nothing in
+the pocket when it was hung up during quarantine. This assurance was
+conveyed to Colette by John, who hoped she might find solace in the
+thought that none of the renters could have had it, if this were true,
+but to his chagrin she found in his information an implied reflection on
+her veracity.
+
+"Colette," he said whimsically, "only three persons connected with this
+affair have taken my remarks as personal, you, Brother Washington, and
+the thief."
+
+With this remark John, despairing of his ability to fathom the mystery
+of the article or to follow the caprices of Colette, dropped the matter
+completely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+At half past eight on the morning indicated, Amarilly's ring at the door
+of the studio was answered by Derry, whose face was covered with lather.
+
+"Hello, Amarilly!" he exclaimed heartily, extending his hand in genial
+comradeship. "I am glad to see you again. Been pretty well through the
+summer? Well, come on into the butler's pantry, and see what you can do
+in a coffee way while I finish shaving."
+
+Amarilly had been receiving instruction in domestic science, including
+table service, at the Guild school. Colette, interested in the studio
+work, had provided some minute muslin aprons and a little patch of linen
+for the head covering of the young waitress, advising her that she must
+wear them while serving breakfast. So when Derry emerged from his
+dressing-room, a trimly equipped little maid stood proudly and anxiously
+awaiting him.
+
+"Why, bless your heart, Amarilly! I feel really domesticated. You look
+as natty as a new penny, and the little white cap is great on your hair.
+I see you have remembered how to fix it."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Derry, but please sit down while your coffee is hot."
+
+"'Deed I will, and if it tastes as good as it smells, I shall raise your
+remuneration."
+
+He pronounced the coffee delicious, the grapefruit fixed to his liking,
+the toast crisp, and the eggs boiled just to the right consistency.
+
+"And have you had breakfast, Amarilly?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Derry, at half past five."
+
+"Jiminy! you should be ready for another. Now talk to me while I eat.
+Tell me about your reverend friend who was so daffy on the subject of
+pockets. Has he located any yet?"
+
+Amarilly looked troubled.
+
+"Miss King said I wa'n't to talk to you while I was serving."
+
+"Tell Miss King with Mr. Phillips' compliments that artists are not
+conventional, and that you and I are not in the relation to each other
+of master and maid. We are good friends, and quite _en famille_. You are
+such a fine cook, I think I shall have you serve me luncheon at one
+o'clock. Can you?" "Oh, yes; I should love to, Mr. Derry."
+
+"I'll stock the larder, then. No; I can't be bothered, and I'd feel too
+much like a family man if I went about marketing. I'll give you _carte
+blanche_ to order what you will."
+
+"What's that, Mr. Derry?"
+
+"Good! We mustn't neglect your education. I am glad you asked me. You
+might have always supposed it a breakfast-food."
+
+He proceeded to explain elaborately what the words meant, and then asked
+her if she had remembered her previous lesson.
+
+"Yes; ain't you--goin'--"
+
+"Stop right there. Your next word to be eliminated is 'ain't.' You must
+say 'aren't' or 'isn't.' And you must remember to put 'g' on the end of
+every word ending in 'ing.' Don't let me hear you say 'goin', again,
+I'll teach you one new word every day now. You see the measure of a maid
+is her pure English."
+
+Amarilly looked distressed.
+
+"What's the matter, Amarilly? Don't you want to learn to speak
+properly?"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry; but Miss King--she don't want me to speak
+diff'rent. She likes to hear me talk ignorant, and she said she was
+afeard you'd make me brom--"
+
+"Brom?" he repeated.
+
+"There was some more to it, but I fergit."
+
+"Bromidic," he said triumphantly, after an instant's pondering. "You can
+never under any circumstances be that, and I shall develop your
+imagination and artistic temperament at the same time. Miss King is
+selfish to wish to keep you from cultivating yourself for the purpose of
+furnishing her entertainment. By the way, I am to meet her to-night at a
+dinner, and I think we shall have a mutual subject for conversation. I
+must get to work, now. Clear away the dishes. And finish the rest of
+this toast and coffee. It would be wicked to waste it."
+
+Amarilly substituted a work apron for the little white covering, and was
+soon engaged in "redding."
+
+At eleven o'clock the place was in perfect order, and she went into the
+studio where Deny was at work.
+
+"Shall I go get the things fer lunch?"
+
+"Luncheon, if you please, Amarilly. I like that word better. It seems to
+mean daintier things. Here's a five-dollar bill. Get what you consider
+proper for a simple little home luncheon, you know. Nothing elaborate."
+
+Amarilly, feeling but not betraying her utter inability to construct the
+menu for a "simple little home luncheon," walked despondently down the
+street.
+
+"The Boarder," she reflected, "takes bread and meat and hard biled eggs
+when they ain't--aren't too high, and pie when we hev it."
+
+Some vague instinct of the fitness of things warned her that this would
+not be a suitable repast for Derry. Then a light shone through her
+darkness.
+
+"I'll telephone Miss Vail," she decided.
+
+So she called up her teacher at the Guild, and explained the situation.
+She received full instructions, made her purchases, and went back to the
+studio.
+
+At one o'clock she again garbed herself in cap and apron and called
+Derry to a luncheon which consisted of bouillon, chops, French peas,
+rolls, a salad, and black tea served with lemon.
+
+"Amarilly," he announced solemnly, "you are surely the reincarnation of
+a chef. You are immediately promoted from housemaid to housekeeper with
+full charge over my cuisine, and your wages doubled."
+
+"And that's going some for one day!" Amarilly gleefully announced to the
+family circle that night.
+
+Her teacher, greatly interested and gratified at her pupil's ability to
+put her instruction to practical use and profit, made out on each Monday
+a menu for the entire week. She also gave her special coaching in
+setting table and serving, so Derry's domestic life became a thing of
+pride to himself and his coterie of artists. He gave little luncheons
+and studio teas in his apartments, Amarilly achieving great success in
+her double role of cook and waitress.
+
+Her work was not only profitable financially, but it developed new
+tastes and tendencies. Every day there was the new word eagerly grasped
+and faithfully remembered. "Fer," "set," "spile," "orter," and the like
+were gradually entirely eliminated from her vocabulary. Unconsciously
+she acquired "atmosphere" from her environment. In her spare moments
+Amarilly read aloud to Derry, while he painted, he choosing the book at
+random from his library.
+
+"I want to use you for a model this afternoon," he remarked one day as
+she was about to depart. "Braid your hair just as tight as you can, the
+way you had it the first day you came. Put on your high-necked, long-
+sleeved apron, and get it wet and soapy as it was that first day, and
+then come back to the studio with your scrubbing brush and pail."
+
+Amarilly did as she was bidden with a reluctance which the artist,
+absorbed in his preparations for work, did not notice.
+
+"Yes; that's fine," he said, glancing up as she came to him. "Now get
+down here on your knees by the--what kind of boards did you call them,
+Amarilly? Mopboards? Yes, that was it. Now try and put your whole mind
+on the memory of the horror you felt at the accumulation of dirt on that
+first day, and begin to scrub. Turn your head slightly toward me, tilted
+just a little--so--There, that's fine! Keep that position just as long
+and just as well as you possibly can."
+
+Derry began to paint, mechanically at first, and then as he warmed to
+his subject and became interested in his conception, with rapidity and
+absorption.
+
+"There!" he finally exclaimed, "you can rest now! This may be my chef-
+d'oeuvre, after all, Amarilly. Won't you be proud to be well hung in the
+Academy and have a group constantly before your picture. Why, what's the
+matter, child," springing to her side, "tears? I forgot it was your
+first experience in posing. Why didn't you tell me you were tired?"
+
+"I wan't tired," she half sobbed.
+
+"Well, what is it? Tell me."
+
+"I'm afeerd you'll laugh at me."
+
+"Not on your life! And your word for to-day, Amarilly, is afraid.
+Remember. Never _afeerd_."
+
+"I'll remember," promised Amarilly meekly, as she wiped her dewy eyes.
+
+"Now tell me directly, what is the matter."
+
+"It'll be such a humbly picture with my hair that way. I'd ought to look
+my best. I'd rather you'd paint me waiting on your table."
+
+"But a waitress is such a trite subject. It would be what your friend, I
+mean, our friend, Miss King, calls bromidic. An artist, a real artist,
+with a soul, Amarilly, doesn't look for pretty subjects. It's the truth
+that he seeks. To paint things as they are is what he aims to do. A
+little scrub-girl appeals to the artistic temperament more than a little
+waitress, don't you think? But only you, Amarilly, could look the part
+of the Little Scrub-Girl as you did. And it would be incongruous--
+remember the word, please, Amarilly, in-con-gru-ous--to paint her with
+stylishly dressed hair. You posed so easily, so perfectly, and your
+expression was so precisely the one I wanted, and your patience in
+keeping the pose was so wonderful, that I thought you had really caught
+the spirit of the thing, and were anxious to help me achieve my really
+great picture."
+
+"I have--I will pose for you as long as you wish," she cried penitently,
+"and I will braid my hair on wire, and then it will stand out better."
+
+"Good! You are a dear, amenable little girl. To-morrow afternoon we will
+resume. Here, let me loosen your braids. Goodness, what thick strands!"
+
+She stood by the open window, and the trembling, marginal lights of a
+setting sun sent gleams and glints of gold through her loosened hair
+which fell like a flaming veil about her.
+
+"Amarilly," exclaimed Derry rapturously, "I never saw anything quite so
+beautiful. Some day I'll paint you, not as a scrub-girl nor as a
+waitress, but as Sunset. You shall stand at this window with your hair
+as it is now, and you'll outshine the glory of descending Sol himself. I
+will get a filmy, white dress for you to pose in and present it to you
+afterward. And as you half turn your head toward the window, you must
+have a dreamy, reflective expression! You must think of something sad,
+something that might have been a tragedy but for some mitigating--but
+there, you don't know what I am talking about!"
+
+"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry. I know what you mean, even if I didn't ketch--"
+
+"Catch, Amarilly; not ketch."
+
+"But my word for to-day is 'afraid,'" she said stubbornly. "I wasn't to
+have but one word a day. I'll say 'ketch' until to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, such system as you have! You are right though; but tell
+me what it was I meant." "You mean I am to think of something awful that
+would have been more awful but for something nice that happened. I'll
+think of the day last summer when we couldn't pay the rent. That was sad
+until the bishop came along and things got brighter."
+
+"Exactly. You have the temperament, Amarilly, but you should have
+written to your twin brother in such a dilemma. It's late now, or it
+will be when you get home. I am going to walk with you."
+
+"No; I am not afraid."
+
+"It makes no difference; I am going with you. To think that, intimate
+friends as we are, I have never seen your home, your numerous brothers,
+and the Boarder. I am going to spend the evening with you."
+
+"Oh, no!" she protested, appalled at the prospect. "You mustn't."
+
+"Why, Amarilly, how inhospitable you are! I thought you would be
+pleased."
+
+"I guess you couldn't stand for it."
+
+"Stand for what, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, you see, I am not ashamed of it, but it's so diff'rent from what
+you're used to, and you wouldn't like it, and I'd feel uncomfortable
+like with you there." "Why, Amarilly!" A really pained look came into
+his boyish eyes. "I thought we were friends. And you let Miss King and
+your minister come--"
+
+"But you see," argued Amarilly, "it's diff'rent with them. A minister
+has to go everywhere, and he's used to seeing all kinds of houses; and
+then Miss King, she's a sort of a--settlement worker."
+
+"I see," said Derry. "But, Amarilly, to be a true artist, or a writer,
+one must see all sorts and conditions of life. But I am not coming for
+that. I am coming because I like you and want to meet your family."
+
+"Well," agreed Amarilly, resigned, but playing her last trump, "you
+haven't had your dinner yet."
+
+"We had a very late luncheon, if you remember, and I am invited to a
+supper after the theatre to-night, so I am not dining."
+
+Amarilly did not respond to his light flow of chatter on the way home.
+She halted on the threshold of her home, and looked at him with despair
+in her honest young eyes.
+
+"Our house hasn't got any insides or any stairs even. Just a ladder."
+
+"Good! I knew you wouldn't--that you couldn't have a house like anyone's
+else. It sounds interesting and artistic. Open your door to me,
+Amarilly."
+
+Slowly she opened the door, and drew a sigh of relief. The big room was
+"tidied" ("redded" having been censored by Derry some time ago) and a
+very peaceful, homelike atmosphere prevailed. The Boarder, being an
+amateur carpenter, had made a very long table about which were grouped
+the entire family. Her mother was darning socks; the Boarder, reading
+the paper preliminary to his evening call on Lily Rose; the boys, busy
+with books and games; Cory, rocking her doll to sleep.
+
+Their entrance made quite a little commotion. There was a scattering of
+boys from the table until Derry called "Halt" in stentorian tones. "If
+there's any gap in the circle, I shall go."
+
+Then he joined the group, and described to the boys a prize-fight so
+graphically that their eyes fastened on him with the gaze of one
+witnessing the event itself. He praised Amarilly to the mother, gave
+Cory a "tin penny" which she at once recognized as a silver quarter, and
+talked politics so eloquently with the Boarder that for once he was
+loath to leave when the hour of seven-thirty arrived.
+
+"You've gotter go now," reminded Cory sternly. "You see," turning to
+Derry. "he's gotter go and spend his ev'nin' with Lily Rose. She's his
+gal."
+
+"Oh! Well, why not bring her here to spend the evening?" suggested
+Derry. "Then you'll have an excuse for two nice walks and an evening
+thrown in."
+
+"That's a fine, idee!" acknowledged the Boarder with a sheepish grin.
+
+He at once set out on his quest accompanied by Bobby, whom Derry had
+dispatched to the corner grocery for a supply of candy and peanuts.
+
+The Boarder and Lily Rose came in laden with refreshments. The Boarder
+bore a jug of cider "right on the turn," he declared, "so it stings your
+throat agoin' down."
+
+Lily Rose had brought a bag of sugared doughnuts which she had made that
+afternoon (a half holiday) in her landlady's kitchen.
+
+When Mrs. Jenkins learned from Amarilly that Derry and she had had
+nothing to eat since half past one, she brought forth a pan of beans and
+a pumpkin pie, and they had a genuine New England supper. The Boarder
+recited thrilling tales of railroad wrecks. Derry listened to a solo by
+Bud, whose wild-honeyed voice was entrancing to the young artist.
+Altogether they were a jolly little party, Lily Rose saying little, but
+looking and listening with animated eyes. Mrs. Jenkins declared
+afterwards that it was the time of her life.
+
+"Amarilly," said Derry, as he was taking leave, "I wouldn't have missed
+this evening for any other engagement I might have made."
+
+"That's because it was something new to you," said Amarilly sagely. "You
+wouldn't like it for keeps."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+When Cory secured a place as dish-wiper at a new boarding-house near,
+and Gus realized that he and Iry alone were dependent upon the others
+for their keep, shame seared his young soul. He had vainly tried to
+secure steady employment, but had succeeded only in getting occasional
+odd jobs. He had a distinct leaning towards an agricultural life and
+coveted the care of cows.
+
+"The grocer has sold his'n," he lugubriously lamented; "thar ain't no
+one else as wants a caretaker for their critters around here."
+
+After a long rumination on the discouraging problem of his future, he
+sought his confessor, the corner grocer.
+
+"I'm too big to peddle papers or be runnin' about with telergrafs," he
+declared. "I'd orter be goin' into business on my own account. I ain't
+goin' ter be allers workin' fer other folks."
+
+"Well, you'll have to wait a while before you can work for yourself,"
+counselled his confidant. "You are young yet."
+
+"This is a hurry-up age," was the sagacious assertion, "and ef you air
+agoin' to git any-whar, you've got ter go by wire instead of by mail,
+and you can't start too soon."
+
+"You can't start nothing without capital," argued the grocer
+conservatively.
+
+"Oh," admitted the young financier, "a little capital mebby. I've got a
+dollar I've saved up from odd jobs."
+
+"What line was you thinking of taking up?"
+
+"I'm going into the dairy business. Thar's money in milk and butter, and
+it's nice, clean work."
+
+"The dairy business on one dollar! How many cows and wagons and horses
+was you figuring on buying with your dollar?"
+
+"Don't git funny," warned Gus impatiently. "Some day I'll hev a farm of
+my own and a city office, but I'll begin on one cow in our back lot and
+peddle milk to the neighbors."
+
+"That wouldn't be a bad beginning, but I reckon you'll find the start
+will cost you more than a dollar. You can't get a cow at that figure."
+
+"Then I'll start with a calf."
+
+"Well, I guess calves cost more than a dollar."
+
+"Say, you've got that dollar on the brain, I guess," retorted the lad
+with the easy familiarity that betokened long acquaintance with the
+lounging barrels and boxes of the corner grocery. "I bet it'll build a
+shed in our back yard. Thar's the lumber out of our shed that blowed
+down, and the Boarder can build purty near anything."
+
+"But how are you going to buy a cow?" persisted his inquisitor.
+
+"I ain't got that fer yet," admitted the young dairyman.
+
+"Your dollar'll buy more than the nails for your cow-house. You can put
+the balance into feed," said the grocer, with an eye to his own trade.
+
+He wanted to add that it wouldn't cost much to feed an imaginary
+critter, but he was a little fearful of the temper back of the lad's
+hair, which was the same hue as Amarilly's.
+
+"That's a good idea. Well, the shed starts to-morrow, and of course you
+won't say nothin' about it."
+
+"Trust me for not talking in this neighborhood. It ain't safe even to
+think. First you know your thoughts are being megaphoned down the
+street."
+
+Gus consulted the Boarder who instantly and obligingly began the
+erection of a building in the farthest corner of the Jenkins's domain.
+This structure was a source of mystery and excitement to the neighbors.
+
+"What on airth do you suppose them Jenkinses air aputtin' up now? Mebby
+it's a wash-house for the surpluses," speculated Mrs. Huce.
+
+"It can't be they air agoin' to keep a hoss!" ejaculated Mrs. Wint.
+
+"You never kin tell nuthin' about them Jenkinses. They're so sort of
+secretin' like," lamented Mrs. Hudgers.
+
+The Jenkins family were fully as ignorant as were their neighbors of the
+nature of the contemplated occupant of the new edifice commonly referred
+to as the "cow-house," The Boarder put up a very substantial shed with a
+four-paned window and a door that locked though not very securely. The
+grocer had on hand a small quantity of green paint which he donated to
+the cause of the coming cow.
+
+"Thar ain't enough to more'n paint two sides of it," criticized Gus, "so
+I'll paint the front and west sides."
+
+"Thar's a can of yaller paint out in the woodshed," informed Mrs.
+Jenkins. "You can paint the other two sides with that."
+
+Then the Boarder made a suggestion:
+
+"If I was you, I'd paint a strip of yaller and then one of green.
+That'll even it up and make it fancy-like."
+
+Amarilly protested against this combination of colors so repellent to
+artistic eyes, but the family all agreed that it "would be perfickly
+swell," so she withdrew her opposition and confided her grievance to
+Derry's sympathizing, shuddering ears.
+
+Gus proceeded to bicolor the shed in stripes which gave the new building
+a bedizened and bilious effect that delighted Colette, who revelled in
+the annals of her protegés.
+
+Each member of the Jenkins family had a plan for utilising this fine
+domicile, as there seemed to be a general feeling of skepticism
+regarding the ability of Gus to produce a cow in the flesh. This
+sentiment, however, was not openly expressed, as the lad was found to be
+decidedly sensitive and touchy on the subject.
+
+"Mebby a cow'll jest walk right into the back yard and make herself to
+hum in the new shed," prognosticated Mrs. Jenkins optimistically. "It's
+such a beautiful place. I'll bet there is cows as would ef they knowed
+about it."
+
+"I perpose," suggested Flamingus patronizingly, "that we start a cow
+fund and all chip in and help Gus out."
+
+"Sure thing!" declared the generous Amarilly. "He can have all my
+savings. We ought to all help Gus get a start."
+
+"I'm in," cried Bobby.
+
+"You kin hev all you want from me, Gus," offered Bud.
+
+Firmly and disdainfully Gus rejected all these offers and suggestions.
+
+"Thar ain't agoin' to be no pardner business about this," he announced.
+"The cow won't come till she's mine--all mine--and when she does, I'm
+agoin' to pay the Boarder for his work."
+
+"If he wants to be so all-fired smart, we won't help him git no cow,"
+declared Flamingus, "and the shed kin be used for a summer kitchen arter
+all."
+
+This use of the new building had been the fondest dream of Mrs. Jenkins,
+who deemed it an ideal place in which to keep her tubs, mops, boiler,
+and wringer. Milt had designs upon it for a boy's reading-room and club;
+Flamingus coveted a gymnasium. Bobby, Bud, Cory, and Iry had already
+appropriated it as a playhouse.
+
+Amarilly openly and ably defended Gus and his cherished, illusory plan.
+Of all her brothers, he was the one to whom her heart most inclined. For
+Bud she possibly had a more tender, maternal feeling on account of his
+being so delicate. She paid homage to the good points of Flamingus, but
+he was too cut and dried, "bromidic," she classified him, for Derry had
+carefully explained the etymology of the word. Milt was honest, but
+selfish and "near." Bobby was disposed to be fresh, but Gus was just
+such a boy as Amarilly herself would have been, reincarnated. He was
+practical, industrious, thrifty, and shrewd, and yet possessed of the
+imagination and optimism of his sister. She called him aside one day for
+a private consultation.
+
+"Say, Gus, your scheme's all right. Go ahead and get your cow. I'll let
+you have my savings, and the other boys needn't know. You can pay me
+when you get ready to."
+
+"That's bully in you, Amarilly, but I'm agoin' to see this thing through
+alone and start in without no help front no one," firmly refused Gus,
+and his sturdy little sister could but admire him for his independence.
+
+He locked up his new possession very carefully, putting the key in his
+pocket every morning before going to the business precincts to pick up a
+job. The children, however, were not dispossessed by this precaution,
+finding ingress and egress through the window. Gus most opportunely
+secured a week's job driving a delivery-wagon, and he instantly invested
+his wages in the provisioning of the cow quarters.
+
+"The feed'll git stale by the time the cow comes," objected Milt.
+
+"Mebby it's fer bait to ketch a critter with," offered Bobby.
+
+After all, it was the miracle predicted by Mrs. Jenkins that came to
+pass and delivered the cow. Early one morning, when Gus went as usual
+with fond pride to view his sole asset, he found installed therein a
+young, corpulent cow, bland and Texas-horned, busily engaged in
+partaking of the proceeds of Gus's last week's wages. She turned
+inquiring, meditative eyes toward the delighted lad, who promptly locked
+the door and rushed into the house to inform the family of the new
+arrival.
+
+"She's lost or strayed, but not stolen," said Amarilly.
+
+"Bobby, you put an ad in that paper you deliver at once," commanded Mrs.
+Jenkins. "Some poor people air feelin' bad over the loss of their cow."
+
+It was considered only fair that the cow should pay for her meal. She
+was overstocked with milk, and graciously and gratefully yielded to
+Gus's efforts to relieve her of her load. The children were each given a
+taste of the warm milk, and then the little dairyman started right in
+for business. The milkman had not yet made his morning rounds, and the
+neighbors were so anxious to cross-examine Gus that they were more than
+willing to patronize him. Excitement prevailed when it was learned that
+the Jenkins family had a cow, and the lad's ingenuity in dodging
+questions was severely taxed. He avoided direct replies, but finally
+admitted that it was "one they was keepin' fer some folks."
+
+A week went by, with no claim filed for the animal that had come so
+mysteriously and seemed so perfectly at home. Gus established a
+permanent milk route in the immediate neighborhood, and with his ability
+once more to "bring in" came the restoration of his self-respect.
+
+"It's funny we don't git no answer to that ad," mused Mrs. Jenkins
+perplexedly. "How many times did you run it, Bobby?"
+
+For a moment silence, deep, profound, and charged with expectancy
+prevailed. Then like a bomb came Bobby's reply:
+
+"I ain't put it in at all."
+
+Everybody was vociferous in condemnation, but Bobby, unabashed, held his
+ground, and logically defended his action.
+
+"I got the news-agent to look in the 'losts' every night, and thar want
+nothin' about no cow. 'Twas up to them as lost it to advertise instead
+of us. If they didn't want her bad enough to run an ad, they couldn't
+hev missed her very much."
+
+"That's so," agreed the Boarder, convinced by Bobby's able argument.
+
+"Most likely she doesn't belong to any one," was Amarilly's theory. "She
+just came to stay a while, and then she'll go away again."
+
+"She won't git no chanst to 'scape, unless she kin go out the way the
+chillern does," laughed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+One day the Boarder brought home some information that seemed to throw
+light on the subject.
+
+"One of the railroad hands told me that a big train of cattle was
+sidetracked up this way somewhar the same night the cow come here. The
+whole keerload got loose, but they ketched them all, or thought they
+did. Mebby they didn't miss this ere one, or else they couldn't wait to
+look her up. Their train pulled out as soon as they rounded up the
+bunch."
+
+"I guess the cow-house looked to her like it was a freight car,"
+observed Milt, "and she thought she hed got back where she belonged."
+
+The cow, meanwhile, quietly chewed her cud, and continued to endear
+herself to the hearts of all the Jenkins family save Cory. Every time
+Bobby spoke her name he called to her, "Co, boss! Co, boss," just as Gus
+did when he greeted the cow.
+
+As for the little dairyman himself, he gave his charge the best of care.
+He took her for a little outing every day to a near-by lot where she
+could graze, being careful to keep a stout rope attached to her,
+although they walked to and from the recreation ground side by side.
+Derry painted a little picture of the pair as he saw them returning from
+a jaunt. Gus's arm was lovingly thrown around the neck of the gentle
+creature, and her Texas horns were adorned with a wreath of brown-eyed
+Susans woven by Cory.
+
+It remained for Mrs. Jenkins to christen the creature.
+
+"'Cowslip,'" she declared triumphantly, "'cause she just slipped in."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Amarilly's pace in learning English from Derry during the following
+winter was only excelled by her proficiency in mathematics. "Figgerin'"
+the Boarder declared to be his long suit, and his young pupil worked
+every example in Flamingus's arithmetic, and employed her leisure
+moments in solving imaginary problems. Then came an evening when she put
+her knowledge to practical use and application. She had been working
+absorbedly with pencil and paper for some time when she looked up from
+her sheet of figures with a flushed race and a Q.E.D. written in each
+shining eye.
+
+"Say!" she announced to the family who were gathered about the long
+table.
+
+Instantly they were all attention, for they always looked to Amarilly
+for something startling in the way of bulletins.
+
+"I've been setting down and adding up what we all bring in each week.
+Ma's washings, the Boarder's board, my studio work, Flamingus' and
+Milt's wages, Gus's cow, Bud's singing, Co's dish-washing, and Bobby's
+papers. What do you suppose it all amounts to?"
+
+She allowed a few seconds of tragic silence to ensue before she gave the
+electrifying total.
+
+"Land sakes! Who'd 'a thought it!" exclaimed Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"We'd orter hev ice-cream and pie every day," reproached Cory.
+
+"It would be reckoned a purty big salary if one man got it all,"
+speculated the Boarder.
+
+"We are rich!" exclaimed Bobby decisively.
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do," pursued Amarilly. "We must start a
+syndicate."
+
+"What's that, a show?" demanded Flamingus.
+
+"No; I heard the artists down to the studio talking about it, and Mr.
+Derry explained it. He said when a lot of folks put their cash on hand
+together in one pile, they can buy something big and do more than as if
+they spent it separate."
+
+"Well, I ain't a goin' to put my money in with Co's," said Milt
+sarcastically. "Wouldn't be much profit for me in that."
+
+"You don't catch on," replied Amarilly. "If you should put in one
+dollar, and Co should put in ten cents, at the end of a certain time,
+you'd draw out ten dollars and Co would only draw out one. See?"
+
+"I do," said the practical Gus.
+
+"Well, now let's put our money into something and all own it together,
+each one's share according to what we put in. Let's buy this house!"
+
+They all stared in amazement.
+
+"Buy a house! You are sure crazy, Amarilly!" exclaimed Milt.
+
+"We could buy it cheap," continued Amarilly unabashed. "I heard the
+grocer saying yesterday that property around here was at a low figure
+now. We could put our savings together and make a payment down, and
+instead of paying rent let it go on the balance each month. Before we
+knew it we'd own the house, and the deed could be made out to show how
+much of it each one owned."
+
+"I choose the pantry!" cried Cory.
+
+"I guess if you could buy a window-pane with what you've got, you'd do
+well," observed Milt in a withering tone.
+
+"That's a splendid idee, Amarilly!" declared the Boarder
+enthusiastically. "I don't know what better investment you could make."
+
+"It would be fine," sighed Mrs. Jenkins, "to own your own place and feel
+that no one could turn you out."
+
+"You've got a great head, Amarilly," complimented Gus.
+
+"We could borrow on the house if we ever got hard up, or the fever
+struck us again," said Flamingus.
+
+"Well," proposed Amarilly, the ever-ready, "let's get right at it. I'll
+set down our names, and when I call the roll, tell me how much you've
+saved and will put in the house."
+
+There was a general rush for bank-books, for ever since the preceding
+fall, the six oldest children had paid their board, clothed themselves,
+and saved the balance of their earnings.
+
+From her washings, the revenue from the board of the children and
+Boarder, Mrs. Jenkins had paid the rent and the household expenses. By
+thrifty management she had also acquired a bank account herself.
+
+"Ma!" called Amarilly expectantly.
+
+There had been much urging on the part of
+
+Deny in his zeal for language reform to induce his young pupil to say
+"mother," but in this sole instance Amarilly had refused to take his
+will for law.
+
+"She's always been 'ma' to me, and she always will be," declared
+Amarilly emphatically. "If I were to call her anything else I'd feel as
+if I had lost her--as if she didn't belong to me."
+
+Ma triumphantly announced: "Forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents."
+
+"A fine starter," commended Amarilly, "Flamingus?"
+
+"Forty dollars," he announced with pride.
+
+"Milt?" Amarilly called his name in faint voice. He was the only tight-
+tendencied member of the household, and she feared he might decline to
+give. But Milt was envious and emulative.
+
+"Forty-two dollars and sixty-nine cents," he declared in a voice
+rendered triumphant by the fact of his having beaten Flam.
+
+Amarilly drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"It's going to add up fine, now. Guess I'll take my own account next. I
+haven't got as much as you boys, though." "Shouldn't think you would
+have," said Gus sympathizingly. "You don't earn so much, and yet you pay
+ma as much, and don't take out nuthin' fer your noon meal. And you give
+Co things."
+
+"I've earned quite a bit," replied Amarilly cheerfully. "Besides what
+Mr. Derry gives me, there's what I've had from odd jobs like letting the
+artists paint my hair, and taking care of Mrs. Wick's baby afternoons
+when she goes to card parties. I've got thirty dollars to put in. Gus?"
+
+"Thirty-five dollars," he replied in a pleased tone.
+
+"Bud?"
+
+They all looked expectantly. Bud received ten dollars each Sunday now,
+and he had been singing at concerts, organ recitals, and entertainments
+all winter. On account of these latter engagements, he had been obliged
+to expend a considerable amount in clothes suitable to the occasion.
+When Bud donned his "evening clothes," which consisted of black silk
+hose, patent leather pumps, black velvet suit with Irish crochet collar
+and cuffs, purchased under the direction of Mr. Derry, Amarilly always
+felt uncomfortable.
+
+"Don't seem fair to Bobby when they're so near twins," she thought.
+
+One day, however, she overheard Bud sweetly offer to buy his near half a
+similar outfit. Amarilly listened eagerly for Bobby's answer which
+brought a sigh of relief.
+
+"I wouldn't wear one of them rigs on a bet," he had scoffingly answered.
+
+"One hundred and twenty-five dollars," Bud now replied modestly.
+
+"Gee! you take the cake!" said Bobby.
+
+Amarilly was sorry that she had to call Bobby's name next. But Bobby had
+a surprise in store for them all.
+
+"Forty-eight dollars!" he cried gleefully, giving Flam, Milt and Gus
+exultant glances, "Beat the hull of ye, except Bud!"
+
+"How in the world did you ever do it on paper routes?" asked Amarilly
+wonderingly.
+
+Bobby winked at his mother.
+
+"Shall we tell our secret?" he asked. "You tell, Ma."
+
+"You see," she explained, "when the clo'es are bilin' arter you hev all
+gone to work and to school, I've made twenty little pies and when Bobby
+got out of school, he'd come hum and git 'em and take 'em up to the High
+School. The girls bought 'em at five cents apiece. The stuff to make 'em
+cost about two cents a pie."
+
+"And Bobby got all the profit!" expostulated Milt indignantly.
+
+"Bobby paid me by taking the clo'es offen the line and bringin' them in
+every night, and fetchin' the water," she replied chidingly. "We was
+goin' to keep it a secret till he got enough to buy a pony."
+
+"But I'd ruther buy a house," said Bobby.
+
+"I ain't got enough to come in no snidikit," sobbed Co. "I ain't saved
+much."
+
+"That's because you spend all you earn on candy," rebuked Milt.
+
+"I ain't nuther. I bought me some rubbers and Iry some playthings."
+
+"How much have you got, Co?" asked Amarilly gently.
+
+"Two dollars and ninety-seven cents," she said, weeping profusely.
+
+"I think that's pretty good for a little girl," said Amarilly. "All you
+strapping boys ought to chip in out of your cash on hand what isn't in
+the bank and give her some so she could be in on it. Here is fifty cents
+from me, Co."
+
+"I'll give you fifty, Co," said her mother.
+
+"Me, too," said Flamingus.
+
+The other boys followed with equal contributions, Bud generously
+donating a five-dollar bill he had received that day for a solo at a
+musicale given by Miss Lyte.
+
+"Here's fifty cents from me," said the Boarder, who had remained very
+thoughtful during this transaction.
+
+"Eleven dollars and forty-seven cents for Co," announced Amarilly.
+
+The little girl's eyes shone through her tears.
+
+"Seems too bad that Iry is the only one left out," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"When he gits old enough to work, he can come in," said Milt. "Add her
+up, Amarilly."
+
+"Three hundred and sixty-nine dollars and sixty-seven cents!" almost
+screamed Amarilly.
+
+"Gee!" chorused the boys.
+
+"Purty near buy the old shack," said Flamingus.
+
+"Our landlord," said Amarilly sagaciously, "is a shark, and he'll try to
+get the best of us. I am going to get Mr. Vedder to do the business for
+us, and he'll get the deed in all our names."
+
+"Put in Iry's too," pleaded Mrs. Jenkins solicitous for her Benjamin.
+
+"I'll put it to vote," said parliamentary Amarilly. "Who's for Iry?"
+
+"Me, me, me," came from all, though Milt's response was reluctant.
+
+"I will see Mr. Vedder to-morrow, so we can begin to let the rent apply
+right off," said Amarilly.
+
+"We'll take more pride in keeping it fixed up now," remarked Flamingus.
+"I'll mend the windowpanes and the door hinges."
+
+"And I'll build some stairs and put up a partition or two," promised the
+Boarder.
+
+"I'll paint it," said Gus, proud of his former work in this direction.
+Amarilly secretly resolved to select the color.
+
+"I'll make curtains and rag rugs and sofa pillows," she observed.
+
+"And I'll buy some cheers and a hangin' lamp," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Don't
+all this talk make you want to housekeep?" she asked with a knowing
+glance in the Boarder's direction.
+
+He shook his head thoughtfully, but when the boys and Cory had gone to
+bed, he unfolded a proposition that he had been evolving during their
+financial discussion, and which now found overwhelming favor and
+enthusiasm with his hearers.
+
+The next day Amarilly called upon Mr. Vedder at the theatre.
+
+"He's got more sound business to him than Mr. Derry or Mr. St. John,"
+she shrewdly decided.
+
+"When she told him her plan and showed him her figures, he most heartily
+approved.
+
+"The house, of course, isn't worth anything," he said, "but land down
+that way is a good investment. Who is your, landlord?"
+
+She gave him the name and address.
+
+"I am glad you came to me, Amarilly, instead of to your newer friends."
+
+"Oh, you know more about it than they do," she replied, "and besides,
+some way I wouldn't feel as if I were bothering you."
+
+"Not a bit of bother, Amarilly, and I hope you will always feel that
+way."
+
+The ticket-seller was prompt, thorough, and shrewd in the matter. He had
+a friend in the real estate business, who appraised the property for
+him, and he proved most diplomatic in his dealing with the surprised
+landlord, who fortunately chanced to be in dire need of some ready cash.
+In an incredibly short space of time the bargain was closed.
+
+The Jenkins family including the Boarder and Iry left the house one
+noon, each bearing a red bank-book. To the onlookers in the
+neighborhood, this Armada was all-impressive.
+
+"Looks like a run on the bank," said the Boarder facetiously, as they
+all trooped up the steps to the big stone building.
+
+The payment was made, and the deeds drawn in the names of all the
+family, but to the list was also added the name of the Boarder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+"I don't see," observed Colette, on learning of the existence and
+development of the syndicate, "why the Boarder is in on it. I thought he
+was going to have a Lily Rose garden all his own."
+
+"We thought so, too," replied Amarilly. "He's been saving up to get
+married, and he's got a raise now, so the day is set for some time in
+June; but he told us the night we were first planning to buy the house
+that he wanted to be one of the syndicate. You see Lily Rose works--I
+mean she overworks--in a factory, and so the Boarder--you know he is
+awful gentle-like to her--says that she mustn't keep house or do
+anything but real light work after this. He has an interest in the house
+now, and he is going to build on a sort of an annex with a sitting-room
+and a bedroom and furnish it up fine, and when they are married, they
+are going to live there and take their meals with us. And they want Mr.
+St. John to marry them, and they want you to come. And Mr. Derry is
+coming. He asked to be invited."
+
+For once Colette did not laugh at the chronicles of the Jenkins family.
+A very tender look came into her flashing eyes.
+
+"That is very sweet in him--in the Boarder--to feel that way and to be
+so tender with Lily Rose. She ought to be very happy with a love and
+protection like that awaiting her."
+
+"Yes," assented Amarilly; "it must be very nice to feel like that, and
+Mr. Derry says he really believes that it is only with poor folks like
+us and the Boarder and Lily Rose that love runs smooth."
+
+"Then," said Colette musingly, "I wish I were poor--like you and the
+Boarder and Lily Rose!"
+
+Amarilly secretly divined that this was merely a thought spoken aloud,
+so she made no comment. She had pondered a great deal over the attitude
+of her two friends towards each other. The only place she ever
+encountered them together was at church and to her observing eyes it was
+quite apparent that there was a restraint in their bearing. Amarilly
+remained so preoccupied with her thoughts that Colette, looking at her
+searchingly, became curious as to the cause.
+
+"Amarilly," she commanded, "tell me what you were thinking of just now--
+I mean since I spoke last. I shall know by; your eyes if you don't tell
+me exactly."
+
+"Mr. Derry says my eyes will always give me away," evaded Amarilly.
+
+"Of course they will. You can never be a flirt, Amarilly."
+
+"I don't want to," she replied indignantly.
+
+Colette laughed.
+
+"Well, tell me what you were thinking about?"
+
+"I was wondering if Mr. St. John wasn't trying any more to find that
+thing you lost in the surplice pocket."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, has Mr. Phillips censored that word, too? I was in hopes
+he would never hear you say 'surplus,' so he could not correct you."
+
+"I told him you didn't want me to speak correctly," said Amarilly a
+little resentfully.
+
+"You did!" cried Colette, looking rather abashed. "And what did he say?"
+
+"He said it was selfish in you to think more of your amusement than of
+my improvement."
+
+Colette colored and was silent a moment.
+
+"He's right, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I _am_ selfish to
+everyone. All I have ever cared for is to be entertained and made to
+laugh. I have been as selfish to St. John as I have to you and--I'll
+tell you a secret, Amarilly, because I know that I can trust you. I've
+gone just a little bit too far with St. John. I told him he needn't ever
+come to see me again until he found what was in the pocket of the
+surplice, and he took me at my word."
+
+"He did all he could to find it," said Amarilly, immediately on the
+defence for the rector.
+
+"I know he did, but you see before this I've always had everything I've
+asked for, even impossible things, and I didn't want to have him fail
+me. I have been selfish and exacting with him, and I think he realizes
+it now."
+
+"Well, when you're in the wrong, all you've got to do is to say so."
+
+"That isn't easy, Amarilly."
+
+"But it's right."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you're like a man with your right and your wrong!"
+
+"But you would make yourself happy, too, if you told him you knew it
+wasn't up to him any more to find that."
+
+"I'd rather be unhappy and stick to what I said. I must have my own way,
+Amarilly."
+
+"Well," said Amarilly, abandoning an apparently hopeless subject, "I
+came to ask you to do me--us--the Boarder and Lily Rose, I mean, a
+favor."
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?"
+
+"Why, as I said, they want Mr. St. John to marry them, and they're
+afraid he won't want to because he--well--because he isn't their kind,
+you know, and he has such a fashionable church."
+
+"And you don't know St. John better than that?"
+
+"Why, yes; of course _I_ do, but they don't know him at all, you know.
+And the Boarder is real shy, anyhow. And so I told him I'd ask you to
+ask him."
+
+"Why don't you ask him?"
+
+"I think it would please him so to have you ask. He likes to have you
+take interest in others."
+
+"Amarilly, you are a regular little Sherlock! Well, yes, I will,"
+promised Colette, secretly glad of this opportunity for friendly
+converse with John once more, "but if the--Annex has to be built first,
+there's no hurry."
+
+"Yes, there is. The Boarder wants everything settled now, so they can be
+looking forward to it."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I'll see him to-morrow night. Will that do?"
+
+"Oh, yes; thank you, Miss King."
+
+"Tell me more about the wedding plans. Are you to be bridesmaid?"
+
+"She isn't going to have one. It won't be a stylish wedding, you know.
+Just quiet--like one of our neighborhood evenings. Only when I told Mr.
+Derry about it, he said he should come up that afternoon and trim the
+house up with greens, and that he should come to see them married."
+
+"And I shall furnish the flowers and the bride's bouquet. Let me see, I
+think lilies of the valley and pink roses would suit Lily Rose, don't
+you?"
+
+"They will be beautiful," said Amarilly, beaming. "And we are going to
+have a real swell meal. I have learned to make salads and ices, and then
+we'll have coffee and sandwiches and bride's cake beside."
+
+"Some one has to give the bride away, you know, Amarilly, in Episcopal
+weddings."
+
+"I know it. But poor Lily Rose has no one that belongs to her. Her
+relations are all dead. That's another reason why the Boarder is so nice
+to her. So ma is going to give her away. We're going to ask the
+neighbors and you and Mr. Derry and Mr. Cotter, of course. He's the
+brakeman friend of the Boarder."
+
+"And are the Boarder and Lily Rose going away?"
+
+"Yes; the Boarder can get a pass to Niagara Falls. They are going to
+stay there a week. Lily Rose has never been on the cars. And they are
+going to ride to the train in a hack."
+
+"Why, it's going to be quite an affair," said Colette enthusiastically.
+"We'll throw an old shoe and some rice after them. And will she be
+married in white?"
+
+Amarilly's face fell.
+
+"I am afraid she can't afford a wedding dress. She's got to get a
+travelling suit and hat and gloves and shoes, and with other things it
+will take all she has saved. She'd like a white dress and a veil and get
+her picture taken in it to hang up by the side of the Boarder's in the
+surplice. And that makes me think, we want you to ask Mr. St. John if he
+will wear our surplice instead of bringing one of his. We'll do it up
+nice before the wedding."
+
+"Oh, that prophetic surplice!" groaned Colette. "It's yesterday, to-day
+and forever; I wish something would happen to it, Amarilly. I hate that
+surplice!"
+
+"I'm sorry, Miss King, but we all love it. And you see it means a good
+deal to Lily Rose; because she has looked at its photograph so long."
+
+"Very well, Amarilly. I yield. St. John shall wear his surplice once
+more, and when he does--"
+
+A sudden thought illumined her face. "I believe I will tell him--"
+
+Amarilly deemed it a fitting time to depart, and she hastened to assure
+Lily Rose that it was "all right."
+
+"Miss King will speak to Mr. St. John about marrying you, and she will
+ask him to wear our surplice. She's going to send you flowers--lilies of
+the valley and roses. It all would be perfect, Lily Rose, if only you
+had a white dress!"
+
+Lily Rose smiled sweetly, and told Amarilly she was glad to be married
+in any dress, and that she should not miss the "reg'ler weddin' fixin's"
+nearly as much as Amarilly would mind her not having them. When Amarilly
+set her head and heart on anything, however, it was sure to be
+accomplished. It was a puzzling problem to equip Lily Rose in the
+conventional bridal white vestments, for the bride-to-be was very proud
+and independent and wouldn't hearken to Amarilly's plea to be allowed to
+contribute toward a new dress.
+
+"We're under obligations to _him_, you know," argued Amarilly "and I'd
+like to help him by helping you."
+
+Lily Rose was strong of will despite her sweet smile.
+
+Deep down in her heart Amarilly, throughout all her scheming, knew there
+was a way, but she chose to ignore it until the insistent small voice
+spoke louder and louder. With a sigh of renunciation she yielded to the
+inevitable and again sought Lily Rose.
+
+"I've thought out a way to the white dress," she announced.
+
+Lily Rose's eyes sparkled for a moment, and their light died out.
+
+"Yes, there's really a way," persisted Amarilly, answering the unspoken
+denial. "You said you could squeeze out slippers and stockings, didn't
+you?"
+
+"Yes," she admitted.
+
+"Well, there's your new white dress skirt, and for a waist there is my
+lovely lace waist that I told you about--the one Miss King gave me."
+
+"Your weddin' waist! No, Amarilly. It's like you to offer, but I
+couldn't take it from you."
+
+"No, I'm not giving it to you. Just lending it to you for your wedding.
+You couldn't hurt it any wearing it two hours. Then I'll lay it by again
+till I'm married. And I'll like wearing it all the more because you wore
+it to your wedding. Come over some day and we'll try it on. Then Miss
+King is going to give you the bouquet, and for a veil--"
+
+"Oh, the veil! Amarilly, I would love a veil!" Lily Rose cried
+wistfully.
+
+"Well, I've got one spoken for. You see, Mrs. Jimmels has been married
+so many different ways, I felt sure she must have worn a veil at one of
+her weddings, and seeing she had been married so many times, I thought
+she couldn't have any special feeling about any one of them, so I asked
+her if she wouldn't lend hers to you, and she's glad to have it put to
+use again. You'll look just perfectly swell, Lily Rose. And she's going
+to give you a pair of white gloves that she had when she was slim-like."
+
+The little renunciator went home feeling amply rewarded by the look of
+shining content in the blue eyes of Lily Rose.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next night Colette in accordance with her promise to Amarilly
+summoned John to council. It was not easy to bridge the distance which
+had been steadily increasing with the months that had rolled by since
+the surplice dénouement, and Colette, formerly supreme in her sway, was
+perceptibly timid in making the advance. After writing and tearing up
+several notes she called him up by telephone and asked him in a
+consciously casual tone if he could find it convenient to call that
+evening with reference to a little matter pertaining to their mutual
+charge, the Jenkinses.
+
+The grave voice in which he accepted the invitation was tinged with
+pleasure.
+
+When he came Colette, fearful lest he should misinterpret her action in
+making this overture, plunged at once into the subject.
+
+"I promised Amarilly I would see you and ask you for something in her
+friends' behalf."
+
+"Then it is to Amarilly I am indebted for this call," he remarked
+whimsically.
+
+"It's about the Boarder," she continued, gaining ease at the softening
+of his brown eyes. "You know he is to be married to Lily Rose, the girl
+we saw at the organ recital where Bud made his debut."
+
+"I inferred as much at the time. When are they to be married?"
+
+"In June. Just as soon as the Annex can be added to the Jenkins's
+upright. They are to build on two new rooms or rather the Boarder will
+do so and he will furnish them for his new abiding-place. But because
+she is 'delicate like' and overworked she is to become a Boarderess
+instead of a housekeeper, and they will 'eat' with the Jenkins family,
+thus increasing the prosperity of the latter. Amarilly says the Boarder
+is 'awful gentle of Lily Rose and wants to take good care of her.'"
+
+The expression that moved the frostiest of his flock came into the still
+depths of his eyes and brought the wild rose to Colette's cheeks.
+
+"They are going to make quite an affair of the wedding," she continued,
+speaking hurriedly and a little breathlessly. "You and I and Mr.
+Phillips are to be guests. There is to be a hack to take the bride and
+groom to the train and a trip to Niagara Falls, because Lily Rose has
+never been on the cars. They are to have salad and ice-cream and
+sandwiches and coffee. Mr. Phillips is to act as florist and I shall
+furnish the decorations and the bride's bouquet. I'd love to throw in a
+bridal gown and veil, but Lily Rose, it seems, is proud and won't accept
+them."
+
+"I can find it quite in my heart to admire the reluctance of Lily Rose
+to accept them."
+
+"And so can I," replied Colette, the rare sweetness coming into her
+eyes. "Underneath all my jests about this wedding, it is all very sweet
+and touching to me--the Boarder's consideration for her, the
+preparations for the wedding which appear so elaborate to them. And then
+the wedding itself seems to mean so much to them. It's so different from
+the weddings in our class which often mean so little."
+
+"Colette, I know--I have always known in spite of your endeavor to have
+me believe otherwise--anything really true and genuine appeals to you.
+I--"
+
+"But I haven't told you yet," she said, seized with an unaccountable
+shyness, "what your part is to be. The Boarder, Lily Rose, and naturally
+all the Jenkinses, want you to perform the ceremony. The Boarder, being
+shy and retiring, forbore to ask you, and Amarilly for some reason
+desired me to ask you if you would officiate, and I assured her you
+would gladly do so."
+
+"I should have felt hurt," replied John with a happy smile, "if they had
+asked anyone else to marry them. And you will be there, Colette?"
+
+"Certainly," she declared. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."
+
+"And--you will go with me, Colette?"
+
+She colored, and her eyes drooped beneath his fixed gaze.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I will go with you."
+
+"Thank you, Colette," he answered gently, realizing what a surrender
+this was, and deeming it wise not to follow up his victory immediately.
+
+And at his reticence Colette was conscious of a shade of disappointment.
+She began to feel an uncomfortable atmosphere in the silence that
+ensued, so she broke it, speaking hastily and confusedly.
+
+"Oh, John, there is something else they want of you. The request is made
+by unanimous desire that you wear their surplice--that awful surplice!"
+
+A shadow not unlike a frown fell athwart John's brow, and he made no
+immediate reply.
+
+The introduction of the unfortunate topic made them both self-conscious,
+and for the first time Colette acknowledged to herself that she had been
+in the wrong in the matter of the surplice. John, misinterpreting her
+constraint, and fearing that the reference to the garment had revived
+all her old resentment, arose to depart.
+
+"I will wear it if they wish," he said stiffly.
+
+"I, too, wish you would wear it," she said in a voice scarcely audible.
+
+He looked at her in surprise, hope returning.
+
+"To please them," she added, coloring.
+
+"Colette!" There was a pleading in his voice that told her all she
+longed to know. "Colette, don't you think I have been patient? Won't you
+be friends again?"
+
+"I will," she said, "after--the Boarder's and Lily Rose's wedding!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Work on the Boarder's Annex was begun with frantic zeal, each and every
+member of the Jenkins family lending a helping hand. The Boarder, as
+boss carpenter, worked after switching hours until it grew dark; then
+the children took turns, in holding a lantern for him. The savings of
+the Boarder being taxed by the trip to "Niagry" and the furnishing of
+the apartment, great economy had to be exercised in the erecting of the
+Annex. He strictly adhered to his determination not to touch the "rainy
+day fund."
+
+Amarilly pleaded for a bay window, but the Boarder felt this
+ornamentation to be quite beyond his means, so they finally compromised
+on a small and simple porch on which Lily Rose could sit of a summer
+night while the Boarder smoked by her side. Mrs. Jenkins, moved to
+memories long dormant of the home of her youth, suggested blinds instead
+of window-shades, but the Boarder after much figuring proved adamantine
+in resistance to this temptation.
+
+Lily Rose was the only one who made no suggestions. Anything the Boarder
+might construct in the way of a nesting place was beautiful in her eyes.
+
+"She'd be too sorter modist-like to tell me if she was sot on any
+perticler thing about the new place," he confided wistfully to Amarilly,
+"You're so sharp I wish you'd kinder hint around and find out what she
+wants. Jest put out some feelers."
+
+Amarilly diplomatically proceeded to put out "feelers," and after much
+maneuvering joyously imparted to the Boarder the information that Lily
+Rose loved to look at the one solitary tree that adorned the Jenkins
+lot, because to her it meant "the country."
+
+"So that's the way she loves to look out," informed Amarilly, "and, you
+see there isn't any window on that side of your rooms."
+
+"There shall be one," declared the Boarder firmly.
+
+"Couldn't you make it a bay?" again coaxed Amarilly, "It's on the side
+the sun comes in most, and the doctor said Lily Rose should get all the
+sunlight she could. If she could sit in that bay window sunny days next
+winter it would be better than medicine for her."
+
+The Boarder sighed.
+
+"Don't tempt me, Amarilly. There ain't a cent more I kin squeeze out."
+
+"I'll think out a way," thought Amarilly confidently.
+
+She took the matter to Colette, who instantly and satisfactorily solved
+the problem, and Amarilly returned radiant.
+
+"She says you've saved too much out for furniture, and to build the bay
+window from the furniture fund."
+
+The Boarder shook his head.
+
+"I thought of that, but thar ain't a thing I can take out of that. I got
+the figgers on the price of everything from the House Furnishers'
+Establishment."
+
+"But you see, Miss King says no one ever comes to a wedding without
+bringing a present. That it wouldn't be et--,--dear me! I have forgotten
+what the word is. And she says not to buy any furniture till all the
+presents come, and then I can settle the rooms for you while you and
+Lily Rose are away. Lots of the things you are expecting to buy will be
+given you."
+
+"It's risky," said the Boarder dubiously. "We'll most likely git casters
+and bibles and tidies. That's what I've allers seen to weddin's."
+
+"Well, I see I have got to put a flea in your ear, but don't tell Lily
+Rose. Let it be a surprise to her. Miss King is going to give you a
+handsome base-burner coal stove. So you can take that off your list."
+
+The Boarder looked pleased and yet distressed.
+
+"She shouldn't go fer to do that!" he protested.
+
+"Well, she wants to give you a nice present because you've been nice to
+us, and she thinks Lily Rose is sweet, and she says she believes in
+making sensible presents. She asked Mr. Meredith what to get, and he
+told her to get the stove so you see it's all right if he says so. She
+thought you wouldn't need a stove till next winter, but I told her you
+wanted the rooms furnished complete now."
+
+"Then," said the Boarder beamingly, "the bay winder shall be cut out
+ter-morrer."
+
+"Don't cut it _out_!" said Amarilly alarmed.
+
+"I don't mean in a slang way," he said, laughing. "I mean cut out with a
+saw."
+
+When Lily Rose was brought over one starlight night in budding May to
+see the beautiful aperture that would eventually become a bay window and
+face the solitary tree, two dewy drops of joy came into her eyes. Before
+them all she raised her pale, little face for a kiss which the Boarder
+bestowed with the solemn air of one pronouncing a benediction, for Lily
+Rose was chary of outward and visible expressions of affection, and he
+was deeply moved by this voluntary offering.
+
+The Annex grew rapidly, but its uprising was not accomplished without
+some hazard and adventure. There was an exciting day when Cory fell
+through the scaffolding where she had been climbing. She suffered a
+moment of unconsciousness and a bump on her head.
+
+"An inch nigher her brain, and it would have killed her!" exclaimed the
+mother in tragic tones.
+
+"An inch of miss is as good as a mile," said the Boarder
+philosophically.
+
+There was also a thrilling moment when Iry thrust his head through the
+railings of the new porch. Satisfied with his outlook, he would fain
+have withdrawn, but was prevented by an unaccountable swelling of his
+pate. Flamingus, coming to the rescue and working seemingly on the
+theory that his skull might be compressible, tried to pull him backward,
+but the frantic shrieks of Iry caused this plan of ejection to be
+abandoned.
+
+"The rest of him is smaller than his head," observed Amarilly
+practically, as she arrived upon the scene and took a comprehensive view
+of the case, "Push him through, Flam, and I'll go around on the other
+side and get him."
+
+Iry, safely landed in Amarilly's arms, laughed his delight, and thinking
+it a sort of game, was about to repeat his stunt of "in and out."
+
+"It's time something was done to you," said Amarilly determinedly,
+"before you get killed in this place. I am going to spank you, Iry, and
+Co, too. I am going to spank you both fierce. And you are to keep away
+from the new part."
+
+In spite of wailing protests, Amarilly administered a spanking to the
+two younger children that worked effectually against further repetition
+of their hazardous performances. But Bobby tobogganed down the roof
+during its shingling and sprained his ankle, which necessitated the use
+of crutches.
+
+"He can break his neck if he wants to," remarked Amarilly, when besought
+by Co to punish him too.
+
+Mrs. Jenkins lost a finger-nail by an injudicious use of the hammer. Bud
+sat down in the paint pot, and had to go to bed while his clothes were
+cleaned. In fact Lily Rose was the only one of the whole family circle
+to suffer no injury, but the Boarder guided her so tenderly over every
+part and plank of the Annex that there was no chance for mishap.
+
+When the lathing and plastering were completed, the little bride-elect
+began to tremble with timidity and happiness at the consciousness of the
+nearness of her approaching transfer to the Home.
+
+The plan of the Boarder had been to leave the walls rough and unfinished
+till their settling process should be accomplished, but Amarilly,
+absorbed heart and soul in this first experience of making a nesting
+place, pleaded for paper--"quiet, pretty paper with soft colors," she
+implored, Derry's teachings now beginning to bear fruit in Amarilly's
+development of the artistic.
+
+"Amarilly, we can't hev everything to onct," he rebuked solemnly. "The
+paper'll crack as sure as fate, if you put it on now."
+
+"Let it crack!" defied Amarilly. "Then you can put on more. You're away
+nearly all day, and the rest of us are at work, but if Lily Rose has to
+sit here all day and look at these white walls that look just like sour
+bread that hasn't riz"--Derry had not yet discovered this word in
+Amarilly's vocabulary--"she'll go mad."
+
+"Amarilly," sighed the Boarder, "you'll hev me in the poorhouse yit!"
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Amarilly. "I'll have to let you into another secret.
+Mr. Meredith is going to give you and Lily Rose a handsome centre-table
+and an easy-chair. There won't be any surprises left for you by the time
+the wedding is over, but you're so set, I have to keep giving things
+away to you."
+
+"That makes me think," remarked the Boarder. "I was going to ask you
+what I'd orter give the preacher fer marryin' Lily Rose and me. The
+fireman of Number Six told me he give two dollars when he was spliced,
+but you see Mr. Meredith is so swell, I'd orter give more."
+
+Amarilly gazed reflectively into space while she grappled with this
+proposition.
+
+"Do you know," she said presently, with the rare insight that was her
+birthright, "I don't think Mr. Meredith would like money--not from you--
+for Lily Rose. You see he's a sort of a friend, and you'd better give
+him a present because money, unless it was a whole lot, wouldn't mean
+anything to him."
+
+"That's so," admitted the Boarder, "but what kin I give him?"
+
+Amarilly had another moment of thought.
+
+"Make him a bookrack. Mr. Derry will draw you the design, and you can
+carve it out. You can do it noons after you eat your luncheon, then you
+won't lose any time building the house."
+
+"That's jest what I'll do. So with the fee saved and the cheer and table
+out, I kin paper the rooms. You find out what kind Lily Rose wants and
+help her pick it out."
+
+"She'll choose blue," lamented Amarilly, "and that fades quick."
+
+Lily Rose was easily persuaded to let Derry be consulted. He promptly
+volunteered to tint the walls, having studied interior decorations at
+one time in his career. He wrought a marvellous effect in soft grays and
+browns with bordering graceful vines.
+
+Lily Rose by taking advantage of a bargain sale on suits saved enough
+from her trousseau to curtain the windows in dainty blue and white
+muslin.
+
+Derry then diverted the appropriation for an ingrain carpet to an
+expenditure for shellac and paint with which he showed Amarilly how to
+do the floors. Some cheap but pretty rugs were selected in place of the
+carpet.
+
+At last the Annex was ready for painting. Lily Rose wistfully stated
+that she had always longed to live in a white house, so despite the fact
+that the Jenkins house proper was a sombre red, the new part was painted
+white.
+
+"'Twill liven the place up," Amarilly consoled herself, while Colette
+breathed a sigh of relief that the Annex was not to be entirely
+conventional.
+
+At Amarilly's suggestion, the woodwork was also painted white.
+
+"Hard to keep clean," warned Amarilly, divided in her trend of
+practicality and her loyalty to St. John's favorite color. White won.
+
+The moment the paint was dry and the Annex announced "done," the Boarder
+took Lily Rose to view their prospective domicile. They were
+unaccompanied by any of the family, but it took the combined efforts of
+Mrs. Jenkins, Amarilly, and Flamingus, whose recent change in voice and
+elongation of trousers gave him an air of authority, to prevent a
+stampede by the younger members.
+
+Lily Rose returned wet-eyed, sweetly smiling, and tremulous of voice,
+but the Boarder stood erect, proud in his possessions.
+
+Colette vetoed the plan for Amarilly to settle in the absence of the
+groom and bride.
+
+"If you have it all furnished beforehand," she argued, "there will be
+just so much more room to entertain in on the night of the wedding."
+
+And then Lily Rose confessed that "she'd love to be 'to hum' in her own
+place."
+
+"But they won't be furnished," argued Amarilly.
+
+"Oh, yes, they will," assured Colette. "It's etiquette--" she paused to
+note Amarilly writing the word down in a little book she carried--"for
+people to send their presents before they come, and you can settle as
+fast as they come in."
+
+The wedding gifts all arrived the day before the wedding. The base-
+burner, though not needed for some months, was set up, because the
+Boarder said he would not feel at home until he could put his feet on
+his own hearth. John Meredith sent an oaken library table and an
+easy-chair. Derry's offering was in the shape of a beautiful picture
+and a vase for the table.
+
+The best man, who fortunately had appealed to Amarilly for guidance,
+gave a couch. The Jenkins family, assessed in proportion to their
+respective incomes, provided a bedroom set. Lily Rose's landlady sent a
+willow rocker; the girl friends at the factory a gilt clock; the
+railroad hands, six silver spoons and an equal number of forks. Lily
+Rose's Sunday-school teacher presented a lamp. A heterogeneous
+assortment of articles came from the neighbors.
+
+These presents were all arranged in the new rooms by Lily Rose, and the
+elegance of the new apartment was overwhelming in effect to the
+household.
+
+"It looks most too fine to feel to hum in," gasped the Boarder. "It
+makes me feel strange!"
+
+"It won't look strange to you," assured the bride-elect, looking shyly
+into his adoring eyes, "when you come home and find me sitting here in
+my blue dress waiting for you, will it?"
+
+"No!" agreed the Boarder with a quick intake of breath, "'Twill be home
+and heaven, Lily Rose."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Shyly and perversely Lily Rose had postponed the trying on of her
+borrowed wedding waist until the day preceding the great event.
+
+"There won't be time to fit it," pleaded Amarilly.
+
+And Lily Rose had smiled a faraway smile and said her veil would cover
+it anyway. But finally Amarilly's pleas prevailed and the beloved
+garment was brought forth.
+
+Amarilly took it reverently from its wrappings and held it up to view.
+After many exclamations of wonder and admiration, Lily Rose, who had
+removed her dress, essayed to try it on.
+
+"Why, Amarilly," she said, struggling to get her arm into the sleeve,
+"there's something the matter! It's sewed together, or something."
+
+Amarilly hastened to investigate.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped, after thrusting her hand within, "to think it should
+be in here, for I am sure this is what Miss King has been looking for so
+long. Wait until I go and ask ma about it."
+
+She hurried to the kitchen precinct of the house.
+
+"Oh, Ma, do you know how this came in Miss King's lace waist? The one
+that was here through the fever?"
+
+"Why, didn't you ever take that home?"
+
+"Yes," informed Amarilly, "but she made me a present of it, and I put it
+away to keep till I was--grown up. And I want to lend it to Lily Rose to
+be married in. And when she went to try it on, she found this in the
+sleeve."
+
+Mrs. Jenkins paused in the sudsing of a garment.
+
+"Let me see!" she said, surveying the object with reminiscent scrutiny.
+"Oh, yes, I remember now. I found it on the floor the day she was here,
+afore the waist was ready for her. I thought she had dropped it, and so
+I pinned it in the sleeve of her dress, and was goin to tell Gus to give
+it to her, but he didn't take the waist hum, and then so much happened,
+it went clean out of my mind."
+
+"I'll go right over to her house with it now," said Amarilly.
+
+Lily Rose, adorned in the filmy, white waist, entered the kitchen.
+
+"See, Amarilly," she said delightedly. "It's a beautiful fit!"
+
+But Amarilly had something on her mind of more moment even than Lily
+Rose's wedding garments.
+
+"I am glad it fits," she said hurriedly, scarcely vouchsafing a glance
+toward Lily Rose as she caught up her hat, and hastened as fast as the
+street-cars would take her to Colette. Orders had been given for the
+admittance of Amarilly at any hour and to any room her young patroness
+might chance to be occupying. This morning she was in her boudoir.
+
+"Oh, Miss King!" cried Amarilly, her face aglow. "I guess I have found
+it!"
+
+Colette's heart began to flutter and the wavering beat became a steady
+throb when Amarilly handed her the long lost article.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you darling! Yes, yes, this is it! And it evidently has
+not been touched. Where did you find it? Who had it?" Amarilly related
+the story of its discovery.
+
+"Then, but for your generosity, Amarilly, this would have been in the
+waist for years, so I am going to reward you. You shall make Lily Rose a
+wedding present of the waist, and when you are married, I shall give you
+a real, white wedding gown of white satin with a bridal train!"
+
+"Oh, Miss King! I must get married then, even if I have to do it in a
+leap year!"
+
+"Of course you will marry. I shall pick out the bridegroom myself. I
+feel like doing almost anything for you, Amarilly."
+
+"Do you, truly?" asked Amarilly. "Then I wish you would--"
+
+"Tell me, dear!" urged Colette. "I'll do anything for you to-day."
+
+"Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little peacemaker.
+
+"Amarilly! I will, indeed--nicer than you can imagine, or he either. And
+tell me, is Lily Rose still happy--very happy?"
+
+"Yes," replied Amarilly. "So happy, and so scared-like, and she's going
+to dress at our house and could you come early and fix on the veil? We
+don't just know how it goes."
+
+[Illustration: "Be nice to Mr. St. John!" whispered the little
+peacemaker.]
+
+"Of course I will. And now will you take a little note to St. John for
+me on your way home?"
+
+"Yes, Miss King. And are you going to tell him it is found?"
+
+"No, Amarilly; not until to-morrow night, so don't say anything about it
+to him."
+
+The rector looked up with a welcoming smile when Amarilly was shown into
+his study.
+
+"I came with a note from her," she said with a glad little intonation in
+her voice.
+
+John took it eagerly. His face fell at the first few words which told
+him not to call for her to-morrow night on the way to the wedding, but
+it brightened amazingly when he read the reason--the adjusting of Lily
+Rose's bridal veil; it fairly radiated joy when he read:
+
+"I am not going to be disagreeable to--anyone to-morrow. I shall 'let my
+light shine' on Lily Rose and--every one. If you will keep your carriage
+to-morrow night, I will send mine away and ride home with you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+On the night of the auspicious occasion, Mrs. Jenkins's home presented a
+scene of festivity. Neighbors had loaned their lamps, and the brakeman
+had hung out his red lantern in token of welcome and cheer. It was,
+however, mistaken by some of the guests as a signal of danger, and they
+were wary of their steps lest they be ditched. Mrs. Hudgers ventured the
+awful prognostication that "mebby some of them Jenkins brats had gone
+and got another of them ketchin' diseases."
+
+When they entered the house there was a general exclamation of
+admiration. The curtain partitions had been removed, and the big room
+was beautifully decorated with festoons and masses of green interspersed
+with huge bunches of June roses.
+
+Derry and Flamingus received the guests. Upstairs the Boarder and the
+brakeman were nervously awaiting the crucial moment. The door into the
+Annex was closed, for in the sitting-room was the little bride, her pale
+cheeks delicately tinted from excitement as Colette artistically
+adjusted the bridal veil, fastening it with real orange blossoms.
+Amarilly hovered near in an ecstasy which was perforce silent on account
+of her mouth being full of pins.
+
+"There's Mr. St. John's carriage," she managed to murmur as she peered
+from the window.
+
+Colette dropped her paper of pins, went hastily into the adjoining
+bedroom and slipped out again before John Meredith was ushered in where
+the surplice immaculately laundered, was waiting to be donned by its
+original owner.
+
+After slipping it on, John's hand from force of habit sought the pocket
+and there encountered something. He drew it forth wonderingly. It was a
+small, silver-monogrammed envelope sealed and addressed to him in
+Colette's handwriting. He read the note once, twice, thrice. Then there
+was a knock at the door that led into the Annex sitting-room. He opened
+it to admit Amarilly.
+
+"Are you ready?" she asked. "You're to go in with them. They--"
+
+She paused and stared at him. The transformation in his face was
+wonderful.
+
+"Yes, I am ready, Amarilly," he replied, and something in his voice
+sounded strange to her.
+
+He followed her into the next room where the Boarder, awkward in his
+Sunday clothes, but regal in his pride in the little, white-veiled
+figure at his side, was awaiting him.
+
+John walked out into the Jenkins's part of the house with them, while
+Amarilly slipped home by way of the Annex bedroom.
+
+The entrance was certainly effective to the neighbors.
+
+"Ain't she a lily though!" "Look at that long veil onct!" "Jest like 'a
+picter!" "What a swell waist" "That big bo'quet!" "I niver seed sech
+flowers afore." "That surplus makes it look like picters!"
+
+All these comments were sweet music in Amarilly's ear. Only one person
+had regrets. Mrs. Hudgers was visibly disappointed.
+
+"I thought they'd hev candles a-burnin'," she confided to Mrs. Huce.
+
+"Don't you know no better than that?" scoffed Mrs. Huce with a superior
+air. "Them things is only used by Irish folks."
+
+Derry's dancing eyes looked to Colette for appreciation of this
+statement, but her eyes and attention were entirely for John.
+
+The ceremony began. John's impressive voice, with its new pervading note
+of exultant gladness, reached them all, tempering even Derry's light-
+hearted mirth. It gave courage to the little bride whose drooping head
+rose like a flower, and a light shone in her eyes as she made the
+responses sweetly and clearly. It found echo in the Boarder, whose
+stooping shoulders unconsciously straightened and his voice grew clear
+and strong as he promised to have and to hold. It found a place in
+Colette's heart which sent illumining lights into her starry eyes.
+
+When the solemn ceremony ended, and the Boarder and Lilly Rose were
+pronounced man and wife, the guests flocked forward to offer
+congratulations. Then they were bidden to adjourn to the Annex that they
+might view the bride's domain, while Mrs. Jenkins assisted by many
+helping hands set the long tables, a small one being reserved for the
+Boarder, the bride, Mr. Cotter, and Mrs. Jenkins and Iry.
+
+"I thought they could eat more natural," whispered the considerate
+little Amarilly to Colette, "if there weren't no strangers with them."
+
+Colette, John, and Derry were also honored with a separate table. Mrs.
+Hudgers and Amarilly "dished up and poured" in the woodshed, while the
+boys acted as waiters, having been thoroughly trained by Amarilly for
+the occasion.
+
+"Do you know," laughed Derry, "I was so surprised and relieved to find
+that the Boarder had a cognomen like other people. It never occurred to
+me before that he must of course have a name."
+
+Colette smiled politely but perfunctorily. She was living too deeply
+to-night to appreciate wit. John, too, was strangely silent, his eyes
+resting often and adoringly upon Colette. Shrewdly Derry divined the
+situation and relieved it by rattling on with a surface banter that
+demanded no response.
+
+"These refreshments," he observed, "are certainly the handiwork of my
+little maid. They have a flavor all her own. I am proud of Amarilly's
+English, too."
+
+"I wonder," said Colette, "if you are doing quite right, Mr. Phillips,
+in improving Amarilly to such an extent? I am afraid she will grow
+beyond her family."
+
+"No; even you, pardon me, Miss King, don't know Amarilly as I do. She
+couldn't get beyond them in her heart, although she may in other
+directions. Her heart is in the right place, and it will bridge any
+distance that may lie between them."
+
+John looked up attentively and approvingly.
+
+"Amarilly has too much aptitude for learning not to be encouraged, and I
+shall do more for her before long. We have pursued a select course of
+reading this winter. She has read aloud while I painted. We began
+stumblingly with Alice in Wonderland and are now groping through
+mythology."
+
+After refreshments had been served, Lily Rose went to her bedroom to don
+her travelling gown, and when the happy couple had driven away amid a
+shower of rice and shouts from the neighbors, John's carriage drew up.
+
+"John," asked Colette, after a happy little moment in his arms, "did you
+read my note and did you see what the date was?"
+
+"Colette, surely it was the dearest love-letter a man ever received. If
+I could have had it all these dreary months!"
+
+"Do you wonder that I feared its falling into strange hands?"
+
+"Tell me its history, Colette. How you recovered it, and why you thought
+it was in the surplice in the first place?"
+
+"I wrote it the day after you asked me--you know--"
+
+There was another happy disappearance and silence before she resumed:
+
+"I was sentimental enough to want to deliver it in an unusual way. I
+took it to Mrs. Jenkins's house the day your surplice was to be returned
+to you, and I slipped it inside the pocket. I wanted you to find it
+there on Sunday morning. I didn't know what to think when you looked at
+me so oddly that Sunday--yes, I know now that you were wondering at my
+silence. And when we came home in the fall and I learned from Amarilly
+that strangers might be reading and laughing at my ardent love-letter,
+which must have passed through many and alien hands, I was so horrified
+I couldn't act rational or natural. I was--yes, I will 'fess up, John,--
+I was unreasonable, as you said and--No, John! wait until I finish
+before you--"
+
+"You want to know how and where it was found? It seems at the same time
+your surplice was laundered, a lace waist of mine was at their house. I
+didn't care for a 'fumigated waist' so, like you, I made Amarilly a
+present perforce. She laid it away in its wrappings to keep until her
+wedding day. Out of the goodness of her generous little heart she loaned
+it to Lily Rose and yesterday, when they were trying it on, Amarilly
+found my note in the sleeve. Mrs. Jenkins was appealed to and remembered
+that when the things were ready to be sent home, she found the note on
+the floor, and supposing it had fallen from the waist slipped it inside
+and forgot all about it. I decided that it should be delivered in the
+manner originally planned."
+
+"But, Colette," he asked wistfully, a few moments later, "if you had
+never found it would you have kept me always in suspense and never have
+given me an answer? I began to hope, that night I called, that you were
+relenting."
+
+"I was, John. Amarilly had been telling me of the Boarder's love for
+Lily Rose, and it made me lonely for you, and I determined in any event
+to give you your answer--this answer--to-night. And so I did, and--I
+think that is all, John."
+
+"Not all, Colette."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+The dairy business continued to prove profitable to Gus, the cow
+remaining contented, loving and giving. One night, however, there came
+the inevitable reaction, and the gentle creature in the cow-shed felt
+the same stifling she had rebelled against on the night of the stampede
+when she had made her wild dash for liberty. Moved by these
+recollections, the sedate, orderly cow became imbued with a feeling of
+unrest, and demolishing the frail door was once more at large. In a
+frenzy of freedom she dashed about the yard. Her progress was somewhat
+impeded by contact with the surplice which, pinned to the clothes-line,
+was flapping in the breezes. Maddened by this obstruction which hung,
+veil-like, over her bovine lineaments, she gave a twist of her Texas
+horns, a tug, and the surplice was released, but from the line only; it
+twined itself like a white wraith about the horns.
+
+Then the sportive animal frisked over the low back fence and across the
+hill, occasionally stepping on a released end of the surplice and
+angrily tearing her way through the garment. She made her road to the
+railroad track. That sight, awakening bitter memories of a packed
+cattle-car, caused her to slacken her Mazeppa-like speed. While she
+paused, the night express backed onto the side track to await the coming
+of the eastbound train. The cow, still in meditation, was silhouetted in
+the light of a harvest moon.
+
+"This 'ere," a home-bound cattleman was saying to a friend on the
+platform, "is nigh onto whar we dropped a cow. I swar if thar ain't that
+blasted cow now, what? Know her from hoof to horn, though what kind of a
+Christmas tree she's got on fer a bunnit, gits me! Ki, yi! Ki, yi!"
+
+At the sound of the shrill, weird cry, the animal stood at bay. Again
+came the well-known strident halloo. A maelstrom of memories was
+awakened by the call. Instinctively obeying the old summons she started
+toward the train, when from over the hill behind her she heard another
+command.
+
+"Co, boss! Co, boss!"
+
+The childish anxious treble rose in an imploring wail.
+
+The cow paused irresolute, hesitating between the lure of the old life
+on the plains and the recent domestic existence.
+
+"Co, boss!"
+
+There was a note of entreaty, of affection, in the cry.
+
+After all, domesticity was her birthright. With an answering low of
+encouragement the black cow turned and trotted amiably back to meet the
+little dairyman.
+
+"Well, I'll be jiggered," said the cattleman, as the train pulled out.
+"I'd a swore it was old Jetblack. Maybe 'twas. She was only a milker
+anyway, and I guess she's found a home somewhere."
+
+Gus with arm lovingly about the cow's neck walked home.
+
+"Bossy," he said in gently reproaching tones, "how could you give me
+such a skeer? I thought I'd lost you, and I'd hev sure missed you--you,
+yerself--more'n I would the money your milk brings us."
+
+Then for the first time, the lad's eyes noted the decorated horns.
+
+"What in thunder--"
+
+He began to unwind the ribbons of white cloth, the stringed remnants of
+the surplice.
+
+"Gracious Peter! It's the surplus! What will Amarilly say--and Lily
+Rose? It's only fit fer carpet rags now. Well, if this ain't the end of
+the surplus after all it has went through! I wonder what bossy wanted of
+it? Thought jest cause she was a cow, she must be a cow ketcher, I
+suppose."
+
+Great was the joy of the Jenkinses at the restoration of the cow, but
+there was grievous lament from Amarilly for the fate of the precious
+garment.
+
+"It was our friend--our friend in need!" she mourned.
+
+"I'm so glad we hev a picter of it," said Lily Rose, gazing fondly at
+the photograph of the Boarder in the saintly robes.
+
+"I'll go and tell Miss King," said Amarilly the next morning. "She said
+she felt that the surplice would come to some tragic end."
+
+"It was a fitting fate for so mysterious a garment," commented Colette.
+"You couldn't expect any ordinary, common-place ending for the surplice.
+After officiating at funerals, weddings, shop-windows, theatres,
+pawnshops, and bishops' dwellings, it could never have simply worn out,
+or died of old age."
+
+"I don't see," meditated Amarilly, "what possessed the cow. She's been
+so gentle always, and then to fly to pieces that way, and riddle the
+surplice to bits! It was lucky there was nothing else on the line."
+
+"It's very simple," said Colette. "I suppose she wanted to go to the
+train. Maybe she expected to meet a friend. And as nearly everyone else
+had worn the surplice on special occasions, she thought she could do the
+same; only, you see, never having been to church she didn't quite know
+how to put it on, and I suppose got mad at it because it didn't fit her
+and gave vent to her anger by trampling on it."
+
+Amarilly's doleful little face showed no appreciation of this conceit.
+
+"Don't look so glum, Amarilly. I have something to show you that will
+please you."
+
+She opened a desk and took a thick, white square envelope from it, and
+handed it to the little girl.
+
+Wonderingly Amarilly opened it and took out a folded, engraved sheet of
+thick paper. She read eagerly, and two little spots of pink came into
+her cheeks.
+
+"Oh, oh!" she cried, looking up with shining eyes, which in another
+moment glistened through tears.
+
+"Why, Amarilly, aren't you glad that I am going to be--"
+
+"Mrs. St. John?" smiled Amarilly. "I think it's beautiful. And,"
+anxiously, "you will surely be good to--him?"
+
+"Yes," replied Colette softly "I will be good--very good--to St. John.
+Don't fear, Amarilly."
+
+A card had fallen from the envelope. Amarilly picked it up and read:
+
+"To be presented at the church."
+
+"What's that?" she asked curiously.
+
+"You have to show that at the church door. If you didn't have it, you
+couldn't get in to see us married. It's the same as a ticket to a
+theatre. And St. John doesn't like it; but if we didn't have them there
+would be a mob of curious people who don't know us. I shall give all of
+you tickets to come to the church, the Boarder and Lily Rose, too."
+
+"Oh," cried Amarilly, "that will be lovely, and we shall all come."
+
+"Of course you will all come. Your friend, the bishop, is to marry us,
+and Bud is going to sing a solo. The choirmaster told me his voice was
+developing wonderfully."
+
+"I must go home and tell them all about it," said Amarilly excitedly.
+
+"Wait! There's more to hear. I am going to invite you to the reception
+here at the house, and I am going to have a lovely white dress made for
+you to wear, and you shall have white silk stockings and slippers and
+white gloves."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Amarilly, shutting her eyes. "I can't believe it."
+
+The next morning at the studio she announced the wonderful news to
+Derry.
+
+"I just received an invitation, myself," he replied. "We will go
+together, Amarilly. I'll send you flowers and call for you with a
+taxicab."
+
+"Things must stop happening to me," said Amarilly solemnly. "I can't
+stand much more."
+
+Derry laughed.
+
+"When things once begin to happen, Amarilly, they never stop. You are to
+go from here now every day after luncheon to this address," handing her
+a card.
+
+"'Miss Varley,'" Amarilly read. "'1227, Winter Street.' Will she have
+work for me, too?"
+
+"Yes; work in schoolbooks. She takes a few private pupils, and I have
+engaged her to teach you. I really think you should have instruction in
+other branches than English and art and arithmetic."
+
+Amarilly turned pale but said nothing for a moment. Then she held out
+her hand.
+
+"I will study hard--to pay you," she said simply.
+
+"And can you stand another piece of exciting news, Amarilly? Sunset,
+which I have dawdled over for so long, drew first prize."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, that is best of all!"
+
+"And do you know what I am going to give Mrs. St. John for a wedding
+present from you and me? The picture of The Little Scrub-girl."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Another spring found the members of the Jenkins Syndicate still banking
+regularly and flourishing in their various walks in life. The Boarder
+had received a "raise"; Lily Rose was spending her leisure time in
+fashioning tiny garments which she told Cory were for a doll baby; Iry
+was wearing his first trousers cut over from a pair discarded by Bud;
+and Amarilly was acquiring book lore with an ease and rapidity which
+delighted Miss Varley and Derry. Through the medium of Mr. Vedder the
+attention of the manager of a high class vaudeville had been drawn to
+Bud, and he was now singing every night with a salary that made the
+neighbors declare that "them Jenkinses was getting to be reg'ler
+Rockyfellers."
+
+Amarilly coming home one Monday evening found the family grouped about
+the long table listening with bulging eyes and hectic cheeks to the
+Boarder, who had before him a sheet of figures. Amarilly was at once
+alert, although somewhat resentful of this encroachment upon her
+particular province.
+
+"Oh, come and hear, Amarilly!" "Amarilly, we've bought a farm!"
+"Amarilly, we air agoin' to live in the country!"
+
+"Let me explain," said the Boarder, usually slow and easy going, but now
+alert and enthusiastic of mien and speech. "We've got a chance,
+Amarilly, to sell this place and make quite a profit. That new factory
+that's agoin' up acrost the alley has sent real estate scootin'. With
+what we git fer it, we kin make a big payment on a farm. I took a run
+down yesterday to look at one we kin git cheap, cause the folks on it
+hez gotter go west fer the man's health. What we hev all saved up sence
+we bought the place will keep us agoin' till we git in our fust summer
+crops."
+
+"Tell her about the house," prompted Mrs. Jenkins, her quick, maternal
+eye noting the bewilderment and disapproval in her daughter's expressive
+eyes.
+
+"It's all green meaders and orcherds and lanes," said the Boarder with
+the volubility of one repeating an oft-told and well-loved tale, while
+the young Jenkinses with the rapt, intense gaze of moving picture
+beholders sat in pleased expectancy, "and the house sets on a little
+rise of ground. It's a white house with a big chimbley and two stoops,
+and thar's a big barn with two white hosses in it, and a cow and an
+animal in the paster lot. A big pen of pigs, fifty hens in the henhouse,
+and a few sheep. Thar's a piece of woods and the river."
+
+"I'm a little fearful of the river on Iry's account," said Mrs. Jenkins,
+"but we kin spank him up good as soon as we git thar, and then he'll
+understand he's to keep away."
+
+"We kin git a good dog to keep track of Iry and the cattle," said the
+Boarder, and then he paused expectantly to listen to Amarilly's
+approbation. But she was strangely silent.
+
+"It will be a fust class investment," he continued sagely.
+
+"Why will it? We don't know anything about farming," objected Amarilly.
+"We'll have to hire someone to run it."
+
+"I was brought up on a farm," replied the Boarder. "Thar ain't a thing I
+don't know about farm work."
+
+"I was raised on a farm, too," said Mrs. Jenkins. "I can make good
+butter and I know all about raisin' chickens. I'll get some young
+turkeys and have them ready to sell for Thanksgiving, and I'll set out
+strawberries and celery plants."
+
+"I kin larn, and I'll work hard and do just what he tells me to," said
+Flamingus, motioning toward the Boarder.
+
+"I kin have my dairy all right, all right," said Gus joyfully. "I'll
+have a hull herd of cattle soon."
+
+"I shall go in heavy on hens," said Milt importantly. "The grocer give
+me a book about raising them. There's money in hens."
+
+"I choose to take keer of the sheep," cried Bobby.
+
+"I'll help ma do the work in the house and the garden," volunteered
+Cory.
+
+"And I'm strong enough to work outdoors now," said Lily Rose. "I shall
+help with the garden and with the housework."
+
+"We'll all pitch in and work," said Flamingus authoritatively, "and
+we're all partners and we won't hire no help. It will be clear profit."
+
+"Ain't it lovely, Amarilly?" asked the mother, apprehensive lest the
+little leader might blackball the project.
+
+"We're all doing so well here, why change? Why not let well enough
+alone?" she asked.
+
+There was a general and surprised protest at this statement. It was
+something new for Amarilly to be a kill-joy.
+
+"Do you like to live in this alley when we kin hev all outdoors and git
+a chanst to be somebody?" demanded Flamingus, who was rapidly usurping
+his sister's place as head of the house.
+
+"And think of the money we'll make!" reminded Milton.
+
+"And the milk and butter and cream and good things to eat without buying
+them!" exclaimed Gus.
+
+"And huntin' f'r eggs and swimmin' in the river and skatin' and gettin'
+hickory nuts and all the apples you kin eat," persuaded Bobby, who had
+evidently been listening to the Boarder's fancies of farm life.
+
+"Thar's a school close by, and all the chillern kin go," said the mother
+anxiously. "Mebby you kin git to teach it after a while, Amarilly."
+
+"Oh, Amarilly!" cried Lily Rose ecstatically, "to think of all the
+trees, and all the sky, and all the green grass and all the birds--oh,
+Amarilly!"
+
+Words failed Lily Rose, but she sighed a far-seeing blissful sigh of
+exquisite happiness at her horoscope. The Boarder looked at her, his
+heart eloquent in his eyes, but he said nothing.
+
+"Amarilly," cried Cory, "we kin hev real flowers fer nuthin' and pies
+and ice-cream, and we kin cuddle little chicks like ma told me, and make
+daisy chains, and hev picnics in the woods. Oh--"
+
+Words also proved inadequate to Co's anticipations.
+
+"Amawilly, we kin play wiv little lambs," lisped Iry.
+
+"Bud, you haven't made your speech, yet," said Amarilly, wistfully,
+realizing that the majority was against her.
+
+"Bud won't go till fall," said Mrs. Jenkins.
+
+"Till fall!" cried Amarilly faintly. "Why, when are we going?"
+
+"Next week," answered the Boarder jubilantly. "The folks want to leave
+right away, and we must get busy plantin'. I went to Vedder's friend,
+the real estate man, this mornin' as soon as I got back, and he says
+it's a real bargain."
+
+"But why isn't Bud going?"
+
+"This morning," informed Mrs. Jenkins proudly, "Bud had an offer. As
+soon as the theatre shuts down, Mr. Vedder is going to take Bud to a big
+resort and manage him for the season. He'll git lots of money. I
+wouldn't let Bud go off with no one else, but Mr. Vedder is so nice, and
+he says when Bud goes to the country in the fall he kin come into the
+city Saturday nights on the Interurban and sing in the choir Sundays and
+come back Monday. He kin stay with him, Mr. Vedder says. And the country
+air and the fresh milk and eggs, will make a diff'rent boy of him. It's
+what the doctor says he'd orter hev."
+
+"Then, we'll go, of course," declared Amarilly resolutely.
+
+"And, Amarilly," said the Boarder gravely, "your ma ain't said why she
+wanted to go, but think of the diff'rence it will make in her life. To
+be sure, she will have to work hard, but with you, Lily Rose, and Co to
+help her, it won't be so hard, and it'll be higher class work than
+slushing around in tubs and water, and she'll hev good feedin' and good
+air, and we'll all feel like we was folks and our own bosses."
+
+"Ma, I was selfish!" cried Amarilly remorsefully. "I'll work like a
+hired man!"
+
+Amarilly thereupon bravely assumed a cheerful mien and looked over the
+Boarder's figures, listening with apparently great enthusiasm to the
+plans and projects. But when she was upstairs in her own little bed and
+each and every other Jenkins was wrapt in happy slumber, she turned her
+face to the wall, and wept long, silently, and miserably. Far-away
+fields and pastures did not look alluring to this little daughter of the
+city who put bricks and mortar and lighted streets above trees and
+meadows, for Amarilly was entirely metropolitan; sky-scrapers were her
+birthright, and she loved every inch of her city.
+
+"But it's best for them," she acknowledged.
+
+A little pang came with the realization that they who had been so
+dependent upon her guardianship for guidance were entirely competent to
+act without her.
+
+"It's Flam. He's growed up!" she sobbed, correctness of speech slipping
+from her in her grief. "And he don't know near so much as I do, only
+he's a man--or going to be--so what he says goes."
+
+And with this bitter but inevitable recognition of the things that are,
+Amarilly sobbed herself to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+The next morning Amarilly served Derry's breakfast in heavy-hearted
+silence, replying in low-voiced monosyllables to his gay, conversational
+advances. She performed her household duties about the studio listlessly
+though with conscientious thoroughness. When it came time to prepare
+luncheon, Derry called her into the studio.
+
+"Come here to the light, where I can see you best, Amarilly."
+
+Reluctantly she came.
+
+He turned his searching, artist's eyes upon her unsparingly, noting the
+violet shadows under the white-lidded eyes, and the hard, almost tragic
+lines in the drooping of her mobile mouth. She bore his gaze
+unflinchingly, with indrawn breath and clenched hands.
+
+"What is it, Amarilly?" he asked gently. "You will tell me, _nicht
+wahr_?"
+
+These two last words were in deference to her new study of German.
+
+At the genuine sympathy in his voice, Amarilly's composure gave way and
+there was a rush of tears.
+
+He led her to a divan and sat beside her.
+
+"Yes, of course you will tell me, Amarilly. I knew there was an
+emotional side to my practical, little maid, and I noticed at breakfast
+that there was something wrong."
+
+"Yes," she replied, with an effort, wiping away the rising tears, "I
+will tell you, but no one else. If I told Mr. Vedder, he would not
+understand; he would say I must do what was sensible. If I told Mr. St.
+John, he would be shocked, and tell me that duty was hard, and that was
+why it must be done,--to strengthen. Mrs. St. John would laugh, and say:
+'Oh, what a foolish Amarilly!'"
+
+"And what will I say, Amarilly?" he asked interestedly.
+
+"You! Oh, you will understand what I feel, and you will be sorry."
+
+"Then spin away, Amarilly. You'll have my sympathy and help in
+everything that makes you feel bad, whether it's right or wrong."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Derry, we are all going away--way off to the country--to live
+on a farm!"
+
+"Amarilly, you little city brat! You'd be a misfit on a farm. Tell me
+what has sent the Jenkins family into the open."
+
+Faithfully Amarilly enumerated the pros and cons of the agricultural
+venture. When she had concluded her narrative, Derry, to her surprise
+and sorrow, looked positively jubilant.
+
+"And you don't want to live in the country, eh, Amarilly?"
+
+"No, Mr. Derry," she protested. "I don't. I have never been there, but I
+know the woods and the fields and--all that--must be beautiful--in
+patches--but I couldn't bear it all the time--not to see all the bright
+and white lights at night and the hurry, and the people, and the
+theatres. No! I'd rather be the poorest little speck here than to own
+and live on the biggest farm in the world."
+
+He laughed delightedly.
+
+"Oh, Amarilly, you little gamin! You have the right idea, though. We
+don't want anything, however perfect it may be, all the time. We want it
+just 'in patches'--as you say. You'll love the country with your whole
+heart and soul when you come to see it if you know that you can leave
+it. But this is a big change in your affairs, and we must talk it over.
+We'll go to Carter's again for luncheon. Take off your apron and cap.
+You won't have to fix your hair this time. It's even more beautiful than
+it was then. Your frock, if it is cheap and plain, is artistic in cut
+and color."
+
+Amarilly felt cheered in spite of herself at his exuberant manner, but
+burst into tears when on leaving the studio he casually remarked:
+
+"So this is almost the last of your work here! I can never hope to get
+such another housekeeper as you. I shall have to eat out again."
+
+At sight of her grief he took hold of her arm almost roughly.
+
+"Amarilly, you little goose, do you suppose I am going to let you be
+exiled to a farm and lapse into the vernacular of the Boarder? Now, buck
+up and trust to the judgment and affection of your twin brother."
+
+Amarilly, wondering but hopeful, "bucked up," and they walked in silence
+to Carter's, where Derry ordered a private dining-room and luncheon.
+Then:
+
+"Now, listen my child, and you shall hear, not of the midnight ride of
+Paul Revere, but of the sad story of the life of your twin brother. My
+parents died when I was too young to grieve for them. They are only a
+faint memory. I had a cold-blooded, sensible guardian who put me into a
+boys' school, from which I went to college, and then for a year in
+Paris. He didn't let me know the amount of my inheritance. Consequently
+I really worked and worked hard at the only thing I cared for and formed
+no extravagant tastes. Neither was I courted and flattered by parasites.
+
+"On my return from Paris, a year before I met you, I came into my
+mother's fortune, and recently I have received the one left me by my
+father. Having been brought up to live a comparatively simple life, in
+the belief that I would be dependent on my own exertions, I have more
+money than I know what to do with as yet. I have no one, not even a
+fifth cousin, to be interested in. I have any number of acquaintances,
+but no really intimate friends, so I have no one to help me spend and
+enjoy my money.
+
+"There was something about you, Amarilly, that appealed to me that first
+day you came up to the studio. It couldn't have been your looks, for
+aside from your hair, your expressive eyes, and your hands; you are
+quite ordinary looking; but something about you amused me, then
+interested me, and, now fascinates me. I have thought about it a good
+deal, and have come to the conclusion that it is your direct naturalness
+and earnestness. I have really come to feel as if you were a sort of a
+younger sister of mine. I have done a very little for you in the way of
+education, and I have intended to do more. The reason I have been slow
+about it was--for reasons. I have discussed your future with the
+Merediths a great many times.
+
+"What I wished to do was to put you in the best girls' school I could
+find and when you were finished there, to send you abroad, and give you
+the same advantages that a sister of mine would have. But as I say, I
+hesitated. It didn't seem exactly wise to separate you from your family,
+surround you with different environments and then have you come home
+to--the alley. I know your loyal little heart would never waver in its
+affection for them, but such a decided change would not be wise.
+
+"Now, you see, this farm business simplifies things wonderfully. With
+the thrift and industry of your brothers and the Boarder I can easily
+see the farm is going to be a prosperous undertaking, and by the time
+you are finished--say five years--for Miss Varley tells me you are quite
+up with the girls of your age in your studies, they will have a
+substantial country home which you will enjoy immensely between times.
+You will find that a country home, however humble, is not sordid like an
+obscure home in the city. So next week, Amarilly, or as soon as Mrs.
+Meredith can fit you out properly, you will be packed off to an ultra-
+smart school. There will be one term this year, but I think you should
+remain through the summer vacation and have private tutoring."
+
+The waiter entered with the first course. When he had again gone out,
+Amarilly looked up at Derry, her eyes full of a yearning that touched
+him.
+
+"It would be lovely, Mr. Derry. Too lovely to happen, you know."
+
+"There, Amarilly," he said with a combination of frown and smile, "there
+it is again--your contradiction of eyes and mouth--the one of a gazelle;
+the other, of a mule. I'll answer your objections before you make them,
+for it is determined that you are to go."
+
+The look he had ascribed to Amarilly's mouth came into the forward
+thrust of his chin.
+
+"First, you think you are too proud and independent to accept. From your
+viewpoint it seems a good deal to do. From mine, proved by my bank
+account, it is an absurdly small thing to do, but if you are truly
+grateful for what you are pleased to think I have done for you, you will
+let me do this, because you feel sorry for me that I am so alone in the
+world. And St. John, himself, would tell you it was your duty to make
+the most of your talents and opportunities. You can also do a little
+charity work in keeping me straight, for you see, Amarilly, I am going
+to Paris for two years to study, and I will have an incentive to work
+and not play too hard if I know I have a little sister over here in
+school who would be sorry if her brother went wrong and didn't get to be
+a great artist. So for your sake, and for my sake--"
+
+"But there's ma's sake," she said wistfully. "The Boarder says woman's
+work on the farm is hard."
+
+"There's the Boarderess and Co--"
+
+"Lily Rose is not strong and doesn't know much about farm work, and Co's
+only a kid."
+
+"Well, I hadn't finished. You have an interest in the farm as one of the
+syndicate, and you have some money saved."
+
+"Yes," admitted Amarilly bewildered, not following his train of thought.
+
+"Well, you won't need that now, and it can go towards a woman to help,--
+a hired girl in country vernacular--during the busy seasons. And you can
+go home summers. Every week you are to write me a long letter and tell
+me about yourself and them."
+
+Amarilly was gazing into space, and in silence he watched the odd,
+little signs of conflict. It was the same sort of a struggle, only
+harder and more prolonged, that she had passed through two years before
+at the theatre when her untutored conscience bade her relinquish her
+seat. Suddenly her countenance became illumined.
+
+"I am going to do it, Mr. Derry! I am going to let you send me to
+school, and abroad and wherever you think best."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
+by Belle K. Maniates
+
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