Читать книгу April Gold (Musaicum Romance Classics) - Grace Livingston Hill - Страница 5

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Thurlow sat in the backseat with Mrs. Steele, who asked him intelligent questions all the way to the house. How large was the lot? How many rooms did the house have? What kind of heating and lighting? How many bathrooms? Was there a garage? He answered the rapid fire of questions as honestly as he could, and then suddenly they were at the house and he was taking Mrs. Steele up the front walk, hoping his mother had not waited dinner for him, hoping the house would be in its usual beautiful order.

But her son need not have worried. Mrs. Reed was always ready to be seen. Even in her working garb she had a sweet dignity about her. Also, the lady he was bringing was a thoroughbred. She met the other woman with a gracious informality that made them at once friendly.

“Are you one of our club members whom I ought to know but don’t?” asked Mrs. Steele with a friendly smile.

“No,” said Mrs. Reed. “I’ve never had time for things like that. I’ve just lived a quiet home life.”

“Perhaps you’re to be envied,” said Mrs. Steele, studying the other woman’s strong, sweet face. “But I’m sure the club has been the loser thereby.”

Thurlow’s heart suddenly swelled with pride, and he gave his mother a tender look. He would never forget Mrs. Steele’s appreciation of his mother. Neither would Rilla, who was standing just within the pantry door, caught before she could slip upstairs.

“And now,” said Mrs. Steele, “I feel just like a thief coming here to try to steal your home away. It’s lovely. Isn’t it going to be too hard for you to leave it?”

A quick look of pain came into Mrs. Reed’s eyes, but she smiled through it.

“Hard? Yes. But we’ll be glad to get the chance to sell it. We’ve been unfortunate, like a good many others these days.”

“Yes, your son has been telling me. But now, since it had to come, I’m glad that we are to profit by it. Will it be all right for me to look the house over? I want to tell the rest of my committee about it before we meet with the man who is giving the property to our club as a memorial to his wife.”

Then Mrs. Steele was all practicality, asking questions, exclaiming over this and that pleasant feature of the house.

“I think it’s just what we want,” she said at last as, Rilla having been driven out from her hiding, the Reeds stood finally together and watched for their fate from those lips. “We’ll need another bath perhaps, some few alterations in partitions, but on the whole it is quite well planned for our purpose, and I’m positive the rest of the committee will agree with me. We have our meeting at ten tomorrow morning, and I should say by afternoon, if all goes well, we will be ready to sign the papers. But I would like to bring the rest of the committee, with Mr. Stanwood, our donor, to see the place before the papers are signed. Would it be inconvenient for you if we were to drive around sometime during the morning, say about half past eleven? Oh, thank you. Then I’m sure we shall find ready response from the other members!”

“She knows her onions,” said Rilla softly as she turned from the window where she had been watching the taillight of the Steele car disappear into the evening.

“Yes,” said Thurlow decidedly, “she knows all her vegetables, Rill, very well indeed.”

“Well, who is she?” asked Rilla. “And where did you pick her up, and what’s it all about? Isn’t it about time you told us the whole thing? Come springing a highbrow like that on us when we were starving to death for our dinner and never explaining a thing, and me with my kitchen apron on, caught in the pantry. Sit right down and explain yourself.”

“Not a word,” said the mother, laughing, “until dinner is on the table. Thurlow hasn’t even had any lunch, I’m quite sure; and as for the rest of us, we’ll all be sick if we get so excited. And, Rilla, quick! I smell the stew burning! If we have to eat stew day after day, it’s better to have it before it burns. You take it up, and I’ll get the coffee on. Hurry. Whatever news there is will keep, good or bad, till we’ve started dinner.”

So presently they were seated at the table, and Thurlow was telling his story amid a fire of questions from his sister and an interested, thoughtful silence from their mother.

“Well,” said Rilla when the tale was finally concluded and they couldn’t think of another question to ask, “I refuse to believe in it till it happens. This is the third time Thurl has gotten up an excitement, and it isn’t any more likely to happen this time than it was any of the others. I for one am glad there aren’t many more days before the worst is over.”

There were tears behind the challenging voice, and the mother and brother realized that it was going to be hard for Rilla to give up her home. She had always loved it here so, where she and her father used to roam around the grounds arm in arm in the summertime and watch the trees and flowers grow and visit their favorite bird’s nest and feed the pet squirrel. It brought a mist to all their eyes to think about leaving the dear home.

The mother got up at last, breaking the silence. There was a look of victory and peace in her face.

“If it is God’s will that those people should buy this house, they will!” she said decidedly. “Or, if it is His will that we should go through humiliation and have our house taken from us, then we must not murmur at that either. Now, let’s get these dishes out of the way, children, and then go to bed. We are all pretty well tired out, and we don’t know what tomorrow holds for us, so we had better get some sleep.”

Very quietly they all worked and, in a few minutes, had the kitchen immaculate. They had talked very little. Each one was realizing what it was going to mean to lose the house even in a respectable way.

“But, Mother,” said Rilla as she hung up the last dish towel and turned out the kitchen light, “what are we going to do? Even if we sell the house in the right way, where are we going? We can’t just make a bonfire out of our furniture and then go and park on the street.”

There was a panic in the girl’s voice. Things were looming large and sorrowful on her young horizon.

“There will be a place provided,” said the mother firmly. “I think perhaps I have an idea, but we won’t talk about it yet. We must first see what happens to this house. And tomorrow morning, Rilla, you and I have got to begin looking over things and packing away some of our belongings. When we go, we may have to go suddenly. That is, if we should happen to be ejected.”

“Mother!” said Rilla aghast. “Nobody could do that, could they?”

“Yes, I guess they couldthat is, if they were mean enough. I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if that slick lawyer did it.”

“Oh, Mother! Why didn’t we let Thurlow go to Mr. Sherwood before he left? He would have saved the house for us. I’m sure he would.”

“Let?” said Thurlow sharply, appearing in the doorway. “Where did you get that word? Did you suppose you were keeping me from it? I certainly wouldn’t have gone to Mr. Sherwood, no matter if you all begged me to.”

“Of course not!” said the mother. “Rilla, you are overwrought. You don’t realize what you are saying.”

“I don’t see why it would have been so dreadful,” said the girl with troubled brow. “It would only have been borrowing a little money. We could have paid interest on it and paid it back pretty soon. Thurlow and I could get jobs and pay it back.”

“We haven’t got the jobs yet, sister, and no telling when we will. Forget it, Rill, and go get yourself a night’s sleep. ‘You’ll be sorry you worried at all tomorrow morning,’” he chanted merrily, and then went up the stairs whistling.

Trying to keep his courage up, thought the mother with a sigh as she followed slowly up the stairs.

But in his room at last, he whistled no more. Instead, he went and stood at the open window looking down into the stillness of the summer night, and his heart was heavy. Rilla’s question of what they were going to do next confronted him and fell heavily on his heart. He had forgotten that there would be other and perhaps worse problems after the house was disposed of. And what of all his friendships and his college and Barbara and the future in general?

Thurlow awoke from a troubled sleep early in the morning, and all the world looked dark to him again. He was afraid that his hopes of selling the house to Mrs. Steele’s club were going to be dashed. Somebody would be sure to rise up and object, or there would be delay in some way.

He drank strong coffee for breakfast and wouldn’t eat the tempting things his mother had prepared. He was nervous and excitable. Rilla watched him warily.

“You’re not so complacent yourself this morning,” she mocked her brother as she came upon him staring out the window.

He forced a smile and turned upon her.

“I was just thinking that I’d better go out and cut the lawn before we have that visit from the townspeople,” he announced with elaborate cheerfulness and hurried out to get the lawn mower.

But even so the hours dragged slowly by.

Then at last they came, staring critically at the house and grounds as they surged up the front walk.

Rilla fled to the attic and wept her heart out into an old haircloth trunk where she was pleased to think she was packing away garments. But she did not escape the interlopers even there.

Mrs. Reed was the gracious hostess but wondering all the while why it seemed such a terrible thing to her to have strangers going about her beloved house, peering into every cranny and corner and bringing out infinitesimal flaws.

It was Thurlow who answered the questions, going around with the men of the party, of whom there were threeMr. Stanwood the donor and two husbands of the club committee. He was grave and courteous and seemed to be much older than he really was.

Rilla, escaping from her attic just in time before an influx of women mounted to the top of the house, watched her brother with wonder. Thurlow was growing to be a man. She was proud of him as he stood there in the doorway talking to Mr. Stanwood. Oh, to think he had to leave his home and give up his college studies and go into some miserable little minor job, just be an underling all his life, instead of turning out to be the splendid businessman his father had hoped and planned for.

There was no question about whether they liked the house. They stood in admiring groups and exclaimed and whispered and exclaimed some more. Mr. Stanwood lingered, talking a long time with Thurlow. Then they all went away. But Mr. Stanwood came back within the hour, bringing his lawyer, whom Mr. Reed also had known and trusted, and before three o’clock the money was paid to the building association, satisfying all claims, and the deed was handed over to the new owners.

Thurlow came back to his mother and sister triumphant.

“You ought to have been there, Mother. It was a thrill! Our lawyer went with me to make the settlement, and you ought to have seen those foxy men cringe when they saw who was with me. Mr. Stanwood came along. He said he wanted to see the thing through. And the questions he asked them! You should have seen how hard they had to backpedal to get around some of the things they had done. They finally ended up by charging it all on a secretary who had been fired because she got letters mixed and took too much upon herself. They said she had written the letter, and when Mr. Stanwood asked him how he came to sign such a threatening letter after it had been written, he said he had been on his way to a train and hadn’t stopped to read it over. That was that last insolent letter we got. But say, Mother, that Mr. Stanwood is a peach. He even offered to advance the money to settle up the mortgage and let us pay as we liked if we wanted to keep the house. But I knew you wouldn’t think we could do that.” He looked at his mother questioningly and sighed. He was tired, poor fellow. And after all the triumph, they were losing their house and getting nothing in return but a clear conscience and a good name.

“No! Of course not!” said the mother quickly. “But that was wonderful of him. An entire stranger.”

“He says he knew Father, or knew of him,” said the son tenderly. “Almost everyone seems to have known Father. Or at least known of him.”

The mother smiled and a light came into her eyes.

“You had a good father. Everybody respects a man like your father, even though he was not socially prominent or financially a great success.”

“Of course!” said the son proudly. “Father was most unusual.”

“Yes, but it is good to know that there are others, too,” said the mother, “good that all the world are not crooks.”

“Well, at least we’ll have enough left over from the settlement to move into a decent apartment and pay the rent a couple of months ahead till I can get a good-paying job,” said Thurlow with a sigh of relief. “There were almost two hundred dollars left over when everything was paid.”

“That’s grand,” said the mother. “But look here, son, just put that idea of an apartment out of your head. We can be thankful for this extra money, of course, but it won’t do much more than move us, and we’ve got to be careful with every cent. You needn’t get any notions about comfortable apartments. We’re not going to try to live in luxury. Not even what you would call comfort or perhaps even decency. We are going to get along with bare necessities, at least for a while, till we can see ahead. And this extra money is going to be a nest egg for possibilities ahead until we are sure of getting our money back from that bankif we ever do. Now, I may as well tell you that I’ve made my plans, and I guess you’ll have to let me manage for a little while yet anyway. It may be a bit hard for you now, but I think it will work out. At least we’re going to try it. Now, come and let us get something to eat, and then I’ll tell you about it.”

“But, Mother,” said both the young people in dismay. “You mustn’t get that way. We are going to take care of you, you know.”

“Yes, well, that’s all right, and you’re a pair of dears, but we are going cautiously until the ground gets firmer under our feet again. Now, Rilla, you put the milk and butter and applesauce on the table, and, Thurl, slice the cold meat and cut the bread. I’ll fry the potatoes and make the coffee, and we’ll be ready in no time.”

Thurlow gave his mother a keen worried look but did her bidding, and in a short time, they sat down to the meal; but they ate silently, the young people keeping a wary eye on their mother. They recognized a set of firmness around her lips that portended a state of mind hard to move. They had had experience before with that look on her face and felt more trouble ahead.

Rilla fairly flew at the dishes when they were done, and very soon everything was in place.

“Now!” said Thurlow, leading his mother to her comfortable chair in the living room. “Let’s hear the worst!”

The mother went to her desk and got a long envelope, returning to her chair.

“I’ve been going over the papers in the desk, getting ready to move,” she said as she sat down, “and I found some papers I had forgotten all about.”

She opened the envelope and took out a long, official-looking document.

“It’s a deed,” she explained, “a deed to a small property down on the south side of the city. Your father took it over from a man who owed him some money. The man’s wife died, and he wanted to move away quickly, so your father took the property. It isn’t worth very much, but the taxes are paid, and it’s ours. I know you will not think it is a pleasant place to live, but we can’t help that now. It’s big enough to house us, and it won’t cost us anything. There is a barn on the place big enough to store the goods we want to keep. I’m selling some of them, of course. That will bring in a few more dollars to live on till times improve. I called up your Mrs. Steele, and she said she thought the ladies would like to purchase a couple of bedroom sets from the guest rooms. We won’t need so many again, and they are not especially interesting to us to keep. We never had any sentiment connected with them. The bookcases, too, won’t fit anywhere else.”

The son and daughter looked at one another and gasped.

“But, Mother,” demurred Thurlow, “you don’t realize at all what kind of a neighborhood the South Side is. You wouldn’t stand it a day, and it’s no place for a girl like Rilla to be.”

“I thought you’d say that,” said the mother, “so I went down there yesterday while you were off. I sent Rilla to return some books we had borrowed from two or three places, and I took the trolley down there. It isn’t fashionable, if that’s what you mean. I’ll admit there are several factories nearby, and the railroad runs behind the house, but the lot is quite deep, and it’s only a siding from the main track, running down to a factory two blocks away. Anyway, I think we should move there for the present.”

“But, Mother, why be so economical when we have that extra money?”

“Because we’ve got to save every cent. By the time we are moved, there will be very little left to live on. You haven’t either of you an idea how much it costs just to eat. Of course, if we’re able to get jobs, all three of us, we can in time catch up and have things a little easier, but at first we’ve got to be very careful!”

“Mother! Not you!” Rilla was aghast, and Thurlow rose up sternly.

“Yes, of course I’m going to get a job,” said Mrs. Reed. “I’m not too old. I can get plain sewing if I can’t get anything else, but I’m getting a job! That’s settled. And we’ll all work with a will this winterunless”and a faint gleam of a smile shadowed out“unless the bank opens again before fall.”

“The bank won’t open again!” said Thurlow with a sad conviction in his voice. “Mr. Stanwood told me it is in a bad way, and we’re just going to have to calculate without that bank. But we’ll never consent to have you go to work; no, nor to live down there among the factories.”

“It’s where we’ll have to live, son,” insisted the mother. “There’s a big yard and a neat little house. I’m sure we can make it quite pleasant. Of course the houses in that locality are very plain and need fixing up. But we can move later if we have to.”

They argued pretty late that night, the mother still determined to move to Meachin Street.

“We can sell it later, perhaps, after we have made it pleasant and attractive.” She tried to smile brightly.

“You couldn’t sell anything to live in down there for even a song,” said the son. “I know that region. And the neighbors would be simply impossible! I’m not going to let my mother go into such a neighborhood!”

“They are probably only poor creatures who have lost their money just like ourselves,” said the mother calmly.

And then there was the whole argument to go over again.

At last, near midnight, they compromised. They would agree to move down there for a while if their mother would give up the idea of getting a job.

But the next morning it was all to do over again.

“Thurlow, you don’t understand,” said his mother firmly, with the look in her eye of having lain awake all night thinking about it. “I am determined that you shall finish your college studies! I can’t have your father’s well-laid plans frustrated. I can see how we can do it quite well. And a little later Rilla can go. At least she can attend the university in the city, and that won’t cost so much. But you must finish out your course in your college where you have begun.”

Thurlow’s eyes were misty as he looked at his sweet, stubborn mother, but he set his pleasant lips in a firm line of determination. He was just opening his mouth to say no in no uncertain terms when there came a loud throbbing of a car up the drive, a shout like an army with banners, then a thundering at the front door, mingled with cheerful young voices.

“Hi, Thurl! Where are you? Come out here, Thurl, old man!”

Thurlow sprang to his feet with startled delight, and his mother looked up fearsomely and exclaimed, “What is it?”

“It’s the college!” said Thurlow. “You must have invoked their presence.” And he went storming out joyously to meet half a dozen big fellows like himself.