Betty Lou flew here and there, bringing cool sheets and pillows and a thin nightdress of Jane’s, with plenty of pretty frilly lace, that smelled of lavender. All of Jane’s things were beautifully kept, even the old ones she had left behind when she went on her grand trip to the mountains. This garment was handkerchief linen, soft and thin. It settled about the tired mother’s flesh gently like a rose leaf in the hot room.
The hospital answered at last. They could hear Tom’s gruff questions, the relief in his voice.
“They say there’s no immediate danger,” he said as he hung up the receiver. “They say he revived after he got to the hospital and was able to answer their questions. They think it’s the heat, but the doctor will give him a careful examination tomorrow. He’s sleeping now, and his pulse is steady. They say we do not need to hurry to see him for he ought not to be disturbed. He has an ice bag on his head and seems comfortable.”
“Well, now, that’s good news,” said Jane cheerfully. “Now Mother, Father is sleeping, and you can get a good sleep, too.”
“But I must be there when he wakes up. He’ll wonder why I didn’t come right away.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” reassured Jane. “I’ll tell him I wouldn’t let you. I’ve come home to attend to everybody, and you’ll all find you’ve got to mind me. Get that, Buddy?” and she turned loving eyes toward Tom.
“Oh sure!” said Tom with a sheepish grin. “Try and do it!”
“Well, you and I’ll have to be sort of partners in this,” said Jane briskly, “for we mustn’t let our little Lou bear too-heavy burdens. She looks rather beat tonight. How about it, baby sister?”
“Oh, I’m all right now that you’re home!” said Betty Lou with a great sigh of relief. “I just felt as if things were too many before. I’m so glad you’re here!”
“And I’m so glad I came!” said Jane heartily. “Tom, will you stay with Mother while I go to the hospital?”
“No,” said mother quite in her natural voice, “I’m all right now, and you can both go. I’d like to feel that you went together.”
“Well, here’s the doctor,” said Tom. “We’ll see what he says.”
The doctor looked Mrs. Arleth over carefully, gave her some medicine, ordered utter quiet, and said she would be all right in the morning if she would take it easy, so in the end Jane had her way, for Betty Lou added her voice, assuring them she could look after Mother till they returned. Jane jammed on her hat without even looking in the glass, and went with Tom to the hospital.
“Gee!” said Tom when they were out in the night waiting on the curbstone for a bus. “Gee! You were an angel to come home, Jinny!”
“Angel nothing!” said Jane in her sweet home tone. “I wanted to come, I tell you! I was a fool not to come sooner! What’s a mountain resort when your family is sweltering at home?”
Then they climbed into the bus and Jane forgot all about last night and Lew Lauderdale in her anxiety about her father, as she heard from her brother the details of his accident.
As she climbed down from the bus and went up the great stone steps of the hospital, it rushed over her in appalling horror how much sorrow and trouble there was in the world, and here she had been worrying all day long about her own little petty pleasures! What a fool she had been. If only her father and mother were well, what cared she for vacations?
Chapter 4
The doctor came in early in the morning as he had promised, to see how Mrs. Arleth was. He spoke cheerily and told her she might go down to the hospital to see her husband if she would stay only a few minutes and then come back and go to bed again.
But he followed Jane into the dining room when she went to get him a glass for medicine and talked gravely. “You know your mother ought to get away out of the city for a little while, Miss Arleth. She can’t stand this long continued heat. It’s telling on her.”
Jane stood still appalled and suddenly thought wildly of her own expensive trip and how she had wasted money both in her preparations for it and while she was there. If only she had all that money now, perhaps they could rent a simple little cottage somewhere. Her stricken look arrested the doctor’s attention.
“Are you—Isn’t there a chance?” he began hesitantly, wondering if there was anything he could do to help. “Your father needs a rest and change, too. He isn’t as young as he once was, and this accident has been a shock. If he could get out of the heat—!” He stopped and waited for her to answer.
“Oh, I wish they could,” said Jane, drawing a long breath of regret, “but I’m afraid it will worry them more to be told they have to go than to stay and bear the heat. They will feel they cannot afford it. If there were only some inexpensive place we could rent and sort of camp out I might manage it, perhaps, myself, but I suppose everything of that sort is taken this hot season.”
“I don’t know,” said the doctor hopefully. “I have a patient who is leaving a little shack today down at the shore. It’s only a little out- of-the-way place, Lynn Haven they call it. It isn’t very fashionable. They haven’t even a boardwalk there, but it has lots of breezes and beach and that’s better than the heat in town. He told me last night on his way to the ferry that he and his folks have got a chance to take a trip on a house boat with somebody, and he’d like to sublet it, but of course it might not be good enough for you. It’s only four rooms and a kitchen, and not much fancy doings about it, just whitewashed, I believe, but it seemed real cozy and pleasant to me the day I went down to see his little girl. Still, I don’t suppose you’d think it was good enough for your family.”
“Good enough!” said Jane, thinking with a sharp pang of the luxurious room and expensive appointments of the hotel she had left but yesterday. Oh, if she could only give her family such luxury in their need! Oh, if she had not spent it all on herself! “But I suppose even a little place would be beyond our means. Have you any idea what he wants for it? Maybe I could manage it if he would let me pay it in installments.”
“Well, he said he’d rent it for the rest of the season for twenty- five dollars. I said I’d look out for somebody who wanted a place like that.”
“Twenty-five dollars!” exclaimed Jane joyously. “Only twenty- five dollars? Why of course we can! Oh, where can I find him?”
“His name is Jones, and he gave me a telephone number where I could call him. They are leaving Friday night, I believe.”
Friday night! And this was Wednesday morning! One week from today she was due back at the office. Could she manage to get her family down to the shore and comfortable so that she could leave them every morning? Would they be well enough to travel by that time? The doctor gave it as his opinion that unless there were new developments in her father’s case, he would be able to be moved in a few days and would be the better for the change. Jane went at once to the telephone and secured a half day’s option on the cottage by the sea. Then she and Tom and Betty Lou held a consultation in the kitchen with closed doors, deciding to take their father and mother into custody and carry them off to the shore without even asking their leave. It all seemed too good to be true.
Tom entered into the plans with fervor. A chance to fish and swim and go crabbing! Could anything be better, and his vacation of two weeks scarcely begun? Weekends, too, after he had to get back to work! And the man had said they might stay as late into the autumn as they wanted to. There was a boat besides, which went with the place, not much of a boat but still a boat!
As Jane went happily back to look after her mother, she reflected that Tom would be the better off for being far away from the girl with the nasal voice. Oh, she was glad she had come home, but she wished she had come sooner. The thought of Llewellyn Lauderdale had not entered the picture once that morning!
But into the middle of all their plans came the sharp ring of the telephone again. As she went to answer it, Jane noticed the anxiety on her mother’s face and thought that she ought to have that telephone muffled or moved, since it worried Mother.
&nb
sp; But it was good news this time. The hospital nurse was saying that Mr. Arleth was decidedly better that morning, had eaten his breakfast and seemed to relish it, and had sent word that his wife was not to try to come out in the heat to see him, for he was going to be all right. Moreover, the hospital authorities said that Mr. Arleth was to have a thorough examination that morning and they thought it better that he should have no company until he rested from that.
When Mother Arleth heard that, she smiled and rested back with a sigh, agreeing to be good and go to sleep again. Jane had just got her settled for a nap, with the electric fan far enough away so she would not get the direct draft, yet near enough to cool the room a little, when the noisy little telephone broke in upon them again.
Jane was in the kitchen making pudding and Betty Lou answered.
“It’s from the office, Jinny,” she said tiptoeing back to the kitchen. “He said it was Mr. Dulaney.”
The office! Jane frowned. Why should they be after her now? She was not due back there for a week yet! She hurried in to the telephone.
“Is that you, Miss Arleth?” came the pleasant voice of her chief. “How fortunate I am to have got into touch with you at once, I feared you would still be away.”
Jane murmured something about her unexpected return, and Mr. Dulaney went on hurriedly, “We’re in a predicament here, Miss Arleth. An utterly unforeseen situation. Mrs. Forsythe has been called to the Pacific Coast by the sudden serious illness of her mother. The telegram came late last night and she is leaving in a few minutes. We could not of course keep her under the circumstances. Now, as you know, Mr. Harold Dulaney is sailing for our European office day after tomorrow, and there is no one but yourself and Miss Forsythe who has had the experience to look after his department during his absence. I wonder if under the circumstances you would be willing to give up this last week of your vacation until a little later in the autumn when we hope Miss Forsythe will be able to return? We shall be glad to give you double pay for that week and to let you take your week at any time you choose after the stress is over. Would you be willing to help us out, Miss Arleth?”
Mr. Dulaney had spoken slowly, giving Jane plenty of time to consider, and Jane had been thinking rapidly. How could she go down to the office now when she was needed so much at home? How could she take her family to the shore and stay in the office also? And yet how could she refuse? She must run no risks of losing a position like hers, especially now since her father was ill and might be laid aside entirely from wage earning. She must keep her job! And extra pay! That would help out wonderfully with this family trip they were taking. It would cover the rent, and railroad fare if she found it possible to go back and forth daily. What ought she to do?
“When would you want me, Mr. Dulaney?” she asked hesitantly.
“Right away, please, Miss Arleth, if you will be so good. Miss Forsythe is going at once as I told you, and the mail is in. You know what that will mean in delayed orders if there is no one who understands attending to it. I have a board meeting this morning and an appointment with Mrs. Mortimer at eleven, so you see I could not possibly do anything myself. And there is another thing, Miss Arleth, that I neglected to mention, which complicates matters a little. We have taken on a new man in your department, and he has arrived. I did not expect him for another week yet, but it seemed better that he should come at once on several accounts. Miss Forsythe was to have inducted him into his work, but now you see that also will fall to your lot. He is taking Mr. Arbuckle’s place. I hope you don’t think we are imposing upon you. You know the office and you know our necessities. I can only throw myself on your tender mercies.”
Yes, Jane knew the office and loved her work. There was a sense in which she felt the responsibility for the office as much almost as she did for her home. But the home, of course, came first.
“There is only one thing that makes me hesitate, Mr. Dulaney,” said Jane, her tone eager now. “I’ll be glad indeed to help you if I can. I understand how you are fixed, and of course will not let anything stand in the way that can possibly be helped. It is just this, Mr. Dulaney, my father was in an accident and is in the hospital, and my mother is ill from worry and the heat. I am not sure that I can be spared.”
Mr. Dulaney was all sympathy at once and suggested that they would gladly send a trained nurse to take her place if she could arrange matters.
“Could I see what I can do and call you back in ten minutes?” asked Jane, wondering wearily why everything had to come at once.
“Oh yes, indeed, Miss Arleth, and please remember that we shall not forget your kindness if you find you can arrange to accommodate us and that you may call upon us for any help you may need at home without limit.”
When Jane hung up the receiver she found Tom standing by her side.
“Gee!” he said wonderingly. “They think a lot of you, don’t they? Say, Jinny, I don’t see why you can’t go. Trained nurse nothing. I’ll stick around and look after Mums, and Betty Lou and I can make out fine. You go! You can’t afford to get in bad with your chief, not now anyhow. Double pay! Gee! I wish my boss would call me up and offer me that! See how I’d eat it up! Oh, boy!”
So, after reassurance and a smile from the mother who said she felt better already, and was willing to promise all kinds of docility, Jane called the office promising to come at once and went upstairs to array herself for the office.
It’s strange, said Jane to herself, fifteen minutes later, as she seated herself in the trolley on her way downtown. It’s very strange that I came home just when all this was going to happen, and I was needed so much here. It certainly is strange. I wonder what made me do it. I wonder if anything ever really just happens in this world at all.
An hour later, Jane, having spent a few minutes in her chief ’s office going over the mail with him and getting the business in hand, was introduced to the new young man in the outer office whom she was to induct into his duties at the desk next to her own.
She did not give him much attention when they said, “Miss Arleth, this is Mr. Sherwood who will take Mr. Arbuckle’s place. I have told him that you will help him in any question that may come up and that he is free to question you whenever he needs to.”
She had the impression of a very young man, a nice boy she denominated him, with a deferential manner, and a smile that lit up his face pleasantly.
It was not until sometime later, when she came to him with some directions about the filing cabinet and he lifted his glance to hers, that she noticed his keen gray eyes, and wondered who he reminded her of. Some vague memory hovered in the back of her mind as a recent experience, but she could not quite connect it with anyone, though she looked at him several times furtively, afterward, just to straighten herself out about it.
He was wearing a dark blue inexpensive suit. She decided that he came from a poor family and had a row of little brothers and sisters whom he had to help support. She liked him from the start and began to call him in her mind “a nice boy,” though he could not have been any younger than she was herself, was perhaps older, only he seemed like a boy. When he was hard at work, he rumpled his hair the way a schoolboy might do, and he gave her a grateful smile whenever she helped him.
At noon she told him where to find the nearest and cheapest restaurants where the best food could be had at the lowest price, and he said, “I appreciate that, Miss Arleth. I’m a stranger in the city.”
And when he lifted his gray eyes and looked at her with the pleasant twinkle in them, she wondered again where she had seen eyes like that recently.
Chapter 5
Jane telephoned home at noon and found that everything was going well. Betty Lou had fed her mother orange juice and soup and she seemed much stronger and more cheerful, she reported. Also, word had just come from the hospital that the examination had shown no serious injuries anywhere and that their father was resting comfortably and seemed much brighter. Tom had gone over to the hospital to get a few messages to take to Father??
?s office, since he was worrying about his unfinished work, but Tom had promised to come right back, so Jane needn’t worry, Betty Lou said.
Also, Betty Lou told gleefully that a man had come from the cottage at the shore and left a little snapshot of it, and it was just lovely! A nice porch across the front and rocking chairs and mosquito netting at all the windows. There wasn’t any cellar under it, just sand, and the house stood up “on sort of feet,” the child said. You could see the ocean all around. It was like being on an island.
“Hurry home, Jinny dear, and see it! Oh, I’m just crazy to get there! And Mother heard the man talking, sister! I tried to keep the door shut so she wouldn’t, but she heard everything because he talked so loud, and she asked me all about it so I had to explain. And she thinks it is just wonderful! I believe she is better already since she knew about it. She says it will make Father better to get a breath of sea air. Of course she wanted to get right up and begin to get ready to go, but of course I wouldn’t let her. But she has been amusing herself reading the list of things that are in the cottage. It was written on the back of the picture. Mother says we’ll have to take blankets because it might turn cold. It does at the seashore, you know. Doesn’t that seem grand? It doesn’t seem quite possible, does it, sister? And Mother says one blanket to a bed might not be enough. So she had me go up and get down the blankets out of the cedar paper and hang them out in the sunshine, so they’ll be all ready. She told me to get out my clothes and see if anything needed mending and to wash out some of my things, so I’ve got quite a line full. And I made a snow pudding for tonight. Oh, you needn’t worry. It’s easy to work, Jinny, now that you’re home again.”
Jane smiled wistfully as she turned away from the telephone and mopped her heated brow with her handkerchief. Well, it was nice to be loved and wanted, but oh, it was hot in that telephone booth, and her heart did hark back to the wide verandas of the mountain hotel, to the ices and sherbets, cool melons, and the tinkling glasses of cold drinks. Somehow that mountain house and her lost last week would keep cropping out and menacing her peace of mind whenever she had time to think about it. But the thought of the little shanty by the sea was cheering, and she was feverishly anxious to get back to the house to see its picture and begin to make preparations for transferring the family. She realized there was going to be a lot to do in this hot weather, and it would have to be done mostly at night. But then perhaps if she made a game out of it, then it would not be any harder than playing tennis in the sun or walking miles over a mountain golf course chasing a silly little ball. Why was it that work seemed so hard, unless you called it play and then you didn’t mind it at all?