CHAPTER VI.
THE RECONSTRUCTION.
"Helen, I actually slept all night."
"So did I. If any one had told me I could sleep a wink, I would havebeen furious. I wish we could hear from Father. You saw Cousin Lizziefelt just exactly as I did about that Dr. Wright. He may be all rightand he may be all wrong. If he is all wrong, couldn't he make us dance,though? He could sell us out, lock, stock and barrel, pocket theproceeds and skidoo."
"Oh, Helen, how can you even give such a horrid idea a moment'slodgement in your mind? Dr. Wright is as good as he looks, I am sure. Hecertainly looks kind and honest."
"Well, he ought to be honest he is so ugly."
The girls were still in bed, which they had shared ever since they hadbeen promoted from cradles. It was Saturday morning and the day beforehad been the one of trial.
"Father likes him a lot and trusts him."
"Ye--s, I know--but then, you see----"
"Yes, I see he is a very fine young man who thought, and quite rightly,that we had been blindly selfish and heartless to let Father work sohard; and he let us know what he thought of us and it got your goat."
"Is that the way you are going to express yourself in your B. M. exams?Because if it is, you will win a scholarship surely."
"If I only could!... Come in!" in answer to a knock at the door.
"Telegraph fer you, Miss Douglas. I hope an' trus' 'tain't no bad news'bout yo' maw and paw," said the housemaid, bringing in a dreaded yellowenvelope. "Uncle Oscar, he dreamed 'bout aigs las' night an' they waswhole an' entire, an' all de dream books say dat it is a sho' sign an'symbol er trouble. De trouble is in de shell an' time alone will hatchit out."
"Well, this is good news, Susan," laughed Douglas as she quickly scannedthe message: "'Your father and mother slept well and are now enjoyingbreakfast at Pennsylvania Station. Will see you this evening. GeorgeWright.'"
"Well, Glory be! It can't be Mr. Carter what the bad luck is layin' fer.I 'low it is dat lo' down nigger Jim, Uncle Oscar's sister's step-son,what got stuck in de lonesome ribs by a frien' at meetin' las' Sundaywith one er these here unsafety razors," and Susan took herself off togive out in the kitchen that no doubt Jim was going to die, since Mr.Carter was improving.
"Now, Helen, don't you think Dr. Wright is very thoughtful? You justsaid you wished we could hear from Father."
"He does seem to think of lots of things. I couldn't help admiring himfor the way he got the drawing room for them and put them on the trainat the downtown station to keep them from having to see so many people.That night train is always full of people we know and they all of themget on at Elba. I bet you he got his telegram in ten words, though. Iknow he is economical and would die rather than spill over. Let me seeit. Humph! Nineteen words. I wonder he didn't send it collect."
"Oh, Helen! How can you be so hard on the poor young man? I believe youare just pretending to hate him so. I am glad it is Saturday and noschool. I think we had better go see real estate agents the first thingthis morning and try to rent our house furnished for the summer. I ampretty sure Dr. Wright would approve of that. And also see about sellingthe car."
"Selling the car! Why, Douglas, how on earth will we do without it?"
"Of course we must sell it. Helen Carter, I actually believe you thinkthat if you give up wearing silk stockings for a year we can live onyour resolution. Do you realize that the cash we have in bank would justabout pay the chauffeur and keep us in gasoline for a month?"
"Oh, I am such a dunce! I am afraid my being poor has a kind of musicalcomedy effect in my mind so far. What are you going to do with me,Douglas?"
"Nothing, honey, but you must not get angry with me when I call youdown about money. I feel so responsible somehow."
"Angry with you! Why, I think you are just splendid, and I am going tobe so careful I just know you will never have to call me down."
Douglas smiled, knowing very well that Helen and economy were not meantto dwell together.
"There is only one thing I am going to make all of you promise, that isNOT TO CHARGE," with great emphasis.
"Oh, of course not after we get started, but how are we to get ouroutfits for the mountains? Our khaki skirts and leggins and things thatare appropriate? And then the cotton stockings that I have sworn to wearuntil Father is well! I have to have a new set of them. Ugh! how I hate'em!"
"But, Helen, we have our Camp-Fire outfits that are thoroughly suitablefor what we are going to do. There are loads of middy blouses in thehouse, so I am sure we need buy no more of them. As for stockings--itseems to me you had better wear out what stockings you have, even ifthey are silk, before you buy any more."
"Never! You don't seem to understand the significance of my oath. Whena pilgrim of old swore to put on sackcloth and travel to some distantshrine, he didn't say he would not go to the expense of sackcloth sincehe had plenty of velvet suits on hand, did he now? No! He went andbought some sackcloth if he didn't happen to have any in the house andgave his velvet suits to the poor or had his hand-maidens pack them upin frankincense and myrrh or something until he got back----"
"All right! All right! But please don't give away anything to the poor.If Cousin Lizzie should hear of your doing such a thing she wouldcertainly say: 'Charity begins at home.'"
"I won't give them away if you think I shouldn't, but I'd like to puttemptation out of my reach. I hope we can get off to the mountains realsoon as I am sure I have no desire to flaunt my penance in the face ofthe Richmond public. Don't you think, Douglas, that I might have thefifty-nine cents that is in the bank so things will balance better, andwith fifty-nine cents I can get three pair of sixteen-and-two-third-centstockings? I'll bring back the nine cents change." Helen was quitesolemn in her request, but Douglas was forced to laugh at her lugubriouscountenance.
"Yes, dear, if you really feel so strongly about the cotton stockings.Haven't you any money at all in your purse? I have a little, I believe."
"Well, I never thought of that! Sure I have!" and Helen sprang out ofbed, where they were still lolling while the above conversation wasgoing on, and hunted wildly in a very much mussed drawer for her silvermesh bag. "Hurrah! Three paper dollars and a pile of chicken feedsilver! I can get cotton stockings for a centipede with that muchmoney."
It was a very pretty room that Douglas and Helen Carter shared. RobertCarter had brought to bear all the experience he had gained in buildingother persons' houses to make his own house perfect. It was not a verylarge house but every detail had been thought out so not one brick wasamiss. Convenience and Beauty were not sacrificed to one another butwent hand in hand. The girls loved their room with its dainty pink paperand egg-shell paint. They had not been in the house long enough for thenovelty to wear off, as it was only about a year old. As Douglas lay inher luxurious bed while Helen, being up in search of money, took firstbath, she thought of the bitterness of having strangers occupy theirroom. How often she had lain in that soft, comfortable nest and fanciedthat it must be like the heart of a pink rose. And the charming privatebath-room must be given up, too.
She could hear Helen splashing away, evidently enjoying her morningshower as she was singing with many trills and folderols, tryingseemingly to hear herself above the noise of the running water.
"Poor Helen!" thought Douglas. "It is harder, somehow, for her than anyof us. Lucy is young enough to learn the new trick of being poor veryeasily, and Nan is such a philosopher; and dear little Bobby won't seethe difference just so he can have plenty of mud to play in; and I--oh,well--I have got so much to do I can't think about myself--I must get upand do it, too. Here I am selfishly lying in bed when I know Nan andLucy want to hear the news from Father just as much as I did." So,slipping on a kimono, she ran into the room across the hall, shared bythe two younger girls.
They were up and almost dressed. "Lucy and I thought maybe we couldhelp, so we hurried. I know you've lots to do," said Nan.
"That was dear of you both. Of course we won't have so much to do
rightnow, as we have to wait for Dr. Wright to come home; and then if we canrent the house furnished, we must get everything in order. But firstlisten to the good news!" and she read the telegram.
"Isn't that splendid and wasn't it kind of Dr. Wright to send it toyou?"
"I think so. If only Helen would not feel so unkindly to him! Sheutterly refuses to like him," and Douglas sighed.
"I don't intend to like him either, then!" exclaimed Lucy. "He shan'tboss me if he isn't going to boss Helen."
"How absurd you are," laughed Nan. "You are so afraid that Helen willget something you don't have that you won't even let her have a privatelittle dislike without wanting to have some, too. I bet if Helen got thesmallpox you would think yourself abused if you didn't get it, too."
"And in your heart of hearts you know you do like him," said Douglaswith a severity that she felt such silliness warranted.
"Well, if I do--and--and--maybe I do, I'm not going to take anything offof him that Helen won't."
"Well, I reckon Dr. Wright will be glad to wash his hands of us,anyhow," said Nan. "I can't see that it would be any sweet boon to lookafter you and Helen or any of us, for that matter."
"I should think not," laughed Douglas; "but you see his having power ofattorney from Father makes it necessary for us to consult with himabout some things, selling the automobile, for instance, and renting thehouse."
"Selling the car!" wailed Lucy. "I think it is foolishness to do that.I'd like to know how you are to occupy Dan, the chauffeur, if we haven'ta car to keep him busy."
"Oh, you incorrigible girls! Of course we will have to let the chauffeurgo immediately; and I've got to tell the servants to-day that we can'tkeep them. I'll give them all a week's warning, of course."
"I understand all that," said Nan, "so please don't bunch me in with theincorrigibles."
"But, Douglas, Oscar has been with us since long before we were born. Idon't see how you can have the heart to dismiss him," and Lucy lookedresentfully at her older sister.
"Heart! I haven't the heart to let any of them go, but it would be agreat deal more heartless to have them work for us with no money to paythem with."
"Now, Lucy Carter, you've pretty near made Douglas cry. You sound likea half-wit to me. Heartless, indeed! If you had half of Douglas's heartand one-fourth of her sense, you wouldn't make such remarks," and Nanput her arms around Douglas.
"No, she didn't make me cry, but what does make me feel bad is that Lucyand Helen can't even now realize the state of affairs. I hated to haveto tell Helen she mustn't charge anything more, no matter what it is shewants."
"Charge! I should say not! I think I would walk on my uppers all therest of my life before I'd put any more burden like that on Father,"declared Nan.
"But don't people always charge when they haven't got any money? Whatwill we do when we need things?" asked Lucy.
"Do without," said Douglas wearily. She saw it was going to take morethan a few hours or a few days to make two of her sisters realize thenecessity for reconstruction of their lives. "Helen and I are goingright after breakfast to see real estate agents about getting us atenant, and Helen is going to purchase some cotton stockings. She stillpersists in sticking to the letter of her oath not to wear silkstockings until Daddy is home and well."
"I'm going to wear cotton stockings, too, if Helen is."
"So you are, so are all of us, but we are going to keep on with the oneswe have until we go to the country. Helen is spending her own money,some she had, on these stockings and no one is buying them for her," andDouglas went back to her room to dress and take up the burden of the daythat was beginning to seem very heavy to her young shoulders. "If onlyHelen and Lucy could see without being knocked down and made to see,"she thought. "Poor Father, if he had only not been so unselfish how muchbetter it would have been for all of us now that we have got to facelife!"
True to their determination, Douglas and Helen went to several realestate agents. None of them were very encouraging about renting duringthe summer months to reliable tenants, but all of them promised to keepan eye open for the young ladies.
"Your father gone off sick?" asked one fatherly old agent. "Well, I sawhim going to pieces. Why, Robert Carter did the work of three men. Justlook at the small office force he kept and the work he turned out! Thatmeant somebody did the drudgery, and that somebody was the boss. What dothe fellows in his office think of this?"
"I--I--don't know," stammered Douglas. She couldn't let the kind old manknow that she had not even thought of informing the office of herfather's departure. How could she think of everything?
Before seeing any more agents, she and Helen betook themselves to theirfather's office, a breezy apartment at the top of a great bank building.Two young men were busily engaged on some architectural drawings. Theystopped work and came eagerly forward to inquire for Mr. Carter. Theirconsternation was great on hearing of his sudden departure and theirgrief and concern very evident.
"We will do all we can to keep things going," said the elder of the two.
"You bet we will!" from the other, who had but recently been advancedfrom office boy.
"There is a big thing Mr. Carter has been working on for some time, acompetitive design for a country club in North Carolina. It is aboutdone and I will do my best to finish it as I think he would want it, andget it off. Did he leave power of attorney with any one? You see, Mr.Carter has two accounts, in different banks, one, his personal account,and one, his business one."
"Yes, Dr. Wright, his physician, was given power of attorney. There wasno time to let any of you know as it was important to have Father keptvery quiet, with no excitement. Dr. Wright will come in to see you onMonday, I feel sure. He does not get back from New York untilto-night."
"More work and responsibility for the doctor," thought Douglas.
"More power over us than we dreamed even," was in Helen's mind.
"We want to rent our house, furnished, for the summer, giving possessionimmediately, or almost immediately," continued Douglas; "perhaps you mayhear of some one who will be interested."
"I know of some one right now," eagerly put in Dick, the promoted officeboy. "It is a family who have been driven from Paris by the war. Theyhave been living there for years--got oodlums of money and no place tospend it now, poor things! They want a furnished house for six monthswith privilege of renewing the lease for a year."
"Oh, please, could you send them to me or me to them right off?"
"Yes, Miss Carter, that's easy! If you go home, I'll have the folks upthere in an hour."
"How kind you are!"
"Not a bit of it! I'm so glad I happened to know about them--and nowyou will be saved an agent's fee."
"How much do you think we should ask for our house?" said Douglas,appealing to both young men.
"Well, that house is as good a one as there is in Richmond for itssize," said Mr. Lane, the elder. "I know, because I helped on it. Thereis not one piece of defective material in the whole building. Even thenails were inspected. If it had been on Franklin Street, I'd say onehundred a month, unfurnished, with all the baths it has in it; but sinceit is not on Franklin, I believe one hundred, furnished, would be a fairprice."
"Oh, wouldn't that be fine, Douglas?" spoke Helen for the first time.She had been very quiet while these business conferences had been goingon. "That will be a whole lot of money. Now we need not feel so povertystricken."
"Certainly families do live on less," and the young man smiled. "I thinkMr. Carter usually takes out about six hundred a month for his householdexpenses--of course, that's not counting when he buys a car. I know itis none of my business, but I am very much interested to know what youyoung ladies are going to do with yourselves. If I can be of anyassistance, you must call on me."
"Oh, we've got the grandest scheme! I thought of it myself, so I amvastly proud of it. We are going up to Albemarle County, where Fatherowns a tract of land right on the side of a mountain, and there we aregoing to spend the summe
r and take boarders and expect to make a wholelot of money."
"Take boarders? Is there a house there? I understood from Mr. Carterthat it was unimproved property."
"So it is. That is the beauty of it. We intend to camp and all theboarders will camp, too."
The young men could not contain themselves but burst out laughing. Theyhad not seen much of their employer's family but they well knew theluxurious lives they lived and their helplessness. It was funny to hearthis pretty butterfly of a girl talking about taking boarders andmaking money at it.
"It does sound funny," said Douglas when the laugh in which she andHelen had joined subsided, "but we are really going to do it--that is, Ithink we are," remembering that the Power of Attorney had not yet beenconsulted and nothing could really be determined on until then. "I don'tknow about our making lots of money, but we can certainly live much morecheaply camping than any other way."
"That's so!" agreed Mr. Lane. "Now maybe this is where Dick and I canhelp. Camps have to be built and we can get up some plans for you. Thereis a book of them just issued and we can get a working plan for you inshort order."
"That is splendid. We have a cousin, Lewis Somerville, who is home nowand has nothing to do, and he is going up to Albemarle ahead of us andbuild the camp. I'll tell him to come down and see you and you can tellhim all about it."
Then the girls, with many expressions of gratitude, hastened home toprepare for the poor rich people who had been driven from Paris and nowhad no place to spend their money.
They stopped on Broad Street long enough for Helen to spend one of herprecious dollars for six sixteen-and-two-third-cent stockings.
"Do you think it would be very extravagant if I spent a dime in marketfor flowers?" asked Helen. "It would make the house look more cheerfuland might make the poor rich people like it better."
"Why, no, I don't think that would be very extravagant," laughedDouglas.
So they went over to the Sixth Street market, where the old coloredwomen sit along the side-walk, and purchased a gay bunch of wild phloxfor a dime. And then Helen could not resist squandering another nickelfor a branch of dogwood. They jitneyed home, another extravagance. Therewas no tangible reason why they should not have ordered out their owncar for this business trip they had been forced to take, but it hadseemed to both of them a little incongruous to ride in a seven-seatedtouring car on the mission they had undertaken.
"It doesn't gee with cotton stockings, somehow," declared Helen, "tostep out of a good car like ours. Jitneys are much more in keeping."
The exiles from Paris came with the faithful Dick; liked the house; didnot mind the price, although furnished houses during the summer monthsare somewhat a drug in the real estate market; and were ready to closethe bargain just as soon as Dr. Wright should return.
The son, an aesthetic looking youth of seventeen, who was Dick'sacquaintance, was carried away with the wild phlox and went intoecstasies over the branch of dogwood which Helen had placed near aJapanese print in the library.
"Let's take it, Mamma! It is perfect!" he exclaimed as he stoodenraptured by the effect.
Helen always declared that the market flowers rented the house, and sothey may have.