CHAPTER II
THE OLD GENTLEMAN WITH THE GREEN UMBRELLA
Nobody had ever called Ruth Kenway pretty. That was, perhaps, becauseher next youngest sister, Agnes, was an acknowledged beauty. Everythingis comparative.
Mrs. MacCall said that "handsome is as handsome does." Then, of course,in the minds of the other members of the Corner House family, Ruth wasvery beautiful indeed.
She had a lovely smile, and a low sweet, "mother" voice. She was,indeed, all the mother Dot had ever known; nor could Tess remember their"really-truly" mother very clearly.
Ruth had been calling on the other side of town. She went once a weekwithout fail to have afternoon tea with Mr. Howbridge, their guardianand the administrator of the Stower estate, and this was the afternoonfor that pleasant duty.
If there was anything of a serious nature to be talked over between thelawyer and the oldest Corner House girl, it was done in his pleasantlibrary over the old silver tea service, where there were no "smallpitchers with big ears."
"And so our moneys are growing, Ruth," Mr. Howbridge said thoughtfully,having ended the discussion of some minor point of business. He admiredRuth's good sense as well as her character, and so frequently discussedmatters of business with her that he was not obliged by his oath ofoffice to do.
"In a few months we shall have considerable cash on hand in the bank;and three and a half per cent. is small interest on a large sum ofmoney. Somehow we must invest it."
Ruth's eyes twinkled. "I suppose you really _need_ our advice, Mr.Howbridge? Of course, if you left it to the Corner House girls to investit would probably bring in only a high percentage of enjoyment.
"Agnes would have a flock of automobiles. Tessie would spend it all onmaking other people happy. Dot would have an entire sanitarium devotedto the treatment of dolls."
"And you, my dear?" asked the lawyer, smiling.
"Ah, if you want my advice, Mr. Howbridge, you must do as all _your_clients have to do. You must give me a retainer," and she rose,laughing, to don her light coat.
"But I will keep my mind on it," she added. "Who knows? Perhaps somewise thought may fly my way. And all that money! It will really make afine investment."
"Remember, you girls will expect your 'dots' out of the estate someday," chuckled Mr. Howbridge. "Your own dowry will come first, Ipresume, Ruth."
"Me? Get married? With the children so dependent upon me?" gasped theeldest Corner House girl. But she blushed warmly and averted her eyesfrom the shrewd gaze of the lawyer. "Now you are talking nonsense, Mr.Howbridge."
He let her go without comment. But to himself he murmured:
"I never knew it to fail. These girls who are determined to be spinstersare always the first to be caught in the coil of matrimony."
If Ruth's thoughts lingered upon such a ridiculous suggestion(ridiculous from her standpoint) after she left the lawyer's house, herexpression of countenance did not show it. She walked cheerfully alongthe shaded street toward Milton's railroad station, for the old CornerHouse stood upon the corner of Willow and Main Streets, opposite theParade Ground, quite on the other side of town.
She crossed the canal and was almost in sight of the station when shesaw a tall figure ahead of her whose singular gait and old-fashionedmanner of dress would have caused comment anywhere.
To wear a "stove-pipe" hat on a hot day like this, with a heavy, darkfrock-coat and gray trousers, with his feet encased in overshoes, seemedto the casual observer rather ridiculous.
"Why," thought Ruth, "he looks as Seneca Sprague might if he weredressed up and going to his own wedding," and she laughed to think ofthat ridiculous possibility regarding one of the well-known charactersof Milton.
This old gentleman was a stranger to her, Ruth was sure. Milton being ajunction point of two railroads, there were often strangers about therailroad station waiting for connections on one or the other of theroads. This man must be, the girl thought, such a marooned passenger.
As he reached the edge of the shade cast by the trees on Pleasant Streetand stepped into the glare of the open square about the railway station,he unfurled a huge umbrella and raised it to shield himself from thesun's glare. It was a most astonishing umbrella. The upper side was afaded green; the under side an age-yellowed white.
"Why," thought Ruth, "it must be an heirloom in his family."
Amused, she continued directly behind the old gentleman as he started tocross the four tracks which blotted the center of Milton. Accidents hadhappened more than once at this grade crossing, and the town councilmenhad been in hot water with the taxpayers for some years regarding thechanging of the railroad's level.
There were drop gates, but only one decrepit watchman here at PleasantStreet. Ruth always looked both ways when she started to cross thetracks. And at this time--or about this time--in the afternoon theso-called Cannon-Ball Express went through. That train did not evenhesitate at Milton.
Quite as a matter of course, the girl halted when she came to the tracksand looked both east and west. A freight train was backing down past thestation on the third track. The second track was open for passengertraffic. There was a growing roar from the west.
The old gentleman stopped and peered in that direction. He could easilyhave crossed ahead of the slow freight, but like Ruth he was doubtfulregarding the growing clamor of the approaching express, although thatfast-flier was not yet in sight at the curve.
"But it's coming!" murmured Ruth. "He mustn't cross!"
The old gentleman with the green umbrella had no intention of crossingahead of the express; but Ruth heard him utter an impatient exclamationas he stepped back a little from proximity to the second track, thefirst track being merely a siding for shunted freight cars.
He was so close to the oldest Corner House girl now that she could viewhis countenance easily without appearing to be curious. But she wascurious about the old gentleman. However, being Ruth Kenway, she wouldnot have shown this in any way to ruffle his feelings; for, despite herown youth, Ruth had mothered her three orphaned sisters for so long thatshe was more sedate and thoughtful than most girls of her age.
Just at this moment the Cannon-Ball Express came tearing into view,shrieking its warning for the Pleasant Street crossing. The oldgentleman was standing too near the rails, in Ruth's opinion. Sheinvoluntarily put forth her hand and seized hold of his coat. He turnedto glare upon the freshly dressed, sweet-looking girl beside him withwhat would have been an audible grunt of disapproval had the oncomingtrain not made such a noise and with a look that caused her to drop herhand immediately.
His face was a marvelous network of wrinkles; he wore amberdust-goggles; his mouth was a grim slit in his brown face, like the trapof a letter-box. It did not seem possible that any one could look onRuth Kenway's sweet face with such a grim and unkind expression on thecountenance. But the man turned from her with no softening in his look.
The express was now fairly upon them. The suction of such a rapidlyflying train is considerable. And that huge umbrella made the accidentunescapable.
The train shrieked by. Ruth herself felt the wind of it, and her skirtsblew around her body tightly.
The blast got beneath the big umbrella, and Ruth saw the old gentlemanseize hold upon the handle with both hands. The umbrella bellied andcreaked. The last car whisked past, and within the cyclone of flyingsand and gravel which followed it the unfortunate old gentleman wascaught.
Clinging to his umbrella, which was really the cause of all his trouble,he whirled like a dervish across the second track in the wake of theexpress, and stumbling, went to his knees between that set of rails andthe third track, on which the freight train was backing slowly towardthem.
Had he put the umbrella down he would have been all right. But hisstubborn character was displayed to the full by his still gripping theunwieldy thing and, like "Old Grindstone George," hanging on to thehandle. He staggered to his feet, the umbrella quite hiding the comingfreight train from his view, and stumbled a pace forward, dir
ectlytoward the third track.
Ruth, with a startled scream, forgetting self, ignoring the man's formerscowls and harshness, sprang forward and again seized the oldgentleman's coat, this time with firmness and a determination not toallow herself to be repulsed.
While Ruth Kenway is struggling to save this stranger from accident andprobable death, it is a good time to turn back and give those readerswho are making the acquaintance of the Corner House girls for the firsttime in this present volume a little sketch of who these girls are andof their adventures and pleasures as set forth in the previous volumesof this series.
In the first book of the series, entitled "The Corner House Girls," thesisters are introduced as living in a larger city and in very poorcircumstances. Their father and mother being dead, Ruth had to managefor the family on a very small pension from the Government. Aunt SarahMaltby, who was peculiar in more ways than one, was a liability insteadof an asset to the family.
This queer old woman was always expecting that a large fortune would beleft to her when Mr. Peter Stower, of Milton, should die. Mr. Stower hadquarreled with all his relatives. Especially had he quarreled with hishalf-sister Sarah. Nevertheless, Aunt Sarah believed his money and theold homestead would come to her.
Instead, Mr. Stower willed it all to the four Kenway girls, making Mr.Howbridge the administrator of the estate and the guardian of the girls.Therefore, Miss Sarah Maltby was still a pensioner on the bounty of theCorner House girls, and the fact perhaps made her more crabbed of temperthan she otherwise might have been.
Having settled down in the old Corner House to live, with Mrs. MacCallas housekeeper and Uncle Rufus as man of all work, the girls next tookup the matter of education, as related in "The Corner House Girls atSchool." The four sisters got acquainted with their new environment andmade new friends and a few enemies. Particularly they became chummy withNeale O'Neil, the boy who had run away from a circus to get aneducation. Neale became a fixture in the neighborhood, living with Mr.Con Murphy, the cobbler, on the street back of the Corner House. Hebecame Agnes Kenway's particular and continual boy chum.
During the summer vacation Ruth and her sisters went to Pleasant Covewhere they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and had adventures galore, astold in the third volume, entitled "The Corner House Girls UnderCanvas."
As has been already mentioned, the sisters had parts in the school play_The Carnation Countess_, the following winter. Tess was Swiftwing, theHummingbird, and Dot, a busy, busy bee, a part that the smallest CornerHouse girl acted to perfection. Agnes, who had a bent for theatricals,was immensely successful as Innocent Delight, and Ruth, of course, didher part well. In "The Corner House Girls in a Play," the fourth volume,these adventures and incidents are detailed.
"The Corner House Girls' Odd Find" made two of their very dearestfriends wealthy, and incidentally brought to the sister what Agnes hadlonged for more than "anything else in the whole world"--a touring car.In that they took a long trip, as related in "The Corner House Girls ona Tour." On that journey, but recently completed, Neale O'Neil hadaccompanied the sisters to drive the car. Mrs. Heard, a good friend, hadbeen their chaperon, and Sammy Pinkney, the boy who was determined to bea pirate, was what Neale termed "an excrescence on the touring party"during the exciting trip.
Ruth Kenway had been thinking of something that had occurred duringtheir automobile trip just before spying the old gentleman with thegreen umbrella. She had that very day received a letter from CecileShepard, whom, with her brother Luke, the Corner House girls had metduring their tour. And Ruth hoped that Cecile would spend a week at theold Corner House before going back in September to the preparatoryschool which she attended.
But now the old man's peril, her own alarm and her desire to save thestranger's life, drove all other thoughts out of the girl's mind.