CHAPTER XVII.
THE BEST SISTER IN THE WORLD.
MYLES stood for a moment motionless in front of Mr. Haxall’s desklike one who is dazed. Gradually the full meaning of the words, “Handthe key of your desk to Mr. Brown,” dawned upon him. He was dismissedfrom the paper; dismissed for drunkenness and neglect of duty whileunder orders. He, Myles Manning, the son of a gentleman, and who hadalways considered himself one, had been drunk, and, because of it, theposition which he had been so proud of, so confident of retaining, wasno longer his. It was terrible; but, alas! it was true.
Without a word he turned away and went to his own desk. His own desk?No; it was his no longer. Some other fellow, who could keep soberand perform his duty faithfully, would have it now. Mechanically heunlocked the drawer and began to take from it the treasures that hadaccumulated there: a rough copy of the first thing he ever wrote forthe paper, the unfinished manuscript of a special article that he hadhoped would win him a name in journalism, a few precious home letters.
While he was thus engaged one of the office-boys laid some mail matterbefore him. He glanced it over. A loving letter from his mother, fullof anxiety as to where he was and what he was doing. They had not heardfrom him in so long. Kate and his father sent dearest love. They werehaving a hard struggle with poverty; but they were so proud of him, hewas doing so splendidly, that thinking and talking of him kept themcheerful.
Myles thrust this letter into his pocket with a groan. There was a longletter from Van Cleef, full of what he was doing, enlivened by gay bitsof description of life at summer resorts. He would be back next week.A note from his old gentleman friend of the Oxygen, asking his dearproxy to dine at the club with him that evening. It was dated that verymorning. Then a telegram. It was from Billings, and read:
“Operator says some mistake. Never loaned you any money. Tried to, but you refused. B. W. in town. Furious against you. Do not know what for. Shall I thrash him in your name? Answer.
“BILLINGS.”
This message diverted Myles’ gloomy thoughts for a moment. If thetelegraph operator had not loaned him the money, who had? Here wasa mystery. Well, whoever it was would claim his own fast enough. Hewould have to wait, though. As well try to extract blood from a stoneas money from him now. He was not only penniless, but hopeless of everearning another cent.
Now a couple of reporters came in. They had read the morning’s papersand were full of enthusiasm over the brave deed of one of their number.Seeing Myles at his desk they rushed up to congratulate him. This wasmore than the poor fellow could bear, and, hastily gathering up hispapers, he hurried from the office, laying his key on Mr. Brown’s deskas he passed it.
The two reporters stared after him amazed and indignant.
“It is curious how stuck up some folks can get with a littlenotoriety,” said one.
“Yes,” replied the other, “too stuck up to accept congratulationsfrom ordinary every-day chaps like us. Well, the next time he maycongratulate himself, but you can safely depend upon it that I won’trun the risk of another such snub from him.”
As Myles went down stairs he thought he might as well collect hisweek’s salary, and stepped into the cashier’s office to do so. Theusual little brown envelope was handed to him, and he put it into hispocket without stopping to open it there.
Arrived at his own room he locked the door and gave way to his grief,mortification, and anger. Nobody ever had such hard luck as he; nobodywas ever so shamefully treated. Mr. Haxall was a monument of injusticeand tyranny. How he hated him! How he hated everybody! Thus he raved tohimself as he paced furiously up and down the narrow limits of his room.
Thus an hour was passed, and still the tumult raged. He was desperate.He knew not which way to turn, and could see no hope in any direction.Should he go home? Should he stay in the city and try for other work,or should he fly to some distant part of the country where he wasunknown, and begin all over again? Each of these plans was rejectedas soon as thought of. He could not go home and change their hope andpride in him to shame and sorrow. No; he loved them too dearly forthat. There was no use in trying for a position on any other citypaper. The story of his disgrace would bar every office door. He couldnot go to a distant city and start anew because he had no money withwhich to travel. He had his week’s pay, to be sure; but how far wouldsuch a pitiful sum take him? Hardly thinking of what he did he openedthe little brown envelope. A slip of paper fluttered to the floor. Itwas the order on the cashier for the money he had drawn to pay hisexpenses on his recent trip. As he had rendered no account of theseexpenses, and as the sum thus drawn was far in excess of his week’ssalary, the cashier was obliged to charge the full amount to him andwithhold the salary as partial payment.
This last blow was too much. Myles flung himself on his bed and buriedhis face in the pillows. How long he lay there, utterly forsaken,prostrated, and hopeless, he never knew; but he was finally aroused bya knock at his door.
He felt that he could not see anybody then, and did not answer it. Hehoped whoever it was would believe him to be out and go away; but theknock was repeated.
“Who is it?” he called, in a gruff tone.
“It is I, Myles; your Sister Kate. Why don’t you open the door?”
Kate in the city! Kate there at his door! He couldn’t see her. He couldnot let her see him in his present condition. No, he could not bear it.He was about to tell her so and beg her to go away. Then the thoughtthat she might as well know the worst now as later caused him to changehis mind. He unlocked the door, and Kate Manning, happy-looking, andflushed with exercise, entered.
“Oh, I’m so glad,” she began, and then, with a sudden change of toneand in a shocked voice, “Why, Myles Manning, what is the matter? Inever saw any one look so dreadfully in all my life.”
“Probably you never met anybody who had such cause for feelingdreadfully as I have,” replied Myles, as he placed a chair for hissister and leaned gloomily against the mantel-shelf that nearly filledone side of the little room.
HE LEANED GLOOMILY AGAINST THE MANTEL SHELF THAT NEARLYFILLED ONE SIDE OF THE ROOM. (_Page 248._)]
“What do you mean, Myles? Sit down there on the bed and tell me allabout it at once,” commanded Kate, nervously pulling off her gloves asshe spoke.
Then Myles sat down and told her the whole miserable story, beginningwith the day he went to Mountain Junction and ending with the moment ofhis present disgrace and wretchedness.
“You poor, poor, dear boy!” exclaimed Kate, as he finished, and withher eyes full of sympathetic tears. “I never in my life heard of somuch trouble coming to one person all at once. There is one splendidthing about it all, though.”
“Is there?” asked Myles, doubtfully. “What is that?”
“Why, after such a terrible experience you never, never, so long as youlive, will touch another drop of liquor; will you, dear?”
“I don’t think I’m likely to.”
“But promise me you won’t!”
“All right, Kate, I promise.”
“There! Now I am really glad it has all happened. But how splendidlyyou saved that train! Why didn’t you tell Mr. Haxall about it? If youhad he couldn’t possibly have done more than to reprimand you. Hewould never have dismissed you in the world.”
“He knew all about it,” replied Myles. “It’s all in the paper. Haven’tyou read the _Phonograph_ this morning?”
“No, I haven’t had a moment’s time to look at the papers to-day. Do youmean that what you did is in the paper, with your name and all?”
For answer Myles handed her his copy of the _Phonograph_, and she readeagerly at the place he pointed out. Her cheeks flushed as she read,and when she finished she sprang up, and, throwing her arms about herbrother’s neck, exclaimed:
“It is simply wonderful, Myles! wonderful! And I should think you’d bethe proudest boy in New York City at this minute. Why, just because Iam your sister I am the proudest girl in it.”
“I suppose I was just
a little proud before I went to the office thismorning,” said Myles, gently disengaging himself from his sister’sembrace; “but I guess it was the sort of pride that goeth before afall. At any rate, I got my fall, and a pretty serious one it was too.”
“Oh, nonsense!” cried Kate, “What’s one fall? A man ought not to mindsuch a thing as that. Do as you did when you were a little boy, pickyourself up and run on again.”
“That’s easy enough to say, but hard to do. To begin with, I amdisgraced and penniless.”
“Penniless!” echoed Kate, ignoring the other word. “Well, I can remedythat. It’s just what I came to tell you about. I went to the officefirst, and they said you had gone home. So I came up here. There, sir;now you are not penniless.”
While she spoke she had been unlocking a ridiculous little bag thathung from her arm, and now, taking from it a roll of bills, she thrustthem into her brother’s hand.
“Why, Kate, what is this? Where did you get hold of so much money?”exclaimed Myles.
“Earned it, sir!”
“Earned it! You earned it?”
“Yes. I have been trying for it all summer long. I’ve sent drawingafter drawing to every illustrated paper and magazine in the country,and they have all been returned, until last week, when I had oneaccepted at W—— ’s.”
“At W—— ’s!” interrupted Myles, to whom such a piece of good fortuneseemed almost incredible.
“Yes, sir, at W—— ’s. The very place of all others in which I mostwished to succeed, and where I had the least hope of doing so. Theysent a note saying that it was accepted, and I came in town thismorning to get the money for it. Twenty-five dollars they gave me. Whatdo you think of that? And it’s all yours, you dear old fellow you!every cent of it. Oh, I’m so proud and glad that it came just at thistime, when you needed it so much! And they praised the drawing and gaveme an order for another. It is to illustrate a short story, and I’vegot the manuscript here to take home and read and get an inspirationfrom. Oh, Myles, why can’t you write stories and let me illustratethem? It would be the most splendid thing in the world.
“So it would, but there is one important draw-back to such a scheme.”
“What?”
“My inability to write stories. You have proved that you are able to doyour part of such a work, and I have proved myself unable to do mine.From what has happened to-day it is evident that I am not even fit fora reporter’s position, and that is only the first stepping-stone inliterary work.”
“Myles Manning, you mustn’t talk so about yourself! You know you havedone splendidly ever since you began on the _Phonograph_, and if thathorrid Mr. Haxall wasn’t a perfect stupid, he’d know that he had donea very foolish thing in letting you go. He will wish he had you back,and try to get you too, some day; see if he don’t. Then what a triumphit will be to be able to say: ‘No, I thank you, sir, I have foundsomething better to do.’”
“It is impossible to fancy myself saying any such thing,” answeredMyles, with a smile—the first that his face had worn in hours. “But,Kate, it is you who have done splendidly, and it is I who ought to beproud of having such a sister. I am proud, too, just as proud as I canbe, of you, but I can’t take your money, dear.”
“Oh, Myles, what shall I do with the hateful money if you don’t takeit? That is the one thing that makes money worth having—the power,I mean, that it gives us to help those we love. Don’t take away thisgreat pleasure from me. Don’t, there’s a good boy.”
So these generous young souls struggled with each other, the one togive, and the other against receiving the gift, until finally theyreached a compromise. Myles agreed to take ten dollars from his sisteras a loan, while she declared she should put the rest aside for hisuse, and should not touch it so long as there was the slightest chanceof his needing it. Then they discussed plans for the future, and Katesaid:
“Why not be your own city editor, Myles, and give yourself interestingassignments to work up? I’m sure there are lots of things people wantto know about, and if you would only write them up some of the paperswould be certain to take your articles—and pay you well for them too.”
“The trouble is there are so many fellows doing that very thing,”answered Myles.
“Well, that is the trouble with every thing. There are quantities ofpeople doing the same thing in every kind of business. If you can onlydo the same thing a little better than any one else though, or even aswell as half of them, you are sure to succeed.”
“A most wise and level-headed speech, sister of mine,” said Myles,laughing, for his spirits were rapidly reviving under the influenceof Kate’s cheerfulness and loving sympathy. “I will think seriously ofyour plan, and if nothing better turns up, why, perhaps I will make atry at it.”
Then Myles told Kate of the note he had received that morning from his“nice old Oxygen gentleman,” as they called him among themselves, andsaid that he didn’t know but what he ought to accept the invitation forthat evening. “My friends are becoming so few that I must do some extracultivating of those who are left, you know,” he added, with an attemptat cheerfulness.
“Aren’t you ashamed to say that your friends are becoming few, whenonly yesterday you made a thousand new ones all at once?” replied Kate,indignantly. “At the same time, I do think you ought to dine with yourOxygen gentleman; who knows but what he may prove a fairy godfatherin disguise, and your future may turn from this very evening! Yes,decidedly, you must go and dine with him, and you can come out home onthe midnight train. In the meantime I shall have told father and motherall about you, so that they may be prepared to receive you with duehonor.”
“Be sure you tell them every thing,” said Myles, “for if you don’tI shall. I am not going to row this race under any but my own truecolors.”
“Yes, of course, I shall have to mention the one little neglect of dutythat Mr. Haxall, hateful man! has made such a mountain of; but I thinkit would be just as well, dear, not to say any thing about the othercause of your being dismissed. It would only make them feel badly; and,as such a thing can never possibly happen again, why, what is the use?”
Then sunny-faced Kate had to hurry away to catch her train, but sheleft Myles so much happier and more hopeful than he was when sheknocked at his door that he could hardly realize how wretched he hadbeen.
“I tell you what,” he said to himself as he dressed for dinner, “a goodsister is one of the best things a fellow can have in this world.”
Myles reached the Oxygen some time before the hour set for dinner, andwas in the reading-room when his friend entered.
“My dear boy, I am very glad you were able to come,” said the oldgentleman, advancing toward him with outstretched hand and beamingface. “I wanted to meet you this evening on purpose to congratulateyou. There, not a word! I know what your modesty prompts you to say;but I read the whole story in the morning paper, and have felt proudof my proxy all day. I hope the _Phonograph_ people have rated you ahandsome increase of salary in view of the glory you have shed uponthem.”
“On the contrary,” said Myles, “they have dismissed me from the paper.”
“Dismissed you? Impossible!”
“They did not find it so,” replied Myles; “but, to tell the truth, Iwas not dismissed for what I did, but rather for what I did not do.”
“I am extremely sorry to hear it,” said the old gentleman; “extremelysorry; but let us have dinner first, and talk it all over afterward;things always look so much brighter after dinner than they do beforeit.”
At the dinner-table Myles was in the very act of raising a glass ofwine to his lips when his promise to Kate darted into his mind. With aflushed face he set the glass quickly down, saying, in answer to hiscompanion’s inquiring look, “I took a pledge to-day, sir, never againto touch a drop of wine, and so you will please excuse me for notbreaking it.”
“Excuse you for not breaking it! My dear boy, I would never excuse youif you did. It was a fine thing to do, and may you have the strengtht
o stick to that pledge through life! No young man can have a betterrecommendation, when seeking to make his way in the world, than that heis strictly temperate. I even place it ahead of a character for honestyamong my employés.”
“Do you, then, employ many men, sir?” asked Myles, with a vague hopethat something might come to him through this interview.
“Well, yes, a thousand or two, more or less,” replied the other,laughing, “but not exactly in your line of business.”
“I don’t know that I have any line of business just at present,” saidMyles; and this brought them back to the subject of his dismissal fromthe paper. The old gentleman asked such shrewd questions, and expressedsuch genuine interest and sympathy, that, before he knew it, Myles wastelling him the whole story exactly as he had told it to Kate.
“The city editor was perfectly right,” said the old gentleman, whenMyles had finished; “and I should have done exactly as he did underthe circumstances. He could not have acted otherwise, in justice tothe paper or the other workers on it. Still, there were extenuatingcircumstances. You have profited by your lesson and have done noblysince. It seems to me that the paper will make a mistake if it losesyou. Suppose I go to see this city editor and talk the matter over withhim? Should you have any objections?”
“Certainly not,” answered Myles; “but I can tell you beforehand that itwon’t do the least bit of good. Mr. Haxall never allows himself to beinfluenced by outsiders.”
“I shall try it, at any rate, and will let you know the result onMonday,” said the kindly old gentleman. Then Myles was obliged to bidhim good-night and hurry off to catch the midnight train.