Mary Rose of Mifflin Part 26

she said joyfully. "I knew all the time you hadn't borrowed her and I guess now other people will be sorry they thought you stole her." She laughed and nodded to let him see how very glad she was that his innocence was proved.

Mr. Wells was too amazed to add anything to his scowl. "You've found your bird?" he asked stupidly.

"Yes, I have. I'll tell you all about it. Are you going my way?

Usually I go up the other street, that's the shortest, but today I'm going over this way to meet Anna Paulovitch and walk with her so the boys won't tease her." And she told him about Anna Paulovitch and her yellow curls which had led to the discovery of Jenny Lind. "And I'm going to buy Becky a bird of her own with the money I've earned, because I don't have to pay a cent of board for George Was.h.i.+ngton.

He's self-supporting, you know. Isn't it wonderful to be self-supporting? Mrs. Paulovitch has seven children and only one of them can earn anything. He's Mickey and he sells papers after school.

If I were a gentleman and bought papers I'd always buy them of Mickey,"

she hinted delicately. "The other Paulovitches who are over six have to go to school. It takes a lot of was.h.i.+ng to make bread enough for them but Mr. Strahan thinks he has found friends to help Anna. Aren't you glad you were born in America instead of Russia?" She told him why he should be glad as they walked along.

He looked down at her curiously out of the tail of his eye but he said never a word. Indeed, Mary Rose gave him little opportunity for speech as she had so much to say. When they reached the corner where Anna Paulovitch waited across the street like a stolid figure of Patience, Mary Rose waved her hand. Anna Paulovitch responded like a semaph.o.r.e.

"That's Anna! That's Anna Paulovitch," Mary Rose said eagerly. "Isn't her hair beautiful?" Mary Rose admired the long yellow curls immensely. "It seems a pity they couldn't have grown on her own head when she would have appreciated it so but I expect the Lord knew best.

I'm awfully glad I met you so that I could tell you about Jenny Lind.

You don't have to worry another minute for everyone knows now that you never touched her."

"Here, wait a minute!" Never had Mr. Wells' voice been gruffer nor his frown blacker. "How much is a canary? Can you get one for this?" He took a bill from his pocket and offered it to Mary Rose.

"Mr. Wells!" Mary Rose took his hand and squeezed it. "That's a lot.

I'm sure you can get a splendid bird."

"Well, get one then," snapped Mr. Wells.

"You mean for Becky?" Mary Rose could scarcely believe her two small ears. "I'll be glad to." She regarded him with an admiration that should have made him feel enveloped in a soft warm mantle. "I'll tell her it's a present from a kind gentleman who wants to be her friend.

Sometime I'll take you to see her. What shall we name her bird? You think and I'll think and then tonight we can choose. It must have something to do with music, you know. Good-by." She squeezed his hand again and started across the street but ran back. "I forgot to tell you something that's most important," she said in a low voice. "Did you ever imagine there would be a flat-house right here in Waloo where the law lets children live? The Paulovitchs live in one. They do really. I saw them! And cats and dogs, too. I did! It wasn't like the Was.h.i.+ngton but it was a flat-house. It seemed such a friendly place. I thought you didn't know and now you can tell your friend who owns the Was.h.i.+ngton. I don't suppose he knows either. You haven't heard anything from him about me, have you?" She looked up wistfully.

"I'd--I'd hate to have to go away to an orphan's home now," she whispered and there were tears in her blue eyes.

He looked down at her and coughed before he answered. "No, I haven't heard anything."

"If you see him today will you tell him of that friendly house I was telling you about? That there are flat-houses in Waloo where children can live? It might make him willing to let them live in his house.

And please!" she clung to his hand, "please tell him that I'm growing older every single day I live!"

CHAPTER XXVI

That very afternoon Mr. Jerry and Mary Rose bought a canary for Becky and paid for it with the five-dollar bill that Mr. Wells had given Mary Rose. Mr. Jerry insisted that that particular bill should have been framed and Mary Rose insisted that Mr. Wells had said it was to buy a canary. She could not understand why Mr. Jerry had laughed nor why he said: "Oh, very well. But honestly, Mary Rose, it should be framed."

He took Mary Rose and the new canary in his car to the flat-building that allowed children to live in it. Becky wept with joy when she was told that the bird was to be her own. John was at home and he blushed and stammered as he tried to explain to Mr. Jerry that he hadn't meant any harm to anyone, cross his heart if he had! but as soon as he saw Jenny Lind he had thought what company she would be for Becky. And Mr.

Jerry kindly said he understood perfectly and that if John ever wanted any advice or help he was to come straight to him.

"You see it's a very friendly house," Mary Rose whispered as she and Mr. Jerry went down the long flights of stairs. "See how many children there are!"

Mr. Jerry looked about him. There were, indeed, many children of a.s.sorted nationalities and sizes. There could not have been a greater contrast to the orderly and clean, if childless, Was.h.i.+ngton.

"It's undoubtedly friendly, Mary Rose," agreed Mr. Jerry. "And there are lots of children but there are also lots of smells."

She crinkled her small nose. "I expect that's Russian," she suggested.

On their way home they pa.s.sed Bingham and Henderson's big jam factory and Mary Rose caught a glimpse of Miss Thorley waiting for a street car. When she called Mr. Jerry's attention to the enchanted princess he deftly inserted his automobile between Miss Thorley and the approaching car.

"Room for one more pa.s.senger here," he said with a grin. "And the fare will be even cheaper."

"Do come with us, Miss Thorley!" begged Mary Rose. "See, here's Jenny Lind. You'll want to speak to her. And there's such lots of room right here with us. Isn't there, Mr. Jerry?"

"Scads of room. I don't see how you can hesitate." And he looked at the crowded street car where people were standing on the platform and the conductor was calling impatiently: "Move up in front!"

Miss Thorley looked also. The street car was not so inviting as the automobile. Prejudiced as she was she had to admit that. She laughed.

"Oh, very well," she said.

Mr. Jerry jumped out and triumphantly robbed the street car company of a fare. He helped Miss Thorley in beside Mary Rose and Jenny Lind.

"You see there's lots of room," Mary Rose fairly bubbled with joy.

"Just as Mr. Jerry said. Aren't you glad to see Jenny Lind again? I can't see that she has changed a feather."

"We'll leave her at the house and then run out to Nokomis for a breath of air. That friendly flat of the Paulovitch's has almost strangled me. I have a great yearning for wide open s.p.a.ces," Mr. Jerry told Miss Thorley over Mary Rose's head.

They left Jenny Lind with Aunt Kate and drove along the boulevards and around the lake.

"Isn't it a beautiful world?" asked Mary Rose suddenly. "I just love it and everybody in it! Don't you, Mr. Jerry?"

"I won't go so far as to say I love everybody but I certainly do love you, Mary Rose," he told her with pleasing promptness.

"And Miss Thorley, too?" demanded Mary Rose, jealously afraid that Miss Thorley might feel hurt if she were excluded from Mr. Jerry's affections. "She's the enchanted princess, you know," she reminded him in a whisper. "You must love her."

Mr. Jerry was so silent that Mary Rose pinched his arm.

"Sure, I love Miss Thorley," he said then, very hurriedly.

"And she loves you, don't you, Miss Thorley?" Mary Rose pinched Miss Thorley's arm to remind her that something was expected of her, also.

There was a longer pause. Mary Rose had to pinch Miss Thorley's arm a second time and Mr. Jerry, himself, had to ask her in a funny shaky sort of a voice:

"Do you, Bess? Do you?"

Miss Thorley tried to frown and look away but she was not able to take her eyes from the two faces, the man's and the little girl's, which looked at her with such imploring eagerness. And what she saw in those two faces made her heart give a great throb. In a flash she knew, and knew beyond a doubt, that at last she could answer the question that had been tormenting her for over half a year. Long, long before that she had learned that everything one has in this world must be paid for and the question that had caused her to lose her red "corpuskles" had been whether she was willing to pay the price or whether she would go without the love and happiness and companions.h.i.+p that were offered to her.

She flushed adorably as she met Mr. Jerry's anxious eyes. "I--I don't want to," she said with rueful honesty and then the words came in a hurried rush, "But I'm--I'm afraid I do! It's all your fault, Mary Rose." And she hid her pink cheeks in Mary Rose's yellow hair.

"My fault!" Mary Rose was surprised and puzzled and a wee bit hurt.

She did not understand how she could be to blame.

But Mr. Jerry understood and with a quick exclamation he stopped the car. And there, behind a great clump of tall lilac bushes, he put his arms around them both. He kissed them both, too, Mary Rose first and hurriedly and then Miss Thorley, second and lingeringly.

"You dear--you darling!" he said to Miss Thorley and his breath came quickly and his eyes shone. He kissed her again. "You dearest! I've been the most patient lover on the footstool. Thank G.o.d, I was patient and just wouldn't be discouraged!"

Mary Rose caught his sleeve. "Are you the prince, Mr. Jerry?" she wanted to know and her eyes shone, too. "And is the spell broken?

Have you driven away the old witch Independence? What did it?"