Oh, Money! Money! Part 50

"Eh? What? Oh, yes, it WAS the milk for the babies, wasn't it?" he teased. "Well, however that may be you'll have to come back to superintend all those things you've been wanting to do so long.

But"--his face grew a little wistful--"you don't want to spend too much time here. You know--Chicago has a few babies that need cleaner milk."

"Yes, I know, I know!" Her face grew softly luminous as it had grown earlier in the afternoon.

"So you can bestow some of your charity there; and--"

"It isn't charity," she interrupted with suddenly flas.h.i.+ng eyes. "Oh, how I hate that word--the way it's used, I mean. Of course, the real charity means love. Love, indeed! I suppose it was LOVE that made John Daly give one hundred dollars to the Pension Fund Fair--after he'd jewed it out of those poor girls behind his counters! And Mrs. Morse went around everywhere telling how kind dear Mr. Daly was to give so much to charity! CHARITY! n.o.body wants charity--except a few lazy rascals like those beggars of Flora's! But we all want our RIGHTS. And if half the world gave the other half its rights there wouldn't BE any charity, I believe."

"Dear, dear! What have we here? A rabid little Socialist?" Mr. Smith held up both hands in mock terror. "I shall be pet.i.tioning her for my bread and b.u.t.ter, yet!"

"Nonsense! But, honestly, Mr. Smith, when I think of all that money"--her eyes began to s.h.i.+ne again--"and of what we can do with it, I--I just can't believe it's so!"

"But you aren't expecting that twenty millions are going to right all the wrongs in the world, are you?" Mr. Smith's eyes were quizzical.

"No, oh, no; but we can help SOME that we know about. But it isn't that I just want to GIVE, you know. We must get behind things--to the causes. We must--"

"We must make the Mr. Dalys pay more to their girls before they pay anything to pension funds, eh?" laughed Mr. Smith, as Miss Maggie came to a breathless pause.

"Exactly!" nodded Miss Maggie earnestly. "Oh, can't you SEE what we can do--with that twenty million dollars?"

Mr. Smith, his gaze on Miss Maggie's flushed cheeks and s.h.i.+ning eyes, smiled tenderly. Then with mock severity he frowned.

"I see--that I'm being married for my money--after all!" he scolded.

"Pooh!" sniffed Miss Maggie, so altogether bewitchingly that Mr. Smith gave her a rapturous kiss.

CHAPTER XXV

EXIT MR. JOHN SMITH

Early in July Mr. Smith took his departure from Hillerton. He made a farewell call upon each of the Blaisdell families, and thanked them heartily for all their kindness in a.s.sisting him with his Blaisdell book.

The Blaisdells, one and all, said they were very sorry to have him go.

Miss Flora frankly wiped her eyes, and told Mr. Smith she could never, never thank him enough for what he had done for her. Mellicent, too, with shy eyes averted, told him she should never forget what he had done for her--and for Donald.

James and Flora and Frank--and even Jane!--said that they would like to have one of the Blaisdell books, when they were published, to hand down in the family. Flora took out her purse and said that she would pay for hers now; but Mr. Smith hastily, and with some evident embarra.s.sment, refused the money, saying that he could not tell yet what the price of the book would be.

All the Blaisdells, except Frank, Fred, and Bessie, went to the station to see Mr. Smith off. They said they wanted to. They told him he was just like one of the family, anyway, and they declared they hoped he would come back soon. Frank telephoned him that he would have gone, too, if he had not had so much to do at the store.

Mr. Smith seemed pleased at all this attention--he seemed, indeed, quite touched; but he seemed also embarra.s.sed--in fact, he seemed often embarra.s.sed during those last few days at Hillerton.

Miss Maggie Duff did not go to the station to see Mr. Smith off. Miss Flora, on her way home, stopped at the Duff cottage and reproached Miss Maggie for the delinquency.

"Nonsense! Why should I go?" laughed Miss Maggie.

"Why SHOULDN'T you?" retorted Miss Flora. "All the rest of us did, 'most."

"Well, that's all right. You're Blaisdells--but I'm not, you know."

"You're just as good as one, Maggie Duff! Besides, hasn't that man boarded here for over a year, and paid you good money, too?"

"Why, y-yes, of course."

"Well, then, I don't think it would have hurt you any to show him this last little attention. He'll think you don't like him, or--or are mad about something, when all the rest of us went."

"Nonsense, Flora!"

"Well, then, if--Why, Maggie Duff, you're BLUs.h.i.+NG!" she broke off, peering into Miss Maggie's face in a way that did not tend to lessen the unmistakable color that was creeping to her forehead. "You ARE blus.h.i.+ng! I declare, if you were twenty years younger, and I didn't know better, I should say that--" She stopped abruptly, then plunged on, her countenance suddenly alight with a new idea. "NOW I know why you didn't go to the station, Maggie Duff! That man proposed to you, and you refused him!" she triumphed.

"Flora!" gasped Miss Maggie, her face scarlet.

"He did, I know he did! Hattie always said it would be a match--from the very first, when he came here to your house."

"FLORA!" gasped Miss Maggie again, looking about her very much as if she were meditating flight.

"Well, she did--but I didn't believe it. Now I know. You refused him--now, didn't you?"

"Certainly not!" Miss Maggie caught her breath a little convulsively.

"Honest?"

"Flora! Stop this silly talk right now. I have answered you once. I shan't again."

"Hm-m." Miss Flora fell back in her chair. "Well, I suppose you didn't, then, if you say so. And I don't need to ask if you accepted him. You didn't, of course, or you'd have been there to see him off. And he wouldn't have gone then, anyway, probably. So he didn't ask you, I suppose. Well, I never did believe, like Hattie did, that--"

"Flora," interrupted Miss Maggie desperately, "WILL you stop talking in that absurd way? Listen, I did not care to go to the station to-day. I am very busy. I am going away next week. I am going--to Chicago."

"To CHICAGO--you!" Miss Flora came erect in her chair.

"Yes, for a visit. I'm going to see my old cla.s.smate, Nellie Maynard--Mrs. Tyndall."

"Maggie!"

"What's the matter?"

"Why, n-nothing. It's lovely, of course, only--only I--I'm so surprised! You never go anywhere."

"All the more reason why I should, then. It's time I did," smiled Miss Maggie. Miss Maggie was looking more at ease now.

"When are you going?"

"Next Wednesday. I heard from Nellie last night. She is expecting me then."

"How perfectly splendid! I'm so glad! And I do hope you can DO it, and that it won't peter out at the last minute, same's most of your good times do. Poor Maggie! And you've had such a hard life--and your boarder leaving, too! That'll make a lot of difference in your pocketbook, won't it? But, Maggie, you'll have to have some new clothes."