Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley by Belle K. Maniates (page 2)

and your midday meal.”

Amarilly, well satisfied with her new opening, closed the bargain instantly.

The next morning at seven o’clock she rang the studio bell. The artist, attired in a bathrobe and rubbing his eyes sleepily, opened the door.

“This was the day I was to clean,” reminded Amarilly reprovingly.

“To be sure. But why so early? I thought you were a telegram.”

“Early! It’s seven o’clock.”

“I still claim it’s early. I have only been in bed four hours.”

“Well, you kin go back to bed. I’ll work orful quiet.”

“And I can trust you not to touch any of the pictures or move anything?”

“I’ll be keerful,” Amarilly assured him. “Jest show me whar to het up the water. I brung the soap and a brush.”

The artist lighted a gas stove, and, after carefully donning a long- sleeved apron, Amarilly put the water on and began operations. Her eyes shone with anticipation as she looked about her.

“I’m glad it’s so dirty,” she remarked. “It’s more interestin’ to clean a dirty place. Then what you do shows up, and you feel you earnt your money.”

With a laugh the artist returned to his bedroom, whence he emerged three hours later.

“This room is all cleaned,” announced Amarilly. “It took me so long ’cause it’s so orful big and then ’twas so turrible dirty.”

“You must have worked like a little Trojan. Now stop a bit while I prepare my breakfast.”

“Kin you cook?” asked Amarilly in astonishment.

“I can make coffee and poach eggs. Come into my butler’s pantry and watch me.”

Amarilly followed him into a small apartment and was initiated into the mysteries of electric toasters and percolators.

He tried in vain to induce her to share his meal with him, but she protested.

“I hed my breakfast at five-thirty. I don’t eat agin till noon.”

“Oh, Miss Jenkins! You have no artistic temperament or you would not cling to ironclad rules.”

“My name’s Amarilly,” she answered shortly. “I ain’t old enough to be ‘missed’ yet.”

“I beg your pardon, Amarilly. You seem any age,” he replied, sitting down to his breakfast, “You are not too old, then, for me to ask what your age is–in years?”

“I jest got into my teens.”

“Thirteen. And I am ten years older. When is your birthday?”

“It’s ben. It was the fust of June.”

“Why, Amarilly,” jumping up and holding out his hand, “we are twins! That is my birthday.”

“And you are twenty-three.”

“Right you are. That is my age at the present moment. Last night I was far older, and to-morrow, mayhap, I’ll be years younger.”

“Be you a Christian Science?” she asked doubtfully.

“Lord, no, child! I am an artist. What made you ask that?”

“‘Cause they don’t believe in age. Miss Jupperskin told me about ’em. She’s workin’ up to it. But I must go back to my work.”

“So must I, Amarilly. My model will be here in a few moments to don your surplice. If you want to clean up my breakfast dishes you may do so, and then tackle the bedroom and the rest of the apartment.”

Three hours later, Amarilly went into the studio. The model had gone, and the artist stood before his easel surveying his sketch with approval.

“This is going to be a good picture, Amarilly. The model caught my idea. There is some fore–“

“Mr. Phillips!”

“My name is Derry. I am too young to be ‘mistered.'”

There was no response, and with a smile he turned inquiringly toward her. There was a wan little droop about the corners of her eyes and lips that brought contrition to his boyish heart.

“Amarilly you are tired! You have worked too steadily. Sit down and rest awhile.”

“‘Tain’t that! I’m hungry. Kin I het up the coffee and–“

“Good gracious, Amarilly! I forgot you ate at regular, stated intervals. We will go right out now to a nice little restaurant near by and eat our luncheon together.”

Amarilly flushed.

“Thank you, Mr. Derry. That’s orful nice in you, but I’d ruther eat here. Thar’s the toast and coffee to het, and an aig–“

“No! You are going to have a good, square meal and eat it with me. You see I had to eat my birthday dinner all alone, so we’ll celebrate the first of June now, together. Slip off your apron. By the way, some day I shall paint a picture of you in that apron scrubbing my ‘mopboard.'”

Amarilly shook her head.

“I don’t look fit to go nowhars with you, Mr. Derry.”

“Vanitas, and the rest of it! Oh, Amarilly, only thirteen, and the ruling passion of your sex already in full sway!”

“It’s on your account that I’m ashamed,” she said in defence of his accusation. “I’d want ter look nice fer you.”

“That’s sweet of you, Amarilly; but if you really want to look nice, don’t think of your clothes. It’s other things. Think of your hair, for instance. It’s your best point, and yet you hide it under a bushel and, worse than that, you braid it so tight I verily believe it’s wired.”

“I’m used to bein’ teased about my red head,” she replied. “I don’t keer.”

“It’s a glorious red, Amarilly. The color the vulgar jeer at, and artists like your friend and twin, Derry, rave over. You’re what is called ‘Titian-haired,'”

“Are you makin’ fun, Mr. Derry?” she asked suspiciously.

“No, Amarilly; seriously, I think it the loveliest shade of hair there is, and now I am going to show you how you should wear it. Unbind it, all four of those skin-tight braids.”

She obeyed him, and a loosened, thick mass of hair fell below her waist.

“Glorious!” he cried fervidly. “Take that comb from the top of your head and comb it out. There! Now part it, and catch up these strands loosely–so. I must find a ribbon for a bow. What color would you suggest, Amarilly?”

“Brown.”

“Bravo, Amarilly. If you had said blue, I should have lost all faith in your future upcoming. Here are two most beautiful brown bows on this thingamajig some one gave me last Christmas, and whose claim on creation I never discovered. Let me braid your hair loosely for two and one-quarter inches. One bow here–another there. Look in the glass, Amarilly. If I give you these bows will you promise me never to wear your hair in any other fashion until you are sixteen at least? Off with your apron! It’s picturesque, but soapy and exceedingly wet. You won’t need a hat. It’s only around the corner, and I want your hair to be observed and admired.”

Amarilly gained assurance from the reflection of her hair in the mirror, and they started gayly forth like two school children out for a lark. He ushered her into a quiet little café that had an air of pronounced elegance about it. In a secluded corner behind some palms came the subdued notes of stringed instruments. Derry seemed to be well known here, and his waiter viewed his approach with an air of proprietorship.

“It’s dead quiet here,” thought Amarilly wonderingly. “Like a church.”

It was beginning to dawn upon her alert little brain that real things were all quiet, not noisy like the theatre.

“What shall we have first, Amarilly?” inquired her new friend with mock deference. “Bouillon?”

Amarilly, recalling the one time in her life when she had had “luncheon,” replied casually that she preferred fruit, and suggested a melon.

“Good, Amarilly! You are a natural epicure. Fruit, certainly, on a warm day like this. I shall let you select all the courses. What next?”

“Lobster,” she replied nonchalantly.

“Fine! And then?”

“Grapefruit salad.”

He looked at her in amazement, and reflected that she had doubtless been employed in some capacity that had made her acquainted with luncheon menus.

“And,” concluded Amarilly, without waiting for prompting, “I think an ice would be about right. And coffee in a little cup, and some cheese.”

“By all means, Amarilly,” he responded humbly. “And what kind of cheese, please?”

“Now I’m stumped,” thought Amarilly ruefully, “fer I can’t ‘member how to speak the kind she hed.”

“Most any kind,” she said loftily, “except that kind you put in mousetraps.”

“Oh, Amarilly, you are a true aristocrat! How comes it that you scrub floors? Is it on a bet?”

The waiter came up and said something to the artist in a low tone, and Derry replied hastily:

“Nothing to-day.” Then, turning to Amarilly, he asked her if she would like a glass of milk. Upon her assent, he ordered two glasses of milk, to the veiled surprise of the waiter.

When the luncheon was served, Amarilly, by reason of her good memory, was still at ease. The children at the Guild school had been given a few general rules in table deportment, but Amarilly had followed every movement of Colette’s so faithfully at the eventful luncheon that she ate very slowly, used the proper forks and spoons, and won Derry’s undisguised admiration.

“Mr. Vedder’s, good,” she thought. “Mr. St. John’s grand, but this ‘ere Mr. Derry’s folksy. I’d be skeert settin’ here eatin’ with Mr. St. John, but this feller’s only a kid, and I feel quite to hum with him.”

“Amarilly,” he said confidentially, as they were sipping their coffee from “little cups,” “you are truthful, I know. Will you be perfectly frank with me and answer a question?”

“Mebby,” she replied warily.

“Did you ever eat a luncheon like this before?”

“I never seen the inside of a restyrant afore,” she replied.

“Now you are fencing. I mean, did you ever have the same things to eat that we had just now?”

Amarilly hesitated, longing to mystify him further, but it came over her in a rush how very kind he had been to her.

“Yes, I hev. I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Good! An after-dinner story! Beat her up, Amarilly!”

So she told him of her patroness and the luncheon she had eaten at her house.

“And I watched how she et and done, and she tole me the names of the things we hed. I writ them out, and that was my lesson that night with the Boarder.”

Then, of course, Derry must know all about the Boarder and the brothers. After she had finished her faithful descriptions, it was time to return to the studio. Her quick, keen eyes had noted the size of the bill Derry had put on the salver, and the small amount of change he had received. She walked home beside him in troubled silence.

“What’s the matter, Amarilly?” he asked as she was buttoning on her apron preparatory to resuming work. “Didn’t the luncheon agree with you, or are you mad at me? And for why, pray?”

Amarilly’s thin little face flushed and a tear came into each thoughtful eye.

“I hedn’t orter to hev tole you ter git all them things. I was atryin’ ter be smart and show off, but, honest, I didn’t know they was agoin’ ter cost so much. I ain’t agoin’ ter take no money fer the cleanin’, and that’ll help some.”

Derry laughed rapturously.

“My dear child!” he exclaimed, when he could speak. “You are a veritable little field daisy. You really saved me money by going with me. If I had gone alone, I should have spent twice as much.”

“How could that be?” she asked unbelievingly. “You would only hev give one order, so ‘twould hev ben jest half as much.”

“But if you had not been with me, I should have had a cocktail and a bottle of wine, which would have cost more than our meal. Out of deference to your youth and other things, I forbore to indulge. So you see I saved money by having you along. And then it was much better for me not to have had those libations.”

“Honest true?”

“Honest true, hope to die! Cross my heart and all the rest of it! I’d lie cheerfully to some people, but never to you, Amarilly.”

“My. Reeves-Eggleston–he’s on the stage–said artists was allers poor.”

“That’s one reason why I am not an artist–a great artist. I am hampered by an inheritance that allows me to live without working, so I don’t do anything worth while. I only dabble at this and that. Some day, maybe, I’ll have an inspiration.”

“Go to work now,” she admonished.

“I must perforce. My model’s foot is on the stair.”

Amarilly left the studio to resume her cleaning. At five o’clock she came back. Derry stood at the window, working furiously at some fleecy clouds sailing over a cerulean sky. She was about to speak, but discerning that he must work speedily and uninterruptedly to keep pace with the shifting clouds, she refrained.

“There!” he said. “I got it. You were a good little girl not to interrupt me, Amarilly.”

“It’s beautiful!” gasped Amarilly. “I was afeard you’d git the sky blue instead of purplish and that you’d make the clouds too white.”

“Amarilly, you’ve the soul of an artist! In you I have found a true critic.”

“Come and see if the rooms is all right. I got ’em real clean. Every nook and corner. And–“

“I know you did, Amarilly, without looking. I can smell the clean from here.”

“If thar’s nothin’ more you want did, I’ll go hum.”

“Here’s a dollar for the rooms and two dollars for the surplice. Amarilly, you were glad to learn table manners from Miss King, weren’t you?”

“Yes; I like to larn all I kin.”

“Then, will you let me teach you something?”

“Sure!” she acquiesced quickly.

“There are two things you must do for me. Never say ‘et’; say ‘ate’ instead. Then you must say ‘can’; not ‘kin.’ It will be hard to remember at first, but every time you forget and make a mistake, remember to-day and our jolly little luncheon, will you?”

“I will, and I _can_, Mr. Derry.”

“You’re an apt little pupil, Amarilly, and I am going to teach you two words every time you come.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Amarilly, brightening. “Will you want me ter come agin?”

“Indeed I shall. I am going away next week to the mountains for a couple of months. When I come back, I am going to have you come every morning at nine o’clock. You can prepare and serve my simple breakfast and clean my rooms every day. Then they won’t get so disreputable. I will pay you what they do at the theatre, and it will not be such hard work. Will you enjoy it as well?”

“Oh, better!” exclaimed Amarilly.

And with this naive admission died the last spark of Amarilly’s stage-lust.

“Then consider yourself engaged. You can call for the surplice to-morrow afternoon at this hour.”

“Thank you, Mr. Derry.”

She hesitated, and then awkwardly extended her hand, which he shook most cordially.

“Thank you for a day’s entertainment, Amarilly. I haven’t been bored once. You have very nice hands,” looking down at the one he still held.

She reddened and jerked her hand quickly away.

“Now you _are_ kiddin’! They’re redder than my hair, and rough and big.”

“I repeat, Amarilly, you have nice hands. It isn’t size and color that counts; it’s shape, and from an artist’s standpoint you have shapely hands. Now will you be good, and shake hands with me in a perfectly ladylike way? Thank you, Amarilly.”

“Thank _you_, Mr. Derry. It’s the beautifulest day I ever hed. Better’n the matinée or the Guild or–” she drew a quick breath and said in a scared whisper–“the church!”

“I am flattered, Amarilly. We shall have many ruby-lettered days like it.”

CHAPTER X

The next afternoon Amarilly called at the studio for the surplice.

“I am glad to see you have your hair fixed as I told you, Amarilly,” was Derry’s greeting. “And have you remembered the other things I told you?”

“I hev’ writ out ‘can’ and ‘ate’ in big letters and pinned ’em up on the wall. I can say ’em right every time now.”

“Of course you can! And for a reward here’s a dollar with which to buy some black velvet hair-ribbons. Never put any color but black or brown near your hair, Amarilly.”

“No, Mr. Derry; but I don’t want to take the dollar.”

“See here, Amarilly! You’re to be my little housemaid, and the uniform is always provided. Instead of buying you a cap and apron, I prefer to furnish velvet hair-ribbons. Take it, and get a good quality silk velvet. And now, good-by for two months. I will let you know when I am home so that you may begin on your duties.”

“Good-by, Mr. Derry,” said the little girl artlessly. “And thar’s something I’d like to say to you, if you don’t mind.”

“You may say anything–everything–to me, Amarilly.”

“When you go to eat, won’t you order jest as ef I was with you–nothin’ more?”

His fair boyish face reddened slightly, and then a serious look came into his dancing eyes.

“By Jove, Amarilly! I’ve been wishing some girl who really meant it, who really cared, would say that to me. You put it very delicately and sweetly. I’ll–yes, I’ll do it all the time I’m gone. There’s my hand on it. Good-by, Amarilly.”

“Good-by, Mr. Derry.”

Amarilly walked home very slowly, trying to think of a way to realize again from the surplice.

“I’m afeerd I won’t find a place to rent it right away,” she sighed.

Looking up, she saw the Boarder. A slender, shy slip of a girl had his arm, and he was gazing into her intent eyes with a look of adoration.

“Oh, the Boarder is in love!” gasped Amarilly; her responsive little heart leaping in sympathetic interest. “That’s why he’s wore a blue necktie the last few days. Lord Algernon said that was allers a sure sign.”

She tactfully slipped around a corner, unseen by the entranced couple.

That night, as he was lighting his after-supper pipe, the Boarder remarked casually:

“I’d like to rent the surplus fer an hour to-morrer, Amarilly.”

“Why, what on airth can you do with it?” was the astonished query.

The Boarder looked sheepish.

“You see, Amarilly, I’m akeepin’ stiddy company with a little gal.”

“I seen you and her this arternoon. She’s orful purty,” said Amarilly reflectively. “She looked kinder delikit, though. What’s her name?”

“Lily–Lily Rose. Ain’t that a purty name?”

“Beautiful. The lily part jest suits her. She’s like a flower–a white flower. But what do you want the surplus fer?”

“You see,” began the Boarder, coming by circuitous route to his subject, “gals git notions in their heads sometimes when they air in–“

“Love,” promptly supplied the comprehending little girl.

“Yes,” he assented with a fiery blush. “And she wants fer me to hev my likeness took so I kin give it to her.”

“Thar ain’t nothin’ foolish about that!” declared Amarilly.

“No; but I never sot fer one yet. I wouldn’t mind, but you see she’s got it in her head that I am good-looking–“

“Well, you be,” corroborated Amarilly decisively.

“And she wants me fer to dress up like a preacher. I told her about Hallie Hudgers lookin’ so swell in the surplus, and she wants, as I should dress up in it and set fer my likeness in it.”

“I think it would be fine!” approved Amarilly. “You sure would look nicer nor Hallie did.”

“Well, I wouldn’t look like a dead one,” admitted the Boarder. “But I was orful afraid you’d laugh. Then I kin rent it fer an hour to-morrer ef it ain’t got no other dates.”

“You can’t _rent_ it. You can take it fer an hour, or so long as you like,” she assured him.

“You’ll hev to take a quarter anyway, fer luck. Mebby ’twill bring me luck awinnin’ her.”

The photograph of the Boarder in saintly attire was pronounced a great success. Before the presentation he had it set in a frame made of gilt network studded with shells.

Lily Rose spent her leisure moments gazing upon it with the dream- centred eyes of a young devotee before a shrine.

The next wearing of the surplice was more in accord with its original design. In the precinct adjoining the one in which lived and let live the Jenkins family, a colored Episcopal church had recently been established. The rector had but one surplice, and that had been stolen from the clothes-line, mayhap by one of his dusky flock; thus it was that Amarilly received a call from the Reverend Virgil Washington, who had heard of the errant surplice, which he offered to purchase.

Naturally his proposition was met by a firm and unalterable refusal. It would have been like selling a golden goose to dispose of such a profitable commodity. He then asked to rent it for a Sunday while he was having one made. This application, being quite in Amarilly’s line of business, met with a ready assent.

“You can hev it fer a dollar,” she offered.

The bargain was finally closed, although it gave Amarilly more than a passing pang to think of the snowy folds of Mr. St. John’s garment adorning an Ethiopian form.

One day there came to the Jenkins home a most unusual caller. The novel presence of the “mailman” at their door brought every neighbor to post of observation. His call was for the purpose of leaving a gayly-colored postal card addressed to “Miss Amarilly Jenkins.” It was from Derry, and she spent many happy moments in deciphering it. His writing was microscopic, and he managed to convey a great deal of information in the allotted small space. He inquired solicitously concerning the surplice, and bade her be a good girl and not forget the two words he had taught her. “I have ordered all my meals as though you were with me,” he wrote in conclusion.

Amarilly laid the card away with her wedding waist. Then, with the Boarder’s aid, she indited an answer on a card that depicted the Barlow Theatre.

The next event for Amarilly was an invitation to attend the wedding of Mrs. Hubbleston, a buxom, bustling widow for whom Mrs. Jenkins washed. In delivering the clothes, Amarilly had come to be on very friendly terms with the big, light-hearted woman, and so she had been asked to assist in the serving of refreshments on the eventful night.

“I’ve never been to a wedding,” said Amarilly wistfully. “I’ve been to most everything else, and I would like to see you wed, but I ain’t got no clo’es ‘cept my hair-ribbons.”

Mrs. Hubbleston looked at her contemplatively.

“My last husband’s niece’s little girl left a dress here once when she was going home after a visit. She had hardly worn it, but she had outgrown it, and her ma told me to give it away. I had ‘most forgotten about it. I believe it would just fit you. Let us see.”

She produced a white dress that adjusted itself comfortably to Amarilly’s form.

“You look real pretty in white, Amarilly. You shall have this dress for your own.”

On the nuptial night Amarilly, clad in the white gown and with black velvet hair-ribbons, went forth at an early hour to the house of festivity.

Mrs. Hubbleston, resplendent in a glittering jetted gown, came into the kitchen to see that things were progressing properly.

“Ain’t you flustered?” asked Amarilly, looking at her in awe.

“Land, no, child! I have been married four times before this, you see, so it comes natural. There goes the doorbell. It must be Mr. Jimmels and the minister.”

In a few moments she returned to the kitchen for sympathy.

“I am so disappointed,” she sighed, “but then, I might have expected something would happen. It always does at my weddings.”

“What is it?” asked Amarilly, apprehensive lest the wedding might be declared off.

“I’ve been married once by a Baptist minister, once by a Methodist, and the third time by a Congregationalist; last time a Unitarian tied the knot. So this once I thought I would have an Episcopal, because their white robe lends tone. And Rev. Mr. Woodthorn has come without his. He says he never brings it to the house weddings unless specially requested. He lives clear across the city, and the carriage has gone away.”

“Oh, I have a surplus!” cried Amarilly enthusiastically. “I’ll telephone our grocer. Milt’s ahelpin’ him to-night, and he can ride over here on the grocer’s wheel and fetch it.”

“Why, how in the world did you come by such a thing as a surplice?” asked the widow in surprise.

Amarilly quickly explained, and then telephoned to her brother.

“He says he’ll be over here in a jiffy,” she announced. “And ain’t it lucky, it’s jest been did up clean!”

“My, but that’s fortunate! It’ll be the making of my wedding. I shall give you a dollar for the use of it, the same as those others did.”

“No!” objected Amarilly. “Ill be more than glad to let you hev it arter your givin’ me this fine dress.”

“I’ll have Mr. Jimmels pay you for it. He can take a dollar out of the fee for the minister. It will serve him right for not bringing all his trappings with him.”

Amarilly’s sense of justice was appeased by this arrangement. She went into the double parlors to witness the ceremony, which gave her a few little heart thrills.

“Them words sounds orful nice,” she thought approvingly. “The Boarder and Lily Rose must hev an Episcopal fer to marry them. I wonder if I’ll ever get to Miss King’s and Mr. St. John’s weddin’ or Mr. Derry’s; but I guess he’ll never be married. He jokes too much to be thinkin’ of sech things.” Then came the thought of her own wedding garment awaiting its destiny.

“I ain’t even hed a beau, yet,” she sighed, “but the Boarder says that I will–that red-headed girls ain’t never old maids from ch’ice.”

With this sustaining thought, she proceeded to the dining-room. She had been taught at the Guild how to wait on table, and she proved herself to be very deft and capable in putting her instructions into effect.

“Here’s two dollars,” the complacent bride said to Amarilly before departing. “One is for serving so nicely, and one is for the surplice. I told them in the kitchen to put you up a basket of things to take home to the children.”

Amarilly thanked her profusely and then went home. She deposited her two dollars in the family exchequer, and proceeded to distribute the contents of the basket.

“Now, set around the table here, and take what I give you. Thar ain’t enough of one thing to go hull way round, except fer ma. She’s agoin’ to hev some of each. Yes, you be, ma. This here baskit’s mine. Here’s a sandwich, some chicken, salid, jell, two kinds of cake, and some ice- cream fer you. Bud can hev first pick now, ’cause he ain’t so strong as the rest of you. All right, Bud; take the rest of the ice-cream and some cake.”

“‘Tain’t fair! I’m a girl, and I’m younger than Bud. I’d orter choose first,” sobbed Cory.

“Shut up, Co! You’ll wake Iry, and then he’ll hev to hev something, and if he sleeps right through, thar’ll be jest so much more fer you. ‘Twon’t hurt him to miss what he don’t know about. All right, Cory, you can hev cake and jell. That’s a good boy, Bud, to give her two tastes of the cream, and ma’ll give you two more. Bobby? Sandwiches and pickle. Milt? Chicken and salid. Flammy and Gus, pickle and sandwich is all that’s left fer you. The rest of this chicken is agoin’ into the Boarder’s dinner pail to-morrer.”

CHAPTER XI

Milton came home from the grocery one night with a telephone message from Mr. Vedder requesting Amarilly to bring the surplice to his rooms on the next day.

“How is business?” asked the ticket-seller kindly, when the little girl appeared in answer to his summons.

“Fine! The surplus has brung in nine dollars and seventy-five cents a’ready. It’s kept things goin’.”

“The theatre will open in a couple of weeks, and then you will have steady work, though I wish we might get an easier and pleasanter occupation for you.”

“I’m agoin’ to hev one, Mr. Vedder,” and she proceeded to tell him of Derry and her engagement at his studio.

“It kinder seems as if I b’longed to the theayter, and you’ve been so orful kind to me, Mr. Vedder, that it’ll seem strange-like not to be here, but Mr. Phillips’s work’ll be a snap fer me.”

“You’ve been a good, faithful little girl, Amarilly, and I shall want to keep track of you and see you occasionally, so I am going to give you a pass to every Saturday matinée during the winter.”

“Oh, Mr. Vedder, there’s been no one so good as you’ve been to me! And you never laugh at me like other folks do.”

“No, indeed, child! Why should I? But I never knew before that you had such beautiful hair!”

“It’s ’cause it’s fixed better,” said Amarilly with a blush. “But who wants the surplus this time?”

“I do,” he replied smiling. “I am invited to a sheet and pillow-case party. I thought this surplice would be more comfortable than a sheet. Here’s a dollar for it.”

“No,” declined Amarilly firmly. “Not arter all you’ve done fer us. I won’t take it.”

“Amarilly,” he said earnestly. “I have no one in the world to do anything for, and sometimes, when I get to thinking about it, I am very lonely. So if you want to be kind to me, you will give me the pleasure of helping you a little now and then. I shall not enjoy the party unless you will take the money.”

Amarilly cried a little that night, thinking how good he was.

“I hed orter like him best of all,” she thought reproachfully.

Two or three days later Pete Noyes came to the house.

“Hello, Amarilly! I ain’t seen yer in so long I’d fergit how you looked. Say, why didn’t you ever fix yer hair that way afore? It looks swell, even if it is red!”

“I am older now,” she explained in superior, lofty tones, “and of course I hev to think more about my looks than I used ter.”

He gazed at her with such ardent admiration that she was seized with an impulse to don her white dress and impress his young fancy still further.

“He ain’t wuth it, though,” her sober second thought decided.

“What does yer think I come fer, Amarilly?”

“I dunno, ‘less Mr. Vedder sent you.”

“He did, sorter. You see, I’m invited to one of them kind of parties whar you dress up ter be the name of a book. One of the stock company is givin’ it fer her kids. I don’t know the name of any book except _Diamond Dick_ and _The Curse of Gold_, and I didn’t know how to rig up fer them. I went to Vedder, and he sez thar’s a book what’s called _The Little Minister_, and I could rent yer surplus and tog out in it. He said you would take tucks in it fer me.”

“Sure I will. I’ll fix it now while you wait, Pete.”

“Say, Amarilly, I thought as how, seein’ we are both in the perfesshun, sorter, you’d come down on your price.”

“Sure thing, Pete. I won’t charge you nothin’ fer it.”

“Yes; I wanter pay. I’ll tell you what, Amarilly, couldn’t you take it out in gum? I hed a hull lot left over when the theayter shut down. It’ll git stale ef I keep it much longer, and I’d like to git some of it offen my hands.”

“Sure, I will, Pete. We all like gum, and we can’t afford to buy it very often. That’ll be dandy.”

Thus it was that for the next fortnight the Jenkins family revelled in the indulgence of a hitherto denied but dearly prized luxury. Their jaws worked constantly and joyously, although differently. Mrs. Jenkins, by reason of depending upon her third set of teeth, chewed cautiously and with camel-like precision. The Boarder, having had long practice in the art, craunched at railway speed. The older boys munched steadily and easily, while Bud and Bobby pecked intermittently in short nibbles. Amarilly had the “star method,” which they all vainly tried to emulate. At short and regular intervals a torpedo-like report issued from the gum as she snapped her teeth down upon it. Cory kept hers strung out elastically from her mouth, occasionally rolling it back.

The liberal supply of the luxury rapidly diminished, owing to the fact that Iry swallowed his allowance after ineffectual efforts to retain it in his mouth, and then like Oliver Twist pleaded for more.

“I declare fer it!” remarked Mrs. Hudgers to Amarilly. “That child’s insides will all be stuck together. I should think yer ma would be afeard to let him chaw so much.”

“He’s ateethin’, and it sorter soothes his gums,” explained Amarilly.

During the summer season, Pete had pursued his profession at a vaudeville theatre, and one day, not long after his literary representation, he came to Amarilly with some good tidings.

“I hev another job fer yer surplus. Down to the vawdyville they’re goin’ to put on a piece what has a preacher in it, and I tole them about yer surplus, and the leadin’ man, who is to be the preacher, says ‘twould lend to the settin’s to wear it. I told him mebby you’d let him hev the use on it fer a week fer five dollars. He said he could buy the stuff and make a dozen fer that price, but they gotter start the piece to-night so that’d be no time to make one. I’ll take it down to them to-night.”

This was the longest and most remunerative act of the surplice, and served to pay for a very long accruing milk bill. When the engagement at the vaudeville ended, the Boarder came to the rescue.

“Thar’s a friend of mine what brakes, and he wants the surplus to wear to a maskyrade. I told him he could go as a preacher. He’s asavin’ to git merried, so he don’t want to give much.”

“He shell hev it fer a quarter,” said Amarilly, friend to all lovers, “and I’ll lend him a mask. I hev one the property man at the theayter give me.”

CHAPTER XII

“I wonder,” meditated Gus, “where the surplus will land next?”

“It has been most everywhere except to the police court,” said Bobby. “‘Spect ’twill land there next!”

His prophecy was fulfilled. Mrs. Jenkins washed the lucrative garment late one afternoon and left it on the line all night. The next morning, to the great consternation of the family and the wild distress of Amarilly, the beloved surplice, that friend of friends in time of need, had vanished. Other clotheslines in the vicinity had also been deprived of their burdens, and a concerted complaint was made to the police, who promptly located the offender and brought him summarily to trial. Mrs. Jenkins was subpoenaed as a witness, which caused quite a ripple of excitement in the family. Divided between dread of appearing in public and pride at the importance with which she was regarded by her little flock, Mrs. Jenkins was quite upset by the occasion. She hadn’t attended a function for so long that her costuming therefor was of more concern than had been Amarilly’s church raiment.

Mrs. Hudgers loaned her mourning bonnet and veil, which was adjusted at half mast. They appeared in direct contradiction to the skirt of bilious green she wore, but the Jenkinses were as unconventional in attire as they were in other things.

The family attended the trial _en masse_, and were greatly elated at the prominence their mother had attained. The culprit was convicted and the surplice duly restored. The misfortune was not without profit. Mrs. Jenkins received thirty-five cents as a witness fee.

They had managed to pay their household expenses through the summer, but when the rent for August was due there was not quite enough cash on hand to meet this important item of expenditure. Noting the troubled brows of Mrs. Jenkins and Amarilly at breakfast time, the Boarder insisted on knowing the cause.

“We’re broke, and the rent’s overdue,” tersely explained Amarilly.

“I’m broke, too,” sighed the Boarder, “except what I’ve got in the savin’s bank towards–“

“Lily Rose,” suggested Amarilly softly.

“Yes,” he admitted, with a beaming look. “But when I go broke, all other things failin’, I allers tackle a pawnbroker.”

“We ain’t got nothin’ to pawn,” sighed Amarilly.

She recalled the lace waist, but that, like the Lily Rose fund, was sacred. There was always, to-day, yesterday, and forever, the surplice, and her scruples regarding that article had of necessity become case- hardened; still, Amarilly hesitated. A pawnshop seemed lower than a police court.

“It’s been everywhere else,” she said loudly to the accusing, still, small voice, “and it might jest as well go the limit. ‘T won’t bring much, but ’twill help.”

Through byways and highways Amarilly sought the region of the three- balled porticoes. The shop of one Max Solstein attracted her, and she entered his open door. Max, rat-eyed and frog-mouthed, came forward propitiatingly.

“What’ll you gimme on this?” came with directness from the small importuner.

He took the garment, shook it, and held it up for falcon-gaze inspection.

“Not worth much. A quarter of a dollar.”

Amarilly snatched it from his grasp and fled. Not because of his low- figured offer; she had fully expected to have to “beat him up.” But when she had entered, a youth who had all the recognized earmarks of a reporter was lounging in the doorway. At sight of the uplifted garment he had come eagerly forward, scenting a story. She knew his kind from snatches of conversation she had heard between the leading lady and Lord Algernon. In the lore of the stage at Barlow’s, reporters were “hovering vultures” who always dropped down when least wanted, and they had a way of dragging to light the innermost thoughts of their victims.

“You read your secrets,” Lord Algernon had dramatically declared, “in blazoned headlines.”

Hitherto Amarilly had effectually silenced her instinctive rebellion against the profaning of St. John’s surplice, but she had reached the limit. No Max Solstein, no threatening landlord, no ruthless reporter should thrust the sacred surplice into the publicity of print.

She darted from the shop, the reporter right at her heels, but the chasing of his covey to corner was not easily accomplished. He was a newly fledged reporter, and Amarilly had all the instinct of the lowly for localities. She turned and doubled and dodged successfully. By a course circuitous she returned to Hebrew haunts, this time to seek, one Abram Canter, a little wizened, gnome-like Jew. Assuring herself that there was no other than the proprietor within, Amarilly entered and handed over the surplice for appraisal.

Once more the garment was held aloft. At that psychological moment an elderly man of buxom build, benevolent in mien, and with smooth, long hair that had an upward rolling tendency at the ends, looked in the shop as he was passing. He halted, hesitated, and then entered. Of him, however, Amarilly felt no apprehension.

“Looks like Quaker Oats, or mebby it’s the Jack of Spades,” she thought after a searching survey.

“My child, is that yours?” he asked of Amarilly, indicating the garment by a protesting forefinger.

“Sure thing!” she acknowledged frankly.

“Where did you get it?”

If he had been a young man, Amarilly would have cheerfully reminded him that it was none of his business, but, a respecter of age, she loftily informed him that it had been “give to her.”

“By whom?” he persisted.

Perceiving her reluctance to answer, he added gently:

“I am a bishop of the Episcopal Church, and I cannot endure to see a surplice in such a place as this.”

A bishop! This was worse than a reporter even. St. John would surely hear of it! But she felt that an explanation was due the calling of her interlocutor.

She lifted righteous eyes to his.

“My mother works for one of the churches, and the minister, he give us this to cut up into clo’es fer the chillern, but we didn’t cut it up. I’m agoin’ to leave it here till the rent’s paid, and we git the money to take it outen hock.”

The bishop’s eyes softened, and lost their look of shocked dignity.

“I will advance you the money,” he offered. “I would much prefer to do so than to have it left here. How much money do you need to pay your rent?”

“We need five dollars,” said Amarilly, “to pay the balance of it. But I wouldn’t take it from you. I ain’t no beggar. I don’t believe, nuther,” she continued, half to herself, “that Mr. St. John would like it.”

“Who is Mr. St. John?” he asked curiously. “I know of no such rector in this diocese. My child, you have an honest face. Since you won’t accept a gift of money, I will lend, you the amount. I want you to tell me all about yourself and this surplice.”

“Well, mebby he’d want me to,” reflected Amarilly.

“Gimme back that surplus,” she said to the Jew, who seemed loath to relinquish his booty.

As she walked up the street with the bishop, she frankly related the family history and the part Mr. Meredith and the surplice had played therein.

The bishop had generous instincts, and a desire to reach the needy directly instead of through the medium of institutions, but he had never known just how to approach them. His presence in this unknown part of the city had been unpremeditated, but he welcomed the chance that had led his steps hither to perform an errand of mercy. He handed Amarilly five dollars, and wrote down her address. He was most reluctant to receive the surplice as security, but Amarilly’s firm insistence was not to be overcome. She returned home, rejoicing in the knowledge that she had the price of their happy home in her pocket. The bishop had given her his card, which she laid in a china saucer with other bits of pasteboard she had collected from Derry Phillips, Mr. Vedder, and Pete Noyes. The saucer adorned a small stand in the dining-room part of the house.

“It’s the way Mrs. Hubbleston kep’ her keerds,” Amarilly explained to the family.

Meantime the bishop was walking in an opposite direction toward his home, wondering if he should find he was mistaken in his estimate of human nature; and a query arose in his mind as to what he should do with the surplice if it were left on his hands.

CHAPTER XIII

Bud sat in the park,–Clothes-line Park, Amarilly had dubbed it–one Monday afternoon, singing a song of gladness. The park was confined by a clothes-line stretched between three tottering poles and the one solitary poplar tree of the Jenkins estate. The line was hung with white linen garments, and smaller articles adorned the grass plot within the park.

This to Bud was the most beautiful spot in the world. He looked up into the sapphire blue of the sky flecked with soft patches of white, then down upon the waving grass latticed by sun and shade; he listened to the soothing rustle of the poplar leaves, the soft flapping of linen in the breeze, the birds in the tree tops, and felt his heart and throat bursting with all the harmony and melody about him. Not always was Bud’s refrain one of joy. There were songs of sorrow on the damp days when the washings must be dried within the house, and he could not venture forth because he still was regarded as the delicate one of the family. There were days, too, when the number of garments was not adequate to complete the boundary to the park, and that meant less to eat and worry about the rent and a harassed look in his mother’s anxious eyes.

But there was no sob in Bud’s song this afternoon. The clothes had been hung out unusually early, and were nearly dry, so his mother had brought out her little lean-back rocker and sat beside him for a few moments to listen to his carol and to hark back to the days when his lusty-voiced father had sung to her in the shadows of a vine clad porch.

It was not upon Amarilly, the sharer of her burdens, nor upon the baby that Mrs. Jenkins lavished her tenderness. Bud crept closest because he had been the one most dependent upon her care.

When the little singer ceased, the mother arose and unpinned the garments, carrying them in armfuls to the huge basket in the middle of the park. Bud watched her thin, fatigued hands as they performed their accustomed task, and a sudden inspiration came to him. His future field of labor had troubled him. Now his way seemed clear. He stepped nimbly to the grass plot and gathered up the pieces spread thereon.

“Ma,” he said, as they met at the basket, “I’ve jest thought what I kin do, when I grow up, to support you.”

“What is it, Bud?” she asked interestedly.

“The teacher said we must plan to do what we knew the most about. I know more about washin’ than anything else.”

“You’d orter,” she replied with a sigh.

“I kin run a laundry,” he declared.

“That would be a fine business.”

Happy in the hope of this new horoscope, Bud resumed his seat in the amphitheatre, and in a voice of clarion clearness ecstatically rendered one of the hymns he had learned at St. Mark’s. Ever since he had become a member of the choir, Clothes-line Park had rung with echoes of the Jubilate and Venite instead of the popular old-time school airs. The wringer was turned to the tune of a Te Deum, the clothes were rubbed to the rhythm of a Benedictus, and the floor mopped to the melody of a Magnificat.

On the happy, by-gone Thursdays, cloistered by snow-white surplices, with the little chorister enthroned in the midst, Clothes-line Park had seemed a veritable White Chapel.

Bud was snatched from his carols by the arrival of Amarilly, who was far too practical to hearken to hymns when there was work to be performed.

“I got the money Miss Ormsby’s owed us so long,” she announced in a tone of satisfaction, “and that jest makes up the money to git back the surplus. I’ll give you carfare one way, Bud, and you must go to the bishop’s and git it. I’m too beat to go. I’ve walked most five miles sence dinner.”

Bud was scoured and brushed, the pocket of his blouse tagged with a five-dollar bill carefully secured by a safety pin, and he started on his way for the address Amarilly had given him. He stopped at the corner drug store to spend his car-fare for an ice-cream soda.

When the lad’s quest was repeated to the bishop by his housekeeper, he instructed her to send Bud up to the library, being kindly-disposed towards all boy-kind. While he was questioning his young visitor, the organ of Grace Church, which was next to the bishop’s house, pealed forth, and a man’s voice began to chant a selection from an oratorio Bud had learned at St. Mark’s. A high, childish soprano voice was essaying to carry the sustained note an octave above the man’s voice; once it sharped.

“Oh!” shuddered Bud in dismay. “He can’t keep the tune.”

“He isn’t our regular soloist,” explained the bishop apologetically. “He is ill, and this boy is trying to learn the part for an organ recital to be given next week.”

Again the choirmaster’s voice, patient and wearied, began the refrain. Instinctively Bud’s little chest swelled, and involuntarily his clear, high treble took the note and sustained it without break through the measures, and then triumphantly broke into the solo. The bishop’s eyes shone.

“Come,” he said, rising and going towards the door, “come with me.”

Wonderingly and obediently, Bud followed him into the church and up to the organ where the choirmaster sat.

“This is one of the boys from St. Mark’s. Try him on the solo. He just sang it for me.”

“I thought I heard it sung just now, but I feared it was only an echo of my dreams. Let me hear you again, my lad.”

Easily and confidently Bud attacked the high C in alt. At the end of the solo, the long-suffering choirmaster looked as if he were an Orpheus, who had found his Eurydice.

“Who taught you to sing that solo?” he demanded.

“My school teacher. She is studying fer an opery singer, and she helps me with my Sunday singing.”

“I thought the style was a little florid for the organist of St. Mark’s,” said the choirmaster whimsically. “My boy, if you will sing it for us at the recital as well as you did just now, you shall have ten dollars.”

The laundry now loomed as a fixed star in Bud’s firmament. When he went home and told his mother the good news she moved joyfully among her mops and tubs. The turn of the wringer never seemed so easy, and she frequently paused in the rubbing of a soaped garment to wring the suds from her swollen hands and listen anew to the recital of Bud’s call upon the bishop and the choirmaster of Grace Church.

CHAPTER XIV

The next day the flood-tide of the Jenkins’s fortunes bid fair to flow to fullness. Word came to the little home that Mr. Meredith had returned to the city and desired the laundry work to be resumed. Bud was summoned to choir practice the following Friday, and Miss King sent her chauffeur with a fair-sized washing.

“Everything comes so to onct, it takes your breath away,” said Amarilly, quite overcome by this renewal of commercial activity, “and next thing I know,”–there her heart gave a deer-like leap–“Mr. Derry’ll be hum, and sendin’ fer me. Then we’ll all be earnin’ excep’ Gus.”

At the end of the week Amarilly eagerly went to deliver the washings at the rectory and Miss King’s, but in both instances she was doomed to disappointment, as her friends were not in.

“I’ll go to church and see ’em,” she resolved.

This time her raiment was very simple, but more effective than upon the occasion of her previous attendance.

Before Amarilly’s artistic temperament was awakened by the atmosphere of the studio, she had been wont to array herself in things convenient without regard to color or style, believing herself to be hopelessly homely and beyond the aid of personal adornment; but since Derry had praised her hair, she had scrupulously cared for it and allowed no conflicting color in proximity thereto. On this occasion she fastened it with the black velvet bows, and arrayed herself in the white dress Mrs. Jimmels had given her.

“I declar, Amarilly,” exclaimed her mother, “I believe you’re agrowin’ purty!”

Amarilly’s eyes danced, and she gave her mother a spontaneous and rewarding hug.

She didn’t do her own ushering this time, and was consequently seated most inconspicuously near the entrance. Her heart beat rapturously at the sight of John Meredith in the pulpit.

“His vacation didn’t freshen him up much,” she thought, after a shrewd glance. “He’s paler and don’t look real peart. Sorter like Bud arter he got up from the fever.”

Her attention was diverted from the rector by the vision of Colette coming down the aisle. The change in her appearance was even more startling to the little anxious-eyed girl than in John’s case. There were violet shadows under the bright eyes, a subtle, subdued air about her fresh young beauty that had banished the little touch of wilfulness. As soon as she was seated, which was after the service had begun, she became entirely absorbed in her prayer-book.

“Vacation ain’t agreed with her, nuther,” pondered Amarilly perplexedly.

She turned her gaze again to John, who was sitting back of the choir, while his “understudy” conducted the service. His face was shaded by his hand, but Amarilly’s gimlet glance noted that he frequently sent a fleeting, troubled look toward the King pew.

“Thar’s something up atwixt ’em,” deduced Amarilly, “and they air both too proud to say nuthin’ about it to the other.”

John’s sermon was on the strength that renunciation brings, and the duty of learning resignation. There was a pervasive note of sadness in his deliverance of the theme, and Amarilly felt her joyousness in the return of her friends slipping from her.

She went out of church somewhat depressed, but was cheered by the handclasp of the rector and his earnest assurance that he would see her very soon. While he was saying this, Colette slipped past without vouchsafing so much as a glance in their direction. Hurt through and through, the little girl walked sadly to the pavement with head and eyes downcast.

“Amarilly,” dulcetly spoke a well-loved voice.

Her eyes turned quickly. Colette stood at the curb, her hand on the door of the electric.

“I waited to take you home, dear. Why, what’s the matter, Amarilly? Tears?”

“I thought you wan’t goin’ to speak to me,” said Amarilly, as she stepped into the brougham and took the seat beside Colette.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you and Mr. Meredith, but it’s a wonder I knew you. You look so different. You have grown so tall, and what a beautiful dress! Who showed you how to fix your hair so artistically? I never realized you had such beautiful hair, child!”

“I didn’t nuther, till he told me.”

“Who, Amarilly? Lord Algernon?”

“No!” scoffed Amarilly, suddenly realizing that her former hero had toppled from his pedestal in her thoughts. “‘Tain’t him. It’s a new friend I have made. An artist.”

“Oh, Amarilly, you have such distinguished acquaintances! All in the profession, too. Tell me who the artist is.”

“Mr. Derry Phillips. I cleaned his rooms, and he took me to lunch. We ate things like we had to your house.”

“Derry Phillips, the talented young artist! Why, Amarilly, girls are tumbling over each other trying to get attention from him, and he took you to luncheon! Where?”

“To Carter’s, and I’m to serve his breakfast and take care of his rooms, and he showed me how to fix my hair and to say ‘can’ and ‘ate.’ He’s fired the woman what red his rooms.”

“‘Merely Mary Ann,'” murmured Colette.

“No,” said Amarilly positively. “Her name is Miss O’Leary, and she didn’t clean the mopboards.”

Colette’s gay laughter pealed forth.

“Amarilly, this is the first time, I’ve laughed this summer, but I must explain something to you. The housekeeper told me that all the children had scarlet fever and were quarantined a long time after we left. I wish I had known it and thought more about you, but–I’ve had troubles of my own. How did you manage so long with nothing coming in?”

“It was purty hard, but we fetched it,” sighed Amarilly, thinking of the struggles, “We’re doin’ fine now again.”

“But, tell me; how did you buy food and things when none of you were working?”

“When your ten dollars was gone, we spent his’n.”

“Whose?”

“Mr. Meredith’s. He sent us a ten, too.”

“Oh!” replied Colette frigidly.

“Then the Boarder give us all he hed. Arterwards come dark days until Mr. Vedder sent us a fiver.–Then thar was an orful day when thar wa’n’t a cent and we didn’t know whar to turn, and then–It saved us.”

“It? What?”

“The surplus. Mr. St. John’s surplus. It brung in lots.”

“Why, what do you mean, Amarilly?”

“You see ’twas at our house when Iry was fust took sick–same as the waist you gimme was. They couldn’t nuther on ’em be sent hum till they was fumygated. Then Mrs. Winders said as how he, Mr. St. John, said as how we was to keep it and cut it up fer the chillern, but we didn’t.”

“Oh, Amarilly,” asked Colette faintly, “do you mean to tell me that the surplice was never delivered to Mr. Meredith?”

“No. Gus didn’t take it that night, and in the mornin’ when Iry was took it was too late. And then when it got fumygated, Mr. St. John had gone away and he left word we was to keep it.”

The transformation in Colette’s mobile face during this explanation was rapid and wonderful. With a radiant smile she stopped the brougham and put her arms impulsively about Amarilly.

“Oh, Amarilly, I’m so happy, and I’ve had such a wretched summer! Now, we will go right to your house and you’ll let me see the surplice.” Amarilly looked surprised.

“Why, yes, you can see it, of course, though it ain’t no diffrent from his other ones.”

“Oh yes it is! Far, far different, Amarilly. It has a history.”

“Yes, I guess it has,” laughed Amarilly, “It’s been goin’ some these last two months!”

“Why, what do you mean, Amarilly? and I forgot in my excitement to ask how it helped you. But first tell me. You know there is a pocket in it?”

“Yes, Miss King.”

“Have you noticed anything in the pocket?”

“Never looked onct. But then if thar was ‘twould hev come out in the wash. It’s been did up heaps of times. You see, rentin’ it out so much–“

“Renting it out!”

Amarilly gave a graphic account of the adventures of the errant garment to date. Meanwhile Colette’s countenance underwent kaleidoscopic changes.

“Amarilly,” she asked faintly, “have you the addresses of all those people to whom you rented it?”

“Yes; I keep books now, and I put it down in my day ledger the way the Boarder showed me.”

“There was something–of mine–in–that pocket. Will you ask your mother to look for it, and hunt the house over for it?”

Amarilly, greatly distressed at the loss, promised faithfully to do so.

CHAPTER XV

As soon as Amarilly had been deposited at her door, Colette tore a leaf from the tablet reposing in its silver case, hastily wrote a few lines, and then ran her brougham at full speed back to St. Mark’s. A chorister was just coming out.

“Walter!” she called.

The lad came down to the curb.

“Will you please take this to Mr. Meredith? He is probably in the Sunday-school now.”

“Sure. Will you wait for an answer, Miss King?”.

“No, thank you, Walter.”

She rode home and waited anxiously for the personal answer to her note, which came with most unclerical alacrity.

“Colette,” he said, his voice tense, “if you knew what your little note meant! Did–“

“Wait until I explain, John. I must tell you about the surplice.”

She repeated Amarilly’s account of the peregrinations of the robe.

“Well?” he asked bewildered, “I don’t see what that has to do with–“

“Everything. There was something of mine–” she turned a deep crimson–“in the pocket of that surplice.”

“Yours! Why, how did it get there, Colette? Was it–“

“I am not going to tell you–not until I have it back. Oh, I could die of shame when I think who may have found it. You must get it.”

“Colette,” he answered gravely, “the surplice must have passed through many hands, but if it is possible to trace this–article, I will do so. Still, how can I make inquiries unless I know what it is?”

“You can ask them, each and all, if they found anything in the pocket,” she replied. “And you must tell them you left it there.”

“And you won’t trust me, Colette? Not after my long unhappy summer. And won’t you give me an answer now to the note I wrote you last spring?”

“No; I won’t tell you anything! Not until you find that.”

“Be reasonable, Colette.”

His choice of an adjective was most unfortunate for his cause. It was the word of words that Colette detested; doubtless because she had been so often entreated to cultivate that quality.

“I will not,” she answered, “if to tell you is being reasonable. I must have it back. I think no one will really know to whom it belongs, though they may guess. You must, assume the ownership.”

“I certainly shall, if it can be found,” he assured her.

Seeing the utter futility of changing her mood, he took his departure; perhaps a little wiser if not quite so sad as he had been before he saw her. The next morning he called upon Amarilly, whom he found alone with Iry.

“I am very sorry to learn that you had such a hard summer,” he said kindly, “and I regret that I didn’t know more about your affairs before I left the city, but I was too absorbed, I fear, in my own troubles.”

“How did you hear about us?” she asked curiously.

“From Miss King.”

“Oh,” said Amarilly happily, imagining that their trouble must have been patched up. Then another thought occurred to her which gave her a little heart palpitation. With intense anxiety depicted on her lineaments she asked tremulously: “Did she tell you about the surplus?”

“Amarilly,” and the tone was so reassuring that the little wrinkles of anxiety vanished, “when I gave you the surplice, I gave it to you unconditionally, and I am very glad that you put it to profit. But, you know, as Miss King told you, that there was something of value–of importance–in that pocket; something that must be found. My happiness depends entirely upon its recovery. Now, she tells me that you can give me the names and addresses of all the people through whose hands it passed.”

“Sure thing!” she replied with business-like alacrity. “You see the Boarder has been larnin’ me bookkeepin’, and so I keep all our accounts now in a big book the grocer give me.”

She produced a large, ledger-like book and laid it on the table for his inspection. He examined her system of bookkeeping with interest. Under the head of “Cr.,” which she explained to him meant “brung in,” was “Washins,” “Boarder,” “Flamingus,” “Milt,” “Bobby,” “Bud.” Below each of these subheads were dates and accounts. The page opposite, headed “Dr.,” she translated, “means paid out.”

She turned a few leaves, and in big letters he read the word “Surplus.”

“This bein’ a sort of extry account, the Boarder said to run it as a special and keep it seprut. If you’ll set down, I’ll read offer to you whar it has went.”

She began to read laboriously and slowly from the book, adding explanatory notes in glib tones.

“‘July 8. Mister Carrul, tenner, 1 doller. Pade.’ He’s the tenor, you know, to Grace Church. He wanted it to sing in at a sacred concert. His was too short or too long.

“‘July 11. Miss Lyte and Miss Bobson. ‘Tablos. 1 doller. Pade.’ Mr. Carul knows where they live. ‘Twaz him as got the job fer me.

“‘July 15 to July 19. The Beehive. 3 dollers and 1/2 Pade.’ That’s a bargain store down in our parts. I went in fer to git Bud a cap and I hearn the clerk askin’ the boss about fixin’ up a winder show with wax figgers fer a weddin’. I step up to him and ask him if he kep surpluses, and he sez as he didn’t. I told him I could rent him one to put on the minister, and he hedn’t thought fer to hev it an Episcopal show, but he sed he’d do it fer an ad fer his white goods. He wouldn’t stand fer no dollar a day. He beat me down to three-fifty, but he throwed in a cap fer Bud.

“Next come Mrs. Hudgers. I didn’t put it down in the ledger, though, cause it didn’t bring nuthin’ but a pan of doughnuts. Her son Hallie died, and he didn’t hev no nice clo’es ter be laid out in, and she was agoin’ to hev quite a funyral, so jest afore folks come, she slipped the surplus on ter him over his old clo’es, and then when ’twas over, she took it offen him again. He made a swell lookin’ corpse. Bein’ a neighbor we didn’t go fer to ask her nuthin’, but she give us the nut cakes. They give her dyspepsy, anyhow.”

The muscles of John Meredith’s face grew rigid in his endeavor to maintain a serious expression. He had taken out a notebook at the beginning of the interview to jot down the addresses, but he copied Amarilly’s comments as well, for the future entertainment of Colette.

“‘July 25 and 26. Mr. Derry Phillips, The Navarre. 2 dollers. Pade.’ He paints picters. He painted the surplus onto a man playin’ on a orgin.”

She hesitated a moment, and then continued: “I’m agoin’ to work reg’lur fer him instead of to the theayter. I’m agoin’ to git his breakfast and clean his rooms. He’ll pay me the same as I got. He’s a sort of eddicatin’ me too.”

“Why, how is that, Amarilly?” asked John in perplexity.

“He larnt me not to say ‘et’ and ‘kin.'”

The rector’s eyes twinkled.

“And,” pursued Amarilly, after another moment of hesitancy, “he’s larnt me how to fix my hair. He says red hair is beautiful! He took me to a restyrant.”

John looked troubled at this statement, and felt that his call at the studio would now be for a double purpose.

“‘July 27,'” resumed Amarilly. “‘The Boarder. 25 cents. Pade.'”

“Why, what possible use could he have for a surplice?”

“He’s akeepin’ company with a young gal–Lily Rose–and she wanted his likeness tooken sorter fancy-like, so he wuz took in the surplus, and he got himself framed in a gilt and shell frame, and she hez it ahangin’ over her bed. I didn’t want no pay from him, cause he give us his money when yours and Miss King’s was gone, but he says as how it might bring him luck in gittin’ her, so I took a quarter of a dollar.

“‘July 29. Mister Vergil Washington. Reckter Colered Church. 1 doller. Pade.’ Some one stole his’n off en the clo’es-line, and he only hed one.

“‘July 31. Widder Hubbleston, 56 Wilkins St. 1 Doller. Pade.’ She got merried by an Episcopal minister, and he furgot his surplus, and that was all she hed hired him fer, so she rented our’n fer him, and Mr. Jimmels, her new husband, took it outen the minister’s pay. Somethin’ allers goes wrong to her weddin’s.”

“Does she have them often?” interrupted John gravely.

“Quite frequent.” “‘Aug. 3, Mister Vedder, Ticket Seller to the Theayter. 1 doller. Pade.’ He wore it to a sheet and piller case party. I didn’t want fer to take nuthin’ from him, cause he give us money when we hed the fever, but he wouldn’t hev it that way.

“‘Aug. 5. Pete Noyes. Gum.’ He’s the boy what sells gum to the theayter. He was agoin’ to a party whar you hev to be the name of a book. He wore the surplus so his name was the Little Minister. We took it out in gum– spruce and pepsin. Iry swallered his’n every time, and Miss Hudgers was afeard he’d be stuck together inside.

“‘Aug. 9-23. Vawdevil Theayter. 5 dollers. Pade.’ They put it on fer a sketch.

“‘Aug. 25. Mister Cotter. 25 cents. Pade.’ He’s a brakeman friend of the Boarder. He wore it to a maskyrade.

“‘Aug. 27. Poleece. 35 cents. Pade.'”

“Police!” ejaculated John faintly.

“Some one swiped it offen our clo’es-line, and when the police ketched the thief, we was subpenyed, or ma was. She got thirty-five cents, and all on us ‘cept Iry went to hear her.”

“‘Aug, 29. Bishop Thurber. 5 dollers. Pade.'”

“Bishop Thurber!” the name was repeated with the force of an expletive.

“Seems to mind that more’n he did the police,” thought Amarilly.

“It’s quite a story,” she explained, “and though it was orful at the beginnin’ it come out all right, jest as the plays all do. I jest thought, I shouldn’t hev put that down in the account, cause we give back the five, so we didn’t make nuthin’ in a way. We wuz dead broke. I suppose,” she ruminated, “you don’t know jest how orful it is to be that.”

“I don’t, Amarilly, from my own experience,” replied John sympathetically, “but I can imagine how terrible it must be, and I am very sorry–“

“Well, as long as it come out all right, it don’t make no difference. We’d got to pay our rent or else git put out, and I was up a stump till the Boarder said to tackle a pawnshop. I didn’t hev nuthin’ but the surplus to pawn, and I hated to pawn it on your account.”

“I don’t care, my child,” was the fervent assurance, “where you took it as long as it helped you in your troubles.”

“Well, I was in a pawnshop, and the man was holdin’ it up, and the bishop went by, and when he seen what it was he come in, and asked me all about it, and I told him. He took it worse than you do that I would pawn it, and to save it he lent me five dollers. Course I made him take the surplus till I hed the money to git it outen hock, and when we was able to pay fer it, Bud went arter it. Thar was a boy practicin’ at the church next door, and he warn’t singin’ it right, and Bud he couldn’t keep still noway, so he up and sings the soler, and when the man at the orgin hearn him, he fired the boy what was tryin’ to sing, and hired Bud in his place. He’s agoin’ to sing to a recital at Grace Church day arter to-morrer, and git ten dollers. And we air goin’ to make Bud bank all he gits cause he ain’t so strong as the rest of us. He may need it some time. That’s all the places the surplus went to. I guess I’ll go outen the costumin’ business now, ’cause I’ll be startin’ in with Mr. Derry soon.”

CHAPTER XVI

There was one little ominous cloud in the serene sky of Mrs. Jenkins’s happiness. She had nothing suitable for the occasion of the organ recital in the way of wearing apparel.

“I feel as if gloves was due you, Bud,” she lamented, “but I kin’t afford ’em. I guess I kin put my hands under my mantilly, though, and folks won’t know.”

“She’d orter hev ’em, and she’d orter hev a new hat, too,” reflected Bud, and his song became a requiem. He manfully resolved to sacrifice his future to present needs and curtail the laundry fund. After some meditation he called upon the bishop, and asked if he might have an advance of half the amount he would receive for his solo.

The bishop readily assented, but sought the reason for the request.

“My mother is comin’ to the recital, but she ain’t got no fixin’s. I’m goin’ to buy her a hat.”

“I am glad you think of your mother, my lad, but it would be well to let some older person select it for you. My housekeeper–“

Bud’s refusal was emphatic. He knew the kind of hat his mother wanted, and he had noted her quickly suppressed look of disappointment at the sombre hat donated by Mrs. Hudgers on the day of the police-court attendance.

Upon receiving the five dollars he went directly to the Fashion Emporium, where the windows were filled with a heterogeneous assortment of gayly trimmed hats, marked enticingly with former and present prices.

“I want a hat kivered with flowers,” he announced.

“Who for?” asked the young saleswoman.

“For my mother.”

“How would you like a nice flower toque like this?” displaying a headgear of modest forget-me-nots.

“That’s all faded. Ain’t you got any red flowers? If you haven’t, I know a store where they keep ’em.”

The girl instantly sacrificed her ideas of what was fitting to the certainty of a sale, and quickly produced a hat of green foliage from which rose long-stemmed, nodding red poppies, “a creation marked down to three-ninety-eight,” she informed him.

“That’s the kind! I’ll take it and a pair of white gloves, too, if you’ve got some big ones fer a dollar.”

Bud hastened home with his purchases. His mother was quite overcome by the sight of such finery.

“I never thought to be dressed up again,” she exclaimed on the eventful night, “No one has bought me nuthin’ to wear sence your pa died. I feel like I was some one outen a book.”

The entire family, save Iry, who was put to bed at a neighbor’s, went to the recital. The Boarder took Lily Rose, who was quite flustered at her first appearance with the family.

John and Colette occupied a pew directly opposite the family. Mr. Vedder and Pete were also in attendance.

When the bishop came from the vestry and walked down the aisle to his pew, his eyes fell upon the worn, seamed face of Bud’s mother, the weary patient eyes in such odd contrast to the youthful turban with its smartly dancing flowers. Something stirred in his well-regulated heart, and he carefully wiped his glasses.

At the signal from the choirmaster for the solo of the oratorio, Bud arose. An atom of a boy he looked in the vast, vaulted chancel, and for the first time he knew fear at the thought of singing. It was a terrible thing, after all, to face this sea of staring, dancing people. As lightning reaches to steel, the gay poppies nodding so nervously above his mother’s white, anxious face sought the courage place within, and urged him on. He felt himself back in Clothes-line Park, alone with his mother and the blue sky.

The little figure filled itself with a long, deep breath. The high, clear note merged into one with the notes of the chorus. It touched the tones of the accompaniment in harmony true, and swelled into grand, triumphant music.

“He looks like he did arter the fever,” thought Amarilly anxiously.

When he came down the aisle with the choir, the ethereal look had left his face, and he was again a happy little boy. He gave his mother a gay nod, and bestowed a wink upon the Boarder. He waited outside and the family wended their way homeward.

There had not been time to bring in the clothes before leaving, but a willing neighborhood had guarded the premises for them, so Clothes-line Park was shrouded in a whiteness that looked ghostly in the moonlight.

They made quite an affair of the evening in honor of Bud’s song, and their introduction to Lily Rose. There were fried sausages, coffee, sandwiches, and pork cake.

“The organist told me,” announced Bud at supper, “that he was agoin’ to train my voice, and I could be soloist at Grace Church and git five dollars a Sunday, and after a while I could git ten.”

“You’ll be a millynaire,” prophesied Bobby in awed tones.

“Guess we’ll be on Easy Street now,” shouted Cory.

“We won’t be nuthin’ of the kind,” snapped Amarilly. “It’s agoin’ to all be banked fer Bud.”

“I guess,” said Bud, in his quiet, little old-man way, “I’m the one to hev the say. I’m agoin’ to give ma two dollars a week and bank the rest.”

Meanwhile John was having an uncomfortable time as he walked home with Colette. He had started on the trail of the surplice the day before. The “tenner” and the young ladies who had given the tableaux had been interviewed, but in neither case had the mysterious pocket been discovered. To-day he had visited the Beehive, but no one in the store had paid any attention to the pocket, or knew of its existence. Colette remained obdurate to his pleadings. She assumed that he was entirely to blame for the loss, and seemed to take a gleeful delight in showing him how perverse and wilful she could be. To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope with her caprices, so he began to talk of impersonal matters and dwelt upon the beauties of Bud’s voice, and the astonishing way in which it had developed.

She admitted that Bud’s voice was indeed wonderful, but maintained that Mrs. Jenkins’s poppy hat and white gloves had been far surpassing in the way of surprises.

“Did you ever, John, see anything more shoutingly funny?”

“It wasn’t funny, Colette,” he said wistfully, and he proceeded to relate the history of the hat as he had heard it from the bishop that day.

[Illustration: To-night he found himself less able than usual to cope with her caprices]

And though in the depths of her heart Colette was touched by the pathos of the purchase, she must needs tread again the feminine labyrinth instead of following the more natural and open path.

“Who was the young girl with the Boarder?” John next vouchsafed.

“Why, Lily Rose, of course. The Lily for whom he ‘sot for his likeness in the surplus.’ That awful surplice,” she burst forth in irritation at the mere mention of the unfortunate word. “Some of these people must have it. John, you don’t half try to find it.”

“I am following out the list in order,” he assured her. “I shall go to see Mrs. Hudgers to-morrow.”

“And the next one to her,” reminded Colette, “is Derry Phillips, Amarilly’s new benefactor. She told me to-day that she had a note from him, asking her to begin work at the studio in a few days.”

“I have a double duty in my call there,” said John didactically. “If he is like some of the young artists I know, his studio will hardly be a proper place for Amarilly.”

“As it happens,” returned Colette coldly, “Derry Phillips, for all his nonsense, is reported to be a true gentleman; but it would make no difference with Amarilly if he were not. Her inherent goodness would counteract the evil of any atmosphere. She can take care of his rooms until she is a little older. Then she can become a model.”

“Colette!” he exclaimed protestingly.

“Why not?” she returned. “Why shouldn’t Amarilly be a model, or go on the stage? Neither place would be below her station in life.”

John sought refuge in utter silence which admonished and exasperated Colette far more than any reproof would have done.

“You might as well go, if you have nothing to say,” she remarked stiffly, as he lingered in the portico, evidently expecting an invitation to enter.

“I have _too_ much to say, Colette.”

Her sidelong glance noted his dejection, and her flagging spirits rose again.

“Too much, indeed, when you are so critical of what I say!”

“Colette, hear me!”

“No, I won’t listen–never when you preach!”

“I don’t mean to preach, Colette, but don’t you think–“

“Good night, John,” she said, smiling.

“Good night!” he echoed dolefully, but making no move to leave. “Colette, will you never tell me?”

“Yes,” she replied unexpectedly, with a dancing light in her beautiful eyes.

“When?”

“When you restore to me what was in the pocket.”

CHAPTER XVII

Jason never sought the Golden Fleece with more unwearying perseverance than John displayed in the pursuit of the lost article which Colette refused to describe. His calls of inquiry didn’t mean merely putting the question politely and taking his departure after receiving an answer. It meant, in the case of Mrs. Hudgers, a martyr’s test of patience in listening to the devious and manifold routes taken by her rheumatic pains; a rehearsal of the late lamented Hallie’s idiosyncracies; the details of his last illness; his death; and his wearing of the surplice at the obsequies.

Throughout her harangue he preached patience unto himself and remembered that she was an old woman, desolate in her “lone lornness,” so he counselled not, neither did he pray, but comforted her with the gentleness of voice and speech that won him a fond place in her memory for all time.

“No,” she assured him decisively, as in departing he reminded her of his original question, “I didn’t go fer to look in no pockit. I didn’t suppose them things had pockits.”

Then the scene shifted to Derry Phillips’s studio, and this visit was fraught with more difficulties, for there was the case of Amarilly which must be approached delicately and with subtlety.

After stating his errand concisely and receiving assurance that the pocket had not been examined, but that the model should be interviewed by him, John still lingered.

“It’s very kind in you to give employment to Amarilly, Mr. Phillips.”

Derry shook his head.

“I am the one to be congratulated, Mr. Meredith. I really feel apologetic to Amarilly for accepting her services. They are so conscientiously and faithfully rendered that I feel she should be given a higher scope of work than she can find here. She is an honest, amusing little soul, and if by giving her employment I can encourage her desire to be industrious and earn something, I am very glad of the opportunity to do so.”

This was a long and serious observation for the gay-hearted Derry to make, but he shrewdly fathomed the pastoral duty underlying the seemingly casual remark.

John’s keen perception recognized the sincerity in the ring of the pleasant young voice, and he was quite won by the boyish directness. An instinctive confidence moved him to extend the right hand of trust and fellowship.

“You have been instructive as well as benevolent,” he remarked smilingly. “Two of Amarilly’s errors of speech have been eradicated.”

The young Artist flushed in slight confusion, and then with a half- embarrassed laugh, he replied lightly: “Amarilly gave full measure of correction in return.”

Responding to the nameless something in John that so insistently and irresistibly invited confidence, he related the little incident of the luncheon and her request in regard to temperate orders in the future.

“And I don’t mean to say,” he replied with winning frankness, “that it was merely the request of a little scrub-girl that has kept me temperate through two months of vacation and temptation, but the guileless suggestion was the spark that fired the flame of a dormant desire to change–certain conditions.”

John again extended his hand, this time in a remorseful spirit of apology.

Derry partially understood.

“Amarilly has ardently interested friends,” he observed whimsically. “There was one Vedder, a solemn young German, here to-day in my little maid’s interest.”

John’s call upon the sable-hued preacher, Brother Washington, also demanded strategic approach. The question of pockets must be delicately handled lest any reflection be cast upon the integrity of the race, and their known penchant for pockets.

Brother Washington’s sympathies were at once enlisted, however, when he scented a romance, for John became more confidential in this than in any of his prior visitations, in his desire to propitiate. But his search was fruitless here as elsewhere, and he went away convinced that Brother Washington had not tampered with the pocket.

He went on to the house of the Reverend James Woodville, who had performed the marriage ceremony at the nuptials of Mrs. Jimmels, née Hubbleston. In this instance also no pocket had been discovered in the garment, so John wended his discouraged way to the office of the Barlow Theatre.

Mr. Vedder was likewise surprised to learn that surplices possessed pockets.

The young rector’s face brightened at the next name on his list–Pete Noyes. Of course a boy and a pocket would not long remain unacquainted. Again he was doomed to disappointment. Pete’s dismay when he learned that there had been an overlooked pocket was convincingly genuine.

“You see,” he explained, “I wore it over my pants, of course, and I had the pockets in them, so I didn’t look for no more.”

Pete escorted the rector to the “Vawdyville,” and by good fortune the clerical impersonator in the sketch was still on the board, though in a different act. He instantly and decidedly disclaimed all knowledge of a pocket.

“It’s like that game,” grinned Pete. “Button, button, who’s got the button?”

“Yes,” agreed John, with a sigh, “only in this case I fear I shall continue to be ‘it.'”

The brakeman, when he came in from his run, was located and he joined in the blockade that was conspiring against John’s future happiness.

The clothes-line thief was very sensitive on the subject, and felt greatly aggrieved that he should be accused of picking his own pocket, for he protested that he had “found” the garment. The fancied insinuation indeed was so strongly resented that John wondered if it might not be a proverbial case of “hit birds flutter.”

Neither police nor court of justice had examined the pocket; nor had they been aware of the existence of one. The bishop could throw no light on the missing article, and this call ended the successless tour of investigation.

“It was truly a profitable investment for the Jenkins family,” thought John, “but a sorry one for me.”

Having now wended his weary and unavailing way into all the places listed, John made his final report to Colette who remained adamant in her resolve.

“Of course some of those people did find it,” she maintained. “It stands to reason they must have done so, and it is up to you now to find out which one of them is the guilty person.”

“How can I find that out, Colette?”

“How? Anyhow!” she replied, her mien betraying great triumph at her powers of logic.

“It must be found!” she asserted with a distinct air of finality. “And until it is found–“

She stopped abruptly.

“Was it of value? No, I am not trying to find out what it was since you don’t wish me to know, but if I knew its value, it might help me to decide who would be the most likely to have a motive for taking it. But my belief is that the article slipped from the pocket and is lost.”

“It must be found then” she persisted obstinately.

John went home to ponder over his hopeless task. It remained for Amarilly with her optimistic spirit to cheer him.

“It’ll turn up some place whar you never looked fer it and when you ain’t thinkin’ nuthin’ about it,” she asserted believingly. “Lost things allers do.”

Despite her philosophy she was greatly distressed over the disappearance of the mysterious article whose loss was keeping John so unhappy. She ransacked the house from the cellar to the Boarder’s room, but found no trace of it.

“I wonder what it was,” she mused.

“Mebby Miss King dreamt she put something in there, and when could she have done it anyhow? Mebby she give him a present, and he slipped it in there and fergot to take it out when he sent it to us. But then it would have come out in the wash. She don’t seem to feel so bad as he does– jest sorter stubborn about it.”

The members of the household were put through the third degree, but each declared his innocence in the matter.

“‘Twas most likely Iry took it,” said Cory, who found the baby a convenient loophole for any accusations, “and most likely he hez swallered it.”

Gus persisted in his oft-repeated statement, that there was nothing in the pocket when it was hung up during quarantine. This assurance was conveyed to Colette by John, who hoped she might find solace in the thought that none of the renters could have had it, if this were true, but to his chagrin she found in his information an implied reflection on her veracity.