The Opened Shutters. Clara Louise Burnham

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СКАЧАТЬ dozens! I'm on the most ticklish errand of my life. That's what I called on Judge Trent about the other day."

      "That's right," commented Dunham gravely. "Never move without legal advice."

      "And if I'd had any idea I was going to meet you, I'd have brought your handkerchief. I've done it up as smooth as satin."

      "How good of you!"

      "And it's pretty near as fine as satin, too; and that worked monogram is a beauty; but it's lucky you're a lawyer, for it would take one to figure out what the letters are;—but you needn't tell your sweetheart I said so."

      Dunham laughed. "I won't. It would break her heart."

      "Don't you ever wipe off chairs with it again. It's wicked," declared Miss Lacey emphatically.

      "Then don't you ever come into the office and give me heart failure by your unkind comments."

      "I don't know as I ever shall," returned Miss Lacey, suddenly pensive and looking into space. "The other day I was clear out of Judge Trent's office and into the street, and it was too late to go back, before I realized that I'd scarcely got three words from him that were really definite or any use to me. Has he mentioned to you anything about a niece of his who has come to Boston? I suppose he hasn't."

      "Yes, he has."

      "Indeed? Well, she's mine, too, and this minute I'm on my way to see her." Miss Lacey made the declaration impressively. "He ought to be here himself. But I won't shirk my duty if he does his. She's come clear from Illinois, and I don't know what for. I wish I was like some folks and could let her shift for herself; but she isn't twenty yet, and I haven't got the heart. I haven't been smart, I saw that afterward; for if I'd gone to Judge Trent and just said I was too poor to do anything for Sylvia and stuck to it, and carried matters with a high hand and told him I wasn't going near her, he'd have had to. I see that as plain as day now, but he came at me with the good news about my money, and kind of sidled me toward the door, and while I was gasping and trying to realize it, the first thing I knew I was downstairs."

      Dunham received her injured look with a nod as she paused.

      "I live all alone," she went on, and John wondered who then customarily received her flow of conversation; "and all this sudden business is a great disturbance to me. I've laid awake over the matter, and prayed over it, and here I am, not knowing yet what I'm going to do."

      She fell silent. She could not tell this stranger that it was the ne'er-do-well character of her only brother which caused her panic at the mere hint of taking the responsibility of his daughter, many years motherless and the companion of his wholly slipshod methods of life. In years past Calvin Trent had been wont to say it was like pouring water into a sieve to endeavor to help Sam Lacey.

      While Miss Martha was indulging in a résumé of the dismal situation her companion took a folded memorandum from an inside pocket and scanned it.

      "Girl at Hotel Frisbie.

      "Name Sylvia Lacey.

      "Age nineteen.

      "Her mother, my sister, dead for ten years.

      "Her father, recently deceased, an alleged artist, a rolling stone and a scapegrace all his life.

      "Be present at interview between Miss Martha Lacey and the girl.

      "Let Miss Martha take the lead."

      There were a few further instructions, but Miss Lacey here broke in upon the reading.

      "I'm going to ask you to do one more gallant thing for me, Sir Walter."

      "I'm ready."

      "Put me on the right car for Hotel Frisbie. The Boston street-cars are a hopeless muddle to me—always were and always will be."

      "I'll escort you to the hotel."

      "Oh, that's too kind!" exclaimed Miss Martha. "I'm not quite non compos. I can get out all right. It's the getting in that's the puzzle."

      "But I have to go there myself. Judge Trent thought you might need a lieutenant. He has sent me to help you."

      The color rushed to Miss Martha's face. Calvin was thinking of her, after all. Her eyes glistened with sudden hope.

      "What is he willing to do?" she demanded.

      "Nothing—that is, very little," responded Dunham hastily. "You, I suppose, are acquainted with this young lady?"

      "Indeed I'm not!" Miss Martha repudiated the charge with energy. "And I'm not nearly as well able to help her as Calvin is. So he sent you. He has a conscience about it, after all. I don't suppose he'd consent to her living with him?"

      "Not for one moment," returned Dunham quickly. "Whatever course you consider, that idea must be dismissed."

      "Whatever course I consider," repeated Miss Lacey bitterly. "Judge Trent has no business to leave all the considering to me. It's cowardly, and it's mean, and I don't care one bit if you tell him I said so!"

      "I shan't," returned Dunham. "He has sent me. He is prepared to do something, anything in reason that you think best."

      After this Miss Lacey's problem descended heavily upon her, and she averted her head and looked gloomily at the flying landscape; so Dunham opened his magazine and read until they reached Boston.

      CHAPTER IV

      HOTEL FRISBIE

      The Frisbie being a commercial house in a crowded business centre, Miss Lacey was glad of Dunham's safe conduct amid clanging bells and interlacing traffic wagons. She followed him through the dark hall of the hotel and into an elevator. Leaving this, they entered the depressing stretches of a long parlor whose stiff furniture and hangings clung drearily against a harassing wall paper as dingy as themselves. Finding the room empty, Miss Lacey began to speak excitedly as soon as they were seated and Dunham had sent the bell-boy on his errand.

      "Exactly the sort of a hotel my brother Sam would have come to!" she said. "I wondered why Sylvia chose it. Like as not he's brought her here before."

      Then her lips snapped together, for she remembered she was not going to speak slightingly of her brother before a stranger.

      "Too bad he was not the sort of man with whom you and Judge Trent could have been in sympathy," replied Dunham civilly. "It would have made the present situation easier."

      "Then Calvin has told you about it," returned Miss Martha, with mingled relief and resentment, "and you understand why we can't feel anything except a painful duty in this matter. If Sylvia had stayed West like a reasonable being, instead of rushing on to Boston without our permission, we would have helped her what we could—at least the judge would. It would have been a great deal simpler to send a little money to Springfield, Illinois, than to have the worry of the girl right here with us—neither of us wanting her—we couldn't be expected to." Miss Lacey's tongue was loosened now and all reserves broken down. "I'm not in a position to assume the care of anybody, and as for Judge Trent, you know how set and peculiar he is, and besides that, my brother always made his wife perfectly miserable"—

      "It's СКАЧАТЬ