Part 26 (2/2)
Mrs. O'Brien looked at her son reprovingly. ”Why, Terry lad, how you talk! On trial, indeed! As if a trial ain't a sure thing with a girl that's got the fine looks and the fine education that Ellen's got!”
”Fine education--rats! I bet she knows as much about stenography as a bunny!”
His mother gazed on him offended and hurt. ”Since you're such a wise young man, Mister Terence O'Brien, perhaps you'll be telling us how much you know about it, yourself.”
Terry's answer was prompt: ”Not a blamed thing! But I tell you what I do know: I know Ellen, and you can take it from me she's a frost.”
Rosie sighed plaintively. ”But where does Jarge come in? What's the matter with Jarge.”
Terence answered her shortly: ”Oh, nuthin'. Ellen only played him one of her little tricks last week and he's mad.”
”And I must say,” Mrs. O'Brien supplemented, ”Jarge does surprise me the way he keeps it up. After all, Ellen's only a young girl and he ought to remember that every young girl makes a mistake now and then.”
”What mistake did she make this time?” Rosie spoke as quietly as she could.
”It's a long story,” her mother said. ”Since you've been gone she met a fella named Finn, Larry Finn, and we all thought him very nice, he was that polite with his hair always brushed and s.h.i.+ny and smooth. He had a good job downtown----”
”You know his kind, Rosie,” Terry interposed; ”a five dollar a week book-keep--silk socks but no unders.h.i.+rt. Oh, he was a great sport! Ellen was crazy about him.”
”Terence O'Brien, have ye no manners to be takin' the words out of yir own mother's mouth! Now hold yir tongue while I explain to Rosie.”
Terence subsided and Mrs. O'Brien started in afresh: ”Well, as I was saying, this Finn fella took a great fancy to Ellen and was coming around every night to see her. He took her to the movies and gave her ice-cream sodas and they were getting on fine. Then last week he was going to take her to the Twirler Club's Annual Ball.”
”The Twirlers' Ball!” Rosie looked at her mother questioningly.
That lady waved a rea.s.suring hand. ”Oh, the ball was all right this year--perfectly nice and decent. Ellen found out about it beforehand.
Not like last year! No drunks was to be allowed on the floor and none of them disgraceful dances. Oh, if it had been like last year, I'd never have consented to Ellen's going! You know that, Rosie!”
”Huh!” grunted Terry.
His mother paid no heed to him. ”As I was saying, Rosie, the night before the ball, Larry had to come excusing himself because they had just told him he would have to stay working till all hours the next night. So there was poor Ellen, who might have had her pick a week or two earlier, left high and dry at the last moment. I tell you, Rosie, it would have wrung your heart to see the poor girl's disappointment. A girl of less spirit would have given up, but not Ellen. Ellen was going to that ball and you know how firm Ellen is once she makes up her mind.
So she just asked Jarge Riley to take her.”
”Ma! Do you mean to say she had the cheek to ask poor Jarge after the way she's been treating him all these months!”
”Ah, ah, don't look at me that way, Rosie! Of course I mean it. Why shouldn't she ask him? He's a nice fella and, besides that, he's a friend of the family.”
”Say, Terry, what do you know about that?” Rosie appealed to her brother sure that he, at least, would understand the humiliation she felt both at Ellen's manoeuvre and at their mother's calm acceptance of it.
Terry did understand and gave her the sympathy of a quick nod and a short laugh. ”What do you expect? You know Ellen.”
”Well, all I got to say is: it's a shame!” Tears of indignation stood in Rosie's eyes. ”She treats him like a dog and then, when it suits her, she makes use of him. It's an outrage--that's what it is! I suppose he went, of course. Poor Jarge is so easy.”
Mrs. O'Brien nodded her head. ”Sure he went. He didn't want to at first because he didn't like Ellen mixing up with the Twirlers. When she insisted, he said, all right, he'd go.”
”Is that all?” Rosie asked.
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