Part 2 (1/2)
He would gladly have doubled the amount; but five dollars had been the sum agreed upon for that first week's work, and he feared that he would wound her pride by offering her a gratuity.
So he had told her that she would be worth more to him the next week, and that he would continue to increase her wages in proportion as she acquired speed and proficiency in her work.
Thus she had started forth, that dreary Sat.u.r.day night, with a comparatively light heart, to redeem her watch, before going home to tell her mother her good news.
But, alas! how disastrously the day had closed!
”Come, miss,” impatiently remarked the officer, as she sat with bowed head, her face covered with her hands, ”get on your things! I've no time to be fooling away, and must run you into camp before it gets any later.”
”Oh, what do you mean?” cried Edith, starting wildly to her feet.
”Where are you going to take me?”
”To the station-house, of course, where you'll stay until Monday, when you'll be taken to court for your examination,” was the gruff reply.
”Oh, no! I can never spend two nights in such a place!” moaned the nearly frantic girl, with a s.h.i.+ver of horror. ”I have done no intentional wrong,” she continued, lifting an appealing look to the man's face. ”That money was given to me for some work that I have been doing this week, and if any one is answerable for it being counterfeit, it should be the person who paid it to me.”
”Who paid you the money?” the officer demanded.
”A lawyer for whom I have been copying--Mr. Royal Bryant; his office is at No. ---- Broadway.”
”Then you'll have to appeal to him. But of course it's too late now to find him at his office. Where does he live?”
”I do not know,” sighed Edith, dejectedly. ”I have only been with him one week, and did not once hear him mention his residence.”
”That's a pity, miss,” returned the officer, in a gentler tone, for he began to be moved by her beauty and distress. The condition of the invalid, who had fallen back weak and faint in her chair when he entered, also appealed to him.
”Unless you can prove your story true, and make up the grocer's loss to him, I shall be obliged to lock you up to await your examination.”
Edith's face lighted hopefully.
”Do you mean that if I could pay Mr. Pincher I need not be arrested?”
she eagerly inquired.
”Yes; the man only wants his money.”
”Then he shall have it,” Edith joyfully exclaimed. ”I will give him back the change he gave me, then I will go to Mr. Bryant the first thing Monday morning and tell him about the gold-piece, when I am sure he will make it all right, and I can pay Mr. Pincher for what I bought to-night.”
”No, you don't, miss,” here interposed the grocer himself. ”I've had that game played on me too many times already. You'll just fork over five dollars to me this very night or off you go to the lock-up. I'm not going to run any risk of your skipping out of sight between now and Monday, and leaving me in the lurch.”
”But I have no money, save the change you gave me,” said Edith, wearily. ”And do you think I would wish to run away when my mother is too sick to be moved?” she added, indignantly. ”I could not take her with me, and I would not leave her. Oh, pray do not force me to go to that dreadful place this fearful night! I promise that I will stay quietly here and that you shall have every penny of your money on Monday morning.”
”She certainly will keep her word, gentlemen,” Mrs. Allandale here interposed, in a tremulous voice. ”Do not force her to leave me, for I am very ill and need her.”
”I'm going to have my five dollars now, or to jail she will go,” was the gruff response of the obdurate grocer.
”Oh, I cannot go to jail!” wailed the persecuted girl.