Part 6 (1/2)
”Why not?”
”'Cause. Folks might listen.”
”I should worry! Well, since you say so. How about seein' a show together to-night?”
”Fine an' dandy, Jimmie! I'll be ready at the usual time. I gotta go now, the boss is comin'. So long, Jimmie!”
”So long, darling!”
But the receiver at the other end hung up with a click, while Jane with a smile on her lips thought of the pasteboard box under her bed and wondered what Jimmie would say if he could know. For Jane had fully made up her mind that Jimmie was not to know. Not at present, anyhow. Some time she might tell him if things turned out all right, but she knew just what lordly masculine advice and criticism would lie upon James Ryan's lips if she attempted to tell him about her strange and wonderful guest of the night before. Maybe she was a fool to have trusted a stranger that way. Maybe the girl would turn out to be insane or wrong somehow, and trouble come, but she didn't believe it; and anyhow, she was going to wait, until she saw what happened next before she got Jimmie mixed up in it. Besides, the secret wasn't hers to tell. She had promised Betty, and she always kept her promises. That was one reason why she was so slow in promising to think about a wedding veil in response to James Ryan's oft repeated question.
That evening on the way to the movies Jane inst.i.tuted an investigation.
”Jimmie, what kind of a man is your boss?”
”White man!” said Jimmie promptly.
”Aw! Cut it out, James Ryan! I don't mean how'd s'e look, or what color is he; I mean what kind of a _man_ is he?”
”Well, that's the answer. White man! What's the matter of that? I said it and I meant it. He's white if there ever was one!”
”Oh, that!” said Miss Carson in scorn. ”Of course I know he's a peach.
If he wasn't you wouldn't be workin' for him. What I mean, is he a _sn.o.b_?”
”No chance!”
”Well, I saw him _with_ 'em last night. I was pa.s.sin' that big church up Spruce Street and I saw him standin' with his arms folded so----” she paused on the sidewalk and indicated his pose. ”It was a swell weddin'
and the place was full up. He had a big white front an' a clawhammer coat. I know it was him 'cause I took a good look at him that time you pointed him out at church that evenin'. I wondered was he _in with_ them swells?”
Her tone expressed scorn and not a little anxiety, as if she had asked whether he frequented places of low reputation.
”Oh, if you mean, _could_ he be, why that's a diffrunt thing!” said James the wise. ”_Sure_, he could be if he wanted, I guess. He's got a good family. His uncle's some high muckymuck, and you often see his aunts' and cousins' names in the paper giving teas and receptions and going places. But he don't seem to go much. I often hear folks ask him why he wasn't some place last night, or 'phone to know if he won't come, and he always says he can't spare the time, or he can't afford it, or something like that.”
”Ain't he rich, Jimmie?”
”Well, no, not exactly. He may have some money put away, or left him by some one. If he don't have I can't fer the life of me see how he lives.
But he certainly don't get it in fees. I often wonder where my salary comes from, but it always does, regular as the clock.”
”Jimmie, doesn't he have _any_ business at all?”
”Oh, yes he has business, but it ain't the paying kind. Fer instance, there was a man in to-day trying to get his house back that another man took away from him, and my boss _took the case_! He took it _right off the bat_ without waiting to see whether the man could pay him anything or not! He can't! He's only a poor laboring man, and a rich man stole his house. Just out an' out stole it, you know. It's how he got rich.
Like as not we'll lose it, too, those rich men have so many ways of crawling out of a thing and making it look nice to the world. Oh, he'll get a fee, of course--twenty-five dollars, perhaps--but what's twenty-five dollars, and like as not never get even the whole of that, or have to wait for it? Why, it wouldn't keep _me_ in his office long!
Then there was a girl trying to get hold of the money her own father left her, and her uncle frittered away and pertends it cost him all that, and _he's_ been supporting _her_! Well, we took that, too, and we won't get much out of that even if we do win. Then there come along one of these here rich guys with a pocket full of money and a nice slick tongue wanting to be protected from the law in some devilment, and _him we turned down flat_! That's how it goes in our office. I can't just figger out how it's coming out! But he's a good guy, a white man if there ever was one!”
”I should say!” responded Jane with s.h.i.+ning eyes. ”Say, Jimmie, what's the matter of us throwin' a little business in his way--real, payin'
business, I mean?”
”Fat chance!” said Jimmie dryly.