Part 15 (1/2)

”Oh, I wish you would take it off!” she gasped, feeling unequal to leaning forward again, and closing her eyes wearily.

She meant Mrs. Biggs, but Jack forestalled that good woman, and in an instant had the slipper off and the boot on, doing both so gently that she was not hurt at all.

”Thanks!” Eloise said, drawing her well foot under the spotted calico, and wis.h.i.+ng the young men would go.

How long they would have staid is uncertain if there had not come a second knock at the kitchen door. This time it was really Mr. Bills, and Mrs. Biggs went out to meet him, while Eloise felt every nerve quiver with dread. She must see him and tell him how impossible it would be for her to commence her duties on Monday. Perhaps he would dismiss her altogether, and take another in her place, and then--”What shall I do?”

she thought, and, scarcely knowing what she said, she cried, ”Oh, I can't bear it!” while the tears rolled down her cheeks, and Howard and Jack gathered close to her,--the laugh all gone from Howard's eyes, and a great pity s.h.i.+ning in Jack's.

”Excuse me,” she continued, ”I don't mean to be childish, but everything is so dreadful! I don't mind the pain so much; but to be here away from home, and to lose the school, as I may, and--and,--I want a handkerchief to wipe my face,--and this is ruined.”

She said this last as she took from her satchel the handkerchief which had been so white and clean when she left home, and which now was wet and stained from a bottle of shoe blacking which had come uncorked and saturated everything. She had borne a great deal, and, as is often the case, a small matter upset her entirely. The spoiled handkerchief was the straw too many, and her tears came faster as she held it in one hand, and with the other tried to wipe them away.

”Take mine, please; I've not used it,” Jack said, offering her one of fine linen, and as daintily perfumed as a woman's.

She took it unhesitatingly. She was in a frame of mind to take anything, and smiled her thanks through her tears.

”I know I must seem very weak to you to be crying like a baby; but you don't know how I dread meeting Mr. Bills, or how much is depending upon my having this school, or what it would be to me to lose it, if he can't wait. Do you think he will?”

She looked at Jack, who knew nothing whatever of the matter, or of Mr.

Bills, but who answered promptly, ”Of course he will wait; he must wait.

We shall see to that. Don't cry. I'm awfully sorry for you; we both are.”

He was standing close to her, and involuntarily laid his hand on her hair, smoothing it a little as he would have smoothed his sister's. She seemed so young and looked so small, wrapped up in Mrs. Biggs's gown, that he thought of her for a moment as a child to be soothed and comforted. She did not repel the touch of his hand, but cried the harder and wiped her face with his handkerchief until it was wet with her tears.

”Mr. Bills wants to know if he can come in now,” came as an interruption to the scene, which was getting rather affecting.

”In just a minute,” Jack said. Then to Eloise, ”Brace up! We'll attend to Mr. Bills if he proves formidable.”

She braced up as he bade her, and gave his handkerchief back to him.

”I shan't need it again. I am not going to be foolish any longer, and I thank you so much,” she said, with a look which made Jack's pulse beat rapidly.

”We'd better go now and give Mr. Bills a chance,” he said to Howard, who had been comparatively silent and let him do the talking and suggesting.

Howard could not define his feeling with regard to Eloise. Her beauty impressed him greatly, and he was very sorry for her, but he could not rid himself of the conviction which had a second time taken possession of him that in some way she was to influence his life or cross his path.

He bade her good-by, and told her to keep up good courage, and felt a little piqued that she withdrew her hand more quickly from him than she did from Jack, who left her rather reluctantly. They found Mr. Bills outside talking to Mrs. Biggs, who was volubly narrating the particulars of the accident, so far as she knew them, and referring constantly to her own sprained ankle of twenty years ago, and the impossibility of Miss Smith's being able to walk for some time.

With his usual impetuousness Jack took the initiative, and said to Mr.

Bills: ”Your school can certainly wait; it must wait. A week or two can make no difference. At the end of that time, if she cannot walk, she can be taken to and from the school-house every day. To lose the school will go hard with her, and she's so young.”

Jack was quite eloquent, and Mr. Bills looked at him curiously, wondering who this smart young fellow was, pleading for the new school-teacher. He knew Howard, who, after Jack was through, said he hoped Mr. Bills would wait; it would be a pity to disappoint the girl when she had come so far.

”Perhaps a week or two will make no difference,” Mr. Bills said, ”though the young ones are getting pretty wild, and their mothers anxious to have them out of the way, but I guess we'll manage it somehow.”

He knew he should manage it when he saw Eloise. She could not tell him of the need there was of money in her grandmother's home, or the still greater need if she took the trip to California which she feared she must take. She only looked her anxiety, and Mr. Bills, whose heart Mrs.

Biggs said was ”big as a barn,” warmed toward her, while mentally he began to doubt her ability to ”fill the bill,” as he put it, she looked so young and so small.

”I'll let her off easy, if I have to,” he thought, and he said, ”Folks'll want school to begin as advertised. You can't go, but there's Ruby Ann Patrick. She'll be glad to supply. She's kep' the school five years runnin'. She wanted it when we hired you. She's out of a job, and will be glad to take it till you can walk. I'll see her to-day. You look young to manage unruly boys, and there's a pile of 'em in Deestrick No.

5 want lickin' half the time. Ruby Ann can lick 'em. She's five feet nine. You ain't more'n five.”