Part 33 (1/2)

”Well, just one thing before you hang up, dear Mrs. Barry. I know you will excuse my asking it, because I know your standards, and you have been an even stronger influence upon me socially than my own mother; but is--is Miss Melody the sort of girl you will entertain as an--an equal?

or does she--it sounds horrid to ask it--or does she belong more in good Miss Upton's cla.s.s?”

Mrs. Barry ground her teeth together, and luckily the wall of her reception room was of tough stuff or her look would have withered it.

She had a mental flashlight of Geraldine serving trippers with ice-cream cones behind Miss Upton's counter.

”My dear,” she said suavely, ”do you sound a little bit sn.o.bbish?”

”No more than you have taught me to be,” was the prompt reply. ”I want to behave toward Miss Melody just as you wish me to. It looks to us all, of course, as if she were Miss Upton's friend and not yours.”

Mrs. Barry's cheeks flamed. This dreadful youngster was forcing her, hurrying her, and she would be spokesman to the village. Ben's infatuation left her no choice.

”Oh, quite in ours, quite, I judge,” she said graciously. ”Ben thinks her quite exceptional.”

The girlish voice laughed again: not so gleefully as Mrs. Barry could have wished. She hoped they were not sister-sufferers!

”I should judge so, from what Mrs. Whipp has told people. Well, I will be patient, Mrs. Barry. We want to show all courtesy to Ben's friend when the right time comes. Good-bye.”

”Good-bye,” replied Mrs. Barry, and hung up the receiver.

She sat a few minutes more without moving, deep in thought.

”I have no choice,” she said to herself at last. ”I have no choice.”

The next day she moved about restlessly amid her accustomed occupations and by evening had come to a conclusion and made a plan which on the following afternoon she carried out.

After an early luncheon she set forth in her motor for Keefeport. Miss Upton's little establishment was in nice order by this time and the sign had been hung up over the door: ”The Mermaid Shop.” By the time Mrs.

Barry's car stopped before it, the three residents had eaten their dinner and the dishes were set away.

”There's so few folks here yet, there's hardly anything to do in the store,” said Miss Mehitable to Geraldine. ”Now's the time for you to go out and walk around and see the handsome cottages and the grand rocky sh.o.r.e. This wharf ain't anything to see.”

”Do you think Pearl would like to go to walk?” said the girl, picking up the handsome cat, while Charlotte looked on approvingly.

”Pearl does hate this movin' business,” she said. ”It'll be weeks before she'll find a spot in the house where she can really settle down.”

Geraldine was burying her face in the soft fur when the motor flashed up to the gra.s.sy path before the shop, and stopped.

”For the land's sake!” said Miss Mehitable. ”It's the Barry car.” She hurried forward, and Geraldine, still holding the cat against her cheek, saw the chauffeur open the door and Mrs. Barry emerge.

Ben's a.s.surance flashed into her thought. ”Whatever she may do hereafter, remember it is of her own volition.”

The lady came in, and, smiling a return to Miss Mehitable's welcome, looked at the girl in the blue dress. She liked the self-possessed manner with which Geraldine greeted her.

”I'm trying to make Pearl feel at home, you see,” said the girl. ”Mrs.

Whipp says it is very hard for her to move.”

”Yes, I know that is a p.u.s.s.y's nature. I like cats, but I like birds better, so I don't keep any. How nice you look here. Oh, what charming roses!” going to the nodding beauties standing in a vase on the counter.

”Are those for sale? If so they're going home to Keefe.”