THE CHRISTMAS BRIDE (8 page)

“Oh, please, I couldn’t think of letting you do that. You’re just getting up a job for me to be kind to me.”

“No, I’m not,” said Greg earnestly, “but if I had been, would that be a crime? However, you can put your mind at rest about that. I’ve fully decided to go into business, and I hope it’s going to be something that will be a real help in the world today. I feel that it’s just a godsend that you happened in my path. If you hadn’t, I should have had to go out and hunt somebody very soon, and try out this one and that, and I might have got the wrong one.”

“But you don’t know but I’m the wrong one,” laughed Margaret suddenly. “Perhaps I’ll be an awful failure.”

“No,” said Greg quickly, “I’m sure you won’t. I feel you’ll understand and be a great help.”

“Well, thank you,” said Margaret thoughtfully, “but suppose we fix it this way. Suppose I go out and get me a temporary job. There are usually chances to get a job for a few days at something special, like waiting on the tables in a restaurant. And then when you are ready to go to work, you can send for me.”

“No,” said Greg decidedly, “I’d rather you would begin now. I can be ready by tomorrow afternoon with my plans. That is, if you are willing to do what you said—anything that is needed. You can help me a lot in choosing a place, and then, well, there’ll be some selecting and purchasing and there’ll be a few letters to write almost immediately. It will certainly be a help to have you start right off. You may not be kept very busy every day, not just at first, but it will be worth a great deal to me just to have you there to advise me about the purchases I’m making. Right at the start, that’ll be a good deal of your work, to select things, furnishings for the office, and help me get started.”

She gave him a puzzled look.

“But what’s your business?”

He looked at her sheepishly and grinned, a nice frank grin.

“You’ll laugh at me,” he said, “but right now I don’t honestly know which of several things I’m thinking about I’ll really do. And I guess I’ll need your help about that, too, perhaps. But if you really think you’re ready to go to work tomorrow, and you don’t mind being a sort of jack-of-all-trades for a few weeks till I get going, why I’ll come for you tomorrow after eleven o’clock, and we’ll go and try to find a location. This town has changed a lot since I went away ten years ago, and I don’t know whether my ideas about location will be out of date or not, but it doesn’t really matter at present. All I want is a quiet street where I can get a fairly comfortable office. It doesn’t have to be especially fashionable, just respectable.”

The nurse looked up with interest while he talked, and he could see that the girl was studying him.

“How about you?” he asked. “Are you anxious to go back to that landlady on Rodman Street? You know I had an interesting interview with her, and I don’t especially care for her type.” He grinned.

“You went to Rodman Street?” said the girl with wide eyes of astonishment.

“Sure! I covered every clue I could find. I thought the old bird might be grieving her life out on your account, but I found her only interested in your financial standing.”

“Oh!” said Margaret, crimson to the roots of her hair. “She was awful! You see, I had been expecting to pay her the day I had to leave my job without my wages, and she flew into a rage when she found I had left and couldn’t pay her.”

“I know,” said Greg dryly. “She gave me all her views on that subject. When she got through, I had a very high opinion of you indeed.”

“She wouldn’t allow me to touch any of my things,” said the girl. “I shan’t be able to get my suitcase until I’ve paid her.”

“Yes, you can get it anytime now,” said Greg amusedly. “I fairly took her off her pins paying your account. I let on I was a friend and had come to pay it for you. I told her you had had an accident and were in the hospital. I thought maybe she would calm down then and show a little sympathy, but her only concern seemed to be lest you would expect to come back to her to be nursed, so I thought best to give her the money and stop her foul, old mouth. I hope I didn’t let her put anything over on me. Was it fifteen dollars?”

“Yes,” said Margaret, shamedly, “but to think you had to do all that for me! I never saw anyone so kind.”

“Oh, that was just human. That wasn’t kind. I couldn’t let the old bird get away with that line. And I made her give me a receipt, too. It’s in your purse. But you won’t have any trouble getting your things now. I meant to tell you that yesterday but forgot it.”

“Well, I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

“Don’t try,” said Greg. “This is purely a business proposition. I’m working this out entirely for my own interests. You see, I thought if we could rent an office, maybe in some nice old lady’s house, get her downstairs parlor, you know, and then perhaps you could get an upstairs room and board right there, then rainy days you wouldn’t have to go out at all unless you wanted to. I thought if we looked around, we could find some place like that where it would be pleasant for you to live, and I wouldn’t be around in the way at all when I came to the office. There ought to be such places with a door into the front hall, so the rest of the house would be sort of separate and the business wouldn’t interfere with the house much.”

“I know the very place,” said the nurse eagerly. “There’s a dear old lady on Twenty-Third Street. She owns her house. She’s lived there ever since she was married. It’s not far from the business section, not a fashionable residential section anymore, and she can’t seem to rent her rooms. But it’s a real nice old brownstone-front house with big, pleasant rooms. She’s in great distress about it, afraid she may have to let her house go, and she loves it because of old associations. She’d love to have a boarder. She cooks the daintiest little meals sometimes and invites me over when I’m off duty. She’d mother you, Miss McLaren, and you wouldn’t need to feel so alone. She’s quiet and respectable and not the sort to be obtrusive. I’m sure you’d like her. And I know she has a great big front room. In fact, there are double parlors that would make a nice office or double office.”

“That sounds all right!” said Greg eagerly. “Does it to you, Miss McLaren? How about you, Miss Gowen? Could you get off duty tomorrow morning and go with us? I think it would be a good thing for Miss McLaren to be introduced. I’ll bring a taxi and come for you at eleven thirty then. There’ll be a few things I’ll have to attend to before that.”

They talked a little longer about plans, the nurse telling more of the old lady who had the rooms, and the girl listening in relief and wonder to the way life was being worked out for her. Then Greg took his leave, quiet gravity upon him as he said good night.

“It seems wonderful!” said the girl again after he was gone. “Do you really think it is all right? It seems too perfect to be true.”

“Of course,” said the nurse. “He’s all right. He’s a real man—you can see that. And anyway, how many rotten employers have you seen since you landed in this city? You had to take your job where you found it, didn’t you? Well, you’ve run away from one. You can always leave again if things are not satisfactory, you know. But I just know they are going to be all right!”

So Margaret ate everything on her supper tray happily and went to sleep with a smile on her lips.

Late that night, the head nurse got back from her weekend vacation, which hadn’t on the whole been particularly satisfying, and went on duty early the next morning with a sour look on her face.

And the very first thing she did was to walk down the hall to the room where Margaret McLaren was eating her nice breakfast and fling the door wide open.

“What’s all this?” she cried in a tone of authority. “I thought I gave orders that this room should be thoroughly cleaned and ready for a patient at eight thirty this morning. Miss Martin, are you on duty here this morning? What does this mean? This room was to have had a thorough cleaning.”

“It was cleaned, Miss Grandon.”

“And you put another patient in here? Who is she? What right has she here? Who gave the order? Is she paying the full price? How long has she been here? This room was reserved for Mr. Mountcalm. Nobody had a
right
to anyone in here.”

“Why, I think it was an emergency case,” explained a passing nurse who was an undergraduate and very much afraid of her superior. “I don’t know who gave the order, but the doctor said it was all right.”

Miss Grandon marched into the room and confronted Margaret, who was listening to the altercation wide-eyed.

“How much are you paying in this room?” she demanded severely. “This is one of our most expensive rooms for private patients. Were you told of that? Are you paying full price?”

“Oh no,” explained Margaret sweetly, “I’m not paying anything. I told them I ought to be put in the ward, but they explained to me that this was a memorial room for strangers, and then I felt better about it. It was wonderful to have had such care!”

“Memorial room for strangers?” snorted Miss Grandon. “Nothing of the sort! We haven’t a room in the institution like that! Who told you that extraordinary story?”

“Why, the gentleman who brought me here, and the nurse. My nurse is Miss Gowen. She is down at her breakfast now, but she will be back any minute and explain it to you.”

“Gentleman!” sniffed Miss Grandon. “So there’s a man in it, is there? I might have known it! Well, young lady, your young man has been putting a fine story over on you. This room is one of our most expensive private rooms and never has been nor never will be a memorial to anybody. For
strangers
! The very idea! Well, I suppose one can know what kind of a girl
you
are then, letting a
man
bring you to the hospital. Wasn’t he any relation to you?”

“Oh no,” said Margaret, her eyes flashing now and her cheeks suddenly glowing. “He was just a stranger who picked me up—”

“Oh, he picked you up on the street! Yes, I know that kind of man. And you
let
him, of course! You didn’t object to a stranger bringing you here to the hospital.”

Margaret’s face had grown very white now, and she answered quietly, “I was unconscious. I had fallen. I didn’t know what was going on.”

“Oh, well that’s a nice excuse, and it may be true and it may not. However, you’re not unconscious now, are you? You’re able to get up, aren’t you? If you aren’t, I’ll have you moved over to the ward. But if you’re able to walk, you better get your clothes on and get out of this building before the people down in the office find out what is going on. As for your nurse, I suppose she was bribed. You can’t trust one of them. Has that man been here to see you?”

“Yes,” said Margaret, looking her steadily in the eye, “twice, and he’s not at all the kind of man you think he is.”

“Yes, I suppose you
would
say that. But you’re probably not so innocent as you try to appear. Just let me tell you, young lady: decent men don’t bring strange girls to the hospital and then come trailing after them and telling them lies. That man has some ulterior motive, of course, and if you really haven’t suspected it and aren’t as bad as he is, just let me warn you now that you had better get out and away from here where he can’t ever find you again if you want to save your reputation! I should think you could see that for yourself, a man that would tell you lies like that about an expensive hospital room! If he dares to come back here again, I’ll see that he’s arrested. Now get out as quick as you can! I’ll give you five minutes to dress. Miss Brady, send for the scrub woman at once, and tell Anna to have the linens all changed and to take down the window draperies. There will have to be fresh draperies. Mr. Mountcalm is very particular, and he always pays extra.”

Trembling so that she could scarcely stand, Margaret crept from her bed and found her clothes where the nurse had so carefully put them. Her knees were all but collapsing under her, and her fingers were shaking so that she could scarcely fasten her garments, but she got herself dressed in an incredibly short space of time, put on her little hat with the brave feather, took up her flat pocketbook, and got herself down the great marble hall, which she was thankful to find for the moment deserted. Got herself slowly, step by step down the interminable flights of marble stairs and walked out of the door and down the street.

She had hoped that her dear nurse would come before she left, but for some incredible reason, she did not appear. And after a little, Margaret began to reflect that it was just as well. Likely she was in the game. Perhaps had been bribed as that awful head nurse had suggested. It didn’t seem possible, but probably it was true. Oh, this world was a mess! And she was going from bad to worse. To think of her being in such a position. To have been talked to in that awful way. When she thought that everything was so wonderful and heavenly. How she wanted to sink down on the wide marble steps and sob out her heart and then die. Just
die
!

But instead, she must get out and away quickly before that young man returned. She never wanted to see him again. To think that he could have told such awful lies! And what for? She shuddered. What awful purpose had he been going to bring about this morning? And the nurse was in on that, too. She had been going along. She must get away quickly where they never could find her again.

Fear, wild panic, lent strength to her feet—her frightened feet—and she was able to get around the corner and into another street, and another, until breathless she arrived in a part of the city she did not know. She saw a railroad station and went in, sat down in an obscure corner of the ladies’ waiting room, and tried to think of what she should do next.

I
t was beginning to grow dark in the old farmhouse, and Grandmother folded up her knitting and sat back in her patchwork-cushioned rocking chair.

Grandfather got himself with difficulty into a standing posture and looked anxiously toward his sweet, old wife.

“I think I’m feeling better, Mother. I think I’ll go out and try a hand at milking tonight. Old Sukey has been bawling for fifteen minutes, and it’s getting pretty late. It’ll be dark in a few minutes now.”