" MADAM SEATED HERSELF BEFORE THE GRAXD PIANO. (See p. 328.) DEL'S DEBT BY JULIE M. LIPPMANN With Illustrations by VIRGINIA BENNETT PHILADELPHIA HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY Copyright, 1905, By HENRY ALTEMUS DEL'S DEBT CHAPTER I 'LONG, Silver-tail, g'dap!" The doctor was holding the reins very loosely and old Silvertail, his horse, appeared to be having things pret- ty much his own way in the matters of pace and direction. A cutting east wjnd was rushing furiously across the open fields, and shivering branches of the sumach bushes and alder trees by the wayside, but though it whistled shrilly about the doctor's buggy it did not suc- ceed in rousing him from his brown study. The doctor was preoccupied this morning : his mind was full of perplexing thoughts, and so old Silvertail jogged along unheeded and the keen wind shook the buggy-top in vain. At length Silvertail stopped and turned his head around, giving the doctor a broad stare from between his blind- (i) 2136766 Del's Debt ers. This seemed to wake him from his musing, for he gathered the reins up in his hands and shook them gently on the horse's back with a low cluck and a "G'long, Silvertail, g'dap!" But Sil- vertail refused to stir, and the doctor, now entirely awake, looked up and saw coming toward him the figure of a man walking rapidly down the road, the cape of his great-coat flapping wildly about in the grasp of the rough wind, his soft hat pulled down over his eyes, and his hands thrust deep into his pockets. As he reached the spot where the bug- gy stood he stopped short and the doc- tor greeted him with a hearty hand- shake, leaning far out over the wheel to do it. ' ' You 're the very man I want most to see, Mr. Vail, ' ' he said. ' 'If you 're not in too great a hurry I wish you 'd jump in with me and let me take you where you want to go meaning to cast no slur on the speed of good Silvertail here. I Ve something to tell you : in fact, I was just on my way to your house to consult you about it. That 's right. There ! take a little more of the robe and tuck it Del's Debt 3 well about your knees. This wind has a smack of rheumatism in it. G'long Silvertail! You see," he continued when the wheels were once more in mo- tion and the young clergyman was seated comfortably beside him, "You see, it 's something that is really more in your line of business now than mine, although I don't mean by that to shirk any re- sponsibility. Last night I was called up to attend a lady, a stranger, who was stopping at Jud Halstead's. It seems she came to Hillborough as much as three months ago, but though I knew of it, of course, it did not seem to concern me and I let it go in at one ear and out at the other, as I do all the village gossip. But now it appears I would have done better if I had not been quite so deaf. The truth was she had come here in a dying condition but would not allow them to send for me because, poor fool- ish soul, she was afraid of running up a bill which she couldn't pay as if I 'd have charged her a cent, under the cir- cumstances ! Well, she grew so bad that at last Mrs. Jud took matters into her own hands and sent for me without her 4 DeTs Debt knowledge. As soon as I laid eyes on her I knew she could n't last another day. As it proved she did n't last through the night. She passed away this morning. Poor creature, God help her!" and the kind doctor paused and looked wistfully over the barren country to the line of the distant hilltops. The clergyman murmured something beneath his breath and then for a little they rode on in silence. ' ' But the saddest part of the story is this," continued the doctor rather gruff- ly: " the woman had a daughter a little girl of about fourteen or so, and now she is left quite destitute and alone, the most desolate little thing you ever saw. Just the age of my Sally, and left to fight against the world single-handed. I say, Mr. Vail, you must excuse me, but but this is a very windy day; it makes a man's eyes water when the gale strikes him clean in the face." The young minister looked another way while the doctor drew out an enor- mous pocket-handkerchief, pressed it to his eyes, and then blew into it a loud, long trumpet-note. Del's Debt 5 "When I left, about two hours ago, the child was sitting very quietly beside her dead mother, not crying or wailing, but just looking at her and absolutely refusing to go away. I got Jud Hal- stead's wife to tell me all she knew of the people, which proved to be precious lit- tle. They came to her about three months ago and she took them to board. The mother, a refined and cultured lady, said they came from New York and were thinking of remaining in Hillborough if there was a possibility of her getting work here any work would do so long as she could earn an honest living by it, she said. Work ! Why, apart from the fact that she was a gentlewoman who had probably never done a stroke of hard work for pay in all her life, the poor thing was scarcely able to hold her head up at the time. However, they stayed on and still on, and in the mean- time Jud Halstead's wife didn't see a penny of her cash. The mother kept assuring her she would be paid, that there was money coming from New York that would be enough to square the en- tire debt of their board; but the money 6 Del's Debt did n't seeni to get there, and that is just the condition of affairs at this moment. The woman is dead, the money owing to Mrs. Jud is n't in sight, and the poor lit- tle girl is left perfectly friendless unless we constitute ourselves a committee of two to stand by her and lift her over this hard place." For a moment or so after the doctor stopped speaking there was silence in the buggy. Then the young clergyman said: ''Will you take me to Mrs. Jud's, Doctor Emmet? I want to make a very careful investigation of this case, and if it is all as plausible as it sounds we can speak to Mr. Middlebrook. He is al- ways our standby in such cases and he would know just what to do and how to do it." Silvertail felt the reins flap gently on his back, took the hint, and broke into a brisk, unexpected trot, which soon brought them into the wide main street of the village and up to the curb in front of a rather shabby, low-set house, which the neighborhood knew as "Jud Hal- stead's." Mrs. Jud herself appeared upon the door-step as soon as the doctor DePs Debt 7 stepped out of the buggy, and even be- fore lie had made Silvertail's tie-rope fast to the hitching-post she had begun to talk to him across the tiny dooryard. "Sh!" she said warningly. "Come right into the livin'-room and be as quiet as you can. She I mean the little girl, Del, you know she 's ben took down, and Rhoda's with her now takin' my place so 's I can talk to you before you go up. You know, Doctor Emmet, I told you about Mrs. Douglas's promisin' me my money, which she said she was expect- in' every day to come from New York? Well, God forgive me for doubtin' her word! If this ain't a contrary world! Would you believe it, after waitin' for it all these weeks, till she was clean tuck- ered out, if it did n 't come this mornin ' by the first mail. I took the letter up to Del and she opened it an' out come the check. When Del saw it she looked at it for a minit a-lyin' in her lap and then fer the first time since her mother died she up and burst out cryin', an' kissed the dead one's hand, sayin' over an' over, 'It 's come, Mamma, it 's come! Please know it 's come ! dearest. Now I can pay 8 Del's Debt the debt. ' and then she handed me the pa- per an' before I could put a finger to her she was down on the floor, flat as a grid- dle-cake and pale as a dumplin,' an' since she come to she ain't been a mite like herself: her eyes look so queer and she keeps mutterin'-like under her breath." "I '11 go to her," said Doctor Emmet, and without more ado he strode up the dismally creaking stairs, leaving Mrs. Jud and Mr. Vail to follow or not, as they chose. When there was work to be done Doctor Emmet never waited for any one else to take the lead. It was a cheerless little room into which he stepped. The ceiling was low and the walls were bare and cold. What there was of furniture was cheap and coarse and the matting on the floor gave out a musty smell of damp straw. But the doctor noticed none of these things : he was giving all his attention to the lit- tle figure, lying in a huddled heap across the bed, whose hot face was pressed tightly against the counterpane and whose burning hands were dry and parched with fever. Rhoda Halstead, Mrs. Jud 's awkward, big-hearted daugh- DeTs Debt 9 ter, had unbraided Del's mass of shining hair to ease her aching head, and it hung in great bronze waves over the bedside until it touched the floor. It seemed the one bright thing in all the dreary house. Mrs. Jud had followed the doctor soft- ly up-stairs and when he turned upon Rhoda and demanded in his blunt, per- emptory way, but too low for Del to hear, if this was the sunniest, airiest room in the house, she answered in the girl's stead saying: "Why, no, it ain't, Doctor. This is the east chamber, you know, and it's gener'ly dull like it is now. But Del don't mind that and her Ma, she did n't either. I let 'em have it cheaper because " "Be kind enough to get the south- west room ready at once. Put clean sheets on the bed and air the place thoroughly. Build an open fire on the hearth to get the dampness out. This child must be given every chance for her life she may not have many." "Chance for her life, Doctor?" stam- mered Mrs. Jud weakly, clutching at his arm, "You don't mean "Typhoid!" whispered the doctor in 10 Del's Debt her ear, as lie all but pushed her out of the door in his eagerness to see her started on her errand. Mr. Vail, waiting down-stairs, heard heavy steps and much moving about in the room just above him, and wondered what all the commotion meant. When Rhoda came down presently to get the kindlings and logs for the open fire the doctor had ordered, she answered his questions between sniffs of real sorrow. "He says she 's awful sick, Del is," she whispered half crying. "He says she 's got the fever and she must have every chanct for her life. He says we 'd oughter of called him before. But land, how cud we know what ailed her? She never fretted a mite and kep ' saying her headache wasn't much of anything, an' her Ma she would n't see Doctor Emmet, sick as she was, till the very last minit, on account of not havin' any money to pay him with, an' oh, Mr. Vail, won't you please to ast the congergation to pray in church that Del '11 get well. She had n't oughter die she's so turrible nice." Saddened as he was, Mr. Vail had all he could do to hide a smile. But he an- Del's Debt n swered Rhoda gravely that she might depend upon it everything would be done that could be done to save Del 's life, and then he bade her say to Doctor Emmet that he had gone to Mr. Middlebrook's and would probably be back within half an hour. With the cool-headed, quick-witted doctor to direct them, Mrs. Jud and Rhoda soon had the southwest chamber in apple-pie order ; and as soon as it was done they carried Del there and put her in the big black-walnut bed which was Mrs. Jud's pride because it had great bunches of overgrown black-walnut fruit glued on the headboard and foot-piece and had come from New York, where it cost $20 in a second-hand shop on Sixth Avenue. But Del did not realize her privilege. She knew in a sort of confused way that the doctor was there the great broad- shouldered doctor, with the gruff, kindly voice. But it didn't seem to make any difference. Nothing seemed to make any difference. The things she was dreaming and the things which ap- peared to be actually happening kept getting dreadfully mixed in her mind, 12 Del's Debt but it was too much trouble to try to straighten them out. For instance, she dreamed, or it actually happened, she did not in the least know nor care which, that by and by there were more people in the room. Crowds of strangers. No not crowds, of course, but certainly a good many. What were all these people doing in her room, she would like to know, and why did they look so solemn? There was nothing for them to look solemn about. Oh ! She knew perfectly well who they were now. One was Mr. Vail, the minister. She had often seen him in church. But what was he doing here, in Mrs. Jud's best spare-room? And the other was the other man who was not Doctor Emmet was 0, she could n't remember his name, but she had seen him often enough upon the street and she knew him well by sight. There, now ! his name had come back to her. It was Middlebrook. He was May and Margaret Middlebrook 's father. He owned the finest house in town up on the hill where the beautiful view was. And May and Margaret had ponies and a cart a village-cart. They came cL f - Del's Debt 13 tering into the main street every day hair flying, ribboned whip snapping, and the ponies scampering for dear life as if they were indeed two of the * * three blind mice" in the nursery-rhyme and the farmer's wife was after them. to "cut off their tails with a carving-knife." "The Middlebrook twins" were always in a gale of fun, and there had been times when Del had almost envied them, they looked so light-hearted and care-free and fortunate. But when she felt that way she always reminded herself that they had no mother, while hers was the dear- est and best in all the world. And now 0, no, no! It was not true it could n't be true that she herself had no mother now! No, no, no! But hark! Mr. Middlebrook was saying Sure- ly, it was very curious that Del should be in bed in the daytime and that she should be dreaming her mother had died and that May and Margaret Middle- brook's father was standing beside her pillow, looking down at her pitifully, oh, so pitifully and saying: "As soon as she is able to be moved I am going to carry her home with me 2 Del's Debt 14 Del's Debt and if it turns out that she has no one to claim her I think yes, I have made up my mind if she can be happy with us, I do not see any reason why I should n't adopt her right into my family and give May and Margaret a new sis- ter, do you?" But though Del struggled very hard to convince herself, she could not quite believe that this was true and not a curi- ous dream, for when she opened her eyes to look again and prove to herself that the doctor and Mr. Vail and Mr. Mid- dlebrook were actually beside her, lo! it was night and the room was quite dark except for a little spirit-lamp which was burning on the table near at hand and by whose dim light she could see Mrs. Jud sitting fast asleep in a big arm- chair and snoring very loud. CHAPTER II "What 's up, Daddy, darling?" "Tell us the news quick. We 're just dying to know." "We peeked over the balusters and Del's Debt 15 saw Mr. Vail come in and whisk you off. Where did he take you! What 's the latest!" Mr. Middlebrook smiled as he pre- tended to shake himself free from "the twinnies' ' embraces. "Stony-hearted daughters/' he ex- claimed with mock severity and re- proach. "Here I have been away from you for an entire hour or more and be- fore I can fairly get across the threshold you set upon me like two highwaymen and pepper me with questions not as to whether I am cold or hungry, no! little you care about that ! but only as to 'what is up' and the ' latest news.' ' l l Cold or hungry ! ' pooh ! As if you minded being those when there 's any- thing tragic going on ! " exclaimed May, giving him a fond pat on the shoulder. "Yes, we know it's something tragic, and that you 're going to help make it right, as usual. But what is it? Tell quick, please do!" pleaded Margaret. Mr. Middlebrook permitted himself to be robbed of his hat and overcoat and borne down bodily into a huge chair be- fore the blazing hall-room fire, the twin- 16 Del's Debt nies perching one upon either side of him, each with an arm about his neck. "Now begin!" they commanded in a breath. ' ' Suppose there is nothing to tell, ' ' he suggested. ' ' 0, pshaw ! ' ' May cried, * ' we know bet- ter," while Margaret added, "There 's always something to tell." "True for you, little daughter, there always is something to tell and the pity of it is, so much of the time we shut our ears and won't listen," said Mr. Mid- dlebrook gravely. And then he told them, as briefly and simply as possible, the story he had just heard from Mr. Vail and Doctor Emmet of Del and her mother and how the child lay dangerously sick at Jud Halstead's house a little stranger, penniless and forlorn, with not a soul of her own blood to stretch out a helping hand to her or stand in place of the dear one she had lost. By the time he had done Mar- garet's eyes were brimming and May had turned her face away to hide its tell- tale twitching. For a moment or two after Mr. Mid- Bel's Debt 17 dlebrook had stopped talking there was a deep silence in the room, which the ticking of the big clock in the corner and the twittering of the burning logs upon the hearth did not seem to interrupt. Then suddenly the twinnies pulled them- selves together and May broke out im- pulsively in her quick-spoken, emphatic fashion : ' ' Well, as far as I can see there 's only one thing to do. She 's got to be brought right straight up here. She can't stay down there in the village in that stuffy little house, tucked away back of the street, while she 's sick. It would give me fits, if I had a fever, to have Mrs. Jud hovering 'round. Her nose wriggles when she talks, and she 's forever talking. We '11 have to have her up here for a while, Daddy ! There 's no other way." * ' She can have my room, ' ' said Mar- garet, "and I '11 bunk in with you, May. The guest-chambers aren't half so cozy and comfy as ours; that is, I don't think they are, and by the time she gets well" But her father checked Margaret's 18 Del's Debt torrent of words at full tide. "She may never get well," lie said quietly. For a second the twins stood quite still, their faces paling and their eyes growing large with wonder. It seemed so strange, so awe-ful, to think that a girl of their own age as young and full of life as they could die. "Doctor Emmet says she has a bare fighting chance," continued Mr. Mid- dlebrook. "Of course everything that can be done for her will be, but neverthe- less she may not get well." "0, she must! she must! she shall!" cried May vehemently. ' ' Why, it would be just dreadful if she did n't. Now that we know about her it would almost seem as though she had been neglected if she if she were allowed to not get well. ' ' ' * The shock of her mother 's death and the knowledge that she is alone in the world will tell against her, I am afraid. Half the battle would be won if we could make her feel that she is loved and need- ed in the world, that she has a home and a place in our hearts awaiting her. It is only such a thought as this that will Del's Debt 19 give her courage to overcome her trouble and fight for her life. ' ' In the pause that followed their father's slowly-spoken words, the twins looked at each other with wide-open eyes. They read his meaning perfectly and for a moment were stunned by it. It is one thing to say to a stranger a girl you do not even know by sight : ; ' Come to our house and stay till you 're en- tirely well. We '11 do everything we can to make you happy while you 're with us," and quite another to offer to share your father and home with her for good and all. It would have been easy enough to be Del's hostesses, but it was far from easy to give her equal rights with theirs. "0 dear!" sighed Margaret at last, with an impatient little shrug of the shoulders, as if she wanted to shake off a burden. May made a wry face and flung herself upon the rug at her father's feet with a sort of groan. Mr. Middle- brook did not attempt to help them out of their difficulty. He was thinking: ' ' How quick we are to cry out over peo- 20 Del's Debt pie's wrongs and how slow we are to allow them their rights. ' ' "She may be perfectly horrid," Mar- garet sighed out at length. "0, she probably is," snapped May hopelessly. "As likely as not she 's the whining kind, and of all detestable things ! or she may be a freak Just think what it would mean to have a freak always 'round ! Never to be able to get rid of her for a minute because she be- longs." Still Mr. Middlebrook was silent. "I think you might help us out a bit, Daddy, with advice and things. If yon tell us what we ought to do, of course we '11 do it," declared Margaret, after another long, oppressive pause. Her father smiled. "That is good and obedient of you, dautie," he re- turned, "but this is a case in which I could n't, in justice all 'round, undertake to direct you. It 's a matter you must decide for yourselves. It 's a question I must leave you to settle with your con- sciences." But this brought May to her feet in an instant, "No, no! Don't, don't," she Del's Debt 21 cried, struggling between laughter and tears. "Don't leave me to settle it with my conscience. I just hate it when I 'm left to settle things with my conscience. ' ' "Well, I s'pose then there 's nothing more to be said," Margaret announced grimly. "Of course if you leave us to settle it with our conscience she '11 have to come." "Not at all," returned Mr. Middle- brook decidedly. * ' There 's no ' have to ' about it. You and May are entirely free to choose for yourselves what course you will take. No one influences you and no one suggests that you do any- thing you do not feel to be right. If you say you have concluded it is best that she should not come, I shall know you really, sincerely feel it is so and I shall not say a word in reproach. ' ' "But you '11 'keep up the power of a thinkin',' as they say of the parrot," declared May, laughing through puck- ered eyebrows. "0, we know you, Daddy Middlebrook. No, it can't be dodged ! We 've got to have her. But if she comes here and goes shares with us in the nice things she '11 have to go 22 Del's Debt shares in the nasty ones, too. If she's going to belong here for good and all and is n't just company, why she '11 have to take her part of Margaret 's sulks and my temper and grin and bear 'em. She can stand up for herself, if she wants to, but she need n't think she 's going to be molly-coddled and spoiled, for she is n't, and you can tell her so. We '11 play fair if she will, but we don't want any cry- babies round and we simply won't put up with a telltale. You 'd better warn her, Daddy, so she '11 know beforehand what she 's going into." "Now, see here, young ladies," their father announced, * ' I think you '11 admit that on the whole I 'in an accommodating parent, but I absolutely refuse to carry messages. Whatever you do you must do yourselves and whatever you have to say you must say yourselves. Besides, please recollect that nothing of any seri- ous nature can be told the child now, and later well, we cannot say. She may not get well at all, you know. ' ' ' ' Get well, ' ' interrupted May, flushing hotly. "I tell you she 's got to get well." Del's Debt 23 "And even if she does, recover," con- tinued Mr. Middlebrook slowly, "it is just possible that she may have family connections who will claim her. ' ' "Why, I thought you said she had no one at all to claim her," interposed Mar- garet. "That is how it appears to be, cer- tainly," her father admitted. "But we are in honor bound to give her every chance, and I mean to go into town to- morrow to set Mr. Gardiner investi- gating. We have found a few papers among her poor mother's belongings which may guide us, and, of course, if she has people of her own she will prefer them to strangers like ourselves." May's lip curled disdainfully. "Nice people they must be, to let her and her mother come here alone to die! If she preferred them to us I'd have my own opinion of her! Besides, even if they were really ever so nice, how could she prefer them to us, for we're lots and lots nicer, I just know we are, so there ! ' ' Her father pinched the saucy round chin which was twitching a little in its effort to hold back a laugh, and kissed 24 Del's Debt May on the forehead. He knew the bat- tle was won and that if Del got well and came to them now she would have a royal welcome. In fact, from that moment the twins began active preparations for her coming, throwing themselves heart and mind into the business of making her room ready and planning surprises which were so delightful that the mere mention of them set the girls, Sallie Em- met and Clare Van Ness, whom they took into their confidence, to giggling with appreciation. And meanwhile Del lay tossing in fever, unconscious of everything going on about her, in Mrs. Jud's melancholy " best room." Day followed day. Mrs. Douglas was buried in the quiet Hill- borough cemetery, and Doctor Emmet was almost ready to declare that Del had lost her "bare fighting chance," and would follo.w her mother. But at last there came a change and she once more opened conscious eyes upon the actual world about her. The first thing she saw was the doctor's kind face. She thought she had seen it before some- where but she could not quite remem- Del's Debt 25 ber where, and, being too languid to puz- zle it out, she gave him a wan little smile and passed off into a quiet sleep. The good doctor rubbed his hands together joyfully. ' ' Why, bless her heart ! This is fine ! We '11 have her a well girl yet in spite of old typhoid, that we shall," he muttered to himself with real tears of pleasure in his keen old eyes. When Del woke again it was to find the room quite dark, but as she got more used to the shadows, lying listlessly with open eyes, scarcely knowing where she was, she could distinguish the tiny flame of a little night-lamp on the table be- yond, and beside it, in a stiff-backed chair, Mrs. Jud sitting snoring peace- fully. She lay for some minutes gazing indifferently at the sight, which was somehow strangely familiar to her, and then before she was aware, things seemed to fade from her and grow misty and vague, and the next thing of which she was conscious was the sound of voices talking in low, hushed tones by her bedside. At first she did not seem to realize they were voices at all, but 26 Del's Debt by and by she could distinguish a word here and there, though she was too drowsy to care much, and simply lay in a dreamy, dozy state without enough energy to even listen. ' ' There is no doubt about it, she is go- ing to recover. Of course she '11 need great care, and for a long time she'll have to be very tenderly nursed, but in the end she '11 be as healthy as your own twins or my Sally, and that 's saying enough, isn't it?" whispered one voice. "Indeed it is," replied another voice. And now Del seemed to hear quite dis- tinctly, though she was still too listless to open her eyes. "Well, I can never thank you enough for pulling her through, Doctor Emmet, for I feel as if she were my own, now I have found her New York connections don't want to claim her. Just as soon as you say there 's no further danger and that there would n 't be the slightest risk in moving her, I '11 come and carry her home with me, and there she '11 remain and be cared for as a beloved daughter until the time comes when she '11 want to leave the old man and make a home for herself." Del's Debt 27 For an instant there was no further sound and then she heard the first voice say: ''Well, Mr. Middlebrook, the Lord has certainly tempered the wind to the shorn lamb this time. She will be a comfort and blessing to you I have no doubt. She '11 owe you a debt she could hardly pay in a lifetime, but I hope she will try to repay you and I think she will. She seems like an honest, true Sh! She 's opening her eyes she 's waking up!" Then in quite a new, brisk tone : "Hullo! What's this? Had a nice nap, eh 1 I am Doctor Emmet. I intro- duced myself to you once before, but I guess you didn't take it in at the time. And this is Mr. Middlebrook." Del looked up and then tried to speak, but the doctor shook his head. "No, no, we won't ask any questions yet awhile, little woman. We '11 just try to get well as fast as we can, and if we begin to wonder about things we '11 tire ourselves all out. Better not think at all for a while, but let us do it for you." He looked down at her with a very 28 Del's Debt kind expression on his face, and then motioned Mr. Middlebrook to come away, hoping she would fall asleep again. But this time she was thor- oughly awake. They had mentioned that word debt the word her mother had dreaded so. And then it all came back to her: that her mother was dead, that she was left alone, and that Suddenly the doctor and Mr. Middle- brook heard a low sob. They both turned hastily toward the bed, and there lay Del with her face turned against the pillow, crying very piteously. "What is it, dear? Poor little woman, what is it?" asked the doctor tenderly. ' 1 1 want my mother, oh ! I want my mother," wailed Del. Mr. Middlebrook bent over her and laid his hand upon her head. "My little girl," he said, and his voice was very deep and gentle, "My little girl, God knows we would give you your mother if we could, but He has taken her and we must not complain. My twins at home they too have lost their mother and are lonely without her, just as you Bel's Debt 2d are." He paused a moment as if he could not go on because of something in his throat that choked him. "They " Del turned her head toward him and slowly raised her great, sorrowful eyes to his. "But they have you," she whispered very slowly and with a wist- ful quiver of the lip. "So have you, dear," he answered, leaning down to kiss her. * ' So have you, for I am going to take you home with me to be my own little daughter. Will you come?" She put up her hand and laid it against his cheek. "I love you," she said simply, for answer. He did not stir from her side for a long time, but sat patiently next her, her hand in his, until she fell asleep. Day by day Del grew stronger, and every morning Mr. Middlebrook came to see her, until she grew to watch for his coming as she watched for the coming of the faithful daylight. Then, when he was gone, she would lie for a long time thinking of his goodness to her and of how she loved him, and feeling that no matter how lonesome she was she - 3 Del's Debt 30 Dd's Debt must never tell him, since he was trying so hard to fill her mother's place and was going to take her home to be a sis- ter to May and Margaret, where she would be happy "for ever after," like the good people in the fairy-tales. She did not say much about it, for she was a silent little thing, but she thought of it all day long, and often and often in the night, when she lay awake, she would wonder how much it would take to pay the debt she owed him the debt she re- membered having heard Doctor Emmet say she could hardly pay in a lifetime. "Mamma used to dread debt so," she mused sadly. "She said that it was the bitterest thing, and she warned me never, never to owe anybody anything. Al- ways to pay, even if I had to work hard hard. She had to work hard to pay Aunt Cornelia, but she paid her. And she paid Mrs. Halstead, too, only she didn't know it. 0, if those bank peo- ple only hadn't made that mistake; if they had only sent the money on right off! But it came at last and then Mrs. Jud was paid. I wonder if Mamma knows and is glad. It seems as if she DePs Debt 31 must. Of course I shall owe Mr. Mid- dlebrook lots and lots of money, because Mrs. Halstead says he 's supporting me now, and I'm to have clothes and every- thing just like May's and Margaret's. Perhaps I oughtn't to let him do it. Perhaps if Mammady were alive she 'd think I could never earn enough to pay him back even if I learn to sing beauti- fully and can earn ever so much money. ' ' At last she thought she would ease her conscience by getting Doctor Em- met's advice on the subject, so the next time he came to see her she said hesi- tatingly: "Doctor, do you think if Mamma were alive she 'd want me to go to Mr. Middlebrook's?" "Why, yes! Bless your heart, of course she would. What put a doubt of it into your head, honey!" "0, I was thinking that perhaps I couldn't perhaps I couldn't ever If he is going to support me as he does May and Margaret and send me to school and all, it will be very expen- sive and perhaps I couldn't ever but Del found it was not so easy to speak 32 DePs Debt out her thoughts and so she gave it up in despair and stopped. Doctor Emmet laughed. ' i Don't worry your little head with questions of this sort," he said, looking immensely amused. "I guess Mr. Middlebrook can manage to get enough money together to pay for your board and keep, you small mouse. But," and here his voice grew very earnest and his face grave and thoughtful, "Mr. Middlebrook is going to give you much more than food and clothing, Del. You must always re- member that and never forget that you owe him more than well, you know what I mean, I guess." And the good doctor pinched her chin as she sat look- ing up at him from her nest of pillows. She did not know at all what he meant, but could not bring herself to confess it. She would owe Mr. Middlebrook more than well, more than what? She pon- dered over it and pondered over it, and concluded at length that he meant she would owe Mr. Middlebrook more than her mother had owed Mrs. Jud. Well, of course. She knew that perfectly well. But some day she would try to Del's Debt 33 pay it all back. And in the meantime, if she were extremely careful of her clothes and tried not to eat very much (only she was so ravenously hungry nowadays) perhaps she would n't be such a cruel burden after all. Anyway she 'd try to be as little trouble as possible and help with the housework and the sewing as her mother had done once when she was in Paris studying music and Aunt Cornelia had refused to send her any more money to pay for her singing lessons. These and other feverish thoughts kept her brain busy for many an hour when she should have been peacefully asleep, and so unconsciously delayed her recovery that Doctor Emmet was puzzled and dismayed by the slow progress she made. " I can't account for it," he confessed to Mr. Middlebrook at last. " She ought to be gaining strength steadily by this time, but she isn't. Mrs. Jud says she eats almost nothing, and I don't like the looks of her flushed cheeks and the pace of her pulse. I think perhaps we might as well have some one up from town to take a look at her and talk the case over with me. 34 Del's Debt What do you say to calling Doctor Bridgeway to-morrow unless What her father said to calling Doctor Bridgeway to-morrow unless Marga- ret, who had chanced to be within ear- shot, did not wait to hear. She slipped quietly and quickly away and burst into May's room without knocking. "0 May," she whispered breathlessly, "it 's perfectly awful about Del. She is n't getting well at all. Doctor Emmet says so, and he 's worried to death, and they 're going to have a New York doc- tor up to see her, and she doesn't eat anything hardly, and what under the sun are we going to do?" "Hush, Marg! Don't be a silly. I shouldn't think she would eat the things that wriggle-nosed Mrs. Jud cooks for her. I 'd starve first, myself, rather. It 's made me cross as two sticks that Doctor Emmet wouldn't let us go see her. And I made up my mind I wouldn't ask him again, but when I thought best I 'd just Come here ! Bend your head down close so I can whisper, and I '11 tell you what I 've planned out and what I 'm going to do. Del's Debt 35 It 's the very loveliest scheme you ever heard of, and I '11 let you in on condition you ? 11 not breathe a word to a living creature. Promise? Cross your heart and hope to die? There, now, listen!" For fully two minutes by the clock there was no sound in the room except the soft "s-s-s-" of May's smothered whispers, but at the end of that time Margaret raised her head, turned a radi- ant face to her twin, and rapturously clapped her hands. CHAPTER III Del counted the strokes of the gieat bell as they pealed out the hour from the town-hall clock-tower. One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve! Mid- day! Mrs. Jud and Rhoda were down- stairs in the back kitchen eating their dinner. The doctor had made his morning visit long ago and would not return until evening. And in the meantime there was nothing for Del to do but lie patiently among 36 Del's Debt her pillows and try to drive away the troublesome thoughts that she dreaded so because they made her temples throb and her cheeks grow hot and dry. If only her mother were here to smooth her hair and soothe away the disturbing wor- ries! At the thought Del's cheeks were not dry at all, but they were hotter than ever, and the throbbing in her temples was growing quicker with every minute. She meant to be brave and obedient, but she couldn't sleep, as the doctor advised, because her mind was so busy with thoughts she could not confide to any one. She grew very forlorn and home- sick sometimes during the long hours when Mrs. Jud and Rhoda were busy, and away, and she was left alone. She wondered why the twins never came to see her. She was too shy to ask their father, but she wondered about it, and as the days passed by and still they did not come, she concluded it was because they did not care about her. It would be dreadful if they did not like her and were displeased at the thought of having her come to their house to live! 0, dear! She had never thought of that Del's Debt 37 before! But if it were really true, what in the world should she do? She couldn't go where she wasn't wanted, and dear ! She was so busy hunting for her hand- kerchief under her pillow that she did not see the door-knob turn noiselessly round, nor did she notice the familiar creak of the hinge as the door swung gently open. But when it closed again very softly the faint shadow of it hap- pened to catch her eye: she looked up quickly and there stood two bright- haired, rosy-faced girls silently regard- ing her from the threshold. She gave a soft little exclamation of surprise and pleasure, for she knew in a twinkling that they were the twins, May and Mar- garet Middlebrook. " Sh ! " cautioned one of them, with her finger on her lip. "For goodness' sake don't make any noise," pleaded the other. "We 're the twins, you know, and we 've stolen in without any one's knowing. They would n't let us cmne before, and for the matter of that they wouldn't now, I s'pose, if they knew. But, well we just 38 Del's Debt have come, you see. I 'in May and this is my sister, Margaret. And you are Del, and you 're coming to live with us as soon as you 're well enough to be moved. Do for pity's sake hurry up. It must be horrid dreary down here. I don 't s 'pose you have a soul to talk with except Mrs. Jud and Rhoda." Del shook her head dumbly and tears of weakness sprang to her eyes. "Poor thing," purred Margaret in a motherly voice. "I know just how you feel. I think getting well is the trouble- somest part of being sick. You feel so abused and don't exactly know why. I had the measles once." "I shouldn't wonder a mite in the world but you 're hungry," declared May. "I told Marg this morning when the doctor came to see Daddy after he 'd been here, that I bet I mean I was al- most certain you were hungry, for they never give sick people anything but milk and what I call Slip-go-down and Good- for-you messes. And they 're the tire- somest things. I 'd rather starve almost than touch 'em. And so Marg and I, we just went spiering round the pantry at Del's Debt 39 home and found a few little odds and ends we thought you might like, and sneaked 'em in, and here they are in this basket, and now, if you please, we 're going to have a picnic! We three to- gether ! ' ' What fun it was to watch DePs shin- ing, hungry eyes as they took first one good thing and then another out of their basket of plenty. The twins nudged each other delightedly whenever they could dodge her devouring glance, which seemed to take in everything at once. ' ' We got on the right side of Hannah, our cook, and she baked us some pota- toes, nice and soft, because I remember they always give 'em to invalids that way," explained May hurriedly. "We made Lightfoot he 's our pony, you know scamper for his life down here, so they 'd be good and hot, and they are, see? steaming! And this is some roast chicken and here are some soft-boiled eggs, hot too, as toast! And some calf's-foot jelly and some bouillon and and never mind, we '11 just eat as we go along, and not mind courses and so on. The most important thing is to 40 Del's Debt get 'em down, so if any one should come up they 'd have to grin and bear it." How they laughed and choked and trembled over that stolen feast. Del forgot her scruples about fasting and fell to with a right good will. She would have been ashamed of her appe- tite, but the twins reassured her by in- sisting that it made them perfectly happy to see how she relished everything, and that if she hadn't they 'd have been too disappointed for anything. "0 dear!" Del returned with a rue- ful sigh, as she looked at her emptied plate. "I think I could almost eat the basket." ' ' There ! I knew it ! I knew it ! " de- clared May triumphantly'. "I said you were famished, didn't I, Margl But you can't eat the basket, you know, be- cause we'll need it again for the next time. 0, we 're going to try it again, if you behave like a lady and get better good and quick." "Please, May," interrupted Margaret uneasily, "let 's hustle the scraps back so we can get rid of the basket. Every time I hear a sound my heart almost Del's Debt 41 jumps into my throat. It would be bad enough if any one found us here but the basket!" "We weren't sure we could slip in with the basket by the front door," said May, as she shuffled the dishes together, "and so we just took the precaution to bring some strong twine. I 'm not going to risk carrying the thing down- stairs and meeting some one on the way. Discretion is the better part of valor. I 'in simply arranging to get rid of it so-fashion. Now, cover yourself up warm, Del. Marg, open the window! Is n't this neat ? Help me lift it over the window-sill. Now out! There it goes! Slowly! Slowly! Stop giggling, Marg! If you make me laugh I '11 drop it or something. Hurrah! It 's landed! Safe and sound behind the lilac-bushes, where no one 'd ever in the world spy it. Down with the window, Marg. That 's right. Now, Del, lie back and rest, ma 'am, while Sis cuddles your head and I read aloud to you. I brought * Little Women. ' You 've probably read it, but it 's just as jolly the second time." 0, but it was delicious to lie there in 42 Del's Debt such contentment and luxury, after her many lonely hours of disheartenment and unsatisfied craving for compan- ionship and food. After a while the soothing touch of Margaret's fingers on her forehead and the lulling sound of May's low voice in her ears made her so drowsy that her eyelids drew together in spite of themselves and, before either she or her visitors were aware, she had fallen into a deep, restful sleep. The two conspirators managed to get themselves out of the room without dis- turbing her, but it was only after they were well off the premises and on their way to the shelter some distance beyond where they had tethered Lightfoot, that their hearts beat regularly once more and their breath came unhindered. "Well, now," began May as soon as they were well settled in the cart and speeding homeward again, "I call that a howling success. Everything went off just as we 'd arranged, with the greatest neatness and dispatch." "Especially the food," laughed Mar- garet. "Did you ever in all your life Del's Debt 43 see any one enjoy things so much as Del did?" i ' She 's pretty, ' ' announced May. ' i At least, she would be if she were n't so thin and if they hadn't cut her hair all off." "It isn't all off. It's only short. She doesn't say much. I mean not so much as you I mean as we do," sug- gested Margaret delicately. "All the better," May declared. "It '11 make things more comfortable all round if we aren't forever interrupting one another and talking each other down. I know I 'm chatty and I don't care; so, if you please, I '11 be orator, you can be chorus, and she can be audience. I don't see why that wouldn't work to a charm." "I think she 's going to fit in beauti- fully," volunteered Margaret thought- fully. "I like her ever and ever so much. ' ' As for Del herself When she waked at last, the early evening shadows were creeping into the room and with them Mrs. Jud, who exclaimed delight- edly over her patient's splendid nap. "Why, you slep' an' slep', jus' like 44 Bel's Debt you was Rip Van Winkle," she said. "I come here once or twice and Rhoda, she poked her head through the door lots of times, but you kep' right on and never knew. I warrant now, you feel better. Say, but won't the doctor be pleased?" Pleased! The doctor fairly beamed with satisfaction. "Well, well, little woman, this is good news ! " he exclaimed heartily, coming up to her bedside and taking her hand in his to pat it encour- agingly. "Keep this up and you '11 be on your feet in no time. Why, do you know, I was beginning to feel a little just a little disappointed, you were go- ing so slowly. And I 'd about made up my mind to invite a friend of mine up from New York to take a look at you and discover if, between us, we could n't urge you on a little faster. Two heads are better than one", sometimes, but now, dear me! Nothing could be more satis- factory than this!" Del smiled brightly up at him and her lips twitched a little with hidden amusement as she thought "Three heads are better than one a whole lot better, Del's Debt 45 if he only knew it. But of course I can't tell him if they don't," "Yes, indeed," continued the doctor, drawing up his chair. "You are doing famously and there 's no reason, if you go on like this, why you shouldn't be moved up the hill in time for Thanks- giving. How does that strike you? And -Hullo! What 's this!" For a second Del's heart seemed to stand still, for the doctor had picked up from the floor a chicken drum-stick which May, in her hurry, had overlooked, and which he now proceeded to examine through his spectacles with the most puzzled, perplexed expression possible. She did not reply to his exclamation and he continued turning the bone this way and that in his fingers, under the light of the kerosene lamp. "A chicken-leg! Well, I wonder how this got here ! I suppose you don't know anything about it, eh I " Del looked down at the counterpane and said nothing. "Mrs. Jud hasn't been giving you chicken to eat, has she?" "Oh, no sir! No indeed!" 4 Del's Debt 46 Del's Debt "Well then, I wonder how in the world this got up here. I did n't suppose Mrs. Jud's Minorcas flew as high as the sec- ond story, or would be accommodating enough to leave one of their drum-sticks behind. They don't look like that sort of fowl. Still, I presume, one must have " He was watching Del very narrowly from under his bushy brows out of the corners of his keen eyes, and she felt his gaze piercing through her, though she dared not look up and meet it. "What did Mrs. Jud give you for din- ner to-day?" "Broth." "That all?" "Yes, sir." "And May Middlebrook she didn't happen to bring you anything else, did she?" Del's quick start and the deep flush that overspread her face convinced the doctor in a twinkling that the shot he had aimed at a venture had hit the bull's- eye. "0 well, never mind," he said kind- ly. "I won't ask embarrassing ques- Del's Debt 47 tions. Tliat is, we '11 leave names out of the business entirely. Just tell me what you Ve eaten to-day. Don't omit to men- tion a thing. ' ' About ten minutes later the doctor strode down-stairs and out of the house with a very dark scowl drawing his eye- brows together. Poor Silvertail, who had turned his face toward home with visions of a warm stall and oats to re- ward him for a long day's jogging over cold country hills, found himself turned in quite another direction and headed up the windy road which led to the Mid- dlebrook place. The twins were waiting for their father, as usual, in the great hall-room, and at the sound of wheels they sprang to the door and, in spite of the stinging wind, flung it wide, calling cheerily out into the dusk: "Hullo, Daddy! Come right in as quick as you can. There's a roaring fire and dinner 's almost served.'* But it was not their father's voice that sent them scurrying back into the house again, trembling with something beside the cold. 48 Del's Debt "Yes, yes! I 'm not your Daddy, but I 'm coming in fast enough," growled the doctor's gruff voice. "Go in there directly, you two, and don't catch your deaths of pneumonia and make bad mat- ters worse. Shut the door, I say!" The twins obeyed him, while they gazed into each other's blank faces with frightened eyes. "0 dear!" shivered Margaret. "His voice sounds as cross as two sticks. You don't s'pose he 's found out!" May shook her head and her lips set in a hard line. ' ' He could n 't have found out unless Del's told, and if she has " But before she could complete her threat the door was flung open and the doctor, stern-mouthed and darkly glow- ering, strode into the room. "Well, young ladies," he said in his blunt, direct way, "I Ve come to pick a bone with you. A chicken-bone, I might say, if it had n't already been picked as clean as a whistle." Margaret's face paled and May squared her shoulders defiantly. They saw at once that the worst had happened and that, in some way or other, they had Del's Debt 49 been discovered. But neither of them spoke. "Well?" demanded the doctor grimly, "what have you got to say for your- selves!" Margaret unconsciously cowered be- hind her twin's shoulder, but May stood up stoutly and faoed the doctor with a never-say-die expression in her eyes. "We don't know yet, sir," she an- swered respectfully, "what you want of us. But we '11 answer any question you like to ask." "Oho! you will, will you? Then, young women, kindly inform me, here and now, who authorized you to go and visit my patient and imperil her life by giving her stuff to eat that in her con- dition is virtually poison? Answer me that, if you please." ' ' Imperil her life ! ' *-' ' Poison ! ' ' The words went through the twins' hearts like two-edged knives % and they were stunned with horror. "Well?" The doctor's grim voice shocked them back into consciousness of him again. "Well?" : We thought I thought," stam- t < 50 Del's Debt mered May, all her pretended self-assur- ance deserting her in a moment, "I thought she needed a change company, you know. And she seemed to grow bet- ter every minute we were there. And I took her the things to eat because you said she had no appetite, and I thought I 'd see if she wouldn't eat what we / brought her, and she did and liked them, and I thought they would n't harm her just a baked potato and some chicken, and some other little things, you know, and it was all my fault I thought" * * Baked potato ! Great Scott ! Baked potato for a typhoid patient! You think altogether too much, young lady," the doctor broke in upon her sternly. "In the future, I 'd think a little less, if I were you, and leave matters of import- ance to people that know." May shrank together at the cutting words, but found courage to ask, "Is Del much much worse?" The doctor coughed. "Perhaps you aren't aware that it is a serious offense to interfere with a physician's authority in a sick-room. If anything were to hap- DePs Debt 51 pen to my patient now, I could throw the whole responsibility of it on your shoul- ders, or I could refuse to continue treat- ing the case. I could I could "Is Del worse?" demanded May, in- terrupting him impatiently. The doctor's eyes shot out a strange, unexpected light from under their heavy, overhanging brows. "Well er " he began, rather lamely, "that isn't the question. I want you to re- alize " "Please, it is the question," insisted May. ' * I want to know. ' ' Yes, there was no doubt about it, the doctor 's eyes were twinkling even Mar- garet could see it now. "She she isn't what you might call worse that is, as yet. I mean, at pres- ent," he admitted grudgingly. May heaved an immense sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" she exclaimed. "Now I '11 say I 'in sorry, out-and-out sorry I 've displeased you, Doctor Em- met. I can't say I didn't know you 'd be mad if you found out. But I took the risk because, well I calculated you n't find out." 52 Del's Debt "You 're not much of a mathemati- cian, I see. The next time you 'calcu- late,' miss, just count your chances a little more carefully." "How did you find out." The doctor grinned. "That 's tell- ing." "Did Del " No answer. "Well, all I 've got to say is," burst out May in a sudden hot fury, "she's a I won't say what I think she is. But I don't care if she does come here to stay, I '11 never speak to her again as long as I live, so there! I thought but the bitter words choked her and she could not go on. "There you are, at it again," inter- rupted Doctor Emmet quizzically. "Didn't I caution you a moment ago against thinking so much?" "But she did tell! You welf, you did n't say she did n't, and she did tell, didn't she?" "I haven't said so." "You couldn't have found out unless she did." Del's Debt 53 "0, couldn't II Miss Confident Sure?" "How?" "That 's telling again. But, for your satisfaction, I '11 admit you were be- trayed!" "O who " "Yourself." May gave a great start of amazement. ' * It it is n 't true, ' ' she stammered. "You 're just trying to trick me." "Indeed I 'm not," the doctor assured her, all the severity gone from his voice. "What say to this? and this? and this? Exhibit one (as the lawyers say) : Chicken-drumstick. Exhibit two: Vol- ume of 'Little Women,' with owner's name, May Middlebrook, on fly-leaf, and exhibit three: Marked handkerchief be- tween the leaves of 'Little Women' as book-mark. Found drumstick on floor by bedside. Found 'Little Women' in arm-chair, back of cushion. Huh ! I 'd be a fool if I could n 't fit such evidence as this together and make it spell out the truth, young woman, and I don't pre- tend to be a Sherlock Holmes, either." Margaret gave way to a quick little 54 Del's Debt laugh of relief. She saw by the doctor's face that the worst was over, and that now he was ready to shake hands and be friends, and she was heartily glad that Del had not proved a traitor. But it had taken an immense amount of courage to stand up and face her accuser's wrath as May had done. She had braced herself to meet it 'bravely, but now the strain of that, and her anx- iety for" Del were over, she felt her- self giving way and on the point of showing the white feather to the doc- tor, who had evidently been playing on her fears and ridiculing her all the time for his own amusement. For a second she felt a boiling-up of all sorts of .pas- sions in her heart, which rose to her throat and stifled her. Then she turned her fierce, glowing eyes upon 1%e doctor, opened her white lips as if to spe^, shut them again with a snap, and, "rarning quickly on her hee"ljv bolted un-stairs, trembling, sobbing, and stumblmg in a frenzy of remorse, shame, and ment. Del's Debt 55 CHAPTER IV Doctor Emmet gazed at Margaret for a moment with a face absurdly blank and bewildered. Then he deliberately puckered his lips and gave a long, low whistle. "Phew! I didn't suspect I was med- dling with a live volcano. Well, well, live and learn! I 've known that child from her birth and never so much as suspected she was such a young Vesu- vius. Does she often have such erup- tions, eh ."' "No, indeed," Margaret hastened to assure him. "She very, very rarely does. But you see, she she can't stand being made fun of. It simply sets her crazy. And first-off you scared her aw- fully about Del, and then, when she found out it was all a trick " "But it was n't all a trick," the doctor interrupted. "She scared me worse about Del than I scared her. I only paid her back in her own coin. Gave her scare for scare. If she 's fair-minded and just she oughtn't to complain. In 56 Del's Debt fact, I have the more cause to find fault, for my scare is n't over yet. I can't tell even now whether that stuff she fed Del is going to play the mischief with her or not. It may I don't know. I 've left word with Mrs. Jud to watch her carefully, and if there 's any change for the worse, no matter how slight, to send for me at once, even if it 's two o'clock to-night. ' ' The sound of wheels on the gravel driveway outside brought them both to their feet in an instant. 4 'It 's Daddy," said Margaret, run- ning to the door and pulling it open wide. But Doctor Emmet had a hand on her shoulder in a twinkling. "March back there to the fire, child, double-quick ! ' ' he commanded. "It 's as cold as Green- land outside and this draught is enough to freeze the marrow in your bones. Hullo ! Mr. Middlebrook, glad to see you ! I 've been trying to keep your young- sters here from putting themselves in cold storage on your account. ' ' The great door was closed with a clang, and the next moment Margaret's arms were about her father 's neck. Del's Debt 57 "Where 's Maisie!" lie asked as soon as he could find breath. "Up-stairs. She '11 be clown in a min- ute. I '11 go and bring her. ' ' And Mar- garet slipped away to find and comfort her twin, while the two men stretched their hands to the blazing fire and the doctor in a low voice made his friend understand the affair of the afternoon and its recent consequences. "And the dickens of it is," he ex- claimed at last- in a whisper full of amusement, "that that young witch of yours up-stairs seems to have struck the nail on the head with her outrageous treatment. Del is like another girl. I couldn't have believed it. Of course it was an abominable risk and might have cost the child her life, but as it happens it seems to be agreeing with her. I came here to give Miss May the punishment she deserves for meddling in my private and particular business and, bless me! if she doesn't face the music like a young soldier, courageous as an Indian ! and then, when it 's all over, lo and be- hold! she turns on me, splutters a min- ute like a foolish candle, and then lights 58 Del's Debt out in a flash, leaving me here in the dark as to the why and wherefore, and feeling like the greatest brute on earth, and as if 7 had done the wrong and not she at all." Mr. Middlebrook laughed. "Never mind, doctor," he said consolingly. "May's a quick-tempered little creature, but she doesn't bear malice. She'll be down in a very short time, unless I 'in much mistaken, to say she 's sorry and that she '11 never do so any more. And when she says so, it 's the truth." His words were hardly spoken when there was a faint stir at the head of the staircase, and the next moment the twins appeared slowly making their way back to the hall-room again. "I 'm sorry, Doctor Emmet," con- fessed May staunchly, coming directly to the doctor and putting out her hand. "I 'm sorry I behaved so. I was all wrong and I 'm sorry." "Why, child," stammered the doctor reddening, "the fact is, I 'm sorry my- self. It was rather a shabby trick to hector you so, and I 'm ashamed of my- self for doing it. But really, you under- DePs Debt 59 stand, tlie case was serious and outsiders must never interfere in sick-room af- fairs. You see how it is, don't you? Now let 's shake hands and be friends again ! ' ' ''But tell me," persisted May, ''have I done Del harm? Margie says you think she may get sicker in the night." "I hope not, but of course one can't tell." "Well, what I want to do is this: If you'll let me, I want to go to Mrs. Jud's to-night and stay there and watch so if Del gets worse I can run for you right straight off. Mrs. Jud takes naplets all through the night, and she mightn't wake up in time, and Rhoda 's so slow she could never get ready quick enough. Please, please let me. It '11 make me feel ever and ever so much better, and I '11 promise faithfully not to whisper a word to Del, or even let her know I 'm there." The physician and Mr. Middlebrook regarded each other in silence for a minute after May had finished, and then at a sign from her father Doctor Emmet said: "Well, have it your own way. If your father 's willing I am. You '11 find 60 Del's Debt before you 're through, it 's a pretty tough penance, but you have grit enough for anything, and I '11 tell you this for your comfort, that if Del is as well in the morning as she was when I left her an hour ago I make you free of her room, to come and go as you please, and she can be brought home here within a week. ' ' May's eyes sparkled with satisfaction and Margaret clapped her hands. It was a jolly dinner they had soon after, for the doctor consented to stay and eat it with them, and he was in the merriest of moods. As soon as the meal was over May flew up-stairs, packed a little hand- satchel with necessaries, bundled up coz- ily in flannels and furs, and presented herself before the doctor ready to be es- corted to Mrs. Jud's on her first errand as night-nurse. It was altogether a novel experience to be out at night in the doctor's buggy, to see the frosty stars shining clear and cold above her, and to hear the whine of the snow under the weight of the turn- ing wheels. A lighted lantern hung be- neath the body of the carriage, and, as Del's Debt 61 the wheels revolved, caused great, shad- owy phantom spokes to circle beside them on the hard snow of the roadside. The little "Jud Halstead house" looked dark and forbidding in the gloom. Except for a faint glimmer that strug- gled weakly from the fanlight above the entry-door it was as black as pitch. ' ' Mrs. Jud believes in the early-to-bed- and-early-to-rise maxim," replied the doctor drily as he lifted May from the buggy. ''If they 're asleep are we going to wake them up?" she enquired, a dim sort of hope that he would say "No" as- sisting her to speak more cheerfully than she felt, "0 yes. They can't have done much more than get into bed. They know my knock: it will bring them down double- quick, you '11 see." May's heart sank sickeningly as, sure enough, the sound of steps on the stairs was heard from within. "That you, Doctor?" asked Mrs. Jud's timid voice through the keyhole. * ' Yes, ma 'am, ' ' Doctor Emmet prompt- 6 Del's Debt 62 Del's Debt ly replied. " And I've got a night-nurse with me." "A night-nurse! Do tell!" Mrs. Jud exclaimed as she carefully unlocked and unbolted the frail front door that Doctor Emmet or any other strong man could have broken open with a couple of heavy blows of his powerful fist. "Do tell," repeated she when the door was fairly open. "Certainly, ma'am, that 's precisely what I intend to do if you '11 give me the chance," growled the doctor. "This young lady is going to relieve you to- night. Kindly see she 's made as com- fortable as possible. Get a glass of milk for her so she can drink it towards morn- ing if she 's hungry, and explain her duties as carefully as you can, so she won't misunderstand, though I hope there won't be anything to do except sleep with one eye open in case of a change. By the way, how is Del now?" "Fine ! Fine ! She dropped off to sleep as soon as she 'd had her supper, and she ain't waked up to know a thing since." "Good! Well, up-stairs with you now, DePs Debt 63 nurse, and let 's find you bright and hearty in the morning. ' ' May felt a dismal tightening of her throat as the doctor closed the door upon himself and she was left alone with Mrs. Jud in the cramped, close-smelling little entry-way. She had not dreamed that she could possibly be homesick, but somehow as she made her way slowly up-stairs she felt so suffocated and for- lorn that she had all she could do to keep from flying back to the door and begging Doctor Emmet to take her home again. "You walk 's if your satchel was some heavy," whispered Mrs. Jud just behind her. "Want I should carry it up?" "0 no, thank you. It 's quite light. The stairs creak so I was afraid they might wake Del. ' ' "0 she 's good for all night, I guess. Besides, she 's used to 'em. Now all you '11 have to do is cuddle right down on the lunge there and make yourself comfort 'ble. If she should wake up you can give her a teaspoonful of this and warm her a cup of milk on the oil-stove. You light it this way, see ! Turn up the 64 Del's Debt wick some and touch a match here! Now then, anything else I can do for you?" "0 no, indeed!" May cried eagerly. She shrank from Mrs. Jud in her dingy wrapper and longed to be alone so she could fight off this awful nightmare of homesickness by herself. It seemed to her the dismalness of the place would choke her; that the musty, mildewy air had stuck in her throat. "I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!" she felt like shrieking aloud. But of course she did no such thing. Instead, she slipped off her wraps and laid them across a wooden chair very deliberately. She had planned to undress and slip on her loose flannel bath-robe and woolen slippers, but she changed her mind as she looked at the lounge Mrs. Jud had ad- vised her to " cuddle right down on." The confusion of shawls and blankets on it showed too plainly that Mrs. Jud had recently been doing that very thing herself. "No, I won't take off a single thing," thought May determinedly. "I '11 sit up straight as a poker in this chair and grit Del's Debt 65 my teeth and bear it. It can't last for- ever, and to-morrow morning " The very thought of the sunshine and fresh air and home made her more heart- sick than ever, and she looked about the room with a disgust that she took a grim satisfaction in giving way to. " Nasty, smelly old matting, ' ' she said with a dis- dainful curl of her lip, and as if she were taking delight in insulting it. "Horrid, ugly wall-paper! I 'd like to throw sticks at every one of those awful pictures. And the furniture ! me ! would n't I just love to hammer it. 0, 1 hate this place, I hate it ! I hate it ! " The kitchen clock down-stairs broke through the stillness with ten loud, quick strokes, as if it were in a hurry to be done with the nonsense and go back again to its regular business of hoarsely ticking out the seconds. "0, 'Suffering Sarah,' as Leonard Van Ness says, is that all it is, ten o'clock?" sighed the doleful night-nurse petulantly. "I thought it was twelve at least. If I had to stay here more nights than this I 'd " Suddenly a quite new thought popped 66 Del's Debt into her brain, and though she shook her head violently as Lightfoot did when the flies troubled him, she could not seem to get rid of the buzzing thing. "Del has had to stay here night after night and day after day," it repeated persistently. "Night after night and day after day." Somehow it kept on and on, and May seemed to see more clearly every minute how desolate Del must have been. It had never really come home to her before. It took the dingy, ill-smelling matting, the abomi- nable wall-paper, the absurd pictures, and the sight of Mrs. Jud herself in her mussy wrapper to convince her of the pitiful fate from which she had helped to rescue Del. Though May was the freer-and-easier mannered of the twins, she was the more fastidious by nature, and the delicate way in which she had been brought up made her especially sensitive to any- thing that was not scrupulously neat and clean. Her present surroundings re- pelled her so that she felt fairly sick with disgust, and she shrank away shud- dering from the touch and feel of even Del's Debt 67 the plain pine chair upon which she had stiffly planted herself. Somehow it had all not seemed quite so repulsive in the daylight, but now at night, with the kero- sene lamp giving out a rank odor, and the shadows crowding thick and threat- ening in the corners, it seemed fairly un- bearable. She wondered if Del felt as she did. If so, the news that she was to be taken out of it must have seemed like a message straight from heaven. "0, I 'm glad, glad, glad I said she could come," exulted May to herself. "How perfectly awful it would have been if Marg and I had n't been willing ! We never would have known what we were doing. 0, 1 'm glad, glad, glad we did the right thing." It seemed as if the thought brought her new courage and made her less im- patient of the mean place. Del slept on quietly and serenely, undisturbed by Mrs. Jud, in the next room, who snored uproariously and ended off every snore with a long, low whistle which May could hear distinctly through the thin parti- tion-wall and which sent her into convul- sions of silent laughter in spite of her- 68 Del's Debt self. The kitchen clock struck eleven and then twelve. May's back began to ache dully and her feet grew heavy and cold. She would have given worlds if she had been able to bring herself to ''cuddle right down" on the lounge. She drew her feet up beneath her and squat- ted on them uncomfortably, trying to keep them warm beneath the cover of her skirts. It was not a very successful arrangement, but she almost fell asleep notwithstanding, and roused herself just in time to keep from lurching forward on the floor. At last she could endure the drowsiness and chill no longer. She got up and took her flannel gown and woolen slippers out of the satchel and slipped them on over her other things. Then she drew up another chair and set it facing her, so she could put her feet on it. She had hardly done more than get herself settled, as she thought, when she was startled wide awake by the sound of the kitchen clock striking six in its sharp, hurried way. At the same moment she heard a stealthy foot on the door-sill. "Land o' the living, child!" exclaimed Del's Debt 69 Mrs. Jud in a hoarse whisper. "You don't mean to say* you ben settin' up like that all night. It 's like to kill you. I 'm go in' down to get the kitchen fire started. Don't you want I should get you some hot milk or somethin'?" "0 no, thank you. No, indeed," May feverishly whispered back, her teeth chattering with cold and faintness. "I I '11 just slip out now and run home as fast as I can. I I have something there I Ve got to see to right away." Mrs. Jud, poor woman, was dismayed, but she saw she could make nothing by urging, and so she took herself down the creaking stairs without more ado, and began to get breakfast ready and set the household machinery in motion for the day. May was struggling painfully into her fur sack and almost groaning aloud from the ache in her stiff back when a faint, astonished voice from the bed made her wheel about with a start. "Why ee! How under the sun did you get here, I should like to know?" May giggled delightedly. "I Ve been here all night," she explained wheezily. 70 Del's Debt 4 * Playing night-nurse. But you slept like a top and didn't need a thing, and now we can come and see you whenever we want to, and if you go on getting better like this you can coine home for Thanksgiving. ' ' It paid and paid again for all the dis- comfort of the night to hear the note of joy in Del's voice as she cried out : * ' 0, May, not really ? Not really, truly, honest-sure? Home?" "Yes, as true 's you live. The doctor himself said so last night. He said if our picnic yesterday didn't harm you we could come and see you whenever we choose, and that in a week you can be brought home." "Come here a minute, May, will you please," whispered Del shyly, and when May came she put up her hands, drew her face down to her own and kissed her softly on the cheek. "0, I 'm glad," she said. If anything could have warmed May at that moment, Del's kiss would have done it. As it was, it sent a happy glow to. her heart and made her glad in spite of everything as she dragged herself Del's Debt 71 home through the harsh, penetrating cold of the rough November morning, shivering and quivering with inward chills. "Nonsense!" exclaimed Doctor Em- met, later in the day. "Why, in the name of common sense, didn't you wait for me to bring you home in the buggy? And who would ever have supposed you 'd catch a heavy cold like this, even if Mrs. Jud's house is a little draughty? I tell you what it is, Mr. Middlebrook, these girls are lots more trouble than they 're worth, lots ! ' ' But it was only to her "bosom- twin" that May could explain why and how it had all happened. "I could n't have eat- en a mouthful there if I had been starv- ing," she confessed shamefacedly. "And I simply couldn't wait to get home. I know it was silly and I 'm ashamed to be so fussy. But I 'm 'proper glad,' as Mrs. Jud says, I 'm back again. I was a goose and I 'm being paid for it, but I tell you I 'm glad we said we 'd have Del here now that I know." 72 Del's Debt The following days were happy ones for Del, in spite of the sorrow she still felt for the loss of her mother. Every morning Mr. Middlebrook came to see her on his way to the train, and during the day Margaret and Sally Emmet and Clare Van Ness were sure to make their appearance with games and books and blossoms for the invalid, till her bare little room was turned into a bower and she sat in her pillowed chair in the midst of it all like a small princess upon her throne, her loyal subjects reading aloud to her or gossiping harmlessly away about everything under the sun. Poor May, kept prisoner at home by her cold, could have cried with vexation and disappointment because all her fine plans had to be carried out by proxy. She had set her heart on sharing in the fun, and it was "cold comfort" as Leon- ard said, to have to content herself with Margaret's reports, lively as they were. But at last came the morning of the Del's Debt 73 great day the day on which Del was to be taken home. She had looked forward to it with such longing that all the night before she had been excited and restless, lying awake for weary stretches, listen- ing to the wind and wondering if it were snowing, or if the stars were out, and hoping that a storm, wasn't brewing to prevent her happiness, for Doctor Em- met had said she could be moved only if the day were very fine, and the sun shin- ing warm and clear. Then, just at high noon, she might be carried down-stairs and then She clapped her hands in the darkness as she thought of what would happen "then." But the next moment came the thought that if it stormed she might have to wait through another long day and night, and perhaps another and another. "0 dear!" she sighed. "What shall I do if it is n't fair? Since I 've known I was going home it hasn't seemed as if I could make up my mind to stay here any longer. I 'm so tired of it. But I know one thing ! Mother always told me not to fret, and so I 'm going to try not to. I '11 just lie here as still as ever I 74 pel's Debt can, and see if I can't fall asleep. When I was a little thing Mammady used some- times to sing me to sleep. I wonder if I could sing myself to sleep. I 'm going to try." And then and there floated out in the darkness and quiet the notes of a quaint little slumber-song, sung in the sweetest voice imaginable, though not the strong- est by any means. Go to sleep, daisy, shut up your eye! Stars are a-shining clear in the sky, Moon is a-watching you from afar, Thinks you 're a dreaming little earth-star. Dear little firefly, put out your light, Folks are a-dreaming this time o' night: Baby is wandering in Slumbertown, Will not come back until sunbeams slip down. If Del could have known what that voice was to do for her in after days! But she only knew that by and by the melody seemed to be determined to stop before it came to the end of the verse, and the words seemed to get strangely mixed, and her voice seemed to be float- ing away from her, and then She opened her eyes suddenly to see the sun struggling into the little east DeTs Debt 75 window, and then she knew it was well on in the morning, and that Mrs. Hal- stead was tip-toeing heavily about the room, "rightenin' up a bit" and putting something into the trunk that stood open against the wall. 1 ' My sakes ! ' ' she exclaimed as Del sat up and looked round with sparkling eyes. "Ain't you feelin' fine though! D' you know what time it is? Nine o'clock, just think o' that! Rhoda an' me's ben in an' out o' here a dozen times and you never 's much as winked a lash. Guess you 're goin' to pick up fast now. Say, d' you think you '11 ever come an' see us again after you get to Middle- brook's an' are well again? Like enough you '11 forget all about us. An' yet, after all, I don't believe you will." Del gazed at her with eyes full of won- der. "Forget you? Not come to see you! Why, how funny to think I could do that, Mrs. Halstead, when you 've been kind to me!" ' ' 0, that would n 't make no gret differ- ence with some folks," returned Mrs. Jud promptly. "Some folks can forget 70 Del's Debt kindness as quick 'n easy as they c'n wink. But I guess you ain't that kind. I guess you 're like your mother the re- memberin' sort. Say, don't you want I should dress you as soon 's you 've had your breakfast? Here 's Rhoda with it now and the fire is. burnin' real bright an' cheerful!" the happy excitement of that morn- ing! Doctor Emmet came first, declar- ing it was a royal day, got up especially for the benefit of the girl who was to go travelling, and spent the rest of his visit in giving directions as to how she was to be bundled up for fear of the cold. Then Sally came with some jelly that Del must eat before she started, and later, just as she was beginning to feel very trembly and queer, and just as the two red spots in her cheeks were growing redder still, the sound of wheels was heard outside, and up whirled the car- riage, its windows shining and glisten- ing like crystal and its wheels flashing back the sunlight from every polished spoke. Mr. Middlebrook was out and up the garden-path almost before Del could Del's Debt 77 realize that the carriage had stopped, and the instant he got within the house she heard his cheery voice calling out : ''Where's my girl? Where's Del? And is she ready to come home!" For a moment she thought she must certainly cry for very joy, but she bravely crushed back the tears and smiled brightly to him as he entered the room. Then for a few moments all was hurry and bustle, and in the midst of it she found herself buried in such a moun- tain of shawls and wraps that she could hardly see over the brim, and then she was lifted bodily in Mr. Middlebrook's strong arms and carried rapidly to the entry-door. She managed to call out a faint "Good-by" to Mrs. Jud and Rhoda and would have kissed her hand if she could have got it free of the shawls, but she was bound fast hand and foot and could only glance back at them with friendly smiles as she was carried quickly through the sparkling air and into the fur-filled carriage. She did not have much to say for her- self on the way home. The wonder of it all seemed to tie her tongue and Mr. 6 Del's Debt 78 Del's Debt Middlebrook let her be as quiet as she chose. The outside world seemed changed and unfamiliar to her after her long imprisonment, and she hardly recog- nized the bare roads along which they were being carried, and which, when she had seen them last, had been gay with September colors. But her heart gave a big leap as the carriage turned in be- tween two great granite gate-posts and bowled rapidly up a wide driveway and under a splendid porte-cochere. The next instant the big door of the house was flung open wide and two voices ex- claimed in chorus : " Welcome home, Del! Welcome home ! Now carry her right up, Daddy, and let her see " It was all like dreamland to Del and unlike anything she had ever seen be- fore, the great hall-room into which she was carried. At the farther side and facing the front door was an immense fireplace in which some huge logs were burning merrily, flinging their red and blue sparks high up the black throat of the chimney and making the andirons reflect a thousand leaping, dancing Del's Debt 79 tongues of flame in their bright brass surfaces. On either side of the fire- place were quaint settles whose backs were sunk deep in the wall itself and whose seats were broad and cushioned and luxurious. Old rugs were spread about everywhere, and copper jars con- taining growing palms and graceful ferns stood here and there upon the floor and on the dear, old-fashioned win- dow-sills. There were glimpses through curtained doors of rooms beyond whose walls were lined with books and pictures, but Del had only a minute to notice all this, for Mr. Middlebrook did not delay, but made straight for the stairway, the twins dancing gaily on before. At the top landing the advance-guard came to an abrupt halt. "Wait a minute please, Daddy!" they cried in their usual chorus, and then ran forward together and flung open a door that let a flood of sunlight into the dusky hall. It revealed a sight that made Del catch her breath with very delight, and when May and Margaret shouted, "It 's yours, Del ! Yours all to yourself, to do what you like with ! ' ' she did not try to 80 Del's Debt hide her feeling any longer, 'but just dropped her head on Mr. Middlebrook's shoulder and cried right heartily. The twins exchanged the meaningest of looks, for they felt they understood just how she felt and it was best to let her have her cry out in comfort. But the shower did not last long, and even before it was ended Mr. Middlebrook had set her down plump in the midst of a cushion-crowded couch, saying: "Now, girls, we want to get this young woman into bed just as soon as we can. Doctor Emmet made a special point of that be- fore we started out, so if you '11 call Mrs. Austen she can see if there 's any earth- ly possibility of untangling her from this mass of rubbish here. And I think your company, as well as mine, can be dis- pensed with during the process and for a while after too." The sight of their disappointed faces went to Del's heart, and though she was beginning to feel quite tired and would have been glad to be alone "to think it all out by herself," she begged that they might stay and promised to be very, DePs Debt 81 very quiet indeed if their father would say yes. When she was fairly between her soft blankets, lying luxuriously back amid the sweet down pillows in her new "frilly," lace-trimmed night-dress, she started out at once on a voyage of discovery. The bed in which she lay was of polished ma- hogany, and over her head hung the dain- tiest of little testers of pink cretonne, with a pink rosette in the center, while the cretonne curtains that fell at the sides were tied back with generous loops of pink ribbon. In one corner of the room she spied a writing-desk, in another a dwarf book- case filled with books. Before the hearth was a low rocking-chair, and nea.r by stood a work-table on the spindliest of spindle legs. A dainty dressing-table with an oval swing-mirror atop held all sorts of brushes and combs and fascinat- ing bottles and boxes. The windows of this wonderful room looked out over the carriage-way and wide lawn and then out and beyond to where the Sound lay, broad and sparkling in the sunlight. Upon the mantel-shelf ticked a little 82 Del's Debt clock, beneath it in the mite of a grate burned a lump of sea-coal, and over it- and this was by far the best of all hung a charming picture of her mother. " Where did it come from?" she asked May and Margaret, gazing fondly up at the sweet face that seemed to smile down at her with loving tenderness. ' ' 0, while you were sick Daddy found a little photograph of her on your bu- reau, and when we were planning about this room he took it down to New York and had it copied. He thought it would seem more like home to have her here. May has one of our mother over her mantelpiece and I have one over mine. May's room is directly next to this through that left-hand door and mine is there through the right-hand one. We used to call this our 'betwinnity room' because it was square in the middle and we always had it to play in when we were little. But now we 're too old for that and besides Daddy said we might fix it up for you. So when we knew for sure you were coming, we went into New York with him and he let us buy everything new, and we three chose it all ourselves, Del's Debt 83 and Mrs. Austen didn't have a thing to do with it, except that she and Christine sewed the curtains and things, and all the while we could hardly wait to get you home to see your face when you came in, and we just had to bite our tongues all the time not to tell." " Every time we came to see you we tried to find out what sort of things you 'd like so we could tell Daddy and have him get them." "But almost the greatest sport of all was getting your clothes and things made. It reminded me of the time when we used to fix up our dolls. It was such fun! Mrs. Jud gave Daddy some of your things to bring home and measure by and I think you '11 like what he has ordered for you. Daddy has lovely taste and we always get him to help choose our things for us if we can, 'cause when we pick out anything we like he 's sure to have thought it was the nicest what- ever-it-happened-to-be, himself, and they 're lots finer and more expensive than Mrs. Austen 'd buy. She 's always fearfully skimpy about lace and embroi- 84 DeTs Debt deries, and when we complain she says 1 wilful waste makes woeful want.' It grew dark very early and then Del 's tall lamp was lighted and shone out with a mellow glow from under its splendid pink shade. Mr. Middlebrook came to the door to enquire after the patient's health and was instantly set upon and dragged bodily in and made to sit in the big arm-chair before the fire and read aloud to them from one of the new books from Del's new bookcase. But though the twins were presently absorbed in the story, Del could not keep her mind upon it at all. Her thoughts insisted upon wandering back to her own particular good fortune, that seemed so much more wonderful than any which was merely "made up out of somebody's head" and not really true at all. "Think of Mrs. Jud's! Think of Mrs. Tn-i's!" she kept repeating to herself as she glanced about her beautiful room, Contrasting it with what she had so lately left. "O, how I'm jr^teful, grateful, .q-rateful ! A^d to think I 'm really to live here for ever and always ! That it 's my Del's Debt 85 home! 0, if Mammady could only have had it too!" When dinner-time came and the rest went down-stairs, leaving her alone for a while, she found that her tired head was throbbing and that the whirling thoughts in her brain refused to stop. She tried again and again to "compose her mind," but it declined to be com- posed, and at last she gave up in des- peration, fairly ready to cry from dizzi- ness and bewilderment. But as the hot mist rose to her eyes, it seemed to her it cleared the blur in her brain and she could see again her mother's gentle face as it had looked when times were special- ly hard perhaps and worries very heavy, and hear again her brave voice saying: "When you feel like crying, little daugh- ter, try to sing instead and see if it doesn't help to make the burdens seem lighter." "Sh! What 's that?" asked May sud- denly, lifting her head to listen and for- getting all about the mouthful of chicken she had been on the point of putting be- tween her lips. "It sounds like some one singing!" 86 Del's Debt "Yes, of course. But who?" "Sh! Listen!" For three full minutes the beautiful voice overhead carolled and trilled and lifted and fell as blithely and easily as if it had been a bird's, and for three full minutes the three amazed Middlebrooks down-stairs sat motionless, forgetful of food and everything else in the wonder of the marvellous performance. Then, as suddenly and unexpectedly as it had begun, the song ended, the mys- terious voice bubbling into a perfect peal of gay laughter. "It 's Del!" gasped the excited twins in a breath, and, regardless of all form and manners, they rushed from the table and up into the room of their invalid to find her sitting amid her pillows laugh- ing rapturously, while Christine, the French maid, stood by, gazing at her as though she were some wonderful bird in a cage at the Zoo. Del's Debt 87 CHAPTER VI ' ' Ah, mes demoiselles ! ' ' exclaimed the woman, turning to them and clasping her hands dramatically, while she cast her eyes toward the ceiling, "mais, c'est une veritable voix d'ange! dat is one truly angel-voice ! I haf live wid one Madame wad seeng biffore gret nombre of pipple in ze opera and I know ze propre seeng- ing wen I hear it. Ah, I could not belif my ear! I come and fine it is Made- moiselle and zen I cannot conceal my wondre. ' ' "Well, I don't blame you," exclaimed May heartily. ' ' We can 't conceal ours. ' ' "We couldn't imagine who it could be," Margaret put in. "0 dear," sighed Del regretfully, "now I Ve gone and disturbed you all and made you come up from your dinner before you 're through. I 'm so sorry, I really am. Please go down again and I '11 promise certain true, black and blue, I won't make another sound ! ' ' "But we want you to! We want you to!" declared May emphatically. 88 Del's Debt "It 's just the loveliest thing I ever heard and you must do it for us lots." "No, no," said Mr. Middlebrook from the doorway. "She must by no means do it lots. We don't want her to over- tax her voice, and there is great danger of that after her sickness, and while she is still so young. We must wait pa- tiently, and by and by when the proper time comes she shall be given the very best opportunities and " * "Do you mean," interrupted Del breathlessly, "that I can be taught? Really taught? 0, that was what Mamma always wanted, and she used to give me lessons herself, but she hoped some day I could go abroad. We were trying to save money enough so some day I could take lessons of but it costs so much and she said we must never make debts not ever have things we couldn't pay for " It seemed to Del the crowning flour- ish of the fairy godmother's wand that she could really look forward with cer- tainty to being taught to sing. When Mr. Middlebrook had dragged the un- willing twins back to their dinner, and Del's Debt 89 while she herself was being served with her own, the delight of the thought made her almost forget to eat. "I '11 tell you what I Ve just thought of, ' ' said Margaret, rushing back as soon as she could induce her father to excuse her from the table. "I 'm going to tell you a secret. You see May and I kind of wanted to get up a special surprise for Christmas, beside presents and stockings and things something that would be a surprise to Daddy, you know. He 's al- ways so good to us. And so so at last we decided upon a splendid plan. Christ- mas eve we 're to hang up stockings just the same as ever, and Christmas morn- ing we 're to have the tree with all the poor children in to see and to get things, just as we always do; and later we 're. to give and get our own presents, and last of all, Papa is n't to know there 's to be anything different, but May and I are going to write invitations and things and send them round, and then on Christmas night we 're going to have a lot of chairs carried in to the big hall-room and put in rows, and the doors of the drawing-room are to be wide open and the portieres 90 Del's Debt taken down and a real drop-curtain hung between, and we 're going to fix a sort of stage just back of it with all the palms and plants from the conservatory for scenery, you know, and then I have written a play and we 're going to act it Sally Emmet, Clare Van Ness, and May and I. Only Clare can't now be- cause she 's going to New York to her grandmother's, and we want you in her place. It just takes four to do it and it 's the loveliest fun. You see, after dinner on Christmas Daddy always takes the carriage and kind of carries clothes and things to people round, and he never gets back until late. So we shall have an elegant chance to get everything fixed. Leonard Van Ness is going to help us. He knows all about such things, so when Daddy comes home again it '11 all be done and then we won't care if he does see the chairs and all. The only thing that makes May and me feel badly is that we have used up all our money on presents and have n't any left to get things for the people to eat. But it can 't be helped and I 'm not going to worry. When Clare told us she could n't take part we Del's Debt 91 were just in despair, and now you Ve turned up in her place and 0, you will sing for us, Del, won't you?" Del didn't hesitate a minute. ' ' Of course I will if you think I can do it well enough," she said. "Only you have n't told what it is I 'm to sing and perhaps it would be too hard for me. I can only sing very easy things, you know, but I '11 try anyway and do the best I can." Whereupon Margaret hugged her on the spot and went on to confide the plot of her play with all the zest of a born dramatist. "There are three goddesses who are in love with a shepherd lad who feeds his flocks " "Like Norval's father on the Gram- pian hills, you know," interrupted May, who had come up-stairs and was in a teasing mood. "0, do keep still, please. You put me out," cried Margaret. "Who feeds his flocks in a valley near the sylvan glade in which they dwell. (You see it 's po- etry.) These goddesses are all awfully fond of one another, and when they find out that they 're all enamoured of the 92 Del's Debt same youth, they turn right round and tell one another all about it. Of course they know they can't all win his heart, so they make up their minds that the only way out of it (of course it is n't put that way in the play) is to make some sort of an arrangement that will give each of them a fair chance. I forgot to say the youth has never set eyes on any one of them. At last they hit on a plan that seems to be a pretty good one. They will appear before him one by one, and the goddess that really wins his heart can wed him and the others '11 have to make up their minds to it. So one balmy morning the shepherd (that 's Sally, be- cause she 's the tallest, you know) is pip- ing to himself in the shade I don't mean smoking, of course, I mean playing on a what-you-call-it, flute, or some- thing and his sheep are grazing in the valley out of sight, when there appears before his wondering gaze a beauteous maiden (that 's May dressed up like the goddess of Literature)." , ' ' By the way, Marg, is there a goddess of Literature?" asked May. "0, I guess so. I don't care. Any- DeTs Debt 93 how she appears before him and tells him who she is, and then when she tells him she 's a goddess, he 's so surprised he just falls on his knees before her and she says: ' Arise, fair youth ! Bend not that noble knee. Fear not my eyes, they do but smile on thee.' "So he arises and they talk together, but she can see all the time that he has n 't much use for her, when by and by in comes the goddess of Painting (that 's me) and ive have a conversation, while May goes off under a tree and sort of grieves, and I am trying my best to get him to become enslaved but he won't, though he 's perfectly polite about it, when all at once we hear the sound of singing far off. He jumps up in a hurry (it 's, arises in haste, in the play) from the grassy knoll on which we are sitting and in comes you, dressed up as the goddess of Music and Dancing. As soon as you appear he falls in love with you, and then I go and grieve with May until you Ve sung and danced some and he 's told you how he adores you, and then we come out and it all ends in a sylvan 7 Del's Debt 94 Del's Debt dance. Of course you can do it, Del. If you feel very weak you can kind of sing low and you needn't dance much, only it will be such fun with the dresses and things. ' ' 1 'Fun!" Why, it made Del's eyes sparkle just to think of it, and she made up her mind then and there to do or die in the attempt to help crown Mar- garet's play with glory. The air of the great house was kept at such an even temperature that Del could wander about wherever she chose without fear of catching cold, and the change and gentle exercise made another girl of her. Thanksgiving came and went in a sort of happy dream, and then she found herself surrounded by an air of delightful Christmas mystery. There was much whispering in corners and whisking into closets, and the best of all was that she herself was taking part in the secret preparations and having to dodge the twins and elude "Daddy" in order that her presents for them should not be discovered before the right time had come. Every day while May and Margaret Del's Debt 95 *- were at school Del spent hours and hours rehearsing her part in the play, for she was determined that her performance should be as much of a surprise as the rest. She practiced new steps and in- vented new figures for her dance, trip- ping away to the accompaniment of her own thrilling voice until she would sink down in one of the cushioned settles in the hall-room, flushed and breathless, but with the triumphant sense of having mastered her part and being prepared to do justice to the genius of her beloved playwright. Early on Christmas morning Del woke just in time to hear her little clock strike six, after which she lay for some time quietly thinking about the changes that had taken place in her life since the year before. She had just reached the point, which she always reached very soon in her frequent considerings of the same subject, where she felt how very, very good they all were to her, and where she remembered what she had heard Doctor Emmet say about her owing such a debt to Mr. Middlebrook, and where she deter- mined in her resolute little heart to pay 96 Del's Debt it if she could, when she heard a slight sound in the darkness beside her and managed to distinguish Margie's white- robed figure in the gloom. She gave a little laugh. "I 'm awake, Marg," she said, "so if you 've come to steal my stocking you can give it up." "I haven't. May I get in bed with you, Del? The fact is, I hardly slept a wink last night, worrying about the play. Do you think it 's very bad ? ' ' "Bad?" echoed Del. "It's as good as Shakespeare. Why, it 's just splen- did, and my part 's the best of all. You 've given me the best but then, you always do, you know. I 'm going to try so hard to do it nicely." "Good for you, Dellie!" said another voice, and in came May to make a third snuggler under the warm blankets. "Sometimes I think," said Del confi- dentially to her two listeners, "that I 'd like to be able to sing like that Madame Helmann that Christine talks about, and go before hundreds and hundreds of people and have my voice just set them to crying when I sing about that beau- Del's Debt 97 tiful Princess that was brought over the seas to marry the king she didn't love and who dies at the last of it. Christine says she used to go with her to the opera, and at the end of it all the people would clap and stamp and cheer and wave their handkerchiefs and then there would be such a shouting of 'Helmann ! Helmann !' until she 'd have to come before the cur- tain just to let them see her and to make them keep still and go home. Mustn't it be splendid to feel you can sing people into loving you so 1 " she concluded with a rapturous sigh. "Do you really s'pose it 's loving?" asked literal May. ' ' It might be getting excited with the story of the opera and the lights and people and things. I don't s'pose, if they just heard her sing a song in a plain house, they 'd act so." "And anyway," said Margaret, "I 've heard Daddy tell often about singers and people who have been just as great as Christine's Madame Helmann and got just as much applause and things, and they died way up in cold garrets with no clothes and nothing to eat and not any- body near. So it can't be love if it 98 Del's Debt leaves you alone like that when you 're old and worn out and your voice is cracked. ' ' They held a last dress-rehearsal early in the afternoon just after Mr. Middle- brook had driven away with a carriage- ful of good things to distribute among the needy in the neighborhood. Then how they skipped to get all finished be- fore his return. But really there was not so much to do after all, beyond ranging the camp- chairs in rows and hanging the drop- curtain in its place, for they had been what Mrs. Jud called "right fore- handed," and had contrived to have everything in such shape that nothing was necessary at the last moment but to put it where it belonged. Even the stage itself took but a little while to set in place, for Leonard Van Ness and Mar- tin, the coachman, had built it in sec- tions so that it could be easily carried into the house and fitted together with no trouble at all. When it was up, the girls draped it artistically with a quan- tity of green baize they had found folded away in some remote corner of the gar- Del's Debt 99 ret, and then Michael, the gardener, car- ried in his finest shrubs and palms from the conservatory and placed them about to serve as the foliage of the "woody glade" described in Margaret's pro- gram. It seemed no time at all before they were done and their father at home once more, being told to "wait and see" when he wanted to know "What these young conspirators meant to turn his house into now?" But at the first sound of wheels and the first sight of the arriving audience, Margaret grew weak and all her fine courage forsook her. ' ' girls ! I 'm so scared!" she gasped in a faint voice. "If it wasn't my play I wouldn't care so much, but 0, why did the people come? Why didn't they send regrets! I think they 're real mean to crowd in this way! I " 4 ' pshaw ! I said you 'd fizzle out at the last moment and spoil it all, and now you 're doing it," remarked the goddess of Literature elegantly. "For mercy's sake, behave yourself, Marg. It '11 all be perfectly mag, if you '11 only keep jolly about it." 100 Del's Debt "I say," whispered Leonard through the keyhole of their dressing-room door, "it 's packed already, as close as a sar- dine-box. We '11 have to hang out a sign 'Standing-room only.' Everybody you ever heard of is here. That Mr. What 's-his-name who visits the Uttleys he 's on a big New York newspaper, you know. And Mrs. Barton! Her son's a poet! 0, I tell you what it is, you '11 have to keep your wits about you. ' ' Poor Margaret gave a groan. "Hullo! There goes the clock," con- tinued Leonard. "It 's eight to the stroke. You '11 have to begin sharp and not keep 'em waiting or the gallery-gods will make a row. Come on down !" They made their way down the back stairs, through the butler's pantry, and by hidden passages into the drawing- room. Once behind the curtain, they were all struck with a sudden weakness in the knees. All, that is, but Del. Her face was radiant, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes sparkling. Her delicate costume, her loose, curling hair, her dainty sandals, all gave her the sense DePs Debt 101 of exquisite lightness and freedom. She felt as if she were but a feather and could float through her part with no more ef- fort than the mere moving of her feet in the figures. Tinkle! Tinkle! went the little call- bell, and then up rolled the curtain, "dis- covering" to the audience a "thickly wooded glade" about which rubber- plants and palms, acacias and ferns, grew in luxurious profusion. Then appeared the three goddesses, each from a different direction, and, meeting in the center of the stage, con- fided to one another and to the audience the embarrassing secret of their unre- ciprocated affections: " From far away we 've seen a shepherd Clad in a simple skin of leopard, And lo! his grace so charmeth us We can not help but love him thus! " Being ladies of sense as well as sus- ceptibility, they see at a glance that it will be quite impossible for all three to, succeed, and so they contrive a plan by which each will have what Leonard dis- respectfully called ' ' a fair show. ' ' They exeunt, right, left, and back, and present- 102 Del's Debt ly the shepherd comes on, piping to his imaginary flock and quite unsuspicious of the snare being laid to entrap his af- fections. " I am a gentle shepherd, and I love my roving flocks. They skip upon the grassy strand And gambol on the rocks." But before he has time to give much more than this brief account of himself, the goddess of Literature appears be- fore him, and he is so dazzled by her beauty and the fact that she is a god- dess that he falls at her feet and only rises at her express command. But though he gets up obediently at her "Rise, noble youth," etc., he is so plainly not in love with the goddess of Litera- ture that she wastes no further time on him, but goes and settles herself under an acacia to grieve, in time for the god- dess of Painting to appear on the scene and "try her luck," as Leonard de- scribed it. But still the shepherd remains un- moved, though his second admirer picks Del's Debt 103 no bones about telling him the state of her feelings. " Thou art so tall and fair and good, Thou gentle shepherd of the wood, That, though I am a goddess great, I love thee and would be thy mate." He shakes his head sadly and is just about to tell her that he will be a brother to her, or words to that effect, when a sound is heard in the distance which causes him to pause and put his hand to his ear to signify he is listening. The singing grows clearer and more distinct, louder and more entrancing, and in a moment in comes the goddess of Music, gliding and tripping, nodding and car- olling to win his heart out of his breast, no't to speak of those of her audience as well. Such dancing as Del showed them that night ! and such singing as she gave them ! The two grieving goddesses were so surprised and delighted that when "the house" broke into a thunderous round of applause even before she had finished her first figure, they joined in with a hearty good will, and clapped away like two pleased and generous hu- man maidens. But when Del began to 104 Del's Debt sing her song there was a breathless silence. "Jove, but that child has a voice!" exclaimed enthusiastic Mr. Van Ness to Mr. Middlebrook. "A born little artist too. If she grows up she '11 make her mark, I 'd lay a wager." The curtain fell amid a deafening clap- ping of hands and calling of "Encore! Encore!" but of course they could not repeat the play, so they had to compro- mise by sending Del out again to bow and take a few steps for them and sing the last verse of her song, and still they clapped. "They 're giving you a 'curtain-call,' Margie, ' ' whispered Leonard. ' ' You 're the authoress, you know, and they want you. Go on, quick ! ' ' and he gave her a gentle shove from the wings. "Speech! Speech!" called Mr. Van Ness, seconded immediately by every- body else. Poor Margaret ! She was fairly scared to death, but, seeing no way out of her dilemma, she stepped forward bravely, bowed, and said : "It 's awfully nice of you to like it. I Del's Debt 105 hoped you would, but of course I didn't know. I was afraid it was n't very good. Del made it seem much better. . . . Thank you!" But if the girls imagined they were the only clever ones at devising surprises they were mistaken. As they stole up to their dressing-room by the back way to take off their stage finery, an unex- pected sound from the conservatory caused them to stand still and prick up their ears as the shepherd had done at the first hint of Del's singing. It was like a scraping of bows across violin and 'cello strings and a flute being put in tune. ''You will be pleased to make a haste," Christine exclaimed as soon as they had overcome their astonishment enough to get themselves into the dressing-room. "Your Papa desires you to put on the party-dresses and go down-stairs for the entertainment of your friends. ' ' "How did you ever know, Daddy?" demanded May, when the last guest had gone and the three tired but triumphant goddesses stood before the fire just a 106 Del's Debt moment before being hurried off to bed by Mr. Middlebrook. "0, a little bird told me you would like a dance on Christmas night, and so one day I left word with some mu- sicians in town, and as one can't very well dance without having something to eat, it was natural that I should order a little supper, and not at all to be won- dered at that both the musicians and the supper should arrive on time. There was no witchcraft about it. And now, good-night. My authoress, allow me to salute your classic brow. My little can- tatrice, I must kiss you. My young host- ess, hug me once more, and then The girls did not wait for a second bid- ding, but ran laughing and chattering up- stairs, their heads full of music and their hands full of favors. "Wasn't it fun?" asked May. ' l Just splendiferous ! ' ' returned Mar- garet. "There wasn't a minute that wasn't jolly," announced Del. "It kept on be- ing a lovely time right along, and every- body was enjoying it. It was so nice. Del's Debt 107 I never did have such a magnificent even- ing." "0 dear! I shall never forget how scared I was when I first stood before all those people," said Margaret. "It seemed to me I could n't say a word." "Why, I was n't frightened a bit," de- clared Del. "It made me feel just like doing something splendid. I didn't care for myself at all, only my part." "Well, it made me just stiff all over and quakey. But you 're different, I guess. You didn't seem like our Del in the least. You don't know how funny your eyes looked. They were awfully big and dark and they shone like any- thing, and your cheeks were just as red, and you looked as if you wouldn't hear if we spoke to you. ' ' "I seemed ever so queer to myself," admitted Del, "but if I did it well I don't care, and, anyway, it was a beautiful play, and even Mrs. Barton said so." 108 Del's Debt CHAPTER VII The lull that generally follows the Christmas whirlwind is apt to be a try- ing time for most fun-and-frolic-loving young creatures, who find it hard to be- lieve that just as too much candy is sure to cause indigestion, so too much jolli- fication is certain to upset the nerves and disagree with the spirits. The twins found themselves at the end of their three-weeks' holiday consider- ably the worse for wear and with tem- pers that threatened to explode at a touch, while Del suddenly woke to the fact that life even in this splendid house was not a fairy-tale after all, and that there were humdrum duties and daily drudgery to be done here just as else- where. The dull school routine seemed doubly tiresome by contrast with the gay vacation liberty, and when the first nov- elty of Del's home-coming had worn off, the three girls discovered that they must all look sharp if they wished to avoid treading on one another's toes and end- ing in a general skirmish. Margaret's Del's Debt 109 occasional fits of sulky gloom had always irritated May, while her frequent gusts of hot temper filled her sister with scorn, which she made no attempt to hide. Del, it turned out, was slow to anger, but quick to feel a real or fancied slight, and her sensitiveness made the easy-going twins uncomfortable and at last openly rebellious, while their rough-and-ready ways astonished and dismayed Del. "The very sight of your room makes me mad," declared May, half in fun, half in earnest, as she stood looking in from the threshold of her own untidy cham- ber one morning. "It 's the primmest, old-maidishest place I ever saw. All your nice little ribbons and things folded up and laid away in nice little boxes in your bureau-drawers, and all your neat little boots ranged in a neat little row in your neat little closet. I would n't be so particular and pernickety, not for any- thing in the world. ' ' "I like to have things orderly and where they belong," returned Del quiet- ly, while a faint flush crept slowly up to her temples. "Well, things can be orderly enough 8 Del's Debt 110 Del's Debt and where they belong even if you don 't spend such an everlasting while fussing over them. Goodness me! Life 's too short ! I can't afford to waste time over such nonsense. Come along ! We almost missed the train yesterday, and we are n't any too early to-day, and I think being prompt at school is lots more im- portant than having every identical pin in your cushion stuck in just so." Del pressed her lips together tightly and turned her head away to hide the heightened color in her face. "0 May," called Margaret in a for- lorn voice from her room next door, "I can 't find my glove. The right-hand one of the new gray castor pair, and my old tan ones are too shabby to wear. Won't you lend me yours ? ' ' "My new gray ones? That I 'm not wearing myself because I 'm saving 'em for special f Well, I like that ! ' ' "Please do, May!" ' ' 0, all right. Go along and take 'em, only do hurry and come. You and Del are the slowest coaches that ever lived. You almost always delay us for the train, and I hate to be late." Del's Debt in Margaret cheerfully scampered across to May's room and began, quite unre- sentfully, to turn the place upside down in her search for what she wanted, while Del hurried on her own things and fol- lowed May to the carriage, conscious that she felt hurt and sore and, at the same time, ashamed of herself for doing so. They did not miss the train in spite of Margaret's delay, and by the time they were well settled in the car and steam- ing briskly toward the city, their slight flurry had quite subsided, and Del alone went through the day with a little low place in her spirits that would not rise to the level of her customary cheerful- ness. She wanted not to be "touchy," but she could not help remembering the difference in her own position and the twins ' and feeling that they remembered it too. Of course this was not at all as it should have been. May knew it was n't "nice" to get out of temper and then vent her impatience on the nearest one at hand, Margaret would have con- fessed that she was "horrid sulky some- times," and Del could not have denied that she was fussy and old-maidish about 112 Del's Debt her things and oversensitive to criticism and what she fancied people were think- ing of her. All three were fully aware of their failings, and they always in- tended ''never to do so any more," but somehow their good intentions did not always last over to the occasions when they would have done the most good, which is sometimes the way with good intentions. "0,1 say, Marg, ' ' exclaimed May one afternoon about a week or so later, as she was getting ready to go skating with Leonard, who was home from college for over Sunday, "Sally Emmet, the two Vans, and some more are going to be out on the pond this afternoon, you have n't forgotten? Well, I want to wear my gloves the gray ones, you know. Hand 'em over, please." Margaret tossed up her chin. ' ' Hand 'em over ! Well, I like that ! I have n't got your old gloves." "Got 'em? Why, of course you have," returned May sharply. "Don't you re- member I lent 'em to you that morning when you 'd lost yours and we were in a hurry to get off to school ? ' ' DePs Debt 113 "Yes, I remember," called Margaret across Del's room from her own, "but I hunted and hunted and couldn't find yours. I turned the place upside down and they were nowhere to be seen. So I didn't borrow 'em after all and I thought I told you so." "No, you didn't. And you did bor- row 'em too," insisted May, "for I re- member distinctly noticing 'em on the way down to the train." 1 ' Those were my own. I 'd just made up my mind to wear my woolen ones when I spied those tucked away on the mantelpiece behind the match-box. I 'd put 'em there myself and forgotten all about 'em!" ' ' I don 't want to contradict you, Marg, but that must have been another time. You certainly had on my gloves that morning," persisted May. "I tell you I didn't," repeated Mar- garet, beginning to grow indignant. "And the reason I know," continued May, ignoring her denial, ' ' is that I had tucked a dollar-bill into the first finger of the right-hand glove to keep it safe the last time I wore it and I hadn't my 114 Del's Debt purse along. I meant to tell you that morning not to lose it out and then I for- got." "Pooh, that does n't prove anything," said Margaret. "It does too. It proves you wore my gloves. And I want 'em back right now and the dollar too." "You can come in here and see that all the gray gloves I have in the world are my very particular own." "Pooh, that wouldn't prove any- thing." "It would too." "It would prove that you 'd lost mine that morning, dollar and all, unless you have 'em there." "Well, I like that! What 's the mat- ter with your having lost 'em your own self?" "I didn't lose 'em. I don't lose my things half so much as you do." "Why ee! May Middlebrook ! As if everybody didn't know you 're the care- lessest thing that ever lived." "I 'm not so careless as you are, so there!" ' ' You just ask Del if you are n 't. " Del's Debt 115 " Pshaw! Del 's a regular Miss Par- ticular Prim. She thinks nobody knows how to keep their things in order but just herself." "0 please, May, don't say that," pro- tested Del, dismayed at being dragged into the quarrel. "I 've never given you any reason to think I thought so." "You have too. Whenever you come into my room your eyebrows go up and disappear under your hair, you 're that shocked ! And you look so moral and or- derly I 'd like to shake you, so there!" "I don't think you're very nice, May, to say such things. Don't you mind her, Del. She 's got into one of her tantrums and nothing '11 suit her till she 's set the whole house by the ears. It 's none of her business anyway, how you keep your room. ' ' "No, and it 's none of Del's how I keep mine," snapped May, "and it 's none of yours to mix in and make trouble when your opinion isn't asked. Now hurry up. Hand over my gloves and let me go." "You just hint again that I don't tell the truth, May Middlebrook," panted 116 Del's Debt Margaret, striding forward witli a look in her eyes that Del had never seen there before, "and and you '11 be sorry." "Pooh! Pish! Tush! Fudge!" ex- claimed May with an exasperating laugh. "You had my gray gloves on that day, and that 's all there is about it." For one short second there was utter silence in the room. The next instant Margaret had caught up the water- ewer, and the next May was standing be- fore her disheveled, drenched and drip- ping from head to foot. But she did not stand so long. Her breath caught in her throat in a great, gulping sob, and then she made a furious rush at her twin, clutched her by the arm, and boxed her ears soundly. "0, May, May! Don't! Please don't!" cried Del, running forward and grasping May's hand to stay it. "You keep out of this," cried both the twins at once, hoarsely, flinging Del back out of their way with frantic force. It was all over in less time than it takes to tell it. May loosed her hold upon her sister's arm and Margaret staggered blindly toward the threshold Del's Debt 117 and to her own room. A moment later two doors slammed, two keys turned, and Del found herself imprisoned in her bedchamber, locked in by a twin on either side of her. At first there was no sound at all from right or left, but presently May began to stride back and forth across her floor and to open and shut her bureau-drawers with rough pulls and impatient pushes. Evidently she was going to keep her en- gagement with Sally and the Vans after all. By and by there were stirrings in Margaret's room, which showed she was going to do the same thing. Del lay still upon her couch, where she had dropped, a wretched heap of shocked and wound- ed misery, when the twins had thrust her off, and tried to fight back the hot tears and strangling sobs. But it was no use. Now that the awful scene was over, she could do nothing but weakly cry and cry. The great door down-stairs opened and shut with a bang that shook the house. That meant May had gone. Five min- utes later the performance was repeated. Margaret was following her. Del bur- rowed deeper among her cushions and 118 DeTs Debt longed for her mother. Never in all her life before had she felt so homesick, so heart-sick, so absolutely desolate. It seemed to her just then that she would willingly give up all this pleasant ease and luxurious way of living and go gladly back to the old wretched poverty and de- privation again for just one little chance to tell her mother all about it. Mr. Mid- dlebrook had been wonderfully kind to her: she did not forget that; but, after all, he was not her very own, and she could never confide in him entirely and open all her heart to him nor ask him for advice in a case such as this. Only her mother could help her now, and her mother was not here. She got up and gazed hungrily into the gentle, pictured face above the mantelpiece. "0, Mam- mady! Mammady!" she whispered bro- kenly, ' * I want you I want you ! ' ' The longing grew so great that it was like a dull ache through all her flesh, and at last she felt she must cry out for very pain of it, but she bit her lips to keep them from quivering, and set about searching among her belongings for something her mother had particularly Del's Debt loved and used, and that would therefore seem to hold most memories of her. There were but a few keepsakes at most, and the majority of them she did not connect especially with the dear "Mam- mady" and their life together. But at last Del came upon a book, well-thumbed and marked all through with pencilled jottings, that she remembered to have seen her mother reading time and time again, and that recalled her so vividly to mind it made her heart beat quick with happiness. She took it up and held it to her lovingly. Then she opened it and fingered the pages over and over, as if by touching them she could touch the gentle hands that had so often turned them in the days gone by. It was a real comfort to do this, and it was a comfort, too, to read over some of the passages that were pencil-marked and that her mother had evidently thought particu- larly wise. At first she hardly under- stood what she was reading: she fol- lowed the words without in the least tak- ing in their meaning. But all at once her eyes fastened upon a paragraph that somehow held her attention fast and 120 DeTs Debt made her feel as if her mother were speaking to her through the words, giv- ing her the counsel she had longed for. "If your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit down to consider it, for he has already lost all memory of the passage and has doubled his power to serve you, and, ere you can rise up again, will burden you with blessings. ' ' Over and over she read it, and each time she did so she seemed to understand it better. "It means May and Marga- ret," she cried to herself aloud, at last. * ' It means I 'm not to sit down and con- sider how they 've displeased me. 0, I know, I know ! I know that 's just what Mammady would tell me if she were here. And I mean to do just as it says and what she 'd want me to. I mean to stop moping this minute and set about being sensible and right, and the next time I get lost in a tangle I 'm going to find my way out of it by following the marks she 's left here in these essays, and that I 'm as certain as can be will help me back home just as the bread- crumbs did Hansel and Gretel when they were lost in the woods." Del's Debt 121 The idea amused her immensely, and she hugged the book to her as if it had been a living friend. The days were beginning to lengthen, and at five o 'clock it was still bright and light outside. Del busied herself first with one thing and then another, grow- ing every moment more cheerful and light-hearted until, as the clock struck five, she decided it was time to dress so she would be all ready and waiting when the twins and Daddy should come home. She took out her favorite afternoon frock and arranged her hair with partic- ular care. She wanted to look her best as well as be her best, so that the girls would know at once she was not moping and nursing a grievance. But when she had slipped on her dress she came to a sudden standstill. She could not hook it up the back herself, and when she went to the door to call Christine, she found she was locked in fast and tight. "What a pickle!" she laughed. "They may not come back until half-past six. They always stay out till the last minute, and how in the world am I ever going 122 Del's Debt to make Christine hear, so she can come and let me out?" She knew it was useless to rattle the door-knobs, but nevertheless she rattled them. Then suddenly a bright idea struck her. "I '11 climb up on top of my table and call through the transom. ' ' It was rather a lark, this being locked in so, and having to maneuver and plan to escape. She swept the things off her table, dragged it to May's door, and mounted. But, tiptoe as she might and strain upward as she would, she could not quite bring her ej 7 es on a level with the glass. So down she scrambled, got a hassock and some heavy books, piled them into a solid heap on top of the table, and carefully mounted her pedestal again. Yes, now she could see to her heart's content. There were May's school-books scattered on the floor by the window, just where she had dropped them a few hours ago. There were her morning-dress and her hat, thrown pell- mell together on the bed. Shoes were here, mittens there : her pin-tray had fal- len from her bureau and all the pins lay scattered over the rug. Her writing- f* '*-**.-. r _..__ " NOW SHE COULD SEE TO HER HEART'S CONTENT." (123) Del's Debt 125 desk near the French window opening on the balcony stood just as she had left it, open and strewn with a confusion of note-paper and nuts, soap and silver, while in the midst of it all the tiny spirit- lamp she used to melt her sealing-wax burned cheerfully on, quite regardless of the fact that the window-curtain was perilously near it and that at any mo- ment A terrifying thought sprang into Del 's brain and brought the blood to her heart in a great throb of horror. What if the draught from the window should send the curtain a half-inch nearer the lamp. The rest of the household would not know until it was too late and she, Del, locked in as she was, could not give the alarm. Frantically she tugged and tugged at the frame of the transom, meaning perhaps to drag it out and crawl through. But it would not stir. She called to Christine, to Mrs. Austen. No one heard. Then, as if her thought had somehow got outside her and become an actual thing, she saw the curtain gently swell forward in the puff of the draught from the window ; the tiny flame 9 Del's Debt 126 Del's Debt from the spirit-lamp leaped gaily up to meet it, and then, the next instant, a slen- der thread of fire was crawling up, up, and up the hanging, growing, growing as it climbed. CHAPTER VIII Never before in all their lives together had matters between the twins come to such a pass as this. They had had dif- ferences, to be sure, plenty of them, when quick words had slipped out that ought to have been kept in, and angry looks leaped from one to the other like sudden glares of electricity in a stormy heaven. But though the thunder had rolled and the lightning flashed, no great damage had been done hitherto, and the rain that had frequently followed had cleared the air and left the sky serene. But this time it was different. Something had been wrecked, and the girls knew, that no matter how soon they "made up" neither of them would ever forget the disgrace of the thought that in their Del's Debt 127 anger they liad raised their hands against each other. Margaret, smarting and sullen, brood- ed over her wrongs behind her locked doors until she could endure her wretch- edness no longer, and flung on her things in desperation to take refuge out of doors; while May, drenched and discon- solate, sat down in the midst of the litter on her floor and thought grim thoughts until the wetness about her shoulders struck through with a chill and made her hurry to change her clothing. "As long as I 'm about it," she mut- tered miserably to herself, "I may as well go on to the pond. Leonard and Clare aren't to blame because we've had ructions here, and I 've no right to go back on my word to them. But the fun 's all spoiled and I don't s'pose I '11 ever feel like having a good time again so long as I live." "Hullo, there, May! What's up?" shouted Leonard as soon as she came in sight. "How late you are! I began to think you were n't coming at all." "0, I couldn't very well get here sooner," she called. "Circumstances 128 Del's Debt over which I had no control, you know, and that sort of thing." "I see. Don't try to put on your skates yourself. That 's my business. Hi! Here comes Marg. You two run- ning tandem like this is a new freak, isn't it? You generally go in double harness." May did not reply, or if she did Leon- ard did not hear, for as soon as her skates were fastened, she struck out for the middle of the pond without waiting for him to follow, and by the time he had made Margaret ready for the ice, she was far away chattering and chaffing with Clare, Sally, and a crowd of others. ''Come on, Marg," said Leonard, hid- ing his surprise and disappointment, ''let 's have a spin, and then I '11 show you how to do the serpentine, if you like. You know you wanted to learn, and there 's no time like the present." Margaret laughed bitterly. "Thank goodness there is n't," she said with em- phasis. Leonard noticed that her face was pale and set, and when she shook her head and continued with an effort, "No, thank Del's Debt 129 you, Leonard, not to-day; I I don't feel like it. somehow," he put two and two together and concluded that decided- ly something was "up" between the twins. He kept a sharp eye on the two after that and saw that they intentional- ly avoided each other, and only came into the same neighborhood when it was im- possible to escape it. "Here 's a pretty kettle of fish," he said to himself. ' ' I Ve never known any- thing like it to happen before. I wonder now if the new member of the family can be a mischief-maker. If she is, I '11 feel like scalping her. It would be an up-and- down shame to stir up strife between the twins: such good chums as they Ve al- ways been ! And if" Del 's done it, some- one ought to shake her soundly." He looked for the moment so much as if he would enjoy being the one himself that May, who happened to be looking his way, said: ' ' I hope you are n 't making that square mouth at me, Len. When you set your jaws so, I always know it 's time for some one to shake in his shoes, and I 'm* always afraid it 's my turn." 130 Del's Debt Leonard laughed. "No; you have still to look forward to the honor. But you 're right about one thing. I am down on somebody." ' ' Are you telling who it is I " "I 've no objection. It 's the person that 's been making trouble between you and Marg, ' ' he blurted out bluntly. For a moment May stared at him, sur- prised out of her self-possession. Then suddenly she gave a curious little laugh. "Well then, I am in for it, after all," she said whimsically. "I know what you think. You think it 's Del. But it is n't. She 's had nothing to do with it really. I 'm the sinner. I started the whole con- flagration and then I was mad because Margaret tried to play fire-brigade and poured on water. ' ' Leonard's lips twitched. "I don't know, for the life of me, whether you 're in fun or dead earnest," "0, dead earnest. 'I killed Cock Robin, with my bow and arrow, I, said the sparrow.' I'm sorry, but that 's the truth of it." "Well, I hope you 're sorry enough to try to bring him to life again." Del's Debt 131 "Yes, I 'm sorry enough. The ques- tion is whether he '11 come. He 's dead mad, and when he 's that way well He 's going off home now, and if I know anything about the set of his shoulders he doesn't want to be inter- fered with. ' ' Leonard's eyes, following the direction of May's, saw Margaret plodding away up the hill, stubbornly, stolidly, and alone. " Think I 'd better venture to catch up with her?" asked May. "0, yes. Just for company, you know," he answered with an approving nod, and the twinkle in his eye that she always liked to bring there. With a flourish of her hand in good- by, she left him and sped across the hard ground in the path Margaret was taking. Her twin heard her coming but did not turn her head, and May could not help slowing up a bit before they were quite side by side, for it was going to be hard- er than she had expected to be the first to say "Forgive and forget," and she saw no signs of softening on Margaret's part. But Margaret was having her own 132 Del's Debt private and particular tussle with her- self, and had not quite conquered. She really wanted to "make up" as much as May did, but the smouldering fire of her temper was much harder to quench than the quick, short flame of May's, and to- day she had no tears to wash away the embers with. So they tramped on in dreary silence, while the light died out of the sky and the evening air grew raw and chill. The girls shuddered a little as the bleak wind struck them, and hur- ried on faster toward home, which was now plainly in sight. It stood, dark and gray, against the grayer sky. Only one window on the side facing them was alight, and that, somehow, seemed to glare out at the world like a furious fiery eye. Suddenly the girls stopped stock-still with their gaze fixed upon it in wonder that changed to anxiety, and then to terror. The fiery eye grew redder and more inflamed. A thousand darting, leaping lights seemed to quiver through it. "What does it mean?" gasped Mar- garet breathlessly, forgetting everything in her panic. Del's Debt 133 ' ' Fire ! ' ' shouted May, starting to run. "The house is on fire. It 's my room, don't you see? 0, why doesn't some- body save it. Why doesn't somebody put it out?" Margaret sobbed and wrung her hands in anguish. But as if in answer to May's questions, a dark shadow appeared at the window next the flaming one Del's window. The twins raced on breathless and panting, but all of a sudden they stopped and stood as if they were rooted to the ground for out of Del's window crept a little figure, black against the orange of the glaring background. It crawled slowly to the ledge and then let itself gradually down, down, down, till it hung there at the dizzy height, held only by its hands. May was simply dumb with horror, but Margaret screamed and screamed, too frantic from fright to know what she was doing. "Hush! Be still!" gasped May, com- mandingly, her eyes glued to the awful vision. "Don't you see she 's trying 134 Bel's Debt to get her feet on the waste-pipe ? If yon scare her she '11 fall." It seemed ages to the girls, watching below, before Del's feet actually touched the pipe, and then ages again while she inched her way slowly, slowly, slowly along it toward the jut of the balcony just beyond. "She 's going to fall! She 's going to fall!" shrieked Margaret. "Don't you see, she 's too little! Her arm won't reach the railing!" "Hush, hush, I say! Yes, it will too. She 's let go one hand, so she can feel for the post. No, no! It 's not there, Dellie! It 's a little further along! Now, now, you've got it!" gasped May era- zily. "Her foot's on the ledge now. She's safe! She 's safe!" One second more and the little dark figure had clutched the railing and scaled it. Another and she was on the balcony. The French window opened from the in side, but May had forgotten to lock it, and as Del flung her weight against the frame, it gave way with a crash. "She 's tearing the curtains down! DeTs Debt 135 She 's tearing them down!" shrieked Margaret, sobbing wildly. "And throwing them out," panted May. With one accord the girls dashed for- ward, and their cries of "Fire! Fire!" late as they were, brought Martin, Michael, and the others to the rescue in a moment. Meanwhile Del tore away at the burn- ing hangings like a frenzied thing. The fire seemed to her like an infuriated beast, and she grappled with it savagely, strangling it, choking it, and stamping its life out, with a sort of wild exultation. She did not realize that her hair was singed and her hands scorched. All she thought of or cared about was the cruel, brutal thing that was trying to overcome her and injure those she loved. She must crush it out and kill it before it succeeded. The worst of it was over by the time the men appeared with hose and buckets and set about flooding May's pretty room until it looked like a soaked wreck of itself. It made Del's eyes flash to see her enemy spurt out steam, hiss 136 Del's Debt viciously as the strong stream hit it, and then die weakly down. But no one was really satisfied it would not leap up again until they had proved every spark of life was absolutely gone. Mr. Middlebrook reached home to find his house in confusion and to learn how close he had come to having no house at all. Christine was fairly in hysterics, and Mrs. Austen looked as if she might have a fit of apoplexy at any moment. The twins were wild-eyed as Indians on the war-path, while Del, in her scorched dress, with her singed hair and blistered hands, was in even more desperate case than they. ''But what I want to know," Margaret demanded of Del, "is why under the sun you did that awful acrobat-stunt out of the window. What in the world ailed you ? I think you must have been crazy sheer crazy, to try it," "I was," admitted Del. "But all the same, there was nothing else to do. There was no other way out of it my room, I mean. You see, you both locked me in." For a moment the twins stared at her Del's Debt 137 in blank amazement. ' ' Great Scott ! ' ' was all they found to say, and then, with- out any cause whatever, all three of them burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughing, and laughed and laughed until, to their surprise, they found themselves crying as well, after which they felt bet- ter and could behave like sensible beings again,, "I tell you what it is, girls," said Margaret, catching her breath in a heroic gulp of determination, "I want to tell you both that I 'm out and out sorry for being such a hateful thing this afternoon and making such a horrid scene. I s'pose it won't do much good to say I '11 try never to do so again, but I will try, honest and truly." "I was really to blame," admitted May stoutly. "I began to wrangle first. I 'm just abominable sometimes, I know, only please give me another chance and let me try again." Del was the only one who was dumb, and that was because, when she tried to say her say, she found herself gently gagged from behind, and the twins cried out together as they held her: "Hush! 138 Del's Debt you can't have a share in this. If you 'd been as wicked as could be, which of course you weren't at all, what you 've done for us this evening would have wiped it all out. Now, don't let 's ever, ever, ever again talk of what 's hap- pened. ' ' And they never did. Not even when, in the general upheaval of May's room for repairs, her missing gloves were found tucked away out of sight, with the dollar-bill safe and sound in the right-hand forefinger, just as she re- membered, at last, to have put it, be- cause she wanted to make especially sure she would know where to place her hand on the money when she wanted it. Weeks passed before Del's wounds were thoroughly healed, and in the mean- time spring had arrived, and the weather was growing sweet and mild. The daily trip into the city was more fun now than anything else, and when school was done there were always several hours of clear daylight left in which one could drive, ride, or tramp about the country to one's heart's content. Easter came, and with it Leonard Van Ness, Del's Debt 139 bringing a couple of his college friends with Mm as guests. ''One of them 's real nice," confided Clare to the girls the morning after they arrived. "His name is White, Robert White, but they call him Quail, and I don't care if he isn't so good-looking as the other one, Mr. F. Creighton Cart- wright, he 's lots pleasanter and more natural. Mr. F. Creighton Cartwright (they call him Cracar) holds his chin in the air and looks down the bridge of his nose when he looks at you at all, and somehow it makes me mad. I s'pose he thinks I 'm nothing but a little girl, and it is n't worth while wasting good man- ners on me, but I 'd like to show him that even a little girl knows a real gen- tleman when she sees one, so there!" "What does Leonard ask him here for ? ' ' enquired Margaret. ' ' I should n 't think he 'd have any use for a person like that." "0, Len and Robert White seem to think he 's all right," replied Clare. ' ' They say he 's troubled with 'big head,' but that 's because he 's been spoilt at home. They say he 's 'square as a die,' 140 Del's Debt really, and would be an out-and-out fine fellow if he hadn't always had so much money and been made to feel he was the One-and-Only. But just the same, I don't like him, and I don't believe you will." "Pooh!" exclaimed May, with, a curl of her lip. "If he 's that kind of person he is n 't worth bothering about. I wouldn't take the trouble to dislike him." "Mother used to say," said Del shyly, "that a person only pays his way in the world when he gives everybody, no mat- ter who it is, a perfect courtesy. She used to say that each person we meet has a claim on us for courteous treat- ment, and if we don't pay it we're not paying our debts, that 's all." "0, come on out, girls," May cried, "and let 's get Lightfoot and the cart and go down Main Street. I 'm dying for some butter-scotch." Now Lightfoot was as reliable a horse as could well be imagined, but he was not fond of pulling overweight in the tilty, two-wheeled cart. The girls crowd- ed in pell-mell. Margaret, who happened to have the place of driver to-day, Del's Debt 141 snapped her whip in the air, and Light- foot started off with a protesting fling of the head, as much as to say, ''I '11 go, of course, but you 're not playing fair, remember, and so, if I 'in nervous on the road, please recollect it 's your own fault. You should take the other trap and let me have Rowdy to help pull." "Steady, Lightfoot, steady," com- manded Margaret, as he started, pricked up his ears, and broke into a sharp, brisk pace as they turned out of the gate- way into the road. Their way lay downhill, the air was fresh and bracing, and Lightfoot posted on with his merry, giggling load behind him, frisking his tail and feeling gen- erally a little " woild-loike, " as Martin described it. "I s'pose those are the kids Leonard was telling us about last night," mused Mr. F. Creighton Cartwright, as he spied them ahead of him from far off, and ped- alled his bicycle forward in a quick spurt to get a nearer view. "Guy, wouldn't it be sport to take a rise out of them, though ! A fellow needs some excitement in such a dull hole 10 Del's Debt 142 Del's Debt as this, and it would be funny to hear the kids scream." A moment later he was stealing noise- lessly up behind them, pedalling with all his might. Just as he got abreast of the cart, he sounded a loud, hoarse note on his fog-horn alarm, and then shot past, dashing close beside Lightfoot and coasting downhill like a streak of light- ning. The horse gave a quick, startled toss of his head, tried to turn out with the instinct to avoid another wheel, should there be one following, and then, taking his bit between his teeth, bolted madly forward and pounded on toward the rail- road-crossing like a crazed thing. CHAPTER IX The "kids" did not scream. Instead they huddled back breathless in the cart, trying to make themselves as small as possible, to give Margaret room to brace her feet, so she might get power on the reins. Her face was set and white, and her shoulders were strained back so far Del's Debt 14* she was fairly lying upon the others. "Steady, Lightfoot, steady!" she called and called again, while she wound the reins about her hands and strained back with redoubled force. At the base of the hill the road turned off to cross the railroad-track. Margaret, looking ahead with staring eyes, saw a faint puff of smoke rise like a gray cloud beyond the grade. Her lips grew ash-colored, and she pulled on Lightfoot with a strength she did not know she possessed. Cracar had not foreseen such a result as this. He had meant to scare the girls, but that the horse might be seriously frightened had not occurred to him. When his wheel came to a stop at last in a shady little side road off the beaten track, and he dismounted and looked back, the sight that met his eyes fairly stiffened his blood in his veins. He would have rushed down to their rescue, but one glance was enough to prove to him that it would be useless. "Steady, Lightfoot, steady!" "You can't do it, Marg. We must jump!" whispered May hoarsely. 144 Del's Debt " Stead} 7 -, Lightfoot, steady," panted Margaret. Her eyes were glazed, and it seemed as if her teeth were biting through her under lip. Clare and Del shrank back from her and looked at May for orders, but for once May was dumb and Mar- garet was commander. "Jump!" she said, so low they hardly heard. But the next instant they had obeyed her, and she was alone in the lightened cart, standing like a young charioteer with a look of iron determina- tion on her face. The whistle of the train was in her ears, sounding nearer and nearer every second. The track was directly before her and still Lightfoot would not stop. Suddenly her right hand shot out to- ward the whip-socket, grasped the whip, and sent its lash, in one fierce cut, straight across the horse's haunches. "Go, then!" she said between her set teeth. The cart cleared the rails in a bound, the train swept thundering by, and, with one last frantic death-grip on the reins, Margaret lost herself in a heavy gray (145) Del's Debt 147 fog that fell suddenly before her eyes and shut out the rest of the world from her. "0, Marg, Marg! How could you? Why did you? I thought you 'd jump too, or I 'd never have left you," she heard some one's yoice murmuring to her through the mist. "We thought you 'd be killed," panted another. "It was the greatest wonder you weren't!" cried a third. Then, as suddenly as it had fallen, the gray fog lifted and Margaret found herself huddled in the bottom of the cart, Lightfoot breathing hard, but standing quietly enough by the roadside, and the three girls clustered about the wheels, trembling and shaken with ex- citement. "What under the sun did you take such a risk for?" demanded May almost fiercely. ' * It was simply crazy. ' ' Margaret gathered herself up and sat back in the cart, weakly staring at Light- foot 's heaving sides. "Well, you know," she explained deliberately, "if I hadn't, Lightfoot would have been killed. At 148 Del's Debt first I meant to jump. And then I thought, 'He '11 be killed if I do,' and so I just didn't." "I guess," said Clare, after they had talked off the first shock, "I guess I '11 walk back home. I 'm afraid four in the cart weighs down the shafts and makes Lightfoot nervous." As May did not attempt to dissuade her, she and Del joined company and tramped together, being glad to leave the twins alone to "have it out by them- selves." They found Leonard and his two friends camped out on the veranda wait- ing for them. By common consent the girls had arranged that nothing was to be said of the runaway. ''You see," May explained to the other three, "Martin never likes us to go four in the cart, and he 'd say right off it was our own fault for making Light- foot uncomfortable. But it really was that horrid wheelman. 0, I wish I 'd had time to see who he was. I just tell you I 'd like to know. He had no right to do what he did. He intended to scare Lightfoot." Del's Debt 149 1 'Seems to me," said Leonard after he had introduced his friends, "you girls are mighty enterprising this morning, up and out so early. Now we fellows have been taking things easy. You see a man needs repose after his * strenuous life' of application at college." "Application to what?" asked May with a twinkle of her eye. "O to our books, of course," put in Robert White promptly. "You see be- fore you now the three bright particular stars of the U. Modesty forbids me to say which comes first, but Van and Cra- car run close seconds. So, is n't it, Cra- carf" Mr. F. Creighton Cartwright relaxed enough to wink solemnly, and then re- turned to his business of deliberately staring at the girls each in turn, "down the bridge of his nose, ' ' as Clare had de- scribed it. ' ' Have n 't any of you been out at all 1 " asked Margaret, directing her question to Leonard, a sudden idea popping into her brain. "No," he answered promptly; "that is, Quail and I have been meditating most 150 Del's Debt of the morning, but now I come to think of it, Cracar did desert us for a while. By the way, what were you up to, Cra- car ? Let 's have it ! Out with it ! The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." "Well, if I 'm on the stand," replied Mr. F. Creighton Cartwright with a flush, "I went down to the shore." "You didn't happen to ride Len 's wheel, did you?" asked Margaret, fixing her eyes on his squarely with a direct ac- cusation in her gaze. The young fellow paused, opened his lips, saw the look in her eyes, and set his jaws squarely. ' ' By Jove ! " he thought with rising re- sentment, "I was going to confess and do the square thing and apologize, but no kid is going to face me down like that, not if I know myself ! ' ' He waited before replying to her ques- tion long enough to measure her slowly from head to foot, and then answered coolly, as if it were hardly worth while. "Yes, I happened to ride Len's wheel." Margaret's cheeks flushed and she was glad that May created a little commotion DePs Debt just then by springing up and saying, "0, 1 forgot! Have some butter-scotch, won 't you, everybody! It 's rather good, I think. Fresh and sugary. Help yourselves, please, while I go indoors and hunt up some one to make us a pitcherf ul of lemonade. ' ' When she came back they were dis- cussing the Sound. "You have a fairly good beach down there," Cracar had patronizingly re- marked. "And when the tide 's up, I should think you 'd have rather tolerable bathing. ' ' "Bathing!" laughed Leonard good- humoredly. "We don't bathe here, man, we swim." "0, well, call it swim then, if you like, ' ' observed Cracar carelessly. "Thanks for the permission," an- swered Leonard shortly. ' ' What I mean is that, honestly, don 't you know, most people can't really swim a little bit. They think they can, but they can't. Now take this, for instance. Once I was talking with a fellow who was bragging about his swimming and he told me he 'd actually swum across Lake 152 Del's Debt Wauchepaug, which is half a mile across from shore to shore, and he thought it was a stunt. 'You call that a swim,' said I; 'well, I '11 go you one better. I '11 swim across and back!' and, by Jove, I did it." "That was a mile?" asked Bob White. "That was a mile." "Did you do it on time?" enquired Leonard. "I mean, was it a regular race, or was it a go-as-you-please af- fair?" "0, go-as-you-please, of course. He followed in a boat." "Well," remarked Leonard slowly, "I 'd like to wager that May here could equal your record." Cracar shot bolt upright in his chair as if he had sprung on wires, and his eyes darkened and flashed. "I take you up," he cried hotly. "I '11 give her a five-pound box of Huy- ler's if she does it. Fair and square: a mile: go-as-you-please!" "What do you say, May? Do you want to try it?" asked Leonard quietly, but there was a smothered eagerness in DePs Debt 153 his voice that she caught at once, and that determined her. "0, no, no!" broke in Margaret before her twin could reply. "She mustn't, Leonard. Papa mightn't like it. It might exhaust her. Please, please don't, May." "I will!" The words flashed out clearly, decidedly, and with a sort of defiant do-or-die ring that even Cracar understood "meant business." "It 's a go then?" he remarked ele- gantly. "All right. Let 's set the time for June. Quail and I '11 run down here with you, Van, for a day or two as soon as college closes. By that time the worst chill '11 be off the water and there '11 be no danger for the er Miss May." It was fortunate that the lemonade ar- rived just here. No one had thought the weather excessively warm, but the cool clink of ice in the pitcher was a welcome sound, and while they sat sipping the pleasant stuff they had time to notice how flushed their faces were and how dry their lips had become. " 'No danger for the ' I wonder 154 Del's Debt what he was going to call me ! ' ' May pon- dered exasperatedly. "'Child!' or 'kid?' Well, never mind! I'll show him what I am before I get through. ' ' "Girls," announced Margaret ex- citedly to May and Del as soon as their visitors had gone, "do you want to know who the wheelman was that fright- ened Lightfoot this morning? It was Cracar. What do you think of that?" "Why, I just don't believe it. I think you 're mistaken," answered May. ' ' I think he 's top-lof tical and proud, but I don't think he 'd really do anything in- tentionally to hurt a person. When you asked him if he 'd been on Len's wheel this morning he said 'Yes,' right off, but I don 't see that that proves he was the one that frightened Lightfoot." "But he was," insisted Margaret. "When he said 'Yes' he looked me right in the eyes as if he were daring me to accuse him or something, and somehow I couldn't say anything more, though I wanted to awfully. He 's perfectly hor- rid. I just hate his lordly manners and his high-and-mighty way of looking down on us because we 're little girls. Del's Debt 155 Suppose he is three or four years older than we are. So 's Leonard and so 's Quail and they don't put on such terrible airs." "0, May," broke in Del impulsively, * ' I wish you would n 't have anything to do with that swimming business. I wish you would n't try it. Somehow I have a feeling something will happen to make us all regret it. ' ' ' ' Pooh, don 't get excited, Dellie ! You and Marg have nothing to do with it anyhow, ' ' answered May. ' ' If anything happens I '11 be the only sufferer. But nothing 's going to happen except five pounds of Huyler 's. You wait and see ! I'm going to swim that mile like a duck and we '11 feast on caramels for a week after." But in spite of all May's courage and faith in herself Margaret and Del were not reassured. They knew her to be as hardy and strong-bodied as a boy, fear- less too and a fine natural swimmer, and yet they were anxious and uncertain as to how the affair would end. "What do you think about it, Del," asked Margaret. 156 Del's Debt "She '11 never get over it if she has to give in," said Del. "She won't give in," declared Mar- garet. "I know May. She '11 swim every inch of that mile if it takes her last breath." Del groaned. During the weeks that followed, May "trained" as conscientiously as if the safety of the nation depended on her. She said very little about her plans, but plainly she meant to win. She hadn't the faintest idea of allowing herself to be "crowed over" by "that Cracar." And then there was the incentive of Leonard Leonard who had made the claim for her in the first place and had put his faith in her. Well, she meant to do him credit, that was all. The great day came at last. Leonard and his friends had arrived the morning before and set to work immediately, go- ing carefully over the ground, settling the exact points of start and finish, over- hauling the boat, and trying in every way to make sure of having "a fair field and no favor." "I trust you, Cracar," said Leonard Del's Debt 157 a little gruffly, ' ' in case you see any signs of her giving out, to take her into the boat at once. Keep a sharp eye on her and don 't wait for her to show the white feather. She never would. Make her get into the boat, if it 's necessary. I don't believe, for a moment, she'll have to, but if she should, why, of course, you, as a gentleman, '11 make it easy for her." Cracar laughed. "Weakening, eh? I thought you would. You put up a pretty strong bluff, old man, but I guess it 's no go." "Wait and see," said Leonard. The next morning, bright and early, they all assembled at the shore Sally, Clare, Bob White, Cracar, Leonard, the twins, and Del. Margaret was pale and anxious-eyed and Del's cheeks had a flush in them that was not natural even under the sun, but May looked her usual bright, breezy self, only a little prettier, perhaps. When she stepped out of the bathing- house in her crimson and white suit, with her curly hair bunched under a coquettish little crimson cap, the party 11 Del's Debt 158 Del's Debt on the beach gave her a rousing wel- come. "Better not hulloo till you 're out of the woods," she said gaily in response, "or rather, till I 'm out of the water." Cracar launched his skiff and took his place in it, "You remember the stake?" shouted Leonard as he pushed off. "It 's the second wharf you come to, plumb on your right. The first spile 's a good half- mile from this. Don't forget." Cracar nodded carelessly. "Take a handicap?" he suggested patronizingly as May came round the side of the boat. She gave him a frank, full look directly in the eyes, which somehow made him feel sheepish and confused. "No thanks," she answered shortly. "Ready?" shouted Quail. She nodded. "Then go!" cried Leonard. "Good luck, May!" "If you get tired, do get into the boat!" "Come out winner, May!" "You 're a champion, May!" "Five pounds of candy!" Think of " IN HER CRIMSON AND WHITE SUIT." (159) that! It '11 keep your courage up," and amid shouts and cheers and bursts of laughter the start was made. May struck out easily and slowly. She had determined not to force herself, but to save her strength and so have enough to spare for the home-stretch. The clear, blue sky above, the sparkling water beneath, the soft, sweet air about her, made her feel equal to any trial of endurance and confident of success. Cracar saw at a glance that she knew perfectly well what she was about, and it made him regard her, not as a young girl to whom he must show gallantry and consideration, but as a perfectly sound and capable rival who, if she won, would have to do so fairly and squarely on her own merit. "Very well, young woman," he mut- tered rather grimly to himself, "it 's go- ing to be sure-enough sink or swim for you this time, and don't you forget it. You '11 have to show the white feather with a vengeance before I '11 let you. get into the boat. But, by Jove, how I hope it '11 come to that. To think of having to knuckle down before Van and Quail 162 Bel's Debt and all on account of a girl !" He felt his temples throb at the thought. He was thwarted and disappointed when he saw her change after a while, from the breast-stroke to the side, and then, by and by, vary that again with the over-arm. It showed him quite plainly she was using science to save her strength, and that, barring accident, she was quite likely to make good Leonard's boast. He was not mean by nature, but his absurdly pampered pride made him sometimes appear so. It was gall and wormwood to him to 'think of being worsted in anything, and somehow the present instance was particularly exas- perating and roused in him an unusual and unnatural resistance. At first he was glum and silent enough, but presently he began to shout aloud all sorts of absurdities which, when May heard them, made her laugh, till at length she realized she was wasting breath and squandering muscle by the performance. It never entered her mind that there might be method in his madness, that he might be deliberately Del's Debt 163 trying to weaken her power. She only knew that she must keep sternly to busi- ness and if need be hasten on a little to be out of ear-shot. But Cracar made up the distance with a single stroke of the oars and continued his chaff with a mirthless, hard gusto, that was as bit- ter to him as brine, because even while he was indulging his mean impulse, he felt ashamed of it and Cracar did not like to have to feel ashamed of him- self. May was still fresh and in fine feather when they reached the half-mile stake. "Now for the home-stretch!" she sang out gaily, over her shoulder, at Cracar in the boat. "No, you don't!" he shouted ve- hemently back at her. "It 's the last spile at the further end of the wharf. Len said so himself, just before we left. Didn't you hear him?" "He said the first," returned May. "You 're mistaken. I took special notice. Still, if you want to be let off easy, I '11 give you grace of the differ- ence. ' ' Without a word May swam forward, 164 Del's Debt her heart beating high with indignation and the sense that she was being delib- erately imposed on. No need now to try to outstrip the^boat to keep from laughing. The last spile was reached at last and she took care to turn a little beyond it, giving this graceless Shylock the seventeen ounces to his pound that he exacted and something to spare for full measure, pressed down, and running over. The sun was in her eyes now and per- haps that was why her eyeballs burned so painfully and why, presently, her temples began dully to throb. The tide had been with them on the way out, but going back she had to swim against the current. Cracar found himself pulling harder at his oars, and something like compunction struck at his heart as he thought of May's extra strain. "0, I say," he called out to her. "Let 's call it square. This is tough work, going back, and I 'm ready to own I 'm beaten, for you 're an A 1 swim- mer and that 's a fact." But May shook her head with a curt toss that made him feel like recalling DePs Debt 165 his words. "Pshaw!" he said irritably to himself. "Have it your own way then. It 's none of my business if you 're fagged out. You knew what you were about when you started, I suppose, and since you 're so almighty cocky, you can take your own chances. I don't care a rush!" As time went on, the noonday sun grew hotter and the dazzle and glare on the water more intense and blinding. May felt the force in her limbs giving out, and tried to ease up the strain by frequenter changes of stroke and a slower pace. Cracar noticed that she was losing energy, that her motions were getting every moment more and more labored and languid, but she had done herself no good by that defiant lit- tle toss of her head, and his shout of invitation to her to get into the boat had only derision in it. But it helped May, nevertheless, for it spurred her on afresh like a goad, gave her a new nervous force that was not a half-bad substitute for the muscular strength she had lost. "He thinks he '11 make me give in, 166 Del's Debt does he?" she thought contemptuously. "Well, he won't!" and she struck out with renewed spirit. O, but the way back seemed hard and long! When she got the first clear glimpse of the home-wharf around the curve of the banks, a knot rose in her throat and a film spread before her eyes. But the same instant her heart gave a great leap of dismay, for around the curve of the shore swept a great white yacht, towering and majestic, bearing down full upon her. CHAPTER X The best of May's strength was gone. The current was strong against her, and the yacht was making good speed. For a moment it seemed as if her cour- age would give out. A cloud of dancing specks quivered before her eyes; her ears were full of the sound of churning water. Somewhere behind her she thought she heard Cracar shouting shrilly, but she did not bother to make sure. She Del's Debt 167 gathered all her force together, threw it into a few firm, well-directed strokes in- shore, and then quietly turned over upon her back. The great white yacht glided past, so near that, looking up, she seemed to see the gleaming side of it rise like a wall directly above her, and then she found herself floating in the rolling water it left heaving in its track. It seemed ages to the group on the beach before they caught sight of the returning skiff. But at last it appeared. It came nearer and nearer every mo- ment, changing from a mere speck to an outlined form, then to a distinct object. "Look, Leonard, look!" cried Mar- garet, springing to her feet and strain- ing her eyes over the flashing water. "There they are, coming back! There! Around the bank. Oh ! that yacht ! It 's hiding them now. You can't see them at all!" But Leonard and Bob were exchang- ing significant glances, and Leonard's face had grown white and stiff. "The yacht is running them down!" shrieked Clare suddenly. "It 's run- ning them down!" 168 Bel's Debt ''Hush!" commanded her brother sternly in a voice no one had ever heard him use before. If it were really so if the yacht were actually running them down, if anything happened to May, it would be his fault: he would be responsible. For a moment no one spoke. They were all breathless, watching and waiting. Suddenly Bob White gave a great shout. "She 's turned out a bit and skirted 'em ! She 's turned out a bit and skirted 'em! May 's all right! She 's floating!" Leonard broke into a boisterous laugh that had a queer catch in it. ' ' Good old May ! " he cried hoarsely. By this time bath boat and swimmer were fairly within hailing distance. "Hail the conquering hero ine comes!" trumpeted Quail through his curved hands, as they neared the shore. Then a whole chorus of voices broke into a whole volley of questions. "Aren't you most dead?" "Was n't it awfully hot?" "Aren't you glad you 're home?" But May did not wait to reply. She Del's Debt 169 gave Cracar a sweeping glance as she made her last stroke, and then hurried up the beach and into the bathing-house. "Well, she did it! She 's game!" re- marked he grudgingly as he stepped out of the boat, wiping his face with a fine silk handkerchief that looked much the worse for having been used to whip the dust off his grimy boots. He did not say anything more, and when May reap- peared hardly deigned to notice her. She, for her part, was so silent and grave that after a few moments the party broke up by common consent, and the twins and Del found themselves climb- ing the hill together rather dispiritedly. Now that it was over and the excitement past, May felt limp and dejected. It had all been a sorry disappointment, and the bitterest part of it all was that Leonard had not seemed a mite triumphant over her success. In fact she had never known him to be so dumb without a word to say to anybody. "If you '11 let me, May, I 'd like to brush your hair a while," suggested Del a little timidly, not knowing how her of- fer would be met. "It always rests me 170 Del's Debt and does me good, and I 'd like to try and see if it would n't you." May nodded her thanks as she list- lessly flung herself upon her bed. Poor child, she was "crying tired," too worn out to talk, and yet she would not have owned to it for the world. But when Margaret came up-stairs bearing a dain- tily spread luncheon-tray that she had arranged herself, May fell upon it ravenously and ate and ate until she felt better. "I simply detest that Cracar!" she said as the last crumb disappeared. "Do you know what he did?" It was lots of satisfaction to see Mar- garet's jaws set and Del's eyes flash in righteous indignation as they listened. Somehow May's resentment seemed to grow weaker as theirs grew strong, and by the time she had said her say she was able to laugh at their excitement and try to calm it down. "What 's the odds?" she exclaimed lightly. "It is n 't likely we '11 any of us ever see him again. He '11 send me my candy and I '11 write him a nice little DeTs Debt 171 note saying 'Thank you kindly, young sir,' and that '11 be the end of it." But May was mistaken. It wasn't the end of it. The next morning she and Del es- corted Daddy to the train, and just as they neared the track May said: ' ' dear ! if this is n 't exactly my luck! I forgot to sew that ripped place in my sleeve and now I feel it pulling and pulling. The whole thing '11 be out by the time we get home if I don't do something to stop it. When we get to the station, and after Daddy 's gone, will you come into the waiting-room, Delsie, and catch the thread and pin me together?" "Of course I will," assented Del promptly. It was very warm. The windows of the waiting-room were flung open to the top and the outer shutters drawn close to keep out the sun. "My, but it 's hot in here!" exclaimed May as she crossed the door-sill. ' ' Come to the window, Dellie. Perhaps there '11 be a chance of a breeze." The pinning together process proved 172 Del's Debt rather difficult, and Del worked away in silence for some minutes, while May had all she could do to keep from mov- ing her arms to cool her flushed face with her handkerchief. Suddenly the sound of two well-known voices came to them very distinctly through the slats of the closed shutters. Leonard had come down to see Cracar off on the train, and now, to avoid the glare, they were standing directly outside the open win- dow behind which the girls were screened. 4 'Well, it 's too bad you have to hurry away," Leonard was saying, though not in his usual whole-hearted fashion. "Can't we offer you any inducement to stay at least as long as Quail does?" "No, thanks. Much obliged just the same. I 've slues of places to go, and I must be off," responded Cracar. " Hillborough isn't very gay, I ad- mit," said Leonard. "0, it's all right," Cracar assured him carelessly. "There '11 be more do- ing, I s'pose, when those kids grow up. They 're pretty little girls, 'specially the young Middlebrook one that is n't a Mid- DePs Debt 173 dlebrook what 's her name! Nell? Del?" "Del Del Douglas," returned Leon- ard. "But May 's a plucky little crea- ture, is n't she! We '11 all think of you, Cracar, when we eat the candy you 're going to send her, for she 's as generous as she is gritt} r and she '11 be sure to go shares." "Candy? What candy?" "Why, the candy you promised her, old man. The five pounds of Huyler's, you know." "Five pounds of Huyler's? Five pounds of nothing. I 'm not wasting good ammunition on such small game." "Great Scott, Cracar, you 're surely not in earnest," Leonard exclaimed. "What difference does her being 'small game ' make ? A debt 's a debt and a debt of honor " "Hullo! Here comes the train. Did n't know you were such a prig, Van. So long ! See you in the fall, eh 1 " When the two girls came out of the stuffy little room, their cheeks were blaz- ing. They waited until Leonard had driven well out of sight and then they 12 Del's Debt 174 DePs Debt started for home. Neither spoke. But when, a few days later, a splendid box of candy arrived directed to May, their eyes met in a puzzled stare. "So he did send it after all," whis- pered Del. May shook her head. ' ' I don 't believe it," she answered grimly. "I 'm almost sure it 's Leonard's doing. There 's no card to show, though, so I can't thank anybody. No, Cracar hasn't done this. It 's Leonard himself. He 's trying to save Mr. F. Creighton Cartwright 's rep- utation. Poor old Len!" "I s'pose you '11 never let him think you think Cracar didn't do it I" "No, never. It would only spoil his friendly little plan and do no one any good. I have my own private opinion, but I 'm in no hurry to publicly express it. Some one is sure to settle accounts with Cracar some day. He '11 simply make them do it by the way he behaves. I can't say, though, I wouldn't like to be there when it happens. Such fun as it would be to see him really paid off as he deserves." Whatever Leonard and Bob White Del's Debt 175 may have thought, they never "let on" to the girls, and although "the crowd," as they called themselves, was constant- ly together through the summer, nothing more was ever said about Cracar, and he seemed to have passed out of their lives and left no trace behind. The outdoor life and active exercise made another girl of Del. She grew tall, strong, and hearty, and by autumn was quite ready to begin the singing- lessons she had been looking forward to so eagerly. "Pooh!" exclaimed May contemptu- ously, "I wouldn't be bothered doing all the things you have to do to keep your voice in order. Just think! going without candy and taking cold plunges every morning: no late hours, and most of your time indoors spent practicing. It 's too much like work to suit me." "Lazybones!" jeered Del. "Christine says 'II faut souffrire pour etre belle': and it's true; one lias to suffer to be beautiful, and I guess that 's about the truth of it," said Margaret. 1 ' I never knew anything like the way that poor Madame Helmann had to work. I 176 Del's Debt used to think great singers and people like that had a lovely time. Nothing but beautiful presents from ' kinks and potingates' as Christine calls 'em. But Madame Helmann was famous enough for anything and she used to work like a slavey all day long. Christine says we would n 't put up with the simple way she lived, and as for flowers and ap- plause and splendid dinners and rolling carriages! She hadn't any time to think of them. She was practicing and rehearsing and studying new roles, as they call 'em, all the livelong while. And the worst was she could never have any real home with her. family and things for she was travelling most of the time, and at the other end of the earth. ' ' "0, an artist's life is not a happy one, happy one ! ' ' chanted Del gaily. "I shouldn't think it was, at that rate," scoffed May. "Christine says," continued Mar- garet, "that Madame Helmann never ate rich food or sweet things for fear they would upset her, and made it a rule to take regular exercise and cold baths to keep her circulation in order. She Del's Debt 177 wouldn't wear furs, because they make the throat tender; and she never stayed up late except the nights she was sing- ing, else she 'd have been too tired to do her best." ' ' Well, as far as I can see, ' ' said May, "a person like that is more bound down than we are. I wouldn't be hired to spend my life so. I hate to feel I 've got to do things. It just makes me furi- ous." " Would n't you be willing to give up and go without pleasures for the sake of some one you loved 1 ' ' demanded Del. " 0, of course. But singing music isn't like a person." 1 i It is when you love it ! ' ' said Del. "Do you mean to tell me you 're will- ing to do all that Madame Helmann did, just so you can be able to sing as well as she does?" "0, if I thought I could ever sing as well as she does!" sighed Del, in a way that showed very plainly that she would be perfectly willing. "Well, all I 've got to say is, you have queer taste. Of course I can see it must be great fun to be admired and praised 178 Del's Debt and all that. But if you 've got to pay so much for it the fun comes high. ' ' "Somehow," said Del, "it doesn't seem as if the being admired and praised is the real thing, quite. I think the real thing, the thing I long for and am willing to pay for as Madame Helmann does, is the chance to do something beautiful. To make people understand the things I feel. It 's as if you were dumb and wanted oh, wanted so much to tell something lovely that you had in your heart. When I 'm singing I feel as if I were doing that a little, and it makes me feel well, I can't describe it, but it 's as if I had wings and were free. I know what I say sounds silly, but I knoiv I 'd have to be willing to give up anything for my singing else I could never do it right not as I want to. I think it 's that way with people. They have no choice. If they don't have to do their art, they oughtn't attempt it, for they aren't the real things, don't you see?" "No, I don't," replied May bluntly. "I 'm sorry, but I don't understand a single word of all you Ve been saying. ' ' DeTs Debt % 179 "I think I do," broke in Margaret. "I think Del means that the real artist only cares for admiration as something he 's earned just as a sort of prize he 's got by excelling. But the real thing is the joy of having done well. And it 's no matter if no one else cares he 's got to go on trying and striving, just the same. He can't get away from it it 's like a sort of fate. And if he doesn't just have to keep on, working and waiting and bearing things for the sake of his art, why, then he isn't the real thing." "Well, I 'm glad I 'm not the real thing, then, so there ! ' ' declared May de- cidedly, ' ' for I 'd hate to have to give up everything I like best for the sake of some stupid stunt. And then when I 'd started in to sing or play or paint or write or whatever it was I 'd spent my life working for, to have the newspapers come out and say mean, false things about me!" "I know why you say that," broke in Margaret. "Christine 's been telling you about the unjust way the reporters and critics used to write about Madame 180 Del's Debt Helmann, and how, at first, it almost broke her heart " "Yes, and other singers were jealous of her and tried to slander her and "0, I know very well it wouldn't be an easy life, ' ' said Del soberly. i ' When I was a little girl and used to dream about being a great singer some day, Mammady would say, 'It 's a thorny road, Delsie,' and she knew because she 'd tried it poor little Mother ! ' ' i ' Tell about her, ' ' cried the twins. CHAPTER XI "Why, there is n't very much to tell," Del replied, "that is, it 's not much of a story. When Mamma was about my age her father and mother died. They had been pretty poor, I guess, and when they were dead there was nothing at all left for Mother. I don 't know what would have happened if an old lady- she was some sort of a far-off relation hadn't taken her into her house and given her, well, it was n't a home, it was just a place to stay in. Mother was Del's Debt 181 always very grateful to her relation, but she never grew to love her. The house was old and gloomy and stately, just like Aunt Cornelia herself. Aunt Cor- nelia never seemed to remember Mother was young and needed a little fun once in a while. All she seemed to think of was that poor Mammady was an expense to her and that she must make her econo- mize as much as possible and help with the housework to sort of ' earn her board an' keep,' like little orphant Annie, you know. Well, things went on that way for over a year, and then, one day, a great change came. Aunt Cornelia was entertaining a caller in the great, 'dark drawing-room, and Mother didn't hap- pen to know it. It was spring, and the air was lovely and soft, and somehow Mammady said she felt so happy in her heart that before she knew it she was singing. She sang and she sang, and the more she sang the happier she felt. Suddenly, she said, her voice caught in her throat and her heart gave a great thump, for there in the doorway stood Aunt Cornelia, looking terribly grim and forbidding. Mammady was so scared 182 Del's Debt so Aunt Cornelia glared at her without saying a word. It must have been aw- ful. Then, just as Mother was begin- ning to think the end of the world had come, Aunt Cornelia stepped into the room and said: 'It seems you have a voice. I am told it is rather a good voice. In fact, my caller down-stairs, who is a judge of such matters, assures me you have a voice it would pay to cul- tivate. If your face and hands are clean, you may come to the drawing-room. My visitor wishes to hear you sing, so it may be possible to decide what would best be done with you.' Mother was almost paralyzed : she went down-stairs shaking and trembling and sure she wouldn't be able to sing a note. But the caller was very kind and friendly, and before Mother knew it she was letting her voice out beautifully. Aunt Cornelia sat by as grim as a graven image and never said a word nor smiled a smile, while the visitor went into raptures over Moth- er 's voice. But when Aunt Cornelia had Mammady alone at last, she said she had concluded to give her a chance to Del's Debt 183 earn her living. 'It seems,' she said, 'that a good, well-trained voice is worth money. I am told public singers often make quite a fortune. Now, as you know, you are a considerable expense to me. You have no prospects. Unless you can be made to earn your living, you will continue to be an expense to me. Now I am willing to take my friend's advice and send you to Paris to have your voice trained, if you will undertake to consider the money I lay out on you in the light of a debt to be paid back with interest when you are fairly self- supporting. Business is business, and if I invest a certain sum in your voice I expect to see it returned. Do you un- derstand?' Poor Mammady! She said 'yes, she understood. She would con- sider it a debt,' and so it wasn't long before Aunt Cornelia sent her off to Paris to a celebrated teacher who has trained some of our finest singers. She accepted Mammady at once as a pupil, and for six months everything went all right. Then one day the great teacher called Mother into her study and told her she was very sorry to have to disap- 184 Del's Debt point her, but that Mother's voice would never be 'big' enough for public sing- ing. However, if she would keep on studying as she was doing now, in three years she would be fitted to teach Madame 's own method, and Madame would then give her a certificate recom- mending her as her ( authorized pupil.' At first Mother almost broke down: it was such a cruel disappointment. But she never let herself mope over her wor- ries, and the first thing she did was to sit down and write a letter to Aunt Cor- nelia, telling her just how the case stood and asking her if she would let her go on studying with Madame under the cir- cumstances. Aunt Cornelia's answer came by the first post. ' Certainly not ! ' she said. Mother 'ought to know enough already to teach in a small way, and she 'd better set about it at once/ Anyway she, Aunt Cornelia, would risk no more money, for teaching was slow work and poor pay, and Mother might be years working off her debt, if she could work it off at all. Anyhow Aunt Cor- nelia was resolved to send no more money, and that was all there was about Del's Debt 185 it. Mother showed the letter to Ma- dame, and Madame shrugged her shoul- ders. It was 'deplorable,' she said. But she had made it a rule never to give a lesson unless the full price was paid in advance, and she could not make any exceptions in favor of any one. Mother had a voice 'douce comme tout/ and would 'make an instructress the most excellent,' but all the same she really could not make any exceptions to her rule. "Mother went home to her pension and locked herself into her room. I s 'pose she cried. I knew I could n 't have helped it. But when she came out, she did what I never could have done. She went to her landlady and told her what had happened and asked if she might try to earn her board by doing house- work, and teaching English and singing to the landlady's daughter. The land- lady thought a few minutes and then said 'Yes. ' She put Mother up in a little room under the roof, but she was n't unkind to her. In fact, she found other pupils for her ones that paid well and after, a few months Mother was able 186 Del's Debt to go back to Madame and rebegin her lessons. She worked that way from morning till night for three years studying with Madame, doing house- work, teaching singing, English, and French, and doing fine sewing in between times ; and at last Madame gave her the great certificate authorizing her to teach the wonderful method. But the strain had been too great, and Mammady broke down and had a fever. "When she got better, she married my father, who was a young medical student at the great Sorbonne college in Paris. He had been very good to her, and though they were as poor as church mice, they were as happy as they could possibly be. Then I was born and they were happier still, and then, quite suddenly, my father died. He got blood-poisoning while he was making an operation, and he died within a few days. Then Mother brought me to America. She taught singing and earned enough to support us and pay back Aunt Cornelia, and she always tried to put by a little so sometime I could go to Paris and study under Madame. But it was hard work, and the debt part of it Del's Debt 187 hurt her more than anything else, for she never let herself rest till the last cent was returned, interest and all." "And that woman took it I took the money ? ' ' blazed May with flashing eyes. "0, yes, she took it." "Well, all I 've got to say is she 's a regular miser, and I just wish I knew where she lives so I could go there and give her a piece of my mind, the horrid thing!" "Now I see," said Margaret musing- ly, "how it is you can sing so well. Your mother taught you." "Yes, she taught me," answered Del, "but not very much of course. She said I was too young, and she did not want me to tax my voice at all until I was older. She made me take breathing ex- ercises and taught me something about producing the tones, as they call it, but she always hoped the time would come when I could go to Paris and study with Madame, a.s she had done." ' ' The time will come, ' ' broke in an un- expected voice from the doorway, and there stood Daddy smiling down at them with a guilty expression that told at 188 Del's Debt once he'd been playing eavesdropper and had heard the whole story. "The time will come, Delsie," he repeated, as the twins bounded forward and dragged him back with them to the window-seat. "0, Daddy, Daddy! Really? Truly? Do you mean it?" Del stammered eager- ly, while the twins clapped their hands until their father had to put his hands over his ears. "I have been thinking of a plan," he began, as soon as he could make himself heard. " 'To dye my whiskers green,' " quoted May. "Hush!" commanded Margaret. "For a grand outing time for us all," Daddy continued. "What do you say to our closing up the place here next spring and going abroad for a while?" " ' The owl and the pussy-cat went to sea In a beautiful pea-green boat,' " sang May, grasping Del by the hand and dancing her wildly about the room. "Hurrah! Hurrah!" shouted Mar- garet, springing up and clasping her Del's Debt 189 father round the neck. ' ' Daddy ! it would be perfectly festive." "Well, then, I am to gather you ap- prove 1 " he said with a twinkle of amuse- ment in his eye. "But really it all de- pends on Del. I have just been having a chat with her singing-teacher and he says " "0, what does he say?" interrupted Margaret eagerly. "Doesn't he think she sings splendidly? Doesn't he think she has a perfectly wonderful voice ? ' ' "0, hush, Marg, hush!" pleaded Del tremblingly, while her face grew quite pale with excitement. Mr. Middlebrook took her cold little hand in his and drew her affectionately down beside him. "Well, he seems to hope she may do rather nice things some day, ' ' he remarked quietly. ' ' But she '11 have to work first. He appears to feel she has had some excellent training al- ready and that her voice is very extr very expressive and " "0 Daddy!" broke in May, catching him up quickly, ' ' he did n 't say expres- sive at all. I just know he didn't. I can see it in your eyes. He said * extra- is Del's Debt 190 Del's Debt ordinary ' and you 're trying to soften it down so Del won't get 'primmed up with majestick pride.' But you needn't be afraid. She wouldn't anyhow. She is n't that kind." "So much the better," remarked Daddy, patting her hand approvingly. "If she were that kind, that would spoil it all. But to go back to the plan and how it depends on her. If she works hard throughout this fall and winter, keeps well, and doesn't let her head get turned, why, next spring we '11 take her to the other side, give her a couple of months of playtime, and then settle her down in Paris for a course of serious work. Now let us hear what you have to say about it, Delsie. Do you think you really care enough for this voice of yours to repay you for all it 's going to cost? cost in self-denial and hard work and all?" Del's eyes gave him his answer, con- vincing him and thanking him both at once. "But please tell us," cried Margaret, shaking him gently to impress him with the importance of what she was going DePs Debt to say, "Please tell us what we 're to be doing in the meantime. I mean, while Del 's at her music." "0, you '11 be studying, tooi for a year. Then I '11 bring you home and leave Del to follow when her great Madame is done with her. So now, young ladies, mind your manners, con your books, and obey your Daddy, or no Europe for you next spring. ' ' The girls laughed back at him to show how little they feared his threat, and then began to chatter so excitedly over the new plan and all the changes it would bring, that he had to put his hands over his ears again and beat a hasty retreat to escape the hubbub. But back of all her joy in the wonder- ful prospect, Del felt the old weight on her heart that always returned when she remembered her debt. In a twink- ling she was back again in Mrs. Jud's best spare-room, lying in the great, gloomy bed, with its giant bunches of black-walnut fruit glued to the headboard. She had been haunted with a fear that the fruit was going to fall down and crush her, and she had 192 Del's Debt tried to shift out of its way, but couldn't. Then in the midst of her dread and fear had come the sound of voices, men's voices, and she had opened her eyes to see three kind faces bending over fyer. They were all familiar to her, and yet, at first, she could not place them. She remembered the struggle she had had before she could fix Mr. Middlebrook's. How the picture of the twins, galloping into Main Street on their dashing ponies or in their jaunty cart, had at last done it. He was May's and Margaret's father! And then the hum of voices had filled her ears and she had heard him promise to give her a home. And when she had looked up to thank him, lo ! the room had been dark and all she had been able to make out in the gloom was Mrs. Jud peace- fully snoring in a chair near the table. Her heart had ached with disappoint- ment, for she knew she was homeless, now her mother was dead, and the dream that Mr. Middlebrook had promised to make her May's and Margaret's sister had been a beautiful, comforting one. But, presently, it had become so mixed Del's Debt 193 up with her other dreams that she forgot it altogether. Such hideous dreams ! They had crowded on her from out of the shadows, and her body had ached trying to fight them off. But at last her head had seemed to clear, the burning furnace in it had cooled down, and she again heard familiar voices beside her. "I '11 carry her home with me to be cared for as a beloved daughter till the time comes when she '11 want to leave the old man to make a home for her- self." "God bless you, Mr. Middlebrook! The Lord has tempered the wind to the shorn lamb. . . . She will owe you a debt she could hardly pay in a lifetime. But I hope she will try to repay you, and I think she will. She seems like an hon- est, true Sh ! She 's opening her eyes. She 's waking up. ' ' So the dream had been a true one after all! But the hateful word "debt" had taken the sweetness out of it. How it all came back to her ! Her mother's dread of debt and her own fixed determination never, never to owe any one anything she could not repay. Well, she meant to 194 Del's Debt be honest and true, as Doctor Emmet had promised, and pay Daddy back for all he was giving her. She knew better now than to suppose she could do it in money. That had been a childish notion. But if she made a name for herself! If she worked hard, cultivated her voice, and became famous at last so that he might be proud of her! That would surely help her to pay her debt. And yet suppose she were to fail. Suppose her voice should not be "big" enough for great things. * ' Del, wake up ! What under the sun ails you I I Ve asked you the same ques- tion three times over and you act as if you were as deaf as a post." Del pulled herself together with a con- fused little scowl. "Excuse me, May, I was just think- ing, ' ' she answered. ( l What was it you wanted to know?" "0, Marg and I were just saying how great it will be if you can show your fine singing-teacher over in Paris what a splendid voice you have! Won't you feel proud and as if, somehow, it would pay her back for the way she treated Del's Debt 195 your mother? Marg says if she were in your place she 'd go to her just to let her hear how you can sing and then have some one else teach you and get the glory. It certainly would be a splendid way to square up your mother's score with her." Del's eyebrows drew together in an anxious frown. A new thought had come to her. Was it really true, what Margaret suggested, that she owed Madame a debt on her mother's account? And if it were right to pay debts of grati- tude, was it not also right to pay debts of resentment? "Del! Del!" called Mr. Middle- brook from the hall-room. Del sprang to her feet instantly and ran down to answer him, giving him a cheery ''Yes, Daddy!" on the way, to show him she was coming. He stood at the foot of the staircase awaiting her, with an open letter in his hand. "My dear," he said, "this has just come by special delivery, and you are the one to answer it, not I. Your mother's relation the Aunt Cornelia you have 196 Del's Debt just been talking about is, it seems, seriously sick, and she has expressed a wish to see you. Will you go 1 " CHAPTER XII Del shrank back from the paper which Mr. Middlebrook offered her and shook her head at it defiantly. "No, no!" she cried, her eyes flashing with quick anger. "I won't go ! Not a single step. She has no right to ask me." Daddy folded the letter quietly and re- turned it to its envelope. ' ' She was cruel to Mamma, ' ' went on Del in a trembling voice. "She was cruel and hard and unjust. She knew Mother was sick and weak and she let her work and work and work till oh! I can't talk about it, Daddy, but I re- member I remember!" Mr. Middlebrook examined the direc- tion on the envelope of the fateful letter and did not utter a word. "She made Mother give her back the last penny of that horrible money, when she knew how poor, poor, poor we Del's Debt 197 were!" continued Del passionately. "She hadn't any pity on Mamma, and I have n't any for her. I'm just paying her back in her own coin, so there ! ' ' * ' Then I am to write that you refuse to go?" enquired Daddy in the calmest of matter-of-fact voices. Del started to say "Yes," but some- how a passing glance to his face stopped her short. There was an expression in his eyes that made her uneasy. "She that woman, I mean," she be- gan angrily, then hesitating, "She can't make me go, Daddy, can she! She has n't any any claim on me?" A pitying smile crept into the corners of Mr. Middlebrook's mouth, but he set his lips against it and answered very seriously, "No, Del, she can't make you go unless you choose. She has no claim on you beyond the claim of any sick and suffering creature. She gave up all share in you willingly and unhesitat- ingly, last autumn. You are my daugh- ter in sight of the law, dear, and no one else has any legal right to you." Del heaved a great sigh of relief. ' ' 198 Del's Debt I 'm so glad ! ' ' she cried from, out of the deepest place in her heart. * * And your answer to the letter ? ' ' Daddy's tone was low and composed, but again Del felt dimly uneasy. She raised her head and looked into his face. Their eyes met. . "Daddy," she broke out at last with a great effort, "do do you want me to go!" Mr. Middlebrook put his hand on her shoulder caressingly. "I want you to do nothing your heart does not tell you is right," he replied. Del's breath caught in a frightened gasp. "But I yes, I hate her!" she stammered chokingly. "When I think of poor Mammady I sometimes feel as if I 'd like to hurt her. How can I go when I feel that way? It wouldn't be honest it wouldn't be truthful. It would be acting a falsehood doing something I didn't feel. I can't be a hypocrite, Daddy, and pretend I have forgiven her when I have n 't. " "It is not hypocritical, Del, to act as you know you ought to feel. Persist in Del's Debt 199 doing the right thing and presently you will/eent." Del 's eyes fell, and she stood braiding her fingers together nervously while Mr. Middlebrook waited patiently for her answer. Suddenly she gave a quick, sharp little sob. "I '11 go!" she whis- pered, and flew up-etairs before he could say another word. When the twins discovered what was afoot, they broke out in a perfect storm of protest. It was "outrageous!" It was "unfair!" It "looked exactly as if Del didn't care a bit about all her mother had had to bear. As if she was just made of mush and hadn't spirit enough to be honestly angry." They had "always thought there was such a thing as 'righteous indignation.' Del set her mouth and dressed her- self for the trip in grim silence. Mr. Middlebrook was to take her to the city himself and to wait for her in the for- bidding old mansion until she should be ready to go home with him again. "You won't leave me there, will you, Daddy?" she implored. "Promise you won't go away and leave me." 200 Del's Debt "Certainly I'll promise not to leave you against your will, Delsie," he as- sured her comfortingly. It was a grim, uninviting mansion, Aunt Cornelia's, and Del's heart sank into her boots as they stood before the heavy inhospitable front door waiting to be admitted. But when the door was opened and they found themselves in the stately dark hall, it seemed to fail her altogether and she had a wild desire to turn around and escape as fast as she could. The walls were high and covered with paper that must have been hung half a century before. The floor was tiled in marble : white, diamond-shaped pieces with small black ones, set in a stern design. The drawing-room was dark and swathed in clumsy, ungraceful draperies. Nothing was fresh in the place. Even the air was stale and op- pressive. The windows were closely curtained, and the inner shades were drawn down to their full length. Not a sound broke the stillness. Del felt as if she were being smothered. She looked Del's Debt 201 appealingly over at Mr. Middlebrook and he sent her a bright, encouraging smile in return. "The young lady can go up-stairs," said a low voice from the doorway, and Aunt Cornelia's old parlor-maid, Cath- erine, who had been in her employ for over forty years, stood like a noiseless, stiff-backed sentry on the threshold. Del rose and followed her with the hope- less feeling she might have had if she had been a prisoner following her jailer to her cell. Mr. Middlebrook waited ten minutes twenty half an hour. The place was as still as death, and he pitied Del with all his heart, for he knew she was having "a hard row to hoe" up-stairs. At last he heard her step upon the marble floor of the hall. She came directly to him, and he was able to make out, even in the dusk, that her face was very white. "She she wants me not to go away. She wants me to stay overnight," Del managed to gasp, her voice trembling on the edge of tears. Daddy patted her on the head in his kind, encouraging way. 202 Bel's Debt "She she's very weak and sick and old," stumbled Del, "and and I I s'pose I ought to but, oh! I can't. It just kills me to be here. She 's a dread- ful old woman." "I could come early in the forenoon to-morrow and take you home," sug- gested Mr. Middlebrook. Del's hands went up to her face and covered it. "Well, then, go go quick!" she gasped, "before I know I can't stand it!" Poor little Del ! If she had known at that moment how long she was going to stand it, she would never have had the courage to begin. The stern-faced, harsb-voiced old woman up-stairs, who never gave her a kind word or a loving glance, seemed, notwithstanding, to have taken a curious, invalid's fancy to her, and it was not in Del's heart to refuse when the weakened voice labored to ask her to stay. So, when Mr. Middlebrook came the next day, Del was not ready to return home with him. He smiled at her approvingly and let her see he was pleased with what she was doing. The Del's Debt 203 twins fretted and fumed, but day after day passed by, and still Del remained in the city with the dying old woman who did not die. Every day when they met her at school, May and Margaret tried to per- suade her to go back with them, but the days lengthened into weeks and she was still at Aunt Cornelia's. Thanksgiving came, and Del ate her dinner alone in depressing state, in the frowning old dining-room with the silent old Catherine to wait upon her. "If you 're going to be away Christ- mas," complained May bitterly, "we '11 rise up and strike, so there!" "This is getting to be no joke," la- mented Margaret. "Think what jolly time's we were having last year, this time. ' ' "0 hush!" begged Del. "It only makes it. all the harder to bear. I just have to keep forcing myself every minute to stay as it is, and if I think you miss me so much, why " ' ' Miss you ! ' ' echoed May with an in- dignant snort. "I 'm working like a slavey over my 204 Del's Debt lessons and singing,," Del went on. "It kind of comforts me to. She Aunt Cor- nelia does n 't want to see me much. She just wants to feel I 'm in the house, I s'pose, so I have plenty of time to my- self, and when I come home and sing to you, you must tell me if you think I 've improved. ' ' "If a body only knew when you were coming home," May cried out impa- tiently. Del shook her head. That very night she dreamed she was in Paris singing, or rather trying to sing, before Madame for the first time, and though she struggled and struggled to make herself heard, she could not, it ap- peared, utter a sound. Her voice had vanished. Suddenly Madame strode for- ward and clutched her arm and shook it violently. Del found herself choking with rage and disappointment, and she turned savagely upon Madame to find herself sitting up in bed, half asleep, at- tempting to thrust back old Catherine, who was anxiously trying to wake her. "0, Catherine! What 'a the matter? Del's Debt 205 Did I hurt you! I was dreaming. I 'm sorry, ' ' mumbled Del drowsily. ' ' Hush, miss. Please get up, do I The doctor is there and both the nurses, but the madam wants you, and they say it 's the end, and you 'd better come. ' ' Del was wide awake in a minute. She thrust on her slippers, flung on her loose wrapper, and followed Catherine along the shadowy hall to the great, mysterious room beyond. She had grown somewhat accustomed to it, during her stay in the house, but to-night, though nothing about it was changed, it felt unfamiliar and awe-ful. The doctor was standing by the bed- side, his fingers about "the madam's" wrist. He laid her hand gently down on the counterpane as Del came forward, and beckoned her to take his place. Aunt Cornelia's face was white and set, and she did not open her eyes when Del bent over her. But after a while the lids slow- ly lifted and she gave her a long look. Del waited for her to speak, but though her eyes seemed trying to say something, her lips did not move. The doctor leaned over toward the pillow. Aunt Cornelia 14 Del's Debt 206 Del's Debt did not notice him. Her dumb eyes re- mained fixed on Del. At last Del could endure their pitiful stare no longer. "Aunt Co-rnelia," she whispered gently, ' ' is there anything you want me to do ? I wish I could help you." She waited, but there was no answer. "It is too late," the doctor mur- mured, "she cannot speak." A moment after he turned slowly away, and Del heard a curious smothered sound behind her. She turned and saw old Catherine trying to strangle a sob behind her apron. It was the one sign of grief she showed over her stern old madam's death. The next morning Del went home. How glad she was to get back, not even Daddy nor the twinnies could imagine. She did not pretend to grieve over Aunt Cornelia's death, but it certainly made her feel very serious and thoughtful. Somehow she could not get rid of the memory of those haunting eyes. "You see," she explained, as they all sat gathered around the hall-room fire that evening, "she had made the doctor and the nurses understand a moment be- Del's Debt 207 fore that she wanted me, and then, when Catherine called me and I got right up and went in to her, it was too late : she couldn't speak any more." " 'Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison,' ; quoted Mr. Middlebrook gravely. The twins and Del were silent, and for the rest of the evening very little chat- ting was done around the fire, the little group thinking rather serious thoughts. Special business called Daddy to town within a few days, and the girls were left monarchs of all they surveyed. As Christmas was close at hand, this suited them exactly, and their preparations went forward with particular vim. Del, who had the least time of the three, and did not feel she could steal a minute from her study and practice hours, had to plan and prepare her sur- prises before the others were out of bed in the morning, or after they had fallen asleep at night. She had thought the 208 Del's Debt whole thing out, and it seemed to her that simply to buy them gifts with the money Daddy gave her was merely to return to them what was, in a sense, theirs al- ready, and so she took special pains with her presents, making them from the be- ginning to end with her own hands, and repeating to herself all the while the words of one of the marked passages in her mother's book of Emerson's Essays, that had grown to be a sort of monitor to her: "But our tokens of compliment and love are for the most part barbarous. Eings and other jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. . . . Therefore the poet brings his poem ; the miner, a gem ; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing. ' ' "Still, if I had a little money of my very own," she thought wistfully, "I could buy nicer materials and choose the patterns I like best. Well, never mind! Perhaps I '11 be able to earn some, some day, and then " That "and then " opened such a Del's Debt 209 beautiful prospect of generous giving that, whenever she said it, Del lost her- self directly in a delightful day-dream, and had no thoughts left for present dis- couragements. But the dream was to come true sooner than she expected, and izLxjuite a different way. 7 "Did you ever in all your life know of J Su anything like the way that telephone-bell keeps ringing, nowadays, when Daddy is home! I should think, when Mr. Gar- diner has him in the city constantly day- times, talking about troublesome law things, he 'd let him have a little peace in between," said May complainingly as the irritating tinkle took her father hurriedly from the breakfast-table to answer its summons. ( "It seems to me I 've never known Daddy to be so busy. Can it all be Christmassing, do you s'pose?" ' ' What would Mr. Gardiner have to do with our Christmas? Daddy doesn't have to consult his lawyer every time he buys us a present, does he?" demanded Margaret. The girls laughed. "Somehow," put in Del, "he seems to 210 Del's Debt have something on his mind. Lots of tunes lately I 've caught him looking aw- fully solemn and as if something was going on that made him .anxious. " "I 've noticed it, too. What do you s'pose it is?" ventured Margaret. (How can we tell?" returned May, puckering her brows thoughtfully. "You don't s'pose," suggested Mar- garet, who was rather good at imagining calamities, "he 's losing money or any- thing of that sort, do you? dear! If we 're all going to be paupers, whatever in the world shall we do ? " "I think I could teach singing," said Del. "In fact, I just know I could. I could study in between times, as Mam- mady did, and I 'm certain I could help along. ' ' rTT*^! could n 't do an earthly thing any- body would pay me a cent for, ' ' admitted May bitterly, "unless, perhaps, it might be to teach swimming which would be a lovely occupation, now would n't it?" "And in the winter-time, when you 'd need the money most, you couldn't get . any pupils," jeered Margaret. "I wish I had learned to sew and could Del's Debt 211 do housework. One can 'live out,' as Hannah calls it, and get real good wages." Del laughed. "That reminds me," she said, "that last night I dreamed a piece of poetry. It was lovely. It went: The wages were outrages" "But they 're not," declared May se- riously. * ' They 're real good. Just look what Christine gets and her board and washing into the bargain." "0 me!" lamented Margaret, who was rather given to starting avalanches and then getting terror-stricken when they began to slide, "please let 's stop supposing horrors. I 'm getting scared stiff." '/'Yes, there 's no use borrowing trouble, 'A laughed May, but her laugh was an*measy one. If Mr. Middlebrook had not been so busy with his own thoughts, he would have been surprised at the subdued breakfast-table he found on his return. He had left the girls in a gale of fun, but it had died down entirely while he was away, and it did not break out afresh when he took his chair again. The twins 212 pel's Debt and Del stole shy glances at him from under their eyelashes, but they need not have bothered to veil their curiosity : he simply did not notice them at all. P* Something is the matter, '\ they grimly telegraphed one another as the moments slipped by and still he did not appear to be aware of their existence. 1 ' Have some hot coffee, Daddy ; yours is coldj' said May at last, with a des- perate determination to, at least, break the bewildering silence and make him realize they were alive. He handed her his cup without a word, ,but when she gave it back to him re- filled, he let it slip and the coffee spilled over the table-cloth. The little accident broke the spell. "You may send me from the table if you want to," Daddy assured them, with a shadow of his old smile. "I 've been very careless indeed, and deserve to be punished." ^ery well, "'said May with pretend- ed .briskness. rWe '11 set a punishment for you right \>ff, and you '11 have to bear it. Tell us this minute, sir, what ails you." Del's Debt 213 ''Ails me?" , something 's up. Something bothers you. Confess now.J Daddy nodded a rueful assent. And it has to do with money?" per- sisted May. "Ye es," admitted Daddy again with an effort. Margaret's face and Del's turned gray, and May gave a great gulp. Sud- denly all three sprang up and threw themselves upon him bodily, crying and laughing and clinging to him all at once. "Don't worry, Daddy! Don't grieve." "Who cares if it is gone? You have us left!" "We don't mind being poor, Daddy. We '11 be just as jolly as can be, no mat- ter what we have to live on or how much we have to scrimp and save. Just you wait and see!" "0, Daddy, I 'm sure I can help a lit- tle, if you '11 only let me try. /-fean- teach H< Mamiaady did, and study too, and I know all about being poor, you see. It isn't half so bad as it looks, when you have the people you love to help you bear it.") 214 Del's Debt CHAPTER XIII With three pairs of arms about his neck and three dead weights hanging upon his shoulders and trying to comfort him with their caresses, Daddy found it a little difficult to speak. But as soon as he could manage to free himself a bit and recover the breath that was being fairly hugged out of him, he made an effort. "What does it all mean? this de- lightful, but if you '11 excuse me rather overpowering demonstration?" ' f /Why, we just want you to know that we love you more than tongue can tell, and that we don't care a bit that is, not much I mean, we 're sorry, of course, but it can't be helped if you Ve lost a lot of money and things and we 're going to be poor." Daddy looked at them for a moment in puzzled wonder. "Who told you I had lost a lot of money, I wonder, and that we are going to be poor?" wv^t^ffO, n one told us. But we don't ^ V Del's Debt 215 have to be told: we can see some things for ourselves." "Oho! and so you Ve seen for your- selves that I 'm penniless?" - ;^ Well, we saw you were awfully taken up 'thinking about something, and you confessed it bothers you, and that it has to do with money. ' ' "Surely so I did. And you are go- ing to stick by me and help me out of my trouble? You 're going to be my breadwinners?" ' "We 're going to find something to do, somehow, and Del's going to teach sing- ing. ' ' Daddy got up from his chair rather abruptly and strode to the window, where he stood for a moment with his back turned squarely upon them. Sud- denly May's alert eyes almost started out of her head with horror. Daddy's shoulders were heaving. ^ x 'He 's crying!" she whispered breathlessly to the terror-stricken other two, who could see for themselves and had come to the same conclusion on their own account. No one dared stir or say a word. May turned away her eyes in 216 Del's Debt misery, Margaret hid hers behind her hands and tried to crush back the tears, and Del kept repeating over and over to herself, "I can help and I will! I '11 pay my debt and make him happy again. ' ' A movement by the window made them all look up, and there stood Daddy, gazing over at them fondly, without a trace of agitation in his eyes. To be sure, he was somewhat flushed, and his grief might have been of the dry sort, but the longer they looked, the more they had reason to doubt that he had been indulging in grief at all. " Daddy J" they shrieked in a re- proachful ^breath, f'you Ve been laugh- ing at us!*' He tried to protect himself from them, but it was no use. "Forgive me! I did n 't mean to ! I could n 't help it ! " sLf V^But it 's mean to make fun of us !" "I was n't making fun. I had no idea of making fun ! I am at this moment en- gaged in respecting you immensely. You have proved yourselves such thor- ough good girls, all three of you so courageous and loyal and womanly. I Del's Debt 217 just couldn't control myself. I had to 'chortle in my joy.' " But we 're in dead earnest. We really mean to put our shoulders to the wheel and help." " Bravo! And so you shall when it 's necessary. If I need assistance some day, I '11 know where to find it. But just at present I 'm not in the least bothered about my prospects." , The girls stared at each other blankly. ''' ,"Why ee! You said you were)" they stammered out confusedly. ''Pardon me, I didn't. I never said I was bothered about my prospects. I 'm bothered in a way I '^1 admit, but not about my prospects." <r still unpaid debt to Dad- dy, she felt she stood even with the world, for she really did try to "pay up" as she went along, leaving no obligations behind to hamper and embarrass her. Moreover, her way of settling her little bills left only pleasant memories be- hind, and she was grateful to Daddy for having helped her aver the first difficult time of reckoning with Aunt Cornelia, when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to make an unhappy blunder which would have left her with a "dif- ference" to struggle with for the rest of her life. But with all her good mem- ory for outstanding accounts, one little "balance brought forward" had slipped her mind, and when she suddenly came face to face with her creditor, she had to make an effort to recollect precisely what it was she owed him, and how it came about that she owed him, such a perfect stranger, anything at all. She had been singing at a large and extremely fashionable charity concert, 244 Del's Debt and was being lionized to anything but her heart's content, for the tedious per- formance had already begun to bore her, when in the midst of the crush she saw a certain dapper young Marquis of her acquaintance struggling to make his way toward her with a large and distin- guished person moving grandly after at his heels. At sight of them Del's eyes began to twinkle. "A busy little tug towing a barge," she thought naughtily. She was tired of playing Dignity and felt just in the mischievous mood to frivol. The fussy little Marquis had the most elab- orate of manners, and he brought them out in full force now, while Del smiled patiently at his compliments and tried to act as if she believed that he believed in the smallest fraction of all he was saying. " Ah, but a thousand pardons," he apologized after a moment. ' ' I am keep- ing my companion, who is on the point to expire from eagerness to meet you, in anguish by my delay. With your gra- cious permission allow me to present a compatriot of your own, chere made- DeTs Debt 245 moiselle; a friend whom I encountered during my recent sojourn in your so adorable country. Monsieur Creighton- Cartwright, Mademoiselle Douglas the divinest of songstresses." Creighton Cartwright! Where had she heard that name before, and why was it dimly familiar to her? In a flash her thoughts were far away years and miles away going back, back, and back to a summer day long ago when the sun had shone and the Sound had glittered and a little bright-haired head with a jaunty red cap perched atop was sighted coming slowly and wearily inshore, while a dainty white skiff with a sulky rower at the oars followed after, gracelessly enough. Cracar ! Yes, this was Cracar himself, but oh! how changed in manners and temper! No one could be more cour- teous in his behavior or show a more sincere desire to be cordial. But he still carried his chin in the air, and this, to- gether with his little assumption of fa- miliarity, as if he were an old acquaint- ance, jarred on Del and made her long to take him down a peg. 246 Del's Debt "0, yes. I recall you perfectly," she assured him, with complete good nature, when he referred to "those jolly old days in Hillborough." "Of course I recall you." Her lips began to twitch a little wickedly. "How could I possibly forget the sender of that scrumptious, as we called it then, box of candy!" ' ' Eh what ? ' ' stammered Cracar puz- zled. "What box of candy, I wonder!" "Why, the one you sent my sister, May Middlebrook, you know. You can't have forgotten her great swim, surely! My sister is a famous swimmer, Marquis. Mr. Cartwright promised her a five- pound box of bonbons if she outdistanced him, and she did, and, naturally, he kept his word, as a man of honor should. With what was characteristic modesty, he forebore to enclose his card in the box, but we girls hadn't a doubt as to the real sender of the goodies, and while we feasted royally on sweets for the next two days, we ate to his health in choco- late creams and caramels, and voted him a gentleman and a scholar. ' ' "What felicity!" chirruped the Mar- quis amiably. Del's Debt 247 "0, I say," said Cracar, reddening, ''I can see you 're quizzing me. I had quite forgotten the affair, don't you know, but now it all comes back to me, and I remember I did omit to enclose my card in the box. I 'd meant to, but at the last moment it was overlooked, and then to tell you the honest truth I did n 't think it worth while to write a note to Miss May, explaining. I was a great ass, I suspect. I remember I thought her quite an infant, and myself a miracle of age and wisdom. I thought the whole thing a bore, and I got rid of it as quickly and easily as I could." It was Del's turn now to flush. "You mean you really sent the candy? af- ter all? you?" Cracar looked down at her over that lifted, supercilious chin of his. "After all? ' ' he asked. * ' Of course I sent the candy. What makes you ask? oh! I see. You thought differently. You thought I had not sent it. That I did n't keep my word That some one else- Del did not answer. "I 'm afraid it was a case of the dev- il's not being quite so black as he 's 248 DePs Debt painted," resumed Cracar gravely. "J evidently made myself cordially dis- liked, a-nd so you thought me capable of anything. ' ' Del made a great effort and broke into a light laugh. ' ' Xo, it was you that thought yourself capable of anything," she returned mockingly. "You left a ' majestic mem- ory' behind, and you oughtn't to won- der, when you recollect how nobly you ac- quitted yourself during your two short visits to Hillborough. Honor where hon- or is due, is it not so, Marquis?" "But truly," murmured the Marquis with promptness. Cracar 's color suddenly deepened. As a general rule he was as ready with his tongue as the next man, but somehow he found himself utterly at a loss for words in which to respond to the quiet chaff of this much-talked-of young beauty to whom all Paris was so eager to do hom- age, and whose friendship would be a distinction. He was by no means a dull- witted fellow, and now that his behavior as Leonard's guest was recalled to his mind, he remembered that it had been Del's Debt 249 rather shabby, and that no one was to blame but himself if the girls thoroughly detested him. He thought of the run- away, for which he had been responsible, and his ungallant conduct to May in the swimming affair. He saw that Del had been aware of everything, and he would have given worlds to blot the impression from her mind. "0, I was a clumsy young cub in those days," he said at last laboriously, "and I haven't a doubt I behaved like one." Del smiled, but did not deny it. "I 'm awfully punished, though, Miss Douglas," he went on unhappily. "It 's hard luck to know you 've kept my sins in mind all these years and borne me a grudge. ' ' This, time Del laughed outright. "But I. have n't kept your sins in mind," she replied. ' "I assure you, I haven't given them a thought till this hour, and, as for bearing you a grudge I haven't the faintest shadow of an ill feeling toward yon. ' ' "You mean, you 'd utterly forgotten me, sins and all that I 'm too insignifi- 250 Del's Debt cant to cause you any feeling one way or the other?" he broke out bitterly. Del grew suddenly grave. "You did behave badly," she admitted honestly, * ' and you deserved a reminder, for I ob- serve that you still have a bit of your old ' See-the-conquering-hero-comes ' air, but as I 've been saucy enough to give you the reminder, I 'm in fault too, and I think we may fairly cry quits." "And begin over and be friends?" he demanded eagerly. Del pursed her lips an instant. ' ' That sounds like a pretty large contract," she said, carrying it off lightly. "And my father has just cabled that he hopes I won't consider any contracts until I 've been home. I Ve been away for four years and a half, and he thinks it 's time I went back, and so do I. So good-by, Mr. Cartwright. Au revoir, Marquis." CHAPTER XV "The Emperor's birthday fete! She 's going to sing at the Emperor's birthday fete!" shouted May excitedly, looking Del's Debt 251 up from the rustling sheet of steamer- paper she had been reading, and waving it, with its half-dozen closely-written fel- lows, madly about her head. ' ' Margaret Middlebrook, do you hear that? Daddy, do you 1 Just think what it means ! She tells of it as if it didn't amount to any- thing, but that's just the way she did about Jael. We 'd never have known anything unusual had happened when she sang Jael if we hadn't read the accounts of it in the Paris papers the Charpentiers sent over. 0, it 's all very well to be modest, but it 's unsatisfac- tory when your relations want news." ''Go on and read," urged Margaret. " 'It seems,' : ' continued May, going on and reading with prompt obedience, " 'some great and grand German indi- vidual was in the audience when Jael was given, and on the strength of his approval I 've been invited to Berlin which virtually means summoned there to sing at the Emperor's birthday fete, on January 27th. Madame seems pleased. " 'DeMarcey, here, was disappointed and a little inclined to be angry because 252 Del's Debt I would not sign his three-years' con- tract, but I explained as politely as 1 could, and Madame was very charming to him, and I think he 's mollified. At all events, when we parted, he put out his hand, wished me all good fortune, and said he was ready at any time to offer me the best of terms, which sent Madame into ecstasies, for she had been sadly afraid I would injure my prospects in declining his proposition. She said such advantageous terms and opportu- nities as he offered me were made in the case of noted prima donni, and that as a mere debutante I had been singularly favored. " '0 dearest Daddy, Madame is en- thusiastic over the scholarship plan, and as soon as I return home and am able to control Aunt Cornelia's estate, you and Mr. Gardiner must put the thing in running order for me. Will you? I want that property to be what it has never been before, a great blessing to a great many people. I 'm sure now that I can support myself, and so poor Aunt Cornelia's money may be put to other Del's Debt 253 uses, and her economy may, after all, prove a benefit to the world. " 'Twinnies, dear, what do you think? I had the strangest experience the other day. I had been singing at the Hotel of the Comtesse de Neuilly, in the Fau- bourg St. Germain, for the benefit of Les Invalides. All at once in the midst of the crush after the concert I saw the little Marquis de Brisson coming toward me, tugging after him a splendiferous creature, tall as the Eiffel Tower, and really very handsome, but with a Here- am-I, little- jumping- Joan air that spoilt it all. He looked at the aristocratic throng down the bridge of his nose as if it had been composed of fishwives (the throng, not the bridge) and he were Marie Antoinette, or somebody equally as high-born and hotty. Well, up they came, the little Marquis and the Great I Am, and who do you think the G. I. A. proved? May's old enemy Cracar! At first he was inclined to be a bit presump- tuous, and spoke familiarly and with a magnificent air of those "jolly old days in Hillborough," but when I reminded him gently, but firmly, of how he 'd be- 17 Del's Debt 254 Del's Debt haved in "those jolly old days," he grew quite humble and was really rather nice and manly. I was wicked enough to enjoy seeing him grovel, but it took some of the wind out of my sails when I found he had really sent the candy, and not Leonard at all. I could see it cut him up awfully that we had thought him ca- pable of not paying his debts. I wouldn't take him seriously a bit, and this must have been the unkindest cut of all, for he takes himself very seri- ously, indeed. Still, I can imagine he would n't be so bad if he 'd been properly brought up. He 's really very much im- proved as it is, and when he goes home, I think you, May, might take him in hand and teach him his A B C's. It would be missionary work. ' Margaret laughed out at this* "Tell Leonard that, May. I think I see him willing to have you take Cracar in hand for educational purposes." May flushed. "Perhaps Bob would be willing to have you do it," she suggested demurely. Daddy smiled. ' ' Stop your pea-shoot- ing, girls," he said, "and listen to the Del's Debt 255 words of Wisdom that is, listen to Me ! I think it 's about time you wrote to Dellie and told her of your engagements. You 've kept her in the dark long enough and it is n 't sisterly. ' ' * ' But we wanted to surprise her, ' ' ob- jected the twins. "We wanted to wait until she came home, and then break the news with a grand crash." "But, you see, all this furore about her abroad has delayed her home-com- ing. She is n't to sail until spring now, and if you are to be married in April, why, it seems to me that 's pretty close calculation, and you might find, when the time came, that something beside the news was being broken with a grand crash. ' ' The twins considered. "I guess you 're right," announced May presently. "I '11 write to her to-day, and tell her all about it, and explain just why we didn't tell her before. Though, goodness! If she's a modest violet about Tier triumphs, I guess we have a right to be about ours." How Daddy laughed ! ' ' So you call Leonard and Robert ' tri- 256 DePs Debt umphs'?" he exclaimed, immensely amused. "I call having them care for us so ter- ribly much, one," May declared stoutly and with a look that caused her father's heart to rejoice. "You 're right, my daughter," he de- clared with a sudden gravity. ' ' To have fairly won the honest love of a true- hearted man is a triumph, as great as any the world has to offer." So the amazing news was sent hasten- ing across the water, and Del found time, in the midst of her breathlessly busy life, to sit down and have a hearty laugh and cry over it in good, old-fashioned style. "It 's going to be a double wedding, of course," wrote May, "and it wouldn't be valid without you, so, as soon as you have sung before the Emperor, come back and shed some of your glory on us. Tn all seriousness, Delsie, we 're fairly starving for a sight of you. Think of it! Over three years since we said good- by ! It seems like a lifetime, for we miss you every minute, and are so homesick we can hardly wait. ' ' The Emperor's fete and the rest of her Del's Debt 257 notable engagements dwindled into insig- nificance before this all-important one in Del's mind, and she would have given worlds to be able to cancel every promise she had made and hurry home as fast as steam could carry her, to the dear sis- ters and father whose love was more precious than all the adulation of all the appreciative publics in Europe. But the best she could do under the circum- stances was to rush out then and there, select and buy the royalest engagement gifts she could find, pay for them with her own self-earned money, and send them, as her substitutes, posting across the Atlantic, with a world of love and longing shut up in their tightly sealed boxes. But, however Del felt about it, the world didn't seem inclined to stop be- cause May and Margaret Middlebrook were going to be married. It appeared, if anything, to revolve a little faster, and the days and nights flashed by with such remarkable rapidity that before she fair- ly realized it she was on her way to Ber- lin to obey the Emperor's summons and sing at his birthday fete. She knew 258 Del's Debt the city well, but in its gay holiday dress, with flags flying, regimental bands play- ing, and merrymaking crowds thronging the lively streets and squares, it seemed doubly good-humored and hospitable, and she felt at home in it at once. But it was quite another thing where her sing- ing was concerned. She had never sung before a German audience, and who could tell whether it would approve of her or not? It might receive her kindly, and then again But Del set her teeth and squarely re- fused to think of the chance of its not receiving her kindly. "I '11 do my best," she said to herself as she stood in her dressing-room on the great gala-night, preparing to "go on." "I '11 do my best and if that doesn't satisfy them, why " " Du hast Diamanten und Perlen, Hast Alles was Menschen begehr; Du hast die schonsten Augen : Mcin' Liebchen, was willst du noch mehr? " hummed some one in a comfortable un- dertone in the passageway just outside her door. Del's Debt 259 Del laughed. "That 's precisely it," she assured herself. "I '11 do my best und, Mein Liebchen, was willst du noch mehr!" The Opera-ho-use was packed to suf- focation. There were august aristo- crats, diplomats with lined, care-worn faces, savants with deep-set eyes and frowning brows, musicians, artists, mili- tary men, and University students. There was a great deal of bowing, and fluttering of fans, a great deal of whis- pering and nodding from one to another. But suddenly all this ceased and there was a deep hush. Every one rose. The Emperor and his party had entered the imperial box. The Emperor took his place. At a gesture the audience reseated itself, the leader's baton was raised, and the music began. How. the twins would have enjoyed it all ! The murmur and stir that rose when Del was led forward, and the cau- tious, reticent applause that followed. Here was a young woman that Paris was in a furore over. Well, what then? Paris and Berlin were two different places Gott sei dank! She was unde- 260 Del's Debt niably beautiful, that any one could see, but her voice ihre Stimme ! A beautiful woman is one thing a beautiful Kiinst- lerin quite another, and it is well known that the French as a people are hot- headed, impressionable, and liable to let their momentary impulses run away with them, while with the Germans it is quite a different story. The Germans are mu- sicians through and through, and they judge the Kiinstler first and the rest afterward. They are cautious, cool, not inflammable. So, if this young person has come here with the idea that she is going to pull the wool over honest Ger- man eyes because of her lovely American face and her Paris prestige, why, she will find herself mistaken to be. Del had not been on the stage an in- stant before she felt that if the audience was not actually hostile to her it was, at the least, most coldly critical. She set her lips together tight and took a long, deep breath. "I '11 make them like me yet, ' ' she said in her heart with a deter- mination worthy of May herself on her mettle. But the next moment she had forgot- Del's Debt 261 ten her resolve forgotten everything but that she was singing. What was it to her that the Emperor leaned forward in his loge and gazed at her with a fixed expression of intense appreciation, that the Empress's mild eyes were moist with tears, and that the grave and non-com- mittal Berlin audience was on the point of losing its head in spite of itself. She was in a world of her own with which this world about her ha.d nothing to do, and she only woke from dreams to fact when, at the end of her great number, the air seemed fairly to explode with a deaf- ening report of bravos. It was the Paris demonstration over again, only this was wilder. The people gave way without reserve. They clapped their hands and stamped their feet. Handker- chiefs were waved, and her name shouted again and again. The Empress even rose in her box and flung her own bou- quet upon the stage, where it fell at DePs feet amid a tumult that was fairly be- wildering. It all ended in the horses that were before her carriage being unhar- nessed and led aside while a crowd of gallant Studenten placed themselves in 262 Del's Debt the shafts and dragged her home, giving her a rousing "Dreimal hoch!" as she passed through their lines on her way to her door. The next day the Emperor and Em- press summoned her to the palace, gave her a splendid jewelled bracelet as a souvenir, and dismissed her graciously after a friendly little call, in which they said all sorts of cordial and kindly things about her work. "So this is unimpressionable Berlin!" she thought with a wicked little laugh of triumph as she rode home through the wide, tree-lined avenue and tried to escape the notice of the too-enthusiastic public, that insisted on recognizing her and naively referring to her in perfectly audible tones as "Die wunderschone Amerikanerin. ' ' But January was gone. February would slip by in no time, and then, in March, she would sail for home. After almost five years of exile, she would see the dear mother-country once more. It made her heart beat fast just to think of it. How good it would seem to see the familiar Hillborough faces again. Bluff Del's Debt 263 Doctor Emmet and Sally, the Vans, Mrs. Jud, and Ehoda. She forgot no one; and as her trunks were being packed, many a little token was tucked away here and there that later would be taken out for the benefit of the good friends who had been kind to her long ago, when she was a stranger and they took her in. So one by one the days raced by. Her last engagement was filled, her last call made, her farewells said, and she was off! She had expected to meet a party of friends at Havre under whose protect- ing wing she was to take the voyage, but at the last moment came a despatch saying they had been detained and would not be able to sail for another month. It was a disappointment, for she dreaded the trip alone. Her fame always flying before her, she could not walk the street without being conscious of numberless eyes upon her and numberless tongues whispering her name, and the experience was so new as yet that she was unable to take it as a matter of course. So, as she leaned against the deck's rail, look- ing her last on France and regretting 264 Del's Debt the accident that had delayed the Char- pentiers, she almost wished she could go back and wait until they could join her, so she would feel she had some one on whom she could depend, who would pro- tect her from the intrusions of the ever- present lion-hunter. But it was too late now. A great bell clanged, a shrill whistle blew, and the band struck up a crashing Sousa march. A moment more and the ship would move. Del leaned forward to wave a gallant farewell to a group of friends on the wharf, that had come to see her off. "Adieu! Adieu!" she called, her voice trembling in spite of her resolve to be quite, quite self-controlled. "Non, non! Pas adieu! Au revoir!" The hearty shout rose, clear and strong, above all the noise and hubbub on the wharf, and came from the great crowd itself, for it had recognized her, and this was its parting token of honest good will. The whole thing was so sud- den and unexpected that for a moment Del shrank back overcome, while the crowd on deck closed about her more compactly than ever as if to show that DeTs Debt 265 for five days at least it would have her at its mercy. But the next instant she bent forward eagerly, peering down into the crowd on the wharf with wide-open, anxious eyes, for she had caught sight of two figures hurrying forward toward the gangplank a man and a woman, and one of them she knew. Eobinson Crusoe cast away on his desert island could not have welcomed the sight of Friday with more hearty gratitude than Del now did the sight of Cracar. CHAPTER XVI " 'Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you see any one coming?' " laughed May in a voice that was intended to be mocking but was merely anxious and eager. She and Margaret were standing by the hall- room window gazing out into the early dusk, waiting for Daddy to bring Del to them from the ship. "The train has been in for ever so long," reported Margaret almost irri- tably, wearying of the suspense. "I 266 Del's Debt heard the whistle half an hour ago. Why don't they come?" "0, they '11 be along presently," said May, trying to appear unconcerned and failing utterly. "What 's the use of But the sentence was never finished, for the sound of wheels sent both the girls flying like the wind to the door and out into the chill evening air, where they stood shouting and dancing like two ex- cited children, before the carriage had even whirled round the sweep of the driveway, much less come to a halt be- neath the porte-cochere. "Delsie! Delsie! Welcome home!" "0 Del, dear old girl! but it 's good to have you back ! ' ' No one ever knew how it was accom- plished, but the next instant they were in each others' arms, laughing, crying, ex- claiming, and protesting, as if they had been three little school-girls with no sense of propriety at all, while Daddy, quite neglected for the time and not minding it a bit, stood by and watched the silly performance with gratified eyes. "But you were so late," expostulated Del's Debt 267 Margaret when the first wild flurry had somewhat subsided and Mrs. Austen and Christine and the rest had had their turn at welcoming the traveller and had quiet- ly disappeared to go into raptures over her outside. "We thought you 'd never come ! ' ' Daddy laughed. "I assure you we made remarkable time, considering," he said. "But you '11 find it is no joke go- ing about with Delsie nowadays. There were half a dozen reporters waiting to interview her on the ship and a brace of them following us to the hotel. She seems to have an endless chain of friends who have known her in Paris, heard her sing at Berlin, and met her in London or Vienna, and they spring up at every foot-length and insist upon having long heart-to-heart talks then and there with- out regard to time, place, or circum- stance, anxious Daddys, or eager twins. While, as to lion-hunting strangers, their name is legion, and they are the most insistent and intrusive of all." May thrust out her lower lip in scorn of the whole lot, "I hate such non- sense," she said in her quick, decided 268 Del's Debt way. ' ' And when I 'm out with Del I '11 squelch every hero-worshipper in sight. Now you see if I don't. I 'm not going to stand by and have Dellie victimized. ' ' "Under the circumstances, if Dellie is wise," said Daddy quite seriously, "she '11 choose some other companion then. It would be very poor policy, if it were nothing worse, to treat her grateful public discourteously. But if we want to help her, we can do as Mr. Cartwright did on the way over act as buffer and take the first shock of the concussions." "Mr. Cartwright! The way over!" echoed Margaret blankly. "I should rather think so," laughed Daddy, amused at her tone and expres- sion, "and a mighty handsome chap he is too. A little high-stepping, perhaps, but very manly and prepossessing not- withstanding. ' ' "He and his sister, Mrs. Neilson, hap- pened to sail on my ship or I happened to sail on theirs," explained Del easily, "and they saved my life coming over, for I should have died if I hadn't had them as standbys. Strictly among our- selves, I don't like to be stared at, and I Del's Debt 269 simply hate to be talked to and gushed over by strangers." May gave a great sigh that developed into a groan. "I see the whole thing," she declared prophetically. "He saved your life. People always marry people who save their lives. You '11 marry Cracar. I see it. I know it. And I shall perfectly loathe it. I '11 forbid the bans. But you '11 marry him all the same. It 's fate! quel horreur! as Jeanne Char- pentier says, ' ' and she wrung her hands in a spirit of high tragedy. "Don't be afraid," returned Del, laughing. "My career is settled. I wasn't born to be a lady of leisure, as you and Margaret are. I 'm a working woman and I '11 have to fulfill my des- tiny. I Ve got the most splendiferous contract in my bag this minute and if Daddy approves why but oh! let 's not talk of business now. I want to for- get it and for the remainder of the time you 're home be just as we were years ago, when we were little girls, before you began to dream, of weddings and things, 18 Del's Debt 270 Del's Debt or I had an idea of the real nature of business agreements. ' ' And so it actually proved. From that time on the days were so filled with preparations for the great event of the double wedding and the thousand and one engagements that May and Margaret had recklessly made for Del with friends anxious to welcome her home, that amid all the rush and bustle she quite forgot her own affairs in her interest in those of the twins. She seldom caught sight of Daddy, he was so continually occupied in his library or in the city, and she her- self was so absorbed in the work of over- seeing and directing. But at last came an evening when he said: "Come, girls, it 's late, I know, but now Leonard and Robert have gone, I think I can claim you for a minute or so. It 's the last chance we shall have to be together. To-morrow everything will be in such confusion that I won't have an opportunity to get you alone, and by evening you will be gone. So come and let me forget I am the father of grown Del's Debt - 271 women now and pretend you are little girls again." He sat down in his great chair by the hall-room window, May perched on one arm and Margaret on the other just as in years gone by, while Del sat at his feet with her hands clasped about her knee, looking into the future and think- ing very sober thoughts. At first they were a little silent, and then the twins, wishing, perhaps, to have this last even- ing a jolly one, began to chatter away as merrily as possible, leaving no chance for talk of a more serious kind. Mr. Middlebrook joined in every now and then with a word or laugh, but by and by Del noticed that in the constant clatter of the girls ' busy tongues he had slipped into silence, and, missing the sound of his hearty voice, she turned her head a little to discover the cause. The twins were leaning back against the cushion of his chair, still keeping 1 up their stream of nonsense, while he was bending a little forward, his elbow rest- ing on Margaret 's knee and his forehead propped by his hand. He was looking, not into the clear starry sky of the fair 272 . Del's Debt April night, but far beyond it, with sad, unseeing eyes, and on his face was an expression Del had never seen there be- fore. For the first time she realized that her father was growing old, that his hair was nearly white. In that mo- ment he looked lonely, bowed, and aged, and Del's heart cried out to him in ten- derest love and pity. Then a thought struck her ! How many times in the coming years, when the girls were in their own homes and she earn- ing honors far away, would he sit here in his loneliness, with that same look upon his face, forsaken and deserted by those whose lives- he had made so bright, with none to know whether he grieved or made merry ? She felt a quick tightening at her throat as though some strong hand had clutched it about. She rose and in a moment Daddy had risen too and was saying cheerily : "Well, good-night, my girls, and may God bless you, all three." His mood had passed, but Del could not forget. They kissed him again and again, and then the girls ran rollicking up-stairs like very children, but in the middle of Del's Debt 273 the landing Del suddenly stopped, and, murmuring a word about having forgot- ten something in the hall-room, went back and made her way to where Daddy was standing,' before the table with his hands behind Kim. Del put her arms about his neck and kissed him softly. He turned half round and then laid his hand lovingly on her head. * ' Dear child ! " he said. It was very, very late before the twins could be induced to leave her room and go to their own, and even then they in- sisted on talking back and forth. But at last all was still, and then a white- robed figure stole softly to their doors and closed them and made them fast. Del went to the window and pulled aside the curtain. The moon, streaming in, cast a silver light upon her slender figure, her loosened hair, and her pale, stricken face. But she did not notice the moonlight nor the shadows nor the swaying of the branches in the garden below. What she saw was the bowed head of a lonely figure in a forsaken house. "0 God!" she cried at last, "I cannot 274 DeTs Debt do it ! I cannot do it ! I cannot leave him alone and yet and yet " She thought of the debt she owed him the debt of love, of care, of unchang- ing devotion. Could her fame and honor repay him in his hours of loneliness, for these? She had believed they would, and had striven for them that they might. It had been her one thought all these years to earn fame and honor for his sake. And now But now all that was changed. In one moment she had seen that as little as her childish notion of a payment in money could serve, so little could her later idea of a payment in fame and honor. They were sweet to her, but they would not serve him as companions in all the coming years. She must cancel her debt by other means than this. "How can I give it up, how can I give it up?" she wailed. "I have worked so hard for it and it is so pre- cious to me, my art! my beloved art! If he were only poor, I could provide for him and still sing and feel I was doing my duty by using my voice to earn money to get him comforts, but now* Pel's Debt 275 never to sing again! Hush! Who gave me the power of gaining all I have? 0, ungrateful! ungrateful! and to leave him now!" For hours she struggled between her duty and her ambition, waging the fierc- est battle she had ever known. Then, just as the gray morning light was wak- ing slowly over the dusky hills, she rose from the chair before which she had been kneeling, and, creeping slowly to the empty fireplace, looked up at the pictured face of her dead mother above it and whispered between her sobs : "It is over, Mammady, it is over. I will pay my debt to the last." " 'Happy is the bride the sun shines on ! ' ' quoted Del merrily as she drew back the curtains in her room and let the flood of golden April light stream in at the window. She had determined that no cloud should dim the happiness of this day, and had put her own cares aside to devote herself body and mind to the twins. 276 Del's Debt The house was beset with workmen, maids were running to and fro, bells were ringing, dishes clattering, ques- tions were asked which no one had the time to answer, and mistakes made in consequence that took double the time to set right. It seemed almost certain at one moment that the caterer's men from the city had missed the train and that there would be no wedding break- fast, and quite as sure, the next, that, though the breakfast had arrived in good order, the musicians had failed to put in an appearance, while in the midst of it all Mrs. Jud and Rhoda arrived, deter- mined to have "a good look round and see if it was really true that Mr. Middle- brook had had a tent put up that reached clear from the church door to the gut- ter." But the tremendous tangle was straightened out somehow, the workmen and the hubbub disappeared together, and what remained was a vision of a beautiful old house that seemed to look out from a living mass of flowers. Of course no one could put the last touches to the brides' toilets but Del. Del's Debt 277 No one could know so well as Del just how the veils ought to be pinned, and no one but Del seemed to be able- to tell whether she stood on her head or her heels. Clare, Sally, Marie White, and a pretty cousin of the Vans fluttered about in their dainty bridesmaids' dresses like great white butterflies, while Leonard and Robert, pretending to be perfectly composed, were the most agitated of all. Poor "Quail" in particular "took it hard," as Leonard condolingly observed ; and what with his nervousness and the warmth of the day, which was unusual for early April, found himself mopping his brow till Leonard sympathetically, and with much manner, offered him a towel as being more likely to stand the strain of his emotion than his handker- chief. Robert took the towel with a good grace and in a moment Leonard's own preoccupation made him forget all about his little joke. But the little joke came near spoiling the effect of the bridal pro- cession. The church was crowded, the organ 278 Del's Debt sounding the first notes of the wedding- march from Lohengrin, and the bridal- party had formed and was waiting in the church vestibule for the sign to move forward, when Del, doing double duty as mistress of ceremonies and maid-of- honor, and peeping through the small oval window in the green-leathern door to see that all was right and the proper moment had come to advance, fell back in dismay at the sight of Leonard and Robert emerging from the vestry-door to meet their brides Robert brandishing what looked like an enormous flag of truce. For a moment Del quivered between an almost irresistible impulse to laugh or cry or do both together. Then she flung back her head determinedly and gave the word to start. There was no way out of it. They would have to march up and face the worst. 11 Great Scott! man!'* whispered Leonard between his set teeth as he and Robert were passing through the vestry- door, "what 's that you Ve got in your hand?" Robert gave a start, looked down, saw DePs Debt 279 the towel he was absent-mindedly clutch- ing, and with a quick, deft jerk flung it into one of the "Amen pews" as he passed along, thanking his stars, as he did so, that all eyes had been turned in the other direction to see the brides' party advance, and that his blunder had therefore probably escaped notice. So, after all, nothing happened to mar the beautiful ceremony, and only one or two of the guests saw anything more than a poor pun in Leonard's allusion, in his after-breakfast speech, to his new brother-in-law's "white badge of cour- age," his "indestructible presence of mind," and his "special qualification, which ought to be brought to the notice of the Government, as a bearer of the flag of truce in time of conflict." Eobert retorted in kind, the bride- cakes were cut, the bridal-bouquets tossed for luck, the rice and confetti showered on the escaping couples, and then, by sundown, the house was de- serted. As Del looked around at the awful con- fusion and realized what an amount of work must be done before order could 280 Del's Debt be restored, she sighed. But the follow- ing days, full to the brim with common- place duties and wholesome cares, were just what she needed to keep her from dwelling on her heartache, and, without knowing it, she was relieving her mind by fatiguing her body. Mrs. Austen told Christine "Miss Del was the greatest comfort a body could possibly 'ave habout the 'ouse. So 'elp- ful hand hefficient," and Christine tossed her head and did not reply, for in her opinion Mrs. Austen counted altogether too much on Miss Del's 'elpfulness and hefficiency and imposed on her good na- ture abominably. "I 'm afraid," said Daddy at last, for the first time noticing her pale cheeks, "that you Ve been working too hard, dear. You Ve fairly worn yourself out. Come, there 's a beautiful moon and the air is quite mild. Slip on a wrap and we '11 sit out on the veranda for a while, and the rest and quiet will do us both good." She followed him outside, and when he took a seat in one of the great porch- Del's Debt 281 chairs, she dropped wearily upon a lo-w willow stool at his knee. It was quite a while before either of them spoke. Then Mr. Middlebrook, laving his hand upon the shining head, said quietly enough but with an effort to appear quite cheerful, "Well, two of my girls are gone, and now, I suppose, my third girl will be leaving me soon. We must decide about the contract to- night, Del. To-morrow is the twentieth. Conrad will want his answer. ' ' She did not reply for a moment. Then she said slowly: "Have you read the contract?" He responded at once. "Why, yes, my dear, and it is a rare good thing for you. If anything could pay me for the loss of you it would be the thought of your fame, as the thought of the twins' happiness reconciles me to the loss of them. When the old man is left to him- self he can think of his girls' good fortune and be glad even if even if he does feel lonely sometimes. ' ' Then Del turned slowly round, and be- fore he could prevent her, she was kneel- 282 DeTs Debt ing before him, her forehead upon his knee. "0, never lonely again, Daddy, dear- est! Never lonely again. I could not leave you to be sad. I have given it all up. I will never sing but for you. Do not say I must go, for I could not I will not." She did not see Daddy's fajce, for her own was hidden, but after a moment she felt his firm hands raising her and heard his clear voice saying : "If there has ever been a time, dear child, when you felt you owed me any- thing, know now that you have paid me to the full, overpaid me, time and time again. The love we have given you, you have returned a thousandfold, and so with duty and devotion and all the rest. You have been an inestimable blessing to us all, Del, more precious than you can ever know one for which I am grateful to God every day I live. How poorly I should be repaying Him if I let you do as you propose sacrifice His great gift to you and the world for my own poor selfish comfort. No, Del, dear child. You owe me nothing that you have Pel's Debt 283 not already paid and are not paying again daily and with interest. But you owe it to God, who gave you your glori- ous voice, to use it in His world and for His glory. Come! Look up! And give me your word you will pay the debt honorably, to the last note. ' ' And so it was that Del took up her new and heaviest debt of all and gave her word to pay it. THE END. A 000126815 o