CHAPTER XX
The Call Returned
THE following Saturday, the girls carried their Christmas sewing toJean's. The sewing had not reached a very exciting stage, so tonguesmoved faster than fingers. Mabel was still working on a shoe-bag forher father but, owing to some misadventure, one of the two compartmentswas several sizes larger than the other. Mabel regarded this differencewith disapproval until comforting Jean came to the rescue.
"Perhaps," suggested Jean, "there's a difference in the size of yourfather's feet."
"Oh, there is," cried Mabel, gleefully. "His right shoe is alwaystighter than the left."
"But," objected quick-witted Marjory, "it isn't his feet that are goinginto that bag. It's his shoes, and they're the same size."
"Oh," groaned Mabel, settling into a disconsolate heap, "that's so."
"Never mind," said Bettie. "Give me the bag, and I'll fix thosepockets."
Bettie was embroidering an elaborate pincushion for her mother, but shestopped so often to help the others that there seemed small hope of itsever getting finished. Marjory, who was making one just like it for herAunty Jane, was progressing much more rapidly.
Jean, rummaging in her work-bag, was trying to decide which of fourpartly completed articles to sew on when a carriage stopped at Mrs.Mapes's gate.
"It's a caller," said Jean. "We'll have to vacate. Here, scurry intothe dining-room with all your stuff. I'll answer the bell; and you,Bettie, remind Mother to take off her apron--she's apt to forget it."
Jean, stopping long enough to twitch the chairs into place, went primlyto the door.
"Good-morning," said a familiar voice, "I've come to return yourvisit. It's all right, James. You needn't wait."
"Come back, girls," called Jean, when she had ushered the caller in."It's Henrietta."
"What luck!" cried Henrietta, pulling off her gloves. "Now I canmake a long, long call instead of four short ones. What are youdoing--Christmas presents? Give me a spool of fine white thread, somepins and a sofa pillow. I'm going to make one, too."
"Take off your things," said Jean, smilingly.
Henrietta wriggled out of her jacket and tossed her hat on the couch.
"What is it going to be?" asked Bettie, watching the merry visitor'sdeft fingers fly to and fro.
"Lace," returned Henrietta. "I learned to make it in France. Of coursethese aren't the right materials for very fine lace, but I can make anedge for a pincushion or a mat. I like to do things with my fingers."
"Can you draw?" asked Bettie.
"A little," returned Henrietta, modestly, "but you mustn't tell MissRossitor, or she'll have _me_ doing cows and pigs and roosters."
"What grade do you belong in?" asked Jean.
"None," laughed the visitor, arranging the pins in what looked likea very intricate pattern. "I couldn't be graded. I'm having DomesticScience under the Methodist church, Senior Latin in the CouncilChamber, Post-graduate French in a cloak-room off the A. O. U. W. Hall,Sophomore American History with the Baptists, and I'm doing mathematicsin the kindergarten--or somewhere down there. I had to go back to thevery beginning. If I ever tell you anything with numbers in it don'tbelieve it. I don't know six from six hundred. But I'm doing lessons infive different buildings and getting lots of exercise besides. That'sdoing pretty well for my first year in school."
"Your first year!" cried Marjory. "Surely you're fooling!"
"Not this time," assured Henrietta. "I've had governesses and tutorsever since I could think, but this is truly my first school year. Andit's great fun. But if I stay in America, I'm to go to boarding school,Grandmother says. I've always wanted to, and Grannie thinks it will begood for me to be with other girls. You see, I've always lived withgrown folks, so I need to renew my youth."
"Mother's been reading the boarding-school advertisements in themagazines lately," said Mabel. "I heard her read some of them aloud toFather. But of course they couldn't have been thinking about _me_. Butthey sounded interesting."
"Perhaps," offered Bettie, "they had read all the stories and thoseboarding schools were all they had left to read."
"I guess so," said Mabel.
"Aunt Jane reads them, too," added Marjory. "There's some money that isto be used for my education and for nothing else. When I've finishedwith High School I'm to go to College."
"Oh well," laughed, Jean, lightly, "you're safe for another five years."
"_I_'m not," returned Henrietta. "I'm going next September, and ifGrandmother had known how the schools were going to be you wouldn't behaving the pleasure of my company now. She says I'm getting thin in thepursuit of knowledge--it's too scattered, in Lakeville. That's why shemade me ride to-day."
"Look!" cried Mabel, her eyes bulging with astonishment. "She's reallymaking lace!"
"It's for you," said Henrietta, flashing a bright glance atMabel. "It's an apology, Mam'selle, for my past--and perhaps myfuture--misdeeds."
"I _said_ I didn't like you," blurted honest Mabel, "but I do."
"Don't depend on me," sighed Henrietta. "I don't wear well. You'll findthe real me rubbing through in spots. Granny says I'm an imp that camein one of Dad's Hindoo boxes."
"Why does your grandmother call you Midge?" asked Bettie.
"Because she doesn't like Henrietta. You see, I have five names--theydo that sort of thing on the other side--and I take turns with them.When I find out which one suits me best, I'll choose that one forkeeps."
"What are they?" demanded Mabel.
"Henrietta Constance Louise Frederika Francesca--you see, there isn'ta really suitable name in the lot. But when you have five quarrelsomeaunts, as Father had, you have to please all or none of them by givingyour poor helpless baby all their horrid names. Call me Sallie--I've_always_ wanted to be Sallie."
"Think of anybody," laughed Jean, "with as many names as that wanting anew one."
"Where's that baby you adopted?" asked Henrietta, abruptly changing thesubject. "Didn't one of you adopt a baby or something like that?"
"It was Mabel," replied Marjory. "The rest of us are pretty good, butMabel's sort of thoughtless about borrowing things. She just happenedto borrow an unreturnable baby, one day."
"Where is it now?"
"At Mr. Black's. Her name is Rosa Marie."
"I'd like to see her," said Henrietta, carefully moving a pin.
"Stay to luncheon," urged Jean. "Father's away, so there'll be plentyof room. Afterwards we can all pay a visit to Rosa Marie."
"I'm afraid," said Marjory, "she's getting to be a burden to Mrs.Crane."
"Yes," agreed Bettie, "but it isn't Rosa Marie's fault. Mrs. Crane hasbeen reading a lot of books about bringing up children--you know shenever had any. Before she discovered how many things _might_ happento a baby she was quite comfortable; but now she's always certain thatRosa Marie is coming down with something."
"And she doesn't seem very bright," mourned Jean.
"Who--Mrs. Crane?"
"No, Rosa Marie. You see, we don't know exactly how old she is--Mabeldidn't think to ask--but she seems big enough to be lots smarter thanshe is. We're rather disappointed in her."
"I'm not," protested Mabel, loyally. "She's just slow because shehasn't any little brothers and sisters. She's a _dear_ child."
"Cheer up, Mabel," soothed Henrietta. "As long as she's beautiful shedoesn't need to be bright."
At this, Marjory looked at Jean, then at Bettie, and smiled an odd,significant smile. Here was a chance to get even with Henrietta; and,unconsciously, Mabel helped.
"She's beautiful to me," said Mabel, "and she's ever so cunning."
"What color are her eyes?"
"Dark," said Marjory. "Darker than yours."
"Then she's a brunette?"
"Ye-es," said Marjory, as if considering the question. "She's darker,at least, than I am."
"We all are," said Henrietta, with an admiring glance at Marjory'sgolden locks. "We seem to shade down gradually. Mabel comes next, thenJean, then Bettie; I'm the darke
st, because Bettie's eyes are likebrown velvet, but mine are black, like bits of hard coal. Where doesRosa Marie come in?"
"I think," said Marjory, with an air of pondering deeply, "that RosaMarie is almost, if not quite, as dark as you; even darker, perhaps.But her hair isn't as curly."
"Dear little soul," breathed Henrietta, tenderly. "I've a tremendousliking for babies, but they're pretty scarce at our house. But therewas one in England that was--Oh, if I could just see that English baby_now_! Wouldn't I just hug her!"
Henrietta's eyes were unwontedly tender, her expression unusually sweet.
"You're not a bit like you've been any of the other times," observedBettie. "I like you a lot better when you're like this."
"I'm not myself to-day," twinkled Henrietta. "I'm Sallie--just plainSallie. But beware of me when I'm Frederika, the Disguised Duchess._That's_ when I'm not to be trusted."
"I think," said Jean, listening to some faraway sound, "that lunch isabout ready."
"Good!" exclaimed Henrietta. "The sooner it's over, the sooner I canhug that darling baby. It's months since I've held one in my arms--thedear little body."
"You'll find----" began Mabel; but the other three promptly headed heroff before she had time to explain that Rosa Marie was a pretty bigarmful.
"It's time to go home," exclaimed Marjory and Bettie, in chorus. "Comeon, Mabel."
"If you'll excuse me," said Jean, speaking directly to Mabel, "I'll goset a place for Henrietta. Sorry I can't ask everybody to stay; butcome back at two o'clock."