CHAPTER IV--MOTHER'S SECRET
Mollie danced into the kitchen, waving the feather duster. "I'm sohappy, I can't keep still!" she declared, waltzing in a circle aroundher mother and Barbara, who were in the kitchen washing the breakfastdishes.
"It is just as well you don't have to," Mrs. Thurston laughed. "But,children, do be sensible a minute," she urged, as Barbara joined in thedance, still polishing a breakfast tumbler. "I've been thinking, thatgoing to Newport, if only to stay a few days, _does_ mean more clothesthan automobile coats and motor veils."
"Now, you are not to worry, mother dearest," interrupted Barbara, "or wewon't go a single step. Beside, have you forgotten the twenty-dollargold-pieces? They are a fortune, two fortunes really." Barbara had beendoing some pretty deep thinking herself, on the clothes question, but itwould never do to let her thoughts be known. As elder daughter she triedto save her mother from all the worries she could. "While there are nomen around in the family, you'll just have to pretend I'm older soninstead of daughter," she used to say. "When Mollie marries I'llresign."
"I'm through dusting," Mollie called from the dining-room. "This time Iam surely going to get paper and pencil to put down what clothes we mostneed, if Barbara won't stop any runaway horses while I am away."
Mollie's golden head and Barbara's tawny one bent anxiously over thepaper.
"Ruth's such an impetuous dear! Starting off on our trip Monday does notgive us time to get anything new. Mother, will you go in to townshopping for us, and then send the clothes on later? I suppose we shallbe on the road some time. Ruth says we are to stop in any of the placeswe like, and see all the sights along the way," continued Barbara.
Gloves, ribbons, stockings, hair ribbons, and--oh, dear, yes! A pink sashfor Bab and a blue one for Mollie. Forty dollars wasn't such a fortuneafter all. Where was the money left over for the party dresses? Bothgirls looked a little crestfallen, but Barbara shook her head at Mollieas a signal not to say anything aloud.
Mother had come into the open dining-room door and was watching thegirls' faces.
"I've a secret," Mrs. Thurston said, after a minute. "A beautiful secretthat I have been keeping to myself for over a year, now. But I thinkto-day is the best time I can find to tell it." Mrs. Thurston wasfragile and blond, like Mollie, with a delicate color in her cheeks, andthe sweetest smile in the world.
"It's a nice secret, mother, I can tell by your face." Mollie put herarm around her mother and pulled her down in a chair, while she and Babsat on either side of her. "Now, out with it!" they both cried.
"Daughters," Mrs. Thurston lowered her voice and spoke in a whisper,"upstairs, in my room in the back part of my desk is an old bank book.What do you think is pressed between the pages?" She paused a minute,and Mollie gave her arm a little shake. "In that book," the mothercontinued, "are two fifty-dollar bills; one is labeled 'Bab' and theother is labeled 'Baby.'" Mrs. Thurston still called her big,fourteen-year-old daughter "baby" when no one was near.
Mollie and Barbara could only stare at each other, and at their motherin surprise.
"Please, and where did they come from?" queried Barbara.
"They came from nickels and dimes, and sometimes pennies," Mrs. Thurstonreplied, as pleased and excited as the girls. "Only a week ago, I wentto the bank and had the money changed into the two big bills. Oh, I'vebeen saving some time. I saw my girls were growing up, and I imaginedthat, some day, something nice would happen--not just this, perhaps, butsomething equally exciting. So I wanted to be ready, and I am. I willget the prettiest clothes I can buy for the money, and I'll have MissMattie, the seamstress, in to help me. When you arrive in thefashionable world of Newport, new outfits will be awaiting my twogirls."
Mrs. Thurston's face was radiant over the joys in store for herdaughters, but Barbara's eyes were full of tears. She knew what pinchingand saving, what sacrifices the two banknotes meant.
Soon Bab asked: "You don't need me any more, do you, mother? Because, ifyou don't, I am going up to look in the treasure chest. I want to findsomething to re-trim Mollie's hat. The roses are so faded, on the oneshe is wearing, it will never do to wear with her nice spring suit."
There was a little attic over the cottage, and it almost belonged toBarbara. Up there she used to study her lessons, write poetry, and dreamof the wonderful things she hoped to do in order to make mother andMollie rich.
Barbara skipped over to the trunk, where they kept odds and ends offaded finery, gifts from rich cousins who sent their cast-off clothes tothe little girls. "This is like Pandora's chest," laughed Barbara toherself. "It looks as if everything, now, has gone out of it, exceptHope."
Bump! bang! crash! the chandelier shivered over Mrs. Thurston andMollie's heads. Both started up with the one word, "Bab," on their lips.It was impossible to know what she would attempt, or what would happento her next.
Just as they reached the foot of the attic steps an apologetic headappeared over the railing. "I am not hurt," Bab's voice explained. "Ijust tried to move the old bureau so I could see better, and I knockedover a trunk. I am so sorry, mother, but the trunk has broken open. Itis that old one of yours. I know it made an awful racket!"
"It does not matter, child," Mrs. Thurston said in a relieved tone, whenshe saw what had actually happened. "Nothing matters, since you have notkilled yourself."
She bent over her trunk. The old lock had been loosened by the fall, andthe top had tumbled off. On the floor were a yellow roll of papers, anda quaint carved fan. Mrs. Thurston picked them up. The papers shedropped in the tray of the trunk, but the fan she kept in her hand."This little fan," she said, "I used at the last party your father and Iattended together the week before we were married. I have kept it a longtime, and I think it very beautiful." She opened, with loving fingers, afan of delicately-carved ivory, mounted in silver, and hung on a curioussilver chain. "Your great-uncle brought it to me from China, when I wasjust your age, Mollie! It was given him by a viceroy, in recognition ofa service rendered. Which of my daughters would like to take this fan toNewport?"
Barbara shook her head, while Mollie looked at it with longing eyes. "Idon't believe either of us had better take it," protested Bab, "you havekept it so carefully all this time."
But her mother said decidedly: "I saved it only for you girls. Here,Mollie, suppose you take it; we will find something else for Bab."
As Mollie and her mother lifted out the tray of the old trunk, Bab'seyes caught sight of the roll of papers, and she picked them up.
"Hello, hello!" a cheerful voice sounded from downstairs.
"It's Grace Carter," said Mollie. "You don't mind her coming up, do you,mother?"
Grace was almost a third daughter at the little Thurston cottage. Herown home was big and dull! her mother was a stern, cold woman, and hertwo brothers were much older than Grace.
"No," said Mrs. Thurston, going on with her search.
"I couldn't keep away, chilluns," apologized Grace as she came upstairs."Mother told me I'd be dreadfully in the way, but I just had to talkabout our trip. Isn't it too splendid! You are not having secrets, areyou?"
"Not from you," Mrs. Thurston said. "See what I have found for Bab."Mrs. Thurston held out an open jewel-case. In it was a beautiful sprayof pink coral, and a round coral pin.
"I think, Bab, dear," she said, "you are old enough, now, for suchsimple jewelry. I will buy you a white muslin, and you can wear this pinat your throat and the spray in your hair. Then, with a coral ribbonsash, who knows but you may be one of the belles of a Newport party?"
Barbara flushed with pleasure over the gifts, but she looked soembarrassed at her mother's compliment that Mollie and Grace bothlaughed.
"I declare," Grace said, "you have less vanity than any girl in theworld. Oh, wasn't it fortunate I discovered your money yesterday? Justas we all jumped out of the car I heard something clink, and picked upone of your twenty dollars. Harry Townsend said he found the othertucked away in the leather of the front seat."
"And I
sat in the back seat all the time I was in the car," reflectedBarbara, under her breath.
When a turquoise blue heart on a string of tiny beads had been added toMollie's "going-away" treasures, she and Grace went down stairs.
Barbara still held the roll of papers in her hand and kept turning themover and over, trying to read the faded writing. She caught sight of herfather's signature. "Are these papers valuable?" she asked her mother.
Mrs. Thurston sighed deeply as she answered: "They are old papers ofyour father's. Put them away again. I never like to look at them. Ifound them in his business suit after he was dead. He had sent it to thetailor, and had forgotten all about it." Mrs. Thurston took the papersfrom Barbara's hand and put them back into her trunk.
"Do you think they are valuable, mother?" persisted Barbara.
"I don't think so," her mother concluded. "Your uncle told me he lookedover all your father's papers that were of any value."
After the two had mended the lock of the old trunk, and turned to leavethe attic, Barbara was still thinking. "Dearest," she said thoughtfully,"would you mind my going through those papers some time?" To herself Babadded: "I'd like to ask a clever business man, like Mr. Stuart, toexplain them to me."
But Mrs. Thurston sighed as she said: "Oh, yes, you may look them over,some day, if you like. It won't make any difference."
What difference it might make neither Mrs. Thurston or Barbara couldthen know.