THE CHRISTMAS BRIDE (21 page)

Seated in the car at last, he turned to her, his keen gray eyes searching her face.

“Now, where were you going when I met you?”

Margaret started and flushed confusedly.

“Oh, you can just set me down on the avenue over there,” she answered evasively.

“Meaning that you can then escape from me and never see me anymore? Is that the idea?” His eyes were upon her, compelling her to look up.

“No!” said Margaret earnestly. “Not at all. I am not trying to run away. I am deeply grateful to you for all you have done for me, and someday I would like to be able to repay your kindness in some way. But I do not want to be a further burden to you who have already done altogether too much for me. And while we are speaking of it, I want to thank you—”

But Greg put up a protesting hand.

“Please, will you let that wait just a little till we have settled one or two matters? Won’t you tell me where you were going?”

Margaret looked down at her hands folded in her lap and fumbled the fingers in her gloves, smoothing them out and trying to make them look less shabby. He saw that she did not want to answer him, but he kept his gaze on her until she had to lift her honest eyes to his face once more.

“I was going to the station.”

He considered that a moment gravely.

“Were you by any chance about to go home to your people?” he asked.

“No!” she said quickly. “No, I couldn’t do that. Not now! I wish it were possible, but it isn’t. I’ve got to stay here and work.

“May I be so inquisitive as to ask why you were going to the station then? Were you moving to another city or to a suburb?”

“No,” said Margaret, and then after hesitation, “I was checking my things till I could look up another room somewhere. You can check several things together for ten cents. You see, I never discovered the receipt you had put in my grandmother’s letter, nor the money, that wonderful twenty-five dollars, until this morning, and I went right away to get my things. I needed them badly and wanted to get them out of that woman’s house. Oh, you
must
let me thank you for that money! I really can’t wait! You don’t know how I had prayed for just twenty-five dollars! I needed it
so much
! And when I opened that pocket to look up the date of Grandmother’s last letter, there it was, just in my time of need! Someday I hope I can repay you, but until then I shall never cease to thank you for it.”

“But,” said Greg, “you don’t mean you didn’t discover it until this morning? Why, how did you live? Wait, let us get out of this noisy street somewhere where we can talk in peace. What time is it? When did you eat last? Did you have any breakfast? Answer me honestly.”

“I thought not” he said, looking into her telltale eyes. “We’ll go to a nice quiet place and have a breakfast luncheon. I’m starved myself.”

“Oh, you mustn’t do any more for me!” said the girl as he whirled the car around a corner and into another street, winding his way skillfully through traffic as he used to do with his delivery truck ten years ago.

“Why not?” said Greg gravely.

Margaret gave a hysterical little laugh.

“Don’t try to answer till we get out of this bedlam,” he said and whirled around another corner, barely escaping a yellow taxi.

It was a quiet, dignified tea room on the outskirts of the city where he brought up at last, with space to park the car safely and an air of gentility about it that rested Margaret’s sorrowful soul. She loved pretty, quiet things and places. She loved peace and cleanliness and order, and she had seen so little of any of them during her stay in this great city!

He found a table in a secluded corner, and there were little white pompon chrysanthemums in a slender brown vase standing at one side against the wall, and a great painted screen of bronze and green that shut them in from the rest of the room. The spicy fragrance of the flowers came like a reviving breeze to Margaret’s senses. And there was warmth from a big fireplace near enough to send its glow around their screen. Margaret shivered deliciously as the warmth pervaded her chilled body and brought a degree of comfort. Greg’s keen eyes noted the shiver and took account of the thin, little jacket she was wearing.

“Now, first of all, what are we going to have? What do you want?”

“Just something simple,” answered the girl, resting back in her chair and taking in the beauty of the room like a soothing drink, “something hot, a cup of soup if it’s not too expensive here.”

“Is that what you’ve been living on?” he asked with another grave, appraising look.

“Well, I didn’t always have as much as that,” she laughed. “Sometimes soup, sometimes coffee, seldom both.” She was trying to make light of it.

“I think I’ll do the ordering,” said Greg. “This is my party. Do you like clam chowder, or would you rather have beef bouillon for a start? We’ll save the fruit cup till afterwards I guess. It’s cold stuff to be putting inside, a day like this, when we’re both hungry.”

He made out his order at last, and when the waitress had gone to fill it, he sat back and looked at her.

“Now,” said he, looking straight into her eyes, “if you only found the twenty-five dollars this morning, what in the world have you been living on all this time? I know you hadn’t another cent in that purse when you left the hospital.”

Margaret flushed defensively, a bit of pride rising in her.

“Oh, I found a job for a while. It wasn’t permanent, but I earned enough to keep me.”

“What kind of job?” asked Greg. “Perhaps you think I have no business to ask such questions, and I haven’t, of course, but I’ve been a good deal concerned about you since I lost you, and I was somewhat comforted thinking you had that money to keep you for a little while. Of course, if you don’t want to answer my questions, you don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind answering,” she said, lifting tired eyes and trying to smile, “only I don’t want you to feel you have to worry about me. I got a job addressing envelopes. I did them by the hundred, so it was up to me how much I earned, and I worked early and late and got seven dollars in all out of it.” She lifted her head proudly.

“Seven dollars!” he exclaimed aghast. “But where—how could you get along on that in a city? It’s been some time since you disappeared.”

He began to count the days on his fingers.

“I don’t see how you could possibly get along on that unless you found a boarding place where they would trust you.”

Margaret shook her head, and then lifting her eyes to his, told him half defiantly, “Three nights I stayed in the station. There was a couch in the ladies’ waiting room, and sometimes I got a chance at that, and there were rocking chairs. It wasn’t bad. There are two stations, you know. I moved around occasionally so I would not be noticed and asked to move on. Then I found a place where I could get a nice clean bed and coffee in the morning for thirty-five cents, and ten cents extra for a shower. That was better. And in the daytime, I hunted for another job.”

“But you must have had scarcely anything left for food,” said Greg. “I’ve had some pretty tough times myself, but I could always go out and shoot something. You can’t do that in a city.”

“I got along,” said Margaret with a show of cheerfulness. “It would have been all right if I hadn’t been worried. Even when I got down to the last two dimes last night, I wouldn’t have minded if I hadn’t needed that twenty-five dollars so badly to send to Grandfather for the interest on the mortgage. You see, Grandmother had written that they could raise all the interest but twenty-five dollars, and they were a little afraid the man who had the mortgage might foreclose if they failed to pay it on time. And last night I prayed and prayed, and I guess I didn’t really expect I’d get any answer. I didn’t see how God could possibly give me twenty-five dollars. And then when I opened that little bill pocket in my purse to get out Grandmother’s last letter and be sure just what day she said they must have it, there was the twenty-five dollars, and the receipt for my room rent beside it! I just got down on my knees beside that cot in the dormitory and thanked God. It was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me! And I can never get done thanking you for it.”

“I guess I ought to thank God for letting me do it!” said Greg thoughtfully.

Margaret looked up wonderingly.

“I went out and sent the twenty-five dollars to Grandfather,” she went on, “and then I went right away to Rodman Street to get my things. I wanted some clean clothes. You don’t know how terrible it was getting on without clean things!”

Greg’s eyes kindled sympathetically.

“But were you really going to spend ten cents to check your things when you had only twenty cents left in the world?” he asked. “Why, you would have only ten cents left for breakfast!”

“That would have been quite a lot for me!” she laughed. “But as it happened, I wouldn’t have had but seven left. You can get a peanut butter sandwich for five cents, and you can sometimes get an apple or a banana for two cents if you are not too particular.”

She laughed happily, though her wan expression quite betrayed her mirth, and the young man was wrapped in a deep sadness for her.

But the waitress appeared at that moment with the steaming cup of broth, and there was no time for words. When she was gone, Greg spoke.

“Well, I guess you’re the bravest person I ever met.”

“Oh no,” said Margaret, drawing in a deep breath of the savory odor and picking up her spoon daintily, “I was never brave. When you
have
to do a thing, it isn’t brave. It’s just that you have to.”

“You are
brave
!” said Greg quietly as if that settled it.

They had finished the soup and the roast chicken with its accompaniments and were waiting now for the dessert that Greg had insisted on ordering against Margaret’s earnest protest that they had had already far more than was needful for one meal. Greg suddenly leaned forward.

“I think perhaps I should introduce myself,” he said seriously.

“There seems to be nobody else to do it, and we don’t want to have any more misunderstandings.”

Margaret looked up with a smile.

“My father died when I was a little kid,” he said. “He was a teacher, and there wasn’t much money left. Mother died just after I got through high school, and I went out west and took up some land. She was a good mother, and I’ve tried to stick to the principles she taught me. I had to work too hard, and was too far out away from everybody to get into much mischief anyway. I worked like a hyena and fought to keep my land. And then suddenly, just like a miracle, I struck oil on my land, sold out, and came east to try and live like other folks. This was my hometown. I was lonesome. I landed here a few minutes before I saw you fall off that park bench! I haven’t done much since but hunt you. That’s the story. Now, do you mind telling me where you were going after you parked your baggage at the station?”

Margaret flushed but gave him her steady, honest gaze.

“Well, I was going to hunt another job and then get a cheap room,” she owned.

“But you
have
a job,” he told her. “I’ve been waiting to get to work till you got back, and I want to start at once. Unless, of course, you don’t think I’m good enough to work for.”

“Oh!” said Margaret, her eyes filling with tears. “I think you’re wonderful! After all you have done for me, how could I think otherwise? Of course I’ll work for you if you’ve really got some genuine work for me to do.”

“I have!” said Greg with satisfaction. “I have an office, and I have work waiting. Some of it is parked on the floor ready to be taken care of right this minute, but the first thing that’s got to be done is to buy a desk and some fixings for the office.

It’s just a bare, empty room now.”

“We could use a box for a desk until you have time to buy the furniture,” said the girl, her eyes kindling with interest. “I’m used to working anywhere.”

“No, we’re going to do this thing right!” said Greg. “You’re going to make out a list of everything an office needs, everything down to typewriter, paper, and pens; and then you and I are going out to purchase them. That is, I’ll go along if you don’t mind. The picking them out is part of your work. I’m not up in those things yet. But first, you’re going to have a good night’s rest and get rid of those dark shadows under your eyes. Great Scott! I don’t see how you think you can work if you don’t take care of yourself!”

A shadow passed over the girl’s face.

“I did the best I could,” she said.

“Yes, I know,” said Greg hastily. “I’m sorry I said that. But now you’re going to have things so you can look out for yourself a little better. And just incidentally, you don’t need to look for a room unless you want to. Your room’s been engaged and a month’s rent paid in advance, dating from the day you lighted out from the hospital.”

“Oh!” said Margaret aghast. “How dreadful! You paying rent for nothing all that time!”

“Don’t worry about that. I wanted to make sure and hold it till you came to see if it suited you.”

“
Suited
me!” she exclaimed. “I’m not out trying to get suited!” she laughed with bitter gaiety.

“Well, will you go and look at it now? It’s the place Nurse Gowen told us about. It’s in the same house with the office and seemed quite attractive. I thought it would be easier for you than having to run out in the rain or snow. Mrs. Harris is a very nice little old lady, and everything is as clean as a pin. She will board you, too, and the nurse seemed to think that would be nice. You can try it out anyway, and if you don’t like it, you can find something better at your leisure.”

Margaret looked troubled.

“It isn’t a question of finding something better. It’s a question of being able to pay for
anything
,” she said. “If it’s nice, I’m sure I couldn’t afford it. And anyway, if it’s a nice place, I’m not fit to go to it. You can see just how shabby and disheveled I am. Any decent landlady wouldn’t take me in looking this way. I’m a perfect tramp!”

“You don’t look that way to me,” he said, “but I can get your point, and of course you know better than I. Equally, of course, you have got to be fittingly dressed. I had thought you might need some money just at the start, and I arranged to give your first month’s salary in advance. I brought it along.”