Earn it from me.
Well, I had gone as far as I meant to. I was not realy in love withanyone, although I liked Carter Brooks, and would posibly haveloved him with all the depth of my Nature if Sis had not kept aneye on me most of the time. However----
Jane seemed to be expecting somthing, and I tried to think of someway to satisfy her and not make any trouble. And then I thought ofthe Suitcase. So I locked the door and made her promise not totell, and got the whole thing out of the Toy Closet.
"Wha--what is it?" asked Jane.
I said nothing, but opened it all up. The Flask was gone, but therest was there, and Carter's box too. Jane leaned down and liftedthe trowsers. and poked around somewhat. Then she straitened and said:
"You have run away and got married, Bab."
"Jane!"
She looked at me peircingly.
"Don't lie to me," she said accusingly. "Or else what are you doingwith a man's whole Outfit, including his dirty coller? Bab, I justcan't bare it."
Well, I saw that I had gone to far, and was about to tell Jane thetruth when I heard the sowing Woman in the hall. I had all I coulddo to get the things put away, and with Jane looking like death Ihad to stand there and be fitted for one of Sis's chiffon frocks,with the low neck filled in with net.
"You must remember, Miss Bab," said the human Pin cushon, "that youare still a very young girl, and not out yet."
Jane got up off the bed suddenly.
"I--I guess I'll go, Bab," she said. "I don't feel very well."
As she went out she stopped in the Doorway and crossed her Heart,meaning that she would die before she would tell anything. But Iwas not comfortable. It is not a pleasant thought that your bestfriend considers you married and gone beyond recall, when in truthyou are not, or even thinking about it, except in idle moments.
The seen now changes. Life is nothing but such changes. No soonerdo we alight on one Branch, and begin to sip the honey from it, butwe are taken up and carried elsewhere, perhaps to the Mountains orto the Sea-shore, and there left to make new friends and find newmethods of Enjoyment.
The flight--or journey--was in itself an anxious time. For on myotherwise clear conscience rested the weight of that strangeSuitcase. Fortunately Hannah was so busy that I was left to pack mybelongings myself, and thus for a time my gilty secret was safe. Iput my things in on top of the masculine articles, not daring toleave any of them in the closet, owing to house-cleaning, which isalways done before our return in the fall.
On the train I had a very unpleasant experience, due to Sis openingmy Suitcase to look for a magazine, and drawing out a soiledgentleman's coller. She gave me a very peircing Glance, but saidnothing and at the next opportunity I threw it out of a window,concealed in a newspaper.
We now approach the Catastrofe. My book on playwriting dividesplays into Introduction, Development, Crisis, Denouement andCatastrofe. And so one may devide life. In my case the Cinderproved the Introduction, as there was none other. I consider thatthe Suitcase was the Development, my showing it to Jane Raleigh wasthe Crisis, and the Denouement or Catastrofe occured later on.
Let us then procede to the Catastrofe.
Jane Raleigh came to see me off at the train. Her Familey wascoming the next day. And instead of Flowers, she put a small bundelinto my hands. "Keep it hiden, Bab," she said, "and tear up the card."
I looked when I got a chance, and she had crocheted me a washcloth, with a pink edge. "For your linen Chest," the card said,"and I'm doing a bath towle to match."
I tore up the Card, but I put the wash cloth with the other thingsI was trying to hide, because it is bad luck to throw a Gift away.But I hoped, as I seemed to be getting more things to conceal allthe time, that she would make me a small bath towle, and not thesort as big as a bed spread.
Father went with us to get us settled, and we had a long talk whilemother and Sis made out lists for Dinners and so forth.
"Look here, Bab," he said, "somthing's wrong with you. I seem tohave lost my only boy, and have got instead a sort of tear-y youngperson I don't recognize."
"I'm growing up, father" I said. I did not mean to rebuke him, butye gods! Was.