Brenda's Bargain: A Story for Girls Read online

  II

  A FAMILY COUNCIL

  Brenda had to change from the surface car to one that would take herhome through the subway. It was so late that she involuntarily steppedtoward a cab standing on the corner opposite the Common. On secondthought she decided to economize, since she had already had an expensiveafternoon. After depositing her subway ticket she had to wait a fewminutes for her car in a crowd, and some one scrambling for a car pushedsome one else against her. Brenda, looking around, saw a handsomeblack-eyed girl with a dark kerchief pinned over her head.

  "Oh, I beg your pardon," she said, with a foreign accent, fumbling in abasket that she carried on her arm.

  Later, as the car was emerging into the light of the open space near thePublic Garden Brenda's hand went instinctively toward the silver-meshpurse that she wore at her belt. It was not there, though she rememberedhaving taken a coin from it as she bought her car ticket. Thoughaccustomed to losing her little personal possessions, Brenda especiallyvalued this purse, and she set her wits at work to trace the loss. Sheremembered the little girl with the basket, and recalled that the momentbefore the child had begged her pardon she had felt something jerk herbelt. Had she only put the two things together earlier she might haverecovered the purse; for of course the child had taken it. Yet to provethis would have been difficult. She would never have had the courage tocall a policeman, and remembering the little girl's large, soft eyes,she found it hard to believe her a thief. "An expensive afternoon!" shesaid to herself. "My twenty dollars gone in one crash, and then thatpretty purse with two or three dollars more. What will they say when Itell them at home?"

  Then she decided to say nothing about losing the purse. This was thekind of thing that they expected her to do, and her brother-in-law wouldtease her unmercifully. But Brenda was not secretive, and it was easyenough to speak about Maggie and the broken vase. The story did not loseby her telling, especially as the box with the broken pieces arrivedwhen she was in the midst of her tale. The family was seated in thelibrary after dinner, and each one begged for a little piece of theiridescent glass as a souvenir. But Brenda refused the request, on theplea that for the present she wished to have something to show for hermoney.

  "Although even without the vase I feel that I've gained something," sheconcluded.

  "Experience?" queried her father; "I always hoped you'd feel thatexperience is a treasure."

  "Of course," responded Brenda, "but I was thinking of Maggie McSorley;she may prove of more worth than twenty dollars if she becomes mycandidate for Julia's school,--a perfect bargain, in fact."

  "If she keeps her promise--"

  "If! why, Mamma, I am sure that she will."

  "Speaking of losing," interposed Agnes, Brenda's sister, "Arthur losthis temper to-day when he found that you were so ready to break yourappointment."

  "Oh, he'll find it soon enough; besides, he can't expect me always to beready to do just what he wishes."

  "Well, this involved some one else. He had promised young Halstead totake you to his studio to see a picture, and he was greatlydisappointed, for the picture is to be sent away to-morrow."

  "There!" exclaimed Brenda, "why didn't I remember? I thought that wewere simply going for a walk to Brookline, but they shut off thetelephone, or cut me off, and that was why he couldn't remind me. I'mawfully sorry."

  "You won't have a chance to tell him so this evening. What shall I saywhen I see him?"

  "You needn't take the trouble, Ralph," replied Brenda; "we're to rideto-morrow, and I can explain."

  "It will be his turn to forget."

  But Brenda did not heed Ralph's teasing, for already at the sound ofthree sharp peals of the door-bell she had rushed out to meet her cousinJulia.

  "Oh, Julia, I have found _just_ the girl for your school; she is anorphan and hates study, and--"

  "Well, upon my word!" exclaimed Ralph, "those are certainly finequalifications,--'an orphan and hates study'!"

  "I understand what she means, or thinks she means," responded Julia, asshe laughingly advanced to the centre of the room, greeting the familycordially, while Agnes helped her remove her hat and coat.

  "You've come for a week, I hope," exclaimed her uncle, kissing her.

  "Oh, I shall be here several times in the course of the week, and Ishall stay now overnight. But a whole week away from my work! Ah! UncleRobert, you're a good business man, to suggest such a thing!" And,seating herself on the arm of Mr. Barlow's chair, Julia shook her fingerplayfully in his face.

  "When do you have your house-warming?" asked Agnes, taking up the bit ofsewing that she had dropped on Julia's entrance.

  "We are not to have a house-warming, but later we shall invite you oneby one, or perhaps two by two, to see the house."

  "I suppose you've taken out all the good furniture, and in a certain waythe Du Launy Mansion must be greatly changed."

  "Don't speak so sadly, Aunt Anna; it is changed, and yet it is notchanged. But I did not know that you were attached to the old house?"

  "Hardly attached, Julia, for I was there only once, when I called onMadame Du Launy the year before her death. But in its style ofarchitecture and its furnishings it seemed so completely an old-timehouse that I regret that it has had to be changed into an institution."

  "Oh, no, please, Aunt Anna, not an institution; anything but that. Why,we mean to make it a real home, so that girls who haven't homes of theirown will feel perfectly happy. Of course we have had to make somechanges in the house itself, and remove some of the furniture, but whenyou visit us you will see that it is far removed from an institution."

  "How many nationalities have you now, Julia? You had a dozen or twowaiting admittance when you were last here, had you not?"

  "There are to be only ten girls in the home, and there are still somevacancies. Indeed you are a tease, Uncle Robert."

  Yet, although her uncle and aunt had teased her a little, Julia was notdisconcerted, and when Agnes asked her to tell them something about thegirls already in residence, she entered upon the task with greatgood-will.

  "Well, first of all, Concetta. It's fair to speak of her first, becauseshe's Miss South's protegee. She is the genuine Italian type, with themost perfectly oval cheeks, and a kind of peach bloom showing throughthe brown, and her hair closely plaited and wound round and round, andthe largest brown eyes. Miss South became interested in her last yearwhen she was visiting schools. She found that her father meant to takeher out of school this year to become a chocolate dipper."

  "A chocolate dipper! I've heard of tin dippers,--but--"

  "Hush, Ralph, you are too literal."

  "Yes," continued Julia, "a chocolate dipper. You know there's anenormous candy factory there on the water front, and most of the girlsthink their fortunes made when they can work in it. But after Miss Southhad visited Concetta a few times she thought her capable of somethingbetter, and so she is to have her chance at the Mansion. But her uncleLuigi was determined to make Concetta a wage-earner as soon as possible.She did not need more schooling, he said.

  "Fortunately, however, Concetta has a godmother who, although aworking-woman, dingily clad, and apparently hardly able to supportherself, is supposed to have money hidden away somewhere. On thisaccount she has much influence in the Zanetti family, and a word fromher accomplished more than all our arguments. Concetta is now freed fromthe dirty, crowded tenement, and I feel that we may be able to makesomething of her. Then there is Edith's nominee, Gretchen Rosenbaum,whose grandfather is the Blairs' gardener. She's pale and thin, and notat all the typical German maiden. She has a diploma from school of whichshe is very proud, and she says that she wants to be a housekeeper. Thefamily are very thankful for the chance offered her by the Mansion."

  "The Germans know a good thing when they see it, especially if it isn'tgoing to cost them much," said Ralph.

  "Then," continued Julia, "there are my two little Portuguese cousins,Luisa and Inez, as alike as two peas in a pod. Angelina told me aboutthem, and their teach
er confirmed my opinion that it would be a charityto save them from the slop-work sewing to which their old aunt haddestined them."

  "How much of an annuity do you have to pay the aunt?" asked Ralph.

  Julia blushed, for in fact, in order to give the girls the opportunitythat she thought they ought to have at the Mansion, she had had topromise the aunt two dollars a week, which the latter had estimated asher share of their earnings for the next two years. Julia did not whollyapprove of the arrangement, although she knew that only in this waycould she help the two little girls.

  "Hasn't Nora contributed to your household?"

  "Oh, yes, the dearest little Irish girl; we can hardly understand a wordNellie says, though she thinks she talks English. Nora ran across herand a party of other immigrants one day when she had gone over to theCunard wharf to meet some friends. Nellie and a half-dozen others hadbecome separated from the guide who was to take them to theirlodging-place in East Boston. They were near the dock, and Nora becamevery much interested in Nellie. She took her name and destination, andlater went to see her, and the result is one of our most promisingpupils; that is, we have a chance to teach her more than almost any ofthe others. But there! I'm ashamed of talking so much shop."

  "Oh, no, it's most interesting. You haven't finished?"

  "Well, there are two or three other girls, of whom I will tell you moresome other time, and there are one or two vacancies. I wish, Brenda,that you could send us a pupil. I'm afraid that you won't have muchinterest in the school unless you have a girl of your own there."

  "But I have--I will--that is--can't you see that I have something veryimportant to tell you?" and thereupon Brenda launched into a glowingaccount of Maggie McSorley and the prospect of her going to the Mansion."I just jumped at the idea when it came to me," concluded Brenda, "for Ihave had so many things on my mind this summer that I didn't make theeffort that I had intended to find a girl for you. But now I shall do myutmost to persuade that cross-grained aunt, and I am bound to succeed."

  "I wouldn't discourage you, but evidently you made little headway thisafternoon," said her mother, "in spite of the pretty high price that youhave paid for the pleasure of Maggie's acquaintance."

  "Just wait, Mamma; just wait. When I really set out to do a thing Igenerally succeed. I found out to-day that Mrs. McSorley ratherbegrudges Maggie her home, although she feels it her duty to keep her.She says that Maggie has a way of upsetting things that is very trying,and she's had to give up to her the little room that she used to keepfor a sitting-room. Oh, I'm certain that I can persuade her to spareMaggie."

  Then the conversation drifted on to other sides of the work, and Julia'senthusiasm half reconciled Mr. and Mrs. Barlow to the fact that she wasto be away from them.

  "Home is a career, and we need you more than any group of strange girlspossibly can," Mr. Barlow had protested, when Julia had shown him theimpossibility of her settling down quietly at home.

  "You have Brenda and Agnes. Suppose that I had gone to Europe for two orthree years after leaving college. I am sure that then you would nothave complained, for you would have thought this a thing for my especialprofit and pleasure. Now when I shall be so near that you will see me atleast once a week, you are not altogether pleased, because you thinkthat I am likely to work too hard."

  "Oh, papa needn't worry," cried Brenda; "I shall see that you haveenough frivolity. You shall not overwork the poor little girls either. Ifeel sorry for them now, with you and Pamela and Miss South egging themon. But I have various frivolities in mind, and you must encourage me."

  "I never knew you to need encouragement in frivolity. A littlediscouragement would be more likely to have a wholesome effect."

  Thus they chatted, and Mr. Barlow, looking up from his evening paperfrom time to time, was convinced that Julia's new interests hadcertainly not yet taken away her taste for the lighter side of life.

  Indeed, on the whole, he had no decided objection to the scheme thatJulia and Miss South had started to carry out. As his niece's tastes soevidently ran in philanthropic directions, he knew that in the end shemust be happiest when following her bent.

  Miss South herself would have been the last to claim originality for themuch-discussed school. There were other social settlements in the city,and one or two other domestic science schools in which girls had a goodchance to learn cooking and other branches of household work. Yet theschool at the Mansion had an object all its own. Miss South felt thateach year many young girls drifted into shop or factory who might beencouraged to a higher ambition. For many of them evidently thoughtfirst of the money they could immediately earn, and there was no one tosuggest that if they prepared themselves for something better they wouldlater have more money as well as greater honor. So she tried to findgirls willing to spend two years at the Mansion, while she watched themand advised them and guided them into what she believed would be thebest avenue of employment for them. Some people thought that she meantto train all the girls to be domestics; others thought she aimed to keepthem out of this occupation. She meant to train them all in housework sothoroughly, that, whether they entered service or had homes of theirown, they should be able to do their work properly. She meant, if any ofthese girls showed special talents, to encourage them to pursue theirnatural bent.

  "Would you let them study art or music?" some one had asked insurprise.

  "Yes; why not?"

  "Why, girls from the tenement districts!--it doesn't seem right toencourage them in this way."

  "Oughtn't any young thing to be encouraged to follow its natural bent?It's a case of individuals, not of sections of the city."

  "I've always been sorry," explained Miss South, "for the bright girlswho drop out of school at fourteen that their ablebodied parents maysnatch the little wages they can earn in the factories. The ten ortwelve girls we may have here at the Mansion are very few compared withthe hundreds who need the same kind of chance. But I am hoping thatthrough these a broader influence may be exerted."

  Although many critics naturally thought that Miss South did wrong ingiving girls of a certain class ideas above their sphere, on the wholeshe was commended for undertaking a good work. There were some also whopitied Mrs. Barlow on account of Julia's partnership in the scheme.

  "This is what comes of letting a girl go to college," and they wonderedthat Mrs. Barlow herself did not express more disapproval.

  "You'll have only orphans," said Mr. Elton, a cousin of Mrs. Barlow's,who took much interest in the work; "for in my experience fathers andmothers of the working class are just lying in wait for the earnings oftheir half-grown daughters. To fill your school you will either have tokill off a few fathers and mothers, or else consider only orphans to besuitable candidates. To be sure, you might offer heavy bribes toparents. But of course you can get the orphans easily, if they havecruel aunts or stepmothers."

  "As to cruel aunts," responded Julia, "judging from my own experience,as was said of Mrs. Harris, 'I don't believe there's no sich a person;'and in spite of Ovid and Cinderella, I have my doubts about cruelstepmothers."

  "We'll see," said Mr. Elton. "At any rate, you'll have to bribe yourgirls, and when I meet them my first question will be, How much do theypay you to stay?"

  One of the most delightful features in fitting up the house for its newuse had been the eagerness to help shown by many of Miss South's formerpupils.

  Ruth, for example, in furnishing the kitchen, had said, "This will showthat I have a practical interest in housekeeping, even though I am tospend my first year of married life in idle travel."

  "With your disposition it won't be wholly idle," Miss South hadresponded.

  "Well, I do mean to discover at least one or two new receipts, or betterthan that, some new articles of food, that I can put at the service ofthe Mansion upon my return."

  "We certainly shall have you in mind whenever we look at these prettyand practical things."