"Now, I been thinking," she said sitting down on the edge of the bed and
eating bits of the piece of toast she had burned--Betty's was toasted
beautifully--"I got a plan. I think you better go to Ma. She's got room
enough for you for a while, and I want my sister to come over and take a
place I can get fer her. If you was there she could leave. Mebbe you
could help Ma with the kids. Of course we're poor and you ain't used to
common things like we have them, but I guess you ain't got much choice
in your fix. I got a paper this morning. They're huntin' fer you hot
foot. They say you was temperary insane, an' 'f I was you I'd keep out
o' their way a while. You lay low an' I'll keep my eye out and let you
know, I've got a little money under the mattrass I can let you have till
that ring gets sold. You can leave it with me an' I'll do the best I can
if you think you can trust me. Of course I'm a stranger, but then, land!
So are you! We just _gotta_ trust each other. And I'm sending you to my
mother if you'll go!"
"Oh!" said Betty, springing up and hugging her impulsively, "you're so
good! To think I should find somebody just like that right in the street
when I needed you so. I almost think God did it!"
"Well, mebbe!" said Jane, in her embarrassment turning to hang up a
skirt that had fallen from its hook. "That's what they say sometimes in
Chrishun Deavor meetin'. Ever go to Chrishun Deavor? Better go when you
get out home. They have awful good socials an' ice cream, and you'll
meet some real nice folks. We've got a peach of a minister, and his wife
is perfec'ly dandy. I tell you I missed 'em when I came to the city!
They was always doing something nice fer the young folks."
"How interesting!" said Betty, wondering if she might really be going to
live like other girls. Then the shadow of her danger fell over her once
more, and her cheek paled.
"If I can only get there safely," she shuddered. "Oh, Jane! You can't
understand what it would be to have to go back!"
"Well, you're not going back. You're going to Tinsdale, and nobody's
going to find you ever, unless you want 'em to! See? Now, listen! We
haven't any time to waste. You oughtta get off on the ten o'clock train.
I put out some clothes there for yeh. They ain't like yours, but it
won't do fer you to go dressed like a millionairess. Folks out to
Tinsdale would suspect yeh right off the bat. You gotta go plain like
me, and it's this way: You're a friend I picked up in the city whose
mother is dead and you need country air a while, see? So I sent you home
to stay with Ma till you got strong again. I'm wirin' Ma. She'll
understand. She always does. I kinda run Ma anyhow. She thinks the sun
rises an' sets in me, so she'll do just what I say."
"I'm afraid I oughtn't to intrude," said Betty soberly, taking up the
coarse, elaborately trimmed lingerie with a curious look, and trying not
to seem to notice that it was different from any she had ever worn
before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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