The heat did not disturb her through the day, though the hours
grew hotter and hotter as they passed. Jane Foster, sweltering at
her machine, was obliged to stop every few minutes to wipe the
beads from her face and neck. Sometimes she could not remain
seated, but got up panting to drink water and fan herself with a
newspaper.
"I can't stand much more of this," she kept saying. "If there
don't come a thunderstorm to cool things off I don't know what
I'll do. This room's about five hundred."
But the heat grew greater and the Elevated trains went thundering
by.
When Jem came home from his work his supper was not ready. Jane
was sitting helplessly by the window, almost livid in her pallor.
The table was but half spread.
"Hullo," said Jem; "it's done you up, ain't it?"
"Well, I guess it has," good-naturedly, certain of his sympathy.
"But I'll get over it presently, and then I can get you a cold
bite. I can't stand over the stove and cook."
"Hully Gee, a cold bite's all a man wants on a night like this.
Hot chops'd give him the jim-jams. But I've got good news for
you--it's cheered me up myself."
Jane lifted her head from the chair back.
"What is it?"
"Well, it came through my boss. He's always been friendly to me.
He asks a question or so every now and then and seems to take an
interest. To-day he was asking me if it wasn't pretty hot and
noisy down here, and after I told him how we stood it, he said he
believed he could get us a better place to stay in through the
summer. Some one he knows has had illness and trouble in his
family and he's obliged to close his house and take his wife away
into the mountains. They've got a beautiful big house in one of
them far up streets by the Park and he wants to get caretakers in
that can come well recommended. The boss said he could recommend
us fast enough. And there's a big light basement that'll be as
cool as the woods. And we can move in to-morrow. And all we've
got to do is to see that things are safe and live happy."
"Oh, Jem!" Jane ejaculated. "It sounds too good to be true! Up by
the Park! A big cool place to live!"
"We've none of us ever been in a house the size of it. You know
what they look like outside, and they say they're bigger than
they look. It's your business to go over the rooms every day or
so to see nothing's going wrong in them--moths or dirt, I
suppose. It's all left open but just one room they've left locked
and don't want interfered with. I told the boss I thought the
basement would seem like the Waldorf-Astoria to us. I tell you I
was so glad I scarcely knew what to say."
Jane drew a long breath.
"A big house up there," she said. "And only one closed room in
it. It's too good to be true!"
"Well, whether it's true or not we'll move out there to-morrow,"
Jem answered cheerfully. "To-morrow morning bright and early. The
boss said the sooner the better."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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