The Other GirlsWhitney, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train)
General
The Other Girls
Whitney, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train)
Family life -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
There is another way out of all puzzle and perplexity and hardness;
it is the Lord's special way for each one, that we cannot foresee,
and that we never know until it comes. Then we discern that there
has never been impossibility; that all things are open before his
eyes; and that there is no temptation,--no trying of us,--to which
He will not provide some end or escape.
In the first week of January, Sylvie acted upon her resolve of
writing to Mr. Farron Saftleigh. She asked brief and direct
questions; told him that she was obliged to request an answer
without the least delay; and begged that he would render them a
clear statement of all their affairs. She reminded him that he had
_told_ them that he would be responsible for their receiving a
dividend of at least four per cent, at the end of the six months.
Mr. Farron Saftleigh "told" people a great many things in his
genial, exhilarating business talks, which he was a great deal too
wise ever to put down on paper.
Sylvie waited ten days; a fortnight; three weeks; no answer came.
Mr. Farron Saftleigh had simply destroyed the letter, of no
consequence at all as coming from a person not primarily concerned
or authorized, and set off from Denver City the same day for a
business visit to San Francisco.
Sylvie saw the plain fact; that they were penniless. And this could
not be told to her mother.
She went to Desire Ledwith, and asked her what she could do.
"I would go into a household anywhere, as Dot Ingraham and Bel Bree
have done, to earn board and wages, and spend my money for my
mother; but I can't leave her. And there's no sewing work to get,
even if I could do it at night and in honest spare time. I know, as
it is, that my service isn't worth what you give me in return, and
of course I cannot stay here any longer now."
"Of course you can stay where God puts you, dear," answered Desire
Ledwith. "Let your side of it alone for a minute, and think of mine.
If you were in my place,--trying to live as one of the _large
household_, remember, and looking for your opportunities,--what
would you say,--what would you plainly hear said to you,--about
this?"
Sylvie was silent.
"Tell me truly, Sylvie. Put it into words. What would it be? What
would you hear?"
"Just what you do, I suppose," said Sylvie, slowly "But I _don't_
hear it on my side. My part doesn't seem to chord."
"Your part just pauses. There are no notes written just here, in
your score. Your part is to wait. Think, and see if it isn't. The
Dakie Thaynes are going out West again. Mr. Thayne knows about
lands, and such things. He would do something, and let you know. A
real business man would make this Saftleigh fellow afraid."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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