The four Corners in California

by Amy Ella Blanchard

THE SECRET

It was necessary to use the utmost delicacy in order that the señorita should be provided with a proper costume for the tea. She was very proud and very dignified, so that the subject had to be approached gingerly. Mrs. Corner made the first advance by asking if she meant to accept Mrs. Roberts' invitation.

"I shall decline, madame," replied the señorita gravely.

"Oh, but——" Mary Lee began, then stopped. "Can't you go, Miss Dolores? I shan't enjoy it half so much if you don't."

Miss Dolores smiled at her half sadly. "I think I best not go," she said. "I am not used to such societies as teas and merry-makes. I have lived very quietly, you know."

"Yes, but you are too young to keep on living very quietly," said Miss Helen. "You should be young and happy while you may. Mrs. Roberts wants you very much, and so do all of us."

"You are most kind," returned the señorita. "I will be frank as you are kind. I cannot go for I have not the costume."

"Ah, but"—Miss Helen paused. She would wait her opportunity of trying to overcome this obstacle. "Never mind," she said, "perhaps we can persuade you before the time comes."

"I wonder why the señorita feels that she cannot afford a new gown," she said to Mrs. Corner after the young lady had left the room. "I am sure we do not pay her a meagre salary and I imagine she has only herself to provide for."

"I have no doubt Mary Lee could tell you why," returned Mrs. Corner with a smile. "She seems to know all the señorita's secrets."

True enough, Mary Lee had learned the reason of her teacher's poverty. "I can tell you what I think," she said; "she is trying to pay back her uncle for the money spent on her education. He was very kind and generous to her while her aunt lived and she feels that she had no claim on him even then, and now that he needs the money she is trying to pay it. I don't know for sure, but that is what I think because she said once that her uncle had been very generous while he could be, and another time she said that her education had cost more than her aunt could afford, but that she was reaping the benefit of her uncle's kindness while he was very poor."

"Love makes us wise," said Mrs. Corner smiling as she turned to her sister. "I think probably Mary Lee has arrived at the truth."

Miss Helen slipped away to find the señorita who had just given Nan her music-lesson and was on her way to her room. "Come out on the veranda, my dear," said Miss Helen. "You need plenty of sunshine after those monotonous scales. How is Nan getting along, by the way?"

"She is a marvel, Miss Corner. She has a true ear and is much in love with her music. She should make fine musician some day."

"I hope she will," returned Miss Helen. "It is a great thing, señorita, to have you at hand to help her. We feel that we owe you much."

"Not so much as I owe you," said the señorita shaking her head. "I am grateful, believe me, Miss Corner."

Miss Helen waved away the statement. "We are your friends, my dear girl, and I wish that you would feel that we are. I wish you would consent to join us at Mrs. Roberts' tea. You say that you have not the proper costume. I wish—now please do not be offended;—consider me your aunt and let me supply what you may need. You don't know what a pleasure it would be to me, and it shall be our secret."

The color flashed into the señorita's cheeks. "No, no," she said, "I am not offended, Miss Corner, but please say no more of it. I could not accept. No, no."

She was so decided in her refusal and was evidently so distressed at the suggestion that Miss Helen did not press it. "I am sorry," was all that she said. "I should like to have had you with us."

"I believe you, and I should like to go," returned the señorita, "but I am not prepared. I cannot. I will make my excuses myself to Mrs. Roberts."

This she did with much dignity, but Mrs. Roberts would not take the decision as final. "You shall be allowed to change your mind," she said. "I shall look for you even at the eleventh hour, my dear Miss Dolores, but if you really find that you cannot come I shall know it is because something has detained you, though I shall be none the less disappointed."

The señorita gave a little sigh as she walked slowly down the pleasant street. She was young and she had at one time looked forward to having the good times which all girls enjoy when the opportunity comes to them. Now life seemed rather gray, a level stretch of workaday life before her. "I will go and see my good padre," she at last checked her thoughts by saying. "I will tell him I am a discontent and he will show me how to be thankful for what I have. Ah, these good friends, what should I do without them?"

"And won't she go at all?" said Mary Lee quite aghast when she was told of the señorita's decision.

"No," Nan told her. "Aunt Helen says she absolutely refuses and I know she wouldn't hear of Aunt Helen's helping her in any way."

"Oh, dear, then I don't want to go either," declared Mary Lee. "I shall stay at home and keep her company."

"That would be treating Mrs. Bobs rather shabbily," returned Nan, "for she is getting up all this for our pleasure as much as for the grown-ups, and I think it would be doing her pretty mean to stay away unless we were ill. You will just have to go, Mary Lee, whether you want to or not."

"I'll think about it," returned Mary Lee not willing to commit herself. "Maybe we can think of some plan ourselves. You think and I'll think, Nan. I know the reason she won't go is on account of having no proper frock. It seems perfectly dreadful, doesn't it?"

"Yes, when I think of how awfully we felt when we thought we couldn't go to Betty Wise's party because we had no frocks, I can sympathize with her."

"So can I. But that came out all right and perhaps this will."

"We'll try to make it, if there is any ingenuity in us. You don't think we'd better consult any one, Mary Lee?"

"No, I think whatever we do we'd better keep it to ourselves, for it might leak out if we tell and perhaps spoil everything. It is that way often. Whenever you have an idea you tell me and whenever I have one I'll tell you and we'll meet here to talk it all over."

"All right," agreed Nan.

And therefore it happened that where Miss Helen failed, two younger persons succeeded, and a few days after Miss Dolores had refused to accept the proffered gown, a dark head and a fair one were close together in a sequestered corner of the garden and a conversation which began in whispers ended in words loud enough for the little birds to hear.

"We could do it perfectly well," said Nan. "How much have you, Mary Lee?"

"I have all my Christmas money; ten dollars, I think."

"And I have nearly as much. Of course that will be enough, for we needn't get anything very expensive. Listen, I'll tell you what we can do; we can go to the Chinese shops where they have lovely things. I think a white China crêpe would be perfectly lovely, don't you?"

"Perfectly lovely," echoed Mary Lee.

"Well, now I'll tell you how we'll manage; we'll go down town by ourselves; we can do some other shopping, buy postal cards or something, and then we'll slip around the corner to the shops. I saw the very place the other day when we went with Carter."

"But how shall we get it to her without her knowing?"

"We'll get a messenger boy to take it," said Nan after some thought. "Then we'll go to Mrs. Roberts' on our way home and not let any one know we've been down town at all."

"Perfect!" cried Mary Lee clasping her hands. "Oh, Nan, you can contrive things so well. I should never have thought of the messenger boy. Of course she couldn't send it back because she will not have an idea where it comes from. But how about the making, Nan?"

"Oh, that can be managed some way. Mother is so clever about cutting and fitting and the señorita sews beautifully, then she has lovely lace so it will not need much trimming. I am sure it can be made here at home. We'll risk it anyway."

It did not take them long to carry out their plan. They started out in great excitement that same afternoon. "We may not be back to supper," they called as they left the veranda. "If Mrs. Roberts asks us to stay we shall, if you don't mind, mother. You'll know where we are."

"Very well," she returned, "but don't stay too late."

"That was managed beautifully," said Mary Lee, giving Nan's arm a squeeze. "Miss Dolores will never suspect. Now we must go down street and take the car at the next corner; in that way we can put them off the track."

"Not the cars, I hope," returned Nan flippantly.

"No, silly, the family. Nan, a dreadful thought has taken possession of me. Mother will wonder what we have done with our money. Shall we tell her?"

"Not till after the tea; we can then. Our Christmas money is ours to do exactly what we please with and she will not care. Mother can keep a secret better than anybody in the world and of course she will have to know. I should want her to."

"So should I, but it will be better not at first."

There was much picking and choosing of the proper fabric, much smothered laughter at the Chinese shopkeeper's pigeon English, much satisfaction as the parcel was borne away. It was first carried to another shop where a sheet of clean white paper was purchased; in this it was wrapped, and the address written by the accommodating clerk, so that not the slightest clue should be given to the place where it was originally bought. Then it was given into the hands of a messenger and the two girls in a happy frame of mind took their way to Mrs. Roberts'.

"I'd give anything to see her when she gets it," said Nan. "I wonder if she will be mad, Mary Lee?"

"I hope not. She will be mystified allee samee."

"She will that. She won't know whom to suspect and I'll bet she will pounce on Aunt Helen."

This was precisely what the señorita did. She was not in the house when the package was delivered and Li Hung laid it on the hall table where it was discovered by Miss Dolores later on. As the soft crêpy folds slipped through her fingers she had a girl's natural longing for the silken stuff, but this was but momentary, and was swept away by her stronger feeling of indignant pride. She marched into Miss Helen's presence, her head held high, the package in her hand.

"I will not accept," she said passionately. "I have said this to you and you still have disregard my wish. I am——" She flung the parcel on a chair and sat down bursting into a flood of tears.

"Why, my dear child!" Miss Helen looked amazed. "What is the matter? You will not accept what? I do not understand."

"You did not send me thees?" Miss Dolores pointed tragically to the offending bundle.

"I sent nothing. Please explain."

"Some one has sent me mater-rial—stoff—which I cannot buy. It is an insult." The señorita grew more and more excited.

"But it was not I, Miss Garcia," said Miss Helen.

"It was then Mrs. Corner?"

"I am sure it was not. She is aware of your wishes and would not have done this."

"Then who? Who? I beg your pardon, Señorita Helen. I am sorree. I should not have suspected and charged you."

"Oh, never mind, so long as I am not the guilty one," said Miss Helen smiling. "How did it come?"

"I know not. I found it upon the table addressed in a strange writing, no card, no name of shop, no anything."

"Then it is a mystery. I don't see anything for you to do but to keep it. You can't send it back when you don't know where it came from."

"I cannot, but I will find the giver and I will spur-r-n it!"

Miss Helen smiled, though the señorita did not see. Her pride was so touched that she could not understand that any one should think her heroics a little exaggerated. "It could not be Mrs. R-R-ob-erts," she presently rolled out. "She would not dar-r-e."

"No, indeed, I am sure it was not."

"Nor—Mr. Pinckney?"

"It is more like the kind of thing he likes to do, but still I do not think we can suspect him in this case, for you know, my dear, no one but your own family, here in the house, knows the reason you had for declining Mrs. Roberts' invitation. She does not even know yet that you think of positively declining it. There would be absolutely no excuse for Mr. Pinckney to send it, you see."

The señorita sighed. Her little rage was passing away since there was no one to accuse. She shook her head. "Then I know not who. Could it be my uncle?" she said suddenly, her face lighting up. "Perhaps he has thought to do this knowing I am sending his family more——" She paused, startled at her speech. "What have I said?" she murmured.

"Never mind," said Miss Helen soothingly. "I shall not remember."

The señorita seized her hands and kissed them. "You are so good, so patient. I am a heedless, an ungrateful. I can do nothing then, can I?"

"Nothing but take the gifts the gods send you, make up the stuff and wear it. Let us look at it. What a pretty frock it will make. You have that lovely lace, you were showing us the other day, to wear with it, and that pretty topaz necklace of your mother's. So shall you go to the tea, and I am very glad. Now, don't worry any more about the giver. Whoever it was, I can assure you it was none of us nor the Robertses. Now, be happy about it like any other girl." She stooped and kissed the señorita's bright hair.

"I will be happy," said the girl springing up. "You do not know how I have desired to be, how I have wished to have life like other girls, and so I shall, once, once be like them. I thank you, Miss Corner, for being so patient, and for showing me what to do."

"Mrs. Corner will help you to make it, I know," said Miss Helen, "and I will do all I can, though I am not the clever seamstress she is. Let us go show it to her."

Gathering the stuff up in her arms the señorita followed Miss Helen to Mrs. Corner's room where the how and what of making and trimming was at length discussed, and as the señorita became more and more convinced that her uncle was the giver she grew better and better satisfied, so that when the girls came home they found her happy and radiant.

"I am going after all," she told them girlishly. "My uncle has sent me so pretty goods for a frock and your good kind mother will help me to make it. Am I not lucky?"

The girls looked at each other and Nan giggled outright, for Mary Lee's face wore such an amazed expression. It was all very well not to let your right hand know what your left one was doing but Mary Lee was not sure that she liked Mr. Arnaldo Garcia to have the credit of her sacrifice. If the giver had simply remained an indefinite, intangible somebody it would have been all right, but to have her money and Nan's placed in Señor Garcia's pocketbook, so to speak, was a little too much. Still she could say nothing and was really happy over the delight of her beloved Miss Dolores.

"And it comes something so mysterious," said the señorita. "I think it is your aunt, your mother, who send, and I am in a rage, fury, but your so sensible aunt shows me my error and now I am content."

"She would have been in just as much of a rage and fury if she had known we sent it," said Nan as the señorita left them. "It is kind of hard on us, Mary Lee, to have Señor Garcia spending our Christmas money, but I reckon we'll have to grin and bear it, for if she had an inkling of the truth there would be no white crêpe gown made up for that tea, I can promise you. Mother will tell us that it was a good discipline for our characters."

And so she did, for though she laughed at Mary Lee's lugubrious expression when she told of how her Christmas money had been spent, she said: "Well, my dear, it is your own doing. You wanted it a secret and a secret it must be. I'll never tell, you may be sure, and after all, I think it is well for us to perform an act merely for the good that it does and not for any recognition we may get for it. That is true generosity, simon-pure variety. Never mind if Mr. Garcia did seem to give the gown you will enjoy the señorita's pleasure in it, and she will enjoy it twice as much, while I shall take delight in helping her to make it up, a double delight, since I know my darling girls gave it."

"We meant not to tell you till after the tea," said Nan, "but we just couldn't keep it, for we were so taken aback when we found out that Señor Garcia had been spending our pocket money."

Mrs. Corner laughed. "I am glad you didn't wait to tell me. It is a joke on you as well as on the señorita, yet it is a mighty good kind of joke."

A pretty gown it turned out to be, and the señorita never looked lovelier than when adorned for the tea. The soft white, clinging folds heightened her slender figure and gave it a grace which her ordinary plain black frocks did not reveal. Around her round white throat she wore the topaz necklace and in her bright hair were yellow blossoms.

"You just look like a creen," said Jean admiringly.

"I think she looks more like an angel," remarked Jack.

"That's what I think," said Mary Lee. "She needs only wings."

"I'd rather she didn't have them," returned Jack, "for then she might fly away from us."

"Such flattery," laughed the señorita. "I am getting spoiled among you all." But she looked well content to be admired and her face wore a gladder look than any of them had ever seen upon it.

Mrs. Corner in her gray gown and Miss Helen in filmy black had their share of compliments while the girls themselves were well satisfied to wear the pretty frocks their grandmother had brought from Europe and had given them for Betty Wise's party, and although Mary Lee declared the señorita outshone them all, Nan would not admit that for a moment, but maintained that her mother was the first and Aunt Helen next.