“Humph! I suppose that is some of Jeremy Todd’s talk; sounds like it.”
Ellen did not reply to this, but went up to the attic to look over the trunks. She found a scarf which she decided would make a fine addition to Miss Rindy’s wardrobe, and which would do for a Christmas gift from herself. An ostrich-feather fan she appropriated, and a pair of opera glasses, but these were the only things which she felt would be suitable.
All the time she was rummaging she was thinking about her Cousin Rindy’s hat. “If it were not for paying my travelling expenses she could get one,” Ellen told herself. “I really think I ought to give up my visit and go to Caro’s instead; she wants awfully to have me at Christmas, but, oh, dear! I think I shall pine away if I have to stay here when I am just crazy to get back with that dear old crowd; and yet—and yet—— If I had only promised Caro in the first place, I couldn’t get out of it, and Cousin Rindy could have her visit and a hat, too. Sometimes it is mighty hard to be unselfish. Cousin Rindy never thinks of herself, but I am not so good as she is, and I never shall be.” She sighed, arose from her knees, locked the trunk, and took the things she had selected from it down to her room, but she went around with a soberly thoughtful countenance the rest of the day.
As usual in such cases she took her dilemma to Jeremy Todd. “I’m all fussed up,” she told him. “I don’t feel as if I could possibly allow Cousin Rindy to pay my travelling expenses, and yet I am wild to go to Mrs. Austin’s. If I could only make some excuse to stay here and let Cousin Rindy go, I’d do it, I really would. You needn’t look at me in that quizzical way, Mr. Jeremy Todd. What are you laughing at?”
For Mr. Todd was beginning to chuckle, and the chuckle was growing into a hearty laugh. “I am laughing because things turn out in such a funny manner sometimes. You may not think you were born under a lucky star, you little Ellen North, but I believe you were.”
“What makes you say that?”
“You remember the birthday party, don’t you? Well, a similar condition has arisen. I was called up this very morning by a man in Meadowville,—you remember the little church there. I am wanted to play for a wedding, but as there is to be a wedding in our own church at the same hour, noon, I was thinking of asking you to take the music here while I go to Meadowville. How does the idea strike you?”
“Oh, Mr. Todd, it strikes me so hard that I am nearly knocked flat. It seems like a miracle only——” She stopped short, and the joy died out of her face.
“What’s the matter now, sprained your thumb, or what?”
“Oh, no, I’m not incapacitated, but I told you last time that I was not going to take your place unless you received what is rightfully yours, the fee.”