“Jackie! You never got it for nothing!”
“My pretend-aunt will send me some money on my birthday.” Jacqueline spoke fast. “I’ll pay Miss Crevey then. It’s all right, Aunt Martha. Honest, it is.”
Aunt Martha handled the cup and saucer almost reverently.
“Seems like a miracle,” she said, in a hushed voice. “I don’t mind telling you now, Jackie, we were worried to death because Grandma wouldn’t eat enough to keep up her strength, but now—why, when she sees her own old cup——”
She broke off, as if she couldn’t make the words come, and patted Jacqueline’s shoulder. From Aunt Martha that meant as much as a hug and a kiss from Aunt Edie.
“You’ve done a good day’s work, Jackie,” Aunt Martha found words again, as she turned away, and in the glow and triumph of the moment Jacqueline almost forgot that the gold beads that were Caroline’s lay under lock and key in Miss Crevey’s dusty secretary.
CHAPTER XXX
SLEEPY-HEAD
Really Caroline deserved none of the hard things that Jacqueline thought of her. She of course hadn’t had the least suspicion that her sudden departure to unknown places would be a tragedy for Jacqueline. Just the same she would have sent Jacqueline some word about this change in the summer’s plans, if only she had had the chance. But when you remember that Cousin Penelope had made up her mind to protect her darling from that pushing horrid little girl from the Meadows, (and when you remember Cousin Penelope!) you will realize that Caroline had about as much chance to send a message to Jacqueline as a nice little round snowball to survive in the middle of a red-hot furnace.
They were going away next morning, Cousin Penelope had announced one evening at dinner. They were going to the beach, because Cousin Marcia Vintner wasn’t using her cottage, and Aunt Eunice needed change of air (Aunt Eunice had never looked better in her life!) and Jacqueline, so Cousin Penelope had decided, was dying to paddle in the waves and run on the sands.
Privately Jacqueline’s little understudy was very well pleased where she was, but she would have been less than a human child, if she hadn’t thrilled at the thought of a journey, especially in that smooth rolling, softly upholstered limousine, which still seemed to her a palace on wheels.