“I have thought so all along,” replied her son. “Elsie should go to high school, like other normal young girls.”
Mary Louise seized the hands of both people at once. She was wild with joy at the success of her plan.
“I’m going straight to the hospital now,” she said, picking up the heavy tin box which she had laid on a small table in the dining room, “to see what kind of bargain I can drive with Miss Grant!”
John laughed. “You have the gold?” he asked.
“Yes. But I’m not going to give it to her till she makes me some sort of promise.”
“Let me drive you over,” he suggested. “That box must be heavy.”
“It has five hundred dollars in gold in it,” returned Mary Louise. “I counted it, to make sure. Probably Miss Grant will offer me ten dollars as a reward.”
“I can believe that,” agreed Mrs. Grant. “She certainly is stingy. Poor little Elsie!”
Five minutes later John Grant left Mary Louise at the entrance to the hospital, and the girl carried her heavy box up to the patient’s room. But it was carefully wrapped and tied, so that Miss Grant had no idea what it contained.
The old lady was looking much brighter this morning. She smiled pleasantly as her young friend entered.