A deep red mounted to Mrs. Green’s brow, and she replied angrily, “Just tell them, if you please, that I do not let my servants have company except on certain days, and that Eva Dearman’s day hasn’t been picked out yet. What’s more, tell them that the servants’ friends go to the side-door.”
Mrs. Green was so angry that she hardly knew what she was saying. Eva’s cheeks flushed, and for a second she felt inclined to resent what had been said, but wisely she decided to say nothing.
The maid delivered the message which Mrs. Green had sent, and the girls were very indignant.
“Poor Eva!” Adele said as they were driving away. “If I only had known that she was to be sent to Mrs. Green’s. I didn’t know a thing about it until I telephoned to Mrs. Friend an hour ago. But she won’t have to endure this humiliation much longer. My mother loves Eva, and she will gladly invite her to visit us indefinitely.”
When Adele reached home she ran into the house, and, pausing in the lower hall, she called, “Mumsie, where are you?”
“In the library, dear,” a sweet voice replied. And Adele, flushed and excited, went in and sank down on the stool at her mother’s feet as she exclaimed, “Oh, mumsie, I am so mad! I never was madder, I guess, in all my days. I’ve tried and tried to think kind things about that horrid Mrs. Green, but I just can’t, no matter how hard I try.”
“Mrs. Green!” the mother repeated wonderingly. “Why, pet, what have you to do with her?”
Then in a rush of words Adele told the whole story. Mrs. Doring, who truly loved Eva, was surprised that the matron of the Home had allowed her to be so humiliated. “I will telephone to Mrs. Friend at once,” she said, as she arose and went into Mr. Doring’s small study.
The matron of the orphanage was also very indignant when she heard that Eva was being treated as a servant.
“Mrs. Doring,” she said over the wire, “I sincerely hope that you do not think that I had any knowledge that such was to be the case. Mrs. Green told me that she wished Eva to be a companion for Susetta, and when I asked her in what manner the orphan would be able to continue her studies, Mrs. Green replied that she had engaged a tutor to come from the city each day, and she inferred, if she did not directly say, that Eva would have lessons with Susetta. Eva is one of the dearest girls I have ever known, and I did my best to prevent her going, but the directors, knowing that the orphanage is much overcrowded, felt that it is best to find homes for the girls as soon as possible, and, moreover, they did not wish to offend Mrs. Green, who is a rich woman and might contribute liberally, and the home is greatly in need of funds.”