CHAPTER XXIV
FINANCIAL TROUBLES
Nelson was well enough by the end of the week to announce that school would be opened the following Monday. The scholars would make up their missed recitations in Christmas week and at Easter. Janice had been keeping up with her studies at the seminary with difficulty during this time of stress; and she ceased appearing at the Beasely cottage as soon as the school teacher was really out of danger.
As long as snow held off, Janice was determined to sleep at home and run back and forth in her automobile; but she went for her luncheon to her boarding place in Middletown each day.
Mrs. MacKay was a cheerful, bustling Scotchwoman whose life and interests were entirely centered in her big son, Archie. She had educated Archie by sewing and washing and other domestic labors for Middletown people; and although the MacKays had occupied a humble place in the past, Archie’s position in the Middletown Bank and his own friendly, accommodating nature, were fast putting the devoted couple on a higher social plane.
Archie never went anywhere save to work without his mother; they went to church together and came home together; he never seemed to have eyes for any woman but her, and she was so proud of Archie that she could talk of little else.
But Janice found the couple less cheerful after the Thanksgiving recess than they had formerly been. Archie seemed distraught at the luncheon table, and when he had gone she caught Mrs. MacKay crying softly.
“My dear!” the girl said. “What ever is the matter?”
“Oh, I can’t tell you, Miss Janice,” said the Scotchwoman. “It’s trouble at the bank, and I’ve no right to speak about it.”
“Goodness! Archie is surely not in any difficulty?”
“Thank God, no! ’Tis not him. But ’tis one that’s helped him and been kind tae him. Got him the place there, indeed.”