“Fancy my going off like that,” she complained. “But I have a long story to tell you, Glowie, so I’d best brace up——”
“Don’t, please, if you feel the effort,” begged Gloria, actually fearful. “They say hearts are the trickiest things when they get on a rampage.”
“I know. But I’ve got to tell you some things, Gloria. I just can’t have my stepmother come here,” began Jack with a brave effort. “She’s all right, and as good as gold, when she isn’t crossed; but these girls——”
“I know. I’ve felt the sting a little myself,” admitted Gloria. “You see, I’m an out and out country girl, and green.”
“So was Joan of Arc, and a beauty at that,” broke in the sick girl. “Now, I’m willing to own up to a fraud, I do pretend a lot just for the fun of ‘stringing’ Jean and her crowd. They’re such sillies.” The scorn that surrounded the term condoned its vulgarity. Gloria smiled her own acquiescence. Jack continued:
“I’ll have to be very personal to make myself clear,” she said. “My dad was a very rich man—a big business man.” As she paused Gloria dismissed the term Pirate’s Daughter as belonging to Jack. A big business man is hardly a pirate, that is not in the usual acceptance of the term. Therefore, that trunk full of possible loot could hardly have belonged to Jack. Neither could she have given Gloria the queer necklace. Somehow she, Gloria, was conscious of relief with the conviction.
“And he left me a lot of money,” went on Jack, neither pride nor assurance tingeing the statement. “Well,” she sighed, “you see, he married Steppy, sort of out of gratitude. She had nursed him through a dangerous fever, and she didn’t save herself in the task either. Steppy is a trump, but you see——” A conscious pause. Then, “You see, she never had any chance of education and she has always associated with rough people, but even that can’t hurt a kind heart, Gloria.” This was a tribute and Gloria appreciated its value.
“Yes,” she agreed, “a good kind heart doesn’t depend on circumstances nor upon education. Jane, she’s my near-mother, she always said, kind hearts were all the angels left us when they ‘shooed’ us out of paradise.”
“I guess so,” sighed Jack, abstractedly. “But I’ll have to hurry.” A furtive glance at the door told why. “You see, when dad died he left my fortune” (she smiled) “all nicely done up and parcelled out so I could get a little package ever so often. And he gave Steppy all she will ever need. There’s no trouble about that, but it seems, I should have told you at the beginning, that Steppy is a little queer, has ideas about buried treasures and all that. Why, I’ve seen her run up to a strange girl and ask her where she got her string of beads! Imagine, when the girl replied icily: ‘In the ten cent store, but they’re all gone.’”
Both laughed. Gloria wondered what the woman might ask her if she ever saw the smoky beads she secretly possessed.