“Just how bad——?”
“Mother’s due to arrive in the morning, for Commencement. I can’t see her, Madge. I can’t see her again, ever!”
Bernie fumbled for her handkerchief. She had braided her tawny hair in a single heavy cable; it fell down across her left shoulder and breast. She wore a Japanese kimono, incongruously flowered, with obi girdle. At nineteen the Dresden Doll was a Dresden Doll no longer. She had become a big-bodied girl with prominent, bony features, a small, narrow forehead, wide cheek bones, prominent nose and weak, sensuous mouth. The saving feature of her countenance was a deep dimple in her chin. It was a coy, devilish dimple and had wrought much damage. A type of Mona Lisa face, Bernie’s—without the Mona Lisa humor.
Madelaine sat motionless, her hands relaxed along the chair arms. She was very calm, very grave. Only tender compassion lay upon her cameo features now.
“How did it happen, dear?” she asked. “Do you want to tell me that?”
“No! I want you to tell me—what I ought to do—what’s ahead for me. Oh, Madge! Madge! I’m so scared I want to die!”
The Gridley girl fell into a paroxysm of trembling, such an ague that Madelaine leaned forward and took her hands. Bernice was ill, far worse than Madelaine had expected. Though Bernice made the demand on her as a right, the girl called “Old Mother Hubbard” was broad enough and human enough to make allowance. Bernie was a woman grown physically, perhaps. Otherwise she was a little child, alone in the dark, panic-stricken in a world of savage ignorance and injustice.
“There’s nothing to be frightened about, Bernie. Nothing. Get it firmly into your mind and hold it there. We only fear the things we fail to understand. Apparently that’s where you’ve made your blunder. You haven’t understood. The secret of solving any great trouble is to keep calm and poised about it. Remember there’s no human difficulty but what there’s a human solution. Now, then, what we want to determine first is the thing that’s frightening you most. Once cleared away, we can proceed to the elimination of other bothersome things. Just what bothers you worse, dear—physical fear or the reaction of your predicament on your family and future?”
“Oh, Madge! You’re so wonderful. I’m sorry for all the mean and spiteful things I said about you! You’re an angel and a——”
“Let’s not talk about myself, dear. I’m here to talk about you. If you’ve said or done anything unfair about me in the past, it’s because you didn’t understand. So not understanding, you can’t of course be wholly blamed. Anyway, I believe it’s an obligation all of us have, to give our help so long as people are sent into contact with us who need and deserve it. If there’s any way I can aid you, I’m here to do it. And I want you to feel my friendship before we go any further.”