Kate's Ordeal Part 6

"Has she? Something unusual, isn't it?" said the young man carelessly.

"Yes, very unusual," said Kate, "it is not often we get sent out."

"The old lady is out of the way, I suppose?" said William confidentially, as he helped himself to a sponge-cake from a plate on the counter.

"Yes, or else I dare not talk to you," said Kate, laughing.

"Well, we came in to ask if you couldn't both manage to go to the theatre one night," said William, helping himself to something else from the counter, and handing the plate to his friend.

"Me go to a theatre!" exclaimed Kate; "I have never been in my life."

"Just the reason why you should go now, then," said William, with his mouth full of lemon cheese-cake. "Tell Marion what I say, and I know she will agree with me. Tell her I have a chance of some orders this winter, and you two shall have the first I can get hold of."

"You are very kind," said Kate. "I am sure Marion will be pleased, if she can only manage to go."

"And won't you be pleased too?" said the young man, looking round for another untasted dainty.

"I--I don't know, I don't think I shall be able to go; I don't see how we can both get out together."

"Oh, Marion will manage that, I daresay. You must go, Kate, if I can get the orders."

After a little more talk and a little more persuasion, William said he would take two pennyworth of buns, and gave Kate twopence as he spoke.

Kate handed him two buns and glanced over the impoverished plates on the counter, trying to reckon how many had been taken, while he in equal astonishment looked at the small bag she handed to him.

"Miss Kate, I am a wholesale customer, you know," he said at last.

"Wholesale?" repeated Kate; "I don't understand. Of course I know we supply a few shops at a different rate--at wholesale, as you call it, but----"

"You don't mean to say Marion has never let you into the secret of our wholesale trade," whispered William.

"I don't know what you mean, I'm sure."

"Well, never mind, it don't matter; I've got two buns, and I've paid for them;" and William was turning away from the counter, but Kate said quickly--

"Stop a minute; there are those other things you've had off the plates."

"Oh, it's all right, I'll settle with Marion for them. Good afternoon." And the next minute he was gone, leaving Kate in a state of bewildered astonishment not easily described. She knew that Marion often helped herself to stamps, envelopes, and paper out of her mistress's desk, but she could not think that she would rob her to such an extent as William's words would imply, for it was robbery, nothing less, to give away their employer's property for favours bestowed on themselves. _This_, then, was how such favours were to be made up to them.

Kate longed for, and yet dreaded, her cousin's return, that she might talk to her about this, yet wondering at the same time how she should begin, how she should tell her what she thought of it. But, as it often happens, Marion herself helped her out of the difficulty, for as she came into the shop she said, in a hurried whisper, "Anyone been in, Kate?"

Kate nodded. "Go and get your things off, and I will tell you all about it," she said.

"Oh, I can guess your news, I think; he can get us some orders for the theatre? Isn't that it?"

"Yes, that and something else," said Kate rather gravely.

"Oh, never mind the 'something else,' that's enough. Kate, it will be splendid; he always gets orders for the best seats in the first-rate theatres. You must go."

"I don't know whether I shall, I must talk to you about things first.

How are these orders to be paid for?"

"Paid for? That's nothing to do with you or me either, Kate. Orders are always presents."

"Yes, but we are expected to make it up, and to rob Mrs. Maple to do it."

"Rob her? What do you mean, Kate? If you were not my own cousin I'd make you prove your words," said Marion angrily. "What do you mean, I say? If you are a thief, begging me to give you her postage-stamps, I am not; I can buy postage-stamps for myself."

"I did not ask you for Mrs. Maple's stamps," said Kate indignantly; "I asked you to lend me your own until I could pay you for them."

"Lend you my own! why, you knew I had not got any," exclaimed Marion.

"Where was I to get them but out of the desk?"

"Well, I've kept account of how many stamps I have had, and you shall put them back. But it was not the stamps I was thinking of, Marion."

"Oh, no, of course not; we never see ourselves as other people see us."

"I told you William came in this afternoon. Well, he ate a good deal of pastry off the plates, and then gave me twopence for some buns, expecting half a dozen, I suppose, for he was very much surprised that I only gave him two, and said he was always served at the wholesale price, and then went away without paying for anything he had eaten."

"Well, suppose he did?" said Marion, coolly, "didn't he tell you he was keeping an account with me?"

"He told me to tell you he would settle with you about that."

"Well, what more do you want? How dare you charge me with being a thief? The idea of your coming here and saying such things of me, who was here long before you were! It only shows what a bad, wicked girl you must be, and what you would do yourself if you only had the chance.

I have a great mind to go to Mrs. Maple this minute, and tell her what a dangerous person she has in her house, and how we have all been deceived in you."

Marion had almost talked herself out of breath, and Kate out of her suspicions. As her cousin went upstairs to take off her things Kate began to feel like a culprit in the matter, as though she ought to beg her cousin's pardon for judging her unjustly; and yet when she was left alone again calmly to think over all that had happened that afternoon and many previous afternoons, she could not but think that her suspicions were correct; she rather dreaded Marion coming down again, but, to her surprise, Marion seemed to have forgotten her anger by the time she appeared, and came into the shop smiling and pleasant as though nothing had happened.

"I have not told Mrs. Maple anything about our quarrel, Kate," she said, quite coolly; "I am sure you do not mean what you said just now, and it would vex her, I know, if she knew we had begun quarrelling."

"I almost wish you had told her," said Kate.

"Well, my dear, I am not so fond of making other people uncomfortable as you are, and so I think we had better keep the affair to ourselves.

I don't mind telling you this much, I do sometimes give William a bun over what he pays for, at the retail price--let him have them at the wholesale rate, as he is a pretty good customer."

"But now let me try and remember what William had, for I went to the drawers and filled up the plates again."

"That was right; never let your plates be half empty if you can fill them. Now you had better tell me what William had," and Marion took a note-book from her pocket, and appeared to set done the items as Kate could recall them.

"I don't think he had anything else," said Kate, when nearly a shilling's worth had been called over.

"Well, we'll forgive him if he has," said Marion, replacing the book in her pocket with a smile. "Don't look so grave, Kate; I'm not going to rob Mrs. Maple, as you accused me of doing a little while ago.

Everybody in business lets their own friends have things at a wholesale rate. Mrs. Maple sells to the shops on those terms, and why shouldn't I let William have them at the same price? it makes no difference to her."

"Oh, yes it does--it must; and, besides, the things are not ours, but hers, and we ought to sell them at the regular price, and no other."

"You are too strict, but you will find out that such strict notions won't do in business. I tell you everybody does it--show their friends a little favour in buying and selling, and we must do the same or we might as well be in a convent."