The Phantom Lover Part 15

"Well, go on----" he said resignedly. "Who is the foundling this time, and what am I to do?"

Micky laughed.

"She's a darling," June said warmly. "I've only known her for four days--she lives in the same house. I took a fancy to her from the first moment I saw her. No, it was before that--it was when I first heard her name...."

Micky raised his brows.

"What a creature of impulse! My dear, you'll burn your fingers badly some day."

"And when I do," said Miss Mason sharply, "I shan't come crying to you for sympathy; however ... Well, she's poor! she's one of those horribly poor, frightfully proud people whom it's impossible to help.

I've tried all ways! I asked her to go shares with my sitting-room, and she said she couldn't afford it; she'll hardly let me give her a cup of tea or coffee for fear I should think she is sponging on me.

She seems most frightfully alone in the world. She says she engaged to a man, but he's abroad, and I'm sure he's not nice, anyway. He's only written to her once since I've known her, at all events, and this morning when there wasn't a letter, I know she went back to her room and cried. I knocked at the door, but she wouldn't let me in."

She paused, and looked at Micky for sympathy.

He half smiled; he knew how enthusiastic June always was about everything.

"Well, and what do you want me to do for this damsel in distress?" he asked gently.

"I want you to get her a berth somewhere," he was told promptly. "No, it's no use saying you can't! My dear man, you must know scores of people who'd take her in. She thought she was fixed up all right, but now it appears that the people she was with before haven't got a vacancy for her, and so that's knocked on the head. She told me that she's have to just take the first thing that came along. I don't believe she's hardly got a shilling to her name. I offered to take her into partnership with me. I said we'd go travelling together for my beauty cream, but she wouldn't hear of it.... She's so proud!"--and here a sound of tears crept into June Mason's voice. "I ask you, Micky, what can be done with any one like that?"

Micky shrugged his shoulders.

"If she'll take anything that comes along, she ought to get a job pretty soon," he said laconically. "I'll speak to a man I know--can she write a decent hand and all that sort of thing?"

"Of course she can! But I want a good berth, mind you! I've never been so fond of anybody as I am of her. She's awfully worried about this horrid man she's engaged to. She doesn't say much about him, but this morning she said that there didn't seem to be anything to live for, and her eyes looked so sad...."

Micky smiled at her serious face.

"You'd make an eloquent appeal in a court of law," he said. He took a pencil from his pocket and an envelope. "Give me her name and address, and I'll see what I can do. I don't promise anything, mind you, but I'll do what I can...."

"You're a dear," said June warmly. "I know you were the one to come to. I'm quite sure when you've seen Esther you'll ... why, what's the matter, Micky?"

Micky had looked up sharply. His face had paled a little.

"What name did you say?" he asked. He never knew how he managed to control his voice. His heart seemed to be thumping in his throat.

"What name did you say?" he asked again, with an effort. "I did not catch it----"

"It's Esther," said June, "Esther Shepstone."

CHAPTER VI

Micky's pencil jerked suddenly, sending an aimless scrawl across the paper; for an instant he stared at his companion with blank eyes.

Fortunately June Mason was too intent on the relighting of her cigarette to have any attention to spare for him; she went on talking as she puffed.

"Yes...."--puff--"that's her name...." Another puff. "Isn't it a change from your eternal Violets and Dorothys?"... Puff, puff. "Oh, bother!" She threw the cigarette into an empty grate behind her and prepared to give Micky her undivided attention once more. "Well, what do you think about it? You haven't written her name down. Esther Shepstone, I said.... Write it down," she commanded.

Micky obeyed at once. He was beginning to recover himself a little.

"I shall be able to help her all right," he said quickly. "Only, of course, you won't let her know I'm mixed up in it at all; she'd hate it if she knew, she...."

"How do you know she would?" June demanded with suspicion.

Micky met her eyes squarely.

"Well, you said she was proud or something, didn't you? And anyway I don't want to pose as a blessed philanthropist; I'm not one either, but I'll see what I can do for--for this new friend of yours. You say she's poor?"

"Horribly poor, I'm afraid," said June with a sigh. "Micky, it's rather pathetic--somebody sent her some money--not very much, but still, it was money she evidently didn't expect. I've got a sort of idea that it was from this man she's supposed to be engaged to----"

"Why do you say 'supposed'--she is engaged to him, isn't she?"

June shrugged her shoulders.

"She says so, and she wears a ring, but I've a sort of instinctive feeling that there's something funny behind it. Anyway, I know she's not happy; but don't interrupt. About this money--well, it was partly my fault! I persuaded her to go and buy herself some clothes--she had such a few things, poor child! And I even went with her and she bought a frock and a new coat...."

"Yes," said Micky eagerly; he was glad she had bought a new coat; he remembered how thin hers had been on that memorable night, and how she had shivered in the cold night air.

"She was as pleased as a child with a new toy," Miss Mason went on.

"She brought them all up to my room to show me when they came home, and we both tried them on ... and you've no idea how sweet she looked," she added with enthusiasm. "Of course, I suppose this is boring you horribly," she said deprecatingly.

"No," said Micky honestly. "It's not boring me at all, I promise you."

"Well, anyway, she got the clothes, and now the place where she was before say they can't take her back--it's Eldred's, the petticoat shop. I don't suppose you know it, but----"

"I know it very well," said Micky.

"Oh, do you?" She laughed. "Well, they either won't or can't take her back, and now she feels that she ought not to have spent the money on the new frock and coat, and this morning she told me that she was afraid she would have to leave Elphinstone Road, as it was more than she could afford." June's eyes flashed. "Micky, what can one do with people who are poor and proud? It's a most difficult combination to fight. I blundered in and offended her by offering to lend her some money, and, of course, she wouldn't hear of it, and there you are!"

She sighed, and leaned back in her chair despondently.

"Have a cake," said Micky absently; he pushed the plate across to her.

"The ones with the white sugar are nice."

Miss Mason ignored him.

"If that's all the interest you take----" she said offendedly.

Micky started.

"My dear girl, I'm full of interest--chock full to the brim! But we came here for tea, so we may as well eat something while I try to think of a plan." He wrinkled his forehead. "Of course," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "that chap--what did you say his name was?"

"What chap? Oh, the fiance! I don't know; she hasn't even let me see his photograph yet; but she says he writes dreams of letters. I haven't seen them either, of course."

"He may send her some more money. After all, you say it's only four days since she heard from him. That's not very long; men are always rotten letter writers."