Three Little Women's Success Part 17

"Yes, it does."

"All right, all right. Then you can dust your sweet self out of 620 mighty quick. No happy home for you of my puttin' up unless you do as I say, Miss Prude. Now where's that memorandum I want?"

As he spoke Lige made a move as though he intended to go behind the counter. Poor, simple little Katherine! She had never been intended to play a double game.

At that moment Mammy pressed the b.u.t.ton four times. Here was a situation needing a firmer hand than hers. A moment later the boy at Mammy's Arch was 'phoning up to Mr. Porter's office.

"Please, sir, I just got four rings from Miss Carruth's candy Arch, and Mrs. Blairsdale, she say if ever I git _that_, I must call you up right smart, and ask you please to go there, 'cause Miss Constance ain't never goin' to ring four rings unless she need you quick."

"I'll be there inside of two minutes, Fred," and the receiver was snapped back.

"Get away, Lige; are you crazy?" cried Katherine, under her breath, at the same time foolishly making a dash for her pocketbook which lay upon a shelf behind her. As she clasped it Lige caught her wrist in a grip which made her cry aloud in pain. At that moment Mr. Porter entered the Arch. Lige dropped Katherine's arm and made a dash for Constance's sanctum, but Mammy had antic.i.p.ated all this; she had shut and locked the door leading to the side street.

"Mebby yo' t'ink mos' eve'ybody as big a fool as yo' is, Mr. Sniffins, but yo' see dey's _some_ wise an' hones' ones yit, don' yo'? Now, sah, yo' set yo'sef right spang down on dat ar' cheer t'will I ax yo' a few ques'ions, wha' Ma.s.sa Po'tah gwine hyar, an' dat po' li'l fool out yonder gwine 'splain ef we ses-so. Yas, Ma.s.sa Po'tah, _I'se_ runnin'

t'ings just now, an', please, sah, keep yo' eye on dat skunk, fo' I tells yo' he ain't nothin' in de roun' worl' else. Now, _Miss Sniffins_, yo' please, ma'am, come on hyar, too, fo' yo's needed p'intedly."

In spite of the serious side of the question, Mr. Porter could not help smiling at Mammy's generalship. Sniffins stood in the middle of the room, glowering like a trapped animal, and Katherine entered it trembling like a leaf. Notwithstanding her righteous wrath, Mammy could not help pitying the shrinking little figure, and, placing a chair for her, she said kindly:

"Dar, dar, chile, don' yo' git so pannicky. n.o.body ain' gwine kill yo'

whilst Ma.s.sa Po'tah an' me close by, dough, Gawd knows wha' dat low-down sumpin'-nurrer lak ter do if he git a chance; _I_ ain' speculatin'."

"Mammy, what is the meaning of all this?" interrupted Mr. Porter at this juncture.

"Dat's jist 'xactly what I don' sent fo' yo' fer ter fin' out, sah.

Dere's been some sort of debbilmint gwine on hyar fer a right smart while, an' I'se made it ma b'isness fer ter git scent of it an' trail it, I has. Dat ar'-dat ar', my Gawd! I spec's I _gotter_ call him a man kase dar don' seem to be no yether name fo' him, but _he's_ at de bottom ob it, an' wha' fo' he is, is jist what I means fer ter fin' out befo' I lets him outer dis hyar office. Now, sah, Ma.s.sa Po'tah, yo' kin hab de bench an' question de prisoner."

Porter had seen enough upon entering the Arch to make him realize that Mammy had pretty good grounds for her words and the rage which seemed to almost consume her. Ordinarily Mammy's face was wonderfully serene, but Mammy was a pure-blooded African negro, born of an African slave captured and brought to the United States when the slave trade was a flourishing and disgraceful source of revenue, and Mammy was born not long after her mother's capture. In moments of excitement all her racial characteristics dominated to a degree that transformed her. At the present moment there was a fierce conflict between heredity and tradition, and the environment and training of a lifetime.

"Mammy, tell me what took place before I came upon the scene," said Mr.

Porter. "I mean within the last half hour, not before."

Mammy repeated all she had seen and heard. As she talked Mr. Porter rang the janitor's bell. When the man appeared he said to him: "Get Terry and wait with him out in the main corridor. Do it quickly, and don't make a fuss." Terry was the house detective.

"Now, Sniffins, sit down and explain what I saw as I entered the Arch.

There is something wrong here, and I've got to get to the bottom of it right off. It will be useless to beat about the bush now. Mammy has seen and heard enough to make things very disagreeable for you, I fancy, and certainly I've seen pleasanter spectacles than your conduct with Miss Boggs as I entered---"

"She ain' Miss Boggs no mo'n I is," broke in Mammy.

Sniffins would not answer. Mr. Porter turned to the trembling little figure at the opposite side of the room, real pity in his kind eyes.

Sniffins glowered at her. Catching the look, Mr. Porter turned upon him like lightning.

"If you try to intimidate that child, by the great Jehosaphat I'll either give myself the satisfaction of thrashing you, or turning you over to Terry on an accusation you'll not like. Now quit it! You haven't a thing in the world to fear, Miss Boggs; I guess it is all far less grave than it seems to you this minute. So tell me the whole truth."

Mr. Porter's voice had changed rapidly from the severe tones directed toward Sniffins, and now held only encouragement for the terrified girl.

After a few spasmodic sobs she faced him and said:

"No, Mr. Porter, I shall not try to keep up this deceit any longer. I told Lige when I began it that it would be useless. I'm not the kind of girl who can do such things; I'm not smart enough."

"Reckons yo's too smart fer ter try ter be what he is," broke in Mammy.

Mr. Porter held up his hand to enjoin silence, but if Mammy consented to keep her tongue still, she could still wag her head and use her eyes, and to some purpose.

"My name isn't Boggs, but Sniffins--"

"What I done tole yo'!" exploded Mammy.

"Lige is my brother. He wanted me to take the situation. At first I did not know why he was so anxious for me to. I thought it was just because he wanted me to have one which he believed might lead to something a good deal better later on, because Miss Carruth's candy business was growing fast, and I might get to be a forewoman, or something like that.

You see, I used to know Mary Willing at school, and she and f.a.n.n.y are both doing so well, but--" and Katherine hesitated.

"Go on, Miss Sniffins," said Mr. Porter, encouragingly; but the look Elijah Sniffins gave his sister was not pleasant.

"Well, he just made me take this place, and wouldn't let me tell my real name; and I've been scared nearly to death every day of my life for fear Mary Willing would come down here, and that would be the end of it all.

But that wasn't the worst; pretty soon I guessed just why Lige wanted me here, and-and-oh, it seemed as though I just couldn't stand it another minute; I was so ashamed. Miss Carruth is so kind to me, and has always been."

"And the true reason?" interrogated Mr. Porter.

"Oh, I _can't_ tell it," cried the girl, turning scarlet and burying her face in her hands.

"It will be better to do so here than to do so elsewhere, will it not? I am determined to get to the bottom of all this, now that I have begun, and much prefer to keep it quiet for the sake of all concerned. I think I already guess more than you realize. I shall ask a few questions to make it easier for you?"

"She ain't got to answer none if she don't want ter," was Elijah's surly remark.

"Will you kindly keep quiet until your information is desired?" said Mr.

Porter, quietly. "Your brother wished you to have this situation for two reasons, I take it: The first for the income and prospective advancement; the second because it brought you in close touch with Miss Carruth and might prove a wedge for his social aspirations, which I hear are ambitious."

The girl nodded a.s.sent.

"You objected to the deceit practiced and rebelled. Was that the cause of his anger and gross rudeness as I entered?"

"Partly."

"And the rest?"

"He made me keep strict account of the sales and profits and give him a memorandum each week," whispered Katherine.

"Indeed. And to what end?"

"He said-he said, he'd make up his mind that he would get to know and would marry Miss Carruth if the business got to be-to be-a big one--"

"My Gawd a-mighty!" cried Mammy, flying out of the chair upon the edge of which she had been sitting, her old face the picture of consternation and amazement. It was not surprising that Sniffins sprung from his simultaneously and made toward the door, for Mammy certainly was wrath and retribution incarnate.

Mr. Porter barred the way of one and said sternly: "Mammy, sit down!"

"But-but-but-Ma.s.sa Po'tah, is yo' hyar wha' dat man a-sayin'? _Is_ yo'?

He-he marry ma Miss Jinny's daughter? Why, he ain', he ain' fitten fer ter bresh her shoes! Lemme jes' lay ma hans on him an' frazzle him out."

Mammy was nearly beside herself with indignation.

"Mammy, do you wish to remain here and hear the rest of this ridiculous story, or must I have Sniffins and his sister taken up to my office? It is too public here for loud talking, and if you wish to save your little girl deep mortification, and her mother the keenest distress, you will control yourself. This is the greatest folly I could have believed any sane being capable of, but if it gets noised abroad it will soon grow into a scandal, as you must realize. Remember this, every one present, Miss Carruth must never learn one word about it if we can keep it from her. Now, go on, Miss Sniffins, and tell all the rest of this wretched folly and, yes, downright rascality, for your brother has placed himself in a very unenviable position."