CHAPTER XXIVFINANCIAL TROUBLES

CHAPTER XXIVFINANCIAL TROUBLES

Nelsonwas well enough by the end of the week to announce that school would be opened the following Monday. The scholars would make up their missed recitations in Christmas week and at Easter. Janice had been keeping up with her studies at the seminary with difficulty during this time of stress; and she ceased appearing at the Beasely cottage as soon as the school teacher was really out of danger.

As long as snow held off, Janice was determined to sleep at home and run back and forth in her automobile; but she went for her luncheon to her boarding place in Middletown each day.

Mrs. MacKay was a cheerful, bustling Scotchwoman whose life and interests were entirely centered in her big son, Archie. She had educated Archie by sewing and washing and other domestic labors for Middletown people; and although the MacKays had occupied a humble place in the past, Archie’s position in the Middletown Bank and his own friendly, accommodating nature, were fast putting the devoted couple on a higher social plane.

Archie never went anywhere save to work without his mother; they went to church together and came home together; he never seemed to have eyes for any woman but her, and she was so proud of Archie that she could talk of little else.

But Janice found the couple less cheerful after the Thanksgiving recess than they had formerly been. Archie seemed distraught at the luncheon table, and when he had gone she caught Mrs. MacKay crying softly.

“My dear!” the girl said. “What ever is the matter?”

“Oh, I can’t tell you, Miss Janice,” said the Scotchwoman. “It’s trouble at the bank, and I’ve no right to speak about it.”

“Goodness! Archie is surely not in any difficulty?”

“Thank God, no! ’Tis not him. But ’tis one that’s helped him and been kind tae him. Got him the place there, indeed.”

Now Janice knew this to be Mr. Crompton, the vice-president of the Middletown Trust Company. Mr. Crompton was said to be a man with expensive tastes and an expensive family in the bargain. She had heard, more than once, remarks made about the extravagance of the Cromptons. But only lately had Mr. Crompton been of much importance in the bank.

The president and his family were in Europe;Mr. Crompton had succeeded to more power and now what Mrs. MacKay said led Janice to fear that the vice-president had misused this power.

“Archie says the expert accountants are coming into the bank to-morrow. He will be questioned. He has been forced to make some entries in his books that he believes he should not have made. He can explain; but the facts may hurt my Archie if he is obliged to look for another position. And we were getting on so well! Ah, me!”

Janice did not give the matter much attention at the time, although she sympathized with Mrs. MacKay. The widow knew well enough that she could trust Janice to say nothing regarding the expected trouble in the bank. The girl’s own money was in the keeping of the Merchants & Farmers National, and she had no reason to worry about it.

Indeed, it never entered Janice’s mind that the trouble at the trust company was likely to bother the depositors, and that some of those depositors might be her friends and acquaintances, until the next evening at supper time. Uncle Jason chanced to remark:

“Wal, them that has got it already, has it handed to ’em on silver salvers, by jinks! D’ye hear what that old tight-wad Concannon’s gone and done? He’s got that piece of sawmill land that belonged to the Protherick Estate—got it for sixteen thousand dollars. Paid a thousand down, and his mortgageon the Steamboat Company for fifteen thousand come due last week and was paid. He’s got the fifteen thousand in the Middletown Trust—told me so himself—to pay the rest of the purchase price of the sawmill tract.

“I’ll say one thing for him,” added Uncle Jason, wagging his head in one direction and chewing solemnly in the other, “he took a risk. He ain’t no piker, the Elder hain’t. He risked his thousand dollars when he paid it down, fur he didn’t know fur sure as the Steamboat Company would take up their mortgage; and he’d had trouble gittin’ fifteen thousand on any security he could offer at this time. Banks won’t lend on timber land or farm property, ye know.”

These remarks made small impression on Janice’s mind at the moment. She was not much interested in Elder Concannon’s affairs. But sometime during the night it must have been, the two ideas combined. Mrs. MacKay’s anxiety about her Archie and the Trust Company, and the fact that Elder Concannon had fifteen thousand dollars that he needed to use at once on deposit in that same financial institution.

Janice drove around by the Lower Middletown Road that morning, which brought her past Hopewell Drugg’s, of course. Little Lottie ran out to hail her joyfully.

“Oh, Janice! come see my dress—do, do! It’sso pretty. And Miss ’Rill says I’m to have flowers on it, and a wreath on my hair.” Lottie was to be one of the flower-girls at the wedding, and she, as well as Janice, was much excited by the forthcoming event.

“I can’t come in this time to see it,” Janice said. “I’ve got to hurry on to school. When I come home, perhaps.”

The Beasely door opened and Nelson Haley came out. He was not very robust-looking yet; but he spoke cheerfully, as usual.

“’Morning, Janice! Nice, brisk morning, isn’t it? Hello, Lottie Drugg! are you well to-day?”

“Good morning!” returned Janice, hastily, and started the car again.

“I’m going to walk with you, Nelson Haley!” cried Lottie, and ran to meet him.

Nelson was looking after the little touring car as it rolled swiftly down the hill, past Mr. Cross Moore’s, and out of sight. He sighed.

“What’s the matter?” demanded Lottie, abruptly, squeezing his hand.

“What’s the matter with what?” he returned, smiling down at her.

“You sighed when you looked after Janice—just so!” and the child repeated the expulsion of breath that Nelson had unconsciously made.

“Did I do that?” he said, rather wistfully.

“Yes! And sometimes when she looks over there where you liveshesighs—just the same.”

“No!”

“Yes she does,” declared little Lottie. “She was always doing that when you were sick.”

“But she never came near me,” said Nelson, suddenly, speaking to himself more than to Lottie.

The little girl stared at him in return. “Why! what a story!” she gasped.

“What’s a story, Lottie?” he demanded, with sudden surprise that the child should look so earnestly at him.

“You said my Janice never came to see you while you were sick!”

“Well, she didn’t. She came to your father’s store, I guess; and perhaps she inquired after me——”

“Why, Mr. Haley!” interrupted Lottie, so excited that she was rude. “That’s anawfulstory! She come ev’ry day to help Miz’ Beasely. And sometimes she stayed all night. Miz’ Beasely told Miss ’Rill, and I heard her, that she wouldn’t knowed what to do without Janice.”

Nelson stopped at the corner of High Street and leaned against the fence, while he stared down upon the child in amazement.

“Janice helped to nurse me?” he murmured.

“All the time you was out’n your head,” declaredLottie. “You ain’t out’n your head now, are you, Mr. Haley?” for the young man’s face radiated a sudden emotion that little Lottie had never seen there before.

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