when she thrust a foot through the open window, jeanne felt some solid object beneath her and was thankful. but scarcely had she thrown the full weight of her body on that object and swung herself through than the thing beneath her veered to the right, swayed for a second, and then gave way and went down with a terrifying crash.
and petite jeanne, when she had regained her scattered senses, found herself in the midst of it all. what was worse, it appeared to be a total wreck.
“wha—where am i? what have i done?” she moaned.
“well, anyway, i escaped him,” she philosophized.
18
but was she better off? having had a full moment to reflect there in the darkness and silence, she began to doubt it. here she was in a strange place—some one’s basement, and all about her was darkness. that she had done some damage was certain.
“this,” she sighed, “is my luckee day. and what a start!
“have to get going.” she made an attempt to free herself from the entangled mass into which she had fallen. she put out a hand and felt the rough edge of splintered wood. she moved a foot, and a fragment of glass crashed to the floor.
“the place is a wreck!” she all but sobbed. “and i did it. or did i? how could i do so much?” she began to doubt her senses.
now she sat up, silent, intent. her ears had caught the sound of footsteps.
“some one’s coming. now i’m in for it!”
the footsteps seemed to fall as lightly as a fairy’s toes. scarcely had petite jeanne begun to wonder about that when there came the sound of a door being opened. next instant a light flashed on, revealing in the doorway the face of a girl.
19
and such a girl! jeanne pronounced her irish without a second’s hesitation. she had those unmistakable smiling irish eyes. and they were smiling.
“she’s younger than i am, and no larger, though her shoulders are broader. she’s bony. maybe she works too hard and eats too little.” these thoughts, flashing through the little french girl’s keen mind for the moment, drove all thought of her plight out of her head. for those eyes, those smiling irish eyes, were the sort that take hearts captive. petite jeanne was a willing captive.
“did you fall in the window?” the girl asked.
jeanne did not answer. she began to stare in amazement at the wreckage all about her. metal lamps with broken shades, tables split across the top, chairs with rounds gone—all these and many more articles of furniture and equipment were there, and all broken.
“i wouldn’t believe, unless i saw it,” she said gravely, “that so much damage could be done with one tumble.”
20
“oh, that!” the girl laughed merrily. “that’s our junk pile. it will all be fixed some time. that’s what my brother tad does all the time. we buy broken things at auction sales and such places, and he fixes them. then we sell them. tad’s older than i am, and an awfully good fixer.”
“he’d have to be,” said jeanne, looking at the wreckage. “you’d think this was the hold of a vessel after a terrific storm.”
“it’s not so difficult to fix ’em. i help sometimes,” the girl said in a quiet tone. “but most of the time i’m either out buying, or else in the shop selling.”
“buying?”
“yes. buying this.” the strange girl made a sweeping gesture with her hands.
“but don’t you—don’t you—how do you say that in english? don’t you get stung?”
“oh, yes, sometimes.” the girl’s fine white teeth showed in a smile. “but not often.
“but let me help you out of there!” she exclaimed. she put out a hand. jeanne took it. a fine, hard, capable little hand it was.
21
“this,” said jeanne, as she felt her feet once more on a solid floor, “is my luckee day.”
“it must be,” agreed the girl. “it’s a wonder you weren’t cut by broken glass. but how did you happen to come in here?”
“a gypsy chased me.”
“a gypsy! how i hate them!” the girl’s face darkened.
“you shouldn’t. not all of them. some are good, some bad. i used to be a gypsy.”
“not really!” the big blue eyes were open wide, staring.
“well, anyway, in france i traveled with them for a long, long time. and they were very, very kind to me, bihari and his band.
“but that man!” she threw an apprehensive glance toward the open window. “ugh! he is a very terrible man. i have not seen him in america before. i wish he would go away forever.”
“it’s good he didn’t follow you.” the girl glanced once more at the window. “i shouldn’t have been much protection. and tad, he—” she hesitated. “well, he isn’t much of a fighter.” jeanne saw a wistful look steal over the girl’s face.
22
“but come!” said the impromptu hostess, “let’s get out of here. that gypsy might find us yet.”
they left the room and entered a narrow hallway. through a door to the right jeanne caught the yellow gleam of a fire.
“tad keeps the furnace,” the girl said simply. “we get our flat for that.”
there was a suggestion of pride in her tone as she said “our flat.”
“i’m going to like her more and more,” thought jeanne. “what’s your name?” she asked.
“merry murphy.” the other girl spelled the first name out. “i have to do it,” she explained. “people think it’s m-a-r-y.”
“it should be m-e-r-r-y,” laughed jeanne.
“here’s our dining room and workshop.” the girl led the way into a room lighted by a score of lamps.
“how odd!” the words escaped jeanne’s lips unbidden.
23
“they’re all fixed. tad fixed them,” said merry proudly. “we’ll sell them, but until we do we’ll use them. see, the lights are very tiny. it costs little to use them. and it makes us forget this is a basement. and it is, you know.”
“no!” jeanne’s tone was sincere. “i truly had forgotten.”
jeanne’s eyes swept the room and came to rest on the bent shoulders of a person working over a small bench in the corner.
“tad!” merry called. “see what i found in our storeroom. and see! she isn’t broken one bit.” she put an arm about jeanne’s waist and laughed merrily.
“oh, yes i am!” jeanne exclaimed. “broke flat as a flounder! is that not how you say it here in america, when you have not a penny left?
“but this,” she added quickly, “this is my luckee day. to-day i shall make a beginning at piling up a fortune. see! i will go out to dance the sun up out of the lake where he has been sleeping!”
24
she sprang across the room in a wild fantastic whirl which set all the lamps jingling and twinkling.
tad threw down his tools and sprang to his feet. then the little french girl’s dance came to a sudden end, for she was seized with a mood that unfitted her for the dance. when tad stood up he was no taller than when he sat down; and yet he was a man in years.
“that’s all right.” he laughed a strange, hoarse laugh. “i’ve always been this way; just a little tad of a man. you’ll get used to it. i have. so has merry, here.” he laid an affectionate hand on merry’s arm.
merry beamed down at him. “it’s not how tall you are, but what you’ve got in your head,” she laughed. “tad’s head is all full of bright ideas.
“we’re going to have coffee very soon. won’t you stay and have some with us?”
“and then who will dance the sun up from the lake?” jeanne went dancing away again. “oh, no i must not.
25
“but i must come back. truly i must. you will take me to a sale, a very strange sale. will you not?”
“this morning if you like.”
“this very morning! how wonderful! and this is my luckee day!”
“this is the door, if you must go.”
“truly i must.”
merry led the way.
“but tell me,” said jeanne as she stood at the foot of the stairway leading to the street. “if i go to this sale shall i buy something, a very small package all sealed up, very mysterious?”
“y-yes, i think you may.” the irish girl laughed a merry irish laugh. “at this sale all packages are sealed. you don’t know what you buy. you really do not.”
the next moment jeanne found herself tripping lightly over the dewy grass, bound for the spot beneath the willows where on many a morning before the world was awake, she had gone through her fairy-like dances undisturbed.
