The Girl from Sunset Ranch, AMY BELL MARLOWE [mini ebook reader txt] 📗

the Starkweather mansion she had seen neither the girls nor Uncle Starkweather himself.

"He doesn't know what you are going to do with him. He brought the money he received from your father to my office; but, of course, I would not accept it. You've got the whip hand, Helen----"

"But I do not propose to crack the whip, Dud," declared the Western girl, quickly.

"You're a good chap, Snuggy!" exclaimed Dud, warmly, and Helen smiled and forgave him for using the intimate nickname.

But Helen went across town the very next day and called upon her uncle. This time she mounted the broad stone steps, instead of descending to the basement door.

Gregson opened the door and, by his manner, showed that even with the servants the girl from Sunset Ranch was upon a different footing in her uncle's house. Mr. Starkweather was in his den and Helen was ushered into the room without crossing the path of any other member of the family.

"Helen!" he ejaculated, when he saw her, and to tell the truth the girl was shocked by his changed appearance. Mr. Starkweather was quite broken down. The cloud of scandal that seemed to be menacing him had worn his pomposity to a thread, and his dignified "Ahem!" had quite disappeared.

Indeed, to see this once proud and selfish man fairly groveling before the daughter of the man he had helped injure in the old times, was not a pleasant sight. Helen cut the interview as short as she could.

She managed to assure Uncle Starkweather that he need have no apprehension. That he had known all the time Grimes was guilty, and that he had benefited from that knowledge, was the sum and substance of Willets Starkweather's connection with the old crime. At that time he had been, as Dud Stone learned, in serious financial difficulties. He used the money received from Grimes's ill-gotten gains, to put himself on his feet.

Then had come the death of old Cornelius Starkweather and the legacy. After that, when Prince Morrell sent Starkweather the money he was supposed to have lost in the bankruptcy of Grimes & Morrell, Starkweather did not dare refuse it. He feared always that it would be discovered he had known who was really guilty of the embezzlement.

Flossie met Helen in the hall and hugged her. "Don't you go away mad at me, Helen," she cried. "I know we all treated you mean; but--but I guess I wouldn't act that way again, to any girl, no matter what Belle does."

"I do not believe you would, Floss," agreed Helen, kissing her warmly.

"And are you really going back to that lovely ranch?"

"Very soon. And some time, if you care to and your father will let you, I'll be glad to have you come out there for a visit."

"Bully for you, Helen! I'll surely come," cried Flossie.

Hortense was on hand to speak to her cousin, too. "You are much too nice a girl to bear malice, I am sure, Helen," she said. "But we do not deserve very good treatment at your hands. I hope you will forgive us and, when you come to New York again, come to visit us."

"I am sure you would not treat me again as you did this time," said Helen, rather sternly.

"You can be sure we wouldn't. Not even Belle. She's awfully sorry, but she's too proud to say so. She wants father to bring old Mary Boyle downstairs into the old nursery suite that she used to occupy when Uncle Cornelius was alive; only the old lady doesn't want to come. She says she's only a few more years at best to live and she doesn't like changes."

Helen saw the nurse before she left the house, and left the dear old creature very happy indeed. Helen was sure Nurse Boyle would never be so lonely again, for her friends had remembered her.

Even Mrs. Olstrom, the housekeeper, came to shake hands with the girl who had been tucked away into an attic bedroom as "a pauper cousin." And old Mr. Lawdor fairly shed tears when he learned that he was not likely to see Helen again.

There were other people in the great city who were sorry to see Helen Morrell start West. Through Dud Stone, Allen Chesterton had been found light work and a pleasant boarding place. There would always be a watchful eye upon the old man--and that eye belonged to Miss Sadie Goronsky--rather, "S. Goron, Milliner," as the new sign over the hat shop door read.

"For you see," said Miss Sadie, with a toss of her head, "there ain't no use in advertisin' it that you are a Yid. That don't do no good, as I tell mommer. Sure, I'm proud I'm a Jew. We're the greatest people in the world yet. But it ain't good for business.

"Now, 'Goron' sounds Frenchy; don't it, Helen? And when I get a-going down here good, I'll be wantin' some time to look at a place on Fift' Av'ner, maybe. 'Madame Goron' would be dead swell--yes? But you put the 'sky' to it and it's like tying a can to a dog's tail. There ain't nowhere to go then but home," declared this worldly wise young girl.

Helen had dinner again with the Goronskys, and Sadie's mother could not do enough to show her fondness for her daughter's benefactor. Sadie promised to write to Helen frequently and the two girls--so much alike in some ways, yet as far apart as the poles in others--bade each other an affectionate farewell.

The next day Helen Morrell and her two friends, Dud and Jess Stone, were headed West. That second trip across the continent was a very different journey for Helen than the first had been.

She and Jess Stone had become the best of friends. And as the months slid by the two girls--Helen, a product of the West, and Jessie, a product of the great Eastern city--became dearer and dearer companions.

As for Dud--of course he was always hanging around. His sister sometimes wondered--and that audibly--how he found time for business, he was so frequently at Sunset Ranch. This was only said, however, in wicked enjoyment of his discomfiture--and of Helen's blushes.

For by that time it was an understood thing about Sunset Ranch that in time Dud was going to have the right to call its mistress "Snuggy" for all the years of her life--just as her father had. And Helen, contemplating this possibility, did not seem to mind.

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Publication Date: 01-19-2015

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