The Forerunner Part 96

"Mother can't see the good of it yet, but she will later--Mother's all right.

"I'm awfully sorry the Wardens feel so--and make Ross unhappy--but of course I knew they would. It can't be helped. It's just a question of time and work."

And she went to work.

Mrs. p.o.r.ne called on her friend most promptly, with a natural eagerness and curiosity.

"How does it work? Do you like her as much as you thought? Do tell me about it, Viva. You look like another woman already!"

"I certainly feel like one," Viva answered. "I've seen slaves in housework, and I've seen what we fondly call 'Queens' in housework; but I never saw brains in it before."

Mrs. p.o.r.ne sighed. "Isn't it just wonderful--the way she does things!

Dear me! We do miss her! She trained that Swede for us--and she does pretty well--but not like 'Miss Bell'! I wish there were a hundred of her!"

"If there were a hundred thousand she wouldn't go round!" answered Mrs.

Weatherstone. "How selfish we are! _That_ is the kind of woman we all want in our homes--and fuss because we can't have them."

"Edgar says he quite agrees with her views," Mrs. p.o.r.ne went on.

"Skilled labor by the day--food sent in--. He says if she cooked it he wouldn't care if it came all the way from Alaska! She certainly can cook! I wish she'd set up her business--the sooner the better."

Mrs. Weatherstone nodded her head firmly. "She will. She's planning.

This was really an interruption--her coming here, but I think it will be a help--she's not had experience in large management before, but she takes hold splendidly. She's found a dozen 'leaks' in our household already."

"Mrs. Thaddler's simply furious, I hear," said the visitor. "Mrs. Ree was in this morning and told me all about it. Poor Mrs. Ree! The home is church and state to her; that paper of Miss Bell's she regards as simple blasphemy."

They both laughed as that stormy meeting rose before them.

"I was so proud of you, Viva, standing up for her as you did. How did you ever dare?"

"Why I got my courage from the girl herself. She was--superb! Talk of blasphemy! Why I've committed _lese majeste_ and regicide and the Unpardonable Sin since that meeting!" And she told her friend of her brief pa.s.sage at arms with Mrs. Halsey. "I never liked the woman," she continued; "and some of the things Miss Bell said set me thinking. I don't believe we half know what's going on in our houses."

"Well, Mrs. Thaddler's so outraged by 'this scandalous attack upon the sanct.i.ties of the home' that she's going about saying all sorts of things about Miss Bell. O look--I do believe that's her car!"

Even as they spoke a toneless voice announced, "Mr. and Mrs. Thaddler,"

and Madam Weatherstone presently appeared to greet these visitors.

"I think you are trying a dangerous experiment!" said Mrs. Thaddler to her young hostess. "A very dangerous experiment! Bringing that young iconoclast into your home!"

Mr. Thaddler, stout and sulky, sat as far away as he could and talked to Mrs. p.o.r.ne. "I'd like to try that same experiment myself," said he to her. "You tried it some time, I understand?"

"Indeed we did--and would still if we had the chance," she replied. "We think her a very exceptional young woman."

Mr. Thaddler chuckled. "She is that!" he agreed. "Gad! How she did set things humming! They're humming yet--at our house!"

He glanced rather rancorously at his wife, and Mrs. p.o.r.ne wished, as she often had before, that Mr. Thaddler wore more clothing over his domestic afflictions.

"Scandalous!" Mrs. Thaddler was saying to Madam Weatherstone. "Simply scandalous! Never in my life did I hear such absurd--such outrageous--charges against the sanct.i.ties of the home!"

"There you have it!" said Mr. Thaddler, under his breath. "Sanct.i.ty of the fiddlesticks! There was a lot of truth in what that girl said!"

Then he looked rather sheepish and flushed a little--which was needless; easing his collar with a fat finger.

Madam Weatherstone and Mrs. Thaddler were at one on this subject; but found it hard to agree even so, no love being lost between them; and the former gave evidence of more satisfaction than distress at this "dangerous experiment" in the house of her friends. Viva sat silent, but with a look of watchful intelligence that delighted Mrs. p.o.r.ne.

"It has done her good already," she said to herself. "Bless that girl!"

Mr. Thaddler went home disappointed in the real object of his call--he had hoped to see the Dangerous Experiment again. But his wife was well pleased.

"They will rue it!" she announced. "Madam Weatherstone is ashamed of her daughter-in-law--I can see that! _She_ looks cool enough. I don't know what's got into her!"

"Some of that young woman's good cooking," her husband suggested.

"That young woman is not there as cook!" she replied tartly. "What she _is_ there for we shall see later! Mark my words!"

Mr. Thaddler chuckled softly. "I'll mark 'em!" he said.

Diantha had her hands full. Needless to say her sudden entrance was resented by the corps of servants accustomed to the old regime. She had the keys; she explored, studied, inventoried, examined the accounts, worked out careful tables and estimates. "I wish Mother were here!" she said to herself. "She's a regular genius for accounts. I _can_ do it--but it's no joke."

She brought the results to her employer at the end of the week. "This is tentative," she said, "and I've allowed margins because I'm new to a business of this size. But here's what this house ought to cost you--at the outside, and here's what it does cost you now."

Mrs. Weatherstone was impressed. "Aren't you a little--spectacular?"

she suggested.

Diantha went over it carefully; the number of rooms, the number of servants, the hours of labor, the amount of food and other supplies required.

"This is only preparatory, of course," she said. "I'll have to check it off each month. If I may do the ordering and keep all the accounts I can show you exactly in a month, or two at most."

"How about the servants?" asked Mrs. Weatherstone.

There was much to say here, questions of competence, of impertinence, of personal excellence with "incompatibility of temper." Diantha was given a free hand, with full liberty to experiment, and met the opportunity with her usual energy.

She soon discharged the unsatisfactory ones, and subst.i.tuted the girls she had selected for her summer's experiment, gradually adding others, till the household was fairly harmonious, and far more efficient and economical. A few changes were made among the men also.

By the time the family moved down to Santa Ulrica, there was quite a new spirit in the household. Mrs. Weatherstone fully approved of the Girls'

Club Diantha had started at Mrs. p.o.r.ne's; and it went on merrily in the larger quarters of the great "cottage" on the cliff.

"I'm very glad I came to you, Mrs. Weatherstone," said the girl. "You were quite right about the experience; I did need it--and I'm getting it!"

She was getting some of which she made no mention.

As she won and held the confidence of her subordinates, and the growing list of club members, she learned their personal stories; what had befallen them in other families, and what they liked and disliked in their present places.

"The men are not so bad," explained Catharine Kelly, at a club meeting, meaning the men servants; "they respect an honest girl if she respects herself; but it's the young masters--and sometimes the old ones!"

"It's all nonsense," protested Mrs. James, widowed cook of long standing. "I've worked out for twenty-five years, and I never met no such goings on!"

Little Ilda looked at Mrs. James' severe face and giggled.