"Ahem----" from Helen.

"But I have to make your business my business for the time being on account of my patient. Your father tells me he has absolutely no income except what he gets from his profession. You know that, I suppose?"

"Why no--that is--we----" hesitated Douglas. "Father never talked business with us."

"Um hum! I see! Just gave you ample allowances and let you spend 'em?"

"We have never had allowances," spoke Nan with her funny drawl. "Just made bills instead."

Dr. Wright flashed an amused look at the girl and for the first time they became aware of the fact that he had a very handsome set of teeth.

"Well, now, for a year I see nothing but for you to manage with very little and maybe not that. You own this house."

"Of course!" from the scornful Helen. "We can easily keep house here while our parents are away."

"But, Helen, keep house on what?" asked Douglas.

"Why, just keep house! Just go on living here."

"But when Father stops working, there is no more money. Can't you see?"

"Well, then, we will have to charge."

"Yes, charge on, and when your father gets well, if he does get well, he will have an acc.u.mulation of bills to meet which will be so good for his health, won't it?" The young man looked the scorn which he felt for Helen and addressed all of his remarks after that to Douglas, who listened attentively and gratefully. She well knew it was no pleasant task for him to plunge into their financial affairs, but he explained to her that it was important for his patient to leave town immediately if the change was to come in time, and that left no opportunity for them to consult the friends and relatives who would be the natural ones to go to in this predicament.

"Your mother wishes you to act in her stead and your father is to give you power of attorney so you can attend to any business for him. Can I trust you to get them ready, without bustle and confusion, by to-night?

They can take the train to New York leaving here at eight. They can take a boat to the Bermudas and Panama which sails to-morrow. I will go to New York with them and see that they get off safely."

"Oh, you are very kind," murmured Douglas.

"Not at all! I have business in New York, anyhow, and I know the surgeon on that particular boat, an old cla.s.smate of mine, and I want to put him on to your father's case. But now we come to the part you girls are to play. It is going to be pretty hard on you, but you are not to see your father before he goes. It would be exciting for him and I want him to avoid all excitement. Arrangements must be made and we must get him off quietly, without bustle. If he sees you, he will begin to question you about what you are going to do while he is away, and as you don't know yourselves, the old habit that is as much a part of the whole family as fingers and toes will a.s.sert itself, and the burden will fall on him, as usual, and I can a.s.sure you I will not answer for the consequences if one more ounce of worry is put on that tired brain. I am going to bring a notary public so he can give you, Miss Douglas, power of attorney to transact any business for him. I am loath to bring even this matter to him, but that is necessary. As for what you are to do with yourselves after your parents leave, that is, of course, for you and your friends to decide. My province as a nerve specialist ends when I get my patient away, but begins again on his return, and if he comes back and finds debts waiting for him, I am pretty sure all the good of the voyage will be done away with. I think his mania is to keep out of debt. How he has managed to do it I can't see, but he tells me the bills are paid up to date. I am awfully sorry for all of you, but I am much sorrier for that fine, unselfish nature upstairs who has borne the heat of the burden absolutely una.s.sisted until he has fallen under it."

"Oh, Dr. Wright! Don't! Don't!" wailed Douglas.

"Brute!" hissed Helen, but whether she meant the young doctor or Helen Carter she wasn't herself quite certain.

"Your mother----" he continued.

"Don't you dare to criticise our mother!" interrupted Helen.

"My dear young lady, I was merely going to remark that your mother seems to be absolutely necessary to the peace and happiness of your father, otherwise I would insist upon his going away alone. Often in these cases it is best for the patient to get entirely away from all members of his family, but I think she has a good effect on him. I must go now and get the notary public so you can enter into your office of vice regent. I'll also make arrangements for the railroad trip and long-distance my friend, the surgeon on the steamer. I'll be back in a jiffy," and Dr.

Wright smiled very kindly at Douglas, whose young countenance seemed to have aged years in the last few minutes. "I am trusting you to keep the house quiet and get things in readiness without once appealing to your father."

"I'll do my best."

"That's all any one can do," and George Wright was grateful that there was one person in the house he could look to for sense and calmness. He noted with added confidence that Douglas was very like her father in coloring and that the general shape of their features was similar. "I hope they won't manage to break her in two as they have him," he said to himself.

"We are going to help Douglas all we can," drawled Nan.

"Indeed we are!" exclaimed Lucy. Helen said nothing and did not acknowledge the bow that included her as the young doctor made his exit from the room.

Piercing shrieks came from the rear before the front door was reached!

"Give it to me! Give it to me! I ain't done makin' my puddin' an' it'll be ruint if you don't give it to me! Marmer! Marmer! Make 'em give it to me!"

A door noisily opened above and a rather sharp call descended from the court of appeals.

"What does he want? Whatever it is, give it to him!"

"But, Mis' Carter, he done been in de silber draw' and 'stracted de tea strainer an' dat new fangled sparrowgra.s.s flapper an' done took de bes'

fluted b.u.m b.u.m dish fer tow mold his mud pies. I done tol' him not tow meddle in de mud no mo' fo' to-morrow as he is been washed an' dressed in his las' clean suit till de wash comes in. Jes' look at him! An' jes'

listen tow him."

The irate old butler, Oscar, held by the hand the screaming, squirming Bobby. One could hardly help listening to him and it was equally hard to help looking at him. His beauty was almost unearthly: a slender little fellow of six, with dark brown hair that curled in spite of the barber's shears, the mouth of a cherub and eyes that were the envy of all his sisters--great dark eyes that when once you looked in them you were forced to give up any anger you might feel for him and just tumble head over heels in love with him. That is what Dr. Wright did. He just fell in love with him. Enraged for a moment by the noise that he was trying so hard to make the household feel must be kept from his patient, he started angrily down the hall toward the angelic culprit with a stern:

"Shhh! Your father is ill! You must stop that racket!" But one look in those eyes, and he changed his tactics. Taking the naughty child by his dirty little hand, he said: "Say, Bob, how would you like to come out with me in my car and help me? I've a lot of work to do and need some one to blow my horn for me and stick out an arm when we turn the corners."

"Bully! How much wages does you give?"

"A milk shake if you are good, and another kind if you are bad! Is it a go?"

"Sure!" And once more quiet reigned in the house. The upstairs door closed much more softly than it had opened, and Oscar cheerfully cleaned the silver that Bobby had left in such a mess.

CHAPTER III.

SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS.

"Well! What are we to do about it?" queried Nan as the front door closed on the doctor and their precious torment.

"Do? Do what has come to us to do as quickly as we can. I am going to see that mother's clothes are packed and father's, too. It does seem strange to be looking after his things. Oh, girls, just think how we have always let him do it himself! I can't remember even having darned a sock for him in all my life," and Douglas gave a little sob. "This is no time for bawling, though, I am going to let Dr. Wright see that I am not just a doll baby."

"Dr. Wright, indeed!" sniffed Helen. "Hateful, rude thing!"

"Why, Helen, I don't see why you need have it in for him. I think he was just splendid! But I can't wait to tell you what I think about him; I must get busy." Douglas picked up her burden with very much her father's look and hastened off to do her young and inexperienced best.

"As for saying we can't see Father before he goes, it is nothing but his arbitrariness that dictates such nonsense," stormed Helen to the two younger girls. "He is just const.i.tuting himself boss of the whole Carter family. I intend to see Father and let him know how much I love him. I'd like to know how it would help any to have poor dear Daddy go off without once seeing his girls. Hasn't he always been seeing us and haven't we always taken all our troubles to him? How would we like it if he'd let us go on a trip and not come near to wish us _bon voyage_? You silly youngsters can be hoodwinked by this b.u.mptious young doctor if you like, but I just bet you he can't control me! I've a great mind to go up to Father's room right this minute."

"If you go, I'm going, too," from Lucy.

"Neither one of you is going," said Nan quietly. "Helen, you are acting this way just because you are ashamed of yourself. You ought to be ashamed. I know I am so mortified I can hardly hold up my head. We have been actually criminal in our selfishness. I don't intend ever as long as I live to get a new dress or a new hat or a new anything, and when I do, I'm going to shop on the wrong side of Broad and get the very cheapest and plainest I can find."

"Nonsense! What does this ugly young man know of our affairs and what money Daddy has in the bank? I don't see that he is called on to tell us when we shall and shan't make bills. He is pretending that our own Father is crazy or something. Won't answer for the consequences! I reckon he won't. Why should he be right in his diagnosis any more than Dr. Davis or Dr. Drew or Dr. Slaughter or any of the rest of them?

Nervous prostration! Why, that is a woman's disease. I bet Daddy will be good and mad when he finds out what this young idiot is giving him. How we will tease him!"