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"You've a good memory," answered Molly. "Now I want to tell you something, and I hope you'll be guided by my judgment." Jinnie looked straight at her without a sign of acquiescence. "What is it?" she asked presently. "You must leave Grandoken's!" Jinnie started to speak, but Molly's next words closed her lips. "Please don't get nervous! Listen to me!
When Jinnie appeared five minutes later in the kitchen with a small kitten in her hand, Peg was stirring the mush for breakfast. "You hate the kitties, eh, Peg?" asked Jinnie. The two tense wrinkles at the corners of Mrs. Grandoken's mouth didn't relax by so much as a hair's line. "Hate 'em!" she snapped, "I should say I do! I hate every one of them cats, and I hate you, too!
During her tramp to the jail she'd concocted a fairy story to bring a smile to the cobbler's lips. So at length: "Lafe," she whispered. Mr. Grandoken's head came up quickly, and he turned the chair and wheeled toward her. There was the same question in his eyes that had been there for so many days, and Jinnie smiled broadly.
It was dreadful how she had to fight with Peggy to get her own way about things like this. First with Happy Pete, then with Bobbie, and now to-day with five small kittens, not one of them larger than the blind child's hand. She looked into Mrs. Grandoken's face, which was still grim, but Jinnie decided not quite so grim as when the woman appeared at her bedroom door.
I'm going home in five minutes, and I want some money before I go, too." "I'll give you some to-morrow. Now what're you going to do about Theodore?" "Well, he won't marry Jinnie," replied Morse slowly. "How can you help it?" "That's what I'm going to figure out. If I can get her away from Grandoken's, she won't get back, I can tell you that.
"Yes," repeated Peg, "an' of course you'll go." Jinnie went forward and placed a slender hand on Lafe's shoulder. Then she faced Mrs. Grandoken. "Didn't you both know me well enough to tell him I wouldn't go for anything in the world?" If a bomb had been placed under Mrs. Grandoken's chair, she wouldn't have jumped up any more quickly, and she flung out of the door before Jinnie could stop her.
If Theodore had been watching Molly's face, he would have noted how its expression changed darkly. But, humming a tune, he went into the house unconcernedly, and Molly recognized the rhythm as one Jinnie had played that night long ago with Peg Grandoken's lace curtains draped about her. Jinnie's youth, her bright blue eyes, her wonderful talent, Molly hated, and hated cordially.
Jinnie had gained much knowledge in the last few hours. She had discovered the mystery of all existence. She had seen Peg go down into that wonderful valley of life and bring back Lafe's little boy baby, and the girl's eyes held an expression of impenetrable things. She moved her position slightly so as to study Mrs. Grandoken's face. Suddenly Peg's eyes lowered.
At half past one that afternoon a messenger appeared at Grandoken's with a letter for Jinnie. Peggy called the girl to the shop. "Boy's got something for you," she declared. "It's a letter, I guess." Jinnie held out her hand with thumping pulses, took the extended pencil, and signed her name to a blank page. Then the boy held out the missive. Of course it was from Theodore, thought Jinnie.
Not far from the house he met Theodore, and they wandered on together, smoking in silence. Morse suddenly developed an idea. Why shouldn't he sound King about Jinnie? Accordingly, he began with: "That's a wonderful girl, Grandoken's niece." This topic was one Theodore loved to speak of, to dream so, so he said impetuously: "She is indeed. I only wish I could get her away from Paradise Road."
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