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She tried to think, to plan, but after the manner of all believing sufferers, could only pray. Bobbie need fear no evil! "Angels have been given charge over him, and Bobbie shall not want," Jinnie whispered, her mind spinning around like a child's top. A sudden faith boomed at the portals of her soul. What was the use of asking help for Bobbie if she didn't have faith in an answer?
She gasped once, twice, and her head fell upon his breast, and for a moment she lay wrapped in her youthful modesty as in a mantle. "Kiss me, Jinnie," Theodore murmured entreatingly. She buried her head closer against him. "Kiss me," he insisted, drawing her face upward. His lips fell upon hers, and Jinnie's eyes closed under the magic of her first kiss.
"Hain't she ever said anything like that to you before, lass?" the cobbler suggested presently. "She said it about me," piped in Bobbie. "An' about Happy Pete, too," added Lafe. "I bet I keep 'em," giggled Jinnie. "I'll bet with you, kid," said the cobbler gravely. "I want to see 'em!" Bobbie clamored with a squeak.
He watched her closely during the evening meal and gave Bobbie credit for discovering the truth. After Peg had wheeled him back to the shop and he was alone with Jinnie, Lafe called her to him. "Bring the stool," said he, "an' sit here." Languidly she sank down, resting against him. She was very tired besides being very unhappy. Lafe placed two fingers under her chin, lifting her face to his.
Don't worry. Here's some money. Use it and I'll send more. Kiss Bobbie for me and tell him Jinnie'll come back soon. And the baby, oh, Peggy, hug him until he can't be hugged any more. Don't tell Lafe I'm away. "With all my love, "JINNIE." Peggy put down the letter. "Bobbie!" she said. The boy looked up. "I ain't got any stars, Peggy," he wailed tragically. "I want Jinnie and Lafe."
Jinnie turned her eyes up the road. It was time Bennett came. The sound of his motor would be like sweet music in her ears. She jerked the strap away from the man and turned furiously upon him. "Don't touch me again, Maudlin Bates.... I don't interfere with you. I'll I'll " But Maudlin paid no heed to her insistence. He was dragging the strap from her shoulders.
Lafe picked up the hammer and pounded frantically on the sole of a shoe. "I'm goin' to have money," muttered Maudlin when the cobbler paused for a few nails. As Lafe proceeded with his work silently, Maudlin said: "I'll marry Jinnie and take the empty shack next to pa's. I got money, I said." Lafe's lips were moving rapidly, but the other could not hear what he was saying.
As he drove away, he crushed a desire to return again, to take them both, boy and girl, back to the cobbler's shop. But he must not allow his better emotions to attack him in this matter. He had known for a long time Jinnie could be wielded through her affection for the lad. He thought of his own child somewhere in the world and what it meant to him to possess Jinnie's money, and set his teeth.
"Will he die?" she whispered, in awe-stricken tones. "Maudlin's dyin'," replied the cobbler, with bowed head, "an' Mr. King's awful bad off, the doctor says." Jinnie went to Lafe's side and put her arm about his neck, and as if it had never been, their joy was blotted out by the hand of a bloody tragedy. Tearing away from Paradise Road, Jordan Morse drove madly up the hill.
"I've come to live with you," she gulped, at length. The cobbler gave a quick whack at the little shoe he held in the vise. "I'm Jinnie Singleton, kid of Thomas Singleton, the second," the girl explained, almost mechanically, "and I haven't any home, so I've come to you." During this statement the cobbler's hammer rattled to the floor, and he sat eyeing the speaker speechlessly.
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