Welcome to sleep stories with Steph It is time to relax.
And fully let go.
There is nothing you need to be doing now.
And know where you need to go.
Close your eyes.
And feel yourself sink into the support beneath you.
And let all the worries of the day go.
Drift away.
This is your time.
And your space.
Take a deep breath in through your nose.
And let it out with a long sigh.
That's it!
There is nothing you need to be doing now.
And know where you need to go.
Happy listening.
Marcella's Reward Dr.
Clark shook his head gravely.
She is not improving as fast as I should like to see.
In fact,
She seems to have gone back with the past week.
You must send her to the country,
Miss Langley.
The heat here is too trying for her.
Doctor Clark might as well have said,
You must send her to the moon.
Or so Marcella thought bitterly.
Despair filled her heart as she looked at Patty's white face and transparent hands and listened to the doctor's coolly professional advice.
Patty's illness had already swept away the scant savings of three years.
Marcella had nothing left with which to do anything more for her.
She did not make any answer to the doctor.
She could not.
Besides,
What could she say,
With Patty's big blue eyes,
Bigger and bluer than ever in her thin face,
Looking at her so wistfully?
She dared not say it was impossible.
Aunt Emma had no such scruples with a great clatter and racket.
That lady fell upon the dishes that held Patty's most untasted dinner and whisked them away while her tongue kept time to her jerky movements.
Goodness me,
Doctor,
Do you think you're talking to millionaires?
Where do you suppose the money's gonna come from to send Patty to the country?
I can't afford it,
That's certain.
I think I do pretty well to get Marcella and Patty their ball free,
And I have to work my fingers to the bone to do that!
It's all nonsense about Patty anyhow.
What she ought to do is make an effort to get better.
She doesn't.
She just mopes and pines.
She won't eat a thing I cook for her.
How can anyone expect to get better if she doesn't eat?
Aunt Emma glared at the doctor as if she were triumphantly sure she'd propounded an unanswerable question.
The dull red flush rose to Marcella's face.
Oh,
Demerai,
Can't he?
I said,
Patty,
We really need some because I won't indeed,
I just can't.
I suppose my cooking ain't fancy enough for you,
That's the trouble.
I haven't had the time to put frills on it.
I think I do pretty well to wait on you with all that work piling up before me.
But some people imagine they were born to be waited upon.
Aunt Emma whirled the last dish from the table and left the room,
Slamming the door shut behind her.
The doctor shrugged his shoulders.
He'd become used to Miss Gibson's charades during Patty's illness.
But Marcella had never got used to them,
Never,
In all the three years she'd lived with her aunt.
They flicked on the roar as keenly as ever.
And this morning it seemed unbearable.
It took every atom of Marcella's self-control to keep her from voicing her resentful thoughts.
It was only for Patty's sake she was able to restrain herself.
It was only for Patty's sake,
Too,
She did not,
As soon as the doctor had gone,
Give way to tears.
Indeed she smiled bravely into her little sister's eyes.
Let me brush your hair now,
Dear,
And bathe your face.
Have you time?
Whilst patting anxiously.
Yes,
I think so.
Patty gave a sigh of contentment.
I'm so glad.
Aunt Emma hurts me when she brushes my hair.
She's always in such a hurry.
You're so gentle,
Marcella.
You don't make my headache at all.
But I'm so tired of being sick.
I wish I could get well faster.
Marcy,
Do you think I can be sent to the country?
I don't know,
Dear.
I'll see if I can think of any way to manage it.
Said Marcella,
Striving to speak,
Hopefully.
Patty drew a long breath.
Oh,
Morsi,
It would be lovely to see the green fields again and the woods and the brooks,
As we did that summer we spent in the country before father died.
I wish we could live in the country always.
I'm sure I'd get better if I could.
It was only just for a little while.
That's all I would need.
It's so hot here and the factory makes such a noise,
My head goes round and round all the time.
And Aunt Emma always scolds.
You mustn't mind Aunt Hemedy,
" said Marcella.
You know she doesn't really mean it.
It's just a habit she's got into.
She was very good to you when you were so sick.
She sat up night after night and made me go to bed.
There now,
I'm finished.
Now you're all fresh and sweet,
I must hurry to the store,
Or I'll be late.
Try and have a little nap and I'll bring you home some oranges.
Marcella dropped a kiss on Patty's cheek,
Put her hat on and went out.
As soon as she left the house she quickened her steps almost to a run.
She feared she would be late.
And that meant a ten cent fine.
10 cents loomed as large as $10 now.
But faster she went,
Her distracted thoughts went faster.
She could not send Patty to the country.
There was no way.
Think,
Plan and worry as she might.
But what if she could not?
Marcella remembered Patty's face and the doctor's look and her heart sank like lead.
Patty was growing weaker every day instead of getting stronger and the weather was only getting hotter.
If they were not so desperately poor,
Marcella thought.
Her bitterness overflowed her soul at the thought.
Everywhere around her were evidences of wealth.
Wealth lavishly and foolishly spent,
And she could not even get enough money to save her sister's life.
She felt she hated all those smiling,
Well-dressed people who thronged the streets.
And by the time she reached the store,
Poor Marcella's heart was seething with misery and resentment.
Three years before,
When Marcella had been 16 and Patty 9,
Their parents had died leaving them absolutely alone in the world except for their father's half-sister,
Miss Gibson.
She lived in Canning and earned her livelihood washing and mending for the hands employed in the big factory nearby.
She had grudgingly offered the girls a home,
Which Marcella accepted because she must.
She obtained a position in one of the canning stores at $3 a week,
After which she contrived to dress herself and Patty and send the latter to school.
Her life for three years was one of absolute drudgery.
Yet until now she had never lost courage,
But had struggled bravely on,
Hoping for better times in the future when she could get promotion and Patty would be old enough to teach school.
But now Marcella's courage and hopefulness had gone.
She was late at the store and that meant a fine!
Her head ached and her feet felt like lead as she climbed the stairs to her department,
A hot stuffy corner behind the shirtwaist counter.
It was warm and close at any time,
But today it was stifling.
And there was already a crowd of customers for it was the day of a bargain sale.
Marcella noticed,
With an ever increasing bitterness,
The women wore lace collars,
The price of which would have kept Patty in the country for a year.
And there was a waiting customer,
A big,
Handsome,
Richly dressed woman.
Mrs Liddle She was in a very bad temper because she had been kept waiting.
For the next half hour she badgered and worried Marcella to the point of distraction.
Nothing suited her.
Pile after pile,
Box after box of shirtwaists did Marcella take down for her only to have them flung aside with sarcastic remarks.
Mrs Little seemed to hold Marcella responsible for the lack of waste that suited her.
Her tongue grew sharper and sharper and her comments more trying.
Marcella shut her lips so tightly they turned white to keep back the impatient retort.
The insolence of some customers was always trying to the sensitive,
High-spirited girl,
But today it seemed unbearable.
Her head throbbed fiercely with the pain of the ever-increasing ache.
What was the lady on her right saying?
Yeah,
She had typhoid,
You know,
A very bad form.
She rallied from it,
But was so exhausted she could never really recover.
Really interrupted mrs little sharp voice may i ask you to attend to me if you please No doubt gossip may be very interesting to you,
But I am accustomed to having a clerk pay some small attention to my requirements.
If you cannot attend to your business,
I shall go to the floorwalker and ask him to direct me to someone who can.
The laziness and disobligingness of the girls in this story is really getting beyond endurance.
A passionate answer was on the point of Marcella's tongue.
All her bitterness and suffering and resentment flashed into her face and eyes.
For one moment she was determined to speak out,
To repay Mrs Liddell's insolence.
A retort was ready to her hand.
Everyone knew Mrs Liddle before her marriage to a wealthy man had been a working girl.
What could be easier than to say contemptuously,
You should be a judge of a clerk's courtesy and ability,
Ma'am.
You were a shop girl once,
Weren't you?
But if Marcella said that,
What would follow?
Prompt an instant dismissal.
And Patty.
The thought of her little sister quelled the storm in Marcella's soul.
I beg your pardon.
Mrs.
Little.
She said.
I did not mean to be inattentive.
Let me show you some of our new lingerie wastes.
I think you'll like them.
But Mrs Little did not like the new lingerie waist which Marcella brought to her.
For another half hour she examined and found and thought,
Sneered.
And then she went away with a scornful remark.
She didn't see a thing that was fit to wear.
And she would go to Markwell Brothers and see if they had anything worth looking at.
During this time,
A middle-aged woman had been sitting on a stall beside the bargain counter.
When a clerk asked her if she wished to be waited on,
She said,
No,
I'm waiting here for a friend who promised to meet me.
She was tall and gaunt and grey-haired.
She had square jaws and cold grey eyes and an aggressive nose,
But there was something attractive in her plain face.
A mingling of common sense and kindliness.
She watched Marcella and Mrs Little closely and lost nothing of all that was said and done on both sides.
When Mrs Diddle had gone,
She rose and leaned over the counter.
Marcella opened her burning eyes and pulled herself wearily together.
What can I do for you?
She said.
Nothing?
I ain't looking to have nothing done for me.
You need to have something done for you,
I guess,
By the looks of you.
You seem dead beat out.
Are you awful tired?
I've been listening to that woman jawing you like I felt I was rising up and giving her a large and wholesome piece of my mind.
I don't know how you kept your patience,
But I can tell you I admired you for it,
And I made up my mind to tell you.
This kindness made whilst celebrate down.
Tears rushed to her eyes.
She bowed her head on her hands and said sobbingly,
I am tired.
But it's not that,
I'm in such trouble.
I knew you were,
Said the other with a nod of her head.
I could tell right off by your face.
Do you know what I said to myself?
I said.
.
.
That girl's got someone at home.
Or fall sick,
That's what I said.
Was I right?
Indeed you were.
I knew it!
Just tell me what it's all about.
Who's sick and what's the matter?
Marcella told the woman the whole story,
Choking back her sobs and forcing herself to speak calmly,
Having the fear of the floor walker before her eyes.
But I can't afford to send Patty to the country,
I can't!
And I know she won't get better if she doesn't go.
Dear dee,
But that's too bad.
Something must be done.
Let me see.
Put on my thinking cap.
What's your name?
Marcella Langley You don't say!
What was your mother's name before she was married?
Merry Carvel!
Ha!
I have heard of coincidences,
But this beats all!
Did your mother ever speak of a girlfriend of hers called Josephine Draper?
I should think she did.
You don't mean you.
.
.
I do mean,
I'm Josephine Draper.
Your mother and I went to school together and we were as much sisters to each other until she got married.
But then she went away.
After a few years I've lost trace of her.
I didn't even know she was dead,
Poor Mary.
Hmm,
Well my duty is plain.
That's one comfort to me at least.
Your sister's coming down to Dowsbrough to stay with me.
And you too for the whole summer.
And you needn't say you're not,
Because you are.
There's room at Fir Cottage for you both.
I guess you heard your mother speak of a cottage.
That's her old room out there.
We always slept in when she came to see me.
It's all ready.
What's that?
You can't afford to lose your place here?
Bless your heart,
Child,
You won't lose it.
The owner of this store's my nephew.
He'll do considerable to oblige me as well he might,
Seeing as I bought him up.
The upshot of the whole matter was that Marcella and Patty went two days later to Dalesborough,
Where Miss Draper gave them a hearty welcome to Fur Cottage,
A quaint,
Delightful little house circled by big Scottish furs and overgrown with vines.
Never were such delightful weeks as those that followed.
Patty came rapidly back to strength.
And as for Marcella,
Miss Draper's prophecy was fulfilled.
She soon looked and felt like another girl.
The dismal years of drudgery behind her were forgotten like a dream,
And she lived wholly in the beautiful present,
In the walks and drives,
The flowers and grass slopes,
And in the pleasant household duties which she shared with Miss Draper.
I love housework!
" she exclaimed one September day.
I don't like the thought of going back to the store one bit.
Well,
You're not going back,
" said Miss Draper,
Who had a habit of arranging other people's business for them that might have been disconcerting.
Had it not been for her keen insight and hearty good sense.
I thought it all out.
You're to call me Aunt Josephine and stay with me.
And Patty's to go to school.
Hmm,
I had this scheme in mind for the first,
But I thought I'd wait to see how we got along living in the same house,
And how you liked it here before I spoke out.
No,
You didn't thank me this time.
I'm doing every bit as much for my sake as yours.
That's settled then.
Patty won't object.
Bless her rosy cheeks.
Oh,
Said Marcella with eyes shining through her tears.
I'm so happy,
Miss Draper.
I mean,
Aunt Josephine.
I'd love to stay here,
And I will,
Thank you.
Now,
Fudge.
Remarked Miss Draper,
Who felt uncomfortably near crying herself.
Well,
You might as well go and pick a basket of golden gems.
I want to make some jelly!
For Patty to celebrate.
