"You are doing just right. Stay as long as needed, but remember Boston home waits whenever you wish to come. Hannah has proved inadequate housekeeper. Have new one. Miss Cartright and I were married in New York to-day.

"Uncle Bob."

Jean"s reading stopped with a jerk. She was speechless. So great was her joy, her surprise, that not a word would come to her tongue.

Then Uncle Tom remarked dryly:

"I guess your Uncle Bob was a bit reckless about the time he sent that wire. The only wonder is the telegram wasn"t twice as long."

Giusippe was the next to find his voice.

"Well!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "And we never even dreamed it! At last, Jean, you"ve got your wish. Your good fairy has given you an _aunt_!"

"And such an aunt!" Jean added.

CHAPTER XII

JEAN AND GIUSIPPE EACH FIND A NICHE IN LIFE

During Uncle Tom"s illness and slow recovery Giusippe became the messenger between Mr. Curtis"s residence and his office. It was, however, weeks before there was any link connecting the two. But as health returned there came to the invalid a gradual revival of interest in affairs at the gla.s.s works. Nevertheless the doctor was a cautious man and at first permitted only the slightest allusions to be made to business. Later, as strength increased, Mr. Curtis was allowed to look over at home mail, papers, and specifications and put his signature to a few important doc.u.ments, and since Giusippe was almost constantly at the house what was more natural than that he should become the go-between? Mr. Curtis dropped into explaining to the boy from time to time many confidential matters and directing him as to what he wished done regarding them. The young Italian, as his employer soon found, was quick to grasp a situation and could be relied upon to fulfil instructions to the letter and without blundering. Such a person was of inestimable value during those days of convalescence.

So it came about that Giusippe spent less and less of his time in his own department in the gla.s.s works and more and more in Mr. Curtis"s private office. Before long, boy though he was, he had quite a complete comprehension of the older man"s affairs and proved himself most useful to the head of the firm who was fighting his way back to health. It was so easy to say:

"Regarding this letter, I wish, Giusippe, you would see that such and such a reply is sent. Look it over yourself before it goes out to be sure that the stenographer has correctly caught my idea."

Or:

"Go and tell Levin of the sheet gla.s.s department that I want these orders filled before any others are shipped. Attend to it yourself, and make certain he clearly understands."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I WANT THESE ORDERS FILLED"]

To drop any portion of the detail of his mighty business upon younger shoulders, or in fact upon any shoulders at all was a thing which, but a short time before, Mr. Curtis would have considered impossible. But now, to his surprise, he found himself actually doing it to an amazing extent, and discovered that no calamity resulted in consequence. On the contrary it was a positive relief to have a bright, strong, eager boy lift a part of the burden which had become so heavy for the older man to bear alone. For Giusippe possessed that rare gift seldom found in the young and often lacking, even, in elder persons--he could hold his tongue. He never prattled of Mr. Curtis"s affairs; never boasted of his knowledge of the innermost workings of the firm. He did as he was told, gave his opinion when asked, and kept whatever information was doled out to him entirely to himself.

Hence it followed naturally that when Uncle Tom began going to the works for a few hours each day he took Giusippe with him, and when he came home left the boy to see carried out the instructions he gave.

Slowly the office force began to defer to the youthful Italian.

"Did Mr. Curtis say anything about this matter or that?"

"Was such and such a price the one Mr. Curtis wished quoted?"

Having discussed many of these very matters with his employer Giusippe was usually ready with an answer or he could get one. For it was he alone who was sure to receive a telephone reply from the Curtis residence; he was the only one who knew at just what time of day Mr.

Curtis could be reached, and whether he was well enough that morning to be disturbed. Men desiring interviews with the head of the firm soon found themselves inquiring for Mr. Cicone and asking him if possible to arrange things so they could have a few words with Mr. Curtis. Giusippe was the recognized buffer, the go-between who guarded the capitalist from annoyance and intrusion of every sort.

"You talk with this fellow, Giusippe," Mr. Curtis would often say.

"Tell him--well, you know--get him out of the office. You can do it politely. Tell him I"ll give him a hundred dollars toward his hospital, but keep him out of my way."

Then Giusippe would laugh.

He had begun to understand that the life of a rich man was no easy one.

Scores of persons came to see Mr. Curtis: persons applying for business positions; persons begging money for various good causes; customers; salesmen; men wanting newspaper interviews. From morning until night the throng filed in and out of the office. Up to the present Mr. Curtis had been content to remain in the security of his inner domain and rely on his stenographer to fill many of the gaps. But with illness a change had come and it was to Giusippe that most of these duties fell.

And yet, strangely enough, nothing had been further from the older man"s original plan than to transform this foreign-born lad into his private secretary. But so it came about.

"I seem to just need you all the time, Giusippe," he declared one day.

"When you leave the house and return to your uncle"s I am always discovering something I meant to ask you and having to send the car after you; and the moment you go back to your own job in the casting department, without fail some matter comes up and you have to be telephoned for. It is no use to try to get on without you. I need you all the time. I need you here at home and I need you at the office."

Giusippe smiled.

"I"m glad if I can be of help to you, sir."

"You are of help; you are more than that--you are---- See here, what do you say to throwing up your position at the works and coming into my private office as my--well, as my general utility man? I"ve never had a secretary--I"ve never wanted one; and if I had I never before have seen the chap I"d trust with the job. But you are different. You"re one of the family, to begin with. Moreover, you"ve proved that you can be trusted, and that you have some common sense. What would you take to move into your room up-stairs for good and all, and live here where I can get hold of you when I want you? Are you so wedded to your aunt and uncle or to your work in the factory that you would be unwilling to make the change?"

A flush suffused the boy"s face.

"If you really think that I could do for you what you want done, Mr.

Curtis----"

"I don"t think, I know!"

"Then I"d like to come, sir."

"That"s right! It will be a weight off my mind. The doctor says that for some months I must still go easy. You can save both my time and my strength. I like you and I believe you like me; that is half the battle in working with any one. We will send to your uncle"s for your trunk and whatever else you have."

"There isn"t much else but some books," answered Giusippe. "I have been buying a few from time to time as I could afford them."

"Box them up and send them over. Send everything. This is to be your future home, you understand. And by the by, we"ll give you that other room adjoining your bedroom. You will need a bit more s.p.a.ce. I will have a desk and some book-shelves put in there."

"Thank you, sir."

"We"ll call that settled, then. It is going to be very helpful to have you right here on the spot. It is the person who aims to be of service who is really valuable in the world. Look at Jean. In her way she has been doing the same thing that you have. When she found I was in a hole and needed her she gave up her vacation in the East without a murmur. I sha"n"t forget it, either. Come in, missy. I"m talking about you."

Jean, who had paused on the threshold of the room, entered smiling.

"You caught me at just the right moment, little lady. I was slandering you," went on Mr. Curtis. "I was saying to Giusippe that I never again can get on without you two young persons. Why, this old house was quiet as the grave before you came into it. I cannot imagine how I ever existed here alone all these years. The piano wasn"t opened from one end of the year to the other, and when I unlocked the door and came in there wasn"t a single sound anywhere. As I look back on it I guess I spent about all my time at the Club. But since you came it has been different. I"ve liked it a whole lot better, too. Now I feel as if I really had a home."

Jean bent down and kissed him.

"When I get older," she said, "I mean that you shall have even a nicer home. Fraulein will be an old lady soon, Uncle Tom, and will not be able to take care of things as she does now. Then I"m going to ask her to teach me to market and to keep house. If you are to make Giusippe your secretary it is only fair that you should give me a position, too.

I"ll be your housekeeper. You"ll see what a good one I shall make after I"ve learned how. I should love to do it. A girl--a really, truly girl, Uncle Tom, can"t help wanting to keep house for somebody."

"No more she can, dear, and she ought to want to, too. It is her work in the world to be a homemaker--the one who touches with comfort and with beauty the lives of those about her. You shall be housekeeper for Giusippe and me, little girl, and shall make out of these four walls a real home. That is what your new Aunt Ethel is to do for your Uncle Bob."

"I know it," answered Jean softly. "Even Uncle Bob couldn"t get on without some one to look after him, could he?"