On Thursday afternoon she called upon Mr. Green. That gentleman, having had his opportunity to think, was ready with a proposition.
Briefly it was this: He had personally seen the principal creditors of Hamilton and Company--they were all Boston business houses--and he and they had agreed to make the following offer: Hamilton and Company's credit upon debts already owed was to be extended six months. Mary was to go home, endeavor to collect what money she could, and with it buy for cash whatever goods were needed for the summer season. If that season was a success and the business promised well for the future, then arrangements could be made for future buying and for paying the old debt a little at a time.
"At any rate," concluded Mr. Green, "this postpones the mortgaging or selling for a time at least, and you always have it to fall back on if you can't make your new undertaking pay. I believe you can.
I advise you to accept. Your other creditors feel the same way."
He did not add, as he might have done, that the opinion of those other creditors had been influenced almost entirely by his own and that in one or two instances he had been obliged practically to underwrite the payment of Hamilton and Company's indebtedness before gaining consent. He had talked with Mr. Howe, who in turn had called his daughter into consultation, and Barbara's enthusiastic praise of her friend had strengthened the favorable impression which the girl had already made upon both gentlemen. "Do you know, I believe she may win out," observed Mr. Howe.
"I am inclined to think she will," concurred Green.
"Of course she will!" declared Barbara hotly. "No one who ever knew her would be silly enough to think she wouldn't."
Hence Mr. Green's underwriting expedition and the proposition to Mary as the representative of Hamilton and Company.
Mary accepted, of course. She was very grateful and said so.
"I don't know how to thank you, Mr. Green. I can't promise anything, but if trying hard will win, I can promise that," she said.
"That's all right, that's all right. I know you'll try, and I think you'll succeed. Now, why don't you go up and pick out some of those summer goods? You don't need them yet, and you needn't pay for them yet, but now is the time to select. Give my regards to your uncles when you see them and tell them I wish them luck. I may be motoring down the Cape this summer and if I do I shall drop in on you and them."
Mary had news to tell when she reached South Harniss. It was listened to with attention, if not entirely in silence. Captain Shadrach's ejaculations of "You don't say!" "I want to know!" and "Jumpin' fire, how you talk!" served as punctuation marks during the narration. When she had finished her story, she said:
"And now, Uncle Zoeth and Uncle Shad--now that you've heard the whole of it, and know what my plan is, what do you think of it?"
Both answers were characteristic. Zoeth drew a long breath.
"The Almighty sent you to us, Mary-'Gusta," he vowed. "There was a time a little spell ago when I begun to think He'd pretty nigh deserted us. I was almost discouraged and it shook my trust--it shook my trust. But now I can see He was just tryin' us out and in His good time He sent you to haul us off the shoals. He'll do it, too; I know it and I'll thank Him tonight on my knees."
Shadrach shook his head. "By fire!" he cried. "Mary'-Gusta, I always said you was a wonder. You've given us a chance to get clear of the breakers, anyhow, and that's somethin' we'd never have done ourselves. Now, if you can collect that money from Jeremiah Clifford I'll--I'll--I swan to man I'll believe anything's possible, even Jonah's swallowin' the whale."
"Oh, Shadrach!" protested his partner. "If you wouldn't be so irreverent!"
