the door was opened cautiously by the maid, who was “doing” aunt crete’s hair, having just finished a most refreshing facial massage given at donald’s express orders.
aunt crete looked round upon her visitors with a rested, rosy countenance, which bloomed out under her fluff of soft, white hair, and quite startled her sister with its freshness and youth. could it be possible that this was really her sister crete; or had she made a terrible mistake, and entered the wrong apartment?
but a change came suddenly over the ruddy countenance of aunt crete as over the face of a child that in the midst of happy play sees a trouble descending upon it. a look almost of terror came over her, and she caught her breath, and waited to see what was coming.
“why, carrie, luella!” she gasped weakly. “i thought you’d gone to bed. marie’s just doing up my hair for night. she’s been giving me a face-massage.[118] you ought to try one. it makes you feel young again.”
“h’m!” said her affronted sister. “i shouldn’t care for one.”
marie looked over luella and her mother, beginning with the painfully elaborate arrangement of hair, and going down to the tips of their boots. luella’s face burned with mortification as she read the withering disapproval in the french woman’s countenance.
“let’s sit down till she’s done,” said luella, dropping promptly on the foot of aunt crete’s bed and gazing around in frank surprise over the spaciousness of the apartment.
thereupon the maid ignored them, and went about her work, brushing out and deftly manipulating the wavy white hair, and chattering pleasantly meanwhile, just as if no one else were in the room. aunt crete tried to forget what was before her, or, rather, behind her; but her hands trembled a little as they lay in her lap in the folds of the pretty pink and gray challis kimono she wore; and all of a sudden she remembered the unwhitewashed cellar, and the uncooked jam, and the unmade shirt-waists, and the little hot brick house gazing at her reproachfully from the distant[119] home, and she here in this fine array, forgetting it all and being waited upon by a maid—a lazy truant from her duty.
did the heart of the maid divine the state of things, or was it only her natural instinct that made her turn to protect the pleasant little woman, in whose service she had already been well paid, against the two women that were so evidently of the common walks of life, and were trying to ape those that in the eyes of the maid were their betters? however it was, marie prolonged her duties a good half-hour, and luella’s impatience waxed furious, so that she lost her fear of the maid gradually, and yawned loudly, declaring that aunt crete had surely had enough fussing over for one evening.
they held in their more personal remarks until the door finally closed upon marie, but burst forth so immediately that she heard the opening sentences through the transom, and thought it wise to step to the young gentleman’s door and warn him that his elderly relative of whom he seemed so careful was likely to be disturbed beyond a reasonable hour for retiring. then she discreetly withdrew, having not only added to her generous income by a good bit of silver, but also having followed[120] out the dictates of her heart, which had taken kindly to the gentle woman of the handsome clothes and few pretensions.
“well, upon my word! i should think you’d be ashamed, aunt crete!” burst forth luella, arising from the bed in a majesty of wrath. “sitting there, being waited on like a baby, when you ought to be at home this minute earning your living. what do you think of yourself, anyway, living in this kind of luxury when you haven’t a cent in the world of your own, and your own sister, who has supported you for years, up in a little dark fourth-floor room? such selfishness i never saw in all my life. i wouldn’t have believed it of you, though we might have suspected it long ago from the foolish things you were always doing. aunt crete, have you any idea how much all this costs?”
she waved her hand tragically over the handsome room, including the trunk standing open, and the gleam of silver-gray silk that peeped through the half-open closet door. aunt crete fairly cringed under luella’s scornful eyes.
“and you, nothing in the world but a beggar, a beggar! that’s what you are—a beggar dependent upon us; and you swelling around as if you owned the earth, and daring to wear silk dresses[121] and real lace collars and expensive jewelry, and even having a maid, and shaming your own relatives, and getting in ahead of us, who have always been good to you, and taking away our friends, and making us appear like two cents! it’s just fierce, aunt crete! it’s—it’s heathenish!” luella paused in her anger for a fitting word, and then took the first one that came.
aunt crete winced. she was devoted to the woman’s missionary society, and it was terrible to be likened to a heathen. she wished luella had chosen some other word.
“i should think you’d be so ashamed you couldn’t hold your head up before your honest relatives,” went on the shameless girl. “taking money from a stranger,—that’s what he is, a stranger,—and you whining round and lowering yourself to let him buy you clothes and things, as if you didn’t have proper clothes suited to your age and station. he’s a young upstart coming along and daring to buy you any—and such clothes! do you know you’re a laughing-stock? what would mrs. grandon say if she knew whom she was inviting to her automobile rides and dinners? think of you in your old purple calico washing the dishes at home, and scrubbing the kitchen, and ask yourself[122] what you would say if mrs. grandon should come to call on you, and find you that way. you’re a hypocrite, aunt crete, an awful hypocrite!”
luella towered over aunt crete, and the little old lady looked into her eyes with a horrible fascination, while her great grief and horror poured down her sweet face in tears of anguish that would not be stayed. her kindly lips were quivering, and her eyes were wide with the tears.
luella saw that she was making an impression, and she went on more wildly than before, her fury growing with every word, and not realizing how loud her voice was.
“and it isn’t enough that you should do all that, but now you’re going to spoil my prospects with clarence grandon. you can’t keep up this masquerade long; and, when they find out what you really are, what will they think of me? it’ll be all over with me, and it’ll be your fault, aunt crete, your fault, and you’ll never have a happy moment afterwards, thinking of how you spoiled my life.”
“now, luella,” broke in aunt crete solemnly through her tears, “you’re mistaken about one thing. it won’t be my fault there, for it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference, poor child. i’m real[123] sorry for you, and i meant to tell you just as soon as we got home, for i couldn’t bear to spoil your pleasure while we were here; but that clarence grandon belongs to some one else. he ain’t for you, luella, and there must have been some mistake about it. perhaps he was just being kind to you. for donald knows him real well, and he says he’s engaged to a girl out west, and they’re going to be married this fall; and donald says she’s real sweet and——”
but aunt crete’s quavering voice stopped suddenly in mild affright, for luella sprang toward her like some mad creature, shaking her finger in her aunt’s face, and screaming at the top of her voice:
“it’s a lie! i say it’s a lie! aunt crete, you’re a liar; that’s what you are with all the rest.”
and the high-strung, uncontrolled girl burst into angry sobs.
no one heard the gentle knock that had been twice repeated during the scene, and no one saw the door open until they all suddenly became aware that donald stood in the room, looking from one face to another in angry surprise.
donald had not retired at once after bidding aunt crete good night. he found letters and[124] telegrams awaiting his attention, and he had been busy writing a letter of great importance when the maid gave him the hint of aunt crete’s late callers. laying down his pen, he stepped quietly across the private parlor that separated his room from his aunt’s, and stopped a moment before the door to make sure he heard voices. then he had knocked, and knocked again, unable to keep from hearing the most of luella’s tirade.
his indignation knew no bounds, and he concluded his time had come to interfere; so he opened the door, and went in.
“what does all this mean?” he asked in a tone that frightened his aunt carrie, and made luella stop her angry sobs in sudden awe.
no one spoke, and aunt crete looked a mute appeal through her tears. “what is it, dear aunt?” he said, stepping over by her side, and placing his arm protectingly round the poor, shrinking little figure, who somehow in her sorrow and helplessness reminded him strongly of his own lost mother. he could not remember at that moment that the other woman, standing hard and cold and angry across the room, was also his mother’s sister. she did not look like his mother, nor act like her.
[125]
aunt crete put her little curled white head in its crisping-pins down on donald’s coat-sleeve, and shrank into her pink and gray kimono appealingly as she tried to speak.
“it’s just as i told you, donald, you dear boy,” she sobbed out. “i—oughtn’t to have come. i knew it, but it wasn’t your fault. it was all mine. i ought to have stayed at home, and not dressed up and come off here. i’ve had a beautiful time; but it wasn’t for me, and i oughtn’t to have taken it. it’s just spoiled luella’s nice time, and she’s blaming me, just as i knew she would.”
“what does my cousin mean by using that terrible word to you, which i heard as i entered the room?”
donald’s voice was keen and scathing, and his eyes fairly piercing as he asked the question and looked straight at luella, who answered not a word.
“that wasn’t just what she’d have meant, donald,” said aunt crete apologetically. “she was most out of her mind with trouble. you see i had to tell her what you told me about that clarence grandon being engaged to another girl——”
“aunt crete, don’t say another word about[126] that!” burst out luella with flashing eyes and crimson face.
“for mercy’s sake, crete, can’t you hold your tongue?” said luella’s mother sharply.
“go on, aunt crete; did my cousin call you a liar for saying that? yet it was entirely true. if she is not disposed to believe me either, i can call mr. grandon in to testify in the matter. he will come if i send for him. but i feel sure, after all, that that will not be necessary. it is probably true, as aunt crete says, that you were excited, luella, and did not mean what you said; and after a good night’s sleep you will be prepared to apologize to aunt crete, and be sorry enough for worrying her. i am going to ask you to leave aunt crete now, and let her rest. she has had a wearying day, and needs to be quiet at once. she is my mother’s sister, you know, and i feel as if i must take care of her.”
“you seem to forget that i am your mother’s sister, too,” said aunt carrie coldly, as she stood stiff and disapproving beside the door, ready to pass out.
“if i do, aunt carrie, forgive me,” said donald courteously. “it is not strange when you remember that you forgot that i was your sister’s child,[127] and ran away from me. but never mind; we will put that aside and try to forget it. good night, aunt carrie. good night, cousin luella. we will all feel better about it in the morning.”
they bowed their diminished heads, and went with shame and confusion to the fourth floor back; and, when the door was closed upon them, they burst into angry talk, each blaming the other, until at last luella sank in a piteous heap upon the bed, and gave herself over to helpless tears.
“luella,” said her mother in a business-like tone, “you stop that bawling, and sit up here and answer me some questions. did you or did you not go riding with mr. clarence grandon last winter in his automobile?”
luella paused in her grief, and nodded assent hopelessly.
“well, how’d it come about? there’s no use sniffing. tell me exactly.”
“why, it was a rainy day,” sobbed out the girl, “and i met him on the street in front of the public library the day i’d been to take back ‘the legacy of earl crafton,’ and that other book by the same author——”
“never mind what books; tell me what happened,” said the exasperated mother.
[128]
“well, if you’re going to be cross, i sha’n’t tell you anything,” was the filial reply; and for a moment nothing was heard in the room but sobs.
however, luella recovered the thread of her story, and went on to relate how in company with a lot of other girls she had met mr. grandon the day before at the golf-links, where a championship game was being played. she did not explain the various manœuvres by which she had contrived to be introduced to him, nor that he had not seemed to know her at first when she bowed in front of the library building. she had called out, “it’s a fine day for ducks, mr. grandon; isn’t it good the game was yesterday instead of to-day?” and he had asked her to ride home with him.
that was her version. her mother by dint of careful questioning finally arrived at the fact that the girl had more than hinted to be taken home, having loudly announced her lack of rubbers and umbrella, though she seldom wore rubbers, and had on a rain-coat and an old hat.
“but how about the big box of chocolates he sent you, luella? that was a very particular attention to show you if he was engaged.”
“o,” pouted luella, “i don’t suppose that meant[129] anything either, for i caught him in a philopena on the way home that day. we said the same words at the same time, something like ‘it’s going to clear off,’ and i told him, when we girls did that, the one that spoke first had to give the other a box of chocolates; so the next day he sent them.”
“luella, i never brought you up to do things like that. i don’t think that was very nice.”
“o, now, ma, don’t you preach. i guess you weren’t a saint when you were a girl. besides, i don’t think you’re very sympathetic.” she mopped her swollen eyes.
“luella, didn’t he ever pay you any more attention after that? i kind of thought you thought he liked you, by the way you talked.”
“no, he never even looked at me,” sobbed the girl, her grief breaking out afresh. “he didn’t even know me the next time we met, but stared straight at me till i bowed, and then he gave me a cold little touch of his hat. and down here he hasn’t even recognized me once. i suppose that lady mother of his didn’t like my looks.”
“look here, luella; i wish you’d act sensible. this has been pretty expensive trying to run around after the grandons. here’s the hotel bills, and all that dress-making, and now no telling how[130] aunt crete will act after we get home. like as not she’ll think she’s got to have a maid, and dress in silks and satins. there’s one comfort; probably some of her clothes will fix over for you when she gets off her high horse and comes down to every-day living again. but i wish you’d brace up and forget these grandons. it’s no use trying to get up in the world higher than you belong. there’s that nice john peters would have been real devoted to you if you’d just let him; and he owns a house of his own already, and has the name of being the best plumber in midvale.”
luella sighed.
“he’s only a plumber, ma, and his hands are all red and rough.”
“well, what’s that?” snapped her practical mother. “he may have his own automobile before long, for all that. now dry up your eyes, and go to sleep; and in the morning do you go down real early, and apologize to your silly aunt crete, and make her understand that she’s not to disgrace us under any consideration by going in bathing while she’s here. my land! i expect to see her riding round on one of those saddle-ponies on the beach next, or maybe driving that team of goats we saw to-day, with pink ribbon reins. come now, luella,[131] don’t you worry. set out to show your cousin donald how nice you can be, and maybe some of the silk dresses will come your way. anyhow, this can’t last forever, and john peters is at home when we get there.”
so luella, soothed in spirit, went to bed, and arose very early the next morning, descending upon poor aunt crete while yet the dreams of sailing alone with donald on a moonlit sea were mingling with her waking thoughts.
