Brenda's Bargain: A Story for Girls Page 5

  V

  PHILIP'S LECTURE

  Angelina was smiling broadly, "grinning from ear to ear" some personswould have expressed it, as she ushered two visitors into the room whereMiss South, Julia, and Pamela were sitting one afternoon toward sixo'clock, for Pamela was one of the residents at the Mansion.

  "Why, Philip; why, Tom!" cried Julia, rising from the lounge where shewas looking over a folio of engravings, "this _is_ a pleasure."

  "Yes, we thought we'd accept promptly your kind invitation to drop inupon you at any time, so that we could see the Mansion and its contentsjust as they are."

  "Oh, yes, they are always ready for inspection."

  "We hope that you will ask us to stay to dinner," added Tom, after hehad followed Philip's example and had shaken hands with the others.

  "Oh, certainly! especially as you have made it so evident that you areready to accept."

  "That is delightful! You see we feared to wait for a formal invitation,lest you might show us only the company side of things, and we areanxious to see you just as you are."

  "Ah! we have no company side. We decided in the beginning to welcome ourfriends at any time, if they would take us just as we were."

  "This doesn't look like an institution," said Tom, glancing around thepretty room.

  "No, we haven't seen the real inmates yet. I suppose you keep them underlock and key," interposed Philip.

  "Hardly," responded Miss South, "because--"

  Then, as the door was pushed open for a minute, shouts of merriment fromanother part of the house showed that if in durance vile, the inmateswere at least in full possession of some of their faculties.

  Then the party broke up into two groups. Tom in his vivacious way toldof his experiences as a fledgling lawyer. This was his first visit toBoston since he had been admitted to the bar, and he described himselfas just beginning to believe that he might escape starvation from thefact that one or two clients had made their appearance at his office.

  "It's lucky for my friends that a little practice is coming my way, forI was ready, for the sake of business, to set any of them by the ears.Why, the other day when I was out with my uncle, and the cable carstopped too suddenly, I almost hoped that he would sprain hisankle--just a little, that I might have the chance to bring suit againstthe company."

  "How cruel!" exclaimed Julia, into whose ear he had let fall these rashadmissions.

  While Tom ran on in this frivolous fashion, Philip was talking moreseriously with Pamela and Miss South. Indeed, seriousness was a qualitythat Philip now showed to an extent that seemed strange to those who hadknown him in his earlier college years. Much responsibility had recentlycome to him on account of his father's failing health, and in the Westhe had been so thrown on his own resources that he no longer regardedlife as unsatisfactory unless it offered him amusement.

  "I have wondered," he was saying to Miss South, "if you really wished meto give that talk on the Western country."

  "Yes, indeed, we are very anxious to have it. We are counting on you toopen our lecture season."

  "Oh, I'm only too happy, although you must remember that I'm not aprofessional; but my lantern is in order, and I have nearly a hundredslides. Many of them are really fine,--even if I do say it," heconcluded apologetically.

  "I'm sure they are," responded Miss South, "and I can tell you that weolder 'inmates,' as you call us, are equally anxious to hear you."

  "You mean, to see the pictures; they will be worth your attention, butas to my speaking--"

  "'You'd scarce expect one of my age To speak in public on the stage,'"

  interposed Tom mockingly, as he overheard the latter part of thesentence. Whereat Philip, somewhat embarrassed, was glad to seeAngelina at the door announcing "Dinner is served," and leading the waywith Miss South the others followed them to the dining-room.

  As they took their places Philip found himself beside Pamela. He hadseen her but two or three times since her Freshman year at Radcliffe,and in consequence would hardly have dared venture to allude to thatsugar episode through which he had first made her acquaintance. ButPamela, no longer sensitive about this misadventure, brought it upherself. Though Philip politely persisted that it had seemed the mostnatural thing in the world to see before him on a Cambridge sidewalk astream of sugar pouring from an overturned paper-bag, Pamela assured himthat to her he had appeared like a hero on that memorable occasion,since he had saved her from a certain amount of mortification.

  "But I'm wiser now," she said; "I hadn't studied philosophy then," andshe quoted one or two passages from certain ancient authors to show thatshe had attained a state of indifference to outside criticism.

  Gradually Pamela told Philip much about her school, to prove that itwasn't simply philosophy that helped her enjoy her work.

  "So it really is your interest in them that makes your pupils so fond ofyour classes."

  Then, in answer to her word of surprise, he added:

  "Oh, my little cousin, Emily Dover, one of your most devoted admirers,has been telling me--I believe that you have the misfortune to instructher."

  "Ah, the good fortune! She is a bright little thing, if not a hardstudent."

  "You could hardly expect more from one of our family."

  "Why, your sister seems to me fairly intelligent."

  Could this be Pamela, actually speaking in a bantering tone, unawed by ayoung man considerably her senior?

  "I am glad," he said a moment later, "that you are surviving not onlythe experiment of teaching my little cousin, but this experiment at theMansion."

  "Oh, this isn't an experiment, it's--it's--"

  "The real thing?"

  "Yes, it really is. If you wish to understand it, you must come heresome day when the classes are at work. Miss South or Edith will be happyto show you about."

  "But I am a working-man now. At the time when I might properly visit theschool I am afraid that there would be no classes in session."

  "Of course I'm busy myself, too," said Pamela, "and sometimes I feelthat I am here on false pretences."

  "Remembering your reputation, I don't believe that you are very idle."

  "Oh, of course I help; but then some one else could as well do my work."

  "Tell me exactly what you do."

  But Pamela shook her head, and with all his urging Philip could not makeher describe her exact sphere of activity. Yet Miss South or Julia couldhave told that no resident was more useful than Pamela, who devoted herevenings to the girls, talking to them, playing games, and in all thatshe did directing their thoughts toward the appreciation of beautifulthings. Every Saturday she took two or three to the Art Museum, andlater she meant them to see any exhibitions that there might be in town.One or two critics were inclined to laugh at this work. "It would putstrange ideas into the heads of the girls. They would want things thatthey could never own." But Pamela was satisfied when she saw therapturous glance of appreciation on the faces of Concetta and Inez, themost artistic of the girls, and the awakening interest in the others.

  But how could she explain all this to Philip in casual conversation at adinner-table?

  Maggie, helping Angelina, found this, her first experience in waiting oncompany, very trying. To overcome her timidity Miss South had purposelyassigned her to this task. But who could have supposed that she wouldlet the bread fall as she passed it to Philip, tilting the plate so farthat a slice or two fell on the table before him.

  "There!" and he smiled good-humoredly, "the Mansion realizes the extentof my appetite, and evidently I am to receive more even than I ask for."

  Poor Maggie's next mishap was to drop a dessert plate as she started totake it from the sideboard.

  "It was because you looked at me so hard," she said afterwards toAngelina; "I couldn't think what you wanted, you were shaking your headso fierce."

  "Why, it was the finger-bowl, child. You forgot it. There should be oneon every plate. When I told you to get extra things for company, I meantfinger-b
owls too. We always have them on the dessert plates."

  "Oh, yes," said Maggie, as if her not getting them had been the merestoversight, although really this was her first experience in waiting atdinner, and she had not a good memory for the details that had beentaught her.

  But shy as she was, she did not hesitate to take part in theconversation once or twice. Miss South and the others showed no surprisewhen twice her voice was heard replying to questions that Philip hadexpected Miss South or Pamela to answer.

  After the older people returned to the library, Angelina confided toMaggie that Mr. Philip Blair was to give a lecture at the Mansion in aweek or two. "I know all about it, because Miss Julia told me a few daysago."

  Haleema, the little Syrian girl, who was helping Maggie in herdish-washing, paused in her singing to listen to Angelina's accounts ofthe wonderful adventures that Mr. Blair had had in the West.

  "Ho!" said Haleema, "it ain't nothing to go bear-hunting, if you don'tget killed. Why, I've had two uncles and ten cousins killed by theTurks," and then she went on singing cheerfully,--

  "'As quick as you're able set neatly the table, And first lay the table-cloth square; And then on the table-cloth, bright and clean table-cloth, Napkins arrange with due care.'"

  The air to which she sang was "Little Buttercup," and her voice wasclear and sweet, but as she began the second stanza,--

  "'Put plates in their places at regular spaces,'"

  Angelina interrupted her. "This isn't the time for singing this song,this is dish-washing time;" and, overawed by Angelina's imperativemanner, Haleema was silenced.

  * * * * *

  As to the lecture itself, it is needless to say that Philip a fewevenings later had an appreciative audience. All the girls were in atwitter at the prospect of this their first entertainment, Angelina mostof all. She had arranged her hair in an elaborate coiffure, which, sheinformed Haleema, she had copied from a hairdresser's window inWashington Street.

  "Ah, then, perhaps you have one of those things--a whip, I think theycall it?"

  "A what?"

  "A whip, a long piece of hair to tie on, for I did not know that you hadso much hair, Miss Angelina."

  "Oh, a switch."

  Angelina looked at Haleema sharply and made no further reply. Haleemahad addressed her by the flattering "Miss Angelina," which Manuel'ssister, when none of the residents were present, tried to exact from allthe younger girls at the Mansion, and therefore she would not reproveher for her insinuation about "the whip."

  Nevertheless Angelina held her head rather stiffly as she filled herpart as head usher.

  Each girl at the Mansion had been permitted to invite two guests--a girlof her own age and an older person. And almost every one invited waspresent. Angelina's brother John was the only boy there. He had shot upinto a fairly tall youth, with a very intelligent face. He was attendingevening school in the city, and working through the day for a littlemore than his board. Julia knew that she could depend on him to help herwhen at times Angelina proved refractory. To-night John was to operatethe lantern while Philip talked about the views.

  The girls held their breath in admiration as slide after slide wasthrown on the screen. Gorges, canons, mountain-passes followed oneanother in quick succession. The wonderful canon of the Arkansas, theMarshall Pass, the Garden of the Gods, the tree-shaded streets ofColorado Springs, the railroad up Pike's Peak, and all the weird andwonderful sights of the Yellowstone Park.

  "He's really very handsome," whispered Nora to Julia during a pausebetween the pictures when Philip's regular features were thrown insilhouette upon the sheet. Then she continued, "Don't you remember howwe used to laugh at him, and call him a dandy, when he was a Sophomore;but now he looks so manly, and his lecture has been really interesting."

  Pamela, seated on the other side of Nora, heard these words withsurprise. She had not known Philip in the days when he was consideredsomewhat effeminate.

  All the girls expressed their pleasure as each new picture came insight, and yet I am afraid that their loudest applause was given to aseries of colored pictures showing the adventures of a farmer with anobstinate calf that he vainly tried to drive to the barn, succeedingonly when he put a cow-bell around his own neck.

  At last the lights were turned on, but all were still seated as Angelinarushed to pick up the pointer and to help roll up the screen. There wasno real need of her doing this, but she was anxious to impress the twogirls whom she had invited from the North End with a sense of her ownimportance. Just as she had picked up the pointer, standing in fullsight of all, she was aware of a titter that was turning into a fulllaugh. Instinctively she put her hand to her head, and looking aroundshe met the childlike gaze of Haleema, who was holding aloft a braid ofblack hair.

  "Here, Miss Angelina, is your whip--I mean switch."

  Conscious of the strange appearance of her head since the toweringstructure had fallen, annoyed by the smile on the faces of those beforeher, and dreading the reproofs of her elders, Angelina fled shamefacedlyfrom the room.

  Maggie and Concetta and the other young girls were able to bear thismishap with less discomfort than Angelina herself; for the latter in herway was apt to be domineering, and they knew that for a little while shewould not come down to the dining-room where chocolate and cakes were tobe served.

  Serving their guests, the young housekeepers were at their best. Eachhad her appointed duty. One carried plates and napkins, another arrangedthe little white cloths on half a dozen small tables placed around theroom. One girl poured the chocolate, and another put the whipped creamon the top of each slender cup. None of them hesitated to tell herfriends what portion of the feast she had prepared, whether sandwiches,whipped cream, or the wafer-like cookies.

  "I wish that Brenda had been here," said Edith, as she and Nora andPhilip walked home.

  "Oh, Brenda wouldn't give an evening to this kind of thing at thisseason; she says that it's the gayest winter since she came out."

  "I don't see how she can stand going out every evening," rejoined Edith,who was wearing mourning for a relative, and hence was not acceptinginvitations to dinners and dances.

  "I suppose she thinks it her duty to enjoy herself here. She says itpleases her father and mother to have her enjoy herself."

  "Girls have strange ideas of duty," remarked Philip, "though it seems tome that those girls at the Mansion have just about the right idea."