Then they paired off any way. Mr. Ed Saltonstall caught Cynthia"s hand.
"I"m just dying to dance with you, and this is the basket quadrille.
Jordan dances like a pump handle, but he"s a good fellow. Now let us have something worth while. I know you dance beautifully."
"How do you know?" piquantly.
"I"d like to be nautical and impertinent, but I"m afraid you"d report me to Mr. Leverett. Oh, it"s in you, in every motion. Aren"t you glad you didn"t live in those old Puritan days when you would have been put in the stocks if you had skipped across the room? Come."
That _was_ dancing. Not a halt nor an ungraceful turn, but every curve and motion was as perfect as if they had danced together all their lives. She gave two or three happy sighs. Her cheeks were like the heart of a blush rose; she never turned very red when she ran or skipped, and never looked blowsy.
Another person watched and thought her the prettiest thing in the room, and was very glad she belonged to him.
"I"m sorry I have to dance with some one else and it"s Lois Reade. Adams would like to kick me, I know, and she would be twice as happy with him.
That is the price you pay for a.s.sisting your brother into matrimony.
Next time there shall not be but one bridesmaid, and I"ll dance with her all the evening."
"Next time? Will he be married twice?" she asked demurely.
"Oh, you witch! You are the most delicious dancer--it almost seems as if you were sipping some very fine wine----"
"And it went to your head," she laughed.
"Head and heels both. I"m extravagantly fond of it with a partner like you. You"ll go to the a.s.semblies this winter?"
"Oh, I don"t know."
"Is Mr. Leverett very--he"s your guardian, and somehow I stand just a little in awe of him. He is so polished, and knows so much, and is he going to be very exclusive?"
"Why----" She didn"t quite understand, but she looked out of such lovely eyes that all his pulses throbbed.
"Take your places."
She was standing there alone when Mr. Adams asked her. That was only fair play. Mr. Saltonstall was in the same set and he gave her hand a squeeze when he took her, crumpled it all up in his, and she flushed daintily.
He could not dance with her again until the very last. That was a "circle" in which you balanced and turned your partner and went to the next couple, but some way you returned to your own. There were various pretty figures in it. Once or twice she was a little confused, but he seemed always on the watch for her.
The music stopped and the fiddlers were locking their cases. The dancers went out to the supper-room again.
"I"d rather dance than eat. I believe I could dance without music. Would you like to try?" he asked.
"Oh, no!" with a frightened look that made him laugh.
Mr. Leverett came, and Mr. Saltonstall was all polite deference. He wished he could be invited to call, but how was it to be managed?
Then Cynthia went upstairs to put on her cloak. The bride kissed her, and said she was glad to have had her, and when they gave their house-warming she must be sure to come.
"I"ve had such a lovely time. Thank you ever so much."
"I"m the obliged one," was the reply.
If she had not been in the carriage she must have danced all the way home. There was music in her head and a "spirit in her feet." She hardly heard what Cousin Chilian was saying, only after they entered the house and she slipped out of her wrap, with his good-night, he said, "You are a very pretty girl, Cynthia." Of course, he should have had more sense than to foster a girl"s vanity.
The next morning she asked him about the a.s.semblies.
"They are very nice dancing parties. Only the best people go and no sort of freedom or misbehavior is tolerated. I think I"ll take out a membership."
"Oh, do, please do," she entreated.
The elegant wedding was talked of for days. Girls called on Miss Leverett--it seemed funny to be called that. She was asked to join a sewing society that made articles of clothing for the widows and children of drowned sailors, and there were many of them on the New England coast. Her tender heart was moved by the pathetic tales she heard.
"Dear Cousin Eunice," she said one day, "I went with one of the committee to see a poor sick woman who is in awful dest.i.tution. There are three small children, and when she is well she goes out washing.
They send her driftwood and old stuff from the ship-yards, and one of the companies pays her rent. But you should see the things! Such ragged quilts that hardly hold together, and one little boy was without stockings. There are so many things up in the garret that you will never use----"
"Likely, dear, but they are Chilian"s."
"He said I might ask you, that he was willing. Can"t we go up and find some? What is the use of their being piled up year after year, and people in need? Ah, if you could see the poor place!"
Miss Eunice went unwillingly. The thrift of New England did often shrivel into penuriousness. She and Elizabeth were in the habit of putting away so many partly worn articles for the time of need.
"Those old blankets and quilts----"
"Elizabeth thought they would do to cover over."
"But there are so many better ones. And some on the closet shelves that have never been used. Why, there is enough to last a hundred years."
"Oh, no;" with an alarmed expression.
"And even I shall not last a hundred years. No one does."
"Oh, yes. I knew a woman who lived to be one hundred and four."
"Did she come to want?"
"She had a good son to take care of her."
"And you have Cousin Chilian. I read somewhere in the Bible--I wish I could remember the chapters and verses, "While we have time let us do good unto _all_ men." I suppose that means those who haven"t been frugal and careful, as well as the others."
"We can"t tell just what every sentence means."
"But we can help them. And here is a poor woman who doesn"t go to taverns;" smiling tenderly and with persuasive eyes.
They picked out enough for a wagon-load. Some of Cousin Chilian"s clothes that would do to cut over, old woollen blankets, and a variety of articles.
"Let us put them all in this chest."
"We might need the chest."
"Oh, no, we won"t. They will be so much easier to carry that way. Silas could drive down there. And, oh, you can"t imagine how much good they will do."