But a suitable house of any size in Boston was found to be quite out of the question. "It will have to be an apartment, my dear," the experienced Miss Tripp declared; "and I believe I know the very one in a _really good_ neighbourhood. I"ll write at once. You mustn"t _think_ of South Boston, even if it is more convenient for Mr. Brewster. It is so important to begin right; and you know, my dear, you couldn"t expect any one to come to see you in South Boston."
Mrs. Carroll, who chanced to be present, was observed to compress her lips firmly. "Lizzie," she said, when the fashionable Miss Tripp had finally taken her departure, after much voluble advice on the subject of the going-away gown, coupled with a spirited discussion of the rival merits of a church wedding and "just a pretty, simple home affair," "if I were you I shouldn"t let that Evelina Kipp decide everything for me.
You"d better make up your mind what you want to do, and what you can afford to do, and then do it without asking her leave. It seems to me her notions are extravagant and foolish."
"Why, grandma!" pouted Elizabeth. "I think it is perfectly dear of Miss Tripp to take such an interest in my wedding. I shouldn"t have known what to do about lots of things, and I"m sure you and mother haven"t an idea." The girl"s pretty lips curled and she moved her slim shoulders gently.
"Your mother and I both managed to get married without Miss Fripp"s advice," retorted grandma tranquilly. "I may not have an "idea," as you call it, but I can"t see why you should have ruffled silk petticoats to all your dresses. One good moreen skirt did me, with a quilted alpaca for every-day wear and two white ones for best. And as for a dozen sets of underclothes, that won"t wear once they see the washtub, they look foolish to me. More than all that, your father can"t afford it, and you ought to consider him."
Elizabeth looked up with a worried pucker between her girlish brows. "I don"t see how I am going to help it, grandma," she sighed; "I really must have suitable clothes."
"I agree with you there, Lizzie," said Mrs. Carroll, eyeing her granddaughter keenly over the top of her spectacles; "but you aren"t going to have them, if you let that Sipp girl tell you what to buy."
"It isn"t _Sipp_, grandma, it"s Tripp. T-r-i-p-p," said Elizabeth, in a long-suffering tone; "and she knows better than any one in Innisfield possibly can what I am going to need in Boston."
"You"ll find the people in Boston won"t take any particular interest in your petticoats, Lizzie," her grandmother told her pointedly. But the girl had spied her lover coming up the walk toward the house and had flown to meet him.
"What"s the matter, sweetheart?" asked the young man, examining his treasure with the keen eyes of love. "You look tired and--er--worried.
Anything wrong, little girl?"
"N-no," denied Elizabeth evasively. "Only grandma has such queer, old-fashioned ideas about--clothes. And she thinks I ought to have just what she had when she was married to grandfather fifty years ago. Of course I want to have everything nice and--suitable for Boston, you know."
"What you are wearing now is pretty enough for anywhere," declared Sam Brewster, with masculine obtuseness. "Don"t you bother one minute about clothes, darling; you"d look lovely in anything."
Then he kissed her faintly smiling lips with the fatuous idea that the final word as to wedding finery had been said.
CHAPTER IV
"If you can give me just a minute, Richard, before you go out." It was Mrs. North"s timidly apologetic voice which broke in upon her husband"s hasty preparations for a day"s professional engagements.
Dr. North faced about with a laughing twinkle in his eyes. "I know your minutes, Lizzie," he said, absent-mindedly sniffling at the cork of a half-emptied bottle. "This gentian"s no good; I"ve a mind to ship it back to Avery"s and tell them what I think of the firm for selling adulterated drugs. It"s an outrage on suffering humanity. I"ll write to them anyway." And he began to rummage his desk in quest of stationery.
"I wanted to speak to you about Bessie"s things," persisted Mrs. North.
"You know you gave me some money for her wedding clothes last month; but it isn"t--it won"t be nearly enough."
"What on earth have you been buying for the child?" asked her husband.
"I should think with what she has already the money I gave you would go quite a ways."
"That"s just it," sighed Mrs. North. "Bessie thinks none of the things she has are--suitable." She hesitated a little over the hard-worked word. "Of course living in Boston, and----"
"Pooh! Boston"s no different from any other town," put in the doctor.
"You tell Bess I said so. She doesn"t need to worry about _Boston_!" He plumped down in his office chair and began an indignant protest addressed to the firm of Avery & Co., Wholesale Druggists and Dealers in Surgical Supplies.
"I haven"t bought any of her best dresses yet," sighed Mrs. North; "and she wants an all-over lace for her wedding dress. Miss Tripp says they"re very much worn now."
She paused suggestively while the doctor"s pen raced busily over his page.
"You didn"t hear what I said, did you, Richard?" she ventured after a while.
"Yes, m" dear; heard every word; you were saying you"d bought Bess a lace wedding dress, and that Miss Tripp says they"re very much worn,"
replied her husband, fixing on a stamp with a sounding thump of his big fist. "Glad to hear it. Well, I"ll have to be moving now. Good-bye, m"
dear; home to dinner if I can; if not----"
"If you could let me have two hundred and fifty dollars, Richard," said Mrs. North rather faintly, "we"ll try to manage with that for the present."
"Well, now, Lizzie, when it comes to your wanting anything I always get it for you--if I can; and you know that; but I sent off cheques to Frank and Elliot this morning, and I"m what you"d call strapped."
"Couldn"t you collect----"
The doctor kissed his wife cheerfully. "How can I, wifey, when folks leave their doctor"s bills till the last cent"s paid to everybody else?
Don"t know as I blame "em; it"s hard enough to be sick without having to pay out money for it; now, isn"t it?"
"Oh, d.i.c.k; if that isn"t just like you! But I--I"ve thought of a way."
"Good! What is it?"
"We might--borrow some money on the house. Other people do, and----"
"Mortgage our house for wedding finery? I guess you"re joking, Lizzie.
At any rate, I"ll call it a joke and let it pa.s.s! Good-bye!" The quick slam of the office door put a conclusive finish to the doctor"s words, and his wife went back to her work on one of Elizabeth"s elaborate garments with a heavy heart.
"What did Richard say?" Grandma Carroll wanted to know, when the girl had gone into another room to be fitted.
"He said he couldn"t possibly let me have anything more just now," said Richard"s wife with a shade of reserve in her voice. "You know, mother, people are so slow in paying their bills. The doctor has any amount outstanding if he could only get it."
"Such folks had ought to be made to pay before they get "ary a pill or a powder, same "s they do for what made "em sick. They"d find money for the doctor quick enough once they had a right sharp pain from over-eating," was grandma"s trenchant opinion. "But I expected he"d say that all along, and I wanted to give you this for Lizzie."
She slipped a little roll of bills into her daughter"s lap. "Don"t say anything to the child about it," she whispered, nodding her kind old head; "it would worry her. Besides I don"t approve of the amount of money she"s putting into perishable things. I meant to buy her a real good clock or a nice solid piece of furniture; but if she"d rather have lace frills that"ll fall to pieces in the washtub, I"m willing she should learn by experience, same "s we"ve had to do before her."
Mrs. North"s eyes were moist and shining. "It"s what you"ve been putting by for years, mother," she whispered, "for----"
"Hush!" said grandma. "I guess when it comes right down to it I"m full as foolish as Lizzie. Once I set foot in the golden streets I know I sha"n"t mind whether I leave a marble monument in the cemetery or not; and you don"t need to either, daughter. Now remember!"
Upon this hushed conversation entered Elizabeth in a flutter of excitement and rosy pleasure over a letter which the postman had just handed her. "It is from Evelyn Tripp," she said, "and she wants me to come to Boston and stay a week with her; she says she will help me pick out all my dresses, and I"d better have my wedding dress and my going-away gown made there, anyway. Isn"t that lovely?"
Then, as she met her mother"s dubious gaze, "You know Malvina Bennett hasn"t a particle of style; and we don"t know anything about the best places to buy things in Boston; or the dressmakers, or anything."
"I"ve shopped in Boston for years," said Mrs. North, with a show of firmness, "and I"m sure everything at Cooper"s gives perfect satisfaction."
"Oh, _Cooper"s_?" laughed the girl. "Why, mother, _dear_, n.o.body goes to Cooper"s nowadays. It"s just for country people from out of town."
"What are we, I"d like to know?" Grandma Carroll wanted to know, with a humorous twinkle in her shrewd eyes. "I shouldn"t wonder if you"d better do your shopping with your mother, Lizzie; her judgment would likely be quite as good as that Tipp girl"s, and more in a line with what you can afford. You should remember that Samuel isn"t a rich man, and you"ll need good, substantial dresses that"ll last. I remember I had a blue Russell-cord poplin when I was married that I wore for _fifteen years_; then I made it over for your mother, and she looked as pretty as a pink in it for two more; then she outgrew it and I gave it away; but the cloth in it was as good as new. A dress like that _pays_!"
Elizabeth laughed somewhat impatiently. "I"ve heard about that wonderful poplin ever since I can remember," she said. "I wonder you didn"t save it for me. But I don"t want to buy any dresses that will last for fifteen years. I"m sure Sam can buy me more dresses when I want them. I may go to Boston; mayn"t I, mother?"