"I"m not going to have a maid," said Elizabeth. "I can cook, and I like to."
Miss Tripp whirled about and caught the girl in her arms with an amused laugh. "You dear, romantic child!" she cried. "Did it have the _prettiest_ dreams about love in a cottage, and the young wife with her sleeves rolled up cooking delicious impossibilities for a doting husband? That"s all very well, my dear; but, seriously, it won"t do in a Boston apartment-house. You won"t have a minute to yourself after the season once begins, and of course after a while you"ll be expected to entertain--quite simply, you know, a luncheon or two, with cards; possibly a dinner; you can do it beautifully with all these lovely things for your table. _I"ll_ help you; so don"t get frightened at the idea. But _fancy_ your doing all that without a maid! You mustn"t _think_ of it! And I am sure dear Mrs. Van Duser will give you the same advice."
The soft pink in Elizabeth"s cheeks deepened to rose. "Mrs. Van Duser isn"t coming to the wedding," she said, in a faintly defiant tone.
"Oh! Did she send you----"
"She sent regrets," said Elizabeth coldly.
Miss Tripp"s eyebrows expressed the profoundest disappointment. "I am so _sorry_," she murmured, suddenly aware that she was exceedingly weary of the North wedding. "It will _spoil everything_."
"I can"t see why," returned Elizabeth with spirit, not realising that Miss Tripp"s comment applied solely to her own feelings. "It won"t prevent my being married to Sam; and Sam says he is glad she is not coming. She must be a stiff, pokey sort of a person, and I am sure it will be pleasanter without her. She isn"t hardly any relation to Sam, anyway, and I don"t think I care to know her."
"My _dear_!" expostulated Miss Tripp, "you"ll see things _very_ differently some day, I _hope_. And I am glad to say that these relationships _do_ count in Boston, if not in other parts of the world, and you cannot prevent people from knowing that they exist."
Like a skilful general Miss Tripp was sweeping her field clear of her disappointment, preparatory to marshalling her forces for a new campaign. "Did Mrs. Van Duser send cards, or did she----"
"She wrote a note--a stiff, disagreeable note."
"Would you mind showing it to me, dear?"
Elizabeth produced a thick white envelope from the little embroidered pocket at her belt. "You may read it," she said; "then I mean to tear it up."
Miss Tripp bent almost worshipful eyes upon the large, square sheet.
"Mrs. J. Mortimer Van Duser" (she read) "begs to convey her acknowledgments to Dr. and Mrs. North for their invitation to the marriage of their daughter, and regrets that she cannot be present. Mrs.
Van Duser begs to add that she will communicate further with Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Brewster upon their arrival in Boston upon a matter of moment to them both."
"Isn"t that a disagreeable-sounding note?" demanded Elizabeth, her pretty chin tilted at an aggressive angle. "I just know I shouldn"t like her from that letter. But I"m sure I can"t think what she wants to say to us "upon our arrival in Boston.""
"_My dear!_" exclaimed Miss Tripp, with a horrified stare, "what _can_ you be thinking of? That note is in the most perfect form. I am _so_ glad you showed it to me! "Something of moment to you both," what can it mean but a gift--perhaps a generous cheque, and _undoubtedly_ a reception to introduce you. My _dear_! Mrs. Van Duser is said to be worth _millions_, and what is more, and far, _far_ better, she moves in the most _exclusive_ society. You dear, lucky girl, I _congratulate_ you upon the recognition you have received. _Tear it up_--indeed, you will do nothing of the sort! I"ll put it here right by this cut-gla.s.s vase, where every one will see it."
Elizabeth pouted. "Mother didn"t like it," she said, "and grandma laughed over it, and Sam told me to forget it; I don"t see why you----"
"_Because I know_," intoned Miss Tripp solemnly. "I only hope you won"t forget poor little me when you"re fairly launched in Mrs. Van Duser"s set."
Elizabeth gazed reflectively at her friend. "Oh, I couldn"t forget you,"
she said; "you"ve been so good to me. But," she added, with what Miss Tripp mentally termed delicious navete, "I don"t suppose we shall give many large parties, just at first."
CHAPTER VI
"I am of the opinion," wrote the sapient Dr. Johnson, "that marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the circ.u.mstances and characters, without the parties thereto having any choice in the matter."
That this radical matrimonial reform did not find favour in the eyes of his own or any succeeding generation brands it as visionary, impracticable, not to be seriously entertained, in short, by any one not a philosopher and not himself in love. But could the benevolent shade of Dr. Johnson be let into the details of a fashionable modern wedding, it is safe to predict that he might recommend a new civic function to be administered either by the Lord Chancellor, or by some equally responsible person for the purpose of regulating by sumptuary law the bridal trousseau and the wedding presents. The renowned Georgian sage could not fail to recognise the relation which these too often unconsidered items bear to the welfare of the private citizen in particular and to the weal of mankind in general. And who can deny that all legislation is, or should be, centred chiefly on these very ends.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Never had there been such a wedding in Innisfield"]
Such sober reflections as the above, though perhaps forming an unavoidable background in the minds of several of the older persons present, did not cloud the rapturous happiness of Elizabeth Carroll North, as she paced slowly up the aisle of the Innisfield Presbyterian church on the arm of her father, the folds of her "Pryse gown," as Miss Tripp was careful to designate it, sweeping gracefully behind her. The bridesmaids in pale rose-colour and the maid of honour in white; the tiny flower-girls bearing baskets of roses; the ushers with their boutonnieres of orange buds; the waving palms and the sounding music each represented a separate Waterloo, fought and won by the Napoleonic Miss Tripp, who looked on, wan but self-satisfied, from a modest position in the audience. Never had there been such a wedding in Innisfield. Everybody said so in loud, buzzing whispers. Sadie Buckthorn, who was engaged to Milton Scrymger, informed her mamma that she should be married in church in October, and that her bridesmaids should wear yellow. And Bob Garrett, a clerk in a Boston department store, told his sweetheart that he guessed the wedding was about their speed, and added that he knew a swell floor-walker who would look simply great as best man.
As for the young couple chiefly concerned they might have walked on air instead of on the roses strewed in their path by the little flower-girls; and the hundreds of curious eyes fastened upon them were as dim, painted eyes upon a tapestried wall. They only saw each other and the gate of that ancient Eden of the race opening before them.
That same evening, after all was over, and when, as the village reporter phrased it with happy originality, "the young couple had departed upon their wedding journey amid showers of rice and roses," Dr. North sought his tired wife, busy clearing away the tokens of the late festivities.
"Come, Lizzie," he said kindly, "we may as well get what rest we can; to-morrow"ll be another day, and we"ve got to go jogging on about our middle-aged business as usual."
Mrs. North looked up at him with tearful eyes. "I can"t seem to realise that Bessie"s gone to stay," she said tremulously. "I just caught myself thinking what I"d say to her when she came home, and what we"d----"
Richard North pa.s.sed his arm about the wife of his youth. "I--hope he"ll be good to her," he said, his voice shaken with feeling. "I--I believe he"s all right. If he isn"t I"ll--" He shrugged his broad shoulders impatiently.
"Oh, I"m not a bit worried about _Sam_," said Mrs. North; "I know enough about men. But, O d.i.c.k, I"m going to miss my--baby!"
He held her close for a minute while she sobbed on his shoulder; then the two went slowly up the stairs together, leaving the disordered rooms and the fading roses in the luminous dark of the June night.
The Boston apartment to which young Samuel Brewster brought his bride in the early part of September was of Miss Evelyn Tripp"s choosing. The engineer had demurred at its distance from his work, but Elizabeth had said she preferred to be near Evelyn; and Evelyn said that the location, if not strictly fashionable, was at least _near_ the people they ought to know.
The rent was thirty-eight dollars a month. And the rooms were small, inconvenient and old-fashioned. "But," as Miss Tripp kindly pointed out, "if one is obliged to choose between a small, old-fashioned suite in a really good locality and a light airy one in the unfashionable suburbs of South Boston one _ought_ not to hesitate."
Mrs. North and Grandma Carroll had seen to putting the furnishings in place; and when the two arrived at the close of a hot afternoon they found everything in the exquisite order with which Elizabeth had been happily familiar all her life.
She ran from room to room laughing and crying in the same breath. "Oh, Sam, dear, do see, there is ice in the refrigerator and a cunning little jar of cream and a print of b.u.t.ter; and here is a roast chicken and some of grandma"s rolls and one of mother"s delicious lemon pies! How hard they must have worked. I"ll put on one of these big ap.r.o.ns, and we"ll have supper in no time!"
And Sam Brewster, as he watched his wife"s pretty little figure moving lightly about her new kitchen, heaved a mighty sigh of content. "It seems almost too good to be true!" he murmured. "And to think it is for always!"
It was not until they had eaten their first blissful meal together, and had washed the dishes, also together, in the dark little kitchen--an operation in which the young engineer covered himself with glory in his masterly handling of the dish-towel--that Elizabeth discovered a large square envelope, bearing the Van Duser crest, and addressed to herself.
She opened it in the circle of Sam"s arms, as the two reposed on their one small sofa in the room bearing the dignified t.i.tle of reception hall.
"Why--what in the name of common sense is she giving us?" was Sam Brewster"s startled exclamation as his quick eye took in the contents of the sheet.
"I--I don"t understand," gasped Elizabeth, growing hot and cold and faint, "I can"t think--how it could have happened."
Yet Mrs. Van Duser"s words, though few, were sufficiently succinct. They were inspired, as she afterward confided to her rector, Dr. Gallatin, by the most altruistic sentiments of which the human heart is capable.
"Truth," Mrs. Van Duser had enunciated majestically, "never finds itself at a loss. And in administering so just a rebuke to a young person manifestly appointed to fill a humble station in life I feel that I am in a measure a.s.suming the prerogatives of Providence."
In this exalted role Mrs. Van Duser had written to Elizabeth North, whose miserable, shamed eyes avoided those of her husband after she had realised its contents. The letter enclosed a bill for one hundred and twenty-five dollars from Madame Leonie Pryse, for the material, making and findings for one blue velvet reception gown. There was a pencilled note attached, to the effect that as Madame Pryse had been referred to Mrs. Van Duser, she begged to present the bill, with the hope that it would be settled at an early date. Mrs. Van Duser"s own majestic hand had added a brief communication, over which the young engineer scowled fiercely. He read:
"As Mrs. Brewster"s personal expenses, either before or after her marriage, can have no possible interest for Mrs. Van Duser, Mrs.
Van Duser begs to bring to Mrs. Brewster"s attention the enclosed statement. Mrs. Van Duser wishes to inform Mrs. Brewster that she has taken the pains to send for the tradeswoman in question, and that she has elicited from her facts which seem to show an entire misapprehension of the commoner ethical requirements on the part of the person addressed.
"Mrs. Van Duser begs to add in the interests of society at large and of the person in whom, as a distant relative, she has interested herself somewhat, that she distinctly frowns upon all extravagance. Mrs. Van Duser trusts that this communication, which she begs to a.s.sure Mrs. Brewster is penned in a spirit of Christian charity, will effectually prevent further errors on the part of so young and inexperienced a person as Mrs. Brewster appears to be."
"Well?" Samuel Brewster"s blue eyes, grown unexpectedly keen and penetrating, rested questioningly upon his bride.