On Sat.u.r.days I always get back from the office early. This particular Sat.u.r.day afternoon I looked at our chimneys as I came down the street.
I thought it very queer, but, to make certain, as soon as I got into the house I opened the drawing-room door. It was just as I thought. I called up-stairs to Eliza, rather sharply.
She came down and said, "Well, what"s the matter?"
I said, calmly, "The matter? Jane has apparently gone mad, that"s all."
(Jane is the name of our servant.)
Eliza said that she did not think so, and asked me what the girl had done.
I must say it made me feel rather sarcastic--it would have made any man feel sarcastic. I said, "Oh, nothing. Merely lit the fire in the drawing-room; and not only lit it, but piled coals on it. It is not Sunday, so far as I am aware." It is our rule to have the drawing-room fire lit on Sundays only. We are rather exclusive, and some other people seem to be rather stuck-up, and between the two we do not have many callers. If any one comes, it is always perfectly easy for Eliza to say, "The housemaid has foolishly forgotten to light the fire here.
Shall we not step into the dining-room?" I hate to see anything like waste.
"At this very moment," I added, "the drawing-room fire is flaming half-way up the chimney. It seems we can afford to burn half a ton of coals for nothing. I cannot say that I was aware of it."
"You _are_ satirical!" said Eliza. "I always know when you are being satirical, because you move your eyebrows, and say, "I am aware,"
instead of "I know." I told Jane to light the fire myself."
"May I ask why?"
"Miss Sakers is coming in. She sent me a note this morning to say so."
"That puts a different complexion on the affair. Very tactful of her to have announced the intention. I do not grudge a handful of firing when there is a reason. I only ask that there shall be a reason." Miss Sakers is the vicar"s daughter. Strictly speaking, I suppose her social position is superior to our own. I know for a fact that she has been to county b.a.l.l.s. She seemed anxious to cultivate an intimacy with us, so I gathered. I was not absurdly pleased about it. One has one"s dignity.
Besides, at the office we frequently see people far above Miss Sakers.
A n.o.bleman who had called to see one of the partners once remarked to me, "Your office is a devilish long way from everywhere!" There was no particular reason why he should have spoken to me, but he seemed to wish it. After that, it was no very great thing that Miss Sakers seemed anxious to know us better. At the same time, I do not pretend that I was displeased. I went into the drawing-room and put some more coal on.
"Is it to be a party?" I asked.
"Not at all. She is coming quite as a friend."
I went up-stairs and changed all my clothes, and then purchased a few flowers, which I placed in vases in the drawing-room. Eliza had got two kinds of cake; I added a plate of mixed biscuits on my own responsibility. Beyond this, I did nothing in the way of preparation, wishing to keep the thing as simple and informal as possible.
The tea was quite a success. Miss Sakers was to have a stall at the bazaar in aid of the new church. I promised her five shillings at first, but afterward made it seven-and-six. Though no longer young, Miss Sakers is very pleasant in her manner.
After tea Miss Sakers and Eliza both did needlework. Miss Sakers was doing a thing in crewels. I could not see what Eliza was doing. She kept it hidden, almost under the table.
To prevent the conversation from flagging, I said, "Eliza, dear, what are you making?"
She frowned hard at me, shook her head slightly, and asked Miss Sakers about the special preacher for Epiphany Sunday.
I at once guessed that Eliza was doing something for Miss Sakers" stall at the bazaar, and had intended to keep it secret.
I smiled. "Miss Sakers," I said, "I do not know what Eliza is making, but I am quite sure it is for you."
There was a dead silence. Miss Sakers and Eliza both blushed. Then Miss Sakers said, without looking at me, "I think you are mistaken."
I felt so sure that I was mistaken that I blushed, too.
Eliza hurriedly hid her work in the work-basket, and said, "It is very close in here. Let me show you round our little garden."
They both went out, without taking any notice of me. Not having had much tea, I cut myself another slice of cake. While I was in the middle of it, Miss Sakers and Eliza came back, and Miss Sakers said good-bye to me very coldly. I offered to raise my bazaar donation to ten shillings, but she did not seem to have heard me.
"How could you say that?" said Eliza, when Miss Sakers had gone. "It was most tactless--and not very nice."
"I thought you were doing something for the bazaar. What were you making, then?"
She did not actually tell me, but she implied it in a delicate way.
"Well," I said, "of course I wouldn"t have called attention to it if I had known, but I don"t think you ought to have been doing that work when Miss Sakers was here."
"I"ve no time to waste, and I always make mine myself. I was most careful to keep them hidden. You are very tactless."
"I don"t think much of that Miss Sakers," I said. "Why should we go to this expense," pointing to the cakes, "for a woman of that kind?"
THE ORCHESTROME
The orchestrome was on Lady Sandlingbury"s stall at the bazaar. Her ladyship came up to Eliza in the friendliest way, and said, "My dear lady, I am convinced that you need an orchestrome. It"s the sweetest instrument in the world, worth at least five pounds, and for one shilling you have a chance of getting it. It is to be raffled." Eliza objects, on principle, to anything like gambling; but as this was for the Deserving Inebriates, which is a good cause, she paid her shilling.
She won the orchestrome, and I carried it home for her.
Six tunes were given with the orchestrome; each tune was on a slip of perforated paper, and all you had to do was to put in a slip and touch the spring.
We tried it first with "The Dandy Coloured c.o.o.n." It certainly played something, but it was not right. There was no recognizable tune about it.
"This won"t do at all," I said.
"Perhaps that tune"s got bent or something," said Eliza. "Put in another."
I put in "The Lost Chord" and "The Old Folks at Home," and both were complete failures--a mere jumble of notes, with no tune in them at all.
I confess that this exasperated me.
"You see what you"ve done?" I said. "You"ve fooled away a shilling.
Nothing is more idiotic than to buy a thing without trying it first."
"Why didn"t you say that before, then?" said Eliza. "I don"t believe there"s anything really wrong with it--just some little thing that"s got out of order, and can be put right again."
"Wrong! Why, it"s wrong all through. Not one sc.r.a.p of any of the tunes comes out right. I shall take it back to Lady Sandlingbury at once."
"Oh, don"t do that!"