"Everybody said so. It wasn"t like Mrs. Barclay"s playing."
"What was it like?"
"It looked like very hard work, to me. My dear, I saw the drops of sweat standing on one man"s forehead;--he had been playing a pretty long piece," Madge added, by way of accounting for things. "I never saw anything like it, in all my life!"
"Like what?--sweat on a man"s forehead?"
"Like the playing. Don"t be ridiculous."
"It is not I," said Lois, who meanwhile had risenn and was getting dressed. Madge was doing the same, talking all the while. "So the playing was something to be _seen_. What was the singing?"
Madge stood still, comb in hand. "I don"t know!" she said gravely. Lois could not help laughing.
"Well, I don"t," Madge went on. "It was so queer, some of it, I did not know which way to look. Some of it was regular yelling, Lois; and if people are going to yell, I"d rather have it out-of-doors. But one man--I think he thought he was doing it remarkably well--the goings up and down of his voice--"
"Cadences--"
"Well, the cadences if you choose; they made me think of nothing but the tones of the lions and other beasts in the menagerie. Don"t you know how they roar up and down? first softly and then loud? I had everything in the world to do not to laugh out downright. He was singing something meant to be very pathetic; and it was absolutely killing."
"It was not all like that, I suppose?"
"No. There was some I liked. But nothing one-half so good as your singing a hymn, Lois. I wish you could have been there to give them one. Only you could not sing a hymn in such a place."
"Why not?"
"Why, because! It would be out of place."
"I would not go anywhere where a hymn would be out of place."
"That"s nonsense. But O, how the people were dressed, Lois! Brilliant!
O you may well say so. It took away my breath at first"
"You got it again, I hope?"
"Yes. But O, Lois, it _is_ nice to have plenty of money."
"Well, yes. And it is nice _not_ to have it--if the Lord makes it so."
"Makes _what_ so? You are very unsympathetic this morning, Lois! But if you had only been there. O Lois, there were one or two fur rugs--fur skins for rugs,--the most beautiful things I ever saw. One was a leopard"s skin, with its beautiful spots; the other was white and thick and fluffy--I couldn"t find out what it was."
"Bear, maybe."
"Bear! O Lois--those two skins finished me! I kept my head for a while, with all the mosaic floors and rich hangings and flowers and dresses,--but those two skins took away the little sense I had left.
They looked so magnificent! so luxurious."
"They are luxurious, no doubt."
"Lois, I don"t see why some people should have so much, and others so little."
"The same sort of question that puzzled David once."
"Why should Mrs. Burrage have all that, and you and I have only yellow painted floors and rag carpets?"
"I don"t want "all that.""
"Don"t you?"
"No."
"I do."
"Madge, those things do not make people happy."
"It"s all very well to say so, Lois. I should like just to try once."
"How do you like Mrs. Burrage?"
Madge hesitated a trifle.
"She is pleasant,--pretty, and clever, and lively; she went flying about among the people like a b.u.t.terfly, stopping a minute here and a minute there, but I guess it was not to get honey but to give it. She was a little honeyfied to me, but not much. I don"t--think"--(slowly) "she liked to see her brother making much of me."
Lois was silent.
"He was there; I didn"t tell you. He came a little late. He said he had been here, and as he didn"t find us he came on to his sister"s."
"He was here a little while."
"So he said. But he was so good, Lois! He was _very_ good. He talked to me, and told me about things, and took care of me, and gave me supper.
I tell you, I thought madam his sister looked a little askance at him once or twice. I _know_ she tried to get him away."
Lois again made no answer.
"Why should she, Lois?"
"Maybe you were mistaken."
"I don"t think I was mistaken. But why should she, Lois?"
"Madge, dear, you know what I told you."
"About what?"
"About that; people"s feelings. You and I do not belong to this gay, rich world; we are not rich, and we are not fashionable, and we do not live as they live, in any way; and they do not want us; why should they?"
"We should not hurt them!" said Madge indignantly.
"Nor be of any use or pleasure to them."