"Comfortable-looking houses," suggested the gentleman.
"It seems cooler here," the lady went on.
"It is getting to a cooler time of day."
"Why, no, George! Three o"clock is just the crown of the heat. Don"t it look as if n.o.body ever did anything here? There"s no stir at all."
"My eyes see different tokens; they are more versed in business than yours are--naturally."
"What do your eyes see?"--a little impatiently.
"You may notice that nothing is out of order. There is no bit of fence out of repair; and never a gate hanging upon its hinges. There is no carelessness. Do you observe the neatness of this broad street?"
"What should make it unneat? with so few travellers?"
"Ground is the last thing to keep itself in order. I notice, too, the neat stacks of wood in the wood-sheds. And in the fields we have pa.s.sed, the work is all done, up to the minute; nothing hanging by the eyelids. The houses are full of windows, and all of them shining bright."
"You might be a newspaper reporter, George! Is this the house we are coming to? It is quite a large house; quite respectable."
"Did you think that little girl had come out of any but a respectable house?"
"Pshaw, George! you know what I mean. They are very poor and very plain people. I suppose we might go straight in?"
They dismissed their vehicle, so burning their ships, and knocked at the front door. A moment after it was opened by Charity. Her tall figure was arrayed in a homely print gown, of no particular fashion; a little shawl was over her shoulders, notwithstanding the heat, and on her head a sun-bonnet.
"Does Miss Lothrop live here?"
"Three of us," said Charity, confronting the pair with a doubtful face.
"Is Miss Lois at home?"
"She"s as near as possible not," said the door-keeper; "but I guess she is. You may come in, and I"ll see."
She opened a door in the hall which led to a room on the north side of it, corresponding to Mrs. Barclay"s on the south; and there she left them. It was large and pleasant and cool, if it was also very plain; and Mrs. Lenox sank into a rocking-chair, repeating to herself that it was "very respectable." On a table at one side lay a few books, which drew Mr. Lenox"s curiosity.
"Ruskin"s "Modern Painters"!" he exclaimed, looking at his wife.
"Selections, I suppose."
"No, this is Vol. 5. And the next is Thiers" "Consulate and Empire"!"
"Translation."
"No. Original. And "the Old Red Sandstone.""
"What"s that?"
"Hugh Miller."
"Who"s Hugh Miller?"
"He is, or was, a gentleman whom you would not admit to your society.
He began life as a Scotch mason."
Meanwhile, Charity, going back to the living-room of the family, found there Lois busied in arraying old Mrs. Armadale for some sort of excursion; putting a light shawl about her, and drawing a white sun-bonnet over her cap. Lois herself was in an old nankeen dress with a cape, and had her hat on.
"There"s some folks that want you, Lois," her sister announced.
"Want me!" said Lois. "Who is it? why didn"t you tell them we were just going out?"
"I don"t usually say things without I know that it"s so," responded Charity. "Maybe we"re going to be hindered."
"We must not be hindered," returned Lois. "Grandmother is ready, and Mrs. Barclay is ready, and the cart is here. We must go, whoever comes.
You get mother into the cart, and the baskets and everything, and I"ll be as quick as I can."
So Lois went into the parlour. A great surprise came over her when she saw who was there, and with the surprise a slight feeling of amus.e.m.e.nt; along with some other feeling, she could not have told what, which put her gently upon her mettle. She received her visitors frankly and pleasantly, and also with a calm ease which at the moment was superior to their own. So she heard their explanation of what had befallen them, and of their resolution to visit her; and a slight account of their drive from Independence; all which Mrs. Lenox gave with more prolixity than she had intended or previously thought necessary.
"And now," said Lois, "I will invite you to another drive. We are just going down to the Sound, to smell the salt air and get cooled off. We shall have supper down there before we come home. I do not think I could give you anything pleasanter, if I had the choice; but it happens that all is arranged for this. Do come with us; it will be a variety for you, at least."
The lady and gentleman looked at each other.
"It"s so hot!" objected the former.
"It will be cooler every minute now," said Lois.
"We ought to take the train--when it comes along--"
"You cannot tell when that will be," said Mr. Lenox. "You would find it very tedious waiting at the station. We might take the night train.
That will pa.s.s about ten o"clock, or should."
"But we should be in your way, I am afraid," Mrs. Lenox went on, turning to Lois. "You are not prepared for two more in your party."
"Always!" said Lois, smiling. "We should never think ourselves prepared at all, in Shampuashuh, if we were not ready for two more than the party. And the cart will hold us all."
"The cart!" cried the other.
"Yes. O yes! I did not tell you that," said Lois, smiling more broadly.
"We are going in an ox cart. That will be a novel experience for you too."
If Mrs. Lenox had not half accepted the invitation already, I am not sure but this intimation would have been too much for her courage.
However, she was an outwardly well-bred woman; that is, like so many others, well-bred when there was nothing to gain by being otherwise; and so she excused her hesitation and doubt by the plea of being "so dusty." There was help for that; Lois took her upstairs to a neat chamber, and furnished her with water and towels.
It was new experience to the city lady. She took note, half disdainfully, of the plainness of the room; the painted floor, yellow and shining, which boasted only one or two little strips of carpet; the common earthenware toilet-set; the rush-bottomed chairs. On the other hand, there was an old mahogany dressing bureau; a neat bed; and water and towels (the latter coa.r.s.e) were exceedingly fresh and sweet. She made up her mind to go through with the adventure, and rejoined her husband with a composed mind.
Lois took them first to the sitting-room, where they were introduced to Mrs. Barclay, and then they all went out at the back door of the house, and across a little gra.s.sy s.p.a.ce, to a gate leading into a lane. Here stood the cart, in which the rest of the family was already bestowed; Mrs. Armadale being in an arm-chair with short legs, while Madge and Charity sat in the straw with which the whole bottom of the cart was spread. A tall, oldish man, with an ox whip, stood leaning against the fence and surveying things.
"Are we to go in _there?_" said Mrs. Lenox, with perceptible doubt.