I ask no questions, always finding it best to wait and watch, and learn for myself; but when Dempster asked me if I would like to go down to a watering-place in New Jersey, I asked him if there wasn"t Croton Water enough in the pipes for all the horses they kept.
Dempster laughed, and said it was salt water he was thinking of, and asked, right on that, if I had got a bathing-dress?
"A bathing-dress," says I. "Goodness, gracious, no. When I bathe, as a general thing, I--that is--I take off--"
Here I broke off, and felt myself turning red. I declare, Cousin Dempster has a way of putting things upon you for explanation, which I, as a single lady, with expectations, of course, find embarra.s.sing.
Just then, E. E. came in, all of a flurry about her trunks; she wanted more and must have "em, she said. Seventeen Saratoga trunks, and a basket or two, were just nothing to what she needed. Dempster must go out and get half a dozen more. Why, her fluted skirts alone filled three trunks.
Dempster went. To own the truth, he is an obedient creature as ever wore coat and--well pocket-handkerchiefs. It wasn"t long before a lot of trunks--big enough for country school-houses--were piled into the hall, and then Cousin E. E. began to revel. Her bed was crowded and loaded down with skirts, dresses, shawls, bonnets, round hats, broad flats, peaked caps. You never saw such heaps and mountains of clothes; such a litter of small things; such stacks of boots and shoes.
It really seemed as if she was fitting out an army of feminines. Even Cecilia was down on her knees packing, and E. E. was deep in a high trunk with her slippers half dropping from her feet as she punched things in and pressed them down. The help, black and white, kept running up and downstairs like hens with their necks wrung. Every few minutes there came a ring at the door, and paper-boxes and bundles were set down in the hall, and struggled upstairs when any of the help thought it worth while to bring them, which was once in about ten minutes, all morning.
I think Dempster made a cowardly attempt to get out of the way, but it was of no use. On such occasions men are wanted, especially when the bills come in, and E. E. knows her privileges.
LXXVI.
THE DOLLY VARDEN.
As I stood looking on, wondering if cousin really meant to turn the house inside out, and set up a village of trunks somewhere on the sea-sh.o.r.e, that hard-working creature lifted her face, and looked at me deploringly.
"Oh, Phmie," says she; "are you packed? How cool you look."
"Packed," says I; "oh, yes; I always keep my pink silk folded."
"But your summer things, are they ready? Surely you"ll have a Dolly?"
"No," says I; "its years since I have thought of a doll, and I haven"t the least idea of going back to my play-house days."
"But I mean a dress," says she, lifting her head out of the trunk, and wiping the swe--well, perspiration from her face. "A Dolly Varden. Don"t you understand?"
"A dress, and some Miss Dolly Varden, all at once! Now I can"t think what dress you mean; and, as for that young person, I don"t know her from a bag of sweet corn. How should I? Never having been introduced!"
says I.
E. E. just sat back on the floor, and drew a deep breath.
"Oh, Phmie," says she, "you are so stolid about some things. Why, it is only a dress I mean."
"Then what did you drag in that young person for?" says I.
"Because she gives her name to the dress."
"I"m sure the dress ought to be very much obliged to her. That is if she came by the name honestly," says I.
"And it"s all the rage now. You must order one, Phmie."
"What, the dress or the girl?" says I.
Cousin E. E. got out of patience, and sprung up red in the face. Across the room she went, slopping along in her slippers, flung back the lid of the trunk that seemed to be overrunning with poppies, marigolds, and morning-glories, and, giving something a jerk, brought up a puffy, short gown of white muslin, blazed all over with great straggling flowers--the morning-glories, poppies, marigolds that I had seen bursting up from the trunk.
"There is a Dolly," says she, a-shaking out the puffy, short dress, as if it had been a banner.
"Not by a long shot," says I, laughing. "It may be a whopping big doll"s dress; in fact, it looks like it, for what woman on earth would ever think of wearing that? Why, the flowers would set her on fire."
"This is for Cecilia," says she, "but I have one just like it, and mean to wear it if you"ve no objection?"
"Not the least in the world," says I. "It isn"t my mission to stop peac.o.c.ks from strutting and showing their half-moons if they want to."
E. E. laughed. She is a good-hearted creature, and I set store by her after all.
"I will try this on," says she. "They are all the rage, I tell you. Try one, Phmie; your tall figure would set one off splendidly."
"Do you really think so?" says I, beginning to take a notion to the great bunches of flowers which did stand out from the white ground with scrumptious richness.
"I am sure of it. No one carries off a dress so well," says she, "and it will be expected of you. Distinguished persons are so criticised, you know."
I looked at the dress again; the flowers were natural as life; the muslin was wavy, and white as drifted snow.
"But the cost?" says I. "A burnt child dreads a blisterous contamination. That pink dress of mine is a scrumptious garment--palatial, as one might say, but costly. The value of twenty-five yards of silk is a load for any tender conscience."
"Oh, a Dolly doesn"t take half as much," says E. E.; "besides short skirts are the style on the sea-sh.o.r.e. The expense really isn"t very enormous. In fact, almost any one can afford a Dolly."
I yielded. Human nature is weak, and I had a letter yesterday from uncle Ben, saying that the hay and corn crops are promising. Besides, there is a sort of reason just now why I should be a little self-liberal in the way of dress. As Cousin E. E. says, people do expect something better than alpaca and calico of high genius--especially when the form is tall, and the figure commensurate to the genius.
"But have I time? That French dressmaker will want three weeks, at least."
Cousin E. E. saw by this that the austerity of my economical education was giving way; so she jumped up, flipped the slippers from her feet, and was soon b.u.t.toning her boots and tying her bonnet, ready for a start.
"Where are you a-going?" says I.
"Where they"ll take your measure and send the Dolly home to-morrow morning, or down by express. Leave it to me, and you shall have something really beautiful."
"Let there be plenty of flowers," says I.
"Of course," says she, "bright, rich colors."
"Hollyhocks," says I, "are my favorites; dandelions and feather-edged poppies come next; then a vine of trumpet flowers tangling the bunches together, would look scrumptious."
"I see you enter into the spirit of it," says she; "but have you got everything else?"
"Everything else? Of course I haven"t. Who has, in fact? But my pink dress is turned wrong side out, and packed."
"Have you a flat?" says she.
"A flat! I? Not that I can call my own. Dempster has introduced half a dozen, but I don"t claim them."