They b.u.mped and rattled out Bush Street, and stopped at the stately door of the old Baxter mansion. Mrs. Baxter fortunately was at home, and Susan followed Peter into the great square hall, and into the magnificent library, built in a day of larger homes and more splendid proportions. Here she was introduced to the little, nervous mistress of the house, who had been enjoying alone a glorious coal fire.
"Let in a little more light, Peter, you wild, noisy boy, you!" said Mrs. Baxter, adding, to Susan, "This was a very sweet thing of you to do, my dear, I don"t like my little cup of tea alone."
"Little cup--ha!" said Peter, eying the woman with immense satisfaction. "You"ll see her drink five, Miss Brown!"
"We"ll send him upstairs, that"s what we"ll do," threatened his aunt.
"Yes, tea, Burns," she added to the butler. "Green tea, dear?
Orange-Pekoe? I like that best myself. And m.u.f.fins, Burns, and toast, something nice and hot. And jam. Mr. Peter likes jam, and some of the almond cakes, if she has them. And please ask Ada to bring me that box of candy from my desk. Santa Barbara nougat, Peter, it just came."
"ISN"T this fun!" said Susan, so joyously that Mrs. Baxter patted the girl"s arm with a veiny, approving little hand, and Peter, eying his aunt significantly, said: "Isn"t SHE fun?"
It was a perfect hour, and when, at six, Susan said she must go, the old lady sent her home in her own carriage. Peter saw her to the door, "Shall you be going out to-night, sir?" Susan heard the younger man-servant ask respectfully, as they pa.s.sed. "Not to-night!" said Peter, and, so sensitive was Susan now to all that concerned him, she was unreasonably glad that he was not engaged to-night, not to see other girls and have good times in which she had no share. It seemed to make him more her own.
The tea, the firelight, the fragrant dying violets had worked a spell upon her. Susan sat back luxuriously in the carriage, dreaming of herself as Peter Coleman"s wife, of entering that big hall as familiarly as he did, of having tea and happy chatter ready for him every afternoon before the fire----
There was no one at the windows, unfortunately, to be edified by the sight of Susan Brown being driven home in a private carriage, and the halls, as she entered, reeked of boiling cabbage and corned beef. She groped in the darkness for a match with which to light the hall gas.
She could hear Loretta Barker"s sweet high voice chattering on behind closed doors, and, higher up, the deep moaning of Mary Lord, who was going through one of her bad times. But she met n.o.body as she ran up to her room.
"h.e.l.lo, Mary Lou, darling! Where"s everyone?" she asked gaily, discerning in the darkness a portly form p.r.o.ne on the bed.
"Jinny"s lying down, she"s been to the oculist. Ma"s in the kitchen--don"t light up, Sue," said the patient, melancholy voice.
"Don"t light up!" Susan echoed, amazedly, instantly doing so, the better to see her cousin"s tear-reddened eyes and pale face. "Why, what"s the matter?"
"Oh, we"ve had sad, sad news," faltered Mary Lou, her lips trembling.
"A telegram from Ferd Eastman. They"ve lost Robbie!"
"No!" said Susan, genuinely shocked. And to the details she listened sympathetically, cheering Mary Lou while she inserted cuff-links into her cousin"s fresh shirtwaist, and persuaded her to come down to dinner. Then Susan must leave her hot soup while she ran up to Virginia"s room, for Virginia was late.
"Ha! What is it?" said Virginia heavily, rousing herself from sleep.
Protesting that she was a perfect fright, she kept Susan waiting while she arranged her hair.
"And what does Verriker say of your eyes, Jinny?"
"Oh, they may operate, after all!" Virginia sighed. "But don"t say anything to Ma until we"re sure," she said.
Not the congenial atmosphere into which to bring a singing heart! Susan sighed. When they went downstairs Mrs. Parker"s heavy voice was filling the dining-room.
"The world needs good wives and mothers more than it needs nuns, my dear! There"s nothing selfish about a woman who takes her share of toil and care and worry, instead of running away from it. Dear me! many of us who married and stayed in the world would be glad enough to change places with the placid lives of the Sisters!"
"Then, Mama," Loretta said sweetly and merrily, detecting the inconsistency of her mother"s argument, as she always did, "if it"s such a serene, happy life--"
Loretta always carried off the honors of war. Susan used to wonder how Mrs. Parker could resist the temptation to slap her pretty, stupid little face. Loretta"s deep, wise, mysterious smile seemed to imply that she, at nineteen, could afford to a.s.sume the maternal att.i.tude toward her easily confused and disturbed parent.
"No vocation for mine!" said Georgianna, hardily, "I"d always be getting my habit mixed up, and coming into chapel without my veil on!"
This, because of its audacity, made everyone laugh, but Loretta fixed on Georgie the sweet bright smile in which Susan already perceived the nun.
"Are you so sure that you haven"t a vocation, Georgie?" she asked gently.
"Want to go to a b.u.m show at the "Central" to-night?" Billy Oliver inquired of Susan in an aside. "Bartlett"s sister is leading lady, and he"s handing pa.s.ses out to everyone."
"Always!" trilled Susan, and at last she had a chance to add, "Wait until I tell you what fun I"ve been having!"
She told him when they were on the car, and he was properly interested, but Susan felt that the tea episode somehow fell flat; had no significance for William.
"Crime he didn"t take you to the University Club," said Billy, "they say it"s a keen club."
Susan, smiling over happy memories, did not contradict him.
The evening, in spite of the "b.u.m" show, proved a great success, and the two afterwards went to Zinkand"s for sardine sandwiches and domestic ginger-ale. This modest order was popular with them because of the moderateness of its cost.
"But, Bill," said Susan to-night, "wouldn"t you like to order once without reading the price first and then looking back to see what it was? Do you remember the night we nearly fainted with joy when we found a ten cent dish at Tech"s, and then discovered that it was Chili Sauce!"
They both laughed, Susan giving her usual little bounce of joy as she settled into her seat, and the orchestra began a spirited selection.
"Look there, Bill, what are those people getting?" she asked.
"It"s terrapin," said William, and Susan looked it up on the menu.
"Terrapin Parna.s.se, one-fifty," read Susan, "for seven of them,--Gee!
Gracious!" "Gracious" followed, because Susan had made up her mind not to say "Gee" any more.
"His little supper will stand him in about fifteen dollars," estimated Billy, with deep interest. "He"s ordering champagne,--it"ll stand him in thirty. Gosh!"
"What would you order if you could, Bill?" Susan asked. It was all part of their usual program.
"Planked steak," answered Billy, readily.
"Planked steak," Susan hunted for it, "would it be three dollars?" she asked, awed.
"That"s it."
"I"d have breast of hen pheasant with Virginia ham," Susan decided. A moment later her roving eye rested on a group at a nearby table, and, with the pleased color rushing into her race, she bowed to one of the members of the party.
"That"s Miss Emily Saunders," said Susan, in a low voice. "Don"t look now--now you can look. Isn"t she sweet?"
Miss Saunders, beautifully gowned, was sitting with an old man, an elderly woman, a handsome, very stout woman of perhaps forty, and a very young man. She was a pale, rather heavy girl, with prominent eyes and smooth skin. Susan thought her very aristocratic looking.
"Me for the fat one," said Billy simply. "Who"s she?"
"I don"t know. DON"T let them see us looking, Bill!" Susan brought her gaze suddenly back to her own table, and began a conversation.
There were some rolls on a plate, between them, but there was no b.u.t.ter on the table. Their order had not yet been served.
"We want some b.u.t.ter here," said Billy, as Susan took a roll, broke it in two, and laid it down again.
"Oh, don"t bother, Bill! I don"t honestly want it!" she protested.
"Rot!" said William. "He"s got a right to bring it!" In a moment a head-waiter was bending over them, his eyes moving rapidly from one to the other, under contracted brows.