"My enthusiasm is sprouting vigorously."
"And the fun is only just beginning. But do come here--quick, Marion!
I want you to see Giant Despair."
A tall, heavily built old man was pa.s.sing along Pleasant Street, his brows drawn together in a tremendous frown. He swung a stout walking-stick in his right hand, as if he would have been pleased to lay it over somebody"s shoulders. At the corner he paused and looked back at the shop.
"Did you see? He shook his fist!" cried Norah.
"Have we an enemy?" asked Marion.
CHAPTER SIXTH
IN THE EYES OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Its isolation in the heart of the city had something to do, no doubt, with certain village-like customs that prevailed in the Terrace. The neighbors ran in upon one another with their needlework for a social afternoon. If Alexina or Madelaine Russell were going to a party, there was sure to be an audience of two or three waiting to see them after they were dressed. When the Leigh"s cook, Aunt Minty, made jumbles, a plateful always found its way over the back fence to Miss Virginia Wilbur; and when the Wilburs had something particularly nice for dessert, some neighbor had a share of it. Judge Russell and Mr.
Goodman played chess together and talked of old times, and on the whole friendliness prevailed, with only an occasional neighborly tiff, when perhaps some one was heard to wish that Caroline Millard would mind her own business. There were other occasions when Mrs. Millard"s executive ability proved helpful and was warmly appreciated.
The strenuous life had not as yet invaded the Terrace. Mrs. Millard, to be sure, belonged to the Woman"s Club, and presided at various board meetings, but she was the exception.
The Terrace had its problems. We know Miss Virginia"s; but Alexina, not suspecting it, watching her in church on Sundays, wished she herself were middle-aged and had all her troublesome questions answered, for at forty-eight one must have solved life"s problems, Alex thought.
Madelaine only wanted money to gratify her taste for pretty things.
Given plenty of money, and life would be a simple matter. And so it seemed to Miss Sarah Leigh, always cheery, yet always burdened with the doubt where next month"s bread and b.u.t.ter were to come from, and with the regret that her nephew, Wayland, must work instead of going to college.
Old Mr. Goodman had the money, and his great tomb of a house was full of valuable things, but his problem was hardest of all; for having to a sad degree lost his faith in men and things, he found no use for it.
Judge Russell sighed for the good old days; but it was a gentle sigh, and soon forgotten in the companionship of his beloved books.
If from one point of view the neighborhood characteristic was sociability, its att.i.tude toward the outsider was another matter. A new resident must undergo a term of probation before being in any sense accepted. Charlotte Creston, as the Wilburs" niece, was received and freely discussed. She was only a child, and for that reason something of a novelty in the Terrace, since the Russells and Wayland Leigh had grown up.
Toward the shop, which divided with Charlotte the distinction of latest comer, the feeling was decidedly antagonistic. It was as if that monster Business had suddenly reached out from his own domain, blocks away, and laid his hand upon their peaceful territory.
Something like a council of war took place in the Wilburs"
drawing-room several evenings before the opening. Charlotte, supposed to be studying in the library, became an interested listener, shielded from view by the half-drawn hangings.
Alexina Russell was the first comer. Charlotte had not yet made up her mind about Alex, she was so different at different times. She might have been almost as pretty as Madelaine, if she had fluffed her hair and dressed a little less plainly. Sometimes she was full of animation, again, as this evening, she appeared abstracted and silent.
After Miss Sarah Leigh and her aunt arrived there was no more silence; it had no charms for either of these ladies. Charlotte had at first felt something like contempt for a person so odd as Miss Sarah, who wore skirts short enough to display to advantage her serviceable shoes, and poked her head out when she walked. But if Miss Sarah had no pretensions to beauty or style, her face was pleasant, her eyes really fine, and her smile full of kindly humor. Charlotte learned from Aunt Virginia that Miss Sarah had an unusual number of distinguished ancestors, which went to show how little appearance can be relied on in such matters.
Mrs. Leigh suggested a bit of pretty old china of a pattern grown rare. Her eyes were bright, there was a hint of pink in her cheeks, and the silvery puffs beneath her lace cap had the exactness born of long years of training in the way they should go. When she walked, it was with a lightness wonderful in a woman of seventy-eight.
Before the Leighs were fairly seated one or two others dropped in, until it seemed quite like a called meeting of the neighborhood. Aunt Caroline was in the chair which, on this occasion, happened to be placed where the rosy glow from a shaded lamp fell becomingly on her soft gray draperies. Aunt Virginia fluttered about, constantly interrupting conversation with footstools or sofa cushions, or irrelevant remarks.
"Miss Virginia is always wondering if one more cushion or some other chair would not make you a little more comfortable," said Alex, as that lady appeared after her sixth excursion to the hall, this time with a light shawl for Mrs. Leigh"s rheumatic shoulder.
"Do come and sit down, Virginia," laughed Miss Sarah; "you have no repose of manner."
"It is very fortunate that so many of us happen to be together this evening," began Mrs. Millard, "for I think we should decide upon our course in regard to the shop." Her white hand, veiled in a fall of lace, made a slight motion in the direction of the corner.
"Don"t you want some chocolate candy?" asked Miss Virginia, in an audible aside to Miss Sarah. "Charlotte and I made some this afternoon."
"When we have decided the fate of the shop," the lady whispered back.
"Seriously," continued Mrs. Millard, turning toward her sister with a slight frown, "should we not take some action?"
"You are right, Caroline. In my day shops kept to their own territory," Mrs. Leigh responded. "I remember the colonel used to say--but there! I promised Sarah I wouldn"t tell any stories this evening. She says I bore people."
"Why, Aunt Sally! you are telling the biggest kind of a one this minute," cried her niece.
A good-natured warfare waged continually between these two. Mrs.
Leigh, who was in reality the most petted and indulged of old ladies, pretending to live in constant fear of Miss Sarah.
"But what can we do?" Alexina was heard asking, as the skirmishers finally retired, Mrs. Leigh having the last word. "We can"t exactly blame these persons, whoever they may be, for coming here. They could not know we did not want them."
"I saw some one standing in the door of the shop this morning who _looked_ like a lady," Miss Virginia remarked.
"How do you define a lady, Virginia?" her sister asked with some severity.
"Why, Caroline, I am not a dictionary; I wish you wouldn"t ask me to define things," replied Miss Virginia, with a little laugh. Then with the manner of one who regretted this flippancy she added, "I think I understand the word as you do."
"It seems to me we are too often content with a surface meaning," Mrs.
Millard continued.
"That is true," agreed Alex. "Now, there is no reason in the world why these shopkeepers may not be ladies."
Mrs. Millard looked at her doubtfully. "Still," she interposed, "ladies do not as a usual thing keep shops."
"No; they sweep and scrub and cook, and pretend they don"t,--that is the difference," put in Miss Sarah, crossing her knees and bending forward with the air of one who had found a congenial theme. "I am a paper-hanger, a painter, and a maid-of-all-work; and this is what it usually means to be a lady when you are poor."
"Teaching has always seemed to me a most suitable occupation for a woman," suggested Mrs. Millard.
"The day has pa.s.sed, Caroline, when just anybody can teach."
"I don"t know any girl who had a better education or was more studious than you, Sarah," spoke up her aunt.
"And when Brother Willie died I didn"t know how to write a check or make the discount on a gas bill."
"I feel as you do, Miss Sarah. It is dreadful to be so ignorant as women are of the simplest things," exclaimed Alexina.
"Still, I think it is more comfortable not to have to know about them, don"t you?" Miss Virginia asked timidly.
"What are you people talking about?" The question came from the doorway, where Madelaine stood, a vision of such airiness, daintiness, and ethereal charm that nothing else seemed worth a thought. Behind her towered Wayland Leigh.
"May we join the party and help decide the burning question?" he asked. "Don"t get up, Miss Virginia; we"ll find chairs."