"Oh!-Well, then the bonnet half of me"ll be all right, but what _shall_ I wear on the rest of me? I don"t want to look out of fashion, you know. My, but I wish I"d brought my Paisley shawl. I"ve got a Paisley shawl that"s a very rare pattern. There"s cocoanuts in the border and a twisted design of monkeys and their tails done in the center. An" there ain"t a moth hole in it-not one."
Janice looked out of the window.
"I"ve got a cameo pin, too," continued Aunt Mary reflectively. "My, but that"s a handsome pin, as I remember it. It"s got Jupiter on it holdin" a bunch of thunder and lightnin" an" receivin" the news of somebody"s bein"
born-I used to know the whole story. But, you see, I expected to just be sittin" by Jack"s bed and I never thought to bring any of those dress-up kind of things," she sighed.
Janice returned to the bed side.
"Hadn"t you better begin to dress?" she howled suggestively. "They are going to dine here before going to the theater and dinner is ordered in an hour."
"Maybe I had," said Aunt Mary, "but-oh dear-I don"t know what I _will_ wear!" She began to emerge from the bedclothes as she spoke.
"How would my green plaid waist do?" she asked earnestly.
"I think it would be lovely," shrieked the maid.
"Well, shake it out then," said Aunt Mary, "it ought to be in the fashion-all the silk they put in the sleeves. An" if you"ll do my hair just as you did it yesterday-"
"Yes, I will."
Then the labor of the toilette began in good earnest, and three-quarters of an hour later Aunt Mary was done, and sitting by the window while Janice laced her boots.
A rap sounded at the door.
"Come in," cried the maid.
It was Jack with a regular f.a.got of American Beauties.
"Well, Aunt Mary," he cried with his customary hearty greeting. "How!"
"How what?" asked Aunt Mary, whose knowledge of Sioux social customs had been limited by the border line of New England.
Jack laughed. "How are you?" he asked in correction of his imperfect phrasing. And then he handed over the rose wood.
"I"m pretty well," said his aunt; "but, my goodness you mustn"t bring me so many presents-you-"
Jack stopped her words with a kiss. "Now, Aunt Mary, don"t you scold, because you"re my company and I won"t have it. This is my treat, and just don"t you fret. What do you say to your roses?"
Aunt Mary looked a bit uneasy.
"They"re pretty big," she hesitated.
"That"s the fashion," said Jack; "the longer you can buy "em the better the girls like it. I tried to get you some eight feet long but they only had two of that number and I wanted the whole bunch to match-"
He was interrupted by another rap on the door.
"Hallo!" he cried. "Come in."
It was Mitch.e.l.l with several dozen carnations, the most brilliant yet prized-or priced.
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Aunt Mary.
"For you, Miss Watkins," cried the newcomer, gracefully offering his homage, "with the a.s.surance of my sincere regret that I came on the scene too late to have been making a scene with you fifty years ago."
"I didn"t quite catch that," said Aunt Mary, rapturously. But never mind,-Granite, get a tin basin or suthin" for these flowers."
"Where"s Burnett?" Jack asked the newcomer,-"isn"t he dressed? It"s getting late."
"He"s all right," said Mitch.e.l.l; "he and Clover are-here they are!"
The two came in together at that second. Clover"s mustache just showed over the top of the largest bunch of violets ever constructed, and Burnett bore with a.s.siduous care a bouquet of orchids tied with a Roman sash.
Aunt Mary leaned back and shut her eyes. If it hadn"t been for her smile, they might possibly have feared for her life.
But she was only momentarily stunned by surpa.s.sing ecstasy.
"You"d better put some water in the bath-tub, Granite," she said, recovering, "nothing else will be big enough."
The four young men drew up chairs and rivalled her smiles with theirs.
"I d"n know how I ever can thank you," said the old lady warmly. "I"ve always had such a poor opinion o" life in cities, too!"
"Life in cities, my dear Miss Watkins," screamed Mitch.e.l.l, "is always pictured as very black, but it"s only owing to the soft coal-not to the people who burn it."
Aunt Mary smiled again.
"I guess the bath-tub will be big enough to keep "em fresh," she said simply, and Mitch.e.l.l gave up and dried his forehead with his handkerchief.
They dined at home upon this occasion and afterwards took two carriages for the theater. Aunt Mary, Jack, Clover, the American Beauties and the violets went in the first, and what remained of the party and the floral decorations followed in the second.
"I mean to smoke," said that part of the second load which habitually answered to the name of Mitch.e.l.l. "There is nothing so soothing when you have thorns in your legs as a cigarette in your mouth."
"Too-too;" laughed his companion. "Jimmy! but our aunt is game, isn"t she?"
"To my order of thinking," said Mitch.e.l.l thoughtfully scratching a match, "Aunt Mary has been hung up in cold storage just long enough to have acquired the exactly proper gamey flavor. It cannot be denied that to worn, worldly, jaded mortals like you and me, the sight of fresh, ever bubbling, youthful enthusiasm like hers is as thrilling and trilling and rilling as-as-as-" he paused to light his cigarette.
[Ill.u.s.tration 4]
Aunt Mary and Her Escorts.
"Yes, you"d better stutter," said Burnett. "I thought you were running ahead of your proper signals."
"It isn"t that," said Mitch.e.l.l, puffing gently. "It is that I suddenly recollected that I was alone with you, and my brains tell me that it is a waste of brains to use them in the sense of a plural noun with you. The word in your company,-my dear boy-only comes to me as a verb-as an active verb-and dear knows how often I have itched to apply it forcibly."
Then they drew up in front of the theater and saw Aunt Mary being unloaded just beyond.
"Great Scott, I feel as if I was a part of a poster!" said Burnett, diving into the carriage depths for the last lot of flowers.