"Pleasure!"
Mrs. Rowland"s clear laugh rang through the kitchen at the scorn expressed in the one word.
"And is it so bad as that?" she demanded merrily.
"Worse!" snapped Kate. "I simply loathe dishes!" But a shamed smile came to her lips, and she got the pans and water, making no further objection.
"I like pretty dishes," observed Mrs. Howland, after a time, breaking a long silence. "There"s a certain satisfaction in restoring them to their shelves in all their dainty, polished beauty."
"I should like them just as well if they always stayed there, and did n"t come down to get all crumbs and grease in the sink," returned the other tartly.
"Oh, of course," agreed Mrs. Howland, with a smile; "but, as long as they don"t, why, we might as well take what satisfaction there is in putting them in shape again."
"Don"t see it--the satisfaction," retorted Kate, and her aunt dropped the subject where it was.
The dishes finished and the kitchen put to rights, the two women started for the chambers and the bed-making. Kate"s protests were airily waved aside by the energetic little woman who promptly went to pillow-beating and mattress-turning.
"How fresh and sweet the air smells!" cried Mrs. Howland, sniffing at the open window.
"Lilacs," explained Kate concisely.
"Hm-m--lovely!"
"Think so? I don"t care for the odor myself," rejoined Kate.
The other shot a quick look from under lowered lids. Kate"s face expressed mere indifference. The girl evidently had not meant to be rude.
"You don"t like them?" cried Mrs. Howland. "Oh, I do! My dear, you don"t half appreciate what it is to have such air to breathe. Only think, if you were shut up in a brick house on a narrow street as I am!"
"Think!" retorted Kate, with sudden heat. "I "d like to do something besides "think"! I "d like to try it!"
"You mean you"d like to leave here?--to go to the city?"
"I do, certainly. Aunt Ellen, I"m simply sick of chicken-feeding and meal-getting. Why, if it was n"t for keeping house for father I "d have been off to New York or Boston years ago!"
"But your home--your friends!"
"Commonplace--uninteresting!" declared Kate, disposing of both with a wave of her two hands. "The one means endless sweeping and baking; the other means sewing societies, and silly gossip over clothes, beaux, and crops."
Mrs. Howland laughed, though she sobered instantly.
"But there must be something, some one that you enjoy," she suggested.
Kate shook her head wearily.
"Not a thing, not a person," she replied; adding with a whimsical twinkle, "they"re all like the dishes, Aunt Ellen,--bound to acc.u.mulate crumbs and sc.r.a.ps, and do nothing but clutter up."
"Oh, Kate, Kate," remonstrated Mrs. Howland, "what an incorrigible girl you are!" As she spoke her lips smiled, but her eyes did not--there was a wistful light in their blue depths that persistently stayed there all through the day as she watched her niece.
At ten, and again at half-past, some neighbors dropped in. After they had gone Kate complained because the forenoon was so broken up. The next few hours were free from callers, and at the supper table Kate grumbled because the afternoon was so stupid and lonesome. When Mr.
Merton came in bringing no mail, Kate exclaimed that n.o.body ever answered her letters, and that she might just as well not write; yet when the next day brought three, she sighed over the time "wasted in reading such long letters."
The week sped swiftly and Sunday night came. Mrs. Howland"s visit was all but finished. She was going early the next morning.
Sunday had not been an unalloyed joy. Mrs. Howland and her niece had attended church, but to Kate the sermon was too long, and the singing too loud. The girl mentioned both in a listless way, at the same time saying that it was always like that except when the sermon was interesting, then it was too short and the choir took up all the time there was with their tiresome singing.
Dinner had been long in preparation, and, in spite of Mrs. Rowland"s gladly given a.s.sistance, the dish-washing and the kitchen-tidying had been longer still. All day Kate"s step had been more than lagging, and her face more than discontented. In the twilight, as the two women sat together, Mrs. Rowland laid hold of her courage with both hands and spoke.
"Kate, dear, is n"t there something, anything, worth while to you?"
"Nothing, auntie. I feel simply buried alive."
"But can"t you think of anything--"
"Think of anything!" interrupted the girl swiftly. "Of course I can!
If I had money--or lived somewhere else--or could go somewhere, or see something once in a while, it would be different; but here--!"
Mrs. Howland shook her head.
"But it would n"t be different, my dear," she demurred.
"Why, of course it would!" laughed Kate bitterly. "It could n"t help it."
Again Mrs. Howland shook her head. Then a whimsical smile crossed her face.
"Kate," she said, "there are crumbs on the plates out in the world just the same as there are here; and if here you teach yourself to see nothing but crumbs, you will see nothing but crumbs out there. In short, dissatisfaction with everyday living is the same joy-killer whether in town or city, farmhouse or palace. Oh, I "m preaching, I know, dear," went on Mrs. Howland hurriedly, as she saw the angry light in the other"s eyes, "but--I had to speak--you don"t know how it"s growing on you. Come, let"s kiss and make up; then think it over."
Kate frowned, then laughed constrainedly.
"Don"t worry, aunt," she replied, rising, and just touching her aunt"s lips with her own. "I still think it would be different out there; but--I suppose you "ll always remain unconvinced, for I shall never have the chance to prove it. My plates won"t belong anywhere but in Hopkinsville cupboards! Come, will you play to me?"
When Mrs. Rowland returned from England, one of the first letters she received after reaching home was a cordial invitation from her dead brother"s daughter, Kate, to visit her.
In the last five years Mrs. Howland had seen her niece but once. That was during the sad, hurried days just following Mr. Merton"s sudden death four years before. Since then Mrs. Howland had been abroad and there had been many changes at the little farmhouse in Hopkinsville.
The farm had been sold, and Kate had married and had gone to Boston to live. Beyond the facts that Kate"s husband was older than she, and was a man of considerable means, Mrs. Howland knew little of her niece"s present circ.u.mstances. It was with curiosity, as well as pleasure, that she accepted Kate"s invitation, and took the train specified.
At the South Station Mrs. Howland found a stylishly gowned, smiling young woman with a cordial welcome. An imposing carriage with a liveried coachman waited to take her to Kate"s home.
"Oh, what handsome horses!" cried Mrs. Howland appreciatively, as she stepped into the carriage.
"Yes, are n"t they," agreed Kate. "If only they matched better, they"d be perfect. I wish both had stars on their foreheads!"
"Let me see, you are on Beacon Street, I believe," remarked Mrs.
Howland, as the carriage left the more congested quarter of the city.
Kate frowned. "Yes," she answered. "I wanted Commonwealth Avenue, but Mr. Blake preferred Beacon. All his people live on Beacon, and have for years."
"Oh, but Beacon is lovely, I think."