"I"m a clown beside her," said Georgiana to herself. "Who cares how a woman talks when she looks like that? Every line of her is absolute grace and beauty, every turn of her head is fascination itself. I never saw such eyes. That little twist in the corner of her lip when she smiles is the most delicious thing I ever saw. Jimps looks at it forty times in every five minutes and I can"t blame him. Mr. Jefferson keeps his chair facing that way so he can have her all the time in focus, though he doesn"t eat her up as Jimps does. I can"t blame either of them. And I shall go on being a clown, because that"s what I can do and it amuses them. If I should lie back in a chair like that and just smile without saying anything, Father Davy would say, "Daughter, don"t you feel quite well?" and Jimps would propose getting me a cup of tea. Oh, well--how absurd of me to mind because another girl looks like a picture by a wonderful painter while I look like--a lurid lithograph by n.o.body at all!"
Whereupon she set her strong, white teeth into a hot, roasted chestnut, cracked it, and, regarding the halves, said: "This reminds me of the night Prexy lost his head"--and brought down the house with the merriest tale of all. It was so irresistibly absurd that Jeannette, helpless with her mirth, buried her face in her cobweb handkerchief, Stuart rocked upon his knees and made the welkin ring, and Mr. Jefferson laughed in a growling ba.s.s that gathered volume as the preposterousness of the situation grew upon him with consideration of it. Even Mr. Warne, whose expressions of amus.e.m.e.nt were usually noiseless, gave way to soft little chuckles of appreciation, and wiped his tear-filled eyes.
Georgiana, finishing her chestnut, looked upon them all and told them they were the most gratifying audience she had ever addressed, but that she feared it was not good for them to give way to their emotions so unrestrainedly, and that she should therefore not open her lips again that night. As they found it impossible to break down this resolution, even with entreaties backed by offerings of worldly goods, the party broke up. Georgiana carried off her guest to put her to bed with her own hands, while Mr. Jefferson and James Stuart smoked a bedtime pipe together in the boarder"s room; after which Stuart let himself quietly out of a door that was never locked, to reflect, as he tramped homeward over the snow, on what an inordinately jolly evening it had been.
CHAPTER VIII
SOAPSUDS
"Will you think I"m dreadful, Georgiana dear," asked Jeannette, lying luxuriously back upon her pillow while her cousin sat braiding her own thick locks by the little bedroom fireplace in which the last remnants of the fire were smouldering, "if I say I shouldn"t have believed I could possibly have such a good time in such a way? I never did anything the least bit like it."
"Never coasted?"
"Never."
"Never threw s...o...b..a.l.l.s?"
"Not that I can remember."
"Nor roasted chestnuts?"
"I never tasted one before--except perhaps in the stuffing of a fowl."
"Poor child! But at least you"ve sat by the fire with other girls and men and told stories, little Jean?"
The guest considered. "Of course--at house parties. Yet I can"t seem to recall any such scene as the one we just left, down by your fire. I certainly never sat on the floor with my arm on my father"s knee, with a group of people around, while somebody told stories--sure not such stories as you told. Oh, you"re the cleverest girl I ever knew, to tell such things in such a way! It was perfectly splendid! How those two men did enjoy it! I don"t know when I"ve heard men laugh in just that way."
"Just what way? Please tell me how they laughed differently from other men. To be sure, Jimps just lets go when he"s amused and raises the rafters with his howls of glee; but so do other young men of his age.
And certainly Mr. Jefferson laughed decorously enough."
"Yes, but it was so whole-souled with both of them; and yet there wasn"t a thing in your stories but--oh, I can"t tell you just what I mean, if you don"t know. But somehow it all struck me so differently from the way any girl-and-man evening ever struck me before. There--there seems a different air to breathe here--if that expresses it--from any I"ve ever been in."
The two regarded each other, Jeannette from between half-closed, deeply fringed eyelids as she lay back upon her pillows, one arm, half veiled with the finest of linen and lace, outstretched upon the treasured old-time counterpane, the other beneath her neck; Georgiana sitting up straight, with two long, dark braids hanging over her shoulders, her dusky eyes wide open, her cheeks still bright with colour balanced by the scarlet hue of the loose garment she had put on.
"I"ve no doubt there is," agreed Georgiana thoughtfully. "Still, though you live a very different life from any I"ve ever known, I didn"t suppose your education in the matter of roast chestnuts--and the things that go with them--had been quite so badly neglected. To think of never having had them except so disguised by the manipulations of a French _chef_ that you couldn"t recognize them! And to have gone to b.a.l.l.s and horse shows and polo games--and never to have built a snow fort! Dear, dear, what we have to teach you! Life hasn"t been really fair to you, has it, my dear?"
This was sheer audacity, from a poor girl to a rich one, but it was charming audacity none the less and by no means wholly ironic. To Jeannette, studying her cousin with eyes which were envious of the physical superiority for lack of which no training in the social arts or mere ability to purchase the aid of dressmaker and milliner could possibly atone, conscious that Georgiana possessed a mind far keener and better trained than her own, the question called for a serious answer.
She half sat up and pushed her pillow into a soft mountain behind her as she spoke:
"No, it hasn"t! I thought so before I came here and now I"m sure of it.
I feel a weak and helpless creature beside you--helpless in every way. I can"t do anything you can. If my father should lose his money and I should be thrown upon my own resources, I shouldn"t be able to make so much as a--s...o...b..ll for myself!"
Both laughed in spite of Jeannette"s earnestness, for the words brought back vivid memories of the wild sport of the afternoon. Then Georgiana"s ready brain leaped to the inevitable corollary:
"Ah, but there"d be sure to be a man ready to dash into your fort and make your s...o...b..a.l.l.s for you!"
"I"m not so sure."
"I am."
"Of course the men I know don"t seem to mind whether a girl is helpless or not, if she can look and act the way they want her to. But--I"m discovering that there are other kinds of men, and somehow I like this new kind. And I imagine this kind wouldn"t care for helpless girls. You made s...o...b..a.l.l.s for your man to throw, and they were good hard ones, as my chin can still testify."
"You can learn to make hard s...o...b..a.l.l.s," said Georgiana, smiling.
Jeannette held up one beautifully modelled but undeniably slender arm and clasped it with her hand. "Soft as----" She paused for a simile.
"Sponge cake," supplied Georgiana, coming over to feel critically of the extended arm. "It _is_ pretty spongy. It needs exercise with a punchball or"--she flashed a mischievous glance at the languid form beside her--"a batch of bread dough."
"Bread dough! Would that help it?"
"Rather! So would sweeping, and scrubbing, and moving furniture about.
But you"re born to a life of ease, my dear, so those things are out of the question for you. But fencing lessons would be good for you--and fashionable, too, which would double their value, of course."
"Georgiana!" Jeannette sat straight up and laid two coaxing arms about her cousin"s firmly moulded neck. "Teach me to make bread, will you, while I"m here?"
"Oh, good gracious!" Georgiana threw back her head to laugh. "Hear the child! What good would that do, if you learned? You wouldn"t do it when you went back."
"I would!--Well, of course, I might have difficulty in--but mother wants me to be strong; she"s always fussing about it because I can"t endure the round of society things she says any girl ought to--and enjoy. If you thought bread-making would really help----"
"It would be a drop in the bucket of exercise you ought to take."
"Nevertheless, I want to learn," persisted Jeannette as Georgiana moved away, evidently with the intention of leaving her for the night. "I"d like to feel I knew how. And your bread is the most delicious I ever tasted. Please!"
"Oh, very well; I"ll teach you with pleasure. I shall be setting bread sponge at six to-morrow morning. Will you be down?" Georgiana"s smile was distinctly wicked.
"Six o"clock!" There was a look of mingled incredulity and horror in the lovely face on the pillow. "But--does bread--does bread have to be made so early?"
"Absolutely. After the morning dew is off the gra.s.s, bread becomes heavy."
Jeannette stared into the mocking eyes of her cousin; then she laughed.
"Oh, I see. You"re testing me. Well,"--with a stifled sigh--"I"ll get up if you"ll call me. I"m afraid I should never wake myself--especially after all that s...o...b..lling----"
"Exactly. And I"ll not call you. So lie still in your nest, ladybird, and don"t bother your pretty head about bread sponges. What"s the use?
You"ll never need to know, and you"ll soon forget having had even a faint desire toward knowledge. Good-night--and sleep sweetly."
"Oh, but wait! I"m really serious. Please call me!"
"Never!"
With one laughing backward look and with a kiss waved toward the slender figure now sitting up in bed, Georgiana opened the door and fled. That she did not want to teach her cousin an earthly thing, even if she could have believed Jeannette serious in her request, was momentarily growing more evident to her own consciousness. Just why, she might have been unwilling to explain.
Next morning, however, she found herself destined to carry out the plan Jeannette had so impulsively proposed. She crept downstairs as quietly as the creaking boards under the worn stair carpet would permit, and began her work in a whirl of haste. But she had not more than a.s.sembled her ingredients on the scrupulously scoured top of the old pine table when she heard the kitchen door softly open. Wheeling, she beheld a vision which brought a boyish whistle to her lips.
Jeannette, enveloped in a long silken garment evidently thrown on over her night attire, a little cap of lace and ribbon confining her hair, the most impractical of slippers on her feet, stood smiling at her cousin, sleep still clinging to her eyelids.