The Collected Works of Susan Coolidge: 7 Novels, 35+ Short Stories, Essays & Poems (Illustrated)
eyes were open, and there was in them an expression, not of pain, not of fear, but of great astonishment and surprise.”
This anecdote carried “great astonishment and surprise” into the company who listened to it. Mr. Page gave a sort of chuckle, and saying, “By George!” got up and left the room. The girls put their heads out of the window that they might laugh unseen. Daniel gazed at their shaking shoulders with an air of wonder, while the grave couple at the end of the room, who for some moments had been looking disturbed, drew near and informed the youthful prodigy that it was time for him to go to bed.
“Good-night, young ladies,” said the small condescending voice. Katy alone had “presence of countenance” enough to return this salutation. It was a relief to find that Daniel went to bed at all.
Next morning at breakfast they saw him seated between his parents, eating bread and milk. He bowed to them over the edge of the bowl.
“Dreadful little prig! They should bottle him in spirits of wine as a specimen. It’s the only thing he’ll ever be fit for,” remarked Mr. Page, who rarely said so sharp a thing about anybody.
Louisa joined them at the station. She was to travel under Mr. Page’s care, and Katy was much annoyed at Lilly’s manner with her. It grew colder and less polite with every mile. By the time they reached Ashburn it was absolutely rude.
“Come and see me very soon, girls,” said Louisa, as they parted in the station. “I long to have you know mother and little Daisy. Oh, there’s papa!” and she rushed up to a tall, pleasant-looking man, who kissed her fondly, shook hands with Mr. Page, and touched his hat to Lilly, who scarcely bowed in return.
“Boarding-school is so horrid,” she remarked, “you get all mixed up with people you don’t want to know,—people not in society at all.”
“How can you talk such nonsense?” said her father: “the Agnews are thoroughly respectable, and Mr. Agnew is one of the cleverest men I know.”
Katy was pleased when Mr. Page said this, but Lilly shrugged her shoulders and looked cross.
“Papa is so democratic,” she whispered to Clover, “he don’t care a bit who people are, so long as they are respectable and clever.”
“Well, why should he?” replied Clover. Lilly was more disgusted than ever.
Ashburn was a large and prosperous town. It was built on the slopes of a picturesque hill, and shaded with fine elms. As they drove through the streets, Katy and Clover caught glimpses of conservatories and shrubberies and beautiful houses with bay-windows and piazzas.
“That’s ours,” said Lilly, as the carriage turned in at a gate. It stopped, and Mr. Page jumped out.
“Here we are,” he said. “Gently, Lilly, you’ll hurt yourself. Well, my dears, we’re very glad to see you in our home at last.”
This was kind and comfortable, and the girls were glad of it, for the size and splendor of the house quite dazzled and made them shy. They had never seen any thing like it before. The hall had a marble floor, and busts and statues. Large rooms opened on either side; and Mrs. Page, who came forward to receive them, wore a heavy silk with a train and laces, and looked altogether as if she were dressed for a party.
“This is the drawing-room,” said Lilly, delighted to see the girls looking so impressed. “Isn’t it splendid?” And she led the way into a stiff, chilly, magnificent apartment, where all the blinds were closed, and all the shades pulled down, and all the furniture shrouded in linen covers. Even the picture frames and mirrors were sewed up in muslin to keep off flies; and the bronzes and alabaster ornaments on the chimney-piece and etagere gleamed through the dim light in a ghostly way. Katy thought it very dismal. She couldn’t imagine anybody sitting down there to read or sew, or do any thing pleasant, and probably it was not intended that any one should do so; for Mrs. Page soon showed them out, and led the way into a smaller room at the back of the hall.
“Well, Katy,” she said, “how do you like Hillsover?”
“Very well, ma’am,” replied Katy; but she did not speak enthusiastically.
“Ah!” said Mrs. Page shaking her head, “it takes time to shake off home habits, and to learn to get along with young people after living with older ones and catching their ways. You’ll like it better as you go on.”
Katy privately doubted whether this was true, but she did not say so. Pretty soon Lilly offered to show them upstairs to their room. She took them first into three large and elegant chambers, which she explained were kept for grand company, and then into a much smaller one in a wing.
“Mother always puts my friends in here,” she remarked: “she says it’s plenty good enough for school-girls to thrash about in!”
“What does she mean?” cried Clover, indignantly, as Lilly closed the door. “We don’t thrash!”
“I can’t imagine,” answered Katy, who was vexed too. But pretty soon she began to laugh.
“People are so funny!” she said. “Never mind, Clovy, this room is good enough, I’m sure.”
“Must we unpack, or will it do to go down in our alpacas?” asked Clover.
“I don’t know,” replied Katy, in a doubtful tone. “Perhaps we had better change our gowns. Cousin Olivia always dresses so much! Here’s your blue muslin right on top of the trunk. You might put on that, and I’ll wear my purple.”
The girls were glad that they had done this, for it was evidently expected, and Lilly had dressed her hair and donned a fresh white pique. Mrs. Page examined their dresses, and said that Clover’s was a lovely blue, but that ruffles were quite gone out, and every thing must be made with basques. She supposed they needed quantities of things, and she had already engaged a dressmaker to work for them.
“Thank you,” said Katy, “but I don’t think we need any thing. We had our winter dresses made before we left home.”
“Winter dresses! last spring! My dear, what were you thinking of?
They must be completely out of fashion.”
“You can’t think how little Hillsover people know about fashions,” replied Katy, laughing.
“But, my dear, for your own sake!” exclaimed Mrs. Page, distressed by these lax remarks. “I’ll look over your things to-morrow and see what you need.”
Katy did not dare to say “No,” but she felt rebellious. When they were half through tea, the door opened, and a boy came in.
“You are late, Clarence,” said Mr. Page, while Mrs. Page groaned and observed, “Clarence makes a point of being late. He really deserves to be made to go without his supper. Shut the door, Clarence. O mercy! don’t bang it in that way. I wish you would learn to shut a door properly. Here are your cousins, Katy and Clover Carr. Now let me see if you can shake hands with them like a gentleman, and not like a ploughboy.”
Clarence, a square, freckled boy of thirteen, with reddish hair, and a sort of red sparkle in his eyes, looked very angry at this address. He did not offer to shake hands at all, but elevating his shoulders said, “How d’you do?” in a sulky voice, and sitting down at the table buried his nose without delay in a glass of milk. His mother gave a disgusted sigh.
“What a boy you are!” she said. “Your cousins will think that you have never been taught any thing, which is not the case; for I’m sure I’ve taken twice the pains with you that I have with Lilly. Pray excuse him, Katy. It’s no use trying to make boys polite!”
“Isn’t it?” said Katy, thinking of Phil and Dorry, and wondering what
Mrs. Page could mean.
“Hullo, Lilly!” broke in Clarence, spying his sister as it seemed for the first time.
“How d’you do?” said Lilly, carelessly.