girl opened it at their summons; and once inside, Miss Pix herself came
forward with beaming face to give them a Christmas-eve greeting. Mr.
Manlius had intended making the official announcement of the arrival of
the new nephew, but was no match for the ready Mrs. Starkey, who at once
seized upon their hostess, and shook her warmly by the hand, pouring out
a confused and not over-accurate account of her good-fortune, mixing in
various details of her personal affairs. Miss Pix, however, made out the
main fact, and turned to Nicholas, welcoming him with both hands, and in
the same breath congratulating Mrs. Starkey, showing such honest,
whole-souled delight that Nicholas for a moment let loose in his mind a
half-wish that Miss Pix had proved to be his aunt, so much more nearly
did she approach his ideal. The whole party stood basking for a moment
in Miss Pix's Christmas greeting, then extricated themselves from their
wrappers with the help of their bustling hostess, and were ushered into
her little parlor, where they proved to be the first arrivals. It was
almost like sitting down in an arbor: for walls and ceilings were quite
put out of sight by the evergreen dressing; the candlesticks and
picture-frames seemed to have budded; and even the poker had laid aside
its constitutional stiffness, and unbent itself in a miraculous spiral
of creeping vine. Mr. Manlius looked about him with the air of a
connoisseur, and complimented Miss Pix.
"A very pretty room, Miss Pix,--a very pretty room! Quite emblematical!"
And he cocked his head at some new point.
"Oh, I can't have my Christmas without greens!" said Miss Pix.
"Christmas and greens, you know, is the best dish in the world. Isn't
it, Mrs. Starkey?"
But Mrs. Starkey had no need of a question; for she had already started
on her career as a member of the party, and was galloping over a
boundless field of observation.
There was just then another ring; and Miss Pix started for the door, in
her eagerness to greet her visitors, but recollected in season the
tribute which she must pay to the by-laws of society, and hovered about
the parlor-door till Gretchen could negotiate between the two parties.
Gretchen's pleased exclamation in her native tongue at once indicated
the nature of the arrival; and Miss Pix, whispering loudly to Mrs.
Manlius, "My musical friends," again rushed forward, and received her
friends almost noisily; for when they went stamping about the entry to
shake off the snow from their feet against the inhospitable world
outside, she also, in the excess of her sympathetic delight, caught
herself stamping her little foot. There was a hurly-burly, and then they
all entered the parlor in a procession, preceded by Miss Pix, who
announced them severally to her guests as Mr. Pfeiffer, Mr. Pfeffendorf,
Mr. Schmauker, and Mr. Windgraff. Everybody bowed at once, and rose to
the surface, hopelessly ignorant of the name and condition of all the
rest, except his or her immediate friends. The four musical gentlemen
especially entirely lost their names in the confusion; and as they
looked very much alike, it was hazardous to address them, except upon
general and public grounds.
Mrs. Starkey was the most bewildered, and also the most bent upon
setting herself right,--a task which promised to occupy the entire
evening. "Which is the fifer?" she asked Nicholas; but he could not tell
her, and she appealed in vain to the others. Perhaps it was as well,
since it served as an unfailing resource with her through the evening.
When nothing else occupied her attention, she would fix her eyes upon
one of the four, and walk round till she found some one disengaged
enough to label him, if possible; and as the gentlemen had much in
common, while Mrs. Starkey's memory was confused, there was always room
for more light.
Miss Pix meanwhile had disentangled Nicholas from Mrs. Starkey, and, as
one newly arrived in the court, was recounting to him the origin of her
party.
"You see, Mr. Judge, I have only lived here a few weeks. I had to leave
my old house; and I took a great liking to this little court, and
especially to this little house in it. 'What a delightful little
snuggery!' thought I. 'Here one can be right by the main streets, and
yet be quiet all day and evening.' And that's what I want; because, you
see, I have scholars to come and take music-lessons of me. 'And then,' I
thought to myself, 'I can have four neighbors right in the same yard,
you may say.' Well, here I came; but--do you believe it?--hardly anybody
even looked out of the window when the furniture-carts came up, and I
couldn't tell who lived in any house. Why, I was here three weeks, and
nobody came to see me. I might have been sick, and nobody would have
known it." Here little Miss Pix shook her head ruefully at the vision of
herself sick and alone. "I've seen what that is," she added, with a
mysterious look. "'Well, now,' I said to myself, 'I can't live like
this. It isn't Christian. I don't believe but the people in the court
could get along with me, if they knew me.' Well, they didn't come, and
they didn't come; so I got tired, and one day I went round and saw them
all,--no, I didn't see the old gentleman in Number One that time. Will
you believe it? not a soul knew anybody else in any house but their own!
I was amazed, and I said to myself, 'Betsey Pix, you've got a mission';
and, Mr. Judge, I went on that mission. I made up my mind to ask all the
people in the court, who could possibly come, to have a Christmas-eve
gathering in my house. I got them all, except the Crimps, in Number Two,
who would not, do what I could. Then I asked four of my friends to come
and bring their instruments; for there's nothing like music to melt
people together. But, oh, Mr. Judge, not one house knows that another
house in the court is to be here; and, oh, Mr. Judge, I've got such a
secret!" And here Miss Pix's cork flew to the ceiling, in the manner
hinted at by Mr. Paul Le Clear; while Nicholas felt himself to have
known Miss Pix from birth, and to be, in a special manner, her
prime-minister on this evening.
It was not long before there was another ring, and Mr. Le Clear
appeared, who received the jiggoty Miss Pix's welcome in a smiling and
well-bred manner, and suffered himself to be introduced to the various
persons present, when all seized the new opportunity to discover the
names of the musical gentlemen, and fasten them to the right owners.
Paul laughed when he saw Nicholas, and spoke to him as an old
acquaintance. Miss Pix was suddenly in great alarm, and, beckoning away
Nicholas, whispered, "Don't for the world tell him where the others
live." Like the prime-minister with a state-secret, Nicholas went back
to Paul, and spent the next few minutes in the trying task of answering
leading questions with misleading answers.
"I see," said the acute Mr. Le Clear to himself; "the aunt is that
marplotty dame who has turned our young Judge into a prisoner at the
bar"; and he entered into conversation with Mrs. Starkey with great
alacrity, finding her a very ripe cucumber. Mr. Manlius, who was
talking, in easy words of two syllables, to the musical gentlemen,
overheard some of Mrs. Starkey's revelations to Mr. Le Clear, and,
watching his opportunity, got Paul into a corner, where he favored him
with some confidences respecting the lady.
"You may have thought, Sir," said he, in a whisper, "that Mrs. Starkey
is--is,"--and he filled out the sentence with an expressive gesture
toward his own well-balanced head.
"Not at all," said Paul, politely.
"She is periodically affected," continued Mr. Manlius, "with what I may
perhaps call excessive and ill-balanced volubility. Mrs. Starkey, Sir,
is a quiet person, rarely speaking; but once in five or six weeks,--the
periods do not return with exact regularity,--she is subject to some
hidden influence, which looses her tongue, as it were. I think she is
under the influence now, and her words are not likely to--to correspond
exactly with existing facts. You will not be surprised, then, at her
words. They are only words, words. At other times she is a woman of
action. She has a wonderful character, Sir."
"Quite a phenomenon, indeed, I should say," said Paul, ready to return
to so interesting a person, but politely suffering Mr. Manlius to flow
on, which he did uninterruptedly.
Doctor Chocker was the last to come. Miss Pix knew his infirmity, and
contented herself with mute, but expressive signs, until the old
gentleman could adjust his trumpet and receive her hearty
congratulations. He jerked out a response, which Miss Pix received with
as much delight as if he had flowed freely, like Mr. Manlius, who was
now playing upon Mr. Le Clear an analysis of Nicholas's character, which
he had read with unerring accuracy, as Mrs. Manlius testified by her
continued, unreserved agreement. Indeed, the finding of his aunt by
Nicholas in so unexpected a manner was the grand topic of the evening;
and the four musical gentlemen, hearing the story in turn from each of
the others, were now engaged in a sort of diatessaron, in which the four
accounts were made to harmonize with considerable difficulty: Mr.
Schmauker insisting upon his view, that Nicholas had arrived wet and
hungry, was found on the doorstep, and dragged in by Mrs. Starkey; while
Mr. Pfeffendorf and Mr. Pfeiffer substituted Mrs. Manlius for Mrs.
Starkey; and Mr. Windgraff proposed an entirely new reading.
Dr. Chocker's entrance created a lull; and the introduction, performed
in a general way by the hostess, brought little information to the rest,
who were hoping to revise their list of names,--and very little to the
Doctor, who looked about inquisitively, as Miss Pix dropped the company
in a heap into his ear-trumpet. His eye lighted on Nicholas, and he went
forward to meet him, to the astonishment of the company, who looked upon
Nicholas as belonging exclusively to them. A new theory was at once
broached by Mr. Windgraff to his companions, that Dr. Chocker had
brought about the recognition; but it lost credit as the Doctor began to
question Nicholas, in an abrupt way, upon his presence there.
"Didn't know I should meet you again, young man," said he. "But you
don't take my advice, eh? or you wouldn't have been here. But I'm
setting you a pretty example! This isn't the way to study the value of
words, eh, Mr.--Mr.--Le Clear?"
The real Mr. Le Clear and his fiction looked at each other, and by a
rapid interchange of glances signified their inability to extricate
themselves from the snarl, except by a dangerous cut, which Nicholas had
not the courage at the moment to give. The rest of the company were
mystified; and Mr. Manlius, pocketing the character which he had just
been giving, free of charge, to his new acquaintance, turned to his
wife, and whispered awfully, "An impostor, Caroline!" Mrs. Manlius
looked anxiously and frightened back to him; but he again whispered,
"Wait for further developments, Caroline!" and she sank into a state of
terrified curiosity. Fortunately, Mrs. Starkey was at the moment
confiding much that was irrelevant to Mr. Le Clear the actual, who did
not call her attention to the words. The four musical gentlemen were
divided upon the accuracy of their hearing.
Miss Pix, who had been bustling about, unconscious of the mystery, now
created a diversion by saying, somewhat flurried by the silence that
followed her first words,--
"Our musical friends have brought a pleasant little surprise for us;
but, Mr. Pfeiffer, won't you explain the Children's Symphony to the
performers?"
Everybody at once made a note of Mr. Pfeiffer, and put a private mark on
him for future reference; while he good-humoredly, and with embarrassing
English, explained that Miss Pix had proposed that the company should
produce Haydn's Children's Symphony, in which the principal parts were
sustained by four stringed instruments, which he and his friends would
play; while children's toy-instruments, which the other three were now
busily taking out of a box, would be distributed among the rest of the
company; and Miss Pix would act as leader, designating to each his or
her part, and time of playing.
The proposal created considerable confusion in the company, especially
when the penny-trumpet, drum, cuckoo, night-owl, quail, rattle, and
whistle were exhibited, and gleefully tried by the four musical friends.
Mr. Manlius eyed the penny-trumpet which was offered him with a doubtful
air, but concluded to sacrifice his dignity for the good of the company.
Mrs. Manlius received her cuckoo nervously, as if it would break forth
in spite of her, and looked askance at Nicholas to see if he would dare
to take the night-owl into his perjured hands. He did take it with great
good-humor, and, at Miss Pix's request, undertook to persuade Doctor
Chocker to blow the whistle. He had first to give a digest of Mr.
Pfeiffer's speech into the ear-trumpet, and, it is feared, would have
failed to bring the Doctor round without Miss Pix, who came up at the
critical moment, and told him that she knew he must have known how when
he was a boy, accompanied with such persuasive frolicking that the
Doctor at once signified his consent and his proficiency by blowing a
blast into Nicholas's ear, whom he regarded as a special enemy on good
terms with him, to the great merriment of all.
The signal was given, and the company looked at Miss Pix, awaiting their
turn with anxious solicitude. The symphony passed off quite well, though
Mr. Le Clear, who managed the drum, was the only one who kept perfect
time. Mrs. Starkey, who held the rattle aloft, sprung it at the first
sound of the music, and continued to spring it in spite of the
expostulations and laughter of the others. Mrs. Manlius, unable to
follow Miss Pix's excited gestures, turned to her husband, and uttered
the cuckoo's doleful note whenever he blew his trumpet, which he did
deliberately at regular intervals. The effect, however, was admirable;
and as the entire company was in the orchestra, the mutual satisfaction
was perfect, and the piece was encored vociferously, to the delight of
little Miss Pix, who enjoyed without limit the melting of her company,
which was now going on rapidly. It continued even when the music had
stopped, and Gretchen, very red, but intensely interested, brought in
some coffee and cakes, which she distributed under Miss Pix's direction.
Nicholas shared the good lady's pleasure, and addressed himself to his
aunt with increased attention, taking good care to avoid Doctor Chocker,
who submitted more graciously than would be supposed to a steady play
from Mr. Manlius' hose. Mr. Pfeiffer and his three musical friends made
themselves merry with Mrs. Manlius and Miss Pix, while Mr. Le Clear
walked about performing chemical experiments upon the whole company.
And now Miss Pix, who had been all the while glowing more and more with
sunshine in her face, again addressed the company, and said:--
"I think the best thing should be kept till toward the end; and I've got
a scheme that I want you all to help me in. We're all neighbors
here,"--and she looked round upon the company with a smile that grew
broader, while they all looked surprised, and began to smile back in
ignorant sympathy, except Doctor Chocker, who did not hear a word, and
refused to smile till he knew what it was for. "Yes, we are all
neighbors. Doctor Chocker lives in Number Two; Mr. and Mrs. Manlius,
Mrs. Starkey, and Mr. Judge are from Number Three; my musical friends
live within easy call; and I live in Number Five."
Here she looked round again triumphantly, and found them all properly
astonished, and apparently very contented, except Doctor Chocker, who
was immovable. Nicholas expressed the most marked surprise, as became so
hypocritical a prime-minister, causing Mr. Manlius to make a private
note of some unrevealed perjury.
"Now," said Miss Pix, pausing and arresting the profound attention of
all, "now, who lives at Number Four?"
If she expected an answer, it was plainly not locked up in the breast of
any one before her. But she did not expect an answer; she was determined
to give that herself, and she continued:--
"There is a most excellent woman there, Mrs. Blake, whom I should have
liked very much to introduce to you to-night, especially as it is her
birthday. Isn't she fortunate to have been born on Christmas-eve? Well,
I didn't ask her, because she is not able to leave her room. There she
has sat, or lain, for fifteen years! She's a confirmed invalid; but she
can see her friends. And now for my little scheme. I want to give her a
surprise-party from all her neighbors, and I want to give it now. It's
all right. Gretchen has seen her maid, and Mrs. Blake knows just enough
to be willing to have me bring a few friends."
Miss Pix looked about, with a little anxiety peeping out of her
good-souled, eager face. But the company was so melted down that she
could now mould it at pleasure, and no opposition was made. Mr. Manlius
volunteered to enlighten Doctor Chocker; but he made so long a preamble
that the old scholar turned, with considerable impatience, to Miss Pix,
who soon put him in good-humor, and secured his cooperation, though not
without his indulging in some sinful and unneighborly remarks to
Nicholas.
It proved unnecessary to go into the court, for these two housed
happened to have a connection, which Miss Pix made use of, the door
having been left open all the evening, that Mrs. Blake might catch some
whiffs of the entertainment. Gretchen appeared in the doorway, bearing
on a salver a great cake, made with her own hands, having Mrs. Blake's
initials, in colored letters, on the frosting, and the whole surrounded
by fifty little wax tapers, indicating her age, which all counted, and
all counted differently, giving opportunity to the four musical friends
to enter upon a fresh and lively discussion. The party was marshalled by
Miss Pix in the order of houses, while she herself squeezed past them
all on the staircase, to usher them into Mrs. Blake's presence.
Mrs. Blake was sitting in her reclining-chair as Miss Pix entered with
her retinue. The room was in perfect order, and had about it such an air
of neatness and purity that one felt one's self in a haven of rest upon
crossing the threshold. The invalid sat quiet and at ease, looking forth
upon the scene before her as if so safely moored that no troubling of
the elements could ever reach her. Here had she lived, year after year,
almost alone with herself, though now the big-souled little
music-teacher was her constant visitor; but the entrance of all her
neighbors seemed in no wise to agitate her placid demeanor. She greeted
Miss Pix with a pleased smile; and all being now in the room, the
bustling little woman, at the very zenith of her sunny course, took her
stand and said,--
"This is my company, dear Mrs. Blake. These are all neighbors of ours,
living in the court, or close by. We have been having a right merry
time, and now we can't break up without bringing you our good
wishes,--our Christmas good wishes, and our birthday good wishes," said
Miss Pix, with a little oratorical flourish, which brought Gretchen to
the front with her illuminated cake, which she positively could not have
held another moment, so heavy had it grown, even for her stout arms.
Mrs. Blake laughed gently, and with a delighted look examined the great
cake, with her initials, and did not need to count the wax tapers. It
was placed on a stand, and she said,--
"Now I should like to entertain my guests, and, if you will let me, I
will give you each a piece of my cake,--for it all belongs to me, after
Miss Pix's graceful presentation; and if Miss Pix will be so good, I
will ask her to make me personally acquainted with each of you."
So a knife was brought, and Mrs. Blake cut a generous piece, when Doctor
Chocker was introduced, with great gesticulation on the part of Miss
Pix.
"I am glad to see you, Doctor Chocker," said Mrs. Blake, distinctly, but
quietly, into his trumpet. "Do you let your patients eat cake? Try this,
and see if it isn't good for me."
"If I were a doctor of medicine," said he, jerkily, "I should bring my
patients to see you"; at which Miss Pix nodded to him most vehemently,
and the Doctor wagged his ear-trumpet in delight at the retort which he
thought he had made.
Mr. Le Clear was introduced, and took his cake gracefully, saying, "I
hope another year will see you at a Christmas-party of Miss Pix's"; but
Mrs. Blake smiled, and said, "This is my little lot of earth, and I am
sure there is a patch of stars above."
Mr. Manlius and wife came up together, he somewhat lumbering, as if Mrs.
Blake's character were too much for his discernment, and Mrs. Manlius
not quite sure of herself when her husband seemed embarrassed.
"This is really too funny," said Mrs. Blake, merrily; "as if I were a
very benevolent person, doling out my charity of cake on Christmas-eve.
Do, Mr. Manlius, take a large piece; and I am sure your wife will take
some home to the children."
"What wonderful insight!" said Mr. Manlius, turning about to Nicholas,
and drawing in his breath. "We have children,--two. That woman has a
deep character, Mr. Judge."
"Mrs. Starkey, also of Number Three," said the mistress of ceremonies;
"and Mr. Nicholas Judge, arrived only this evening."
"Nicholas Judge!" said Mrs. Blake, losing the color which the excitement
had brought, and dropping the knife.
"My nephew," explained Mrs. Starkey. "Just came this evening, and found
me at home. Never saw him before. Must tell you all about it." And she
was plunging with alacrity into the delightful subject, with all its
variations.
Mrs. Blake looked at Nicholas, while the color came and went in her
cheeks.
"Stop!" said she, decisively, to Mrs. Starkey, and half rising, she
leaned forward to Nicholas, and said rapidly, with an energy which
seemed to be summoned from every part of her system,--
"Are you the son of Alice Brown?"
"Yes, yes," said Nicholas, tumultuously; "and you,--you are her sister.
Here, take this miniature"; and he snatched one from his breast. "Is not
this she? It is my mother. You are my Aunt Eunice," he exclaimed, as she
sank back in her chair exhausted, but reaching out her arms to him.
"That young man is a base impostor!" said Mr. Manlius aloud, with his
hand in his waistcoat; while Mrs. Manlius looked on deprecatingly, but
as if too, too aware of the sad fact. "I said so to my wife in
private,--I read it in his face,--and now I declare it publicly. That
man is a base impostor!"
"Dear, dear, I don't understand it at all!" said the unfortunate Mrs.
Starkey. "I thought, to be sure, that Nicholas was my nephew. Never saw
him before, but he said he was; and now, now, I don't know what I shall
do!" and the poor lady, suddenly bereft of her fortune, began to wipe
her moist eyes; "but perhaps," she added, with a bright, though
transient gleam of hope, "we are both aunts to him."
"That cannot be," said Nicholas, kindly, who left his aunt to set the
company right, if possible. "My dear friend," he said, taking Mrs.
Starkey's hand, "it has been a mistake, brought on by my heedlessness. I
knew only that my aunt's name had been Eunice Brown. It chanced that
yours was the same name. I happened to come upon you first in my search,
and did not dream it possible that there could be two in the same court.
Everything seemed to tally; and I was too pleased at finding the only
relation I had in the wide world to ask many questions. But when I saw
that my aunt knew who I was, and I saw my mother's features in hers, I
perceived my mistake at once. We will remain friends, though,--shall we
not?"
Mrs. Starkey was too much bewildered to refuse any compromise; but Mr.
Manlius stepped forward, having his claim as a private officer of
justice.
"I must still demand an explanation, Sir, how it is that in this mixed
assembly the learned Doctor Chocker addresses you as Mr. Le Clear, and
you do not decline the title"; and Mr. Manlius looked, as if for a
witness, to Doctor Chocker, who was eating his cake with great
solemnity, holding his ear-trumpet in hopes of catching an occasional
word.
"That would require too long an explanation," said Nicholas, smiling;
"but you shall have it some time in private. Mr. Le Clear himself will
no doubt tell you"; which Mr. Le Clear, an amused spectator of the
scene, cheerfully promised to do.
The company had been so stirred up by this revelation, that they came
near retreating at once to Miss Pix's to talk it over, to the dismay of
the four musical gentlemen, who had not yet been presented, and
especially who had not yet got any cake. Miss Pix, though in a transport
of joy, had an eye for everything, and, discovering this, insisted on
presenting them in a body to Mrs. Blake, in consideration of her
fatigue. They bowed simultaneously, and stood before her like bashful
schoolboys; while Nicholas assumed the knife in behalf of his aunt,
distributing with equal liberality, when they retired in high glee over
the new version of his history, which Mr. Windgraff, for the sake of
displaying his acumen, stoutly declared to be spurious. Gretchen also
was served with a monstrous slice; and then the company bade good-bye to
the aunt and nephew, who began anew their glad recognition.