Kate came to the door next morning just as Elsie had finished dressing,
and, being admitted, asked if Miss Moss wouldn't come down and pour her
uncle's coffee and eat breakfast with him.
"He's sort o' hangin' off as if, perhaps, he was hopin' you might," she
added, eying the girl admiringly.
Elsie's purpose to go immediately had been with her as she awoke, but
it didn't seem worth while to hold out at the moment: possibly she
might have a favorable opportunity to explain at the table.
But she resented Kate's beaming face, and looked reproachfully toward
the bed, which told its own shocking story of having no linen nor
blankets. Still Kate was oblivious. Elsie really hardly knew how to
complain, but perhaps to learn that is easier than to learn to praise;
and there was a certain amount of indignation in her voice as she told
how she had been obliged to sleep on the couch in her dressing-gown.
Kate was quite as shocked as the mistress of a well-regulated household
would have been. As she accompanied Elsie down-stairs she was voluble
in her sympathy, and promised all sorts of improvements for a future
Elsie knew was not to be hers. And yet the girl, who had always been
on the most distant terms with her grandmother's servants who had been
in the house for years, found herself confessing to this good-natured
slattern that she had nevertheless slept soundly and felt refreshed.
Breakfast was so pleasant as to cause visions of an unlocked trunk to
float through Elsie's mind. The dining-room was yet more attractive
with the morning sun on the garden. Mrs. Middleton did not appear.
The girl found a curious pleasure in pouring out the coffee, which was
curiously intensified when Mr. Middleton asked for three lumps of
sugar. And when he passed his cup the second time she was elated.
While he seemed fully to appreciate the novelty of her company, he
seemed also to take it for granted, as if they were to go on so,
breakfasting together, indefinitely. He chatted in his easy way,
glanced at the paper, reading bits of it to her, commenting on the
situation here and across the border. Fortunately, her mind had seemed
to quicken with her sensibility, so that she grasped, or partly
grasped, ideas that might well have meant nothing to her.
He proposed to take her out to see the town after he had spent an hour
in his study. Though it would again postpone her explanation, Elsie
decided she might as well go a step further and get a better idea of
the place for which Elsie Moss was to exchange New York and her
ambition. The day promised heat; the girl was so tired of her
travelling-suit that she was tempted to open her trunk and get out a
linen frock and her Panama hat, but she wouldn't allow herself to yield.
They were out nearly two hours, strolling leisurely through the quiet
old streets. The church and parish-house and a large hall were across
the common, the library and museum nearer the centre of the town--all
dignified, rather stately, very attractive buildings in harmonizing
styles of architecture, whose low and rambling character, with the ivy
that well-nigh covered them, and the wonderful green of their lawns,
gave them an air of age, particularly appealing to one whose home had
been in the West. Handsome houses and charming cottages bespoke their
attention as they walked through the wide avenue with double rows of
elms on either side, and grass-plots separating the walks from the
highway. Just to wander under that leafy arch of a June morning, with
glimpses of blue sky and white cloud, was a sensation that made the
thought of New York appalling. Cousin Julia had, indeed, spoken once
of going to the shore; but who wanted to go to the shore! For herself,
nothing seemed so attractive as tall old trees, abundance of green
turf, New England, and--_Enderby_!
And all the while she became more aware of the unconscious appeal on
the part of Mr. Middleton. As they went on, more and more the girl
felt how eagerly he had looked forward to the coming of his niece, how
he had anticipated her companionship. And she understood dimly that
his eagerness to show her the finer points of everything was not only
the desire to make her share his enthusiasm, but a desire to begin at
once--to start out friends and companions.
She returned only the more oppressed by the sense of remissness--of
remorse. Kate met her at the door of the chamber she had occupied and
proudly ushered her in. A real transformation had taken place. Kate
could accomplish wonders when she set out, and the great handsome room
had been so thoroughly swept and garnished that everything was like
new, only with the sense of the dignity of age. The clothes-press,
too, had been cleared out (at the expense of the corresponding one in
the chamber opposite!); the little wash-room shone; there was abundance
of towels and fresh bed-linen, and a vase of sweet peas stood on the
freshly laundered cover of the dresser.
Elsie turned gratefully to Kate, but spoke regretfully.
"Oh, Katy, thank you, but I'm sorry you have taken so much trouble.
I----"
"Oh, Miss Moss, dear, I love to do it, and I'll keep it so all the time
if you'll only stay," urged Kate. "Now don't tell _me_, I've seen it
in your eyes that you're homesick and don't like the look o' things,
and then you ain't opened your trunk, and your dresses all packed in
wrinkles like as not. Do try it a bit longer, please, miss. I promise
you things'll be better all over the house. You know there'd be more
satisfaction keepin' things up for a pretty girl like you as would
appreciate than for a woman as lays round all the time and don't take
no interest, though believe _me_, she eats as good as any one, and I
can't keep my story-books long enough to find out how they come out at
the end if she gets her eye on 'em. All she does is to throw things
round for me to pick up, though I will say for her she's pleasant and
good-natured, and always a born lady. And Mr. Middleton don't hardly
know whether things is upside down or right side up; but he's good as
gold and lonesome, though he don't never let on. You can be such a
comfort to him; all he hears at home now is about her aches and pains.
You couldn't guess how he's blossomed out since you come. He ain't
talked so much for years, and he was a-singin' to hisself this mornin'
as he hung round wonderin' if you was coming to breakfast--_she_ never
does. Now Miss Elsie, you jest stand by him. Let me tell you, you'll
run up against lots worse things if you set out to earn your own
livin'."
Elsie was tempted, but again the thought of Mrs. Middleton arrested
her. And by the time Kate shouted inelegantly up the stair that lunch
was ready, the girl had decided to explain everything directly
afterward and go to Boston to catch the same train Elsie Moss had taken
yesterday. And if Mrs. Middleton should appear and attempt to embrace
her, she would say: "Wait, please, I have something to tell you that
will change everything!"
That lady stood at the newel-post awaiting her. She wore a wrapper of
lavender cassimere to-day, elaborately trimmed with lace and knots of
pink ribbon. Somewhat fresher than the pink one, it was not
conspicuously so, and her hair was truly a "sight." Elsie was dumb:
she couldn't make the prepared speech nor any other. She tried to keep
at a distance by reaching out her hand formally. But it proved
useless, and again she was gathered to her hostess's heart.
The strangest feature was Mr. Middleton's behavior. He seemed as
surprised and delighted to see his wife appear at lunch, as fearful
lest she overtax herself, as if she were her own very opposite. The
girl couldn't comprehend how one so intelligent, so refined, of such
exquisite taste, apparently, could be so blunt in this one particular.
She couldn't understand how he could endure, much less care for, this
ugly, withered, yellow, untidy woman. However, it made her own
position somewhat easier. If he were really aware how impossibly
vulgar she was, and took it seriously to heart, Elsie wasn't sure if
even thus early she should be able to leave him to bear such misery
alone. His unconscious loneliness was appealing enough; conscious
unhappiness might have proved more than she could have withstood.
He was called from the table to the telephone. Elsie hoped he wouldn't
make any engagement for directly after lunch. If he should, she
couldn't risk missing her train. She would speak out at once. She
would say: "Oh, Mr. Middleton, I'll say good-by, for I shan't be here
when you return." And then she would explain briefly and he wouldn't
have time to take it hard while she was there to witness.