"WHERE IGNORANCE IS BLISS."
The trip from Berkeley to San Francisco was a brilliant success from
Edgar's standpoint, but Polly would have told you that she never worked
harder in her life.
"I 'll just say 'How do you do?' to your mother, and then be off," said
Edgar, as they neared the house.
"Oh, but you surely will stay to dinner with us!" said Polly, with the
most innocent look of disappointment on her face,--a look of such
obvious grief that a person of any feeling could hardly help wishing to
remove it, if possible. "You see, Edgar" (putting the latch-key in the
door), "mamma is so languid and ill that she cannot indulge in many
pleasures, and I had quite counted on you to amuse her a little for me
this evening. But come up, and you shall do as you like after dinner."
"I 've brought you a charming surprise, mamacita!" called Polly from
the stairs: "an old friend whom I picked up in the woods like a
wild-flower and brought home to you." ("Wild-flower is a good name for
him," she thought.)
Mrs. Oliver was delighted to see Edgar, but after the first greetings
were over, Polly fancied that she had not closed the front door, and
Edgar offered to go down and make sure.
In a second Polly crossed the room to her mother's side, and whispered
impressively, "Edgar _must_ be kept here until after midnight; I have
good reasons that I will explain when we are alone. Keep him
somehow,--anyhow!"
Mrs. Oliver had not lived sixteen years with Polly without learning to
leap to conclusions. "Run down and ask Mrs. Howe if she will let us
have her hall-bedroom tonight," she replied; "nod your head for yes
when you come back, and I 'll act accordingly; I have a request to make
of Edgar, and am glad to have so early an opportunity of talking with
him."
"We did close the door, after all," said Edgar, coming in again. "What
a pretty little apartment you have here! I have n't seen anything so
cosy and homelike for ages."
"Then make yourself at home in it," said Mrs. Oliver, while Polly
joined in with, "Is n't that a pretty fire in the grate? I 'll give
you one rose-colored lamp with your firelight. Here, mamacita, is the
rocker for you on one side; here, Edgar, is our one 'man's chair' for
you on the other. Stretch out your feet as lazily as you like on my
new goatskin rug. You are our only home-friend in San Francisco; and
oh, how mamma will spoil you whenever she has the chance! Now talk to
each other cosily while the 'angel of the house' cooks dinner."
It may be mentioned here that as Mrs. Chadwick's monthly remittances
varied from sixty to seventy-five dollars, but never reached the
promised eighty-five, Polly had dismissed little Yung Lee for a month,
two weeks of which would be the Christmas vacation, and hoped in this
way to make up deficiencies. The sugar-bowl and ginger-jar were
stuffed copiously with notes of hand signed "Cigar-box," but held a
painfully small amount of cash.
"Can't I go out and help Polly?" asked Edgar, a little later. "I
should never have agreed to stay and dine if I had known that she was
the cook."
"Go out, by all means; but you need n't be anxious. Ours is a sort of
doll-house-keeping. We buy everything cooked, as far as possible, and
Polly makes play of the rest. It all seems so simple and interesting
to plan for two when we have been used to twelve and fourteen."
"May I come in?" called Edgar from the tiny dining-room to Polly, who
had laid aside her Sunday finery and was clad in brown Scotch gingham
mostly covered with ruffled apron.
"Yes, if you like; but you won't be spoiled here, so don't hope it.
Mamma and I are two very different persons. Tie that apron round your
waist; I 've just begun the salad-dressing; is your intelligence equal
to stirring it round and round and pouring in oil drop by drop, while I
take up the dinner?"
"Fully. Just try me. I 'll make it stand on its head in three
minutes!"
Meanwhile Polly set on the table a platter of lamb-chops, some delicate
potato chips which had come out of a pasteboard box, a dish of canned
French peas, and a mound of currant-jelly.
"That is good," she remarked critically, coming back to her apprentice,
who was toiling with most unnecessary vigor, so that the veins stood
out boldly on his forehead. "You're really not stupid, for a boy; and
you have n't 'made a mess,' which is more than I hoped. Now, please
pour the dressing over those sliced tomatoes; set them on the
side-table in the banquet-hall; put the plate in the sink (don't stare
at me!); open a bottle of Apollinaris for mamma,--dig out the cork with
a hairpin, I 've lost the corkscrew; move three chairs up to the
dining-table (oh, it's so charming to have three!); light the silver
candlesticks in the centre of the table; go in and bring mamma out in
style; see if the fire needs coal; and I'll be ready by that time."
"I can never remember, but I fly! Oh, what an excellent slave-driver
was spoiled in you!" said Edgar.
The simple dinner was delicious, and such a welcome change from the
long boarding-house table at which Edgar had eaten for over a year.
The candles gave a soft light; there was a bowl of yellow flowers
underneath them. Mrs. Oliver looked like an elderly Dresden-china
shepherdess in her pale blue wrapper, and Polly did n't suffer from the
brown gingham, with its wide collar and cuffs of buff embroidery, and
its quaint full sleeves. She had burned two small blisters on her
wrist: they were scarcely visible to the naked eye, but she succeeded
in obtaining as much sympathy for them as if they had been mortal
wounds. Her mother murmured 'Poor darling wrist' and 'kissed the place
to make it well.' Edgar found a bit of thin cambric and bound up the
injured member with cooling flour, Mistress Polly looking demurely on,
thinking meanwhile how much safer he was with them than with the
objectionable Tony. After the lamb-chops and peas had been discussed,
Edgar insisted on changing the plates and putting on the tomato salad;
then Polly officiated at the next course, bringing in coffee, sliced
oranges, and delicious cake from the neighboring confectioner's.
"Can't I wash the dishes?" asked Edgar, when the feast was ended.
"They are not going to be washed, at least by us. This is a great
occasion, and the little girl downstairs is coming up to clear away the
dinner things."
Then there was the pleasant parlor again, and when the candles were
lighted in the old-fashioned mirror over the fireplace, everything wore
a festive appearance. The guitar was brought out, and Edgar sang
college songs till Mrs. Oliver grew so bright that she even hummed a
faint second from her cosy place on the sofa.
And then Polly must show Edgar how she had made Austin Dobson's
"Milkmaid Song" fit "Nelly Ely," and she must teach him the pretty
words.
"Across the grass,
I saw her pass,
She comes with tripping pace;
A maid I know,
And March winds blow
Her hair across her face.
Hey! Dolly! Ho! Dolly!
Dolly shall be mine,
Before the spray is white with May
Or blooms the eglantine."
By this time the bandage had come off the burned wrist, and Edgar must
bind it on again, and Polly shrieked and started when he pinned the end
over, and Edgar turned pale at the thought of his brutal awkwardness,
and Polly burst into a ringing peal of laughter and confessed that the
pin had n't touched her, and Edgar called her a deceitful little
wretch. This naturally occupied some time, and then there was the
second verse:--
"The March winds blow,
I watch her go,
Her eye is blue and clear;
Her cheek is brown
And soft as down
To those who see it near.
Hey! Dolly! Ho! Dolly!
Dolly shall be mine,
Before the spray is white with May
Or blooms the eglantine."
After this singing-lesson was over it was nearly eleven o'clock, but up
to this time Edgar had shown no realizing sense of his engagements.
"The dinner is over, and the theatre party is safe," thought Polly.
"Now comes the 'tug of war,' that mysterious game of billiards."
But Mrs. Oliver was equal to the occasion. When Edgar looked at his
watch, she said: "Polly, run and get Mrs. Noble's last letter, dear;"
and then, when she was alone with Edgar, "My dear boy, I have a favor
to ask of you, and you must be quite frank if it is not convenient for
you to grant it. As to-morrow will be Saturday, perhaps you have no
recitations, and if not, would it trouble you too much to stay here all
night and attend to something for me in the morning? I will explain the
matter, and then you can answer me more decidedly. I have received a
letter from a Washington friend who seems to think it possible that a
pension may be granted to me. He sends a letter of introduction to
General M------, at the Presidio, who, he says, knew Colonel Oliver,
and will be able to advise me in the matter. I am not well enough to
go there for some days, and of course I do not like to send Polly
alone. If you could go out with her, give him the letter of
introduction, and ask him kindly to call upon us at his leisure, and
find out also if there is any danger in a little delay just now while I
am ill, it would be a very great favor."
"Of course I will, with all the pleasure in life, Mrs. Oliver," replied
Edgar, with the unspoken thought, "Confound it! There goes my game; I
promised the fellows to be there, and they 'll guy me for staying away!
However, there 's nothing else to do. I should n't have the face to go
out now and come in at one or two o'clock in the morning."
Polly entered just then with the letter.
"Edgar is kind enough to stay all night with us, dear, and take you to
the Presidio on the pension business in the morning. If you will see
that his room is all right, I will say good-night now. Our
guest-chamber is downstairs, Edgar; I hope you will be very
comfortable. Breakfast at half past eight, please."
When the door of Mrs. Howe's bedroom closed on Edgar, Polly ran
upstairs, and sank exhausted on her own bed.
"Now, mamma, 'listen to my tale of woe!' I got off at the wrong
station,--yes, it was stupid; but wait: perhaps I was led to be stupid.
I lost my way, could n't find Professor Salazar's house, could n't find
anything else. As I was wandering about in a woodsy road, trying to
find a house of some kind, I heard a crowd of boys singing vociferously
as they came through the trees. I did n 't care to meet them, all
alone as I was, though of course there was nothing to be afraid of, so
I stepped off the road behind some trees and bushes until they should
pass. It turned out to be half a dozen university students, and at
first I did n't know that Edgar was among them. They were teasing
somebody to go over to San Francisco for a dinner, then to the
minstrels, and then to wind up with a game of billiards, and other
gayeties which were to be prolonged indefinitely. What dreadful things
may have been included I don't know. A wretch named 'Tony' did most of
the teasing, and he looked equal to planning any sort of mischief. All
at once I thought I recognized a familiar voice. I peeped out, and
sure enough it was Edgar Noble whom they were coaxing. He did n't want
to go a bit,--I 'll say that for him,--but they were determined that he
should. I didn't mind his going to dinners and minstrels, of course,
but when they spoke of being out until after midnight, or to-morrow
morning, and when one beetle-browed, vulgar-looking creature offered to
lend him a 'tenner,' I thought of the mortgage on the Noble ranch, and
the trouble there would be if Edgar should get into debt, and I felt I
must do something to stop him, especially as he said himself that
everything depended on his next examinations."
"But how did you accomplish it?" asked Mrs. Oliver, sitting up in bed
and glowing with interest.
"They sat down by the roadside, smoking and talking it over. There was
n't another well-born, well-bred looking young man in the group. Edgar
seemed a prince among them, and I was so ashamed of him for having such
friends! I was afraid they would stay there until dark, but they
finally got up and walked toward the station. I waited a few moments,
went softly along behind them, and when I was near enough I cleared my
throat (oh, it was a fearful moment!), and said, 'I beg your pardon,
but can you direct me to Professor Salazar's house?' and then in a
dramatic tone, 'Why, it is--is n't it?--Edgar Noble of Santa Barbara!'
He joined me, of course. Oh, I can't begin to tell you all the steps
of the affair, I am so exhausted. Suffice it to say that he walked to
Professor Salazar's with me to make my excuses, came over to town with
me, came up to the house, I trembling for fear he would slip through my
fingers at any moment; then, you know, he stayed to dinner, I in terror
all the time as the fatal hours approached and departed; and there he
is, 'the captive of my bow and spear,' tucked up in Mrs. Howe's best
bed, thanks to your ingenuity! I could never have devised that last
plot, mamma; it was a masterpiece!"
"You did a kind deed, little daughter," said Mrs. Oliver, with a kiss.
"But poor Mrs. Noble! What can we do for her? We cannot play
policemen all the time. We are too far from Edgar to know his plans,
and any interference of which he is conscious would be worse than
nothing. I cannot believe that he is far wrong yet. He certainly
never appeared better; so polite and thoughtful and friendly. Well, we
must let the morrow bring counsel."
"I hope that smirking, odious Tony is disappointed!" said Polly
viciously, as she turned out the gas. "I distinctly heard him tell
Edgar to throw a handkerchief over my hair if we should pass any wild
cattle! How I 'd like to banish him from this vicinity! Invite Edgar
to dinner next week, mamma; not too soon, or he will suspect missionary
work. Boys hate to be missionaried, and I 'm sure I don't blame them.
I hope he is happy downstairs in his little prison! He ought to be, if
ignorance is bliss!"