“Well, you’re going to the gayest place on the coast, and when you come
back in the fall I shall expect you to bring us some startling ideas for
our winter fun, Constance. Do see if you can’t pick up something really
new. We’ve done the same old thing so long, you know! Well, goodbye.
Have a good time!”
[Sidenote: Choosing Companions]
Miss Osgood stood on the platform and waved her handkerchief to the Yule
children and their delicate little mother, who were off for Greenwood
Beach for the month of August. The Yule young people were much flattered
by Miss Osgood’s attention, for she was a young matron in a very
fashionable private “finishing school” for young ladies. She was also
quite a favorite in the society outside of the school, as well as the
organizer of all the social functions within it. Constance, especially
(who at eighteen had just finished high school and would be “coming out”
next winter), thought she was a lucky girl to have Miss Osgood notice
her in such a way as to indicate that it would be possible for her to
suggest valuable ideas to Miss Osgood’s fertile mind. Inwardly she
resolved that if any startling ideas were floating around at Greenwood
Beach, she would bring them back and lay them at Miss Osgood’s feet. Her
brother Clarence, a sophomore at college; Helen, who was a high school
sophomore, and Kenyon, just finishing grammar school, were as eager as
Constance for good times; but Constance was the leader, and as her
mother was not strong enough thoroughly to oversee her children’s lives,
Constance led the others in whatever they did.
“Oh, you dear—it’s so lucky you came tonight!” one of her friends
gushed, as they entered the hotel which was to be their temporary home,
late Saturday afternoon. “We’re planning a coaching party for all day
tomorrow, and need two more to make up the party. Won’t you and your
brother go?”
Constance reflected. She knew her mother, who was at the desk arranging
for rooms, would want them to go to church the next day, and to rest
after the long trip. Still, going to church and resting gave one no
startling ideas, and it was certainly not having “a good time.” So she
consented, and later cajoled her reluctant mother into a grudging
consent.
Having started out with the idea of social gayety rather than of rest
and recreation, Constance soon became a leader in the gayest life at the
hotel. She even planned the champagne supper at the old sailors’ tavern,
which was written up in the New York papers. Her old friends, the
wholesome girls with whom she had tramped and gone swimming in previous
summers, soon found that she had no time for them, and began to avoid
her. The month resolved itself, for her and Clarence and Helen, into a
feverish rush of engagements. Constance came home in September tired and
sophisticated, but full of those sensational ideas that Miss Osgood had
said she wanted. She met Miss Osgood at a tea before long, and hoping to
gain her notice and become her companion, she regaled the ladies present
with a lively account of her summer’s gayety.
After she had gone, there was a little silence. Then Miss Osgood said to
the other women:
“Isn’t it a pity the Greenwood Beach should have spoiled Constance so?
She was such a sweet girl last summer, and now she seems like a jaded
old society belle, and a belle not too particular as to her companions
at that. I suppose she’ll be the rage this winter, but I shall rather
steer clear of her.”