THE DORRANCE DOMAIN
Alternately resting and climbing, at last they reached the top, and for
the first time had a full view of the Dorrance Domain.
"Oh," said Dorothy in an awe-struck whisper, "that's our home! All of
it!"
Leicester, from sheer lack of words to express his feelings, turned
double somersaults on the grass, while Fairy danced around in her usual
flutterbudget way, singing at the top of her voice.
Lilian, the practical, after one look at the great building, said
excitedly, "Grandmother, where are the keys, quick?"
The hotel itself was a white frame building, about two hundred feet long
and three stories high. Huge pillars supported verandas that ran all
around the house on each story. Broad steps led up to the main
entrance, and at one corner was a large tower which rose for several
stories above the main part of the house.
Although the whole place had a deserted aspect,--the shutters were all
closed, and the lawns uncared for,--yet it did not seem out of repair,
or uninhabitable. Indeed, the apparent care with which it had been
closed up and made secure was reassuring in itself, and the children
eagerly followed Lilian who had gained possession of the front door key.
With little difficulty they succeeded in unfastening the great front
doors and threw them wide open to admit the May sunshine.
They found themselves at first in a large hall which ran straight
through the house. It was furnished in red, with a velvet carpet and
satin brocade sofas, which seemed to the Dorrances quite the most
beautiful furnishings they had ever looked upon.
Arched off from this hall was a good-sized room, which Leicester
declared to be the office, and as soon as the windows of that could be
thrown open, the desks and safe and other office furniture proved he was
right. Opening a wicket door, he flew in behind the great desk, and
throwing open a large book which was there, he turned it around towards
Dorothy with a flourish, and asked her to register.
"Oh," she cried, wild with excitement, "it's just like the Sleeping
Beauty's palace. Everything is just as they went off and left it. Who
registered last, Leicester?"
"The last is Mr. Henry Sinclair, who arrived here in July, summer before
last."
"And nobody's been here since!" exclaimed Lilian; "just think of it! It
seems as if we ought to register."
"You may if you like," said Leicester; "it's our register, you know."
But the ink was all dried up, and the pens all rusty, so they left the
office and went to make further explorations.
Across the hall from the office was the great parlor. Many hands make
light work at opening windows, and in a jiffy the parlor was flooded
with sunshine.
Then there were more exclamations of delight, for the parlor
appointments were truly palatial. Gorgeous frescoes and wall
decorations, mirrors in heavily gilded frames, brocaded hangings, ornate
furniture, and a wonderful crystal chandelier made a general effect that
contrasted most pleasurably with Mrs. Cooper's unpretentious
drawing-room.
Even a piano was there, and flinging it open, Dorothy struck up a brisk
two-step, and in a moment the twins were dancing up and down the long
room, while Fairy, who had been dancing all the time, simply kept on.
Grandma Dorrance sank onto a sofa and watched her happy grandchildren,
no less happy herself.
It was a daring experiment, and she did not know how it would turn out,
but she was glad that at last she was able to give the children, for a
time at least, that desire of their heart,--a home in the country.
After the grand parlor, and several smaller reception rooms, all equally
attractive, they went back across the hall, and through the office to
investigate the other side of the house. Here they found the
dining-rooms. One immense one, containing a perfect forest of tables
and chairs, and two smaller ones.
One of the smaller ones which overlooked the lake, Dorothy declared
should be their family dining-room.
"There's more room in the big dining-room," said Lilian, slyly.
"Yes, there is," said Dorothy; "and I _do_ hate to be cramped. Perhaps
we had better use the big one, and each one have a whole table all to
ourselves."
"No," said Grandma Dorrance, "we'll use the small one every day, and
then some time when we invite all Mrs. Cooper's family to visit us, we
can use the large one."
"Oh," groaned Lilian, "don't mention Mrs. Cooper's dining-room while
we're in this one."
After the dining-rooms came the kitchens, supplied with everything the
most exacting housekeeper could desire; but all on the large scale
requisite for a summer hotel.
"I should think _anybody_ could cook here," said Dorothy; "and as I
propose to do the cooking for the family, I'm glad everything is so
complete and convenient."
"You never can cook up all these things," said Fairy, looking with awe
at the rows of utensils; "not even if we have seventeen meals a day."
"_Will_ you look at the dish towels!" exclaimed Lilian, throwing open
the door of a cupboard, where hundreds of folded dish towels were
arranged in neat piles.
At this climax, Mrs. Dorrance sank down on a wooden settle that stood in
the kitchen, and clasping her hands, exclaimed, "It's too much, girls,
it's too big; we never can do anything with it."
"Now you mustn't look at it that way, granny, dear," said Dorothy,
brightly; "this is our home; and you know, be it ever so humble, there's
no place like home. And if a home and all its fixings are too big,
instead of too little, why, you'll have to manage it somehow just the
same. Of course, I'm overpowered too, at this enormous place, but I
won't own up to it! I will _never_ admit to _anybody_ that I think the
rooms or the house unusually large. I _like_ a big house, and I like
spacious rooms! I _hate_ to be cramped,--as possibly you may have heard
me remark before."
"Good for you, Dot!" cried Leicester. "I won't be phased either. We're
here, and we're here to stay. We're not going to be scared off by a few
square miles of red velvet carpet, and some sixty-foot mirrors!"
"I think the place rather small, myself," said Lilian, who rarely
allowed herself to be outdone in jesting; "I confess _I_ have a little
of that cramped feeling yet."
At this they all laughed, and went on with their tour of the house.
Merely taking a peep into the numerous pantries, laundries, storerooms
and servants' quarters, they concluded to go at once to inspect the
bedrooms.
"Don't go up these stairs," said Leicester turning away from the side
staircase. "Let's go back to the main hall, and go up the grand
staircase, as if we had just arrived, and were being shown to our
rooms."
"Oh, _isn't_ it fun!" cried Fairy, as she hopped along by her brother's
side. "I never had such a fun in my whole life! Wouldn't it be awful if
we were really guests instead of purporietors?"
"_You_ wouldn't be a guest," said Leicester, teasingly; "no
well-conducted summer hotel would take a flibbertigibbet like you to
board!"
"Nobody would take us Dorrances to board anyway, if they could help it,"
said Fairy, complacently; "we all know how obnoxiorous we are."
"I know," said Grandma Dorrance, sighing; "and if we can only make a
little corner of this big place habitable, I shall certainly feel a
great relief in not being responsible for you children to any landlady."
"Oh, come now, granny, we're not so bad, are we?" said Leicester,
patting the old lady's cheek.
"You're not bad at all. You're the best children in the world. But just
so sure as you get shut up in a boarding-house you get possessed of a
spirit of mischief, and I never know what you are going to do next. But
up here I don't _care_ what you do next."
By this time they had reached the entrance hall, and assuming the air
of a proprietor, Leicester, with an elaborate flourish and a profound
bow, said suavely:
"Ah, Mrs. Dorrance, I believe. Would you like to look at our rooms,
madam? We have some very fine suites on the second floor that I feel
sure will please you. Are these your children, madam?"
"We're her grandchildren," volunteered Fairy, anxious to be in the game.
"Incredible! Such a young and charming lady with grandchildren! Now I
should have said _you_ were the grandmother," with another elaborate bow
to Fairy.
Laughing at Leicester's nonsense, they all went up-stairs together, and
discovered a perfect maze of bedrooms.
Scattering in different directions, the children opened door after door,
pulled up blinds, and flung open windows, and screamed to each other to
come and see their discoveries. Tessie followed the tribe around,
wondering if she were really in fairyland. The unsophisticated Irish
girl had never seen a house like this before, and to think it belonged
to the people with whom she was to live, suddenly filled her with a
great awe of the Dorrance family.
"Do you like it, Tessie?" asked Mrs. Dorrance, seeing the girl's amazed
expression.
"Oh, yis, mum! Shure, I niver saw anything so grand, mum. It's a castle,
it is."
"That's right, Tessie," said Leicester; "a castle is the same as a
domain. And all these millions of bedrooms are part of our Domain. Our
very own! Hooray for the Dorrance Domain!"
The wild cheer that accompanied and followed Leicester's hurrah must
have been audible on the other side of Lake Ponetcong. At any rate it
served as a sort of escape-valve for their overflowing enthusiasm, which
otherwise must soon have gotten beyond their control.
"I think," said Mrs. Dorrance, "that it would be wise for you each to
select the bedroom you prefer,--for to-night at least. If you choose to
change your minds to-morrow, I don't know of any one who will object."
"Oh!" said Lilian, "to think of changing your room in a hotel just as
often as you like, and nobody caring a bit! I shall have a different one
every night."
"That won't be my plan," said her grandmother, laughing; "I think I
shall keep the one I'm in, for mine, and make no change."
As it was a large, pleasant, southwest room, with a delightful view of
the lake, it was thought to be just the one for grandma, and they all
willingly agreed.
"Do you suppose there are sheets and pillow-slips and things?" asked
Dorothy, and a pell-mell rush of four explorers soon brought about the
discovery of a wonderful linen room.
Grandma and Tessie were called to look, and all exclaimed at the sight.
It was a large room with shelves on all four sides and the shelves were
piled with neatly-folded clean linen,--sheets, counterpanes,
towels,--everything that was necessary.
"Whoever left this house last," said grandma, "was a wonderful
housekeeper. I should like to see her and compliment her personally."
"Shure, it's wonderful, mum!" said Tessie, still a little dazed by the
succession of wonders.
"Well then, children," went on grandma, "pick out your rooms, and Tessie
can make up your beds for you, and when Mr. Hickox brings the trunks,
they can be brought right up here."
"How clever you are, grannymother," cried Dorothy, kissing her. "I said
I'd direct the arrangements,--and yet I never once thought of all that."
"Never mind, dearie, we don't expect an old head to grow on young
shoulders all at once. And besides, you'll have enough to do
down-stairs. Did I hear you say you're going to get supper? And is
anybody going to build a fire in the kitchen?"
"I'll build the fire," cried Leicester, "just as soon as I select my
room from the hotel clerk."
The boy ran down the hall and in a few moments returned, saying that he
had made a selection, and would take the tower-room.
Of course they all flew to see it, and found a large octagon-shaped
room with windows on five sides, leaving only enough wall space for the
necessary furniture. But it was a beautiful room, "just like being
outdoors," Leicester said, and they all applauded his choice.
Just then the door-bell was heard to ring, and this gave the children a
new sensation.
"Our own door-bell!" cried Dorothy; "only to think of that! Tessie,
please go down to the door!" and Tessie went, with the four Dorrances
following close behind her.