AN UNWELCOME PROPOSITION
Though Dorothy enjoyed the fun of the motor-boat and the roof-garden,
and was always happy whether working or playing, yet perhaps she liked
best of all, to lie in her hammock of a summer afternoon, and read or
day-dream as she looked across the lake and watched the shadows on the
distant hills.
On these occasions she felt sure she could be a poet, if she only knew
how to express properly the fancies that danced through her brain.
Sometimes she would provide herself with a pencil and paper, but though
she might write a line or a phrase, she never could get any further. The
attempt to put her thoughts into words always produced a crude and
stilted result which she knew instinctively was not poetry.
"If I only could learn the wordy part of it," she said to herself, "I am
sure I have the right thoughts to put into a poem."
As she lay thinking about all this, one warm afternoon, she suddenly
heard a voice say: "_Is_ this a hotel, or isn't it?"
Dorothy jumped, and sitting up in her hammock, saw a strange lady, who
had apparently just walked into the Domain.
The newcomer was of the aggressive type. She was short and stout, with a
determined-looking face and a rather unattractive personal appearance.
She wore a short, thick brown walking-skirt, and a brown linen
shirt-waist, and heavy common-sense shoes. A plain brown felt hat was
tied securely to her head by means of a brown veil knotted under her
chin. She carried in one hand a small suit-case, and in the other a
stout walking-stick.
Pretty Dorothy, in her fluffy summer muslin, looked at the stranger
curiously a moment, and then, quickly recovering her poise, said
politely: "Yes, this is a hotel. Are you looking for board?"
"No," said the stranger, "I am on a tramp. In fact I _am_ a tramp, a
lady-tramp. I am spending the whole summer walking about the country,
enjoying myself."
"You are fond of walking, then?" said Dorothy, by way of making
conversation.
"No, I am not," replied the lady-tramp; "I am doing it to reduce my
flesh, and I am enjoying myself because I have succeeded. Success is
always enjoyable."
"Yes, it is;" and Dorothy herself, felt a satisfaction in the thought
that she too was succeeding in her summer's work.
"My name," went on her visitor, "is Lucille Dillingham. I tramp all day,
and at night I stay at any hotel or farmhouse near which I happen to
find myself. And so I want to stay at this hotel to-night, and if you
will tell me where to find the proprietor, I won't trouble you further."
"I am the proprietor," said Dorothy, smiling, for she felt quite sure
this statement would surprise Miss Lucille Dillingham.
"If that's a joke," was the response, "I can't see any particular fun in
it. But no matter, I will inquire at the hotel myself."
"But truly, Miss Dillingham, I am the proprietor," and Dorothy stood up
and put on the most dignified air of which she was capable. "I am
Dorothy Dorrance, and this hotel is the property of my grandmother; but
I am the acknowledged proprietor, and I shall be very glad to talk to
you as such."
"You don't mean it, child! well if that is not the greatest I ever heard
of! I am a great believer myself in the capability of women; but for a
girl like you to run a hotel, is one ahead of _my_ experience! Tell me
all about it."
"There isn't much to tell," said Dorothy, who was not at all pleasantly
impressed by the air and manner of the lady-tramp, and she couldn't help
thinking to herself that the tramp was more in evidence than the lady.
"However," she went on, courteously, "I live here with my grandmother,
and my brother and two sisters. We have entire charge of this hotel, and
we try to manage it in a way to satisfy our guests and ourselves. If
you wish to stay for the night, Miss Dillingham, I am sure we can make
you comfortable."
Miss Dillingham's eyes sparkled.
"I will do better than that," she cried; "I will stay all the time, and
I will run the hotel for you. I am a splendid manager, and much better
fitted for that sort of thing than a frivolous young girl like you. Oh,
we'll get along famously!"
Dorothy began to wonder whether Miss Dillingham might not have escaped
from some lunatic asylum, but she only said, "Thank you very much for
your kind offer, but the hotel is running smoothly, and I really can't
see the necessity for any change in the administration." Just at this
moment Fairy came flying across the lawn, and flinging herself into the
hammock, drew the sides of it together around her athletic little body,
and with a peculiar kicking motion twisted herself and the hammock over
and over in a sort of revolving somersault. Then still holding the sides
she poked up her golden head, crowned with its big white bow, and gazed
at the stranger.
"You must 'scuse me," she said, "for 'pearing so unsuspectedly. But I
always come that way when I am in a hurry, and I'm always in a hurry."
"This is my sister Fairy, Miss Dillingham," said Dorothy, and Fairy
bounced out of the hammock, and gracefully offered her hand to the
stranger.
"How do you do?" she said. "I am very glad to see you, and I hope you
have come to stay, 'cause it's time we had some new boarders. I am
'fraid we are running behind with our 'spenses."
Dorothy bit her lip to keep from laughing at Fairy's attitude of
proprietorship, and Miss Dillingham stared at the child in blank
amazement.
"Ah," she said, "is this another proprietor of this very remarkable
hotel?"
"I'm not purporietor," said Fairy, "my sister is that; and my brother is
clerk. I am just a general helper, and sometimes I help with the babies
and the parrot."
Miss Dillingham seemed more and more bewildered, but she said, "I think
you're all lunatics, and need somebody to look after you, and straighten
you out. I shall stay here for the night, and look into this thing. It
interests me extremely. Pray have you many boarders, and are they all as
crazy as yourselves?"
Dorothy resented this question, but she kept her temper under control,
and replied, "We have a number of boarders and we consider them quite
sane, and they seem to think us so. If you wish to stay for the night, I
will take you to the house at once and give you a room."
Miss Dillingham gave a sort of exasperated sniff, which Dorothy took to
mean acquiescence, and they all started for the house.
Fairy walked backwards in front of the others, whirling all the way
round, now and then, to make sure her path was clear.
"Did you really think we were crazy?" she asked, much interested in the
idea.
"I did," replied Miss Dillingham, "and I am not yet convinced to the
contrary."
Suddenly Fairy realized that this was another occasion for registration,
and with one of her loudest shrieks at the thought, she darted towards
the house and disappeared through the front door.
"Leicester!" she cried, and then with a prolonged yell, "Les--ter!"
Leicester appeared by a jump through a window. "What's up?" he said.
"Oh, Less, there's a new boarder, and she's crazy, and she thinks we
are, and she will want to register. Do get in the coop, quick!"
Grasping the situation, Leicester flung himself through the wicket door
and behind the office desk. In a jiffy, he had assumed his clerkly air,
and had opened the great register at the proper date.
When Dorothy appeared, a moment later, with Miss Dillingham, Leicester
offered the pen to the newcomer with such a businesslike air that there
seemed really no further room to doubt the responsibility of the hotel
management. Then he rang a bell, and in a moment Mr. Hickox appeared,
and with the deferential demeanor of a porter picked up Miss
Dillingham's suit-case and stick.
Then Dorothy escorted the lady-tramp to her room, and returned a few
moments later, to find the other children waiting for an explanation.
"Where did you catch it?" asked Leicester.
"What is it?" inquired Lilian.
"It's only for one night," explained Dorothy, laughing; "but, Less, she
wants to run the hotel! She thinks we aren't responsible!"
It really seemed inevitable, so Lilian started the Dorrance groan. The
others took it up, with their usual enthusiasm, and though it was of
late a forbidden indulgence, they let themselves go for once, and the
result was an unearthly din that brought grandma to the scene at once.
"Children!" she exclaimed. "You know you promised not to do that!"
"I know, grandma," explained Fairy, "but truly, this is a specialty
occasion. You don't know what's happened, and what she wants to do."
But before Mrs. Dorrance could learn what had happened, the
newly-registered guest herself, came flying down the staircase.
"What _is_ the matter?" she cried; "is the house on fire? Has anybody
been killed?"
"We must 'pollergize, Miss Dillingham," spoke up Fairy; "that's our
Dorrance groan, it belongs to the family; we don't use it much up here,
'cause it wakes up the baby and otherwise irritations the boarders."
"I should think it would," put in Miss Dillingham, with conviction.
"Yes, it does," went on Fairy, agreeably; "and so you see, we don't 'low
ourselves to 'spress our feelings that way very often. But to-day we had
a purtickular reason for it, and so somehow we found ourselves
a-groaning before we knew it."
Ignoring Fairy and her voluble explanation, Miss Dillingham turned to
Mrs. Dorrance, and inquired with dignity: "Are you the lady of the
house?"
"I am the owner of the house," said Grandma Dorrance, with her own
gentle dignity, "and my granddaughter Dorothy is in charge of it. I
must ask you to forgive the disturbance the children just made, and I
think I can safely assure you it will not happen again."
Grandma Dorrance looked at her grandchildren, with an air of confidence
that was responded to by a look of loving loyalty from each pair of
laughing young eyes.
"I don't understand it at all," said Miss Dillingham; "but I will now
return to my room, and take a short nap, if the house can be kept quiet.
Then later, I have a proposition which I wish to lay before you, and
which will doubtless prove advantageous to all concerned."
Miss Dillingham stalked majestically up the stairs again, and the
Dorrances consulted as to what she could mean by her extraordinary
proposition.
"I know," said Dorothy, "she wants to run the hotel. She informed me
that she was much better qualified for such a business than I am."
"Oh, ho!" cried Leicester, "she is, is she! Well I like her nerve!"
"I wish she hadn't come," said Fairy, beginning to cry. "I don't want
her to run this hotel, and Dorothy and all of us only be just boarders."
"Don't cry, Fairy, whatever you do," exclaimed Leicester. "If you put up
one of your best crying-spells, it will make more noise than the groan
did, and our new friend will come racing down-stairs again."
This suggestion silenced Fairy, and Leicester went on: "Do you really
mean, Dot, that she proposed seriously to take charge of the Domain?"
"Yes, she did; and I think she expects to make a business proposition to
that effect."
"All right, then; let's give her as good as she sends. Let's pretend
that we entertain her proposition, and see what she has to say for
herself."
"You'd better be careful," said Lilian, the practical, "sometimes people
get caught in their own trap; and if you pretend you're going to let her
have charge of affairs here, first thing you know she'll be at the head
of things, and we will all be nowhere."
"Huh!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I'm not afraid of being dethroned by any
lady-tramp that happens along. Just let her try it!"
"However she might frighten us singly," said Leicester, "I rather guess
that the Dorrance family as a whole, can stand up for their rights."
"Don't be foolish, children," said grandma; "Dorothy must have
misunderstood the lady. She couldn't have meant to make such a strange
proposition at a moment's notice."
* * * * *
But apparently that is just what Miss Lucille Dillingham did mean. For
that evening, after dinner, she gathered the Dorrance children round her
in one of the small drawing-rooms, and talked to them in a
straightforward if unacceptable way.
"Now don't say a word," she said, "until I have thoroughly explained my
intention."
"We won't say a word, Miss Dillingham," said Fairy, "until you say your
speech. But please say it plain, 'cause I'm the littlest one and
sometimes I can't understand big words. 'Course I say big words myself,
sometimes, but I understand my own, only other people's aren't always
tellergibble to me. And so, you see I just have to----"
"That will do, Fairy," interrupted Leicester; "we've agreed not to do
our talking until Miss Dillingham is through."
"In a few words, then," began Miss Dillingham, with the air of one who
is satisfied of a foregone conclusion, "I want to say that in the few
hours I have been here I have thoroughly acquainted myself with the
conditions and possibilities of this hotel. And I have discovered that
it is improperly managed by incompetent hands, and that it is,
therefore, a lucky stroke of fortune for you that I happened along just
now. I propose to assume entire charge of the hotel, give it a new name,
establish new methods of management, and control absolutely the receipts
and expenditures."
If the four Dorrances hadn't been possessed of a strong sense of humor,
they would have been appalled by this extraordinary proposition. As it
was, it struck them all as being very funny, and though with difficulty
restraining a smile, Leicester inquired, with every appearance of
serious interest, "And where do we come in?"
"You will be merely boarders," announced Miss Dillingham, "and can run
and play as befits children of your ages. It may seem strange to you at
first, that I should make you this generous proposition on so short an
acquaintance, but it is my habit to make quick decisions, and I rarely
regret them."
"Would you mind telling us your reasons for wanting to do this thing?"
asked Lilian.
"My reasons are perhaps too subtle for young minds to understand. They
are partly ethical, for I cannot make it seem right that a girl of
sixteen should be so weighted with responsibility; and, too, I am
actuated in part by motives of personal advantage. I may say the project
seems to possess a pecuniary interest for me----"
"Miss Dillingham," said Fairy fixing her wide-open eyes on the lady's
face, "'scuse me for interrupting, but truly I can't understand all
those words. What does etherkle mean? and what is tercumerary? They are
nice words and I would like to save them to use myself, if I knew a
little bit what they meant."
"Never mind what they mean, Fairy," said Leicester; "and Miss
Dillingham, it is not necessary for us to consider this matter any
further. You have made your proposition, and I am sure that I speak for
the four of us, when I say that we decline it absolutely and without
further discussion."
When Leicester chose, he could adopt a tone and manner that seemed far
more like a man, than like a boy of his years; and Miss Dillingham
suddenly realized that she was not dealing with quite such childish
minds as she had supposed.
"My brother is quite right," said Dorothy, and she, too, put on her most
grown-up manner, which, by the way, was very grown-up indeed. "Although
surprised at what you have said, we understand clearly your offer, and
we respectfully but very positively decline it _in toto_."
As Dorothy confessed afterwards, she didn't know exactly what _in toto_
meant, but she felt quite certain it came in appropriately just there.
Miss Dillingham seemed to think so too, or at any rate she was impressed
by the attitude of the Dorrance young people, and without a further
word, she rose and stalked away and they saw her no more that night. The
next morning she was up early and after a somewhat curt leave-taking,
she tramped away.
"I think I could have liked her," said Dorothy, thoughtfully, "if she
hadn't tried to steal away from us our Dorrance Domain."