What luck I am in! We are going to Ottawa, Uncle and Mumsie, their
nephew and myself. I am going to attend the Drawing-room. Hoo, hoo!
I had the blues all day before I knew. Perhaps it was because I worked
so hard at this diary this morning. In the afternoon—to get rid of
cobwebs—I walked out by myself. Indeed, I had the blues. I realized I
had lost the grip on life that was mine by inheritance, and I saw no
other in prospect. I feel I am a social derelict.
On my return home I came softly up the stairs and entered my room. Mr.
Bang was with the children and I left the door ajar that I might hear
them.
“Tell me a story, Uncle Dack,” Jessie demanded.
“Red Ridinghood?”
“No, No, another story, a new story, a great big story, that has not got
an end.”
“All stories come to an end sometime Jessie; but I will try and tell you
a long story.”
“Once upon a time a beautiful, young lady set out upon a highway. The
highway was called Life, and beside it grew the flowers of Friendship
and Truth. It ran through a valley and as she journeyed along she beheld
all things about her were very beautiful. The fields, the woods, the
meadows, all lay in contentment and joy. Shadows came, but they quickly
passed and the world seemed more beautiful than if they had never been.
The people she saw travelling on the highway were many and different.
Some had beautiful dresses, such as she wore; others were shabby. Some
carried heavy loads, but all were happy. Some were beautiful, some ugly,
and some were neither good-looking nor plain. Do you understand me,
kiddie?” he asked.
“Yes,” said the child gravely. Anyhow, I understood.
“And the beautiful young lady was happy, and sang gaily as she walked
along. But soon she came to where the road ran beside a great mountain,
and here she was met by a grand lady. This lady was very, very grand;
she wore tinsel, and spangles, and diamonds, and rubies, and saphires,
and emeralds, and pearls, and her name was Ambition. And Ambition smiled
sweetly upon the young lady, and said ‘I am your friend, come with me.’
And the young lady said, ‘Where to?’ and Ambition said, ‘Away up on this
mountain, which is called Society.’ ‘But,’ said the beautiful, young
lady, ‘I am happy, why should I toil?’ To this Ambition made reply,
‘Because if you climb this mountain with me you will be able to look
down upon the rest of the world.’”
“What is a mountain, Uncle Dack? Tell me,” interrupted Jessie.
“A mountain, Jessie, is a great high hill, a hundred times higher than
this house. ‘Will I be happier because I look down upon other people?’
asked the beautiful, young lady. ‘Oh! very much,’ replied Ambition, and
with this she took the young lady’s hand and led her up the hill.”
“Did Ambition have a big, long nose, and long ears, and great, big,
shining teeth?” demanded Jessie.
“No, Jessie, Ambition is naturally pleasing. So they started off,
Ambition and the beautiful young lady. As they left the highway and
stepped on the rising ground, they found people sitting about in groups
and all were very merry and gay. Through these Ambition led the
beautiful, young lady until the ground began to rise more and more, and
here Ambition said to her: ‘Behold the world, does it not appear more
beautiful, now that you may look down upon it?’ And the beautiful, young
lady looked upon the Highway of Life, and the world did appear more
beautiful than when she was on the beaten way. She did not, however, see
the smiling, happy faces, nor hear the gay laughter of the people. But
the laughter of those who also had left the Highway of Life sounded in
her ears, and appeared much more merry, and their smiles were much
broader.
“Ambition then cried, ‘On, on,’ and drew the young lady up the steep
side of the mountain. And the dear girl noticed that the flowers of
Friendship and Truth were much tramped upon and pulled up by the roots,
and she spoke in wonder at it. And Ambition said, ‘Oh, those are only
flowers. They who have gone before have used them to pull themselves up
by.’ But the beautiful, young lady said to herself that she would not so
treat the flowers of Friendship and Truth; but Ambition urged her on and
on, and soon she found that she, too, was destroying the flowers of
Friendship and Truth. And whenever she would speak Ambition would say,
‘On, on, hurry, hurry!’ and so the beautiful, young lady did not know
what she did. And the beautiful, young lady noticed that the higher she
climbed, the fewer were the flowers of Friendship and Truth, and the
higher she climbed the more were the flowers of Friendship and Truth
uprooted and torn, and the more wearied looked the faces of those she
met.
“But Ambition still called ‘On, on,’ and the beautiful, young lady
climbed up and up till there were no more flowers of Friendship and
Truth, and those who sat about were old and wizened, and ugly. Up and
up, and up, the young lady climbed, leaving all others behind until she
stood on the very top of the mountain called Society. Here she looked
down upon the beautiful world; but she was so far above it, that she
could not see the green fields, or the gay meadows, or the woods, the
flowers, or anything; and she sighed and turned towards Ambition, but
Ambition had fled; Ambition was nowhere to be seen. And the wind that
blew against her was chill and cold, and the beautiful, young lady felt
very, very sad.”
I don’t know if I may be called a beautiful, young lady, but I believe
that Mr. Bang was telling this tale for my ears. He must be troubling
his head a great deal about me. He has not shown me much attention
lately, but I know I am continually in his mind. I’m sure I could never
support being called “Mrs. Bang.”
At dinner Uncle announced that he had to go to Ottawa on the ninth; and
then Mr. Bang electrified us all by inviting Mumsie and me to go too as
his guests, for the opening of Parliament on the thirteenth, and the
Drawing-room on the evening of the following Saturday. He had made two
hundred and fifty dollars he said, in a little speculation for the
decline in Poverty, Distress and Want Railway Stock, and he would enjoy
“blowing it in.” Such an expression!
“Just for a few days at the ‘Boardin’[3] House’” I thought it very
strange that Mr. Bang, with his general broadness, had decided to take
us to a Boarding House. If he wished to spend two hundred and fifty
dollars in a few days, I should think a hotel was the proper place.