RAISING THE WIND.
"Where are you going now?" asked Mrs. Carter of her daughter, as she
saw her preparing to go out one afternoon, a few weeks after the
engagement.
"Going to raise the wind," was the answer.
"Going to what?" exclaimed Mrs. Carter.
"To raise the wind! Are you deaf?" yelled Lenora.
"Raise the wind!" repeated Mrs. Carter; "what do you mean?"
"Mean what I say," said Lenora; and closing the door after her she
left her mother to wonder "what fresh mischief the little torment was
at."
But she was only going to make a _friendly_ call on Margaret and
Carrie, the latter of whom she had heard was sick.
"Is Miss Hamilton at home?" asked she of the servant girl who answered
her ring, and whom she had never seen before.
"Yes, ma'am; walk in the parlor. What name shall I give her if you
please?"
"Miss Carter--Lenora Carter;" and the servant girl departed, repeating
to herself all the way up the stairs, "Miss Carther--Lenora Carther!"
"Lenora Carter want to see me!" exclaimed Mag, who, together with Kate
Kirby, was in her sister's room.
"Yes, ma'am; an' sure 'twas Miss Hampleton she was wishin' to see,"
said the Irish girl.
"Well, I shall not go down," answered Mag. "Tell her, Rachel, that I
am otherwise engaged."
"Oh, Maggie," said Carrie, "why not see her? I would if I were you."
"Rachel can ask her up here if you wish it," answered Mag, "but I
shall leave the room."
"Faith, an' what shall I do?" asked Rachel, who was fresh from "swate
Ireland" and felt puzzled to know why a "silk frock and smart bonnet"
should not always be welcome. "Ask her up," answered Kate. "I've never
seen her nearer than across the church and have some curiosity--"
A moment after Rachel thrust her head in at the parlor door, saying,
"If you please, ma'am, Miss Marget is engaged, and does not want to
see you, but Miss Carrie says you may come up there."
"Very well," said Lenora; and tripping after the servant girl, she was
soon in Carrie's room.
After retailing nearly all the gossip of which she was mistress, she
suddenly turned to Carrie, and said, "Did you know that your father
was going to be married?"
"My father going to be married!" said Carrie, opening her blue eyes in
astonishment. "My father going to be married! To whom pray?"
"To a lady from the East--one whom he used to know and flirt with when
he was in college!" was Lenora's grave reply.
"What is her name?" asked Kate.
"Her name? Let me see--Miss--Blackwell--Blackmer--_Blackheart_. It
sounds the most like Blackheart."
"What a queer name," said Kate; "but tell us what opportunity has Mr.
Hamilton had of renewing his early acquaintance with the lady."
"Don't you know he's been East this winter?" asked Lenora.
"Yes, as far as Albany," answered Carrie.
"Well," continued Lenora, "'twas during his Eastern trip that the
matter was settled; but pray don't repeat it from me, except it be to
Maggie, who I dare say, will feel glad to be relieved of her heavy
responsibilities--but as I live, Carrie, you are crying! What is the
matter?"
But Carrie made no answer, and for a time wept on in silence. She
could not endure the thought that another would so soon take the place
of her lost mother in the household and in the affections of her
father. There was, besides, something exceedingly annoying in the
manner of her who communicated the intelligence, and secretly Carrie
felt glad that the dreaded "Miss Blackheart" had, of course, no Lenora
to bring with her!
"Do you know all this to be true?" asked Kate.
"Perfectly true," said Lenora. "We have friends living in the vicinity
of the lady, and there can be no mistake, except, indeed, in the name,
which I am not sure is right!"
Then hastily kissing Carrie, the little hussy went away, very well
satisfied with her afternoon's call. As soon as she was out of hearing
Margaret entered her sister's room, and on noticing Carrie's flushed
cheek and red eyes, inquired the cause. Immediately Kate told her what
Lenora had said, but instead of weeping, as Carrie had done, she
betrayed no emotion whatever.
"Why, Maggie, ain't you sorry?" asked Carrie.
"No, I am glad," returned Mag. "I've seen all along that sooner or
later father would make himself ridiculous, and I'd rather he'd marry
forty women from the East, than one woman not far from here whom I
know."
All that afternoon Mag tripped with unwonted gaiety about the house. A
weight was lifted from her heart, for in her estimation any one whom
her father would marry was preferable to Mrs. Carter.
* * * * *
Oh, how the widow scolded the daughter, and how the daughter laughed
at the widow, when she related the particulars of her call.
"Lenora, what could have possessed you to tell such a lie?" said Mrs.
Carter.
"Not so fast, mother mine," answered Lenora. "'Twasn't a lie. Mr.
Hamilton _is_ engaged to a lady from the East. He _did_ flirt with her
in his younger days; and, pray, didn't he have to come East when be
called to inquire after his beloved classmates, and ended by getting
checkmated! Besides, I think you ought to thank me for turning the
channel of gossip in another direction, for now you will be saved from
all impertinent questions and remarks."
This mode of reasoning failed to convince the widow, who felt quite
willing that people should know of her flattering prospects; and when
a few days after Mrs. Dr. Otis told her that Mrs. Kimball said that
Polly Larkins said that her hired girl told her that Mrs. Kirby's
hired girl told her that she overheard Miss Kate telling her mother
that Lenora Carter said that Mr. Hamilton was going to be married to
her mother's intimate friend, Mrs. Carter would have denied the whole
and probably divulged her own secret, had not Lenora, who chanced to
be present, declared, with the coolest effrontery, that 'twas all
true--that her mother had promised to stand up with them, and so folks
would find it to be if they did not die of curiosity before autumn!
"Lenora, child, how can you talk so?" asked the distressed lady, as
the door closed upon her visitor.
Lenora went off into fits of explosive laughter, bounding up and down
like an india-rubber ball, and at last condescended to say, "I know
what I'm about. Do you want Mag Hamilton breaking up the match, as she
surely would do, between this and autumn, if she knew it?"
"And what can she do?" asked Mrs. Carter.
"Why," returned Lenora, "can't she write to the place you came from,
if, indeed, such a spot can be found?--for I believe you sometimes
book yourself from one town and sometimes from another. But depend
upon it you had better take my advice and keep still, and in the
dénouement which follows, I alone shall be blamed for a slight stretch
of truth which you can easily excuse as 'one of _dear_ Lenora's silly,
childish freaks!'"
Upon second thoughts, Mrs. Carter concluded to follow her daughter's
advice, and the next time Mr. Hamilton called, she laughingly told the
story which Lenora had set afloat, saying, by way of excuse, that the
dear girl did not like to hear her mother joked on the subject of
matrimony, and had turned the attention of people another way.
Mr. Hamilton hardly relished this, and half wished, mayhap, as,
indeed, gentlemen generally do in similar circumstances, that the
little "objection" in the shape of Lenora had never had existence, or
at least had never called the widow mother!