EXTRA POLITENESS.
Dear sisters:--Life is a pleasant thing to have when its chariot-wheels
revolve in smooth places. I went to bed last night angry with Cousin E.
E. Ever since Mr. Burke was introduced into our party she has exhibited
a desire for gentlemen's attention which I think entirely unbecoming a
married lady. I do not wish to be severe or captious; such feelings
should be left to maiden ladies of an age that I have not yet dreamed of
reaching. But a married woman who hankers after any other man's society
than that of her own lawful husband is--well, not to speak harshly, an
example that some people may follow, but I won't.
This morning, as we sat on the long stoop of the hotel, gazing out on
the broad expanse of the boundless ocean, Mr. Burke came gently to my
side, and spoke:
"Miss Frost."
My heart beat; my eyelids dropped, but I lifted them, in shy innocence,
to his face, inquiringly, wistfully. What would he say next?
"Miss Frost, have you ever seen a clam-bake?"
I reflected a moment. Were clam-bakes indigenous to our Vermont soil?
Were they a product of the mountains, or a spontaneous growth of the
river vales?
"I do not think I have ever seen them growing in Vermont," says I, at
last; "yet there are few roots or vegetables, wild or tame, that I don't
know something about. There is wake-robin, on the mountains, with its
spokes of red berries; and snake-root, and adder's-tongue; but I don't
remember clam-bakes among them, and I know they are not cultivated in
our parts as garden-sas, I beg pardon, as vegetables."
Mr. Burke smiled out loud, and his black mustache curled down on each
side of his lips delightfully.
"I fancy you have never seen anything of the kind in Vermont. Clam-bakes
are only found at the sea-side--principally around Rhode Island. I don't
think they prevail much in the mountains, as yet."
"You don't say so!" says I. "Then they are a salt-water plant?"
"Principally found in the sand and mud."
"That don't seem to me very remarkable," says I; "most vegetables are
found in one or the other. Watermelons, for instance, grow best in a
bare sand-bank: perhaps your new-fangled vegetable is of that species?"
Again his black mustache gave a lovely curl, and his black eyes looked
into mine so tenderly, as if something I had said tickled him almost to
death.
"You _are_ an original creature," said he.
I put one hand on my heart, and bowed.
"People about Sprucehill, especially the Society of Infinite Progress,
have done me the honor to think so," says I.
"But about the clam-bake--if you like it, we must start for Pleasure Bay
at once," says Mr. Burke.
"Do they grow down there?" says I.
"Not as a general thing, but we shall make out to get one up, with a
little trouble."
"Do they grow so deep?" says I.
"You will see when we get there. Mrs. Dempster is ready, and the
carriage is waiting."
To please that man I would have done almost anything; but it did seem a
wild-goose chase for a lot of grown people to rush down to Pleasure Bay
for the fun of pulling up a lot of the strangest vegetables that ever
grew.
"Do make haste!" cried E. E. through the green slats of her
window-blinds.
I got up and shook out my dress.
"It will be such fun!" she called out. "Mr. Burke has been so kind as to
invite us, so don't keep him waiting."
I lifted my eyes to the dark orbs of that noble-looking man, and he must
have known from the expression that I did not mean to keep him waiting
in any respect. Gently bending my head, I withdrew.
I came from my room like a moving picture, with my black alpaca newly
flounced, and surmounted by that fleecy white jacket with great buttons
and double-breasted in front. Then my white hat, curled up victoriously,
and the feather waving above it and curlecued around it, was enough to
tantalize a minister.
Mr. Burke smiled graciously when he saw me come forth clad in the
whiteness of my principles, and I knew that the sympathy between us was
national as well as individual.
E. E. came out of her room flaunting a red jacket and a long black
plume. Dashy for a married woman! But I said nothing. Let that young
woman work out her own destiny; I am not her husband. I caught her
sending sly glances from under her eyelashes at Mr. Burke. I wish
Dempster had been close by, to see for himself, that's all.
If there is anything on earth that I detest, it is a flirty married
woman.
We rode down to Pleasure Bay, four in the carriage, with that child
perched up alongside of the driver. E. E. wanted to sit opposite to Mr.
Burke, and, seized with a fit of extra politeness for that occasion
only, insisted on it that I should get in first--which would have
brought me face to face with Dempster. But I, too, was suffering under a
sudden epidemic of good manners, and stepped back, bowing till the white
feather shaded my face. She kept waving her hand; but I would not be
persuaded into pushing myself before a married woman, and at last she
got in, biting her lips as if she had a tenpenny nail between her teeth.
I followed, looking innocent as a cat with cream on its tongue, and away
we went.