“Is that your firm decision, ma'am?”
“Yes.”
“And you will not give up your nonsense?”
“No.”
“You are quite sure you don't care for Bopp?”
“I could slap him with all my heart.”
“Very good. I shall see that you don't get a chance.”
“I wouldn't try a skirmish, for you'll get beaten, Dick.”
“We'll prove that, ma'am.”
“We will, sir.”
And the belligerents loftily paced up the lawn, with their purpose
so well expressed by outward signs, that Mrs. Ward knew, by the cock
of Dick's hat and the decided tap of Dolly's heels, that a storm was
brewing, before they entered the door.
This fraternal conversation took place some two months from the
evening of Mr. Bopp's advent, as the twins were strolling home from
school, which school must be briefly alluded to in order to explain
the foregoing remarks. It was an excellent institution in all
respects; for its presiding genius stood high in the townfolks'
esteem, and might have served as an example to Dr. Watts' “busy
bee,” in the zeal with which he improved his “shining hours,” and
laid up honey against the winter, which many hoped would be long in
coming. All manner of aids were provided for sprouting souls and
bodies, diversions innumerable, and society, some members of which
might have polished off Alcibiades _a la_ Socrates, or entertained
Plato with “æsthetic tea.” But, sad to relate, in spite of all these
blessings, the students who resorted to this academy possessed an
Adam-and-Eve-like proclivity for exactly what they hadn't got and
didn't need; and, not contented with the pleasures provided, must
needs play truant with that young scamp Eros, and turn the ancient
town topsy-turvy with modern innovations, till scandalized spinsters
predicted that the very babies would catch the fever, refuse their
panada in jealous gloom, send billet-doux in their rattles, elope in
wicker-carriages, and set up housekeeping in dolls' houses, after
the latest fashion.
Certain inflammable Southerners introduced the new game, and left
such romantic legends of their loves behind them that their
successors were fired with an ambition to do the like, and excel in
all things, from cricket to captivation.
This state of things is not to be wondered at; for America, being
renowned as a “fast” nation, has become a sort of hotbed, and seems
to force humanity into early bloom. Therefore, past generations must
not groan over the sprightly present, but sit in the chimney-corner
and see boys and girls play the game which is too apt to end in a
checkmate for one of the players. To many of the lookers-on, the new
order of things was as good as a puppet-show; for, with the
enthusiasm of youth, the actors performed their parts heartily,
forgetting the audience in their own earnestness. Bless us! what
revolutions went on under the round jackets, and what love-tokens
lay in the pockets thereof. What plots and counterplots occupied the
heads that wore the innocent-looking snoods, and what captives were
taken in the many-colored nets that would come off and have to be
taken care of. What romances blossomed like dandelions along the
road to school, and what tales the river might have told if any one
could have learned its musical speech. How certain gates were
glorified by daily lingerings thereat, and what tender memories hung
about dingy desks, old pens, and books illustrated with all manner
of symbolical designs.
Let those laugh who will; older and wiser men and women might have
taken lessons of these budding heroes and heroines; for here all was
honest, sincere, and fresh; the old world had not taught them
falsehood, self-interest, or mean ambitions. When they lost or won,
they frankly grieved or rejoiced, and wore no masks except in play,
and then got them off as soon as possible. If blue-eyed Lizzie
frowned, or went home with Joe, Ned, with a wisdom older lovers
would do well to imitate, went in for another game of foot-ball,
gave the rejected apple to little Sally, and whistled “Glory
Hallelujah,” instead of “Annie Laurie,” which was better than
blowing a rival's brains out, or glowering at womankind forever
after. Or, when Tom put on Clara's skates three successive days, and
danced with her three successive evenings, leaving Kitty to freeze
her feet in the one instance and fold her hands in the other, she
just had a “good cry,” gave her mother an extra kiss, and waited
till the recreant Tom returned to his allegiance, finding his little
friend a sweetheart in nature as in name.
Dick and Dolly were foremost in the ranks, and expert in all the new
amusements. Dick worshipped at many shrines, but most faithfully at
that of a meek divinity, who returned charming answers to the ardent
epistles which he left in her father's garden wall, where, Pyramus
and Thisbe-like, they often chatted through a chink; and Dolly was
seldom seen without a staff of aids who would have “fought, bled,
and died” for her as cheerfully as the Little Corporal's Old Guard,
though she paid them only in words; for her Waterloo had not yet
come.
With the charming, perversity of her sex in such matters, no sooner
had Dolly declared that she didn't like Mr. Bopp, than she began to
discover that she did; and so far from desiring “to slap him,” a
tendency to regard him with peculiar good-will and tenderness
developed itself, much to her own surprise; for with all her
coquetry and seeming coldness, Dolly had a right womanly heart of
her own, though she had never acknowledged the fact till August Bopp
looked at her with so much love and longing in his honest eyes. Then
she found a little fear mingling with her regard, felt a strong
desire to be respected by him, discovered a certain something which
she called conscience, restraining a reckless use of her power, and,
soon after her lofty denial to Dick, was forced to own that Mr. Bopp
had become her master in the finer species of gymnastics that came
in with Adam and Eve, and have kept all creation turning somersets
ever since. Of course these discoveries were unconfessed, even to
that best bosom friend which any of us can have; yet her mother
suspected them, and, with much anxiety, saw all, yet held her peace,
knowing that her little daughter would, sooner or later, give her a
fuller confidence than could be demanded; and remembering the
happiest moments of her own happy past, when an older Dick wooed
another Dolly, she left that flower, which never can be forced, to
open at its own sweet will.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bopp, though carrying his heart upon his sleeve,
believed his secret buried in the deepest gloom, and enjoyed all the
delightful miseries lovers insist upon making for themselves. When
Dolly was quiet and absent, he became pensive, the lesson dragged,
and people fancied they were getting tired of the humbug; when Dolly
was blithe and bland, he grew radiant, exercised within an inch of
his life as a vent for his emotions, and people went home declaring
gymnastics to be the crowning triumph of the age; and when Dolly was
capricious, Mr. Bopp, became a bewildered weathercock, changing as
the wind changed, and dire was the confusion occasioned thereby.
Like the sage fowl in the story, Dick said nothing, but “kept up a
terrible thinking,” and, not having had experience enough to know
that when a woman says No she is very apt to mean Yes, he took Dolly
at her word. Believing it to be his duty to warn “Old Bopp,” he
resolved to do it like a Roman brother, regardless of his own
feelings or his sister's wrath, quite unconscious that the motive
power in the affair was a boyish love of ruling the young person who
ruled every one else.
Matters stood thus, when the town was electrified by a general
invitation to the annual jubilee at Jollyboys Hall, which this
spring flowered into a masquerade, and filled the souls of old and
young with visions of splendor, frolic, and fun. Being an amiable
old town, it gave itself up, like a kind grandma, to the wishes of
its children, let them put its knitting away, disturb its naps, keep
its hands busy with vanities of the flesh, and its mind in a state
of chaos for three mortal weeks. Young ladies were obscured by
tarletan fogs, behind which they concocted angels' wings, newspaper
gowns, Minnehaha's wampum, and Cinderella's slippers. Inspired but
incapable boys undertook designs that would have daunted a costumer
of the first water, fell into sloughs of despond, and, emerging,
settled down from peers and paladins into jovial tars, friar
waterproofs, and officers in miscellaneous uniforms. Fathers laughed
or grumbled at the whole thing and advanced pecuniary loans with
good or ill grace, as the case might be; but the mothers, whose
interest in their children's pleasure is a sort of evergreen that no
snows of time can kill, sewed spangles by the bushel, made
wildernesses of tissue-paper blossom as the rose, kept tempers
sweet, stomachs full, and domestic machinery working smoothly
through it all, by that maternal magic which makes them the human
providences of this naughty world.
“What shall I go as?” was the universal cry. Garrets were taken by
storm, cherished relics were teased out of old ladies' lavendered
chests (happy she who saw them again!), hats were made into boots,
gowns into doublets, cloaks into hose, Sunday bonnets despoiled of
their plumage, silken cauliflowers sown broadcast over the land, and
cocked-up caps erected in every style of architecture, while “Tag,
Rag, and Bobtail” drove a smashing business, and everybody knew what
everybody else was going to be, and solemnly vowed they
didn't--which transparent falsehood was the best joke of the whole.
Dolly allowed her mates to believe she was to be the Queen of
Hearts, but privately laid hold of certain brocades worn by a trim
grandmother half a century ago, and one evening burst upon her
brother in a charming “Little Bo-Peep” costume, which, for the
benefit of future distressed damsels, may be described as a “white
silk skirt, scarlet overdress neatly bundled up behind,” as ancient
ladies expressed it, blue hose with red clocks, high-heeled shoes
with silver buckles, a nosegay in the tucker, and a fly-way hat
perched in this case on the top of black curls, which gave
additional archness to Dolly's face as she entered, singing that
famous ditty.
Dick surveyed her with approval, turning her about like a lay
figure, and expressing his fraternal opinion that she was “the
sauciest little turn-out he ever saw,” and then wet-blanketed the
remarks by adding, “Of course you don't call it a disguise, do you?
and don't flatter yourself that you won't be known; for Dolly Ward
is as plainly written in every curl, bow, and gimcrack, as if you
wore a label on your back.”
“Then I shan't wear it;” and off went the hat at one fell blow, as
Dolly threw her crook in one corner, her posy in another, and sat
down an image of despair.
“Now don't be a goose, and rip everything to bits; just wear a
domino over all, as Fan is going to, and then, when you've had fun
enough, take it off and do the pretty. It will make two rigs, you
see, and bother the boys to your heart's content.”
“Dick, I insist upon kissing you for that brilliant suggestion; and
then you may run and get me eight yards of cambric, just the color
of Fan's; but if you tell any one, I'll keep her from dancing with
you the whole evening;” with which bribe and threat Dolly embraced
her brother, and shut the door in his face, while he, putting
himself in good humor by imagining she was somebody else, departed
on his muddy mission.
If the ghosts of the first settlers had taken their walks abroad on
the eventful Friday night, they would have held up their shadowy
hands at the scenes going on under their venerable noses; for
strange figures flitted through the quiet streets, and instead of
decorous slumber, there was decidedly,--“A sound of revelry by
night.”
Spurs clanked and swords rattled over the frosty ground, as if the
British were about to make another flying call; hooded monks and
nuns paced along, on carnal thoughts intent; ancient ladies and
bewigged gentlemen seemed hurrying to enjoy a social cup of tea, and
groan over the tax; barrels staggered and stuck through narrow ways,
as if temperance were still among the lost arts, while bears, apes,
imps, and elves pattered or sparkled by, as if a second Walpurgis
Night had come, and all were bound for Blocksberg.
“Hooray for the Rooster!” shouted young Ireland, encamped on the
sidewalk to see the show, as Mephistopheles' red cock's feather
skimmed up the stairs, and he left a pink domino at the ladies'
dressing-room door, with the brief warning, “Now cut your own capers
and leave me to mine,” adding, as he paused a moment at the great
door,--
“By Jove! isn't it a jolly sight, though?”
And so it was; for a mammoth boot stood sentinel at the entrance; a
Bedouin Arab leaned on his spear in one corner, looking as if ready
to say,--
“Fly to the desert, fly with me,”
to the pretty Jewess on his arm; a stately Hamlet, with
irreproachable legs, settled his plumage in another, still undecided
to which Ophelia he would first address “The honey of his music
vows.”
Bluff King Hal's representative was waltzing in a way that would
have filled that stout potentate with respectful admiration, while
Queen Katherine flirted with a Fire Zouave. Alcipades whisked Mother
Goose about the room till the old lady's conical hat tottered on her
head, and the Union held fast to a very little Mac. Flocks of
friars, black, white, and gray, pervaded the hall, with flocks of
ballet girls, intended to represent peasants, but failing for lack
of drapery; morning and evening stars rose or set, as partners
willed; lively red demons harassed meek nuns, and knights of the
Leopard, the Lion or Griffin, flashed by, looking heroically
uncomfortable, in their gilded cages; court ladies promenaded with
Jack tars, and dukes danced with dairy-maids, while Brother Jonathan
whittled, Aunt Dinah jabbered, Ingomar flourished his club, and
every one felt warmly enthusiastic and vigorously jolly.
“Ach himmel! Das ist wunder schon!” murmured a tall, gray monk,
looking in, and quite unconscious that he spoke aloud.
“Hullo, Bopp! I thought you weren't coming,” cried Mephistopheles in
an emphatic whisper.
“Ah, I guess you! yes, you are well done. I should like to be a
Faust for you, but I haf no time, no purse for a dress, so I throw
this on, and run up for a hour or two. Where is--who is all these
people? Do you know them?”
“The one with the Pope, Fra Diavolo; the telegraph, and two knights
asking her to dance, is Dolly, if that's what you want to know. Go
in and keep it up, Bopp, while you can; I am off for Fan;” and
Mephistopheles departed over the banisters with a weird agility that
delighted the beholders; while the gray friar stole into a corner
and watched the pink domino for half an hour, at the end of which
time his regards were somewhat confused by discovering that there
were two pink damsels so like that he could not tell which was the
one pointed out by Dick and which the new-comer.
“She thinks I will not know her, but I shall go now and find out for
myself;” and, starting into sudden activity, the gray brother strode
up to the nearest pink lady, bowed, and offered his arm. With a
haughty little gesture of denial to several others, she accepted it,
and they joined the circle of many-colored promenaders that eddied
round the hall. As they went, Mr. Bopp scrutinized his companion,
but saw only a slender figure shrouded from head to foot, and the
tip of a white glove resting on his arm.
“I will speak; then her voice will betray her,” he thought,
forgetting that his own was undisguisable.
“Madame, permit me that I fan you, it is so greatly warm.”
A fan was surrendered with a bow, and the masked face turned fully
toward his own, while the hood trembled as if its wearer laughed
silently.
“Ah, it is you,--I know the eyes, the step, the laugh. Miss Dolly,
did you think you could hide from me?”
“I did not wish to,” was the whispered answer.
“Did you think I would come?”
“I hoped so.”
“Then you are not displease with me?”
“No; I am very glad; I wanted you.”
The pink head drooped a little nearer, and another white glove went
to meet its mate upon his arm with a pretty, confiding gesture. Mr.
Bopp instantly fell into a state of bliss,--the lights, music, gay
surroundings, and, more than all, this unwonted demonstration, put
the crowning glory to the moment; and, fired with the hopeful omen,
he allowed his love to silence his prudence, and lead him to do,
then and there, the very thing he had often resolved never to do at
all.
“Ah, Miss Dolly, if you knew how much, how very much you haf
enlarged my happiness, and made this efening shine for me, you would
more often be a little friendly, for this winter has been all summer
to me, since I knew you and your kind home, and now I haf no sorrow
but that after the next lesson I come no more unless you gif me
leaf. See now I must say this even here, when so much people are
about us, because I cannot stop it; and you will forgif me that I
cannot wait any longer.”
“Mr. Bopp, please don't, please stop!” began the pink domino in a
hurried whisper. But Mr. Bopp was not to be stopped. He had dammed
up the stream so long, that now it rushed on fast, full, and
uncontrollable; for, leading her into one of the curtained recesses
near by, he sat down beside her, and, still plying the fan, went on
impetuously,--
“I feel to say that I lofe you, and tho' I try to kill it, my love
will not die, because it is more strong than my will, more dear than
my pride, for I haf much, and I do not ask you to be meine Frau till
I can gif you more than my heart and my poor name. But hear now; I
will work, and save, and wait a many years if at the end you will
take all I haf and say, 'August, I lofe you.' Do not laugh at me
because I say this in such poor words; you are my heart's dearest,
and I must tell it or never come again. Speak to me one kind yes,
and I will thank Gott in himmel for so much joy.”
The pink domino had listened to this rapid speech with averted head,
and, when it ended, started up, saying eagerly, “You are mistaken,
sir, I am not Dolly;” but as she spoke her words were belied, for
the hasty movement displaced her mask, and Mr. Bopp saw Dolly's
eyes, a lock of dark hair, and a pair of burning cheeks, before the
screen was readjusted. With redoubled earnestness he held her back,
whispering,--
“Do not go mitout the little word, Yes, or No; it is not much to
say.”
“Well then, No!”
“You mean it? Dolly! truly mean it?”
“Yes, let me go at once, sir.”
Mr. Bopp stood up, saying slowly,--“Yes, go now; they told me you
had no heart; I beliefe it, and thank you for that No;” then bowed,
and walked straight out of the hall, while the pink domino broke
into a fit of laughter, saying to herself,--
“I've done it! I've done it! but what a piece of work there'll be
to-morrow.”
“Dick, who was that tall creature Fan was parading with last night?
No one knew, and he vanished before the masks were taken off,” asked
Dolly, as she and her brother lounged in opposite corners of the
sofa the morning after the masquerade, “talking it over.”
“That was old Bopp, Mrs. Peep.”
“Gracious me! why, he said he wasn't coming.”
“People sometimes say what they don't mean, as you may have
discovered.”
“But why didn't he come and speak to a body, Dick?”
“Better employed, I suppose.”
“Now don't be cross, dear, but tell me all about it, for I don't
understand how you allowed him to monopolize Fan so.”
“Oh, don't bother, I'm sleepy.”
“No you're not; you look wicked; I know you've been in mischief, and
I insist upon hearing all about it, so come and 'fess' this
instant.”
Dolly proceeded to enforce her command by pulling away his pillow
and dragging her brother into a sitting posture in spite of his
laughing resistance and evident desire to exhaust her patience; for
Dick excelled in teasing, and kept his sister in a fidget from
morning till night, with occasional fits of penitence and petting
which lasted till next time. Therefore, though dying to 'fess,' he
was undecided as to the best method of executing that task in the
manner most aggravating to his listener and most agreeable to
himself, and sat regarding her with twinkling eyes, and his curly
pate in a high state of rumple, trying to appear innocently meek,
but failing signally.
“Now, then, up and tell,” commanded Dolly.
“Well, if you won't take my head off till I'm done, I'll tell you
the best joke of the season. Are you sure the pink domino with Bopp
wasn't yourself,--for she looked and acted very like you?”
“Of course I am. I didn't even know he was there, and think it very
rude and ungentlemanly in him not to come and speak to me. You know
it was Fan, so do go on.”
“But it wasn't, for she changed her mind and wore a black domino; I
saw her put it on myself. Her Cousin Jack came unexpectedly, and she
thought if she altered her dress and went with him, you wouldn't
know her.”
“Who could it have been, Dick?”
“That's the mystery, for, do you know, Bopp proposed to her.”
“He didn't!” and Dolly flew up with a startled look that, to adopt a
phrase from his own vocabulary, was “nuts” to her brother.
“Yes he did; I heard him.”
“When, where, and how?”
“In one of these flirtation boxes; they dropped the curtain, but I
heard him do it, on my honor I did.”
“Persons of honor don't listen at curtains and key-holes. What did
they say?”
“Oh, if it wasn't honorable to listen, it isn't to hear; so I won't
tell, though I could not help knowing it.”
“Mercy! don't stop now, or I shall die with curiosity. I dare say I
should have done the same; no one minds at such a place, you know.
But I don't see the joke yet,” said Dolly dismally.
“I do,” and Dick went off into a shout.
“You idiotic boy, take that pillow out of your mouth, and tell me
the whole thing,--what he said, what she said, and what they both
did. It was all fun of course, but I'd like to hear about it.”
“It may have been fun on her part, but it was solemn earnest on his,
for he went it strong I assure you. I'd no idea the old fellow was
so sly, for he appeared smashed with you, you know, and there he was
finishing up with this unknown lady. I wish you could have heard him
go on, with tears in his eyes”--
“How do you know if you didn't see him?”
“Oh, well, that's only a figure of speech; I thought so from his
voice. He was ever so tender, and took to Dutch when English was too
cool for him. It was really touching, for I never heard a fellow do
it before; and, upon my word, I should think it was rather a tough
job to say that sort of thing to a pretty woman, mask or no mask.”
“What did she say?” asked Dolly, with her hands pressed tight
together, and a curious little quiver of the lips.
“She said, No, as short as pie-crust; and when he rushed out with
his heart broken all to bits apparently, she just burst out
laughing, and went and polked at a two-forty pace for half an hour.”