HAVING HER OWN WAY
"I know just the kind I want, and I won't wear any other," said Nan,
irritably.
Miss Blake made no reply, and the girl sauntered off to another part of
the store, and pretended to be examining a case of trimmed bonnets,
which she could not see because her eyes were half-blind with
rebellious tears. What right had any one to tell her what sort of a
hat she ought to get! If her father was paying for it, she guessed it
was nobody else's business to say anything.
Miss Blake held in her hand a handsome, wide-brimmed felt hat, trimmed
simply with fine ribbon and a generous bunch of quills.
"It's very girlish and suitable, ma'am!" the saleswoman said, as she
turned away to get another model.
After a moment Nan came hurrying back to the governess' side.
"Horrid old thing!" she said in a low voice, flinging her hand out with
a gesture of disgust toward the despised hat. "It's stiff as a poker.
Do you suppose I want to have just bunched-up bows with some spikes
stuck in the middle to trim my hat! And all one color, too! I guess
not!"
The governess bit her lip. "Perhaps we may be able to find something
more to your fancy," she said. "But plumes are expensive and
perishable, and if you have too many colors your hat will look vulgar."
"I hate this place anyhow," went on Nan, disdainfully. "Bigelow's!
Who ever thought of going to Bigelow's?"
"Your mother did," said Miss Blake, quickly. "That is, Delia says she
did. And I myself know it to be one of the oldest and best firms in
the city. One can always be sure that one is getting good quality for
one's money here."
"I never was in the place before," blurted out Nan, "and I despise
their hats--every one of them. If you won't let me go to Sternberg's,
where they have things I like, I won't get anything at all, so there!"
She suddenly let her voice fall, for the sales-woman was back again
with a fresh assortment of shapes to select from.
Miss Blake placed the hat she held gently upon a table and began to
examine the others carefully, Nan standing by in sullen silence.
"This is a pretty one--this with the tips, don't you think so?" the
governess asked, setting it on her hand and letting it revolve slowly
while she regarded it critically with her head on one side.
Nan gave a grunt of dissatisfaction. What she wanted was a flaring,
turned-up brim, with a dash of red velvet underneath and a
bird-of-paradise on top, caught in a mesh of red and yellow ribbons.
She had seen something on this order in Sternberg's window, and it had
struck her fancy at once.
The governess hesitated, and then put down the hat she held.
"Very well. We will go to Sternberg's," she said, quietly, to Nan, in
an undertone which the saleswoman could not distinguish. The girl
started briskly for the door. Miss Blake remained behind a moment, and
then followed after.
Now that she was to have her own way Nan was restored to good humor,
and kept up a stream of chatter until they reached Sternberg's.
"There! Isn't that a beauty?" she demanded at last, indicating the hat
in the window.
Miss Blake, with difficulty, concealed a shudder.
"It seems to me rather showy. But tastes differ, you know. I can't
say it suits me exactly. Still, if you are pleased--you are the one to
wear it, not I."
The hat was bought and Nan was radiant. She insisted on donning it at
once, and Miss Blake tried not to let her discover how ashamed she was
to be seen in the street with such a monstrous piece of millinery.
Underneath her tower of gorgeousness Nan strutted like a turkey-cock.
"I told Delia before we came away that we might not be home before
dusk, so suppose we take luncheon down-town, and then, if you like, we
will go to see Callmann. I haven't been to a sleight-of-hand
performance since I was a little girl, and I always had a liking for
that sort of thing."
"Oh, do! Let's! Can we?" cried Nan, in a burst of grateful excitement.
It was nippingly cold outside, and the warm restaurant proved a
delightful contrast. It was jolly to sit in the midst of all this
pleasant bustle and be served with delicate, unfamiliar dishes by
waiters who stood behind the chair and deferentially called one "Miss."
Miss Blake left Nan to order whatever she pleased, and they dawdled
over their meal luxuriously, the color in the girl's cheeks deepening
with the warmth and excitement until it almost matched the velvet in
her imposing hat. Every now and then she glanced furtively at her
reflection in the mirror, and the vision of that bird-of-paradise
hovering over those huge butterfly bows thrilled her with a great sense
of importance and self-satisfaction. More than once she saw that her
hat was being noticed and commented on by the other guests, and she
tried her best to seem not aware--to look modestly unconscious. But
Miss Blake, when she caught some eye fixed quizzically upon their
table, blushed to the roots of her hair, and felt as though it would be
impossible to bear the ordeal for a moment longer. Still, she did not
hurry Nan, and no one knew, the girl least of all, what agonies of
mortification she was enduring.
A deep-toned clock struck one full peal.
"That's half-past one," said Miss Blake, looking up and comparing her
watch.
"When does the entertainment begin?" asked Nan.
"At two, I think, or quarter after. If we ride up we have still a few
minutes to spare, but if we walk it would be wise to start at once."
"O let's walk," begged Nan. "It's such fun; there's so much going on.
And now my foot is well, I just want to trot all the time."
Though Miss Blake was a good walker and took a great deal of exercise,
she always preferred to ride when she was with Nan, for the girl forged
ahead at such a rate and darted in among the maze of trucks and cars
and carriages so recklessly that there was actual danger as well as
discomfort in trying to keep abreast with her. Still she made no
objection to "trotting," and they started off at a brisk pace.
"Don't you just love to be in the stores around Christmas-time?" asked
Nan, watching the crowds press and surge about the doorways of some of
the most popular shops. "It's so exciting and the things seem so gay
and alluring."
"Yes, it is very attractive--all the motion and color," replied Miss
Blake, "but I don't like crowds, and when I am hemmed in at a counter
and can't get away I feel stifled and smothered, and long to scream."
"Why don't you scream then? I would!" exclaimed Nan, with a laugh.
"I'd shriek, 'Air! Air!' and then you'd see how quick the people would
let you out."
Miss Blake smiled with what Nan saw was amusement at some
just-remembered incident.
"I was watching a huge celebration in London one spring," she said.
"It was in honor of some royal birthday or something, and the streets
were packed with people all eager to get a glimpse of the military
parade and the notabilities who were to take part in it. From the
window where I sat I could not see an inch of pavement, the crowd was
so dense. At last there was a sound of martial music and the First
Regiment appeared in full gala array. Oh, I assure you it was very
imposing and well worth taking some trouble to see. The crowds pushed
and jostled, and beyond the first line or two at the curb no one among
them could get more than an occasional glimpse of a stray cockade or a
floating banner. Still the people were massed solidly from the gutter
to the house-steps. We were wondering where the enjoyment in this came
in, and congratulating ourselves that we were not doomed to struggle
and fight for space in such a huddle, when suddenly we heard a shrill
scream. It was a woman's voice crying, 'Air! Air! Give me air!' In
another instant the crowd pushed back a step, and quite a
respectably-dressed young person staggered weakly through the line to
the curb, as if to get more breathing-space. Of course she could have
got this in a much easier way by going in the other direction, but you
see her plan was to get a better view of the procession, and she
thought that was a good method of accomplishing it. It seemed a clever
trick, and she was just settling herself to enjoy her improved
position, when quick as a flash an order was given: Two men unrolled
one of their army stretchers; the woman was whipped up and placed upon
it; the poles were seized and off they went, carrying that misguided
creature with them through all the gaping, jeering crowd. The last I
saw of her she was hiding her face in the coarse army blanket, probably
'crying her eyes out,' as you would say, with mortification and shame."
"What a joke!" exclaimed Nan. "Poor thing! She didn't see the parade
after all, and I declare she deserved to. That was the time she was in
it though, with a vengeance."
"Look out for this cab, Nan! Be careful. We cross here. Please don't
rush so--I can't keep up with you," pleaded Miss Blake.
The girl gave her shoulders an impatient shrug and drew her eyebrows
together in a scowl of irritation. But her face cleared as she saw
Miss Blake buying their tickets at the box-office.
"Get them good and up front," she begged. "If we're way back we can't
see a thing."
The governess hesitated an instant; then a curious expression came over
her face and she said, deliberately, "Very well, dear! Up front they
shall be."
The house was quite full and Nan thought it a singular piece of good
fortune that there were places left just where she would have chosen to
sit.
"Just think of having come so late and yet being able to get the best
seats in the house," she said, exultantly.
Miss Blake smiled. She understood better than Nan did why the majority
of the audience preferred places that were not so near the stage.
Both she and the girl herself soon forgot everything else in their
interest in the mysterious tricks that were being performed before
their eyes. Of course they knew that all this magic could be
explained, but just at the moment it appeared difficult to imagine how.
A man seems really no less than a magician who can take a red billiard
ball from, no one knows where, out of mid-air, apparently, and suddenly
nipping off the end, transform it into two, each equally as large as
the first. Presently he thinks you would like to have a third, and,
presto! he draws one out from his elbow. Now a white one for a change!
But it is easy enough to get a white one. He opens his mouth and there
it is, held between his teeth. Then he thinks he will swallow a red
one. Pop! it is gone! A moment later he takes it out of the top of
his head.
Nan noticed that as the performance progressed the tricks grew
"curiouser and curiouser," as Alice would say, and the wizard seemed to
take his audience more and more into his confidence. He no longer
confined himself to the stage, but came tripping down the steps that
led from the platform to the middle aisle and addressed, first this one
and then that from among his spectators--only Nan again noticed that
these always happened to be sitting as they were themselves, in the
foremost seats. He induced a man just in front of her to come upon the
stage to "assist" him in one of his "experiments," and the girl
trembled lest at any moment he might demand a similar favor of her, for
though she was reckless enough as a general thing, she had sufficient
delicacy to dread being made conspicuous in such a place as this.
"O Miss Blake," she whispered in the governess' ear, "can't we move
back a little? If he should make me go up there I'd sink through the
floor!"
"Probably you would. No doubt he would let you down himself--through a
trap-door. No, we must stay where we are and we must bear it as best
we may. Perhaps he will overlook us."
Nan thought of her hat and the many glances it had drawn to her in the
restaurant, and for the first time she had a feeling of mistrust
regarding it. Suppose it should fix his eye, with its towering bows
and flaming bird-of-paradise! If it did, she would hate it forever
after.
But she soon forgot her anxiety in her interest in the wizard himself.
Silver pieces were flung in the air and then mysteriously reappeared in
the pocket of some unsuspecting member of the audience who was much
surprised at seeing them straightway converted into so many gold ones
under his very nose. Innocent-looking hoops turned out to possess the
most remarkable faculty for resisting all attempts to link them on the
part of any one of the spectators, and yet immediately assuming all
manner of shapes and positions in the hands of the dexterous magician
himself.
At last a shallow cabinet was set upon two chairs in the centre of the
stage, and after a word or two of explanation, the wizard drew first
one chair and then the other from beneath it, and lo! the magic
cupboard remained poised in midair, without any visible means of
support whatever.
"You see, ladies and gentlemen," announced the suave magician, "this
cabinet is bare; precisely like Mother Hubbard's immortal cupboard.
Can you see anything there? No! I thought not. Now I will place
within it these bells, so; and this tambourine, so; also this empty
slate. You see it is empty. It is quite a simple slate, such as any
school-child would use, and its sides are entirely bare. Now I close
the doors of the cabinet, so; wave my wand, so; and--"
Immediately there followed the sounds of ringing bells and rattling
tambourine, while in a moment all of these instruments came flying out
of the top of the cabinet as if they had been vigorously flung aloft by
hidden hands. The smiling magician stepped forward, opened the doors
of the cabinet with a flourish, and lo! it was empty save for the
slate, which proved to be covered over with scribbled characters, and
which he politely handed down to persons in the audience for
examination.
Nan was completely bewildered and so lost to all that was going on
about her that she did not realize that the wizard was tripping down
the stage steps and making his way affably up the middle aisle again.
It was only when he spoke once more that she woke with a great start,
and then to her horror she found he was addressing her.
"I am sure this young lady will not refuse me the loan of her hat for
my next experiment," he began with a persuasive smile. "I assure you,
Miss, I will not injure it in the least. You won't object, will you?"
and he held out his hand engagingly.
The girl stiffened against the back of her chair, so disconcerted that
she felt actually dizzy.
"Give him your hat," bade Miss Blake, quickly, as if to put an end to
their really painful conspicuousness.
Nan obeyed blindly. The smiling magician took it with a profound bow
and held it up for all the audience to see.
"Now you perceive, ladies and gentlemen," he remarked, "that there is
nothing mysterious about this hat. At least I am sure the ladies do.
To the gentlemen it doubtless seems very mysterious, but that is
because they do not understand the art of millinery." As he spoke he
made his way up the aisle and to the steps that led to the stage. "It
is a beautiful hat. Very elaborate and of a most stylish shape, as you
see, but not at all mysterious. Yet I mean to make it serve me in a
very interesting experiment, which I think you will admit is
exceedingly won--"
But just here he stumbled upon one of the steps, and in trying to
recover himself let Nan's cherished head-gear fall and brought his
whole weight upon it, crushing it out of all recognition.
"Oh, dear, dear! What have I done?" he deplored in sincerest dismay.
Miss Blake's eyes fell and Nan's lips whitened. Every one was looking
at them now, and the magician was making them even more conspicuous by
apologizing to them over and over again in the most abject fashion.
"How could I be so awkward! Such a beautiful hat and ruined through my
carelessness. I have no words to describe my regret. Do forgive me!
But I promised to return your property to you uninjured, did I not,
Miss? So, of course, I must keep my word." He held the battered mass
of ribbons and bird-of-paradise high above his head as he spoke, and
then went forward and placed a pistol in the hand of his assistant on
the stage. The man retired to a distance and the wizard held the hat
at arm's length as if for a target.
"Now, ready? Then--shoot!"
A second for aim: a report; and the smiling Callmann stepped forward
with the hat in his hand, quite whole again and unimpaired.
A shudder ran through Nan as she heard the applause and saw her
property held up to public view. She dared not turn her head to look
at Miss Blake, and she hardly heard the wizard's voice as he asked to
be permitted to use the hat for still another experiment, and she
scarcely saw how he placed it on a table, a perfectly innocent looking
table, and then proceeded to take from it a multitude of things--from a
gold watch to a clucking hen.
When the hen came to light the audience fairly shouted, and Nan thought
she could never in the world get up courage to set that hat on her head
again and walk out before the eyes of these quizzical people.
"They'll laugh at me all the way," she thought moodily. "And if they
ever see me in the street they'll say, 'There goes that trick hat! The
one the hen came out of!' I wish it was in Jericho!"
Miss Blake comforted her as best she could with little hidden pressures
of the hand and whispered words of sympathy, but the rest of the
performance was torture to them both, and when, at last, it was over
and they were well on their way home, Nan heaved a great sigh of relief
and tried to summon back her courage by declaring that "I don't care if
they did laugh when that hen clucked inside it and he said he was
afraid this was what might be called 'a loud hat!' It's heaps better
than lots I saw on other girls, so there!"
"I am glad you are satisfied with it," said Miss Blake, simply.