CHRISTMAS AT CATHALINA’S
Two days passed before Christmas. In that time Hilary became somewhat
familiar with her surroundings and even at home. For, in spite of the
luxurious rooms and well-trained servants, the atmosphere of the Van
Buskirk home was one of simple and cordial hospitality. If Hilary had
been their own, the family could not have made her more welcome. Even
Mr. Van Buskirk, as she wrote to her mother, considered her “worth
talking to”. Philip Junior teased her a little as he teased Cathalina,
and yet in a quiet, brotherly way looked after them both, to help on the
good time.
There was one delirious day of shopping in the wonderful stores. Hilary
had never seen anything like the glittering Christmas display. Mrs. Van
Buskirk took the girls from one bewildering shop to another. Shopping
was not so tiresome when a fine limousine was waiting to carry you from
place to place.
“I thought you’d like it!” and Cathalina’s eyes sparkled. The winter
cold had made her cheeks as rosy as Hilary’s and she was enjoying it all
doubly, for herself and for her guest.
“But I want so many things that I haven’t bought anything! I want to
take them each something, you know.”
“O, well, there’ll be something left even after Christmas, you know, and
you can buy your presents then. Mamma bought most of my presents for me.
She knew I wouldn’t have any time.”
“Let us just enjoy the sights and the Christmas cheer,” said Mrs. Van
Buskirk, who was not hurrying about, like many of the shoppers. “Our
gifts are for the most part wrapped and labeled.” But Hilary with great
delight watched her purchase a few beautiful things.
They lunched at what Hilary described to June as a very grand place,
where Hilary left the ordering to her more experienced hostesses. Then
Hilary did make a few modest purchases, having by this time found out
what she wanted, and went home, tired but delighted, to spend Christmas
Eve.
The cousins had been in and out several times since Hilary came, but she
declared that she never would get the names and relationships straight.
“Never mind, Hilary; they are all as nice and full of fun as can be and
you will clear it all up when you see us all together at the Christmas
dinner. Really, there haven’t been so many. Honestly, now, did you think
that was a new lot that we met at lunch?”
“No, not all of them, but I had a hard time remembering which was
which.”
“And you a minister’s daughter!”
“I’ve been too dazzled here, Cathalina. You must make allowances for a
weak mind!”
“The trouble today was that they all had different clothes on.”
“Yes, that was one thing. Then I met a Maria yesterday and an Ann Maria
today and they were so alike—I liked her or both!”
“It’s just one girl, our jolly old Ann Maria, and ‘Cousin Elizabeth’ and
‘Cousin Libbie’ are the same,—Mrs. Van Ness. She was the pretty lady in
gray. And that perfect dear in the mink furs,—do you remember her? That
was Aunt Mate or Aunt Mary,—Mrs. Hart. She is always making everybody
feel comfortable in their minds. Then we have two Charlottes. You’ll
see.”
“You don’t blame me, do you, Philip?” and Hilary whirled around to where
Phil sat reading by the library fire.
“Indeed I don’t. Anybody that could get the Van Nesses and Van Buskirks
and all the rest of ’em in two or three days would be a wonder.”
“Good! Where’s June’s candy? Take it all, Philip!”
“Thanks, kind lady, what else can I do for you?”
“O, Phil, get your guitar and sing college songs for us,—do!” As
Cathalina spoke she started for the instrument.
“Can’t possibly tonight. We’ll have a sing tomorrow night, all hands of
us. Besides,” here Philip coughed affectedly and finished on a high
falsetto, “I have such a cold!”
Cathalina laughed. “All right till after dinner. You know Father and
Mother always want some music on Christmas Eve.”
At bedtime the two girls undressed before Hilary’s fire. Cathalina
thought that Hilary might be lonely on Christmas Eve, so she dismissed
Etta and they chatted by themselves.
“Isn’t Christmas the most beautiful time? Will you go to church
tomorrow?”
“Yes; Father and Mother always go. O, I want you to hear a wonderful
Christmas service, chimes and everything!”
“How cold and still it is tonight!”
“If you can call a city still. Of course it really is not noisy out
here, and anyway when you get used to a city you don’t hear things any
more than the ticking of our little alarm clock.”
“You only need to mention alarm clock to prove it. Do you remember how I
can sleep through all the din?” Both girls laughed at the memories of
certain early morning hours. “But you don’t know how queer I feel
sometimes, Cathalina, as if this is a story and nothing is real.”
“It seems real enough to me. Haven’t I the dearest father and mother and
brother?”
“Having some of my own I could not say ‘dearest,’ but they are just
wonderful. And why didn’t you tell me, Cathalina, that you lived like
this?”
“Well, Hilary, of course, I’m used to my dear home and would not have
thought much about it if Mother and Father had not warned me. They said
if I wanted to be happy and have the girls feel free with me and maybe
love me a little, I must do as the rest do and not ever hint about
having a maid or anything. Then they said, as usual, that it is what you
are and not what you have that counts and they were anxious to see if I
could get along without being waited on and amount to something myself.”
At Hilary’s wondering look she continued: “Of course they were too kind
to put it just that way, but I really thought that they must be
disgusted with me,—and how I cried, all to myself! But I made up my mind
to it and thought at first that I’d show everybody I could stay and work
hard at my lessons! Then I liked Greycliff and the girls so well that I
forgot all about the beginning or why I went there. I’ve just been
understanding since I came back home how worried they must have been
about me.”
“I suppose you felt almost as queer at Greycliff as I do here. Still,
it’s a big place there and they have servants too. I don’t know how this
immense house would have looked to me if I had not been to Greycliff
first.”
Cathalina laughed. “But this is a _home_. It _is_ a big old thing, but I
love it. You ought to see some of the other places here. Ours would not
seem so much for size, then. But come on, Hilary-Dillary, we’re going to
hang up our stockings just like kiddies tonight,—in the den next to my
room. Phil promises to do it too, just for fun, as we used to. Did you
see Mother buying that horn and jumping-jack?”
“Yes; I thought it was for some little chap in the family.”
“It was for her little kiddie-boy.”
* * * * *
Christmas morning was shining with the combined radiance of sun and
snow.
“Merry Christmas, Phil!” Cathalina in negligee and slippers pounded on
Phil’s door. Heavy breathing, somewhat exaggerated, greeted her.
“Merry Christmas, Hilary! O, I caught you! You couldn’t hear that old
scamp at the end of the hall. I know he was awake, but you’ll see, he’ll
come pounding on our door when he hears us talking in here,—and pretend
that he never heard me at all.” Cathalina shook off her slippers and
with the bulging stockings she settled herself by Hilary. “I left Phil’s
by his door. He won’t care much, but he may pretend he does to please
me.”
Etta appeared to light the gas in the grate. She laughed in response to
their calls of “Merry Christmas”. Going to a drawer in the chiffonier,
she drew out two fleecy wraps which she put around the excited girls.
“Now you take out one, Hilary, and then I’ll take one. I feel just like
little ‘Catty Buskirk’ aged five. It’s just as well that we’re starting
early, because you and I, and Phil, if we can get him to help, are to
decorate the Christmas tree. Loads of things came in yesterday and I
imagine more will come this morning.”
“For all ‘your sisters and your cousins and your aunts’?” asked Hilary,
as she felt again of the knobs in the stocking and drew out first a
rectangular package. “My, look at the yellow satin bow!” she cried, as
she unwrapped a candy box accompanied by Philip’s card and the familiar
inscription “Sweets to the sweet.”
“Phil brought home a great box of sweets that you will get later,” said
Cathalina, accepting a bon-bon and starting to unwrap a similar package.
“This is just like yours. Mother was pretending to whisk something out
of sight that he gave her.”
“That is the fun about Christmas. Everything is so jolly and mysterious.
But you have such loads of things all the time that I shouldn’t think it
would be so much fun.”
“Yes it is. Really, Hilary, we can’t have everything as you think,
especially sweets and jewelry and little gems of things in pictures and
books and—O, plenty of things. And all the Van Buskirks and Van Nesses
and the rest just love the Christmas fun. The ‘mysteriouser’ everything
is the better.”
All the simple things that ought to be in any well-regulated stocking
were in theirs. There was even a stick of old-fashioned peppermint
candy, wrapped in a slender package as if very precious and marked by
Mr. Van Buskirk, while Mrs. Van Buskirk had contributed a china doll for
each. It was tiny and dressed in a crochet frock after a fashion of
years age.
“They carried out the idea of kiddies with us, too, didn’t they? Isn’t
it fun to slip your hand down and feel the little packages?”
Hilary found two gold hat pins from Mrs. Van Buskirk and a bottle of the
very best violet perfume from Mr. Van Buskirk. Then, down in the toe was
a small package with a card marked, “Merry Christmas to Hilary from her
loving roommate, Cathalina.”
Cathalina’s color rose as she said, “I do hope you’ll like it!”
Hilary lifted the little hinged cover.
“O, Cathalina! It matches the pendant! How did you know that I love
rings better than anything else? But, honey, you give me these lovely
things, and what shall I do?”
“I’ll show you.” Cathalina took the flashing little ring from between
the satin pads and slipped it on Hilary’s finger. “‘With this ring I
thee’—present! Good, it fits. Do you remember when I was trying my
sapphire ring on your finger down by the lake one day?”
“Was _that_ it!” exclaimed Hilary, turning her well-shaped hand to see
the opal flash green and red in the light from the fire. Like the
pendant, the ring had its tiny diamonds, too. “How beautiful it is!”
“Look inside,” suggested Cathalina.
Hilary drew off the narrow circlet and read the fine letters, “C. to H.
Greycliff.”
Cathalina’s stocking was almost a duplicate of Hilary’s, but in the toe
she found a dainty wrist watch. She already had an exquisite little
watch, but this was in a style for which she had expressed a desire.
“Rah-rah for Greycliff!” cried Cathalina rather irrelevantly, waving the
empty stocking, and slid out of bed. Etta came promptly at her ring and
assisted both girls. It was Hilary’s first experience at having a maid
do her hair. She sat still with sparkling eyes, thinking of the vivid
description which she could give June and the boys of little Hilary in
the lap of luxury.
“Toot-toot!” and “tat-tat” on their door, “Merry Christmas, ladies!”
“Merry Christmas, you old fraud!” responded Cathalina. “I called ‘Merry
Christmas’ hours ago and you heard me too, didn’t you now, Philly?”
“Couldn’t I have been asleep?”
“Yes, you _could_, but you weren’t.”
“So long,” said Philip; “I smell turkey. Toot-toot.”
“They _did_ give him that horn! Isn’t it awful? We’ll hang that and my
‘dollie’ on the tree.”
“Is everybody coming to dinner?”
“Yes; the whole ‘gens,’ root and branch!”
“Don’t quote Latin; it makes me think of Dr. Carver. Poor thing, I hope
she has a nice Christmas!”
“Why ‘poor thing’? She looks down on us! And besides, since the ‘Herr
Professor’ came, she lives in hopes, as Ann Maria says.”
“My! Do lady Ph.D’s ever get married?”
“How should I know?” returned Cathalina saucily. “Ready, Hilary? Come
on, then to hot waffles and real maple syrup!”
With arms around each other, they started in step down the stairway and
began to sing a Christmas carol. Philip, appearing in the drawing room
door, joined in with a clear baritone. Then Mr. and Mrs. Van Buskirk
came from the library to join the young people and they all went singing
to the dining room.