Part 11 (1/2)

”That's very 'wink-ed' of you, Algernon, as Elsmere would say, but it truly does just about describe it. You never do that way yourself, but you do open up and read aloud, so to speak, in company sometimes, in a way that is disconcerting. Now, what could one say to a statement about Abyssinian trousers, for instance, when one is just peacefully walking along, going to a party?”

Algernon straightened his shoulders.

”Much obliged,” he said briefly. ”I've been doing a little observing on my own account lately, since I've been around with the rest of you so much, and what you tell me fits, all right. I guess I can cut out the information! I say, doesn't the Osgood place look fine?”

The great porch at the Osgoods' ”palatial residence,” as the Winsted _Courier_ always faithfully referred to the house, was alight with square pink lanterns. A long strip of carpet ran out to the sidewalk, and as she stepped upon it, Catherine put her hair back with a quick gesture and smiled up at her tall companion.

”I tell you, I'm proud to make my entrance by the side of the real Librarian of the Winsted City Library.”

”Leave your scarf here, Catriona darling,” said Polly, greeting her guests in the doorway. ”You don't need to prink. Mother, Father, here are Catherine and Algernon.”

Mrs. Osgood came forward and took Catherine's hand with ceremony. Then she turned to Algernon.

”This is really an occasion. I am delighted, in my new capacity as Trustee, to salute the Founder and the Mainstay of our Library.”

”O!” protested Catherine. ”But isn't it perfectly lovely the way the council did take up with the idea? Was there any hitch at all about it?”

”Not the least,” said Mr. Osgood. ”You never saw anything smoother. You young folks certainly struck this town with this library scheme of yours at the psychological moment. The council was all for it. The tax was voted, and directors appointed as though it had been talked up for years.”

”And Bertha is a trustee,” cried Catherine, seeing Bertha in the group beyond. ”O, Bertha dear, do use your influence to keep Algernon in office!”

Everybody laughed at that, and Mrs. Osgood threw up her hands.

”We can't help ourselves! No one can ever underbid him, except by paying for the privilege. Algernon won't take a salary.”

Algernon flushed uneasily. ”I haven't earned one yet,” he muttered. ”And besides, salaries for public positions--”

Some choice fact was refused utterance there, for Algernon, seeing Catherine's eye upon him, swallowed his harmless 'statistic' and lapsed into silence.

”Where are Bess and Archie?” fussed Polly. ”Every one else is here, and we do want to begin dancing. I wonder what can have kept them.”

”Here they are,” called some one. ”Hurry up, you two. You're the latest.”

”We've brought our excuse with us,” and Archie set down before Mrs.

Osgood a bulky newspaper parcel. Bess, smiling mysteriously, refused to answer inquiries, and when the greetings were over Archie produced a knife and started to cut the string.

”Tell them the story first, Archie,” suggested Bess.

”You think it would be more dramatic? Well, maybe so, maybe so. Ladies and Gentlemen: I have here a gift for the Winsted Public Library. It comes most appropriately on this evening, when the original supporters of that inst.i.tution are celebrating their release from its responsibility! Miss Symonds,” indicating Bess with a graceful curve of his thumb, ”and myself were proceeding hither to join you. Our way led us past the s.p.a.cious edifice dedicated now to the Cause of Learning and Recreation, having once been given over to hats, and later still, as many now present remember, to rats! The library is, as some of you are aware, not open on Wednesday evenings. Therefore we were surprised to see standing before the door in an att.i.tude of patient expectancy, a rustic gentleman, bearing in his arm this identical parcel. We hesitated and then remarked courteously to the gentleman that there was small hope of his obtaining satisfaction at that particular portal before to-morrow afternoon. His face fell. Seeing which phenomenon, Miss Symonds,” again the thumb curve, ”being of a kindly nature, offered sympathy to the disappointed reader. He opened his heart to us--and also his bundle. It seems he was not there to borrow books, but to bestow blessings. The article herein contained was destined by his wife, its maker, to adorn the library's walls.”

”He said,” interrupted Bess, ”that he was sure we didn't have anything like it, because his wife invented it, and he didn't know as there was another in the world, even. He seemed to think the library was a kind of museum and every one was sending things, and he and 'wife' wanted to, too. He was a dear old man. So clean, and he wore a red shawl around his neck this hot night--” Bess tossed her own bare head at the thought, and fanned her pretty white shoulders. ”Do show it to them, Archie, and don't make fun. He really thought we would think it was lovely, and it certainly is unusual.”

”Open it, open it!”

Archie dropped to one knee, cut the string, and, removing one paper after another, lifted slowly a hoop bound in red wool, from which depended twenty fat little birds made of sc.r.a.ps of velvet.

Silence and bewilderment. Then, ”What's it for?” faltered some one.

”We must explain it,” said Bess laughing. ”They don't understand.