Part 17 (1/2)
”I never saw such bright people in all my life!” said Ada Geoffrey, when the outcry of applause for Dorris had subsided, and they began to rise to go. ”But the _worst_ of all is papa! I'll never get over it of you, see if I do! Such a cheat! Why, it's like playing dumb all your life, and then just speaking up suddenly in a quiet way, some day, as if it was nothing particular, and n.o.body cared!”
With Hazel's little divining-rod, Mrs. Ripwinkley had reached out, testing the world for her, to see what some of it might be really made of. Mrs. Geoffrey, from her side, had reached out in turn, also, into this fresh and simple opportunity, to see what might be there worth while.
”How was it, Aleck?” she asked of her husband, as they sat together in her dressing-room, while she brushed out her beautiful hair.
”Brightest people I have been among for a long time--and nicest,”
said the banker, concisely. ”A real, fresh little home, with a mother in it. Good place for Ada to go, and good girls for her to know; like the ones I fell in love with a hundred years ago.”
”That rhymed oracle,--to say nothing of the _fraction_ of a compliment,--ought to settle it,” said Mrs. Geoffrey, laughing.
”Rhymes have been the order of the evening. I expect to talk in verse for a week at least.”
And then he told her about the ”Crambo.”
A week after, Mrs. Ledwith was astonished to find, lying on the mantel in her sister's room, a card that had been sent up the day before,--
”MRS. ALEXANDER H. GEOFFREY.”
XI.
MORE WITCH-WORK.
Hazel was asked to the Geoffreys' to dinner.
Before this, she and Diana had both been asked to take tea, and spend an evening, but this was Hazel's little especial ”invite,” as she called it, because she and Ada were writing a dialogue together for a composition at school.
The Geoffreys dined at the good old-fas.h.i.+oned hour of half past two, except when they had formal dinner company; and Hazel was to come right home from school with Ada, and stay and spend the afternoon.
”What intimacy!” Florence Ledwith had exclaimed, when she heard of it.
”But it isn't at all on the grand style side; people like the Geoffreys do such things quite apart from their regular connection; it is a sort of 'behind the scenes;'” said Glossy Megilp, who was standing at Florence's dressing-gla.s.s, touching up the little heap of ”friz” across her forehead.
”Where's my poker?” she asked, suddenly, breaking off from the Geoffrey subject, and rummaging in a dressing box, intent upon tutoring some little obstinate loop of hair that would be _too_ frizzy.
”I should think a 'blower' might be a good thing to add to your tools, Glossy,” said Desire. ”You have brush, poker, and tongs, now, to say nothing of coal-hod,” she added, glancing at the little open j.a.panned box that held some kind of black powder which had to do with the shadow of Glossy's eyelashes upon occasion, and the emphasis upon the delicate line of her brows.
”No secret,” said Glossy, magnanimously. ”There it is! It is no greater sin than violet powder, or false tails, for that matter; and the little gap in my left eyebrow was never deliberately designed.
It was a 'lapsus naturae;' I only follow out the hint, and complete the intention. Something _is_ left to ourselves; as the child said about the Lord curling her hair for her when she was a baby and letting her do it herself after she grew big enough. What are our artistic perceptions given to us for, unless we're to make the best of ourselves in the first place?”
”But it isn't all eyebrows,” said Desire, half aloud.
”Of course not,” said Glossy Megilp. ”Twice a day I have to do myself up somehow, and why shouldn't it be as well as I can? Other things come in their turn, and I do them.”
”But, you see, the friz and the fix has to be, anyhow, whether or no. Everything isn't done, whether or no. I guess it's the 'first place,' that's the matter.”
”I think you have a very theoretical mind, Des, and a slightly obscure style. You can't be satisfied till everything is all mapped out, and organized, and justified, and you get into horrible snarls trying to do it. If I were you, I would take things a little more as they come.”
”I can't,” said Desire. ”They come hind side before and upside down.”