Part 9 (1/2)
”Well, it does seem a queer thing to do!--Go ahead, Hat; what was the compliment?”
”Sure, now, you've got one for me?”
”Sure.”
”It was What's-his-name, the English fellow we see every time we go in to Cook's--Mr. Dysart. Leslie says he comes of a very good family. He said to me, 'How very charming Mrs. Hawthorne is looking this evening!'”
”Hattie, that man's a humbug, that man's leading a double life. He said to me, 'How very charming Miss Madison is looking this evening!' He did.”
”Go 'way! You're making it up to save trouble.”
”No, I ain't! Stop, Hattie! I know! I _am not_. Confusion upon it!
You've made me so nervous when I talk that I can't say ain't without jumping as if I'd sat on a pin!”
”Nell Goodwin, look me square in the eye. How many times did you say ain't at the party this evening?”
”Not once; I swear it. I was looking out every minute. 'I am not,' I said; 'We are not,' I said; 'He doesn't,' I said; 'He isn't,' I said.
There! Between you'n' I, Hat, it's a dreadful nuisance, keeping my mind on the way I talk. I hope I shall come in time to talking lofty without thinking about it. Why do I have to, Hat, after all? I've lived among educated people. Wasn't the Judge highly educated? And n.o.body ever found fault with my way of talking. My folks all had been to school and read books. And didn't I go to school till I was fourteen? And didn't I graduate from the grammar school with the rest? What's the matter with my natural way of talking?”
”It's all right at home, Nell, but it's different over here. They're a different kind of people we're thrown with.”
”This pernickety way of talking never sounds cozy or friendly one bit.
We're as good as anybody, of course, but when I say 'I am not, he does not,' I always feel as if I were setting up to be better than the rest!--Oh, it isn't, is it? Oh, do you say so? 'Between you and I' isn't correct? But I thought you told me.... To Jericho, Hattie! How's a feller ever going to get to know?”
”Listen, Nell, while I go over it again. When you say----”
”Ah, no! Not at this time of night, Estelle! Let me live in ignorance till morning! You know all those sorts of things, my dear Estelle, because you're paid by the government to know them. I don't; but I know lots and lots of things that are a sight funnier.”
She grabbed one of the pillows and flung it at her friend, who flung it back at her; and the simple creatures laughed.
Aurora re-tied in a bow the blue ribbon that closed the collar of her nightgown, and settled back again, with her arms out on the white satin quilt, flowered with roses and lined with blue. The two braids of her fair hair lay, one on each side, down her big, frank, undisguised bosom.
”You heaping dish of vanilla ice-cream!” said Hattie.
”You stick of rhubarb!” said Nell. ”Stop, Hat! Behave! Do you suppose all the people we've invited to come and see us will come?”
”Doctor Chandler will come. And the Hunt girls will come. And Madame Bentivoglio I guess will come.”
”Yes, and the Satterlees I'm sure will come. And Mrs. Seymour and her daughter that I said I'd help with the church fair. And the minister; what was it? Spottiswood.”
”And won't the Mr. Hunt come that you seemed to be having such a good time with?”
”Yes, he'll come. He'll come to-morrow, I shouldn't wonder. Then that thinnish fellow with the hair like a hearth-brush--did you meet him? Mr.
Fane, a great friend of the Fosses. He's coming to take us sight-seeing.” She yawned a wide, audible yawn. ”I only hope there'll be some fun in it. Confound you, Hat, go to bed!”
CHAPTER V