Part 15 (2/2)
”No, of course not.”
”And while I approve an immediate expenditure for education you will need continually to remember that your little patrimony as far as possible should be kept intact. If you touch the princ.i.p.al try to make it up afterwards. It is a great comfort to have a bank account.”
Miss Patty came in at this point, fresh and pretty from her nap, and took the comfortable rocker near Hertha.
”What is Miss Witherspoon advising you now?” she asked, smiling.
”To be careful of my money,” Hertha answered.
”A great mistake,” the southern woman said, rocking lazily back and forth. ”I would advise your spending at the outset at least five hundred dollars for clothes.”
”What!” cried Hertha.
”Yes!” said Miss Patty, enjoying the annoyance on Miss Witherspoon's face. ”I don't approve of your learning dressmaking, you know, my dear, it will lower your station. Get a lot of beautiful clothes in New York and then let me persuade Cousin Sally to take you about with her this winter. I'm sure she would enjoy toting a pretty southern girl around and if she didn't have you married in six months she should never have been born in Baltimore.”
”It sounds very attractive,” said Hertha, smiling. She knew Miss Patty was only half in earnest and that she liked above all things to shock her northern guest. ”But think how terrible it would be for her if I didn't marry and Cousin Sally was left with me and the dresses!”
”If you wanted to support yourself at the start,” Miss Witherspoon said, exactly as though no one but herself had spoken, ”you could take up operating work.”
”Operating work?” asked Hertha.
”Yes, operating power-machines. Good workwomen begin at ten dollars.”
”I like the sound of that,” Hertha said with more animation than she had yet shown. ”I always enjoy using a machine.”
Miss Patty was genuinely horrified. ”Factory work!” she cried. ”Factory work for this child! You're crazy. It would ruin her social position.”
Hertha was startled. It was hard for her to remember that being an Ogilvie she had a social position.
”Take my advice,” Miss Patty went on, ”and if you must work, get a genteel job. Why not go as a companion? Now I had a pretty little relative, Dolly Simmons, not exactly a relative but we were kin, her father's brother and my nephew's wife were cousins. The Simmonses never had anything, or if they did they only kept it long enough to lose it in a jack-pot, and Dolly had to support herself. She was a nice little child, with eyes like yours, and she went into a family as companion. It was in Chicago and the woman, she had an immense fortune, took Dolly with her to Palm Beach. There Dolly was a raving success, so much so that she had three proposals in one winter. The Chicago woman was quite nasty about it, jealous of course, and sent Dolly off, but not before she had captured a widower with five children and three houses, one in the country, one at the beach and one in St. Louis. That was doing well for a Simmons. How I wish,” Miss Merryvale looked affectionately at Hertha, ”that I had the strength to take you away and give you a season.
I wouldn't be jealous, my dear, but proud of all your conquests. But I fear it's out of the question.”
”Yes,” Hertha made haste to say, ”you couldn't possibly, though it is very kind of you to want to.”
”It's hard your not having any near relations. I'd love to have you stay with me, but I can understand your leaving. You're white and you don't want to remain where you've been black. But when you get North, don't make the mistake of lowering your social position, Hertha.”
Hertha made no response, and then Miss Witherspoon, who had kept silent as long as was humanly possible burst out: ”It is natural that Miss Merryvale and I should not agree on this matter, Hertha, but as long as you are going to live in the North I want you to understand northern conditions. I really believe you will be more likely to marry and to marry happily if you think nothing about it. Take up work that interests you and that you can do well. When you can take care of yourself then you may accept the man who wants to take care of you.”
”Well, of all the extraordinary pieces of advice,” Miss Patty murmured.
But at this point Hertha arose and announced that she was going to her room.
Once by herself she drew a sigh of relief. These two women, she feared, would drive her to do something desperate. She had at once accepted Miss Witherspoon's invitation to travel with her to the North and had been grateful for her suggestions as to her education; but she had not expected to have everything arranged before she set foot in Boston. She would have preferred to look about and to plan for herself. Of Miss Patty's scheming she gave no thought, she was not in a humor to consider getting married; but her future career did interest her and she could but wish that it did not have an equal interest for Miss Witherspoon.
Would she want to be closely in touch with this energetic woman? She reminded her of a teacher she had had at school, a Miss Smith--also from Boston. Miss Smith, who was a terror to the idler or the dreamer, had never missed a day from her work for twenty-two years. Was Miss Witherspoon like that? She was very particular about her room. Would all the people in Boston be so thorough and so emphatic?
She bestirred herself for a few minutes and then sat down idly by the window. She could see the broad stream and against the sky was a line of birds. They were too far away at first for her to name them, but suddenly the sunlight glistened on their snowy wings and she saw that they were ibises flying south. In a little while she would be flying North. What would her welcome there be like?
<script>