Part 22 (1/2)
Here it is. Now, Miss Christine, I don't want you to wear the pin; it's the same you wear every day, and you ought to have some color about you somewhere; so I want you to wear this knot of blue satin, and I've got a band to match. Please do, just for my sake!”
”Why, Marion, you will make me absurd; you forget what an old maid I am.”
”Old maid! I should think as much,” replied Marion, pinning on the bow in spite of all remonstrance,--”old maid indeed! You're nothing of the sort, and what's more you know you never will be;” and Marion gave a mischievous glance at her teacher.
”Don't be impertinent, Marion,” replied Miss Christine; but ”old maid”
as she called herself, she could not keep a very girlish blush from glowing on her cheeks at her pupil's words.
”I think you are just as lovely as you can be!” exclaimed Marion. ”Oh! I forgot; the band for your hair;--there! now you're complete.”
”Why, Miss Christine, you'll hardly know yourself,” said Florence; ”just look in the gla.s.s. Those crimps make you look five years younger.”
”I'm going down to get Sallie,” said Marion. ”Don't put your things on yet, please; she wants to see you.”
Marion ran off, returning in a few moments with Sarah Brown, who, the moment she saw her teacher, threw open her arms, and gave her a most emphatic hug.
”Now you look just as you ought. I'm perfectly delighted you're going, and your hair is beautiful,--that band is so becoming.”
”That is all Marion's doings; in fact, I owe all my 'fine feathers' to her, and without them I should not be such a 'fine bird' as you seem to think me;” and Miss Christine laughed her dear, little laugh, that her scholars loved so well, and glanced affectionately at the group of admiring girls about her.
”You are not a 'fine bird' at all,” exclaimed Sarah, in her most enthusiastic way; ”you are just a dear, white dove.”
”O Sarah! a white dove in black silk and blue satin--rather incongruous,” said Miss Christine.
The girls all joined Miss Christine in her laugh; but nevertheless protested that Sarah's simile was not a bit exaggerated.
”Well now, Miss Christine,” said Marion, ”if you are ready, I'll go down and tell Biddy to put her things on.”
”Biddy isn't going with me,” replied Miss Christine, who seemed very busily engaged enveloping her head in a cloud, bringing it so far over her face that not a vestige of her hair was visible.
”Why, you're not going alone?”
”No; M. Beranger was invited, and kindly offered to escort me,” said Miss Christine, bending her head to fasten her glove.
”Oh!” said Marion; but she gave a sly glance at her companions, which was not observed by Miss Christine, whose glove-b.u.t.tons seemed to be giving her a great deal of trouble.
”Now, good-night, girls. I thank you a thousand times for all you have done for me, Marion;” then, as she kissed them all, ”I don't believe there ever was a teacher had such affectionate scholars.”
”You mean there never were scholars that had such a perfectly lovely teacher!” cried Sarah Brown, loud enough to be heard in the hall below.
”'s.h.!.+” said Miss Christine. ”Monsieur is down there; he will hear you.”
”I guess it won't be any news to him,” whispered Marion, as they hung over the banisters watching the proceedings below. ”Do you know, Sallie, I believe she pulled that cloud over her head on purpose so that Miss Stiefbach wouldn't see she had her hair crimped. I dare say if she had, she'd have given her a lecture, when she got back, on the follies and vanities of this world.”
”I dare say,” replied Sarah. ”She'd like to make Miss Christine just such a stiff old maid as she is herself; but she won't succeed.”
”Not a bit of it,” replied Marion.
When Miss Christine came home from the party, and stood before her gla.s.s preparatory to undressing, if she had been one of her own scholars she would have said she had a ”splendid time.” Evening companies, even as small as the one she had just attended, were something in which she rarely indulged; in fact, she had often remained at home from preference, sending her sister in her place, thinking she was much more likely to s.h.i.+ne in society than herself. But this night she had really enjoyed herself. It certainly was very pleasant to know she looked better than usual; and if the evidence of her own eyes, and the admiration of her scholars, had not proved that, there had been some one else who testified to the fact in a few respectful, but very earnest words.