Part 13 (1/2)
9. A. L. d.y.k.eman--Interesting, too old.
10. Professor Toomey--Little, horrid.
11. Arthur Fitzwilliam--Ridiculous, too young.
12. Howard Winchester--Too nice, distrust him.
13. Lawson W. Briggs--Nothing much.
14. Edward S. Jenks--Fair to middling.
15. Mr. A. Smith--Minus.
She held it up in triumph. ”I got 'em all out of the book--quite correct. Now, which'll you have.”
”Susie Elder! You little goose! Do you imagine that all these fifteen men are going to propose to you?”
”I'm sure I hope so!” said the cheerful damsel. ”We've only been settled a fortnight and one of 'em has already!”
Vivian was impressed at once. ”Which?--You don't mean it!”
Sue pointed to the one marked ”minus.”
”It was only 'A. Smith.' I never should be willing to belong to 'A.
Smith,' it's too indefinite--unless it was a last resort. Several more are--well, extremely friendly! Now don't look so severe. You needn't worry about me. I'm not quite so foolish as I talk, you know.”
She was not. Her words were light and saucy, but she was as demure and decorous a little New Englander as need be desired; and she could not help it if the hearts of the unattached young men of whom the town was full, warmed towards her.
Dr. Bellair astonished them at lunch one day in their first week.
”d.i.c.k Hale wants us all to come over to tea this afternoon,” she said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
”Tea? Where?” asked Mrs. Pettigrew sharply.
”At his house. He has 'a home of his own,' you know. And he particularly wants you, Mrs. Pettigrew--and Miss Elder--the girls, of course.”
”I'm sure I don't care to go,” Vivian remarked with serene indifference, but Susie did.
”Oh, come on, Vivian! It'll be so funny! A man's home!--and we may never get another chance. He's such a bear!”
Dr. Hale's big house was only across the road from theirs, standing in a large lot with bushes and trees about it.
”He's been here nine years,” Dr. Bellair told them. ”That's an old inhabitant for us. He boarded in that house for a while; then it was for sale and he bought it. He built that little office of his at the corner--says he doesn't like to live where he works, or work where he lives. He took his meals over here for a while--and then set up for himself.”
”I should think he'd be lonely,” Miss Elder suggested.
”Oh, he has his boys, you know--always three or four young fellows about him. It's a mighty good thing for them, too.”
Dr. Hale's home proved a genuine surprise. They had regarded it as a big, neglected-looking place, and found on entering the gate that the inside view of that rampant shrubbery was extremely pleasant. Though not close cut and swept of leaves and twigs, it still was beautiful; and the tennis court and tether-ball ring showed the ground well used.