Part 39 (1/2)
”You're coming on!” Dr. Ben smiled at his velvet wallflowers.
Surprisingly, Joe Hawkes was another ally. He came back in May, penniless, but full of honours, and with his position in the new hospital secure. A small, second-hand car, packed with Hawkeses of all ages, began to be seen in Monroe streets, and Sally grew rosier and fatter and more childish-looking every day. Sally would never keep her hair neat, or care for hands or complexion, but evidently Joe adored her as he had on their wedding day.
”Your father'll have nothing to leave, Martie,” Joe said. ”What little the Estates don't eat up must go to Lydia, and if you make a start here, why, you'll move on to something better!”
”Miss f.a.n.n.y hasn't moved on to something better,” Martie submitted with a dubious smile.
”Miss f.a.n.n.y isn't you, Mart. She's gotten a long way for her. You know her father was the Patterson's hired man, and her mother actually had town help for a while, when he died. Now they have that cottage free of debt, and something in the Bank, and Miss f.a.n.n.y belongs to the woman's club--that's enough for her. You can do better, and you will!”
”I like you, Joe!” said Martie at this, quite frankly, and her brother-in-law's pleasant eyes met hers as he said:
”I like you, too!”
Sally, herself, did not belong to the Woman's Social and Civic Club; a fact that caused her some chagrin. Rose had actually been president once, as had May Parker, and among the thirty-six or seven members she and May were pleasantly prominent.
”I never see Rose, but I should have thought she might elect me to the club,” Sally said to Martie. ”Unless, of course,” she added, brightening, ”Rose realizes how busy I am, and that it really would be an extravagance.”
”But why do you want to go, Sis? What do they do--sit around and read papers?”
”Oh, well, they have tea, and they entertain visitors in town. And they have a historical committee to keep up the fountains and statues--well, I don't care!” Sally interrupted herself with a reluctant smile as Martie laughed. ”It makes me sick for Rose to have everything and always be so smug!”
”Oh, Sally Price Hawkes! Look at the children, and look at Joe, covering himself with glory!”
”Well, I know.” Sally looked ashamed. ”But sometimes it does seem as if it wasn't fair!”
”I met Rodney Parker the other day,” Martie said thoughtfully. ”It isn't that he wasn't extremely pleasant--not to say flattering! No one could have been more so. He told me that Rose was in the hospital, and that they had been so busy since I got to town--I told you all this?
But as we parted my only thought was grat.i.tude to Heaven that I had never married Rodney Parker!”
Lydia, sitting sewing near by, coloured with shame at the indelicacy of this, and made her characteristic comment.
”You don't mean that you--ALWAYS felt so, Martie?”
”Always!” Martie echoed healthily. ”Why, I was crazy about him.”
Lydia visibly shrank.
”He's so LIMITED” Martie continued with spirit. ”I'm glad that things have gone well with them, and that they have a baby at last! But to sit opposite that pleasant, fat face--he is getting quite fat!--and hear that complacent voice all the days of my life, those little puns, and that cheerful way of implying that he is the greatest man since Alexander--no, I couldn't!”
”He has built Rose a lovely home, and made her a very happy woman,”
Lydia said sententiously.
”Well, I suppose that when I thought of marrying Rod, I thought of the old house,” Martie pursued. ”Of course, they HAVE built a nice home, but the glory for me was the old place! Rose has a big drawing room, and a big bedroom, and a guest's bath, and pantries and a side porch--but I like your house better, Sally, with its trees and flowers and babies!”
”You're just SAYING that!” Sally observed.
”I like civic pride,” Martie, who was rambling on in her old inconsequential way, presently added, ”but Rod is merely SMUG. I happened to mention some building in New York--I didn't know what to talk to the man about! He immediately told me that the Mason building down town was reinforced concrete throughout. I said that I had always missed the orchards in the East, and he said, with such an unpleasant laugh, 'We lead the world, Martie, you can't get away from it. Do you suppose I'd stay here one moment if I didn't think that there is a better chance of making money right here to-day than anywhere else in the world?'”
She had caught his tone, and Sally disrespectfully laughed.
”Well, I know he is one of our most prominent young men, and Rose was president of the club, and I suppose we less fortunate people can talk all we please, they'll be just that much better off than we are!” Lydia said with a little edge to her voice.