Books: A Modern Cinderella
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Louisa May Alcott >> A Modern Cinderella
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Young Leavenworth whisked his glass into his
eye, and Mr. Seguin put down his roll to behold
the phenomenon. Poor Debby! her first step had
been a wrong one.
All great minds have their weak points. Aunt
Pen's was her breakfast, and the peace of her
entire day depended upon the success of that meal.
Therefore, being down rather late, the worthy
lady concentrated her energies upon the achievement
of a copious repast, and, trusting to former
lessons, left Debby to her own resources for a few
fatal moments. After the flutter occasioned by
being scooped into her seat by a severe-nosed
waiter, Debby had only courage enough left to
refuse tea and coffee and accept milk. That being
done, she took the first familiar viand that appeared,
and congratulated herself upon being able
to get her usual breakfast. With returning composure,
she looked about her and began to enjoy
the buzz of voices, the clatter of knives and forks,
and the long lines of faces all intent upon the business
of the hour; but her peace was of short duration.
Pausing for a fresh relay of toast, Aunt
Pen glanced toward her niece with the comfortable
conviction that her appearance was highly creditable;
and her dismay can be imagined, when she
beheld that young lady placidly devouring a great
cup of brown-bread and milk before the eyes of the
assembled multitude. The poor lady choked
in her coffee, and between her gasps whispered
irefully behind her napkin,--
"For Heaven's sake, Dora, put away that
mess! The Ellenboroughs are directly opposite,
watching everything you do. Eat that omelet, or
anything respectable, unless you want me to die of
mortification."
Debby dropped her spoon, and, hastily helping
herself from the dish her aunt pushed toward her,
consumed the leathery compound with as much
grace as she could assume, though unable to
repress a laugh at Aunt Pen's disturbed countenance.
There was a slight lull in the clatter, and the blithe
sound caused several heads to turn toward the
quarter whence it came, for it was as unexpected
and pleasant a sound as a bobolink's song in a cage
of shrill-voiced canaries.
"She's a jolly little thing and powerful pretty,
so deuse take me if I don't make up to the old lady
and find out who the girl is. I've been introduced
to Mrs. Carroll at our house: but I suppose she
won't remember me till I remind her."
The "deuse" declining to accept of his repeated
offers (probably because there was still too
much honor and honesty in the boy,) young
Leavenworth sought out Mrs. Carroll on the
Piazza, as she and Debby were strolling there an
hour later.
"Joe Leavenworth, my dear, from one of our
first families,--very wealthy,--fine match,--pray,
be civil,--smooth your hair, hold back your shoulders,
and put down your parasol," murmured
Aunt Pen, as the gentleman approached with as
much pleasure in his countenance as it was consistent
with manly dignity to express upon meeting
two of the inferior race.
"My niece, Miss Dora Wilder. This is her
first season at the beach, and we must endeavor to
make it pleasant for her, or she will be getting
homesick and running away to mamma," said Aunt Pen,
in her society-tone, after she had returned his
greeting, and perpetrated a polite fiction,
by declaring that she remembered him perfectly,
for he was the image of his father.
Mr. Leavenworth brought the heels of his varnished
boots together with a click, and executed the latest
bow imported, then stuck his glass in his eye and stared
till it fell out, (the glass, not the eye,) upon which
he fell into step with them, remarking,--
"I shall be most happy to show the lions: they
are deused tame ones, so you needn't be alarmed.
Miss Wilder."
Debby was good-natured enough to laugh; and,
elated with that success, he proceeded to pour
forth his stores of wit and learning in true collegian
style, quite unconscious that the "jolly little thing"
was looking him through and through with the
smiling eyes that were producing such pleasurable
sensations under the mosaic studs. They strolled
toward the beach, and, meeting an old acquaintance,
Aunt Pen fell behind, and beamed upon the
young pair as if her prophetic eye even at this early
stage beheld them walking altarward in a proper
state of blond white vest and bridal awkwardness.
"Can you skip a stone, Mr. Leavenworth?
asked Debby, possessed with a mischievous desire
to shock the piece of elegance at her side.
"Eh? what's that? " he inquired, with his
head on one side, like an inquisitive robin.
Debby repeated her question, and illustrated it
by sending a stone skimming over the water in the
most scientific manner. Mr. Joe was painfully
aware that this was not at all "the thing," that his
sisters never did so, and that Seguin would laugh
confoundedly, if he caught him at it; but Debby
looked so irresistibly fresh and pretty under her
rose-lined parasol that he was moved to confess
that he had done such a thing, and to sacrifice his
gloves by poking in the sand, that he might indulge
in a like unfashionable pastime.
"You'll be at the hop to-night, I hope, Miss
Wilder," he observed, introducing a topic suited
to a young lady's mental capacity.
"Yes, indeed; for dancing is one of the joys of
my life, next to husking and making hay"; and
Debby polked a few steps along the beach, much
to the edification of a pair of old gentlemen,
serenely taking their first constitutional."
"Making what? " cried Mr. Joe, poking after
her.
"Hay; ah, that is the pleasantest fun in the
world,--and better exercise, my mother says, for
soul and body, than dancing till dawn in crowded
rooms, with everything in a state of unnatural
excitement. If one wants real merriment, let him go
into a new-mown field, where all the air is full of
summer odors, where wild-flowers nod along the
walls, where blackbirds make finer music than any
band, and sun and wind and cheery voices do their
part, while windrows rise, and great loads go
rumbling through the lanes with merry brown faces
atop. Yes, much as I like dancing, it is not to be
compared with that; for in the one case we shut
out the lovely world, and in the other we become
a part of it, till by its magic labor turns to poetry,
and we harvest something better than dried buttercups
and grass."
As she spoke, Debby looked up, expecting to
meet a glance of disapproval; but something in the
simple earnestness of her manner had recalled
certain boyish pleasures as innocent as they were
hearty, which now contrasted very favorably with
the later pastimes in which fast horses, and that
lower class of animals, fast men, bore so large a
part. Mr. Joe thoughtfully punched five holes in
the sand, and for a moment Debby liked the expression
of his face; then the old listlessness returned,
and, looking up, he said, with an air of
ennui that was half sad, half ludicrous, in one so
young and so generously endowed with youth,
health, and the good gifts of this life,--
"I used to fancy that sort of thing years ago,
but I'm afraid I should find it a little slow now,
though you describe it in such an inviting manner
that I would be tempted to try it, if a hay-cock
came in my way; for, upon my life, it's deused
heavy work loafing about at these watering-places
all summer. Between ourselves, there's a deal of
humbug about this kind of life, as you will find,
when you've tried it as long as I have."
"Yes, I begin to think so already; but perhaps
you can give me a few friendly words of warning
from the stones of your experience, that I may be
spared the pain of saying what so many look,--
'Grandma, the world is hollow; my doll is stuffed
with sawdust; and I should 'like to go into a
convent, if you please.'"
Debby's eyes were dancing with merriment;
but they were demurely down-cast, and her voice
was perfectly serious.
The milk of human kindness had been slightly
curdled for Mr. Joe by sundry college-tribulations;
and having been "suspended," he very naturally
vibrated between the inborn jollity of his
temperament and the bitterness occasioned by his wrongs.
He had lost at billiards the night before, had been
hurried at breakfast, had mislaid his cigar-case,
and splashed his boots; consequently the darker
mood prevailed that morning, and when his counsel
was asked, he gave it like one who bad known
the heaviest trials of this "Piljin Projiss of a
wale."
"There's no justice in the world, no chance
for us young people to enjoy ourselves, without
some penalty to pay, some drawback to worry us
like these confounded 'all-rounders.' Even here,
where all seems free and easy, there's no end of
gossips and spies who tattle and watch till you feel
as if you lived in a lantern. 'Every one for himself,
and the Devil take the hindmost'; that's the
principle they go on, and you have to keep your
wits about you in the most exhausting manner, or
you are done for before you know it. I've seen a
good deal of this sort of thing, and hope you'll get
on better than some do, when it's known that you
are the rich Mrs. Carroll's niece; though you don't
need that fact to enhance your charms,--upon my
life, you don't."
Debby laughed behind her parasol at this burst
of candor; but her independent nature prompted
her to make a fair beginning, in spite of Aunt
Pen's polite fictions and well-meant plans.
" Thank you for your warning, but I don't
apprehend much annoyance of that kind," she said,
demurely. "Do you know, I think, if young
ladies were truthfully labelled when they went into
society, it would be a charming fashion, and save a
world of trouble? Something in this style:--
'Arabella Marabout, aged nineteen, fortune
$100,000, temper warranted'; 'Laura Eau-de-Cologne,
aged twenty-eight, fortune $30,000,
temper slightly damaged'; Deborah Wilder,
aged eighteen, fortune, one pair of hands, one head,
indifferently well filled, one heart, (not in the
market,) temper decided, and no expectations.'
There, you see, that would do away with much of
the humbug you lament, and we poor souls would
know at once whether we were sought for our fortunes
or ourselves, and that would be so comfortable!"
Mr. Leavenworth turned away, with a convicted sort
of expression, as she spoke, and, making
a spyglass of his hand, seemed to be watching
something out at sea with absorbing interest. He
had been guilty of a strong desire to discover
whether Debby was an heiress, but had not expected
to be so entirely satisfied on that important
subject, and was dimly conscious that a keen eye
had seen his anxiety, and a quick wit devised a
means of setting it at rest forever. Somewhat
disconcerted, he suddenly changed the conversation,
and, like many another distressed creature, took to
the water, saying briskly,--
"By-the-by, Miss Wilder, as I've engaged to
do the honors, shall I have the pleasure of bathing
with you when the fun begins? As you are fond
of hay-making, I suppose you intend to pay your
respects to the old gentleman with the three-
pronged pitchfork?"
"Yes, Aunt Pen means to put me through a course
of salt water, and any instructions in the art
of navigation will be gratefully received; for I
never saw the ocean before, and labor under a
firm conviction, that, once in, I never shall come
out again till I am brought, like Mr. Mantilini, a
'damp, moist, unpleasant body.'"
As Debby spoke, Mrs. Carroll hove in sight,
coming down before the wind with all sails set, and
signals of distress visible long before she dropped
anchor and came along-side. The devoted woman
had been strolling slowly for the girl's sake, though
oppressed with a mournful certainty that her most
prominent feature was fast becoming a fine copper-
color; yet she had sustained herself like a Spartan
matron, till it suddenly occurred to her that her
charge might be suffering a like
"sea-change
Into something rich and strange."
Her fears, however, were groundless, for Debby
met her without a freckle, looking all the better
for her walk; and though her feet were wet with
chasing the waves, and her pretty gown the worse
for salt water, Aunt Pen never chid her for the
destruction of her raiment, nor uttered a warning
word against an unladylike exuberance of spirits,
but replied to her inquiry most graciously,--
"Certainly, my love, we shall bathe at eleven,
and there will be just time to get Victorine and our
dresses; so run on to the house, and I will join you
as soon as I have finished what I am saying to
Mrs. Earl,"--then added, in a stage-aside, as she
put a fallen lock off the girl's forehead, "You are
doing beautifully! He is evidently struck; make
yourself interesting, and don't burn your nose, I
beg of you."
Debby's bright face clouded over, and she
wakked on with so much stateliness that her escort
wondered " what the deuse the old lady had done
to her," and exerted himself to the utmost to recall
her merry mood, but with indifferent success.
"Now I begin to feel more like myself, for this
is getting back to first principles, though I fancy I
look like the little old woman who fell asleep on
the king's highway and woke up with abbreviated
drapery; and you look funnier still, Aunt Pen,"
said Debby, as she tied on her pagoda-hat, and
followed Mrs. Carroll, who walked out of her
dressing-room an animated bale of blue cloth
surmounted by a gigantic sun-bonnet.
Mr. Leavenworth was in waiting, and so like a
blond-headed lobster in his scarlet suit that Debby
could hardly keep her countenance as they joined
the groups of bathers gathering along the breezy
shore.
For an hour each day the actors and actresses
who played their different roles at the ----- Hotel
with such precision and success put off their masks
and dared to be themselves. The ocean wrought
the change, for it took old and young into its arms,
and for a little while they played like children in
their mother's lap. No falsehood could withstand
its rough sincerity; for the waves washed paint and
powder from worn faces, and left a fresh bloom
there. No ailment could entirely resist its vigorous
cure; for every wind brought healing on its wings,
endowing many a meagre life with another year
of health. No gloomy spirit could refuse to listen
to its lullaby, and the spray baptized it with the
subtile benediction of a cheerier mood. No rank
held place there; for the democratic sea toppled
down the greatest statesman in the land, and
dashed over the bald pate of a millionnaire with
the same white-crested wave that stranded a poor
parson on the beach and filled a fierce reformer's
mouth with brine. No fashion ruled, but that
which is as old as Eden,--the beautiful fashion of
simplicity. Belles dropped their affectations with
their hoops, and ran about the shore blithe-hearted
girls again. Young men forgot their vices and
their follies, and were not ashamed of the real
courage, strength, and skill they had tried to leave
behind them with their boyish plays. Old men
gathered shells with the little Cupids dancing on
the sand, and were better for that innocent
companionship; and young mothers never looked so
beautiful as when they rocked their babies on the
bosom of the sea.
Debby vaguely felt this charm, and, yielding
to it, splashed and sang like any beach-bird, while
Aunt Pen bobbed placidly up and down in a
retired corner, and Mr. Leavenworth swam to and
fro, expressing his firm belief in mermaids, sirens,
and the rest of the aquatic sisterhood, whose warbling
no manly ear can resist.
" Miss Wilder, you must learn to swim. I've
taught quantities of young ladies, and shall be
delighted to launch the 'Dora,' if you'll accept me
as a pilot. Stop a bit; I'll get a life-preserver
and leaving Debby to flirt with the waves, the scarlet
youth departed like a flame of fire.
A dismal shriek interrupted his pupil's play, and
looking up, she saw her aunt beckoning wildly with
one hand, while she was groping in the water with
the other. Debby ran to her, alarmed at her
tragic expression, and Mrs. Carroll, drawing the
girl's face into the privacy of her big bonnet,
whispered one awful word, adding, distractedly,--
"Dive for them! oh, dive for them! I shall be
perfectly helpless, if they are lost!"
"I can't dive, Aunt Pen; but there is a man,
let us ask him," said Debby, as a black head
appeared to windward.
But Mrs. Carroll's "nerves" had received a
shock, and, gathering up her dripping garments,
she fled precipitately along the shore and vanished
into her dressing-room.
Debby's keen sense of the ludicrous got the better
of her respect, and peal after peal of laughter
broke from her lips, till a splash behind her put an
end to her merriment, and, turning, she found that
this friend in need was her acquaintance of the day
before. The gentleman seemed pausing for permission
to approach, with much the appearance of a sagacious
Newfoundland, wistful and wet.
"Oh, I'm very glad it's you, Sir!" was Debby's
cordial greeting, as she shook a drop off the end of
her nose, and nodded, smiling.
The new-comer immediately beamed upon her
like an amiable Triton, saying, as they turned
shoreward,--
"Our first interview opened with a laugh on my
side, and our second with one on yours. I accept
the fact as a good omen. Your friend seemed in
trouble; allow me to atone for my past misdemeanors
by offering my services now. But first let me introduce
myself; and as I believe in the fitness of things, let
me present you with an appropriate card"; and, stooping,
the young man wrote "Frank Evan" on the hard sand at
Debby's feet.
The girl liked his manner, and, entering into the
spirit of the thing, swept as grand a curtsy as her
limited drapery would allow saying, merrily,-
-
"I am Debby Wilder, or Dora, as aunt prefers
to call me; and instead of laughing, I ought to be
four feet under water, looking for something we
have lost; but I can't dive, and my distress is
dreadful, as you see."
"What have you lost? I will look for it, and
bring it back in spite of the kelpies, if it is a human
possibility," replied Mr. Evan, pushing his wet
locks out of his eyes, and regarding the ocean with
a determined aspect.
Debby leaned toward him, whispering with
solemn countenance,--
"It is a set of teeth, Sir."
Mr. Evan was more a man of deeds than words,
therefore he disappeared at once with a mighty
splash, and after repeated divings and much
laughter appeared bearing the chief ornament of Mrs.
Penelope Carroll's comely countenance. Debby
looked very pretty and grateful as she returned her
thanks, and Mr. Evan was guilty of a secret wish
that all the worthy lady's features were at the
bottom of the sea, that he might have the satisfaction
of restoring them to her attractive niece;
but curbing this unnatural desire, he bowed, saying,
gravely,--
"Tell your aunt, if you please, that this little
accident will remain a dead secret, so far as I am
concerned, and I am very glad to have been of
service at such a critical moment."
Whereupon Mr. Evan marched again into the
briny deep, and Debby trotted away to her aunt,
whom she found a clammy heap of blue flannel
and despair. Mrs. Carroll's temper was ruffled,
and though she joyfully rattled in her teeth, she
said, somewhat testily, when Debby's story was
done,--
"Now that man will have a sort of claim on us,
and we must be civil, whoever he is. Dear! dear!
I wish it had been Joe Leavenworth instead.
Evan,--I don't remember any of our first families
with connections of that name, and I dislike to be
under obligations to a person of that sort, for
there's no knowing how far he may presume; so,
pray, be careful, Dora."
"I think you are very ungrateful, Aunt Pen;
and if Mr. Evan should happen to be poor, it does
not become me to turn up my nose at him, for I'm
nothing but a make-believe myself just now. I
don't wish to go down upon my knees to him, but
I do intend to be as kind to him as I should to that
conceited Leavenworth boy; yes, kinder even; for
poor people value such things more, as I know very
well."
Mrs. Carroll instantly recovered her temper,
changed the subject, and privately resolved to
confine her prejudices to her own bosom, as they
seerned to have an aggravating effect upon the
youthful person whom she had set her heart on
disposing of to the best advantage.
Debby took her swimming-lesson with much
success, and would have achieved her dinner with
composure, if white-aproned gentlemen had not
effectually taken away her appetite by whisking
bills-of-fare into her hands, and awaiting her orders
with a fatherly interest, which induced them to
congregate mysterious dishes before her, and
blandly rectify her frequent mistakes. She survived
the ordeal, however, and at four p.m. went to drive
with "that Leavenworth boy" in the finest turnout
----- could produce. Aunt Pen then came off guard,
and with a sigh of satisfaction subsided into a peaceful
doze, still murmuring, even in her sleep,-
"Propinquity, my love, propinquity works
wonders."
"Aunt Pen, are you a modest woman?" asked
the young cruisader against established absurdities,
as she came into the presence-chamber that evening
ready for the hop.
"Bless the child, what does she mean? " cried
Mrs. Carroll, with a start that twitched her
back-hair out of Victorine's hands.
"Would you like to have a daughter of yours
go to a party looking as I look?" continued her
niece, spreading her airy dress, and standing
very erect before her astonished relative.
"Why, of course I should, and be proud to own
such a charming creature," regarding the slender
white shape with much approbation,--adding,
with a smile, as she met the girl's eye,--
"Ah, I see the difficulty, now; you are disturbed
because there is not a bit of lace over
these pretty shoulders of yours. Now don't be
absurd, Dora; the dress is perfectly proper, or
Madame Tiphany never would have sent it home.
It is the fashion, child; and many a girl with such
a figure would go twice as decolletee, and think
nothing of it, I assure you."
Debby shook her head with an energy that set
the pink heather-bells a-tremble in her hair, and
her color deepened beautifully as she said, with
reproachful eyes,--
"Aunt Pen, I think there is a better fashion
in every young girl's heart than any Madame
Tiphany can teach. I am very grateful for all
you have done for me, but I cannot go into public
in such an undress as this; my mother would never
allow it, and father never forgive it. Please don't
ask me to, for indeed I cannot do it even for you."
Debby looked so pathetic that both mistress
and maid broke into a laugh which somewhat
reassured the young lady, who allowed her
determined features to relax into a smile,
as she said,--
"Now, Aunt Pen, you want me to look pretty
and be a credit to you; but how would you like to
see my face the color of those geraniums all the
evening?"
"Why, Dora, you are out of your mind to ask
such a thing, when you know it's the desire of
my life to keep your color down and make you
look more delicate," said her aunt, alarmed at the
fearful prospect of a peony-faced protegee.
Well, I should be anything but that, if I wore
this gown in its present waistless condition; so here
is a remedy which will prevent such a calamity
and ease my mind."
As she spoke, Debby tied on her little blonde
fichu with a gesture which left nothing more to be
said.
Victorine scolded, and clasped her hands; but
Mrs. Carroll, fearing to push her authority too far,
made a virtue of necessity, saying, resignedly,--
"Have your own way, Dora, but in return
oblige me by being agreeable to such persons as I
may introduce to you; and some day, when I ask
a favor, remember how much I hope to do for you,
and grant it cheerfully."
"Indeed I will, Aunt Pen, if it is anything I
can do without disobeying mother's 'notions' as
you call them. Ask me to wear an orange-colored
gown, or dance with the plainest, poorest man in
the room, and I'll do it; for there never was a
kinder aunt than mine in all the world," cried
Debby, eager to atone for her seeming wilfulness,
and really grateful for her escape from what seemed
to her benighted mind a very imminent peril.
Like a clover-blossom in a vase of camellias little
Debby looked that night among the dashing or
languid women who surrounded her; for she possessed
the charm they had lost,--the freshness of
her youth. Innocent gayety sat smiling in her eyes,
healthful roses bloomed upon her cheek, and
maiden modesty crowned her like a garland. She
was the creature that she seemed, and, yielding to
the influence of the hour, danced to the music of
her own blithe heart. Many felt the spell whose
secret they had lost the power to divine, and
watched the girlish figure as if it were a symbol
of their early aspirations dawning freshly from the
dimness of their past. More than one old man
thought again of some little maid whose love made
his boyish days a pleasant memory to him now.
More than one smiling fop felt the emptiness of his
smooth speech, when the truthful eyes looked up
into his own; and more than one pale woman
sighed regretfully with herself, "I, too, was a
happy-hearted creature once!"
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