Books: What Katy Did At School

S >> Susan Coolidge >> What Katy Did At School

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

"Oh, my!" cried Katy, feeling as if she had accidentally picked up an
elderly gentleman or a college professor. "Pray, how old are you?"

"Nearly nine, ma'am," replied the little fellow with a bow.

Katy, too much appalled for farther speech, let him slide off her lap.
But Mr. Page, who was much diverted, continued the conversation; and
Daniel, mounting a chair, crossed his short legs, and discoursed with
all the gravity of an old man. The talk was principally about himself,
--his tastes, his adventures, his ideas about art and science. Now and
then he alluded to his papa and mamma, and once to his grandfather.

"My maternal grandfather," he said, "was a remarkable man. In his
youth he spent a great deal of time in France. He was there at the
time of the French Revolution, and, as it happened, was present at
the execution of the unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette. This of
course was not intentional. It chanced thus. My grandfather was
in a barber's shop, having his hair cut. He saw a great crowd going
by, and went out to ask what was the cause. The crowd was so immense
that he could not extricate himself; he was carried along against
his will, and not only so, but was forced to the front and compelled
to witness every part of the dreadful scene. He has often told my
mother that, after the execution, the executioner held up the queen's
head to the people: the eyes were open, and there was in them an
expression, not of pain, not of fear, but of great astonishment
and surprise."

This anecdote carried "great astonishment and surprise" into the
company who listened to it. Mr. Page gave a sort of chuckle, and
saying, "By George!" got up and left the room. The girls put their
heads out of the window that they might laugh unseen. Daniel gazed
at their shaking shoulders with an air of wonder, while the grave
couple at the end of the room, who for some moments had been looking
disturbed, drew near and informed the youthful prodigy that it was
time for him to go to bed.

"Good-night, young ladies," said the small condescending voice. Katy
alone had "presence of countenance" enough to return this salutation.
It was a relief to find that Daniel went to bed at all.

Next morning at breakfast they saw him seated between his parents,
eating bread and milk. He bowed to them over the edge of the bowl.

"Dreadful little prig! They should bottle him in spirits of wine as
a specimen. It's the only thing he'll ever be fit for," remarked Mr.
Page, who rarely said so sharp a thing about anybody.

Louisa joined them at the station. She was to travel under Mr. Page's
care, and Katy was much annoyed at Lilly's manner with her. It grew
colder and less polite with every mile. By the time they reached
Ashburn it was absolutely rude.

"Come and see me very soon, girls," said Louisa, as they parted in
the station. "I long to have you know mother and little Daisy. Oh,
there's papa!" and she rushed up to a tall, pleasant-looking man,
who kissed her fondly, shook hands with Mr. Page, and touched his
hat to Lilly, who scarcely bowed in return.

"Boarding-school is so horrid," she remarked, "you get all mixed up
with people you don't want to know,--people not in society at all."

"How can you talk such nonsense?" said her father: "the Agnews are
thoroughly respectable, and Mr. Agnew is one of the cleverest men I
know."

Katy was pleased when Mr. Page said this, but Lilly shrugged her
shoulders and looked cross.

"Papa is so democratic," she whispered to Clover, "he don't care a
bit who people are, so long as they are respectable and clever."

"Well, why should he?" replied Clover. Lilly was more disgusted than
ever.

Ashburn was a large and prosperous town. It was built on the slopes of
a picturesque hill, and shaded with fine elms. As they drove through
the streets, Katy and Clover caught glimpses of conservatories and
shrubberies and beautiful houses with bay-windows and piazzas.

"That's ours," said Lilly, as the carriage turned in at a gate. It
stopped, and Mr. Page jumped out.

"Here we are," he said. "Gently, Lilly, you'll hurt yourself. Well,
my dears, we're very glad to see you in our home at last."

This was kind and comfortable, and the girls were glad of it, for the
size and splendor of the house quite dazzled and made them shy. They
had never seen any thing like it before. The hall had a marble floor,
and busts and statues. Large rooms opened on either side; and Mrs.
Page, who came forward to receive them, wore a heavy silk with a train
and laces, and looked altogether as if she were dressed for a party.

"This is the drawing-room," said Lilly, delighted to see the girls
looking so impressed. "Isn't it splendid?" And she led the way
into a stiff, chilly, magnificent apartment, where all the blinds
were closed, and all the shades pulled down, and all the furniture
shrouded in linen covers. Even the picture frames and mirrors were
sewed up in muslin to keep off flies; and the bronzes and alabaster
ornaments on the chimney-piece and _etagere_ gleamed through the dim
light in a ghostly way. Katy thought it very dismal. She couldn't
imagine anybody sitting down there to read or sew, or do any thing
pleasant, and probably it was not intended that any one should do so;
for Mrs. Page soon showed them out, and led the way into a smaller
room at the back of the hall.

"Well, Katy," she said, "how do you like Hillsover?"

"Very well, ma'am," replied Katy; but she did not speak enthusiastically.

"Ah!" said Mrs. Page shaking her head, "it takes time to shake off
home habits, and to learn to get along with young people after living
with older ones and catching their ways. You'll like it better as
you go on."

Katy privately doubted whether this was true, but she did not say so.
Pretty soon Lilly offered to show them upstairs to their room. She
took them first into three large and elegant chambers, which she
explained were kept for grand company, and then into a much smaller
one in a wing.

"Mother always puts my friends in here," she remarked: "she says it's
plenty good enough for school-girls to thrash about in!"

"What does she mean?" cried Clover, indignantly, as Lilly closed the
door. "We don't thrash!"

"I can't imagine," answered Katy, who was vexed too. But pretty soon
she began to laugh.

"People are so funny!" she said. "Never mind, Clovy, this room is
good enough, I'm sure."

"Must we unpack, or will it do to go down in our alpacas?" asked Clover.

"I don't know," replied Katy, in a doubtful tone. "Perhaps we had
better change our gowns. Cousin Olivia always dresses so much! Here's
your blue muslin right on top of the trunk. You might put on that, and
I'll wear my purple."

The girls were glad that they had done this, for it was evidently
expected, and Lilly had dressed her hair and donned a fresh white
pique. Mrs. Page examined their dresses, and said that Clover's was
a lovely blue, but that ruffles were quite gone out, and every thing
must be made with basques. She supposed they needed quantities of
things, and she had already engaged a dressmaker to work for them.

"Thank you," said Katy, "but I don't think we need any thing. We had
our winter dresses made before we left home."

"Winter dresses! last spring! My dear, what were you thinking of?
They must be completely out of fashion."

"You can't think how little Hillsover people know about fashions,"
replied Katy, laughing.

"But, my dear, for your own sake!" exclaimed Mrs. Page, distressed by
these lax remarks. "I'll look over your things to-morrow and see what
you need."

Katy did not dare to say "No," but she felt rebellious. When they were
half through tea, the door opened, and a boy came in.

"You are late, Clarence," said Mr. Page, while Mrs. Page groaned and
observed, "Clarence makes a point of being late. He really deserves
to be made to go without his supper. Shut the door, Clarence. O
mercy! don't bang it in that way. I wish you would learn to shut a
door properly. Here are your cousins, Katy and Clover Carr. Now
let me see if you can shake hands with them like a gentleman, and
not like a ploughboy."

Clarence, a square, freckled boy of thirteen, with reddish hair, and
a sort of red sparkle in his eyes, looked very angry at this address.
He did not offer to shake hands at all, but elevating his shoulders
said, "How d'you do?" in a sulky voice, and sitting down at the table
buried his nose without delay in a glass of milk. His mother gave a
disgusted sigh.

"What a boy you are!" she said. "Your cousins will think that you
have never been taught any thing, which is not the case; for I'm sure
I've taken twice the pains with you that I have with Lilly. Pray
excuse him, Katy. It's no use trying to make boys polite!"

"Isn't it?" said Katy, thinking of Phil and Dorry, and wondering what
Mrs. Page could mean.

"Hullo, Lilly!" broke in Clarence, spying his sister as it seemed for
the first time.

"How d'you do?" said Lilly, carelessly. "I was wondering how long it
would be before you would condescend to notice my existence."

"I didn't see you."

"I know you didn't. I never knew such a boy! You might as well have
no eyes at all."

Clarence scowled, and went on with his supper. His mother seemed
unable to let him alone. "Clarence, don't take such large mouthfuls!
Clarence, pray use your napkin! Clarence, your elbows are on the
table, sir! Now, Clarence, don't try to speak until you have
swallowed all that bread,"--came every other moment. Katy felt very
sorry for Clarence. His manners were certainly bad, but it seemed
quite dreadful that public attention should be thus constantly called
to them.

The evening was rather dull. There was a sort of put-in-order-for-
company air about the parlor, which made everybody stiff. Mrs. Page
did not sew or read, but sat in a low chair looking like a lady in a
fashion plate, and asked questions about Hillsover, some of which were
not easy to answer, as, for example, "Have you any other intimate
friends among the school-girls beside Lilly?" About eight o'clock a
couple of young, very young, gentlemen came in, at the sight of whom
Lilly, who was half asleep, brightened and became lively and talkative.
One of them was the Mr. Hickman, whose father married Mr. Page's
sister-in-law's sister, thus making him in some mysterious way a
"first cousin" of Lilly's. He was an Arrowmouth student, and seemed
to have so many jokes to laugh over with Lilly that before long they
conversed in whispers. The other youth, introduced as Mr. Eels, was
left to entertain the other three ladies, which duty he performed by
sucking the head of his cane in silence while they talked to him. He
too was an Arrowmouth Sophomore.

In the midst of the conversation, the door, which stood ajar, opened
a little wider, and a dog's head appeared, followed by a tail, which
waggled so beseechingly for leave to come farther that Clover, who
liked dogs, put out her hand at once. He was not pretty, being of a
pepper-and-salt color, with a blunt nose and no particular sort of a
tail, but looked good-natured; and Clover fondled him cordially, while
Mr. Eels took his cane out of his mouth to ask, "What kind of a dog
is that, Mrs. Page?"

"I'm sure I don't know," she replied; while Lilly, from the distance,
added affectedly, "Oh, he's the most dreadful dog, Mr. Eels. My
brother picked him up in the street, and none of us know the least
thing about him, except that he's the commonest kind of dog,--a sort
of cur, I believe."

"That's not true!" broke in a stern voice from the hall, which made
everybody jump; and Katy, looking that way, was aware of a vengeful
eye glaring at Lilly through the crack of the door. "He's a very
valuable dog, indeed,--half mastiff and half terrier, with a touch
of the bull-dog,--so there, Miss!"

The effect of this remark was startling. Lilly gave a scream; Mrs.
Page rose, and hurried to the door; while the dog, hearing his master's
voice, rushed that way also, got before her, and almost threw her down.
Katy and Clover could not help laughing, and Mr. Eels, meeting their
amused eyes, removed the cane from his mouth, and grew conversible.

"That Clarence is a droll chap!" he remarked confidentially. "Bright,
too! He'd be a nice fellow if he wasn't picked at so much. It never
does a fellow any good to be picked at,--now does it, Miss Carr?"

"No: I don't think it does."

"I say," continued Mr. Eels, "I've seen you young ladies up at
Hillsover, haven't I? Aren't you both at the Nunnery?"

"Yes. It's vacation now, you know."

"I was sure I'd seen you. You had a room on the side next the
President's, didn't you? I thought so. We fellows didn't know
your names, so we called you 'The Real Nuns.'"

"Real Nuns?"

"Yes, because you never looked out of the window at us. Real nuns and
sham nuns,--don't you see?" Almost all the young ladies are sham nuns,
except you, and two pretty little ones in the story above, fifth
window from the end."

"Oh, I know!" said Clover, much amused. "Sally Alsop, you know, Katy,
and Amy Erskine. They are such nice girls!"

"Are they?" replied Mr. Eels, with the air of one who notes down names
for future reference. "Well, I thought so. Not so much fun in them as
some of the others, I guess; but a fellow likes other things as well as
fun. I know if my sister was there, I'd rather have her take the dull
line than the other."

Katy treasured up this remark for the benefit of the S. S. U. C. Mrs.
Page came back just then, and Mr. Eels resumed his cane. Nothing more
was heard of Clarence that night.

Next morning Cousin Olivia fulfilled her threat of inspecting the
girls' wardrobe. She shook her head over the simple, untrimmed
merinos and thick cloth coats.

"There's no help for it," she said, "but it's a great pity. You
would much better have waited, and had things fresh. Perhaps it
may be possible to match the merino, and have some sort of basque
arrangement added on. I will talk to Madame Chonfleur about it.
Meantime, I shall get one handsome thick dress for each of you, and
have it stylishly made. That, at least, you really need."

Katy was too glad to be so easily let off to raise objections.
So that afternoon she and Clover were taken out to "choose their
material," Mrs. Page said, but really to sit by while she chose
it for them. At the dressmaker's it was the same: they stood
passive while the orders were given, and every thing decided upon.

"Isn't it funny!" whispered Clover; "but I don't like it a bit,
do you? It's just like Elsie saying how she'll have her doll's
things made."

"Oh, this dress isn't mine! it's Cousin Olivia's!" replied Katy.
"She's welcome to have it trimmed just as she likes!"

But when the suits came home she was forced to be pleased. There was
no over-trimming, no look of finery: every thing fitted perfectly, and
had the air of finish which they had noticed and admired in Lilly's
clothes. Katy almost forgot that she had objected to the dresses
as unnecessary.

"After all, it is nice to look nice," she confessed to Clover.

Excepting going to the dressmaker's there was not much to amuse the
girls during the first half of vacation. Mrs. Page took them to drive
now and then, and Katy found some pleasant books in the library, and
read a good deal. Clover meantime made friends with Clarence. I think
his heart was won that first evening by her attentions to Guest the
dog, that mysterious composite, "half mastiff and half terrier, with
a touch of the bull-dog." Clarence loved Guest dearly, and was
gratified that Clover liked him; for the poor animal had few friends
in the household. In a little while Clarence became quite sociable
with her, and tolerably so with Katy. They found him, as Mr. Eels
said, "a bright fellow," and pleasant and good-humored enough when
taken in the right way. Lilly always seemed to take him wrong, and
his treatment of her was most disagreeable, snappish, and quarrelsome
to the last degree.

"Much you don't like oranges!" he said one day at dinner, in answer to
an innocent remark of hers. "Much! I've seen you eat two at a time,
without stopping. Pa, Lilly says she don't like oranges! I've seen
her eat two at a time, without stopping! Much she doesn't! I've seen
her eat two at a time, without stopping!" He kept this up for five
minutes, looking from one person to another, and repeating, "Much she
don't! Much!" till Lilly was almost crying from vexation, and even
Clover longed to box his ears. Nobody was sorry when Mr. Page ordered
him to leave the room, which he did with a last vindictive "Much!"
addressed to Lilly.

"How can Clarence behave so?" said Katy, when she and Clover were
alone.

"I don't know," replied Clover. "He's such a nice boy, sometimes; but
when he isn't nice, he's the horridest boy I ever saw. I wish you'd
talk to him, Katy, and tell him how dreadfully it sounds when he says
such things."

"No, indeed! He'd take it much better from you. You're nearer his
age, and could do it nicely and pleasantly, and not make him feel as
if he were being scolded. Poor fellow, he gets plenty of that!"

Clover said no more about the subject, but she meditated. She had a
good deal of tact for so young a girl, and took care to get Clarence
into a specially amicable mood before she began her lecture. "Look
here, you bad boy, how could you tease poor Lilly so yesterday?
Guest, speak up, sir, and tell your massa how naughty it was!"

"Oh, dear! now you're going to nag!" growled Clarence, in an injured
voice.

"No, I'm not,--not the least in the world. I'll promise not to. But
just tell me,"--and Clover put her hand on the rough, red-brown hair,
and stroked it,--"just tell me why you 'go for to do' such things?
They're not a bit nice."

"Lilly's so hateful!" grumbled Clarence.

"Well,--she is sometimes, I know," admitted Clover, candidly. "But
because she is hateful is no reason why you should be unmanly."

"Unmanly!" cried Clarence, flushing.

"Yes. I call it unmanly to tease and quarrel, and contradict like
that. It's like girls. They do it sometimes, but I didn't think
a boy would. I thought he'd be ashamed!"

"Doesn't Dorry ever quarrel or tease?" asked Clarence, who liked to
hear about Clover's brothers and sisters.

"Not now, and never in that way. He used to sometimes when he was
little, but now he's real nice. He wouldn't speak to a girl as you
speak to Lilly for any thing in the world. He'd think it wasn't
being a gentleman."

"Stuff about gentleman, and all that!" retorted Clarence. "Mother
dings the word in my ears till I hate it!"

"Well, it is rather teasing to be reminded all the time, I admit; but
you can't wonder that your mother wants you to be a gentleman, Clarence.
It's the best thing in the world, I think. I hope Phil and Dorry will
grow up just like papa, for everybody says he's the most perfect
gentleman, and it makes me so proud to hear them."

"But what does it mean any way! Mother says it's how you hold your
fork, and how you chew, and how you put on your hat. If that's all,
I don't think it amounts to much."

"Oh, that isn't all. It's being gentle, don't you see? Gentle and
nice to everybody, and just as polite to poor people as to rich ones,"
said Clover, talking fast, in her eagerness to explain her meaning,--
"and never being selfish, or noisy, or pushing people out of their
place. Forks, and hats, and all that are only little ways of making
one's self more agreeable to other people. A gentleman is a gentleman
inside,--all through! Oh, I wish I could make you see what I mean!"

"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Clarence. Whether he understood or not,
Clover could not tell; or whether she had done any good or not; but
she had the discretion to say no more; and certainly Clarence was not
offended, for after that day he grew fonder of her than ever. Lilly
became absolutely jealous. She had never cared particularly for
Clarence's affection, but she did not like to have any one preferred
above herself.

"It's pretty hard, I think," she told Clover. "Clare does every thing
you tell him, and he treats me awfully. It isn't a bit fair! I'm his
sister, and you're only a second cousin."

All this time the girls had seen almost nothing of Louisa Agnew. She
called once, but Lilly received the call with them, and so cool and
stiff that Louisa grew stiff also, and made but a short stay; and when
the girls returned the visit she was out. A few days before the close
of vacation, however, a note came from her.

"Dear Katy,--I am so sorry not to have seen more of you and
Clover. Won't you come and spend Wednesday with us? Mamma
sends her love, and hopes you will come early, so as to have
a long day, for she wants to know you. I long to show you
the baby and every thing. Do come. Papa will see you home
in the evening. Remember me to Lilly. She has so many
friends to see during vacation that I am sure she will
forgive me for stealing you for one day.
"Yours affectionately,
"Louisa."

Katy thought this message very politely expressed, but Lilly, when she
heard it, tossed her head, and said she "really thought Miss Agnew
might let her name alone when she wrote notes." Mrs. Page seemed to
pity the girls for having to go. They must, she supposed, as it was
a schoolmate; but she feared it would be stupid for them. The Agnews
were queer sort of people, not in society at all. Mr. Agnew was
clever, people said; but, really, she knew very little about the
family. Perhaps it would not do to decline.

Katy and Clover had no idea of declining. They sent a warm little
note of acceptance, and on the appointed day set off bright and early
with a good deal of pleasant anticipation. The vacation had been
rather dull at Cousin Olivia's. Lilly was a good deal with her own
friends, and Mrs. Page with hers; and there never seemed any special
place where they might sit, or any thing in particular for then to do.

Louisa's home was at some distance from Mr. Page's, and in a less
fashionable street. It looked pleasant and cosy as the girls opened
the gate. There was a small garden in front with gay flower-beds;
and on the piazza, which was shaded with vines, sat Mrs. Agnew with
a little work-table by her side. She was a pretty and youthful-
looking woman, and her voice and smile made them feel at home
immediately.

"There is no need of anybody to introduce you," she said. "Lulu has
described you so often that I know perfectly well which is Katy and
which is Clover. I am so glad you could come. Won't you go right in
my bed-room by that long window and take off your things? Lulu has
explained to you that I am lame and never walk, so you won't think
it strange that I do not show you the way. She will be here in a
moment. She ran upstairs to fetch the baby."

The girls went into the bed-room. It was a pretty and unusual-looking
apartment. The furniture was simple as could be, but bed and toilet
and windows were curtained and frilled with white, and the walls were
covered thick with pictures, photographs, and pen-and-ink sketches,
and water-color drawings, unframed most of them, and just pinned up
without regularity, so as to give each the best possible light. It
was an odd way of arranging pictures; but Katy liked it, and would
gladly have lingered to look at each one, only that she feared Mrs.
Agnew would expect them and would think it strange that they did not
come back.

Just as they went out again to the piazza, Louisa came running
downstairs with her little sister in her arms.

"I was curling her hair," she explained, "and did not hear you come
in. Daisy, give Katy a kiss. Now another for Clover. Isn't she a
darling?" embracing the child rapturously herself, "now isn't she a
little beauty?"

"Perfectly lovely?" cried the others, and soon all three were seated
on the floor of the piazza, with Daisy in the midst, passing her from
hand to hand as if she had been something good to eat. She was used
to it, and submitted with perfect good nature to being kissed, trotted,
carried up and down, and generally made love to. Mrs. Agnew sat by
and laughed at the spectacle. When Baby was taken off for her noonday
nap, Louisa took the girls into the parlor, another odd and pretty
room, full of prints and sketches, and pictures of all sorts, some
with frames, others with a knot of autumn leaves or a twist of ivy
around them by way of a finish. There was a bowl of beautiful autumn
roses on the table; and, though the price of one of Mrs. Page's damask
curtains would probably have bought the whole furniture of the room,
every thing was so bright and homelike and pleasant-looking that Katy's
heart warmed at the sight. They were examining a portrait of Louisa
with Daisy in her lap, painted by her father, when Mr. Agnew came in.
The girls liked his face at once. It was fine and frank; and nothing
could be prettier than to see him pick up his sweet invalid wife as
if she had been a child, and carry her into the dining-room to her
place at the head of the table.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12