Kitabı oku: «Mildred's New Daughter», sayfa 12

CHAPTER XXI

Dorothy came in the next morning soon after breakfast, looking cheerful and bright.

“You two girls are to come to our house directly after shutting up here,” she said. “I arranged it all with your uncles last evening – that is Aunt Sarah and I; we both want you, and so do uncle and the boys. They say you have hardly been there to make any stay at all, Ethel, and that it is Blanche’s old home; so of course you ought both to come, and we have coaxed Uncle Albert to consent. You see I told him I wanted to help with your sewing and that you could run in to have a talk with him in the evenings, or he come into our house; and as he couldn’t see much of you at any other time – being down at his store all day – he finally gave up with pretty good grace and said I might have it my own way. I am sure it is only right that I should, for I really care more about you than any of his girls do. Now tell me honestly wouldn’t you be as willing to spend those last weeks with us as with them?”

“Well,” returned Ethel with a smile, “I cannot deny that I should. I do not know which of my uncles I love best; and you, Dorothy, are more congenial and seem to care more for us than Uncle Albert’s daughters. So I am well pleased with the arrangement you propose. It is very kind in you to offer your help with our sewing too.”

“Yes, indeed,” said Blanche. “You are more like an own cousin to us than any one of the girls in the other house; and I’m very fond of Uncle George and his boys; of Aunt Sarah too, for she has been really kind to us for years.”

“Then you’ll come to us?”

“Yes, gladly,” returned both girls, Blanche adding, “I am sure it will be the best and pleasantest plan that could be thought of; especially as we can see about as much of Uncle Albert as if we were spending our days and nights in his house.”

“Good girls!” said Dorothy. “And you’ll let me help with your shopping, won’t you?” A glad assent was given to that, for Dorothy was an excellent shopper, and Ethel and Blanche felt that to have her taste and judgment to rely upon would be a great help to them. They said as much, and Dorothy looked highly pleased.

They were in the back part of the store, Blanche running the sewing-machine while Ethel busied herself with a bit of needlework, for no customer was in at the moment.

“I don’t think I have seen all you have been at work upon for your wedding outfits,” said Dorothy.

“No,” replied both girls, “we have not shown you nearly all,” Blanche adding, “You take her upstairs and show her both yours and mine, Ethel. I will stay here to attend to any customer who may happen to come in.”

“No, sister,” said Ethel, “it would hardly be fair for me to have all that pleasure, leaving you to do all the work. I will show my own, then come down and let you go up and exhibit yours.”

“Very well,” laughed Blanche, “anything to please you, sister mine.” Then to Dorothy, “Isn’t she the most unselfish, girl you ever saw?”

“I never saw one who had less selfishness in her, and I think Percy Landreth a most fortunate fellow,” replied Dorothy, giving Ethel a look of mingled admiration and affection.

“And I think I am the fortunate one,” Ethel said with a joyous smile. “Percy Landreth is no common man, and how he came to fancy me passes my comprehension.”

“Ah, there is no accounting for tastes, my dear,” laughed Dorothy as they left the room together. “Ah, what lovely work!” she exclaimed as Ethel took garment after garment from a bureau drawer and spread them about on the bed, for her inspection. “You must have been very industrious to have accomplished so much in so short a time.”

“No,” said Ethel, “some of it was done months ago and intended for sale.”

“Oh, yes; before your engagement?”

“Yes; you see I had no other employment for my fingers while chatting with Mrs. Landreth and the others in Mrs. Keith’s parlor or on the porches during the day. Of course in the evening, after sundown, we all gave our eyes and fingers a rest.”

“But not ears and tongues, I presume,” laughed Dorothy. “Well, it seems there will hardly need to be much more sewing done except on the dresses. The shopping for them will be very enjoyable, I think; for I dearly love to look at pretty things. Suppose we make a beginning this afternoon. The uncles will supply the needed money if we go down to the office for it. Indeed we can buy a good deal from them, telling them they are to let us have the goods at wholesale prices; and if they object that they are not retailers, we will consent to take them in wholesale quantities.”

“That might do very well,” Ethel said with a smile, “if you will engage to be bridesmaid and wear a dress off the same piece with Blanche’s and mine.”

“No objection in the world to that, if Blanche agrees to it,” said Dorothy. “But what a pity your uncles haven’t kept the kind of goods you sell! It might have been such a help to you. Now please run down and send Blanche up to show me her pretty things. After that, if you like, we will start out on our expedition.”

Ethel did as requested. Blanche’s garments were displayed, and received as high commendation as those of her sister; then Ethel dressed for the street, and she and Dorothy started out for the proposed call upon the uncles, and the shopping that was to follow.

“Ah, young ladies, how do you do? Whatever may have brought you, I am pleased to see your bonny faces,” was Mr. George Eldon’s greeting as they entered his office, where they found him alone, his brother having gone out on some errand connected with their business. “Sit down and tell me your errand; for I presume you have one.”

“Yes, uncle, we are out shopping for wedding dresses,” returned Dorothy laughingly.

“And want some money, I suppose,” he said, turning to his desk.

“Yes, sir, or goods; we would be willing to take a whole piece of white silk or satin at wholesale price, if you will let us have it out of your store and provide the money to pay for it.”

“Would you, indeed?” he asked with a grim smile. “Well, perhaps I might as well close at once with so good and desirable an offer as that – really such an one I never had before. Come along, both of you, into the store and we will see what we can find.”

He showed them the goods himself, looking gratified with the delight they manifested in gazing upon them, commenting upon their beauties, exclaiming again and again, “Oh, how lovely! What a beautiful dress might be made of that!” “Oh, that is fit for a queen!”

“Well, Ethel, which will you have?” he asked at length.

“Oh, uncle,” she said, “I fear they are all too beautiful and expensive for me; something not so – ”

“Whichever you choose is to go at wholesale price, remember,” he said, not allowing her to finish her sentence, “and your uncles are to settle the bill, so take whichever you prefer without reference to the price.”

“Oh, uncle, you are too good and kind!” she said, her eyes filling with tears of gratitude.

“Not a bit, my dear,” he returned in kindest tones. “But choose quickly, for my time is precious. How would this answer?” indicating a beautiful grosgrain silk. “I think it contains about three dress patterns and would make up prettily for you, your sister, and Dorothy here. Will it suit you both?”

“Yes, sir; oh, yes! It is only too lovely, too costly for – for me.”

“Not a bit of it!” cried Dorothy, “though it may be for me, as I am to be only a bridesmaid.”

“In that case you can lay it aside for use when you become a bride yourself,” said Mr. Eldon. “Here, Smith,” to one of the clerks, “take charge of this package and see that it is sent up to my house some time in the course of the day. Now, young ladies,” leading the way to another part of the store, where he showed them some beautiful laces, saying, “Select whichever you like best for trimming the dresses and bridal veils.”

“Oh, uncle, it is too much!” exclaimed Ethel humbly. “It would be lovely, but we can do very well without such things.”

“Yes,” he said, “I presume the knots could be tied just as tight without any such adornment for the brides, but I must acknowledge that I shall take some pride and pleasure in seeing my nieces suitably adorned for their bridal. Nor am I going to ruin myself doing it. I have no daughters of my own, you know, so may well afford it for you and Blanche; Dorothy, also, when her turn comes.”

“Thank you, uncle,” laughed Dorothy, “but I am doubtful of ever wanting bridal attire; good men and true are so scarce, you know – out of the family, I mean, of course – but I am exceedingly obliged for the bridesmaid’s dress you have so generously bestowed upon me.”

“You are most welcome,” he replied. “Will you take the lace with you? or shall I send it with the dress goods?”

“Oh, I will carry it myself if you’ll let me,” said Dorothy. “Blanche must see it, and I promise to take the best possible care of it.”

“Very well,” he returned. “We will go back to the office now, for I must give you some money to do such shopping as must needs be done elsewhere.”

“I feel as if I were really in danger of impoverishing you, uncle, dear,” said Ethel as he put a roll of banknotes in her hand.

“Not at all, as you don’t marry every day,” he said laughingly. “In that case it might do some damage. I wish you success with your shopping, and shall be glad to see you, Blanche, and Harry too whenever you see fit to close out your business and come to make your home with us until you want to change for the western one in prospect before you. Your Aunt Sarah and I are both ready to give you a warm welcome.”

“Dear uncle,” Ethel said with emotion, “you could scarcely be kinder to us if we were your own daughters.”

“I almost wish you were,” he returned, “though that would make it all the harder to part with you for the benefit of those young men from the West. Good-by now for the present, and I wish you success with your shopping. Give my love to your sister, and tell her I hope the silk and lace will be suited to her taste.”

“O Dorothy, isn’t he kind? whose uncles are better than ours?” exclaimed Ethel as they walked up the street.

“Who, indeed!” said Dorothy. “Uncle George has always been good as gold to me. O Ethel, what perfectly lovely silk and lace he has given us! I shall be surprised if Blanche does not go almost wild with delight when she sees them.”

“Yes, they seem too beautiful and costly for girls so poor as we are. Yet I can’t help feeling greatly pleased to have them. The Landreths are wealthy, as perhaps you know, and I own I did feel a little reluctant to go among them poorly dressed, especially as a bride.”

“Well, you see you won’t have to, and I am sure your uncles never meant you should; they have too much family pride for that, even if they did not love the girls and Harry also, and I am sure they do.”

“Yes, I know they do,” said Ethel, “and I esteem their fatherly affection a very great blessing; as I should even if they were not able to help us at all.”

“I do not doubt it in the least. But to change the subject – you must have a travelling dress, and I think a certain shade of gray, with a hat and feather to match, would be the very thing.”

“I agree with you,” said Ethel, “and they would be pretty for Blanche too.”

“Yes; but hers might be of a slightly different shade, as you don’t – at least I presume you don’t want to dress exactly alike and have people taking you for twins,” she concluded laughingly.

“No, not exactly, except in our wedding dresses,” returned Ethel with a smile. “But if we choose, we can have them made up a little differently; the way of putting on the lace might be different if nothing else.”

“Yes, and that will be quite enough difference to prevent you or anybody else from mistaking one for the other or thinking you a pair of twins. I think you ought each to have a handsome black silk too, and some pretty home and morning dresses. But fortunately we don’t need to purchase, or even to decide on, everything to-day.”

“No, we don’t, and it is well, for I want to consult my sister first. She has as much right as I to decide these questions.”

“I agree with you,” said Dorothy, “but you are better than some sisters or you wouldn’t be so ready to own it; some would say, ‘I’m the eldest, and things ought all to be as I want them.’”

“Blanche always wants me to have my own things exactly as I want them, and reserves the same privilege for herself, which I think is the better way; for what is becoming to one is not always equally so to the other.”

“No, your complexions are different, but both beautiful. I have never been able to decide which was the prettier, and would be only too thankful to exchange with either of you,” said Dorothy in her merry tones.

“O Dorothy, how can you say that?” exclaimed Ethel. “I call you very pretty; you are not fair, but your skin is so smooth and soft, and you have such a lovely bright color in your cheeks, such large handsome eyes with long, silky lashes that curl so prettily, such beautiful teeth and – ”

“Oh, stop, stop, you little flatterer!” exclaimed Dorothy. “You’ll have me as vain as a peacock, which will entirely spoil any pretensions to beauty that I may be supposed to have. Ah, let us go in here. They have the loveliest dress goods, and I dare say we can find the very shade of gray cloth wanted for your travelling suit.”

Several hours were spent in shopping; then they returned to Ethel’s little home laden with parcels, though the heavier bundles had all been left to be sent, either there or to Mr. George Eldon’s.

“Oh, I am glad to see you!” cried Blanche as they entered, “and though you do look tired, I know by your happy faces that you’ve been successful, and by the looks of your satchels that you have a good many pretty little things to show me; but dinner’s just ready and I can wait till you have refreshed yourselves with food. We will all enjoy the exhibition better after that has been attended to; so come out to the dining room,” and she led the way as she spoke.

“Really I don’t know whether we can wait to make our important communications,” said Dorothy, laying down her satchel and removing her hat and coat. “However, Ethel, it may be the wisest plan, if we consider Blanche’s good; since what we have to say and to show might destroy her appetite for this dinner, which certainly smells very nice and appetizing. I think you will discover that I have not lost, by the way, my relish for good, substantial, well-prepared food. Partaking of it will doubtless greatly assist me in abstaining from unwisely making prompt revelation concerning the doings and happenings of our late expedition – the raids we have made upon merchants, wholesale and retail.”

“And the plunder you have brought off, eh?” queried Blanche sedately, but with a twinkle of fun in her eye.

“That is included, of course,” returned Dorothy.

“It is not according to one’s strongest inclinations – this proposed waiting,” Ethel said laughingly, “but let us show how bravely we can battle against them when we feel called upon to do so. Shall I help you to some oysters, Dorothy?”

“Indeed you may, my dear girl. I am particularly fond of oysters when well prepared, as I have always found them here, and hungry enough to eat almost anything.”

“I am glad to hear it,” said Blanche, “since it will tend to cause you to more highly appreciate our humble fare.”

“Now don’t put on any airs of mock humility, if you please, Miss Eldon,” returned Dorothy. “I say this dinner is fit for a king; sufficient variety, and everything done to a turn. These oysters, this Sally Lunn, these baked potatoes are all delicious; and I never drank a better cup of coffee. So what more could any reasonable mortal ask?”

“I don’t know really,” returned Blanche, “except in my case – that I may be told what you two have seen, and done, and bought. Did you find our uncles in?”

“The senior partner was there in his office, the other out; so that we missed seeing him altogether. You will hear the rest after we have fully satisfied our appetites; but remember, my lady, it was not your things but Ethel’s we were buying to-day. You have probably been told more than once in the course of your short life, that older people must be attended to first, younger ones wait patiently till their turn comes.”

“Yes, I remember to have been told something of the sort several times in my life,” said Blanche; “but I venture to predict that I shall not hear it very often after a certain ceremony expected to be performed within the next two or three months.”

“Ah, after that you will probably consider yourself a much more important personage than – such of your sex as see fit to live in single blessedness.”

“Possibly,” returned Blanche with an arch look and smile.

So they chatted on for some little time, then Dorothy exclaimed, “There, we are all done eating, I see, so suppose we proceed now, Ethel, to display our purchases to Blanche’s astonished eyes.”

“Yes,” Ethel replied, “but let us carry them into the parlor so that we can be on the watch for customers while Bridget eats her dinner.”

They did so and Dorothy was in her element, opening packages and displaying the contents to Blanche’s delighted eyes.

“Oh, everything is just lovely!” she said, her eyes dancing with mirth. “I doubt if you could have done better even with my assistance and advice – valuable as my friends have always found them.”

“Possibly not,” returned Dorothy; “but wind and weather permitting, and nothing else interfering, I hope to take you out to-morrow, my little dear, and give you the opportunity to show your talent in this line. Now we have shown you everything we bought to-day except the wedding dress and its trimmings.”

“Oh, did you get them? Let me see them!” cried Blanche in an eager, excited tone.

“Unfortunately we cannot show the dress, or rather dresses – for Uncle George gave us a whole piece of the loveliest white silk, enough to make three gowns – one for Ethel, one for you, and one for myself, and – ”

“Oh, did he? How kind and generous!” cried Blanche half breathlessly.

“Yes, and this lace to trim them with,” said Dorothy, taking the last remaining package from her satchel, adding as she undid it, “but I can’t show you the silk because it was ordered to be sent right up to his house. I dare say it’s there by this time, and you can call and look at it when you will. There! what do you think of that?” throwing open her package and holding up a portion of the lace to view.

“Oh! oh! oh! it’s the loveliest thing I ever saw!” was Blanche’s excited exclamation. “Did you say Uncle George gave it to us! I don’t see how he could afford it, for it must have cost a mint of money.”

“He said we were to have it at wholesale price and take the money to pay for it from him.”

“Oh!” gasped Blanche, “I hope he won’t ruin himself.”

“No danger, my dear; for though very, very generous he is exceedingly careful too; as a business man should be.”

“Or a business woman, or any other kind of man or woman,” added Ethel with a smile. “I think both our uncles are exceedingly kind to us all. I often wish it were in my power to make them some adequate return.”

“Perhaps it may be some day,” said Blanche; “or, if not to them, to their children.”

“Yes,” said Dorothy, “there are so many ups and downs in this world; perhaps I might say particularly in this country. I must go home now, girls; it won’t do to leave Aunt Sarah alone all day. But see that you are ready for your turn at shopping early to-morrow morning, Blanche, if the weather is at all suitable. Better make out a list of necessary articles, so that we won’t forget and spend the money on the wrong ones. By the way, girls, I shouldn’t buy any more handsome dresses – except of course Blanche’s travelling suit – till we see what your Uncle Albert will do to get even with his brother in that line.”

“Yes, he too is exceedingly generous,” said Ethel; “but I think he should remember that he has more children of his own to provide for than Uncle George has.”

“Yes; and not the most economical ones in the world either,” laughed Dorothy as she stood before the glass, putting on her hat. “I must go now,” she said, picking up her satchel, “and I’ll expect you bright and early in the morning, Blanche. You’d better come for me so that you can take a look at the silk for the wedding dresses.”

“So I will; I want to see it, as who wouldn’t if she expected to be married in it?” returned Blanche as she and Ethel went with Dorothy to the door.