Amarilly of Clothes-line AlleyManiates, Belle Kanaris
General
Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley
Maniates, Belle Kanaris
Poor -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
At eleven o'clock the place was in perfect order, and she went into the
studio where Deny was at work.
"Shall I go get the things fer lunch?"
"Luncheon, if you please, Amarilly. I like that word better. It seems to
mean daintier things. Here's a five-dollar bill. Get what you consider
proper for a simple little home luncheon, you know. Nothing elaborate."
Amarilly, feeling but not betraying her utter inability to construct the
menu for a "simple little home luncheon," walked despondently down the
street.
"The Boarder," she reflected, "takes bread and meat and hard biled eggs
when they ain't--aren't too high, and pie when we hev it."
Some vague instinct of the fitness of things warned her that this would
not be a suitable repast for Derry. Then a light shone through her
darkness.
"I'll telephone Miss Vail," she decided.
So she called up her teacher at the Guild, and explained the situation.
She received full instructions, made her purchases, and went back to the
studio.
At one o'clock she again garbed herself in cap and apron and called
Derry to a luncheon which consisted of bouillon, chops, French peas,
rolls, a salad, and black tea served with lemon.
"Amarilly," he announced solemnly, "you are surely the reincarnation of
a chef. You are immediately promoted from housemaid to housekeeper with
full charge over my cuisine, and your wages doubled."
"And that's going some for one day!" Amarilly gleefully announced to the
family circle that night.
Her teacher, greatly interested and gratified at her pupil's ability to
put her instruction to practical use and profit, made out on each Monday
a menu for the entire week. She also gave her special coaching in
setting table and serving, so Derry's domestic life became a thing of
pride to himself and his coterie of artists. He gave little luncheons
and studio teas in his apartments, Amarilly achieving great success in
her double role of cook and waitress.
Her work was not only profitable financially, but it developed new
tastes and tendencies. Every day there was the new word eagerly grasped
and faithfully remembered. "Fer," "set," "spile," "orter," and the like
were gradually entirely eliminated from her vocabulary. Unconsciously
she acquired "atmosphere" from her environment. In her spare moments
Amarilly read aloud to Derry, while he painted, he choosing the book at
random from his library.
"I want to use you for a model this afternoon," he remarked one day as
she was about to depart. "Braid your hair just as tight as you can, the
way you had it the first day you came. Put on your high-necked, long-
sleeved apron, and get it wet and soapy as it was that first day, and
then come back to the studio with your scrubbing brush and pail."
Amarilly did as she was bidden with a reluctance which the artist,
absorbed in his preparations for work, did not notice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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