City and town life -- Fiction; Country life -- Fiction
“To be sure I do,” said the sister, with a long yawn and an attempt to
sit up. Miss Margie had heard that she was prettier than her elder
sister; she knew she was admired, and she was prudently acquiring all
possible knowledge of society against her approaching “coming out.”
“Tell me all about it. Who was there?” continued the drowsy girl,
rubbing her eyes, pushing some crinkly hair behind her ears, and
adjusting some pillows so that she might sit at ease. Then she put her
hands behind her head, and exclaimed, “Why don’t you go on? I’m all
ears.”
Lucia laughed derisively as she pulled an ear small enough, almost, to
be a deformity, then tossed wraps and other articles of attire
carelessly about, dropped into a low rocker, and said,--
“Only the usual set were there. I danced every dance, of course, and
there was plenty of cream and coffee. Agnes and her mother know how to
entertain: it’s a real pleasure to go to supper there. But I’ve kept the
best to the last. There was one addition to the usual display of young
men,--a tall, straight, handsome, manly, awfully stylish fellow, that
set all the girls’ tongues running. You’ve seen him, but I’ll bet you a
pound of candy that you can’t guess his name.”
“Oh, don’t make me guess when I’m not wide awake yet. Who was it?”
“It--was--Philip--Hayn!” said Lucia, so earnestly that she seemed almost
tragical.
“Lucia Tramlay!” exclaimed Margie, dropping her chin and staring
blankly. “Not that country fellow who used to drive us down to the beach
at Haynton?”
“The very same; but he’s not a country fellow now. Upon my word, I
shouldn’t have known him, if I hadn’t known he had been invited and
would probably come. I was in terror lest he would come dressed as he
did to our reception last week, and the girls would get over their
admiration of his talk and tease _me_ about him. But you never in your
life saw so splendid-looking a fellow,--you really didn’t. And he was
very attentive to me: he had to be; I took possession of him from the
first. He doesn’t dance, so I couldn’t keep him dangling, but I had him
to myself wherever men could be most useful. Margie, what _are_ you
looking so wooden about?”
“The idea!” said Margie, in a far-away voice, as if her thoughts were
just starting back from some distant point. “That heavy, sober fellow
becoming a city beau! It’s like Cinderella and the princess. Do pinch
me, so I may be sure I’m not dreaming.”
“Margie,” whispered Lucia, suddenly seating herself on the bedside, and,
instead of the desired pinch, burying her cheek on a pillow close
against her sister’s shoulder, “after he had put me into the carriage he
kissed my hand,--oh, ever so many times.”
“Why, Lucia Tramlay! Where was papa?”
“He hadn’t come down yet.”
“Goodness! What did you say or do?”
“What could I? Before I could think at all, ’twas all over and he was in
the house.”
“That country boy a flirt!” exclaimed Margie, going off into blankness
again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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