The meal was one of the most enjoyable I can remember. She brought to
it just that subtle, artistic atmosphere which would have been imparted
by the presence of a very valuable and exquisite piece of old Dresden
china. All the grace and irreproachable womanliness of the crinoline
period were there, but without any of its narrow-minded bigotry.
She seemed to personify all the attributes one requires to make a
grandmother tolerable and lovable. Her hands fluttered over Molly's
fair hair like white moths, and when she stood on tiptoes to kiss her,
it was with the air of a queen saluting a young goddess. When she moved
there was a faint rustle of hidden silk, and the tenderness which
dwelt in her lips and eyes soothed and captivated one immediately.
Although Gran'pa had told her the exciting story of his rejuvenation,
every now and again I caught her looking at him as if she were not
quite certain of his identity. It must have been strange for her to
see the twenty-five-years-older-than-herself lover of fifty years
ago sitting there, the very embodiment of a vigorous man of only
forty-five. . . . But, to me, it was stranger still to think of Gran'pa
as a lovesick swain. After a man or woman has reached middle age, it
is absurd for them to delude themselves that they are still "in love."
Affection, tolerance, understanding, sympathy, friendship--any of these
lukewarm expressions may be applicable; but the hot, consuming fire
of youth seeking youth--no! And yet . . . there was Gran'pa, his eyes
shining with passionate devotion, his hand trembling as he passed his
loved one the cruet, and his voice unsteady and caressing when he spoke
to her.
"Would you believe it," he said, suddenly turning to me, "Sally hasn't
a single unsound tooth in her head!"
"Sally" blushed as prettily as a maiden of sixteen--and I mumbled
something intended to express amazement, without laying undue emphasis
on her great age.
In these degenerate days of artificial denture and gold fillings it was
an accomplishment of which she might well be proud. Even immature Molly
possessed a crowned tooth--as the result of an encounter with a golf
ball--and as for Gran'pa himself. . . . Well, he hadn't (and couldn't
have) suffered from toothache for over thirty years.
"That's the result of care, George," said Gran'pa, drifting into one
of his lecturing moods. "Attend to your health when young and you
get your reward with compound interest when you're . . . er, that is,
later on in life," he added, tactfully. "What'll happen to the modern
cake-and-chocolate eating flapper of to-day when _she's_ seventy or
eighty, I should like to know? . . ."
He continued in this vein for some time, until at last Sally Rebecca
interrupted him by saying that she thought Molly was adorable--and
Molly glanced at me through the corner of her eyes, closed the nearest,
and then gently kicked me under the table.
"Present company excepted, of course," said Gran'pa, a trifle
embarrassed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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