Married people -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Mrs. Lulu Hartwig arrived with a steamer-trunk, two new gowns, a camera,
and Harry. She seemed disappointed not to find a large summer hotel with
dancing and golf next door to "The T Room," and she didn't hesitate to
say that her parents would have done better--which meant that Lulu would
have enjoyed her visit more--if they had "located" at Bar Harbor or
Newport. She rearranged the furniture, but as there was nothing in the
tea-room but chairs, tables, and a fireplace, there wasn't much she
could do.
She descended on Grimsby Center, and came back enthusiastic about Miss
Mitchin's. She had met the young man with the Albanian costume, and he
had talked to her about vorticism and this jolly new Polish composer
with his suite for tom-tom and cymbals. She led Father into the arbor
and effervescently demanded, "Why don't Mother and you have a place like
that dear old mansion of Miss Mitchin's, and all those clever people
there and all?"
Father fairly snarled, "Now look here, young woman, the less you say
about Miss Mitten the more popular you'll be around here. And don't you
dare to speak to your mother about that place. It's raised the devil
with our trade, and I won't have your mother bothered with it. And if
you mean the young fellow that needs a decent pair of pantaloons by this
'Albanian costume' business, why I sh'd think you'd be ashamed to speak
of him."
"Now, Father, of course you have particularly studied artists--"
"Look here, young woman, when you used to visit us in New York, it was
all right for you to get our goats by sticking your snub nose in the air
and asking us if we'd read a lot of new-fangled books that we'd never
heard of. I'll admit that was a good way to show us how superior you
were. But this Miss Mitten place is a pretty serious proposition for us
to buck, and I absolutely forbid you to bother your mother with
mentioning it."
Father stood straight and glared at her. There was in him nothing of the
weary little man who was in awe of Miss Mitchin's. Even his daughter was
impressed. She forgot for a moment that she was Mrs. Hartwig, now, and
had the best phonograph in Saserkopee. But she took one more shot:
"All the same, it would be a good thing for you if you had some clever
people--or some society people--coming here often. It would advertise
the place as nothing else would."
"Well, we'll see about that," said Father--which meant, of course, that
he wouldn't see about it.
Lulu Hartwig was a source of agitation for two weeks. After Father's
outbreak she stopped commenting, but every day when business was light
they could feel her accusingly counting the number of customers. But she
did not become active again till the Sunday before her going.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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