"Lida Wilsy--that's the girl from the ranch--couldn't live up to so much
stateliness, especially of the stony-eyed butler. Hawkins was too much
for her. She told her roommate that she thought it was foolish to have
so many forks and spoons at each place. One was enough for anybody to
get through a dinner with. Life was too short for so much fuss and
feathers. She never could learn which to use first, and she would get
her silverware so hopelessly mixed up that by the time dessert was
brought on maybe she would have nothing to eat it with but an oyster
fork. I've seen her ready to go under the table from embarrassment. Not
that she cared so much what the girls thought. She joked about it to
them. Her father owned the biggest part of a silver mine, and they could
have had Tiffany's whole stock of forks if they'd wanted them. It was
Hawkins she was afraid of. Of course he was too well trained to show
what he thought of her mistakes, but you couldn't help feeling his high
and mighty inward scorn of such ignorance. It fairly oozed from his
finger-tips."
Kitty's black eyes sparkled, anticipating times ahead when she would
certainly make it lively for Hawkins.
"There's grandfathah!" cried Lloyd, catching sight of a white-haired old
gentleman who had just come up on deck. "I want to tell him about the
garden before we lose sight of it."
Juliet's glance followed her with interest as she darted away, for it
was a distinguished-looking old gentleman who lifted his hat with
elaborate courtesy at her approach. He was dressed in white duck, and
the right coat-sleeve hung empty.
"It's Colonel Lloyd," explained Allison, noting Juliet's glance of
curiosity. "He's bringing us all to school, for it wasn't convenient for
mother or Mrs. Sherman to come."
"They don't look alike," remarked Juliet, surveying them with a puzzled
expression. "But what is it about them--there is such a startling
resemblance?"
"Everybody notices it," said Kitty. "When Lloyd was smaller, they used
to call her the Little Colonel all the time, but especially when she was
in a temper. They call her Princess now."
"Princess," echoed Juliet. "That name suits her exactly."
She cast another admiring glance at the slender, fair-haired girl,
standing with her hand in her grandfather's arm, pointing out the
beauties of the place they were slowly passing.
"And she will suit Warwick Hall," she added, with a sudden burst
of schoolgirl enthusiasm, "just as the peacocks suit it, and the
coat of arms, and Madam Chartley herself. She's got that same
'daughter-of-a-hundred-earls' air about her that Madam has."
"Oh, it all sounds so delightful and fascinating," sighed Betty, pushing
back the brown hair that blew in little curls about her face, and
smiling at the slowly disappearing Hall with a happy light in her brown
eyes. "I can hardly wait for to-morrow."
The boat had glided on until only the high, square tower was left in
view, with the red sunset glow upon it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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