... All of the contented, and otherwise, elderly people who inhabited
the boarding-house with Phyllis appeared to have gone off without using
hot water, for there actually was some. The Liberry Teacher found that
she could have a genuine bath, and have enough water besides to wash her
hair, which is a rite all girls who work have to reserve for Sundays.
This was surely a day of days!
She used the water--alas for selfish human nature!--to the last warm
drop and went gayly back to her little room with no emotions whatever
for the poor other boarders, soon to find themselves wrathfully
hot-waterless. And then--she thoughtlessly curled down on the bed, and
slept and slept and slept! She wakened dimly in time for the one o'clock
dinner, dressed, and ate it in a half-sleep. She went back upstairs
planning a trolley-ride that should take her out into the country, where
a long walk might be had. And midway in changing her shoes she lay back
across the bed and--fell asleep again. The truth was, Phyllis was about
as tired as a girl can get.
She waked at dusk, with a jerk of terror lest she should have overslept
her time for going out. But it was only six. She had a whole hour to
prink in, which is a very long time for people who are used to being in
the library half-an-hour after the alarm-clock wakes them.
* * * * *
Some houses, all of themselves, and before you meet a soul who lives in
them, are silently indifferent to you. Some make you feel that you are
not wanted in the least; these usually have a lot of gilt furniture, and
what are called objects of art set stiffly about. Some seem to be having
an untidy good time all to themselves, in which you are not included.
The De Guenther house, staid and softly toned, did none of these things.
It gave the Liberry Teacher, in her neat, last year's best suit, a
feeling as of gentle welcome-home. She felt contented and _belonging_
even before quick-smiling, slender little Mrs. De Guenther came rustling
gently in to greet her. Then followed Mr. De Guenther, pleasant and
unperturbed as usual, and after him an agreeable, back-arching gray cat,
who had copied his master's walk as exactly as it can be done with four
feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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