The Shoulders of Atlas: A NovelFreeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins
General
The Shoulders of Atlas: A Novel
Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins
New England -- Fiction
Lucy got a pale-blue muslin gown from the closet and slipped it over
her shoulders. Then she stood for her mother to fasten it in the
back. Lucy was lovely in this cloud of blue, with edgings of lace on
the ruffles and knots of black velvet. She fastened her black velvet
girdle, and turned herself sidewise with a charming feminine motion,
to get the effect of her slender waist between the curves of her
small hips and bust. Again she looked pleased.
"You are dear in that blue gown," said Rose.
Lucy smiled. Then she scowled as suddenly. She could see Rose over
her shoulder in the glass. "It is awful countrified," said she. "Look
at the sleeves and look at yours. Where was yours made?"
"My dressmaker in New York made it," faltered Rose. She felt guilty
because her gown was undeniably in better style.
"There's no use trying to have anything in East Westland," said Lucy.
While she was fastening a little gold brooch at her throat, Rose
again tried to change the subject. "That candy of yours looked
perfectly delicious," said she. "You must teach me how you make it."
Mrs. Ayres went dead white in a moment. She looked at Lucy with a
look of horror which the girl did not meet. She went on fastening her
brooch. "Did you like it?" she asked, carelessly.
"An accident happened to it, I am sorry to say," explained Rose. "Mr.
Allen and I were out in the grove, and somehow he jostled me, and the
candy got scattered on the ground, and he stepped on it."
"Were you and he alone out there?" asked Lucy, in a very quiet voice.
Rose looked at her amazedly. "Why, no, not when that happened!" she
replied. "Aunt Sylvia was there, too." She spoke a little
resentfully. "What if Mr. Allen and I had been alone; what is that to
her?" she thought.
"There is some more candy," said Lucy, calmly. "I will get it, and
then we will go out in the arbor. I will teach you to make the candy
any day. It is very simple. Come, Rose dear. Mother, we are going out
in the arbor."
Mrs. Ayres rose immediately. She preceded the two girls down-stairs,
and came through the sitting-room door with a dish of candy in her
hand just as they reached it. "Here is the candy, dear," she said to
Lucy, and there was something commanding in her voice.
Lucy took the dish, a pretty little decorated affair, with what
seemed to Rose an air of suspicion and a grudging "thank you, mother."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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