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His order was obeyed promptly; but George’s appetite was taken away the next moment by Dolly’s exclaiming, as he looked up from his damaged coat, with a scandalized face:
“You’ve put your foot in it now, old boy! that’s Morton, Mr Bhaer’s crack man. Knows everything, no end of a ‘dig’, and bound to carry off all the honours. You won’t hear the last of it in a hurry.” And Dolly laughed so heartily that a spoonful of ice flew upon the head of a lady sitting below him, and got him into a scrape also.
Leaving them to their despair, let us listen to the whispered chat of two girls comfortably seated in a recess waiting till their escorts were fed.
“I do think the Laurences give lovely parties. Don’t you enjoy them?” asked the younger, looking about her with the eager air of one unused to this sort of pleasure.
“Very much, only I never feel as if I was dressed right. My things seemed elegant at home, and I thought I’d be over over-dressed if anything; but I look countrified and dowdy here. No time or money to change now, even if I knew how to do it,” answered the other, glancing anxiously at her bright pink silk gown, trimmed with cheap lace.
“You must get Mrs Brooke to tell you how to fix your things. She was very kind to me. I had a green silk, and it looked so cheap and horrid by the side of the nice dresses here I felt regularly unhappy about it, and asked her how much a dress like one Mrs Laurence had would cost. That looked so simple and elegant I thought it wouldn’t be costly; but it was India mull and Valenciennes lace, so, of course, I couldn’t have it. Then Mrs Brooke said: ‘Get some muslin to cover the green silk, and wear hops or some white flowers, instead of pink, in your hair, and you will have a pretty suit.’ Isn’t it lovely and becoming?” And Miss Burton surveyed herself with girlish satisfaction; for a little taste had softened the harsh green, and hop-bells became her red hair better than roses.
“It’s sweet: I’ve been admiring it. I’ll do mine so and ask about my purple one. Mrs Brooke has helped me to get rid of my headaches, and Mary Clay’s dyspepsia is all gone since she gave up coffee and hot bread.”
“Mrs Laurence advised me to walk and run and use the gymnasium to cure my round shoulders and open my chest, and I’m a much better figure than I was.”
“Did you know that Mr Laurence pays all Amelia Merrill’s bills? Her father failed, and she was heartbroken at having to leave college; but that splendid man just stepped in and made it all right.”
“Yes, and Professor Bhaer has several of the boys down at his house evenings to help them along so they can keep up with the rest; and Mrs Bhaer took care of Charles Mackey herself when he had a fever last year. I do think they are the best and kindest people in the world.”
“So do I, and my time here will be the happiest and most useful years of my life.”
And both girls forgot their gowns and their suppers for a moment to look with grateful, affectionate eyes at the friends who tried to care for bodies and for souls as well as minds.
Now come to a lively party supping on the stairs, girls like foam at the top, and a substratum of youths below, where the heaviest particles always settle. Emil, who never sat if he could climb or perch, adorned the newel-post; Tom, Nat, Demi, and Dan were camped on the steps, eating busily, as their ladies were well served and they had earned a moment’s rest, which they enjoyed with their eyes fixed on the pleasing prospect above them.
“I’m so sorry the boys are going. It will be dreadfully dull without them. Now they have stopped teasing and are polite, I really enjoy them,” said Nan, who felt unusually gracious tonight as Tom’s mishap kept him from annoying her.
“So do I; and Bess was mourning about it today, though as a general thing she doesn’t like boys unless they are models of elegance. She has been doing Dan’s head, and it is not quite finished. I never saw her so interested in any work, and it’s very well done. He is so striking and big he always makes me think of the Dying Gladiator or some of those antique creatures. There’s Bess now. Dear child, how sweet she looks tonight!” answered Daisy, waving her hand as the Princess went by with Grandpa on her arm.
“I never thought he would turn out so well. Don’t you remember how we used to call him ‘the bad boy’ and be sure he would become a pirate or something awful because he glared at us and swore sometimes? Now he is the handsomest of all the boys, and very entertaining with his stories and plans. I like him very much; he’s so big and strong and independent. I’m tired of mollycoddles and bookworms,” said Nan in her decided way.
“Not handsomer than Nat!” cried loyal Daisy, contrasting two faces below, one unusually gay, the other sentimentally sober even in the act of munching cake. “I like Dan, and am glad he is doing well; but he tires me, and I’m still a little afraid of him. Quiet people suit me best.”
“Life is a fight, and I like a good soldier. Boys take things too easily, don’t see how serious it all is and go to work in earnest. Look at that absurd Tom, wasting his time and making an object of himself just because he can’t have what he wants, like a baby crying for the moon. I’ve no patience with such nonsense,” scolded Nan, looking down at the jovial Thomas, who was playfully putting macaroons in Emil’s shoes, and trying to beguile his exile as best he could.
“Most girls would be touched by such fidelity. I think it’s beautiful,” said Daisy behind her fan; for other girls sat just below.
“You are a sentimental goose and not a judge. Nat will be twice the man when he comes back after his trip. I wish Tom was going with him. My idea is that if we girls have any influence we should use it for the good of these boys, and not pamper them up, making slaves of ourselves and tyrants of them. Let them prove what they can do and be before they ask anything of us, and give us a chance to do the same. Then we know where we are, and shall not make mistakes to mourn over all our lives.”
“Hear, hear!” cried Alice Heath, who was a girl after Nan’s own heart, and had chosen a career, like a brave and sensible young woman. “Only give us a chance, and have patience till we can do our best. Now we are expected to be as wise as men who have had generations of all the help there is, and we scarcely anything. Let us have equal opportunities, and in a few generations we will see what the judgement is. I like justice, and we get very little of it.”
“Still shouting the battle-cry of freedom?” asked Demi, peering through the banisters at this moment. “Up with your flag! I’ll stand by and lend a hand if you want it. With you and Nan to lead the van, I think you won’t need much help.”
“You are a great comfort, Demi, and I’ll call on you in all emergencies; for you are an honest boy, and don’t forget that you owe much to your mother and your sisters and your aunts,” continued Nan. “I do like men who come out frankly and own that they are not gods. How can we think them so when such awful mistakes are being made all the time by these great creatures? See them sick, as I do, then you know them.”
“Don’t hit us when we are down; be merciful, and set us up to bless and believe in you evermore,” pleaded Demi from behind the bars.
“We’ll be kind to you if you will be just to us. I don’t say generous, only just. I went to a suffrage debate in the Legislature last winter; and of all the feeble, vulgar twaddle I ever heard, that was the worst; and those men were our representatives. I blushed for them, and the wives and mothers. I want an intelligent man to represent me, if I can’t do it myself, not a fool.”
“Nan is on the stump. Now we shall catch it,” cried Tom, putting up an umbrella to shield his unhappy head; for Nan’s earnest voice was audible, and her indignant eye happened to rest on him as she spoke.
“Go on, go on! I’ll take notes, and put in ‘great applause’ liberally,” added Demi, producing his ball-book and pencil, with his Jenkins air.
Daisy pinched his nose through the bars, and the meeting was rather tumultuous for a moment, for Emil called: “Avast, avast, here’s a squall to win’dard” Tom applauded wildly; Dan looked up as if the prospect of a fight, even with words
, pleased him, and Nat went to support Demi, as his position seemed to be a good one. At this crisis, when everyone laughed and talked at once, Bess came floating through the upper hall and looked down like an angel of peace upon the noisy group below, as she asked, with wondering eyes and smiling lips:
“What is it?”
“An indignation meeting. Nan and Alice are on the rampage, and we are at the bar to be tried for our lives. Will Your Highness preside and judge between us?” answered Demi, as a lull at once took place; for no one rioted in the presence of the Princess.
“I’m not wise enough. I’ll sit here and listen. Please go on.” And Bess took her place above them all as cool and calm as a little statue of Justice, with fan and nosegay in place of sword and scales.
“Now, ladies, free your minds, only spare us till morning; for we’ve got a german to dance as soon as everyone is fed, and Parnassus expects every man to do his duty. Mrs President Giddy-gaddy has the floor,” said Demi, who liked this sort of fun better than the very mild sort of flirtation which was allowed at Plumfield, for the simple reason that it could not be entirely banished, and is a part of all education, co-or otherwise.
“I have only one thing to say, and it is this,” began Nan soberly, though her eyes sparkled with a mixture of fun and earnestness. “I want to ask every boy of you what you really think on this subject. Dan and Emil have seen the world and ought to know their own minds. Tom and Nat have had five examples before them for years. Demi is ours and we are proud of him. So is Rob. Ted is a weathercock, and Dolly and George, of course, are fogies in spite of the Annex, and girls at Girton going ahead of the men. Commodore, are you ready for the question?”
“Ay, ay, skipper.”
“Do you believe in Woman’s Suffrage?”
