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Page 57
When Elizabeth came to her Chicago experience, her grandmother clasped her
hands as if a serpent had been mentioned, and said: "How degrading! You
certainly would have been justified in shooting the whole company. I
wonder such places are allowed to exist!" But Marie sat with large eyes of
wonder, and retailed the story over again in the kitchen afterwards for
the benefit of the cook and the butler, so that Elizabeth became
henceforth a heroine among them.
Elizabeth passed on to her Philadelphia experience, and found that here
her grandmother was roused to blazing indignation, but the thing that
roused her was the fact that a Bailey should serve behind a counter in a
ten-cent Store. She lifted her hands, and uttered a moan of real pain,
and went on at such a rate that the smelling-salts had to be brought into
requisition again.
When Elizabeth told of her encounter with the manager in the cellar, the
grandmother said: "How disgusting! The impertinent creature! He ought to
be sued. I will consult the lawyer about the matter. What did you say his
name was? Marie, write that down. And so, dear, you did quite right to
come to me. I've been looking at you while you talked, and I believe
you'll be a pretty girl if you are fixed up. Marie, go to the telephone,
and call up Blandeaux, and tell him to send up a hair-dresser at once. I
want to see how Miss Elizabeth will look with her hair done low in one of
those new coils. I believe it will be becoming. I should have tried it
long ago myself; only it seems a trifle too youthful for hair that is
beginning to turn gray."
Elizabeth watched her grandmother in wonder. Here truly was a new phase of
woman. She did not care about great facts, but only about little things.
Her life was made up of the great pursuit of fashion, just like Lizzie's.
Were people in cities all alike? No, for he, the one man she had met in
the wilderness, had not seemed to care. Maybe, though, when he got back to
the city he did care. She sighed and turned toward the new grandmother.
"Now I have told you everything, grandmother. Shall I go away? I wanted to
go to school; but I see that it costs a great deal of money, and I don't
want to be a burden on any one. I came here, not to ask you to take me in,
because I did not want to trouble you; but I thought before I went away I
ought to see you once because--because you are my grandmother."
"I've never been a grandmother," said the little woman of the world
reflectively, "but I don't know but it would be rather nice. I'd like to
make you into a pretty girl, and take you out into society. That would be
something new to live for. I'm not very pretty myself any more, but I can
see that you will be. Do you wear blue or pink? I used to wear pink
myself, but I believe you could wear either when you get your complexion
in shape. You've tanned it horribly, but it may come out all right. I
think you'll take. You say you want to go to school. Why, certainly, I
suppose that will be necessary; living out in that barbarous, uncivilized
region, of course you don't know much. You seem to speak correctly, but
John always was particular about his speech. He had a tutor when he was
little who tripped him up every mistake he made. That was the only thing
that tutor was good for; he was a linguist. We found out afterwards he was
terribly wild, and drank. He did John more harm than good, Marie, I shall
want Elizabeth to have the rooms next mine. Ring for Martha to see that
everything is in order. Elizabeth, did you ever have your hands manicured?
You have a pretty-shaped hand. I'll have the woman attend to it when she
comes to shampoo your hair and put it up. Did you bring any clothes along?
Of course not. You couldn't on horseback. I suppose you had your trunk
sent by express. No trunk? No express? No railroad? How barbarous! How
John must have suffered, poor fellow! He, so used to every luxury! Well, I
don't see that it was my fault. I gave him everything he wanted except his
wife, and he took her without my leave. Poor fellow, poor fellow!"
Mrs. Bailey in due time sent Elizabeth off to the suite of rooms that she
said were to be hers exclusively, and arose to bedeck herself for another
day. Elizabeth was a new toy, and she anticipated playing with her. It
put new zest into a life that had grown monotonous.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, was surveying her quarters, and wondering what
Lizzie would think if she could see her. According to orders, the coachman
had taken Robin to the stable, and he was already rolling in all the
luxuries of a horse of the aristocracy, and congratulating himself on the
good taste of his mistress to select such a stopping-place. For his part
he was now satisfied not to move further. This was better than the
wilderness any day. Oats like these, and hay such as this, were not to be
found on the plains.
Toward evening the grave butler, with many a deprecatory glance at the
neighborhood, arrived at the door of Mrs. Brady, and delivered himself of
the following message to that astonished lady, backed by her daughter and
her granddaughter, with their ears stretched to the utmost to hear every
syllable:
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