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Page 15
The orange-tree sitting-room was merely a platform built under the
trees, which in the season of blossoms shed a heavy fragrance in the
warm air, and later on hung their branches of golden fruit almost into
your very lap.
"Here you are!" cried Polly, plunging through the trees as she caught
sight of Margery's pink dress. "You have n't any hats to swing, so
please give three rousing cheers! The house is rented and a lease
signed for a year!"
"That is good news, indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. Noble, laying down her
needle. "And who is the tenant?"
"Whom do you suppose? Mrs. Chadwick herself! She has been getting on
very nicely with the housekeeping (part of the credit belongs to me,
but no one would ever believe it), and the boarders have been gradually
weaned from mamma and accustomed to the new order of things, so they
are tolerably content. Ah Foy also has agreed to stay, and that makes
matters still more serene, since he is the best cook in Santa Barbara.
Mrs. Chadwick will pay eighty-five dollars a month. Dr. George thinks
we ought to get more, but mamma is so glad to have somebody whom she
knows, and so relieved to feel that there will be no general breaking
up of the 'sweet, sweet home,' that she is glad to accept the
eighty-five dollars; and I am sure that we can live in modest penury on
that sum. Of course Mrs. Chadwick may weary in well-doing; or she may
die; or she may even get married,--though that's very unlikely, unless
one of the boarders can't pay his board and wants to make it up to her
in some way. Heigho! I feel like a princess, like a capitalist, like
a gilded society lady!" sighed Polly, fanning herself with her hat.
"And now you and your mother will come to us for a week or two, as you
promised, won't you?" asked Mrs. Noble. "That will give you time to
make your preparations comfortably."
Polly took a note from her pocket and handed it to Mrs. Noble: "Mrs.
Oliver presents her compliments to Mrs. Noble, and says in this letter
that we accept with pleasure Mrs. Noble's kind invitation to visit her.
Said letter was not to be delivered, in case Mrs. Noble omitted to
renew the invitation; but as all is right, I don't mind announcing that
we are coming the day after to-morrow."
"Oh, Polly, Polly! How am I ever to live without you!" sighed Margery.
"First Elsie, then Bell, now you!"
"Live for your Art with a big A, Peggy, but it's not forever. By and
by, when you are a successful artist and I am a successful something,
in short, when we are both 'careering,' which is my verb to express
earning one's living by the exercise of some splendid talent, we will
'career' together in some great metropolis. Our mothers shall dress in
Lyons velvet and point-lace. Their delicate fingers, no longer sullied
by the vulgar dishcloth and duster, shall glitter with priceless gems,
while you and I, the humble authors of their greatness, will heap dimes
on dimes until we satisfy ambition."
Mrs. Noble smiled. "I hope your 'career,' as you call it, will be one
in which imagination will be of use, Polly."
"I don't really imagine all the imaginations you imagine I imagine,"
said Polly soberly, as she gave Mrs. Noble's hand an affectionate
squeeze. "A good deal of it is 'whistling to keep my courage up.' But
everything looks hopeful just now. Mamma is so much better, everybody
is so kind, and do you know, I don't loathe the boarders half so much
since we have rented them with the house?
"They grow in beauty side by side,
They fill our home with glee.
"Now that I can look upon them as personal property, part of our goods
and chattels, they have ceased to be disagreeable. Even Mr.
Greenwood--you remember him, Margery?"
"The fat old man who calls you sprightly?"
"The very same; but he has done worse since that. To be called
sprightly is bad enough, but yesterday he said that he shouldn't be
surprised _if I married well--in--course--of--time_!"
Nothing but italics would convey the biting sarcasm of Polly's
inflections, and no capitals in a printer's case could picture her
flashing eyes, or the vigor with which she prodded the earth with her
riding-whip.
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