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Page 23
"I suppose they've done lots of funny things with it."
Madame's eyes danced and little smiles wrinkled the corners of her
mouth. "On the Fourth of July, last year, they presented every orphan in
the Orphans' Home with two dollars' worth of fireworks, carefully
chosen. Of course the inevitable happened and the orphans managed to set
fire to the home, but, after two hours of hard work, the place was
saved. Some of the children were slightly injured during the
celebration, but that didn't matter, because as Juliet said, they'd had
a good time, anyway, and it would give them something to talk about in
years to come."
"It would have been better to spend the money on shoes, wouldn't it?"
"I don't know, my dear. The finest gift in the world is pleasure.
Sometimes I think it's better to feed the soul and let the body fast.
There is a time in life when one brief sky-rocket can produce more joy
than ten pairs of shoes."
Isabel smiled and glanced at Madame Bernard's lavender satin slipper.
The old lady laughed and the soft colour came into her pretty face.
"I frankly admit that I've passed it," she said. "Better one pair of
shoes than ten sky-rockets, if the shoes are the sort I like."
"Do they come often?" queried Isabel, reverting to the subject of the
twins.
"Not as often as I'd like to have them, but it doesn't do to urge them.
I can only keep my windows open and let the wind from the clover field
blow in as it will."
"Do they live near a clover field?" inquired Isabel, perplexed.
"No, but they remind me of it--they're so breezy and wholesome, so free
and untrammelled, and, at heart, so sweet."
"I hope they'll come again soon."
"So do I, for I don't want you to be lonely, Isabel. It was good of your
mother to let you come."
"Mamma doesn't care what I do," observed Isabel, placidly. "She's always
busy."
Madame Bernard checked the sharp retort that rose to her lips. What
Isabel had said was quite true. Mrs. Ross was so interested in what she
called "The New Thought" and "The Higher World Service" that she had
neither time nor inclination for the old thought and simple service that
make--and keep--a home.
From the time she could dress herself and put up her own hair, Isabel
had been left much to herself. Her mother supplied her liberally with
money for clothes and considered that her duty to her daughter ended
there. They lived in an apartment hotel and had their coffee served in
their rooms in the morning. After that, Isabel was left to her own
devices, for committees and directors' meetings without number claimed
her mother.
More often than not, Isabel dined alone in the big dining-room
downstairs, and spent a lonely evening with a novel and a box of
chocolates. On pleasant days, she amused herself by going through the
shops and to the matinee. She did not make friends easily and the
splendid isolation common to hotels and desert islands left her
stranded, socially. She had been very glad to accept Aunt Francesca's
invitation, and the mother, looking back through her years of "world
service" to the quiet old house and dream-haunted garden, had thought it
would be a good place for Isabel for a time, and had hoped she might not
find it too dull to endure.
Madame Bernard had no patience with Mrs. Ross. When she had come for a
brief holiday, fifteen years before, bringing her child with her, she
had just begun to be influenced by the modern feminine unrest. Later she
had definitely allied herself with those whose mission it is to
emancipate Woman--with a capital W--from her chains, forgetting that
these are of her own forging, and anchor her to the eternal verities of
earth and heaven.
A single swift stroke had freed Mrs. Ross from her own "bondage."
Isabel's father had died, while her mother was out upon a lecturing
tour--in a hotel, which is the most miserable place in the world to die
in. The housekeeper and chambermaids had befriended Isabel until the
tour came to its triumphant conclusion. Mrs. Ross had seemed to consider
the whole affair a kindly and appropriate recognition of her abilities,
on the part of Providence. She attempted to fit Isabel for the duties of
a private secretary, but failed miserably, and, greatly to Isabel's
relief, gave up the idea.
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