Two Little Women on a Holiday, Carolyn Wells [ink ebook reader .txt] 📗
- Author: Carolyn Wells
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“Yes, this a narrower part of the house, and gives me an outlook on our tiny yard as well as on the side street. It’s a very satisfactory room, except for my neighbour,” and she laughed.
“Who is the unsatisfactory neighbour?” asked Dolly, smiling in response.
“Not the people next door, they’re quiet enough; but they have a parrot, and he’s in the room just across from this, and he chatters so often that it is sometimes very annoying. Look over, you can see him now.”
Sure enough, as Dolly looked from the window, she saw a big Polly in a cage at the opposite casement. Only thin lace curtains were between, and Dolly could clearly see the beautiful bird.
“It’s a lovely parrot,” she said, “but I suppose his chatter is just as bothersome as if he were a homelier bird. Well, Mrs. Berry,” and she turned from the window, “I’ve come to ask you something.”
“And something that you hesitate to ask,—I can see that. But don’t be afraid, dear. Tell me what it is, and if I have to refuse you, at least I won’t do it harshly.”
“I know you won’t!” and Dolly felt ashamed of her fears. “Well, it’s just this. Alicia,—that is, we’re all of us just crazy over the hero in the play we saw this afternoon, and we—that is, we think it would be nice if we could—if we could ask him to—to call here, on us.”
The dreaded speech was made, and though Mrs. Berry looked surprised, she didn’t exclaim in horror at the idea.
“Whose plan is this?” she asked, quietly.
“Why,—well,—we all want it.”
“Yes, but who first thought of it?”
“Alicia spoke of it, and—the others agreed,—we all agreed,—that it would be lots of fun,—if you approved of it.” Now Mrs. Berry could see a hole through a millstone, and she knew as well as if she had been told, that the others had planned this thing,—probably Alicia or Bernice,—and had made Dolly their spokesman, because of her good-natured acquiescence,
“What do YOU think of the idea?” she said smiling.
“At first it seemed to me a very forward thing to do,” Dolly replied, looking very sober; “but if you think it’s all right, I’d like to meet Mr. Coriell. You see, I’m going to be an opera singer myself, some day, and there are a few questions I’d like to ask him.”
Mrs. Berry gasped. “You do beat the dickens!” she exclaimed. “So you’re going on the stage, are you?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Then of course you ought to meet an actor. Tell Alicia to go ahead and ask this man. Tell her to invite him to tea on Friday. I’ll arrange a pretty tea-party for you.”
“Oh, I’ll tell her! She’ll be SO glad!” and Dolly departed, quite unconscious that she had unwittingly betrayed Alicia’s principal part in the scheme.
Demurely Dolly went back to her room. The other girls were breathlessly awaiting her return, and pounced on her for the news.
“At least you got back alive!” cried Dotty as she grabbed Dolly by the arms and danced her up and down the room.
“But what did she say?” demanded Alicia, in fiery impatience.
“Don’t you wish you knew!” and Dolly fell into a teasing mood, and when Dolly Fayre felt like teasing, she was adept at it!
“Tell us! Tell us!” cried Bernice. “Oh, Dolly, tell us!”
“Tell you what?” asked Dolly, with an innocent stare.
“Tell us what Mrs. Berry said.”
“Oh, she asked me how I liked her room, and she showed me the parrot next door. It’s a beautiful bird—”
“Never mind a bird! What did she say about Mr. Coriell?”
“Why, we talked about the parrot first. You see, his cage hangs in a window right across from hers, not ten feet away—”
“Nonsense!” cried Alicia, “who cares about the parrot! Tell us about my hero!”
“She says he has a dreadful voice, and squawks like fury—”
“Oh, he HASN’T! He’s a wonderful singer!”
“I mean the parrot,” said Dolly, mischievously enjoying Alicia’s disgusted look. “And she says we can ask him to tea.”
“Who? the parrot?” This from Dotty.
“No, you silly! Mr. Coriell. But, of course, if you’d rather have the parrot—”
“Oh, Dolly, do be sensible!” and Bernice looked exasperated; “are you going to tell us all about it or not?”
“Not if you’re so rude to me! Certainly not! You are dismissed, you two. Dot and I are going to bed.”
“Not much you’re not!” declared Alicia. “Not till you tell us what Mrs. Berry said.”
“Then you must ask me with due politeness and proper courtesy. I can’t report to a lot of cackling geese! You’re worse than parrots!”
“Please, dear, sweet Dollyrinda, what DID the lady say?” begged Dotty, in wheedling tones.
“Ah, yes, tell us,” and Alicia took the cue. “Angel child! Beautiful blonde Towhead! what,—oh, vouchsafe to deign to tell us, WHAT did she say?”
“Whoop it up, Dollums,” said Bernice, laughing, “out with it, you little rascal. Did she hold up her hands in horror?”
“She did NOT,” said Dolly, with dignity. “She said, that if Alicia chose, she might invite the gentleman to tea on Friday, and that she would see to it that there was a nice tea-party prepared for his benefit. There, WHO’S a good ambassador?”
“You are! you blessed angel!” cried Alicia, warmly; “you’re a wonder! a marvel! a peach! a pippin! Oh, you’re just all there is of it! Did she REALLY say that?”
“Oh, you want to know what she REALLY said,” and Dolly’s head went on one side, as she began to tease again.
“Of course, that’s what she really said,” interposed Dotty, who didn’t want any more high words. “‘Licia, be satisfied with that, and scoot to bed.”
“Nothing of the sort. We’re going to make fudge to celebrate! I told you I had my chafing-dish; don’t you girls feel fudgy?”
“I could nibble a morsel,” Bernice said, “and not half try. How about you, Dot?”
“I’m right there—with bells on!”
“Isn’t it too late?” objected Dolly.
“Now, look here, priggy-wig,” and Alicia shook a finger at her, “if you don’t quit that spoilsporting of yours, there’ll be trouble in camp! The truth is, there’s not much fun in making fudge, just ‘cause there’s nobody to forbid it! At school, we have to do it on the sly. Here, if Mrs. Berry or Uncle Jeff knew we thought of it, they’d send forty ‘leven footmen and maids to help us!” “That’s so,” laughed Dolly; “I wasn’t thinking of them. But isn’t it time we all went to bed?”
“Of course it is, young hayseed. That’s why we’re staying up. Also, it makes you so delightfully sleepy next morning! Now, do you come to this fudge party or do you go to bed?”
“Do I come to it!” cried Dolly, in disdain. “Well, I like that! Why, your old fudge party is FOR me! I’m the heroine of the hour! Who went on your desperate and dangerous errand, I’d like to know! Who got permission to invite your old Coriell man to tea? Come, now, declare the fudge party a feast in my honour, or call it off!”
“It is! it is!” laughed Alicia. “To the victor belong the spoils. The party is ALL for you, and if you will accept our humble invitation come right into our room and make yourself at home.”
So the two D’s went into the other girls’ room, and Alicia got out her chafing-dish set and prepared for the feast.
“How are you going to make fudge with nothing but chocolate?” laughed Dotty.
“That’s so,” said Alicia, looking blank. “I forgot I had to have milk and butter and sugar and a lot of things. Guess we can’t do it.”
“Guess we can!” retorted Bernice, and she pushed a bell button.
“Oh, Bernie!” exclaimed Dotty, “you oughtn’t to call the maid so late! She’ll be in bed.”
“Then she won’t answer,” said Bernice, calmly.
But in a moment a maid did come, and smilingly listened to their requests.
“Some milk, please,” said Alicia, “and sugar, and butter,—”
“All the things for fudge, miss?” asked the girl, her eyes taking in the chafing-dish. “Certainly. In a moment.”
She disappeared and the girls burst into peals of laughter.
“It’s impossible to do anything frisky here,” said Alicia, “because everything we want to do, is looked on as all right!”
“Well, it isn’t a dreadful thing to make fudge of an evening,” put in Bernice.
“No,” agreed Dolly, “but I wouldn’t think of doing it at my house. After I’d gone to my room for the night, I mean.”
“It’s a funny thing,” said Alicia, “but all the fun of it’s gone now. I don’t care two cents for the fudge, it’s the excitement of doing it secretly, that appeals to me. We do it at school, and we have to be so fearfully careful lest the teachers hear us.”
“I know what you mean,” said Dolly, “but I don’t believe I feel that way. I love fudge, but I’d a whole lot rather have people know we’re making it than to do it on the sly.”
“You’re a little puritan,” and Alicia flew over and kissed her. “No wonder Mrs. Berry said yes to you, you probably made her think it was a duty to humanity!”
When the maid returned with the trayful of things they had asked for, there was also a goodly plate of frosted cakes and a dish of fruit.
“In case you might feel hungry,” she explained. “Mrs. Berry was saying the other day, how hungry young folks do be gettin’. Shall I return for the tray, miss?”
“No,” said Dolly, kindly. “You go to bed. We’ll set the things out in the hall, when we’re finished, and you can take them away in the morning.”
“Thank you, miss,” and the maid went away, leaving the girls to their spread.
“I’m not going to make fudge,” said Alicia, “there’s enough here to eat, without it.”
“I’ll do it, then,” said Dolly. “I’m not going to make all this trouble and then not seem to appreciate it.”
She began to cut the chocolate, and Dotty helped her.
Alicia made the chafing-dish ready, and Bernice set out a table for them.
“This is splendid fudge,” Alicia remarked, as at last they sat enjoying the feast. “You must give me your recipe.”
“Probably just like yours,” smiled Dolly; “but it always tastes better if somebody else makes it.”
“Not always! It depends on WHO makes it. This is fine!”
“Even if we are not doing it on the sly? I declare, Alicia, I can’t understand that feeling of yours. I s’pose you don’t care so much about Mr. Coriell, since Mrs. Berry is willing.”
“It does take the snap out of it,” Alicia admitted. “But I couldn’t do that on the sly, anyway. I mean if I had him HERE. I wish I could meet him somewhere else,—at some tearoom, or somewhere.”
“Oh, Alicia, I think you’re horrid! Nice girls don’t do things like that!” Dolly’s big blue eyes expressed such amazement that Alicia laughed outright.
“You little innocent!” she cried.
“I’d rather be innocent than ill-bred,” Dolly flashed back.
“Well, wait till you go to boarding-school and you’ll get some of those strait-laced notions knocked out of you.”
“I don’t ever expect to go. I wouldn’t like to leave home. And that reminds me, girls, I must skip. I’ve got to write up my diary before I go to bed. You do my share of the clearing up, won’t you, Dot?”
“‘Course I will,” and Dolly ran off to the other room while the three cleared away the party and set the tray out in the hall.
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