IV
The Camp itself underwent numerous changes during the winter; and eventhe strong-hearted Mary was appalled by the amount of money which it hadbeen found necessary to expend. The playroom would, of course, bereserved for the use of guests, and a similar though smaller andinferior room had been thrust out from the west face of Darling Housefor the use of the family. Then Maud, who had volunteered to take chargeof all correspondence and accounts, had insisted that an office be builtfor her near the dock. This was mostly shelves, a big fireplace, and atable. Here guests would register upon arrival; here the incoming mailwould be sorted and the outgoing weighed and stamped. It had also beenfound necessary, in view of the very large prospective wash, to enlargeand renovate Laundry House and provide sleeping quarters for a couple ofextra laundresses.
Those who are familiar with the scarcity and reluctance of labor in theAdirondacks will best understand how these trifling matters bit into theDarling capital.
Sometimes Mary, who held herself responsible for the possible failure ofthe projected inn, could not sleep at night. Suppose that theadvertising, which would cost thousands of dollars, should fall flat?Suppose that not a single solitary person should even nibble at the highprices? The Darlings might even find themselves dreadfully in debt. TheCamp would have to go. She suffered from nightmares, which are bad, andfrom daymares, which are worse. Then one day, brought across the icefrom the village of Carrytown at the lower end of the lake, she receivedthe following letter:
MISS DARLING, The Camp, New Moon Lake in the Adirondacks, New York.
DEAR MADAM:--Yesterday morning, quite by accident, I saw the prospectus of your inn on the desk of Mr. Burns, the advertising manager of _The Four Seasons_. I note with regret that you are not opening until the first of July. Would it not be possible for you to receive myself and a party of guests very much earlier, say just when the ice has gone out of the lake and the trout are in the warm shallows along the shores? Personally, it is my plan to stay on with you for the balance of the season, provided, of course, that all your accommodations have not been previously taken.
With regard to prices, I note only that they are "rather high." I would suggest that, as it would probably inconvenience you to receive guests prior to the date set for the formal opening of your camp, you name a rate for three early weeks which would be profitable to you. There will be six men in my party, including myself.
Very truly yours, SAMUEL LANGHAM.
Mary, her face flushed with the bright colors of triumph, read thisletter aloud to the assembled family.
"Does anybody," she asked, "know anything about Samuel Langham? Is he asuitable person?"
"I know of him," said Arthur, smiling at some recollection or other. "Heis what the newspapers call a 'well-known clubman.' He is rich, fat,good-natured, and not old. It is that part of your prospectus whichtouches upon the _cuisine_ that has probably affected him. His fatherwas a large holder of Standard Oil securities."
"As for me," said Gay, "I've seen him. Do you remember, Phyllis, beingasked to a most 'normous dinner dance at the Redburns' the year we cameout? At the last minute you caught cold and wanted to back out, but Marysaid _that_ wasn't done, and so I went in your place, and, as usual,nobody knew the difference. Well, Mr. Langham was there. I didn't meethim, but I remember I watched him eat. He is very smug-looking. Hedidn't like the champagne. I remember that. He lifted his glasshopefully, took one swallow, put his glass down, and never touched itagain. His face for the rest of dinner had the expression of one who hasbeen deeply wronged. I thought of Louis XVI mounting the scaffold."
"I do wish," said Mary, "that we knew what kind of wine the creaturelikes."
"Father left a splendid collection," said Arthur. "Take Mr. Langham intothe cellar. He'll enjoy that. Let him pick his own bottle."
In the event, Maud sat down in her new office and wrote Mr. Langham thathe and his five guests could be received earlier in the season. Andthen, with fear and trembling, she named a price _per diem_ thatamounted to highway robbery.
Mr. Langham's answer was prompt and cheerful. He asked merely to benotified when the ice had gone out of the lake.
"Well," said Mary, with a long-drawn sigh of relief, "the prices don'tseem to have frightened him nearly as much as they frightened us. But,after all, the prospectus was alluring--though we say it thatshouldn't."
Lee and Gay were troubled by qualms of conscience. The advertisements ofThe Camp were to appear in the February number of some of the moreimportant periodicals, and the two scapegraces were beginning to behorribly alarmed.
Magazines have a way of being received last by those most interested inseeing them. And before even a copy of _The Four Seasons_ reached theDarlings, there came a number of letters from people who had alreadyseen the advertisement in it. One letter was from a very old friend ofthe family, and ran as follows:
MY DEAR MARY:
How could you! I have seen your advertisement of The Camp in _The Four Seasons_. It is earning much talk and criticism. I don't know what you could have been thinking of. I have always regarded you as one of the sanest and best-bred women I know. But it seems that you are not above sacrificing your own dignity to financial gain----
"Well, in the name of all that's ridiculous," exclaimed Mary; "of allthat's impertinent!--will somebody kindly tell me what my personalityhas to do with our prospectus of The Camp?"
Those who could have told her held their tongues and quaked inwardly.The others joined in Mary's surprise and indignation. Even Arthur, whohated the whole innkeeping scheme, was roused out of his ordinaryplacidity.
"I shall write to the horrid old woman," said Mary, "and tell her tomind her own business. I shall also tell her that we are receiving somany applications for accommodations that we don't know how to choose.That isn't quite true, of course; but we have received some. Since I amnot above sacrificing my dignity"--she went on angrily--"to financialgain, I may as well throw a few lies into the bargain."
The next day, addressed to "The Camp," came the long-expected number of_The Four Seasons_. Arthur opened it and began to turn the leaves.Presently, from the centre of a page, he saw his six beautiful sisterslooking him in the face.
"Mary!" he called, in such a voice that she came running. She looked andturned white. Eve came, and Maud and Phyllis.
"Who is responsible for this--" cried Arthur, "for this sickening--thisdegraded piece of mischief?"
"You corrected the final proofs yourself," said Maud.
"And sealed them up. If I find that some mischief-maker in the office of_The Four Seasons_ has been playing tricks----"
"The mischief-makers are to be found nearer home," said Mary. "Don't youremember that Lee and Gay took the proofs to the post-office. They saidthey were bored and could think of nothing to do. _This_ is what theywere thinking of doing!"
"Where are they?" he said in a grim voice.
"Now, Arthur," said Maud, "think before you say anything to them thatyou may regret. As for the picture of us in our bathing-suits--well, I,for one, don't see anything dreadful about it. In fact, I think we lookrather lovely."
Arthur groaned.
"I want to talk to Lee and Gay," he said. "My sisters--an advertisementin a magazine--for drummers and newsboys to make jokes about----"
He grew white and whiter, until his innocent sisters were thoroughlyfrightened. Then he started out of the playroom in search of Lee andGay.
In or about The Camp they were not to be found. Nobody had seen themsince breakfast. With this information, he returned to the playroom.
"They've run away," he said, "and I'm going after them."
"I wouldn't," said Mary. "The harm's been done. You can't very wellspank them. I wish you could. You can only scold--and what earthly goodwill that do them, or you?"
"I don't know that anything I may say," said Arthur, "_will_ do them anygood. I live in hopes."
>
"Have you any idea where they've gone?"
"I'll cast about in a big circle and find their tracks."
When Arthur, mittened and snow-shoed, had departed in search of Lee andGay, the remaining sisters gathered about the full-page advertisement in_The Four Seasons_, and passed rapidly from anger to mild hysterics.Mary was the last to laugh.
And she said: "Girls, I will tell you an awful secret. I never wouldhave consented to this, but as long as Lee and Gay have gone and doneit, I'm--_glad_."
"The only thing _I_ mind," said Eve, "is Arthur. He'll take it hard."
"We can't help that," said Maud. "Business is business. And thiswretched, shocking piece of mischief spells success. I feel it in mybones. There's no use being silly about ourselves. We've got our way tomake in the world--and, as a sextet----"
She lingered over the picture.
"As a sextet, there's no use denying that we are rather lovely to lookat."
Phyllis put in a word blindly.
"Maud," she said, "among the applications you have received, how manyare from women?"
Maud laughed aloud.
"None," she said.
"There wouldn't be," said Eve.
"Well," said Mary, "compared to the rest of you, I'm quite an old woman,and I say--so much the better."
The Seven Darlings Page 4