CHAPTER IX.
THORNS IN THE PATH.
IT appeared to Kathie that she had never known so long a fortnight asthe first two weeks of Uncle Robert's absence; yet everything had goneon just the same, none of the duties were changed, only the absence andthe dreadful suspense.
Yet something else had happened, or was working itself out slowly day byday. Among the new scholars were several quite stylish and fashionablegirls, who felt inclined to draw a line, or make some kind of a socialdistinction.
Foremost among these was Isabel Hadden, a tall, showy girl, who pridedherself upon her figure and style. Her father had made a fortune as anarmy contractor, and was now in Washington. He had purchased a verypretty country residence at Brookside, and installed his family there,though Mrs. Hadden frequently joined him for weeks at a time.
Belle had been at a second-rate boarding-school for a year before thefamily had attained their present grandeur. Now a distant connectionfilled the position of governess to the host of younger children; butBelle considered herself too large to come in with "that crowd," as sherather disdainfully termed them.
She was sent to school every morning in the carriage, and it notinfrequently came for her in the afternoon. Rather distant and haughtyat first, she had not made friends very easily. Mrs. Thorne happened tomeet Mrs. Hadden at an evening party, and it was followed by a mutualacquaintance. Thereupon Isabel and Lottie became friends, though thelatter was somewhat younger. Lottie's mother was very ambitious for her,and since Mr. Thorne would not consent to the expense of aboarding-school, she sent Lottie to Mrs. Wilder, as it was so much moregenteel.
Belle became the leader of the small clique who discussed fashionshabitually. She criticised the dresses, cuffs, collars, and laces forthe edification of her youthful hearers, until Emma Lauriston said oneday, "Miss Hadden is as good as a fashion-magazine. I don't know butshe would be invaluable in a fancy goods' store."
Lottie still kept to her old habit of calling upon Kathie for assistancewhen lessons were puzzling. For several days in succession she hadoccupied Kathie's short intermission, and Mrs. Wilder found that shebegan to depend too much upon this kindly help.
"Miss Kathie," her teacher said at length, "I have a request or acommand in my mind,--you can consider it as which ever is easiest toobey," and Mrs. Wilder smiled.
Kathie smiled as well, in her pleasant fashion.
"I am sorry to find fault with any generous deed that school-girls dofor one another, but I think Lottie Thorne has come to depend altogethertoo much upon you. It is hardly fair to occupy your few moments ofrecreation when by a little closer application she could solve her ownproblems and translations. This is really necessary for her own good."
"I did not like to be disobliging," Kathie answered, by way of excuse.
"Your generosity is carried almost to a fault at times. You must learnto say 'No' occasionally."
Kathie's soft eyes were downcast. It _would_ be very hard to refuse.
"Lottie has as much time to study her lessons at home as you have, and Iam always ready to explain any difficulty. That is one of my dutiestowards my pupils. I am in a measure answerable for her improvement; andif she slips through upon the assistance of others she will be the loserin the end. You understand what I mean?--that while I do not wish todiscourage a helpful feeling among the girls, I desire that each oneshould study for herself."
"Yes," Kathie said, in a low tone.
"And, my little friend, it is necessary that one should learn to be justas well as generous."
Kathie felt the force of the remark. Uncle Robert had explained thisoccasionally to her in connection with Rob, who was rather fond ofmaking her extensively useful. Then she always hated to say no toothers. It was easier to sacrifice her own pleasures or desires.
To smooth the matter for her, Mrs. Wilder announced that morning thatshe wished each girl's translations to be exclusively her own work, andif there was any great difficulty she would be glad to have them applyto her.
Kathie left the school-room the instant recess began. Lottie was stillpuzzling over her algebra, and, having finished that, she took up herimperfect French, meaning to go in search of her little helper.
Two or three girls were discussing a party.
"I helped Hattie Norman make out her list last night," said BelleHadden. "It is to be very select. Her mother insisted that all theBrookside rabble should not be invited."
Hattie Norman was one of the new-comers. Lottie's heart beat a littlefaster as she wondered whether she would be classed among the rabble.
"The Norman boys are elegant," pursued Belle. "They have all been todancing-school; and there will be two of Hattie's cousins from thecity,--five young gentlemen of one's own."
"You might tell us who the lucky ones are," pleaded a voice.
"That is _my_ secret. The invitations are to be sent out to-day. Iwouldn't miss it for anything. Mamma brought me an elegant tarlatanoverskirt the last time she came from New York. It is just a mass offluted ruffling. I shall wear it over my blue silk, I think; blue is sobecoming to me."
Lottie lingered, talking and listening, and before she imagined themoments were half gone the bell on Mrs. Wilder's table rang.
"O Kathie, just stop an instant!" she cried; but the girls were hurryingin, and somehow Kathie passed on with them. Fifteen minutes after, theFrench class was summoned.
"You must write your translation over for to-morrow, Miss Thorne; andyours, Miss Hadden, is not very perfect; a little revision would improveit."
Much as she disdained the patient governess at home, Belle found hervery useful.
Kathie kept out of Lottie's way. It looked rather mean to her, but itwas better than an open refusal.
The trial came the next day, however. To Lottie's great delight, she wasinvited to the party, and her head had been so full of it that all thelessons suffered. She was casting about in her mind what she could havenew, or what could be altered to look like new.
"O Kathie!" she exclaimed at recess, "just help me out with these fewlines. I made so many blunders yesterday, and I was so busy lastevening."
"You remember what Mrs. Wilder said on Tuesday." Kathie's heart beatrapidly with the effort, and she felt quite inclined to run away like alittle coward.
"What?--O, about asking _her_! but then she never tells one anything.You might, I am sure; or if you will just let me read over yourtranslation."
"It would not be quite fair." Kathie's tone was rather slow andhesitating.
"You needn't be so afraid! I should not copy," was the sharp answer."Just tell me this case."
One answer surely would not be a crime.
"And this line; I can't make beginning nor end of it."
"I am sorry, Lottie; but Mrs. Wilder said the girls were not to helpeach other so much,--that each one was to get her own translation--"
"Well, I mean to get my own; I just asked you a question. You are veryshort and hateful about it!"
"O Lottie, I do not want to disobey Mrs. Wilder! I would help you if Icould--if it was right." Kathie uttered the words hurriedly, as if aftera moment she should not have the courage to say them at all.
"You are setting up for a saint, we all know; and it is very convenientto talk about right when one means to be cross and disobliging! I woulddo anything _I_ could for a friend, I am sure."
Kathie was silent. She knew by experience that Lottie had a habit ofteasing until she accomplished her purpose.
"So you really won't do that little favor?"
"Miss Alston!" called one of the girls; and Kathie was glad to go.
Lottie dropped two or three tears of mortification and disappointment.She had come to depend a great deal upon Kathie, and it was hard doingwithout the help. "She is a hateful little thing, after all," was herinternal comment.
Belle Hadden let her look over her translation "just a moment." Lottiehad a quick eye and a good memory; but the lesson was not so perfectthat it could escape Mrs. Wilder's attention.
>
"Please take a little more pains, Miss Thorne," she said; "I shall haveto mark you for both days."
Coming out of school, they paused, in girl fashion, to say a few lastwords. A rather rusty-looking rockaway wagon passed by, in which weretwo females, one of whom was driving. The other leaned out suddenly,with a cry of joy: "O Miss Kathie! Mother, stop,--do!"
Kathie colored a little. There was the identical purple bonnet and redroses, and Sarah Ann had two long rooster-feathers stuck in her jockeyhat, which certainly were waving in the breeze rather ungracefully; butthe child went straight up to the wagon, thrusting aside the cowardlyshame.
"I'm so glad to see you! Do you go to school there? O my! what a lotof--young ladies!" and Sarah blushed. "There's the one that laughed atmother when we were at the Fair! Do you like her?"
"We are all schoolmates, you know," said Kathie, in a peculiar, butgentle tone. "Are you well? This is quite a surprise!"
"You are a good, sensible gal," remarked Mrs. Strong, with a meaninglook, which showed Kathie that she was not so deficient in perception,after all.
"O yes! How is your uncle? Jim thinks he's just splendid! We did havesuch a nice time that day! I've commenced a long letter to you, andI've read both books aloud. We liked the story so much! and I cried overthe Evangeline,--I couldn't help it. I'm so glad to have the picture!Wasn't it sad?" and the ready tears came into Sarah's eyes.
"It's a real pleasure to meet you"; and Mrs. Strong's face softened to amotherly glow. "I've come down to get a cousin whose husband was killedin Tennessee fightin', and the poor thing's a'most begged her way backwith one little child, so I want her to come up and make a good visitwhile she's gettin' over the worst. Sez I to father, 'We ain't sufferedany from the war, and gettin' good prices all the time for farmin'truck, and it's a pity if we can't make it a little easier for them whohave.' She was such a nice young gal, and used to teach school there atMiddleville; but she's seen sights o' trouble sence. And then Sary Annbegged to come, 'cause her father give her money to buy a new gown."
"And I coaxed mother to go to your house, but she wouldn't," said Sarah,shyly. "I wanted to hear something about you so much! I'm so glad!"
"And so am I," returned Kathie, warmly.
Plain and unrefined as Mrs. Strong was, she had a good, generous heart."We must not keep Miss Kathie standin' here in the cold," she said."Which way you goin'?"
"Straight on to Crosby Street."
"I wish you'd jump in and ride."
"O do!" pleaded Sarah.
The girls had pretty well dispersed. Even Emma Lauriston was walkingslowly down the street. Kathie declined at first, but they urged sostrongly that finally she acceded; and, driving slowly, they had quite anice talk, though Mrs. Strong insisted upon taking her nearly home, astheir shopping was all done.
But the episode had not been suffered to pass unremarked.
"What an elegant turnout!" sneered Belle Hadden. "Some of KathieAlston's country relations, I suppose."
"No," answered Lottie, "it is some people she met at the Fair."
"What horrid taste,--and what coarse, uncouth creatures! Who _is_ KathieAlston, anyhow? A decided _parvenu_, to my thinking. Are they reallyrich,--the Alstons?"
"No, it is Kathie's uncle, Mr. Conover. He made a fortune off inAustralia, I believe. They were poor enough before!" Lottie uttered thisrather spitefully. Kathie's refusal to assist her that noon stillrankled in her mind.
"Did they live here then?"
"O yes! in one of a row of little cottages; and Mrs. Alston had to sewfor a living."
The murder was out. Lottie had a misgiving that this was decidedly meanand treacherous; and yet, she said to herself, it was every word true.Why should the Alstons be ashamed of it? Only it did seem mortifying.
"This is just about what I thought. Kathie Alston hasn't a bit of styleor dignity; and how they _do_ dress her! There was some common linenedging on that ruffle she wore to-day, and I don't believe she ever hasmore than two dresses at the same time. Plebeian blood will tell. HattieNorman asked me about them, but I told her Kathie was only a little chitthat she wouldn't care to invite. I don't suppose they let her go toparties, or that she knows how to dance. What is the inside of theirhouse like?"
"It is very beautiful."
"Tawdry and cheap, I fancy. Such people have no taste. There is a greatdeal in birth. My mother was one of the Van Cortlands, of NewYork,--real old blue blood; and I can always tell commoners. I wishthere could be some distinction here."
"Mrs. Alston is considered very ladylike," said Lottie, with a touch ofremorse.
"By people who are no judges, I suppose. And Mrs. Wilder treats Kathieas if she were the greatest lady in the land! I think we ought to puther down. Where I went to boarding-school we had two parties,--patriciansand plebeians,--and the plebeians were made to keep their places. Thereought to be just such a distinction here. The idea of being intimatewith a girl whose mother has worked for a living! Why, we shouldn'tthink of recognizing our dressmaker in society!"
This sounded quite grand to foolish Lottie. That _she_ was consideredgood enough to go to the Normans' to a party was a great thing. And thenLottie remembered about some great-grandmother of hers, who had belongedto the French nobility, and escaped during one of the revolutions.Didn't that make her blood a little blue? If it would only make theFrench exercises come easy as well!
Lottie scarcely noticed Kathie the next day. It was rainy, and the"patricians" lingered about the stove, discussing the Norman party.Eight or ten played blind-man's-buff in the walk, and had a gay time,bringing the roses to their cheeks.
Two or three of them had bantered Kathie a little about her "friends,"but she accepted it in a very good-natured way.
A day or two after, Emma Lauriston took her drawing over to the windowwhere it was lighter, and still lingered at the table when schoolclosed. Afterward they all fell into a pleasant talk.
"So you have come over to our side," exclaimed Miss Hadden.
"Your side?"--with a look of surprise.
"Yes, the patricians."
Emma Lauriston had always been called proud, and it was well known thatshe was to be quite an heiress by and by, her grandmother having lefther a considerable fortune.
"I think there can be no question about my tastes or sympathies," shesaid, rather haughtily. "Refinement, truth, and honor make mynobility."
"Refinement is absolutely necessary to me," remarked Belle, with anelegant air. "Sometimes I am teased about it, but all kinds ofcoarseness and vulgarity are odious to me, whether it is in dress orbehavior. And loud voices or loud manners are equally my detestation."
Emma did not dissent. One or two thoughts of her own took up herattention, and the rest of the talk seemed to float around her like thewaves of a distant sea.
Kathie remarked the change very quickly, for she was keenly sensitive.That Lottie should be vexed with her she did not so much wonder at, butwhy should the other girls shun her? She certainly had done nothing tothem. And it gave her a pang to see some small circle fall apart whenshe joined it, each girl giving knowing glances to the others. Then,too, she was left out of the plays and talks, and though they didnothing absolutely rude, she seemed to understand that there was a kindof social ostracism, and she was being pushed over to the side she didnot admire,--to the half-dozen rather coarse girls.
Belle was not slow in spreading abroad the report. The Alstons weremushroom aristocracy. Nobody knew _how_ the uncle had made his fortune.People did everything in Australia,--robbed, cheated, even murdered. AndMrs. Alston had actually sewed for a living!
Yet it must be confessed that these very girls fairly envied her thepony phaeton and the elegant house.
"Uncle Robert is coming home," said her mother, one afternoon. "We havereceived a good long letter from him, and some news that will surpriseyou."
Kathie's face was aglow with interest.
"You may read it all yourself. He had not time to write any more thanone letter."
"O mamma! And Miss Jessie is married to--Mr. Meredith! What will Adasay? But O, will he never get well? It would be harder than ever to havehim die. How strange it seems! Dear Miss Jessie!"
The doctors had conquered the fever, but there were some seriouscomplications with his wound, and he was so reduced that it appearedalmost impossible for him to rally. Kathie could see that Uncle Roberthad very little hope.
"Still he is very happy and resigned," the letter said. "Since hismarriage he seems to have not a wish left ungratified. Mr. and Mrs.George Meredith were present, and the lady was considerably surprised bythis unlooked-for termination; still, she was very gracious to Jessie.But the best of all is his perfect peace and trust. A precious hope theSaviour's love has been, and in his mind his whole brief religious lifeseems connected with our darling little Kathie. Every day he speaks ofher. It is true that God has ordained praise out of the mouths ofbabes."
The loving messages brought the tears to Kathie's eyes. And mostdelightful of all was the hope of seeing dear Uncle Robert again. So fortwo days satirical school shafts fell harmless.
Rob had a flying visit first of all, but the joy at Cedarwood wasdelightful. Uncle Robert reached home just at dusk, and Kathie could donothing all the evening but watch him and talk. All the story had to betold over again, and with it many incidents that could not bewritten,--the heroic bravery, the patient endurance and sweet faith.
"Then he is not sorry that he re-enlisted?" Kathie asked, anxiously.
"No, my darling. He thinks that his country needed him, and his last actwas to procure some very valuable information. He would like to live ifit is God's will, but it will be well with him either way."
Uncle Robert held the little hand in his and gave it a fond pressure.Kathie knew what it said, but her heart felt very humble.
The next morning she had to tell him about Sarah Strong.
"And how kind it is in Mrs. Strong to take home this poor cousin!"Kathie said. "I liked her manner of speaking of it so much. But Ithink--"
Kathie made a long pause.
"A remarkable thought it must be!" said her uncle, smiling.
Fred ran in to have his pencil sharpened, and also to announce that oneof the cunning little guinea-pigs was dead. So Kathie's schooldiscomfort passed out of her mind.
But it met her on the threshold again. She was rather early at school,as Uncle Robert wished to drive about the village to do several errands.
Half a dozen girls were discussing tableaux. Kathie joined them with aface full of interest.
"O," she exclaimed, "I do love to hear about tableaux! Are you reallygoing to have them?"
There was a coolness and silence in the small circle.
"It was a little matter of our own that we were discussing," said BelleHadden, loftily.
Kathie turned. She had been in such a happy mood that she was ready foranything. And the two or three experiences in tableaux had left such adelightful memory that she was fain to try it again.
She went to her seat quietly. The voices floated dimly over to her.
"It is mean not to ask her!"
"Girls, I know Mrs. Wilder will notice it, and speak of it."
"You can all do as you like, but if you want Tom, Dick, and Harry, andeverybody in them, I beg leave to be excused," said a rather sharp,haughty voice.
"But Kathie Alston isn't--"
"I would as soon have Mary Carson, or any one of that class. They areall alike."
Mary Carson's father had made a fortune in buying and selling iron. Shewas as coarse as Sarah Strong, without her ambition or good, tenderheart.
Somehow Kathie rebelled at being placed in the same category. She tookup her book and tried to study, but her heart was swelling with a senseof injustice. What had she done to these girls? She was not coarse, orvulgar, or mean.
"Plebeian and patrician," some one said with a laugh, as they dispersedat Mrs. Wilder's entrance.
Kathie heard of the plan through the course of the day. Some of thelarger girls had proposed that they should give a little entertainmentfor the benefit of the wife and children of a Captain Duncan who hadbeen killed in one of the recent battles. Mrs. Duncan was staying atBrookside, quite prostrated by her misfortunes.
Thirteen of the school-girls had been asked. Mrs. Coleman, Mrs. Duncan'swarmest friend, had offered her parlor and dining-room. Sue Coleman washand and glove with Belle Hadden.
Now and then Kathie glanced over to Mary Carson. Vulgarity was writtenin every line of her broad, freckled face. Something besideplainness,--snub nose, wiry brown hair, and the irregular teeth, whichlooked as if they were never brushed,--an air of self-sufficiency, as ifshe considered herself as good as the best. She was continually talkingof what they had at home, and made the most absurd blunders, which Mrs.Wilder patiently corrected. The small satires of the other girls neverpierced the armor of her complacency. "And they think me like her!"Kathie mused, with a sad, sore heart. "I suppose because our fortunecame so suddenly; and yet mamma always was a lady. However, I must bearit patiently."
Uncle Robert, seeing her so grave, fancied that it was on account of Mr.Meredith; and he was so busy that for a few days they had noconfidential talks.
It was very hard to feel so entirely alone. Even Emma Lauriston was athome sick with a sore throat.
Kathie's Soldiers Page 10