Constance Smedley and Pearl Humphrey

“ MILLIE sat on the edge of Nelly's bed with its owner, and conversation was free and constant. Millie was bent on persuading Nelly to go with her to see some friends in Putney on the next afternoon.
“They're delightful people,” she urged. “The eldest girl sings; and the father is very clever, too.”
These vague inducements did not shake Nelly's resolution to stay with Mrs. Martin and help her to receive any casual Sunday callers.
“The fact is,” she said, in answer to further entreaties, “I think some one may come to-morrow; and I would rather be at home.” ”

“ Nelly glanced round the table. The men were manfully plodding through theirs, but all the women were more or less playing with it, and were confining themselves to bread and the potatoes, which were fortunately cooked as only dishes meant for kitchen consumption are usually cooked. A fitful silence prevailed, broken only by polite voices referring to the ruins they had seen, or the pretty country. Mrs. Gerney saw Nelly's eyes fill with tears of vexation and embarrassment, and she gripped her knife and fork with the air of a grenadier. ”

“ Martin knew that things seen are mightier than things heard.
“Millie went back to her room after lunch without waiting for coffee. I cannot imagine why she should come to stay with me, and then immure herself in her bedroom for a whole day,” volunteered Mrs. Martin placidly.
“She may be making things,” rejoined Nelly, a little vaguely. “She is the kind of girl who loves sewing or any useful work. She is just like a Mrs. Gaskell girl, so quiet and dutiful, and full of thought for others. Did you see how she collected the plates for Spratt at luncheon? ”

“ Nelly's explanations were scarcely over when Millie came in, full of interest, and without a trace of headache.
“How did it go off?” she asked eagerly.
“It! He went off!” said Nelly. “Never, never will I tell you anything again!”
Five minutes later Mrs. Martin joined their spirited conversation with a neat summary, addressed to Millie, but containing more than one point for Nelly's consideration.
“It is well to remember,” she said, “that you are much too young to play fate. Love and marriage are difficult subjects; leave their management to your elders. ”

“ Martin found herself reflecting that she had told Nelly's mother it would be “a pleasure” to chaperon her daughter. She glanced at her niece, and had a wild vision of what might happen if she let her go to Hurlingham with her theories unshaken. Then she mustered her forces together for pointed speech.
“Then you would be behaving like a shop-girl,” she answered. “Their code of manners differs from ours in more points than one, and that is one of them. Speaking to any unknown man, especially to a cad, would be the most terrible thing you could possibly do in any circumstances.” ”

“ Mrs. Gerney, an old friend of Mrs. Martin, but very slightly known to Nelly, explained that, with their visitors (here she interpolated some mystic phrases which might have been introductions) they had driven over to see the ruins of the castle, and had meant to descend on Mrs. Martin and ask for some lunch, knowing that she kept open house. They had no idea she was away, and could not dream of staying and putting Nelly out.
To this, of course, Nelly demurred. They really must stay; it would give her so much pleasure; and Mrs. Martin would never forgive her if she let them go away. ”

“ Martin's beautifully dressed head inclined toward her niece with a flattering air of attention to valuable remarks
“That would be charming,” she replied. “Experience would no longer be essential to the right conduct of life.”
“Yes. That's just what I think,” said Nelly, warming toward so promising a pupil. “So much nonsense is talked about experience. People say that one can't profit except by one's own. It's ridiculous. I am starting out with no practical experience at all; but I am just as well equipped as any so-called woman of the world.” ”

“ By the fortune of war, however, and the extraordinary distribution of the cards, Nelly held nothing in her hand but hearts and some good spades, and not even her own bad play could prevent her and the major from romping in with five to the good. This, totaled up, just evened the score, and fanned into intense dislike the brooding resentment of Lady Faljohnson and Mrs. Kex. Nelly's ingenuous triumph was as oil on the flame.
“So jolly it being the last hand! It is so much more comfortable to leave off even,” she said gaily. “Taking money is so horrid. ”

“ Martin,” explained Millie, “I saw this pretty frock hanging over a chair just outside your door last night. I had heard you say it could not be mended, but I thought I saw how it could be done, so I took it to my room. I got up early this morning, and I have just finished it. I don't think it shows much.”
It was an exquisite piece of sewing, as even Elise would have had to admit had she been asked. Mrs. Martin could not find it in her heart to say she had given the dress away. ”

“ Martin lowered her sunshade and waited. By the beatific expression that was growing on Nelly's face, she felt sure that the supreme opportunity was coming.
It came. “It is nonsense to imagine that it is difficult to get on with men. One has only to be natural. I was just thinking of Milly Peyton, who was simply terrified at the idea of coming out and being left stranded with a photograph book. If any one is left like that, it must be the girl's fault. ”

“ It's like Freemasonry or the Diplomatic; it has a secret language, and it brings people together, or separates them,” he added, in a parenthesis. “But it gives you a certain position, you know, if you can talk about the new Queen call, and that kind of thing, when the ordinary bridge-player has never heard of it.”
“All that may be very true,” observed Nelly, “but people do take it so fearfully seriously. There's no fun where they are all bridge-ites. After all, a game is but a game.”
“I should like to hear you tell that to old Lady Faljohnson,” rejoined the subaltern. ”

“ Martin pulled herself together for a convincing array of evidence, though she heartily wished that Nelly could be left to gloat over her little victory.
“First, because the extreme verdancy of your views attracted the men in your immediate neighborhood. Then, a little group collected round some one new always attracts the other men. Vanity makes every man like to be one of the group where the best entertainment is going on. Also, woman-hunting is a form of shikar, which no sportsman can resist, when he sees others joining in it. ”

“ Martin. “Diplomacy and dining-out are sister arts. I suppose he comes here because he likes the people he meets.” A smile came to her lips as she looked at Nelly's profile, bent meditatively toward the chocolates. ”

“ If one is the hostess, it is like making the guests pay for their board and lodging; and if one is the guest, it is like plundering the hostess. I suppose the nicest way is to play for the fun of the game. I wish those people who talk about bridge being a strain on the temper, could see us! ”

“ The subaltern telegraphed encouragement. The major and Nelly were now losing consistently and thoroughly, and the atmosphere was distinctly electric.
“Is it true,” said Nelly, with genuine thoughtlessness, and, indeed, with the object of starting an interesting subject which might dispel the somewhat constrained silence, “that girls are lured by experienced players to join them, and then are fleeced? One hears such ridiculous stories about hostesses not letting girls know what stakes they are playing for.” ”

“ What you ought to have done was to make them feel that they were not putting you out at all, but that you were all having an impromptu picnic, and you were enjoying it. Simplicity is a trump-card in an emergency. But I am sure you did your best, and Mrs. Gerney is an old friend, and will understand. Now, as you say there is some Burgundy left, I will have a glass, and then go and rest till dinner-time.”
Nelly took up the wine to her aunt's room, and was just coming away when she was struck by Mrs. Martin's face as she took a sip and then set down the glass. ”

“ One can always try and be a helpful influence everywhere.” She beamed affectionately at Millie; and Mrs. Martin, without further speech, sat down to mourn for the sweet silk frock with which it had been necessary to solace Elise.
Several visitors came in later, bringing a cold breath of autumn in with them, for the afternoon had turned chilly. Spratt, the venerable and venerated butler, entering with the tea-tray, beheld Nelly on her knees, vigorously blowing up a newly lighted fire, while Millie staggered across the room with a heavy table, which she placed ready for the tray by Mrs. ”

“ For instance, I, who have planned out exactly how to manage my behavior, must be better off than a girl like Mouse, who plunges into things headlong.”
Mouse was another niece who was sharing Mrs. Martin's ægis.
“Mouse is very popular,” said her aunt, in a non-committal tone.
“But she is so often confused and loses her self-possession,” persisted Nelly. ”

“ Mrs. Martin, herself one of the so-called, had encouraged the conversation to the point when it seemed ripe for discussion. She never spoiled an argument by refuting it before it had reached the stage when it was worthy of her steel. Some people called this “turning round on you.”
“It is possible, however,” she observed, gazing at the silver buttons on her coachman's coat, “that a person might be told all about how strawberries grow, what they look like, and how they taste ”

“ At half-past one, somewhat rumpled after a race with a fox-terrier, in which he had had the courtesy to circle round and round her by way of imposing on himself a handicap, she sat down to a meal of the ascetic kind, which always results from domestic upheavals. ”

“ He and I get on so splendidly together, and he is so funny. Have you noticed what a lot we seem to have seen of him lately?”
“As one of the most popular men of the day, he is naturally pleasant,” returned Mrs. ”

“ THE wild bit of Berkshire common was purple with heather, and lay under a blazing September noon, such as often results from a chilly, gray morning. The clatter of knives and forks and the popping of corks betokened a shooting-picnic. Mrs. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1941, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 82 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”