Lillian Elizabeth Roy

“ Then a suite of furniture was placed upon the dais and the auctioneer began to point out its especial claims to beauty.
“Girls, is anything wrong with that furniture? Who would use it in a home, and what style of house does it belong in?” said Mr. Fabian.
Again Dodo was the first with her criticism. “Who wants doleful furniture, in a bed-room, to make you weep just as you lose consciousness in sleep? One needs cheerful objects to close one’s eyes upon, and also to bid you good-morning when you wake up.” ”

“ When you understand your ground well, and can reckon on what might hold or what might give way, you feel easier. But on the Alps where all is new and strange to me, I wasn’t sure of this cliff being able to resist the impact.”
“Then it was very dangerous for us, was it?” gasped Mrs. Alexander, paling under the rouge on her face.
“Danger! Oh no—no more than jumpin’ off that precipice for a lark!” laughed Mr. Alexander, knocking the half-smoked ashes from his old pipe, and tucking the black friend away in his pocket. ”

“ I can tell the moment I see a young man with a title. That one who calls himself Basil Traviston, is really a Marquis of France. He came into the title a few weeks ago, but he doesn’t seem to fuss about it any. And his cousin Alan Everard is the son of Count Chalmys. That is why they know him so well.”
“The Count’s son?” gasped Nancy Fabian, unbelievingly.
“Yes, and they were all in Paris together and had planned to join each other again at Venice. But they will meet at Chalmys Palace sooner than they had intended,” explained Mrs. Alexander. ”

“ And a very fine young man we think him, too,” returned Lady Osgood. 47
“He is not at home, is he?” asked Mrs. Alexander.
“He is dining with his latest love, this evening,” laughed Angela. “He has a new one every other week, but this one has lasted since Nancy refused him some time ago.”
“Refused him! Nancy Fabian refused Sir James’s son,” gasped the unbelieving hunter for a title.
The girls laughed, and Nancy shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. Mrs. Alexander stared from her to each one about the table, as if the truth of the statement would not sink into her mind. ”

“ She smiled politely at Eleanor and said: “So glad to meet you.”
“And Dodo being my only child, Miss Maynard, she is well worth knowing. She will inherit the million her father made,” added Mrs. Alexander.
Eleanor smiled cynically. “I’m sorry for you, Dodo. It spoils one’s life to be reminded of how much one has to live up to, when one is young and only wants to be carefree and happy.”
“Oh, do you feel that way, too! I thought it was only me who was queer. Ma says other girls would give their heads to be in my place,” exclaimed the girl, anxiously. ”

“ I noticed how sporty the car was, before I saw either of you,” said Mrs. Alexander.
“That’s just it. When Basil and I work, we have to work like Trojans. But when we finish a contract we take life easy until the next job comes up.”
“Oh, you work? I wouldn’t have said so. What sort of contract work do you do?” asked Mrs. Alexander. The pedestal she had used for her two new heroes, seemed shaking dangerously.
Everard laughed. “Some people laugh at what we call work, but they don’t realize that playing is the hardest kind of work. ”

“ Why don’t you come and have a look at it, Polly?” replied Dodo.
When she was introduced to the strange girl, Dodo wondered how she came to join their party but she said nothing. At last, Polly consented to go and take a peep at the interior of the palace, but Miss Van Buren preferred to remain on the bench with Mr. Fabian, while Mr. Alexander escorted the ladies.
“That homely little man is wonderful, isn’t he?” asked Miss Van Buren, in a humble little voice, when Mr. Fabian and she were quite alone.
“We think so. In fact, we like him so well that we fail to notice any shortcomings.” ”

“ Fabian.
Everything had been attended to in London, and the girls took a farewell look at the city as they sped away to Dover where they expected to take the Channel Boat for Havre.
Much has been said about the rough crossing of this little strip of water, but the girls found it as quiet as a mill-pond, and the steamer skimmed the waves like a sea-gull. The ride in the dusty train, from Havre to Paris, was the most unpleasant part of the trip. But upon leaving the train at Paris, they saw Dodo and her father anxiously scanning the faces that passed by. ”

“ Even a flower from my friends is more than a jewel from someone who doesn’t mean it,” said Ruth.
“I know that, Ruth, and that’s why I want to give you something you’ll like. You are true blue, and you deserve all the joy one can give you.”
“It’s awfully good of you, Dodo, to say that,” smiled Ruth, although tears of pleasure welled up in her eyes.
The other girls had overheard the conversation and now they chimed in. “Dodo’s right, Ruth. You’re just fine!”
Later in the afternoon, Jimmy stopped his car at a tiny farmhouse with the spoken intention of getting a drink of water. ”

“ The moment they were out of hearing, Eleanor said impressively to Dodo: “Don’t you ever give in to that idea of marrying a foreigner! Your mother will soon get over it if you just keep on making her see it’s no use. If you pretend to take up some study like we are doing, she will see you mean business.” 21
“That’s good advice, and I sure will follow it,” declared the eager girl.
“And Nolla and I will help along all we can,” promised Polly.
“Even if you have to make your mother believe you are in love with Paul Stewart and won’t marry anyone else—then do it!” ”

“ Alexander.
“No, I think your idea of interior decorators is that any ‘paint-slinger or tack-driver’ is a professional. Whereas I see that that is the very error necessary to be reversed by us, before the public recognises the value of genuine decorators. In France and other European countries, an interior decorator has to have a certificate. And that is what we hope to do in the United States—put the real ones through a course of studies and have them examined and a diploma given, before one can claim title to being a decorator.” Eleanor spoke with emphasis and feeling. ”

“ The candy and tokens were tangible delights.
What opened Jimmy’s “love-eyes” to Eleanor’s apparent value was her remark about butterfly lovers.
“I never could stand a man who buzzed about from one blossom to another like a butterfly,” commented Eleanor.
“Nor I. But then, you and I, Nolla, always knew real men,” added Polly.
“If other girls had the advantages we western girls have, of knowing great big heroes of the plains, they’d soon sicken of society idiots,” declared Dodo.
Ruth and Nancy were the audience to these remarks, but Angela was having a tête-à-tête with Mrs. Alexander. ”

“ When Ma ordered me to come to Europe with her to stock up with fine dresses and then try to make a match for me with some man with a title, I came, but goodness knows! I just hate the idea.”
“Oh, Dodo! You’ll break my heart, if you talk like that!” cried Mrs. Alexander, trying to impress the two other girls with her maternal sorrow.
“Nolla! I almost forgot what I came for,” laughed Polly, to change the subject. “Prof. says for you to come to the salon where they have used Adams period and Louis XIV furniture in the same room. He wants to show us a bad example of decoration.” ”

“ Did you tell ’em, Dodo?” said her father.
“Yes, Pa, and the girls are going to help me cure Ma of that fad.”
“That’s the best news, yet! I hope you kin do it!” said he, slapping his knee. “You must be real gals, too, like mine, here.”
Polly laughed, and Eleanor said: “We like to ride and hike, and have good times, but we’re not out hunting for husbands. If we ever reach that place where we want to marry, we’ll take a man we know by heart, and not one who is buying a doll made up at a hair-dresser and beauty-doctor’s.” ”

“ Alexander ever met him. Had it not been for the heavy debts of his Italian Estate, he would never have delayed his proposal. Even as it was, he found happiness to be more important in life than wealth and a palace.
The young countess was very pretty and promised to be a welcome addition to the group of young folks. Polly, Eleanor and Dodo liked her immensely, from the moment they saw her charming smile as she acknowledged the introductions. Evidently she was very glad to find a number of young Americans of her own age with whom she could associate on the trip across the Atlantic. ”

“ Fabian eased his mind by saying: “Now you can meet the Ashbys, Mr. Alexander. Miss Dodo, this is Mrs. Ashby, and Ruth, and Mr. Ashby. And this is a new friend, Mr. Ashby, but an old acquaintance of Polly and Eleanor’s from Denver—Mr. Alexander and Miss Dodo.”
The introductions over, Mr. Ashby quickly smoothed the way for the nervous little man from the west; but Dodo wondered why her mother had the impression that these people were inferior because they were in business in New York. She had never met any one more refined, or who showed truer gentility than these people. ”

“ Mrs. Alexander instantly pushed herself forward and said: “Oh, how very kind of you to include us in your party! I really can’t accept a seat in the car if anyone else must be crowded.”
Dodo looked like a thunder-cloud and pulled at her mother’s arm, but Mr. Alexander spoke out bluntly.
“I ain’t invited to nobody’s house, so I’m going on to London to get that car you told me about. Dodo can come with me.” 36
His spouse instantly silenced him with a glowering look, and Angela hoped to smooth matters out by what she now said. ”

“ I never had much use for make-up, but I know society condones the use of it all. So I’m glad to find a real girl who dislikes it as much as Polly and I do.”
“There now, Ma! And I bet these girls will look at your pet hobby much the same as I do.” Then Dodo turned to Eleanor and added: “Ma’s bound to palm me off on some little stick of a nobleman in Europe, just to brag about my name with a handle to it. But I say I don’t want a husband—especially a foreign one. If I have to marry, let me choose a westerner! ”

“ I’m going to marry a profession, just as Polly and Eleanor are, and we three are going to be the most famous decorators in the world.”
“And I am goin’ to build a swell mansion in New York and turn the contract for fixin’s, over to these three partners!” declared little Mr. Alexander.
That trip across the Atlantic was a merry one for the girls, for the “Marquis” and his friend, aided by the Count and the young Countess, were a never failing source of entertainment for all. They mimicked and acted, whenever occasion offered, so that there was no time for dull care or monotony. ”

“ Having seen the best examples of old furniture on exhibition in the Museum, Mr. Fabian prepared to go. As they walked quietly through the corridor to the main entrance, he said impressively: “I consider you girls have seen some of the best products to be found in the world today. The results of many ideals and hard work.
“You must know, that a good ideal thought plans a perfect chair or table; and that thought 133 eventually expresses itself in the object it sees in mind. If the object is a thing of beauty and a joy forever, it elevates the whole world just that much. ”

“ If it falls short of the artist’s ideals and hopes, he must do it over again, sooner or later, to reach the perfect model in mind. Thus he expresses God (good) in his ideals. If he refuses to try again to perfect his work, he knows he has failed utterly and he has nothing but the result of lowering his ideal—failure and deformity.”
As he ceased speaking, Mr. Fabian found the girls were intensely interested in his little lecture, and he smiled as Polly cried: “Oh, tell us some more along that line, please!” ”

“ Alexander shouted back at them: “This air is free, and so is the earth! Foller what you like, as long as you don’t run us down and make us stop for another over-haulin’ of the cars.”
The young men laughed and thanked the sarcastic little man, but the girls smiled as they wondered if this change in route—or minds of the two young men—was caused by seeing a number of pretty misses in the touring car?
The day was far spent when the roadster was in a shape to continue the tour, and Turin was many a mile away. ”