Aunt Caroline

“ Strange people came to Aunt Edith's house. Dark, foreign-looking men ate meals there at unusual hours; once Caroline had seen with her own eyes a plump, yellow German fall suddenly on his knees at Aunt Edith's feet, as a hand-organ struck up its brassy music under the window, and burst into passionate singing, waving a whisk-broom in the air and offering it to Aunt Edith with the most extraordinary force of manner. ”

“ Because of the fact that I am a spinster it has not been possible for me to maintain the family tradition. But for you, William—why, the whole world of society is open to you. It is waiting for you."
Aunt Caroline clasped her hands in a spell of ecstasy.
"But, my dear aunt, I don't know anybody in society," groaned Bill.
"A Marshall can go anywhere," she answered proudly.
"But I don't want to. I'm not fit for it. I'd feel like a jay. I can't dance, Aunt Caroline, I can't talk, I can't doll up—hang it! Look at the size of me. I tell you I'm too big for society. ”

“ Aunt Caroline, in spite of her advanced years, is worth “a good many dead ones” at present, and in the opinion of her oldest friend her manner has more amenity. Perhaps it is that the influence of youth has been a good one in her life. ”

“ And, until then, I recommend strict seclusion and no nursing. Nursing might well be fatal. Stick to Li Ho. He is your only chance.
Your Aunt Caroline sends her love. (I told her I was writing you directions for further treatment) . She feels the deprivation of your letters keenly. She can't see why the writing of a nice, chatty letter to one's only living Aunt should prove an undue drain upon nervous energy. Life has taught her not to expect consideration from relatives, but it does seem hard that her only sister's boy should treat her as if she were the scarlet fever. ”

“ I will give you good notice, and rely on you to ensure me a large audience.
"Your affectionate aunt, "CAROLINE TEMPLETON."
"Excellent Aunt Caroline!" exclaimed Eves. "But your 'arduous work,' Bobby. My hat!"
"I work jolly hard."
"The labour we delight in don't show on our reports, old man. Anyway, you've got a tenner. Better an aunt in England than a pater in India. The old boy's all right, of course; I don't blame him, but that old mummy of a solicitor who manages things here. He'll pay Mother Trenchard's weekly bills on the nail, but he won't send me another penny till next quarter day ”

“ John was evidently getting restive, and beginning to think that one could earn a legacy too dear. It was only Christine who kept him from rebellion. She found pleasure, as well as pain, in being a martyr to Son and Heir; and she bore with Aunt Caroline with wonderful patience. "She would do anything for money," was Aunt Caroline's way of looking at it. ”

“ He had no idea that the Kid would score anything that resembled a triumph. But now it was evident to him that in certain phases of life he had never sufficiently plumbed the innocence of his maiden aunt.
"He seems to interest you," he ventured, with a view to exploration.
"Strength and endurance are qualities always to be admired in a man," said Aunt Caroline, as glibly as if it came out of a book. "I had never dreamed that art developed them. Bishop, were you aware of it?" ”

“ Aunt Caroline, who had given the dress to Carry three years before, was, an old lady of eighty, the aunt of Carry's father. She had once possessed a snug farm but in an evil hour she had been persuaded to deed it to her nephew, Edward Curry, whom she had brought up. Poor Aunt Caroline had lived to regret this step, for everyone in Enderby knew that Edward Curry and his wife had repaid her with ingratitude and greed. ”

“ She has turned. She is coming this way."
"Then we must take our chance." The professor rose briskly. "Never allow the enemy to attack. Come on. But keep behind me while I draw her fire."
Aunt Caroline advanced in full formation.
"Benis. Ben—nis!" she called piercingly. "He can't be very far away," she declared over her shoulder. "I have a feeling—Benis!"
"Who calls so loud?" quoted the professor innocently, appearing with startling suddenness from behind the boulder. "Why!" in amazed recognition. "It is Aunt Caroline!"
"It is." Aunt Caroline corroborated grimly. ”

“ When Muffin arrived in triumph, wearing her wonderful adventures like a heroine in a romance, Aunt Caroline was in her boudoir. In a former and more warlike epoch it had been the armory, but it was now transformed by the art of Waring and Maple into a most comfortable sanctuary where an old dévote could tell her beads. Not that the occupant of the boudoir was thus engaged, when Miss Perry led her sister proudly by the hand, canary and all, into the presence of her august and formidable relation.
“Aunt Caroline, this is Muffin!” announced that Featherbrain, breathlessly. “Isn’t she a sweet?” ”

“ The mother must be a very aged woman now."
"Yes," the little girl answered. "Poor Barnes! Aunt Caroline used to speak so sharply to her sometimes—I heard her—but that is her way, I suppose."
"It used to be," Mrs. Pringle admitted with a sigh, "and, from what you tell me, I imagine she has not altered much these last ten years."
"I don't think she's a bit happy," Peggy said, shaking her golden head. "That seems very sad, doesn't it? Barnes told the servants at Lower Brimley that Aunt Caroline has no friends, because she always thinks people who are nice to her want her money." ”

“ On her aunt's cushion she pinned a note—she believed runaway heroines always did so—explaining the situation.
"Dear Aunt Caroline," she had written, "I am going away to some people I know. You will never find me. I cannot go to Virginia. If my father ever comes back I will hear of it, and then I will come home. Please take good care of Julius, for the sake of your affectionate niece,
"Elizabeth Herrick. ”

“ Even a bad name is better than none."
"Aunt Caroline, you're crazy!"
"I was never more sane in my life. William. The poor child must marry him. I'm sorry, of course; but it is better than not marrying him at all."
"Marry Pete Stearns?" Bill resembled a large and ferocious animal, perhaps a lion. "Marry him? Not in a million years will she marry him!"
Aunt Caroline studied her nephew in astonishment. ”

“ The grandmother had been a great invalid before she lost the use of her limbs, and the great-aunt a formidable person before she lost that of her mind, while Aunt Caroline from her youth upward had developed a great distaste for the society of men, even when viewed as objects of philanthropy. ”

“ This was bewildering. "Just—er—what did he say about his aims, Aunt Caroline?"
"He explained about his theological studies and how he has been earning his way through college, doing work as a valet. It was kind of you, William, to give him employment."
Bill was making the motions of swallowing. Theological studies! Why——
"He takes such a deep interest in the heathen peoples," Aunt Caroline was saying. "While I hate to see a young man bury himself away from civilization, it shows very high Christian principles. There have to be missionaries in the world, of course. ”

“ Uncle George was generous but generous by West Park standards and by Aunt Caroline’s expenditures, and Aunt Caroline still considered fifty dollars a scandalous price for a suit or cloak. Horatia never grumbled about money or about clothes. This morning she was dressed for the City and her satin blouse and slim tailored suit set off her young health perfectly. Even her aunt and uncle were conscious of fresh energy at the breakfast table. ”

“ It is nice to think He can hear me if nobody else can. O God—Father’s God—please work a miracle and save my life, because I don’t think I’m fit to die yet. Excuse my not being on my knees—You can see I can’t move. And if I die please don’t let Aunt Elizabeth find my letter-bills ever. Please let Aunt Laura find them. And please don’t let Caroline move out the wardrobe when she house-cleans because then she would find my Jimmy-book and read what I wrote about her. Please forgive all my sins, especially not being grateful enough and cutting a bang, and please don’t let Father be very far away. ”

“ Muffin opened solemn and round eyes of wonder upon Aunt Caroline.
“Oh, but,” said she, “if I called Jim Mr. Lascelles he would pull my hair.”
“In that case,” said Aunt Caroline, “you would do well to terminate the acquaintance.”
“But he saved me from falling down the precipice,” [339] said Muffin, “and I am going to write to dearest papa about it.”
“Caroline,” said Cheriton, “a truce to Whig exclusiveness. Behave like a human being, and ask the young fellow to dinner. Ask his mother also. I am told she is a singularly agreeable woman.” ”

“ The alley is so interesting and the girls are so pleasant, though they do have rather dirty faces sometimes. But the boys—"
"Spare us any further details, I beg of you," said her aunt. "Your tastes must be extremely low, Elizabeth."
"Well, I like to have a few people to play with. You know I have only Julius Cæsar, and he won't always play. But I was going to ask you something about the Brady family, Aunt Caroline. Why do we have such lots and lots of money and they none at all?" ”

“ But Aunt Anne only smiled her dim cold smile, gave her cold hand into the girl's warm one and said, "Good afternoon, Caroline. I hope your father and mother are well." "They're dears, you know," Caroline said to Maggie; "I do admire your Aunt Anne; she keeps to herself so. I wish I could keep to myself, but I never was able to. Poor mother used to say when I was quite little, 'You'll only make yourself cheap, Carrie, if you go on like that. Don't make yourself cheap, dear.' But what I say is, one's only young once and the people who don't want one needn't have one." ”

“ Caroline had been silly for nothing. She was to have another month of happiness in beautiful places with Cousin Penelope and Aunt Eunice, and if the future could be judged by the past, probably in all that blissful month Jacqueline’s Aunt Edith wouldn’t write again! Caroline began to hum to herself, like a drenched bee when the sun comes out, while she put on her sand-colored socks and chose a fresh ribbon for her hair.
But Caroline at that moment (if you except Jenny, who was buttering hot little tea-biscuits in the kitchen) was the only tranquil person in Cousin Marcia Vintner’s cottage. ”

“ He lives like a gentleman of large means."
"I don't attach much importance to wealth, aunt. Surely, in a husband, other things are more important."
"You wouldn't marry a penniless lover?"
"Why not, if I respected and loved him?"
"My dear Grace, you alarm me. I never supposed you entertained such quixotic notions. Some day we may have you eloping with a dry-goods clerk, or a poverty-stricken artist, or——"
"Don't borrow trouble, Aunt Caroline," said the young lady, with a merry laugh. "You don't get rid of me so easily. ”

“ I have been so vexed this afternoon, Caroline," resumed Sara, turning to a different subject. "My aunt has told me finally that she will not have Dick and Leo up for their holidays."
Caroline shrugged her pretty shoulders; very much as if Dick and Leo and their holidays were perfectly indifferent to her. "I don't think I should, in Aunt Bettina's place. Boys are dreadfully troublesome animals; and now that--that poor Uncle Richard is not here to keep them in order--" another shrug finished the sentence. ”

“ Caroline, in her evening dress, has long put off the mourning for her good uncle, her more than father, dead though he has been but four months yet; but she is today a little ashamed of her haste, and she has assumed these black ribbons before these Hallingham friends and her aunt Bettina, to make believe that she still wears it. Her violet eyes are intensely bright, and her cheeks glow with their sweetest and softest carmine. Sara wears a black crape robe, a little edging of white net only on its low body and sleeves, and she wears no ornament, except the jet beads on her neck and arms. ”

“ Aunt Caroline looked haughty, Aunt Virginia despondent. Charlotte had not, however, guessed the cause until she was summoned into the library and the question put to her by Mrs. Millard, "Did you go to the Lyles' in defiance of my express wishes, Charlotte?"
"I—"
"Yes or no, if you please."
"Yes," Charlotte answered, "but—"
"I want no explanations. There can be none." [99]
"But, Aunt Caroline, you don't understand—"
"You are the one who seems not to understand," again Mrs. Millard interrupted. "You have deliberately disobeyed. I see you are not to be trusted. ”

“ What a difference a touch makes, to be sure.” And she takes off her gloves and attacks the morning room, setting an ornament here and another there, and drawing back for the effect. “Such a bachelor's hall as you are keeping!”
“We still have Willis, Caroline,” remonstrates my grandfather, gravely. “I have no fault to find with her housekeeping.”
“Of course not, father; men never notice,” Aunt Caroline replies in an aggrieved tone. And when Willis herself comes in, auguring no good from this visit, my aunt gives her the tips of her fingers. ”

“ Jean agreed. “But then she isn’t the least bit like Aunt Caroline in other ways, and I’m sure that is a comfort. I can see why she didn’t plan to go and live with her, can’t you? Aunt Caroline would simply crush her!”
“She would sit down on her, all right; you can bet your life on that. If it weren’t for having her around all the time spoiling everything, a fellow could be almost glad that she is to have mother, instead of a woman like Aunt Caroline; mother will be lovely to her.”
Jean sighed. “Yes, and so will Ray. ”

“ Miss Herrick rose to her feet, and even Miss Rebecca dropped her book.
"She is certainly ill. Rebecca, ring the bell for James to go for the doctor."
"I tell you I am not ill, Aunt Caroline," cried Elizabeth. "Val came and said that he wanted to hide, and that he must hide in that room. I got the key from your desk—you left your desk unlocked—and I let him into the room. It was very wrong, Aunt Caroline. I know it was wrong. And I am so sorry. That is the reason I am telling you, because I ought not to have done it. If you don't believe that he is here, come and see." ”