Cissy

“ Something in the tone made Cissy feel ridiculous. She hesitated, hating to meet the other woman’s look. She raised her voice. “I’m sure I don’t see why not!”
“Her skirts held high above her pretty, preposterous shoes”
Florence saw Longacre turn as Cissy flounced through the hedge; then she went quickly up the path without looking back. Her eyes took in the sudden flight of a linnet out of a cypress bough, the flickering shadows of the fennel blurring the walk, and the white glass-room door at the end. Her ears heard a hurrying tread behind her. ”

“ There must be some mistake."
"There is treachery somewhere. Oh, why did I let her go, poor child?" cried Cissy, with a sudden awful presentiment of evil.
He sank into a chair, trembling with dread.
"Tell me quickly what you mean—give me every clew you can—for I must go in search of her," he exclaimed, anxiously.
And Cissy told him about the man, Jem Rhodes, and the note, and the elegant sleigh in which Geraldine had gone away so blithely, her rosy face radiant with joy, thinking to meet her lover. ”

“ Cissy, Mary, never re-appeared with him; he was always either alone or accompanied only by some gentleman who was lost in the blaze of his glory. There was another sense, however—and indeed there was more than one—in which she mostly found herself counting in the splendid creature with whom she had originally connected him. He addressed this correspondent neither as Mary nor as Cissy; but the girl was sure of whom it was, in Eaten Square, that he was perpetually wiring to—and all so irreproachably!—as Lady Bradeen. ”

“ Cissy was not able to answer for the sobs that choked her voice, and Dorothy smoothed her hair and petted her.
“Nay, grieve not thus, sweet heart,” she said.
“Oh no, it is so wicked of me!” sobbed poor Cissy. “I thought I should have been so glad for Father: and I can only think of me and the children. We’ve got no father now!”
“Nay, my dear heart, thou hast as much as ever thou hadst. He is only gone upstairs and left you down. He isn’t dead, little Cissy: he’s alive in a way he never was before, and he shall live for ever and ever.” ”

“ In the shy touch of hands that thrill and tremble.
In looks and lips that can no more dissemble—
Thus doth Love speak!"
"Oh, Cissy, I want you to promise me to come in and see him to-night," pleaded Geraldine, humbly. "I am sure you will be charmed with him, he is so good and so handsome."
"So you said of Mr. Standish," reminded Cissy.
Geraldine blushed, but answered, warmly:
"I know I did; but—Mr. Hawthorne is nicer than the actor—oh, ever so much nicer! And"—slyly—"you will like him, Cissy, because he is as much opposed to my going on the stage as you are." ”

“ Now, when she was desired to say her prayers, as a prelude to going to bed, Cissy’s lip quivered, and her eyes filled with tears.
“Why, little maid, what ails thee?” asked Rose.
“It’s Father,” said Cissy, in an unsteady voice. “I don’t know however Father will manage without me. He’ll have to dress his own supper. I only hope he’ll leave the dish for me to wash when I get home. No body never put Father and me asunder afore!”
“Little maid,” answered Elizabeth, “Mistress Wade meant to save thee the long walk home.” ”

“ So why should we become enemies for the sake of a worthless woman?"
How she shivered with shame under the stinging contempt of his tones, for some womanhood lurked in her still, and she knew that she was not quite so black as she was painted.
But as she quailed before his righteous wrath, Cissy came generously to the rescue, her gray eyes dark with emotion, her cheeks suffused with blushes.
"Hush! do not utterly crush her with your scorn!" she cried. "Clifford Standish lied to you, the perjured villain! She did not refuse to marry him. ”

“ I despise real stage people! They're most always shabby sheep, and their acquaintance no credit," returned Cissy, rudely, giving such mortal offense by the taunt that Geraldine did not speak another word to her on the way home.
They had two small rooms, and Cissy hastened to one to prepare their simple tea, so as to get ready for the theatre, but Geraldine hurried to beautify herself for her caller, putting on her best gown, a garnet cashmere, with velvet trimmings, and drawing her wealth of golden brown locks into the classic Psyche knot. ”

“ This fact, and a certain quick animation that sprang to the blue eyes of the master of the house as the rose-sprigged frock and long curls appeared at the doorway, showed that Cissy was clearly the favorite pupil.
Elisha Braggs was a man of middle age, with a figure somewhat rounded by the adipose curves of a comfortable life, and an air of fastidiousness which was, however, occasionally at variance with what seemed to be his original condition. He greeted Cissy with a certain nervous overconsciousness of his duties as host and teacher, and then plunged abruptly into the lesson. ”

“ Aunt Cissy only has a mean little allowance from her husband—nothing like enough to satisfy her desire for the beautiful. You can't surround yourself with old oak and old silver and china and curios, and wear the whitest diamonds and the finest lace on two hundred a year. Oh, Aunt Cissy's very rich indeed—or she would be if she didn't waste so much money on knick-knacks and lumber!"
More than once Laline asked herself if she was not tacitly condoning a fraud by accepting her position in the establishment. ”

“ So what you must do for all you're worth," said Cissy, "is to care now more than ever. You must keep him from us, because we're not good enough and you are; you must act in the sense of what you feel, and must feel exactly as you've a right to—for, as I say, I know, I know!"
It was impossible, Rosanna seemed to see, that a generous young thing should shine out in more beauty; so that what in the world might one ever keep from her? Surpassingly strange the plea thus radiant on the very brow of the danger! "You mean you know Mr. Fielder's history? ”

“ And she longed all the more anxiously for to-morrow's sun that would shine on the coming of her beloved friend.
And, to lighten her suspense, she spent some time superintending the arrangement of the beautiful room next to her own that was being prepared for Miss Carroll's occupancy. Some of her own favorite books were carried in—Cissy was inordinately fond of reading—flowers were lavished here and there. When it was all ready, the pretty room in pink and silver was dainty enough for a princess.
"Cissy will enjoy it so much. She likes pretty things. ”

“ She pressed to Rosanna straight, as if nothing as yet had had time to pass between them—which very little in fact had; with the result for our young woman of feeling helped, by the lightest of turns, not to be awkward herself, or really, what came to the same thing, not to be anything herself. It was a fine perception she had had before—of how Cissy could on occasion "do" for one, and this, all extraordinarily and in a sort of double sense, by quenching one in her light at the very moment she offered it for guidance. ”

“ She hasn't people but her father, and he's always off skylarking. Cissy does as she likes. Well, suppose these mediums hypnotized Cissy to go into Marybelle's room and steal the pearls and turn off the gas-and Cissy never knew she did it all all! ”

“ Landry was surveying her with hard eyes.
"Don't you love—the baby——?"
Cissy shrugged. "Perhaps. I don't know yet. Some day I may when I haven't anything to do but sit in a chimney-corner."
Thus spoke Cissy Beale, making of herself a heartless creature, flinging back into the face of Valentine Landry his most cherished ideals.
But what did it matter? She had known from the moment of her confession that he would be repelled. What man could stand up in the face of the world and marry a grandmother!—the idea was preposterous. ”

“ Northover, will have told you. That's curious and charming," Cissy went on, "and I want awfully we should talk of it. But it isn't what I mean by what I know—and what you don't, my dear thing!"
Rosanna couldn't have told why, but she had begun to tremble, and also to try not to show it. "What I don't know—about Gray Fielder? Why, of course there's plenty!" she smiled.
Cissy still held her hands; but Cissy now was grave. "No, there isn't plenty—save so far as what I mean is enough. And I haven't told it to Gussy. It's too good for her," the girl added. "It's too good for anyone but you." ”

“ Cissy had not thought of this before.
"Well, perhaps he had," she said, "but that was quite different."
"How different?" queried Hugh John.
"Well, that was only dogs and Billy Blythe," said Cissy, somewhat shamefacedly; "that doesn't count, and besides I like it. Doing good has got to be something you don't like—teaching little brats their duty to their godfathers and godmothers, or distributing tracts which only make people stamp and swear and carry on."
"Isn't there something somewhere about helping the fatherless and the widow?" ”

“ A few hours more and sweet Cissy would be here! Cissy, her old friend, who would sympathize with her in all her trials, and perhaps help her to a way out of them.
After breakfast she hastened to her room, leaving Mrs. Fitzgerald intent on the morning papers.
She did not wish to be present should her mother chance to peruse the personal column.
"Conscience makes cowards of us all," she quoted, nervously to herself, fancying her proud parent's indignation when she should read, staring her in the face:
TO HARRY HAWTHORNE—I am safe and well, and wondering what has become of you. ”

“ Rose could not help laughing.
“Little maid,” she said kindly, “thy small shoulders will never hold the world, nor even thy father’s cottage. Hast thou forgot what thou saidst not an half-hour gone, that God takes care of you all?”
“Oh yes, He takes big care of us,” was Cissy’s answer. “He’ll see that we have meat and clothes and so forth, and that Father gets work. But He’ll hardly keep Will and Baby out of mischief, will He? Isn’t that too little for Him?”
“The whole world is but a speck, little Cicely, compared with Him. ”

“ Then it was Longacre (according to Cissy) who had kept Thair—extremely sensitive—at a distance: Longacre, charming, a dear—but, well—fond of being about married women. Cissy had had her little experience with him, and of course (magnanimously) there must be others.
“But if you knew this about him—and let me take such a man into my house—when I have a young girl!”
But, oh, Cissy was horrified. No! not such an attitude to Julia! Never! The point was, Did Mrs. Budd want Julia to marry such a man? ”

“ But the ladies patted Georgie, the baby then, and held him; and Cissy crept closer and closer, because they smelled so nice. And then they asked Maw if they couldn't take Cissy in their car and pay her as much as she earned picking. She was to help them invite the children to a place where they could be safe and happy while their grown folks worked.
Cissy couldn't hardly sense it; but Maw let her go, because she was puny. The teachers got an old schoolhouse to use; and church folks came to paint the walls; and P.W.A. workers made chairs and tables ”

“ Didn't YOU?” said Cissy simply. “Didn't you say they never came back to Horse Shoe Bay. Perhaps I had it from aunty. But I know it's damp and creepy; and when I was littler I used to be frightened to be alone there practicing.”
“Why?” said the preacher quickly.
“Oh, I don't know,” hurried on Cissy, with a vague impression that she had said too much. “Only my fancy, I guess.”
“Well,” said Brother Seabright after a pause; “we'll see what can be done to make a clearing there. Birds sing best in the sunshine, and YOU ought to have some say about it.” ”

“ She persuaded Cissy to be married on the same day as herself and Cameron Clemens, although very impatient for the marriage, consented to the postponement to please the two fair brides.
"Won't it be just too lovely to be married on the same day, Cissy, and cross the ocean together on our bridal tour and spend our honeymoons at Castle Raneleigh? We must write and tell the Stansburys and Odells, and send them invitations," cried pretty Geraldine, who was so happy in her love that she wanted all her old friends to rejoice with her when she was wedded to her heart's dear choice. ”

“ Cissy—everyone calls him Cissy—seems to be a little particular, not to say fidgetty.
Baby Beaumont heard him say to his valet, "Take away that eau-de-cologne—it's corked." He seems to think himself ill, though he looks blooming; and says he has neurasthenia. He's always going through some "course," or "treatment." One hears him cry to the footman who hands him a forbidden dish, "Good Heavens, my dear man, don't offer me that—I'm under Jowles!"
We wanted to act The School for Scandal, but Cissy has persuaded us to get up a burlesque of his own—Red Riding Hood. I am to be Red Riding Hood!!! ”

“ Cissy bites her lip, and asks no more questions; but Mrs Leyton notices the action of the white teeth, and ponders.
'There is a great charm in Frank's manner, I think?' she says interrogatively.
'Is there? Most men nowadays are charming, as acquaintances,' replies Cissy carelessly. 'And Captain Halkett is too universal a favourite to be altogether charming to one.'
'Poor Frank!' laughs the widow lightly. 'He is unfortunate; or at least has found some one who cannot appreciate him. ”

“ Then, as Cissy trotted into the cottage, well pleased, Johnson added, “Bless the little maid’s heart! she grows more like her mother in Heaven every day. I’ll never stay the little fingers from doing what they can. It’ll not bring much in, I reckon, but it’ll be a pleasure to the child, and good for her to be ever busy at something, that she mayn’t fall into idle ways. Think you not so, Rose?”
“Indeed, and it so will, Johnson,” answered Rose; “not that I think Cissy and idle ways ’ll ever have much to do one with the other. She’s not one of that sort. ”