Della

“ If General Delville has lived in New-Orleans till he has grown old enough to be my grandfather, he can't have much of a heart left."
"Della, you astonish me!" said her father, with the frown deepening. "One would think you had no ambition whatever to make a good match."
"Papa, do you love me at all?"
Mr. Delancey started at the abrupt question, and gazed upon his daughter in surprise.
"Love you, Della? the whole of my heart is centred in you." ”

“ Without a word to each other they hurriedly tiptoed up the stairs to the gloomy loft, and there they paused, listening.
They heard Della's steps upon the carriage-house floor.
"Ah, there's plenty places t'hide in," they heard her say; "but I'll show ye! She tole me to bring ye, and I'm——"
She was interrupted by a peculiar sound—loud, chilling, dismal, and unmistakably not of human origin. The boys knew it for Whitey's cough, but Della had not their experience. A smothered shriek reached their ears ”

“ And when, with Della's aid, she had dressed again here was a new mystery to slip back into the crowd of dancers. A pair of very bright eyes just guessed through very tiny slits of her mask, a slender body in ornamental buckskin blouse and short skirt, hands encased in gauntlets, feet and calves in high heeled buckskin boots, a girl of the big out-doors of the mountains. ”

“ Even after he had seen Della Benedict again his purpose did not consciously alter. The grown-up Dell was sweet and clever and desirable, and if he had been settled in a good business—but he wasn't; he was an artist, and he knew well that artists should not marry. ”

“ I am certain she is the betrothed of General Delville, who this moment converses with her in the parlor."
"You, sir, may be the one deceived. Della would not leave you without giving you a knowledge of her love. She bade me come to you, to ask her of you openly, and to tell you all."
"Then, sir, once for all, let me tell you, you talk in vain; never will my pride permit my beautiful child—she whom I have educated and trained to grace the home of the first in our land—to become the humble bride of a hireling clerk. ”

“ Chattering gaily, the little party set out with Jack leading, Rafaela clinging to his arm.
“It’s rather old-fashioned, Mother, for a girl to lean on a man’s arm like this,” whispered Della in an undertone. “But I like it. I think she’s charming, don’t you?” ”

“ No marriage could be performed lawfully, you said, between a white man and a woman with [Pg 207] the blood of my race in her veins. I wonder that I did not go mad then; I was taken terribly ill, but it was my fate to live on in misery. I lived to see you and Miss Della meet often, after that first meeting at the masked ball, and I lived to see her love you. When I found her secret out, I gave you up for ever; and from that moment my love froze up, and has hung in my heart like an unthawing icicle ever since. ”

“ Smarty Bill Steele!" she told herself expectantly when at last Della had entered the ball room and she herself had again mingled with the couples forming for the new dance. "As if you could masquerade any more successfully at a dance like this than a big old elephant at a butterfly party!"
Standing by the open windows, framed against the black of the outer night, was a big man in conventional evening dress with a home made mask completely hiding his face and allowing merely the piercing look of his watchful eyes through small holes. While Beatrice watched him he was watching Della. ”

“ They ain't big enough."
"Well, I be," said Della briefly. "Don't you drive over 'em."
Eben looked at her and then at his path to the barn, and he turned his horse aside.
Thereafter, until we got used to it, we found a vivid source of interest in seeing Della playing croquet, and always playing alone. That was a very busy summer, because the famous drought came then, and water had to be carried for weary rods from spring and river. Sometimes Della did not get her playtime till three in the afternoon, sometimes not till after dark; but she was faithful to her joy. ”

“ Mrs. Delancey looked at her watch—"Nine o'clock, Della; the guests will begin to arrive, shortly. You need not come down till your father comes for you. Remember, ma chere, General Delville, particularly."
So saying, the proud mother swept from the apartment.
As the door closed upon her, Della stepped through the open window, and passed out upon the balcony. Minny busied herself with putting aside the jewels which had not been wanted, and other unnecessary articles of dress, which the capricious fancy of her mistress had drawn from their proper places during the process of preparation. ”

“ There’s enough real things in the world to be sorry for without being sorry for me and my sins.”
“Mebbe yo’re sorry for her.”
“Sorry for her?” Della looked curiously at Cultus. “That’s a new idea. I never thought of that.”
Jane came in with the hot water, and Cultus walked out in the kitchen, while Della removed her stocking. She didn’t want to look at Jane.
“Just put the pan where I can reach it,” she said. “I can do the rest.”
“I’ll do it,” softly. “You look all worn out, and I know it must hurt badly. I sprained my wrist one day, and I know how that hurt.” ”

“ It is all better, no doubt, as it is; this, I must admit, however lonely my heart may throb in saying it. I had hoped to be happy in holding you to that heart, as one of its own rightful treasures. I will now strive to make myself happy in seeing her so I could not win. Whenever you want a friend, my child—one faithful and sincere, and uninfluenced by selfish motives—you will ever find one in the old man who has dared to love you, and whom you have this day rejected."
Della placed both hands in General Delville's, and looked up earnestly and trustfully into his noble face. ”

“ She had just been obliged to endure it from the pulpit, she told herself angrily, and she would not listen to it from this chit of a child. Moreover, this "living one day at a time" theory was a particularly pet doctrine of Della's. ”

“ Mamma had a pretty white muslin frock made for me, and my sweet sister took great pleasure in dressing me for the party—a very full, very short skirt barely covering{164} my knees, a long expanse of white stocking, and black slippers. When I stood before the big cheval glass, Della fixing some blue ribbons on my tightly scraped back, tightly plaited hair, I began to cry and exclaimed:
“Della, I am too ugly to live! I can’t go to the party!” ”

“ Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. ”

“ Delancey's cold eyes, as he spoke, which one would no sooner have expected to see there, than they would thought to have seen a rock melt. Only his daughter could bring it there.
"Miss Della," said the governess, "your attitude is a trifle too stiff—a little more of the bend, if you please."
Miss Della tipped a little.
"Dort, darling," said Mrs. Delancey, "pray don't display such an appetite—it is really frightful to see you eat so much. A young lady like you should be very delicate at table."
"And pay long visits to the cupboard between meals, eh, mamma?" ”

“ Everything that money can buy, of course, is at her command; but nothing pleases her, nothing interests her. Della feels that the time has come when she must be gotten out of herself, at all hazards; and Della believes that your wife's sunny little niece, Pollyanna, possesses the magic key that will unlock the door to a new existence for her. Such being the case, I hope you will see your way clear to granting her request. And may I add that I, too, personally, would appreciate the favor; for Ruth Carew and her sister are very old, dear friends of my wife and myself ”

“ A man with a title militaire, and, moreover, half a million at his command, was not to be found as a wooer every day; and what though his years were many, when he had a fortune to long outlive him, and station, which any woman might be proud to gain? Surely, Della would be worse than silly, to throw away such an opportunity.
Mrs. Delancey was standing before the glass, arranging the folds of her elegant dress, with all the care of a Miss of eighteen, as Minny entered the room, and, standing at a respectful distance, delivered the message her young mistress had given her. ”

“ When these useless accessories are removed, the converted heathen, as he is called, relapses into barbarism."
"It has seemed to me, though, Philip, that if we had only something in our service to attract the attention, we would have a great advantage; that is the first and principal thing to get people together. By having something to win their curiosity, a great point is gained. Giving them a Bible is like giving them a stone for bread—they can make nothing out of it," said Della, decidedly. ”

“ I remember hearing Della severely scolded for having answered a note from a young man asking her to ride on horseback with him, in the first person. Poor Della said: “But how else could I write, mamma?”
“You should have written: ‘Miss Allston regrets that she will not be able to ride with Mr. Blank this afternoon.’”
Such a thing as driving with a young man was{145} not possible, though at that time all the men had fine horses and buggies. But my sister, being a very good horsewoman, was allowed to ride occasionally with a young man. ”

“ Her eyes flashed. “Oh, yes, he will; and be getting off pretty damn cheap at that. Oh, you can tell him. And you might tell him that I want the money right away. The ante jumps a thousand every day from now on. I’m no cheap sport, no matter what kind of a piker he is. Tell him what I said, and see where it hits him.”
Della got up from the table and walked away, leaving Cultus to look after her, a grin on his thin lips. She thought he was one of Marsh’s men, and he chuckled to himself. ”

“ A hint of martyrdom.
“I should say not.”
“And men are always pleased at news like that. I tell you, Della” (Cecily was striking her stride now) , “men are never as crazy about a woman as when she is expecting her first baby. You see, they feel so grateful and so miserable.”
“I should think they would,” moaned Della.
“Of course you can’t see it as I do, but really the nicest time of my married life was before Dorothea came.” She faltered a little at that, for it was hard to use those memories for Della’s sake, but she realized that Della was listening finally.
“Dick couldn’t do enough for me.” ”

“ Rex glanced up at the radiant face as he came along the hedge-bordered drive between his home and the Dean’s and waved back in neighborly fashion.
“I’m going up to the campus now,” he said.85 “Ask Miss Della if she’d let you be in the dramatic club. There’s a meeting this morning.”
“Could I, Aunt Della? Please say yes. I’m dying to join something. I haven’t joined anything in ages,” Kit begged. “I can meet everyone and get acquainted. If you don’t need me this morning—” She hesitated, but some of her enthusiasm had caught Della, and she immediately succumbed to the whim of the moment. ”

“ James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. ”

“ Della came at once, and she went immediately to see the boy; but she did not "know." Like her sister, she said she did not think it was their Jamie, but at the same time there was that chance—it might be he, after all. Like Pollyanna, however, she had what she thought was a very satisfactory way out of the dilemma.
"But why don't you take him, dear?" she proposed to her sister. "Why don't you take him and adopt him? It would be lovely for him—poor little fellow—and—" But Mrs. Carew shuddered and would not even let her finish. ”

“ What do your little pictures matter? The urge, young man, is as old as the race. Here is the girl, your future wife. Get on with it!”
He was pretty far on with it this July night, standing there in the shadow on Eugene Benedict's porch, dazed, a little breathless, with Della in his arms. Give the girl credit. She had not led him on; rather she had discouraged him from the first. And none save the most hardened cynic would intimate that she knew only too well the provocative nature of discouragement.
“What's it all about, Dell?” ”

“ Della Crusca has married a Woman of elegant person and address, and who will bring him perhaps £500 o' year, with an unblemished character, as people tell me: the husband meantime will congratulate himself charmingly on his own superiority, no small pleasure to some minds; and the world will always be on his side in every dispute, tho' he had neither character nor fortune when they met. ”

“ Delia Cruscans, a set of English sentimental poetasters, the leaders of them hailing from Florence, that appeared in England towards the close of the 18th century, and that for a time imposed on many by their extravagant panegyrics of one another, the founder of the set being one Robert Merry, who signed himself Della Crusca; he first announced himself by a sonnet to Love, in praise of which Anne Matilda wrote an incomparable piece of nonsense; "this epidemic spread for a term from fool to fool," but was soon exposed and laughed out of existence. ”