Lulu

“ Lulu Glaser was a bright, sparkling girl in those days of her earlier successes, winsome in personality and as pretty as a picture with her light fluffy hair and her eyes that still retained their girlishness. Her vivacity was remarkable, and her spirits were unflagging. She worked with all her might to please, and she was successful to an unusual degree.
Too bad that those excellent qualities—vivacity, freshness, and unsophisticated youthfulness—should [121] have so nearly proved her undoing! ”

“ Lulu was in a thin black and white gown which they had never seen, and wore the tilting hat with the red wing.
"Ninian bought me this," said Lulu only.
"But, Lulu, don't you think it might be better to keep, well—out of sight for a few days?" Ina's lifted look besought her.
"Why?" Lulu asked.
"Why set people wondering till we have to?"
"They don't have to wonder, far as I'm concerned," said Lulu, and went down the walk.
Ina looked at Dwight. "She never spoke to me like that in her life before," she said. ”

“ It was Lulu's first summer at a Watering-Place (at least she said so) ; it was my first, too, at a Watering-Place—but not my first at a flirtation, thought I, loftily. She had all the cordial freshness of a Southern girl, with that geniality of manner which, without being in the least degree familiar, is confiding and friendly, and which to us, reserved and suspicious Northerners, appears the evidence of the complete triumph we have achieved, until we see that it is a general and not a particular manner. ”

“ For travel Lulu was again wearing Ina's linen duster—the old one.
Ninian appeared, in a sack coat—and his diamond. His distinctly convex face, its thick, rosy flesh, thick mouth and cleft chin gave Lulu once more that bold sense of looking—not at him, for then she was shy and averted her eyes—but at his photograph at which she could gaze as much as she would. She looked up at him openly, fell in step beside him. Was he not taking her to the city? Ina and Dwight themselves were going because she, Lulu, had brought about this party.
"Act as good as you look, Lulie," Mrs. Bett called after them. ”

“ DWIGHT. What's Lulu the charmer so still for, eh?
LULU. I was thinking how nice it is to be going off with you all like this.
DWIGHT. Such a moment advertises to the single the joys of family life as Ina and I live it.
INA. It's curious that you've never married, Ninian.
NINIAN. Don't say it like that. Maybe I have. Or maybe I will.
DWIGHT. She wants everybody to marry but she wishes she hadn't.
INA. Do you have to be so foolish?
DWIGHT. Hi–better get started before she makes a scene. It's too early yet, though. Well–Lulu, you dance on the table.
INA. Why, Dwight? ”

“ DWIGHT. What an unexpected pleasure, Master Bobby.
BOBBY. Good-evening, Mrs. Deacon. Good evening, Mr. Deacon.
DWIGHT. And Lulu. Is it Lulu? Is this lovely houri our Lulu? Is this Miss Lulu Bett? Or is this Lulu something else by now? You can't tell what Lulu'll do when you leave her alone at home. Ina–our festive ball gown!
LULU. Ina, I made it out of that old muslin of yours, you know. I thought you wouldn't care–
INA. Oh, that! I was going to use it for Di but it doesn't matter. You are welcome to it, Lulu. Little youthful for anything but home wear, isn't it? ”

“ LULU. But if we don't tell what'll they think?
DWIGHT. They'll think what they always think when a wife leaves her husband. They'll think you couldn't get along. That's all.
LULU. I should hate that. I wouldn't want them to think I hadn't been a good wife to Ninian.
DWIGHT. Wife? You never were his wife. That's just the point.
LULU. Oh!
DWIGHT. Don't you realize the position he's in?...See here–do you intend–Are you going to sue Ninian?
LULU. Oh! no! no! no!
INA. Why, Lulu, any one would think you loved him.
LULU. I do love him. And he loved me. Don't you think I know? He loved me.
INA. Lulu. ”

“ Lulu looked down at the hand lying so still and lifeless on the counterpane. A tear-drop that had fallen from the eyes of the poor black boy lay on it, shining purely as a pearl in the subdued light. Lulu would not wipe it away. It was a precious drop distilled from the fountain of unselfish love and sorrow; it seemed to plead mutely to the girl for the man who lay there so still and pale, unable to speak for himself.
"There must have been much good in the poor young man," she thought, impulsively, "or his servants would not have loved him like that." ”

“ But if a girl will do so! Summer and the midsummer sun shone in a cloudless sky. There was nothing to do but live and love, and Lulu and I did nothing else. Through the motley aspects of Watering-Place existence, our life shot like a golden thread, embroidering it with beauty. We strolled on the piazza at morning and evening. During the forenoon we sat in the parlor, and Lulu worked a bag or a purse, and I sat by her, gossiping that gossip which is evanescent as foam upon champagne—yes, and as odorous and piercing, for the moment it lasts. We only parted to dress for dinner. ”

“ Lulu had not grown big, but she had grown round. That look of the primitive woman which had made her strange, had softened and sobered. Her beaute troublante had gone. Her face was, the face of a happy woman. The maternal look in her eyes was duplicated by the married look in her figure. She was always busy. Even now, though she chattered, she sewed; her little fingers fluttered like the wings of an imprisoned bird. Indeed, she looked like a little sober mother-bird in her gray and brown draperies. She was the best housewife among them. Honey lacked no creature comfort. ”

“ Lulu said no more. After a long time:
"You always was jealous of Inie," said Mrs. Bett, and went to her bed.
As soon as her mother's door had closed, Lulu took the lamp from its bracket, stretching up her long body and her long arms until her skirt lifted to show her really slim and pretty feet. Lulu's feet gave news of some other Lulu, but slightly incarnate. Perhaps, so far, incarnate only in her feet and her long hair.
She took the lamp to the parlour and stood before the photograph of Ninian Deacon, and looked her fill. She did not admire the photograph, but she wanted to look at it. ”

“ Can't we have a secret if we want one?"
"Upon my word," Dwight commented, "she has a beautiful secret. I don't know about your secrets, Lulu."
Every time that he did this, that fleet, lifted look of Lulu's seemed to bleed.
"I'm glad for my dinner," remarked Monona at last. "Please excuse me." On that they all rose. Lulu stayed in the kitchen and did her best to make her tasks indefinitely last. She had nearly finished when Di burst in.
"Aunt Lulu, Aunt Lulu!" she cried. "Come in there—come. I can't stand it. What am I going to do?"
"Di, dear," said Lulu. "Tell your mother—you must tell her." ”

“ Later Di had said to Lulu: "I s'pose you heard what we were saying."
Lulu, much shaken, had withdrawn from the whole matter by a flat "no." "Because," she said to herself, "I couldn't have heard right."
But since then she had looked at Di as if Di were some one else. Had not Lulu taught her to make buttonholes and to hem—oh, no! Lulu could not have heard properly.
"Everybody's got somebody to be nice to them," she thought now, sitting by the kitchen window, adult yet Cinderella.
She thought that some one would come for her. Her mother or even Ina. Perhaps they would send Monona. ”

“ Lulu flushed and was silent. She was an olive woman, once handsome, now with flat, bluish shadows under her wistful eyes. And if only she would look at her brother Herbert and say something. But she looked in her plate.
"I want some honey," shouted the child, Monona.
"There isn't any, Pet," said Lulu.
"I want some," said Monona, eyeing her stonily. But she found that her hair-ribbon could be pulled forward to meet her lips, and she embarked on the biting of an end. ”

“ But Lulu's room, cool, fresh, inviting, a very bower of innocent maidenhood—offers an exquisite relief from the burning heat and general parched look of the world outside. A cool, white India matting covers the floor; the chairs are light graceful affairs of willow-work; the windows are shaded with curtains of pale green silk and lace, swaying softly in the faint breeze that stirs the trees outside. ”

“ However, as it is now spring, I have come up, and I am going to play around all summer."
"That's nice," remarked Lulu. "What's your name?"
"My name is Fannie Tail," replied the fish. "You see I got that name because my tail is shaped like a fan, but most persons just call me Fan Tail. You may, if you like."
"All right," agreed Lulu. "I will. My name is Lulu, but you may call me Lu, if you wish."
"Good," answered the fish, turning a double somersault in the water and wiggling her right fin as if trying to shake hands. "Now we are well acquainted. And may I ask where you are going?" ”

“ Where had you and Aunt Lulu been with mamma's new bag?"
"Aunt Lulu!" cried Dwight. "A-ha! So Aunt Lulu was along. Well now, that alters it."
"How does it?" asked his Ina crossly.
"Why, when Aunt Lulu goes on a jaunt," said Dwight Herbert, "events begin to event."
"Come, Di, let's hear," said Ina.
"Ina," said Lulu, "first can't we hear something about your visit? How is——"
Her eyes consulted Dwight. His features dropped, the lines of his face dropped, its muscles seemed to sag. A look of suffering was in his eyes.
"She'll never be any better," he said. ”

“ In crossing the lobby in the hotel at Savannah, Georgia, Lulu's most pressing problem had been to know where to look. But now the idlers in the Hess House lobby did not exist. In time she found the door of the intensely rose-coloured reception room. There, in a fat, rose-coloured chair, beside a cataract of lace curtain, sat Di, alone.
Lulu entered. She had no idea what to say. When Di looked up, started up, frowned, Lulu felt as if she herself were the culprit. She said the first thing that occurred to her:
"I don't believe mamma'll like your taking her nice satchel." ”

“ She gave him her hand, with her peculiar sweetness of expression—almost as if she were sorry for him or were bidding him good-bye.
"That shows who you dress for!" he cried. "You dress for me; Ina, aren't you jealous? Lulu dresses for me!"
Ina had come in with Di, and both were excited, and Ina's head was moving stiffly, as in all her indignations. Mrs. Bett had thought better of it and had given her presence. Already Monona was singing.
"Lulu," said Dwight, "really? Can't you run up and slip on another dress?"
Lulu sat down in her place. "No," she said. "I'm too tired. I'm sorry, Dwight." ”

“ Lulu was winning Mr. Grover back to his allegiance slowly but surely. He called, now, almost every afternoon, took long walks with her through the Rosenthal, and barring a certain Anglo-Saxon reserve (which in Germany is thought perfectly incomprehensible) behaved in every way as an engaged man should. It was scarcely to be wondered at that the goddesses found such an exhibition of devotion a little bit irritating, and voted Lulu, the happy and victorious, as odious as Lulu, the abandoned, the secretly-grieving, had been lovely and interesting. ”

“ INA. But Dwight–how awful for Lulu...
DWIGHT. Lulu has us to stand by her. (Enter LULU.)
LULU. That sounds good. That I have you to stand by me.
DWIGHT. My dear Lulu, the family bond is the strongest bond in the world. Family. Tribe. The–er–pack. Standing up for the family honor, the family reputation is the highest nobility. (Exit DI by degrees. Left.) I tell you of all history the most beautiful product is the family tie. Of it are born family consideration–
INA. Why, you don't look like yourself...is it your hair, Lulu? You look so strange.
LULU. Don't you like it? Ninian liked it. ”

“ My dear Lulu, you know how I hate having my mail interfered with."
She might have said: "Small souls always make a point of that." She said nothing. She watched them set off, and kept her mind on Ina's thousand injunctions.
"Don't let Di see much of Bobby Larkin. And, Lulu—if it occurs to her to have Mr. Cornish come up to sing, of course you ask him. You might ask him to supper. And don't let mother overdo. And, Lulu, now do watch Monona's handkerchief—the child will never take a clean one if I'm not here to tell her...." ”

“ She is devotedly attached to her husband, but Lulu is a sore thorn in her side."
"I don't believe she has ever acknowledged as much, or could be induced to," said Zoe.
"No," assented Edward; "but it is evident to those who know her well, nevertheless. She tries hard to conceal the fact, and has wonderful patience with the wilful passionate child, really loving her for her father's sake."
"And for her own, too, if I mistake not," Arthur said. "There is something quite lovable about Lulu, in spite of her very serious faults."
"There is," said Edward. "I have felt it strongly myself at times. ”

“ And the pennons streamed gay o’er their Castles in Spain.
O Lulu, dear Lulu! magnificent belle—
Whose name is a charm and whose presence a spell,
Bright star ever shining in Memory’s stream,
You were gowned on that night in the very extreme
Of fashion, indeed quite a crinoline belle,
You spread yourself so, and you made such a swell,
Your dress circle being made after the pattern
Of the rings that the telescope shows around Saturn,
Not whalebone or cordage, but Carnegie’s best steel,
As when you dance with her next time you can feel. ”

“ DWIGHT.)
DWIGHT. Now! The festive opera cloak. Allow me! My word, what a picture! Lulu the charmer dressed for her deboo into society, eh?
NINIAN. Dwight, shut your head. I want you to understand this is Miss Lulu Bett's party–and if she says to leave you home, we'll do it.
DWIGHT. Ah, ha! An understanding between these two.
CORNISH. Well, Miss Lulu, I think you're just fine anyway.
LULU. Oh, thank you. Thank you.... (Enter DI.)
INA. All ready, darling?
DI. All ready–and so excited! Isn't it exciting, Mr. Cornish?
DWIGHT. Bless me if the whole family isn't assembled. Now isn't this pleasant! ”