But Mrs. Ocksreider's reply had been puzzling to Jennie and Sadie:
"Oh, but my dear Mrs. Leitzel, to have had a grandmother who wore sable8! It ought to admit you to the D.A.R's! No wonder you flaunt9 them and refuse to buy new ones!"
Then Margaret had further mortified10 them before this same formidable social leader of New Munich by refusing her invitation to join the Women's Auxiliary11 of the Episcopal Church, which, as Jennie and Sadie well knew, was made up of New Munich's "leading society ladies"; so what was their horror to hear Margaret reply, "It's very charitable of you to fancy that I'd be of the least use to you. But I've always hated Women's Auxiliaries12!" And she said it with such a musical drawl that Mrs. Ocksreider, instead of showing how offended she must be, had laughed as though she found it funny. But the idea of saying you hated Women's Auxiliaries! It was next thing to saying that you hated the Bible! Never had Jennie and Sadie experienced such a painful half-hour as that of this call.
Fourthly, Daniel's sisters had at last discovered, through persistent13 prying14, that his wife did not have an independent income; and Margaret, her wits sharpened by her new environment to recognize things at first unthinkable to her, saw that this discovery made Jennie and Sadie feel more free than ever to dictate15 to her and interfere16 with her liberty.
All these little episodes combining to bring upon her the displeasure of the household, the night of the party found her in a not very cheerful frame of mind, though the deep satisfaction that was hers in the great friendship that had come into her life, the most vital human relation that she had ever known, made it impossible for these smaller things to disturb her fundamentally, as otherwise they might have done.
There had been one event of that day that had somewhat brightened for her the gloom of the home atmosphere: a belated wedding-gift had come from Daniel's step-mother—a patchwork17 quilt—accompanied by a letter addressed to Daniel and his wife, written for the old woman by the district school teacher.
"'It's a very humble18 present I am sending you,'" Daniel had read the letter aloud at the breakfast table. "'But it's the work of my old hands, dear children, the last I'll ever do—and the love of my heart went into every stitch of it. I was so proud that you sent me such a notice of your wedding; to remember your old mother, Danny, when you were so happy yourself. I've been working on the quilt ever since I got the notice about the wedding already, and now I'd like so well to see your wife, Danny. I'll try, if I am strong enough, to take the train in, one of these days, and see you both. I'll come back the same day so as not to make any of you any extra work or trouble. I would like to see the lady you married, Danny, before I die, and give her an old woman's wishes for a happy, useful life with my good son that I am so proud of. I wish I could live long enough to see your first baby, Danny, but I guess it won't be many months any more before I must go to my long home.'"
"Yes, that's always the way she talks—she 'hasn't long to live' just to work on our feelings so as to make us give her more!" Jennie commented. "She has no need to come in here to see Margaret. She makes herself very bold to offer to. And she can't spare the car fare, little as what she has to go on. What's Margaret to her anyhow? And she's likely to be too feeble to get back if she comes in. Then we'd have her on our hands yet!"
But Margaret had spent an hour of the morning in writing to Mrs. Leitzel, acknowledging her gift, telling her how glad she would be to see one who had done so much for Daniel when he was a boy. For their step-mother's self-sacrificing devotion to them all in their childhood had been made known to Margaret through many an unwitting, significant remark dropped in her presence. She concluded her letter:
I am coming out to see you very soon, certainly some day next week. Daniel will bring me if he has time. If not, I'll go myself. Until then; with my heartfelt thanks for the work of your dear hands, which I shall use with pride and with grateful thoughts of you,
I am your affectionate daughter,
MARGARET BERKELEY LEITZEL.
All that day, through the constant little rasping antagonisms20 which Margaret, despite her good intentions, seemed unable to avert21 in any intercourse22 between herself and the Leitzels, she felt that consolatory23 bit of kindness and good will which had come to her from the old woman in the country. And when she stood at night with her husband and his sisters to receive their guests (Sadie in pink satine) the friendly spirit of her aged24 mother-in-law was with her still in the background of her consciousness, softening25 the light of her eyes and making human the perfunctory smile of her lips as she repeated her conventional formula of greeting over and over; so that people marvelled26 at the apparent continued tranquillity27 of this incongruously assorted28 household.
When later in the evening Margaret was free to move about among her guests, Daniel's cold displeasure with her was greatly modified as he witnessed again to-night, as on many previous occasions, how attractive she undoubtedly29 was to the men of his world. His uncannily keen little eyes read in the faces of his male guests, as they approached and talked with Margaret, the covetousness30 they felt for this rare possession of his. No acquisition of all his acquisitive career had ever given him a more delectable31 joy than his realization32 of the worth, in other men's eyes, of his charming wife.
Had he overheard the view of her which was ventilated, though surreptitiously, by some of the guests over their supper, his satisfaction might have been somewhat modified.
"I think she's a scream!" declared Myrtle Deibert to the group at her table. "Did you hear what she said to me as we were leaving the Country Club dance last Wednesday evening, when I remarked to her, 'Your husband is so awfully33 in love with you, Mrs. Leitzel; just see how he is beaming on you from clear across the room!' 'Scowling34 at me, you mean,' she corrected me. 'Don't you hear our taxicab registering out there while I linger to talk to you?"
This anecdote35 was met with a shout of laughter, the point of which would certainly have remained obscure to Daniel Leitzel.
"Of course you all heard of her telling mother," said Miss Ocksreider, "that she hated Women's Auxiliaries? And that she wore her grandmother's old furs because she couldn't afford to buy new ones? Mother says"—she lowered her voice and the group at the table closed in a bit closer to catch her words—"that it was a perfect circus to see the consternation36 of Miss Jennie and Miss Sadie when she said she was poor. Isn't it queer how they are so proud of their money and yet so afraid to spend it?"
"Did you hear," inquired Mrs. Eshelman, "what Mrs. Leitzel said to me last Sunday after church when I told her I'd put a five-dollar gold piece on the collection plate in mistake for a nickel and I had half a mind to ask the usher37 to let me have it back. 'You might as well,' she said, 'for you know the Lord won't give you credit for more than five cents.'"
"She certainly does go to the ragged38 edge," Mr. Eshelman added his quota39; "I asked her this evening whether she had been to hear the evangelist's address to Women Only, and she said no, what she wanted to hear was a talk to Men Only!"
"What do you think she said to me when I told her," said Mrs. Hostetter, "what a bad boy the son of the Presbyterian pastor40 is. 'This proverbial badness of minister's children,' she said, 'is often, I think, just the hypocrisy41 of the minister breaking out.' 'But all ministers are not hypocrites,' I said to her, shocked. 'Of course, unconsciously hypocrites,' she answered. 'They don't deceive any one else as they deceive themselves.' Isn't she queer?" added Mrs. Hostetter, genuinely puzzled.
"She's a peach!" declared Mr. Hostetter.
"Danny must think so," declared Mr. Eshelman, "to open up like this in her honour!" indicating the elaborate supper provided by the city caterer42. "Terrapin43, mind you, at Danny Leitzel's!"
"And the 'floral decorations!'" breathed Miss Deibert with an appreciative44 glance at the roses and palms that decorated the dining-room. "It doesn't seem possible, does it?"
"This party is costing Danny something!" grinned Hostetter.
"And to think," said Mrs. Hostetter, "that Dan Leitzel has married a penniless bride—as she certainly gives it out that she is! It doesn't seem possible."
"The power of one little woman!" said Mr. Hostetter pensively45. "I tell you that girl's eyes, and her voice, and her figger, and her teeth and lips, would melt any man's heart, even one of flint like Dan Leitzel's!"
"That will do, Jacob!" stiffly admonished46 Mrs. Hostetter.
"Will you look at that blue glass owl19 on the sideboard," said Miss Ocksreider. "Wouldn't you think Mrs. Leitzel would have removed it before this party?"
"She wouldn't dare! Miss Jennie thinks it's choice!" responded Mrs. Eshelman. "She got it ten years ago at the ninety-nine-cent store for Danny's Christmas present, and she told me at the time that she knew it was an awful price to pay for a mere47 pitcher48, but that they needed a handsome ornament49 for the top of their sideboard. No, indeed, Mrs. Leitzel wouldn't dare discard that old owl!"
"How she manages to steer50 her way peaceably among the three members of this household!" murmured Miss Deibert.
"She's a wonder!"
"And she certainly knows how to keep her opinions to herself," said Mrs. Hostetter. "No one gets a word out of her as to what she thinks of her in-laws!"
"Then she is a wonder!" volunteered Hostetter.
"Wouldn't I like to be her father confessor!" exclaimed Miss Deibert. "I don't know what I wouldn't give for an X-ray view of her mind!"
It was a curious fact that the only person present at the Leitzels' notable party who was quite unimpressed by the expensiveness of the affair was Margaret herself.
What did impress her, as she chatted with her guests and ate her supper, was the subtlety51 with which one can be penetrated52 by the spiritual atmosphere of a given group; she felt so acutely that of this gathering53 to-night as compared with the fine aroma54 of any social collection of her Southern environment, with its old inherited simplicity55 and culture. She had thought, in the first weeks of her New Munich life, that the difference must be only external, for she was not only democratically disposed by nature, but the rather socialistic theories with which her uncle had imbued56 her inclined her to a large view of any social discrepancies57.
To-night, however, it was borne in upon her that she was an alien in this company; that she could more readily find a real point of contact and sympathy with the plainest sort of day-labouring people; with, for instance, the Leitzels' cook, who was at least genuine and not pretentious58, than with these people who knew no ideals except those of material possession and whose purpose in life seemed to be, on the part of the women, to outshine their acquaintances and kill time; and on that of the men to make money enough to allow the women to pursue this useful and exalted59 career.
"People who are poor enough to be obliged to work," she spoke7 out her reflections to the lawyer, Henry Frantz, who happened to be sipping60 coffee with her, "have really purer and more wholesome61 views of life than—than we have" (she indicated, by a turn of her hand, the company at large). "I begin to understand, Mr. Frantz, why, in the history of nations, we see decay set in just as soon as a climax62 of prosperity has been reached. To survive the deadening influence of great wealth, well, it's only the fittest among nations and individuals who are strong enough to do it, isn't it?"
"But it is only where there is a leisure class that we find art and culture," suggested Mr. Frantz.
"The great minds and the great characters of the world, however, have never come from an environment of wealthy leisure. In our own country, has any one of our really great Presidents been educated in private schools? Nearly every citizen of eminent63 usefulness is a public school product."
"A notable exception—your husband," he replied.
"'Citizen of eminent usefulness,'" she musingly64 experimented with her phrase. "Would Mr. Leitzel come under that head?"
"He's a lawyer of state-wide, if not national, reputation, Mrs. Leitzel."
"I know. Are they an eminently65 useful class—corporation lawyers? I merely ask for information. My ignorance on most subjects is unfathomable."
"Well, we couldn't get along without them."
"Corporations couldn't. But aren't we beginning to think we could get along without corporations?"
"Boneheads may think so. It is civilization that has built up corporations, and every time a corporation is dissolved we take a backward step in civilization."
"If public utilities," said Margaret dogmatically, quoting her Uncle Osmond, "were conducted for the benefit not of corporations, but by the Government for the benefit of the whole people, we'd have a full treasury66 without taxing the people."
Mr. Frantz looked at her and broke into irrepressible laughter. "Excuse me, Mrs. Leitzel, but that anything looking so girlish and pretty, that anything even remotely associated with my good friend Danny Leitzel, should be giving out remarks like that—well, it's a little too much for me, you see! Did you and my friend Danny exchange views on social economics before you were married?"
"We didn't have time to exchange views on anything. We knew each other just six weeks before we were married."
"And have been getting acquainted since?"
"I'm inclined to think a six weeks' acquaintance just as good as a lifetime one for finding out what kind of a mate your lover is going to make."
"Exactly. No good at all, eh?"
"Not much," she smiled.
"I wonder," speculated Mr. Frantz, eying her curiously67, "if there was ever a married pair whose ideal of each other grew higher after marriage. Think so?"
"Surely. Their lives being a daily unfolding of new beauties and excellences68 to each other."
"Oh, but I'm afraid you're a sentimentalist."
"Southerners generally are, but they're saved, you know, by their unfailing sense of humour," she responded, turning from him to give some attention to the man seated on the other side of her at the little supper table.
Mrs. Leitzel's adroitness69 in avoiding thin ice was the despair of the gossips of New Munich.
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1
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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pertaining
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| 与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to) | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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sable
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| n.黑貂；adj.黑色的 | |
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flaunt
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| vt.夸耀，夸饰 | |
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10
mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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auxiliary
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| adj.辅助的，备用的 | |
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auxiliaries
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| n.助动词 ( auxiliary的名词复数 )；辅助工，辅助人员 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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15
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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16
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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patchwork
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| n.混杂物；拼缝物 | |
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18
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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antagonisms
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| 对抗，敌对( antagonism的名词复数 ) | |
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21
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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consolatory
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| adj.慰问的，可藉慰的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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covetousness
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delectable
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| adj.使人愉快的；美味的 | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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33
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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34
scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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35
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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38
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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quota
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| n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额 | |
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pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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42
caterer
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| n. 备办食物者，备办宴席者 | |
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43
terrapin
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| n.泥龟；鳖 | |
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44
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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45
pensively
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| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
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46
admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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47
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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48
pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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49
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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50
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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51
subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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52
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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53
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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54
aroma
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| n.香气，芬芳，芳香 | |
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55
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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56
imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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57
discrepancies
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| n.差异，不符合（之处），不一致（之处）( discrepancy的名词复数 ) | |
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58
pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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59
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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60
sipping
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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61
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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62
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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63
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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64
musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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65
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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66
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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67
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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68
excellences
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| n.卓越( excellence的名词复数 )；（只用于所修饰的名词后）杰出的；卓越的；出类拔萃的 | |
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69
adroitness
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