Was It Right to Forgive? by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (classic book list txt) 📕

both are from royalty. Our mutual liking has stood
a number of little shocks, and I have no fear it will go to pieces
on my father's trade. He is building you a handsome house in the
most honorable manner. He was pleased to have the contract to do
so, and Mr. Filmer was equally pleased to secure his work. That is
the position, as I understand it. Suppose we say no more on the
subject; it will be so much nicer to write about your balls, and
fairs, and parties. From what you say, I think charity must be the
gayest of all the virtues; certainly it cuts the most considerable
figure of any during the New York season. I am sure you enjoyed
the private theatricals; for we all like occasionally to play a
part not our own. And so you are going to the seaside this summer?
Will you bathe? That is one of the things vanity would forbid me
to do, except in private. It is true, Venus rose beautiful from
the sea; but no mere mortal woman can do so. Do you not think,
that for a distinctly levelling process, sea bathing is supreme?
Life is very even and quiet here; when Woodsome Hall is finished,
we all hope it will make a difference. Is it to be 'Woodsome' or
'Filmer' Hall? Mr. Filmer had not decided when he was here last.
Dear Rose, do not let us have any more misunderstandings, and send
me a real nice letter soon.

"Yours lovingly,

"Adriana Van Hoosen."

This letter did not please Rose any better than her own effusion had pleased Adriana; and for a little while there was a coolness between the girls. They wrote to each other with accustomed regularity, but their letters were set to a wrong key, Adriana's being specially independent in tone, as if her self-esteem was perpetually on the defensive. But life is not an exact science, something is always happening to change its circumstances, and feelings change with them. The following spring the new Filmer house was finished and ready for occupancy; and the village newspaper was busily blowing little fanfaronades of congratulation to Woodsome; and of welcome to the coming Filmers; and by that time Adriana and Rose were also eager to see each other again.

"I wonder if I ought to call on Rose," said Adriana to her father, as she laid down the paper announcing the long heralded arrivals. "I believe it would only be good form to do so."

"Under the circumstances, I would not call first, Yanna. Keep your place, until you are asked out of it."

"I am quite willing to do so. My own home is a very good place, father."

"Home is a blessed freedom, Yanna. At your own fireside, you can be a law unto yourself. You can speak the thing you like, from morning to night."

"The papers say the Filmers are Woodsome people. Do you remember them?"

"I never saw the present Mr. Filmer until I made my contract with him. I can just recollect his father, old Dominie Filmer, in his flowered dressing-gown, and his velvet cap. We did not sit in his church; but Adam Kors talks a great deal about him. He says he preached sermons hard to understand, and full of sharp words. I dare say he was a good man, for Adam tells of him being puzzled and troubled at living longer than the orthodox Scriptural three-score-years-and-ten. But he died at last--pretty well off."

"Most ministers die poorly off."

"Dominie Filmer was wise in his generation. He not only looked for mansions in the sky, he had also a reasonable respect for the land around Woodsome--and for shares in the railways, and things of that kind. But no one in his day could speak ill of him; and his children and grandchildren speak very well of him. And this friend of yours, Rose Filmer, will be his granddaughter."

"Yes. I hope she will call soon. If she delays too long, it will be no kindness. If she does not call at all, I think I shall hate her."

"No, Yanna. Anger and hate are not for you to bother with. They are such a dreadful waste of life. Why should you let a person whom you dislike, or despise, take possession of you, and of your mind, and occupy your thoughts, and run your precious time to their idea? That is a poor business, Yanna."

Here the conversation ceased, but the next morning Adriana was on the watch for her friend. And about noon Rose came. She was driving herself in a pretty dog-cart, for she had determined as she dressed for her visit, to take no servant. She did not know what kind of a house Adriana lived in, or in what situation she might find her. For Rose's experience of life had not given her any precedent by which she could judge of the social environments of a stone-builder; and she said softly as she pinned on her hat: "Yes, I shall go alone. It will be kinder to Yanna. Servants will talk. They might even wonder if she is not one of our relations; these Woodsome people have made such a stir about our being 'native.'"

She drove well, and was charmed and excited by her rapid movement down the hills, and through the wooded lanes. Entering the village, she asked for Mr. Van Hoosen's house, and it was readily pointed out. She was a little astonished. It was a roomy, colonial dwelling, surrounded by well-kept grounds. Horse-chestnuts arched the wide avenues, and the house stood in a grove of flowering fruit trees. A boy who was rolling turf took her horse's head, and she stepped to the spotless door stone, with a decided access of affection. Adriana came running down the stairs to meet her. They kissed each other, and buried in the kiss all their small differences and offences.

"What a charming old house, Yanna!" cried Rose.

"What a perfect costume you have on, Rose!" cried Adriana.

"I knew you would like it. Put on your hat, Yanna. I want you all day, and all day to-morrow, and every other day you can spare."

"I must tell father. I shall be delighted to go with you, Rose; but I cannot do so without his knowledge."

"Certainly. I saw an old gentleman tacking up vines, as I drove through the garden."

"That was father."

"You can find him in two minutes and a half, I know."

In very little more, Adriana came back with the old gentleman. He looked so kindly at Rose that she could not help being pleased, and she set herself to win the old Dutchman. She made him talk about his flowers, and she listened with that air of being charmed and instructed which even when it is merely a cultivated grace is an irresistible one. She praised Yanna. She said with a frank enthusiasm, "I love Yanna dearly," and while entreating for her company she acknowledged "it was a great favor to ask."

Peter said "it was." He assured Rose that Yanna "was the sunshine of his life, but that to make them both happy, he would gladly give up his own pleasure." She thanked him with many pretty speeches, and when Adriana came down ready for her visit, Peter helped the girls into their seats, and put the reins into Rose's hands. Then he watched them out of sight, with a face beaming with satisfaction.

From this excited and exalted tone, it was impossible to fall at once. Rose gave herself up to it. She patted Yanna's hands; and as they went through the woods kissed her many times. Then the new house was to be gone through, and exclamations and adjectives were the only possible speech, so that everything naturally enough conduced to an emotional condition. At last Rose said, "I have not shown you my apartments yet, Yanna. They are a picture in pinks;" and she led her into a suite that was lovely with peach-bloom papers and hangings, with snow-white willow chairs cushioned with pink silk, and pink silk draperies trimmed with white lace. "I have chosen for you the room just across the hall," she added, "so we shall be very near to each other. Listen! that is the lunch-bell. Come and see mamma. In the afternoon we can talk over things."

Mrs. Filmer was very pleasant and good-natured. She chatted with the girls, and ate a salad, and then went away with her housekeeper: "Only a part of the house is in order yet," she explained to Adriana; "and neither workmen nor servants seem able to do without me. What will you girls talk about until seven o'clock?"

"Oh!" cried Rose, "we shall have a long, delightful afternoon." And probably to Rose it was delightful, for she told Yanna the tale of ball-rooms, in which Rose Filmer had been chief among a thousand beauties; she showed the photographs of many youths, who were her adorers; and she read specially eloquent sentences from her many love letters. Indeed, after a long session of this kind, Rose said heartily, "I declare, I have not had such a sweet time since you left me at college. But really we must rest an hour before dinner. I always do. Come, I will take you to your room."

Adriana was glad to rest, and the soft, dim light of the carefully-shaded room tempted her to complete physical relaxation; but her mind was actively curious and alert. She had been hearing of a life entirely new to her, "a pretty lute-string kind of a life, quite within the verge of the Ten Commandments," she thought; "yet I do not believe it would please me long. Its feverish unrest, its small anxieties and petty aims have told already on Rose. Her mind has sunk to the level of what engages it. She no longer plans for study and self-improvement; she talks of her duties to society instead, and of its claims upon her. After all"--she thought a few moments, and then added emphatically--"after all, I am satisfied with my lot! Even upon the testimony of so prejudiced a witness as Rose, fashionable life is not a lofty thing. Its two principal standards appear to be money and smartness; and I do believe the world has a far higher ideal. It is only a very small minority who worship the great goddess Fashion, and the image which the Parisian Jupiter sends over here; the true elite of the world have always been those whose greatness was in themselves. There's father! In any kind of clothes, or in any company, he would always be one of the elite. I never could be ashamed of him. But I might be, if I saw him haunting the gay places of the world, criticising ballet girls, and shuffling cards." She indulged this train of thought, and lived over again the fantasy of life Rose had shaped in her imagination.

A knock at the door roused her from it. A maid was there with some flowers, and an offer of her services, if Miss Van Hoosen wished them. The flowers were welcome, but the service would have been an embarrassment. Adriana knew her good points, and was quite able to do them justice. In her case, it was not the modiste that made the woman.

When she was dressed she went to the drawing-room. It was full of