What She Could. Warner Susan
though," said Matilda.
"Why, no, it isn't straight; it is not meant to be straight; it is all crookly crawly, going in and out, all round."
"But it don't stand straight," said Matilda; "and it looks thin, too, Maria; it don't puff out as much as the real South America does."
"Puff out!" Maria repeated. "It's as good as Ailie's, anyhow; and a great deal better than Frances Barth's. Frances got a great blot on hers; she's so careless. George Van Dyke is making a nice one; and Ben Barth is doing a splendid map; but then Ben does everything – "
Here there was a great call to tea from below, and the girls went down. Down-stairs there was excitement. A letter had come from Mrs. Candy, Mrs. Englefield's sister, saying that she herself with her daughter Clarissa would be with them the beginning of the week.
"To stay, mamma? O mamma, is Aunt Candy coming to stay? Do tell me. Is she coming to stay?" Maria exclaimed and questioned.
"She will stay a night with us, Maria. Don't be so eager."
"Only a night, mamma? Won't she be here longer?"
"She is coming to stay till summer, Maria," said her eldest sister. "Do be reasonable."
"I think it is reasonable to want to know," said Maria. "You knew; so you didn't care about it."
"I care a great deal; what do you mean?" said Anne.
"I mean you didn't care about knowing. O mamma, can't I have my dress finished before they come?"
"What dress, Maria?" her sister went on; for Mrs. Englefield was busy with the letter.
"My new merino. It is almost done; it only wants finishing."
"There's all the braid to put on, isn't there?"
"Well, that isn't much. Mamma, cannot I have my red merino finished before they come? I have got nothing to wear."
"What can you mean, Maria? You have everything you want. That is only for your best dress."
"But, mamma, it is just when I should want it, when they come; you'll be having everybody to tea. Won't you have it done for me? please, mamma?"
"I think you can do it for yourself, Maria. I have no objection to your finishing it."
"I cannot put on that braid – in that quirlicue pattern, mamma; I never did such work as that; and I haven't time, besides."
"Nor inclination," said Letitia, laughing. "Come, Maria, it is time you learned to do something for yourself. Matilda, now, might plead inexperience, and have some reason; but you are quite old enough."
The dispute would have gone on, but Mrs. Englefield desired silence, and the family drew round the tea-table. Other plans for the following weeks filled every tongue. Mrs. Candy was well off; a widow with one child, her daughter Clarissa; she had been in Europe for several years; coming back now to her own country, she was bending her steps first of all to her sister's house and family.
"We shall have the new fashions, straight from Paris," Anne remarked.
"Has Aunt Candy been in Paris? I thought she was in Scotland, mamma?"
"People may go to Paris, if they have been in Scotland, Maria. It is not so far as around the world."
"But has she been in Paris?"
"Lately."
"Mamma, what is Aunt Candy going to do with herself when summer comes? She says, 'till summer.'"
"When she tells us, I shall know, Letty. At present I am as ignorant as you."
"Do you think she will buy a house here, and make her home here?"
"That depends on how well she likes Shadywalk, I imagine."
"I hope she will!"
"I would like to see, first, what she is," said Maria. "We shall have time enough for that, if they stay with us till summer. How old, mamma, is Clarissa Candy?"
"Over your age, Maria, by a year or so."
"Will she go to school with us, do you suppose, mamma?"
"I really cannot tell, Maria. I think it very likely."
"Is Aunt Candy very rich?"
"You talk like a foolish girl. Why do you want to know?"
"I was thinking whether Clarissa would be dressed a great deal better than we are."
"And what if she is?"
"Nothing. I was thinking. That's all."
"I don't think it signifies," said Matilda.
"Oh! Matilda has found her tongue! I was waiting to see when she would speak," cried Anne. "What don't signify, little one?"
"It don't signify, I think, whether any one is dressed better than another; anybody – Clarissa or anybody else."
"Well, you are mistaken then," said Anne; "for it does signify. All the world knows it; and what is more, all the world feels it."
"I don't think I do," said Matilda.
"Your time has not come."
"Your time had come, though, before you were as old as she," said her mother; "and Maria's and Letty's."
"I know Matilda is a wonderful child," said Anne, "but her time will come too, mamma; and she will find it makes a difference whether she is dressed one way or another."
"I think that now," observed Matilda.
"Anybody that has to fasten Tilly's dresses knows that," laughed Maria. "I don't make half so much fuss."
"I wish you did," said her mother. "You are not near careful enough in putting on your things. Now putting on is half the battle."
The argument lasted till Tilly and Maria went back to the consideration of South America, which was brought down-stairs to the lamp.
"You haven't got the Amazon right," said Matilda; "and Rio Janeiro is too far down; and it's all crooked – don't you see?"
"No!" said Maria; "and if it is, Ailie Swan needn't have said hers was better."
"You asked her."
"Well, if I did?"
"What could she say?"
"I don't care; it was awfully rude; and people ought to be polite, if they're ever so good."
"What is all that?" said Mrs. Englefield. "That is not Tilly's map?"
"Oh no, mamma; she can't draw maps; she is only setting up for a judge."
"She would do it as well as that, if she would try," said her mother. "I wish you would love your studies, Matilda. You could do so well if you pleased."
"Clarissa Candy will make you both ashamed," said Anne. "She has learned everything, and is terribly smart; 'going on to learn everything else,' her mother says."
"Mamma," said Maria, "I have only my green silk and my blue delaine for nice dresses; and the silk is old-fashioned, you know, and the delaine is too short; and I want my merino finished."
"Finish it, then."
Maria pouted.
"I cannot afford every indulgence to you, as your aunt can to Clarissa; you must make it up by your own industry."
"But can I, mamma?"
"Can you what?"
"If I am very smart, can you give me things, if I make them up, that I can be as well dressed as Clarissa Candy?"
"Let us see the merino made first," said her mother.
CHAPTER III
There was great interest now at Shadywalk, at least in one house, to know when the Liverpool steamer, City of Pride, would be in. Conjectures proving unsatisfactory and uncertain, the whole family took to studying the marine lists in the daily papers; and when everybody else had looked them over, the last one of the family did it again with extra care; lest by some singular coincidence the letters forming the City of Pride