Chapter I.
There was a gentlemanly raising of hats and a womanly fluttering of skirts at the Ferrises' door. The hats were borne down the dark avenue, and could be seen, occasionally, swinging briskly along under the light of successive lampposts. They were very stylish hats.
The skirts made a soft scurrying sound as they rustled upstairs, and along the dim hall, disappearing into the rooms of their owners. They were very dainty skirts.
Nan closed her door, turned up the gas, stood a moment pouting at herself in the glass, pulled the wilted roses from her belt with an impatient jerk, tossed her pretty evening dress across a chair, exchanged her boots for a pair of slippers, and stole noiselessly into Evelyn's room to talk over the party with that dear sister and Cathy, who was staying with them, as a guest.
She found those two persons waiting for her, while they straightened out the fingers of their long gloves.
"Well, girls," began Nan, seating herself lazily upon the middle of the bed, "there is just one solitary comfort left after an utterly stupid evening like this: you can express your feelings to your dearest friends, and here I am to express!"
"Go on, then," sighed her sister, ruefully examining a stain on her fan; "but don't speak too loud or you will waken the household."
"Oh, you needn't be afraid, Evelyn; I'm not in one of my fire-cracker moods. No, I'm cool; I have the calmness of stern resolve; I speak from that tranquil height which lies beyond emotion!" declaimed Nan, pulling out the hairpins from her artistic coils.
"What notion have you in your busy head now? Hasten to divulge, for it is very late," suggested Cathy.
"Late! who cares? I shall save years of sleep by wasting this midnight's gas!" and Nan showed a gleam of fire in her eye as she gave the pillow a vindictive thump.
"Well," yawned Cathy, "proceed at once"; and forthwith the audience curled itself up on the lounge, regarding the speaker with expectant amusement, while she, after finishing off an intricate pattern in hairpins, thus began:
"Ahem—ladies—the subject of society in general and parties in particular, ladies and gentlemen," waving her hand toward sundry photographs standing about on Evelyn's writing-desk, "has been under consideration for some time. Ergo, I don't go to another one! So there! That's settled. From this time forth I shall proceed to enjoy life in a rational way."
With this conclusion to her rapid speech, she scattered her design over the bedspread with one destructive finger, and flashed upon her hearers two bright, snapping eyes, showing that she was in earnest, despite her nonsense.
Cathy gasped, while Evelyn exclaimed:
"Why, Nan, what happened? Didn't you have a gay time?"
This remark set Nan off, like a match to powder.
"Gay? Oh, bewilderingly, intensely gay! Yes, it was just that—'gay,' and nothing more. The party was all right, indeed better than most, from a high moral point of view, for my hair staid in curl and my gloves didn't burst; I danced with the most stylish goose in the room; I ate an ice with conceited Tom Lefferts in the conservatory; I opened and shut my fan and smiled and raised my eyebrows the requisite number of times to produce the effect of having a delightful time! Oh—
'I would not pass another such an eve, Though 't were to buy a world of happy days.'"
This vivid speech was uttered in irony so cold that it would have been quite thrilling if Nan hadn't given the pillow another vehement poke in the middle, which made its four corners swell up in stiff remonstrance.
"Goodness!" exclaimed Cathy, with a laugh, "what in the world are you going to do about it, Nan? There is a full supply of nonsense in the world, I admit, but we can't reform the feature of the time, and we must have some fun——"
"Fun!" interrupted Nan hotly. "Who is objecting to fun? Who loves fun better than I? But who has fun at these shows? Did you have a really happy time to-night, Cathy? Own up now. You know that, when the flutter is over, you can't remember one single thing worth remembering. Does it pay?"
"But we can't help it. What are you going to do—turn blue-stocking or prig, Nannie, love?" mildly inquired Evelyn.
"'Prig'—'blue-stocking'—no, I hate the very words," said Nan, adding, "I'm seeking just what you are; the only difference is, I'm going to get it and you are not. But go on, sweet children, go on giving your hair extra frizzlings, go on smiling divinely at vapid nothings, and eating numberless plates of cream—it is a noble future to contemplate! But let me tell you, deluded creatures, that you will drag home just so many times neither benefited nor amused, and the last state of all such will be worse than the first. Let us weep!"
THE GIRLS DISCUSS THE PARTY.
And now the poor pillow went flying off upon the floor, while Nan laughed at her own peroration.
Her spell-bound hearers gave two gigantic sighs, while Cathy seized a cologne-bottle to restore Evelyn, who reclined tragically upon the lounge, feigning to be completely overcome.
After they had succeeded in controlling their emotions, Cathy said in a wailing voice:
"Yes, Nan, I have a realizing sense that you are more than half right; for I do believe that, when, after such an evening, I survey my giddy self in the glass, I sigh more often than I smile."
Nan, who was venting her yet unspent spite in braiding her hair into tight little curls, gave her head an emphatic nod and declared her fell intention of finding some way out of her slough of despond. Then as the last braid dwindled to three hairs, she descended from the platform, and thus concluded:
"Ladies and gentlemen, thanking you for your kind attention, I beg leave to announce that there will be another solemn conclave in regard to this vital subject, on the side veranda, to-morrow morning at ten o'clock. Good-night, you dear old things, you are nearly asleep, and I've wearied you more than did that wretched party. Why, no! Cathy's eyes are wide open! Mercy on us, Cathy thinks she's thinking! Go on, dear, it wont harm you at all."
"NAN LAY IN THE HAMMOCK THINKING."
With this parting fling, she hopped to the door, holding in her hand one slipper, which she waved tragically, exclaiming, "Farewell, base world!" and was gone.
"What a girl she is!" said Evelyn, as the audience unbent itself. "She didn't give me a chance to agree with or to combat her theories; but, do you know, I am tired of it, too, just as much as Nan is, only she has vigor enough to rebel at the thraldom of her bright, natural self, while I keep on and on from mere inertia."
"Well," said Cathy, slowly winding her watch, "I was thinking, as Nan said—but it is one o'clock, and I shall not say another word until to-morrow."