So the two spacious rooms were quite remodelled and modernized, and the gloomy appearance was a thing of the past. Why shouldn't he spend his money on her? There was no one else.
He had not lost sight of Anthony Drayton. The father had been exigent. Anthony, being the eldest, must take the farm when he was done with it. The lad had worked his time out. Cousin Chilian had offered him enough to take him to a preparatory school where he would be fitted for college. He had come in to Boston and Chilian had been attracted to the manly young fellow.
Cynthia was more than delighted with the privilege of the tea party.
"Some of the girls have brothers, but I don't know them very well. I like Bentley, but he is away at school. And I'd rather have just girls."
Her admiration of the parlor knew no bounds, and it gratified him.
She had been taking lessons on the spinet, but the painting was a great rival. And this was old, thin, and creaky.
"I have found a much better one in Boston, and the dealer wants this because it was made in London in 1680. How strenuous some people are over old things. It has no special interest that I know of, and is comparatively useless."
The new ones were really the beginning of pianofortes and this one was very sweet in tone.
Chilian had been very greatly interested in the changes. He began to cultivate his neighbors a little more. Indeed improvements were taking place in the town. New streets were laid out, old ones straightened, fine new houses built. There seemed a sudden outburst of commercial grandeur. Furnishings of the richest sort were eagerly caught up by the shoppers, who did not think it necessary to go to Boston and buy goods that had come in port here. Many of the old wooden houses were replaced with brick, and the beautiful doorways, windows, roofs, and porches still attract craftsmen and architects from different sections of the country, while illustrators find rich material in old Colonial doorways.
Miss Winn consulted Mrs. Upham as to what was proper for a girls' tea.