“They might have given the money instead of ice-cream and cakes.”
“O, Dorcas, Dorcas, you would expect people to be all made over. Did you ever read Stevenson’s fable of the reformer who thought the first step in reforming the world was to abolish mankind? Let’s not worry about it. I know it’s going to be a success. Isn’t this room the cleanest spot you ever saw?” And Catherine threw back her arms with a gesture to rest her tired shoulders, and looked about her with affection and pride. Bare white walls, with one good engraving, loaned by Judge Arthur, for ornament; plain shelves with rows of neat books, their orderly labels smiling like sets of teeth; the reading-table in the exact center of the room, with three chairs in military array on each side of it, and a few contributed magazines in mathematical piles between two student lamps; and last, Algernon’s small charging desk, with its mysterious cards and rubber stamps under one of the bracket lamps, shining from the polishing Agnes had just given it.
“Isn’t it spick and span?” repeated Catherine, 73 sitting down with precision in the arm-chair, discovered in somebody’s attic.
“Ye-es,” answered Dot slowly, dropping upon one of the arms. “But for all its cleanness it’s about as bare and as inviting as the contagious ward of a hospital, or the dining-room of a state’s prison.”
“Don’t say discouraging things like that, Dot dear,” pleaded Agnes, taking the other arm and snuggling her head against Catherine’s cheek. “A library isn’t supposed to be a parlor, and that engraving is really valuable.”
“I’d rather have a chromo that comes with soap, myself,” said Bert. “Its cold steely look only adds to that hygienic and sanitary aspect Dot detected. It makes me homesick for sunflowers and red flannel.”
“I have an idea,” and Dorcas rose and departed with her usual abruptness.
As she went out of the door, Bess came in.
“O dear!” she said. “Are you all here? I hoped nobody would be.”
“Shall we withdraw?” asked Bert. “We were just commenting on the barrenness of this place, but your presence causes it to blossom as the rainbow. We bask in the refulgence.”