“Of course if you are going to take her up, why I will let the matter drop,” she gasped. But Miss Pepper did not appear to notice, nor to observe the outstretched hand, but went swiftly out. On the old-fashioned table in the hall was the morning paper, still unread. Wild with chagrin, Miss Fitzwilliam seized it to divert her mind, as the door closed after Phronsie; and whirling the sheet to the social news, read: “Miss Grace Strange Tupper, niece of Mrs. Carroll Atherton, is the guest of Mrs. Jasper King at ‘The Oaks’ Badgertown.”
When Phronsie completed her round of calls, beginning with Mrs. Coyle Campbell, everybody knew that it was to be the fashion to take up Grace Tupper. And each one vied with the others, to be ahead in the matter of sympathy and help.
Then Phronsie hurried down town to buy Polly’s red worsted.
CHAPTER X.
SUCCESS FOR POLLY.
THE grand extra concert, the best of the year, given by the Symphony Orchestra, with Mrs. Jasper King as pianist, was over, and only a delightful memory. Every member of the orchestra declared no such performer on the piano had it ever been their good fortune to accompany, and musical critics went a little wild in their efforts to find adequate expressions to describe her treatment of the theme she had chosen.
It was a great society event; all the fashionable world of Berton being in evidence, with good sprinklings from New York and other towns to overcrowd the house. But Polly, although her heart responded, most especially for Jasper’s sake, to these tokens of cordial interest and admiration, felt her whole soul drawn to the old friends who, here and there, were in conspicuous seats among the audience. They were all there, as far as was possible. Miss Salisbury, who had left her school and the duties that never before allowed her to wander, recklessly dropped all this time into the sub-principal’s hands, and went off to hear her dear old pupil, Polly Pepper.
Cathie Harrison, living in the South with her grandmother, made that old lady pick up her belongings, and take a two weeks’ jaunt, that included Berton on its return. Amy Loughead in New York, under the care of her aunt, Mrs. Montgomery, of course was there; the two happening to take the same train on with the Rev. Joel Pepper, who had collected his friend Robert Bingley for that very purpose.
The Cabots and Van Meters, besides Ben Pepper, who represented that house now, the Alstynes, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Dyce, and a score or more of other old friends, all turned up at the last minute, and electrified Polly with swift glances of recognition across the crowded hall, that cheered her on over the difficult passages better than any applause could possibly have done. Charlotte Chatterton seemed to be the only one left out. She was in Europe, turning out something wonderful, if accounts were true, with her voice—“unlocked by Phronsie’s golden key,” Charlotte always said, in telling how Phronsie’s generous gift of a portion of old Lady Chatterton’s money had made it possible for her to cultivate her one talent. Charlotte’s love for Phronsie was so passionate it seemed to outrun her love for music, making it a dreary exile for her to stay and study abroad. Only the hope of seeing Dr. Fisher and Mother Fisher kept her from running off with a homesick heart to the dear old friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Mason Whitney of course were there, and Van, mightily proud of being in his father’s business, and engaged to one of the sweetest girls born and brought up in his set, “the little blue-and-white creature,” whom Joel so desperately entertained at the Welcome-Home-party years ago. Van had regularly offered himself to Phronsie at any and every opportunity that had presented itself in the past three years, to be as regularly but more gently refused. And now he had wisely concluded to pass that pleasing attention down to Dick, or rather Dick had taken it upon himself, with small care whether or no Mr. Van passed it along. And Van had looked around for the best way to settle in life, to get ready for that partnership with his father which he fondly hoped was just ahead of him; so he proposed and was accepted promptly by Gladys Ray, who had, it seems, been waiting for him all the time; and everybody was delighted; and Van was so important with it all, his mother having brought along little Miss Ray in the party, that Percy, a newly fledged lawyer with his shingle just out, who was in the party also, found it hard to bear with equanimity his unimportance, and the trouble of his monocle, just assumed.
Dick brought along a whole lot of his jolly brother collegians, among them the three who figured in Phronsie’s car episode, and who trusted not to be recognized; but Dick, not knowing anything of it, hauled along this identical trio, after the concert, and presented them, “Mr. Fox, Mr. Beresford, and Mr. Sargent,” when they immediately had the appearance of desiring to melt away again.