Flags and streamers are flying on the palace roof to-day, and music from bands in the open air adds its charm to a scene too inspiring for description. To-day the shuttles of the silk-looms are silent. The brick-making establishment is represented by a single guard, relieved every two hours; for there must be some one there, as in the silk factory, to answer the questions of visitors. All the workmen are in their holiday dresses, and joy and happiness are on every face. Large numbers of the Social Palace occupants—all who are willing to assume the responsibility of making the visitors comfortable, or to assist in their entertainment in any way—wear a little badge bearing the words “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” When they wish to escape being constantly appealed to for information, they hide their badges for a time; but it is rarely done, for they are as proud as princes of their magnificent home and its surroundings.
Inside the palace, in private apartments, young girls are busy laying out their dresses and finery for the evening ball which is to commence at ten o’clock. No single Cinderella is to stay at home for want of the proper accoutrements. The fairy godmother, in the form of Susie and the count’s munificence, has already been working magic in the way of simple but beautiful ball-dresses, and flowers have already been provided with lavish hands. Not only is the inauguration to be celebrated, but another great event, which as yet is a secret to the greater number; and those who know, will only give hints of the birth of a child, the first that has seen the light in the Social Palace.
By three o’clock in the afternoon not only strangers, but all Oakdale, seems to be on the ground, or enjoying the marvels in the interior of the palace; and carriages and pedestrians are still swarming up the great avenues.
Mrs. Kendrick and Louise, with Mrs. Burnham, have been all the afternoon with Mrs. Forest and her daughters, or with Charlotte and Felix. The doctor has spent all the time he could spare from his various responsibilities in the direction of the festival, with his well-beloved Clara, who is somewhat indisposed, but in an ever-present and still ever-promising state of happiness such as rarely falls to the lot of women. Not a cloud has ever darkened the sky of her married bliss. She is grown even dearer to Paul than ever, and to her he is still the hero of her dreams. There is little danger that the illusions of love will not endure in this case; not because, after a year, they are more ineffably tender to each other; not because there may be new ties to bind them, but because Nature has attuned them to each other
“Like perfect music unto noble words.”
The apartments of the count are in the right wing of the palace, directly under the word Fraternity, emblazoned on the outer wall. The doctor’s are adjoining, on one side, and those of Felix and Charlotte on the other. Charlotte’s marriage had proved a very happy one, despite the croaking of her brother and certain of her old friends. On this afternoon, as Felix was absent, the doctor brought Charlotte in to dine with his family and their visitors. There were no signs of dinner as she entered, but in an incredibly short space of time Dinah, in a gayly-trimmed head-dress, and a ruffled white apron spanning her ample proportions, produced a very elegant repast, without the slightest sign of flurry or over-heating manifested in her shining face.
Mrs. Forest saw that her visitors marveled at this suddenly and easily prepared table, and she explained:
“We scarcely ever do any cooking. When the table is set, Dinah brings, or has brought, from the great cuisine whatever we want. It is under the control of our French citizens—we are all fellow-citizens, you know,” said Mrs. Forest, by way of parenthesis, and with a comical smile, “and nobody can cook as they do.”
“And so you are actually free from all the trouble of marketing and overseeing the cooking,” said Mrs. Kendrick; “but is it not very expensive?”
“On the contrary,” answered Mrs. Forest, “if we were to furnish all these materials, buying them at retail, and Dinah were to cook them, which she could hardly do in a whole day, even if she knew how, it would cost almost twice as much, calculating, of course, for the waste which cannot be avoided in a private family. Many a woman here used her cook-stove at first, but as the palace is all heated by the furnaces in winter, and the kitchen-stove fire not needed, they soon gave it up. Now, even the very poorest go or send their children to the cuisine for whatever they want. After dinner I will show you our wine-cellars. They are well stocked, and the very poorest may drink them. The count has contracted with certain great vineyards in France to supply us. They are of several prices; some very good ones at ten cents a bottle, and fair light kinds for six—half bottles at five and three cents. You know it is his belief, and also the doctor’s, that children should be accustomed to drink wine, diluted with water, of course, as the best and surest means of preventing drunkenness.”