The young ladies had enjoyed the party thoroughly, but the church sociable was another thing, and the blame of it was charged entirely to Edith, who was really not in fault.
Mr. Marks, the rector, was very zealous in his work, and one morning, while calling upon Edith, he broached the subject of the sociable. They were needing so much money, he said, and there was no house in the parish which would accommodate so many people or attract so great a crowd as the house at Schuyler Hill, and he wished Mrs. Schuyler would consent to have the sociable for once.
Edith knew nothing at all of church sociables, or in what disfavor they were held in the house, and answered: “Certainly; I am quite willing if my husband is. You can ask him.” Julia, who was just entering the room, overheard the proposition, and went at once with the news to her aunt and Alice.
“The idea of a Mite Society here,” she said, “with everybody coming, and Mrs. Vandeusenhisen the first to ring the bell, and Mrs. Thockmorton’s hired girl the second. It is preposterous. But father will never allow it, I am sure. Mr. Marks is to ask him, you know?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, my dear, or count upon what your father may or may not do,” Miss Rossiter said, with all the scorn her thin lips could express. “New wives make new laws, and your father is a mere tool in that woman’s hands. Once he had a will of his own, now he has none, save that of her, whose low-born tastes will lead her to consort with such people as a Mite Society will bring.”
Miss Rossiter was very bitter, and something of her poison was communicated to her niece, who was very distant toward Edith at lunch, and on the plea of headache declined to drive with her as she had intended doing. So Emma went instead, leaving her sister and aunt to talk Edith up and wonder if Colonel Schuyler would consent. Julia was sure he would not, and yet she felt glad when she saw him riding up the avenue, inasmuch as she would have an opportunity of speaking to him first. But the rector had seen the colonel in town, and told him of his call upon Edith, and her willingness to have the society, provided her husband did not object.
“Yes, certainly,—a society,—a sociable,—I—I—I am not quite certain I understand just what that is. I do not think I ever went to one,” the colonel said, spitting two or three times and looking a little disturbed.
Mr. Marks explained as well as he could, and expatiated largely upon the good which resulted from these promiscuous assemblies, where all met upon a level, as Christian people should.
“It gives the poor and neglected a chance to get acquainted,” he said, “and thus promotes good feelings and religious growth generally.”