“What would you do if you were rich?”
Miss Parker opened her eyes enthusiastically.
“I’d buy trunkfuls of these fascinating things,” she held up a chemise they had been examining. “And some dresses, I suppose, though I don’t care for dresses so much as all the white things, with lace and embroidery.” Then her eyes grew thoughtful as she contemplated more permanent acquisitions. “I would have a cottage in the country, somewhere in the woods, and I would have pigs and horses and cows and chickens and roses and dogs. And have all white dimity, you know. Coffee in bed and nothing to do all the morning but putter around.”
Adela Anthon laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to be a man?”
Miss Parker opened a pair of astonished eyes. “Why? I should have to work, and I couldn’t wear dresses. Do you know the story about the monkeys? If they showed they could work they would have to do something. See? So they have never let on what they could do. Terrible wise, the monkeys.”
“Well, I suppose you will marry.”
“I suppose so,” she sighed. “Mrs. Dexter thinks I am hard to suit. They say I am flirtatious and not serious; but I have to let the men talk. I can’t tell whether a man will be the right one until he has made love to me. You see when a nice young man comes along I think he may be the one, and he interests me terribly. I let him talk and talk, and then when he proposes he scares me, for I find I don’t want him. It’s so hard to get rid of them nicely without hurting their pride too much. Mrs. Dexter says I shall be an old maid, and it will all be my own fault. I haven’t any money, she says, and only enough good looks to carry me a little way, and no accomplishments. I shouldn’t be so stuck on myself. But I can’t help it, and I suppose I may be an old maid. Wouldn’t it be awful, though, not to be married in the end, and not to have any kids?”
Miss Anthon kissed her laughingly. “No danger! What did you do with Walter? Did he propose this time?”
Miss Parker looked at her friend slyly, until the two laughed again nervously. “He doesn’t really want to do anything so rash. It would be nice to be your sister. Not if you should marry Erard, though.”
Miss Anthon moved nervously. “There’s little danger! He has dismissed me from serious consideration, told me I was an idiot.”