Over the Balustrade

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 24, 17 June 1905, Page 6

Over the Balustrade

By

Carolyn Wells

x—Lt-Sr.: An upper hail and the oalUsilaue ut a wiuuiug »iuir-ca»e. r lulu oeiou lucre come sullnui oi all ureueslra playing uon i luu Louie UUI and I’iay Villa .vie. r i out a euauiuer uoor ,enters .Marjorie, 111 a mue ualu-roUe over uer mgnt-uress, auu blue UeU room slippers, sue uoiUs a large coil m ue^arms and steps soitij, looking cautiously about. UU(, goody: -xobouy’s here! 1 just eouidu l stay m bed when 1 beard luai iruiuja iviiu tue mu-ie auu bailees about softly. “OU, the day 1 went to see that opera! 1 lluiiK it was au opera; but anyway n was lovely. We went early, aud at first ail 1 eould sera was a darkish sort oi Ugnt, aud a big, wrinkly curtain; aud Hie boxes were all lull oi spindle-legged wuite ehairs that looked exactly as u they were the skeletons oi people who sal there ever so long ago. "Then the music begau. All the violins aud llutes played together, aud it was just like a big wave oi sounding glory, and it made me leel all quivery, as 11 my soul would burst from my bouy and fly away. Then the curtain went up, aud everything happened at once. it was just one great group oi sparkle, aud a princely lady came in aud stalked around like tins, and then she Hung herself down and died! Oh, it was the funniest tiling 1 ever saw ! i wish mamma would let me go to the opera oftener. i hardly ever can go to things, and I’m 'most sixteen —that is, I'm nearly half of it or more. "Now the music has stopped. 1 can hear them laughing and talking downstairs. Keep still, Emily Augusta, they'll hear you! Are you cold? There, dear, don't cry; little mother will walk you. There, there, baby heart, go to sleep in mother's arms. We’ll go back to bed in a minute; but little mother wants to hear just one more pretty music. Oh, they're playing 'Kiss Me Good-night, Dear Love? Aunt Ethel sings that so sweetly! 1 can sing it, too. I’ll sing it to you, Emily Augusta, if you'll go to sleep.” Sings doll to sleep, and lays it on a couch near by. "Oh, how gay it sounds downstairs! The lovely gentlemen are prancing around, and} the lovelyladies are all decked out with flowers and jewellery. It must be splendid to be a young lady, and have young men send you boxes of roses with the stems sticking out of the end of the box, and violets tied up with cord and tassels. 1 don’t care so much for violets; but the cord and tassels are lovely- to trim dolls' hats. Aunt Ethel gives me all of hers.” Listens. "That’s her voice now. 1 hear her smiling. Oh, my Aunt Ethel is the loveliest thing! I'm glad mother gave this dance for her, because Aunt Ethel let me go to her room and see her dress, and she does look so sweet, dressing. And such a beauty- frock as she put on! It was white and sprinkled all over with embroidery all full of tinyblue stones, just like turquoise measles, and it had the longest train, and such a low neck —that falling-oil effect on the shoulders, you know! Oh, Aunt Ethel did look so sweet! And her Howers! "Ever so many men sent her Howers. She let me open the boxes—all except Mr Phillips’—she opened that herself. And in it were the biggest pink roses in the world. Oh, such beauties! And what do you think? Aunt Ethel put her face right down into them so, and nearly spoiled them. "But that’s Aunt Ethel there, and 1 guess she doesn’t care much for Mr Phillips, ’cause whenever he sends her Howers she doesn’t try to keep them nice and neat; but just kisses them and worries them till they're good for nothing. "1 think there ought to be a cemetery for poor little dead Howers; they’re too pretty to throw away. "Well, she broke the heads off of two or three of her big pink roses, she was so rambunctious. And, anyway, when roses are cold, when they just come in from the street, their heads break off awful easy. I'm glad children aren't like that. S’pose when 1 came in from my walk all cold and rosy, and mamma kissed me, s’pose my head snapped off! “Oh, hear that lovely waltz!” Hums

" La la la, la la la,” and dances about. "1 wish 1 eould be downstairs in it all, instead of up here alone with only a doll, and her sound asleep. "1 am going to peep over the banister, maybe I can see Aunt Ethel.” Goes cautiously to the balustrade and peeps over, then turns away laughing, with her hand over her mouth. “Oh, it’s so funny to see the tops of people’s heads like that! I never say people before from the top. Il’s just like I was in Heaven looking baek to earth.” Looks again. “Oh. there’s Mr. Griswold, and he’s so bald! From here his head looks just like a big, flat mushroom. I don’t -ee

how he ever gets it all under one hat, unless it’s a big picture hat like Aunt Ethel’s. “Oh. he’s looking up! He must have heard me giggle. Now he’s fixing his eye-glass—he’s only got one. I suppose his other eye is made of glass.” Imitates him. “I wonder why he uses his mouth so much to get his eye-glass in place? “Now he’s gone. Oh. there’s Mr. Bentley and Mrs. Vanderveer! Her gown has that falling-off effect, too. Gracious! I should think it had! From here she looks just like a roll-top desk—one of those very light oak ones. Mr. Bentley has funny- hair—it’s so thick and light brown and bushy and bristly. I never

saw the top of it before. Why, it’s just like a door-mat. I should think he’d have ’Welcome’ cut in it, or else his street number. "Now they’re gone. This is just like a parade. 1 never had such fun! If only nobody comes up here! “Oh-ho, there’s Aunt Ethel! Isn’t she beautiful? From here she looks lovely —like a big blue-and-white cream puff. Only it shows where that new hair wave of hers joins her pompadour; but of course that doesn’t show to people downstairs. Who is that with her? Oh, Mr. Denning! She, doesn't like him a bit, 1 know. She hardly- looked at the flowers he sent her. Violets, they- were, tied with a lot of lavender gauze ribbon. Isn’t it queer how you can tell where flowers come from by the things they- have tied on them? Of course you can tell by- the box, too, and to-morrow I'm to have that gauze ribbon to trim Emily Augusta’s new hat—Aunt Ethel said so. "Her pink roses are keeping prettygood. Oh, there’s one just broken off now. and it fell smash on the floor! She didn't see it, though. Now she’s gone, and that lovely big rose is just lying there. I wish I had a bent pin and a string, and I’d hook it up. “Here comes Miss Daisy- French. Why. she has picked up Aunt Ethel’s rose! I’m glad she did. Poor little rose! I should not want it to be all trampled to pieces. "Miss Daisy- is awful thin; she ought to drink milk or take a massage or something; and she’s silly, too. Now Mr. Denning has come, and she’s rolling her eyes at him awfully. This way-, you know. "Aunt Ethel doesn’t aet like that; she's just natural. Oh, Aunt Ethel ’is so sweet! "Now Miss Daisy is talking to Mr. Denning. She’s supposed to be awful witty.” Listens. “Oh.” with an air of disgust, “she said: 'Next time I fall in love, I think it will be with you? Now, isn’t that silly?” Listens again. "And Mr. Denning said: ‘Oh. thank you; but the line at the box office is already so long, and I’m not very- patient? “Isn’t that witty? That’s what they call repartee. They always talk that way- at parties. “Now Miss Daisy said: ‘This is an earnest of it? I wonder what an earnest is. “Now she is putting the rose in his buttonhole. Why. that’s Aunt Ethel’s rose! She wouldn’t like Mr. Denning to wear it; but then she has plenty- more, and Aunt Ethel’s awful generous. “Now they’ve gone away, rose and all. I wish some more people would come. That’s such a cosy little place down there in the corner of the stair-landing. It’s a real cosy-corner. Papa hates it, says it looks like ‘put up complete foils/’; but mother thinks it’s artistic, and Aunt Ethel says it looks as if it would tumble down every minute; but it’s a good flirting place. I suppose it is; but when I grow up I’m not going to flirt under a lot of wobbly old tin spears and helmets, and dusty old Turkish draperies—they’re awful dusty from up here— I want something more romantic. “I’m not going to be silly when I grow up. I shall be haughty and highborn. like a princess or an actress. I shall walk around all proud like this, and wear high-heeled slippers and a, bead chain with tassels on. And when the young men come to see me. I shall hold my hand away out, so. and the young man will kiss it and say: ‘Oh, Princess, live forever!’ and immediately I'll live forever. “Then I’ll say: ‘I pray you sit,’ and of course he’ll sit. Oh, it will be perfectly lovely! I wish it was now; and now I’ve nothing but trouble. I’m so young, and I’m so hungry, and my goldfish is sick besides. “The worst thing is being so young, and then mamma always wants to make me out even younger, at least she does on the street-cars. Why. yesterday, we were going across town and we didn’t have any transfers. We’d been out all the morning and we had so many transfers that our trip was a regular plaid: but this time we didn’t have any, and mamma said she wasn't going to pay for me; she’d say I was five years

old. So when the conductor came along, mamma gave him five cents, and he said awful cross: How old is the child?’ and mamma said five years old, and the conductor looked at me; but I had scro line lied all (town in the seat, and pulled my frock up to my knees, and 1 put my finger in my mouth, and sail: ‘Mamma!” just like a baby. And that conductor jusi grunted and went on. But mamma -pt iled it all by giggling.” Looks over the baluster gain. “(Hi. there’s Mrs. Hopkins! <he does wear the stunningest clothes! I don’t >ee how they fitted that solid jet all over I.er. She’s a funny lady. They say she can’t talk grammar, and 1 don’t believe she knows much ab nit geography. Mamma says she is a rat. Aunt Ethel sins she is a climber, and papa always calls her ‘that glittering atrocity.’ From b'ie she doesn’t look like anything but a big jet cloud with a silk lining. "Xow she’s gone. and. or. goody! Here’s Aunt Ethel again, and Mr. Phillips i> with her. 1 guess they’re both happy: but they don’t look so. Why. I wonder what’s the matter. Aunt Ethel looks as if she was going to cry. Why. I do believe Mr. Phillips is scolding her! (Hi. isn’t he horrid?” Listens, ami her eves open wide in indignation. “He said: ‘And Denning is wearing one of the roses I sent you!’ “Ami Aunt Ethel just said: ‘Yes?’ in that icy littl? way of hers. (Hi. why doesn’t she tell him that she didn't give ler ro-e to that horrid man? I’d tell him myself if 1 dared: but if "hey catch me up here they’ll send me to bed. “Xow Mr. Phillips is taking to her again. He says: ‘You care so little for my Howers, why do you wear them at

“And Aunt Ethel just looks down and picks at the Howers. Oh, she is exasperating! She looks awful pretty, though, except that place on top of her head where her false wave shows; but Mr. Phillips can’t see that. 1 think she’s silly to wear it. anyway, she has just lovely hair of her own; but she says she can’t have that fashionable Marvel effect without wearing it. “<>h. Mr Phillips said: ‘W hy did you give it to him. Ethel?’ in such a tragic tone! Oh. isn’t it lovely! I think he’s going to kill himself or propose to her. or something! I’m so glad I’m here! “Xow Aunt Ethel’s look* ng at him like that big marble lady in the art gallery—Medea. I think her name is. Gracious, she looks as if she’d bite his head off! 1 don’t see what she’s so :i d a bout. “‘Let me pass, please. Mr Phillips!’ Oh. a tint e. what a goose you are! ‘Let me pass, please. Mr Phillips!’ and she’s walking away I ke this.” Holding back her skirt, ami with her chin high in the air. Marjorie stalks otT indignantly. Then she returns and looks over the baluster again. “Ob. that poor Mr Phillips, he’s still standing there, so despa rful. It’s a shame for him to think that Aunt Ethel gave that rose to Mr Denning. I wish I could tell him she didn't! Ahem!” whispers, “Mr Phillips! He can’t hear me. on account of the music playing. Oh. Mr Denning has come, and he's talking to him. 1 can’t hear what he says; but he’s laughing like everything. It must be a good joke, he laughs so hard. Xow. Mr Phillips is laughing too: but it’s different —he’s laughing as if his heart would break. 1 suppose it makes him feel so awful to see that

pink rose in Jack Denning's buttonhole. Now Mr Denning has gone, and Mr Ph ilips looks as sad as my wax doll that got her face melted. 1 must tell him about that rose. "Ahem — ahem-m-ni-m! Mis-ter Phillips! Oh, he can’t hear me, and 1 dare not speak any louder! I wish 1 could drop something down on his head." Looks arounu. "1 don't see anything to drop.” Looks in bathrobe pocket. "No, 1 left my handkerchief under my pillow.” Looks in other pocket. "Oh. here's Emily Augusta's bonnet; this will do, it’s such a light thing." Drops bonnet over baluster. "Oh. it struck him square on the head. Now he's looking up and smiling at me." Whispers: "Mr Phillips, don't look up; but just listen to me. Can you hear me? Well. Aunt Ethel d'd not give that rose to Mr Denning! Oh, yes, I do know what I'm talking about! That rose broke off Aunt Ethel’s bunch and fell to the tloor, and Miss Daisy French picked it up ami put it in Mr Denning’s buttonhole. "Look down, quick, there’s somebody coining! ” Marjorie dyraws back and crouches behind baluster, then rising again, peeps cautiously over. "Have they gon?? Well. anyhow. Phillips, it was all Miss French’s fault—she did it on purpose. Why? Because she doesn't like Aunt Ethel. Well you are stupid! because Miss Daisy likes you, herself, and she thinks you like Aunt. Ethel. You do. don't you? Yes. I thought so. and Aunt Ethel likes you. too. You just ought to have seen hetkiss your Howers when they came! She broke oft' two or three, when, they were so cold, you know: but Mr. Denning didn't get those —f got them myself.

.\ow, you go and hunt Aunt Ethel, and tell her that it’s all right. She’s so stuck up, you know, she never would bell you; but 1 know she thinks you'r< unjust to her. and that's an awful thing for a young man to lie to a young lady. And look here. Mr. Phillips, wait a minute; you'll be unjust to me if you tell that I'm up here! I was sent’ to bed, you know; but I just couldn't sleep, with that lovely music playing. "Now, lie’s gone awav. "Oh. here he comes back again, ami Aunt Ethel is with him." Listens. He is saying: ‘Why dill you let me think you gave that rose to Denning, when yon knew how much 1 cared?” "Oh, isn’t that romantic! 1 think Mr. Phillips is perfertly lovely! "Now Aunt Etliel is speaking; but she doesn't look at him. Siu.* is just looking down at those everlasting roses; but she looks awful pretty. She is saying: ‘How could you think I Mould do such a thing, when you knew — "'How you eared? Oh. Etluel do you care, just a little?' "Now it’s up to Aunt Ethel! Oh, isn’t it exciting? Why. she doesn’t look at him yet: she just smells of those roses. Mr. Phillips. Mis ter Phil lips. ,h,. does care. Honest, she does! "Oh. yes. I'm here yet. No. I don’t want to go to heel! What? A whole box of chocolates? Ami a new French doll? To-morrow? Well. all right, then 111 go right away. But you promise not to tell that I was here. All right. Good, night! "I don’t want to go to bed a bit: but a whole box of chocolates, and a new trench doll! Come on. Emily Augusta We’ll go.”