Laughing Last - Jane Abbott (portable ebook reader .txt) š
- Author: Jane Abbott
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Then Sidney heard for the first time of Isoldeās invitation to the Deerings. Isolde had thrown it in self-defense at Mrs. Milliken. āI do not expect to be here, Mrs. Milliken. I am going to Professor Deeringās for July and August to help him with his new book.ā Sidney turned away to hide a sudden smile, not, however, before she caught Trudeās eyes anxiously upon her.
Then the Eggāseventy whole dollarsācame on the same day that Godmother Jocelyn informed Vick by telegram that if she could be ready by the first of July she could go with her to California by way of the Canadian Rockies. āBe ready! Well, I should just say I could!ā Vickās eyes had shone like stars against a velvet black sky and Sidney had again intercepted that anxious glance from Trude.
Isolde considered this an auspicious moment, with all the excitement over Vick, to break to Sidney their plans for the summerāplans hurried to a head by the Leagueās announcement.
āAnd Trudeās going to Long Island with the Whites, dear, but you wonāt be lonely with Huldah. You can have Nancy here and probably she will invite you down to Cascade.ā
āOh, thereās a letter from Huldah on the table in the hall! I meant to bring it in and forgot,ā cried Vick.
āGet it, dear,ā asked Isolde, gently, of Sidney. Action would help Sidney control her disappointmentāif the child was disappointed. Perhaps Trude was over-apprehensive.
Trude hastily scanned the few lines of the letter Sidney put into her hands. āOh, dear,ā she exclaimed āHuldah canāt come.ā
Could any fairy godmother, indeed, have shaped circumstances with more kindly hand?
āShe says she canāt leave her niece. Her nieceās just had a baby. And her rheumatism is bad.ā
āI call that rank disloyalty,ā cried Isolde with spirit. āAfter all weāve stood from Huldah!ā
āWhatāll we do? Canāt we make her come? Doesnāt she owe us more consideration than her niece?ā
Trude put the letter down. āHuldah isnāt disloyal. You know that, Isolde. And she doesnāt owe us anything. Donāt forget, Vick, that she worked for us for years for almost nothing when she could have gone anywhere else and received good pay. This house is damp and big and Huldah is old. No, we canāt beg her to comeāover this. It was probably hard for her to refuse. Iāll stay home with Sid. Weāll have lots more fun here together than Iād have with Aunt Edith White on Long Islandāin spite of the League. Will we not, Sid?ā
There was so much more sincerity in Trudeās honest blue eyes than any suggestion of self-sacrifice that Sidney ran around to her and hugged her. She longed to tell Trude and the others of her own budding plansāonly she had not received as yet an answer from Cousin Achsa. So all she could say was: āWe just wonāt mind the League!ā
And then that very afternoon the postman, meeting her outside the wall, had handed her an envelope addressed to āMiss Sidney Ellis Romleyā and postmarked Provincetown!
Sidney ran with it straight to her attic retreat. Her heart within her breast hurt with its high hopes. There was a Cousin Achsaāher own letter had reached her and had been answered! She studied the unfamiliar writing on the envelopeāit was a big sweeping script. The envelope felt fine and soft in her fingers and smelled faintly of a fragrance that was not of flowers and yet distinctly pleasant. Oh, this Cousin Achsa must be wealthy, like Pola!
She broke the envelope and spread out the double sheet it contained. At its top she read, āMy dear little Cousin.ā She paused long enough to wonder why Cousin Achsa thought that she was little.
āMy dear little Cousin:
āOf course you may come to visit us. We shall enjoy learning to love a young cousin who must be delightful if we can judge from her letter. We blame ourselves and the miles that have separated us for not knowing anything of āSidney Ellis Romleyā until yesterday, though we knew your mother in days long past. Will you write and tell us when we may expect you? Can a girl of fifteen find her way to this outlying bit of country? If you decide you cannot perhaps we can arrange for you to come with someone. We await your word with affectionate anticipation.
Sidney blinked hard simply to be certain that the words actually lay before her eyes. Then she read it again and againāaloud. Oh, it was too wonderful to believe. It was a beautiful letterāCousin Achsa must surely live in the square white house on the eminence she had pictured. She had written āweā so perhaps Cousin Asabel still lived or maybe there were young cousins. Anyway, they wanted her. She hugged the letter to her and rushed off to find the girls. Oh, Huldah could stay with her niece if she wanted to! And Trude could go to Long Island! The Leaguers could come and camp in the house! Guided by the murmur of voices Sidney broke headlong into an informal conference of the older sisters. Her drama-loving soul could not have built a more perfect stage, nor asked a more thrilling moment of denouement. Isolde had just declared generously, that she could not enjoy a day of her stay with the Deerings if Trude had to give up the Long Island plans.
āIt isnāt as though we girls received invitations every day,ā she explained tearfully. āAnd itāll be stupid for you here, Trude, with just Sidney. Perhaps itās my duty to stay home and help Mrs. Milliken.ā
āYour sacrifice is quite unnecessary!ā Sid answered in such a queer voice that the three older girls stared at her in alarm. In truth her flushed face and wild eyes gave strength to the sudden conviction that she had gone mad! She fairly leaped at Isolde and flung her letter into Isoldeās lap. āI guess ājust Sidā is capable of making her own plans!ā
Sidney had a momentās terror that she was ābeginningā wrong but Isoldeās remark which she had overheard had upset all her preplanned diplomacy. Now she stood back, anxiously, and watched Isolde read the letter.
As Isolde read it aloud she punctuated it with excited exclamations.
āāMy dear little CousināāWhy, Sid, how did you happen to write to her? How did you know she wasnāt dead? WhyāāOf course you may come and visit us!ā Sid, what have you been doing? Whyāā and so, to the end.
Sidney drew a long breath and braced herself. Her explanation tumbled out with such incoherence that the girls kept interrupting her to ask her to repeat something. Well, they had told her she could use the Egg any way she wanted to and she wanted to go somewhere a long way offāon a train. One always had to visit someone or with somebody and sheād remembered these cousinsā
āWhy, how could you, Sid? I donāt think youāve ever heard us speak of them. Iām sure Iād almost forgotten themāā
āWell, I did. Bloodās thicker than water,ā witheringly, āand maybe you can just remember relatives without ever hearing anything about them. Sheās nice, I know, because her father was persevering and thriftyāā
A sudden laugh from Vick brought Sidney to an abrupt stop. But Isolde, rebuking Vick with a lift of her right shoulder, turned her attention again to the letter.
āItās a very nice letterāaāa cultured letter, donāt you think so, Trude? Somehow I have always had the idea that these relations in the Eastāthe Greensāwere very poor andāwell, uneducated. But this letter doesnāt look like it. And they actually seem to want Sidney to come!ā
āItās a long wayāā Trude put in.
āBut I want to go a long way. I donāt just want to go to some place right near homeālike Cascade. Thereās money enoughāNancy and I asked at the railroad station. And the man there gave me a timetable with all sorts of interesting pictures on it. Itās the very most interesting place I ever heard ofāitās an education. I want to go. IāveāIāve never been anywhere.ā
Isolde was trying not to look as though this unexpected development of things was pleasing but she simply could not suppress the thought that in permitting Sid to go to these cousins lay their one chance of happy escape for their summer. After allāthese Cape Cod relatives were first cousins of their motherās, her very own people. She wished she could remember what her mother had told of them from time to time but it could not have been anything to their discredit or she would have remembered. And the letter, in its woody fragrance, the bold sweep of the handwriting, the expensive texture of the paper, bespoke culture, even wealth. However, with a lingering sense of duty, she reminded Sidney that this Cousin Achsa must be very old.
As if that mattered! Sidney flung out an impatient hand. It was like Isolde to sit rock-fashion and trump up reasons why sheād better not go. But Vick came unexpectedly to her aid.
āIf sheās oldāall the better. Sheāll make Sid behave herself. I think this is the luckiest thing that could have happened. Now we can all go away. Sid wanted adventureāsheāll have it with Cousināwhatās her name?ā
Though she writhed under the tone in Vickās voice Sidney bit her lips over the retort that sprang to them. Anyway, she would have her adventure. She wanted to go on the train all alone; the ticket office man had said it would be quite safe and had told her that heād write something on a card that she could show to each conductor. Sheād like not to have even to do that, for that seemed a little babyish.
Trude had found a reassuring thought. āIāll be near enough, anyway, so that if Sid gets homesick or finds that things arenāt just what sheād like them to be she can telegraph to me and come home. You will, wonāt you, kid?ā
Sid promised hastily. Then for the next half hour everything whirled about her; she could not believe what her ears heard, what her eyes beheld. The girls were actually planning for herāclothes, trunks, tickets, trains. Trude was figuring and making notes on the back of Cousin Achsaās letter. It was, āSid will need thisāSid had better do thatāit will be nice for Sid to see thisāI think by way of Boston is the better routeāyouād better write to Cousin Achsa, TrudeāNo, let Sid write herselfāhad we ought to consult the Trustees? Why, weāre old enough to decide this for ourselvesāsheād better go just before Vick and then we can pack away our intimate things and turn the house over to the League.ā
āDidnāt Evangeline come from somewhere up that way? Oh, no. Well, I always think of Cape Cod and Nova Scotia as being off there on the map together. Anyway, write and tell us, kid, when you find the Chalice or Grail or whatever it is! If you discover any untrodden fields of romanceāwire us and weāll send one of Issyās poets downāā
Now, in her exalted spirit Sid could meet Vickās raillery with a level glance. Let Vick laugh! Cape Cod wasnāt off āsomewhereā in a corner of the map. It was as intriguing as the Canadian Rockies. And she had a lot shut away in her heart about which Vick and the others knew nothing. All that about the good ship Betsy King. Betsy King had foundered as a good ship should, but there was a big chance that Cousin Asabel, Ezekielās son, might have a boat. Then she had a glimpse into a beautiful world that Pola had given her; she would see Polaās world from the train window.
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