CHAPTER XXIV.MRS. ROGERS GETS WORK.
Gertie seemed from the first much interested in the young ladies at the Hill, but with the exception of the night when Alice came across the fields to speak to me, she had only seen them at a distance, while they, absorbed as they were in more important matters, had scarcely thought of the occupants of the cottage. Alice’s sewing, however, was peremptory, and as her own seamstress did not come back she resolved at last to call on Mrs. Rogers, and drove, with Emma, to the house, where they found Gertie sitting on the low piazza absorbed in a book and making a very striking picture, with her bright hair falling around her face and neck as her blue eyes looked up at the strangers.
“Is your mother at home?” Alice asked; and the child replied:
“She is not my mother, and she is out just now. Can I tell her anything from you?”
“Oh,” Alice said, a little impatiently, “that is just my luck. I wanted so much to see her about some plain sewing. Did you say anything to her about it, child?”
“My name is Gertie. Yes, ma’am, I told her, and I think she’d like to do it. She’s only gone to the village after some molasses. I am expecting her every minute. Will you wait till she comes?”
Alice glanced at Emma, who nodded her assent, while Gertie brought them chairs, and then resuming her own, took up her book again and partly opened it.
“Pray don’t let us disturb you,” Alice said. “We can entertain ourselves. What story are you reading?”
“It isn’t a story,” Gertie replied. “It’s Fasquelle, and I’m getting my lesson.”
“Fasquelle!” Alice exclaimed, in much surprise. “Are you studying French?”
“Yes, ma’am; and I’ve most caught up with the class. Miss Armstrong says I am doing famously. I like it so much, only here is some English which I cannot quite put into French. Theseen’sandne-gueresbother me. Perhaps you can help me?”
And with the utmostsang froidGertie brought her grammar to Alice, and with her finger indicated the troublesome passage, which Alice rendered for her.
“She is a queer little thing,” Alice thought, as she went back to her chair and her lesson, while Emma mentally pronounced her the most beautiful child she had ever seen.
Some such thought flitted through Alice’s mind, and when the lesson was gone through, and Gertie closed her book, she began to question her by asking how old she was, and where she had lived, and what Mrs. Rogers was to her if she was not her mother. And Gertie told her all she knew of herself and her father and mother, and that she had a grandmother and fortypounds a year. And then she spoke of her aunt’s loss in the bank shares, and added:
“After that, we couldn’t lodge any more, because, you see, we are poor, and so we came to America to seek our fortune and be near Norah, Mrs. Schuyler’s maid, who is auntie’s cousin, you know.”
Here was an opportunity for learning something definite of Edith, and Alice was about to question Gertie when Mrs. Rogers appeared, a jug of molasses in one hand and a basket of eggs in the other. She seemed flurried and surprised at sight of the ladies, and asked Gertie why she had not invited them in.
“We are better here,” Alice said. “We only came on business. I am wanting some plain sewing done, and called to see if you can do it for me.”
She was civil enough, and Mrs. Rogers, who really wanted work, signified her willingness to do anything she could. Specimens of her handiwork were brought forth for examination, and Alice criticised and offered suggestions with the manner of a woman of forty, and finally arranged to try her, provided the price was not too high. That, too, proved satisfactory, and then the young lady arose to take leave, saying:
“Perhaps you will let your little girl come for the work, to-morrow.”
“No, I will go myself,” Mrs. Rogers answered quickly, and added, in an undertone: “it is not as if she were my own child, and in my station in life. She is different, and must be brought up different. I mean she shall have the very best of educations. Do you know of any piano I can rent, or of any place where she can go to practise? I mean her to take lessons at once.”
Alice stared wonderingly at her, and answered rather haughtily that she knew nothing about renting pianos, or places where one could practise.
“Such airs!” she said to Emma, as they walked home together. “French and music with clear-starching and plain sewing. That girl will be much better off to be brought up to work than to get such notions into her head.”
“Yes, but isn’t she pretty?” Emma said, remembering theflowing hair, the soft, blue eyes, and the fair, round face more distinctly than she did Fasquelle, and the airs which had so offended Alice.
“Pretty enough. Such people often are when young, but they always degenerate sadly.”
“Yes, but she is not likesuchpeople,” Emma rejoined. “Don’t you remember what the woman said?”
“Yes, I know. The child has a grandmother and forty pounds a year, but for all that I reckon she is about like Mrs. Rogers, and would much better be learning to sew than playing the piano. I wonder if she would not like to practise on your beautiful Steinway.”
Alice spoke contemptuously, not from any feeling toward Gertie especially, but from contempt for those of her class who aspired to something better. They had no business to be ambitious; it was their duty to be content in the station where God had placed them. This was her theory, and she continued to dwell upon it even after she reached home, and made a good deal of fun of the girl with forty pounds a year and a grandmother, who had asked her help in French, and was going to take music lessons!