Rosemary's Stepmother
In the sunny morning-room there prevailed an atmosphere of business.Rosemary, at the desk, was rapidly writing notes and addressingenvelopes. Theodore, a deep wrinkle crossing his forehead, wasstruggling to reduce to order a confused heap of crumpled andillegible papers. Before him lay little heaps of silver and smallgold, which he moved and counted untiringly, referring now and thento various entries in a large, flat ledger. Mrs. Bancroft,stepmother of these two, was in a deep chair, with her lap full ofletters. Now and then she quoted aloud from these as she opened andglanced over them. Lastly, Ann Weatherbee, a neighbor, seated on thefloor with her back against Mrs. Bancroft's knee, was sorting alarge hamperful of silver spoons and crumpled napkins into variousheaps."There!" said Ann, presently. "I've finished the napkins--or nearly!Tell me, whose are these, Aunt Nell?"Mrs. Bancroft reached a smooth hand for them and mused over themonograms."B--B--B--?" she reflected. "Both are B's, aren't they? Anddifferent, too. This is Mrs. Bayne's, anyway--I was with her whenshe bought these. But these--? Oh, I know now, Ann! That littlecousin of the Potters',--what was her name, Rosemary?""Sutter, madam! Guess again.""No; but her unmarried name, I mean?""Oh, Beatty, of course!" supplied Ann. "Aren't you clever toremember that! I'll tie them up. Oh, and should there only be elevenof the Whiteley Greek-borders?" she asked presently."One was sent home with a cake, dear,--we had too much cake.""We always do, somehow," commented Rosemary, absently, and there wasa silence. The last speaker broke it presently, with a long sigh."At your next concert, mamma, I shall insist upon having 'pleaseomit flowers' on the tickets," said Rosemary, severely. "I think Ihave thanked forty people for 'your exquisite roses'!""Poor, overworked little Rosemary!" laughed her stepmother."You can look for a new treasurer, too," said Theodore. "This sortof thing needs an expert accountant. No ordinary brain...! What withsome of these women rubbing every item out three or four times, andothers using pale green water for ink, nobody could get a balance."Mrs. Bancroft, smiling serenely, leaned back in her chair,"Aren't they unkind to me, Ann?" she complained. "They would expecta poor, forlorn old woman--Now, Rosemary!"For Rosemary had interrupted her. Seating herself upon the arm ofher stepmother's chair, she laid a firm hand over the speaker'smouth."Now she will fish, Ann," said Rosemary, calmly."Fish!" said Ann, indignantly. "After last night she doesn't have tofish!""You bet she doesn't," said Theodore, affectionately. "Not she! Shegot enough compliments last night to last her a long while.""I was ashamed of myself," confessed Rosemary, with her slowsmile; "for, after all, we're only her family! But father, Ted, andI went about the whole evening with broad, complacent grins--as ifwe'd been doing something.""Oh, I was boasting aloud most of the time that I knew herintimately," Ann added, laughing. "Just being a neighbor and oldfriend shed a sort of glory even on me!""Oh, well, it was the dearest concert ever," summarized Rosemary,contentedly. "The papers this morning say that the flowers were likean opera first night--though I never saw any opera singer get somany here--and that hundreds were turned away!""'Hundreds'!" repeated Mrs. Bancroft, chuckling at the absurdity ofit."Well, mamma, the hall was packed," Ted reminded her promptly. Hegrinned over some amusing memory. "...Old lady Barnes weeping over'Nora Creina,'" he added."Ann, I didn't tell you that Dad and I met Herr Muller at the gatethis morning," said Rosemary, "shedding tears over the thought ofsome of the Franz songs, and blowing his nose on his bluehandkerchief!""And you certainly did look stunning, mamma," contributed Ted."Children... children!" protested Mrs. Bancroft. But the pleasedcolor flooded her cheeks.Another busy silence was broken by a triumphant exclamation fromTheodore, who turned about from his table to announce:"Three hundred and seven dollars, ladies, and thirty-five cents,with old lady Baker still to hear from, and eight dollars to pay forthe lights.""What!" said the three women together. Theodore repeated the sum."Nonsense!" cried Rosemary. "It can't be so much."Mrs. Bancroft stared dazedly."Two hundred, Ted...?" she suggested."Three hundred!" the boy repeated firmly, beaming sympathetically asboth the young women threw themselves upon Mrs. Bancroft, andsmothered her in ecstatic embraces."Oh, Aunt Nell," said Ann, almost tearfully, "I don't know what thegirls will say. Why, Rose, it'll all but clear the ward. It's threetimes what we thought!""Your father will be pleased," said Mrs. Bancroft, winking a littlesuspiciously. "He's worried so about you girlies assuming that debt.I must go tell him." She began to gather her letters together. "Doyou know where he is, Ted? Has he come in from his first round?" sheasked."She's the dearest...!" said Ann, when the door closed behind her."There's nobody quite like your mother.""Honestly there isn't," assented Rosemary, thoughtfully. "When youthink how unspoiled she is--with that heavenly voice of hers, youknow, and every one so devoted to her. She doesn't do a thing,whether it's arranging flowers, or apron patterns, or managing themaids, that people don't admire and copy.""She can't wait now to tell father the news," commented Theodore,smiling."He'll be perfectly enchanted," said Rosemary. "He sent her violetslast night, and this morning, when we were taking all her flowersout of the bathtub, and looking at the cards, she gave me such afunny little grin and said, 'I'll thank the gentleman for thesemyself, Rose!' Ted and I roared at her.""But that was dear," said Ann, romantically."She simply does what she likes with Dad," said Ted, ruminatively.Rosemary, facing the others over the back of her chair, nodded. Annhad her arms about her knees. They were all idle."She got Dad to give me my horse," the boy went on, "and she'll gethim to let us go off to the Greers' next month--you'll see! I can'tthink how she does it.""I can remember the first day she came here," said Rosemary. Sherested her chin in her hands; her eyes were dreamy."George! We were the scared, miserable little rats!" supplementedTheodore. Rosemary smiled pitifully, as if the mother asleep in hercould feel for the children of that long-passed day."I was only six," she said, "and when we heard the wheels we ran--""That's right! We ran upstairs," agreed her brother."Yes. And she followed us. I can remember the rustling of herdress.... And she had roses on--she pinned one on Bess's littleblack frock. And she carried me down to dinner in her arms, and Isat in her lap.""And that year you had a party," said Ann. "I remember that, for Icame. And the playhouse was built for Bess's birthday.""So it was," said Rosemary, struck afresh. "That was all her doing,too. She just has to want a thing, and it gets done! I'll neverforget Bess's wedding.""Nor I," said Ann. "It was the most perfect little wedding I eversaw. Not a hitch anywhere. And wasn't the house a bower? I never hadso much fun at any wedding in my life. Bess was so fresh and gay,and she and George helped us until the very last minute--do youremember?--gathering the roses and wrapping the cake. It was allideal!""Bess told me the other day," said Rosemary, soberly, and in alowered tone, "that on her wedding-day, when she was dressed, youknow, mamma put on her veil, and pinned on the orange blossoms, andkissed her. And Bess saw the tears in her eyes. And mamma laughed,and put her arm about her and said: 'It is silly and wrong of me,dearest, but I was thinking who might have been doing this for youto-day--of how proud she would have been!' Then they came down, andBess was married.""Wasn't that like her?" said Ann. They were all silent a moment.Then the visitor jumped up."Well, I must trot home to my deserted parent, my children," sheexclaimed briskly. "He rages if he comes in and doesn't find me.But, if you ask me, I'll be over later to help you, Rose. Every onein the world will be here for tea. And, meantime, make her rest,Ted. She looks tired to death.""I'll see thee home, Mistress," said Ted, gallantly, and Rosemarywas left alone. Her brother, coming in again nearly an hourafterward, found her still in the same thoughtful attitude, her bigeyes fixed upon space. He knelt, and put his arm about her, and shedrooped her soft, cool little cheek against his, tightening her ownarm about his neck. There was a little silence."What is it?" said the boy, presently."Nothing, Teddy. But you're such a comfort!""Well, but it's something, old lady. Out with it!"Rosemary tumbled his hair with her free hand."I was thinking of--mother," she confessed, very low.His eyes were fast on hers for another short silence."Well,"--he spoke as if to a small child--"what were you thinking,dear?""Oh, I was just thinking, Ted, that it's not fair. It isn't fair,"said Rosemary, with a little difficulty. "Not only Dad and Bess andthe maids, but you and I, too, we can't help idolizing mamma. Andsometimes we never think of mother--our own mother!--except as tiredand sick and struggling--that's all I remember, anyway. And mamma isall strength and sweetness and health.""I--I know it, old lady.""Oh, and Ted!--to-day, and sometimes before, it's hurt me so! Ican't feel--I don't want to!--anything but what I do to mamma, butsometimes--"She struggled for composure. Her brother cleared his throat."She was so wistful for pretty things and good times, even I canremember that," said Rosemary, with pitiful recollection. "And shenever had them! She would have loved to stand there last night, inlace and pearls, bowing and smiling to every one. She would haveloved the applause and the flowers. And it stings me to think of us,you and I, proud to be mamma's stepchildren!""Dad worshipped mother," submitted the boy, hesitatingly."Yes, of course! But he was working day and night, and they werepoor, and then she was ill. I don't think she managed very well.Those frightful, sloppy servants we used to have, and smoky fires,and sticky summer dinners--and three bad little kids crying andleaving screen doors open, and spilling the syrup! I remember her atthe stove, flushed and hot. You think I don't, but I do!""Yes, I do, too," he assented uncomfortably, frowningly."And do you remember the Easter eggs, Ted?"Theodore nodded, wincing."She forgot to buy them, you know, and then walked two miles in thehot spring weather, just to surprise and please us!""And then the eggs smashed, didn't they?""On the way home, yes. And we cried with fury, little beasts that wewere!" said Rosemary, as if unable to stop the sad little train ofmemories. "I can remember that awful Belle that we had, making herdrink some port. I wouldn't kiss her. And she said that she wouldsee if she couldn't get me another egg the next day. And then Dadcame in, and scolded us all so, and carried her upstairs!"She suddenly burst out crying, and clung to her brother. And he lether cry for a while, patting her shoulder and talking to her untilcontrol and even cheerfulness came back, and she could be trusted togo upstairs and bathe her eyes for lunch.When the lunch bell rang, Rosemary went downstairs, to find herstepmother at the wide hall doorway with a yellow telegram in herhand."News from Bess," said Mrs. Bancroft, quickly. "Good news, thankGod! George wires that she and the little son are doing well. Thebaby came at eleven this morning. Dad's just come in, and he'stelephoning that you and I will come over right after lunch. Thinkof it! Think of it!""Bess!" said Rosemary, unsteadily. She read the telegram, and clunga little limply to the firm hand that held it. "Bess's baby!" shesaid dazedly."Bess's darling baby--think of holding it, Aunt Rose!"Rosemary's sober eyes flashed joyously."Oh, I am--so I am! An aunt! Doesn't it seem queer?""It seems very queer to me," said Mrs. Bancroft, as they sat down ona wide window-seat to revel in the news, "for I went to see yourmother, on just such a morning, when Bess herself was just a dayold--it seems only a year ago! Bless us, how old we get! Your motherwas younger than I, you know, and I remember that she seemed to memighty young to have a baby! And now here's her baby's baby! Yourmother was like an exquisite child, Rosey-posy, showing off littleBess. They lived in a little playhouse of a cottage, with bluecurtains, and blue china, and a snubnosed little maid in blue! Ipassed it on my way to school,--I had been teaching for seven yearsor so, then,--and your mother would call out from the garden andmake me come in, and dance about me like a little witch. She wantedme to taste jam, or to hold Teddy, or to see her roses--I used tofeel sometimes as if all the sunshine in the world was for Rose!Your father had boarded with my mother for three years before theywere married, you know, and I was fighting the bitterest sort ofheartache over the fact that I liked him and missed him--not that heever dreamed it! Perhaps she did, for she was always generous withyou babies--loaned you to me, and was as sweet to me as she couldbe." Mrs. Bancroft crumpled the telegram, smiled, and sighed. "Well,it all comes back with another baby--all those times when we wereyoung, and gay, and unhappy, and working together. Bess will lookback at these days sometime, with the same feeling. There is nothingin life like youth and work, and hard times and good times, whenpeople love each other, Rose."Rosemary suddenly leaned over to kiss her. Her eyes were curiouslysatisfied."I see where the fairness comes in--I see it now," she saiddreamily. But even her stepmother did not catch the whisper or itsmeaning.
zpostcode
Recruit
weather
mreligion
Yellowpages
sport
constellation
shopping
name
game
directory
literature
Word
tour
furnish
Lottery
tftnews
lyrics
News
digital
car
dir
Edu
Finance
