Everybodys Lonesome | Page 6

the excitement of Godmother's delight had subsided, "I've always said that the three most important beauty fairies for a girl to find are the how-to-stand fairy, the how-to-dress fairy, and the what-to-do-with-your-hair fairy. Anybody can find them all; and nobody who has found them all needs to feel very bad if she can't find some of the others who have her christening gifts."
Mary Alice began looking for the others, right away. But even one fairy had transformed her, outside, from an ordinary-looking girl into a young woman with a look of remarkable distinction; just as Godmother had transformed her, within, from a girl with a dreary outlook on life, to one who found that
"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
"Is this the Secret?" she asked Godmother, that night.
"Oh, dear, no!" laughed Godmother, "only the first little step towards realizing it."

IV
BEING KIND TO A TIRED MAN
One day when Mary Alice had been in New York nearly two weeks--and had found several fairies--Godmother was obliged to go out, in the afternoon, to some sort of a committee meeting which would have been quite uninteresting to an outsider. But Mary Alice had some sewing to do--something like taking the ugly, ruffly sleeves of cheap white lace out of her blue taffeta dress and substituting plain dark ones of net dyed to match the silk; and she was glad to stay at home.
"If an elderly gentleman comes in to call on me, late in the afternoon but before I get back home," said Godmother, in departing, "ask him in and be nice to him. He's a lonely body, and he'll probably be tired. He works very hard."
Mary Alice promised, and went happily to work on the new sleeves which were to give her arms and shoulders something of an exquisite outline, in keeping with the fairy way of doing her hair, which Godmother had taught her to admire in a beautiful marble in the Metropolitan Museum.
About five o'clock, when Godmother's neat little maid had just lighted the lamps in the pretty drawing-room and replenished the open fire which was one of the great compensations for the many drawbacks of living in an old-fashioned house, the gentleman Godmother had expected called.
Mary Alice went in to see him, and explained who she was. He said he had heard about her and was glad to make her acquaintance.
He seemed quite tired, and Mary Alice asked him if he had been working hard that day.
"Yes," he said, "very hard."
"Wouldn't you like a cup of tea?" she asked. And he said he would.
When the tea came, he seemed to enjoy it so much that Mary Alice really believed he was hungry. Indeed, he admitted that he was. "I haven't had any luncheon," he said.
Mary Alice's heart was touched; she forgot that the man was strange, and remembered only that he was tired and hungry.
The little maid brought thin slices of bread and butter with the tea. Mary Alice felt they must seem absurd to a hungry man. "I know what's lots nicer with tea," she said.
"What?" he asked, interestedly.
"Toast and marmalade," she answered. "I'm going to get some." And she went to the kitchen, cut a plateful of toasting slices and brought them back with a long toasting fork and a jar of orange marmalade.
"At home," she said, "we often make the toast for supper at the sitting-room fire, and it's much nicer than 'gas range toast.'"
"I know it is," he said; "let's do it."
So they squatted on the rug in front of the open fire. Both wanted to toast, and they took turns.
"I don't get to do anything like this very often--only when I come here," he said, apologizing for accepting his turn when it came.
"Don't you live at home?" asked Mary Alice.
"Well, no," he answered, "I'd hardly call what I do 'living at home.'"
There was something about the way he said it that made Mary Alice feel sorry for him; but she didn't like to ask any more questions.
They had a delightful time. Mary Alice had never met a man she enjoyed so much. He liked to "play" as much as Godmother did, and they talked most confidentially about their likes and dislikes, many of which seemed to be mutual. Mary Alice admitted to him how she disliked to meet strangers, and he admitted to her that he felt the very same way.
Godmother tarried and tarried, and at six o'clock the gentleman said he must go.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Mary Alice. "I'm sorry! I'm having such a nice time."
"So am I," he echoed gallantly, "but I'm hoping you will ask me again."
"Indeed I will!" she cried. "We seem to--to get on together beautifully."
"We do," he agreed, "and if it's a rare experience for you, I