Julia The Apostate | Page 2

first six months of her sojourn had been almost entirely occupied
with accustoming herself to the absence of an attic and a cellar; long
days of depression they learned, finally, to trace to this incredible
source. Later she dealt with the problem of subsisting from eight till
one on two rolls and a cup of coffee; successfully, in the ultimate issue,
as surreptitious bits of fried ham and buckwheat cakes, with suspicious
odors, winked at discreetly by her nieces, witnessed. It would have
been unkind, as Elise suggested, to criticise Aunt Ju-ju's performances
at the ungodly hour of seven in the morning, when their own correctly
Continental repast, flanked by a chrysanthemum in a tall vase, not only
tallied so accurately with their digestive and aesthetic necessities, but
appeared, moreover, with such gratifying regularity one hour later.
Both Carolyn and her sister had inherited from their mother, Miss
True-man's older sister, a real gift for teaching, and this, rather than
their respective abilities in art and music, enabled them to impart very
successfully the elements of these necessary branches to the young
ladies of a fashionable boarding-school just outside the city.
It was politely regretted by their friends that they were unable to give
themselves unreservedly to the exercise of their art without the

cramping necessity for teaching; but it is probable that both the girls
estimated their not too extraordinary talents very sensibly, though far
from displeased by a more flattering judgment.
Miss Trueman, who possessed the characteristic veneration of the bred
and born New Englander for his native or imported school-ma'am,
resented persistently their somewhat patronizing attitude toward the
profession second only to the ministry in her stanch respect. A little of
the simple grandeur of those childhood days when "the teacher boarded
with them" clung with the ineradicable force of habit to her mind, and
she could not understand their restive attitude at "the fine positions as
teachers Hattie's girls have got."
"I'm sure you make more money than that Miss Seymour that gets her
own meals in her room--she said so herself."
"Oh, well, there are other things to be considered, Aunt Ju; and,
anyway, she's a real bohemian, Polly Seymour. There's a fascination in
it."
"There's no fascination in being hungry that I can see, and she admitted
that, L--Elise," Miss Trueman insisted severely. "I don't understand
how she could have done it--I would have died first. And she seemed to
think it was a great joke to have her friends give her a dinner--I think it
was terrible."
"Why, Aunt Jule, how ridiculous! We were delighted to do it--it was
perfectly dear of her to let us, too. And think of the people we met
there--Rawlins and Mr. Ware! You don't mind being poor if such men
will come just out of interest in you, I tell you. Do you remember, Elise,
how Mr. Rawlins called her 'little girl'? Mr. Ware lets her use his
models whenever she likes, too," Carolyn added respectfully.
"Oh, she's bound to arrive!" Elise agreed.
Aunt Ju-ju sniffed uncontrolledly.
"I should hope she'd arrive at the point where she could buy her own

dinners," she remarked. "To be beholden for your bread"...
Here were two points of view as little likely to coincide as the parallel
lines of science, and at some such stage as this the discussions were
wont to cease.
To-day the apartment was swept and garnished for a social function
long planned by the nieces. Carnations leaned from tall glass vases,
intricate little cakes jostled carefully piled sandwiches, and a huge brass
samovar, borrowed for the occasion, gave dignity to the small parlor.
Miss Trueman had learned by now the unwritten law that prevented the
various objects in the once proudly segregated "drawing-room set"
from association with each other, and made no attempt to correct their
intentional isolation. The samovar she refused utterly to meddle with,
assuring them that she would as soon think of running a locomotive.
As the guests began to arrive Miss Trueman found herself regarding
them even more critically than usual; an argumentative spirit rose in
her, and her calm contradiction of Mrs. Ranger, who discussed with
great subtlety the notable advantages--even from the artistic point of
view--of the approaching spring when experienced in the city, in
comparison with that be-rhymed season's vaunted country beauties,
startled more than one person.
"Just because they're more delicate, just because you must look harder
to discover them, just because you must get as much from a pot of
hyacinths on the Avenue as from a whole field of primroses in the
backwoods, you know," she concluded, and the little circle nodded
sagely and congratulated themselves on an unpublished paragraph.
"I don't agree with you, Mrs. Ranger," said Aunt Ju-ju flatly, to the
absolute amazement of her nieces