Maidas Little Shop | Page 3

was so comic that she always laughed--not with him but at him.
"All right," Billy agreed pleasantly; "I'll put the greatest creative mind of the century to work on the job."
"You put it to work at once, young man," Dr. Pierce said. "The thing I'm trying to impress on you both is that you can't wait too long."
"Buffalo" Westabrook stirred uneasily. His fierce, blue eyes retreated behind the frown in his thick brows until all you could see were two shining points. He watched Maida closely as she limped back to the car. "What are you thinking of, Posie?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing, father," Maida said, smiling faintly. This was the answer she gave most often to her father's questions. "Is there anything you want, Posie?" he was sure to ask every morning, or, "What would you like me to get you to-day, little daughter?" The answer was invariable, given always in the same soft, thin little voice: "Nothing, father--thank you."
"Where are we now, Jerome?" Dr. Pierce asked suddenly.
Mr. Westabrook looked about him. "Getting towards Revere."
"Let's go home through Charlestown," Dr. Pierce suggested. "How would you like to see the house where I was born, Maida--that old place on Warrington Street I told you about yesterday. I think you'd like it, Pinkwink."
"Pinkwink" was Dr. Pierce's pet-name for Maida.
"Oh, I'd love to see it." A little thrill of pleasure sparkled in Maida's flat tones. "I'd just love to."
Dr. Pierce gave some directions to the chauffeur.
For fifteen minutes or more the men talked business. They had come away from the sea and the streams of yellow and red and green trees. Maida pillowed her head on the cushions and stared fixedly at the passing streets. But her little face wore a dreamy, withdrawn look as if she were seeing something very far away. Whenever "Buffalo" Westabrook's glance shot her way, his thick brows pulled together into the frown that most people dreaded to face.
"Now down the hill and then to the left," Dr. Pierce instructed Henri.
Warrington Street was wide and old-fashioned. Big elms marching in a double file between the fine old houses, met in an arch above their roofs. At intervals along the curbstones were hitching-posts of iron, most of them supporting the head of a horse with a ring in his nose. One, the statue of a negro boy with his arms lifted above his head, seemed to beg the honor of holding the reins. Beside these hitching-posts were rectangular blocks of granite--stepping-stones for horseback riders and carriage folk.
"There, Pinkwink," Dr. Pierce said; "that old house on the corner--stop here, Henri, please--that's where I was brought up. The old swing used to hang from that tree and it was from that big bough stretching over the fence that I fell and broke my arm."
Maida's eyes brightened. "And there's the garret window where the squirrels used to come in," she exclaimed.
"The same!" Dr. Pierce laughed. "You don't forget anything, do you? My goodness me! How small the house looks and how narrow the street has grown! Even the trees aren't as tall as they should be."
Maida stared. The trees looked very high indeed to her. And she thought the street quite wide enough for anybody, the houses very stately.
"Now show me the school," she begged.
"Just a block or two, Henri," Dr. Pierce directed.
The car stopped in front of a low, rambling wooden building with a yard in front.
"That's where you covered the ceiling with spit-balls," Maida asked.
"The same!" Dr. Pierce laughed heartily at the remembrance. It seemed to Maida that she had never seen his curls bob quite so furiously before.
"It's one of the few wooden, primary buildings left in the city," he explained to the two men. "It can't last many years now. It's nothing but a rat-trap but how I shall hate to see it go!"
Opposite the school was a big, wide court. Shaded with beautiful trees--maples beginning to flame, horse-chestnuts a little browned, it was lined with wooden toy houses, set back of fenced-in yards and veiled by climbing vines. Pigeons were flying about, alighting now and then to peck at the ground or to preen their green and purple necks. Boys were spinning tops. Girls were jumping rope. The dust they kicked up had a sweet, earthy smell in Maida's nostrils. As she stared, charmed with the picture, a little girl in a scarlet cape and a scarlet hat came climbing up over one of the fences. Quick, active as a squirrel, she disappeared into the next yard.
"Primrose Court!" Dr. Pierce exclaimed. "Well, well, well!"
"Primrose Court," Maida repeated. "Do primroses grow there?"
"Bless your heart, no," Dr. Pierce laughed; "it was named after a man called Primrose who used to own a great deal of the neighborhood."
But Maida was scarcely listening. "Oh, what a cunning little shop!" she exclaimed. "There,