The Inner Sisterhood | Page 5

Fairfield. She's passionately, foolishly in love with him!
Why, I saw him give her a red rose-bud at our last Monday-night
German, off in the corner--he didn't know I was looking--and didn't I
see her wear that same red bud, then a withered rose, to Mrs.
Babbington Brooks' the following Thursday evening? She wore the
shriveled thing on her left shoulder, nestled down in a lover's knot of
pale-blue ribbon. But I made myself so agreeable and altogether lovely
that dear Robert F. did not go near her the entire evening; only gave her,
from across the room, by my side, the bow of compensation. He left
that rose, thanks to me and my successful efforts, to languish unnoticed
in its lover's knot of pale blue. Ah, Kate Meadows, that time your
lover's knot was made in vain!
The "Earnest Workers," a society of our church, for ladies only, meets
this afternoon at four, and it's nearly that time now; so I must put on
what I call my "charity dress and poverty hat." It's such a good thing to
dress plain and religious-like now and then, just for a change,
especially when it's becoming. I will carry my little work-basket and
wear, as I go down the street, a quiet, sober smile, and cultivate a pious
air--a trifle pious anyhow. And if I chance to meet Mr. Fairfield he will,
of course, join me, and wonder as we walk how one so worldly can be,
at times, so charitably inclined and so full of such good works and holy
thoughts. I sometimes wish I was good. But it's so stupid to be good,
and the men don't like you half as well. And I am very willing to
acknowledge it, I like the admiration of men. I don't know any "balm in
Gilead" so sweet and altogether acceptable.
But see! Down the street, right beneath my room-window, comes that
Kate Meadows; and Robert Fairfield's with her! He holds her
prayer-book in his hand! How earnestly they are talking! I wonder what
it's about? What a tender look on his face turned full toward her
downcast eyes! O, the hypocrite! They are both hypocrites; we are all

hypocrites! On their way to that horrid afternoon Lenten service! It's a
whole square out of the way to come by this house! She did it on
purpose; I know it, I know it! She just wanted me to see her with him!
She's the meanest girl in this town! I always disliked her, and now I
fairly despise the very ground she walks on--when she's walking it with
him! She's coming to spend all of Tuesday morning with me; won't I be
gracious though! I'll kiss her three or four times, instead of the
regulation-twice! I can be hypocritical, and sauve too! I don't wish I
was good! I don't ever want to be good! They have turned the corner!
They are out of sight! I just won't go one step to the "Earnest Workers!"
It's all nonsense, any how! Just sewing, and gossiping, and talking
about the minister and his wife, and all the rest of the congregation who
are not there! No, no, NO! I'll just stay right here at home, and I'll
have--yes, I will--I'll have a real good cry.
[Illustration: Miss Bella Mason. (of the Inner Sisterhood.)]

* * * * *
III
A Wild Fantasy In Garrulous Red.
* * * * *

The Buzz-Saw Girl
I just must talk! I must talk all the time! Of course I talk entirely too
much--no one knows that any better than I do--yet I can not help it! I
know that my continual cackling is dreadful, and I know just exactly
when it begins to bore people, but somehow I can't stop myself, but go
right on and on in spite of myself.
Aunt Patsey says I am simply fearful, and just like a girl she used to
know, who lived down-East, a Miss Polly Blanton, who talked all the

time; told every thing, every thing she knew, every thing she had ever
heard; and then when she could think of nothing else, boldly began on
the family secrets. Well, I believe I am just like that girl--because I am
constantly telling things about our domestic life which is by no means
pleasant. Pa and ma lead an awful kind of an existence--live just like
cats and dogs. Now I ought never to tell that, yet somehow it will slip
out in spite of myself!
My pa says I really do act as if I did not have good sense, and I am, for
the world, just like ma. And ma, she says I am without delicacy,
manners, or any of the other new touches that most girls have.