The Inner Sisterhood | Page 9

Patsey calls it diplomacy! Diplomacy? Fiddle-sticks! It is down right
deception of the very worst kind. I know that I talk too much, tell a
great many things that ought to be left unsaid, but I do not tell
lies--there is no other name for them--and knowingly, with malice
aforethought, make an injury or do a wrong to any body.
But, my, my! I am always in trouble. Tom, my little brother, ran into
the room just now, nearly out of breath, and made a little speech which
almost gave me a nervous chill: "Oh, sister Alice! Won't you catch it,
though? Aunt Patsey is just in from her meeting of the 'Cruelty to
Animals' Association. She is in a dreadful way! She is just talking ma
black and blue! She is giving you 'Hail Columbia!' She met Mrs.
Par-dell, the manicure, the woman who ma says goes around fixing
finger nails for fifty cents, and gives you five dollars' worth of gossip,
sometimes scandal--to those who like it. She told Aunt Patsey a long
tale about what you had certainly said: that Aunt Patsey was seven
years older than she acknowledged; had been dyeing her hair for years;
did not have a real tooth of her own in her head, and was a regular old

tyrant here at home, and that all of us were afraid as death of even her
thin, old shadow. Oh, but won't you catch it, though! Sis, you had better
skip, and pretty quick, too! I think she's coming up-stairs now!"
It is awful, but I suppose I must have been telling just such a tale, but to
whom I can not, for the life of me, think. See now, all this comes of
telling the family secrets. That Mrs. Par-dell is a dangerous woman! I
refused flatly to have her make bird-claws out of my finger-nails. This
is her revenge! I am powerless! But it was not a slander, it was all the
truth; just as true as gospel. That's the reason she is in such a rage. But
she is coming; this house won't hold us both just now, so I am off via
back stairs--to dine with my dear Sophia Gilder, if I don't find that
fraud, Mrs. Babbington Brooks, there ahead of me. She and Mrs. John
Robert G. are inseparable. The old dragon draws near--I am gone,
leaving behind a smile and a kiss for my ancient female relative. Ah,
Aunt Patsey, not good form, you know, to get angry with people--even
with your niece,
[Illustration: Miss Alice Wing, (of the Inner Sisterhood.)]

* * * * *
IV
The Cool Quiet Flirtatious Underglow Of a Green Opal.
* * * * *

FLIRTING FOR REVENUE ONLY
I am a Private Corporation.
My capital stock is a pretty face, a clear head, and pleasant manners.
I was incorporated by the "social legislature" four winters ago. Mamma
was the active, successful lobbyist. My father was the silent, financial

lever absolutely necessary for the passage of the bill--opposition small.
The social Banking-House (our residence), on a fashionable avenue,
had been erected years before. A great mass of brick and
mortar--stone-front of course--not beautiful, but imposing. It was left
unfurnished--a portion of it--until I was ready to start in upon my social
career. That is quite a usual plan with people who are prospectively
fashionable. They do nothing with the drawing-room, library, and
reception-room until the daughter of the house is pronounced ready.
The plastering, after a dry of eighteen years, has had plenty of time to
settle, and is not apt to crack the costly papers or ruin the elaborate
frescoes; and the wood-work no longer in danger of warping or opening
too much.
My incorporation was an event. Business at once set in, and, with slight
fluctuations, has continued ever since brisk and healthful. The venture
has been a decided success. The constant, untiring skill of mamma, and
the valuable experience of each gay season has enabled me to
frequently increase the capital stock. For my face is more pretty than it
was four years ago, and my manners are more easy and pleasing.
Mamma says manners are every thing--and they are a great deal. I have
grown to be somewhat of a woman of the world. I have met so many
new people--strangers from all parts of the earth! I have been every
where, and done so much. There is nothing local about me! Some
people say that I am all things to all men; perhaps I am, for if I am not
broad I am not any thing. I abhor narrow-mindedness! I am a trifle
fraudulent in a harmless way, which I am free to confess is more than a
trifle fascinating to most of the men I