Ladies and Gentlemen - Irvin Cobb 3 стр.

I aint never going to forget you, he told her. If youd been my own daughter you couldnt a treated me any nicer than what you have and me just an old stove-up spavined country-jake that you never saw before in your life and probably never will see again. You aint seen fit, maam, to tell me much about yourself seems like you let me do most of the talking, and that suited me but old as I am I know a perfect lady when I see one and thats what you are, maam, and what always you must have been and always will be good-by and God bless you!

Saying nothing, she bent in the attitude of one accepting a benediction, and a moment later she was following him to the door and watching him as he crept in his labored, faltering gait along the entrance-hall. Under his arm was his luncheon to be eaten on the train; she had with her own hands prepared and boxed it. She waited there on the threshold until the hooded front door clicked behind him.

Pansy, she called then toward the back of the house, and now her voice had in it a customary rasping quality which, strangely, had been almost altogether lacking from it these past two or three days. You, Pansy!

Yassum.

You might call up that party that we turned down the other night and tell him this place has reopened for business as usual.

Approximately two weeks later, Mr. Randolph Embury, president of the Forks of Hatchie Peoples Bank, wrote as follows to the mayor of that city where the veterans had met:

Dear Mr. Mayor: You may possibly recall that we met in 1922 while serving as delegates for our respective states at the Inter-Southern Commercial Congress in Norfolk? I am therefore taking advantage of our slight acquaintance and am trespassing upon your patience to ask a favor which means a great deal to my wife.

Her aged father, the late Nathan Braswell, attended the recent Confederate Reunion in your city. Almost immediately upon his arrival back at this place he suffered a stroke of paralysis. Within ten days a second stroke resulted fatally to him. The interment took place yesterday, the twenty-ninth inst. His loss in this community is very deeply mourned. He was the last old soldier left here.

Although rendered completely helpless by the first stroke, he remained almost entirely rational and coherent until the second one occurred. In this stage of his illness he spoke repeatedly of his experiences while at the reunion. He was a guest in the private home of one who must have been a most cultured and charming lady undoubtedly a lady of position and affluence. By her graciousness and her zealous care of him and her constant ministrations to his comfort she made a deep impression upon him. He was most anxious that she should know of his gratitude, and repeatedly he charged us to write her, telling how much he appreciated the attentions shown him.

Naturally, during his illness and until after the interment neither my wife nor myself had much time for letter-writing. But this morning Mrs. Embury wrote to this lady, thanking her in her dead fathers name and in ours and telling her that with practically his last conscious breath he spoke affectionately of her and paid tribute to her splendid womanly qualities and even uttered a little prayer for her well-being. He was a very devout man. That letter I enclose with this one, but in an unaddressed envelop. Mrs. Embury, of course, is most anxious that it should reach the intended recipient promptly.

The reason for not addressing it you will understand when I tell you that my father-in-law could not remember his benefactresss last name except that it began with an L and sounded something like Lampey or Lambry. He referred to her always as Miss Sissie, which I would judge was her familiar name among more intimate friends. He could not remember the name of the street upon which she resided. However, he did describe the residence as being a very large and very handsome one, standing in a somewhat secluded part of the outskirts and not far from where a railroad track and an overhead viaduct were.

This, then, is the favor I would ask of you: If the lady is as prominently connected as I had reason to believe from Mr. Braswells statements, I assume you know her already. If not, I take it that it should not be a very difficult matter to locate one whose character and attainments must have given her a high standing among your good citizens. So I am asking you to see to it that the enclosed letter is put at once into her hands.

Thanking you in advance for any trouble or inconvenience to which you may be put in carrying out our wishes, I remain,

And within four days got back the following reply:

Dear Sir:

Yours received and contents carefully noted. In reply to same would say that while ready at any time to serve you and your good wife in every way possible, yet in this case I am put in a delicate attitude and fear you also may be put in one should I undertake to fulfill your desire.

Undoubtedly the person that your late father-in-law had in mind was one Cecelia Lamprey, better known as Sis. But not by the widest stretch of imagination could anyone think of her as a lady. She is the proprietress of a most notorious assignation house located on North Bonaventure Avenue, this city, and according to my best information and belief, has always been a woman of loose morals and bad repute. I might add that having been elected on a reform ticket and being committed to the task of ridding our city of evil, I am at present setting on foot an effort to close up her establishment, which has until lately enjoyed secret protection, and to drive her from our midst.

Accordingly, I am constrained to believe that, being probably semi-delirious, the lately deceased, your esteemed father-in-law, must have made a mistake. I assume that he had Sis Lampreys house pointed out to him and in his ravings got it confused with the domicile where he was housed during his sojourn among us. It is not conceivable to me that a man such as you describe would, while in his sober senses, set foot inside an establishment so readily recognizable at a glance as being absolutely disreputable, let alone remain there for any appreciable period of time. It is equally incredible to think of Sis opening her doors to any decent person or for any worthy purpose.

In view of these facts I am constrained to believe your wife would shrink from any contact or any communication with such an individual. I am therefore taking the liberty of holding her letter on my desk until you and she have had opportunity to consider this embarrassing situation and to decide what you should do. My advice is that you instruct me to return the letter to you at once and consider the incident closed. However, I await your further instruction.

To which the following reply was immediately dispatched by wire:

Nevertheless, on behalf of my wife and myself, kindly be so good as immediately to deliver the letter in question to the lady in question.

The Order of the Bath

It seemed like everything that was happening that week happened to the Gridleys. Substantially, these were Mrs. Gridleys own words in speaking of the phenomena.

To begin with, their waitress quit practically without any warning at all. Afflicted by that strange and sudden migratory impulse which at times affects most of the birds and many of the hired help, she walked out between two suns. In the second place, the water famine reached a point where the board of trustees forbade the use of water for all-over bathing purposes or for wetting-down lawns or washing cars or sprinkling streets or spraying flower-beds even; and Mr. Gridley, as one of the trustees, felt it incumbent upon him to set a proper example before the rest of the community by putting his own household upon the strictest of rations, abluently speaking. In the third place, Mr. Jeffreys Boyce-Upchurch, the eminent English novelist, became their guest. And fourthly, although not occurring in this order, the Gridleys took on a butler of the interesting name of Launcelot Ditto.

To a considerable extent, three of these events were interrelated. The drought which had brought on the shortage in the village reservoir was the isolated exception, a manifestation of freaky nature and of absolutely unprecedented weather conditions. But the others were more or less coordinated. If their old waitress had not quit on them the Gridleys would not have been in the market for a new servant to fill the vacancy, and if Mr. Boyce-Upchurch had not been coming to stay with them it was possible she might not have quit at all. There was a suspicion that she was influenced by a private objection to so much company in the heat of the summer, Mrs. Gridleys mother and sister from Baltimore, the latter bringing her little boy with her, having just concluded a two weeks stay; and if it had not been Mr. Boyce-Upchurch who was coming, but some less important person, the Gridleys would have been content with hiring for the succession one who also was a female and home-grown, or if not exactly home-grown, one belonging to almost any of the commoner Nordic stocks say Scandinavian or Celtic whereas it was felt that the advent of a Boyce-Upchurch called for something of an especially rich and fruity imported nature in the line of butlers. At least, such was the language employed by Mrs. Gridleys brother, Mr. Oliver Braid, in describing, this phase of the issue. He young Mr. Braid was the only member of the household who declined to take the situation seriously. In this regard he stood quite alone. Mr. Gridley took it seriously, as, to a more or less degree, did the neighbors also. But Mrs. Gridley took it most seriously of all.

Its seriousness began to lay hold upon her in the morning on a Monday, which proverbially is a bothersome day for housewives anyhow, when Miss Rena Belle Titworthy, the recording secretary of the Ingleglade Womans Club and its only salaried officer, called to break the news to her, it being that in the judgment of a majority of the active workers in the club Mrs. Gridley should have the distinguished pleasure of entertaining Mr. Boyce-Upchurch on the occasion of his impending visit. In a more vulgar circle of life the same thing has been termed passing the buck.

But, expostulated Mrs. Gridley, but of course I feel flattered and I am sure Henry will, too, when he comes home tonight and hears about it but Im afraid we couldnt make such a prominent man comfortable. Our house is rather small and all that, and besides theres Olga having packed up and left only last night and all that. Really, dont you think, Miss Rena Belle, that he would prefer to go to the hotel where he could be you know quieter and more to himself? Or to Mrs. Wainwrights? Shes the president of the club and shes the madam chairman of the executive committee besides, and naturally the pleasure of having Mr. Boyce-Upchurch should go to her. Her house is a mansion, almost, while we

Miss Titworthy caught her up right there.

No, said Miss Titworthy firmly. Miss Titworthy had authority about her and a considerable distinction. She was large and deep-chested and combined in her manner the magisterial and the managerial and, subtly, the maternal. She had all that a motherly woman should have, except children. And, as just stated, she was large, while on the other hand Mrs. Gridley was slight and, upon the whole, plastic by temperament, not to say bordering on the yielding. And bulk, in such cases, counts.

Pardon me, said Miss Titworthy still more firmly, pardon me, my dear, but no. Madam Chairman Wainwright is closing up their place to go to their other place in the Berkshires; you must have known that. Probably you forgot it. And the hotel is quite out of the question. I had a letter only yesterday from Mr. Boyce-Upchurch, written by him personally it seems he doesnt carry a secretary with him on his tour saying he preferred stopping at some private home. He mentioned the inconveniences of American hotels and something about their exceedingly high rates. Im going to keep it as a souvenir. And so, what with Madam Chairman Wainwright closing up and you being the first vice-president well, there you are, arent you? concluded Miss Titworthy with a gesture which was meant to be a death blow to further argument.

And then the water being shut off Im thinking of that, too, said Mrs. Gridley, but in a weakening tone. Henry had the plumber come and disconnect all three of the bathtubs. He said he wasnt going to put temptation in the way of his own family or himself, either. I know lots of people are doing it on the sly using a hose, too but I cant even have a little water in a sprinkling can for my poor withered flowers. Look at them out of that window there just literally drying up. And were sending all the wash, even the flat pieces, to the Eagle Laundry. And Henry is going to his club in town for a bath every day, and Im doing the best I can with the wash-basin and a sponge, and the way Nora thats my cooks name and Delia, the waitress now that Olga has gone, Delias the only other girl weve got left the way those two carry on and complain youd think I was personally responsible for the fact that not a drop of rain has fallen in over two months. And the English being such great hands for their tubs and all, and Mr. Boyce-Upchurch being an Englishman and all, why, Im honestly afraid, Miss Rena Belle, that hell be awfully put out.

I dessay hell be able to accommodate himself to a condition over which none of us has any control, stated Miss Titworthy. Hell arrive Wednesday afternoon on the five oclock boat. He asked that he be met with a car. I dessay youll be wanting to give a little dinner to him Wednesday evening. I dont know what hell want to do Thursday morning be driven around, I imagine. And Thursday afternoon theres the reception at the Womans Club, and his lecture is that night, and Friday he leaves for Trenton where he has his next date on Saturday. He did write something about preferring to be ridden over to Trenton.

I could take him over myself, said Mrs. Gridley, her citadel undermined and she rapidly capitulating, if he doesnt mind going in a two-seated runabout.

Therell be no trouble about the car, stated Miss Titworthy. I dessay someone will proffer the use of a touring car.

Well, that point is settled then, agreed Mrs. Gridley, now entirely committed to the undertaking. But I must get somebody in and broken in to take Olgas place between now and Wednesday. Really that gives me only today and tomorrow, and help is so hard to get, youve no idea, Miss Titworthy! I suppose Id better run into town this afternoon and go to the employment agencies. No, I cant,  theres my bridge lesson. And tomorrow is the Fergus tea. I cant go then, either. I promised Mrs. Fergus Id pour. I suppose Ill have to get Henry or my brother Oliver to do it. But neither one of them would know how to pick out a girl, provided theres any choice at the agencies to pick from oh, dear!

Had you thought of a butler? inquired Miss Titworthy.

A butler?

Yes, instead of a maid. Youll pardon the suggestion but I was thinking that Mr. Boyce-Upchurch being a foreigner and accustomed, of course, to butlers, and a butler giving a sort of air a tone, as it were to a household, that perhaps well

They had fallen on fertile ground, those seeds. They were sprouting, germinating. Before the massive shoulders of the Ingleglade Womans Clubs efficient recording secretary had vanished down the bowery and winding reaches of Edgecliff Avenue they were putting forth small green speculative shoots through Mrs. Gridleys mind. Always and ever, from the very first days of her married life, Mrs. Gridley had cherished in the back of her mind a picture of an establishment in which the butler, a figure of dignity and poise and gray striped trousers in the daytime but full-dress by night, would be the chief of staff. As what woman has not? And now for the gratifying of that secret ambition she had an excuse and a reason.