Penelope's Progress Being Such Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Penelope Hamilton As Relate to Her Experiences in Scotland

Smith Wiggin Kate Douglas

Description

Edina, Scotia's darling seat! All hail thy palaces and towers! Edinburgh, April, 189-. 22, Breadalbane Terrace

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819907152
• Langue: English

Extrait

I
"Edina, Scotia's darling seat! All hail thy palacesand towers!" Edinburgh, April, 189-. 22, Breadalbane Terrace.
We have traveled together before, Salemina,Francesca, and I, and we know the very worst there is to know aboutone another. After this point has been reached, it is as if atriangular marriage had taken place, and, with the honeymooncomfortably over, we slip along in thoroughly friendly fashion. Iuse no warmer word than "friendly" because, in the first place, thehighest tides of feeling do not visit the coast of triangularalliances; and because, in the second place, "friendly" is a wordcapable of putting to the blush many a more passionate andendearing one.
Every one knows of our experiences in England, forwe wrote volumes of letters concerning them, the which were widelycirculated among our friends at the time and read aloud under theevening lamps in the several cities of our residence.
Since then few striking changes have taken place inour history.
Salemina returned to Boston for the winter, to find,to her amazement, that for forty odd years she had been ratheroverestimating it.
On arriving in New York, Francesca discovered thatthe young lawyer whom for six months she had been advising to marrysomebody "more worthy than herself" was at last about to do it.This was somewhat in the nature of a shock, for Francesca has beenin the habit, ever since she was seventeen, of giving her loverssimilar advice, and up to this time no one of them has ever takenit. She therefore has had the not unnatural hope, I think, oforganizing at one time or another all these disappointed andfaithful swains into a celibate brotherhood; and perhaps of drivingby the interesting monastery with her husband and calling hisattention modestly to the fact that these poor monks were fillingtheir barren lives with deeds of piety, trying to remember theirCreator with such assiduity that they might, in time, forgetHer.
Her chagrin was all the keener at losing this lastaspirant to her hand in that she had almost persuaded herself thatshe was as fond of him as she was likely to be of anybody, andthat, on the whole, she had better marry him and save his life andreason.
Fortunately she had not communicated this gleam ofhope by letter, feeling, I suppose, that she would like to see forherself the light of joy breaking over his pale cheek. The scenewould have been rather pretty and touching, but meantime the Wormhad turned and dispatched a letter to the Majestic at thequarantine station, telling her that he had found a less reluctantbride in the person of her intimate friend Miss Rosa Van Brunt; andso Francesca's dream of duty and sacrifice was over.
Salemina says she was somewhat constrained for aweek and a trifle cynical for a fortnight, but that afterwards herspirits mounted on ever ascending spirals to impossible heights,where they have since remained. It appears from all this thatalthough she was piqued at being taken at her word, her heart wasnot in the least damaged. It never was one of those fragile thingswhich have to be wrapped in cotton, and preserved from theslightest blow – Francesca's heart. It is made of excellent stout,durable material, and I often tell her with the care she takes ofit, and the moderate strain to which it is subjected, it ought tobe as good as new a hundred years hence.
As for me, the scene of my own love story is laid inAmerica and England, and has naught to do with Edinburgh. It is farfrom finished; indeed, I hope it will be the longest serial onrecord, one of those charming tales that grow in interest aschapter after chapter unfolds, until at the end we feel as if wecould never part with the delightful people.
I should be, at this very moment, Mrs. WilliamBeresford, a highly respectable young matron who painted rathergood pictures in her spinster days, when she was Penelope Hamiltonof the great American working-class, Unlimited; but first Mrs.Beresford's dangerous illness, and then her death, have kept mydear boy a willing prisoner in Cannes, his heart sadly torn betwixthis love and duty to his mother and his desire to be with me. Theseparation is virtually over now, and we two, alas, have ne'er amother or a father between us, so we shall not wait many monthsbefore beginning to comfort each other in good earnest.
Meantime Salemina and Francesca have persuaded me tojoin their forces, and Mr. Beresford will follow us to Scotland ina few short weeks, when we shall have established ourselves in thecountry.
We are overjoyed at being together again, we threewomen folk. As I said before, we know the worst of one another, andthe future has no terrors. We have learned, for example, that:–
Francesca does not like an early morning start.Salemina refuses to arrive late anywhere. Penelope prefers to staybehind and follow next day.
Francesca scorns to travel third class. So doesSalemina, but she will if urged.
Penelope hates a four-wheeler. Salemina is nervousin a hansom. Francesca prefers a Victoria.
Salemina likes a steady fire in the grate. Penelopeopens a window and fans herself.
Salemina inclines to instructive and profitableexpeditions. Francesca loves processions and sightseeing. Penelopeabhors all of these equally.
Salemina likes history. Francesca loves fiction.Penelope adores poetry and detests facts.
Penelope likes substantial breakfasts. Francescadislikes the sight of food in the morning.
In the matter of breakfasts, when we have leisure toassert our individual tastes, Salemina prefers tea, Francescacocoa, and I, coffee. We can never, therefore, be served with alarge comfortable pot of anything, but are confronted instead witha caravan of silver jugs, china jugs, bowls of hard and soft sugar,hot milk, cold milk, hot water, and cream, while each in her secretheart wishes that the other two were less exigeante in thematter of diet.
This does not sound promising, but it worksperfectly well in practice by the exercise of a littleflexibility.
As we left dear old Dovermarle Street and Smith'sPrivate Hotel behind, and drove to the station to take the FlyingScotsman, we indulged in floods of reminiscence over the joys oftravel we had tasted together in the past, and talked with livelyanticipation of the new experiences awaiting us in the land ofheather.
While Salemina went to purchase the threefirst-class tickets, I superintended the porters as they disposedour luggage in the van, and in so doing my eye lighted upon athird-class carriage which was, for a wonder, clean, comfortable,and vacant. Comparing it hastily with the first-class compartmentbeing held by Francesca, I found that it differed only in having nocarpet on the floor, and a smaller number of buttons in theupholstering. This was really heart-rending when the difference infare for three persons would be at least twenty dollars. What adelightful sum to put aside for a rainy day; that is, youunderstand, what a delightful sum to put aside and spend on thefirst rainy day; for that is the way we always interpret theexpression.
When Salemina returned with the tickets, she foundme, as usual, bewailing our extravagance.
Francesca descended suddenly from her post, and,snatching the tickets from her duenna, exclaimed, "'I know that Ican save the country, and I know no other man can!' as William Pittsaid to the Duke of Devonshire. I have had enough of this argument.For six months of last year we discussed traveling third class andcontinued to travel first. Get into that clean, hard-seated,ill-upholstered third-class carriage immediately, both of you; saveroom enough for a mother with two babies, a man carrying a basketof fish, and an old woman with five pieces of hand-luggage and adog; meanwhile I will exchange the tickets."
So saying, she disappeared rapidly among the throngof passengers, guards, porters, newspaper boys, golfers with bagsof clubs, young ladies with bicycles, and old ladies with tinhat-boxes. "What decision, what swiftness of judgment, what courageand energy!" murmured Salemina. "Isn't she wonderfully improvedsince that unexpected turning of the Worm?"
Francesca rejoined us just as the guard was about tolock us in, and flung herself down, quite breathless from herunusual exertion. "Well, we are traveling third for once, and themoney is saved, or at least it is ready to spend again at the firstopportunity. The man didn't wish to exchange the tickets at all. Hesays it is never done. I told him they were bought by a veryinexperienced American lady (that is you, Salemina) who knew almostnothing of the distinctions between first and third class, andnaturally took the best, believing it to be none too good for acitizen of the greatest republic on the face of the earth. He saidthe tickets had been stamped on. I said so should I be if Ireturned without exchanging them. He was a very dense person, anddidn't see my joke at all, but then, it is true, there werethirteen men in line behind me, with the train starting in threeminutes, and there is nothing so debilitating to a naturally weaksense of humor as selling tickets behind a grating, so I am notreally vexed with him. There! we are quite comfortable, pending thearrival of the babies, the dog, and the fish, and certainly novender of periodic literature will dare approach us while we keepthese books in evidence."
She had Laurence Hutton's "Literary Landmarks" and"Royal Edinburgh," by Mrs. Oliphant; I had Lord Cockburn'sMemorials of his Time; and somebody had given Salemina, at themoment of leaving London, a work on "Scotia's darling seat," inthree huge volumes. When all this printed matter was heaped on thetop of Salemina's hold-all on the platform, the guard had asked,"Do you belong to these books, mam?" "We may consider ourselvesinjured in going from London to Edinburgh in a third-class carriagein eight or ten hours, but listen to this," said Salemina, who hadopened one of her large volumes at random when the train started."'The Edinburgh and London