“We went to see Nazimova as Hedda Gabler. She’s wonderful.”
“And that dress she wore in the last act!” interrupted Nannie. “Did you get a good look at it, Lucy? It was black silk with tiny pink rosebuds.”
“But didn’t you think her portrayal of Hedda was splendid?” persisted Lucy.
“I didn’t like the piece,” returned Mrs. Merwent. “I don’t enjoy sad things.”
“She certainly has a marvellous temperament. Don’t you think so, John?” pursued Lucy.
“Yes. I admired her as Nora very much.”
“She’s a brunette,” observed Nannie. “Now what are you laughing at, Lucy? You ridicule everything I say! I’m sure I don’t see anything funny in what I said. And John is laughing too!”
“We weren’t ridiculing you, Mamma,” said Lucy.
“No! I think it was cute!” supplemented John warmly. “I like naivete. People are generally so sophisticated.”
“Well, you like me a little, anyway. Don’t you, John?”
“I should say I did, Nannie!”
“So do I,” added Lucy.
“Thank you, John,” said Nannie, smiling again.
The next evening Nannie and John walked about the front yard waiting for Lucy to announce dinner. It was just after sunset and the tints in the sky were gorgeous.
“Oh look at the lovely delicate mauve tint under that cloud!” exclaimed John, pointing. Lucy joined them as he was speaking.
“Yes,” agreed Nannie. “It’s just the color of a dress I once had. Do you remember that little dress, Lucy?”
“Yes, Mamma.” Lucy’s voice was weary. “Come on, or dinner will get cold,” she added.
“Speaking of colors, what did you ever paint your house that horrid shade for?” Nannie asked a moment later, when the family was seated and she was serving the plates.
“Why I don’t think it’s horrid,” objected Lucy. “We all agreed it was pretty. Jim selected it and—”
“Yes!” sneered Mrs. Merwent, “Mr. Sprague has to be pleased even in the color of your house!”
Lucy was pale and silent.
“I’ve thought myself since that a slate grey would have been more effective,” said John.
“Why, John, you were the most enthusiastic of all over this fawn and brown color scheme!” defended Lucy.
“Well? Is that any reason why I shouldn’t change my mind?” demanded John sharply.
“It certainly is!” retorted Lucy with equal emphasis. “People ought to know their own minds.”
“Like you!” snapped John.
“Dear me,” cooed Nannie, “you two have your little tiffs like other people! I had always thought you so happy.”
Lucy burst into tears and left the table.
After finishing his meal, John went to the door of Lucy’s room and found it locked. He knocked.
“Please go away, John,” called Lucy.
“But, Lucy, you shouldn’t get angry at every suggestion Nannie makes.”
“I can’t talk, John. I’m so tired.”
John returned to Nannie.
“Let’s us two wash the dishes,” he proposed. Dimmie had gone to sleep in the Morris chair.
“Well, wait a minute, John. There was so much of this dessert left I thought I’d take another helping,” Nannie explained, beginning to eat again.
By the time they had cleaned the dishes and undressed Dimmie Nannie had reiterated a favorite opinion.
“John, you must get a servant for Lucy. I help her all I can but the work is too heavy for her.”
Lucy objected strenuously to the scheme when it was brought up by John the following morning. She was proud of her plan of putting the amount of a servant’s wages in the bank every month.
“Well, Lucy, it’s only for your own good that I suggested it,” argued Nannie.
“I can do the work all right,” Lucy protested. “I’ve not been very well lately, but I’ll be all right.”
“I agree with Nannie,” decided John. “It will be a good thing for her, too, for then you can go out with her more. She’s had to stay in most of the time because there was no one to go with.”
“I’m not thinking of myself at all, John,” put in Nannie.
“I know you’re not,” returned John, “but we are.”
“But, John,” demurred Lucy, “we can’t afford it. Our bills are getting bigger every week.”
“Well, a few dollars a month for servant hire isn’t going to make any appreciable difference.”
“It isn’t only the wages, John, but a servant eats, and wastes, and steals, and there are a lot of things to be thought of!” Lucy began to weep.
“There! That’s an example. You’re all nervous and worn out and ready to blow up at any time,” said John.
“Yes! And her friends blame it on me!” Nannie interrupted. “Mr. Sprague and that Miss Storms both told me that Lucy was working too hard.”
“I’d be obliged if both of them would attend to their own business,” remarked John testily. “Well, it’s settled, and I’ll send a girl out at once.”
“Please don’t, John,” begged Lucy as she followed him into the hall a moment later. He took his hat from the rack.
“Yes, I will,” he repeated, laughing. “Goodbye,” and he was gone.
John, to Lucy’s relief, neglected to put into immediate execution his threat of hiring a servant. She tried to conceal from him the extent of her fear and perplexity as he seemed to regard her concern for their affairs as a justification of his intention, and to evade Nannie’s persistence was even more difficult.
XVII
Late in the afternoon of the first day of the month, Mrs. Merwent found her daughter bending over some papers on the writing table in the living room.
“What are you looking so cross about?” Nannie asked as she entered the room.
“I didn’t know I was looking cross,” said Lucy. “I was worried.”
“Well, you were, and you oughtn’t to do it. The lines on your forehead are already deeper than they are on mine. What in the world have you got to worry over? If your life had been like mine you might have a right to worry! With a husband like John you ought to be as happy as a bird.”
Lucy did not reply.
“What is it especially that’s worrying you?” Nannie asked again.
“I’m worried about finances,” answered Lucy. “Our grocery bills have already doubled and extra expenses have more than
