CHAPTER VII
Being in love with Marcella weighed so on Julius' mind that hecouldn't stay in New York but one week where the magazine is that hedraws for, so he came back and has been here ever since, loving anddrawing and sending them the jobs by mail. Right away they set thewedding for the eleventh of April, which seems like it _never_ willcome, me being in a big hurry for it. Poor Julius gets more and moredelighted every day, talking a heap about what a happy home they'regoing to have, not realizing that Chopin and dish-pan don't gotogether. He stays around and advises Marcella about her clothes andsuch-like all day long. He says she reminds him of a narcissus, beingtall and creamy-skinned, so he wants all her dresses to be eitherwhite or light green, the color of right young lettuce. But she knowswhen really to take his advice and when just to make like she's takingit, the way most ladies do with men.
"Why, it would take a little pink milksop like Bertha Parkes to wearsuch colors as _those_," she said behind his back one day. But I don'tthink Marcella better be calling Bertha a _milksop_ just because shehas to handle baby-bottles all the time, for a person never can tellwhat might happen to them.
One of the nicest things about the wedding is the bridesmaids. Theyconsist of girls born partly here in the country, partly in the citiesMarcella has visited and made friends with. The one I like best isMiss Cicely Reeves, though most people around here call her Cis, beingvery small, with fluffy hair and cute ways and dimples. She has a goodmany lovers of different kinds, but don't seem to like one aboveanother. She is a great hand to act romantic, such as falling in lovewith a man in a streetcar, or expecting her future husband to be acertain size and comb his hair a certain way and things like that.This often keeps young ladies from getting married a long time, formother says you oughtn't to be too choice about size and hair, but Ican't help being on that order myself. I do hope I can marry a man ona jet-black charger named Sir Reginald de Beverley who owns _acres_and _acres_ of English landed gentry.
Miss Cis had that experience with the _name_ of Julius' best man. Ithappened that we were all sitting on the front step one day whenJulius pulled a letter out of his pocket and told Marcella that he hadjust heard from Malcolm Macdonald, and that he was going to be hisbest man.
"_Who?_" asked Miss Cis right quick, looking up from the sprig ofbridal wreath she was pulling the flowers off of.
Julius told her the name over again and then told her that he was avery old friend of his and was a fine civil engineer. I used to thinka civil engineer was a _polite_ man who ran the trains, but I know nowhe is a man that gets in the middle of the street with a string and athree-legged thing and measures the road.
"Is he married?" Miss Cis asked a heap quicker than she had asked who.
"No, and not likely to be," Julius answered, still looking over theletter absent-mindedly.
"The name sounds good," Miss Cis commenced, her eyes sparkling. "Inever heard anything Scotchier. Something tells me he must be myideal."
"Then 'something' must be telling you a lie," Julius said laughing,"for he couldn't be any woman's ideal. He is very _real_. An oldbachelor, thirty-seven years, stern and precise; and he considersevery woman on earth as a frivolous and _un_necessary evil."
"The kind of man I adore," Miss Cis said joyfully, though anybody thatknew her well could tell she was fooling. "My life will be a blankuntil he comes!"
"It would be a blankety-blank if you had to live with him, for you arethe kind of woman to torment such a man to death."
"All the more reason for his falling in love with me, as I have fallenin love with his name, and if he doesn't I shall consider him a very_un_civil engineer." Which was just her way of talking. This happenedfully two months ago, but they have talked about it off and on eversince. And now he is coming to stay with Julius till the wedding, tocheer him up I suppose.
Sure enough he did come to-day, although lots of times I imagine thatI never will get to see a person I have heard spoken of so often andin such high tones--and sometimes I wish I hadn't. But it wasn't thatway with Mr. Macdonald. Nobody on earth could have been disappointedin _him_ for he is one of the tallest gentlemen I ever saw withtrousers so smoothly creased that they look like somebody had ironedthem after he put them on. He takes his own time about saying things,being very careful about saying "of whom" and "by which" like thegrammar tells you to.
Julius brought him over to Marcella's this afternoon so he could bemaking friends with her and the bridesmaids that were collected there.Remembering how they had been teasing Miss Cis about him I kept my eyeon her from the minute he walked through the door. I was greatlydisappointed though, for she never _seemed_ to notice him. I guess shetook a better look at him than I imagined though, for the minute theywere gone she jumped clear across the room to where Marcella wasstanding and grabbed her and danced up and down.
"Isn't he _beautiful_!" she said all out of breath. "I'm just crazyabout him! Did you ever see such Gibsony feet and legs in your_life_?" Which mortified her mother, it being impolite to mention feetand legs in her days.
Julius is romantic, too, for a man, and says he doesn't want anyflowers used in connection with his wedding except the sweet, earlyspring ones that favor Marcella so much. We have a yard full of themand so mother told them this morning that they better come over andgather them, knowing that young folks enjoy picking flowers togetherand they will stay fresh for several days if you put a little salt inthe water.
It was the most beautiful morning you ever saw, with birds and peachblossoms and the smell of plowed ground all making curious feelingsinside of you. Marcella, being a musician, noticed the birds, andJulius, being an artist, noticed the peach blossoms, but Mr.Macdonald, being just a man, noticed Miss Cis. She would walk alongwithout noticing him and take a seat in the farthest corner away fromhim, but anyhow she seemed to do the work, which taught me a lesson;that if you're trying to get a man to notice you it is the best plannot to notice them except when they ain't looking.
They sat down on the porch and rested a while after they came whilethe narcissuses (narcissi _they_ called them, which sounds stuck up tome) smelled very sweet from the yard. Julius remarked he wished theyhad made Rufe come along with them so he could have said poetry out ofKeats, as it was just the kind of day to make you feel Keatsy; andpretty soon he and Marcella got on to their favorite subject, "TheRuby Yacht," which they say is a piece of poetry from Persia. Theytalked and talked, which made me very sleepy and pretty soon I noticedthat Mr. Macdonald was getting sleepy too. He leaned over to Miss Cisand said, kinder whispery:
"I don't understand poetry, do you?"
"No, I don't," she answered back, with a smile on her face which Iknew she meant to be "congenial." I knew this was a story, for shetalks about "The Ruby Yacht" as much as anybody when he ain't around,but I didn't blame her for telling one in a case like this.
"I never could discover what the deuced Ruby Yacht was about, in thefirst place," he said.
"It looks like, from the name," I said speaking up, "that it would beabout a red ship," but before I could get any further they began tolaugh and tell my remark to Julius and Marcella, which was mortifying.This broke up the poetry talk and they began gathering the flowers,Miss Cis and Mr. Macdonald picking in pairs, by which I knew they weregetting affinityfied.
After they had picked till their backs were tired Mammy Lou came outon the porch bringing a waiter with some of her best white cake and abottle of her year-before-last-before-that's wine setting on it andher finest ruffled cap, very proud. She was curious to see the youngman "Miss Cis was settin' up to, to see whether the match was afittin' one or not." She took a good look at him, then called Miss Cisinto the hall to speak her opinion.
"He'll _do_," I heard her saying, while Miss Cis was telling her to"s-s-sh, Mr. MacDonald would hear her."
"He'll _do_," mammy kept on, not paying any attention to what was toldher, like she always don't. "He must be all right, for bein' a frien'o' Mr. Juliuses would pass 'im.' But, honey, he _is_ tolerable
_po_-faced, which ain't no good sign in marryin'. If thar's anybodybetter experienced in that business than _me_ and King Solomon I'dlike to see the whites o' ther eyes; an' I tell you every time, if youwant to get a good-natured, wood-cuttin', baby-tendin' husban' chooseone that's _fat in the face_!"
A good many wedding presents commenced to coming in this morning,which was a sign that the invitations got to the people all right. Youoften hear of things being worth their weight in silver, but there's_one_ thing you can count on it's being true about and that is weddinginvitations. You never saw such delighted people as Julius andMarcella. They were laid out on tables in the parlor and greatlyadmired.
"They're _ours_, dearest," he said, squeezing her hand right beforeeverybody, "yours and mine! Our Lares and Penates."
This greatly impressed me and I looked it up in the back of thedictionary when I got home, which is a very useful place to findstrange words. It said: "Lares et Penates, household gods," whichdidn't make sense, so I knew the dictionary man must have made amistake and meant to say household _goods_.
"Gentle-_men_!" said Mammy Lou when I told the words to her, "if hethinks up such names as _them_ for his fu'niture what _will_ he dowhen he gets to his chil'en?"
This remark seemed to put an idea into her head, for Lovie, mammy'sother daughter besides Dilsey, has got a pair of two little twins thathave been going around for the last five years in need of a name justbecause Mammy Lou and Ike, their father, can't ever agree on one--aname nor anything else.
"Them's the very names for the little angels," Mammy said, washingthe dinner dishes deep in thought, "for the twins bein' boys and girlsand the names bein' able to accommodate therselves to ary sect provesthat they're the _very thing_." She studied over it for a good while,I guess on account of Ike, although mammy is usually what she callsvery plain-spoken with him. A plain-spoken person is one that saysnasty things to your face and expects you not to get mad. When theysay them behind your back they're "diplomatic." But finally shestarted off to name them, and, having had so much trouble already withIke, I saw her slip her heavy-soled slippers into her pocket beforeshe started. She stayed away a long, long time, but when she got backshe held her head so high and acted so stuck-up that I just knew shehad got to use both the names and the slippers.
"Did you name 'em?" I asked her, going to the kitchen to get sometea-cakes, supper being very late.
"_Did I?_" she answered back, cutting out the biscuits with a haughtylook, "you just oughter a _saw_ me namin' 'em!"
"Which did you name which?" I asked.
"I named the precious boy Penates, because I most know these commonniggers roun' here'll shorten it to 'Peanuts' which would be hurtin'to a little girl's feelin's."
"Well," I said, continuing to show a friendly interest, "ain't youglad they're named at last, so's if they die you could have atombstone for them?"
"Glad!" she answered, putting the biscuits in the pan (but her mindstill on the twins), and sticking holes in the top of them with afork, "glad ain't no name for it! Why, I ain't had as much enjoymentout o' nothin' as I had out o' this namin' sence the night I marriedBill Williams!"
It's a very thrilling and exciting thing to be a bride and if youcan't be a bride you can still manage to get a good many thrills outof just a bridesmaid. All of Marcella's have talked about how nervousand timid they are going to be--when the men are around--and some saythey nearly faint when a great crowd stares at them, others say theybet folks will think they've got St. Vituses' dance from trembling so;anyhow, they're all very modest. But Miss Cis, I believe, ain'tputting on, for all she claims toward modestness is that her knees getso weak that they nearly let her drop when she acts a bridesmaid,which is the way a good many persons feel. The maids have laughed agood deal over her knees among themselves, never dreaming that the menwould catch on to them, but they did in the following manner:
Miss Cis stayed all night at Marcella's last night to tell secrets forthe last time, for after a lady is married you can't be too carefulabout telling her your secrets; and early this morning I ran over andsaw her dressed in a pretty blue kimono, which set off her good looksgreatly, down by the woodpile which they keep in the side yard. Thereis a hedge of honeysuckle which runs between the garden and the yardand she appeared to be searching on the ground for something close tothis hedge. I went up to where she was, admiring her company, and shesmiled when she saw me.
"Ann," she said, very pleasantly, "can you help me find two nice,little, smooth, thin boards?"
I complimented her on her kimono and said yes'm to the board question,then asked her what she wanted with them.
"My knees," she answered laughing, "they're so idiotic that when I getexcited they threaten to let me drop. If I could strap two nice littleboards to them, at the back, you know, it would prop them up and be_such_ a help!"
"You couldn't walk very good," I told her, but she said oh, yes shecould; and to prove it she commenced whistling the wedding march andwalking stiff-kneed away from the woodpile to the tune of it. Shelooked so funny that I started to laugh, when just then I heardanother laugh on the other side of the honeysuckle vines. I found aplace where I could peep through and saw it was Julius and Mr.Macdonald who had come out to view Mr. Clayborne's hotbeds, andgreatly complimenting them, Julius knowing that it's a fine thing tostay on the good side of your father-in-law in case you lose your job.
I knew they heard what Miss Cis had said, for they were laughing veryhard, which caused Mr. Macdonald to look real young, being as his eyescan twinkle. I knew it would be mortifying for her to see that theyhad heard her, so I hollered and told her that I heard Marcellacalling her from the up-stairs window, so she ran right on in withoutcoming back to the woodpile. I started to go on after her, but just asI got to the kitchen door I remembered that I had left my pretty whitesunbonnet that Mammy Lou had freshly ironed for me on the woodpile andran back to get it.
Julius and Mr. Macdonald were right where they were, only looking inthe other direction and talking very seriously, so I stayed a minuteout of friendly interest.
"Although so bright and amusing she is never silly," I heard Mr.Macdonald's long, slow voice saying. "She is a very lovely,fascinating little woman." So I took a seat on the woodpile.
"You'd better fall in love with her," Julius said, cutting the briersoff of a long switch he held in his hand, and talking careless like,as if he wasn't paying much attention.
"Your advice comes too late," Mr. Macdonald said, his voice so solemnthat Julius looked up in surprise.
"What!" Julius remarked.
"Yes," Mr. Macdonald said, sounding very devoted, "I did that verything the first moment I looked at her dear, sweet face."
Julius stared at him a minute, then laughed a tickled laugh; and Imoved my seat right up to the hedge so I could get a good look atthem--it was the next best thing to a proposal.
"That's the funniest thing I ever heard of," Julius said after he hadquit laughing.
"It's devilish funny to _you_," poor Mr. Macdonald said, looking likehe didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. "But--what am I to do?"
"Do?" said Julius very businesslike, like folks talk when they'retelling you to follow _their_ example. "What do men in your situationusually do? Why, propose to her!"
"But _she'd_ never marry _me_," he said looking right pitiful, for hespoke as humble as if he wasn't any taller than me, and him over sixfeet tall. "It would be the most absurd thing in the world for a manlike me to propose to a woman like her!"
"No, you're wrong," Julius told him, still half laughing, "the _most_absurd thing would be that she would accept you!"
I'm awfully tired to-night and it would cramp my hand nearly to deathto write all about the wedding--how Julius looked happy up to thelast, and how Marcella cried just enough to appear ladylike on herlace handkerchief; and how the family relatives cried a little too.Weddings are all alike, but proposals are all different, and I thinkI'd better use more space on them in my diary, so my grandchildrenwon't get sl
eepy over the sameness. But it would be a waste ofhandwriting to tell how Miss Cis tormented poor Mr. Macdonald all day,making him chase around after her trying to get in a private, lovingword; and me just crazy to see whether she really was going to accepthim or not, although I _might_ have known!
He followed her up though, looking so brave and determined that hereminded me of "The boy stood on the burning deck." She worried him sothat all through the ceremony he looked so pale and troubled thatyou'd have thought it was _him_ getting married. Finally, just beforeit was time for the train that he was going back to town on to blowshe changed about and commenced acting sweet.
He followed her up though _Page 138_]
All this was nice enough to watch, but is cramping to write about,and anyhow, the main thing with me was to see whether she was going toaccept him or not. I stayed close to their heels all day, but hedidn't get a chance to propose until just after dark, down by thefront gate, with nobody around except me and a calecanthus bushand--well, you just ought to have _seen_ her accepting him!
The Annals of Ann Page 7
