Speed Nell
The Carter Girls' Week-End Camp
“Where are all the children, Robert?” asked Mrs. Carter, wondering in her well-bred mind why Dr. Wright should be so brusque.
“There aren’t any children, Annette,” sighed Mr. Carter, “but I shouldn’t sigh but be glad and happy. Why, they are perfect wonders! Helen is in the kitchen, not eating bread and honey, but cooking and bossing, and all the other girls are flying around taking care of the boarders.”
“Boarders! Oh, Robert, what a name to call them! I can’t contemplate it. Who are all those people I saw coming up the road?”
“They are the boarders.”
“Not all that crowd! I thought they had only a select few.”
“No, indeed, they take all that come and I can tell you they have made the place very popular. I did not know they had it in them. I believe it was a good thing I went off my hooks for a while, as it has brought out character in my girls that I did not dream they had.”
“It seems hardly ladylike for them to be so – so – successful at running a boarding place. I wonder what people will say.”
“Why they will say: ‘Hurrah for the Carter Girls!’ At least, that is what the worth-while people will say.”
“Well, if you think it all right, I know it must be,” sighed the poor little lady, “but somehow I think it would be much better for them to have visited Cousin Elizabeth Somerville until we got back or had her visit them in Richmond. I don’t at all approve of their renting my house. Douglas is so coarsened by this living out-of-doors. She has the complexion that must be guarded very carefully or she will lose her beauty very early. I think the summer before a girl makes her debut should be spent taking care of her complexion.”
Robert Carter laughed. He was always intensely amused by his wife’s outlook on life and society and looked upon it as one of her girlish charms. Common sense had not been what made him fall in love with her twenty years before, so the lack of it did not detract in any way from his admiration of her in these latter years. She was what she had always been: beautiful, graceful, sweet, charming; made to be loved, served and spoiled.
“Where is Bobby? He, at least, cannot be busy with these awful boarders.”
“Bobby? Why, he is now engaged in helping Josh, the little mountain boy who is serving as expressman for the girls, to curry Josephus, the mule. These boarders are not awful, my dear. You will find many acquaintances among them. Jeffry Tucker came with his two girls, the twins, and a friend of theirs from Milton, Page Allison is her name. There are several others whom you will be glad to see, I know. I think it would be well for us to go up in the pavilion where they dine and then dance, and you can receive them there as they arrive.”
Mrs. Carter patted her creamy lace dress with a satisfied feeling that she was looking her best. It was a new creation from a most exclusive shop in New York – quite expensive, but then she had had absolutely no new clothes for perfect ages and since the proprietor of the shop had been most pleased to have her open an account with him, the price of the gown was no concern of hers. It set off her pearly skin and dusky hair to perfection. She was glad Jeffry Tucker was at the camp. He was a general favorite in Richmond society and his being there meant at least that her girls had not lessened themselves in the eyes of the elite. Surely he would not bring his daughters to this ridiculous camp unless he felt that it would do nothing toward lowering their position.
The pretty, puzzled lady took her place at one end of the great long dining pavilion as the week-enders swarmed up the steps, attracted hither by the odor of fried apples and hot rolls that was wafted o’er the mountainside.
CHAPTER V
THE TUCKERS
There had been general rejoicing at Week-End Camp when Nan had announced that Jeffry Tucker and his daughters were to come up for a short stay. The Tuckers were great favorites and were always received with open arms at any place where fun was on foot. Mr. Tucker had written for accommodations for himself and daughters and their friend, Miss Allison.
No one would have been more astonished than Jeffry Tucker, the father of the Heavenly Twins, at the kind of reputation he had with a society woman of Mrs. Carter’s standing. For her to think that his bringing his daughters to the camp meant that he considered it to their social advantage – at least not to their social detriment – would have convulsed that gentleman. He thought no more of the social standing of his daughters Virginia and Caroline (Dum and Dee) than he did of the fourth dimension. He came to the camp and brought his daughters and Page Allison just because he heard it was great fun. He had known Robert Carter all his life and admired and liked him. His daughters had gone to the kindergarten and dancing school with Douglas and Helen and when rumor had it that these girls were actually making a living with week-end boarders at a camp in Albemarle, why it was the most natural thing in the world for the warm-hearted Jeffry Tucker immediately to write for tent room for his little crowd.
I hope my readers are glad to see the Tuckers and Page Allison. The fact of the business is that they are a lively lot and it is difficult to keep them in the pages of their own books. They might have stayed safely there had not the Carter girls started this venture in the mountains. That was too much for them. Zebedee had promised Tweedles again and again to take them camping, and since what they did Page must do too, of course she was included in the promise. This is not their own camp and not their own book but here they are in it!
“Douglas Carter, we think you are the smartest person that ever was!” enthused Dum Tucker as Douglas showed them to their tent where three other girls were to sleep, too. “Isn’t this just too lovely?”
“I’m not smart, it’s Helen who thought up this plan,” insisted Douglas. “We are so glad you have come and we do hope you will like it.”
“Like it! We are wild about it,” cried Dee, and Page Allison was equally enthusiastic.
“Where is Helen?” demanded Dum.
“She is chief cook and can’t make her appearance until she has put the finishing touches to supper.”
“Does she really cook, herself?” cried Dee. “How grand!”
“Sometimes she cooks herself,” drawled Nan, coming into the tent to see the Tuckers, who were great favorites with her, too, “sometimes when we get out of provisions, which we are liable to do now as six persons have come who had not written me for accommodations.”
“Mother and father got here from a long trip this afternoon,” explained Douglas, “and we are so upset over seeing them that we are rather late. Helen usually does all she has to do before the week-enders come.”
“Let us help!” begged Dee. “Dum and I can do lots of stunts, and Page here is a wonderful pie slinger.”
“Well, we would hardly press Miss Allison into service when she has just arrived,” smiled Douglas.
“Please, please don’t Miss Allison me! I’m just Page and my idea of camping is cooking, so if I can help, let me,” and Page, who had said little up to that time, spoke with such genuine frankness that Douglas and Nan felt somehow that a new friend had come into their circle.
“We’ll call on all three of you if we need you,” promised Douglas, hastening off with Nan to see that other guests had found their tents and had what they wanted in the way of water and towels.
“Isn’t this great?” said Dee. “I’m so glad Zebedee thought of coming. I think Douglas Carter looks healthy but awful bothered, somehow.”
“I thought so, too. I’m afraid her father is not so well or something. Think of Helen Carter’s cooking!” wondered Dum.
“Why shouldn’t she?” asked Page. “Is she so superior?”
“No, not that,” tweedled the twins.
“Helen’s fine but so – so – stylish. Mrs. Carter is charming but she is one butterfly and we always rather expected Helen to be just like her – more sense than her mother, but dressy,” continued Dee.
“You will know what Mrs. Carter is, just as soon as you look at her hands,” declared Dum. “If the lilies of the field were blessed with hands they would look exactly like Mrs. Carter’s.”
“Well, come let’s find Zebedee. I smelt apples frying,” and the three friends made their way to the pavilion where Mrs. Carter was receiving the week-enders with all the charm and ceremony she might have employed at a daughter’s debut party.
Her reception of the Tuckers was warm and friendly. It had been months since she had seen anyone who moved in her own circle and now there were many questions to ask of Richmond society. Jeffry Tucker, who could make himself perfectly at home with any type, now laid himself out to be pleasant to his hostess. He told her all the latest news of Franklin street and recounted the gossip that had filtered back from White Sulphur and Warm Springs. He turned himself into a society column and announced engagements and rumors of engagements; who was at the beach and who was at the mountains. He even made a stagger at the list of debutantes for the ensuing winter.
“I mean that Douglas shall come out next winter, too,” said the little lady during the supper that followed. Nan, seeing that her mother was having such a pleasant time with the genial Jeffry Tucker, arranged to have the Tuckers placed at the table that had been set aside for their mother and father. The Carter girls made it a rule to scatter themselves through the crowd the better to look after the hungry and see that no one’s wants were unsatisfied.
“Ah, is that so? I had an idea she was destined for college. It seems to me that Tweedles told me she had passed her Bryn Mawr exams.”
“So she did, but I am glad to say she has given up all idea of that foolishness. I am very anxious for her to make her debut.”
Nan, who was making the rounds of the various tables to see that everyone was served properly, overheard her mother’s remark and glanced shyly at Mr. Tucker. She caught his eye unwittingly but there was something in the look that he gave her that made her know he understood the whole situation and was in sympathy with Douglas, who was very busy at the next table helping hungry week-enders to the rapidly disappearing potato salad.
There was a rather pathetic droop to Douglas’ young shoulders as though the weight of the universe were getting a little too much for her. Mr. Tucker looked from her to Robert Carter who seemed to be accepting things as he found them with an astonishing calmness. He was certainly a changed man. Remembering him as a person of great force and energy, who always took the initiative when any work was to be done or question decided, his old friend wondered at his almost flabby state. Here he was calmly letting his silly wife, because silly she seemed to Jeffry Tucker, although charming and even lovable, put aside his daughter’s desires for an education and force her into society. He could see it all with half an eye and what he could not see for himself the speaking countenance of the third Carter, Nan, was telling him as plainly as a countenance could. He determined to talk with the girl as soon as supper was over and see if he could help her in some way, how, he did not know, but he felt that he might be of some use.
The supper was a very merry one in spite of the depression that had seized poor Douglas. She tried not to let her gloom permeate those around her. Helen was in a perfect gale and the Tucker Twins took their cue from her and the ball of good-humored repartee was tossed back and forth. Tillie Wingo was resplendent in a perfectly new dancing frock. The beaux buzzed around her like bees around a honey pot. The silent Bill Tinsley kept on saying nothing but his calf eyes were more eloquent than any words. He had fallen head over heels in love with the frivolous Tillie from the moment she offered to tip him on the memorable occasion of her first visit to the camp. Lewis Somerville, usually with plenty to say for himself, was almost as silent as his chum, Bill. It seemed as though Douglas’ low spirits had affected her cousin.
“What is it, Douglas?” he whispered, as he took the last plate of salad from her weary hand. “You look all done up. Are you sick?”
“No, indeed! Nothing!”
“When the animals have finished feeding, I want to talk to you. Can you give me a few minutes?”
“Why, of course, Lewis, as many as you want.”
Douglas and Lewis had been friends from the moment they had met. That had been some eighteen years before when Douglas had been crawling on the floor, not yet trusting to her untried legs, and Lewis, just promoted from skirts to breeches, had proudly paraded up and down in front of his baby cousin. There never had been a problem in Douglas’ life that she had not discussed with her friend, but she felt a delicacy in talking about this trouble that had arisen on her horizon because it would mean a certain criticism of both her mother and sister.
“Walk after supper?” Bill whispered to Tillie. “Something to say.” Tillie nodded an assent.
Supper over, the tables and chairs were piled up in a twinkling and the latest dance record put on the Victrola.
“Why, this is delightful!” exclaimed Mrs. Carter, looking around for Mr. Tucker to come claim her for the first dance, but she saw that gentleman disappearing over the mountainside with Nan.
“Nan is entirely too young for such nonsense!” she exclaimed with some asperity, but partners were forthcoming a-plenty so she was soon dancing like any girl of eighteen, while her indulgent husband smoked his pipe and looked contentedly on.
Susan and Oscar washed the dishes with more rattling than usual as Oscar had much grumbling in store for the delinquent Susan.
“Wherefo’ you done lef’ yo’ wuck to Miss Helen?”
“I’s a-helpin’ Mis’ Carter. She kep’ me a-openin’ boxes an’ hangin’ up things. I knowed Miss Helen wouldn’t min’. She thinks her maw oughter have what she wants. I done heard her tell Miss Douglas that she means to see her maw has her desires fulfilled. Sounded mos’ lak qua’llin’ the way the young missises was a-talkin’.”
“Well, all I got to say is that Mis’ Carter ain’t called on to git any mo’ waitin’ on than the young ladies. They’s as blue-blooded as what she is an’ even mo’ so as they is got all the blood she’s got an’ they paw’s beside. I bet she ain’t goin’ to tun a han’ to fill any of these folks up. There she is now a-dancin’ ’round like a teetotaller a-helpin’ the boarders to shake down they victuals. I’ll be boun’ some of these here Hungarians will be empty befo’ bed time.”
CHAPTER VI
POSTPRANDIAL CONVERSATIONS
It was a wonderful night. The sun had set in a glory of clouds while Oscar was still endeavoring to fill ’em up. The moon was full and “round as the shield of my fathers.” It was very warm with not a breeze stirring. Jeffry Tucker drew Nan down on the first fallen log they came to out of reach of the noise from the pavilion.
“It is fine to be able to leave the city for a while,” he said, drawing in deep breaths of mountain air. “And now, Miss Nan Carter, I want you to tell me what was the reason for the S. O. S. that you sent out to me as plain as one pair of eyes can speak to another. I am a very old friend of your father, have known him ever since I was a little boy at school where I looked up to him and admired him as only a little boy can a big one. I see he is in poor health, at least in a nervous state, and I am wondering if there isn’t something I can do. I don’t want to butt in – you understand that, don’t you? But if I can help, I want to.”
And then Nan Carter did just exactly what everybody always did: she took Jeffry Tucker into her confidence and told him all of the troubles of the family. He listened attentively.
“I see! The rent from the house in Richmond is the only income you can depend upon just now, and your mother wants to live at home again and have Miss Douglas make her debut in state. She has given up college for lack of funds, but she is to make her debut instead – a much more expensive pastime, I fancy. What does your father say?”
“Oh, that is the terrible part of it! We don’t want anyone to appeal to father – he is sure to say that mother must do just as she chooses. He always has said that and he thinks that he is put on earth just to gratify mother’s every wish. Mr. Tucker, please don’t think mother is selfish – it isn’t that – she is just inexperienced.”
“Certainly not! Certainly not!” But that gentleman crossed his fingers and quickly possessed himself of a bit of green leaf, which was the Tucker twins’ method, as children, when they made a remark with a mental reservation, the remark for politeness and the mental reservation for truth.
“You see, if father begins to think that mother wants things that it will take more money to buy, he will go back to work, and Dr. Wright says that nothing but a complete rest will cure him – rest and no worries.”
“Can’t Dr. Wright have a plain talk with your mother and explain matters to her?”
“Ye-e-s, but there is a kind of complication there, too. You see, Dr. Wright had a horrid time at first trying to beat it into us that father was in a bad way. Helen kicked against his diagnosis like I don’t know what, treated Dr. Wright mighty badly. He was fine about it and so patient that by and by Helen came to her senses, and began to appreciate all he had done for father, and she and Dr. Wright are real good friends. Now Helen is siding with mother and thinks that whatever mother wants to do she should do. She even wants Douglas to go to White Sulphur with mother for several weeks, right now in our very busiest season.”
Mr. Tucker could not help laughing at the child by his side, so seriously discussing the trials of her family and now talking about their busiest season like some veteran hotel keeper.
“White Sulphur would mean an added expense, too,” he suggested.
“Of course, and Helen says she will take her share of the summer’s earnings and send mother. Helen is very generous and very impulsive, with no more idea of saving for winter than a grasshopper.”
“This is what I take it you want me to do: make your mother change her mind about going to White Sulphur and decide of her own accord that this winter it would be a mistake to bring Miss Douglas out to make her bow before Richmond society.”
“Exactly! Oh, Mr. Tucker, if you only could without having father even know that mother is not having everything she wants!”
“I’ll do my best. I may have to take Dr. Wright into consultation before I get through. Already a plan is surging in my brain.”
“Let’s fly back to the pavilion then and you start to work!”
Nan forgot to be shy in her eagerness to thank Mr. Tucker for his interest in their affairs and her hurry to get him launched in the undertaking of coercing her mother without that little lady’s knowledge. She wondered if she had spoken too plainly about Dr. Wright and Helen. Nan was sentimental, as one of her poetic nature would be apt to be, and the budding romance that she thought she could spy springing up between Dr. Wright and her sister, far be it from her to blight. She felt sure Dr. Wright would feel it to be his duty to protect his patient from mental worry, but she was also sure that Helen would be quite impatient if Dr. Wright ventured to criticize her mother. What a relief it was to have unbosomed herself to this dear, kind Mr. Tucker, who understood her so readily and still did not seem to think her poor little mother was selfish or silly! (The crossing of fingers and holding something green had escaped her notice.)
“I won’t tell Douglas I have said anything to him,” she promised herself. “It would be difficult to explain that I caught his eye at the supper table and he divined that I was in trouble. That is the truth, though, no matter how silly it sounds.”
She wondered what the plan was that had begun to surge but she determined to leave it to Mr. Tucker. That gentleman, whatever his idea of attack, did not immediately approach her mother but made his way to the middle of the pavilion where he awaited his chance to break in on a dance with Page Allison, his daughters’ friend.
“She may be part of his plan! Who knows? At any rate, I believe he is going to get us out of the trouble somehow.”
As Douglas and Lewis left the pavilion they took the path straight up the mountain. “Let’s go this way and shake the crowd for a little while,” suggested Lewis.
“But we mustn’t be long. Helen will have too much entertaining to do. We can’t get it out of our heads that we must treat these boarders as though we were having a house-party.”
“Well, I reckon that’s the reason you have been so successful. I have heard some of the fellows say that they never hear the chink of coin here. It really seems like a house-party.”
“I am so glad, but I am glad of the chink of coin, too.”
“But, Douglas, I did not bring you out here to talk about boarders and coin – I have got something else to say. Bill and I have just been waiting until Cousin Robert and Cousin Annette got back because we couldn’t leave you without any protection – ”
“Leave us! Oh, Lewis!”
“Do you mind really, Douglas?”
“Mind? Why, I can’t tell you how much I mind!”
“We know we have no business staying here indefinitely and we feel we must get to work. We are going to enlist for the Mexican border. We have got over our grouch against Uncle Sam for firing us from West Point and now that he needs us, we are determined to show him we are ready to serve him in any capacity. You know we are right, don’t you?”
“Ye-e-s, but – ”
By that time Lewis had taken possession of Douglas’ hands and with a voice filled with emotion, he said:
“I can’t bear to leave you, but now Cousin Robert is here he will make it safe for you. I have tried to help some – ”
“Oh, and you have! We couldn’t have done a thing without you and Bill.”
“I don’t know about that. I believe there is no limit to what you Carter girls can do – but, Douglas – honey – before I go to Mexico – I – I just have to tell you how much I love you. I don’t mean like a cousin – I’m not such close kin to you after all – I mean I love you so much that the thought of leaving you is agony. You knew all the time that it was no cousin business, didn’t you, Douglas?”
“Why, Lewis, I never thought of such a thing. You are almost like my brother,” and Douglas devoutly wished the moon would hurry up and get behind a big black cloud that was coming over the mountain.
“Brother much! I’m not the least little bit like a brother. Bill’s got sisters and I don’t believe he is bothering about leaving them one-tenth as much as he is leaving Tillie Wingo. Why, honey, ever since I can remember I have been meaning to get you to marry me when we both grew up. Of course, I can’t ask you to marry me now as I haven’t a piece of prospect and will have to enlist in the ranks and work up, but I mean to work up fast and be so steady that I’ll be a lieutenant before Carranza and Villa can settle their difficulty. Won’t you be engaged to me so I’ll have something to work for until I can see you again?”
“Engaged to you! Why, Lewis, I – I – how can I be when it is so sudden? You never told me before that you cared for me the least little bit.”
“Told you before! Ye Gods and little fishes! I’ve been telling you for pretty near eighteen years.”
“Well, I never heard you!”
“Why don’t you say you don’t give a hang for me and let me go?”
“But, Lewis, I give a whole lot of hangs for you and I don’t want you to go.”
“Oh, I know the kind of hangs you give: just this brother and sister business,” and the young man dropped the girl’s hands.
Douglas felt like crying, but Lewis was so absurd she had to laugh. What time had she to think about getting engaged? She felt as though the whole world rested on her young shoulders. Here was her mother wanting her to make a debut, and Helen wanting to spend on a silly trip the pitiful little money they had begun to save from their boarding camp. And now Lewis Somerville and Bill Tinsley, the brawn and sinew of their undertaking, suddenly deciding that they must enlist and hike out for the Mexican border!
“We must go back to the pavilion,” she said wearily. Her voice sounded very tired and she stumbled a little as she turned to go down the path.
“Now, Douglas, I have distressed you,” and Lewis was all thoughtfulness and consideration. “I didn’t mean to, honey – I just want you to say you love me the way I love you.”
“And I can’t say it, because I never thought of your caring for me in any different way. You are the best friend I have in the world.”
“Well, that is something and I am going to keep on being it. Maybe when I come back from Mexico you will think differently. You will write to me, won’t you?”
“Why, of course I will, Lewis! Haven’t I always written to you?”
“Douglas, don’t you think you could love me a little?”
“But, Lewis, I do love you a whole lot!”
“But I mean be engaged to me?”
“Lewis Somerville, would you want me to be engaged to you when you know perfectly well that I have never thought of you except as the very best friend I’ve got in the world, and if not as a brother, at least as a cousin who has been almost like a brother? If I did engage myself to you, you wouldn’t have the least bit of respect for me and you know you wouldn’t; would you?”
But Lewis would not answer. He just drew her arm in his and silently led her back to the pavilion. The big cloud had made its way in front of the moon and he took advantage of the darkness to kiss her hand, but he was very gentle and seemingly resigned to the brother business that he had so scorned. His youthful countenance was very sad and stern, however, as he turned and made his way to the tent that he shared with Bill and Bobby.
Bill Tinsley and Tillie Wingo, too, were walking on the mountainside, Bill as silent as the grave but in a broad grin while Tillie kept up her accustomed chatter. It flowed from her rosy lips with no more effort than water from a mountain spring.
“Do you know, Mr. Tinsley, that I have danced out five dresses this summer? As for shoes! If Helen had not given me some of her slippers, I would be barefooted this minute. I don’t mind this rough dressing in the day time, but I must say when evening comes I like to doll up. I believe Mrs. Carter feels the same way. Isn’t that a lovely dress she has on this evening? There is no telling what it cost. If their mother can buy such a frock as that, I think it is absurd for the girls to be working so hard – and believe me, they are some workers. Now, I’m real practical and know how to dress on very little and, if I do say it that shouldn’t, I bet there is not a girl in Richmond who makes a better appearance on as little money as I spend, but I know what things cost – you can’t fool me – and I’m able to tell across the room that that filmy lace effect that Mrs. Carter is sporting set her back a good seventy-five.”
“Whew!” from Bill.
“Easy, seventy-five, I say, and maybe more! It would take a lot of week-enders to pay for it and I bet she no more thinks about it than she does about the air she breathes. Now she wants to bring Douglas out and you know she wouldn’t be willing to let her come out like a poor girl – no sirree! Douglas would have to have all kinds of clothes and all kinds of parties. She would have to come out in a blaze of glory if her mother has a finger in it. Girls who come out that way don’t have such a lot on the ones who just quietly crawl out – like I did, f’instance. I just quietly crawled – you could not call it coming – ”
Here Bill gave one of his great laughs, breaking his vow of silence. At least it seemed as though he must have made such a vow as through all of Tillie’s chatter he had uttered not one word more than the “Whew” over Mrs. Carter’s extravagance. The picture of Tillie’s quietly crawling got the better of his risibles.
“You needn’t laugh! I can assure you I came out in home-made clothes and during the entire winter I had not one thing done for me to push me in society – not a cup of tea was handed in my name. One lady did put my card in some invitations she got out, trying to relaunch a daughter who had been out for three seasons and gone in again, but she had an inconvenient death in the family and had to recall the invitations; so I got no good of it after all. Not that I cared – goodness no! I had all the fun there was to have and I’m still having, although I’m not able to keep in the swim, giving entertainments and what not. Of course, I was not included in select luncheons and dinner dances and the like. Those expensive blowouts are given with a view of returning all kinds of obligations or of putting people in your debt so you are included in theirs – but I got to all the big things and got there without the least wire-pulling or working. Of course, I did get to some of the small things because I was run in a lot as substitute when some girl dropped out. I wasn’t proud and did not mind in the least being second or third choice. People who never entertain need not expect to be on the original list. I just took a sensible view of the matter. I tell you, if a girl wants to have a good time she’s got no business with a chip on her shoulder. Society is a give-and-take game and if you are poorish and want to get without giving, you’ve got to be willing to do a lot in the way of swallowing your pride. At least, I had no slights offered me where the dancing men were concerned. I made every german and that is something many a rich debutante can’t say for herself.”
Tillie paused for breath and then Bill opened his mouth to speak, but the loquacious Tillie got in before he could begin and he had to wait.
“Now I believe Douglas would have lots of attention even if her mother did nothing to help on, but Mrs. Carter would enjoy having a daughter in society more than a daughter would enjoy being there, I believe, and she would be entertaining and spending money from morning until night. Of course, Lewis Somerville would be lots of help as he would stand ready to take Douglas anywhere that she did not get a bid from some other man – ”
