CHAPTER XI--NEWPORT AT LAST!
The automobile girls were in a flutter of excitement. Another half hour,and they would arrive in Newport!
"Ruth," said Miss Sallie, "slow up this car a little! Before we enterNewport, I must see to my appearance. To think of all I have gonethrough since I left Kingsbridge!" Miss Sallie took out a small handmirror, thoughtfully surveying her own unwrinkled face. "What will youchildren get me into before we are through with this trip?"
Ruth slowed down obediently.
"Open my bag, Mollie," said Miss Sallie, decidedly, "and you, Grace,look under the seat for my other hat. We shall probably arrive inNewport at five o'clock, the hour for the fashionable parade. I, atleast, shall do what I can to give our car an appearance of gentility. Iadvise you children to do the same."
"Would you like a little cold cream, Miss Sallie, to wipe off yourface?" Mollie spoke timidly, remembering how Barbara had laughed at her.
"Certainly I should, my child, and very intelligent of you to havebrought it along."
"Well," said Ruth, "if you must 'fix up,' and I am to take a party ofbelles and beauties into Newport, instead of true lovers of sport, thereare lots of new veils under my seat. Bab, take them out and pass themaround. Only the chauffeur shall be dusty and dilapidated enough to lookthe part."
Behold their dream had come true! The automobile girls were at last inNewport, watching the summer parade!
Ruth, at the expected hour, turned her car, with a great flourish, intoBellevue Avenue, Newport's most fashionable thoroughfare. For a fewminutes the girls beheld a long procession of carriages and automobiles;a little later, they swung round a corner and stopped in front of abeautiful old Colonial house, with a wide veranda running around threesides of it, and a hospitably open front door.
Miss Sallie descended first, to be greeted by Ralph's mother, who wasexpecting them.
"I don't like her. She's not a bit like Ralph," thought Barbara. Thenshe gave herself an inward shake. "There, Barbara, you know what motherwould say to you about your sudden prejudices!"
Mrs. Ewing, who had been a great beauty in her day, looked as thoughlife had disagreed with her.
Barbara had wondered how a private home could accommodate so manypeople, never having seen a handsome old New England house, but theirthree rooms occupied only half of one side of the long hall on thesecond floor. "And they think they are poor!" smiled Bab, to herself, asshe looked admiringly at the handsome furniture. "I wonder what theywould think of our little five-room cottage."
"I want some clean clothes before anything else," sighed dainty Mollie,standing before a mirror, gazing with disdain at her own appearance. "Ibelieve I have one clean shirtwaist left, but I must still wear thisdusty old skirt."
But Ruth was staggering into the room under an immense box.
"Fifteen dollars express charges, mum; not a cent less! Them's myorders. And extry for carrying the box upstairs. It ain't my business.I'm too accommodating I am! Where shall I put it down, mum?"
Ruth dropped the heavy bundle on the bed; she couldn't carry it a momentlonger.
"Why, Ruth Stuart!" said Mollie, dancing with glee. "It's some clothesfor us! How did mother get them here in such a hurry? Oh, joy! oh,rapture! I was just fussing about having to wear this old suitto-night."
Bab was tugging at the heavy cords.
"Foolish Bab!" scoffed Ruth. "You'll never get it open that way," andshe cut the cord in a business-like fashion with a little knife shealways carried.
"Now I'll run away and leave you," Ruth continued. "Grace is callingthat it is time for my bath. Your turn next. I'll see the pretty thingswhen I come back."
Ruth would like to have stayed to see the girls open the box, but shehad an instinctive feeling that they would prefer to be alone.
"Here's a letter from mother. Let's read that first," said Bab.
Inside the letter lay two crisp ten-dollar bills!
"I have had a windfall, children," the letter read, "through thekindness of Mr. Stuart. He told me that some of my old stock that Ithought of no value was paying a dividend again. Curiously, your UncleRalph had not mentioned it to me; but, when I wrote and told him of Mr.Stuart's advice, he sent it to me at once. So here's a little spendingmoney. And oh, my darlings, I hope you will like your new clothes! Mr.Stuart is so kind to me, I am not lonely," the letter ended, "so havethe best time you possibly can. I shall send your trunk to-morrow withyour summer muslins and underwear."
"Mollie mine, don't tear the paper in that fashion," remonstratedBarbara. "Let me open the box. Behold and see!" She held up two daintyorgandie frocks, delicate and airy. Mollie's gown was white, with littlebutterfly medallions of embroidery and lace sprinkled over it.
"Mollie, Mollie! How could mother have guessed your new name was 'thebutterfly girl'? Isn't it too lovely!" Bab almost forgot to look at herown frock, so enraptured was she with her sister's.
But Barbara's frock was just as charming, and as well suited to her. Acircle of pink wild roses outlined the hem and encircled the yoke, whichwas of delicate pink tulle.
Mollie was rummaging with impatient fingers. "Party capes, I dodeclare--the very newest style! I never reached the point of expectingcapes even in my wildest dreams. See, yours is all white, and mine has apale blue lining with a dear little 'blue riding hood cap.' Oh, won't Ibe charming?" murmured Mollie, putting the cape over her shoulders andpirouetting before the mirror. "Surely no sensible wolf would want toeat me up!"
Two light flannel suits, one of cream color for Bab, and a pin-stripe ofblue and white for Mollie, completed the glories of the box.
"Now," said Bab, "what more can we want, for tennis, for rowing, foryachting, for driving? Are there any more entertainments that the richenjoy, Mollie? Because, if there are, I should like to mention them."
Oh, the girls will all declare, When they see me on the square-- Here comes a millionaire, Mollie darling!
"What do you think of that for poetry made while you wait? You don'thalf appreciate my talents, Miss Mollie Thurston," ended Bab, with afinal hug.
"Hurry, children," called Miss Sallie, appearing at their door. "Youknow we are to meet Mrs. Cartwright at the Casino to-night. She wants tointroduce us to the place where a large part of Newport's gayetyoccurs."
"What is the 'Casino'?" whispered Mollie, when Miss Sallie haddisappeared.
"Oh, it's only a big club, where you play tennis and have dances, andany sort of entertainments. Nearly all the nicest people in Newportbelong to it. Mrs. Cartwright says we'll have most of our fun overthere."
Bab put her arm round her sister, as they walked downstairs.
"Mollie," she said, "I have the queerest feeling. I am so happy, itfrightens me. I never had such a good time before. I wonder how it willall turn out?"
Barbara could not guess that there were to be tears for her, as well asjoys, at Newport. It was as well she did not know, or her pleasure wouldhave been marred.
The girls finished dinner as quickly as possible.
"There's time for a stroll on the cliffs, isn't there, before eight?"inquired Ruth. "Do you feel equal to exercise, Aunt Sallie? Everyonetakes the cliff walk the first thing after arrival in Newport."
"Certainly," Miss Sallie agreed. "I suppose I can manage it, though Ihave ridden so far that I may have lost the use of my limbs. However, Ican sit down if I grow tired, and you children can go on without me.It's perfectly safe, isn't it, Mrs. Ewing?"
"Oh, yes," Mrs. Ewing replied; "though it looks fairly dangerous, thecliffs are so high, the highest on the Atlantic Coast from Cape Ann toYucatan. But very few accidents have occurred there--so far."
Ruth and Barbara led the way. They could hear the sea booming andpounding below them. From the edge of the cliff they looked down ahundred feet at the sea, washing in on the level stretch of beach.
Ruth shivered and turned pale. "Oh," she shuddered, "it makes mehorribly nervous! I am ashamed of it, so I don't often mention it, but Isimply can't look down f
rom great heights. It even makes me a littlesick to look out of a high window, and I'm a miserable climber, I get sodizzy. Let us go back. Do you mind, Bab?"
"No, Ruth," Bab answered. "I suppose I am a tomboy; I used to play hareand hounds with the boys at school, and I learned to climb like a goatover the rocks at Kingsbridge; but these Newport cliffs are a differentmatter."
Barbara's powers were to be tested, but neither she nor Ruth thoughtanything more of their talk. Miss Sallie and the other two girls hadjoined them, and they made their way along the narrow, winding path thatdipped in hollows and curves, and stretched for two miles ahead of them.
"How hard it is," said Miss Sallie, "to tell which view is the morebeautiful!"
On the inland side of the cliffs, beautiful, shaded lawns, luxuriantwith flowers, ran down to the edge of the path. Set in their midst werethe marble palaces of Newport's millionaires. Toward the sea, greatpoints of land jutted out into the harbor, where the water was violetwith the shadows of the closing day.
"Miss Stuart! Miss Stuart!" Aunt Sallie heard a gay voice calling her.
Running across the lawn, and waving her scarf at them, came Mrs.Cartwright.
"Were you coming to see me first?" she asked.
Miss Stuart confessed that she had not the shadow of an idea which housebelonged to Mrs. Cartwright.
"You must see it for a minute, since you are already here," urged Mrs.Cartwright, and led the way up the graveled path to her veranda.
"Mollie," she said, addressing the young girl, "I think it is peculiarlyappropriate for my butterfly girl to be introduced to my piazza. It ismade to look like a Japanese teahouse," she explained to Miss Sallie.
The sides of Mrs. Cartwright's veranda were of heavy Japanese paperstretched on bamboo poles which opened and closed at will. The paper hadbeen painted by a famous Japanese artist to represent springtime inJapan. There were whole rows of cherry trees in full blossom, withlittle Japanese children playing beneath them. Opposite this scene wasanother painting--a marshy lake, surrounded by queer Japanese birds.
The veranda was lighted by a hundred tiny shaded lamps. Japanese mattingcovered the floor, while the tea tables were set with tea servicesbought in old Japan. The girls had never seen anything so lovely.
"You are officially invited to have tea with me here, any or everyafternoon you are in Newport. Now I will run and get Mr. Cartwright,"added their hostess, "and we will go over to the Casino."
Outside, the Casino looked like a rambling, old Dutch mansion, withpeaked gables and overhanging eaves.
"We've a Dutch house, English lawns and a French chef," Mr. Cartwrightlaughingly explained to Miss Sallie as they entered.
"And we've dozens of tennis courts," added Mrs. Cartwright. "We areworking dreadfully hard, now, for the tournament that is to take placein a few weeks. It is really the social event of the whole year atNewport. Is there a star player among you girls? Why not enter thetournament and compete for the championship? We are to have a specialmatch game, this year, played by the young people. Let us keep thesetennis courts busy for a while. You'll come over, too, Miss Stuart,won't you, and play bridge while we work. Or you'll work at bridge,while we play tennis. Perhaps you think that is the way I should haveput it."