"Yours fraternally,
"Janet Royal."
Emily thrilled to the ends of her toes when she read this letter. "Yours fraternally" - oh, heavenly! She knelt at her window and looked out with enraptured eyes into the slender firs of the Land of Uprightness and the dewy young clover fields beyond. Oh, was it possible that some day she would be a brilliant, successful woman like Miss Royal? That letter made it seem possible - made every wonderful dream seem possible. And on Friday - four more days - she was going to see and talk intimately with her high priestess.
Mrs. Angela Royal, who called to see Aunt Ruth that evening, didn't exactly seem to think Janet Royal a high priestess or a wonder. But then, of course, a prophetess is apt to have scant honour in her own country and Mrs. Royal had brought Janet up.
"I don't say but what she's got on well," she confided to Aunt Ruth. "She gets a big salary. But she's an old maid for all that. And as odd in some ways as Dick's hat-band."
Emily, studying Latin in the bay window, went on fire with indignation. This was nothing short of lese-majeste.
"She is very fine looking yet," said Aunt Ruth. "Janet was always a nice girl."
"Oh, yes, she's nice enough. But I was always afraid she was too clever to get married, and I was right. And she's full of foreign notions. She's never on time for her meals - and it really makes me sick the fuss she makes over that dog of hers - Chu-Chin, she calls it. He rules the house. He does exactly as he likes and nobody dare say a word. My poor cat can't call her soul her own. Janet is so touchy about him. When I complained about him sleeping on the plush davenport she was so vexed she wouldn't speak for a day. That's a thing I don't like about Janet. She gets so high and mighty when she's offended. And she gets offended at things nobody else would dream of minding. And when she's offended with one she's offended with everybody. I hope nothing will upset her before you come on Friday, Emily. If she's out of humour she'll visit it on you. But I will say for her that she doesn't often get vexed and there's nothing mean or grudging about her. She'd work her fingers to the bone to serve a friend."
When Aunt Ruth had gone out to interview the grocer's boy, Mrs. Royal added hurriedly,
"She's greatly interested in you, Emily. She's always fond of having pretty, fresh girls about her - says it keeps her feeling young. She thinks your work shows real talent. If she takes a fancy to you it would be a great thing for you. But, for pity's sake, keep on good terms with that chow! If you offend him, Janet wouldn't have anything to do with you supposing you were Shakespeare himself."
Emily awoke Friday morning with the conviction that this was to be one of the crucial days of her life - a day of dazzling possibilities. She had had a terrible dream of sitting spellbound before Miss Royal, unable to utter a word except "Chu-Chin," which she repeated parrot-like whenever Miss Royal asked her a question.
It poured rain all the forenoon, much to her dismay, but at noon it cleared up brilliantly and the hills across the harbour scarfed themselves in fairy blue. Emily hurried home from school, pale with the solemnity of the occasion. Her toilet was an important rite. She must wear her new navy-blue silk - no question about that. It was positively long and made her look fully grown up. But how should she do her hair? The Psyche knot had more distinction, suited her profile, and showed to better advantage under her hat. Besides, perhaps a bare forehead made her look more intellectual. But Mrs. Royal had said that Miss Royal liked pretty girls. Pretty, therefore, she must be at all costs. The rich black hair was dressed low on her forehead and crowned by the new spring hat which Emily had dared to buy with her latest cheque, in spite of Aunt Elizabeth's disapproval and Aunt Ruth's unvarnished statement that a fool and her money were soon parted. But Emily was glad now that she had bought the hat. She couldn't have gone to interview Miss Royal in her plain black sailor. This hat was very becoming with its cascade of purple violets that fell from it over the lovely, unbroken waves of hair, just touching the milk-whiteness of her neck. Everything about her was exquisitely neat and dainty: she looked - I like the old phrase - as if she had just stepped from a band-box. Aunt Ruth, prowling about the hall, saw her coming downstairs and realised, with something of a shock, that Emily was a young woman.
"She carries herself like a Murray," thought Aunt Ruth.
The force of commendation could no further go, though it was really from the Starrs that Emily had inherited her slim elegance. The Murrays were stately and dignified, but stiff.
It was quite a little walk to Ashburn, which was a fine old white house set far back from the street amid great trees. Emily went up the gravel walk, edged with its fine-fringed shadows of spring, as a worshipper approaching a sacred fane. A fairly large, fluffy white dog was sitting half-way up the gravel walk. Emily looked at him curiously. She had never seen a chow dog. She decided that Chu-Chin was handsome, but not clean. He had evidently been having a glorious time in some mud puddle, for his paws and breast were reeking. Emily hoped he would approve of her, but keep his distance.
Evidently he approved of her, for he turned and trotted up the walk with her, amiably waving a plumy tail - or rather a tail that would have been plumy had it not been wet and muddy. He stood expectantly beside her while she rang the bell, and as soon as the door was opened he made a joyous bound on the lady who stood within, almost knocking her over.
Miss Royal herself had opened the door. She had, as Emily saw at once, no beauty, but unmistakable distinction, from the crown of her gold-bronze hair to the toes of her satin slippers. She was arrayed in some marvellous dress of mauve velvet and she wore pince-nez with tortoise-shell rims, the first of their kind to be seen in Shrewsbury.
Chu-Chin gave one rapturous, slobbery wipe at her face with his tongue, then rushed on into Mrs. Royal's parlour. The beautiful mauve dress was spotted from collar to hem with muddy paw-marks. Emily thought that Chu-Chin fully deserved Mrs. Royal's bad opinion and mentally remarked that if he were her dog he should behave better. But Miss Royal did not reprove him in any way, and perhaps Emily's secret criticism was subconsciously prompted by her instant perception that Miss Royal's greeting, while perfectly courteous, was very cold. From her letter Emily had somehow expected a warmer reception.
"Won't you come in and sit down?" said Miss Royal. She ushered Emily in, waved to a comfortable chair, and sat down on a stiff and uncompromising Chippendale one. Somehow, Emily, sensitive at all times and abnormally so just now, felt that Miss Royal's selection of a chair was ominous. Why hadn't she sunk chummily into the depths of the big velvet morris? But there she sat, a stately, aloof figure, having apparently paid not the slightest attention to the appalling mud-stains on her beautiful dress. Chu-Chin had jumped on the big plush davenport, where he sat, cockily looking from one to the other as if enjoying the situation. It was all too evident that, as Mrs. Royal had foreboded, something had "upset" Miss Royal, and Emily's heart suddenly sank like lead.
"It's - a lovely day," she faltered. She knew it was an incredibly stupid thing to say, but she had to say something when Miss Royal wouldn't say anything. The silence was too awful.
"Very lovely," agreed Miss Royal, not looking at Emily at all but at Chu-Chin, who was thumping a beautiful silk and lace cushion of Mrs. Royal's with his wet tail. Emily hated Chu-Chin. It was a relief to hate him, since as yet she did not dare to hate Miss Royal. But she wished herself a thousand miles away. Oh, if she only hadn't that little bundle of manuscripts on her lap! It was so evident what it was. She would never dare to show one of them to Miss Royal. Was this outraged empress the writer of that kind, friendly letter? It was impossible to believe it. This must be a nightmare. Her dream was "out" with a vengeance. She felt crude and bread-and-buttery and ignorant and dowdy - and young! Oh, so horribly young!
The moments passed - not so very many, perhaps, but seeming like hours to Emily. Her mouth was dry and parched, her brain paralysed. She couldn't think of a solitary thing to say A horrible suspicion flashed across her mind that, since writing her letter, M
iss Royal had heard the gossip about the night in the old John house and that her altered attitude was the result.
In her misery Emily squirmed in her chair and her little packet of manuscripts slipped to the floor. Emily stooped to retrieve it. At the same moment Chu-Chin made a flying leap from the davenport at it. His muddy paws caught the spray of violets hanging from Emily's hat and tore it loose. Emily let go of her packet and clutched her hat. Chu-Chin let go of the violets and pounced on the packet. Then, holding that in his mouth, he bolted out of the open glass door leading to the garden.
"Oh, what a relief it would be to tear my hair," thought Emily violently.
That diabolical chow had carried off her latest and best story and a number of choice poems. Heaven knew what he would do with them. She supposed she would never see them again. But, at least, there was fortunately now no question of showing them to Miss Royal.
Emily no longer cared whether Miss Royal was in a bad humour or not. She was no longer desirous of pleasing her - a woman who would let her dog behave like that to an invited guest and never reprove him! Nay, she even seemed to be amused at his antics. Emily was sure she had detected a fleeting smile on Miss Royal's arrogant face as she looked at the ruined violets scattered over the floor.
There suddenly popped into Emily's mind a story she had heard of Lofty John's father, who was in the habit of telling his wife,
"When people do be after snubbing you, Bridget, pull up your lip, Bridget, pull up your lip."
Emily pulled up her lip.
"A very playful dog," she said sarcastically.
"Very," agreed Miss Royal composedly.
"Don't you think a little discipline would improve him?" asked Emily.
"No, I do not think so," said Miss Royal meditatively.
Chu-Chin returned at this moment, capered about the room, knocked a small glass vase off a taboret with a whisk of his tail, sniffed at the ensuing fragments, then bounded up on the davenport again, where he sat panting. "Oh, what a good dog am I!"
Emily picked up her notebook and pencil.
"Mr. Towers sent me to interview you," she said.
"So I understand," said Miss Royal, never taking her eyes off her worshipped chow.
Emily: "May I trouble you to answer a few questions?"
Miss Royal, with exaggerated amiability: "Charmed."
(Chu-Chin, having saved enough breaths, springs from the davenport and rushes through the half-opened folding doors of the dining-room.)
Emily, consulting notebook and recklessly asking the first question jotted down therein: "What do you think will be the result of the Presidential election this fall?"
Miss Royal: "I never think about it."
(Emily, with compressed lips, writes down in her notebook: "She never thinks about it." Chu-Chin reappears, darts through parlour and out into the garden, carrying a roast chicken in his mouth.)
Miss Royal: "There goes my supper."
Emily, checking off first question: "Is there any likelihood that the United States Congress will look favourably on the recent reciprocity proposals of the Canadian Government?"
Miss Royal: "Is the Canadian Government making reciprocity proposals? I never heard of them."
(Emily writes, "She never heard of them." Miss Royal refits her pince-nez.)
Emily, thinks: "With a chin and a nose like that you'll look very witch-like when you grow old." Says: "Is it your opinion that the historical novel has had its day?"
Miss Royal, languidly: "I always leave my opinions at home when I take a holiday."
(Emily writes, "She always leaves her opinions home when she takes a holiday," and wishes savagely she could write her own description of this interview, but knows Mr. Towers wouldn't print it. Then consoles herself by remembering that she has a virgin Jimmy-book at home and takes a wicked delight in thinking of the account that will be written in it that night. Chu-Chin enters. Emily wonders if he could have eaten the chicken in that short time. Chu-Chin, evidently feeling the need of some dessert, helps himself to one of Mrs. Royal's crocheted tidies, crawls under the piano with it and falls to chewing rapturously.)
Miss Royal, fervently: "Dear dog!"
Emily, suddenly inspired: "What do you think of chow dogs?"
Miss Royal: "The most adorable creatures in the world."
Emily, to herself: "So you've brought one opinion with you." To Miss Royal: "I do not admire them."
Miss Royal, with an icy smile: "It is evident that your taste in dogs must be quite different from mine."
Emily, to herself: "I wish Ilse were here to call you names for me."
(A large, motherly grey cat passes across the doorstep outside. Chu-Chin bolts out from under the piano, shoots between the legs of a tall plant stand, and pursues the flying cat. The plant stand has gone over with a crash and Mrs. Royal's beautiful rex begonia lies in ruins on the floor, amid a heap of earth and broken pottery.)
Miss Royal, unsympathetically: "Poor Aunt Angela! Her heart will be broken."
Emily: "But that doesn't matter, does it?"
Miss Royal, gently: "Oh, no; not at all."
Emily, consulting notebook: "Do you find many changes in Shrewsbury?"
Miss Royal: "I find a good many changes in the people. The younger generation does not impress me favourably."
(Emily writes this down. Chu-Chin again reappears, evidently having chased the cat through a fresh mud puddle, and resumes his repast of the tidy, under the piano.)
Emily shut her notebook and rose. Not for any number of Mr. Towers would she prolong this interview. She looked like a young angel, but she was thinking terrible things. And she hated Miss Royal - oh, how she hated her!
"Thank you, that will be all," she said, with a haughtiness quite equal to Miss Royal's. "I'm sorry to have taken so much of your time. Good afternoon."
She bowed slightly and went out to the hall. Miss Royal followed her to the parlour door.
"Hadn't you better take your dog, Miss Starr?" she asked sweetly.
Emily paused in the act of shutting the outer door and looked at Miss Royal.
"Pardon me."
"I said, hadn't you better take your dog?"
"My dog?"
"Yes. He hasn't quite finished the tidy, to be sure, but you might take it along. It won't be much good to Aunt Angela now."
"He - he - isn't my dog," gasped Emily.
"Not your dog? Whose dog is he then?" said Miss Royal.
"I - I thought he was yours - your chow," said Emily.
AN OPEN DOOR
Miss Royal looked at Emily for a moment. Then she seized her wrist, shut the door, drew her back to the parlour, and firmly pushed her down into the morris chair. This done, Miss Royal threw herself on the muddy davenport and began to laugh - long and helplessly. Once or twice she rocked herself forward, gave Emily's knee two wild whacks, then rocked back and continued to laugh. Emily sat, smiling faintly. Her feelings had been too deeply harrowed to permit of Miss Royal's convulsions of mirth, but already there was glimmering in her mind a sketch for her Jimmy-book. Meanwhile, the white dog, having chewed the tidy to tatters, spied the cat again, and again rushed after her.
Finally Miss Royal sat erect and wiped her eyes.
"Oh, this is priceless, Emily Byrd Starr - priceless! When I'm eighty I'll recall this and howl over it. Who will write it up, you or I? But who does own that brute?"
"I'm sure I don't know," said Emily demurely. "I never saw him in my life before."
"Well, let's shut the door before he can return. And now, dear thing, sit here beside me - there's one clean spot here under the cushion. We're going to have our real talk now. Oh, I was so beastly to you when you were trying to ask me questions. I was trying to be beastly. Why didn't you throw something at me, you poor insulted darling?"
"I wanted to. But now I think you let me off very easily, considering the behaviour of my supposed dog."
Miss Royal went off in another convulsion.
"I don
't know if I can forgive you for thinking that horrid curly white creature was my glorious red-gold chow. I'll take you up to my room before you go and you shall apologise to him. He's asleep on my bed. I locked him there to relieve dear Aunt Angela's mind about her cat. Chu-Chin wouldn't hurt the cat - he merely wants to play with her, and the foolish old thing runs. Now, you know, when a cat runs, a dog simply can't help chasing her. As Kipling tells us, he wouldn't be a proper dog if he didn't. If only that white fiend had confined himself to chasing the cat!"
"It is too bad about Mrs. Royal's begonia," said Emily, regretfully.
"Yes, that is a pity. Aunt Angela's had it for years. But I'll get her a new one. When I saw you coming up the walk with that dog frisking around you, of course I concluded he was yours. I had put on my favourite dress because it really makes me look almost beautiful - and I wanted you to love me; and when the beast muddied it all over and you never said a word of rebuke or apology, I simply went into one of my cold rages. I do go into them - I can't help it. It's one of my little faults. But I soon thaw out if no fresh aggravation occurs. In this case fresh aggravation occurred every minute. I vowed to myself that if you did not even try to make your dog behave I would not suggest that you should. And I suppose you were indignant because I calmly let my dog spoil your violets and eat your manuscripts?"
"I was."
"It's too bad about the manuscripts. Perhaps we can find them - he can't really have swallowed them, but I suppose he has chewed them to bits."
"It doesn't matter. I have other copies at home."
"And your questions! Emily, you were too delicious. Did you really write down my answers?"