Mary Louise at Dorfield/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI
A DINNER PARTY
There was some excitement in the Wright family when Elizabeth came speeding home in Billy McGraw’s stylish little racer. They had grown accustomed if not resigned to the peculiarities of this member of the family who insisted upon working all day in a funny shop with an unstylish little person, the daughter of a policeman so they understood. Her only value in their eyes was that she was a friend of Mary Louise’s. As has been remarked before, that fact went a long way in the opinion of Dorfield towards establishing a person as worthy of being cultivated.
Another thing that was reconciling the Wright family somewhat to Elizabeth’s erratic mode of life was that she had begun to put money in the bank. This they were sure of, as one of the sisters had had a peep in her bank book. The shop was proving a financial success and in the eyes of one’s family nothing succeeds like monetary success.
And here was Elizabeth driving up in style in the car of the young man conceded by all Dorfield mothers and daughters to be the most desirable catch in town. Next to catching him themselves the sisters of Elizabeth would have liked to have her catch him. The mother was perfectly impartial as to which member of her family should land such a large game fish.
“I don’t believe she even asked him in,” declared Gertrude, peeping out the window.
“I am sure she didn’t,” agreed Annabel. “I know he would have come in if she had asked him. Elizabeth doesn’t know how to handle men at all.”
“No, she is simply foolish the way she goes to work,” said Pauline. “No man likes to be cut so short. She just gave him a little nod and came on in before he had even got back in his car and started his engine. She’ll never win out with such indifference.”
“I don’t know about that,” put in Margaret, who loved to take the opposite view, “sometimes the grand independent way is quite taking, especially with a man like Billy McGraw, who has been spoiled to death. How did you happen to get a lift?” This to Elizabeth, who had just entered the room.
“I met Billy at Mrs. Markle’s and he asked to bring me home, as he was coming this way,” said Elizabeth with as much sangfroid as she could muster.
“I think I shall have the Markles and Mr. McGraw to dinner soon,” said Mrs. Wright, who had listened with half an ear to the conversation of her daughters. “I have meant to entertain them for some time and since they are such friends of Billy McGraw’s it would be agreeable to have them all come together.”
“I wouldn’t,” faltered Elizabeth. “You are not called on to entertain them.”
“I fancy I am the best judge of that,” said her mother sharply. “I should like to know since when it has been necessary for one of my daughters to dictate to me when I should and should not entertain in my own house. You say you have been calling at Mrs. Markle’s and it seems quite fitting then that I should call on her and invite her to dinner.”
“Don’t you like Mrs. Markle?” asked Margaret curiously, noting with amusement that Elizabeth had flushed painfully under her mother’s tirade. Mrs. Wright’s tirades were not usually looked upon very seriously by her daughters.
“Why, I never thought much about it,” said Elizabeth evasively.
“I fancy she is some beau grabber,” suggested Pauline.
“Why did you call on her if you didn’t like her?” asked Gertrude.
“Heavens above!” ejaculated Elizabeth. “Perhaps I had some business to attend to—or perhaps I didn’t,” remembering suddenly that her business with Mrs. Markle was of a delicate nature and not to be mentioned outside of the bosom of the Higgledy-Piggledy.
“What business?” insisted Gertrude.
“The kind one gets rich attending to, my own,” said Elizabeth. She knew she was rude, but why couldn’t her family let her alone? She had worked hard all day typing the novel for the would-be author; writing an obituary notice for a bereaved gentleman who had just lost his fourth wife; and polishing up a paper for an aspiring leader of a literary club. She was tired now and would have liked to go to her room and be quiet for a few moments. How different life was at the shop! There everybody was busy and nobody had time to be poking her nose in everybody’s business.
“I fancy your business was running after Billy McGraw,” continued Gertrude. Since rudeness was the order of the day, she was fully capable of doing her share to keep the ball rolling.
Elizabeth’s inclination was to answer with increased acrimony but she thought better of it and merely left the room, even refraining from slamming the door, which was always a good way to get the last word in an argument in the Wright household.
“Why, why, can’t they let me alone?” she asked herself when she got to the room which she shared with Margaret. She vaguely wished she had kept her temper and not been so quick to take it for granted that her sisters were interfering.
“They are so idle is the reason they ask so many questions, I am sure,” she argued with herself. “I should feel sorry for them because they don’t know what fun it is to be busy. I’m going to try to be nicer and bring home something in the way of news that will be helpful to them instead of flying off the handle the way I did. I do wish though that Mother wouldn’t entertain the Markles. Of course, she is doing it to encourage Billy McGraw. Mother’s methods are too apparent for him who runs not to read. Only suppose the Markles come and find things here they want.” Here Elizabeth had to giggle a bit to herself. “They might go off with Father’s first editions and the great-grandfather forks, to say nothing of the silver slop basin in which George Washington is supposed to have drunk his toddy. What am I to do? I shouldn’t let Mother entertain such persons, but there is no stopping her short of divulging my real reason for not having them and that would be queering Josie’s game. Well, maybe it will teach Mother a lesson. Of course if anything does happen they will blame me for being the one to introduce them to such persons.”
The outcome was that the Wrights did entertain the Markles and Billy McGraw on the same evening, although Elizabeth put in one more earnest protest which had no more effect than to raise the ire of her mother and sisters, who declared she was a dog in the manger. Evidently she did not want Billy McGraw herself, but she didn’t want any of her sisters to have him.
“He is taken with you, anyone can see with half an eye,” declared Gertrude. “But you treat him just as though he were any ordinary young man—”
“Isn’t he?” asked Elizabeth.
“Pooh! You know he is a cut above the others with all that money.”
The dinner party proved a success in spite of Elizabeth’s embarrassment. The poor girl felt that the evening would never end. The Wrights knew how to entertain and nobody in Dorfield could give a better dinner than Mrs. Wright; the daughters were handsome and could be agreeable; Mr. and Mrs. Markle had a social gift and easy manners that insured a light, pleasant conversation wherever they were invited.
Elizabeth almost had hysterics when she saw her father leading Mr. Markle into his sanctum sanctorum to show him his rare first editions, his autographed copies, etc. Mrs. Markle was delighted with the Boydell plates from Shakespeare and the portfolio of Hogarth’s drawings handed down from an ancestor, who also collected.
“And this is the silver service you spoke of,” she said to Elizabeth. “See, Felix, this old service was marked and Mrs. Wright had the initials removed. Isn’t that wonderful?” she said naïvely to her husband. “I wonder how they do it. It is a wonderful piece of silver. Only feel how heavy! And look at those brass candlesticks! Heavens, Mrs. Wright! Those candlesticks are worth more than their weight in gold. They are of a rare and wonderful design. Surely you don’t go off to the beach and leave such treasures unprotected?”
“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Wright, delighted that her guest was so appreciative of the heirlooms. “We have never had any burglaries in Dorfield, at least none for years to amount to anything. Of course, as a rule, we take the silver with us.”
“Oh, of course,” said Hortense, and Elizabeth listened for the disappointed note she felt was surely in her voice.
“We either take it with us or hide it somewhere in the house,” continued Mrs. Wright. “This heavy service I usually hide in first one place and then another. Sometimes I hide things so well I can’t find them myself. The tops of wardrobes are famous places. Nobody ever thinks of looking for things there.”
“Of course, nobody would,” commented Hortense.
“I am to begin tomorrow to pack up for the summer,” went on Mrs. Wright, rather pleased that this young woman was so attentive. “You see, we are to go to the lake just as soon as Mary Louise’s wedding is over. That is quite soon now. To-morrow I send the servants out to the lake house to get it ready for us. It makes it rather inconvenient for us, but it is only for a few days and then it is nice when we get there to have everything in such perfect order.”
“All of you will go to the wedding?” asked Hortense.
“Oh, yes, Mary Louise has invited the entire family. It was no less than she could do since Elizabeth is one of the bridesmaids. Mr. Wright is not inclined to accept invitations, but we have persuaded him to go to this wedding, since it is really the event of the year. Of course, the girls and I would not miss it for anything.”
Elizabeth was glad when the evening was over. It embarrassed her to see the way in which her mother and sisters made up to Billy McGraw and the warmer their manners became the colder grew her own towards that young man, who could not understand what he had done to merit her disapproval. The more distant she became the closer he tried to come. He forgot to look at the beautiful Mrs. Markle in his endeavor to make Elizabeth smile on him.