The Story of a Summer Part 1

The Story of a Summer.

by Cecilia Cleveland.

CHAPTER I.

Return to Chappaqua--A Walk over the Grounds--The Sidehill House--Our First Sunday at Chappaqua--Drive to Mount Kisco--A Country Church--A Dame Chatelaine--Our Domestic Surroundings.

CHAPPAQUA, WESTCHESTER Co.,

_New York_, May 28, 1873

Again at dear Chappaqua, after an absence of seven months. I have not the heart to journalize tonight, everything seems so sad and strange.

What a year this has been--what bright antic.i.p.ations, what overwhelming sorrow!

_May 30_.

I have just returned from a long ramble over the dear old place; first up to the new house so picturesquely placed upon a hill, and down through the woods to the cool pine grove and the flower-garden. Here I found a wilderness of purple and white lilacs, longing, I thought, for a friendly hand to gather them before they faded; dear little bright-eyed pansies, and scarlet and crimson flowering shrubs, a souvenir of travel in England, with sweet-scented violets striped blue and white, transplanted from Pickie's little garden at Turtle Bay long years ago.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Side-Hill House.]

Returning, I again climbed the hill, and unlocked the doors of the new house; that house built expressly for Aunt Mary's comfort, but which has never yet been occupied. Every convenience of the architect's art is to be found in this house, from the immense, airy bedroom, with its seven windows, intended for Aunt Mary, to _a porte cochere_ to protect her against the inclemency of the weather upon returning from a drive.

But this house, in the building of which she took so keen an interest, she was not destined to inhabit, although with that buoyancy of mind and tenacity to life that characterized her during her long years of weary illness, she contemplated being carried into it during the early days of last October, and even ordered fires to be lighted to carry off the dampness before she tried her new room. By much persuasion, however, she was induced to postpone her removal from day to day; and finally, as she grew weaker and weaker, she decided to abandon that plan, and journey to New York while she could. In two weeks more she had left us forever.

_June 1_.

Our first Sunday at Chappaqua. We have a little church for a next-door neighbor, in which services of different sects are held on alternate Sundays, the pulpit being hospitably open to all denominations excepting Papists. Three members of our little household, however--mamma, Marguerite, and I--belong to the grand old Church of Rome; so the carriage was ordered, and with our brother in religion, Bernard, the coachman, for a pioneer, we started to find a church or chapel of the Latin faith. At Mount Kisco, a little town four miles distant, Bernard thought we might hear Ma.s.s, "but then it's not the sort of church you ladies are used to," he added, apologetically; "it's a small chapel, and only rough working people go there."

I was quite amused at the idea that the presence of poor people was any objection, for is it not a source of pride to Catholics that _their_ church is open alike to the humblest and richest; so with a suggestive word from Bernard, Gabrielle's spirited ponies flew

"Over the hills, and far away."

A perpetual ascent and descent it seemed--a dusty road, for we are sadly in want of rain, and few shade-trees border the road; but once in Mount Kisco, the novelty of the little chapel quite compensated for the disagreeable features of our journey there. A tiny chapel indeed--a plain frame building, with no pretence to architectural beauty. It was intended originally, I thought, for a Protestant meeting-house, as the cruciform shape, so conspicuous in all Catholic-built churches was wanting here. The whitewashed walls were hung with small, rude pictures, representing the _Via Crucis_ or Stations of the Cross, and the altar-piece--not, I fancy, a remarkable work of art in its prime--had become so darkened by smoke, that I only _conjectured_ its subject to be St. Francis in prayer.

Although it was Whit-Sunday the altar was quite innocent of ornament, having only six candles, and a floral display of two bouquets. The seats and kneeling-benches were uncus.h.i.+oned, and the congregation was composed, as Bernard said, entirely of the working cla.s.s; but the people were very clean and respectable in their appearance, and fervent in their devotions as only the Irish peasantry can be.

The pastor, an intelligent young Irishman, apparently under thirty, had already said Ma.s.s at Pleasantville, six miles distant, and upon arriving at Mount Kisco he found that about twenty of his small congregation wished to receive Communion, as it was a festival; consequently, he spent the next hour not _literally_ in the confessional, for there was none, but in the tiny closet dignified by the name of a vestry. From thence, the door being open, we could with ease, had we had nothing better to do, have heard all of the priest's advice to his penitents.

This ceremony over, the young Father came out in his black ca.s.sock, and taking up his vestments which lay upon the altar-steps, he proceeded with the utmost nonchalance to put them on, not hesitating to display a long rent in his surplice, and a decidedly ragged sleeve.

The Ma.s.s was a Low one, and the congregation were too poor to have an organ or organist. Quite a contrast to a Sunday at St. Stephen's or St. Francis Xavier's, but the _Ma.s.s_ is always the same, however humble the surroundings.

_June 3_.

We are unusually fortunate, I think, in our domestic surroundings.

Servants are proverbially the _bete noire_ of American ladies, and the prospect of having to train some unskilled specimens of foreign peasantry weighed heavily, I fancy, upon our beautiful Ida in her new responsibility of a young _Dame Chatelaine_. However, we have been, as I said, singularly successful in obtaining servants.

To my great delight, there is not one ugly name in our little household, although composed of eight members, commencing with _Queen_ Esther as mamma has been named; then we four girls--_la Dame Chatelaine_, with her fair face, dark, pensive eyes, and modest dignity; Gabrielle, or _Tourbillon_, our brilliant pet, and the youngest of our quartette, although her graceful figure rises above the rest of us; my sister Marguerite, _la Gentille Demoiselle_; and I, Cecilia.

Then come the household retinue: Bernard, the coachman, already introduced, a smart-looking young Irishman, whom the maids always find very beguiling; Lina, the autocrat of the kitchen, a little, wiry-looking woman from Stockholm, formerly cook, so _she_ says, to King Charles of Sweden; and Minna, the maid.

Minna is a pretty young Bavarian, who has been only fifteen days in the Land of Liberty, but she has already learnt, I am amused to see, _not_ to address a lady as "_gnadige_ Frau," or "Fraulein"--a style of address imperative in South Germany from a maid to her mistress. Minna has not, however, imbibed all of the democratic principles that will, I fear, come to her only too soon, for she has not yet learnt to emulate her mistress in dress. It is really quite refres.h.i.+ng to see a servant dressed as a servant. Minna is the perfection of neatness, and her plain stuff or print gowns are _sans reproche_ in their freshness. In the matter of ap.r.o.ns she must be quite reckless, for they always look as if just from the ironing-table. They are made, too, in an especially pretty fas.h.i.+on that I have never before seen out of Munich.

Scorning chignons, Minna appears with her own luxuriant hair in ma.s.sive braids wound about her well-shaped head, and as to-day is Sunday and a _Fest-tag_, she adorns herself with a large sh.e.l.l-comb. She has very pretty, coquettish ways, that have already melted the heart of our hitherto unsusceptible Bernard, and it is quite charming to hear her attempts to converse with him in her broken English.

Minna came to me this morning directly after breakfast, and said, "Where shall I go to church, Fraulein Cecilia?"

"I do not really know, Minna," I replied. "You are a Lutheran, I suppose?"

"Yes, Fraulein Cecilia."

"There is no church of that sort here," I said, "but there is a Reformed Church next door."

With a very doubtful expression, she said: "I will see, Fraulein. And _bitte_, is not the _Pfingsten_ a Fest-tag in America? In our country, you know, it is _more_ than Sunday, and the people always amuse themselves."

I explained to her as clearly as I could, that Pfingsten (Whit-Sunday) was only a Fest-tag in her church, mine, and the Church of England, and that it was never in this country a Fest-tag, outside of the religious observance.

A very perplexed face was the result of my explanations; why Pfingsten should not be Pfingsten the world over, and a public holiday with all sorts of merry-makings, she could not understand.

CHAPTER II.

Arrival of the Piano--Routine of a Day--Morning Toilettes--The Dining-room--Pictures--Ida and Gabrielle--How occupied--The Evening Mail--Musical Evenings.

_June 4_.

Yesterday the piano was sent up from Steinway's, where it has been stored since last fall, and now we have all settled to our different occupations, and are as methodical in the disposition of our time as though we were in school.

None of us are very early risers, for mamma, who should naturally set us a good example, has been too long an invalid to admit of it, and we girls have become habituated to the luxury of breakfasting in bed, from residence abroad and in the tropics. Not that we breakfast in bed at the "Villa Greeley," however; we are much too sociable, and our dining-room is too attractive, for that. But we gratify our taste for reasonable hours by a.s.sembling around the table at half-past eight.

"Shocking!" I fancy I hear Katie exclaim. "I breakfast _at least_ two hours earlier. How can you bear to lose so much of the beautiful morning?"

Don't imagine, dear Katie, that I _sleep_ till half-past eight: you must know the wakeful temperament of our family too well for that. I find it, however, very poetic and delightful to listen to the matins of the robins, thrushes, and wrens, from my pillows; and by merely lifting my head I have as extended a panorama of swelling hills and emerald meadows, as though promenading the piazza.

I have been in my day as early a riser as any one--even you, dear Katie, have not surpa.s.sed me in this, respect; for you recollect those cold winter days when I arose at "five o'clock in the morning," not, however, to meet Corydon, but to attack the Gradus ad Parna.s.sum of Clementi by gaslight, in my desire to accomplish eight hours of practice undisturbed by visitors. At seven, however, I used to meet with an interruption from my German professor. Poor man! I now pity his old rheumatic limbs stumbling over the ice and snow to be with me at that unreasonable hour of the morning. But I then was ruthless, and would not allow him even five minutes grace, for my time was then regulated like clockwork, and a delay of a few moments would cause an unpardonable gap in my day. Now, however, that my education is nominally finished, I feel that I may without self-reproach indulge in some extra moments of repose, for it is impossible for one to work _all_ the time; and a quiet hour of reflection is often, I think, as useful as continual reading or writing.

We indulge in very simple morning toilettes here, as we have no gentleman guests for whom to dress, nor ladies to criticise us; consequently a few brief moments before the mirror suffice to make us presentable. A black print wrapper made Gabrielle-fas.h.i.+on, with our hair brushed off plain from our faces, and flowing loosely _a la belle sauvage_, or in cool braids, is the order of the day. Even Marguerite, who is the most conventional of our quartette, has conformed to the fas.h.i.+on reigning here, and no longer coiffed in the stylish _Imperatrice_ mode, her sunny brown hair floats over her shoulders unconfined by hair-pins, cus.h.i.+ons, or rats. Truly we live in Arcadian simplicity, for under our roof there are neither curling nor crimping irons, nor even a _soupcon_ of the most innocent _poudre de riz_.

At half-past eight a little hand-bell, silver in material and tone, summons us to the breakfast-room. This room is on the ground floor, and is one of the prettiest in the house. Four windows give us an extended view of our Dame Chatelaine's sloping meadows and wooded hills, and the carriage road winding off towards the pine grove and the house in the woods. We have several pictures on the walls--first a portrait of my dear uncle; a boyish face with fair hair, deep blue eyes, and an expression angelic in sweetness. No one would imagine it to be the face of a married man, but it was painted, mamma says, when he was thirty years old. Two large and admirable photographs, taken early last summer, hang opposite it. A striking contrast they are to the pensive, fragile, blonde boy; these are impressed with the vigor and mental and physical activity of his busy life, but the broad intellectual brow, and the almost divine expression that plays about the mouth, are the same in each.

An engraving from a picture by Paul Delaroche, the Archangel Gabriel--the "patron," in Catholic parlance, of our little Gabrielle--hangs between the windows, and over the comfortable sofa is a copy of Liotard's celebrated pastel "la belle Chocolatiere" in the Dresden Gallery. This copy Aunt Mary bought in that city when there some years ago, and it is considered wonderfully fine. Very pretty and coquettish she looks in her picturesque Vienna dress, with the small, neatly-fitting cap, ample ap.r.o.n, and tiny Louis Quinze shoes. In her case