Molly Brown's College Friends Part 16

Why should that calm-looking, slow-speaking woman call her poor lame husband a fool? _Narr! Narr!_ It was certainly strange.

CHAPTER XII

AN OLD-TIME PARTY

The first one of the old girls to arrive was Otoyo, Mrs. Matsuki, with the little Cho-Cho-San. Otoyo had changed not at all in the years that had elapsed since college days. Perhaps an added matronly dignity was hers, but this was not much in evidence when she was with her dear old friends. She was beautifully and elegantly dressed. All her clothes were made of the most exquisite fabrics. Her blouses were of the finest and sheerest, if of linen; and the heaviest and richest, if of silk. Her furs were the furriest and her suits of the most approved cut and material. Her little boots were a marvel of fit and style.

"Perfect, like a j.a.panese puzzle!" Judy declared. "Every little part made to fit every other little part!"

"Yes, and the whole a wonderful creation like some rare print or bit of pottery!" agreed Molly.

Otoyo had adapted herself to the manners and customs of her adopted country, wearing them with the same grace she did the garments. She had an English nurse for the little Cho-Cho-San and the child was being reared as much like American children as possible. A tiny little thing, she was, with coal black hair and slanting eyes. There was much mischief peeping from those eyes around the tip-tilted nose. The mouth was a crimson bow, ever ready to break into a tinkling laugh. She and Mildred rushed together as though their short lives had been spent waiting for this opportunity. Mildred was younger by several months but taller by several inches than the little j.a.panese. What a picture the two children made! Mildred, with her red gold hair curling in little ringlets all over her head, her round rosy face and wide hazel eyes, was exactly the opposite to Cho-Cho-San, with her straight, bobbed, ebony black hair, her oval, olive face and almond eyes.

"I b'lieve I can tote you," said Mildred, who often used words current in Kizzie's vernacular.

"Tote! Tote! What is tote?" and the tinkling laugh rang out like gla.s.s chimes a.s.sailed by a sudden gust of wind.

"Why I tote my dolly--an' Mr. Murphy totes the coal--an'--an' Daddy totes his books to lexures--an'--an'--"

"May I tote something, also?"

"Oh, yes, you can tote Dodo. He's my baby brother."

"Oh, I'm so 'appee! I'm so 'appee!" and the little thing danced in glee.

"My honorable mother told me when I came for a visit to her friends that it would be all 'appiness." The English nurse had left her stamp upon her charge just as Kizzie had upon Mildred. The occasional dropping of an h was the result. Cho-Cho-San's lingo was most amusing with its mixture of c.o.c.kney and j.a.panese.

"You'd look 'zactly like my j.a.p dolly if you only had a bald spot on top," said Mildred as she led her new friend to the sunny nursery where she and Dodo reigned supreme with the Irish Katy to do their bidding.

"And phwat Haythen is this?" cried Katy when she saw the little j.a.panese girl. "And ain't she the cutey?"

"She's my bes' beloved," announced Mildred. "Me'n' Cho-Cho-San is gonter be each other's doll babies. I'm a-gonter be her kick-up dolly an' she's gonter be my j.a.p dolly."

"Oh, I'm so 'appee! I'm so 'appee!" was all the tiny Haythen could say as she danced around the nursery.

"Aunt Nance done said we could be her flower girls, too," went on the loquacious Mildred. "We's all gonter get married day after another day."

"All the doll babies going to be married!" sang the guest. "Kick-up dolls and j.a.panese dolls!"

The Williams girls arrived next and close on their heels Margaret and Jessie. I cannot bring myself to designate the girls by their married names any more than they could one another. Husbands were not much in evidence at that gathering. The talk was all of the past. Of course Andy, the soon-to-be husband, was allowed some consideration, although the first night after the arrival of the guests even he was debarred and the old chums had a kimono party in the library. The host fortunately had an engagement that took him from home, otherwise he would have had to spend his evening shut up in his den.

The revellers opened the ball by singing "Drink her down," to each one in the crowd. Molly's old guitar was brought out and Otoyo produced a tiny ukelele which added much to the harmony. After the singing was finished and every one drunk down, the words that were used most often were: "Do you remember?" All of the sc.r.a.pes were recalled and talked over. Bits of gossip were recounted that had never come to light before, the n.o.blesse oblige of the college spirit having kept matters dark, but now that the years had rolled by there seemed to be no longer reason for silence.

"I'd like to get into some mischief this very night!" cried Judy. "I've been good and pious so long I feel like whooping life up a bit."

"I'm game," drawled Katherine Williams.

"Did I hear an aye from the eminent educator?" questioned Judy.

"That's me!"

"I'll do whatever it is if I don't have to walk too far," said lazy Jessie.

"But what are you to do?" from Margaret, in whom the spirit of adventure was not so rampant.

"Listen to the Gentleman from Missouri!" cried Judy. "Come on and we'll show you."

"I like very muchly to be in the vehicle of musicians but I also like muchly to know what is the ultimately destination," said Otoyo softly.

"She means the band wagon! She means the band wagon!" cried Judy. "Oh, my dear little Otoyo, if you were changed I could not bear this sad grey world."

"Others, too, have notly changed," said Otoyo slyly.

"What are you planning, Judy honey?" asked Molly, laughing.

"I haven't any plan--nothing but something crazy and adventurous. I am dead tired of being so good and proper. I have rolled bandages and drawn threads and cut gauze until I feel like a machine. I want to have a romantic adventure. I'd like to put a tick-tack on Miss Walker's window--I'd like to burn asafetida on the teacher's stove, or put red pepper in the Bible so when she opens it to read she would sneeze her head off. I might content myself with making an apple pie bed for my dear brother-in-law----"

"Oh, please not that!" begged Molly. "My supply of sheets is stretched to the limit."

"O. Henry would advise you to go out in the night and await Adventure.

Adventure is always just around the corner. Step up to him and tap him on the shoulder," suggested Katherine.

"It is very comfortable in here," purred Jessie.

"Infirm of purpose!" cried Judy.

"Well, I'm not infirm of purpose," said Molly. "I've been purposing all along to have a Welsh rarebit and make some cloudbursts and I'm still going to do it. If you Don Quixotes want to go off and hunt trouble in the meantime, though, you are welcome, only don't stay too long."

"Ain't Molly the broad-minded guy, though? Live and let live was always Molly. Aren't you coming, Nance?" And Judy sprang from her cross-legged position on the rug ready for any fray. "Come on, Margaret! Come on, Edith."

"Don't you know Edith is too stuffy to do such a thing? She's afraid her perfectly good husband would not approve," teased her sister.

"No such thing, but I'm not going. I mean to help Molly. You crazy kids go get in all the trouble you want to. Me for the house this night!"

"And Margaret? You, too, must keep the 'home fires burning,' I fancy."

"I am going to stir the rarebit," announced Margaret firmly.

"I'm going to pick out nuts for the cloudbursts," purred Jessie.

"I must whip lace," blushed Nance.

"Oh, you middle-aged persons! I bite my thumb at you!" cried Judy. "Who among you is young enough to go hunt adventure?"

"I told you I intended to go," said Katherine, looking rather longingly at the crowded shelves of poetry that she was simply dying to poke in.