Her Own Way Part 17

GEORGIANA. I am knitting a tie for d.i.c.k!

MRS. CARLEY. Good gracious. Well, I'll go upstairs and get into something _loose_. I'll be ready in ten minutes.

[_She goes out Right._

LOUISE. I must see the children; I haven't seen them to-day.

[_She follows her mother out._

BELLA. Miss Carley.

GEORGIANA. Yes, Bella.

BELLA. Mr. Coleman, Lieutenant Coleman, is going to the Philippines to-day.

GEORGIANA. [_Sighing involuntarily._] Yes, Bella.

BELLA. I've got a friend going along.

GEORGIANA. In the company?

BELLA. Yes--well, I don't mind telling you--he's my young man, Miss Carley.

GEORGIANA. Why, Bella, I didn't know you were engaged?

BELLA. Well, I don't know as you'd call it exactly, yes I _would_ say as we _was_ engaged--though I haven't got a ring. But we're going to get married when he comes back, if hugging and kissing is binding, which I _guess_, with witnesses! He wanted to give me a ring of his mother's, but I said "No," I wouldn't take that, it was sacred and he'd always wore it. You see it was an old-fas.h.i.+oned-looking sort of onyx stone with oyster pearls, and not for me--I'd rather wait.

GEORGIANA. You have an eye out on the main chance, Bella.

BELLA. Well, I wasn't born yesterday. Say, all the girls was crazy about him. I met him to dancing school Tuesday evenings at Adelphi Hall and we started right in, every Sunday night to church and every Sat.u.r.day to the theatre. He enjoyed Sundays best and I Sat.u.r.days, but I felt it was because church was cheapest. He's dreadful economical.

GEORGIANA. You get more attention than I do from my soldier. You at least have the consolation of knowing you're the girl he's left behind.

BELLA. 'Tain't much consolation if I get left for _good_! Say, will you ask Mr. Coleman to sort o' look after him? Ask him to please put him in the back row when there's fighting--and keep an eye on his health. I'm afraid it's dreadful _damp_ being a soldier; and do you know that man actually catches cold if he forgets his rubbers and it sprinkles?

GEORGIANA. I don't think he ought to go if he's so delicate; Mr. Coleman will take an interest in your friend, I know, if I ask him. What's his name?

BELLA. Mr. Gootch.

GEORGIANA. _Mr. Gootch!_ Yes, I can remember that. But, you see, if he's a soldier he must do his duty, whatever it is.

BELLA. There's no holding him back! He's jus' as likely as not to lose his position at Snipleys, Crabford & Snipleys, too, but he _will_ go!

It's surprising to see a man with such a weak chest and delicate feet, so awful brave and persistent.

LOUISE. [_Coming back._] I bore the children to death, so I left them.

What are all these bundles, Bella?

BELLA. Christmas presents. This is just the time of the year to buy, you know, you can get such bargains! and if there's one thing I think nicer'n anything else to get cheap, it's Christmas presents.

GEORGIANA. You should do like Mrs. Carley, Bella, save half of the things you get one year to give away the next.

[_She sits by the table and goes on with her work._

LOUISE. I always do that. I get so many things I can't bear.

GEORGIANA. But you must be careful not to send them back to the same place they came from! That _has_ happened.

LOUISE. Georgiana!

[BELLA _laughs out loud and sits on the sofa._ LOUISE _sits opposite_ GEORGIANA.

GEORGIANA. What have you got? Sit down and tell us.

BELLA. Thank you, ma'am. [_Delighted with the opportunity. Taking up the different parcels._] Well, I've got an elegant pair of scissors for mother, marked down because of a flaw in the steel, but she's near-sighted, and she don't want to use 'em anyway--it's just to feel she has another pair. Scissors is mother's fad--sort of born in her, I guess, for my mother's mother was a kind of dressmaker. She didn't have robes and mantucks over her door, you know,--she was too swell for that,--she went out by the day! And this is a real bronze Louis ink-stand for my sister's husband, only cost thirty-nine cents and hasn't got a thing the matter with it, so long as you don't see the others--if you see the others, you'll observe that there's a naked lady missing off the top part which I'm glad of anyway as I'm giving it to a gentleman, and he'll never see the others besides. And this is two boxes of writing paper; aren't they _huge_! _awful_ cheap with a lovely picture of an actress on top--Lillian Russell in _Mice and Men_, I think, on one, and Jean Duresk the Opera Singer in _Lonegrind_ on the other. The boxes 'av got false bottoms--so there ain't very much writing material, but the rich effect's there all the same.

GEORGIANA. [_Laughing._] Bella, you're a wonderful shopper!

BELLA. And this is a copy of Homer's _Iliad_ for my sister. Do you know it? Is it nice? Anything like Hall Caine's works, or Mary Corelli's?

She's always been my sister's favorite writeress. You see they've got a whole counter of these beautifully bound in red and gold, and only nineteen cents. But it's so hard to decide which to buy. I've about decided now to take this back and change it for _Lucille_. Which do you think my sister'd like best, Homer's _Iliad_ or _Lucille_?

GEORGIANA. I believe she'd prefer _Lucille_, and besides half the fun in shopping is in the changing one's mind and taking things back, don't you think so?

BELLA. Yes, ma'am, I think so.

[MOLES _enters Left._

MOLES. Mr. Coast to see Miss Georgiana, please.

[BELLA _rises._

GEORGIANA. Did you say I was in?

MOLES. Yes, miss.

GEORGIANA. What a bore! Very well, Moles.

[_He goes out._

BELLA. I'll be going up to Mrs. Carley, now.

[_Goes toward the door Right._

GEORGIANA. Wait a minute, Bella. I want you to do something for me.

Entertain Sammy, Louise, till I come back.

[_She goes out with_ BELLA.

LOUISE. I never was able to entertain Sammy, but I'll do my best.