CHAPTER FOUR
The next morning was a beautiful summer morning. Not too hot, but not too cold, you wouldn't even need to drape a dippy shawl around you if you wanted to take breakfast on the porch.
Breakfast at Grandmary's was always served in her dining room, at eight-thirty sharp.
Samantha and Nellie were both tired and groggy as they took their seats at the table. Samantha had tried to dab some powder on the telltale black circles that always showed up under her fair skin if she didn't get enough sleep.
"Good morning Grandmary, good morning Admiral," Samantha greeted in her sweetest voice.
"Did you sleep well?" Grandmary asked as she took a sip of tea. She sat rigidly straight in her chair, her silver hair resembled a silver crown upon her head.
"Oh yes, wonderfully," Samantha replied.
"Even though you didn't get very much?" Grandmary asked.
Nellie looked up from her fruit cup. They had been busted.
"I got plenty of sleep," Samantha replied nervously.
"Mary," said the Admiral. "Let it go."
"Quiet Archie," Grandmary commanded. "Elsa told me that she heard you girls coming back in at midnight. That is an hour and a half past the curfew I gave you."
"Oh Grandmary, I was with friends that I haven't seen in years," Samantha replied. "We lost track of time."
"Rubbish!" Grandmary said, raising her voice to an almost unladylike tone. "I don't care if you were with President Taft himself!"
"I think that would be pretty amazing," the Admiral chirped. Grandmary rolled her eyes.
"You came home far too late to have just lost track of the time. You girls didn't even attempt to arrive home on time. You have disobeyed and disrespected me," she said. "I am highly disappointed in the both of you. What were you doing? Off gallivanting with some insolent dandy?"
"Mary, Samantha and Nellie are two beautiful ladies," said the Admiral. "They are young and only having fun."
"Fun does not turn girls into ladies, just strumpets!" Grandmary ranted.
"Grandmary," said Samantha. "Aunt Cornelia lets us stay out as long as we wish as long as we call in. We have always been fine."
"When Cornelia is my age with my experience than she can comment on her methods of childrearing," Grandmary snapped. "But I have raised two children successfully. Your mother was a fine, well respected, young lady Samantha, and she did not stay out until all hours of the night with boys."
"I'm not a child anymore!" Samantha cried.
This was getting very heated. Nellie knew that Samantha had been getting more opinionated, political, and high-strung, and back in March when they had accepted Grandmary's invitation to stay with her for the summer, she knew that Samantha and Grandmary were going to clash.
"You are a child!" Grandmary roared, now with a very unladylike tone. "You are a child until you are a married woman. This summer you are living under my roof, and you will live by my rules. You are not to go to any more parties, until you and Nellie can prove yourselves responsible."
"But Aunt Cornelia," Samantha began.
"I am not Aunt Cornelia!" Grandmary interrupted. "Now you and Nellie will not be attending any parties until I decide that you have earned back the right to go."
Samantha threw her napkin down onto the table, and sprang up out of her chair.
"For somebody who wants me to just grow up and marry rich, you sure are destroying me chances!" And she stomped out of the room.
"Mercy," Grandmary exclaimed after she had left. "Is this how Cornelia speaks to my Gardner?"
Nellie thought that Gard and Cornelia had a beautiful relationship. If she could find a husband half the man that Gard was, she would be very lucky. But all wonderful couples had their arguments, and she had overheard a couple rather turbulent ones. Nellie shrugged and went back to her plate of food.
"So Miss Nellie," said the Admiral trying to relieve the tension. "What do you think of Mount Bedford?"
"I like the food," she replied.
The spat at the breakfast table was just a prelude to the arguments that would take place throughout the summer. Grandmary was like an army drill sergeant, on the prowl for anything that wasn't ladylike.
One afternoon, only two days later Samantha was practicing the piano. The summer before, Cornelia had taken the girls on a trip to Paris and in Paris Samantha had been introduced to some pretty crazy innovations as far as art and music. They had seen the premiere of the ballet Petrushka by some Russian composer named Stravinsky. Nellie and even open-minded Cornelia had been rather shocked and a little horrified by the music, but Samantha loved it. She had also fell in love with a composer named Debussy, and she had bought books of his sheet music while in Paris.
Samantha was working on Debussy's Premier Arabesque while Nellie sat at the desk working on letters for Gard and Cornelia, and her sisters back in New York City. Nellie rather liked listening to Samantha play the music from France, just as long as it wasn't any of that Petrushka stuff. Grandmary detested it.
"Samantha, could you play something else besides that sleepy, pathetic, garbage," she asked that afternoon.
"It is not garbage," Samantha retorted. "It's Debussy, a fine French composer, and it's not sleepy, it's relaxing."
"A two-year-old could compose better music," Grandmary quipped. "Don't you agree Nellie?"
Nellie did not want to be brought into the conversation.
"I like all music," she said, trying to remain the happy, neutral, one.
For an answer, Samantha rolled her eyes and broke out into The Entertainer. Even Nellie thought that Samantha was now being too brazen. Grandmary's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Samantha Parkington!" Grandmary shrieked. "I did not pay for the best piano instruction that money could buy, just to have you play primitive and uncivilized music."
"I happen to like it," Samantha replied without missing a note of playing.
"I will not tolerate this rubbish in my house!" Grandmary barked. "You sound like you are in some saloon or a cheap brothel!"
But even Nellie wasn't safe from the wrath of Grandmary. One morning, Nellie was out on the porch curled up with her book. From the moment she had arrived in Mount Bedford, all Nellie had wanted to do was curl up with Vanity Fair and fall into the world of Becky Sharp. Nellie was really into her book, when Grandmary plopped down in one of the wicker chairs next to her. After about fifteen peaceful minutes, Grandmary said
"You read too much. It is not right for a lady to read as much as you. You might start getting some wild, uncomely, ideas."
She also would pick at Nellie for eating so much. One night at supper she caught Nellie accepting a second helping of cranberry relish.
"Do you think a second helping is really necessary?" Grandmary asked, raising her perfectly manicured eyebrows. "Especially since you made quite a meal out of tea earlier."
"Oh Mary let her be," said the Admiral. "Miss Nellie is young and thin, and while she can eat it all, she might as well."
"Archie," Grandmary snapped. "Miss Nellie is a young lady."
Nellie's cheeks turned as red as the relish, but Samantha came to her rescue by grabbing a second roll out of the bread basket and slathering it with butter. Even easy going Nellie agreed that she had had enough of Grandmary. The sad thing was the girls had only been there for just about a week.
"Miss Nellie," Elsa the maid sighed with annoyance one early afternoon. Nellie looked up from her book. Once again Vanity Fair was getting interrupted. "There is a young gentleman by the name of Mr. O'Reilly here to see you."
"Mr. O'Reilly!" Samantha gasped, looking up from her crossword puzzle. "That's the young man from the hotel party. He's here to see Nellie?"
"Apparently he didn't see the warts on my nose, and the fungus on my teeth," Nellie said teasing Samantha over her surprise that she had the first gentleman caller in Mount Bedford. However, Nellie was very surprised herself. Eugene O'Reilly had only shown interest in Samantha, so why was he coming to see her?
He met her in the parlor, with the Admiral standing to chaperone. Grandmary wouldn't have it any other way.
"Here she is," the Admiral announced as Nellie came through the door. "I've been having a very pleasant conversation with Mr. O'Reilly. I didn't think they made young people so pleasant anymore, except for my two granddaughters." He winked at Nellie.
"No," Eugene replied. "It was a pleasure conversing with you. I could listen to your navy stories all day."
"Well there are plenty more," the Admiral replied. "You are more than welcome to stop by anytime, an old Admiral gets lonely for an ear once in a while."
To Nellie's shock the Admiral got up and stepped out of the room, closing the door, but leaving it open just a crack.
"Your Grandfather is really nice," Eugene said.
"He is," Nellie agreed feeling nervous. "He's also a lot of fun."
"Would you like to go for a walk?" Eugene asked. "I have to ask you a favor."
Five minutes later, Nellie had her parasol and was strolling down Chestnut Street with Eugene. She had no idea what favor Eugene would want from her.
"My friend Peyton likes your sister," Eugene announced.
"Oh good," Nellie replied. "She has been all in a dither because she hasn't heard from him since the dance a week ago. She thought he didn't like her."
This caused a troubled look on Eugene's handsome face.
"Oh," he sighed. "I was hoping she had forgotten about him."
"Sam never forgets a man she likes," Nellie said. "She can even tell you every detail, down to the color of the tie of a man that she has seen once, but fancies."
"Is that right?" Eugene asked. "Well she probably doesn't remember a thing about me. I guess the favor I have to ask would be rather silly then."
"Well, whatever is it?" Asked Nellie.
"I really don't want anything becoming in between Peyton and I," said Eugene. "He's like a brother to me. I don't want anything jeopardizing our relationship. I have learned to back away if Peyton likes a girl. I was just hoping maybe Samantha didn't care for Peyton that much and I could have a chance."
"I understand," said Nellie. "I have always said that Samantha was my heaven sent. I would let nothing come between us either."
"Is that why you don't mind stepping back and letting her have all the spotlight?" Eugene asked.
"I don't step back," Nellie defended. "I prefer to be out of the spotlight."
"It never bothers you?" Eugene asked surprised. "You never wish that you were the center of attention with men falling at your feet?"
"The nerve of you asking that!" Nellie scolded. "You know nothing about me." She laughed. "The thought of men falling at my feet is absurd."
"No it isn't," Eugene replied. "You're a pretty girl."
There was an awkward silence between them. Finally Nellie said.
"So what is this favor you ask of me?"
Eugene sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a crisp, vanilla, colored envelope, sealed with wax, and labeled Samantha.
"Leave this for Samantha," he instructed. "And do not tell her that I gave it to you. Don't tell her anything."
"What good is giving her something if she doesn't know it's from you?" Nellie asked. "
"Please," Eugene pleaded. Something in his brown eyes told Nellie to nod her head and ask no more questions.
"Thank you," Eugene replied as Nellie took it into her gloved hand. "Just leave it around somewhere where she will be sure to find it, and no one else. I will be back in a few days to give you something else to give to her. Can I trust my secret?"
It looked to Nellie like Eugene O'Reilly was helplessly in love with Samantha. If only Samantha was the same. Eugene frowned, looked down at the ground, and sighed
"I think Peyton is going to come calling for her tomorrow."
That night before bed, Nellie left the envelope on Samantha's pillow, right after Elsa had turned down the bed, but before Samantha came out of the bathroom. Eugene's secret was safe with her.