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The Dude Wrangler, a novel by Caroline Lockhart |
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Chapter 2. "The Happy Family" |
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_ CHAPTER II. "THE HAPPY FAMILY" The guests of the Colonial Hotel arose briskly each morning to nothing. After a night of refreshing and untroubled sleep they dressed and hurried to breakfast after the manner of travellers making close connections. Then each repaired to his favourite chair placed in the same spot on the wide veranda to wait for luncheon. The more energetic sometimes took a wheel-chair for an hour and were pushed on the Boardwalk or attended an auction sale of antiques and curios, but mostly their lives were as placid and as eventful as those of the inmates of an institution. The greater number of the male guests of The Colonial had retired from something--banking, wholesale drugs, the manufacture of woolens. The families were all perfectly familiar with one another's financial rating and histories, and although they came from diverse sections of the country they were for two months or more like one large, supremely contented family. In truth, they called themselves facetiously "The Happy Family," and in this way Mr. Cone, who took an immense pride in them and in the fact that they returned to his hospitable roof summer after summer, always referred to them. Strictly speaking, there were two branches of the "Family": those whose first season antedated 1900, and the "newcomers," who had spent only eight, or ten, or twelve summers at The Colonial. They were all on the most friendly terms imaginable, yet each tacitly recognized the distinction. The original "Happy Family" occupied the rocking chairs on the right-hand side of the wide veranda, while the "newcomers" took the left, where the view was not quite so good and there was a trifle less breeze than on the other. The less said of the "transients" the better. The few who stumbled in did not stay unless by chance they were favourably known to one of the "permanents." Of course there was no rudeness ever--merely the polite surprise of the regular occupants when they find a stranger in the pew on Sunday morning. Sometimes the transient stayed out his or her vacation, but usually he confided to the chambermaid, and sometimes Mr. Cone, that the guests were "doodledums" and "fossils" and found another hotel where the patrons, if less solid financially, were more interesting and sociable. Wallace Macpherson belonged in the group of older patrons, as his aunt, Miss Mary Macpherson, had been coming since 1897, and he himself from the time he wore curls and ruffled collars, or after his aunt had taken him upon the death of his parents. "Wallie," as he was called by everybody, as the one eligible man under sixty, was, in his way, as much of an asset to the hotel as the notoriously wealthy Mr. Penrose. Of an amiable and obliging disposition, he could always be relied upon to escort married women with mutinous husbands, and ladies who had none, mutinous or otherwise. He was twenty-four, and, in appearance, a credit to any woman he was seen with, to say nothing of the two hundred thousand it was known he would inherit from Aunt Mary, who now supported him. Wallie's appearance upon the veranda was invariably in the nature of a triumphal entry. He was received with lively acclaim and cordiality as he flitted impartially from group to group, and that person was difficult indeed with whom he could not find something in common, for his range of subjects extended from the "rose pattern" in Irish crochet to Arctic currents. The morning on the veranda promised to be a lively one, since, in addition to the departure of old Mr. Penrose, who had sounded as if he was wrecking the furniture while packing his boxes, the return from the war of Will Smith, the gardener's son, was anticipated, and the guests as an act of patriotism meant to give him a rousing welcome. There was bunting over the doorway and around the pillars, with red, white, and blue ice cream for luncheon, and flags on the menu, not to mention a purse of $17.23 collected among the guests that was to be presented in appreciation of the valour which, it was understood from letters to his father, Will had shown on the field of battle. The guests were in their usual places when Wallie came from breakfast and stood for a moment in the spacious double doorway. A cheerful chorus welcomed him as soon as he was discovered, and Mrs. C. D. Budlong put out her plump hand and held his. He did not speak instantly, for his eye was roving over the veranda as if in search of somebody, and when it rested upon Miss Spenceley sitting alone at the far end he seemed satisfied and inquired solicitously of Mrs. Budlong: "Did you sleep well? You are looking splendid!" There were some points of resemblance between Mrs. Budlong and the oleander in the green tub beside which she was sitting. Her round, fat face had the pink of the blossoms and she was nearly as motionless as if she had been potted. She often sat for hours with nothing save her black, sloe-like eyes that saw everything, to show that she was not in a state of suspended animation. Her husband called her "Honey-dumplin'," and they were a most affectionate and congenial couple, although she was as silent as he was voluble. "My rest was broken." Mrs. Budlong turned her eyes significantly toward the far end of the veranda. "Did you hear that terrible racket?" demanded Mr. Budlong of Wallie. "Not so loud, 'C. D.,'" admonished Mrs. Budlong. Mrs. Budlong ran the letters together so that strangers often had the impression she was calling her husband "Seedy," though the name was as unsuitable as well could be, since Mr. Budlong in his neat blue serge suit, blue polka-dot scarf, silk stockings, and polished tan oxfords was well groomed and dapper always. "She's driven away our oldest guest." Mr. Budlong lowered his indignant voice a little. "He was a nuisance with his snoring," Wallie defended. "She could have changed her room," said Mrs. Budlong, taking her hand away from him. "She need not have been so obstinate." "He was very rude to her," Wallie maintained stoutly. "Sleeping next door, I heard it all--and this morning in the office." "Anyway, I think Mr. Cone made a mistake in not insisting upon her changing her room, and so I shall tell him." Mr. Budlong, who had made "his" in white lead and paint and kept a chauffeur and a limousine, felt that his disapproval would mean something to the proprietor. "Oh, Wallie!" Wallie felt relieved when he saw Mrs. Henry Appel beckoning him. As he was on his way to Mrs. Appel Miss Mattie Gaskett clutched at his arm and detained him. "Did you see the robins this morning, Wallie?" "Are they here?" "Yes, a dozen of them. They do remind me so of my dear Southland." Miss Gaskett was from Maryland. "The summer wouldn't be the same without either of you," he replied, gallantly. Miss Gaskett shook a coquettish finger at him. "You flirt! You have pretty speeches for everyone." Wallie did not seem displeased by the accusation as he passed on to Mrs. Appel. The Appels were among the important families of The Colonial because the richest next to Mr. Penrose. They were from Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. Mr. Appel owned anthracite coal land and street railways, so if Mr. Appel squeezed pennies and Mrs. Appel dressed in remnants from the bargain counter their economies were regarded merely as eccentricities. Mrs. Appel held up a sweater: "Won't you tell me how to turn this shoulder? I've forgotten. Do you purl four and knit six, or purl six and knit four, Wallie?" Wallie laughed immoderately. "Eight, Mrs. Appel! Purl eight and knit four--I told you yesterday. That's a lovely piece of Battenburg, Mrs. Stott. When did you start it?" "Last month, but I've been so busy with teas and parties--so many, many things going on. Don't you think it will make a lovely dresser-scarf? What would you line it with?" "Pink, absolutely--that delicate shade like the inside of a sea-shell." "You are such an artist, Wallie! Your taste is perfect." Wallie did not contradict her. Strictly, Mrs. Stott did not belong in the group in which she was seated. She had been coming to The Colonial only eleven years, so really, she should have been on the other side of the veranda, but Mrs. Stott had such an insidious way of getting where and what she wanted that she was "one of them" almost before they knew it. Mr. Stott was a rising young attorney of forty-eight, and it was anticipated that he would one day be a leading trial lawyer because of his aggressiveness. Wallie's voice took on a sympathetic tone. He stopped in front of a chair where a very thin young lady was reclining languidly. "How's the bad heart to-day, Miss Eyester?" "About as usual, Wallie, thank you," she replied, gratefully. "Your lips have more colour." Miss Eyester opened a handbag and, taking out a small, round mirror which she carried for the purpose, inspected her lips critically. "It does seem so," she admitted. "If I can just keep from getting excited." "I can't imagine a better place than The Colonial." The reply contained a grain of irony. "That's why I come here," Miss Eyester sighed, "though I'm pining to go somewhere livelier." Wallie wagged his head playfully. "Treason! Treason! Why, you've been coming here for--" Miss Eyester's alarmed expression caused him to finish lamely--"for ever so long." "Wallie!" It was his aunt's voice calling and he went instantly to a tall, austere lady in a linen collar who was knitting wash-rags with the feverish haste of a piece-worker in a factory. He stood before her obediently. "Don't go in to-day." "Why, Auntie?" In his voice there was a world of disappointment. "It's too rough--there must have been a storm at sea." "But, Auntie," he protested, "I missed yesterday, taking Mrs. Appel to the auction. It isn't very rough----" "Look at the white-caps," she interrupted, curtly, "I don't want you to go, Wallie." "Oh, very well." He turned away abruptly, wondering if she realized how keenly he was disappointed--a disappointment that was not made less by the fact that her fears were groundless, since not only was it not "rough" but he was an excellent swimmer. "The girl from Wyoming," as he called Miss Spenceley to himself, had overheard and was looking at him with an expression in her eyes which made him redden. It was mocking; she was laughing at him for being told not to go in bathing, as if he were a child of seven. He sauntered past her, humming, to let her know that he did not care what she thought about him. When he turned around she had vanished and a few minutes after he saw her with her suit over her arm on the way to the bath-house on the exclusive beach in front of The Colonial. _ |
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