"How good it was of you," said the ingenuous creature, "and how delighted and grateful Meadowvale will be. It must be glorious to be rich enough to do things for other people."
Now it is not a disagreeable sensation to feel that one is rich and good and glorious in the large gray eyes of a very pretty woman, and I was conscious of the mild intoxication from the compliment. "It is, indeed," I answered magnanimously. "I have always maintained that money is given to us in trust for those around us, and that in making others happy we find our greatest happiness. I regret that I have not wholly lived up to this undeniably correct principle."
"It will require at least a thousand dollars," she said naïvely.
She was silent a moment. Then she said: "I was wondering what I would do if I had a thousand dollars to give away."
"Speaking for my own preferences I think I should like to establish a country club."
"The very thing. If there is one crying want more than another in Meadowvale it is a country club, with golf links, tennis courts, and shower baths."
"Not at all. Fancy old Hank and you playing a foursome with Aunt Mary and me for the cider and apples. Why, it would add years of robustness to our waning lives."
"No," said the girl decisively. "It isn't feasible."
"Then," I went on musingly, "we might have an Art Institute, or the Phyllis Kinglake School of Expression, or the Meadowvale Woman's Club, or the Colonial Dames, or, best of all, the Daughters of the American Revolution."
"That shows how little you appreciate the local situation," she responded quickly, "for your best of all is worse and worse. Imagine an order of Daughters in a place where every woman's ancestors did nothing but fight in the Revolution. As well call a town meeting at once. Ah,"--with a sigh--"I see that I shall never spend the thousand dollars in Meadowvale."
"Don't be too sure of that, my dear Phyllis," I exclaimed in an outburst, for I was in a particularly happy and generous mood; "and remember that when you do decide how the money is to be philanthropically invested we shall see that it is forthcoming."
With such agreeable banter the minutes slipped away, and when Mary appeared with the customary invitation to tea, it would have been a jolt to the harmonious order of things to decline. I cannot say that I have ever cordially approved the austerity of the New England tea-table, with its cold bread and biscuits, its applesauce, its frugal allowance of sardines, its basket of cake, and its not very stimulating pot of tea. But such are the compensations of pleasant society that even these chilly viands may be forgotten, and I said my "Amen" to Phyllis's sweet and modest grace with all the heartiness of a thankful man. As no gentleman may, with propriety, run away immediately after he has accepted hospitality, I lingered in the evening, and we had more music, which so calmed and rested me that I wondered at my past nervousness and marvelled that I had even contemplated a journey across the water.