Page:Emily Climbs.pdf/20

 “Perry didn’t say one word to Ilse, but he turned to me.

“‘Will tell me my faults?’ he said. ‘I don’t mind doing it—it will be  that will have to put up with me when we’re grown up, not Ilse.’

“He said that to make Ilse angry, but it made me angrier still, for it was an allusion to a. So we neither of us spoke to him for two days and he said it was a good rest from Ilse’s slams anyway.

“Perry is not the only one who gets into disgrace at New Moon. I said something silly yesterday evening which makes me blush to recall it. The Ladies’ Aid met here and Aunt Elizabeth gave them a supper and the husbands of the Aid came to it. Ilse and I waited on the table, which was set in the kitchen because the dining-room table wasn’t long enough. It was exciting at first and then, when every one was served, it was a little dull and I began to compose some poetry in my mind as I stood by the window looking out on the garden. It was so interesting that I soon forgot everything else until suddenly I heard Aunt Elizabeth say, ‘Emily,’ very sharply, and then she looked significantly at Mr. Johnson, our new minister. I was confused and I snatched up the teapot and exclaimed,

“‘Oh, Mr. Cup, will you have your Johnson filled ?’

“Everybody roared and Aunt Elizabeth looked disgusted and Aunt Laura ashamed, and I felt as if I would sink through the floor. I couldn’t sleep half the night for thinking over it. The strange thing was that I do believe I felt worse and more ashamed than I would have felt if I had done something really wrong. This is the ‘Murray pride’ of course, and I suppose it is very wicked. Sometimes I am afraid Aunt Ruth Dutton is right in her opinion of me after all.

“No, she isn’t!

“But it is a tradition of New Moon that its women should be equal to any situation and always be graceful and dignified. Now, there was nothing graceful or digni-