Page:Emily Climbs.pdf/227

 at her. But as for the trials and persecutions she underwent, in spite of her delicate frame, their name was Legion and no fair maiden of these degenerate days could survive half of them—not even the newest of new women. I laughed over the book until I amazed Aunt Ruth, who thought it a very sad volume. It is the only novel in Aunt Ruth’s house. One of her beaux gave it to her when she was young. It seems impossible to think that Aunt Ruth ever had beaux. Uncle Dutton seems an unreality, and even his picture on the crêpe-draped easel in the parlour cannot convince me of his existence.

“Friday night the debate between Shrewsbury High and Queen’s came off. The Queen’s boys came up believing they were going to come, see and conquer—and went home like the proverbial dogs with carefully adjusted tails. It was really Perry’s speech that won the debate. He was a wonder. Even Aunt Ruth admitted for the first time that there was something in him. After it was over he came rushing up to Ilse and me in the corridor.

“‘Didn’t I do great, Emily?’ he demanded. ‘I knew it was in me, but I didn’t know if I could get it out. When I got up at first I felt tongue-tied—and then I saw, looking at me as if you said, ‘You can—you ’—and I went ahead full steam. won that debate, Emily.’

“Now wasn’t that a nice thing to say before Ilse, who had worked for hours with him and drilled and slaved? Never a word of tribute to —everything to me who hadn’t done a thing except look interested.

“‘Perry, you’re an ungrateful barbarian,’ I said—and left him there, with his jaw dropping. Ilse was so furious she cried. She has never spoken to him since—and that ass of a Perry can’t understand why.

“‘What's she peeved about now? I her for all her trouble at our last practice,’ he says.

“Certainly, Stovepipe Town has its limitations.