Page:Emily Climbs.pdf/229

 “‘I hate Perry Miller,’ she fumed, ‘but I hate snobbery worse. a snob, Emily Starr. You think just because Perry comes from Stovepipe Town that he can never be a great man. If he had been one of the sacred Murrays you would see no limits to his attainments!’

“I thought Ilse was unfair, and I lifted my head haughtily.

“‘After all,’ I said, ‘there a difference between New Moon and Stovepipe Town.’”

 

T was half-past ten o’oclocko’clock [sic] and Emily realised with a sigh that she must go to bed. When she had come in at half-past nine from Alice Kennedy’s thimble party, she had asked permission of Aunt Ruth to sit up an hour later to do some special studying. Aunt Ruth had consented reluctantly and suspiciously and had gone to bed herself, with sundry warnings regarding candles and matches. Emily had studied diligently for forty-five minutes and written poetry for fifteen. The poem burned for completion, but Emily resolutely pushed her portfolio away.

At that moment she remembered that she had left her Jimmy-book in her school-bag in the dining-room. This would never do. Aunt Ruth would be down before her in the morning and would inevitably examine the book-bag, find the Jimmy-book and read it. There were things in that Jimmy-book it was well Aunt Ruth should not see. She must slip down and bring it up.

Very quietly she opened her door and tiptoed downstairs, in anguish at every creaking step. Aunt Ruth, who slept in the big front bedroom at the other end of the hall, would surely hear those creaks. They were enough to waken the dead. They did not waken Aunt 