all wear what we please, that’s all. Don’t you like it?” Nellie asked.
Generally there appeared the trim short skirt I had noticed as so appropriate on ship-board; here and there a sort of Florentine gown, long, richly damasked; sometimes a Greekish flow of drapery; the men mostly knickerbockered. I couldn’t deny that it was pleasant to the eye, but it worried me a little none the less.
“There’s no hurry, John,” said Nellie, always unobtrusively watching me. “Some things you’ll just have to get used to.”
“Before I wholly accept this sudden new brother,” I presently suggested, “I’d like to know his name.”
“Montrose — Owen Montrose, at your service,” he said, bowing his fine head. “Ateo-i Jerrold Montrose — and Hallie Robertson!”
“Dear, dear!” I protested. So it’s come to that, has it?”
“It’s come to that — and we still love each other!” Nellie cheerfully agreed. “But it isn’t final. There’s a strong movement on foot to drop hereditary names altogether.”
I groaned. “In the name of common humanity, don’t tell me anything worse than you have now!”
Hallie’s apartment was in a big building, far uptown, overlooking the Hudson
“I have to live in town nine months of the year, you see, Uncle, on account of my work,” she explained rather apologetically.
“Hallie’s an official — and awfully proud of it,” her brother whispered very loudly.
“Jerrold’s only a musician — and pretends to be proud of it!” she retorted. Whereat he forcibly held and kissed her.
I could see no very strong difference between this brother and sister and others I had known — except that they were perhaps unusually affectionate.
It was a big, handsome place. The front windows faced the great river, the rear ones opened on a most unexpected scene of loveliness. A big sheltered garden, every wall-space surrounding it a joy to the eye — rich masses of climbing vines, a few trees, a quiet fountain, beautiful stone seats and winding walks, flowers in profusion, and birds singing.
“We used to have only the song of the tomcat in my time. Have you taught the cat to lie down with the canary — or killed him?”
“There are no animals kept in cities any more — except the birds — and they come and
“Mostly sparrows, I suppose?”
“Nb; the sparrow went with the horse,” Owen replied. “And the mouse, the fly and the croton bug went with the kitchen.”
I turned with a gesture of despair.
“No homes left? ”
“I didn’t say ‘home’ — I said ‘kitchen.’
Brace up, old man! We still eat — and better food than you ever dreamed of in your hungriest youth.”
“That’s a long story,” Nellie here suggested. “We mustn’t crowd him. Let’s get washed and rested a bit, and have some of that food you’re boasting of.”
They gave me a room with a river window, and I looked out at the broad current, changed only in its lovely clearness, and at the changeless Palisades.
Changeless? I started, and seized the traveling glass still on the strap.
The high cliffs reached away to the northward, still wooded, though sprinkled with buildings; but the more broken section opposite the city was a picture of startling beauty.
The water front was green-parked, white-piered, rimmed with palaces, and the broken slopes terraced and garlanded in rich foliage. White cottages and larger buildings climbed and nestled along the sunny slopes as on the cliffs at Capri. It was a place one would go far to see.
I dropped my eyes to the nearer shore.
Again the park, the boulevard, the gracious outlines of fine architecture.
It was beautiful — undeniably beautiful — but a strange world to me. I felt like one at a play. A plain, ordinary American landscape ought not to look like a theatre curtain!
Chapter 4.
THEY called me to supper. “Most of us have our heartiest meal in the middle of the day,” my sister said.
“The average man, Victim of Copious Instruction,” added my brother-in-law, “does his work in the morning; the two hours that he has to, or the four that he usually puts in. Eight to twelve, or nine to one — that is the working day for everybody. Then home, rest, a bath maybe, and then — allow me to help you to some of our Improvements!”
I was hungry, and this simple meal looked and smelled most appetizing. There was in particular a large shining covered dish, which, being opened, gave forth so savory a steam as fairly to make my mouth water. A crisp and toothsome bread was by my plate; a hot drink, which they laughingly refused to name, proved most agreeable; a suave, cool salad followed; fruits, some of which were new to me, and most delicate little cakes, closed the meal.
They would not tell me a thing, only saying “Have some more!” and I did. Not till I had eaten, with continuous delight, three helpings from the large dish did I notice that it stood alone, so to speak.
Nellie followed my eye with her usual prompt intelligence. “Yes,” she said, “this is all. But we can send for other things in the twinkling of an eye; what would you like?”
I leaned back in my chair and looked at her reproachfully. “I would like some of that salad — not very much, please! And some of those Burbankian products yonder, and one particular brown little cake — if I can hold it.”
Nellie smiled demurely. “Oh!” she mildly remarked, “I thought for the moment that our little supper seemed scant to you.”
I glared at her, retorting, “Now I will not utter the grateful praises that were rising to my lips. I will even try to look critical and dissatisfied.” And I did, but they all laughed.
“It’s no manner of use, Uncle John,” cried my pretty niece; “we saw you eat it.”
“‘It’ indeed!” I protested. “What is this undeniably easy-to-take concoction you have stuffed me with?”
“My esteemed new brother,” Owen answered, “we have been considering your case in conclave assembled, and we think it is wiser to feed you for awhile and demand by all the rites of hospitality that you eat what is set before you and ask no questions for conscience sake. When you begin to pine, to lose your appetite, to look wan and hollow-eyed, then we may reconsider. Meanwhile we will tell you everything you want to know about food in general, and even some particulars — present dishes always excepted.”
“I will now produce information,” began Hallie, “my office being that of Food Inspector.”
