Fassifern School - Sapphire Yearbook (Hendersonville, NC)

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SSW' Nav N S- as mx 3 1 X . customary way everisince I can remember, and I took this 'vacation' in order that I might keep it for once in my own way. No, the trouble is that you have been keeping it exactly the wrong way. Let me see what you call keeping Christmas the right way: did you send cards to everyone you know? Yes, every oneg and silly expensive gifts to those that expected them. 'iDid you go to church Christmas morning? Went to that fashionable Avenue church where the minister preaches against the sins of the poor every Christmas. Did you go calling that afternoon? I DID! I went to see every old dowager that sent me 'At Home' cards. Did you go to bed after a dance, wishing that Christmas didn't come every year? I did, and I sincerely wished Christmas didn't come at all. Mercy, you kept it entirely the wrong way! Will you let me show you the right way tomorrow? But you see, Miss Chatham, I came off here to keep it my own way! Please let me show you the right waxy! I'm sure that if you knew it you would love it. Finally it ended that Adams was to keep the following day in the way Miss Chatham guaranteed to be the only true and correct way to keep it. While he was at luncheon Morris brought in a large bundle with the message that Miss Chatham said he was to sign his name to these and not just slip his card in them. So he settled himself to the job of sending cards to every one in the block-the grocer, the janitor, his laundress, his tailor, and many others. Miss Chatham had addressed the cards and the job of sending them was lessened by the humor of his situation. The cards finished, his benefactor called for him and together they bought baskets for all the poor families of the neighborhood and delivered them personally. Then she instructed him to buy a present ftor Morris and put a note on it saying that he had the day free to do what he pleased. But what shall I do for my meals? asked Adams. i'Why, Morris will get your breakfast and you are to take dinner with me, and we will see about supper later. So all responsibility was thus taken out of Dick's hands and he found himself sheepishly enjoying himself. At early breakfast on Christmas morning, to his surprise, he saw a small package bay his plate. Upon opening it he found it to contain a note book from Morris. I-le thanked the poor man, who blushed and stammered his thanks for his pipe and the unexpected holiday. At a quarter to eleven Adams called by to take Miss Chatham to church and found her ready, looking very pretty in her red dress and soft brown furs. She wished him a merry Christmas, but did not ask him how he liked her way of celebrating. Dick blessed her for it as he would have hated to admit that he was enjoying himself immensely. They went to a small chapel where a kindly, grey-haired old rector welcomed them in and they took their places very near the back. The sermon was one which caught the interest of even Dick and held itg it repeated the old-time story in such a simple way that Dick found himself thinking of the times when his sweet-faced mother told it to him in her room. Dinner was very gay, the small dining room in Nancy's apartment was festive with holly and mistletoe, Nancy also was very festive. Dick soon caught the mood, and between them gay repartee flew back and forth and the hour passed far too quickly. Dick thought of the difference between this Christmas and the one a year agog then he was taking dinner with the Marshalls, for it was Grace Marshall he was rushing just then. It was hard to compare the dim, gloomy old Marshall room with Grace sitting across the table from him with this cheerful, sunny room and the gay, laughing girl opposite. The comparison was not complimentary to the Marshalls. Dinner over, they went into the small sitting room and Dick laughed. It was here that I hrst saw you. I was standing at my front window and I saw you standing in here with a man: I was in a Page fif t

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3 g 2 5gfg1 ? i3 g g f 3 55555, :5f5f2' 'V' 3-g.,:,.,..,,., 5552 iifz QQEQQIQ 22222122ifigfgff . . izi., , :: I 55::':'i:Z:: :2EiE fff-2E 1 :E:1E2f:5,:,: xxx 2 N Elise to a ball and mother had let me stay up to see her dress and I was downstairs in my gingham frock when you came and you spoke to me. Elise said that I was awfully impudent, but you were the only person who spoke to me as if l was of some importance and l liked ,you for it. HNOW, if you don't mind, I will take my turn at being impertinent and ask you why you are here. uAnd following your own good example I will tel! you the truth. It was my year to 'come out,' as the expression goes, and l begged to be allowed to spend Christmas my own way before 'appearing' in February. So l was allowed to have my own way, and julia and I fshe is my old nursej came here. It is just my may to make friends, and even though I came only a few days before you did, I know everly one within three blocks of me! Adams laughed. Well, l guess we are birds of a feather, running away from society. But how do you know you won't like it, you never have tried it? lVlr. Adams, you are ridiculous. By merely looking at me society! It is out of the question So you have never been a with attention? I shou!dn't mind the flowers those wild looking things! Very well, when you come mignonette, but you will have to violets. I willg and don't forget that merry good-bye from her steps. one could te!! that I would never like that l should. debutante and had men send 'you flowers and bother you to death if' they would only send roses and mignonette instead of orchids and out, if l am bidden to your ball l shall send you rec! roses and promise to wear them in preference to all your orchids and Parma is a promise! Nancy Chatham turned in at her door and waved a Here he was already promising to send flowers to a girl who was not yet out. What a fool he was! Nancy Chatham paused in her front room and faced herself in the mirror. She had promised her mother that she would not see any man before she returned home for her debut, but Adams was only a neighbor and she also went to see the Colburns, so certainly there would not be any harm in this friendship. Mrs. Chatham was wise when she made that stipulationg Nancy was destined for a brilliant marriage, and her impulsiveness might vent itself by selecting a husband of its own choice. And besides, the two other Chatham girls had been snatched up by the most desirable men in the field. Alice was now the Countess I-lartymg and Elise, after two brilliant winters, had married Horace Van Byrne and was now one of the prominent young matrons in society. Nancy, however, was destined to outshine her two older sisters and lead the debutantes of the coming season. So Nancy's plans for herself lay unsuspected and undiscovered while those of her mother went serenely on. Christmas eve arrived. Adams and Nancy had seen each other frequently on their early morning walks which, strangely enough, appealed to both of them. So when early that morning Adams appeared on his steps what was more natural than that he should call to Nancy Chatham standing on her doorstep: Good morning, shall we walk together? Certainly, let's discuss our Christmas plans, what are yours? I have noneg my Christmas is to be spent very quietly. We are trying to forget Christmas at my house. Trying to forget Christmas! Mr. Adams, are you crazy? No, only extremely sensibleg Christmas is a waste of time and energy. at V I know you are crazyg please tell me what are your reasons for this wild view of yours? u Well, you see, you are wasting time preparing for a single da,y, and you are friendly for a single with people you decline to speak to the rest of the yearg therefore the whole thing is a farce. I see I shall have to take you in hand and convert you to the true meaning of the day. It is not only silly but sacrilegious for you to speak so. day ' Please don't try to convert me, Miss Chatham. I have carefully spent every Christmas in the Page forty-nine

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: f Etitif I -1:1:f1f:22f22f22gQ: i g Afifif ig:-U v 1:.1:- E:2-21-1-242-2:222eQ2:.. . -:f2f f222f gg .zfiesf 2f1:11 Stagg, rotten humor then and. it made me still madder to see into other people's houses. So l jerked down the shade when I saw you hold out your hands to him . . . Oh, that was Harry, you know Harry, for I have heard him speak of you. ul-larry! -love! l was getting worried for fear you had gentlemen callers! It never occurred to me that it might be your brother. Certainly l know Harry, he belongs to the same club I dog I should have recognized him. Harry is the only one of my family that I allow to visit me in my exile, We have been chums ever since the days when he was in his teens and I was in rompers. We used to peep through the dining room door at the dinner parties given for Sis when she first came outg you were flar too young to come to those because they were for my oldest sister, Alice. l remember that Harry and l always hung around the pantry door and ate off the plates as they came out. It was shocking manners, we knew, but we never got anything but the 'leavings' anyway, so we took them then! Nancy looked at the tall man who leaned on her mantel and smiledg this was the Dick Adams she had heard Elise and her mother talk so much about. She knew better than they thought she did that it was Dick Adams that Elise had been destined forg and she also knew the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Chatham house when the proposal did not come when the time for it had arrived. Elise was bitterly disappointed, and Nancy had lain awake in her little room next to Elise's one night while listening to the outpouring of the sorrow in her mother's ears. And together Nancy and Harry had written a fond, effusive love letter addressed to Miss Elise Chatham and signed Dick. That letter was a calamityg Nancy was kept in her room for three days and Harry's allowance was stopped for two weeks. Dick turned to his hostess. Miss Chatham, what do you plan to do now that Christmas is over? Go home and begin getting dresses for the fateful second day of February. Am l to be asked to the ball? lf you send the promised flowers. Will you wear them? Certainly. Christmas being over, Morris packed up. The day little Miss Chatham left, the occupants of the apartment on the right departed also. February came and with it the engraved invitation to the coming out ball of Miss Nancy Anderson Chatham. Tony, the florist, received an order for as large a bouquet of red roses and mignonette as he could assemble. Then, on THE night when Dick entered the Chatham ball room he saw Nancy in plain white satin with a large bunch of red roses and mignonette instead of the usual orchids and Parma violets. When he could break in for a dance he did so and, as she laughingly pointed to her flowers, he bent down, asking, Can we escape the mob? Silently she led the way to a small niche hidden by a screen of flowers. Well, Miss Chatham, how do you like being a debutante? Better'n I though l would-oh-l beg your pardon! l forgot! l am enjoying the beginning of my social activities extremely much, Mr. Adams. Don't talk like that to me! Do you think yourself more privileged than anyone else, Mr. Adams? She rose. He rose also and caught her hand. Nancy, don't be so silly! I would thank you to let go my hand, Mr. Adams, and also to remember that l am known to you only as Miss Chatham. With this she left. Dick sat staring at the wall, he knew now that he loved little Nancy Chatham and he also knew that she didn't care a rap for him. Doggone it, he must convince her in some way to believe that he Page fifty-one