Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace

Author:Maud Hart Lovelace [Lovelace, Maud Hart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061998317
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

6

The Mirror Palace

ONE DAY that winter, when Tib’s mother was going shopping, Betsy and Tacy and Tib kept house alone at Tib’s house. That is, they were almost alone. Matilda was there but she was taking care of Hobbie; and Freddie was there, but he was out coasting on the knoll. Mrs. Muller said that they could have the run of the house. For Mrs. Ray had told her what good children they were when they kept house alone at Betsy’s house.

“She said that you left the most spic and span kitchen!” Mrs. Muller said. “Well, good-by, my dears. Matilda has some nice fresh apple cake for you.”

And Mrs. Muller went away downtown.

It was fun to have Tib’s house all to themselves. Betsy and Tacy knew it well by now, but it still charmed them … the colored glass in the front door, the tower room with its blue velvet draperies, the back parlor with its broad window seat where they loved to sit and look at pictures of beautiful ladies in Munsey’s Magazine.

The day they were left alone they found the most beautiful lady of all but she wasn’t in a magazine.

Tib had taken them up to her mother’s room to show them the new curtains. They were made of white lace over pale pink silk, threaded with pink satin ribbon and tied back with pink satin bows. The large room stretched across the front of the house, with an alcove beside it where Hobbie’s bed was placed. Betsy and Tacy were roving about, admiring the curtains and the bureau with its bottles of perfume and the silver-backed mirrors and brushes, when Betsy picked up a framed photograph.

“Tib!” she cried. “Come here! Tell me who this is.”

Her tone was so excited that Tacy came running to look at the picture. Tib glanced at it and said:

“Why, that’s Aunt Dolly.”

“Your aunt?” asked Betsy. “Really? Did you ever actually see her?”

“Of course,” said Tib. “I saw her every day when we lived in Milwaukee.”

“Is she as beautiful as this?” asked Betsy.

Tib examined the photograph earnestly.

“Well, that looks just like her,” she answered.

Betsy gazed, and Tacy gazed too. This was certainly a most beautiful lady. She was leaning against a marble pillar on which her elbow rested while her hand supported daintily her small exquisite head. A long train curled about her feet, making her slender rounded figure look as though it had been carved. She had masses of soft blonde hair and a doll-like face.

“She looks like Tib,” said Tacy.

“Yes, she does,” said Betsy.

“I’m supposed to look like her,” said Tib. “But I don’t expect I’ll ever be that pretty.”

Betsy and Tacy turned to look at her.

“You’re quite pretty now, Tib,” Betsy said.

“Especially when you’re dressed up,” said Tacy.

“I’m too tanned,” said Tib.

She picked up her mother’s mirror and inspected her small tanned face while Betsy and Tacy gazed at the photograph, heaving great sighs of admiration.

But they couldn’t look at the photograph forever, so at last they put it down. Tib was still gazing into the mirror.

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