Love Endures - 2 by Grace Livingston Hill

Author:Grace Livingston Hill [Hill, Grace Livingston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-62836-277-0
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Diagonally across the street, about two hundred yards from the Silver place, next to the meadow, whose white picket fence bordered and whose old brindle-colored cow thrived on the meadow, stood a small brick cottage, somewhat Tudor style in architecture, low and thatchy, with moss on the roof and sunk deep in the thick green turf. It had a swing gate with an iron weight on a chain to make it latch, and a lilac bush leaning so low that the visitor had to duck his head to enter.

The inhabitants were all female, and they looked on the cow and the old yellow cats as their protectors. They were called the “Vandemeeter girls,” though the mother and the ancient grandmother were still of the company. There were three elderly spinsters, Maria, Cordelia, and Henrietta. There was also a niece, daughter of a fourth sister long since dead, who rejoiced in the name of Pristina Appleby. Pristina was “thirty-five if she was a day” according to Ellen Follinsbee, the Silver Sands dressmaker who always wore pins in her mouth and kept the other corner open to pass on pleasant conversation.

Pristina was tall and thin and spent much time studying the fashion magazines and sending for all the articles in the advertisement pages. She sang in the choir, and her voice was still good though a trifle shrill on the high notes. She held her book with elbows stiffened and always opened her mouth round and wide, and she took care to have a fresh change of clothes and always got a new hat four times a year. She felt it was due to her position as first soprano, although it was not a paying job, and frequently required much sacrifice of necessities to keep it. They were a progressive family and took several family magazines besides a church paper and the Silver Sands Bulletin. Pristina belonged to a literary club entitled the Honey Gatherers and sipped knowledge early and late. She had recently been appointed to write a paper on some modern author and had chosen Patterson Greeves, “our noted townsman” as the first sentence stated, and waded through volumes of technical works and thoroughly mastered the terms of bacteriologists in order to do her subject justice. Maria and Henrietta had not approved. They thought the choice of a divorced man, especially as he was reported to be returning to his native town to live, not a delicate thing for a young girl to do. Cordelia maintained that it was a part of the strange times they were living in and added: “Look at the flappers!”

“Well, I never supposed we’d have a flapper in our family,” said Grandma sadly. “The Vandemeeters were always respectable. Poor, but always respectable.”

“Now, Ma, who says Pristina ain’t respectable?” bristled Mother, appearing in the kitchen door with a bread pan in one hand and a lump of lard in the other. “Pristina has her life to live, ain’t she? I guess she’s got to think of that.

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