The Handsome Road by Gwen Bristow

Author:Gwen Bristow [Bristow, Gwen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Romance, General, Sagas
ISBN: 9781480485167
Google: 3ZdxAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-05-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

When Gilday offered to take a house for her Corrie May felt a thrill that ran from the back of her neck down to the end of her spine. The balconied home of the Durhams, in front of which she had watched the soldiers pass on that long-ago spring day when the war was young, had been advertised for rent. Steamboat trade was scant, and property taxes had climbed to such heights that the Durhams could no longer afford to keep up their residence.

Gilday said he’d take it if that was the one she wanted. She drove her buggy to the house and sat looking up at its graceful front, and she trembled with pleasure. That she, Corrie May Upjohn from Rattletrap Square, should live in one of the palaces that had given Dalroy its famous designation! But when she went in and looked around she was disappointed. From the outside the house looked pretty grand with its wide galleries and long windows, but inside—why, even in the parlor the walls were just plain white, with only a tiny border of painted vines under the ceiling. Corrie May asked Gilday if she couldn’t fancy it up a little bit, and he said sure, go right ahead; he thought like her it was too simple.

So she went to work, gleefully. In the front rooms she put up wallpaper with a design of red and purple roses climbing over a golden lattice, and in the hall blue paper scattered over with gilt bouquets tied with long pink bows. She draped the windows with red velveteen hangings looped back with gold cords, and hung pictures of cupids flying about among wistaria-laden arches. She hung a gilt-framed mirror over the parlor mantelpiece and placed a red plush sofa between the front windows. To spur folks’ appetites she hung pictures of fruit and fish in the dining-room, and set up cabinets containing knobby tumblers of pink glass and a set of chinaware painted with ponies.

Gilday paid for everything, half with satisfaction and half with amusement. He enjoyed seeing the pleasure she got from spending money. “This sure is marvelous,” she exclaimed breathlessly to him over and over, and he laughed and pinched her cheek. “Go right ahead, baby. Ain’t I said it was your turn?”

Yes, it was her turn, Corrie May said joyfully to him and to herself, and she bustled up and down, laying a green carpet on the stairs and placing long vari-colored candles in the sockets. But though she gloried in her grand house, this glory was faint compared to that she found in buying clothes. At first it was hard to realize she could walk right into the shops and turn over bolts of goods with the assurance of a great lady. At first she went in timidly, murmuring, “If it ain’t too much trouble, sir, I’d like to see some poplin, please sir,” and shivered when the salesman’s glance informed her she was not the type of customer he had been used to waiting on.

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