Extracts from Mrs. Lofty's Diary, Part V. Ethelberta [pp. 502-513]

EXTRACTS FROM MRS. LOFTY'S DIARY.
acles has not ceased. Who but Ethelberta, none other, came to me today to
ask shamefacedly if I knew anything
that would take off tan? and tonight she
will go to bed in a buttermilk poultice.
"I could n't put on evening dress
with all this sunburn on me," she explained.
Do you possess such a frivolity as an
evening dress?" I inquired.
"Why, of course," she returned, surprised. "What do you take me for? A
heathen? You are too narrow in your
views, Auntie, you really are. If I
choose to cycle instead of riding a horse,
as you do, I don't see why you should
think me a monster," and there were
actually tears in her eyes.
"Why, Ethel!" I cried penitently.
"Honestly, I never thought you would
be a girl to care for dancing and all that
sort of thing."
"And why not?" she asked. "Because I like to follow my own tastes and
pursuits, and because there are things I
would rather do than flirt and simper,yes, even walk on the very verge of indecency as I have seen girls do to get men
about them,-you and Uncle Harry talk to
me and about me as if I were a freak. And
that man that comes here Sundays will
sit and watch me for an hour without
speaking, as if I were a sword-swallower
or something."
"How do you knowhe watches you?"
I asked. And Ethel turned red through
her sunburn.
"How did he get to be lame?" she inquired irrelevantly.
"0 years ago, when he was only a
boy. He and a companion were upset
out of a boat; the other boy could not
swim, and Reuben got him up on the
boat, and stayed in the cold water so
long holding him on and waiting for help
that he got some dreadful thing in his
hip, that left him lame for life."
Is that why he never goes into society?" inquired my niece, who seemed
suddenly to have become very curious
about this reprehensible man.
"Partly, I think; but mostly because
it would bore him. He is very easily
bored, you notice."
"He looks dreadfully bored with himself," retorted Ethel, " and that's a bad
sign. If a man is any good in the world
he has no need to be bored."
"I suppose that's true enough?" I
admitted. " I don't think Reuben is of
any particular use in the world."
June ist. Dottie is very anxious for
a little brother; she has dunned Doctor
Pillsbury for one so often, that now the
good man takes down a cross street when
he sees her coming; and having pestered her mother and me with questions
till she has about made up her mind it is
useless, she has found a new victim in
Ethel. Now my niece, being a new
woman, of course believes you can't begin too early to instil knowledge of all
sorts into the youthful mind. I'm not
saying she's wrong, but I notice she
also finds a difficulty in conveying information on certain subjects in a form
suited to the infantile capacity. Dottie
has found us all so unsatisfactory that
she has been forced to frame a theory of
her own.
That Ostrom woman annoys me.
Some one has told her that she looks like
me, and she actually seems to feel complimented by it. So now she apes my
clothes. I have a combination in my
mind for next fall that I think will give
her pause. It will cost me some trouble
and I shall wear it just once, and then
throw it away. She will have to wear
her reproduction all winter, because she
can't afford to have another so expensive
as hers will be.
June Isth. When Harry was reading
his paper this morning I noticed him give
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