Identifier: bookfulofgirls00full (find matches)
Title: A bookful of girls
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Fuller, Anna, 1853-1916
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, London, G.P. Putnam's sons

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Text Appearing Before Image:
202 A Bookful of Girls

the youthful figure of distracted mien, the
worsted tidies on the haircloth sofa, and
the neat alpaca occupant of the stuffed
rocker. Again the sewing was forgot-
ten, and Miss Becky's glittering spectacles
were fixed upon the tragic queen. As
the queer little figure stalked solemnly
down the room, eyes fixed in a glassy
stare, hands wringing one another dis-
tressfully ; as a moving wail rent the air,
to the effect that all the perfumes of
Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,
a most agreeable succession of shivers
made a highway of Miss Becky's spine.
" Why don't you ever go to the theatre
now, Miss Becky ?" Nannie asked, when,
having laid aside her tragic toggery, she
came in her own person to take her
leave. " I should think you'd like to go
again."
"Oh, yes, I should be reel tickled to go
again, but I ain't got nobody to go with,
and, well—there's other reasons besides."
Nannie blushed to think how inconsid-
erate she had been to force her old friend
to allude, even indirectly, to her poverty,
Text Appearing After Image:
" All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten
this little hand."

Nannie's Theatre Party 203

and she walked up the dusty road to her
own gate, filled with compunction. Just
outside the gate was a little wilderness of
goldenrod and asters. She thought what
a pity it was they should get so gray with
dust. Poor things, they could not help
it; they had to stay where chance had
planted them unless somebody picked
them and carried them away, and even then
they left their roots behind them. Some-
how they made her think of Miss Becky,
living her little narrow, stationary life all
alone in the old tumble-down farmhouse.
And just at this point in her reflections
a delightful scheme came into her head.
Now, Nannie was the recipient of a
slender monthly allowance intended for
gloves and ruchings, postage stamps, and
the like, and, having spent the last four
months far from the allurements of city
shops, she happened at this juncture to
be in funds. Her stock of gloves, to be
sure, was pretty well exhausted, and
Christmas was only a few months away.
But Miss Becky was nearer still, and
Nannie had no hesitation between the

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