AUNT HETTY'S GIFT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12, 25 March 1909, Page 477

AUNT HETTY'S GIFT

It had been understood for years that when Margaret had finished school her room should be refurnished, and, moreover, that she should furnish it according to her own taste, within the limits set by her father's modest income. She had accepted the responsibility with mingled trepidation and delight, and now that the , process was almost completed, the former sensation was swallowed up in wholesome satisfaction. It was certainly a fact that more pretentious rooms often lack a charm which Margaret had succeeded in imparting to this. The delicate shades of the wall-paper blended perfectly with the "deeper browns of the rug. The light furniture brightened the effect of the whole, and the photographs and engravings hanging about were neither too many nor too few. Margaret had a right to take credit for the work of her hands, and she rejoiced over it all in outspoken girlish fashion. Aunt Hetty had watched the progress of the work with ■ a satisfaction second only 'to Margaret's ''own, and had admired unstintedly everything that was done. On questions of taste Aunt Hetty's approval was not worth much, to be sure, but her great, loving -heart more .than made up for such minor lacks. At least so Margaret thought till one morning, when her aunt dropped in flushed and smiling and out of breath. 'Almost done, aren't you, dear? 3 she said, looking around the room with a beaming smile. ' Well, everything is perfect. No, thank you, I can't sit down. I just stopped in long enough to leave this little package. I don't want to have this pretty room quite finished without some contribution from your old auntie.' She was gone as soon as the fond, speech was spoken, and Margaret, not without some apprehensipn, began to open the package, which was tied with provoking security. It was not so very little, after all, and the shape was unpleasantly suggestive. When the wrappings were fairly off, Margaret gave a despairing little cry. Just then her mother came in. / ' Where shall I * put this thing, mamma ? I never could have imagined anything so bad. Those glaring colors and that cheap gilt frame spoil everything in the room. I simply can't hang it. I suppose Aunt Hetty will be hurt and offended, but I can't help that. It's like a big trumpet blaring out in the middle of a Mozart sonata.' It was evidently a case for sympathy, and Margaret's mother never failed in this. But the girl's quick ear desomething else behind the pitying words. ' Mamma, I should almost think you^wanted me to hang it — only that's impossible.' — ' Why impossible?' asked the mother, smiling a little. Margaret -answered with a gesture, as if the matter were beyond words. Then she said: ' You haven't really looked at it. A cheap, gaudy chroino! It's an insult to good taste.' ' Good taste applies -to more than the furnishing of rooms, Margaret,' the mother renriaded her. 'It surely demands courtesy and kindness toward one's friends.'

' But, mamma, it will" spoil everything in the room. All my work will jgo for nothing.' ' The friendship between your Aunt Hetty and yourself has been almost ideal, " Margaret. She certainly loves you dearly, -and I have never known you to do, or say anything to wound or grieve her. It seems to me it would be a sadder thing to spoil such harmony than to spoil the harmony of a pretty .room.' * : She went awayj leaving' her daughter to think over the suggestion. When she entered the room again j Aunt Hetty's picture was hanging on the wall, opposite an engraving after Corot, while on the jight Raphael's clierubs turned up their eyes disapprovingly. There could be no doubt that it was a false note. Margaret's mother felt a little pang" of sympathy in. the midst of her gladness. For a day or two Margaret's face was very sober, but into her heart was stealing something better than her oldtime elation/ Sacrifice has joys all its own. The sight of Aunt Hetty's beaming face gave her a sense of having had a narrow escape. If she had cast a shadow over that kind face, "and wounded the heart that loved her so loyally," the pang in her own heart would have outlived the impossible flowers blooming in the gilt frame upstairs. She came in from a walk one afternoon and went directly to her room to lay aside her wraps. Then she" gave -a startled exclamation. The "cherubs had lost their disapproving air, and- the statuette of Minerva on tho mantel seemed positively smiling. 'Where is it?' cried Margaret, looking about her wildly ; ' who took it away ?' Her mother had followed her upstairs, and she gave the girl's arm a loving pressure. ' Aunt Hetty took it: She came in this afternoon, arid teaid she'd been thinking about that picture, and it seemed as if it Hidn't quite belong with the rest of the things in the room. She wants you to go with her to Burdette's to-morrow and pick out something that will harmonise better'^ '- She seemed as happy and excited about it as a- child. ' There were tears in Margaret's eyes" as she listened. '"It seems strange that I could have put the little thing so much before the greater, and cared more for my 'pVettjr room than for Aunt' Hetty's happiness. Mamma, dear, what would girls do if they didn't have good mothers to keep them- from making mistakes?'