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And all this she told to Laura in the days that followed, those dear, delightful days, when there was no difficulty put in the way of going to McVane Street; when McVane Street, indeed, according to Kitty, became quite the fashion with the artists flocking to see the wonderful etching, and Monsieur Baudouin holding forth upon its merits to them as he made himself at home with his American kinsfolk, who were now discovered to be such charming folk.
He had weakened, just as the Superintendent of "N" Division had weakened that day four years ago when they had almost quarreled over Carmin Fanchet. "I'll swear to Heaven she isn't bad, no matter what her brother has been," McVane had said. "I'll gamble my life on that, Carrigan!"
You wouldn't appreciate Esther's own sweetness and refinement at their real worth, if the carpets and curtains and chairs and things in the house on McVane Street didn't happen to please your taste."
"If anything happens to me," Carrigan had said to McVane, "there isn't anybody in particular to notify. I lost out in the matter of family a long time ago." He was not a man who talked much about himself, even to the superintendent of "N" Division, yet there were a thousand who loved Dave Carrigan, and many who placed their confidences in him.
"I? Just my little fun about McVane Street and your sunset tea there?" "Yes, just your little fun! I know what your fun is! Oh, Kitty, Kitty, I did think you had a kind heart! But to be the means of hurting anybody, as you have hurt Esther, it is it is " "Laura, Laura, don't," as Laura here broke down in a little fit of sobbing. "Of course I didn't know I didn't think.
The sunshine seemed actually to fill up the cups and spill over into the gilt-bordered saucers, as Laura looked. "It is a 'sunset tea, indeed," she said to herself; "and if Kitty Grant could see how pretty and refined were the simple arrangements, she wouldn't mix Esther up with any horrid common emigrants, if she does live on McVane Street. Esther a foreigner of any kind!
These words of hers returned to Laura with great force as the door of the house on McVane Street was opened to her, and she found herself in a chilly hall, darkly papered and darkly and shabbily carpeted; and when she followed Esther up the stairs, for it was Esther who had answered her ring, and noted the general dreariness of the whole, she thought pityingly, "Poor Esther, to be obliged to live in such a dismal fashion."
And you think the Bodns are the lowest kind just because they are poor and live on McVane Street!
"No, I wouldn't do that; but you might think of her as Miss Bowdoin," answered Laura, dryly. "Oh, Laura, what a head full of wisdom you've got! I don't see how I ever lived without you. But see here, tell me what street Miss Bowdoin lives in." Laura hesitated a moment; then answered, "McVane Street." "Where is McVane Street, for pity's sake?
She had begun to think that if her brother were to take up Kitty's cry against McVane Street, she might find her anticipated visit set about with thorns. "But I shall go, I shall go!" she said to herself, "whatever Jack may say, when mamma says that I may."
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