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Updated: June 27, 2025
Calligan was setting the table Mamie went to her room and Aileen followed her. As she stood before her mirror arranging her hair Aileen looked at her meditatively. "What's the matter with you, Aileen, to-day?" Mamie asked. "You look so " She stopped to give her a second glance. "How do I look?" asked Aileen. "Well, as if you were uncertain or troubled about something.
That was a good Scots voice even though its owner wore the Australian uniform. "Would the boys like to hear a concert?" I asked the officer. "That they would! By all means!" he said. "Glad of the chance! And so'm I! I've heard you just once before in Sydney, away back in the summer of 1914." Then the big fellow who had called my name spoke up again. "Sing us 'Calligan," he begged.
The matter of the expense of her presence to the Calligans came into her mind. "I want to pay you, of course," she said to Mrs. Calligan, "if I come." "The very idea, Aileen Butler!" exclaimed Mamie. "You'll do nothing of the sort. You'll come here and live with me as my guest." "No, I won't! If I can't pay I won't come," replied Aileen. "You'll have to let me do that."
"Miss Butler is here, I believe," he said. "Will you tell her that there is some one here from her father?" Although Aileen had instructed that her presence here was not to be divulged even to the members of her family the force of Cowperwood's presence and the mention of Butler's name cost Mrs. Calligan her presence of mind. "Wait a moment," she said; "I'll see."
Then, as Butler strolled to and fro in this, to him, objectionable room, Cowperwood drove rapidly away. Although it was nearly eleven o'clock when he arrived at the Calligans', Aileen was not yet in bed. In her bedroom upstairs she was confiding to Mamie and Mrs. Calligan some of her social experiences when the bell rang, and Mrs. Calligan went down and opened the door to Cowperwood.
"Oh, I've been so busy, Mrs. Calligan," replied Aileen. "I've had so much to do this fall, I just couldn't. They wanted me to go to Europe; but I didn't care to. Oh, dear!" she sighed, and in her playing swept off with a movement of sad, romantic significance. The door opened and Mamie came in. Her commonplace face brightened at the sight of Aileen. "Well, Aileen Butler!" she exclaimed.
Mamie's mother's very pleasant social disposition, the fact that they had a very cleanly, if poor little home, that she could entertain them by playing on their piano, and that Mrs. Calligan took an adoring interest in the work she did for her, made up the sum and substance of the attraction of the Calligan home for Aileen.
She went there occasionally as a relief from other things, and because Mamie Calligan had a compatible and very understanding interest in literature. Curiously, the books Aileen liked she liked Jane Eyre, Kenelm Chillingly, Tricotrin, and A Bow of Orange Ribbon.
She knew that the Calligans could not afford to keep her. "Well, we'll not talk about that now, anyhow," replied Mrs. Calligan. "You can come when you like and stay as long as you like. Reach me some clean napkins, Mamie." Aileen remained for luncheon, and left soon afterward to keep her suggested appointment with Cowperwood, feeling satisfied that her main problem had been solved.
"Calligan" had been one of the very earliest of my successes on the stage. I had not thought of the song, much less sung it, for years and years. In fact, though I racked my brains, I could not remember the words. And so, much as I should have liked to do so, I could not sing it for him.
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