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The Goddess of Excelsior
by
“How much did you say that spirit-clad old hag of yours cost– thorns and all?” said the president, turning sharply on Trigg.
Trigg swallowed this depreciation of his own purchase meekly. “Seven hundred and fifty dollars, without the express charges.”
“That’s only two-fifty more,” said the president thoughtfully, “if we call it quits.”
“But,” said Trigg in alarm, “we must send it back.”
“Not much, sonny,” said the president promptly. “We’ll hang on to this until we hear where that thorny old chump of yours has fetched up and is actin’ her conundrums, and mebbe we can swap even.”
“But how will we explain it to the boys?” queried Trigg. “They’re waitin’ outside to see it.”
“There WON’T be any explanation,” said the president, in the same tone of voice in which he had ordered the door shut. “We’ll just say that the statue hasn’t come, which is the frozen truth; and this box only contained some silk curtain decorations we’d ordered, which is only half a lie. And,” still more firmly, “THIS SECRET DOESN’T GO OUT OF THIS ROOM, GENTLEMEN–or I ain’t your president! I’m not going to let you give yourselves away to that crowd outside–you hear me? Have you ever allowed your unfettered intellect to consider what they’d say about this,–what a godsend it would be to every man we’d ever had a ‘pull’ on in this camp? Why, it would last ’em a whole year; we’d never hear the end of it! No, gentlemen! I prefer to live here without shootin’ my fellow man, but I can’t promise it if they once start this joke agin us!”
There was a swift approval of this sentiment, and the five members shook hands solemnly.
“Now,” said the president, “we’ll just fold up that dress again, and put it with the figure in this closet”–he opened a large dressing-chest in the suite of rooms in which they stood–“and we’ll each keep a key. We’ll retain this room for committee purposes, so that no one need see the closet. See? Now take off the dress! Be careful there! You’re not handlin’ pay dirt, though it’s about as expensive! Steady!”
Yet it was wonderful to see the solicitude and care with which the dress was re-covered and folded in its linen wrapper.
“Hold on,” exclaimed Trigg,–as the dummy was lifted into the chest,–“we haven’t tried on the other dress!”
“Yes! yes!” repeated the others eagerly; “there’s another!”
“We’ll keep that for next committee meeting, gentlemen,” said the president decisively. “Lock her up, Trigg.”
The three following months wrought a wonderful change in Excelsior,–wonderful even in that land of rapid growth and progress. Their organized and matured plans, executed by a full force of workmen from the county town, completed the twenty cottages for the members, the bank, and the town hall. Visitors and intending settlers flocked over the new wagon road to see this new Utopia, whose founders, holding the land and its improvements as a corporate company, exercised the right of dictating the terms on which settlers were admitted. The feminine invasion was not yet potent enough to affect their consideration, either through any refinement or attractiveness, being composed chiefly of the industrious wives and daughters of small traders or temporary artisans. Yet it was found necessary to confide the hotel to the management of Mr. Dexter Marsh, his wife, and one intelligent but somewhat plain daughter, who looked after the accounts. There were occasional lady visitors at the hotel, attracted from the neighboring towns and settlements by its picturesqueness and a vague suggestiveness of its being a watering-place–and there was the occasional flash in the decorous street of a Sacramento or San Francisco gown. It is needless to say that to the five men who held the guilty secret of Committee Room No. 4 it only strengthened their belief in the super-elegance of their hidden treasure. At their last meeting they had fitted the second dress–which turned out to be a vapory summer house-frock or morning wrapper–over the dummy, and opinions were divided as to its equality with the first. However, the same subtle harmony of detail and grace of proportion characterized it.