Хорошие жёны / Good wives. Уровень 3

“I don’t truckle, and I hate the situation when someone patronizes as much as you do!” returned Amy. “The girls care for me, and I for them. There’s a great deal of kindness and sense and talent among them, in spite of what you call fashionable nonsense. You don’t care to make people like you – I do, and I mean to make the most of every chance that comes.”

The invitations were sent, nearly all accepted. The following Monday was set apart for the grand event. If not on Monday, the young ladies will come on Tuesday.

This arrangement aggravated Jo and Hannah (the March family maid and cook, their only servant) to the last degree.

The lunch looked charming. Amy surveyed it. It will taste well. Amy will borrow glass, china, and silver, and after the event, everything will get safely home again. The carriages were promised. Meg and Mother were all ready to do the honors. Beth was able to help Hannah behind the scenes. Jo was trying to be as lively and amiable as possible.

Amy cheered herself with anticipations of the happy moment when, after the lunch is safely over, she will drive away with her friends for an afternoon of artistic delights.

At eleven nobody came, and at two the exhausted family sat down in a blaze of sunshine to consume the perishable portions of the feast.

“No doubt about the weather today, they will certainly come. So we must be ready for them,”

said Amy, as the sun woke her next morning.

“I can’t get any lobsters, so you won’t have any salad today,” said Mr.

March, coming in half an hour later, with an expression of placid despair.

“Use the chicken then, the toughness won’t matter in a salad,” advised his wife.

“Hannah left it on the kitchen table a minute, and the kittens got at it. I’m very sorry, Amy,” added Beth.

“Then I must have a lobster, for tongue alone won’t do,” said Amy decidedly.

“Shall I rush into town and demand one?” asked Jo.

“You’d come bringing it home under your arm without any paper, just to bother me. I’ll go myself,” answered Amy, whose temper was beginning to fail.

She departed. After some delay, the object of her desire was procured, likewise a bottle of dressing to prevent further loss of time at home, and off she drove again. Once she was back at home, she went through with the preparations, and at twelve o’clock all was ready again.