The Year of 1901

Chapter 4 It is Teatime

          "Mrs. Pearson," said Mrs. Billing after setting her teacup on her saucer. "You did not tell us your son was back in town after being gone so long to college."

          "Good heaven's women," replied Mrs. Pearson rather rudely in response to Mrs. Billing's conversation starter. "How could I tell you when he just got back yesterday evening." Mrs. Pearson then took a sip (more like slurp) of her tea. Mrs. Billings just sighed at the rude behavior and sipped her tea once more.

          "How did you know Andrew was back?" was Mrs. Pearson's question with a startle. She had just realized that no one knew Andrew was back in town yet.

          "We ran into him on our way over here," answered Mrs. Billings. Es almost spit her tea out by her mothers' comment. She knew her mother had not meant anything by, "ran into." "We were talking about having you all over for dinner some time." Mrs. Pearson set her teacup down on the short table that was beside her chair. "You know I can't remember the last time we had you to dinner." She then paused and twitched her head to the right. "I think it is long overdue."

          "Well, we are awfully busy," said the fat woman as she grabbed her plate of tarts and took a large bite of the biggest one. Mrs. Billing knew what it would take to get Mrs. Pearson to say yes to the idea.

          "And," said Mrs. Billings as if she had not heard Mrs. Pearson's comment. "Tim might be able to make it." Mrs. Billing truly did not know if her college son would be able to make it, but she knew that Mrs. Pearson would jump at the idea. Here sat in the Crawford parlor two women, one who wanted her daughter to get better acquainted with the young man she had liked for so long. Mrs. Pearson on the other hand wanting her daughter to get hooked up with the son of a millionaire who was almost as popular as her own son among young females. Now reader you must understand, Mrs. Billings was not the kind of woman to try to get her daughters hooked up with every rich and good-looking young man in the country. She was not a prying woman. She just knew that her daughter had once liked the young Pearson boy and was trying to help the relationship on a bit. The way she tried to help her daughter along was probably not the best, but it had been a while since she had been a young girl with her eye on a young man. It seemed that it had just been too long, and she had simply forgotten how it would be embarrassing for a young girl to have the mother trying to help her love life along. Mrs. Pearson swallowed her tart and then began to speak.

          "I will have to ask Mr. Pearson about the idea but we would be delighted to come." She spoke for her and her daughter who sat on a chair nearby. When Mrs. Pearson said she would ask Mr. Pearson, her round husband, this was a lie. For Mrs. Pearson ruled the Pearson house. This is one reason why the Billings and Pearson's did not get along. Mr. Billing, who is yet to come into our story, did not like the idea of women ruling the home. He could not stand faint-hearted men who would let their wives tell what to do and not do.

         The conversation continued for a while. Gertrude sat in her chair; her nose stuck up in the air while she sipped her tea. Her blond hair was in tight curls and a string of large pearls hung around her white neck. She wore an overly puffy blue dress with exaggerated sleeves. Kitty thought she looked exactly like a clown. Kitty was a girl with a simplified fashion.

          Now mind reader that she did dress up and still carried herself like a lady, but she was much more practical in what she wore than Gertrude Pearson. She did not like exaggerated sleeves because she knew it made it more difficult to walk through doors and into closed in carriages. She did not like big pearls that hung around her neck and became an annoyance. All the Billings girls were quickly getting tired of the boring conversation along with Mrs. Billings who had not said a word now for two minutes. Mrs. Pearson would not stop talking and every time she did talk, she had to take a very deep breath. It was evident that her corset was put a little too tight on the large women.