But in her present phase of life Miss Boncassen suffered no misfortune of this kind. It had become a privilege to be allowed to attend upon Miss Boncassen, and the feeling of this privilege had been enhanced by the manner in which Lord Silverbridge had devoted himself to her. Fashion of course makes fashion. Had not Lord Silverbridge been so very much struck by the charm of the young lady, Lords Glasslough and Popplecourt would not perhaps have found it necessary to run after her. As it was, even that most unenergetic of young men, Dolly Longstaff, was moved to profound admiration.
On this occasion they were all up the river at Maidenhead. Mr. Boncassen had looked about for some means of returning the civilities offered to him, and had been instigated by Mrs. Montacute Jones to do it after this fashion. There was a magnificent banquet spread in a summer-house on the river bank. There were boats, and there was a band, and there was a sward for dancing. There was lawn-tennis, and fishing-rods,—which nobody used,—and better still, long shady secluded walks in which gentlemen might stroll,—and ladies too, if they were kind enough. The whole thing had been arranged by Mrs. Montacute Jones. As the day was fine, as many of the old people had abstained from coming, as there were plenty of young men of the best sort, and as nothing had been spared in reference to external comforts, the party promised to be a success. Every most lovely girl in London of course was there,—except Lady Mabel Grex. Lady Mabel was in the habit of going everywhere, but on this occasion she had refused Mrs. Boncassen's invitation. "I don't want to see her triumphs," she had said to Miss Cass.
Everybody went down by railway of course, and innumerable flies and carriages had been provided to take them to the scene of action. Some immediately got into boats and rowed themselves up from the bridge,—which, as the thermometer was standing at eighty in the shade, was an inconsiderate proceeding. "I don't think I am quite up to that," said Dolly Longstaff, when it was proposed to him to take an oar. "Miss Amazon will do it. She rows so well, and is so strong." Whereupon Miss Amazon, not at all abashed, did take the oar; and as Lord Silverbridge was on the seat behind her with the other oar she probably enjoyed her task.
"What a very nice sort of person Lady Cantrip is." This was said to Silverbridge by that generally silent young nobleman Lord Popplecourt. The remark was the more singular because Lady Cantrip was not at the party,—and the more so again because, as Silverbridge thought, there could be but little in common between the Countess who had his sister in charge and the young lord beside him, who was not fast only because he did not like to risk his money.
"Well,—yes; I dare say she is."
"I thought so, peculiarly. I was at that place at Richmond yesterday."
"The devil you were! What were you doing at The Horns?"
"Lady Cantrip's grandmother was,—I don't quite know what she was, but something to us. I know I've got a picture of her at Popplecourt. Lady Cantrip wanted to ask me something about it, and so I went down. I was so glad to make acquaintance with your sister."
"You saw Mary, did you?"
"Oh yes; I lunched there. I'm to go down and meet the Duke some day."
"Meet the Duke!"
"Why not?"
"No reason on earth,—only I can't imagine the governor going to Richmond for his dinner. Well! I am very glad to hear it. I hope you'll get on well with him."
"I was so much struck with your sister."
"Yes; I dare say," said Silverbridge, turning away into the path where he saw Miss Boncassen standing with some other ladies. It certainly did not occur to him that Popplecourt was to be brought forward as a suitor for his sister's hand.
"I believe this is the most lovely place in the world," Miss Boncassen said to him.
"We are so much the more obliged to you for bringing us here."
"We don't bring you. You allow us to come with you and see all that is pretty and lovely."
"Is it not your party?"
"Father will pay the bill, I suppose,—as far as that goes. And mother's name was put on the cards. But of course we know what that means. It is because you and a few others like you have been so kind to us, that we are able to be here at all."
"Everybody, I should think, must be kind to you."
"I do have a good time pretty much; but nowhere so good as here. I fear that when I get back I shall not like New York."
"I have heard you say, Miss Boncassen, that Americans were more likeable than the English."
"Have you? Well, yes; I think I have said so. And I think it is so. I'd sooner have to dance with a bank clerk in New York, than with a bank clerk here."
"Do you ever dance with bank clerks?"
"Oh dear yes. At least I suppose so. I dance with whoever comes up. We haven't got lords in America, you know!"
"You have got gentlemen?"
"Plenty of them;—but they are not so easily defined as lords. I do like lords."
"Do you?"
"Oh yes,—and ladies;—Countesses I mean and women of that sort. Your Lady Mabel Grex is not here. Why wouldn't she come?"
"Perhaps you didn't ask her."
"Oh yes I did;—especially for your sake."
"She is not my Lady Mabel Grex," said Lord Silverbridge with unnecessary energy.
"But she will be."
"What makes you think that?"
"You are devoted to her."
"Much more to you, Miss Boncassen."
"That is nonsense, Lord Silverbridge."
"Not at all."
"It is also—untrue."
"Surely I must be the best judge of that myself."
"Not a doubt; a judge not only whether it be true, but if true whether expedient,—or even possible. What did I say to you when we first began to know each other?"
"What did you say?"
"That I liked knowing you;—that was frank enough;—that I liked knowing you because I knew that there would be no tomfoolery of love-making." Then she paused; but he did not quite know how to go on with the conversation at once, and she continued her speech. "When you condescend to tell me that you are devoted to me, as though that were the kind of thing that I expect to have said when I take a walk with a young man in a wood, is not that the tomfoolery of love-making?" She stopped and looked at him, so that he was obliged to answer.
"Then why do you ask me if I am devoted to Lady Mabel? Would not that be tomfoolery too?"
"No. If I thought so, I would not have asked the question. I did specially invite her to come here because I thought you would like it. You have got to marry somebody."
"Some day, perhaps."
"And why not her?"
"If you come to that, why not you?" He felt himself to be getting into deep waters as he said this,—but he had a meaning to express if only he could find the words to express it. "I don't say whether it is tomfoolery, as you call it, or not; but whatever it is, you began it."
"Yes;—yes. I see. You punish me for my unpremeditated impertinence in suggesting that you are devoted to Lady Mabel by the premeditated impertinence of pretending to be devoted to me."
"Stop a moment. I cannot follow that." Then she laughed. "I will swear that I did not intend to be impertinent."
"I hope not."
"I am devoted to you."
"Lord Silverbridge!"
"I think you are—"
"Stop, stop. Do not say it."
"Well I won't;—not now. But there has been no tomfoolery."
"May I ask a question, Lord Silverbridge? You will not be angry? I would not have you angry with me."
"I will not be angry," he said.
"Are you not engaged to marry Lady Mabel Grex?"
"No."
"Then I beg your pardon. I was told that you were engaged to her. And I thought your choice was so fortunate, so happy! I have seen no girl here that I admire half so much. She almost comes up to my idea of what a young woman should be."
"Almost!"
"Now I am sure that if not engaged to her you must be in love with her, or my praise would have sufficed."
"Though one knows a Lady Mabel Grex, one may become acquainted with a Miss Boncassen."
There are moments in which stupid people say clever things, obtuse people say sharp things, and good-natured people say ill-natured things. "Lord Silverbridge," she said, "I did not expect that from you."
"Expect what? I meant it simply."
"I have no doubt you meant it simply. We Americans think ourselves sharp, but I have long since found out that we may meet more than our matches over here. I think we will go back. Mother means to try to get up a quadrille."
"You will dance with me?"
"I think not. I have been walking with you, and I had better dance with someone else."
"You can let me have one dance."
"I think not. There will not be many."
"Are you angry with me?"
"Yes, I am; there." But as she said this she smiled. "The truth is, I thought I was getting the better of you, and you turned round and gave me a pat on the head to show me that you could be master when it pleased you. You have defended your intelligence at the expense of your good-nature."
"I'll be shot if I know what it all means," he said, just as he was parting with her.
Lord Silverbridge made up his mind that as he could not dance with Miss Boncassen he would not dance at all. He was not angry at being rejected, and when he saw her stand up with Dolly Longstaff he felt no jealousy. She had refused to dance with him not because she did not like him, but because she did not wish to show that she liked him. He could understand that, though he had not quite followed all the ins and outs of her little accusations against him. She had flattered him—without any intention of flattery on her part. She had spoken of his intelligence and had complained that he had been too sharp to her. Mabel Grex when most sweet to him, when most loving, always made him feel that he was her inferior. She took no trouble to hide her conviction of his youthfulness. This was anything but flattering. Miss Boncassen, on the other hand, professed herself to be almost afraid of him.
"There shall be no tomfoolery of love-making," she had said. But what if it were not tomfoolery at all? What if it were good, genuine, earnest love-making? He certainly was not pledged to Lady Mabel. As regarded his father there would be a difficulty. In the first place he had been fool enough to tell his father that he was going to make an offer to Mabel Grex. And then his father would surely refuse his consent to a marriage with an American stranger. In such case there would be no unlimited income, no immediate pleasantness of magnificent life such as he knew would be poured out upon him if he were to marry Mabel Grex. As he thought of this, however, he told himself that he would not sell himself for money and magnificence. He could afford to be independent, and gratify his own taste. Just at this moment he was of opinion that Isabel Boncassen would be the sweeter companion of the two.
He had sauntered down to the place where they were dancing and stood by, saying a few words to Mrs. Boncassen. "Why are you not dancing, my Lord?" she asked.
"There are enough without me."
"I guess you young aristocrats are never over-fond of doing much with your own arms and legs."
"I don't know about that; polo, you know, for the legs, and lawn-tennis for the arms, is hard work enough."
"But it must always be something new-fangled; and after all it isn't of much account. Our young men like to have quite a time at dancing."
It all came through her nose! And she looked so common! What would the Duke say to her, or Mary, or even Gerald? The father was by no means so objectionable. He was a tall, straight, ungainly man, who always wore black clothes. He had dark, stiff, short hair, a long nose, and a forehead that was both high and broad. Ezekiel Boncassen was the very man,—from his appearance,—for a President of the United States; and there were men who talked of him for that high office. That he had never attended to politics was supposed to be in his favour. He had the reputation of being the most learned man in the States, and reputation itself often suffices to give a man dignity of manner. He, too, spoke through his nose, but the peculiar twang coming from a man would be supposed to be virile and incisive. From a woman, Lord Silverbridge thought it to be unbearable. But as to Isabel, had she been born within the confines of some lordly park in Hertfordshire, she could not have been more completely free from the abomination.
"I am sorry that you should not be enjoying yourself," said Mr. Boncassen, coming to his wife's relief.
"Nothing could have been nicer. To tell the truth, I am standing idle by way of showing my anger against your daughter, who would not dance with me."
"I am sure she would have felt herself honoured," said Mr. Boncassen.
"Who is the gentleman with her?" asked the mother.
"A particular friend of mine—Dolly Longstaff."
"Dolly!" ejaculated Mrs. Boncassen.
"Everybody calls him so. His real name I believe to be Adolphus."
"Is he,—is he—just anybody?" asked the anxious mother.
"He is a very great deal,—as people go here. Everybody knows him. He is asked everywhere, but he goes nowhere. The greatest compliment paid to you here is his presence."
"Nay, my Lord, there are the Countess Montague, and the Marchioness of Capulet, and Lord Tybalt,and—"
"They go everywhere. They are nobodies. It is a charity to even invite them. But to have had Dolly Longstaff once is a triumph for life."
"Laws!" said Mrs. Boncassen, looking hard at the young man who was dancing. "What has he done?"
"He never did anything in his life."
"I suppose he's very rich."
"I don't know. I should think not. I don't know anything about his riches, but I can assure you that having had him down here will quite give a character to the day."
In the meantime Dolly Longstaff was in a state of great excitement. Some part of the character assigned to him by Lord Silverbridge was true. He very rarely did go anywhere, and yet was asked to a great many places. He was a young man,—though not a very young man,—with a fortune of his own and the expectation of a future fortune. Few men living could have done less for the world than Dolly Longstaff,—and yet he had a position of his own. Now he had taken it into his head to fall in love with Miss Boncassen. This was an accident which had probably never happened to him before, and which had disturbed him much. He had known Miss Boncassen a week or two before Lord Silverbridge had seen her, having by some chance dined out and sat next to her. From that moment he had become changed, and had gone hither and thither in pursuit of the American beauty. His passion having become suspected by his companions had excited their ridicule. Nevertheless he had persevered;—and now he was absolutely dancing with the lady out in the open air. "If this goes on, your friends will have to look after you and put you somewhere," Mr. Lupton had said to him in one of the intervals of the dance. Dolly had turned round and scowled, and suggested that if Mr. Lupton would mind his own affairs it would be as well for the world at large.
At the present crisis Dolly was very much excited. When the dance was over, as a matter of course, he offered the lady his arm, and as a matter of course she accepted it. "You'll take a turn; won't you?" he said.
"It must be a very short turn," she said,—"as I am expected to make myself busy."
"Oh, bother that."
"It bothers me; but it has to be done."
"You have set everything going now. They'll begin dancing again without your telling them."
"I hope so."
"And I've got something I want to say."
"Dear me; what is it?"
They were now on a path close to the riverside, in which there were many loungers. "Would you mind coming up to the temple?" he said.
"What temple?"
"Oh such a beautiful place. The Temple of the Winds, I think they call it, or Venus;—or—or—Mrs. Arthur de Bever."
"Was she a goddess?"
"It is something built to her memory. Such a view of the river! I was here once before and they took me up there. Everybody who comes here goes and sees Mrs. Arthur de Bever. They ought to have told you."
"Let us go then," said Miss Boncassen. "Only it must not be long."
"Five minutes will do it all." Then he walked rather quickly up a flight of rural steps. "Lovely spot; isn't it?"
"Yes, indeed."
"That's Maidenhead Bridge;—that's—somebody's place;—and now I've got something to say to you."
"You're not going to murder me now you've got me up here alone?" said Miss Boncassen, laughing.
"Murder you!" said Dolly, throwing himself into an attitude that was intended to express devoted affection. "Oh no!"
"I am glad of that."
"Miss Boncassen!"
"Mr. Longstaff! If you sigh like that you'll burst yourself."
"I'll—what?"
"Burst yourself!" and she nodded her head at him.
Then he clapped his hands together, and turned his head away from her towards the little temple. "I wonder whether she knows what love is," he said, as though he were addressing himself to Mrs. Arthur de Bever.
"No, she don't," said Miss Boncassen.
"But I do," he shouted, turning back towards her. "I do. If any man were ever absolutely, actually, really in love, I am the man."
"Are you indeed, Mr. Longstaff? Isn't it pleasant?"
"Pleasant;—pleasant? Oh, it could be so pleasant."
"But who is the lady? Perhaps you don't mean to tell me that."
"You mean to say you don't know?"
"Haven't the least idea in life."
"Let me tell you then that it could only be one person. It never was but one person. It never could have been but one person. It is you." Then he put his hand well on his heart.
"Me!" said Miss Boncassen, choosing to be ungrammatical in order that he might be more absurd.
"Of course it is you. Do you think that I should have brought you all the way up here to tell you that I was in love with anybody else?"
"I thought I was brought to see Mrs. de Somebody, and the view."
"Not at all," said Dolly emphatically.
"Then you have deceived me."
"I will never deceive you. Only say that you will love me, and I will be as true to you as the North Pole."
"Is that true to me?"
"You know what I mean."
"But if I don't love you?"
"Yes, you do!"
"Do I?"
"I beg your pardon," said Dolly. "I didn't mean to say that. Of course a man shouldn't make sure of a thing."
"Not in this case, Mr. Longstaff; because really I entertain no such feeling."
"But you can if you please. Just let me tell you who I am."
"That will do no good whatever, Mr. Longstaff."
"Let me tell you at any rate. I have a very good income of my own as it is."
"Money can have nothing to do with it."
"But I want you to know that I can afford it. You might perhaps have thought that I wanted your money."
"I will attribute nothing evil to you, Mr. Longstaff. Only it is quite out of the question that I should—respond as I suppose you wish me to; and therefore, pray, do not say anything further."
She went to the head of the little steps but he interrupted her. "You ought to hear me," he said.
"I have heard you."
"I can give you as good a position as any man without a title in England."
"Mr. Longstaff, I rather fancy that wherever I may be I can make a position for myself. At any rate I shall not marry with the view of getting one. If my husband were an English Duke I should think myself nothing, unless I was something as Isabel Boncassen."
When she said this she did not bethink herself that Lord Silverbridge would in the course of nature become an English Duke. But the allusion to an English Duke told intensely on Dolly, who had suspected that he had a noble rival. "English Dukes aren't so easily got," he said.
"Very likely not. I might have expressed my meaning better had I said an English Prince."
"That's quite out of the question," said Dolly. "They can't do it,—by Act of Parliament,—except in a hugger-mugger left-handed way, that wouldn't suit you at all."
"Mr. Longstaff,—you must forgive me—if I say—that of all the gentlemen—I have ever met in this country or in any other—you are the—most obtuse." This she brought out in little disjointed sentences, not with any hesitation, but in a way to make every word she uttered more clear to an intelligence which she did not believe to be bright. But in this belief she did some injustice to Dolly. He was quite alive to the disgrace of being called obtuse, and quick enough to avenge himself at the moment.
"Am I?" said he. "How humble-minded you must be when you think me a fool because I have fallen in love with such a one as yourself."
"I like you for that," she replied laughing, "and withdraw the epithet as not being applicable. Now we are quits and can forget and forgive;—only let there be the forgetting."
"Never!" said Dolly, with his hand again on his heart.
"Then let it be a little dream of your youth,—that you once met a pretty American girl who was foolish enough to refuse all that you would have given her."
"So pretty! So awfully pretty!" Thereupon she curtsied. "I have seen all the handsome women in England going for the last ten years, and there has not been one who has made me think that it would be worth my while to get off my perch for her."
"And now you would desert your perch for me!"
"I have already."
"But you can get up again. Let it be all a dream. I know men like to have had such dreams. And in order that the dream may be pleasant the last word between us shall be kind. Such admiration from such a one as you is an honour,—and I will reckon it among my honours. But it can be no more than a dream." Then she gave him her hand. "It shall be so;—shall it not?" Then she paused. "It must be so, Mr. Longstaff."
"Must it?"
"That and no more. Now I wish to go down. Will you come with me? It will be better. Don't you think it is going to rain?"
Dolly looked up at the clouds. "I wish it would with all my heart."
"I know you are not so ill-natured. It would spoil all."
"You have spoiled all."
"No, no. I have spoiled nothing. It will only be a little dream about 'that strange American girl, who really did make me feel queer for half an hour.' Look at that. A great big drop—and the cloud has come over us as black as Erebus. Do hurry down." He was leading the way. "What shall we do for carriages to get us to the inn?"
"There's the summer-house."
"It will hold about half of us. And think what it will be to be in there waiting till the rain shall be over! Everybody has been so good-humoured and now they will be so cross!"
The rain was falling in big heavy drops, slow and far between, but almost black with their size. And the heaviness of the cloud which had gathered over them made everything black.
"Will you have my arm?" said Silverbridge, who saw Miss Boncassen scudding along, with Dolly Longstaff following as fast as he could.
"Oh dear no. I have got to mind my dress. There;—I have gone right into a puddle. Oh dear!" So she ran on, and Silverbridge followed close behind her, leaving Dolly Longstaff in the distance.
It was not only Miss Boncassen who got her feet into a puddle and splashed her stockings. Many did so who were not obliged by their position to maintain good-humour under their misfortunes. The storm had come on with such unexpected quickness that there had been a general stampede to the summer-house. As Isabel had said, there was comfortable room for not more than half of them. In a few minutes people were crushed who never ought to be crushed. A Countess for whom treble-piled sofas were hardly good enough was seated on the corner of a table till some younger and less gorgeous lady could be made to give way. And the Marchioness was declaring she was as wet through as though she had been dragged in a river. Mrs. Boncassen was so absolutely quelled as to have retired into the kitchen attached to the summer-house. Mr. Boncassen, with all his country's pluck and pride, was proving to a knot of gentlemen round him on the verandah, that such treachery in the weather was a thing unknown in his happier country. Miss Boncassen had to do her best to console the splashed ladies. "Oh Mrs. Jones, is it not a pity! What can I do for you?"
"We must bear it, my dear. It often does rain, but why on this special day should it come down out of buckets?"
"I never was so wet in all my life," said Dolly Longstaff, poking in his head.
"There's somebody smoking," said the Countess angrily. There was a crowd of men smoking out on the verandah. "I never knew anything so nasty," the Countess continued, leaving it in doubt whether she spoke of the rain, or the smoke, or the party generally.
Damp gauzes, splashed stockings, trampled muslins, and features which have perhaps known something of rouge and certainly encountered something of rain may be made, but can only, by supreme high breeding, be made compatible with good-humour. To be moist, muddy, rumpled and smeared, when by the very nature of your position it is your duty to be clear-starched up to the pellucidity of crystal, to be spotless as the lily, to be crisp as the ivy-leaf, and as clear in complexion as a rose,—is it not, O gentle readers, felt to be a disgrace? It came to pass, therefore, that many were now very cross. Carriages were ordered under the idea that some improvement might be made at the inn which was nearly a mile distant. Very few, however, had their own carriages, and there was jockeying for the vehicles. In the midst of all this Silverbridge remained as near to Miss Boncassen as circumstances would admit. "You are not waiting for me," she said.
"Yes, I am. We might as well go up to town together."
"Leave me with father and mother. Like the captain of a ship, I must be the last to leave the wreck."
"But I'll be the gallant sailor of the day who always at the risk of his life sticks to the skipper to the last moment."
"Not at all;—just because there will be no gallantry. But come and see us to-morrow and find out whether we have got through it alive."
"What an abominable climate," Mrs. Boncassen had said when they were quite alone at Maidenhead.
"My dear, you didn't think you were to bring New York along with you when you came here," replied her husband.
"I wish I was going back to-morrow."
"That's a foolish thing to say. People here are very kind, and you are seeing a great deal more of the world than you would ever see at home. I am having a very good time. What do you say, Bell?"
"I wish I could have kept my stockings clean."
"But what about the young men?"
"Young men are pretty much the same everywhere, I guess. They never have their wits about them. They never mean what they say, because they don't understand the use of words. They are generally half impudent and half timid. When in love they do not at all understand what has befallen them. What they want they try to compass as a cow does when it stands stretching out its head towards a stack of hay which it cannot reach. Indeed there is no such thing as a young man, for a man is not really a man till he is middle-aged. But take them at their worst they are a deal too good for us, for they become men some day, whereas we must only be women to the end."
"My word, Bella!" exclaimed the mother.
"You have managed to be tolerably heavy upon God's creatures, taking them in a lump," said the father. "Boys, girls, and cows! Something has gone wrong with you besides the rain."
"Nothing on earth, sir,—except the boredom."
"Some young man has been talking to you, Bella."
"One or two, mother; and I got to be thinking if any one of them should ask me to marry him, and if moved by some evil destiny I were to take him, whether I should murder him, or myself, or run away with one of the others."
"Couldn't you bear with him till, according to your own theory, he would grow out of his folly?" said the father.
"Being a woman,—no. The present moment is always everything to me. When that horrid old harridan halloaed out that somebody was smoking, I thought I should have died. It was very bad just then."
"Awful!" said Mrs. Boncassen, shaking her head.
"I didn't seem to feel it much," said the father. "One doesn't look to have everything just what one wants always. If I did I should go nowhere;—but my total life would be less enjoyable. If ever you do get married, Bell, you should remember that."
"I mean to get married some day, so that I shouldn't be made love to any longer."
"I hope it will have that effect," said the father.
"Mr. Boncassen!" ejaculated the mother.
"What I say is true. I hope it will have that effect. It had with you, my dear."
"I don't know that people didn't think of me as much as of anybody else, even though I was married."
"Then, my dear, I never knew it."
Miss Boncassen, though she had behaved serenely and with good temper during the process of Dolly's proposal, had not liked it. She had a very high opinion of herself, and was certainly entitled to have it by the undisguised admiration of all that came near her. She was not more indifferent to the admiration of young men than are other young ladies. But she was not proud of the admiration of Dolly Longstaff. She was here among strangers whose ways were unknown to her, whose rank and standing in the world were vague to her, and wonderful in their dimness. She knew that she was associating with men very different from those at home where young men were supposed to be under the necessity of earning their bread. At New York she would dance, as she had said, with bank clerks. She was not prepared to admit that a young London lord was better than a New York bank clerk. Judging the men on their own individual merits she might find the bank clerk to be the better of the two. But a certain sweetness of the aroma of rank was beginning to permeate her republican senses. The softness of a life in which no occupation was compulsory had its charms for her. Though she had complained of the insufficient intelligence of young men she was alive to the delight of having nothings said to her pleasantly. All this had affected her so strongly that she had almost felt that a life among these English luxuries would be a pleasant life. Like most Americans who do not as yet know the country, she had come with an inward feeling that as an American and a republican she might probably be despised.
There is not uncommonly a savageness of self-assertion about Americans which arises from a too great anxiety to be admitted to fellowship with Britons. She had felt this, and conscious of reputation already made by herself in the social life of New York, she had half trusted that she would be well received in London, and had half convinced herself that she would be rejected. She had not been rejected. She must have become quite aware of that. She had dropped very quickly the idea that she would be scorned. Ignorant as she had been of English life, she perceived that she had at once become popular. And this had been so in spite of her mother's homeliness and her father's awkwardness. By herself and by her own gifts she had done it. She had found out concerning herself that she had that which would commend her to other society than that of the Fifth Avenue. Those lords of whom she had heard were as plenty with her as blackberries. Young Lord Silverbridge, of whom she was told that of all the young lords of the day he stood first in rank and wealth, was peculiarly her friend. Her brain was firmer than that of most girls, but even her brain was a little turned. She never told herself that it would be well for her to become the wife of such a one. In her more thoughtful moments she told herself that it would not be well. But still the allurement was strong upon her. Park Lane was sweeter than the Fifth Avenue. Lord Silverbridge was nicer than the bank clerk.
But Dolly Longstaff was not. She would certainly prefer the bank clerk to Dolly Longstaff. And yet Dolly Longstaff was the one among her English admirers who had come forward and spoken out. She did not desire that any one should come forward and speak out. But it was an annoyance to her that this special man should have done so.
The waiter at the Langham understood American ways perfectly, and when a young man called between three and four o'clock, asking for Mrs. Boncassen, said that Miss Boncassen was at home. The young man took off his hat, brushed up his hair, and followed the waiter up to the sitting-room. The door was opened and the young man was announced. "Mr. Longstaff."
Miss Boncassen was rather disgusted. She had had enough of this English lover. Why should he have come after what had occurred yesterday? He ought to have felt that he was absolved from the necessity of making personal inquiries. "I am glad to see that you got home safe," she said as she gave him her hand.
"And you too, I hope?"
"Well;—so, so; with my clothes a good deal damaged and my temper rather worse."
"I am so sorry."
"It should not rain on such days. Mother has gone to church."
"Oh;—indeed. I like going to church myself sometimes."
"Do you now?"
"I know what would make me like to go to church."
"And father is at the Athenæum. He goes there to do a little light reading in the library on Sunday afternoon."
"I shall never forget yesterday, Miss Boncassen."
"You wouldn't if your clothes had been spoilt as mine were."
"Money will repair that."
"Well; yes; but when I've had a petticoat flounced particularly to order I don't like to see it ill-treated. There are emotions of the heart which money can't touch."
"Just so;—emotions of the heart! That's the very phrase."
She was determined if possible to prevent a repetition of the scene which had taken place up at Mrs. de Bever's temple. "All my emotions are about my dress."
"All?"
"Well; yes; all. I guess I don't care much for eating and drinking." In saying this she actually contrived to produce something of a nasal twang.
"Eating and drinking!" said Dolly. "Of course they are necessities;—and so are clothes."
"But new things are such ducks!"
"Trowsers may be," said Dolly.
Then she took a prolonged gaze at him, wondering whether he was or was not such a fool as he looked. "How funny you are," she said.
"A man does not generally feel funny after going through what I suffered yesterday, Miss Boncassen."
"Would you mind ringing the bell?"
"Must it be done quite at once?"
"Quite,—quite," she said. "I can do it myself for the matter of that." And she rang the bell somewhat violently. Dolly sank back again into his seat, remarking in his usual apathetic way that he had intended to obey her behest but had not understood that she was in so great a hurry. "I am always in a hurry," she said. "I like things to be done—sharp." And she hit the table a crack. "Please bring me some iced water," this of course was addressed to the waiter. "And a glass for Mr. Longstaff."
"None for me, thank you."
"Perhaps you'd like soda and brandy?"
"Oh dear no;—nothing of the kind. But I am so much obliged to you all the same." As the water-bottle was in fact standing in the room, and as the waiter had only to hand the glass, all this created but little obstacle. Still it had its effect, and Dolly, when the man had retired, felt that there was a difficulty in proceeding. "I have called to-day—" he began.
"That has been so kind of you. But mother has gone to church."
"I am very glad that she has gone to church, because I wishto—"
"Oh laws! There's a horse has tumbled down in the street. I heard it."
"He has got up again," said Dolly, looking leisurely out of the window. "But as I wassaying—"
"I don't think that the water we Americans drink can be good. It makes the women become ugly so young."
"You will never become ugly."
She got up and curtsied to him, and then, still standing, made him a speech. "Mr. Longstaff, it would be absurd of me to pretend not to understand what you mean. But I won't have any more of it. Whether you are making fun of me, or whether you are in earnest, it is just the same."
"Making fun of you!"
"It does not signify. I don't care which it is. But I won't have it. There!"
"A gentleman should be allowed to express his feelings and to explain his position."
"You have expressed and explained more than enough, and I won't have any more. If you will sit down and talk about something else, or else go away, there shall be an end of it;—but if you go on, I will ring the bell again. What can a man gain by going on when a girl has spoken as I have done?" They were both at this time standing up, and he was now as angry as she was.
"I've paid you the greatest compliment a man can pay a woman," he began.
"Very well. If I remember rightly I thanked you for it yesterday. If you wish it, I will thank you again to-day. But it is a compliment which becomes very much the reverse if it be repeated too often. You are sharp enough to understand that I have done everything in my power to save us both from this trouble."
"What makes you so fierce, Miss Boncassen?"
"What makes you so foolish?"
"I suppose it must be something peculiar to American ladies."
"Just that;—something peculiar to American ladies. They don't like—well; I don't want to say anything more that can be called fierce."
At this moment the door was again opened and Lord Silverbridge was announced. "Halloa, Dolly, are you here?"
"It seems that I am."
"And I am here too," said Miss Boncassen, smiling her prettiest.
"None the worse for yesterday's troubles, I hope?"
"A good deal the worse. I have been explaining all that to Mr. Longstaff, who has been quite sympathetic with me about my things."
"A terrible pity that shower," said Dolly.
"For you," said Silverbridge, "because, if I remember right, Miss Boncassen was walking with you;—but I was rather glad of it."
"Lord Silverbridge!"
"I regarded it as a direct interposition of Providence, because you would not dance with me."
"Any news to-day, Silverbridge?" asked Dolly.
"Nothing particular. They say that Coalheaver can't run for the Leger."
"What's the matter?" asked Dolly vigorously.
"Broke down at Ascot. But I daresay it's a lie."
"Sure to be a lie," said Dolly. "What do you think of Madame Scholzdam, Miss Boncassen?"
"I am not a good judge."
"Never heard anything equal to it yet in this world," said Dolly. "I wonder whether that's true about Coalheaver?"
"Tifto says so."
"Which at the present moment," asked Miss Boncassen, "is the greater favourite with the public, Madame Scholzdam or Coalheaver?"
"Coalheaver is a horse, Miss Boncassen."
"Oh,—a horse!"
"Perhaps I ought to say a colt."
"Oh,—a colt."
"Do you suppose, Dolly, that Miss Boncassen doesn't know all that?" asked Silverbridge.
"He supposes that my American ferocity has never been sufficiently softened for the reception of polite erudition."
"You two have been quarrelling, I fear."
"I never quarrel with a woman," said Dolly.
"Nor with a man in my presence, I hope," said Miss Boncassen.
"Somebody does seem to have got out of bed at the wrong side," said Silverbridge.
"I did," said Miss Boncassen. "I got out of bed at the wrong side. I am cross. I can't get over the spoiling of my flounces. I think you had better both go away and leave me. If I could walk about the room for half an hour and stamp my feet, I should get better." Silverbridge thought that as he had come last, he certainly ought to be left last. Miss Boncassen felt that, at any rate, Mr. Longstaff should go. Dolly felt that his manhood required him to remain. After what had taken place he was not going to leave the field vacant for another. Therefore he made no effort to move.
"That seems rather hard upon me," said Silverbridge. "You told me to come."
"I told you to come and ask after us all. You have come and asked after us, and have been informed that we are very bad. What more can I say? You accuse me of getting out of bed the wrong side, and I own that I did."
"I meant to say that Dolly Longstaff had done so."
"And I say it was Silverbridge," said Dolly.
"We aren't very agreeable together, are we? Upon my word I think you'd better both go." Silverbridge immediately got up from his chair; upon which Dolly also moved.
"What the mischief is up?" asked Silverbridge, when they were under the porch together.
"The truth is, you never can tell what you are to do with those American girls."
"I suppose you have been making up to her."
"Nothing in earnest. She seemed to me to like admiration; so I told her I admired her."
"What did she say then?"
"Upon my word, you seem to be very great at cross-examining. Perhaps you had better go back and ask her."
"I will, next time I see her." Then he stepped into his cab, and in a loud voice ordered the man to drive him to the Zoo. But when he had gone a little way up Portland Place, he stopped the driver and desired he might be taken back again to the hotel. As he left the vehicle he looked round for Dolly, but Dolly had certainly gone. Then he told the waiter to take his card to Miss Boncassen, and explain that he had something to say which he had forgotten.
"So you have come back again?" said Miss Boncassen, laughing.
"Of course I have. You didn't suppose I was going to let that fellow get the better of me. Why should I be turned out because he had made an ass of himself!"
"Who said he made an ass of himself?"
"But he had; hadn't he?"
"No;—by no means," said she after a little pause.
"Tell me what he had been saying."
"Indeed I shall do nothing of the kind. If I told you all he said, then I should have to tell the next man all that you may say. Would that be fair?"
"I should not mind," said Silverbridge.
"I dare say not, because you have nothing particular to say. But the principle is the same. Lawyers and doctors and parsons talk of privileged communications. Why should not a young lady have her privileged communications?"
"But I have something particular to say."
"I hope not."
"Why should you hope not?"
"I hate having things said particularly. Nobody likes conversation so well as I do; but it should never be particular."
"I was going to tell you that I came back to London yesterday in the same carriage with old Lady Clanfiddle, and that she swore that no consideration on earth would ever induce her to go to Maidenhead again."
"That isn't particular."
"She went on to say;—you won't tell of me; will you?"
"It shall all be privileged."
"She went on to say that Americans couldn't be expected to understand English manners."
"Perhaps they may be all the better for that."
"Then I spoke up. I swore I was awfully in love with you."
"You didn't."
"I did;—that you were, out and away, the finest girl I ever saw in my life. Of course you understand that her two daughters were there. And that as for manners,—unless the rain could be attributed to American manners,—I did not think anything had gone wrong."
"What about the smoking?"
"I told her they were all Englishmen, and that if she had been giving the party herself they would have smoked just as much. You must understand that she never does give any parties."
"How could you be so ill-natured?"
"There was ever so much more of it. And it ended in her telling me that I was a schoolboy. I found out the cause of it all. A great spout of rain had come upon her daughter's hat, and that had produced a most melancholy catastrophe."
"I would have given her mine willingly."
"An American hat;—to be worn by Lady Violet Clanfiddle!"
"It came from Paris last week, sir."
"But must have been contaminated by American contact."
"Now, Lord Silverbridge," said she, getting up, "if I had a stick I'd whip you."
"It was such fun."
"And you come here and tell it all to me?"
"Of course I do. It was a deal too good to keep it to myself. 'American manners!'" As he said this he almost succeeded in looking like Lady Clanfiddle.
At that moment Mr. Boncassen entered the room, and was immediately appealed to by his daughter. "Father, you must turn Lord Silverbridge out of the room."
"Dear me! If I must,—of course I must. But why?"
"He is saying everything horrid he can about Americans."
After this they settled down for a few minutes to general conversation, and then Lord Silverbridge again took his leave. When he was gone Isabel Boncassen almost regretted that the "something particular" which he had threatened to say had not been less comic in its nature.
When the reader was told that Lord Popplecourt had found Lady Cantrip very agreeable it is to be hoped that the reader was disgusted. Lord Popplecourt would certainly not have given a second thought to Lady Cantrip unless he had been specially flattered. And why should such a man have been flattered by a woman who was in all respects his superior? The reader will understand. It had been settled by the wisdom of the elders that it would be a good thing that Lord Popplecourt should marry Lady Mary Palliser.
The mutual assent which leads to marriage should no doubt be spontaneous. Who does not feel that? Young love should speak from its first doubtful unconscious spark,—a spark which any breath of air may quench or cherish,—till it becomes a flame which nothing can satisfy but the union of the two lovers. No one should be told to love, or bidden to marry, this man or that woman. The theory of this is plain to us all, and till we have sons or daughters whom we feel imperatively obliged to control, the theory is unassailable. But the duty is so imperative! The Duke had taught himself to believe that as his wife would have been thrown away on the world had she been allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald, so would his daughter be thrown away were she allowed to marry Mr. Tregear. Therefore the theory of spontaneous love must in this case be set aside. Therefore the spark,—would that it had been no more!—must be quenched. Therefore there could be no union of two lovers;—but simply a prudent and perhaps splendid marriage.
Lord Popplecourt was a man in possession of a large estate which was unencumbered. His rank in the peerage was not high; but his barony was of an old date,—and, if things went well with him, something higher in rank might be open to him. He had good looks of that sort which recommend themselves to pastors and masters, to elders and betters. He had regular features. He looked as though he were steady. He was not impatient nor rollicking. Silverbridge was also good-looking;—but his good looks were such as would give a pang to the hearts of anxious mothers of daughters. Tregear was the handsomest man of the three;—but then he looked as though he had no betters and did not care for his elders. Lord Popplecourt, though a very young man, had once stammered through half-a-dozen words in the House of Lords, and had been known to dine with the "Benevolent Funds." Lord Silverbridge had declared him to be a fool. No one thought him to be bright. But in the eyes of the Duke,—and of Lady Cantrip,—he had his good qualities.
But the work was very disagreeable. It was the more hard upon Lady Cantrip because she did not believe in it. If it could be done, it would be expedient. But she felt very strongly that it could not be done. No doubt that Lady Glencora had been turned from her evil destiny; but Lady Glencora had been younger than her daughter was now, and possessed of less character. Nor was Lady Cantrip blind to the difference between a poor man with a bad character, such as that Burgo had been, and a poor man with a good character, such as was Tregear. Nevertheless she undertook to aid the work, and condescended to pretend to be so interested in the portrait of some common ancestor as to persuade the young man to have it photographed, in order that the bringing down of the photograph might lead to something.
He took the photograph, and Lady Cantrip said very much to him about his grandmother, who was the old lady in question. "She could," she said, "just remember the features of the dear old woman." She was not habitually a hypocrite, and she hated herself for what she was doing, and yet her object was simply good,—to bring together two young people who might advantageously marry each other. The mere talking about the old woman would be of no service. She longed to bring out the offer plainly, and say, "There is Lady Mary Palliser. Don't you think she'd make a good wife for you?" But she could not, as yet, bring herself to be so indelicately plain. "You haven't seen the Duke since?" she asked.
"He spoke to me only yesterday in the House. I like the Duke."
"If I may be allowed to say so, it would be for your advantage that he should like you;—that is, if you mean to take a part in politics."
"I suppose I shall," said Popplecourt. "There isn't much else to do."
"You don't go to races?" He shook his head. "I am glad of that," said Lady Cantrip. "Nothing is so bad as the turf. I fear Lord Silverbridge is devoting himself to the turf."
"I don't think it can be good for any man to have much to do with Major Tifto. I suppose Silverbridge knows what he's about."
Here was an opportunity which might have been used. It would have been so easy for her to glide from the imperfections of the brother to the perfections of the sister. But she could not bring herself to do it quite at once. She approached the matter however as nearly as she could without making her grand proposition. She shook her head sadly in reference to Silverbridge, and then spoke of the Duke. "His father is so anxious about him."
"I dare say."
"I don't know any man who is more painfully anxious about his children. He feels the responsibility so much since his wife's death. There is Lady Mary."
"She's all right, I should say."
"All right! oh yes. But when a girl is possessed of so many things,—rank, beauty, intelligence, largefortune,—"
"Will Lady Mary have much?"
"A large portion of her mother's money, I should say. When all these things are joined together, a father of course feels most anxious as to their disposal."
"I suppose she is clever."
"Very clever," said Lady Cantrip.
"I think a girl may be too clever, you know," said Lord Popplecourt.
"Perhaps she may. But I know more who are too foolish. I am so much obliged to you for the photograph."
"Don't mention it."
"I really did mean that you should send a man down."
On that occasion the two young people did not see each other. Lady Mary did not come down, and Lady Cantrip lacked the courage to send for her. As it was, might it not be possible that the young man should be induced to make himself agreeable to the young lady without any further explanation? But love-making between young people cannot well take place unless they be brought together. There was a difficulty in bringing them together at Richmond. The Duke had indeed spoken of meeting Lord Popplecourt at dinner there;—but this was to have followed the proposition which Lady Cantrip should make to him. She could not yet make the proposition, and therefore she hardly knew how to arrange the dinner. She was obliged at last to let the wished-for lover go away without arranging anything. When the Duke should have settled his autumn plans, then an attempt must be made to induce Lord Popplecourt to travel in the same direction.
That evening Lady Cantrip said a few words to Mary respecting the proposed suitor. "There is nothing I have such a horror of as gambling," she said.
"It is dreadful."
"I am very glad to think that Nidderdale does not do anything of that sort." It was perhaps on the cards that Nidderdale should do things of which she knew nothing. "I hope Silverbridge does not bet."
"I don't think he does."
"There's Lord Popplecourt,—quite a young man,—with everything at his own disposal, and a very large estate. Think of the evil he might do if he were given that way."
"Does he gamble?"
"Not at all. It must be such a comfort to his mother!"
"He looks to me as though he never would do anything," said Lady Mary. Then the subject was dropped.
It was a week after this, towards the end of July, that the Duke wrote a line to Lady Cantrip, apologising for what he had done, but explaining that he had asked Lord Popplecourt to dine at The Horns on a certain Sunday. He had, he said, been assured by Lord Cantrip that such an arrangement would be quite convenient. It was clear from his letter that he was much in earnest. Of course there was no reason why the dinner should not be eaten. Only the speciality of the invitation to Lord Popplecourt must not be so glaring that he himself should be struck by the strangeness of it. There must be a little party made up. Lord Nidderdale and his wife were therefore bidden to come down, and Silverbridge, who at first consented rather unwillingly,—and Lady Mabel Grex, as to whom the Duke made a special request that she might be asked. This last invitation was sent express from Lady Mary, and included Miss Cass. So the party was made up. The careful reader will perceive that there were to be ten of them.
"Isn't it odd papa wanting to have Lady Mabel?" Mary said to Lady Cantrip.
"Does he not know her, my dear?"
"He hardly ever spoke to her. I'll tell you what; I expect Silverbridge is going to marry her."
"Why shouldn't he?"
"I don't know why he shouldn't. She is very beautiful, and very clever. But if so, papa must know all about it. It does seem so odd that papa of all people should turn match-maker, or even that he should think of it."
"So much is thrown upon him now," said Lady Cantrip
"Poor papa!" Then she remembered herself, and spoke with a little start. "Of course I am not thinking of myself. Arranging a marriage is very different from preventing any one from marrying."
"Whatever he may think to be his duty he will be sure to do it," said the elder lady very solemnly.
Lady Mabel was surprised by the invitation, but she was not slow to accept it. "Papa will be here and will be so glad to meet you," Lady Mary had said. Why should the Duke of Omnium wish to meet her? "Silverbridge will be here too," Mary had gone on to say. "It is just a family party. Papa, you know, is not going anywhere; nor am I." By all this Lady Mabel's thoughts were much stirred, and her bosom somewhat moved. And Silverbridge also was moved by it. Of course he could not but remember that he had pledged himself to his father to ask Lady Mabel to be his wife. He had faltered since. She had been, he thought, unkind to him, or at any rate indifferent. He had surely said enough to her to make her know what he meant; and yet she had taken no trouble to meet him half way. And then Isabel Boncassen had intervened. Now he was asked to dinner in a most unusual manner!
Of all the guests invited Lord Popplecourt was perhaps the least disturbed. He was quite alive to the honour of being noticed by the Duke of Omnium, and alive also to the flattering courtesy shown to him by Lady Cantrip. But justice would not be done him unless it were acknowledged that he had as yet flattered himself with no hopes in regard to Lady Mary Palliser. He, when he prepared himself for his journey down to Richmond, thought much more of the Duke than of the Duke's daughter.
"Oh yes, I can drive you down if you like that kind of thing," Silverbridge said to him on the Saturday evening.
"And bring me back?"
"If you will come when I am coming. I hate waiting for a fellow."
"Suppose we leave at half-past ten."
"I won't fix any time; but if we can't make it suit there'll be the governor's carriage."
"Will the Duke go down in his carriage?"
"I suppose so. It's quicker and less trouble than the railway." Then Lord Popplecourt reflected that he would certainly come back with the Duke if he could so manage it, and there floated before his eyes visions of under-secretaryships, all of which might owe their origin to this proposed drive up from Richmond.
At six o'clock on the Sunday evening Silverbridge called for Lord Popplecourt. "Upon my word," said he, "I didn't ever expect to see you in my cab."
"Why not me especially?"
"Because you're not one of our lot."
"You'd sooner have Tifto, I dare say."
"No, I wouldn't. Tifto is not at all a pleasant companion, though he understands horses. You're going in for heavy politics, I suppose."
"Not particularly heavy."
"If not, why on earth does my governor take you up? You won't mind my smoking, I dare say." After this there was no conversation between them.
It was pretty to see the Duke's reception of Lady Mabel. "I knew your mother many years ago," he said, "when I was young myself. Her mother and my mother were first cousins and dear friends." He held her hand as he spoke and looked at her as though he meant to love her. Lady Mabel saw that it was so. Could it be possible that the Duke had heard anything;—that he should wish to receive her? She had told herself and had told Miss Cassewary that though she had spared Silverbridge, yet she knew that she would make him a good wife. If the Duke thought so also, then surely she need not doubt.
"I knew we were cousins," she said, "and have been so proud of the connection! Lord Silverbridge does come and see us sometimes."
Soon after that Silverbridge and Popplecourt came in. If the story of the old woman in the portrait may be taken as evidence of a family connexion between Lady Cantrip and Lord Popplecourt, everybody there was more or less connected with everybody else. Nidderdale had been a first cousin of Lady Glencora, and he had married a daughter of Lady Cantrip. They were manifestly a family party,—thanks to the old woman in the picture.
It is a point of conscience among the—perhaps not ten thousand, but say one thousand of bluest blood,—that everybody should know who everybody is. Our Duke, though he had not given his mind much to the pursuit, had nevertheless learned his lesson. It is a knowledge which the possession of the blue blood itself produces. There are countries with bluer blood than our own in which to be without such knowledge is a crime.
When the old lady in the portrait had been discussed, Popplecourt was close to Lady Mary. They two had no idea why such vicinity had been planned. The Duke knew, of course, and Lady Cantrip. Lady Cantrip had whispered to her daughter that such a marriage would be suitable, and the daughter had hinted it to her husband. Lord Cantrip of course was not in the dark. Lady Mabel had expressed a hint on the matter to Miss Cass, who had not repudiated it. Even Silverbridge had suggested to himself that something of the kind might be in the wind, thinking that, if so, none of them knew much about his sister Mary. But Popplecourt himself was divinely innocent. His ideas of marriage had as yet gone no farther than a conviction that girls generally were things which would be pressed on him, and against which he must arm himself with some shield. Marriage would have to come, no doubt; but not the less was it his duty to live as though it were a pit towards which he would be tempted by female allurements. But that a net should be spread over him here he was much too humble-minded to imagine.
"Very hot," he said to Lady Mary.
"We found it warm in church to-day."
"I dare say. I came down here with your brother in his hansom cab. What a very odd thing to have a hansom cab!"
"I should like one."
"Should you indeed?"
"Particularly if I could drive it myself. Silverbridge does, at night, when he thinks people won't see him."
"Drive the cab in the streets! What does he do with his man?"
"Puts him inside. He was out once without the man and took up a fare,—an old woman, he said. And when she was going to pay him he touched his hat and said he never took money from ladies."
"Do you believe that?"
"Oh yes. I call that good fun, because it did no harm. He had his lark. The lady was taken where she wanted to go, and she saved her money."
"Suppose he had upset her," said Lord Popplecourt, looking as an old philosopher might have looked when he had found some clenching answer to another philosopher's argument.
"The real cabman might have upset her worse," said Lady Mary.
"Don't you feel it odd that we should meet here?" said Lord Silverbridge to his neighbour, Lady Mabel.
"Anything unexpected is odd," said Lady Mabel. It seemed to her to be very odd,—unless certain people had made up their minds as to the expediency of a certain event.
"That is what you call logic;—isn't it? Anything unexpected is odd!"
"Lord Silverbridge, I won't be laughed at. You have been at Oxford and ought to know what logic is."
"That at any rate is ill-natured," he replied, turning very red in the face.
"You don't think I meant it. Oh, Lord Silverbridge, say that you don't think I meant it. You cannot think I would willingly wound you. Indeed, indeed, I was not thinking." It had in truth been an accident. She could not speak aloud because they were closely surrounded by others, but she looked up in his face to see whether he were angry with her. "Say that you do not think I meant it."
"I do not think you meant it."
"I would not say a word to hurt you,—oh, for more than I can tell you."
"It is all bosh, of course," he said laughing; "but I do not like to hear the old place named. I have always made a fool of myself. Some men do it and don't care about it. But I do it, and yet it makes me miserable."
"If that be so you will soon give over making—what you call a fool of yourself. For myself I like the idea of wild oats. I look upon them like measles. Only you should have a doctor ready when the disease shows itself."
"What sort of a doctor ought I to have?"
"Ah;—you must find out that yourself. That sort of feeling which makes you feel miserable;—that is a doctor itself."
"Or a wife?"
"Or a wife,—if you can find a good one. There are wives, you know, who aggravate the disease. If I had a fast husband I should make him faster by being fast myself. There is nothing I envy so much as the power of doing half-mad things."
"Women can do that too."
"But they go to the dogs. We are dreadfully restricted. If you like champagne you can have a bucketful. I am obliged to pretend that I only want a very little. You can bet thousands. I must confine myself to gloves. You can flirt with any woman you please. I must wait till somebody comes,—and put up with it if nobody does come."
"Plenty come, no doubt."