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HE young people assembled slowly at the dance that
evening. Towards dark it had begun raining, and according to custom two
livery-stable carriages, called “hacks,” were engaged to convey all the
couples to and from the hotel. There was no disputing over who should
have the first use of the vehicles, for the young ladies who had the
reputation of getting ready early on such occasions were gone after
first, and those who liked to take their time in making preparations
were left till later.
Everything in life is relative, and to young people who often went to
even less pretentious entertainments this affair was rather impressive
in its elegance. Lamps shone everywhere, and bunches of candles blazed
and sputtered in nooks hung about with evergreens. The girls were
becomingly attired in light evening-gowns, and many of them were
good-looking, refined, and graceful. All were soft-spoken and easy in
their manners, and either wore or carried flowers. The evening-suits of
the young men were well in evidence, and more noticeable to the wearers
themselves than they would have been to a spectator used to conventional
style of dress. They could be seen in all stages of inadaptability to
figures too large or too small, and even after the dance began
there were several swaps, and a due amount of congratulation on the
improvement from the appreciative fair sex. The young lady accompanying
each young man had pinned a small bouquet on his lapel, so that it
would have been impossible to tell whether a man had a natural taste for
flowers or was the willing victim to a taste higher than his own.
Rayburn Miller and Alan sat smoking and talking in the room of the
latter till about half-past nine o' clock, and then they went down. As
a general rule, young men were expected to escort ladies to dances, when
the young men went at all; but Alan was often excused from so doing
on account of living in the country, and Miller had broken down every
precedent in that respect and never invited a girl to go with him. He
atoned for this shortcoming by contributing most liberally to every
entertainment given by the young people, even when he was out of town.
He used to say he liked to graze and nibble at such things and feel free
to go to bed or business at will.
As the two friends entered the big parlor, Alan espied the girl about
whom he had been thinking all day. She was seated in one of the deep,
lace-curtained windows behind the piano. Frank Hillhouse was just
presenting to her a faultlessly attired travelling salesman. At this
juncture one of the floor-managers with a white rosette on his lapel
called Miller away to ask his advice about some details, and Alan turned
out of the parlor into the wide corridor which ran through the house. He
did this in obedience to another unwritten law governing Darley's social
intercourse--that it would be impolite for a resident gentleman to
intrude himself upon a stranger who had just been introduced to a lady.
So he went down to the ground floor and strolled into the office. It was
full of tobacco smoke and a throng of men, some of whom were from the
country and others from the town, drawn to the hotel by the festivities.
From the office a door opened into a bar and billiard room, whence came
the clicking of ivory balls and the grounding of cues. Another door led
into the large dining-room, which had been cleared of its tables that it
might be used for dancing. There was a sawing of fiddles, the twanging
of guitars, the jingle of tambourines, and the groaning of a bass-viol.
The musicians, black and yellow, occupied chairs on one of the tables,
which had been placed against the wall, and one of the floor-managers
was engaged in whittling paraffine-candles over the floor and rubbing
it in with his feet. Seeing what he was doing, some of the young men,
desirous of trying their new patent-leather pumps, came in and began to
waltz singly and in couples.
When everything was in readiness the floor-managers piloted the dancers
down-stairs. From the office Alan saw them filing into the big room and
taking seats in the chairs arranged against the walls on all sides.
He saw Frank Hillhouse and Dolly Barclay sit down near the band; the
salesman had disappeared. Alan threw his cigar away and went straight to
her.
“Oh, here you are,” laughed Frank Hillhouse, as Alan shook hands with
her. “I told Miss Dolly coming on that the west wind would blow you this
way, and when I saw Ray Miller just now I knew you'd struck the town.”
“It wasn't exactly the wind,” replied Alan. “I'm afraid you will forget
me if I stay on the farm all the time.”
“We certainly are glad to have you,” smiled Miss Barclay.
“I knew she'd say that--I knew it--I knew it,” said Hillhouse. “A girl
can always think of nicer things to say to a feller than his rival can.
Old Squire Trabue was teasing me the other day about how hard you was
to beat, Bishop, but I told him the bigger the war the more victory for
somebody; and, as the feller said, I tote fair and am above board.”
Alan greeted this with an all but visible shudder. There was much in his
dignified bearing and good appearance to commend him to the preference
of any thinking woman, especially when contrasted to Hill-house, who
was only a little taller than Dolly, and was showing himself even at
a greater disadvantage in his unrefined allusions to his and Alan' s
attentions to her. Indeed, Alan was sorry for the spectacle the fellow
was making of himself, and tried to pass it over.
“I usually come in on Saturdays,” he explained.
“That's true,” said Dolly, with one of her rare smiles.
“Yes”--Hillhouse took another header into forbidden waters--“he's about
joined your church, they tell me.”
Alan treated this with an indulgent smile. He did not dislike Hillhouse,
but he did not admire him, and he had never quite liked his constant
attentions to Miss Barclay. But it was an acknowledged fact among the
society girls of Darley that if a girl refused to go out with any young
man in good standing it was not long before she was left at home oftener
than was pleasant. Dolly was easily the best-looking girl in the room;
not, perhaps, the most daintily pretty, but she possessed a beauty which
strength of character and intellect alone could give to a face already
well featured. Even her physical beauty alone was of that texture which
gives the beholder an agreeable sense of solidity. She was well formed,
above medium height, had a beautiful neck and shoulders, dark-gray eyes,
and abundant golden-brown hair.
“May I see your card?” asked Alan. “I came early to secure at least
one.”
At this Frank Hillhouse burst out laughing and she smiled up at Alan.
“He's been teasing me all evening about the predicament I'm in,” she
explained. “The truth is, I'm not going to dance at all. The presiding
elder happened in town to-day, on his way through, and is at our house.
You know how bitter he is against church-members dancing. At first
mamma said I shouldn't come a step; but Mr. Hillhouse and I succeeded in
getting up a compromise. I can only look on. But my friends are having
pity on me and filling my card for what they call stationary dances.”
Alan laughed as he took the card, which was already almost filled, and
wrote his name in one of the blank spaces. Some one called Hillhouse
away, and then an awkward silence fell upon them. For the first time
Alan noticed a worried expression on her face, now that it was in
repose, but it lighted up again when she spoke.
“You have no button-hole bouquet,” she said, noticing his bare lapel.
“That's what you get for not bringing a girl. Let me make you one.”
“I wish you would,” he said, thoughtfully, for as she began to search
among her flowers for some rosebuds and leaves he noted again the
expression of countenance that had already puzzled him.
“Since you are so popular,” he went on, his eyes on her deft fingers,
“I'd better try to make another engagement. I'd as well confess that
I came in town solely to ask you to let me take you to church tomorrow
evening.”
He saw her start; she raised her eyes to his almost imploringly, and
then she looked down. He saw her breast heave suddenly as with tightened
lips she leaned forward to pin the flowers on his coat. The jewels in
her rings flashed under his eyes; there was a delicate perfume in the
air about her glorious head. He had never seen her look so beautiful
before. He wondered at her silence at just such a moment. The tightness
of her lips gave way and they fell to trembling when she started to
speak.
“I hardly know what to say,” she began. “I--I--you know I said the
presiding elder was at our house, and--”
“Oh, I understand,” broke in Alan; “that's all right. Of course, use
your own--”
“No, I must be plain with you,” she broke in, raising a pair of
helpless, tortured eyes to his; “you will not think I had anything to do
with it. In fact, my heart is almost broken. I'm very, very unhappy.”
He was still totally at sea as to the cause of her strange distress.
“Perhaps you'd rather not tell me at all,” he said, sympathetically; his
tone never had been so tender. “You need not, you know.”
“But it's a thing I could not keep from you long, anyway,” she said,
tremulously. “In fact, it is due you--an explanation, I mean. Oh, Alan,
papa has taken up the idea that we--that we like each other too much,
and--”
The life and soul seemed to leave Alan' s face.
“I understand,” he heard himself saying; “he does not want me to visit
you any more.”
She made no reply; he saw her catch a deep breath, and her eyes went
down to her flowers. The music struck up. The mulatto leader stood
waving his fiddle and calling for “the grand march” in loud, melodious
tones. There was a scrambling for partners; the young men gave their
left arms to the ladies and merrily dragged them to their places.
“I hope you do not blame me--that you don't think that I--” but the
clatter and clamor ingulfed her words.
“No, not at all,” he told her; “but it's awful--simply awful I I know
you are a true friend, and that's some sort of comfort.”
“And I always shall be,” she gulped. “You must try not to feel hurt. You
know my father is a very peculiar man, and has an awful will, and nobody
was ever so obstinate.”
Then Alan' s sense of the great injustice of the thing rose up within
him and his blood began to boil. “Perhaps I ought to take my name off
your card,” he said, drawing himself up slightly; “if he were to hear
that I talked to you to-night he might make it unpleasant for you.”
“If you do I shall never--_never forgive you_,” she answered, in a voice
that shook. There was, too, a glistening in her eyes, as if tears were
springing. “Wouldn't that show that you harbored ill-will against me,
when I am so helpless and troubled?”
“Yes, it would; and I shall come back,” he made answer. He rose, for
Hillhouse, calling loudly over his shoulder to some one, was thrusting
his bowed arm down towards her.
“I beg your pardon,” he said to Dolly. “I didn't know they had called
the march. We've got some ice-cream hid out up-stairs, and some of us
are going for it. Won't you take some, Bishop?”
“No, thank you,” said Alan, and they left him.