_Miss Veal's Engagement is Announced_
Mrs. Radigan has now announced the engagement of her sister to
Plumstone Smith, Jr. She let it leak out a few weeks ago, and then
kept the matter well before the public by daily denials. But it was
finally announced the other day, and on Sunday pictures of the happy
pair, with cupids hovering around them, and views of the new Radigan
mansion, where, it was said, they were to be married in the fall,
filled a page in several papers. Miss Veal's fortune was placed by
the social historians at $20,000,000, though I know positively it is
only a fifth of that sum. However, the Plumstone Smiths are secretly
quite satisfied, for I notice that they are having their old-fashioned
brown-stone-front house redecorated, and Junior seems to have purchased
himself an entire new wardrobe. Deluded youth! He does not know Mrs.
Radigan. He thinks that he has fixed himself for life, when, really,
he is simply the isle of safety on which my good friends will rest
secure for a few months in the smart whirl. After him, a London season
and a duke. And he needs the money so! Besides, Miss Veal is really a
great catch. Miss Bumpschus, of course, is a greater prize financially,
but, on her mother's side, her family is very old. She traces her line
back to the eighteenth century without a break, so she might safely be
called plain.
Miss Veal, it always seemed to me, would make an ideal wife. She is
rich and beautiful, she can read and write, she is ineligible to be a
Daughter of anything, and I have never heard her give forth an idea
of any kind; she is stunning in an opera-box, and even her motoring
garb cannot smother her loveliness. But, of course, Mrs. Plumstone
Smith had to intimate to a few close friends that her son was making a
_mésalliance_ in wedding this upstart from Kansas City. The Plumstone
Smiths are as old as the Bumpschuses, but they have always been
cultivated, and so are poor. But Plumstone Junior is a rising cotillon
leader, and has a brilliant career before him in any event. His mother
felt that more wealth and family, and less looks would be desirable.
Echoes of this came to Mrs. Radigan's ears, and with that rare strategy
of hers she announced that she had bitterly opposed the match from the
start, as she felt that Plumstone had nothing to recommend him but
his pedigree. Family would not make the automobile go. This country
was bursting with old families. Philadelphia alone could supply the
rightful heir to every title in Europe. If Plumstone had some brains
she would hail him as a brother, but as he was only a glorified
dancing-master, she would receive him on sufferance.
Forthwith came Mrs. Plumstone Smith, in a Williegilt carriage, to call
on Mrs. Radigan and kiss her and call her "Sally." After her came the
whole family, some vastly rich, some vastly poor, to rave over Mrs.
Radigan and her beautiful sister. And Mrs. Radigan took them all in.
Last night my friend gave a dinner in honor of her sister, and followed
it with a marvellous musicale. The parade to the dining-room was led by
Radigan with Mrs. Plumstone Smith on his wrong arm, while Mrs. Radigan,
with the happy young man's father, acted as rear-guard, thus signifying
the union of two great families. J. Madison Mudison, the smartest and
clubiest member of the opposing faction, took in Miss Veal, while, as
an artfully arranged contrast, Miss Bumpschus fell to Plumstone Smith,
who was allowed, however, to sit next his fiancée. I am learning.
By shuffling up the cards in the dressing-room I secured for myself
the beautiful Marian Speechless, throwing Bertie Bumpschus between
Constance Wherry and the Countess Poglioso Spinnigini, who cannot
speak English. To avoid confusion, Bertie had to take my place at the
table, for I was in his chair first, delightfully fixed with Mrs.
Bobbie Q. Williegilt on my left. He glared at me in silence through the
four courses, and then the champagne came to his aid and he began to
engage the Countess in a voluble conversation.
Miss Speechless was a delightful change from Miss Wherry, with her
ideas, and Miss Bumpschus, with her charities. She rattled on and on
at me without any regard for what I was saying to her, which always
makes conversation easy. I have not the remotest idea what she said.
She laughed a good deal, and threw in lots of color occasionally for no
reason at all, and as she is very pretty, I set her down as charming.
She is a human phonograph and seems to talk out what at some other time
another has talked into her. But she must change the records often,
else she would never be such a great belle. When she turned to Count
Poglioso Spinnigini, I found on my other hand Mrs. Williegilt, as
interested as ever in carbureters, bridge, and glanders.
The dinner was a huge success. The twenty-four at the table, with the
possible exception of Bertie Bumpschus, were in fine fettle, and as I
glanced at the illustrious company, picking lackadaisically at course
after course of the Radigan bounty, I felt that my friend had no need
to give a donkey-dinner at Newport to make herself secure. Madison
Mudison toasted Miss Veal in a few charming words. He envied his young
cousin. Too late in life he was coming to the realization that love
in a cottage was better than bachelorhood in a dozen clubs. Were he
young again, he would search the world to find another like Pearl Veal,
were that possible. Radigan expressed his delight in having Plumstone
Smith as a brother-in-law. If anyone had asked him a month ago what man
in all the world he would choose for his dear little sister he would
have said "Plumstone Smith." This caused Plumstone to declare that he
considered himself a devilish lucky fellow; Miss Veal was a devilish
lucky girl; they were all devilish lucky. Miss Veal smiled radiantly. I
caught Mrs. Radigan's eye and thought of the duke to come.
The musicale that followed was a fitting finish. The hosts arrived
about ten o'clock, and half an hour later began to enjoy $25,000
worth of music. The house was comfortably filled with the smartest of
the smart. The Skimphony Orchestra silenced them, and then Furioso's
splendid voice rang out from the smoking-room. After he had sung
several thousand dollars' worth, Herr String, the eminent 'cellist,
supported by the full Skimphony, played beautifully. Roardika, Hemstop,
and several other high-priced artists followed him. Furioso closed the
programme with _"Ah mio, mi mio."_ After Furioso, supper. And such a
supper! The Radigans' chef is an artist.
When the duke comes for Miss Veal and the new house is done, they will
show the town how to do things.