The groom who drove Miss Sue Northwick down to the station at noon that
day, came back without her an hour later. He brought word to her sister
that she had not found the friend she expected to meet at the station,
but had got a telegram from her there, and had gone into town to lunch
with her. The man was to return and fetch her from the six o'clock
train.
She briefly explained at dinner that her friend had been up at four
balls during the week, and wished to beg off from the visit she had
promised until after the fifth, which was to be that night.
"I don't see how she lives through it," said Adeline. "And at her age,
it seems very odd to be just as fond of dancing as if she were a bud."
"Louise is only twenty-three," said Suzette. "If she were married, she
would be just in the heart of her gayeties at that age, or even older."
"But she isn't married, and that makes all the difference."
"Her brother is spending the month at home, and she makes the most of
his being with them."
"Has he given up his farming? It's about time."
"No; not at all, I believe. She says he's in Boston merely as a matter
of duty, to chaperon her at parties, and save her mother from having to
go with her."
"Well," said Adeline, "I should think he would want to be of _some_ use
in the world; and if he won't help his father in business, he had better
help his mother in society."
Suzette sat fallen back in her chair for the moment, and she said as if
she had not heeded, "I think I will give a little dance here, next week.
Louise can come up for a couple of days, and we can have it Thursday. We
made out the list--just a few people. She went out with me after lunch,
and we saw most of the girls, and I ordered the supper. Mrs. Lambert
will matronize them; it'll be an old dance, rather, as far as the girls
are concerned, but I've asked two or three buds; and some of the young
married people. It will be very pleasant, don't you think?"
"Very. Do you think Mr. Wade would like to come?"
Suzette smiled. "I dare say he would. I wasn't thinking of him in making
it, but I don't see why he shouldn't look in."
"He might come to the supper," Adeline mused aloud, "if it isn't one of
his church days. I never can keep the run of them."
"We were talking about that and we decided that Thursday would be
perfectly safe. Louise and I looked it up together; but we knew we could
make everything sure by asking Mrs. Lambert first of all; she would have
been certain to object if we had made any mistake."
"I'm very glad," said Adeline. "I know father will be glad to have Mr.
Wade here. He's taken a great fancy to him."
"Mr. Wade's very nice," said Suzette, coolly. "I shouldn't have liked to
have it without him."
They left the table and went into the library, to talk the dance over at
larger leisure. Suzette was somewhat sleepy from the fatigues of her
escapade to Boston, and an afternoon spent mostly in the cold air, and
from time to time she yawned, and said she must really go to bed, and
then went on talking.
"Shall you have any of the South Hatboro' people?" her sister asked.
"Mrs. Munger and her tribe?" said Suzette, with a contemptuous little
smile. "I don't think she would contribute much. Why not the Morrells;
or the Putneys, at once?" She added abruptly, "I think I shall ask Jack
Wilmington." Adeline gave a start, and looked keenly at her; but she
went on quite imperviously. "The Hilarys know him. Matt Hilary and he
were quite friends at one time. Besides," she said, as if choosing now
to recognize the quality of Adeline's gaze, "I don't care to have Louise
suppose there's the shadow of anything between us any more, not even a
quarrel."
Adeline gave a little sigh of relief. "I'm glad that's it. I'm always
afraid you'll get--"
"To thinking about him again? You needn't be. All that's as thoroughly
dead and gone as anything can be in this world. No," she continued, in
the tone that is more than half for one's self in such dealings,
"whatever there was of that, or might have been, Mr. Wilmington has put
an end to, long ago. It never was anything but a fancy, and I don't
believe it could have been anything else if it had ever come to the
point."
"I'm glad it seems so to you now, Sue," said her sister, "but you
needn't tell me that you weren't very much taken with him at one time;
and if it's going to begin again, I'd much rather you wouldn't have him
here."
Suzette laughed at the old-maidish anxiety. "Do you think you shall see
me at his feet before the evening is over? But I should like to see him
at mine for a moment, and to have the chance of hearing his
explanations."
"I don't believe he's ever been bad!" cried Adeline. "He's just weak."
"Very well. I should like to hear what a man has to say for his
weakness, and then tell him that I had a little weakness of my own, and
didn't think I had strength to endure a husband that had to be
explained."
"Ah, you're in love with him, yet! You shall never have him here in the
world, after the way he's treated you!"
"Don't be silly, Adeline! Don't be romantic! If you had ever been in
love yourself, you would know that people outlive that as well as other
things. Let's see how the drawing-room will do for the dance?"
She jumped from her chair and touched the electric button at the
chimney. "You think that nothing but death can kill a fancy, and yet
nobody marries their first love, and lots of women have second
husbands." The man showed himself at the door, and she said to him in a
rapid aside: "Turn up the lights in the drawing-room, James," and
returned to her sister. "No, Adeline! The only really enduring and
undying thing is a slight. That lasts--with _me_!"
Adeline was moved to say, in the perverse honesty of her soul, and from
the inborn New England love of justice, "I don't believe he ever meant
it, Sue. I don't believe but what he was influenced--"
Suzette laughed, not at all bitterly. "Oh, _you're_ in love with him!
Well, you may have him if ever he offers himself to me. Let's look at
the drawing-room." She caught Adeline round her bony waist, where each
rib defined itself to her hand, and danced her out of the library,
across the hall into the white and gold saloon beyond. "Yes," she said,
with a critical look at the room, "it will do splendidly. We shall have
to put down linen, of course; but then the dancing will be superb--as
good as a bare floor. Yes, it will be a grand success. Ugh! Come out,
come out, come out! How deathly cold it is!"
She ran back into the warm library, and her sister followed more slowly.
"You shouldn't think," she said, as if something in Sue's words had
reminded her of it, "that coming so soon after Mrs. Newton's little
boy--"
"Well, that's _like_ you, Adeline! To bring _that_ up! _No_, indeed!
It'll be a whole week, nearly; and besides he _isn't_ quite one of the
family. What an idea!"
"Of course," her sister assented, abashed by Sue's scornful surprise.
"It's too bad it should have happened just at this time," said the girl,
with some relenting. "When is it to be?"
"To-morrow, at eleven," said Adeline. She perceived that Sue's
selfishness was more a selfishness of words, perhaps, than of thoughts
or feelings. "You needn't have anything to do with it. I can tell them
you were not very well, and didn't feel exactly like coming. They will
understand." She was used to making excuses for Suzette, and a motherly
fib like this seemed no harm to her.