HELEN SIMMS.
A year later Hermia was sitting by her library fire one afternoon when
the butler threw back the tapestry that hung over the door and announced
Helen Simms. Hermia rose to greet her visitor with an exclamation of
pleasure that had in it an accent of relief. She had adopted Helen Simms
as the friend of her new self; as yet, but one knew the old Hermia.
Helen was so essentially modern and practical that restless longings and
romantic imaginings fled at her approach.
Miss Simms, as she entered the room, her cheeks flushed by the wind, and
a snow-flake on her turban, was a charming specimen of her kind. She had
a tall, trim, slender figure, clad in sleek cloth, and carried with
soldierly uprightness. Her small head was loftily and unaffectedly
poised, her brown hair was drawn up under her quiet little hat with
smoothness and precision, and a light, severe fluff adorned her
forehead. She had no beauty, but she had the clean, clear, smooth,
red-and-ivory complexion of the New York girl, and her teeth were
perfect. She looked like a thoroughbred, splendidly-groomed young
greyhound, and was a glowing sample of the virtues of exercise,
luxurious living, and the refinement of two or three generations.
“What do you mean by moping here all by yourself?” she exclaimed, with a
swift smile which gave a momentary flash of teeth. “You were to have met
me at Madame Lefarge’s, to have tried on your new gown. I waited for you
a half-hour, and in a beastly cold room at that.”
“I beg your pardon,” replied Hermia, with sudden contrition, “but I
forgot all about it—I may as well tell the bald truth. But I am glad to
see you. I am blue.”
Helen took an upright chair opposite Hermia’s, and lightly leaned upon
her umbrella as if it were a staff. “I should think you would be blue in
this ‘gray ancestral room,’” she said. “It looks as if unnumbered state
conspiracies and intrigues against unhappy Duncans had been concocted in
it. I do not deny that it is all very charming, but I never come into it
without a shiver and a side-glance at the dark corners.”
She looked about her with a smile which had little fear in it.
“These stern gray walls and that vaulted ceiling carry you out of Second
Avenue, I admit; and those stained-glass windows and all that tapestry
and antique furniture waft me back to the days of my struggles with
somebody or other’s history of England. But, _Hermia mia_, I think it
would be good for you to have a modern drawing-room in your house, and
to sit in it occasionally. It is this semblance of past romance which
makes you discontented with the world as you find it.”
Hermia gave a sigh. “I know,” she said, “but I can’t help it. I am tired
of everything. I dread the thought of another winter exactly like last.
The same men, same receptions, same compliments, same everything.”
“My dear, you are blasé. I have been expecting it. It follows on the
heels of the first season, as delicate eyes follow scarlet fever. The
eyes get well, and so will you. Five years from now you will not be as
blasé as you are this moment. Look at me. I have been out four years. I
was blasé three years ago, but to-day I could not live without society
and its thousand little excitements. See what you have to look forward
to!”
Hermia smiled. “You certainly are a shining example of patience and
fortitude, but I fear you have something in you which I lack. I shall
grow more and more bored and discontented. Three years of this would
kill me. I wish I could go to Europe, but Aunt Frances cannot go yet,
and I don’t care to go alone the first time, for I want to see the
society of the different capitals. After that I shall go to Europe by
myself. But in the mean time what am I to do?”
“Have a desperate flirtation; I mean, of course, a prolonged one. Heaven
knows you are the most fearful flirt in New York—while it lasts. Only
it never lasts more than a week and a day.”
“I am not a flirt,” said Hermia. “I have not the first essential of a
flirt—patience. I have been simply trying with all my might to fall in
love. And I cannot have a prolonged flirtation with a man who
disappoints me.”
“My dear, as a veteran, let me advise you. So long as you keep up this
hunt for the ideal you will be bored by everything and everybody in
actual life. All this sentiment and romance and imagination of yours are
very charming, and when I recall the occasions wherein you have kept me
awake until two in the morning, I forgive you, because I found you quite
as entertaining as a novel. But it is only spoiling you for the real
pleasures of life. You must be more philosophical. If you can’t find
your ideal, make up your mind to be satisfied with the best you can get.
There are dozens of charming men in New York, and you meet them every
week. They may not be romantic, they may look better in evening clothes
than in a tin hat and leather legs, but they are quite too fascinating
for all that. Just put your imagination to some practical use, and fancy
yourself in love with one of them for a month. After that it will be
quite easy.”
“I can’t!” exclaimed Hermia emphatically, as she turned to pour out the
tea the butler had brought in. “I get everything they know out of them
in three interviews, and then we’ve nothing left to talk about.”
Helen removed her glove from her white hand with its flashing rings,
and, changing her seat to one nearer the table, took up a thin slice of
bread-and-butter. “Is it five o’clock already?” she said, “I must run. I
have a dinner to-night, the opera, and two balls.” She nibbled her bread
and sipped her tea as if the resolution to run had satisfied her
conscience. “Shall I have the pleasure of seeing you have twice as many
partners as myself?”
“No; I am not going out to-night. You know I draw the line at three
times a week, and I have already touched the limit.”
“Quite right. You will be beautiful as long as you live. Between Miss
Newton, three nights’ sleep a week, and a large waist, you will be
quoted to your grandchildren as a nineteenth-century Ninon de l’Enclos.
But, to return to the truffles we were discussing before the tea came
in—another trouble is that you are too appallingly clever for the
‘infants.’ Why do you not go into the literary set and find an author?
All I have ever known are fearful bores, but they might suit you.” She
put down her tea-cup. “I have it!” she exclaimed; “Ogden Cryder has just
come back from Europe, and I am positive that he is the man you have
been waiting for. You must meet him. I met him two or three years ago,
and really, for a literary man, he was quite charming. Awfully
good-looking, too.”
“He is one of the dialect fiends, is he not?” asked Hermia, languidly.
“It is rather awkward meeting an author whose books you haven’t read,
and I simply cannot read dialect.”
“Oh! get one or two and skim them. The thread of the story is all you
want; then you can discuss the heroine with him, and insist that she
ought to have done the thing he did not make her do. That will flatter
him and give you a subject to start off with. An author scares me to
death, and, upon the rare occasions when I meet one, I always fly at him
with some reproach about the cruel way in which he treated the heroine,
or ask him breathlessly to _please_ tell me whether she and the hero are
ever going to get out of their difficulties or are to remain _planté là_
for the rest of their lives. This works off the embarrassment, you see,
and after that we talk about Mrs. Blank’s best young man.”
Hermia smiled. It was difficult to imagine Miss Simms frightened,
breathless, or embarrassed. She looked as if emotion had not stirred her
since the days when she had shrieked in baby wrath because she could not
get her chubby toes into her toothless mouth.
“Ogden Cryder might at least have something to talk about,” Hermia
answered. “Perhaps it would be worth while.”
“It would, my dear. I am convinced that he is the man, and I know where
you can meet him. Papa has tickets for the next meeting of the Club of
Free Discussion, and I will tell him to take you. He knows Mr. Cryder,
and shall have strict orders to introduce you. What is more, you will
have the pleasure of hearing the lion roar for an hour before you meet
him. He is to give the lecture of the evening.”
“Well,” said Hermia, “I shall be glad to go, if your father will be good
enough to take me. Which of Cryder’s books shall I read up?”
“‘Cornfield Yarns’ and ‘How Uncle Zebediah sowed dat Cotton Field’ are
the ones everybody talks about most. Some of the yarns are quite sweet,
and the papers say—I always read the criticisms, they give the outline
of the plot, and it saves an awful lot of trouble—that Uncle Zebediah
is the most superb African of modern fiction. Uncle Tom has hidden his
diminished head. ‘Unc. Zeb.,’ as he is familiarly called, rolls forth an
amount of dialect to the square inch which none but a Cryder could
manipulate. It is awful work pulling through it, but we all have to work
for success in this life.”
She drew on her long, loose, tan-colored glove, pushed her bangles over
it, then carefully tucked the top under her cuff. “Well, _addio, Hermia
mia_,” she said, rising; “I will send you a note to-morrow morning and
let you know if anything can possibly happen to prevent papa going on
Wednesday evening. In the mean time, make up your mind to be vanquished
by Ogden Cryder. He really is enchanting.”
* * * * *