THE VICTIM.
Frank Hemstead was expected on the evening train from the north,
so the conspirators would not have long to wait. To pass the brief
intervening time Lottie went to the piano and gave them some music
like herself, brilliant, dashing, off-hand, but devoid of sentiment
and feeling. Then she sprang up and began playing the maddest
pranks on languid Bel, and with Addie was soon engaged in a romp
with De Forrest and Harcourt, that would have amazed the most
festive Puritan that ever schooled or masked a frolicsome nature
under the sombre deportment required. The young men took their cue
from the ladies, and elegance and propriety were driven away in
shreds before the gale of their wild spirits. Poor Bel, buffeted
and helpless, half-enjoying, half-frightened, protested, cried,
and laughed at the tempest around her.
"I mean," said Lottie, panting after a desperate chase among the
furniture, "to have one more spree, like the topers before they
reform."
Though these velvety creatures with their habits of grace and elegance
could romp without roughness, and glide where others would tear
around, they could not keep their revel so quiet but that hurrying
steps were heard. Bel warned them, and, before Mrs. Marchmont could
enter, Lottie was playing a waltz, and the others appeared as if
they had been dancing. The lady of precedent smiled, whereas if
she had come a moment earlier she would have been horrified.
But the glow from the hearth, uncertain enough for their innocent
deeds of darkness, had now to fade before the chandelier, and Mrs.
Marchmont, somewhat surprised at the rumpled plumage of the young
ladies, and the fact that Mr. De Forrest's neck-tie was awry,
suggested that they retire and prepare for supper, whereat they
retreated in literal disorder. But without the door their old
frenzy seized them, and they nearly ran over the dilatory Bel upon
the stairs. With sallies of nonsense, smothered laughter, a breezy
rustle of garments, and the rush of swift motion, they seemed to
die away in the upper halls like a summer gust. To Mrs. Marchmont
their departure had seemed like a suppressed whirlwind.
"The young people of my day were more decorous," soliloquized the
lady, complacently. "But then the De Forrests have French blood in
them, and what else could you expect? It's he that sets them off."
The sound of approaching sleigh-bells hastened the young people's
toilets, and when they descended the stairs, this time like
a funeral procession, a tall figure, with one side that had been
to the windward well sifted over with snow, was just entering the
hall.
Mrs. Marchmont welcomed him with as much warmth as she ever permitted
herself to show. She was a good and kind lady at heart, only she
insisted upon covering the natural bloom and beauty of her nature
with the artificial enamel of mannerism and conventionality. During
the unwrapping process the young people stood in the background,
but Lottie watched the emergence from overcoat and muffler of the
predestined victim of her wiles with more than ordinary curiosity.
The first thing that impressed her was his unusual height, and
the next a certain awkwardness and angularity. When he came to
be formally presented, his diffidence and lack of ease were quite
marked. Bel greeted him with a distant inclination of her head,
De Forrest also vouchsafed merely one of his slightest bows, while
Harcourt stood so far away that he was scarcely introduced at
all; but Lottie went demurely forward and put her warm hand in his
great cold one, and said, looking up shyly, "I think we are sort
of cousins, are we not?"
He blushed to the roots of his hair and stammered that he hoped
so.
Indeed, this exquisite vision appearing from the shadows of the
hall, and claiming kinship, might have disconcerted a polished
society man; and the conspirators retired into the gloom to hide
their merriment.
As the stranger, in his bashful confusion, did not seem to know
for the moment what to do with her hand, and was inclined to keep
it, for in fact it was warming, or, rather, electrifying him, she
withdrew it, exclaiming, "How cold you are! You must come with me
to the fire at once."
He followed her with a rather bewildered expression, but his large
gray eyes were full of gratitude for her supposed kindness, even
if his unready tongue was slow in making graceful acknowledgment.
"Supper will be ready in a few moments, Frank," said his aunt,
approaching them and rather wondering at Lottie's friendliness.
"Perhaps you had better go at once to your room and prepare. You
will find it warm," and she glanced significantly at his rumpled
hair and general appearance of disorder, the natural results of a
long journey.
He started abruptly, blushed as if conscious of having forgotten
something, and timidly said to Lottie, "Will you excuse me?"
"Yes," she replied sweetly, "for a little while."
He again blushed deeply and for a second indulged in a shy glance
of curiosity at the "cousin" who spoke so kindly. Then, as if
guilty of an impropriety, he seized a huge carpet-bag as if it
were a lady's reticule. But remembering that her eyes were upon
him, he tried to cross the hall and mount the stairs with dignity.
The great leathern bag did not conduce to this, and he succeeded
in appearing awkward in the extreme, and had a vague, uncomfortable
impression that such was the case.
Mrs. Marchmont having disappeared into the dining-room, the young
people went off into silent convulsions of laughter, in which even
Bel joined, though she said she knew it was wrong.
"He is just the one of all the world on whom to play such a joke,"
said Lottie, pirouetting into the parlor.
"It was capital!" chimed in De Forrest. "Lottie, you would make a
star actress."
"He has an intelligent eye," continued she, a little more thoughtfully.
"He may be able to see more than we think. I insist that you all
be very careful. Aunt will suspect something, if he doesn't, and
may put him on his guard."
Mr. Hemstead soon returned, for it was plain that his toilets were
exceedingly simple. The elegance wanting in his manners was still
more clearly absent from his dress. The material was good, but
had evidently been put together by a country tailor, who limped a
long way behind the latest mode. What was worse, his garments were
scarcely ample enough for his stalwart form. Altogether he made in
some externals a marked contrast to the city exquisite, who rather
enjoyed standing beside him that this contrast might be seen.
To Lottie he appeared excessively comical as he stalked in and around,
trying vainly to appear at ease. And yet the thought occurred to
her, "If he only knew what to do with his colossal proportions--knew
how to manage them--he would make an imposing-looking man." And when
De Forrest posed beside him just before they went out to tea, even
this thought flashed across her, "Julian, seems like an elegant
manikin beside a man." If De Forrest had only known it, the game
of contrasts was not wholly in his favor.
But poor Mr. Hemstead came to grief on his way to the supper-room.
Miss Marchmont tried to disguise her diminutive stature by a long
trailing dress. Upon this he placed his by no means delicate foot,
as she was sweeping out with Mr. Harcourt. There was an ominous
sound of parting stitches, and an abrupt period in the young lady's
graceful progress. In his eager haste to remedy his awkwardness,
he bumped up against Mr. Dimmerly, who was advancing to speak to
him, with a force that nearly overthrew that dapper gentleman, and
rendered his greeting rather peculiar. Hemstead felt, to his intense
annoyance, that the young people were at the point of exploding
with merriment at his expense, and was in a state of indignation
at himself and them. His aunt and Mr. Dimmerly, who soon recovered
himself, were endeavoring to look serenely unconscious, with but
partial success. All seemed to feel as if they were over a mine
of discourteous laughter. The unfortunate object looked nervously
around for the beautiful "cousin," and noted with a sigh of relief
that she had disappeared.
"I hope she did not see my meeting with uncle," he thought. "I
was always a gawk in society, and to-night seem possessed with the
very genius of awkwardness. She is the only one who has shown me
any real kindness, and I don't want her to think of me only as a
blundering, tongue-tied fool."
He would not have been re-assured had he known that Lottie, having
seen all, had darted back into the parlor and was leaning against
the piano, a quivering, and for the moment a helpless subject of
suppressed mirth. Mr. Dimmerly was always a rather comical object
to her, and his flying arms and spectacles, as he tried to recover
himself from the rude shock of his nephew's burly form, made a
scene in which absurdity, which is said to be the chief cause of
laughter, was pre-eminent.
But, the paroxysm passing, she followed them and took a seat
opposite her victim, with a demure sweetness and repose of manner
well-nigh fatal to the conspirators.
As Mr. Hemstead was regarded as a clergyman, though not quite through
with his studies, his aunt looked to him for the saying of grace.
It was a trying ordeal for the young fellow under the circumstances.
He shot a quick glance at Lottie, which she returned with a look of
serious expectation, then dropped her eyes and veiled a different
expression under the long lashes. But he was sorely embarrassed,
and stammered out he scarcely knew what. A suppressed titter from
Addie Marchmont and the young men was the only response he heard,
and it was not re-assuring. He heartily wished himself back in
Michigan, but was comforted by seeing Lottie looking gravely and
reproachfully at the irreverent gigglers.
"She is a good Christian girl," he thought, "and while the others
ridicule my wretched embarrassment, she sympathizes."
Hemstead was himself as open as the day and equally unsuspicious
of others. He believed just what he saw, and saw only what was
clearly apparent. Therefore Lottie, by tolerably fair acting, would
have no difficulty in deceiving him, and she was proving herself
equal to very skilful feigning. Indeed she was one who could do
anything fairly that she heartily attempted.
A moment after "grace" Harcourt made a poor witticism, at which
the majority laughed with an immoderateness quite disproportionate.
Mrs. Marchmont and her brother joined in the mirth, though evidently
vexed with themselves that they did. Even Hemstead saw that Harcourt's
remark was but the transparent excuse for the inevitable laugh at
his expense. Lottie looked around with an expression of mingled
surprise and displeasure, which nearly convulsed those in the
secret. But her aunt and uncle felt themselves justly rebuked, while
wondering greatly at Lottie's unwonted virtue. But there are times
when to laugh is a dreadful necessity, whatever be the consequences.
"Mr. Hemstead," said Lottie, gravely, beginning, as she supposed,
with the safe topic of the weather, "in journeying east have you
come to a colder or warmer climate?"
"Decidedly into a colder one," he answered, significantly.
"Indeed, that rather surprises me!"
"Well, I believe that the thermometer has marked lower with us,
but it has been said, and justly I think, that we do not feel the
cold at the West as at the East."
"No matter," she said, sweetly. "At the East, as in the West, the
cold is followed by thaws and spring."
He looked up quickly and gratefully, but only remarked, "It's a
change we all welcome."
"Not I, for one," said Mr. Harcourt. "Give me a clear, steady
cold. Thaws and spring are synonymous with the sloppy season or
sentimental stage."
"I, too, think steady cold is better in the season of it," remarked
Mr. Dimmerly, sententiously.
"But how about it out of season, uncle?" asked Lottie.
"Your hint, perhaps, is seasonable, Lottie," quietly remarked her
aunt, though with somewhat heightened color. "I trust we shall
keep the steady cold out of doors, and that ALL our guests will
find only summer warmth within."
"Really, auntie, you put me in quite a melting mood."
"No need of that, Lottie, for you are the month of June all the
year round," said her aunt.
"The month of April, rather," suggested Bel.
"I should say July or August," added Mr. Dimmerly, laughing.
"Would you not say November?" asked Lottie of Mr. Hemstead.
"Yes, I think so," he replied, with a blush, "for Thanksgiving
comes in that month."
There was a general laugh, and Mr. Dimmerly chuckled, "Very good,
you are getting even, Frank."
"I hardly understand your compliment, if it is one," said Lottie,
demurely. "Is it because you are so fond of sermons or dinners that
Thanksgiving glorifies the dreary month of November?"
"Neither a sermon nor a dinner is always a just cause for Thanksgiving,"
he replied, with a pleasant light in his gray eyes.
"Then where is the force of your allusion?" she said, with a face
innocently blank.
"Well," replied he, hesitatingly, and blushing deeply, "perhaps my
thought was that you might be an occasion for Thanksgiving if both
sermon and dinner were wanting."
Again there was a general laugh, but his aunt said, "Frank, Frank,
have you learned to flatter?"
Lottie shot a quick glance of pleased surprise at him, and was
much amused at his evident confusion and flaming cheeks. To be sure
his words were part of the old complimentary tune that she knew
by heart, but his offering was like a flower that had upon it the
morning dew. She recognized his grateful effort to repay her for
supposed kindness, and saw that, though ill at ease in society, he
was not a fool.
"Would it not be better to wait till in possession before keeping
a Thanksgiving?" said De Forrest, satirically.
"Not necessarily," retorted Hemstead, quickly, for the remark was
like the light touch of a spur. "I was grateful for the opportunity
of seeing a fine picture at Cleveland, on my way here, that I never
expect to own."
Lottie smiled. The victim was not helpless. But she turned, and
with a spice of coquetry said, "Still I think you are right, Mr.
De Forrest."
Then she noted that Mr. Hemstead's eyes were dancing with mirth at
her hint to one who was evidently anxious to keep "Thanksgiving"
over her any month in the year.
"I'm sure I am," remarked De Forrest. "I could never be satisfied
to admire at a distance. I could not join in a prayer I once heard,
'Lord, we thank thee for this and all other worlds.'"
"Could you?" asked Lottie of Hemstead.
"Why not?"
"That is no answer."
Hemstead was growing more at ease, and when he only had to use his
brains was not half so much at a loss as when he must also manage
his hands and feet, and he replied laughingly: "Well, not to put too
fine a point upon it, this world is quite useful to me at present.
I should be sorry to have it vanish and find myself whirling in
space, if I am a rather large body. But as I am soon to get through
with this world, though never through with life, I may have a chance
to enjoy a good many other worlds--perhaps all of them--before
eternity is over, and so be grateful that they exist and are in
waiting."
"Good heavens!" exclaimed Lottie. "What a traveller you propose to
be. I should be satisfied with a trip to Europe."
"To Paris, you mean," said Bel.
"Yes," replied Mr. Hemstead, "until the trip was over."
"Then I trust she will be content with New York," insinuated De
Forrest; "for Mr. Hemstead speaks as if the stars were created for
his especial benefit."
"You are enjoying some honey, Mr. De Forrest?" said Hemstead,
quietly.
"Yes."
"Did the flowers grow and the bees gather for your especial benefit?"
"I admit I'm answered."
"But," said sceptical Mr. Harcourt, "when you've got through with
this world how do you know but that you will drop off into space?"
"Come," said Addie, rising from the table, "I protest against a
sermon before Sunday."
They now returned to the parlor, Hemstead making the transition in
safety, but with no little trepidation.