PUZZLED AND INTERESTED.
On the way to the parlor Lottie hovered near Mr. Hemstead. Unlike
Micawber, she was not one to wait, but purposed that something
SHOULD "turn up." The two other young ladies, and Harcourt and De
Forrest, sat down to a game of whist. In pursuance of instructions
from Lottie, De Forrest was not to be over-attentive, though it was
evident that he would give more thought to her than to his game.
Her demure mischief amused him vastly, and, knowing what she was,
the novelty of her Puritan style had a double fascination. Making
personal enjoyment the object of his life, he felicitated himself
on soon possessing the beautiful and piquant creature, who, when she
came to devote herself to him, would spice his days with endless
variety. The thought that this high-spirited, positive, strong-minded
American girl might crave better and more important work than that
of an Eastern houri or a Queen Scheherezade, never occurred to
him. He blundered, with many other men, in supposing that, if once
married, the wayward belle would become subservient to his tastes
and modes as a matter of course. In his matrimonial creed all his
difficulty consisted in getting the noose finally around the fair
one's neck: this accomplished, she would become a ministering
captive. Many a one has had a rude awakening from this dream.
Although from Addie Marchmont's description he believed that he
had little cause to fear a rival in Hemstead, still he awaited his
coming with a trace of anxiety. But when the seemingly overgrown,
awkward student stepped upon the scene, all his fears vanished. The
fastidious Lottie, whose eye had grown so nice and critical that
she could refuse the suit of many who from their wealth and position
thought it impossible to sue in vain, could never look upon this
Western giant in a way other than she proposed,--the ridiculous
subject of a practical joke. True, he had proved himself no fool
in their table-talk, but mere intellectuality and moral excellence
counted for little in De Forrest's estimation when not combined
with wealth and external elegance. The thought that the "giant"
might have a heart, and that Lottie's clever seeming might win it,
and the consequent mortification and suffering, did not occasion
a moment's care. Unconsciously De Forrest belonged to that lordly
class which has furnished our Neros, Napoleons, and tyrants of
less degree, even down to Pat who beats his wife. These, from their
throne of selfishness, view the pain and troubles of others with
perfect unconcern. Therefore, believing that his personal interests
were not endangered by so unpromising a man as Hemstead, even
Lottie did not look forward to the carrying out of the practical
joke with more zest than he. If the unsuspicious victim could only
be inveigled into something like love, its awkward display might
become comical in the extreme. Therefore, he gave but careless
heed to his game, and keen glances to Lottie's side-play. But as
the other conspirators were acting in much the same manner he was
able to hold his own.
Hemstead looked grave, as cards were brought out, but without remark
he sat down with his aunt at a table on the opposite side of the
hearth. Lottie perched on a chair a little back of them, so that
while she saw their side faces they must turn somewhat to see her.
When they did so she was quietly stitching at her fancy-work, but
the rest of the time was telegraphing with her brilliant eyes all
sorts of funny messages to the party opposite, so that they were
in a state of perpetual giggle, not in keeping with whist.
Mr. Dimmerly soon bustled in, and, looking wistfully at the game
in progress, was about to propose that they form one likewise at
their table, for an evening without cards was to him a mild form
of purgatory. But Lottie anticipated him. Giving a signal to the
others and drawing down her face to portentous length, she said to
Hemstead, "I fear you do not approve of cards."
"You are correct, Miss Marsden," he replied, stiffly.
As he turned away, she glanced at the card-players with a look of
horror, as if they were committing sacrilege, and Harcourt had to
improvise another poor joke to account for their increasing merriment.
But Mr. Dimmerly looked at his nephew in dismay and some irritation.
"What under heaven can I now do, this long evening," he thought,
"but gape and talk theology?"
But Lottie, in the purpose to draw out and quiz her victim,
continued: "Really, Mr. Hemstead, you surprise me. Cards are the
staple amusement of a quiet evening in New York. I fear I have
been doing wrong all my life without knowing it."
"If you did not know you were wrong, you were not very guilty," he
replied, smiling.
"Yes, but now I do know, or at least from one who will be an
authority on such matters--pardon me--who is one now, I am assured
that this old custom is wrong. In questions of right and wrong,
I suppose a minister should guide."
"No, Miss Marsden, that is not Protestantism. Your conscience,
instructed by the Bible, should guide."
"But I see no more harm in whist than in a sleigh-ride."
"Perhaps your conscience needs instruction."
"O, certainly, that is it! Please instruct it."
He turned quickly, but saw a face serious enough for an anxious
seat in an old-time revival.
"Yes," said Mr. Dimmerly, testily. "My conscience needs instruction
also. What harm is there in a quiet game of whist?"
"Well, I do not know that there is anything wrong in a 'quiet game
of cards,' per se" commenced Hemstead, didactically.
"'Per' who?" asked Lottie, innocently.
Just then the party at the other table seemed to explode, but they
made it appear as if the cause came from themselves.
"Yes, yes, nephew, speak English. You may find some reasons in
Latin, but none in English, the only language of sound sense."
"Well," resumed Hemstead, somewhat confused, "I do not know that
a quiet game such as you would play here would be wrong in itself.
But the associations of the game are bad, and your example might
be injurious."
"The associations bad!" said Lottie, lifting her eyebrows. "Cards
are associated in my mind with father, mother, and quiet home
evenings."
"I have chiefly seen them played by rough characters, and in
questionable places," he replied quickly.
"I'm sorry you visit such places," she replied in a tone of rebuke.
Even Mr. Dimmerly and his sister laughed at this remark, as coming
from Lottie, while the others were almost convulsed. Bel managed
to gasp out, as a blind, "Mr. Harcourt, if you don't behave yourself
and play fair, I'll throw down my hand."
But straightforward Hemstead increased difficulties by saying, a
little stiffly, "I hope, Miss Marsden, that you do not suppose that
one of my calling would frequent places of improper resort."
"No, indeed," she replied quickly, "and therefore I was the more
surprised when you spoke of witnessing something in 'questionable
places.'"
He turned to her with a look in which perplexity and annoyance
were mingled, and said hastily: "It is different with a man from a
lady. A man is more out in the world, and, no matter how careful,
cannot help catching glimpses of the evil substratum of society.
One cannot help passing through a smoking-car occasionally, or--"
"Good heavens!" exclaimed Lottie, as if startled. "Is a smoking-car
a 'questionable place'? Mr. De Forrest," she continued sharply,
"did you not spend half an hour in the smoking-car coming up?"
"Yes," he replied faintly.
"You surprise me, sir," she said severely. "Mr. Hemstead declares
it is a 'questionable place.' I hope hereafter you will have more
regard for your reputation."
"Please do not mistake me," said Hemstead, with increasing annoyance;
"I did not mean to assert any moral qualities of smoking-cars, though
with then filth and fumes there would be no question in your mind
about them whatever, Miss Marsden. What I meant to say was, that
in such places as smoking-cars, hotel lobbies, and through the
open doors of saloons, are caught glimpses of a life which we all
should unite in condemning and loathing; and what I have seen has
always led me to connect cards with just that kind of life. Moreover,
gambling--that fearful and destructive vice--is almost inseparable
from cards."
"How experiences differ!" said Lottie, reflectively. "I have had
but few glimpses of the life you describe so graphically. With
the bits of pasteboard that you have seen chiefly in coarse, grimy
hands, I associate our cosey sitting-room at home, with its glowing
grate and 'moon-light lamp,' as we call it, for father's eyes are
weak. Even now," she continued, assuming the look of a rapt and
beautiful sibyl, that was entrancing to Hemstead as well as De
Forrest--"even now I see papa and mamma and old-fashioned Auntie
Jane, and poor invalid Jennie, all gathered at home in our sacred
little snuggery where father permits no visitors to come."
The look she had assumed became genuine, and her eyes suddenly
moistened as the scene called up became real and present to her.
With all her faults she had a warm heart, and loved her kindred
sincerely.
But this touch of truth and feeling served her mischievous purpose
better than she thought, for it convinced the honest-minded Hemstead
that she was just what she seemed, and his sympathy went out to
her at once as a well-meaning, true-hearted girl.
He was a little taken aback, however, when Lottie, ashamed of her
feeling, said brusquely, "As to gambling with cards, we no more
thought of it than sending to a corner grocery for a bottle of
whiskey, and taking from it a drink all around between the games."
"O Lottie!" laughed her aunt, "what an absurd picture you suggest!
The idea of your stately mother taking a drink from a bottle of
whiskey!"
"It is no more strange to me," persisted Lottie, gravely, "than
Mr. Hemstead's associations. Of course I know that bad and vulgar
people play cards, but they also drive horses and walk the streets,
and do other things which it is perfectly proper for us to do."
"I admit, Miss Marsden, that education and custom make a great
difference. I have always been taught to look upon cards with great
abhorrence. What may be right for you would be wrong for me."
"No," said positive Lottie, "that will not satisfy me. A thing is
either right or wrong. If you can prove to me that a quiet game of
cards is wrong, I won't play any more--at least I ought not," she
added hastily. "Because some vulgar and fast people gamble with
them is nothing. You will take a sleigh-ride with us to-morrow,
and yet loud jockeys bet and gamble over horses half the year."
Hemstead sprang up. His ungainliness disappeared, as was ever the
case when he forgot himself in excitement.
"Miss Marsden," he said, "what you say sounds plausible, but years
ago I saw the mangled corpse of a young suicide. He was an adept
at cards, and for aught I know had learned the game as your brother
might, at home. But away among strangers at the West that knowledge
proved fatal. He was inveigled into playing by some gamblers, staked
all his own money, then that committed to his trust. Having lost
everything but life, he threw that also down the abyss. He might
have been living to-day if he had known as little about cards as
I do."
His manner was so earnest, the picture called up so sad and tragic,
that even Lottie's red cheek paled a little, and the gigglers
became quiet. She only said, "He was very weak and foolish. I can't
understand such people."
"But the world is largely made up of the weak and foolish, who
need safeguards rather than temptations. And history would seem
to prove that even the wisest and best are at times 'weak and
foolish.' I think the knowledge of card-playing can result in no
harm to you, shielded as you will be, but it might to your brother.
Miss Marsden," asked he, abruptly, "do you know how many professional
gamblers there are in the world?"
"No."
"I do not remember the estimated number accurately, but it is very
large. They often revel in wealth, but they do not make it out of
each other. It is from the unwary, the 'weak and foolish' who think
they can win money by playing a fair game. They are permitted to
win just enough to turn their heads, and then are robbed. Remorse,
despair, and suicide too often follow. Cards are the usual means
employed in these great wrongs. I should be sorry to see a young
brother of mine, who was soon to face the temptations of the world,
go away with a knowledge that has been the ruin of so many."
This was bringing the question home to Lottie in a way that she
did not expect. Her heedless, wilful, impulsive brother, the dear
torment of her life, was just the one an artful knave could mislead.
For a moment or two she sat silent and thoughtful. All awaited her
answer save Mr. Dimmerly, who, without his whist, had dropped off
into a doze, as was his wont. Then her decided character asserted
itself, and she spoke sincerely for the moment.
"I do not believe in the safety of ignorance. If a young man is weak
and bad enough to gamble, he will do it with something else, if not
cards. From what I hear, men bet and gamble with all uncertainties.
The most innocent things are carried to vulgar and wicked excess.
You can't shield one from without if lacking the will and power to
say, No! I think it will be safer and wiser in the end, if a thing
is right fer se, as you say, to do it, and if wrong not to do it.
To me, a game of cards is no more than a game of checkers, or a
stroll in a garden."
In his eagerness to reply, Hemstead took a step forward and trod
upon, not a lady's dress this time, but the tail of Mrs. Marchmont's
pet dog. As may be imagined, his tread was not fairy-like, and there
was a yelp that awoke the echoes. Mr. Dimmerly started out of his
sleep, with a snort like the blast of a ram's hom before Jericho,
and, pushing his gold spectacles to the top of his bald head, stared
in bewilderment at the forms convulsed with merriment around him.
Even Hemstead joined in the laugh, though inwardly inclined to
anathematize his big feet. Lottie retreated from further discussion
by saying:
"I have heard that theologians were inclined to be dogmatic in
controversy, and I fear that you are no exception, Mr. Hemstead.
So, since I have had the last word, with your permission, I retire
'of the same opinion still.'"
"I submit," he rejoined, good-naturedly. "In any case my answer
would have been CURTAILED"
"Ha, ha!" chimed out Lottie's laugh. "That is better than your
logic."
"Frank! that you should call this dear little creature a cur!" said
Mrs. Marchmont, comforting her still whining pet.
"What DISCOURTESY!" said Lottie.
"What is the matter with you all?" asked Mr. Dimmerly, rising. "From
talking Latin you have got on something that I understand as well
as Choctaw. Lottie, I hope you are not argued out of one of our
best old English customs. I have inherited whist from a dozen
generations. So, nephew, with your leave or your frown, I must have
my game."
"I cannot say, uncle, that Mr. Hemstead has argued very much, but
two very painful TALES have been presented in an imPRESSIVE manner.
You see how moved auntie and Fido are still over one of them. But
come, Mr. Hemstead, you have discharged your duty. If they play
whist all night and commit suicide in the morning, your skirts are
clear. Shake off the dust of your feet at them, and take a promenade
in the hall with me. Cousin Julian" (with emphasis on the word
cousin), "your conscience is as tough and elastic as Mr. Hemstead's
is tender. You haunt smoking-cars and other questionable places;
so, without serious moral harm, you can gratify uncle."
Mrs. Marchmont, who had listened with polite weariness to the latter
part of the discussion, now took part in the game as quietly as
she would pour tea at the head of the table. The aunt and nephew
had lived in such different atmospheres that they could scarcely
understand each other, and both harbored thoughts that were hardly
charitable, as is usually the case in regard to those actions which
have no moral qualities in themselves, and after all must be decided
by each one's conscience. To Mrs. Marchmont, with her antecedents,
a game of whist was one of the most innocent ants of her life.
But Hemstead was too well pleased with Lottie's arrangement to
grieve deeply over what, to his conscience, was wrong, and soon
forgot uncle, aunt, and cousin, and even the unlucky lap-dog, whose
dismal howl had so discomfited him a moment before. Just such a
luminary as Lottie Marsden had never appeared above his horizon, and
her orbit seemed so eccentric that as yet he could not calculate
it; but this element of uncertainty made observation all the
more interesting. The wide old hall, without the embarrassment of
observant eyes, was just the place to learn something more definite
of one who thus far had dazzled and puzzled, while she gained his
strong interest. True, Addie and Mr. Harcourt were walking before
them, but seemed so absorbed in each other as not to notice them.
He felt a curious thrill when a little hand lighted, like a
snow-flake, upon his arm, but soon increased its pressure with a
sort of cousinly confidence. He looked inquiringly into the face
turned up to him as they passed under the lamp, and thought, "In
its guileless beauty it reminds me of the clear mountain lakes that
I have seen in this region."
His figure was true, but not as he understood it; for Lottie's face,
like the lake, would then reflect anything that happened upon the
margin of her thoughts, while her heart remained hidden. He thought he
saw herself, but in truth only false and vanishing images. Still,
like the mirroring water, her skilful feigning could make the
images seem very real. Hemstead, with his boundless faith in woman,
believed all he saw, and hoped still more.