VI

Downstairs the Dean and Mrs. Norris had begun receiving their guests,

most of the receiving being done by the Dean. His wife, whose trail was

like that of a runaway astral body, was here, there, and everywhere,

calling, ordering, laughing.

The Misses Forbes, invariably the first comers, had taken possession of

front-row seats. This year Miss Edith had the Burnham lace--an heirloom

whose glory could on no account be dimmed by a tri-partite division--and

Miss Annie had the Burnham pearls. They were a modest string, perhaps,

but they lived on after more spectacular ones became gummy. As for Miss

Jennie, the youngest, aged sixty-five, she was something of a

philosopher, being the community's sole theosophist, and she regarded

her sisters' pleasure in their baubles with amusement. Nor could she be

drawn into a discussion of their ultimate disposition, a nice problem,

for other Burnhams and Forbeses were there none. "Why not give them to

the museum?" she had once suggested, to the sorrow of her sisters, who

hated to see her cynical side. Worse than that, she was a radical and

had boldly come out for the open shop, or the closed shop, whichever was

the radical one, and she talked very wildly indeed of Unions and

Compensation Bills.

Miss Elfrida Balch had arrived, and likewise her brother, the artist.

Miss Balch was a lady of almost crystalline refinement. She was tall and

fair, with a delicacy of complexion that stood in no need of retailed

bloom. She might have passed for the daughter of a kindly old Saxon

chieftain--it was, indeed, generally known that she sprang from the seed

of Saxon kings--who, firm in the belief that no young man was her equal

in birth or behaviour, had insisted upon her declining into a

spinsterhood which increased in refinement as it did in service.

Sentimental persons held that she came by that manner from association

with Art in her brother's studio. Others, of a more sardonic turn, said

that her manner was that of one who continually smelled a bad smell, and

that if she got it by looking at her brother's pictures they didn't

wonder.

Leofwin Balch was not a personable gentleman. The early Saxon strain in

him had taken the form of obesity, a tendency not confined, if we may

trust the evidence of scholars, to descendants of Saxon kings. To those

who had little sympathy with genius in its more alarming shapes, his

fair chin whisker seemed an absurdity. The more discriminating, however,

welcomed it. Anything might be expected of a man with a chin whisker

which some one, with more imagination than restraint, had described as

an "attenuated shredded wheat biscuit seen through a glass darkly."

Leofwin's work had of late years suffered on account of a rheumatism

which defied medicine. He had sacrificed his tonsils and nine teeth upon

the altar of Art with little or no relief, and it was now feared by

those closest to him, his sister and himself, that he would never again

approach the promise given in his "Willows." "Willows" had received an

honourable mention at the Exhibition--just which Exhibition, was a

subject of controversy among the uninitiated--and had been purchased by

a rich baronet in Suffolk. The Balches had seen it in his gallery, and

it had become an open secret that hanging in the same room were a

Constable and a John Opie.

Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had arrived and was already with a group of

the great around her chair. She was wearing the famous Lee-Satterlee dog

collar, and her hair had been carefully dressed for the occasion. Such

items alone would have borne witness to the importance of the Vernal,

had she not in addition chosen to carry the Court fan. This fan, which

was known as the "Court fan" to distinguish it from all other fans in

the world, had been given her by the Court ladies when she and her

husband, the late Ambassador, had departed upon the arrival of the new

Administration's appointee. Its sticks were mother-of-pearl, encrusted

with diamonds, and on its silk was the cruel story of Pyramus and Thisbe

set forth in brilliant colours, but in what wondrous manner no one quite

knew. For it was true that Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had walked with

kings, danced with dukes, and played croquet with counts, and it was

therefore inevitable that she should be regarded as the Empress of

Woodbridge. She would have been considered so quite apart from the fact

that she had great possessions--in addition to the Court fan and the dog

collar--possessions which were commonly supposed to be destined for the

college, the Lee-Satterlees having no issue. Accordingly, Mrs. Robert

Lee-Satterlee was allowed liberties unthinkable in another; but, be it

said to her credit, she never abused them. Since she, or at least her

property, was to take such an active part in Woodbridge affairs when she

passed into the next world, it was only reasonable that she should take

an active part while she was still in this; and it is safe to say that

no one knew more about college affairs than she. Still, no one ever

thought of calling her a nuisance. When, occasionally, she did quietly

suggest that possibly such-and-such a course might be a wise one or that

such-and-such a man might be the one to appoint to such-and-such a

vacancy, it would be discovered that, with singular insight, she had

made a perfect suggestion. Whereas, therefore, it might be said that she

was a despot, it was universally agreed that she was a benevolent one

and an enlightened one, and many even went so far as to fear that her

death might actually prove a loss.

The library was filling fast. Mrs. Norris, casting a rather wild eye

into it occasionally, would perhaps signal out an individual for a

mission that somehow in the general run of things could not conceivably

be completed. For example, her eye, on one of these expeditions,

happened to alight on a gentleman of the Physics Department, a gentleman

with a gold tooth and a loud laugh, who represented a somewhat larger

group of instructors than the best Tutors' Lane families cared to

acknowledge. The gentleman responded with an alacrity that did him

credit, nor did he quail before the steady gaze of Mrs. Norris, which

seemed to wonder if she hadn't been a little unwise in placing such

trust in so uninteresting a vessel. She asked him, however, to see if

the musicians had found a good place to put their hats and coats, and as

there were several musicians, some of whom had not arrived, he was not

restored to his nervous and too friendly mate until the charades were

over.

And now there was a suggestive flutter in the Dean's study, behind whose

large folding doors the charades were to be acted. Gentlemen who were

standing urbanely about moved into corners, with smiles calculated to

impress all with their self-possession in even the first houses. The

doors rolled open and a buzz of admiration greeted the _distraite_ Lady

Angela, whose return from California had been acknowledged by but few of

the audience. She went through her scene with the little maid, and when

the doors were bumped together, Mr. Grimes of the Romance Languages, a

noted success at anagrams, acrostics, and charades, announced, "Dray."

After a few minutes the second act was done, in which it appeared that

Mr. Merriam the detective had fallen madly in love with Lady Angela. In

the midst of the scene the little maid was heard purring loudly

off-stage, a purring which was explained by both lovers as the purring

of the lost Persian. Mr. Grimes guessed "Purr" loudly at the close, and

the final syllable, in which Mr. Merriam appeared disguised as a draper,

was thus rendered stale and perfunctory. Mary's charade eluded Mr.

Grimes's wit no more successfully, and the music was received with even

more enthusiasm than usual.

The Lady Angela, as a matter of fact, had been considerably flustered by

the ardour of Merriam the detective's wooing. The rehearsal had not

prepared her for anything so realistic, and she was annoyed. Art was

art, of course, but she was no Duse, and she didn't care to be the

object of such public passion. The fact that she was obliged to

reciprocate his sentiments instead of slapping his face was also trying.

Well, there was no reason to conceal her displeasure now; and when she

found herself again in his arms--they were rather strong arms,

incidentally, and he did dance well--she had little to say to him.

It was not, fortunately, necessary for her to do a great deal of

dancing, because of the visiting she naturally owed to her elderly

friends, and once when Tom cut in she left him, excusing herself on the

ground of having to see the Dean and Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee, his

time-honoured bridge partner. The Dean took his bridge seriously and

with extreme deliberation. Henry Whitman, on the other hand, who was one

of his opponents, played with a rapidity amounting at times to frenzy,

and he was fidgeted by anyone of more sober pace. His partner, old Mrs.

Conover, in a cap with violet insertion, had some little difficulty in

telling kings from jacks and hearts from spades and was inclined,

furthermore, to be forgetful of the trump. Accordingly, Nancy remarked

beneath her brother's rather terrible calm all these symptoms of a

whistling bee when they were again at home.

The Dean was halfway through a hand and was trying to choose a card from

the dummy. He at length carefully lifted the king of spades from it as

if it weighed a ton, and then, after looking at it soberly, put it back

and scowled at his own hand. Henry, who had his card ready to throw down

upon the table, slid it back into his hand with the look of resignation

that has tranquillized our memories of the Early Christian Martyrs. The

Dean rested his eye on the tempting king in the dummy and pursed his

lips. He _would do_ it. Then he leaned over and played it with the air

of a man who lays all in the lap of the gods. Mrs. Conover, who had been

shuffling her cards around in ill-suppressed excitement, popped out a

trump with a cry of triumph just as Henry's Ace of Spades covered the

king. A dreadful scene followed. The Dean was all gallantry, Mrs.

Conover all self-reproach, Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee all charm, and

Henry all exasperation; and when, later in the same hand, his mind torn

with the memory of his lost ace, he made a revoke and was quietly

brought to account by the Dean, Nancy discreetly withdrew.

Tom, who had seen her at the table with three people whom she met

constantly and upon whom she hardly needed to make a call, felt

decidedly snubbed. Was she, after all, so much a Whitman that she felt

no need to obey the ordinary rules of decency? It seemed too bad, for

his impression of her earlier in the evening had been decidedly

different.

Tom had sometimes wondered about love at first sight. What was it

anyway? How did one feel? Was it like a blow between the eyes, a ball in

the breast? Did one stagger and have to lie down, with a pulse coursing

up to one hundred and five? What was it? When Tom first looked at Nancy

in the costume closet he wondered if he were to be brought face to face

with the answer. Certainly, little hints by the Norrises and Old Mrs.

Conover would have put the idea into his head, had it not in the natural

course of events found its way there unaided.

And now Nancy had made it clear that she did not care to have anything

to do with him. It was, he guessed, because of the too tender passage in

the charade. He pictured himself arguing with her. "It is ridiculous to

object to me because I played the part well. Would you have had me a

stick and make the thing even more of a bore?" "No," coldly, "but you

didn't have to have that part in it." "Well, it made it more

interesting, and, besides, if you think that I put it in just for an

excuse to put my arm around you, you're entirely mistaken and not the

girl I thought you." This last thrust, which, in less skilful hands

might have become mere petulance, was delivered with a rolling

deliberation that would have wrung a Jezebel. Tom always did well in

these conversations, but unfortunately, the present situation was not

solved so easily. Nancy, he had found, was even more attractive than she

had been when he was in college. They would, of course, see something of

each other from time to time, and it would be tiresome not to be

friendly. Besides, he guessed that she would be helpful in discussing

his various problems. Mrs. Norris was splendid, of course, and he loved

her dearly, but he found himself occasionally wishing for a somewhat

younger listener and one not given over to quite so many nonsequiturs.

Nancy seemed excellent material, but if she were going to be

superior--Possibly it was because of Ephesus and the Reynolds Dry Goods

Store. He turned away with a slightly bilious feeling. If it should

prove that she was affected by that, then indeed would he be

disappointed in her.

He crossed the hall into the drawing-room, where a dozen or so couples

were dancing in various stages of aesthetic intoxication. The saxophone

and the violin were engaging in a pantomime calculated to add gaiety to

the waning enthusiasm of the party, and he gazed at them in disgust. A

young lady with hair newly hennaed and face suggestive of an over-ripe

pear ogled him over her partner's elbow as they jazzed by. Let her dance

on until she got so sick of him she was ready to scream, was Tom's

thought.

In one corner, obviously having a poor time, was Leofwin Balch. Tom sat

down beside him.

"It's too hot in here, don't you think?" he asked.

"Much," replied Leofwin. "I think these parties get worse every year."

These were soothing words. "Particularly those damned charades," he went

on. "Now, my dear fellow, you know perfectly well that yours was a

miserable failure."

Tom found this a little trying. It was true that no one could be more

deprecating of his effort than he, but, privately, he had a somewhat

better opinion of it. As charades went, he thought it decidedly above

the average; and the way he had examined the room, after the manner of

Mr. William Gillette, and come upon the match box was proved amusing by

the laugh it had brought.

"Granted," he replied, with a shade of sarcasm, "it was a miserable

failure."

"Why, the way you made love to Miss Whitman was disgusting."

Tom flushed. Had he really been as bad as that? Had he really just

missed being put out of the house like that clown Stebbins? Were they

all now, all these people sitting around so innocently in groups, were

they all blasting his name as a cheap cad? "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Why, you went at it like a puling babe. Why didn't you put some fire

into it--kiss her feet or bite her neck? Then you would have made us sit

up and take notice. You college people are a lot of old women, anyway."

Tom, with bounding relief, started to confess the apparent inability of

most college people to bite ladies in the neck, when he observed a

startling change in his companion. From the passionate leprecaune of the

moment before he had become even as a little child. His hand, which was

resting elegantly on the arm chair, stole up into his chin whisker, amid

which it wistfully strayed. There crept into his Saxon eyes that light

of resigned suffering which inspires such exquisite anguish in the

friends of Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe. In short, his entire being

proclaimed to all who would but look, a great quiet man in love. Tom's

eyes followed his and rested upon--Nancy! He rose in disgust and,

walking away, suddenly came face to face with her. Then, without

thinking of his resolve to let her severely alone, he reached out his

hand and cut in.

What a fool he was! Obviously she didn't want to dance with him, and

here he was forcing himself upon her. It made him look so common, so

pushing, so like an Ephesus drygoods clerk. Some one barged into him,

surged into him, from the rear, causing him to stumble. "Sorry," he

muttered. They started on, just out of step. He tried to get into step

by speeding up, and their knees bumped together. Would no one ever cut

in? Then the music stopped, and it appeared that the musicians were

going to rest for a few minutes.

"Let's sit down, shall we?" said Nancy. They settled themselves upon two

gilt chairs with spindly legs. "Do you like your work here?" she asked

pleasantly.

What a very dull question! An expletive exploded inside Tom's head. "Oh,

yes," he said. Then after a heavy pause, "How are you getting on with

the stars?"

"Oh, I learned the diagrams in that nice little book you sent me, but

I'm afraid I've forgotten most of them now. I feel rather superior about

Betelgeuse, though."

"So do I. We might start a Betelguese Club."

"What would we do at it?"

"Oh, read papers. With Betelguese's power behind us we might do all

sorts of things--have picnics and read tracts to the poor. When you see

only college people, after a while you crave being illiterate, and I've

thought recently that I'd like to enlist in the Navy or move to Alaska,

or go over and work in the Mills. I'd buy a black shirt to work in and

use a bandana--when I used anything--and take the nice extra room my

laundress has in Whitmanville. She says her clothesline goes out fifty

feet, and they have a phonograph. Don't you think that would be more

attractive than trying to teach a lot of Freshmen Carlyle and

Hawthorne?"

"Lots, and there would be ever so much more money in it."

"It would be a kind of social service work, wouldn't it? 'Woodbridge

Professor Slaves in Mill to Earn Bread.' That would go big, all over

the country."

"Do you know, I've thought a little of doing some social work,

seriously. I don't know anything about it, of course, but it has

occurred to me that if I could get a group of people together we might

have one of the Physiologist instructors give us some lectures. You see,

the first thing in social work must be the health of the people, and I

should think a good grounding in the fundamentals would be essential. As

soon as we have their interest in their personal welfare we can get them

to playing basketball, brushing their teeth, putting screens in their

windows, and--so on. Naturally I don't know much about it, but it would

seem as though there were a great opportunity for somebody."

"Conditions in the town, on the west side, aren't too good."

"Of course they're not. I have let my mind run on at a great rate about

it, but I don't see why, if the right person got hold of it, the whole

town couldn't be improved, made into a model mill town, you know--with

playgrounds, and creches, and--" Again other model features failed her.

"Well, why aren't you the proper person? I should think you could do it

if anyone could. Your uncle would have to listen to you, and he probably

would be all for it."

"Oh, Uncle Rob is just as nice as he can be--but I couldn't do it all

alone."

"Well, now of course we have got into this thing pretty quickly, but I

assure you I should like nothing better than to do something about it

with you. After all, what is education in the finest sense, but the

uplifting of the masses? You probably will want to think it over a

little more before going ahead, but, really, I hope you will, and I hope

you will let me join you."

"There is no time like the present. Why dilly-dally? We both realize

that this is a crying need. Then why not do something about it? If you

will find out who is the best man for us, I'll provide the rest."

At this point the musicians swung into Home Sweet Home, and Mrs. Norris

hurried up to the embryonic workers. "The party is over now, my dears,

and please help by going and getting your things. It's this awful

standing around saying good-bye that is so trying," and with an emphatic

push of her back comb she began hauling tables and chairs back into

their normal places.

Tom had only just time to assure Nancy that he would do his part when

Mrs. Norris called to him again to help her with the dining-room rug;

and with a quick handshake and a pleasanter nod than he would have

thought could possibly have come to him half an hour before, Nancy

Whitman was gone.