There are many excellent people in this bright world who, like Mrs.
Lawrence, are prone to assert that all they've got to say on a given
subject is so and so, and then to stultify themselves by proceeding to
talk a whole torrent. Mrs. Lawrence said a great deal in the course of
this initial interview, and followed it up with a very great deal more.
She considered Mr. Forrest's conduct worse than incomprehensible. What
business had he to tell a girl his heart was buried in the past and pay
her all lover-like attentions in the present? "He hasn't," said Miss
Allison, promptly and flatly. "He has simply been kind and friendly. He
would have been discourteous, un-American, had he done anything less."
It wasn't he who told her he never had cared or would care for any one
after Miss Hosmer; Kate Lenox told her that, and so did other girls
here. When, then, did Mr. Forrest inform her of his broken engagement?
asked Aunt Lawrence. "On the steamer coming home," said Florence. "He
couldn't help himself. I met Mrs. Stuyvesant in Washington last
winter,--such a lovely woman,--and some one said she was once engaged to
an army officer and it was broken off; she found she didn't love him
enough to leave her luxurious home to live on the frontier among
Indians. I don't know how her name came up, or what prompted me to talk
as I did. I was saying that I thought her cruel, heartless, and that she
should have considered all that before ever she engaged herself to him;
and then he simply put up his hand, saying, 'Do not speak of it, Miss
Allison: I was the man.' It fairly took my breath away," said
Florence,--which her aunt could hardly believe,--"and I didn't know what
to say; and then he went on quietly to speak of her in the most
beautiful way, and assured me there were other and graver reasons which
led to her decision, some of which, at least, he could not gainsay, and
Mr. Stuyvesant's wealth and social position had very little to do with
the fact of her finally marrying him, as she did, and not until several
years after the engagement was broken."
Indeed, Miss Allison waxed tearfully eloquent in defence of Mr. Forrest,
whom she declared high-minded and honorable and manly. He wasn't in love
with her, nor she with him,--not a bit; but she honored him and
respected him and liked him better than any man she knew, and papa
thought him such a superior man, and Cary was devoted to him, and he
had been of infinite service to them abroad, and was welcome now and
should be welcome any time--any time--to their doors, and if Aunt
Lawrence or anybody spoke ill of him to her she'd defend him to the
bitter end, and as for hinting or insinuating that he was trifling with
her, it was simply outrageous--outrageous, and if Aunt Lawrence dared to
let him suppose it was his duty to propose to her now she'd never
forgive her,--never. And so Aunt Lawrence discovered that her blithe,
merry, joyous niece of the years gone by had developed a fine temper of
her own and a capacity for independent thought and action that was
simply appalling.
Florence went dancing down into the parlor with flushed cheeks and
briny, indignant eyes and the mien of an offended five-foot goddess,
leaving Aunt Lawrence to the contemplation of the field of her
disastrous defeat and the card of the unworthy object of their
discussion:
[Illustration: _Mr. Benton Floyd Forrest,_ --th Regiment of Infantry,
U.S.A.]
"What on earth brings him here at this time of day?" quoth she, irate
and ruffled. "For a man who is neither lover nor fiancé, he assumes the
airs and, for aught I know, the rights of both. The girl is as
ill-balanced as her mother." And not all women, it must be owned, think
too well of an only brother's wife. "The manners of these army men are
simply uncouth. Who ever heard of calls at ten A.M.?"
It was but a few minutes before Miss Allison returned. In fact, she did
not return to the scene of the late struggle,--a lovely boudoir
overlooking the flashing blue waters of the lake from high over the
intervening boulevard. Miss Allison went direct to her own rooms on the
opposite side of the broad hall-way, and not until evening was Mrs.
Lawrence favored with explanation.
"Why are you not dressed?" she somewhat caustically inquired, as her
niece came down arrayed for dinner.
For answer Miss Allison contemplated her pretty white arms, and took a
backward and downward glance at the fall of the trailing skirt of heavy
silk, then--must it be recorded?--she calmly asked, "What's the matter
with this?"
"This," said Aunt Lawrence, with marked emphasis, "may do for home
dinners, but won't for an opera-party. Here it is seven. You can't
change your dress before eight, and you simply can't go to the
Langdons' box in that."
"I'm not going to the Langdons' box."
"You were, and Mr. Forrest was to dine here and take you."
"Mr. Forrest left for the West on sudden orders at noon, and came at ten
to tell me."
Mrs. Lawrence's hands and eyes went up in mad dismay. "You don't mean to
tell me you've given up going because that man's ordered off? Child,
child, you are simply bent on ruining yourself socially. I don't wonder
people say you're daft about him."
"Who says I'm daft about him?" queried Miss Allison, flushing instantly,
but looking dangerous.
"Well, not just that, perhaps," returned Mrs. Lawrence. "But that's what
they will say now. Surely Mrs. Langdon could ask somebody in his place
who could have escorted you,--or else I could."
"Mrs. Langdon did invite somebody else,--two somebody elses, in fact, as
my letter urged her to do. Fanny Tracy was wild to go, and Captain
Farwell wild to take her. I did a charitable thing in suggesting them."
"Then the result of that piece of charity will be that all Chicago will
say you are so much in love with that man you couldn't go 'Faust' when
he went away."
"Chicago has too many other things to think of, and---- Where's papa?"
said Miss Allison, turning abruptly from her aunt and moving with
quick, impetuous step towards the heavy portière that hung between the
parlor and Mr. Allison's library. But she stopped short at the
threshold, for there, just within the rich folds of the hanging barrier,
apparently searching for some particular book among the shelves nearest
the parlor and farthest from the library lights, and humming musically
to himself as he did so, was Cary's tutor.
"I did not know you were here, Mr. Elmendorf," said Miss Allison,
coldly. "I supposed you were in the study with my brother."
"I was until a moment ago. We needed a book, and I came down for it."
Mr. Allison's easy-chair and reading-lamp with the evening papers were
all arranged as usual, awaiting, at the other end of the room, the
coming of the master of the house. It was his custom to read there some
hours each evening, and the library was the one room in which he reigned
supreme. His books, papers, desks, and tables were sacred to his use,
and might not at any time be disturbed by other hands. Even Mrs.
Lawrence, who had her own books in her own little snuggery up-stairs,
rarely ventured to touch her brother's library shelves. As for Florence,
she never cared to. It was well known that Mr. Elmendorf had more than
once been sharply rebuked for having helped himself without first
seeking the owner's permission. Yet here he was again. The odd thing
about it was that this end of the library was dark. The books on these
shelves were huge folios, the size of some Brobdingnagian atlas, any one
of which required all Mr. Elmendorf's strength to lift from its place.
Miss Allison was not over-shrewd. She was frankness, guilelessness
itself. She rarely saw through the meanness of man or the duplicity of
woman. This, however, was not the first, but the second or third time
that Mr. Elmendorf had been revealed behind those curtains when she was
in conversation in the parlor, and it dawned upon her at last that
Cary's tutor was as good a listener as talker, and there were times when
Mr. Elmendorf was fluency itself. He was a shrewd fellow, too, and he
read his sentence in her face.
"Miss Allison," said he, quitting his search and stepping boldly
forward, "it would be idle in me to disguise, that I have unwittingly
heard a portion of the conversation between your aunt and yourself; and,
as your brother's friend and tutor, your father's trusted adviser in
many a way, both professional and personal,--indeed, if I may say so
without offence, as one who would gladly be your friend,--I feel bound
to support Mrs. Lawrence in the view she takes of this--pardon
me--unfortunate matter."
"Mr. Elmendorf!" interrupted Miss Allison, with eyes and cheeks aflame.
"Bear with me one moment," persisted Mr. Elmendorf, with deprecatory
gesture. "I am aware that I have not possessed your friendship in the
past; indeed, I may say I have been conscious of a distinctly hostile
influence; but my devotion to your father and your brother and the
interests of the family and all that may affect its good name make it
mandatory upon me to speak. I appeal to Mrs. Lawrence to support me in
my assertion that I am prompted only by the worthiest motives in thus
apparently intrusively, officiously if you will, claiming your
attention." Mrs. Lawrence bowed grave assent. She had many a time
expressed her disapprobation of Mr. Elmendorf's propensity to interfere
in domestic matters wherein he had no concern, but here was a case where
unlooked-for support was accorded her side of an unfinished argument.
Mrs. Lawrence considered all comment of Mr. Elmendorf on her affairs as
utterly unwarrantable, but poor Flo really laid herself open to
criticism.
It was Miss Allison who brought matters to a climax. "I refuse to
listen," said she, with something very like a stamp of her plump little
foot. "Mr. Elmendorf forgets himself entirely when he attempts to--to
criticise my conduct."
"Pardon me, Miss Allison, it is not your conduct, it is, on the
contrary, Mr. Forrest's, that I consider deserving criticism,--more than
criticism. It is of him, not of yourself, that I feel it my duty to
speak. I should be disloyal to my employer, to my friends, to my own
sense of honor and propriety, were I to keep silence. I know whereof I
speak when I say that he is unfit to step within these doors, to presume
to address you even as an acquaintance; and if you will but listen----"
"But I won't listen. I forbid your ever daring to speak to me in any
such way or on any such subject again." And, so saying, Miss Allison
swept angrily from the room.
Elmendorf shrugged his shoulders. "You see," he said, in the
high-pitched, querulous tone that so closely resembled a whine, "you see
the hopelessness of arguing with a woman in love. I have only succeeded
in making another enemy, and my position here will become all the more
embarrassing."
"In so far as I can uphold you, Mr. Elmendorf," said Mrs. Lawrence,
promptly, "you may count upon me. Flo is stubborn and hot-headed. She
looks upon Mr. Forrest as a hero, whereas he is really a detriment to
her social future. I rejoice in his being ordered West, and hope the
duty will keep him a long time away from Chicago."
"Ah! did he say he was ordered away on any special duty?" asked Mr.
Elmendorf.
"I certainly so understood Florence."
Mr. Elmendorf elevated his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders anew.
"That is very unlike the story that was told me at head-quarters," said
he, significantly.
"What was that?" asked Mrs. Lawrence, with prompt and pardonable
curiosity.
"That he was ordered away--under a cloud--in order to put an end to
probable scandal."
"Gambling?" asked Mrs. Lawrence, whose own first-born left college
prematurely because of fatal propensities in that line.
"W-e-l-l," answered Elmendorf, pursing up his lips, "I won't say there
may not have been something of that kind, but the main trouble is more
serious. I speak from excellent authority in saying that the general
gave him just sixteen hours in which to pack and start, fixing the noon
train to-day as the limit,--very probably to prevent his seeing
the--er--woman in the case again."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]