everybody I met on board ship tried to impress upon me that we had
nothing half so good in England; while as for the Rhine, it wasn't a
patch on the Hudson. I even wanted to be disappointed, out of
patriotism or spite, which are much the same thing sometimes; but I
couldn't. I found the Hudson too grand for petty jealousy. It seemed to
me like a great, noble poem, rolling on and on in splendid cadences;
and I have heard some music of Wagner's that it reminded me of,
somehow.
The hills or mountains--I'm not sure which to call them--even the
Palisades which have been so dinned into my ears--were not high enough
to satisfy me at a first glance; but soon I saw that it was their
grouping and their perfect proportion in relation to each other which
made them so exquisite. As we steamed on, along the green and golden
flood, between banks that appeared to fall back in admiration, I began
to love the Hudson so much that I could have shrieked with rage at the
great staring advertisements on hoardings. What can the scenery have
done to Americans, that they should do their best to spoil it? No
wonder most of them come over to see ours, which we have the sense to
let alone, even if it crumbles.
Sally and Mr. Parker laughed at my fury, but I didn't see how they
could take it so calmly. "It isn't my scenery, so I don't trouble
myself," said Potter, when I asked why he didn't get up a secret night
expedition to burn or chop down all the hoardings. But I'm sure English
people aren't careless like that. Each person thinks the good of the
whole country is _his_ business; at least one would suppose so by the
way everybody who comes to Battlemead talks politics and affairs of
public interest, morning, noon and night. It seems, though, in America
only policemen and people who live in Washington care about politics
really, except to get benefits for themselves; and it isn't good form
to be too much interested in such things.
Victoria would like this rule, for she has confessed to me that
political questions bore her, and she would much rather be talked to
about love or motoring, or even bridge; but she always reads the
newspapers hard for fifteen minutes while Thompson does her hair, if
she's going out to a big lunch or dinner, so that she will be up in
everything and able to talk brilliantly to members of Parliament, or
stuffy old things in the House of Lords.
I calmed down somewhat after I'd recovered from the first shock of
seeing several islands entirely devoted to insisting that Uneeda
Biscuit, or a Cigar, or some other extraneous thing which you're sure
you _don't_ need in the least, and wouldn't buy even if you did when it
had been forced on you like that. There was so much to admire that it
seemed a shame to fret. Besides, it was soothing to sit on the yacht's
deck under a pale green awning, drinking what I call a lemon squash,
and Potter and Sally obstinately believe to be lemonade. While Mrs. Ess
Kay angrily read nasty paragraphs about herself, and hilariously about
her friends, in a regular highwayman of a paper, _Smart Sayings_, Sally
Woodburn told me charming legends of the Hudson; dear old Dutch things,
most of them, which had been made into plays and poems; and I was sorry
when we came to West Point at last.
But I wasn't sorry for long. The minute we got on shore at a quaint
little landing shoved incongruously in among beautiful wooded hills,
the most exquisite scents of ferns and trees, and sweet, moist earth
came hurrying down to welcome us. Eton is not more beautiful than West
Point; and as we drove up the hill under an arbour of trees, I saw that
the buildings cleverly contrived to look old and grey and picturesque,
like ours. The elms in a big green square past the top of the hill had
a venerable air, too, so they must have been precocious about growing,
for it doesn't stand to reason that West Point can be as ancient as
Oxford or Eton. But anyway, the elms were there, making an effect that
England couldn't improve on, and there were some grey stone barracks,
and a long line of officers' quarters built of wood and brick. I was
glad that we were to stop with Potter, instead of going to an hotel,
for I did want to see thoroughly what garrison life is like. Potter has
only half a house, though I suppose he's rich enough to buy up all West
Point if it were for sale; but he had got a chum of his, who lives in
the other half, to clear out of his part and give it to us for the day
and night.
Vic has been to Aldershot, and even to Malta and Gib. But I never have,
and I never saw any officers' quarters at home, so I don't know how
they compare with American ones. Potter's and his friend's are exactly
like a doll's house turned into a museum. The rooms are tiny, and most
of the furniture is made to fold up; but Stan would be green with envy
if he could see their Persian rugs, and their silver things, and their
dozens of Meerschaums, and their curiosities from all over the world.
I asked Potter what he would do when he was ordered away.
"That depends on where I'm ordered," said he. "If I don't like the
place, I'll resign, and be a mere cit. It would be easy to get back
again into the Army if there were any fun going."
"What kind of fun?" I wanted to know.
"A war with somebody, of course," said he. Men have the most
extraordinary ideas of fun. But they seem to be alike about that in
England and America. They are never so happy as when they are killing
something or in danger of being killed themselves. I can't imagine how
it would feel to be like that; but I know if they were different we
should hate them. And Potter looked so nice in his soldier clothes
(which he got into while we were making ourselves pretty for lunch)
that I couldn't help thinking it would be a pity for him to leave the
army.
His friend was invited to lunch with us, to make up for sacrificing his
house. He is nicer than Potter, or even Mr. Doremus; but not half so
handsome or brave looking, or with such a charming voice as poor Jim
Brett--who is not, I suppose, a gentleman except by nature; otherwise
he couldn't have been in the steerage.
I thought it was silly to have wire nettings in all the doors and
windows, just to keep away a few innocent midges, until we sat out
after lunch. There is a pleasant balcony with an upstairs and a
downstairs, which Potter and Captain Collingwood call the "piazza," and
it would have been delightful sitting there while the men smoked, if
appalling little animals with a ridiculous number of thin, stick-out
legs hadn't come buzzing round us. They were saucy-looking things, got
up in loud suits of black and grey stripes, not in the least like our
quiet, respectable midges at home; and they weren't even honourable
enough to wait until sunset before attacking you. They pricked
horribly, like pins your maid has stuck in the wrong places; and they
had a horrid _penchant_ for your ankles. I _was_ sorry I had on clocked
stockings! And I apologised heartily to Potter for poking fun at his
wire nettings.
Though it was so hot, the air was delicious. It smelt of new-mown grass
and lilies, with a sharp little spicy tang of the thick Virginia
creepers, which made a shadowy green room of the "piazza." Birds were
simply roaring with joy in the trees that overhung the house, and
Potter and I almost quarrelled because he would insist that some huge
creatures hopping about on the grass were robins. They would have made
three of ours, and were much more like quails that had spilt strawberry
juice on their breasts.
By and by Captain Collingwood asked if "Lady Betty didn't want to go
and see things."
"She's booked to me for Flirtation Walk," said Potter, before I could
answer. "Three's a crowd there, old chap." On which I regret to state
Captain Collingwood suggested that Potter should teach his own
grandmother something about nourishing herself with an egg diet.
"Anyhow, I suppose you don't object to a rearguard for inspection of
camp, and other features of public interest," he went on; and after
some hesitation Potter decided that this would be admissible.
Mrs. Ess Kay and Sally both wanted to lie down (it's strange the
fondness American women have for putting themselves in a horizontal
position in the daytime!) so Mrs. Ess Kay said that she would
commission her brother as chaperon; I needn't be anxious, she assured
me, it was quite _comme il faut_. As if I would have worried about a
thing like that!
I was delighted to go, because the most interesting groups had been
passing the house, and it was difficult to see all you wanted to
through the veil of creepers, without continually craning your neck.
Tall, brown-faced boys, got up much like glorified Buttons, were
sauntering about, holding sunshades over the heads of girls so young
that they would have been in short frocks with their hair down their
backs, in England. The girls were in white muslin or pale colours, with
charming, floppy Leghorn hats trimmed with flowers; and they looked
like the daintiest, prettiest of French dolls. But I was a great deal
more interested in the youths, who were the cadets--first classmen,
Potter said, and would be second lieutenants next year.
I never could take much interest in Eton boys, the few I have seen, for
they look such children that one would be positively ashamed to bother
with them; but the West Point cadets (though one couldn't exactly take
them seriously like regularly grown-up men, perhaps), fascinated me
from the very first glance through Potter's Virginia creeper. They
looked as if they thought a lot of themselves, and the girls they were
with had the air of encouraging them to think it. I wondered what kind
of things they said to girls and secretly longed to find out.
It seems that in summer the cadets leave their barracks and go into
camp, which is a time of year that the girls who visit West Point and
those whose fathers are stationed there, like very much. We had a
glimpse of the tents from the long street of the officers' quarters;
and after we had visited a few technical things in which I was too
polite to show that I was hardly interested, we strolled over to where
we could see the little white pyramids gleaming under the Stars and
Stripes.
I had been afraid that all the cadets would have gone away to
Flirtation Walk, with girls, but to my joy there were plenty left in
camp. On chairs under the trees near by two or three ladies were
sitting with some white-butterfly girls; and a crowd of cadets were
talking to them.
"There's a great pal of mine, Mrs. Laurence," said Captain Collingwood.
"She would love to know you, Lady Betty. Do you mind if I introduce you
to each other?"
"See here, that means we shall be hitched up with all that lot of
cadets," Potter objected, quite crossly. "What's the good of wasting
time?"
I hurried to say that I shouldn't consider it a waste of time, that I
should be delighted to meet Mrs. Laurence, and also a few sample
cadets, if any could be provided for the consumption of an enquiring
British tourist.
Captain Collingwood thought that one or two might be found who would
not object to the sacrifice; and five minutes later I was having more
fun than I had ever had before in my life.
Mrs. Laurence was sweet, and so tactful. She scarcely talked to me at
all, except to ask me how I liked America, and a few of the things
people are obliged to get off their minds when they meet a foreigner;
and then she introduced five cadets.
I was terrified for a minute, because until I left home my whole
(youthful) male experience consisted of one brother, three cousins, and
two curates, dealt with separately and with long sleepy intervals
between. I began to wonder how I could possibly manage five tall youths
at once, and to rack my brains for the right kind of conversation; but
before I should have had time to say "knife" to a curate, I found
myself chatting away with those cadets as if I had grown up with them.
I never once stopped to think what I should say next, and neither did
they.
Some girls were introduced to me, too, but luckily they didn't seem to
expect me to talk to them much, so I didn't. More and more cadets kept
coming over from camp, and joining our group, and being introduced in
agreeable droves, until I gave up even trying to remember their names.
There was one, though, in the first batch of five, whose name was easy
to get hold of and keep in mind, because it was Smith. Besides, he was
the best looking of all, which made classifying him a real pleasure.
The girls who spoke to Mr. Smith called him "Captain," perhaps
jokingly, and I asked how he could be a captain and yet a cadet, unless
it meant cricket. Then he explained that the cadets had all the
different grades of officers, from Adjutant and Captain down to
Sergeant, and wanted to know if there were any other questions I would
care to ask. I said that there were, lots, but I wasn't sure if I
might.
"I give you a permit," said he, in a military way.
So I began with the buttons. "I should like to know why you have so
many--all those rows on your jackets; and it's only the middle row you
seem to use for anything."
"We use the others to give away to girls, to remember us by," answered
my cadet. "It's forbidden, but that's a detail. Or rather it's why the
girls like to have them."
I stared. "None of yours are missing."
"Most of 'em are pinned on at present. It's that way with all of us.
Our Plebs sew 'em on for us at night, and use the door for a thimble."
"Oh, what are Plebs, if you please? Are you allowed valets?"
"I guess they call 'em fags in your country. There are a lot of them
lying around. Shall I have some caught and dragged here? They might
squirm a bit, as they aren't used to ladies' society, but----"
I hastily protested against such a cruel exhibition, and went on with
my questions. I asked what they did in winter, and how long they had to
be cadets, and whether they were in a hurry to be officers.
"Not as long as the girls can put up with us as we are," said my cadet.
"Some of them even pretend they like us better."
"I can quite understand that!" I exclaimed. And then they all laughed,
and some of them applauded.
"The _really_ important question is," said Captain or Mr. Smith,
"whether you are going to be an officers' or a cadets' lady."
I hadn't an idea what he meant, but I remembered Vic's saying that in
the lower middle classes they sometimes call a man's wife his "lady."
Perhaps, I thought, the expression had been brought over to the nicest
people in America, in the _Mayflower_, which they all talk so much
about; for certainly _some_ of the people in her must have been cooks
or in the steerage; there are too many descendants for the first class
passengers alone. After considering for a minute I said in rather an
embarrassed way that I wasn't "quite sure yet whether I would be
either."
"You must be one or the other, you know, or you'll be like the bat in
the fable who was neither bird nor beast, and so was out of all the fun
on both sides. I may be prejudiced, but I advise you to be a cadets'
lady. And you'd better decide now on account of to-night."
"To-night?" I repeated, puzzled.
"Yes, on account of making out your card. Say, Lady Betty, if you _are_
going in with us, can I make out your card?"
Then arose a clamour. It appeared that they all wanted to make out the
card--whatever it was. I asked if I couldn't have one from each, but it
appeared that you couldn't do that. My cadet had spoken first, so he
said that he would do it; but the others could give me bell-buttons and
chevrons, and decorate fans for me instead.
"Do you like hops, Lady Betty?" enquired a perfect pet of a cadet, who
looked like a cherub in uniform.
"Hops?" I wondered why he should ask me such an irrelevant question,
but I answered as intelligently as I could. "I don't know much about
them. I think they're graceful, but I don't like the smell."
He looked petrified. "The _smell_?"
"Yes. It makes one sleepy."
"I guess we won't give you much chance to be sleepy to-night," said he,
"at our hop."
Then I understood. But what a funny thing to call a ball; a "hop!"
They explained, too, when they saw how stupid I was, that you were an
"officers' lady" if you danced with them, and walked with them, and
flirted with them, and didn't bother with cadets; or vice versa. Then I
decided at once that I would be a cadets' lady, though I was sorry I
had only one night to be it in. They were sorry, too, and showed their
sorrow in so many nice ways that I enjoyed myself immensely, and quite
saw how nice it must feel to be out, if you are a success. They wanted
to draw lots for which cadet should take me to Flirtation Walk, but I
said I had to go with Mr. Parker.
He must have been listening from a distance, (though he ought to have
been talking with a pretty girl who had no hat,) for he came up to me
at once, and announced that it was time to go now. He rather put on
airs of having a right to tell me what I must do, and I didn't like it
much, especially before those dear cadets, but it would have been
childish to make a fuss. Besides, I was his guest.
I went, like a disagreeable lamb sulking on its way to the slaughter;
but, thank goodness, I was engaged already for nearly all the dances,
and most of them had to be split in two; there were so many cadets for
them. (I think, by the by, I shall try to get Stan to take me to
Sandhurst some day, to see if it is at all like West Point, and whether
they have hops.)
Potter made fun of the cadets, and called them "white meat," and
"little things that got in the way"; but when I asked a straight
question he had to confess that he had been one himself only six years
ago. "I was twenty-two when I graduated," he said. "One of the youngest
men in my class." Which was the same as telling me that he is
twenty-eight now. Ten years older than I am! It makes him seem quite
old.
Somehow, although he is so nice to me in most ways, he stirs me up to
feel antagonistic, as though I wanted to contradict him, and not like
things that he likes; and I believe it is the same with him about me,
for I make his eyes look angry very often. I felt he was disappointed
because I admired the cadets so much, and had promised so many dances,
and I was in a mood to tease him. But I fancy he isn't the kind who
would take teasing well; and the scenery he was showing me was so
beautiful that presently I resolved to be good.
We saw Kosciusko's monument, and I would insist upon his telling me
things about Kosciusko himself, though Potter didn't seem to think him
important; and then we began winding our way along a most exquisite
path overhanging the river, always shadowed by trees. Sometimes it was
cut through a green arbour, with a light like liquid emeralds;
sometimes it ran high on the rocks; sometimes it dipped down close to
the water; but invariably there was just enough room for two, and no
more, to walk side by side.
We met several couples--cadets and girls; young officers and
girls;--sauntering or sitting down close together in out of the way
places. But by and by we seemed to have passed beyond the inhabited
zone. Then Potter asked me if I were not tired from so much walking,
and if I wouldn't like to rest. I said no, and he promptly pretended to
be done up, which I thought very silly; but of course I had to sit down
by him on a rock with a green, moss-velvet cushion.
"This is what I've been longing for all day," said he.
I hadn't; and I was thinking about the cadets. But I agreed that it was
beautiful.
"Yes, it is," he answered, looking at me. "I never saw anything so
pretty. Say, Lady Betty, you're an awful flirt."
I did open my eyes at that. "A flirt!" I exclaimed. "I never had a
chance to try being it."
"I guess you don't need to try. There's some things girls like you are
born knowing. I've been miserable all the afternoon. Couldn't you see
my agony?"
"I didn't notice," said I.
"Ah, that's the trouble. You weren't thinking of me. Of course, I
oughtn't to have cared for those little boys," (some of them were
inches taller than he) "but I couldn't help it. I kept saying inside,
'This is a foretaste of what I've got to suffer when she's staying with
Katherine at The Moorings.' I don't know when I've been so unpopular
with myself. I don't see how I'm going to get along unless you'll be
nice to me; right now."
"I am nice to you," I said. "As nice as I know how to be."
"I could teach you to be a lot nicer. Say, Lady Betty, let me, won't
you?"
His eyes, though they are such a pale blue, had that silly, melting
look in them that my cousin Loveland's have when he talks to me. "Let
you do what?" I asked, almost snappishly, for a person sitting in such
a lovely place.
"Teach you to like me. I fell all over myself in love with you the
first minute I saw you."
"Day before yesterday!" I exclaimed. "What nonsense. You're poking fun
at me. I don't believe in love at first sight--at least, I don't think
I do. Anyhow, nobody could fall in love with _me_ in that way."
"Couldn't they, though? That's all you know about it, then. All
Americans will fall in love with you like that, and it's just what I
want to guard against. I want you to be engaged to me before you go to
Newport. Then I shall feel kind of safe."
"Dear me, are you really proposing, and it isn't in joke?" I asked. "I
do wish you wouldn't."
"Would I propose to Lady Betty Bulkeley in joke?" he reproached me.
"The idea of proposing to any girl when you've only seen her three
times!"
"What did I tell you about my friend in San Francisco? I was working
slowly up to this, even then."
"_Slowly!_"
"Yes, very slowly. I think I've shown a great deal of patience.
American girls--the beauties, I mean--are quite hurt if a fellow
doesn't propose somewhere along in the first day or two. They think he
can't appreciate their real worth, and that he deserves what he gets if
some other chap walks away with them. Now, I'm not going to sit still
on my perch and see anything else walking off with you."
I couldn't help laughing. "I'll call for help if I think there's any
danger," said I; "but I can't promise more than that. I didn't come
over to America to pick up a husband."
He looked at me rather queerly when I said that, almost as if he
thought I had come for that express purpose, and was trying to conceal
it. But, of course, he couldn't be so horrid as to suppose such a thing
really, and I must have imagined the strange expression. If he only
knew, I came away so that another girl might be sure to get a husband,
and I'm not allowed to go back until he has been got.
"They're just growing around on blackberry bushes and in strawberry
patches for you to pick and choose," said Potter, "and that's what
worries me. I'm a wildly jealous fellow. I've got two month's leave so
as to be with you at Newport, and I tell you I shall see a bright,
beautiful crimson, if too many dudes come fooling around the shanty.
Say, won't you just _play_ we're engaged, anyhow, and see how you like
it?"
But now I was really cross, and wouldn't hear a word more of such
nonsense, so I jumped up, and he had to scramble up, too.
"If you've really proposed--which I doubt--" said I, "you must please
understand that you've been formally refused. But I forgive you because
I believe you must have been chaffing, and because it's my first
proposal; so at all events I can't die without having had at least one.
Now, do be sensible and take me back, or I shall have to find my way
alone,--or else ask a strange cadet to pilot me."
That threat found a vulnerable spot; and he was not half bad on the way
home--perhaps no worse than the name of the Walk allowed.
I was a good deal excited about the ball, as it was my very first.
Sally Woodburn had looked at my things, and told me what to bring. Not
that it was a hard choice, for I have only four frocks with me, in
which I could go to a dance. The one Sally wanted me to wear at West
Point is a little white thing, of embroidered India muslin. Thompson
made it after one of Vic's, and it is a rag compared to Sally's and
Mrs. Ess Kay's gorgeous things. But when Sally had done my hair in a
new way, (they had left Louise behind, as there was no room for her),
and fastened round my throat a lovely string of pearls she brought on
purpose, I looked quite nice.
The "hop" was in a great big room which the cadets use for something or
other, I forget what; and it was decorated with quantities of American
flags. There were lots of girls--the youngest things! hardly any of
them could have been out--but there were even more men; counting
officers and cadets, at least two for each girl.