TRIXY'S PARTY.
Two weeks sufficed for Miss Darrell's preparations. A quantity of new
linen, three new dresses, one hat, one spring sacque--that was all.
Mr. Darrell had consented--what was there he could have refused his
darling? He had consented, hiding the bitter pang it cost him, deep in
his own quiet heart. It was the loss of her mother over again; the
tender passion and the present Mrs. Darrell were two facts perfectly
incompatible.
Mrs. Darrell aided briskly in the preparation--to tell the truth, she
was not sorry to be rid of her step-daughter, between whom and herself
perpetual war raged. Edith as a worker was a failure; she went about
the dingy house, in her dingy dresses, with the air of an out-at-elbows
duchess. She snubbed the boarders, she boxed the juvenile Darrell's
ears, she "sassed" the mistress of the house.
"It speaks volumes for your amiability, Dithy," Charley remarked, "the
intense eagerness and delight, with which everybody in this
establishment hails your departure. Four dirty little Darrells run
about the passages with their war-whoop, 'Dithy's going--hooray! Now
we'll have fun!' Your step-mother's sere and yellow visage beams with
bliss; even the young gentlemen who are lodged and boarded, Greek-ed
and Latin-ed here, wear faces of suppressed relief, that tells its own
tale to the student of human nature. Your welfare must be unspeakably
precious to them, Edie, when they bear their approaching bereavement
so well."
He paused. The speech was a lengthy one, and lengthy speeches mostly
exhausted Mr. Stuart. He lay back, watching his fair relative as she
sat sewing near, with lazy, half-closed eyes.
Her work dropped in her lap, a faint flush rose up over her dusk face.
"Charley," she responded, gravely, "I don't wonder you say this--it is
true, and nobody feels it more than I. I _am_ a disagreeable creature,
a selfish nuisance, an idle, discontented kill-joy. I only wonder,
you are not afraid to take me with you at all."
Mr. Stuart sat up, rather surprised.
"My dearest coz, _don't_ be so tremendously in earnest. If I had
thought you were going to take it seriously--"
"Let us be serious for once--we have all our lives left for
quarrelling," said Miss Darrell, as though quarrelling were a pleasant
recreation. "I sit down and try to think sometimes why I am so
miserable--so wretched in my present life, why I hail the prospect of
a new one with such delight. I see other girls--nicer, cleverer girls
than I am every way, and their lives suffice for them--the daily,
domestic routine that is most horrible drudgery to me, pleases and
satisfies them. It must be that I have an incapacity for life; I
daresay when the novelty and gloss wear off, I shall tire equally of
the life I am going to. A new dress, a dance, a beau, and the hope of
a prospective husband suffices for the girls I speak of. For me--none
of your sarcastic smiles, sir--the thought of a future husband is--"
"Only vanity and vexation of spirit. But there _is_ a future husband.
You are forced to admit that, Dithy. I wonder what he is to be like?
A modern Sir Launcelot, with the beauty of all the gods, the courage
of a Coeur de Lion, the bow of a Chesterfield, and the purse of
Fortunatus. That's the photo, isn't it?"
"No, sir--not a bit like it. The purse of a Fortunatus, if you like--I
ask nothing more. The Sir Launcelots of life, if they exist at all,
are mostly poor men, and I don't want anything to do with poor men. My
marriage is to be a purely business transaction--I settled _that_
long ago. He may have the form and face of a Satyr; he may have
seventy years, so that he be worth a million or so, I will drop my
best courtesy when he asks, and say, 'Yes, and thanky, sir.' If the
Apollo himself, knelt before me with an empty purse, I should turn my
back upon him in pity and disdain."
"Is that meant for me, Edie?" Mr. Stuart inquired, rising on his elbow,
and admiringly gazing at his own handsome face in the glass. "Because
if it is, don't excite yourself. Forewarned is forearmed--I'm not
going to ask you."
"I never thought you were," Edith said, laughing. "I never aspired so
high. As well love some bright particular star, etcetera, etcetera, as
the only son of James Stuart, Esquire, lineal descendant of the
Princes of Scotland, and banker of Wall Street. No, Charley, I know
what _you_ will do. You'll drift through life for the next three or
four years, as you have drifted up to the present, well looking, well
dressed, well mannered, and then some day your father will come to
you and say gruffly, 'Charles!' (Edith grows dramatic as she
narrates--it is a husky masculine voice that speaks:) 'Here's Miss
Petroleum's father, with a million and a half--only child--order a
suit of new clothes and go and ask her to marry you!' And you will
look at him with a helpless sigh, and go. Your father will select your
wife, sir, and you'll take her, like a good boy, when you're told. I
shouldn't wonder now, but that it is to select a wife for you, and a
husband for Trixy, he is taking this projected trip to Europe."
"Shouldn't you? Neither should I. Never wonder. Against my principles,"
Charley murmurs.
"There are plenty of titled aristocracy abroad--so I am told--ready to
silver-gild their coronets by a union with plutocracy. Plenty Lady
Janes and Lady Marys ready to sell themselves to the highest bidder."
"As Edith Darrell is?"
"As Edith Darrell is. It's all very fine talking of love and devotion,
and the emptiness of life without. Believe me, if one has plenty of
money one can dispense with love. I've read a good many novels, but
they haven't turned my head on _that_ subject. From all I've read,
indeed, I should think it must be a very uncomfortable sort of
intermittent fever, indeed. Don't love anybody except yourself, and it
is out of the power of any human being to make you _very_ wretched."
"A sentiment whose truth is only equaled by its--selfishness."
"Yes, it is selfish; and it is your thoroughly selfish people, who get
the best of everything in this world. I am selfish and worldly--ambitious
and heartless, and all that is abominable. I may as well own it. You'll
find it out for yourself soon."
"A most unnecessary acknowledgment, my dear child--it is patent to the
dullest observer. But, now, Edith--look here--this is serious, mind!"
He raises himself again on his elbow, and looks, with a curious smile
into her darkly-earnest, cynical young face. "Suppose I am madly in
love with you--'madly in love' is the correct phrase, isn't
it?--suppose I am at your feet, going through all the phases of the
potential mood, 'commanding, exhorting, entreating' you to marry
me--you wouldn't say no, would you, Edie? You like me--don't deny it.
You know you do--like me well enough to marry me to-morrow. Would you
refuse me in spite of my dependence on my father, and my empty purse?"
He took her hand, and held it tightly, despite her struggles.
"Would you, Edie?" he says, putting his arm around her waist. "I'm not
a sentimental fellow, but I believe in love. Come! you wouldn't--you
couldn't bid me go."
Her color had risen--that lovely rose-pink color, that lit her
brunette face into such beauty--but she resolutely freed herself, and
met his half-tender, half-merry glance, full.
"I would," she said, "if I--liked you so, that you filled my whole
heart. Let me go, sir, and no more of this nonsense. I know what
I am talking about, and what comes of marrying for love. There was
my own mother, she left a rich and luxurious home, wealthy suitors,
all the comforts and elegances of life, without which life isn't
worth living, and ran away with papa. Then followed long years of
poverty, discomfort, illness, and miserable grubbing. She never
complained--perhaps she wasn't even very unhappy; her's wasn't the
sort of love that flies out of the window when poverty comes in at
the door--she just faded away and died. For myself I have been
dissatisfied with _my_ lot ever since I can remember--pining for
the glory and grandeur of this wicked world. There is but one way
in which they can ever be mine--by marriage. If marriage will not
bring them, then I will go to my grave Edith Darrell."
"Which I don't think you will," Mr. Stuart responded. "Young ladies
like you, who set out on the search-matrimonial with lots of
common-sense, worldliness, selfishness, and mercenary motives,
generally reach the goal. It's a fair enough exchange--so much youth
and good looks for so many thousand dollars. I wish you all success,
Miss Darrell, in your laudable undertaking. It is well we should
understand each other, at once and forever, or even I some day might
be tempted to make a fool of myself. Your excellent counsels, my
dearest cousin, will be invaluable to me, should my lagging footsteps
falter by the way. Edith! where have you learned to be so hard, so
worldly, so--if you will pardon me--so unwomanly?"
"Is it unwomanly?" she repeated dreamily. "Well, perhaps it is. I am
honest at least--give me credit for that. My own hard life has taught
me, books have taught me, looking at my mother and listening to my
step-mother have taught me. I feel old at eighteen--old and tired. I
am just one of those girls, I think, who turn out very good or very
bad women, as fate deals with them. It's not too late yet to draw back,
Charley. Your mother can easily get another young lady to do the
French and German business. You can tell her I don't suit, and leave
me at home."
"Not too late to draw back," he said, with his indolent smile. "Is
there ever such a thing as drawing back at all? What is done is done.
I couldn't go without you now, if I tried. O, don't look alarmed, I
don't mean anything. You amuse and interest me, that is all. You're
something of a study--entirely different from the genus young lady I'm
accustomed to. Only--keep your frankness for Cousin Charley, he's
harmless; don't display it to the rest of the world. It might spoil
your chances. Even senile millionnaires don't care to walk into the
trap, unless the springs are hidden in roses. Come, throw down that
endless sewing, and let's have a walk on the beach. Who knows when we
may see the sun go down, together again, over the classic waters of
Sandypoint Bay."
Edith laughed, but she rose to obey.
"And I thought you were not sentimental. One would think it the Bay of
Naples. However, as we start to-morrow, I don't mind going down and
bidding the old rocks and sands good-by."
She put on her hat, and the two went wandering away together, to watch
the sun set over the sea. In the rosy light of the spring sunset, the
fishing boats drifted on the shining waters, and the fisherman's chant
came borne to their ears.
"It reminds me of that other April evening two years ago, Dithy, when
we came down here to say good-by. You cried then at parting--do you
remember? But you were only sixteen, poor child, and knew no better.
You wouldn't cry now, would you, for any man in the universe?"
"Not for Charley Stuart certainly--he needn't think it."
"He doesn't think it, my pet; he never looks for impossibilities. I
wonder if that night in the snow were to come again if you'd risk your
life now, as you did then?"
"Risk my life! What bosh! There was no risk; and bad as I am, and
heartless as I've grown, I don't think--I _don't_ think I'd walk
away, and leave any poor wretch to die. Yes, Charley, if the night in
the snow came over again, I'd do now as I did then."
"I don't believe it was a kindness after all," Charley responds. "I
have a presentiment that a day will come, Dithy, when I'll hate you.
I shouldn't have suffered much if you had let me freeze to death. And
I've a strong prescience (is that the word) that I'll fall in love
with you some day, and be jilted, and undergo untold torture, and hate
you with a perfect frenzy. It will be a very fatiguing experience, but
I feel in my bones that it is to be."
"Indeed! A Saul among the prophets. I shall not be surprised, however;
it is my usual fate to be hated. And now, as we seem to have drifted
into disagreeable and personal sort of talk, suppose we change the
subject? There is a dory yonder; if your indolent sultanship can bear
the labor of steering, I'll give you a last row across the bay."
They take the dory and glide away. Charley lies back, his hat pulled
over his eyes, smoking a cigar and steering. She has the oars, the red
sunlight is on her face. Edith defies tan and sunburn. She looks at
lazy Charley, and sings as she pulls, a saucy smile of defiance on her
lips:
"It was on a Monday morning,
Right early in the year,
That Charley came to our town,
The young Chevalier.
And Charley he's my darling,
My darling, my darling;
And Charley he's my darling,
The young Chevalier!"
What Charley answers is not on record. Perhaps the aged millionnaire,
who is to be the future happy possessor of Miss Darrell's charms,
would not care to hear it. They drift on--they are together--they ask
no more. The rosy after-glow of the sunset fades out, the night comes
white with stars, the faint spring wind sighs over the bay, and both
are silent. "And," says Charley's inner consciousness, "if this be not
falling in love, I wonder what is?"
They linger yet longer. It is the last night, and romantically enough,
for so worldly and cynical a pair, they watch the faint little April
moon rise. Edith looks over her left shoulder at it, and says
something under her breath.
"What invocation are you murmuring there?" Charley asks, half asleep.
"I was wishing. I always wish when I see the new moon."
"For a rich husband of course, Edie!" He sits up suddenly. "There's
the baronet! Suppose you go for _him_."
"'Go for him!' What a horribly vulgar way you have of speaking. No.
I'll leave him for Trixy. Have you had enough of starlight and
moonlight, Mr. Stuart, on Sandypoint Bay, because I'm going to turn
and row home. I've had no supper, and I shall eat you if we stay here
fasting much longer."
She rows back, and arm in arm they ascend the rocky path, and linger
one last moment at the garden gate.
"So ends the old life," Edith says, softly. "It is my last night at
home. I ought to feel sad, I suppose, but I don't. I never felt so
happy in my life."
He is holding her hand. For two who are not lovers, and never mean to
be, they understand each other wonderfully well.
"And remember your promise," he answers. "Let the life that is coming
bring what it may, you are never to blame me."
Then Mrs. Darrell's tall, spare figure appears in the moonlight,
summoning them sharply to tea, and hands are unclasped, and in silence
they follow her.
The first train from Sandypoint to Boston bears away Edith Darrell and
Charley Stuart. Not alone together, however--forbid it Mrs. Grundy!
Mrs. Rogers, the Sandypoint milliner, is going to New York for the
summer fashions, and the young lady travels under her protection. They
reach Boston in time for the train that connects with the Fall River
boats. It has been a day of brightest sunshine; it is a lovely spring
night. They dine on board. Mrs. Rogers is sleepy and tired and goes to
bed (she and Edith share the same state-room), with a last charge to
Mr. Stuart not to keep Miss Darrell too long on deck in the night air.
They float grandly up the bright river. Two wandering harpists and a
violinist play very sweetly near them, and they walk up and down,
talking and feeling uncommonly happy and free, until Charley's watch
points to eleven, and the music comes to a stop. They say good-night.
She goes to Mrs. Rogers and the upper berth, and Mr. Stuart
meditatively turns to his own. He is thinking, that all things
considered, it is just as well this particularly fascinating
companionship, ends in a manner to-morrow.
To-morrow comes. It is Miss Beatrix Stuart's birthday. The great party
is to be to-night. They shake hands and part with Mrs. Rogers on the
pier. Charley hails a hack and assists his cousin in, and they are
whirled off to the palatial avenue up-town.
The house is a stately brown-stone front, of course, and on a sunny
corner. Edith leans back, quite silent, her heart beating as she looks.
The whirl, the crash, the rush of New York streets stun her, the
stateliness of the Stuart mansion awes her. She is very pale, her lips
are set together. She turns to Charley suddenly, and holds out her
hands to him as a helpless child might.
"I feel lost already, and--and ever so little afraid. How big and
grand it looks. Don't desert me, Charley. I feel as though I were
astray in a strange land."
He squeezes the little hand, he whispers something reassuring, and
life and color come back to her face.
"Make your mind easy, Dithy," is what he says. "Like Mrs. Micawber,
'I'll never desert you.'"
He rings the door bell sharply, a smart-looking young woman admits
them, and Edith goes with him into a splendid and spacious apartment,
where three people sit at breakfast. Perhaps it is the garish sunshine,
sparkling on so much cut glass and silver, that dazzles Edith's eyes,
but for a minute she can see nothing. Then the mist clears away, the
trio have risen--a pompous-looking old gentleman in a shining bald
head and expansive white vest, a pallid, feeble-looking elderly lady
in a lace cap, and a tall, stylish girl, with Charley's eyes and hair,
in violet ribbons and white cashmere. The bald gentlemen shakes hands
with her, and welcomes her in a husky baritone; the faded, elderly
lady, and stylish young lady kiss her, and say some very pleasant and
gracious words. As in a dream Edith sees and hears all--as in a dream
she is led off by Beatrix.
"I shall take you to your room myself. I only hope you may like it.
The furniture and arrangement are my taste, every bit. Oh you dear
darling!" cries Miss Stuart, stopping in the passage to give Edith a
hug. "You don't know how frightened I've been that you wouldn't come.
I'm in love with you already! And what a heroine you are--a real
Grace--what's-her-name--saving Charley's life and all that. And best
of all, you're in time for the ball--which is a rhyme, though I didn't
mean it." She laughs and suddenly gives Edith another hug. "You pretty
creature!" she says; "I'd no idea you were half so good-looking. I
asked Charley, but you might as well ask a lamp-post as Charley. Here
is your room--how do you like it?"
She would have been difficult to please indeed, if she had not liked
it. To Edith's inexperienced eyes, it is a glowing nest of amber silk
curtains, yellowish Brussells carpet, tinted walls, pretty pictures,
gilt frames, mirrors, ornaments, and dainty French bed.
"Do you like it? But I see by your face you do. I'm so glad. This is
my room adjoining, and here's your bath. Now lay off your things and
come down to breakfast."
Still in a dream Edith obeys. She descends to breakfast in her gray
travelling suit, looking pale, and not at all brilliant. Miss Stuart,
who has had her doubts, that this country cousin may prove a rival, is
reassured. She takes her breakfast, and then Beatrix conducts her over
the house--a wonder of splendor, of velvet carpets, magnificent
upholstering, lace drapings, gilding and ormolu. But her face keeps
its pale, grave look. Trixy wonders if she is not a stupid little body
after all. Last of all they reach the sacred privacy of Trixy's own
room, and there she displays her ball dress. She expiates on its make
and its merits, in professional language, and with a volubility that
makes Edith's head swim.
"It is made with a court train, trimmed with a deep flounce, waved in
the lower edge, and this flounce is trimmed with four narrow flounces,
edged with narrow point lace. The sides are _en revers_, with sashes
tied in butterfly bow in the centre of the back, below the puffing
of the skirt near the waist. The front of the skirt is trimmed to
correspond with the train, the short apron, flounced and trimmed with
point lace, gathered up at the sides, under the _revers_ on the train.
The waist is high in the shoulders, V shaped in front and back, with
small flowing sleeves, finished with plaitings of white silk tulle.
And now," cries Trixy, breathless and triumphant, "if _that_ doesn't
fetch the baronet, you may tell me what will! The pearls are
superb--here they are. Pearls are _en regle_ for weddings only, but
how was poor pa to know that? Arn't they lovely?"
They lie in their cloudy luster, necklet, earrings, bracelet.
"Lovely!" Edith repeats; "lovely indeed. Beatrix, what a fortunate
girl you are."
There is a touch of envy in her tone. Beatrix laughs, and gives her a
third hug.
"Why? Because I have pearls? Bless you! they're nothing. You'll have
diamonds beyond counting yourself, one of those days. You'll marry
rich, of course--brunettes are all the style now, and you're sure to
look lovely by gaslight. What are you going to wear to-night?"
"I'm like Flora McFlimsey," Edith laughs; "I have nothing to wear.
There is a white Swiss muslin in my trunk, but it will look wofully
rustic and dowdy, I'm afraid, in your gorgeous drawing-rooms."
"Nonsense! Plain Swiss is always in taste for girls of eighteen. I
wore it greatly my first season. Do you know I feel awfully old,
Edith--twenty-one to-night! I _must_ do something toward settling
before the year ends. Let us see the white Swiss. Now there is a
lovely amber tissue I have--it isn't my color. I never wore it but
once, and it would suit you exactly. Lucy, my maid, is a perfect
dress-maker, and could alter it to fit you easily before--Now, Edith!
you're not angry?"
For the color has risen suddenly all over Edith's proud, pale face.
"You have made a mistake, Miss Stuart, that is all--meant kindly, I am
sure. If my white muslin is admissible, I will wear it; if not, I can
keep to my room. But neither now, nor at any future time, can I
accept--charity."
Trixy gives a little shriek at the word, and inflicts a fourth hug on
Edith. She is the soul of easy good-nature herself, and ready to take
anything and everything that is offered her, from a husband to a
bouquet.
"Bless the child!" she exclaims. "Charity! As if any one ever thought
of such a thing. It's just like me, however, to make a mess of it. I
mean well, but somehow I always _do_ make a mess of it. And my
prophetic soul tells me, the case of Sir Victor Catheron will be no
exception to the rest."
The day wears on. Edith drives down town, shopping with Madame and
Mademoiselle Stuart; she returns, and dines in state with the family.
The big, brown house is lit up from basement to attic, and presently
they all adjourn to their rooms to dress.
"Don't ask me to appear while you are receiving your guests," Edith
says. "I'll step in unobserved, when everybody has come."
She declines all offers of assistance, and dresses herself. It is a
simple toilet surely--the crisp white muslin, out of which the
polished shoulders rise; a little gold chain and cross, once her
mother's; earrings and bracelet of gold and coral, also once her
mother's; and her rich, abundant, blackish-brown hair, gathered back
in a graceful way peculiar to herself. She looks very pretty, and she
knows it. Presently sails in Miss Stuart, resplendent in the pink silk
and pearls, the "court train" trailing two or three yards behind her,
her light hair "done up" in a pyramid wonderful to behold, and loaded
with camelias.
"How do I look, Dithy? This strawberry-ice pink is awfully becoming to
me, isn't it? And you--why, you look lovely--lovely! I'd no idea you
made up so handsomely. Ah! we blondes have no chance by gaslight,
against you brunettes."
She sweeps downstairs in her rose-colored splendor, and Edith is alone.
She sits by the open window, and looks out at the night life of the
great city. Carriage after carriage roll up to the door, and somehow,
in the midst of all this life, and brightness, and bustle, a strange
feeling of loneliness and isolation comes over her. Is it the old
chronic discontent cropping up again? If it were only not improper for
Charley to come up here and sit beside her, and smoke, in the sweet
spring dusk, and be sarcastic as usual, what a comfort it would be
just now! Somehow--"how it comes let doctors tell"--that restless
familiar of hers is laid when _he_ is by her side--never lonely,
never discontented then. As she thinks this, innocently enough,
despite all her worldly wisdom, there is a tap at the door, and Lucy,
the maid, comes smilingly in, holding an exquisite bouquet, all pink
and white roses, in her hand.
"Mr. Charles' compliments, please, miss, and he's waiting for you at
the foot of the stairs, when you're ready, miss, for the ball-room."
She starts and colors with pleasure.
"Thank you, Lucy!" she says, taking the bouquet. "Tell Mr. Stuart I
will be down in a moment."
The girl leaves the room.
With a smile on her face it is just as well "Mr. Charles" does not see,
she stands looking at her roses; then she buries her face, almost as
bright, in their dewy sweetness.
"Dear, thoughtful Charley!" she whispers gratefully. "What would ever
have become of me but for him?"
She selects one or two bits of scarlet blossom and green spray, and
artistically twists them in the rich waves of her hair. She takes one
last glance at her own pretty image in the mirror, sees that fan,
lace-handkerchief, and adornment generally, are in their places, and
then trips away and goes down.
In elegant evening costume, looking unutterably handsome and
well-dressed, Mr. Charles Stuart stands at the foot of the grand
stairway, waiting. He looks at her as she stands in the full glare of
the gasaliers.
"White muslin, gold and coral, pink roses, and no chignon. My dear
Miss Darrell, taking you as a whole, I think I have seen worse-looking
young women in my life."
He draws her hand through his arm, with this enthusiastic remark, and
Edith finds herself in a blaze of light and a crowd of brilliantly
dressed people. Three long drawing-rooms are thrown open, _en suite_;
beyond is the ball-room, with its waxed flows and invisible musicians.
Flowers, gaslight, jewels, handsome women, and gallant men are
everywhere; the band is crashing out a pulse-tingling waltz, and still
Edith hears and sees, and moves in a dream.
"Come," Charley says. His arm is around her waist, and they whirl away
among the waltzers. Edith waltzes well, so does Charley. She feels as
though she were floating on air, not on earth. Then it is over, and
she is being introduced to people, to resplendent young ladies and
almost equally resplendent young gentlemen. Charley resigns her to one
of these latter, and she glides through a mazurka. That too ends, and
as it grows rather warm, her partner leads her away to a cool
music-room, whence proceed melodious sounds. It is Trixy at the piano,
informing a select audience in shrill soprano, and in the character of
the "Queen of the May," that "She had been wild and wayward, but she
was not wayward _now_." Edith's partner finds her a seat and
volunteers to go for an ice. As she sits fanning herself, she sees
Charley approaching with a young man of about his own age, taller than
he is--fairer, with a look altogether somehow of a different
nationality. He has large blue eyes, very fair hair, and the blondest
of complexions. Instinctively she knows who it is.
"Ah, Edith," Charley says, "here you are. I have been searching for
you. Miss Darrell, allow me to present to you Sir Victor Catheron."