It was New-Year's day, and His Excellency the President had had several
months in which to endeavor to adjust himself to the exigencies of his
position; though whether he had accomplished this with a result of
entire satisfaction to himself and all parties concerned and
unconcerned, had, perhaps unfortunately, not been a matter of record.
According to a time-honored custom, he had been placed at the slight
disadvantage of being called upon to receive, from time to time, the
opinions of the nation concerning himself without the opportunity of
expressing, with any degree of publicity, his own opinions regarding the
nation; no bold spirit having as yet suggested that such a line of
procedure might at least be embellished with the advantage of entire
novelty, apart from the possibility of its calling forth such
originality and force of statement as would present to the national mind
questions never before discussed, and perhaps not wholly unimportant.
All had, however, been done which could be done by a nation justly
distinguished for its patriotic consideration for, and courtesy toward,
the fortunate persons elevated to the position of representing its
dignity at home and abroad. Nothing which could add to that dignity had
been neglected; no effort which could place it in its proper light, and
remove all difficulty from the pathway of the figure endeavoring
creditably to support it, had been spared. The character of the
successful candidate for presidential office having been, during the
campaign, effectually disposed of,--his morals having been impugned, his
honor rent to tatters, his intellectual capacity pronounced far below
the lowest average,--united good feeling was the result, and there
seemed little more to attain. His past had been exhausted. Every event
of his political career and domestic life had been held up to public
derision, laudation, and criticism. It had been successfully proved that
his education had been entirely neglected, and that his advantages had
been marvellous; that he had read Greek at the tender age of four years,
and that he had not learned to read at all until he attained his
majority; that his wife had taught him his letters, and that he had
taught his wife to spell; that he was a liar, a forger, and a thief;
that he was a model of virtue, probity, and honor,--each and all of
which incontrovertible facts had been public property and a source of
national pride and delight.
After the election, however, the fact that he had had a past at all had
ceased to be of any moment whatever. A future--of four years--lay before
him, and must be utilized; after that, the Deluge. The opposing party
sneered, vilified, and vaunted themselves in the truth of their
predictions concerning his incapacity; the non-opposing party advised,
lauded, cautioned, mildly discouraged, and in a most human revulsion of
feeling showed their unprejudiced frankness by openly condemning on
frequent occasions. The head of the nation having appointed an official
from among his immediate supporters, there arose a clamor of adverse
criticism upon a course which lowered the gifts of his sacred office to
the grade of mere payment for value received. Having made a choice from
without the circle, he called down upon himself frantic accusations of
ingratitude to those to whom he owed all. There lay before him the
agreeable alternatives of being a renegade or a monument of bribery and
corruption, and if occasionally these alternatives lost for a moment
their attractiveness, and the head of the nation gave way to a sense of
perplexity, and was guilty of forming in secret a vague wish that the
head of the nation was on some other individual's shoulders, or even
went to the length of wishing that the head upon his own shoulders was
his own property, and not a football for the vivacious strength of the
nation to expend itself upon,--if this occurred, though it is by no
means likely, it certainly revealed a weakness of character and
inadequacy to the situation which the nation could not have failed to
condemn. The very reasonable prophecy,--made by the party whose
candidate had not been elected,--that the government must inevitably go
to destruction and the country to perdition, had, through some singular
oversight on the part of the powers threatened, not been fulfilled.
After waiting in breathless suspense for the occurrence of these
catastrophes, and finding that they had apparently been postponed until
the next election, the government had drawn a sigh of relief, and the
country had gained courage to bestir itself cheerfully, with a view to
such perquisites as might be obtained by active effort and a strong
sense of general personal worthiness and fitness for any position.
There had descended upon the newly elected ruler an avalanche of seekers
for office, a respectable number of whom laid in his hands the future
salvation of their souls and bodies, and generously left to him the
result. He found himself suddenly established as the guardian of the
widow, the orphan, and the friendless, and required to repair fortunes
or provide them, as the case might be, at a moment's notice; his
sympathies were appealed to, his interests, his generosity, as an
altogether omnipotent power in whose hands all things lay, and whose
word was naturally law upon all occasions, great or small; and any
failure on his part to respond to the entirely reasonable requests
preferred was very properly laid to a tendency to abandoned scheming or
to the heartless indifference of the great, which decision disposed of
all difficulties in the argument, apart from such trivial ones as were
left to the portion of the delinquent and were not referred to. Being
called upon in his selection of his cabinet to display the judgment of
Solomon, the diplomacy of Talleyrand, and the daring of Napoleon, and
above all to combine like powers in each official chosen, he might have
faltered but for the assistance proffered him from all sides. This, and
the fact that there was no lack of the qualifications required,
supported him. Each day some monument of said qualifications, and others
too numerous to mention, was presented to his notice. To propitiate the
South it was suggested that he should appoint A----; to secure the
North, B----; to control the East, C----; to sweep the West, D----; and
to unite the country, E----. Circumstances having finally led him to
decide upon G----, the government appeared to be in jeopardy again;
but--possibly through having made use of its numerous opportunities of
indulging in acrobatic efforts in the direction of losing its balance
and regaining it again in an almost incredible manner--it recovered from
the shock, and even retained its equilibrium, upon finding itself in the
end saddled with a cabinet whose selection was universally acknowledged
to be a failure when it was not denounced as a crime.
On this particular New Year's day there were few traces on the social
surface of the disasters which so short a time before had threatened to
engulf all. Washington wore an aspect even gayer than usual. The
presidential reception began the day in its most imposing manner. Lines
of carriages thronged the drive before the White House, and the
diplomatists, statesmen, officials, and glittering beings in naval and
military uniform, who descended from them, were possibly cheered and
encouraged by the comments of the lookers-on, who knew them and their
glories and their shortcomings by heart. The comments were not specially
loud, however. That which in an English crowd takes the form of amiable
or unamiable clamor, in an American gathering of a like order resolves
itself into a serene readiness of remark, which exalts or disposes of a
dignity with equal impartiality, and an ingenuous fearlessness of any
consequence whatever, which would seem to argue that all men are born
free and some equal, though the last depends entirely upon
circumstances. Each vehicle, having drawn up, deposited upon the stone
steps of the broad portico a more or less picturesque or interesting
personage. Now it was the starred and ribboned representative of some
European court; again, a calm-visaged Japanese or Chinese official, in
all the splendor of flowing robes and brilliant color; and, again, a man
in citizen's clothes, whose unimposing figure represented such political
eminence as to create more stir among the lookers-on than all the rest.
Among equipages, there drove up at length a rather elegant little
_coupé_, from which, when its door was opened, there sprang lightly to
the stone steps the graceful figure of a young man, followed by an elder
one. The young fellow, who was talking with much animation, turned an
exhilaratingly bright face upon the crowd about him.
"On the whole, I rather like it," he said.
"Oh!" responded his companion, "as to that, you like everything. I never
saw such a fellow."
The younger man laughed quite joyously.
"There is a great deal of truth in that," he said, "and I don't suppose
you will deny that it is an advantage."
"An advantage!" repeated the other. "By Jupiter, I should think it was
an advantage! Now, how long do you think this fellow will keep us
waiting when we want him?"
"Oh!" was the answer; "he is Mrs. Amory's coachman, you know, and there
isn't a doubt that he has had excellent training. She isn't fond of
waiting."
"No," said the other, with a peculiar smile. "I should fancy she wasn't.
Well, I guess we'll go in."
They turned to do so, and found themselves near a tall man in uniform,
who almost immediately turned also, and revealed the soldierly visage of
Colonel Tredennis.
He made a quick movement forward, which seemed to express some surprise.
"What, Amory!" he exclaimed. "You here, too? I was not at all sure that
you had returned."
"I am scarcely sure myself yet," answered Richard, as he shook hands.
"It only happened last night; but Bertha has been home a week. Is it
possible you haven't seen her?"
"I have not seen anybody lately," said Tredennis, "and I did not know
that she had returned until I read her name in the list of those who
would receive."
"Oh, of course she will receive," said Richard. "And Planefield and
I--you have met Senator Planefield?"
"How do you do?" said Senator Planefield, without any special
manifestation of delight.
Tredennis bowed, and Richard went on airily, as they made their way in:
"Planefield and I have been sent out to do duty, and our list extends
from Capitol Hill to Georgetown Heights."
"And he," said Senator Planefield, "professes to enjoy the prospect."
"Why not?" said Richard. "It is a bright, bracing day, and there is
something exhilarating in driving from house to house, to find one's
self greeted at each by a roomful of charming women,--most of them
pretty, some of them brilliant, all of them well dressed and in holiday
spirits. It is delightful."
"Do _you_ find it delightful?" inquired Planefield, turning with some
abruptness to Tredennis.
"I am obliged to own that I don't shine in society," answered Tredennis.
He knew there was nothing to resent in the question, but he was
conscious of resenting something in the man himself. His big,
prosperous-looking body and darkly florid face, with its heavy, handsome
outlines, and keen, bold eyes, had impressed him unpleasantly from the
first, and on each occasion of their meeting the impression seemed to
deepen.
"Well, Amory shines," was his response, "and so does Mrs. Amory. We are
to drop in and see her shine, as often as we happen to be in the
neighborhood through the day."
They had reached the threshold of the reception-room by this time, and
Richard, catching the last words, turned and spoke.
"Of course you will be there yourself in the course of the day," he
said. "We shall possibly meet you--and, by-the-by, you will see Mrs.
Sylvestre. She arrived two days ago."
When they came out again Richard was in more buoyant spirits than
before. The lighted rooms, the brilliant dresses, the many faces he knew
or did not know, the very crush itself, had acted upon him like a fine
wind. He issued forth into the light of day again, girded and eager for
his day's work.
"There is nothing like Washington," he announced, "and especially
nothing like Washington at the beginning of the season. Just at the
outset, when one is meeting people for the first time since their
return, they actually have the air of being glad to see one, and a man
has a delightful evanescent sense of being somehow positively popular."
"Does it make _you_ feel popular?" demanded Planefield of Tredennis, in
his unceremonious fashion.
Tredennis presented to him an entirely immovable front.
"How do _you_ find it?" he inquired.
The man laughed.
"Not as Amory does," he answered.
When the _coupé_ appeared and he took his place at Richard's side, he
bent forward to bestow on Tredennis, as they drove away, a glance
expressive of but little favor.
"I don't like that fellow," he said. "Confound him!"
Richard settled himself in his corner of the carriage, folding his
fur-trimmed coat about him quite luxuriously.
"Oh, no. Not confound him," he replied. "He is a delightful fellow--in
his way."
"Confound his way, then," responded Planefield. "There's too much of
it."
Richard leaned slightly forward to look at the tall, motionless figure
himself, and the faintest possible change passed over his face as he did
so.
"He is not exactly a malleable sort of fellow," he remarked, "and I
suppose there might arise occasions when he would be a little in the
way; but there is no denying that he is picturesque."
"Oh!" exclaimed his companion, with more fervor than grace. "The devil
take his picturesqueness!"
In the meantime Colonel Tredennis awaited the arrival of his own
carriage, which had fallen back in the line. The surging of the crowd
about him, the shouts of the policemen as they called up the vehicles,
the rolling of vehicles and opening and shutting of doors, united
themselves in an uproar which seemed to afford him a kind of seclusion.
The subject of his thoughts as he stood in the midst of the throng was
not a new one; it was one from whose presence he had ceased to expect to
free himself; but as the information in the morning paper had
accelerated the pulse of emotion in him, so his brief interview with
Richard Amory had quickened it again. Since the day when he had left her
in Virginia, five months before, he had not seen Bertha at all, and had
only heard from her directly once. She had been at Long Branch,
Saratoga, Newport, and afterward visiting friends in the northern
cities. After his return from the West, Richard had frequently been with
her, and their letters to the professor had informed him that they were
well and were involved in a round of gayeties.
How the time had passed for Tredennis he could not himself have told.
When he had returned to Washington he had lived and moved as a man in a
dream. The familiar streets and buildings wore an unfamiliar look. It
was a relief to find the places more deserted than before; his chief
desire was to be, if possible, entirely alone. In the first vivid
freshness of his impressions it seemed incredible that the days he had
been living through had come to an end, and that absolutely nothing
remained but the strange memory of them. At times it appeared that
something must happen,--some impossible thing which would give reality
to the past and motive to the future. If in any of his nightly walks
before the closed and silent house he had suddenly seen that the
shutters were opened and lights were shining within; if Bertha herself
had, without warning, stood at the window and smiled upon him, he would
have felt it at first only natural, even though he knew she was hundreds
of miles away.
This for a few weeks, and then his exaltation died a gradual death for
want of sustenance, and there remained only the long, sultry days to be
lived through and their work to be done. They were lived through, and
their work was not neglected; but there was no one of them which dragged
its slow length by without leaving marks upon him which neither time nor
change could erase in any future that might come.
"Five months," he said, as he waited with the clamor about him, "is
longer than it seems--it is longer."
And Miss Jessup, passing him at the moment and looking up, found herself
so utterly at a loss for an adjective adequate to the description of his
expression, that her own bright and alert little countenance fell, and
existence temporarily palled upon her.
It was late in the day when he reached the Amorys. When he drove up
several carriages stood before the door, one of them Bertha's own, from
which Richard and Planefield had just descended. Two or three men were
going into the house, and one or two were leaving it. Through the open
door were to be seen the lighted hall, and glimpses of bright rooms
beyond, from which came the sound of voices, laughter, and the clink of
glass.
Richard entered the house with Tredennis, and flung off his rather
sumptuous outer garment with a laugh of relief.
"We have made fifty calls so far," he said, "and have enjoyed them
enormously. What have you accomplished?"
"Not fifty, by any means," Tredennis answered, and then the man-servant
took his coat, and they went into the parlors.
They seemed to be full of men,--young men, middle-aged men, old men;
even a half-grown boy or two had timorously presented themselves, with
large hopes of finding dazzling entertainment in the convivialities of
the day. The shutters were closed and the rooms brilliantly alight;
there were flowers in every available corner, and three or four
charmingly dressed women, each forming a bright central figure in a
group of black coats, gave themselves to their task of entertainment
with delightful animation.
For a moment Tredennis stood still. He did not see Bertha at once,
though he fancied he heard her voice in the room adjoining, where,
through the half-drawn _portières_, were to be seen men standing, with
coffee-cups, wine-glasses, or little plates in their hands, about a
table bright with flowers, fruits, and all the usual glittering
appurtenances. The next instant, amid a fresh burst of laughter, which
she seemed to leave behind her, she appeared upon the threshold.
As she paused a second between the heavy curtains Tredennis thought
suddenly of a brilliant tropical bird he had once seen somewhere, and
the fancy had scarcely formed itself in his mind before she recognized
him and came forward.
He had never seen her so brilliantly dressed before. The wonderful
combination of rich and soft reds in her costume, the flash of the
little jewelled bands clasped close about her bare throat and arms,
their pendants trembling and glowing in the light, the color on her
cheeks, the look in her eyes, had a curiously bewildering effect upon
him. When she gave him her hand he scarcely knew what to do with it, and
could only wait for her to speak. And she spoke as if they had parted
only an hour ago.
"At last," she said. "And it was very nice in you to leave me until the
last, because now I know you will not feel obliged to go away so soon."
And she withdrew her hand and opened her fan, and stood smiling up at
him over its plumy border. "You see," she said, "that we have returned
to our native atmosphere and may begin to breathe freely. Now we are
real creatures again."
"Are we?" he answered. "Is that it?" and he glanced over the crowd, and
then came back to her and looked her over from the glittering buckle on
her slipper to the scintillating arrow in her hair. "I suppose we have,"
he added. "I begin to realize it."
"If you need anything to assist you to realize it," she said, "cast your
eye upon Mr. Arbuthnot, and I think you will find him sufficient; for
me, everything crystallized itself and all my doubts disappeared the
moment I saw his opera hat, and heard his first remark about the
weather. It is a very fine day," she added, with a serene air of
originality, "a little cold, but fine and clear. Delightful weather for
those of you who are making calls. It has often struck me that it must
be unpleasant to undertake so much when the weather is against you. It
is colder to-day than it was yesterday, but it will be likely to be
warmer to-morrow. It is to be hoped that we shall have an agreeable
winter."
"You might," he said, looking at her over the top of her fan, "induce
them to mention it in the churches."
"That," she answered, "is the inspiration of true genius, and it shall
be attended to at once, or--here is Senator Planefield; perhaps he
might accomplish something by means of a bill?"
The senator joined them in his usual manner, which was not always an
engaging manner, and was at times a little suggestive of a disposition
to appropriate the community, and was also a somewhat loud-voiced
manner, and florid in its decorative style. It was, on the whole, less
engaging than usual upon the present occasion. The fact that he was for
some reason not entirely at ease expressed itself in his appearing to be
very wonderfully at ease; indeed, metaphorically speaking, he appeared
to have his hands in his pockets.
"A bill!" he said. "You have the floor, and I stand ready to second any
motion you choose to make. I think we might put it through together.
What can we do for you?"
"We want an appropriation," Bertha answered,--"an appropriation of fine
weather, which will enable Colonel Tredennis to be as giddy a butterfly
of fashion as his natural inclination would lead him to desire to be."
Planefield glanced at Tredennis with a suggestion of grudging the
momentary attention.
"Is _he_ a butterfly of fashion?" he asked.
"What!" exclaimed Bertha,--"is it possible that you have not detected
it? It is the fatal flaw upon his almost perfect character. Can it be
that you have been taking him seriously, and mistakenly imagining that
it was Mr. Arbuthnot who was frivolous?"
"Arbuthnot," repeated the senator. "Which is Arbuthnot? How is a man to
tell one from the other? There are too many of them!"
"What an agreeable way of saying that Colonel Tredennis is a host in
himself!" said Bertha. "But I have certainly not found that there were
too many of him, and I assure you that you would know Mr. Arbuthnot from
the other after you had exchanged remarks with him. He has just been
beguiled into the next room by Mrs. Sylvestre, who is going to give him
some coffee."
"Mrs. Sylvestre," said Tredennis. "Richard told me she was with you,
and I was wondering why I did not see her."
"You did not see her," said Bertha, "because I wished her to dawn upon
you slowly, and, having that end in view, I arranged that Mr. Arbuthnot
should occupy her attention when I saw you enter."
"He couldn't stand it all at once, could he?" remarked Planefield, whose
manner of giving _her_ his attention was certainly not grudging. He kept
his eyes fixed on her face, and apparently found entertainment in her
most trivial speech.
"It was not that, exactly," she answered. Then she spoke to Tredennis.
"She is ten times as beautiful as she was," she said, "and it would not
be possible to calculate how many times more charming."
"That was not necessary," responded Tredennis.
He could not remove his own eyes from her face, even while he was
resenting the fact that Planefield looked at her; he himself watched her
every movement and change of expression.
"It was entirely unnecessary," she returned; "but it is the truth."
"You are trying to prejudice him against her," said Planefield.
"She is my ideal of all that a beautiful woman ought to be," she
replied, "and I should like to form myself upon her."
"Oh, we don't want any of that," put in Planefield. "You are good enough
for us."
She turned her attention to him. Her eyes met his with the most
ingenuous candor, and yet the little smile in them was too steady not to
carry suggestion with it.
"Quite?" she said.
"Yes, quite," he answered, not so entirely at ease as before.
Her little smile did not waver in the least.
"Do you know," she said, "it seems almost incredible, but I will try to
believe it. Now," she said to Tredennis, "if Senator Planefield will
excuse me for a moment, I will take you into the other room. You shall
speak to Mrs. Sylvestre. He has already seen her. Will you come?"
"I shall be very glad," he answered. He followed as she led him to the
adjoining room. On its threshold she paused an instant.
"Exactly as I expected," she said. "She is listening to Mr. Arbuthnot."
Mr. Arbuthnot was standing at the end of the low mantel. He held a cup
of coffee in his hand, but had apparently forgotten it in giving his
attention to his very charming companion. This companion was, of course,
Mrs. Sylvestre herself. Tredennis recognized her clear, faintly tinted
face and light, willowy figure at once. She wore a dress of black lace,
with purple passion-flowers, and she was looking at Arbuthnot with
reflective eyes, almost the color of the flowers. She did not seem to be
talking herself, but she was listening beautifully, with a graceful,
receptive attention. Arbuthnot evidently felt it, and was improving his
shining hour with a sense of enjoyment tempered by no lack of ability to
avail himself of its fleeting pleasure.
It is possible, however, that his rapture at seeing Tredennis may have
been tempered by the natural weakness of man, but he bore himself with
his usual unperturbed equanimity.
"There," he remarked to Mrs. Sylvestre, "is the most objectionable
creature in Washington."
"Objectionable!" Mrs. Sylvestre repeated. "Bertha is bringing him here."
"Yes," responded Arbuthnot, "that is the objection to him, and it leaves
him without a redeeming quality."
Mrs. Sylvestre gave him a charmingly interested glance, and the next
instant made a slight movement forward.
"Ah!" she exclaimed, "it is Colonel Tredennis!" and she held out her
hand with the most graceful gesture of welcome imaginable.
"It is very good of you to remember me," Tredennis said.
"It was not difficult," she answered, with a smile. And they fell, in
the most natural manner, a step apart from the others, and she stood and
looked at him as he spoke just as she had looked at Arbuthnot a moment
before. Arbuthnot began to give mild attention to his coffee.
"It is quite cold," he said to Bertha. "Will you give me another cup?"
"Yes," she answered, and took it from his hand to carry it to the table.
He followed her, and stood at her side as she poured the fresh cup out.
"It is my impression," he said, with serene illiberality, "that she did
not remember him at all."
"Yes, she did," Bertha replied. "She remembers everybody. That is one of
her gifts. She has a great many gifts."
"I did not place implicit confidence in her intimation that she
remembered me," he proceeded, still serenely. "I liked the statement,
and saw the good taste of it, and the excellent reasons for its being
true; but I managed to restrain the naïve impulses of a trusting nature.
And it doesn't strike me as being so entirely plausible that she should
have remembered Tredennis."
He paused suddenly and looked at Bertha's hand, in which she held the
sugar-tongs and a lump of sugar.
"Will you have one lump, or two?" she asked.
Then he looked from her hand to her face. Her hand was trembling and her
face was entirely without color. The look of strained steadiness in her
uplifted eyes was a shock to him. It seemed to him that any one who
chanced to glance at her must see it.
"You have been standing too long," he said. "You have tired yourself out
again."
He took the cup of coffee from her.
"It is too late for you to expect many calls now," he said, "and if any
one comes you can easily be found in the conservatory. I am going to
take you there, and let you sit down for a few seconds, at least."
He gave her his arm and carried the cup of coffee with him.
"You will have to drink this yourself," he said. "Have you eaten
anything to-day?"
"No," she replied.
"I thought not. And then you are surprised to find your hand trembling.
Don't you see what nonsense it is?"
"Yes."
He stepped with her into the tiny conservatory at the end of the room,
and gave her a seat behind a substantial palm on a red stand. His eyes
never left her face, though he went on talking in the most
matter-of-fact tone.
"Drink that coffee," he said, "and then I will bring you a glass of wine
and a sandwich."
She put out her hand as if to take the cup, but it fell, shaking, upon
her lap.
"I can't," she said.
"You must," he replied.
The inflexibility of his manner affected her, as he had known it would.
When he sat down in the low seat at her side, and held out the cup, she
took it.
"Go and get the wine," she said, without looking at him.
He went at once, neither speaking nor glancing back at her. He was glad
of the opportunity of turning his face away from her, since he felt
that, in spite of his determination, it was losing something of its
expressionless calm.
When he entered the room Mrs. Sylvestre still stood where he had left
her. It was she who was speaking now, and Tredennis, who was listening,
looking down upon her with an expression of much interest.
When he had procured a glass of wine and a sandwich Arbuthnot went to
her.
"I have secreted Mrs. Amory in the conservatory," he said, "with a view
of inducing her to take something in the form of sustenance. I can
produce her at a moment's notice if she is needed."
"That was consideration," she replied.
"It was humanity," he answered, and went away.
Bertha had finished the coffee when he returned to her. The blanched
look had left her, and her voice, when she spoke, sounded more natural
and steady.
"It did me good," she said, and this time she looked at him, and there
was something in her uplifted eyes which touched him.
"I knew it would," he answered.
"You always know," she said. "There is no one who knows so well what is
good for me"; and she said it with great gentleness.
He took refuge from himself, as he sometimes found it discreet to do, in
his usual airy lightness.
"I am all soul myself," he remarked, "as you may have observed, and I
understand the temptation to scorn earthly food and endeavor to subsist
wholly upon the plaudits of the multitude. You will, perhaps, permit me
to remark that though the new gown"--with an approving glance at it--"is
an immense and unqualified success, I doubt its power to sustain nature
during the six or eight hours of a New Year's reception."
Bertha glanced down at it herself.
"Do you think it is pretty?" she asked.
"I shouldn't call it pretty," he replied. "I should call it something
more impressive."
She still looked at it.
"It is a flaring thing," she said.
"No, it isn't," he returned, promptly. "Not in the least. You might call
it brilliant--if you insist on an adjective. It is a brilliant thing,
and it is not like you in the least."
She turned toward him.
"No," she said, "it isn't like me in the least."
"It looks," remarked Arbuthnot, giving it some lightly critical
attention, "as if you had taken a new departure."
"That is it exactly," she returned. "You always say the right thing. I
have taken a new departure."
"Might I ask in what direction?" he inquired.
"Yes," she responded. "I will tell you, as a fair warning. I am going to
be a dazzling and worldly creature."
"You are?" he said. "Now that is entirely sensible, though I should
scarcely call it a new departure. You know you tried it last winter,
with the most satisfying results. When Lent came on you had lost several
pounds in weight and all your color; you had refined existence until
neither rest nor food appeared necessary to you, and the future was
naturally full of promise. Be gay, by all means; you'll find it pay, I
assure you. Go to a lunch-party at one, and a reception at four, a
dinner in the evening, and drop in at a German or so on your way home,
taking precautions at the same time against neglecting your calling-list
in the intervals these slight recreations allow you. Oh, I should
certainly advise you to be gay."
"Laurence," she said, "do you think if one should do that _every_ day,
_every_ day, and give one's self _no_ rest, that after a while it would
_kill_ one?"
He regarded her fixedly for an instant.
"Do you want to die?" he asked, at last.
She sat perfectly still, and something terribly like, and yet terribly
unlike, a smile crept slowly into her eyes as they met his. Then she
replied, without flinching in the least, or moving her gaze:
"No."
He held up a long, slender forefinger, and shook it at her, slowly, in
his favorite gesture of warning.
"No," he said, "you don't; but, even if you fancied you did, don't
flatter yourself that it would happen. Shall I tell you what would
occur? You would simply break down. You would lose your self-control and
do things you did not wish to do; you would find it a physical
impossibility to be equal to the occasion, and you would end by being
pale and haggard--haggard, and discovering that your gowns were not
becoming to you. How does the thing strike you?"
"It is very brutal," she said, with a little shudder; "but it is true."
"When you make ten remarks that are true," he returned, "nine of them
are brutal. That is the charm of life."
"I don't think," she said, with inconsequent resentment, "that you very
much mind being brutal to me."
"A few minutes ago you said I knew what was good for you," he responded.
"You do," she said, "that is it, and it is only like me that I should
hate you because you do. You must think," with a pathetic tone of appeal
for herself in her voice, "that I do not mind being brutal to you; but I
don't want to be. I don't want to do any of the things I am doing now."
She picked up the bouquet of Jacqueminot roses she had been carrying and
had laid down near her.
"Don't talk about me," she said. "Let us talk about something
else,--these, for instance. Do you know where they came from?"
"I could scarcely guess."
"Senator Planefield sent them to me."
He regarded them in silence.
"They match the dress," she said, "and they belong to it."
"Yes," he answered, "they match the dress."
Then he was silent again.
"Well," she said, restlessly, "why don't you say something to me?"
"There isn't anything to say," he replied.
"You are thinking that I am very bad?" she said.
"You are trying to persuade yourself that you are very bad, and are
finding a fictitious excitement in it; but it is all a mistake. It won't
prove the consolation you expect it to," he answered. "Suppose you give
it up before it gives rise to complications."
"We are talking of Bertha Amory again," she said. "Let us talk about
Agnes Sylvestre. Don't you find her very beautiful?"
"Yes," he replied.
"Why don't you say more than 'yes'?" she asked. "You mean more."
"I couldn't mean more," he answered. "I should think it was enough to
mean that much; there are even circumstances under which it might be too
much."
"She is lovelier than she used to be," said Bertha, reflectively; "and
more fascinating."
"Yes to that also," he responded.
"Any one might love her," she went on, in the same tone. "_Any_ one."
"I should think so," he replied, quietly.
"I do not see how it would be possible," she added, "for any one--who
was thrown with her--to resist her--unless it was some one like you."
She turned a faint smile upon him.
"I am glad," she said, "that _you_ are not susceptible."
"So am I," he said, with some dryness.
"If you were susceptible you would go too," she ended. "And I don't want
_every_ one to leave me."
"Every one?" he repeated.
She rose as if to go, giving a light touch to the folds of her dress,
and still smiling a little.
"Colonel Tredennis has fallen a victim," she said, "in the most natural
and proper manner. I knew he would, and he has distinguished himself by
at once carrying out my plans for him. Now we must go back to the
parlors. I have rested long enough."
They returned just in time to meet a fresh party of callers, and
Arbuthnot was of necessity thrown for the time being upon his own
resources. These did not fail him. He found entertainment in his
surroundings until a certain opportunity he had rather desired presented
itself to him. He observed that Mrs. Sylvestre was once more near him,
and that the men occupying her attention were on the point of taking
their leave. By the time they had done so he had dexterously brought to
a close his conversation with his male companion, and had unobtrusively
forwarded himself, in an entirely incidental manner, as an aspirant for
her notice.
She received him with a quiet suggestion of pleasure in her smile.
"Have you enjoyed the day?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied. "I am almost sorry that it is so nearly over. It has
been very agreeable."
Then he found her eyes resting upon him in the quiet and rather
incomprehensible way which Bertha had counted among her chiefest charms.
"Have you enjoyed it?" she inquired.
"If I had not," he said, "I should feel rather like a defeated
candidate. One may always enjoy things if one applies one's self."
She seemed to reflect upon him an instant again.
"You see a great deal of Bertha?" she said.
"Yes, a great deal. Would you mind telling me why you ask?"
"Because that remark was so entirely like her," she replied.
"Well," he returned, "there is no denying that I have formed myself upon
her, and though the fact reveals me in all my shallow imitative
weakness, I can offer the apology that the means justifies the end. Upon
the whole, I am glad to be detected, as it points to a measure of
success in the attempt."
"But," she went on, "she tells me that she has formed herself upon you."
"Ah!" he said; "she meant you to repeat it to me, her design being to
betray me into a display of intoxicated vanity."
"She is very fond of you," she remarked.
"I am very fond of her," he answered, quickly--and then relapsing into
his usual manner--"though that is not a qualification sufficiently rare
to distinguish me."
"No," she said, "it is not."
Then she gave Bertha one of the glances.
"It was very thoughtful in you to take her into the conservatory," she
said. "I was startled to see how pale she looked as you left the room."
"She is not strong," he said, "and she insists on ignoring the fact."
"Do you know," said Mrs. Sylvestre, "that was what struck me when we met
for the first time in the autumn--that she was not strong. She used to
be strong."
"If she would accept the fact she would get over it," he said; "but she
won't."
"I met her first at Newport," said Mrs. Sylvestre, "just after Janey's
illness. For a day or so I felt that I did not know her at all; but in
course of time I got over the feeling; or she changed--I scarcely know
which. I suppose the strain during the little girl's illness had been
very severe?"
"There is no doubt of that," said Arbuthnot; "and her anxiety had been
much exaggerated."
"I shall see a great deal of her this winter," she returned, "and
perhaps I may persuade her to take care of herself."
He spoke with a touch of eager seriousness in his manner.
"I wish you would," he said. "It is what she needs, that some woman
should call her attention to the mistake she is making."
"I will try to do it," she responded, gently. "I am fond of her too."
"And you intend remaining in Washington?" he asked.
"Yes. I have had no plans for three years. When first it dawned on me
that it would interest me to make plans again, I thought of Washington.
I have found a house in Lafayette Square, and I think I shall be
established in it, with the assistance of my aunt, who is to live with
me, in about three weeks."
"That sounds very agreeable," he remarked.
"I shall hope to make it sufficiently so," she said. "Will you come
sometimes to see if my efforts are successful?"
"If you knew how unworthy I am," he responded, "even my abject gratitude
for your kindness would not repay you for it."
"Are you so very unworthy?" she was beginning, when her eyes appeared to
be caught by some object at the other side of the room.
It was not a particularly interesting object. It was merely the figure
of an unprepossessing boy, whose provincial homeliness was rendered
doubly impressive by his frightful embarrassment. He had arrived a few
moments before, with two more finished youths, whose mother Bertha knew,
and, having been basely deserted by them at the outset, had stranded
upon the treacherous shores of inexperience as soon as he had shaken
hands.
Mrs. Sylvestre's beautiful eyes dwelt upon him a moment with sympathy
and interest.
"Will you excuse me," she said to Arbuthnot, "if I go and talk to that
boy? Bertha is too busy to attend to him, and he seems to know no one."
Arbuthnot gave the boy a glance. He would not have regretted any
comparatively harmless incident which would have removed him, but his
own very naturally ignoble desire not to appear to a disadvantage
restrained the impulse prompting a derisive remark. And while he
objected to the boy in his most pronounced manner, he did not object in
the least to what he was clever enough to see in his companion's words
and the ready sympathy they expressed. Indeed, there was a side of him
which derived definite pleasure from it.
"I will excuse you," he answered; "but I need you more than the boy
does, and I cannot help believing that I am more worthy of you; though,
of course, I only use the word in its relative sense. As I remarked
before, I am unworthy, but as compared to the boy--He is a frightful
boy," he added, seeming to take him in more fully; "but I dare say his
crimes are unpremeditated. Let me go with you and find out if I know his
mother. I frequently know their mothers."
"If you do know his mother, I am sure it will be a great relief to him,
and it will assist me," said Mrs. Sylvestre.
They crossed the room together, and, seeing them approach, the boy
blushed vermilion and moved uneasily from one foot to the other.
Gradually, however, his aspect changed a little. Here were rather
attractive worldlings whose bearing expressed no consciousness whatever
of his crime of boyhood. He met Mrs. Sylvestre's eyes and blushed less;
he glanced furtively at Arbuthnot, and suddenly forgot his hands and
became almost unconscious of his legs.
"I have been asking Mrs. Sylvestre," said Arbuthnot, with civil
mendacity, "if you did not come with the Bartletts. I thought I saw you
come in together."
"Yes," responded the boy. "I am a cousin of theirs."
"Then I have heard them speak of you," Arbuthnot returned. "And I think
I had the pleasure of meeting your sister several times last
winter,--Miss Hemmingway?"
"Yes," said the boy; "she was here on a visit."
In two minutes he found himself conversing almost fluently, and it was
Arbuthnot who was his inspiration equally with Mrs. Sylvestre. He was a
modest and inoffensive youth, and overestimated the brilliance of the
scenes surrounding him, and the gifts and charms of his new-found
friends, with all the ardor of his tender years. To him, Arbuthnot's
pale, well-bred face and simple, immaculate attire represented luxury,
fashion, and the whirling vortex of society. The kindly imagination of
simplicity bestowed upon him an unlimited income and an exalted position
in the diplomatic _corps_, at least; his ease of manner and readiness of
speech seeming gifts only possible of attainment through familiarity
with foreign courts and effete civilizations. When he was asked how he
liked Washington, if he intended to spend the season with his relations,
if he had made many calls, and if the day did not seem to be an
unusually gay one, he accomplished the feat of answering each question,
even adding an original remark or so of his own. The conversation seemed
to assume a tone of almost feverish brilliancy in view of the social
atmosphere surrounding these queries. When he was led into the adjoining
room to partake of refreshments he ate his lobster-salad with an honest
young appetite, much aided by the fact that Mrs. Sylvestre gave him his
coffee, and, taking a cup herself, sat down by him on a sofa. As he
watched her, Arbuthnot was thinking her manner very soft and pretty,
and, inspired by it, his own became all that could be desired in the way
of dexterity and tact. As he exercised himself in his entertainment, his
first objections to the boy gradually vanished; he plied him with
refreshments, and encouraged him to renewed conversational effort,
deriving finally some satisfaction from finding himself able to bring to
bear upon him with successful results his neatly arranged and classified
social gifts. When the young Bartletts--who had been enjoying themselves
immensely in the next room--suddenly remembered their charge, and came
in search of him, their frank countenances expressed some surprise at
the position they found him occupying. He was relating with some spirit
the story of a boat-race, and Mrs. Sylvestre, who sat at his side, was
listening with the most perfect air of attention and pleasure, while
Arbuthnot stood near, apparently bent upon losing nothing of the
history. He ended the story with some natural precipitation and rose to
go, a trifle of his embarrassment returning as he found himself once
more, as it were, exposed to the glare of day. He was not quite sure
what conventionality demanded of him in the way of adieus; but when Mrs.
Sylvestre relieved him by extending her hand, nature got the better of
him, and he seized it with ardor.
"I've had a splendid time," he said, blushing. "This is the nicest
reception I've been to yet. The house is so pretty and--and everything.
I was thinking I shouldn't go anywhere else; but I believe I shall now."
When he shook hands with Arbuthnot he regarded him with admiration and
awe.
"I'm much obliged to you," he said, his vague sense of indebtedness
taking form. "If you ever come to Whippleville I'm sure my father would
like to--to see you."
And he retired with his young relatives, blushing still, and
occasionally treading on their feet, but his modesty, notwithstanding,
bearing with him an inoffensive air of self-respect, which would be more
than likely to last him through the day, and perhaps a little beyond it.
Mrs. Sylvestre's eyes met Arbuthnot's when he was gone.
"You were _very_ kind to him," she said.
"I am obliged to confess," he replied, "that it was nothing but the low
promptings of vanity which inspired me. It dawned upon me that he was
impressed by my superior ease and elegance, and I seized the opportunity
of exhibiting them."
"You knew just what to say to him," she added.
"That," he replied, "was entirely owing to the fact that I was a boy
myself in the early part of the last century."
"He was an appreciative boy," she said, "and a grateful one; but I am
sure I could not have made him comfortable if you had not been so kind."
And she once again bestowed upon him the subtle flattery of appearing to
lose herself an instant in reflection upon him.
There were no more callers after this. Later on an unconventional little
dinner was served, during which Mrs. Sylvestre was placed between
Arbuthnot and Tredennis, Planefield loomed up massive and florid at
Bertha's side, and Richard devoted himself with delightful ardor to
discussing French politics with the young woman who fell to his share.
This young woman, whose attire was perfect and whose manner was
admirable, and who was furthermore endowed with a piquant, irregular
face and a captivating voice, had attracted Tredennis's attention early
in the evening. She had been talking to Richard when he had seen her
first, and she had been talking to Richard at intervals ever since, and
evidently talking very well.
"I don't know your friend," he said to Bertha, after dinner, "and I did
not hear her name when I was presented."
"Then you have hitherto lived in vain," said Bertha, glancing at her.
"That is what Richard would tell you. Her name is Helen Varien."
"It is a very pretty name," remarked Tredennis.
"Ah!" said Bertha. "You certainly might trust her not to have an ugly
one. She has attained that state of finish in the matter of her
appendages which insures her being invariably to be relied on. I think
she must even have invented her relatives--or have ordered them, giving
_carte blanche_."
She watched her a moment with a smile of interest.
"Do you see how her sleeves fit?" she asked. "It was her sleeves which
first attracted my attention. I saw them at a luncheon in New York, and
they gave me new theories of life. When a woman can accomplish sleeves
like those, society need ask nothing further of her."
Tredennis glanced down at her own.
"Have you accomplished"--he suggested.
"In moments of rashness and folly," she answered, "I have occasionally
been betrayed into being proud of my sleeves; but now I realize that the
feeling was simply impious."
He waited with grim patience until she had finished, and then turned his
back upon Miss Varien's sleeves.
"Will you tell me about Janey?" he said.
"When last I saw her, which was this morning," she replied, "she was as
well as usual, and so were the others. Now I have no doubt they are all
in bed."
"May I come and see them to-morrow, or the day after?"
"Yes," she answered. "And at anytime. I hope you will come often. Mrs.
Sylvestre will be with me until her house is ready for her, and, as I
said before, I wish you to know her well."
"I shall feel it a great privilege," he responded.
She leaned back a little in her chair, and regarded her with an
expression of interest even greater than she had been aroused to by the
contemplation of Miss Varien's sleeves.
"Have you found out yet," she inquired, "what her greatest charm is?"
"Is it by any chance a matter of sleeves?" he asked; and he made the
suggestion stolidly.
"No," she answered, "it is not sleeves. One's difficulty is to decide
_what_ it is. A week ago I thought it was her voice. Yesterday I was
sure it was her eyelashes and the soft shadow they make about her eyes.
About an hour ago I was convinced it was her smile, and now I think it
must be her power of fixing her attention upon you. See how it flatters
Mr. Arbuthnot, and how, though he is conscious of his weakness, he
succumbs to it. It will be very pleasant occupation during the winter to
watch his struggles."
"Will he struggle?" said Tredennis, still immovably. "I don't think I
would in his place."
"Oh, no," she answered. "You mustn't struggle."
"I will not," he returned.
She went on with a smile, as if he had spoken in the most responsive
manner possible.
"Mr. Arbuthnot's struggles will not be of the usual order," she
remarked. "He will not be struggling with his emotions, but with his
vanity. He knows that she will not fall in love with him, and he has no
intention of falling in love with her. He knows better--and he does not
like affairs. But he will find that she is able to do things which will
flatter him, and that it will require all his self-control to refrain
from displaying his masculine delight in himself and the good-fortune
which he has the secret anguish of knowing does not depend upon his
merits. And his struggles at a decently composed demeanor, entirely
untinged by weak demonstrations of pleasure or consciousness of himself,
will be a very edifying spectacle."
She turned her glance from Arbuthnot and Mrs. Sylvestre, whom she had
been watching as she spoke, and looked up at Tredennis. She did so
because he had made a rather sudden movement, and placed himself
immediately before her.
"Bertha," he said, "I am going away."
Her Jacqueminot roses had been lying upon her lap. She picked them up
before she answered him.
"You have made too many calls," she said. "You are tired."
"I have not made too many calls," he replied; "but I am tired. I am
tired of this."
"I was afraid you were," she said, and kept her eyes fixed upon the
roses.
"You were very fair to me," he said, "and you gave me warning. I told
you I should not profit by it, and I did not. I don't know what I
expected when I came here to-day, but it was not exactly this. You are
too agile for me; I cannot keep up with you."
"You are not modern," she said. "You must learn to adjust yourself
rapidly to changes of mental attitude."
"No, I am not modern," he returned; "and I am always behindhand. I do
not enjoy myself when you tell me it is a fine day, and that it was
colder yesterday, and will be warmer to-morrow; and I am at a loss when
you analyze Mr. Arbuthnot's struggles with his vanity."
"I am not serious enough," she interrupted. "You would prefer that I
should be more serious."
"It would avail me but little to tell you what I should prefer," he
said, obstinately. "I will tell you a simple thing before I go,--all
this counts for nothing."
She moved slightly.
"All this," she repeated, "counts for nothing."
"For nothing," he repeated. "You cannot change me. I told you that. You
may give me some sharp wounds,--I know you won't spare those,--and
because I am only a man I shall show that I smart under them; but they
will not move me otherwise. Be as frivolous as you like, mock at
everything human if you choose; but don't expect me to believe you."
She put the flowers to her face and held them there a second.
"The one thing I should warn you against," she said, "would be against
believing me. I don't make the mistake of believing myself."
She put the flowers down.
"You think I am trying to deceive you," she said. "There would have to
be a reason for my doing it. What should you think would be the reason?"
"So help me God!" he answered, "I don't know."
"Neither do I," she said.
Then she glanced about her over the room,--at Planefield, rather
restively professing to occupy himself with a pretty girl; at Miss
Varien, turned a trifle sidewise in her large chair so that her
beautiful sleeve was displayed to the most perfect advantage, and her
vivacious face was a little uplifted as she spoke to Richard, who leaned
on the high back of her seat; at Arbuthnot, talking to Agnes Sylvestre,
and plainly at no loss of words; at the lights and flowers and
ornamented tables seen through the _portières_,--and then she spoke
again.
"I tell you," she said, "it is _this_ that is real--_this_. The other
was only a kind of dream."
She made a sudden movement and sat upright on her chair, as if she meant
to shake herself free from something.
"There was no other," she said. "It wasn't even a dream. There never was
anything but this."
She left her chair and stood up before him, smiling.
"The sky was not blue," she said, "nor the hills purple; there were no
chestnut trees, and no carnations. Let us go and sit with the rest, and
listen to Mr. Arbuthnot and admire Miss Varien's sleeves."
But he stood perfectly still.
"I told you I was going away," he said, "and I am going. To-morrow I
shall come and see the children--unless you tell me that you do not wish
to see me again."
"I shall not tell you that," she returned, "because it would be at once
uncivil and untrue."
"Then I shall come," he said.
"That will be kind of you," she responded, and gave him her hand, and
after he had made his bow over it, and his adieus to the rest of the
company, he left them.
Bertha crossed the room and stood near the fire, putting one foot on the
fender, and shivering a little.
"Are you cold?" asked Miss Varien.
"Yes--no," she answered. "If I did not know better, I should think I
was."
"Allow me," said Miss Varien, "to make the cheerful suggestion that that
sounds quite like malaria."
"Thank you," said Bertha; "that seems plausible, and I don't rebel
against it. It has an air of dealing with glittering generalities, and
yet it seems to decide matters for one. We will call it malaria."