DISAPPOINTMENT.
The first sight of No. 23 Bolton-square proved rather _disenchantant_ to
the two young ladies, who for the last five weeks had talked and thought
of but little else than the coming glories of the season. As they
approached the sights and _scents_ of London, a dense fog, as it
appeared to the novices, but which was, in fact, simply an easterly wind
laden with dull yellow smoke, shrouded as with a veil every distant
object on which they looked.
“This never can be London; and London, too, in the month of May,”
thought Kate, as she looked out from the window of the railway-carriage
on an atmosphere thick with discoloured smoke, through the mists of
which the summits of sundry towers and steeples, together with the
outlines of some nearer buildings, were dimly visible.
London in the month of May! And as Miss Katharine Vavasour realised the
melancholy fact, it required all the counterbalancing comfort to be
found in the recollection that Rhoda was at last “coming out,” to make
amends to her for the lost country pleasures to which distance now lent
a hitherto undiscovered charm. But if the time-worn, smoke-stained walls
of the family mansion struck the imagination of Lady Millicent’s young
daughters as gloomy and uninviting, what could be said of the interior,
where the wear and tear of years was everywhere visible? In the spacious
suite of drawing-rooms, the furniture of which had not been renewed for
more years than Lady Millicent had ever cared to count, and where,
“dingy yellow” vying with “dirty red,” everywhere displayed tokens that
the letting of the town mansion of the Vavasours had been very
promiscuously carried on, poor Rhoda (for Kate was too overjoyed at the
change to take any lasting notice of the surroundings) stood in mute
dismay. The last tenant had been an American--a wealthy
New-Yorkian--who, following the “common and unclean” habits peculiar to
his country, had not improved either the outward appearance or the
intrinsic value, in a delicate female point of view, of the carpets.
Probably Mr. John B. Foy, or whatever might have been the gentleman’s
multifold cognomen, would have scorned the meanness of letting his house
in the Fifth Avenue, or in University-square, to any Britisher or other
foreigner desirous to witness the humours of “York City;” but, having
paid a good many almighty dollars to an individual (a “female,” as the
said New-Yorker might possibly have designated the superb Lady
Millicent), he very naturally concluded that, viewing the matter
commercially, he had a right to abuse as well as to use, in aristocratic
Bolton-square, the privileges of his sex and country.
“Did you ever see anything so dirty, so shabby, so faded?” Rhoda
remarked to her brother Horace, the first moment after their arrival
when she found herself alone with him. “Mamma could have had no idea of
how bad it was. Just look at the paint and the curtains! If they were
but clean! But really, these are too horrid!”
“Wait till you make acquaintance with some of the other great houses
that fine ladies give their balls and drums in!” Horace said. “It isn’t
everyone who finds money for everything; and you will amuse yourself
just as well in a room where the paint is dingy and the hangings
old-fashioned, as you have any chance of doing in places that are kept
in apple-pie order. In my opinion, and as far as I can judge, it’s
rather _chique_ to be shabby in this kind of way, as well as in some
others that I could mention.”
“But, Horace,” said Kate, who had joined her brother and sister, as
they stood, the one philosophising and the other listening
disconsolately, in the midst of the much-reprobated family
furniture,--“but, Horace, tell me about Arthur. We are to call this
afternoon on dear Sophy. Mamma seems terribly afraid of being
over-civil; and it seems a little bit unbrotherly of Atty not to have
come last night to see us, so many months as it is since he and Sophy
married. But I suppose it’s out of sight out of mind with them.” And
Kate, laughter-loving Kate, heaved a little sigh as she quoted the
well-worn proverb.
“Nonsense, it’s nothing of the kind; but women are so awfully fond of
jumping at conclusions. Arthur would have been here fast enough, if he
had hoped that any good could come of his putting himself in Lady Mill’s
way; but it wouldn’t, and that is a truth, poor fellow, that he has not
got at this time of day to learn.”
“But, Horace dear, _do_ tell me what it is all about! I should have
thought that marrying Sophy Duberly would have put everything to rights.
The old man seemed so very fond of Atty, and Sophy, too. I should have
imagined that all would have gone smoothly with poor Arthur when once he
was one of them--once he was Sophy’s husband; and a baby coming besides,
which Mr. Duberly was so anxious for. Really, Horace, I am puzzled, and
that is the truth. You always talk as if something dreadful was hanging
over Arthur’s head, and--”
“Do I? Then I am a fool for not being able to keep my own and other
people’s counsel. But,” lowering his voice, although Rhoda, who knew
herself to be less trusted by her brother than his younger sister Kate,
had discreetly walked away,--“there is no use in talking about it. Have
you seen--”
“But, Horace, there _may_ be use in talking about it,” interposed his
sister. “We might do something, if we were able to put our heads
together, to get Arthur out of his trouble. Union is strength, they say;
and though the bundle of sticks is a pretty tough one--”
“And will therefore take time to break,” put in Horace sadly, “which is
precisely the reason why there is no use trying to do it; for time is
everything to Atty. If you knew old Duberly as well as I do, Kate, you
would say the same.”
“But what has Mr. Duberly to do with it?” asked Kate.
“Everything. If anything should happen, which isn’t the least likely, to
old Dub, all would be smooth as velvet for Arthur; but as it is--”
“As it is! O, do go on, Horace; how provoking you are!”
“Well, as it is--But here comes milady. I say, Katie, not a word! But I
needn’t repeat that to you, for, considering you are of the feebler sex,
you are one of the most reliable young persons with whom I happen to be
acquainted.”