THE DIVERSIONS OF FINE LADIES.
Paris had palled upon Mr. Caryl Wemyss, and in February he returned to
New York. Paris, he found, had deteriorated since the Empire. Moreover,
his social position there was not wholly satisfactory. In London it was
better; but even there they did not sufficiently distinguish between
him and other Americans; between him, son of the famous poet-dramatist,
minister to England and man of letters, when there were no other
American men of letters, and, for instance, the present minister, whom
Wemyss did not consider a gentleman at all. So his friend, the young
Earl of Birmingham, wishing to visit America, Wemyss had returned with
him; and was now piloting that nobleman through the maze of New York
society.
But this proved a more difficult task than Wemyss anticipated; for the
Earl was quite unable to recognize any distinctions, and evinced a most
catholic taste for all beauty, unadorned by birth, and pretty faces
without pedigree. And now the Farnums had presumed to give a ball in
his honor; and Birmingham was there, and Wemyss, of course, had had to
go there with him, and Flossie Gower had come to keep him company.
A man may be a peer of England and wear a coronet; but a man’s a man
for a’ that. And as the pudgy, little, sandy-haired Englishman, with
his scrap of whisker, his red eyes and his white eyebrows, stood beside
Miss Farnum, it was easy, at least for Wemyss and Flossie Gower, to see
that he was much impressed.
If one had to name the potent quality of Miss Farnum’s presence, I
should call it majesty; you, perhaps, might call it scorn. Her walk was
that of Juno, over clouds; beneath her coronal of red-brown hair her
eyes were great and gray, now looking out beyond you, over all things,
sphinx-like--now introspective, but disdainful still.
Mrs. Gower could see that she treated Birmingham as a high-priestess
might some too importunate worshipper; and the noble Englishman was,
for once, embarrassed of his person--and by hers.
“Who is that girl?” asked Mrs. Gower of Wemyss. “The daughter of our
host?”
“A fine piece of flesh and blood,” said he.
“A fine piece of soul and spirit, or I am much mistaken,” retorted Mrs.
Gower. “See, she positively dares to be bored, and the Earl is at his
trumps at last. Really, I must have her at my house----”
“She’d be charmed to go, I’ve no doubt,” said Wemyss, with the gesture
of a yawn. “But come, you surely don’t expect me to talk to one pretty
woman of another? Tell me of yourself.”
“What is there to tell? Look at Baby Malgam’s violets--they are lovely.”
“The loveliness of violets,” said Wemyss, “is a fact established some
years since, and which I am ready at all times and seasons to admit.
Your own loveliness is a more inspiring subject.”
Mrs. Gower took absolutely no notice of this, but continued to watch
Miss Farnum, as a vampire might study a torpedo. Wemyss was seeking a
more gracious simile, when Charlie Townley came up and ousted him. “You
are coming to Tony Duval’s supper at the ball, Mrs. Gower? Tony has got
the Earl and Mrs. Malgam----”
“Oh, I am going--if it will not shock Mr. Wemyss here,” laughed
Flossie. Wemyss cast at her one look of grave reproach, and bowed his
own dismissal. To suppose that anything done by others could ruffle
his own breeding--he, a polished patrician of the _décadence_! (The
_décadence_ was a favorite theme of Wemyss; perhaps it was pleasant to
think that the society in which he had not been a success--at least,
not a popular success--was rushing to its own failure.) Townley sat
down by Mrs. Gower.
“But seriously, Charlie, don’t you think it may be a trifle
_risqué_--this opera ball?”
“_Qui n’a rien, ne risque rien_,” said Charlie, bowing. Flossie
laughed; he was one of her ancient train, discarded; a privileged
character. In reality this ball, advertised to be improper, was very
decent and very dreary, for the most part. And they could draw the
curtain of their box, like peris in paradise overlooking gehenna, and
turn aside from the multitude below.
But perhaps we shall see more, if we go with Jenny Starbuck. For he
had asked her, too; and she was going, masked, upon the floor. She had
hesitated much; and refused an invitation from Mr. Dave St. Clair.
Probably it would have given her more moral courage had she known that
Mrs. Levison Gower was going too.
Her brother James she had not seen for months; not since that night
when she had turned him into the street. She did not care; he was but a
common fellow, and she meant to be a lady. For some time she had taken
lessons for the stage, as being the quickest path to elegance of life;
but she was a stupid woman, intellectually, and had not mind for this.
In mind she was not like her unknown cousin, Flossie; but she could
only imitate her in what she saw. Her quilted satin cloak was very like
Flossie’s; and she too could get into a coupé and tell the coachman to
drive to the Academy.
An immense board floor had been laid over the entire theatre;
scattered about this were orange and lemon trees in green tubs; and
among them walked perhaps a couple of hundred people--nearly all in
fancy-dress and many with false noses or fantastic wigs. They looked
like the chorus of an opera just dismissed, except that they appeared
more low-spirited and ill at ease. Many of the women were in men’s
costumes--Magyar uniforms, Cossack, Austrian; some even were in jocose
dresses, making a burlesque of themselves; and Jenny, dressed like
a lady, looked on these with scorn. Here and there a quadrille was
being danced, and among these were a few paid dancers whose kicks and
gyrations were supposed to indicate spontaneous gayety and exuberance
of joy. Taken all-in-all, it did not so well imitate Paris, even, as
Flossie Gower and her following, London.
But Jenny stood waiting at the dressing-room door, and did not venture
on the floor alone. It was still more than half empty, and though the
great orchestra rang out in most exciting rhythm, the crowd seemed
cold. But above, in the tiers of boxes, every box was full; here the
women all were dressed like Jenny, and a few were even masked.
She waited there, in vain; till, finally, Mr. St. Clair saw her and
offered himself as escort, magnanimously. Jenny was glad enough to
take his arm, and they made the tour of the floor. He laughed at her
for wearing her mask, but she insisted still. The band broke into a
waltz--fiery, intoxicating; the floor filled with dancers, glancing by
them in gay colors, fancifully dressed; but there were more diamonds
in the boxes, and bare necks, and men in ordinary evening dress. In
front of her was a large box, with three or four ladies, masked; one,
her breast all covered with a diamond rain. The box was just above the
place where Jenny stood; and she looked at the necklace enviously. Its
owner gave a little scream, and Jenny heard the words, how shocking!
Jenny followed her glance; beside her on the floor were two girls in
satin tights. Then as she looked back to the box, she saw Mr. Townley
bend down and speak to her; Jenny lifted her own mask a moment and
tossed her head at him and smiled, then leaned heavier on the arm of
Dave St. Clair.
Charlie got over his confusion in a moment; but not too quickly for a
chorus of delighted laughter from the ladies near him. “Who is she, Mr.
Townley?” laughed she of the diamonds; “she’s _very_ pretty.” And “tell
us all about it, Charlie--we won’t tell,” roared Tony Duval.
“You’re welcome to all I know,” said Townley, coolly. “She’s a
dress-maker on Sixth Avenue, and makes dresses for my aunt.” Tony only
laughed the more at this, and good-natured Lucie Gower led Charlie out
of the box. “Come,” said he, “you must introduce me to her; I’m sure
she does business with my uncle.” In the back of the box a little,
red-haired Englishman was talking to a younger lady, sitting in the
shadow; and she was glad, when everybody’s attention was drawn to a
masked figure in the box opposite--a lady whose green tulle dress and
very low corsage bespoke her also fashionable. “What superb emeralds!”
cried the black-haired lady, in front.
“I’d have thought Mrs. Hay would have known better,” said the other.
“But there’s no mistaking the emeralds--on those shoulders----”
“What! you don’t say its Mrs. Wilton Hay? Where did she get them? I
asked Jack for a set not half so fine, and they cost a fortune. Who
gave them to her?”
“Mr. Hay, of course,” laughed the other.
“You did not know diplomacy had been so profitable?” said Tony Duval.
“See, there goes your husband--he has just been introduced to the
blonde beauty.”
“Not really? ’Pon honor, I didn’t think he had it in him,” said she.
Then Tony Duval began to relate to his companion an anecdote of a
nature that seemed to Arthur most surprising; he was sitting behind the
_rivière_ of diamonds; and the rest of the company seemed bored.
“Positively, Mr. Wemyss, there is nothing new under the sun,” answered
the blonde in front. “After all, the flowery paths seem quite as stupid
as the straight and narrow way.”
“It’s very slow,” answered he addressed. “They’ve too much conscience
for it still.”
“Perhaps,” suggested another, “we could give them lessons.”
It was Van Kull who spoke; and in the pause that ensued came the point
of Duval’s story, accentuated by the silence; and Wemyss tactfully
called attention to an adjoining box, where the ladies were sitting
with their feet upon the railing, smoking cigarettes.
“Come,” said she of the diamonds, rising; “we have had our moral
lesson; it is time to go.”
From the floor, Jenny Starbuck had watched this box, until she saw them
rise as if to go. She stayed at the ball many hours later. But Arthur,
in the back of the box, was witness of a little scene that she could
not see.
The elder ladies went out first, passing the Earl, who seemed busied
with his companion’s opera-cloak. She was standing, leaning upon the
back of an armchair, with her weight upon one round, bare arm; and as
Arthur went out of the door he was almost certain that he saw their
noble guest lay his hand upon her arm, familiarly.
A second after, and Arthur had dropped his opera-glass; it rolled back
into the box, and he went back for it. There was no change in Kitty
Farnum’s attitude; she was still leaning on the chair, but looking at
Lord Birmingham: her face cold and fixed, like some scornful face of
stone. She gave her arm to Arthur and walked out.