"The most romantic of romances!"
"How delightful! And you found it all out for yourselves--it was not in
the least arranged for you?"
Archer looked at her incredulously. "Have you forgotten," he asked
with a smile, "that in our country we don't allow our marriages to be
arranged for us?"
A dusky blush rose to her cheek, and he instantly regretted his words.
"Yes," she answered, "I'd forgotten. You must forgive me if I sometimes
make these mistakes. I don't always remember that everything here is
good that was--that was bad where I've come from." She looked down at
her Viennese fan of eagle feathers, and he saw that her lips trembled.
"I'm so sorry," he said impulsively; "but you _are_ among friends here,
you know."
"Yes--I know. Wherever I go I have that feeling. That's why I came
home. I want to forget everything else, to become a complete American
again, like the Mingotts and Wellands, and you and your delightful
mother, and all the other good people here tonight. Ah, here's May
arriving, and you will want to hurry away to her," she added, but
without moving; and her eyes turned back from the door to rest on the
young man's face.
The drawing-rooms were beginning to fill up with after-dinner guests,
and following Madame Olenska's glance Archer saw May Welland entering
with her mother. In her dress of white and silver, with a wreath of
silver blossoms in her hair, the tall girl looked like a Diana just
alight from the chase.
"Oh," said Archer, "I have so many rivals; you see she's already
surrounded. There's the Duke being introduced."
"Then stay with me a little longer," Madame Olenska said in a low tone,
just touching his knee with her plumed fan. It was the lightest touch,
but it thrilled him like a caress.
"Yes, let me stay," he answered in the same tone, hardly knowing what
he said; but just then Mr. van der Luyden came up, followed by old
Mr. Urban Dagonet. The Countess greeted them with her grave smile,
and Archer, feeling his host's admonitory glance on him, rose and
surrendered his seat.
Madame Olenska held out her hand as if to bid him goodbye.
"Tomorrow, then, after five--I shall expect you," she said; and then
turned back to make room for Mr. Dagonet.
"Tomorrow--" Archer heard himself repeating, though there had been no
engagement, and during their talk she had given him no hint that she
wished to see him again.
As he moved away he saw Lawrence Lefferts, tall and resplendent,
leading his wife up to be introduced; and heard Gertrude Lefferts
say, as she beamed on the Countess with her large unperceiving smile:
"But I think we used to go to dancing-school together when we were
children--." Behind her, waiting their turn to name themselves to the
Countess, Archer noticed a number of the recalcitrant couples who had
declined to meet her at Mrs. Lovell Mingott's. As Mrs. Archer remarked:
when the van der Luydens chose, they knew how to give a lesson. The
wonder was that they chose so seldom.
The young man felt a touch on his arm and saw Mrs. van der Luyden
looking down on him from the pure eminence of black velvet and the
family diamonds. "It was good of you, dear Newland, to devote yourself
so unselfishly to Madame Olenska. I told your cousin Henry he must
really come to the rescue."
He was aware of smiling at her vaguely, and she added, as if
condescending to his natural shyness: "I've never seen May looking
lovelier. The Duke thinks her the handsomest girl in the room."