Halleck and Atherton were silent for some moments after they came away, and then, "_I_ don"t believe he whips her," suggested the latter.
"No, I guess he"s fond of her," said Halleck, gravely.
"Did you see how careful he was of her, coming up and down stairs? That was very pretty; and it was pretty to see them both so ready to show off their young housekeeping to us."
"Yes, it improves a man to get married," said Halleck, with a long, stifled sigh. "It"s improved the most selfish hound I ever knew."
XXI.
The two elder Miss Hallecks were so much older than Olive, the youngest, that they seemed to be of a sort of intermediary generation between her and her parents, though Olive herself was well out of her teens, and was the senior of her brother Ben by two or three years. The elder sisters were always together, and they adhered in common to the religion of their father and mother. The defection of their brother was pa.s.sive, but Olive, having conscientiously adopted an alien faith, was not a person to let others imagine her ashamed of it, and her Unitarianism was outspoken. In her turn she formed a kind of party with Ben inside the family, and would have led him on in her own excesses of independence if his somewhat melancholy indifferentism had consented. It was only in his absence that she had been with her sisters during their summer sojourn in the White Mountains; when they returned home, she vigorously went her way, and left them to go theirs. She was fond of them in her defiant fashion; but in such a matter as calling on Mrs. Hubbard she chose not to be mixed up with her family, or in any way to countenance her family"s prepossessions. Her sisters paid their visit together, and she waited for Clara Kingsbury to come up from the seaside. Then she went with her to call upon Marcia, sitting observant and non-committal while Clara swooped through the little house, up stairs and down, clamoring over its prettiness, and admiring the art with which so few dollars could be made to go so far. "Think of finding such a bower on Clover Street!" She made Marcia give her the cost of everything; and her heart swelled with pride in her s.e.x--when she heard that Marcia had put down all the carpets herself. "I wanted to make them up," Marcia explained, "but Mr. Hubbard wouldn"t let me,--it cost so little at the store."
"Wouldn"t let you!" cried Miss Kingsbury. "I should hope as much, indeed!
Why, my child, you"re a Roman matron!"
She came away in agony lest Marcia might think she meant her nose. She drove early the next morning to tell Olive Halleck that she had spent a sleepless night from this cause, and to ask her what she _should_ do. "Do you think she will be hurt, Olive? Tell me what led up to it. How did I behave before that? The context is everything in such cases."
"Oh, you went about praising everything, and screaming and shouting, and my-dearing and my-childing her, and patronizing--"
"There, there! say no more! That"s sufficient! I see,--I see it all! I"ve done the very most offensive thing I could, when I meant to be the most appreciative."
"These country people don"t like to be appreciated down to the quick, in that way," said Olive. "I should think Mrs. Hubbard was rather a proud person."
"I know! I know!" moaned Miss Kingsbury. "It was ghastly."
"_I_ don"t suppose she"s ashamed of her nose--"
"Olive!" cried her friend, "be still! Why, I can"t _bear_ it! Why, you wretched thing!"
"I dare say all the ladies in Equity make up their own carpets, and put them down, and she thought you were laughing at her."
"_Will_ you be still, Olive Halleck?" Miss Kingsbury was now a large, blonde ma.s.s of suffering, "Oh, dear, dear! What shall I do? It was sacrilege--yes, it was nothing less than sacrilege--to go on as I did. And I meant so well! I did so admire, and respect, and revere her!" Olive burst out laughing. "You wicked girl!" whimpered Clara. "Should you--should you write to her?"
"And tell her you didn"t mean her nose? Oh, by all means, Clara,--by all means! Quite an inspiration. Why not make her an evening party?"
"Olive," said Clara, with guilty meekness, "I have been thinking of that."
"_No_, Clara! Not seriously!" cried Olive, sobered at the idea.
"Yes, seriously. Would it be so very bad? Only just a _little_ party,"
she pleaded. "Half a dozen people or so; just to show them that I really feel--friendly. I know that he"s told her all about meeting me here, and I"m not going to have her think I want to drop him because he"s married, and lives in a little house on Clover Street."
"n.o.ble Clara! So you wish to bring them out in Boston society? What will you do with them after you"ve got them there?" Miss Kingsbury fidgeted in her chair a little. "Now, look me in the eye, Clara! Whom were you going to ask to meet them? Your unfashionable friends, the Hallecks?"
"My friends, the Hallecks, of course."
"And Mr. Atherton, your legal adviser?"
"I had thought of asking Mr. Atherton. You needn"t say what he is, if you please, Olive; you know that there"s no one I prize so much."
"Very good. And Mr. Cameron?"
"He has got back,--yes. He"s very nice."
"A Cambridge tutor; very young and of recent attachment to the College, with no local affiliations, yet. What ladies?"
"Miss Strong is a nice girl; she is studying at the Conservatory."
"Yes. Poverty-stricken votary of Miss Kingsbury. Well?"
"Miss Clancy."
"Unfashionable sister of fashionable artist. Yes?"
"The Brayhems."
"Young radical clergyman, and his wife, without a congregation, and hoping for a pulpit in Billerica. Parlor lectures on German literature in the mean time. Well?"
"And Mrs. Savage, I thought."
"Well-preserved young widow of uncertain antecedents tending to gra.s.siness; out-door _protegee_ of the hostess. Yes, Clara, go on and give your party.
It will be _perfectly safe_! But do you think it will _deceive_ anybody?"
"Now, Olive Halleck!" cried Clara, "I am not going to have you talking to me in that way! You have no right to do it, and you have no business to do it," she added, trying to pluck up a spirit. "Is there anybody that I value more than I do you and your sisters, and Ben?"
"No. But you don"t value us _just in that way_, and you know it. Don"t you be a humbug, Clara. Now go on with your excuses."
"I"m not making excuses! Isn"t Mr. Atherton in the most fashionable society?"
"Yes. Why don"t you ask some other fashionable people?"
"Olive, this is all nonsense,--perfect nonsense! I can invite any one I like to meet any one I like, and if I choose to show Mr. Hubbard"s wife a little attention, I can do it, can"t I?"
"Oh, of course!"
"And what would be the use of inviting fashionable people--as you call them--to meet them? It would just embarra.s.s them, all round."
"Perfectly correct, Miss Kingsbury. All that want you to do is to face the facts of the case. I want you to realize that, in showing Mr. Hubbard"s wife this little attention, you"re not doing it because you scorn to drop an old friend, and want to do him the highest honor; but because you think you can palm off your second-cla.s.s acquaintance on them for first-cla.s.s, and try to make up in that way for telling her she had a hooked nose!"
"You _know_ that I didn"t tell her she had a hooked nose."
"You told her that she was a Roman matron,--it"s the same thing," said Olive.
Miss Kingsbury bit her lip and tried to look a dignified resentment. She ended by saying, with feeble spite, "I shall have the little evening for all you say. I suppose you won"t refuse to come because I don"t ask the whole Blue Book to meet them."
"Of course we shall come! I wouldn"t miss it for anything. I always like to see how you manage your pieces of social duplicity, Clara. But you needn"t expect that I will be a party to the swindle. No, Clara! I shall go to these poor young people and tell them plainly, "This is not the _best_ society; Miss Kingsbury keeps that for--""