"Yes," said the mother thoughtfully.
"There! he"s laughing with that other student. But don"t look!"
Mrs. Pasmer saw well enough out of the corner of her eye the joking that went on between Mavering and his friend, and it did not displease her to think that it probably referred to Alice. While the young man came hurrying back to them she glanced at the girl standing near her with a keenly critical inspection, from which she was able to exclude all maternal partiality, and justly decided that she was one of the most effective girls in the place. That costume of hers was perfect. Mrs.
Pasmer wished now that she could have compared it more carefully with other costumes; she had noticed some very pretty ones; and a feeling of vexation that Alice should have prevented this by being away so long just when the crowd was densest qualified her satisfaction. The people were going very fast now. The line of the oval in the nave was broken into groups of lingering talkers, who were conspicuous to each other, and Mrs. Pasmer felt that she and her daughter were conspicuous to all the rest where they stood apart, with the two Maverings converging upon them from different points, the son nodding and laughing to friends of both s.e.xes as he came, the father wholly absorbed in not spilling the gla.s.s of claret punch which he carried in one hand, and not falling down on the slippery floor with the plate of salad which he bore in the other. She had thoughts of feigning unconsciousness; she would have had no scruple in practising this or any other social stratagem, for though she kept a conscience in regard to certain matters--what she considered essentials--she lived a thousand little lies every day, and taught her daughter by precept and example to do the same. You must seem to be looking one way when you were really looking another; you must say this when you meant that; you must act as if you were thinking one thing when you were thinking something quite different; and all to no end, for, as she constantly said, people always know perfectly well what you were about, whichever way you looked or whatever you said, or no matter how well you acted the part of thinking what you did not think. Now, although she seemed not to look, she saw all that has been described at a glance, and at another she saw young Mavering slide easily up to his father and relieve him of the plate and gla.s.s, with a laugh as pleasant and a show of teeth as dazzling as he bestowed upon any of the ladies he had pa.s.sed. She owned to her recondite heart that she liked this in young Mavering, though at the same time she asked herself what motive he really had in being so polite to his father before people. But she had no time to decide; she had only time to pack the question hurriedly away for future consideration, when young Mavering arrived at her elbow, and she turned with a little "Oh!" of surprise so perfectly acted that it gave her the greatest pleasure.
IV.
"I don"t think my father would have got here alive with these things,"
said young Mavering. "Did you see how I came to his rescue?"
Mrs. Pasmer instantly threw away all pretext of not having seen. "Oh yes! my heart was in my mouth when you bore down upon him, Mr. Mavering.
It was a beautiful instance of filial devotion."
"Well, do sit down now, Mrs. Pasmer, and take it comfortably," said the young fellow; and he got her one of the many empty chairs, and would not give her the things, which he put in another, till she sat down and let him spread a napkin over her lap.
"Really," she said, "I feel as if I were stopping all the wheels of Cla.s.s Day. Am I keeping them from closing the Gymnasium, Mr. Mavering?"
"Not quite," said the young man, with one of his laughs. "I don"t believe they will turn us out, and I"ll see that they don"t lock us in.
Don"t hurry, Mrs. Pasmer. I"m only sorry you hadn"t something sooner."
"Oh, your father proposed getting me something a good while ago."
"Did he? Then I wonder you haven"t had it. He"s usually on time."
"You"re both very energetic, I think," said Mrs. Pasmer.
"He"s the father of his son," said the young fellow, a.s.suming the merit with a bow of burlesque modesty.
It went to Mrs. Pasmer"s heart. "Let"s hope he"ll never forget that,"
she said, in an enjoyment of the excitement and the salad that was beginning to leave her question of these Maverings a light, diaphanous cloud on the verge of the horizon.
The elder Mavering had been trying, without success, to think of something to say to Miss Pasmer, he had twice cleared his throat for that purpose. But this comedy between his son and the young lady"s mother seemed so much lighter and brighter than anything he could have said, that he said nothing, and looked on with his mouth set in its queer smile, while the girl listened with the gravity of a daughter who sees that her mother is losing her head. Mrs. Pasmer buzzed on in her badinage with the young man, and allowed him to go for a cup of coffee before she rose from her chair, and shook out her skirts with an air of pleasant expectation of whatever should come next.
He came back without it. "The coffee urn has dried up here, Mrs. Pasmer.
But you can get some at the other spreads; they"d be inconsolable if you didn"t take something everywhere."
They all started toward the door, but the elder Mavering said, holding back a little, "Dan, I think I"ll go and see--"
"Oh no, you mustn"t, father," cried the young man, laying his hand with caressing entreaty on his father"s coat sleeve. "I don"t want you to go anywhere till you"ve seen Professor Saintsbury. We shall be sure to meet him at some of the spreads. I want you to have that talk with him--" He corrected himself for the instant"s deflection from the interests of his guest, and added, "I want you to help me hunt him up for Mrs. Pasmer.
Now, Mrs. Pasmer, you"re not to think it"s the least trouble, or anything but a boon, much less say it," he cried, turning to the deprecation in Mrs. Pasmer"s face. He turned away from it to acknowledge the smiles and bows of people going out of the place, and he returned their salutations with charming heartiness.
In the vestibule they met the friends they were going in search of.
V.
"With Mr. Mavering, of course!" exclaimed Mrs. Saintsbury: "I might have known it." Mrs. Pasmer would have given anything she could think of to be able to ask why her friend might have known it; but for the present they could only fall upon each other with flashes of self-accusal and explanation, and rejoicing for their deferred and now accomplished meeting. The Professor stood by with the satirical smile with which men witness the effusion of women. Young Mavering, after sharing the ladies"
excitement fully with them, rewarded himself by an exclusive moment with Miss Pasmer.
"You must get Mrs. Pasmer to let me show you all of Cla.s.s Day that a Senior can. I didn"t know what a perfect serpent"s tooth it was to be one before. Mrs. Saintsbury," he broke off, "have you got tickets for the Tree? Ah, she doesn"t hear me!"
Mrs. Saintsbury was just then saying to the elder Mavering, "I"m so glad you decided to come today. It would have been a shame if none of you were here." She made a feint of dropping her voice, with a glance at Dan Mavering. "He"s such a nice boy," which made him laugh, and cry out--
"Oh, now? Don"t poison my father"s mind, Mrs. Saintsbury."
"Oh, some one would be sure to tell him," retorted the Professor"s wife, "and he"d better hear it from a friend."
The young fellow laughed again, and then he shook hands with some ladies going out, and asked were they going so soon, from an abstract hospitality, apparently, for he was not one of the hosts; and so turned once more to Miss Pasmer. "We must get away from here, or the afternoon will get away from us, and leave us nothing to show for it. Suppose we make a start, Miss Pasmer?"
He led the way with her out of the vestibule, banked round with pots of palm and fern, and down the steps into the glare of the Cambridge sunshine, blown full, as is the case on Cla.s.s Day, of fine Cambridge dust, which had drawn a delicate grey veil over the gra.s.s of the Gymnasium lawn, and mounted in light clouds from the wheels powdering it finer and finer in the street. Along the sidewalks dusty hacks and carriages were ranged, and others were driving up to let people dismount at the entrances to the college yard. Within the temporary picket-fences, secluding a part of the grounds for the students and their friends, were seen stretching from dormitory to dormitory long lines of Chinese lanterns, to be lit after nightfall, swung between the elms. Groups of ladies came and went, nearly always under the escort of some student; the caterers" carts, disburdened of their ice-creams and salads, were withdrawn under the shade in the street, and their drivers lounged or drowsed upon the seats; now and then a black waiter, brilliant as a bobolink in his white jacket and ap.r.o.n, appeared on some errand; the large, mild Cambridge policemen kept the entrances to the yard with a benevolent vigilance which was not harsh with the little Irish children coming up from the Marsh in their best to enjoy the sight of other people"s pleasure.
"Isn"t it a perfect Cla.s.s Day?" cried young Mavering, as he crossed Kirkland Street with Miss Pasmer, and glanced down its vaulted perspective of elms, through which the sunlight broke, and lay in the road in pools and washes as far as the eye reached. "Did you ever see anything bluer than the sky to-day? I feel as if we"d ordered the weather, with the rest of the things, and I had some credit for it as host. Do make it a little compliment, Miss Pasmer; I a.s.sure you I"ll be very modest about it."
"Ah, I think it"s fully up to the occasion," said the girl, catching the spirit of his amiable satisfaction. "Is it the usual Cla.s.s Day weather?"
"You spoil everything by asking that," cried the young man; "it obliges me to make a confession--it"s always good weather on Cla.s.s Day. There haven"t been more than a dozen bad Cla.s.s Days in the century. But you"ll admit that there can"t have been a better Cla.s.s Day than this?"
"Oh yes; it"s certainly the pleasantest Cla.s.s Day I"ve seen;" said the girl; and now when Mavering laughed she laughed too.
"Thank you so much for saying that! I hope it will pa.s.s off in unclouded brilliancy; it will, if I can make it. Why, hallo! They"re on the other side of the street yet, and looking about as if they were lost."
He pulled his handkerchief from his pocket, and waved it at the others of their party.
They caught sight of it, and came hurrying over through the dust.
Mrs. Saintsbury said, apparently as the sum of her consultations with Mrs. Pasmer: "The Tree is to be at half-past five; and after we"ve seen a few spreads, I"m going to take the ladies hone for a little rest."
"Oh no; don"t do that," pleaded the young man. After making this protest he seemed not to have anything to say immediately in support of it. He merely added: "This is Miss Pasmer"s first Cla.s.s Day, and I want her to see it all."
"But you"ll have to leave us very soon to get yourself ready for the Tree," suggested the Professor"s lady, with a motherly prevision.
"I shall want just fifteen minutes for that."
"I know, better, Mr. Mavering," said Mrs. Saintsbury, with finality.
"You will want a good three-quarters of an hour to make yourself as disreputable as you"ll look at the Tree; and you"ll have to take time for counsel and meditation. You may stay with us just half an hour, and then we shall part inexorably. I"ve seen a great many more Cla.s.s Days than you have, and I know what they are in their demands upon the Seniors."
"Oh; well! Then we won"t think about the time," said the young man, starting on with Miss Pasmer.
"Well, don"t undertake too much," said the lady. She came last in the little procession, with the elder Mavering, and her husband and Mrs Pasmer preceded her.
"What?" young Mavering called back, with his smiling face over his shoulder.
"She says not to bite off more than you can chew," the professor answered for her.