"That question, more than anything else, shows how long you"ve been away, Jenny. It would be family--family, with a judicious mixture of the others, and with money."
"Is it possible? But of course--I remember! Only at their age one thinks of students as being all hail-fellow-well-met with each other--"
"Yes; it"s hard to realise how conventional they are--how very much worldlier than the world--till one sees it as one does in Cambridge.
They pique themselves on it. And Mr. Saintsbury"--she was one of those women whom everything reminds of their husbands "says that it isn"t a bad thing altogether. He says that Harvard is just like the world; and even if it"s a little more so, these boys have got to live in the world, and they had better know what it is. You may not approve of the Harvard spirit, and Mr. Saintsbury doesn"t sympathise with it; he only says it"s the world"s spirit. Harvard men--the swells--are far more exclusive than Oxford men. A student, "comme il faut", wouldn"t at all like to be supposed to know another student whom we valued for his brilliancy, unless he was popular and well known in college."
"Dear me!" cried Mrs. Pasmer. "But of course! It"s perfectly natural, with young people. And it"s well enough that they should begin to understand how things really are in the world early; it will save them from a great many disappointments."
"I a.s.sure you we have very little to teach Harvard men in those matters.
They could give any of us points. Those who are of good family and station know how to protect themselves by reserves that the others wouldn"t dare to transgress. But a merely rich man couldn"t rise in their set any more than a merely gifted man. He could get on to a certain point by toadying, and some do; but he would never get to be popular, like Dan Mavering."
"And what makes him popular?--to go back to the point we started from,"
said Mrs. Pasmer.
"Ah, that"s hard to say. It"s--quality, I suppose. I don"t mean social quality, exactly; but personal charm. He never had a mean thought; of course we"re all full of mean thoughts, and Dan is too; but his first impulse is always generous and sweet, and at his age people act a great deal from impulse. I don"t suppose he ever met a human being without wanting to make him like him, and trying to do it."
"Yes, he certainly makes you like him," sighed Mrs. Pasmer. "But I understand that he can"t make people like him without family or money; and I don"t understand that he"s one of those "nouveaux riches" who are giving Harvard such a reputation for extravagance nowadays."
There was an inquiring note in Mrs. Pasmer"s voice; and in the syringa-scented obscurity, which protected the ladies from the expression of each other"s faces, Mrs. Saintsbury gave a little laugh of intelligence, to which Mrs. Pasmer responded by a murmur of humorous enjoyment at being understood.
"Oh no! He isn"t one of those. But the Maverings have plenty of money,"
said Mrs. Saintsbury, "and Dan"s been very free with it, though not lavish. And he came here with a reputation for popularity from a very good school, and that always goes a very great way in college."
"Yes?" said Mrs. Pasmer, feeling herself getting hopelessly adrift in these unknown waters; but reposing a pious confidence in her pilot.
"Yes; if a sufficient number of his cla.s.s said he was the best fellow in the world, he would be pretty sure to be chosen one of the First Ten in the "d.i.c.key"."
"What mysteries!" gasped Mrs. Pasmer, disposed to make fun of them, but a little overawed all the same. "What in the world is the "d.i.c.key"?"
"It"s the society that the Freshmen are the most eager to get into.
They"re chosen, ten at a time, by the old members, and to be one of the first ten--the only Freshmen chosen--is something quite ineffable."
"I see." Mrs. Pasmer fanned herself, after taking a long breath. "And when he had got into the------"
"Then it would depend upon himself, how he spent his money, and all that, and what sort of society success he was in Boston. That has a great deal to do with it from the first. Then another thing is caution--discreetness; not saying anything censorious or critical of other men, no matter what they do. And Dan Mavering is the perfection of prudence, because he"s the perfection of good-nature."
Mrs. Pasmer had apparently got all of these facts that she could digest.
"And who are the Maverings?"
"Why, it"s an old Boston name--"
"It"s too old, isn"t it? Like Pasmer. There are no Maverings in Boston that I ever heard of."
"No; the name"s quite died out just here, I believe: but it"s old, and it bids fair to be replated at Ponkwa.s.set Falls."
"At Ponk--"
"That"s where they have their mills, or factories, or shops, or whatever inst.i.tution they make wall-paper in."
"Wall-paper!" cried Mrs. Pasmer, austerely. After a moment she asked: "And is wall-paper the "thing" now? I mean--" She tried to think of some way of modifying the commonness of her phrase, but did not. After all, it expressed her meaning.
"It isn"t the extreme of fashion, of course. But it"s manufacturing, and it isn"t disgraceful. And the Mavering papers are very pretty, and you can live with them without becoming anaemic, or having your face twitch."
"Face twitch?" echoed Mrs. Pasmer.
"Yes; a.r.s.enical poisoning."
"Oh! Conscientious as well as aesthetic. I see. And does Mr. Mavering put his artistic temperament into them?"
"His father does. He"s a very interesting man. He has the best taste in certain things--he knows more about etchings, I suppose, than any one else in Boston."
"Is it possible! And does he live at Ponkwa.s.set Falls? It"s in Rhode Island, isn"t it?"
"New Hampshire. Yes; the whole family live there."
"The whole family? Are there many of them? I"d fancied, somehow, that Mr. Mavering was the only----Do tell me about them, Etta," said Mrs.
Pasmer, leaning back in her chair, and fanning herself with an effect of impartial interest, to which the dim light of the room lent itself.
"He"s the only son. But there are daughters, of course--very cultivated girls."
"And is he--is the elder Mr. Mavering a--I don"t know what made me think so--a widower?"
"Well, no--not exactly."
"Not exactly! He"s not a gra.s.s-widower, I hope?"
"No, indeed. But his wife"s a helpless invalid, and always has been.
He"s perfectly devoted to her; and he hurried home yesterday, though he wanted very much to stay for Commencement. He"s never away from her longer than he can help. She"s bedridden; and you can see from the moment you enter it that it"s a man"s house. Daughters can"t change that, you know."
"Have you been there?" asked Mrs. Pasmer, surprised that she was getting so much information, but eager for more. "Why, how long have you known them, Etta?"
"Only since Dan came to Harvard. Mr. Saintsbury took a fancy to him from the start, and the boy was so fond of him that they were always insisting upon a visit; and last summer we stopped there on our way to the mountains."
"And the sisters--do they stay there the whole year round? Are they countrified?"
"One doesn"t live in the country without being countrified," said Mrs.
Saintsbury. "They"re rather quiet girls, though they"ve been about a good deal--to Europe with friends, and to New York in the winter.
They"re older than Dan; they"re more like their father. Are you afraid of that draught at the windows?"
"Oh no; it"s delicious. And he"s like the mother?"
"Yes."
"Then it"s the father who has the artistic taste--he gets that from him; and the mother who has the--"
"Temperament--yes."
"How extremely interesting! And so he"s going to be a lawyer. Why lawyer, if he"s got the talent and the temperament of an artist? Does his father wish him to be a lawyer?"