"I detest long courtships; they must be perfect antidotes to love; are they not, Mr. Moreland?"
A truant glance of Mr. Moreland"s eye was rebuked by this appeal, and instead of looking for a place of refuge, he now merely looked sheepish. He, however, entirely agreed with the young lady, as the surer way of getting out of the difficulty.
"Pray, Mr. Summerfield, how do you like the last Hajji--Miss Eve Effingham? To my notion, she is prettyish, though by no means as well as her cousin, Miss Van Cortlandt, who is really rather good- looking."
As Eve and Grace were the two most truly lovely young women in the rooms, this opinion, as well as the loud tone in which it was given, startled Mademoiselle Viefville quite as much as the subjects that the belle had selected for discussion. She would have moved, as listening to a conversation that was not meant for their ears; but John Effingham quietly a.s.sured her that Miss Ring seldom spoke in company without intending as many persons as possible to hear her.
"Miss Effingham is very plainly dressed for an only daughter"
continued the young lady, "though that lace of her cousin"s is real point! I"ll engage it cost every cent of ten dollars a yard! They are both engaged to be married, I hear."
"_Ciel!_" exclaimed Mademoiselle Viefville.
"Oh! That is nothing," observed John Effingham coolly. "Wait a moment, and you"ll hear that they have been privately married these six months, if, indeed, you hear no more."
"Of course this is but an idle tale?" said Sir George Templemore with a concern, which, in despite of his good breeding, compelled him to put a question that, under other circ.u.mstances, would scarcely have been permissible.
"As true as the gospel. But listen to the _bell_, it is _ringing_ for the good of the whole parish."
"The affair between Miss Effingham and Mr. Morpeth, who knew her abroad, I understand is entirely broken off; some say the father objected to Mr. Morpeth"s want of fortune; others that the lady was fickle, while some accuse the gentleman of the same vice. Don"t you think it shocking to jilt, in either s.e.x, Mr. Mosely?"
The _retiring_ Mr. Mosely was drawn again within the circle, and was obliged to confess that he thought it was very shocking, in either s.e.x, to jilt.
"If I were a man," continued the _belle_, "I would never think of a young woman who had once jilted a lover. To my mind, it bespeaks a bad heart, and a woman with a bad heart cannot make a very amiable wife."
"What an exceedingly clever creature she is," whispered Mr. Mosely to Mr. Moreland, and he now made up his mind to remain and be "entertained" some time longer.
"I think poor Mr. Morpeth greatly to be pitied; for no man would be so silly as to be attentive seriously to a lady without encouragement. Encouragement is the _ne plus ultra_ of courtship; are you not of my opinion, Mr. Walworth?"
Mr. Walworth was number five of the entertainees, and he did understand Latin, of which the young lady, though fond of using sc.r.a.ps, knew literally nothing. He smiled an a.s.sent, therefore, and the _belle_ felicitated herself in having "entertained" _him_ effectually; nor was she mistaken.
"Indeed, they say Miss Effingham had several affairs of the heart, while in Europe, but it seems she was unfortunate in them all."
"_Mais, ceci est trop fort! Je ne peux plus ecouter._"
"My dear Mademoiselle, compose yourself. The crisis is not yet arrived, by any means."
"I understand she still corresponds with a German Baron, and an Italian Marquis, though both engagements are absolutely broken off.
Some people say she walks into company alone, unsupported by any gentleman, by way of announcing a firm determination to remain single for life."
A common exclamation from the young men proclaimed their disapprobation; and that night three of them actually repeated the thing, as a well established truth, and two of the three, failing of something better to talk about, also announced that Eve was actually engaged to be married.
"There is something excessively indelicate in a young lady"s moving about a room without having a gentleman"s arm to lean on! I always feel as if such a person was out of her place, and ought to be in the kitchen."
"But, Miss Ring, what well-bred person does it?" sputtered Mr.
Moreland. "No one ever heard of such a thing in good society. "Tis quite shocking! Altogether unprecedented."
"It strikes me as being excessively coa.r.s.e!"
"Oh! manifestly; quite rustic!" exclaimed Mr. Edson.
"What can possibly be more vulgar?" added Mr. Walworth.
"I never heard of such a thing among the right sort!" said Mr.
Mosely.
"A young lady who can be so brazen as to come into a room without a gentleman"s arm to lean on, is, in my judgment at least, but indifferently educated, Hajji or no Hajji. Mr. Edson, have you ever felt the tender pa.s.sion? I know you have been desperately in love, once, at least; do describe to me some of the symptoms, in order that I may know when I am seriously attacked myself by the disease."
"_Mais, ceci est ridicule! L"enfant s"est sauvee du Charenton de New- York._"
"From the nursery rather, Mademoiselle; you perceive she does not yet know how to walk alone."
Mr. Edson now protested that he was too stupid to feel a pa.s.sion as intellectual as love, and that he was afraid he was destined by nature to remain as insensible as a block.
"One never knows, Mr. Edson," said the young lady, encouragingly.
"Several of my acquaintances, who thought themselves quite safe, have been seized suddenly, and, though none have actually died, more than one has been roughly treated, I a.s.sure you."
Here the young men, one and all, protested that she was excessively clever. Then succeeded a pause, for Miss Ring was inviting, with her eyes, a number six to join the circle, her ambition being dissatisfied with five entertainees, as she saw that Miss Trumpet, a rival belle, had managed to get exactly that number, also, in the other room. All the gentlemen availed themselves of the cessation in wit to gape, and Mr. Edson took the occasion to remark to Mr.
Summerfield that he understood "lots had been sold in seven hundredth street that morning, as high as two hundred dollars a lot."
The _quadrille_ now ended, and Eve returned towards her friends. As she approached, the whole party compared her quiet, simple, feminine, and yet dignified air, with the restless, beau-catching, and worldly look of the belle, and wondered by what law of nature, or of fashion, the one could possibly become the subject of the other"s comments.
Eve never appeared better than that evening. Her dress had all the accuracy and finish of a Parisian toilette, being equally removed from exaggeration and neglect; and it was worn with the ease of one accustomed to be elegantly attired, and yet never decked with finery.
Her step even was that of a lady, having neither the mincing tread of a Paris grisette, a manner that sometimes ascends even to the _bourgeoise_ the march of a c.o.c.kneyess, nor the tiptoe swing of a _belle_; but it was the natural though regulated step, of a trained and delicate woman. Walk alone she could certainly, and always did, except on those occasions of ceremony that demanded a partner. Her countenance, across which an unworthy thought had never left a trace, was an index, too, to the purity, high principles and womanly self- respect that controlled all her acts, and, in these particulars was the very reverse of the feverish, half-hoydenish half-affected expression of that of Miss Ring.
"They may say what they please," muttered Captain Truck, who had been a silent but wondering listener of all that pa.s.sed; "she is worth as many of them as could be stowed in the Montauk"s lower hold."
Miss Ring perceiving Eve approach, was desirous of saying something to her, for there was an _eclat_ about a Hajji, after all, that rendered an acquaintance, or even an intimacy desirable, and she smiled and curtsied. Eve returned the salutation, but as she did not care to approach a group of six, of which no less than five were men, she continued to move towards her own party. This reserve compelled Miss Ring to advance a step or two, when Eve was obliged to stop Curtsying to her partner, she thanked him for his attention, relinquished his arm, and turned to meet the lady. At the same instant the five "entertainees" escaped in a body, equally rejoiced at their release, and proud of their captivity.
"I have been dying to come and speak to you, Miss Effingham,"
commenced Miss Ring, "but these _five_ giants (she emphasized the word we have put in italics) so beset me, that escape was quite impossible. There ought to be a law that but one gentleman should speak to a lady at a time."
"I thought there was such a law already;" said Eve, quietly.
"You mean in good breeding; but no one thinks of those antiquated laws now-a-days. Are you beginning to be reconciled, a little, to your own country?"
"It is not easy to effect a reconciliation where there has been no misunderstanding. I hope I have never quarrelled with my country, or my country with me."
"Oh! it is not exactly that I mean. Cannot one need a reconciliation without a quarrel? What do you say to this, Mr. Edson?"
Miss Ring having detected some symptoms of desertion in the gentleman addressed, had thrown in this question by way of recal; when turning to note its effect, she perceived that all of her _clientelle_ had escaped. A look of surprise and mortification and vexation it was not in her power to suppress, and then came one of horror.
"How conspicuous we have made ourselves, and it is all my fault!" she said, for the first time that evening permitting her voice to fall to a becoming tone. "Why, here we actually are, two ladies conversing together, and no gentleman near us!"
"Is that being conspicuous?" asked Eve, with a simplicity that was entirely natural.
"I am sure, Miss Effingham, one who has seen as much of society as you, can scarcely ask that question seriously. I do not think I have done so improper a thing, since I was fifteen; and, dear me! dear me!
how to escape is the question. You have permitted your partner to go, and I do not see a gentleman of my acquaintance near us, to give me his arm!"
"As your distress is occasioned by my company," said Eve, "it is fortunately in my power to relieve it." Thus saying, she quietly walked across the room, and took her seat next to Mademoiselle Viefville.