Betty had just listened to the twenty-eighth theory of the cause of the Maine"s destruction when she turned in response to a familiar drawl.
"Why, howdy, Miss Madison, I"m real glad to run across you at last."
Betty was so taken aback that she mechanically surrendered her hand to the limp pressure of her former housekeeper. But she was not long recovering herself.
"Miss Trumbull, is it not? I was not aware that you were an acquaintance of Lady Mary Montgomery"s."
"Well, I can"t say as I know her real intimate yet, but I guess I shall in time, as we"re both wives of Congressmen."
"Ah? You are married?" Betty experienced a fleeting desire to see the man who had been captivated by Miss Trumbull.
"Ye--as. I went out West to visit my sister after I left you and was married before I knew it--to Mr. George Washington Mudd. He"s real nice, and smart--My! I expect to be in the White House before I die."
"It is among the possibilities, of course. I hope you are happy, and that meanwhile he is able to take care of you comfortably." Mrs. Mudd glistened with black silk and jet, but the cut of her gown was of the Middle West.
"Well, I guess! He"s a lawyer and can make two hundred dollars a month any day. Of course I can"t set up a house in Washington, but I live at the Ellsmere, and three or four of us Congressional ladies receive together and share carriages. I"ll be happy to have you call--the first and third Tuesdays; but we always put it in the Post."
"I have little time for calling. I am very busy in many ways."
"Well, I"m sorry. You don"t look as well as you did up in the mountains; you look real tired, come to examine you. But your dresses are always so swell one sees those first. I always did think you had just the prettiest dresses I ever saw."
Betty did not turn her back upon the woman; it was a relief to talk on any subject that stood aloof from war. Mrs. Mudd rambled on.
"I suppose you"re engaged to Senator Burleigh by this time? He"s our Senator, you know, but I don"t know as he"s likely to be, long. We want silver, and I guess we"ve got to have it."
"I suppose you take quite an interest in politics now," said Betty, looking at the woman"s large self-satisfied face. So far, matrimony had not been a chastening influence. Mrs. Mudd looked more conceited than ever.
"Well, I guess I always knew as much about them as anybody; and now I"m in politics, I guess the President couldn"t give me many points. If he don"t declare war soon, I"ll go up to the White House and tell him what I think of him."
"Suppose you make a speech from the House Gallery. It is Congress that declares war, not the President."
Mrs. Mudd"s face turned the dull red which Betty well remembered. "I guess I know what I"m talking" about. It"s the President--"
But Betty"s back was upon her, and Betty was listening to the agitated comments of one of the year"s debutantes upon the destruction of the Maine.
"Was night ever so welcome before?" thought Betty, as she settled herself between the four posts of her great-aunt"s bed, a few hours later. "Here, at least, not an echo of war can penetrate, and if I think of other things that scald my pillow, it is almost a relief."
X
On the following evening she went with the Montgomerys to the Army and Navy reception at the White House. Lady Mary had but to express a wish for a card to any function in Washington; and her popularity had much to do with her love for her adopted country.
It was the first time Betty ever had entered the historic mansion, and as she waited for twenty minutes in the crush of people on the front porch, she reflected that probably it was the last.
But when she was in the great East Room, which was hung with flags and glittered with uniforms, and was filled with the strains of martial music, she thrilled again with the historical sense, and almost wished there was a prospect of a war which would compel her to patriotic excitement.
They remained in the East Room for some time before going to shake hands with the President, that the long queue of people patiently crawling to the Blue Room might have time to wear itself down to a point. As Betty stood there eagerly watching the scene, and talking to first one and then another of the Army men who came up to speak to her, she became deeply impressed with the fact that this was the calmest function she had attended in Washington during the winter. There was no excitement on the faces of these men in uniform, and they said little and hardly mentioned the subject of war. They looked stern and thoughtful; and Betty felt proud of them, and wished they were doing themselves honour in a better cause.
She went down the long central corridor after a time, past the crowd wedged before the central door, gaping at the receiving party, to a room where she and the Montgomerys joined the diminished queue extending from a side entrance to the Blue Room. She was not surprised to see Mrs. Mudd in front of her, for although the Representative"s wife should have received a card for another evening, she was quite capable of forcing her way in without one; as doubtless a good many others had done to-night. She wore her black silk gown and her bonnet, and although most of the women present were in brilliant evening dress, Mrs. Mudd had several to keep her in countenance. She glanced wearily over her shoulder during the slow progress of the queue, and caught sight of Betty. Her place was precious, but she left it at once and came down the line.
"I"ll go in along with you," she said. "George couldn"t come and I"ve felt kinder lonesome ever sense I got here. And we"ve been three quarters of an hour getting this far. It"s terrible tiresome, but as I"ve found you I guess I can stand the rest of it."
Betty detected the flicker of malice in her former housekeeper"s voice.
They were on equal ground for once, and Miss Madison and Mrs. Mudd would shake hands with their President within consecutive moments. She smiled with some cynicism, but was too good-natured to snub the native ambition where it could do no harm.
"I saw Senator North to-day," observed Mrs. Mudd, "and he looked crosser "n two sticks. He"s mad because they"ll have war in spite of him. I call him right down unpatriotic, and so do lots of others."
"That disturbs him a great deal. He is much more concerned about the country making a fool of itself."
"This country"s all right, and we couldn"t go wrong if we tried. Them that sets themselves up to be so terrible superior are just bad Americans, that"s the long and the short of it, and they"ll find it out at the next elections. If Senator North should take a trip out West just now, they"d tar and feather him, and I"d like to be there to see it done. They can"t say what they think of his setting on patriotic Senators loud enough. And as for the President--"
"Well, don"t criticise the President while you are under his roof. It is bad manners. Here we are. Will you go in first?"
"Well, I don"t see why I shouldn"t. I"ll hurry on so they can see your dress; it"s just too lovely for anything."
Betty wore a white embroidered chiffon over green; she shook out the train, which had been over her arm ever since she entered the house.
Her name was announced in a loud tone, and she entered the pretty flowery Blue Room with its charmingly dressed receiving party standing before a large group of favoured and critical friends, and facing the inquisitive eyes in the central doorway. The President grasped her hand and said, "How do you do, Miss Madison?" in so pleased and so cordial a tone that Betty for a fleeting moment wondered where she could have met him before. Then she smiled, made a comprehensive bow to his wife and the women of the Cabinet, and pa.s.sed on. Mrs. Mudd, who had shaken hands relentlessly with every weary member of the receiving party, reached the door of exit after her and clutched her by the arm.
"Say!" she exclaimed with excitement, although her drawl was but half conquered. "Where _do_ you s"pose I could have met the President before? I know by the way he said "Mrs. Mudd," he remembered me, but I just can"t think, to save my life. My! ain"t he fascinating?"
Betty had laughed aloud. "I am sorry to hurt your vanity," she replied, "but the President is said to have the best manners of any man who has occupied the White House within living memory."
"What d"you mean?" cried Mrs. Mudd, sharply. "D" you mean he didn"t know me? I just know he did, so there! And he can pack his clothes in my trunk as soon as he likes."
"Good heaven!" "Oh, that"s slang. I forgot you were so terrible superior. But you"ve got good cause to know I"m virtuous. Lands sakes!
I guess n.o.body ever said I warn"t."
"I don"t fancy anybody ever did."
They were in the East Room again, with the stars and stripes, the moving glitter of gold, the loud hum mingled with the distant strains of martial music.
"It"s really inspiring," said Lady Mary. "I wish I could write a war poem."
"I hope there is nothing coming to inspire war doggerel; the prospect of a new crop of war stories and war plays is too painful. We were all brought up on the Civil War and are resigned to its literature. But life is too short to get used to a new variety."
"Betty dear, ennui has embittered you, and I must confess that I am a trifle weary of the war before it has begun, myself. Randolph, I think I prefer you should vote for peace."
"I"m afraid we"ll have no peace till we"ve had war first," said Mr.
Montgomery, grimly.
"Oh, we"re goin" to have war," drawled Mrs. Mudd. "Just don"t you worry about that. Now don"t blush," she said in Betty"s ear. "Senator North"s makin" straight for you. I suspicion you like him better "n Burleigh--"
Betty had turned upon her at last, and the woman t.i.ttered nervously and fell back in the crowd.
Senator North and Miss Madison shook hands with that absence of emotion which is one of the conditions of a crowded environment, and Lady Mary suggested they should all go to the conservatory, where it was cooler.