"Um--no," said Betty, pursing her lips. "But she had to dance terribly hard to keep from thinking about herself." Then she laughed, and exclaimed, "Dear me, we are getting poetical!" And next, looking sober again, "Do you know, I was half afraid to talk to you. Ollie tells me you"re terribly serious. Are you?"
"I don"t know," said Montague--but she broke in with a laugh, "We were talking about you at dinner last night. They had some whipped cream done up in funny little curliques, and Ollie said, "Now, if my brother Allan were here, he"d be thinking about the man who fixed this cream, and how long it took him, and how he might have been reading "The Simple Life."" Is that true?"
"It involves a question of literary criticism"--said Montague.
"I don"t want to talk about literature," exclaimed the other. In truth, she wanted nothing save to feel of his armour and find out if there were any weak spots through which he could be teased. Montague was to find in time that the adorable Miss Elizabeth was a very th.o.r.n.y species of rose--she was more like a gay-coloured wasp, of predatory temperament.
"Ollie says you want to go down town and work," she went on. "I think you"re awfully foolish. Isn"t it much nicer to spend your time in an imitation castle like this?"
"Perhaps," said he, "but I haven"t any castle."
"You might get one," answered Betty. "Stay around awhile and let us marry you to a nice girl. They will all throw themselves at your feet, you know, for you have such a delicious melting voice, and you look romantic and exciting." (Montague made a note to inquire whether it was customary in New York to talk about you so frankly to your face.)
Miss Betty was surveying him quizzically meantime. "I don"t know," she said. "On second thoughts, maybe you"ll frighten the girls. Then it"ll be the married women who"ll fall in love with you. You"ll have to watch out."
"I"ve already been told that by my tailor," said Montague, with a laugh.
"That would be a still quicker way of making your fortune," said she.
"But I don"t think you"d fit in the role of a tame cat."
"A _what_?" he exclaimed; and Miss Betty laughed.
"Don"t you know what that is? Dear me--how charmingly naive! But perhaps you"d better get Ollie to explain for you."
That brought the conversation to the subject of slang; and Montague, in a sudden burst of confidence, asked for an interpretation of Miss Price"s cryptic utterance. "She said"--he repeated slowly--"that when I got to be pally with her, I"d conclude she didn"t furnish."
"Oh, yes," said Miss Wyman. "She just meant that when you knew her, you"d be disappointed. You see, she picks up all the race-track slang--one can"t help it, you know. And last year she took her coach over to England, and so she"s got all the English slang. That makes it hard, even for us."
And then Betty sailed in to entertain him with little sketches of other members of the party. A phenomenon that had struck Montague immediately was the extraordinary freedom with which everybody in New York discussed everybody else. As a matter of fact, one seldom discussed anything else; and it made not the least difference, though the person were one of your set,--though he ate your bread and salt, and you ate his,--still you would amuse yourself by pouring forth the most painful and humiliating and terrifying things about him.
There was poor Clarrie Mason: Clarrie, sitting in at bridge, with an expression of feverish eagerness upon his pale face. Clarrie always lost, and it positively broke his heart, though he had ten millions laid by on ice. Clarrie went about all day, bemoaning his brother, who had been kidnapped. Had Montague not heard about it? Well, the newspapers called it a marriage, but it was really a kidnapping. Poor Larry Mason was good-natured and weak in the knees, and he had been carried off by a terrible creature, three times as big as himself, and with a temper like--oh, there were no words for it! She had been an actress; and now she had carried Larry away in her talons, and was building a big castle to keep him in--for he had ten millions too, alas!
And then there was Bertie Stuyvesant, beautiful and winning--the boy who had sat opposite Montague at dinner. Bertie"s father had been a coal man, and n.o.body knew how many millions he had left. Bertie was gay; last week he had invited them to a brook-trout breakfast--in November--and that had been a lark! Somebody had told him that trout never really tasted good unless you caught them yourself, and Bertie had suddenly resolved to catch them for that breakfast. "They have a big preserve up in the Adirondacks," said Betty; "and Bertie ordered his private train, and he and Chappie de Peyster and some others started that night; they drove I don"t know how many miles the next day, and caught a pile of trout--and we had them for breakfast the next morning! The best joke of all is that Chappie vows they were so full they couldn"t fish, and that the trout were caught with nets! Poor Bertie--somebody"ll have to separate him from that decanter now!"
From the hall there came loud laughter, with sounds of scuffling, and cries, "Let me have it!"--"That"s Baby de Mille," said Miss Wyman.
"She"s always wanting to rough-house it. Robbie was mad the last time she was down here; she got to throwing sofa-cushions, and upset a vase."
"Isn"t that supposed to be good form?" asked Montague.
"Not at Robbie"s," said she. "Have you had a chance to talk with Robbie yet? You"ll like him--he"s serious, like you."
"What"s he serious about?"
"About spending his money," said Betty. "That"s the only thing he has to be serious about."
"Has he got so very much?"
"Thirty or forty millions," she replied; "but then, you see, a lot of it"s in the inner companies of his railroad system, and it pays him fabulously. And his wife has money, too--she was a Miss Mason, you know, her father"s one of the steel crowd. We"ve a saying that there are millionaires, and then multi-millionaires, and then Pittsburg millionaires. Anyhow, the two of them spend all their income in entertaining. It"s Robbie"s fad to play the perfect host--he likes to have lots of people round him. He does put up good times--only he"s so very important about it, and he has so many ideas of what is proper! I guess most of his set would rather go to Mrs. Jack Warden"s any day; I"d be there to-night, if it hadn"t been for Ollie."
"Who"s Mrs. Jack Warden?" asked Montague.
"Haven"t you ever heard of her?" said Betty. "She used to be Mrs. van Ambridge, and then she got a divorce and married Warden, the big lumber man. She used to give "boy and girl" parties, in the English fashion; and when we went there we"d do as we please--play tag all over the house, and have pillow-fights, and ransack the closets and get up masquerades! Mrs. Warden"s as good-natured as an old cow. You"ll meet her sometime--only don"t you let her fool you with those soft eyes of hers. You"ll find she doesn"t mean it; it"s just that she likes to have handsome men hanging round her."
At one o"clock a few of Robbie"s guests went to bed, Montague among them. He left two tables of bridge fiends sitting immobile, the women with flushed faces and feverish hands, and the men with cigarettes dangling from their lips. There were trays and decanters beside each card-table; and in the hall he pa.s.sed three youths staggering about in each other"s arms and feebly singing s.n.a.t.c.hes of "c.o.o.n songs." Ollie and Betty had strolled away together to parts unknown.
Montague had entered his name in the order-book to be called at nine o"clock. The man who awakened him brought him coffee and cream upon a silver tray, and asked him if he would have anything stronger. He was privileged to have his breakfast in his room, if he wished; but he went downstairs, trying his best to feel natural in his elaborate hunting costume. No one else had appeared yet, but he found the traces of last night cleared away, and breakfast ready--served in English fashion, with urns of tea and coffee upon the buffet. The grave butler and his satellites were in attendance, ready to take his order for anything else under the sun that he fancied.
Montague preferred to go for a stroll upon the terrace, and to watch the sunlight sparkling upon the sea. The morning was beautiful--everything about the place was so beautiful that he wondered how men and women could live here and not feel the spell of it.
Billy Price came down shortly afterward, clad in a khaki hunting suit, with knee kilts and b.u.t.ton-pockets and gun-pads and Cossack cartridge-loops. She joined him in a stroll down the beach, and talked to him about the coming winter season, with its leading personalities and events,--the Horse Show, which opened next week, and the prospects for the opera, and Mrs. de Graffenried"s opening entertainment. When they came back it was eleven o"clock, and they found most of the guests a.s.sembled, nearly all of them looking a little pale and uncomfortable in the merciless morning light. As the two came in they observed Bertie Stuyvesant standing by the buffet, in the act of gulping down a tumbler of brandy. "Bertie has taken up the "no breakfast fad,"" said Billy with an ironical smile.
Then began the hunt. The equipment of "Black Forest" included a granite building, steam-heated and elaborately fitted, in which an English expert and his a.s.sistants raised imported pheasants--magnificent bronze-coloured birds with long, floating black tails. Just before the opening of the season they were dumped by thousands into the covers--fat, and almost tame enough to be fed by hand; and now came the "hunters."
First they drew lots, for they were to hunt in pairs, a man and a woman. Montague drew Miss Vincent--"Little Raindrop in the Mud-puddle."
Then Ollie, who was master of ceremonies, placed them in a long line, and gave them the direction; and at a signal they moved through the forest; Following each person were two attendants, to carry the extra guns and reload them; and out in front were men to beat the bushes and scare the birds into flight.
Now Montague"s idea of hunting had been to steal through the bayou forests, and match his eyes against those of the wild turkey, and shoot off their heads with a rifle bullet. So, when one of these birds rose in front of him, he fired, and the bird dropped; and he could have done it for ever, he judged--only it was stupid slaughter, and it sickened him. However, if the creatures were not shot, they must inevitably perish in the winter snows; and he had heard that Robbie sent the game to the hospitals. Also, the score was being kept, and Miss Vincent, who was something of a shot herself, was watching him with eager excitement, being wild with desire to beat out Billy Price and Chappie de Peyster, who were the champion shots of the company. Baby de Mille, who was on his left, and who could not shoot at all, was blundering along, puffing for breath and eyeing him enviously; and the attendants at his back were trembling with delight and murmuring their applause.
So he shot on, as long as the drive lasted, and again on their way back, over a new stretch of the country. Sometimes the birds would rise in pairs, and he would drop them both; and twice when a blundering flock took flight in his direction he seized a second gun and brought down a second pair. When the day"s sport came to an end his score was fifteen better than his nearest compet.i.tor, and he and his partner had won the day.
They crowded round to congratulate him; first his partner, and then his rivals, and his host and hostess. Montague found that he had suddenly become a person of consequence. Some who had previously taken no notice of him now became aware of his existence; proud society belles condescended to make conversation with him, and Clarrie Mason, who hated de Peyster, made note of a way to annoy him. As for Oliver, he was radiant with delight. "When it came to horses and guns, I knew you"d make good," he whispered.
Leaving the game to be gathered up in carts, they made their way home, and there the two victors received their prizes. The man"s consisted of a shaving set in a case of solid gold, set with diamonds. Montague was simply stunned, for the thing could not have cost less than one or two thousand dollars. He could not persuade himself that he had a right to accept of such hospitality, which he could never hope to return. He was to realize in time that Robbie lived for the pleasure of thus humiliating his fellow-men.
After luncheon, the party came to an end. Some set out to return as they had come; and others, who had dinner engagements, went back with their host in his private car, leaving their autos to be returned by the chauffeurs. Montague and his brother were among these; and about dusk, when the swarms of working people were pouring out of the city, they crossed the ferry and took a cab to their hotel.
CHAPTER V
They found their apartments looking as if they had been struck by a snowstorm-a storm of red and green and yellow, and all the colours that lie between. All day the wagons of fashionable milliners and costumiers had been stopping at the door, and their contents had found their way to Alice"s room. The floors were ankle-deep in tissue paper and tape, and beds and couches and chairs were covered with boxes, in which lay wonderful symphonies of colour, half disclosed in their wrappings of gauze. In the midst of it all stood the girl, her eyes shining with excitement.
"Oh, Allan!" she cried, as they entered. "How am I ever to thank you?"
"You"re not to thank me," Montague replied. "This is all Oliver"s doings."
"Oliver!" exclaimed the girl, and turned to him. "How in the world could you do it?" she cried. "How will you ever get the money to pay for it all?"
"That"s my problem," said the man, laughing. "All you have to think about is to look beautiful."
"If I don"t," was her reply, "it won"t be for lack of clothes. I never saw so many wonderful things in all my life as I"ve seen to-day."
"There"s quite a show of them," admitted Oliver.
"And Reggie Mann! It was so queer, Allan! I never went shopping with a man before. And he"s so--so matter-of-fact. You know, he bought me--everything!"
"That was what he was told to do," said Oliver. "Did you like him?"