"That is very evident," I said. "But your daughter thinks you ought to take her home." I began to fear, as soon as I had uttered these words, that they savoured of treachery to the young lady, but I was rea.s.sured by seeing that they produced on her mother"s placid countenance no symptom whatever of irritation.
"My daughter has her little theories," Mrs. Church observed; "she has, I may say, her illusions. And what wonder! What would youth be without its illusions? Aurora has a theory that she would be happier in New York, in Boston, in Philadelphia, than in one of the charming old cities in which our lot is cast. But she is mistaken, that is all. We must allow our children their illusions, must we not? But we must watch over them."
Although she herself seemed proof against discomposure, I found something vaguely irritating in her soft, sweet positiveness.
"American cities," I said, "are the paradise of young girls."
"Do you mean," asked Mrs. Church, "that the young girls who come from those places are angels?"
"Yes," I said, resolutely.
"This young lady--what is her odd name?--with whom my daughter has formed a somewhat precipitate acquaintance: is Miss Ruck an angel?
But I won"t force you to say anything uncivil. It would be too cruel to make a single exception."
"Well," said I, "at any rate, in America young girls have an easier lot. They have much more liberty."
My companion laid her hand for an instant on my arm. "My dear young friend, I know America, I know the conditions of life there, so well.
There is perhaps no subject on which I have reflected more than on our national idiosyncrasies."
"I am afraid you don"t approve of them," said I, a little brutally.
Brutal indeed my proposition was, and Mrs. Church was not prepared to a.s.sent to it in this rough shape. She dropped her eyes on her book, with an air of acute meditation. Then, raising them, "We are very crude," she softly observed--"we are very crude." Lest even this delicately-uttered statement should seem to savour of the vice that she deprecated, she went on to explain. "There are two cla.s.ses of minds, you know--those that hold back, and those that push forward.
My daughter and I are not pushers; we move with little steps. We like the old, trodden paths; we like the old, old world."
"Ah," said I, "you know what you like; there is a great virtue in that."
"Yes, we like Europe; we prefer it. We like the opportunities of Europe; we like the REST. There is so much in that, you know. The world seems to me to be hurrying, pressing forward so fiercely, without knowing where it is going. "Whither?" I often ask, in my little quiet way. But I have yet to learn that any one can tell me."
"You"re a great conservative," I observed, while I wondered whether I myself could answer this inquiry.
Mrs. Church gave me a smile which was equivalent to a confession. "I wish to retain a LITTLE--just a little. Surely, we have done so much, we might rest a while; we might pause. That is all my feeling- -just to stop a little, to wait! I have seen so many changes. I wish to draw in, to draw in--to hold back, to hold back."
"You shouldn"t hold your daughter back!" I answered, laughing and getting up. I got up, not by way of terminating our interview, for I perceived Mrs. Church"s exposition of her views to be by no means complete, but in order to offer a chair to Miss Aurora, who at this moment drew near. She thanked me and remained standing, but without at first, as I noticed, meeting her mother"s eye.
"You have been engaged with your new acquaintance, my dear?" this lady inquired.
"Yes, mamma, dear," said the young girl, gently.
"Do you find her very edifying?"
Aurora was silent a moment; then she looked at her mother. "I don"t know, mamma; she is very fresh."
I ventured to indulge in a respectful laugh. "Your mother has another word for that. But I must not," I added, "be crude."
"Ah, vous m"en voulez?" inquired Mrs. Church. "And yet I can"t pretend I said it in jest. I feel it too much. We have been having a little social discussion," she said to her daughter. "There is still so much to be said." "And I wish," she continued, turning to me, "that I could give you our point of view. Don"t you wish, Aurora, that we could give him our point of view?"
"Yes, mamma," said Aurora.
"We consider ourselves very fortunate in our point of view, don"t we, dearest?" mamma demanded.
"Very fortunate, indeed, mamma."
"You see we have acquired an insight into European life," the elder lady pursued. "We have our place at many a European fireside. We find so much to esteem--so much to enjoy. Do we not, my daughter?"
"So very much, mamma," the young girl went on, with a sort of inscrutable submissiveness. I wondered at it; it offered so strange a contrast to the mocking freedom of her tone the night before; but while I wondered I was careful not to let my perplexity take precedence of my good manners.
"I don"t know what you ladies may have found at European firesides,"
I said, "but there can be very little doubt what you have left there."
Mrs. Church got up, to acknowledge my compliment. "We have spent some charming hours. And that reminds me that we have just now such an occasion in prospect. We are to call upon some Genevese friends-- the family of the Pasteur Galopin. They are to go with us to the old library at the Hotel de Ville, where there are some very interesting doc.u.ments of the period of the Reformation; we are promised a glimpse of some ma.n.u.scripts of poor Servetus, the antagonist and victim, you know, of Calvin. Here, of course, one can only speak of Calvin under one"s breath, but some day, when we are more private," and Mrs.
Church looked round the room, "I will give you my view of him. I think it has a touch of originality. Aurora is familiar with, are you not, my daughter, familiar with my view of Calvin?"
"Yes, mamma," said Aurora, with docility, while the two ladies went to prepare for their visit to the Pasteur Galopin.
CHAPTER VI.
"She has demanded a new lamp; I told you she would!" This communication was made me by Madame Beaurepas a couple of days later.
"And she has asked for a new tapis de lit, and she has requested me to provide Celestine with a pair of light shoes. I told her that, as a general thing, cooks are not shod with satin. That poor Celestine!"
"Mrs. Church may be exacting," I said, "but she is a clever little woman."
"A lady who pays but five francs and a half shouldn"t be too clever.
C"est deplace. I don"t like the type."
"What type do you call Mrs. Church"s?"
"Mon Dieu," said Madame Beaurepas, "c"est une de ces mamans comme vous en avez, qui promenent leur fille."
"She is trying to marry her daughter? I don"t think she"s of that sort."
But Madame Beaurepas shrewdly held to her idea. "She is trying it in her own way; she does it very quietly. She doesn"t want an American; she wants a foreigner. And she wants a mari serieux. But she is travelling over Europe in search of one. She would like a magistrate."
"A magistrate?"
"A gros bonnet of some kind; a professor or a deputy."
"I am very sorry for the poor girl," I said, laughing.
"You needn"t pity her too much; she"s a sly thing."
"Ah, for that, no!" I exclaimed. "She"s a charming girl."
Madame Beaurepas gave an elderly grin. "She has hooked you, eh? But the mother won"t have you."