The Perfume of Eros: A Fifth Avenue Incident.
by Edgar Saltus.
CHAPTER I
A MAN OF FASHION
"Royal," said the man"s mother that evening, "are you still thinking of f.a.n.n.y Price?"
It was in Gramercy Park. As you may or may not know, Gramercy Park is the least noisy spot in the metropolitan Bedlam. Without being unreasonably aristocratic it is sedate and what agents call exclusive.
The park itself is essentially that. Its design is rather English. The use is restricted to adjoining residents. About it is a fence of high iron. Within are trees, paths, gra.s.ses, benches, great vases and a fountain. But none of the usual loungers, none of the leprous men, rancid women, and epileptic children that swarm in other New York squares. Yet these squares are open to all. To enter this park you must have a key. By day it is a playground. Nurse-maids come there with little boys and girls, the subdued, undemonstrative, beautifully dressed children of the rich. At night it is empty as a vacant bier.
In a house that fronted the north side Royal Loftus lived with his mother, a proud, arrogant woman socially known to all, but who socially knew but few. Behind her, in the shade of the family tree, was her dead lord, Royal"s father and, more impressively still, the latter"s relatives, the entire Loftus contingent, a set of people super-respectable, supernally rich. She too was rich. She wore a wig, walked with a staff, spoke with a Mayfair intonation in a high-pitched voice, and, in the amplitudes of widowhood and wealth, entertained frequently but cared only for her son.
On this evening the two were seated together in a drawing-room that faced the park. The walls, after a fashion of long ago, were frescoed.
The ceiling too was frescoed. The furniture belonged also to an earlier day. The modern note in the room was the absence of chandeliers and the appearance of Royal Loftus, who, in a Paris shirt and London clothes, was contemplating his painted nails.
At his feet was an Ardebil rug which originally had cost a small fortune and now was worth a big one. In allusion to it a girl to whom he had handed out the usual "You don"t care for me," had retorted, "Not care for you! Why, Royal, I worship the rug you tread on."
That girl was f.a.n.n.y Price.
"No," he answered in reply to his mother"s question. The answer was strangely truthful. f.a.n.n.y Price had tantalized him greatly.
Semi-continuously he had thought of her for a long time. But not matrimonially. To him matrimony meant always one woman more and usually one man less. He had no wish to dwindle. When he was fifty he might, perhaps, to make a finish, marry some girl who wanted to begin.
But that unselfishness was remote. He was quite young; what is worse, he was abominably good-looking. Fancy Aramis in a Piccadilly coat.
That was the way he looked. His features were chiseled. On his lip was a mustache so slight that it might have been made with a crayon. His hair was black. His eyes were blue. Where they were not blue they were white, very white. They were wonderful eyes. With them he had done a great deal of execution.
At the time they rather haunted a young woman who moved in another sphere and whose acquaintance he had made quite adventurously. The name of this young woman was Marie Durand. It was of the latter, not of f.a.n.n.y Price, that he was thinking.
"No," he repeated. "But was it for Annandale that you asked her for tonight?"
"How perfectly absurd of you, Royal. Have you forgotten that he is in love with Sylvia? I asked her partly for you, partly for Orr."
"Is he coming too! Good Lord! it is going to be ghastly."
But at the side of the room a portiere was being drawn and a servant announced:
"Miss Waldron."
With the charming manner of the thoroughbred New York girl a young woman entered. She was tall, willowy, with a face such as those one used to see in keepsakes--delightful things which now, like so many other delightful things, are seen no more.
As she approached Mrs. Loftus, who had risen to greet her, she made a little courtesy.
"Sylvia, this is so dear of you. And is your mother very well?"
Again the portiere was drawn. A voice announced:
"Miss Price."
Then there appeared a girl adorably constructed--constructed, too, to be adored. She was slight and very fair. Her mouth resembled the red pulp of some flower of flesh. Her eyes were pools of purple, her hair a turban of gold.
Cannibalistically Loftus looked the delicious apparition up and down.
He could have eaten it.
"Mr. Annandale," the voice announced.
A man, big and blond, with a cavalry mustache and an amiable, aimless air, strolled in.
"Mr. Melanchthon Orr."
On the heels of Annandale came a cousin of Miss Waldron, a lawyer by trade, a man with a bulldog face that was positively attractive.
There were more how-do-you-do"s, the usual plat.i.tudes, interrupted by the opening of doors at the further end of the room, where a butler, a squad of lackeys behind him, disclosed himself in silent announcement of dinner.
After the general move which then ensued and hosts and guests were seated at table, Orr created an immediate diversion by calling to f.a.n.n.y Price and telling her that shortly she was to marry.
"Yes," he continued, "and my cousin Sylvia is to marry also, though not so soon; but either Annandale or Royal will never marry at all."
Bombarded by sudden questions Orr gazed calmly about.
"How do I know? Miranda told me. Miranda the spook. She charged five dollars for the information. If you like to make it up to me, I shall not mind in the least. On the contrary. You see, Mrs. Loftus," Orr added, turning to his hostess, "I happened, when I went to her, to have your very kind invitation for this evening in my pocket, and, as she wanted something to psychometrize, I gave her that. She held it to her forehead and said, "I see you in the house of an elegant lady"--that is you, Mrs. Loftus; yes, there is no doubt about it--"and there are present two young ladies, one fair, one dark, and two gentlemen; one of the gentlemen will never marry, but the dark young lady will marry in two years and the fair young lady in one. Five dollars. Thank you. Next.""
"Did she say nothing about me except that I am an "elegant lady"?"
Mrs. Loftus, with a pained laugh and a high voice, inquired.
"Did she say whom I am to marry?" f.a.n.n.y Price asked, smiling, as she spoke, at Royal.
"But, Melanchthon, surely you do not believe in these things?" said Sylvia gravely.
"Of course he does not," Loftus exclaimed. "He does not believe in anything. Do you, Orr?"
"I believe in a great many things," the lawyer replied. "I have precisely three hundred and sixty-five beliefs--one for every day in the year."
"When the twenty-ninth of February comes around how do you manage then?" said f.a.n.n.y.
"Yes," said Annandale, "and how about April first?"
Orr raised a finger. "Jest if you will. But beliefs are a great comfort, or would be among people like you who have none except in fashion, and there is the oddity of it, for belief in this sort of thing is very fashionable now, particularly in London. Yes, indeed, Lady Cloden--you remember her, she was Clara Hastings--well, she went to a spook in Tottenham Court Road, and the spook told her that she would have twins. Immediately she had herself insured. In London, you know, you can be insured against anything. The twins appeared and she got 5,000. Belief in this sort of thing is therefore not merely fashionable but convenient."
In the ripple of laughter which followed the logic, Orr turned to Mrs.
Loftus, Annandale to Miss Waldron, Loftus to f.a.n.n.y Price.
"You take very kindly to snubbing, don"t you?" said the latter.
"I?"