IV
She began tactfully. "I like this young Mr. Dwight very much, and shall ask him down, as mother desires it. But I hope, darling, that you will follow my example and not marry until you have had four years of society, in other words have seen something of the world--"
"California is not the world."
"Society, in other words human nature, is everywhere much alike. As you know, I spent a year in England when I was a young lady, and was presented at court--by Lady Barnstable, who was Lee Tarlton, one of us.
It was merely San Francisco on a large scale, with t.i.tles, and greater and older houses and parks, and more jewels, and more arrogance, and everything much grander, of course. And they talked politics a great deal, which bored me as I am sure they would bore you. The beauty of our society is its simplicity and lack of arrogance--consciousness of birth or of wealth. Even the more recent members of society, who owe their position to their fortunes, have a simplicity and kindness quite unknown in New York. Eastern people always remark it. And yet, owing to their constant visits to the East and to Europe, they know all of the world there is to know."
"So do the young men, I suppose! I never heard of their doing much traveling--"
"I should call them remarkably sophisticated young men. But the point is, darling, that if you wait as long as I did you will discover that the men who attract a girl in her first season would bore her to extinction in her fourth."
"You mean after I"ve had all the bloom rubbed off, and men are forgetting to ask me to dance. Then I"ll be much more likely to take what I can get. I want to marry with all the bloom on and all my illusions fresh."
"But should you like to have them rubbed off by your husband? You"ve heard the old adage: "marry in haste and repent--""
"I"ve been brought up on adages. They are called bromides now. As for illusions, everybody says they don"t last anyway. I"d rather have them dispelled after a long wonderful honeymoon by a husband than by a lot of flirtations in a conservatory and in dark corners--"
"Good heavens! Do you suppose that I flirted in a conservatory and in dark corners?"
"I"ll bet you didn"t, but lots do. And in the haute n.o.blesse, the ancient aristocracy! I"ve seen "em."
"It isn"t possible that you--"
"Oh, no, I love to dance too much. But I"m not easily shocked. I "ll tell you that right here. And I "ll tell you what I confessed to mother this morning."
V
When she had finished Mrs. Abbott sat for a few moments petrified; but she was thirty-eight, not sixty-five, and there was neither dismay nor softening in her narrowed light blue eyes.
"But that is abominable! Abominable!"
And Alexina, who was prepared for a scolding, shrank a little, for it was the first time that her doting sister had spoken to her with severity.
"I don"t care," she said stubbornly, and she set her soft lips until they looked stern and hard.
"But you must care. You are a Groome."
"Oh, yes, and a Ballinger, and a Geary, and all the rest of it. But I"m also going to annex another name of my own choosing. I"ll marry whom I d.a.m.n please, and that is the end of it."
"Alexina Groome!" Mrs. Abbott arose in her wrath. "Cannot you see for yourself what a.s.sociation with all these common people has done to you?
It"s the influence--"
"Of two years in New York princ.i.p.ally. The girls there are as hard as nails--try to imitate the English. Ours are not a patch, not even Aileen, although she does her best. But I hadn"t finished--I even powder my face." Alexina grinned up at her still rudderless sister.
"After mother is asleep and I am ready to slip out."
"I thought you were safe in New York under the eyes of Ballinger and Geary, or rather of Mattie and Charlotte. They are such earnest good women, so interested in charities--"
"Deadly. But you don"t know the girls,"
"And I have told mother again and again that she should not permit you to a.s.sociate with Aileen Lawton."
"She can"t help herself. Aileen is one of us. Besides, mother is devoted to the Judge."
"But powder! None of us has ever put anything but clean cold water on her face."
"You"d look a long sight better if you did. Cold cream, too. You wouldn"t have any wrinkles at your age, if you weren"t so d.a.m.n respectable-aristocratic, you call it. It"s just middle cla.s.s. And as out of date as speech without slang. As for me, I"d paint my lips as Aileen does, only I don"t like the taste, and they"re too red, anyhow.
It"s much smarter to make up than not to. Times change. You don"t wear hoopskirts because our magnificent Grandmother Ballinger did. You dress as smartly as the Burlingame crowd. Why does your soul turn green at make-up? All these people you look down upon because our families were rich and important in the fifties are more up-to-date than you are, although I will admit that none of them has the woman-of-the-world air of the smartest New York women--not that terribly respectable inner set in New York--Aunt Mattie"s and Aunt Charlotte"s--_that_ just revels in looking mid-Victorian.... The newer people I"ve met here--their manners are just as good as ours, if not better, for, as you said just now, they don"t put on airs. You do, darling. You don"t know it, but you would put an English d.u.c.h.ess to the blush, when you suddenly remember who you are--"
Mrs. Abbott had resumed her seat on the cot. "If you have finished criticizing your elder sister, I should like to ask you a few questions. Do you smoke and drink c.o.c.ktails?"
"No, I don"t. But I should if I liked them, and if they didn"t make me feel queer."
"You--you--" Mrs. Abbot"s clear crisp voice sank to an agonized whisper. For the first time she was really terrified. "Do you gamble?"
"Why, of course not. I have too much fun to think of anything so stupid."
"Does Aileen Lawton gamble?"
"She just doesn"t, and don"t you insinuate such a thing."
"She has bad blood in her. Her mother--"
"I thought her mother was your best friend."
"She was. But she went to pieces, poor dear, and Judge Lawton wisely sent her East. I can"t tell you why. There are things you don"t understand."
"Oh, don"t I? Don"t you fool yourself."
Mrs. Abbott leaned back on the cot and pressed it hard with either hand.
"Alexina, I have never been as disturbed as I am at this moment. When Sally and I were your age, we were beautifully innocent. If I thought that Joan--"
"Oh, Joan"ll get away from you. She"s only fourteen now, but when she"s my age--well, I guess you and your old crowd are the last of the Mohicans. I doubt if there"ll even be any chaperons left. Joan may not smoke nor drink. Who cares for "vices," anyhow? But you haven"t got a moat and drawbridge round Rincona, and she"ll just get out and mix.
She"ll float with the stream--and all streams lead to Burlingame."
"I have no fear about Joan," said Mrs. Abbott, with dignity. "Four years are a long time. I shall sow seeds, and she is a born Ballinger--I am dreadfully afraid that my dear father is coming out in you. Even the boys are Ballingers--"
VI
"Tell me about father?" coaxed Alexina, who was repentant, now that the excitement of the day had reached its climax in the baiting of her admirable sister and was rapidly subsiding. "Mother let fall something this morning; and once Aileen ... she began, but shut up like a clam.
Was he so very dreadful?"