"And you mean to see them all?"
"Certainly."
"Your science is a convenient hobby. It carries you wherever you fancy to go."
"You could not do better than go with me."
"I know it; but, if wishes were horses---- I am training d.i.c.k to take my place. I am a model elder brother to that youngster in the way of cultivating his mind and morals; and when I have him up to the mark, I shall gain a year"s furlough for my pains. But when is your next journey to begin--next week?"
"No, I mean to pin myself down here, and dig like a mole, for the next ten months, at least."
"If I had not had ocular proof of what a determined dig you can be, I should set down your studies as mere humbug."
"But I wish to hear the news."
"I would tell it willingly, if I knew any."
"Have the Primroses come home from Europe yet?"
"Yes."
"And the Everills?"
"I believe not."
"Nor the Leslies, I suppose."
"For a reasonably sensible and straightforward fellow, you have a queer way of making inquiries. You question like a lady"s letter, with the pith in the postscript. You ask after the Primroses and the Everills, a stupid, priggish set, for whom you care nothing, as earnestly as if you were in love with them, and then grow indifferent when you come to the Leslies, whom you like."
"Did I?" said Morton, in some discomposure; "I ask their pardon. Have they come home?"
"Not yet, but I believe they mean to come as soon as they have staid their year out."
"And that will be very soon--early in the spring, or sooner."
"Now I think of it, I made the acquaintance, a few evenings ago, of a person who, I believe, is a relation or connection of yours--Miss f.a.n.n.y Euston."
"O, yes, she is my third, fourth, or fifth cousin, or something of that sort; but I have not seen her since she was ten years old. She was a great romp, then, and very plain."
"That last failing is cured. She has grown very handsome."
"The first failing ought to be cured, too, by this time."
"I am not so clear on that point. She is a girl with an abundance of education, and a good deal of a certain kind of accomplishment--music, and so on--but no breeding at all. If she had had the training of good society, she would have been one of a thousand. As it is she cares for n.o.body, and does and says whatever comes into her mind, without the least regard to consequences or appearances."
"Does she affect naturalness, independence, and all that?"
"No, she affects nothing. The material is admirable. It only needs to be refined, polished, and toned down. It"s unlucky, colonel, but in this world every thing worth having is broken in pieces and mixed with something that one doesn"t want. It"s an even balance, good and bad; there"s no use in going off into raptures about any thing. One thing is certain, though; this cousin of yours has character enough to supply material for a dozen Miss Primroses, without any visible diminution."
"I should like to see her. I"ll go to-morrow."
"You"d better. But now tell me something more about your journey."
And, in reply to his friend"s questions, Morton proceeded to relate such incidents as had befallen him.
CHAPTER VIII.
Beauty is a witch Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
_D. Pedro_.--If thou wilt hold longer argument, Do it in notes.
_Bened.i.c.k_.--Now, _divine air_, now is his soul ravished.
_Much Ado about Nothing_.
Morton visited his cousin, Miss f.a.n.n.y Euston, a guest, for a few days, at a friend"s house in town. By good fortune, as he thought it, he found her alone; and, as he conversed with her, he employed himself--after a practice usual with him--in studying her character, and making internal comments upon it. These insidious reflections, condensed into a paragraph, would have been somewhat as follows:--
"A fine figure, and a very handsome face; but there is a lurking devil in her eye, and about the corners of her mouth." Here some ten minutes of animated dialogue ensued before his observations had shaped themselves into further results. "She is exceedingly clever; she knows how to think and act for herself. I should not like to cross her will.
There is fire enough in her to make a hundred women interesting. She is none of our frosty New England beauties. She could love a man to the death, and hate him as well. She could be a heroine or a tigress.
Every thing about her is wild and chaotic, the unformed elements of a superb woman."
Here, the conversation having lasted a half hour or more, his imagination began to disturb the deductions of his philosophy, and he was no longer in a mood of just psychological a.n.a.lysis, when, to his vexation, his cousin"s hostess, Miss Jones, entering, brought his _tete-a-tete_ to a close. She displayed a marvellous fluency of discourse, and was eloquent upon books, parties, paintings, and the opera.
"I need not ask you, Mr. Morton, if you have seen Tennyson"s new poem."
"Yes--at the bookseller"s."
"But surely you have read it."
"No, I am behind the age."
"Then thank Heaven for it," exclaimed his unceremonious cousin; "for of all insipidity, and affectation, and fine-spun, wire-drawn trash, Tennyson carries away the palm. Every body reads him because he is the fashion, and every body admires him because he is the fashion. But he is a bubble, a film, a gossamer; there"s nothing in him."
This explosion called forth a protest from the poet"s admirer.
"May I ask," said Morton to his cousin, "who are your literary favorites?"
"Not the latter-day poets--the Tennysonian school; their puling mannerism is an insult to the Saxon tongue."
"But," urged Miss Jones, "you are not quite reasonable."
"Of course I am not. It"s not a woman"s province to be reasonable."
"Do you subscribe to these poetical heresies, Mr. Morton?"
"On the contrary, I think that Tennyson has often great beauties."