Charles Hamilton Aïdé

“ Therefore it was that she had thrown herself frankly and without stint into the stream of society in New York, resolved to take what interest and amusement she could find, without letting any one—least of all her brother—see the dark shadow that obtruded itself, from time to time, across the brilliant scene. And she had her reward. There is not so much cordiality in the world that a warm-hearted girl can remain indifferent to such a welcome as had been accorded to Grace, even where there was not much in common between her and her new acquaintances. ”

“ You do not strike me as a good American, Mr. Ferrars."
"I am too good an American, and too irritable a man, to stand by and see all the jobbery and corruption that goes on, and not raise my voice. And what good would that do, even if I were elected, which I doubt? There are men shouting their lungs out all the time; there are papers, every day, denouncing the acts of a man like ——, and yet he will continue to be a member of our administration until he is hurled from power, and the opposition set up their gods in the temple. ”

“ Courtly.
"Certainly," said Mrs. Frampton. Then, as the man disappeared, "I hear she is a delightful person—not only from Mordy, but others."
"I am glad you hear that," said Grace, smiling. "She is a delightful person, but many women are jealous of her, and you might have heard, as I did, that she is only delightful to men, which is not the least true."
The object of these remarks entered, swathed in velvet and silver-fox, and redolent of Parma violets. Her bright smile, graceful manner, and musical voice could not but dispose favorably one as sensitive to impressions as Mrs. Frampton. ”

“ When Grace remarked how much they became her, she whispered,
"Diamonds are getting so vulgar! Look at the poor dear princess. She is always like a badly-made blanc-mange, but to-night she looks as if she had been upset in a jeweller's window, and had got mixed up with the diamonds."
For the Princess Lamperti's ample white form was resplendent with jewels, two necklaces defining a waist which it would have taken a life-guardsman to encircle. Not wholly unlike a life-guardsman was Mr. George Ray, who was on her left, while the host sat between her and Miss Ballinger. ”

“ Courtlys!" said Lady Clydesdale, severely.
"Widows, who only think of ensnaring men!" cried Miss Lobb.
"Come, my dear," said the merry little Pie, "you and I do just the same, all the time, only we don't succeed as well."
There was some natural laughter at this, but Mrs. Reid could not encourage levity on so grave a subject.
"At her time of life," she said, "still to court the society of the young and giddy—to dance and flirt as she does! Mrs. Frampton, I trust you understand that is not the stamp of woman we approve of."
"Really? Well, it is very difficult to please every one. ”

“ Voluble, beyond the limits of discretion, yet rarely foolish; impulsive as a child; loving and hating with equal intensity; yet prudent, worldly-wise, humorous, and quick-sighted, it was not difficult to form an idea, more or less just, of Mrs. Frampton in five minutes' conversation. But then, as her nephew said, "Aunt Susan always lets herself go." It was that quality of "letting herself go" which made her so entertaining a companion.
She spoke rapidly, in a high but not unmusical voice, holding her niece out at arm's-length after embracing her, while she scanned the girl's countenance. ”

“ You must never abuse him again—never—never, Mordy. He is the soul of honor, and of all that is noble and high-minded. His very faults are grand faults. You will learn to see that soon, dear—you will, indeed. And so will aunty, when—when it all comes right."
The branching of wide-armed cypress-trees, and the incense of sweet flowers was all they knew in the young moonlight, as they drove from the depot—surely the most poetical railway-station in the world—through the pleasure-grounds of the wonderful hotel at Monterey. ”

“ Hurlstone, who had been sweeping the house with her opera-glass, said to Grace,
"Who are the people whose box Sir Mordaunt is in?"
Grace felt sure Mrs. Hurlstone knew.
"Mrs. Flynn and Miss Clayton. Have you never met them?"
"Oh, I believe I have met them, but they are not in our set. I fancy they are from Kentucky."
"There is no objection to that, is there?" asked Grace, with apparent innocence. "If Kentucky can produce such pretty women, I congratulate Kentucky."
"Pretty, yes—but such style! You English, my dear Miss Ballinger, are so very odd. You take up people that we should never know! ”

“ Barham, perhaps, is the least a typical product of our country."
"Why so?" asked Miss Ballinger.
"Because I see he has great belief in our institutions, our future, our indomitable force. As to me, I gave up any such belief when I was twenty. You said yesterday you doubted if I was a good American. If to believe that our crooked paths are straight, our rough ways smooth, and to proclaim on the housetops that we are the greatest nation on earth—if this is to be a good American, then I am not one."
"I never heard that to love one's country was to be blind to her faults," said Barham, quickly. ”

“ Mordy divided his attention between Miss Hurlstone—who is certainly much taken with him—and a Miss Planter, a new beauty just arrived. She was the handsomest girl there, and I admire her more than any one I have seen. There is character in her fine, fearless eyes, her well-cut mouth, her firm, erect carriage. She is more like a married woman than a girl, and her very costly attire strengthened this impression. ”

“ Poor Saul Barham, with his brilliant gifts and high aspirations, is dead. Quintin Ferrars I am never likely to see again. Perhaps it is better I should not. But of all the memories of America I bear away with me, the most pathetic is that of the minister's small household in New England, as I knew it, with this only son, their idol, now lying in the dust. Can religion like Mr. Barham's bring consolation? ”

“ Grace should not be distressed during her last day, nor should "Little Mother," by his depression of spirits. After all, how was he worse off now than when Grace arrived here? He knew then—he had known all along—how utterly hopeless was his attachment. He had been surprised, like a fool, into an avowal of his feelings, and he bitterly regretted it. A thin screen of ice had formed itself, since then, between him and her. Nothing, now, could melt that; but, at least, the last hours of their intercourse under his father's roof should be as little constrained as possible, under the circumstances. ”

“ In a ground-floor "parlor" at the Brunswick, late the following afternoon—a parlor that was heavily decorated and brilliant with electric light, Grace fell into Mrs. Frampton's expansive embrace. It was a bitterly cold day, and the cheek which her niece pressed seemed frozen. It belonged to a short, stout woman, still almost as vigorous as at twenty, with iron-gray hair, that rose in crisp waves, and broke over the broad, prominent forehead, indicating stubborn natural force. Swift black eyes, a healthy color, fine white teeth, told the same tale of strong vitality. ”

“ His friend recognized no longer the man who for years had found so little in life to prize, to admire, or to love.
On their return home they found Saul Barham. Mrs. Courtly had said nothing of his coming for the night; she had kept it as a little surprise for Grace, who would be pleased, she knew, to see him. And she was right. Miss Ballinger greeted the young professor with a warmth which made Quintin Ferrars jealous. He had never liked Barham. More than once on board the Teutonic their opinions, or something that lay deeper than opinions, had clashed. ”

“ A clever woman would twist Jem round her finger, and might make him very different to what he is."
"What he is, is not pleasing to me at present. Perhaps if I meet him hereafter, when he has been duly twisted by the clever woman, I may appreciate him more."
"How sarcastic you are!" purred Mrs. Courtly, showing her white teeth; "all our young men will be quite afraid of you, Miss Ballinger."
"I am not sarcastic—far from it," said Grace, laughing. "Only I know what I like and what I don't."
"You prefer your friend, the Harvard professor?" She smiled with a malicious twinkle in her hazel eyes. ”

“ Brilliant Chudleigh, the advocate, whose scathing eloquence was a proverb, jovial Dr. Parr, simmering with fun, ready to boil over at any moment, wise and witty General Stout, famous in the war, and now in peace time as great a favorite with women as with men, the poet Sloper, so gently humorous, so blandly pungent, Mordaunt's shrewd friend Reid, and two others, whom the Ballingers had not met before, threw their separate contributions into the common pool, and produced that best of round games—general conversation. No one monopolized the talk, but the men had the best of it. ”

“ Mordaunt declared his aunt was the youngest of the trio when they alighted at the station, where Mrs. Caldwell's carriage awaited them. The beauty and strangeness of the scene—as they drove up a winding road, between rugged peaks of sandstone, some nearly blood-red, others milk-white, others again like amethyst, projected against the clear blue sky, and simulating the pinnacles, turrets, and spires of a castellated city—recalled the wild creations of Gustave Doré. It seemed too fantastic to be real. ”

“ Men are very troublesome," said Miss Planter, stooping to pick a rose, "and Englishmen are the worst of all. John Bloxsome says—" Here she stopped short.
"What does Mr. Bloxsome say?"
"He says the English are the most arrogant nation on the face of the earth, and I am afraid he is right! You are awfully stuck up, you really are."
"Perhaps I am, as an Englishman. I am proud of being one. Not as myself, Mordaunt Ballinger. I have nothing to be stuck up about."
"No, indeed!" pursued the girl, relentlessly. "You are very nice, of course, and all that. But there is nothing so wonderful about you." ”

“ But as dinner progressed, and the conversation, leaving generalities, entered into the arena of personal chaff, the spur of the girl's tongue was not needed. The combatants were on their mettle, with a gallery to applaud their brilliant attacks and retorts, their assaults, and reprises, and carrying of the war into the enemy's country; each man had his bout, and the fooling, conducted with perfect good humor, was delightful. Such a contest would not be possible in England. In chaff, we hold that all is permissible but the truth. ”

“ Courtly's house he was a special favorite, and a very constant visitor.
Mr. Burton, on the other hand, was an unknown quantity to Grace. She had never before met a romantic-looking American, with tender, dreamy eyes, and that soft, far-away manner which indicates a mind little fit to cope with the hard actualities of life. He had none of the brilliant incisiveness common to his countrymen; he would have been sadly at a loss in a contest with May Clayton. But it was not till after dinner, when he sat down to play, that she realized how much the man lived in a world of his own. ”

“ It was strange that Ferrars should mistake the difference Miss Ballinger showed in her manner when talking to him and to other men, the keen alacrity with which she listened to, and the fearless manner in which she attacked, many of his views, for growing interest of a deeper kind. He misunderstood her character, if not completely, at all events in part. No woman, he believed, could care so much to convert a man to her way of thinking, who was indifferent as to that man's future. ”

“ Pierce Caldwell returned at dusk, and found the ladies at tea. His frank charm of manner, even more than his good looks, won Mrs. Frampton at once; and knowing how energetic he was in the work he was carrying on, she began questioning him about it. Her capacity for taking a vivid interest in the details of other people's affairs always distinguished her. It is not a common gift, that power of throwing one's self heartily into matters that do not personally concern one. ”

“ We pride ourselves upon our society being very free from scandals; but if people will marry foreigners—" then she corrected herself—"I mean foreign princes, who are mere fortune-hunters, what can one expect?"
Grace, meantime, had looked at the rivals in this pitiful story, and had come to the conclusion that Madame Moretto's was no common face. She was handsome, though young no longer, but the strength of the countenance, more than its beauty, made it remarkable. A woman, this, to exercise a fateful hold, probably, over any man on whom she had fastened—certainly over a weak one. ”

“ Mordaunt winced. "Miss Planter cares nothing for them or their admiration, I am sure. She has known many of them since she was a child. It is their way. It seems odd to you, aunt, but it means nothing."
"Oh! I don't pretend to understand their ways, only I don't admire them, that is all. And I particularly dislike your being mixed up with men who are as likely as not to pick a quarrel with you. They are all jealous of you. Under their smiling manner I can see that. That dreadful Bloxsome is the only one who has the courage to be downright rude. ”

“ One girl had been through a course of anatomy; not, as it appeared, with any ulterior object, but in order to master the wonderful mechanism of the human frame, "which," as she said, with a hard directness which sounded odd in one so young, "being a fact always present, should interest us more than it does. We can learn, and we ought to know all about it; for this is a thing which affects our whole being here, our present and our future; whereas the soul, which people trouble themselves so much about, is only a matter of speculation. ”

“ The girl knew exactly what value to attach to such utterances as these. She never gratified the speaker by looking surprised.
Grace stood on the deck with Saul Barham as the Teutonic slowly, almost imperceptibly, neared the landing-wharf. A thick fog had shrouded the great Statue of Liberty, the shores of New Jersey, Staten Island, and all the features of the beautiful sea-avenue to New York.
"I am angry," said Barham, "that you should not have a better impression of the city on landing. It is too bad to have a fog here to greet you that is worthy of London." ”

“ His walk was full of decision, and in his Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers he had the look of a man who would never waver, never turn back, nor give in, under any ordinary strain, physical or mental. He stood still for a moment, taking in the scene—in the foreground Sir Mordaunt Ballinger, Bart. and M.P., asleep, with his head on an eider-down cushion; not far off Mrs. Frampton, spectacles on nose, her attention riveted on that group of hoary cypresses; the coachman beyond, devouring the remains of the luncheon. ”