Harold Frederic

“ I only know one man—a very, very little. I don’t believe that other men are at all like him, or else we should hear about it. The world would be full of it. No one would talk of anything else. But the man I do know—that is, a little—well, I’d rather know him than all the women that ever were born, even if I had to be afraid of him all the while into the bargain.”
Mosscrop laughed.
“We did well to label it in advance as a first impression. It is the judgment of a babe just opening its eyes. My dear child, I’m afraid this isn’t your birthday, after all. You’re clearly not a year old yet.” ”

“ The prospect repelled her, and she bent her slow steps in the other direction. Crossing the empty, sun-baked roadway of the Embankment, she strolled westward in the partial shade of the young lime-trees, which maintain a temerarious existence along the line of the river’s parapet.
She looked over the stonework to the water from time to time as she walked, and every glance instinctively wandered up-stream toward the stretch of Westminster Bridge, poised delicately in the noonday haze across the body of the sleepy flood. ”

“ The quaver in his voice profoundly affected the girl.
“Listen to me—David,” she said, with something of his pathos reflected in her tone. “Turn and look at me. I haven’t the heart for even a moment of misunderstanding today. There isn’t anything on earth I won’t tell you. But you must look at me!”
He slowly obeyed her, and she saw that there were tears in his eyes. “But apparently there are things which it would be merciful not to tell me,” he said, struggling for an instant for composure. Then his brows knitted themselves, and flashes played in the darkness of his glance. ”

“ The instantaneous play of his fancy among these flitting items brought great diversion. He rollicked in it—picking out as they trudged along side by side the book-keeper who was probably short in his accounts, the waiter who had been hacking the wrong horses, the barmaid with the seraph’s face who at luncheon time would be listening unmoved to conversation from City men fit to revolt a dock labourer. It was indeed as good as a play, this marvellous aggregation of human dramatic possibilities surging tirelessly before him. ”

“ I recognised the gentleman from a picture I had seen of him. I had a kind of idea that he was not precisely a nice gentleman for you to be with.”
“Then you had a preposterous and wickedly mistaken kind of idea,” said Vestalia, with decision. “There isn’t a truer or nobler-spirited gentleman on this earth than he is. I have reason to know what I say. If anybody has told you otherwise, you have been lied to, that’s all.”
“Dear, dear, how much you are in earnest,” cried Adele. “You must be my friend, and defend me behind my back like that, too. ”

“ The warm serenity of the scene, the inimitable composure of its vast parts, lying under the sunshine in such majestic calm, seemed to chide the weak flutterings and despondencies to which she had surrendered her bosom. The romance which absorbed her mind, of which, indeed, her whole being had become a portion, had its home there, in the heart of that benignant grandeur. The grace and charm and noble strength of what she gazed upon rebuked her timid want of confidence in Destiny, as it shapes itself on Westminster Bridge. ”

“ When she finished, silence reigned for some time on the balcony.
“Well, am I not right?” she asked at last, lifting her head, and flashing the full richness of her black eyes into Mosscrop’s face. “Don’t you admit the inspiration of such names?”
David answered in a hesitating, dubious manner. “I am more curious about the source—and scope—of your inspiration,” he said.
“Unhappily, it cannot be pretended that you are transparent. You confront me with an opacity against which my feeble wits beat in vain. I can see that it is known to you that I know Drumpipes. ”

“ Suppose I told you that I had been a salesman in a boot-shop myself, and had measured literally thousands of pretty little feet—would that reassure you? I might come in, then, mightn’t I?”
“No—you never were that—you are a gentleman.” She stole a perplexed glance up at him, and sighed. “I should dearly love the boots—but you won’t understand. I don’t know how to make you.” Looking into his face, and catching there a reflection of her own dubiety, she burst suddenly into laughter. “You are a gentleman, but you are a goose, too. ”

“ Mosscrop chuckled. “Oh, but you must make allowances for the period. It was the Renaissance, the joyful, exuberant, devil-may-care Renaissance. If once you catch the inner spirit of it, you will feel that it was the most glorious of periods. And Francis the First was the living, breathing type of it. There was a man for you! He celebrated his birthday all the year round. And in this particular instance, why, I daresay it was the Duchess’s birthday too. I should have thought you would take a more lenient view of such a pleasing double anniversary.”
Vestalia looked doubtfully at him. ”

“ David perceived on the instant how matters stood. “I also rose at an extravagantly early hour,55 he said, and it is about my reasons for doing so that I want to tell you. But, first of all, let us be frank with each other. I have done nothing but accede to a situation created for me by Archie and yourself. It has been within your power to end it at any moment you choose. It has been all along much more your joke than mine. It isn’t fair to round on me for merely humouring your own conception of sport.” ”

“ They paused to look at it, and while they stood the fleecy mists far overhead cleared away, and the round moon’s full radiance flooded the prospect. Mosscrop gazed up at the flaring satellite, then down at his companion. A new thought sparkled in his eyes.
“And ah, the beautiful to-morrow, too!” he said, confidently. “My good child, do you conceive that the world comes to an end when the sun goes down? Am I less your friend by moonlight than I was in the day-time? Are we changed by the fact that the lamps are lit?”
Vestalia turned her face into the shadow, and said nothing. ”

“ A waiter opened the door inward at this instant, and overlaid Mr. Skinner’s peroration with a clear-cut message, Germanic in its nonessentials, but broadly human in import.
The old gentleman gasped, twiddled the string of his glasses in his fingers, and leant his head sidewise toward his daughter. “Yes, but what is it we’re going to do?” he inquired in a nervous whisper.
“Do?” cried Mosscrop, who had caught her glance in his own, and convicted it of latent merriment, “Do? Why we’re going to laugh at a harmless pleasantry happily ended, and pass in to luncheon.” ”

“ It was Adele’s turn to ponder. “But why,” she began, hesitatingly, “why should papa take it upon himself to tell you what to do and not to do? What business is it of his? And, if he disliked the thing, why should he remain friendly to you, and snub the gentleman you call Mr. Mosscrop? Not that he minded it, or that it amounted to anything, but it puzzles me that papa should behave in that curious fashion.”
“Yes, it would have been more natural to show the woman the cold shoulder, and think nothing amiss of the man,” assented Vestalia, gravely. ”

“ It was at the corner of the bridge, and a momentary clustering of pedestrians brought to a stand-still by a policeman’s uplifted hand had diverted her thoughts, and then someone touched her on the arm.
She turned and drank in what had happened with tranquil, tenderly self-possessed eyes. She gave no start, as of a mind caught unawares. She was conscious of no wonder, no tremor of disturbance at the unexpected. The luminous regard in which she embraced the newcomer was as unreasoningly ready for him as are the spontaneous raptures of dreamland. ”

“ By-and-by it would be hot and malodorous here, but just now the sense of summer’s charm found them out even in Soho.
She had asked him about himself. The question had risen naturally enough to her lips, and she had propelled it without diffidence. But when the words actually sounded in her own ears, they frightened her. The inquiry seemed all at once personal to the point of rudeness. The possibility of his resenting her curiosity rose in her mind, and on the instant flared upward into painful certainty. ”

“ You call them leads here, don’t you? Your novels always do, I know.”
This speech of hers, languidly delivered, had its impertinent side, without doubt, but Mosscrop caught in its tone a not unamiable intention. She did not smile in response to the puzzled questioning of his swift glance, but he convinced himself none the less that it was a pleasantry. He noted in this instant of confused speculation that she had a book in her lap—a large, red-covered volume with much gilt on the binding—and that she kept a finger in it to mark some particular place. ”

“ David musingly looked the old gentleman in the eye. “Yes, I know,” he answered; “but I agree with you that it should not be divulged to your daughter. As you have said, we men of the world are in duty bound to keep a decent veil drawn over certain phases of life. I am quite with you in that, sir; we cannot sufficiently respect and guard the sweet-minded innocence of our young ladies.”
Mr. Skinner looked hard at the nobleman, and drew up his slender figure. ”

“ Drumpipes yawned frankly. “It’s time you turned in, Davie,” he remarked. “The lack of sleep aye makes you silly. I’ve no wish to ridicule your subject, as you call her. It’s not at all necessary. You’ll see for yourself how ridiculous it is in the morning. It merely occurred to me that if we must talk of women, I’d something in my mind worth the while—no strolling yellow-headed vagrant picked up at random on a bridge, but a gentlewoman in education and means and manners. Man, you should see her teeth when she smiles!” ”

“ Of course, sir, I am aware that professional assistance of this high character is not to be obtained without commensurate compensation, but that is a consideration which presents no obstacles to my mind.”
David felt Vestalia’s hand trembling upon his arm.
“I can see,” he said, more amiably, “that such a relation might be extremely welcome to many deserving and very capable men. But at the moment I regret to say I can think of none to recommend to you. Besides, you don’t know me from Adam; so how could I give a character to any one else?” ”

“ Why on earth, man, if you must make a stark-staring lunatic of yourself, could you not hit on a decent and reputable colour?”
“Never a dye has touched it,” protested David. “It’s as natural as the sunshine—and as radiant.”
“Then you’re a ruined man, Davie,” the Earl gravely declared, between puffs at his pipe. “There may be some saving quality in a woman who merely dyes her hair. An honest nature may persist beneath the painted wig, in spite of her endeavours. ”

“ This perception assumed sharp outlines in his mind before she had spoken a word.
“Now, will you behave yourself, and listen to me?” she demanded, with austerity. His shattered aspect of contrition was a sufficient answer, and she seated herself confidently. “Now I will explain things to you—although you don’t deserve it in the very least,” she began, in formal tones. “To commence with, you remember that American father and daughter that we met at the Museum, down in the basement?—well, it happened that—happened that—Oh, my poor boy, how could you think so stupidly of me?” ”

“ He mastered the effect of her fine face—with its regular contour, its self-conscious eyes, its dainty rose-leaf of a chin thrust reliantly forth above a broad, white throat—all in some unnamed fraction of a second.
The impression of her filled every corner of his mind. He tried to think about who and what she was, and only built up scaffoldings of conjecture to knock them down again. She was a girl who tried on mantles and frocks in some big Regent Street place: no, the lack of dignity in such an avocation would be impossible to one who carried her chin so high. A woman journalist? ”