It was warm, and Mrs. Dagon fanned herself. When she and Mrs. Newt met there was a tremendous struggle to get the first innings of the conversation, and neither surrendered the ground until fairly forced off by breathlessness and exhaustion.
“Yes, we shall go to Saratoga,” began Mrs. Newt; “and I want Abel to come, so as to take him. There’ll be a very pleasant season. What a pity you can’t go! However, people must regard their time of life, and take care of their health. There’s old Mrs. Octoyne says she shall never give up. She hopes to bring out her great-grand-daughter next winter, and says she has no life but in society. I suppose you know Herbert Octoyne is engaged to one of the Shrimps. They keep their carriage, and the girls dress very prettily. Herbert tells the young men that the Shrimps are a fine old family, which has been long out of society, having no daughters to marry; so they have not been obliged to appear. But I don’t know about visiting them. However, I suppose we shall. Herbert Octoyne will give ’em family, if they really haven’t it; and the Octoynes won’t be sorry for her money. What a pretty shawl! Did you hear that Mellish Whitloe has given Laura a diamond pin which cost five hundred dollars? Extravagant fellow! Yet I like to have young men do these things handsomely. I do think it’s such a pity about Laura’s nose—”
“She can smell with it, I suppose, mother; and what else do you want of a nose?”
It was Miss Fanny Newt who spoke, and who had entered the room during the conversation. She was a tall young woman of about twenty, with firm, dark eyes, and abundant dark hair, and that kind of composure of manner which is called repose in drawing-rooms and boldness in bar-rooms.
“Gracious, Fanny, how you do disturb one! I didn’t know you were there. Don’t be ridiculous. Of course she can smell with it. But that isn’t all you want of a nose.”
“I suppose you want it to turn up at some people,” replied Miss Fanny, smoothing her dress, and looking in the glass. “Well, Aunt Dagon, who’ve you been lunching on?”
Aunt Dagon looked a little appalled.
“My dear, what do you mean?” she said, fanning herself violently. “I hope I never say any thing that isn’t true about people. I’m sure I should be very sorry to hurt any body’s feelings. There’s Mrs. Kite—you know, Joseph Kite’s wife, the man they said really did cheat his creditors, only none of ’em would swear to it; well, Kitty Kite, my dear, does do and say the most abominable things about people. At the Shrimps’ ball, when you were waltzing with Mr. Dinks, I heard her say to Mrs. Orry, ‘Do look at Fanny Newt hug that man!’ It was dreadful to hear her say such things, my dear; and then to see the whole room stare at you! It was cruel—it was really unfeeling.”
Fanny did not wince. She merely said,
“How old is Mrs. Kite, Aunt Dagon?”
“Well, let me see; she’s about my age, I suppose.”
“Oh! well, Aunt, people at her time of life can’t see or hear much, you know. They ought to be in their beds with hot bottles at their feet, and not obtrude themselves among people who are young enough to enjoy life with all their senses,” replied Miss Fanny, carelessly arranging a stray lock of hair.
“Indeed, Miss, you would like to shove all the married people into the wall, or into their graves,” retorted Mrs. Dagon, warmly.
“Oh no, dear Aunt, only into their beds—and that not until they are superannuated, which, you know, old people never find out for themselves,” answered Fanny, smiling sweetly and calmly upon Mrs. Dagon.
“What a country it is, Aunt!” said Mrs. Newt, looking at Fanny with a kind of admiration. “How the young people take every thing into their own hands! Dear me! dear me! how they do rule us!”
Miss Newt made no observation, but took up a gayly-bound book from the table and looked carelessly into it. Mrs. Dagon rose to go. She had somewhat recovered her composure.
“Don’t think I believed it, dear,” said she to Fanny, in whom, perhaps, she recognized some of the family character. “No, no—not at all! I said to every body in the room that I didn’t believe what Mrs. Kite said, that you were hugging Mr. Dinks in the waltz. I believe I spoke to every body I knew, and they all said they didn’t believe it either.”
“How kind it was of you, dear Aunt Dagon!” said Fanny, as she rose to salute her departing relative, “and how generous people were not to believe it! But I couldn’t persuade them that that beautiful lace-edging on your dress was real Mechlin, although I tried very hard. They said it was natural in me to insist upon it, because I was your grand-niece; and it was no matter at all, because old ladies could do just as they pleased; but for all that it was not Mechlin. I must have told as many as thirty people that they were wrong. But people’s eyes are so sharp—it’s really dreadful. Good-morning, darling Aunt Dagon!”
“Fanny dear,” said her mother, as the door closed upon Mrs. Dagon, who departed speechless and in what may be called a simmering state of mind, “Abel will be here in a day or two. I really hope to hear something about this Miss Wayne. Do you suppose Alfred Dinks is actually engaged to her?”
“How should I know, mother?”
“Why, my dear, you have been so intimate with him.”
“My dear mother, how can any body be intimate with Alfred Dinks? You might as well talk of breathing in a vacuum.”
“But, Fanny, he is a very good sort of young man—so respectable, and with such good manners, and he has a very pretty fortune—”
Mrs. Newt was interrupted by the servant, who announced Mr. Wetherley.
Poor Mr. Zephyr Wetherley! He was one of the rank and file of society—one of the privates, so to speak, who are mentioned in a mass after a ball, as common soldiers are mentioned after a battle. He entered the room and bowed. Mrs. Newt seeing that it was one of her daughter’s visitors, left the room. Miss Fanny sat looking at the young man with her black eyes so calmly that she seemed to him to be sitting a great way off in a cool darkness. Miss Fanny was not fond of Mr. Wetherley, although she had seen plainly enough the indications of his feeling for her. This morning he was well gloved and booted. His costume was unexceptionable. Society of that day boasted few better-dressed men than Zephyr Wetherley. His judgment in a case of cravat was unerring. He had been in Europe, and was quoted when waistcoats were in debate. He had been very attentive to Mr. Alfred Dinks and Mr. Bowdoin Beacon, the two Boston youths who had been charming society during the season that was now over. He was even a little jealous of Mr. Dinks.
After Mrs. Newt had left the room Mr. Wetherley fell into confusion. He immediately embarked, of course, upon the weather; while Fanny, taking up a book, looked casually into it with a slight air of ennui.
“Have you read this?” said she to Mr. Wetherley.
“No, I suppose not; eh! what is it?” replied Zephyr, who was not a reading man.
“It is John Meal’s ‘Rachel Dyer.’ ”
“Oh, indeed! No, indeed. I have not read it!”
“What have you read, Mr. Wetherley?” inquired Fanny, glancing through the book which she held in her hand.
“Oh, indeed!—” he began. Then he seemed to undergo some internal spasm. He dropped his hat, slid his chair to the side of Fanny’s, and said, “Ah, Miss Newt, how can you ask me at such a moment?”
Miss Fanny looked at him with a perfectly unruffled face.
“Why not at this moment, Mr. Wetherley?”