The Child Wife. Майн Рид

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СКАЧАТЬ as elsewhere. But for all that, he had determined on going to the ball.

      It was partly out of curiosity; partly to kill time; and perhaps not a little for the chance of again meeting the two girls with whom he had been so romantically made acquainted.

      He had seen them several times since—at the dinner-table, and elsewhere; but only at a distance, and without claiming the privilege of his outré introduction.

      He was too proud to throw himself in their way. Besides, it was for them to make the advance, and say whether the acquaintance was to be kept up.

      They did not! Two days had passed, and they did not—either by speech, epistle, bow, or courtesy!

      “What am I to make of these people?” soliloquised he.

      “They must be the veriest—” He was going to say “snobs,” when checked by the thought that they were ladies.

      Besides, such an epithet to Julia Girdwood! (He had taken pains to make himself acquainted with her name.) Not more inappropriate than if applied to a countess or a queen!

      With all his gallantry he could not help some spasms of chagrin; the keener, that, go where he would, Julia Girdwood seemed to go along with him. Her splendid face and figure appeared ever before him.

      To what was he to attribute this indifference—it might be called ingratitude on her part?

      Could it be explained by the promise exacted from him upon the cliff?

      This might make it in some way excusable. He had since seen the girls only with their maternal guardian—a dame of severe aspect. Had the secret to be kept from her! And was this the reason why they were preserving distance?

      It was probable. He had some pleasure in thinking so; but more, when once or twice, he detected Julia’s dark eyes strangely gazing upon him, and instantly withdrawn, as his became turned upon her.

      “The play’s the thing, wherewith to touch the conscience of the king,” Hamlet declared.

      The ball! It promised a clearing up of this little mystery, with perhaps some others. He would be sure to meet them there—mother, daughter, niece—all three! It would be strange if he could not introduce himself; but if not, he must trust to the stewards.

      And to the ball he went; dressed with as much taste as the laws of fashion would allow—in those days liberal enough to permit of a white waistcoat.

      With only an occasional interval—transient as the scintillation of a meteor—it has been black ever since!

      The ball-room was declared open.

      Carriages were setting down by the piazza of the Ocean House, and silks rustling along the corridors of that most select of caravanserais.

      From the grand dining-saloon, cleared for the occasion (and when cleared, making a dancing-room worthy of Terpsichore herself), came those not very harmonious sounds that tell of the tuning of fiddles, and clearing out the throats of trombones.

      The Girdwood party entered with considerable éclat—the mother dressed like a grand-duchess, though without her diamonds. These blazed upon the brow of Julia, and sparkled on her snow white bosom—for the set comprised a necklace with pendants.

      She was otherwise splendidly attired; and, in truth, looked superb. The cousin of more modest grace and means, though pretty, seemed as nothing beside her.

      Mrs Girdwood had made a mistake—in coming in too early. It is true there were fashionable people already in the room. But these were the “organisers” of the entertainment; who, backed by a sort of semi-official authority, had gathered in little groups over the floor, scanning across fans, or through eye-glasses, the dancers as they came in.

      Through these the Girdwoods had to run the gauntlet—as they made their way to the upper end of the room.

      They did so with success, though not without being aware of some supercilious glances, accompanied by whispered words that, if heard, might have somewhat disconcerted them.

      It was the second Newport ball—“hops” count for nothing—at which Mrs Girdwood and her girls had shown themselves.

      The first had not given great satisfaction—more especially to Julia.

      But there was a better prospect now. Mrs Girdwood had entered, with a confidence based on the conversation she had just held with the distinguished incognito, Mr Swinton.

      She had seen this gentleman during the day: for, as already known, he had not shut himself up in his room. She was sufficiently discerning to see that he was possessed of a fine face and figure. His hair, too—of the most aristocratic kind! How could it be otherwise? She alone knew the reason—she and her daughter; to whom she had, of course, communicated the secret of her discovery. A bit of broken promise that need not be severely criticised.

      She knew of my lord’s late arrival—from Canada he had told her—though he had paid a flying visit to New York.

      She hoped no one in the ball-room would recognise him—at least not till after she had paraded him with her own party, and could assume the seeming of his introducer.

      She had still stronger reason for this. Storekeeper’s widow, as she was, she possessed the true tact of the match-making mother. It belongs to no clime exclusively; no country. It can be as well acquired in New York as in London, Vienna, or Paris. She was a believer in first impressions—with the “compromises” that often spring from them; and in this theory—with the view of putting it into practice—she had instructed her dear Julia while dressing her for the ball.

      The daughter had promised compliance. Who wouldn’t, with the prospect of earning twenty thousand dollars’ worth of diamonds?

Chapter Ten.

       Table of Contents

      A Previous Engagement.

      In all the gradations of the thermal line, is there any atmosphere more unbearable than that of a ball-room before the dancing commences?

      It is the very essence of discomfort.

      What a relief when the baton of the conductor is seen elevated over his acolytes, and those strains, proverbially soothing to the savage, resound through the glittering saloon!

      It was a relief to Mrs Girdwood and her girls. They had begun to fancy themselves too much observed. At least Julia had, half suspecting herself of being the subject of a cynical criticism, which she did not think of attributing to her diamonds.

      She was burning with an ill-repressed spleen, by no means diminished as the sets commenced forming, and no one came forward to claim either herself or her cousin.

      At that moment appeared a man whose presence changed the current of her thoughts. It was Maynard.

      In spite of her mother’s precautionary counsels, Miss Girdwood could not look upon this gentleman with indifference. СКАЧАТЬ