Lady Barbarina Part 30

He sat there a good while: there was a great deal of talk; it was all pitched in a key of expression and emphasis rather new to him. Every one present, the cool maidens not least, personally addressed him, and seemed to make a particular point of doing so by the friendly repet.i.tion of his name. Three or four other persons came in, and there was a s.h.i.+fting of seats, a changing of places; the gentlemen took, individually, an interest in the visitors, putting somehow more imagination and more "high comedy" into this effort than the latter had ever seen displayed save in a play or a story. These well-wishers feared the two Britons mightn't be comfortable at their hotel-it being, as one of them said, "not so private as those dear little English inns of yours." This last gentleman added that as yet perhaps, alas, privacy wasn't quite so easily obtained in America as might be desired; still, he continued, you could generally get it by paying for it; in fact you could get everything in America nowadays by paying for it. The life was really growing more private; it was growing greatly to resemble European-which wasn't to be wondered at when two-thirds of the people leading it were so awfully much at home in Europe. Europe, in the course of this conversation, was indeed, as Lord Lambeth afterwards remarked to his compatriot, rather bewilderingly rubbed into them: did they pretend to be European, and when had they ever been entered under that head? Everything at Newport, at all events, was described to them as thoroughly private; they would probably find themselves, when all was said, a good deal struck with that. It was also represented to the strangers that it mattered very little whether their hotel was agreeable, as every one would want them to "visit round," as somebody called it: they would stay with other people and in any case would be constantly at Mrs. Westgate's. They would find that charming; it was the pleasantest house in Newport. It was only a pity Mr. Westgate was never there-he being a tremendously fine man, one of the finest they had. He worked like a horse and left his wife to play the social part.

Well, she played it all right, if that was all he wanted. He liked her to enjoy herself, and she did know how. She was highly cultivated and a splendid converser-the sort of converser people would come miles to hear.

But some preferred her sister, who was in a different style altogether.

Some even thought her prettier, but decidedly Miss Alden wasn't so smart.

She was more in the Boston style-the quiet Boston; she had lived a great deal there and was very highly educated. Boston girls, it was intimated, were more on the English model.

Lord Lambeth had presently a chance to test the truth of this last proposition; for, the company rising in compliance with a suggestion from their hostess that they should walk down to the rocks and look at the sea, the young Englishman again found himself, as they strolled across the gra.s.s, in proximity to Mrs. Westgate's sister. Though Miss Alden was but a girl of twenty she appeared conscious of the weight of expectation-unless she quite wantonly took on duties she might have let alone; and this was perhaps the more to be noticed as she seemed by habit rather grave and backward, perhaps even proud, with little of the other's free fraternising. She might have been thought too deadly thin, not to say also too deadly pale; but while she moved over the gra.s.s, her arms hanging at her sides, and, seriously or absently, forgot expectations, though again brightly to remember them and to look at the summer sea, as if that was what she really cared for, her companion judged her at least as pretty as Mrs. Westgate and reflected that if this was the Boston style, "the quiet Boston," it would do very well. He could fancy her very clever, highly educated and all the rest of it; but clearly also there were ways in which she could spare a fellow-could ease him; she wouldn't keep him so long on the stretch at once. For all her cleverness, moreover, he felt she had to think a little what to say; she didn't say the first thing that came into her head: he had come from a different part of the world, from a different society, and she was trying to adapt her conversation. The others were scattered about the rocks; Mrs. Westgate had charge of Percy Beaumont.

"Very jolly place for this sort of thing," Lord Lambeth said. "It must do beautifully to sit."

"It does indeed; there are cosy nooks and there are breezy ones, which I often try-as if they had been made on purpose."

"Ah I suppose you've had a lot made," he fell in.

She seemed to wonder. "Oh no, we've had nothing made. It's all pure nature."

"I should think you'd have a few little benches-rustic seats and that sort of thing. It might really be so jolly to 'develop' the place," he suggested.

It made her thoughtful-even a little rueful. "I'm afraid we haven't so many of those things as you."

"Ah well, if you go in for pure nature, as you were saying, there's nothing like that. Nature, over here, must be awfully grand." And Lord Lambeth looked about him.

The little coast-line that contributed to the view melted away, but it too much lacked presence and character-a fact Miss Alden appeared to rise to a perception of. "I'm afraid it seems to you very rough. It's not like the coast-scenery in Kingsley's novels."

He wouldn't let her, however, undervalue it. "Ah, the novels always overdo everything, you know. You mustn't go by the novels."

They wandered a little on the rocks; they stopped to look into a narrow chasm where the rising tide made a curious bellowing sound. It was loud enough to prevent their hearing each other, and they stood for some moments in silence. The girl's eyes took in her companion, observing him attentively but covertly, as those of women even in blinking youth know how to do. Lord Lambeth repaid contemplation; tall straight and strong, he was handsome as certain young Englishmen, and certain young Englishmen almost alone, are handsome; with a perfect finish of feature and a visible repose of mind, an inaccessibility to questions, somehow stamped in by the same strong die and pressure that nature, designing a precious medal, had selected and applied. It was not that he looked stupid; it was only, we a.s.sume, that his perceptions didn't show in his face for restless or his imagination for irritable. He was not, as he would himself have said, tremendously clever; but, though there was rather a constant appeal for delay in his waiting, his perfectly patient eye, this registered simplicity had its beauty as well and, whatever it might have appeared to plead for, didn't plead in the name of indifference or inaction. This most searching of his new friends thought him the handsomest young man she had ever seen; and Bessie Alden's imagination, unlike that of her companion, was irritable. He, however, had already made up his mind, quite originally and without aid, that she had a grace exceedingly her own.

"I daresay it's very gay here-that you've lots of b.a.l.l.s and parties," he said; since, though not tremendously clever, he rather prided himself on having with women a strict sufficiency of conversation.

"Oh yes, there's a great deal going on. There are not so many b.a.l.l.s, but there are a good many other pleasant things," Bessie Alden explained.

"You'll see for yourself; we live rather in the midst of it."

"It will be very kind of you to let us see. But I thought you Americans were always dancing."

"I suppose we dance a good deal, though I've never seen much of it. We don't do it much, at any rate in summer. And I'm sure," she said, "that we haven't as many b.a.l.l.s as you in England."

He wondered-these so many prompt a.s.sumptions about his own country made him gape a little. "Ah, in England it all depends, you know."

"You'll not think much of our gaieties," she said-though she seemed to settle it for him with a quaver of interrogation. The interrogation sounded earnest indeed and the decision arch; the mixture, at any rate, was charming. "Those things with us are much less splendid than in England."

"I fancy you don't really mean that," her companion laughed.

"I a.s.sure you I really mean everything I say," she returned. "Certainly from what I've read about English society it is very different."

"Ah well, you know," said Lord Lambeth, who appeared to cling to this general theory, "those things are often described by fellows who know nothing about them. You mustn't mind what you read."

"Ah, what a blasphemous speech-I _must_ mind what I read!" our young woman protested. "When I read Thackeray and George Eliot how can I help minding?"

"Oh well, Thackeray and George Eliot"-and her friend pleasantly bethought himself. "I'm afraid I haven't read much of them."

"Don't you suppose they knew about society?" asked Bessie Alden.

"Oh I daresay they knew; they must have got up their subject. Good writers do, don't they? But those fas.h.i.+onable novels are mostly awful rot, you know."

His companion rested on him a moment her dark blue eyes; after which she looked down into the chasm where the water was tumbling about. "Do you mean Catherine Grace Gore, for instance?" she then more aspiringly asked.

But at this he broke down-he coloured, laughed, gave up. "I'm afraid I haven't read that either. I'm afraid you'll think I'm not very intellectual."

"Reading Mrs. Gore is no proof of intellect. But I like reading everything about English life-even poor books. I'm so curious about it,"

said Bessie Alden.

"Aren't ladies curious about everything?" he asked with continued hilarity.

"I don't think so. I don't think we're enough so-that we care about many things. So it's all the more of a compliment," she added, "that I should want to know so much about England."

The logic here seemed a little close; but Lord Lambeth, advised of a compliment, found his natural modesty close at hand. "I'm sure you know a great deal more than I do."

"I really think I know a great deal-for a person who has never been there."

"Have you really never been there?" cried he. "Fancy!"

"Never-except in imagination. And I _have_ been to Paris," she admitted.

"Fancy," he repeated with gaiety-"fancy taking those brutes first! But you _will_ come soon?"

"It's the dream of my life!" Bessie Alden brightly professed.

"Your sister at any rate seems to know a tremendous lot about us," Lord Lambeth went on.

She appeared to take her view of this. "My sister and I are two very different persons. She has been a great deal in Europe. She has been in England a little-not intimately. But she has met English people in other countries, and she arrives very quickly at conclusions."

"Ah, I guess she does," he laughed. "But you must have known some too."

"No-I don't think I've ever spoken to one before. You're the first Englishman that-to my knowledge-I've ever talked with."

Bessie Alden made this statement with a certain gravity-almost, as it seemed to the young man, an impressiveness. The impressive always made him feel awkward, and he now began to laugh and swing his stick. "Ah, you'd have been sure to know!" And then he added after an instant: "I'm sorry I'm not a better specimen."

The girl looked away, but taking it more gaily. "You must remember you're only a beginning." Then she retraced her steps, leading the way back to the lawn, where they saw Mrs. Westgate come toward them with Percy Beaumont still at her side. "Perhaps I shall go to England next year," Miss Alden continued; "I want to immensely. My sister expects to cross about then, and she has asked me to go with her. If I do I shall make her stay as long as possible in London."

"Ah, you must come early in July," said Lord Lambeth. "That's the time when there's most going on."

"I don't think I can wait even till early in July," his friend returned.

"By the first of May I shall be very impatient." They had gone further, and Mrs. Westgate and her companion were near. "Kitty," said the younger sister, "I've given out that we go to London next May. So please to conduct yourself accordingly."

Percy Beaumont wore a somewhat animated-even a slightly irritated-air.

He was by no means of so handsome an effect as his comrade, though in the latter's absence he might, with his manly stature and his fair dense beard, his fresh clean skin and his quiet outlook, have pleased by a due affirmation of the best British points. Just now Beaumont's clear eyes had a rather troubled light, which, after glancing at Bessie Alden while she spoke, he turned with some intensity on Lord Lambeth. Mrs.

Westgate's beautiful radiance of interest and dissent fell meanwhile impartially everywhere.