A Face Illumined Part 14

"I detest such people and like to snub them unmercifully," said Van Berg, heartily.

"That may be in accordance with a gunboat character; but is it knightly?"

"Why not? What does sn.o.bbishness and rich vulgarity deserve at any man's hands?"

"Nothing but st.u.r.dy blows. But what do weak, imperfect, half-educated men and women, who have never had a t.i.the of your advantages, NEED at your hands? Can we not condemn faults, and at the same time pity and help the faulty? The gunboat sends its shot cras.h.i.+ng too much at random. It seems to me that true knighthood would spare weakness of any kind."

"I'm glad you have not spared mine. You have demolished me as a gunboat, but I would fain be your knight."

"It is Mrs. Chints who needs a knight at present, and not I. It troubles me to think of her worriment over this foolish little episode, and with your permission I will go and try to banish the cloud."

As she turned she was intercepted by Stanton, who said:

"Miss Burton, let my present to you my cousin, Miss Mayhew."

A ray from a parlor lamp fell upon Ida's face, and Van Berg saw at once that it was clouded and unamiable in its expression. Stanton had evidently been reproaching her severely.

Miss Burton held out her hand cordially and said; "I wish to thank you for maintaining the credit of our s.e.x this morning. These superior men are so fond of portraying us as hysterical, clinging creatures whose only instinct in peril is to throw themselves on man's protection, that I always feel a little exultation when one of the 'weaker and gentler s.e.x,' as we are termed, show the courage and presence of mind which they coolly appropriate as masculine qualities."

"Are you an advocate of woman's rights, Miss Burton?" asked Miss Mayhew, stung by the unconscious sarcasm of the lady's words, to reply in almost as resentful a manner as if a wound had been intended.

"Not of woman's, particularly," was the quiet answer; "I would be glad if every one had their rights."

"You philanthropy is very wide, certainly."

"And therefore very thin, perhaps you think, since it covers so much ground. I agree with you, Miss Mayhew, that general good-will is as cold and thin as moons.h.i.+ne. One ray of sunlight that warms some particular thing into life is worth it all."

"Indeed! I think I prefer moonlight."

"There are certain absorbing avocations in life to which moons.h.i.+ne is better adapted then sunlight, is probably the thought in my cousin's mind," said Stanton, satirically.

"And what are they?" asked Miss Burton.

"Flirtation, for instance."

"My cousin is speaking for himself," said Ida, acidly; "and knows better what is in his own mind than in mine."

"If some ladies themselves never know their own minds, how can another know?" Stanton retorted.

"Well," said Miss Burton, with a laugh, "if we accept a practical philosophy much in vogue--that of taking the world as we find it--flirting is one of the commonest pursuits of mankind."

"I'm quite sure, Miss Burton," said Van Berg, "that your philosophy of life is the reverse of taking the world as we find it."

"Indeed, you are mistaken, sir; I am exceedingly prosaic in my views, and cherish no Utopian dreams and theories. I do indeed take the old matter-of-fact world as I find it, and try to make the best of it."

"Ah, your last is a very saving clause. Too many are seemingly trying to make the worst of it, and unfortunately they succeed."

Ida here shot a quick and vengeful glance at the speaker.

"Please do not present me as a general reformer, Mr. Van Berg,"

protested Miss Burton, with a light laugh; "I have my hands full in mending my own ways."

"And so might we all, no doubt," said Stanton; "only most of us leave our ways unmended. but I am curious to know, Miss Burton, how you would make the best of a flirtation; since this is emphatically a part of the world as we find it, especially at a summer hotel."

"The best that we can do with many things that exist," she replied, "is to leave them alone. Italy is pre-eminently the land of garlic and art; but fortunately we shall not find it necessary to indulge in both and in equal proportions when we are so happy as to go abroad."

"A great many people prefer the garlic," said Stanton.

"Oh, certainly," she answered; "it's a matter of taste."

"So then garlic and flirtation are corresponding terms in your vocabulary?"

"I cannot say which term outranks the other, but it seems to me that if a woman regards her love as a sacred thing, she cannot permit an indefinite number of commonplace people even to attempt to stain it with their soiling touch."

"I think gentlemen show just as much of a disposition to flirt as ladies," said Ida, with resentment in her tone.

"I will not dispute that statement," replied Miss Burton, with a laugh; "indeed, I'm inclined to think they are very human."

"Humane, you mean," interposed Stanton. "Yes, I often wonder at our patient endurance."

"Which shall be taxed no longer to-night by me. Good-evening, Miss Mayhew. Good-evening, patient martyrs."

"Humane, indeed!" said Stanton. "Are you that way inclined, Van?"

"I have no occasion to be otherwise."

"Well, I feel savage enough to scalp some one."

"So I should judge," remarked Ida.

"Perhaps then, as my mood contrasts somewhat favorably with your cousin's, you will venture to walk with me for awhile?" said Van Berg.

"Indeed, sir," she replied, taking his arm, "there are times when any change is a relief."

"I cannot be very greatly elated over that view of the case, certainly," remarked Van Berg, with a laugh.

She did not reply at once, but after a moment said: "I suppose you regard me as a hopeless case at best."

"what suggests that thought to you, Miss Mayhew?"

"You are not so dull as to need to ask that question, and you only ask it to draw me out. For one thing, you probably think that I instigated Mr. and Mrs. Chints to act as they did. This is not true."

"I'm very glad to hear it."

"I'm no more to blame than Mr. Burleigh was. He knew about it as well as I did, but Mrs. Chints was bound to carry out her project."

"Will you permit a suggestion?"