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diff --git a/23807-0.txt b/23807-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..49586c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/23807-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1727 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Uncle Of An Angel, by Thomas A. Janvier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Uncle Of An Angel + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Illustrator: W. T. Smedley + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23807] +Last Updated: October 3, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +THE UNCLE OF AN ANGEL + +By Thomas A. Janvier + +Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + +[Illustration: Frontispiece 007 p60] + +[Illustration: Page 3 020] + + + + +I. + +When Mr. Hutchinson. Port, a single gentleman who admitted that he was +forty-seven years old and who actually was rising sixty, of strongly +fixed personal habits, and with the most positive opinions upon every +conceivable subject, came to know that by the death of his widowed +sister he had been placed in the position of guardian of that sister’s +only daughter, Dorothy, his promptly formed and tersely expressed +conception of the situation was that the agency by which it had been +brought about was distinctively diabolical. The fact may be added that +during the subsequent brief term of his guardianship Mr. Port found no +more reason for reversing this hastily formed opinion than did the late +King David for reversing his hastily expressed views in regard to the +general tendency of mankind towards untruthfulness. + +The two redeeming features of Mr. Port’s trying situation were that his +duties as a guardian did not begin at all until his very unnecessary +ward was nearly nineteen years old; and did not begin actively--his +ward having elected to remain in France for a season, under the mild +direction of the elderly cousin who had been her mother’s travelling +companion--until she was almost twenty. When she was one-and-twenty, as +Mr. Port reflected with much satisfaction, he would be rid of her. + +Neither by nature nor by education had Mr. Hutchinson Port been fitted +to discharge the duties which thus were thrust upon him. His +disposition was introspective--but less in a philosophical sense than a +physiological, for the central point of his introspection was his +liver. That he made something of a fetich of this organ will not appear +surprising when the fact is stated that Mr. Port was a Philadelphian. +In that city of eminent good cheer livers are developed to a degree that +only Strasburg can emulate. + +Naturally, Mr. Port’s views of life were bounded, more or less, by what +he could eat with impunity; yet beyond this somewhat contracted region +his thoughts strayed pleasantly afield into the far wider region of the +things which he could not eat with impunity; but which, with a truly +Spartan epicureanism, he did eat--and bravely accepted the bilious +consequences! The slightly anxious, yet determined, expression that +would appear upon Mr. Port’s cleanshaven, ruddy countenance as he +settled himself to the discussion of an especially good and especially +dangerous dinner betrayed heroic possibilities in his nature which, +being otherwise directed, would have won for him glory upon the martial +field. + +In minor matters--that is to say, in all relations of life not +pertaining to eating--Mr. Port was very much what was to be expected +of him from his birth and from his environment. Every Sunday, with an +exemplary piety, he sat solitary in the great square pew in St. Peter’s +which had been occupied by successive generations of Ports ever since +the year 1761, when the existing church was completed. Every other day +of the week, from his late breakfast-time for some hours onward, he sat +at his own particular window of the Philadelphia Club and contemplated +disparagingly the outside world over the top of his magazine or +newspaper. At four, precisely, for his liver’s sake, he rode in the +Park; and for so stout a gentleman Mr. Port was an excellent horseman. + +[Illustration: Mr. Port was an excellent horseman 024] + +On rare occasions he dined at his club. Usually, he dined out; for while +generally regarded as a very disagreeable person at dinners--because of +his habit of finding fault with his food on the dual ground of hygiene +and quality--he was in social demand because his presence at a +dinner was a sure indication that the giver of it had a good culinary +reputation; and in Philadelphia such a reputation is most highly prized. +An irrelevant New York person, after meeting Mr. Port at several of the +serious dinnerparties peculiar to Philadelphia, had described him as the +animated skeleton; and had supplemented this discourteous remark with +the still more discourteous observation that as a feature of a feast the +Egyptian article was to be preferred--because it did not overeat itself, +and did keep its mouth shut. However, Mr. Port’s obvious rotundity +destroyed what little point was to be found in this meagre witticism; +and, if it had not, the fact is well-known in Philadelphia that New +Yorkers, being descended not from an honorable Quaker ancestry but from +successful operations in Wall Street, are not to be held accountable for +their unfortunate but unavoidable manifestations of a frivolity at once +inelegant and indecorous. + +In regard to his summers, Mr. Port--after a month spent for the good of +his liver in taking the waters at the White Sulphur--of course went to +Narragan-sett Pier. It may be accepted as an incontrovertible truth that +a Philadelphian of a certain class who missed coming to the Pier +for August would refuse to believe, for that year at least, in the +alternation of the four seasons; while an enforced absence from that +damply delightful watering-place for two successive summers very +probably would lead to a rejection of the entire Copernican system. + + + + +II. + +“Poor dear mamma and I did not have a harsh word for years, Uncle +Hutchinson,” Miss Lee explained, in the course of the somewhat animated +discussion that arose in consequence of Mr. Port’s declaration that +a part of their summer would be passed, in accordance with his usual +custom, at the White Sulphur, and of Dorothy’s declaration that she did +not want to go there. This, her first summer in America, was the third +summer after Mrs. Lee’s translation; and since Dorothy had come into +colors again she naturally wanted to make the most of them. “No, not +a single harsh word did we ever have. We always agreed perfectly, you +know; or if mamma thought differently at first she always ended by +seeing that my view of the matter was the right one. The only serious +difference that I remember since I was quite a little girl was that +last autumn in Paris; when I had everything so perfectly arranged for a +delightful winter in St. Petersburg, and when mamma was completely set +in her own mind that we must go to the south of France. Her cough was +getting very bad then, you know, and she said that a winter in Russia +certainly would kill her. I don’t think it would have killed her, at +least not especially; but the doctor backed mamma up--and said some +horrid things to me in his polite French way--and declared that St. +Petersburg was not even to be thought of. + +“And so, when I found that they were both against me that way, of course +I sacrificed my own feelings and told mamma that I would do just what +she wanted. And mamma cried and kissed me, and said that I was an angel: +wasn’t it sweet of her? To be sure, though, she was having her own way, +and I wasn’t; and I think that I was an angel myself, for I did want +to go to Russia dreadfully. After all, as things turned out, we might +almost as well have gone; for poor dear mamma, you know, died that +winter anyway. But I’m glad I did what I could to please her, and that +she called me an angel for doing it. Don’t you think that I was one? And +don’t you feel, sir, that it is something of an honor to be an angel’s +uncle? + +[Illustration: Suppose I kiss you right on your dear little bald spot +030] + +“Now suppose I kiss you right on your dear little bald spot, and that +we make up our minds not to go to that horrid sulphur place at all. +Everybody says that it is old-fashioned and stupid; and that is not +the kind of an American watering-place that I want to see, you know. +It would have been all very well if we’d gone there while I was in +mourning, and had to be proper and quiet and retired, and all that; but +I’m not in mourning any longer, Uncle Hutchinson--and you haven’t said +yet how you like this breakfast gown. Do you have to be told that white +lace over pale-blue silk is very becoming to your angel niece, Uncle +Hutchinson? And now you shall have your kiss, and then the matter will +be settled.” With which words Miss Lee--a somewhat bewildering but +unquestionably delightful effect in blond and blue--fluttered up to her +elderly relative, embraced him with a graceful energy, and bestowed upon +his bald spot the promised kiss. + +“But--but indeed, my dear,” responded Mr. Port, when he had emerged from +Miss Lee’s enfolding arms, “you know that going to the White Sulphur is +not a mere matter of pleasure with me; it is one of hygienic +necessity. You forget, Dorothy”--Mr. Port spoke with a most earnest +seriousness--“you forget my liver.” + +“Now, Uncle Hutchinson, what is the use of talking about your liver +that way? Haven’t you told me a great many times already that it is an +hereditary liver, and that nothing you can do to it ever will make it go +right? And if it is bound to go wrong anyway, why can’t you just try to +forget all about it and have as pleasant a time as possible? That’s +the doctrine that I always preached to poor dear mamma--she had an +hereditary liver too, you know--and it’s a very good one. + +“Anyhow, I’ve heard mamma say countless times that Saratoga was a +wonderfully good place for livers; now why can’t we go there? Mamma +always said that Saratoga was simply delightful--horse-racing going on +all the time, and lovely drives, and rowing on the lake, and dancing all +night long, and all sorts of lovely things. Let’s go to Saratoga, Uncle +Hutchinson! Mamma said that the food there was delicious--and you know +you always are grumbling about the food those sulphur people give you. + +“But what really would be best of all for you, Uncle Hutchinson,” Miss +Lee continued, with increasing animation, “is Carlsbad. Yes, that’s what +you really want--and while you are drinking the horrid waters I can be +having a nice time, you know. Then, when you have finished your course, +we can take a run into Switzerland; and after that, in the autumn, +we might go over to Vienna--you will be delighted with the Vienna +restaurants, and they do have such good white wines there. And then, +from Vienna, we really can go on and have a winter in Russia. Just +think how perfectly delightful it will be to drive about in sledges, all +wrapped up in furs”--Mr. Port shuddered; he detested cold weather--“and +to go to the court balls, and even, perhaps, to be present the next time +they assassinate the Czar! Oh, what a good time we are going to have! Do +write at once, this very day, Uncle Hutchinson, to Carlsbad and engage +our rooms.” + +To a person of Mr. Port’s staid, deliberate temperament this rapid +outlining of a year of foreign travel, and this prompt assumption that +the outline was to be immediately filled in and made a reality, was +upsetting. His mental processes were of the Philadelphia sort, and when +Miss Lee had completed the sketch of her European project he still was +engaged in consideration of her argument in favor of throwing over the +White Sulphur for Saratoga. However, he had comprehended enough of her +larger plan to perceive that by accepting Saratoga promptly he might be +spared the necessity of combating a far more serious assault upon his +peace of mind and digestion. Travel of any sort was loathsome to Mr. +Port, for it involved much hasty and inconsiderate eating. + +“Very well,” he said, but not cheerfully, for this was the first time +in a great many years that he had not made and acted upon plans +shaped wholly in his own interest, “we will try Saratoga, since you so +especially desire it; but if the waters affect my liver unfavorably we +shall go to the White Sulphur at once.” + +“What! We are not to go to Carlsbad, then? Oh, Uncle Hutchinson, I had +set my heart upon it! Don’t, now don’t be in a hurry to say positively +that we won’t go. Think how much good the waters will do you, and think +of what a lovely time you can have when your course is over, and you can +eat just as much as you want of anything!” + +But even by this blissful prospect Mr. Port was not to be lured; and +Dorothy, who combined a good deal of the wisdom of the serpent with +her presumable innocence of the dove, perceived that it was the part of +prudence not further to press for larger victory. + +“And from Saratoga, of course, we shall go to the Pier,” said Mr. Port, +but with a certain aggressiveness of tone that gave to his assertion the +air of a proposition in support of which argument might be required. + +“To Narragansett, you mean? Oh, certainly. From what several people have +told me about Narragansett I think that it must be quite entertaining, +and I want to see it. And of course, Uncle Hutchinson, even if I didn’t +care about it at all, I should go all the same; for I want to fall in +exactly with your plans and put you to as little trouble as possible, +you know. For if your angel wasn’t willing to be self-sacrificing, she +really wouldn’t be an angel at all.” + +Pleasing though this statement of Early Christian sentiment was, +it struck Mr. Port--as he subsequently revolved it slowly in his +slowly-moving mind--as lacking a little on the side of practicality; +for Miss Lee, so far, unquestionably had contrived to upset with a fine +equanimity every one of his plans that was not absolutely identical with +her own. + + + + +III. + +On the whole, the Saratoga expedition was not a success. Even on the +journey, coming up by the limited train, Miss Lee was not favorably +impressed by the appearance of her fellow-passengers. Nearly all of +the men in the car (most of whom immediately betook themselves to the +bar-room, euphoniously styled a buffet, at the head of the train) were +of a type that would have suggested to one accustomed to American life +that variety of it which is found seated in the high places of the +government of the city of New York; and the aggressively dressed and too +abundantly jewelled female companions of these men, heavily built, +heavy browed, with faces marked in hard lines, and with aggressive +eyes schooled to look out upon the world with a necessarily emphatic +self-assertion, were of a type that, without special knowledge of +American ways, was entirely recognizable. Albeit Miss Lee, having spent +much time in the mixed society of various European watering-places, was +not by any means an unsophisticated young person, and was not at all a +squeamish one, she was sensibly relieved by finding that the chair +next to hers was occupied by a silvery-haired old lady of the most +unquestionable respectability; and her composure was further restored, +presently, by the return to his chair, on the other side of her of Mr. +Port: who had betaken himself to what the conductor had told him was the +smoking-room, and who, finding himself in a bar-room, surrounded by a +throng of hard-drinking, foul-mouthed men, had sacrificed his +much-loved cigar in order to free himself from such distinctly offensive +surroundings. + +At their hotel, and elsewhere, Miss Lee and her uncle encountered many +of their fellow-passengers by the limited train, together with others of +a like sort which previous trains had brought thither; and while, on the +whole, these were about balanced by a more desirable class of visitors, +they were in such force as to give to the life of the place a very +positive tone. + +At the end of a week Dorothy avowed herself disappointed. “I never did +think much of poor dear mamma’s taste, you know, Uncle Hutchinson,” she +said, with her customary frankness, “and what she found to like in this +place I’m sure I can’t imagine. It’s tawdry and it’s vulgar; and as for +its morals, I think that it’s worse than Monte Carlo. I suppose that +there is a nice side to it, for I do see a few nice people; but, +somehow, they all seem to stand off from each other as though they were +afraid here to take any chances at all with strangers. And I don’t blame +them, Uncle Hutchinson, for I feel just that way myself. What you ought +to have done was to have hired a cottage, and then people would have +taken the trouble to find out about us; and when they’d found that we +were not all sorts of horrid things we should have got into the right +set, and no doubt, at least if we’d stayed here through August, we +should have had a very nice time. + +“But we’re not having a nice time, here at this noisy hotel, Uncle +Hutchinson, where the band can’t keep quiet for half an hour at a time, +and where the only notion that people seem to have of amusement is to +overdress themselves and wear diamonds to dinner and sit in crowds on +the verandas and dance at night with any stranger who can get another +stranger to introduce him and to drive over on fine afternoons to that +place by the lake and drink mixed drinks until some of them actually get +tipsy. I really think that it all is positively horrid. And so I’m quite +willing now to go to the White Sulphur. It is stupid, I know, but I’ve +always heard that it is intensely respectable. I will get my packing all +done this afternoon, and we will start to-morrow morning; and I think +that you’d better go and telegraph for rooms right away.” + +But to Dorothy’s surprise, and also to her chagrin, Mr. Port refused to +entertain her proposition. He fully agreed with her in her derogatory +estimate of Saratoga life as found at Saratoga hotels; and he cherished +also a private grief incident to his (mistaken) belief that the cooking +was not so good as he remembered it, bright in the glamour of his sound +digestion in his youthful past. On the other hand, however, the waters +certainly were having a most salutary effect upon his liver; and the +move to Virginia would involve spending two days of hot weather in +toilsome travel, sustained only by such food as railway restaurants +afford. Therefore Mr. Port declared decidedly that until the end of July +they would remain where they were--and so gave his niece the doubtful +pleasure of an entirely new experience by compelling her to do something +that she did not want to do at all. It was a comfort to Mr. Port, in +later years, to remember that he had got ahead of Dorothy once, anyhow. + +Being a very charming young person, Miss Lee could not, of course, be +grumpy; yet grumpiness certainly would have been the proper word with +which to describe her mood during her last fortnight at Saratoga had she +not possessed such extraordinarily fine gray eyes and such an admirably +dimpled chin. The fact must be admitted that she contrived to make her +uncle’s life so much of a burden to him that his staying powers were +strained to the utmost Indeed, he admitted to himself that he could not +have held out against such tactics for another week; and he perceived +that he had done injustice to his departed sister in thinking--as he +certainly had thought, and even had expressed on more than one occasion +in writing--that in permitting her European movements to be shaped in +accordance with her daughter’s fancies she had exhibited an inexcusable +weakness. + +It was a relief to Mr. Port’s mind, and also to his digestion--for +Dorothy’s grumpiness produced an effect distinctly bilious--when the end +of July arrived and his own and his charming ward’s views once more were +brought into harmony by the move to Narragansett Pier. Fortunately, +while somewhat disposed to stand upon her own rights, Miss Lee was not +a person who bore malice; a pleasing fact that became manifest on the +moment that she began to pack her trunks. + +“I am afraid, Uncle Hutchinson,” she observed, on the morning that this +important step towards departure was taken--“I am afraid that during the +past week or so your angel may not have been quite as much of an angel +as usual.” + +“No,” replied Mr. Port, with a colloquial disregard of grammatical +construction, and with perhaps unnecessary emphasis, “I don’t think she +has.” + +“But from this moment onward,” Dorothy continued, courteously ignoring +her uncle’s not too courteous interpolation, and airily relegating into +oblivion the recent past, “she expects to manifest her angelic qualities +to an extent that will make her appear unfit for earth. Very possibly +she may even grow a pair of wings and fly quite away from you, +sir--right up among the clouds, where the other angels are! And how +would you like that, Uncle Hutchinson?” + +In the sincere seclusion of his inner consciousness Mr. Port admitted +the thought that if Dorothy had resolved herself into an angelic +_vol-au-vent_ (a simile that came naturally to his mind) at any time +during the preceding fortnight he probably would have accepted the +situation with a commendable equanimity. But what he actually said was +that her departure in this aerated fashion would make him profoundly +miserable. Mr. Port was a little astonished at himself when he was +delivered of this gallant speech; for gallant speeches, as he very well +knew, were not at all in his line. + +On the amicable basis thus established, Miss Lee and her guardian +resumed their travels; and, excepting only Mr. Port’s personal misery +incident to the alimentary exigencies of railway transportation, their +journey from the central region of New York to the seaboard of Rhode +Island was accomplished without misadventure. + + + + +IV. + +In regard to Narragansett Pier, Miss Lee’s opinions, the which she was +neither slow in forming nor unduly cautious in expressing, at first were +unfavorable. + +“And so _this_ is ‘the Pier,’ is it?” she observed in a tone by no means +expressive of approval as she stood on the hotel veranda on the day +of her arrival, and contemplated the rather limited prospect that was +bounded at one end by the Casino and at the other by the coal-elevator. +“If those smelly little stones out there are ‘the Rocks’ that people +talk about at such a rate I must confess that I am disappointed in +them”--Mr. Port hastened to assure her that the Rocks were in quite a +different direction--“and if that is the Casino, while it seems a nice +sort of a place, I really think that they might have managed the arch so +as not to have that horrid green house showing under it. And what little +poor affairs the hotels are! Really, Uncle Hutchinson, I don’t see what +there is in this little place to make such a fuss about.” + +“Dorothy,” replied Mr. Port, with much solemnity, “you evidently +forget--though I certainly have mentioned the fact to you +repeatedly--that the climate of this portion of Rhode Island is the most +distinctively antibilious climate to be found upon the whole coast of +North America. For persons possessing delicate livers--” + +“Oh, bother delicate livers--at least, I beg your pardon, Uncle +Hutchinson,” for an expression of such positive pain had come into Mr. +Port’s face at this irreverent reference to an organ that he regarded as +sacred that even Dorothy was forced to make some sort of an apology. “Of +course I don’t want to bother your poor liver more than it is bothered +anyway; but, you know, I haven’t got a liver, and I don’t care for +climates a bit. What I mean is: what do people do here to have a good +time?” + +“In the morning,” replied Mr. Port, “they bathe, and in the afternoon +they drive to the Point. This morning we shall bathe, Dorothy--bathing +is an admirable liver tonic--and this afternoon we shall drive to the +Point.” + +“Good heavens! Is that all?” exclaimed Miss Lee. “Why, it’s worse than +Saratoga. Do you mean to say, Uncle Hutchinson, that people don’t dance +here, and don’t go yachting, and don’t have lunch-parties, and don’t +play tennis, and don’t even have afternoon teas?” + +“I believe that some of these things are done here,” replied Mr. Port, +in a tone that implied that such frivolities were quite beyond the lines +of his own personal interests. “Yes,” he continued, “I am sure that +all of them are done here now--for the Pier is not what it used to be, +Dorothy. The quiet air of intense respectability that characterized +Narragansett when it was the resort only of a few of the best families +of Philadelphia has departed from it--I fear forever! But, thank Heaven, +its climatic characteristics remain intact. When you are older, Dorothy, +and your liver asserts itself, you will appreciate this incomparable +climate at its proper value.” + +“Well, it hasn’t asserted itself yet, you know; and I must say I’m +devoutly thankful that something has happened to wake up the quiet and +intensely respectable Philadelphians before I had to come here. But I’m +very glad, dear Uncle Hutchinson,” Miss Lee continued, winningly, “that +this climate is so good for you, and I’m sure I hope that you won’t have +a single bilious attack all the time that you are here. And you’ll take +your angel to the dances, and to see the tennis, and you’ll give her +lunch-parties, and you’ll take her yachting, won’t you, you dear? But I +know you will; and if this were not such a very conspicuous place, +and might make a scandal, I’d give you a very sweet kiss to pay you +in advance for all the trouble that you are going to take to make +your angel enjoy herself. You needn’t bother about the teas, Uncle +Hutchinson--for the most part they’re only women, and stupid.” + +Being still somewhat cast down by painful memories of that trying final +fortnight in Saratoga, during which he and his niece had pulled so +strongly in opposite directions, Mr. Port heard with a lively alarm this +declaration of a plan of campaign which, if carried out, would wreck +hopelessly his own comfort of body and peace of mind. Obviously, this +was no time for faltering. If the catastrophe was to be averted, he must +speak out at once and with a decisive energy. + +“I need not tell you, Dorothy,” he began, speaking in a most grave and +earnest tone, “that it is my desire to discharge in the amplest and +kindest manner my duties towards you as a guardian--” + +“I’m sure of it, and of course you needn’t tell me, you dearest +dear--and we might begin with just a little lunch to-day. The breakfast +was horrid, and I didn’t get half enough even of what there was.” + +“But I must say now,” Mr. Port went on--keenly regretting the +unfortunate beginning that he had given to his declaration of +independence, but judiciously ignoring Dorothy’s shrewd perversion of +it--“that your several suggestions literally are impossibilities. I +admit that dancing for a short period, at about an hour after each meal, +is an admirable exercise that produces a most salutary effect upon the +digestive apparatus; but persistent dancing until an unduly late period +of the night is a practice as unhygienic as, in the mixed company of a +watering-place, it is socially objectionable. + +“Tennis is an absurdity worthy of the vacuous minds of those who engage +in it.. To suggest that I shall sit in a cramped position in a draughty +gallery for several hours at a stretch in order to watch empty-headed +young men playing a perverted form of battledoor and shuttlecock across +a net, is to imply that they and I are upon the same intellectual level; +and this, I trust, is not the case. + +“As you certainly should remember, Dorothy, all persons of a bilious +habit suffer severely from seasickness; a fact that, of course, disposes +effectually of your yachting plans. For you are not desirous, I am +sure, of purchasing your own selfish enjoyment--if you possibly can have +enjoyment on board a yacht--at the cost of my intense personal misery. + +“But in regard to the lunches, my dear”--Mr. Port’s tone softened +perceptibly--“there certainly is something to be said. The food here +at the hotel, I admit, is atrocious, and at the Casino it is possible +occasionally to procure something eatable. Yes, I shall have much +pleasure in giving a lunch this very morning to my angel” (Mr. Port, +warming in advance under the genial influence of the croquette and salad +that he intended to order, became playful), “for what you said in regard +to the breakfast, Dorothy, was quite true--it was abominable. If you +will excuse me, I will just step down to the Casino now and give my +order; then things will be all ready for us when we get back from the +bath.” + +And such was Miss Lee’s generalship that she rested content with her +success in one direction, and deferred until a more convenient season +her further demands. She was a reasonable young woman, and was quite +satisfied with accomplishing one thing at a time. + + + + +V. + +Two or three days later Dorothy advanced her second parallel. In the +interval they had bathed every morning and had driven to the Point every +afternoon, and they had held converse upon the veranda of the hotel +every evening until ten o’clock with certain eminently respectable +people from Philadelphia, by whom Dorothy was bored, as she did not +hesitate to confess, almost to desperation. Further, Mr. Port had given +a lunch-party to which these same Philadelphians were invited; and his +niece had informed him, when the festivity was at an end, that if he did +anything like that again she certainly would either run away or drown +herself. Any trials in this world or any dangers in the next, she +declared, were preferable to sitting opposite to such a person as Mrs. +Logan Rittenhouse, who talked nothing but uninteresting scandal and +crochet, and next to Mr. Pennington Brown, who talked only about +peoples’ great-grandfathers and great-aunts. + +It was with a lively alarm that Mr. Port noted these signs of +discontent, together with returning symptoms of the grumpiness which +had disturbed his comfort and digestion at Saratoga; and it was most +selfishly in his own self-interest that he tried to think of something +that would afford his niece amusement. Miss Lee, when she perceived that +her intelligently laid plans were working successfully, was graciously +pleased to assist him. + +“It is a great pity, Uncle Hutchinson,” she vouchsafed to remark on the +fourth day of suppressed domestic sunshine, “that you don’t like tennis. +Don’t you think, for your angel’s sake, that you could go for just a +little while this afternoon? There’s going to be a capital match this +afternoon, and your angel does so want to see it. You haven’t been +very--very agreeable the past two or three days, you dear, and I fear +that your liver must be a little out of order. Really, you haven’t given +your angel a single chance to be affectionate--and unless she can be +affectionate and sweet and clinging, and things like that, you know, +your poor angel is not happy at all. Suppose we try the tennis for just +half an hour or so? It won’t be much of a sacrifice for you, and it will +make your angel so happy that she will make herself dearer to you than +ever, you precious thing.” + +This form of address was disconcerting to Mr. Port, for during the +period to which Miss Lee referred he certainly had been trying--not very +cleverly, perhaps, for such efforts were not at all in his line, but +still to the best of his ability--to make himself as agreeable as +possible; and the effort on the part of his niece to be angelic, of +which she spoke so confidently, he could not but think had fallen rather +more than a little short of absolute success. The one ray of comfort +that he extracted from Dorothy’s utterance was her reference to herself +as his angel; he had come to understand that the use of this term was +a sign of fair weather, and he valued it accordingly. But even for the +sake of fair weather Mr. Port was not yet prepared to expose his elderly +joints to the draughty discomforts of the galleries overhanging the +tennis-court; and he said so, pretty decidedly. Almost anything else he +was willing to do, he added, but that particular thing he would not do +at all. + +“As you please, Uncle Hutchinson,” Dorothy answered, in a tone of gloomy +resignation. “I am used to hearing that. It is just what poor dear mamma +used to say. She always was willing, you know, to do everything but +the thing that I wanted her to do. I remember, just to mention a single +instance, how mamma broke up a delightful water party on Windermere that +Sir Gordon Graham had arranged expressly for us. The weather was rather +misty, as it is apt to be up there, you know, but nothing worth minding +when you are well wrapped up. But mamma said that if she went out in +such a drizzle she knew her cough would be ever so much worse--and of +course she couldn’t really know that it would be worse, for nobody truly +knows what the weather is going to do to them--and so she wouldn’t +go. And Sir Gordon was very much hurt about it, and never came near +us again. And unless I’m very much mistaken, Uncle Hutchinson, mamma’s +selfishness that day lost me the chance of being Lady Graham. So I’m +used to being treated in this way, and you needn’t at all mind refusing +me everything that I ask.” And, being delivered of this discourse, Miss +Lee lapsed into a condition of funereal gloom. + +At the end of another twenty-four hours Mr. Port knuckled under. “I +have been thinking, Dorothy,” he said, “about what you were saying about +tennis. It’s a beastly game, but since you insist upon seeing it I’ll +take you for a little while this afternoon.” This was not the most +gracious form of words in which an invitation could be couched; but +Dorothy, who was not a stickler for forms provided she was successful in +results, accepted it with alacrity. Later in the day, as they returned +from the Casino, she declared: + +“Your angel has had a lovely afternoon, Uncle Hutchinson, and she is +sure that you have had a lovely afternoon too. And now that you’ve found +what fun there is in looking at tennis, we’ll go every day, won’t we, +dear? Sometimes, you know, you are just a little, just a very little +prejudiced about things; but you are so good and sweet-tempered that +your prejudices never last long, and so your angel cannot help loving +you a great deal.” + +Mr. Port, who was not at all sweet-tempered at that moment, was prepared +to reply to the first half of this speech in terms of some emphasis; +for he was limping a little, and a shocking twinge took him in his +left shoulder when he attempted to raise his arm. But Dorothy’s sudden +shifting to polite personalities was of a nature to choke off his +projected indignant utterance. Yet not feeling by any means prepared +to meet in kind her pleasing manifestation of affection, Mr. Port was a +little put to it to find any suitable form of response. After a moment’s +reflection he abandoned the attempt to reply coherently, and contented +himself with grunting. + + + + +VI. + +Encouraged by the success that was attending her unselfish efforts to +harmonize her own and her uncle’s conceptions of the temporal fitness +of things, Miss Lee began to find life at the Pier quite supportable. +“There’s not much to do here,” she declared, with her customary candor, +“and the hotels--all ugly and all in a row--make it look like an +overgrown charitable institution; and most of the people, I must say, +are such a dismal lot that they might very well be the patients out for +an airing. But, on the whole, I’ve been in several worse places, Uncle +Hutchinson; and if only you’d take me to a hop now and then, instead of +sitting every evening on the pokey hotel veranda talking Philadelphia +twaddle with that stuffy old Mr. Pennington Brown, I might have rather a +good time here.” + +“You will oblige me, Dorothy,” replied Mr. Port, “by refraining from +using such a word as ‘stuffy’ in connection with a gentleman who +belongs to one of the oldest and best families in Philadelphia, and who, +moreover, is one of my most esteemed friends.” + +“But he _is_ stuffy, Uncle Hutchinson. He never talks about anything but +who peoples’ grandfathers and grandmothers were; and _Watson’s Annals_ +seems to be the only book that he ever has heard of. Indeed, I do truly +think that he is the very stuffiest and stupidest old gentleman that I +ever have known.” + +Mr. Port made no reply to this sally, for his feelings were such that he +deemed it best not to give expression to them in words; but he was not +unnaturally surprised, after such a declaration of sentiments on +the part of his niece, when she begged to be excused on the ensuing +afternoon from her regular drive to the Point, on the ground that she +had promised to make an expedition to the Rocks in Mr. Brown’s company. +Had an opportunity been given him Mr. Port would have asked for an +explanation of this phenomenon; but the carriage was in waiting that +was to convey his ward and her extraordinary companion to the end of the +road at Indian Rock--a slight rheumatic tendency, that he declared was +hereditary, rendering it advisable for Mr. Brown to reduce the use of +his legs to a minimum--and before Mr. Port could rally his forces they +had entered it and had driven away. + +[Illustration: They had entered it and had driven away 050] + +In the evening Mr. Port found another surprise awaiting him. Miss Lee +presently retired from the veranda for the avowed purpose of searching +for a missing fan, thus leaving the two gentlemen together. + +[Illustration: What a charming girl your niece is 054] + +“What a charming girl your niece is, Port!” said Mr. Brown, as the +fluttering train of Dorothy’s dress disappeared through the door-way. + +Mr. Port evidently considered that this possibly debatable statement was +sufficiently answered by a grunt, for that was all the answer he gave +it. + +Not permitting his enthusiasm to be checked by this chillingly dubious +response, Mr. Brown continued: + +“She certainly is one of the most charming girls I have met in a long +time, Port. She is not a bit like the average of young girls nowadays. +I rarely have known a young person of either sex to be so genuinely +interested in genealogy, especially in Philadelphia genealogy; and +I must say that her liking for antiquarian matters generally is very +remarkable. I envy you, I really envy you, old boy, the blessing of that +sweet young creature’s constant companionship.” + +“Umph--do you?” was Mr. Port’s concise and rather discouraging reply. + +“Indeed I do”--Mr. Brown was too warm to notice the cynical tone of his +friend’s rejoinder--“and I have been thinking, Port, that we are a pair +of selfish old wretches to monopolize every evening in the way that we +have been doing this bright young flower. It is a shame for us to keep +her in our stupid company--though she tells me that she finds our talk +about old people and old times exceedingly interesting--instead of +letting her have a little of the young society and a little of the +excitement and pleasure of watering-place life. Now, how would it do +for us to take her down to the Casino to-night? There is to be a hop +to-night, she says; at least, that is to say”--Mr. Brown became somewhat +confused--“I heard somewhere that there is to be a hop tonight, and +while that sort of thing is pretty stupid for you and me, it isn’t a bit +stupid for a young and pretty girl like her. So suppose we take her, old +man?” + +As this amazing proposition was advanced by his elderly friend, Mr. +Port’s anger and astonishment were aroused together; and his rude +rejoinder to it was: “Have you gone crazy, Brown, or has Dorothy been +making a fool of you? Has she asked you to ask me to take her to the +Casino hop? She knows there is no use in talking to me about it any +longer.” + +“No, certainly not--at least--that is to say--well, no, not exactly,” + replied Mr. Brown, beginning his sentence with an asperity and +positiveness that somehow did not hold out to its end. “She did say to +me, I confess, how fond she was of dancing, and how she had refrained +from saying much about it to you”--Mr. Port here interpolated a +sceptical snort--“because she knew that taking her to the Casino would +only bore you. And I do think, Port, that keeping her here with us all +the time is grossly selfish; and if you don’t want to take her to the +hop I hope you’ll let her go with me. But what we’d better do, old man, +is to take her together--then we can talk to each other just as well, +at least nearly as well, as we can here, and we can have the comfort of +knowing that she is enjoying herself too. Come, Hutch; we’re getting old +and rusty, you and I, but let us try at least to keep from degenerating +into a pair of selfish old brutes with no care for anybody’s comfort but +our own.” + +Mr. Hutchinson Port might have replied with a fair amount of truth that +so far as he himself was concerned the degeneration that his friend +referred to as desirable to avoid already had taken place. But all of us +like most to be credited with the virtues of which we have least, and he +therefore accepted as his due Mr. Brown’s tribute of implied praise. +And the upshot of the matter was that Dorothy, when she returned to the +veranda again, was unaffectedly surprised (and considering how carefully +she had planned her small campaign she did it very creditably) by +discovering that her uncle’s edict against the Casino hops had been +withdrawn. + + + + +VII. + +Even Dorothy was disposed to believe that unless some peculiarly +favorable combination of circumstances presented itself as a basis for +her intelligent manipulation her strong desire for a yacht voyage must +remain ungratified; for, now that his liver was decidedly the larger +part of him, Mr. Port had a fairly catlike dread of the sea. To be sure, +Dorothy’s character was a resolute one, and her staying powers were +quite remarkable; but in the matter of venturing his bilious body upon +the ocean she discovered that her uncle--although now reduced to a +fairly satisfactory state of submission in other respects--had a large +and powerful will of his own. + +Fortune, however, favors the resolute even more decidedly than she +favors the brave. This fact Dorothy comprehended thoroughly, and +uniformly acted upon. Each time that even a remote possibility of a +yacht cruise presented itself she instantly brought her batteries +to bear; and, with a nice understanding of her uncle’s intellectual +peculiarities, she each time treated the matter as though it never +before had been discussed. + +Therefore it was that when Miss Lee’s eyes were gladdened one day--just +as she and her uncle were about to begin their lunch on the shady +veranda of the Casino--by the sight of a trim schooner yacht sliding +down the wind from the direction of Newport, the subject of the cruise +was revived with a suddenness and point that Mr. Port found highly +disconcerting. The yacht rounded to off the Casino, and the sound of a +plunge and a clanking chain floated across the water as her anchor went +overboard. + +[Illustration: The yacht rounded to off the Casino 060] + +“Oh, isn’t she a beauty!” exclaimed Dorothy, with enthusiasm. “Now, +Uncle Hutchinson, her owner is coming ashore--they have just brought +the gig round to the gangway--and if you don’t know him you must get +somebody to introduce you to him; and then you must introduce him to me; +and then he will ask us to go on a cruise; and of course we will go, +and have just the loveliest time in the world. I haven’t been on board +a yacht for nearly five years (just look at the gig: don’t the men pull +splendidly?)--not since that nice little Lord Alderhone took poor dear +mamma and me up to Norway. We did have such a good time! Poor dear +mamma, of course, was desperately sick--she always was horribly +sea-sick, you know; but I’m never sea-sick the least bit, and it was +perfectly delightful. Look, Uncle Hutchinson, they’ve made the dock, and +now he’s coming right up here. What a handsome man he is, and how well +he looks in his club uniform! It seems to me I’ve seen him somewhere. Do +you know him, Uncle Hutchinson?” + +A serious difficulty under which Mr. Port labored in his dealings with +his niece was his inability--due to his Philadelphia habit of mind--to +keep up with the exceptionally rapid flow of her ideas. On the present +occasion, while he still was engaged in consideration of the irrational +proposition that he should court the desperate misery that attends a +bilious man at sea by as good as asking to be taken on a yacht voyage, +he suddenly found his ideas twisted off into another direction by the +reference to his sister’s sufferings on a similar occasion in the past; +and before he could frame in words the reproof that he was disposed +to administer to Dorothy for what he probably would have styled her +heartlessness, he found his thoughts shunted to yet another track by a +direct question. It is within the bounds of possibility that Miss +Lee had arrived at a just estimate of her relative’s intellectual +peculiarities, and that she even sometimes framed her discourses with a +view to taking advantage of them. + +The direct question being the simplest section of Dorothy’s complex +utterance, Mr. Port abandoned his intended remonstrance and reproof and +proceeded to answer it. “Yes,” he said, “I know him. It’s Van Rensselaer +Livingstone. His cousin, Van Ruy-ter Livingstone, married your cousin +Grace--Grace Winthrop, you know. He’s a great scamp--this one, I mean; +gambles, and that sort of thing, I’m told, and drinks, and--and various +things. I shall have to speak to him if he sees me, I suppose; but of +course I shall not introduce him to you.” + +“Mr. Van Rensselaer Livingstone! Why so it is! How perfectly delightful! +I know him very well, Uncle Hutchinson. He was in Nice the last winter +we were there; and he broke the bank at Monaco; and he played that +perfectly absurd trick on little Prince Sporetti: cut off his little +black mustache when Prince Sporetti was--was not exactly sober, you +know, and gummed on a great red mustache instead of it; and then, before +the prince was quite himself again, took him to Lady Orrasby’s ball. All +Nice was in a perfect roar over it. And they had a duel afterwards, and +Mr. Livingstone--he is a wonderful shot--instead of hurting the little +prince, just shot away the tip of his left ear as nicely as possible. +Oh, he is a delightful man--and here he comes.” And Dorothy, half rising +from her chair, and paying no more attention to Mr. Port’s kicks under +the table than she did to his smothered verbal remonstrances, extended +her well-shaped white hand in the most cordial manner, and in the most +cordial tone exclaimed: + +“Won’t you speak to me in English, Mr. Livingstone? We talked French, +I think it was, the last time we met. And how is your friend Prince +Sporetti? Has his ear grown out again? You know my uncle, I think? +Mr. Hutchinson Port.” + +Livingstone took the proffered hand with even more cordiality than it +was given, and then extended his own to Mr. Port--who seemed much less +inclined to shake it than to bite it. + +“I think that we are justified in regarding ourselves as relations now, +Miss Lee, since our cousins have married each other, you know. Quite a +romance, wasn’t it? And how very jolly it is to meet you here--when I +thought that you certainly were in Switzerland or Norway, or even over +in that new place that people are going to in Roumania! I flatter myself +that I always have rather a knack of falling on my feet, but, by Jove, +I’m doing it more than usual this morning!” + +Miss Lee seemed to be entirely unaware of the fact that her uncle was +looking like an animated thunder-cloud. “It is just like a bit out of +a delightful novel,” was her encouraging response. “A long, low, black +schooner suddenly coming in from the seaward and anchoring close off +shore, and the hero landing in a little boat just in time to slay the +villain and rescue the beautiful bride. Of course I’m the beautiful +bride, but my uncle is not a villain, but the very best of +guardians--by-the-way, I don’t think that you know that poor dear mamma +is dead, Mr. Livingstone? Yes, she died only a week or two after you +left us. So you see you must be very nice to the villain--and you can +begin your kind treatment of him by having lunch with him and with me +too. Uncle Hutchinson was _so_ pleased when he saw you come ashore. He +said that we certainly must capture you, and he sent a man to bring some +hot soup for you at once--here it is now.” And so it was, for Dorothy +herself very thoughtfully had given the order that she now modestly +attributed to her uncle. + +And so in less than ten minutes from the moment when Mr. Port had +informed Dorothy that Van Rensselaer Livingstone was a very +objectionable person whom he desired to avoid, and whose introduction to +her was not even to be thought of, they all three were lunching together +in what to the casual observer seemed to be the most amicable manner +possible. + + + + +VIII. + +“I’ve run over to look up Mrs. Rattleton,” said Livingstone, as he +discussed with evident relish the _filet_ that Mr. Port charitably hoped +would choke him. “Very likely you haven’t met her, for she’s only just +got here. But you’ll like her, I know, for she’s ever so jolly. She’s +promised to play propriety for me in a party that we want to make up +aboard the yacht. The squadron won’t get down from New York for a week +yet, and I’ve come up ahead of it so that we can have a cruise to the +Shoals and back before the races. Of course, Miss Lee, you won’t fly in +the face of Fate, after this providential meeting, by refusing to join +our party; at least if you do you will make me wretched to the end of my +days. And we will try to make you comfortable on board, sir,” he added, +politely, turning to Mr. Port. “I have a tolerably fair cook, and ice +isn’t the only thing in the ice-chest, I assure you.” + +“How very kind you are, Mr. Livingstone,” Dorothy hastened to say, in +order to head off her uncle’s inevitable refusal. “Of course we will go, +with the greatest possible pleasure. It is very odd how things fall out +sometimes. Now only this morning I was begging Uncle Hutchinson to take +me off yachting, and he was saying how much he enjoyed being at sea, and +how he really thought that if it wasn’t for his age--wasn’t it absurd +of him to talk about his age? He is not old at all, the dear!--he would +have a yacht of his own. And almost before the words are fairly out of +our mouths here you drop from the clouds, or are cast up by the sea, +it’s all the same thing, and give us both just what we have been longing +for. At least, Uncle Hutchinson pretended to be longing for it only in +case he could be young enough to enjoy it; but if he doesn’t think he’s +young now, I’d like to know what he’ll call himself when he’s fifty!” + And then, facing around sharply upon her uncle, Dorothy concluded: “The +idea of pretending that _you_ are too old to go yachting! Really, Uncle +Hutchinson, I am ashamed of you!” + +As has been intimated, if there was any one subject upon which Mr. Port +was especially sensitive, it was the subject of his age. As the parish +register of St. Peter’s all too plainly proved, he never would see sixty +again; but this awkward record was in an out-of-the-way place, and +the agreeable fiction that he advanced in various indirect ways to the +effect that he was a trifle turned of forty-seven was not likely to be +officially contradicted. And it is not impossible, so tenacious was he +upon this point, that had the official proof been produced, he would +have denied its authenticity. For it was Mr. Port’s firm determination +still to figure before the world as a youngish, middle-aged man. + +To say that Miss Lee deliberately set herself to playing upon this +weakness of her guardian’s, possibly, remotely possibly, would be +doing her injustice. But the fact is obvious that she succeeded by +her cleverly turned discourse in landing her esteemed relative fairly +between the horns of an exceedingly awkward dilemma: either Mr. Port +must accept the invitation and be horribly ill, or he must reject it, +and so throw over his pretensions to elderly youth. + +For a moment the unhappy gentleman hung in the wind, and Dorothy +regretted that she had not made her statement of the case still +stronger. Indeed, she was about to supplement it by a remark to the +effect that people never thought of giving up yachting until they were +turned of sixty, when, to her relief, her uncle slowly filled away on +the right tack. His acceptance was expressed in highly ungracious terms; +but, as has been said, Dorothy never troubled herself about forms, +provided she compassed results. The moment that he had uttered the fatal +words, Mr. Port fell to cursing himself in his own mind for being such +a fool; but the same reason that had impelled him to give his consent +withheld him from retracting it. He knew that he was going to be +desperately miserable; but, at least, nobody could say that he was old. + +“I’m ever so much obliged to you, Miss Lee, and to you too, Mr. Port,” + said Livingstone. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and hunt up +Mrs. Rattle-ton, and tell her what a splendid raise I’ve made, and help +her organize the rest of the party. We shall have only two more. It’s a +bore to have more than six people on board a yacht. I don’t know why it +is, I’m sure, but if you have more than six they always get to fighting. +Queer, isn’t it?” + +“I beg your pardon,” said Mr. Port. “Mrs. Rattleton? May I ask if this +is the Mrs. Rattleton from New York who was here last season, the one +whose bathing costume was so--so very eccentric, and about whom there +was so much very disagreeable talk?” + +“Mrs. Rattleton _is_ from New York, and she _was_ here last season,” + Livingstone answered. “But I can’t say that I remember anything +eccentric in her bathing costume, except that it was exceedingly +becoming; and I certainly never heard any disagreeable talk about her. +There may have been such talk about her, but perhaps it was thought just +as well not to have it in my presence. Mrs. Rattleton is my cousin, Mr. +Port--she was a Van Twiller, you know. Do you happen to remember any +of the things that were said about her, and who said them?” Livingstone +spoke with extreme courtesy; but there was something in his tone that +caused Mr. Port suddenly to think of the tip of Prince Sporetti’s left +ear, and that led him to reply hurriedly, and by no means lucidly: + +“Certainly--no--yes--that is to say, I can’t exactly remember anything +in particular. I’m sure I was led to believe from what was said that she +was a very charming woman. No, I don’t remember at all.” + +“Ah, perhaps it is just as well,” Livingstone replied, gravely. “But how +lucky!” he added; “there she is now. Everybody is at the Casino about +this time of day, I fancy. May I bring her over and present her to you, +Miss Lee?” + +“Of course you may, Mr. Livingstone. I shall be delighted to meet her. +And if she is to matronize me, the sooner that I begin to get accustomed +to her severities the better.” + +And then Mr. Hutchinson Port suffered a fresh pang of misery when the +presentation was accomplished and he was forced to say approximately +pleasant things to a lady whose decidedly ballet-like attire in the +surf--or, to be precise, on the beach above high-water-mark, where, +for some occult reason, she usually saw fit to do the most of her +bathing--joined to the exceeding celerity of her conduct generally, had +marked her during the preceding season as the conspicuous centre of one +phase of life at the Pier. Nor was Mr. Port’s lot made happier as +he listened to the brisk discussion that ensued in regard to the +organization of the yachting party, and found that its two remaining +members were to be drawn, as was only natural, from the eminently +meteoric set to which Mrs. Rattleton belonged. + +Had time been given Mr. Port for consideration it is probable that he +would have collected his mental forces sufficiently to have enabled him +to lodge a remonstrance; he might even--though this is doubtful, for +Dorothy’s voting power was vigorous--have accomplished a veto. But +projects in which Mrs. Rattleton was concerned never went slowly; and +in the present case the necessity for getting back in time for the +races really compelled haste. And so it came to pass that not until +the _Fleetwings_ was off the Brenton’s Reef light-ship, with her nose +pointed well up into the north-east, was there framed in Mr. Port’s +slow-moving mind a suitable line of argument upon which to base a +peremptory refusal to go upon the expedition--and by that time he was so +excruciatingly ill in his own cabin that coherent utterance and converse +with his kind were alike impossible. + +So far as Mr. Port was concerned the ensuing six days made up an +epoch in his life that can only be described as an agonized blank. And +when--as it seemed to him many ages later--the _Fleetwings_ once more +cast anchor off Narragansett Pier, and he stepped shakily from the +schooner’s gig to the Casino dock, the usual plumpness and ruddiness of +his face had given place to a yellow leanness, and his weight had been +reduced by very nearly twenty pounds. The cruise had been a flying one, +or he never would have finished it. After the first six hours he would +have landed on a desert island cheerfully--and it is not impossible that +a hint from Dorothy as to her uncle’s probable movements should a harbor +be made had induced Livingstone to give the land a wide berth. + +Dorothy came ashore blooming. “You don’t know, Uncle Hutchinson,” + she said, “what a perfectly lovely time I’ve had”--and this cheerful +assertion was the literal truth, for Mr. Port had entered his cabin +before the yacht had crossed the line between Beaver Tail and Point +Judith, and had not emerged from it until the anchor went overboard. +“And you don’t know,” Miss Lee went on with effusion, “how grateful your +angel is to you for helping her to have such a delightful cruise. I’m +sorry that you haven’t been very well, Uncle Hutchinson; but I know +that you will be all the better for it. Poor dear mamma, you know, was +bilious too, and going to sea always made her wretched; but she used to +be wonderfully well always when she got on shore again. And you’ll be +wonderfully well too, you dear; and that will be your reward for helping +your angel to have such a perfectly delightful time.” + +Mr. Port made no reply to this address, for his condition of collapse +was too complete to permit him to give form in words to the thoughts +of rage and resentment which were burning in the depths of his injured +soul. Without a word to one single member of the party, he climbed +heavily into a carriage and was driven directly to his hotel--while +Dorothy, still under the chaperonage of Mrs. Rattleton, gayly joined +the pleasant little lunch-party at the Casino with which the yacht +voyage came to an end. + + + + +IX. + +During the ensuing week, a considerable portion of which Mr. Port passed +in the privacy of his own room, the relations between Miss Lee and her +guardian were characterized by a chill formality that was ominous of +a coming storm. In point of fact, Mr. Port was waiting only until +he should fully regain his strength in order to try conclusions with +Dorothy once and for all--and he was most highly resolved that in the +impending battle royal he should not suffer defeat. So far, he had gone +down in each encounter with his spirited antagonist because the tactics +employed against him were of an unfamiliar sort. But he was beginning to +get the hang of these tactics now; and he also had got what in fighting +parlance would have been styled his second wind. As he thought of the +wrongs which had been heaped upon him, rage filled his breast; and the +strong determination slowly shaped itself within him that to the finesse +of the enemy he would oppose a solid front of brute force. + +Astuteness was not the least marked of Miss Lee’s many charming +characteristics, and although her guardian gave no outward sign of his +belligerent intentions, she felt an inward conviction that a decisive +trial of strength between them was at hand. Five or six years earlier +she had engaged in a trial of this nature with her mother, and had +emerged from it victorious. In that case, feminine weakness had yielded +to feminine strength. But now the gloomy thought assailed her that her +uncle, while closely resembling her mother in the matter of his liver, +had in the depths of his torpid nature a substratum of brutal masculine +resolution against which, should it fairly be set in array, she might +battle in vain. And the upshot of her meditations was the conviction +that her only chance of success lay in avoiding a battle by a radical +change of base. + +An easy way, as she perceived, to effect such a change of base was to +marry Van Rensselaer Livingstone. Indeed, his proposal, a couple of days +after the yacht voyage ended, came so opportunely that she almost +was surprised into accepting it out of hand. But Dorothy was too well +balanced a young person to do anything hastily, even to get herself +out of a tight place; and while she held Livingstone’s proposal under +advisement--as a line of retreat kept open for use in case of urgent +necessity--she welcomed it less for the possibilities of a safer +position that it offered than for those which it suggested to her +fertile mind. + +Marriage, she decided, was the only way by which she could score a final +victory over her uncle, and at the same time spike his guns; but it +did not necessarily follow that her marriage must be with Livingstone. +Indeed, as her coolly intelligent mind perceived, marrying an +unmanageable young man in order to be free of an unmanageable old one +would be simply walking out of the frying-pan into the fire--and that +was not at all the resolution of her difficulties that Dorothy sought. +The plan that now began to shape itself in her mind was one by which +both fire and frying-pan would be successfully avoided; and as the more +that she examined into it the more desirable it appeared to her, she +lost no time in carrying it into effect--whereby, in less than three +days’ time, she sent Mr. Van Rensselaer Livingstone away in such a rage +that he put to sea in the very face of a threatening north-easter, and +in a much shorter period she caused her uncle seriously to doubt the +evidence of his own senses. + +At the end of his week of retirement, Mr. Port found himself in the +hale condition of a bilious giant refreshed with blue-pills. He looked a +little thinner than when he had started upon his ill-starred cruise, and +his usual ruddiness was not as yet fully restored; but he was in capital +condition, and a good deal more than ready for Miss Lee to come on. +He could not very well, in the nature of the case, start an offensive +campaign; but at the very first suggestion on Dorothy’s part of +the slightest desire to engage again in any of the various forms of +frivolous amusement by which she had made his life a burden to him, he +was all loaded and primed to go off with a bang that he believed would +settle her. + +And, such is the perversity of human nature, Mr. Port presently became +not a little annoyed by Dorothy’s failure to supply the spark that was +to touch him off. In fact, her conduct was bewilderingly strange. +She drew away from the lively circle of which Mrs. Rattleton was the +animated centre and voluntarily associated herself with the elderly and +very respectable Philadelphians whoso acquaintance she previously had +so emphatically declined. Still further to Mr. Port’s astonishment, the +lady and gentleman especially singled out by Miss Lee as most in accord +with her newly-acquired tastes were the severe Mrs. Logan Rittenhouse +and that lady’s staid brother, Mr. Pennington Brown. + +[Illustration: The severe Mrs. Logan Rittenhouse 074] + +At the feet of the former, quite literally, she sat as a disciple in +crochet; and listened the while with every outward sign of interest to +the dull record of South Fourth Street scandals of the past and West +Walnut Street scandals of the present which this estimable matron +poured into her ears by the hour at a time. And in a quiet corner of the +veranda (Mr. Brown’s eyesight having failed a little, so that he found +reading rather difficult) she read aloud to the latter from _Watson’s +Annals_; and listened with a pleased satisfaction to his comments upon +her selections from this, the Philadelphia Bible, and to the numerous +anecdotes of a genealogical and antiquarian cast which thus were +recalled to his mind. Possibly the readings from _Watson_ were continued +in the afternoons--when Miss Lee and Mr. Brown regularly went down to +the Rocks. So extraordinary was all this that Mr. Port admitted frankly +to himself that he could make neither head nor tail of it; but he had an +inborn conviction that such an unnatural state of affairs was not likely +to last There was good Scriptural authority, he called to mind grimly, +for the assertion that the leopard did not change his spots nor the +Ethiopian his skin. + + + + +X. + +In accordance with the substantial customs of his fellow-citizens, +Mr. Port always returned to Philadelphia sharp on the 1st of +September--calmly ignoring the heat and the mosquitoes, which are the +dominant characteristics of Philadelphia during that month, and resting +secure in the knowledge that the course which he pursued was that which +his father and his grandfather had pursued before him. It was on the +eve of his departure from Narragansett that his doubts and perplexities +occasioned by Dorothy’s surprising conduct were resolved. + +Being seated in a snug corner of the veranda in company with Mr. +Pennington Brown, Mr. Port was smoking a comforting cigar. Mr. Brown, +who also was smoking, did not seem to find his cigar comforting. He +smoked it in so fitful a fashion that it repeatedly went out; and +his nervousness seemed to be increased each time that he lighted it. +Further, his comment upon Mr. Port’s discourse--which was a more than +ordinarily thoughtful and accurate weighing of the relative merits of +thin and thick soups--obviously were delivered quite at random. At +first Mr. Port was disposed to resent this inattention to his soulful +utterances; but as the subject was one in which, as he well knew, his +friend was profoundly interested, he presently became uneasy. + +“What’s the matter, Brown?” he asked, in a tone of kindly concern. “Is +your rheumatism bothering you? I’ve been afraid that your absurd sitting +around on rocks with my niece would bring it on again. You’re not as +young as you once were, Pen, and you’ve got to take care of yourself.” + +“I am not aware, Port,” Mr. Brown answered rather stiffly, “that I am as +yet conspicuously superannuated. Indeed, I never felt younger in my life +than I have felt during the past fortnight. I _have_ a little touch +of rheumatism to-night,” he added, frankly, and at the same time gave +unintentional emphasis to his admission by catching his breath and +almost groaning as he slightly moved his legs, “but it has nothing to do +with sitting on the rocks with Dor--with your charming niece. You forget +that my rheumatism is hereditary, Port. Why, I had an attack of it when +I was only five-and-twenty.” + +“All the same, you wouldn’t have it now if you had spent your afternoons +sensibly with me here on a dry veranda, or properly wrapped up in a dry +carriage, instead of on damp rocks, with that baggage. What on earth has +got into you I can’t imagine. If you were twenty years younger, Brown, I +should think, yes, positively, I should think that you were in love with +her.” + +“Port,” said Mr. Brown, with a tone of resentment in his voice, “I shall +be very much obliged if you will not use such language when you are +speaking of Miss Lee. She is the best and kindest and noblest woman I +ever have met. You have most cruelly misunderstood her. Had you given +her half a chance she would have been to you only a source of constant +joy.” + +Mr. Port replied to this emphatic assertion by a low, but most pointedly +incredulous, whistle. + +“You have not the slightest conception, as such a comment shows,” Mr. +Brown continued, with increasing asperity, “of the depths of sweetness +and tenderness which are in her nature; of her perfect unselfishness; +of the gentleness and trustfulness of her heart. She is all that a woman +can be, and more. She is--she is an angel!” Mr. Brown’s elderly voice +trembled as he made this avowal. + +As for Mr. Port, his astonishment was almost too deep for words. But he +managed to say: “Yes, I suppose she is--at least she has said so often +enough herself.” + +For some seconds there was silence; and then, with a deprecating manner +and in a voice from which all trace of resentment had disappeared, Mr. +Brown resumed: “Hutch, old man, you and I have been friends these many +years together, and you won’t fail me in your friendship now, will +you? You are right, I _am_ in love with this sweet young creature, and +she--think of it, Hutch!--she has admitted that she is in love with me; +not romantically in love, for that would be, not absurd, of course, +but a little unreasonable--for while I’m not at all old, yet I know, +of course, that I am not exactly what can be called young--but in love +sensibly and rationally. She wants to take care of me, she says, the +dear child!” (Mr. Port grunted.) “And she has such clever notions in +regard to my health. When we are married--how strange and how delightful +it sounds, Hutch!--she says that we will go immediately to Carlsbad, +where the waters will do my rheumatism a world of good; and from there, +when I am better, we will go on to Vienna, where the dry climate and the +white wines, she thinks, still further will benefit me; and from Vienna, +in order to set me on my feet completely, we are to go on to the North +and spend a winter in Russia--for there is nothing that cures rheumatism +so quickly and so thoroughly, she says (though I never should have +imagined it) as steady and long-continued cold. Just think of her +planning it all out for me so well! + +“Yes, Hutch, I love her with all my heart; and what has made me so +nervous to-night is the great happiness that has come to me--it only +came positively this afternoon--and the dread that perhaps, as her +guardian, you know, you might not approve of what we have decided to +do. But you do approve, don’t you, Hutch? Of course, in a few months she +will be her own mistress, and your consent to our marriage, as she +very truly says, then will be unnecessary. But even a month seems a +desperately long while to wait; and that is the very shortest time, +she thinks, in which she could get ready--though the dear child has +consented to wait for most of the little things which she wants until we +get on the other side.” Mr. Port smiled cynically at the announcement of +this concession. It struck him that when Dorothy was turned loose among +the Paris shops, backed by the capacious purse of a doting elderly +husband, she would mow a rather startlingly broad swath. “So you won’t +oppose our marriage, will you, old man? You will consent to my having +this dear young creature for my wife?” + +Various emotions found place in Mr. Port’s breast as he listened to this +extraordinary declaration and appeal. At first he felt a lively anger +at Dorothy for having, as he coarsely phrased it in his own mind, +so successfully gammoned Mr. Pennington Brown; to this succeeded an +involuntary admiration of the clever way in which she had managed it; +and then a feeling of profound satisfaction possessed him as there came +into his slow-moving mind a realizing sense of his own deliverance. +But Mr. Port was not so utterly selfish but that, in the midst of the +sunrise of happiness which dawned upon him with the opening of a way by +which he decently could get rid of Dorothy, he was assailed by certain +qualms of conscience as to the unfairness of thus casting upon his old +friend the burden that he had found so hard to bear. For the heaviness +of Mr. Port’s mental processes prevented him from perceiving, as a +shrewder person would have perceived, that Dorothy was not the sort +of young woman to engage in an enterprise of this nature without first +fully counting the cost. Had he been keener of penetration he would have +known that she could be trusted, when safely landed in the high estate +of matrimony, to play on skilfully the game that she had so skilfully +begun; that in her own interest she would manage matters in such a +way as never to arouse in the mind of her elderly husband the awkward +suspicion that the scheme of life arranged by his angel apparently +with a view solely to his own comfort really was arranged only for the +comfort of her angelic self. + +It was while Mr. Port wavered among his qualms of conscience, hesitating +between his great longing to chuck Dorothy overboard, and so have +done with her, and his sense of duty to Mr. Pennington Brown, that the +subject of his perplexities herself appeared upon the scene; and +her arrival at so critical a juncture seemed to suggest as a remote +possibility that she had been all the while snuffing this particular +battle from not very far off. + +“Dear Uncle Hutchinson,” said Miss Lee, with affectionate fervor, +“do you think that your angel is most cruel and horrid because she is +willing to go off in this way after her own selfish happiness and leave +you all alone? But she won’t do it, dear, if you would rather have her +stay. Her only wish, you know, has been to make you comfortable and +happy; and you have been so good and so kind to her that she is ready to +sacrifice even her love for your sake. Yes, if you would rather keep +her to yourself she will stay. Only if she does stay,” and there was a +warning tone of deep meaning in Miss Lee’s well-modulated voice, “her +heart, of course, will be broken, and she will have to ask you to travel” + with her for two or three years into out-of-the-way parts of the world +(Mr. Port shuddered) “until her poor broken heart gets well. Not that +it ever will get quite well again, you know; but she will be brave, and +try to pretend for your sake that it has. So it shall be just as you +say, dear; only for Pennington’s sake, who loves me so much, Uncle +Hutchinson, I hope that perhaps you may be willing to let me go.” + +And having concluded this moving address, Miss Lee extended one of her +well-shaped hands to Mr. Pennington Brown--who grasped it warmly, for +he was deeply moved by so edifying an exhibition of affectionate and +dutiful unselfishness--and with the other applied her handkerchief +delicately to her eyes. + +Mr. Port was not in the least moved by Dorothy’s professions of +self-sacrifice; but he was most seriously alarmed by her threat--that +opened before him a dismal vista of bilious misery--to cart him for +several years about the world on the pretext of a broken heart that +required travel for its mending. + +[Illustration: Page 67 084] + +He believed, to be sure, that in a stand-up fight he could conquer +Dorothy; but he had his doubts as to how long she would stay +conquered--and between constant fighting and constant travel there is +not much choice; for Mr. Port knew from experience how acute is +that form of biliousness which results from rage. After all, +self-preservation is the first law of nature; and under the stress thus +put upon him, therefore, it is not surprising that Mr. Port’s qualms +of conscience incident to his failure to do his duty to his neighbor +vanished to the winds. + +Mr. Pennington Brown still held Dorothy’s hand in his own. “Will you +make this great sacrifice, Hutch, for your old friend?” he asked. + +Mr. Port hesitated a little, for he felt a good deal like a criminal who +is shifting his crime upon an innocent man; and then he answered, rather +weakly both in tones and terms: “Why, of course.” + +“Dear Uncle Hutchinson, how good you are!” exclaimed Miss Lee. “And you +really think that you can spare your angel, then?” + +And both promptly and firmly Mr. Port answered: “Yes, I really think +that I can.” + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s The Uncle Of An Angel, by Thomas A. 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