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diff --git a/28303.txt b/28303.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08c93a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/28303.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3708 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Smart Set, by Clyde Fitch + + +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 Smart Set + Correspondence & Conversations + + +Author: Clyde Fitch + + + +Release Date: March 10, 2009 [eBook #28303] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMART SET*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Kentuckiana Digital Library +(http://kdl.kyvl.org/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Kentuckiana Digital Library. See + http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&idno=b92-203-30752381&view=toc + + + + + +THE SMART SET + +Correspondence +& +Conversations + +by + +CLYDE FITCH + +1897 + + + + + + + +Chicago & New York +Herbert S. Stone & Co + +Copyright, 1897, by +Herbert S. Stone & Co. + + + + + +TO + +"MUMSY" + +TO WHOM I OWE EVERYTHING FROM THE LITTLE +BEGINNING OF MY LIFE + +NEW YORK +1897 + + + + +The Correspondence and the Conversations + + + PAGE + +THE MAKEWAY BALL 3 + +THE PLAINTIFF 43 + +THE SUMMER 53 + +THE CHILDREN 65 + +MATERNITY 85 + +A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION 105 + +WAGNER, 1897 113 + +ART 131 + +SORROW 139 + +THE THEATRE 149 + +THE OPERA 159 + +A PERFECT DAY 167 + +THE WESTINGTON'S BOHEMIAN DINNER 175 + +THE GAMBLERS 187 + + + + +The Makeway Ball + +Five Letters + + I. From Wm. H. Makeway + II. From Mrs. Makeway +III. From Miss Makeway + IV. From a Guest + V. From an Uninvited + + +The Smart Set + +I + +_From Wm. H. Makeway to Joseph K. Makeway, of Denver._ + +New York, Jan. 12, 189--. + +My Dear Brother: + +You did well to stay West. Would to God I had! Julia's big party came +off last night. I told her weeks ago, when she began insinuating it, +that if it must be it must be, of course, and that I would pay all the +bills, but I wished it distinctly understood I wouldn't have anything +else to do with it. She assured me that nothing whatever would be +expected of me. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only woman with an +American husband, and that people would understand. She promised me I +should have a voice in the matter of cigars and champagne--you can know +they were _all right_--and I believe the success of the party was, in a +great measure, due to them. + +My having "nothing whatever to do" with it consisted in hearing nothing +else discussed for days, and on the night in question having no room I +could call my own, my bedroom being devoted to the men (of course you +know that Julia and I haven't shared the same room for years, not since +the six months she spent with her married sister, Lady Glenwill), my +own sanctum down stairs was turned into a smoker, and I was obliged to +hang around in any place I could find, all ready for the guests a +couple of hours before they began to arrive. Of course, too, she +finally bulldozed me into helping her receive. You see, the little +woman really was worn out, for she had overseen everything. She is a +wonder! There isn't an English servant in New York, or London, either, +who can teach her anything, altho' our second footman happens to have +been with the Duke of Cambridge at one time. Not that I care a damn +about such things--except that the Duke is a soldier--but in speaking +of them I get to taking Julia's point of view. I helped her receive +some of the people, to sort of give her a feeling of not having the +whole infernal thing on her own shoulders. Everybody Julia wanted came, +and a great many she didn't want. I suppose out where you live you +don't have to ask the people you don't want. Here it's much more likely +you can't ask the people you do want. I have some business friends, +first-rate fellows, with good looking, dressy wives, but Julia bars +them every one because they aren't fashionables. You ought to see me +when _I'm_ fashionable! The most miserable specimen you ever saw. I +look just like one of the figures in a plate in a tailor's window, +labeled "latest autumn fashions," and I feel like one, too. + +Julia looked stunning! By Jove! she was the handsomest woman there. +There isn't another in New York anywhere near her age who can touch +her. They say every one asked about her in London when she went out +with her sister in English society, and I don't wonder. You know she +has a tall crown of diamonds--tiaras, they call them--I've always been +ashamed to tell you before! She came home with it from Tiffany's one +day, and said it was my birthday present to her, and I let it go at +that. Well, last night no Duchess could have worn the same sort of +thing any better. The young one, too, looked as pretty as a ---- +whatever you like, only it must be damned pretty! It was her first +ball, you know; she's a ----, you know what, it's her first time in +society. She had more bouquets than Patti used to get when you and I +were running about town. And she was as unconcerned about it! She's +fashionable enough--I only hope she isn't too much so. I don't want her +to marry this young Lord who's hanging around, and I say so three times +a day. The "young'un" says I'd better wait till he's asked her, but I +don't dare. Julia's fixed on it. She won't even argue with me, so you +can imagine how determined she is. But I want my daughter to marry an +American, and live in her own home where her father and mother live. +One thing, I know: most of these marrying foreigners that come over +here want money, and I'll be hanged if I'll give the young'un a penny +if she takes this one. I mean it. I give you my word. He led the +cotillon with her last night. I wouldn't watch it. I staid in my den +and helped smoke the cigars. None better! I can tell you that! + +Well, good bye, old man. If you hear of any thing good out your way to +drop a couple of hundred thousand in, let me know--better wire me. +Politics have played the deuce with my Utahs. Julia sends her love, and +wants me to enclose you yards of newspaper clippings about the party. +Ha! Ha! Not by a damn sight! It's enough that I was bored to death by +it! The "young'un" often speaks of you. She is getting togged out to go +with her mother and do the town in the way of At Homes and such things. +What a life! Yet they seem to enjoy it, and pity us. Us! In Wall +street! The Elysian Fields of America! Can I do anything for you here? +You know I am always glad of a chance. + +Your affectionate brother, + +WILL. + +How about that girl you were running after? Why don't you give it all +up? You know what a bad lot she is. Settle down and marry. It's the +only real happiness. Believe your old brother. + + +II + +_Letter from Mrs. Wm. H. Makeway to Lady Glenwill, of London._ + +Thursday. + +My Darling Tina: + +It is over, and my dear, I'm dead! Only--_such_ a success! Surpassed my +wildest dreams! If you had _only_ been here. In the first place every +one of any consequence in New York came; except, of course, those who +are in mourning. There are certain people who have always held off from +me, you know; but they've come around at last, and were all in evidence +last night and in their best clothes, and _all_ their jewels, and you +know that always speaks well for the hostess. I wore my tiara that Will +so generously gave me my last birthday (of course he hates it himself, +but I brought it home, and he had to give in--the Dear!). My wedding +necklace, three strings of real pearls, and one string of those +"Orient" things we bought on Bond St.--no one could ever tell the +difference except Will, who makes a fuss every time I wear them. He +swears he will give me a new real string if I put them on again, but I +tell him we must economize now to make up for what the party cost. My +dress was charming. Grace Nott brought it over from Pacquin for her +mother, and meanwhile this cruel indecent new tariff came on! Get down +on your knees, my dear, and be grateful you don't live in this wretched +country which is being turned into one great picnicking ground for the +working classes. The custom house wanted to make Grace pay an awful +duty, and then, fortunately for me, but of course it was terrible for +them, something in Wall Street went up instead of down, or vice versa +(I never can understand those things), and the poor Notts went to +smash. The dress was to be left in the custom house. When I heard about +it I bought it, duties and all. My dear girl, it fitted me like a +dream. Did you ever hear anything like it? Of course, Mrs. Nott never +could have squeezed herself into it, so it's just as well she didn't +try! It is the new color, and made in the very latest way--in fact, the +coming spring mode. I really think Will's description is the best. I'll +try to quote it to you: "It begins at the top--_i.e._ decidedly below +the shoulders--to be one kind of a dress, changes its mind somewhere +midway, and ends out another sort altogether. One side starts off in +one direction, but comes to grief and a big jewel, somewhere in the +back. The other side, taking warning, starts off in an absolutely +different way, color, and effect, and explodes at the waist under the +opposite arm in a diamond sunburst and a knot of tulle, on accidentally +meeting its opponent half." It really is quite like that, too! Will is +as amusing as ever. And he was _so_ sweet about the party. Of course, +at first, I had to be very diplomatic and get his consent without his +knowing. He still hates society in the most unreasonable manner; would +even rather stay at home quietly than go to his club. But last night he +accepted the inevitable and behaved like a prince. I wonder how many +couples in New York who have been married nineteen years are as happy +as Will and I are? He made a great fuss, of course, about the champagne +and cigars. You would have thought the whole fate of the ball depended +upon them; and I must say they cost a ridiculous price. However, he +pays for them, and they made him happier; so I don't complain. I am +sure, after all, he enjoyed the ball thoroughly, too. You could see it +in his face. And what perfect manners he has! Do you remember? Will may +not be "smart," but he's a gentleman, and his grandfathers before him +were gentlemen, and that always tells. + +We don't seem to have had many grandfathers, my dear--of our own, I +mean, of course. I know you've married a wonderful collection of them, +dating back to goodness knows when, but it isn't so important for +American women; they can acquire breeding in their own lifetime. I know +no other nation whose women can do the same, and even our men haven't +the same ability. Look at the American duchesses--don't they grace even +the parties at Marlborough House? Look at yourself, my dear girl. But +you won't, because you're too modest. Still you must acknowledge your +success in England is conspicuous. Will's manners are perhaps a little +old-school, but that's much better than the new-school. Young men's +manners nowadays are becoming atrocious, and I'm sorry to say I think +they get them from England. The first thing one knows the only +gentlemen left in America will be the women. But I hope American men +_won't_ lose their reputation--deserved, you must acknowledge--of being +the most courteous men in the world to women. Well, to go back to the +ball. Of course, all my feelings outside my guests were centered in +Helen. I might as well tell you at once, she is considered the most +attractive debutante of the year--not by me, I don't mean, nor by my +friends, but by the people who hate us, and _everybody_. I think she is +very like you, a sort of _distingue_ air that you always had. I +sometimes wonder if some of our grandmothers (for even if we didn't +have grandfathers we must have had grandmothers), if some _one_ of +them--hope not _two_--didn't make a wee slip once when royal personages +were about! Of course there is no use boasting of royal blood in one's +veins when it has no business there, but that would account for certain +things. You may remember the old portrait of mother's mother. She +looked a perfect duchess. Helen can have a title if she wants it. I +might as well tell you now. Please find out all you can for me about +young Lord ----. He will be Duke of ---- when his father or some one +dies; so find out if you can, too, how long you think it will probably +be before he becomes a duke. And is he rich or poor? He needn't be +rich, but I don't want to think it's Helen's money he's after. I'm +doing all I can to bring about the match, and yet I'm not so worldly +after all as to want a daughter of mine to make a loveless marriage. +Helen isn't exactly pretty, but she's extremely attractive. Her figure +is perfect, and she's the most stylish thing in the world. I am very +happy today as I think that I have _lanceed_ her in the best New York +can offer. It has not been all downhill work. Her father's name +entitled her to it; but he hated society, so he was more of a drawback +than anything else. I couldn't boast of any social position in Buffalo, +and it's extraordinary how well that was known here. However, the fact +of my being of a good, sterling, unpretentious family did help in the +end, when I got started, and people saw I was serious about "getting +in." Of course, you gave us our first big push forward, you darling. An +_entree_ into smart English society doesn't mean so much for a New +Yorker nowadays as it used to, but it means a good deal. And a +sister-in-law of Lord Glenwill is a desirable person to know when in +London, so it is wise to take her up at home, and I, always having +Helen's future in mind, took advantage of every possibility. Perhaps I +shouldn't have had to push my way so much here if the Prince of Wales +were still _making_ an American girl each season, but you know for +several years now he seems to have given it up. I think he was +discouraged by the last two he made at Homburg; neither of them had any +success here the following winter, "hall-marked" as they were, and even +London hasn't found them husbands yet. + +Of course, as to one of them, I remember the gossip you wrote me about +Colonel ----. But, as you said, he had a wife and other incumbrances; +so the least said about that the better. + +Under any circumstance, I think it's a much bigger triumph to give +Helen all New York first, now, simply by our own right, and then this +May we'll take her to an early drawing-room, and see what happens next. +I shall depend upon you, dear, to see that we go to one of the +Princess' drawing-rooms, and don't get palmed off on one of the +Princess Christian's or anything of that sort. + +Helen was dressed very simply, of course, and no jewels, but looked so +sweet. Lord ---- was devotion itself all evening. Naturally every one +is on the _qui vive_ for the engagement, but that's all right. They +danced the cotillon together. We had charming favors, not too +extravagant--that's such wretched taste--but things we bought in Venice +last year, and Hungarian things, and some Russian, and a set of tiny +gold things Tiffany got up especially for us. + +I had several people down from Buffalo, and mother, of course. I wish +you could have seen her, bless her heart. She had on all her old lace, +and my coiffeur did her hair beautifully. She looked so handsome, and +Will insisted on her dancing a figure of a quadrille with him, and how +graceful and dignified she was. You would have been very proud. I was. +Lots of people asked about her, and some seemed so surprised when they +heard she was my mother. How rude people are; and what did they expect +my mother to be like? After all, do _I_ look like the daughter of a +washerwoman? I think not. We might ask the Grand Duke ----, if we meet +him again at Aix. You know I told Will about my small, timid flirtation +with the Russian, and really he seemed proud of my absurd little +conquest! A convenient husband for some women we know, wouldn't he be? +Ah, but then you see _they_ wouldn't deserve him! + +Sherry did my supper. He imported some birds from Austria especially +for it, and invented some dishes of his own. I think it was all right. +People said so, but, of course, you can't believe people. I can vouch +at any rate for the serving of it. It was like magic. We seated _every +one_ at little tables which seemed to come up thro' the floors. They +were everywhere except in the ball-room; that was left clear. + +We've built the ball-room since you were over. Will bought the house +next to us (such a sum as they asked when they heard _we_ wanted it!) +and the whole lower floor we made into a ball-room. It just holds my +series of Gobelins we bought for that outrageous price two years ago in +Paris at the Marquis de Shotteau's sale. For flowers, I had quantities +of gorgeous palms and lovely cut flowers in bowls and vases wherever it +was possible. That was all,--I hate this stuffing a house with +half-fading flowers, it always suggests a funeral to me, with the +banked-up mantels for coffins. It's horrid, I know, but I can't help +it. However, if I am writing in this vein it's time I stopped. My +letter is abnormally long as it is--I hope the right number of stamps +will be put on it. Forgive me for mentioning it, my dear, but we always +have to pay double postage due on your epistles. I don't mind at +all--they are quite worth it--only I thought you might like to know. + +I have all the newspapers about the ball for you, but I will wait till +after Thursday and then send them on in a package. I want to see what +_Town Topics_ will say. Nobody cares, of course, only you don't like to +see horrid things about you in print. Sometimes it treats me very well, +and it's devoted to Helen, but once in a while it's atrocious. I'm only +a little worried about Lord ----. I don't want it to say I am after him +for Helen, because I am _not_! If the English papers have anything in, +please send them over--I know some articles are going to be written. If +there are any of them absurd and extravagant accounts, of course you +will take pains to contradict them. The English press seems often +determined to make American society ridiculous. + +Will says we will be greatly indebted to your husband if he will get +us a house for the season, as you proposed. Carleton House Terrace, +if possible; if not, use your own judgment, only not Grosvenor +Square--they make too much fun of strangers who go there. I hope you +are well and taking some sort of care of yourself, which you know you +never do. And please, if you go to Paris at Easter, be sure to write us +at once if sleeves are still growing smaller, if hats are big or +little, and whether it's feathers or flowers, or both. Also, of course, +anything else that will help us. And don't forget to find out all you +can about Lord ----. And do you advise announcing the engagement before +her presentation, or afterward? And by no means say a word to anybody, +as he hasn't proposed yet. By the way, Will is violently opposed to it. +But I think Helen and I together will be too much for him, and if +absolutely necessary _my health_ can give out! That had to happen, you +remember, before I could get him out of 15th street and up here. + +My love to the Hon. Bertha. How is the dear child? I long to see you. +Say what you like, this society life isn't altogether satisfactory. I +think after Helen is happily married--to whomever it is--I shall drift +quietly out of it, and gradually take to playing Joan to Will's Darby. +I'm sure Will would _love_ it. + +Love to you both, and a heart full to yourself, Tina, dearest. + +Your affectionate old sister, + +MARY. + +P.S.--Don't laugh at what I said about a society life. Of course I +don't mean it. I don't believe I could live without it now. I'm tired +after the ball, that's all. To tell the truth I don't quite know where +my head is. I shall take two phoenacetine powders right away. Do you +know about them; they're so good. Did I ask you if you went to Paris +Easter to be sure and write me if sleeves---- O yes, I remember, I did. + + +III + +_From Miss Makeway to Miss Blanche Matheson in Rome._ + +Thursday. + +My darling Blanche: + +Of course I know you are having a wonderful time in Rome with Royalties +and all sorts of smart people and gay entertainments, but still I wish +you had been at our ball last night. I believe you would have enjoyed +it. I don't think anyone can deny we know how to give balls in America, +and mama is a wonder! You know she's been fishing for guests for this +ball for years. And she wouldn't give it till she was sure of a list of +people who would be present that would bear comparison with anybody's; +and, my dear, we had it! And I am sure mama feels more than repaid. +With such a culmination everything has been worth while--the French +_chef_ and his terrible extravagances, for you must pay to be known as +a good house to dine at--all the deadly afternoon parties, all the +exorbitant fees paid for years to the opera singers to sing, the house +at Newport--and the one at Lennox, the seasons in London, that shooting +box in Scotland (it bored us to death), it was all worth while now that +we have arrived at the toppest top. And no one could become her +position better than mama. A society matron of the first water is +certainly her _metier_. + +Lord ---- is very much struck with mama. I will tell you about him +later. Of course poor papa looks a little what that amusing young +Englishman would call perhaps 1872. He wasn't in it for a minute; bored +to death, poor thing. You know he hates parties. Thank heaven I am +"out" at last, for now I can go to everything that comes on. And do as +I please, that is if I want to, because I may marry soon! I wish I +could see your expression when you read that. Of course it is Lord +----. He proposed last night, but I told him he must wait, and propose +again in a couple of weeks. I wasn't ready to decide yet. I must be +free "out" for a couple of weeks at least. + +He will be Duke of ----, some day. As the Duchess I shall have +precedence over Mamie Smith, Gertrude Strong, and Irene van Worth, and +even over all the older women who have married abroad, except the +Duchesses of ---- and ----. Think what fun it would be to sail in +everywhere ahead of Mamie Smith, after all the insufferable airs she +has put on! I don't believe I could make a better match. Besides he's +youngish and good-looking, has splendid estates, and I really like him. +I mean I think he is the sort of man you can get very romantic about. +And of course there's no real social life anywhere but abroad, and +there's no other life that wouldn't bore me to death. It's only +natural, for my whole childhood was spent in an atmosphere of searching +after it. Ever since I can remember the chief occupation and interest +of mama was how diplomatically to get into the smartest set with +dignity. It seemed as difficult as the proverbial camel and eye of a +needle and the rich man getting into heaven, and in my younger days the +three were all very much mixed up together in my mind. I think I should +prefer London to Paris. Smart life in Paris seems to be so very much +more immoral than in London, judging from what one hears and the books +one reads, and you know I don't care about immorality. I get that from +mama, too. She is shocked all the time in the "world," over here even, +tho' she tries to hide it. + +Our house looked lovely last night. We had powdered footmen, and just +enough music and just enough supper and just enough people. One of the +secrets of success in society is not to overcrowd anything. + +Of course there were some drawbacks to the ball, but small things that +didn't really count. Mary Farnham came and sat the whole evening thro', +as usual, without once dancing. Even papa said he "drew the line at +that." Why doesn't she take something? You see lots of things +advertised that change people almost as big as she into a perfect +shadow in no time. You feel so sorry for her when she's your guest. I +had a great mind to put Lord ---- to the test, but I didn't quite dare! +Then Tommy Baggs came and repeated his customary gymnastics--waltzed on +everybody's toes in the rooms (slipper sellers ought to pay him a +commission), tore two women's gowns nearly off their waists and spilled +champagne frappe down Mrs. Carton's back; would have ruined her bodice, +if she'd had any on, at the back. She bore it like a lamb. Her teeth +were fairly chattering, but she laughed and said it was rather +pleasant. + +Good heavens! Who do you suppose is down stairs? Lord ----! It's going +to be a bore if he's coming every day. I shall go down and tell him +these two weeks I am to have a complete holiday. + +Do write me all you're doing. + +With love always, + +HELEN. + +_Later_--I have accepted him! He was so perfectly charming! I couldn't +help it! + + +IV + +_From a Guest._ + +Thursday. + +My dear Claire: + +I was so glad to hear from you about Florida, and, as you are having +such an amusing time, and as the season here is practically finished +now that the much-talked of Makeway ball is over, I've decided to join +you next week. Besides, I've missed you awfully, and it will be so nice +to be with you again. Will you be so good as to engage my rooms for +me?--a bedroom with two windows facing south; not near the elevator by +any means; not above the third floor--_but not on the first_. Please +see that the coloring is blue or pink; I'm not particular about design +or material, or anything of that sort (I don't think people should be +too _exigeant_)--only yellow, or red, or white, or green rooms are too +awfully unbecoming to me. Have drawing-room to connect with the bedroom +please, and then a room for my maid. I hope you won't have to pay more +than seven dollars a week for her (all included, naturally). She isn't +at all particular. I'm sure I couldn't afford to keep her if she were, +and she's such a treasure. Of course she reads all my letters and minds +my own business more than I do myself, and uses up my crested writing +paper at a terrific rate; but that one expects--don't you think +so--with a _good_ servant? + +I know you are mad to hear all about the ball, so I'll tell you. In the +first place it was a great success, and that settles it! The Makeways +are now a power in New York society, and there's really no reason why +they shouldn't be. His family are all right and her English connections +are better; and then what a charming woman she is! She makes a perfect +hostess. Such tact! Everything was carried out in the best of taste. If +they erred at all it was on the side of simplicity; and yet that gives +you a wrong idea about the ball, because it really could boast of +splendor. Yes, I mean it, but of a solid, real kind. There is nothing +papier mache about the Makeway house; nor about its owners, nor about +their entertainment. You can't help but believe this, and it gives you +a sense of social security! Everyone anyone would want in their house +was there. If any line was drawn tightly inside the smart circle, it +defined the pseudo-declasse. Mrs. Makeway might be described in England +as a slightly early-Victorian hostess, or if our presidents had at all +the position and social power of royalties, she would be ticketed +perhaps as of the Hayes period, except that would imply "Total +Abstinence," which would mean instant death to anyone in smart society, +thank goodness! I suppose you've heard that old _mot_ of the dinners at +the White House during the Hayes administration, that water flowed like +champagne! Well, that will never be said of the Makeways. Their wine +was the very best, too; I never had better at any party, seldom as +good, and even John, who scoffs at the idea of women being a judge of +wines, confesses, that, though we've entertained everybody all our +lives, we've never had such a good wine inside our doors. The supper +was, in the first place, comfortable, and, in the second place, +faultless. (There was a queer kind of game, which I loathed, but of +course I knew, whatever it was, under the circumstances it was the +right thing, so I choked it down.) The music was superb--all the good +Hungarian orchestras in town. The cotillon favors were lovely, and some +very stunning gold and jeweled things from Tiffany's must have cost a +fortune. + +But of course what you want to know about most is the people and what +they had on. I wore my--but you'll see my dress in Florida, so never +mind. Mrs. Makeway had a superb dress, but she always dresses +handsomely. What a nice man Mr. Makeway is. You felt sure he was bored +to death by the party, and all of us at it, but he concealed it with +such charming manners and such natural courtesy that you really felt +somehow it was a pleasure to come and put him out. The daughter is a +great success; there's no denying that. She has a perfect figure, and +is very graceful. She seems to have her father's manners, brought up to +date by her mother. She's going to be a leader, you can tell that, and +apparently she can be an eventual duchess, if she wishes. Young Lord +---- is still here, and his devotion in the Makeway quarter is +undisguised. Everyone likes him, and says he isn't the sort of young +fellow to be merely after her money; but no one can tell if Helen is +going to take him or not. I am sure of one thing, she will do as she +pleases. + +There were beautiful jewels in evidence at the ball. Mrs. Makeway wore, +I believe, a dozen strings of the most gorgeous pearls. All _real_, of +course, with their money. They must represent a fortune in themselves. +Poor old Mrs. Hammond Blake came with _all_ her Switzerland amethysts, +and a few new topazes mixed in (she must have been at Lucerne last +summer). She looked like one of those glass gas-lit signs. But really, +all the best jewels in New York were there. And it is wonderful to see +how the women whose throats are going the way of the world have +welcomed the revival of black velvet if they haven't the pearl +collarettes. I shall be wanting something of the sort myself soon. Woe +is me! And John does keep looking so abominally young. I tell him out +of courtesy to me he must get old more quickly, or people will be +saying I married a man years younger than myself! + +John says I needn't trouble to furnish people with subjects for +talking; they can make up their own. But I don't think we are gossips +nowadays here in America; do you? Which reminds me that everybody says +the Mathews are going to separate at last. She's going to Dakota, and +get it on incaptability, or cruelty, or some little thing like that. +Everybody wondered at first why, since she'd stood it so long, she was +going to divorce Ned now, at this late day, but it has leaked out. +Think of it--Charlie Harris! Aren't you surprised? It's only about two +years since _he_ divorced his wife. Mrs. Harris got the children, so I +presume Mrs. Mathews will keep hers to give Charlie in place of his +own. If I remember the number he will be getting compound interest! You +know the Mathews babies came with such lightning rapidity we lost +count. One was always confusing the last baby with the one that came +before it. Anyway, I think Charlie Harris gets the best of it; so, even +if it isn't altogether ideal to possess your children "ready made," as +it were, still Elsie Mathews is a charming woman, and I never could +bear Mrs. Harris. She told such awful fibs, and her exaggerations were +not decorative; they were criminal. Why, I couldn't recognize a piece +of news I told her myself when I heard her repeating it to some one +else not five minutes after, as John says. + +Heavens! for the third time, "as John says," I must stop. But _I am_ a +very happy married woman! John gives me everything I want, and I adore +him. + +When I hear from you I will telegraph my train. We missed you awfully +at the Makeways. John spoke of it several times. He loves to dance with +you because you are always ready to sit it out and do all the talking. +Dear me, I'm afraid that doesn't sound complimentary, but I assure you +he _meant_ it as such! + +How nice it will be to be with you. You aren't strict about your +mourning, are you? I don't think it's at all necessary, way off there. + +With love, always affectionately, + +MAYBEL PARKE RODNEY. + + +V + +_From an Uninvited._ + +Thursday. + +My Darling George: + +I hope this letter will reach you before you leave Minneapolis. I do +wish you would leave politics alone, if they're going to take you away +like this. Believe me, the country can get along much better without +you than _I_ can! When we are married you have _got_ to give them up. +When we are married, too, and this bore of a divorce of mine is finally +settled, I presume I shall be invited to Mrs. Makeway's parties! I +wasn't asked last night to her big ball!--not that I care. I am sure +that beast of a husband of mine will never be able to prove his nasty +charges against us, and that I shall win the case. Then there'll be no +excuse for Mrs. Makeway and her prudish set, and I promise you they +shall eat "humble pie," if there's any left in the world after all my +dear friends have made me devour. Tom has been making overtures to my +maid through a detective, but Lena is faithful to us, and I've promised +her double any sum they offer her. _When_ my position is all right +again, I shall go in for society in the most extravagant, splendid way +for one long, brilliant, spiteful season, and I shall punish every one +of these women who have snubbed me so terribly. After all, half of them +owe their positions in the world to my family, and with my family to +back me there will be no trouble about my being absolutely reinstated. +My people will back me up, too, for we have never had a scandal up till +now. We have been almost the only family left. + +Of course the papers are full of the Makeway ball, and the pictures of +Mrs. Makeway are too deliciously absurd for anything. One looks like +that one of me in the Evening News when I gave my evidence. I really +believe it's the same picture. I hear that she looked rather well with +her famous pearls on (which, between you and me, I believe are false), +and her tiara, which all the out-of-town people go to the opera to see. +But they say she was dressed entirely too young, and showed she thought +her own party a great success. However, what can you expect? She was +nobody; her family are most ordinary people, the kind that are +prominent in some unfashionable church and influential in its +Sunday-school. O, la-la-la-la! She prides herself on having an ancestor +of some sort who fought in the War of Independence--a common soldier, I +suppose, in Washington's army; that's why she has had an office in the +"Daughters of the Revolution." _We_ had several ancestors in the +war--commissioned officers; and they all fought for King George, thank +heaven; and if they had only won my father would have been the third +Lord Banner, probably, if not something better. So hang Mrs. Makeway! +Her daughter is an ugly little creature; she hasn't a single feature +that doesn't go its own way irrespective of the others, and with a +total disregard for the _tout ensemble_ of the poor girl's face. You +know the sort of thing--each feature seems to be minding the other's +business. Her teeth _look_ lovely, but I believe some of them are +"crowns"--they do that sort of thing so well nowadays! What I will +grant her is a beautiful figure, but my corset-maker, who is hers, too, +gives me her word of honor she laces awfully! They say she had the best +time of any girl at the ball; which, if you ask me, I think +beastly taste. + +The house everyone says looked very beautiful--of course, money will do +everything--and the music was superb for the same reason, and the +supper not too extravagant. (I suppose they economized on that!) But +lots of people I've met say they were bored to death, and that there +was an awful crowd. It's extraordinary the people she had there! How +she got them I don't know--all the swells. But dear me, after all, +that's nothing; swells will go to anyone who'll amuse them. I hear old +Makeway looked fearfully miserable, and, instead of paying other women +compliments, made love to his own wife all the evening. It's +extraordinary, because he is really a gentleman. His great-grandfather +and my great-grandfather were great chums; made their money, I think, +in the same business. + +By the way, the Pinkertons have written me that they have still more +evidence against Tom. They say _she_ is "doing a turn"--whatever that +is--in some variety theatre. According to accounts she _did_ Tom for a +good deal--just served him right. + +Do hurry back--I miss you so, and am so lonely. It's a year and a half +since we've been separated so long as this. Come back. Don't make me +jealous or _suspicious_. Besides it isn't complimentary to _trust_ me +so tremendously. + +The lawyer is here--I hope he has come to assure me of my positive +victory. + + * * * * * + +He has thrown up the suit. We are lost! He says Tom has indisputable +proof, and that there is no use trying. Can Lina be a wretch after all? +or do you suppose it is your man? Come at once, at no matter what +sacrifice. The Majestic sails on Wednesday. Hadn't we better throw up +the sponge and take it? + +Always, and in spite of everything, your adoring + +EDITH. + + + + +The Plaintiff + +Two Letters + +From Mr. John Stuart Kennington to Mrs. Kennington, his wife. + +From Mrs. John Stuart Kennington, by special messenger, to the law firm +of Jordan & Fields. + + +I + +_From John Stuart Kennington to Mrs. Kennington, his wife._ + +Newport, October --th, 189-. + +Suspicion is absolutely foreign to my nature. Therefore, far from a +thought of worry when I found my business visits to New York this +summer becoming more and more easy to make as far as you were +concerned, I used instead to get "a lump in my throat" on the train +which left you here behind, believing that your love for me influenced +you to hide your own feelings and aid me all you could in the +performance of my duties, even at the cost of your own preferred +pleasure and at the price of a good many hours of loneliness. +Loneliness! Oh, what fools we men sometimes are! Yes, and how careless +you women become! + +I shall never forget the day I changed my plans suddenly, deciding I +wouldn't go to New York that week after all, although my bag was packed +and Smithers already at the station with it. The instantaneous look of +disappointment which leaped across your face, and which for some +seconds you didn't sufficiently realize to conceal--what a vista that +look opened out to me--a hellish vista! And your constrained little +smile--a sort of conscious visible movement of the muscles about your +mouth--"on purpose"--came too late. That first look had been like a +Roentgen ray over the last six months of our life--lives I should say, +for while you and I were living one life, you at the same time, without +me, were living another. Then I understood this summer's comfortable +weekly good-byes, so different from other years! I think, down in the +bottom of my heart, I understood _all_ at _that moment_,--though I +wouldn't acknowledge it not even in secret to myself, and even when, +before another twenty-four hours had passed, my eyes were damnable +witnesses against you. I couldn't believe them, and doubt if I would +have if you had not confessed. Of course, I knew whenever we had guests +Jack Tolby was always one of them, and also one of the guests wherever +we went, but it only seemed natural. He was extremely agreeable in our +house; it's only now I realize he has always rather avoided me at the +club. I suppose even men like him have some sort of conscience, or at +least a sense of decency, if not of honor, toward their own friends, +and, if so, good God, how ashamed he must have been every time he had +to take my hand! And _you_, when you received my lips on yours, already +satiated with kisses in my absence! Ugh! Kate! Kate! how I hate you! +Yes, hate is the word. And to think _you_ are the mother of my +children! That is the _big_ hurt. + +I want you to understand that what I am going to do is entirely for +their sake, not at all for yours. You who have been the first to drag +the name of Kennington in the public mud. Three honest generations of +us have kept it clean and honorable, and our wives have done the same +for us all down to you--all except my wife. I used to think that in +marrying me you had placed me deeper in your debt than I could ever +repay. Ever since the first time I saw you I loved you; and after that +meeting I put my arms about no woman--arms that had been free enough +before--until I put them around you. And since then the same. I have +been an absolutely faithful husband to you. Do you understand what that +means? I don't believe so. I preferred you to every other woman in the +world. When away from you, your memory guarded my embraces. Yet I am +not a romantic man. Now, for instance, I look at it all in a +straightforward light. I realize that you were a girl with no money and +no particular position in the world; and in marrying me you obtained +both. You have reveled in society--thanks to me and my family--and this +is the return you have made. You have dishonored us. Now listen; this +is what I propose doing. I do not intend to have my children suffer +publicly, as they would, especially my two little daughters, if your +disgrace were made public. It happens to be with us that a father's +falling in this direction does not so seriously, if at all, affect his +children; therefore, for their sake, instead of my divorcing _you_, I +am going to give you proof and witness by which you may divorce _me_, +for your own sin. But there are certain conditions with which you must +comply. I will send by my lawyer a paper, which you will sign in the +presence of witnesses before any further steps are taken. In this paper +you will agree on your securing your divorce to marry Tolby. I have had +an interview with him (this is not an age nor a country of duels), and +I demanded that he make me the reparation of marrying you when you are +free. I must frankly say from his manner I do not judge him over +anxious. I believe even a duel with pistols would on the whole have +pleased Tolby better. It is true that precedent is not in his favor. +His own experience with you will doubtless make him a little uneasy. To +continue: You are to marry him. You are to demand of me in your suit +the sum of $---- (and do not be uneasy, you will win your suit). This +will be convenient for you when you re-marry, for you know Tolby hasn't +a cent. It will be a real love match on your part, charming! You are to +give all my mother's jewels to our oldest daughter on her marriage, and +all the jewels I have ever given you to our second on hers. Should the +girls not marry at twenty-five, they are then to have the jewels. As to +the children I shall have to submit, in my role of the guilty party, to +letting you have control over them; but I warn you that this is to be +only nominal. If ever I find you prejudicing either one of them +_against me in any way whatever_--even if I find their affections are +being alienated from me by some sort of public opinion or gossip--I +warn you that when each one is old enough to understand he shall be +told the _truth_. You had better look to it then that my children love +me. Your own hold over their affections rests upon it. These points, +and a few others bearing upon them, will be set forth legally in the +paper which my lawyer will bring you. Kindly send me word if you are +prepared to sign, and, if so, when Mr. Jordan or his representative may +call. Good bye. + +JOHN STUART KENNINGTON. + + +II + +_From Mrs. John Stuart Kennington, by Special Messenger, to the law +firm of Jordan & Fields._ + +No. -- East 66th street. + +Benj. K. Jordan, Esq. + +Dear Sir: + +On second thoughts, after you have left me, I have decided to ask you +to write Mr. Kennington as follows--I mean I will give you the idea of +what I wish said: Acknowledge the receipt of his letter, and say I +shall be delighted to sign the paper he proposes at his earliest +convenience. I must ask, however, that he submits the document through +you, etc. (the same as we agreed on just now in our interview). Now, +besides, you must demand for me the following changes or corrections, +or whatever is right to call them, in the paper. First, the sum of +$---- is too small; $---- must be added to it. Also, I am not willing +to give up all my homes. Either the house in New York, or in Newport, +or on Long Island must be made over to me. And I positively refuse to +part with the ruby necklace to one of my daughters unless I should +choose to do so of my own free will. For the other jewels I have no use +whatever. You can express that as you see fit. Ask him to let me hear +as soon as possible. + +Yours truly, + +GERTRUDE CORTE KENNINGTON. + +Tuesday. + + + + +The Summer + +A Letter + + +Grand Hotel de l'Europe, + +Aix-les-Bains, + +Sunday. + +My Dear Mary: + +Our summer has been a perfect failure. I said in the very beginning if +we followed John and the children's ideas it would be; but as I was in +the minority I gave in. Fortunately we did catch the tail end of the +London season. The others wanted to go straight on to Paris, but for +that once I put my foot down--and all the trunks as well. It was very +warm; still there was a great deal going on, so we didn't mind the +heat, at least I didn't. Heat in London during the season is such a +different thing from heat in Switzerland or some dull seaside place, +where there is not sufficient distraction to take your mind off it. I +was doing something every minute. That's the charm of London. Every +hour of the day there is something, and if there ever was a dull +interval I dropped into one of the picture galleries. You know you have +to do that sort of thing over here. People talk about pictures, and +some do it very well, too, and you really meet painters out. The +children go and see things that are good for their education, you +know--the Tower, where Mary Queen of Scots, or Anne Boleyn, I forget +which, was beheaded, and the--well, all sorts of places like that. The +heat made them rather irritable, and Evelyn had a rash, but I thought +it was good for them to see all the historical sights. So we staid on +just the same till after Goodwood. And the races ended my pleasure, for +next we started for Lucerne. + +I said all along there would be no one in the place. Of course people +do go there, but on their way to somewhere else, or coming home at odd +times, and not for too long. There is never really any society there. I +knew it. I have had experience with it. Besides, we know the places +that every one does go to in July and August. I preferred Homburg, with +Aix at the end, but I would have put up with Trouville first, or +Ostend, or even Dinard. But no, Switzerland it was! I hate it; I always +did. It's too like its photographs. It has absolutely no style. It's +all nature, nature, _nature_! The mountains and lakes, no matter how +old they really may be, still always have the _beaute du diable_; and +for a woman of my age--who has to resort to art to keep herself looking +the slightest little bit younger than she is!--it gets on one's nerves, +all this natural beauty! I prefer some _place_ that has to resort to +art, too, and make itself up a little with gorgeous hotels, casinos, +theatres, and baccarat tables. Mountains bore me, and I hate to go on +the water. There at Lucerne the mountains stood continually and +solemnly around, just like elderly relatives at a family reunion, and +the flat lake lies as uninteresting as the conversation of these +estimable creatures would be. And then the people! The town crowded to +suffocation, scarcely breathing space, and yet _nobody_ there. To be +sure once in a while one notices an extraordinary old frump go by, who +turns out to be the Duchess of this, or Princess that, but I assure you +one would have been ashamed to drive in the park with her (at home), +unless she was placarded. Now and then somebody decent from New York or +Boston arrived on a morning train, but, of course, they usually left in +the evening, driven away by the glare, or the white dust, or by the +eternal tourists. That man Cook has done more to spoil attractive +places than any other dozen people in the world put together. +Sometimes, of course, they are amusing. One day I went to see the Lion! +Don't laugh. John bet me five hundred dollars I wouldn't go. So, of +course, I did. Fortunately I'd heard the children explaining it or I +shouldn't have enjoyed so much the following joke. + +A woman and her daughter, both Cooks, (tourists I mean, of course, tho' +heaven knows what the mother mightn't have been at home), stood in +front of the monument. + +"What's this, Clara?" asked the older woman. + +CLARA. + +Why this is the famous Lion of Lucerne, mother! + +MOTHER. + +Oh is it, ain't it lovely! What's it for--I mean why is it? + +CLARA. + +Why, you know, mother, for defending poor Marie Antoinette in the +Tuilleries! + +MOTHER. + +Oh, did it! And then people say lions are such nasty, heartless +creatures. + +CLARA. + +(Laughing.) O mother! the lion didn't do it; it's only put up for a +monument to the soldiers who died trying to protect her from the mob! + +MOTHER. + +Oh, I see; it's just a fancy picture! Well, anyway, I think it's awful +sad. + + * * * * * + +What do you think of that? And those are the kind of people Switzerland +was full of. Some were alone, and some were impersonally conducted in a +very loose sort of way. Wherever you wanted to go they were sure to be +ahead, and kicking up a middle-class dust that choked you. The loud +sound of their incessant _talk_ echoed from snow peak to snow peak. And +their terrible clothes, chosen evidently "not to show the dirt" (but +they did), came between your eyes and any beauty of scenery there might +be, even if you cared to see it, and I didn't. And then the droves of +rich Americans at the hotels! Where did they come from? Where did they +learn how not to dress? Where did they learn how not to behave? Those +are the questions I asked myself continually, and always gave them up! +I became so tired of hearing of Pilatus and the Rigi, I felt as if one +were at the head of my grave and the other at the foot! I had a sort of +indigestion of mountains and lakes! And there was John! rushing out +every other minute to sit and look at them (I assure you I was +threatened very much with the neuralgia from the damp of the lake +terrace). And he climbed everything that was climbable, even preferred +walking up; but when there were railways I made him take them for fear +he'd hurt himself. I believe he went to the top of every blessed thing +that had any top! I found plenty of horrid people to look down on +without going to the tops of mountains. I tried to drive, but there +wasn't a decent turnout in the place. I went out in a little steam +launch, but was frightened to death for fear I'd be run down by one of +the steamers crowded with Cooks. Oh, no! _assez_ of Switzerland for me! +I said to John--"Bring me here to bury me if you like, but don't bring +me here alive again." And finally, when he and the children couldn't +find anything more to climb, I managed to move them on to Aix, and here +I am. + +And, of course, the English season has just finished, and the French +people haven't begun to come yet, and Aix is hot, and dull, and empty! +Really, isn't it trying? There are even only second-rate cocottes +about, none of the smart ones yet! I am dying of the blues. Besides I +have to take the baths, although I don't want them, because the only +way I managed to persuade John to come here was by pretending I +_needed_ them! When I think of you in Newport, in spite of the heat, +leading an absolutely ideal life with your visits, your dinners, and +your balls, I am green with envy. These are the times when life seems +really almost too complicated to worry through. Or course if I were +like John's sister Margaret, sort of half-crazy, who loves the real +country, prefers a farmhouse to a hotel, fields and woods to a casino, +I might get on well enough. But I consider that nothing short of a +morbid state of mind. + +If you love me, write me soon, and cheer me up. But don't tell me of +too much going on with you, or it will be more than I can bear. If you +could honestly say that it was rather a dull season in Newport this +year, you don't know what a comfort it would be. I do hope John and the +children appreciate the sacrifice I am making for them. I'm sure I try +to have them realize it. It only shows what we mothers will do for our +children. + +With love, your affectionate, but depressed, + +GERALDINE. + +P.S.--Of course, as you can imagine, the shops at Lucerne were filthy. +I didn't buy a thing except some presents for the servants. At Aix the +shops are better, but with so few people here, somehow one has no +inspiration. I've bought literally nothing except five hats. + + + + +The Children + +Three Dialogues + + I. Divorce. + II. Birth. +III. Death. + + +I + +_Divorce._ + +TOM BARNES, _age ten, whose mother, Mrs. Barnes, having divorced his + father, her second husband, has since remarried, and is now Mrs. + Fenley._ + +CLAIRE WORTHING, _age seven, whose mother, Mrs. Worthing, having + divorced her Father to marry the divorced Mr. Barnes, is now Mrs. + Barnes._ + +SCENE, _a Fashionable Dancing School in New York. A quadrille has been + announced. Master Barnes goes up to Miss Claire and bowing somewhat + stiffly, mumbles some not altogether intelligible wards. Miss + Claire, sliding down from her chair, says "Thank you," with perfect + composure and a conventional smile, as, taking his arm, they choose + a position in the dance._ + +TOM. + +Shall we stop here in this set? + +CLAIRE. + +No! Becky Twines' dress would ruin mine. And she made her maid give her +that one on purpose I'm sure, because she knew what I was going to +wear. But I don't care. I heard mama say, yesterday, her mother, in +spite of all her money, hadn't been able to buy her way into several +houses. I don't think she ought to have been invited to join our +dancing class at all. When people buy their way into other people's +houses like that, how do they do it do you suppose? Does the butler +sell tickets at the door, do you think? + +TOM. + +Perhaps so! Butlers look like that. My! I'd jolly like to be a butler! +(_They have moved on to another set._) Shall we stop here? + +CLAIRE. + +Oh, no, not here! Teddy Jones always mixes us up. He treads on our +toes. + +TOM. + +Yes, and squeezes the girls' hands, too. + +CLAIRE. + +Oh, that we don't mind! Would you like to sit this dance out on the +stairs? (_She would prefer it herself._) + +TOM. + +No, let's dance. Come on, this is a good place. + +CLAIRE. + +As you please. Do you like kissing games? + +TOM. + +(_Red in the face._) No; do you? (_He does._) + +CLAIRE. + +Oh, I don't mind. (_An embarrassed pause._) + +TOM. + +I like football and those kind of games. + +CLAIRE. + +They are all very well for boys. But I don't much care for games +myself, and, besides, I don't have the time. + +TOM. + +What do girls do with themselves all the time? + +CLAIRE. + +Oh! I have my lessons, and I walk out with my maid every morning, and I +dress three times a day, and then I have visits to make on other little +girls. + +TOM. + +You've got a new father, haven't you? + +CLAIRE. + +Yes, mama was married two weeks ago. + +TOM. + +How do you like him? + +CLAIRE. + +Oh, very much! + +TOM. + +You take my word for it, he's a brick. I know! He used to be my father +once. + + [_The music starts up, and the couples bow._ + + +II + +_Birth_ + +ELSIE, _age 6_. + +TERESA, _age 8_. + +BOB, _age 7_. + +(_They are sitting on the steps of the large piazza of a beautiful +country house, the two little girls affectionately close, the boy at an +awkward distance. There has been a pause in the conversation, which the +boy breaks._) + +BOB. + +We've got a new baby at our house! + + (_Splendid effect!_) + +ELSIE, TERESA. + +(_Together._) Oh! + +(_Their eyes are suddenly bright and their faces glow with a sort of +awed curiosity and pleasure, not unmixed with envy._) + +ELSIE. + +What kind? + +TERESA. + +(_Eagerly._) Yes; which is it? + +BOB. + +(_Proudly._) A boy, of course! + +(_The two little girls' faces fall for a second, and they are silent, +but not for long._) + +ELSIE. + +Of course there have to be boys sometimes. + +TERESA. + +Yes, to make a change. + +ELSIE. + +Isn't it funny where babies come from! + +BOB. + +Yes, you find them in cabbages. + +ELSIE. + +Oh, no! They come down in rainstorms. + +TERESA. + +No, no! They come out of the flowers. + +BOB. + +Stuff! + +ELSIE. + +They do come from the skies, because you know the stars are little +babies waiting to be picked. + +TERESA. + +I thought the stars were the places where God put his fingers through. + +BOB. + +They aren't any such thing; they're the gold tacks that fasten on the +carpet of heaven. + +ELSIE. + +When I grow up I shall have eleven babies, because I have eleven +favorite names, and I shall have them all at once, so they can have +nice, happy times playing together, and there won't have to be any +horrid older brother and sister, always getting the best of everything. + +TERESA. + +And I'll tell you what! I'll have eleven children too, to marry yours. + +BOB. + +No, I'll marry one of them. + +ELSIE. + +No, you must marry one of us. + +BOB. + +Which one? + +ELSIE. + +Well, I think it would be best for you to marry me and be father for my +eleven children. I want them to have a father. I love my father. + +TERESA. + +Yes; but then who'll be a father to my children? + +ELSIE. + +Yours can be sort of orphans; they needn't ever have had any father. + +TERESA. + +(_Approaching a tearful state._) No, that's awfully sad. I want my +children to have a father, too! + +BOB. + +Never mind. I'll be their father besides. + +ELSIE. + +Let's play house. + +TERESA. + +Let's! + +BOB. + +Let's play Indians, and I'll scalp you two girls! + +ELSIE. + +No, that's too rough. We'll play husband and wife. Bob and I will get +married, and, Teresa, you must be the minister and a bridesmaid. + +(_They retire into the house, where, with the aid of a wrapper, a +night dress, a bouquet, and a black mackintosh, the ceremony is +properly performed._) + +ELSIE. + +Now we'll have a little girl baby, and (_to Teresa_) you must be +it. + +TERESA. + +No, I want to be the wife now, and you be the baby. + +ELSIE. + +No, I'll be the husband, and let Bob be the baby. + +BOB. + +I won't be the baby! + +TERESA. + +Anyway, it isn't polite for a little baby to come right away like that. +They never do. + +ELSIE. + +That's so; you have to wait till the news that they want one gets up to +the skies. + + +III + +_Death_ + +_Teddy and Elsie are in the drawing-room, which is shadowy and sad +with the drawn curtains. The children speak in half whispers, and with +an air of importance._ + +TEDDY. + +It's going to be in here. + +ELSIE. + +Isn't it awful. (_Sobs._) + +TEDDY. + +Papa was a brick! + +ELSIE. + +(_Sob._) Now he's an angel. + +TEDDY. + +(_Thoughtfully._) Do you really think papa would like being an +angel? + +ELSIE. + +Everybody likes to be an angel. + +TEDDY. + +I don't. + +ELSIE. + +O Teddy! + +TEDDY. + +It sounds stupid to me, like Sunday all the week. Besides, papa won't +have any office there, and what'll he do without an office? + +ELSIE. + +Isn't it awful. (_Sob._) Poor papa! + +TEDDY. + +(_Swallowing a lump._) Don't cry! + + [_There is a slight noise overhead._ + +ELSIE. + +O Teddy! What was that? + +TEDDY. + +(_Trembling._) Don't be afraid! + +(_He puts his arm comfortingly around her, and they sit in a huge +arm-chair together._) + +ELSIE. + +What is it like to be dead. + +TEDDY. + +It's like school all the time, never letting out, and no recess. + +ELSIE. + +(_With another sob._) Poor papa! Are you afraid of him now? + +TEDDY. + +No---- + +ELSIE. + +Do you want to go up and see him? + +TEDDY. + +No. That isn't him anyway upstairs! + +ELSIE. + +Yes, it's him; only his soul isn't there. + +TEDDY. + +Do you believe it? Say, if that's true, how did his soul get out? + +ELSIE. + +I've thought of that. This is what I believe: When people die, God +kisses them, and their soul comes right out of their lips to God's. + +TEDDY. + +I'll never play be dead with you, anymore. + +ELSIE. + +No, I don't want to, either. + +TEDDY. + +God might think I really was dead, and I might lose my soul. + +ELSIE. + +You can't make believe with God. + +TEDDY. + +That's so; I forgot. I say, Elsie, I'm never going to be wicked again +in all my life. + +ELSIE. + +Nor I. + +TEDDY. + +Oh! girls never are wicked. I believe when we die Death comes along and +pulls us by our feet; that's why our souls go out. They're afraid of +Death. + +(_Elsie shudders, and nestles closer to her brother._) + +TEDDY. + +Don't be afraid; I won't let him catch you. + +ELSIE. + +Poor mama, she cries all the time. + +TEDDY. + +And she won't eat. + +ELSIE. + +I know where there are some little cakes. + +TEDDY. + +(_Eagerly._) Could you get them? + +ELSIE. + +Not alone. I'm afraid. + +TEDDY. + +I'll go with you. (_They get down out of the big chair._) Do we go to +school the next day after it? + +ELSIE. + +Yes; and wear all black. (_Sobs._) Poor papa. + +TEDDY. + +(_Choking._) Don't cry. + +ELSIE. + +You're crying too. + +TEDDY. + +No, I ain't! (_Crying._) + +(_She kisses him. He is comforted, but very much ashamed._) + +ELSIE. + +Do you think we can go to the circus next week just the same? + +TEDDY. + +I don't care about circuses now. + +ELSIE. + +Neither do I. I don't want to go anyway. Let's find the cakes. + +TEDDY. + +And then we'll make a coach out of the chairs, and you'll drive me four +in hand. + + [_They go out of the room smiling._ + + + + +Maternity + +Three Letters and a Cable from Mrs. Stanton, a Widow + + +I + +_To Robert N. Stanton, Esq., her son_ (_and only child_) + +Venice, Thursday. + +My Darling Boy: + +Your letter reached me a few moments ago. We were just starting off to +see the Tintorettos in the Scuola, but I opened your envelope before I +stepped into the gondola, and read enough in the first few lines to let +the others go on without me. + +First, let me say this; no one in all the world wishes you more joy, +more real happiness, than your mother. I wish it more than anything +else in the world, and have prayed for it for you every night of my +life since you first came into this world. And I've always counted a +wife for you as one of the chief joys of your future. I have always +wanted you to marry, only I have always said to myself--not yet; I +can't spare him yet. Mothers begin their children's lives by being the +most unselfish beings in the world; and then, as we grow older, I'm +afraid we are inclined to go to the other extreme. I won't tell a +falsehood and say I am glad you are going to be married now. Forgive +me, dear, forgive me; but in my heart there is still the same cry--"Not +yet! not yet!" + +Oh, I know I'm wrong! It _is_ to be, and I accept it; but it seems so +sudden; and, after all, I was so unprepared, and you are my life, +dear--my everything. You must let me sigh just a little; I'll promise +to be all smiles at the wedding. When you first laughed in the sun, and +twinkled your baby eyes at the stars I was not a very happy woman. You +were only six months old when I divorced your father. (How much I have +regretted that step since. It would have been far better had I borne +with him. He was the only man in the world for me; and he would have +come back to me if I had only waited. Then, instead of dying wretchedly +miserable as he did, he might have been alive to-day, and we would be +companions for each other; but I was proud and wilful--however, enough +of that.) As I said: when you were a tiny baby I was an unhappy woman, +with an heart empty and bruised. How I hugged you to it! O never, +_never_ can I tell you, nor can you imagine, the comfort, the blessing +you became to me! Your butterfly-like little kisses made well all the +bruises; your little hands, with their soft, flower-like caresses, +smoothed away the troubles, and before long you seemed to have crept +in, little body, little soul, into my heart, till you filled it +completely. And now I must share--Oh, we _are_ selfish, we mothers! for +I want all--all! I used to be a little jealous, in those early days, +even of your nurse. Do you know, Rob, that I bathed my baby every +morning of your little life, so long as you took infant tubs? I +wouldn't leave it to anyone else; and for more than one year of your +life, in the middle of each night and early morning, I warmed over a +little spirit lamp (I have it yet) your preparation of milk, and fed it +to you, so that you would get your food from me in one way, if the +doctor wouldn't let me feed you as I hungered to do. How soon it was +you knew me. I could make you smile when no one else could; and what a +joy it was to see a love for me coming into your infantile existence. I +had cried a good deal before you were born, and some afterward, first +out of relief and then for pure gladness. But under your dear influence +I gradually forgot how tears came. You almost never cried; and what a +good baby you were--oh, a blessed baby!--and I tried to repay you by +not worrying you with too many kisses, with too much loving, which I'm +sure is not good for a child. Sometimes I had to clench my hands, so +strong was my desire to take you up and clasp you tight. Then how +quickly you began to grow; and before long my letters and intimate +conversation began to be filled with what "Rob said this morning;" and +you did say such delightful things! I never knew so naively witty a +child! And soon you reached the age when I could play the role of +comforter. The knocks and bruises I've healed by kissing them!--do you +remember one-third? I'm sure I don't. The many imagined slights of your +little friends, which were forgotten on my lap! The little aches and +pains that were slept away in my arms! How full my life was then! What +a blessed boy you were! And then those half-lonely years, when everyone +frightened me--by saying you would be spoiled--into sending you away to +school. I begrudge those months I spent without you yet. But how we +enjoyed the vacations! That's when we began reading together again real +stories, not those of the younger days. Do you remember your favorite +when a very small boy? We always read it when you weren't feeling very +well, or after you'd been punished for being naughty, sitting together +in the great big old rocking-chair. It was about two poor little +fatherless boys whose mother died in a garret, and they were so +terribly poor they had to beg a coffin for her, and they alone followed +it to the grave. There was a very trying and sad woodcut of the two +little orphans doing this, and we always cried together over it. It +wasn't a healthy story for a small boy, and I don't know how we got +hold of it. Oh yes, I do! It was published by the Tract Society, and +had a moral. It was your aunt sent it to you, but I have forgotten the +moral. The football period began in the school vacations, and went all +through college; but still I think you were always more fond of books +and music than athletics; and I was never good at outdoor sports; I +only managed to master tennis so as to be able to play with you. + +The four years of college had some loneliness in them, too; but I +enjoyed my visits to Williamstown, and then is when I began going into +"society" a good deal again, for I said when Rob comes out he will want +to go. He will have at least three cotillon years, and I want him to go +in the best society we have. Besides, there is sure to be a wife; let +her be a girl of our own position and class. But the dearest parts of +your college life were our four trips abroad during the summer. And +then it was that I began to turn the tables, and when _I_ was tired to +lean on _you_, and when disagreeable things happened to let you take +mother in your arms and hold her there till she promised to forget +them. Then it was when your judgment began to mature, and I found it so +clear and good, and have been guided by it ever since. Oh, those +perfect years between the day you graduated and now! How proud I was of +you, too, in society. It seemed to me no one was so brilliant a talker +at a dinner table. It was all I could ever do to listen to my neighbor +instead of straining my ears across the table in your direction. And I +am sure it was not maternal prejudice that picked you out in a ball +room, for it was not I who made you leader of all the cotillons so long +as you cared to dance them. Then how more proud I was of you when you +interested yourself in politics. I love my country. Your father fought, +and bravely, in the civil war; so did my brother. And I know if such a +terrible calamity as another war should befall us, you would be ready. +The patriot fights for his country, in peace, in politics, and I am +happy to say your interest in our government is as keen and active +to-day as ever. Then there is the ever increasing success in your +profession--haven't I been through it all with you! Never, I am sure, +were a mother and son more sympathetic. The reason I came abroad this +year was because I was afraid we were getting too dependent on each +other. I realized you now preferred staying home with me evening after +evening instead of going out. I loved it, but I knew it was wrong. I +argued if I went away for a little you would go out into society again, +and to your clubs, seeking companionship. It was not good for a young +man--I said to myself--not more than thirty-three, to be spending all +of his spare time with an old woman--for practically I am that, though +you must never call me so; it would break my heart! And so, though it +was really an awful break for me to do it, I went away, and the only +thing I wanted to happen did, only more. Oh, yes! more than I +wanted--because I didn't want you to marry--not yet! And if I hadn't +gone away you would probably never have met this Miss Stone, and you +would have been just as happy. For you _were_ happy with me before you +met her; weren't you? Oh, of course, I know not _so_ happy, and not in +the same way, but later on you would have met perhaps Miss Stone, or +somebody else you would have cared for in the same way; don't you think +so? I am afraid, if I let myself, I'd be sorry I went away. And yet +no--_no_; I'm not so selfish as all that. If you really have found the +one woman in the world for you I will try to be glad. I WILL be glad. I +AM glad! There! I am. After all it is your happiness. How unhappy I +should feel if you loved her and she hadn't returned your love! Yes, it +is much better as it is--for _you_, so it must be for me, too. Allowing +even for all a lover's enthusiasm, Miss Stone must be very charming and +very lovable. I can see it in her picture, too, which I thank you for +sending. Of course, without it I should have been cruelly anxious to +see what she was like. She is very pretty--very. I am obliged to +confess that. I think I shall come to love her for her own sake, and +not only for yours. If only she will love me! You love me more than I +deserve or merit, so don't say too much about me or she will be sure to +be disappointed. + +If I must be a mother-in-law (horrid name), I want to be a nice one and +be loved. I shall do my best. Only it is the giving you up. O Rob, +darling! What shall I do without you--without my blessed son? Breakfast +alone, luncheon alone, dinner alone, everything alone! Ah, I can't bear +the thought of it! No! No! I don't mean that! But of course I can't and +won't live with you--it's very kind and like you, dear, to say I must, +but I don't believe in that. You'll see enough of me, I'm sure, as it +is. And I shall have my memories. Baby and boy, you are mine alone. I +didn't have to share you then; and I won't have to share the memories +now, and no one can take them away from me. And what if you make me a +grandmother? It isn't at all sure. Everybody doesn't have babies now, +like they used to. Still, if you do! Well, I shall probably adore it. +But then I must settle down, wear caps, and perhaps revive a widow's +veil. I certainly shall have to be more dignified and not go +gallivanting about everywhere, and control some of my enthusiasms, or I +shall be a ridiculous old creature. You see, I have always kept your +age. Now I must take one awful flying leap to my own; and then go along +with myself properly. I shall have to become much more regular about +church and know all the saints' days. A good thing that will be for me, +too, I'm sure--What do you think? They've just knocked on the door and +told me it is dinner time. I've been three hours over this disgraceful +letter. I knew I'd been dreaming[1] a good deal between sentences; but +I didn't know it was so bad as all that. Well, I'm going down to tell +the others my _good_ news (you understand that _good_, don't you?), and +we'll drink to the health and happiness of you both in some crimson +Chianti. And they shall all see how happy I am over your happiness. For +I am. And you will see it, too, when I come back; which will be as soon +as I can. + + [1] The words "and crying" are well scratched over, so he + couldn't possibly read them. + +Good bye, my boy. Forgive your old mother if she's seemed a little +cross in this letter, because she isn't really. I shall write Miss +Stone a little letter to-night. God bless you and her (and me), and +fill your lives as full of happiness as your hearts can hold and mine +can hold for you! Good night, my comfort, you best son in the world! + +Your devoted + +MOTHER. + +Yes, yes, I _am_ glad, dear; so glad. Don't misunderstand my letter. +Your mother is glad, honestly and with--yes, I _can_ say it now--with +_all_ her heart. + + +II + +_A Cable to her son._ (_Sent fifteen minutes after the preceding +letter._) + +Overjoyed, congratulations, love. + +MOTHER. + + +III + +_Letter to Miss Lucy Stone, Troy, N.Y._ + +VENICE, Thursday. + +My dear Miss Stone: + +So you are going to take my boy away from me? I begrudge him, just a +little, or just a good deal; but I will tell you a secret. I feel +pretty sure that when I know you, I shall be grateful to him, instead +of grudging, for giving me you for a daughter; and you must love me, +for after all if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have him, would you? He +has been a perfect son, and they make perfect husbands. And he loves +you, my dear. Oh, if you had any doubts of it--which of course you +haven't, or I shouldn't like you--but if you had, could you have read +over my shoulder his letter to me to-day telling me about it. + +I am very impatient to know you, but I think we shall be great friends, +through Rob, before we even meet. Till then believe me your--dear me, +what?--your Robert's affectionate old mother. + +KATHERINE MILES STANTON. + +I am sending with this a little old jewel I found at an old shop the +other day; it is a love ring of the sixteenth century. Perhaps you will +find a place for it. I send it with my love. + +K. M. S. + + +IV + +_Letter to Mrs. Henry A. Austin, Troy, N.Y._ + +Venice, Thursday. + +Dear Gertrude: + +You will be very much surprised to hear from me, I imagine, as a +correspondence is something we could never keep up. But our friendship +has lasted without it a long time, my dear girl--forty-two years--for +we met when I was fourteen. I haven't forgotten yet how the whole +school became bearable after you took possession of the other little +white cot in my room. It's a year and a half now since I've seen you, +and I've missed you. Troy is so near; and yet, after all, it is so far, +too, when we realize how seldom we meet. You must give me a whole +winter soon! Yes, for I am going to be alone; Rob is going to marry, +and that's why I am writing you. It is to a Miss Lucy Stone, of Troy. +Do write me about her. Do you know the family? Are they friends of +yours? Rob is fearfully and wonderfully in love; and I can't blame him +after seeing her picture. She is lovely (and charmingly dressed), and I +am sure Rob would never fall in love with any one but a lady. Still, I +want to know if she, or rather her family, are really smart people, or +what. Even if they are "what," I'm sure it won't make any difference to +Rob, and so it mustn't make any difference to me. But it will be a +_relief_ to know that they are friends of yours, or even that you +know them. I pretend not to believe in class distinctions, and I don't; +but when it comes to your own son, somehow or other you do want him to +choose his wife among his own social equals. Between you and me I am +just about broken-hearted. I know it is very wrong of me, but I had +sort of let myself grow very dependent upon him, and always had looked +upon his marriage much as one looks upon death, as inevitable, but +always remote and the end of all things. It still seems like the end of +all things, but in time I shall get used to it. I feel simply ashamed +of myself for feeling as I do now. Of course, if it were given me the +choice, "your son's happiness, woman, or your own selfish comfort," I +wouldn't hesitate a moment, but it's so hard for a mother who has spent +such happy years with her son to realize that his happiness does +altogether and absolutely depend on some one else, and on that one and +no other? And then we always have that terrible doubt,--has he chosen +the right woman for him? Just as if he wasn't, after all, the best +judge for himself. Of course he is; and in time I know I shall be able +to thank God he made this choice, but just now--just to-night--it seems +to me I come nearer to envying you your childless wifehood than I would +ever have thought possible. + +Being in this sentimental, unreal city, doesn't help me any! Forgive +this, I'm afraid morbid, letter, and believe me affectionately +always--write me the truth--your school girl friend, + +KITTY. + +Have they any position whatever in Troy? + + + + +A Letter of Introduction + +Four Letters + + I. From Mrs. Joslyn of New York to Mrs. Lemaire of Washington. + II. The same. +III. From Mrs. Lemaire to Mrs. Joslyn. + IV. From Mr. Hamilton-Locks to the Hon. Forbes Redding of England. + + +I + +_Letter from Mrs. Joslyn of New York to Mrs. Lemaire of Washington, +unsealed and unstamped._ + +Friday. + +My Dear Mrs. Lemaire: + +I am very happy to introduce to you Mr. Hamilton-Locks, of London, a +friend of mine, who goes to Washington for the first time. I know I am +giving you both a pleasure in bringing you together, and any courtesy +you may be able to extend to Mr. Hamilton-Locks will be as if shown to +me also. + +Always sincerely, + +EMILY JOSLYN. + + +II + +_A second Letter from Mrs. Joslyn to Mrs. Lemaire, sent with a +special delivery stamp._ + +Friday. + +My Dear Mrs. Lemaire: + +I gave a letter of introduction to you to a young Englishman this +morning. I hasten to write, and beg you, as far as I am concerned, to +pay no attention whatever to it. He was sent over to us by Lady Heton, +a traveling acquaintance, whom we know really nothing of, and it's been +a great bother trying to be civil and everything else to him. I felt +obliged to give him the letter, but you will understand by this that +you are to ignore it quite as much as you like. He is no friend of ours +whatever, merely an acquaintance that has been forced upon us. + +We hear you are having such a gay season in Washington. We think of +taking a house there for next winter. Can you manage to keep out of the +political set if you want to? I don't mind ambassadors, but I should +think all the other people would be most ordinary. I suppose you will +come on for the Makeway Ball; won't you? If so, do lunch with me the +day after; don't forget. + +Yours, ever sincerely, + +EMILY JOSLYN. + + +III + +_Letter from Mrs. Lemaire to Mrs. Joslyn._ + +Wednesday. + +My dear Mrs. Joslyn: + +Where is your young Englishman? I adore young Englishmen, and why +doesn't yours come to see me? Did you give him the letter? He has been +in Washington a week, is constantly at the P----'s, and all the +diplomatic corps are entertaining him. The women are mad about him, +he's so awfully good-looking. + +If you want a house in Washington next winter why not rent ours? We are +going to Rome in December. + +Yours, always cordially, + +GERTRUDE LEMAIRE. + + +IV + +_Letter from Mr. Hamilton-Locks to the Hon. Forbes Redding._ + +WASHINGTON, January, '97. + +My dear Old Chap: + +This place is a very good sort, rather like a little English Paris; +more cosmopolitan than Boston, I mean, tho' no other city here seems +quite so lively as New York. The embassy is giving me no end of a good +time. I'm sure I'm more than grateful to your uncle. I find society in +this place is more like European without trying to be, while in New +York they try more, and _aren't_. New York society has an air of its +own, and, I must say, it's a damn fine air, too. Of course, like other +places, it has some frumps, and what Blanche Heton meant by giving me a +letter to a Mrs. Joslyn is more than meets the eye. But we are not +burnt twice by the same flame. The _lady_ gave me in turn a letter to +some one here, and I was so afraid I'd forget and use it by mistake, or +leave it at the woman's door one day when I'd been drinking a good many +whiskeys and sodas and didn't care what I did, that I tore it into bits +and dropped them in an umbrella stand in Mrs. Joslyn's hall five +minutes after she gave it to me. There's no use in running any risks. +And when a woman over here _is_ stupid she's damn stupid. So is she +superlatively fetching when she is charming. And, by Jove! but they +know how to draw the line--all but Mrs. Joslyn. + +People over on this side think every Englishman comes over after a +wife, and at first they pretend to be very haughty and independent, and +then if they find out he is not after a wife after all, like your +humble servant, they are quite angry about it. + +I hope you're keeping an eye on my dogs for me. Love to Millicent. + +Yours, + +TED. + + + + +Wagner, 1897 + + +_A Letter from Lady Aires to the Countess of Upham, at Homburg_. + +BAYREUTH, Aug., 1897. + +My dear Rose: + +Our stay at Bayreuth is nearly over--the last opera to-morrow; and, to +be frank, I am extremely glad, although of course it has been perfectly +charming. First we heard Parsifal and the Ring; which is four operas, +you know. Why they call them a "Ring" I can't see yet; and I don't like +to ask, it gives the musical people who really know the chance to be so +superior, and they are conceited enough as it is, goodness knows. +Anyone would think it was a disgrace not to have been lullabyed to +sleep when a baby by a symphony orchestra! I'm sure it isn't my fault +if I don't know which is Schumann and which is Schubert; and what's the +difference? (Between you and me I don't care. Of course I adore music, +but it's like a great many other things--you mustn't ask too many +questions!) Well the first day was "Parsifal." It's a _dear_! +Beautiful, perfectly beautiful! I wore my white mulle with my green and +white hat, and if I _do_ say it (and I must, for I'm sure no one else +will say it for me), women are such jealous cats about frocks. I didn't +see a better turned out woman. Such a tremendous lot of smart people as +are here, too. Really you ought to have come. I'm sure you would have +enjoyed it. Between the acts it's quite like Sunday in the park. The +entre-acts are very long, giving us a chance to shake out our frocks +and wake up and amuse ourselves. Some people go up a little hill, or +into some pine woods; but that's rather dull, for you don't meet half +so many others--most everyone stays in front of the theatre. But I must +tell you about "Parsifal." In the first place it is awfully long. And +Parsifal himself is entirely too fat! I am sure such a very good young +person as Parsifal shouldn't have a stomach! There are a lot of sort of +monks in rather fetching pink red cloaks, with pale bluey gray skirts +underneath. (Not at all a bad combination, and gave me an idea for a +costume for up the river.) Their chief is ill, and almost always in +great pain, but it does not prevent his singing the longest of +speeches. Parsifal kills a lovely swan--it flies in _so_ naturally. +Really Wagner was a most wonderful man! Then there is a Gypsy girl; a +sort of snake charmer, who has bottles of things all through the play. +I couldn't make out quite if she were Parsifal's mother or what. But +she is quite mad, and wears only a very uninteresting old brown dress. +I must make this criticism of Wagner: You don't see many pretty dresses +in his operas. Then everyone goes to a banqueting hall, which is also +partly a church. The scenery moves along in a most miraculous way and +the hall is really very lovely. There are children in this scene, and +they lift the chalice, and it glows--an electric light in it you know, +but it's really lovely. And the music is simply heavenly. I assure you +I cried like a baby at this part; I couldn't tell you why, unless it's +the poor wretched creature (Am-- something his name is; I can't find my +programme). He's very handsome. I intend to buy his photograph. He has +to lift the holy cup, and he feels he is unfit to do it. He is a sinner +and wishes he were dead, and somehow or other you feel awfully +sympathetic with him. I know the times I've been to church and knelt +down so ashamed I couldn't lift my head, thinking of some of the +beastly wicked things I've done in my life. And that's just what the +second act is. A crowd of women try to seduce Parsifal, but they are +all German chorus women, and it really doesn't seem such a great +temptation. + +But then the girl who was ugly in the other act comes on very beautiful +(but hideously dressed, why don't they get Worth or Doucet, I wonder, +to help them?) and she sings a great deal and very loud, and kisses +Parsifal, and then everything goes suddenly to wrack and ruin. I shall +never dare kiss any very good young man again--not after that! In the +last act, this same creature, looking more like Act I., washes +Parsifal's feet. I should hate to play that part, but it's all very +pretty and affecting, and the music--well there are no words to +describe it. And the whole rest of the act is too wonderful! Really you +have to cry. Of course, it's too long, and you're awfully hungry, but +there is a rather smart restaurant now, where everybody goes afterward +to get their spirits back; which reminds me that Mrs. Gordon turned up +yesterday and appeared at the restaurant at night, affording us a good +deal of amusement. First she started to courtesy to the Royalties, who +don't want to be noticed. This she perceived in the middle of her +courtesy, and cut it short in a quick way, which made her look exactly +as if _something_ important in her toilet had burst or broken. Then she +flew all over from room to room, trying to find a table that suited +her, disturbing the whole atmosphere, like meteors are said to do in +the skies, and creating the impression, or trying to, that she owned +the entire place. She won't be happy here, for it isn't easy for anyone +else to own anything where Frau Wagner is installed; which reminds me +to stop this gossip and tell you seriously about the other operas. + +The first of the Ring is the Valkyrie; you can remember it because of +Lord Dunraven's yacht. And they swim around in the water; which is, I +suppose, why he called it so. But no; on second thoughts, that isn't it +at all. The first opera is Rheingold, and it's the Rhine maidens that +go swimming about. How absurd of Dunraven to have made such a mistake. +I like the Rheingold awfully. The first act looks just like water, and +the music is so pretty. Then, in the second act, there are two splendid +big men--one in white, the other in black bear skins--who are rather +fetching. The Rheingold is the least sociable of the operas, as there +is no entre-act. But it is fortunately a great deal the shortest. I +think it is one of my favorites. I seem to know more what Wagner is +about in it. I don't believe he knows himself what he is about some of +the time in the Valkyrie. This second opera is awfully long. However, +it has two good entre-acts, when you can walk around and talk to +everybody; and I can assure you we have plenty to say after having been +kept quiet for over an hour in the dark theatre. The chairs are so +uncomfortable, and if you move somebody hisses. There is not much +politeness in Bayreuth. We don't get as good a view of the stage as +some people, but we have splendid places; the Countess of ---- is in +front of us, her sister right beside me, and behind are the ----s, and +near by Lady ----. So you see we couldn't possibly have better seats. + +For the Valkyrie I wore a new mauve and pale green frock. I don't think +you've seen it. The bill was atrocious. I sha'n't pay it; but the +costume is a great success. Portions of this second opera are awfully +tiresome, first one couple and then another, going on for hours about +nothing, but there are some exquisite clouds that move and grow and +scatter exactly like nature, only more so, and make up a little for the +dull people. I notice one thing: _all_ the gods and goddesses have +always such troubles. There isn't a single happy creature among them, +not even Wotan, who is god of them all, and wears a silly gold curl +over one eye. I think it lowers his whole dignity; but they make a +great many mistakes like that. Of course, one oughtn't to think of +these things, but should simply listen to and enjoy the beautiful +music, but my nature is so sensitive I can't help it. There are a lot +of Valkyrie, you know, who wear a sort of antique dress-reform costume, +not pretty, and ride through the air on deliciously funny-looking +horses. And Brunhilde, the leader of them, a rather nice person, +behaves quite like a human being in "Siegfried," the next opera, which +I will tell you about later. In "Valkyrie" you think she is going to be +burnt up, but in "Siegfried" she is saved after all. I suppose there is +some sort of Biblical idea about hell. You recognized the Bible very +often in "Parsifal." I much prefer Siegfried as a person to Parsifal. +He's not such a _very_ good boy. There's more an air of athletics, +football, rowing, and all that about Siegfried, while Parsifal smacks +just a little, I think, of the Young Men's Christian Association. You +can _kiss_ Siegfried with impunity, too; in fact, it saved Brunhilde's +life, and I wouldn't mind running a few risks myself to be saved in the +same way! You get perfectly drunk with this music of the last act of +Siegfried. Of course, my dear, you know I am now writing about the +_third_ opera, "Siegfried." You must follow me closely, for it's very +easy to get confused about them. "Siegfried" is awfully long, too, and +the first act--well, I don't mind telling you I slept a good deal. You +see, the theatre gets so stuffy, and then one is digesting one's +luncheon, and the stage is so dark, and I maintain that the music +soothes you. I wore, of course, another dress, something quiet, as it +was rainy, but I saw no one who looked any better. Between the first +and second acts I managed to get a bow and a hand-shake from the +Prince, to the visible envy of Mrs. Gordon. I wish you could see the +dear beast. She flutters around the royalties every minute, like a +nervous bird, and as if they were her nest of eggs and a bad little boy +was in the neighborhood. I _hate_ snobs; don't you? I am lunching, by +the way, with Mrs. G. to-morrow. Quite a big, smart party of us, I +hear. + +That funny dragon comes in "Siegfried," you know, and of course it is +much more amusing here than in Covent Garden or New York. But it's the +last act that I _love_! Such passionate music! Brunhilde falls madly in +love with Siegfried, who is, of course, ever so many years younger than +she. But it's just like us women, especially when we are Brunhilde's +age. For I suppose she's forty something, as she was grown up and went +to sleep before Siegfried was born, and when he kisses her he seems to +be quite a man! By the way, Brunhilde was put to sleep for interfering +somehow or other in the love affairs of Siegfried's mother and father, +who are really sister and brother. If you think of it, the story is +extremely indecent, but operatic things never seem to be shocking; +music, apparently, covers a multitude of naughtiness, like charity is +reported to do. Very likely that's why Mrs. ---- is always doing so +much for institutions and what not--for her sins, I suppose. I always +thought she was a naughty old hypocrite! By the way, there is a comic +character in "Siegfried," and in one of the others, I forget which, +called Mime--a funny little dwarf, the sort of thing they put in a +Christmas pantomime to amuse the children. + + +_Later._ + +I have just come from the "Goetterdaemmerung," the last opera, and I am +completely exhausted. I am as if I were in a dream, and can only think +and feel and write of this beautiful, beautiful music and scenery. I am +absolutely absorbed in it. Some people took the train for Nuremberg +right after the performance. I am sure I never could have. I really +can't believe they _felt_ the thing. Our train goes at 1:45. Such a +nice hour; one doesn't have to hurry in the morning, and can have one's +hair done properly. I have a charming new way of doing the hair. I got +it from a Frenchwoman who sat just in front of me in the theatre +to-day, and when it was light enough I studied the arrangement till I +got it by heart. You want something like that to do during the long +duets. Otherwise your attention is apt to wander from the opera, or you +get sleepy. To go back to the opera, it began with the same scene that +Siegfried finished with, which was rather disappointing, but a real +horse came on and behaved as quiet as a lamb, with Brunhilde screaming +like mad all about him. I suppose they put cotton in his ears, or +something. The scene changed (without letting us go out for a rest, +which I thought something of a sell) to the house, where Siegfried +falls in love with another woman (Oh, these men!) I forgot to tell you, +my mind is so full of the music, that I wore my new Russell & Allen +winter frock, and I caught lots of people taking it in. But, dear me, +how badly the German women dress! I haven't seen a single _chic_ one +among them since I've been here, I don't believe I shall come to +Bayreuth again. Besides, the music is too wearing. The Rhine maidens +come back in this act! It is most wonderful the way they swim about! +But, as far as I can gather, they are rather nasty cats. One thing I +will say, though: I think Wagner's on the side of the women; for, in +spite of Brunhilde's being in love with little more than a boy, she has +all your sympathies. So has Siegfried, too; which is odd. I really +sobbed when he died, he was so good-looking, and seemed so sad. This +whole opera is very depressing. We reach Munich to-morrow night at 7; +and I propose going to the Residenz Theatre there, and seeing a light +opera just for contrast. But how bad the shops are at Munich. I believe +there are some good pictures, but I think one sees so many pictures in +Europe; don't you? + +I presume you know Brunhilde behaves rather like Dido in the end: +nearly everybody, more or less, is murdered off, and there is a sort of +Madame Tussaud exhibition in the clouds at the curtain. Of course, I +haven't really given you any sort of an idea about it at all. There are +no words that will adequately describe it, only I promised to give you +a detailed personal account; and I have done so. The reason we are +going to Munich is we can't get a sleeper yet, everything is so +crowded. Isn't it disgusting. This last opera is rather too noisy at +times, and awfully long--longer than the others. But there's a men's +ballet in it that is rather nice; not dancing, you know, but singing +and posing and walking about, with imitation bare legs, most of them. +But I think the best thing about the opera is it leaves you in such an +exalted mood. I know I won't be able to think of small or worldly +things for weeks, much less write about them. Before I forget it, be +sure and write me if it's true that Mrs. ---- and Sir George ---- are +both at Homburg, at the same hotel. I hear they are, and there's no +end of talk about it. But then I find there's no end of talk about +everything and everybody. It is not that people mean badly, but one has +to pass the time somehow. I think I love best of all the Rheingold +music. It is like a jeweller's shop window in Bond street; it seems +to shine and glitter and sparkle. You see very few jewels here in +Bayreuth; of course, there's very little chance to display them. Women +wear the usual small string of pearls. That's about all. As most +everyone wore one I wear two, with a different pendant each day. I +like to be just a little original, and keep my own individuality. + +Well, now I must tumble into bed or I shall lose my beauty sleep. I'd +hate to have my figure get like these German singers. I wonder why! I'd +have myself strapped between boards--I'd do _something_. Good-bye, my +dear. Write me all the gossip you can get a hold of. I haven't sent you +any in this, but that you couldn't expect. It was impossible that this +letter should be anything but Wagner, Wagner, Wagner. I wish you could +have been here with me--you'd have seen heaps of your friends. Of +course I ought to tell you one thing, because I felt it myself: there's +nothing catchy about the music. + +Lovingly, + +FANNY. + + + + +Art + +A Letter + + +_A second Letter from Lady Aires to the Countess of Upham._ + +Munich. + +My dear Rose: + +It was very thoughtful of you to write me so soon, and Aubrey and I +wish very much we could join you, but our money is all spent and we +must hurry back to England, where we can economize by making cheap +visits among our friends for a couple of months. In December we go to +New York to spend the winter with mother. You never go home, do you? + +I am so glad you felt you got so complete an idea of Wagner from my +letter. I was a little afraid I hadn't done the whole thing justice, +but I assure you there were many more people there than I thought of +suggesting, and the operas, tho' long, are very delightful. + +Here in Munich the chief thing is the picture gallery, as of course at +this time of year all fashionable society is away and the theatres and +opera either closed or giving second-rate performances. There are more +musees than you really care to visit, and are full of masterpieces, +many quite as atrocious as masterpieces so often are. The principal +one--its name begins with a P--is the one we've been to. + +I wish you could see the Rubens, or else it's the Van Dykes--I forget +which, but they are beautiful; and when one thinks how long ago they +were painted, it's wonderful, isn't it? One thing awfully interesting +about a picture gallery is to see the absurd difference in women's +dress now and in former times; don't you think so? And sometimes one +gets ideas for one's self. + +This particular gallery is altogether one of the most satisfactory I've +ever been in. It wasn't crowded full of Baedeker people and that sort +of thing. In the second room we went in we met Lord and Lady Jenks and +the Countess of Towns. That was the room where we saw a portrait the +living image of Janet Cowther. We all shrieked with laughter! You know +how she has what my vulgar little brother calls an "ingrowing face"--it +sinks in instead of coming out, so that the poor creature can't know +what it seems like to have a real profile. It's extraordinary that +there should have been two such faces in the world--don't you think +so?--even with two or three hundred years between them. The portrait +was painted by--dear me! I can't remember, but it was some one we all +know. There's one thing I shouldn't mind, and that is knowing the +lady's corset maker; I'd like to give his address to Janet, because, my +dear, in spite of her face he had made the lady's figure beautiful. I +think that's really the nicest part of a picture gallery--seeing comic +likenesses to your friends. + +Lady Jenks and I sat down on an uncomfortable bench without any back +and talked away for nearly an hour. What an amusing creature she is! +Has stories to tell about everybody under the sun. By the way, she +vowed you and your husband got on awfully, and only lived together as a +matter of form! I took up your cudgels, my dear, and told her it wasn't +true in any particular; that Ned adored you and was an angel. Of +course, he got drunk--that I knew, as all the world did, but you were +used to that. It isn't true, is it? He never struck you? I'm sure he +didn't! You'd have told a good friend like me; wouldn't you? + +Well, just as Lady Jenks and I finished the others came back from going +through all the other rooms. We were everyone of us dead tired, looking +at pictures is so fatiguing. We decided to go back to the hotel and +have tea in the garden. But I think it is a dear gallery, and +to-morrow--we don't leave till the next day--if we've any time left +after doing the shops, I intend to go back and see the pictures all +over again. + +Write to Eaton Sqr.; the servants will forward. Poor things, they must +have had a dull summer! They say the heat in town has been fearful! But +I don't think servants mind; do you? And then they have the run of the +house. I am sure they use the drawing-room and sleep in my bed! + +Good-bye, + +Lovingly, + +FANNY. + +Aubrey says Janet's portrait is by Rembrandt; but I tell him I don't +think it was by a Frenchman at all, I think it was by Greuze. + + + + +Sorrow + +A Letter + + +_A Letter to Mrs. Carly, Florence, Italy._ + +New York, Wednesday. + +My Dear Mary: + +You were right when you said to me, two years ago, that the time would +come when I would realize the futility, the selfish, the absurd +insufficiency of my life. It is now six months since I lost my little +girl--my only child. I thank you so much for your letter; I was sure +you, who had so much heart, would realize more than most people what I +suffered and feel still. And it needn't have been--I shall always +maintain it _needn't_ have been! She was overheated at dancing-school +and caught cold coming home. I was late dressing for an early dinner, +thought it was nothing, and paid no attention. From the dinner I went +to the opera, from the opera to a ball, on to somebody else's. I was +dead tired when I came home and fell into bed and asleep. All this +time, my child, with her cold, was sleeping close beside an open +window! The maid was careless, of course, but it wasn't _her_ child--it +was mine--and I hold myself most to blame. In two more days the doctor +told me she couldn't live. I shall never forgive him! In six hours she +was dead. I think I went quite mad. I know I really felt as if I had +wantonly murdered her; and I still feel I was myself largely +responsible. She was the dearest little creature! I am so sorry you +never saw her. "I love my mamma best, and God next," she kept on saying +all that last day. One wondered and wondered what thought was in her +little brain. "You are mother's darling," I said to her--"mother's +precious little girl, but God gave you to her, so you are God's first!" +She threw her arms about my neck and kissed me, and said: "I like you +better than all the little boys at dancing-school put together!" She +fluttered about the bed with her arms like a little tired bird! She +made me sing to her. I sang hours and hours--lullabies and comic songs +she liked best. My maid came to me: "Madame is lunching out." + +I was furious with her for coming to me with any such remark. +"Telegraph!" was all I said. "Telegraph what, madame?" + +"I don't care," I answered. + +O my dear Mary! to watch a little soul going--a little soul that is all +yours, or at least that you thought was all yours! To watch the light +of life fade and fade out of a face precious to you, into which you +cannot kiss the color again; to watch this little life, dearer to you +than your own, slip, slip away from you in spite of your hands +clutching to hold it back, or clasped in prayer to keep it! To sit and +lose and be helpless! Oh, the agony of it! Marie came once more; it was +dark; I guessed her errand, and only looked at her. She went away +without a word. I took the child out of the bed--it was like lifting a +flower. At dawn she died in my arms. Oh, were ever arms so empty as +when they hold the dead body of someone loved? + +And then began the revelations. The stilted letters of condolence, +written with exactly the same amount of feeling as a note of regrets or +acceptance, and couched very much in the same sort of language. + +One woman recommended her dressmaker as being the most _chic_ +woman in New York for mourning--as if I cared! A great many cards were +left at the door with their corners turned down, and for awhile no +invitations came. That was all! Most of the people I was unfortunate +enough to meet made such remarks as---- + +"My Dear Mrs. Emery, I am so sorry to hear of your loss" (as if the +house had been burned down or the silver plate had been stolen); or +else---- + +"Dear Mrs. Emery, I was so shocked to hear it; such a _sweet_ child! +Which was it, a boy or a girl? Oh, yes, I remember, a boy--a nice +creature; but, my dear, so many boys turn out badly. You must try and +console yourself with thinking perhaps you have both been saved a world +of trouble after all!" + +"My child was a little girl," I answered. + +Another woman came to me, saying: + +"You poor, dear thing! I'm glad you are bearing it so well--you look +splendidly. Of course you won't stay in mourning long; will you? It's +really not necessary for a child; and then I think one _needs_ the +distractions of society to drown one's sorrows!" + +And all in such a flippant tone! + +There are some who haven't heard of it at all, which seems so strange +to me, who see and think of nothing else indoor and out! + +And Sue Troyon I shall never forget or stop loving as long as I live. +She put her arms about me and kissed me, when she first met me, right +in the street, and never said a word, but her eyes were wet. _She_ is +a woman and a friend! + +So now I am going to join you abroad, to travel and live among pictures +and music and real people. These months out of society have broken the +charm. I've tried to go back, but I can't stand it. The inanities of an +afternoon At Home are more than I can bear. Everybody repeating to each +other the same absurd commonplaces over and over again. Society +conversation in one way is like a Wagner opera: it is composed of the +same themes, which recur over and over again; only, in the conversation +referred to, these themes are deadly, dull, fatuous remarks. As for +balls and evening parties, I don't care about dancing any more, +somehow, and to see the young _debutantes_ about me almost breaks my +heart, full of memories of my daughter and what she might have been. +Tears are not becoming to a very low-necked dress, and shouldn't be +worn with powder and jewels. No, my dear Mary, I see in this society of +ours, we all grow so hardened, that if we don't have some such grief as +I have had, we become hopeless. People soon forgot I had ever had a +child, or at least that she hadn't been dead for years. I find myself +becoming a bore, because of perhaps a certain lack of spirit that I +used to have; and I began to realize that I had never been liked for +myself, but for what I gave, and for the atmosphere of amusement which +I helped to create by nearly always being gay and enjoying myself. As +you yourself said of society, it is absolutely unsatisfactory. I never +knew a purely society woman yet who wasn't somewhat or sometimes +dissatisfied. First, they can't go as much or everywhere they want; and +soon after they have all the opportunities they desire, they find that +isn't sufficient, after all, to make life perfect, and then the boredom +of fatigue begins to creep upon them with the years, and soon old age +begins like a worm to eat into what happiness they have had. + +Oh, no! When I think of how full your life is, of the interesting +people you know--not merely empty names with a fashionable address or a +coronet on their note paper,--of the places you see and the books you +read; and then hear you say your life is too short to see or enjoy a +third the world has to offer you! You happy, _happy_ woman you! + +Well! The house is for sale! What furniture I want to keep stored! +John, who is prematurely old and half-dead with trying to earn enough +money to keep us going as we wished in New York, has entered into it +all in exactly my spirit. He has sold his seat on the stock exchange. +He has disposed of all his business interests here. We find we have +quite enough income to travel as long as we like, moderately, and to +live abroad for as many years as we please. When we get homesick--as we +are both sure to, for after all we are good Americans--we will come +back here and settle down quietly in some little house, near everybody, +but not in the whirlpool--on the banks of society, as it were, so that +when we feel like it we can go and paddle in it for a little, just over +our ankles. Two weeks after you receive this letter you will receive +us! We sail on _Kaiser Wilhelm_ to Naples. + +No one here knows what to make of us! It's absurd the teapot tempest +we've created. The verdict finally is that we've either lost our money +or else our minds! + +With a heart full of love, + +Affectionately, + +AGNES. + + + + +The Theatre + +Four Letters, a Bill, and a Quotation from a Newspaper + + +I + +_A Letter from Mrs. Frederick Strong to her Husband._ + +... Fifth Avenue, Saturday. + +My Dear Fred: + +You must come home at once. Dick has announced his engagement to an +actress--a soubrette, too, in a farce-comedy. If it had been a woman +who played Shakespeare, it would have been bad enough, but a girl who +sings and dances and does all sorts of things, including wearing her +dresses up-side down, as it were--that is, too high at the _bottom_ and +too _low_ at the top--well, this is a little too much!--just as we +were getting a really good position in society. If the marriage isn't +put a stop to, you can be sure she'll soon dance and kick us out of any +position whatever that's worth holding. It isn't as if we had any one +to back us; but you never had any family, and the least said about mine +the better, so we have to be our own ancestors. And just as we had +succeeded in getting a footing, in placing ourselves so that our +children will be all right, your brother must go and do his best to +ruin it all! You see how necessary it is for you to be on the spot. We +may be able to break the engagement off before it is too late. Leave +the mine to take care of itself, or go to pieces if need be. One mine +more or less won't make any difference to us. Besides, you must think +of your children! Your brother, too; he's sure to regret it. + +I am ill over this thing. Can't sleep, and have frightful indigestion. +Everybody's talking about it, and the newspapers are full this morning. +My new costume came home from Mme. V----'s yesterday; but there's no +pleasure now in wearing it! + +With love, + +ANNIE. + +January 19th. + +And the ball we were going to give next month! What about the ball? +Mrs. W---- had promised me we should have some of the smartest people +here! This will ruin everything. Telegraph me when you will come. I am +suicidal. + + +II + +_A Bill._ + +Mr. Fred'k Strong, Dr. + +To the ---- Private Detective Agency, for services rendered, + $---- --. + +Rec'd payment, + ---- -- + +Feb. 10th, 189-. + + +III + +_A Letter from Miss Beatrice North to Richard Strong, sent by special +delivery to his Club._ + +February 11th. + +My Darling Dick: + +What is the meaning of this letter from a lawyer? Who has been trying +to damage my character? To ruin my happiness? Who hates me? I have +never willingly harmed any one. I can't and won't believe this letter +was sent with your approval. But why didn't you come to see me +yesterday? My dearest in the world, you wouldn't believe evil stories +of me, surely! You to whom I have told all my life, everything, for +there has been nothing to hide. No, no; I am sure you don't know +anything about this cruel letter, and for God's sake hurry and tell me +so yourself, hurry and tell me so, and let me kiss the words as they +come to your lips. + +Thine, + +BEATRICE. + + +IV + +_Letter from the Same to the Same._ + +The evidence that you have proves nothing whatever, and even then much +of it is exaggerated, which I, in my turn, can prove. I shall sue you +for breach of promise. + +BEATRICE NORTH. + + +V + +_From the Same to the Same, a day later._ + +I will not write to your lawyers. This second letter of theirs is too +insulting. They know very well they could never win the case against me. +(I am innocent; and even if I were not, your evidence is ridiculously +insufficient.) And that is why they offer to "settle" with me privately. +But my own feelings have changed over night. That you could, first, +believe the charges against me, and second, that you could have allowed +me to be insulted by your--_or your brother's_--lawyers, as you have +done, these two things have opened my eyes to your own weak +contemptible character. I am grateful the discovery came before it was +too late. I release you from your engagement to me, and far from +bringing a suit against you I feel I owe you a debt of thanks. I trust +this is a sufficient reply to your insult to "settle" privately. The +matter is at end with this letter. + +BEATRICE NORTH. + + +VI + +_Headlines of a Column in a Daily New York Paper._ + + THE STRONG'S BALL! + ALL THE SWELLS THERE! + DICK STRONG GETS THE COLD + SHOULDER FROM MOST + OF HIS FRIENDS! + + + + +The Opera + + +_Mrs. Sternwall's Box. The First Act of Tristan and Isolde is + three-quarters over. Mr. Alfred Easterfelt is seated alone in the + corner. He is bored._ + +MR. ALFRED EASTERFELT. + +(_To himself, after a long sigh._) Damn it! What did I come so early +for? + +(_People are heard by the entire audience entering the little +ante-room behind. The men's chorus on the stage drowns the sound of +artificial laughter. The curtains part, and_ Mr. Easterfelt _is +joined by_ Mrs. Sternwall, Mrs. Morley, Miss Beebar, and Mr. Carn.) + +MRS. MORLEY. + +(_Seriously._) What a pity we've missed so much. + +(_There are general greetings, whispered pleasantly. Each person, +without exception, glances first all about the house, and then turns +his eyes slowly toward stage. Mrs. Sternwall sits in_ _the corner, +facing the audience with three-quarters face, as the photographers +express it, one-quarter toward the singers and_ mise en scene. _She +beckons Easterfelt to sit behind her. The others fall into the other +places more or less as they happen, the women in front looking lovely, +as each one is well aware, with her beautiful white neck, her jewels, +and her charming coif. The music continues._) + +MRS. MORLEY. + +(_Suddenly noticing that Mr. Sternwall is not with them._) But where is +Mr. Sternwall? + +MRS. STERNWALL. + +Oh, Henry always goes across to Hammerstein's Olympia during the acts, +but he will join us for each of the entre-acts. + +(_She takes up her opera glass, and examines the house minutely._) + +MISS BEEBAR. + +What is the opera? + +MRS. MORLEY. + +Tristan and Isolde. I don't care for the new woman; do you? Somehow she +hasn't the soul for Wagner. She sings well enough, mechanically, but +she doesn't feel enough. + +MISS BEEBAR. + +Precisely. That's a wig of course; isn't it? And what an ugly one! + +MRS. STERNWALL. + +(_Low to Mr. Easterfelt._) Come to-morrow at four. He has taken to +leaving the office much earlier the last few days. + +(_Owing to a sudden pause in the music, her voice has been heard +quite distinctly. She is embarrassed for a moment, to cover which she +leans over toward Mrs. Morley and Miss Beebar._) + +I wish Eames sang in this, she wears such good clothes. + +MR. CARN. + +What's that about Eames? + +MISS BEEBAR. + +I thought Eames' name would wake you up! + +MR. CARN. + +I was listening to the music. + +MISS BEEBAR. + +Don't be absurd; you know you never come to hear the opera, except when +I am going. + +MR. CARN. + +Or when Eames sings. + +MISS BEEBAR. + +Ah! you acknowledge it! You brute! + +MR. CARN. + +It's her arms, and her eyes, and her hair. You must acknowledge she's +very beautiful---- + +MISS BEEBAR. + +(_Interrupts._) For heaven's sake stop; you bore me to death. Besides +you must listen. It isn't the thing to talk at the opera any more. + +(_Isolde gives Tristan the cup with the love potion in it._) + +MRS. STERNWALL. + +(_In a very low voice to Mr. Easterfelt._) Just before the curtain +falls change your position quietly. Go near Miss Beebar and Mrs. +Morley, on account of Henry. He will come to the box the minute the +lights are turned up. + +MISS BEEBAR. + +(_Very low to Mr. Carn._) I _hate_ Eames! + +MR. CARN. + +No. (_He kisses, without sound, her bare shoulders._) + +(_Tristan and Isolde approach each other with outstretched arms. For +the first time Mrs. Morley takes her gaze from the stage. It rests upon +a dim figure in a certain seat in the Opera Club's box. Her eyes are +full of tears._) + + + + +A Perfect Day + +A Leaf from the Diary of Mrs. Herbert Dearborn, Living in Paris + + +_May --, 1897._ + +A charming, delightful day! Marie brought me my coffee at nine, as +usual, with a perfect mail. No nasty business letters from America, but +only most desirable invitations, notes full of gossip, and regrets from +the Thompsons for the expensive dinner I felt obliged to give them at +_Armenonville_, so I won't have to give it! One's old friends in +America are really rather a bother, coming to Paris in the very middle +of the season. If they came only in midsummer, when every one is away, +one would be very glad to do what one could, if one were in the city. +Of course, as far as the Thompsons themselves are concerned, I love +them. My coffee never tasted so deliciously, and Marie said I looked +unusually well after my night's rest. To be sure Marie says that every +morning; but never mind, it is always pleasant to hear the first thing +one wakes up, and I only wish I didn't have a sneaking fear that the +new Empire pink bed-hangings help a good deal. Marie sprayed the room +with my new perfume (a secret; no one else has it), laved my face in +rose-water, and then I had a wee little nap by way of a starter for the +day. After my bath I answered my mail; and then, Marie having manicured +my nails, my toilet was made. I wore, to go out, my striking blue +costume, with the hat and sun-shade to match, which always necessitates +the greatest care with the complexion. I use an entirely different +powder with this dress, and one has to be most careful about one's +cheeks. But Marie is invaluable so far as the complexion is concerned, +and I went out quite satisfied. First, to the hair-dresser's to have my +hair re-dyed, as I went to the races in the afternoon, and the light +there is very trying. Unless your hair has been dyed very lately it is +quite useless to go. My hair was never done so well. I am trying it a +very little darker, and I am almost sure I like it better. Then I went +into some shops. I think it is always a good thing to have one's +carriage seen waiting outside the smart shops often. I priced a great +many things, and had several--which I of course have no idea whatever +of buying--sent home on approval. To the dressmaker's, to try on my new +dress. It was finished; but didn't suit me. I am having entirely new +sleeves and all the trimming changed. I persuaded them it was their +fault. I had really thought I should like it that way until I saw it +completed. Then to breakfast with the Countess of ----; a charming +_dejeuner_. All the women very desirable to know and very _chicly_ +dressed, and not one looking so young for their age, I am sure, as I. +In fact, several made that remark to me. I know they say just the +opposite behind my back, but it is pleasant to hear nice things under +any circumstances. I think it is all one should ask of people, that +they should be nice to our faces. I left _dejeuner_ first, because that +makes a good impression, as if you are crowded with engagements, and +flatters your hostess, who is naturally pleased to catch a +much-sought-after guest. I really drove home to rest a little before +the races. I find taking off _everything_ and indulging in complete +relaxation, if only for ten minutes, is wonderfully refreshing, and +saves lots of _lines_! While I was resting my _masseur_ came and gave +me face massage. There is nothing like it for a wrinkle-destroyer. And +the man is a rather nice person who amuses me. I got him two new +clients at the luncheon today. As the other women said, one is only too +willing to pay extra to get a man who is good-looking. + +The races were very exciting. It was a lovely day, our coach had a fine +position, and our party was much stared at! I had the most conspicuous +seat, and did my best to become it. It isn't for me to say to myself if +I succeeded or not, but I owe it to my dress-maker to make the +statement that no one else had on a better gown. I wish that statement +was the only thing I owed him! I won forty louis; I don't know how. I +am absolutely ignorant about horses. I only go because it seems to be +the thing to do now. But I thought one of the jockeys looked rather +fetching, and so I put my money on him, and he happened to win. + +We all went for tea to Mrs. ----'s, where one of the most expensive +singers sang. But I didn't hear her, because if you go into the music +room you have to sit down in rows, and you don't see any of the people. + +I was obliged to hurry away, as my appointment with Jacques to-day was +for 6:30, and I wanted to stop at an imitation jeweller's place in the +rue de la Paix, where I had heard were some wonderful paste necklaces. +They are quite extraordinary. I ordered one, and shall never tell a +soul it's not real. I was late home, but Jacques, the dear boy, was +waiting, and seemed to me sweeter than ever this afternoon. I gave him +the cuff links I have had made for him, with his initials in rubies, +and it was too delightful to see his pleasure. I took him out to dine. +I think I will marry him. I know he is much younger than I, and all +that, but he's so sweet, and, after all, I have enough money for two. + + + + +The Westington's "Bohemian Dinner" + +A Letter + + +_The Sherwood_ + +58 West 57th St. + +My Dear Dora: + +We are just home from dining in one of the smartest houses in New York, +and I've been bored so wide awake I can't think of going to bed, so I +am sitting in my petticoat (that charming white silk, much-festooned, +and many-flounced one you brought me over from Paris) and a dressing +sack (pink, not so very unbecoming). My hair is down, but Dick doesn't +paint it any more--it's getting thin, dear!--and I've nice little +swansdown lined slippers over my best white silk-stockings. I've worn +to-night the best of everything my wardrobe affords, and I wasn't +ashamed of myself! No, I was much more ashamed of the Westingtons, and +I'm going to tell you all about it before I touch the pillow! I'm sure +you'll be amused. + +In the first place, to be honest, we were rather pleased to be asked. +There is no one smarter than the W.'s, and, besides, they are +attractive and good-looking. The truth is, we've always been anxious to +go to their house--heaven knows why, now that we've been. We are +sufficiently punished, however, for being so foolish as to be flattered +by our invitation. For, my dear, we weren't asked to a swell dinner at +all; we were invited to what was intended for a "Bohemian" affair (but +it was only a dull and ungainly one), and it was apparently taken for +granted that, as Dick painted and I hadn't millions, we were decidedly +eligible. Of course, as you know, there is no such thing as a real +Bohemia in New York. + +The dinner was given in honor (apparently) of the Hungarian pianist +Romedek and his wife. He has been an enormous success here this year, +and society has taken him up. But the trouble is with Madame Romedek; +no one is sure she _is_ Madame Romedek, and a great many people are +sure she isn't. She is a pretty, rather common-looking person, with no +particular intelligence or _esprit_. I am told she is more +communicative _under_ the table than she is over it; and I know some +men are crazy about her. Of course, she isn't a woman any of us can +stand for a moment. If Romedek were a painter we should know she'd been +his model, and be awfully sorry for him. But Romedek is a musician (a +great one--I wish you could hear him); and they say she hasn't even the +social prestige or poetic license of having been an artist's model, but +of having been something quite wrong to begin with. Naturally, you see, +some of society won't have her at any price. Those that must have _him_ +have difficulty in entertaining them. I hear one prominent woman who +was asked last week to dine and meet the Romedeks considered herself +insulted, and has struck her would-be hostess' name off her visiting +list. So you see it wasn't all plain sailing with the Westington's, and +I can hear them decide between themselves to give a "real Bohemian +dinner;" that is, ask people who "do things," and whom you sometimes do +meet out at houses where they are not particular about mixing--the kind +of people who would probably not take offense at being asked to meet +Mrs. Romedek without having her marriage certificate for their dinner +card. Of course, as you know, I don't mind being asked to meet anybody. +Thank goodness! I feel perfectly secure about my reputation, and also +about my position, which is quite good enough to please me. But there +is a difference in being asked to meet a questionable person because +that person is brilliant, or beautiful, or talented, and that therefore +you (belonging to the aristocracy of brains) will appreciate her, and, +on the other hand, being asked to meet her because you are an artist's +wife and don't mind that sort of thing. We _do_ mind it very much! We +don't even _care_ for it in geniuses--only we overlook it in a genius; +disregard it as not being our affair. But to be asked to meet a silly, +loose woman with the idea that I won't mind, almost as if I approved, I +resent that. + +However, let me tell you who was there. On Mrs. Westington's right, of +course, sat Romedek, and he is very handsome and very charming, and I +think at least Mrs. Westington enjoyed her dinner if nobody else did. +On Mrs. W.'s left was Mr. ----, who is, you know, a great swell here +and who poses as being a fast patron of the arts and graces--especially +the graces--after the pattern of a Frenchman who has his _entree_ +behind the scenes of the opera. His wife never accepts invitations that +he does; they meet, you know, under their own roof, for the sake of the +children--but under their _own_ roof only. So in her place Belle +Carterson was asked, who has gone in for keeping a swell florist's +place, and they say is making money. She is independent, and I like +her, but of course it is considered by her friends in society that +since she went in for business she can't refuse to meet _anyone_. Dick +sat next to her, and had on the other side of him Mrs. ----, who likes +celebrities without the knack of selection, and whose invitations +nowadays I believe are never accepted at once, but are kept open as +long as possible to see if something better won't turn up. Then came +Mrs. Romedek and Mr. Westington; he looking bored to death, and she as +if she didn't know where she was at. Then Bobbie Lawsher, who writes +books and operettas and things--rather amusing he is, but becoming more +and more of a snob every day. It's bad enough to see a woman straining +every nerve to get into society, but when you see a man it's worse than +ridiculous. I met him at a smart party the other night, and he stuck by +me for hours, asking who everybody was till I lost my patience and told +him I couldn't be a Blue Book for him or anybody, and he would either +have to dance with me at once or go to some one else with his +questions. I never knew any one who could bring in the names of as many +smart people in one short remark as Bobbie can. If you happen to ask +him what time it is, you could make a wager that, in his answer, in a +perfectly natural way, he will mention familiarly three smart society +women (calling one at least by her first name). Of course he does get +asked a great deal, because he's little more than a snub-cushion--holds +any amount of them as easily as pins. Besides he goes to afternoon +bores, like Teas and At Homes and Days, for which free and untrammelled +men can only be obtained by subterfuge and trick or some extraordinary +bribe. To a young man like Bobbie Lawsher afternoon affairs are a sort +of happy hunting ground, a social grab bag, where he can never be sure +there isn't a dinner invitation, or one for the opera, or a luncheon, +to be secured if one is clever and careful. Why, when a woman has a man +guest back out at the last moment from a dinner, the first thing she +does is to rush off to any At Home, that's going on, with the fairly +confident expectation of finding Bobbie Lawsher and making him fill her +vacancy. Bobbie has accomplishments of a certain sort, can sing a +pretty little song in a pretty little way, and can pass a tea cup +without spilling, and drink tea himself, and can hang around when he's +wanted, and be got rid of easily when he isn't. He is a sort of society +errand boy, and very useful. I take it back about his having +accomplishments--a better word for them is _conveniences_! + +Well, on the other side of Bobbie was Mrs. ----, red in the face, so +angry she was asked to meet Madame Romedek, talking with poor Bobbie in +a sharp, spasmodic sort of way, as if she were carrying on the +conversation with her knife and fork, cutting the sentences into bits, +some ignoring and some eating,--and none agreeing with her, or she +agreeing with none. Then George Ringold asked, I suppose, for me. I am +quite aware that women who are indiscreet themselves think there is +"more than meets the eye" between George and me. I am very fond of him, +and so is Dick. And he has kissed me, and Dick knows it; but I am sure +I need not tell you that is all. On the other side was Romedek, and +perhaps I ought to feel complimented, but as, thanks to Mrs. +Westington, we didn't succeed in carrying on to a finish any single +conversation we started, I don't allow myself to be too flattered. + +Mrs. W. talked music, of course--the commonplaces of it--such as any +well-bred, smart, educated woman of the world knows how to talk +nowadays, with perhaps just one good, big, absurd mistake thrown +in,--thus, by the grace of humor keeping banality from becoming +absolutely fatal. Madame Romedek was rather amusing. She tried to be +the lady--which, as she doesn't know how, and only succeeds in being +impossibly stupid, must have bored the men on each side of her +tremendously. That's where foolish women of that sort spoil their own +game. If they would make the best of the bargain, and be frankly a +common cocotte _gone right_, they would certainly be more amusing, +and might have something like success, at any rate with the men. + +The food was excellent, the wine good, the house lovely! And as soon +after dinner as was at all decent, we left. We decided in the cab on +our way home, from no point of view had it paid,--financially least of +all; for our dinner in the restaurant, with all our jolly friends, +would have cost us only seventy-five cents, while our cab bill for the +evening was three dollars. As for having had a good time, there was +only one person there who had that--Mrs. Westington herself. I believe +even the servants must have been bored by the dinner, unless, perhaps, +Madame Romedek flirted with _them_; which I should think extremely +likely. + +I am getting sleepy now, of which fact my letter undoubtedly bears +"internal evidence." So good night and sweet dreams to you, and none to +me--I don't like them! + +Write me what you are doing in Paris. I am sure your husband will have +his usual great success in the Champ de Mars. We are all very proud of +him. + +With love, dear Dora, + +GUENNE BARROWS. + + + + +The Gamblers + + + I. Madame Eugenie Leblanche, veuve, age 62 years. + II. Mlle. Nina and Mlle. Fifi. +III. Mrs. Henry B. Gording and Mrs. Wm. H. Lane. + IV. Mme. Borte and Mme. Lautre. + + + + +I + +_The Baccarat Table in the Villa des Fleurs, Aix-les-Bains._ + +MADAME EUGENIE LEBLANCHE, _veuve_. + +(_A large, stout lady in black satin and brocade, violet-colored +face-powder, and a reddish blonde display underneath a questionable +bonnet. She wears a somewhat profuse and miscellaneous display of +jewels, principally diamonds dull as the eyes of dissipation. She holds +her chips in large loose white cotton gloves that reach to her elbow. +Her lips, compressed together, move constantly, with a sort of excited +switch-back motion._) + +(_To herself._) I wonder who has the cards. Oh, it's that monsieur +there, I see. Not good! I will only place two louis. (_She asks the +gentleman in front of her to place them for her. He does so._) No, I am +wrong, I will put three. (_She asks the gentleman to place a third +louis for her. In doing so the chip rolls from his fingers; he +immediately recaptures it and places it properly._) Monsieur, monsieur, +if you please. Return me my louis, if you please! I never play a louis +that has rolled on the table. That would bring us bad fortune, you +would see! Thank you, thank you very much. (_To herself again._) I am +sorry I did not ask him to hand me back two. We are going to lose! Good +heavens! it is sure we lose! Ah, the cards! Bad, that's sure! O, what +emotion! O good heavens! Seven! But the bank! No, we gain! O---- O good +heavens! Good heavens! what emotion! We gain! What a misfortune I +didn't leave the extra louis! It is disgusting! I regret it now. O, I +regret it very much! But it is always like that with me! Are we going +to be paid? I don't think so! No, we won't be paid! It is always like +that; when one loses one is taken, and when one wins one is never paid! +O good heavens! Now he will pay our side. After all there ought to be +enough money. O yes, yes, we will be paid! All the better! Two louis +for me if you please, thank you. Monsieur, I am sorry to trouble you to +give me my four louis! No, no, you haven't given me enough! I put down +two louis. O yes, you are right. Pardon me, I didn't understand; yes, I +have four. Thank you very much. You are very kind. (_To herself +again._) I am paid! After all, I am paid! So much the better! What +emotion! I will play two louis again; no, three; no, two; no, one must +have courage. Monsieur, if you please, will you have the kindness to +place my four louis on the table? Thank you very much! (_To herself +again._) But, if I lose! and I will lose. Good heavens! O---- what +emotion! (_Etc., etc._) + + + + +II + + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Young, very beautiful, in an exquisite gown from Laferiere, with +gorgeous jewels and a wonderful hat._) + +Who is the banker? + +MLLE. FIFI. + +(_Equally charming, as magnificently jeweled, and as exquisitely +gowned; also a chapeau of wonderful birds, such as never sang in any +wood._) + +He? He is an old Russian. He has millions and millions, my dear! + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Raising her eyebrows and regarding the banker affectionately._) +Really? + +MLLE. FIFI. + +Yes, yes; and he is a perfect gentleman. He gave Lala of the Vaudeville +three strings of pearls in two days. He is very generous and +altogether nice. + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Jealously._) Do you know him? + +MLLE. FIFI. + +O no, my dear; he is not my style. You know I never like a gentleman +who parts his hair on the left side. It's my fad. + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Very pleasantly._) Have you won to-night, dearie? + +MLLE. FIFI. + +Ah, yes, my dear! _Think!_ two thousand francs already! + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Very sweetly, moving away._) So much the better. I've lost like the +devil. (_She very slowly makes a detour of the table in the direction +of the Russian banker. At the same time an elderly gentleman approaches +Mlle. Fifi and speaks to her._) + +LE MONSIEUR. + +Good evening, my dear! + +MLLE. FIFI. + +Good evening, my pig of a Prince! + +LE MONSIEUR. + +You have won? + +MLLE. FIFI. + +Oh, but _no_, my dear! I have lost _enormously_! It is _terrible_ what +I've done! I have lost nearly _all_ I have! + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Who has just arrived behind the banker, leaning over his shoulder +and watching him win an enormous coup._) Ah, ha! You see, Monsieur, +I bring you good fortune always! + +THE BANKER. + +I didn't know you were behind me, mademoiselle. (_He looks up. She +smiles sweetly and innocently. He is pleased._) + +MLLE. NINA. + +Oh, yes, for a long time! + +THE BANKER. + +You don't play? + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_With a manner altogether modest, and a soft, low voice._) Oh, no; +never! I have nothing to risk; besides, it doesn't amuse me very much. +I never play. + +THE BANKER. + +Put on that hundred francs just to try your fortune. + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Leaning over, takes the note from the pile._) If you wish it. (_She +plays and wins; brushes his cheek and shoulder with her arm as she +reaches over to take up her money._) + +(_The play continues._) + +MLLE. NINA. + +(_Still winning._) You know you are very nice. (_She plays again with a +note from the banker's pile._) + + + + +III + + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING, _of Rochester, New York._ + +Do you play? + +MRS. WM. H. LANE, _of Brooklyn_. + +No, not really. I don't quite approve of it, but I just try my luck +once in awhile for amusement. + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +Yes, that's exactly the way I feel. So long as you don't go in for it +seriously I don't see any harm. + +MRS. WM. H. LANE. + +And if you stop as soon as you begin to lose. + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +Yes, indeed! Oh my! are you putting one down? + +MRS. WM. H. LANE. + +Yes, I think that man looks lucky over there with the glasses; besides +I like him because his wife sits right by him all the evening. + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +(_Smiling nervously and fumbling in her glove where she has concealed +the money to have it conveniently ready._) Put one down for me, too; +will you? (_She smiles hysterically._) Dear me, I wonder what my +husband would say if he could see me? + +MRS. WM. H. LANE. + +I don't know a single thing about the game; do you? + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +(_With two small red spots coming into her cheeks._) Not the slightest. +It's finished! I wonder who's won! + +MRS. WM. LANE. + +(_After a long excited sigh._) I don't know. I never can tell till I +see them either taking up our chips, or else paying us! + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +(_Breathlessly._) If I lose, I shall go. + +MRS. WM. H. LANE. + +So shall I! We've won! + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +Ah! -- -- -- --. + +MRS. WM. H. LANE. + +(_Looking at least ten years older than she did two minutes before._) +No, we've lost! + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +O! -- -- -- --. + +MRS. WM. H. LANE. + +I'm not going. I shall try once more! + +MRS. HENRY B. GORDING. + +So shall I. + +MRS. WM. H. LANE. + +And I don't believe the woman is that man's wife after all. If she had +been we wouldn't have lost our dollars! + + + + +IV + + +MME. BORTE. + +(_Leaning over a man's right shoulder for some gold on the table._) I +beg pardon; that is my two louis! + +MME. LAUTRE. + +(_Leaning over the man's left shoulder._) But no, madame, it is mine! I +put a louis down there! + +MME. BORTE. + +No, no! That is where I put mine. Give me my louis! + +MME. LAUTRE. + +But you are wrong, madame; it is my louis, and I shall keep it! + +MME. BORTE. + +But no, madame! + +MME. LAUTRE. + +But yes----! + +THREE WOMEN BESIDE MME. BORTE. + +Yes, madame is right. She certainly put a louis down there. + +THE SAME NUMBER OF WOMEN BESIDE MME. LAUTRE. + +No, it is the other madame who put the money down there. + +A MAN ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE TABLE. + +Ssss---- + +UN MONSIEUR. + +Oh, the women! the women!--always rowing! + +CROUPIER. + +Make your plays, gentlemen! + +MME. LAUTRE AND MME. BORTE. + +(_Together; each to her own coterie._) You know perfectly it is my +louis; isn't it? Oh, never in my life! Never! never! + +(_The game continues, and so does the discussion._) + + + + +PRINTED AT THE LAKESIDE PRESS, +CHICAGO, FOR THE PUBLISHERS, +HERBERT S. STONE & CO. 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