Lady Baltimore

d been shut, Juno had now opened it sufficiently wide for a number of facts to come crowding in, so to speak, abreast. Indeed, their simultaneous arrival was not a little conf

goods some few days before he was to pronounce his bridegroom's vow. So here, at Mrs. Trevise's dinner-table, I caught for one moment, to the full, a vision of the unhappy boy's plight; he was sticking to a task which he loathed that he might support a wife whom he no longer desired. Such, as he saw it, was his duty; and nobody, not even a soul of his kin or his kind, gave him a word or a thought of understanding, gave him anything except the cold shoulder. Yes; from one soul he had got a sign--from aged Daddy Ben, at the churchyard gate; and amid my jostling surmises and conclusions, that quaint speech of the old negro, that little act of fidelity and affection from the heart of a black man, took on a strange pathos in its isolation amid the general harshness of his white superiors. Over this it was that I was pausing when, all in a second, perplexity again ruled my meditations. Juno had said that the engagement was broken. Well, if that were the case--But was it likely to be the case? Juno's agreeable habit, a habit grown familiar to all of us in the house,

it must be going on everywhere to-day! If Kings Port tongues had been set in motion over me and my small notebook in a library, the whole town must be buzzing over every bruise given and taken in this evidently emphatic battle. I had hoped to glean some more precise information from my fellow-boarders after Juno had disembarrassed us of her sonorous presence; but even if they were possessed of all the facts which I lacked, Mrs. Trevise in

age even earlier than the bud, revealed to me that perhaps my

"Did I understand you to say, sir, that Mr. Ma

s. Trevise, "Mr. Hender

on my side had been asked no questions, since I most likely knew less than the others who had heard all that Juno had to say; and it would have been humiliating, a

oubles. There had been that single, quickly controlled outbreak about his position in the Custom House, and also he had let fall that touching word concerning his faith and his liking t

defeating and recalcitrant shapes, and of hostile materials--glass and brass--and I must have a larger box made, and in that case I would buy this afternoon the other kettle-supporter (I forget its right name) and have the whole lot decently packed. Take orders from a colored man? Have him give you directions, dictate you letters, discipline you if you were unpunctual? No, indeed! And if such were my feeling, how must this young Southerner feel? With this in my mind, I made sure that the part in my back hair was right, and after that precaution soon found m

, were evidently coming from a visit. As the tall one bowed to me I recognized Mrs. Gregory St. Michael, and took off my hat. It was not until they had crossed the street and come up the stone steps near where I stood on High Walk that the little lady also bowed to me; she was Mrs. Weguelin St. Michael, and from something in her prim yet charming manner I gathered that she held it to be not perfectly well-bred in a lady to gr

they took the air, Mrs. Gregory must surely have shocked Mrs. Weguelin b

s bargain in t

th, even your back, as we came out o

to some thinkin

, smiling: "Ladies first, you know. At l

le a setting down had lurked, a setting down of the most delicate nature, administered to me not in the least be

n saying during our visit across the way--and with which you are not going to agree--that our young peo

dea

ot agree; but that is be

hat twenty-eigh

hose her moments to follow the lead very aptly. I also perceived plainly that what we were really going to discuss was not at all the European principle of marriage-making, but just simply young John and his Hortense; they were the true kernel of the nut with whose concealing shell Mrs. Gregory was presenting me, and in proposing an exchange of thoughts she would get back only more thought

the young people of to-day believe they can all 'teach t

ewhere, too,"

homely saws which we brought from England. But do you imagine that if the control of marriage rested in the hands of paren

s. St. M

ue when we invited you to wa

swer the question," said

opinion that a boy who has never been married is a

avely and worthily gone through with

But we're ahead of Europe; we do

rt. "I shall be interested to learn of anyth

e fashionable young. They don't need any parents to arran

city? I scarce

not follow you." But her softness nevertheless indicated that

an exquisite little girl of six say to a little boy, 'Go away; I can't dance with you, because my mamma says your mamma only keeps a maid to answer the doorbell.' When they get home from the dan

ead the papers?" int

sted; she would no more marry a mere half-millionaire just because she loved him than she would appear twice in the same ball-dress. She and her ball-dresses are described in the papers precisely as if she were an animal at a show--which indeed is what she has become; and she's eager to be thus described, because she and her mother--even if her mother was once a lady and knew better--are haunted by one perpetual, sickening fear, the fear of being left out. And if you desire to pay correct

quite different things. It was with expectancy that Mrs. Gregory looked at me--she wanted more. Not so Mrs. Weguelin; she gave me disapproval; it was shadowed in h

le lady's next words, coldly murmured, in

hat we are not accustome

un to tell you!" I

id Mrs. Gregory, "how your 'precocit

t is--well, provincial--not to h

her eyes, but Mrs. W

sons, like it. Only last summer, in Newport, a young boy

regory. "Vice-father is

Weguelin, "how can you

young gentleman, and what answer di

n his own quite expressive idiom), 'Me for two fathers! Double mo

heard the stiff little rustle which the palmettos were making across the street; even these trees, you mi

last boy's language, but what did the other boy mean about

oval in Mrs. Weguelin's dark eyes; and my sins--for they

ked this word in scorn immeasurable)--"are such su

ily. "Everythin

raid you must feel us to be very old-fa

rejoice

ects," she pursued, "seem to us so grave that if we permit our

ne in which no familiarity was allowed to breed contempt. To her good taste, there were things in the world which had, apparently, to exist, but which one banished from drawing-room discussion as one conceals from sight the kitchen and outhouses; one dealt with them only when necessity compelled, and never in small-tal

rversely moved me to be more flippant than I actually felt; and I promised myself that

Mrs. Weguelin, "we must ask hi

xterous. "But I like it so much!" I exc

a fable. "You'll find us

then, there'll be no cat!" And thi

hanging the whole to an unexpected new color. The unexpected new color was, in this instance, merely wh

et at the harbor. "I wonder if any

who is enjoying himself very much on land." It was a strong tempt

egory. "Possibly a

hat he may be coming to Kings Port--to attend M

t about the engagement being broken, and I looked hard at the ladies as my words fairly grazed the "cat." Th

wing, you mean," Mrs

d again?

time. "General Rieppe. L

ilarious thought, which I instantly put to the ladies. "If the poor Gen

egory declared. And then she pronounced a sentence that wa

on than she had so far employed at all: "There is a

uelin St. Michael to do my perceptions a slight injustice, and she had no intention that I should m

o come here in an automobile," said Mrs. W

ing traditions, probably think it more respectable to approach Kings Port in a wheelbarrow, I was abs

er to come and see for herself,"

censorious and superior expression. "You'll remember, Julia, t

o at any time approved of taking such

hey quite resembled, for all the help and lig

, this very morning, repeated her eternal assertion th

lin, "rates few things more

he is often right when she

d I said, "I heard to-day that Mis

hear that nonsense?

ped, and I t

a boarding-house. Indeed, that would

Miss Rieppe is

each, where the air was said t

have every reason to believe that s

e. Of course, I saw that Miss Rieppe was, almost too grossly and obviously, "playing for time"; the health of people's fathers did not cause weekly extensions of this sort. But what was it that the young lady expected time to effect for her? Her release, formally, by her young man, on the ground of his worldly ill fortune? Or was it for an offer from the owner of the Hermana that she was waiting, before she should take the step of formally releasing John Mayrant? No, neither of these conjectures seemed to furnish a key to the tactics of Miss Rieppe and the theory that eac

hether she wants to

hat is just what she is c

r his phosphates only--!"

erate ladies to consult each other's expressions. They

be done, I should think, quite as cleverl

her, who headed me off. "Have you been able to

omes near any o

that he has taken a fancy to you, an

essions should drop from my lips here, to be quoted and misquoted and battledored and shuttlecocked, until it reached the boy himself (as it

ng for something to drop. "Shake

ou wouldn't be likely to have heard of that yet. It occurred only before dinner to-day. But we have also talked optimism, p

gs Port (where we still have reverence, at any rate), he fit would imbibe all the sh

guelin murmurous

she declared gayly; and it set me doubting if perhaps she hadn't, after all, comprehended my impertine

and all "isms" were new-fangled inventions and murky with offense; to touch them was defilement, and in disclosing them to John Ma

wish John to

erence of generations past, and solicitous for the boy of the young generation. I saw her eyes soften at the thought of

s 'present stubborn course' I su

with him. And after that, Miss Josephine felt obliged to tell him that he need not c

ne St. Michael's act of discipline. This, it must have been, that the boy had checked himself from telling me in the churchyard. What a character of sterner times was Miss Josephine! I tho

hem if you had the negro to deal with as we have him. Miss Josep

discoveries. "What!" I excl

ncounter, in fact--in which John Mayrant fittingly punished one who had presumed. Upon hearing

" I cried in my delight over

breach between his family and that of the other young man. John held back--who would not, after such an insult?--but Miss Josephine was firm, and he has promised

ow," I now suggested, "that you have forgotten

entleman! and was

me. If a young man does not really wish to marry a young woman there a

y, "of course; gayetie

not above them," I

Gregory returned. "Kings Port has

be said, Maria, that John's irregularities have

ry, "no Mayrant was e

Weguelin, "would not be estranged by an masc

ggested. "If he should flagran

y. "That answers very well w

since phosphates

mma," Mrs. Gregory then said slowly, "if s

ust be worthy for the sake of a community even before he was worthy for his own sake. Thus he might amuse himself--it was in the code that princely heirs so should pour se deniaiser, as they neatly put it in Paris--thus might he and must he fight when his dignity was assailed; but thus might he not marry outside certain lines prescribed, or depart from his circle's established creeds, divine and social, especially to hold any position which (to borrow Mrs. Gregory's phrase) "reflected ig

my arrival: all these old people were clustered about one young one. That was it; that was the town's ultimate tragic note: the old timber of the forest dying and the too sparse new growth appearing scantily amid the tall, fine, venerable, decaying trunks. It had been by no razing to the ground and sowing with salt that the city had perished;

and his energetic adolescence? If the Custom House galled him, the whole country was open to him; why not have tried his fortune out and away, over the hills, where the new cities lie, all full of future and empty of past? Was it much to

not ever say to them a word which might mean, however indirectly, that I thought their beautiful, cherished town no place for a young man to go to seed in; this cut so close to the quick of truth that discour

hare the family b

she has no f

s performance would

does not re

dly, in colo

re there was doubtless no pick for the poor fellow.

ed something more behind, which her next words duly revealed

nly not

ing me again; but they had

rant has marr

onded. "John is the youn

rd of the bro

saw fit to leave their home

O

regory, "met his respon

lded to," said Mrs. Weguelin, "h

od how George could be so forgetful of their mother) wrote twice, offerin

hard!" I

erself, "John's mother, Mrs. Hector Mayrant, had harder things than for

lmost like a strange severity beneath her gentle tone: "Therefore we are proud of John

Gregory, "we prize those

iment, I quoted some French to

cultivation to us," she said. "In these tumble-down days it is rare to meet with one w

and I repaid it with a joke. "Take care. Those who

ghted lady, "they'd

e Bostonian's remark--'The mission of

so totally with a Bostoni

For refinement and thoroughness and tradition delay progress

ry. "The young gentleman is getting

es when it turns to look at Kings Port. For, first, it sees the blue frame of quiet sunny water, and the white town within its frame beneath the clear, untainted air; and then it sees the high-slanted roofs, red with their old corrugated tiles, and the tops of leafy enclosures dipping below sight among quaint and huddled quadrangles; and, next, the quiet houses standing in their separate grounds, their narrow ends to the street and their long, two-storied galleries open to the south, but their h

ay at the glimpse I had of their kindness. For during a pelting cold rainstorm, as I sat and shivered in a Royal Street car, waiting for it to start upon its north-bound course, the house-door opposite which we stood at the end of the track opened, and Mrs. Weguelin's head appeared, nodding to the conductor as she sent her black servant out with hot coffee for him! He t

nductor answering your questions with careful directions! It is not New York's fault, it is merely New York's misfortune: New York is in a hurry; and