CHAPTER VIII.
SHARES LOOKING UP.
There were others who echoed her ladyship's words afterward, though theyechoed them privately, and with more caution than my lady felt necessary.It is certain that Miss Octavia Bassett did not improve as timeprogressed, and she had enlarged opportunities for studying the nobleexample set before her by Slowbridge.
On his arrival in New York, Martin Bassett telegraphed to his daughterand sister, per Atlantic cable, informing them that he might be detaineda couple of months, and bidding them to be of good cheer. The arrival ofthe message in its official envelope so alarmed Miss Belinda, that shewas supported by Mary Anne while it was read to her by Octavia, whoreceived it without any surprise whatever. For some time after itscompletion, Slowbridge had privately disbelieved in the Atlantic cable,and, until this occasion, had certainly disbelieved in the existence ofpeople who received messages through it. In fact, on first finding thatshe was the recipient of such a message, Miss Belinda had made immediatepreparations for fainting quietly away, being fully convinced that ashipwreck had occurred, which had resulted in her brother's death, andthat his executors had chosen this delicate method of breaking the news.
"A message by Atlantic cable?" she had gasped. "Don't--don't read it, mylove. L-let some one else do that. Poor--poor child! Trust in Providence,my love, and--and bear up. Ah, how I wish I had a stronger mind, andcould be of more service to you!"
"It's a message from father," said Octavia. "Nothing is the matter. He'sall right. He got in on Saturday."
"Ah!" panted Miss Belinda. "Are you _quite_ sure, my dear--are you quitesure?"
"That's what he says. Listen."
"Got in Saturday. Piper met me. Shares looking up. May be kept here twomonths. Will write. Keep up your spirits. MARTIN BASSETT."
"Thank Heaven!" sighed Miss Belinda. "Thank Heaven!"
"Why?" said Octavia.
"Why?" echoed Miss Belinda. "Ah, my dear, if you knew how terrified Iwas! I felt sure that something had happened. A _cable_ message, my dear!I never received a telegram in my life before, and to receive a _cable_message was really a _shock_."
"Well, I don't see why," said Octavia. "It seems to me it is pretty muchlike any other message."
Miss Belinda regarded her timidly.
"Does your papa _often_ send them?" she inquired. "Surely it must beexpensive."
"I don't suppose it's cheap," Octavia replied, "but it saves time andworry. I should have had to wait twelve days for a letter."
"Very true," said Miss Belinda, "but"--
She broke off with rather a distressed shake of the head. Her simpleideas of economy and quiet living were frequently upset in these times.She had begun to regard her niece with a slight feeling of awe; and yetOctavia had not been doing any thing at all remarkable in her own eyes,and considered her life pretty dull.
If the elder Miss Bassett, her parents and grandparents, had not been sothoroughly well known, and so universally respected; if their socialposition had not been so firmly established, and their quiet lives notquite so highly respectable,--there is an awful possibility thatSlowbridge might even have gone so far as not to ask Octavia out to teaat all. But even Lady Theobald felt that it would not do to slightBelinda Bassett's niece and guest. To omit the customary state teaswould have been to crush innocent Miss Belinda at a blow, and placeher--through the medium of this young lady, who alone deservedcondemnation--beyond the pale of all social law.
"It is only to be regretted," said her ladyship, "that Belinda Bassetthas not arranged things better. Relatives of such an order are certainlyto be deplored."
In secret Lucia felt much soft-hearted sympathy for both Miss Bassett andher guest. She could not help wondering how Miss Belinda becameresponsible for the calamity which had fallen upon her. It really did notseem probable that she had been previously consulted as to the kind ofniece she desired, or that she had, in a distinct manner, evinced apreference for a niece of this description.
"Perhaps, dear grandmamma," the girl ventured, "it is because MissOctavia Bassett is so young that"--
"May I ask," inquired Lady Theobald, in fell tones, "how old you are?"
"I was nineteen in--in December."
"Miss Octavia Bassett," said her ladyship, "was nineteen last October,and it is now June. I have not yet found it necessary to apologize foryou on the score of youth."
But it was her ladyship who took the initiative, and set an evening forentertaining Miss Belinda and her niece, in company with several otherladies, with the best bohea, thin bread and butter, plum-cake, andvarious other delicacies.
"What do they do at such places?" asked Octavia. "Half-past five ispretty early."
"We spend some time at the tea-table, my dear," explained Miss Belinda."And afterward we--we converse. A few of us play whist. I do not. I feelas if I were not clever enough, and I get flurried too easily by--bydifferences of opinion."
"I should think it wasn't very exciting," said Octavia. "I don't fancyI ever went to an entertainment where they did nothing but drink tea,and talk."
"It is not our intention or desire to be exciting, my dear," Miss Belindareplied with mild dignity. "And an improving conversation is frequentlymost beneficial to the parties engaged in it."
"I'm afraid," Octavia observed, "that I never heard much improvingconversation."
She was really no fonder of masculine society than the generality ofgirls; but she could not help wondering if there would be any young menpresent, and if, indeed, there were any young men in Slowbridge who mightpossibly be produced upon festive occasions, even though ordinarily keptin the background. She had not heard Miss Belinda mention any masculinename so far, but that of the curate of St. James's; and, when she hadseen him pass the house, she had not found his slim, black figure, andfaint, ecclesiastic whiskers, especially interesting.
It must be confessed that Miss Belinda suffered many pangs of anxiety inlooking forward to her young kinswoman's first appearance in society. Atea at Lady Theobald's house constituted formal presentation to theSlowbridge world. Each young lady within the pale of genteel society,having arrived at years of discretion, on returning home fromboarding-school, was invited to tea at Oldclough Hall. During an entireevening she was the subject of watchful criticism. Her deportment wasremarked, her accomplishments displayed, she performed her last new"pieces" upon the piano, she was drawn into conversation by her hostess;and upon the timid modesty of her replies, and the reverence of herlistening attitudes, depended her future social status. So it was verynatural indeed that Miss Belinda should be anxious.
"I would wear something rather quiet and--and simple, my dear Octavia,"she said. "A white muslin perhaps, with blue ribbons."
"Would you?" answered Octavia. Then, after appearing to reflect upon thematter a few seconds, "I've got one that would do, if it's warm enoughto wear it. I bought it in New York, but it came from Paris. I've neverworn it yet."
"It would be nicer than any thing else, my love," said Miss Belinda,delighted to find her difficulty so easily disposed of. "Nothing is socharming in the dress of a young girl as pure simplicity. Our Slowbridgeyoung ladies rarely wear any thing but white for evening. Miss Chickieassured me, a few weeks ago, that she had made fifteen white-muslindresses, all after one simple design of her own."
"I shouldn't think that was particularly nice, myself," remarked Octaviaimpartially. "I should be glad one of the fifteen didn't belong to me. Ishould feel as if people might say, when I came into a room, 'Goodgracious, there's another!'"
"The first was made for Miss Lucia Gaston, who is Lady Theobald's niece,"replied Miss Belinda mildly. "And there are few young ladies inSlowbridge who would not emulate her example."
"Oh!" said Octavia, "I dare say she is very nice, and all that; but Idon't believe I should care to copy her dresses. I think I should drawthe line there."
But she said it without any ill-nature; and, sensitive as Miss Belindawas upon the subject of her cherished ideals, she could not
take offence.
When the eventful evening arrived, there was excitement in more than oneestablishment upon High Street and the streets in its vicinity. Thestories of the diamonds, the gold-diggers, and the silver-mines, had beenadded to, and embellished, in the most ornate and startling manner. Itwas well known that only Lady Theobald's fine appreciation of MissBelinda Bassett's feelings had induced her to extend her hospitalities tothat lady's niece.
"I would prefer, my dear," said more than one discreet matron to herdaughter, as they attired themselves,--"I would much prefer that youwould remain near me during the earlier part of the evening, before weknow how this young lady may turn out. Let your manner toward her bekind, but not familiar. It is well to be upon the safe side."
What precise line of conduct it was generally anticipated that thisgold-digging and silver-mining young person would adopt, it would bedifficult to say: it is sufficient that the general sentiments regardingher were of a distrustful, if not timorous, nature.
To Miss Bassett, who felt all this in the very air she breathed, thegirl's innocence of the condition of affairs was even a little touching.With all her splendor, she was not at all hard to please, and had quiteawakened to an interest in the impending social event. She seemed in goodspirits, and talked more than was her custom, giving Miss Belinda graphicdescriptions of various festal gatherings she had attended in New York,when she seemed to have been very gay indeed, and to have worn verybeautiful dresses, and also to have had rather more than her share ofpartners. The phrases she used, and the dances she described, were allstrange to Miss Belinda, and tended to reducing her to a bewilderedcondition, in which she felt much timid amazement at the intrepidity ofthe New-York young ladies, and no slight suspicion of the "German"--as atheatrical kind of dance, involving extraordinary figures, and anextraordinary amount of attention from partners of the stronger sex.
It must be admitted, however, that by this time, notwithstanding thevarious shocks she had received, Miss Belinda had begun to discover inher young guest divers good qualities which appealed to heraffectionate and susceptible old heart. In the first place, the girlhad no small affectations: indeed, if she had been less unaffected shemight have been less subject to severe comment. She was good-natured,and generous to extravagance. Her manner toward Mary Anne never ceasedto arouse Miss Belinda to interest. There was not any condescensionwhatever in it, and yet it could not be called a vulgarly familiarmanner: it was rather an astonishingly simple manner, somehowsuggestive of a subtile recognition of Mary Anne's youth, and ill-luckin not having before her more lively prospects. She gave Mary Annepresents in the shape of articles of clothing at which Slowbridgewould have exclaimed in horror if the recipient had dared to wear them;but, when Miss Belinda expressed her regret at these indiscretions,Octavia was quite willing to rectify her mistakes.
"Ah, well!" she said, "I can give her some money, and she can buy somethings for herself." Which she proceeded to do; and when, under hermistress's direction, Mary Anne purchased a stout brown merino, she tookquite an interest in her struggles at making it.
"I wouldn't make it so short in the waist and so full in the skirt, if Iwere you," she said. "There's no reason why it shouldn't fit, you know,"thereby winning the house-maiden's undying adoration, and adding much tothe shapeliness of the garment.
"I am sure she has a good heart," Miss Belinda said to herself, as thedays went by. "She is like Martin in that. I dare say she finds me veryignorant and silly. I often see in her face that she is unable tounderstand my feeling about things; but she never seems to laugh at me,nor think of me unkindly. And she is very, very pretty, though perhaps Iought not to think of that at all."