Part 48 (2/2)

”Such as it was--a miserable pretence. For heaven's sake, let's have this over and settle down. I only wish it were Carrie's wedding; then we might hope for a rest.”

”Until Julie comes out--she's nearly fourteen. But you ought to be ashamed, when we've been working like Turks. Eugenia cut up every bit of the chicken salad and Emma Carr made the mayonnaise--she makes the most delicious you ever tasted. Aren't those candelabra visions? Emma lent them to me, and Mrs. Randolph sent her oriental lamps. There's the bell now! It must be Eugie's extra forks; she said she'd send them as soon as she got home.”

”Good Lord!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Galt feebly. ”You are as great at borrowing as the children of Israel.”

His comments were cut short by the entrance of Eugenia's silver basket, accompanied by an enormous punch bowl, which she sent word she had remembered at the last moment.

”Bless her heart!” exclaimed Juliet. ”She forgets nothing; but I hope that bowl won't get broken, it is one somebody brought the general from China fifty years ago. Eugie is so careless. She invited the children to tea the other afternoon and I found her giving them jam on those old Tucker Royal Worcester plates.”

She broke off an instant to draw Galt into the reception rooms, where her eyes roved sharply over the decorations.

”They look lovely, don't they?” she inquired, rearranging a bowl of American Beauty roses. ”I got that new man to do them Mrs. Carrington told me about--Yes, Carrie, I'm coming! Why, I declare, I haven't seen the baby since breakfast. Unnatural mother!”

And she rushed off to the nursery, followed by Galt.

An hour later she was in the drawing-room again, her fair hair caught back from her plump cheeks, her white bosom s.h.i.+ning through soft falls of lace.

”I wonder how a man feels who isn't married to a beauty,” remarked Galt, watching her matronly vanity dimple beneath his gaze. He was as much her lover as he had been more than twenty years ago when pretty Juliet Burwell had put back her wedding veil to meet his kiss. The very exactions of her petted nature had served to keep alive the pa.s.sion of his youth; she demanded service as her right, and he yielded it as her due. The unflinching shrewdness of his professional character, the hardness of his business beliefs, had never entered into the atmosphere of his home. Juliet possessed to a degree that pervasive womanliness which vanquishes mankind. After twenty years of married life in which Galt had learned her limitations and her minor sins of temperament, he was not able to face her stainless bosom or to meet her pure eyes without believing her to be a saint. In his heart he knew Sally Burwell to be a n.o.bler woman than Juliet, and yet he never found himself regarding Sally through an outward and visible veil of her virtues.

Even Tom Ba.s.sett, who was married to her, had lost the lover in the husband, as his emotions had matured into domestic sentiment. Galt had seen Sally wrestle for a day with one of her father's headaches, to be rewarded by less grat.i.tude than Juliet would receive for the mere laying of a white finger on his temple--Sally's services were looked upon by those who loved her best as one of the daily facts of life; Juliet's came always as an additional bounty.

To Galt himself, the different developments of the two women had become a source of almost humorous surprise. After her marriage Sally had sunk her future into Tom's; Galt had submerged his own in Juliet's. Behind Tom's not too remarkable success Galt had seen always Sally's quicker wit and more active nature; to his own ambitions, his love for Juliet had been the r.e.t.a.r.ding influence. He had been called ”insanely aspiring”

in his profession, and yet he had sacrificed his career without a murmur for the sake of his wife's health. He had sundered his professional interests in New York that he might see the colour rebloom in her cheek, and neither he nor she had questioned that the loss was justified. In return she had rendered him a jealous loyalty and an absorbing wifehood, and he had found his happiness apart from his ambition.

Now she dimpled as he looked at her and he pinched her cheek.

”The mother of six children!” he exclaimed; ”they're changelings.” He looked at Carrie, who was flitting nervously from room to room.

”It's a shame she didn't take after you,” he added. ”She carries the curse of my chin.”

”She's splendid!” protested Juliet. ”I never had such a figure in my life; Sally says so. Carrie is a new woman, that's the difference.”

”But the old lady's good enough for me,” finished Galt triumphantly; then he melted towards his daughter. ”I dare say she's stunning,” he observed. ”Come here, Carrie, and bear witness that you're as handsome as your parents.”

Carrie floated up, a straight, fine figure in white organdie, her smooth hair s.h.i.+ning like satin as it rolled from her brow. Her mouth and chin were too strong for beauty, but she was frank and clean and fresh to look at.

”Oh, I am just like you,” she declared, ”and I'm not half so pretty as mamma. There's the bell. Somebody's coming!”

There was a rustle of women's skirts on the way upstairs, and in a moment several light-coloured gowns were fringed by the palms in the doorway.

When the governor entered, several hours later, the rooms were filled with warmth and laughter and the vague perfume of women's dresses mingled with the odour of American Beauty roses. An old-fas.h.i.+oned polka was in the air, and beyond the furthest doorway he saw young people dancing. The red candles were burning down, and drops of wax lay like flecks of blood upon the floor. Near the entrance, a small, dark woman was leaning upon a marble table, and as she saw him she held out a cordial hand. She was plain and thin, with pale, startled eyes and a mouth that slanted upward at one corner, like a crooked seam. She spoke in an abrupt, skipping manner that possessed a surprising fascination.

”Behold the conquering hero!” she exclaimed, her pale eyes roving from side to side. ”I suppose if you were never late, you would never be longed for.”

”My dear Miss Preston,” protested pretty little Mrs. Carrington, who was soft and drowsy, with eyes that reminded one of a ruminating heifer's.

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