Volume I Part 26 (1/2)
”Why, not positively. It depends, as I said before, upon my finding an escort. I have six pressing invitations from different quarters, most of them acquaintances that I made last summer at Saratoga; and I have been hesitating between Albany, Boston, or Baltimore. I am determined to go somewhere to spend the next three weeks, till the gaiety begins in earnest, and Tallman comes back.”
”Is your brother expected so soon?” asked Mrs. Graham.
”Yes, he must have sailed now. We heard from him last night; he will be here next month, I hope, just in time for the first great parties. What would you advise me to do, Jane, to get rid of the time until then?”
”I had much rather you would stay at home; if you go, I shall miss you very much.”
”But then we shall have the pleasure of corresponding--I like the excitement of receiving a good long letter, full of nonsense, above all things.”
”You must not forget to let me know which way you are really going,” said Jane. ”I will write, though I can't promise you a long letter; I never wrote a long letter in my life.”
”Well, you must write, at any rate, I shall see you half-a-dozen times between this and Monday. I rather think I shall decide upon Boston. Miss Lawrence says there are some delightful young gentlemen there, and has promised to give me a ball. If I go, I shall try hard to bring Miss Lawrence back with me. Mind, Jane, you don't make too many conquests while I am gone. You must reserve yourself for the one I have recommended to you. Oh, by-the-bye, Mrs. Graham, I forgot to tell you the news; I am astonished you have not heard it already.”
”Pray, what is it?” asked Mrs. Graham.
”It seems the engagement between Miss Wyllys and Mr. Hazlehurst has been broken off.”
”You are mistaken, surely! We have heard nothing of it, and it is highly improbable. If there be such a story, let me beg you will not mention it again, Miss Taylor!”
”Oh, there is no mistake, I'm quite sure. I have heard it three times already this morning, from Longbridge people; first Mrs.
Hilson told me, and then I met John Bibbs, and Edward Tibbs, who said the same thing. Mrs. George Wyllys, it seems, contradicted the engagement openly; Miss Hubbard heard her, and wrote it to her sister.”
”How grieved I should be if this story were to prove true; you surely never remarked anything, Jane?”
”Elinor seemed to me just as usual; but Adeline thinks there has been some change,” said Jane, a little embarra.s.sed.
”Oh, yes, give me credit for being quick-sighted; I suspected something the first time I saw them together after Mr. Hazlehurst came back.”
”It is what none of their other friends appear to have done, Miss Taylor,” said Mrs. Graham, a little severely.
”I dare say not; but I am very quick at seeing such things. If Jane has any mysteries, she had better not pretend to keep them from me. But it is no wonder that the engagement was broken off--I don't believe in long engagements. We must not let Jane drag matters on at that rate when her turn comes;” and then kissing her friend tenderly, and making a curtsey to Mrs. Graham, without remarking the disapproving expression of that lady's face, the lively Adeline left the mother and daughter alone.
”I dislike that Miss Taylor, excessively, Jane,” observed her mother, ”she is very disagreeable to me; I wish you would find some better companion while we are in New York. There are the Howards, and de Vaux's--very amiable, pleasant girls, and for a great many reasons far better a.s.sociates for you.”
”But I don't know them so well. Adeline is a great belle, mamma, as much so as any girl in town.”
”She is not at all to my taste, I confess. Your father, too, dislikes the Taylors very much. The way in which she spoke of this story about Elinor's engagement was really unfeeling. Not that I believe it; but breaking off an engagement without good reason, is no such trifle in my opinion, as it seems to be in that of Miss Taylor.”
Jane looked quite agitated; she blushed so much that her mother would probably have remarked it, had she not been, at the moment, stooping over her little invalid boy, who was lying on the sofa near her.
”Miss Taylor has no claim whatever upon you, that I can see,”
continued Mrs. Graham. ”It is true she was kind to you when you were ill with the whooping-cough at school; but so were your other companions--and I am sure she has not been half so considerate and good to you as Elinor, and yet you seem to prefer Miss Adeline now.”
Poor Jane looked down, and coloured still more.
”Adeline would do anything for me, mother,” she said, in a low voice; ”You don't know how much she is attached to me; I can't help liking her,” and Jane began to shed a few tears.
”Foolish child!” said her mother, beginning to relent, as she usually did on such occasions, ”I don't wish you to be uncivil to her; but I should like you to be more with Kate Howard, and Anne de Vaux;” and the conversation ended, as several others of the same description had done, by leaving things precisely as they were before. Mrs. Graham, indeed, looked upon herself as having showed much decision on the occasion, and acted as a watchful mother, by having made these objections, fruitless as they proved to be.
The report that the engagement between Elinor and Harry had been broken off, was soon known to be correct. It caused some surprise to all who knew them, and much regret to their friends. Mrs.