Volume Ii Part 10 (1/2)
Hazlehurst. My brother observed you pa.s.sing through the hall, as you arrived, and we determined that it would be much pleasanter to pa.s.s half an hour with you, than to finish the dance. We have been wis.h.i.+ng for you every day.”
”Thank you. We should have set out before, if we had not waited for Harry. Elinor tells me half Philadelphia is here, already.”
”Yes; the houses have filled up very much since I first came; for I am ashamed to say how long I have been here.”
”Why, yes: I understood you were going to Nahant.”
”We ought to have been there long ago; but I could not move this obstinate brother of mine. He has never found Saratoga so delightful, Mrs. Hazlehurst,” added the lady, with an expressive smile, and a look towards Elinor. ”I can't say, however, that I at all regret being forced to stay, for many of our friends are here, now. Mr. Hazlehurst, I hope you have come home more agreeable than ever.”
”I hope so too, Mrs. Creighton; for it is one of our chief duties as diplomatists, 'to tell lies for the good of our country,' in an agreeable way. But I am afraid I have not improved my opportunities. I have been very much out of humour for the last six months, at least.”
”And why, pray?”
”Because I wanted to come home, and Mr. Henley, my boss, insisted upon proving to me it would be the most foolish thing I could do.
He was so much in the right, that I resented it by being cross.”
”But now he has come himself, and brought you with him.”
”No thanks to him, though. It was all Uncle Sam's doings, who wants to send us from the Equator to the North Pole.”
”Are you really going to Russia, Hazlehurst?” asked Mr.
Ellsworth.
”Certainly; you would not have me desert, would you?”
”Oh, no; don't think of it, Mr. Hazlehurst; it must be a very pleasant life!” exclaimed Mrs. Creighton. ”I only wish, Frank, that you were enough of a politician to be sent as minister somewhere; I should delight in doing the honours for you; though I dare say you would rather have some one else in my place.”
”We will wait until I am sent as amba.s.sador to Timbuctoo, before I answer the question.”
”You have grown half-a-dozen shades darker than you used to be as a youngster, Harry; or else this lamp deceives me,” observed Mr.
Wyllys.
”I dare say I may have a fresh tinge of the olive. But I am just from sea, sir, and that may have given me an additional coat.”
”Did you suffer much from heat, on the voyage?” asked Miss Wyllys.
”Not half as much as I have since I landed. It appeared to me Philadelphia was the warmest spot I had ever breathed in; worse than Rio. I was delighted when Louisa proposed my coming to Saratoga to see my friends.”
”You will find it quite warm enough here,” said Mr. Wyllys. ”The thermometer was 92 {degrees} in the shade, yesterday.”
”I don't expect to be well cooled, sir, until we get to St.
Petersburgh. After a sea-voyage, I believe one always feels the cold less, and the heat more than usual. But where is Mrs.
Stanley?--we hoped to find her with you. Is she not staying at this house?”
”Yes; but she left us early, this evening, not feeling very well; you will not be able to see her until to-morrow,” said Miss Agnes.
”I am sorry she is not well; how is she looking?”
”Particularly well, I think; she merely complained of a head-ache from riding in the sun.”