Part 81 (1/2)
Persis cast her eyes up in despair and hastened to pay her devoirs to her mother-in-law. The elder Mrs. Enslee was looking radiantly beautiful in her white hair and her black eyes and the a.s.sisted red of her Spanish lips, with her cascade of furs falling about her.
She smiled at Persis sadly. Her daughter-in-law was beautiful undeniably. What a pity that she was not also good! But she kept back her reproaches, and said in the most delicate of accents, with her tendency to an exquisite lisp:
”Don't worry, my dear. It's only a duty call.”
”Won't you stop to dinner?” Persis urged. ”We're only going to have a bite. We're dining early and hurrying away to the opera. Willie is determined to hear the overture and the first act. I dote on 'Carmen,'
but I've never been in time for the first of it.”
”'Carmen!'” Mrs. Enslee sniffed. ”That old slander on my race--as if Spanish women were all faithless!”
”But if it's Carmen for Spain,” Persis said, ”it's Camille for France, and Becky Sharp for England, and--who for America?”
”Hester Prynne, perhaps.”
”Oh yes,” laughed Persis. ”Even the Puritans had their scandals; but she was a gra.s.s-widow, and the town was so dull, and the preacher so handsome. Can you blame her?”
”Cynical Persis!” Mrs. Enslee sighed. ”Well, I shall be late.”
”I wish you'd stay,” Persis lied, graciously. ”You're a picture. And everybody says you are flirting dreadfully with old General Brans...o...b..”
”I hope you don't believe all you hear.”
”Only the worst.”
”Then you're on the safe side. But remember, my dear, other people can apply the same rule. I'm not the only one who has been suspected of flirting with an army officer.” The doorbell had punctuated their chatter several times. It rang again. ”Now, who's that? Expecting anybody?”
”No, and I've got to fling into my opera-gown.”
”What are you wearing to-night?”
The rhapsody of description was interrupted by the incursion of Willie.
He wore his overcoat and top hat into the room, and his key-chain dangled. He was in one of his most fretful moods. He vouchsafed his mother a casual ”Oh, h.e.l.lo, _madre mia_,” then turned to Persis.
”What the devil has happened to the servants? n.o.body to answer the bell.
Had to let myself in. Deuced nuisance unb.u.t.toning coat, getting keys out, finding right one. What are we coming to? I'll fire that Dobbs.”
”You forget, dear, he is getting married this afternoon.”
”We all ought to have gone,” said Mrs. Enslee; but Willie has no sense of obligation to his employees.
He ignored the suggestion and raged on, ”Well, Dobbs isn't our only servant, is he?”
”No,” Persis explained; ”but, you see, he's marrying the housekeeper's daughter, and the butler is best man, and the maids are bridesmaids--”
”Romance everywhere,” Willie sneered, as he laid off his things and threw them on a chair, ”except up-stairs. I suppose that's why my man was so surly when I told him he'd have to stay and dress me. He'll probably cut my throat while he shaves me. I wish he would.”
”That's cheerful!” said Persis. ”What brings you home from the club so early? It's such an unusual honor.”
”I heard something I didn't like--gossip.”