Beatrix Randolph

Copyright bt Amekicax Pukss Associatiojí, The Cadwalader Dinsmores are people such as can exist (as a social fac-t) nowhere trat in America, and, indeed, in New York. Mr. Dinsmoro (called Wallie Dinsmore by every one who knows kim) is a man of paramount though miobtrusive usefulness. He is - ■or for the sake of the unities let ua say iie was- a gentleman of medium size, ;plain exterior and remarkable quietaiess of speech and demeanor. He waa like the heart of peace in the midst of tbe fashionable social whirlwind, the tindemonsrrative canter of al) dimcoetrations, the reposeful culmination of all acfivities. To say that he koew ■werybody and everything, not only that tíverybody else knew, but that everybody else would like to know, bat imperfix;tly expressed his accoruplishments. He lived in New York, but he waa at home in all conutries and in all socieSies, and occasionally waa met -with ip aU. Ho was about forty-two years of age, but looked j-onnger, having light hair and a subdued reddish complexión, and he söemed, when yon considered I1Í3 experience and serenity, indednitely or in fact infinitely older. He had unexceptionable manners, was genial, kindly, gently humorous and insensibly entertaintng. He never was detected making an effort, and he never forbore an effort to be obliging. He was as accurate as a pendahmi, and as versatile as a continent. He could neither play, sing, act, niake a speech, write a book, nor painta picture; Uut no one knew better than he bow all these things onght to be done, of was more sympathetically apprecitive of others' attempts to do them. He smiled easily, but always as if he éould not help it. His lnugh was n low, oontagious chnckle, and seemed to suggest an unexpected chano and drollery in lif e. Thero was a manly, masculina look and quality abonfc his plain face and ordinal y figni-e. and in the tone and utterance of his voice. You feit that there was substanee in him when required - that he was by no rneans a phantom of conven tions and escapes - tkat, when everything else had been eliminated from fan, a gentleman would remain. He w;-.s a great favorite with women and with clnldren, and his rekitjvus with the foriner were just as cordial &ad simple as with the latter. If you dropped in to see him during a morning you were snre to find a numbor of jaén whom it was particularly worth while to meet, sitting about in the easy chairs and smoking Wallie's fanious cigars and cigarettes. He had a fine old fashioned honse down in West Twenty-third fitreet and plenty of money, which he knew how to spend; that is, he was both generous and economical. Bnt the most rernarkable thing about Wallie Dinsmore was that, instead of being in fact the bachelor uncle of society that he was in spirit, he was actually and conspicuously inarried. Mis. Cadwalader Dinsmore (they never called her lira. Wallie) was a few years older than her hnsband and weighed about fifty pounds more than he. She was .mighty and imposing, corivineing and memorable. Upon her massive counte■aaace, which had the texture and huo of the finest pink-and-white enaniel, was íbred immutably a gracious smile, which served to condense, as it were, into manageable dimensions the else too ponderóos acreage of her cheeks and to refine the contour of her scarlet lips. Her hair, of a dense yellow hue, without a thread of graj', was arranged in an inBcrutable manner, upon what might be termed the cyltndrical principie; it reBembled a carring in varnished inaple; it looked lirittle. As for her figure, Mrs. Cadwalader might have stood for the capstan of a íhree decker, round which tho jovial seamen trip as they heave the mighty anchor. Her voice,meanwhile,was email, soft and caressing, and she regarded her interlocutor with a glance of indulgent coguetry, as if to mitígate the terror of her. proportions, though it really rendered them only more alarming. Nor was her usual talk, as might have been expected, about devouring quarter beeves, or causing earthquakes, or obliterating populations, but about embroidered .handkerchiefs, and summer . zephyrs blowing on wild roses and the holiness of infants' slumber. Was she, then, a sardonio humorist, ora fooi buried alive in flesh? No; she was a hard hearted, practical, shrewd woman, with gharp eyes, a politie dispósition and unX'elenting determination. The fact that she was not of aristocratie or indeed discoverable lineage may have sharpened her claws, so to speak. and steeled her heart; she had Eaffto fwfht her own way, aïïcTwas a little too .jmeh alive to the value of the worldly objects she had striven for. The most telling success she had ever scored was, of course, her marriage with ] lie Dinsniore. How she contrived it is not known; bnt it must have been, in every sense, easier to embrace her fifteen years ago than now. Wallie was the most humane of mankind, generously appreciative of everything except his own value. At any rate the thing took place, and Mrs. Cadwalader proved to be aa admirable and substantial wife. She made war upon none of his hobbies; she broke up none of his habits; she sacrificed none of his bachelor friends; she kept out of his way except when she could be of use to him, and then she was always ready. She made him pay, as the vernacular hath it, but she let it cost him nothing. In short, though she and her husband had almost no tastes or traditions in common, they were completely in harniony, had no j children, and were a model of New York i domesblc virtue, happiness and prosperity. It is no sinall thing for a husband to be Bbln to asfirm that his wife has not sad bis Btudy Vusted for a week. nor wnched even an oblique critictem at út African lemur. Such as they were the Cadwalade' Dinsmores made up their minds to extend the right hand of hospitality to - MUe. Maraña. Mrs. Cadwalader called on her in person, and Wallie, as a matter of course, in the shape of bis name written on a piece of pasteboard. The j diva's acceptance having been secured the other invitations were issued, and the day arrived. "You will have to put in an appearunce," saicl Wallie to Cteoffrey Bellingham during the previous week. "You built the opera house, and decency demands it." "The more reason why not," the architect replied. "I should have to be introduced, and I don"t care for it." '■You will have to come," the other repeated calmly. "Do you want the woman to be disrespectahle?" "It's none of my business." "It is. A woman is what her associates are. If respectable people don't receive her they are to blame if she ïuts up." "If she were a novice - but she's notorious!" "You affect Phariseeism in imitation of your Puritan ancestors. But this poor girl is neither a witch nor a Quaker. Her notoriety comes trom her genius; the rest is mere hearsay, which it's none of your business to attend to. I intend that she shall leave New York without a spot on her reputation, and you must bear a hand. Otherwise you're not the fellow I took you for." Wallie knew Bellingham better and had more influence over him than any one else, and the end of it was that Bellingham cönsented to come. There were less than twenty persons at the dinner. The dining room walls were of a soft Indian red hue, the wood work being mahogany and maple. The flowers on the table were yellow and blue. The room was lighted by tinted wax candles, each provided with a little colored shade. Everything looked cool, fresh and sweet. The host and hostess received their guests in the adjoining drawing room. By previous arrangement Mlle. Maraña and Mrs. Bemax were the first to arrive. The diva waa dressed iu something white, of a lithe and feathery effect, giving the sion of a beautiful great bird. Her heart was up, for this was her first irrevocable step in her assumed personaljty. She was a high spirited girl, and 'iaving entered upon her course she had aid aside fear and irresolution. Whatever she did ehe would do with her might. Such a visión of purity and loveliness as she was did not often enter a New York drawing room. She gave her hand first to Mrs. Cadwalader and then to Wallie. The latter grasped it cordially, and seemed about to say omething, but suddenly checked him! self, and looked at her with an odd. perplexed expression, like a man who is taken by surpri.se Donbtless so much I beauty would be a surprise to any one. ! After a momenfs hesitation he said, ■ "I'm glad to welcome you to this coun' try, mademoiselle. I hope you will leani ' to feel like an American as uiuch as you already look like one.1' "Thank you; if it is American to feel l happy then I am one," she answered, and it was observable as she spoke that this foreigu lady's pronunciation was re! inarkably accurate. Wallie forbore to make the observation, however; he only ! took his chin between his thuinb and i forefinger with a quietly smiling look. Mrs. Cadwalader said: "What deli' cious lace, Mademoiselle Maraña! It is like frost work on ivory. Will you take i a cup of teaV" Mlle. Maraña declined, and presently tho other guests began to arrive. There was Mr. Bai-cliffe, a wool merchaut, but for social purposes an ama■ teur composer. He was a sinall. slender, lively man, with gray hair aud an im; menso gray mustache, like a great bar across the lower part of his face; he had the air of always standing on tiptoe to peep across this bar with a sportsve, twinkling expression. There was Mr. Bidood, a rosy. roistering, ppherical personage, bald headed and short of breath; he smiled at you with a penetrating look, as if there were a private joke between yon and him,self which it would not do to mentiun. There was Mr. Grasmere, tall, courtly and romantic, with a resonant voice and an occasional gleam from beneath his upper eyelids, as if his soul were kindling l withüijiim He_ had been a lawyer by professióñ; but had marnecTwelI, and was now the proprietor of an artistic weekly. There waa Mr. Knight, a distingnished politician with fresh complexión, clear cut features, powerfnl black eyes and snow white hair; his bearing was covertly condescending, as though he were relnctant to have yon realize how greatly he was your superior. There waa Mr. Damon, also white haired and white bearded, a somewhat unsuccessful publisher, but gifted with a warm heart, a keen wit and a bitter tongue. There was a certain uneonventional wrath and heat about liim, inixed with langhter and mockery, and nothing seemed to delight him so much as to shock a fastidious person or to bully a hombng. There was Mr. Plainter, a gentleman all profilo and eyeglasses, with a grating voice, a retentive memory and an insatiable earnestness. He was president of the American braneh of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Supernatural Phenomena, and bis normal condition was one of high argument and exposition. He spoke of himself as "we," and of the rest of the world as "yon" - imparting to tliatpronoun an intonation significative of bigotry and prejudice. His neck projected forward, luid his figure was thin and curved like the new nioon. There was Mr. Beaufort, once a clergyman, uow an actor, a largo headed, small bodied man, with íi big noso and deep set eyes, extremely graceful and delibérate in his attitudes and gestures, wearing in repose an expression of thonghtful melancholy, as if reflecting that he had been a clergyman, but brightening, when addressed, with a emile of almost excessive sweotnees, as if reinembering that he was an actor. Such oí theee gentlemen as poasossed irives were accompanied by then, but he latter were for the most part like (he engrsvings of ladies in fashion pajers- thongh their faces might be pret;y, it was the dresses yon looked at and ecollected. When an American lady is listinguished at all she is apt to appear Jmost too much so. Not to mention ihe hostess of the evening, there were, for example, Mrs. March, of the Womsn's Political association, slim, erect, holding her elbows close to her sides, with a tight business mouth and yearnmg, melancholy eyes; possessing an insufferable command of language, enhanced by a faculty of seeming to repress more than she nttered; Miss Koroer, of Germán extraction, with 6hort, sandy hair, pale, prominent eyes, a snub Qose and protrnding jaw; her volubility was as great as that of Mrs. March, and her rapidity greater; but whereas the former lady's conversation was mainly explanatory and argumentative, Miss Komer's was interrogatory and anecdotical; Mrs. Bright, a beauty, the wife of a wealthy brewer, hplding lierself asif she were on horseback, rushing at a topic or an enterprise as if it i were a five barred gate, and torgettang it the next moment, headstrong, enthusiastic, blasé; she bad embraced Herbert Spencer during the last season, and reproduced him in jets and spar kies; Mrs. Musgrave, the dramatic reader. But why continue? The peculiarity of New York society is that no two people are alike; you have to focus yourself anew for every person you meet; whereas abroad the difficulty is to distinguish Mr. Smith from Mr. Brown and Mrs. Jones from Mrs. Robinson. People fuere seein to be born, bred and molded in platoons; the various social grades each has the same traditions, the same prospecte, the same resources, the same topics of eonversation, the same tailors, and the same faces. But in New York we have not settled down yet; our people have what may be called a New York look, but there is no New York type - the former being a trick of facial expression merely; the latter a matter of feature and structure. But we are preparing to people a hemisphere, wliile the European nations have to pack themselves together like sardines in a box, or pickles in a jar, rnathematically, economically and irrevocably, and by natural selection have I long since lost their elbows and idiosyncrasies. We are all elbows on this side of the water, especially since wo have ceased any longer to be all fists and slioulders. In addition to the guests abovo mentioned there were several of our older acquaintances - Gen. Inigo, Hamilton Jocelyn and Bellingham. When dinner was announced Wallie Dinsmoro took in Mlle. Maraña and seated her at his right hand, and it turned out that Bellinghani sat next below her, much to his displeasure. He told himself that he owed Wallie one. On the other side of him sat Mrs. Bright, whom, indeed, ho had taken into the table. The other gentlemen thought that Bellingham had ! nothing to complain of. Mrs. Bright, v,-ho could interest herself about ftlmost anything, provided it did not last more ! than an hour or so, noticed that her ccmpanion was good looking, and determined to exploit him on the subject of architecture. She had read Rnskin's "Stones of Venice," and had seen classic and medjiev.al antiquities abroad. AccordíñgljT s3ë roete aL nim with i great dash and courage, and at first he answered her graciously enough. Before long, however, he perceived that she did nof; know the meaning of her own information, and then he became laconic. Young Mrs. Bright, on the er hand, was not accustomed to rebuffs, and Bellingham's reticence only stimulated her enterprise. She sparkled on like cataract in a rainbow, determined that he should fall in love with her at any rate. Meanwhile his other ear was being visited oocasionally by the low and varied ïnusic of a voice the freshest and rnost melodious, he thought, he had ever listened to. At times, too, as the dishes were passed, the lovely speaker would lean toward'him, so that her soft white plumage brnshed his shoulder. The Maraña and Wallie were having a most entertaining conversation. It was not about architecture, and vet Bellingham feit attracted by it. Wallie was smiling and chuckling, and ever and anon nmkmg some pithy or arch remark. The diva seetued to be attempting to describe the mental visions which certain kinds of music called np for her. At last she said, _'j.The__endjsJükeJthe_awfaljt;Qe_of dawn,' and TF'seems tokeép-üEföIding more and more, but the twilight darkens between, and yon can only feel that the great flower blooms at last in the morning of the other world." At the same moment Mrs. Bright was saying to Bellingham: "In that way, don't you see, the second and third boxes would have jnst as good a view of the stage as the first, and yet the parquet i wouldn't lose anything. Now, isn't that a nice plan?" Eithor Bellingham had not heard her or else he didn't think it worth while to nnswer. He turned to the young diva and said, "That must be Beethoven." Wallie's eyebrows went up. He had beenuietly watching Bellingham, and had been mnch amused by his evident distraction and final surrender. He asked Mr. Knight, in the second seat on liis left, whether it were true that Grant intended to found a college of politics in Mexico, and left the young people to arrange themselves as they liked. Mrs. Bright turned pale, took up a silver pepper box, and overwhelmed her croquette do volaille with red pepper. Blinded by her indignation, she was on the point of putting a piece of the highly condimented viand in her month, when Gen. Inigo, who was on her left, and who had been assimilating his nourishment with knife, fork and forefinger, and vast enjoyment of chainping and deglmition, hurriedly set down the glass of sherry he was raising to his Ups, and with great good nature arrested the young lady's hand by laying hia own fat piw npon it. "My dear madam," he exclaiined with his unctuous Hebraic Irawl, "would fou cotninit suicide at m ;able like this?" "Oh, I'm awfully obliged," retumed Mts. Bright, really feeling so on more iccounts than one, though she had never sef ore been able to endure that horrid !ree and easy impresario. She overname her repugnance, and recouped herself for Bellingham's scant courtesy by sxtracting whole hogsheads of it froni the ampie reservoirs of her other neighbor. After all it amounted to the same thing. So a woman receives attention, it is small odds whence it comea. Bellingham and the diva meantimo bad taken a short cut to a mutual understanding, and would have been astonished, had they stopped to think about it, at the vistas of sympathetic feeling that were opening up before them. Sunshine arose on their way, and they rambled onward at their will. To talk with the prima donna on a subject that attracted her was like drawing harmonies from some exquisite instrument. She responded to the lightest touch, and you could see the promise and invitation of music in her face before you spoke. Bellingham forgot that this was the woman whose adventures and audacities everybody had been discussing for weeks past; she was to him a delicious outlet for a part of his nature which he had heretofore repressed even when by himself ; so the seed first discovers itself in the earth, and the flowerin the sunlight. When, half an hour ago, he had been presented to Mlle. Maraña in the drawing room he had feit that she was beautiful, but remembered that she must be repellent, and had passed on without a second look. She, on the other hand, had been sensitive to his hostility, told herself that he looked cross and frigid, and thought it fortúnate that he was an architect instead of a singer, liable to appear with her on the stage. But now, under the iningled persuasión of happy accident and the genial stimulus of lights, company and the table, their averted regards had unawares turned to accord - an accord which might prove temporary, but was certainly delightful. It was strange to both of them, but with the sort of strangeness that seems like a sweet familiarity till now forgotten. Now they would let air and warmth into the secret chambers of their minds; now they could read the answer to their spiritual riddles in each other's face. At the other end of the table Mrs. Cadwaladerwasprospering blithesomely with Mr. Grasmere on one hand an. Mr. Barclyff e on the other. The conversation was of an testhetic cast - would the Wagnerian method of musical composition prevail, and if so, would not music nltimately be chargeable with infringing on the px-eserves of the other arts? Mr. Barclyffe, propping up his mustache occasionally with his napkin, was of opinión that music was the soul and reconciliation of all the arts, and that a knowledge of music would hencef'orth be indispensable to enable the painter, the sculptor and the poet to do their work intelligently. "As to architecture," added he, "we all know that in its higher manifestations it has been termed frozen music." "Some of Wagner's music that I havo heard," retorted Mr. Grasmere, "was dry enough to be called hannonized hay lofts." This epigram was overheard by Mr. Damon at the center of the table. and he iinmediately called out, "There's a portrait of Grasmere down at the club that is said to have been painted to the tune the old cow died of." Hereupon Mr. Bidgood burst into a hearty laugh, and observed that the old cow probably died from feeding on the harmonious hay lof t. Mr. Grasmere, who was probably of Scotch extraction, drew himself up to his full height and said to Mrs. Cadwalader, with a gleam from beneath his eyelids, that such men as the last two speakers did more than vice or ignorance to delay civilization. Mi's. Cadwalader smiled with scarlet lips, and said in her small, caressing voice, "The proprietor of the 'Professional Amateur' cannot believe that civilization is delayed." If there was any further dangor of a hreach of the peaceit was averted by the actiou of Wallie, who now arose in his place and proposed the health of the guest of the evening. "Though our guest to-night," he'said, "she is a host in herself ; and if she was bom in a foreign land, we all know that some of thé trurst Americans have never set foot in 'the United States." The toast having been drunk with much cordiality, Wallie ulded, "I didn't . learn that i-pech by heart, ladies and gentleman, but that is where it came from." When the applause had subsided thero was a pause, and the prima donna perceived with a beating heart that everyi body's eyes were fijed uppn herjis if pecting aïeply. fcihe öasfPa" dismayed look at Bellingham, but his eyes were cast down, and an expression of coldness had suddenly overspread his face. She drew a long breath, and rose, with a eoft rustle of her white dress, and glanced down the table. She heard the clapping of hands, and saw Jocelyn siniling and nodding encouragingly, and Inigo hammering the table and beaming unctuously. The thought passed through her mind, "I am not myself ; they are applauding some one else." Instead of disconcerting her, this thought gave her self possession. "Ladies and gentlemen," she began, "I did not learn a speech; where I carne f rom we did not make them. Some time I shall sing you my thanka. But 1 feel now how kind you are. A little while ago I knew nothing of you, and now we are friends! Your belief in me will help me to deserve it. AU this seems hardly real to me - as if it were not possible. It Í8 not I who speak to you, bnt the music, that is the reason of my being here. And yet I shotild like to have you like me for myself - else I should feel very lonely. I have only my music te take the place of my rnotber and my fo.uer. It is a great deal, I know, but no'„ quite everything. And I can not help feeling almost as if it stood between me and you. It is a disguise that I must wear, and I know that the disguise is better than what is beneath it." Here her eye Tiappened to encountor Jocelyn's. He was gazing at her appar;ntly in niuch anxiety, and his Ups seemed to be fonning some voiceless words. The prima donna did not know what he meant, but she stopped and reflectd that she was thinking aloud inBtead of making a speech, and that what 3he was thinking had more reference to the blue eyed man with the brown beard who sat on her right than to any one else in the room; whereupon a blush rose to her face, she murmured something hardly articúlate, and sat down. Everybody smiled and applauded and seemed to be much pleased. "My God, what an actress!" mnttered Mr. Beaufort tohisneighbor, Mrs. March. "The delicious audacity of that last sentence was inimitable!" "She must be very clever," retumed the lady, veiling her business mouth with the bouquet sho carried; "but how very noticeable her foreign accent is!" "Ach! well, my dear, it has been a long time bef ore I could 'come to dalk so as one would not know I was Germán," put in Miss Koruer charitably. "Mademoiselle shpeak very well for a beginner." "They say the Russians are a very superstitious people," remarked Mr. Plainter, putting up his eye glasses; "I must remember to ask Miss Maraña whether she has ever investigated any of the phenomena. She looks like a medium herself; I should like to investígate, under rigorously scientiflc tests, the range and quality of her abnormal capacities." "Since meeting Mlle. Maraña," said Mr. Knight, addressing Wallie, but graciously pitching his voice so as to be overheard by the diva, "I no longer marvel at Russian despotism. I should be a slave myself were I her countryman - nay, my slavery has begun even as it is!" "By George! old fellow," whispered Jocelyn aside to the general, "hanged if [ didn't think for a moment the girl was going to give us away!" "Don-t you believe it," the general mumbled in reply. "She ain't going to give us away, nor give herself away, neither - not to you, anyhow, and don't you forget it!" The dinner came to an end, the ladies withdrew, and the gentlemen presently followed them to the drawing room. People were already arriving for the receptiou, and the room was getting crowded. A number of immaculate young gentlemen, in tight fitting evening dress, were reaching over their shirt collars to get a glimpse of the notorious Maraña. There was an unintermittent buzz of talk that made it difficult to hear anything that was said. The ladies were numerous and brilliantly dressed, but many of them looked a little uneasj7, as if they suspected they were assisting at a somèwhat hazardous enterprise. The prima donna wore on her breast a locket set with diamonds that had belonged to her mother. "Say, Witman," said one of the yomig gentlemen above mentioned to another, "(lid yon notice the locket?" "Baven't been able to get up to her vet, confonnd itl Does she speak English?" "Pretty well, I believe; I spoke Fivm-h with her. Full of the devill" "'What about the locket?" "Given to her by the czar of Russia, before he carne into the business." "By Jove! Say, does a fellow have to be introduced, or can you go right up and talk to her?" "Oh, sail in! She won't mind. These women always like to be taken by 6torm!" So Mr. Witman struggled forward to try his luck as a stormer. Bellinghain, after wandering about restlessly in the crowd trying to keep his back turned toward the diva, and finding himself, nevertheless, constantly brought up within a few feet of her, at length made up his mind to go home. But just as he was on the point of bidding adieu to Mrs. Cadwalader some one struck a chord on the piano, a hush feil upon the assembly, and it became evident that the Maraña was going to sing. And there she stood at the piano, the pure loveliness of her ooantenance looking across the crowd, and looking at him. He folded his arms and stood still, and no one but he knew that she sang to him. Wlien the song was over there waa a great stir of admiration and surprise and comment; for though everybody had expected something very good nobody seemed to have.anticipated that it would be good precisely in the way it was; and they all tried to express wha't they thought in suitable language, with indifferent results. It takes the world some time to formúlate its opinión accirrately about x now thing. As for Bellinghain, whatever he may have thought, he expressed nothing. He siniply pushed his way through the throng that sui-rounded the singer, took her hand, looked in her eyes and said, "Good night!" Strange ÍÍL aX- f?ia_ tmcremonious behavior seemëïl to satísryTier; a grow or prcaBnre mounted to her face, and thereafter sha appeared light hearted and content. Bellingham went away immediately afterward, and without saying good night to any one else. At the end of the evening Jocelyn sauntered up to Wallie, and putting both hands on his host 's shoulders said, " Well, old man, wliat do you think of her?" "I think a great deal," Wallie replied. "You saw her abroad, didn't you?" "No, tbe general did. Why?" "Nothing," said Wallie, quietly fixing his gray eyes upon the other's dismayed visage, "except that I saw Mlle. Maraña last ye.ar in Vienna, and I think her greatly improved."