9. CHAPTER IX.
A DROP-CURTAIN.
And now, Mr. and Mrs. Livingstone, having completed their visit to Bonniemeer,
were on the point of returning to the city, and Claudia insisted that Neria and
Francia should accompany them, and make their début in society under her
chaperonage. Francia was wild with delight at prospect of the gay life promised
her by her cousin, while Neria looked and listened much after the fashion
of a fawn, who, wandering to the edge of his native forest, sees suddenly before
him a great plain with a city in its midst, its domes glittering, its many-windowed
palaces flashing back the morning sun, shaded gardens nestling about it,
and an army with plumes and pennons, fanfare of trumpets and flash of accoutrements,
winding out of its gates, and stretching like a glittering serpent across
the plain. So strange, so unlearned, so ominous, and so fascinating lay life before
Neria, child of the sea and the sky, her feet set in the path worn deep by
the steps of those who have trod it since first it led Eve away from paradise,
her head still crowned with the glory lingering around every fresh work of the
Divine Artist, her slender fingers folding close above her breast the shining
robes of innocence and truth.
“Neria in a fashionable assembly!” said Mr. Vaughn, in reply to his brother-in-law's
urgent advocacy of Claudia's plan. “Why it would be the Holy
Grail upon the supper table of a danseuse; it would be both a desecration and
an incongruity.”
“As for the desecration, my dear fellow, we won't argue the point,” said Mr.
Murray, taking snuff. “And as for the incongruity, I must say that to be incongruous
with the elements of a fashionable assembly, is, in my eyes, a very
questionable virtue in a young lady.”
“Neria's manners are above conventionality,” said Mr. Vaughn, decisively.
“That is impossible. Conventionality is the religion, the morale of society
—there is nothing above it; to be outside of it, is to be beneath it,” retorted
Murray, sublime in his faith.
But Vaughn, smiling, put the question by, and said,
“I suppose both Neria and Francia must mix in society at some time, but I
confess I dread to see their country freshness wither in its atmosphere, and my
violet and wild rose come back to me as hot-house flowers, all properly labelled
and trained, but with neither perfume nor strength left in them.”
“Come back to you? No, but I shall insist upon your taking up your quarters
with me,” said Mr. Murray, hospitably. “There are Fergus and I left by
Claudia's marriage to keep bachelor's hall together, and we need just such an old
traveller as yourself to come and show us how to manage. You should see
me attempt to pour out tea, and Fergus boggle at cutting a pudding. Then
you can keep watch over your daughter and your—ward, do you call her?
and snatch them away from the naughty world at the precise moment when the
polish is obtained, without the waste of a single particle of the gem. Will you
come?”
“Thank you, yes,” said Vaughn, heartily. “And I will confess that with
Claudia as chaperon, and two utterly inexperienced girls as débutantes, I think
it will be quite as well for me to be at hand.”
“Claudia is a sensible young woman,” said Mr. Murray, complacently, “and
will, I dare say, before the season is over, marry Francia as handsomely as she
has married herself.”
“Heaven forbid!” ejaculated Vaughn, adding with a smile,
“But why only Francia, why is she not also to marry Neria?”
“Because, retorted Murray, quietly, “the very pith of your wish to come up
to town is to see that she does not. You are resolved to marry Neria yourself.”
Vaughn started from his seat, and stood for several moments looking out of
the window, then, resuming his chair, fixed his eyes upon those of his brother-in-law,
saying, quietly,
“It is only now that I have resolved it.”
“Consciously, yes. Unconsciously you resolved it long ago,” insisted Murray;
and Vaughn, searching his own heart for the truth of the assertion, forgot
to answer it.
In another week, Bonniemeer was deserted, and left in charge of Mrs. Rhee,
who, not having as yet determined upon her future course in life, was very willing
to remain in her old home until she should do so.
