April Hopes
Page 2
II.
The men looked smilingly at each other without saying anything; and theyounger took in due form the introduction which the young lady gave him.
"My mother, Mr. Mavering."
"Mr. Mavering!" cried Mrs. Pasmer, in a pure astonishment, beforeshe had time to colour it with a polite variety of more conventionalemotions. She glanced at the two men, and gave a little "Oh?" of inquiryand resignation, and then said, demurely, "Let me introduce you to Mr.Mavering, Alice," while the young fellow laughed nervously, and pulledout his handkerchief, partly to hide the play of his laughter, andpartly to wipe away the perspiration which a great deal more laughinghad already gathered on his forehead. He had a vein that showedprominently down its centre, and large, mobile, girlish blue eyes undergood brows, an arched nose, and rather a long face and narrow chin. Hehad beautiful white teeth; as he laughed these were seen set in a jawthat contracted very much toward the front. He was tall and slim, and hewore with elegance the evening dress which Class Day custom prescribesfor the Seniors; in his button-hole he had a club button.
"I shall not have to ask an introduction to Mr. Mavering; and you'verobbed me of the pleasure of giving him one to you, Mrs. Pasmer," hesaid.
She heard the young man in the course of a swift review of what she hadsaid to his father, and with a formless resentment of the father's nothaving told her he had a son there; but she answered with the flatteringsympathy she had the use of, "Oh, but you won't miss one pleasure outof so many to-day, Mr. Mavering; and think of the little dramaticsurprise!"
"Oh, perfect," he said, with another laugh. "I told Miss Pasmer as wecame up."
"Oh, then you were in the surprise, Alice!" said Mrs. Pasmer, searchingher daughter's eyes for confession or denial of this little communityof interest. The girl smiled slightly upon the young man, but notdisapprovingly, and made no other answer to her mother, who went on:"Where in the world have you been? Did Mr. Munt find you? Who told youwhere I was? Did you see me? How did you know I was here? Was there everanything so droll?" She did not mean her questions to be answered, or atleast not then; for, while her daughter continued to smile rather moreabsently, and young Mavering broke out continuously in his nervouslaugh, and his father stood regarding him with visible satisfaction, shehummed on, turning to the young man: "But I'm quite appalled at Alice'shaving monopolised even for a few minutes a whole Senior--and probablyan official Senior at that," she said, with a glance at the pink andwhite club button in his coat lapel, "and I can't let you stay anotherinstant, Mr. Mavering. I know very well how many demands you have uponyou and you must go back directly to your sisters and your cousins andyour aunts, and all the rest of them; you must indeed."
"Oh no! Don't drive me away, Mrs. Pasmer," pleaded the young man,laughing violently, and then wiping his face. "I assure you that I'veno encumbrances of any kind here except my father, and he seems to havebeen taking very good care of himself." They all laughed at this, andthe young fellow hurried on: "Don't be alarmed at my button; it onlymeans a love of personal decoration, if that's where you got the notionof my being an official Senior. This isn't my spread; I shall hope towelcome you at Beck Hall after the Tree; and I wish you'd let me beof use to you. Wouldn't you like to go round to some of the smallerspreads? I think it would amuse you. And have you got tickets to theTree, to see us make fools of ourselves? It's worth seeing, Mrs. Pasmer,I assure you."
He rattled on very rapidly but with such a frankness in his urgency,such amiable kindliness, that Mrs. Pasmer could not feel that it waspushing. She looked at her daughter, but she stood as passive in thetransaction as the elder Mavering. She was taller than her mother, andas she waited, her supple figure described that fine lateral curve whichone sees in some Louis Quinze portraits; this effect was enhanced by thefashion of her dress of pale sage green, with a wide stripe or sash ofwhite dropping down the front, from her delicate waist. The same simplecombination of colours was carried up into her hat, which surmounteddarker hair than Mrs. Pasmer's, and a complexion of wholesome pallor;her eyes were grey and grave, with black brows, and her face, which wasrather narrow, had a pleasing irregularity in the sharp jut of the nose;in profile the parting of the red lips showed well back into the cheek.
"I don't know," said Mrs. Pasmer, in her own behalf; and she added inhis, "about letting you take so much trouble," so smoothly that itwould have been quite impossible to detect the point of union in the twoutterances.
"Well, don't call it names, anyway, Mrs. Pasmer," pleaded the young man."I thought it was nothing but a pleasure and a privilege--"
"The fact is," she explained, neither consenting nor refusing, "thatwe were expecting to meet some friends who had tickets for us"--youngMavering's face fell--"and I can't imagine what's happened."
"Oh, let's hope something dreadful," he cried.
"Perhaps you know them," she delayed further. "Professor Saintsbury!"
"Well, rather! Why, they were here about an hour ago--both of them. Theymust have been looking for you."
"Yes; we were to meet them here. We waited to come out with otherfriends, and I was afraid we were late." Mrs. Pasmer's face expressed atempered disappointment, and she looked at her daughter for indicationsof her wishes in the circumstances; seeing in her eye a willingness toaccept young Mavering's invitation, she hesitated more decidedly thanshe had yet done, for she was, other things being equal, quite willingto accept it herself. But other things were not equal, and the wholesituation was very odd. All that she knew of Mr. Mavering the elder wasthat he was the old friend of John Munt, and she knew far too little ofJohn Munt, except that he seemed to go everywhere, and to be welcome,not to feel that his introduction was hardly a warrant for what lookedlike an impending intimacy. She did not dislike Mr. Mavering; he wasevidently a country person of great self-respect, and no doubt of entirerespectability. He seemed very intelligent, too. He was a Harvard man;he had rather a cultivated manner, or else naturally a clever way ofsaying things. But all that was really nothing, if she knew no moreabout him, and she certainly did not. If she could only have asked herdaughter who it was that presented young Mavering to her, that mighthave formed some clew, but there was no earthly chance of asking this,and, besides, it was probably one of those haphazard introductions thatpeople give on such occasions. Young Mavering's behaviour gave her stillgreater question: his self-possession, his entire absence of anxiety;or any expectation of rebuff or snub, might be the ease of unimpeachablesocial acceptance, or it might be merely adventurous effrontery; onlysomething ingenuous and good in the young fellow's handsome face forbadethis conclusion. That his face was so handsome was another of thecomplications. She recalled, in the dreamlike swiftness with which allthese things passed through her mind, what her friends had said to Aliceabout her being sure to meet her fate on Class Day, and she looked ather again to see if she had met it.
"Well, mamma?" said the girl, smiling at her mother's look.
Mrs. Pasmer thought she must have been keeping young Mavering waitinga long time for his answer. "Why, of course, Alice. But I really don'tknow what to do about the Saintsburys." This was not in the least true,but it instantly seemed so to Mrs. Pasmer, as a plausible excuse willwhen we make it.
"Why, I'll tell you what, Mrs. Pasmer," said young Mavering, with acordial unsuspicion that both won and reassured her, "we'll be sure tofind them at some of the spreads. Let me be of that much use, anyway;you must."
"We really oughtn't to let you," said Mrs. Pasmer, making a last effortto cling to her reluctance, but feeling it fail, with a sensation thatwas not disagreeable. She could not help being pleased with the pleasurethat she saw in her daughter's face.
Young Mavering's was radiant. "I'll be back in just half a minute," hesaid, and he took a gay leave of them in running to speak to anotherstudent at the opposite end of the hall.