April Hopes

by William Dean Howells

  XXXI.

  An engagement must always be a little incredible at first to thefamilies of the betrothed, and especially to the family of the youngman; in the girl's, the mother, at least, will have a more realisingsense of the situation. If there are elder sisters who have beenaccustomed to regard their brother as very young, he will seem all theyounger because in such a matter he has treated himself as if he werea man; and Eunice Mavering said, after seeing the Pasmers, "Well, Dan,it's all well enough, I suppose, but it seems too ridiculous."

  "What's ridiculous about it, I should like to know?" he demanded.

  "Oh, I don't know. Who'll look after you when you're married? Oh, Iforgot Ma'am Pasmer!"

  "I guess we shall be able to look after ourselves," said Dan; a littlesulkily.

  "Yes, if you'll be allowed to," insinuated his sister.

  They spoke at the end of a talk in which he had fretted at the reticenceof both his sister and his father concerning the Pasmers, whom they hadjust been to see. He was vexed with his father, because he felt that hehad been influenced by Eunice, and had somehow gone back on him. He wasvexed and he was grieved because his father had left them at the doorof the hotel without saying anything in praise of Alice, beyond thegeneralities that would not carry favour with Eunice; and he wasdepressed with a certain sense of Alice's father and mother, whichseemed to have imparted itself to him from the others, and to be theMavering opinion of them. He could no longer see Mrs. Pasmer harmless iftrivial, and good-hearted if inveterately scheming; he could not seethe dignity and refinement which he had believed in Mr. Pasmer; they hadboth suffered a sort of shrinkage or collapse, from which he could notrehabilitate them. But this would have been nothing if his sister's andhis father's eyes, through which he seemed to have been looking, hadnot shown him Alice in a light in which she appeared strange and queeralmost to eccentricity. He was hurt at this effect from their want ofsympathy, his pride was touched, and he said to himself that he shouldnot fish for Eunice's praise; but he found himself saying, withoutsurprise, "I suppose you will do what you can to prejudice mother andMin."

  "Isn't that a little previous?" asked Eunice. "Have I said anythingagainst Miss Pasmer?"

  "You haven't because you couldn't," said Dan, with foolish bitterness.

  "Oh, I don't know about that. She's a human being, I suppose--at leastthat was the impression I got from her parentage."

  "What have you got to say against her parents?" demanded Dan savagely.

  "Oh, nothing. I didn't come down to Boston to denounce the Pasmerfamily."

  "I suppose you didn't like their being in a flat; you'd have liked tofind them in a house on Commonwealth Avenue or Beacon Street."

  "I'll own I'm a snob," said Eunice, with maddening meekness. "So'sfather."

  "They are connected with the best families in the city, and they arein the best society. They do what they please, and they live where theylike. They have been so long in Europe that they don't care for thosesilly distinctions. But what you say doesn't harm them. It's simplydisgraceful to you; that's all," said Dan furiously.

  "I'm glad it's no worse, Dan," said his sister, with a tranquil smile."And if you'll stop prancing up and down the room, and take a seat, andbehave yourself in a Christian manner, I'll talk with you; and if youdon't, I won't. Do you suppose I'm going to be bullied into likingthem?"

  "You can like them or not, as you please," said Dan sullenly; but he satdown, and waited decently for his sister to speak. "But you can't abusethem--at least in my presence."

  "I didn't know men lost their heads as well as their hearts," saidEunice. "Perhaps it's only an exchange, though, and it's Miss Pasmer'shead." Dan started, but did not say anything, and Eunice smoothlycontinued: "No, I don't believe it is. She looked like a sensible girl,and she talked sensibly. I should think she had a very good head. Shehas good manners, and she's extremely pretty, and very graceful. I'msurprised she should be in love with such a simpleton."

  "Oh, go on! Abuse me as much as you like," said Dan. He was at oncesoothed by her praise of Alice.

  "No, it isn't necessary to go on; the case is a little too obvious.But I think she will do very well. I hope you're not marrying the wholefamily, though. I suppose that it's always a question of which shall bescooped up. They will want to scoop you up, and we shall want to scoopher up. I dare say Ma'am Pasmer has her little plan; what is it?"

  Dan started at this touch on the quick, but he controlled himself, andsaid, with dignity, "I have my own plans."

  "Well, you know what mother's are," returned Eunice easily. "You seemso cheerful that I suppose yours are quite the same, and you're justkeeping them for a surprise." She laughed provokingly, and Dan burstforth again--

  "You seem to live to give people pain. You take a fiendish delight intorturing others. But if you think you can influence me in the slightestdegree, you're very much mistaken."

  "Well, well, there! It sha'n't be teased any more, so it sha'n't! Itshall have its own way, it shall, and nobody shall say a word againstits little girly's mother." Eunice rose from her chair, and patted Danon the head as she passed to the adjoining room. He caught her hand,and flung it violently away; she shrieked with delight in his childishresentment, and left him sulking. She was gone two or three minutes, andwhen she came back it was in quite a different mood, as often happenswith women in a little lapse of time.

  "Dan, I think Miss Pasmer is a beautiful girl, and I know we shall alllike her, if you don't set us against her by your arrogance. Of coursewe don't know anything about her yet, and you don't, really; but sheseems a very lovable little thing, and if she's rather silent andundemonstrative, why, she'll be all the better for you: you've gotdemonstration enough for twenty. And I think the family are well enough.Mrs. Pasmer is thoroughly harmless; and Mr. Pasmer is a most dignifiedpersonage; his eyebrows alone are worth the price of admission." Dancould not help smiling. "All that there is about it is, you mustn'texpect to drive people into raptures about them, and expect them to gogrovelling round on their knees because you do."

  "Oh, I know I'm an infernal idiot," said Dan, yielding to the mingledsarcasm and flattery. "It's because I'm so anxious; and you all seem soconfoundedly provisional about it. Eunice, what do you suppose fatherreally thinks?"

  Eunice seemed tempted to a relapse into her teasing, but she did notyield. "Oh, father's all right--from your point of view. He's beenridiculous from the first; perhaps that's the reason he doesn't feelobliged to expatiate and expand a great deal at present."

  "Do you think so?" cried Dan, instantly adopting her as an ally.

  "Well, if I sad so, oughtn't it to be enough?"

  "It depends upon what else you say. Look here, now, Eunice!" Dan said,with a laughing mixture of fun and earnest, "what are you going to sayto mother? It's no use, being disagreeable, is it? Of course, I don'tcontend for ideal perfection anywhere, and I don't expect it. But thereisn't anything experimental about this thing, and don't you think we hadbetter all make the best of it?"

  "That sounds very impartial."

  "It is impartial. I'm a purely disinterested spectator."

  "Oh, quite."

  "And don't you suppose I understand Mr. and Mrs. Pasmer quite as wellas you do? All I say is that Alice is simply the noblest girl that everbreathed, and--"

  "Now you're talking sense, Dan!"

  "Well, what are you going to say when you get home, Eunice? Come!"

  "That we had better make the best of it."

  "And what else?"

  "That you're hopelessly infatuated; and that she will twist you roundher finger."

  "Well?"

  "But that you've had your own way so much, it will do you good to havesomebody else's a while."

  "I guess you're pretty solid," said Dan, after thinking it over for amoment. "I don't believe you're going to make it hard for me, and I knowyou can make it just what you please. But I want you to be frank withmother. Of course I wish you felt about the whole affair just as I do,but if you're right
on the main question, I don't care for the rest. I'drather mother would know just how you feel about it," said Dan, with asigh for the honesty which he felt to be not immediately attainable inhis own case.

  "Well, I'll see what can be done," Eunice finally assented.

  Whatever her feelings were in regard to the matter, she must havesatisfied herself that the situation was not to be changed by herdisliking it, and she began to talk so sympathetically with Dan thatshe soon had the whole story of his love out of him. They laughed agood deal together at it, but it convinced her that he had not beenhoodwinked into the engagement. It is always the belief of a young man'sfamily, especially his mother and sisters, that unfair means have beenused to win him, if the family of his betrothed are unknown to them; andit was a relief, if not exactly a comfort, for Eunice Mavering to findthat Alice was as great a simpleton as Dan, and perhaps a sincerersimpleton.