And happily," she added, "Lord Lambeth does not owe me ten pounds."
During the first few days after their
arrival at Jones's Hotel our charming
Americans were much occupied with what they would have called looking
about them. They found occasion to make a large number of purchases,
and their opportunities for conversation were such only as were offered
by the deferential London shopmen. Bessie Alden, even in driving
from the station, took an
immense fancy to the British metropolis,
and at the risk of exhibiting her as a young woman of
vulgar tastes it
must be recorded that for a
considerable period she desired no higher
pleasure than to drive about the
crowded streets in a hansom cab.
To her
attentive eyes they were full of a strange
picturesque life,
and it is at least beneath the
dignity of our
historic muse to enumerate
the
trivial objects and incidents which this simple young lady from Boston
found so entertaining. It may be
freely mentioned, however, that whenever,
after a round of visits in Bond Street and Regent Street, she was
about to return with her sister to Jones's Hotel, she made an
earnestrequest that they should be
driven home by way of Westminster Abbey.
She had begun by asking whether it would not be possible to take the Tower
on the way to their lodgings; but it happened that at a more
primitive stage
of her
culture Mrs. Westgate had paid a visit to this
venerable monument,
which she spoke of ever afterward
vaguely as a
dreadful disappointment;
so that she expressed the liveliest
disapproval of any attempt to combine
historical researches with the purchase of hairbrushes and notepaper.
The most she would consent to do in this line was to spend half
an hour at Madame Tussaud's, where she saw several dusty wax effigies
of members of the royal family. She told Bessie that if she
wished to go to the Tower she must get someone else to take her.
Bessie expressed hereupon an
earnestdisposition to go alone; but upon
this proposal as well Mrs. Westgate sprinkled cold water.
"Remember," she said, "that you are not in your
innocent little Boston.
It is not a question of walking up and down Beacon Street."
Then she went on to explain that there were two classes of American
girls in Europe--those that walked about alone and those that did not.
"You happen to belong, my dear," she said to her sister, "to the class
that does not."
"It is only," answered Bessie, laughing, "because you happen to prevent me."
And she
devoted much private
meditation to this question of effecting a visit
to the Tower of London.
Suddenly it seemed as if the problem might be solved; the two
ladies at Jones's Hotel received a visit from Willie Woodley.
Such was the social appellation of a young American who had sailed
from New York a few days after their own
departure, and who,
having the
privilege of
intimacy with them in that city, had lost
no time, on his
arrival in London, in coming to pay them his respects.
He had, in fact, gone to see them directly after going to see his tailor,
than which there can be no greater
exhibition of promptitude on the part
of a young American who has just alighted at the Charing Cross Hotel.
He was a slim, pale youth, of the most
amiabledisposition,
famous for the skill with which he led the "German" in New York.
Indeed, by the young ladies who
habitually figured in this Terpsichorean
revel he was believed to be "the best
dancer in the world";
it was in these terms that he was always
spoken of, and that his
identity was indicated. He was the gentlest, softest young
man it was possible to meet; he was
beautifully dressed--"in
the English style"--and he knew an
immense deal about London.
He had been at Newport during the
previous summer, at the time of our
young Englishmen's visit, and he took
extreme pleasure in the society
of Bessie Alden, whom he always addressed as "Miss Bessie."
She immediately arranged with him, in the presence of her sister,
that he should conduct her to the scene of Anne Boleyn's execution.
"You may do as you please," said Mrs. Westgate.
"Only--if you desire the information--it is not the custom
here for young ladies to knock about London with young men."
"Miss Bessie has waltzed with me so often," observed Willie Woodley;
"she can surely go out with me in a hansom."
"I consider waltzing," said Mrs. Westgate, "the most
innocent pleasure
of our time."
"It's a
compliment to our time!" exclaimed the young man with a little laugh,
in spite of himself.
"I don't see why I should regard what is done here," said Bessie Alden.
"Why should I suffer the restrictions of a society of which I enjoy none
of the
privileges?"
"That's very good--very good," murmured Willie Woodley.
"Oh, go to the Tower, and feel the ax, if you like," said Mrs. Westgate.
"I consent to your going with Mr. Woodley; but I should not let you go
with an Englishman."
"Miss Bessie wouldn't care to go with an Englishman!"
Mr. Woodley declared with a faint asperity that was, perhaps,
not
unnatural in a young man, who, dressing in the manner
that I have indicated and
knowing a great deal, as I have said,
about London, saw no reason for
drawing these sharp distinctions.
He agreed upon a day with Miss Bessie--a day of that same week.
An
ingenious mind might, perhaps, trace a
connection between the young
girl's
allusion to her destitution of social
privileges and a question
she asked on the
morrow as she sat with her sister at lunch.
"Don't you mean to write to--to anyone?" said Bessie.
"I wrote this morning to Captain Littledale," Mrs. Westgate replied.
"But Mr. Woodley said that Captain Littledale had gone to India."
"He said he thought he had heard so; he knew nothing about it."
For a moment Bessie Alden said nothing more; then, at last,
"And don't you intend to write to--to Mr. Beaumont?" she inquired.
"You mean to Lord Lambeth," said her sister.
"I said Mr. Beaumont because he was so good a friend of yours."
Mrs. Westgate looked at the young girl with sisterly candor.
"I don't care two straws for Mr. Beaumont."
"You were certainly very nice to him."
"I am nice to
everyone," said Mrs. Westgate simply.
"To
everyone but me," rejoined Bessie, smiling.
Her sister continued to look at her; then, at last, "Are you
in love with Lord Lambeth?" she asked.
The young girl stared a moment, and the question was
apparently too humorous
even to make her blush. "Not that I know of," she answered.
"Because if you are," Mrs. Westgate went on, "I shall certainly
not send for him."
"That proves what I said," declared Bessie, smiling--"that you
are not nice to me."
"It would be a poor service, my dear child," said her sister.
"In what sense? There is nothing against Lord Lambeth that I know of."
Mrs. Westgate was silent a moment. "You ARE in love with him then?"
Bessie stared again; but this time she blushed a little.
"Ah! if you won't be serious," she answered, "we will not
mention him again."
For some moments Lord Lambeth was not mentioned again, and it was
Mrs. Westgate who, at the end of this period, reverted to him.
"Of course I will let him know we are here, because I think he would
be hurt--justly enough--if we should go away without
seeing him.
It is fair to give him a chance to come and thank me for the kindness
we showed him. But I don't want to seem eager."
"Neither do I," said Bessie with a little laugh.
"Though I confess," added her sister, "that I am curious to see
how he will
behave."
"He
behaved very well at Newport."
"Newport is not London. At Newport he could do as he liked;
but here it is another affair. He has to have an eye to consequences."
"If he had more freedom, then, at Newport," argued Bessie, "it is the more
to his credit that he
behaved well; and if he has to be so careful here,
it is possible he will
behave even better."
"Better--better,"
repeated her sister. "My dear child,
what is your point of view?"
"How do you mean--my point of view?"
"Don't you care for Lord Lambeth--a little?"
This time Bessie Alden was displeased; she slowly got up
from the table, turning her face away from her sister.
"You will
oblige me by not talking so," she said.
Mrs. Westgate sat watching her for some moments as she moved
slowly about the room and went and stood at the window.
"I will write to him this afternoon," she said at last.
"Do as you please!" Bessie answered; and
presently she turned round.
"I am not afraid to say that I like Lord Lambeth. I like him very much."
"He is not clever," Mrs. Westgate declared.
"Well, there have been clever people whom I have disliked,"
said Bessie Alden; "so that I suppose I may like a
stupid one.
Besides, Lord Lambeth is not
stupid."
"Not so
stupid as he looks!" exclaimed her sister, smiling.
"If I were in love with Lord Lambeth, as you said just now,
it would be bad
policy on your part to abuse him."
"My dear child, don't give me lessons in
policy!" cried Mrs. Westgate.
"The
policy I mean to follow is very deep."
The young girl began to walk about the room again; then she
stopped before her sister. "I have never heard in the course
of five minutes," she said, "so many hints and innuendoes.
I wish you would tell me in plain English what you mean."
"I mean that you may be much annoyed."
"That is still only a hint," said Bessie.
Her sister looked at her, hesitating an instant.
"It will be said of you that you have come after Lord Lambeth--
that you followed him."
Bessie Alden threw back her pretty head like a startled hind, and a look
flashed into her face that made Mrs. Westgate rise from her chair.
"Who says such things as that?" she demanded.
"People here."
"I don't believe it," said Bessie.
"You have a very
convenientfaculty of doubt. But my
policy will be,
as I say, very deep. I shall leave you to find out this kind
of thing for yourself."
Bessie fixed her eyes upon her sister, and Mrs. Westgate thought for a moment
there were tears in them. "Do they talk that way here?" she asked.
"You will see. I shall leave you alone."
"Don't leave me alone," said Bessie Alden. "Take me away."
"No; I want to see what you make of it," her sister continued.
"I don't understand."
"You will understand after Lord Lambeth has come," said Mrs. Westgate
with a little laugh.
The two ladies had arranged that on this afternoon Willie
Woodley should go with them to Hyde Park, where Bessie Alden
expected to
derive much
entertainment from sitting on a little
green chair, under the great trees, beside Rotten Row.
The want of a
suitableescort had
hitherto rendered this
pleasure
inaccessible; but no
escort now, for such an expedition,
could have been more
suitable than their
devoted young countryman,
whose
mission in life, it might almost be said, was to find
chairs for ladies, and who appeared on the stroke of half-past
five with a white camellia in his buttonhole.
"I have written to Lord Lambeth, my dear," said Mrs. Westgate to her sister,
on coming into the room where Bessie Alden,
drawing on her long gray gloves,
was entertaining their visitor.
Bessie said nothing, but Willie Woodley exclaimed that his lordship
was in town; he had seen his name in the Morning Post.
"Do you read the Morning Post?" asked Mrs. Westgate.
"Oh, yes; it's great fun," Willie Woodley affirmed.
"I want so to see it," said Bessie; "there is so much about it in Thackeray."
"I will send it to you every morning," said Willie Woodley.
He found them what Bessie Alden thought excellent places,
under the great trees, beside the famous avenue whose
humors had been made familiar to the young girl's childhood
by the pictures in Punch. The day was bright and warm,
and the crowd of riders and spectators, and the great procession
of carriages, were proportionately dense and brilliant.
The scene bore the stamp of the London Season at its height,
and Bessie Alden found more
entertainment in it than she
was able to express to her companions. She sat silent,