CHAPTER V
IN COUNCIL

Sauntering back to his hotel, Mr. Dillwyn's thoughts were a good dealengaged with the impressions of the last hour. It was odd, too; he hadseen all varieties and descriptions of feminine fascination, or hethought he had; some of them in very high places, and with all theadventitious charms which wealth and place and breeding can add tothose of nature's giving. Yet here was something new. A novelty asfresh as one of the daisies Mrs. Wishart had spoken of. He had seendaisies too before, he thought; and was not particularly fond of thatstyle. No; this was something other than a daisy.

Sauntering along and not heeding his surroundings, he was suddenlyhailed by a joyful voice, and an arm was thrust within his own.

"Philip! where did you come from? and when did you come?"

"Only the other day – from Egypt – was coming to see you, but have beenbothered with custom-house business. How do you all do, Tom?"

"What are you bringing over? curiosities? or precious things?"

"Might be both. How do you do, old boy?"

"Very much put out, just at present, by a notion of my mother's; shewill go to Florida to escape March winds."

"Florida! Well, Florida is a good place, when March is stalking abroadlike this. What are you put out for? I don't comprehend."

"Yes, but you see, the month will be half over before she gets ready tobe off; and what's the use? April will be here directly; she might justas well wait here for April."

"You cannot pick oranges off the trees here in April. You forget that."

"Don't want to pick 'em anywhere. But come along, and see them at home.

They'll be awfully glad to see you."

It was not far, and talking of nothings the two strolled that way.There was much rejoicing over Philip's return, and much curiosityexpressed as to where he had been and what he had been doing for a longtime past. Finally, Mrs. Caruthers proposed that he should go on toFlorida with them.

"Yes, do!" cried Tom. "You go, and I'll stay."

"My dear Tom!" said his mother, "I could not possibly do without you."

"Take Julia. I'll look after the house, and Dillwyn will look afteryour baggage."

"And who will look after you, you silly boy?" said his sister. "You'rethe worst charge of all."

"What is the matter?" Philip asked now.

"Women's notions," said Tom. "Women are always full of notions! Theycan spy game at hawk's distance; only they make a mistake sometimes, which the hawk don't, I reckon; and think they see something when thereis nothing."

"We know what we see this time," said his sister. "Philip, he'sdreadfully caught."

"Not the first time?" said Dillwyn humorously. "No danger, is there?"

"There is real danger," said Miss Julia. "He is caught with animpossible country girl."

"Caught by her? Fie, Tom! aren't you wiser?"

"That's not fair!" cried Tom hotly. "She catches nobody, nor tries it,in the way you mean. I am not caught, either; that's more; but youshouldn't speak in that way."

"Who is the lady? It is very plain Tom isn't caught. But where is she?"

"She is a little country girl come to see the world for the first time.Of course she makes great eyes; and the eyes are pretty; and Tomcouldn't stand it." Miss Julia spoke laughing, yet serious.

"I should not think a little country girl would be dangerous to Tom."

"No, would you? It's vexatious, to have one's confidence in one'sbrother so shaken."

"What's the matter with her?" broke out Tom here. "I am not caught, asyou call it, neither by her nor with her; but if you want to discussher, I say, what's the matter with her?"

"Nothing, Tom!" said his mother soothingly; "there is nothing whateverthe matter with her; and I have no doubt she is a nice girl. But shehas no education."

"Hang education!" said Tom. "Anybody can pick that up. She can talk, Ican tell you, better than anybody of all those you had round your tablethe other day. She's an uncommon good talker."

"You are, you mean," said his sister; "and she listens and makes bigeyes. Of course nothing can be more delightful. But, Tom, she knowsnothing at all; not so much as how to dress herself."

"Wasn't she well enough dressed the other day?"

"Somebody arranged that for her."

"Well, somebody could do it again. You girls think so much ofdressing. It isn't the first thing about a woman, after all."

"You men think enough about it, though. What would tempt you to go outwith me if I wasn't assez bien mise? Or what would take any man downBroadway with his wife if she hadn't a hoop on?"

"Doesn't the lady in question wear a hoop?" inquired Philip.

"No, she don't."

"Singular want of taste!"

"Well, you don't like them; but, after all, it's the fashion, and onecan't help oneself. And, as I said, you may not like them, but youwouldn't walk with me if I hadn't one."

"Then, to sum up – the deficiencies of this lady, as I understand, are, – education and a hoop? Is that all?"

"By no means!" cried Mrs. Caruthers. "She is nobody, Philip. She comesfrom a family in the country – very respectable people, I have no doubt, but, – well, she is nobody. No connections, no habit of the world. Andno money. They are quite poor people."

"That is serious," said Dillwyn. "Tom is in such straitenedcircumstances himself. I was thinking, he might be able to provide thehoop; but if she has no money, it is critical."

"You may laugh!" said Miss Julia. "That is all the comfort one getsfrom a man. But he does not laugh when it comes to be his own case, andmatters have gone too far to be mended, and he is feeling theconsequences of his rashness."

"You speak as if I were in danger! But I do not see how it should cometo be 'my own case,' as I never even saw the lady. Who is she? andwhere is she? and how comes she – so dangerous – to be visiting you?"

All spoke now at once, and Philip heard a confused medley of "Mrs.Wishart" – "Miss Lothrop" – "staying with her" – "poor cousin" – "kind toher of course."

Mr. Dillwyn's countenance changed.

"Mrs. Wishart!" he echoed. "Mrs. Wishart is irreproachable."

"Certainly, but that does not put a penny in Miss Lothrop's pocket, norgive her position, nor knowledge of the world."

"What do you mean by knowledge of the world?" Mr. Dillwyn inquired withslow words.

"Why! you know. Just the sort of thing that makes the differencebetween the raw and the manufactured article," Miss Julia answered, laughing. She was comfortably conscious of being thoroughly"manufactured" herself. No crude ignorances or deficienciesthere. – "The sort of thing that makes a person at home and au fait everywhere, and in all companies, and shuts out awkwardnesses andinelegancies.

"Does it shut them out?"

"Why, of course! How can you ask? What else will shut them out? Allthat makes the difference between a woman of the world and a milkmaid."

"This little girl, I understand, then, is awkward and inelegant?"

"She is nothing of the kind!" Tom burst out. "Ridiculous!" But Dillwynwaited for Miss Julia's answer.

"I cannot call her just awkward," said Mrs. Caruthers.

"N-o," said Julia, "perhaps not. She has been living with Mrs. Wishart, you know, and has got accustomed to a certain set of things. She doesnot strike you unpleasantly in society, seated at a lunch table, forinstance; but of course all beyond the lunch table is like London to aLaplander."

Tom flung himself out of the room.

"And that is what you are going to Florida for?" pursued Dillwyn.

"You have guessed it! Yes, indeed. Do you know, there seems to benothing else to do. Tom is in actual danger. I know he goes very oftento Mrs. Wishart's; and you know Tom is impressible; and before we knowit he might do something he would be sorry for. The only thing is toget him away."

"I think I will go to Mrs. Wishart's too," said Philip. "Do you thinkthere would be danger?"

"I don't know!" said Miss Julia, arching her brows. "I never cancomprehend why the men take such furies of fancies for this girl or forthat. To me they do not seem so different. I believe this girl takesjust because she is not like the rest of what one sees every day."

"That might be a recommendation. Did it never strike you, Miss Julia, that there is a certain degree of sameness in our world? Not in nature, for there the variety is simply endless; but in our ways of living.Here the effort seems to be to fall in with one general pattern. Housesand dresses; and entertainments, and even the routine of conversation.Generally speaking, it is all one thing."

"Well," said Miss Julia, with spirit, "when anything is once recognizedas the right thing, of course everybody wants to conform to it."

"I have not recognized it as the right thing."

"What?"

"This uniformity."

"What would you have?"

"I think I would like to see, for a change, freedom and individuality.Why should a woman with sharp features dress her hair in a manner thatsets off their sharpness, because her neighbour with a classic head candraw it severely about her in close bands and coils, and so only thebetter show its nobility of contour? Why may not a beautiful head ofhair be dressed flowingly, because the fashion favours the people whohave no hair at all? Why may not a plain dress set off a fine figure, because the mode is to leave no unbroken line or sweeping draperyanywhere? And I might go on endlessly."

"I can't tell, I am sure," said Miss Julia; "but if one lives in theworld, it won't do to defy the world. And that you know as well as I."

"What would happen, I wonder?"

"The world would quietly drop you. Unless you are a person ofimportance enough to set a new fashion."

"Is there not some unworthy bondage about that?"

"You can't help it, Philip Dillwyn, if there is. We have got to take itas it is; and make the best of it."

"And this new Fate of Tom's – this new Fancy rather, – as I understand, she is quite out of the world?"

"Quite. Lives in a village in New England somewhere, and grows onions."

"For market?" said Philip, with a somewhat startled face.

"No, no!" said Julia, laughing – "how could you think I meant that? No;I don't know anything about the onions; but she has lived among farmersand sailors all her life, and that is all she knows. And it isperfectly ridiculous, but Tom is so smitten with her that all we can dois to get him away. Fancy, Tom!"

"He has got to come back," said Philip, rising. "You had better getsomebody to take the girl away."

"Perhaps you will do that?" said Miss Julia, laughing.

"I'll think of it," said Dillwyn as he took leave.