"What an artless sprite it is!" said one old gentleman, who had
stared at her from the instant of her entrance, in mute enjoyment,
to the great amusement of his more knowing nephews.
"All but the artless!" rejoined one of the sophisticated youngsters.
"She is gotten up too well for that. Ten to one she is an
experienced stager, who calculates to a nicety the capabilities of
every twist of her silky hair and twinkle of an eyelash. Hallo! that
IS gushing--nicely done, if it isn't almost equal to the genuine
thing, in fact."
The ambiguous compliment was provoked by a change of scene and a new
actor, that opened other optics than his lazy ones to their
extremest extent. A gentleman had come in alone and quietly--a tall,
manly personage, whose serious countenance had just time to soften
into a smile of recognition before the black-robed fairy flew up to
him--both hands extended--her face one glad sunbeam of surprise and
welcome.
"YOU here!" she exclaimed, in a low, thrilling tone, shedding into
his the unclouded rays of her glorious eyes, while one of her hands
lingered in his friendly hold. "This is almost too good to be true!
When did you come? How long are you going to stay? and what did you
come for? Yours is the only familiar physiognomy I have beheld since
our arrival, and my eyes were becoming ravenous for a sight of
remembered things. Which reminds me"--coloring bewitchingly, with an
odd mixture of mirth and chagrin in smile and voice--"that I have
been getting up quite a little show on my own account, forgetful of
les regles, and I suppose the horrified lookers-on think of les
moeurs. May I atone for my inadvertence by presenting you, in good
and regular form, to my somewhat shocked, but very respectable,
relatives? Did you know that I was in Congress this year--that is,
Mr. Mason, my aunt's husband, is an Honorable, and I am here with
them?"
The gentleman gave her his arm, and they strolled leisurely in the
direction of the party she had deserted so unceremoniously.
"I did not know it, bat I am glad to learn that you are to make a
long visit to the city. I have business that may detain me here for
a week--perhaps a fort-night," was his answer to the first question
she suffered him thus to honor.
Then the introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Mason, their married daughter,
Mrs. Cunningham, and her husband, was performed. The Member's wife
was a portly, good-natured Virginia matron, whose ruling desire to
make all about her comfortable as herself, sometimes led to
contretemps that were trying to the subjects of her kindness, and
would have been distressing to her, had she ever, by any chance,
guessed what she had done.