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Trumps: A Novel, a novel by George William Curtis |
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Chapter 21. The Campaign |
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_ CHAPTER XXI. THE CAMPAIGN Miss Fanny Newt went to Saratoga with a perfectly clear idea of what she intended to do. She intended to be engaged to Mr. Alfred Dinks. That young gentleman was a second cousin of Hope Wayne's, and his mother had never objected to his little visits at Pinewood, when both he and Hope were young, and when the unsophisticated human heart is flexible as melted wax, and receives impressions which only harden with time. "Let the children play together, my dear," she said, in conjugal seclusion to her husband, the Hon. Budlong Dinks, who needed only sufficient capacity and a proper opportunity to have been one of the most distinguished of American diplomatists. He thought he was such already. There was, indeed, plenty of diplomacy in the family, and that most skillful of all diplomatic talents, the management of distinguished diplomatists, was not unknown there. Fanny Newt had made the proper inquiries. The result was that there were rumors--"How do such stories start?" asked Mrs. Budlong Dinks of all her friends who were likely to repeat the rumor--that it was a family understanding that Mr. Alfred Dinks and his cousin Hope were to make a match. "And they do say," said Mrs. Dinks, "what ridiculous things people are! and they do say that, for family reasons, we are going to keep it all quiet! What a world it is!" The next day Mrs. Cod told Mrs. Dod, in a morning call, that Mrs. Budlong Dinks said that the engagement between her son Alfred and his cousin Hope Wayne was kept quiet for family reasons. Before sunset of that day society was keeping it quiet with the utmost diligence. These little stories were brought by little birds to New York, so that when Mrs. Dinks arrived the air was full of hints and suggestions, and the name of Hope Wayne was not unknown. Farther acquaintance with Mr. Alfred Dinks had revealed to Miss Fanny that there was a certain wealthy ancestor still living, in whom the Dinkses had an interest, and that the only participant with them in that interest was Miss Hope Wayne. That was enough for Miss Fanny, whose instinct at once assured her that Mrs. Dinks designed Hope Wayne for her son Alfred, in order that the fortune should be retained in the family. Miss Fanny having settled this, and upon farther acquaintance with Mr. Dinks having discovered that she might as well undertake the matrimonial management of him as of any other man, and that the Burt fortune would probably descend, in part at least, to the youth Alfred, she decided that the youth Alfred must marry her. But how should Hope Wayne be disposed of? Fanny reflected. She lived in Delafield. Brother Abel, now nearly nineteen--not a childish youth--not unhandsome--not too modest--lived also in Delafield. Had he ever met Hope Wayne? By skillful correspondence, alluding to the solitude of the country, et cetera, and his natural wish for society, and what pleasant people were there in Delafield, Fanny had drawn her lines around Abel to carry the fact of his acquaintance, if possible, by pure strategy. In reply, Abel wrote about many things--about Mrs. Kingo and Miss Broadbraid--the Sutlers and Grabeaus--he praised the peaceful tone of rural society, and begged Fanny to beware of city dissipation; but not a word of old Burt and Hope Wayne. Sister Fanny wrote again in the most confiding manner. Brother Abel replied in a letter of beautiful sentiments and a quotation from Dr. Peewee. He overdid it a little, as we sometimes do in this world. We appear so intensely unconscious that it is perfectly evident we know that somebody is looking at us. So Fanny, knowing that Christopher Burt was the richest man in the village, and lived in a beautiful place, and that his lovely grand-daughter lived with him constantly, with which information in detail Alfred Dinks supplied her, and perceiving from Abel's letter that he was not a recluse, but knew the society of the village, arrived very naturally and easily at the conclusion that brother Abel did know Hope Wayne, and was in love with her. She inferred the latter from the fact that she had long ago decided that brother Abel would not fall in love with any poor girl, and therefore she was sure that if he were in the immediate neighborhood of a lady at once young, beautiful, of good family and very rich, he would be immediately in love--very much in love. To make every thing sure, Abel had not been at home half an hour before Fanny's well-directed allusion to Hope as the future Mrs. Dinks had caused her brother to indicate an interest which revealed every thing. "If now," pondered Miss Fanny, "somebody who shall be nameless becomes Mrs. Alfred Dinks, and the nameless somebody's brother marries Miss Hope Wayne, what becomes of the Burt property?" She went, therefore, to Saratoga in great spirits, and with an unusual wardrobe. The opposing general, Field-marshal Mrs. Budlong Dinks, had certainly the advantage of position, for Hope Wayne was of her immediate party, and she could devise as many opportunities as she chose for bringing Mr. Alfred and his cousin together. She did not lose her chances. There were little parties for bowling in the morning, and early walking, and Fanny was invited very often, but sometimes omitted, as if to indicate that she was not an essential part of the composition. There was music in the parlor before dinner, and working of purses and bags before the dressing-bell. There was the dinner itself, and the promenade, with music, afterward. Drives, then, and riding; the glowing return at sunset--the cheerful cup of tea--the reappearance, in delightful toilet, for the evening dance--windows--balconies--piazzas--moonlight! Every time that Fanny, warm with the dance, declared that she must have fresh air, and that was every time she danced with Alfred, she withdrew, attended by him, to the cool, dim piazza, and every time Mrs. Dinks beheld the departure. On the cool, dim piazza the music sounded more faintly, the quiet moonlight filled the air, and life seemed all romance and festival. "How beautiful after the hot room!" Fanny said, one evening as they sat there. "Yes, how beautiful!" replied Alfred. "How happy I feel!" sighed Fanny. "Ever since I have been here I have been so happy!" "Have you been happy? So I have been happy too. How very funny!" replied Alfred. "Yes; but pleasant too. Sympathy is always pleasant." And Fanny turned her large black eyes upon him, while the young Dinks was perplexed by a singular feeling of happiness. They were content to moralize upon sympathy for some time. Alfred was fascinated, and a little afraid. Fanny moved her Junonine shoulders, bent her swan-like neck, drew off one glove and played with her rings, fanned herself gently at intervals, and, with just enough embarrassment not to frighten her companion, opened and closed her fan. "What a fine fellow Bowdoin Beacon is!" said Miss Fanny, a little suddenly, and in a tone of suppressed admiration, as she drew on her glove and laid her fan in her lap, as if on the point of departure. "Yes, he's a very good sort of fellow." "How cold you men always are in speaking of each other! I think him a splendid fellow. He's so handsome. He has such glorious dark hair--almost as dark as yours, Mr. Dinks." Alfred half raged, half smiled. "Do you know," continued Fanny, looking down a little, and speaking a little lower--"do you know if he has any particular favorites among the girls here?" Alfred was dreadfully alarmed. "If he has, how happy they must be! I think him a magnificent sort of man; but not precisely the kind I should think a girl would fall in love with. Should you?" "No," replied Alfred, mollified and bewildered. He rallied in a moment. "What sort of man do girls fall in love with, Miss Fanny?" Fanny Newt was perfectly silent. She looked down upon the floor of the piazza, fixing her eyes upon a pine-knot, patiently waiting, and wondering which way the grain of the wood ran. The silence continued. Every moment Alfred was conscious of an increasing nervousness. There were the Junonine shoulders--the neck--the downcast eyes--moonlight--the softened music. "Why don't you answer?" asked he, at length. Fanny bent her head nearer to him, and dropped these words into his waistcoat: "How good you are! I am so happy!" "What on earth have I done?" was the perplexed, and pleased, and ridiculous reply. "Mr. Dinks, how could I answer the question you asked without betraying--?" "What?" inquired Alfred, earnestly. "Without betraying what sort of man I love," breathed Fanny, in the lowest possible tone, which could be also perfectly distinct, and with her head apparently upon the point of dropping after her words into his waistcoat. "Well?" said Dinks. "Well, I can not do that, but I will make a bargain with you. If you will say what sort of girl you would love, I will answer your question." Fanny dreaded to hear a description of Hope Wayne. But Alfred's mind was resolved. The foolish youth answered with his heart in his mouth, and barely whispering, "If you will look in your glass to-night, you will see." The next moment Fanny's head had fallen into the waistcoat--Alfred Dinks's arms were embracing her. He perceived the perfume from her abundant hair. He was frightened, and excited, and pleased. "Dear Alfred!" "Dear Fanny!" "Come Hope, dear, it is very late," said Mrs. Dinks in the ball-room, alarmed at the long absence of Fanny and Alfred, and resolved to investigate the reason of it. The lovers heard the voice, and were sitting quietly just a little apart, as Mrs. Dinks and her retinue came out. "Aren't you afraid of taking cold, Miss Newt?" inquired Alfred's mother. "Oh not at all, thank you, I am very warm. But you are very wise to go in, and I shall join you. Good-night, Mr. Dinks." As she rose, she whispered--"After breakfast." The ladies rustled along the piazza in the moonlight. Alfred, flushed and nervous and happy, sauntered into the bar-room, lit a cigar, and drank some brandy and water. Meanwhile the Honorable Budlong Dinks sat in an armchair at the other end of the piazza with several other honorable gentlemen--Major Scuppernong from Carolina, Colonel le Fay from Louisiana, Captain Lamb from Pennsylvania, General Arcularius Belch of New York, besides Captain Jones, General Smith, Major Brown, Colonel Johnson, from other States, and several honorable members of Congress, including, and chief of all, the Honorable B.J. Ele, a leading statesman from New York, with whom Mr. Dinks passed as much time as possible, and who was the chief oracle of the wise men in armchairs who came to the springs to drink the waters, to humor their wives and daughters in their foolish freaks for fashion and frivolity, and who smiled loftily upon the gay young people who amused themselves with setting up ten-pins and knocking them down, while the wise men devoted themselves to talking politics and showing each other, from day to day, the only way in which the country could be made great and glorious, and fulfill its destiny. "I am not so clear about General Jackson's policy," said the Honorable Budlong Dinks, with the cautious wisdom of a statesman. "Well, Sir, I am clear enough about it," replied Major Scuppernong. "It will ruin this country just as sure as that," and the Major with great dexterity directed a stream of saliva which fell with unerring precision upon the small stone in the gravel walk at which it was evidently aimed. The Honorable Budlong Dinks watched the result of the illustration with deep interest, and shook his head gravely when he saw that the stone was thoroughly drenched by the salivary cascade. He seemed to feel the force of the argument. But he was not in a position to commit himself. "Now, I think," said the Honorable B.J. Ele, "that it is the only thing that can save the country." "Ah! you do," said the Honorable B. Dinks. And so they kept it up day after day, pausing in the intervals to smile at the ardor with which the women played their foolish game of gossip and match-making. When Mrs. Dinks withdrew from her idle employments to the invigorating air of the Honorable B.'s society, he tapped her cheek sometimes with his finger--as he had read great men occasionally did when they were with their wives in moments of relaxation from intellectual toil--asked her what would become of the world if it were given up to women, and by his manner refreshed her consciousness of the honor under which she labored in being Mrs. Budlong Dinks. The weaker vessel smiled consciously, as if he very well knew that was the one particular thing which under no conceivable circumstances could she forget. "Budlong, I really think Alfred ought to keep a horse." "My dear!" replied the Honorable B., in a tone of mingled reproach, amusement, contempt, and surprise. "Oh! I know we can't afford it. But it would be so pleasant if he could drive out his cousin Hope, as so many of the other young men do. People get so well acquainted in that way. Have you observed that Bowdoin Beacon is a great deal with her? How glad Mrs. Beacon would be!" Mrs. Dinks took off her cap, and was unpinning her collar, without in the least pressing her request. Not at all. His word was enough. She had evidently yielded the point. The horse was out of the question. Now the state of the country did not so entirely engross her husband's mind, that he had not seen all the advantage of Hope's marrying Alfred. "It is a pleasant thing for a young man to have his own horse. My dear, I will see what can be done," said he. Then the diplomatist untied his cravat as if he had been undoing the parchment of a great treaty. He fell asleep in the midst of rehearsing the speech which he meant to make upon occasion of his presentation as foreign minister somewhere; while his beloved partner lay by his side, and resolved that Alfred Dinks must immediately secure Hope Wayne before Fanny Newt secured Alfred Dinks. _ |
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