The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him Page 5

  CHAPTER V.

  MINES AND COUNTER-MINES.

  The sight of the party on the veranda of the Shrubberies brought areturn of self-consciousness to Peter, and he braced himself, as thetrap slowed up, for the agony of formal greetings. If Miss Pierce hadbeen a less sweet, sympathetic girl, she could hardly have kept fromsmiling at the way Peter's face and figure stiffened, as the group camein sight. But Miss Pierce had decided, before she met Peter, that sheshould like him, and, moreover, that he was a man who needed help. Letany woman reach these conclusions about a man, and for some reason quitebeyond logic or philosophy, he ceases to be ridiculous. So instead ofsmiling, she bridged over the awful greetings with feminine engineeringskill quite equal to some great strategic movement in war. Peter wasmade to shake hands with Mrs. Pierce, but was called off to help MissPierce out of the carriage, before speech was necessary. Then a bundlewas missing in the bottom of the carriage, and Mr. Pawling, the New Yorkswell, was summoned to help Peter find it, the incident being seizedupon to name the two to each other. Finally, he was introduced to thetwo girls, but, almost instantly, Watts and Peter were sent to theirrooms; and Miss Pierce, nodding her head in a way which denotedsatisfaction, remarked as she went to her own room, "Really, Helen, Idon't think it will be so very hard, after all. He's very tractable."

  As Peter came downstairs, before dinner, he speculated on whether heshould be able to talk to Miss Pierce. He rather doubted from pastexperience, if such a result was attainable, seeing that there were twoother men, who would of course endeavor to do the same. But strangelyenough the two men were already seated by the New York girls, and avacant chair was next that holding Miss Pierce. What was more, he was atonce summoned to fill it, and in five minutes was again entirelyunconscious of everything but the slate-colored eyes, looking sopleasantly into his. Then he took Miss Pierce in to dinner, and satbetween her and her mother again becoming absorbed in the slate-coloredeyes, which seemed quite willing to be absorbed. After dinner, too, whenthe women had succeeded the weed, Peter in someway found it very easy tosettle himself near Miss Pierce. Later that night Peter sat in his room,or rather, with half his body out of the window, puffing his pipe, andthinking how well he had gone through the day. He had not made a singleslip. Nothing to groan over. "I'm getting more experienced," he thought,with the vanity noticeable in even the most diffident of collegians,never dreaming that everything that he had said or done in the last fewhours, had been made easy for him by a woman's tact.

  The following week was practically a continuation of this first day. Intruth Peter was out of his element with the fashionables; Mr. Pierce didnot choose to waste his power on him; and Mrs. Pierce, like theyielding, devoted wife she was, took her coloring from her husband.Watts had intended to look after him, but Watts played well on thepiano, and on the billiard table; he rowed well and rode well; he sang,he danced, he swam, he talked, he played all games, he read aloudcapitally, and, what was more, was ready at any or all times for any orall things. No man who can do half these had better intend seriously todo some duty in a house-party in July. For, however good his intentions,he will merely add to the pavement of a warmer place than even a Julytemperature makes Long Island Sound. Instinctively, Peter turned to MissPierce at every opportunity. He should have asked himself if the girlwas really enjoying his company more than she did that of the otheryoung people. Had he been to the manner born he would have known betterthan to force himself on a hostess, or to make his monopoly of a younggirl so marked. But he was entirely oblivious of whether he was doing ashe ought, conscious only that, for causes which he made no attempt toanalyze, he was very happy when with her. For reasons best known to MissPierce, she allowed herself to be monopolized. She was even almost asdevoted to Peter as he was to her, and no comparison could be stronger.It is to be questioned if she enjoyed it very much, for Peter was nottalkative, and the little he did say was neither brilliant nor witty.With the jollity and "high jinks" (to use a word of Watts's) going onabout her, it is hardly possible that Peter's society shone by contrast.Yet in drawing-room or carriage, on the veranda, lawn, or yacht's deck,she was ever ready to give him as much of her attention and help as heseemed to need, and he needed a good deal. Watts jokingly said that "themoment Peter comes in sight, Helen puts out a sign 'vacant, to let,'"and this was only one of many jokes the house-party made over the dualdevotion.

  It was an experience full of danger to Peter. For the first time in hislife he was seeing the really charming phases which a girl has atcommand. Attractive as these are to all men, they were trebly so toPeter, who had nothing to compare with them but the indifferentattitudes hitherto shown him by the maidens of his native town, and bythe few Boston women who had been compelled to "endure" his society. Ifhe had had more experience he would have merely thought Miss Pierce agirl with nice eyes, figure and manner. But as a single glass of wine isdangerous to the teetotaller, so this episode had an over-balancinginfluence on Peter, entirely out of proportion to its true value. Beforethe week was over he was seriously in love, and though his naturalimpassiveness and his entire lack of knowledge how to convey hisfeelings to Miss Pierce, prevented her from a suspicion of the fact, themore experienced father and mother were not so blind.

  "Really, Charles," said Mrs. Pierce, in the privacy of their own room,"I think it ought to be stopped."

  "Exactly, my dear," replied her other half, with an apparent yielding toher views that amazed and rather frightened Mrs. Pierce, till hecontinued: "Beyond question _it_ should be stopped, since you say so._It_ is neuter, and as neutral things are highly objectionable, stop_it_ by all means."

  "I mean Mr. Stirling--" began Mrs. Pierce.

  "Yes?" interrupted Mr. Pierce, in an encouraging, inquiring tone. "Peteris certainly neuter. I think one might say negative, without grossexaggeration. Still, I should hardly stop him. He finds enoughdifficulty in getting out an occasional remark without putting a stopperin him. Perhaps, though, I mistake your meaning, and you want Petermerely to stop here a little longer."

  "I mean, dear," replied Mrs. Pierce, with something like a tear in hervoice, for she was sadly wanting in a sense of humor, and her husband'sjokes always half frightened her, and invariably made her feel inferiorto him, "I mean his spending so much time with Helen. I'm afraid he'llfall in love with her."

  "My dear," said Mr. Pierce, "you really should be a professionalmind-reader. Your suggestion comes as an awful revelation to me. Justsupposing he should--aye--just supposing he has, fallen in love withHelen!"

  "I really think he has," said Mrs. Pierce, "though he is so differentfrom most men, that I am not sure."

  "Then by all means we must stop him. By the way, how does one stop aman's falling in love?" asked Mr. Pierce.

  "Charles!" said Mrs. Pierce.

  This remark of Mrs. Pierce's generally meant a resort to a handkerchief,and Mr. Pierce did not care for any increase of atmospheric humidityjust then. He therefore concluded that since his wit was takenseriously, he would try a bit of seriousness, as an antidote.

  "I don't think there is any occasion to interfere. Whatever Peter doescan make no difference, for it is perfectly evident that Helen is niceto him as a sort of duty, and, I rather suspect, to please Watts. Soanything she may do will be a favor to him, while the fact that she isattractive to Peter will not lessen her value to--others."

  "Then you don't think--?" asked Mrs. Pierce, and paused there.

  "Don't insult my intelligence," laughed Mr. Pierce. "I do think. I thinkthings can't be going better. I was a little afraid of Mr. Pawling, andshould have preferred to have him and his sisters later, but since it ispolicy to invite them and they could not come at any other time, it wasa godsend to have sensible, dull old Peter to keep her busy. If he hadbeen in the least dangerous, I should not have interfered, but I shouldhave made him very ridiculous. That's the way for parents to treat anineligible man. Next week, when all are gone but Watts, he will have histime, and shine the more by contrast with what she has had this week."<
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  "Then you think Helen and Watts care for each other?" asked Mrs. Pierce,flushing with pleasure, to find her own opinion of such a delightfulpossibility supported by her husband's.

  "I think," said Mr. Pierce, "that the less we parents concern ourselveswith love the better. If I have made opportunities for Helen and Wattsto see something of each other, I have only done what was to theirmutual interests. Any courtesy I have shown him is well enough accountedfor on the ground of his father's interest in my institution, withoutthe assumption of any matrimonial intentions. However, I am not opposedto a marriage. Watts is the son of a very rich man of the best socialposition in New York, besides being a nice fellow in himself. Helen willmake any man a good wife, and whoever wins her will not be the poorer.If the two can fix it between themselves, I shall cry _nunc dimittis_,but further than this, the deponent saith and doeth not."

  "I am sure they love each other," said Mrs. Pierce.

  "Well," said Mr. Pierce, "I think if most parents would decide whom itwas best for their child to marry, and see that the young people sawjust enough of each other, before they saw too much of the world, theycould accomplish their purpose, provided they otherwise kept theirfinger out of the pot of love. There is a certain period in a man's lifewhen he must love something feminine, even if she's as old as hisgrandmother. There is a certain period in a girl's life when it iswell-nigh impossible for her to say 'no' to a lover. He really onlyloves the sex, and she really loves the love and not the lover; but itis just as well, for the delusion lasts quite as long as the morepersonal love that comes later. And, being young, they need lessbreaking for double harness."

  Mrs. Pierce winced. Most women do wince when a man really verges on histrue conclusions concerning love in the abstract, however satisfactoryhis love in the concrete may be to them. "I am sure they love eachother," she affirmed.

  "Yes, I think they do," replied Mr. Pierce. "But five years in the worldbefore meeting would have possibly brought quite a different conclusion.And now, my dear, if we are not going to have the young people elopingin the yacht by themselves, we had better leave both the subject and theroom, for we have kept them fifteen minutes as it is."