The Bostonians, Vol. II (of II)

he should be very happy to dine with her, she excused hers

s legs. Nevertheless it seemed to him he had never seen an interior that was so much an interior as this queer corridor-shaped drawing-room of his new-found kinswoman; he had never felt himself in the presence of so much organised privacy or of so many objects that spoke of habits and tastes. Most of the people he had hitherto known had no tastes; they had a few habits, but these were not of a sort that required much upholstery. He had not as yet been in many houses in New York, and he had never before seen so many accessories. The general character of the place struck him as Bostonian; this was, in fact, very much what he had supposed Boston to be. He had always heard Boston was a city of culture, and now there was culture in Miss Chancellor's tables and sofas, in the books that were everywhere, on little shelves like brackets (as if a book were a statuette), in the photographs and watercolours that covered the walls, in the curtains that were festooned rather stiffly in the doorways. He looked at some of the books and saw that his cousin read German; and his impression of the importance of this (as a symptom of superiority) was not diminished by the fact that he himself had mastered the tongue (knowing it contained a large literature of jurisprudence) during a long, empty, deadly summer on the plantation. It is a curious proof of a certain crude modesty inherent in Basil Ransom that the main effect of his observing his cousin's German books was to give him an idea of the natural energy of Northerners. He had noticed it often before; he had already told himself that he must count wit

direction (she called his attention to this-it was for his benefit), of the dusky, empty river, spotted with points of light-at this period, I say, it was very easy for him to remark to himself that nothing would induce him to make love to such a type as that. Seve

'" Mrs. Luna said, "giving you the Back Bay (don't you h

so hard. It came over him that it was because she took things hard she had sought his acquaintance; it had been because she was strenuous, not because she was genial; she had had in her eye-and what an extraordinary eye it was!-not a pleasure, but a duty. She would expect him to be strenuous in return; but he couldn't-in private life, he couldn't; privacy for Basil Ransom consisted entirely in what he called "laying off." She was not so plain on further acquaintance as she had seemed to him at first; even the young Mississippian had culture enough to see that she was refined. Her white skin had a singular look of being drawn tightly across her face; but her features, though sharp and irregular, were delicate in a fashion that suggested good breeding. Their line was perverse, but it was not poor. T

er. Ransom's conception of vice was purely as a series of special cases, of explicable accidents. Not that he cared; if it were a part of the Boston character to be inquiring, he would be to the last a courteous Mississippian. He would tell her about Mississippi as much as she liked; he didn't care how much he told her that the old ideas in the South were played out. She would not understand him any the better for that; she would not know how little his own views could be gathered from such a limited admission. What her sister imparted to him about her mania for "reform" had left in his mouth a kind of unpleasant af

"Is it a party? I haven't been to

doesn't give partie

ad our dinner," Rans

ked at such times as if she were hesitating greatly between several t

will hear some discussion, if you are fond of that. Perhaps yo

gree with everything," he said

human progress?" Mis

r saw any. Are you g

rds it. That's the most one can be sur

onian? I should like to se

ities. Mrs. Farrinder goes ever

nder, the c

tle of the emancipation of women. Sh

is Miss B

most for every wise reform. I think I ought to tell you," Miss Chancellor went on in a mo

tremor of excitement to do so. Yet, if she had been afraid he would show some irri

lady-she must b

ith some severity

pirit I know. But if you are not in sympathy,

ption, to catch the tone of real seriousness. "If, as you say, there is to be a disc

r way-plead the cause of the new truths. If y

encountered in the world any but old truths-as old as the sun and moo

nd her movement seemed to say that she consented. But before she quitted her kinsman to get ready

a," he confessed; "but don't you see how this l

s face. "Mrs. Farrinder will fix it!" sh

t, which she had apparently assumed in recognition of Miss Birdseye's asceticism. As she stood there drawing on her gloves-her visitor had fortified himself against Mrs. F

be a spiritual séance

ellor was determined to look him straight in the face as she said this; her sens

nately men didn't care for the truth, especially the new kinds, in proportion as they were good-looking. She had, however, a moral resource that she could always fall back upon; it had already

to make him cease to insist on accompanying her; for, strange to record-if anything, in a person of that intense sensibility, be stranger than any other-her second thought with regard to havin

il Ransom good-humouredly. He evidently had

ut off invidious differences and mingle in the common life. She would have gone on foot to Boylston Street, and there she would have taken the public conveyance (in her heart she loathed it) to the South End. Boston was full of poor girls who had to walk about at night and to squeeze into horse-cars in which every sense was displeased; and why should she hold herself superior to these? Olive Chancellor regulated her conduct on lofty principles, and this is why, having to-night the advantage of a gentleman's protection, she sent for a carriage to obliterate that patronage. If they had gone together in the common way she would have seemed to owe it to him that she should be so daring, and he belonged

g of a better day-in its being possibl

s, if she wanted to pinch him this way? However, he was good for any game-that one as well as another-and he saw that he was "in" for something of which he had long desired to have a nea

to make them patient in the pos

is to make fools of men. I would change my position for yours any day," he

d to be reminded of certain things which, for her, were mitigations of the hard feminine lot. But the passionate qua

ve a little money? The dearest wish of my heart is t

him, rather, was the oddity of so sudden a sharpness of pitch in an intercourse which, an hour or two before, had begun in perfect amity, and he burst once more

does it matter? It is not o

t him into her life, and she should have to pay for it. But she wished to know the worst at once. "Are you a

is inquiry, but seeing how seriously she would take his answer, he was almost

a lurch. Basil Ransom got out; he stood at the door with an extended hand, to assist the young lady. But

hancellor would prevent his entering the house. She alighted without his help, and behind her he ascended the high steps of Miss Birdseye's