"Yes. From Eliza La Heu (pronounced Layhew), my niece; he is my nephew, she is my niece on the other side. My niece is a beginner at the Exchange. We hope that she will fulfil her duties there in a worthy manner. She comes from a family which is schooled to meet responsibilities."
I bowed again; again it seemed fitting. "I had not, until now, known the charming girl's name," I murmured.
My hostess now bowed slightly. "I am glad that you find her charming."
"Indeed, yes!" I exclaimed.
"We, also, are pleased with her. She is of good family — for the up-country."
Once again our alphabet fails me. The peculiar shade of kindness, of recognition, of patronage, which my agreeable hostess (and all Kings Port ladies, I soon noticed) imparted to the word "up-country" cannot be conveyed except by the human voice — and only a Kings Port voice at that. It is a much lighter damnation than what they make of the phrase "from Georgia," which I was soon to hear uttered by the lips of the lady. "And so you know about his wedding cake?"
"My dear madam, I feel that I shall know about everything."
Her gray eyes looked at me quietly for a moment. "That is possible. But although we may talk of ourselves to you, we scarcely expect you to talk of ourselves to us."
Well, my pertness had brought me this quite properly! And I received it properly. "I should never dream—" I hastened to say; "even without your warning. I find I'm expected to have seen the young lady of his choice," I now threw out. My accidental words proved as miraculous as the staff which once smote the rock. It was a stream, indeed, which now broke forth from her stony discretion. She began easily. "It is evident that you have not seen Miss Rieppe by the manner in which you allude to her — although of course, in comparison with my age, she is a young girl." I think that this caused me to open my mouth.
"The disparity between her years and my nephew's is variously stated," continued the old lady. "But since John's engagement we have all of us realized that love is truly blind."
I did not open my mouth any more; but my mind's mouth was wide open.
My hostess kept it so. "Since John Mayrant was fifteen he has had many loves; and for myself, knowing him and believing in him as I do, I feel confident that he will make no connection distasteful to the family when he really comes to marry."
This time I gasped outright. "But — the cake! — next Wednesday!"
She made, with her small white hand, a slight and slighting gesture. "The cake is not baked yet, and we shall see what we shall see." From this onward until the end a pinkness mounted in her pale, delicate cheeks, and deep, strong resentment burned beneath her discreetly expressed indiscretions. "The cake is not baked, and I, at least, am not solicitous. I tell my cousin, Mrs. Gregory St. Michael, that she must not forget it was merely his phosphates. That girl would never have looked at John Mayrant had it not been for the rumor of his phosphates. I suppose some one has explained to you her pretensions of birth. Away from Kings Port she may pass for a native of this place, but they come from Georgia. It cannot be said that she has met with encouragement from us; she, however, easily recovers from such things. The present generation of young people in Kings Port has little enough to remind us of what we stood for in manners and customs, but we are not accountable for her, nor for her father. I believe that he is called a general. His conduct at Chattanooga was conspicuous for personal prudence. Both of them are skillful in never knowing poor people — but the Northerners they consort with must really be at a loss how to bestow their money. Of course, such Northerners cannot realize the difference between Kings Port and Georgia, and consequently they make much of her. Her features do undoubtedly possess beauty. A Newport woman — the new kind — has even taken her to Worth! And yet, after all, she has remained for John. We heard a great deal of her men, too. She took care of that, of course. John Mayrant actually followed her to Newport.
"But," I couldn't help crying out, "I thought he was so poor!"
"The phosphates," my hostess explained. "They had been discovered on his land. And none of her New York men had come forward. So John rushed back happy." At this point a very singular look came over the face of my hostess, and she continued: "There have been many false reports (and false hopes in consequence) based upon the phosphate discoveries. It was I who had to break it to him — what further investigation had revealed. Poor John!"
"He has, then, nothing?" I inquired.
"His position in the Custom House, and a penny or two from his mother's fortune."
"But the cake?" I now once again reminded her.
My hostess lifted her delicate hand and let it fall. Her resentment at the would-be intruder by marriage still mounted. "Not even from that pair would I have believed such a thing possible!" she exclaimed; and she went into a long, low, contemplative laugh, looking not at me, but at the fire. Our silent companion continued to embroider. "That girl," my hostess resumed, "and her discreditable father played on my nephew's youth and chivalry to the tune of — well, you have heard the tune."
"You mean — you mean—?" I couldn't quite take it in.
"Yes. They rattled their poverty at him until he offered and they accepted."
I must have stared grotesquely now. "That — that — the cake — and that sort of thing — at his expense?
"My dear sir, I shall be glad if you can find me anything that they have ever done at their own expense!"
I doubt if she would ever have permitted her speech such freedom had not the Rieppes been "from Georgia"; I am sure that it was anger — family anger, race anger — which had broken forth; and I think that her silent, severe sister scarcely approved of such breaking forth to me, a stranger. But indignation had worn her reticence thin, and I had happened to press upon the weak place. After my burst of exclamation I came back to it. "So you think Miss Rieppe will get out of it?"
"It is my nephew who will 'get out of it,' as you express it."
I totally misunderstood her. "Oh!" I protested stupidly. "He doesn't look like that. And it takes all meaning from the cake."
"Do not say cake to me again!" said the lady, smiling at last. "And — will you allow me to tell you that I do not need to have my nephew, John Mayrant, explained to me by any one? I merely meant to say that he, and not she, is the person who will make the lucky escape. Of course, he is honorable — a great deal too much so for his own good. It is a misfortune, nowadays, to be born a gentleman in America. But, as I told you, I am not solicitous. What she is counting on — because she thinks she understands true Kings Port honor, and does not in the least — is his renouncing her on account of the phosphates — the bad news, I mean. They could live on what he has — not at all in her way, though — and besides, after once offering his genuine, ardent, foolish love — for it was genuine enough at the time — John would never—"
She stopped; but I took her up. "Did I understand you to say that his love was genuine at the lime?"
"Oh, he thinks it is now — insists it is now! That is just precisely what would make him — do you not see? — stick to his colors all the closer."
"Goodness!" I murmured. "What a predicament!"
But my hostess nodded easily. "Oh, no. You will see. They will all see."
I rose to take my leave; my visit, indeed, had been, for very interest, prolonged beyond the limits of formality — my hostess had attended quite thoroughly to my being entertained. And at this point the other, the more severe and elderly lady, made her contribution to my entertainment. She had kept silence, I now felt sure, because gossip was neither her habit nor to her liking. Possibly she may have also felt that her displeasure had been too manifest; at any rate, she spoke out of her silence in cold, yet rich, symmetrical tones.