“It’s ‘only Mac,’ so don’t mind,” and he cast himself into an
opposite corner with the air of a man who had nerved himself to
the accomplishment of many painful duties and was bound to do
them or die.
“But gentlemen don’t catch up ladies like bags of meal and poke
them into carriages in this way. It is evident that you need looking
after, and it is high time I undertook your society manners. Now,
do mind what you are about and don’t get yourself or me into a
scrape if you can help it,” besought Rose, feeling that on many
accounts she had gone further and fared worse.
“I’ll behave like a Turveydrop see if I don’t.?
Mac’s idea of the immortal Turveydrop’s behavior seemed to be a
peculiar one; for, after dancing once with his cousin, he left her to
her own devices and soon forgot all about her in a long
conversation with Professor Stumph, the learned geologist. Rose
did not care, for one dance proved to her that that branch of Mac’s
education had been sadly neglected, and she was glad to glide
smoothly about with Steve, though he was only an inch or two
taller than herself. She had plenty of partners, however, and plenty
of chaperons, for all the young men were her most devoted, and all
the matrons beamed upon her with maternal benignity.
Charlie was not there, for when he found that Rose stood firm, and
had moreover engaged Mac as a permanency, he would not go at
all and retired in high dudgeon to console himself with more
dangerous pastimes. Rose feared it would be so, and even in the
midst of the gaiety about her an anxious mood came over her now
and then and made her thoughtful for a moment. She felt her
power and wanted to use it wisely, but did not know how to be
kind to Charlie without being untrue to herself and giving him
false hopes.
“I wish we were all children again, with no hearts to perplex us
and no great temptations to try us,” she said to herself as she rested
a minute in a quiet nook while her partner went to get a glass of
water. Right in the midst of this half-sad, half-sentimental reverie,
she heard a familiar voice behind her say earnestly: “And allophite
is the new hydrous silicate of alumina and magnesia, much
resembling pseudophite, which Websky found in Silesia.?
“What is Mac talking about!” she thought, and, peeping behind a
great azalea in full bloom, she saw her cousin in deep conversation
with the professor, evidently having a capital time, for his face had
lost its melancholy expression and was all alive with interest,
while the elder man was listening as if his remarks were both
intelligent and agreeable.
“What is it?” asked Steve, coming up with the water and seeing a
smile on Rose’s face.
She pointed out the scientific t€te-…-t€te going on behind the
azalea, and Steve grinned as he peeped, then grew sober and said
in a tone of despair: “If you had seen the pains I took with that
fellow, the patience with which I brushed his wig, the time I spent
trying to convince him that he must wear thin boots, and the fight I
had to get him into that coat, you’d understand my feelings when I
see him now.?
“Why, what’s the matter with him?” asked Rose.
“Will you take a look and see what a spectacle he has made of
himself. He’d better be sent home at once or he will disgrace the
family by looking as if he’d been in a row.?
Steve spoke in such a tragic tone that Rose took another peep and
did sympathize with Dandy, for Mac’s elegance was quite gone.
His tie was under one ear, his posy hung upside down, his gloves
were rolled into a ball, which he absently squeezed and pounded as
he talked, and his hair looked as if a whirlwind had passed over it,
for his ten fingers set it on end now and then, as they had a habit of
doing when he studied or talked earnestly. But he looked so happy