第8章 Ida Mayhew.(4)

As Van Berg,with his friend,was passing out a few minutes later,he asked rather abruptly,showing that he also was not so indifferent as he had pretended to be:

"What is your cousin's name,Stanton?"

"Her name is as pretty as herself--Ida Mayhew,and it is worse than a disquieting ghost in a good many heads and hearts that I know of.Indeed its owner has robbed men that I thought sensible,not only of their peace,but,I should say,of their wits also.I had one friend of whom I thought a great deal,and it was pitiable to see the abject state to which the heartless little minx reduced him.I am glad to find that her witchery has no spell for you,and that you detect just what she is through her disguise of beauty.

'Entre nous,'Van,I will tell you a secret.I was once over ears in love with her myself,but my cousinly relationship enabled me to see her so often and intimately that she cured me of my folly on homeopathic principles.'Similia similibus curantur.'Even the blindness of love could not fail to discover that when one subtracted vanity,coquetry,and her striking external beauty from Ida Mayhew,but little was left,and that little not a heavenly compound.Those who know her least,and who add to her beauty many ideal perfections,are the ones that rave about her most.Idoubt whether she ever had a heart;if so,it was frittered away long ago in her numberless flirtations.But with all her folly she has ever had the sense to keep within the conventionalities of her own fashionable 'coterie,'which is the only world she knows anything about,and whose unwritten laws are her only creed and religion.Her disappointed suitors can justly charge her with cruelty,silliness,ignorance,and immeasurable vanity,but never with indiscretion.She has to perfection the American girl's ability to take care of herself,and no man will see twice to take a liberty beyond that which etiquette permits.I have now given you in brief the true character of Ida Mayhew.It is no secret,for all who come to know her well,arrive at the same opinion.When I saw you had observed her this evening for the first time,I was quite interested in watching the impression she would make upon you,and I am very glad that your judgment has been both good and prompt;for I slightly feared that your love of beauty might make you blind to everything else."Stanton's concluding words were as incense to Van Berg,for he prided himself in no slight degree on his even pulse and sensible heart,that,thus far,had given him so little trouble;and he therefore replied,with a certain tinge of complacency and consciousness of security:

"You know me well enough,Ik,to be aware that I am becoming almost a monomaniac in my art.A woman's face is to me little more than a picture which I analyze from an artistic stand-point.A MERELYPRETTY face is like a line of verse of musical rhythm,but without sense or meaning.This is bad and provoking enough;but when the most exquisite features give expression only to some of the meanest and unworthiest qualities that can infest a woman's soul,one is exasperated almost beyond endurance.At least I am,for Iam offended in my strongest instincts.Think of employing stately Homeric words and measure in describing a belle's toilet table with its rouge-pots,false hair,and other abominations!Much worse is it,in my estimation,that the features of a goddess should tell us only of such moral vermin as vanity,silliness,and the egotism of a poor little self that thinks of nothing,and knows nothing save its own small cravings.Pardon me,Ik;I am not speaking of your cousin but in the abstract.In regard to that young lady,as you saw,I was very much struck with the face.Indeed,to tell the honest truth,I never saw so much beauty spoiled before,and the fact has put me in so bad a humor that you,no doubt,are glad I have reached my corner and so must say good-night.""Ida Mayhew can realize all such abstractions,"muttered Ik Stanton,as he walked on alone.

The reader will be apt to surmise,however,that some resentment,resulting from his former and unrequited sentiment towards the girl,gave an unjust bias to his judgement.