第47章 Contrasts.(4)

"Ida,come with me;I wish to speak with you a moment.Mr.Sibley,please excuse us.""Indeed,Mr.Stanton,"said Sibley in tones of maudlin sentiment,"you are cruel to deprive me of your cousin's society even for a moment.I'll forgive you this once,but never again."And then he availed himself of the opportunity to pay another visit to his brandy.

"Ida,"said Stanton,"I want to show you a little picture that has done me good."But the young lady was in no mood for pictures or moralizing.Her blood was coursing feverishly through her veins,her spirit had been made reckless by the wilful violence that she was doing her conscience,and also by her deep and growing dissatisfaction with herself,that was like an irritating wound.She was therefore prepared to resent any interruption to the whirl of excitement,which gave her a kind of pleasure in the place of the happiness that was impossible to one in her condition.

"You call that a pretty picture!"she said disdainfully;"Miss Burton reading a newspaper to two stupid old people who ought to be abed!A more humdrum scene I never saw.Truly,both your breath and your words show that you have been drinking too much.But you need not expect me to share in your tipsy sentiment over Miss Burton.Did Mr.Van Berg ask you to show me this matter-of-fact group which,in his artistic jargon,you call a picture?""If he had,he showed you a greater kindness than you deserved.""Yes,and a greater one than I asked or wished from him.""Then you are going back to dance with Sibley?""Yes,I am."

"The prospects are,that you and Mrs.Chints and a couple of half-tipsy men will soon have it all to yourselves.I suppose the old adage about 'birds of a feather'swill still hold good.I was in hopes,however,that even if you had no appreciation of what was beautiful,refined,and unselfish in another woman's action,you still had some self-respect,or at least some fear of ridicule,left.Since you won't listen to me,I shall warn your mother.

If Sibley and two or three others drink much more,Burleigh will interfere for the credit of his house.""You have been drinking as well as Mr.Sibley.""Well,thanks to Van Berg,I stopped before I lost my head.""From your maudlin sentiment over Miss Burton,I think you have lost your head and heart both.""Go;dance with Sibley,then,"he said in sudden irritation;"dance with him till you and Mrs.Chints between you have to hold him on his feet.Dance with him till Burleigh sends a couple of colored waiters to take him from your embrace and carry him off to bed."She made a gesture of rage and disgust,and went straight to her room.

Sibley,in the mean time,paid a lengthened visit to his brandy,and having already passed the point of discretion,drank recklessly.

When he descended the stairs again to look for his partner,his step was uncertain and his utterance thick.

Stanton gave Mr.Burleigh a hint that the young man needed looking after,and the adroit host,skilled in managing all kinds of people and in every condition,induced him to return to his room,under the pretence of wishing to taste his fine old brandy,and then kept him there until the lethargic stage set in as the result of his excess.And so an affair,which might have created much scandal,was smuggled out of sight and knowledge as far as possible.Mrs.

Mayhew had been so occupied with whist that she had not observed that anything was amiss,and merely remarked that "Mr.Sibley's ball had ended earlier than usual."