"Egeria?" we cried with one rapturous voice.
"Read your letter carefully, Kitty," said Jack; "you will probably find that she wishes she might come, but finds it impossible."
"Or that she certainly would come if she had anything to wear,"drawled Tommy.
"Or that she could come perfectly well if it were a few days later," quoth I.
Mrs. Jack stared at us superciliously, and lifting an absurd watch from her antique chatelaine, observed calmly, "Egeria will be at this hotel in one hour and fifteen minutes; I telegraphed her the night before last, and this letter is her reply."
"Who is Egeria?" asked Atlas, looking up from his own letters.
"She sounds like a character in a book."
Mrs. Jack: "You begin, Penelope."
Penelope: "No, I'd rather finish; then I can put in everything that you omit."
Atlas: "Is there so much to tell?"
Tommy: "Rather. Begin with her hair, Penelope."
Mrs. Jack: "No; I'll do that! Don't rattle your knives and forks, shut up your Baedeker, Jackie, and listen while I quote what a certain poet wrote of Egeria when she last visited us:-"'She has a knot of russet hair:
It seems a simple thing to wear Through years, despite of fashion's check, The same deep coil about the neck, But there it twined When first I knew her, And learned with passion to pursue her, And if she changed it, to my mind She were a creature of new kind.
"'O first of women who has laid Magnetic glory on a braid!
In others' tresses we may mark If they be silken, blonde, or dark, But thine we praise and dare not feel them, Not Hermes, god of theft, dare steal them;It is enough for eye to gaze Upon their vivifying maze.'"
Jack: "She has beautiful hair, but as an architect I shouldn't think of mentioning it first. Details should follow, not precede, general characteristics. Her hair is an exquisite detail; so, you might say, is her nose, her foot, her voice; but viewed as a captivating whole, Egeria might be described epigrammatically as an animated lodestone. When a man approaches her he feels his iron-work gently and gradually drawn out of him."
Atlas looked distinctly incredulous at this statement, which was reinforced by the affirmative nods of the whole party.
Penelope: "A man cannot talk to Egeria an hour without wishing the assistance of the Society for First Aid to the Injured. She is a kind of feminine fly-paper; the men are attracted by the sweetness, and in trying to absorb a little of it, they stick fast."
Tommy: "Egeria is worth from two to two and a half times more than any girl alive; I would as lief talk to her as listen to myself."
Atlas: "Great Jove, what a concession! I wish I could find a woman--an unmarried woman (with a low bow to Mrs. Jack)--that would produce that effect upon me. So you all like her?"
Aunt Celia: "She is not what I consider a well-informed girl."
Penelope: "Now don't carp, Miss Van Tyck. You love her as much as we all do. 'Like her,' indeed! I detest the phrase. Werther said when asked how he liked Charlotte, 'What sort of creature must he be who merely liked her; whose whole heart and senses were not entirely absorbed by her! Some one asked me lately how I 'liked'
Ossian."
Atlas: "Don't introduce Ossian, Werther and Charlotte into this delightful breakfast chat, I beseech you; the most tiresome trio that ever lived. If they were travelling with us, how they would jar! Ossian would tear the scenery in tatters with his apostrophes, Werther would make love to Mrs. Jack, and Charlotte couldn't cut an English household loaf with a hatchet. Keep to Egeria,--though if one cannot stop at liking her, she is a dangerous subject."
Jack: "Don't imagine from these panegyrics that, to the casual observer, Egeria is anything more than a nice girl. The deadly qualities that were mentioned only appeal to the sympathetic eye (which you have not), and the susceptible heart (which is not yours), and after long acquaintance (which you can't have, for she stays only a week). Tommy, you can meet the charmer at the station; your sister will pack up, and I'll pay the bills and make arrangements for the journey."
Jack Copley (when left alone with his spouse): "Kitty, I wonder, why you invited Egeria to travel in the same party with Atlas."
Mrs. Jack (fencing): "Pooh! Atlas is safe anywhere."
Jack: "He is a man."
Mrs. Jack: "No; he is a reformer."