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WAS IT INTO THE FIRE?
One lovely evening in the beginning of June, when her turn had come to
get away a little earlier, Amy Amber thought with herself she would at
last make an effort to find Miss Raymount. In the hurry of escaping from
Burcliff she left her address behind, but had long since learned it from
a directory, and was now sufficiently acquainted with London to know how
to reach Addison square. Having dressed herself therefore in becoming
style, for dress was one of the instincts of the girl--an unacquirable
gift, not necessarily associated with anything noble--in the daintiest,
brightest little bonnet, a well-made, rather gay print, boots just a
little too auffallend, and gloves that clung closer to the small
short hand than they had to cling to the bodies of the rodents from
which they came, she set out for her visit.
In every motion and feeling, Amy Amber was a little lady. She had not
much experience. She could not fail to show ignorance of some of the
small ways and customs of the next higher of the social strata. But such
knowledge is not essential to ladyhood, though half-ladies think
themselves whole ladies because they have it. To become ladies indeed
they have to learn what those things and the knowledge of them are
really worth. And there was another thing in which Amy was unlike many
who would on the ground of mere social position have counted themselves
immeasurably her superiors: she was incapable of being disagreeable, and
from the thing in itself ill-bred recoiled instinctively. Without
knowing it, she held the main secret of all good manners: she was
simple. Many a one imitates simplicity, but Amy was simple--one-fold.
She never put anything on, never wished to appear anything, never tried
to look pleasant. When cross, which she was sometimes, though very rarely,
she tried to be pleasant. If I could convey the idea of her, with
her peaceful temperament and her sunshiny summer-atmosphere, most of my
readers would allow she must have been an engaging and lovable little lady.
She got into an omnibus, and all the way distinguished herself by
readiness to make room. Can it be that the rarity of this virtue in
England has to do with our living in a straitened island? It
ought to work in the contrary direction! The British lady, the
British gentleman too, seems to cultivate a natural repellence. Amy's
hospitable nature welcomed a fellow-creature even into an omnibus.
She found Addison square, and the house she sought. It looked dingy and
dull, for many of its shutters were closed, and there was an
indescribable air of departure about it. She knocked nevertheless, and
the door was opened. She asked if Miss Raymount was at home.
Now Sarah, with most of the good qualities of an old trustworthy
family-servant, had all the faults as well, and one or two besides. She
had not been to Burcliff, consequently did not know Amy, else certainly
she would not have behaved to her as she ought. Many householders have
not an idea how abominably the servants they count patterns of
excellence comport themselves to those even to whom special attention is
owing.
"They are all out of town, miss," replied Sarah, "--except Mr.
Cornelius, of course."
At that moment Mr. Cornelius, on his way to go out, stepped on the
landing of the stair, and stood for an instant looking down into the
hall, wondering who it might be at the door. From his position he could
not see Amy's face, and had he seen it, I doubt if he would have
recognized her, but the moment he heard her voice he knew it, and
hurried down his face in a glow of pleasure. But as he drew near, the
change in her seemed to him so great that he could hardly believe with
his eyes what his ears had told him.
From the first, Corney, like every one else of the family, was taken
with Amy, and Amy was not less than a little taken with him. The former
fact is not wonderful, the latter not altogether inexplicable. No man
needs flatter his vanity much on the ground of being liked by
women, for there never yet was man but some woman was pleased with him.
Corney was good-looking, and, except with his own people, ready enough
to make himself agreeable. Troubled with no modesty and very little
false shame, and having a perfect persuasion of the power of his
intellect and the felicity of his utterance, he never lost the chance of
saying a good thing from the fear of saying a foolish one; neither
having said a foolish one, did he ever perceive that such it was. With a
few of his own kind he had the repute of one who said very good things.
Amy, on her side, was ready to be pleased with whatever could be
regarded as pleasant--most of all with things intended to please, and
was prejudiced in Corney's favor through knowing less of him and more of
his family. Her face beamed with pleasure at sight of him, and almost
involuntarily she stepped within the door to meet him.
"Amy! Who would have thought of seeing you here? When did you come to
town?" he said, and shook hands with her.
"I have been in London a long time," she answered. Corney thought she
looked as if she had.
"How deuced pretty she is!" he said to himself. Quite lady-like, by
Jove."
"Come up-stairs," he said, "and tell me all about it."
He turned and led the way. Without a second thought, Amy followed him.
Sarah stood for a moment with a stare, wondering who the lady could be:
Mr. Cornelius was so much at home with her! and she had never been to
the house before! "A cousin from Australia," she concluded: they had
cousins there.
Cornelius went into the drawing-room, Amy after him, and opened the
shutters of a window, congratulating himself on his good luck. Not often
did anything so pleasant enter the stupid old place! He made her sit on
the sofa in the half-dark, sat down beside her, and in a few minutes had
all her story. Moved by her sweet bright face and pretty manners,
pleased with the deference, amounting to respect, which she showed him,
he began to think her the nicest girl he had ever known. For her
behavior made him feel a large person with power over her, in which
power she seemed pleased to find herself. After a conversation of about
half an hour, she rose.
"What!" said Corney, "you're not going already, Amy?"
"Yes, sir," replied Amy, "I think I had better go. I am so sorry not to
see Miss Raymount! She was very kind to me!"
"You mustn't go yet," said Corney. "Sit down and rest a little.
Come--you used to like music: I will sing to you, and you shall tell me
whether I have improved since you heard me last."
He went to the piano, and Amy sat down again. He sang with his usual
inferiority--which was not so inferior that he failed of pleasing simple
Amy. She expressed herself delighted. He sang half a dozen songs, then
showed her a book of photographs, chiefly portraits of the more famous
actresses of the day, and told her about them. With one thing and
another he kept her--until Sarah grew fidgety, and was on the point of
stalking up from the kitchen to the drawing-room, when she heard them
coming down. Cornelius took his hat and stick, and said he would walk
with her. Amy made no objection; she was pleased to have his company; he
went with her all the way to the lodging she shared with her friend in a
quiet little street in Kensington. Before they parted, her manner and
behavior, her sweetness, and the prettiness which would have been beauty
had it been on a larger scale, had begun to fill what little there was
of Corney's imagination; and he left her with a feeling that he knew
where a treasure lay. He walked with an enlargement of strut as he went
home through the park, and swung his cane with the air of a man who had
made a conquest of which he had reason to be proud.
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