House of Mirth (Barnes & Noble Classics - Edith Wharton [38]
“When is Lady Cressida going?” Lily enquired.
Mrs. Trenor cast up her eyes in despair. “My dear, if one only knew! I was in such a hurry to get her away from Maria that I actually forgot to name a date, and Gus says she told some one she meant to stop here all winter.”
“To stop here? In this house?”
“Don’t be silly—in America. But if no one else asks her—you know they never go to hotels.”
“Perhaps Gus only said it to frighten you.”
“No—I heard her tell Bertha Dorset that she had six months to put in while her husband was taking the cure in the Engadine.ac You should have seen Bertha look vacant! But it’s no joke, you know—if she stays here all the autumn she’ll spoil everything, and Maria Van Osburgh will simply exult.”
At this affecting vision Mrs. Trenor’s voice trembled with self-pity.
“Oh, Judy—as if any one were ever bored at Bellomont!” Miss Bart tactfully protested. “You know perfectly well that, if Mrs. Van Osburgh were to get all the right people and leave you with all the wrong ones, you’d manage to make things go off, and she wouldn’t.”
Such an assurance would usually have restored Mrs. Trenor’s complacency; but on this occasion it did not chase the cloud from her brow.
“It isn’t only Lady Cressida,” she lamented. “Everything has gone wrong this week. I can see that Bertha Dorset is furious with me.”
“Furious with you? Why?”
“Because I told her that Lawrence Selden was coming; but he wouldn’t, after all, and she’s quite unreasonable enough to think it’s my fault.”
Miss Bart put down her pen and sat absently gazing at the note she had begun.
“I thought that was all over,” she said.
“So it is, on his side. And of course Bertha hasn’t been idle since. But I fancy she’s out of a job just at present—and some one gave me a hint that I had better ask Lawrence. Well, I did ask him—but I couldn’t make him come; and now I suppose she’ll take it out of me by being perfectly nasty to every one else.”
“Oh, she may take it out of him by being perfectly charming—to some one else.”
Mrs. Trenor shook her head dolefully. “She knows he wouldn’t mind. And who else is there? Alice Wetherall won’t let Lucius out of her sight. Ned Silverton can’t take his eyes off Carry Fisher—poor boy! Gus is bored by Bertha, Jack Stepney knows her too well—and—well, to be sure, there’s Percy Gryce!”
She sat up smiling at the thought.
Miss Bart’s countenance did not reflect the smile.
“Oh, she and Mr. Gryce would not be likely to hit it off.”
“You mean that she’d shock him and he’d bore her? Well, that’s not such a bad beginning, you know. But I hope she won’t take it into her head to be nice to him, for I asked him here on purpose for you.”
Lily laughed. “Merci du compliment!ad I should certainly have no show against Bertha?”
“Do you think I am uncomplimentary? I’m not really, you know. Every one knows you’re a thousand times handsomer and cleverer than Bertha; but then you’re not nasty. And for always getting what she wants in the long run, commend me to a nasty woman.”
Miss Bart stared in affected reproval. “I thought you were so fond of Bertha.”
“Oh, I am—it’s much safer to be fond of dangerous people. But she is dangerous—and if I ever saw her up to mischief it’s now. I can tell by poor George’s manner. That man is a perfect barometer—he always knows when Bertha is going to———”
“To fall?” Miss Bart suggested.
“Don’t be shocking! You know he believes in her still. And of course I don’t say there’s any real harm in Bertha. Only she delights in making people miserable, and especially poor George.”
“Well, he seems cut out for the part—I don’t wonder she likes more cheerful companionship.”
“Oh, George is not as dismal as you think. If Bertha didn’t worry him he would be quite different. Or if she’d leave him alone, and let him arrange his life as