Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-20

paying business. GeOrgina declared I
that they were meddlesOme and vul- I
gar-she could sacrifice her own people, /
in that way, without scruple-and Ben
y0n's position improved from the moment |
that Mr.. Gressie-iIl-a advised Mr.. Gressie- |
ordered the girl to have nothing to do with
him. GeOrgina was imperial in this
that she wouldn't put up with an order.
When in the house in Twelfth street, it
began to be talked about that she had
better be sent TO Europe with some eligi-
bic friend, Mrs. Portico, for instance, who
was always planning to go, and who
wanted as a companion some young mind,
fresh from manuals and extracts. to serve
as a fountain Of history and geography
when this scheme for getting GeOrgina
out of the way began 10 be aired, she i'm
mediately said TO Raymond Benyon: sob,
res, I'll marry yOu!" She said il in such
an off-hand way that, deeply as he desired
her, he was almost tempted TO answer,
'sBut my dear, have you really thought
about it?'
This little drama went on. in New York,
in the ancient days, when Twelfth street
had but lately ceased to be suburban,
when the squares had wooden palings,
which were not often painted; when there
were poplars in important thOroughfares
and pigs in the lateral WAYS: when the
square and the battered rotunda of Castle
Garden echoed with expensive vocal
music; when ''the Park meant the grass
plats Of the City Hall, and the Blooming
dale road was an eligible drive; when
HobOken, OF a summer afternoon, was
genteel resort, and the handsomest house
in town was on the corner of the Fifth
avenue and Fifteenth street. This will
strike the modern reader, fear, as rather
primitive epoch; but 1 am not sure that
the strength Of human passions is in
proportion to the elongation Of a city.
Several Of them, at any rate-the most
robust and most familiar-loye, ambi-
ton, jealousy, resentment, greed-sub-
sisted in considerable force in the little
circle at which we have glanced, where
view by no means favorable was taken of
Raymond Benyon's attentions to Miss
GTessie. Unanimity was a family trait
among these people (GeOrgina was an ex-
ceptiOn J, especially in regard to the i'm
pOrtant concerns of life, such as mar
riages and closing scenes. The Gressies
hung together; they were accustomed to
do well for themselves and for each other.
They did everything well; got themselves
born well (they thought it excel
lent to be born a Gressie), lived
well, married well, died well, and
managed TO be well spoken of afterWard.
In Difference to this aforementioned
habit, | must be careful what 1 say of
them. They took an interest in each
others conc eTns-an interest that could
never be regarded as of a meddlesOme
nature, inasmuch as they all thought
alike about all their affairs, and interior
ence took the happy form Of cOngratula-
ton and encouragement. These affairs
were invariably lucky, and, as general
thing, no Gressie had anything to do but
feel that another Gressie had been almost
as shrewd and decided as he himself would
have been. The great exception to that,
as L have said, was this case of Georgina,
who struck such a false nOte-a note that
startled them all-when she told her
father that she should like to unite herself
to young man engaged in the least pay
ing business that any Gressie had ever
heard Of. Her two sisters had married into
the most flourishing firms, and it was
not to be thought of that-with twenty
cousins growing up around her-she
should put down the standard of success.
Her mother had told her fortnight before
this that she must request Mr.. BenyOn to
cease coming to the house; for hitherto
his suit had been of the most public and
resOlute characterize had been conveyed
up town, from the Brooklyn ferry. in the
''stage" on certain evenings, had asked
for Miss GeOrgina at the door of the house
in Twelfth street, and had sat with her in
to occupy the back, or in the back if the
family had disposed itself in the front.
GeOrgina, in her way, was dutiful girl,
and she Immediately repeated her mothers
admOnitiOn TO BenyOn. He was not sur
prised, for though he was aware that
he had not, as yet, great knowledge Of
society, he fiaAered himself he could tell
when-and where-a young man was
not wanted. There were houses in Brook
Iyn where such an animal was much APP
preciated, and there the signs were quite
different. They had been discouTaging-
except on GeOTgina's part-frOm the first
of his calling in Twelfth street. Mr.. and
Mrs. Gressle used to look at each other in
silence when he came in, and indulgd in
strange, perpendicular salutations, with
out any shaking of hands. People did
that at Portsmouth, n. H., when they
were glad to see you; but in New York
there was more luXurlance, and gesture
had a different value. He had never, in
Twelfth street, been asked to "take any
thing" though the house had delightful
suggestion. a positive aroma, of side
cites" under every table. The old people,
moreover, had repeatedly expressed sur
prise at the quantity of leisure that OIL
GERS IN the navy seemed to enjoy. The
only way in which they had not made
themselves offensive was by always re-
naming in the other room; though at
times even this detachment, to which he
owed some delightful moments, presented
itself to Benyon as a form of disapproba-
ton. OF course, after Mrs. Gressie's
message, his visits were practically at an
end; he wouldn't give the girl up, but he
wouldn't be behOlden to her father for the
opportunity to converse with her. Moth
ing was left for the tender couple-there
was a curious mutual mistrust in their
tendeTness-but to meet in the squares,
or in the tOpmost streets, or in the side
most avenues, on the spring afternoons.
1t was especially during this phase of
their relations that GeOrgina struck Ben
yOn as imperial. Her whole person seemed
to eXhale tranquil. happy consciousness
OF having broken a law. She never told
him how she arranged the matter at
home, how she found it possible
always to keep the appointments Ito
meet him out of the house, that she
so boldly made, in what degree she dis
simulated to her parents, and how much,
in regard to their continued acquaintance,
the old people suspected and accepted. Ii
Mr.. and Mrs. GresSie had forbidden him
the house, it was not, apparently, because
they wished her to walk with him in the
Tenth avenue or to sit at his side under
the poisoning lilacs in StuyVesant
square. He didn't believe that she told
lies in Twelfth street; he thought she was
too imperial to lie; and he wondered what
she said to her mother when, at the end of
nearly a whole afternoon of vague pere-
grinatiOn with her lover, this rustling,
bristling matrOn asked her where she had
been. Georgina was capable of simply
telling the truth; and yet if she simply
told the truth, it was a wonder that she
had not been simply packed off to Europe.
BenyOn's ignorance of her preteXts is a
proof that this rather oddly-mated couple
never arrived at perfect intimacy-in spite
of fact which remains to be related. He
thought of this afterward, and thought
how strange it was that he had not felt
more at liberty to ask her what she did
for him, and how she did it, and how
much she suffered for him. She would
probably not have admitted that she suf-
fered at all, and she had no wish to pose
for martyr. Benyon remembered this,
as say, in the after years, when he tried
to explain to himself certain things which
simply puzzled him; it came back to
him with the vision, already faded, of
shabby cross streets, struggling toward
rivers, with red sunsets, seen through
a haze of dust at the end; vista through
which the figures of a young man and a
girl slowly receded and disappeared
strolling side by side, with the relaxed
pace of desultOry talk. but more closely