Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-08

T -
/ World in his nOstrils, was convinced d
( what he had already suspected, that con
versatiOn in the United States is mucf
more psychological than elsewhere. An
Z other thing. as he learned, that you knew
the selEmade girl by, was her culture
which was perhaps little too obvious
I She had usually got into society more OF
less by reading. and her conversation was
apt to be garnished with literary allu
( sions, even with sudden quotations NO
I gelstein had not had time to observe this
| element IN "A developed form in Pandora
( Day; but Alfred BOnnycaStle said thai
he wouldn't trust her to keep it under il
a tete-d-tete. 1t was needless to say that
I these young persons had always been &c
I Europe; that was usually the first thing
( they did. By this means they sometimes
got into society in foreign lands before
they did so at home; il was to be added
( on the other hand, that this resource was
less and less valuable, for Europe, in the
United States, had less and less prestige,
/ and people in the latter country now kept
( a watch on that roundabout road. All
this applied perfectly to Pandora Day
the journey to Europe, the culture Gas
! exemplified in the books she read on the
ship, the effacement of the family. The
only thing that was exceptional was the
rapidity with which she had advanced
( for the Jump she had taken since he left
I her in the hands of Mr.. Lansing struck
( Nogelstein, even after he had made all al
/ lowance for the abnormal homogeneity OF
/ American society, as really considerable
( 1t took all her cleYerness to account for
/ it. When she moved her family from Uti-
ca, the battle appeared virtually to have
/ been gained.
Yogelstein called on her the next day,
/ and Mrs. Steuben's blackamOOr informed
Z him, in the communicative manner of his
/ race, that the ladies had gone out to pay
7 some visits and look at the Capitol. Pan
/ dora apparently had not hitherto ex-
orliHcd this monument, and the young
man wished he had known. the evening
I before. of her omission, so that he might
l have offered to be her initiator. There is
I TOO obvious a connection for me TO at
! tempt to conceal it, between his regret
I and the fact that in leaving Mrs. Steuben's
I door he reminded himself that he wanted
I a good walk, and took his way along
Pennsylvania avenue. His walk had be-
I come fairly good by the time he reached
the great white edifice which unfolds its
/ repeated colonnades and uplifts its isola-
ted dome at the end of a long vista of
saloons and tobacco shops. He slowly
climbed the great steps, hesitating little
and wondering why he had come there.
I The superficial reas0nwas obvious enough,
but there was real one behind it which
seemed to NOgelstein rather wanting in
the sOlidity which should characterize
the motives of an emissary of Prince Bis
marck. The superficial reason was a be-
lief that Mrs. Steuben would pay her visit
tirst-it was probably only a question of
leaving cards-and bring her young friend
10 the Capitol at the hour when the yellow
afternoon light would give a tone to the
blankness Of its marble walls. The Capt.
tol was splendid building, but il was
rather wanting in tone. VOgelstein's Gu
riOsity about Pandora Day had been much
more quickened than checked by the reVe-
latiOns made to him in Mrs. Bonnycastle's
drawing-FOom. 1t was a relief to see the
young lady classified; but he had a de-
sire, Of which he had not been conscious
before, to see really to the end how well a
girl could make herself. His calculations
had been just, and he had wandered about
the rOtunda for only ten minutes, looking
again at the paintings, commemorative of
national history, which occupy its panels,
and at the simulated sculptures. so touch
ingly characteristic of early American
taste, which adOTn its upper reaches,
when the charming women he had hoped
for presented themselves In charge of a
licensed guide. He went to meet them,
and did not conceal from them that he had
marked them for his own. The encounter
was happy on both sides, and he accom-
panied them through the queer and end
less interior, through labyrinths of white,
bare passages, into legislative and judicial
halls. He thought it a hideOus place; he
had seen it all before, and he asked him
self what he was doing dams cette qGlere.
In the lower House there were certain be-
daubed walls in the basest stvle of imita-
ton, which made him feel family sick;
there was a lobby adorned with artless
prints and photographs of eminent Con-
gressmen, which was too serious for a
joke and too critical for anything else.
But Pandora was greatly interested; she
thought the Capitol very fine: it was easy
to critioIse the details, but as a whole it
was the most impressive building she had
ever seen. She was very good company;
she had constantly something to say, but
she never insisted too much; it was i'm
impossible to be less heavy, to drag less,
in the business of walking behind a
cicerOne. NOgelstein could see too, that
she wished to improve her mind: she
looked at the historical pictures, at the
uncanny statues of local worthless. pre-
scented by the different States-they were
of different sizes, af if they had been
s''numbered,'' in a shop-she asked ques-
tiOns Of the conductor. and in the Senate
Chamber requested him to show her the
chairs Of the gentlemen from New York.
She sat down in one Of them, though Mrs.
Steuben told her that Senator (she mis-
took the chair, dropping into another
State was a hOrrid old thing. Throughout
the hour that he spent with her, NOgel-
stein seemed to see how it was that she
bad made herself, They walked about af-
terward on the magnificent terrace that
surrounds the Capitol, the great marble
table on which it stands, and made vague
remarks (PandOra's were the most DELI
mite about the yellow shine of the PO-
tomac, the hazy hills of Virginia, the far
cleaning pediment of Arlington, the raw,
confused-loOking country. Washington
was beneath them, bristling and geometri-
cal: the long lines of its avenues seemed
to stretch into national futures. Pandora
asked Vogelstein if he had ever been to
Athens, and. on his replying in the affirm
alive. inquired whether the eminence on
which they stood did not give him an idea
of the AcropOlis in its prime. Nogelstein
deferred the answer to this question t.
their next meeting; he was glad Gin spite
of the question to make preteXts for see
ing her again. He did so on the morrow;
Mrs. Steuben's picnic was still three days
distant He called on Pandora a second
time, and he met her every evening IN the
Washington world. 1t took very little OF
this to remind him that he was forgetting
both Mrs. Daugerfeld's warnings and the
admonitiOns-long familiar to him-Of mis-
own conscience. Was he in peril OF love,
was he to be sacrificed on the altar of the
American girl. an altar at which those
other poor fellows had poured out some OF
the bluest blood in Germany and at
which he had declared, himself, that he
would never seriously worship! He de-
cided that he was not in real danger-that
he had taken his precautions too we'll. 1t
was true that young person who had
succeeded so we'll for herself might be
great help to her husband; but NOgelstein
on the whole preferred that his success
should be his own; it would not be agree
able to him to have the air Of being
pushed BY his wife. Such a wife as that
would wish to push him, and he could
hardly admit to himself that this was what
fate had in reserve for him-tO be pro-
PEELED, in his career, by young lady who
would perhaps attempt to talk to the
Kaiser as he had heard her the other
night talk to the President. Would she
| consent to cease relations with her faml-
| n. or would she wish still to borrow
plastic relief from that domestic back
ground? That her family was so impos-
| sible was to a certain extent an adyan-
| tage: for, if they had been little better,
| the question of a rupture would be less
easy. Vogelstein turned over these ques-
/ tiOns in spite Of his security, or, perhaps,
| indeed. because of il. The security made
/ them speculative and disinterested. They
| haunted him during the excursion to
] Mount Vernon, which took place accord
| Ing to traditions long established. Mrs.
Sfeuben;s accessories assembled on the