What is the matter,Van?You remind me of a certain horned beast that has seen a red flag,"said Ik Stanton,linking his arm in that of Van Berg's.
"An apt illustration.I have been baited and irritated for the last twenty minutes.""I thought you enjoyed Beethoven's music,and surely Thomas rendered it divinely to-night.""That is one of the chief of my grievances.I haven't been able to hear a note,"was the wrathful response.
"That's strange,"said Stanton with mock gravity."Were I not afraid you would take it amiss I would hint that your ears are of goodly size.How comes it that they have so suddenly failed you?""Having seen your dinner you have no eyes for anything else.If you had,you would have seen a face near us.""I saw a score of faces near us.A German had one with the area of an acre.""Was he the one who said,'hist,'like a blast from the North?""From a porpoise rather."
"Did you observe the girl towards whom his gusty rebuke was directed?""Yes,an inoffensive young lady."
"Inoffensive,indeed!"interrupted Van Berg."She has put me into purgatory.""You do seem quite ablaze.Well,you are not the first one that she has put there.But really,Van,I did not know that you were so inflammable.""If you had any of the instincts of an artist you would know that I am inflamed with no gentler feeling than anger.""Why!what has the poor child done to you?""She is not a child.She knows too much about some things.""I've no doubt she is better than either you or I,"said Stanton,sharply.
"That fact would be far from proving her a saint.""What the dickens makes you so vindictive against the girl?""Because she has the features of an angel and the face of a fool.
What business has a woman to mock and disappoint one so!When Ifirst saw her I thought I had discovered a prize--a new revelation of beauty;but a moment later she looked so ineffably silly that I felt as if I had bitten into an apple of Sodom.Of course the girl is nothing to me.I never saw her before and hope I may never see her again;but her features were so perfect that I could not help looking at them,and the more I looked the more annoyed I became to find that,instead of being blended together into a divine face by the mind within,they were the reluctant slaves of as picayune a soul as ever maintained its microscopic existence in a human body.It is exasperating to think what that face might be,and to see what it is.How can nature make such absurd blunders?The idea of building so fair a temple for such an ugly little divinity!""I thought you artists were satisfied with flesh and blood women,if only put together in a way pleasing to your fastidious eyes.""If nature had designed that women should consist only of flesh and blood women,if only put together in a way pleasing to your fastidious eyes.""If nature had designed that women should consist only of flesh and blood,one would have to be content;but no one save the 'unspeakable Turk,'believes in such a woman,or wants her.Who admires such a fragment of a woman save the man that is as yet undeveloped beyond the animal?My mother is my friend,my companion,my inspiration.
The idea of yonder silly creature being the companion of a MAN.""Good evening,Coz,"said a voice that was a trifle shrill and loud for a public place,and looking up,the friends saw the subject of their conversation,who,with her spindling attendant was also taking a promenade.
Stanton raised his hat with a smile,while Van Berg touched his but coldly.
"I wish to speak with you,"she said in passing.
"I will join you soon,"Stanton answered.
"So this lady is your cousin?"remarked Van Berg.
"She is,"said Stanton laughing.
"You will do me the justice to remember that I spoke in ignorance of the fact.If I were you I would give her some cousinly advice.""Bless you!I have,but it's like pouring water on a duck's back.For one sensible word I can say to her she gets a thousand compliments from rich and empty-headed young fools,like the one now with her,who will eventually be worth half a million in his own name.I was interested to see how her face would strike you,and I imagine that your estimate has hit pretty close upon the truth,for in my judgment she is the prettiest and silliest girl in New York.She has recently returned from a year's absence abroad,and I was in hopes that she would find something to remember besides her own handsome face,but I imagine she has seen little else than it and the admiring glances which everywhere follow her.Take us as we average,Van,Mr.Darwin has not go us very far along yet,and if the face of a woman suits us we are apt to stare at it as far as such politeness as we possess permits,without giving much thought to her intellectual endowments.When it comes to companionship,however,I agree with you.Heaven help the man who is tied to such a woman for life.Still,in the fashionable crowd my cousin trains with,this makes little difference.The husband goes his way and the wife hers,and they are not long in getting a good ways apart.But come,let me introduce you,I have always thought the little fool had some fine gold mingled with her dross,and you are such a skilful analyst that perhaps you will discover it.""No,I thank you,"said Van Berg,with a slight expression of disgust."I could not speak civilly to a lady that I had just seen giggling and flirting through one of Beethoven's finest symphonies.""Well well,"said Stanton laughing,"I am rather glad to find one man who is not drawn to her pretty face like a moth to a candle.
I will join you again by and by."