Author of
"The Portion of Labor" "Jerome"
"A New England Nun" Etc.
Illustrations by
W. D. Stevens
New York and London
Harper & Brothers Publishers
1905
To Annie Fields Alden and Harriet Alden
Banbridge lies near enough to the great City to perceive afternightfall, along the southern horizon, the amalgamated glow of itsmultitudinous eyes of electric fire. In the daytime the smoke of itsmighty breathing, in its race of progress and civilization, darkensthe southern sky. The trains of great railroad systems speed betweenBanbridge and the City. Half the male population of Banbridge and agoodly proportion of the female have for years wrestled for theirdaily bread in the City, which the little village has long echoed,more or less feebly, though still quite accurately, with its ownparticular little suburban note.
Banbridge had its own “season,” beginning shortlyafter Thanksgiving, and warming gradually until about two weeksbefore Lent, when it reached its high-water mark. All winter longthere were luncheons and teas and dances. There was a whist club, anda flourishing woman's club, of course. It was the women who werethrown with the most entirety upon the provincial resources. But theywere a resolved set, and they kept up the gait of progress of theirsex with a good deal of success. They improved their minds and theirbodies, having even a physical-culture club and a teacher comingweekly from the City. That there were links and a golf club goeswithout saying.
It was spring, and golf had recommenced for some little time. Mrs.Henry Lee and Mrs. William Van Dorn passed the links thatafternoon.
The two ladies were being driven about Banbridge by Samson Rawdy,the best liveryman in Banbridge, in his best coach, with his two besthorses. The horses, indeed, two fat bays, were considered as rathersacred to fashionable calls, as was the coach, quite a resplendentaffair, with very few worn places in the cloth lining.
Banbridge ladies never walked to make fashionable calls. They hada coach even for calls within a radius of a quarter of a mile, wherethey could easily have walked, and did walk on any other occasion. Itwould have shocked the whole village if a Banbridge woman had goneout in her best array, with her card-case, making calls on foot.Therefore, in this respect the ladies who were better off in thisworld's goods often displayed a friendly regard for those who couldill afford the necessary expense of state calls. Often one wouldinvite another to call with her, defraying all the expenses of thetrip, and Mrs. Van Dorn had so invited Mrs. Lee to-day. Mrs. Lee, whowas a small, elderly woman, was full of deprecating gratitude and asense of obligation which made it appear incumbent upon her not todiffer with her companion in any opinion which she might advance,and, as a rule, to give her the initiative in conversation duringtheir calls, and the precedence in entry and retreat.
Mrs. Van Dorn was as small as her companion, but with a confidenceof manner which seemed to push her forward in the field of visionfarther than her size warranted.
She was also highly corseted, and much trimmed over her shoulders,which gave an effect of superior size and weight; her face, too, wasvery full and rosy, while the other's was narrow and pinched at thechin and delicately transparent.
Mrs. Van Dorn sat quite erect on