Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction
Another was before them. A lady in rose color had risen from her chair
and glided across the polished floor to the spot where trouble was
brewing. “Gentlemen, for shame!” she cried. Her voice was bell-like
in its clear sweetness, final in its grave rebuke and its recall to
sense and decency. She was Mistress Evelyn Byrd, who held sovereignty
in Virginia, and at the sound of her voice, the command of her raised
hand, the clamor suddenly ceased, and the angry group, parting, fell
back as from the presence of its veritable queen.
Evelyn went up to Audrey and took her by the hand. “I am not tired
of dancing, as were those ladies who have left us,” she said, with
a smile, and in a sweet and friendly voice. “See, the gentlemen are
waiting I Let us finish out this measure, you and me.”
At her gesture of command the lines that had so summarily broken
re-formed. Back into the old air swung the musicians; up went the
swords, crossing overhead with a ringing sound, and beneath the long
arch of protecting steel moved to the music the two women, the dark
beauty and the fair, the princess and the herdgirl. Evelyn led, and
Audrey, following, knew that now indeed she was walking in a dream.
A very few moments, and the measure was finished. A smile, a curtsy,
a wave of Evelyn’s hand, and the dancers, disbanding, left the floor.
Mr. Corbin, Mr. Everard, and Mr. Travis, each had a word to say to Mr.
Haward of Fair View, as they passed that gentleman.
Haward heard, and answered to the point; but when presently Evelyn
said, “Let us go into the garden,” and he found himself moving with her
and with Audrey through the buzzing, staring crowd toward the door of
the Governor’s house, he thought that it was into Fair View garden they
were about to descend. And when they came out upon the broad, torchlit
walk, and he saw gay parties of ladies and gentlemen straying here and
there beneath the trees, he thought it strange that he had forgotten
that he had guests this night. As for the sound of the river below his
terrace, he had never heard so loud a murmur. It grew and filled the
night, making thin and far away the voices of his guests.
There was a coach at the gates, and Mr. Grymes, who awhile ago had told
him that he had a message to deliver, was at the coach door. Evelyn had
her hand upon his arm, and her voice was speaking to him from as far
away as across the river. “I am leaving the ball,” it said, “and I will
take the girl in my coach to the place where she is staying. Promise me
that you will not go back to the house yonder; promise me that you will
go away with Mr. Grymes, who is also weary of the ball”--
“Oh,” said Mr. Grymes lightly, “Mr. Haward agrees with me that Marot’s
best room, cool and quiet, a bottle of Burgundy, and a hand at piquet
are more alluring than the heat and babel we have left. We are going at
once, Mistress Evelyn. Haward, I propose that on our way to Marot’s we
knock up Dr. Contesse, and make him free of our company.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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