American fiction -- 19th century; Short stories, American
Lady Wantridge did come. She met in South Audley Street, on the
fourteenth, at tea, the ladies whom Mamie had named to her, together
with three or four others, and it was rather a master-stroke for Miss
Cutter that if Mrs. Medwin was modestly present Scott Homer was as
markedly not. This occasion, however, is a medal that would take rare
casting, as would also, for that matter, even the minor light and shade,
the lower relief, of the pecuniary transaction that Mrs. Medwin's
flushed gratitude scarce awaited the dispersal of the company
munificently to complete. A new understanding indeed on the spot
rebounded from it, the conception of which, in Mamie's mind, had
promptly bloomed. "He shan't go now unless he takes you." Then, as her
fancy always moved quicker for her client than her client's own--"Down
with him to Catchmore! When he goes to amuse them YOU," she serenely
developed, "shall amuse them too." Mrs. Medwin's response was again
rather oddly divided, but she was sufficiently intelligible when it came
to meeting the hint that this latter provision would represent success
to the tune of a separate fee. "Say," Mamie had suggested, "the same."
"Very well; the same."
The knowledge that it was to be the same had perhaps something to do
also with the obliging spirit in which Scott eventually went. It was all
at the last rather hurried--a party rapidly got together for the Grand
Duke, who was in England but for the hour, who had good-naturedly
proposed himself, and who liked his parties small, intimate and funny.
This one was of the smallest and was finally judged to conform neither
too little nor too much to the other conditions--after a brief whirlwind
of wires and counterwires, and an iterated waiting of hansoms at various
doors--to include Mrs. Medwin. It was from Catchmore itself that,
snatching, a moment--on the wondrous Sunday afternoon, this lady had the
harmonious thought of sending the new cheque. She was in bliss enough,
but her scribble none the less intimated that it was Scott who amused
them most. He WAS the feature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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