III.
"You must allow me to get you something to eat first, Mrs. Pasmer," saidthe elder Mavering.
"Oh no, thank you," Mrs. Pasmer began. But she changed her mind andsaid, "Or, yes; I will, Mr. Mavering: a very little salad, please." Shehad really forgotten her hunger, as a woman will in the presence of anysocial interest; but she suddenly thought his going would give hera chance for two words with her daughter, and so she sent him. Ashe creaked heavily across the smooth floor of the nave; "Alice," shewhispered, "I don't know exactly what I've done: Who introduced thisyoung Mr. Mavering to you?"
"Mr. Munt."
"Mr. Munt!"
"Yes; he came for me; he said you sent him. He introduced Mr. Mavering,and he was very polite. Mr. Mavering said we ought to go up into thegallery and see how it looked; and Mr. Munt said he'd been up, and Mr.Mavering promised to bring me back to him, but he was not there when wegot back. Mr. Mavering got me some ice cream first, and then he foundyou for me."
"Really," said Mrs. Pasmer to herself, "the combat thickens!" To herdaughter she said, "He's very handsome."
"He laughs too much," said the daughter. Her mother recognised heruncandour with a glance. "But he waltzes well," added the girl.
"Waltzes?" echoed the mother. "Did you waltz with him, Alice?"
"Everybody else was dancing. He asked me for a turn or two, and ofcourse I did it. What difference?"
"Oh, none--none. Only--I didn't see you."
"Perhaps you weren't looking."
"Yes, I was looking all the time."
"What do you mean, mamma?"
"Well," said Mrs. Pasmer, in a final despair, "we don't know anythingabout them."
"We're the only people here who don't, then," said her daughter. "Theladies were bowing right left to him all the time, and he kept asking ifI knew this one and that one, and all I could say was that some of themwere distant cousins, but I wasn't acquainted with them. I would thinkhe'd wonder who we were."
"Yes," said the mother thoughtfully.
"There! he's laughing with that other student. But don't look!"
Mrs. Pasmer saw well enough out of the corner of her eye the joking thatwent on between Mavering and his friend, and it did not displease herto think that it probably referred to Alice. While the young man camehurrying back to them she glanced at the girl standing near her witha keenly critical inspection, from which she was able to exclude allmaternal partiality, and justly decided that she was one of the mosteffective girls in the place. That costume of hers was perfect. Mrs.Pasmer wished now that she could have compared it more carefully withother costumes; she had noticed some very pretty ones; and a feelingof vexation that Alice should have prevented this by being away so longjust when the crowd was densest qualified her satisfaction. The peoplewere going very fast now. The line of the oval in the nave was brokeninto groups of lingering talkers, who were conspicuous to each other,and Mrs. Pasmer felt that she and her daughter were conspicuous to allthe rest where they stood apart, with the two Maverings converging uponthem from different points, the son nodding and laughing to friends ofboth sexes as he came, the father wholly absorbed in not spilling theglass of claret punch which he carried in one hand, and not fallingdown on the slippery floor with the plate of salad which he bore in theother. She had thoughts of feigning unconsciousness; she would have hadno scruple in practising this or any other social stratagem, for thoughshe kept a conscience in regard to certain matters--what she consideredessentials--she lived a thousand little lies every day, and taught herdaughter by precept and example to do the same. You must seem to belooking one way when you were really looking another; you must say thiswhen you meant that; you must act as if you were thinking one thing whenyou were thinking something quite different; and all to no end, for,as she constantly said, people always know perfectly well what you wereabout, whichever way you looked or whatever you said, or no matterhow well you acted the part of thinking what you did not think. Now,although she seemed not to look, she saw all that has been described ata glance, and at another she saw young Mavering slide easily up to hisfather and relieve him of the plate and glass, with a laugh as pleasantand a show of teeth as dazzling as he bestowed upon any of the ladieshe had passed. She owned to her recondite heart that she liked this inyoung Mavering, though at the same time she asked herself what motive hereally had in being so polite to his father before people. But she hadno time to decide; she had only time to pack the question hurriedly awayfor future consideration, when young Mavering arrived at her elbow, andshe turned with a little "Oh!" of surprise so perfectly acted that itgave her the greatest pleasure.