第15章

Believe it or not, as you please; there is no smoke without fire.""Is that the way," asked Bessie after a moment, "that you expect your friends to treat you?""I defy them to treat me very ill, because I shall not give them the opportunity. With the best will in the world, in that case they can't be very offensive."Bessie Alden was silent a moment. "I don't see what makes you talk that way,"she said. "The English are a great people.""Exactly; and that is just the way they have grown great--by dropping you when you have ceased to be useful.

People say they are not clever; but I think they are very clever.""You know you have liked them--all the Englishmen you have seen," said Bessie.

"They have liked me," her sister rejoined; "it would be more correct to say that. And, of course, one likes that."Bessie Alden resumed for some moments her studies in sea green.

"Well," she said, "whether they like me or not, I mean to like them.

And happily," she added, "Lord Lambeth does not owe me ten pounds."During the first few days after their arrival at Jones's Hotel our charming Americans were much occupied with what they would have called looking about them. They found occasion to make a large number of purchases, and their opportunities for conversation were such only as were offered by the deferential London shopmen. Bessie Alden, even in driving from the station, took an immense fancy to the British metropolis, and at the risk of exhibiting her as a young woman of vulgar tastes it must be recorded that for a considerable period she desired no higher pleasure than to drive about the crowded streets in a hansom cab.

To her attentive eyes they were full of a strange picturesque life, and it is at least beneath the dignity of our historic muse to enumerate the trivial objects and incidents which this simple young lady from Boston found so entertaining. It may be freely mentioned, however, that whenever, after a round of visits in Bond Street and Regent Street, she was about to return with her sister to Jones's Hotel, she made an earnest request that they should be driven home by way of Westminster Abbey.

She had begun by asking whether it would not be possible to take the Tower on the way to their lodgings; but it happened that at a more primitive stage of her culture Mrs. Westgate had paid a visit to this venerable monument, which she spoke of ever afterward vaguely as a dreadful disappointment;so that she expressed the liveliest disapproval of any attempt to combine historical researches with the purchase of hairbrushes and notepaper.

The most she would consent to do in this line was to spend half an hour at Madame Tussaud's, where she saw several dusty wax effigies of members of the royal family. She told Bessie that if she wished to go to the Tower she must get someone else to take her.

Bessie expressed hereupon an earnest disposition to go alone; but upon this proposal as well Mrs. Westgate sprinkled cold water.

"Remember," she said, "that you are not in your innocent little Boston.

It is not a question of walking up and down Beacon Street."Then she went on to explain that there were two classes of American girls in Europe--those that walked about alone and those that did not.

"You happen to belong, my dear," she said to her sister, "to the class that does not.""It is only," answered Bessie, laughing, "because you happen to prevent me."And she devoted much private meditation to this question of effecting a visit to the Tower of London.

Suddenly it seemed as if the problem might be solved; the two ladies at Jones's Hotel received a visit from Willie Woodley.

Such was the social appellation of a young American who had sailed from New York a few days after their own departure, and who, having the privilege of intimacy with them in that city, had lost no time, on his arrival in London, in coming to pay them his respects.

He had, in fact, gone to see them directly after going to see his tailor, than which there can be no greater exhibition of promptitude on the part of a young American who has just alighted at the Charing Cross Hotel.

He was a slim, pale youth, of the most amiable disposition, famous for the skill with which he led the "German" in New York.

Indeed, by the young ladies who habitually figured in this Terpsichorean revel he was believed to be "the best dancer in the world";it was in these terms that he was always spoken of, and that his identity was indicated. He was the gentlest, softest young man it was possible to meet; he was beautifully dressed--"in the English style"--and he knew an immense deal about London.

He had been at Newport during the previous summer, at the time of our young Englishmen's visit, and he took extreme pleasure in the society of Bessie Alden, whom he always addressed as "Miss Bessie."She immediately arranged with him, in the presence of her sister, that he should conduct her to the scene of Anne Boleyn's execution.

"You may do as you please," said Mrs. Westgate.

"Only--if you desire the information--it is not the custom here for young ladies to knock about London with young men.""Miss Bessie has waltzed with me so often," observed Willie Woodley;"she can surely go out with me in a hansom.""I consider waltzing," said Mrs. Westgate, "the most innocent pleasure of our time.""It's a compliment to our time!" exclaimed the young man with a little laugh, in spite of himself.

"I don't see why I should regard what is done here," said Bessie Alden.

"Why should I suffer the restrictions of a society of which I enjoy none of the privileges?""That's very good--very good," murmured Willie Woodley.

"Oh, go to the Tower, and feel the ax, if you like," said Mrs. Westgate.