MISCHIEF-MAKING.
THE breach was now complete between the two families.
Agnes avoided Letty entirely when they met in the street, and gave all her acquaintances to understand that she had been deeply injured by her cousin, who had attempted to defraud her of half her mother's property. A few people who did not know Letty believed the story. But others argued that Mr. Trescott would not probably be engaged in any disreputable matter,—and, further, remembered that Mrs. Emerson was never happy unless she had a grievance, and that, of the two, Caswell was far more likely to be in the right than Emerson.
In truth, the firm of Van Horn & Emerson was not growing in respectability. They were making money fast enough, no doubt,—at least they had the credit of so doing. Their establishment increased in splendour every year, and Mr. Van Horn had entered into partnership with some wealthy distillers; but, for all that, people looked somewhat askance upon them. It was well-known that the billiard-room of their splendid marble building was really their concern, though held in the name of another; and people said that billiards made the smallest part of the business carried on there.
Now, T—, though it was called a city, and boasted of a mayor and corporation, a court-house and a public library, and manufactured to the amount of some ten or twelve millions annually, was, after all, a primitive sort of place, where people went to church, as a matter of course, on Sundays and Wednesday evenings, kept regular hours, and looked upon respectability in general as a thing to be desired instead of ridiculed. People began to say openly that a great deal of mischief was growing out of frequent card-parties,—that young men began the evening with whist and wine at Mrs. Emerson's and Mrs. Van Horn's, and finished it with faro and brandy at the Alhambra,—which was true enough; and they said still harder things about traps and decoy-ducks,—which were somewhat unjust so far as Agnes was concerned, but of which she felt the effects nevertheless; and so it came to pass that Agnes did not find so much sympathy as she desired in her quarrel with her cousin.
Letty, for her part, regretted the breach for several reasons, but chiefly on account of Madge, who she feared would be sadly neglected now that her grandmother was gone. It was a comfort to know that Agnes continued to keep Mary, whose attachment to the child would probably preserve her from actual suffering. But her heart ached as she thought of the poor little girl alone, hour after hour, in her third story room, unable even to reach the window without help, and with no amusement but her books and her little dog.
She met Mary in the street one day, and eagerly inquired for Madge.
"Well, indeed, ma'am, 'tis not much I can say for her," replied Mary. "She does not improve at all, that I can see, and she is very lonely without the old lady. I stay with her all I can; but then I have my own work to do, and no small matter of it, now we have so much company. 'Deed, ma'am, and if I had a child like that, I'd not be leaving her to a girl. And she so fond of her mother, too, and watching every time she hears her come in, to see if she isn't coming up-stairs."
"But I suppose Mrs. Emerson does spend a good deal of time with Madge, after all?" said Letty, anxious to get at the truth, but not quite liking to question Mary.
"She can't be in two places at once," replied Mary. "She can't be making calls and shopping, and out every night or else having company at home, and be in the nursery at the same time. If she spends an hour a day with Madge, 'tis a wonder."