He insisted now that Editha was well enough to join in the gayeties of the place and accompany him to the different places of amusement and pleasure.
She would have preferred the solitude of her own room or to be allowed to roam quietly by herself in the different parks during the morning, when there were few abroad; but he persisted, and, thinking it could not matter much what she did, she yielded for the sake of peace, although she did not really feel able to bear the excitement as yet.
The result was highly gratifying to Mr. Dalton, for Editha at once became a star of no small magnitude. Her delicate, almost ethereal beauty instantly attracted a crowd of admirers. She was “new,” and after an entirely different pattern from most of the fashionable belles who frequented the place, which, together with the fact of her being an heiress, was considered sufficient cause for any amount of admiration and homage being paid her. And so she was whirled into the vortex of fashionable life. The days were turned into night, night into day, and all the quiet which she had so enjoyed at Newport into an endless round of excitement.
One evening there was to be a garden-party—“the most brilliant affair of the season,” according to the flaming announcement.
Editha did not want to go.
“I am tired out now, papa, besides having no heart for anything of the kind,” she said, wearily, when Mr. Dalton began to talk of the details of her dress, about which he was very particular for a man.
“Pshaw!” he returned, impatiently; “you have been moping yourself to death, and need waking up. This is to be the finest occasion of the season, I am told, and I shall take no pleasure in it unless I can have you with me.”
It was not Editha that he particularly wanted for the sake of the pleasure he would take in her society, but a handsomely dressed lady by his side, to be admired, and to help him pass the time agreeably.
Of course Editha yielded rather than to have any words about it, and gave her attention, with what interest she could command, to the wearisome business of preparation.
When the night arrived, and she appeared before her father in the finest of black Brussels net, embroidered in rich golden-hearted daisies, and gracefully looped over rose-colored silk, from which here and there flashed superb ornaments of diamonds, and above which her delicate face rose like some pure, clear-cut cameo, Mr. Dalton was for a moment speechless with admiration, and Editha really felt paid for the effort she had made.