“You and I will be less in the way in this corner, Mr. Butterfield,” she said, “and we can watch the young people. Doesn’t this make you feel terribly old? I declare I feel myself ageing already.”
She passed her hand over her glossy hair.
“I also feel it keenly, Mrs. Bassishaw,” I replied.
“And only think, Mr. Butterfield,” she continued, “should—should you become an uncle, I shall be a grandmother! Oh, I do hope they’ll be comfortable—and happy!”
“I have not a doubt, Mrs. Bassishaw,” I answered, “that they will be exceedingly comfortable—and becomingly happy.”
“Only that?” she inquired.
“Is not that a good deal?” I replied.
“They are, I believe, made for each other; but I do not expect anything epic from either of them, nor will they, so far as I can see, mark the beginning of an æon in the annals of matrimony.”
“You are very hard on them, Mr. Butterfield—poor things!” she answered—apparently because I had not granted them the beginning of an æon. Thus does one suffer for principle! I rose to interview an automatic reporter from a fashion paper, whom Mrs. Loring handed over to me with a request to be good enough to take the thing seriously. I told him that the presents were numerous and costly, including—here followed a list; and crossed over to a knot of frolicking bridesmaids that was gabbling millinery in one corner.
These young ladies had apparently a good deal to say; and prominent among the chatter could be heard Miss Nellie Bassishaw’s voice declaring that something or other of hers was of a poorer quality of silk than some one else’s; which was always the way, she remarked, with a grown-up toss of the head, when one bought six gowns at the same shop. Miss Flo Bassishaw and another maid were talking simultaneously, the one saying that the organist was sure to play the march too soulfully for it to be of much use as walking music, and the other that old——(a respected friend of mine) could afford to give cheap salad bowls now that he had married all his daughters. And above all, and to an extent that was an enlightenment even to me, the pairing arrangements for the breakfast were discussed with a freedom and pointedness that took entire precedence of any other significance the occasion might have. In this theme again Miss Nellie revelled.