"If Ida were only like this good angel she might save even me;but after my long absence she leaves me wholly to myself for the sake of a man who ought to be an offence to her.If I tell her and her mother what his reputation in New York is they will not listen to me.Although he is the known slave of every vice,my daughter smiles upon him.Froth and mud we are now and ever will be.After a glimpse into the life of that pure,good woman who has tried to be God's messenger to me to-night,I can find no words to express my loathing of the slough in which I and mine have mired.My only child,by the force of natural selection,bids fair to add to our number a drunkard and a libertine;and I am powerless to prevent it.The mother that should guard and guide her child,is blind to everything save that he is rich.Froth and mud!Froth and mud!"Unable to endure his thoughts,he went to his room and found oblivion in the stupor of intoxication.
On reaching the end of the long piazza,Sibley led Ida to a veranda little frequented at that hour,saying,as he did so:
"Let us get away from prying eyes.I always feel when with you that three is an enormous crowd."A gentleman who had been smoking rose hastily at this broad hint,which he could not help overhearing,and walked haughtily away.
Ida,with a regret deeper than she could have thought possible,saw that it was Van Berg.Her first impulse was to compel her companion to go back;but that would look like following him.Weary,disheartened by the fate that seemed ever against her,she sank into the chair he had just vacated.
For a time she did not heed or scarcely hear Sibley's characteristic flatteries,but at last he said plainly:
"Miss Ida,do you know that you are the one woman of all the world to me?""Oh,hush!"she replied,rising."I know you say that to every pretty woman who will listen to you,as I shall no longer to-night.
Come."
Baffled and puzzled also by the moody girl,who of late seemed so different from her former self,he had no resource but to accompany her back to the main entrance.Here,where the eyes of others were upon her,she said abruptly,but with a charming smile:
"Good-night,Mr.Sibley,"and went directly to her room.
The young man looked rather nonplussed and muttered an oath as he walked away to console himself after the fashion of his kind.
"Is there no escape from this wretched life?"Ida sighed as she wearily threw herself into a chair on reaching her room."A man whose addresses are an insult is my lover.The only man I can ever love associates me in his mind with this low fellow.My father obtains what little comfort he gets from the charity of a stranger.
How can I face this prospect day after day.Oh,that I had never come here!""Ida,"said her mother entering hastily,"what has happened to put your father out so?I had a headache this evening,and came up early.A little while ago he stalked in with his absurd tragic air.
'What is the matter,'I asked.'Look to your daughter,'he said.
'What do you mean?'I asked,quite frightened.'If you were a true mother,'he replied,'you would no more leave her with that roue Sibley,than with so much pitch.Yet he is courting her openly;and what is worse,she receives his addresses,and permits herself to be identified with him.''Oh,pshaw,'I answered carelessly;'Sibley is about on a par with half the young men in society,and Ida might do a great deal worse.No fear of her;for there isn't a girl living who knows how to take care of herself better than she.''Bah!'he said,'if she knew how to take care of herself,she would permit a snake to touch her sooner than that man.Ida might do worse,might she?God knows how:I don't.A pretty family we shall be when he is added to our charming group.The mud will predominate then;'and with that he opened a bottle of brandy and drank himself stupid."As Mrs.Mayhew rattled this conversation off in a loud whisper,Ida seemed turning into stone,but at its close she said icily:
"In speaking of such a union as possible,my parents have shown their opinion of me.Good-night.I wish to be alone.""But did anything happen between you to set your father off so?"persisted Mrs.Mayhew.
"Nothing unusual.I suppose father heard one of Mr.Sibley's compliments;and that was enough to disgust any sensible man.
Good-night."
"My gracious!You might as well turn me out of your room.""Mother,I wish to be alone,"said Ida,passionately.
"A pretty life I lead of it between you and your father,"sobbed Mrs.Mayhew,retreating to her own apartment.
"A hateful,wretched life we all three shall lead to the end of time,for aught that I can see,"Ida groaned as she restlessly paced her room;"but I have no better resource than to follow father's example."She took an opiate,and so escaped from thought for a time in the deep lethargy it brought.