I cant say we like it, said Lord Lambeth; but Beaumont likes it better than I.
Well, it wont last, Mr. Westgate very cheerfully declared; nothing unpleasant lasts over here. It was very hot when Captain Littledale was here; he did nothing but drink sherry cobblers. He expressed some doubt in his letter whether I will remember himas if I didnt remember making six sherry cobblers for him one day in about twenty minutes. I hope you left him well, two years having elapsed since then.
Oh, yes, hes all right, said Lord Lambeth.
I am always very glad to see your countrymen, Mr. Westgate pursued. I thought it would be time some of you should be coming along. A friend of mine was saying to me only a day or two ago, Its time for the watermelons and the Englishmen.
The Englishmen and the watermelons just now are about the same thing, Percy Beaumont observed, wiping his dripping forehead.
Ah, well, well put you on ice, as we do the melons. You must go down to Newport.
Well go anywhere, said Lord Lambeth.
Yes, you want to go to Newport; thats what you want to do, Mr. Westgate affirmed. But lets seewhen did you get here?
Only yesterday, said Percy Beaumont.
Ah, yes, by the Russia. Where are you staying?
At the Hanover, I think they call it.
Pretty comfortable? inquired Mr. Westgate.
It seems a capital place, but I cant say we like the gnats, said Lord Lambeth.
Mr. Westgate stared and laughed. Oh, no, of course you dont like the gnats. We shall expect you to like a good many things over here, but we shant insist upon your liking the gnats; though certainly youll admit that, as gnats, they are fine, eh? But you oughtnt to remain in the city.
So we think, said Lord Lambeth. If you would kindly suggest something
Suggest something, my dear sir? and Mr. Westgate looked at him, narrowing his eyelids. Open your mouth and shut your eyes! Leave it to me, and Ill put you through. Its a matter of national pride with me that all Englishmen should have a good time; and as I have had considerable practice, I have learned to minister to their wants. I find they generally want the right thing. So just please to consider yourselves my property; and if anyone should try to appropriate you, please to say, Hands off; too late for the market. But lets see, continued the American, in his slow, humorous voice, with a distinctness of utterance which appeared to his visitors to be part of a humorous intentiona strangely leisurely, speculative voice for a man evidently so busy and, as they felt, so professionallets see; are you going to make something of a stay, Lord Lambeth?
Oh, dear, no, said the young Englishman; my cousin was coming over on some business, so I just came across, at an hours notice, for the lark.
Is it your first visit to the United States?
Oh, dear, yes.
I was obliged to come on some business, said Percy Beaumont, and I brought Lambeth along.
And you have been here before, sir?
Nevernever.
I thought, from your referring to business said Mr. Westgate.
Oh, you see Im by way of being a barrister, Percy Beaumont answered. I know some people that think of bringing a suit against one of your railways, and they asked me to come over and take measures accordingly.
Whats your railroad? he asked.
The Tennessee Central.
The American tilted back his chair a little and poised it an instant. Well, Im sorry you want to attack one of our institutions, he said, smiling. But I guess you had better enjoy yourself first!
Im certainly rather afraid I cant work in this weather, the young barrister confessed.
Leave that to the natives, said Mr. Westgate. Leave the Tennessee Central to me, Mr. Beaumont. Some day well talk it over, and I guess I can make it square. But I didnt know you Englishmen ever did any work, in the upper classes.
Oh, we do a lot of work; dont we, Lambeth? asked Percy Beaumont.
I must certainly be at home by the 19th of September, said the younger Englishman, irrelevantly but gently.
For the shooting, eh? or is it the hunting, or the fishing? inquired his entertainer.
Oh, I must be in Scotland, said Lord Lambeth, blushing a little.
Well, then, rejoined Mr. Westgate, you had better amuse yourself first, also. You must go down and see Mrs. Westgate.
We should be so happy, if you would kindly tell us the train, said Percy Beaumont.
It isnt a trainits a boat.
Oh, I see. And what is the name ofatheatown?
It isnt a town, said Mr. Westgate, laughing. Its awell, what shall I call it? Its a watering place. In short, its Newport. Youll see what it is. Its cool; thats the principal thing. You will greatly oblige me by going down there and putting yourself into the hands of Mrs. Westgate. It isnt perhaps for me to say it, but you couldnt be in better hands. Also in those of her sister, who is staying with her. She is very fond of Englishmen. She thinks there is nothing like them.
Mrs. Westgate oraher sister? asked Percy Beaumont modestly, yet in the tone of an inquiring traveler.
Oh, I mean my wife, said Mr. Westgate. I dont suppose my sister-in-law knows much about them. She has always led a very quiet life; she has lived in Boston.
Percy Beaumont listened with interest. That, I believe, he said, is the mostaintellectual town?
I believe it is very intellectual. I dont go there much, responded his host.
I say, we ought to go there, said Lord Lambeth to his companion.
Oh, Lord Lambeth, wait till the great heat is over, Mr. Westgate interposed. Boston in this weather would be very trying; its not the temperature for intellectual exertion. At Boston, you know, you have to pass an examination at the city limits; and when you come away they give you a kind of degree.
Lord Lambeth stared, blushing a little; and Percy Beaumont stared a little alsobut only with his fine natural complexionglancing aside after a moment to see that his companion was not looking too credulous, for he had heard a great deal of American humor. I daresay it is very jolly, said the younger gentleman.
I daresay it is, said Mr. Westgate. Only I must impress upon you that at presenttomorrow morning, at an early houryou will be expected at Newport. We have a house there; half the people in New York go there for the summer. I am not sure that at this very moment my wife can take you in; she has got a lot of people staying with her; I dont know who they all are; only she may have no room. But you can begin with the hotel, and meanwhile you can live at my house. In that waysimply sleeping at the hotelyou will find it tolerable. For the rest, you must make yourself at home at my place. You mustnt be shy, you know; if you are only here for a month that will be a great waste of time. Mrs. Westgate wont neglect you, and you had better not try to resist her. I know something about that. I expect youll find some pretty girls on the premises. I shall write to my wife by this afternoons mail, and tomorrow morning she and Miss Alden will look out for you. Just walk right in and make yourself comfortable. Your steamer leaves from this part of the city, and I will immediately send out and get you a cabin. Then, at half past four oclock, just call for me here, and I will go with you and put you on board. Its a big boat; you might get lost. A few days hence, at the end of the week, I will come down to Newport and see how you are getting on.
The two young Englishmen inaugurated the policy of not resisting Mrs. Westgate by submitting, with great docility and thankfulness, to her husband. He was evidently a very good fellow, and he made an impression upon his visitors; his hospitality seemed to recommend itself consciouslywith a friendly wink, as it wereas if it hinted, judicially, that you could not possibly make a better bargain. Lord Lambeth and his cousin left their entertainer to his labors and returned to their hotel, where they spent three or four hours in their respective shower baths. Percy Beaumont had suggested that they ought to see something of the town; but Oh, damn the town! his noble kinsman had rejoined. They returned to Mr. Westgates office in a carriage, with their luggage, very punctually; but it must be reluctantly recorded that, this time, he kept them waiting so long that they felt themselves missing the steamer, and were deterred only by an amiable modesty from dispensing with his attendance and starting on a hasty scramble to the wharf. But when at last he appeared, and the carriage plunged into the purlieus of Broadway, they jolted and jostled to such good purpose that they reached the huge white vessel while the bell for departure was still ringing and the absorption of passengers still active. It was indeed, as Mr. Westgate had said, a big boat, and his leadership in the innumerable and interminable corridors and cabins, with which he seemed perfectly acquainted, and of which anyone and everyone appeared to have the entree, was very grateful to the slightly bewildered voyagers. He showed them their staterooma spacious apartment, embellished with gas lamps, mirrors en pied, and sculptured furnitureand then, long after they had been intimately convinced that the steamer was in motion and launched upon the unknown stream that they were about to navigate, he bade them a sociable farewell.
Well, goodbye, Lord Lambeth, he said; goodbye, Mr. Percy Beaumont. I hope youll have a good time. Just let them do what they want with you. Ill come down by-and-by and look after you.
The young Englishmen emerged from their cabin and amused themselves with wandering about the immense labyrinthine steamer, which struck them as an extraordinary mixture of a ship and a hotel. It was densely crowded with passengers, the larger number of whom appeared to be ladies and very young children; and in the big saloons, ornamented in white and gold, which followed each other in surprising succession, beneath the swinging gaslight, and among the small side passages where the Negro domestics of both sexes assembled with an air of philosophic leisure, everyone was moving to and fro and exchanging loud and familiar observations. Eventually, at the instance of a discriminating black, our young men went and had some supper in a wonderful place arranged like a theater, where, in a gilded gallery, upon which little boxes appeared to open, a large orchestra was playing operatic selections, and, below, people were handing about bills of fare, as if they had been programs. All this was sufficiently curious; but the agreeable thing, later, was to sit out on one of the great white decks of the steamer, in the warm breezy darkness, and, in the vague starlight, to make out the line of low, mysterious coast. The young Englishmen tried American cigarsthose of Mr. Westgateand talked together as they usually talked, with many odd silences, lapses of logic, and incongruities of transition; like people who have grown old together and learned to supply each others missing phrases; or, more especially, like people thoroughly conscious of a common point of view, so that a style of conversation superficially lacking in finish might suffice for reference to a fund of associations in the light of which everything was all right.
We really seem to be going out to sea, Percy Beaumont observed. Upon my word, we are going back to England. He has shipped us off again. I call that real mean.
I suppose its all right, said Lord Lambeth. I want to see those pretty girls at Newport. You know, he told us the place was an island; and arent all islands in the sea?
Well, resumed the elder traveler after a while, if his house is as good as his cigars, we shall do very well.
He seems a very good fellow, said Lord Lambeth, as if this idea had just occurred to him.
I say, we had better remain at the inn, rejoined his companion presently. I dont think I like the way he spoke of his house. I dont like stopping in the house with such a tremendous lot of women.
Oh, I dont mind, said Lord Lambeth. And then they smoked a while in silence. Fancy his thinking we do no work in England! the young man resumed.
I daresay he didnt really think so, said Percy Beaumont.
Well, I guess they dont know much about England over here! declared Lord Lambeth humorously. And then there was another long pause. He was devilish civil, observed the young nobleman.
Nothing, certainly, could have been more civil, rejoined his companion.
Littledale said his wife was great fun, said Lord Lambeth.
Whose wifeLittledales?
This AmericansMrs. Westgate. Whats his name? J.L.
Beaumont was silent a moment. What was fun to Littledale, he said at last, rather sententiously, may be death to us.
What do you mean by that? asked his kinsman. I am as good a man as Littledale.
My dear boy, I hope you wont begin to flirt, said Percy Beaumont.
I dont care. I daresay I shant begin.
With a married woman, if shes bent upon it, its all very well, Beaumont expounded. But our friend mentioned a young ladya sister, a sister-in-law. For Gods sake, dont get entangled with her!
How do you mean entangled?
Depend upon it she will try to hook you.
Oh, bother! said Lord Lambeth.
American girls are very clever, urged his companion.
So much the better, the young man declared.
I fancy they are always up to some game of that sort, Beaumont continued.
They cant be worse than they are in England, said Lord Lambeth judicially.
Ah, but in England, replied Beaumont, you have got your natural protectors. You have got your mother and sisters.
My mother and sisters began the young nobleman with a certain energy. But he stopped in time, puffing at his cigar.
Your mother spoke to me about it, with tears in her eyes, said Percy Beaumont. She said she felt very nervous. I promised to keep you out of mischief.
You had better take care of yourself, said the object of maternal and ducal solicitude.
Ah, rejoined the young barrister, I havent the expectation of a hundred thousand a year, not to mention other attractions.
Well, said Lord Lambeth, dont cry out before youre hurt!
It was certainly very much cooler at Newport, where our travelers found themselves assigned to a couple of diminutive bedrooms in a faraway angle of an immense hotel. They had gone ashore in the early summer twilight and had very promptly put themselves to bed; thanks to which circumstance and to their having, during the previous hours, in their commodious cabin, slept the sleep of youth and health, they began to feel, toward eleven oclock, very alert and inquisitive. They looked out of their windows across a row of small green fields, bordered with low stone walls of rude construction, and saw a deep blue ocean lying beneath a deep blue sky, and flecked now and then with scintillating patches of foam. A strong, fresh breeze came in through the curtainless casements and prompted our young men to observe, generally, that it didnt seem half a bad climate. They made other observations after they had emerged from their rooms in pursuit of breakfasta meal of which they partook in a huge bare hall, where a hundred Negroes, in white jackets, were shuffling about upon an uncarpeted floor; where the flies were superabundant, and the tables and dishes covered over with a strange, voluminous integument of coarse blue gauze; and where several little boys and girls, who had risen late, were seated in fastidious solitude at the morning repast. These young persons had not the morning paper before them, but they were engaged in languid perusal of the bill of fare.