Chapter 26 - Page 2

in fact, that she thought of Ralph. His pride,
his reserve, all the secret expressions of his devotion, the tones of
his voice, his quiet manner, even his disconcerting irony: these seemed,
in contrast to what she had since known, the qualities essential to her
happiness. She could console herself only by regarding it as part of her
sad lot that poverty and the relentless animosity of his family, should
have put an end to so perfect a union: she gradually began to look on
herself and Ralph as the victims of dark machinations, and when she
mentioned him she spoke forgivingly, and implied that "everything might
have been different" if "people" had not "come between" them. She had
arrived in New York in midseason, and the dread of seeing familiar
faces kept her shut up in her room at the Malibran, reading novels and
brooding over possibilities of escape. She tried to avoid the daily
papers, but they formed the staple diet of her parents, and now and then
she could not help taking one up and turning to the "Society Column."
Its perusal produced the impression that the season must be the gayest
New York had ever known. The Harmon B. Driscolls, young Jim and his
wife, the Thurber Van Degens, the Chauncey Ellings, and all the other
Fifth Avenue potentates, seemed to have their doors perpetually open
to a stream of feasters among whom the familiar presences of Grace
Beringer, Bertha Shallum, Dicky Bowles and Claud Walsingham Popple
came and went with the irritating sameness of the figures in a
stage-procession.

Among them also Peter Van Degen presently appeared. He had been on a
tour around the world, and Undine could not look at a newspaper without
seeing some allusion to his progress. After his return she noticed that
his name was usually coupled with his wife's: he and Clare seemed to
be celebrating his home-coming in a series of festivities, and Undine
guessed that he had reasons for wishing to keep before the world the
evidences of his conjugal accord.

Mrs. Heeny's clippings supplied her with such items as her own reading
missed; and one day the masseuse appeared with a long article from the
leading journal of Little Rock, describing the brilliant nuptials of
Mabel Lipscomb--now Mrs. Homer Branney--and her departure for "the
Coast" in the bridegroom's private car. This put the last touch to
Undine's irritation, and the next morning she got up earlier than usual,
put on her most effective dress, went for a quick walk around the Park,
and told her father when she came in that she wanted him to take her to
the opera that evening.

Mr. Spragg stared and frowned. "You mean you want me to go round and
hire a box for you?"

"Oh,