Who Would Have Thought It? by Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton

Author:Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XXXVII

Mrs. Norval’s Mental Debut

Julius Cæsar Cackle had often slid down-hill, carrying on his sledge close to his heart the fair young form of Ruth Norval, and his heart had not throbbed any faster than it was natural it should, going up a steep hill, dragging a heavy sledge, and then down-hill at lightning speed.

Now, however, General Cackle’s heart behaved more like a heart. After a ride in Central Park, in a most elegant turn-out, by the side of Ruth,—though not nearly so close as in the sledge,—it throbbed. And when, after the ride in the Park and down Fifth Avenue, there followed an exquisite dinner at the Norval palace, and then the opera, with its charming, bewitching, aristocratic bustle, its dazzling lights, and more dazzling toilettes, then the general’s sluggish heart commenced to give responsive beats, and grew civilized all so quickly that it began to knock at his stupid head and talk to it. He thought all at once that it was “very queer” that when he had Ruth Norval on his sledge he never once had had the notion of squeezing her,—very queer, indeed! “She is mighty fine-looking! I suppose because it was so infernally cold!” muttered the son of Mars to himself,—thereby showing a poetical turn of mind very creditable to himself and illustrative of the theory that “great minds will always in kindred thoughts meet,” for he had never read the Divina Commedia, and yet he had Dante’s idea of the infernal regions.

No, there was no doubting that if the general’s susceptibilities had lain torpid in the cold North, now they awakened with a leap by the side of Miss Norval, in Mrs. Norval’s proscenium-box.

Ruth saw the evident admiration of the general, and was pleased thereat, because they were in full view of the Misses McCods, the Misses Pinchinghams, the Misses Squeezphat, and more so of the pretty Mrs. Van Krout, who had the proscenium-box opposite, and could see the general’s “yellow buttons” so well.

Ruth and Emma spread their costly silks (all bought with Lola’s money) in magnificent array, flanked by the general and Major Hackwell, who certainly looked very handsome in his uniform, and prepared themselves to stare and be stared at.

With elegant nonchalance Ruth raised her opera-glass and surveyed the house,—the boxes first, of course. Yes, there they were, all the fashionable wives and daughters of the railroad kings and princes of the gold-room. Some of the princes themselves were there, and their hopeful sons, “the youth of New York;” but Ruth had seen too many real princes of the blood, and danced with too many bona fide dukes and counts of aristocratic foundation, to care for these whom a tumble in the stocks might dethrone tomorrow. Still, though she affected—as a lady who has traveled abroad should—a contempt for “Shoddy,” she was gratified to see that their glasses were directed constantly to her box. She was sure the Norvals were making an impression.

“This is a mighty pretty sight, this opera-house, Miss Ruth. I am sorry Miss Mattie and brother Beau didn’t come,” said the general.

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