Beulah - Page 222/348

Among the number of gentlemen whom Beulah occasionally met at Dr.

Asbury's house were two whose frequent visits and general demeanor

induced the impression that they were more than ordinarily

interested in the sisters. Frederick Vincent evinced a marked

preference for Georgia, while Horace Maxwell was conspicuously

attentive to Helen. The former was wealthy, handsome, indolent, and

self-indulgent; the latter rather superior, as to business habits,

which a limited purse peremptorily demanded. Doubtless both would

have passed as men of medium capacity, but certainly as nothing

more. In fine, they were fair samples, perfect types of the numerous

class of fashionable young men who throng all large cities. Good-

looking, vain, impudent, heartless, frivolous, and dissipated;

adepts at the gaming table and pistol gallery, ciphers in an

intelligent, refined assembly. They smoked the choicest cigars,

drank the most costly wines, drove the fastest horses, and were

indispensable at champagne and oyster suppers. They danced and

swore, visited and drank, with reckless indifference to every purer

and nobler aim. Notwithstanding manners of incorrigible effrontery

which characterized their clique, the ladies always received them

with marked expressions of pleasure, and the entree of the "first

circle" was certainly theirs. Dr. Asbury knew comparatively little

of the young men who visited so constantly at his house, but of the

two under discussion he chanced to know that they were by no means

models of sobriety, having met them late one night as they supported

each other's tottering forms homeward, after a card and wine party,

which ended rather disastrously for both. He openly avowed his

discontent at the intimacy their frequent visits induced, and

wondered how his daughters could patiently indulge in the heartless

chit-chat which alone could entertain them. But he was a fond,

almost doting father, and seemed to take it for granted that they

were mere dancing acquaintances, whose society must be endured. Mrs.

Asbury was not so blind, and discovered, with keen sorrow and

dismay, that Georgia was far more partial to Vincent than she had

dreamed possible. The mother's heart ached with dread lest her

child's affections were really enlisted, and, without her husband's

knowledge she passed many hours of bitter reflection as to the best

course she should pursue to arrest Vincent's intimacy at the house.

Only a woman knows woman's heart, and she felt that Georgia's

destiny would be decided by the measures she now employed. Ridicule,

invective, and even remonstrance she knew would only augment her

interest in one whom she considered unjustly dealt with. She was

thoroughly acquainted with the obstinacy which formed the stamen of

Georgia's character, and very cautiously the maternal guidance must

be given. She began by gravely regretting the familiar footing Mr.

Vincent had acquired in her family, and urged upon Georgia and Helen

the propriety of discouraging attentions that justified the world in

joining their names. This had very little effect. She was conscious

that because of his wealth Vincent was courted and flattered by the

most select and fashionable of her circle of acquaintances, and

knew, alas! that he was not more astray than the majority of the

class of young men to which he belonged. With a keen pang, she saw

that her child shrank from her, evaded her kind questions, and

seemed to plunge into the festivities of the season with unwonted

zest. From their birth she had trained her daughters to confide

unreservedly in her, and now to perceive the youngest avoiding her

caresses, or hurrying away from her anxious glance, was bitter

indeed. How her pure-hearted darling could tolerate the reckless,

frivolous being in whose society she seemed so well satisfied was a

painful mystery; but the startling reality looked her in the face,

and she resolved, at every hazard, to save her from the misery which

was in store for Fred Vincent's wife. Beulah's quick eye readily

discerned the state of affairs relative to Georgia and Vincent, and

she could with difficulty restrain an expression of the disgust a

knowledge of his character inspired. He was a brother of the Miss

Vincent she had once seen at Dr. Hartwell's, and probably this

circumstance increased her dislike. Vincent barely recognized her

when they chanced to meet, and, of all his antipathies, hatred of

Beulah predominated. He was perfectly aware that she despised his

weaknesses and detested his immoralities; and, while he shrank from

the steadfast gray eyes, calm but contemptuous, he hated her

heartily.