The House of Mirth Read Online Free PDF Page A

intimacy of his smile.
    Mr. Rosedale stood scanning her with interest and approval. He was a plump, rosy man of the blond Jewish type, with smart London clothes fitting him like upholstery, and small sidelong eyes which gave him the air of appraising people as if they were bric-a-brac. He glanced up interrogatively at the porch of the Benedick.
    â€œBeen up to town for a little shopping, I suppose?” he said in a tone which had the familiarity of a touch.
    Miss Bart shrank from it slightly and then flung herself into precipitate explanations.
    â€œYes—I came up to see my dress-maker. I am just on my way to catch the train to the Trenors’.”
    â€œAh—your dress-maker; just so,” he said blandly. “I didn’t know there were any dress-makers in the Benedick.”
    â€œThe Benedick?” She looked gently puzzled. “Is that the name of this building?”
    â€œYes, that’s the name; I believe it’s an old word for bachelor, isn’t it? I happen to own the building—that’s the way I know.” His smile deepened as he added with increasing assurance; “But you must let me take you to the station. The Trenors are at Bellomont, of course? You’ve barely time to catch the five-forty. The dressmaker kept you waiting, I suppose.”
    Lily stiffened under the pleasantry.
    â€œOh, thanks,” she stammered; and at that moment her eye caught a hansom drifting down Madison Avenue, and she hailed it with a desperate gesture.
    â€œYou’re very kind; but I couldn’t think of troubling you,” she said, extending her hand to Mr. Rosedale; and heedless of his protestations, she sprang into the rescuing vehicle and called out a breathless order to the driver.

II
    I n the hansom she leaned back with a sigh. Why must a girl pay so dearly for her least escape from routine? Why could one never do a natural thing without having to screen it behind a structure of artifice? She had yielded to a passing impulse in going to Lawrence Selden’s rooms, and it was so seldom that she could allow herself the luxury of an impulse! This one, at any rate, was going to cost her rather more than she could afford. She was vexed to see that in spite of so many years of vigilance, she had blundered twice within five minutes. That stupid story about her dressmaker was bad enough—it would have been so simple to tell Rosedale that she had been taking tea with Selden! The mere statement of the fact would have rendered it innocuous. But after having let herself be surprised in a falsehood, it was doubly stupid to snub the witness of her discomfiture. If she had had the presence of mind to let Rosedale drive her to the station, the concession might have purchased his silence. He had his race’s accuracy in the appraisal of values, and to be seen walking down the platform at the crowded afternoon hour in the company of Miss Lily Bart would have been money in his pocket, as he might himself have phrased it. He knew, of course, that there would be a large house-party at Bellomont, and the possibility of being taken for one of Mrs. Trenor’s guests was doubtless included in his calculations. Mr. Rosedale was still at a stage in his social ascent when it was of importance to produce such impressions.
    The provoking part was that Lily knew all this—knew how easy it would have been to silence him on the spot, and how difficult it might be to do so afterward. Mr. Simon Rosedale was a man who made it his business to know everything about every one, whose idea of showing himself to be at home in society was to display an inconvenient familiarity with the habits of those with whom he wished to be thought intimate. Lily was sure that within twenty-four hours the story of her visiting her dress-maker at the Benedick would be in active circulation among Mr. Rosedale’s acquaintances. The worst of it was that she had always snubbed and ignored him. On his first