“But when Emma rang up yesterday to beg, and happened to let drop _your_ name, I said, ‘If Mrs. Essington is going I really will make _one_ effort.’” She beamed with candor.
Florence’s smile surmised that the name for which the effort had been made was more probably Fox Longacre’s. But Cissy’s complacence was impervious.
“It was a delightful surprise to hear you _were_ going! You come to us so little!” she lamented.
“Who could resist the country in September?” Florence felt unable to add amenities to the already overcharged atmosphere.
“Oh, of course! I just _crave_ the country!” Cissy agreed.
“Then the hunting—” Florence continued, aware that quite different reasons were expected of her—“Mrs. Budd makes her parties interesting with their variety.”
“Oh, yes—variety,” Cissy cut in. “Emma just craves it! Did you know she’s asked D. O. Holden—and he’s going?”
At Cissy’s round-eyed pause, Florence felt an inclination to laugh. Variety seemed to her the last word reminiscent of Holden. Looking back over the past six months, he appeared to her the one strong, unvarying, dominant, reiterated note in her resumed American experiences.
“Really!” Cissy echoed impressively. “But why _such_ a man, who doesn’t care for anything but railroads, should be going to Emma, who doesn’t care for anything but marrying Julia—Of course”—her shallow eyes endeavored to plumb Mrs. Essington’s—“he’s going for something in particular.” She topped it off with her laugh, that seemed to fill her thick throat.
“Perhaps,” Florence helped her out, “he’s going for the same reason that you are?”
Cissy looked both blank and disconcerted.
“Poor man, he’s usually too anxious for pleasure!” Florence explained.
Cissy took it in seriously. “Really the fact is, a woman is _never_ free from her cares! But a man, when he rests, rests so completely!”
She sighed, with her eyes on the door through which Fox Longacre had departed.
She added inconsequently, “You know Emma has asked my cousin Charlie Thair. Of course it’s perfectly plain why Emma asked _him_. The wonder is that he dares to go!” Florence could only guess at the situation, but she thought the wonder would have been if Thair had dodged it. “Though it’s perfectly indecent of him, I’m sure, with his money, not to marry,” Cissy ran on; “and of course Julia is a magnificent creature. But the idea of expecting to really ‘land’ Charlie! It’s too funny! So like dear Emma.”