too, which to his fancy seemed to protest against the vulgarities of
her surroundings. He thought he could discern the stuff that meant an
actress in her, and prophesied that she would before long be playing
Juliet at the Haymarket. He was still at the age when the habit is to
discover geniuses in unlikely places, especially when the women are
pretty. He raved about her when he adjourned with his companions to
the bar, and they chaffed him a good deal to his face and sneered at
him behind his back. He was there the next night, and the night,
after and by-and-by he managed to get introduced to her.
She was prettier off the stage than on, and her manner was charming,
and her voice delicious with its racy accent.
She was an American, and had been in London only a few months; and he
was duly taken to a second-rate lodging in a side street near the
Waterloo Road, and presented to "Ma,"--a black satined and beaded
type of the race. There was also a sister, whom, truth to tell, he
objected to more than her maternal relative, for she was distinctly
professional, not to say loud, and the little mannerisms which were
so taking in his inamorata were very much the reverse in Miss Saidie
Blackall.
Still, he told himself, he was not going to marry the whole family;
which might be true in a sense and yet might not mean the entire
independence it implied. Bella's relations must, if he made her his
wife, mean more or less to him.
However, youth is sanguine, and Jack Chetwynd did not look too
closely at the thorns which hedged his dainty rose-bud round. She at
least was all he could wish her to be--unsophisticated as a child,
and pure and good at heart.
After a month's acquaintance it began to be understood that he was
engaged to her. "Ma" wept copious tears, and reckoned her Bella was a
lucky girl to get such an "elegant" husband; and Saidie wished him
happiness in a voice like a corn-crake, and declared that her sister
was "just the sweetest and best girl out of N'York," which she was;
"and born to lead a private life," which she wasn't.
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