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Page 23
Daisy turned her quickened glance again from one of the gentlemen beside her
to the other. Mr. Giovanelli was bowing to and fro, rubbing down his gloves
and laughing very agreeably; Winterbourne thought it a most unpleasant scene.
"I don't think I want to know what you mean," said Daisy presently.
"I don't think I should like it."
Winterbourne wished that Mrs. Walker would tuck in her carriage rug and drive
away, but this lady did not enjoy being defied, as she afterward told him.
"Should you prefer being thought a very reckless girl?" she demanded.
"Gracious!" exclaimed Daisy. She looked again at Mr. Giovanelli,
then she turned to Winterbourne. There was a little pink flush in
her cheek; she was tremendously pretty. "Does Mr. Winterbourne think,"
she asked slowly, smiling, throwing back her head, and glancing
at him from head to foot, "that, to save my reputation, I ought
to get into the carriage?"
Winterbourne colored; for an instant he hesitated greatly.
It seemed so strange to hear her speak that way of her "reputation."
But he himself, in fact, must speak in accordance with gallantry.
The finest gallantry, here, was simply to tell her the truth;
and the truth, for Winterbourne, as the few indications I
have been able to give have made him known to the reader,
was that Daisy Miller should take Mrs. Walker's advice.
He looked at her exquisite prettiness, and then he said,
very gently, "I think you should get into the carriage."
Daisy gave a violent laugh. "I never heard anything so stiff!
If this is improper, Mrs. Walker," she pursued, "then I am all improper,
and you must give me up. Goodbye; I hope you'll have a lovely ride!"
and, with Mr. Giovanelli, who made a triumphantly obsequious salute,
she turned away.
Mrs. Walker sat looking after her, and there were tears in
Mrs. Walker's eyes. "Get in here, sir," she said to Winterbourne,
indicating the place beside her. The young man answered that he felt
bound to accompany Miss Miller, whereupon Mrs. Walker declared that
if he refused her this favor she would never speak to him again.
She was evidently in earnest. Winterbourne overtook Daisy and
her companion, and, offering the young girl his hand, told her
that Mrs. Walker had made an imperious claim upon his society.
He expected that in answer she would say something rather free,
something to commit herself still further to that "recklessness"
from which Mrs. Walker had so charitably endeavored to dissuade her.
But she only shook his hand, hardly looking at him, while Mr. Giovanelli
bade him farewell with a too emphatic flourish of the hat.
Winterbourne was not in the best possible humor as he took his seat in
Mrs. Walker's victoria. "That was not clever of you," he said candidly,
while the vehicle mingled again with the throng of carriages.
"In such a case," his companion answered, "I don't wish to be clever;
I wish to be EARNEST!"
"Well, your earnestness has only offended her and put her off."
"It has happened very well," said Mrs. Walker. "If she is so perfectly
determined to compromise herself, the sooner one knows it the better;
one can act accordingly."
"I suspect she meant no harm," Winterbourne rejoined.
"So I thought a month ago. But she has been going too far."
"What has she been doing?"
"Everything that is not done here. Flirting with any man she could pick up;
sitting in corners with mysterious Italians; dancing all the evening
with the same partners; receiving visits at eleven o'clock at night.
Her mother goes away when visitors come."
"But her brother," said Winterbourne, laughing, "sits up till midnight."
"He must be edified by what he sees. I'm told that at their hotel
everyone is talking about her, and that a smile goes round among
all the servants when a gentleman comes and asks for Miss Miller."
"The servants be hanged!" said Winterbourne angrily.
"The poor girl's only fault," he presently added, "is that she
is very uncultivated."
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