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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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"Well, you never can tell what sort of people you’re living next to in this town, can you?" said Hurstwood, expressing the customary New York opinion about neighbours. "Just think," said Carrie, "I have been in this house with nine other families for over a year and I don’t know a soul. These people have been here over a month, and I haven’t seen any one before this morning." "It’s just as well," said Hurstwood. "You never know who you’re going to get in with. Some of these people are pretty bad company." "I expect so," said Carrie, agreeably. The conversation turned to other things, and Carrie thought no more upon the subject until a day or two later, when, going out to market, she encountered Mrs. Vance coming in. The latter recognised her and nodded, for which Carrie returned a smile. This settled the probability of acquaintanceship. If there had been no faint recognition on this occasion, there would have been no future association. Carrie saw no more of Mrs. Vance for several weeks, but she heard her play through the thin walls which divided the front rooms of the flats, and was pleased by the merry selection of pieces and the brilliance of their rendition. She could play only moderately herself, and such variety as Mrs. Vance exercised bordered, for Carrie, upon the verge of great art. Everything she had seen and heard thus farthe merest scraps and shadows- indicated that these people were, in a measure, re- fined and in comfortable circumstances. So Carrie was ready for any extension of the friendship which might follow. One day Carrie’s bell rang and the servant, who was in the kitchen, pressed the button which caused the front door of the general entrance on the ground floor to be electrically unlatched. When Carrie waited at her own door on the third floor to see who it might be coming up to call on her, Mrs. Vance appeared. "I hope you’ll excuse me," she said. "I went out a while ago and forgot my outside key, so I thought I’d ring your bell." This was a common trick of other residents of the building, whenever they had forgotten their outside keys. They did not apologise for it, however. "Certainly," said Carrie. "I’m glad you did. I do the same thing sometimes." "Isn’t it just delightful weather?" said Mrs. Vance, pausing for a moment. Thus, after a few more preliminaries, this visiting acquaintance was well launched, and in the young Mrs. Vance Carrie found an agreeable companion. On several occasions Carrie visited her and was visited. Both flats were good to look upon, though that of the Vances tended somewhat more to the luxurious. "I want you to come over this evening and meet my husband," said Mrs. Vance, not long after their intimacy began. "He wants to meet you. You play cards, don’t you?" "A little," said Carrie. "Well, we’ll have a game of cards. If your husband comes home bring him over." "He’s not coming to dinner to-night," said Carrie. "Well, when he does come we’ll call him in." Carrie acquiesced, and that evening met the portly Vance, an individual a few years younger than Hurstwood, and who owed his seemingly comfortable matrimonial state much more to his money than to his good looks. He thought well of Carrie upon the first glance and laid himself out to be genial, teaching her a new game of cards and talking to her about New York and its pleasures. Mrs. Vance played some upon the piano, and at last Hurstwood came. "I am very glad to meet you," he said to Mrs. Vance when Carrie introduced him, showing much of the old grace which had captivated Carrie. "Did you think your wife had run away?" said Mr. Vance, extending his hand upon introduction. "I didn’t know but what she might have found a better husband," said Hurstwood. |
