DEAR KATE, I 'm spending the evening with your friend theAmbassador of I forget where—Fogles is his name and aspleasant a man as I ever met; and he sends his regards toyou and all the family, and transmits this under his ownseal. Things is going on bad enough here. Not a shilling outof Crognoborraghan. Healey ran away with the November rentand the crops, and Sweeney 's got into the place, and won'tgive it up to any one with out he gets forty pound! I 'dgive him forty of my teeth as soon, if I had them! Ryanshot Mr. Johnson coming home from work, and will be hangedon Saturday; and that 's in our favor, as he was a life inHonan's lease. There 's no money in Ireland, Kellet tellsme, and there 's none here. Where the blazes is it all goneto? Maybe, like the potatoes 't is dying out!Frank 's well sick of soldiering; they chained him up likea dog, with his hand to his leg, the other night for goingto the play; and if he was n't a born gentleman, he says,they 'd have given him “four-and-twenty,” as he calls it,with a stick for impudence. Stephen 's no more good to himthan an old umbrella, never gave him bit nor sup! Bad luckto the old Neygur I can't speak of him.Nelly goes on carving and cutting away as before. There 'snot a saint in the calendar she did n't make out of rottenwood this winter, and little Hans buys them all, at a fairprice, she says; but I call a Holy Family cheap at tenflorins, and 't is giving the Virgin away to sell her for aPrussian dollar. 'T is a nice way for one of the Daltons tobe living by her own industry!I often wish for you back here; but I 'd be sorry, afterall, ye 'd come, for the place is poorer than ever, and you're in good quarters, and snug where you are.Tell me how they treat you if they're as kind as before andhow is the old man, and is the gout bad with him still? Isend you in this a little bill Martin Cox, of Drumsnagh,enclosed me for sixty-two ten-and-eight. Could you get theold Baronet to put his name on it for me? Tell him 't is asgood as the bank paper, that Cox is as respectable a man asany in Leitrim, and an estated gentleman, like myself, andof course that we'll take care to have the cash ready for itwhen due. This will be a great convenience to me, and Foglessays it will be a pleasure to Sir Stafford, besidesextending his connection among Irish gentlemen. If he seemsto like the notion, say that your father is well known inIreland, and can help him to a very lively business in thesame way. Indeed, I 'd have been a fortune to him myselfalone, if he 'd had the discounting of me for the lastfifteen years!Never mind this, however, for bragging is not genteel; butget me his name, and send me the “bit of stiff” by return ofpost.If he wants to be civil, maybe he 'll put it into the bankhimself, and send me the money; and if so, let the order beon Haller and Oelcher, for I 'ne a long account with Kochand Elz, and maybe they 'd keep a grip of the cash, and I 'djust be where I was before.If I can get out of this next spring—it would be a greateconomy, for I owe something to everybody, and a new placealways gives courage.I 'm hesitating whether I 'll go to Genoa or New York, butcheapness will decide me, for I only live now for my family.With all my affection,Believe me your fond father,PETER DALTON.P. S. If Sir S. would rather have my own acceptance, let himdraw for a hundred, at three months, and I 'm ready; butdon't disappoint me, one way or other. Wood is fifteenflorins a “klafter” here, now, and I 've nobody to cut itwhen it comes home, as Andy took a slice out of his shin onFriday last with the hatchet, and is in bed ever since.Vegetables, too, is dear; and since Frank went, we neversee a bit of game.2nd P. S. If you had such a thing as a warm winter cloakthat you did n't want, you might send it to Nelly. She goesout in a thing like a bit of brown paper, and the woodenshoes is mighty unhandy with her lameness.Mind the bill.
“You are writing a rather lengthy despatch, Dalton,” said Foglass, who had twice dozed off to sleep, and woke again, only to see him still occupied with his epistle.
“It's done now,” said Dalton, with a sigh; for, without well knowing why, he was not quite satisfied with the performance.
“I wish you 'd just add a line, to say that Mrs. Ricketts, Mrs. Major-General Ricketts, who resides at Florence, is so desirous to know her. You can mention that she is one of the first people, but so exclusive about acquaintance, that it is almost impossible to get presented to her; but that this coming winter the Embassy will, in all likelihood, open a door to so desirable an object.”
“Lady Hester will know her, of course?” said Dalton, whose sense of proprieties was usually clear enough when selfishness did not interfere, “and I don't see that my daughter should extend her acquaintance through any other channel.”
“Oh, very true; it's of no consequence. I only meant it as an attention to Miss Dalton; but your observation is very just,” said Foglass, who suddenly felt that he was on dangerous ground.
“Depend upon 't, Fogles, my daughter is in the best society of the place, whatever it is. It 's not a Dalton would be left out.”
Foglass repeated his most implicit conviction in this belief, and did all in his power to efface the memory of the suggestion, but without success. Family pride was a kind of birdlime with old Dalton, and if he but touched, he could not leave it. The consequences, however, went no further than a long and intricate dissertation on the Dalton blood for several centuries back, through which Foglass slept just as soundly as the respected individuals there recorded, and was only awoke at last by Dalton rising to take leave, an event at last suggested by the empty decanter.
“And now, Fogles,” said he, summing up, “you'll not wonder, that if we 're poor we 're proud. I suppose you never heard of a better stock than that since you were born?”
“Never, by Jove! Guelphs, Ghibellines, and Hapsburgs are nothing to them. Good-night, good-night! I 'll take care of your letter. It shall go to-morrow in the Embassy bag.”
To afford the reader the explanation contained in the preceding chapter, we have been obliged to leave Kate Dalton waiting, in mingled anxiety and suspense, for the hour of Mrs. Ricketts's visit. Although her mind principally dwelt upon the letter which had been announced as coming from her father, an event so strange as naturally to cause astonishment, she also occasionally recurred to the awkwardness of receiving persons whom Lady Hester had so scrupulously avoided, and being involved in an acquaintanceship so unequivocally pronounced vulgar. A few short months before, and the incident would have worn a very different aspect to her eyes. She would have dwelt alone on the kindness of one, an utter stranger, addressing her in terms of respectful civility, and proffering the attention of a visit. She would have been grateful for the goodnature that took charge of a communication for her. She would have viewed the whole as a sort of flattering notice, and never dreamed of that long catalogue of “inconveniences” and annoyances so prolifically associated with the event as it at present stood. She was greatly changed in many respects. She had been daily accustomed to hear the most outrageous moral derelictions lightly treated, or, at least, but slightly censured. For every fault and failing there was a skilful excuse or a charitable explanation. The errors of the fashionable world were shown to be few, insignificant, and venial; and the code showed no exception to the rule that “well-bred people can do no wrong.” Vulgarity alone was criminal; and the sins of the underbred admitted of no palliation. Her sense of justice might have revolted against such judgments, had reason been ever appealed to; but such was not the case. Ridicule alone was the arbiter; whatever could be scoffed at was detestable, and a solecism in dress, accent, or demeanor was a higher crime than many a grave transgression or glaring iniquity.
The little mimicries of Albert Jekyl, as he described Mrs. Ricketts, the few depreciatory remarks of Lady Hester concerning her, would have outweighed her worth had her character been a cornucopia of goodness. It was, then, in no pleasant flurry of spirits, that, just as the clock struck three, Kate heard the heavy door of the palace flung wide, and the sound of wheels echo beneath the vaulted entrance. The next moment a small one-horse phaeton, driven by a very meagre servant in a tawdry livery, passed into the courtyard, having deposited its company in the hall.
There had been a time, and that not so very far back either, when the sight of that humble equipage, with visitors, would have made her heart beat to the full as strong, albeit with very different emotions. Now, however, she actually glanced at the windows to see if it had attracted notice, with a kind of terror at the ridicule it would excite. Never did she think an old gray horse could be so ugly; never did wheels make so intolerable a noise before! Why would people dress up their servants like harlequins? What was the meaning of that leopard-skin rug for the feet? It was an odious little vehicle, altogether. There was a tawdry, smirking, self-satisfied pretension about its poverty that made one wish for a break-down on looking at it.
“Mrs. Montague Ricketts and Miss Ricketts,” said a very demure-looking groom of the chambers; and although his features were immaculate in their expressions of respect, Kate felt offended at what she thought was a flippancy in the man's manner.
Although the announcement was thus made, the high and mighty personages were still three rooms off, and visible only in the dim distance, coming slowly forward.
Leaning on her sister's arm, and with a step at once graceful and commanding, Mrs. Ricketts came on. At least, so Kate judged an enormous pyramid of crimson velvet and ermine to be, from the summit of which waved a sufficiency of plumes for a moderate hearse. The size and dignity of this imposing figure almost entirely eclipsed poor Martha, and completely shut out the slender proportions of Mr. Scroope Purvis, who, from being loaded like a sumpter-mule with various articles for the road, was passed over by the groom of the chambers, and believed to be a servant. Slow as was the order of march, Purvis made it still slower by momentarily dropping some of the articles with which he was charged; and as they comprised a footstool, a poodle, two parasols, an album, a smelling-bottle, a lorgnette, with various cushions, shawls, and a portable tire-screen, his difficulties may be rather compassionated than censured.
“Scroope, how can you? Martha, do speak to him. It's down again! He'll smash my lorgnette he'll smother Fidele. How very awkward how absurd we shall look!” Such were the sotto voce accompaniments that filled up the intervals till they arrived at the great drawing-room, where Kate Dalton sat.
If the reader has ever watched a great tragedy queen emerging from the flats, when, after a lively dialogue with the prompter, and the utterance of a pleasant jest, she issues forth upon the open stage, to vent the sorrows or the wrongs of injured womanhood, he may form some faint idea of the rapid transformation that Mrs. Ricketts underwent as she passed the door-sill. Her first movement was a sudden bound forwards, or, at least, such an approach to a spring as a body so imposing could accomplish, and then, throwing her arms wide, she seemed as if about to enclose Miss Dalton in a fast embrace; and so, doubtless, had she done, if Kate had responded to the sign. A deep and very formal courtesy was, however, her only acknowledgment of this spontaneous burst of feeling; and Mrs. Ricketts, like a skilful general, at once changing her plan of attack, converted her ardor into astonishment, and exclaimed,
“Did you ever see such a resemblance? Could you believe it possible, Martha? A thousand apologies, my dear Miss Dalton, for this rudeness; but you are so wonderfully like our dear, dear friend Lady Caroline Montressor, that I actually forgot myself. Pray forgive me, and let me present my sister, Miss Ricketts. My brother, Mr. Scroope Purvis, Miss Dalton.”
The ceremonial of introduction over, and Mrs. Ricketts being at last seated, a very tedious operation, in which the arrangement of cushions, pillows, and footstools played a conspicuous part, that bland lady began, in her very softest of voices,
“This, indeed, repays me, amply, fully repays me! eh, Martha?”
“Quite so, sister,” responded Martha, in a meek whisper.
“A poor invalid as I am, rarely rising from a sofa except to snatch the perfumed odors of a violet in spring, or to listen to the murmurs of a rippling fountain; denied all the excitements of society by a nervous temperament so finely strung as to be jarred by contact, even the remotest, with inferior souls think of what ecstasy a moment like this affords me!”
As Kate was profoundly ignorant to what happy combination of circumstances this blissful state could be attributed, she could only smile courteously, and mutter some vague expressions of her pleasure, satisfaction, and so forth.
“Eve in her own paradise!” exclaimed Mrs. Ricketts, as she turned her eyes from Kate to the gorgeous chamber in which they were seated. “May I ask if the taste of these decorations be yours, Miss Dalton?”
“Lady Hester Onslow's, madam,” said Kate, quietly.
“I declare, I like these hangings better than 'Gobelins' they are lighter and more graceful. You remember, Martha, I told the dear Queen of Saxony that blue velvet would go so well with her small pictures. We discussed the point every morning at breakfast for a week, and the poor dear King at last called us the 'blue devils; 'very happy, wasn't it, Miss Dalton? But he speaks English just like one of ourselves.”
“These are all Dutch pictures, I perceive,” said Purvis, who, with his poodle under his arm, was making a tour of the room, peering into everything, opening books, prying into china jars, and spying into work-boxes, as though in search of some missing article.
“I 'm tired of Wou-Wou-Wou—” Here the poodle barked, doubtless in the belief that he was responding to an invitation. “Down, Fidele! Wou-ver-mans,” gulped out Purvis. “He 's always the same.”
“But those dear white palfreys, how I love them! I always have a white horse, out of regard for Wouvermans.”
Kate thought of the poor gray in the courtyard, and said nothing.
“And there is something so touching so exquisitely touching in those Flemish interiors, where the goodwife is seated reading, and a straggling sunbeam comes slanting in upon the tiled floor. Little peeps of life, as it were, in a class of which we know nothing; for, really, Miss Dalton, iu our order, sympathies are too much fettered; and I often think it would be better that we knew more of the middle classes. When I say this, of course I do not mean as associates, far less as intimates, but as ingredients in the grand scheme of universal nature.”
“'The no-no-noblest study of man-mankind is' what is it, sister?”
“'Man,' Scroope; but the poet intended to refer to the great aims and objects of our being. Don't you think so, Miss Dalton? It was not man in the little cares of everyday life, in his social relations, but man in his destinies, in his vast future, when he goes beyond 'that bourne'—”
“From which nobody ever got out again,” cackled Purvis, in an ecstasy at the readiness of his quotation.
“'From which no traveller returns,' Scroope, is, I believe, the more correct version.”
“Then it don't mean pur-pur-pur-purgatory,” gulped Scroope, who, as soon as the word was uttered, became shocked at what he said. “I forgot you were a Ro-Ro-Roman, Miss Dalton,” said he, blushing.
“You are in error, Scroope,” said Mrs. Ricketts. “Miss Dalton is one of ourselves. All the distinguished Irish are of the Reformed faith.”
“I am a Catholic, madam,” said Kate, not knowing whether to be more amused than annoyed at the turn the conversation had taken.
“I knew it,” cried Purvis, in delight. “I tracked your carriage to the D-D-Duomo, and I went in after you, and saw you at the co-co-co-co—”
“Corner,” whispered Martha, who, from his agonies, grew afraid of a fit.
“No, not the corner, but the co-co-co-coufessional-confessional, where you stayed for an hour and forty minutes by my own watch; and I couldn't help thinking that your pec-pec-pec-peccadilloes were a good long score, by the time it took to to to tell them.”
“Thanks, sir,” said Kate, bowing, and with difficulty restraining her laughter; “thanks for the very kind interest you seem to have taken in my spiritual welfare.”
“Would that I might be suffered a participation in that charge, Miss Dalton,” cried Mrs. Ricketts, with enthusiasm, “and allowed to hold some converse with you on doctrinal questions!”
“Try her with the posers, sister,” whispered Purvis. “Hush, Scroope! Mere opportunities of friendly discussion, nothing more I ask for, Miss Dalton.”
“Give her the posers,” whispered Purvis, louder.
“Be quiet, Scroope. I have been fortunate enough to resolve the doubts of more than one ere this. That dear angel, the Princess Ethelinda of Cobourgh, I believe I may say, owes her present enlightenment to our sweet evenings together.”
“Begin with the posers.”
“Hush! I say, Scroope.”
“May I ask,” said Kate, “what is the suggestion Mr. Purvis has been good enough to repeat?”
“That I should give you this little tract, Miss Dalton,” said Mrs. Ricketts as she drew out a miscellaneous assemblage of articles from a deep pocket, and selected from the mass a small blue-covered pamphlet, bearing the title, “Three Posers for Papists, by M. R.”
“Montague Ricketts,” said Purvis, proudly; “she wrote it herself, and the Pope won't let us into Rome in consequence. It 's very droll, too; and the part about the the Vir-gin—”
“You will, I 'm sure, excuse me, madam,” said Kate, “if I beg that this subject be suffered to drop. My thanks for the interest this gentleman and yourself have vouchsafed me will only be more lasting by leaving the impression of them unassociated with anything unpleasing. You were good enough to say that you had a letter for me?”
“A letter from your father, that dear, fond father, who dotes so distractingly upon you, and who really seems to live but to enjoy your triumphs. Martha, where is the letter?”
“I gave it to Scroope, sister.”
“No, you didn't. I never saw—”
“Yes, Scroope, I gave it to you, at the drawing-room fire—”
“Yes, to be sure, and I put it into the ca-ca-ca—”
“Not the candle, I hope,” cried Kate, in terror.
“No, into the card-rack; and there it is now.”
“How provoking!” cried Miss Ricketts; “but you shall have it to-morrow, Miss Dalton. I 'll leave it here myself.”
“Shall I appear impatient, madam, if I send for it this evening?”
“Of course not, my dear Miss Dalton; but shall I commit the precious charge to a menial's hand?”
“You may do so with safety, madam,” said Kate, not without a slight irritation of manner as she spoke.
“Mr. Foglass, the late minister and envoy at—”
Here a tremendous crash, followed by a terrific yelping noise, broke in upon the colloquy; for it was Fidele had thrown down a Sevres jar, and lay, half-buried and howling, under the ruins. There was, of course, a general rising of the company, some to rescue the struggling poodle, and others in vain solicitude to gather up the broken fragments of the once beautiful vase. It was a favorite object with Lady Hester; of singular rarity, both for form and design; and Kate stood speechless, and almost sick with shame and sorrow, at the sight, not heeding one syllable of the excuses and apologies poured in upon her, nor of the equally valueless assurances that it could be easily mended; that Martha was a perfect proficient in such arts; and that, if Scroope would only collect the pieces carefully, the most difficult connoisseur would not be able to detect a flaw in it.
“I've got a head here; but the no-nose is off,” cried Purvis.
“Here it is, Scroope. I 've found it.”
“No, that's a toe,” said he; “there 's a nail to it.”
“I am getting ill I shall faint,” said Mrs. Ricketts, retiring upon a well-cushioned sofa from the calamity.
Martha now flew to the bell-rope and pulled it violently, while Purvis threw open the window, and with such rash haste as to upset a stand of camellias, thereby scattering plants, buds, earth, and crockery over the floor, while poor Kate, thunderstruck at the avalanche of ruin around her, leaned against the wall for support, unable to stir or even speak. As Martha continued to tug away at the bell, the alarm, suggesting the idea of fire, brought three or four servants to the door together.
“Madeira! quick, Madeira!” cried Martha, as she unloosed various articles of dress from her sister's throat, and prepared a plan of operations for resuscitation that showed at least an experienced hand.
“Bring wine,” said Kate, faintly, to the astonished butler, who, not noticing Miss Ricketts's order, seemed to await hers.
“Madeira! it must be Madeira!” cried Martha, wildly.
“She don't dislike Mar-Mar-Marco-brunner,” whispered Purvis to the servant, “and I'll take a glass too.”
Had the irruption been one of veritable housebreakers, had the occasion been what newspapers stereotype as a “Daring Burglary,” Kate Dalton might, in all likelihood, have distinguished herself as a heroine. She would, it is more than probable, have evinced no deficiency either of courage or presence of mind, but in the actual contingency nothing could be more utterly helpless than she proved; and, as she glided into a chair, her pale face and trembling features betrayed more decisive signs of suffering than the massive countenance which Martha was now deluging with eau-de-Cologne and lavender.
The wine soon made its appearance; a very imposing array of restoratives the ambulatory pharmacopeia of the Ricketts family was all displayed upon a table. Martha, divested of shawl, bonnet, and gloves, stood ready for action; and thus, everything being in readiness, Mrs. Ricketts, whose consideration never suffered her to take people unawares, now began her nervous attack in all form.
If ague hysterics recovery from drowning tic-doloureux, and an extensive burn had all sent representatives of their peculiar agonies, with injunctions to struggle for a mastery of expression, the symptoms could scarcely have equalled those now exhibited. There was not a contortion nor convulsion that her countenance did not undergo, while the devil's tattoo, kept up by her heels upon the floor, and her knuckles occasionally on the table, and now and then on Scroope's head, added fearfully to the effect of her screams, which varied from the deep groan of the melodrame to the wildest shrieks of tragedy.
“There's no danger, Miss Dalton,” whispered Martha, whose functions of hand-rubbing, temple-bathing, wine-giving, and so forth, were performed with a most jog-trot regularity.
“When she sc-sc-screams, she's all right,” added Purvis; and, certainly, the most anxious friend might have been comforted on the present occasion.
“Shall I not send for a physician?” asked Kate, eagerly.
“On no account, Miss Dalton. We are quite accustomed to these seizures. My dear sister's nerves are so susceptible.”
“Yes,” said Scroope, who, be it remarked, had already half finished a bottle of hock, “poor Zoe is all sensibility the scabbard too sharp for the sword. Won't you have a glass of wine, Miss Dalton?”
“Thanks, sir, I take none. I trust she is better now she looks easier.”
“She is better; but this is a difficult moment,” whispered Martha. “Any shock any sudden impression now might prove fatal.”
“What is to be done, then?” said Kate, in terror.
“She must be put to bed at once, the room darkened, and the strictest silence preserved. Can you spare your room?”
“Oh, of course, anything everything at such a moment,” cried the terrified girl, whose reason was now completely mastered by her fears.
00408
“She must be carried. Will you give orders, Miss Dalton? and, Scroope, step down to the carriage, and bring up—” Here Miss Ricketts's voice degenerated into an inaudible whisper; but Scroope left the room to obey the command.
Her sympathy for suffering had so thoroughly occupied Kate, that all the train of unpleasant consequences that were to follow this unhappy incident had never once occurred to her; nor did a thought of Lady Hester cross her mind, till, suddenly, the whole flashed upon her, by the appearance of her maid Nina in the drawing-room.
“To your own room, Mademoiselle?” asked she, with a look that said far more than any words.
“Yes, Nina,” whispered she. “What can I do? She is so ill! They tell me it may be dangerous at any moment, and—”
“Hush, my dear Miss Dalton!” said Martha; “one word may wake her.”
“I'd be a butterfly!” warbled the sick lady, in a low weak treble; while a smile of angelic beatitude beamed on her features.
“Hush! be still!” said Martha, motioning the surrounders to silence.
“What shall I do, Nina? Shall I go and speak to my Lady?” asked Kate.
A significant shrug of the shoulders, more negative than affirmative, was the only answer.
“I'd be a gossamer, and you'd be the King of Thebes,” said Mrs. Ricketts, addressing a tall footman, who stood ready to assist in carrying her.
“Yes, madam,” said he, respectfully.
“She's worse,” whispered Martha, gravely.
“And we'll walk on the wall of China by moonlight, with Cleopatra and Mr. Cobden?”
“Certainly, madam,” said the man, who felt the question too direct for evasion.
“Has she been working slippers for the planet Ju-Ju-Jupiter yet?” asked Purvis, eagerly, as he entered the room, heated, and flushed from the weight of a portentous bag of colored wool.
“No; not yet,” whispered Martha. “You may lift her now, gently very gently, and not a word.”
And in strict obedience, the servants raised their fair burden, and bore her from the room, after Nina, who led the way with an air that betokened a more than common indifference to human suffering.
“When she gets at Ju-Jupiter,” said Purvis to Kate, as they closed the procession, “it's a bad symptom; or when she fancies she 's Hec-Hec-Hec-Hec—”
“Hecate?”
“No; not Hec-Hecate, but Hecuba—Hecuba; then it's a month at least before she comes round.”
“How dreadful!” said Kate. And certainly there was not a grain of hypocrisy in the fervor with which she uttered it.
“I don't think she 'll go beyond the San-Sandwich Islands this time, however,” added he, consolingly,
“Hush, Scroope!” cried Martha. And now they entered the small and exquisitely furnished dressing-room which was appropriated to Kate's use; within which, and opening upon a small orangery, stood her bedroom.
Nina, who scrupulously obeyed every order of her young mistress, continued the while to exhibit a hundred petty signs of mute rebellion.
“Lady Hester wishes to see Miss Dalton,” said a servant at the outer door.
“Can you permit me for a moment?” asked Kate, in a tremor.
“Oh, of course, my dear Miss Dalton; let there be no ceremony with us,” said Martha. “Your kindness makes us feel like old friends already.”
“I feel-myself quite at home,” cried Scroope, whose head was not proof against so much wine; and then, turning to one of the servants, he added a mild request for the two bottles that were left on the drawing-room table.
Martha happily, however, overheard and revoked the order. And now the various attendants withdrew, leaving the family to themselves.
It was ill no pleasant mood that Kate took her way towards Lady Hester's apartment. The drawing-room, as she passed through it, still exhibited some of the signs of its recent ruin, and the servants were busied in collecting fragments of porcelain and flower-pots. Their murmured comments, hushed as she went by, told her how the occurrence was already the gossip of the household. It was impossible for her not to connect herself with the whole misfortune. “But for her” But she could not endure the thought, and it was with deep humiliation and trembling in every limb that she entered Lady Hester's chamber.
“Leave me, Celadon; I want to speak to Miss Dalton,” said Lady Hester to the hairdresser, who had just completed one half of her Ladyship's chevelure, leaving the other side pinned and rolled up in those various preparatory stages which have more of promise than picturesque about them. Her cheek was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with an animation that betrayed more passion than pleasure.
“What is this dreadful story I 've heard, child, and that the house is full of? Is it possible there can be any truth in it? Have these odious people actually dared to establish themselves here? Tell me, child speak!”
“Mrs. Ricketts became suddenly ill,” said Kate, trembling; “her dog threw down a china jar.”
“Not my Sevres jar? not the large green one, with the figures?”
“I grieve to say it was!”
“Go on. What then?” said Lady Hester, dryly.
“Shocked at the incident, and alarmed, besides, by the fall of a flower-stand, she fainted away, and subsequently was seized with what I supposed to be a convulsive attack, but to which her friends seemed perfectly accustomed, and pronounced not dangerous. In this dilemma they asked me if they might occupy my room. Of course I could not refuse, and yet felt, the while, that I had no right to extend the hospitality of this house. I saw the indelicacy of what I was doing. I was shocked and ashamed, and yet—”
“Go on,” said Lady Hester once more, and with a stern quietude of manner that Kate felt more acutely than even an angry burst of temper.
“I have little more to say; in fact, I know not what I am saying,” cried she, gulping to repress the torrent of suffering that was struggling within her.
“Miss Dalton—” began Lady Hester.
“Oh! why not Kate?” broke she, with a choking utterance.
“Miss Dalton,” resumed Lady Hester, and as if not hearing the entreaty, “very little knowledge of that world you have lived in for the past three or four months might have taught you some slight self-possession in difficulty. Still less acquaintance with it might have suggested the recollection that these people are no intimates of mine; so that, even were tact wanting, feeling, at least, should have dictated a line of action to you.”
“I know I have done wrong. I knew it at the time, and yet, in my inexperience, I could not decide on anything. My memory, too, helped to mislead me, for I bethought me that although these persons were not of your own rank and station, yet you had stooped lower than to them when you came to visit Nelly and myself.”
“Humph!” ejaculated Lady Hester, with a gesture that very unequivocally seemed to say that her having done so was a grievous error. Kate saw it quickly, and as suddenly the blood rushed to her cheek, coloring her throat and neck with the deep crimson of shame. A burst of pride the old Dalton pride seemed to have given way within her; and as she drew herself up to her full height, her look and attitude wore every sign of haughty indignation.
Lady Hester looked at her for a few seconds with a glance of searching import. Perhaps for a moment the possibility of a deception struck her, and that this might only be feigned; but as suddenly did she recognize the unerring traits of truth, and said,
“What! child, are you angry with me?”
“Oh no, no!” said Kate, bursting into tears, and kissing the hand that was now extended towards her, “oh no, no! but I could hate myself for what seems so like ingratitude.”
“Come, sit down here at my feet on this stool, and tell me all about it; for, after all, I could forgive them the jar and the camellias, if they 'd only have gone away afterwards. And of course the lesson will not be thrown away upon you, not to be easily deceived again.”
“How, deceived?” exclaimed Kate. “She was very ill. I saw it myself.”
“Nonsense, child. The trick is the very stalest piece of roguery going. Since Toe Morris, as they call him the man that treads upon people, and by his apologies scrapes acquaintance with them there is nothing less original. Why, just before we left England, there was old Bankhead got into Slingsby House, merely because the newspapers might announce his death at the Earl of Grindleton's 'on the eighth, of a few days' illness, deeply regretted by the noble lord, with whom he was on a visit.' Now, that dear Ricketts woman would almost consent to take leave of the world for a similar paragraph. I 'm sure I should know nothing of such people but that Sir Stafford's relations have somewhat enlightened me. He has a nest of cousins down in Shropshire, not a whit better than your I was going to call them 'your friends,' the Rickettses.”
“It is almost incredible to suppose this could be artifice.”
“Why so, child? There is no strategy too deep for people who are always aspiring to some society above them. Besides, after all, I was in a measure prepared for this.”
“Prepared for it!”
“Yes; Jekyl told me that if they once got in, it would be next to impossible to keep them out afterwards. A compromise, he said, was the best thing; to let them have so many days each year, with certain small privileges about showing the house to strangers, cutting bouquets, and so on; or, if we preferred it, let them carry away a Teniers or a Gerard Dow to copy, and take care never to ask for it. He inclined to the latter as the better plan, because, after a certain lapse of time, it can end in a cut.”
“But this is inconceivable!” exclaimed Kate.
“And yet half the absurd and incongruous intimacies one sees in the world have had some such origin, and habit will reconcile one to acquaintance that at first inspired feelings of abhorrence and detestation. I 'm sure I don 't know one good house in town where there are not certain intimates that have not the slightest pretension, either from rank, wealth, distinction, or social qualities, to be there. And yet, there they are; not merely as supernumeraries, either, but very prominent and foreground figures, giving advice and offering counsel on questions of family policy, and writing their vulgar names on every will, codicil, marriage-settlement, and trust-deed, till they seem to be part of the genealogical tree, to which, after all, they are only attached like fungi. You look very unhappy, my poor Kate, at all this; but, believe me, the system will outlive both of us. And so, now to your room, and dress for dinner. But I forgot; you have n't got a room; so Celestine must give you hers, and you will be close beside me, and we shall be the better able to concert measures about these Ricketts folk, who really resemble those amiable peasants your father told me of, on his Irish property, and whom he designated as 'squatters.' I am delighted that I have n't forgot the word.”
And thus, chatting on, Lady Hester restored Kate's wonted happiness of nature, sadly shaken as it had been by the contrarieties of the morning. Nothing, too, was easier than to make her forget a source of irritation. Ever better satisfied to look on the bright side of life, her inclinations needed but little aid from conviction to turn her from gloomy themes to pleasant ones; and already some of the absurdities of the morning were recurring to her mind, and little traits of Mrs. Ricketts and her brother were involuntarily coming up through all the whirlpool of annoyance and confusion in whicli th y had been submerged.
The coming dinner, too, engrossed some share of her thoughts; for it was a grand entertainment, to which all Lady Hester's most distinguished friends were invited. An Archduke and a Cardinal were to make part of the company, and Kate looked forward to meeting these great personages with no common interest. It was less the vulgar curiosity of observing the manners and bearing of distinguished characters, than the delight she felt in following out some child-invented narrative of her future life, some fancied story of her own career, wherein Princes and Prelates were to figure, and scenes of splendor and enjoyment to follow each other in rapid succession.
LADY HESTER'S dinner of that day was a “grand one,” that is to say, it was one of those great displays which, from time to time, are offered up as sacrifices to the opinion of the world. Few of her own peculiar set were present. Some she omitted herself; others had begged off of their own accord. Midchekoff, however, was there; for, however accustomed to the tone and habits of a life of mere dissipation, he possessed every requirement for mixing with general society. It was true he was not fond of meeting “Royal Highnesses,” before whom his own equivocal rank sank into insignificance; nor did he love “Cardinals,” whose haughty pretensions always over-topped every other nobility. To oblige Lady Hester, however, he did come, and condescended, for “the nonce,” to assume his most amiable of moods. The Marchesa Guardoni, an old coquette of the days of the French Empire, but now a rigid devotee, and a most exclusive moralist; a few elderly diplomates, of a quiet and cat-like smoothness of manner, with certain notabilities of the Court, made up the party. There were no English whatever; Jekyl, who made out the list, well knowing that Florence offered none of a rank sufficiently distinguished, except Norwood, whose temporary absence from the city was rather a boon than the reverse; for the noble Viscount, when not “slang,” was usually silent, and, by long intercourse with the Turf and its followers, had ceased to feel any interest in topics which could not end in a wager.
The entertainment was very splendid. Nothing was wanting which luxury or taste could contribute. The wines were delicious; the cookery perfect. The guests were courteous and pleasing; but all was of the quietest, none of the witty sallies, the piquant anecdotes, the brilliant repartees, which usually pattered like hail around that board. Still less were heard those little histories of private life where delinquencies furnish all the interest. The royal guest imposed a reserve which the presence of the Cardinal deepened. The conversation, like the cuisine, was flavored for fine palates; both were light, suggestive, and of easy digestion. Events were discussed rather than the actors in them. All was ease and simplicity; but it was a stately kind of simplicity, which served to chill those that were unaccustomed to it. So Kate Dalton felt it; and however sad the confession, we must own that she greatly preferred the free and easy tone of Lady Hester's midnight receptions to the colder solemnity of these distinguished guests.
Even to the Cardinal's whist-table, everything wore a look of state and solemnity. The players laid down their cards with a measured gravity, and scored their honors with the air of men discharging a high and important function. As for the Archduke, he sat upon a sofa beside Lady Hester, suffering himself to be amused by the resources of her small-talk, bowing blandly at times, occasionally condescending to a smile, but rarely uttering even a monosyllable. Even that little social warmth that was kindled by the dinner-table seemed to have been chilled by the drawing-room, where the conversation was maintained in a low, soft tone, that never rose above a murmur. It may be, perhaps, some sort of consolation to little folk to think that Princes are generally sad-looking. The impassable barrier of reserve around them, if it protect from all the rubs and frictions of life, equally excludes from much of its genial enjoyment; and all those little pleasantries which grow out of intimacy are denied those who have no equals.
It was in some such meditation as this Kate Dalton sat, roused occasionally to bestow a smile or a passing word of acknowledgment in return for some of those little morsels of compliment and flattery which old courtiers pay as their rightful tribute to a young and handsome woman. She was sufficiently accustomed to this kind of homage to accept it without losing, even for an instant, any train of thought her mind was pursuing. Nor did the entrance of any new guest, a number of whom had been invited for the evening, distract her from her half revery.
The salons, without being crowded, now showed a numerous company, all of whom exhibited in their demeanor that respectful reserve the presence of royalty ever inspires. It seemed, indeed, as though all the conversation that went forward was like a mere “aside” to that more important dialogue which was maintained beside the Prince.
A slow but measured tide of persons passed before him, bowing with respectful deference as they went. With some he deigned to speak a few words, others had a smile or a little nod of recognition, and some again one of those cold and vacant stares with which great people are occasionally wont to regard little ones. His Royal Highness was not one of those accomplished princes whose pride it is to know the name, the family, the pursuits, and predilections of each new presentee. On the contrary, he was absent, and forgetful to a degree scarcely credible; his want of memory betraying him into innumerable mistakes, from which, even had he known, no adroitness of his own could have extricated him. On this evening he had not been peculiarly fortunate; he had complimented a minister who had just received his recall in disgrace; he had felicitated a young lady on her approaching marriage, which had been broken off; while the burden of his talk to Lady Hester was in disparagement of those foreigners who brought a scandal upon his court by habits and manners which would not be tolerated in their own countries. Divorce, or even separation, met his heavy reprobation; and while his code of morality, on the whole, exhibited very merciful dispositions, he bestowed unmitigated severity upon all that could shock the world's opinion.
To this Lady Hester had to listen as best she might, a task not the less trying and difficult from the ill-suppressed looks of malice and enjoyment she saw on every side. From all these causes put together, the occasion, however flattering to her vanity, was far from being pleasurable to her feelings, and she longed for it to be over. The Prince looked wearied enough, but somehow there is nothing like royalty for endurance; their whole lives would seem to teach the lesson, and so he sat on, saying a stray word, bowing with half-closed lids, and looking as though very little more would set him fast asleep.
It was the very culminating point of the whole evening's austerity; one of those little pauses which now and then occur had succeeded to the murmur of conversation. The whist party had been broken up, and the Cardinal was slowly advancing up the room, the company, even to the ladies, rising respectfully as he passed, when the folding-doors were thrown wide, and a servant announced Mr. Scroope Purvis.
If the name was unknown to the assembled guests, there was one there at least who heard it with a sensation of actual terror, and poor Kate Dalton sank back into her chair with a kind of instinctive effort at concealment. By this time the door had closed behind him, leaving Mr. Purvis standing with an expression of no small bewilderment at the gorgeous assembly into which he had intruded.
Lady Hester's quick ear had caught the name, even from the furthest end of the room; but while she attributed it to the mispronunciations of which foreign servants are so liberal, looked out with some curiosity for him who owned it.
Nor had she to look long, for, his first moment of surprise over, Purvis put up his double eye-glass and commenced a tour of the rooms, in that peculiarly scrutinizing way for which he was distinguished. The fact that all the faces were unknown to him seemed to impart additional courage to his investigations, for he stared about with as little concern as he might have done in a theatre.
Most men in his situation would have been egoist enough to have thought only of themselves and the awkwardness of their own position. Purvis, on the contrary, had an eye for everything; from the chandeliers on the walls to the crosses on the dress-coats, from the decorations of the salons to the diamonds, he missed nothing; and with such impartial fairness did he bestow his glances, that the Cardinal's cheeks grew red as his own stockings as Scroope surveyed him. 'At last he reached the end of the great drawing-room, and found himself standing in front of the canopied seat where the Archduke sat with Lady Hester. Not heeding, if he even remarked, the little circle which etiquette had drawn in front of the Prince, Purvis advanced within the charmed precincts and stared steadily at the Duke.