"Do you like his doing it?"
"Very much indeed."
"Then was that the reason you married him? Aunt Henrietta said it was."
Christian"s blood boiled. And yet Let.i.tia only repeated what she had been told.
"My child," she said, feeling that now was the time to speak, and that the truth must be spoken even to a child, "your Aunt Henrietta makes a great mistake. She says and believes what is not true. I married your papa because I"--(oh that she could have said "loved him!")--"I thought him the best man in the world. And so he is, as we all know well.
Don"t we, Arthur?"
"Hurrah! Three cheers for papa! The jolliest papa that ever was!" cried Arthur from the sofa, where, by his own special desire, he lay watching the end of the toilet.
Let.i.tia was too ladylike to commit herself to much enthusiasm, but she smiled. If there was a warm place in that poor little frigid heart, papa certainly had it, as in every heart belonging to him.
"You look quite pretty" said she, condescendingly. "Some day when you go to parties you"ll dress me and make me look pretty too, and take me with you? You won"t keep me shut up in the nursery till I am quite old, as Phillis says you will?"
"Did Phillis say that?" Christian answered, with a sore sinking of the heart at the utter impossibility that under such influences these children should ever learn to love her.
"Phillis is a fool," cried Arthur, angrily. "When I get well again, if ever she says one word to me of the things she used to say about mother, won"t I pitch into her, that"s all!"
Christian smiled--a rather sad smile, but she thought it best to take no notice, and soon Phillis came and fetched the two away.
After they were gone the young step-mother stood by her bedroom fire, thinking anxiously of these her children, turning over in her mind plan after plan as to how she should make them love her. But it seemed a very hopeless task still.
She looked into the blazing coals, and then began playing with a little chimney-piece ornament showing the day of the month--21st of March.
Could it be possible that she had been married three months? Three months since that momentous day when her solitary, self-contained life was swept out of the narrow boundaries of self forever--made full and busy, ay, and bright too? For it was not a sad face, far from it, which met her in the mirror above; it was a face radiant with youth and health, and the soft peacefulness which alone gives a kind of beauty.
Well, so best! She had not expected this, but she did not wish it otherwise.
The clock struck eight. She was, after all, ready too soon so she wrapped her white opera cloak around her, and went down to the drawing-room. To pa.s.s the time, she thought she would sing a little, as indeed she now made a point of doing daily, and would have done, whether she cared for it or not, if only out of grat.i.tude to the love which had delighted itself in giving her pleasure.
But she did care for it. Nothing, n.o.body, could quench the artist nature which, the instant the heavy weight of sorrow was taken away, sprang up like a living fountain in this girl"s soul. She sang, quite alone in the room, but with such a keen delight, such a perfect absorption of enjoyment, that she never noticed her husband"s entrance till he had stood for some minutes behind her chair. When he touched her she started, then smiled.
"Oh, it is only you!"
"Only me. Did I trouble you?"
"Oh no; was I not troubling you?"
"How, my dear?"
Christian could not tell. Anyhow she found it impossible to explain, except that she had fancied he did not care for music.
"Perhaps I do, perhaps I don"t. But I care for _you._ Tell me," he sat down and took her hand, "does not Arthur"s "bird" sometimes feel a little like a bird in a cage? Do you not wish you lived in the world--in London, where you could go to concerts and b.a.l.l.s, instead of being shut up in a dull college with an old bookworm like me?"
"Dr. Grey! Papa!"
"Don"t look hurt, my darling. But confess; isn"t it sometimes so?"
"No! a thousand times no! Who has been putting such things into your head, for they never would come of themselves? It is wicked--wicked, and you should not heed them."
The tears burst from her eyes, to her husband"s undisguised astonishment. He appeared so exceedingly grieved that she controlled herself as soon as she could, for his sake.
"I did not mean to be naughty. But you should remember I am still only a girl--a poor, helpless, half-formed girl, who never had any body to teach her any thing, who is trying so hard to be good, only they will not let me!"
"Who do you mean by they?"
No, he evidently had not the slightest idea how bitter was the daily household struggle, the petty guerilla warfare which she had to bear.
And perhaps it was as well he should not. She would fight her own battles; she was strong enough now. It was a step-by-step advance, and all through an enemy"s country. Still, she had advanced, and might go on to the end, if she only had strength and patience.
"Hush! I hear Miss Gascoigne at the door. Please go and speak to her.
Don"t let her see I have been crying."
Of this, happily, there was little fear, Miss Gascoigne being too much absorbed in her own appearance, which really was very fine. Her black satin rustled, her black lace fell airily, and her whole figure was that of a handsome, well-preserved, middle-aged gentlewoman. So pleased was she with herself that she was pleasant to every one else; and when, half an hour after, Dr. Grey entered the reception-rooms of St. Mary"s Lodge with his wife on one arm and his sister on the other, any spectator would have said, how very nice they all looked; what a fortunate man he was, and what a happy family must be the family at Saint Bede"s.
And, to her own surprise, when her first bewilderment was over, Christian really did feel happy. Her artistic temperament rejoiced in the mere beauty of the scene before her--a scene to be found nowhere out of Avonsbridge--lofty, grand old rooms, resplendent with innumerable wax-lights; filled, but not too full, with an ever-moving, gorgeously-colored crowd. Quite different from that of ordinary soirees, where the coup d"oeil is that of a bed of variegated flowers, with a tribe of black emmets posed on their hind legs inserted between.
Here the gentlemen made as goodly a show as the ladies, or more so, many of them being in such picturesque costumes that they might have just stepped down from the old pictures which covered the walls. In- numerable flowing gowns, of all shapes and colors, marked the college dons; then there were the gayly-clad gentlemen commoners, and two or three young n.o.blemen, equally fine; while, painfully near the door, a few meek-looking undergraduates struggled under the high honor of the vice chancellor"s hospitality.
As to the women, few were young, and none particularly lovely yet Christian enjoyed looking at them. Actually, for the first time in her life, did she behold "full dress"--the sparkle of diamonds, the delicate beauty of old point lace, the rustle of gorgeous silks and satins. She liked it--childishly liked it. It was a piece of art--a picture, in the interest of which her own part therein was utterly and satisfactorily forgotten. She was so amused with watching other people that she never thought whether other people were watching her; and when, after half an hour"s disappearance among a crowd of gentlemen, her husband came up and asked her if she were enjoying herself, she answered "Oh, so much!" with an ardor that made him smile.
And she did enjoy herself, even though a good many people were brought up to her and introduced, and by their not too brilliant remarks on it somewhat tarnished the brilliancy of the scene. But also she had some pleasant conversation with people far greater and grander and cleverer than she had ever met in her life; who, nevertheless, did not awe her at all, but led her on to talk, and to feel pleasure in talking; she being utterly unaware that her simple unconsciousness was making her ten times more charming, more beautiful than before, and that round the room were pa.s.sing and repa.s.sing innumerable flattering comments on the young wife of the Master of Saint Bede"s.
Only she thought once or twice, with an amused wonder, which had yet some sadness in it, how little these people would have thought of her a year before--how completely they would ignore her now if she were not Dr. Grey"s wife. And there came into her heart such a gush of-- grat.i.tude was it?--to that good man who had loved her just as she was-- poor Christian Oakley, governess and orphan--in that saddest state of orphanage which is conscious that all the world would say she had need to be thankful for the same. She looked round for her husband several times, but missing him--and it felt a want, among all those strange faces--she sat down by Miss Gascoigne, who, taking the turn of the tide, now patronized "my sister, Mrs. Grey," in the most overwhelming manner.
It was after a whispered conference with Miss Gascoigne that the wife of the vice chancellor, herself young and handsome, and lately married, came up to ask Christian to sing.
Then, poor girl! all her fears and doubts returned. To sing to a whole roomful of people--she had never done it in her life. It would be as bad as that nightmare fancy which used to haunt her, of being dragged forward to find the ten thousand eyes of a crowded theater all focused upon her, a sensation almost as horrible as being under a burning-gla.s.s.
"Oh no! not tonight. I would much rather not. Indeed, I can not sing."
"May I beg to be allowed to deny that fact?" said the gentleman--a young gentleman upon whose arm the hostess had crossed the room--of whom she, a stranger in Avonsbridge, knew only that he was a baronet and had fifteen thousand a year.
"Well, Sir Edwin, try if you can persuade her. Mrs. Grey, let me present to you Sir Edwin Uniacke."
It was so sudden, and the compulsion of the moment so extreme, that Christian stood calm as death--stood and bowed, and he bowed too, as in response to an ordinary introduction to a perfect stranger. She was quite certain afterward that she had not betrayed herself by any emotion; that, as seemed her only course, she had risen and walked straight to the piano, her fingers just touching Sir Edwin"s offered arm; that she had seated herself, and begun mechanically to take off her gloves, without one single word having been exchanged between them.
The young man took his place behind her chair. She never looked toward him--never paused to think how he had come there, or to wonder over the easy conscience of the world, which had readmitted him into the very society whence he had lately been ignominiously expelled. Her sole thought was that there was a song to be sung and she had to sing it, and go back as fast as she could into some safe hiding-place. Having accomplished this, she rose.
"Not yet, pray; one more song. Surely you know it--"Love in thine eyes.""
As the voice behind her--a voice so horribly familiar, said this, Christian turned round. To ignore him was impossible; to betray, by the slightest sign, the quiver of fear, of indignation, which ran through all her frame, that, too, was equally impossible. One thing only presented itself to her as to be done. She lifted up her cold, clear eyes, fixed them on him, and equally cold and clear her few commonplace words fell:
"No, I thank you; I prefer not to sing any more to-night." What answer was made, or how, still touching Sir Edwin"s arm, she was piloted back through the crowd to Miss Gascoigne"s side, Christian had not the slightest recollection either then afterward; she only knew that she did it, and he did it, and that he then bowed politely and left her.
So it was all over. They had met, she and her sometime lover, her _preux chevalier_ of a month--met, and she did not love him any more.
Not an atom! All such feelings had been swept away, crushed out of existence by the total crushing of that respect and esteem without which no good woman can go on loving. At least no woman like Christian could.
Call her not fickle, nor deem it unnatural for love so to perish. After learning what she had learned from absolute incontrovertible evidence (it is useless to enter into the circ.u.mstances, for no one is benefited by wallowing in unnecessary mire), that she, or any virtuous maiden, should continue to love this man, would have been a thing still more unnatural--nay, wicked.