The clock struck twelve. The Aldclyffe state dinner was over. The company had all gone, and Miss Aldclyffe"s bell rang loudly and jerkingly.
Cytherea started to her feet at the sound, which broke in upon a fitful sleep that had overtaken her. She had been sitting drearily in her chair waiting minute after minute for the signal, her brain in that state of intentness which takes cognizance of the pa.s.sage of Time as a real motion--motion without matter--the instants throbbing past in the company of a feverish pulse. She hastened to the room, to find the lady sitting before the dressing shrine, illuminated on both sides, and looking so queenly in her att.i.tude of absolute repose, that the younger woman felt the awfullest sense of responsibility at her Vandalism in having undertaken to demolish so imposing a pile.
The lady"s jewelled ornaments were taken off in silence--some by her own listless hands, some by Cytherea"s. Then followed the outer stratum of clothing. The dress being removed, Cytherea took it in her hand and went with it into the bedroom adjoining, intending to hang it in the wardrobe. But on second thoughts, in order that she might not keep Miss Aldclyffe waiting a moment longer than necessary, she flung it down on the first resting-place that came to hand, which happened to be the bed, and re-entered the dressing-room with the noiseless footfall of a kitten. She paused in the middle of the room.
She was unnoticed, and her sudden return had plainly not been expected.
During the short time of Cytherea"s absence, Miss Aldclyffe had pulled off a kind of chemisette of Brussels net, drawn high above the throat, which she had worn with her evening dress as a semi-opaque covering to her shoulders, and in its place had put her night-gown round her.
Her right hand was lifted to her neck, as if engaged in fastening her night-gown.
But on a second glance Miss Aldclyffe"s proceeding was clearer to Cytherea. She was not fastening her night-gown; it had been carelessly thrown round her, and Miss Aldclyffe was really occupied in holding up to her eyes some small object that she was keenly scrutinizing. And now on suddenly discovering the presence of Cytherea at the back of the apartment, instead of naturally continuing or concluding her inspection, she desisted hurriedly; the tiny snap of a spring was heard, her hand was removed, and she began adjusting her robes.
Modesty might have directed her hasty action of enwrapping her shoulders, but it was scarcely likely, considering Miss Aldclyffe"s temperament, that she had all her life been used to a maid, Cytherea"s youth, and the elder lady"s marked treatment of her as if she were a mere child or plaything. The matter was too slight to reason about, and yet upon the whole it seemed that Miss Aldclyffe must have a practical reason for concealing her neck.
With a timid sense of being an intruder Cytherea was about to step back and out of the room; but at the same moment Miss Aldclyffe turned, saw the impulse, and told her companion to stay, looking into her eyes as if she had half an intention to explain something. Cytherea felt certain it was the little mystery of her late movements. The other withdrew her eyes; Cytherea went to fetch the dressing-gown, and wheeled round again to bring it up to Miss Aldclyffe, who had now partly removed her night-dress to put it on the proper way, and still sat with her back towards Cytherea.
Her neck was again quite open and uncovered, and though hidden from the direct line of Cytherea"s vision, she saw it reflected in the gla.s.s--the fair white surface, and the inimitable combination of curves between throat and bosom which artists adore, being brightly lit up by the light burning on either side.
And the lady"s prior proceedings were now explained in the simplest manner. In the midst of her breast, like an island in a sea of pearl, reclined an exquisite little gold locket, embellished with arabesque work of blue, red, and white enamel. That was undoubtedly what Miss Aldclyffe had been contemplating; and, moreover, not having been put off with her other ornaments, it was to be retained during the night--a slight departure from the custom of ladies which Miss Aldclyffe had at first not cared to exhibit to her new a.s.sistant, though now, on further thought, she seemed to have become indifferent on the matter.
"My dressing-gown," she said, quietly fastening her night-dress as she spoke.
Cytherea came forward with it. Miss Aldclyffe did not turn her head, but looked inquiringly at her maid in the gla.s.s.
"You saw what I wear on my neck, I suppose?" she said to Cytherea"s reflected face.
"Yes, madam, I did," said Cytherea to Miss Aldclyffe"s reflected face.
Miss Aldclyffe again looked at Cytherea"s reflection as if she were on the point of explaining. Again she checked her resolve, and said lightly--
"Few of my maids discover that I wear it always. I generally keep it a secret--not that it matters much. But I was careless with you, and seemed to want to tell you. You win me to make confidences that...."
She ceased, took Cytherea"s hand in her own, lifted the locket with the other, touched the spring and disclosed a miniature.
"It is a handsome face, is it not?" she whispered mournfully, and even timidly.
"It is."
But the sight had gone through Cytherea like an electric shock, and there was an instantaneous awakening of perception in her, so thrilling in its presence as to be well-nigh insupportable. The face in the miniature was the face of her own father--younger and fresher than she had ever known him--but her father!
Was this the woman of his wild and unquenchable early love? And was this the woman who had figured in the gate-man"s story as answering the name of Cytherea before her judgment was awake? Surely it was. And if so, here was the tangible outcrop of a romantic and hidden stratum of the past hitherto seen only in her imagination; but as far as her scope allowed, clearly defined therein by reason of its strangeness.
Miss Aldclyffe"s eyes and thoughts were so intent upon the miniature that she had not been conscious of Cytherea"s start of surprise. She went on speaking in a low and abstracted tone.
"Yes, I lost him." She interrupted her words by a short meditation, and went on again. "I lost him by excess of honesty as regarded my past. But it was best that it should be so.... I was led to think rather more than usual of the circ.u.mstances to-night because of your name. It is p.r.o.nounced the same way, though differently spelt."
The only means by which Cytherea"s surname could have been spelt to Miss Aldclyffe must have been by Mrs. Morris or Farmer Springrove. She fancied Farmer Springrove would have spelt it properly if Edward was his informant, which made Miss Aldclyffe"s remark obscure.
Women make confidences and then regret them. The impulsive rush of feeling which had led Miss Aldclyffe to indulge in this revelation, trifling as it was, died out immediately her words were beyond recall; and the turmoil, occasioned in her by dwelling upon that chapter of her life, found vent in another kind of emotion--the result of a trivial accident.
Cytherea, after letting down Miss Aldclyffe"s hair, adopted some plan with it to which the lady had not been accustomed. A rapid revulsion to irritation ensued. The maiden"s mere touch seemed to discharge the pent-up regret of the lady as if she had been a jar of electricity.
"How strangely you treat my hair!" she exclaimed.
A silence.
"I have told you what I never tell my maids as a rule; of course _nothing_ that I say in this room is to be mentioned outside it." She spoke crossly no less than emphatically.
"It shall not be, madam," said Cytherea, agitated and vexed that the woman of her romantic wonderings should be so disagreeable to her.
"Why on earth did I tell you of my past?" she went on.
Cytherea made no answer.
The lady"s vexation with herself, and the accident which had led to the disclosure swelled little by little till it knew no bounds. But what was done could not be undone, and though Cytherea had shown a most winning responsiveness, quarrel Miss Aldclyffe must. She recurred to the subject of Cytherea"s want of expertness, like a bitter reviewer, who finding the sentiments of a poet unimpeachable, quarrels with his rhymes.
"Never, never before did I serve myself such a trick as this in engaging a maid!" She waited for an expostulation: none came. Miss Aldclyffe tried again.
"The idea of my taking a girl without asking her more than three questions, or having a single reference, all because of her good l--, the shape of her face and body! It _was_ a fool"s trick. There, I am served right, quite right--by being deceived in such a way."
"I didn"t deceive you," said Cytherea. The speech was an unfortunate one, and was the very "fuel to maintain its fires" that the other"s petulance desired.
"You did," she said hotly.
"I told you I couldn"t promise to be acquainted with every detail of routine just at first."
"Will you contradict me in this way! You are telling untruths, I say."
Cytherea"s lip quivered. "I would answer the remark if--if--"
"If what?"
"If it were a lady"s!"
"You girl of impudence--what do you say? Leave the room this instant, I tell you."
"And I tell you that a person who speaks to a lady as you do to me, is no lady herself!"
"To a lady? A lady"s-maid speaks in this way. The idea!"
"Don"t "lady"s-maid" me: n.o.body is my mistress I won"t have it!"
"Good Heavens!"
"I wouldn"t have come--no--I wouldn"t! if I had known!"
"What?"
"That you were such an ill-tempered, unjust woman!"