"I shall hardly be sorry."
"Not sorry? Why, what now, dear one? Is it true, then, that a flagellated female kisses the rod? Are you so eager for a repet.i.tion of Strike?"
Caroline, with some hesitation, related to her more than the Countess had ventured to pet.i.tion for in her prayers.
"Oh! how exceedingly generous!" the latter exclaimed. How very refreshing to think that there are n.o.bles in your England as romantic, as courteous, as delicate as our own foreign ones! But his Grace is quite an exceptional n.o.bleman. Are you not touched, dearest Carry?"
Caroline pensively glanced at the reflection of her beautiful arm in the gla.s.s, and sighed, pushing back the hair from her temples.
"But, for mercy"s sake!" resumed the Countess, in alarm at the sigh, "do not be too--too touched. Do, pray, preserve your wits. You weep!
Caroline, Caroline! O my goodness; it is just five-and-twenty minutes to the first dinner-bell, and you are crying! For G.o.d"s sake, think of your face! Are you going to be a Gorgon? And you show the marks twice as long as any other, you fair women. Squinnying like this! Caroline, for your Louisa"s sake, do not!"
Hissing which, half angrily and half with entreaty, the Countess dropped on her knees. Caroline"s fit of tears subsided. The eldest of the sisters, she was the kindest, the fairest, the weakest.
"Not," said the blandishing Countess, when Caroline"s face was clearer, "not that my best of Carrys does not look delicious in her shower. Cry, with your hair down, and you would subdue any male creature on two legs.
And that reminds me of that most audacious Marquis de Remilla. He saw a dirty drab of a fruit-girl crying in Lisbon streets one day, as he was riding in the carriage of the d.u.c.h.esse de Col da Rosta, and her husband and duena, and he had a letter for her--the d.u.c.h.esse. They loved! How deliver the letter? "Save me!" he cried to the d.u.c.h.esse, catching her hand, and pressing his heart, as if very sick. The d.u.c.h.esse felt the paper--turned her hand over on her knee, and he withdrew his. What does my Carry think was the excuse he tendered the Duke? This--and this gives you some idea of the wonderful audacity of those dear Portuguese--that he--he must precipitate himself and marry any woman he saw weep, and be her slave for the term of his natural life, unless another woman"s hand at the same moment restrained him! There!" and the Countess"s eyes shone brightly.
"How excessively imbecile!" Caroline remarked, hitherto a pa.s.sive listener to these Lusitanian contes.
It was the first sign she had yet given of her late intercourse with a positive Duke, and the Countess felt it, and drew back. No more anecdotes for Caroline, to whom she quietly said:
"You are very English, dear!"
"But now, the Duke--his Grace," she went on, "how did he inaugurate?"
"I spoke to him of Evan"s position. G.o.d forgive me!--I said that was the cause of my looks being sad."
"You could have thought of nothing better," interposed the Countess.
"Yes?"
"He said, if he might clear them he should be happy!
"In exquisite language, Carry, of course."
"No; just as others talk."
"Hum!" went the Countess, and issued again brightly from a cloud of reflection, with the remark: "It was to seem business-like--the commerciality of the English mind. To the point--I know. Well, you perceive, my sweetest, that Evan"s interests are in your hands. You dare not quit the field. In one week, I fondly trust, he will be secure. What more did his Grace say? May we not be the repository of such delicious secresies?"
Caroline gave tremulous indications about the lips, and the Countess jumped to the bell and rang it, for they were too near dinner for the trace of a single tear to be permitted. The bell and the appearance of Conning effectually checked the flood.
While speaking to her sister, the Countess had hesitated to mention George Uplift"s name, hoping that, as he had no dinner-suit, he would not stop to dinner that day, and would fall to the charge of Lady Racial once more. Conning, however, brought in a sheet of paper on which the names of the guests were written out by Harry, a daily piece of service he performed for the captivating dame, and George Uplift"s name was in the list.
"We will do the rest, Conning-retire," she said, and then folding Caroline in her arms, murmured, the moment they were alone, "Will my Carry dress her hair plain to-day, for the love of her Louisa?"
"Goodness! what a request!" exclaimed Caroline, throwing back her head to see if her Louisa could be serious.
"Most inexplicable--is it not? Will she do it?"
"Flat, dear? It makes a fright of me."
"Possibly. May I beg it?"
"But why, dearest, why? If I only knew why!"
"For the love of your Louy."
"Plain along the temples?"
"And a knot behind."
"And a band along the forehead?"
"Gems, if they meet your favour."
"But my cheek-bones, Louisa?"
"They are not too prominent, Carry."
"Curls relieve them."
"The change will relieve the curls, dear one."
Caroline looked in the gla.s.s, at the Countess, as polished a reflector, and fell into a chair. Her hair was accustomed to roll across her shoulders in heavy curls. The Duke would find a change of the sort singular. She should not at all know herself with her hair done differently: and for a lovely woman to be transformed to a fright is hard to bear in solitude, or in imagination.
"Really!" she pet.i.tioned.
"Really--yes, or no?" added the Countess.
"So unaccountable a whim!" Caroline looked in the gla.s.s dolefully, and pulled up her thick locks from one cheek, letting them fall on the instant.
"She will?" breathed the Countess.
"I really cannot," said Caroline, with vehemence.
The Countess burst into laughter, replying: "My poor child! it is not my whim--it is your obligation. George Uplift dines here to-day. Now do you divine it? Disguise is imperative for you."
Mrs. Strike, gazing in her sister"s face, answered slowly, "George? But how will you meet him?" she hurriedly asked.
"I have met him," rejoined the Countess, boldly. "I defy him to know me.
I brazen him! You with your hair in my style are equally safe. You see there is no choice. Pooh! contemptible puppy!"
"But I never,"--Caroline was going to say she never could face him. "I will not dine. I will nurse Evan."
"You have faced him, my dear," said the Countess, "and you are to change your head-dress simply to throw him off his scent."
As she spoke the Countess tripped about, nodding her head like a girl.
Triumph in the sense of her power over all she came in contact with, rather elated the lady.
Do you see why she worked her sister in this roundabout fashion? She would not tell her George Uplift was in the house till she was sure he intended to stay, for fear of frightening her. When the necessity became apparent, she put it under the pretext of a whim in order to see how far Caroline, whose weak compliance she could count on, and whose reticence concerning the Duke annoyed her, would submit to it to please her sister; and if she rebelled positively, why to be sure it was the Duke she dreaded to shock: and, therefore, the Duke had a peculiar hold on her: and, therefore, the Countess might reckon that she would do more than she pleased to confess to remain with the Duke, and was manageable in that quarter. All this she learnt without asking. I need not add, that Caroline sighingly did her bidding.