This permission was communicated sulkily, in French.
"Now, Jane, you shall hear me," said the old lady, so soon as the maid had disappeared and the doors were shut; "you must hear me with patience, if not with respect--_that_ I don"t expect--but remember you have no mother, and I am an old woman and your kinswoman, and it is my duty to speak--"
"I"m rather tired standing," interrupted Lady Jane, in a suppressed pa.s.sion. "Besides, you say you don"t want to be overheard, and you can"t know who may be on the _lobby there_," and she pointed with her jewelled fingers at the door. "I"ll go into my bed-room, if you please; and I have not the slightest objection to hear everything you can possibly say. Don"t fancy I"m the least afraid of you."
Saying which Lady Jane, taking up her bed-room candle, rustled out of the room, without so much as looking over her shoulder to see whether the prophetess was following.
She did follow, and I dare say her lecture was not mitigated by Lady Jane"s rudeness. That young lady was lighting her candles on her dressing-table when her kinswoman entered and shut the door, without an invitation. She then seated herself serenely, and cleared her voice.
"I live very much out of the world--in fact, quite to myself; but I learn occasionally what my relations are doing; and I was grieved, Jane, to hear a great deal that was very unpleasant, to say the least, about you."
Something between a smile and a laugh was her only answer.
"Yes, extremely foolish. I don"t, of course, say there was anything wicked, but very foolish and reckless. I know perfectly how you were talked of; and I know also why you married that excellent but old man, General Lennox."
"I don"t think anyone talked about me. Everybody is talked about. There has been enough of this rubbish. I burnt your odious letter," broke in Lady Jane, incoherently.
"And would, no doubt, burn the writer, if you could."
As there was no disclaimer, Lady Alice resumed.
"Now, Jane, you have married a most respectable old gentleman; I dare say you have nothing on earth to conceal from him--remember I"ve said all along I don"t suppose there is--but as the young wife of an old man, you ought to remember how very delicate your position is."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, _generally_," answered the old lady, oracularly.
"I do declare this is perfectly insufferable! What"s the meaning of this lecture? I"m as little likely, madam, as _you_ are to disgrace myself.
You"ll please to walk out of my room."
"And how dare you talk to me in that way, young lady; how dare you attempt to hector me like your maid there?" broke out old Lady Alice, suddenly losing her self-command. "You know what I mean, and what"s more, _I_ do, too. We _both_ know it--you a young bride--what does Jekyl Marlowe invite you down here for? Do you think I imagine he cares twopence about your stupid old husband, and that I don"t know he was once making love to you? Of course I do; and I"ll have nothing of the sort here--and that"s the reason I"ve come, and that"s why I"m in that dressing-room, and that"s why I"ll write to your husband, so sure as you give me the slightest uneasiness; and you had better think well what you do."
The old lady, in a towering pa.s.sion, with a fierce l.u.s.tre in her cheeks, and eyes flashing lightning over the face of her opponent, vanished from the room.
Lady Alice had crossed the disputed territory of the Window dressing-room, and found herself in her elected bed-room before she had come to herself. She saw Lady Jane"s face still before her, with the lurid astonishment and fear, white and sharp, on it, as when she had threatened a letter to General Lennox.
She sat down a little stunned and confused about the whole thing, incensed and disgusted with Lady Jane, and confirmed in her suspicion by a look she did not like in that young lady"s face, and which her peroration had called up. She did not hear the shrilly rejoinder that pursued her through the shut door. She had given way to a burst of pa.s.sion, and felt a little hot and deaf and giddy.
When the party a.s.sembled at dinner Lady Jane exerted herself more than usual. She was agreeable, and even talkative, and her colour had not been so brilliant since her arrival. She sat next to Guy Strangways, and old Lady Alice at the other side of the table did not look triumphant, but sick and sad; and to look at the two ladies you would have set her down as the defeated and broken-spirited, and Lady Jane as the victrix in the late encounter.
The conversation at this end of the table resembled a dance, in which sometimes each man sets to his partner and turns her round, so that the whole company is frisking and spinning together; sometimes two perform; sometimes a _cavalier seul_. Thus was it with the talk of this section of the dinner-table, above the salt, at which the chief people were seated.
"I"ve just been asked by Lady Blunket how many miles it is to Wardlock, and I"m ashamed to say I can"t answer her," cried Sir Jekyl diagonally to Lady Alice, so as to cut off four people at his left hand, whose conversation being at the moment in a precarious way, forthwith expired, and the Baronet and his mother-in-law were left in possession of this part of the stage.
The old lady, as I have said, looked ill and very tired, and as if she had grown all at once very old; and instead of answering, she only nodded once or twice, and signed across the table to Lady Jane.
"Oh! I forgot," said Sir Jekyl; "you know Wardlock and all our distances, don"t you, Lady Jane--can you tell me?"
"I don"t remember," said Lady Jane, hardly turning toward him; "ten or twelve miles--is not it? it may be a good deal more. I don"t really recollect;" and this was uttered with an air which plainly said, "I don"t really care."
"I generally ride my visits, and a mile or two more or less does not signify; but one ought to know all the distances for thirty miles round; you don"t know otherwise who"s your neighbour."
"Do you think it an advantage to know that any particular person _is_ your neighbour?" inquired impertinent Drayton, with his light moustache, leaning back and looking drowsily into his gla.s.ses after his wont.
"Oh! Mr. Drayton, the country without neighbours--how dreadful!"
exclaimed Miss Blunket. "Existence without friends."
"Friends--bosh!" said Drayton, confidentially, to his wine.
"There"s Drayton scouting friendship, the young cynic!" cried Sir Jekyl. "Do call him to order, Lady Jane."
"I rather incline to agree with Mr. Drayton," said Lady Jane, coldly.
"Do you mean to say you have no friends?" said Sir Jekyl, in well-bred amazement.
"Quite the contrary--I have too many."
"Come--that"s a new complaint. Perhaps they are very new friends?"
inquired the Baronet.
"Some of them very old, indeed; but I"ve found that an old friend means only an old person privileged to be impertinent."
Lady Jane uttered a musical little laugh that was very icy as she spoke, and her eye flashed a single insolent glance at old Lady Alice.
At another time perhaps a retort would not have been wanting, but now the old woman"s eye returned but a wandering look, and her face expressed nothing but apathy and sadness.
"Grandmamma, dear, I"m afraid you are very much tired," whispered Beatrix when they reached the drawing-room, sitting beside her after she had made her comfortable on a sofa, with cushions to her back; "you would be better lying down, I think."
"No, dear--no, darling. I think in a few minutes I"ll go to my room. I"m not very well. I"m tired--_very_ tired."
And poor old granny, who was speaking very gently, and looking very pale and sunken, sighed deeply--it was almost a moan.
Beatrix was growing very much alarmed, and accompanied, or rather a.s.sisted, the old lady up to the room, where, aided by her and her maid, she got to her bed in silence, sighing deeply now and then.
She had not been long there when she burst into tears; and after a violent paroxysm she beckoned to Beatrix, and threw her lean old arms about her neck, saying--
"I"m sorry I came, child; I don"t know what to think. I"m too old to bear this agitation--it will kill me."
Then she wept more quietly, and kissed Beatrix, and whispered--"Send her out of the room--let her wait in the dressing-room."
The maid was sitting at the further end of the apartment, and the old lady was too feeble to raise her voice so as to be heard there. So soon as her maid had withdrawn Lady Alice said--
"Sit by me, Beatrix, darling. I am very nervous, and tell me who is that young man who sat beside Jane Lennox at dinner."
As she ended her little speech Lady Alice, who, though I dare say actually ill enough, yet did not want to lose credit for all the exhaustion she fancied beside, closed her eyelids, and leaned a little back on her pillow motionless. This prevented her seeing that if she were nervous Beatrix was so also, though in another way, for her colour was heightened very prettily as she answered.
"You mean the tall, slight young man at Lady Jane"s right?" inquired Beatrix.