"I"m dark, sir," said she: and went off briskly homewards, and Alfred stood rapt in dreamy joy, and so self-elated that, had he been furnished like a peac.o.c.k, he would have instantly become a "thing all eyes,"
and choked up Jenner"s shop, and swept his counter. He had made a step towards familiarity, had written her a letter; and then, if this prescription came, as he suspected, from Dr. Sampson, she would perhaps be at the ball. This opened a delightful vista. Meantime, Mrs. Dodd had communicated Sampson"s opinion to Julia, adding that there was a prescription besides, gone to be made up. "However, he insists on your going to this ball."
Julia begged hard to be excused: said she was in no humour for b.a.l.l.s: and Mrs. Dodd objecting that the tickets had actually been purchased, she asked leave to send them to the Dartons. "They will be a treat to Rose and Alice; they seldom go out: mamma, I do so fear they are poorer than people think. May I?"
"It would be but kind," said Mrs. Dodd. "Though really why my child should always be sacrificed to other people"s children----"
"Oh, a mighty sacrifice!" said Julia. She sat down and enclosed the tickets to Rose Darton, with a little sugared note. Sarah, being out, Elizabeth took it. Sarah met her at the gate, but did not announce her return: she lurked in ambush till Julia happened to go to her own room, then followed her, and handed Alfred"s missive, and watched her slily, and being herself expeditious as the wind in matters of the heart, took it for granted the enclosure was something very warm indeed; so she said with feigned simplicity, "I suppose it is all right now, miss?" and retreated swelling with a secret, and tormented her fellow-servants all day with innuendoes dark as Erebus.
Julia read the note again and again: her heart beat at those few ceremonious lines. "He does not like me to be talked of," she said to herself. "How good he is! What trouble he takes about me! Ah! _he will be there!_"
She divined rightly; on Wednesday, at ten, Alfred Hardie was in the ball-room. It was a magnificent room, well lighted, and at present not half filled, though dancing had commenced. The figure Alfred sought was not there; and he wondered he had been so childish as to hope she would come to a city ball. He played the fine gentleman; would not dance. He got near the door with another Oxonian, and tried to avenge himself for her absence on the townspeople who were there by quizzing them.
But in the middle of this amiable occupation, and indeed in the middle of a sentence, he stopped short, and his heart throbbed, and he thrilled from head to foot; for two ladies glided in at the door, and pa.s.sed up the room with the unpretending composure of well-bred people. They were equally remarkable; but Alfred saw only the radiant young creature in flowing muslin, with the narrowest sash in the room, and no ornament but a necklace of large pearls and her own vivid beauty. She had altered her mind about coming, with apologies for her vacillating disposition so penitent and disproportionate that her indulgent and unsuspecting mother was really quite amused. Alfred was not so happy as to know that she had changed her mind with his note. Perhaps even this knowledge could have added little to that exquisite moment, when, unhoped for, she pa.s.sed close to him, and the fragrant air from her brushed his cheek, and seemed to whisper, "Follow me and be my slave."
CHAPTER V
HE did follow her, and, convinced that she would be engaged ten deep in five minutes, hustled up to the master of the ceremonies and begged an introduction. The great banker"s son was attended to at once. Julia saw them coming, as her s.e.x can see, without looking. Her eyes were on fire, and a delicious blush on her cheeks, when the M. C. introduced Mr.
Alfred Hardie with due pomp. He asked her to dance.
"I am engaged for this dance, sir," said she softly.
"The next?" asked Hardie timidly.
"With pleasure."
But when they had got so far they were both seized with bashful silence; and just as Alfred was going to try and break it, Cornet Bosanquet, aged 18, height 5 feet 4 inches, strutted up with clanking heel, and, glancing haughtily up at him, carried Julia off, like a steam-tug towing away some fair schooner. To these little thorns society treats all anxious lovers, but the incident was new to Alfred, and discomposed him; and, besides, he had nosed a rival in Sampson"s prescription. So now he thought to himself, "that little ensign is "his puppy.""
To get rid of Mrs. Dodd he offered to conduct her to a seat. She thanked him; she would rather stand where she could see her daughter dance: on this he took her to the embrasure of a window opposite where Julia and her partner stood, and they entered a circle of spectators. The band struck up, and the solemn skating began.
"Who is this lovely creature in white?" asked a middle-aged solicitor.
"In white? I did not see any beauty in white," replied his daughter.
"Why there, before your eyes," said the gentleman, loudly.
"What, that girl dancing with the little captain? I don"t see much beauty in her. _And_ what a rubbishing dress."
"It never cost a pound, making and all," suggested another Barkingtonian nymph.
"But what splendid pearls!" said a third: "can they be real?"
"Real! what an idea!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed a fourth: "who puts on real pearls as big as peas with muslin at twenty pence the yard?"
"Weasels!" muttered Alfred, and quivered all over: and he felt to Mrs.
Dodd so like a savage going to spring, that she laid her hand upon his wrist, and said gently, but with authority, "Be calm, sir! and oblige me by not noticing these people."
Then they threw dirt on her bouquet, and then on her shoes, while she was winding in and out before their eyes a Grace, and her soft muslin drifting and flowing like an appropriate cloud round a young G.o.ddess.
"A little starch would make it set out better. It"s as limp as a towel on the line."
"I"ll be sworn it was washed at home."
"Where it was made."
"I call it a rag, not a gown."
"Do let us move," whispered Alfred.
"I am very comfortable here," whispered Mrs. Dodd. "How can these things annoy my ears while I have eyes? Look at her: she is the best-dressed lady in the room; her muslin is Indian, and of a quality unknown to these provincial shopkeepers; a rajah gave it us: her pearls were my mother"s, and have been in every court in Europe; and she herself is beautiful, would be beautiful dressed like the dowdies who are criticising her: and I think, sir, she dances as well as any lady can enc.u.mbered with an Atom that does not know the figure." All this with the utmost placidity.
Then, as if to extinguish all doubt, Julia flung them a heavenly smile; she had been furtively watching them all the time, and she saw they were talking about her.
The other Oxonian squeezed up to Hardie. "Do you know the beauty? She smiled your way.
"Ah!" said Hardie, deliberately, "you mean that young lady with the court pearls, in that exquisite Indian muslin, which floats so gracefully, while the other muslin girls are all crimp and stiff; like little pigs clad in crackling."
"Ha! ha! ha! Yes. Introduce me."
"I could not take such a liberty with the queen of the ball."
Mrs. Dodd smiled, but felt nervous and ill at ease. She thought to herself, "Now here is a generous, impetuous thing." As for the hostile party, staggered at first by the masculine insolence of young Hardy, it soon recovered, and, true to its s.e.x, attacked him obliquely, through his white ladye.
"Who _is_ the beauty of the ball?" asked one, haughtily.
"I don"t know, but not that mawkish thing in limp muslin."
"I should say Miss Hetherington is the belle," suggested a third.
"Which is Miss Hetherington?" asked the Oxonian coolly of Alfred.
"Oh, she won"t do for us. It is that little chalk-faced girl, dressed in pink with red roses; the pink of vulgarity and bad taste."
At this both Oxonians laughed arrogantly, and Mrs. Dodd withdrew her hand from the speaker"s arm and glided away behind the throng. Julia looked at him with marked anxiety. He returned her look, and was sore puzzled what it meant, till he found Mrs. Dodd had withdrawn softly from him; then he stood confused, regretting too late he had not obeyed her positive request, and tried to imitate her dignified forbearance.
The quadrille ended. He instantly stepped forward, and bowing politely to the cornet, said authoritatively, "Mrs. Dodd sends me to conduct you to her. With your permission, sir." His arm was offered and taken before the little warrior knew where he was.
He had her on his arm, soft, light, and fragrant as zephyr, and her cool breath wooing his neck; oh, the thrill of that moment! but her first word was to ask him, with considerable anxiety, "Why did mamma leave you?"
"Miss Dodd, I am the most unhappy of men."
"No doubt! no doubt!" said she, a little crossly. She added with one of her gushes of naivete, "and I shall be unhappy too if you go and displease mamma."
"What could I do? A gang of sn.o.bbesses were detracting from--somebody.
To speak plainly, they were running down the loveliest of her s.e.x. Your mamma told me to keep quiet. And so I did till I got a fair chance, and then I gave it them in their teeth." He ground his own, and added, "I think I was very good not to kick them."
Julia coloured with pleasure, and proceeded to turn it off. "Oh! most forbearing and considerate," said she. "Ah! by the way, I think I did hear some ladies express a misgiving as to the pecuniary value of my costume; ha! ha! Oh--you--foolish!--Fancy noticing that! Why it is in little sneers that the approval of the ladies shows itself at a ball, and it is a much sincerer compliment than the gentlemen"s bombastical praises: "the fairest of her s.e.x," and so on; that none but the "silliest of her s.e.x" believe."