When they had reached the centre of the dark water, Annie laid aside the oars, and seated herself in the stern of the boat with her companion.
There was no wind, no current: the boat remained almost motionless.
The old woman took the young girl"s hand, and said to her-
"Come now, Miss Annie, you must tell me what has been the matter with you lately-what has vexed you-or what troubles you?"
"I have been thinking of returning to England," she said, absently.
"Why should that trouble you?"
"I am afraid of going back."
"Bah! I have no patience with you. You are as much a child as ever-as when you used to whimper in a makebelieve way, and cause your mother to laugh and cry together over your natural turn for acting."
"My natural turn for acting is going-is nearly gone," said she, with a smile; "and that is what I am afraid about. I am beginning to fear a lot of faces."
"Then _why_ will you remain in such a dreadfully lonely place as this mountain inn? That it is which breeds strange fancies in you, my girl, don"t doubt of it. Afraid of faces! Didn"t you use to tell me that you were never conscious of seeing a face at all when you were on the stage?"
"I may have said so," she replied, musingly. "I don"t think I ever did see faces-except as vague orange-coloured lamps in a sort of ruddy darkness-over the blaze of the footlights, you know. Certainly I never thought of them, nor heeded them. When I went off, and heard the noise of their hands and feet, it seemed like the sound of some machine with which I had no concern. I don"t think I ever feared an audience in my life. My mother used to be my audience, as she stood in the wings and looked at me with the half-smile and kindly eyes I remember so well; and then I used to try to please you, you know, and never succeeded, as you also know, Lady Jane; and lately I have not thought of pleasing anybody, but of satisfying a sort of delirium that came over me."
"You never pleased me! You wicked creature! If I were blind and came into a theatre where I heard you playing your "Juliet," my eyes would open of their own accord."
"That time has pa.s.sed over, Lady Jane. I am afraid of going to England.
I should see all the faces now, and wonder what the people were saying of my hands outstretched, or of my kneeling posture, or of my elocution.
I feel that if I were to get up just now, in this boat, and speak two sentences--"
"You would have us both laughing. But did you ever try before, my dear, to act to a scene? You might as well try to speak to an empty theatre as to that horrible loneliness over there. It was Mr. Bridges, the stage-manager at N--, if you remember, Miss Annie, who used to rehea.r.s.e in the morning his speech before the curtain-used to wave his hand and smile to the empty benches, and then bow himself out backward. But at night, when the people were there, he always forgot the smile and the wave of the hand, and mumbled like a schoolboy. And as for your not being able to act when you hear the stir of a crowded house on the other side of the curtain, and know there are a dozen bouquets waiting for you in the boxes, why it"s nonsense, my dear."
"I am afraid of it none the less, mother, and I shall dread putting myself to the test."
"All the result of this living out of the world," said Mrs. Christmas, dogmatically. "Say, shall we start to-morrow morning, Miss Annie?"
"Yes."
When they returned to the inn there was a letter from Schonstein awaiting Miss Brunel. She knew from the peculiar handwriting who had sent it, and opened it joyfully, knowing that he was at least well enough to write. These were the words:-
"Schonstein, Thursday.
"MY DEAR MISS BRUNEL,-Ever since you left I have bitterly reproached myself for having given you so much annoyance and trouble. I hear that you are living, without amus.e.m.e.nt or companions, in the Feldberg Inn.
May I beg of you to return here, adding the a.s.surance that you will not be troubled by my presence in any way whatever? Whether you do or not, I cannot permit you to leave without bidding you good-bye-especially as we may not see each other in England-and so, if you will forgive me this once, I propose to cross over to the Feldberg to-morrow and visit you,"
&c., &c.
She read no more; the cramped left-hand writing had told her enough.
She hurriedly wrote a reply, peremptorily forbidding him to be at the trouble and danger of such an expedition; and added that, before he could possibly be at the Feldberg, she would be on her way to Freiburg and Basle. Then she called the elder Holzmann, desired him to get a messenger to take over this letter to Schonstein that day, and informed him that on the next morning she and her companion would set out for the south.
It was a point of maidenly honour with her that she should go away with her sad secret her own; and who could tell what disclosure might happen, were she to see him suffering from the effects of the wound, entreating her to stay, and with his own love for her speaking in his eyes? He was a man, and it did not matter; as for her, she closed this fatal tenderness in her heart, and would fain have deceived herself into denying its existence. Truth to say, she felt a touch of shame at her own weakness; was dimly conscious that her virginal purity of soul was tainted by a pa.s.sion which she dreamed was a guilty one; and knew that her punishment lay in the loss of that innocent gaiety and thoughtlessness which had hitherto made her life so pleasant.
"We may not see each other in England," she said to herself, gazing at the crooked and trembling lines on the paper. "Not in England, nor elsewhere, will be my constant prayer so long as I live."
So they left the gloomy mountain, and pa.s.sing through the Hollenthal once more, reached Freiburg; and from thence, by easy stages, they made the round of the Swiss lakes until, as fate would have it, they came to Thun. There they rested for a day or two, preparatory to their undertaking the voyage to England.
Here a strange incident befel Annie Brunel. Their first walk lay along the sh.o.r.e of the lake; and no sooner had they left the side of the rapid bright-green Aar, than Mrs. Christmas noticed a strange intense look of wonder settling over her companion"s face. Wistfully, and yet curiously, the dark-grey eyes dwelt on the expanding lake, on the long curving bays, on the sunlit mountains opposite, and on the far-off snow-peaks of the Bernese Alps.
"I have seen all this in a dream," she said.
"Or in a picture," suggested Mrs. Christmas.
"It is more than a dream or a picture," she continued, in a half-frightened way, as they walked along. "I know the place-I know it-the sh.o.r.e over there-the village down yonder at the point, and the smoke hanging over the trees;-I am getting quite giddy with-remembering--"
"My dear!" said Mrs. Christmas.
Her companion was now quite pale, and stood fixed to the spot, looking over the long scene in front of her with a wild stare. Then she turned round, as if almost in fear, and no sooner had she done so than she uttered a slight cry, and seemed ready to sink to the ground.
"I knew it!-I knew it!" she said. "I knew the house was there before I turned my head."
She looked up at the handsome building on the plateau above, as if it were some horrible thing come to torture her. It was only the house in which Harry Ormond had bidden her mother farewell.
CHAPTER XXI.
IN ENGLAND.
Mr. Melton was overjoyed to see Annie Brunel in London again. He had spent half his fortune in beautifying his theatre, in getting up elaborate scenery for the new piece with which he was to welcome the return to town of his patrons, and in providing costly properties. So long as the heroine of the piece was wandering among the mountains of the Schwarzwald, it was impossible that the manager"s mind could be well at ease.
"You shall come round now, and see what we have done for you, and give us your opinion," said he, politely.
Indeed, he would like to have kissed her just then, in a fatherly way, to show how delighted he was to have her back again. He saw pictures of overflowing audiences before his mind as he looked on the quiet little figure before him, on the dark face, and the large grave eyes.
It was about eleven o"clock in the forenoon. A tolerably clear light fell upon the stage, a duskier twilight hung over the rows of empty benches in the pit, and the gloomy darkness behind the galleries was here and there lit up by a solitary lamp. One or two gilders were still at work on the front of the dress-circle; overhead an echoing clang of hammer and nail told that carpenters were busy; and a vague shouting from the dusky region of the "flies" revealed the presence of human beings in those dim Olympian heights. Everywhere, as usual, the smell of escaped gas; here and there an odour of size or paint.
As they descended from the dark corridor behind the dress-circle into the wings, a ma.s.s of millinery ran full-tilt against Mr. Melton, and then started back with a slight cry and a giggle.
"G.o.d bless my soul!" said the manager, piously, although that was not the part of his body which had suffered.
The next moment Miss Featherstone had thrown her arms around Annie Brunel"s neck, and was kissing her and calling her "My dear" with that profusion of sentiment which most actresses love to scatter over the object, _pro tem._, of their affection. Miss Featherstone was attired in a green silk dress-in many a love-scene had _that_ rather dingy piece of costume figured, on the stage and elsewhere-a blue cloth jacket, a white hat with a scarlet feather, and yellow gloves. During this outburst of emotion, Mr. Melton had caught sight of a young gentleman-to whom he gave thirty shillings a week in order that he might dress as a gentleman should, and always have a good hat to keep on his head while walking about in a drawing-room-who had been in pursuit of Miss Featherstone, and who now sneaked away in another direction.
"And so you"ve come back, my dear, and none of the German princes have run away with you! And how well you look! I declare I"m quite ashamed of myself when I see the colour in your cheeks; but what with rehearsals, you know, my dear, and other troubles--"
She heaved a pretty and touching sigh. She intimated that these quarrels with the young gentleman who escorted her to and from the stage-door-quarrels which came off at a rate of about seven per week-were disturbing the serenity of her mind so far as to compel her to a.s.sist nature with violet-powder and rouge.
"Do you know, my dear," she said, in a whisper that sent Mr. Melton away on his own business, "he swears he will forsake me for ever if I accept a part in which I must wear tights. How can I help it, my dear? What is a poor girl to do?"
"Wear trousers," said Annie Brunel, with a smile.