AN OLD ADMIRER.
Nelly Featherstone was busy that night. The small room in which she sate working was littered with all sorts of beautiful dressmaking materials; and Nelly herself was diligently engaged-sewing heavy golden fringe upon a resplendent Venetian doublet of green satin, which had glimmerings of white and crimson silk across the chest, and white satin sleeves, tightened and crisped with gold. Indeed, the sheen of satin and glitter of gold lay all over the dingy little room. These were the raw material of the new grand burlesque; and Nelly, who made all her dresses herself, was famous for the historical accuracy of her costume. On this occasion, however, there was a green satin Glengarry lying on a chair, and green satin boots, with the heels not much bigger than a fourpenny-piece, on the table: and she wore on her fingers, to try their l.u.s.tre, two large rings of cut-gla.s.s-the one a shining emerald, the other a brilliant crimson.
When Annie Brunel tapped at the door and stepped in, Nelly threw all these things aside, and rushed to her old friend, and hugged and kissed her in her usual impulsive manner, with a dozen "my dears" to every sentence. Her friend"s story was soon told; she wanted Nelly to help her to get some cheap lodgings in the neighbourhood.
"And so you know where to come first when you"re down in your luck,"
said the girl, giving her another kiss, with the tears coming into her eyes-for Nelly"s well-worn heart had still a true and tender throb in it. "So sit you down and take everything off your mind-and share my room to-night, and to-morrow we"ll see about business. Give me your bonnet, there now. Poor dear mother Christmas!-and I"ll give you something to do until supper-time comes, and then we shall have a bit of cold mutton and bottled stout. Oh, I"ve had my trials, too, my dear, since I saw you."
"What"s been the matter with you, Nelly? That young gentleman, I suppose--?"
"Oh, yes, he"s always at it. But, thank goodness, I"ve got rid of him at last."
"Quite sure?" said the other, with a smile.
"Oh, quite. Such a fearful row we had, my dear. First about lip-salve; he accused me of using that to make my lips red, when I declare I haven"t used it for two years. Very well, just as we had made that up, you know, dear, we were walking along Oxford Street, and there was a match-boy amusing himself, opposite a publichouse, with a lot of other boys, and he was dancing a very, _very_ clever breakdown step, and I said I"d give my ears if I could do that, just in fun, you know; and, lor, the pa.s.sion he got into! Stormed about my low tastes, abused the British drama, said I had no more sentiment than a clown; and then I ordered him off, and walked home by myself."
"And which of you was the more miserable, Nelly?"
"I miserable? Not I. That very night Mr. Helstone sent me the most beautiful little speech about politics and other stuff, and Mr. Melton says I may use it in my part."
"You"ll break that young gentleman"s heart, Nelly. Indeed, it is a shame--"
"Nonsense! But I"ll have my revenge upon him this time for his quarrelling with me. You see this is a boy"s dress. I"ve made the skirt of it two inches shorter than I should have done. There. And I shall be in tights; and dance a breakdown; and sing a music-hall song; and when the lime-light comes on at the end, _I"ll stare into it as hard as ever I can_."
"But why should you injure your eyes?"
"To provoke him. He will be there. And he hates to see me in a boy"s dress; and he hates to see me dance--"
"But I thought you were never to see him again."
"Neither I shall. Never."
Miss Featherstone"s landlady tapped at the door, and entered with a letter.
"Please, miss, he says he"s sorry to trouble you, but is there an answer?"
Nelly hurriedly ran over the letter, and there was a wicked smile of triumph on her face.
"It"s _him_," she said to her companion. "Would you like to see him?
Shall I ask him to come up, since you are here?"
"By all means."
"Mrs. G.o.ddridge, tell him I have a friend with me, and he may come up, if he likes."
Blushing, embarra.s.sed, delighted, shamefaced, and yet radiant with joy, Mr. Frank Glyn was introduced to Annie Brunel. He was a good-looking slightly-built young fellow, with a sensitive cast of face, pleasant large blue eyes, and a certain tenderness about the lines of the mouth which boded ill for his future reminiscences of his acquaintance with Miss Nelly Featherstone. That young person should have been flirted with by a man of stronger mettle than Frank Glyn.
"I hope I am not disturbing you," he said, nervously, looking at the table.
"I hope you are in a better temper than when I last saw you," said she.
"We may let bygones be bygones now, Nelly. It wouldn"t do to fight before Miss Brunel. She might have a strange impression of us."
"I think you are two foolish children," said Annie Brunel, "who don"t spend a peaceable life when you might."
"I say so, too," said Nelly. "Life is not so long, as I have told him, that we can afford to throw it away in quarrels. And yet he _will_ quarrel. Confess that you always do quarrel, Frank. There"s only one person in the world who is always good to me; and I do so love him!
When the dear old gentleman who made me these boots brought them home, and when I looked at them, I could have thrown my arms round his neck."
"I dare say you could, without looking at the boots," said her lover, with a fierce and terrible sneer.
"I suppose it"s a weakness," said Nelly, with philosophic equanimity, "but I confess that I love a pair of beautiful little, bright, neat, soft, close-fitting boots better than any man I ever saw."
She caught up that charming little pair of gleaming boots, and pressed them to her bosom, and folded her hands over them, and then took them and kissed them affectionately before placing them again on the table.
An awful thundercloud dwelt on poor Frank"s brow.
"I shall take them to bed with me," said the young lady, with loving eyes still on the small heels and the green satin; "and I"ll put them underneath my pillow, and dream of them all the night through."
Mr. Glyn got up. There was a terrible look in his eyes, and a terrible cold harshness in his voice, as he said:
"I am interrupting your work and your conversation, ladies. Good-night, Miss Brunel; good-bye, _Miss Featherstone_."
With which he shook hands and departed-to spend the rest of the evening in walking recklessly along dark suburban roads, wondering whether a few drops of prussic acid might not be his gentlest and truest friend.
First love had been awakened in Frank Glyn"s heart by the unlucky instrumentality of Miss Featherstone. Delighted with this new and beautiful idealism, he was eager to repay her with an extravagant grat.i.tude for what, after all, was only his own gift to himself. Nelly knew nothing of this occult psychical problem; but was aware of the extravagant grat.i.tude, and conducted herself towards it and him with such results as do not concern this present history.
"You are very hard upon the poor boy," said Annie Brunel.
Nelly pouted prettily, as if she had been ten years younger than she was, and said he had no business to be so quick-tempered. But after supper, when they were retiring for the night, and she had grown confidential, she confessed she was very fond of him, and hoped he would come again and "make it up."
"I can"t help quarrelling with him, and he can"t help quarrelling with me; and so we"ll go on, and on, and on--"
"Until you marry."
"No, until I marry somebody else, for the sake of peace and quiet. And yet I declare if he were to come boldly up to-morrow and insist on my marrying him, I"d do it at once. But he is always too sensitive and respectful, and I can"t help teasing him. Why doesn"t he _make_ me do what he wants? He"s a man, and I"m a woman, and yet I never feel as if he were stronger than I was-as if I ought to look to him for strength, and advice, and what not. He"s too much of a girl in his delicate frightened ways."
Next morning Nelly got a messenger and sent him up to Mr. John Hubbard"s for Annie Brunel"s boxes, which had been left packed up. Then they two went out to inspect some lodgings which had been recommended to them by Miss Featherstone"s landlady. The house was a dingy building in Howland Street, Tottenham Court Road; but the rent of the two rooms was small, and Miss Brunel engaged them. She had very little money now in her purse. Mrs. Hubbard and she had been on so peculiar terms that both refrained from talking about salary; and when the boxes were brought down to Nelly"s place by the messenger, no communication of any kind accompanied them.
"If they want to see me, Nelly," said Annie Brunel, "they will send to your house, thinking that my address. But I don"t want my address to be given them, mind, on any consideration."
"But how are you to live, my dear?"
"I must find out, like other people," she said, with a smile.
"Won"t your Anerley friends help you?"
"What help could I take from them? Besides, they are worse off than myself, and that pretty girl of theirs, about whom I have so often spoken to you, is very poorly, and wants to be taken out of London. I should rather like to help them than think of their helping me."