"If you did she would refuse, belike, for she is under Fareham"s thumb; and he disapproves of everything human."
"Under Fareham"s thumb! What nonsense! Indeed I must invite her. She would think it so strange to be omitted."
"Not if you manage things cleverly. The party is to be a surprise. You can tell her next morning you knew nothing about it beforehand."
"But she will hear me order the barge-or will see me start."
"There will be no barge. I shall carry you to Millbank in my coach, after your evening"s entertainment, wherever that may be."
"I had better take my own carriage at least, or my chair."
"You can have a chair, if you are too prudish to use my coach, but it shall be got for you at the moment. We won"t have your own chairman and links to chatter and betray you before you have played the ghost. Remember you come to my party not as a guest, but as a performer. If they ask why Lady Fareham is absent I shall say you refused to take part in our foolery."
"Oh, you must invent some better excuse. They will never believe anything rational of me. Say I was disappointed of a hat or a mantua. Well, it shall be as you wish. Angela is apt to be tiresome. I hate a disapproving carriage, especially in a younger sister."
Angela was puzzled by Hyacinth"s demeanour. A want of frankness in one so frank by nature aroused her fears. She was puzzled and anxious, and longed for Fareham"s return, lest his giddy-pated wife should be guilty of some innocent indiscretion that might vex him.
"Oh! if she but valued him at his just worth she would value his opinion second only to the approval of conscience," she thought, sadly, ever regretful of her sister"s too obvious indifference towards so kind a husband.
CHAPTER XVI.
WHICH WAS THE FIERCER FIRE?
It was Sat.u.r.day, the first of September, and the hot dry weather having continued with but trifling changes throughout the month, the atmosphere was at its sultriest, and the burnt gra.s.s in the parks looked as if even the dews of morning and evening had ceased to moisten it, while the arid and dusty foliage gave no feeling of coolness, and the very shadows cast upon that parched ground seemed hot. Morning was sultry as noon; evening brought but little refreshment; while the night was hotter than the day. People complained that the season was even more sickly than in the plague year, and prophesied a new and worse outbreak of the pestilence. Was not this the fatal year about which there had been darkest prophecies? 1666! Something awful, something tragical was to make this triplicate of sixes for ever memorable. Sixty-five had been terrible, sixty-six was to bring a greater horror; doubtless a recrudescence of that dire malady which had desolated London.
"And this time," says one modish raven, ""twill be the quality that will suffer. The lower "cla.s.sis" has paid its penalty, and only the strong and hardy are left. We have plenty of weaklings and corrupt const.i.tutions that will take fire at a spark. I should not wonder were the contagion to rage worst at Whitehall. The buildings lie low, and there is ever a nucleus of fever somewhere in that conglomeration of slaughter-houses, bakeries, kitchens, stables, cider-houses, coal-yards, and over-crowded servants" lodgings."
"One gets but casual whiffs from their private butcheries and bakeries," says another. "What I complain of is the atmosphere of his Majesty"s apartments, where one can scarce breathe for the stench of those cursed spaniels he so delights in."
Every one agreed that the long dry summer menaced some catastrophic change which should surprise this easy-going age as the plague had done last year. But oh, how lightly that widespread calamity had touched those light minds! and, if Providence had designed to warn or to punish, how vain had been the warning, and how soon forgotten the penalty that had left the worst offenders unstricken!
There was to be a play at Whitehall that evening, his Majesty and the Court having returned from Tunbridge Wells, the business of the navy calling Charles to council with his faithful General-the General par excellence, George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, and his Lord High Admiral and brother-par excellence the Duke. Even in briefest residence, and on sternest business intent, with the welfare and honour of the nation contingent on their consultations, to build or not to build warships of the first magnitude, the ball of pleasure must be kept rolling. So Killigrew was to produce a new version of an old comedy, written in the forties, but now polished up to the modern style of wit. This new-old play, The Parson"s Widow, was said to be all froth and sparkle and current interest, fresh as the last London Gazette, and spiced with allusions to the late sickness, an admirable subject, and allowing a wide field for the ridiculous.
Hyacinth was to be present at this Court function; but not a word was to be said to Angela about the entertainment.
"She would only preach me a sermon upon Fareham"s tastes and wishes, and urge me to stay away because he abhors a fashionable comedy," she told De Malfort, "I shall say I am going to Lady Sarah"s to play ba.s.set. Ange hates cards, and will not desire to go with me. She is always happy with the children, who adore her."
"Faute de mieux."
"You are so ready to jeer! Yes, I know I am a neglectful mother. But what would you have?"
"I would have you as you are," he answered, "and only as you are; or for choice a trifle worse than you are; and so much nearer my own level."
"Oh, I know you! It is the wicked women you admire-like Madame Palmer."
"Always harping upon Barbara. "My mother had a maid called Barbara." His Majesty has-a lady of the same melodious name. Well, I have a world of engagements between now and nine o"clock, when the play begins. I shall be at the door to lift you out of your chair. Cover yourself with your richest jewels-or at least those you love best-so that you may blaze like the sun when you cast off the nun"s habit. All the town will be there to admire you."
"All the town! Why, there is no one in London!"
"Indeed, you mistake. Travelling is so easy nowadays. People tear to and fro between Tunbridge and St James"s as often as they once circulated betwixt London and Chelsea. Were it not for the highwaymen we should be always on the road."
Angela and her niece were on the terrace in the evening coolness. The atmosphere was less oppressive here by the flowing tide than anywhere else in London; but even here there was a heaviness in the night air, and Henriette sprawled her long thin legs wearily on the cushioned bench where she lay, and vowed that it would be sheer folly for Priscilla to insist upon her going to bed at her usual hour of nine, when everybody knew she could not sleep.
"I scarce closed my eyes last night," she protested, "and I had half a mind to put on a petticoat and come down to the terrace. I could have come through the yellow drawing-room, where the men usually forget to close the shutters. And I should have brought my theorbo and serenaded you. Should you have taken me for a fairy, chere, if you had heard me singing?"
"I should have taken you for a very silly little person who wanted to frighten her friends by catching an inflammation of the lungs."
"Well, you see, I thought better of it, though it would have been impossible to catch cold on such a stifling night I heard every clock strike in Westminster and London. It was light at five, yet the night seemed endless. I would have welcomed even a mouse behind the wainscot. Priscilla is an odious tyrant," making a face at the easy-tempered gouvernante sitting by; "she won"t let me have my dogs in my room at night."
"Your ladyship knows that dogs in a bed-chamber are unwholesome," said Priscilla.
"No, you foolish old thing; my ladyship knows the contrary; for his Majesty"s bed-chamber swarms with them, and he has them on his bed even-whole families-mothers and their puppies. Why can"t I have a few dear little mischievous innocents to amuse me in the long dreary nights?"
By dint of clamour and expostulation the honourable Henriette contrived to stay up till ten o"clock was belled with solemn tone from St. Paul"s Cathedral, which magnificent church was speedily to be put in hand for restoration, at a great expenditure. The wooden scaffolding which had been necessary for a careful examination of the building was still up. Until the striking of the great city clock, Papillon had resolutely disputed the lateness of the hour, putting forward her own timekeeper as infallible-a little fat round purple enamel watch with diamond figures, and gold hands much bent from being pushed backwards and forwards, to bring recorded time into unison with the young lady"s desires-a watch to which no sensible person could give the slightest credit. The clocks of London having demonstrated the futility of any reference to that ill-used Geneva toy, she consented to retire, but was reluctant to the last.
"I am going to bed," she told her aunt, "because this absurd old Prissy insists upon it, but I don"t expect a quarter of an hour"s sleep between now and morning; and most of the time I shall be looking out of the window, watching for the turn of the tide, to see the barges and boats swinging round."
"You will do nothing of the kind, Mrs. Henriette; for I shall sit in your room till you are sound asleep," said Priscilla.
"Then you will have to sit there all night; and I shall have somebody to talk to."
"I shall not allow you to talk."
"Will you gag me, or put a pillow over my face, like the Blackamoor in the play?"
The minx and her governess retired, still disputing, after Angela had been desperately hugged by Henriette, who brimmed over with warmest affection in the midst of her insolence. They were gone, their voices sounding in the stillness on the terrace, and then on the staircase, and through the great empty rooms, where the windows were open to the sultry night, while the host of idle servants caroused in the bas.e.m.e.nt, in a s.p.a.cious room with a vaulted roof, like a college hall, where they were free to be as noisy or as drunken as they pleased. My lady was out, had taken only her chair, and running footmen, and had sent chairmen and footmen back from Whitehall, with an intimation that they would be wanted no more that night.
Angela lingered on the terrace in the sultry summer gloom, watching solitary boats moving to and fro, shadowy as Charon"s. She dreaded the stillness of silent rooms, and to be alone with her own thoughts, which were not of the happiest. Her sister"s relations with De Malfort troubled her, innocent as they doubtless were: innocent as that close friendship of Henrietta of England with her cousin of France, when they two spent the fair midsummer nights roaming in palace gardens, close as lovers, but only fast friends. Malicious tongues had babbled even of that innocent friendship; and there were those who said that if Monsieur behaved liked a brute to his lovely young wife, it was because he had good reason for jealousy of Louis in the past, as well as of De Guiche in the present. These innocent friendships are ever the cause of uneasiness to the lookers-on. It is like seeing children at play on the edge of a cliff. They are too near danger and destruction.
Hyacinth, being about as able to carry a secret as to carry an elephant, had betrayed by a hundred indications that a plot of some kind was being hatched between her and De Malfort. And to-night, before going out, she had made too much fuss about so simple a matter as a ba.s.set-party at Lady Sarah"s, who had her ba.s.set-table every night, and was popularly supposed to keep house upon her winnings, and to have no higher code of honour than De Gramont had when he invited a brother officer to supper on purpose to rook him.
Mr. Killigrew"s comedy had been discussed in Angela"s hearing. People who had been deprived of the theatre for over a year were greedy and eager spectators of all the plays produced at Court; but this production was an exceptional event. Killigrew"s wit and impudence and impecuniosity were the talk of the town, and anything written by that audacious jester was sure to be worth hearing.
Had her sister gone to Whitehall to see the new comedy, in direct disobedience to her husband, instead of to so accustomed an entertainment as Lady Sarah"s ba.s.set-table? And was that the only mystery between Hyacinth and De Malfort? Or was there something else-some ghost-party, such as they had planned and talked about openly till a fortnight ago, and had suddenly dropped altogether, as if the notion were abandoned and forgotten? It was so unlike Hyacinth to be secret about anything; and her sister feared, therefore, that there was some plot of De Malfort"s contriving-De Malfort, whom she regarded with distrust and even repugnance; for she could recall no sentiment of his that did not make for evil. Beneath that gossamer veil of airy language which he flung over vicious theories, the conscienceless, unrelenting character of the man had been discovered by those clear eyes of the meditative onlooker. Alas! what a man to be her sister"s closest friend, claiming privileges by long a.s.sociation, which Hyacinth would have been the last to grant her dissolute admirers of yesterday, but which were only the more perilous for those memories of childhood that justified a so dangerous friendship.
She was startled from these painful reflections by the clatter of horses" hoofs on the paved courtyard east of the house, and the jingle of sword-belt and bit, sounds instantly followed by the ringing of the bell at the princ.i.p.al door.
Was it her sister coming home so early? No, Lady Fareham had gone out in her chair. Was it his lordship returning unannounced? He had stated no time for his return, telling his wife only that, on his business in Paris being finished, he would come back without delay. Indeed, Hyacinth had debated the chances of his arrival this very evening with half a dozen of her particular friends, who knew that she was going to see Mr. Killigrew"s play.
"Fate cannot be so perverse as to bring him back on the only night when his return would be troublesome," she said.
"Fate is always perverse, and a husband is very lucky if there is but one day out of seven on which his return would be troublesome," answered one of her gossips.
Fate had been perverse, for Angela heard her brother-in-law"s deep strong voice talking in the hall, and presently he came down the marble steps to the terrace, and came towards her, white with Kentish dust, and carrying an open letter in his hand. She had risen at the sound of the bell, and was hurrying to the house as he met her. He came close up to her, scarcely according her the civility of greeting. Never had she seen his countenance more gloomy.
"You can tell me truer than those drunken devils below stairs," he said.
"Where is your sister?"