"He didn"t _look_ any too happy just now, to judge from his back view,"
she remarked oracularly. "And when I was.... But there, miss, I"m thinking only of your comfort, and I"m not quite as comfortable as might be over that there Mrs Monnerie. Generous she may be, though not noticing it much perhaps from a purse with no bottom to it, judging from what I"ve seen. G.o.d bless you, one way or the other. And perhaps you"ll sometimes remember the bits of Sundays we"ve shared up there--you and the old Dragon."
A smile and a tear battled for the dark eye that looked down on me.
Indeed, seldom after came a Sunday evening with its clanking bells and empty, London hush, but it brought back to me with a pang my hymns and talks with "the old Dragon." Not that any one I ever saw at Mrs Monnerie"s appeared to work so hard as to _need_ a day of rest. There was merely a peculiar empty sensation on Sundays of there being nothing "to do."
A flight of stone steps and a pillared porch led up to her great ornamental door. Beyond was a hall compared with which the marbles of Brunswick House were mere mosaic. An alabaster fountain, its jet springing lightly from a gilded torch held by a crouching faun, cooled, and discreetly murmured a ceaseless Hush! in the air. On either hand, a wide, shallow staircase ascended to an enormous gilded drawing-room, with its chairs and pictures; and to the library. The dining-room stood opposite the portico. When Mrs Monnerie and I were alone, we usually shared a smaller room with her parrot, Chakka; her little Chinese dog, Cherry--whose whimper had a most uncomfortable resemblance to the wild and homesick cry of my seagulls at Lyme Regis--and her collections of the world"s smaller rarities. It is only, I suppose, one more proof of how volatile a creature I used to be that I took an intense interest in the contents of these cabinets for a few days, and then found them nothing but a vexation. No doubt this was because of an uneasy suspicion that Mrs Monnerie had also collected _me_.
She could be extremely tactful in her private designs, yet she "showed me off" in a fashion that might have turned a far less giddy head than her _protegee"s_, and perhaps cannot have been in the best of taste.
So sure had she been of me that, when I arrived, a room on the first floor of No. 2 had already been prepared for my reception. A wonderful piece of fantasticalness--like a miniature fairy palace, but without a vestige of any _real_ make-believe in it. It was panelled and screened with carvings in wood, inlaid with silver and mother-of-pearl--dwarfs and apes and misshapen G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses leering and gaping out at one from amidst leafy branches, flowers, and fruits, and birds, and b.u.t.terflies. The faintest sniff of that Indian wood--whatever it was--recalls to this day that nightmare scenery. Its hangings were of a silk so rich that they might have stood on edge on the floor. These screens and tapestries guarded a privacy that rarely, alas, contained a Miss M. worth being in private _with_.
The one piece of chagrin exhibited by Mrs Monnerie in those early days of our acquaintance was at my insistence on bringing at least a few of my familiar sticks of furniture and chattels with me from Mrs Bowater"s.
Their plain Sheraton design, she thought, was barbarously out of keeping with the rest. It was; but I had my way.
Not the least precious of these old possessions, though dismal for its memories, was the broken money chest which f.a.n.n.y had pushed in under the yew in the garden at Wanderslore. Tacked up in canvas, its hinges and lock repaired, it had been sent on to me a week or two after my farewells to Beechwood, by Mr Anon. Inside it I found the nightgown I had buried in the rabbit"s hole, f.a.n.n.y"s letter from under its stone, my _Sense and Sensibility_, and last, pinned on to a sc.r.a.p of kingfisher coloured silk, a pair of ear-rings made out of two old gold coins. Apart from a few withered flowers, they are the only thing I possess that came from Wanderslore. Long afterwards, I showed these ear-rings to Sir W. P.
He told me they were quarter Rose n.o.bles of Edward III."s reign, and only a quarter of a quarter of an ounce in weight. They weigh pretty heavy for me now, however.
My arrangement with Mrs Monnerie had been that, however long I might stay with her, I should still be in the nature of a visitor; that No. 2, in fact, should be my town house, and Mrs Bowater"s my country. But I was soon to realize that she intended Mrs Bowater to have a very small share in me. She pretended to be jealous of me, to love me for my own sweet sake; and even while I knew it was mere pretence, it left its flattery on my mind; and for the first time in my life I feigned to be even smaller than I was; would mince my speeches, affect to be clever, even ogle the old lady, until it might be supposed we were a pair of queerly-a.s.sorted characters in a charade.
Nevertheless, I had had the obstinacy to insist that I should be at liberty to stay with Mrs Bowater whenever I wished to do so; and I was free to invite any friend to visit me I chose. "And especially, my dear, any one an eighth as exquisite," Mrs Monnerie had kindly put it. It may seem a little strange that all these obligations should have been on her side. But Mrs Monnerie"s whims were far more vigorous than most people"s principles. The dews of her loving kindness descended on me in a shower, and it was some little time before I began to feel a chill.
Not the least remarkable feature of No. 2 was its back view. The window of my room came down almost to the floor. It "commanded" an immense zinc cistern--George, by name--a Virginia Creeper groping along a brick wall, similar cisterns smalling into the distance, other brick walls and scores of back windows. Once, after contemplating this odd landscape for some little time, it occurred to me to speculate what the back view from the House of Life was like; but I failed to conceive the smallest notion of it. I rarely drew my curtains, and, oddly enough, when I did so, was usually in a vacant or dismal mood. My lights were electric. One simply twisted a tiny ivory b.u.t.ton. At first their clear and coloured globes, set like tiny tulips in a candelabra, charmed my fancy. But, such is custom, I soon wearied of them, and pined for the slim, _living_ flame of candles--even for my coa.r.s.e old night-light swimming in its grease in a chipped blue and white saucer.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Mrs Monnerie had rifled her collections for my use--pygmy Venetian gla.s.s, a silver-gilt breakfast and tea service, pygmy porcelain. There were absurd little _mechanical_ knick-knacks--piping birds, a maddening little operatic clock of which I at last managed to break the mainspring, a musical chair, and so on. My bath was of jade; my table a long one of ebony inlaid with ivory, with puffing cherub faces at each corner representing the four winds. My own few possessions, I must confess, looked not only worn but provincial by comparison. But I never surprised myself actually talking to any of Mrs Monnerie"s exquisite novelties as to my other dumb, old, wooden friends. She delighted in them far more than I.
I suppose, really to enjoy such pomp and luxury, one should be positively born in the purple; and then, I suppose, one must be careful that the dye does not go to the bone. Whether or not, I have long since come to the conclusion that I am vulgar by nature--like my mother tongue. And at times, in spite of my relief at being free of the blackness that had c.r.a.ped in my last days at Beechwood, I often found myself hungering for my Bowater parlour--even for its smell. Another thing I learned gradually at No. 2 was that I had been desperately old-fashioned; and that is, to some extent, to belong to the dead.
Mrs Monnerie"s chief desire, no doubt, was to give her new knick-knack a suitable setting. But it may also have reminded her childlessness--for she, too, like Mrs Bowater, was "nothing much better than an aunt"--of her childhood. Of course I affected as much pleasure in it as I could, and was really grateful. But she greatly disliked being thanked for anything, and would blandly shut her eyes at the least manifestation of grat.i.tude. "Humour me, humour me, humour me," she once petulantly nodded at me; "there are at least a hundred prayers in the Prayer Book, my pet, to one thanksgiving, and that"s human nature all over." It was what my frame must have _cost_ that scandalized me. When, one day, after rhapsodizing (not without a shudder) over a cape and hat, which she had given me, composed solely of the shimmering emerald feathers of the humming-bird, I rather tactlessly reminded her of my 110 a year, and of my determination to live within it, her eyelids pinched me a glance as if I had explained in public that I had been bitten by a flea.
Yet as time went on, a peculiar affection sprang up in me for this crowded and lonely old woman. It has survived sore trials. She was by turns generous and mean, honeyed and cantankerous, impulsive and scheming. Like Mrs Bowater, she disapproved of the world in general, and yet with how different a result. A restless, darting mind lay hidden behind the great mask of her countenance, with its heavy-lidded eyes and tower of hair. She loved to sit indolently peering, musing, and gossiping, twiddling the while perhaps some little antique toy in her capacious lap. I can boast, at any rate, that I was a spellbound listener, and devoured her peculiar wandering, satirical talk as if it had been manna from heaven.
It was the old, old story. Talking to me was the next most private thing to talking to herself; and I think she enjoyed for a while the company of so queer a confessor. Once, I remember, she confided to me the whole story of a girlish love affair, at least forty years old. I could hardly believe my eyes as I watched her; she looked so freshened and demure and spirited. It was as if she were her own twenties just dressed up. But she had a dry and acrid tongue, and spared nothing and n.o.body. To her and to Mrs Bowater I owe nearly all my stock of worldly wisdom. And now I shall never have time, I suppose, to sort it out.
Mr Monnerie, as Fleming confided in me one day--and the aristocracy was this extremely reticent and contemptuous creature"s favourite topic of conversation--Mr Monnerie had been a banker, and had made a late and dazzling marriage; for Mrs Monnerie"s blood was as blue as Caddis Bay on a cloudless morning. I asked Fleming if she had ever seen "Lord B.," and what kind of man he was. She never had; but remarked obscurely that he must have lived mainly on porridge, he had sown so many wild oats.
This information reminded me of an old rhyme I had once learned as a child, and used to shout about the house:--
"Come all you young men, with your wicked ways; Sow your wild, wild oats in your youthful days; That we may live happy when we grow old-- Happy, and happy, when we grow old: The day is far spent, the night"s coming on; So give us your arm, and we"ll joggle along--joggle and joggle and joggle along."
Fleming herself, I learned, had come from Ash, and was therefore, I suppose, of an Anglo-Saxon family, though she was far from stupid and rather elegant in shape. Because, I suppose, I did not like her, I was rather aggrieved she had been born in Kent. Mr and Mrs Monnerie, she told me, had had no children. The fair young man, Percy Maudlen, with the tired smile and beautiful shoes, who came to tea or luncheon at No.
2 at least once a week, was Mrs Monnerie"s only nephew by blood; and the still fairer Susan Monnerie, who used to float into my room ever and anon like a Zephyr, was the only one Mrs Monnerie cared to see of her three nieces by marriage. And yet the other two, when they were invited to luncheon, were far more docile and considerate in the opinions and sentiments they expressed. _That_ seemed so curious to me: there was no doubt that Mrs Monnerie belonged to the aristocracy, and yet there always appeared to be quarrels going on in the family--apart, of course, from births, deaths, and marriages, which seemed of little consequence.
She enjoyed relatives in every county in England and Scotland; while I had not one, now, so far as I knew, not even in Kent.
Marvell, the butler--he had formerly been Mr Monnerie"s valet--was another familiar object of my speculations. His rather solemn, clean-shaven countenance and steady grey eyes suggested a severe critic of mankind. Yet he seemed bent only on giving pleasure and smoothing things over, and stooped my dish of sliced cherries or apricots over my shoulder with a gesture that was in itself the cream of flattery. It astonished me to hear that he had a grown-up son in India; and though I never met Mrs Marvell, I felt a prodigious respect for her.
I would look up and see him standing so smooth and benevolent behind Mrs Monnerie"s chair that he reminded me of my bishop, and I doubt if ever she crisply uttered his delightful name but it recalled the pleasant chime of a poem which my mother had taught me: _The Nymph Complaining of the Death of her Fawn_. I should have liked to have a long talk with Mr Marvell--any time of the day when he wasn"t a butler, I mean--but the opportunity never came.
One day, when he had left us to ourselves, I ventured to quote a stanza of this poem to Mrs Monnerie:--
"With sweetest milk and sugar first I it at my own fingers nursed; And as it grew, so every day It waxed more white and sweet than they-- It had so sweet a breath! and oft I blushed to see its foot more soft And white--shall I say?--than my hand, Nay, any lady"s in the land...."
"Charming, charming, Poppet," she cooed, much amused, pushing in a nut for Chakka. "Many shades whiter than _your_ wrinkled old claw, you old wretch. _Another_ sagacious old bird, my dear, though past blushing, I fear, at any lady"s hand."
Nothing would content her but that I must recite my _bon mot_ again when her nephew Percy dandled in to tea that afternoon. He sneered down on me with his pale eyes, and with finger and thumb exposed yet another inch of his silk sock, but made no comment.
"Manners, my dear Percy, maketh man," said his aunt. "Congratulate Miss M."
If Percy Maudlen had had no manners at all, I think I should at that moment have seen the pink tip of his tongue; for if ever any human being detested my small person it was he. For very good reasons, probably, though I never troubled to inquire into them, I disliked him, too, beyond expression. He was, of course, a superior young man with a great many similar ancestors looking out of his face, yet he resembled a weasel. But Susan Monnerie--the very moment I saw her I loved her; just as one loves a field of b.u.t.tercups or a bush of may. For some little time she seemed to regard me as I suppose a linnet regards a young cuckoo that has been hatched out in her nest (though, of course, a squab cuckoo is of much the same size as its fostermother). But she gradually grew accustomed to me, and even realized at last that I was something a little more--and also perhaps less--human than either Chakka or Cherry or a Dresden china shepherdess.
I would look at her just for pleasure"s sake. Her hair was of the colour of undyed silk, with darker strands in it; her skin pale; and she had an odd little stutter in her light young voice when she was excited. I would often compare her with f.a.n.n.y. What curious differences there were between them. She was graceful, but as if she had been taught to be.
Unlike f.a.n.n.y, she was not so fascinatingly just a beautiful body--with that sometimes awful Someone looking out of its windows. There was a lovely delicacy in her, as if, absurd though it may sound, every bit of her had been selected, actually picked out, from the finest materials.
Perhaps it was her food and drink that had helped to make her so; for I don"t think Miss Stebbings"s diet was more than wholesome, or that following the sea in early life makes a man rich enough to afford many dainties for his children. Anyhow, there was nothing man-made in f.a.n.n.y; and if there are women-shaped mermaids I know what looks will be seen in their faces.
However that may be, a keen, roving spirit dwelt in Susan"s clear, blue eyes. I never discovered in her any malice or vanity, and this, I think, frequently irritated Mrs Monnerie. Susan, too, used to ask me perfectly sane and ordinary questions; and I cannot describe what a flattery it was. I had always supposed that men and women were _intended_ to talk openly to one another in this world; but it was an uncommonly rare luxury for me at Mrs Monnerie"s. I could talk freely enough to Susan, and told her a good deal about my early days, though I kept my life at Beechwood Hill more or less to myself.
And that reminds me that Mrs Bowater proved to have been a good prophet.
It was one day at luncheon. Mrs Monnerie happened to cast a glance at the _Morning Post_ newspaper which lay open on a chair near by, showing in tall type at the top of the column, "Sudden Death of Sir Jasper Goodge." Sir Jasper Goodge, whose family history, it seemed, was an open book to her, reminded her whimsically of another tragedy. She put back her head and, surveying me blandly as I sat up beside her, inquired if I had known at all intimately that unfortunate young man, Mr Crimble.
"I remember him bobbing and sidling at me that delightful afternoon when--what do you think of it, Susan?--Poppet and I discovered in each other an unfashionable taste for the truth! A bazaar in aid of the Pollacke Blanket Fund, or something of the kind."
The recollection seemed to have amused her so much that for the moment I held my breath and ignored her question.
"But why was Mr Crimble unfortunate?" inquired Susan, attempting to make Cherry beg for a bread-crumb. I glanced in consternation at Marvell, who at the moment was bringing the coffee things into the room. But he appeared to be uninterested in Mr Crimble.
"Mr Crimble was unfortunate, my dear," said Mrs Monnerie complacently, "because he cut his throat."
"Ach! how horrible. How can you say such things! Get down, you little silly! Please, Aunt Alice, there must be something pleasanter to talk about than that? Everybody knows about the hideous old Sir Jasper Goodge; so it doesn"t much matter what one says of him. But...." In spite of her command the little dog still gloated on her fingers.
"There may be things pleasanter, my dear Susan," returned Mrs Monnerie complacently, "but there are few so illuminating. In Greek tragedy, I used to be told, all such horrors have the effect of what is called a purgation. Did Mr Crimble _seem_ that kind of young man, my dear? And why was he so impetuous?"
"I think, Mrs Monnerie," said I, "he was in trouble."
"H"m," said she. "He had a very sallow look, I remember. So he discussed his troubles? But not with _you_, my fairy?"
"Surely, Aunt Alice," exclaimed Susan hotly, "it isn"t quite fair or nice to bring back such ghastly memories. Why," she touched my hand with the tips of her light fingers, "she is quite cold already."
"Poppet"s hands are always cold," replied her aunt imperturbably. "And I suspect that she and I know more about this wicked world than has brought shadows to your young brow. We"ll return to Mr Crimble, my dear, when Susan is b.u.t.terflying elsewhere. She is so shockingly easily shocked."