"Have you, indeed?" said the impenetrable Wragge. "A Rogue? Well, I waive my privilege of setting you right on that point for a fitter time. For the sake of argument, let us say I am a Rogue. What is Mr.
Huxtable?"
"A respectable man, or I should not have seen him in the house where we first met."
"Very good. Now observe! You talked of writing to Mr. Huxtable a minute ago. What do you think a respectable man is likely to do with a young lady who openly acknowledges that she has run away from her home and her friends to go on the stage? My dear girl, on your own showing, it"s not a respectable man you want in your present predicament. It"s a Rogue--like me."
Magdalen laughed, bitterly.
"There is some truth in that," she said. "Thank you for recalling me to myself and my circ.u.mstances. I have my end to gain--and who am I, to pick and choose the way of getting to it? It is my turn to beg pardon now. I have been talking as if I was a young lady of family and position. Absurd! We know better than that, don"t we, Captain Wragge?
You are quite right. n.o.body"s child must sleep under Somebody"s roof--and why not yours?"
"This way," said the captain, dexterously profiting by the sudden change in her humor, and cunningly refraining from exasperating it by saying more himself. "This way."
She followed him a few steps, and suddenly stopped.
"Suppose I _am_ discovered?" she broke out, abruptly. "Who has any authority over me? Who can take me back, if I don"t choose to go? If they all find me to-morrow, what then? Can"t I say No to Mr. Pendril?
Can"t I trust my own courage with Miss Garth?"
"Can you trust your courage with your sister?" whispered the captain, who had not forgotten the references to Norah which had twice escaped her already.
Her head drooped. She shivered as if the cold night air had struck her, and leaned back wearily against the parapet of the wall.
"Not with Norah," she said, sadly. "I could trust myself with the others. Not with Norah."
"This way," repeated Captain Wragge. She roused herself; looked up at the darkening heaven, looked round at the darkening view. "What must be, must," she said, and followed him.
The Minster clock struck the quarter to eight as they left the Walk on the Wall and descended the steps into Rosemary Lane. Almost at the same moment the lawyer"s clerk from London gave the last instructions to his subordinates, and took up his own position, on the opposite side of the river, within easy view of Mr. Huxtable"s door.
CHAPTER II.
CAPTAIN WRAGGE stopped nearly midway in the one little row of houses composing Rosemary Lane, and let himself and his guest in at the door of his lodgings with his own key. As they entered the pa.s.sage, a care-worn woman in a widow"s cap made her appearance with a candle. "My niece,"
said the captain, presenting Magdalen; "my niece on a visit to York. She has kindly consented to occupy your empty bedroom. Consider it let, if you please, to my niece--and be very particular in airing the sheets?
Is Mrs. Wragge upstairs? Very good. You may lend me your candle. My dear girl, Mrs. Wragge"s boudoir is on the first floor; Mrs. Wragge is visible. Allow me to show you the way up."
As he ascended the stairs first, the care-worn widow whispered, piteously, to Magdalen, "I hope you"ll pay me, miss. Your uncle doesn"t."
The captain threw open the door of the front room on the first floor, and disclosed a female figure, arrayed in a gown of tarnished amber-colored satin, seated solitary on a small chair, with dingy old gloves on its hands, with a tattered old book on its knees, and with one little bedroom candle by its side. The figure terminated at its upper extremity in a large, smooth, white round face--like a moon--encircled by a cap and green ribbons, and dimly irradiated by eyes of mild and faded blue, which looked straightforward into vacancy, and took not the smallest notice of Magdalen"s appearance, on the opening of the door.
"Mrs. Wragge!" cried the captain, shouting at her as if she was fast asleep. "Mrs. Wragge!"
The lady of the faded blue eyes slowly rose to an apparently interminable height. When she had at last attained an upright position, she towered to a stature of two or three inches over six feet. Giants of both s.e.xes are, by a wise dispensation of Providence, created, for the most part, gentle. If Mrs. Wragge and a lamb had been placed side by side, comparison, under those circ.u.mstances, would have exposed the lamb as a rank impostor.
"Tea, captain?" inquired Mrs. Wragge, looking submissively down at her husband, whose head, when he stood on tiptoe, barely reached her shoulder.
"Miss Vanstone, the younger," said the captain, presenting Magdalen.
"Our fair relative, whom I have met by fortunate accident. Our guest for the night. Our guest!" reiterated the captain, shouting once more as if the tall lady was still fast asleep, in spite of the plain testimony of her own eyes to the contrary.
A smile expressed itself (in faint outline) on the large vacant s.p.a.ce of Mrs. Wragge"s countenance. "Oh?" she said, interrogatively. "Oh, indeed?
Please, miss, will you sit down? I"m sorry--no, I don"t mean I"m sorry; I mean I"m glad--" she stopped, and consulted her husband by a helpless look.
"Glad, of course!" shouted the captain.
"Glad, of course," echoed the giantess of the amber satin, more meekly than ever.
"Mrs. Wragge is not deaf," explained the captain. "She"s only a little slow. Const.i.tutionally torpid--if I may use the expression. I am merely loud with her (and I beg you will honor me by being loud, too) as a necessary stimulant to her ideas. Shout at her--and her mind comes up to time. Speak to her--and she drifts miles away from you directly. Mrs.
Wragge!"
Mrs. Wragge instantly acknowledged the stimulant. "Tea, captain?" she inquired, for the second time.
"Put your cap straight!" shouted her husband. "I beg ten thousand pardons," he resumed, again addressing himself to Magdalen. "The sad truth is, I am a martyr to my own sense of order. All untidiness, all want of system and regularity, cause me the acutest irritation. My attention is distracted, my composure is upset; I can"t rest till things are set straight again. Externally speaking, Mrs. Wragge is, to my infinite regret, the crookedest woman I ever met with. More to the right!" shouted the captain, as Mrs. Wragge, like a well-trained child, presented herself with her revised head-dress for her husband"s inspection.
Mrs. Wragge immediately pulled the cap to the left. Magdalen rose, and set it right for her. The moon-face of the giantess brightened for the first time. She looked admiringly at Magdalen"s cloak and bonnet. "Do you like dress, miss?" she asked, suddenly, in a confidential whisper.
"I do."
"Show Miss Vanstone her room," said the captain, looking as if the whole house belonged to him. "The spare-room, the landlady"s spare-room, on the third floor front. Offer Miss Vanstone all articles connected with the toilet of which she may stand in need. She has no luggage with her.
Supply the deficiency, and then come back and make tea."
Mrs. Wragge acknowledged the receipt of these lofty directions by a look of placid bewilderment, and led the way out of the room; Magdalen following her, with a candle presented by the attentive captain. As soon as they were alone on the landing outside, Mrs. Wragge raised the tattered old book which she had been reading when Magdalen was first presented to her, and which she had never let out of her hand since, and slowly tapped herself on the forehead with it. "Oh, my poor head!" said the tall lady, in meek soliloquy; "it"s Buzzing again worse than ever!"
"Buzzing?" repeated Magdalen, in the utmost astonishment.
Mrs. Wragge ascended the stairs, without offering any explanation, stopped at one of the rooms on the second floor, and led the way in.
"This is not the third floor," said Magdalen. "This is not my room, surely?"
"Wait a bit," pleaded Mrs. Wragge. "Wait a bit, miss, before we go up any higher. I"ve got the Buzzing in my head worse than ever. Please wait for me till I"m a little better again."
"Shall I ask for help?" inquired Magdalen. "Shall I call the landlady?"
"Help?" echoed Mrs. Wragge. "Bless you, I don"t want help! I"m used to it. I"ve had the Buzzing in my head, off and on--how many years?" She stopped, reflected, lost herself, and suddenly tried a question in despair. "Have you ever been at Darch"s Dining-rooms in London?" she asked, with an appearance of the deepest interest.
"No," replied Magdalen, wondering at the strange inquiry.
"That"s where the Buzzing in my head first began," said Mrs. Wragge, following the new clew with the deepest attention and anxiety. "I was employed to wait on the gentlemen at Darch"s Dining-rooms--I was. The gentlemen all came together; the gentlemen were all hungry together; the gentlemen all gave their orders together--" She stopped, and tapped her head again, despondently, with the tattered old book.
"And you had to keep all their orders in your memory, separate one from the other?" suggested Magdalen, helping her out. "And the trying to do that confused you?"
"That"s it!" said Mrs. Wragge, becoming violently excited in a moment.
"Boiled pork and greens and pease-pudding, for Number One. Stewed beef and carrots and gooseberry tart, for Number Two. Cut of mutton, and quick about it, well done, and plenty of fat, for Number Three. Codfish and parsnips, two chops to follow, hot-and-hot, or I"ll be the death of you, for Number Four. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Carrots and gooseberry tart--pease-pudding and plenty of fat--pork and beef and mutton, and cut "em all, and quick about it--stout for one, and ale for t"other--and stale bread here, and new bread there--and this gentleman likes cheese, and that gentleman doesn"t--Matilda, Tilda, Tilda, Tilda, fifty times over, till I didn"t know my own name again--oh lord! oh lord!! oh lord!!! all together, all at the same time, all out of temper, all buzzing in my poor head like forty thousand million bees--don"t tell the captain! don"t tell the captain!" The unfortunate creature dropped the tattered old book, and beat both her hands on her head, with a look of blank terror fixed on the door.
"Hush! hush!" said Magdalen. "The captain hasn"t heard you. I know what is the matter with your head now. Let me cool it."
She dipped a towel in water, and pressed it on the hot and helpless head which Mrs. Wragge submitted to her with the docility of a sick child.
"What a pretty hand you"ve got!" said the poor creature, feeling the relief of the coolness and taking Magdalen"s hand, admiringly, in her own. "How soft and white it is! I try to be a lady; I always keep my gloves on--but I can"t get my hands like yours. I"m nicely dressed, though, ain"t I? I like dress; it"s a comfort to me. I"m always happy when I"m looking at my things. I say--you won"t be angry with me?--I should so like to try your bonnet on."
Magdalen humored her, with the ready compa.s.sion of the young. She stood smiling and nodding at herself in the gla.s.s, with the bonnet perched on the top of her head. "I had one as pretty as this, once," she said--"only it was white, not black. I wore it when the captain married me."