"I have little more to say; in fact, I know not what I am saying," cried she, gulping to repress the torrent of suffering that was struggling within her.
"Miss Dalton--" began Lady Hester.
"Oh! why not Kate?" broke she, with a choking utterance.
"Miss Dalton," resumed Lady Hester, and as if not hearing the entreaty, "very little knowledge of that world you have lived in for the past three or four months might have taught you some slight self-possession in difficulty. Still less acquaintance with it might have suggested the recollection that these people are no intimates of mine; so that, even were tact wanting, feeling, at least, should have dictated a line of action to you."
"I know I have done wrong. I knew it at the time, and yet, in my inexperience, I could not decide on anything. My memory, too, helped to mislead me, for I bethought me that although these persons were not of your own rank and station, yet you had stooped lower than to them when you came to visit Nelly and myself."
"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lady Hester, with a gesture that very unequivocally seemed to say that her having done so was a grievous error. Kate saw it quickly, and as suddenly the blood rushed to her cheek, coloring her throat and neck with the deep crimson of shame. A burst of pride the old Dalton pride seemed to have given way within her; and as she drew herself up to her full height, her look and att.i.tude wore every sign of haughty indignation.
Lady Hester looked at her for a few seconds with a glance of searching import. Perhaps for a moment the possibility of a deception struck her, and that this might only be feigned; but as suddenly did she recognize the unerring traits of truth, and said,
"What! child, are you angry with me?"
"Oh no, no!" said Kate, bursting into tears, and kissing the hand that was now extended towards her, "oh no, no! but I could hate myself for what seems so like ingrat.i.tude."
"Come, sit down here at my feet on this stool, and tell me all about it; for, after all, I could forgive them the jar and the camellias, if they "d only have gone away afterwards. And of course the lesson will not be thrown away upon you, not to be easily deceived again."
"How, deceived?" exclaimed Kate. "She was very ill. I saw it myself."
"Nonsense, child. The trick is the very stalest piece of roguery going.
Since Toe Morris, as they call him the man that treads upon people, and by his apologies sc.r.a.pes acquaintance with them there is nothing less original. Why, just before we left England, there was old Bankhead got into Slingsby House, merely because the newspapers might announce his death at the Earl of Grindleton"s "on the eighth, of a few days"
illness, deeply regretted by the n.o.ble lord, with whom he was on a visit." Now, that dear Ricketts woman would almost consent to take leave of the world for a similar paragraph. I "m sure I should know nothing of such people but that Sir Stafford"s relations have somewhat enlightened me. He has a nest of cousins down in Shropshire, not a whit better than your I was going to call them "your friends," the Rickettses."
"It is almost incredible to suppose this could be artifice."
"Why so, child? There is no strategy too deep for people who are always aspiring to some society above them. Besides, after all, I was in a measure prepared for this."
"Prepared for it!"
"Yes; Jekyl told me that if they once got in, it would be next to impossible to keep them out afterwards. A compromise, he said, was the best thing; to let them have so many days each year, with certain small privileges about showing the house to strangers, cutting bouquets, and so on; or, if we preferred it, let them carry away a Teniers or a Gerard Dow to copy, and take care never to ask for it. He inclined to the latter as the better plan, because, after a certain lapse of time, it can end in a cut."
"But this is inconceivable!" exclaimed Kate.
"And yet half the absurd and incongruous intimacies one sees in the world have had some such origin, and habit will reconcile one to acquaintance that at first inspired feelings of abhorrence and detestation. I "m sure I don "t know one good house in town where there are not certain intimates that have not the slightest pretension, either from rank, wealth, distinction, or social qualities, to be there. And yet, there they are; not merely as supernumeraries, either, but very prominent and foreground figures, giving advice and offering counsel on questions of family policy, and writing their vulgar names on every will, codicil, marriage-settlement, and trust-deed, till they seem to be part of the genealogical tree, to which, after all, they are only attached like fungi. You look very unhappy, my poor Kate, at all this; but, believe me, the system will outlive both of us. And so, now to your room, and dress for dinner. But I forgot; you have n"t got a room; so Celestine must give you hers, and you will be close beside me, and we shall be the better able to concert measures about these Ricketts folk, who really resemble those amiable peasants your father told me of, on his Irish property, and whom he designated as "squatters." I am delighted that I have n"t forgot the word."
And thus, chatting on, Lady Hester restored Kate"s wonted happiness of nature, sadly shaken as it had been by the contrarieties of the morning.
Nothing, too, was easier than to make her forget a source of irritation.
Ever better satisfied to look on the bright side of life, her inclinations needed but little aid from conviction to turn her from gloomy themes to pleasant ones; and already some of the absurdities of the morning were recurring to her mind, and little traits of Mrs.
Ricketts and her brother were involuntarily coming up through all the whirlpool of annoyance and confusion in whicli th y had been submerged.
The coming dinner, too, engrossed some share of her thoughts; for it was a grand entertainment, to which all Lady Hester"s most distinguished friends were invited. An Archduke and a Cardinal were to make part of the company, and Kate looked forward to meeting these great personages with no common interest. It was less the vulgar curiosity of observing the manners and bearing of distinguished characters, than the delight she felt in following out some child-invented narrative of her future life, some fancied story of her own career, wherein Princes and Prelates were to figure, and scenes of splendor and enjoyment to follow each other in rapid succession.
CHAPTER x.x.xIII. THE CONCLUSION OF A "GRAND DINNER."
LADY HESTER"S dinner of that day was a "grand one," that is to say, it was one of those great displays which, from time to time, are offered up as sacrifices to the opinion of the world. Few of her own peculiar set were present. Some she omitted herself; others had begged off of their own accord. Midchekoff, however, was there; for, however accustomed to the tone and habits of a life of mere dissipation, he possessed every requirement for mixing with general society. It was true he was not fond of meeting "Royal Highnesses," before whom his own equivocal rank sank into insignificance; nor did he love "Cardinals," whose haughty pretensions always over-topped every other n.o.bility. To oblige Lady Hester, however, he did come, and condescended, for "the nonce," to a.s.sume his most amiable of moods. The Marchesa Guardoni, an old coquette of the days of the French Empire, but now a rigid devotee, and a most exclusive moralist; a few elderly diplomates, of a quiet and cat-like smoothness of manner, with certain notabilities of the Court, made up the party. There were no English whatever; Jekyl, who made out the list, well knowing that Florence offered none of a rank sufficiently distinguished, except Norwood, whose temporary absence from the city was rather a boon than the reverse; for the n.o.ble Viscount, when not "slang," was usually silent, and, by long intercourse with the Turf and its followers, had ceased to feel any interest in topics which could not end in a wager.
The entertainment was very splendid. Nothing was wanting which luxury or taste could contribute. The wines were delicious; the cookery perfect.
The guests were courteous and pleasing; but all was of the quietest, none of the witty sallies, the piquant anecdotes, the brilliant repartees, which usually pattered like hail around that board.
Still less were heard those little histories of private life where delinquencies furnish all the interest. The royal guest imposed a reserve which the presence of the Cardinal deepened. The conversation, like the cuisine, was flavored for fine palates; both were light, suggestive, and of easy digestion. Events were discussed rather than the actors in them. All was ease and simplicity; but it was a stately kind of simplicity, which served to chill those that were unaccustomed to it.
So Kate Dalton felt it; and however sad the confession, we must own that she greatly preferred the free and easy tone of Lady Hester"s midnight receptions to the colder solemnity of these distinguished guests.
Even to the Cardinal"s whist-table, everything wore a look of state and solemnity. The players laid down their cards with a measured gravity, and scored their honors with the air of men discharging a high and important function. As for the Archduke, he sat upon a sofa beside Lady Hester, suffering himself to be amused by the resources of her small-talk, bowing blandly at times, occasionally condescending to a smile, but rarely uttering even a monosyllable. Even that little social warmth that was kindled by the dinner-table seemed to have been chilled by the drawing-room, where the conversation was maintained in a low, soft tone, that never rose above a murmur. It may be, perhaps, some sort of consolation to little folk to think that Princes are generally sad-looking. The impa.s.sable barrier of reserve around them, if it protect from all the rubs and frictions of life, equally excludes from much of its genial enjoyment; and all those little pleasantries which grow out of intimacy are denied those who have no equals.
It was in some such meditation as this Kate Dalton sat, roused occasionally to bestow a smile or a pa.s.sing word of acknowledgment in return for some of those little morsels of compliment and flattery which old courtiers pay as their rightful tribute to a young and handsome woman. She was sufficiently accustomed to this kind of homage to accept it without losing, even for an instant, any train of thought her mind was pursuing. Nor did the entrance of any new guest, a number of whom had been invited for the evening, distract her from her half revery.
The salons, without being crowded, now showed a numerous company, all of whom exhibited in their demeanor that respectful reserve the presence of royalty ever inspires. It seemed, indeed, as though all the conversation that went forward was like a mere "aside" to that more important dialogue which was maintained beside the Prince.
A slow but measured tide of persons pa.s.sed before him, bowing with respectful deference as they went. With some he deigned to speak a few words, others had a smile or a little nod of recognition, and some again one of those cold and vacant stares with which great people are occasionally wont to regard little ones. His Royal Highness was not one of those accomplished princes whose pride it is to know the name, the family, the pursuits, and predilections of each new presentee. On the contrary, he was absent, and forgetful to a degree scarcely credible; his want of memory betraying him into innumerable mistakes, from which, even had he known, no adroitness of his own could have extricated him. On this evening he had not been peculiarly fortunate; he had complimented a minister who had just received his recall in disgrace; he had felicitated a young lady on her approaching marriage, which had been broken off; while the burden of his talk to Lady Hester was in disparagement of those foreigners who brought a scandal upon his court by habits and manners which would not be tolerated in their own countries. Divorce, or even separation, met his heavy reprobation; and while his code of morality, on the whole, exhibited very merciful dispositions, he bestowed unmitigated severity upon all that could shock the world"s opinion.
To this Lady Hester had to listen as best she might, a task not the less trying and difficult from the ill-suppressed looks of malice and enjoyment she saw on every side. From all these causes put together, the occasion, however flattering to her vanity, was far from being pleasurable to her feelings, and she longed for it to be over. The Prince looked wearied enough, but somehow there is nothing like royalty for endurance; their whole lives would seem to teach the lesson, and so he sat on, saying a stray word, bowing with half-closed lids, and looking as though very little more would set him fast asleep.
It was the very culminating point of the whole evening"s austerity; one of those little pauses which now and then occur had succeeded to the murmur of conversation. The whist party had been broken up, and the Cardinal was slowly advancing up the room, the company, even to the ladies, rising respectfully as he pa.s.sed, when the folding-doors were thrown wide, and a servant announced Mr. Scroope Purvis.
If the name was unknown to the a.s.sembled guests, there was one there at least who heard it with a sensation of actual terror, and poor Kate Dalton sank back into her chair with a kind of instinctive effort at concealment. By this time the door had closed behind him, leaving Mr.
Purvis standing with an expression of no small bewilderment at the gorgeous a.s.sembly into which he had intruded.
Lady Hester"s quick ear had caught the name, even from the furthest end of the room; but while she attributed it to the misp.r.o.nunciations of which foreign servants are so liberal, looked out with some curiosity for him who owned it.
Nor had she to look long, for, his first moment of surprise over, Purvis put up his double eye-gla.s.s and commenced a tour of the rooms, in that peculiarly scrutinizing way for which he was distinguished. The fact that all the faces were unknown to him seemed to impart additional courage to his investigations, for he stared about with as little concern as he might have done in a theatre.
Most men in his situation would have been egoist enough to have thought only of themselves and the awkwardness of their own position. Purvis, on the contrary, had an eye for everything; from the chandeliers on the walls to the crosses on the dress-coats, from the decorations of the salons to the diamonds, he missed nothing; and with such impartial fairness did he bestow his glances, that the Cardinal"s cheeks grew red as his own stockings as Scroope surveyed him. "At last he reached the end of the great drawing-room, and found himself standing in front of the canopied seat where the Archduke sat with Lady Hester. Not heeding, if he even remarked, the little circle which etiquette had drawn in front of the Prince, Purvis advanced within the charmed precincts and stared steadily at the Duke.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 420]
"I perceive that one of your friends is most anxious to pay his respects to you, Lady Hester," said the Prince, with a very peculiar smile.
"I beg to a.s.sure you, sir, that the gentleman is unknown to me; his presence here is an honor for which I am totally unprepared."
"My name is Purvis, madam, Sc-Sc-Scroope Purvis. Miss Dalton knows me; and my sister is Mrs. Ricketts."
"You will find Miss Dalton yonder, sir," said Lady Hester, all whose efforts were barely sufficient to restrain her temper.
"I see her!" cried Purvis, putting his gla.s.s up; "but she "s trying to escape me. She "s got a man with a re-re-red beard before her, but it won"t do, I"m too sh-sh-sharp for that."
The Archduke laughed, and heartily, too, at this sally; and Purvis, emboldened by the complaisance, edged more closely towards him to point out the lady in question. "She has a droll kind of sc-sc-scarf in her hair. There! don"t you see her now? Have you ever seen the pictures in the Pitti Palace?"
The question was a little startling, as the personage to whom it was addressed had his residence there. The Archduke, however, merely bowed in acquiescence, and Purvis went on: "My sister Zoe copied one and I like it better than the Ti-t.i.t-t.i.tian itself. We smoked it, too, and made it look so brown, you"d never guess it to be mo-mo-mo-modern."
To judge from the bewildered look of the Duke, the whole of this speech was pure Chaldee to him; and when he turned to Lady Hester for an explanation, he discovered that she had left her seat. Whether mistaking the motion as an invitation to be seated, or merely acting by his own impulses, Scroope crossed over and sat down on the sofa with a degree of self-satisfaction that lighted up all his features.
"You "re not one of the fa-family, are you?" asked he.
"I have not that honor," said the Prince, with a bow.