"Nor I," said Minola. "I have come from utter barbarism--from a country town."
"But I do hope we shall meet again, for you are so sympathetic and kind."
She bade him good day, and nodded with a friendly smile, but made no answer to the repeated expression of his hope, and she hastened away.
Heron could not endure walking alone just then. He hailed a hansom and disappeared.
"How vain men are!" Minola thought as she went her way. "How egotistical they all are!" Of course she a.s.sumed herself to have obtained a complete knowledge of all the characters of men. "How egotistic he is! Of course he tells his whole story to every woman he meets. Lucy Money no doubt has it by heart."
She did not remember for the moment that her own favorite hero was likewise somewhat egotistical and effusive, and that he was very apt to pour out the story of his wrongs into the ear of any sympathetic woman.
But she was disappointed with herself and her friend just now, and was not in a mood to make perfectly reasonable comparisons.
CHAPTER VIII.
A "HELPER OF UNHAPPY MEN."
Mrs. Money had one great object in life. At least, if it was not an object defined and set out before her, it was an instinct: it was to make people happy. She could not rest without trying to make people happy. The motherly instinct, which in other women is satisfied by rushing at babies wherever they are to be seen, and ministering to them, and fondling them, and talking pigeon-English to them, exuberated in her so far as to set her trying to do the mother"s part for all men and women who came within her range, even when their years far exceeded hers. There was one great advantage to herself personally in this: it kept her content in what had come to be her own sphere. One cannot go meddling in the affairs of d.u.c.h.esses and countesses, and Ministers of State, with whatever kindly desire of setting everything to rights and making them all happy. People of that cla.s.s give themselves such haughty airs that they would rather remain unhappy in their own way than obtain felicity at the hand of some person of inferior station. So Mrs. Money believed; and perhaps one secret cause of her dislike to the aristocracy (along with the avowed conviction that the aristocratic system had somehow misprized and interfered with her husband) was the feeling that if she were among them, they would not allow her to do anything for them. She therefore maintained a circle of which she herself was the queen, and patroness, and Lady Bountiful. She busied herself about everybody"s affairs, and was kind to everybody, without any feeling of delight in the mere work of patronizing, but out of a sheer pleasure in trying to make people happy. Naturally she made mistakes, and the general system of her social circle worked so as to occasion a continual change, a pa.s.sing away of old friends and coming in of new. As young men rose in the world and became independent, as girls got married and came to consider themselves supreme in their own sphere, they tended to move away from Mrs. Money"s influence. Even the grateful and the generous could not always avoid this. For beginners in any path of life she was the specially appointed helper and friend; and next to these she might be called the patron saint of failures. In her circle were young poets, painters, lawyers, novelists, preachers, ambitious men looking out for seats in Parliament, or beginners in Parliament; also there were the gray old poets whom no one read; the painters who could not get their pictures exhibited or bought; the men who were in Parliament ten or twenty years ago, and got out and never could get in again; and the inventors who could not impress any government or capitalist with a sense of the value of their discoveries. No front-rank, successful person of any kind was usually to be found in Mrs. Money"s rooms. Her guests were the youths who were putting their armor on for the battle, and the worn-out campaigners who had put it off defeated.
Naturally, when Minola Grey came in Mrs. Money"s way, the sympathy and interest of the kindly lady were quickened to their keenest. This beautiful, motherless, fatherless, proud, lonely girl--not so old as her own Theresa, not older than her own Lucy--living by herself, or almost by herself, in gloomy lodgings in the heart of London--how could she fail to be an object of Mrs. Money"s deep concern? Of course Mrs.
Money must look into all her affairs, and find out whether she was poor; and in what sort of way she was living; and whether the people with whom she lodged were kind to her.
Mary Blanchet"s pride of heart can hardly be described when an open carriage, with a pair of splendid grays, stopped at the door of the house in the no-thoroughfare street, and a footman got down and knocked; and it finally appeared that Mrs. Money, Miss Money, and Miss Lucy Money had called to see Miss Grey. Miss Grey, as it happened, was not at home, although the servant at first supposed that she was; and thus the three ladies were shown into Minola"s sitting-room, and there almost instantly captured by Miss Blanchet. We say "almost" because there was an interval long enough for Lucy to dart about the room from point to point, taking up a book here, a piece of music there, an engraving, a photograph, or a flower, and p.r.o.nouncing everything delightful. The room was old-fashioned, s.p.a.cious, and solid, very unlike the tiny apartments of the ordinary West End lodging; and, what with the flowers and the books, it really looked rather an attractive place to enthusiastic eyes. Miss Money kept her eyes on the ground for the most part, and professed to take little notice of the ordinary adornments of rooms; for Miss Money was a saint, and was furthermore engaged to a man not far from her father"s years, who, having made a great deal of money at the Parliamentary bar, was now thinking of entering the Church, and had already set about the building of a temple of mediaeval style, in the progress of which Miss Money naturally was deeply interested.
Miss Blanchet was in a flutter of excitement as she entered the sitting-room. As she was crossing its threshold she was considering whether she ought to present a copy of her poems to each of the three ladies or only to Mrs. Money; or whether she ought to tender the gift now or send it on by the post. The solemn eyes and imposing presence of Mrs. Money were almost alarming, and the trailing dresses and feathers of all the ladies sent a thrill of admiration and homage into the heart of the poetess--everything was so evidently put on regardless of expense. Little Mary had always been so poor and so stinted in the matter of wardrobe that she could not help admiring these splendidly dressed women. Mary, however, luckily remembered what was due to the dignity of poetic genius, and did not allow her homage to show itself too much in the form of trepidation. She instantly put on her best company manners, and spoke in the sweetly measured and genteel tone which she used to employ at Keeton, when she had occasion to interchange a word with the judges, or the sheriffs, or some eminent counsel.
"Minola will be home in a few moments--a very few," Miss Blanchet said.
"Indeed, I expect her every minute. I know she would be greatly disappointed if she did not see you."
"Oh, I am not going without seeing Nola!" said Lucy.
"I am Minola"s friend," Mary explained with placid dignity. "I may introduce myself. My brother, I know, has already the honor of your acquaintance. I am Miss Blanchet."
"Mr. Herbert Blanchet"s sister?" Mrs. Money said in melancholy tone, but with delighted eyes. "This is indeed an unexpected and a very great pleasure."
"Why, you don"t mean to say you are Herbert Blanchet"s sister?" Lucy exclaimed, seizing both the hands of the poetess. "He"s the most delightful creature, and a true poet. Oh, yes, a man of genius!"
The eyes of Mary moistened with happiness and pride.
"Herbert Blanchet is my brother. He is much younger than I; I need hardly say that. I used to take care of him years ago, almost as if I were his mother. We were a long time separated; he has been so much abroad."
The faithful Mary would not for all the world have suggested that their long separation was due to any indifference on the part of her brother.
Indeed, at the moment she was not thinking of anything of the kind, only of his genius, and his beauty, and his n.o.ble heart.
"He never told me he had a sister," Mrs. Money said, "or I should have been delighted to call on you long ago, Miss Blanchet. It is your brother"s fault, not mine. I shall tell him so."
"He did not know that I was coming to London," Mary was quick to explain. "He thought I was still living in Keeton. I only came to London with Minola."
"Oh! You lived in Keeton then always, along with Miss Grey!"
"How delightful!" Lucy exclaimed, desisting from her occupation of opening books and turning over music; "for you can tell us all about Nola and her love story."
"Her love story?" Mrs. Money repeated, in tones of melancholy inquiry.
"Her love story!" Miss Blanchet murmured tremulously, and wondering who had betrayed Minola"s secret.
"Oh, yes," said Lucy decisively. "I know there"s some love story--something romantic and delightful. Do tell us, Miss Blanchet."
Even the saint-like Theresa now showed a mild and becoming interest.
"It"s not exactly a love story," Miss Blanchet said with some hesitation, not well knowing what she ought to reveal and what to keep back. "At least it"s no love affair on Minola"s part. She never was in love--never. She detests all love-making--at least she thinks so," the poetess said with a gentle sigh. "But there was a gentleman who was very much in love with her."
"Oh, she must have had heaps of lovers!" interposed Lucy.
Miss Blanchet then told the story of Mr. Augustus Sheppard, and how he was rich and handsome--at least rather handsome, she said--and how he wanted to marry Minola; and her people very much wished that she would have him, and she would not; and how at last she hastened her flight to London to get rid of him. All this was full of delightful interest to Lucy, and still further quickened the kindly sympathy of Mrs. Money.
Then Mary Blanchet went into a long story about the death of Minola"s mother and the second marriage of Minola"s father, and then the father"s death and the stepmother"s second marriage, and the discomfort of the home which fate had thus provided for Minola. She expatiated upon the happiness of the sheltered life Minola had had while her mother was living, and the change that came upon her afterward, until the only doubt Mrs. Money had ever entertained about Minola--a doubt as to the perfect propriety and judgment of her coming to live almost alone in London--vanished altogether, and she regarded our heroine as a girl who had been driven from her home instead of having fled from it.
Mrs. Money delicately and cautiously approached the subject of Minola"s means of subsistence. On this point no one could enlighten her better than Miss Blanchet, who knew to the sixpence the income and expenditure of her friend. Well, Minola was not badly off for a girl, Mrs. Money thought. A girl could live nicely and quietly, like a lady, but very quietly, on that. Besides, some rich man would be sure to fall in love with her.
"But she ought to have a great deal of money," the poetess eagerly explained, very proud of her leader"s losses. "Her father was a rich man, quite a rich man, and he had quarrelled with her brother, and she ought to have all the money, only for that second marriage." Indeed, Miss Blanchet added the expression of her own profound conviction that there must have been some queer work--some concealment or something--about Mr. Grey"s property, seeing that so little of it came to Minola.
"I"ll get Mr. Money to look into all that," Mrs. Money said decisively.
"He understands all about these things, and nothing could be hidden from him."
Miss Blanchet modestly intimated that she had confided her suspicions to her brother, and begged him to try and find out something.
"Oh, he never could understand anything about it!" Lucy said. "Poets never know about these things. It"s just in papa"s line. He"ll find out. They can"t baffle him. I know they have been cheating Nola--I know they have! I know there"s a will hidden away somewhere, making her the rightful heir or whatever it is."
"About this gentleman--this lover. Is he a nice person?" Mrs. Money began.
"Mr. Augustus Sheppard?" Mary asked, mentioning his name for the first time in the conversation.
"Augustus Sheppard! Is that his name?" Lucy demanded eagerly.
"Why then, papa knows him! Indeed he does. I do declare papa knows everything!"
"Why do you think, dear, that he knows this gentleman?"
"Because I heard him asking Nola about Mr. Augustus Sheppard the other day, mamma, in our drawing-room."
"He couldn"t have known this, I think," Miss Blanchet said.
"Oh, no, I suppose not; but he knows him, and he"ll tell us all about him. Why wouldn"t Nola have him, Miss Blanchet?"
"He is rather a formal sort of person, and heavy, and not the least in the world poetic or romantic; and Minola does not like him at all. She doesn"t think his feelings are very deep; but there I am sure she is wrong," the poetess added emphatically. "She has never had occasion to make a study of human feelings as others have."