"No, no," I protested. "You mustn"t let him. It"s too much. You will have to tell Sir Samuel that he must find a new chauffeur at once. It hurts me like a blow to think of such a creature humiliating you. I couldn"t see it done."
He looked at me very kindly, with quite all a brother"s tenderness. "My dear little pal," he said, "you won"t have to see it."
"You mean--you will go?" Of course, I wanted him to take my advice, or I wouldn"t have offered it, yet it gave me a heartache to think he was ready to take it so easily.
"I mean that I"m not the man to let myself be humiliated by a Bertie Stokes. Possibly he may persuade his stepfather to sack me, but I don"t think he"ll succeed in doing that, even if he tries. Sir Samuel, I suppose, has given him every thing he has; sent him to Oxford (I know he was there, and sc.r.a.ped through by the skin of his teeth), and allows him thousands enough to mix with a set where he doesn"t belong; but though the old boy is weak in some ways, he has a strong sense of justice, and where he likes he is loyal. I think he does like me, and I don"t believe he"d discharge me to please his stepson. Not only that, I should be surprised if the promising Bertie wanted me discharged. It would be more in his line to want me kept on, so that he might take it out of me."
I shuddered; but Jack smiled, showing his white teeth almost merrily.
"You may see some fun," he said, "but it shan"t be death to the frogs; not so bad as that. And I shall have you to be kind to me."
"Kind to you!" I echoed, rather tremulously. (If he only knew how kind I should like to be!) "Yes, I will be kind. But I can"t do anything to make up for what you"ll have to bear. You had better go."
"Perhaps I would, if I could take you away with me, but that can"t be.
And, no, even in that case, I should prefer to stick it out. I shouldn"t like to let that young bounder drive me from a place, whether I wanted to go or not. And do you think I would clear out, and leave him to worry you?"
"He can"t," I said.
"I wish I were sure of that. When the beast sees you without your veil--oh, hang it, you mustn"t let him come near you, you know."
"He isn"t likely to take the slightest notice of his stepfather"s wife"s maid," said I, "especially as he"s dying to marry the American heiress here."
"Anyhow, be careful."
"I shan"t look at him if I can help it. And we shall be gone before long. I believe the Turnours" invitation, which their Bertie was bribed to ask for, is only for two or three days. How you _must_ have been feeling when you were told to drive here! But you showed nothing."
"I had a qualm or two when I was sure of the place; but then it was over. It"s far worse for you than for me. And I told you I"ve been learning from you a lesson of cheerfulness. I was merely a Stoic before."
"It"s nothing for me, comparatively," I said, and by this time, I was quite sincere; but I didn"t know then what the next twenty-four hours were to bring.
We were not left alone for long, but in ten minutes we had had our talk out, while we played at eating the meal we had looked forward to with eagerness before our appet.i.tes were crowded into the background. A fat _sous chef_ flitted about; maids and valets glanced in; nevertheless, we found time for a heart-warming hand pressure before we parted for the night. Altogether, I had not had more than fifteen minutes in the dining-room; yet when I left I felt a hundred times braver and more cheerful.
Already I had been to my mistress"s quarters. The maid who took charge of me on my arrival showed me that room before she showed me mine, and explained the way from one to the other. My "b.u.mp of locality" was tested, however, in getting back to her ladyship"s part of the house, for the castle has its intricacies.
The word "chateau," in France, covers a mult.i.tude of comfortable, unpretentious family mansions, as I had not to find out now, for the first time; and the dwelling of the Roquemartines, though a fine old house of the seventeenth century, is no more imposing, under its high, slate roof, than many another. It is Lady Turnour"s first experience, though, as a visitor in the "mansions of the great," and when I had been briskly unpacking for half an hour or so, she came in, somewhat subdued by her new emotions. I think that she was rather glad to see a familiar face, to have someone to talk to of whom she did not feel in awe, with whom she need not be afraid of making some mistake; and she seemed quite human to me, for the first time.
Never had I seen her in such an expansive mood, not even when she gave me the blouse. Instead of the cross words I had braced myself to expect, she was almost friendly. She had felt a fool, she said, not being able to dress for dinner, but then no one else could touch her, for jewels; and didn"t every one just stare, at the table, though, of course, she hadn"t put on her tiara, as that wouldn"t have been suitable with a blouse and short skirt! Sir Samuel"s stepson had been quite nasty and superior about the jewels, when he got at her, afterward, and she believed would have been rude if he"d dared, but luckily he didn"t know her well enough for that; and he"d better be careful how far he went, or he"d find things very different from what they"d been with him, since his mother married Sir Samuel. As if men knew when women ought to wear their jewels, and when not! But he was green with jealousy of the things his stepfather had given her; wanted everything himself.
She went on to describe the other members of the house party, and mouthed their t.i.tles with delight, though she had only her own maid to impress. Everyone had a t.i.tle, it seemed, except Bertie, and the American girl he wanted to marry, Miss Nelson, a sister of the young marquise. Some of the t.i.tles were very high ones, too. There were princes and princesses, and dukes and d.u.c.h.esses all over the place, mostly French and Italian, though one of the d.u.c.h.esses was American, like the marquise and her sister.
"Not the d.u.c.h.esse de Melun!" I exclaimed, before I stopped to think.
"Yes, that"s the name," said her ladyship, twisting round to look up at me, as I wound her back hair in curling-pins. "What do you know about her?"
How I wished that I knew nothing--and that I hadn"t spoken!
The name had popped out, because the d.u.c.h.esse de Melun is the only American-born d.u.c.h.ess of my acquaintance, and because I was hoping very hard that the d.u.c.h.ess of the Chateau de Roquemartine might _not_ be the d.u.c.h.esse de Melun. What bad luck that the Roquemartines had selected that particular d.u.c.h.ess for this particular house party, when they must know plenty, and could just as well have chosen another specimen!
"I have heard her name," I admitted, primly. And so I had, too often. "A friend of mine was--was with her, once."
"As her maid?"
"Not exactly."
"Another sort of servant, I suppose?"
As her ladyship stated this as a fact, rather than asked it as a question, I ventured to refrain from answering. Fortunately she didn"t notice the omission, as her thoughts had jumped to another subject. But mine were not so readily displaced. They remained fastened to the d.u.c.h.esse de Melun; and while Lady Turnour talked, I was wondering whether I could successfully contrive to keep out of the d.u.c.h.ess"s way.
She is quite intimate with Cousin Catherine; and I told myself that she was pretty sure already to have heard the truth about my disappearance.
Or, if even with her friends, Cousin Catherine clings to conventionalities, and pretends that I"m visiting somewhere by her consent, people are almost certain to scent a mystery, for mysteries are popular. "If that d.u.c.h.ess woman sees me, she"ll write to Cousin Catherine at once," I thought. "Or I wouldn"t put it _past_ her to telegraph!"
("Put it past" is an expression of Cousin Catherine"s own, which I always disliked; but it came in handy now.)
I tried to console myself, though, by reflecting that, if I were careful, I ought to be able to avoid the d.u.c.h.ess. The ways of great ladies and little maids lie far apart in grand houses and--
"There is going to be a servants" ball to-morrow night," announced Lady Turnour, while my thoughts struggled out of the slough of despond. "And I want you to be the best dressed one there, for _my_ credit. We"re all going to look on, and some of the young gentlemen may dance. The marquise and Miss Nelson say they mean to, too, but I should think they are joking. _I_ may not be a French princess nor yet a marquise, but I _am_ an English lady, and I must say I shouldn"t care to dance with my cook, or my chauffeur."
Her chauffeur would be at one with her there! But I could think of nothing save myself in this crisis. "Oh, miladi, I _can"t_ go to a servants" ball!" I exclaimed.
She bridled. "Why not, I should like to know? Do you consider yourself above it?"
"It isn"t that," I faltered. (And it wasn"t; it was that d.u.c.h.ess!) "But--but--" I searched for an excuse. "I haven"t anything to wear."
"I will see to that," said my mistress, with relentless generosity. "I intend to give you a dress, and as you have next to nothing to do to-morrow, you can alter it in time. If you had any grat.i.tude in you, Elise, you"d be out of yourself with joy at the idea."
"Oh, I am out of myself, miladi," I moaned.
"Well, you might say "Thank your ladyship," then."
I said it.
"When you have unpacked the big luggage in the morning, I will give you the dress. I have decided on it already. Sir Samuel doesn"t like it on me, so I don"t mind parting with it; but it"s very handsome, and cost me a great deal of money when I was getting my trousseau. It is scarlet satin trimmed with green beetle-wing pa.s.s.e.m.e.nterie, and gold fringe."
My one comfort, as I gasped out spasmodic thanks, was this: I would look such a vulgar horror in the scarlet satin trimmed with green beetle-wings and gold fringe, that the d.u.c.h.esse de Melun might fail to recognize Lys d"Angely.
CHAPTER XXVII
I dusted and shook out every cell in my brain, during the night, in the hope of finding any inspiration which might save me from the servants"
ball; but I could think of nothing, except that I might suddenly come down with a contagious disease. The objection to this scheme was that a doctor would no doubt be sent for, and would read my secret in my lack of temperature.
When morning came, I was sullenly resigned to the worst. "Kismet!" said I, as I unfolded her ladyship"s dresses, and was blinded by the glare of the scarlet satin.
"Try it on," commanded my mistress. "I want to get an idea how you will look."
Naturally, the red thing was a Directoire thing; and putting it on over my snug little black frock, I was like a cricket crawling into an empty lobster-sh.e.l.l. But to my surprise and annoyance, the lobster-sh.e.l.l was actually becoming to the cricket.