I didn"t want to look nice and be a credit to Lady Turnour. I wanted to look a fright, and didn"t care if I were a disgrace to her. But the startling scarlet satin was Liberty satin, and therefore had a sheen, and a soft way of folding that redeemed it somewhat. Its bright poppy colour, its emerald beetle-wings shading to gold, and its glittering fringes that waved like a wheat-field stirred by a breeze, all gave a bizarre sort of "value," as artists say, to my pale yellow hair and dark eyes. I couldn"t help seeing that the dreadful dress made my skin pearly white; and I was afraid that, when I had altered the thing, instead of looking like a frump, I should only present the appearance of a rather fast little actress. I should be looked at in my scarlet abomination.
People would stare, and smile. The d.u.c.h.esse de Melun would say to the Marquise de Roquemartine: "Who is that young person? She looks exactly like someone I know--that little Lys d"Angely the millionaire-man, Charretier, is so silly about."
"You see, you can alter it very easily," said Lady Turnour.
"Yes, miladi."
"Have you got any dancing slippers?"
"No--that is--I don"t know--"
"Don"t be stupid. I will give you ten francs to buy yourself a pair of red stockings and red slippers to match. The stockings needn"t be silk.
They won"t show much. Dane can take you in the car to Clermont-Ferrand this afternoon. I want you to be all right, from head to feet--different from any of the other maids."
I didn"t doubt that I would be different--very different.
Tap, tap, a knock at the door.
"Ontray!" cried her ladyship.
The door opened. Mr. Herbert Stokes stood on the threshold.
"I say, Lady T--" he began, when he saw the scarlet vision, and stopped.
"What is it?" inquired the wife of his stepfather--rather a complicated relation.
"I--er--wanted--" drawled Bertie. "But it doesn"t matter. Another time."
"You needn"t mind _her_," said Lady Turnour, with a nod toward me. "It"s only my maid. I"m giving her a dress for the servants" ball to-night."
Bertie gave vent to the ghost of a whistle, below his breath. He looked at me, twisting the end of his small fair moustache, as he had looked at Jack Dane last night; and though his expression was different, I liked it no better.
"Thought it was a new guest," said he.
"I suppose you didn"t take her for a lady, did you?" my mistress was curious to know. "You pride yourself on your discrimination, your stepfather says."
"There"s nothing the matter with my discrimination," replied the young man, smiling. But his smile was not for her ladyship. It was for me; and it was meant to be a piquant little secret between us two.
How well I remembered asking the chauffeur, "_Could_ you know a Bertie?"
And how he answered that he had known one, and consequently didn"t want to know another. Here was the same Bertie; and now that I too knew him, I thought I would prefer to know another, rather than know more of him.
Yet he was good-looking, almost handsome. He had short, curly light hair, eyes as blue as turquoises, seen by daylight, full red lips under the little moustache, a white forehead, a dimple in the chin, and a very good figure. He had also an educated, perhaps too well educated, voice, which tried to advertise that it had been made at Oxford; and he had hands as carefully kept as a pretty woman"s, with manicured, filbert-shaped nails.
"You"re making her jolly smart," he went on. "She"ll do you credit."
"I want she should," retorted her ladyship, gratified and ungrammatical.
"She must give me a dance--what?" condescended the gilded youth. "Does she speak English?"
"Yes. So you"d better be careful what you say before her."
Bertie telegraphed another smile to me. I looked at the faded damask curtains; at the mantelpiece with its gilded clock and two side-pieces, Louis Seize at his worst, considered good enough for a bedroom; at the drapings of the enormous bed; at the portiere covering the door of Sir Samuel"s dressing-room; at the kaleidoscopic claret-and-blue figures on the carpet; in fact, at everything within reach of my eyes except Mr.
Herbert Stokes.
"I"ve nothing to say that she can"t hear," said he, virtuously. "I only wanted to know if you"d like to see the gardens? The marquise sent me to ask. Several people who haven"t been here before are goin". It"s a lot warmer this mornin", so you won"t freeze."
Lady Turnour said that she would go, and ordered me to find her hat and coat. As I turned to get them, Bertie smiled at me again, and threw me a last glance as he followed my mistress out of the room.
I begin to be afraid there is an innate vanity in me which nothing can thoroughly eradicate without tearing me up by the roots; for when I was ready to alter that red dress, instead of trying to make it look as ridiculous as possible, something forced me to do my best, to study fitness and becomingness. I do hope this is self-respect and not vanity; but to hope that is, I fear, like believing in a thing which you know isn"t true.
I worked all the morning at ensmalling the gown (if one can enlarge, why can"t one ensmall?) and by luncheon time it was finished. I had seen Jack at breakfast, but had no chance for a word with him alone, although he succeeded valiantly in keeping other chauffeurs, and valets, from making my acquaintance. As I stopped only long enough for a cup of coffee and a roll, I didn"t give him too much trouble; but at luncheon it was different. Everyone was chattering about the ball in the evening (a privilege promised, it seemed, as a reward for hard work on the occasion of a real ball above stairs), and house servants and visitors alike were all so gay and good-natured that it would have been stupid to snub them. Jack saw this, and though he protected me as well as he could in an un.o.btrusive way, he put out no bristles.
The general excitement was contagious, and if it hadn"t been for the panic I was in about the d.u.c.h.ess, I should have thrown myself wholly into the spirit of the hive, buzzing like the busiest bee in it. Even as it was, I couldn"t help entering into the fun of the thing, for it was fun in its queer way. Something like being on the stage of a third-rate theatre in the midst of a farce, where the actors mistake you for one of themselves, calling upon you to play your part, while you alone know that you are a leading member of the Comedie Francaise, just dropped in at this funny place to look on.
Here, the stage was on a much grander scale, and the play more amusing than in the couriers" dining-rooms at the hotels where I had been. At the hotels, the maids and valets scarcely knew each other. Some were in a hurry, others were tired or in a bad humour. Here the little company had been together for days. Meals were a relaxation, a time for flirtation and gossip about their own and each other"s masters and mistresses. Each servant felt the liveliest interest in the "Monsieur"
or "Madame" of his or her neighbour; and the stories that were exchanged, the criticisms that were made, would have caused the hair of those _messieurs_ and those _mesdames_ to curl.
If I was openly approved by the gentlemen"s gentlemen, Mr. Jack Dane had the undisguised admiration of the ladies" ladies; and he received their advances with tact. Dances for the evening were asked for and promised right and left, among the a.s.semblage, always dependent upon summons from Above. It was agreed that, if a Monsieur or Madame wished to dance with you, no previous engagement was to stand, for all the castles and big houses from far and near would be emptied in honour of the ball, from drawing-rooms to servants" halls, and quality was to mingle with quant.i.ty, as on similar occasions in England, whence--the chef explained--came the fashion. It was a feature of _l"entente cordiale_, and the same agreeable understanding was to level all barriers, for the night, between high and low.
Some of the visitors" _femmes de chambres_ were pretty, coquettish creatures, and I was delighted to find that they were all called by their mistresses" t.i.tles. The maid of my _bete noire_ was "d.u.c.h.esse"; she who pertained to our hostess was "Marquise," and I blossomed into "Miladi." The girls were looking forward to rivalling their mistresses in _chic_, and also in the admiration of the real princes and dukes and counts; that they would have an exclusive right to the attentions of these gentlemen"s understudies also seemed to be expected.
After half an hour at table in the servants" hall, there was nothing left for me to find out about the owners of the castle and their guests; but the princ.i.p.al interest of everyone seemed to centre upon the affair between Mr. Herbert Stokes and the heiress sister of Madame la Marquise.
There were even bets among the valets as to how it was to end, and Bertie"s man, who looked as if he could speak volumes if he would, was a person of importance.
All the men admired Miss Nelson extremely, but the women were divided in opinion. Her own maid, a bilious Frenchwoman, with a jealous eye, said that the American miss was _une pet.i.te chatte_, who was playing off Mr.
Stokes against the Duc de Divonne, and it was a pity that the handsome young English monsieur could not be warned of her unworthiness. The duke was not handsome, and he was neither young nor rich, but--these Americans were out for t.i.tles, just as t.i.tles were out for American money. Why else had the marriage of Madame la Marquise, Miss Daisy"s elder sister, made itself? Miss Daisy liked Mr. Stokes, but he could not give her a t.i.tle. The duke could--_if_ he would. But would he? She was rich, but there were others richer. People said that he was wary. Yet he admired Miss Daisy, it was true, and if by her flirtation with Mr.
Stokes she could pique him into a proposal, she would have her triumph.
This was only one of many dramas going on in the house, but it was the most interesting to me, as to others, and I determined to look with all my might at the duke and at pretty Miss Nelson, of whom I had only had a glimpse on arriving. If she were really nice, I did hope that Bertie wouldn"t get her!
My costume pressed as weightily on her ladyship"s mind, as if I had been a favourite poodle about to be sent, all ribboned and clipped, to a dog show. She did not forget the slippers and stockings, and the chauffeur was ordered to take me into Clermont-Ferrand to buy them. Fortunately she didn"t know how much I looked forward to the excursion!
At precisely three o"clock I walked out to the castle garage, near the stables, and found Jack getting the car ready; but I did not find him alone. The garage is a big and splendid one, and not only were the three household dragons in their stalls, but four or five strange beasts, pets of visitors; and the finest of these (after our blue Aigle) was the white Majestic of the Duc de Divonne. That gentleman, whom I recognized easily from a description breathed into my ear by a countess"s countess, at luncheon, was in the garage when I arrived, showing off his automobile to Miss Nelson. The ducal chauffeur lurked in the background, duster in hand, and Mr. Herbert Stokes occupied as large a s.p.a.ce as possible in the foreground.
n.o.body deigned to take any open notice of me, though Bertie threw me a stealthy smile of recognition, carefully screened from Miss Nelson, but as the Aigle was swallowing a last refreshing draught of petrol, I had time to observe the actors in the little drama whose plot I had already heard.
Yes, though Miss Daisy Nelson looked even prettier than I thought her last night, I could quite believe the bilious maid"s statement that she was _une pet.i.te chatte_. Her green-gray eyes, very effective under thick ma.s.ses of auburn hair, were turned up at the outer corners in a fascinating, sly little way; and her cupid-bow lips, which turned down at _their_ corners, were a bit redder than Nature"s formula ordains.
Nevertheless I couldn"t help liking her, just as one likes a lovely, playful Persian kitten which may rub its adorable nose against your hand, or scratch with its naughty claws. And she was enjoying herself so much, the pretty, expensive-looking creature! As Pamela would say, it was evident that she was "having the time of her life," revelling in the admiration and rivalry of the two men; delighted with her own power over them, and her importance as a beauty and an heiress, the only unmarried girl in the house party; amusing herself by making one man miserable and the other happy, sending them up and down on a mental sea-saw, by turns.
As for the little Duc de Divonne, his profile is of the Roman Emperor order, and his eyes like the last coals in a dying fire. I said to myself that, if Miss Nelson should become a d.u.c.h.ess, she would have to pay for some of her girlish antics in pre-d.u.c.h.ess days. Still, I decided that if I had to choose, it would be the duke before Bertie.
The girl kept both her men busy, and after the first glance Bertie ignored my existence: but the Duke, fired by a moment"s neglect, flamed out with an inspiration. He "dared" Miss Nelson to take a lesson from him in driving his car, with no other chaperon than the chauffeur. "All right, I will," said she, "and I bet you I"ll be an expert after one trial."
"What do you bet?" asked the Duke.
She smiled flirtatiously in answer and Bertie stood forlorn, his nice pink complexion turning an ugly salmon colour. In a minute the white car was off, Miss Nelson beside the duke, the chauffeur like a small nut in a large sh.e.l.l, lolling in the tonneau. Bertie turned to us, and having looked kindly at me, sharply demanded of Jack where he was going.
"Mademoiselle has an errand."
"Ah! then I"ll drive Mademoiselle. Wish I had a tenner for every time I"ve driven an Aigle! You can sit inside, in case there"s work to do."