With whatever shame, whatever chagrin, Juliet saw herself again involved
in a pecuniary obligation, with a stranger, and a gentleman, a support
so efficacious, at a moment of such alarm, was sensibly and gratefully
felt. Yet she was not less anxious to cancel a favour which still was
unfitting to be received. She watched, therefore, for the departure of
Miss Bydel, and the restoration of stillness to the staircase, to
descend, once more, in prosecution to her scheme with Miss Matson.
The anxious fear of rejection, and dread of rudeness, with which she
then renewed her solicitation, soon happily subsided, from a readiness
to listen, and a civility of manner, as welcome as they were unexpected,
in her hostess; by whom she was engaged, without difficulty, to enter
upon her new business the following morning.
Thus, and with cruel regret, concluded her fruitless effort to attain a
self-dependence which, however subject to toil, might be free, at least,
from controul. Every species of business, however narrow its cast,
however limited its wants, however mean its materials; required, she now
found, some capital to answer to its immediate calls, and some steady
credit for encountering the unforeseen accidents, and unavoidable risks,
to which all human undertakings, whether great or insignificant, are
liable.
With this conviction upon her mind, she strove to bear the
disappointment without murmuring; hoping to gain in security all that
she lost in liberty. Little reason, indeed, had she for regretting what
she gave up: she had been worn by solitary toil, and heavy rumination;
by labour without interest, and loneliness without leisure.
Nevertheless, the beginning of her new career promised little
amelioration from the change. She was summoned early to the shop to
take her work; but, when she begged leave to return with it to her
chamber, she was stared at as if she had made a demand the most
preposterous, and told that, if she meant to enter into business, she
must be at hand to receive directions, and to learn how it should be
done.
To enter into business was far from the intention of Juliet; but the
fear of dismission, should she proclaim how transitory were her views,
silenced her into acquiescence; and she seated herself behind a distant
counter.
And here, perforce, she was initiated into a new scene of life, that of
the humours of a milliner's shop. She found herself in a whirl of hurry,
bustle, loquacity, and interruptions. Customers pressed upon customers;
goods were taken down merely to be put up again; cheapened but to be
rejected; admired but to be looked at, and left; and only bought when,
to all appearance, they were undervalued and despised.
It was here that she saw, in its unmasked futility, the selfishness of
personal vanity. The good of a nation, the interest of society, the
welfare of a family, could with difficulty have appeared of higher
importance than the choice of a ribbon, or the set of a cap; and
scarcely any calamity under heaven could excite looks of deeper horrour
or despair, than any mistake committed in the arrangement of a feather
or a flower. Every feature underwent a change, from chagrin and
fretfulness, if any ornament, made by order, proved, upon trial, to be
unbecoming; while the whole complexion glowed with the exquisite joy of
triumph, if something new, devised for a superiour in the world of
fashion, could be privately seized as a model by an inferiour.
The ladies whose practice it was to frequent the shop, thought the time
and trouble of its mistress, and her assistants, amply paid by the
honour of their presence; and though they tried on hats and caps, till
they put them out of shape; examined and tossed about the choicest
goods, till they were so injured that they could be sold only at half
price; ordered sundry articles, which, when finished, they returned,
because they had changed their minds; or discovered that they did not
want them; still their consciences were at ease, their honour was
self-acquitted, and their generosity was self-applauded, if, after two
or three hours of lounging, rummaging, fault-finding and chaffering,
they purchased a yard or two of ribbon, or a few skanes of netting silk.
The most callous disregard to all representations of the dearness of
materials, or of the just price of labour, was accompanied by the most
facile acquiescence even in demands that were exorbitant, if they were
adroitly preceded by, 'Lady ----, or the Duchess of ----, gave that sum
for just such another cap, hat, &c., this very morning.'
Here, too, as in many other situations into which accident had led, or
distress had driven Juliet, she saw, with commiseration and shame for
her fellow-creatures, the total absence of feeling and of equity, in the
dissipated and idle, for the indigent and laborious. The goods which
demanded most work, most ingenuity, and most hands, were last paid,
because heaviest of expence; though, for that very reason, the many
employed, and the charge of materials, made their payment the first
required. Oh that the good Mr Giles Arbe, thought Juliet, could arraign,
in his simple but impressive style, the ladies who exhibit themselves
with unpaid plumes, at assemblies and operas; and enquire whether they
can flatter themselves, that to adorn them alone is sufficient to
recompense those who work for, without seeing them; who ornament without
knowing them; and who must necessarily, if unrequited, starve in
rendering them more brilliant!
Upon further observation, nevertheless, her compassion for the milliner
and the work-women somewhat diminished; for she found that their notions
of probity were as lax as those of their customers were of justice; and
saw that their own rudeness to those who had neither rank nor fortune,
kept pace with the haughtiness which they were forced to support, from
those by whom both were possessed. Every advantage was taken of
inexperience and simplicity; every article was charged, not according to
its value, but to the skill or ignorance of the purchaser; old goods
were sold as if new; cheap goods as if dear; and ancient, or vulgar
ornaments, were presented to the unpractised chafferer, as the very pink
of the mode.
The rich and grand, who were capricious, difficult, and long in their
examinations, because their time was their own; or rather, because it
hung upon their hands; and whose utmost exertion, and sole practice of
exercise consisted in strolling from a sofa to a carriage, were
instantly, and with fulsome adulation, attended; while the meaner, or
economical, whose time had its essential appropriations, and was
therefore precious, were obliged to wait patiently for being served,
till no coach was at the door, and every fine lady had sauntered away.
And even then, they were scarcely heard when they spoke; scarcely shewn
what they demanded; and scarcely thanked for what they purchased.
In viewing conflicts such as these, between selfish vanity and cringing
cunning, it soon became difficult to decide, which was least congenial
to the upright mind and pure morality of Juliet, the insolent, vain,
unfeeling buyer, or the subtle, plausible, over-reaching seller.
The companions of Juliet in this business, though devoted, of course, to
its manual operations, left all its cares to its mistress. Their own
wishes and hopes were caught by other objects. The town was filled with
officers, whose military occupations were brief, whose acquaintances
were few, and who could not, all day long, ride, or pursue the sports of
the field. These gentlemen, for their idle moments, chose to deem all
the unprotected young women whom they thought worth observance, their
natural prey. And though, from race to race, and from time immemorial,
the young female shop-keeper had been warned of the danger, the folly,
and the fate of her predecessors; in listening to the itinerant admirer,
who, here to-day and gone to-morrow, marches his adorations, from town
to town with as much facility, and as little regret, as his regiment;
still every new votary to the counter and the modes, was ready to go
over the same ground that had been trodden before; with the fond
persuasion of proving an exception to those who had ended in misery and
disgrace, by finishing, herself, with marriage and promotion. Their
minds, therefore, were engaged in airy projects; and their leisure,
where they could elude the vigilance of Miss Matson, was devoted to
clandestine coquetry, tittering whispers, and secret frolics.
'These,' said Juliet, in a letter to Gabriella, 'are now my destined
associates! Ah, heaven! can these--can such as these,--setting aside
pride, prejudice, propriety, or whatever word we use for the
distinctions of society,--can these--can such as these, suffice as
companions to her whose grateful heart has been honoured with the
friendship of Gabriella? O hours of refined felicity past and gone, how
severe is your contrast with those of heaviness and distaste now
endured!'
The inexperience of Juliet in business, impeded not her acquiring almost
immediate excellence in the millinery art, for which she was equally
fitted by native taste, and by her remembrance of what she had seen
abroad. The first time, therefore, that she was employed to arrange some
ornaments, she adjusted them with an elegance so striking, that Miss
Matson, with much parade, exhibited them to her best lady-customers, as
a specimen of the very last new fashion, just brought her over by one of
her young ladies from Paris.
In a town that subsists by the search of health for the sick, and of
amusement for the idle, the smallest new circumstance is of sufficient
weight to be related and canvassed; for there is ever most to say where
there is least to do. The phrase, therefore, that went forth from Miss
Matson, that one of her young ladies was just come from France, was soon
spread through the neighbourhood; with the addition that the same person
had brought over specimens of all the French _costume_.
Such a report could not fail to allure staring customers to the shop,
where the attraction of the youth and beauty of the new work-woman,
contrasted with her determined silence to all enquiry, gave birth to
perpetually varying conjectures in her presence, which were followed by
the most eccentric assertions where she was the subject of discourse in
her absence. All that already had been spread abroad, of her acting, her
teaching, her playing the harp, her needle-work, and, more than all, her
having excited a suicide; was now in every mouth; and curiosity, baffled
in successive attempts to penetrate into the truth, supplied, as usual,
every chasm of fact by invention.
This species of commerce, always at hand, and always fertile, proved so
highly amusing to the lassitude of the idle, and to the frivolousness of
the dissipated, that, in a very few days, the shop of Miss Matson became
the general rendezvous of the saunterers, male and female, of
Brighthelmstone. The starers were happy to present themselves where
there was something to see; the strollers, where there was any where to
go; the loungers, where there was any pretence to stay; and the curious
where there was any thing to develop in which they had no concern.
Juliet, at first, ignorant of the usual traffic of the shop, imagined
this affluence of customers to be habitual; but she was soon undeceived,
by finding herself the object of inquisitive examination; and by
overhearing unrestrained inquiries made to Miss Matson, of 'Pray, Ma'am,
which is your famous French milliner?'
In the midst of these various distastes and discomforts, some interest
was raised in the mind of Juliet, for one of her young
fellow-work-women. It was not, indeed, that warm interest which is the
precursor of friendship; its object had no qualities that could rise to
such a height; it was simply a sensation of pity, abetted by a wish of
doing good.
Flora Pierson, without either fine features or fine countenance, had
strikingly the beauty of youth in a fair complexion, round, plump, rosy
cheeks, bright, though unmeaning eyes, and an air of health, strength,
and juvenile good humour, that was diffused copiously through her whole
appearance. She was innocent and inoffensive, and, as far as she was
able to think, well meaning, and ready to be at every body's command;
though incapable to be at any body's service. Yet her simplicity was of
that happy sort that never occasions self-distress, from being wholly
unaccompanied by any consciousness of deficiency or inferiority.
Accustomed to be laughed at almost whenever she spoke, she saw the smile
that she raised without emotion; or participated in it without knowing
why; and she heard the sneer that followed her simple merriment without
displeasure; though sometimes she would a little wonder what it meant.
This young creature, who had but barely passed her sixteenth year, had
already attracted the dangerous attention of various officers, from
whose several attacks and manoeuvres she had hitherto been rescued by
the vigilance of Miss Matson. Each of these anecdotes she eagerly took,
or rather made opportunities to communicate to Juliet; waiting for no
other encouragement than the absence of Miss Matson, and using no other
prelude than 'Now I've got something else to tell you!'
Except for some slight mixture of contempt, Juliet heard these tales
with perfect indifference; till that ungenial feeling, or rather absence
of feeling, was superceded by compassion, upon finding that she was the
object, probably the dupe, of a new and unfinished adventure, with which
Miss Matson was as yet unacquainted. 'Now, Miss Ellis!' she cried, 'I'll
tell you the drollest part of all, shall I? Well, do you know I've got
another admirer that's above all the rest? And yet he i'n't a captain,
neither, nor an officer. But he's quite a gentleman of quality, for he's
a knight baronight. And he's very pretty, I assure you. As pretty as
you, only his nose is a little shorter, and his mouth is a little
bigger. And he has not got quite so much colour; for he is very pale.
But he's prettier than I am, I believe. Yet I'm not very homely, people
say. I'm sure I don't know. One can't judge one's self. But I believe
I'm very well. At least, I am not very brown; I know that, by my
looking-glass. I've a pretty good skin of my own.'
Neither the giggling derision of her fellow-work-women, nor the total
abstinence from enquiry or comment with which Juliet heard these
insignificant details, checked the pleasure of Flora in her own prattle;
which, whenever she could find some one to address,--for she waited not
till any one would listen,--went on, with sleepy good humour, and
pretty, but unintelligent smiles, from the moment that she rose, to the
moment that she went to rest. But when, in great confidence, and
declaring that nobody was in the secret, except just Miss Biddy, and
Miss Jenny, and Miss Polly, and Miss Betsey, she made known who was this
last and most striking admirer, the attention of Juliet was roused; it
was Sir Lyell Sycamore.
Copiously, and with looks of triumph, Flora related her history with the
young Baronet. First of all, she said, he had declared, in ever so many
little whispers, that he was in love with her; and next, he had made her
ever so many beautiful presents, of ear-rings, necklaces, and trinkets;
always sending them by a porter, who pretended that they were just
arrived by the Diligence; with a letter to shew to Miss Matson,
importing that an uncle of Flora's, who resided in Northumberlandshire,
begged her to accept these remembrances. 'Though I'm sure I don't know
how he found out that I've got an uncle there,' she continued, 'unless
it was by my telling it him, when he asked me what relations I had.'
Her gratitude and vanity thus at once excited, Sir Lyell told her that
he had some important intelligence to communicate, which could not be
revealed in a short whisper in the shop: he begged her, therefore, to
meet him upon the Strand, a little way out of the town, one Sunday
afternoon; while Miss Matson might suppose that she was taking her usual
recreation with the rest of the young ladies. 'So I could not refuse
him, you may think,' she said, 'after being so much obliged to him; and
so we walked together by the sea-side, and he was as agreeable as ever;
and so was I, too, I believe, if I may judge without flattery. At least,
he said I was, over and over; and he's a pretty good judge, I believe, a
man of his quality. But I sha'n't tell you what he said to me; for he
said I was as fresh as a violet, and as fair as jessamy, and as sweet as
a pink, and as rosy as a rose; but one must not over and above believe
the gentlemen, mamma says, for what they say is but half a compliment.
However, what do you think, Miss Ellis? Only guess! For all his being so
polite, do you know, he was upon the point of behaving rude? Only I told
him I'd squall out, if he did. But he spoke so pretty when he saw I was
vexed, that I could not be very angry with him about it; could I?
Besides, men will be rude, naturally, mamma says.'
'But does not your mamma tell you, also, Miss Pierson, that you must not
walk out alone with gentlemen?'
'O dear, yes! She's told me that ever so often. And I told it to Sir
Lyell; and I said to him we had better not go. But he said that would
kill him, poor gentleman! And he looked as sorrowful as ever you saw;
just as if he was going to cry. I'm sure I'm glad he did not, poor
gentleman! for if he had, it's ten to one but I should have cried too;
unless, out of ill luck, I had happened to fall a laughing; for it's
odds which I do, sometimes, when I'm put in a fidget. However, upon
seeing his sister, along with some company of his acquaintance, not far
off, he said I had better go back: but he promised me, if I would meet
him again the next Sunday, he would have a post-chaise o'purpose for me,
because of the pebbles being so hard for my feet; and he'd take me ever
so pretty a ride, he said, upon the Downs. But he came the next morning
to tell me he was forced, by ill luck, to go to London; but he'd soon be
back: and he bid me, ever so often, not to say one word of what had
passed to a living creature; for if his sister should get an inkling of
his being in love with me, there would be fine work, he said! But he'd
bring me ever so many pretty things, he said, from London.'
Juliet listened to this history with the deepest indignation against the
barbarous libertine, who, with egotism so inhuman, sought to rob, first
of innocence, and next, for it would be the inevitable consequence, of
all her fair prospects in life, a young creature whose simplicity
disabled her from seeing her danger; whose credulity induced her to
agree to whatever was proposed; and whose weakness of intellect rendered
it as much a dishonour as a cruelty to make her a dupe.
Whatever could be suggested to awaken the simple maiden to a sense of
her perilous situation, was instantly urged; but without any effect. Sir
Lyell Sycamore, she answered, had owned that he was in love with her;
and it was very hard if she must be ill natured to him in return;
especially as, if she behaved agreeably, nobody could tell but he might
mean to make her a lady. Where a vision so refulgent, which every speech
of Sir Lyell's, couched in ambiguous terms, though adroitly evasive of
promise, had been insidiously calculated to present, was sparkling full
in sight, how unequal were the efforts of sober truth and reason, to
substitute in its place cold, dull, disappointing reality! Juliet soon
relinquished the attempt as hopeless. Where ignorance is united with
vanity, advice, or reproof, combat it in vain. She addressed her
remonstrances, therefore, to their fellow-work-women; every one of
which, it was evident, was a confidant of the dangerous secret. How was
it, she demanded, that, aware of the ductility of temper of this poor
young creature, they had suffered her to form so alarming a connexion,
unknown either to her friends or to Miss Matson?
Pettishly affronted, they answered, that they were not a set of fusty
duennas: that if Miss Pierson were ever so young, that did not make them
old; that she might as well take care of herself, therefore, as they of
themselves. Besides, nobody could tell but Sir Lyell Sycamore meant to
marry her; and indeed they none of them doubted that such was his
design; because he was politeness itself to all of them round, though he
was most particular, to be sure, to Miss Pierson. They could not think,
therefore, of making such a gentleman their enemy, any more than of
standing in the way of Miss Pierson's good fortune; for, to their
certain knowledge, there were more grand matches spoilt by meddling and
making, than by any thing else upon earth.
Here again, what were the chances of truth and reason against the
semblance, at least the pretence of generosity, which thus covered folly
and imprudence? Each aspiring damsel, too, had some similar secret, or
correspondent hope of her own; and found it convenient to reject, as
treachery, an appeal against a sister work-woman, that might operate as
an example for a similar one against herself.
Juliet, therefore, could but determine to watch the weak, if not willing
victim, while yet under the same roof; and openly, before she quitted
it, to reveal the threatening danger to Miss Matson.