Juliet could not but be gratified by a circumstance so important to her
reputation, with the Brinvilles, and with those among the inhabitants of
Brighthelmstone to whom she was known, as that of being brought home by
Miss Joddrel, after an adventure that must unavoidably raise curiosity,
and that threatened to excite slander. For with however just a pride
wronged innocence may disdain injurious aspersions, female fame, like
the wife of Caesar, ought never to be suspected.
The celerity of the motions of Elinor, nearly equalled the quickness of
her ideas. Her lackey arrived the next morning, to help to convey
Juliet, and her baggage, immediately to the dwelling of Mrs Ireton; with
a note from his mistress, indicating that Mrs Ireton was already
prepared to take her for a companion. 'An humble companion,' Elinor
wrote, 'I need not add; I had nearly said a pitiful one; for who would
voluntarily live with such an antidote to all the comforts of life, that
has spirit, sense, or soul? O envied Ellis! how potent must be the
passion, the infatuation, that can make Harleigh view such meanness as
grace, and adore it as dignity!--O icy Ellis!--but the human heart would
want strength to support such pre-eminent honour, were it bestowed upon
a mind gifted for its appreciation!'
Then again, wishing her joy of her taste, she assured her that it was
reciprocated; for Mrs Ireton was all impatience to display, to a new
dependent, her fortune, her power, and her magnificence.
Juliet, with her answer of thanks for this service, wrote a few lines
for Mrs Pierson, which she begged the messenger to deliver. They were to
warn the imprudent, or deceived mother of the dangerous state of mind in
which her daughter still continued; and to give her notice that Sir
Lyell Sycamore, who could not be guarded against too carefully, was
still in the neighbourhood.
With a mind revolting from a measure which, while prudence, if not
necessity, dictated, choice and feeling opposed, she now quitted her
mantua-maker's abode, to set out for her new destination; seeking to
cheer herself that, at least, by this step, she should be secured from
the licentious pursuit of Sir Lyell Sycamore; the envenomed shafts of
calumny of the enraged Brinvilles; the perpetual terrour of debts; and
the cruel apprehension of want.
She had not far to go; but the mortifications, for which she prepared
herself, began by the very sight of the dwelling into which she was to
enter. Mrs Ireton had taken the house of Mrs Howel:--that house in which
Juliet had first, after her arrival in England, received consolation in
her distresses; been melted by kindness; or animated by approbation.
There, too, indeed, she had experienced the pain which she had felt the
most severely; for there all the soothing consideration, so precious to
her sorrows, had abruptly been broken off, to give place to an assault
the most shocking upon her intentions, her probity, her character.
Here, too, she had suffered the cruel affront, and heartfelt grief, of
seeing the ingenuous, amiable Lord Melbury forget what was due to the
rights of hospitality; to his own character; and to the respect due to
his sister: and here she had witnessed his sincere and candid
repentance; here had been softened, touched, and penetrated by the
impressive anguish of his humiliation.
These remembrances, and the various affecting and interesting ideas by
which they were accompanied, gave a dejection to her thoughts, and a
sadness to her air, that would have awakened an interest in her favour,
in any one whose heart had been open to the feelings of others: but the
person under whose protection she was now to place herself, was a
stranger to every species of sensation that was not personal. And where
the calls of self upon sensibility are unremitting, what must be the
stock that will gift us, also, with supply sufficient for our
fellow-creatures?
She found Mrs Ireton reclining upon a sofa; at the side of which, upon a
green velvet cushion, lay a tiny old lap dog, whom a little boy,
evidently too wanton to find pleasure but in mischief, was secretly
tormenting, by displaying before him the breast bone of a chicken, which
he had snatched from the platter of the animal; and which, the moment
that he made it touch the mouth of the cur, he hid, with all its fat and
its grease, in his own waistcoat pocket.
Near to these two almost equally indulged and spoilt animals, stood a
nursery maid, with a duster and an hearth-broom in her hands, who was
evidently incensed beyond her pittance of patience, from clearing away,
repeatedly, their joint litter and dirt.
Scared, and keeping humbly aloof, near a window frame, stood, also, a
little girl, of ten or twelve years of age, who, as Juliet afterwards
heard from the angry nursery maid, was an orphan, that had been put to a
charity school by Mrs Ireton, as her particular _protegee_; and who was
now, for the eighth time, by the direction of her governess, come to
solicit the arrears due from the very beginning of her school
instruction.
Yet another trembler, though not one equally, at this moment, to be
pitied, held the handle of the lock of the door; not having received
intelligible orders to advance, or to depart. This was a young negro,
who was the favourite, because the most submissive servant of Mrs
Ireton; and whose trembling was simply from the fear that his lady might
remark a grin which he could not repress, as he looked at the child and
the dog.
Mrs Ireton herself, though her restless eye roved incessantly from
object to object, in search of various food for her spleen, was
ostensibly occupied in examining, and decrying, the goods of a Mercer;
but when Juliet, finding herself unnoticed, was retreating, she called
out, 'O, you are there, are you? I did not see you, I protest. But come
this way, if you please. I can't possibly speak so far off.'
The authoritative tone in which this was uttered, joined to what Juliet
observed of the general tyranny exercised around her, intimidated and
shocked her; and she stood still, and nearly confounded.
Mrs Ireton, holding her hand above her eyes, as if to aid her sight, and
stretching forward her head, said, 'Who is that?--pray who's there?--I
imagined it had been a person I had sent for; but I must certainly be
mistaken, as she does not come to me. Pray has any body here a spying
glass? I really can't see so far off. I beg pardon for having such bad
eyes! I hope you'll forgive it. Let me know, however, who it is, I beg.'
Juliet tried to speak, but felt so confused and disturbed what to
answer, that she could not clearly articulate a word.
'You won't tell me, then?' continued Mrs Ireton, lowering her voice
nearly to a whisper, 'or is it that I am not heard? Has any body got a
speaking trumpet? or do you think my lungs so capacious and powerful,
that they may take its place?'
Juliet, now, though most unwillingly, moved forward; and Mrs Ireton,
surveying her, said, 'Yes, yes, I see who you are! I recollect you now,
Mrs ... Mrs ... I forget your name, though, I protest. I can't recollect
your name, I own. I'm quite ashamed, but I really cannot call it to
mind. I must beg a little help. What is it? What is your name, Mrs ...
Mrs ... Hay?--Mrs ... What?'
Colouring and stammering, Juliet answered, that she had hoped Miss
Joddrel would have saved her this explanation, by mentioning that she
was called Miss Ellis.
'Called?' repeated Mrs Ireton; 'what do you mean by called?--who calls
you?--What are you called for?--Why do you wait to be called?--And where
are you called from?'
The entire silence of Juliet to these interrogatories, gave a moment to
the mercer to ask for orders.
'You are in haste, Sir, are you?' said Mrs Ireton; 'I have your pardon
to beg, too, have I? I am really very unfortunate this morning. However,
pray take your things away, Sir, if it's so immensely troublesome to you
to exhibit them. Only be so good as to acquaint your chief, whoever he
may be, that you had not time to wait for me to make any purchase.'
The man offered the humblest apologies, which were all disdained; and
self-defending excuses, which were all retorted; he was peremptorily
ordered to be gone; with an assurance that he should answer for his
disrespect to his master; who, she flattered herself, would give him a
lesson of better behaviour, by the loss of his employment.
Harassed with apprehension of what she had to expect in this new
residence, Juliet would silently have followed him.
'Stay, Ma'am, stay!' cried Mrs Ireton; 'give me leave to ask one
question:--whither are you going, Mrs ... what's your name?'
'I ... I feared, Madam, that I had come too soon.'
'O, that's it, is it? I have not paid you sufficient attention,
perhaps?--Nay it's very likely. I did not run up to receive you, I
confess. I did not open my arms to embrace you, I own! It was very wrong
of me, certainly. But I am apt to forget myself. I want a flapper
prodigiously. I know nothing of life,--nothing of manners. Perhaps you
will be so good as to become my monitress? 'Twill be vastly kind of you.
And who knows but, in time, you may form me? How happy it will be if you
can make something of me!'
The maid, now, tired of wiping up splash after splash, and rubbing out
spot after spot; finding her work always renewed by the mischievous
little boy, was sullenly walking to the other end of the room.
'O, you're departing too, are you?' said Mrs Ireton; 'and pray who
dismissed you? whose commands have you for going? Inform me, I beg, who
it is that is so kind as to take the trouble off my hands, of ordering
my servants? I ought at least to make them my humble acknowledgements.
There's nothing so frightful as ingratitude.'
The maid, not comprehending this irony, grumblingly answered, that she
had wiped up the grease and the slops till her arms ached; for the
little boy made more dirt and nastiness than the cur himself.
'The boy?--The cur?--What's all this?' cried Mrs Ireton; 'who, and what,
is the woman talking of? The boy? Has the boy no name?--The cur? Have
you no more respect for your lady's lap dog?--Grease
too?--Nastiness!--you turn me sick! I am ready to faint! What horrible
images you present to me! Has nobody any salts? any lavendar-water? How
unfortunate it is to have such nerves, such sensations, when one lives
with such mere speaking machines!'
She then cast around her eyes, with a look of silent, but pathetic
appeal to the sensibility of all who were within sight, against this
unheard of indignity; but her speech was soon restored, from mingled
wrath and surprise, upon perceiving her favourite young negro nearly
suffocating with stifled laughter, though thrusting both his knuckles
into his capacious mouth, to prevent its loud explosion.
'So this amuses you, does it, Sir? You think it very comical? You are so
kind as to be entertained, are you? How happy I am to give you so much
pleasure! How proud I ought to be to afford you such diversion! I shall
make it my business to shew my sense of my good fortune; and, to give
you a proof, Sir, of my desire to contribute to your gaiety, to-morrow
morning I will have you shipped back to the West Indies. And there, that
your joy may be complete, I shall issue orders that you may be striped
till you jump, and that you may jump,--you little black imp!--between
every stripe!'
The foolish mirth of poor Mungo was now converted into the fearfulest
dismay. He dropt upon his knees to implore forgiveness; but he was
peremptorily ordered to depart, with an assurance that he should keep up
his fine spirits upon bread and water for a fortnight.
If disgust, now, was painted upon every feature of the face of Juliet,
at this mixture of forced derision with but too natural inhumanity, the
feeling which excited that expression was by no means softened, by
seeing Mrs Ireton turn next to the timid young orphan, imperiously
saying, 'And you, Ma'am, what may you stand there for, with your hands
before you? Have you nothing better to do with them? Can't you find out
some way to make them more useful? or do you hold it more fitting to
consider them as only ornamental? They are very pretty, to be sure. I
say nothing to the contrary of that. But I should suppose you don't
quite intend to reserve them for mere objects of admiration? You don't
absolutely mean, I presume, to devote them to the painter's eye? or to
destine them to the sculptor's chisel? I should think not, at least. I
should imagine not. I beg you to set me right if I am wrong.'
The poor little girl, staring, and looking every way around to find some
meaning for what she did not comprehend, could only utter a faint
'Ma'am!' in a tone of so much fear and distress, that Juliet, unable,
silently, to witness oppression so wanton, came forward to say, 'The
poor child, Ma'am, only wishes to understand your commands, that she may
obey them.'
'O! they are not clear, I suppose? They are too abstruse, I imagine?'
contemptuously replied Mrs Ireton. 'And you, who are kind enough to
offer yourself for my companion; who think yourself sufficiently
accomplished to amuse,--perhaps instruct me,--you, also, have not the
wit to find out, what a little chit of an ordinary girl can do better
with her hands, than to stand still, pulling her own fingers?'
Juliet, now, believing that she had discovered what was meant, kindly
took the little girl by the arm, and pointed to the just overturned
water-bason of the dog.
'But I don't know where to get a cloth, Ma'am?' said the child.
'A cloth?--In my wardrobe, to be sure!' cried Mrs Ireton; 'amongst my
gowns, and caps, and hats. Where else should there be dirty cloths, and
dusters, and dish-clouts? Do you know of any other place where they are
likely to be found? Why don't you answer?'
'Ma'am?'
'You never heard, perhaps, of such a place as a kitchen? You don't know
where it is? nor what it means? You have only heard talk of
drawing-rooms, dressing-rooms, boudoirs? or, perhaps, sometimes, of a
corridor, or a vestibule, or an anti-chamber? But nothing beyond!--A
kitchen!--O, fie, fie!'
Juliet now hurried the little girl away, to demand a cloth of the house
maid; but the moment that she returned with it, Mrs Ireton called out,
'And what would you do, now, Ma'am? Make yourself all dirt and filth,
that you may go back to your school, to shew the delicate state of my
house? To make your mistress, and all her brats, believe that I live in
a pig-stie? Or to spread abroad that I have not servants enough to do my
work, and that I seize upon you to supply their place? But I beg your
pardon; perhaps that may be your way to shew your gratitude? To manifest
your sense of my saving you from the work-house? to reward me for
snatching you from beggary, and want, and starving?'
The poor little girl burst into tears, but courtsied, and quitted the
room; while Mrs Ireton called after her, to desire that she would
acquaint her governess, that she should certainly be paid the following
week.
Juliet now stood in scarcely less dismay than she had been witnessing
all around her; panic-struck to find herself in the power of a person
whose character was so wantonly tyrannic and irascible.
The fortunate entrance of some company enabled her, for the present, to
retreat; and to demand, of one of the servants, the way to her chamber.