An answer so little expected, from one whose dependent state had been so
freely discussed, caused a general surprize, and an almost universal
demand of who the young person might be, and what she could mean. The
few words that had dropt from her had as many commentators as hearers.
Some thought their inference important; others, their mystery
suspicious; and others mocked their assumption of dignity. Tears started
into the eyes of Lady Barbara; while those of Sir Jaspar were fixed,
meditatively, upon the head of his crutch; but the complacent smile of
admiration, exhibited by Mr Giles, attracted the notice of the whole
assembly, by the peals of laughter which it excited in the Miss
Crawleys.
With rage difficultly disguised without, but wholly ungovernable within,
Mrs Ireton would instantly have revenged what she considered as the most
heinous affront that she had ever received, by expelling its author
ignominiously from her house, but for the still sharpened curiosity with
which her pretentions to penetration became piqued, from the general cry
of 'How very extraordinary that Mrs Ireton has never been able to
discover who she is!'
When Juliet, therefore, conceiving her removal from this mansion to be
as inevitable, as her release from its tyranny was desirable, made
known, as soon as the company was dispersed, that she was ready to
depart; she was surprised by a request, from Mrs Ireton, to stay a day
or two longer; for the purpose of taking care of Mr Loddard the
following morning; as Mrs Ireton, who had no one with whom she could
trust such a charge, had engaged herself to join a party to see Arundel
Castle.
Little as Juliet felt disposed to renew her melancholy wanderings, her
situation in this house appeared to her so humiliating, nay degrading,
that neither this message, nor the fawning civilities with which, at
their next meeting, Mrs Ireton sought to mitigate her late asperity,
could prevail with her to consent to any delay beyond that which was
necessary for obtaining the counsel of Gabriella; to whom she wrote a
detailed account of what had passed; adding, 'How long must I thus waste
my time and my existence, separated from all that can render them
valuable, while fastened upon by constant discomfort and disgust? O
friend of my heart, friend of my earliest years, earliest feelings,
juvenile happiness,--and, alas! maturer sorrows! why must we thus be
sundered in adversity? Oh how,--with three-fold toil, should I revive by
the side of my beloved Gabriella!--Dear to me by every tie of tender
recollection; dear to me by the truest compassion for her sufferings,
and reverence for her resignation; and dear to me,--thrice dear! by the
sacred ties of gratitude, which bind me for ever to her honoured mother,
and to her venerated, saint-like uncle, my pious benefactor!'
She then tenderly proposed their immediate re-union, at whatever cost of
fatigue, or risk, it might be obtained; and besought Gabriella to seek
some small room, and to enquire for some needle-work; determining to
appropriate to a journey to town, the little sum which she might have to
receive for the long and laborious fortnight, which she had consigned to
the terrible enterprize of aiming at amusing, serving, or interesting,
one whose sole taste of pleasure consisted in seeking, like Strife, in
Spenser's Fairy Queen, occasion for dissension.
With the apprehension, however, of losing, the desire of retaining her
always revived; and now, as usual, proved some check to the recreations
of spleen, in which Mrs Ireton ordinarily indulged herself. Yet, even in
the midst of intended concession, the love of tormenting was so
predominant, that, had the resolution of Juliet still wavered, whether
to seek some new retreat, or still to support her present irksome
situation, all indecision would have ceased from fresh disgust, at the
sneers which insidiously found their way through every effort at
civility. What had dropt from Mr Giles Arbe, relative to the bank-notes,
had excited curiosity in all; tinted, in some, with suspicion, and, in
Mrs Ireton, blended with malignity and wrath, that a creature whom she
pleased herself to consider, and yet more to represent, as dependent
upon her bounty for sustinence, should have any resources of her own.
Nor was this displeasure wholly free from surmises the most disgraceful;
though to those she forbore to give vent, conscious that to suggest them
would stamp with impropriety all further intercourse with their object.
And a moment that offered new food for inquisition, was the last to
induce Mrs Ireton to relinquish her _protegee_. She confined her
sarcasms, therefore, when she could not wholly repress them, to oblique
remarks upon the happiness of those who were able to lay by private
stores for secret purposes; lamenting that such was not her fate; yet
congratulating herself that she might now sleep in peace, with respect
to any creditors; since, should she be threatened with an execution, her
house had a rich inmate, by whom she flattered herself that she should
be assisted to give bail.
Already, the next morning, her resolution with regard to her nephew was
reversed; and, the child desiring the change of scene, she gave
directions that Miss Ellis should prepare herself to take him in charge
during the excursion.
But Juliet was now initiated in the services and the endurance of an
humble companion in public; she offered, therefore, to amuse and to
watch him at home, but decidedly refused to attend him abroad; and her
evident indifference whether to stay or begone herself, forced Mrs
Ireton to deny the humoured boy his intended frolic.
Little accustomed to any privation, and totally unused to
disappointment, the young gentleman, when his aunt was preparing to
depart, had recourse to his usual appeals against restraint or
authority, clamourous cries and unappeasable blubbering. Juliet, to
whose room he refused to mount, was called upon to endeavour to quiet
him, and to entice him into the garden; that he might not hear the
carriage of his aunt draw up to the door.
But this commission the refractory spirit of the young heir made it
impossible to execute, till he overheard a whisper to Juliet, that she
would take care, should Mr Loddard chuse to go to the Temple, to place
the silk-worms above his reach.
Suddenly, then, he sprang from his consolers and attendants, to run
forward to the forbidden fruit; and, with a celerity that made it
difficult for Juliet, even with her utmost speed, and longer limbs, to
arrive at the spot in time to prevent the mischief for which she saw him
preparing. She had just, however, succeeded, in depositing the menaced
insects upon a high bracket, when a footman came to whisper to her the
commands of his lady, that she would detain Mr Loddard till the party
should be set off.
Before the man had shut himself out, Ireton, holding up his finger to
him in token of secresy, slipt past him into the little building; and,
having turned the key on the inside, and put it into his pocket, said,
'I'll stand centinel for little Pickle!' and flung himself, loungingly,
upon an arm chair.
Confounded by this action, yet feeling it necessary to appear
unintimidated, Juliet affected to occupy herself with the silk-worms; of
which the young gentleman now, eager to romp with Ireton, thought no
more.
'At last, then, I have caught you, my skittish dear!' cried Ireton,
while jumping about the little boy, to keep him in good humour. 'I have
had the devil of a difficulty to contrive it. However, I shall make
myself amends now, for they are all going to Arundel Castle, and you and
I can pass the morning together.'
The indignant look which this boldness excited, he pretended not to
observe, and went on.
'I can't possibly be easy without having a little private chat with you.
I must consult you about my affairs. I want devilishly to make you my
friend. You might be capitally useful to me. And you would find your
account in it, I promise you. What sayst thee, my pretty one?'
Juliet, not appearing to hear him, changed the leaves of the silk-worms.
'Can you guess what it is brings me hither to old madam my mother's? It
is not you, with all your beauty, you arch prude; though I have a great
enjoyment in looking at you and your blushes, which are devilishly
handsome, I own; yet, to say the truth, you are not--all together--I
don't know how it is--but you are not--upon the whole--quite exactly to
my taste. Don't take it ill, my love, for you are a devilish fine girl.
I own that. But I want something more skittish, more wild, more
eccentric. If I were to fix my fancy upon such symmetry as you, I should
be put out of my way every moment. I should always be thinking I had
some Minerva tutoring, or some Juno awing me. It would not do at all. I
want something of another cast; something that will urge me when I am
hippish, without keeping me in order when I am whimsical. Something
frisky, flighty, fantastic,--yet panting, blushing, dying with love for
me!--'
Neither contempt nor indignation were of sufficient force to preserve
the gravity of Juliet, at this unexpected ingenuousness of vanity.
'You smile!' he cried; 'but if you knew what a deuced difficult thing it
is, for a man who has got a little money, to please himself, you would
find it a very serious affair. How the deuce can he be sure whether a
woman, when once he has married her, would not, if her settlement be to
her liking, dance at his funeral? The very thought of that would either
carry me off in a fright within a month, or make me want to live for
ever, merely to punish her. It's a hard thing having money! a deuced
hard thing! One does not know who to trust. A poor man may find a wife
in a moment, for if he sees any one that likes him, he knows it is for
himself; but a rich man,--as Sir Jaspar says,--can never be sure whether
the woman who marries him, would not, for the same pin-money, just as
willingly follow him to the outside of the church, as to the inside!'
At the name of Sir Jaspar, Juliet involuntarily gave some attention,
though she would make no reply.
'From the time,' continued Ireton, 'that I heard him pronounce those
words, I have never been able to satisfy myself; nor to find out what
would satisfy me. At least not till lately; and now that I know what I
want, the difficulty of the business is to get it! And this is what I
wish to consult with you about; for you must know, my dear, I can never
be happy without being adored.'
Juliet, now, was surprised into suddenly looking at him, to see whether
he were serious.
'Yes, adored! loved to distraction! I must be idolized for myself,
myself alone; yet publicly worshiped, that all mankind may see,--and
envy,--the passion I have been able to inspire!'
Suspecting that he meant some satire upon Elinor, Juliet again fixed her
eyes upon her silk-worms.
'So you don't ask me what it is that makes me so devilish dutiful all of
a sudden, in visiting my mamma? You think, perhaps, I have some debts to
pay? No; I have no taste for gaming. It's the cursedest fatiguing thing
in the world. If one don't mind what one's about, one is blown up in a
moment; and to be always upon one's guard, is worse than ruin itself. So
I am upon no coaxing expedition, I give you my word. What do you think
it is, then, that brings me hither? Cannot you guess?--Hay?--Why it is
to arrange something, somehow or other, for getting myself from under
this terrible yoke, that seems upon the point of enslaving me. My neck
feels galled by it already! I have naturally no taste for matrimony. And
now that the business seems to be drawing to a point, and I am called
upon to name my lawyer, and cavilled with to declare, to the uttermost
sixpence, what I will do, and what I will give, to make my wife merry
and comfortable upon my going out of the world,--I protest I shudder
with horrour! I think there is nothing upon earth so mercenary, as a
young nymph upon the point of becoming a bride!'
'Except,--' Juliet here could not resist saying, 'except the man,--young
or old,--who is her bridegroom!'
'O, that's another thing! quite another thing! A man must needs take
care of his house, and his table, and all that: but the horridest thing
I know, is the condition tied to a man's obtaining the hand of a young
woman; he can never solicit it, but by giving her a prospect of his
death-bed! And she never consents to live with him, till she knows what
she may gain by his dying! Tis the most shocking style of making love
that can be imagined. I don't like it, I swear! What, now, would you
advise me to do?'
'I?'
'Yes; you know the scrape I am in, don't you? Sir Jaspar's estate, in
case he should have no children, is entailed upon me; and, in case I
should have none neither, is entailed upon a cousin; the heaviest dog
you ever saw in your life, whom he hates and despises; and whom I wish
at old Nick with all my heart, because I know he, and all his family,
will wish me at the devil myself, if I marry; and, if I have children,
will wish them and my wife there. I hate them all so heartily, that,
whenever I think of them, I am ready, in pure spite, to be tied to the
first girl that comes in my way: but, when I think of myself, I am taken
with a fit of fright, and in a plaguey hurry to cut the knot off short.
And this is the way I have got the character of a male jilt. But I don't
deserve it, I assure you; for of all the females with whom I have had
these little engagements, there is not one whom I have seriously thought
of marrying, after the first half hour. They none of them hit my fancy
further than to kill a little time.'
The countenance of Juliet, though she neither deigned to speak nor to
turn to him, marked such strong disapprobation, that he thought proper
to add, 'Don't be affronted for little Selina Joddrel: I really meant to
marry her at the time; and I should really have gone on, and "buckled
to," if the thing had been any way possible: but she turns out such a
confounded little fool, that I can't think of her any longer.'
'And was it necessary,--' Juliet could not refrain from saying, 'to
engage her first, and examine whether she could make you happy
afterwards?'
'Why that seems a little awkward, I confess; but it's a way I have
adopted. Though I took the decision, I own, rather in a hurry, with
regard to little Selina; for it was merely to free myself from the
reproaches of Sir Jaspar, who, because he is seventy-five, and does not
know what to do with himself, is always regretting that he did not take
a wife when he was a stripling; and always at work to get me into the
yoke. But, the truth is, I promised, when I went abroad, to bring him
home a niece from France, or Italy; unless I went further east; and then
I would look him out a fair Circassian. Now as he has a great taste for
any thing out of the common way, and retains a constant hankering after
Beauty, he was delighted with the scheme. But I saw nothing that would
do! Nothing I could take to! The pretty ones were all too buckish; and
the steady ones, a set of the yellowest frights I ever beheld.'
'Alas for the poor ladies!'
'O, you are a mocker, are you?--So to lighten the disappointment to Sir
Jaspar, I hit upon the expedient of taking up with little Selina, who
was the first young thing that fell in my way. And I was too tired to be
difficult. Besides, what made her the more convenient, was her extreme
youth, which gave me a year to look about me, and see if I could do any
better. But she's a poor creature; a sad poor creature indeed! quite too
bad. So I must make an end of the business as fast as possible. Besides,
another thing that puts me in a hurry is,--the very devil would have it
so!--but I have fallen in love with her sister!--'
Juliet, at a loss how to understand him, now raised her eyes; and, not
without astonishment, perceived that he was speaking with a grave face.
'O that noble stroke! That inimitable girl! Happy, happy, Harleigh! That
fellow fascinates the girls the more the less notice he takes of them! I
take but little notice of them, neither; but, some how or other, they
never do that sort of thing for me! If I could meet with one who would
take such a measure for my sake, and before such an assembly,--I really
think I should worship her!'
Then, lowering his voice, 'You may be amazingly useful to me, my angel,'
he cried, 'in this new affair. I know you are very well with Harleigh,
though I don't know exactly how; but if,--nay, hear me before you look
so proud! if you'll help me, a little, how to go to work with the divine
Elinor, I'll bind myself down to make over to you,--in case of
success,--mark that!--as round a sum as you may be pleased to name!'
The disdain of Juliet at this proposition was so powerful, that, though
she heard it as the deepest of insults, indignation was but a secondary
feeling; and a look of utter scorn, with a determined silence to
whatever else he might say, was the only notice it received.
He continued, nevertheless, to address her, demanding her advice how to
manage Harleigh, and her assistance how to conquer Elinor, with an air
of as much intimacy and confidence, as if he received the most cordial
replies. He purposed, he said, unless she could counsel him to something
better, making an immediate overture to Elinor; by which means, whether
he should obtain, or not, the only girl in the world who knew how to
love, and what love meant, he should, at least, in a very summary way,
get rid of the little Selina.
Juliet knew too well the slightness of the texture of the regard of
Selina for Ireton, to be really hurt at this defection; yet she was not
less offended at being selected for the confidant of so dishonourable a
proceeding; nor less disgusted at the unfeeling insolence by which it
was dictated.
An attempt at opening the door at length silenced him, while the voice
of Mrs Ireton's woman called out, 'Goodness! Miss Ellis, what do you
lock yourself in for? My lady has sent me to you.'
Juliet cast up her eyes, foreseeing the many disagreeable attacks and
surmises to which she was made liable by this incident; yet immediately
said aloud, 'Since you have thought proper, Mr Ireton, to lock the door,
for your own pleasure, you will, at least, I imagine, think proper to
open it for that of Mrs Ireton.'
'Deuce take me if I do!' cried he, in a low voice: 'manage the matter as
you will! I have naturally no taste for a prude; so I always leave her
to work her way out of a scrape as well as she can. But I'll see you
again when they are all off.' Then, throwing the key upon her lap, he
softly and laughingly escaped out of the window.
Provoked and vexed, yet helpless, and without any means of redress,
Juliet opened the door.
'Goodness! Miss Ellis,' cried the Abigail, peeping curiously around,
'how droll for you to shut yourself in! My lady sent me to ask whether
you have seen any thing of Mr Ireton in the garden, or about; for she
has been ready to go ever so long, and he said he was setting off first
on horseback; but his groom is come, and is waiting for orders, and none
of us can tell where he is.'
'Mr Ireton,' Juliet quietly answered, 'was here just now; and I doubt
not but you will find him in the garden.'
'Yes,' cried the boy, 'he slid out of the window.'
'Goodness! was he in here, then, Master Loddard? Well! my lady'll be in
a fine passion, if she should hear of it!'
This was enough to give the tidings a messenger: the boy darted forward,
and reached the house in a moment.
The Abigail ran after him; Juliet, too, followed, dreading the impending
storm yet still more averse to remaining within the reach and power of
Ireton. And the knowledge, that he would now, for the rest of the
morning, be sole master of the house, filled her with such horrour, of
the wanton calumny to which his unprincipled egotism might expose her,
that, rather than continue under the same roof with a character so
unfeelingly audacious, she preferred risking all the mortifications to
which she might be liable in the excursion to Arundel Castle.
Advanced already into the hall, dragged thither by her turbulent little
nephew, and the hope of detecting the hiding-place of Ireton, stood the
patroness whom she now felt compelled to soothe into accepting her
attendance. Not aware of this purposed concession, and nearly as much
frightened as enraged, to find with whom her son had been shut up, Mrs
Ireton, in a tone equally querulous and piqued, cried, 'I beg you a
thousand pardons, Ma'am, for the indiscretion of which I have been
guilty, in asking for the honour of your company to Arundel Castle this
morning! I ought to make a million of apologies for supposing that a
young lady,--for you are a lady, no doubt! every body is a lady,
now!--of your extraordinary turn and talents the insupportable
insipidity of a tete a tete with a female; or the dull care of a
bantling; when a splendid, flashy, rich, young travelled gentleman,
chusing, also, to remain behind, may be tired, and want some amusement!
'Twas grossly stupid of me, I own, to expect such a sacrifice. You, who,
besides these prodigious talents, that make us all appear like a set of
vulgar, uneducated beings by your side; you, who revel also, in the
luxury of wealth; who wanton in the stores of Plutus; who are accustomed
to the magnificence of unaccounted hoards!--How must the whole detail of
our existence appear penurious, pitiful to you!--I am surprised how you
can forbear falling into fits at the very sight of us! But I presume you
reserve the brilliancy of an action of that _eclat_, for objects better
worth your while to dazzle by a stroke of that grand description? I must
have lost my senses, certainly, to so ill appreciate my own
insignificance! I hope you'll pity me! that's all! I hope you will have
so much unction as to pity me!'
If, at the opening of this harangue, the patience of Juliet nearly
yielded to resentment, its length gave power to reflection,--which
usually wants but time for checking impulse,--to point out the many and
nameless mischiefs, to which quitting the house under similar suspicions
might give rise. She quietly, therefore, answered, that though to
herself it must precisely be the same thing, whether Mr Ireton were at
home or abroad, if that circumstance gave any choice to Mrs Ireton, she
would change her own plans, either to go or to stay, according to the
directions which she might receive.
A superiority to accusation or surmize thus cool and decided, no sooner
relieved the apprehensions of Mrs Ireton by its evident innocence, than
it excited her wrath by its deliberate indifference, if not contempt:
and she would now disdainfully have rejected the attendance which, the
moment before, she had anxiously desired, had not the little master of
the house, who had seized the opportunity of this harangue to make his
escape, caught a glimpse of the carriage at the door; and put an end to
all contest, by stunning all ears, with an unremitting scream till he
forced himself into it; when, overpowering every obstacle, he obliged
his aunt and Juliet to follow; while he issued his own orders to the
postilion to drive to Arundel Castle.
Even the terrour of calumny, that most dangerous and baneful foe to
unprotected woman! would scarcely have frightened Juliet into this
expedition, had she been aware that, as soon as she was seated in the
landau, with orders to take the whole charge of Mr Loddard, the little
dog, also, would have been given to her management. 'Bijou will like to
take the air,' cried Mrs Ireton, languidly; 'and he will serve to
entertain Loddard by the way. He can go very well on Miss Ellis's lap.
Pretty little creature! 'Twould be cruel to leave him at home alone!'
This terrible humanity, which, in a hot day, in the middle of July, cast
upon the knees of Juliet a fat, round, well furred, and over-fed little
animal, accustomed to snarl, scratch, stretch, and roll himself about at
his pleasure, produced fatigue the most pitiless, and inconvenience the
most comfortless. The little tyrant of the party, whose will was law to
the company, found no diversion so much to his taste, during the short
journey, as exciting the churlish humour of his fellow-favourite, by
pinching his ears, pulling his nose, filliping his claws, squeezing his
throat, and twisting round his tail. And all these feats, far from
incurring any reprimand, were laughed at and applauded. For whom did
they incommode? No one but Miss Ellis;--and for what else was Miss Ellis
there?
Yet this fatigue and disgust might have been passed over, as local
evils, had they ceased with the journey; and had she then been at
liberty to look at what remains of the venerable old castle; to visit
its ancient chapel; to examine the genealogical records of the long
gallery; to climb up to the antique citadel, and to enjoy the spacious
view thence presented of the sea: but she immediately received orders to
give exercise to Bijou, and to watch that he ran into no danger: though
Selina, who assiduously came forward to meet Mrs Ireton, without
appearing even to perceive Juliet, officiously took young Loddard in
charge, and conducted him, with his aunt, to a large expecting party,
long arrived, and now viewing the citadel.