THE SOHO BAZAAR.
Frank Vanguard, leaving the threshold of No. 40 with unusual alacrity,
lost no time in securing one of the many Hansom cabs that are to be
found crawling about Belgravia, plentiful as wasps on wall-fruit, every
summer's afternoon. "Soho Bazaar," said he. "Don't go to sleep over it!"
And so found himself, in less than a quarter of an hour, at the door of
that heterogeneous emporium. It did not seem to surprise him in the
least, that, while he paid his driver, the well-known figure of Miss
Ross should precede him into the building, nor that he should come upon
her, minutely examining ornaments of bog-oak, at the very first counter
which offered a secluded corner for confidential communication. The
place seemed well adapted for secrecy; purchasers, it appeared, there
were none, while the sellers, women of various ages and costumes, were
mostly nodding drowsily behind their wares.
Jin looked up from a clumsy black cross set in Irish diamonds, and her
eyes flashed brighter than the spurious gems while, putting her hand in
Frank's arm, she nestled to his side, as though henceforth her refuge
was there alone.
"You got my note?" she whispered. "I didn't know what to do. My only
chance was to see you at once, and I could think of no place so good as
this."
"Dearest!" he murmured, pressing the arm that clung so fondly to his
own, looking about him, nevertheless, in uncomfortable apprehension of
observant bystanders, or sharp-sighted acquaintance.
"I have had such a battle to fight," she continued, leading him into a
grove of waving drapery, consisting chiefly of clothing for young
people. "If I hadn't _felt_ I could depend upon you, I think I must have
given way. I've behaved so badly to Mrs. Lascelles, so cruelly to Mr.
Groves. I've done so wrong, by everybody but _you_."
"Dearest!" he repeated, with another squeeze. His ideas were gradually
deserting him, nor did he know exactly what he was expected to say in
reply.
"They all wanted to persuade me," she continued. "They all wanted to
talk me into it; and in my position, so completely friendless and
forlorn, it would have been an excellent arrangement, of course--far the
wisest thing to do. But I couldn't. No, I couldn't, when I thought of
_you_."
"I didn't quite make out from your note," said Frank, collecting his
wits with some difficulty. "You wrote it in a hurry, I dare say. You
mentioned something about old Groves. Had he--had he the impudence to
ask you to marry him?"
She turned round with a comical expression of mingled pain and amusement
in her face.
"Do you think it requires so much effrontery?" she demanded. "Recollect
my position, or rather total want of it. Recollect that Mr. Groves is
rich, amiable, kind-hearted, and, after all, not so _very_ old, that is,
for a _man_. Just the sort of person to make a good, trustworthy,
affectionate husband."
"Then why didn't you take him?" said Frank; but the tone of pique in
which he spoke, told Miss Ross the game was in her own hand.
She let go his arm, looking reproachfully into his very eyes.
"Can _you_ ask me, Captain Vanguard?" she exclaimed, in sorrowful
accents, stopping short under a pair of elaborate blue knickerbockers,
ticketed seven-and-nine. "If so, I have indeed acted madly in meeting
you here to-day. No; let go my hand. Before I walk a step farther tell
me if you really mean what you say!"
"You know what I mean," he answered, in an agitated whisper. "You know
that you are everything in the world to _me_. That if you took up with
any other fellow you would drive me mad, and that I would rather we were
both in our graves than you should marry such a 'guy' as old Groves!"
They were pacing on through the bazaar once more, Frank having
repossessed himself of his companion's arm, while he made the foregoing
statement, with every appearance of earnestness and truth.
Jin stopped short at a counter, on which were displayed a variety of
children's toys in gaudy profusion.
"What a love!" she exclaimed, pouncing on a parti-coloured little
figure-of-fun with bells at all its angles. "Twelve-and-sixpence? Put it
up for me, please, Captain Vanguard; don't look so astonished. It's only
a plaything for my boy!"
Frank's eyes opened wide; perhaps for that reason his ears failed to
detect something forced and embarrassed in the laugh with which Miss
Ross greeted his surprise.
"I have no secrets from you _now_," she continued. "You and I must trust
each other entirely, or not at all. I have never told you about my boy,
but I cannot and will not give him up, even for you, Frank. Take me with
my encumbrances, or not at all. _C'est tout simple!_" Watching his looks
as the steersman watches a coming wave, something warned her to avoid
the imminent shock. Like a skilful pilot, she luffed, so to speak,
several points to the windward of truth.
"He has nobody else to depend on in the world," she said, eyeing Frank's
face with a touching and plaintive gaze. "People blame me, I dare say,
but I know I'm doing right, for after all, is he not my own sister's
child?"
Frank drew a long breath, looking immensely relieved, yet conscious the
while of a vague perception, not entirely agreeable, that the last link
in his fetters was about to be riveted for good and all.
"You're an angel," said he--"a real angel, I do believe. I begin to see
it more every day. At first, I used to think you could be very wicked if
you chose. Tell me all about it. I know you will tell me the----"
He could not have believed those slender fingers were strong enough to
inflict such a grip as at this moment interrupted his sentence, and
hurried him on to a different part of the bazaar so rapidly as to entail
no small risk of upsetting many fragile articles exposed for sale at the
corners of the different stalls; not, however, before he was aware of an
exceedingly frigid bow from Lady Shuttlecock, a stare of unbounded
astonishment from at least two of her daughters, and a wink of intense
amusement from Kilgarron, who, surrounded by children of all sizes, was
obviously in attendance on aunt, cousins, and relations of every degree.
This numerous family-party did not affect to conceal their surprise at
Frank's appearance in such an unlikely place and with so charming a
companion. Had the pair walked boldly up to Lady Shuttlecock to exchange
with these new arrivals the customary greetings of people who see each
other much oftener than they desire, it would probably have been
inferred that Mrs. Lascelles was shopping in some other part of the
building, and no further notice would have been taken of the
circumstance; but Jin's sudden flight, the result perhaps of studied
calculation, was compromising in the last degree, and her ladyship,
gathering her brood around her, began to fan herself with a vigour of
disapproval not calculated to cool an exuberant matron in the dog-days.
As her head, rising inch by inch, attained the level from which
propriety looks down on indiscretion, she turned fiercely to Kilgarron,
and observed, as if it was _his_ fault:
"Most extraordinary! _Your_ friend Captain Vanguard, and, of all people
in the world, Miss Ross!"
"It couldn't have been Miss Ross, mamma," interposed Lady Selina in
sprightly innocence. "She never would have run away from us as if we'd
got the plague."
"Nonsense, Selina," said her sister. "She was ashamed of herself, and
well she might be. I always thought her an odious person; and as for
_your_ friend, Kil, I don't believe he's much better."
"Bother!" replied Kilgarron. "She's his cousin, sure! Mayn't a man take
his cousin to the Soho Bazaar, and buy fairings for her? Never say it!
I'll be emptying the counter here for mine this minute!"
So popular a declaration was received by the young fry with acclamations
that reached the ears of Frank and Jin, who had retired for sanctuary to
the loneliness of the picture-room.
"I am lost _now_!" exclaimed the latter, really out of breath from the
pace at which they fled. "It will be all over London to-night. The girls
hate me like poison. The mother's the greatest gossip in Europe. Lord
Kilgarron will make a joke of it at the mess-table! Captain
Vanguard--Frank--what is to become of me? Don't look so cross! What am I
to do?"
He pondered. His face was very grave--almost, as she said, cross.
Suddenly it lighted up, smiling fondly down into her own.
"There is a very easy way out of it," he said--"a way to stop all their
mouths; but perhaps you wouldn't like it!"
"To marry Mr. Groves?" said she, with one of her most mischievous
glances and her merriest laugh.
He laughed in concert.
"If you like, darling," he answered, "at some future time; but not
whilst I'm alive. It's my turn first."
"Oh, Frank!" was all she said; and for a moment she felt she loved him
too dearly to sacrifice him to such a fate.
But the temptation was overwhelming. So many considerations crowded on
her brain: her state of dependence, now more than ever irksome since the
late difference with Mrs. Lascelles; the awkwardness of meeting Uncle
Joseph daily, and the impossibility of refusing to give him a decided
answer; the equal impossibility, after all she had led him to expect, of
saying anything but Yes; the delight--and this to one of her temperament
and antecedents was not without considerable charm--of anything like an
elopement or a clandestine marriage, not counting the triumph of
carrying off such a prize as Frank Vanguard from the many women who
would be too happy to make him their lawful prey; the impression--vague,
unreasoning, and essentially feminine--that such a step would free her
at once and for ever from any claim Picard might advance on her person,
her belongings, or her child; finally, and it is only justice to insist
that this was the strongest inducement of all--the undisturbed
possession of that child, whom she resolved to carry off with her in
her flight, but whose relationship to herself, it pained her to think,
she must now disguise for evermore.
Vanguard, drawing her towards him, was surprised to find the tears
running down her cheeks.
He didn't care if a hundred Lady Shuttlecocks were watching: he wound
his arm round her waist, and she buried her face impulsively in his
breast. For half a minute or so, they were both very much in earnest and
very happy.
Then she looked up, and adjusted her bonnet with a smile.
"How shocked St. Sebastian will be!" she observed; that
sparingly-clothed martyr, execrably painted, having indeed been the only
witness of this improper ebullition.
"It must be done at once," said Frank; now that he was fairly in for it,
characteristically keen and impatient of inaction. "You can't go back to
No. 40. I won't have you persecuted by that old idiot, Groves. We ought
to start from here, you and I, just as we are--swagger into the first
church that we see--they're always open--and get it over."
She smiled very sweetly now on his impatience.
"You rash, inconsiderate darling!" she said. "That's impossible. I wish
it wasn't. No. You shall be guided by me, and let me have my own way. In
the first place, I must go back to No. 40 for many reasons. Well, if you
insist on knowing, I must get some more things. I am very glad you like
this dress; but it wouldn't do for one's whole outfit. Don't look so
alarmed: my wardrobe is not very large, and I know where I can have it
taken care of without dragging about with me more than I require.
To-morrow I shall be free."
"And to-morrow I must be at Windsor--at least in the afternoon,"
observed Frank in an injured tone. "Why the Colonel can't inspect my
young horses without _me_ I don't know. The whole lot are not worth
five pounds. But I can get away by six o'clock."
"At Windsor!" repeated Jin. "The very thing! Now listen, Frank, and I
will arrange it all in a way that will disarm suspicion, and leave no
trace of us after we have made our escape. You shall go down to your
barracks and attend to your duties, like a good boy. I mean you to be
always subservient to discipline. When your colonel has done with you,
it will be my turn. You will get into a skiff, or whatever you call
it--a boat that has room enough for two people, and cushions, and all
that--you shall row it to the very place I got in at--don't you
remember--the day you saved my life? and--and you will find me waiting
there. Take me or leave me; as I said before, Frank, I have nobody in
the world now but you."
He lifted her hand passionately to his lips. "Take you!" he repeated, "I
should think I _would_! But how are you to get out of London? What
excuse can you make to Mrs. Lascelles?"
She hated herself that she could lie to _him_, and yet such is the force
of habit, such are the exigencies of a life like hers, the ready
falsehood came glib to her tongue.
"We are all going to The Lilies for a day or two," she said. "Miss
Hallaton is to be there, with Mrs. Lascelles, on a visit."
Even now he winced as if he was stung, at the bare mention of Helen's
name. The sensation was painful in the extreme, though qualified by
gratified vanity, and a certain bitter satisfaction in the justice of
his reprisals.
She read him like a book. If she had ever wavered for a moment, if her
better nature had ever warned her to spare the man's future because she
loved him, all such considerations were utterly set aside in that
passion for rivalry which has driven so many women to destruction, and
by which Miss Ross was certainly not less affected than the rest of her
sex.
In all matters of love, war, pleasure, or business, Frank had a great
idea of sailing with the tide. So long as things went smoothly, his
maxim was to "let the ship steer herself," a method of navigation both
safer and more successful than people generally imagine. He assented
with the utmost devotion to all Jin's arrangements, even in their most
trifling details, and did not even protest against her cruelty in
cutting short their interview, and imperatively forbidding him to
accompany her any part of the way home.
"You see I trust you in everything," said he, as he bade her "good-bye"
at the door of the cab to which he consigned her.
"And do not I trust _you_?" was her answer, with a look that spoke
volumes, rousing all the manly impulses of his nature, appealing to all
the generous instincts of his heart.
She knew exactly how to manage him. As she drove away, Frank felt that
to deceive this simple, confiding girl, who had placed herself so
completely at his mercy, trusted so implicitly in his honour, would be,
of all villanies, the blackest and most disgraceful. "If I'm going to
make a fool of myself," he muttered, while the rattle of her cab was
lost in the roar of an adjacent thoroughfare, "at least you shall never
find out I think so; and, come what may, my darling, hang me if I'll
ever be such a rogue as to make a fool of _you_!"
Miss Ross, returning to No. 40, experienced much the same feelings as a
whist-player, who, with unexpectedly good cards, has yet made the most
of them by science, skill, and studious attention to the game. Perhaps,
also, she felt conscious of a certain fatigue and depression, such as
generally succeeds brain-work accompanied by excitement. During her
_tête-à-tête_ dinner with Mrs. Lascelles she was more silent than
usual, whereas the other lady was more talkative. It did not escape the
latter, however, that Jin's manner had acquired a softness and a wistful
kindness towards herself she had never observed before. Uncle Joseph,
too, coming to spend the evening, boiling with indignation, thought his
ladye-love tenderer, more womanly, more attractive than ever. She had
coaxed him into good-humour with his first cup of tea, and in less than
ten minutes had him in perfect subjection once more. Whether it was
compunction or remorse, or only the innate coquetry inseparable from the
woman, I cannot explain, but a charm seemed to hang about Jin to-night
irresistible as the spells of a sorceress. Uncle Joseph, though the
least sensitive of subjects, was completely subdued.
He took an early opportunity, however, of asking his enchantress, not
without irritation, why she had been out when he called? Her answer
disarmed him completely.
"I waited till past five, and then the pain got so much worse, I could
bear it no longer."
His heart leaped and his face brightened. "You--you don't mean you
couldn't endure the anxiety! Miss Ross!--Jin! How I wish I'd known! How
I wish I'd seen you! What! You--you actually started to look for me?"
"Not so bad as that," she answered, with a smile. "I went out to get a
tooth stopped."