In consequence of the expected ball in the evening, neither the Palliser
nor Arden party had been at the walks in the morning. But soon after
breakfast Alfred called at Lady Palliser's with his usual offering of
sweets.
Caroline had just entered the drawing-room, and was proceeding towards a
conservatory at its further extremity, when the appearance of Alfred
arrested her steps.
He assisted her in arranging the flowers he had brought, and in
selecting from them the favoured few she was to wear herself. This task
drew from him some playful remark, more love-like than rational, on the
good fortune of the happy blossoms thus chosen.
Lady Palliser had been particularly harsh that morning about some
trifle, and Caroline was consequently in very bad spirits.
"Why should it be good fortune to be chosen by me," she said, "when I am
myself the most unfortunate of beings? The poor flowers that I choose,"
she added with a faint effort to laugh, fearful she had said too much,
"will be the first to fade away," quoting Moore's little song.
"Or the young gazelle, with its soft black eye,
If it _loved you well would be sure to die_,"
proceeded Alfred, humming the air and continuing the quotation; then in
a half playful, half tender whisper, he subjoined, "The death-warrant
of many of whom your ladyship little thinks would be already signed and
sealed were this the case." But perceiving while he spoke that though
Caroline tried to smile her lip trembled, he checked himself, and with
an altered tone exclaimed, "I beg a thousand pardons! You are--you
seem--what can have--"
"Oh, nothing," she replied, "only other young people are light-hearted
and cheerful together; there are your sisters for instance, how happy
they always seem to be; and how kind to you all--how indulgent, how
affectionate, Lady Arden appears. While I have neither sister, nor
brother, and yet my mother"--here checking herself, she added
hesitatingly, "I dare say--it must be my own fault--I suppose I don't
deserve to be loved--but I am quite sure that--that--my mother does not
love me--and oh, if you knew how miserable the thought makes me!"
"You cannot be serious," he said.
"I am indeed!" she replied, looking up with innocent earnestness, while
her eyes swam in tears.
Alfred caught her hand, pressed it to his lips, talked incoherently
about the impossibility of knowing without loving her, then of his own
unworthiness, his presumption, his poverty, his insignificance, &c. &c.;
his being in short a younger son; and at length wound up all by making,
notwithstanding, a passionate declaration of his love. If affection the
most devoted, the most unalterable, had any value in her eyes, affection
that would study her every wish, affection such as he was convinced no
lover had ever felt before; if such affection could in any degree
compensate for the absence of every other pretension, such, unable
longer to suppress his feeling, he now ventured to lay at her feet.
Caroline trembled and remained silent. He entreated her to speak, to
relieve him from the fear that he had offended her past forgiveness by
the very mention of his perhaps too daring suit.
"Does--my mother--know?" she whispered at last, "because--if not--I
fear--"
"Lady Palliser I think," he replied, "must know, must understand; nay, I
have ventured to allude slightly to the subject, and have even been
presumptuous enough to translate her ladyship's kindly and indulgent
admission of my constant visits as, however liberal on her part, a tacit
consent to my addresses."
"Oh, I hope you are right!" exclaimed Caroline, with an inadvertent
earnestness which called forth from Alfred gratitude the most profuse,
expressed, not indeed loudly, but in whispers so tender, so eloquent,
that for some moments, Caroline, forgetting every thing but their
import, felt a happiness she had never known before. New and delightful
prospects of futurity seemed opening before her youthful imagination,
hitherto so cruelly depressed. Her countenance, though covered with
blushes, and studiously turned away to hide them, so far indicated what
was passing within, as to encourage Alfred in adding,
"To-morrow, then, when Lady Palliser may possibly be at home, may I
venture to speak to her ladyship on this subject?"
After a short silence, Caroline replied with hesitation,
"Yes--I--suppose--you had better."
But she sighed heavily as she said so, for she dreaded the strange and
whimsical temper of Lady Palliser; yet she now found that a feeling of
consolation accompanied what had hitherto been her greatest sorrow, the
sense of her mother's want of affection; for perhaps, she thought, she
may not care enough about me to mind what I do! Here all her efforts at
self-possession gave way, and she yielded to a passion of tears.
Alfred had been holding her hand, and anxiously watching her
countenance; he became alarmed, and began to suspect, that perhaps she
was herself undecided. "What can this mean?" he cried. "You do not
repent of the permission you have given me? Caroline! say you do not!
Say I am wrong in this!"
She raised her eyes and moved her lips to reply, when a loud
electrifying knock was heard at the hall door. The look however had so
far reassured Alfred, that he again pressed her hand to his lips, and
repeated with an inquiring tone, "To-morrow, then?" Footsteps were heard
in the hall; the drawing-room door opened, and Alfred hastily
disappeared, while a servant entering, laid cards on the table and
retired.
Caroline was hastening towards the conservatory to take refuge there
till her agitation should subside, when the Venetian blind which hung
over its entrance was moved aside, and her mother appeared before her,
scorn and rage depicted in her countenance.
Our heroine, her footsteps thus unexpectedly arrested, stopped short in
the centre of the apartment, and stood trembling from head to foot.
From behind the Venetian blind, Lady Palliser had witnessed the whole of
the interview between the lovers.
She was not herself previously aware that the heartless coquetry in
which she had been indulging had taken so strong a hold even of her bad
feelings; but disappointed vanity was perhaps a mortification she had
never known before. She therefore scarcely herself understood the
species of rage with which she was now animated; the almost hatred with
which she now looked on the perfect loveliness of her blushing,
trembling child. Of course, on prudential considerations she would have
disapproved of the match at any rate; and of this she now made an
excuse to herself.
She stepped forward, and when close before Caroline, stamped her foot,
uttered an ironical, hysterical laugh, and almost gasping for breath,
stood some moments ere she could well articulate.
"You piece of premature impudence!" were the first words she at length
pronounced. After pausing again for a moment, she recommenced with a
sneer, "So you have made your arrangement. I must congratulate you on
Mr. Arden's obliging acceptance of your liberal offer, of heart, hand,
and fortune!"
Caroline looked the most innocent astonishment.
"You really do not understand me," proceeded her ladyship, in the same
tone of mockery. "Are you then not aware that I have been a witness to
the scene which has just passed? and have, of course, heard your modest
ladyship stating to Mr. Arden how much at a loss you were for some one
to love you, forsooth! Barefaced enough, certainly! Upon which the young
man could not in common politeness do less than offer his services.
Besides, it was much too good a thing to be rejected; few younger
brothers, and therefore beggars, would refuse the hand of an heiress of
your rank and fortune. Go! you disgrace to your family and sex; go to
your room, and remain there till you have my permission to leave it. As
for Mr. Arden, I shall give orders that he is never again admitted
beneath this roof. Should you hereafter meet him in society do not dare
to recognise him. Go!"
Caroline was moving towards the door, without attempting a reply, well
aware that remonstrance or entreaty would be perfectly vain.
"Stay!--I have changed my mind," recommenced her ladyship. "Mr. Arden
comes to-morrow, it seems--let him come--I shall not see him. Receive
him yourself, reject him yourself, now and for ever! Tell him that on
reflection you have repented of your folly; and that the subject must
not be even mentioned to me. Let the interview take place in this
room--let your rejection be distinct, and let him suppose it comes from
yourself. I shall be again in the conservatory--I shall hear and see all
that passes; and on your peril, by word or look, say more or less than I
have commanded."
Caroline flung herself on her knees, and with clasped hands and
streaming eyes looked up in her mother's face. "Oh, do not, do not,"
she exclaimed, "ask me to see him, and in all else I will submit!"
Lady Palliser laughed out with malicious irony, saying, "So you offer
conditional obedience. Do," she proceeded, frowning fiercely, and
extending her clenched hand in the attitude of a fury, "precisely as I
have commanded!"
"This evening," continued her ladyship, with affected composure, looking
contemptuously down on Caroline, who was sobbing ready to break her
heart, "this evening, deport yourself as though nothing had happened:
dance as much as usual; and do not dare to have red eyes, or to show the
slightest depression of manner. Should Mr. Arden make any allusion to
what has occurred this morning, merely tell him to say nothing more on
the subject till to-morrow."
Here Lady Palliser quitted the apartment, while Caroline remained on her
knees, overwhelmed by utter despair, and shedding, with all the innocent
vehemence of childhood, the large pure tears, which like summer showers
fall so abundantly from the eyes of the young in their first sorrow.
The alternative of daring to disobey her harsh and heartless mother
never once presented itself to her mind as possible.