TWO OF A RACE.
That day had not opened pleasantly or auspiciously for Mrs. Grace and
her granddaughter. As soon as the pretence of breakfast was disposed
of, Edith went to her room and the old woman took her work and sat in
the open window.
Edith was too unnerved to think of doing anything that day towards
getting a new place. Disappointment and despair seemed to hedge her in
on all sides; but she was resolved to persevere in getting a situation
as soon as she recovered from the effects of her late discomfiture and
shock. The need for immediate employment was all the greater now, for
her outfit and expedition to Eltham House had not only absorbed the
money she had by her, but all her grandmother could command as well,
and there would be little or nothing coming in now.
For herself she did not care, because she had schooled herself to
regard herself and her feelings as of no consequence. Until that
morning she had enjoyed the sustaining power of family pride. If what
this attorney of Castleton said were true, she no longer could count
on that support. What were three or four or five generations to one
who had believed her name and race had come with the blood-making
William? She had no blood in her veins worth speaking about. She was
at most fifth in line from an humble dealer in wool, in an obscure
provincial town. She who had regarded half-a-dozen of the great ducal
houses as new people! She! who was she or what was she? After all
perhaps it might be better that one who had to earn her bread by
rendering service should not have too far back reaching a lineage.
There was less derogation in earning money by service when one came of
a race of humble dealers in wool than if one had come of an historic
house.
But the discovery had a depressing effect nevertheless. Her
grandmother didn't feel the matter, of course, so much as she felt it;
for the old woman had none of the Grace blood in her veins. Never had
she, while at school, committed the vulgar folly of boasting of her
family. How fortunate that was, in face of the fact disclosed this
morning. Why, her people had started as small shopkeepers, come by
money and affected therefrom the airs of their betters, and the
consequence of illustrious race. The claims of the Grace family were
nothing more than a piece of pretentious bombast, if not, at the
outset, deliberate lying. No doubt her father had believed he was
well-bred and of gentle birth, but his father before him, or, anyway,
his father before him again, must have known better.
No doubt the house of Leeds could show no higher origin, but then she
had had nothing but contempt for the house of Leeds. She would rather
have come of an undistinguished soldier of William's, one who never in
himself, or any descendant of his, challenged fame or bore a title,
than owe origin to a City source. She had believed the Graces had the
undiluted blood of Hastings, and now she found they could trace back
no further than the common puddle of an obscure country town. The
romantic past and mysterious background of an old race, no longer
modified the banalities of her position. If she were to choose a
suitor of her peers she should have to take one of the bourgeois
tribe, and one in poor circumstances, too, to suit her own condition!
Why, if ever she thought of marriage, the fit mate for her was to be
found in that line of vulgar admirers she had paraded for her
amusement, her laughter, her scorn!
After the discovery of that morning, she, Edith Grace, could lift her
head no more.
The hours of the weary, empty day went by slowly for the girl. The
blaze of sunlight was unbroken by a cloud. The sun stood up so high in
heaven it cast scant shadows. Grimbsy Street was always quiet, but
after the morning efflux of men towards the places of their daily
work, the street was almost empty until the home-returning of the men
in the late afternoon and early morning. In the white and flawless air
there was nothing to mark the passage of time.
A sense of oppression and desolation fell upon Edith. In the old days,
that were only a few hours of time gone by, she could always wrap
herself from the touch of adversity in the rich brocaded cloak of
noble, if undistinguished, ancestry. Now she was cold and bare, and
full in the vulgar light of day, among the common herd of people. No
better than the very landlady whose rooms they occupied, and whom a
day back she looked on as a separate and but dimly understood
creation.
In the middle of the day there was a light lunch, at which Mrs. Grace
made nothing of the disappointment of the morning, and Edith passed
the subject almost silently. Then the afternoon dragged on through all
the inexhaustible sunlight to dinner, and each woman felt a great
sense of relief when the meal arrived, for it marked the close of that
black, blank day, and all the time between dinner and bed-time is but
the twilight dawn of another day.
An after-dinner custom of the two ladies was that Mrs. Grace should
sit in her easy chair at one side of the window in summer, and Edith
at the other, while the girl read an evening paper aloud until the
light failed or the old woman fell asleep.
It was eight o'clock, and still the unwearying light pursued and
enveloped the hours pertinaciously. The great reflux of men had long
since set in and died down low. Now and then a brisk footstep passed
the window with sharp beating sound; now and then a long and echoing
footfall lingered from end to end of the opposite flagway; now and
then an empty four-wheeled cab lumbered sleepily by.
The fresh, low voice of the girl bodied forth the words clearly, but
with no emotion or aid of inflection beyond the markings of the
punctuation on the page. She had been accustomed to read certain parts
of the paper in a particular order, and she began in this order and
went on. The words she read and uttered conveyed no meaning to her own
mind, and if at any moment she had been stopped and asked what was the
subject of the article, she would have been obliged to wait and trust
to the unconsciously-recording memory of her ear for the words her
voice had uttered.
The old woman's eyes were open. She was broad awake, but not listening
to a word that Edith read. The girl's voice had a pleasing soothing
effect, and she was sadly fancying how they two could manage to live
on the narrow means now adjudged to her by fate.
Suddenly there was a sharper, brisker sound than usual in the street.
The old woman awoke to observation. The sound approached rapidly, and
suddenly stopped close at hand with the harsh tearing noise of a
wheel-tire grating along the curbstone. Mrs. Grace leaned forward and
looked out of the window. A hansom cab had drawn up at the door, and a
man was alighting.
"There's the gentleman who was here yesterday with Mr. Leigh," said
Mrs. Grace drawing back from the window.
Edith paused a moment, and then went on reading aloud in the same
mechanical voice as before.
"I wonder could he have forgotten his gloves or his cane yesterday?"
said Mrs. Grace, whose curiosity was slightly aroused. Any excitement,
however slight, would be welcome now.
"I don't know, mother. If he forgot anything he must have left it
downstairs. I saw nothing here, and I heard of nothing."
"If you please, Mrs. Grace, Mr. Hanbury has called and wishes to see
you," said the landlady's daughter from the door of the room.
"Mr. Hanbury wants to see me!" said the old lady in astonishment.
"Will you kindly ask him to walk up? Don't stir, darling," she said as
Edith rose to go. "No doubt he brings some message from Mr. Leigh."
With a listless sigh the young girl sank back upon her chair in the
window-place.
"Mr. Hanbury, ma'am," said the landlady's daughter from the door, as
the young man looking hot and excited, stepped into the room, drew up,
and bowed to the two ladies.
"I feel," said the young man, as the door was closed behind him, "that
this is a most unreasonable hour for a visit of one you saw for the
first time, yesterday, Mrs. Grace; but last night I made a most
astounding discovery about myself, and to-day I made a very surprising
discovery about you."
"Pray, sit down," said the old lady graciously, "and tell us what
these discoveries are. But discovery or no discovery I am glad to see
you. A visit from the distinguished Mr. Hanbury would be an honour to
any house in London."
The young man bowed and sat down. In manner he was restless and
excited. He glanced from one of the women to the other quickly, and
with flashing eyes.
Edith leaned back on her chair, and looked at the visitor. He was
sitting between the two a little back from the window, so that the
full light of eight o'clock in midsummer fell upon him. The girl could
in no way imagine what discovery of this impetuous, stalwart, gifted
young man could interest them.
"You see, Mrs. Grace," he said, looking rapidly again from one to the
other, "I have just come back from the country where I had to go on an
affair of my own. An hour or two ago I got back to London, and after
seeing my mother and speaking to her awhile I came on here to you."
"Are all men impudent," thought Edith, "like Leigh and this one. What
have we to do with him or his mother, or his visit to the country?"
"Oh!" cried Mrs. Grace. "I know. I understand. You've been to Millway
and Eltham House with Mr. Leigh, and you have been kind enough to
bring us news of my grand-daughter's luggage."
"Eh? What?" He looked in astonishment from one to the other.
"Are all men," thought Edith indignantly, "so pushing, and impudent,
and interfering? What insolence of this man to call at such an hour
about my luggage!"
"Eltham House? Millway? Miss Grace's luggage? Believe me, I do not
understand." Again his eyes wandered in confused amazement from one to
the other.
"My grand-daughter left Mr. Leigh's house early yesterday morning and
did not bring her luggage with her," said the old woman severely. "If
you have not called on behalf of Mr. Leigh about the luggage, may I
ask to what you are referring when you say you have been to the
country and found out something of interest to me?"
"But I have not said I have been to Mr. Leigh's place in the country.
May I ask you where it is?"
"Near Millway, on the south coast; Sussex, I think."
"I don't know where Millway is. I have never been there; I have not
come from the south. I have been in the Midlands since I had the
pleasure of seeing you yesterday."
"The Midlands? The Midlands?" said the old woman, leaning forward and
looking at him keenly.
Edith's face changed almost imperceptibly. She showed a faint trace of
interest.
"Yes; I have just come back from Derbyshire. You are interested in
Derbyshire, aren't you?"
"Go on," said the old woman eagerly. She was now trembling, and caught
the arms of her easy chair to steady her hands.
"In Derbyshire I had occasion to visit Castleton, and there I met a
Mr. Coutch, who said he had been in communication with you respecting
your family--the Graces of Gracedieu, in the neighbourhood of
Castleton."
"Yes, yes," said the old woman impatiently. "That is quite right. I
had a letter from Mr. Coutch this morning, saying the Graces had left
the place long ago, and owned no property in the place. Have you any
other--any better news?"
"Not respecting the Graces and Gracedieu, as far as your questions
go."
"Oh," said the old woman, and with a sigh she sank back in the chair,
her interest gone. "The Graces are a Derbyshire family, and as my
grand-daughter has just lost all her little fortune, I was anxious to
know if there were any traces of her people in Derbyshire still."
The eyes of the man moved to the girl and rested on her.
"I am sorry to hear Miss Grace has lost her fortune," he said softly.
"Very sorry indeed."
"It was not very much," said the old woman, becoming garrulous and
taking it for granted Hanbury was an intimate friend of Leigh's and
knew all the dwarf's affairs, "and the loss of it was what made my
granddaughter accept the companionship to old Mrs. Leigh down at
Eltham House, near Millway. Miss Grace could not endure Mr. Leigh, and
left, without her luggage, a few hours after arriving there. That was
why I thought you came about Miss Grace's luggage."
"Miss Grace a companion to Mr. Leigh's mother?" cried the young man in
a tone of indignant protest. "What!" he thought. "This lovely creature
mewed up in the same 'house with that little, unsightly creature?"
"Yes. But she stayed only a few hours. In fact she ran away, as no
doubt your friend told you."
"Mr. Leigh told me absolutely nothing of the affair; and may I beg of
you not to call him my friend? He told you I was a friend of his, but
I never met him till yesterday, and I have no desire to meet him
again. When he had the impudence to bring me here I did not know where
I was coming, or whom I was coming to see. I beg of you, let me
impress upon you, Mr. Leigh is no friend of mine, and let me ask you
to leave him out of your mind for a little while. The matter that
brings me here now has nothing to do with him. I have come this time
to talk about the Grace family, and I hope you will not think my visit
impertinent, though the hour is late for a call."
"Certainly not impertinent. I am glad to see you again, Mr. Hanbury,
particularly as you tell me that odious man is no friend of yours."
"You are very kind," said the young man, with no expression on his
face corresponding with the words. "Mr. Coutch, the attorney of
Castleton, told me that a few weeks ago you caused inquiries to be
made in his neighbourhood respecting the Grace family. Now it so
happened that this morning, before London was awake, I started for
Castleton to make inquiries about the Grace family."
"What, you, Mr. Hanbury! Are you interested in the Grace family?"
enquired the old woman vivaciously.
"Intensely," he answered, moving uneasily on his chair. He dreaded
another interruption.
Edith Grace saw now that Hanbury was greatly excited. She put out her
hand gently and laid it soothingly on her grandmother's hand as it
rested on the arm of the chair. This young man was not nearly so
objectionable as the other man, and he had almost as much as said he
hated Leigh, a thing in itself to commend him to her good opinion. It
was best to hear in quiet whatever he had to tell.
"Yes, my child," said Mrs. Grace, responding to the touch of the
girl's hand, "I am most anxious to hear Mr. Hanbury."
"When I had the pleasure of seeing you yesterday I did not take more
interest in Castleton than any other out-of-the-way English town of
which I knew nothing, and my only interest in your family was confined
to the two ladies in this room. Last night a document was given me by
my mother, and upon reading it, I conceived the most intense interest
in Castleton and Gracedieu and the family which gave that place a
name."
He was very elaborate, and seemed resolved upon telling his story in a
way he had arranged, for his eyes were not so much concerned with Mrs.
Grace and Edith as with an internal scroll from which he was reading
slowly and carefully.
"I went to Derbyshire this morning to see Gracedieu and to make
inquiries as to a branch of the Grace family."
"And you, like me, have found out that there is no trace of the other
branch," said the widow sadly. "You found out from Mr. Coutch that
there were my granddaughter and myself and no clue to anyone else."
"Pardon me. I found out all I wanted."
"What!" exclaimed Mrs. Grace, sitting up in her chair and becoming
once more intensely interested. "You found out about the other
branch?"
"Yes, I found out all about the other branch."
"And where--where are they? Who are they? What is the name?" cried the
old woman in tremulous excitement.
"The other branch is represented by Miss Grace, here," said Hanbury,
softly laying his hand on the girl's hand as it rested on the old
woman's.
"What? What? I don't understand you! We are the Graces of Gracedieu,
or rather my husband and son were, and my grand-daughter is. There was
no difficulty in finding out us. The difficulty was to find out the
descendants of Kate Grace, who married a French nobleman in the middle
of the last century."
He rose, and bending over the girl's hand raised it to his lips and
kissed it, saying in a low voice, deeply shaken: "I am the only
descendant of Kate Grace, who, in the middle of the last century,
married Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, called Stanislaus the Second,
King of Poland."