MRS. LE GRANDE.
I was impatient for the appointed hour to come when I was expected at
Rose Cottage. I had tried to get further information from Esmerelda
respecting Mrs. Le Grande; but she seemed unwilling to say much about
her, leaving me more mystified than ever.
"You will know all pretty soon from her own lips, Miss, and it would cost
me my place if Mr. Winthrop knew I was meddling with what didn't concern
me."
"Mr. Winthrop is not a severe master. I think he interferes very little
with our household matters."
"But this is different; and please, Miss Selwyn, don't let on to a soul
that I gave you that letter. Mrs. Le Grande said if I didn't take it some
one else would; and it was an easy way to earn a trifle."
"But if there is anything wrong in the matter it is the hardest way in
the world to get money," I said, perplexed at her words.
Linden Lane lay back from Oaklands a mile or more, and led me on a road I
had never traversed before, although I had often planned to take it on
some of my exploring journeys. But it led away from the sea shore, and
that probably was the reason I had hitherto neglected it. There was a
strip of woodland belonging to the Oaklands estate through which a part
of the road lay. There had been a recent fall of snow and this was still
clinging heavily to the trees, especially to the spruce and hemlocks,
bringing strangely to mind the muffled, mysterious figures of the Sisters
of Charity and Nuns, as I used to see them gliding about the streets of
the old world cities. Here and there interspersed with the evergreens
were beech, and maple, and other hardwood growths, with their graceful
leafless branches stretching up like dumb pleading hands toward the
pitiful sky. I grew so interested seeking out specially picturesque
forest growths, and glimpses into the still woodland depths under the
white snow wraith which I might come again to study more closely, and put
on my canvas, that I so far forgot the business of the hour as to find
myself a half hour after the appointment at still some distance from
Linden Lane. Shutting my eyes resolutely on the rarest bits of landscape
caught now and then through a chance opening in the trees, I walked at my
best speed along the drifted road. Esmerelda had described the cottage so
minutely that I had no trouble in recognizing it. Once past the strip of
woodland, a bend in the road brought me at once into a thick cluster of
houses with a few linden trees bordering the street that had given to it
its rather poetical and alliterative name. One house much more
pretentious than the rest, I at once recognized to be Rose Cottage. I
rang the bell and was so quickly admitted, I concluded the tidy looking
little maid had been posted at the door on the lookout for me. I gave her
my card and inquired for Mrs. Le Grande; a formality quite unnecessary,
as she assured me she knew who I was and that the lady was already
waiting for me.
"Just come this way. She has a parlor upstairs; and my! but its a
stunner."
I received the information in perplexed silence. But the little maid
apparently did not look for encouragement, for she continued chattering
until the door of the "stunning" apartment was closed behind her. A
bright fire was burning in the grate at my left. In the swift glance with
which I took in all the appointments of the room I acknowledged that the
girl's description was correct. The walls were lined with pictures which
I could see were gems; rich Turkish rugs concealed the common wood floor;
while on brackets and stands were ornaments of rarest design and
workmanship. I had only a few moments, however, to gratify my curiosity;
for a _portière_ at the farther end of the room was lifted, and a vision
of female loveliness met my view such as I had never seen before.
Probably the surroundings, and the unexpected appearance of this
beautiful woman, heightened the effect.
She paused and looked at me intently. Instinctively I shrank into myself.
She seemed to be in some swift, clear-sighted way taking my measure, and
labeling the visible marks of my personality. Then she came graciously
forward, her step reminding me, in its smooth, gliding motion, of some
graceful animal of the jungle that might both fascinate and slay you.
Her eyes were of that dark, velvety blue, that under strong emotion
turns to purple, and when she chose could melt and appeal like a dumb
creature's, whose only means of communicating their wants is through
their eyes. The lashes were long and curved; her complexion delicate as
a rose leaf, with a fitful color vanishing and re-appearing in the peachy
cheek apparently as she willed it. Her hair, a rare tint of golden auburn
was wreathed around her head in heavy coils that reminded me of the
aureoles the old masters painted about the beautiful Madonna faces. Her
mouth, I concluded, was the one defect in the otherwise perfect face. The
teeth were natural and purely white, but long, and sharp, reminding one
in a disagreeable way of the fangs of an animal of prey; the lips, a rich
scarlet, were too thin, and tightly drawn for a judge of faces to admire;
the chin was clear-cut and firm--a face on the whole, I decided, that
might drive a man, snared by its beauty, to desperation. There was
passion and power both lurking behind the pearl-tinted mask.
Her attitudes were the perfection of grace--apparently, too, of unstudied
grace, which is the mark of the highest art in posing. She sat in a
purple velvet easy-chair, whose trying color set off her fine complexion
perfectly. Her voice was low and well modulated, but it had no
sympathetic chords; and therefore I could not call it musical or
pleasing. She thanked me in very exaggerated terms for having responded
to her appeal.
I exclaimed, rather impulsively, in reply--
"I expected to find the author of that pathetic letter in great distress,
and came, hoping to relieve; but I cannot be of any service here." I
glanced around the luxuriously appointed room, and then let my eyes rest
on her elaborate costume.
She smiled, "You are young, and have not yet learned that rags and
poverty seldom go hand in hand with the bitterest experiences of life."
"That is the only kind of trouble I am sufficiently experienced to meddle
with. For imaginary or abstract woe you should seek some older helper.
I would suggest Mrs. Flaxman. She has more patience with refined mourners
than I."
"Mrs. Flaxman could do me no good."
Tears stood in her eyes, making them more beautiful than ever, and quite
softening my heart.
"Won't you lay aside some of your wraps? I shall feel then as if you will
not desert me at any moment. The room is warm, and they are only an
incumbrance."
I complied, and removed my hat and fur cloak, which were beginning to
make me uncomfortably warm. She wheeled another easy-chair and bade me
take that; my eyes, grown suddenly keen, took in the fact that the velvet
covering was suited to my complexion.
"What artistic taste you must have when you are so fastidious about
harmony in colors," I said, admiringly.
"One might as well get all the possible consolation out of things. The
time for enjoying them is short, and very uncertain."
She drew a low ottoman and sat down close to me. "I have a long, sad
story to tell you, and I want to be within touch of your hand. You will
perhaps be too hard on me."
She sat, her face turned partly from me, gazing intently into the fire.
Perhaps she had a natural dread of going over a chapter in her life she
might wish had never been written.
Meanwhile the wonder kept growing on me why this exquisite woman should
come to me for sympathy. A feeling of pride, too, began swelling my heart
to think that I could be of use to others than the hungry and naked,
while I thought of the surprising account I should have to give at the
dinner-table that evening, of my adventure. My self-complacency was
destined to a rude shock. She turned to me suddenly, and asked, "How
old would you take me to be?" I looked my surprise, no doubt, but began
directly to examine critically the face before me. "I want you to tell
me the truth. We don't value flattery from our own sex; at least, I do
not."
I could see no trace of time's unwelcome tooth in that smooth, ivory
skin, as unwrinkled as a baby's face, while the rounded outlines and
dimples would have graced a débutanté.
"You are a long time deciding," she said, playfully--the color coming
fitfully under my scrutiny.
"I will hazard twenty, but you may be older."
"You think not any younger than that?" The curving lashes drooped and an
entirely new expression swept over the charming face.
"Now you look almost a child," I exclaimed with surprise. "You are a
mystery to me, and I won't try to guess any more, for it is pure guess
work."
She laughed merrily. "You are greatly mistaken. I was twenty-six
yesterday." I may have looked incredulous, and she was very keen to read
my thoughts.
"You do not believe me. Did you ever hear of a woman over twenty making
herself out older than she was?"
"My experience is but limited." I still believed that for some reason of
her own she was deceiving me respecting her age.
"When you hear my story your surprise will be that I do not look six and
thirty, instead of a decade younger."
Her next question was more startling than the first. "How do you like Mr.
Winthrop?"
I replied guardedly that I liked him very well.
"Excuse me, but that is not a correct reply. No one that cares for him at
all does so in that moderate fashion. They either love or hate him."
"Have you ever known him intimately enough to be able to say how he is
liked, or deserves to be?"
She answered me by a low ripple of laughter. My perplexity was
increasing, but I quite decided this Hermione Le Grange, as she called
herself, had not a very sad heart to get comforted.
"Do you find Mr. Winthrop very amiable, in fact would you call him a
lady's man?"
I paused to think carefully what answer I should give. "If he were a
lady's man, probably before this he would have taken one for a wife."
"You have only answered half of my question," she said so gently I could
not resent it.
"My guardian is very patient and indulgent with me. If he were more so I
should find it hard to leave him some day."
"You mean when the day of marriage comes?"
"I have not thought anything of marriage yet. I mean, not seriously.
Every young girl has her dreams, I suppose; but mine as yet are very
vague and unreal. At twenty-one I am my own mistress. Then probably my
life of ease will come to an end."
"Ah, you have dreams of a career. From what my servants tell me I
concluded you were not one of our regulation, conventional young ladies."
My cheeks flushed; for this was a tender place for her to touch.
"Is Mr. Winthrop pleased that you are so thoughtful of the poor, and so
generous in your impulses?"
"Really, Mrs. Le Grande, you would make an excellent lawyer. I do not
think I have had so many personal questions since I came to America.
School girls forget themselves sometimes, when they are of a very
inquisitive disposition."
She looked me fully in the eyes as she said: "You have been wonderfully
patient and very circumspect. I am sure in his heart Mr. Winthrop
respects you even if he is at times a trifle cavalier in his behavior."
Her eyes were still upon me with the innocent, childlike expression on
her face I was beginning to understand and fear. I said very calmly: "He
can be exceedingly fascinating when he chooses, and if he really cared
for one, I cannot imagine anything he would hesitate to do for them,
provided it was honorable. I could not conceive him stooping to a mean or
unworthy action."
"Mr. Winthrop will be flattered when I repeat your words."
"Then you know him?"
"You will think so when you hear my story."