A PROUD WOMAN HUMBLED.
The Countess of Lanswell had never in all her life been defeated before;
now all was over, and she went home with a sense of defeat such as she
had never known before. Her son refused not only to obey her, but to
listen to her remonstrances; he would not take heed of her fears, and my
lady saw nothing but social disgrace before them. Her own life had been
so crowned with social triumphs and success she could not realize or
understand anything else. The one grand desire of her heart since her
son's marriage had been that he should become a Knight of the Order of
the Garter, and now, by the recent death of a famous peer, the desire
was on the eve of accomplishment; but if, on the very brink of success,
it were known that he had left all his duties, his home, his wife, to
dance attendance on a singer, even though she were the first singer in
Europe, it would be fatal to him. It would spoil his career. My lady had
carried herself proudly among the mothers of other sons; hers had been a
success, while some others had proved, after all, dead failures; was she
to own to herself at the end of a long campaign that she was defeated?
Ah, no! Besides which there was the other side of the question--Lady
Marion declared she would not see him or speak to him again if he went
to Berlin, and my lady knew that she would keep her word. If Lord
Chandos persisted in going to Berlin his wife would appeal to the duke,
would in all probability insist on taking refuge in his house, then
there would be a grand social scandal; the whole household would be
disbanded. Lady Chandos, an injured, almost deserted wife, living with
the duke and the duchess; Lord Chandos abroad laughed at everywhere as a
dupe.
My lady writhed again in anguish as she thought of it. It must not be.
She said to herself that it would turn her hair gray, that it would
strike her with worse than paralysis. Surely her brilliant life was not
to end in such a fiasco as this. For the first time for many years hot
tears blinded those fine eyes that had hitherto looked with such
careless scorn on the world.
My lady was dispirited; she knew her son well enough to know that
another appeal to him would be useless; that the more she said to him on
the subject the more obstinate he would be. A note from Lady Chandos
completed her misery, and made her take a desperate resolve--a sad
little note, that said:
"DEAR LADY LANSWELL,--If you can do anything to help me, let it be
done soon. Lance has begun to-day his preparations for going to
Berlin. I heard him giving instructions over his traveling trunk.
We have no time to lose if anything can be done to save him."
"I must do it," said the countess, to herself, with desperation. "Appeal
to my son is worse than useless. I must appeal to the woman I fear he
loves. Who could have imagined or prophesied that I should ever have
been compelled to stoop to her, yet stoop I must, if I would save my
son!"
With Lady Lanswell, to resolve was to do; when others would have beaten
about the bush she went direct.
On the afternoon of that day she made out Leone's address, and ordered
the carriage. It was a sign of fear with her that she was so particular
with her toilet; it was seldom that she relied, even in the least, on
the advantages of dress, but to-day she made a toilet almost imperial in
its magnificence--rich silk and velvet that swept the ground in superb
folds, here and there gleaming a rich jewel.
The countess smiled as she surveyed herself in the mirror, a regal,
beautiful lady. Surely no person sprung from Leone's class would dare to
oppose her.
It was on a beautiful, bright afternoon that my lady reached the pretty
house where Madame Vanira lived. A warm afternoon, when the birds sung
in the green shade of the trees, when the bees made rich honey from the
choice carnations, and the butterflies hovered round the budding lilies.
The countess drove straight to the house. She left her carriage at the
outer gates, and walked through the pretty lawn; she gave her card to
the servant and was shown into the drawing-room.
The Countess of Lanswell would not have owned for the world that she was
in the least embarrassed, but the color varied in her face, and her lips
trembled ever so little. In a few minutes Leone entered--not the
terrified, lowly, loving girl, who braved her presence because she loved
her husband so well; this was a proud, beautiful, regal woman, haughty
as the countess herself--a woman who, by force of her wondrous beauty
and wondrous voice, had placed the world at her feet.
The countess stepped forward with outstretched hands.
"Madame Vanira," she said, "will you spare me a few minutes? I wish to
speak most particularly with you."
Leone rang the bell and gave orders that she was not to be disturbed.
Then the two ladies looked at each other. Leone knew that hostilities
were at hand, although she could not quite tell why.
The countess opened the battle by saying, boldly:
"I ought, perhaps, to tell you, Madame Vanira, that I recognize you."
Leone looked at her with proud unconcern.
"I recognize you now, although I failed to do so when I first saw you. I
congratulate you most heartily on your success."
"On what success?" she asked.
"On your success as an actress and a singer. I consider you owe me some
thanks."
"Truly," said Leone, "I owe you some thanks."
The countess did not quite like the tone of voice in which those words
were uttered; but it was her policy to be amiable.
"Your genius has taken me by surprise," she said; "yet, when I recall
the only interview I ever had with you, I recognize the dramatic talent
you displayed."
"I should think the less you say of that interview, the better," said
Leone; "it was not much to your ladyship's credit."
Lady Lanswell smiled.
"We will not speak of it," she said. "But you do not ask me to sit down.
Madame Vanira, what a charming house you have here."
With grave courtesy Leone drew a chair near the window, and the countess
sat down. She looked at the beautiful woman with a winning smile.
"Will you not be seated, madame?" she said. "I find it so much easier to
talk when one is seated."
"How did you recognize me?" asked Leone, abruptly.
"I cannot say truthfully that I recognized your face," she said; "you
will not mind my saying that if I had done so I would not have invited
you to my house, neither should I have permitted my daughter-in-law to
do so. It has placed us all in a false position. I knew you from
something my son said about you. I guessed at once that you must be
Leone Noel. I must repeat my congratulations; how hard you must have
worked."
Her eyes wandered over the magnificent face and figure, over the
faultless lines and graceful curves, over the artistic dress, and the
beautiful, picturesque head.
"You have done well," said the countess. "Years ago you thought me hard,
unfeeling, prejudiced, cruel, but it was kindness in the end. You have
achieved for yourself fame, which no one could have won for you. Better
to be as you are, queen of song, and so queen of half the world of
fashion, than the wife of a man whose family and friends would never
have received you, and who would soon have looked on you as an
incumbrance."
"Pray pardon me, Lady Lanswell, if I say that I have no wish whatever to
hear your views on the subject."
My lady's face flushed.
"I meant no offense," she said, "I merely wished to show you that I have
not been so much your enemy as you perhaps have thought me," and by the
sudden softening of my lady's face, and the sudden tremor of her voice,
Leone knew that she had some favor to ask.
"I think," she said, after a pause, "that in all truth, Madame Vanira,
you ought to be grateful to me. You would never have known the extent of
your own genius and power if you had not gone on the stage."
"The happiness of the stage resembles the happiness of real life about
as much as the tinsel crown of the mock queen resembles the regalia of
the sovereign," replied Leone. "It would be far better if your ladyship
would not mention the past."
"I only mention it because I wish you to see that I am not so much your
enemy as you have thought me to be."
"Nothing can ever change my opinion on that point," said Leone.
"You think I was your enemy?" said the countess, blandly.
"The most cruel and the most relentless enemy any young girl could
have," said Leone.
"I am sorry you think that," said my lady, kindly. "The more so as I
find you so happy and so prosperous."
"You cannot answer for my happiness," said Leone, briefly.
"I acted for the best," said the countess, with more meekness than Leone
had ever seen in her before.
"It was a miserable best," said Leone, her indignation fast rising,
despite her self-control. "A wretched best, and the results have not
been in any way so grand that you can boast of them."
"So far as you are concerned, Madame Vanira, I have nothing to repent
of," said my lady.
Leone's dark eyes flashed fire.
"I am but one," she said, "your cruelty made two people miserable. What
of your son? Have you made him so happy that you can come here and boast
of what you have done?"
My lady's head fell on her breast. Ah, no, Heaven knew her son was not a
happy man.
"Leone," she said, in a low, hurried voice, "it is of my son I wish to
speak to you. It is for my son's sake I am here--it is because I believe
you to be his true friend and a noble woman that I am here, Leone--it is
the first time I have called you by your name--I humble myself to
you--will you listen to me?"