LADY CAERGWENT was thoroughly ashamed and bumbled by that unhappy
evening. She looked so melancholy and subdued in the morning, with her
heavy eyelids and inflamed eyes, and moved so meekly and sadly, without
daring to look up, that Lady Barbara quite pitied her, and said—more
kindly than she had ever spoken to her before:
“I see you are sorry for the exposure last night, so we will say no more
about it. I will try to forget it. I hope our friends may.”
That hope sounded very much like “I do not think they will;” and truly
Kate felt that it was not in the nature of things that they ever should.
She should never have forgotten the sight of a little girl in that frenzy
of passion! No, she was sure that their mamma and papa knew all about
it, and that she should never be allowed to play with them again, and she
could not even wish to meet them, she should be miserably ashamed, and
would not know which way to look.
She said not one word about meeting them, and for the first day or two
even begged to walk in the square instead of the park; and she was so
good and steady with her lessons, and so quiet in her movements, that she
scarcely met a word of blame for a whole week.
One morning, while she was at breakfast with Lady Barbara and Mrs. Lacy,
the unwonted sound of a carriage stopping, and of a double knock, was
heard. In a moment the colour flushed into Lady Barbara’s face, and her
eyes lighted: then it passed away into a look of sadness. It had seemed
to her for a moment as if the bright young nephew who had been the light
and hope of her life, were going to look in on her; and it had only
brought the remembrance that he was gone for ever, and that in his stead
there was only the poor little girl, to whom rank was a misfortune, and
who seemed as if she would never wear it becomingly. Kate saw nothing of
all this; she was only eager and envious for some change and variety in
these long dull days. It was Lord de la Poer and his daughter Adelaide,
who the next moment were in the room; and she remembered instantly that
she had heard that this was to be Adelaide’s birthday, and wished her
many happy returns in all due form, her heart beating the while with
increasing hope that the visit concerned herself.
And did it not? Her head swam round with delight and suspense, and she
could hardly gather up the sense of the words in which Lord de la Poer
was telling Lady Barbara that Adelaide’s birthday was to be spent at the
Crystal Palace at Sydenham; that the other girls were gone to the station
with their mother, and that he had come round with Adelaide to carry off
Kate, and meet the rest at ten o’clock. Lady de la Poer would have
written, but it had only boon settled that morning on finding that he
could spare the day.
Kate squeezed Adelaide’s hand in an agony. Oh! would that aunt let her
go?
“You would like to come?” asked Lord de la Poer, bending his pleasant
eyes on her. “Have you ever been there?”
“Never! Oh, thank you! I should like it so much! I never saw any
exhibition at all, except once the Gigantic Cabbage!—May I go, Aunt
Barbara?”
“Really you are very kind, after—”
“Oh, we never think of _afters_ on birthdays!—Do we, Addie?”
“If you are so very good, perhaps Mrs. Lacy will kindly bring her to meet
you.”
“I am sure,” said he, turning courteously to that lady, “that we should
be very sorry to give Mrs. Lacy so much trouble. If this is to be a
holiday to everyone, I am sure you would prefer the quiet day.”
No one could look at the sad face and widow’s cap without feeling that so
it must be, even without the embarrassed “Thank you, my Lord, if—”
“If—if Katharine were more to be trusted,” began Lady Barbara.
“Now, Barbara,” he said in a drolly serious fashion, “if you think the
Court of Chancery would seriously object, say so at once.”
Lady Barbara could not keep the corners of her mouth quite stiff, but she
still said, “You do not know what you are undertaking.”
“Do you deliberately tell me that you think myself and Fanny, to say
nothing of young Fanny, who is the wisest of us all, unfit to be trusted
with this one young lady?” said he, looking her full in the face, and
putting on a most comical air: “It is humiliating, I own.”
“Ah! if Katharine were like your own daughters, I should have no fears,”
said the aunt. “But— However, since you are so good—if she will promise
to be very careful—”
“Oh yes, yes, Aunt Barbara!”
“I make myself responsible,” said Lord de la Poer. “Now, young woman,
run off and get the hat; we have no time to lose.”
Kate darted off and galloped up the stairs at a furious pace, shouted
“Josephine” at the top; and then, receiving no answer, pulled the bell
violently; after which she turned round, and obliged Adelaide with a
species of dancing hug, rather to the detriment of that young lady’s
muslin jacket.
“I was afraid to look back before,” she breathlessly said, as she
released Adelaide; “I felt as if your papa were Orpheus, when
‘Stern Proserpine relented,
And gave him back the fair—’
and I was sure Aunt Barbara would catch me like Eurydice, if I only
looked back.”
“What a funny girl you are, to be thinking about Orpheus and Eurydice!”
said Adelaide. “Aren’t you glad?”
“Glad? Ain’t I just! as Charlie would say. Oh dear! your papa is a
delicious man; I’d rather have him for mine than anybody, except Uncle
Wardour!”
“I’d rather have him than anyone,” said the little daughter. “Because he
is yours,” said Kate; “but somehow, though he is more funny and
good-natured than Uncle Wardour, I wouldn’t—no, I shouldn’t like him so
well for a papa. I don’t think he would punish so well.”
“Punish!” cried Adelaide. “Is that what you want? Why, Mamma says
children ought to be always pleasure and no trouble to busy fathers. But
there, Kate; you are not getting ready—and we are to be at the station at
ten.”
“I am waiting for Josephine! Why doesn’t she come?” said Kate, ringing
violently again.
“Why don’t you get ready without her?”
“I don’t know where anything is! It is very tiresome of her, when she
knows I never dress myself,” said Kate fretfully.
“Don’t you? Why, Grace and I always dress ourselves, except for the
evening. Let me help you. Are not those your boots?”
Kate rushed to the bottom of the attic stairs, and shouted “Josephine” at
the top of her shrill voice; then, receiving no answer, she returned,
condescended to put on the boots that Adelaide held up to her, and
noisily pulled out some drawers; but not seeing exactly what she wanted,
she again betook herself to screams of her maid’s name, at the third of
which out burst Mrs. Bartley in a regular state of indignation: “Lady
Caergwent! Will your Ladyship hold your tongue! There’s Lady Jane
startled up, and it’s a mercy if her nerves recover it the whole
day—making such a noise as that!”
“But Josephine won’t come, and I’m going out, Bartley,” said Kate
piteously. “Where is Josephine?”
“Gone out, my Lady, so it is no use making a piece of work,” said Bartley
crossly, retreating to Lady Jane.
Kate was ready to cry; but behold, that handy little Adelaide had
meantime picked out a nice black silk cape, with hat and feather, gloves
and handkerchief, which, if not what Kate had intended, were nice enough
for anything, and would have—some months ago—seemed to the orphan at the
parsonage like robes of state. Kind Adelaide held them up so
triumphantly, that Kate could not pout at their being only everyday
things; and as she began to put them on, out came Mrs. Bartley again, by
Lady Jane’s orders, pounced upon Lady Caergwent, and made her repent of
all wishes for assistance by beginning upon her hair, and in spite of all
wriggles and remonstrances, dressing her in the peculiarly slow and
precise manner by which a maid can punish a troublesome child; until
finally Kate—far too much irritated for a word of thanks, tore herself
out of her hands, caught up her gloves, and flew down-stairs as if her
life depended on her speed. She thought the delay much longer than it
had really been, for she found Lord de la Poer talking so earnestly to
her aunt, that he hardly looked up when she came in—something about her
Uncle Giles in India, and his coming home—which seemed to be somehow
becoming possible—though at a great loss to himself; but there was no
making it out; and in a few minutes he rose, and after some fresh charges
from Lady Barbara to her niece “not to forgot herself,” Kate was handed
into the carriage, and found herself really off.
Then the tingle of wild impatience and suspense subsided, and happiness
began! It had not been a good beginning, but it was very charming now.
Adelaide and her father were full of jokes together, so quick and bright
that Kate listened instead of talking. She had almost lost the habit of
merry chatter, and it did not come to her quickly again; but she was
greatly entertained; and thus they came to the station, where Lady de la
Poer and her other three girls were awaiting them, and greeted Kate with
joyful faces.
They were the more relieved at the arrival of the three, because the
station was close and heated, and it was a very warm summer day, so that
the air was extremely oppressive.
“It feels like thunder,” said some one. And thenceforth Kate’s perfect
felicity was clouded. She had a great dislike to a thunder-storm, and
she instantly began asking her neighbours if they _really_ thought it
would be thunder.
“I hope it will,” said Lady Fanny; “it would cool the air, and sound so
grand in those domes.”
Kate thought this savage, and with an imploring look asked Lady de la
Poer if she thought there would be a storm.
“I can’t see the least sign of one,” was the answer. “See how clear the
sky is!” as they steamed out of the station.
“But do you think there will be one to-day?” demanded Kate.
“I do not expect it,” said Lady de la Poer, smiling; “and there is no use
in expecting disagreeables.”
“Disagreeables! O Mamma, it would be such fun,” cried Grace, “if we only
had a chance of getting wet through!”
Here Lord de la Poer adroitly called off the public attention from the
perils of the clouds, by declaring that he wanted to make out the fourth
line of an advertisement on the banks, of which he said he had made out
one line as he was whisked by on each journey he had made; and as it was
four times over in four different languages, he required each damsel to
undertake one; and there was a great deal of laughing over which it
should be that should undertake each language. Fanny and Mary were
humble, and sure they could never catch the German; and Kate, more
enterprising, undertook the Italian. After all, while they were
chattering about it, they went past the valuable document, and were come
in sight of the “monsters” in the Gardens; and Lord de la Poer asked Kate
if she would like to catch a pretty little frog; to which Mary responded,
“Oh, what a tadpole it must have been!” and the discovery that her
friends had once kept a preserve of tadpoles to watch them turn into
frogs, was so delightful as entirely to dissipate all remaining thoughts
of thunder, and leave Kate free for almost breathless amazement at the
glittering domes of glass, looking like enormous bubbles in the sun.
What a morning that was, among the bright buds and flowers, the wonders
of nature and art all together! It was to be a long day, and no
hurrying; so the party went from court to court at their leisure, sat
down, and studied all that they cared for, or divided according to their
tastes. Fanny and Mary wanted time for the wonderful sculptures on the
noble gates in the Italian court; but the younger girls preferred roaming
more freely, so Lady de la Poer sat down to take care of them, while her
husband undertook to guide the wanderings of the other three.
He particularly devoted himself to Kate, partly in courtesy as to the
guest of the party, partly because, as he said, he felt himself
responsible for her; and she was in supreme enjoyment, talking freely to
one able and willing to answer her remarks and questions, and with the
companionship of girls of her own age besides. She was most of all
delighted with the Alhambra—the beauty of it was to her like a fairy
tale; and she had read Washington Irving’s “Siege of Granada,” so that
she could fancy the courts filled with the knightly Moors, who were so
noble that she could not think why they were not Christians—nay, the
tears quite came into her eyes as she looked up in Lord de la Poer’s
face, and asked why nobody converted the Abencerrages instead of fighting
with them!
It was a pity that Kate always grew loud when she was earnest; and Lord
de la Poer’s interest in the conversation was considerably lessened by
the discomfort of seeing some strangers looking surprised at the five
syllables in the squeaky voice coming out of the mouth of so small a
lady.
“Gently, my dear,” he softly said; and Kate for a moment felt it hard
that the torment about her voice should pursue her even in such moments,
and spoil the Alhambra itself.
However, her good humour recovered the next minute, at the Fountain of
Lions. She wanted to know how the Moors came to have lions; she thought
she had heard that no Mahometans were allowed to represent any living
creature, for fear it should be an idol. Lord de la Poer said she was
quite right, and that the Mahometans think these forms will come round
their makers at the last day, demanding to have souls given to them; but
that her friends, the Moors of Spain, were much less strict than any
others of their faith. She could see, however, that the carving of such
figures was a new art with them, since these lions were very rude and
clumsy performances for people who could make such delicate tracery as
they had seen within. And then, while Kate was happily looking with
Adelaide at the orange trees that completed the Spanish air of the court,
and hoping to see the fountain play in the evening, he told Grace that it
was worth while taking people to see sights if they had as much
intelligence and observation as Kate had, and did not go gazing idly
about, thinking of nothing.
He meant it to stir up his rather indolent-minded Grace—he did not mean
the countess to hear it; but some people’s eyes and ears are wonderfully
quick at gathering what is to their own credit, and Kate, who had not
heard a bit of commendation for a long time, was greatly elated.
Luckily for appearances, she remembered how Miss Edgeworth’s Frank made
himself ridiculous by showing off to Mrs. J—, and how she herself had
once been overwhelmed by the laughter of the Wardour family for having
rehearsed to poor Mrs. Brown all the characters of the gods of the
Northmen—Odin, Thor, and all—when she had just learnt them. So she was
more careful than before not to pour out all the little that she knew;
and she was glad she had not committed herself, for she had very nearly
volunteered the information that Pompeii was overwhelmed by Mount Etna,
before she heard some one say Vesuvius, and perceived her mistake,
feeling as if she had been rewarded for her modesty like a good child in
a book.
She applauded herself much more for keeping back her knowledge till it
was wanted, than for having it; but this self-satisfaction looked out in
another loop-hole. She avoided pedantry, but she was too much elated not
to let her spirits get the better of her; and when Lady de la Poer and
the elder girls came up, they found her in a suppressed state of
capering, more like a puppy on its hind logs, than like a countess or any
other well-bred child.
The party met under the screen of kings and queens, and there had some
dinner, at one of the marble tables that just held them pleasantly. The
cold chicken and tongue were wonderfully good on that hot hungry day, and
still better were the strawberries that succeeded them; and oh! what
mirth went on all the time! Kate was chattering fastest of all, and
loudest—not to say the most nonsensically. It was not nice nonsense—that
was the worst of it—it was pert and saucy. It was rather the family
habit to laugh at Mary de la Poer for ways that were thought a little
fanciful; and Kate caught this up, and bantered without discretion, in a
way not becoming towards anybody, especially one some years her elder.
Mary was good-humoured, but evidently did not like being asked if she had
stayed in the mediæval court, because she was afraid the great bulls of
Nineveh would run at her with their five legs.
“She will be afraid of being teazed by a little goose another time,” said
Lord de la Poer, intending to give his little friend a hint that she was
making herself very silly; but Kate took it quite another way, and not a
pretty one, for she answered, “Dear me, Mary, can’t you say bo to a
goose!”
“Say what?” cried Adelaide, who was always apt to be a good deal excited
by Kate; and who had been going off into fits of laughter at all these
foolish sallies.
“It is not a very nice thing to say,” answered her mother gravely; “so
there is no occasion to learn it.”
Kate did take the hint this time, and coloured up to the ears, partly
with vexation, partly with shame. She sat silent and confused for
several minutes, till her friends took pity on her, and a few
good-natured words about her choice of an ice quite restored her
liveliness. It is well to be good-humoured; but it is unlucky, nay,
wrong, when a check from friends without authority to scold, does not
suffice to bring soberness instead of rattling giddiness. Lady de la
Poer was absolutely glad to break up the dinner, so as to work off the
folly and excitement by moving about, before it should make the little
girl expose herself, or infect Adelaide.
They intended to have gone into the gardens till four o’clock, when the
fountains were to play; but as they moved towards the great door, they
perceived a dark heavy cloud was hiding the sun that had hitherto shone
so dazzlingly through the crystal walls.
“That is nice,” said Lady Fanny; “it will be cool and pleasant now before
the rain.”
“If the rain is not imminent,” began her father.
“Oh! is it going to be a thunder-storm?” cried Kate. “Oh dear! I do so
hate thunder! What shall I do?” cried she; all her excitement turning
into terror.
Before anyone could answer her, there was a flash of bright white light
before all their eyes, and a little scream.
“She’s struck! she’s struck!” cried Adelaide, her hands before her eyes.
For Kate had disappeared. No, she was in the great pond, beside which
they had been standing, and Mary was kneeling on the edge, holding fast
by her frock. But before the deep voice of the thunder was roaring and
reverberating through the vaults, Lord de la Poer had her in his grasp,
and the growl had not ceased before she was on her feet again, drenched
and trembling, beginning to be the centre of a crowd, who were running
together to help or to see the child who had been either struck by
lightning or drowned.
“Is she struck? Will she be blind?” sobbed Adelaide, still with her
hands before her eyes; and the inquiry was echoed by the nearer people,
while more distant ones told each other that the young lady was blind for
life.
“Struck! nonsense!” said Lord de la Poer; “the lightning was twenty miles
off at least. Are you hurt, my dear?”
“No,” said Kate, shaking herself, and answering “No,” more decidedly.
“Only I am so wet, and my things stick to me.”
“How did it happen?” asked Grace.
“I don’t know. I wanted to get away from the thunder!” said bewildered
Kate.
Meantime, an elderly lady, who had come up among the spectators, was
telling Lady de la Poer that she lived close by, and insisting that the
little girl should be taken at once to her house, put to bed, and her
clothes dried. Lady de la Poer was thankful to accept the kind offer
without loss of time; and in the fewest possible words it was settled
that she would go and attend to the little drowned rat, while her girls
should remain with their father at the palace till the time of going
home, when they would meet at the station. They must walk to the good
lady’s house, be the storm what it would, as the best chance of
preventing Kate from catching cold. She looked a rueful spectacle,
dripping so as to make a little pool on the stone floor; her hat and
feather limp and streaming; her hair in long lank rats’ tails, each
discharging its own waterfall; her clothes, ribbons, and all, pasted down
upon her! There was no time to be lost; and the stranger took her by one
hand, Lady de la Poer by the other, and exchanging some civil speeches
with one another half out of breath, they almost swung her from one step
of the grand stone stairs to another, and hurried her along as fast as
these beplastered garments would let her move. There was no rain as yet,
but there was another clap of thunder much louder than the first; but
they held Kate too fast to let her stop, or otherwise make herself more
foolish.
In a very few minutes they were at the good lady’s door; in another
minute in her bedroom, where, while she and her maid bustled off to warm
the bed, Lady de la Poer tried to get the clothes off—a service of
difficulty, when every tie held fast, every button was slippery, and the
tighter garments fitted like skins. Kate was subdued and frightened; she
gave no trouble, but all the help she gave was to pull a string so as to
make a hopeless knot of the bow that her friend had nearly undone.
However, by the time the bed was warm the dress was off, and the child,
rolled up in a great loose night-dress of the kind lady’s, was installed
in it, feeling—sultry day though it were—that the warm dryness was
extremely comfortable to her chilled limbs. The good lady brought her
some hot tea, and moved away to the window, talking in a low murmuring
voice to Lady de la Poer. Presently a fresh flash of lightning made her
bury her head in the pillow; and there she began thinking how hard it was
that the thunder should come to spoil her one day’s pleasure; but soon
stopped this, remembering Who sends storm and thunder, and feeling afraid
to murmur. Then she remembered that perhaps she deserved to be
disappointed. She had been wild and troublesome, had spoilt Adelaide’s
birthday, teazed Mary, and made kind Lady de la Poer grave and
displeased.
She would say how sorry she was, and ask pardon. But the two ladies
still stood talking. She must wait till this stranger was gone. And
while she was waiting—how it was she knew not—but Countess Kate was fast
asleep.