DISPLEASING EYES.
The wedding day of Mr. William Arkell and Miss Travice dawned. All had
gone well, and was going on well towards completion. You who have learnt
to like Mildred Arkell, may probably have been in hopes that some
impediment might arise to frustrate the wedding--that the bride, after
all, might be Mildred, not Charlotte. But it is in the chronicles of
romance chiefly that this sort of poetical justice takes place. Weddings
are not frustrated in real life; and when I told you at the beginning
that this was a story of real life, I told you the truth. The day
dawned--one of the finest the close of April has ever seen--and the
wedding party went to church to the marriage, and came home again when
it was over.
It was quite a noted wedding for those quiet days, and guests were
bidden to it from far and near. That the bride looked charmingly lovely
was indisputable, and they called William Arkell a lucky fellow.
A guest at the breakfast-table, but not in the church, was Mildred
Arkell. She had wholly declined to be the bridesmaid; but it was next to
impossible for her to decline to be at the breakfast. Put the case to
yourselves, as Mildred had put it to herself in that past March night,
that now seemed to be so long ago. Her resolve to pass over the
affliction in silence; to bear, and make no sign, involved its
consequences--and _they_ were, that social life must go on just as
usual, and she must visit at her uncle's as before. Worse than any other
thought to Mildred, was the one, that the terrible blow to her might
become known. She shrank with all the reticence of a pure-minded girl
from the baring of her heart to others--shrank from it with a shivering
dread--and Mildred felt that she would far rather die, than see her love
suspected for one, who, as it now turned out, had never loved her. So
she buried her misery within her, and went to Mr. Arkell's as before,
not quite so frequently perhaps, but sufficiently so to excite no
observation. She had joined in the plans and preparations for the
wedding; had helped to fix upon the bride's attire, simply because she
could not help herself. How she had borne it, and suppressed within her
heart its own agony, she never knew. Charlotte's keen bright eyes would
at times be fixed on hers, as if they could read her soul's secret;
perhaps they did. William's rather seemed to shun her. But she had gone
through it all, and borne it bravely; and none suspected how cruel was
the ordeal.
And here was Mildred at the wedding-breakfast! There had been no escape
for it. Peter went to church, but Mrs. Dan and Mildred arrived for
breakfast only. Mildred, regarded and loved almost as a daughter of the
house, had the place of honour assigned her next to William Arkell, his
bride being on his other hand. None forgot how chaste and pretty Mildred
looked that day; paler it may have been than usual, but that's expected
at a wedding. She wore a delicate pearl-grey silk, and her gentle face,
with its sweet, sad eyes, had never been pleasanter to look upon. "A
little longer! a little longer!" she kept murmuring to her own
rebellions heart. "May God help me to bear!"
Perhaps the one who felt the most out of place at that breakfast-table,
was our young friend, Miss Betsey Travice. Miss Betsey had never
assisted at a scene of gaiety in her life--or, as she called it,
grandeur; and perhaps she wished it over nearly as fervently as another
was doing. She wore a new shining silk of maize colour, the gift of Mrs.
Arkell--for maize was then in full fashion for bridesmaids--and Betsey
felt particularly stiff and ashamed in it. What if the young gentleman
on her left, who seemed to partake rather freely of the different wines,
and to be a rollicking sort of youth, should upset something on her
beautiful dress! Betsey dared not think of the catastrophe, and she
astonished him by suddenly asking him if he'd please to move his glasses
to the other side.
For answer, he turned his eyes full upon her, and she started. Very
peculiar eyes they were, round and black, showing a great deal of the
white, and that had a yellow tinge. His face was sallow, but otherwise
his features were rather fine. It was not the colour of the eyes,
however, that startled Betsey Travice, but their expression. A very
peculiar expression, which made her recoil from him, and it took its
seat firmly thenceforth in her memory. A talkative, agreeable sort of
youth he seemed in manner, not as old by a year or two, Betsey thought,
as herself; but, somehow, she formed a dislike to him--or rather to his
eyes.
"I beg your pardon--I did not catch what you asked me."
"Oh, if you please, sir," meekly stammered Betsey, "I asked if you would
mind moving the wine glasses to the other side; all three of them are
full."
"And you are afraid of your dress," he said, good-naturedly, doing what
she requested. "Such accidents do happen to me sometimes, for I have a
trick of throwing my arms about."
But, in spite of the good nature so evident on the surface, there was a
hidden vein of satire apparent to Betsey's ear. She blushed violently,
fearing she had done something dreadfully incongruous. "I wonder who he
is?" she thought; amidst the many names of guests she had not caught
his.
Later, when all had left, save the Arkell family, and the bride and
bridegroom were some miles on their honeymoon tour, Betsey ventured to
put the question to Mildred--Who was the gentleman who had sat next to
her at breakfast?
Poor Mildred could not recollect. The breakfast was to her one scene of
confused remembrance, and she knew nothing save that she and William
Arkell sat side by side.
"I don't remember where you sat," she was obliged to confess to Betsey.
"Nearly opposite to you, Miss Arkell. He had great black eyes, and he
talked loud."
"Oh, that was Ben Carr," interrupted Peter; "he did sit next to you. He
is Squire Carr's grandson. Did you see an old gentleman with a good deal
of white hair, at the end of the table, near my mother?"
"Yes, I did," said Betsey; "I thought what beautiful hair it was."
"That was Squire Carr. I wonder, by the way, what brought Ben at the
breakfast. Aunt," added Peter, turning to Mrs. Arkell; "did you invite
Benjamin Carr?"
"No, Peter, Benjamin was not invited," was the reply. "Squire Carr and
his son were invited, but John declined. I don't much think he likes
going out."
"Afraid of being put to the expense of a coat," interrupted Peter.
There was a general laugh, John Carr's propensity to closeness in
expenditure was well known. Mrs. Arkell resumed--
"So when John Carr declined, your uncle asked for his eldest son, young
Valentine, to come with the squire; it seems, however, the squire
brought Benjamin instead."
"Report runs that the squire favours his younger grandson more than he
does his elder," remarked Peter. "For that matter, I don't know who does
like young Valentine; I don't, he is too mean-spirited. Why did you wish
to know who it was, Miss Betsey?"
"Not for anything in particular, sir. What curious eyes he has got!"
It was late when Mrs. Dan and her children went home. The evening had
been a quiet one; in no way different from the usual evenings at Mr.
Arkell's. Mildred had borne up bravely, and been cheerful as the rest.
But, oh! the tension it had been to every nerve of her frame, every
fibre of her heart! Not until she was shut up in the quiet of her own
room, did she know the strain it had been. She took her pretty dress
off, threw a shawl on her shoulders, and sat down; her brain battling
with its misery, her hands pressed upon her throbbing temples.
How long she thus sat she could not tell. I believe--I honestly and
truly believe--that no sorrow the world knows, can be of a nature more
cruel than was Mildred's that night; certainly none could be more
intensely felt. "How can I bear it?" she moaned, "how can I bear it? To
see them come back here in their wedded happiness, and have to witness
it, and live. Perhaps--after a time, if God will help me, I shall
be----"
"What on earth are you doing, Mildred?"
She started from her chair with a scream. So entirely had she believed
herself secure from interruption, that in the first confused moments it
seemed as if her thoughts and anguish had been laid bare. Mrs. Dan stood
there in her night-dress, a candle in her hand.
"You were moaning, Mildred. Are you ill?"
"I--I am quite well, mamma," stammered Mildred, her words confused, and
her face a fiery red. "Do you want anything?"
"But how is it you are not undressed? I had been in bed ever so long."
"I suppose I had fallen into a train of thought, and let the time slip
away," answered Mildred, beginning to undo her hair in a heap, as if to
make up for the lost time. "Why have you come out of your bed, mamma?"
"Child, I don't feel myself, and I thought I'd come and call you. It is
well, as it happens, that you are not undressed, for I think I should
like a cup of tea made. If I drink it very hot, it may take away the
pain."
"Where is the pain?" asked Mildred, beginning to put up her hair again,
as hurriedly as she had undone it.
"I scarcely know where it is; I feel ill all over. The fact is, I never
ought to go to these festivities," added Mrs. Dan, hastening back to her
own room. "They are sure to upset me."
Alas! it was not the festivity that had "upset" Mrs. Dan; but that her
time was come. Another hour, and she was so much worse, that Peter had
to be aroused from his bed, and go for their doctor. Mrs. Daniel Arkell
was in danger.
It may be deemed unfeeling, in some measure, to say it, but it was the
best thing that could have happened for Mildred. It took her out of her
own thoughts--away from herself. There was so much to do, even in that
first night, which was only the commencement; and it all fell on
Mildred. Peter, with his timid heart, and unpractised hands, was utterly
useless in a sick room, as book-worms in general are; and their one
servant, Ann, a young, inexperienced, awkward girl, was nearly as much
so. Mustard poultices had to be got, steaming hot flannels, and many
other things. Before Mildred had made ready one thing, another called
for her. It was well it was so!
At seven o'clock, Peter started for his uncle's, and told the news
there. Mr. Arkell went up directly; Mrs. Arkell a little later. Mrs.
Dan's danger had become imminent then, and Mr. Arkell went himself, and
brought back a physician.
Later in the morning, Mildred was called downstairs to the sitting-room.
Betsey Travice was standing there. The girl came forward, a pleading
light in her earnest eye.
"Oh, Miss Arkell! if you will only please to let me! I have come to ask
to help you."
"To help me!" mechanically repeated Mildred.
"I am so good a nurse; I am indeed! Poor papa died suddenly, but I
nursed mamma all through her last long illness; there was only me to do
everything, and she used to say that I was as handy as if I had learnt
it in the hospitals. Let me try and help you!"
"You are very, very kind," said Mildred, feeling inclined to accept the
offer as freely as it was made, for she knew that she should require
assistance if the present state of things continued. "How came you to
think of it?"
"When Mrs. Arkell came home to breakfast this morning, she said how
everything lay upon you, and that you would never be able to do it. I
believe she was thinking of sending Tring; but I took courage to tell
her what a good nurse I was, and to beg her to let me come. I said--if
you will not think it presuming of me, Miss Arkell--that Mrs. Daniel was
my Godmother, and I thought it gave me a sort of right to wait upon
her."
Mildred, undemonstrative Mildred, stooped down in a sudden impulse, and
kissed the gentle face. "I shall be very glad of you, Betsey. Will you
stay now?"
There was no need of further words. Betsey's bonnet and shawl were off
in a moment, and she stood ready in her soft, black, noiseless dress.
"Please to put me to do anything there is to do, Miss Arkell.
_Anything_, you know. I am handy in the kitchen. I do any sort of rough
work as handily as I can nurse. And perhaps your servant will lend me
an apron."
Three days only; three days of sharp, quick illness, and Mrs. Daniel
Arkell's last hour arrived. Betsey Travice had not boasted
unwarrantably, for a better, more patient, ay, or more skilful nurse
never entered a sick chamber. She really was of the utmost use and
comfort, and Mildred righteously believed that Heaven had been working
out its own ends in sending her just at that time to Westerbury.
It was somewhat singular that Betsey Travice should again be brought
into the presence of the young gentleman to whose eyes she had taken so
unaccountable a dislike. On that last day, when the final scene was near
at hand, the maid came to the dying chamber, saying that Miss Arkell was
wanted below; a messenger had come over from Mr. John Carr, and was
asking to see her in person.
"I cannot go down now," was Mildred's answer; "you might have known
that, Ann."
"I did know it, miss, and I said it; that is, I said I didn't think you
could. But he wouldn't take no denial; he said Mr. Carr had told him
not."
Giving herself no trouble as to who the "he" might be, Mildred whispered
to Betsey Travice to go down for her, and mention the state of things.
Excessively to Betsey's discomfiture, she found herself confronted by
the gentleman of the curious eyes, who held out his hand familiarly.
His errand was nothing particular, after all; but his father had
expressly ordered him to see Miss Arkell, and convey to her personally
his sympathy and inquiries as to her mother's state. For the news of
Mrs. Dan's danger had travelled to Squire Carr's, and urgent business at
home had alone prevented John Carr's coming over in person. As it was,
he sent his son Ben.
Betsey, more meek than ever, thanked him, and told him how ill Mrs.
Daniel was; that, in point of fact, another hour or two would bring the
end. It was quite impossible Miss Arkell could, under the circumstances,
leave the chamber.
"Of course she can't," he answered; "and I'm very sorry to hear it. My
father will go on at me, I dare say, saying it was my fault, as he
generally does when anything goes contrary to his orders. But he'd not
have seen her any the more had he come himself. You will tell me who you
are?" he suddenly continued to Betsey, without any break; "I sat by you
at the breakfast, but I forget your name."
"If you please, sir, it is Betsey Travice," was the reply, and the girl
quite cowered as she stood under the blaze of those black and piercing
eyes.
"Betsey Travice! and a very pretty name, too. You'll please to say
everything proper for us up there," jerking his head in the direction of
the upper floors. "Oh! and I say, I forgot to add that my grandfather,
the squire, intends to ride in to-morrow, and call."
He shook hands with her in the passage, and vaulted out at the front
door, a tall, strong, fine young fellow. And those eyes, which had so
unaccountably excited the disfavour of Miss Betsey, were generally
considered the handsomest of the handsome.
Betsey stole upstairs again, and whispered the message into Mildred's
ear. "It was that tall, dark young man, with the black eyes, that sat by
me at Charlotte's wedding breakfast."
They waited on, in the hushed chamber: Peter, Mildred, Mr. and Mrs.
Arkell, and Betsey Travice. And at two o'clock in the afternoon the
shutters were put up to the windows, through which Mrs. Daniel Arkell
would never look again.