To Mr. Vincent Lacour, issuing from the precincts of the South
Kensington Museum, and about to walk towards the railway station, came
the vision of a face that he knew, borne past him in a hansom cab, which
in a moment stopped. It was raining slightly. Lacour used his umbrella
for self-concealment, and, at the same time, contrived to watch his
acquaintance descending from the vehicle. She (it was a lady) handed up
her fare and passed into the Museum.
The young man invoked aloud the divinity of Jingo.
“A minute later,” he continued to himself, “and we should have come face
to face with her. A chance meeting, of course; why shouldn’t people have
met by chance? But I’m glad she didn’t see us together.”
A miserable, drizzly day; the sky and earth a uniform mud colour. Lacour
watched his boots degenerating. He consulted his watch; it was half an
hour past noon. An engagement to lunch with a friend at one stood before
him; he disregarded it, and went in pursuit of the lady.
“Come to see Hecuba’s kitchen-pots, no doubt,” he mused. “Yes, there
she is! She has a good figure, seen from behind, and she always
dresses well. I wonder what countenance she will show me; there’s no
foreseeing.”
Ada Warren happened to raise her eyes, and beheld Lacour approaching,
a smile of frank surprise on his handsome face. She was startled, and
could not help showing it. Lacour, on the other hand, was very much at
his ease, talked in a lightly facetious way of the antiquities in the
case before them, now and then putting in a personal question.
“You are in town?” he asked by parenthesis.
“I am, for one day.”
“I hope Mrs. Clarendon is well? Turning her thoughts, no doubt, to
fox-hunting. You don’t hunt, I believe? No more do I. Fortunate I
haven’t the taste, isn’t it?”
Ada made no reply, continuing her inspection of the contents of the
case, or appearing to do so. He moved a little away, as if to examine
other cases, but was presently at her side again. Her curiosity seemed
to be satisfied, and she let her eyes wander rather vaguely.
“Do you often come here?” she asked, as they passed from a little group
of people to an uninvaded spot a few yards away. She spoke as though
against her will, merely to escape from embarrassment.
“No, indeed; I am here by the merest chance, but a most happy one. I
haven’t much time as a rule. The weather drove me out to-day. Are you
sensitive to the weather? A sky like this weighs upon me; I haven’t a
thought; I can’t follow an argument through three successive lines. You
know I’m reading law?”
“I rather thought you had left England.” He looked at her, raised his
eyebrows slightly, and shook his head.
“You don’t mean that you wish I had?”
“Why should I wish it?”
“I am used to that feeling in my acquaintances; they exhaust their
powers of indirect emphasis in conveying to me the fact that I am _de
trop_. It is refreshing to find one exception, and the one I should have
desired.”
Whilst speaking he took out a pocket-book, which contained loose papers;
one of these he removed; but only to return it to his pocket together
with the book.
“Do I bore you?” he asked, bending his head down to her with graceful
expectation of her reply; “or will you let me walk on with you?”
“Is there anything you wish particularly to see?” Ada returned, still in
the same mechanical way.
“Yes; I should like you to come upstairs to the pictures. You really
understand art; you can help me to appreciate the right things.”
She walked on without hesitation, and they spent nearly an hour in the
galleries. It was as though, in consenting to accompany him, Ada had
overcome an inward restraint, and was now expanding in a sense of
freedom. Her face cleared, her eyes grew bright, her tongue was
loosened; she talked of the pictures in a natural, easy, and sensible
way, quite without self-consciousness. Lacour was, as always, frankly
egoistic; everything became to him a text for effusive utterance on
his subjective experiences. As on a previous occasion, he spoke of the
artistic instincts which made the basis of his nature, and went on to
sketch a plan of aesthetic education, such as he hoped some day to carry
into effect. The unction of his self-flattery was irresistible; to
listen was to become insensibly as interested in him as he was in
himself. The mere quality of his voice was insinuating, seductive and
delicately sensual, and the necessity of speaking low when strangers
were at hand gave him the advantage of intimate notes and cadences. His
faculty for making himself and his circumstances a source of pathetic
suggestion did in fact almost amount to artistic genius; there was at
times a fall in his voice which caressed the ear like certain happiest
phrases in sad simple music, and his eyes would fix themselves on
a beautiful picture with an apprehension of melancholy so remote, so
subtle, that to perceive its reflection was to feel a thrill on the
finest chords of sympathy. Then a lighter mood would succeed, comment
would take a humorous turn, not without hints of interpretation
generally reserved for masculine colloquy, ambiguities which might or
might not be intentional, a glancing in directions whence it is usual
to avert the mental eye. At the end of the hour Ada was laughing and
talking in a way quite new to her, doing her best to say clever things
which yet had no point of sarcasm, even speaking a little of herself,
though this was a subject upon which Lacour could not get her to dwell.
“It’s a quarter to two,” he exclaimed at length. “Are you not hungry?”
“I meant to lunch here; perhaps it is time.”
“In that case we’ll lunch together--if you permit it?”
They did so in complete good-fellowship, the only difficulty arising
when Lacour desired to pay for both. Ada opposed this, and in a manner
which proved her in earnest.
“You return to-night?” he asked, leaning towards her on the table when
the waiter’s demands had been severally met.
“To-morrow morning. I stay with friends.”
“At the Meres’?” he asked quickly.
“Yes.”
He fingered a bottle in the cruet-stand, his lips slightly drawn
together.
“You do not know them intimately?” Ada asked, observing him.
He shook his head.
“No; they would not be interested in hearing that it was I who spoilt
your purposes of study.”
Ada did not reply to this, save by a slight change of countenance.
Before he spoke again she saw him take an envelope from the inner pocket
of his coat.
“I have something here which belongs to you,” he said, “though it is
not addressed. It was written a week ago, but for one or two reasons I
delayed putting it in the post. Will you let me be my own postman?”
Ada had just drawn on her second glove, and was preparing to rise. She
set her face in hard outlines and remained motionless, her hands on her
lap.
“Won’t you save me a penny?” Lacour pleaded with gravity. “Economy is
essential with me; I have not concealed the fact.”
Ada’s lips quivered to a smile; she took the letter from where it lay
on the table, and moved away without facing him. There was colour on her
cheeks.
“Are you going straight to your friends?” Lacour inquired, with some
difficulty coming up to her side.
“No; I have some purchases to make. I shall take a cab.”
“I will get you one.”
With every politeness of manner he led her from the door to the vehicle,
saw her comfortably seated, gave the driver his orders, and took a
silent leave. The envelope was crushed in her hand as she drove away.
Not many days later Mrs. Stratton arrived at Knights well, bringing her
youngest boy, a ten-year-old, whose absence from school was explained by
recent measles. This lady was the wife of an officer at present with
his regiment in Africa; her regret at the colonel’s remoteness, and her
anxiety on his behalf in a time of savage warfare, were tempered by that
spirit of pride in things military which so strongly infuses a certain
type of the British matron, destined to bring forth barbarians and
heroes. At the age of forty Mrs. Stratton had four children, all boys;
the two eldest were already at Woolwich and Sandhurst respectively, the
third at Harrow, extracting such strategic science as Thucydides could
supply, boastful of a name traceable in army lists three generations
back. These four lads were offspring whereof no British matron could
feel ashamed: perfect in physical development, striking straight
from the shoulder, with skulls to resist a tomahawk, red-cheeked and
hammer-fisted. In the nursery they had fought each other to the tapping
of noses; at school they fought all and sundry up through every grade
of pugilistic championship. From infancy they handled the fowling-piece,
and killed with the coolness of hereditary talent. Side by side they
walked in quick step, as to the beating of a drum; eyes direct, as
looking along a barrel; ears pricked for the millionth echo of an
offensive remark.
At cricket they drove cannon-balls; milder games were the target of
their scorn. Admirable British youths!
“How _can_ they make such a milk-sop of that child!” Mrs. Stratton
exclaimed when she had renewed her acquaintance with Percy Vissian,
summoned to “play with” Master Edgar Strangeways Stratton, and showing
no great appreciation of the privilege.
“Percy’s tastes are very quiet,” Mrs. Clarendon explained. “He likes
reading more than anything else.”
“What does he read? I’ll examine him. Come here, Percy?” she called; the
two ladies were on the lawn, and the boys at a little distance.
Percy looked round and prepared to walk towards Mrs. Stratton, but the
other boy suddenly caught his two arms, pinned them behind his back, and
ran him violently over the grass.
“Gently, Edgar, gently,” said his mother, smiling reproof. Little Percy
stood red and flustered, ashamed at a personal indignity, as children
with brains are wont to be.
“Percy,” interrogated Mrs. Stratton, “when was the battle of Inkerman
fought?”
The lad shook his head, regarding Mrs. Clarendon appealingly.
“Don’t be ashamed, Percy,” said the latter, holding to him her hand.
“I’m sure _I_ couldn’t say.”
“You couldn’t? Ah-yah!” shrieked Edgar Stratton, flinging up his cap and
leaping to catch it. He was a fat, bullet-headed boy, generally red as a
boiled lobster, supple as an eel.
“Well, you tell us,” ventured Percy, emboldened by the grasp of Isabel’s
hand.
“Think I can’t, you silly?--Fifth of November, 1854; began at seven
o’clock in the morning. For three hours eight thousand British infantry
supported the attack of forty thousand muffs of Russians. Wish I’d
been there, don’t I just! Four English generals were killed and four
wounded.”
“He knows all the battles like that,” remarked his mother with pride.
She was a short, dark woman, growing rather stout, and with no very
graceful walk; her face was attractive, and constantly wore a smile; she
dressed with extreme elegance. In converse she displayed a heartiness
and independence which were a little too masculine; her hand-clasp was
a direct invitation to free companionship, and her manner suggested
a rejection of soft treatment on the score of her sex. The military
gentlemen with whom she associated spoke of her “pluck”; she was
capable, they said, of leading a charge of cavalry; and indeed to see
her in the hunting-field was to realise in a measure the possibility.
Fearlessness is generally equivalent to lack of imagination, and in Mrs.
Stratton’s case the connection was clearly established, but on this very
account she was admirable in the discharge of many distinctly feminine
duties. In an accident, a sudden calamity, her steadiness of nerve was
only matched by the gentleness and efficiency of her ministering zeal.
In her nature the maternal element was all-absorbing; to produce and
rear fine animals of her species, to defend them if need be with the
courage of a tigress, to extend her motherly protection and pride to
those she deemed worthy, these were her offices. No man approached her
with thoughts of gallantry for all her comeliness, and certainly she
thought of no man more warmly than as a jolly good fellow and a boon
companion, her husband being at the head of such. The latter’s absence
was no harder to bear than that of any valued friend; had she not
her boys? These youngsters she would treat with the demonstrative
affectionateness which is a proof of incapacity for deeper emotions.
She was all instinct, and as intolerant of alien forms of thought and
feeling as even an Englishwoman can attain to be. Fortunately the
sphere of her indifference was immense; with wider knowledge her lack
of charity would have been far more unpleasantly obvious. As it was,
she never made a statement which fell short of finality; argued with,
pressed to reconsider, she would put the matter aside with a smile and
pass on to a new subject--the maternal does not reason.
Between her and Isabel undoubtedly existed a strong mutual attachment.
Whereon this was based could not at first sight be determined; the two
appeared different in most things. Possibly it was one of those
cases which occur, of attraction to and by qualities, which, owing
to circumstances, remain potential. Had Isabel’s marriage resulted in
offspring, she might have developed maternal passion in no less a degree
than her friend; the sweet and lovable nature, which now exercised such
a universal charm in virtue of its wide activity, might very well have
concentrated itself on those few objects, with an intensity detrimental
to the broader influences of her womanhood. The story of her relations
with Ada Warren, viewed aright, perhaps tells in favour of this idea.
She could not herself have explained to you her affection for Mrs.
Stratton, and he who is giving these chapters of her history may
not pretend to do much more than exhibit facts and draw at times a
justifiable inference. He is not a creator of human beings, with eyes
to behold the very heart of the machine he has himself pieced together;
merely one who takes trouble to trace certain lines of human experience,
and, working here on grounds of knowledge, there by aid of analogy, here
again in the way of bolder speculation, spins his tale with what skill
he may till the threads are used up.
Ada, as one would have anticipated, thoroughly disliked Mrs. Stratton,
and avoided intercourse with her as much as possible. When the lady was
at Knightswell, Ada would frequently keep apart for a whole day; even in
the visitor’s presence she could not feign friendliness. Mrs. Stratton’s
manner to her was one of genial indifference, with no suggestion that
she felt herself slighted.
“I see no change,” said Isabel’s friend, the day after her arrival,
knowing, of course, of the enlightenment which had come to the girl.
“She seems to me exactly the same.”
“She is not,” returned Isabel. “Her life is twice as intense and varied.
She is happy, or nearly so, and conceals it to spare me.”
“H’m; you think her capable of that?”
“Quite.”
“By-the-bye, does she correspond with young Lacour, do you think?”
“I fancy not. I believe she would tell me.”
“You have astonishing faith in her uprightness.”
“She is a strange girl, but she is honourable,” affirmed Mrs. Clarendon.
Isabel was not wrong as to the change in Ada. Outwardly there was not
much evidence of the processes at work in the hidden places of her
being, yet sufficient to prove to just observation whither they tended.
Formerly Ada had kept to herself to hide her misery, had striven in
solitude with passions which left their mark upon her face when she
reappeared, had been worn with listnessness, when not overtaxing her
strength to escape the torments which assailed her leisure. Now, she was
seldom actively employed, yet solitude was precious to her; Isabel
saw her pacing up and down the garden paths, no longer with dark and
troubled face, but with the light of earnest preoccupation in her eyes,
and a clear brow, which was often raised as if at the impulse of intense
feeling. There was more of healthful girlishness in her motions, her
smile; she would spring and catch a bough swaying above her, would run
a space with the big house-dog bounding beside her. Once she came in at
the front door with her breath gone, her cheeks in high colour, her hat
in her hand; Isabel met her in the hall, and in surprise asked her what
was the matter.
“A race with the rain!” Ada panted, sinking on a chair. “I could see it
coming, nearer every second; I got in as the first drop fell!”
She showed a childish delight in her achievement; perhaps she enjoyed
the sense of her health and strength, scarcely ever tried in active
exercise. After this, running with the big dog became a daily pastime.
Young Stratton caught a glimpse of her at it in the park one day, and
rushed to join the sport.
“After a rabbit, eh?” he shouted, coming up with them.
Ada at once dropped to a walk, and spoke to the dog, instead of
answering the boy’s question.
“I say, you look here!” Edgar suddenly exclaimed in a whisper.
She turned, and saw him aiming with a catapult at a bird perched on a
bush hard by. Before the aim was perfect, Ada had snatched the tool from
his hands.
“Well, I call that!” cried the youngster, at a loss for words. “What do
you want to spoil my shot for?”
“Can’t you amuse yourself without murdering!” returned the girl, hot in
anger. “Shoot at that tree-trunk if you must shoot.”
“Murdering!” echoed the youth, in blank astonishment. “Come now, Miss
Warren! Murdering a bird--I call that good!”
“What else is it? What right have you to rob the bird of its life? What
is it that drives you to kill every creature that you safely may?”
“It’s fair sport!” urged the young Briton, in amaze at this outlandish
mode of regarding things.
“Sport?”
She stood regarding him, the catapult still in her hand.
“What are you going to be when you grow up?”
“What am I going to be? A soldier, of course.”
“I thought so; then you can murder on a large scale.”
“You call killing the enemy in battle, murder?”
“What do you call it? Fair sport?”
“I say, Miss Warren, you’re a rum’un, you are!” observed Edgar, shaking
his round head in wonder. “Are you joking?--though you don’t look like
it.”
Ada held the catapult out to him.
“Here, take it and run off,” she said, shortly.
He obeyed, and brought down a blackbird not fifty yards away, then ran
to Mrs. Clarendon and his mother, who laughed at the story. The ladies’
ideas of sport did not greatly differ; were not the fowls of the air,
the fishes of the deep and the foxes of the field created for the
British sportsman? Surely no piece of teleology was clearer.
Ada had no one whom she could take into her confidence, no soul to
which she could speak out the sincerity of her own. With Rhoda Meres she
exchanged letters at long intervals, but the thoughts they expressed
to each other were only from the surface of their lives; the girls were
friends only in the slightest sense of the word. It was true that she
had in her possession just now a letter from another correspondent,
awaiting an answer; that reply she could not bring herself to write;
and, when she did so, the words would not be those it was in her to say.
Her isolation was absolute. Whatsoever force of waters beat against the
flood-gates of her heart, she could not give them free passage.
She was driven to commune with herself in set speech; by degrees, to
take her pen and write the words she would have uttered had any ear
been bent to her. She resumed her habit of spending the mornings in the
library, but no longer with books; either she sat in reverie, or, at
her desk, filled sheet after sheet with small, nervous handwriting, her
features fixed in eager interest, her whole body knit as if in exertion,
in sympathy with the effort of her mind. When she came forth to meet
the other inmates of the house, she did not speak, but looked quietly
cheerful.
She had been thus occupied through the morning of the day on which
Kingcote was expected to appear at luncheon. Entering the drawing-room
shortly after the first bell rang, she found no one there; a moment
later a servant opened the door and announced the visitor.
As they exchanged such phrases as the situation gave rise to, Kingcote
found himself reflecting on the familiar fact that our first impression
of a face is greatly modified by acquaintance. The girl’s features no
longer appeared to him irredeemably plain, though their variance from
types of smooth comeliness was obvious enough. In profile it was a very
harsh visage, the nose irregular, the chin too prominent, the cheek-bone
high, the ear seemingly too far back on the head; viewed in full,
details were lost in the general expression of force and passionate
life. The jaw was heavy, the lips large, yet these not illshaped, the
contrary rather; but all the upper part bore the stamp of character and
intelligence. The deep eyes had no unkindly light, and readily answered
to a humorous suggestion. Perhaps it was the hint of hard endurance
which struck an observer first of all, and left him with the idea of a
sullen, resentful face; for her brows had a way of nervously wrinkling
up between the eyes, and her lips of making themselves yet fuller by
compression at the corners. Her gaze was not one of open friendliness,
but Kingcote was beginning to discover something in its reserve quite
different from mere irresponsive egoism. Her forehead, taken apart with
its weight of dark hair, might have been modelled for Pallas.
But whilst justice was thus being done, Mrs. Clarendon entered, sweet,
smiling, irresistible from the first glance, and was followed by Mrs.
Stratton. When all proceeded to the dining-room, Master Edgar was found
already in possession, seated at table, waiting with impatience. Meals
were with him a matter of supreme importance; he ate his way stolidly
and steadily through all courses, scorning the idleness of conversation.
There was much talk between the two elder ladies of a meet on the
following day; both proposed joining the field, Mrs. Stratton having
brought horses of her own with that view. Edgar had his pony, and would
follow the hunt in his own fashion.
“Where is the meet?” Kingcote inquired.
“At Salcot,” replied Isabel. “Do let us drive you over. Don’t look so
scornful, Ada; I’m sure Mr. Kingcote would enjoy it.”
“I think it very likely,” the girl remarked quietly.
“Your judgment on us, one and all,” laughed Mrs. Stratton.
“Miss Warren calls it murder,” cried Edgar derisively, with his mouth
full.
Kingcote gave his assent to the proposal that he should drive with
the ladies and witness the meet. They promised to take him up at the
junction of the old and the new roads.
He talked with Mrs. Stratton in the drawing-room after luncheon. Edgar
came and reclined on the carpet, resting his head against his mother.
“Get up, sir!” Mrs. Stratton addressed him. “I won’t have this laziness
after meals. Look at him, Mr. Kingcote; don’t you think it high time he
was packed off to school again?”
“Well, I shan’t be sorry,” observed the youth, reluctantly rising to his
feet.
“I suppose you are eager to get back to cricket?” said Kingcote.
“Cricket! Why, you don’t play cricket this time of year!” cried Edgar,
with scornful laughter.
“Indeed? What is the game, then? Football?”
“I should think so.”
“You must mend your manners, Edgar,” observed his mother. “Now run out
into the garden, and don’t trouble us. His body is getting rather too
much for him,” she continued playfully to Kingcote. “He must get back
to his fagging. I wouldn’t for the world send a boy of mine to a school
where there was no fagging.”
“Capital thing, no doubt,” said Kingcote. “He’s a fine boy.”
“A little too noisy just at present.”
“Oh, it’s a sign of his perfect health. Surely you wouldn’t see him
mooning about, or shutting himself up with books?”
“Like that poor little fellow of the rector’s,” said Mrs. Stratton.
“That child ought to be sent off to school.”
“Certainly. They’d soon knock him into shape, take the dreaminess out of
him. Robust health before everything. Are your other boys as hearty as
this one?”
“Oh, every bit! My eldest lad has broken almost every bone in his body,
and seems all the better for it.”
“Why, that’s magnificent! Their lives will be a joy to them.
Constitution, of course, is much; but I’m sure they have to thank you
for an admirable bringing-up.”
Ada, who sat close by, was regarding Kingcote curiously, just
suppressing a smile as she caught a glimpse of Mrs. Stratton’s gratified
face.
“This is your ideal of education?” she put in gravely.
“Assuredly it is,” was Kingcote’s answer. “Surely that education is best
which leads to happiness. That boy will never be afflicted with nervous
disorders; he will never be melancholy, hypochondriacal, despairing; he
will never see the world in any but the rosiest light, never be troubled
by abstract speculation, never doubt for a moment about his place and
his work. The plan of education which has such a result as that is
beneficence itself. Don’t you think so, Miss Warren?”
“To be sure I wouldn’t have the minds altogether neglected,” said Mrs.
Stratton. “Come and listen, Isabel; Mr. Kingcote is saying the most
interesting things.”
“Let the mind take care of itself,” continued Kingcote, smiling slightly
as he looked at Mrs. Clarendon. “If a boy has a bent for acquiring
knowledge, he will manage that later. I wouldn’t encourage it. Make
him a sound creature, that’s the first thing. Occupy him with vigorous
bodily pursuits; keep his mind from turning inwards; save him from
reflection. If every boy in England could be so brought up, they would
be a blissful generation.”
“How about the girls?” questioned Isabel. “Would you educate them in the
same way?”
“Precisely, with yet more wholesome effect. Nay, I would go further;
they should never open a book till they were one-and-twenty, and their
previous training should be that of Amazons.”
“That is a merciful provision,” said Ada, meaning possibly more than her
hearers understood.
When Kingcote took his leave the ladies separated. Mrs. Clarendon had
before her a dinner party at Dunsey Priors, and it was necessary to
give certain orders. Mrs. Stratton took up _The Times_ till tea should
appear.
Ada, after pacing about the library for a quarter of an hour, took her
hat and went into the open air. Her mind was disturbed in some way; the
darkness of trouble was back again in her eyes. She walked among the
evergreens of the shrubbery, then strayed to a seat which stood against
the wall of the circular portion of the conservatory. The landscape
before her was wild with the hues of a sky in which the declining sun
fought against flying strips of ragged cloud. The wind was kept off from
this part of the lawn, but in the distance it made a moaning over the
fields. She watched a cohort of dead leaves sweeping in great curves
along the side of the house.
A voice spoke very near to her. It came from within the rotunda; the
stained-glass window just above her head was partly open.
“It would be infinitely better,” Mrs. Clarendon was saying, “than that a
man like Vincent Lacour should make a prize of her.”
“But she cannot be so infatuated,” returned Mrs. Stratton. “She has
sense enough to understand her own position and to take care of herself.
My idea is that she won’t marry for some time, perhaps not at all.”
There was silence, then the last speaker resumed.
“She certainly has no interest in Mr. Kingcote.”
“You can’t judge so speedily. I don’t say that I desire it,” Isabel
added with an uncertain voice. “But I am sure it would be a happy
thing.”
“Then why not desire it?”
“I don’t know, I can’t quite explain. And I half think she __has an
interest in him; but then--poor Ada!”
“She isn’t so ugly as she was,” remarked Mrs. Stratton’s matter-of-fact
voice. “I notice that distinctly.”
Ada rose and walked away with quick steps. At the corner of the house,
as she passed it to reach the front door, a great gust of wind met her,
and a troop of dry crackling leaves swarmed about her feet and dress;
she bent her head and hastened on, not staying till she had reached
her bedroom. There she stood, just within the door, motionless and
purposeless. Her face was pale, her lips set at their hardest and
cruelest. When at length she stirred, it was to go to the glass and view
herself. She turned away with a laugh, no pleasant one....
As Isabel came downstairs a few minutes before the time for which the
carriage had been ordered, she saw Ada standing in the doorway of the
library.
“Don’t, of course, sit up for me, Ada,” she said.
“I will not. But I should be glad to speak to you now, if you could
spare me a moment.”
Isabel gazed, surprised at her tone.
“Certainly,” she acceded, and passed into the library. Ada closed the
door behind her. Isabel was resplendent in her evening costume; her
pure, shapely neck and shoulders gleamed above the dark richness of
her robe, the gold and jewels made worthy adornment of her beauty. Her
colour a trifle heightened, her eyes lustrous with foresight of
homage, her white, womanly brows crowned with the natural tiara of her
hair--fine and rich still as in her girlhood--the proud poise of her
small and perfect head, these things were lovelier to-night than on the
day when her picture had been painted as a young bride. Maturity had
rewarded her with its dower, which so few dare count upon. To-night she
was a woman whom men of ripe experience, men of the world, would take
for herself, asking no wealth but that of her matchless charm, a woman
for whom younger and more passionate hearts would break with longing.
“What is it, Ada?” she asked in a voice of concern.
“This, Mrs. Clarendon. You rightly required of me that I should keep
secret no step that affected us both. I wish to tell you that I have
accepted an offer from Mr. Lacour--that I am going to be married to
him.”
She spoke neither hurriedly nor vehemently. The only measure of her
feeling was in the words she used, the plainest and directest which came
into her mind.
Isabel regarded her steadily for a moment. The look was grave, not
hostile. Her eyes were dulled a little, her cheeks less warm, the jewels
on her breast rose and fell; but she mastered the emotions which such
an announcement could not but cause, forced back that cold, heavy flood
which just touched her heart, held her own against the onset of fears.
“You have well considered this, Ada?”
Her hand sought the nearest chair, but she resisted the need of seating
herself, merely rested her gloved fingers on the back.
“Yes, I have given it all the consideration that is necessary,” was
Ada’s reply, less self-controlled than her last speech.
“But why do you tell me in this way?” Isabel inquired, when she had
again regarded the girl’s pale anguish. “What has happened? What has
offended you?”
“I have said all that I wished to say, Mrs. Clarendon,” continued the
other, regardless, seeming not to hear what was asked of her. “Please
to tell me whether I am free to act, whether, as I am still under your
authority, you will use it or not to oppose my marriage?”
“I cannot understand you, Ada. Why do you speak to me so harshly? What
unkindness have I been guilty of, and so recently?” She stopped, her
eyes fell, a thought seemed to strike her.
“Have I _said_ anything to hurt you?”
Ada made a nervous movement, then spoke more calmly.
“I should not allow anything you say to influence my actions. Will you
please tell me what I wish to know?”
“I shall offer no opposition of that kind,” Isabel said. “You are old
enough to think and act for yourself. If you had come and told me of
this in a friendly way I should no doubt have used the privilege of my
age and experience----”
“To tell me what you have already on several occasions said indirectly,”
broke in the girl, again passionate. “Thank you; I can make all such
reflections for myself.”
“I think you are unjust to me, Ada,” said Mrs. Clarendon, in a lowered
voice. Her fingers were now grasping the chair, instead of resting upon
it. “When you have had time to reflect I am sure you will speak to me
differently.”
Ada stood silent.
“You propose to be married shortly?” Isabel asked, joining her hands
together before her.
“As soon as will suit your convenience, Mrs. Clarendon.”
“Pray do not consult that.”
She could not hold back this little note of resentment, and, having
uttered it, she turned and left the room. As she drew the door to, a
servant approached to say that the carriage waited.
“I shall not want it,” Isabel replied shortly; “let it go back.”
She moved to the foot of the stairs, and in doing so, had to pass the
drawing-room door, which stood open. Mrs. Stratton was within. Hearing
the rustle of Isabel’s dress she came forward.
“Ready?” she said; and added with a smile, “pray remember me to Lord
Winterset; he is sure to be there.”
Isabel was pale now. She stood with one foot on the stairs and a hand
pressed against her side. For a moment she looked strangely into her
friends face, then turned and called to the footman, who was in the
doorway of the house.
“Ward, stop the carriage!”
“Whats this?” inquired Mrs. Stratton, looking puzzled. Only an extreme
occasion would have called alarm to that heroic lady’s face.
“I sent the carriage away,” Isabel explained. “I had a
faintness--thought I wouldn’t go. It has gone! I shall be late.”
“You certainly don’t look very well. A glass of sherry, dear----?”
“No, no; it has gone. Don’t sit up for me, Rose. Good-bye, dear.”
They kissed each other, and Mrs. Clarendon rustled to her carriage.