THE MISTRESS OF DUPLEY WALLS.
The words were hardly out of my lips when the woman shrank suddenly
back, as though struck by an invisible hand, and gave utterance to an
inarticulate cry of wonder and alarm. Then, striding forward, she
seized me by the wrist, and drew me into the lamp-lighted hall.
"Child! child! why have you come here?" she cried, scanning my face
with eager eyes. "In all the wide world this is the last place you
should have come to."
"Miss Chinfeather is dead, and all the young ladies have been sent to
their homes. I have no home, so they have sent me here."
"What shall I do? What will her ladyship say?" cried the woman, in a
frightened voice, "how shall I ever dare to tell her?"
"Who rang the bell, Dance, a few minutes ago? And to whom are you
talking?"
The voice sounded so suddenly out of the semi-darkness at the upper
end of the large hall, which was lighted only by a small oil lamp,
that both the woman and I started. Looking in the direction from which
the sound had come, I could dimly make out, through the obscurity, the
figures of two women who had entered without noise through the
curtained doorway, close to which they were now standing. One of the
two was very tall, and was dressed entirely in black. The second one,
who was less tall, was also dressed in black, except that she seemed
to have something white thrown over her head and shoulders; but I was
too far away to make out any details.
"Hush! don't you speak," whispered the woman warningly to me. "Leave
me to break the news to her ladyship." With that she left me standing
on the threshold, and hurried towards the upper end of the hall.
The tall personage in black, then, with the harsh voice--high pitched,
and slightly cracked--was Lady Pollexfen! How fast my heart beat! If
only I could have slipped out unobserved I would never have braved my
fortune within those walls again.
She who had been called Dance went up to the two ladies, curtsied
deeply, and began talking in a low earnest voice. Hardly, however, had
she spoken a dozen words, when the lesser of the two ladies flung up
her arms with a cry like that of some wounded creature, and would have
fallen to the ground had not Dance caught her round the waist and so
held her.
"What folly is this?" cried Lady Pollexfen, sternly, striking the
pavement of the ball sharply with the iron ferule of her cane. "To
your room, Sister Agnes! For such poor weak fools as you solitude is
the only safe companion. But, remember your oath! Not a word; not a
word." With one lean hand uplifted, and menacing forefinger, she
emphasized those last warning words.
She who had been addressed as Sister Agnes raised herself with a deep
sigh from the shoulder of Dance, cast one long look in the direction
of the spot where I was standing, and vanished slowly through the
curtained arch. Then Dance took up the broken thread of her narration,
and Lady Pollexfen, grim and motionless, listened without a word.
Even after Dance had done speaking her ladyship stood for some time
looking straight before her, but saying nothing in reply. I felt
intuitively that my fate was hanging on the decision of those few
moments, but I neither stirred nor spoke.
At length the silence was broken by Lady Pollexfen. "Take the child
away," she said; "attend to her wants, make her presentable, and bring
her to me in the Green Saloon after dinner. It will be time enough
to-morrow to consider what must be done with her."
Dance curtsied again. Her ladyship sailed slowly across the hall, and
passed out through another curtained doorway.
Dance's first act was to pay and dismiss the driver who had been
waiting outside all this time. Then, taking me by the hand, "Come
along with me, dear," she said. "Why, I declare, you look quite white
and frightened! You have nothing to fear, child. We shall not eat
you--at least, not just yet; not till we have fed you up a bit."
At the end of a long corridor was Mrs. Dance's own room, into which I
was now ushered. Scarcely had I made a few changes in my toilette when
tea for two persons was brought in, and Mrs. Dance and I sat down to
table. The old lady was well on with her second cup before she made
any remark other than was required by the necessities of the occasion.
I have called her an old woman, and such she looked in my youthful
eyes, although her years were only about sixty. She wore a dark brown
dress, and a black silk apron, and had on a cap with thick frilled
borders, under which her grey hair was neatly snooded away. She looked
ruddy and full of health. A shrewd sensible woman, evidently, yet with
a motherly kindness about her that made me cling to her with a child's
unerring instinct.
"You look tired, poor thing," she said, as she leisurely stirred her
tea; "and well you may, considering the long journey you have had
to-day. I don't suppose that her ladyship will keep you more than ten
minutes in the Green Saloon, and after that you can go to bed as soon
as you like. What a surprise for all of us your coming has been! Dear,
dear! who would have expected such a thing this morning? But I knew by
the twitching of my corns that something uncommon was going to happen.
I was really frightened of telling her ladyship that you were here.
There's no knowing how she might have taken it; and there's no knowing
what she will decide to do with you to-morrow."
"But what has Lady Pollexfen to do with me in any way?" I asked.
"Before this morning I never even heard her name, and now it seems
that she is to do what she likes with me."
"That she will do what she likes with you, you may depend, dear," said
Mrs. Dance. "As to how she happens to have the right so to do, that is
another thing, and one about which it is not my place to talk nor
yours to question me. That she possesses such a right you may make
yourself certain. All that you have to do is to obey and to ask no
questions."
I sat in distressed and bewildered silence for a little while. Then I
ventured to say: "Please not to think me rude, but I should like to
know who Sister Agnes is."
Mrs. Dance stirred uneasily in her chair and bent her eyes on the
fire, but did not immediately answer my question.
"Sister Agnes is Lady Pollexfen's companion," she said at last. "She
reads to her, and writes her letters, and talks to her, and all that,
you know. Sister Agnes is a Roman Catholic, and came here from the
convent of Saint Ursula. However, she is not a nun, but something like
one of those Sisters of Mercy in the large towns who go about among
poor people, and visit the hospitals and prisons. She is allowed to
live here always, and Lady Pollexfen would hardly know how to get
through the day without her."
"Is she not a relative of Lady Pollexfen?" I asked.
"No--not a relative," answered Dance. "You must try to love her a
great deal, my dear Miss Janet, for if angels are ever allowed to
visit this vile earth, Sister Agnes is one of them. But there goes her
ladyship's bell. She is ready to receive you."
I had washed away the stains of travel, and had put on my best frock,
and Dance was pleased to say that I looked very nice, "though,
perhaps, a trifle more old-fashioned than a girl of your age ought to
look." Then she laid down a few rules for my guidance when in the
presence of Lady Pollexfen, and led the way to the Green Saloon, I
following with a timorous heart.
Dance flung open the folding doors of the big room. "Miss Janet Holme
to see your ladyship," she called out, and next moment the doors
closed behind me, and I was left standing there alone.
"Come nearer--come nearer," said her ladyship's cracked voice, as with
a long lean hand she beckoned me to approach.
I advanced slowly up the room, stopped and curtsied. Lady Pollexfen
pointed out a high footstool about three yards from her chair. I
curtsied again, and sat down on it. During the interview that followed
my quick eyes had ample opportunity for taking a mental inventory of
Lady Pollexfen and her surroundings.
She had exchanged the black dress in which I first saw her for one of
green velvet, trimmed with ermine. This dress was made with short
sleeves and low body, so as to leave exposed her ladyship's arms,
long, lean, and skinny, and her scraggy neck. Her nose was hooked, and
her chin pointed. Between the two shone a row of large white even
teeth, which long afterwards I knew to be artificial. Equally
artificial was the mass of short black frizzly curls that crowned her
head, which was unburdened with cap or covering of any kind. Her
eyebrows were dyed to match her hair. Her cheeks, even through the
powder with which they were thickly smeared, showed two spots of
brilliant red, which no one less ignorant than I would have accepted
without question as the last genuine remains of the bloom of youth.
But at that first interview I accepted everything _au pied de la
letter_, without doubt or question of any kind.
Her ladyship wore long earrings of filigree gold. Round her neck
was a massive gold chain. On her fingers sparkled several rings of
price--diamonds, rubies, and opals. In figure her ladyship was tall,
and as upright as a dart. She was, however, slightly lame of one foot,
which necessitated the use of a cane when walking. Lady Pollexfen's
cane was ivory-headed, and had a gold plate let into it, on
which was engraved her crest and initials. She was seated in an
elaborately-carved high-backed chair, near a table on which were the
remains of a dessert for one person.
The Green Saloon was a large gloomy room; at least, it looked gloomy
as I saw it for the first time, lighted up by four wax candles where
twenty were needed. These four candles being placed close by where
Lady Pollexfen was sitting, left the other end of the saloon in
comparative darkness. The furniture was heavy, formal, and
old-fashioned. Gloomy portraits of dead-and-gone Pollexfens lined the
green walls, and this might be the reason why there always seemed to
me a slight graveyard flavour--scarcely perceptible, but none the less
surely there--about this room which caused me to shudder involuntarily
whenever I crossed its threshold.
Lady Pollexfen's black eyes--large, cold, and steady as Juno's
own--had been bent upon me all this time, measuring me from head to
foot with what I felt to be a slightly contemptuous scrutiny. "What is
your name, and how old are you?" she asked, with startling abruptness,
after a minute or two of silence.
"Janet Holme, and twelve years," I answered, laconically. A feeling of
defiance, of dislike to this bedizened old woman, began to gnaw my
child's heart. Young as I was, I had learned, with what bitterness I
alone could have told, the art of wrapping myself round with a husk of
cold reserve, which no one uninitiated in the ways of children could
penetrate, unless I were inclined to let them. Sulkiness was the
generic name for this quality at school, but I dignified it with a
different term.
"How many years were you at Park Hill Seminary? and where did you live
before you went there?" asked Lady Pollexfen.
"I have lived at Park Hill ever since I can remember anything. I don't
know where I lived before that time."
"Are your parents alive or dead? If the latter, what do you remember
of them?"
A lump came into my throat, and tears into my eyes. For a moment or
two I could not answer. "I don't know anything about my parents," I
said. "I never remember seeing them. I don't know whether they are
alive or dead."
"Do you know why you were consigned by the Park Hill people to this
particular house--to Dupley Walls--to Me, in fact?"
Her voice was raised almost to a shriek as she said these last words,
and she pointed to herself with one claw-like finger.
"No, my lady, I don't know why I was sent here. I was told to come,
and I came."
"But you have no claim on me--none whatever," she continued, fiercely.
"Bear that in mind: remember it always. Whatever I may choose to do
for you, will be done of my own free will, and not through compulsion
of any kind. No claim whatever; remember that. None whatever."
She was silent for some time after this, and sat with her cold steady
eyes fixed intently on the fire. For my part, I sat as still as a
mouse, afraid to stir, longing for my dismissal, and dreading to be
questioned further.
Lady Pollexfen roused herself at length with a deep sigh, and a few
words muttered under her breath. "Here is a bunch of grapes for you,
child," she said. "When you have eaten them it will be time for you to
retire."
I advanced timidly, and took the grapes, with a curtsey and a "Thank
you, my lady," and then went back to my seat.
As I sat eating my grapes my eyes went up to an oval mirror over the
fire-place, in which were reflected the figures of Lady Pollexfen and
myself. My momentary glance into its depths showed me how keenly but
furtively her ladyship was watching me. But what interest could a
great lady have in watching poor insignificant me? I ventured another
glance into the mirror. Yes, she looked as if she were devouring me
with her eyes. But hothouse grapes are nicer than mysteries, and how
is it possible to give one's serious attention to two things at a
time?
When I had finished the grapes, I put my plate back on the table.
"Ring that bell," said Lady Pollexfen. I rang it accordingly, and
presently Dance made her appearance.
"Miss Holme is ready to retire," said her ladyship.
I arose, and going a step or two nearer to her, I made her my most
elaborate curtsey, and said, "I wish your ladyship a very good night."
The ghost of a smile flickered across her face. "I am pleased to find,
child, that you are not entirely destitute of manners," she said, and
with a stately wave of the arm I was dismissed.
It was like an escape from slavery to hear the door of the Green
Saloon shut behind me, and to get into the great corridors and
passages outside. I could have capered for very glee; only Mrs. Dance
was a staid sort of person, and might not have liked it.
"Her ladyship is pleased with you, I'm sure," she remarked, as we went
along.
"That is more than I am with her," I answered, pertly. Mrs. Dance
looked shocked.
"You must not talk in that way, dear, not on any account," she said.
"You must try to like Lady Pollexfen; it is to your interest to do so.
But even should you never learn to like her, you must not let any one
know it."
"I'm sure that I shall like the lady you call Sister Agnes," I said.
"When shall I see her? To-morrow?"
Mrs. Dance looked at me sharply for a moment. "You think you shall
like Sister Agnes, eh? When you come to know her, you will more than
like her; you will love her. But perhaps Lady Pollexfen will not allow
you to see her."
"But why not?" I said, abruptly, and I could feel my eyes flash with
anger.
"The why not I am not at liberty to explain," said Mrs. Dance, drily.
"And let me tell you, Miss Janet Holme, there are many things under
this roof of which no explanation will be given you, and if you are a
wise, good girl, you will not ask too many questions. I tell you this
simply for your own good. Lady Pollexfen cannot abear people that are
always prying and asking, What does this mean? and what does the other
mean A still tongue is the sign of a wise head."
Ten minutes later I had said my prayers, and was in bed. "Don't go
without kissing me," I said to Dance, as she took up the candle.
The old lady came back and kissed me tenderly. "Heaven bless you, and
keep you, my dear!" she said, with solemn dignity. "There are those in
the world who love you very dearly, and some day perhaps you will know
all. I dare not say more. Good night, and God bless you."
Mrs. Dance's words reached a chord in my heart that vibrated to the
slightest touch. I cried myself silently to sleep.
How long I had been asleep I had no means of knowing, but I was
awakened sometime in the night by a rain of kisses, soft, warm, and
light, on lips, cheeks, and forehead. The room was pitch dark, and for
a second or two I thought I was still at Park Hill, and that Miss
Chinfeather had come back from heaven to tell me how much she loved
me. But this thought passed away like the slide of a magic lantern,
and I knew that I was at Dupley Walls. The moment I knew this I put
out my arms with the intention of clasping my unknown visitor round
the neck. But I was not quick enough. The kisses ceased, my hands met
each other in the empty air, and I heard a faint noise of garments
trailing across the floor. I started up in bed, and called out, in a
frightened voice, "Who's there?"
"Hush! not a word!" whispered a voice out of the darkness. Then I
heard the door of my room softly closed, and I felt that I was alone.
I was left as wide awake as ever I had been in my life. My child's
heart was filled with an unspeakable yearning, and yet the darkness
and the mystery frightened me. It could not be Miss Chinfeather who
had visited me, I argued with myself. The lips that had touched mine
were not those of a corpse, but were instinct with life and love. Who,
then, could my mysterious visitor be? Not Lady Pollexfen, surely! I
half started up in bed at the thought. Just as I did so, without
warning of any kind, a solemn muffled tramp became audible in the room
immediately over mine. A tramp, slow, heavy, measured, from one end of
the room to the other, and then back again. I slipped back into the
bedclothes and buried myself up to the ears. I could hear the beating
of my heart, oppressed now with a new terror before which the lesser
one faded utterly. The very monotony of that dull measured walk was
enough to unstring the nerves of a child, coming as it did in the
middle of the night. I tried to escape from it by going still deeper
under the clothes, but I could hear it even then. Since I could not
escape it altogether, I had better listen to it with all my ears, for
it was quite possible that it might come downstairs, and so into my
room. Had such a thing happened, I think I should have died from sheer
terror. Happily for me nothing of the kind took place; and, still
listening, I fell asleep at last from utter weariness, and knew
nothing more till I was awoke by a stray sunbeam smiting me across the
eyes.