Lady Jane's Toilet.
"Miss Jennie, _darling_, it's _me_," she repeated, and placed her
fingers on the young lady's shoulder. It was with an odd sense of relief
she saw the young lady turn her face away.
"Miss Jennie, dear; it's me--old Donnie--don't you know me?" cried
Donica once more. "Miss, dear, my lady, what's the matter you should
take on so?--only a few wry words--it will all be made up, dear."
"Who told you--who says it will be made up?" said Lady Jane, raising her
head slowly, very pale, and, it seemed to old Gwynn, grown so thin in
that one night. "Don't mind--it will _never_ be made up--no, Donnie,
never; it oughtn't. Is my--is General Lennox in the house?"
"Gone down to the town, miss, I'm told, in a bit of a tantrum--going off
to Lunnon. It's the way wi' them all--off at a word; and then cools, and
back again same as ever."
Lady Jane's fingers were picking at the bedclothes, and her features
were sunk and peaked as those of a fever-stricken girl.
"The door is shut to--outer darkness. I asked your God for mercy last
night, and see what he has done for me!"
"Come, Miss Jennie, dear, you'll be happy yet. Will ye come with me to
Wardlock?"
"That I will, Donnie," she answered, with a sad alacrity, like a
child's.
"I'll be going, then, in half an hour, and you'll come with me."
Lady Jane's tired wild eyes glanced on the gleam of light in the
half-open shutter with the wavering despair of a captive.
"I wish we were there. I wish we were--you and I, Donnie--just you and
I."
"Well, then, what's to hinder? My missus sends her love by me, to ask
you to go there, till things be smooth again 'twixt you and your old
man, which it won't be long, Miss Jennie, dear."
"I'll go," said Lady Jane, gliding out of her bed toward the toilet,
fluttering along in her bare feet and night-dress. "Donnie, I'll go."
"That water's cold, miss; shall I fetch hot?"
"Don't mind--no; very nice. Oh, Donnie, Donnie, Donnie! my heart, my
heart! what is it?"
"Nothink, my dear--nothink, darlin'."
"I wish it was dark again."
"Time enough, miss."
"That great sun shining! They'll all be staring. Well, _let_ them."
"Won't you get your things on, darling? I'll dress you. You'll take
cold."
"Oh, Donnie! I wish I could cry. My head! I don't know what it is. If I
could cry I think I should be better. I must see him, Donnie."
"But he's gone away, miss."
"_Gone!_ _Is_ he?"
"Ay, sure I told ye so, dear, only this minute. To Lunnon, I hear say."
"Oh! yes, I forgot; yes, I'll dress. Let us make haste. I wish I knew.
Oh! Donnie, Donnie! oh! my heart, Donnie, Donnie--my heart's breaking."
"There, miss, dear, don't take on so; you'll be better when we gets into
the air, you will. What will ye put on?--here's a purple mornin' silk."
"Yes; very nice. Thank you. Oh! Donnie, I wish we were away."
"So we shall, miss, presently, please God. Them's precious bad
pins--Binney and Clew--bends like lead; _there's_ two on 'em. Thompson's
mixed shillin' boxes--them's the best. Miss Trixie allays has 'em. Your
hair's beautiful, miss, allays was; but dearie me! what a lot you've
got! and so beautiful fine! I take it in handfuls--floss silk--and the
weight of it! Beautiful hair, miss. Dearie me, what some 'id give for
that!"
Thus old Gwynn ran on; but fixed, pale, and wild was the face which
would once have kindled in the conscious pride of beauty at the honest
admiration of old Donnie, who did not rise into raptures for everyone
and on all themes, and whose eulogy was therefore valuable.
"I see, Donnie--nothing bad has happened?" said Lady Jane, with a scared
glance at her face.
"Bad? Nonsense! I told you, Miss Jennie, 'twould all be made up, and so
it will, please God, miss."
But Lady Jane seemed in no wise cheered by her promises, and after a
silence of some minutes, she asked suddenly, with the same painful
look--
"Donnie, tell me the truth, for God's sake; how is he?"
Donica looked at her with dark inquiry.
"The General is gone, you know, ma'am."
"_Stop_--you _know_," cried Lady Jane, seizing her fiercely by the arm,
with a wild fixed stare in her face.
"Who?" said Donica.
"Not he. I mean--"
"Who?" repeated Gwynn.
"How is Sir Jekyl?"
It seemed as if old Donica's breath was suspended. Shade after shade her
face darkened, as with wide eyes she stared in the gazing face of Lady
Jane, who cried, with a strange laugh of rage--
"Yes--Sir Jekyl--how _is_ he?"
"Oh, Miss Jane!--oh, Miss Jane!--oh, Miss Jane!--and is _that_ it?"
Lady Jane's face was dark with other fiercer passions.
"Can't you answer, and not talk?" said she.
Donica's eyes wandered to the far end of the room to the fatal recess,
and she was shaking her head, as if over a tale of horror.
"Yes, I see, you know it all, and you'll _hate_ me now, as the others
will, and I don't care."
Suspicions are one thing--faint, phantasmal; certainties quite another.
Donica Gwynn looked appalled.
"Oh! poor Miss Jennie!" she cried at last, and burst into tears. Before
this old domestic Lady Jane was standing--a statue of shame, of
defiance--the fallen angelic.
"You're doing that to make me mad."
"Oh! no, miss; I'm sorry."
There was silence for a good while.
"The curse of God's upon this room," said Donica, fiercely, drying her
eyes. "I wish you had never set foot in it. Come away, my lady. I'll go
and send at once for a carriage to the town, and we'll go together,
ma'am, to Wardlock. Shall I, ma'am?"
"Yes, I'll go," said Lady Jane. "Let us go, you and I. I won't go with
Lady Alice. I won't go with her."
"Good-bye, my lady; good-bye, Miss Jennie dear; I'll be here again
presently."
Dressed for the journey, with her cloak on and bonnet, Lady Jane sat in
an arm-chair, haggard, listless, watching the slow shuffling of her own
foot upon the floor, while Donica departed to complete the arrangements
for their journey.