One morning two weeks later as Lady Agatha Aubrey-Blythe, her daughter
Gwendolen, and her two sons Percy and Cecil were gathered rather
aimlessly in Lady Agatha's private morning-room, "a lady" was announced,
as desirous of speaking with Lady Agatha.
"Who is it, Susan?" asked Lady Agatha of the maid, who appeared all of a
tremble with some carefully suppressed excitement.
"Oh, my lady, it's Miss Jane Evelyn as ever was!" declared Susan,
beaming with doubtful delight.
"_It's Jane!_" exclaimed the group in concert.
"Show her up at once, Susan," said Lady Agatha, with a graciousness
which allayed poor Susan's fears. "Children," she added, turning to her
attentive offspring, "you must remember that our dear Jane is quite an
heiress now."
Gwendolen put up a haughty lip. "I don't want her here, even if she
is," she said disagreeably.
"Of course you don't!" crowed Percy. "Jane's a beauty and you aren't!"
"Percy--_my son_!" exclaimed Lady Agatha warningly, and swept forward to
greet the small, slight, bright-eyed person who entered the room
escorted by the broadly smiling Susan.
"My _dear_ Jane!" murmured Lady Agatha, enfolding the little figure in
her voluminous embrace. "How we _have_ suffered since your cruel
desertion of us!"
"I suppose it must have annoyed you, Aunt Agatha," said Jane sweetly.
"But it couldn't be helped, you see."
Then she turned to the two boys, who had greeted her vociferously, and
to Gwendolen, who sulkily offered a cheek to be kissed.
The girl's bright eyes were misty and she trembled a little as she
looked from one to the other. English sights and sounds and faces had
never seemed so delightful, yet she was no less determined upon leaving
them all for the land of her adoption.
"How much money did Uncle Foxhall leave me?" she asked, after the buzz
of greetings and questions had somewhat subsided.
"Why, don't you know, my dear?" Lady Agatha exclaimed. "I thought the
solicitors would have told you before this. It is not a large sum; but
it will serve to alter your future materially. It is a trifle short of
twelve thousand pounds, I believe; but with _that_ at your back I shall
be able to arrange a very suitable marriage for you, I am sure. In fact,
I have already mentioned quite an eligible _parti_ to your uncle, a Mr.
Gildersleeve. He is a widower of excellent family, my dear Jane, and
_quite_ suitable in every respect."
"He's an old frump," put in Gwendolen, with a hateful little laugh, "but
I dare say he'll do for _Jane_."
"My _dear_ Gwendolen!" protested Lady Agatha. "Of course, now that you
can afford to dress in a manner becoming to your station, Jane, I shall
not mind taking you out with Gwendolen--at least, _occasionally_. By the
way, that is a very pretty frock you are wearing. Where did you get it,
my dear?"
"This is an American gown," said Jane, drawing up her little figure with
a proud smile, "and this," she added tremulously, "is an
American--ring."
"_What!--a wedding ring!_ You are not _married already_?"
"Yes," said Jane, with a blush that made her look handsomer than ever.
"My husband is waiting for me downstairs. I should like you to meet him,
Aunt Agatha, and you"--including the others with her smiling glance. "He
is an American," she finished, with a touch of hauteur which was not
lost on Lady Agatha, "and we sail for--home a week from to-day."
Being doubly assured of this desirable _dénouement_, Lady Agatha
actually went to the length of giving a family dinner party in honor of
her niece by marriage, and to this dubious merry-making the Hon.
Wippingler Towle was bidden by the express commands of the master of
the house.
"You've clean thrown away a good lump of money, Towle," grumbled Mr.
Aubrey-Blythe; "but perhaps it will afford you some satisfaction to look
at the hole."
"I shall certainly be glad of the opportunity to meet--er--Mrs. Everett
once more," Mr. Towle said politely. "But I--er--don't quite follow you
in your remark about the money." His stern eyes actually threatened his
friend. "I am told that your niece has lately inherited a small legacy
by the bequest of--er--a deceased relative, which will, I trust, make
her quite comfortable and happy in her new home."
"Damn it, Towle!" blustered Mr. Robert Aubrey-Blythe, in the language of
the hunting field; "I can't follow your lead, sir; I'd come a damned
cropper, if I tried."
"Don't try, then," advised Mr. Towle curtly.
Being duly presented to the bride and to the groom, who comported
himself on the happy occasion with an ease and composure which Lady
Agatha Aubrey-Blythe later characterized as "brazen American boldness,"
Mr. Towle shook hands with both, with such a singular and unpleasant
mist clouding his glass that he was immediately thereafter obliged to
resort to a vigorous and prolonged use of his large, scented cambric
handkerchief. And this circumstance spared him the knowledge of Jane's
smiling coldness of manner.
Later in the evening Mr. Towle found himself unable to resist the
opportunity of a _tête-à-tête_ which Gwendolen's half sneering, half
curious appropriation of the young American made possible. Jane was
seated upon a sofa engaged in a wholly hollow and perfunctory
conversation with Lady Agatha, when Mr. Towle tentatively approached.
Lady Agatha instantly made room for him with an air of undisguised
relief which brought a faint smile to Jane's lips.
When she looked up to greet her late elderly suitor she was still
smiling, and the circumstance gave him courage to say, rather stiffly:
"I have not as yet--er--spoken with you upon the subject of your
marriage, Mrs.--ah--Everett; I trust you will permit me to wish you all
happiness, and--er----"
"Thank you, Mr. Towle," said Jane sweetly.
She had already acquired, he reflected, the self-possessed air of the
young matron, and her clear eyes were gazing at him with a shade of
retrospection in their depths. She was thinking--and the man was
unhappily aware of the fact--"what if I had married you!"
She sighed gently and stole a glance at her young husband, who was
smiling with open amusement at Gwendolen's clumsy attempts to make game
of him. "I fear," she said kindly, "that I was very rude to you the last
time I saw you. But I----"
He waited for her to go on.
"I was really very unhappy, and when one is unhappy----"
Again she paused to glance at the young American whose handsome,
vigorous head stood out in bold relief against the crimson cushions of
his chair. "When one is unhappy it is difficult to--to be just to
others. I have talked it all over with my--with Mr. Everett since our
marriage, and he says you were a brick--_a brick_; yes, I am quite sure
that is what he called you; but it really means something very nice
and--square. You see words in America frequently mean something far
different from what one has always supposed; and I am learning as fast
as I can. But my husband says that I did not appreciate how awfully kind
it was of you to come to America just to look for me. You did come for
that; didn't you?"
"I had," said Mr. Towle gravely, "no other motive in going to America."
"Well, that being the case," Jane went on rapidly, "it wasn't a bit nice
of _me_ to send you away without a word of explanation; now was it? But
this is the real, true reason; I don't mind telling it now." She paused
to smile happily to herself--"I caught a glimpse of Mr. Everett coming
up the street, and--and I thought it would be very awkward for you--for
him--to meet just then. I hope you are not too horribly vexed with me?"
She smiled brilliantly upon him, with an obvious desire to be at peace
with all her little world.
"Hum--ah," began Mr. Towle, eyeing the wistful little face which was
inclined toward his with a sternness born of his determination not to
make a fool of himself. "I--I beg to assure you, Mrs. Everett, that
I--er--quite understand, and I am not disposed to----"
Jane's eyes drooped; so did the corners of her mouth. "I never seem able
to say the right thing at the right time," she said mournfully. "I see
that I have offended you again, and I only meant to tell you--to
apologize for----"
"Jane," said Mr. Towle, in the deep, caressing tone which Jane had heard
only twice before from his lips, "I forgive you for--everything, and I
hope you will believe me when I tell you that I hope for nothing better
in life than to hear that all is going well with you, and that you
are--happy."
"Thank you," said Jane softly. Her eyes beamed kindly upon him. "You are
very good," she said; "I think I shall be even happier because you have
said this."
And the Hon. Wipplinger Towle in his own peculiarly patient, middle-aged
fashion blessed her in his heart of hearts for that little word "even."
It was, in a way, one of those crumbs which sometimes fall from a rich
man's table, and as such he thankfully appropriated it as his own meager
share of the loaf which an unfriendly Fate had denied him.
THE END
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End of Project Gutenberg's Truthful Jane, by Florance Morse Kingsley