The few, but precious words, that marked, in parting, a sensibility that
he had vainly sought to excite while remaining, bounded to the heart of
Harleigh; but were denied all acknowledgment from his lips, by the sight
of Miss Bydel and Mr Giles Arbe, who were mounting the stairs.
Miss Bydel tapt at the door of Ellis; and Harleigh, ill as he felt
fitted for joining any company, persuaded himself that immediately to
retreat, might awaken yet more surmize, than, for a few passing minutes,
to re-enter the room.
He looked at Ellis, in taking this measure, and saw that, while she
struggled to receive her visitors with calm civility, her air of
impatience for his departure was changed, by this surprize, into
confusion at his presence.
He felt culpable for occasioning her so uneasy a sensation; and, to
repair it as much as might be in his power, assumed a disengaged
countenance, and treated as a mark of good fortune, having chanced to
enquire whether Miss Ellis had any commands for town, at the same time
that Miss Bydel and Mr Giles Arbe made their visit.
'Why we are come, Mrs Ellis,' said Miss Bydel, 'to know the real reason
of your not being at the rehearsal this morning. Pray what is it? Not a
soul could tell it me, though I asked every body all round. So I should
be glad to hear the truth from yourself. Was it real illness, now? or
only a pretext?'
'Illness,' cried Mr Giles, 'with all those roses on her cheeks? No, no;
she's very well; as well as very pretty. But you should not tell
stories, my dear: though I am heartily glad to see that there's nothing
the matter. But it's a bad habit. Though it's convenient enough,
sometimes. But when you don't like to do a thing, why not say so at
once? People mayn't be pleased, to be sure, when they are refused; but
do you think them so ill natured, as to like better to hear that you are
ill?'
Ellis, abashed, attempted no defence; and Harleigh addressed some
discourse to Miss Bydel, upon the next day's concert; while Mr Giles
went on with his own idea.
'We should always honestly confess our likings and dislikings, for else
what have we got them for? If every one of us had the same taste, half
the things about us would be of no service; and we should scramble till
we came to scratches for t'other half. But the world has no more
business, my dear lady, to be all of one mind, than all of one body.'
'O now, pray Mr Giles,' cried Miss Bydel, 'don't go beginning your
comical talk; for if once you do that, one can't get in a word.'
'But, for all that, we should all round try to help and be kind to one
another; what else are we put all together for in this world? We might,
just as well, each of us have been popt upon some separate bit of a
planet, one by himself one. All I recommend, is, to tell truth, or to
say nothing. We whip poor pretty children for telling stories, when they
are little, and yet hardly speak a word, without some false turn or
other, ourselves, when we grow big!'
'Well, but, Mr Giles,' said Miss Bydel, 'where's the use of talking so
long about all that, when I'm wanting to ask Mrs Ellis why she did not
come to the rehearsal?'
'For my own part, Ma'am,' continued Mr Giles, 'if any body puts me to a
difficulty, I do the best I can: but I'd rather do the worst than tell a
fib. So when I am asked an awkward question, which some people can't
cure themselves of doing, out of an over curiosity in their nature, as,
Giles, how do you like Miss such a one? or Mr such a one? or Mrs such a
one? as Miss Bydel, for instance, if she came into any body's head;
or--'
'Nay, Mr Giles,' interrupted Miss Bydel, 'I don't see why I should not
come into a person's head as well as another; so I don't know what you
say that for. But if that's your notion of being so kind one to another,
Mr Giles, I can't pretend to say it's mine; for I see no kindness in
it.'
'I protest, Ma'am, I did not think of you in the least!' cried Mr Giles,
much out of countenance: 'I only took your name because happening to
stand just before you put it, I suppose, at my tongue's end; but you
were not once in my thoughts, I can assure you, Ma'am, upon my word of
honour! No more than if you had never existed, I protest!'
Miss Bydel, neither accepting nor repelling this apology, said, that she
did not come to talk of things of that sort, but to settle some business
of more importance. Then, turning to Ellis, 'I hear,' she continued,
'Mrs Ellis, that all of the sudden, you are grown very rich. And I
should be glad to know if it's true? and how it has happened?'
'I should be still more glad, Madam,' answered Ellis, 'to be able to
give you the information!'
'Nay, Mrs Ellis, I had it from your friend Mr Giles, who is always the
person to be telling something or other to your advantage. So if there
be any fault in the account, it's him you are to call upon, not me.'
Mr Giles, drawn by the silence of Ellis to a view of her embarrassment,
became fearful that he had been indiscreet, and made signs to Miss Bydel
to say no more upon the subject; but Miss Bydel, by no means disposed,
at this moment, to oblige him, went on.
'Nay, Mr Giles, you know, as well as I do, 'twas your own news. Did not
you tell us all, just now, at the rehearsal, when Miss Brinville and
Miss Sycamore were saying what a monstrous air they thought it, for a
person that nobody knew any thing of, to send excuses about being
indisposed; just as if she were a fine lady; or some famous singer, that
might be as troublesome as she would; did you not tell us, I say, that
Mrs Ellis deserved as much respect as any of us, on account of her good
character, and more than any of us on account of her prettiness and her
poverty? Because her prettiness, says you, tempts others, and her
poverty tempts herself; and yet she is just as virtuous as if she were
as rich and as ordinary as any one of the greatest consequence amongst
you. These were your own words, Mr Giles.'
Harleigh, who, conscious that he ought to go, had long held by the lock
of the door, as if departing, could not now refrain from changing the
position of his hand, by placing it, expressively, upon the arm of Mr
Giles.
'And if all this,' Miss Bydel continued, 'is not enough to make you
respect her, says you, why respect her for the same thing that makes you
respect one another, her money. And when we all asked how she could be
poor, and have money too, you said that you had yourself seen ever so
many bank-notes upon her table.'
Ellis coloured; but not so painfully as Harleigh, at the sight of her
blushes, unattended by any refutation; or any answer to this
extraordinary assertion.
'And then, Mr Giles, as you very well know, when I asked, if she has
money, why don't she pay her debts? you replied, that she had paid them
all. Upon which I said, I should be glad to know, then why I was to be
the only person left out, just only for my complaisance in waiting so
long? and upon that I resolved to come myself, and see how the matter
stood. For though I have served you with such good will, Mrs Ellis,
while I thought you poor, I must be a fool to be kept out of my money,
when I know you have got it in plenty: and Mr Giles says that he
counted, with his own hands, ten ten-pound bank-notes. Now I should be
glad if you have no objection, to hear how you came by all that money,
Mrs Ellis; for ten ten-pound bank-notes make a hundred pounds.'
Oh! absent--unguarded--dangerous Mr Giles Arbe! thought Ellis, how much
benevolence do you mar, by a distraction of mind that leads to so much
mischief!
'I hope I have done nothing improper?' cried Mr Giles, perceiving, with
concern, the disturbance of Ellis, 'in mentioning this; for I protest I
never recollected, till this very minute, that the money is not your
own. It slipt my memory, somehow, entirely.'
'Nay, nay, how will you make that out, Mr Giles?' cried Miss Bydel. 'If
it were not her own, how came she to pay her tradesmen with it, as you
told us that she did, Mr Giles?'
Ellis, in the deepest embarrassment, knew not which way to turn her
head.
'She paid them, Miss Bydel,' said Mr Giles, 'because she is too just, as
well as too charitable, to let honest people want, only because they
have the good nature to keep her from wanting herself; while she has
such large sums, belonging to a rich friend, lying quite useless, in a
bit of paper, by her side. For the money was left with her by a very
rich friend, she told me herself.'
'No, Sir,--no, Mr Giles,' cried Ellis, hastily, and looking every way to
avoid the anxious enquiring, quick-glancing eyes of Harleigh: 'I did
not ... I could not say....' she stopt, scarcely knowing what she meant
either to deny or to affirm.
'Yes, yes, 'twas a rich friend, my dear lady, you owned that. If you had
not given me that assurance, I should not have urged you to make use of
it. Besides, who but a rich friend would leave you money in such a way
as that, neither locked, nor tied, nor in a box, nor in a parcel; but
only in a little paper cover, directed For Miss Ellis, at her leisure?'
At these words, which could leave no doubt upon the mind of Harleigh,
that the money in question was his own; and that the money, so often
refused, had finally been employed in the payment of her debts, Ellis
involuntarily, irresistibly, but most fearfully, stole a hasty glance at
him; with a transient hope that they might have escaped his attention;
but the hope died in its birth: the words, in their fullest meaning, had
reached him, and the sensation which they produced filled her with
poignant shame. A joy beamed in his countenance that irradiated every
feature; a joy that flushed him into an excess of rapture, of which the
consciousness seemed to abash himself; and his eyes bent instantly to
the ground. But their checked vivacity checked not the feelings which
illumined them, nor the alarm which they excited, when Ellis, urged by
affright to snatch a second look, saw the brilliancy with which they had
at first sought her own, terminate in a sensibility more touching; saw
that they glistened with a tender pleasure, which, to her alarmed
imagination, represented the potent and dangerous inferences that
enchanted his mind, at a discovery that he had thus essentially
succoured her; and that she had accepted, at last, however secretly, his
succour.
This view of new danger to her sense of independence, called forth new
courage, and restored an appearance of composure; and, addressing
herself to Miss Bydel, 'I entreat you,' she cried, 'Madam, to bear a
little longer with my delay. To-morrow I shall enter upon a new career,
from the result of which I hope speedily to acknowledge by obligation to
your patience; and to acquit myself to all those to whom I am in any
manner, pecuniarily obliged;--except of the lighter though far more
lasting debt of gratitude.'
Harleigh understood her determined perseverance with cruel
disappointment, yet with augmented admiration of her spirited delicacy;
and, sensible of the utter impropriety of even an apparent resistance to
her resolution in public, he faintly expressed his concern that she had
no letters prepared for town, and with a deep, but stifled sigh, took
leave.
Miss Bydel continued her interrogations, but without effect; and soon,
therefore, followed. Mr Giles remained longer; not because he obtained
more satisfaction, but because, when not answered, he was contented with
talking to himself.
The rest of the day was passed free from outward disturbance to Ellis;
and what she might experience internally was undivulged.