Gabriella, who had thus long been detained from her business, because
the lady, whose orders she had obeyed, had either forgotten that those
orders had been issued, or deemed that to wait in an anti-room was the
natural fate of an haberdasher; now, entering the shop, saw, with no
little surprize, Juliet in close conference with an old bean, who was
evidently disconcerted, and embarrassed by the interruption. Remitting,
however, all enquiry, and gracefully declining a chair, which was
respectfully offered to her by Sir Jaspar, who imagined her to be some
customer; she silently employed herself in examining and arranging her
unpinned, unrolled, and tumbled ribbons.
The surprize of the Baronet, now, became greater than her own. No
plainness of attire could hide, from his scrutinizing eye, a certain
native taste with which her habiliments, however simple, were put on;
nor could even the band-box which she held in her hand, and which he had
supposed to be there from some accident, disguise the elegance of her
motions, or conceal her lofty mien. When, therefore, he discovered that
she was at home, and that she was an haberdasher, he looked from one
lovely companion to the other, with reverential wonder, and uplifted
hands. Long profoundly impressed by the beauty of Juliet, by her merit,
her youth, her modest yet dignified demeanour, in the midst of all the
difficulties of distressed poverty; he was now as powerfully affected by
the appearance of Gabriella; whose noble, yet never haughty manners,
joined to a tragic expression of constant woe in her countenance,
rendered her if not as attractive, at least as interesting as her
friend.
A general pause ensued, till Gabriella, fearing that she was obtrusive,
retired to the inner room.
Sir Jaspar, wide opening his eyes, and again leaning forward, to hear
more distinctly, exclaimed, 'Who is that fine creature? What a majestic
port! Yet how sweet a look! She awes while she invites! Who is she?'
Juliet felt enchanted; she even felt exalted by a testimony so impartial
and so honourable, to the merit of her friend, and she eagerly answered,
'Your admiration, Sir, does honour to your discernment. Her
excellencies, her high qualities, and spotless conduct, might make the
proudest Englishman exult to own her for his country-woman; though the
lowest Frenchman would dispute, even at the risk of his life, the honour
of her birth. Sprung from one of the first houses of Europe, a house not
more ancient in its origin, than renowned for its virtues; allies to a
family the most illustrious, whose military glory has raised it to the
highest ranks in the state; herself an ornament to that birth, an honour
to that alliance; she sustains a reverse of fortune, which reduces her
from every indulgence to every privation, with a calm courage that keeps
her always mistress of herself, and enables her to combat evil by
labour, misery by industry! And which never has failed her, but in a
personal, bosom affliction, that would equally have shaken her
fortitude, in the brightest splendour of prosperity!--'
'Hold! hold, you little torment!' interrupted Sir Jaspar. 'You don't
consider what an artillery my wanton sprites are bringing upon me! My
poor gouty fingers are so mumbled and pinched, and tweaked, to hurry me
to get at my purse, that I cannot catch hold of it for very tremour!--'
'Oh no, Sir Jaspar, no! What she earns, however hardly and however
humbly, she thankfully reaps; but she could only submit to accept alms,
if bowed down by age, by malady, or by incapacity for work. Yet this
spirit is not pride; 'tis but a strong and refined sense of propriety;
since from a friend, in the tender persuasion, that participation of
fortune ought to be leagued with participation of sentiment, she would
candidly receive whatever would not injure that friend to bestow.'
'Divinest of little mortals!' cried Sir Jaspar. 'What whimsey is it,
what astonishing whimsey of "the sisters three", that can have nailed to
a counter two such delectable beings, to weigh pins and needles, and
measure tapes and bobbins? And how,--beautiful witch! with charms,
graces, accomplishments, talents such as yours, how is it you submit to
such base drudgery in "durance vile," without even making a wry face?
without a scowl upon your eye-brow, or a grumble from your throat?'
'Can you look, Sir, at her whom you call my partner, and think of me?
She has lost her country; she wastes in exile; she sinks in obscurity;
she has no communication with her friends; she knows not even whether
they yet breathe the vital air!--nevertheless she works, she sustains
herself by her industry and ingenuity; and repines only that she has not
still another, has not her loved and lovely infant to sustain also!--and
I, shall I complain?--Offspring of a race the most dignified, she toils
manually, not to degrade it mentally;--and I, shall I blush to owe my
subsistence to my exertions?'
Tears now flowed fast down her cheeks, while the crutches dropt from the
feeble hands of the penetrated Baronet, whose eyes, dimmed by
compassion, were fastened upon the face of the lovely mourner, when
Gabriella re-appeared.
In deep amazement and concern, she hesitated whether she should come
forward, to offer comfort; or whether, as she now concluded the old
gentleman to be some intimate friend, she ought not again to retire; but
Juliet entreated her to return to her place. She resumed, therefore, her
business of restoring her ribbons to order; dejectedly announcing, that
nothing had been bought; though every thing had been examined, deranged,
and tossed about.
Sir Jaspar now, courteously waving his hand, smilingly addressed himself
to Gabriella, saying, ''Tis my good Genius, Ma'am, make no doubt of it,
that has run away with the feeling of those people you mention! For my
good Genius, I must beg you to observe, has frequently taken lessons of
the god Mercury, and is nearly as adroit in petty larceny as his godship
himself. I should not, therefore, wonder, if, in his eagerness to serve
me, he had pilfered from those poor souls, who have used you so ill,
every grain he could pick up of decency! For, knowing that ribbons are a
commodity of which I want a prodigious stock, he would not suffer your
assortment to be diminished, till I had had the pleasure of making my
bargains.'
He then selected the piece of ribbon which seemed the most considerable,
and desired to have it measured.
Gabriella obeyed, not more amazed than Juliet felt amused.
But, when a similar order was given, for ascertaining the quantity of a
second piece, and then a third; Juliet, though delighted at the pleased
looks of Gabriella, and charmed with the generosity of the Baronet,
began to apprehend, that she might herself be supposed to incur some
debt of gratitude for this liberality. She retreated, therefore, with
her needle-work, to the adjoining little room.
In a few minutes, she was followed by Gabriella; who, uneasily, asked
what she must do with this magnificent old beau, who still while she
measured one piece of ribbon, employed himself in selecting another; and
who, though so gallant that he never spoke without a compliment, was so
respectful, that it was not possible to check him by any serious
reproof.
Juliet disclaimed taking any share in his present munificence; yet owned
that she had an ancient obligation to him that she was unable, at this
moment, to repay; and which, from the delicacy with which it had been
conferred, and the seasonable relief which it had procured her, would
merit her lasting gratitude. He was brother-in-law, she added, to the
lady with whom she had lately resided; and he was as rich as he was
benevolent.
Her scruples, then, Gabriella said, were at an end. Juliet, therefore,
begged that she would endeavour to enter into conversation with him
concerning Brighthelmstone; and try to obtain some particulars relative
to the party at Mrs Ireton's.
'I began to fear you had flown away, Ma'am,' said Sir Jaspar, upon
Gabriella's re-entrance into the shop; 'and I was much less surprised
than concerned; for I had already surmized that you were an angel;
though I had failed to remark your wings.'
He then put into her hand three more pieces of ribbon, which he had
chosen during her absence.
Gabriella, who understood English well, though she spoke it imperfectly,
made her answers in French.
Having now given her ample employment, he sat down to examine, or,
rather, to admire at his ease, the lightness and grace with which she
executed her office; saying, 'You are not, perhaps, aware, Madam, that
there are certain little beings, nameless and invisible, yet active and
penetrating, perpetually hovering around us, who have let me a little
into your history; and have taken upon them to assure me that you were
not precisely brought up to be a shop-keeper? How, then, is it that you
have jumbled thus together such heterogeneous materials of existence?
leaguing high birth with low life? superiour rank with vulgar
employment; and grace, taste, and politeness with common drudgery? How,
in short, born and bred to be dangled after by your vassals, and to
lollop, the live-long-day, upon sofas and arm-chairs, have you acquired
the necessary ingredients for being metamorphosed into a tidy little
haberdasher?'
Gabriella, concluding that her situation had been made known to him by
Juliet, answered, in a melancholy tone,
'Is this a period, Sir, to consider punctilio? Alas! whence I come, all
that are greatest, most ancient, and most noble,[1] have learnt, that
self-exertion can alone mark nobility of soul; and that self-dependence
only can sustain honour in adversity. Alas, whence I come, the first
youth is initiated in the view, if not in the endurance of misfortune!
There can be no understanding, or there must be early reflection; there
can be no heart, or there must be commiserating sympathy!'
[Footnote 1: The period is the reign of Robespierre.]
'I protest, Ma'am,' cried Sir Jaspar, looking at her with astonishment,
'I begin to suspect that I came into the world only this morning! Where
I may have been rambling, all these years, in the persuasion I was in it
already, I have by no means any clear notion! But to see two such
instances of wisdom and resignation, united with youth and beauty, makes
me believe myself in some new region, never yet visited by vice or
folly.'
'Ah, Sir, the French Revolution has opened our eyes to a species of
equality more rational, because more feasible, than that of lands or of
rank; an equality not alone of mental sufferings, but of manual
exertions. No state of life, however low, or however hard, has been left
untried, either by the highest, or by the most delicate, in the various
dispersions and desolation of the ancient French nobility. And to
see,--as I, alas! have seen,--the willing efforts, the even glad toil,
of the remnants of the first families of Europe, to procure,--not
luxuries, not elegancies, not even comforts,--but maintenance! mean,
laborious maintenance!--to preserve,--not state, not fortune, not
rank,--but life itself! but simple existence!'--
'Very wonderful personage!' cried Sir Jaspar, his air mingling reverence
with amazement; 'and what,--unfold to me, I beg, what is the necromancy
through which you support, under such toils, your intellectual dignity?
and strangle, in its birth, every struggle of false shame?'
'Alas, Sir, I have seen guilt!--Since then, I have thought that shame
belonged to nothing else!'
The eyes of Sir Jaspar were now suffused with tender admiration. 'Fair
deity of the counter!' he cried, 'you are sublime! And she, too,--your
witching little handmaid; by what kind, dulcet chance,--new in the
annals of misfortune,--have two such wonders met?--'
'Ah, rather, Sir,--since you couple us so kindly,--rather ask by what
adverse chance we have so long been separated?'
'You have known her, then, some time?'
'We were brought up together!--the same convent, the same governess, the
same instructors, were common to both till my marriage. And now,
again,--as before that period,--I have not the most distant idea of any
possible happiness, that is not annexed to her presence.'
Touched to hear the word happiness once again, even though with such
sadness, pronounced by Gabriella; yet alarmed at a discourse that might
lead, inadvertently, to some secret history, Juliet was returning, to
stop any further detail; when, upon Sir Jaspar's answering, 'Sweet
couple! Lord Denmeath, who ought at least, if I understand right,--to
take care of one of you will surely make it his business that you should
coo together in the same cage?'--she again retreated, anxious to learn
what this meant, and hoping that he would become more explicit.
'Lord Denmeath?' repeated Gabriella, 'If you know Lord Denmeath you may
be better informed upon this subject than I am myself. Was it at
Brighthelmstone that you met with his lordship?'
'It was at Brighthelmstone that I heard of him; and heard that, though
wary of speech, he has been incautious in manner, and left little doubt
upon the minds of his observers, that this fair flower springs from the
same stock as some part of his own family; though she may be one of
those sweet, but hapless buds, whose innocence pays for the guilt of its
planter.--'
'No, Sir, no!' Gabriella precipitately interrupted him; 'the birth of my
friend is unstained, though unequal; the marriage of her parents was
legal, though secret. Her mother came not, indeed, from an ancient race;
but she was a pattern of virtue, as well as a model of beauty. Could it,
indeed, be believed, that a young nobleman of such expectations, in
every way, as those of the Earl of Melbury's only son, Lord Granville,
would have given his hand to the orphan and destitute daughter of an
insolvent man of business, had she not possessed every advantage, nay,
every perfection to which human nature can rise?'
Affrighted by this so open relation, drawn forth involuntarily from the
nobly ingenuous Gabriella, in the persuasion that Sir Jaspar was already
a confidential, and might become a useful friend; Juliet, in the first
moment, was advancing to stop it; but her heart, yet more than her ear,
was so fascinated by the generous eulogy of her virtuous, though lowly
mother, from the offspring of a house whose height, and natal
prejudices, might have palliated, upon this subject, the language even
of disdain; that she could not prevail with herself to break into what
she considered as sacred praise.
''Tis even so, then!' cried Sir Jaspar, with smiling delight; 'this
forlorn, but most beautiful Wanderer,--this so long concealed, and
mysterious, but most lovely _incognita_, is the daughter of the late
Lord Granville, and the grand-daughter of the late Earl of Melbury!'
Utterly confounded, to hear the secret history of her birth and family
thus casually, yet irretrievably discovered, Juliet, trembling, again
shrunk back; yet would not, now, and unavailingly, check the ardent zeal
of her high-minded friend, since without any added danger, it might
procure some useful intelligence.
The willing Baronet, whose sole desire was to keep up the conversation,
wanted no urging to relate all that he had gathered from the loquacious
Selina. Lord Denmeath, upon the sudden disappearance of Miss Ellis, had
been surprised into confessing, that he had a faint notion that he knew
something of that young person; that there had been, once, an odd
story,--a report--that a young woman was existing in France, who was
some way belonging to the late Lord Granville, his sister's husband;
though without ever having been acknowledged by the family. He let fall,
also, sundry obscure hints of information, of the most serious import,
which he had recently received, relating to this young woman; but which
he would not divulge, till he had investigated; as he began to surmise,
that it had been conveyed to him for some fraudulent and mercenary
purpose. Mrs Ireton, to all this, had answered, that she had suspected,
from the beginning, that the creature was an adventurer; and that she
was now fully convinced that they had been played upon by a
supposititious person. Lord Denmeath, though he forbore confirming this
assertion, listened to it with a smile of concurrence.
Juliet here felt shocked and confounded; but Gabriella, animated by
generous resentment, warmly repeated her asseverations, of the validity
of the marriage of Lord Granville with Miss Powel, her friend's mother;
though an excess of fear of the inflexible character of the old Earl
Melbury had prevented its early avowal; and the death of the concealed
wife, while Juliet was yet in arms, had afterwards decided the young
widower to guard the secret, till his child should be grown up; or till
he should become his own master.
'But where, during this interval,' said Sir Jaspar, 'where,--and what
was the hiding-place of that seraphic offspring?'
Till her seventh year, Gabriella answered, she had been consigned to the
care of Mrs Powel, her maternal grandmother; who, satisfied of the
legality, had herself aided the secresy of the marriage. They had dwelt,
during that period, in the same picturesque, but no longer loved
retreat, upon the banks of the Tyne, in which Lady Granville, under a
feigned name, had been concealed, for the short space of time between
her marriage and her death.
Juliet, whose intention had been to gather, not to bestow intelligence,
now came forward, and made signs to Gabriella to drop the subject. But
this was no longer practicable. Urged by the idea of doing honour to her
friend, and incited by adroit interrogatories, or piquant observations,
from Sir Jaspar, Gabriella, having insensibly begun the tale, felt
irresistibly impelled to make clear the birth and family of Juliet,
beyond all doubt or cavil. She continued, therefore, the narration; and
Juliet, much agitated, retreated wholly to the inner room.
Under pretence of change of air for his health, Lord Granville, to hide
his grief from his father and friends, spent the first year of his
widowhood at Montpellier; then the residence of the Bishop of ----, the
maternal uncle of Gabriella; with whom he formed a friendship that
neither time nor absence, not even death itself, had had power to
dissolve; and to whom he confided the history and punishment of his
clandestine juvenile engagement. Called home, the following year, by the
Earl, his father, he had been prevailed upon to marry a lady of quality
and large fortune. But, previous to these new nuptials, to secure
justice to his eldest born, though he had not the courage to own her; as
well as to tranquillize Mrs Powel; he deposited in the hands of that
worthy old lady, the certificate of his first marriage; to which he
added a deed, that he called the codicil to whatever will he might have
made, or might hereafter make; and in which he declared Juliet
Granville, born near ----, in Yorkshire, to be his lawful daughter, by
his first marriage, with Juliet Powel, in Flanders; and, as such, he
bequeathed to her the same portion, at his death, that should be settled
upon any other daughter, or daughters, that he might have, hereafter, by
any subsequent marriage.
The impossibility of obtaining, in the Yorkshire retirement, such means
of improvement, as were suitable to the future expectations and lot in
life of his little girl, determined Lord Granville to have her conveyed
to France for her education. Mrs Powel, who had no other remaining tie
upon earth, but a son who was settled in the East Indies, preferred
accompanying her little darling to a separation; the fear of which, with
the possession of the marriage certificate, and the codicil to the will,
had always counteracted her impatience for the discovery ultimately
promised. The uncle of Gabriella, the Bishop, consented to take the
child under his immediate care; and to place her in the convent in which
his sister, the Marchioness of ----, had placed his niece. And here the
children had been brought up together, with the same opportunities of
improvement; except that the little Juliet had the advantage of speaking
English with her grandmother; who knew no other language; and who
entered the convent as a pensioner. By this means, and by books, Juliet
had perfectly retained her native tongue, though she had acquired
something of a foreign accent. She was known only as a young English
lady of fortune, for whom no expence was to be spared; and the
remittances for her board and education were constant, and even
splendid. She had been called simply by the name of Mademoiselle
Juliette, which had generally been supposed to be the name of her
family. Here, from the facility with which she caught instruction, and
the ability with which she appropriated its result, she became the most
accomplished pupil of the convent and was not more generally, from her
appearance, called _la belle_, than from her acquirements and conduct
_la sage petite Anglaise_. And here, still more united by the same
sentiments than by the same studies, Gabriella had formed with her the
tender, confiding and unalterable friendship, that had bound them to
each other with an even sisterly love.
The Bishop frequently pressed the young lord to avow the birth of
Juliet, and to legitimate her claims upon his family: but he always
answered, that since she, whose reputation, happiness, and spirits might
have paid the avowal, was gone, he could not support the fruitless pain
of offending his sickly, but imperious father, by such a discovery, till
the necessity of receiving his daughter should make it indispensable.
Previous to this period, Gabriella was taken from the convent, to
prepare for her marriage with the Comte de ----; and Juliet, who had then
lost her tender grandmother, was invited to the wedding-ceremony, and to
remain with her friend till she should be called to her own country.
Lord Granville, with that spirit of procrastination which always grows
with indulgence, joyfully acceded to this invitation; and remitted to
the ensuing summer the public acknowledgment of his daughter. But, ere
the ensuing summer arrived, all these projects were rendered abortive!
The Bishop, through a news-paper, received the fatal intelligence, that
Lord Granville had been killed by a fall from his horse.
While the deeply disappointed and afflicted Juliet was the prey of heavy
grief at this event, the Bishop, to whom the grandmother, in dying, had
consigned the marriage-certificate, the codicil, and every letter or
paper that authenticated the legitimacy of her grandchild, constituted
himself guardian and protector of the young orphan.
Convinced that no time should be lost in making known her rights, yet
unwilling to risk shocking the old peer by an abrupt address, he stated
the affair to Lord Denmeath, brother to Lord Granville's second lady,
and guardian of two children by the second marriage. To this
communication he received no answer. But, upon writing again, with more
energy, and hinting at sending over an agent, Lord Denmeath thought
proper to reply. His style was extremely cold. His brother-in-law, he
said, had expired, after his fall, without uttering a word. Having,
therefore, no knowledge of any secret business, he begged to be excused
from entering into a discussion of the obscure affair to which the
Bishop seemed to allude.
The Bishop grew but warmer in the interests of his Ward, from the
difficulty of serving her. He sent over, to Lord Denmeath, copies of the
codicil, of the certificate, and of every letter upon the subject, that
had been written to the grandmother, or to himself, by the late lord.
The answer now was more civil, but evidently embarrassed, though
professing much respect for the motives which guided the charitable
Bishop; and a willingness to enter into some compromise for the young
person in question; provided she could be settled abroad, that so
strange a tale might not disturb his sister; nor involve his nephew and
niece, by coming before the public.
All compromise was declined by the Bishop, who now made known the whole
history to the old peer.
The answer, nevertheless, was again from Lord Denmeath, though written
by the desire, and in the name of the Earl; briefly saying, Let the
young woman marry and settle in France; and, upon the delivery of the
original documents relative to her birth, she shall be portioned; but
she shall never be received nor owned in England; the Earl being
determined not to countenance such a disgrace to his family, and to the
memory of his son, as the acknowledgment of so unsuitable a marriage.
The Bishop held his honour engaged to his departed friend, to sustain
the birth-right of the innocent orphan; he menaced, therefore,
accompanying her over to England himself, and putting all the documents,
with the direction of the affair, into the hands of some celebrated
lawyer.
Alarmed at this intimation, milder letters passed: but the result of all
that the Bishop could obtain, was a promissory-note of six thousand
pounds sterling, for the portion of a young person brought up at the
convent of ----, and known by the name of Mademoiselle Juliette; to be
paid by Messieurs ----, bankers, on the day of her marriage with a
native of France, resident in that country.
The conditions annexed to the payment were then detailed, of delivering
to the bankers the originals of all the MSS of which copies had been
sent over; with an acquittal, signed by the new married couple, and by
the Bishop, to all future right or claim upon the Melbury family. The
whole to be properly witnessed, &c. This promissory-note had the joint
seal and signature of the old Earl and of Lord Denmeath.
But the Bishop inflexibly insisted, that his ward should be recognized
as the Honourable Miss Granville; and share an equal portion with her
half-sister, Aurora; for whom, upon the premature death of Lord
Granville, the old peer had solicited and obtained the title and honours
of an earl's daughter.
All representation proving fruitless, the Bishop was preparing to attend
Miss Granville to England, when the French Revolution broke out. The
general confusion first stopt his voyage, and next destroyed even the
materials of his agency. The family chateau was burnt by the populace;
and all the papers of Juliet, which had been carefully hoarded up with
the records of the house, were consumed! The promissory-note alone, and
accidentally, had been saved; the Bishop chancing to have it in his
pocket-book, for the purpose of consulting upon it with some lawyer.
With the nobleness of unsuspicious integrity, the Bishop wrote an
account of this disaster to Lord Denmeath; whose answer contained
tidings of the death of the old Earl, and reclaimed the promissory-note
for revisal. But the Bishop, who possessed no other proof or document of
the identity of Juliet, would by no means part with a paper that became
of the utmost importance.
Juliet, pitied and sustained, loved and esteemed by all, had been
prevailed upon to continue with her cherished and cherishing friends,
till some political calm should enable the Bishop to conduct her to
England, and there to struggle for her rights. At the opening, however,
of the dreadful reign of Robespierre, sudden and immediate danger had
compelled Gabriella, with her husband and her child, to emigrate: but
Juliet, hopeless of making herself acknowledged by her family without
the support of the Bishop, had preferred, till she could obtain the
sanction of his presence, to remain with the Marchioness.
'And what,' Sir Jaspar cried, 'what is become of this Bishop? this man
of peace, this worthiest wight that breathes the vital air?'
Gabriella herself knew not; nor what change of plan had induced her
friend to venture over alone: she knew only that what was counselled by
the Bishop must be wise; that what was executed by Juliet must be right.
Juliet, who had heard this recital with melting tenderness, was now with
difficulty restrained, even by the presence of Sir Jaspar, from casting
herself rather at the feet than into the arms, of her generous, noble,
and confiding, though untrusted friend.