JANETTA'S PROMISES.
"But please," Lady Caroline proceeded, "do not mention what I have said
to anyone, least of all to Margaret. She is so sensitive that I should
not like her to know what I have said."
"I will not say anything," said Janetta.
And then Lady Caroline's desire for conversation seemed to cease. She
proposed that they should go in search of her daughter, and Janetta
followed her to the conservatory in some trouble and perplexity of mind.
It struck her that Margaret was not looking very well pleased when they
arrived--perhaps, she thought, because of their appearance--and that Sir
Philip had a very lover-like air. He was bending forward a little to
take a white flower from Margaret's hand, and Janetta could not help a
momentary smile when she saw the expression of his face. The earnest
dark eyes were full of tenderness, which possibly he did not wish to
conceal. Janetta could never doubt but that he loved her "rare pale
Margaret" from the very bottom of his heart.
The two moved apart as Lady Caroline and Janetta came in. Lady Caroline
advanced to Sir Philip and walked away with him, while Margaret laid her
hand on Janetta's arm and led her off to her own sitting-room. She
scarcely spoke until they were safely ensconced there together and then,
with a half-pouting, mutinous expression on her softly flushed face--
"Janetta," she began, "there is something I must tell you."
"Yes, dear?"
"You saw Sir Philip in the conservatory?"
"Yes."
"I can't think why he is so foolish," said Margaret; "but actually,
Janetta--he wants to marry me."
"Am I to call him foolish for that?"
"Yes, certainly. I am too young. I want to see a little more of the
world. He is not at all the sort of man that I want to marry."
"Why not?" said Janetta, after waiting a little while.
"Oh," said Margaret, with an intonation that--for her--was almost
petulant; "he is so absurdly suitable!"
"_Absurdly_ suitable, dear Margaret?"
"Yes. Everything is so neatly arranged for us. He is the right age, he
has the right income, the right views, the right character--he is
even"--said Margaret, with increasing indignation--"even the right
_height_! It is absurd. I am not to have any will of my own in the
matter, because it is all so beautifully suitable. I am to be disposed
of like a slave!"
Here was indeed a new note of rebellion.
"Your father and mother would never make you marry a man whom you did
not like," said Janetta, a little doubtfully.
"I don't know. Papa would not; but mamma!----I am afraid mamma will try.
And it is very hard to do what mamma does not like."
"But you could explain to her----"
"I have nothing to explain," said Margaret, arching her delicate brows.
"I like Sir Philip very well. I respect him very much. I think his house
and his position would suit me exceedingly well; and yet I do not want
to marry him. It is so unreasonable of me, mamma says. And I feel that
it is; and yet--what can I do?"
"There is--nobody--else?" hazarded Janetta.
Margaret opened her lovely eyes to their fullest extent.
"Dearest Janetta, who else could there be? Who else have I seen? I have
been kept in the schoolroom until now--when I am to be married to this
most suitable man! Now, confess, Janetta, would you like it? Do your
people want to marry you to anybody?"
"No, indeed," said Janetta, smiling. "Nobody has expressed any desire
that way. But really I don't know what to say, Margaret; because Sir
Philip does seem so perfectly suitable--and you say you like him?"
"Yes, but I only like him; I don't love him." Margaret leaned back in
her chair, crossed her hands behind her golden head, and looked dreamily
at the opposite wall. "You know I think one ought to love the man one
marries--don't you think so? I have always thought of loving once and
once only--like Paul and Virginia, you know, or even Romeo and
Juliet--and of giving _all_ for love! That would be beautiful!"
"Yes, it would. But it would be very hard too," said Janetta, thinking
how lovely Margaret looked, and what a heroine of romance--what a
princess of dreams--she would surely be some day. And she, poor, plain,
brown, little Janetta! There was probably no romance in store for her at
all.
But Life holds many secrets in her hand; and perhaps it was Janetta and
not Margaret for whom a romance was yet in store.
"Hard? Do you call it hard?" Margaret asked, with a curiously exalted
expression, like that of a saint absorbed in mystic joys. "It would be
most easy, Janetta, to give up everything for love."
"I don't know," said Janetta--for once unsympathetic. "Giving up
everything means a great deal. Would you like to go away from Helmsley
Court, for instance, and live in a dingy street with no lady's
maid--only a servant of all-work--on three hundred a year?"
"I think I could do anything for a man whom I loved," sighed Margaret;
"but I cannot feel as if I should ever care enough for Sir Philip Ashley
to do it for him."
"What sort of a man would you prefer for a husband, then?" asked
Janetta.
"Oh, a man with a history. A man about whom there hung a melancholy
interest--a man like Rochester in 'Jane Eyre'----"
"Not a very good-tempered person, I'm afraid!"
"Oh, who cares about good temper?"
"I do, for one. Really, Margaret, you draw a picture which is just like
my cousin, Wyvis Brand."
Janetta was sorry when she had said the words. Margaret's arms came down
from behind her head, and her eyes were turned to her friend's face with
an immediate awakening of interest.
"Mr. Brand, of Brand Hall, you mean? I remember you told me that he was
your cousin. So you have met him? And he is like Rochester?"
"I did not say that exactly," said Janetta, becoming provoked with
herself. "I only said that you spoke of a rather melancholy sort of
man, with a bad temper, and I thought that the description applied very
well to Mr. Brand."
"What is he like? Dark?"
"Yes."
"Handsome?"
"I suppose so. I do not like any face, however handsome, that is
disfigured by a scowl."
"Oh, Janetta, how charming! Tell me some more about him; I am so much
interested."
"Margaret, don't be silly! Wyvis Brand is a very disagreeable man--not a
good man either, I believe--and I hope you will never know him."
"On the contrary," said Margaret, with a new wilful light in her eyes,
"I intend mamma to call."
"Lady Caroline will be too wise."
"Why should people not call upon the Brands? I hear the same story
everywhere--'Oh, no, we do not intend to call.' Is there really anything
wrong about them?"
Janetta felt some embarrassment. Had not she put nearly the same
question to her own father the night before? But she could not tell
Margaret Adair what her father had said to her.
"If there were--and I do not know that there is--you could hardly expect
me to talk about it, Margaret," she said, with some dignity.
Margaret's good breeding came to her aid at once. "I beg your pardon,
dear Janetta. I was talking carelessly. I will say no more about the
Brands. But I must remark that it was _you_ who piqued my curiosity.
Otherwise there is nothing extraordinary in the fact of two young men
settling down with their mother in a country house, is there?"
"Nothing at all."
"And I am not likely to see anything of them. But, Janetta," said
Margaret, reverting to her own affairs, "you do not sympathize with me
as I thought you would. Would not you think it wrong to marry where you
did not love? Seriously, Janetta?"
"Yes, seriously, I should," said Janetta, her face growing graver, and
her eyes lighting up. "It is a profanation of marriage to take for your
husband a man whom you don't love with your whole heart. Oh, yes,
Margaret, you are quite, quite right in that--but I am sorry too,
because Sir Philip seems so nice."
"And, Janetta, dear, you will help me, will you not?"
"Whenever I can, Margaret? But what can I do for you?"
"You can help me in many ways, Janetta. You don't know how hard it is
sometimes"--and Margaret's face resumed a wistful, troubled look. "Mamma
is so kind; but she wants me sometimes to do things that I do not like,
and she is so _surprised_ when I do not wish to do them."
"You will make her understand in time," said Janetta, almost
reverentially. Her ardent soul was thrilled with the conception of the
true state of things as she imagined it; of Margaret's pure, sweet
nature being dragged down to Lady Caroline's level of artificial
worldliness. For, notwithstanding all Lady Caroline's gentleness of
manner, Janetta was beginning to find her out. She began to see that
this extreme softness and suavity covered a very persistent will, and
that it was Lady Caroline who ruled the house and the family with an
iron hand in a velvet glove.
"I am afraid not," said Margaret, submissively. "She is so much more
determined than I am. Neither papa nor I could ever do anything against
her. And in most things I like her to manage for me. But not my
marriage!"
"No, indeed."
"Will you stand by me, Janetta, dear?"
"Always, Margaret."
"You will always be my friend?"
"Always dear."
"You make me feel strong when you say 'always' so earnestly, Janetta."
"Because I believe," said Janetta, quickly, "that friendship is as
strong a tie as any in the world. I don't think it ought to be any less
binding than the tie between sisters, between parents and child,
even"--and her voice dropped a little--"even between husband and wife. I
have heard it suggested that there should be a ceremony--a sort of
form--for the making of a friendship as there is for other relations in
life; a vow of truth and fidelity which two friends could promise to
observe. Don't you think that it would be rather a useless thing, even
if the thought is a pretty one? Because we make and keep or break our
vows in our own heart, and no promise would bind us more than our own
hearts can do."
"I hope yours binds you to me, Janetta?" said Margaret, half playfully,
half sadly.
"It does, indeed."
And then the two girls kissed each other after the manner of impulsive
and affectionate girls, and Margaret wiped away a tear that had gathered
in the corner of her eye. Her face soon became as tranquil as ever; but
Janetta's brow remained grave, her lips firmly pressed together long
after Margaret seemed to have forgotten what had been said.
Things went deeper with Janetta than with Margaret. Girlish and
unpractical as some of their speeches may appear, they were spoken or
listened to by Janetta with the utmost seriousness. She was not of a
nature to take things lightly. And during the pause that followed the
conversation about friendship, she was mentally registering a very
serious and earnest resolution, worthy indeed of being ranked as the
promise or the vow of which she spoke, that she would always remain
Margaret's true and faithful friend, in spite of all the chances and
changes of this transitory world. A youthful foolish thing to do,
perhaps; but the world is so constituted that the things done or said by
very young and even very foolish persons sometimes dominate the whole
lives of much older and wiser persons. And more came out of that silent
vow of Janetta's than even she anticipated.
The rest of the day was very delightful to her. She and Margaret were
left almost entirely to themselves, and they formed a dozen plans for
the winter when Margaret should be back again and could resume her
musical studies. Janetta tried to express her natural reluctance at the
thought of giving lessons to her old school-companion, but Margaret
laughed her to scorn. "As if you could not teach me?" she said. "Why, I
know nothing about the theory of music--nothing at all. And you were far
ahead of anybody at Miss Polehampton's! You will soon have dozens of
pupils, Janetta. I expect all Beaminster to be flocking to you before
long."
She did not say, but it crossed her mind that the fact of _her_ taking
lessons from Janetta would probably serve as a very good advertisement.
For Miss Adair was herself fairly proficient in the worldly wisdom which
did not at all gratify her when exhibited by her mother.
Janetta was sent home in the gathering twilight with a delightfully
satisfied feeling. She was sure that Margaret's friendship was as
faithful as her own. And why should there not be two women as faithful
to each other in friendship as ever Damon and Pythias, David and
Jonathan, had been of old? "Margaret will always be her own sweet,
high-souled self," Janetta mused. "It is I who may perhaps fall away
from my ideal--I hope not; oh, I hope not! I hope that I shall always be
faithful and true!"
There was a very tender look upon her face as she sat in Lady Caroline's
victoria, her hands clasped together upon her lap, her mouth firmly
closed, her eyes wistful. The expression was so lovely that it
beautified the whole of her face, which was not in itself strictly
handsome, but capable of as many changes as an April day. She was so
deeply absorbed in thought that she did not see a gentleman lift his hat
to her in passing. It was Cuthbert Brand, and when the carriage had
passed him he stood still for a moment and looked back at it.
"I should like to paint that girl's face," he said to himself. "There is
soul in it--character--passion. Her sister is prettier by far; but I
doubt whether she is capable of so much."
But the exalted beauty had faded away by the time Janetta reached her
home, and when she entered the house she was again the bright, sensible,
energetic, and affectionate sister and daughter that they all knew and
loved: no great beauty, no genius, no saint, but a generous-hearted
English girl, who tried to do her duty and to love her neighbor as
herself.
Her father met her in the hall.
"Here you are," he said. "I hardly expected you home as yet. Everybody
is out, so you must tell _me_ your experiences and adventures if you
have any to tell."
"I have not many," said Janetta, brightly. "Only everybody has been
very, very kind."
"I'm glad to hear of it; but I should be surprised if people were not
kind to my Janet."
"Nobody is half so kind as you are," said Janetta, fondly. "Have you
been very busy to-day, father?"
"Very, dear. And I have been to Brand Hall."
He drew her inside his consulting-room as he spoke. It was a little room
near the hall-door, opposite the dining-room. Janetta did not often go
there, and felt as if some rather serious communication were to be made.
"Did you see the little boy, father?"
"Yes--and his grandmother."
"And may I go to see Mrs. Brand?"
Mr. Colwyn paused for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was broken
by some emotion. "If you can do anything to help and comfort that poor
woman, my Janet," he said at length, "God forbid that I should ever
hinder you! I will not heed what the world says in face of sorrow such
as she has known. Do what you can for her."
"I will, father; I promise you I will."
"It is the second promise that I have made to-day," said Janetta, rather
thoughtfully, as she was undressing herself that night; "and each of
them turns on the same subject--on being a friend to some one who needs
friendship. The vocation of some women is to be a loving daughter, a
true wife, or a good mother; mine, perhaps, is to be above everything
else a true friend. I don't think my promises will be hard to keep!"
But even Janetta, in her wisdom, could not foresee what was yet to come.