A BIG BRIBE.
It seemed to Janetta as if she had almost expected to see Lady Caroline
Adair drive up to her door about four o'clock next day, in the very
victoria wherein the girl had once sat side by side with Margaret's
mother, and from which she had first set eyes on Wyvis Brand. She had
expected it, and yet her heart beat faster, and her color went and came,
as she disposed of her pupils in the little dining-room, and met her
visitor just as she crossed the hall.
"Can I speak to you for five minutes, Miss Colwyn?" said Lady Caroline,
in so suave a voice that for a moment Janetta felt reassured. Only for a
moment, however. When she had shut the drawing-room door, she saw that
her visitor's face was for once both cold and hard. Janetta offered a
chair, and Lady Caroline took it, but without a word of thanks. She had
evidently put on the "fine lady" manner, which Janetta detested from her
heart.
"I come to speak on a very painful subject," said Lady Caroline. Her
voice was pitched a little higher than usual, but she gave no other sign
of agitation. "You were at Lady Ashley's garden party the day before
yesterday I believe?"
Janetta bowed assent.
"May I ask if you observed anything remarkable in my daughter's
behavior? You are supposed to be Margaret's friend: you must have
noticed what she was doing all the afternoon."
"I do not think that Margaret _could_ behave unsuitably," said Janetta,
suddenly flushing up.
"I am obliged to you for your good opinion of my daughter. But that is
not the point. Did you notice whether she was talking or walking a great
deal with one person, or----"
"Excuse me, Lady Caroline," said Janetta, "but I did not spend the
afternoon in watching Margaret, and I am quite unable to give you any
information on the subject."
"I really do not see the use of beating about the bush," said Lady
Caroline, blandly. "You must know perfectly well to what I refer. Mr.
Wyvis Brand is a connection of yours, I believe. I hear on all sides
that he and my daughter were inseparable all the afternoon. Greatly to
my astonishment, I confess."
"Mr. Brand is a second cousin of mine, and his brother is engaged to my
half-sister," said Janetta; "but I have nothing to do with his
acquaintance with Margaret."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Lady Caroline. She put up her eye-glass, and
carefully inspected Janetta from head to foot. "Nothing to do with their
acquaintance, you say! May I ask, then, _where_ my daughter met Mr.
Brand? Not in _my_ house, I think."
Janetta gave a slight start. She had for the moment utterly forgotten
that it was in Gwynne Street that Wyvis Brand and Margaret had first
met.
"I beg your pardon: I forgot," she said. "Of course--Margaret no doubt
told you--she came here one day for her singing-lesson, and Mr. Brand
called for his little boy. It was the first time they had seen each
other."
"And how often have they met here since, may I ask?"
"Never again, Lady Caroline."
"I was of course to blame in letting my daughter go out without a
chaperon," said Lady Caroline, disagreeably. "I never thought of danger
in _this_ quarter, certainly. I can quite appreciate your motive, Miss
Colwyn. No doubt it would be very pleasant for _you_ if Margaret were to
marry your cousin; but we have prejudices that must be consulted."
"I hope you did not come here meaning to insult me," said Janetta,
starting to her feet; "but I think you cannot know what you are saying,
Lady Caroline. _I_ want my cousin to marry your daughter? I never
thought of such a thing--until yesterday!"
"And what made you think of it yesterday, pray? Please let us have no
heroics, no hysterics: these exhibitions of temper are so unseemly. What
made you think so yesterday?"
"Mr. Brand came here," said Janetta, suddenly growing very white, "and
told me that he cared for Margaret. I do not know how they had met. He
did not tell me. He--he--cares very much for her."
"Cares for her! What next? He came here--when? At Margaret's
lesson-time, I suppose?"
She saw from Janetta's face that her guess was correct.
"I need hardly say that Margaret will not come here again," said Lady
Caroline, rising and drawing her laces closely around her. "There is the
amount due to you, Miss Colwyn. I calculated it before I came out, and I
think you will find it all right. There is one more question I must
really ask before I go: there seems some uncertainty concerning the fate
of Mr. Brand's first wife; perhaps you can tell me whether she is alive
or dead?"
Poor Janetta scarcely knew what to say. But she told herself that truth
was always best.
"I believe he--he--is divorced from her," she stammered, knowing full
well how very condemnatory her words must sound in Lady Caroline's ear.
They certainly produced a considerable effect.
"_Divorced?_ And you introduced him to Margaret? Of course I know that a
_divorcé_ is often received in society, and so on, but I always set my
face against the prevalent lax views of marriage, and I hoped that I had
brought up my daughter to do the same. I suppose"--satirically--"you did
not think it worth while to tell Margaret this little fact?"
"I did not know it then," Janetta forced herself to say.
"Indeed?" Lady Caroline's "indeed" was very crushing. "Well, either your
information or your discretion must have been very much at fault. I must
say, Miss Polehampton _now_ strikes me as a woman of great
discrimination of character. I will say good-morning, Miss Colwyn, and I
think the acquaintance between my daughter and yourself had better be
discontinued. It has certainly been, from beginning to end, an
unsuitable and disastrous friendship."
"Before you go, Lady Caroline, will you kindly take the envelope away
that you have left upon the table?" said Janetta, as haughtily as Lady
Caroline herself could have spoken. "I certainly shall not take money
from you if you believe such evil things of me. I have known nothing of
the acquaintance between my cousin and Miss Adair; but after what you
have said I will not accept anything at your hands."
"Then I am afraid it will have to remain on the table," said Lady
Caroline, as she swept out of the room, "for I cannot take it back
again."
Janetta caught up the envelope. One glance showed her that it contained
a cheque. She tore it across and across, and was in time to place the
fragments on the seat beside Lady Caroline, just before the carriage was
driven away. She went back into the house with raised head and flaming
cheeks, too angry and annoyed to settle down to work, too much hurt to
be anything but restless and preoccupied. The reaction did not set in
for some hours; but by six o'clock, when the children were all out of
doors and her stepmother had gone to visit a friend, and Janetta had
the house to herself, she lay down on a couch in the drawing-room with a
feeling of intense exhaustion and fatigue. She was too tired almost to
cry, but a tear welled up now and then, and was allowed to trickle
quietly down her pale cheek. She was utterly wretched and depressed: the
world seemed a dark place to her, especially when she considered that
she had already lost one friend whom she had so long and so tenderly
loved, and that she was not unlikely to lose another. For Wyvis might
blame her--_would_ blame her, probably--for what she had said to Lady
Caroline.
A knock at the front door aroused her. It was a knock that she did not
know; and she wondered at first whether one of the Adairs or one of the
Brands were coming to visit her. She sat up and hastily rearranged her
hair and dried her eyes. The charity orphan was within hearing and had
gone to the door: it was she who presently flung open the door and
announced, in awe-stricken tones--
"Sir Philip Hashley."
Janetta rose in some consternation. What did this visit portend? Had
_he_ also come to reproach her for her conduct to Margaret and Wyvis?
For she surmised--chiefly from the way in which she had seen him follow
Margaret with his eyes at the garden-party--that his old love was not
dead.
He greeted her with his usual gentleness of manner, and sat down--not
immediately facing her, as she was glad to think, scarcely realizing
that he had at once seen the trouble in her face, and did not wish to
embarrass her by a straightforward gaze. He gave her a little time in
which to recover herself, too; he spoke of indifferent subjects in an
indifferent tone, so that when five minutes had elapsed Janetta was
quite herself again, and had begun to speculate upon her chance of an
engagement to sing at another musical party.
"I hope Lady Ashley is well," she said, when at last a short pause came.
"Quite well, I thank you, and hoping to see you soon."
"Oh, I am so grateful to you for saying that," said Janetta,
impulsively. "I felt that I did not know whether she was satisfied with
my singing or not. You know I am a beginner."
"I am sure I may say that she was perfectly satisfied," said Sir Philip,
courteously. "But it was not in allusion to your singing that she spoke
of wishing to see you again."
"Lady Ashley is very kind," said Janetta, feeling rather surprised.
"She would like to see more of you," Sir Philip went on in a somewhat
blundering fashion. "She is very much alone: it would be a great comfort
to her to have some one about her--some one whom she liked--some one who
would be like a daughter to her----"
A conviction as to the cause of his visit flashed across Janetta's mind.
He was going to ask her to become Lady Ashley's companion! With her
usual quickness she forgot to wait for the proposition, and answered it
before it was made.
"I wish I could be of some use to Lady Ashley," she said, with the warm
directness that Sir Philip had always liked. "I have never seen any one
like her--I admire her so much! You will forgive me for saying so, I
hope? But I could not be spared from home to do anything for her
regularly. If she wants a girl who can read aloud and play nicely, I
think I know of one, but perhaps I had better ask Lady Ashley more
particularly about the qualifications required?"
"I did not say anything about a companion, did I?" said Sir Philip, with
a queer little smile. "Not in your sense of the word, at any rate."
"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Janetta, suddenly flushing scarlet: "I
thought--I understood----"
"You could not possibly know what I meant: I was not at all clear," said
Sir Philip, decidedly. "I had something else in my mind."
She looked at him inquiringly. He rose from his chair and moved about
the room a little, with an appearance of agitation which excited her
deepest wonderment. He averted his eyes from her, and there was
something like a flush on his naturally pale cheek. He seemed really
nervous.
"Is there anything that I can do for Lady Ashley?" said Janetta, at
last, when the silence had lasted as long as she thought desirable.
"There is something you can do for me."
"For you, Sir Philip?"
Sir Philip faced her resolutely. "For me, Miss Colwyn. If I tell you in
very few words, will you forgive my abruptness? I don't think it is any
use beating about the bush in these matters. Will you be my wife? That
is what I came to say."
Janetta sat gazing at him with wide open eyes, as if she thought that he
had taken leave of his senses.
"Don't answer at once; take time," said Sir Philip, quickly. "I know
that I may perhaps have startled you: but I don't want you to answer
hastily. If you would like time for reflection, pray take it. I hope
that reflection will lead you to say that you will at least try to like
me enough to become my wife."
Janetta felt that he was very forbearing. Some men in his position would
have thought it sufficient to indicate their choice, and then to expect
the favored lady, especially if she were small and brown and plain, and
worked for her bread, to fall at his feet in an ecstasy of joy. Janetta
had never yet felt inclined to fall at anybody's feet. But Sir Philip's
forbearance seemed to call for additional care and speed in answering
him.
"But--I am sure Lady Ashley----" she began, and stopped.
"My mother will welcome you as a daughter," said Sir Philip, gently.
"She sends her love to you to-day, and hopes that you will consent to
make me happy."
Janetta sat looking at her crossed hands. "Oh, it is
impossible--impossible," she murmured.
"Why so? If there is no obstacle in--in your own affections, it seems to
me that it would be quite possible," said Sir Philip, standing before
her in an attitude of some urgency. "But perhaps you have a dislike to
me?"
"Oh, no." She could not say more--she could not look up.
"I think I could make your life a happy one. You would not find me
difficult. And you need have no further anxiety about your family; we
could find some way of managing that. You think as I do about so many
subjects that I am sure we should be happy together."
It was a big bribe. That was how Janetta looked at it in that moment.
She was certain that Sir Philip did not love her: she knew that she did
not love Sir Philip; and yet--it did seem that she might have a happy,
easy, honored life if she consented to marry him--a life that would make
her envied by many who had previously scorned her, and which would be,
she hoped, productive of good to those whom she deeply loved. It was a
bribe--a temptation. She was tempted, as any girl might have been, to
exchange her life of toil and anxiety for one of luxury and peace; but
there was something that she would also have to lose--the clear, upright
conscience, the love of truth, the conviction of well-doing. She could
not keep these and become Sir Philip's wife.