A SCENE
Her Majesty’s Opera, Drury Lane, was crowded to its utmost capacity when
our party arrived.
But having secured a private box, this circumstance did not
inconvenience them in the least.
Wilbur Coolidge took care, after his mother and Isabel were comfortably
seated, that Miss Douglas should have a place where she could command a
good view of the stage.
He was disgusted with their treatment of the lovely governess, and
strove by numerous little attentions to atone in part for their
rudeness.
A battery of lorgnettes was immediately leveled at this brilliant
company, and there were numberless surmisings and questionings as to who
the newcomers could be.
In a box not far from the Coolidge party there sat a royal-looking
couple—an old gentleman, still hale and hearty, although upward of
sixty-five, and a matron of perhaps a half-dozen years younger.
By the side of the latter, and assiduously attending to her wants, was a
young man of about two-and-twenty.
It was no other than Adrian Dredmond!
He, too, had leveled his glass as the newcomers settled themselves in
their places.
After one sweeping glance, he half started from his chair, with a low
exclamation of pleasure.
“Whom do you see, Adrian?” asked the lady by his side.
“Some friends who came over in the same steamer with me, I believe,” he
replied, taking another look, and a smile of pleasure curving his fine
lips as his eye rested upon Brownie, who seemed to him in her elegant
robes like some beautiful vision from another sphere.
“Americans?” demanded his companion, preparing to adjust her own glass.
“Yes, your ladyship,” was the quiet response.
“Ah!”
Her ladyship, as she uttered this with a slight accent of contempt,
evidently did not deem them worthy the effort of a glance, and
accordingly turned her glass toward the stage, the curtain having risen
for the first act.
For a time the attention of all was attracted in the same direction.
Brownie sat as one entranced, forgetting the past, and living over again
the exquisite delight which she had so often experienced in by-gone
days.
“You are fond of the opera, Miss Douglas?” Wilbur whispered, when the
curtain at length fell.
“Passionately,” she replied, turning her glowing face toward him; then
added: “And, Mr. Coolidge, you have given me the first bit of unalloyed
pleasure I have had since great misfortune came upon me.”
Her voice quivered, her eyes were dewy, and her breast heaved with the
deliciousness of the hour.
“I would I could henceforth give you every joy of earth,” he murmured,
tenderly, in her ear.
“Wilbur,” his mother said, in cold, hard tones, “will you come and
arrange your sister’s cloak?”
She had watched his every movement, and her heart was in a tumult of
rage at that artful girl for presuming to keep him at her side.
A meaning glance was exchanged between mother and daughter, as she made
her request; and after the cloak was satisfactorily arranged, as he was
about returning to his post, Isabel said:
“Sit down here, Wilbur, and point out to me some of the people whom you
know.”
He pointed out several, when she suddenly exclaimed:
“Why, there is Mr. Dredmond who came over with us, is it not?”
“Yes,” dryly replied her brother.
“I like his appearance very much. I wish you would go and bring him
here, and introduce him to us.”
“What is the use? Any other time will do as well, and it is nearly time
for the curtain to rise again,” he said, impatiently, and with an uneasy
glance toward Miss Douglas.
“Oh, there is plenty of time. Look! he is bowing to you now.”
Wilbur returned the salutation, but did not move, and his mother
exclaimed:
“Do oblige your sister, Wilbur. He is, indeed, a fine-looking young man;
I wonder if he is well connected?”
“Rather. He is grandson to an earl,” was the laconic reply.
“An earl!” ejaculated both mother and daughter, in a breath.
“Yes; so I have lately learned, and, notwithstanding he will succeed to
an earldom upon his grandfather’s death, he is very modest about it, and
prefers to be addressed as plain Mr. Dredmond, rather than ‘my lord.’”
“Wilbur, you must introduce him, by all means. Isabel, who knows what
may happen?” and Mrs. Coolidge, much excited at the intelligence she had
just received, ruffled her feathers with motherly pride.
“There, Wilbur! I do believe he is coming here. He has left his box, and
is coming this way!” exclaimed Isabel, her cheeks flushing a vivid
scarlet at the thought of being introduced to a peer of the realm.
Adrian Dredmond was indeed bending his steps in that direction; but had
those proud women known that it was on account of their despised
governess, and her alone, they would not have been so elated.
Wilbur arose, and met him at the entrance.
“How are you, Coolidge?” exclaimed the young man, heartily, and
extending his hand. “We have not met often of late,” he added.
“No; I have been dancing attendance upon the ladies. Will you come in
and be introduced?”
“With pleasure,” and his eyes lingered upon that graceful figure, clad
in maize-colored silk, seated between the two young girls.
Wilbur lead him first to his mother and Isabel, then presented him to
Viola and Alma, and finally to Brownie, in spite of Mrs. Coolidge’s
warning glance, as she saw what he was about to do.
The young girl’s cheeks kindled to a flame as she laid her daintily
gloved hand in his, and remembered that this handsome stranger, whose
name she had not known until this moment, had held her in his arms, and
so close to his bosom that she had felt the beating of his great heart.
Wilbur noted her rich color, and the shy drooping of her white lids; he
noted, too, the lingering look of admiration which the young man bent
upon her, and a great pain smote his heart—a fear that trouble, and
disaster to his hopes, would follow this introduction.
Mr. Dredmond was invited to a seat by Isabel, and instantly monopolized
by her, while Mrs. Coolidge, much elated at the turn events were taking,
took care that Wilbur did not resume his position near the governess,
but kept him busy answering questions till the opera was over.
Miss Isabel intended that Mr. Dredmond should attend her to the
carriage, but, by some means, in leaving the box, they became separated,
he standing at the entrance until all had passed out.
Brownie being the last one, he offered her his arm to conduct her
through the crowd.
She could not refuse without seeming rude, yet she was keen enough to
perceive that the attention would call down the dire displeasure of her
employer upon her head.
In the lobby they encountered an old gentleman and lady. In an instant
the gaze of the former became riveted upon Miss Douglas.
He stopped in her path.
His face grew ghastly white, his lips twitched nervously, and he
breathed as if terribly agitated.
Brownie lifted her eyes, and was startled at his appearance. It seemed
to her as if she was confronting a madman. He bent toward her until his
quick breath smote her cheek. He did not seem to notice her companion;
all his faculties were concentrated upon the startled girl.
He lifted his shaking hand and touched with one finger that glittering
cross upon her bosom.
“There is but one cross like that in the world,” he muttered. “Girl,
girl, where did you get it?” he demanded, hoarsely.
Before she could collect her scattered senses to reply the crowd surged
in between them; the old man was borne one way, Brownie and her
companion the other, and she only caught one more glimpse of a pair of
deep, fathomless eyes, filled with keenest pain, a white, set face, its
lips livid and rigid.
Then she found herself in the fresh, cool air, and Adrian Dredmond
saying, in tones of apology:
“You will excuse him, Miss Douglas; he is an old man.”
“Certainly; but he startled me somewhat,” she answered, drawing a deep
breath; and before she could ask if he knew who the strange gentleman
was, she found they were beside the Coolidge carriage.
“Really, Miss Douglas, is it you at last? You have kept us waiting until
we are tired,” exclaimed Isabel, peevishly.
“I hope you have not been troubled, Mr. Dredmond,” apologized Mrs.
Coolidge, graciously, and giving Brownie a withering look.
“Oh, no; it has given me pleasure to attend Miss Douglas,” blundered the
young man, saying the very worst thing possible.
“I am sorry to have kept you waiting, Mrs. Coolidge, but the crowd
detained us, and my cloak caught upon one of the seats,” explained
Brownie.
“Crowd, indeed! I’ve seen governesses before this who liked to flirt,”
sneered the irate Isabel under her breath.
Both Mr. Dredmond and Miss Douglas caught the insolent words, and they
aroused all the fire in the young girl’s blood.
With the air of a queen, she turned, as she was about entering the
carriage, and holding out her little hand, she said to Mr. Dredmond.
“Thank you, Mr. Dredmond, for your kindness, and good-night.”
He bowed low over her hand, then assisting her to enter the carriage,
lifted his hat to the others and turned away, but not before he had
noted the menacing looks cast upon the poor little governess for her
audacity.
“Miss Douglas, please step this way one moment,” Mrs. Coolidge
commanded, in icy tones, upon entering the house.
She led the way toward the library, Brownie following with head erect,
and a mien which even the fashionable and imposing Mrs. Coolidge could
not subdue.
“I wish it distinctly understood, Miss Douglas,” the matron began, with
a look which would have annihilated the young girl had she possessed
less of the spirit of heroes within her, “that hereafter you are to
receive no attention from gentlemen while you remain in my employ. Miss
Isabel’s prospects are not to be interfered with by you.”
Brownie’s red lips curled with scorn.
She met her glance proudly and without the quiver of a nerve.
“Mrs. Coolidge, I have not the slightest desire to interfere in any way
with Miss Coolidge’s prospects. The occurrence of this evening was
wholly unpremeditated as far as I am concerned. But, madam, I wish it
distinctly understood upon my part, that if the insults to which I have
been subjected to-night are ever repeated I shall consider my connection
with you at an end.”
Mrs. Coolidge could have strangled her as she stood there in her proud
beauty, but she began to be a little afraid of her as well.
“Really, Miss Douglas, it seems to me you are assuming a great deal for
a dependent,” returned the woman, haughtily.
“I recognize the fact, madam, that I am in a measure dependent upon your
favor; but I am also aware that my services are of no small value to
you. When I consented to take charge of your daughters’ education, I did
not consent to forfeit my self-respect by quietly submitting to any
abuse from any member of your family.”
Brownie’s tone was very quiet, but very clear and firm.
“What am I to understand by this language from you, Miss Douglas?”
demanded Mrs. Coolidge, nearly choking with anger.
“That I expect due consideration from yourself and family, while I in
turn render you all proper respect. I wish you good-night, madam.”
With a courteous inclination of her bright head, Brownie turned and
walked from the room with the air of an empress.
Mrs. Coolidge stood looking after her for several minutes in utter
amazement.
“Who is the little vixen, I wonder?” she ejaculated, when she had
recovered her self-possession somewhat. “She is evidently far above her
station; and, judging from her appearance to-night, she must have moved
in society equal to any into which we are received.”
But that lady knew, as the young girl had said, that she was invaluable
to her.
Already her younger daughters were acquiring a fluency of speech and an
elegance of manner which delighted her, and she felt that it would not
do to part with her cultivated governess for any light consideration.
She knew it would be very difficult to find any one, while they were
abroad, who would prove as useful in every respect as Miss Douglas, and
she resolved to swallow her wrath, and keep her at all hazards, unless
Wilbur should fall in love with her.
At all events, one thing was settled—Miss Douglas should be seen no more
in company.