HOW MRS. VYNER WAS BENEFICENT.
One morning while Cecil was in his studio, smoking a cigar and
contemplating the sketch of his picture on the easel, with the air of
a man who profoundly meditates on the details of a great conception,
Blanche was in her room at Notting-hill, making the essence of coffee
with a French machine, which they had purchased (unable to drink the
incomprehensible mixture Mrs. Tring set before them) when a carriage
drove up to the door. Blanche did not hear it, as her room was
situated at the back. It was with great surprise, therefore, that
she saw her mother and Rose rush into the room, and bound into her
arms.
After the first hearty embraces and inquiries were over, Blanche
became aware of the condition in which she was found, and blushed.
It was not that she herself felt ashamed of her poverty, but she was
hurt at the reflections which must necessarily arise in their minds
respecting the folly of her marriage; so she hastened, in rather a
precipitate and clumsy manner, to assure them how exquisitely happy
she was.
"Thank God for that!" exclaimed Mrs. Meredith Vyner. "Then I have
nothing to reproach myself with for not having interfered--for not
putting a stop to Cecil's attentions--which I very early noticed, let
me tell you. The only thing I now desire is to bring your papa
round; but he is so obstinate! I do my utmost--but I almost begin to
fear that my intercession only makes him more resolved; and I suspect
if we were never to mention the subject to him, he would relent very
speedily. But depend upon me, my dear, for looking after your
interests."
"Dearest mama!" said Blanche, gratefully kissing her.
"As soon as I see him relenting, I will contrive to throw him in your
way--and you can then manage him yourself--but do not attempt to see
him till I give you the word."
"I will be guided by you."
Rose was unusually grave and silent. Blanche noticed it, and noticed
also that she looked ill.
"I have been unwell," Rose said; "but I am getting better now. A
slight fever, that is all."
"And how is Marmaduke Ashley?" asked Blanche.
"Very well; we saw him yesterday; in fact we see him very often now,"
Mrs. Vyner answered; "somehow or other he has always some commission
to execute for one of us, and as he is an agreeable companion, we
make much of him."
"And how gets on the flirtation with Violet?"
"Why--pretty much as usual. I suspect it is only a flirtation just
yet; or else he is kept at a respectful distance, for you know dear
Violet is not the most affable of beauties."
"And Julius, Rose, how is he?"
"Indeed, I cannot tell you," quietly answered Rose.
"You can't! What! do you mean to say, Rose, that----."
"He is in Italy, I believe," she said, interrupting her sister, but
showing no more emotion on her face than if she were speaking of the
most indifferent person.
Blanche was not deceived, however; she knew her sister's love for
Julius, and divined a quarrel.
"That is the slight fever!" she mentally exclaimed; and then
comparing her lot with that of her two sisters, felt it was
infinitely preferable.
After a two hours' chat, they rose to depart. The real purpose of
Mrs. Vyner's visit was to give Blanche fifty pounds, which her father
had sent her, in accordance with the arranged plan that she was to
suppose it came from her mother.
"And now before I go, dear Blanche," said Mrs. Vyner, "I have to give
you an earnest of your not being forgotten by me, however your father
may act. Money from him, he vows, is out of the question; he will
not give a sixpence. But out of my own privy purse, I shall from
time to time take care of you. There, dear girl, take that;
The gift is sma', but love is a'.
I have set aside this fifty pounds----"
She was interrupted by Blanche throwing her arms round her neck, and
hugging her tightly, while tears of gratitude stood in her eyes, and
she murmured "Dearest, kindest, mama!"
Rose, who was equally taken by surprise at this _coup-de-theatre_,
also sprang up and kissed her mother, exclaiming,--
"Oh! I wish Violet were here!"
Mrs. Vyner understood the wish, and looked delighted.
"One day," she said, with the meekness of a martyr, "she will learn
to know me."
It was an exciting scene. Blanche and Rose were affected, as kind
hearts always are at any action which bears the stamp of kindness;
and Mrs. Vyner was affected, as most people are when they have done a
generous action, with a certain inward glow of noble pleasure.
For do not suppose that she remembered at this moment whence the
money actually came. Not she. In her excitable mind, the means were
lost in the end. She had given the money, she had aroused the
gratitude of the two girls, and as far as her feeling of the matter
went, she felt just as if the money had been hers. Indeed, so truly
was she possessed with this idea, so actually generous did she feel
in that moment of excitement, that on opening her purse to take out
the notes, she found another ten-pound note beside it, really her
own, and taking it also out she said as she presented it,--
"There, you may as well have that too--you will find plenty of use
for it--and I shall not miss it. There. Only be happy, and trust in
me."
The sudden impulse which led her to do this--to complete as it were
the action which she had begun with such applause--to redouble the
effect of what had already been created--will be understood by all
who have known, and knowing have analyzed, such characters as Mrs.
Vyner; to others it will appear a gross inconsistency.