Mrs. Milton-Cleave had one weakness--she was possessed by an inordinate
desire for influence. This made her always eagerly anxious to be
interesting both in her conversation and in her letters, and to this end
she exerted herself with unwearying activity. She liked influencing Mr.
Blackthorne, and spared no pains on him that afternoon; and indeed the
curate was a good deal flattered by her friendship, and considered her
one of the most clever and charming women he had ever met.
Sigismund and Gertrude returned to the ordinary world just as Mrs. Milton-
Cleave was saying good-bye to the hostess. She glanced at them
searchingly.
"Good-bye, Gertrude," she said a little coldly. "Did you win at tennis?"
"Indeed we did," said Gertrude, smiling. "We came off with flying
colours. It was a love set."
The girl was looking more beautiful than ever, and there was a tell-tale
colour in her cheeks and an unusual light in her soft grey eyes. As for
Zaluski, he was so evidently in love, and had the audacity to look so
supremely happy, that Mrs. Milton-Cleave was more than ever impressed
with the gravity of the situation. The curate handed her into her
victoria, and she drove home through the sheltered lanes musing sadly
over the story she had heard, and wondering what Gertrude's future would
be. When she reached home, however, the affair was driven from her
thoughts by her children, of whom she was devotedly fond. They came
running to meet her, frisking like so many kittens round her as she went
upstairs to her room, and begging to stay with her while she dressed for
dinner. During dinner she was engrossed with her husband; but
afterwards, when she was alone in the drawing-room, I found my
opportunity for working on her restless mind.
"Dear me," she exclaimed, throwing aside the newspaper she had just taken
up, "I ought to write to Mrs. Selldon at Dulminster about that G.F.S.
girl!"
As a matter of fact she ought not to have written then, the letter might
well have waited till the morning, and she was over-tired and needed
rest. But I was glad to see her take up her pen, for I knew I should
come in most conveniently to fill up the second side of the sheet.
Before long Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from Muddleton to
Dulminster, had been duly reported, wound up, and made over to the
Archdeacon's wife. Then the tired hand paused. What more could she say
to her friend?
"We are leading our usual quiet life here," she wrote, "with the ordinary
round of tennis parties and picnics to enliven us. The children have all
been wonderfully well, and I think you will see a great improvement in
your god-daughter when you next come to stay with us"--"Oh dear!" sighed
Mrs. Milton-Cleave, "how dull and stupid I am to-night! I can't think of
a single thing to say." Then at length I flashed into her mind, and with
a sigh of relief and a little rising flush of excitement she went on much
more rapidly.
"It is such a comfort to be quite at rest about them, and to see them all
looking so well. But I suppose one can never be without some cause of
worry, and just now I am very unhappy about that nice girl Gertrude
Morley whom you admired so much when you were last here. The whole
neighbourhood has been dominated this year by a young Polish merchant
named Sigismund Zaluski, who is very clever and musical and knows well
how to win popularity. He has taken Ivy Cottage for four mouths, and is,
I fear, doing great mischief. The Morleys are his special friends, and I
greatly fear he is making love to Gertrude. Now I know privately, on the
very best authority, that although he has so completely deceived every
one and has managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that Mr.
Zaluski is really a Nihilist, a free-lover, an atheist, and altogether a
most unprincipled man. He is very clever, and speaks English most
fluently, indeed he has lived in London since the spring of 1881--he told
me so himself. I cannot help fancying that he must have been concerned
in the assassination of the late Czar, which you will remember took place
in that year early in March. It is terrible to think of the poor Morleys
entering blindfold on such an undesirable connection; but, at the same
time, I really do not feel that I can say anything about it. Excuse this
hurried note, dear Charlotte, and with love to yourself and kindest
remembrances to the Archdeacon,
"Believe me, very affectionately yours,
"GEORGINA MILTON-CLEAVE.
"P.S. It may perhaps be as well not to mention this affair about
Gertrude Morley and Mr. Zaluski. They are not yet engaged, as far as I
know, and I sincerely trust it may prove to be a mere flirtation."
* * * * *
I had now grown to such enormous dimensions that any one who had known me
in my infancy would scarcely have recognised me, while naturally the more
I grew the more powerful I became, and the more capable both of
impressing the minds which received me and of injuring Zaluski. Poor
Zaluski, who was so foolishly, thoughtlessly happy! He little dreamed of
the fate that awaited him! His whole world was bright and full of
promise; each hour of love seemed to improve him, to deepen his whole
character, to tone down his rather flippant manner, to awaken for him new
and hitherto unthought-of realities.
But while he basked in his new happiness I travelled in my close stuffy
envelope to Dulminster, and after having been tossed in and out of bags,
shuffled, stamped, thumped, tied up, and generally shaken about, I
arrived one morning at Dulminster Archdeaconry, and was laid on the
breakfast table among other appetising things to greet Mrs. Selldon when
she came downstairs.