JESSIE BAIN ENTERS THE HOUSE OF SECRETS.
The old lady stared at Jessie through her spectacles.
"You need no other recommendation. I once met Captain Carr under
thrilling circumstances, my child. I was out in a row-boat one day--some
ten years ago--when a steamer almost ran down our little skiff. I would
have been capsized, and perhaps drowned, had it not been for the bravery
of Captain Carr, of Fisher's Landing. I made him a handsome little
present, and from that day to this I have never heard from him. Captain
Carr dead, and his niece out in the world looking for a situation! You
shall come to me, if you like, reference or no reference, my dear.'
"Oh, madam, you are so very, very kind!" sobbed Jessie.
The little old lady touched a silver bell close at hand, and a tidy,
elderly maid appeared.
"Harriet, I have engaged this young woman as companion," she said. "She
came in answer to yesterday's advertisement in the _Argus_. You will
take her to her room at once. She is to occupy the little room directly
off mine."
The room into which she ushered Jessie was a small, dingy apartment,
with draperies so sombre that they seemed almost black. The curtains
were closely drawn, and an unmistakable atmosphere of mustiness pervaded
the apartment.
"Have you had breakfast, miss?" asked Harriet, looking sharply into the
girl's pale face, and adding before she had time to reply: "Even though
you have breakfasted, a cup of hot tea will do you good this cold, crisp
morning. My lady will be pleased to have you come down to the table. The
bell will ring in about ten minutes. You can easily make your way there.
Step down the corridor, and turn into the passage-way at the right; the
second door."
Jessie bowed her thanks, and murmured that she would be very grateful
for a cup of tea. It was not long before she heard the breakfast-bell.
Hastily quitting the room, she made her way down the corridor. In her
confusion, the girl made the mistake of turning to the left, instead of
the right, as she had been directed.
"The second door," she muttered to herself.
As she reached it she paused abruptly. It was slightly ajar. Glancing in
hesitatingly, she saw that it looked more like a young lady's _boudoir_
than an ordinary breakfast-room. Before a mirror at the further end of
the apartment sat a young girl in the sun-light. A maid was brushing out
the wavy masses of her warm-tinted auburn hair.
While Jessie was hesitating as to whether she should tap on the door
and make her presence known or walk on further through the corridor, a
conversation which she could not help overhearing, held her spell-bound,
fairly rooted to the spot.
"I assure you it is quite true, Janet," the lovely young girl was saying
in a very fretful, angry voice. "The old lady has got a companion in the
house at last. But she shall not stay long beneath this roof depend upon
that, Janet. She is young and very beautiful.
"I would not care so much, if it were not that the handsome grandson is
expected to arrive every day."
"Surely, Miss Rosamond, you, with all your beauty, do not fear a rival
in the little humble companion."
"Companions have been known to do a great deal of mischief before now,
and, as I have said, the girl is remarkably pretty. I saw her from the
library window as she was coming up the front steps, and then, when old
Mrs. Bassett came down to the library, I was safely ensconced behind the
silken draperies of the bay-window, and I heard all that was said. You
may be sure that I was angry enough. She shall not stay here long, if I
can help it. I will make it so unpleasant for her that she will be glad
to go. I detest the girl already, on general principles."
Jessie Bain cowered back, dazed and bewildered, almost doubting her own
senses as to what she had just heard.
Smarting with bitter pain, Jessie turned away and hurried swiftly down
the corridor in the opposite direction.
She was quickly retracing her steps back to her own room, when she met
Harriet again in the corridor.
"I was just coming for you, miss," she said, "thinking that you might
not be able to find your way, after all, there are so many twists and
turns hereabouts," and without further ado she quickly retraced her
steps, nodding to Jessie to follow.
The breakfast-room into which she was ushered was by far the most
commodious room in the house.
A great, square apartment with ceilings and panelings of solid oak,
massive side-boards, which contained the family silver for fully a
century or more, great, high-backed chairs with heavy carvings, done up
in leather, and a polished, inlaid floor, with here and there a velvet
rug or tiger's skin.
The old lady was seated at the table as Harriet ushered in the young
girl. She smiled, and nodded a welcome. Opposite her sat a little old
man with large ears, who peered at her sharply from over a pair of
double-barreled, gold-rimmed eyeglasses.
"This is the young person whom I have just engaged as my companion,"
said Mrs. Bassett, shrilly, turning toward her husband.
"H'm!" ejaculated the old gentleman. "What did you say this young
woman's name was?"
"Bain," she replied.
"Hey?" he exclaimed, holding his right hand trumpet fashion, to his ear.
"Give me the name a little louder."
"Miss Bain-- Jessie Bain!" shouted his wife, in an ear-splitting voice
that made every nerve in Jessie's body throb and quiver.
"Ah--h'm-- Miss Bain," he repeated; adding, as he cleared out his
throat: "I am very anxious to have the papers read while we breakfast.
You may as well begin by reading this morning's reports," he said,
handing her a paper which lay folded beside his plate. "You may turn to
the stock reports first, Miss Bain. Third column on the first page, Miss
Bain."
She had scarcely finished the first paragraph ere the old gentleman
commanded her to stop.
"Can you understand one word that this young woman is reading?" he
inquired, turning sharply to his wife.
"No. Miss Bain must read louder," she said. "I do not quite catch it."
The perspiration stood out in great balls on Jessie's pale face. She had
raised her voice to almost a shout already, and her throat was beginning
to ache terribly, for the strain upon it was very great. How she ever
struggled down to the bottom of that column, she never knew. The
appearance of the breakfast tray was a welcome relief to her.
"You read very nicely," complimented the old gentleman. "I enjoy
listening to you. I shall give you the privilege of reading all my
papers aloud every forenoon."
Jessie looked helplessly at him. The strain had been so great that her
throat pained her terribly; but she made no demur. How could she?
At that moment the door swung slowly open, and a tall, beautiful girl
entered.
Jessie knew her at the first startled glance. It was the lovely girl
whom she had heard talking to her maid about her, but a little while
before.
She took the seat at the end of the table without so much as deigning to
glance at the new-comer.
"My dear, let me present you to Miss Bain-- Miss Bain, my husband's
_protegee_, Rosamond Lee," exclaimed Mrs. Bassett.
Jessie bowed wistfully, shyly; Miss Rosamond barely lifted her eyebrows
in acknowledgment of the presentation.
The old gentleman and his wife screamed at each other on the main topics
of the day, Miss Rosamond looked exceedingly bored, while Jessie had
great difficulty in swallowing, her throat ached so severely.