ONE OF SANS SOUCI'S TRICKS.
Sans Souci stood before the parlor mirror, gazing into it, seeing--not
the reflected image of her own elfish figure, or pretty, witching face,
with its round, polished forehead, its mocking eyes, its sunny, dancing
curls, its piquant little nose, or petulant little lips--but
contemplating, as through a magic glass, far down the vista of her
childhood--childhood scarcely past, yet in its strong contrast to the
present, seeming so distant, dim, and unreal, that her reminiscence of
its days resembled more a vague dream of a pre-existence, than a
rational recollection of a part of her actual life on earth. Poor Jacko
was wondering "If I be I?"
Grim sat in a leathern chair, at the farthest extremity of the room,
occupied with holding a book, but reading Jacquelina. Suddenly he broke
into her brown study by exclaiming:
"I should like to know what you are doing, and how long you intend to
remain standing before that glass."
"Oh, indeed! should you?" mocked Jacko, startled out of her reverie, yet
instantly remembering to be provoking.
"What were you doing, and--"
"Looking at myself in the glass, to be sure."
"Don't cut off my question, if you please. I was going on to inquire of
what you were thinking so profoundly. And madam, or miss--"
"Madam, if you please! the dear knows, I paid heavy enough for my new
dignity, and don't intend to abate one degree of it. So if you call me
miss again, I'll get some one who loves me to call you 'out!' Besides,
I'd have you to know, I'm very proud of it. Ain't you, too? Say, Grim!
ain't you a proud and happy man to be married?" asked Jacko, tauntingly.
"You jibe! You do so with a purpose. But it shall not avail you. I
demand to know the subject of your thoughts as you stood before that
mirror."
Now, none but a half madman like Grim would have gravely made such a
demand, or exposed himself to such a rebuff as it deserved. Jacko looked
at him quizzically.
"Hem!" she answered, demurely. "I'm sure I'm so awestricken, your
worship, that I can scarcely find the use of my tongue to obey your
reverence. I hope your excellency won't be offended with me. But I was
wondering in general, whether the Lord really did make all the people
upon earth, and in particular, whether He made you, and if so, for what
inscrutable reason He did it."
"You are an impertinent minion. But, by the saints, I will have an
answer to my question, and know what you were thinking of while gazing
in that mirror."
"Sorry the first explanation didn't please your eminence. But now,
'honor bright!' I'll tell you truly what I was thinking of. I was
thinking--thinking how excessively pretty I am. Now, tell the truth, and
shame the old gentleman. Did you ever, in all your life, see such a
beautiful, bewitching, tantalizing, ensnaring face as mine is?"
"I think I never saw such a fool!"
"Really? Then your holiness never looked at yourself in a mirror! never
beheld 'your natural face in a glass!' never saw 'what manner of man'
you are."
"By St. Peter! I will not be insulted, and dishonored, and defied in
this outrageous manner. I swear I will have your thoughts, if I have to
pluck them from your heart."
"Whe-ew! Well, if I didn't always think thought was free, may I never be
an interesting young widow, and captivate Thurston Willcoxen."
"You impudent, audacious, abandoned--"
"Ching a ring a ring chum choo! And a hio ring tum larky!"
sang the elf, dancing about, seizing the bellows and flourishing it over
her head like a tambourine, as she danced.
"Be still, you termagant. Be still, you lunatic, or I'll have you put in
a strait-jacket!" cried the exasperated professor.
"Poor fellow!" said Jacko, dropping the bellows and sidling up to him in
a wheedling, mock-sympathetic manner. "P-o-o-r f-e-l-l-o-w! don't get
excited and go into the highstrikes. You can't help it if you're ugly
and repulsive as Time in the Primer, any more than Thurston Willcoxen
can help being handsome and attractive as Magnus Apollo."
"It was of him, then, you were thinking, minion? I knew it! I knew it!"
exclaimed the professor, starting up, throwing down his book, and pacing
the floor.
"Bear it like a man!" said Jacko, with solemnity.
"You admit it, then. You--you--you--"
"'Unprincipled female.' There! I have helped you to the words. And now,
if you will be melo-dramatic, you should grip up your hair with both
hands, and stride up and down the floor and vociferate, 'Confusion!
distraction! perdition! or any other awful words you can think of.
That's the way they do it in the plays."
"Madam, your impertinence is growing beyond sufferance. I cannot endure
it."
"That's a mighty great pity, now, for you can't cure it."
"St. Mary! I will bear this no longer."
"Then I'm afraid you'll have to emigrate!"
"I'll commit suicide."
"That's you! Do! I should like very well to wear bombazine this cold
weather. Please do it at once, too, if you're going to, for I should
rather be out of deep mourning by midsummer!"
"By heaven, I will pay you for this."
"Any time at your convenience, Dr. Grimshaw! And I shall be ready to
give you a receipt in full upon the spot!" said the elf, rising.
"Anything else in my line this morning, Dr. Grimshaw? Give me a call
when you come my way! I shall be much obliged for your patronage," she
continued, curtseying and dancing off toward the door. "By the way, my
dear sir, there is a lecture to be delivered this evening by our gifted
young fellow-citizen, Mr. Thurston Willcoxen. Going to hear him? I am!
Good-day!" she said, and kissed her hand and vanished.
Grim was going crazy! Everybody said it, and what everybody says has
ever been universally received as indisputable testimony. Many people,
indeed, averred that Grim never had been quite right--that he always had
been queer, and that since his mad marriage with that flighty bit of a
child, Jacquelina, he had been queerer than ever.
He would have been glad to prevent Jacquelina from going to the lecture
upon the evening in question; but there was no reasonable excuse for
doing so. Everybody went to the lectures, which were very popular. Mrs.
Waugh made a point of being punctually present at every one. And she
took charge of Jacquelina, whenever the whim of the latter induced her
to go, which was as often as she secretly wished to "annoy Grim." And,
in fact, "to plague the Ogre" was her only motive in being present, for,
truth to tell, the elf cared very little either for the lecturer or his
subjects, and usually spent the whole evening in yawning behind her
pocket handkerchief. Upon this evening, however, the lecture fixed even
the flighty fancy of Jacquelina, as she sat upon the front seat between
Mrs. Waugh and Dr. Grimshaw.
Jacquelina was magnetized, and scarcely took her eyes from the speaker
during the whole of the discourse. Mrs. Waugh was also too much
interested to notice her companions. Grim was agonized. The result of
the whole of which was--that after they all got home, Dr. Grimshaw--to
use a common but graphic phrase--"put his foot down" upon the resolution
to prevent Jacquelina's future attendance at the lectures. Whether he
would have succeeded in keeping her away is very doubtful, had not a
remarkably inclement season of weather set in, and lasted a fortnight,
leaving the roads nearly impassable for two other weeks. And just as
traveling was getting to be possible, Thurston Willcoxen was called to
Baltimore, on his grandfather's business, and was absent a fortnight.
So, altogether, six weeks had passed without Jacquelina's finding an
opportunity to defy Dr. Grimshaw by attending the lectures against his
consent.
At the end of that time, on Sunday morning, it was announced in the
church that Mr. Willcoxen having returned to the county, would resume
his lectures on the Wednesday evening following. Dr. Grimshaw looked at
Jacquelina, to note how she would receive this news. Poor Jacko had been
under Marian's good influences for the week previous, and was, in her
fitful and uncertain way, "trying to be good." "As an experiment to
please you, Marian," she said, "and to see how it will answer." Poor
elf! So she called up no false, provoking smile of joy, to drive Grim
frantic, but heard the news of Thurston's arrival with the outward
calmness that was perfectly true to the perfect inward indifference.
"She has grown guarded--that is a very bad sign--I shall watch her
closer," muttered Grim behind his closed teeth. And when the professor
went home that day, his keen, pallid face was frightful to look upon.
And many were the comments made by the dispersing congregation.
From that Sunday to the following Wednesday, not one word was spoken of
Thurston Willcoxen or his lecture. But on Wednesday morning Dr. Grimshaw
entered the parlor, where Jacquelina lingered alone, gazing out of the
window, and going up to her side, astonished her beyond measure by
speaking in a calm, kind tone, and saying:
"Jacquelina, you have been too much confined to the house lately. You
are languid. You must go out more. Mr. Willcoxen lectures this evening.
Perhaps you would like to hear him. If so, I withdraw my former
prohibition, which was, perhaps, too harsh, and I beg you will follow
your own inclinations, if they lead you to go."
You should have seen Jacko's eyes and eyebrows! the former were dilated
to their utmost capacity, while the latter were elevated to their
highest altitude. The professor's eyebrows were knotted together, and
his eyes sought the ground, as he continued:
"I myself have an engagement at Leonardtown this afternoon, which will
detain me all night, and therefore shall not be able to escort you; but
Mrs. Waugh, who is going, will doubtless take you under her charge.
Would you like to go?"
"I had already intended to go," replied Jacquelina, without relaxing a
muscle of her face.
The professor nodded and left the room.
Soon after, Jacquelina sought her aunty, whom she found in the pantry,
mixing mince-meat.
"I say, aunty--"
"Well, Lapwing?"
"When Satan turns saint, suspicion is safe, is it not?"
"What do you mean, Lapwing?"
"Why, just now the professor came to me, politely apologized for his
late rudeness, and proposed that I should go with you to hear Mr.
Willcoxen's lecture, while he, the professor, goes to Leonardtown to
fulfill an engagement. I say, aunty, I sniff a plot, don't you?"
"I don't know what to make of it, Lapwing. Are you going?"
"Of course I am; I always intended to."
No more was said at the time.
Immediately after dinner Dr. Grimshaw ordered his horse, and saying that
he was going to Leonardtown and should not be back till the next day,
set forth.
And after an early tea, Mrs. Waugh and Jacquelina set out in the family
sleigh. A swift run over the hard, frozen snow brought them to Old
Fields, where they stopped a moment to pick up Marian, and then shooting
forward at the same rate of speed, they reached the lecture-room in full
time.
Jacquelina was perhaps the very least enchanted of all his hearers--she
was, in fact, an exception, and found the discourse so entirely
uninteresting that it was with difficulty she could refrain from yawning
in the face of the orator. Mrs. Waugh also, perhaps, was but half
mesmerized, for her eyes would cautiously wander from the lecturer's
pulpit to the side window on her right hand. At length she stooped and
whispered to Jacquelina:
"Child, be cautious; Dr. Grimshaw is on the ground--I have seen his face
rise up to that lower pane of glass at the corner of that window,
several times. He must be crouched down on the outside."
Jacquelina gave a little start of surprise--her face underwent many
phases of expression; she glanced furtively at the indicated window, and
there she saw a pale, wild face gleam for an instant against the glass,
and then drop. She nodded her head quickly, muttering:
"Oh, I'll pay him!"
"Don't child! don't do anything imprudent, for gracious' sake! That man
is crazy--any one can see he is!"
"Oh, aunty, I'll be sure to pay him! He shan't be in my debt much
longer. Soft, aunty! Don't look toward the window again! Don't let him
perceive that we see him or suspect him--and then, you'll see what
you'll see. I have a counter plot."
This last sentence was muttered to herself by Jacquelina, who thereupon
straightened herself up--looked the lecturer in the eyes--and gave her
undevoted attention to him during the rest of the evening. There was not
a more appreciating and admiring hearer in the room than Jacquelina
affected to be. Her face was radiant, her eyes starry, her cheeks
flushed, her pretty lips glowing breathlessly apart--her whole form
instinct with enthusiasm. Any one might have thought the little creature
bewitched. But the fascinating orator need not have flattered
himself--had he but known it--Jacquelina neither saw his face nor heard
his words; she was seeing pictures of Grim's bitter jealousy,
mortification and rage, as he beheld her from his covert; she was
rehearsing scenes of what she meant to do to him. And when at last she
forgot herself, and clapped her hand enthusiastically, it was not at the
glorious peroration of the orator--but at the perfection of her own
little plot!
When the lecturer had finished, and as usual announced the subject and
the time of the next lecture, Jacquelina, instead of rising with the
mass of the audience, showed a disposition to retain her seat.
"Come, my dear, I am going," said Mrs. Waugh.
"Wait, aunty, I don't like to go in a crowd."
Mrs. Waugh waited while the people pressed toward the outer doors.
"I wonder whether the professor will wait and join us when we return
home?" said Mrs. Waugh.
"We shall see," said Jacquelina. "I wish he may. I believe he will. I am
prepared for such an emergency."
In the meantime, Thurston Willcoxen had descended from the platform, and
was shaking hands right and left with the few people who had lingered to
speak to him. Then he approached Mrs. Waugh's party, bowed, and
afterward shook hands with each member of it, only retaining Marian's
hand the fraction of a minute longest, and giving it an earnest pressure
in relinquishing it. Then he inquired after the health of the family at
Luckenough, commented upon the weather, the state of the crops, etc.,
and with a valedictory bow withdrew, and followed the retreating crowd.
"I think we can also go now," said Mrs. Waugh.
"Yes," said Jacquelina, rising.
Upon reaching the outside, they found old Oliver, with the sleigh drawn
up to receive them. Jacquelina looked all around, to see if she could
discover Thurston Willcoxen on the grounds; and not seeing him anywhere,
she persuaded herself that he must have hastened home. But she saw Dr.
Grimshaw, recognized him, and at the same time could but notice the
strong resemblance in form and manner that he bore to Thurston
Willcoxen, when it was too dark to notice the striking difference in
complexion and expression. Dr. Grimshaw approached her, keeping his
cloak partially lifted to his face, as if to defend it from the wind,
but probably to conceal it. Then the evil spirit entered Jacquelina, and
tempted her to sidle cautiously up to the professor, slip her arm
through his arm, and whisper:
"Thurston! Come! Jump in the sleigh and go home with us. We shall have
such a nice time! Old Grim has gone to Leonardtown, and won't be home
till to-morrow!"
"Has he, minion? By St. Judas! you are discovered now! I have now full
evidence of your turpitude. By all the saints! you shall answer for it
fearfully," said the professor, between his clenched teeth, as he closed
his arm upon Jacquelina's arm and dragged her toward the sleigh.
"Ha! ha! ha! Oh! well, I don't care! If I mistook you for Thurston, it
is not the first mistake I ever made about you. I mistook you once
before for a man!" said Jacko, defiantly.
He thrust her into the sleigh already occupied by Mrs. Waugh and Marian,
jumped in after her, and took the seat by her side.
"Why, I thought that you set out for Leonardtown this afternoon, Dr.
Grimshaw!" said Mrs. Waugh, coldly.
"You may have jumped to other conclusions equally false and dangerous,
madam!"
"What do you mean, sir?"
"I mean, madam, that in conniving at the perfidy of this unprincipled
girl, your niece, you imagined that you were safe. It was an error. You
are both discovered!" said the professor, doggedly.
Henrietta was almost enraged.
"Dr. Grimshaw," she said, "nothing but self-respect prevents me from
ordering you from this sleigh!"
"I advise you to let self-respect, or any other motive you please, still
restrain you, madam. I remain here as the warden of this pretty
creature's person, until she is safely secured."
"You will at least be kind enough to explain to us the causes of your
present words and actions, sir!" said Mrs. Waugh, severely.
"Undoubtedly, madam! Having, as I judged, just reasons for doubting the
integrity of your niece, and more than suspecting her attachment to Mr.
Willcoxen, I was determined to test both. Therefore, instead of going to
Leonardtown, to be absent till to-morrow, I came here, posted myself at
a favorable point for observation, and took notes. While here, I saw
enough to convince me of Jacquelina's indiscretions. Afterward leaving
the spot with lacerated feelings I drew near her. She mistook me for her
lover, thrust her arm through mine, and said, 'Dear Thurston, come home
with me--'"
"Oh! you shocking old fye-for-shame! I said no such thing! I said,
Thurston! Come! Jump in the sleigh and go home with us.'"
"It makes little difference, madam! The meaning was the same. I will not
be responsible for a literal report. You are discovered."
"What does that mean? If it means you have discovered that I mistook you
for Thurston Willcoxen, you ought to 'walk on thrones' the rest of your
life! You never got such a compliment before, and never will again!"
"Aye! go on, madam! You and your conniving aunt--"
"Dr. Grimshaw, if you dare to say or hint such impertinence to me again,
you shall leave your seat much more quickly than you took it," said Mrs.
Waugh.
"We shall see, madam!" said the professor, and he lapsed into sullenness
for the remainder of the drive.
But, oh! there was one in that sleigh upon whose heart the words of wild
Jacko had fallen with cruel weight-Marian!