The Incognita continued to devote herself to needle-work till the
morning of the next rehearsal. She was then again called to the double
task of prompting, and of reading the part of Lady Townly, Miss Arbe
having, unceremoniously, announced, that as she had already performed
that character three several times, and to the most brilliant audiences,
though at private theatres, any further practice for herself would be a
work of supererogation; and if the company, she added, would but be so
good as to remember her directions, she need only attend personally at
the final rehearsal.
The whole party was much offended by this insinuation of its
inferiority, as well as by so contemptuous an indifference to the
prosperity of the enterprize. Nor was this the only difficulty caused by
the breach of attendance in Miss Arbe. The entertainment was to conclude
with a cotillon, of which Ireton had brought the newest steps and method
from France, but which, through this unexpected failure, the sett was
incomplete for practising. Elinor was persuaded, that in keeping the
whole group thus imperfect, both in the play and in the dance, it was
the design of Miss Arbe to expose them all to ridicule, that her own
fine acting and fine steps might be contrasted to the greater advantage.
To obviate, as much as possible, this suspected malice, the stranger was
now requested to stand up with them; for as she was so lately come from
abroad, they concluded that she might know something of the matter.
They were not mistaken: the steps, the figure, the time, all were
familiar to her; and she taught the young Selina, dropt hints to Elinor,
endeavoured to set Miss Bydel right, and gave a general, though
unpremeditated lesson to every one, by the measured grace and lightness
of her motions, which, little as her attire was adapted to such a
purpose, were equally striking for elegance and for modesty.
Harleigh, however, alone perceived her excellence: the rest had so much
to learn, or were so anxious to shine, that if occasionally they
remarked her, it was rather to be diverted by seeing any one dance so
ill equipped, than to be struck with the elevated carriage which no such
disadvantage could conceal.
Early on the morning preceding the intended representation, the stranger
was summoned to the destined theatre, where, while she was aiding the
general preparations, of dresses, decorations, and scenery, previous to
the last grand rehearsal, which, in order to try the effect of the
illuminations, was fixed to take place in the evening, Mrs Maple, with
derision marked in every feature of her face, stalked into the room, to
announce to her niece, with unbridled satisfaction, that all her fine
vagaries would now end in nothing, as Miss Arbe, at last, had the good
sense to refuse affording them her countenance.
Elinor, though too much enraged to inquire what this meant, soon,
perforce, learnt, that an old gentleman, a cousin of Miss Arbe's, had
ridden over with an apology, importing, that the most momentous reasons,
yet such as could not be divulged, obliged his relation to decline the
pleasure of belonging to their dramatic party.
The offence given by this abrupt renunciation was so general, though
Elinor, alone, allowed it free utterance, that Mr Giles Arbe, the bearer
of these evil tidings, conceived it to be more advisable to own the
plump truth, he said, at once, than to see them all so affronted without
knowing what for; though he begged them not to mention it, his cousin
having peremptorily charged him not to speak out: but the fact was, that
she had repented her engagement ever since the first rehearsal; for
though she should always be ready to act with the Miss Joddrels, who
were nieces to a baronet, and Mr Harleigh, who was nephew to a peer, and
Mr Ireton, who was heir to a large entailed estate; she was yet
apprehensive that it might let her down, in the opinion of the noble
theatrical society to which she belonged, if she were seen exhibiting
with such common persons as farmers and domestics; whom, however, for
all his cousin's nicety, Mr Giles said he thought to be full as good men
as any other; and, sometimes, considerably better.
Mrs Maple was elevated into the highest triumph by this explanation. 'I
told you how it would be!' she cried. 'Young ladies acting with mere
mob! I am truly rejoiced that Miss Arbe has given you the slip.'
Elinor heard this with a resentment, that determined her, more
vehemently than ever, not to abandon her project; she proudly,
therefore, returned thanks, by Mr Giles, for the restoration of the
part, which she had resigned in mere complaisance, as there was nothing
in the world she so much desired as to act it herself, even though it
must be now learnt in the course of a day; and she begged leave, as a
mark that she was not offended at the desertion, to borrow the dress of
the character, which she knew to be ready, and with which she would
adorn herself the following night, at the performance.
This last clause, she was well aware, would prove the most provoking
that she could devise, to Miss Arbe, who was renowned for being
finically tenacious of her attire; but Elinor would neither add a word
to her message, nor suffer one to be taken from it; and when Mr Giles
Arbe, frightened at the ill success of his confidence, would have
offered some apology, she drove him from the house, directing a trusty
person in the neighbourhood, to accompany him back, with positive orders
not to return without the dress.
She then told the stranger to study the part of Lady Wronghead, to fill
up the chasm.
The stranger began some earnest excuses, but they were lost in the
louder exclamations of Mrs Maple, whose disappointment in finding the
scheme still supported, was aggravated into rage, by the unexpected
proposition of admitting the stranger into the sett.
'What, Miss Joddrel!' she cried, 'is it not enough that you have made us
a by-word in the neighbourhood, by wanting to act with farmers and
servants? Must you also bring a foundling girl into your sett? an
illegitimate stroller, who does not so much as know her own name?'
The stranger, deeply reddening, gravely answered, 'Far from wishing to
enter into any plan of amusement, I could not have given my consent to
it, even if solicited.'
'Nobody asks what you could have done, I hope!' Mrs Maple began, when
Elinor, pushing the stranger into a large light closet, and throwing the
part after her, shut the door, charging her not to lose a moment, in
getting ready for the final rehearsal that very evening.
The Incognita, fixed not to look at the manuscript, now heard, perforce,
a violent quarrel between the aunt and the niece, the former protesting
that she would never agree to such a disgrace, as suffering a poor
straggling pauper to mix herself publicly with their society; and the
latter threatening, that, if forced to grant such a triumph to Miss
Arbe, as that of tamely relinquishing the undertaking, she would leave
the country and settle at once in France, and in the house of
Robespierre himself.
Harleigh, who, in a hasty and dashing, but masterly manner, was
colouring some scenery; had hitherto been silent; but now, advancing, he
proposed, as a compromise, that the performance should be deferred for a
week, in which time Miss Sycamore, a young lady at Brighthelmstone, whom
they all knew, would learn, he doubted not, the part, and supply, with
pleasure, the vacant place.
To this Mrs Maple, finding no hope remained that she could abolish the
whole project, was sullenly assenting, when Elinor reproachfully
exclaimed, 'What, Don Quixote! is your spirit of chivalry thus cooled?
and are you, too, for rejecting, with all this scorn, the fellow-voyager
you were so strenuous to support?'
'Scorn?' repeated Harleigh, 'No! I regard her, rather, with reverence.
'Tis she herself that has declined the part, and with a dignity that
does her honour. All she suffers to be discerned of her, announces
distinguished merit; and yet, highly as I have conceived of her
character, she is unknown to us; except by her distresses; and these,
though they call loudly for our sympathy and assistance, and, through
the propriety of her conduct, lay claim to our respect, may be thought
insufficient by the world, to justify Mrs Maple, who has two young
ladies so immediately under her care, for engaging a perfect stranger,
in a scheme which has no reference to humanity, or good offices.'
'Ah ha, Mr Harleigh!' cried Ireton, shaking his head, 'you are afraid of
what she may turn out! You think no better of her, at last, than I do.'
'I think, on the contrary, so well of her,' answered Harleigh, 'that I
am sincerely sorry to see her thus haughtily distanced. I often wish
these ladies would as generously, as I doubt not that they might safely,
invite her into their private society. Kindness such as that might
produce a confidence, which revolts from public and abrupt enquiry; and
which, I would nearly engage my life, would prove her innocence and
worth, and vindicate every trust.'
He then begged them to consider, that, should their curiosity and
suspicions work upon her spirits, till she were urged to reveal,
prematurely, the secret of her situation, they would themselves be the
first to condemn her for folly and imprudence, if breaking up the
mystery of her silence should affect either her happiness or her safety.
Mrs Maple would have been inconsolable at a defence against which she
had nothing positive to object, had she not reaped some comfort from
finding that even Harleigh opposed including the stranger in the acting
circle.
The delay of the performance, and an application to Miss Sycamore,
seemed now settled, when Mrs Fenn, the housekeeper, who was also aiding
in the room, lamented the trouble to be renewed for the
supper-preparations, as neither the fish, nor the pastry, nor sundry
other articles, could keep.
This was a complaint to which Mrs Maple was by no means deaf. The
invitations, also, were made; the drawing-room was given up for the
theatre; another apartment was appropriated for a green-room; and there
was not any chance that the house could be restored to order, nor the
maids to their usual occupations, till this business were finally over.
Her rancour now suddenly relented, with regard to the stranger, and, to
the astonishment of every one, she stopt Harleigh from riding over to
Brighthelmstone, to apply to Miss Sycamore, by concedingly saying, that,
since Mr Harleigh had really so good an opinion of the young woman who
came from France, she must confess that she had herself, of late, taken
a much better notion of her, by finding that she was so excellent a
needle-woman; and, therefore, she did not see why they should send for
so finical a person as Miss Sycamore, who was full of airs and
extravagance, to begin all over again, and disappoint so much company,
when they had a body in the house who might do one of the parts, so as
to pass amongst the rest, without being found out for what she was.
Harleigh expressed his doubts whether the young person herself, who was
obviously in very unpleasant circumstances, might chuse to be brought
forward in so public an amusement.
The gentleness of Mrs Maple was now converted into choler; and she
desired to know, whether a poor wretch such as that, who had her meat,
drink, and lodging for nothing, should be allowed to chuse any thing for
herself one way or another.
Elinor, dropping, though not quite distinctly, some sarcastical
reflections upon the persistence of Harleigh in preferring Miss Sycamore
to his Dulcinea, retired to her room to study the part of Lady Townly;
saying that she should leave them full powers, to wrangle amongst
themselves, for that of Lady Wronghead.
Harleigh, who had not seen the stranger turned into the closet, now
entered it, in search of a pencil. Not a little was then his surprize to
find her sketching, upon the back of a letter, a view of the hills,
downs, cottages, and cattle, which formed the prospect from the window.
It was beautifully executed, and undoubtedly from nature. Harleigh, with
mingled astonishment and admiration, clasped his hands, and
energetically exclaimed, 'Accomplished creature! who ... and what are
you?'
Confused, she blushed, and folded up her little drawing. He seemed
almost equally embarrassed himself, at the expression and the question
which had escaped him. Mrs Maple, following, paradingly told the
stranger, that, as she had hemmed the last cambric-handkerchiefs so
neatly, she might act, upon this particular occasion, with the Miss
Joddrels; only first premising, that she must not own to a living soul
her being such a poor forlorn creature; as the only way to avoid
disgrace to themselves, amongst their acquaintance, for admitting her,
would be to say that she was a young lady of family, who came over with
them from France.
To the last clause, the stranger calmly answered that she could offer no
objection, in a manner which, to the attentive Harleigh, clearly
indicated that it was true; but that, with respect to performing, she
was in a situation too melancholy, if not disastrous, to be capable of
making any such attempt.
Mrs Maple was so angry at this presumption, that she replied, 'Do as you
are ordered, or leave my house directly!' and then walked, in high
wrath, away.
The stranger appeared confounded: she felt an almost resistless impulse
to depart immediately; but something stronger than resentment told her
to stay: it was distress! She paused a moment, and then, with a sigh,
took up the part, and, without looking at Harleigh, who was too much
shocked to offer any palliation for this grossness, walked pensively to
her chamber.
She was soon joined by Elinor, who, in extreme ill humour, complained
that that odious Lady Townly was so intolerably prolix, that there was
no getting her endless babbling by heart, at such short notice: and
that, but for the triumph which it would afford to Miss Arbe, to find
out their embarrassment, and the spite that it would gratify in Aunt
Maple, the whole business should be thrown up at once. Sooner, however,
than be conquered, either by such impertinence, or such malignity, she
would abandon Lady Townly to the prompter, whom Miss Arbe might have the
surprise and amusement to dizen out in her fine attire.
Then, declaring that she hated and would not act with Miss Sycamore, who
was a creature of insolence and conceit, she flung the part of Lady
Townly to the Incognita, saying, that she must abide herself by that of
Lady Wronghead; a name which she well merited to keep for the rest of
her life, from her inconceivable mismanagement of the whole affair.
The stranger earnestly entreated exemption from the undertaking, and
solicited the intercession of Elinor with Mrs Maple, to soften the hard
sentence denounced against her refusal. To act such a character as that
of Lady Townly, she should have thought formidable, if not impossible,
even in her gayest moments: but now, in a situation the most helpless,
and with every reason to wish for obscurity, the exertion would be the
most cruel that could be exacted.
Elinor, however, listened only to herself: Miss Arbe must be mortified;
Mrs Maple must be thwarted; and Miss Sycamore must be omitted: these
three things, she declared, were indispensable, and could only be
accomplished by defying all obstacles, and performing the comedy upon
the appointed day.
The stranger now saw no alternative between obsequiously submitting, or
immediately relinquishing her asylum.
How might she find another? she knew not where even to seek her friend,
and no letter was arrived from abroad.
There was no resource! She decided upon studying the part.
This was not difficult: she had read it at three rehearsals, and had
carefully copied it; but she acquired it mechanically because
unwillingly, and while she got the words by rote, scarcely took their
meaning into consideration.
When called down, at night, to the grand final rehearsal, she gave equal
surprise to Harleigh, from finding her already perfect in so long a
part, and from hearing her repeat it with a tameness almost lifeless.
At the scene of the reconciliation, in the last act, he took her hand,
and slightly kissed the glove. Ireton called out, 'Embrace!
embrace!--the peace-making is always decided, at the theatre, by an
embrace. You must throw your arms lovingly over one another's
shoulders.'
Harleigh did not advance, but he looked at the stranger, and the blush
upon her cheeks shewed her wholly unaccustomed even to the mention of
any personal liberty; Ireton, however, still insisting, he laughingly
excused himself, by declaring, that he must do by Lord Townly as he
would do by himself; and he never meant, should he marry, to be tender
to his wife before company.
Mrs Maple now, extremely anxious for her own credit, told all the
servants, that she had just discovered, that the stranger who came from
France, was a young lady of consequence, and she desired that they would
make a report to that effect throughout the neighbourhood; and, in the
new play-bills which were now written, she suffered to see inserted,
Lady Townly by Miss Ellis.
Harleigh was the first to address the stranger by this name, previously
taking an opportunity, with an air of friendly regard, to advise that
she would adopt it, till she thought right to declare her own. She
thanked him gratefully for his counsel, confessing, that she had long
felt the absurdity of seeming nameless; and adding, 'but I had made no
preparation for what I so little expected, as the length of time in
which I have been kept in this almost unheard of situation! and the
hourly hope of seeing it end, made me decide to spare myself, at least
by silence, from deceit.'
The look of Harleigh shewed his approbation of her motive, while his
words strengthened her conviction, that it must now give way to the
necessity of some denomination. 'Be it Ellis, then,' said she, smiling,
'though evasion may, perhaps, be yet meaner than falsehood!
Nevertheless, I am rather more contented to make use of this name, which
accident has bestowed upon me, than positively to invent one for
myself.'
Ellis, therefore, which appellation, now, will be substituted for that
of the Incognita, seeing no possibility of escaping this exhibition,
comforted herself, that, however repugnant it might be to her
inclinations and her sense of propriety, it gave her, at least, some
chance, during the remainder of her stay at Lewes, of being treated with
less indignity.