Lady Aurora being now perfectly well, and the period of her visit at
Brighthelmstone nearly expired, Mrs Howel could not dispense with
repeating her dinner-invitation to Mrs Maple; and, three days previously
to the return of Lady Aurora to her uncle, it was accepted.
The whole Lewes party felt the most eager curiosity to see Ellis in her
new dwelling; but not trifling was the effort required by Mrs Maple to
preserve any self-command, when she witnessed the high style in which
that young person was treated throughout the house. Harleigh hastened to
make his compliments to her, with an air of pleasure that spoke
sympathising congratulation. Elinor was all eye, all scrutiny, but all
silence. Ireton assumed, perforce, a tone of respect; and Selina, with
such an example as Lady Aurora for her support, flew to embrace her
_protegee_; and to relate, amongst sundry other little histories, that
Mr Harleigh had been going back to town, only Aunt Maple had begged him
to stay, till something could be brought about with regard to his
brother Dennis, who was grown quite affronted at sister Elinor's long
delays.
Mrs Maple, almost the whole dinner-time, had the mortification to hear,
echoing from the sister to the brother, and re-echoed from Mrs Howel,
the praises of Miss Ellis; how delightfully the retirement of Lady
Aurora had passed in her society; the sweetness of her disposition, the
variety of her powers, and her amiable activity in seeking to make them
useful. Not daring to dissent, Mrs Maple, with forced smiles, gave a
tacit concurrence; while the bright glow that animated the complexion,
and every feature, of Harleigh, spoke that unequivocal approbation which
comes warm from the heart.
Elinor, whose eyes constantly followed his, seemed sick during the whole
repast, of which she scarcely at all partook. If Ellis offered to serve
her, or enquired after her health, she darted at her an eye so piercing,
that Ellis, shrinking and alarmed, determined to address her no more;
though again, when any opportunity presented itself, for shewing some
attention, the resolution was involuntarily set aside; but always with
equal ill success, every attempt to soften, exciting looks the most
terrific.
Lady Aurora surprised one of these glances, and saw its chilling effect.
Astonished, at once, and grieved, she felt an impulse to rise, and to
protect from such another shock her new and tenderly admired favourite.
She now easily conceived why kindness was so touching to her; yet how
any angry sensation could find its way in the breast of Miss Joddrel, or
of any human being, against such sweetness and such excellence, her
gentle mind, free from every feeling of envy, jealousy, or wrath, could
form no conjecture. She sighed to withdraw her from a house where her
merits were so ill appreciated; and could hardly persuade herself to
speak to any one else at the table, from the eagerness with which she
desired to dispel the gloom produced by Elinor's cloudy brow.
The looks of Elinor had struck Mrs Howel also; but not with similar
compassion for their object; it was with alarm for herself. A sudden,
though vague idea, seized her, to the disadvantage of Ellis. With all
her accomplishments, all her elegance, was she, at last, but a
dependent? Might she be smiled or frowned upon at will? And had she
herself admitted into her house, upon equal terms, a person of such a
description?
Doubt soon gives birth to suspicion, and suspicion is the mother of
surmise. It was now strange that she should have been told nothing of
the family and condition of Miss Ellis; there must be some reason for
silence; and the reason could not be a good one.
Yet, was it possible that Mrs Maple could have been negligent upon such
a subject? Mrs Maple who, far from being dangerously facile, in forming
any connexion, was proud, was even censorious about every person that
she knew or saw?
Mrs Howel now examined the behaviour of Mrs Maple herself to Ellis; and
this scrutiny soon shewed her its entire constraint; the distance which
she observed when not forced to notice her; the unwilling civility,
where any attention was indispensable.
Something must certainly be wrong; and she determined, in the course of
the evening, to find an opportunity for minutely, nay rigorously,
questioning Mrs Maple. Ellis, meanwhile, fearing no one but Elinor, and
watching no one but Lady Aurora, found sufficient occupation in the
alternate panic and consolation thus occasioned; or if any chasm
occurred, Lord Melbury with warm assiduities, and Harleigh with delicate
attentions, were always at hand to fill it up.
When, early in the evening, that the horses might rest, the carriage of
Mrs Maple arrived, the groom sent in a letter, which, he said, had just
been brought to Lewes, according to order, by a messenger from the
Brighthelmstone post-office. Ellis precipitately arose; but Mrs Maple
held out her hand to take it; though, upon perceiving the direction,
"For L.S., to be left at the post-office at Brighthelmstone till called
for," fearing that Mrs Howel, who sat next to her, should perceive it
also, she hastily said, 'It is not for me; let the man take it back
again;' and, turning the seal upwards, re-delivered it to the servant;
anxious to avoid exhibiting an address, which might lead to a discovery
that she now deemed personally ignominious.
Ellis, at this order, re-seated herself, not daring to make a public
claim, but resolving to follow the footman out, and to desire to look at
the direction of the letter. Elinor, however, stopping him, took it
herself, and, after a slight glance, threw it upon a table, saying,
'Leave it for who will to own it.'
Ellis, changing colour, again arose; and would have seized it for
examination, had not Ireton, who was nearer to the table, taken it up,
and read, aloud, "For L.S." Again Ellis dropt upon her chair, distressed
and perplexed, between eagerness to receive her letter, and shame and
fear at acknowledging so mysterious a direction.
Her dread of the consequence of disobeying Mrs Maple, had made her,
hitherto, defer relating her situation with regard to that lady; and she
had always flattered herself, that the longer it was postponed, the
greater would be her chance of inspiring such an interest as might cause
an indulgent hearing.
Harleigh now took the letter himself, and, calmly saying that he would
see it safely delivered, put it into his pocket.
Ellis, thus relieved from making an abrupt and unseasonable avowal, yet
sure that her letter was in honourable custody, with difficulty
refrained from thanking him. Lord Melbury and Mrs Howel thought there
was something odd and unintelligible in the business, but forbore any
enquiry; Lady Aurora, observing distress in her amiable Miss Ellis, felt
it herself; but revived with her revival; and the rest of the company,
though better informed, were compulsatorily silenced by the frowns of
Mrs Maple.
Harleigh then, asking for a pen and some ink to write a letter, left the
room. Ellis, tortured with impatience, and hoping to meet with him, soon
followed. She was not mistaken: he had seated himself to write in an
ante-room, which she must necessarily cross if she mounted to her
chamber.
He softly arose, put the letter into her hand, bowed, and returned to
his chair without speaking. She felt his delicacy as strongly as his
kindness, but, breathless with eagerness, observed the silence of which
he set the example, and, thanking him only by her looks, flew up stairs.
She was long absent, and, when she descended, it was with steps so slow,
and with an air so altered, that Harleigh, who was still writing in the
room through which she had to pass, saw instantly that her letter had
brought disappointment and sorrow.
He had not, now, the same self-command as while he had hoped and thought
that she was prosperous. He approached her, and, with a face of deep
concern, enquired if there were any thing, of any sort, in which he
could have the happiness to be of use to her? He stopt; but she felt his
right to a curiosity which he did not avow, and immediately answered:
'My letter brings me no consolation! on the contrary, it tells me that I
must depend wholly upon myself, and expect no kind of aid, nor even any
intelligence again, perhaps for a considerable time!'
'Is that possible?' cried he, 'Does no one follow--or is no one to meet
you?--Is there no one whose duty it is to guard and protect you? to draw
you from a situation thus precarious, thus unfitting, and to which I am
convinced you are wholly unaccustomed?'
'It is fatally true, at this moment,' answered Ellis, with a sigh, 'that
no one can follow or support me; yet I am not deserted--I am simply
unfortunate. Neither can any one here meet me: the few to whom I have
any right to apply, know not of my arrival--and must not know it!--How I
am to exist till I dare make some claim, I cannot yet devise: but,
indeed, had it not been under this kind, protecting roof, that I have
received such a letter--I think I must have sunk from my own
dismay:--but Lady Aurora--' Her voice failed, and she stopt.
'Lady Aurora,' cried Harleigh, 'is an angel. Her quick appreciation of
your worth, shews her understanding to be as good as her soul is pure. I
can wish you no better protection.--But pardon me, if I venture again to
repeat my surprise--I had almost said my indignation--that those to whom
you belong, can deem it right--safe--or decent, to commit you--young as
you are, full of attractions, and evidently unused to struggle against
the dangers of the world, and the hardships of life,--to commit you to
strangers--to chance!--'
'I know not how,' she cried, 'to leave you under so false an impression
of those to whom I belong. They are not to blame. They are more unhappy
than I am myself at my loneliness and its mystery: and for my poverty
and my difficulties, they are far, far from suspecting them! They are
ignorant of my loss at Dover, and they cannot suppose that I have missed
the friend whom I came over to join.'
'Honour me,' cried he, 'with a commission, and I will engage to
discover, at least, whether that friend be yet at Brighthelmstone.'
'And without naming for whom you seek her?' cried Ellis, her eyes
brightening with sudden hope.
'Naming?' repeated he, with an arch smile.
She blushed, deeply, in recollecting herself; but, seized with a sudden
dread of Elinor, drew back from her inadvertent acceptance; and, though
warmly thanking him, declined his services; adding that, by waiting at
Brighthelmstone, she must, ultimately, meet her friend, since all her
letters and directions were for that spot.
Harleigh was palpably disappointed; and Ellis, hurt herself, opened her
letter, to lessen, she told him, his wonder, perhaps censure, of her
secresy, by reading to him its injunction. This was the sentence: 'Seek,
then, unnamed and unknown, during this dread interval of separation, to
reside with some worthy and happy family, whose social felicity may
bring, at least, reflected happiness to your own breast.'
'That family,' she added, 'I flatter myself I have found here! for this
house, from the uniform politeness of Mrs Howel, the ingenuous goodness
of Lord Melbury, and the angelic sweetness of his sister, has been to me
an earthly paradise.'
She then proceeded, without waiting to receive his thanks for this
communication; which he seemed hardly to know how to offer, from the
fulness of his thoughts, his varying conjectures, his conviction that
her friends, like herself, were educated, feeling, and elegant; and his
increased wonder at the whole of her position. Charming, charming
creature! he cried, what can have cast thee into this forlorn condition?
And by what means--and by whom--art thou to be rescued?
Not chusing immediately to follow, he seated himself again to his pen.
Somewhat recovered by this conversation, Ellis, now, was able to command
an air of tolerable composure, for re-entering the drawing-room, where
she resolved to seek Elinor at once, and endeavour to deprecate her
displeasure, by openly repeating to her all that she had entrusted to Mr
Harleigh.
As she approached the door, every voice seemed employed in eager talk;
and, as she opened it, she observed earnest separate parties formed
round the room; but the moment that she appeared, every one broke off
abruptly from what he or she was saying, and a completely dead silence
ensued.
Surprized by so sudden a pause, she seated herself on the first chair
that was vacant, while she looked around her, to see whom she could most
readily join. Mrs Howel and Mrs Maple had been, evidently, in the
closest discourse, but now both fixed their eyes upon the ground, as if
agreeing, at once, to say no more. Ireton was chatting, with lively
volubility, to Lord Melbury, who attended to him with an air that seemed
scared rather than curious; but neither of them now added another word.
Elinor stood sullenly alone, leaning against the chimney-piece, with her
eyes fastened upon the door, as if watching for its opening: but not all
the previous resolution of Ellis, could inspire courage sufficient to
address her, after viewing the increased sternness of her countenance.
Selina was prattling busily to Lady Aurora; and Lady Aurora, who sat
nearly behind her, and whom Ellis perceived the last, was listening in
silence, and bathed in tears.
Terror and affliction seized upon Ellis at this sight. Her first impulse
was to fly to Lady Aurora; but she felt discouraged, and even awed, by
the strangeness of the general taciturnity, occasioned by her
appearance. Her eyes next, anxiously, sought those of Lord Melbury, and
instantly met them; but with a look of gravity so unusual, that her own
were hastily withdrawn, and fixt, disappointed, upon the ground. Nor did
he, as hitherto had been his constant custom, when he saw her
disengaged, come to sit by her side. No one spoke; no one seemed to know
how to begin a general or common conversation; no one could find a word
to say.
What, cried she, to herself, can have happened? What can have been said
or done, in this short absence, to make my sight thus petrifying? Have
they told what they know of my circumstances? And has that been
sufficient to deprive me of all consideration? to require even
avoidance? And is Lord Melbury thus easily changed? And have I lost
you--even you! Lady Aurora?
This last thought drew from her so deep a sigh, that, in the general
silence which prevailed, it reached every ear. Lady Aurora started, and
looked up; and, at the view of her evident dejection, hastily arose, and
was crossing the room to join her; when Mrs Howel, rising too, came
between them, and taking herself the hand which Lady Aurora had extended
for that of Ellis, led Her Ladyship to a seat on a sofa, where, in the
lowest voice, she apparently addressed to her some remonstrance.
Ellis, who had risen to meet the evident approach of Lady Aurora, now
stood suspended, and with an air so embarrassed, so perturbed, that Lord
Melbury, touched by irresistible compassion, came forward, and would
have handed her to a chair near the fire; but her heart, after so sudden
an appearance of general estrangement, was too full for this mark of
instinctive, not intentional kindness, and courtsying the thanks which
she could not utter, she precipitately left the room.
She met Harleigh preparing to enter it, but passed him with too quick a
motion to be stopt, and hurried to her chamber.
There her disturbance, as potent from positive distress, as it was
poignant from mental disappointment, would nearly have amounted to
despair, but for the visibly intended support of Lady Aurora; and for
the view of that kind hand, which, though Mrs Howel had impeded her
receiving, she could not prevent her having seen stretched out for her
comfort. The attention, too, of Lord Melbury, though its tardiness ill
accorded with his hitherto warm demonstrations of respect and kindness,
shewed that those feelings were not alienated, however they might be
shaken.
These two ideas were all that now sustained her, till, in about an hour,
she was followed by Selina, who came to express her concern, and to
relate what had passed.
Ellis then heard, that the moment that she had left the room, Mrs Howel,
almost categorically, though with many formal apologies, demanded some
information of Mrs Maple, what account should be given to Lord Denmeath,
of the family and condition in life, of the young lady introduced, by
Mrs Maple, into the society of Lady Aurora Granville, as Her Ladyship
proposed intimately keeping up the acquaintance. Mrs Maple had appeared
to be thunderstruck, and tried every species of equivocation; but Mr
Ireton whispered something to Lord Melbury, upon which a general
curiosity was raised; and Mr Ireton's laughs kept up the enquiry, 'till,
bit by bit,' continued Selina, 'all came out, and you never saw such a
fuss in your life! But when Mrs Howel found that Aunt Maple did not take
you in charge from your friends, because she did not know them; and when
Mr Ireton told of your patches, and black skin, and ragged dress, Mrs
Howel stared so at poor aunt, that I believe she thought that she had
been out of her senses. And then, poor Lady Aurora fell a-crying,
because Mrs Howel said that she must break off the connexion. But Lady
Aurora said that you might be just as good as ever, and only disguised
to make your escape; but Mrs Howel said, that, now you were got over, if
there were not something bad, you would speak out. So then poor Lady
Aurora cried again, and beckoned to me to come and tell her more
particulars. Sister Elinor, all the time, never spoke one word. And this
is what we were all doing when you came in.'
Ellis, who, with pale cheeks, but without comment, had listened to this
recital, now faintly enquired what had passed after she had retired.
'Why, just then, in came Mr Harleigh, and Aunt Maple gave him a hundred
reproaches, for beginning all the mischief, by his obstinacy in bringing
you into the boat, against the will of every creature, except just the
old Admiral, who knew nothing of the world, and could judge no better.
He looked quite thunderstruck, not knowing a word of what had passed.
However, he soon enough saw that all was found out; for Mrs Howel said,
'I hope, Sir, you will advise us, how to get rid of this person, without
letting the servants know the indiscretion we have been drawn into, by
treating her like one of ourselves.'
'Well? and Mr Harleigh's answer?--' cried the trembling Ellis.
'Miss Joddrel, Madam, he said, knows as well as myself, all the
circumstances which have softened this mystery, and rendered this young
lady interesting in its defiance. She has generously, therefore, held
out her protection; of which the young lady has shown herself to be
worthy, upon every occasion, since we have known her, by rectitude and
dignity: yet she is, at this time, without friends, support, or asylum:
in such a situation, thus young and helpless, and thus irreproachably
conducting herself, who is the female--what is her age, what her rank,
that ought not to assist and try to preserve so distressed a young
person from evil? Lady Aurora, upon this, came forward, and said, "How
happy you make me, Mr Harleigh, by thus reconciling me to my wishes!"
And then she told Mrs Howel that, as the affair no longer appeared to be
so desperate, she hoped that there could be no objection to her coming
up stairs, to invite you down herself. But Mrs Howel would not consent.'
'Sweet! sweet Lady Aurora!' broke forth from Ellis; 'And Lord Melbury?
what said he?'
'Nothing; for he and Mr Ireton left the room together, to go on with
their whispers, I believe. And Elinor was just like a person dumb. But
Lady Aurora and Mr Harleigh had a great deal of talk with one another,
and they both seemed so pleased, that I could not help thinking, how
droll it would be if their agreeing so about you should make them marry
one another.'
'Then indeed would two beings meet,' said Ellis, 'who would render that
state all that can be perfect upon earth; for with active benevolence
like his, with purity and sweetness like hers, what could be
wanting?--And then, indeed, I might find an asylum!'
A servant came, now, to inform Selina that the carriage was at the door,
and that Mrs Maple was in haste.
What a change did this day produce for Ellis! What a blight to her
hopes, what difficulties for her conduct, what agitation for her
spirits!