If Mother Goodhugh had stood by while it was done, Janet the weak would
have taken the decoction placed in her hands; but, foolish as the girl
was, she had her share of cunning.
"If I give it to her and it does make her love turn to hatred, he must
turn to me; and, if after all she cares more for Captain Carr, why even
then it may turn right for me. Does the old thing think I'd take the
stuff? Clever as she be, others be clever too. But how shall I give it
to her?"
Janet took the little flask out of her bosom, which was her hiding-place
for particular things--ribbons, scraps of lace, a scent-bottle
wonderfully like one of Mace's--and looked at it attentively.
"A little every day," she said; and the next morning she poured a
portion into a jug that stood for drinking purposes in her mistress's
room.
That afternoon Mace went up to her bedroom with a bunch of flowers from
the garden, which she placed in a shallow basin, and the contents of the
jug were used to keep them alive!
The same evening, finding the jug empty, Janet refilled it, and again
poured in a little of the contents of the flask.
She had just completed her task when she heard Mace's step upon the
stairs, and in her haste to replace the stopper of the flask she let it
fall upon the floor, where it broke; and she had only time to throw the
broken glass out of the window, and drag a piece of carpet over the
stain on the floor, before her mistress entered the room.
Janet escaped as soon as possible and sought refuge in the kitchen, from
whence she stole round to the garden and picked up the broken bottle,
then ran back, throwing the pieces into the water-race as she hurried
along.
"I dare say she will have taken enough," she said to herself, "and, if
she has not, I'll try no more. I hate myself for doing it. Poor girl,
she looks more as if she was going to be buried than married."
In fact, Janet's heart was not very deeply touched, and she would have
been ready to hand over her young affections to anybody a little more
eligible than Master Wat Kilby, who was rather too old for her taste.
During these busy days, too, there was so much to take her attention,
for she had all a girl's love and excitement in an approaching wedding.
First and foremost there came a present to her from Sir Mark in the
shape of what was to her a most handsome dress.
"That's for thee, pretty Janet," he said; "and when we come back from
our wedding jaunt I'll bring thee a handsome husband as sure as I live.
One kiss for it," he said; and he took it, and another and another. How
many dozens he would have taken it is impossible to say, only the
founder's step was heard, and Janet fled with her dress by another way.
"The spell be working somehow," she said to herself joyously. "May be
he will turn her over yet, and marry me himself."
She hurried up to her room to inspect her gown-piece, and smooth her
ruffled hair.
"Oh, these men, how wicked they be!" she cried half-petulantly, as she
gazed at her flushed cheeks in a damp-stained mirror.
"I be handsomer than mistress pale-face down stairs," she cried, giving
her head a toss. "Fie on her! why does she not go and wed with Captain
Culverin, and leave me Sir Mark."
The gown-piece again took her attention, and she folded it in pleats and
tucks, and draped herself in it, ending by doubling it over and over,
and laying it flat beneath her bed.
"I'll go see her presents now," she said; and she descended to Mace's
room to find the jug untouched.
"Perhaps shell never wear these gauds after all," muttered Janet, as she
went to the dressing-table and examined the presents Sir Mark had
brought, rich jewels some of them, with laces and ribbons enough for a
dozen weddings; but the white satin dress hanging across a chair was the
great attraction for Janet, with its puckers and folds, and great
stomacher dotted with pearls.
"It be brave!" she cried, as she went down upon her knees to gaze at it,
and lay portions of the skirt across her arm, or feel its softness
against her cheek.
And so the time glided on till the eve of the wedding, when, pale and
dark of eye with want of sleep, Mace felt that the excitement was more
than she could bear.
It was very terrible, she told herself, and again and again she asked
her conscience whether she was doing wisely in listening to Gil's
prayers. It was an act of disobedience to her father, whom she dearly
loved, and yet she felt that she clung to her lover more. But even now
she would, in obedience to her father's wishes, have refused Gil and
remained unwed. To be forced, though, to become the wife of one whom
she utterly detested she felt was impossible, and she knew that she must
go.
She had no one to counsel, none to take her part; and she knelt down and
sobbed bitterly as she thought of the mother who had been taken away so
long ago.
Then rising from her knees, quite calm and peaceful at heart, she sat
down in her sweet-scented old chamber waiting, for she told herself it
was inevitable, and that time would soften her father's anger, and all
be happiness once more.
"He feels it is for my welfare," she said, "but he does not know poor
Gil."
The whispered mention of Gil's name sent a thrill through her, and, with
a smile of hope and love upon her worn, pale face, she sat dreaming of
him, and mentally praying that no mishap might accompany their flight.
At last, feeling flushed and hot, she drank from the jug of water which
Janet had left unchanged.
There was a peculiar taste in it, but her thoughts were too much
occupied to pay much attention, and, taking her seat by the window, she
sat, watching the darkness coming on of this the last day in her old
home.
How the old happy hours of the past came back to torture her with their
recollections; and now she told herself it would have been better that
she should have died young, in peace and innocency, ere she knew the
bitter heart-grievings of the present. For in these last hours her
breast was racked by contending emotions; the love of parent fought hard
with the stronger, more engrossing love of the maiden for the man of her
choice, but the latter won.
Agitated as she was, it seemed to her that she grew feverish and
thirsty--a thirst she turned to the water-vessel more than once to
assuage, but without effect; and at last, with a curious, excited
sensation upon her, mingled with weariness, she went to the glass to
find that her checks were flushed, and that there was a strange dilated
look about her eyes, whose unusual lustre startled her.
"I have had too little sleep lately," she said, with a sad smile, as she
thought of the long, restless nights she had passed; and at last she
threw herself upon the bed, and closed her eyes, just as a tap was heard
upon the panel of the door.
"Come in, Janet," she said, as she unclosed her eyes to gaze round at
the confusion that reigned with half-packed garments, and upon a couch
her wedding-dress, facing her like the flaccid shade of herself lying
upon a bier.
There was something very weird in that dress, and it seemed to influence
her with thoughts of death which made her shudder.
"I be come to try on the wedding robe again, mistress," said Janet. "I
did alter those strings and that fastening, and now it will fit you
well."
"That's kind of you, Janet," said Mace, drowsily. "Thank you for all
you have done. You will think kindly of me when I am gone?"
"Why, of course, mistress. But, there, dear heart alive, don't talk
like that. Why it be as if you was going to be buried. La! You ought
to be as blithe as blithe."
"Should you be, Janet?" said Mace. "Oh, my head--my head, it burns--it
burns!"
"La, mistress, yes; as joyous as a bird to wed with so handsome and
courtly a man. Art ill, mistress?"
"Sleepy, Janet, sleepy."
"There, then, let's get on the dress, and see how you look, and then you
shall have a long sleep, and I'll see that no one disturbs you."
"No, no," said Mace, hoarsely. "I must not sleep, child--I will not
sleep. Try on the dress and go away. I shall sit by the open window."
"La, mistress, thou'lt get the ager-shakes that come off the Pool. I
wouldn't sit by the open window to-night. Come, get up, dear, and let
me take off your gown. I'll unlace it, and now we'll have on the
beautiful white robe. Lovely, lovely!"