_LADY KNOLLYS SEES THE FEATURES_
Perhaps, if Madame had murmured, 'It is quite well--pray permit me to
sleep,' she would have escaped an awkwardness. But having adopted the rôle
of the exhausted slumberer, she could not consistently speak at the moment;
neither would it do by main force, to hold the coverlet about her face, and
so her presence of mind forsook her. Cousin Monica drew it back and hardly
beheld the profile of the sufferer, when her good-humoured face was lined
and shadowed with a dark curiosity and a surprise by no means pleasant. She
stood erect beside the bed, with her mouth firmly shut and drawn down at
the corners, in a sort of recoil and perturbation, looking down upon the
patient.
'So that's Madame de la Rougierre?' at length exclaimed Lady Knollys, with
a very stately disdain. I think I never saw anyone look more shocked.
Madame sat up, very flushed. No wonder, for she had been wrapped so close
in the coverlet. She did not look quite at Lady Knollys, but straight
before her, rather downward, and very luridly.
I was very much frightened and amazed, and felt on the point of bursting
into tears.
'So, Mademoiselle, you have married, it seems, since I had last the honour
of seeing you? I did not recognise Mademoiselle under her new name.'
'Yes--I _am_ married, Lady Knollys; I thought everyone who knew me had
heard of that. Very respectably married, for a person of my rank. I shall
not need long the life of a governess. There is no harm, I hope?'
'I hope not,' said Lady Knollys, drily, a little pale, and still looking
with a dark sort of wonder upon the flushed face and forehead of the
governess, who was looking downward, straight before her, very sulkily and
disconcerted.
'I suppose you have explained everything satisfactorily to Mr. Ruthyn, in
whose house I find you?' said Cousin Monica.
'Yes, certainly, everything he requires--in effect there is _nothing_ to
explain. I am ready to answer to any question. Let _him_ demand me.'
'Very good, Mademoiselle.'
'_Madame_, if you please.'
'I forgot--_Madame_--yes, I shall apprise him of everything.'
Madame turned upon her a peaked and malign look, smiling askance with a
stealthy scorn.
'For myself, I have nothing to conceal. I have always done my duty. What
fine scene about nothing absolutely--what charming remedies for a sick
person! Ma foi! how much oblige I am for these so amiable attentions!'
'So far as I can see, Mademoiselle--Madame, I mean--you don't stand very
much in need of remedies. Your ear and head don't seem to trouble you just
now. I fancy these pains may now be dismissed.'
Lady Knollys was now speaking French.
'Mi ladi has diverted my attention for a moment, but that does not prevent
that I suffer frightfully. I am, of course, only poor governess, and such
people perhaps ought not to have pain--at least to show when they suffer.
It is permitted us to die, but not to be sick.'
'Come, Maud, my dear, let us leave the invalid to her repose and to nature.
I don't think she needs my chloroform and opium at present.'
'Mi ladi is herself a physic which chases many things, and powerfully
affects the ear. I would wish to sleep, notwithstanding, and can but gain
that in silence, if it pleases mi ladi.'
'Come, my dear,' said Lady Knollys, without again glancing at the scowling,
smiling, swarthy face in the bed; 'let us leave your instructress to her
_concforto_.'
'The room smells all over of brandy, my dear--does she drink?' said Lady
Knollys, as she closed the door, a little sharply.
I am sure I looked as much amazed as I felt, at an imputation which then
seemed to me so entirely incredible.
'Good little simpleton!' said Cousin Monica, smiling in my face, and
bestowing a little kiss on my cheek; 'such a thing as a tipsy lady has
never been dreamt of in your philosophy. Well, we live and learn. Let us
have our tea in my room--the gentlemen, I dare say, have retired.'
I assented, of course, and we had tea very cosily by her bedroom fire.
'How long have you had that woman?' she asked suddenly, after, for her, a
very long rumination.
'She came in the beginning of February--nearly ten months ago--is not it?'
'And who sent her?'
'I really don't know; papa tells me so little--he arranged it all himself,
I think.'
Cousin Monica made a sound of acquiescence--her lips closed and a nod,
frowning hard at the bars.
'It _is_ very odd!' she said; 'how people _can_ be such fools!' Here there
came a little pause. 'And what sort of person is she--do you like her?'
'Very well--that is, _pretty_ well. You won't tell?--but she rather
frightens me. I'm sure she does not intend it, but somehow I am very much
afraid of her.'
'She does not beat you?' said Cousin Monica, with an incipient frenzy in
her face that made me love her.
'Oh no!'
'Nor ill-use you in any way?'
'No.'
'Upon your honour and word, Maud?'
'No, upon my honour.'
'You know I won't tell her anything you say to me; and I only want to know,
that I may put an end to it, my poor little cousin.'
'Thank you, Cousin Monica very much; but really and truly she does not
ill-use me.'
'Nor threaten you, child?'
'Well, _no_--no, she does not threaten.'
'And how the plague _does_ she frighten you, child?'
'Well, I really--I'm half ashamed to tell you--you'll laugh at me--and I
don't know that she wishes to frighten me. But there is something, is not
there, ghosty, you know, about her?'
'_Ghosty_--is there? well, I'm sure I don't know, but I suspect there's
something devilish--I mean, she seems roguish--does not she? And I really
think she has had neither cold nor pain, but has just been shamming
sickness, to keep out of my way.'
I perceived plainly enough that Cousin Monica's damnatory epithet referred
to some retrospective knowledge, which she was not going to disclose to me.
'You knew Madame before,' I said. 'Who is she?'
'She assures me she is Madame de la Rougierre, and, I suppose, in French
phrase she so calls herself,' answered Lady Knollys, with a laugh, but
uncomfortably, I thought.
'Oh, dear Cousin Monica, do tell me--is she--is she very wicked? I am so
afraid of her!'
'How should I know, dear Maud? But I do remember her face, and I don't very
much like her, and you may depend on it, I will speak to your father in the
morning about her, and don't, darling, ask me any more about her, for I
really have not very much to tell that you would care to hear, and the fact
is I _won't_ say any more about her--there!'
And Cousin Monica laughed, and gave me a little slap on the cheek, and then
a kiss.
'Well, just tell me this----'
'Well, I _won't_ tell you this, nor anything--not a word, curious little
woman. The fact is, I have little to tell, and I mean to speak to your
father, and he, I am sure, will do what is right; so don't ask me any more,
and let us talk of something pleasanter.'
There was something indescribably winning, it seemed to me, in Cousin
Monica. Old as she was, she seemed to me so girlish, compared with those
slow, unexceptionable young ladies whom I had met in my few visits at the
county houses. By this time my shyness was quite gone, and I was on the
most intimate terms with her.
'You know a great deal about her, Cousin Monica, but you won't tell me.'
'Nothing I should like better, if I were at liberty, little rogue; but you
know, after all, I don't really say whether I _do_ know anything about
her or not, or what sort of knowledge it is. But tell me what you mean by
ghosty, and all about it.'
So I recounted my experiences, to which, so far from laughing at me, she
listened with very special gravity.
'Does she write and receive many letters?'
I had seen her write letters, and supposed, though I could only recollect
one or two, that she received in proportion.
'Are _you_ Mary Quince?' asked my lady cousin.
Mary was arranging the window-curtains, and turned, dropping a courtesy
affirmatively toward her.
'You wait on my little cousin, Miss Ruthyn, don't you?'
'Yes, 'm,' said Mary, in her genteelest way.
'Does anyone sleep in her room?'
'Yes, 'm, _I_--please, my lady.'
'And no one else?'
'No, 'm--please, my lady.'
'Not even the _governess_, sometimes?
'No, please, my lady.'
'Never, you are quite sure, my dear?' said Lady Knollys, transferring the
question to me.
'Oh, no, never,' I answered.
Cousin Monica mused gravely, I fancied even anxiously, into the grate; then
stirred her tea and sipped it, still looking into the same point of our
cheery fire.
'I like your face, Mary Quince; I'm sure you are a good creature,' she
said, suddenly turning toward her with a pleasant countenance. 'I'm very
glad you have got her, dear. I wonder whether Austin has gone to his bed
yet!'
'I think not. I am certain he is either in the library or in his private
room--papa often reads or prays alone at night, and--and he does not like
to be interrupted.'
'No, no; of course not--it will do very well in the morning.'
Lady Knollys was thinking deeply, as it seemed to me.
'And so you are afraid of goblins, my dear,' she said at last, with a faded
sort of smile, turning toward me; 'well, if _I_ were, I know what _I_
should do--so soon as I, and good Mary Quince here, had got into my
bed-chamber for the night, I should stir the fire into a good blaze, and
bolt the door--do you see, Mary Quince?--bolt the door and keep a candle
lighted all night. You'll be very attentive to her, Mary Quince, for I--I
don't think she is very strong, and she must not grow nervous: so get to
bed early, and don't leave her alone--do you see?--and--and remember to
bolt the door, Mary Quince, and I shall be sending a little Christmas-box
to my cousin, and I shan't forget you. Good-night.'
And with a pleasant courtesy Mary fluttered out of the room.