Time passed on and Christmas came at last. By that time Hyacinth had
grown accustomed to her new home. Dr. Chalmers had been to see her, and
had professed himself delighted with the change in her appearance. She
did not regain all of her lost happiness, but she did regain some of her
lost health and strength. Though she had not a single hope left, and did
not value her life, the color slowly returned to her face and the light
to her eyes. The fresh sea-breeze, the regular daily exercise, the quiet
life, all tended to her improvement. She did not seem the same girl when
Christmas, with its snow and holly, came round.
Hyacinth found wonderful comfort in the constant childish prattle and
numerous questions of little Clara; the regular routine of studies took
her thoughts in some measure from herself. She was obliged to rouse
herself; she could not brood over her sorrows to the exclusion of
everything else. She had thought her heart dead to all love, and yet at
Hulme Abbey she had learned to love two things with a passion of
affection--one was her little pupil; the other, the broad, open,
restless sea. How long her present mode of life was to last she did not
know--she had not asked herself; some day or other she supposed it would
end, and then she must go somewhere else to work. But it was certain she
would have to work on in quiet hiding till she died. It was not a very
cheerful prospect, but she had learned to look at it with resignation
and patience.
"The end will come some day," she thought; "and perhaps in a better
world I shall see Adrian again."
Adrian--he was still her only thought. When she was sitting at times, by
the sea-shore, with the child playing on the sands, she would utter his
name aloud for the sake of hearing its music.
"Adrian," she would say; and a light that was wonderful to see would
come over the lovely face. "Adrian," the winds and waves would seem to
re-echo; and she would bend forward, the better, as she thought, to hear
the music of the name.
"Mamma," said Veronica to Lady Dartelle one day, "I think you have done
a very foolish thing."
"What is that, my dear?" asked the lady, quite accustomed to her
daughter's free criticism.
"Why, to bring that girl here. Do you not see that she is growing
exceedingly beautiful? You do not give her enough to do."
"I quite agree with Veronica, mamma," put in Mildred; "you have let your
usual judgment sleep." Lady Dartelle looked up in astonishment.
"I assure you, my dears, that when I saw her first she did not look even
moderately pretty."
"She has very much altered then," said Veronica. "When she came in with
Clara yesterday, I was quite astonished. I have never seen a color half
so lovely on any face before."
"I hope," observed Mildred, "that you will keep to your resolution, and
not allow her to appear when we have visitors. You know how Aubrey
admires a pretty face. Remembering how many plain women there are in the
world, and how few pretty ones, it seems odd that you did not bring a
plain one here."
A slight expression of alarm came over Lady Dartelle's face.
"If you think there is any danger of that kind," she said, "I will send
her away at once. But I am of opinion that you exaggerate her good
looks. I see nothing so very noticeable about the girl. And you know I
shall never be able to secure another governess so thoroughly
accomplished on the same terms; that, of course, is a consideration."
"You can please yourself, mamma," returned Veronica. "But I warn you
that, if you are not very careful, you will most bitterly repent having
a girl of that kind about the place when Aubrey comes home. You may do
your best to keep her out of the way; but, depend upon it, she will
contrive to be seen. Where there's a will there's a way."
"I think you are alarming yourself unnecessarily, my dear Veronica,"
said Lady Dartelle.
"Am I, mamma? Then judge for yourself. I see the gleam of Clara's
scarlet cloak through the trees--they are just returning. Send for Miss
Holte; ask her some trifling question; and when she is gone tell me if
you have ever seen a more beautiful face."
Lady Dartelle complied with her daughter's request and in a few minutes
"Miss Holte" and her little pupil entered the room. Lady Dartelle asked
Hyacinth some unimportant question, looking earnestly as she did so at
the lovely face. She owned to herself that she had had no idea how
perfectly beautiful it was; the faintest and most exquisite bloom
mantled it, the sweet eyes were bright, the lips like crimson flowers.
"She must have been ill when I engaged her," thought her ladyship--"I
will ask her." Smiling most graciously, she said: "You are looking much
better, Miss Holte; the air of Hulme seems to agree with you. Had you
been ill when I saw you first?"
The beautiful face flushed, and then grew pale. The young ladies looking
on were quick to note it. "Yes," she replied, quietly, "I had been very
ill for some weeks."
"Indeed! I am glad to see you so fully restored;" and then a gracious
bow intimated to "Miss Holte" that the interview was at an end.
"There, mamma," cried Mildred; "you see that we are perfectly right. You
must acknowledge that you have never seen any one more lovely."
Lady Dartelle looked slightly bewildered.
"To tell the truth, my dears," she said, "I have hardly noticed the
young girl lately. All that I can say is that I did not observe
anything so very pretty about her when I engaged her. I thought her very
pleasant-looking and graceful, but not beautiful."
"I hope she is what she is represented," remarked Mildred; "but Mary
King says that she has all the ways of a grand lady, and that she does
not understand what I should have imagined every governess to be
familiar with."
"My dear Mildred, you are saying too much. She is highly respectable--a
ward or _protégée_ of Mrs. Chalmers--the doctor would never have named
her to me if she had not been all that was irreproachable."
"We will hope for the best; but I advise you again, mamma, to keep her
out of sight when our visitors come."
Lady Dartelle smiled calmly--of the success of anything that she
undertook that far-seeing lady never doubted. It was the end of January
when Lady Dartelle received a letter from her son.
"Here is good news, my dear children," she said, smiling. "Your brother
is coming; and he brings with him Lord Chandon and Major Elton. We shall
have a very pleasant time, I foresee."