AN ANXIOUS CRITIC.
In a few days after the arrival of Madame di Forno-Populo, there was
almost an entire change of aspect at the Hall. Nobody could tell how
this change had come about. It was involuntary, unconscious, yet
complete. The Contessa came quietly into the foreground. She made no
demonstration of power, and claimed no sort of authority. She never
accosted the mistress of the house without tender words and caresses.
Her attitude towards Lucy, indeed, was that of an admiring relation to a
delightful and promising child. She could not sufficiently praise and
applaud her. When she spoke, her visitor turned towards her with the
most tender of smiles. In whatsoever way the Contessa was occupied, she
never failed when she heard Lucy's voice to turn round upon her, to
bestow this smile, to murmur a word of affectionate approval. When they
were near enough to each other, she would take her hand and press it
with affectionate emotion. The other members of the household, except
Sir Tom, she scarcely noticed at all. The Dowager Lady Randolph
exchanged with her now and then a few words of polite defiance, but that
was all. And she had not been long at the Hall before her position there
was more commanding than that of Lady Randolph. Insensibly all the
customs of the house changed for her. There was no question as to who
was the centre of conversation in the evening. Sir Tom went to the sofa
from which she had so cleverly ousted his aunt, as soon as he came in
after dinner, and leaning over her with his arm on the mantelpiece, or
drawing a chair beside her, would laugh and talk with endless spirit and
amusement. When he talked of the people in the neighbourhood who
afforded scope for satire, she would tap him with her fan and say, "Why
do I not see these originals? bring them to see me," to Lucy's wonder
and often dismay. "They would not amuse you at all," Sir Tom would
reply, upon which the lady would turn and call Lucy to her. "My little
angel! he pretends that it is he that is so clever, that he creates
these characters. We do not believe him, my Lucy, do we? Ask them, ask
them, _cara_, then we shall judge."
In this way the house was filled evening after evening. A reign of
boundless hospitality seemed to have begun. The other affairs of the
house slipped aside, and to provide amusement for the Contessa became
the chief object of life. She had everybody brought to see her, from the
little magnates of Farafield to the Duchess herself, and the greatest
people in the county. The nursery, which had been so much, perhaps too
much, in the foreground, regulating the whole great household according
as little Tom was better or worse, was thrust altogether into the
shadow. If neglect was wholesome, then he had that advantage. Even his
mother could do no more than run furtively to him, as she did about a
hundred times a day in the intervals of her duties. His little mendings
and fallings back ceased to be the chief things in the house. His
father, indeed, would play with his child in the mornings when he was
brought to Lucy's room; but the burden of his remarks was to point out
to her how much better the little beggar got on when there was less fuss
made about him. And Lucy's one grievance against her visitor, the only
one which she permitted herself to perceive, was that she never took any
notice of little Tom. She never asked for him, a thing which was
unexampled in Lucy's experience. When he was produced she smiled,
indeed, but contemplated him at a distance. The utmost stretch of
kindness she had ever shown was to touch his cheek with a finger
delicately when he was carried past her. Lucy made theories in her mind
about this, feeling it necessary to account in some elaborate way for
what was so entirely out of nature. "I know what it must be--she must
have lost her own," she said to her husband. Sir Tom's countenance was
almost convulsed by one of those laughs, which he now found it expedient
to suppress, but he only replied that he had never heard of such an
event. "Ah! it must have been before you knew her; but she has never got
it out of her mind," Lucy cried. That hypothesis explained everything.
At this time it is scarcely necessary to say Lucy was with her whole
soul trying to be "very fond," as she expressed it, of the Contessa.
There were some things about her which startled young Lady Randolph. For
one thing, she would go out shooting with Sir Tom, and was as good a
shot as any of the gentlemen. This wounded Lucy terribly, and took her a
great effort to swallow. It went against all her traditions. With her
bourgeois education she hated sport, and even in her husband with
difficulty made up her mind to it; but that a woman should go forth and
slay was intolerable.
There were other things besides which were a mystery to her. Lady
Randolph's invariably defiant attitude for one, and the curious aspect
of the Duchess when suddenly brought face to face with the stranger. It
appeared that they were old friends, which astonished Lucy, but not so
much as the great lady's bewildered look when Madame di Forno-Populo
went up to her. It seemed for a moment as if the shock was too much for
her. She stammered and shook through all her dignity and greatness, as
she exclaimed. "_You_! here?" in two distinct outcries, gazing appalled
into the smiling and beautiful face before her. But then the Duchess
came to, after a while. She seemed to get over her surprise, which was
more than surprise. All these things disturbed Lucy. She did not know
what to make of them. She was uneasy at the change that had been
wrought upon her own household, which she did not understand. Yet it was
all perfectly simple, she said to herself. It was Tom's duty to devote
himself to the stranger. It was the duty of both as hosts to procure for
her such amusement as was to be found. These were things of which Lucy
convinced herself by various half unconscious processes of argument. But
it was necessary to renew these arguments from time to time, to keep
possession of them in order to feel their force as she wished to do. She
said nothing to her husband on the subject, with an instinctive sense
that it would be very difficult to handle. And Sir Tom, too, avoided it.
But it was impossible to pursue the same reticence with Lady Randolph,
who now and then insisted on opening it up. When the end of her visit
arrived she sent for Lucy into her own room, to speak to her seriously.
She said--
"My dear, I am due to-morrow at the Maltravers', as you know. It is a
visit I like to pay, they are always so nice; but I cannot bear the
thought of going off, Lucy, to enjoy myself and leaving you alone."
"Alone, Aunt Randolph!" cried Lucy, "when Tom is at home!"
"Oh, Tom! I have no patience with Tom," cried the Dowager. "I think he
must be mad to let that woman come upon you so. Of course you know very
well, my dear, it is of her that I want to speak. In the country it does
not so much matter; but you must not let her identify herself with you,
Lucy, in town."
"In town!" Lucy said with a little dismay; "but, dear Aunt Randolph, it
will be six weeks before we go to town; and, surely, long before
that----" She paused, and blushed with a sense of the inhospitality
involved in her words, which made Lucy ashamed of herself.
"You think so?" said Lady Randolph, smiling somewhat grimly. "Well, we
shall see. For my part, I think she will find Park Lane a very desirable
situation, and if you do not take the greatest care---- But why should I
speak to you of taking care? Of course, if Tom wished it, you would take
in all Bohemia, and never say a word----"
"Surely," said Lucy, looking with serene eyes in the elder lady's face,
"I do not know what you mean by Bohemia, Aunt Randolph; but if you think
it possible that I should object when Tom asks his friends----"
"Oh--his friends! I have no patience with you, either the one or the
other," said the old lady. "When Sir Robert was living, do you think it
was he who invited _my_ guests? I should think not indeed! especially
the women. If that was to be the case, marriage would soon become an
impossibility. And is it possible, Lucy, is it possible that you, with
your good sense, can like all that petting and coaxing, and the way she
talks to you as if you were a child?"
As a matter of fact Lucy had not been able to school herself into liking
it; but when the objection was stated so plainly, she coloured high with
a vexation and annoyance which were very grievous and hard to bear. It
seemed to her that it would be disloyal both to her husband and her
guest if she complained, and at the same time Lady Randolph's shot went
straight to the mark. She did her best to smile, but it was not a very
easy task.
"You have always taught me, Aunt Randolph," she said with great
astuteness, "that I ought not to judge of the manners of strangers by
my own little rules--especially of foreigners," she added, with a sense
of her own cleverness which half comforted her amid other feelings not
agreeable. It was seldom that Lucy felt any sense of triumph in her own
powers.
"Foreigners?" said Lady Randolph, with disdain. But then she stopped
short with a pause of indignation. "That woman," she said, which was the
only name she ever gave the visitor, "has some scheme in her head you
may be sure. I do not know what it is. It would not do her any good that
I can see to increase her hold upon Tom."
"Upon Tom!" cried Lucy. It was her turn now to be indignant. "I don't
know what you mean, Aunt Randolph," she said. "I cannot think that you
want to make me--uncomfortable. There are some things I do not like in
Madame di Forno-Populo. She is--different; but she is my husband's
friend. If you mean that they will become still greater friends seeing
more of each other, that is natural. For why should you be friends at
all unless you like each other? And that Tom likes her must be just a
proof that I am wrong. It is my ignorance. Perhaps the wisest way would
be to say nothing more about it," young Lady Randolph concluded,
briskly, with a sudden smile.
The Dowager looked at her as if she were some wonder in natural history,
the nature of which it was impossible to divine. She thought she knew
Lucy very well, but yet had never understood her, it being more
difficult for a woman of the world to understand absolute
straightforwardness and simplicity than it is even for the simple to
understand the worldly. She was silent for a moment and stared at Lucy,
not knowing what to make of her. At last she resumed as if going on
without interruption. "But she has some scheme in hand, perhaps in
respect to the girl. The girl is a very handsome creature, and might
make a hit if she were properly managed. My belief is that this has been
her scheme all through. But partly the presence of Tom--an old friend as
you say of her own--and partly the want of opportunity, has kept it in
abeyance. That is my idea, Lucy; you can take it for what it is worth.
And your home will be the headquarters, the centre from which the
adventuress will carry on----"
"Aunt Randolph!" Lucy's voice was almost loud in the pain and
indignation that possessed her. She put out her hands as if to stop the
other's mouth. "You want to make me think she is a wicked woman," she
said. "And that Tom--Tom----"
Lucy had never permitted suspicion to enter her mind. She did not know
now what it was that penetrated her innocent soul like an arrow. It was
not jealousy. It was the wounding suggestion of a possibility which she
would not and could not entertain.
"Lucy, Tom has no excuse at all," said the Dowager solemnly. "You'll
believe nothing against him, of course, and I can't possibly wish to
turn you against him; but I don't suppose he meant all that is likely to
come out of it. He thought it would be a joke--and in the country what
could it matter? And then things have never gone so far as that people
could refuse to receive her, you know. Oh no! the Contessa has her wits
too much about her for that. But you saw for yourself that the Duchess
was petrified; and I--not that I am an authority, like her Grace. One
thing, Lucy, is quite clear, and that I must say; you must not take upon
yourself to be answerable--you so young as you are and not accustomed to
society--for _that_ woman, before the world. You must just take your
courage in both hands, and tell Tom that though you give in to him in
the country, in town you will not have her. She means to take advantage
of you, and bring forward her girl, and make a _grand coup_. That is
what she means--I know that sort of person. It is just the greatest luck
in the world for them to get hold of some one that is so unexceptionable
and so unsuspicious as you."
Lady Randolph insisted upon saying all this, notwithstanding the
interruptions of Lucy. "Now I wash my hands of it," she said. "If you
won't be advised, I can do no more." It was the day after the great
dinner when the Duchess had met Madame di Forno-Populo with so much
surprise. The elder lady had been in much excitement all the evening.
She had conversed with her Grace apart on several occasions, and from
the way in which they laid their heads together, and their gestures, it
was clear enough that their feeling was the same upon the point they
discussed. All the best people in the county had been collected
together, and there could be no doubt that the Contessa had achieved a
great success. She sang as no woman had ever been heard to sing for a
hundred miles round, and her beauty and her grace and her diamonds had
been enough to turn the heads of both men and women. It was remarked
that the Duchess, though she received her with a gasp of astonishment,
was evidently very well acquainted with the fascinating foreign lady,
and though there was a little natural and national distrust of her at
first, as a person too remarkable, and who sang too well for the common
occasions of life, yet not to gaze at her, watch her, and admire, was
impossible. Lucy had been gratified with the success of her visitor.
Even though she was not sure that she was comfortable about her presence
there at all, she was pleased with the effect she produced. When the
Contessa sang there suddenly appeared out of the midst of the crowd a
slim, straight figure in a black gown, which instantly sat down at the
piano, played the accompaniments, and disappeared again without a word.
The spectators thronging round the piano saw that this was a girl, as
graceful and distinguished as the Contessa herself, who passed away
without a word, and disappeared when her office was accomplished, with a
smile on her face, but without lingering for a moment or speaking to any
one; which was a pretty bit of mystery too.
All this had happened on the night before Lady Randolph's summons to
Lucy. It was in the air that the party at the Hall was to break up after
the great entertainment; the Dowager was going, as she had said, to the
Maltravers'; Jock was going back to school; and though no limit of
Madame di Forno-Populo's visit had been mentioned, still it was natural
that she should go when the other people did. She had been a fortnight
at the Hall. That is long for a visit at a country house where generally
people are coming and going continually. And Lucy had begun to look
forward to the time when once more she would be mistress of her own
house and actions, with all visitors and interruptions gone. She had
been looking forward to the happy old evenings, the days in which baby
should be set up again on his domestic throne. The idea that the
Contessa might not be going away, the suggestion that she might still be
there when it was time to make the yearly migration to town, chilled the
very blood in her veins. But it was a thought that she would not dwell
upon. She would not betray her feeling in this respect to any one. She
returned the kiss which old Lady Randolph bestowed upon her at the end
of their interview, very affectionately; for, though she did not always
agree with her, she was attached to the lady who had been so kind to her
when she was a friendless little girl. "Thank you, Aunt Randolph, for
telling me," she said very sweetly, though, indeed, she had no intention
of taking the Dowager's advice. Lady Randolph went off in the afternoon
of the next day, for it was a very short journey to the Maltravers',
where she was going. All the party came out into the hall to see her
away, the Contessa herself as well as the others. Nothing, indeed, could
be more cordial than the Contessa. She caught up a shawl and wound it
round her, elaborately defending herself against the cold, and came out
to the steps to share in the last farewells.
When Lady Randolph was in the carriage with her maid by her side, and
her hot-water footstool under her feet, and the coachman waiting his
signal to drive away, she put out her hand amid her furs to Lucy. "Now
remember!" Lady Randolph said. It was almost as solemn as the mysterious
reminder of the dying king to the bishop. But unfortunately, what is
solemn in certain circumstances may be ludicrous in others. The party in
the Hall scarcely restrained its merriment till the carriage had driven
away.
"What awful compact is this between you, Lucy?" Sir Tom said. "Has she
bound you by a vow to assassinate me in my sleep?"
The Contessa unwound herself out of her shawl, and putting her arm
caressingly round Lucy, led her back to the drawing-room. "It has
something to do with me," she said. "Come and tell me all about it."
Lucy had been disconcerted by Lady Randolph's reminder. She was still
more disconcerted now.
"It is--something Aunt Randolph wishes me to do in the spring, when we
go to town," she said.
"Ah! I know what that is," said the Contessa. "They see that you are too
kind to your husband's friend. Milady would wish you to be more as she
herself is. I understand her very well. I understand them all, these
women. They cannot endure me. They see a meaning in everything I do. I
have not a meaning in everything I do," she added, with a pathetic look,
which went to Lucy's heart.
"No, no, indeed you are mistaken. It was not that. I am sure you have no
meaning," said Lucy, vehement and confused.
The Contessa read her innocent _distraite_ countenance like a book, as
she said--or at least she thought so. She linked her own delicate arm in
hers, and clasped Lucy's hand. "One day I will tell you why all these
ladies hate me, my little angel," she said.