IN SUSPENSE.
It was thus that Bice was engaged while Lucy imagined her asleep in her
innocence, unaware of the net that was being spread for her unsuspecting
feet. Bice was neither asleep nor unsuspecting. She was innocent in a
way inconceivable to the ordinary home-keeping imagination, knowing no
evil in the devices to which she was a party; but she was not innocent
in the conventional sense. That any high feminine ideal should be
affected by the design of the Contessa or by her own participation in it
had not occurred to the girl. She had been accustomed to smile at the
high virtue of those ladies in the novels who would not receive the
addresses of the eldest son of their patroness, and who preferred a
humble village and the delights of self-sacrifice to all the grandeurs
of an ambitious marriage. That might be well enough in a novel, Bice
thought, but it was not so in life. In her own case there was no
question about it. The other way it was which seemed to her the virtuous
way. Had it been proposed to her to throw herself away upon a poor man
whom she might be supposed to love, and so prove herself incapable of
being of any use to the Contessa, and make all her previous training and
teaching of no effect, Bice's moral indignation would have been as
elevated as that of any English heroine at the idea of marrying for
interest instead of love. The possibility did not occur to her at all;
but it would have been rejected with disdain had it attempted to force
its way across the threshold of her mind. She loved nobody--except the
Contessa; which was a great defence and preservation to her thoughts.
She accepted the suggestion that Montjoie should be the means of raising
her to that position she was made for, with composure and without an
objection. It was not arranged upon secretly, without her knowledge, but
with her full concurrence. "He is not very much to look at. I wish he
had been more handsome," the Contessa said; but Bice's indifference on
this point was sublime. "What can it matter?" she said loftily. She was
not even very deeply interested in his disposition or mental qualities.
Everything else being so suitable, it would have been cowardly to shrink
from any minor disadvantage. She silenced the Contessa in the attempt to
make the best of him. "All these things are so secondary," the girl
said. Her devotion to the career chosen for her was above all weakly
arguments of this kind. She looked upon them even with a certain scorn.
And though there was in her mind some excitement as to her appearance
"in the world," as she phrased it, and her skill "to please," which was
as yet untried, it was, notwithstanding with the composure of a nature
quite unaware of any higher questions involved, that she took her part
in all the preparations. Her knowledge of the very doubtful world in
which she had lived had been of a philosophical character. She was quite
impartial. She had no prejudices. Those of whom she approved were those
who had carried out their intentions, whatever they might be, as she
should do by marrying an English Milord with a good title and much
money. She meant, indeed, to spend his money, but legitimately. She
meant to become a great lady by his means, but not to do him any harm.
Bice had an almost savage purity of heart, and the thought that any of
the stains she knew of should touch her was incredible, impossible;
neither was it in her to be unkind, or unjust, or envious, or
ungenerous. Nothing of all this was involved in the purely business
operation in which she was engaged. According to her code no professions
of attachment or pretence of feeling were necessary. She had indeed no
theories in her mind about being a good wife; but she would not be a bad
one. She would keep her part of the compact; there should be nothing to
complain of, nothing to object to. She would do her best to amuse the
man she had to live with and make his life agreeable to him, which is a
thing not always taken into consideration in marriage-contracts much
more ideal in character. He should not be allowed to be dull, that was
one thing certain. Regarding the matter in this reasonable point of
view, Bice prepared for the great event of Thursday with just excitement
enough to make it amusing. It might be that she should fail. Few
succeed at the very first effort without difficulty, she said to
herself; but if she failed there would be nothing tragical in the
failure, and the season was all before her. It could scarcely be hoped
that she would bring down her antagonist the first time she set lance in
rest.
She was carefully kept out of sight during the intervening days; no one
saw her; no one had any acquaintance with the fact of her existence. The
precautions taken were such that Bice was never even encountered on the
staircase, never seen to flit in or out of a room, and indeed did not
exist at all for the party in the house. Notwithstanding these
precautions she had the needful exercise to keep her in health and good
looks, and still romped with the baby and held conversations with the
sympathetic Lucy, who did not know what to say to express her feeling of
anxious disapproval and desire to succour, without, at the same time,
injuring in Bice's mind her nearest friend and protectress. She might,
indeed, have spared herself the trouble of any such anxiety, for Bice
neither felt injured by the Contessa's scheme nor degraded by her
precautions. It amused the girl highly to be made a secret of, to run
all the risks of discovery and baffle the curious. The fun of it was
delightful to her. Sometimes she would amuse herself by hanging till the
last practicable moment in the gallery at the top of the staircase, on
the balcony at the window, or at the door of the Contessa's room which
was commanded by various other doors; but always vanished within in time
to avoid all inquisitive eyes, with the laughter and delight of a child
at the danger escaped, and the fun of the situation. In these cases the
Contessa would sometimes take fright, but never, so light was the
temper of this scheming woman, this deep plotter and conspirator,
refused to join in the laughter when the flight was made and safety
secured. They were like a couple of children with a mystification in
hand, notwithstanding that they were planning an invasion so serious of
all the proprieties, and meant to make so disreputable and revolting a
bargain. But this was not in their ideas. Bice went out very early in
the morning before any one was astir, to take needful exercise in the
park, and gather early primroses and the catkins that hung upon the
trees. On one of these occasions she met Mr. Derwentwater, of whom she
was not afraid; and at another time, when skirting the shrubberies at a
somewhat later hour to keep clear of any stragglers, Jock. Mr.
Derwentwater talked to her in a tone which amused the girl. He spoke of
Proserpina gathering flowers, herself a----and then altered and grew
confused under her eye.
"Herself a---- What?" said Bice. "Have you forgotten what you were going
to say?"
"I have not forgotten--herself a fairer flower. One does not forget such
lovely words as these," he said, injured by the question. "But when one
comes face to face with the impersonation of the poet's idea----"
"It was poetry, then?" said Bice. "I know very little of that. It is not
in Tauchnitz, perhaps? All I know of English is from the Tauchnitz. I
read, chiefly, novels. You do not approve of that? But, yes, I like
them; because it is life."
"Is it life?" said Derwentwater, who was somewhat contemptuous of
fiction.
"At least it is England," said Bice. "The girls who will not make a good
marriage because of some one else, or because it is their parents who
arrange it. That is how Lady Randolph speaks. She says that nothing is
right but to fall--how do you call it?--in love?--It is not _comme il
faut_ even to talk of that."
Derwentwater blushed like a girl. He was more inexperienced in many ways
than Bice. "And do you regard it in another point of view?" he said.
Bice laughed out with frank disdain. "Certainly, I regard it
different--oh, quite different. That is not what happens in life."
"And do you consider life is chiefly occupied with getting married?" he
continued, feeling, along with a good deal of quite unnecessary
excitement, a great desire to know what was her way of looking at this
great subject. Visions had been flashing recently through his mind,
which pointed a little this way too.
"Altogether," said Bice, with great gravity, "how can you begin to live
till you have settled that? Till then you do not know what is going to
happen to you. When you get up in the morning you know not what may come
before the night; when you walk out you know not who may be the next
person you meet; perhaps your husband. But then you marry, and that is
all settled; henceforward nothing can happen!" said Bice, throwing out
her hands. "Then, after all is settled, you can begin to live."
"This is very interesting," said Derwentwater, "I am so glad to get at a
real and individual view. But this, perhaps, only applies to--ladies? It
is, perhaps, not the same with men?"
Bice gave him a careless, half-contemptuous glance. "I have never known
anything," she said, "about men."
There are many girls, much more innocent in outward matters than Bice,
who would have said these words with an intention _agacante_--the
intention of leading to a great deal more badinage. But Bice spoke with
a calm, almost scornful, composure. She had no desire to _agacer_. She
looked him in the face as tranquilly as if he had been an old woman. And
so far as she was concerned he might have been an old woman; for he had
virtually no existence in his capacity of young man. Had she possessed
any clue to the thoughts that had taken rise in his mind, the new
revelation which she had conveyed to him, Bice's amazement would have
been without bounds. But instinct indicated to her that the interview
should proceed no further. She waved her hand to him as she came to a
cross road which led into the woods. "I am going this way," she cried,
darting off round the corner of a great tree. He stood and looked after
her bewildered, as her light figure skimmed along into the depths of the
shadows. "Then, after all is settled, you can begin to live," he
repeated to himself. Was it true? He had got up the morning on which he
saw her first without any thought that everything might be changed for
him that day. And now it was quite true that there lay before him an
interval which must be somehow filled up before he could begin to live.
How was it to be filled up? Would _she_ have anything to do with the
settling which must precede his recommencement of existence? He went on
with his mind altogether absorbed in these thoughts, and with a thrill
and tingling through all his veins. And that was the only time he
encountered Bice, for whom in fact, though he had not hitherto allowed
it even to himself, he had come to the Hall--till the great night.
Jock encountered her the next day not so early, at the hour indeed when
the great people were at breakfast. He had been one of the first to
come downstairs, and he had not lingered at table as persons do who have
letters to read, and the newspapers, and all that is going on to talk
about. He met her coming from the park. She put out her hand when she
saw him as if to keep him off.
"If you wish to speak to me," she said, "you must turn back and walk
with me. I do not want any one to see me, and they will soon be coming
out from breakfast."
"Why don't you want any one to see you?" Jock said.
Bice had learned the secret of the Contessa's smile; but this which she
cast upon Jock had something mocking in it, and ended in a laugh. "Oh,
don't you know?" she said, "it is so silly to be a boy!"
"You are no older than I am," cried Jock, aggrieved; "and why don't you
come down to dinner as you used to do? I always liked you to come. It is
quite different when you are not there. If I had known I should not have
come home at all this Easter," Jock cried.
"Oh!" cried Bice, "that means that you like me, then?--and so does
Milady. If I should go away altogether----"
"You are not going away altogether? Why should you? There is no other
place you could be so well as here. The Contessa never says a word, but
laughs at a fellow, which is scarcely civil; and she has those men about
her that are--not----; but you----why should you go away?" cried Jock
with angry vehemence. He looked at her with eyes lowering fiercely under
his eyebrows; yet in his heart he was not angry but wretched, as if
something were rending him. Jock did not understand how he felt.
"Oh, now, you look at me as if you would eat me," said Bice, "as if I
were the little girl in the red hood and you the wolf---- But it is
silly, for how should I stay here when Milady is going away? We are all
going to London--and then! it will soon be decided, I suppose," said
Bice, herself feeling a little sad for the first time at the idea, "what
is going to be done with me."
"What is going to be done with you?" cried Jock hoarsely, for he was
angry and grieved, and full of impatient indignation, though he scarcely
knew why.
Bice turned upon him with that lingering smile which was like the
Contessa's. But, unlike the Contessa's, it ended as usual in a laugh.
She kissed her hand to him, and darted round the corner of the shrubbery
just as some one appeared from breakfast. "Good-bye," she said, "do not
be angry," and so vanished like lightning. This was one of the cases
which made her heart beat with fun and exhilaration, when she was, as
she told the Contessa, nearly caught. She got into the shelter of the
east rooms, panting with the run she had made, her complexion brilliant,
her eyes shining. "I thought I should certainly be seen this time," she
said.
The Contessa looked at the girl with admiring eyes. "I could almost have
wished you had," she said. "You are superb like that." They talked
without a shade of embarrassment on this subject, upon which English
mothers and children would blush and hesitate.
This was the day, the great day of the revelation which the Contessa had
promised. There had been a great deal of discussion and speculation
about it in the company. No one, even Sir Tom, knew what it was. Lucy,
though she was not clever, had her wits sharpened in this respect, and
she had divined; but no one else had any conception of what was coming.
Two of the elder men had gone, very sorry to miss the great event,
whatever it was. And young Montjoie had talked of nothing else since the
promise had been made. The conversation in the drawing-room late in the
afternoon chiefly turned on this subject, and the lady visitors too
heard of it, and were not less curious. She who had the two daughters
addressed herself to Lucy for information. She said: "I hear some
novelty is expected to-night, Lady Randolph, something the Contessa has
arranged. She is very clever, is she not? and sings delightfully, I
know. There is so much more talent of that kind among foreigners than
there is among us. Is it tableaux? The girls are so longing to know."
"Oh, yes, we want so much to know," said the young ladies in blue.
"I don't think it is tableaux," Lucy said; "but I have not been told
what it is."
This the ladies did not believe, but they asked no further questions.
"It is clear that she does not wish us to know; so, girls, you must say
nothing," was the conclusion of the mother.
They said a great deal, notwithstanding this warning. The house
altogether was excited on the subject, and even Mr. Derwentwater took
part in the speculations. He looked upon the Contessa as one of those
inscrutable women of the stage, the Sirens who beguile everybody. She
had some design upon Montjoie, he felt, and it was only the youth's
impertinence which prevented Mr. Derwentwater from interfering. He
watched with the natural instinct of his profession and a strong
impulse to write to the lad's parents and have him taken away. But
Montjoie had no parents. He had attained his majority, and was supposed
by the law capable of taking care of himself. What did that woman mean
to do with the boy? She had some designs upon him. But there was nobody
to whom Mr. Derwentwater could confide his suspicions, or whom he could
ask what the Contessa meant. MTutor had not on the whole a pleasant
visit. He was disappointed in that which had been his chief object--his
favourite pupil was detached from him, he knew not how--and this other
boy, whom, though he did not love him, he could not help feeling a sort
of responsibility for, was in danger from a designing woman, a woman out
of a French play, _L'Aventuriere_, something of that sort. Mr.
Derwentwater felt that he could not drag himself away, the attractions
were so strong. He wanted to see the _denouement_; still more he wanted
to see Bice. No drama in the world had so powerful an interest. But
though it was so impossible to go away, it was not pleasant to stay.
Jock did not want him. Lucy, though she was always sweet and friendly,
had a look of haste and over-occupation; her eyes wandered when she
talked to him; her mind was occupied with other things. Most of the men
of the party were more than indifferent; were disagreeable to him. He
thought they were a danger for Jock. And Bice never was visible; that
moment on the balcony--those few minutes in the park--the half dozen
words which had been so "suggestive," he thought, which had woke so many
echoes in his mind--these were all he had had of her. Had she intended
them to awaken echoes? He asked himself this question a thousand times.
Had she willingly cast this seed of thought into his mind to
germinate--to produce--what result? If it was so, then, indeed, all the
little annoyances of his stay would be a cheap price to pay. It did not
occur to this judicious person, whose influence over his pupils was so
great, and who had studied so deeply the mind of youth, that a girl of
sixteen was but little likely to be consciously suggestive--to sow, with
any intention in her mind, seeds of meaning to develop in his. To do him
justice, he was as unconscious of the limits of sixteen in Bice's case
as we all are in the case of Juliet. She was of no age. She was the
ideal woman capable of comprehensions and intentions as far above
anything possible to the genus boy as heaven was above earth. It would
have been a profanation, a sacrilege too dreadful to be thought of, to
compare that ethereal creature with the other things of her age with
which he was so familiar. Of her age! Her age was the age of romance, of
love, of poetry, of all ineffable things.
"I say, Countess," said Montjoie, "I hope you're not forgetting. This is
the night, don't you know. And here we are all ready for dinner and
nothing has happened. When is it coming? You are so awfully mysterious;
it ain't fair upon a fellow."
"Is every one in the room?" said the Contessa, with an indulgent smile
at the young man's eagerness. They all looked round, for everybody was
curious. And all were there--the lady who wrote for the Press, and the
lady with the two daughters, the girls in blue; and Sir Tom's
parliamentary friends standing up against the mantelpiece, and Mr.
Derwentwater by himself, more curious than any one, keeping one eye on
Montjoie, as if he would have liked to send him to the pupil-room to do
a _poena_; and Jock indifferent, with his back to the door. All the rest
were expectant except Jock, who took no notice. The Contessa's special
friends were about her chair, rubbing their hands, and ready to back the
Forno-Populo for a new sensation. The Contessa looked round, her eye
dwelling for a moment upon Lucy, who looked a little fluttered and
uncomfortable, and upon Sir Tom, who evidently knew nothing, and was
looking on with a smile.
"Now you shall see," she said, "why I abdicate," and made a sign,
clapping softly her beautiful hands.
There was a momentary pause. Montjoie, who was standing out in the clear
space in the centre of the room, turned round at the Contessa's call. He
turned towards the open door, which was less lighted than the inner
room. It was he who saw first what was coming. "Oh, by Jove!" the young
Marquis said.