VIII.
His serenity continued during two or three following days, when,continuing at the castle, he got pleasant glimpses of Paula now andthen. Her strong desire that his love for her should be kept secret,perplexed him; but his affection was generous, and he acquiesced in thatdesire.
Meanwhile news of the forthcoming dramatic performance radiated in everydirection. And in the next number of the county paper it was announced,to Somerset's comparative satisfaction, that the cast was definitelysettled, Mr. Mild having agreed to be the King and Miss Power the FrenchPrincess. Captain De Stancy, with becoming modesty for one who was theleading spirit, figured quite low down, in the secondary character ofSir Nathaniel.
Somerset remembered that, by a happy chance, the costume he had designedfor Sir Nathaniel was not at all picturesque; moreover Sir Nathanielscarcely came near the Princess through the whole play.
Every day after this there was coming and going to and from the castleof railway vans laden with canvas columns, pasteboard trees, limphouse-fronts, woollen lawns, and lath balustrades. There were alsofrequent arrivals of young ladies from neighbouring country houses, andwarriors from the X and Y batteries of artillery, distinguishable bytheir regulation shaving.
But it was upon Captain De Stancy and Mrs. Camperton that the weightof preparation fell. Somerset, through being much occupied in thedrawing-office, was seldom present during the consultations andrehearsals: until one day, tea being served in the drawing-room at theusual hour, he dropped in with the rest to receive a cup from Paula'stable. The chatter was tremendous, and Somerset was at once consultedabout some necessary carpentry which was to be specially made atMarkton. After that he was looked on as one of the band, which resultedin a large addition to the number of his acquaintance in this part ofEngland.
But his own feeling was that of being an outsider still. This vagaryhad been originated, the play chosen, the parts allotted, all in hisabsence, and calling him in at the last moment might, if flirtation werepossible in Paula, be but a sop to pacify him. What would he have givento impersonate her lover in the piece! But neither Paula nor any oneelse had asked him.
The eventful evening came. Somerset had been engaged during the day withthe different people by whom the works were to be carried out and in theevening went to his rooms at the Lord-Quantock-Arms, Markton, wherehe dined. He did not return to the castle till the hour fixed for theperformance, and having been received by Mrs. Goodman, entered the largeapartment, now transfigured into a theatre, like any other spectator.
Rumours of the projected representation had spread far and wide. Sixtimes the number of tickets issued might have been readily sold. Friendsand acquaintances of the actors came from curiosity to see how theywould acquit themselves; while other classes of people came because theywere eager to see well-known notabilities in unwonted situations. Whenladies, hitherto only beheld in frigid, impenetrable positions behindtheir coachmen in Markton High Street, were about to reveal their hiddentraits, home attitudes, intimate smiles, nods, and perhaps kisses, tothe public eye, it was a throwing open of fascinating social secrets notto be missed for money.
The performance opened with no further delay than was occasioned by thecustomary refusal of the curtain at these times to rise more than twofeet six inches; but this hitch was remedied, and the play began. It waswith no enviable emotion that Somerset, who was watching intently, saw,not Mr. Mild, but Captain De Stancy, enter as the King of Navarre.
Somerset as a friend of the family had had a seat reserved for himnext to that of Mrs. Goodman, and turning to her he said with someexcitement, 'I understood that Mr. Mild had agreed to take that part?'
'Yes,' she said in a whisper, 'so he had; but he broke down. LuckilyCaptain De Stancy was familiar with the part, through having coached theothers so persistently, and he undertook it off-hand. Being about thesame figure as Lieutenant Mild the same dress fits him, with a littlealteration by the tailor.'
It did fit him indeed; and of the male costumes it was that on whichSomerset had bestowed most pains when designing them. It shrewdly burstupon his mind that there might have been collusion between Mild and DeStancy, the former agreeing to take the captain's place and act as blindtill the last moment. A greater question was, could Paula have beenaware of this, and would she perform as the Princess of France now DeStancy was to be her lover?
'Does Miss Power know of this change?' he inquired.
'She did not till quite a short time ago.'
He controlled his impatience till the beginning of the second act. ThePrincess entered; it was Paula. But whether the slight embarrassmentwith which she pronounced her opening words,
'Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise,'
was due to the newness of her situation, or to her knowledge that DeStancy had usurped Mild's part of her lover, he could not guess. DeStancy appeared, and Somerset felt grim as he listened to the gallantcaptain's salutation of the Princess, and her response.
De S. Fair Princess, welcome to the court of Navarre. Paula. Fair, I give you back again: and welcome, I havenot yet.
Somerset listened to this and to all that which followed of the samesort, with the reflection that, after all, the Princess never throughoutthe piece compromised her dignity by showing her love for the King; andthat the latter never addressed her in words in which passion got thebetter of courtesy. Moreover, as Paula had herself observed, they didnot marry at the end of the piece, as in Shakespeare's other comedies.Somewhat calm in this assurance, he waited on while the other couplesrespectively indulged in their love-making, and banter, including Mrs.Camperton as the sprightly Rosaline. But he was doomed to be surprisedout of his humour when the end of the act came on. In abridging the playfor the convenience of representation, the favours or gifts from thegentlemen to the ladies were personally presented: and now Somerset sawDe Stancy advance with the necklace fetched by Paula from London, andclasp it on her neck.
This seemed to throw a less pleasant light on her hasty journey. Tofetch a valuable ornament to lend it to a poorer friend was estimable;but to fetch it that the friend's brother should have somethingmagnificent to use as a lover's offering to herself in public, thatwore a different complexion. And if the article were recognized bythe spectators as the same that Charlotte had worn at the ball, thepresentation by De Stancy of what must seem to be an heirloom of hishouse would be read as symbolizing a union of the families.
De Stancy's mode of presenting the necklace, though unauthorized byShakespeare, had the full approval of the company, and set them ingood humour to receive Major Camperton as Armado the braggart. Nothingcalculated to stimulate jealousy occurred again till the fifth act; andthen there arose full cause for it.
The scene was the outside of the Princess's pavilion. De Stancy, asthe King of Navarre, stood with his group of attendants awaiting thePrincess, who presently entered from her door. The two began to converseas the play appointed, De Stancy turning to her with this reply--
'Rebuke me not for that which you provoke; The virtue of your eye must break my oath.'
So far all was well; and Paula opened her lips for the set rejoinder.But before she had spoken De Stancy continued--
'If I profane with my unworthy hand (Taking her hand) This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this-- My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.'
Somerset stared. Surely in this comedy the King never addressed thePrincess in such warm words; and yet they were Shakespeare's, for theywere quite familiar to him. A dim suspicion crossed his mind. Mrs.Goodman had brought a copy of Shakespeare with her, which she kept inher lap and never looked at: borrowing it, Somerset turned to 'Romeo andJuliet,' and there he saw the words which De Stancy had introduced asgag, to intensify the mild love-making of the other play. Meanwhile DeStancy continued--
'O then, dear Saint, let lips do what hands d
o; They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purg'd!'
Could it be that De Stancy was going to do what came next in the stagedirection--kiss her? Before there was time for conjecture on that pointthe sound of a very sweet and long-drawn osculation spread through theroom, followed by loud applause from the people in the cheap seats. DeStancy withdrew from bending over Paula, and she was very red in theface. Nothing seemed clearer than that he had actually done the deed.The applause continuing, Somerset turned his head. Five hundredfaces had regarded the act, without a consciousness that it was aninterpolation; and four hundred and fifty mouths in those faces weresmiling. About one half of them were tender smiles; these came from thewomen. The other half were at best humorous, and mainly satirical; thesecame from the men. It was a profanation without parallel, and his faceblazed like a coal.
The play was now nearly at an end, and Somerset sat on, feeling whathe could not express. More than ever was he assured that there had beencollusion between the two artillery officers to bring about this end.That he should have been the unhappy man to design those picturesquedresses in which his rival so audaciously played the lover to his,Somerset's, mistress, was an added point to the satire. He couldhardly go so far as to assume that Paula was a consenting party to thisstartling interlude; but her otherwise unaccountable wish that his ownlove should be clandestinely shown lent immense force to a doubt of hersincerity. The ghastly thought that she had merely been keeping him on,like a pet spaniel, to amuse her leisure moments till she should havefound appropriate opportunity for an open engagement with some one else,trusting to his sense of chivalry to keep secret their little episode,filled him with a grim heat.