CHAPTER XXIII.
JESSIE BAIN ENTERS THE HOUSE OF SECRETS.
The old lady stared at Jessie through her spectacles.
"You need no other recommendation. I once met Captain Carr underthrilling circumstances, my child. I was out in a row-boat one day--someten years ago--when a steamer almost ran down our little skiff. I wouldhave been capsized, and perhaps drowned, had it not been for the braveryof Captain Carr, of Fisher's Landing. I made him a handsome littlepresent, and from that day to this I have never heard from him. CaptainCarr dead, and his niece out in the world looking for a situation! Youshall come to me, if you like, reference or no reference, my dear.'
"Oh, madam, you are so very, very kind!" sobbed Jessie.
The little old lady touched a silver bell close at hand, and a tidy,elderly maid appeared.
"Harriet, I have engaged this young woman as companion," she said. "Shecame in answer to yesterday's advertisement in the _Argus_. You willtake her to her room at once. She is to occupy the little room directlyoff mine."
The room into which she ushered Jessie was a small, dingy apartment,with draperies so sombre that they seemed almost black. The curtainswere closely drawn, and an unmistakable atmosphere of mustiness pervadedthe apartment.
"Have you had breakfast, miss?" asked Harriet, looking sharply into thegirl's pale face, and adding before she had time to reply: "Even thoughyou have breakfasted, a cup of hot tea will do you good this cold, crispmorning. My lady will be pleased to have you come down to the table. Thebell will ring in about ten minutes. You can easily make your way there.Step down the corridor, and turn into the passage-way at the right; thesecond door."
Jessie bowed her thanks, and murmured that she would be very gratefulfor a cup of tea. It was not long before she heard the breakfast-bell.Hastily quitting the room, she made her way down the corridor. In herconfusion, the girl made the mistake of turning to the left, instead ofthe right, as she had been directed.
"The second door," she muttered to herself.
As she reached it she paused abruptly. It was slightly ajar. Glancing inhesitatingly, she saw that it looked more like a young lady's _boudoir_than an ordinary breakfast-room. Before a mirror at the further end ofthe apartment sat a young girl in the sun-light. A maid was brushing outthe wavy masses of her warm-tinted auburn hair.
While Jessie was hesitating as to whether she should tap on the doorand make her presence known or walk on further through the corridor, aconversation which she could not help overhearing, held her spell-bound,fairly rooted to the spot.
"I assure you it is quite true, Janet," the lovely young girl was sayingin a very fretful, angry voice. "The old lady has got a companion in thehouse at last. But she shall not stay long beneath this roof depend uponthat, Janet. She is young and very beautiful.
"I would not care so much, if it were not that the handsome grandson isexpected to arrive every day."
"Surely, Miss Rosamond, you, with all your beauty, do not fear a rivalin the little humble companion."
"Companions have been known to do a great deal of mischief before now,and, as I have said, the girl is remarkably pretty. I saw her from thelibrary window as she was coming up the front steps, and then, when oldMrs. Bassett came down to the library, I was safely ensconced behind thesilken draperies of the bay-window, and I heard all that was said. Youmay be sure that I was angry enough. She shall not stay here long, if Ican help it. I will make it so unpleasant for her that she will be gladto go. I detest the girl already, on general principles."
Jessie Bain cowered back, dazed and bewildered, almost doubting her ownsenses as to what she had just heard.
Smarting with bitter pain, Jessie turned away and hurried swiftly downthe corridor in the opposite direction.
She was quickly retracing her steps back to her own room, when she metHarriet again in the corridor.
"I was just coming for you, miss," she said, "thinking that you mightnot be able to find your way, after all, there are so many twists andturns hereabouts," and without further ado she quickly retraced hersteps, nodding to Jessie to follow.
The breakfast-room into which she was ushered was by far the mostcommodious room in the house.
A great, square apartment with ceilings and panelings of solid oak,massive side-boards, which contained the family silver for fully acentury or more, great, high-backed chairs with heavy carvings, done upin leather, and a polished, inlaid floor, with here and there a velvetrug or tiger's skin.
The old lady was seated at the table as Harriet ushered in the younggirl. She smiled, and nodded a welcome. Opposite her sat a little oldman with large ears, who peered at her sharply from over a pair ofdouble-barreled, gold-rimmed eyeglasses.
"This is the young person whom I have just engaged as my companion,"said Mrs. Bassett, shrilly, turning toward her husband.
"H'm!" ejaculated the old gentleman. "What did you say this youngwoman's name was?"
"Bain," she replied.
"Hey?" he exclaimed, holding his right hand trumpet fashion, to his ear."Give me the name a little louder."
"Miss Bain-- Jessie Bain!" shouted his wife, in an ear-splitting voicethat made every nerve in Jessie's body throb and quiver.
"Ah--h'm-- Miss Bain," he repeated; adding, as he cleared out histhroat: "I am very anxious to have the papers read while we breakfast.You may as well begin by reading this morning's reports," he said,handing her a paper which lay folded beside his plate. "You may turn tothe stock reports first, Miss Bain. Third column on the first page, MissBain."
She had scarcely finished the first paragraph ere the old gentlemancommanded her to stop.
"Can you understand one word that this young woman is reading?" heinquired, turning sharply to his wife.
"No. Miss Bain must read louder," she said. "I do not quite catch it."
The perspiration stood out in great balls on Jessie's pale face. She hadraised her voice to almost a shout already, and her throat was beginningto ache terribly, for the strain upon it was very great. How she everstruggled down to the bottom of that column, she never knew. Theappearance of the breakfast tray was a welcome relief to her.
"You read very nicely," complimented the old gentleman. "I enjoylistening to you. I shall give you the privilege of reading all mypapers aloud every forenoon."
Jessie looked helplessly at him. The strain had been so great that herthroat pained her terribly; but she made no demur. How could she?
At that moment the door swung slowly open, and a tall, beautiful girlentered.
Jessie knew her at the first startled glance. It was the lovely girlwhom she had heard talking to her maid about her, but a little whilebefore.
She took the seat at the end of the table without so much as deigning toglance at the new-comer.
"My dear, let me present you to Miss Bain-- Miss Bain, my husband's_protegee_, Rosamond Lee," exclaimed Mrs. Bassett.
Jessie bowed wistfully, shyly; Miss Rosamond barely lifted her eyebrowsin acknowledgment of the presentation.
The old gentleman and his wife screamed at each other on the main topicsof the day, Miss Rosamond looked exceedingly bored, while Jessie hadgreat difficulty in swallowing, her throat ached so severely.