CHAPTER XLVI
The first Sunday that Juliet passed in this new situation, nearly robbedher of the good will of the whole of the little community to which shebelonged. It was the only day in the week in which the young work-womenwere allowed some hours for recreation; they considered it, therefore,as rightfully dedicated, after the church-service, to amusement with oneanother; and Juliet, in refusing to join in a custom which they held tobe the basis of their freedom and happiness, appeared to them anunsocial and haughty innovator. Yet neither wearying remonstrances, norpersecuting persuasions, could prevail upon her to parade with them uponthe Steyne; to stroll with them by the sea-side; to ramble upon theDowns; or to form a party for Shoreham, or Devil's Dyke.
Evil is so relative, that the same chamber, the lonely sadness of which,since her privation of Gabriella, had become nearly insupportable toher, was now, from a new contrast, almost all that she immediatelycoveted. The bustle, the fatigue, the obtrusion of new faces, the spiritof petty intrigue, and the eternal clang of tongues, which she had toendure in the shop, made quiet, even in its most uninteresting dulness,desirable and consoling.
To approach herself, as nearly as might be in her power, to the lovedsociety which she had lost, she destined this only interval of peace andleisure, to her pen and Gabriella; and such was her employment, when thesound of slow steps, upon the stairs, followed by a gentle tap at herdoor, at once interrupted and surprised her. Miss Matson and her maids,as well as her work-women, were spending their Sabbath abroad; and ashop-man was left to take care of the house. The tap, however, wasrepeated, and, obeying its call, Juliet beheld Sir Jaspar Herrington,the gouty old Baronet.
The expression of her countenance immediately demanded explanation, ifnot apology, as she stepped forward upon the landing-place, to makeclear that she should not receive him in her apartment.
His keen eye read her meaning, though, affecting not to perceive it, hepleasantly said, 'How? immured in your chamber? and of a gala day?'
The recollection of the essential, however forced obligation, which sheowed to him, for her deliverance from the persecution of Miss Bydel,soon dissipated her first impression in his disfavour, and she quietlyanswered that she went very little abroad: but when she would haveenquired into his business, 'You can refuse yourself, then,' he cried,pretending not to hear her, 'the honour--or pleasure, which shall wecall it? of sharing in the gaieties of your fair fellow-votaries to theneedle? I suspected you of this self-denial. I had a secret presentimentthat you would be insensible to the fluttering joys of your sisterspinsters. How did I divine you so well? What is it you have about youthat sets one's imagination so to work?'
Juliet replied, that she would not presume to interfere with thebusiness of his penetration, but that, as she was occupied, she must begto know, at once, his commands.
'Not so hasty! not so hasty!' he cried: 'You must shew me some littleconsideration, if only in excuse for the total want of it which you havecaused in those little imps, that beset my slumbers by night, and myreveries by day. They have gotten so much the better of me now, that Iam equally at a loss how to sleep or how to wake for them. 'Why don'tyou find out,' they cry, 'whether this syren likes her new situation?Why don't you discover whether any thing better can be done for her?'And then, all of one accord, they so pommel and bemaul me, that youwould pity me, I give you my word, if you could see the condition intowhich they put my poor conscience; however little so fair a youngcreature may be disposed to feel pity, for such a hobbling, gouty oldfellow as I am!'
Softened by this benevolent solicitude, Juliet, thankfully, spoke ofherself with all the cheerfulness that she could assume; and, encouragedby her lessened reserve, Sir Jaspar, to her unspeakable surprise, said,'There is one point, I own, which I have an extreme desire to know; howlong may it be that you have left the stage, and from what latentcause?'
No explanation, however, could be attempted: the attention of Juliet wascalled into another channel, by the sound of a titter, which led her toperceive Flora Pierson; who, almost convulsed with delight at havingsurprised them, said that she had heard, from the shop-man, that MissEllis and Sir Jaspar were talking together upon the stairs, and she hadstolen up the back way, and crept softly through one of the garrets, onpurpose to come upon them unawares. 'So now,' added she, nodding, 'we'llgo into my room, if you please, Miss Ellis; for I have got somethingelse to tell you! Only you must not stay with me long.'
'And not to tell me, too?' cried Sir Jaspar, chucking her under thechin: 'How's this, my daffodil? my pink? my lilly? how's this? surelyyou have not any secrets for me?'
'O yes, I have, Sir Jaspar! because you're a gentleman, you know, SirJaspar. And one must not tell every thing to gentlemen, mamma says.'
'Mamma says? but you are too much a woman to mind what mamma says, Ihope, my rose, my daisy?' cried Sir Jaspar, chucking her again under thechin, while she smiled and courtsied in return.
Juliet would have re-entered her chamber; but Flora, catching her gown,said, 'Why now, Miss Ellis, I bid you come to my room, if you please,Miss Ellis; 'cause then I can show you my presents; as well as tell yousomething.--Come, will you go? for it's something that's quite a secret,I assure you; for I have not told it to any body yet; not even to ouryoung ladies; for it's but just happened. So you've got my firstconfidence this time: and you have a right to take that very kind of me,for it's what I've promised, upon my word and honour, and as true astrue can be, not to tell to any body; not so much as to a living soul!'
To be freed quietly from the Baronet, Juliet consented to attend her;and Flora, with many smiles and nods at Sir Jaspar, begged that he wouldnot be affronted that she did not tell all her secrets to gentlemen;and, shutting him out, began her tale.
'Now I'll tell you what it is I'm going to tell you, Miss Ellis. Do youknow who I met, just now, upon the Steyne, while I was walking with ouryoung ladies, not thinking of any thing? You can't guess, can you? WhySir Lyell himself. I gave such a squeak! But he spoke to all our youngladies first. And I was half a mind to cry; only I happened to be in oneof my laughing fits. And when once I am upon my gig, papa says, if theworld were all to tumble down, it would not hinder me of my smiling.Though I am sure I often don't know what it's for. If any body asked me,I could not tell, one time in twenty. But Sir Lyell's very clever;cleverer than I am, by half, I believe. For he got to speak to me, atlast, so as nobody could hear a word he said, but just me. Nor I couldnot, either, but only he spoke quite in my ear.'
'And do you think it right, Miss Pierson, to let gentlemen whisper you?'
'O, I could not bid him not, you know. I could not be rude to aKnight-Baronet! Besides, he said he was come down from London, onpurpose for nothing else but to see me! A Knight-Baronet, Miss Ellis!That's very good natured, is it not? I dare say he means something byit. Don't you? However, I shall know more by and by, most likely; for hewhispered me to make believe I'd got a head-ache, and to come home bymyself, and wait for him in my own room: for he says he has brought methe prettiest present that ever I saw from London. So you see howgenerous he is; i'n't he? And he'll bring it me himself, to make me alittle visit. So then, very likely, he'll speak out. Won't he? But hebid me tell it to nobody. So say nothing if you see him, for it willonly be the way to make him angry. I must not put the shop-man in thesecret, he says, for he shall only ask for old Sir Jaspar; and he shallgo to him first, and make the shop-man think he is with him all thetime. So I told our young ladies I'd got a head-ache, sure enough; butdon't be uneasy, for it's only make believe; for I'm very well.'
Filled with alarm for the simple, deluded maiden, Juliet now made anundisguised representation of her danger; earnestly charging her not toreceive the dangerous visit.
But Flora, self-willed, though good natured, would not hear a word.
No ass so meek;--no mule so obstinate.
She never contradicted, yet never listened; she never gave an opinion,yet never followed one. She was neither endowed with timidity to suspecther deficiencies
, nor with sense to conceive how she might be betterinformed. She came to Juliet merely to talk; and when her prattle wasover, or interrupted, she had no thought but to be gone.
'O yes, I must see him, Miss Ellis,' she cried; 'for you can't think howill he'll take it, if I don't. But now we have stayed talking togetherso long, I can't shew you my presents till he is gone, for fear heshould come. But don't mind, for then I shall have the new ones to shewyou, too. But if I don't do what he bids me, he'll be as angry as canbe, for all he's my lover; (smiling.) He makes very free with mesometimes; only I don't mind it; because I'm pretty much used to it,from one or another. Sometimes he'll say I am the greatest simpletonthat ever he knew in his life; for all he calls me his angel! He don'tmake much ceremony with me, when I don't understand his signs. But itdon't much signify, for the more he's angry, the more he's kind, whenit's over, (smiling.) And then he brings me prettier things than ever.So I a'n't much a loser. I've no great need to cry about it. And he saysI'm quite a little goddess, often and often, if I'd believe him. Onlyone must not believe the men over much, when they are gentlemen, Ibelieve.'
Juliet, kindly taking her hand, would have drawn her into her ownchamber; but they were no sooner in the passage, than Flora jumped back,and, shaking with laughter at her ingenuity, shut and locked herselfinto her room.
Juliet now renounced, perforce, all thought of serving her exceptthrough the medium of Miss Matson; and she was returning, much vexed, toher own small apartment, when she saw Sir Jaspar, who, leaning againstthe banisters, seemed to have been waiting for her, step curiouslyforward, as she opened her door, to take a view of her chamber. Withquick impulse, to check this liberty, she hastily pushed to the door;not recollecting, till too late, that the key, by which alone it wasopened, was on the inside.
Chagrined, she repaired to Flora, telling the accident, and beggingadmittance.
Flora, laughing with all her heart, positively refused to open the door;saying that she would rather be without company.
The shop-man now came up stairs, to see what was going forward, and toenquire whether Miss Pierson, who had told him that she was ill, foundherself worse. Flora, hastily checking her mirth, answered that her headached, and she would lie down; and then spoke no more.
The shop-man made an attempt to enter into conversation with Juliet; butshe gravely requested that he would be so good as to order a smith toopen the lock of her door.
He ought not, he said, to leave the house in the absence of Miss Matson;but he would run the risk for the pleasure of obliging her, if she wouldonly step down into the shop, to answer to the bell or the knocker.
To this, in preference to being shut out of her room, she wouldimmediately have consented, but that she feared the arrival of SirLyell Sycamore. She asked the shop-man, therefore, if there were anyobjection to her waiting in the little parlour.
None in the world, he answered; for he had Miss Matson's leave to use itwhen she was out of a Sunday; and he should be very glad if Miss Elliswould oblige him with her company.
Juliet declined this proposal with an air that repressed any furtherattempt at intimacy; and the shop-man returned to his post.
'I must not, I suppose,' the Baronet, then advancing, said, 'presume tooffer you shelter under my roof from the inclemencies of the staircase?And yet I think I may venture, without being indecorous, to mention,that I am going out for my usual airing; and that you may takepossession of your old apartment, upon your own misanthropical terms. Atall events, I shall leave you the door open, place some books upon thetable, take out my servants, and order that no one shall molest you.'
Extremely pleased by a kindness so much to her taste, Juliet wouldgratefully have accepted this offer, but for the visit that she knew tobe designed for the same apartment; which the absence of its master wasnot likely to prevent, as the pretence of writing a note, or his name,would suffice with Sir Lyell for mounting the stairs. Who then couldprotect Flora? Could Juliet herself come forward, when no one elseremained in the house, conscious, as she could not but be, of thedishonourable views of which she, also, had been the object? Thedeparture of Sir Jaspar appeared, therefore, to be big with mischief;and, when he was making a leave-taking bow, she almost involuntarilysaid, 'You are forced, then, Sir, to go out this morning?'
Surprized and pleased, he answered, 'What! have my little fairy elvesgiven you a lesson of humanity? Nay, if so, though they should pommeland maul me for a month to come, I shall yet be their obedient humbleservant.'
He then gave orders aloud that his carriage should be put up; saying,that he had letters to write, and that his servants might go and amusethemselves for an hour or two where they pleased.
Juliet, now, was crimsoned with shame and embarrassment. How account forthus palpably wishing him to remain in the house? or how suffer him, bysilence, to suppose it was from a desire of his society? Her blushesastonished, yet, by heightening her beauty, charmed still more than theyperplexed him. To settle what to think of her might be difficult andteazing; but to admire her was easy and pleasant. He approached her,therefore, with the most flattering looks and smiles; but, to avoid anymistake in his manner of addressing her, he kept his speech back, withhis judgment, till he could learn her purpose.
This prudential circumspection redoubled her confusion, and shehesitatingly stammered her concern that she had prevented his airing.
More amazed still, but still more enchanted, to see her thus at a losswhat to say, though evidently pleased that he had relinquished hislittle excursion, he was making a motion to take her hand, which she hadscarcely perceived, when a violent ringing at the door-bell, checkedhim; and concentrated all her solicitude in the impending danger ofFlora; and, in her eagerness to rescue the simple girl from ruin, shehastily said: 'Can you, Sir Jaspar, forgive a liberty in the cause ofhumanity? May I appeal to your generosity? You will receive a visitor ina few minutes, whom I have earnest reasons for wishing you to detain inyour apartment to the last moment that is possible. May I make soextraordinary a request?'
'Request?' repeated Sir Jaspar, charmed by what he considered as anopening to intimacy; 'can you utter any thing but commands? The mostbenignant sprite of all Fairyland, has inspired you with this graciousdisposition to dub me your knight.'
Yet his eyes, still bright with intelligence, and now full of fancifulwonder, suddenly emitted an expression less rapturous, when hedistinguished the voice of Sir Lyell Sycamore, in parley with theshop-man. Disappointment and chagrin soon took place of sportiveplayfulness in his countenance; and, muttering between his teeth, 'O ho!Sir Lyell Sycamore!'--he fixed his keen eyes sharply upon Juliet; with alook in which she could not but read the ill construction to which herseeming knowledge of that young man's motions, and her apparent interestin them, made her liable; and how much his light opinion of Sir Lyell'scharacter, affected his partial, though still fluctuating one of herown.
Sir Lyell, however, was upon the stairs, and she did not dare enter intoany justification; Sir Jaspar, too, was silent; but the young baronetmounted, singing, in a loud voice,
O my love, lov'st thou me? Then quickly come and see one who dies for thee!
'Yes here I come, Sir Lyell!'--in a low, husky, laughing voice, criedFlora, peeping through her chamber-door; which was immediately at thehead of the stairs, upon the second floor; and to which Sir Lyell lookedup, softly whispering, 'Be still, my little angel! and, in tenminutes--' He stopt abruptly, for Sir Jaspar now caught his astonishedsight, upon the landing-place of the attic story, with Juliet retreatingbehind him.
'O ho! you are there, are you?' he cried, in a tone of ludicrousaccusation.
'And you, you are there, are you?' answered Sir Jaspar, in a voice moreseriously taunting.
Juliet, hurt and confounded, would have escaped through the garret tothe back stairs, but that her hat and cloak, without which she could notleave the house, were shut into her room. She tried, therefore, to lookunmoved; well aware that the best chance to escape impertinence, is bynot appearing t
o suspect that any is intended.
Three strides now brought Sir Lyell before her. His amazement, vented byrattling exclamations, again perplexed Sir Jaspar; for how could Juliethave been apprized of his intended visit, but by himself?
Sir Lyell, mingling the most florid compliments upon her radiant beauty,and bright bloom, with his pleasure at her sight, said that, from thereports which had reached him, that she had given up her singing, andher teaching, and that Sir Jaspar had taken the room which she hadinhabited, he had concluded that she had quitted Brighthelmstone. He wasgoing rapidly on in the same strain, the observant Sir Jaspar intentlywatching her looks, while curiously listening to his every word; whenJuliet, without seeming to have attended to a syllable, related, withgrave brevity, that she had unfortunately shut in the key of her room,and must therefore seek Miss Matson, to demand another; and then, withsteady steps, that studiously kept in order innumerable timid fears, shedescended to the shop; leaving the two Baronets mutually struck by hersuperiour air and manner; and each, though equally desirous to followher, involuntarily standing still, to wait the motions of the other; andthence to judge of his pretensions to her favour.
Juliet found the shop empty, but the street-door open, and the shop-mansauntering before it, to look at the passers by. Glad to be, for awhile, at least, spared the distaste of his company, she shut herselfinto the little parlour, carefully drawing the curtain of theglass-door.
The two Baronets, as she expected, soon descended; the younger one eagerto take leave of the elder, and privately re-mount the stairs; and SirJaspar, fixed to obey the injunctions, however unaccountable, of Juliet,in detaining and keeping sight of him to the last moment.
'Decamped, I swear, the little vixen!' exclaimed Sir Lyell, striding infirst; 'but why the d--l do you come down, Sir Jaspar?'
'For exercise, not ceremony,' he answered; though, little wantingfurther exertion, and heartily tired, he dropt down upon the firstchair.
Sir Lyell vainly offered his arm, and pressed to aid him back to hisapartment; he would not move.
After some time thus wasted, Sir Lyell, mortified and provoked, casthimself upon the counter, and whistled, to disguise his ill humour.
A pause now ensued, which Sir Jaspar broke, by hesitatingly, yet withearnestness, saying, 'Sir Lyell Sycamore, I am not, you will do me thejustice to believe, a sour old fellow, to delight in mischief; a surlyold dog, to mar the pleasures of which I cannot partake; if, therefore,to answer what I mean to ask will thwart any of your projects, leave meand my curiosity in the lurch; if not, you will sensibly gratify me, bya little frank communication. I don't meddle with your affair withFlora; 'tis a blooming little wild rose-bud, but of too common a speciesto be worth analysing. This other young creature, however, whose wingsyour bird-lime seems also to have entangled--'
'How so?' interrupted Sir Lyell, jumping eagerly from the counter, 'whatthe d--l do you mean by that?'
'Not to be indiscreet, I promise you,' answered Sir Jaspar; 'but as Isee the interest she takes in you,--'
'The d--l you do?' exclaimed Sir Lyell, in an accent of surprize, yet oftransport.
Sir Jaspar now, ironically smiling, said, 'You don't know it, then, SirLyell? You are modest?--diffident? unconscious?--'
'My dear boy!' cried Sir Lyell, riotously, and approaching familiarly toembrace him, 'what a devilish kind office I shall owe you, if you canput any good notions into my head of that delicious girl!'
New doubts now destroying his recent suspicions, Sir Jaspar held back,positively refusing to clear up what had dropt from him, and laughinglysaying, 'Far be it from me to put any such notions into your head! Ibelieve it amply stored! All my desire is to get some out of it. If,therefore, you can tell me, or, rather, will tell me, who or what thisyoung creature is, you will do a kind office to my imagination, forwhich I shall be really thankful. Who is she, then? And what is she?'
'D--l take me if I either know or care!' cried Sir Lyell, 'further thanthat she is a beauty of the first water; and that I should have adoredher, exclusively, three months ago, if I had not believed her a thing ofalabaster. But if you think her--'
'Not I! not I!--I know nothing of her!' interrupted Sir Jaspar: 'she isa rose planted in the snow, for aught I can tell! The more I see, theless I understand; the more I surmize, the further I seem from the mark.Honestly, then, whence does she come? How did you first see her? Whatdoes she do at Brighthelmstone?'
'May I go to old Nick if I am better informed than yourself! except thatshe sings and plays like twenty angels, and that all the women arejealous of her, and won't suffer a word to be said to her. However, Imade up to her, at first, and should certainly have found her out, butfor Melbury, who annoyed me with a long history of her virtue, andcharacter, and Lady Aurora's friendship, and the d--l knows what; thatmade me so cursed sheepish, I was afraid of embarking in any measures ofspirit. My sister, also, took lessons of her; and other game came intochase; and I should never have thought of her again, but that, when Iwent to town, a week or two ago, I learnt, from that Queen of the Crabs,Mrs Howel, that Melbury, in fact, knows no more of her than we do. Hehad nobody's world but her own for all her fine sentiments; so that heand his platonics would have kept me at bay no longer, if I had notbelieved her decamped from Brighthelmstone, upon hearing that you hadgot her lodging. How came you to turn her into the garret, my dear boy?Is that _a la mode_ of your _vieille cour_?'
Sir Jaspar protested that, when he took the apartment, he knew not ofher existence; and then enquired, whether Sir Lyell could tell in whatname she had been upon the stage; and why she had quitted it.
'The stage? O the d--l!' he exclaimed, 'has she been upon the stage?'
'Yes; I heard the fact mentioned to her, the other day, by afellow-performer! some low player, who challenged her as a sister of thebuskins.'
'What a glorious Statira she must make!' cried Sir Lyell. 'I am ready tobe her Alexander when she will. That hint you have dropt, my dear oldboy, sha'n't be thrown away upon me. But how the d--l did you find thedear charmer out?'
Sir Jaspar again sought to draw back his information; but Sir Lyellswore that he would not so lightly be put aside from a view of success,now once it was fairly opened; and was vowing that he should begin asiege in form, and persevere to a surrender; when the conversation wasinterrupted, by the entrance of the shop-man, accompanied by amantua-maker, who called upon some business.
Juliet, who, from the beginning, had heard this discourse with theutmost uneasiness, and whom its conclusion had filled with indignantdisgust; had no resource to avoid the yet greater evil of being joinedby the interlocutors, but that of sitting motionless and unsuspected,till they should depart; or till Miss Matson should return. But her careand precaution proved vain: the shop-man invited Mrs Hart, themantua-maker, into the little parlour; and, upon opening the door,Juliet met their astonished view.
Sir Jaspar, not without evident anxiety, endeavoured to recollect whathad dropt from him, that might hurt her; or how he might palliate whatmight have given her offence. But Sir Lyell, not at all disconcerted,and privately persuaded that half his difficulties were vanquished, bythe accident that acquainted her with his design; was advancing,eagerly, with a volley of rapid compliments, upon his good fortune inagain meeting with her; when Juliet, not deigning to seem conscious evenof his presence, passed him without notice; and, addressing Mrs Hart,entreated that she would go up stairs to the room of Miss Pierson, toexamine whether it were necessary to send for any advice; as she hadreturned home alone, and complained of being ill. Mrs Hart complied; andJuliet followed her to Flora's chamber-door.