“i found him in the mood; so i thought it best to strike while the iron was hot,” constance said. she had settled down languidly in a favourite corner, as if she had never been away. she had looked for the footstool where she knew it was to be found, and arranged the cushion as she liked it. frances had never made herself so much at home as constance did at once. she looked on with calm amusement while her aunt poured out her delight, her wonder, her satisfaction, in waring’s ears. she did not budge herself from her comfortable place; but she said to frances in an undertone: “don’t let her go on too long. she will bore him, you know; and then he will repent. and i don’t want him to repent.”
as for frances, she saw the ground cut away{v3-236} entirely from under her feet, and stood sick and giddy after the first pleasure of seeing her father was over, feeling her hopes all tumble about her. mrs clarendon, who had been so near yielding, so much disposed to give her the help she wanted, had forgotten her petition and her altogether in the unexpected delight of seeing her brother. and here was constance, the sight of whom perhaps might call the sick man out of his fever, who might restore life and everything, even happiness to him, if she would. but would she? frances asked herself. most likely, she would do nothing, and there would be no longer any room left for frances, who was ready to do all. she would have been more than mortal if she had not looked with a certain bitterness at this new and wonderful aspect of affairs.
“i saw mamma’s brougham at the door,” constance said; “you must take me home. of course, this was the place for papa to come; but i must go home. it would never do to let mamma think me devoid of feeling. how is she, and markham—and everybody? i have scarcely had any news for three months. we{v3-237} met algy muncastle on the boat, and he told us some things—a great deal about nelly winterbourn—the widow, as they call her—and about you.”
“there could be nothing to say of me.”
“oh, but there was, though. what a sly little thing you are, never to say a word! sir thomas.—ah, you see i know. and i congratulate you with all my heart, fan. he is rolling in money, and such a good kind old man. why, he was a lover of mamma’s dans les temps. it is delightful to think of you consoling him. and you will be as rich as a little princess, with mamma to see that all the settlements are right.”
“i don’t know what you mean,” frances said abruptly. she was so preoccupied and so impatient, that she would not even allow herself to inquire. she went to where her father sat talking to his sister, and stood behind his chair, putting her hand upon his arm. he did not perhaps care for her very much. he had aunt caroline to think of, from whom he had been separated so long; and constance, no doubt, had made him her own too, as she had made{v3-238} everybody else her own; but still he was all that frances had, the nearest, the one that belonged to her most. to touch him like this gave her a little consolation. and he turned round and smiled at her, and put his hand upon hers. that was a little comfort too; but it did not last long. it was time she should return to her mother; and constance was anxious to go, notwithstanding her fear that her father might be bored. “i must go and see my mother, you know, papa. it would be very disrespectful not to go. and you won’t want me, now you have got aunt caroline. frances is going to drive me home.” she said this as if it was her sister’s desire to go; but as a matter of fact, she had taken the command at once. frances, reluctant beyond measure to return to the house, in which she felt she would no longer be wanted—which was a perverse imagination, born of her unhappiness—wretched to lose the prospect of help, which she had been beginning to let herself believe in, was yet too shy and too miserable to make any resistance. she remembered her mother’s note for mr clarendon before she went away, and she made one last{v3-239} appeal to her aunt. “you will not forget what we were talking about, aunt caroline?”
“dear me,” said mrs clarendon, putting up her hand to her head. “what was it, frances? i have such a poor memory; and your father’s coming, and all this unexpected happiness, have driven everything else away.”
frances went down-stairs with a heart so heavy that it seemed to lie dead in her breast. was there no help for her, then? no help for him, the victim of constance and of markham? no way of softening calamity to the old people? her temper rose as her hopes fell. all so rich, so abounding, but no one who would spare anything out of his superfluity, to help the ruined and heartbroken. oh yes, she said to herself in not unnatural bitterness, the hospitals, yes; and trotter’s buildings in whitechapel. but for the people to whom they were bound so much more closely, the man who had sat at their tables, whom they had received and made miserable, nothing! oh, nothing! not a finger held out to save him. the little countenance that had been like a summer day, so innocent and fresh and candid, was clouded over. pride{v3-240} prevented—pride, more effectual than any other defence—the outburst which in other circumstances would have relieved her heart. she sat in her corner, withdrawn as far as possible from constance, listening dully, making little response. after several questions, her sister turned upon her with a surprise which was natural too.
“what is the matter?” she said. “you don’t talk as you used to do. is it town that has spoiled you? do you think i will interfere with you? oh, you need not be at all afraid. i have enough of my own without meddling with you.”
“i don’t know what i have that you could interfere with,” said frances. “nothing here.”
“do you want to quarrel with me?” constance said.
“it is of no use to quarrel; there is nothing to quarrel about. i might have thought you would interfere when you came first to bordighera. i had people then who seemed to belong to me. but here—you have the first place. why should i quarrel? you are only coming back to your own.{v3-241}”
“fan, for goodness’ sake, don’t speak in that dreadful tone. what have i done? if you think papa likes me best, you are mistaken. and as for the mother, don’t you know her yet? don’t you know that she is nice to everybody, and cares neither for you nor me?”
“no,” cried frances, raising herself bolt upright; “i don’t know that! how dare you say it, you who are her child? perhaps you think no one cares—not one, though you have made an end of my home. did you hear about george gaunt, what you have done to him? he is lying in a brain-fever, raving, raving, talking for ever, day and night; and if he dies, markham and you will have killed him—you and markham; but you have been the worst. it will be murder, and you should be killed for it!” the girl cried. her eyes blazed upon her sister in the close inclosure of the little brougham. “you thought he did not care, either, perhaps.”
“fan! good heavens! i think you must be going out of your senses,” constance cried.
frances was not able to say any more. she was stifled by the commotion of her feelings,{v3-242} her heart beating so wildly in her breast, her emotion reaching the intolerable. the brougham stopped, and she sprang out and ran into the house, hurrying up-stairs to her own room. constance, more surprised and disconcerted than she could have believed possible, nevertheless came in with an air of great composure, saying a word in passing to the astonished servant at the door. she was quite amiable always to the people about her. she walked up-stairs, remarking, as she passed, a pair of new vases with palms in them, which decorated the staircase, and which she approved. she opened the drawing-room door in her pretty, languid-stately, always leisurely way.
“how are you, mamma? frances has run up-stairs; but here am i, just come back,” she said.
lady markham rose from her seat with a little scream of astonishment. “constance! it is not possible. who would have dreamed of seeing you!” she cried.
“oh yes, it is quite possible,” said constance, when they had kissed, with a prolonged encounter of lips and cheeks. “surely, you did not think i could keep very long away?{v3-243}”
“my darling, did you get home-sick, or mammy-sick as markham says, after all your philosophy?”
“i am so glad to see you, mamma, and looking so well. no, not home-sick, precisely, dear mother, but penetrated with the folly of staying there, where nothing was ever doing, when i might have been in the centre of everything: which is saying much the same thing, though in different words.”
“in very different words,” said lady markham, resuming her seat with a smile. “i see you have not changed at all, con. will you have any tea? and did you leave—your home there—with as little ceremony as you left me!”
“may i help myself, mamma? don’t you trouble. it is very nice to see your pretty china, instead of frances’ old bizarre cups, which were much too good for me. oh, i did not leave my—home. i—brought it back with me.”
“you brought——?”
“my father with me, mamma.”
“oh!” lady markham said. she was too much astonished to say more.{v3-244}
“perhaps it was because he got very tired of me, and thought there was no other way of getting rid of me; perhaps because he was tired of it himself. he came at last like a lamb. i did not really believe it till we were on the boat, and algy muncastle turned up, and i introduced him to my father. you should have seen how he stared.”
“oh!” said lady markham again; and then she added faintly: “is—is he here?”
“you mean papa? i left him at aunt caroline’s. in the circumstances, that seemed the best thing to do.”
lady markham leaned back in her chair; she had become very pale. one shock after another had reduced her strength. she closed her eyes while constance very comfortably sipped her tea. it was not possible that she could have dreamed it or imagined it, when, on opening her eyes again, she saw constance sitting by the tea-table with a plate of bread and butter before her. “i have really,” she explained seriously, “eaten nothing to-day.”
frances came down some time after, having bathed her eyes and smoothed her hair. it was{v3-245} always smooth like satin, shining in the light. she came in, in her unobtrusive way, ashamed of herself for her outburst of temper, and determined to be “good,” whatever might happen. she was surprised that there was no conversation going on. constance sat in a chair which frances at once recognised as having been hers from the beginning of time, wondering at her own audacity in having sat in it, when she did not know. lady markham was still leaning back in her chair. “oh, it’s nothing—only a little giddiness. so many strange things are happening. did you give your uncle clarendon my note? i suppose frances told you, con, how we have been upset to-day?”
“upset?” said constance over her bread and butter. “i should have thought you would have been immensely pleased. it is about sir thomas, i suppose?”
“about sir thomas! is there any news about sir thomas?” said lady markham, with an elaborately innocent look. “if so, it has not yet been confided to me.” and then she proceeded to tell to her daughter the story of nelly winterbourn.{v3-246}
“i should have thought that would all have been set right in the settlements,” constance said.
“so it ought. but she had no one to see to the settlements—no one with a real interest in her; and it was such a magnificent match.”
“no better than sir thomas, mamma.”
“ah, sir thomas. is there really a story about sir thomas? i can only say, if it is so, that he has never confided it to me.”
“i hope no mistake will be made about the settlements in that case. and what do you suppose markham will do?”
“what can he do? he will do nothing, con. you know, after all, that is the rôle that suits him best. even if all had been well, unless nelly had asked him herself——”
“do you think she would have minded, after all this time? but i suppose there’s an end of nelly now,” constance said, regretfully.
“i am afraid so,” lady markham replied. and then recovering, she began to tell her daughter the news—all the news of this one and the other, which frances had never been able to understand, which constance entered{v3-247} into as one to the manner born. they left the subject of nelly winterbourn, and not a word was said of young gaunt and his fever; but apart from these subjects, everything that had happened since constance left england was discussed between them. they talked and smiled and rippled over into laughter, and passed in review the thousand friends whose little follies and freaks both knew, and skimmed across the surface of tragedies with a consciousness, that gave piquancy to the amusement, of the terrible depths beneath. frances, keeping behind, not willing to show her troubled countenance, from which the traces of tears were not easily effaced, listened to this light talk with a wonder which almost reached the height of awe. her mother at least must have many grave matters in her mind; and even on constance, the consciousness of having stirred up all the quiescent evils in the family history, of her father in england, of the meeting which must take place between the husband and wife so long parted, all by her influence, must have a certain weight. but there they sat and talked and laughed, and shot their little shafts of wit.{v3-248} frances, at last feeling her heart ache too much for further repression, and that the pleasant interchange between her mother and sister exasperated instead of lightened her burdened soul, left them, and sought refuge in her room, where presently she heard their voices again as they came up-stairs to dress. constance’s boxes had in the meantime arrived from the railway, and the conversation was very animated upon fashions and new adaptations and what to wear. then the door of constance’s room was closed, and lady markham came tapping at that of frances. she took the girl into her arms. “now,” she said, “my dream is going to be realised, and i shall have my two girls, one on each side of me. my little frances, are you not glad?”
“mother——” the girl said, faltering, and stopped, not able to say any more.
lady markham kissed her tenderly, and smiled, as if she were content. was she content? was the happiness, now she had it, as great as she said? was she able to be light-hearted with all these complications round her? but to these questions who could give any{v3-249} answer? presently she went to dress, shutting the door; and, between her two girls, retired so many hundred, so many thousand miles away—who could tell?—into herself.
in the evening there was considerable stir and commotion in the house. markham, warned by one of his mother’s notes, came to dinner full of affectionate pleasure in con’s return, and cheerful inquiries for her. “as yet, you have lost nothing, con. as yet, nobody has got well into the swim. as to how the mammy will feel with two daughters to take about, that is a mystery. if we had known, we’d have shut up little fan in the nursery for a year more.”
“it is i that should be sent to the nursery,” said constance. “three months is a long time. algy muncastle thought i was dead and buried. he looked at me as if he were seeing a ghost.”
“a girl might just as well be dead and buried as let half the season slip over and never appear.”
“unless she were a widow,” said con.
“ah! unless she were a widow, as you say. that changes the face of affairs.” markham{v3-250} made a slight involuntary retreat when he received that blow, but no one mentioned the name of nelly winterbourn. it was much too serious to be taken any notice of now. in the brightness of lady markham’s drawing-room, with all its softened lights, grave subjects were only discussed tête-à-tête. when the company was more than two, everything took a sportive turn. of the two visitors, however, who came in later, one was not at all disposed to follow this rule. sir thomas said but little to constance, though her arrival was part of the news which had brought him here; but he held lady markham’s hand with an anxious look into her eyes, and as soon as he could, drew frances aside to the distant corner in which she was fond of placing herself. “do you know he has come?” he cried.
“i have seen papa, sir thomas, if that is what you mean.”
“what else could i mean?” said sir thomas. “you know how i have tried for this. what did he say? i want to know what disposition he is in. and what disposition is she in? frances, you and i have a great deal to do.{v3-251} we have the ball at our feet. there is nobody acting in both their interests but you and i.”
there was something in frances’ eyes and in her look of mute endurance which startled him, even in the midst of his enthusiasm. “what is the matter?” he said. “i have not forgotten our bargain. i will do much for you, if you will work for me. and you want something. come, tell me what it is?”
she gave him a look of reproach. had he, too, forgotten the sick and miserable, the sufferer, of whom no one thought? “sir thomas,” she said, “constance has money; she has stopped at paris to buy dresses. oh, give me what is my share.”
“i remember now,” he said.
“then you know the only thing that any one can do for me. oh, sir thomas, if you could but give it me now.”
“shall i speak to your father?” he asked.
these words markham heard by chance, as he passed them to fetch something his mother wanted. he returned to where she sat with a curious look in his little twinkling eyes.{v3-252} “what is sir thomas after? do you know the silly story that is about? they say that old fellow is after lady markham’s daughter. it had better be put a stop to, mother. i won’t have anything go amiss with little fan.”
“go amiss! with sir thomas. there is nobody he might not marry, markham—not that anything has ever been said.”
“let him have anybody he pleases except little fan. i won’t have anything happen to fan. she is not one that would stand it, like the rest of us. we are old stagers; we are trained for the stake; we know how to grin and bear it. but that little thing, she has never been brought up to it, and it would kill her. i won’t have anything go wrong with little fan.”
“there is nothing going wrong with frances. you are not talking with your usual sense, markham. if that was coming, frances would be a lucky girl.”
markham looked at her with his eyes all pursed up, nearly disappearing in the puckers round them. “mother,” he said, “we know a girl who was a very lucky girl, you and i. remember nelly winterbourn.{v3-253}”
it gave lady markham a shock to hear nelly’s name. “o markham, the less we say of her the better,” she cried.
there was another arrival while they talked—claude ramsay, with the flower in his coat a little rubbed by the greatcoat which he had taken off in the hall, though it was now june. “i heard you had come back,” he said, dropping languidly into a chair by constance. “i thought i would come and see if it was true.”
“you see it is quite true.”
“yes; and you are looking as well as possible. everything seems to agree with you. do you know i was very nearly going out to that little place in the riviera? i got all the renseignements; but then i heard that it got hot and the people went away.”
“you ought to have come. don’t you know it is at the back of the east wind, and there are no draughts there?”
“what an ideal place!” said claude. “i shall certainly go next winter, if you are going to be there.{v3-254}”
