the station of hetton, some fifty miles' journey from london on the great western line, and two from chandos, lay hot and bright in the september sun. it was afternoon when we reached it. madame de mellissie had preferred to stay a night in london, and go on the next day at leisure. a handsome close carriage was in waiting outside the station, its three attendants wearing the chandos livery, its panels bearing the arms of the chandos family, surmounted by the badge of england's baronetage, the bloody hand. the servants lifted their hands to their hats, and respectfully welcomed madame de mellissie.
"is mamma well?" she inquired of them.
"quite well, madam."
"and my brother? why is he not here?"
"mr. chandos, madam, was obliged to attend a county meeting."
"those ponderous county meetings!" she retorted. "and they never do any good. step in, miss hereford."
we were soon driving along. pauline sat behind with one of the footmen, the other remained to bring on the luggage. madame de mellissie looked out on the points of road as we passed, with all the glee of a child.
"this is my second visit only to chandos since my marriage. for two years mamma was implacable, and would not see me; but last year she relented, and i came here for a little while. i don't believe, though, mamma will ever forgive me in her heart. i am sorry for it now."
"sorry for having--having married as you did?"
"ay, i am: those rebellious marriages never bring luck. they can't, you know; only, girls are so thoughtless and stupid. i made my own bed, and must lie on it; it is not so bad as it might have been: but--of course, all that's left is to make the best of it. alfred says we should get on better if we had children. i say we should not. and there, in the distance, you see the chimneys of chandos. look, anne!"
she was wayward in her moods; wayward to me as to others. sometimes, during our past journey, she would be distantly polite, calling me "miss hereford:" the next moment open and cordial as ever she had been at school. that she had thrown herself away in a worldly point of view, marrying as she did, was indisputable, and emily chandos was not one to forget it.
chandos was a long, low, red brick house, with gables and turrets to its two end wings, and a small turret in the middle, which gave it a somewhat gothic appearance. it was but two stories high, and struck me as looking low, not elevated, perhaps partly from its length. no steps ascended to the house, the lower rooms were on a level with the ground outside. it was a sort of double house; the servants' rooms, kitchens, and chambers, all looking to the back, where there was a separate entrance. extensive grounds lay around it, but they were so crowded with trees, except just close to the house, as to impart a weird-like, gloomy appearance; they completely shut chandos house from the view of the world beyond, and the beyond world from the view of chandos. a pretty trellised portico was at the entrance; jessamine, roses, and clematis entwined themselves round it, extending even to the windows on either hand. before the carriage had well stopped, a gentleman rode up on horseback, followed by a groom. he threw himself from his horse, and came to the carriage-door.
"back just in time to receive you, emily. how are you, my dear?"
she jumped lightly from the carriage, and he was turning away with her when he saw me. his look of intense surprise was curious to behold, and he stopped in hesitation. emily spoke: her tone a slighting one, almost disparaging.
"it is only my companion. would you believe it, harry, alfred took a prudent fit, and would not suffer me to travel alone? so i engaged miss hereford: she was in quest of a situation; and we knew each other in days gone by."
he assisted me from the carriage. it was the same fine man i had seen some years before at mademoiselle barlieu's; the same pale countenance, with its delicate features and rather sad expression; the same sweet voice. he then gave his arm to his sister, and i followed them to the sitting-room. they called it the oak parlour; a large, square room, somewhat dark, its colours harmoniously blending, and its windows shaded with the trained clematis and jessamine. it was the favourite sitting-room at chandos. other reception-rooms there were: a gorgeous double drawing-room, a well-stored library, a spacious dining-room; but the oak parlour was the favourite. and none could wonder at it; for it was just one of those seductive apartments that speak to the feelings of repose.
"where's mamma?" exclaimed emily, as we entered.
"not far; she will be here directly, you may be sure," replied mr. chandos. "is this your first visit to our part of the country, miss hereford?"
"yes; i never was here before."
now what was there in this reply to offend madame de mellissie? or did she resent his speaking to me at all? she turned round, haughty pride stamped on every line of her countenance, rebuke on her tongue: though the rebuke lay in the tone, rather than in the words.
"miss hereford! the gentleman to whom you speak is mr. chandos."
had i again omitted the sign of my dependent situation, the "sir?" i, who had resolved, with my then burning face (burning again now), never so to offend for the future--i supposed that that was the meaning of madame de mellissie; i suppose so still, to this hour. i had spoken as though i were the equal of mr. chandos: i must not--i would not--so offend again.
"emily, my love, you are welcome."
a little woman had entered the room, and was holding madame de mellissie in her arms. it was lady chandos. she wore a small and pretty widow's cap of net, a rich but soft black silk dress, and black lace mittens. her nose was sharp, and her small face had a permanent redness, the result of disturbed health. she was not like her daughter, not half so beautiful; and she was not like her handsome son, unless it was in the subdued, sad expression. she quite started back when her eyes fell on me, evidently not prepared to see a stranger.
"miss hereford, mamma; a young lady whom i have engaged as companion. alfred would not suffer me to travel alone."
lady chandos turned to me with a pleasant smile, but it struck me as being a forced one.
"i think you look more fit to take care of miss hereford, emily, than miss hereford of you," she said.
"i am the elder by some two or three years, if you mean that, mamma. oh! it was just a whim of my husband's."
more questioning on either side; just the information sought for when relatives meet after a long absence. emily answered carelessly and lightly; and i sat behind, unnoticed.
hill was called. hill was still at chandos, lady's-maid and housekeeper, a confidential servant. she came forward, wearing a dark brown gown and handsome black silk apron, her grey hair banded under her close white lace cap. lady chandos spoke with her in an undertone, most likely consulting what chamber i should be placed in, for hill turned her eyes upon me and looked cross.
a wide staircase, its balustrades of carved oak, gilded in places, wound up to the rooms above. a gallery, lighted from above, ran along this upper floor, from wing to wing, paintings lining it. it seemed as if the wings had some time been added to the house, for they were of a different style of architecture. a green-baize door shut them out from the gallery. beyond this was a narrow corridor, and then a double door of stout oak, which formed the real entrance to the wings: the same on both sides. what rooms might be within them, i did not yet know. each wing had a staircase of communication between its upper and lower floors, and also a small door of egress to the grounds on the sides of the house, where the trees grew very thick. in the east wing (the house, you must understand, facing the south), this lower outer door was kept locked and barred--to all intents and purposes, closed up; in the west wing, which was inhabited exclusively by lady chandos, the door was simply locked, and could be opened inside at will; though no one ever made use of it but herself, and she very rarely.
several rooms opened from the gallery to the front--all of them bed-chambers, except one: that was the library. the library was the room next to the east wing. opposite to it was a door opening to a room that looked back, level with the north rooms in the east wing. a similar room opened from the gallery at the other end. in fact, the house was built in uniform--one end the same as the other. between the doors of these two rooms the wall of the gallery ran unbroken; there was, in fact, no communication whatever, as regards the upper rooms, between the back portion of the house and the front.
and now for the ground-floor. the portico was not in the middle of the house, but near to the east wing; one room only, the large dining-room, that seemed to be never used, lying between. the hall was rather small, dark, and shut in, the oak parlour being on the left hand as you entered. two doors at the back of the hall led, the one to the handsome staircase, the other to the kitchens and other domestic rooms belonging to the household. a spacious corridor, underneath the gallery above, branched off from the hall by means of an open archway behind the oak parlour, and ran along the house; and the various reception-rooms, all looking front, including mr. chandos's private sitting-room, opened from it. a passage at the other end of the corridor led to the rooms at the back, but it had been closed up; and there was no communication whatever on this lower floor with the wings. the doors in the hall, leading to the stairs and to the servants' offices, as often as not stood open during the day. lady chandos sat much in the west wing; she seemed to like being alone. and i think that is all that need be said at present in regard to the in-door features of the house. the description has not been given unnecessarily.
hill marshalled me up the staircase. it had been decided that i was to have the "blue room." the stairs terminated in a wide landing. the library and the east wing lay to the right, as we ascended; the long gallery on the left. hill passed two chamber-doors, and opened a third, that of the blue room. it was as little calculated for immediate occupation as any room can well be; the whole of the furniture being covered up with clean sheets of linen, except the blue silk window-hangings. madame de mellissie had the room next to it, and i could hear her talking in it with her mother. hill surveyed matters, and gave a sort of grunt.
"ugh! i thought the maids had uncovered this room yesterday: as i've just told my lady. they must have hurried over their cleaning pretty quick. please to step this way, miss. if you'll wait here a few minutes, i'll have things arranged."
she went back along the gallery, opened the door of the first bedroom on this side the staircase, and showed me in. it was a very pretty room, not large; its hangings and curtains of delicate chintz, lined with pale rose-colour, and its furniture not covered up, but as evidently not in occupation. i wondered why they could not put me in that. the window was wide open. i untied my bonnet and stood there, hill closing the door and going downstairs, no doubt to call up the housemaids.
with the exception of the gravel drive below, and the green lawn in front of it, its velvet softness dotted with the brightest flowers, the place seemed to look upon nothing but trees, intersected with gloomy walks. trees of all sorts--low as dwarf shrubs, high as towering poplars, dark green, light green, bright green. the walks branched everywhere--one in particular, just opposite my window, looked very gloomy, shaded as it was by dark pine-trees. i found afterwards that it was called the pine walk. why the place should have struck upon me with a gloom, i can hardly tell; other people might have seen nothing to justify the impression. "chandos has need to live in a world of its own," i thought, "for assuredly it is shut in from all view of the outer world."
there arose a sound as of some one softly whistling. it came from the adjacent window, one in the gallery, which must have been open the same as mine. i did not like to lean forward and look. another moment, and the whistling ceased; some one else appeared to have come up, and voices in conversation supervened. they were those of lady chandos and her son, and i became an involuntary hearer of what troubled me much.
"this is one of emily's wild actions," said lady chandos. "she knows quite enough of our unhappy secrets to be sure that a stranger is not wanted at chandos."
"look for the most improbable thing in the world, mother, before you look for discretion or thought in emily," was the reply of mr. chandos. "but this is but a young girl, unsuspicious naturally from her age and sex: emily might have introduced a more dangerous inmate. and it may happen that----"
"i know what you would urge, harry," interrupted the voice of lady chandos. "but there's no certainty. there cannot be: and it is most unfortunate that emily should have brought her here. every night, night by night as they come round, i lie awake shivering; if the wind does but move the trees, i start; if an owl shrieks forth its dreary note, i almost shriek with it. you know what we have cause to fear. and for a stranger to be sleeping in the house!"
"yes, it is certainly unfortunate."
"it is more than that; it is dangerous. harry, i have never, i hope, done a discourteous thing, but it did occur to me to put this young. girl to sleep on the servants' side of the house. i think her being so ladylike in appearance saved her from it, not my good manners. i don't know what to be at."
mr. chandos made no reply.
"i wish i had done it!" resumed lady chandos. "but there's another thing--emily might object: and to have any fuss would be worse than all. still, look at the risk--the stake! is it too late, do you think, harry? would it do to change her room now?"
"my dear mother, you are the best judge," observed mr. chandos. "i should not change the room if i could possibly avoid it; the young lady might consider it in the light of an indignity. emily introduced her in a slighting sort of manner; but her looks are refined, her manners those of a gentlewoman."
"yes, that's true."
"how long does emily think of remaining?"
"she says two weeks. but she is uncertain as the wind. how could she think of bringing a stranger?"
"have you told her all?--why it is just now particularly undesirable?"
"no. she never has been told. and i hope and trust she may be gone again before--before trouble comes."
"quite right; i should not tell her. well, mother, as you ask my opinion, i say things had better remain as arranged; let the young lady occupy the blue room. how cross hill looked over it!"
"not without cause. i cannot think how emily can have been so senseless. it is just as if she had planned the annoyance--bringing her here without writing! had she written, i should have forbidden it."
"let us hope that nothing will happen."
"harry, we cannot answer for it. again, on ethel's account a stranger in the house is not desirable. emily might have thought of that."
the voices ceased; i suppose the speakers quitted the place; and down i sat, overwhelmed with shame and consternation. to be introduced in this unwelcome manner into a house, bringing annoyance and discomfort to its inmates, seemed to me little less than a crime; i could scarcely have felt more guilty had i committed one.
and what was the mystery? that something or other was amiss in the family was all too evident. "have they got a ghost here?" i said to myself, in peevishness. involuntarily the long-past words of annette barlieu flashed into my mind: and i had never thought of them since they were spoken. "there is always a cloud hanging over chandos. they do not care to have a governess residing there: miladi said it to me." then what was the cloud?--what was the fear?
hill came in again, saying i was to keep the chintz-room. lady chandos, in passing just now along the gallery to her own apartments in the west wing, saw for the first time that the blue room was not ready. so it was decided between her and hill that i should occupy the chintz one.
the luggage was brought up, and i began to dress for dinner. a question occurred to me--are companions expected to dress, in the wide sense of the term? i really did not know, in my inexperience. my birth entitled me to do so; but did my position? a minute's hesitation told me i was a guest at chandos, treated and regarded as one, and might appear accordingly. so i put on a pretty low blue silk, with my necklace of real pearls, that had once been mamma's, and the pale-blue enamelled bracelets with the pearl clasps. i had been obliged to dress a good deal at mrs. paler's in the evening; and--to confess the truth--i liked it.
i stood at the door, hesitating whether to go down, as one is apt to do in a house, the ways of which are unfamiliar, when mr. chandos, ready for dinner, came suddenly out of the room opposite to the library, nearly opposite to mine, the one that i spoke of as looking to the back of the house, and adjoining the back rooms of the east wing. i concluded that it was his bed-chamber. he smiled at me as he crossed to the stairs, but did not say anything. directly after, emily de mellissie appeared in the gallery, radiant in white silk, with an apple-blush rose in her hair, and a diamond aigrette embedded in it. they said she was full of whims--as i knew for myself. how ardently i hoped that some whim would send her speedily away from chandos!
we went into the first drawing-room, one of the most beautiful rooms i had ever seen, its fittings violet and gold. lady chandos was there, and did not appear to have changed her dress. the dinner was served in the oak-parlour; not once in a year did they use the great dining-room. lady chandos kindly passed her arm through mine; and mr. chandos brought in his sister.
it was a pleasant dinner, and a pleasant evening. emily was on her best behaviour, telling all manner of amusing anecdotes of paris life to her mother and brother, ignoring me. i listened, and was spoken to by the others now and then. we did not quit the oak-parlour. when dessert was taken, hickens, the butler, removed it and brought in tea. "after my snug sitting-room upstairs, the drawing-room is so large," observed lady chandos to me, as if in apology; "i like this parlour best."
upon retiring to rest, a neat-looking servant with light hair, whose name i found was harriet, came to the chintz-room, and asked whether she should do anything for me. she said she was one of the housemaids--there were two besides herself, lizzy dene and emma. altogether, including the coachman, a helper in the stables, and two gardeners--all four of whom were out of doors, living half a mile away--there were seventeen servants at chandos. a large number, as it seemed to me, considering the very little attendance that was required of them. i told harriet i had been accustomed to wait upon myself, and she retired.
but i could not get to sleep. the conversation i had overheard kept haunting me. i wondered what the mystery could be; i wondered whether i should be disturbed in the night by noises, or else. what uncanny doings could there be in the house?--what unseemly inmates, rendering it inexpedient that a stranger should share its hospitality? was it really tenanted by ghosts?--or by something worse? at any rate, they did not molest me, and my sleep at last was tranquil.
we went down the following morning at half-past eight; emily in a white dimity robe of no shape, but tied round the waist with a scarlet cord, the effect altogether rather untidy; i in a mauve-coloured muslin, with ribbons of the same shade; and found lady and mr. chandos waiting breakfast in the oak-parlour. the panels of this room were of alternate white and carved oak, with a great deal of gilding about both; it had a most unusual appearance; i had never seen anything like it before. the ceiling was white, with gilt scrolls round it, and cornices. the large chimney-glass was in a carved oak frame, gilded in places to match the walls; the slanting girandole opposite the window, reflecting the green grass and the waving trees in its convex mirrored surface, had a similar frame. the chandelier for the wax lights was of gilt, also the branches on the mantelpiece, and those of the girandole. it was a pleasant room to enter--as i thought that morning. the oak-brown silk curtains, with their golden satin-wrought flowers, were drawn quite back from the windows, which were thrown open to the lovely morning air; a bright fire burnt in the grate opposite the door; the breakfast-table, with its snow-white linen, its painted worcester china, and its glittering silver, was in the middle. easy-chairs stood about the room, a sofa against the wall--all covered to match the curtains--brown and gold: a piano was there, a sideboard stood at the back, underneath the reflective mirror; other chairs, tables, ornaments; and the dark carpet was soft as the softest moss. out of all order though cavillers for severe taste might have called the room, i know that it had an indescribable charm.
lady chandos, dressed just as she had been the previous day--and i found it was her usual dress at all times--sat with her back to the window, her son facing her, i and emily on either side. breakfast was about half over when hickens brought in some letters on a small silver waiter, presenting them to mr. chandos. i was soon to learn that all letters coming to the house, whether for servants or else, were invariably handed first of all to mr. chandos. one of these was directed to "lady chandos;" two to "harry chandos, esquire;" the fourth to "mrs. chandos." mr. chandos put his mother's letter on the waiter again, and hickens handed it to her. he then came back with the waiter to his master, who placed the other letter upon it.
"for mrs. chandos." and hickens went out with it.
"who was mrs. chandos? i should have liked to ask, but dared not.
"do you mean to say that there is no letter for me, harry?" exclaimed madame de mellissie. "that's my punctual husband! he said he should be quite certain to send me a letter to-day."
"the french letters often come in later, emily," remarked her brother.
he and lady chandos read their letters, emily talked and laughed, and the meal came to an end. at its conclusion mr. chandos offered to go round the grounds with his sister.
"yes, i'll go," she answered. "you can go also, miss hereford, if you like. but we must get our bonnets and parasols, first, harry."
my bonnet and parasol were soon got, and i stood at my bedroom door, waiting for emily. as she came down the gallery, the green-baize door on my right, leading to the east wing, opened, and a middle-aged lady appeared at it. madame de mellissie advanced and cordially saluted her.
"i should have paid you a visit yesterday, mrs. freeman, but that i heard mrs. chandos was ill."
"you are very kind, madam," was the lady's reply. "mrs. chandos was exceedingly unwell yesterday, but she is better to-day. she----"
mrs. freeman was interrupted. a lovely-looking girl--girl she looked, though she may have been seven or eight-and-twenty--appeared at the door of one of the rooms in the wing. her dress was white; she wore a beautiful little head-dress of lace and lavender ribbons, and she came forward, smiling.
"i heard you had arrived, emily dear, and should have joined you all yesterday, but i was so poorly," she said, clasping madame de mellissie's hand. "how well you look!"
"and you look well also," replied emily. "we must never judge you by your looks, mrs. chandos."
"no, that you must not: i always look in rude health, in spite of my ailments," answered mrs. chandos. "will you not come and sit with me for half an hour?"
"of course i will," was madame de mellissie's reply, as she untied her bonnet and threw it to me carelessly, speaking as careless words.
"have the goodness to tell mr. chandos that i am not going out yet." mrs. chandos, who had not noticed me before, turned in surprise, and looked at me; but madame de mellissie did not, i suppose, deem me worth an introduction.
i went downstairs to deliver her message. mr. chandos was waiting in the oak-parlour, talking to his mother.
"madame de mellissie has desired me to say that she will not go out yet, sir."
"i did not expect she would," he answered, with a slight laugh, "for she is changeable as the wind. tell her so from me, will you, miss hereford?"
he bent his dark blue eyes upon me with a half-saucy glance, as if intimating that he meant what he said.
"very well, sir."
"i returned to my own room, took off my things, and sat down to think.
"who was mrs. chandos?"
