Lady Carey

“ Why, those are those horrid improper-looking gods and goddesses in clouds and chariots on the ceilings at Belforest,” observed that lady, in a half-puzzled, half-offended tone of voice, that most perilously tickled the fancy of Mother Carey and her brood! and she could hardly command her voice to make answer, “Never fear, Ellen; we are not going to attempt allegorical monstrosities, only to make a bower of green leaves and flowers such as we see round us; though after what we have seen to-day that seems presumptuous enough. Fancy, Janet! ”

“ She seemed in excellent spirits this evening; but how silent Miss Hamilton had become since her entrance! 'Of course poor Etta is blamed; she always is if anything goes wrong in the house; Etta is the family scapegoat. But who was it, I wonder, who wanted another turn on the pier? Not Etta, certainly.'
'Just as though those few minutes would have mattered; and I did want another look at the sea,' returned Lady Betty pettishly; 'but no, you preferred those stupid shops. That is why I hate to go into Brighton with you.' But Miss Darrell only laughed at this flimsy display of wrath. ”

“ I can imagine him tossing it aside as he opens his other letters: "Gladys has actually written to me. I suppose she wants another cheque. See what she says, Etta. You may read it aloud, if you like, while I finish my breakfast." Now do not look incredulous. I once saw Lady Betty's letter treated in this way, and all her poor little sentences pulled to pieces in Etta's usual fashion. No, thank you, I will not write to Giles. I write to Lady Betty sometimes, but not often: that is why she comes to you for news. We are a queer household, Ursula. ”

“ Oswald Carey?" asked the monarch at last.
"Here she comes, your Majesty," said Lady Constance Percy, nodding toward the entrance.
Mrs. Carey, in a superb black velvet costume, cut square in front, with a Maltese cross of brilliants resting upon her bosom, swept grandly across the dining hall. She held a small bunch of flowers in her hand. The head waiter of the hotel, bowing almost to the ground, waved her toward the royal table. Everybody in the room paused to gaze at the superb beauty. The master of the household drew back her chair, but she did not stop until she reached the King. ”

“ Mrs. Ossian Popham or Mrs. Bill Harmon would have been shown the door for saying less, yet here was Henry Lord, Ph.D., ambling down the lane by Mother Carey's side, thinking to himself what a burden she lifted from his shoulders by her unaccountable interest in his unattractive children. He was also thinking how "springy" was the lady's step in her short black dress, how brilliant the chestnut hair looked under the black felt hat, and how white the skin gleamed above the glossy lynx boa. ”

“ Clara met her friend with an agitated manner, half-laughing, half-crying, as she said—
“Well, Mother Carey dear, you haven’t quite soared above us yet?”
“Petrels never take high flights,” said Carey; “I hope and trust that it may prove impossible to make a fine lady of me. I am caught late, you see.”
“Your daughters are not. You won’t like to have them making excuses for mamma’s friends.”
“Janet’s exclusiveness will not be of that sort, and for warm-hearted little Babie, trust her. Do you know where the Ogilvies can be written to, Clara? ”

“ I have a plan; but you have yourself put it into my head by saying what you did about Lady Fitzroy.”
“About Lady Fitzroy?”
“Yes; your telling her about our making our own dresses. Nan, you are right: needlework is our forte; nothing is a trouble to us. Few girls have such clever fingers, I believe; and then you and Dulce have such taste. Mrs. Paine once told me that we were the best-dressed girls in the neighborhood, and she wished Carrie looked half as well. I am telling you this, not from vanity, but because I do believe we can turn our one talent to account. ”

“ The baby was sucking her thumb contentedly on her lap. Poor Mary was worse that day, and I had begged Lady Betty to keep the little ones quiet.
Mr. Hamilton came into the sick-room looking very much pleased. 'I only wish you could make Lady Betty a useful member of society, Miss Garston,' he said, with one of the rare smiles that always lit up his dark face so pleasantly. 'She is a good little thing, but she wants ballast. As a rule, young ladies are terribly idle.'
I had called up at Gladwyn a few days after we had dined there, but, to my great disappointment, I did not see Miss Hamilton. ”

“ Yvonne has disappeared and the doors were all locked. There is only the woman who——”
They both turned sharply at the rustle of a dress and stood hand in hand gazing in silence, for there had entered the girl whom André had seen plotting with Onslow at “The Cock with the Spurs of Gold.”
André mechanically whipped off his hat, Denise mechanically answered the curtsey of the lady who had entered, for this was a gentlewoman of their own rank, whose beauty would have adorned the great hall in the Château de Beau Séjour.
“We agreed,” she began quietly, “that Mademoiselle la Marquise was to decide. ”

“ But neither I nor you can settle that, nor the King, for kings and men alone,” she laughed gently, “cannot make a man’s fate.”
“I thank you, Madame. His Majesty, I hope, will know that I am his servant always, but my decision is already taken, and from to-day I shall not live at Versailles nor Paris; De Nérac is to be my home, and perhaps some day Beau Séjour.”
Madame had dropped the roll of paper in an astonishment she failed to master. Her lips parted as she looked him in the face.
“Yes,” André repeated. “The Marquise de Beau Séjour and I have decided. Nothing can alter that decision.” ”

“ She asked after you, Ursie, and sent you a power of love, and I hope it will do you good.'
'And what have you been doing with yourself all day, Jill?' I asked, rather anxiously.
'Oh, lots of things,' tossing back her thick locks. 'Let me see. Lady Betty came to fetch me for a walk, and we met Mr. Tudor. He is all alone, poor man, and very dull without Mr. Cunliffe; he told us so: so Lady Betty brought him back to lunch. And Miss Darrell was so cross, and told poor Lady Betty that she was very forward to do such a thing; they had such a quarrel in the drawing-room about it. Mr. ”

“ So presently she came out of her muff and asked me, with mirthful eyes, for whom I took her.
'You are Lady Betty, I understood,' was my stiff response.
'Yes, of course; every one calls me that, except the vicar, who will address me as Miss Elizabeth. I never will answer to that name ”

“ André was silent, appalled at her knowledge. The tables had been turned on him with a vengeance, and this astonishing woman was right, which was hardest of all.
“You would know,” she proceeded, divining marvellously his confused thoughts, “how I have all this information. I have my crystal,” she laughed, “but [241] I also hate the King and the woman who rules him. You and she are not the only persons at Versailles to whom it is a matter of life and death to discover the secret of ‘No. 101.’ Monsieur, I am the paid agent of the foes of that wanton, the King’s mistress, and of yourself.” ”

“ André too had risen. Ha! At last he understood. The visitor was no other than the fair huntress of the woods who had driven to see the King, in an azure phaeton, herself clad in rose-coloured satin.
“Ah!” exclaimed Madame d’Étiolles, stretching her arms. “Ah!” Then she turned on the sorceress furiously. “My woman has betrayed me,” she cried.
“Oh, no, Madame”—she curtsied as to a queen—“not your woman but the crystal and yourself.” ”

“ The English would not give a sou for the secret despatch to-day.”
So that was how Madame had spent her night, and it had left her radiant as Aphrodite rising from the foam, while he, André, was oppressed by the weariness of the defeated.
“Yes, the Marquise de Beau Séjour is safe, you are [369] safe, Vicomte, and I am safe, and the King is happy and well. The only persons who are not safe and happy,” she smiled with the daintiest irony, “are or will be some of your enemies and mine. My hour has come. I shall not ask them to forgive, nor will they forget.” ”

“ It has been a fair fight if fights for a woman’s love can ever be fair. Will you give me the pleasure of shaking hands?”
“Yes,” André answered, with much emotion. “And if I am not sent to Nérac you shall not go to Italy.”
“We will see.” The Chevalier had resumed his jesting tone, for they were both being jealously watched. He nodded and slipped away. André, muttering, “Always, always,” slipped away, too. “Always.” Was Denise still to be won, or why had a tear stood in the boy’s eye when he had spoken?
“Madame!” he cried, aghast, as he stepped into the Marquise de Pompadour’s salon. ”

“ Should he run her through at once or strangle her for an execrable traitress? The woman betrayed neither fear nor interest. She seemed to have forgotten his presence.
“Are you ‘No. 101’?” he asked at last.
“Oh, no.” She was laughing softly. “I am only her—agent.”
[112] “Then the trait—then she is a woman?”
“Yes.” She stood up and shook some cinders from her cloak. “Yes, she is a woman.” And André knew she was lying. The fingers on his sword relaxed. Kill her he could not—yet. Depart he could not—yet. For he was in the grip of a weird fascination—of a secret whose mystery numbed his senses. ”

“ She stared at the money incredulously.
“There, girl,” he urged, for a woman’s distress, even though she were only a peasant, hurt him, “be happy and buy a fat and spotted cow.”
She kneeled to kiss his hand. “Monseigneur,” she sobbed, “is kind to a poor wench. Surely the good God has sent him to me,” and she poured her hot tears of gratitude on the ruffles of his sleeve.
“I am happy again,” she murmured. “Yes, I will buy a cow and be happy,” and she began to sing, flinging the coarse matted hair out of her eyes.
André watched her contentedly; it was pleasant to see her joy. ”

“ You can't have the help of Yale or Harvard or Bowdoin to make a man of you, my son,—you will have to fight your own battles and win your own spurs."
"Oh! mother, but you're splendid!" cried Nancy, the quick tears in her eyes. "Brace up, old Gilly, and show what the Careys can do without 'advantages.' Brace up, Kitty and Julia! We three will make Beulah Academy ring next year!"
"And I don't want you to look upon Beulah as a place of hiding while adversity lasts," said Mother Carey. "We must make it home; as beautiful and complete as we can afford. ”

“ But a woman’s beauty, genius, and passion, and ambition had fought in vain, for “No. 101” was stronger than all of these.
Suddenly she rose with an exclamation of vindictive and unholy exultation. She had picked a jewelled pendant from the floor. “Ha!” she cried, “here is proof of the thief you could not catch. Mademoiselle Denise has been here; that jewel is hers and it fell by the escritoire table; it is not ‘No. 101’ who has stolen the despatch, it is the Marquise de Beau Séjour.”
André had turned deadly pale. He stared in impotent silence. Yes, the jewel was Denise’s ”

“ What was the real man [87] concealed behind that regal presence? What were the real thoughts masked by that gaze, slightly bored yet caressing and sweet?
“You do not like the King?” André asked quickly, for he had caught behind the pale blue mask a swift glance which sent a shiver down his spine.
“I love him,” she answered, “as all we women do. But I was thinking of the day when I am to be burnt for a witch.”
It was not the truth and André knew it. A woman’s jealousy, he thought—but that, too, he knew it was not.
“My friend,” she said, “go you and salute Madame d’Étiolles. ”

“ I was much happier about Carrie now—she seemed brighter and in better spirits. If she loathed her daily drudgery, she said little about it, and complained less. All her interests were reserved for Nightingale lane and Rowley street. The hours spent in those unsavory neighborhoods were literally her times of refreshment. Her poor people were very close to her heart, and often she told us about them as we sat working together in the evening, until mother grew quite interested, and used to ask after them by name, which pleased Carrie, and made a bond of sympathy between them. ”

“ Nan sat down by her mother and folded her hands on her lap. When men were masterful, it was time for maidens to sit still. Dulce really looked frightened; but Phillis presently broke into a laugh.
“This is a parable of nature,” she said. “Mammie, does your head ache? Would you like to go into the next room?”
“There, we have about done!” observed Sir Harry. “The place is pretty well clear: isn’t it, Mayne?” And, as Dick nodded a cheerful assent, he shut the door of the wardrobe, locked it, and, with much solemnity, put the key in his pocket. ”

“ Then she rose and calmly rearranged her disordered dress and hair and quickly searched him for pistols and dagger.
“Carrion! scum!” she whispered, bending over him, “you deserve to die like the English dog you are. Miserable, insolent libertine!” and she struck him on the cheek. “No, I will not kill you, for you have my work to do and you shall do it. But a weak woman has taught you a lesson and your hour is not yet come. Another shall soil his hands or his sword with your rascallion blood. ”

“ Two soft arms enfolded him for a brief second. “The lips, Vicomte” came the caressing chant—“the lips that a king has kissed salute you.” His head rested on her breast. “Adieu!” She had vanished and his numbed senses ebbed away into an enchanted oblivion. The Loire floated at his feet, the autumn trees rustled a perfect pleasantness and peace, and Denise standing beneath the carved mantelpiece with “Dieu Le Vengeur” in a scroll of gold above her had him in her forgiving arms. ”