Lady Jane

“ Oh, dear Lady Jane, how tired you look, and how sad!"
"This is a very sad day for me," said Lady Jane. "It is the anniversary of my most beloved husband's death. I cannot but feel it; but that child has no mercy. I am going now to visit his grave, in order to put a cross of beautiful flowers there. Any other girl would accompany her mother on such an errand, but of course Irene will not."
Rosamund did not reply for a minute; then she said gently:
"Perhaps she will come with you next year, dear Lady Jane. You cannot reform a nature like hers in a moment." ”

“ Every Paichoux had remembered Lady Jane, and a finer array of picture books, dolls, and toys was never spread before a happier child; but the presents which pleased her most were a small music box from Madelon, a tiny silver thimble from Pepsie, and Mam’selle Diane’s little duckling. These she kept always among her treasures. ”

“ For a moment Lady Jane was stunned, almost stupefied, till the utter misery of her position slowly dawned upon her. She was to take the throne from the Princess Mary, who was the rightful queen, and reign over a people who would look on her as a usurper instead of pitying her as a helpless woman. The future weighed heavily on her mind; she became very ill, and was taken to Chelsea, to the house of her father-in-law, for change of air, there to await the king’s death. ”

“ The torment, the uncertainty did not cease with the day, and it brought a rich colour to her pale face, rarely seen there; never save in moments of deep emotion. As she entered Lady Jane’s presence with this bloom on her cheeks and the purple light shining from her magnificent hair, her handsome gown rustling behind her and her fine figure drawn to its full height, even Jane, with all her prejudice, was struck with her real grandeur. ”

“ Lady Jane—everybody knows Lady Jane—the most admired of London belles for a whole season. Golden brown hair, and what young Thrumly of the Guards called, in those exquisite lines of his, "slumbrous eyes of blue," under very long lashes and exquisitely-traced eyebrows, such brilliant lips and teeth, and such a sweet oval face, and above all, so beautiful a figure and wonderful a waist, might have made one marvel how a lady so well qualified for a title, with noble blood, though but a small dot, should have wrecked herself on an old general, though with eight thousand a year. ”

“ When the quaint little old man, in his antiquated black suit, a relic of other and better days, entered the room, with the beautiful child, rosy and bareheaded, her yellow hair flying out like spun silk, and her dainty though disordered dress plainly showing her superior position, every eye was turned upon him, and Gex felt the stirrings of old pride and ambition, as he placed a chair with great ceremony, and lifted Lady Jane into it. ”

“ Before madame sent her out, she gave Lady Jane instructions in the most imperative manner. “She must never on any account speak of Good Children Street, of Madelon or Pepsie, of the d’Hautreves, of Gex, or the Paichoux, or of any one she had ever known there. She must not talk with people, and, above all, she must never tell her name, nor where she lived. She must only sing and hold out her hand. Sometimes she might cry if she wanted to, but she must never laugh.” ”

“ Pepsie had a knack of dressing Lady Jane as Madame never could; so the little girl was sent [Pg 166] across the street to be made beautiful, with flowing glossy hair and dainty raiment. And when Madame, dressed in one of the young widow’s elegant mourning suits, somewhat changed to better suit her age and position, leading Lady Jane by the hand with a gentle maternal air, limped slowly up the broad aisle of the Cathedral, she felt perfectly satisfied with herself and her surroundings. ”

“ Jane looked into the sympathetic eyes of the ambassador's wife, and what she found there was like a draft of water to her parched soul. The elder woman, smiling down into the white face, wherein the large brown eyes burned unnaturally bright, saw a trembling of the lips instantly conquered by a rallying will, and she patted the small hand hearteningly.
"Dear lady," Jane began, almost as a little child, "I must get out of Paris, and I've come to you to help me. Every way is closed except through you." ”

“ Then Pepsie recounted to her mother everything that had happened during the day, or at least everything that had come within her line of vision as she sat at her window; and Madelon in turn would tell her of all she had heard out in her world, the world of the Rue Bourbon, and after the advent of Lady Jane the child was a constant theme of conversation between them. Her beauty, her intelligence, her pretty manners, her charming little ways were a continual wonder to the homely woman and girl, who had seen little beyond their own sphere of life. ”

“ THE VISIT TO THE PAICHOUX One bright morning in October, while Pepsie and Lady Jane were very busy over their pecans, there was a sudden rattling of wheels and jingling of cans, and Tante Modeste’s milk-cart, gay in a fresh coat of red paint, with the shining cans, and smart little mule in a bright harness, drew up before the door, and Tante Modeste herself jumped briskly down from the high seat, and entered like a fresh breath of spring. ”

“ I was no longer a young girl, but a woman grown, with all a woman's strength of love, when the death of Lady Jane left me without a soul to whom I could turn, save him to whom I had given my first and only love. I had been denied all its expression at the time I most longed for it; I was deprived of its support when I most needed it, through the mistaken sense of honour which drove into exile the gentlest and most devoted of men. He was not one to push his own interest at any time, and now that I am burdened with this undesired fortune, his pride would fasten the door between us. ”

“ Lady Jane stood perfectly motionless and pale as marble when her mother finished speaking, but after a moment she moved across the room and glided through the door without speaking a word, and, as if unconscious of the presence she had left.
“Poor young lady,” muttered the nurse, wiping her eyes and casting a look, which would have been reproachful but for awe, upon the duchess—“her heart was almost broken before, but this will be the death of her.”
“Peace, good dame, peace,” said the Duchess of Somerset, in her usual calm and dignified manner. ”

“ When the lesson was over, and Lady Jane ran to tell her friend of this latest stroke of good fortune, Pepsie showed all her white teeth in a broad smile of satisfaction.
“Well, Lady,” she said, “you are a lucky child. You’ve not only found a music-teacher, but you’ve found a dancing-master.” ”

“ And there was one hour of that happy Christmas eve that Lady Jane never forgot. It was when Margaret took her into the chapel and bade her kneel before the statue of our Saviour, who was once a little child, and thank him devoutly for all the good things that had come to her. Then, when she rose from her knees, the sister who had taught her music played a sweet Ave Maria on the organ, and the child’s angelic voice rose upward in a rapturous song of praise and adoration ”

“ It is needless to say that Gex went, and the little shop in Good Children Street saw him no more forever.
And Margaret—the good Margaret. What could Lady Jane do for her? Only the noble woman and the destitute orphans could testify to the generous aid that came yearly in the shape of a check for a large amount from Lady Jane for dear Mother Margaret’s home.
“And Mam’selle Diane,—dear Mam’selle! what can I give her?” asked Lady Jane eagerly.
“We have our plans for Mam’selle Diane, my dear,” said Mrs. Lanier. “There is only one thing to do for her, and that is to take her with you. ”

“ I suppose it’s a crane, isn’t it?”
“He’s a blue heron, and he’s not a common bird,” replied Lady Jane, repeating her little formula, readily and politely.
“I see that it’s different from a crane,” said Mam’selle Diane, looking at Tony critically, who, now that his mistress had put him down, stood on one leg very much humped up, and making, on the whole, rather an ungainly figure.
“Tony always will do that before strangers,” observed Lady Jane apologetically. “When I want him to walk about and show his feathers, he just draws himself up and stands on one leg.” ”

“ If Madelon was fortunate enough to get home early, she always found Lady Jane with Pepsie, and the loving way with which the child would spring to meet her, clinging to her neck and nestling to her broad motherly bosom, showed how deeply she needed the maternal affection so freely lavished upon her. ”

“ It was crowded with people, and an exclamation of pleasant surprise burst from the duchess and her daughter when two females entered the dungeon, each with a heavy bundle under her arm. In the foremost Lady Jane recognised her old nurse, and the other had long been chief tyring-woman to the duchess. Never were human beings so welcome, never two beings “so happy without knowing why,” as these old warm-hearted women.
“There,” said the nurse, holding the Lady Jane in her arms, and kissing her fondly between the words; “there, I say, you with the crusty face, roll in the coffer—that will do!” ”

“ TANTE MODESTE FINDS LADY JANE When Paichoux read of the death of Madame Jozain in the Charity Hospital, he said decidedly: “Modeste, that woman never left the city. She never went to Texas. She has been hidden here all the time, and I must find that child.”
“And if you find her, papa, bring her right here to me,” said the kind-hearted woman. “We have a good many children, it’s true; but there’s always room for Lady Jane, and I love the little thing as well as if she were mine.” ”

“ James heaved up his physicianly hands and eyes.
“Right to keep it from her, Lady Jane! I would not for the world allow it to reach her ladyship in her present state of health; we don’t know what the consequences might be. My reputation is at stake, my lady.”
Jane bowed her head, and entered her father’s room. The earl lay with his eyes closed, breathing heavily. Death was on his face; Jane saw that at the first glance. The slight movement she made caused him to open them: a joyful ray of gladness flashed into his countenance, and he feebly put out his hand. ”

“ LADY JANE’S DANCING-MASTER Among all Lady Jane’s friends there was no one who congratulated her on her good fortune with half the enthusiasm and warmth displayed by little Gex.
“Vell, vell, my dear leetle lady,” he said, rubbing his small hands delightedly. “Vhy, you are in luck, and no mistake! To have such a teacher for the music as Mam’selle Diane d’Hautreve is as good as a fortune to you. She’ll give you the true style,—the style of the French nobility, the only style vhat is good. I know just vhat that is. Peoples think old Gex knows nothing ”

“ The old lady shook hands with the child and patted her head caressingly; then she asked, in a weak, quavering voice, if the bird wasn’t too heavy for the little girl to carry.
“Oh, no, Madame,” replied Lady Jane, brightly. “Tony’s large, he grows very fast, but he isn’t [Pg 128] heavy, he’s all feathers, he’s very light; would you like to take him?”
“Oh, no, no, my dear, oh no,” said the old lady, drawing back timidly. ”

“ Try and like me, Lady Jane! It will not be difficult to me to love you.”
Jane wheeled round, her white lips trembling, her face ablaze with scorn.
“Like you!” she repeated, her voice, in her terrible emotion, rising to a hiss. “Like you! Can we like the serpent that entwines its deadly coils around its victim? You have brought your arts to bear on my unsuspicious father, and torn him from his children. As you have dealt with us, Eliza Lethwait, may you so be dealt with when your turn shall come!”
The countess drew back in agitation. She laid her hand on Lucy. ”

“ In the midst of his musing, as he casts his eye downward, he beholds “the fairest and the freshest young floure” that ever he had seen. It is the lovely Lady Jane, walking in the garden to enjoy the beauty of that “fresh May morrowe.” Breaking thus suddenly upon his sight in a moment of loneliness and excited susceptibility, she at once captivates the fancy of the romantic prince, and becomes the object of his wandering wishes, the sovereign of his ideal world. ”

“ Lady Jane knew that it but mocks a broken spirit to see anything it loves over-cheerful; so her strain, though not gloomy, was touching, and a sad one, so sad that her father, as he walked in the adjoining room, forgot the selfishness of his sorrow and wept like a child, that two creatures so gently nurtured should thus inhabit a prison, and, for his sake, exert their broken spirits to render it cheerful. ”

“ If Christmas was a merry day to Lady Jane, New Year’s was certainly a happy one. The Paichoux children came, as Pepsie said they would, loaded with bonbons and fireworks, and all day the neighborhood [Pg 162] was lively with their fun—and such a dinner as they brought with them! Lady Jane thought there never could be anything as pretty as the table in Madelon’s little room, loaded, as it was, with all sorts of good things. Tante Modeste went home to dine with her husband, but the children remained until the milk-cart came for them when it was quite dark. ”

“ Christmas and New Year’s are lovely; but Mardi-gras—oh, Mardi-gras! there’s nothing like it in the world!”
Lady Jane wondered very much what “Mardi-gras” was, but tried to wait patiently until that wonderful day should arrive. The time did not pass slowly to her, surrounded as she was by tender care and affection.
Pepsie was teaching her to read and sew, and Mam’selle Diane was drilling her in scales,—although at times Madame d’Hautreve grumbled and quavered about the noise, and declared that the child was too young; for, stretch them all she could, her tiny fingers would not reach an octave. ”