Lady Janet

“ But no sound escaped my dry lips, as I recognised the Lady Janet Johnstoun.
There was the small broad head, with its raven tresses hanging down to her feet; but they were dishevelled and dripping with water. I could see and hear it trickling and dropping on to the floor. I saw the pure oval face, the eyes cast down, so that the jetty fringes rested on the cheek, as still that one hand moved on the clasp. The dim light around me became dimmer and dimmer, and my hands and feet were heavier and heavier—they were like stone. ”

“ Even upon those who sustained no portion of the brilliancy around them, pleasure had set its seal. Lady Janet herself wondered, and admired, and stared, in an ecstasy of delight she could neither credit nor comprehend. It was true, Linton's absence—“unaccountable,” as she called it—was a sad drawback upon her enjoyment. Yet her own shrewdness enabled her to penetrate many a mystery, and detect beneath the dusky folds of more than one domino those who a few moments previous had displayed themselves in all the splendor of a gorgeous costume. ”

“ And you, Miss Janet, you are a thorough lady; anybody can see that, and her ladyship will see it as soon as anybody. She will like you none the worse for being a gentlewoman. But here am I preaching away like any old gadabout, and you not as much as taken your bonnet off yet. Get your things off, dearie, and I'll have a cup of tea ready in no time, and you'll feel ever so much better when you have had it."
Dance could scarcely take her eyes off Janet's face, so attracted was she by the likeness which had rung from her an exclamation on entering the room. ”

“ For all I know, she may be still with my aunt, and Horace may have found her there when he entered the room.”
“What can Lady Janet have to say to her?” Mercy asked, eagerly.
“It is impossible even to guess. When you found me in the dining-room I was considering that very question. I cannot imagine that any neutral ground can exist on which it is possible for Lady Janet and this woman to meet. In her present frame of mind she will in all probability insult Lady Janet before she has been five minutes in the room. I own I am completely puzzled. ”

“ In the ordinary intercourse of life I should merely have thought her a commonplace, uninteresting woman. Seeing her as I saw her while we were alone—in other words, penetrating below the surface—I have never, in all my sad experience, met with such a hopelessly narrow, mean, and low nature as hers. Understanding, as she could not fail to do, what the sudden change in Lady Janet’s behavior toward her really meant, her one idea was to take the cruelest possible advantage of it. ”

“ Janet went softly out of the room and waited. She had never even heard of this Captain Charles Chillington, and yet no mere empty name could have thus affected the stern mistress of Deepley Walls. Those few tears opened up quite a new view of Lady Chillington's character. Janet began to see that there might be elements of tragedy in the old woman's life of which she knew nothing: that many of the moods which seemed to her so strange and inexplicable might be so merely for want of the key by which alone they could be rightly read. ”

“ The wind howled like the howl o’ spirits, but still Lady Janet sat silent and calm wi’ her dark eyes fixed upon the sky, and never seemed to have a fear that she wer sailing down that stream into eternitie, until she observed Sandie begin to take off his upper claithes, and pointing to a rope which lay i’ the stern, he said, ‘I am the stronger mon o’ the two, bind the Lady Janet fast to me, and wi’ the help o’ Him that rules, she shall be safe in her ain ha’ to nicht. ”

“ Ah, but you will see the difference, auntie, when he comes back on board the Umpire, and we will go down to the shore, and we will be glad to see him that day."
"Oh yes, Janet," the old lady said, and the tears were running down her face, "but you know—you know. And if he had married you, Janet, and stayed at home at Dare, there would have been none of all this trouble. And now—what is there now? It is the young English lady that has broken his heart; and he is no longer a son to me, and he is no longer your cousin, Janet; but a broken-hearted man, that does not care for anything. ”

“ If good clothes could make Janet Orme a lady, there was no question of her social standing, yet even little Alora felt that Janet was out of her element—that she fell short, in some vague way, of being what she was ambitious to appear. ”

“ THE mid-year examinations over, there was less strain upon the girls in all the classes, and the juniors began to think of the dramatics which they had planned to give the freshmen. Janet was cast for a prominent part requiring gorgeous costuming, and Polly was delighted. Lee Penrose as a saucy soubrette and Cordelia as leading lady were immensely interested. Girls, with suggestive-looking papers in their hands, were seen at odd times, pacing corridors or haunting corners, their lips moving silently and a far-away look in their eyes. ”

“ Lady Stair's daughter was singularly unlike the mother who bore her, for the beautiful Janet Dalrymple was a gentle, shrinking, highly strung girl, who was like wax in the hands of one who ruled her household with a rod of iron. As a child her will had always had to bend to her mother's. ”

“ And when you're of age to marry, marry anybody you like—you won't marry me. And good-bye, Janet. Think of learning your lessons, and not of marrying. I can't help laughing.' So I said, but without the laughter. Her brother tried hard to get me to notice him.
Janet betook herself to the squire. Her prattle of our marriage in days to come was excuseable. It was the squire's notion. He used to remark generally that he liked to see things look safe and fast, and he had, as my aunt confided to me, arranged with Lady Ilchester, in the girl's hearing, that we should make a match. ”

“ At first the boys talked and the girls listened. But gradually the bits of fancy work were laid aside, the girls joined in the conversation, while eyes shone bright and faces glowed with anticipation of what the autumn held in store for them.
And while Laura and Violet and the two boys were talking happily and all at once, Teddy took the opportunity to whisper in Billie's ear:
"I suppose, being a young lady with a large fortune," he said teasingly, delighting in the color that rose to her face, "you won't find time to recognize your old friends any more." ”

“ There was a portrait of Janet's mother, a grey-haired, dark-eyed old woman, in a neatly fluted cap, hanging over the mantelpiece. Surely the aged eyes take on a look of anguish as they see Janet—not trembling, no! it would be better if she trembled—standing stupidly unmoved in her great beauty while the heavy arm is lifted to strike her. ”

“ But Life holds many secrets in her hand; and perhaps it was Janetta and not Margaret for whom a romance was yet in store.
"Hard? Do you call it hard?" Margaret asked, with a curiously exalted expression, like that of a saint absorbed in mystic joys. "It would be most easy, Janetta, to give up everything for love."
"I don't know," said Janetta—for once unsympathetic. "Giving up everything means a great deal. Would you like to go away from Helmsley Court, for instance, and live in a dingy street with no lady's maid—only a servant of all-work—on three hundred a year?" ”

“ In a little, Marian slept. Janet did not resume her work immediately, but sat gazing at her with eyes as full of wistful tenderness as ever a mother’s could have been. At length, with a sigh, she turned to her basket again.
“Miss Graeme,” said she, in a little, “I dinna like to hear you speak that way about changes, as though they did not come from God, and as though He hadna a right to send them to His people when He pleases.”
“I canna help it, Janet. No change that can come to us can be for the better.” ”

“ One day, after we came back to town I was reading, not thinking of anything but the book—Janey least of all. Nothing in that book could have reminded me of her. I read it over afterwards to see. I looked up all of a sudden, thinking of Janet—thinking of her as if I had been with her an hour before. I dropped the book and felt as if I had just seen her, standing at the door in a familiar kimono, and heard her addressing me for the first time by that ridiculous nickname that she had just invented. I had heard through some people from her town that she was going to be married soon. ”

“ If a spark drops on it, she is as likely to blow up her best friend as her worst enemy. It's as uncomfortable for one as for the other; but it generally makes some difference afterwards to the girl herself." He spoke with the quiet dignity which he assumed at times, a dignity which never failed to make Janet think back to their father, now sleeping under the Mount Hermon trees. Then he held out his arms. "Come over here, Janet," he said.
And Janet came. Great girl that she was, blankets and all she curled herself up on Ronald's knee and nestled to the circling grasp of his strong arms. ”

“ Janet is living still. Her black hair is grey, and her step is no longer buoyant; but the sweetness of her smile remains, the love is not gone from her eyes; and strangers sometimes ask, Who is that noble-looking elderly woman, that walks about holding a little boy by the hand? The little boy is the son of Janet's adopted daughter, and Janet in her old age has children about her knees, and loving young arms round her neck. ”

“ From a care-free, servant-filled childhood, a childhood where pretty frocks abounded and where every Thursday afternoon held its especial treat, Janet suddenly found herself promoted to a girlhood where the talk concerned itself with needless expenses, where her new black frock must do duty for two winters, where Thursday treats gave place to Thursday toil, since the day which aforetime had been half-holiday in the convent, was now the day when their one servant took her afternoon out and relegated to the mistress the task of getting tea and dinner. ”

“ She kissed Janet on both cheeks when the Major introduced her; asked whether she was fiancée; complimented her on her French; declaimed a passage from Racine; put her poodle through a variety of amusing tricks; and pressed Janet to assist at her luncheon of cream cheese, French roll, strawberries and white wine.
A slight sense of disappointment swept across Janet's mind, like the shadow of a cloud across a sunny field. She had been two hours [Pg 358] at the Lindens without having seen Captain George. ”

“ The fresh sky, left clear and calm after the long vexation of wind and rain, mingled its mild influence with Janet's new thoughts and prospects. She felt a buoyant courage that surprised herself, after the cold crushing weight of despondency which had oppressed her the day before: she could think even of her husband's rage without the old overpowering dread. For a delicious hope—the hope of purification and inward peace—had entered into Janet's soul, and made it spring-time there as well as in the outer world. ”

“ You've always said you liked Sir George, in spite of his queerness. He's been good to you, to us all. Now, for a while, you can be good to him. And, besides, if you truthfully don't like it, you can always take the first steamer that sails for home. Only," her voice broke a little; "only send us word in time, so we can get the fattest calf that ever lived."
"But you and mother," Ronald urged.
Janet's chin rose in the air.
"I will look out for mother," she said conclusively. And she kept her word.
Nevertheless, the tide of argument rose again, and again it ebbed. ”

“ Janet had nothing to answer; there was a pause, as if her father wished her to argue the point. She thought, perhaps, she had better say something, else she would show too plainly that she saw he was in the wrong; but she said nothing, and he went on: "And what will people say at the idea of you're being a governess? Practically a servant in a stranger's house, with a pretence of equality, but less pay than a good cook. What will all our friends say?"
Janet did not wish to say to herself in so many words that her father was a snob. ”

“ Her colour came again, while she looked at him through her long lashes.
"You didn't think I had it in me, Ronald?" she inquired.
"No, Janet. I didn't."
"Well, I have," she said, with sudden spirit. "What's more, I suspect most girls have, if the truth were known. It's there, all the time; it is only a question whether something comes up to set us off. Some of us take more setting than others; some of us go farther than others, when we're set. But I don't believe there's a girl living, a real, live, healthy girl, that hasn't a streak of gunpowder in her, somewhere or other. ”

“ If I’m worth the keeping here, I’m worth the seeking elsewhere, and Deacon Snow has as good a right as another.”
“Right, indeed! Nobody has any right to you but ourselves. You are ours, and we’ll never, never let you go.”
“It’s no’ far down the brae,” said Janet, gently.
“Janet! You’ll never think of going! Surely, surely, you’ll never leave us now. And for a stranger, too! When you gave up your own mother and Sandy, and the land you loved so well, to come here with us—!” Graeme could not go on for the tears that would not be kept back.
“Miss Graeme, my dear bairn, you were needing me then. ”

“ Janet stared at Rob, Day at Ronald, while Sir George Porteous stared at all four of them in turn, stared and smiled his pleased contentment with the scene. Then, just as the pause was growing too long for Sir George's perfect pleasure, just as there was dawning upon him the need to break it, Rob rallied from his stupefaction and dashed forward to meet the emergency.
"Hullo, old man!" he hailed Ronald, with disrespectful cordiality. "Delighted to see you! We had no notion that you were coming, too. Hullo, Janet! How stunning you look! I speak to take you out to dinner." ”