Lady Muriel

“ It was Lady Muriel herself!
The whole scene now returned vividly to my memory; and, to make this repetition of
it stranger still, there was the same old man, whom I remembered seeing so roughly ordered off, by the Station-Master, to make room for his titled passenger. The same, but ’with a difference’: no longer tottering feebly along the platform, but actually seated at Lady Muriel’s side, and in conversation with her! "Yes, put it in your purse," she was saying, "and remember you’re to spend it all for Minnie. And mind you bring her something nice, that’ll do her real good ! ”

“ I thought. "This bare platform is, for me, rich with the memory of a dear friend! She was sitting on that very bench, and invited me to share it, with some quotation from Shakespeare——I forget what. I'll try the Earl's plan for the Dramatisation of Life, and fancy that figure to be Lady Muriel; and I won't undeceive myself too soon!"
So I strolled along the platform, resolutely 'making-believe' (as children say) that the casual passenger, seated on that bench, was the Lady Muriel I remembered so well. ”

“ Muriel did not know how she uttered the words; they seemed to come without her own volition. She was conscious of a choking sensation within her as though iron bands were tightening about her heart. It beat in leaps and bounds like a tortured thing striving to escape. But through it all she sat quite motionless, her eyes fixed upon Lady Bassett's face, noting its faint, wry smile, as the eyes of a prisoner on the rack might note the grim lines on the face of the torturer. ”

“ Muriel's hand slipped back to her pocket, and she looked straight into her aunt's eyes. Once more she changed her purpose, and left the room with a smile, and an airy nod to Frank.
'Did that girl wink just now, sir?' said Miss Jane.
'I didn't observe.'
The excited lady pulled a chair before Frank, and sat down opposite him. 'Mr. Hay,' she said, 'I wish to be reasonable. I know myself what it is to be young. Indeed, putting other circumstances aside, I can almost sympathise with you in your infatuation for Muriel. She is really a very good-looking girl ”

“ I took the road to the Station, and, at the point where the road from the 'Hall' joined it, I paused, seeing my friends in the distance, seemingly bound for the same goal.
"Will you join us?" the Earl said, after I had exchanged greetings with him, and Lady Muriel, and Captain Lindon. "This restless young man is expecting a telegram, and we are going to the Station to meet it."
"There is also a restless young woman in the case," Lady Muriel added.
"That goes without saying, my child," said her father. "Women are always restless!" ”

“ Everyone listened in deferential silence, broken by murmurs of “Yes, yes,” or “How true!” or “I never thought of that!” And Muriel held the Prince Consort’s hand, and looked up at him with adoration in her young eyes. I rejoiced with the Prince Consort in his hour of deserved triumph, but I did not, somehow, find Muriel as “pretty a picture” as a lady told me later on that she was. Indeed, I thought that the child would have been as well—or better—in bed. I turned round and looked for Mrs Clinton. Ah, there she was, on her usual sofa. By her side sat Lady Troughton; nobody else was near. ”

“ Can’t you see that he is making a dead set at you?”
“Oh, nonsense,” said Muriel, a little crossly. “I’ve only met him once or twice, and this evening I’ve had half a dance with him.”
Lady Smith-Evered smiled knowingly. “He’s a very eligible young man,” she purred.
“He drinks,” Muriel remarked, shortly.
“Oh, but he has turned over a new leaf,” her hostess replied. “Didn’t you notice he drank your health in soda-water just now? He’s a very good sort. What a difference there is between him and that extraordinary cousin of his!”
“There is, indeed,” Muriel answered, with feeling. ”

“ I have literally not one dance left."
Lady Bassett had deemed it advisable to ignore the fact of Muriel's brief engagement to Captain Grange since the girl's return to India. She knew, as did her husband, that it had come to an end before Grange's death, but she withheld all comment upon it. Her one desire was to get the dear child married without delay, and she was not backward in letting her know it. Life at Ghawalkhand was one continuous round of gaiety, and she had every opportunity for forwarding her scheme. Though she deplored Muriel's unresponsiveness, she yet did not despair. ”

“ It is enough for you to know that there is a sufficiently urgent reason for your marriage, and the sooner it can take place, the better. But in the meantime, let me counsel you to be as prudent as possible in all that you do. I assure you, dear, it is very necessary."
Muriel received this little homily in silence. She did not in the least understand to what these veiled allusions referred, and she decided impatiently that they were unworthy of her serious consideration. It was ridiculous to let herself be angry with Lady Bassett. ”

“ Muriel's cheeks burned at the recollection.
"How nice of her!" commented Nick. He shot her a sidelong glance. "Dear Lady Bassett always says and does the right thing at the right moment. It's her speciality. That's why we are all so fond of her."
Muriel made no response, though keenly aware of the subtlety of this speech. So Nick disliked her hostess also. She wondered why.
"You see," he proceeded presently, "it is as well to be quite open about it as we are going to be married so soon. Of course every one realises that it is to be a strictly private affair. ”

“ She would be a child of the house or she would be nothing. Her beauty, her despair, and her humility were irresistible. Lady Thorndyke forgot George Gallon and clasped the child in her arms, crying in sympathy. "If you care so much, dear, how can I let you go?" she whimpered.
"I care enough to die for you, or to die if I lose you!" Joan vowed.
"You shall not die, and you shall not lose me!" exclaimed the old lady, remembering her nephew now and defying him. "You shall stay and be my little girl." ”

“ Business is a lot harder than talking, anyhow. Muriel's the leading lady, she's got an awfully long part. J. B. has to make love to her, you know, and when the butler steals the diamonds, and they think Muriel did it, he goes right away and proposes to her, to show that he trusts her anyway——"
"I don't like all that spoony part," said Muriel, colouring painfully.
"He don't either, I guess," said Kitty. "Men don't like being made to look ridiculous."
Kitty was undoubtedly a cat, but—— "You're in the play, too, aren't you, Miss Oldham?" Muriel asked her.
"Yes. I'm Mrs. Tankerville's maid. ”

“ There was a coachman and a groom in livery, and in the carriage sat an old lady dressed in grey silk, of the same soft tint as her hair.
Joan had seen this old lady in her victoria several times before, and had pretended to herself, in one of her glittering dreams, that the lady took a fancy to her and proposed adoption.
Now, in a flash of thought, which came quick as the glint of light on a bird's wing, the child told herself that this thing must happen. She had no home, no people, nothing; she would stake her life on the one throw which might win all or lose all. ”

“ Had it been necessary, Joan would have plunged into a sea of fiction, but she had enough dramatic perception to see that nothing could be more effective than the truth, dashed in with plenty of colour. ”

“ Joan's memory was as vivid as her imagination. She was fired to eloquence by her own wrongs; and her word-sketch of the poor baby deserted by a beautiful, mysterious actress, her picturesque conjectures as to that actress's noble husband, the harrowing portrait of her angelic young self as a lodging-house drudge, the final climax, painting the savage punishment in the street, and her resolve to seek refuge in death (the one fabrication in the tale) , affected the secretly sentimental heart of the City knight's widow like music. ”

“ She looks at me as if I were a rat. I'm not a rat! I'm as good as she is, if I had her clothes. I'm cleverer, and prettier, too, I know I am—heaps and heaps. Oh! I want to be like her, only better—I must be—I shall! ”

“ He must know that he was physically unattractive, that he had an unconqueraably swaggering manner, that in moments of excitement his “h’s” trembled on their pedestal, and that it would take all his money to sweeten him as a dose in the mouth of such a girl as Pamela. His success would depend, he must see, and Jack could not help knowing, on the girl’s bringing up and disposition. If she loved the good things of the world better than she loved the real things of life, she would accept him by and by, and perhaps be contented. ”

“ It was not tea-time yet, and Minnie was happily asleep; Joan was certain to be scolded just as sharply on her return as if she had stopped away for hours longer, therefore she might as well have drained her birthday cup of stolen pleasure to the dregs; but the good taste of the draught was gone. She yearned only to go home, to get the scolding over, and to have a few minutes to herself in the tiny back room which she shared with the baby. ”

“ Well, of course the Conroys are swells in a way, but they don't care about swelling. If mother had liked—and father had let her—she could have been a fashionable lady, and dear Muriel could have been a fashionable girl, with her picture in the illustrated papers, sitting in front of a lattice window with a sweet white frock and a bunch of lilies. 'We give this week a charming photograph of Miss Muriel Graham, the only daughter of the Honourable Mrs. ”

“ Lady Thorndyke began to turn over various schemes for Joan's advantage; but that same evening, which was Saturday, her nephew, George Gallon, arrived from town to spend Sunday with his aunt. She told him somewhat timidly about the lovely child she was sheltering, and the hard-mouthed, square-chinned young man threw cold water on her projects. He said that the girl was no doubt a designing little brute, who richly deserved what she had got from the charitable if quick-tempered woman who gave her a home. ”

“ She grew cold with the chill of presentiment, but gathered herself together for a fight to the death.
"You look much better this morning, my dear," began Lady Thorndyke nervously. "You will perhaps be well enough to get up and be dressed by and by, to drive out with me, and choose yourself a doll, or anything you would like. You will be glad to hear that—that my nephew and I called on Mrs. Boyle yesterday, and—she is sorry if she was harsh. In future, you will not be living on her charity. ”

“ Fox-Leffingwell remained blissfully ignorant that there was a plot; therefore she had no difficulty in believing the rumor; and decided—though he was no longer wanted to take a hand at bridge—that she would not drop Mr. Adriance, after all; if he were rich, there was no knowing when he might not be useful.
Therefore, when he proposed teaching her his national game of poker, she accepted with pretty enthusiasm. They played, and she was so lucky that she loved the game. She often held threes, flushes, and fours; when there was a jack-pot she was almost sure to win it. ”

“ Fox-Leffingwell’s blue eyes, the hard lines round her Cupid’s bow mouth, and the quick frown of her dark brows whenever Lady Pamela snubbed Sir Thomas.
The young man believed that “Mrs. Leff” had been particularly hard up, and that the millionaire had offered to help her out of her difficulties if she gave him a chance to win this beautiful and high-bred girl, whose husband—whatever his own antecedents—would be connected with some of the best families in England.
Pamela Sylvain, if she were nothing but herself, would be a bride for any man to be proud of, Jack thought ”

“ Jack Adriance was “doing Europe.” He was too young, and too good-looking, people thought, to be an American millionaire. He had no motor-car, no airs, no valet, and did not appear even to have dyspepsia, so his fellow guests in the best hotel of Löwenfels allowed him to amuse himself as he pleased without bothering themselves about him; and it amused him to watch Lady Pamela Sylvain. ”

“ Sir Thomas was very rich. If he had not been he would not have been called Sir Thomas, for there was the tache of a ready-made clothing business upon him, which had had to be erased as far as possible by an application of a hundred thousand charity-dinner turkeys and a huge check for a hospital. ”

“ No normal young man, and no sentimental old lady, could have doubted the disinterestedness of a girl with eyes like Joan Carthew's. Lady Thorndyke was delighted with the dear child's affection, and promptly sent for her lawyer to talk over the matter of a formal adoption. She also announced her intention of altering her will, and leaving only twenty thousand pounds to her nephew, the bulk of her property to Joan, "who would no doubt be greatly surprised." ”

“ Joan was telling the two-year-old Minnie a fairy story, made up out of her own head, all about a gorgeous princess, and founded on the adventures she herself would best like to have, when, just as the narrative was working towards an exciting climax, a girl of Joan's own age came in sight, walking with her governess. ”

“ Because Lady Henry posed as an ingénue, who scarcely knew politics from polo, Joan suspected her. "It is she who worms out secrets from her husband and sells them to Portheous," Joan said to herself. "Oh! to be a fly on the wall in the Borrowdailes' house for the next week!"
This wish was so vivid, that like a lightning flash it seemed to illumine the dim corners of the girl's brain. She suddenly recalled another story of the inestimable Bainbridge's, told in connection with the rivalry of The Daily Beacon and The Planet. ”