Mrs. Bailey

“ She stood unnoticed in the doorway, leisurely admiring the picture. Mrs. Bailey sat in the writing-chair on her right. Once, probably, she had been a pretty woman, and she still had abundant wavy brown hair and large dark-blue eyes with curling lashes; but she was too thin and faded and narrow-chested for any prettiness now. Her calico gown was unstarched, though scrupulously clean: she wore a thin blue-and-white summer shawl, and her old straw bonnet was trimmed with a narrow blue ribbon pieced in two places. ”

“ UNFORTUNATE MISS BAILEY.
A Captain, bold, in Halifax, that dwelt in country quarters,
Seduced a maid who hang'd herself one morning, in her garters;
His wicked conscience smited him; he lost his stomach daily;
He took to dringing ratifa, and thought upon Miss Bailey. ”

“ Mr. and Mrs. Bailey laughed again. Mr. Ash laughed too. But Mr. Ely--he turned green. Mr. Ash raised his hat and bowed to the lady.
"Allow me to offer you my congratulations, Mrs. Bailey. Am I justified in supposing that you are starting on your honeymoon?"
"Justified! I should think you are!" Seating himself, Mr. Bailey slipped his arm about the lady's waist. "I say, Bess, it's lucky we've fallen among men I know. ”

“ I looked at him stupidly.
"But we win," I muttered; "curse it, we win!"
"Or you win for us. Come and tell us," said a calm, steady voice.
"Look after the horse," I cried.
"Yes, yes; I will see to the horse, sir," squeaked the burgomaster; and I limped in, leaning on some man's arm, back to that room with lights. The man put me into a chair, and filled a glass with wine. I drank it; and another, and another. Then I looked round. It was the Prince himself at my elbow.
"‘He is back!' she cried"
"Why, it was you, your Highness!" ”

“ She looked at him keenly. “Is that all, sir?”
“Almost; but also I have cast your horoscope and I find you fated to sovereignty. It is necessary for the success of my experiments that I should command the favour and protection of those who reign.” She was silent, her eyes searching him still. “You are suspicious, madam?”
“Many kind gentlemen have laid traps for me, sir. I do not think that I shall fall to Dr. Dee.”
He shook his head. “This is your weakness: you will never dare act. ”

“ If their meeting had been in Sherwood forest, he would have known her at once for a good comrade; if he had met her in the Garden of Biaucaire, he would have known her at once for more than that. But, being neither a hero of ballad nor of old romance, he knew only that here was a girl different from the silken ladies who had ascended the stairs. Here was an air almost of frank boyishness, a smile of pleasant friendliness, with just enough of flushing cheek to show womanliness and warm blood. ”

“ Now, Wytham is in my lordship, and this maid Joan is ward of mine. This morning I rode with my men to bring her honourably to Godstow. Fairly and peaceably she was going when these knaves came riding by, swore she was too pretty a maid to waste, set on my men; and these hotheads her cousins, who coveted lands and lady, struck in, hoping the brawl might end well. In good time, my lord, you have come. Would that you had come sooner!"
He looked up at the King and sighed. "Two good men of mine lie dead, and this hothead cousin hath fared ill." ”

“ Fie, ma'am, why do you clothe yourself in such beauty but to flaunt upon our senses that sex of yours?" My lady was duly shocked and hid behind her fan. "Aye, there it is! We catch a whiff of paradise and straightway it is denied us. Our nightingale there is silent when we draw near. Our Venus here hides herself when our eyes would enjoy her. As His Grace said to me, you women are like heaven to a damned soul."
"You are a wicked fellow," said Lady Waverton with relish.
Geoffrey at his elbow put in, "'His Grace,' Colonel?" ”

“ A large, luscious girl are you, and with a beckoning eye. I would sprinkle holy water on you ere I touched you. Our niece, Adela de Clare! So, so. And the boy looks on her like a dog on his dinner. Now God have mercy, every woman was a woman to your father when he was young, but never one saw him a fool. Aye, aye, sit down to your meat between her and the old man who has brought her to buy your little soul withal. Say grace for her, child. Eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow you die. Fie, fie, see her work her black eyes! Smile and languish, then. Amor vincit omnia. Love conquers all. ”

“ Lady Elizabeth, what mercy should you hope of a man who have none for him? Your—your swift grace—your body of alabaster—the flame of your eyes—the dark treasury of your hair—and withal the keen right manly wit of you—you make a man mad with love.”
The girl rose with studied movements of allure. Her lips were parted in a subtle smile. Yet she could not check the eager beat of her bosom. “Now you play the pirate indeed. You come upon me under a false flag. My Lord High Admiral flies the banner of love:” she gave an excited laugh. “A lion soupirant! Nay, my lord, it serves not. ”

“ The girl rose and made a stately curtsey. “This is kind, my lord,” she said demurely. “But, indeed, you are ever so kind that I love you as though you were——,” she paused—“my uncle in blood, not only in name, my lord.”
“Nay, faith, I thank God I am no such thing.”
“I hope your lordship has more to thank God for. Prithee, were it so hard a fate to be kin to me?”
“Most desperate hard, fair lady. If a man were content to be thy kinsman, he were no man.”
“God save us all!” the plump matron cried. “Never a woman would doubt the Lord Admiral is man enough.” ”

“ Ely," explained the lady, "never you mind Jack, it's a way he's got; he will always have his joke." Then she showed the tact for which women are so famous. "I hope that there really has been no misunderstanding with--with the lady?"
"S--sh!--Bess!--For shame!--I'm surprised at you! I wouldn't have asked such a question, not for a thousand pounds!"
"Mr. Bailey, if the worst comes to the worst, I feel quite convinced that you will be able to provide Mrs. Bailey with an excellent establishment by becoming a professional buffoon." ”

“ Stay here, you cannot. It is not decent. The Queen's a corpse behind that door. Why, and if they take you in the palace, it's ruin for you and for us all. Oh, we shall not be spared if you are caught."
"Yes. I am a curse to my friends." The Pretender laughed drearily. "Well, my lord, you shall be delivered at least. Lead the way." Masham hurried out on the word. As they followed the Pretender took Harry's arm. "I wish you may be right, Mr. Boyce," he said. "But my heart bids me stay."
"Oh, sir, a king has no right to a heart," says Harry. ”

“ It was with this feeling strong upon her that to-night, when the supper bell rang, she came into the kitchen and asked Mrs. Bower if she might help Beulah. She had no feeling that such labor was beneath her. If a princess cared to serve, she was none the less a princess!
Secure, therefore, in her sense of unassailable dignity, she entered the dining-room. She might have been a goddess chained to menial tasks—a small and vivid goddess, with dusky hair. Richard Brooks, observing her, had once more a swift and certain sense of her fineness and of her unlikeness to those about her. ”

“ The child stood up. “I shall not. I shall not love any one. I do not want any one to love me.” She stalked out of the room.
The Queen tossed her head. “Little snake!” she said, and turned again to her dresses. But the tearful Lotta gave a sob under her breath, and murmured, “The poor little maid!”
Elizabeth went slowly through the blotches of light and shade in the palace corridor. You see her a long wisp of a girl, her red mane tumbling over her face as she walks with head bent, her pale high brow furrowed across and across, and her thin lips twitching. ”

“ A great mirror which hung at the end of the room reflected Louise on the piano bench in her baby frock. It reflected Madge, slim and gold, with a huge fan of lilac feathers. It reflected Becky—in a rose-colored damask chair, it reflected the three men in black. Years ago there had been other men and women—the Admiral's wife in red velvet and the same pearls that were now on Becky's neck—— She shuddered.
As they drove home that night, the Major spoke to his wife of Becky. "The child looks unhappy."
"She will be unhappy until some day her heart rests in her husband, as mine does in you. ”

“ His face was stern.
"What's up, Dicky Boy?"
He laughed without mirth. "Oh, I'm beginning to think we are puppets pulled by strings; that things happen as Fate wills and not as we want them."
"Men haven't any right to talk that way. It's their world. If you were a woman you might complain. Look at me! Everything that I have comes from Aunt Maude. She could leave me without a [193] cent if she chose, and she knows it. She owns me, and unless I marry she'll own me until I die."
"You'll marry, Eve. Old Pip will see to that."
"Pip," passionately. "Dicky, why do you always fling Pip in my face?" ”

“ Her face changed and grew hard and scornful. “Want nothing—is that a man's creed? Bethink you, sir, there will come a time when nothing in England of honour or power will be too much for me to give such a man as you.”
“I will remember to pity you, madam, as I sit beside my fire with my onion. Have I leave to go?”
“Back to the dairy?” she sneered.
Chrysostom bowed low, and back to the dairy he went. There Nell was busy still; she looked up an instant as he came in, and then made herself busier. ”

“ At that moment the trio in the rear would have believed anything of Mary Anne's powers of speed, but Bailey held his peace. The stranger went on.
"I like a drive on a night like this. I like dashing through the wind and the darkness and the rain. I like a thing to fire my blood, and that's the reason why I like you. That's the reason why I've asked you home to tea. What's your name?"
"Bailey, sir."
"I knew a man named Bailey down in Kentucky who was hanged because he was too fond of horses--other people's, not his own. Any relation of yours?" Bertie disclaimed the soft impeachment. ”

“ She sat, and he gathered her in his arm and opened the casket and drew out a chain of great emeralds, “There's for a girl who pleases me,” he said, and laid them against her neck and watched her face as she looked.
It was not ill planned. The splendour of jewels was dearer to her than most things on earth. She looked and her eyes glistened greedily. And then she saw his smile as he watched her. Her brain gave clamorous warning. “Oh, my lord, they frighten me,” she cried. “They are rich enough for a queen.” ”

“ But you're not a man, Harry, you're a parson."
"Oh, command your emotions! She rebelled against being wed to a man whose father ran about the world compassing murder, to a man who was withal a low fellow, a bastard. So far, it is your affair."
"I see you are no hand with a woman."
"Do I take after you, sir? We came upon a woman who said she was Mrs. Oliver Boyce and could not live with him, and boasted vehemently that she was no mother of mine."
Colonel Boyce plucked at his mouth. "So dear Rachel has got her finger into the pie. Why, Harry, you have had no luck." ”

“ Turning, smiling, Master Bernard saw Alais bring her father and mother out to the glad light again. She laughed through tears, and they tried to speak and failed, and tried still. “Up drawbridge!” she cried. “Portcullis down! Invicta, ay, invicta still!”
Master Bernard cocked his ear to the creak of the chains. He pruned himself. “Surely this world hath nothing pleasanter than power,” said he—then his eyes fell on the girl, every line of her rippling with delicious life as she clung to her mother and father, and they held her close—“if a man could believe it.”
Craddock was at his elbow. ”

“ This ruling had deprived them of a Kindergarten teacher of transcendent charm and had made them as watchful of Miss Bailey as a bevy of maiden aunts could have been. Losing her they would lose love and power, and love and power are sweet.
Morris was the first to discover definite grounds for uneasiness. He met his cherished Miss Bailey walking across Grand Street on a rainy morning, and the umbrella which was protecting her beloved head was held by a tall stranger in a long and baggy coat. ”

“ All this was flowering out of her peacock blue velvet, and Harry, I infer, went mad.
She never expanded into the larger extravagances of the hoop, preferring to trust to her own shape. Her waist made no pretence of fine-ladyship, but the bodice was close laced à la mode to parade the riches of her bosom. Strong and gloriously alive, and abundantly a woman—so she smiled at the world.
It was a delirious hour for Harry, that dinner. He knew that Alison was pleased to be in the gayest spirits, and his father, in his father's own flamboyant style, seconded her heartily. ”

“ Your little pads are wet."
"She's been fishing," said Aunt Maude, "in your aquarium. She has more sense than I thought."
[211] Eve, pouring cream into a crystal dish, laughed. "Pats is as wise as the ages—you can see it in her eyes. She doesn't say anything, she just looks. Women ought to follow her example. It's the mysterious, the silent, that draws men. Now Polly prattles and prattles, and nobody listens, and we all get a little tired of her; don't we, Polly?"
She set the cream carefully by the green cushion, and Pats, classically posed on her haunches, lapped it luxuriously. ”

“ Every woman is the same."
She contorted her own face into smug folly by way of illustration. Then she and Geoffrey laughed together. "I vow you're the most deliciously wicked creature that ever was born a maid."
"D'ye regret it, sir? Faith, I could not well be born a wife."
"No, ma'am, that's an honour to be won by care and pains."
"Pains! Lud, yes, I believe that. But, dear sir, I reckon it the punishment for folly. Why,"—she chose to see Harry—"why, here is our knight of the rueful countenance!"
Mr. Waverton laughed. "It is related of the Egyptians—"
"God help us," Alison murmured. ”