Audrey

by Mary Johnston

  CHAPTER XIX

  THE GOVERNOR'S BALL

  For an hour it had been very quiet, very peaceful, in the small whitehouse on Palace Street. Darden was not there; for the Commissary had sentfor him, having certain inquiries to make and a stern warning to deliver.Mistress Deborah had been asked to spend the night with an acquaintance inthe town, so she also was out and gone. Mistress Stagg and Audrey kept thelower rooms, while overhead Mr. Charles Stagg, a man that loved his art,walked up and down, and, with many wavings of a laced handkerchief andmuch resort to a gilt snuffbox, reasoned with Plato of death and the soul.The murmur of his voice came down to the two women, and made the onlysound in the house. Audrey, sitting by the window, her chin upon her handand her dark hair shadowing her face, looked out upon the dooryard and thePalace Street beyond. The street was lit by torches, and people were goingto the ball in coaches and chariots, on foot and in painted chairs. Theywent gayly, light of heart, fine of person, a free and generous folk.Laughter floated over to the silent watcher, and the torchlight gave herglimpses of another land than her own.

  Many had been Mistress Stagg's customers since morning, and something hadshe heard besides admiration of her wares and exclamation at her prices.Now, as she sat with some gay sewing beneath her nimble fingers, sheglanced once and again at the shadowed face opposite her. If the look wasnot one of curiosity alone, but had in it an admixture of new-foundrespect; if to Mistress Stagg the Audrey of yesterday, unnoted,unwhispered of, was a being somewhat lowlier than the Audrey of to-day, itmay be remembered for her that she was an actress of the early eighteenthcentury, and that fate and an old mother to support had put her in thatstation.

  The candles beneath their glass shades burned steadily; the house grewvery quiet; the noises of the street lessened and lessened, for now nearlyall of the people were gone to the ball. Audrey watched the round of lightcast by the nearest torch. For a long time she had watched it, thinkingthat he might perhaps cross the circle, and she might see him in hissplendor. She was still watching when he knocked at the garden door.

  Mistress Stagg, sitting in a dream of her own, started violently. "La,now, who may that be?" she exclaimed. "Go to the door, child. If 'tis astranger, we shelter none such, to be taken up for the harboring ofrunaways!"

  Audrey went to the door and opened it. A moment's pause, a low cry, andshe moved backward to the wall, where she stood with her slender formsharply drawn against the white plaster, and with the fugitive, elusivecharm of her face quickened into absolute beauty, imperious for attention.Haward, thus ushered into the room, gave the face its due. His eyes,bright and fixed, were for it alone. Mistress Stagg's curtsy wentunacknowledged save by a slight, mechanical motion of his hand, and herinquiry as to what he lacked that she could supply received no answer. Hewas a very handsome man, of a bearing both easy and commanding, andto-night he was splendidly dressed in white satin with embroidery of gold.To one of the women he seemed the king, who could do no wrong; to theother, more learned in the book of the world, he was merely a finegentleman, whose way might as well be given him at once, since, spite ofdenial, he would presently take it.

  Haward sat down, resting his clasped hands upon the table, gazingsteadfastly at the face, dark and beautiful, set like a flower against thewall. "Come, little maid!" he said. "We are going to the ball together,you and I. Hasten, or we shall not be in time for the minuet."

  Audrey smiled and shook her head, thinking that it was his pleasure tolaugh at her a little. Mistress Stagg likewise showed her appreciation ofthe pleasantry. When he repeated his command, speaking in an authoritativetone and with a glance at his watch, there was a moment of dead silence;then, "Go your ways, sir, and dance with Mistress Evelyn Byrd!" cried thescandalized ex-actress. "The Governor's ball is not for the likes ofAudrey!"

  "I will be judge of that," he answered. "Come, let us be off, child! Orstay! hast no other dress than that?" He looked toward the mistress of thehouse. "I warrant that Mistress Stagg can trick you out! I would have yougo fine, Audrey of the hair! Audrey of the eyes! Audrey of the full brownthroat! Dull gold,--have you that, now, mistress, in damask or brocade?Soft laces for her bosom, and a yellow bloom in her hair. It should bedogwood, Audrey, like the coronal you wore on May Day. Do you remember,child? The white stars in your hair, and the Maypole all aflutter, andyour feet upon the green grass"--

  "Oh, I was happy then!" cried Audrey and wrung her hands. Within a moment,however, she was calm again, and could look at him with a smile. "I amonly Audrey," she said. "You know that the ball is not for me. Why then doyou tell me that I must go? It is your kindness; I know that it is yourkindness that speaks. But yet--but yet"--She gazed at him imploringly:then from his steady smile caught a sudden encouragement. "Oh!" sheexclaimed with a gesture of quick relief, and with tremulous laughter inher face and voice,--"oh, you are mocking me! You only came to show how agentleman looks who goes to a Governor's ball!"

  For the moment, in her relief at having read his riddle, there slippedfrom her the fear of she knew not what,--the strangeness and heaviness ofheart that had been her portion since she came to Williamsburgh. Leavingthe white wall against which she had leaned, she came a little forward,and with gayety and grace dropped him a curtsy. "Oh, the white satin likethe lilies in your garden!" she laughed. "And the red heels to your shoes,and the gold-fringed sword knot, and the velvet scabbard! Ah, let me seeyour sword, how bright and keen it is!"

  She was Audrey of the garden, and Haward, smiling, drew his rapier andlaid it in her hands. She looked at the golden hilt, and passed her brownfingers along the gleaming blade. "Stainless," she said, and gave it backto him.

  Taking it, he took also the hand that had proffered it. "I was notlaughing, child," he said. "Go to the ball thou shalt, and with me. What!Thou art young and fair. Shalt have no pleasure"--

  "What pleasure in that?" cried Audrey. "I may not go, sir; nay, I will notgo!"

  She freed her hand, and stood with heaving bosom and eyes that very slowlyfilled with tears. Haward saw no reason for her tears. It was true thatshe was young and fair; true, also, that she had few pleasures. Well, hewould change all that. The dance,--was it not woven by those nymphs ofold, those sprites of open spaces in the deep woods, from whose immemorialcompany she must have strayed into this present time? Now at the Palacethe candles were burning for her, for her the music was playing. Herwelcome there amidst the tinsel people? Trust him for that: he was what hewas, and could compass greater things than that would be. Go she should,because it pleased him to please her, and because it was certainlynecessary for him to oppose pride with pride, and before the eyes ofEvelyn demonstrate his indifference to that lady's choice of Mr. Lee forthe minuet and Mr. Lightfoot for the country dance. This last thought hadfar to travel from some unused, deep-down quagmire of the heart, but itcame. For the rest, the image of Audrey decked in silk and lace, turned byher apparel into a dark Court lady, a damsel in waiting to Queen Titania,caught his fancy in both hands. He wished to see her thus,--wished it sostrongly that he knew it would come to pass. He was a gentleman who hadacquired the habit of having his own way. There had been times when theprice of his way had seemed too dear; when he had shrugged his shouldersand ceased to desire what he would not buy. To-night he was not able tocount the cost. But he knew--he knew cruelly well--how to cut short thisfruitless protest of a young girl who thought him all that was wise andgreat and good.

  "So you cannot say 'yes' to my asking, little maid?" he began, quiet andsmiling. "Cannot trust me that I have reasons for the asking? Well, I willnot ask again, Audrey, since it is so great a thing'"--"Oh," cried Audrey,"you know that I would die for you!" The tears welled over, but shebrushed them away with a trembling hand; then stood with raised face, hereyes soft and dewy, a strange smile upon her lips. She spoke at last assimply as a child: "Why you want me, that am only Audrey, to go with youto the Palace yonder, I cannot tell. But I will go, though I am onlyAudrey, and I have no other dress than this"--

  Haward got unstea
dily to his feet, and lightly touched the dark head thatshe bowed upon her hands. "Why, now you are Audrey again," he saidapprovingly. "Why, child, I would do you a pleasure!" He turned to theplayer's wife. "She must not go in this guise. Have you no finery stowedaway?"

  Now, Mistress Stagg, though much scandalized, and very certain that allthis would never do, was in her way an artist, and could see as in amirror what bare throat and shoulders, rich hair drawn loosely up, a touchof rouge, a patch or two, a silken gown, might achieve for Audrey. Andafter all, had not Deborah told her that the girl was Mr. Haward's ward,not Darden's, and that though Mr. Haward came and went as he pleased, andwas very kind to Audrey, so that Darden was sure of getting whatever thegirl asked for, yet she was a good girl, and there was no harm? For thetalk that day,--people were very idle, and given to thinking the forestafire when there was only the least curl of smoke. And in short andfinally it was none of her business; but with the aid of a certain chestupstairs, she knew what she could do! To the ball might go a beauty wouldmake Mistress Evelyn Byrd look to her laurels!

  "There's the birthday dress that Madam Carter sent us only last week," shebegan hesitatingly. "It's very beautiful, and a'most as good as new, and'twould suit you to a miracle--But I vow you must not go, Audrey!... To besure, the damask is just the tint for you, and there are roses wouldanswer for your hair. But la, sir, you know 'twill never do, never in thisworld."

  Half an hour later, Haward rose from his chair and bowed low as to somehighborn and puissant dame. The fever that was now running high in hisveins flushed his cheek and made his eyes exceedingly bright. When he wentup to Audrey, and in graceful mockery of her sudden coming into herkingdom, took her hand and, bending, kissed it, the picture that they madecried out for some painter to preserve it. Her hand dropped from hisclasp, and buried itself in rich folds of flowered damask; the quick riseand fall of her bosom stirred soft, yellowing laces, and made to flashlike diamonds some ornaments of marcasite; her face was haunting in itspain and bewilderment and great beauty, and in the lie which her eyes gaveto the false roses beneath those homes of sadness and longing. She had noword to say, she was "only Audrey," and she could not understand. But shewished to do his bidding, and so, when he cried out upon her melancholy,and asked her if 'twere indeed a Sunday in New England instead of aSaturday in Virginia, she smiled, and strove to put on the mind as wellas the garb of a gay lady who might justly go to the Governor's ball.

  Half frightened at her own success, Mistress Stagg hovered around her,giving this or that final touch to her costume; but it was Haward himselfwho put the roses in her hair. "A little longer, and we will walk oncemore in my garden at Fair View," he said. "June shall come again for us,and we will tread the quiet paths, my sweet, and all the roses shall bloomagain for us. There, you are crowned! Hail, Queen!"

  Audrey felt the touch of his lips upon her forehead, and shivered. All herworld was going round; she could not steady it, could not see aright, knewnot what was happening. The strangeness made her dizzy. She hardly heardMistress Stagg's last protest that it would never do,--never in the world;hardly knew when she left the house. She was out beneath the stars, movingtoward a lit Palace whence came the sound of violins. Haward's arm wasbeneath her hand; his voice was in her ear, but it was as the wind'svoice, whose speech she did not understand. Suddenly they were within thePalace garden, with its winding, torchlit walks, and the terraces at theside; suddenly again, they had mounted the Palace steps, and the doorswere open, and she was confronted with lights and music and shifting,dazzling figures. She stood still, clasped her hands, and gave Haward apiteous look. Her face, for all its beauty and its painted roses, wasstrangely the child's face that had lain upon his breast, where he kneltamid the corn, in the valley between the hills, so long ago. He gave hermute appeal no heed. The Governor's guests, passing from room to room,crossed and recrossed the wide hall, and down the stairway, to meet a rowof gallants impatient at its foot, came fair women, one after the other,the flower of the colony, clothed upon like the lilies of old. Haward,entering with Audrey, saw Mr. Lee at the stairfoot, and, raising his eyes,was aware of Evelyn descending alone and somewhat slowly, all in rosecolor, and with a smile upon her lips.

  She was esteemed the most beautiful woman in Virginia, the most gracefuland accomplished. Wit and charm and fortune were hers, and the little gayworld of Virginia had mated her with Mr. Marmaduke Haward of Fair View.Therefore that portion of it that chanced to be in the hall of theGovernor's house withdrew for the moment its attention from its ownaffairs, and bestowed it upon those of the lady descending the stairs, andof the gold-and-white gentleman who, with a strange beauty at his side,stood directly in her path. It was a very wise little world, and sinceyesterday afternoon had been fairly bursting with its own knowledge. Itknew all about that gypsy who had come to town from Fair Viewparish,--"La, my dear, just the servant of a minister!"--and knew to asyllable what had passed in the violent quarrel to which Mr. Lee owed hisgood fortune.

  "I DO NOT THINK I HAVE THE HONOR OF KNOWING"--]

  That triumphant gentleman now started forward, and, with a low bow,extended his hand to lead to the ballroom this rose-colored paragon andcynosure of all eyes. Evelyn smiled upon him, and gave him her scarf tohold, but would not be hurried; must first speak to her old friend Mr.Haward, and tell him that her father's foot could now bear the shoe, andthat he might appear before the ball was over. This done, she withdrew hergaze, from Haward's strangely animated, vividly handsome countenance,and turned it upon the figure at his side. "Pray present me!" she saidquickly. "I do not think I have the honor of knowing"--

  Audrey raised her head, that had been bent, and looked again, as she hadlooked yesterday, with all her innocent soul and heavy heart, into theeyes of the princess. The smile died from Evelyn's lips, and a great waveof indignant red surged over face and neck and bosom. The color fled, butnot the bitter anger. So he could bring his fancy there! Could clothe herthat was a servant wench in a splendid gown, and flaunt her before theworld--before the world that must know--oh, God! must know how she herselfloved him! He could do this after that month at Westover! She drew herbreath, and met the insult fairly. "I withdraw my petition," she saidclearly. "Now that I bethink me, my acquaintance is already somewhat toogreat. Mr. Lee, shall we not join the company? I have yet to make mycurtsy to his Excellency."

  With head erect, and with no attention to spare from the happy Mr. Lee,she passed the sometime suitor for her hand and the apple of discord whichit had pleased him to throw into the assembly. A whisper ran around thehall. Audrey heard suppressed laughter, and heard a speech which she didnot understand, but which was uttered in an angry voice, much likeMistress Deborah's when she chided. A sudden terror of herself and ofHaward's world possessed her. She turned where she stood in her borrowedplumage, and clung to his hand and arm. "Let me go," she begged. "It isall a mistake,--all wrong. Let me go,--let me go."

  He laughed at her, shaking his head and looking into her beseeching facewith shining, far-off eyes. "Thou dear fool!" he said. "The ball is madefor thee, and all these folk are here to do thee honor!" Holding her bythe hand, he moved with her toward a wide doorway, through which could beseen a greater throng of beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen. Musiccame from this room, and she saw that there were dancers, and that beyondthem, upon a sort of dais, and before a great carved chair, stood a finegentleman who, she knew, must be his Excellency the Governor of Virginia.