Miss Mohun came back in the dark after a long day, for once in her lifequite jaded, and explaining that the health-officer and the landlord hadbeen by no means agreed, and that nothing could be done till Sir Jaspercame home and decided whether to retain the house or not.
All that she was clear about, and which she had telegraphed to Aden,was, that there must be no going back to Silverfold for the present,and she was prepared to begin lodging-hunting as soon as she received ananswer.
'And how have you got on?' she asked, thinking all looked rather blank.
'We haven't been to see Fly,' broke out Valetta, 'though she went out onthe beach, and Mysie must not stay out after dark, for fear she shouldcough.'
'Mysie says they are afraid of excitement,' said Gillian gloomily.
'Then you have seen nothing of the others?'
'Yes, I have seen Victoria, said Aunt Adeline, with a meaning smile.
Miss Mohun went up to take off her things, and Gillian followed her,shutting the door with ominous carefulness, and colouring all over.
'Aunt Jane, I ought to tell you. A dreadful thing has happened!'
'Indeed, my dear! What?'
'I have had a valentine.'
'Oh!' repressing a certain inclination to laugh at the bathos from thelook of horror and shame in the girl's eyes.
'It is from that miserable Alexis! Oh, I know I brought it on myself,and I have been so wretched and so ashamed all day.'
'Was it so very shocking! Let me see--'
'Oh! I sent it back at once by the post, in an envelope, saying, "Sentby mistake."'
'But what was it like? Surely it was not one of the common shop things?'
'Oh no; there was rather a pretty outline of a nymph or muse, orsomething of that sort, at the top--drawn, I mean--and verses writtenbelow, something about my showing a lodestar of hope, but I barelyglanced at it. I hated it too much.'
'I am sorry you were in such a hurry,' said Aunt Jane. 'No doubt itwas a shock; but I am afraid you have given more pain than it quitedeserved.'
'It was so impertinent!' cried Gillian, in astonished, shame-strickenindignation.
'So it seems to you,' said her aunt, 'and it was very bad taste; but youshould remember that this poor lad has grown up in a stratum of societywhere he may have come to regard this as a suitable opportunity ofevincing his gratitude, and perhaps it may be very hard upon him to havethis work of his treated as an insult.'
'But you would not have had me keep it and tolerate it?' exclaimedGillian.
'I can hardly tell without having seen it; but you might have done thething more civilly, through his sister, or have let me give it back tohim. However, it is too late now; I will make a point of seeing Kalliopeto-morrow, but in the meantime you really need not be so horriblydisgusted and ashamed.'
'I thought he was quite a different sort!'
'Perhaps, after all, your thoughts were not wrong; and he only fancied,poor boy, that he had found a pretty way of thanking you.'
This did not greatly comfort Gillian, who might prefer feeling that shewas insulted rather than that she had been cruelly unkind, and mightlike to blame Alexis rather than herself. And, indeed, in any case, shehad sense enough to perceive that this very unacceptable complimentwas the consequence of her own act of independence of more experiencedheads.
The next person Miss Mohun met was Fergus, lugging upstairs, step bystep, a monstrous lump of stone, into which he required her to look andbehold a fascinating crevice full of glittering spar.
'Where did you get that, Fergus?'
'Up off the cliff over the quarry.'
'Are you sure that you may have it?'
'Oh yes; White said I might. It's so jolly, auntie! Frank Stebbing isgone away to the other shop in the Apennines, where the old boss lives.What splendiferous specimens he must have the run of! Our Stebbing says'tis because Kally White makes eyes at him; but any way, White has gotto do his work while he's away, and go all the rounds to see that thingsare right, so I go after him, and he lets me have just what I like--suchjolly crystals.'
'I am sure I hope it is all right.'
'Oh yes, I always ask him, as you told me; but he is awfully slow andmopy and down in the mouth to-day. Stebbing says he is sweet uponGill; but I told him that couldn't be, White knew better. A general'sdaughter, indeed! and Will remembers his father a sergeant.'
'It is very foolish, Fergus. Say no more about it, for it is not nicetalk about your sister.'
'I'll lick any one who does,' said Fergus, bumping his stone up anotherstep.
Poor Aunt Jane! There was more to fall on her as soon as the door wasfinally shut on the two rooms communicating with one another, which thesisters called their own. Mrs. Mount's manipulations of Miss Adeline'srich brown hair were endured with some impatience, while Miss Mohunleant back in her chair in her shawl-patterned dressing-gown, watching,with a sort of curious wonder and foreboding, the restlessness thatproved that something was in store, and meantime somewhat lazilybrushing out her own thinner darker locks.
'You are tired, Miss Jane,' said the old servant, using the pet name inprivate moments. 'You had better let me do your hair.'
'No, thank you, Fanny; I have very nearly done,' she said, marking thesigns of eagerness on her sister's part. 'Oh, by the bye, did that hotbottle go down to Lilian Giles?'
'Yes, ma'am; Mrs. Giles came up for it.'
'Did she say whether Lily was well enough to see Miss Gillian?'
Mrs. Mount coughed a peculiar cough that her mistresses well knew tosignify that she could tell them something they would not like to hear,if they chose to ask her, and it was the younger who put the question--
'Fanny, did she say anything?'
'Well, Miss Ada, I told her she must be mistaken, but she stuck to it,though she said she never would have breathed a word if Miss Gillian hadnot come back again, but she thought you should know it.'
'Know what?' demanded Jane.
'Well, Miss Jane, she should say 'tis the talk that Miss Gillian, whenyou have thought her reading to the poor girl, has been running down tothe works--and 'tis only the ignorance of them that will talk, but theysay it is to meet a young man. She says, Mrs. Giles do, that she neverwould have noticed such talk, but that the young lady did always seem ina hurry, only just reading a chapter, and never stopping to talk topoor Lily after it; and she has seen her herself going down towards theworks, instead of towards home, ma'am. And she said she could not bearthat reading to her girl should be made a colour for such doings.'
'Certainly not, if it were as she supposes,' said Miss Mohun, sittingvery upright, and beating her own head vigorously with a very pricklybrush; 'but you may tell her, Fanny, that I know all about it, and thather friend is Miss White, who you remember spent an evening here.'
Fanny's good-humoured face cleared up. 'Yes, ma'am, I told her that Iwas quite sure that Miss Gillian would not go for to do anything wrong,and that it could be easy explained; but people has tongues, you see.'
'You were quite right to tell us, Fanny. Good-night.'
'People has tongues!' repeated Adeline, when that excellent person haddisappeared. 'Yes, indeed, they have. But, Jenny, do you really mean tosay that you know all about this?'
'Yes, I believe so.'
'Oh, I wish you had been at home to-day when Victoria came in. It reallyis a serious business.'
'Victoria! What has she to do with it? I should have thought herMarchioness-ship quite out of the region of gossip, though, for thatmatter, grandees like it quite as much as other people.'
'Don't, Jane, you know it does concern her through companionship forPhyllis, and she was very kind.'
'Oh yes, I can see her sailing in, magnificently kind from herelevation. But how in the world did she manage to pick up all this inthe time?' said poor Jane, tired and pestered into the sharpness of herearly youth.
'Dear Jenny, I wish I had said nothing to-night. Do wait till you arerested.'
'I am not in the least tired, and if
I were, do you think I could sleepwith this half told?'
'You said you knew.'
'Then it is only about Gillian being so silly as to go down to MissWhite's office at the works to look over the boy's Greek exercises.'
'You don't mean that you allowed it!'
'No, Gillian's impulsiveness, just like her mother's, began it, as alittle assertion of modern independence; but while she was away thatlittle step from brook to river brought her to the sense that she hadbeen a goose, and had used me rather unfairly, and so she came andconfessed it all to me on the way home from the station the firstmorning after her return. She says she had written it all to her motherfrom the first.'
'I wonder Lily did not telegraph to put a stop to it.'
'Do you suppose any mother, our poor old Lily especially, can marry acouple of daughters without being slightly frantic! Ten to one she neverrealised that this precious pupil was bigger than Fergus. But do tell mewhat my Lady had heard, and how she heard it.'
'You remember that her governess, Miss Elbury, has connections in theplace.'
'"The most excellent creature in the world." Oh yes, and she spentSunday with them. So that was the conductor.'
'I can hardly say that Miss Elbury was to be blamed, considering thatshe had heard the proposal about Valetta! It seems that that High Schoolclass-mistress, Miss Mellon, who had the poor child under her, is hercousin.'
'Oh dear!'
'It is exactly what I was afraid of when we decided on keeping Valettaat home. Miss Mellon told all the Caesar story in plainly the worstlight for poor Val, and naturally deduced from her removal that she wasthe most to blame.'
'Whereas it was Miss Mellon herself! But nobody could expect Victoriato see that, and no doubt she is quite justified in not wishing for thechild in her schoolroom! But, after all, Valetta is only a child; itwon't hurt her to have this natural recoil of consequences, and hermother will be at home in three weeks' time. It signifies much moreabout Gillian. Did I understand you that the gossip about her hadreached those august ears?'
'Oh yes, Jane, and it is ever so much worse. That horrid Miss Mellonseems to have told Miss Elbury that Gillian has a passion for lowcompany, that she is always running after the Whites at the works, andhas secret meetings with the young man in the garden on Sunday, whilehis sister carries on her underhand flirtation with another youth, FrankStebbing, I suppose. It really was too preposterous, and Victoria saidshe had no doubt from the first that there was exaggeration, and hadtold Miss Elbury so; but still she thought Gillian must have been toblame. She was very nice about it, and listened to all my explanationmost kindly, as to Gillian's interest in the Whites, and its having beenonly the sister that she met, but plainly she is not half convinced.I heard something about a letter being left for Gillian, and really, Idon't know whether there may not be more discoveries to come. I neverfelt before the force of our dear father's saying, apropos of Rotherwoodhimself, that no one knows what it is to lose a father except those whohave the care of his children.'
'Whatever Gillian did was innocent and ladylike, and nothing to beashamed of,' said Aunt Jane stoutly; 'of that I am sure. But I shouldlike to be equally sure that she has not turned the head of that poorfoolish young man, without in the least knowing what she was about. Youshould have seen her state of mind at his sending her a valentine, whichshe returned to him, perfectly ferociously, at once, and that was allthe correspondence somebody seems to have smelt out.'
'A valentine! Gillian must have behaved very ill to have brought thatupon herself! Oh dear! I wish she had never come here; I wish Lily couldhave stayed at home, instead of scattering her children about the world.The Rotherwoods will never get over it.'
'That's the least part of the grievance, in my eyes,' said hersister. 'It won't make a fraction of difference to the dear old cousinRotherwood; and as to my Lady, it is always a liking from the teethoutwards.'
'How can you say so! I am sure she has always been most cordial.'
'Most correct, if you please. Oh, did she say anything about Mysie?'
'She said nothing but good of Mysie; called her delightful, andperfectly good and trustworthy, said they could never have got so wellthrough Phyllis's illness without her, and that they only wished to keepher altogether.'
'I dare say, to be humble companion to my little lady, out of the way ofher wicked sisters.'
'Jane!'
'My dear, I don't think I can stand any more defence of her just now!No, she is an admirable woman, I know. That's enough. I really must goto bed, and consider which is to be faced first, she or Kalliope.'
It was lucky that Miss Mohun could exist without much sleep, for she wasfar too much worried for any length of slumber to visit her that night,though she was afoot as early as usual. She thought it best to tellGillian that Lady Rotherwood had heard some foolish reports, and thatshe was going to try to clear them up, and she extracted an explicitaccount as to what the extent of her intercourse with the Whites hadbeen, which was given willingly, Gillian being in a very humble frame,and convinced that she had acted foolishly. It surprised her likewisethat Aunt Adeline, whom she had liked the best, and thought the mostgood-natured, was so much more angry with her than Aunt Jane, who, asshe felt, forgave her thoroughly, and was only anxious to help her outof the scrape she had made for herself.
Miss Mohun thought her best time for seeing Kalliope would be in thedinner-hour, and started accordingly in the direction of the marbleworks. Not far from them she met that young person walking quickly withone of her little brothers.
'I was coming to see you,' Miss Mohun said. 'I did not know that youwent home in the middle of the day.'
'My mother has been so unwell of late that I do not like to be entirelyout of reach all day,' returned Kalliope, who certainly looked worn andsorrowful; 'so I manage to run home, though it is but for a quarter ofan hour.'
'I will not delay you, I will walk with you,' and when Petros had beendismissed, 'I am afraid my niece has not been quite the friend to youthat she intended.'
'Oh, Miss Mohun, do you know all about it? It is such a relief! I havefelt so guilty towards you, and yet I did not know what to do.'
'I have never thought that the concealment was your fault,' said Jane.
'I did think at first that you knew,' said Kalliope, 'and when I foundthat was not the case, I suppose I should have insisted on your beingtold; but I could not bear to seem ungrateful, and my brother tooksuch extreme delight in his lessons and Miss Merrifield's kindness,that--that I could not bear to do what might prevent them. And now,poor fellow, it shows how wrong it was, since he has ventured on thatunfortunate act of presumption, which has so offended her. Oh, MissMohun, he is quite broken-hearted.'
'I am afraid Gillian was very discourteous. I was out, or it shouldnot have been done so unkindly. Indeed, in the shock, Gillian did notrecollect that she might be giving pain.'
'Yes, yes! Poor Alexis! He has not had any opportunity of understandinghow different things are in your class of life, and he thought it wouldshow his gratitude and--and--Oh, he is so miserable!' and she was forcedto stop to wipe away her tears.
'Poor fellow! But it was one of those young men's mistakes that are gotover and outgrown, so you need not grieve over it so much, my dear. Mybrother-in-law is on his way home, and I know he means to see what canbe done for Alexis, for your father's sake.'
'Oh, Miss Mohun, how good you are! I thought you could never forgive us.And people do say such shocking things.'
'I know they do, and therefore I am going to ask you to tell me exactlywhat intercourse there has been with Gillian.'
Kalliope did so, and Miss Mohun was struck with the complete accordanceof the two accounts, and likewise by the total absence of all attemptat self-justification on Miss White's part. If she had in any waybeen weak, it had been against her will, and her position had been anexceedingly difficult one. She spoke in as guarded a manner as possible;but to such acute and experienced ears as those of her auditor, itwas impossib
le not to perceive that, while Gillian had been absolutelysimple, and unconscious of all but a kind act of patronage, the youth'simagination had taken fire, and he had become her ardent worshipper;with calf-love, no doubt, but with a distant, humble adoration, whichhad, whether fortunately or unfortunately, for once found expression inthe valentine so summarily rejected. The drawing and the compositionhad been the work of many days, and so much against his sister's protestthat it had been sent without her knowledge, after she had thoughtit given up. She had only extracted the confession through hisuncontrollable despair, which made him almost unfit to attend to hisincreased work, perhaps by his southern nature exaggerated.
'The stronger at first, the sooner over,' thought Miss Mohun; but sheknew that consolation betraying her comprehension would not be safe.
One further discovery she made, namely, that on Sunday, Alexis, foolishlad, had been so wildly impatient at their having had no notice fromGillian since her return, that he had gone to the garden to explain, ashe said, his sister's non-appearance there, since she was detained byher mother's illness. It was the only time he had ever been there,and he had met no one; but Miss Mohun felt a sinking of heart at theforeboding that the mauvaises langues would get hold of it.
The only thing to be decided on was that there must be a suspensionof intercourse, at any rate, till Lady Merrifield's arrival; not inunkindness, but as best for all. And, indeed, Kalliope had no time tospare from her mother, whose bloated appearance, poor woman, was theeffect of long-standing disease.
The daughter's heart was very full of her, and evidently it would havebeen a comfort to discuss her condition with this kind friend; but nomore delay was possible; and Miss Mohun had to speed home, in a quandaryhow much or how little about Alexis's hopeless passion should becommunicated to its object, and finally deciding that Gillian had betteronly be informed that he had been greatly mortified by the rude mannerof rejection, but that the act itself proved that she must abstain fromall renewal of the intercourse till her parents should return.
But that was not all the worry of the day. Miss Mohun had still toconfront Lady Rotherwood, and, going as soon as the early dinner wasover, found the Marchioness resting after an inspection of houses inRockquay. She did not like hotels, she said, and she thought the top ofthe cliff too bleak for Phyllis, so that they must move nearer the seaif the place agreed with her at all, which was doubtful. Miss Mohun waspretty well convinced that the true objection was the neighbourhood ofBeechcroft Cottage. She said she had come to give some explanation ofwhat had been said to her sister yesterday.
'Oh, my dear Jane, Adeline told me all about it yesterday. I am verysorry for you to have had such a charge, but what could you expect ofgirls cast about as they have been, always with a marching regiment?'
'I do not think Mysie has given you any reason to think her ill broughtup.'
'A little uncouth at first, but that was all. Oh, no! Mysie is a dearlittle girl. I should be very glad to have her with Phyllis altogether,and so would Rotherwood. But she was very young when Sir Jasperretired.'
'And Valetta was younger. Poor little girl! She was naughty, but I donot think she understood the harm of what she was doing.'
Lady Rotherwood smiled.
'Perhaps not; but she must have been deeply involved, since she was theone amongst all the guilty to be expelled.'
'Oh, Victoria! Was that what you heard?'
'Miss Elbury heard it from the governess she was under. Surely she wasthe only one not permitted to go up for the examination and removed.'
'True, but that was our doing--no decree of the High School. Her owngoverness is free now, and her mother on her way, and we thought she hadbetter not begin another term. Yes, Victoria, I quite see that you mightdoubt her fitness to be much with Phyllis. I am not asking for that--Ishall try to get her own governess to come at once; but for the child'ssake and her mother's I should like to get this cleared up. May I seeMiss Elbury?'
'Certainly; but I do not think you will find that she has exaggerated,though of course her informant may have done so.
Miss Elbury was of the older generation of governesses, motherly, kind,but rather prim and precise, the accomplished element being suppliedwith diplomaed foreigners, who, since Lady Phyllis's failure in health,had been dispensed with. She was a good and sensible woman, as Janecould see, in spite of the annoyance her report had occasioned, and itwas impossible not to assent when she said she had felt obliged, underthe circumstances, to mention to Lady Rotherwood what her cousin hadtold her.
'About both my nieces,' said Jane. 'Yes, I quite understand. But, thoughof course the little one's affair is the least important, we had betterget to the bottom of that first, and I should like to tell you whatreally happened.'
She told her story, and how Valetta had been tempted and then bulliedinto going beyond the first peeps, and finding she did not produce theimpression she wished, she begged Miss Elbury to talk it over with thehead-mistress. It was all in the telling. Miss Elbury's young cousin,Miss Mellon, had been brought under rebuke, and into great danger ofdismissal, through Valetta Merrifield's lapse; and it was no wonderthat she had warned her kinswoman against 'the horrid little deceitfulthing,' who had done so much harm to the whole class. 'Miss Mohun wasrunning about over the whole place, but not knowing what went on in herown house!' And as to Miss White, Miss Elbury mentioned at last, thoughwith some reluctance, that it was believed that she had been on thepoint of a private marriage, and of going to Italy with young Stebbing,when her machinations were detected, and he was forced to set offwithout her.
With this in her mind, the governess could not be expected to accept assatisfactory what was not entire confutation or contradiction, and MissMohun saw that, politely as she was listened to, it was all only treatedas excuse; since there could be no denial of Gillian's folly, and it wasonly a question of degree.
And, provoking as it was, the disappointment might work well forValetta. The allegations against Gillian were a far more serious affair,but much more of these could be absolutely disproved and contradicted;in fact, all that Miss Mohun herself thought very serious, i.e. theflirtation element, was shown to be absolutely false, both as regardedGillian and Kalliope; but it was quite another thing to convince peoplewho knew none of the parties, when there was the residuum of truthundeniable, that there had been secret meetings not only with the girl,but the youth. To acquit Gillian of all but modern independence andimprudent philanthropy was not easy to any one who did not understandher character, and though Lady Rotherwood said nothing more in the formof censure, it was evident that she was unconvinced that Gillian was nota fast and flighty girl, and that she did not desire more contact thanwas necessary.
No doubt she wished herself farther off! Lord Rotherwood, she said,was coming down in a day or two, when he could get away, and then theyshould decide whether to take a house or to go abroad, which, after all,might be the best thing for Phyllis.
'He will make all the difference,' said Miss Adeline, when theunsatisfactory conversation was reported to her.
'I don't know! But even if he did, and I don't think he will, I won'thave Valetta waiting for his decision and admitted on sufferance.'
'Shall you send her back to school?'
'No. Poor Miss Vincent is free, and quite ready to come here. Fergusshall go and sleep among his fossils in the lumber-room, and I willwrite to her at once. She will be much better here than waiting atSilverton, though the Hacketts are very kind to her.'
'Yes, it will be better to be independent. But all this is veryunfortunate. However, Victoria will see for herself what the childrenare. She has asked me to take a drive with her to-morrow if it is nottoo cold.'
'Oh yes, she is not going to make an estrangement. You need not fearthat, Ada. She does not think it your fault.'
Aunt Jane pondered a little as to what to say to the two girls, andfinally resolved that Valetta had better be told that she was not todo lessons with Fly, as her behaviour had made Lady Rotherwood doub
twhether she was a good companion. Valetta stamped and cried, and saidit was very hard and cross when she had been so sorry and every one hadforgiven her; but Gillian joined heartily with Aunt Jane in tryingto make the child understand that consequences often come in spite ofpardon and repentance. To Gillian herself, Aunt Jane said as littleas possible, not liking even to give the veriest hint of the foolishgossip, or of the extent of poor Alexis White's admiration; for it wasenough for the girl to know that concealment had brought her under acloud, and she was chiefly concerned as to how her mother would lookon it. She had something of Aunt Jane's impatience of patronage, andperhaps thought it snobbish to seem concerned at the great lady'sdispleasure.
Mysie was free to run in and out to her sisters, but was still to doher lessons with Miss Elbury, and Fly took up more of her time than thesisters liked. Neither she nor Fly were formally told why theircastles vanished into empty air, but there certainly was a continualdisappointment and fret on both sides, which Fly could not bear as wellas when she was in high health, and poor Mysie's loving heart oftenfound it hard to decide between her urgent claims and those of Valetta!
But was not mamma coming? and papa? Would not all be well then? Yes,hearts might bound at the thought. But where was Gillian's great thing?'
Miss Vincent's coming was really like a beginning of home, in spiteof her mourning and depressed look. It was a great consolation to thelonely woman to find how all her pupils flew at her, with infinitedelight. She had taken pains to bring a report of all the animals forValetta, and she duly admired all Fergus's geological specimens, andeven undertook to print labels for them.
Mysie would have liked to begin lessons again with her; but this wouldhave been hard on Fly, and besides, her mother had committed her to theRotherwoods, and it was better still to leave her with them.
The aunts were ready with any amount of kindness and sympathy for thegoverness's bereavement, and her presence was a considerable relief inthe various perplexities.
Even Lady Rotherwood and Miss Elbury had been convinced, and by no meansunwillingly, that Gillian had been less indiscreet than had been theirfirst impression; but she had been a young lady of the period in herindependence, and was therefore to be dreaded. No more garden trysteswould have been possible under any circumstances, for the house andgarden were in full preparation for the master, who was to meet LordRotherwood to consult about the proposed water-works and other designsfor the benefit of the town where they were the chief landowners.
CHAPTER XIV. -- THE PARTNER
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