No Name — 26 - Between the Scenes (3rd and 4th)

Without waiting for his reply she went into the back parlor, and returned with pen, ink, and paper.

Arranging a blotting-book on her knees, and looking a model of cheerful submission, she placed herself once more in front of her master’s chair.

“Shall I write from your dictation, sir?

” she inquired.

“Or shall I make a little sketch, and will you correct it afterward?

I will make a little sketch.

Let me see the letter.

We are to advertise in the _Times_, and we are to address ‘An Unknown Friend.

’ What shall I say, Mr. Noel?

Stay; I will write it, and then you can see for yourself: ‘An Unknown Friend is requested to mention (by advertisement) an address at which a letter can reach him.

The receipt of the information which he offers will be acknowledged by a reward of—’ What sum of money do you wish me to set down, sir?

” “Set down nothing,” said Noel Vanstone, with a sudden outbreak of impatience.

“Money matters are my business—I say money matters are my business, Lecount.

Leave it to me.

” “Certainly, sir,” replied Mrs. Lecount, handing her master the blotting-book.

“You will not forget to be liberal in offering money when you know beforehand you don’t mean to part with it?

” “Don’t dictate, Lecount!

I won’t submit to dictation!

” said Noel Vanstone, asserting his own independence more and more impatiently.

“I mean to conduct this business for myself.

I am master, Lecount!

” “You are master, sir.

” “My father was master before me.

And I am my father’s son.

I tell you, Lecount, I am my father’s son!

” Mrs. Lecount bowed submissively.

“I mean to set down any sum of money I think right,” pursued Noel Vanstone, nodding his little flaxen head vehemently.

“I mean to send this advertisement myself.

The servant shall take it to the stationer’s to be put into the _Times_.

When I ring the bell twice, send the servant.

You understand, Lecount?

Send the servant.

” Mrs. Lecount bowed again and walked slowly to the door.

She knew to a nicety when to lead her master and when to let him go alone.

Experience had taught her to govern him in all essential points by giving way to him afterward on all points of minor detail.

It was a characteristic of his weak nature—as it is of all weak natures—to assert itself obstinately on trifles.

The filling in of the blank in the advertisement was the trifle in this case; and Mrs. Lecount quieted her master’s suspicions that she was leading him by instantly conceding it.

“My mule has kicked,” she thought to herself, in her own language, as she opened the door.

“I can do no more with him to-day.

” “Lecount!

” cried her master, as she stepped into the passage.

“Come back.

” Mrs. Lecount came back.

“You’re not offended with me, are you?

” asked Noel Vanstone, uneasily.

“Certainly not, sir,” replied Mrs. Lecount.

“As you said just now—you are master.

” “Good creature!

Give me your hand.

” He kissed her hand, and smiled in high approval of his own affectionate proceeding.

“Lecount, you are a worthy creature!

” “Thank you, sir,” said Mrs. Lecount.

She courtesied and went out.

“If he had any brains in that monkey head of his,” she said to herself in the passage, “what a rascal he would be!

” Left by himself, Noel Vanstone became absorbed in anxious reflection over the blank space in the advertisement.

Mrs. Lecount’s apparently superfluous hint to him to be liberal in offering money when he knew he had no intention of parting with it, had been founded on an intimate knowledge of his character.

He had inherited his father’s sordid love of money, without inheriting his father’s hard-headed capacity for seeing the uses to which money can be put.

His one idea in connection with his wealth was the idea of keeping it.

He was such an inborn miser that the bare prospect of being liberal in theory only daunted him.

He took up the pen; laid it down again; and read the anonymous letter for the third time, shaking his head over it suspiciously.

“If I offer this man a large sum of money,” he thought, on a sudden, “how do I know he may not find a means of actually making me pay it?

Women are always in a hurry.

Lecount is always in a hurry.

I have got the afternoon before me—I’ll take the afternoon to consider it.

” He fretfully put away the blotting-book and the sketch of the advertisement on the chair which Mrs. Lecount had just left.

As he returned to his own seat, he shook his little head solemnly, and arranged his white dressing-gown over his knees with the air of a man absorbed in anxious thought.

Minute after minute passed away; the quarters and the half-hours succeeded each other on the dial of Mrs. Lecount’s watch, and still Noel Vanstone remained lost in doubt; still no summons for the servants disturbed the tranquillity of the parlor bell.

Meanwhile, after parting with Mrs. Lecount, Magdalen had cautiously abstained from crossing the road to her lodgings, and had only ventured to return after making a circuit in the neighborhood.

When she found herself once more in Vauxhall Walk, the first object which attracted her attention was a cab drawn up before the door of the lodgings.

A few steps more in advance showed her the landlady’s daughter standing at the cab door engaged in a dispute with the driver on the subject of his fare.

Noticing that the girl’s back was turned toward her, Magdalen instantly profited by that circumstance and slipped unobserved into the house.

She glided along the passage, ascended the stairs, and found herself, on the first landing, face to face with her traveling companion!

There stood Mrs. Wragge, with a pile of small parcels hugged up in her arms, anxiously waiting the issue of the dispute with the cabman in the street.

To return was impossible—the sound of the angry voices below was advancing into the passage.

To hesitate was worse than useless.

But one choice was left—the choice of going on—and Magdalen desperately took it.

She pushed by Mrs. Wragge without a word, ran into her own room, tore off her cloak, bonnet and wig, and threw them down out of sight in the blank space between the sofa-bedstead and the wall.

For the first few moments, astonishment bereft Mrs. Wragge of the power of speech, and rooted her to the spot where she stood.

Two out of the collection of parcels in her arms fell from them on the stairs.

The sight of that catastrophe roused her.

“Thieves!

” cried Mrs. Wragge, suddenly struck by an idea.

“Thieves!

” Magdalen heard her through the room door, which she had not had time to close completely.

“Is that you, Mrs. Wragge?

” she called out in her own voice.

“What is the matter?

” She snatched up a towel while she spoke, dipped it in water, and passed it rapidly over the lower part of her face.

At the sound of the familiar voice Mrs. Wragge turned round—dropped a third parcel—and, forgetting it in her astonishment, ascended the second flight of stairs.

Magdalen stepped out on the first-floor landing, with the towel held over her forehead as if she was suffering from headache.

Her false eyebrows required time for their removal, and a headache assumed for the occasion suggested the most convenient pretext she could devise for hiding them as they were hidden now.

“What are you disturbing the house for?

” she asked.

“Pray be quiet; I am half blind with the headache.

” “Anything wrong, ma’am?

” inquired the landlady from the passage.

“Nothing whatever,” replied Magdalen.

“My friend is timid; and the dispute with the cabman has frightened her.

Pay the man what he wants, and let him go.

” “Where is She?

” asked Mrs. Wragge, in a tremulous whisper.

“Where’s the woman who scuttled by me into your room?

” “Pooh!

” said Magdalen.

“No woman scuttled by you—as you call it.

Look in and see for yourself.

” She threw open the door.

Mrs. Wragge walked into the room—looked all over it—saw nobody—and indicated her astonishment at the result by dropping a fourth parcel, and trembling helplessly from head to foot.

“I saw her go in here,” said Mrs. Wragge, in awestruck accents.

“A woman in a gray cloak and a poke bonnet.

A rude woman.

She scuttled by me on the stairs—she did.

Here’s the room, and no woman in it.

Give us a Prayer-book!

” cried Mrs. Wragge, turning deadly pale, and letting her whole remaining collection of parcels fall about her in a little cascade of commodities.

“I want to read something Good.

I want to think of my latter end.

I’ve seen a Ghost!

” “Nonsense!

” said Magdalen.

“You’re dreaming; the shopping has been too much for you.

Go into your own room and take your bonnet off.

” “I’ve heard tell of ghosts in night-gowns, ghosts in sheets, and ghosts in chains,” proceeded Mrs. Wragge, standing petrified in her own magic circle of linen-drapers’ parcels.

“Here’s a worse ghost than any of ’em—a ghost in a gray cloak and a poke bonnet.

I know what it is,” continued Mrs. Wragge, melting into penitent tears.

“It’s a judgment on me for being so happy away from the captain.

It’s a judgment on me for having been down at heel in half the shops in London, first with one shoe and then with the other, all the time I’ve been out.

I’m a sinful creature.

Don’t let go of me—whatever you do, my dear, don’t let go of me!

” She caught Magdalen fast by the arm and fell into another trembling fit at the bare idea of being left by herself.

The one remaining chance in such an emergency as this was to submit to circumstances.

Magdalen took Mrs. Wragge to a chair; having first placed it in such a position as might enable her to turn her back on her traveling-companion, while she removed the false eyebrows by the help of a little water.

“Wait a minute there,” she said, “and try if you can compose yourself while I bathe my head.

” “Compose myself?

” repeated Mrs. Wragge.

“How am I to compose myself when my head feels off my shoulders?

The worst Buzzing I ever had with the Cookery-book was nothing to the Buzzing I’ve got now with the Ghost.

Here’s a miserable end to a holiday!

You may take me back again, my dear, whenever you like—I’ve had enough of it already!

” Having at last succeeded in removing the eyebrows, Magdalen was free to combat the unfortunate impression produced on her companion’s mind by every weapon of persuasion which her ingenuity could employ.

The attempt proved useless.

Mrs. Wragge persisted—on evidence which, it may be remarked in parenthesis, would have satisfied many wiser ghost-seers than herself—in believing that she had been supernaturally favored by a visitor from the world of spirits.

All that Magdalen could do was to ascertain, by cautious investigation, that Mrs. Wragge had not been quick enough to identify the supposed ghost with the character of the old North-country lady in the Entertainment.

Having satisfied herself on this point, she had no resource but to leave the rest to the natural incapability of retaining impressions—unless those impressions were perpetually renewed—which was one of the characteristic infirmities of her companion’s weak mind.

After fortifying Mrs. Wragge by reiterated assurances that one appearance (according to all the laws and regulations of ghosts) meant nothing unless it was immediately followed by two more—after patiently leading back her attention to the parcels dropped on the floor and on the stairs—and after promising to keep the door of communication ajar between the two rooms if Mrs. Wragge would engage on her side to retire to her own chamber, and to say no more on the terrible subject of the ghost—Magdalen at last secured the privilege of reflecting uninterruptedly on the events of that memorable day.

Two serious consequences had followed her first step forward.

Mrs. Lecount had entrapped her into speaking in her own voice, and accident had confronted her with Mrs. Wragge in disguise.

What advantage had she gained to set against these disasters?

The advantage of knowing more of Noel Vanstone and of Mrs. Lecount than she might have discovered in months if she had trusted to inquiries made for her by others.

One uncertainty which had hitherto perplexed her was set at rest already.

The scheme she had privately devised against Michael Vanstone—which Captain Wragge’s sharp insight had partially penetrated when she first warned him that their partnership must be dissolved—was a scheme which she could now plainly see must be abandoned as hopeless, in the case of Michael Vanstone’s son.

The father’s habits of speculation had been the pivot on which the whole machinery of her meditated conspiracy had been constructed to turn.

No such vantage-ground was discoverable in the doubly sordid character of the son.

Noel Vanstone was invulnerable on the very point which had presented itself in his father as open to attack.

Having reached this conclusion, how was she to shape her future course?

What new means could she discover which would lead her secretly to her end, in defiance of Mrs. Lecount’s malicious vigilance and Noel Vanstone’s miserly distrust?

She was seated before the looking-glass, mechanically combing out her hair, while that all-important consideration occupied her mind.

The agitation of the moment had raised a feverish color in her cheeks, and had brightened the light in her large gray eyes.

She was conscious of looking her best; conscious how her beauty gained by contrast, after the removal of the disguise.

Her lovely light brown hair looked thicker and softer than ever, now that it had escaped from its imprisonment under the gray wig.

She twisted it this way and that, with quick, dexterous fingers; she laid it in masses on her shoulders; she threw it back from them in a heap and turned sidewise to see how it fell—to see her back and shoulders freed from the artificial deformities of the padded cloak.

After a moment she faced the looking-glass once more;

plunged both hands deep in her hair; and, resting her elbows on the table, looked closer and closer at the reflection of herself, until her breath began to dim the glass.

“I can twist any man alive round my finger,” she thought, with a smile of superb triumph, “as long as I keep my looks!

If that contemptible wretch saw me now—” She shrank from following that thought to its end, with a sudden horror of herself: she drew back from the glass, shuddering, and put her hands over her face.

“Oh, Frank!

” she murmured, “but for you, what a wretch I might be!

” Her eager fingers snatched the little white silk bag from its hiding-place in her bosom; her lips devoured it with silent kisses.

“My darling!

my angel!

Oh, Frank, how I love you!

” The tears gushed into her eyes.

She passionately dried them, restored the bag to its place, and turned her back on the looking-glass.

“No more of myself,” she thought; “no more of my mad, miserable self for to-day!

” Shrinking from all further contemplation of her next step in advance—shrinking from the fast-darkening future, with which Noel Vanstone was now associated in her inmost thoughts—she looked impatiently about the room for some homely occupation which might take her out of herself.

The disguise which she had flung down between the wall and the bed recurred to her memory.

It was impossible to leave it there.

Mrs. Wragge (now occupied in sorting her parcels) might weary of her employment, might come in again at a moment’s notice, might pass near the bed, and see the gray cloak.

What was to be done?

Her first thought was to put the disguise back in her trunk.

But after what had happened, there was danger in trusting it so near to herself while she and Mrs. Wragge were together under the same roof.

She resolved to be rid of it that evening, and boldly determined on sending it back to Birmingham.

Her bonnet-box fitted into her trunk.

She took the box out, thrust in the wig and cloak, and remorselessly flattened down the bonnet at the top.

The gown (which she had not yet taken off) was her own; Mrs. Wragge had been accustomed to see her in it—there was no need to send the gown back.

Before closing the box, she hastily traced these lines on a sheet of paper: “I took the inclosed things away by mistake.

Please keep them for me, with the rest of my luggage in your possession, until you hear from me again.

” Putting the paper on the top of the bonnet, she directed the box to Captain Wragge at Birmingham, took it downstairs immediately, and sent the landlady’s daughter away with it to the nearest Receiving-house.

“That difficulty is disposed of,” she thought, as she went back to her own room again.

Mrs. Wragge was still occupied in sorting her parcels on her narrow little bed.

She turned round with a faint scream when Magdalen looked in at her.

“I thought it was the ghost again,” said Mrs. Wragge.

“I’m trying to take warning, my dear, by what’s happened to me.

I’ve put all my parcels straight, just as the captain would like to see ’em.

I’m up at heel with both shoes.

If I close my eyes to-night—which I don’t think I shall—I’ll go to sleep as straight as my legs will let me.

And I’ll never have another holiday as long as I live.

I hope I shall be forgiven,” said Mrs. Wragge, mournfully shaking her head.

“I humbly hope I shall be forgiven.

” “Forgiven!

” repeated Magdalen.

“If other women wanted as little forgiving as you do—Well!

well!

Suppose you open some of these parcels.

Come!

I want to see what you have been buying to-day.

” Mrs. Wragge hesitated, sighed penitently, considered a little, stretched out her hand timidly toward one of the parcels, thought of the supernatural warning, and shrank back from her own purchases with a desperate exertion of self-control.

“Open this one.

” said Magdalen, to encourage her: “what is it?

” Mrs. Wragge’s faded blue eyes began to brighten dimly, in spite of her remorse; but she self-denyingly shook her head.

The master-passion of shopping might claim his own again—but the ghost was not laid yet.

“Did you get it at a bargain?

” asked Magdalen, confidentially.

“Dirt cheap!

” cried poor Mrs. Wragge, falling headlong into the snare, and darting at the parcel as eagerly as if nothing had happened.

Magdalen kept her gossiping over her purchases for an hour or more, and then wisely determined to distract her attention from all ghostly recollections in another way by taking her out for a walk.

As they left the lodgings, the door of Noel Vanstone’s house opened, and the woman-servant appeared, bent on another errand.

She was apparently charged with a letter on this occasion which she carried carefully in her hand.

Conscious of having formed no plan yet either for attack or defense, Magdalen wondered, with a momentary dread, whether Mrs. Lecount had decided already on opening fresh communications, and whether the letter was directed to “Miss Garth.

” The letter bore no such address.

Noel Vanstone had solved his pecuniary problem at last.

The blank space in the advertisement was filled up, and Mrs. Lecount’s acknowledgment of the captain’s anonymous warning was now on its way to insertion in the _Times_.

THE END OF THE THIRD SCENE.

BETWEEN THE SCENES.

PROGRESS OF THE STORY THROUGH THE POST.

I.

Extract from the Advertising Columns of “The Times.

” “An unknown friend is requested to mention (by advertisement) an address at which a letter can reach him.

The receipt of the information which he offers will be acknowledged by a reward of Five Pounds.

” II.

From Captain Wragge to Magdalen.

“Birmingham, July 2d, 1847. “MY DEAR GIRL, “The box containing the articles of costumes which you took away by mistake has come safely to hand.

Consider it under my special protection until I hear from you again.

“I embrace this opportunity to assure you once more of my unalterable fidelity to your interests.

Without attempting to intrude myself into your confidence, may I inquire whether Mr. Noel Vanstone has consented to do you justice?

I greatly fear he has declined—in which case I can lay my hand on my heart, and solemnly declare that his meanness revolts me.

Why do I feel a foreboding that you have appealed to him in vain?

Why do I find myself viewing this fellow in the light of a noxious insect?

We are total strangers to each other; I have no sort of knowledge of him, except the knowledge I picked up in making your inquiries.

Has my intense sympathy with your interests made my perceptions prophetic?

or, to put it fancifully, is there really such a thing as a former state of existence?

and has Mr. Noel Vanstone mortally insulted me—say, in some other planet?

“I write, my dear Magdalen, as you see, with my customary dash of humor.

But I am serious in placing my services at your disposal.

Don’t let the question of terms cause you an instant’s hesitation.

I accept beforehand any terms you like to mention.

If your present plans point that way, I am ready to squeeze Mr. Noel Vanstone, in your interests, till the gold oozes out of him at every pore.

Pardon the coarseness of this metaphor.

My anxiety to be of service to you rushes into words;

lays my meaning, in the rough, at your feet; and leaves your taste to polish it with the choicest ornaments of the English language.

“How is my unfortunate wife?

I am afraid you find it quite impossible to keep her up at heel, or to mold her personal appearance into harmony with the eternal laws of symmetry and order.

Does she attempt to be too familiar with you?

I have always been accustomed to check her, in this respect.

She has never been permitted to call me anything but Captain;

and on the rare occasions since our union, when circumstances may have obliged her to address me by letter, her opening form of salutation has been rigidly restricted to ‘Dear Sir.

’ Accept these trifling domestic particulars as suggesting hints which may be useful to you in managing Mrs. Wragge; and believe me, in anxious expectation of hearing from you again, “Devotedly yours, “HORATIO WRAGGE.

” III.

From Norah to Magdalen.

_Forwarded, with the Two Letters that follow it, from the Post Office, Birmingham.

_ “Westmoreland House, Kensington, “July 1st.

“MY DEAREST MAGDALEN, “When you write next (and pray write soon!

) address your letter to me at Miss Garth’s. I have left my situation; and some little time may elapse before I find another.

“Now it is all over I may acknowledge to you, my darling, that I was not happy.

I tried hard to win the affection of the two little girls I had to teach; but they seemed, I am sure I can’t tell why, to dislike me from the first.

Their mother I have no reason to complain of.

But their grandmother, who was really the ruling power in the house, made my life very hard to me.

My inexperience in teaching was a constant subject of remark with her; and my difficulties with the children were always visited on me as if they had been entirely of my own making.

I

tell you this, so that you may not suppose I regret having left my situation.

Far from it, my love—I am glad to be out of the house.

“I have saved a little money, Magdalen; and I should so like to spend it in staying a few days with you.

My heart aches for a sight of my sister; my ears are weary for the sound of her voice.

A word from you telling me where we can meet, is all I want.

Think of it—pray think of it.

“Don’t suppose I am discouraged by this first check.

There are many kind people in the world; and some of them may employ me next time.

The way to happiness is often very hard to find; harder, I almost think, for women than for men.

But if we only try patiently, and try long enough, we reach it at last—in heaven, if not on earth.

I think _my_ way now is the way which leads to seeing you again.

Don’t forget that, my love, the next time you think of “NORAH.

” IV.

From Miss Garth to Magdalen.

“Westmoreland House, July 1st.

“MY DEAR MAGDALEN, “You have no useless remonstrances to apprehend at the sight of my handwriting.

My only object in this letter is to tell you something which I know your sister will not tell you of her own accord.

She is entirely ignorant that I am writing to you.

Keep her in ignorance, if you wish to spare her unnecessary anxiety, and me unnecessary distress.

“Norah’s letter, no doubt, tells you that she has left her situation.

I

feel it my painful duty to add that she has left it on your account.

“The matter occurred in this manner.

Messrs. Wyatt, Pendril, and Gwilt are the solicitors of the gentleman in whose family Norah was employed.

The life which you have chosen for yourself was known as long ago as December last to all the partners.

You were discovered performing in public at Derby by the person who had been employed to trace you at York; and that discovery was communicated by Mr. Wyatt to Norah’s employer a few days since, in reply to direct inquiries about you on that gentleman’s part.

His wife and his mother (who lives with him) had expressly desired that he would make those inquiries; their doubts having been aroused by Norah’s evasive answers when they questioned her about her sister.

You know Norah too well to blame her for this.

Evasion was the only escape your present life had left her, from telling a downright falsehood.

“That same day, the two ladies of the family, the elder and the younger, sent for your sister, and told her they had discovered that you were a public performer, roaming from place to place in the country under an assumed name.

They were just enough not to blame Norah for this; they were just enough to acknowledge that her conduct had been as irreproachable as I had guaranteed it should be when I got her the situation.