‘It was only five guineas for the whole dress,’ pleaded Mrs. Gibson.
‘And very pretty it is,’ said Lady Harriet, stooping to examine it, and so hoping to soothe the poor aggrieved woman. But Lady Cumnor went on:
‘No! you ought to have known me better by this time. When I think a thing I say it out. I don’t beat about the bush. I use straightforward language. I will tell you where I think you have been in fault, Clare, if you like to know.’ Like it or not, the plain-speaking was coming now. ‘You have spoilt that girl of yours till she does not know her own mind. She has behaved abominably to Mr. Preston; and it is all in consequence of the faults in her education. You have much to answer for.’
‘Mamma, mamma!’ said Lady Harriet, ‘Mr. Preston did not wish it spoken about.’ And at the same moment Mrs. Gibson exclaimed, ‘Cynthia—Mr. Preston!’ in such a tone of surprise, that if Lady Cumnor had been in the habit of observing the revelations made by other people’s tones and voices, she would have found out that Mrs. Gibson was ignorant of the affair to which she was alluding.
‘As for Mr. Preston’s wishes, I do not suppose I am bound to regard them when I feel it my duty to reprove error,’ said Lady Cumnor loftily to Lady Harriet. ‘And, Clare, do you mean to say that you are not aware that your daughter has been engaged to Mr. Preston for some time—years, I believe,—and has at last chosen to break it off,—and has used the Gibson girl—I forget her name—as a cat’s-paw, and made both her and herself the town’s talk—the butt for all the gossip of Hollingford? I remember when I was young there was a girl called Jilting Jessy. You’ll have to watch over your young lady, or she’ll will get some such name. I speak to you like a friend, Clare, when I tell you it’s my opinion that girl of yours will get herself into some more mischief yet before she’s safely married. Not that I care one straw for Mr. Preston’s feelings. I don’t even know if he’s got feelings or not; but I know what is becoming in a young woman, and jilting is not. And now you may both go away, and send Dawson to me, for I’m tired, and want to have a little sleep.’
‘Indeed, Lady Cumnor—will you believe me?—I do not think Cynthia was ever engaged to Mr. Preston. There was an old flirtation. I was afraid—’
‘Ring the bell for Dawson,’ said Lady Cumnor, wearily; her eyes closed. Lady Harriet had too much experience of her mother’s moods not to lead Mrs. Gibson away almost by main force, she protesting all the while that she did not think there was any truth in the statement, though it was dear Lady Cumnor that said it.
Once in her own room, Lady Harriet said, ‘Now, Clare, I’ll tell you all about it; and I think you’ll have to believe it, for it was Mr. Preston himself who told me. I heard of a great commotion in Hollingford about Mr. Preston; and I met him riding out, and asked him what it was all about; he didn’t want to speak about it, evidently. No man does, I suppose, when he’s been jilted; and he made both papa and me promise not to tell; but papa did—and that’s what mamma has for a foundation; you see, a really good one.’
‘But Cynthia is engaged to another man—she really is. And another—a very good match indeed—has just been offering to her in London. Mr. Preston is always at the root of mischief.’
‘Nay! I do think in this case it must be that pretty Miss Cynthia of yours who has drawn on one man to be engaged to her,—not to say two,—and another to make her an offer. I can’t endure Mr. Preston, but I think it’s rather hard to accuse him of having called up the rivals, who are, I suppose, the occasion of his being jilted.’
‘I don’t know; I always feel as if he owed me a grudge, and men have so many ways of being spiteful. You must acknowledge that if he had not met you I should not have had dear Lady Cumnor so angry with me.’
‘She only wanted to warn you about Cynthia. Mamma has always been very particular about her own daughters. She has been very severe on the least approach to flirting, and Mary will be like her!’
‘But Cynthia will flirt, and I can’t help it. She is not noisy, or giggling ; she is always a lady—that everybody must own. But she has a way of attracting men she must have inherited from me, I think.’ And here she smiled faintly, and would not have rejected a confirmatory compliment, but none came. ‘However, I will speak to her; I will get to the bottom of the whole affair. Pray tell Lady Cumnor that it has so fluttered me the way she spoke, about my dress and all. And it only cost five guineas after all—reduced from eight!’
‘Well, never mind now. You are looking very much flushed; quite feverish! I left you too long in mamma’s hot room. But do you know she is so much pleased to have you here?’ And so Lady Cumnor really was, in spite of the continual lectures which she gave ‘Clare,’ and which poor Mrs. Gibson turned under as helplessly as the typical worm. Still it was something to have a countess to scold her; and that pleasure would endure when the worry was past. And then Lady Harriet petted her more than usual to make up for what she had to go through in the convalescent’s room; and Lady Cuxhaven talked sense to her, with dashes of science and deep thought intermixed, which was very flattering, although generally unintelligible; and Lord Cumnor, good-natured, good-tempered, kind, and liberal, was full of gratitude to her for her kindness in coming to see Lady Cumnor, and his gratitude took the tangible shape of a haunch of venison, to say nothing of lesser game. When she looked back upon her visit, as she drove home in the solitary grandeur of the Towers’ carriage, there had been but one great enduring rub—Lady Cumnor’s crossness—and she chose to consider Cynthia as the cause of that, instead of seeing the truth, which had been so often set before her by the members of her ladyship’s family, that it took its origin in her state of health. Mrs. Gibson did not exactly mean to visit this one discomfort upon Cynthia, nor did she quite mean to upbraid her daughter for conduct as yet unexplained, and which might have some justification; but, finding her quietly sitting in the drawing-room, she sat down despondingly in her own little easy chair, and in reply to Cynthia’s quick pleasant greeting of—
‘Well, mamma, how are you? We didn’t expect you so early! Let me take off your bonnet and shawl!’ she replied dolefully,—
‘It has not been such a happy visit that I should wish to prolong it.’ Her eyes were fixed on the carpet, and her face was as irresponsive to the welcome offered as she could make it.
‘What has been the matter?’ asked Cynthia, in all good faith.
‘You! Cynthia-you! I little thought when you were born how I should have to bear to hear you spoken about.’
Cynthia threw back her head, and angry light came into her eyes.
‘What business have they with me? How came they to talk about me in any way?’
‘Everybody is talking about you: it is no wonder they are. Lord Cumnor is sure to hear about everything always. You should take more care about what you do, Cynthia, if you don’t like being talked about.’
‘It rather depends upon what people say,’ said Cynthia, affecting a lightness which she did not feel; for she had a prevision of what was coming.
‘Well! I don’t like it, at any rate. It is not pleasant to me to hear first of my daughter’s misdoings from Lady Cumnor, and then to be lectured about her, and her flirting, and her jilting, as if I had had anything to do with it. I can assure you it has quite spoilt my visit. No! don’t touch my shawl. When I go to my room I can take it myself.’
Cynthia was brought to bay, and sat down; remaining with her mother, who kept sighing ostentatiously from time to time.
‘Would you mind telling me what they said? If there are accusations abroad against me, it is as well I should know what they are. Here’s Molly’ (as the girl entered the room, fresh from the morning’s walk). ‘Molly, mamma has come back from the Towers, and my lord and my lady have been doing me the honour to talk over my crimes and misdemeanours and I am asking mamma what they have said. I don’t set up for more virtue than other people, but I can’t make out what an earl and a countess have to do with poor little me.’
‘It was not for your sake!’ said Mrs. Gibson. ‘It was for mine. They felt for me, for it is not pleasant to have one’s child’s name in everybody’s mouth.’
‘As I said before, that depends upon how it is in everybody’s mouth. If I were going to marry Lord Hollingford, I make no doubt every one would be talking about me, and neither you nor I should mind it in the least.’
‘But this is no marriage with Lord Hollingford, so it is nonsense to talk as if it was. They say you’ve gone and engaged yourself to Mr. Preston, and now refuse to marry him; and they call that jilting.’
‘Do you wish me to marry him, mamma?’ asked Cynthia, her face in a flame, her eyes cast down. Molly stood by, very hot, not fully understanding it; and only kept where she was by the hope of coming in as sweetener or peacemaker, or helper of some kind.
‘No,’ said Mrs. Gibson, evidently discomfited by the question. ‘Of course I don’t; you’ve gone and entangled yourself with Roger Hamley, a very worthy young man; but nobody knows where he is, and if he’s dead or alive; and he has not a penny if he is alive.’
‘I beg your pardon. I know that he has some fortune; from his mother; it may not be much, but he is not penniless; and he is sure to earn fame and great reputation, and with it money will come,’ said Cynthia.
‘You’ve entangled yourself with him, and you’ve done something of the sort with Mr. Preston, and got yourself into such an imbroglio’ (Mrs. Gibson could not have said ‘mess’ for the world, although the word was present to her mind), ‘that when a really eligible person comes forward—handsome, agreeable, and quite the gentleman—and a good private fortune into the bargain, you have to refuse him. You’ll end as an old maid, Cynthia, and it will break my heart.’
‘I dare say I shall,’ said Cynthia, quietly. ‘I sometimes think I’m the kind of person of which old maids are made!’ She spoke seriously, and a little sadly.
Mrs. Gibson began again. ‘I don’t want to know your secrets as long as they are secrets; but when all the town is talking about you, I think I ought to be told.’
‘But, mamma, I didn’t know I was such a subject of conversation; and even now I can’t make out how it has come about.’
‘No more can I. I only know that they say you’ve been engaged to Mr. Preston, and ought to have married him, and that I can’t help it, if you did not choose, any more than I could have helped your refusing Mr. Henderson; and yet I am constantly blamed for your misconduct. I think it’s very hard.’ Mrs. Gibson began to cry. Just then her husband came in.
‘You here, my dear! Welcome back,’ said he, coming up to her courteously, and kissing her cheek. ‘Why, what’s the matter? Tears?’ and he heartily wished himself away again.
‘Yes!’ said she, raising herself up, and clutching after sympathy of any kind, at any price. ‘I’m come home again, and I’m telling Cynthia how Lady Cumnor has been so cross to me, and all through her. Did you know she had gone and engaged herself to Mr. Preston, and then broken it off? Everybody is talking about it, and they know it up at the Towers.’
For one moment his eyes met Molly’s, and he comprehended it all. He made his lips up into a whistle, but no sound came. Cynthia had quite lost her defiant manner since her mother had spoken to Mr. Gibson. Molly sat down by her.
‘Cynthia,’ said he, very seriously.
‘Yes!’ she answered, softly.
‘Is this true? I had heard something of it before—not much; but there is scandal enough about to make it desirable that you should have some protector—some friend who knows the whole truth.’
No answer. At last she said, ‘Molly knows it all.’
Mrs. Gibson, too, had been awed into silence by her husband’s grave manner, and she did not like to give vent to the jealous thought in her mind that Molly had known the secret of which she was ignorant. Mr. Gibson replied to Cynthia with some sternness:
‘Yes! I know that Molly knows it all, and that she has had to bear slander and ill words for your sake, Cynthia. But she refused to tell me more.’
‘She told you that much, did she?’ said Cynthia aggrieved.
‘I could not help it,’ said Molly.
‘She didn’t name your name,’ said Mr. Gibson. ‘At the time I believe she thought she had concealed it—but there was no mistaking who it was.’
‘Why did she speak about it at all?’ said Cynthia, with some bitterness. Her tone—her question—stirred up Mr. Gibson’s passion.
‘It was necessary for her to justify herself to me—I heard my daughter’s reputation attacked for the private meetings she had given to Mr. Preston—I came to her for an explanation. There’s no need to be ungenerous, Cynthia, because you’ve been a flirt and a jilt, even to the degree of dragging Molly’s name down into the same mire.’
Cynthia lifted her bowed-down head, and looked at him.
‘You say that of me, Mr. Gibson? Not knowing what the circumstances are, you say that?’
He had spoken too strongly: he knew it. But he could not bring himself to own just at that moment. The thought of his sweet innocent Molly, who had borne so much patiently, prevented any retractation of his words at the time.
‘Yes!’ he said, ‘I do say it. You cannot tell what evil constructions are put upon actions ever so slightly beyond the bounds of maidenly propriety. I do say that Molly has had a great deal to bear, in consequence of this clandestine engagement of yours, Cynthia—there may be extenuating circumstances, I acknowledge—but you will need to remember them all to excuse your conduct to Roger Hamley, when he comes home. I asked you to tell me the full truth, in order that, until he comes and has a legal right to protect you, I may do so.’ No answer. ‘It certainly requires explanation,’ continued he. ‘Here are you engaged to two men at once to all appearances!’ Still no answer. ‘To be sure, the gossips of the town haven’t yet picked out the fact of Roger Hamley’s being your accepted lover; but scandal has been resting on Molly, and ought to have rested on you, Cynthia—for a concealed engagement to Mr. Preston—necessitating meetings in all sorts of places unknown to your friends.’