A Fair Mystery: The Story of a Coquette. Charlotte M. Brame
Then he found himself in difficulties over his feet. He had some dim idea that he had heard his wife say it was genteel to stand with the heels together; he tried it, and it proved a dead failure.
The duchess relieved him of all further embarrassment by pointing to a chair. He sat down with a deep sigh that was almost a gasp – thankful to be relieved at last.
"I wanted to see you, Mr. Brace," continued the stately lady, "to ask how the child is whom we saw at the farm."
Mark was himself again with something to say of Doris. His face brightened.
"She is not a child now, your grace; she has grown to be a beautiful girl."
"Is she still beautiful?" asked her grace.
"I do not think the sun, when it rises in the morning, is brighter," replied Mark, with unconscious poetry.
"I am almost sorry to hear it," said her grace. "There are more qualities than beauty for a girl in her position, Mr. Brace."
"Yes; but we can't help it."
"And," interrupted the duchess, "have you heard any more? Do you know to whom she belongs? Have you any trace of her parentage?"
Lady Estelle shut her jeweled fan, and laid it on the table. Her eyes were fixed on Mark's face.
"No, your grace," he replied. "We know no more than we did on the day she first came to us. The money comes every year. It always comes from London, generally in Bank of England notes, quite new and crisp; sometimes gold packed in a little box. It never fails."
"It is so strange. There is never a word about the child in the parcels? No questions? No remarks?"
"No; not one," he replied.
"And what have you done with her all these years?" asked the duchess. "She had high spirits of her own."
"She has been to school, your grace; it was her own wish she should go. She was away for four years without coming home."
"Then she is clever and accomplished?" said the duchess.
"Yes," replied Mark; "she is as clever as any lady in the land."
Then his face grew crimson, and he said to himself that he had made a great blunder. Lady Estelle smiled in her usual languid fashion.
"I mean, your grace," exclaimed Mark, "that she is really very clever. She sings like a mermaid," he added, delighted at his own figure of speech; "she can dance, and speaks two foreign languages."
The duchess laughed. It was impossible to help it; Mark's face was such a study as he enumerated this list of accomplishments.
"I should like to see your protegee, Mr. Brace," said her grace; "but as she is inclined to be vain, it would be wise perhaps not to tell her that I have expressed such a wish."
Mark looked very wise; he quite agreed with it.
"You might say," continued her grace, "that you are coming over to the Castle next week on business, and bring her with you."
"I will, your grace," said Mark, proudly. "I am coming on business next Tuesday; my lease is to be renewed. I will bring her with me. She is engaged to be married," he added, bluntly.
"Engaged!" repeated the duchess. "Why, she cannot be more than nineteen."
"She is nineteen," said Mark; "and, of course, I shall not allow her to be married for a year."
"You are quite right," interrupted the duchess.
Lady Estelle had opened her fan, and she stirred it gently, as she asked:
"To whom is she engaged?"
Mark declared, in reporting the conversation, that it was the grammar that destroyed him. It made him feel unequal to giving any answer. He turned uneasily in his chair.
"To whom is she engaged?" repeated the clear, musical voice.
"Why, my lady, he is a poet and a gentleman."
"A poet and a gentleman!" repeated the duchess. "That is high praise."
"He deserves it, your grace. He has written a book – I cannot say whether it has been read among the great people; but, with such as us, the verses are on the lips of every man, woman and child."
"What is the poet's name?" asked Lady Estelle.
"Earle Moray, my lady. He lives near us, and his father was a clergyman. His mother is a very quiet, grave lady. She always thought that Doris was my daughter, and when she heard the truth she was quite unwilling for her son to make such a marriage. But he talked her over."
Lady Estelle used her fan vigorously; her face had suddenly grown burning red.
"They are very much attached to each other," continued Mark. "I never saw anything like the way in which he worships her. I am sure that if he lost her he would go mad."
"Let us hope not," said the duchess, with a smile. "Going mad is a very serious matter."
"Then," said the low, sweet voice of Lady Estelle, "your protegee is provided for, Mr. Brace? Her future is safe?"
"I hope so, my lady," said cautious Mark. "But as the wedding does not take place for a year, much may happen in that time."
"We will hope it will all end happily," said her grace, kindly.
Then Mark understood that his interview had ended. Lady Estelle murmured a careless adieu: the duchess spoke kindly of Patty, and Mark went home that night a proud and happy man.
He was greeted with innumerable questions; his wife seemed to think that Mark had been the principal person present: that except for the fact of his presence, the dinner-party would have been insignificant. Doris positively bewildered him with questions. Mrs. Brace and Mattie sat with awe and wonder on their faces.
"I cannot answer so many questions, Doris," said Mark, at last. "I tell you what – I am going to the Castle again on Tuesday to renew my lease; will you go with me?"
Her beautiful face flushed crimson.
"Will I? Of course I will," Doris said.
"What would they say?" asked Mattie.
"They would not say anything," said Mark. "I should tell them that my daughter Doris had a great fancy for seeing the inside of a castle; and you may take my word they will be kind enough."
"Let Mattie go," suggested Mrs. Brace.
But Mattie shrank back.
"Oh, no!" she said, "I should not care for it, I would rather not."
"And I would give a year of my life," said Doris.
"You need not give anything," said Mark. "Dress yourself tidily, not finely," he added, with a touch of natural shrewdness. "One does not require finery in going to see a duchess."
"Shall I see the duchess?" asked Doris, opening her eyes wide with surprise.
Then Mark Brace perceived his error.
"I am a poor hand at keeping a secret," he thought. "If you go to the Castle," he replied, "it is very probable you will see the Duchess of Downsbury."
"I shall not be able to sleep from this moment till then," cried Doris.
And when Earle Moray came she could talk to him about nothing but the intensity of the pleasure in store for her. A hundred times and more did Mark repent giving the invitation; he had no peace, no rest; even Earle himself could not persuade her to talk about anything except the grandeur of Downsbury Castle.
"I am quite sorry I cannot go back to school for a few days," she said, "just to make all my school-fellows mad with jealousy."
"Why should they be mad?" asked Mattie.
"You do not know how much they talk about Downsbury Castle," she replied. "My dear, they call England a Christian land, and they pray for the conversion of all pagans and idolaters. There are no such idolaters as these same English, who worship rank, title, and wealth, as they never worshiped Heaven."
"You are one of them, Doris," said Mattie.
"Not altogether.