A Reputed Changeling Part 22

"Oh! I am glad," this last cried. "Now I shall have a bedfellow."

This Anne was the less sorry for, as she saw that the bed of the other two was furnished with a holy water stoup and a little shrine with a waxen Madonna. There was only one looking-gla.s.s among the four, and not much apparatus either for washing or the toilet, but Miss Bridgeman believed that they would soon go to Richmond, where things would be more comfortable. Then she turned to consult Miss Dunord on her endeavour to improve the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of a dress of Miss Humphreys.

"Yes, I know you are always in Our Lady's colours, Pauline, but you have a pretty taste, and can convince Jane that rose colour and scarlet cannot go together."

"My father chose the ribbons," said Jane, as if that were unanswerable.

"City taste," said Miss Bridgeman.

"They are pretty, very pretty with anything else," observed Pauline, with more tact. "See, now, with your white embroidered petticoat and the gray train they are ravishing--and the scarlet coat will enliven the black."

There was further a little murmur about what a Mr. Hopkins admired, but it was lost in the arrival of Miss Woodford's mails.

They cl.u.s.tered round, as eager as a set of schoolgirls, over Anne's dresses. Happily even the extreme of fashion had not then become ungraceful.

"Her Majesty will not have the loose drapery that folks used to wear," said Hester Bridgeman.

"No," said Pauline; "it was all very well for those who could dispose it with an artless negligence, but for some I could name, it was as though they had tumbled it on with a hay-fork and had their hair tousled by being tickled in the hay."

"Now we have the tight bodice with plenty of muslin and lace, the gown open below to show the petticoat," said Hester; "and to my mind it is more decorous."

"Decorum was not the vogue then," laughed Pauline, "perhaps it will be now. Oh, what lovely lace! real Flanders, on my word! Where did you get it, Miss Woodford?"

"It was my mother's."

"And this? Why, 'tis old French point, you should hang it to your sleeves."

"My Lady Archfield gave it to me in case I should need it."

"Ah! I see you have good friends and are a person of some condition," put in Hester Bridgeman. "I shall be happy to consort with you. Let us--"

Anne courtesied, and at the moment a bell was heard, Pauline at once crossed herself and fell on her knees before the small shrine with a figure of the Blessed Virgin, and Hester, breaking off her words, followed her example; but Jane Humphreys stood twisting the corner of her ap.r.o.n.

In a very short time, almost before Anne had recovered from her bewilderment, the other two were up and chattering again.

"You are not a Catholic?" demanded Miss Bridgeman.

"I was bred in the Church," said Anne.

"And you the King's G.o.dchild!" exclaimed Pauline. "But we shall soon amend that and make a convert of you like Miss Bridgeman there."

Anne shook her head, but was glad to ask, "And what means the bell that is ringing now?"

"That is the supper bell. It rings just after the Angelus," said Hester. "No, it is not ours. The great folks, Lady Powys, Lady Strickland, and the rest sup first. We have the dishes after them, with Nurses Labadie and Royer and the rest--no bad ones either.

They are allowed five dishes and two bottles of wine apiece, and they always leave plenty for us, and it is served hot too."

The preparations for going down to the second table now absorbed the party.

As Hester said, the fare at this second table was not to be despised. It was a formal meal shared with the two nurses and the two pages of the backstairs. Not the lads usually a.s.sociated with the term, but men of mature age, and of gentle, though not n.o.ble, birth and breeding; and there were likewise the attendants of the King and Queen of the same grade, such as Mr. Labadie, the King's valet, some English, but besides these, Dusian, the Queen's French page, and Signer and Signora Turini, who had come with her from Modena, Pere Giverlai, her confessor, and another priest. Pere Giverlai said grace, and the conversation went on briskly between the elders, the younger ones being supposed to hold their peace.

Their dishes went in reversion to the inferior cla.s.s of servants, laundress, sempstress, chambermaids, and the like, who had much more liberty than their betters, and not such a lack of occupation as Anne soon perceived that she should suffer from.

There was, however, a great muster of all the Prince's establishment, who stood round, as many as could, with little garments in their hands, while he was solemnly undressed and laid in his richly inlaid and carved cradle--over which Pere Giverlai p.r.o.nounced a Latin benediction.

The nursery establishment was then released, except one of the nurses, who was to sleep or wake on a couch by his side, and one of the rockers. These damsels had, two at a time, to divide the night between them, one being always at hand to keep the food warm, touch the rocker at need with her foot, or call up the nurse on duty if the child awoke, but not presume herself to handle his little Royal Highness.

It was the night when Mistresses Dunord and Bridgeman were due, and Anne followed Jane Humphreys to her room, asking a little about the duties of the morrow.

"We must be dressed before seven," said the girl. "One of us will be left on duty while the others go to Ma.s.s. I am glad you are a Protestant, Miss Woodford, for the Catholics put everything on me that they can."

"We must do our best to help and strengthen each other," said Anne.

"It is very hard," said Jane; "and the priests are always at me! I would change as Hester Bridgeman has done, but that I know it would break my grand-dame's heart. My father might not care so much, if I got advancement, but I believe it would kill my grandmother."

"Advancement! oh, but faith comes first," exclaimed Anne, recalling the warning.

"Hester says one religion is as good as another to get to Heaven by," murmured Jane.

"Not if we deny our own for the world's sake," said Anne. "Is the chapel here a Popish one?"

"No; the Queen has an Oratory, but the Popish chapel is at St.

James's--across the Park. The Protestant one is here at Whitehall, and there are daily prayers at nine o'clock, and on Sunday music with three fiddlers, and my grandmother says it might almost as well be Popish at once."

"Did your grandmother bring you up?"

"Yes. My mother died when I was seven years old, and my grandmother bred us all up. You should hear her talk of the good old times before the Kings came back and there were no Bishops and no book prayers--but my father says we must swim with the stream, or he would not have got any custom at his coffee-house."

"Is that his calling?"

"Ay! No one has a better set of guests than in the Golden Lamb.

The place is full. The great Dr. Hammond sees his patients there, and it is all one buzz of the wits. It was because of that that my Lord Sunderland made interest, and got me here. How did you come?"

Anne briefly explained, and Jane broke out--

"Then you will be my friend, and we will tell each other all our secrets. You are a Protestant too. You will be mine, and not Bridgeman's or Dunord's--I hate them."

In point of fact Anne did not feel much attracted by the proffer of friendship, and she certainly did not intend to tell Jane Humphreys all her secrets, nor to vow enmity to the other colleagues, but she gravely answered that she trusted they would be friends and help to maintain one another's faith. She was relieved that Miss Bridgeman here came in to take her first turn of rest till she was to be called up at one o'clock.

As Jane Humphreys had predicted, Mrs. Royer and Anne alone were left in charge of the nursling while every one went to morning Ma.s.s.

Then followed breakfast and the levee of his Royal Highness, lasting as on the previous day till dinner-time; and the afternoon was as before, except that the day was fine enough for the child to be carried out with all his attendants behind him to take the air in the private gardens.

If this was to be the whole course of life at the palace, Anne began to feel that she had made a great mistake. She was by no means attracted by her companions, though Miss Bridgeman decided that she must know persons of condition, and made overtures of friendship, to be sealed by calling one another Oriana and Portia. She did not approve of such common names as Princess Anne and Lady Churchill used--Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman! They must have something better than what was used by the c.o.c.kpit folks, and she was sure that her dear Portia would soon be of the only true faith.

CHAPTER XVII: MACHINATIONS