Her Season in Bath Part 9

"Well, I am very proud to have made your acquaintance. We have apartments in the Circus. There's no stint as to money. Mr. Greenwood said--that's the squire, you know--'Go and enjoy yourselves. But I thank my stars I've not to go along with you, that's all.'"

At this moment Leslie Travers entered the room, and looking round with the quick glance of love saw Griselda, and Griselda alone.

But who were the people she was seated with? Lady Betty called him by name, and stopped giggling behind her fan to do so.

"Here, Mr. Travers; go, I beseech you, and rescue Griselda from those Goths, into whose hands she has fallen. What a set! Goodness! it's as fine as a play!"

Leslie crossed the room, and bowing before Griselda, said:

"Lady Betty would be pleased if you joined her, Miss Mainwaring."

Griselda rose, and, bowing to her three companions, walked towards the opposite side of the room.

"I knew she was somebody," Mrs. Greenwood exclaimed. "Lady Betty--did you hear? And what a vastly genteel young man!--one of her admirers, no doubt. Well, girls, shall we take a turn? For my part I am getting sleepy;" and a prolonged yawn, which was heard as well as seen, announced the fact to those who were near that Mrs. Greenwood had had enough of the Pump Room for that day.

"My dear girl!" Lady Betty exclaimed when Griselda joined her. "Who will you take up with next? Those vulgar folks! Did you ever see anything like the feet of the young one? I declare I'd wear a longer gown if I had such duck's feet!--and the waddle matches--look!"

Lady Betty's giggle was a well-known sound in any society she honoured with her presence, and when she could get a companion like the empty-headed Lord Basingstoke, she delighted to sit and "quiz" those whom she thought beneath her in the social scale.

"Griselda! She is offended. Look how she is strutting off! He! he! he!"

And Lord Basingstoke echoed the laugh in a languid fashion, Lady Betty leaning back and looking up at him with what she thought her most bewitching smile.

"I think it is very ill-bred to make remarks on people!" Griselda said, "and very unkind to hurt their feelings, as you must have hurt that lady's."

Griselda spoke with some vehemence, which she was apt to do, when her feelings were strongly moved.

"You see how I'm lectured," Lady Betty said, with the usual accompaniment--"the giggling fugue," as her enemies called it.

"Griselda," she said, trying to hide her vexation, "you are very good to look after my behaviour. Poor little me! I want someone, don't I, Mr.

Travers? It is news to hear I am 'ill-bred.' What next, I wonder?"

But Griselda held her own, and repeated:

"I must think it ill-bred in any society to turn other folks into ridicule, and I am quite sure no one can call it kind!"

"My dear, may I ask you to mind your own business?" was said _sotto voce_ as Lady Betty rose, declaring it was time for her third gla.s.s of water, and Lord Basingstoke escorted her to the inner room, where the invalids a.s.sembled to drink the waters.

CHAPTER VII.

THE VASE OF PARNa.s.sUS.

"I am glad to be allowed the chance of speaking to you, Miss Mainwaring," Leslie Travers began. "I wanted to tell you that I have found a clue to your poor little protegee of last evening. I am going to visit her, guided by the boy, to whom she referred me."

"That is good news!" Griselda said. "Will you be sure to let me know if I can do aught for her? Oh, I would that I was not dependent on others!

I do long to help the poor and sad! I must try once more to get Lady Betty to make me ever so small an allowance. But," she added, with sudden animation, "I have many jewels and trinkets which were my grandmother's, and came to me at her death. Will you sell some for me? I had thought of selling a necklace to pay Mr. Herschel for his lessons; but it will be better to feed the starving than learn music."

"You must let me make all due inquiries first, madam," Leslie Travers said. "I do not desire that your charity should be ill-placed, and many beggars' tales are false."

"That child was telling the truth!" Griselda said. "I knew it! I felt it!"

"You can then judge of truth or falseness by the unerring instinct which is one of the gifts of true womanhood? I would hope--I would venture to hope--that, tried by that instinct, you would trust me, and believe that all I say is true. May I dare to hope it is so?"

"Yes," Griselda said, looking straight into the pure, clear eyes which sought hers. "Yes; I could trust _you_."

"Could? Change that word to _do_. Say you _do_ trust me."

His voice trembled with emotion, and Griselda's eyes fell beneath his ardent admiring gaze. The story of his love was written on his face, and Griselda Mainwaring could not choose but read it. The compact between them might have been sealed then, had not a quiet, gentle voice near p.r.o.nounced Mr. Travers' name.

"Leslie, my dear son!"

Griselda turned her face, flushed with crimson, towards Leslie's mother.

He hastened to relieve Griselda's evident embarra.s.sment by saying:

"May I have the honour of presenting you to my mother, Miss Mainwaring?

I have promised to meet my guide to the house we were speaking of. I will return hither, mother; meantime, may I hope you and Miss Mainwaring will have some conversation which will be agreeable to both?"

"I will await your return, Leslie. But do not exceed half an hour, for the dark streets are not pleasant, especially for old folk like me, who have to pick my way carefully. Have you been long a visitor to Bath, madam?" Mrs. Travers said, as she seated herself with Griselda on one of the benches.

"We arrived in November, madam."

"Have you a mother and sister?"

"No, no!" Griselda said pa.s.sionately. "I am alone in the world--an orphan."

"Ah, may the G.o.d of the fatherless be your Friend. You will make Him your Friend, my dear? This is a place fraught with danger. I feel it for my son--and how much more is it full of danger for you?"

"There are many beautiful things and interesting people in Bath. Do you know Mr. and Miss Herchel, madam?"

"I know them by report," was the reply. "My son is a musician, and attends Mr. Herschel's cla.s.ses."

"It is not only music for which Mr. Herschel is famous. He is an astronomer, and reads the star-lit heavens like a book--a poem--a poem more wonderful than any written by earthly hands."

Mrs. Travers was surprised. She did not expect a child of the world--a fashionable young lady--to speak so seriously on any subject. But it was her duty to improve the occasion, and she said:

"I would rather read the Word of G.o.d than the star-lit skies, since the safety of the soul is surely a more important duty than to pry into the secret things of G.o.d."

"But He stretched out the heavens. He raises our thoughts above by their contemplation."

"Ah, my dear young lady, this is the vain tradition of men. Let me urge you to come to our chapel in the Vineyards on the next Sabbath, and hear the truth rightly divided by Mr. Relly. Do not be affronted at my boldness!"

"Oh no! I am obliged to you for caring about me. I have so few who do so care."

"I can scarcely believe it!" Mrs. Travers said. "So young and fair.

Surely there are those who stand in the place of parents to you?"