Tales and Novels Volume VII Part 61

"Nothing, my dear Lady Jane."

"Nothing? my dear Caroline."

"I have no more to say--I have said all I can say."

The carriage stopped at their own door.

"We are all in the dark," said Lady Jane: "when I have more light I shall be able better to tell what we are about."

"Now, I can see as well as hear," continued she, as her woman met her with lights. "Keppel, you may go to bed; we shall not want you to-night."

"Now, Caroline, take care: remember your countenance is open to me, if not your heart."

"Both, both are open to you, my dear friend!" cried Caroline. "And Lord William, who said you deserved it from him, desired me to speak as freely for him as for myself."

"He's a n.o.ble creature! There's the difference between reserve of character and reserve of manner--I always said so. Go on, my dear."

Caroline related every thing that had pa.s.sed; and Lady Jane, when she had finished, said, "A couple of children!--But a couple of charming children. Now I, that have common sense, must set it all to rights, and turn _no_ prettily into _yes_."

"It cannot be done," said Caroline.

"Pardon me, solemn fair one, it can."

"Pardon me, my dear Lady Jane, it must not be done."

"Children should not say _must_," cried Lady Jane, in a playful tone; for never did she feel in more delightful spirits than at this moment, when all her hopes for Caroline, as she thought, were realized; "and to complete '_the pleasing history_,' no obstacle remained," she said, "but the Chinese mother-of-pearl curtain of etiquette to be withdrawn, by a dexterous, delicate hand, from between Shuey-Ping-Sin and her lover."

Lady Jane, late as it was at night, took up a pen, to write a note to Lord William.

"What are you going to do, may I ask, my dear madam?" cried Caroline.

"My dear madam, I am going my own way--let me alone."

"But if you mean to write for me--"

"For you!--not at all--for myself. I beg to see Lord William in the morning, to trouble him with my commands."

"But seriously, my dear Lady Jane, do not give him unnecessary pain--for my mind is decided."

"So every young lady says--it is a ruled case--for the first three days." Lady Jane wrote on as fast as she could.

"My dear Lady Jane," cried Caroline, stopping her ladyship's hand, "I am in earnest."

"So, then," cried Lady Jane, impatiently, "you will not trust me--you will not open your heart to me, Caroline?"

"I do--I have trusted you entirely, my dear friend. My heart I opened to you long ago."

A dead pause--and blank consternation in Lady Jane's countenance.

"But surely since then it must have changed?"

"Not in the least."

"But it will change: let Lord William try to change it."

Caroline shook her head. "It will not--I cannot."

"And you won't do this, when I ask it as a favour for my friend, my particular friend?"

"Excuse me, dear, kind Lady Jane; I know you wish only my happiness, but this would make me unhappy. It is the only thing you could ask with which I would not comply."

"Then I'll never ask any thing else while I live from you, Miss Percy,"

cried Lady Jane, rising and throwing her pen from her. "You are resolved to throw your happiness from you--do so. Wish your happiness!--yes, I have wished it anxiously--ardently! but now I have done: you are determined to be perverse and philosophical. Good night to you."

Lady Jane s.n.a.t.c.hed up her candle, and in haste retired. Caroline, sensible that all her ladyship's anger at this moment arose from warm affection, was the more sorry to have occasioned it, and to feel that she could not, by yielding, allay it instantly.--A sleepless night.

Early in the morning, Keppel, half-dressed and not half awake, came, with her ladyship's love, and begged to speak a word to Miss Percy.

"_Love!_" repeated Caroline, as she went to Lady Jane's apartment: "how kind she is!"

"My dear, you have not slept, I see--nor I neither; but I am sure you have forgiven my hastiness;" said Lady Jane, raising herself on her pillow.

Caroline kissed her affectionately.

"And let these tears, my dearest Caroline," continued Lady Jane, "be converted into tears of joy: for my sake--for your whole family--for your own sake, my sweet girl, be advised, and don't throw away your happiness for life. Here's a note from Lord William--he waits my commands--that's all. Let me only desire to see him."

"On my account? I cannot," said Caroline--the tears streaming down her face, though she spoke calmly.

"Then it is your pride to refuse the man for whom every other young woman is sighing."

"No, believe me that I do not act from pride: I feel none--I have no reason to feel any."

"No reason to feel pride! Don't you know--yes, you know as well as I do, that this is the man of men--the man on whom every mother's--every daughter's eye is fixed--the first unmarried n.o.bleman now in England--the prize of prizes. The most excellent man, you allow, and universally allowed to be the most agreeable."

"But if he be not so to me?" said Caroline.

"That can only be because--you are conscious of the cause, Caroline--it is your own fault."

"And therefore I said, that I felt I had no reason to be proud," said Caroline.

"Then have reason to be proud; conquer this weakness, and then you may have cause to be proud. You pique yourself on being reasonable: is it reasonable to leave your affections in the possession of a man, of whom, in all human probability, you will never hear more?"

"Too probable," said Caroline.

"And will you, Caroline Percy, like Lady Angelica Headingham, leave your heart at the mercy of a foreign _adventurer_?"

"Oh! stop, ma'am," cried Caroline, putting her hand before Lady Jane's mouth: "don't say that word--any thing else I could bear. But if you knew him--education, character, manners--no, you would not be so unjust."

"You know you told me you were sensible you ought not to indulge such a weakness, Caroline?"