The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals Part 14

"Her friends? I did not know that she had any in England."

"Oh, yes! I am one; Lady Hope is another. Then there is Mr. Closs."

"Oh!" said Olympia. "It is to that gentleman we owe the honor of this visit?"

"Yes," answered Clara. "He escorted me here. Being Lady Hope's brother, it was proper, you understand."

Olympia was looking in Clara's face. The girl pleased her. The bright mobility of her features, the graceful gestures with which she emphasized her expressions, charmed the experienced actress.

"Ah, if my daughter had your abandon!" she exclaimed, with enthusiasm.

"Or if I had her sweet dignity. But fortune is sometimes very perverse.

Now I should glory in the applause which makes her faint away."

"Ah! she is sensitive as a child, proud as a d.u.c.h.ess; but, where we have plenty of genius, these things only serve to brighten it. I shall take Caroline into my own training. When you come to hear her sing again, it will be a different affair."

"Oh, madam, do not ask it!" cried Caroline, in a panic. "I never, never can go on to that stage again!"

"We shall see," answered Olympia, blandly. "Here comes the call-boy; I must say adieu, with many thanks for this visit."

"But I have a request to make. You will give her time?"

"Oh! yes, my lady. She shall have sufficient time."

Olympia went out smiling; but Caroline understood the craft that lay under her soft words.

"You see that I have accomplished something," said Clara, delighted with her success; "we have gained time."

"No, no! She will have her way."

"What! that soft, handsome creature?"

"Has a will of iron!"

"And so have I!" exclaimed the young girl, "and my will is that she shall not force you into a life you do not like; but I wonder at it.

Upon my word, if it were not for one thing, I should like to change places with you."

Caroline shook her head.

"You have no idea what the life is!"

"Oh! yes, I have; and it must be charming. No dignity to keep up, no retinue of servants to pa.s.s every time you come and go; but all sorts of homage, plenty of work, while everything you have brings in a swift recompense. Talent, beauty, grace discounted every night. Oh! it must be charming."

"I thought so once," answered Caroline, with a heavy sigh.

"Well, never trouble yourself to think about it again. If that lovely woman has an iron will, you must get up one of steel; but here comes Margaret. I suppose Mr. Closs is getting tired of staying out there in the dark. Besides, Lady Hope will be frightened. Adieu, my friend; I will manage to see you again."

CHAPTER XI.

LADY CLARA QUARRELS WITH HER STEPMOTHER.

Lady Hope had fainted, but with such deathly stillness that neither Hepworth Closs nor Clara had been aware of it. She remained, after they left the box, drooping sideways from her cushioned seat, with the cold pallor of her face hid in the crimson shadows, and kept from falling by the sides of the box, against which she leaned heavily.

No one observed this, for the whole audience was intensely occupied by what was pa.s.sing on the stage; and the pang of self-consciousness returned to Rachael Closs in the utter solitude of a great crowd. She opened her eyes wearily, as if the effort were a pain. Then a wild light broke through their darkness. She cast a quick glance upon the stage and over the crowd. Then turning to look for her companions, she found that they were gone. A sense of relief came to the woman from a certainty that she was alone. She leaned back against the side of the box in utter depression. Her lips moved, her hands were tightly clasped--she seemed in absolute terror.

What had Rachael Closs heard or seen to agitate her thus? That no one could tell. The cause of those faint shudders that shook her from time to time was known only to herself and her G.o.d.

When Hepworth and Lady Clara came back, Lady Hope rose, and gathering her ermine cloak close to her throat, said that she was tired of the confusion, and would go home, unless they very much wished to stay and see Olympia.

They consented to go at once. The pallor of that beautiful face, as it turned so imploringly upon them, was appeal enough.

On their way home Lady Clara told her stepmother of her visit behind the scenes.

Rachael listened, and neither rebuked her for going nor asked questions; but when Clara broke forth, in her impetuous way, exclaiming, "Oh, mamma Rachael, you will help us! You will get this poor girl out of her mother's power! You will let me ask her down to Oakhurst!" Rachael almost sprang to her feet in the force of her sudden pa.s.sion.

"What! I--I, Lady Hope of Oakhust, invite that girl to be your companion, my guest! Clara, are you mad? or am I?"

The girl was struck dumb with amazement. Never in her existence had she been so addressed before--for, with her, Rachael had been always kind and delicately tender. Why had she broken forth now, when she asked the first serious favor of her life?

"Mamma! mamma Rachael!" she cried. "What is the matter? What have I done that you are so cross with me?"

"Nothing," said Rachael, sighing heavily, "only you ask an unreasonable thing, and one your father would never forgive me for granting."

"But she is so lovely! papa would like her, I know. She is so unhappy, too! I could feel her shudder when the stage was mentioned. Oh, mamma Rachael, we might save her from that!"

"I cannot! Do not ask me; I cannot!"

"But I promised that you would be her friend."

"Make no promises for me, Clara, for I will redeem none. Drive this girl from your thoughts. To-morrow morning we go back to Oakhurst."

"To-morrow morning! And I promised to see her again."

"It is impossible. Let this subject drop. In my wish to give you pleasure, I have risked the anger of Lord Hope. He would never forgive me if I permitted this entanglement."

Lady Clara turned to Hepworth Closs.

"Plead for me--plead for that poor girl!" she cried, with the unreasoning persistence of a child; but, to her astonishment, Hepworth answered even more resolutely than his sister.

"I cannot, Clara. There should be nothing in common between the daughter of Olympia and Lord Hope's only child."

"Oh, how cruel! What is the use of having rank and power if one is not to use it for the good of others?"

"We will not argue the matter, dear child."