Volume Ii Part 13 (1/2)

I had n't more than time to put my cap straight on my head, when I heard them on the stairs; and then, with a loud bang of the folding-doors, the landlord himself ushered them into the room. She was leaning on James's arm, but the minute she saw me, she rushed forward and kissed my hand!

I never was so ashamed in my life, Molly. It was making me out such a great personage at once, that I thought I 'd have fainted at the very notion. As to Mary Anne, they were in each other's arms in a second, and kissed a dozen times. Cary, however, with a coldness that I'll never forgive her for, just shook hands with her, and then turned to embrace James a second time.

While Mary Anne was taking off her shawl and her bonnet, I saw that she was looking anxiously about the room.

”What is it?” said I to Mary Anne,--”what does she want?” ”She's asking where's the Prince; she means papa,” whispered Mary Anne to me; and then, in a flash, I saw the way James represented us. ”Tell her, my dear,” said I, ”that the Prince was n't very well, and has gone to bed.”

But she was too much engaged with us all to ask more about him, and we all sat down to tea, the happiest party ever you looked at. I had time now to look at her; and really, Molly, I must allow, she was the handsomest creature I ever beheld. She was a kind of a Spanish beauty, brown, and with jet-black eyes and hair, but a little vermilion on her cheeks, and eyelashes that threw a shadow over the upper part of her face. As to her teeth, when she smiled,--I thought Mary Anne's good, but they were nothing in comparison. When she caught me looking at her, she seemed to guess what was pa.s.sing in my mind, for she stooped down and kissed my hand twice or thrice with rapture.

It was a great loss to me, as you may suppose, that I could n't speak to her, nor understand what she said to me; but I saw that Mary Anne was charmed with her, and even Cary--cold and distant as she was at first--seemed very much taken with her afterwards.

When tea was over, James sat down beside me, and told me everything.

”If the governor will only behave handsomely for a week or two,” said he,--”I ask no more,--that lovely creature and four thousand a year are all my own.” He went on to show me that we ought to live in a certain style--not looking too narrowly into the cost of it--while she was with us. ”She can't stay after the fourteenth,” said he, ”for her uncle the Cardinal is to be at Pisa that day, and she must be there to meet him; so that, after all, it's only three weeks I 'm asking for, and a couple of hundred pounds will do it all. As for me,” said he, ”I'm regularly aground,--haven't a ten-pound note remaining, and had to sell my 'drag'

and my four grays at Milan, to get money to come on here.”

He then informed me that her saddle-horses would arrive in a day or two, and that we should immediately provide others, to enable him and the girls to ride out with her. ”She is used to every imaginable luxury,”

said he, ”and has no conception that want of means could be the impediment to having anything one wished for.”

I promised him to do my best with his father, Molly: but you may guess what a task that was; for, say what I could, the only remark I could get out of him was, ”It's very strange that he never went to London.”

After all, Molly, I might have spared myself all my fatigue and all my labor, if I had only had the common-sense to remember what he was,--what he is,--ay, and what he will be--to the end of the chapter. He was n't well in the room with her the next morning, when I saw the old fool looking as soft and as sheepish at her as if he was making love himself.

I own to you, Molly, I think she encouraged it. She had that French way with her, that seems to say, ”Look as long as you like, and I don't mind it;” and so he did,--and even after breakfast I caught him peeping under the ”Times” at her foot, which, I must say, was beautifully shaped and small; not but that the shoe had a great deal to say to it.

”I hope you 're pleased, Mr. Dodd?” said I, as I pa.s.sed behind his chair.

”Yes,” said he; ”the funds is rising.”

”I mean with the prospect,” said I.

”Yes,” said he; ”we 'll be all looking up presently.”

”Better than looking down,” said I, ”you old fool!”

I could n't help it, Molly, if it was to have spoiled everything,--the words would come out.

He got very red in the face, Molly, but said nothing, and so I left him to his own reflections. And it is what I'm now going to do with yourself, seeing that I 've come to the end of all my news, and carefully jotted down everything that has occurred here for your benefit. Four days have now pa.s.sed over, and they don't seem like as many hours, though the place itself has not got many amus.e.m.e.nts.

The young people ride out every morning on horseback, and rarely come back until time to dress for dinner. Then we all meet; and I must say a more elegant display I never witnessed! The table covered with plate, and beautiful colored gla.s.s globes filled with flowers. The girls in full dress,--for the Countess comes down as if she was going to a Court, and wears diamond combs in her head, and a brooch of the same, as large as a cheese-plate. I too do my best to make a suitable appearance,--in crimson velvet and a spangled turban, with a deep fall of gold fringe,--and, except the ”Prince,”--as we call K. I.,--we are all fit to receive the Emperor of Russia. In the evening we have music and a game of cards, except on the opera nights, which we never miss; and then, with a nice warm supper at twelve o'clock, Molly, we close as pleasant a day as you could wish. Of course I can't tell you much more about the Countess, for I 'm unable to talk to her, but she and Mary Anne are never asunder; and, though Cary still plays cold and retired, she can't help calling her a lovely creature.

It seems there is some new difficulty about the dispensation; and the Cardinal requires her to do ”some meritorious works,” I think they call them, before he 'll ask for it. But if ever there was a saintly young creature, it is herself; and I hear she's up at five o'clock every morning just to attend first ma.s.s.

Here they are now, coming up the stairs, and I have n't more than time to seal this, and write myself

Your attached friend,

Jemima Dodd.

Mary Anne begs you will tell Kitty Doolan that she has not been able to write to her, with all the occupation she has lately had, but will take the very first moment to send her at least a few lines. As James's good luck will soon be no secret, you may tell it to Kitty, and I think it won't be thrown away on her, as I suspect she was making eyes at him herself, though she might be his mother!