Part 44 (1/2)
”His wife! I thought she was his daughter,” said Ada, with some disappointment in her voice.
”Why not his wife?” interposed Kate; ”he looks a very gallant gentleman.”
Sir Within smiled, and turned on her a look of most meaning admiration.
”I perceive,” said he, in a low tone, ”that neither wrinkles nor a grey beard can hide chivalry from _your_ eyes. He was, indeed, a gallant gentleman. Mademoiselle,” said he, turning to the governess, ”you will, I hope, pardon all this display of family pretension, the more, since it is the last of the race inflicts it.”
A faint sigh--so faint, that if Kate, who uttered it, had not been beside him, he could not have heard it--fell on the old Baronet's ear, and, in a flutter of strange emotion, he pa.s.sed rapidly on, and gained the landing-place. From room to room they strolled leisurely on.
Pictures, statues, antique cabinets, and rare china, arresting attention at every moment.
There were, indeed, objects to have attracted more critical observers; but in their eager delight at all they saw, their fresh enthusiasm, their frank outspoken enjoyment, Sir Within reaped a satisfaction far and away beyond all the most finished connoisseurs.h.i.+p would have yielded him.
He showed them his armoury--mailed suits of every time and country, from the rudely-shaped corslets of Northern Europe, to the chased and inlaid workmans.h.i.+p of Milan and Seville; and with these were weapons of Eastern fas.h.i.+on, a scimitar whose scabbard was of gold, and a helmet of solid silver amongst them; and, last of all, he introduced them into a small low-ceilinged chamber, with a ma.s.sive door of iron concealed behind one of oak. This he called his ”Gem-room;” and here were gathered together a variety of beautiful things, ranging from ancient coins and medals to the most costly ornaments in jewellery: jewelled watches, bon-bon boxes of the time of Louis XIV., enamelled miniatures in frames of brilliants, and decorations of various foreign orders, which, though not at liberty to wear, he treasured as relics of infinite worth. Kate hung over these like one entranced. The costly splendour seemed so completely to have captivated her, that she heard scarcely a word around her, and appeared like one fascinated by an object too engrossing to admit a thought, save of itself.
”Shall I own that I like those grand landscapes we saw in the second drawing-room better than all these gorgeous things,” said Ada. ”That beautiful Salvator Rosa, with the warm sunset on the sea-sh.o.r.e, and the fishermen drying their nets--may I go back and look at it?”
”By all means,” said Sir Within. ”Remember, that all here is at your disposal. I want first of all to show Mademoiselle my library, and then, while I am giving some orders to my household, you shall be free of me--free to ramble about where you like. Will you come with us, Kate?”
said he, as he prepared to leave the room.
”Not if I may remain here. I'd like to pa.s.s days in this little chamber.”
”Remain, then, of course; and now, Mademoiselle, if you will accompany me, I will show you my books.”
Scarcely had the door closed, and Kate found herself alone, than she opened one of the gla.s.s-cases in which some of the costliest trinkets lay. There was a splendid cameo brooch of Madame de Valois, with her crest in diamonds at top. This Kate gazed at long and thought-folly, and at last fastened on her breast, walking to the gla.s.s to see its effect.
She half started as she looked; and, whether in astonishment at seeing herself the wearer of such magnificence, or that some other and far deeper sentiment worked within her, her eyes became intensely brilliant, and her cheek crimson. She harried back, and drew forth a ma.s.sive necklace of emeralds and brilliants. It was labelled, ”A present from the Emperor to Marie Antoinette on the birth of the Dauphin.” She clasped it round her throat, her fingers trembling with excitement, and her heart beating almost audibly. ”Oh!” cried she, as she looked at herself again in the mirror; and how eloquent was the cry--the whole outburst of a nature carried away by intense delight and the sentiment of an all-engrossing self-admiration, for indeed she did look surpa.s.singly lovely, the momentary excitement combining with the l.u.s.tre of the jewels to light up her whole face into a radiant and splendid beauty.
She took out next a large fan actually weighted with precious stones, and opening this, she seated herself in front of the gla.s.s, to survey herself at her ease. Lying back languidly in the deep old chair, the hand which held the fan indolently drooped over the arm of the chair, while with the other she played with the ma.s.sive drop of the emerald necklace, she looked exceedingly beautiful. Her own ecstasy had heightened her colour and given a brilliant depth to the expression of her eyes, while a faint, scarcely detectable quiver in her lip showed how intense was her enjoyment of the moment. Even as she gazed, a gentle dreamy sentiment stole over her, visions, Heaven knows of what future triumphs, of days when others should offer their homage to that loveliness, when sculptors would mould and poets sing that beauty; for in its power upon herself she knew that it was Beauty, and so as she looked her eyelids drooped, her breathing grew longer and longer, her cheek, save in one pink cloud, became pale, and she fell off asleep.
Once or twice her lips murmured a word or two, but too faintly to be caught. She smiled, too, that sweet smile of happy sleep, when softly creeping thoughts steal over the mind, as the light air of evening steals across a lake.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 244]
For nearly an hour did she lie thus, when Sir Within came in search of her. His habitual light step and cautious gait never disturbed her, and there he stood gazing on her, amazed, almost enraptured. ”Where was there a t.i.tian or a Raphael like that!” was his first thought; for, with the instinct of his life, it was to Art he at once referred her.
”Was there ever drawing or colour could compare to it!” Through the stained gla.s.s window one ray of golden glory pierced and fell upon her hair and brow, and he remembered how he had seen the same ”effect” in a ”Memling,” but still immeasurably inferior to this. What would he not have given that Danneker or Canova could have seen her thus and modelled her! Greek art itself had nothing finer in form, and as to her face, she was infinitely more beautiful than anything the antique presented. How was it that in all his. .h.i.therto admiration of her he had never before recognised such surpa.s.sing beauty? Was it that excitement disturbed the calm loveliness, and gave too much mobility to these traits? or was it that, in her versatile, capricious way, she had never given him time for admiration? As for the gems, he did not remark them for a long while, and when he did, it was to feel how much more _she_ adorned _them_ than they contributed to her loveliness.
”I must bring Ada here,” muttered he to himself. ”How she will be charmed with the picture.” He turned to steal away, and then, with the thoughtful instinct of his order, he moved noiselessly across the room, and turned the looking-gla.s.s to the wall. It was a small trait, but in it there spoke the old diplomatist. On gaining the drawing-room he heard that the governess and Ada had gone out to see the conservatory, so Sir Within hurried back to the Gem-room, not fully determined whether to awaken Kate or suffer her to sleep on. Remembering suddenly that if discovered all jewelled and bedecked the young girl would feel overcome with a sense of shame, he resolved not to disturb her. Still he wished to take a last look, and stole noiselessly back to the chamber.
Her position had changed since he left the room, the fan had fallen from her hand to the floor, and by a slight, very slight, motion of the eyelids he could mark that her sleep was no longer untroubled. ”Poor girl,” muttered he, ”I must not leave her to dream of sorrow;” and laying his hand softly on the back of hers, he said, in a low whisper, ”Kate, were you dreaming, my child?”
She raised her eyelids slowly, lazily, and looked calmly at him without a word.
”What was your dream, Kate?” said he, gently, as he bent over her.
”Was it a dream?” murmured she, softly. ”I wish it had not been a dream.”
”And what was it, then?” said he, as taking a chair he sat down beside her--”tell me of it all.”
”I thought a great queen, who had no child of her own, had adopted me, and said I should be her daughter, and in proof of it she took a beautiful collar from her throat and fastened it on mine.”
”You see so much is true,” said he, pointing to the ma.s.sive emerald drop that hung upon her neck.