Part 12 (1/2)
”Oh! Ma'am, it is just a wish I have. I wish--; but it's no matter. If I could once see the house clear of that Frenchwoman--”
”If you mean Mademoiselle de Barras, she is a lady,” interrupted Mrs. Marston.
”Well, ma'am, I beg pardon,” continued the woman; ”lady or no lady, it is all one to me; for I am very sure, ma'am, she'll never leave the house till there is something bad comes about; and--and--. I can't bring myself to talk to you about her, ma'am. I can't say what I want to tell you: but--but--. Oh, ma'am, for G.o.d's sake, try and get her out, any way, no matter how; try and get rid of her.”
As she said this, the poor girl burst into a pa.s.sionate agony of tears, and Mrs. Marston and Rhoda looked on in silent amazement, while she for some minutes continued to sob and weep.
The party were suddenly recalled from their various reveries by a knock at the chamber-door. It opened, and the subject of the girl's deprecatory entreaty entered. There was something unusually excited and a.s.sured in Mademoiselle de Barras's air and countenance; perhaps she had a suspicion that she had been the topic of their conversation. At all events, she looked round upon them with a smile, in which there was something supercilious, and even defiant; and, without waiting to be invited, sate herself down, with a haughty air.
”I was about to ask you to sit down, mademoiselle, but you have antic.i.p.ated me,” said Mrs. Marston, gravely. ”You have something to say to me, I suppose; I am quite at leisure, so pray let me hear it now.”
”Thank you, thank you, madame,” replied she, with a sharp, and even scornful glance; ”I ought to have asked your permission to sit; I forgot; but you have condescended to give it without my doing so; that was very kind, very kind, indeed.”
”But I wish to know, mademoiselle, whether you have anything very particular to say to me?” said Mrs. Marston.
”You wish to know!--and why, pray madame?” asked Mademoiselle de Barras, sharply.
”Because, unless it is something very urgent, I should prefer your talking to me some other time; as, at present, I desire to be alone with my daughter.”
”Oh, ho! I ought to ask pardon again,” said mademoiselle, with the same glance, and the same smile. ”I find I am de trop--quite in the way.
Helas! I am very unfortunate today.”
Mademoiselle de Barras made not the slightest movement, and it was evident that she was resolved to prolong her stay, in sheer defiance of Mrs. Marston's wishes.
”Mademoiselle, I conclude from your silence that you have nothing very pressing to say, and, therefore, must request that you will have the goodness to leave me for the present,” said Mrs. Marston, who felt that the spirit of the French girl's conduct was too apparent not to have been understood by Rhoda and the servant, and that it was of a kind, for example sake, impossible to be submitted to, or tolerated.
Mademoiselle de Barras darted a fiery and insolent glance at Mrs.
Marston, and was, doubtless, upon the point of precipitating the open quarrel which was impending, by setting her authority at defiance; but she checked herself, and changed her line of operations.
”We are not alone madame,” she said, with a heightened color, and a slight toss of the head. ”I was about to speak of Mr. Marston. I had something, not much, I confess, to say; but before servants I shan't speak; nor, indeed, now at all. So, madame, as you desire it, I shall no further interrupt you. Come, Miss Rhoda, come to the music-room, if you please, and finish your practice for today.”
”You forget, mademoiselle, that I wish to have my daughter with me at present,” said Mrs. Marston.
”I am very sorry, madame,” said the French lady, with the same heightened color and unpleasant smile, and her finely-penciled brows just discernibly knit, so as to give a novel and menacing expression to her beautiful face--”I am very sorry, madame, but she must, so long as I remain accountable for her education, complete her allotted exercises at the appointed hours; and nothing shall, I a.s.sure you, with my consent, interfere with these duties. Come, Miss Rhoda, precede me, if you please, to the music-room. Come, come.”
”Stay where you are, Rhoda,” said Mrs. Marston, firmly and gently, and betraying no symptom of excitement, except in a slight tremor of her voice, and a faint flush upon her cheek--”Stay where you are, my dear child. I am your mother, and, next to your father, have the first claim upon your obedience. Mademoiselle,” she continued, addressing the Frenchwoman, calmly but firmly, ”my daughter will remain here for some time longer, and you will have the goodness to withdraw. I insist upon it, Mademoiselle de Barras.”
”I will not leave the room, I a.s.sure you, madame, without my pupil,”
retorted mademoiselle, with resolute insolence. ”Your husband, madame, has invested me with this authority, and she shall obey me. Miss Rhoda, I say again, go down to the music-room.”
”Remain where you are, Rhoda,” said Mrs. Marston again. ”Mademoiselle; you have long been acting as if your object were to provoke me to part with you. I find it impossible any longer to overlook this grossly disrespectful conduct; conduct of which I had, indeed, believed you absolutely incapable. Willett,” she continued, addressing the maid, who was evidently bursting with rage at the scene she had just witnessed, ”your master is, I believe, in the library; go down, and tell him that I entreat him to come here immediately.”
The maid started on her mission with angry alacrity, darting a venomous glance at the handsome Frenchwoman as she pa.s.sed.
Mademoiselle de Barras, meanwhile, sate, listless and defiant, in her chair, and tapping her little foot with angry excitement upon the floor.
Rhoda sate close by her mother, holding her hand fast, and looking frightened, perplexed, and as if she were on the point of weeping. Mrs.
Marston, though flushed and excited, yet maintained her dignified and grave demeanor. And thus, in silence, did they all three await the arrival of the arbiter to whom Mrs. Marston had so promptly appealed.
A few minutes more, and Marston entered the room. Mademoiselle's expression changed as he did so to one of dejected and sorrowful submission; and, as Marston's eye lighted upon her, his brow darkened and his face grew pale.