Part 21 (2/2)

”Amused!” repeated Mrs. Lascelles, growing warm. ”This is no question of amus.e.m.e.nt. It is a life's happiness or misery for two people who ought never to have been interfered with. You have no right to supplant her; you have no right to trifle with _him_!”

”Suppose I am _not_ trifling,” retorted the other. ”Suppose I am in earnest, just for once, by way of change. You have complimented me on my powers, in sport. Do you think I should be a less dangerous enemy, Rose, if I were fighting for my life?”

”You remember our agreement,” exclaimed Mrs. Lascelles with rising colour, and a shake in her voice, denoting wrath no less than a nervous dread of its indulgence. ”You are not acting fairly by me; you're not acting fairly by any of us. If you turn round now, after what you've told me, after what we agreed, I can never trust you again, Jin. I shall think you've been sailing under false colours all through.”

”Explain yourself, Rose,” said Miss Ross, very quietly, but with an ominously steady expression about the lower part of her face, in strong contrast with the quivering lips and tremulous chin of her companion.

”You ought to see it yourself,” whimpered the latter, now in a sore predicament between her feelings of friends.h.i.+p and generosity. ”I shall say something to be sorry for afterwards. I know I shall. You'll drive me to it, Jin! and when I am driven, I can't and won't stop!”

”You seem to expect that my thoughts, feelings, and opinions are to be under your control, as you would have my actions and conversation,” was the grave and rather stern rejoinder. ”This is not dependence, Mrs.

Lascelles, but slavery. You are not only unkind, but unreasonable and unjust.”

Mrs. Lascelles turned very red. She was now obviously ”driven,” as she called it, and not likely to stop.

”What I expect,” she retorted, ”is nothing to the purpose; for there seems little chance of my obtaining it. What I _insist_ on is common propriety of demeanour and the merest fair-play. You would never have met these people at all--you would never have been in a position to know any one of them, but for _me_. You are received amongst them as--as--like anybody else, and you throw down the apple of discord to set us all at sixes and sevens. You seem to forget, Miss Ross, that your victims are my personal friends.”

”And what am I?” retorted Jin, with an angry flash from her black eyes.

”Something between a companion and a servant! A piece of furniture good enough for the drawing-room, though occasionally useful in the kitchen!

The obligations are not perhaps so entirely on one side as you would like to make out. When people hunt in couples, a good deal may be done that it would be madness to attempt singly. It cannot but be convenient for an independent lady to have a friend at her elbow who is always well disposed, always ready to go anywhere, or do anything, generally good-tempered, and, above all, afflicted with an intermittent defect of sight or hearing as required. I think I have earned my wages, and returned adequate value in kind for board and lodging--both, I must admit of the best--and treatment, I am happy to think, of the kindest and most considerate, till to-day!”

Touched to the quick by this last reproach, Mrs. Lascelles was already crying vehemently.

”It's not that!” she sobbed out. ”It's not that! I don't want to remind you of anything that's past and gone. But you ought to do what I ask you in common grat.i.tude because--because--you know you ought!”

Seeing the adversary wavering, Miss Ross stood firm to her guns.

”Grat.i.tude,” said she, ”is one thing, and obedience another. I admit that I owe the first, and hoped I had shown some consciousness of the debt. The last is a different question, and I am not naturally very submissive. But, come. Let us have a clear understanding. I am ready to receive your orders!”

”Orders!” Mrs. Lascelles fired up once more. ”You've no right to put it in that way. But it's no use talking the thing over backwards and forwards. You've barely known him a fortnight. In plain English, will you or will you _not_ give Frank Vanguard up?”

Jin laughed scornfully.

”Suppose he won't give _me_ up?”

”That's nothing to do with it,” retorted the other. ”Once for all, Miss Ross, will you or will you _not_?”

”No, I won't! There!”

Jin looked very handsome while she thus raised the standard of revolt, with her head up, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng, and a little spot of colour in each cheek.

Mrs. Lascelles now lost all control over her temper. Totally unused to anger, she trembled violently under its influence, and felt, indeed, that no victory, however triumphant, could repay her for the tumult of such a contest.

”Under these circ.u.mstances,” said she, vainly endeavouring to steady her voice, and a.s.sume that dignity of bearing to which only last night her ”moral influence” had seemed to ent.i.tle her, ”it is impossible that you and I can continue on the same terms. It is impossible that we can remain under the same roof. You will see the propriety, Miss Ross, at your earliest convenience of making arrangements to reside elsewhere.”

”The sooner the better,” answered Jin calmly. ”I'll go directly. My things are packed. We won't part in anger, Mrs. Lascelles. Rose, you've been very, _very_ good to me, and I shall think kindly of you as long as I live!”

The tide of battle was now completely turned. It may be that the conqueror was eagerly looking for an opportunity to lay down her arms--it may be that Mrs. Lascelles had only meant to threaten, and hated herself for the menace even while it crossed her lips. She was, at any rate, quite incapable of hitting an adversary when down, and far more inclined to set a fallen foe upright, and make friends, than, like some Amazons, to crush and trample the unfortunate into the dust. She literally fell on Miss Ross's neck, and wept.

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