Part 80 (2/2)
”There!” exclaimed Mab, clasping her hands. ”Something must come of that. Mrs. Grandcourt, the Vand.y.k.e d.u.c.h.ess, is your cousin?”
”Oh, yes; I was her bridesmaid,” said Anna. ”Her mamma and mine are sisters. My aunt was much richer before last year, but then she and mamma lost all their fortune. Papa is a clergyman, you know, so it makes very little difference to us, except that we keep no carriage, and have no dinner parties--and I like it better. But it was very sad for poor Aunt Davilow, for she could not live with us, because she has four daughters besides Gwendolen; but then, when she married Mr.
Grandcourt, it did not signify so much, because of his being so rich.”
”Oh, this finding out relations.h.i.+ps is delightful!” said Mab. ”It is like a Chinese puzzle that one has to fit together. I feel sure something wonderful may be made of it, but I can't tell what.”
”Dear me, Mab,” said Amy, ”relations.h.i.+ps must branch out. The only difference is, that we happen to know some of the people concerned.
Such things are going on every day.”
”And pray, Amy, why do you insist on the number nine being so wonderful?” said Mab. ”I am sure that is happening every day. Never mind, Miss Gascoigne; please go on. And Mr. Deronda?--have you never seen Mr. Deronda? You _must_ bring him in.”
”No, I have not seen him,” said Anna; ”but he was at Diplow before my cousin was married, and I have heard my aunt speaking of him to papa.
She said what you have been saying about him--only not so much: I mean, about Mr. Deronda living with Sir Hugo Mallinger, and being so nice, she thought. We talk a great deal about every one who comes near Pennicote, because it is so seldom there is any one new. But I remember, when I asked Gwendolen what she thought of Mr. Deronda, she said, 'Don't mention it, Anna: but I think his hair is dark.' That was her droll way of answering: she was always so lively. It is really rather wonderful that I should come to hear so much about him, all through Mr. Hans knowing Rex, and then my having the pleasure of knowing you,” Anna ended, looking at Mrs. Meyrick with a shy grace.
”The pleasure is on our side too; but the wonder would have been, if you had come to this house without hearing of Mr. Deronda--wouldn't it, Mirah?” said Mrs. Meyrick.
Mirah smiled acquiescently, but had nothing to say. A confused discontent took possession of her at the mingling of names and images to which she had been listening.
”My son calls Mrs. Grandcourt the Vand.y.k.e d.u.c.h.ess,” continued Mrs.
Meyrick, turning again to Anna; ”he thinks her so striking and picturesque.”
”Yes,” said Anna. ”Gwendolen was always so beautiful--people fell dreadfully in love with her. I thought it a pity, because it made them unhappy.”
”And how do you like Mr. Grandcourt, the happy lover?” said Mrs.
Meyrick, who, in her way, was as much interested as Mab in the hints she had been hearing of vicissitude in the life of a widow with daughters.
”Papa approved of Gwendolen's accepting him, and my aunt says he is very generous,” said Anna, beginning with a virtuous intention of repressing her own sentiments; but then, unable to resist a rare occasion for speaking them freely, she went on--”else I should have thought he was not very nice--rather proud, and not at all lively, like Gwendolen. I should have thought some one younger and more lively would have suited her better. But, perhaps, having a brother who seems to us better than any one makes us think worse of others.”
”Wait till you see Mr. Deronda,” said Mab, nodding significantly.
”n.o.body's brother will do after him.”
”Our brothers _must_ do for people's husbands,” said Kate, curtly, ”because they will not get Mr. Deronda. No woman will do for him to marry.”
”No woman ought to want him to marry him,” said Mab, with indignation.
”_I_ never should. Fancy finding out that he had a tailor's bill, and used boot-hooks, like Hans. Who ever thought of his marrying?”
”I have,” said Kate. ”When I drew a wedding for a frontispiece to 'Hearts and Diamonds,' I made a sort of likeness to him for the bridegroom, and I went about looking for a grand woman who would do for his countess, but I saw none that would not be poor creatures by the side of him.”
”You should have seen this Mrs. Grandcourt then,” said Mrs. Meyrick.
”Hans says that she and Mr. Deronda set each other off when they are side by side. She is tall and fair. But you know her, Mirah--you can always say something descriptive. What do _you_ think of Mrs.
Grandcourt?”
”I think she is the _Princess of Eboli_ in _Don Carlos_,” said Mirah, with a quick intensity. She was pursuing an a.s.sociation in her own mind not intelligible to her hearers--an a.s.sociation with a certain actress as well as the part she represented.
”Your comparison is a riddle for me, my dear,” said Mrs. Meyrick, smiling.
”You said that Mrs. Grandcourt was tall and fair,” continued Mirah, slightly paler. ”That is quite true.”
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