Volume Ii Part 9 (1/2)
CHAP. VIII.
”Good friend, go to him; for by this light of Heaven I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel:-- If e'er my will did trespa.s.s 'gainst his love, Either in discourse or thought, or actual deed; Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense, Delighted them in any other form-- Comfort, forswear me!--unkindness may do much; And his unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love.”
OTh.e.l.lO.
Silent and gloomy was the ride homewards. St. Aubyn, bridling with difficulty the jealous rage which consumed him, sat leaning against one side of the carriage, veiling his eyes with his hand, that they might not for an instant fall on Ellen, who, hardly supporting herself with Jane's help, shed no tears, though grief and vexation heaved her bosom with sighs, which almost burst it; for now her recollection was restored, the dreadful words in which St. Aubyn first addressed her rung in her ears, and swelled her heart with anguish.
At length they reached Cavendish-Square, and were met in the hall by Lady Juliana, whose pride, at first, wounded by Ellen's being from home when she arrived, had, at length, given way to feelings of alarm at her long absence; but when she saw her lifted from the carriage, pale, trembling, and half-dead, terrified and astonished, she vainly demanded an explanation alternately from St. Aubyn and the frightened Jane; her nephew pa.s.sing her hastily, and in silence, went into his study, and instantly shut and fastened the door. There he meant to consider with himself what part it became him to take, and how to elucidate this extraordinary event.
Ellen, throwing herself into Lady Juliana's arms, exclaimed, ”Oh! my dearest madam, let me die at once, for my Lord is angry with me!”
”Die!” cried Lady Juliana, struggling with a thousand terrors; ”Nonsense! for what? Do you suppose no man was ever angry with his wife before? You are so unused to it, it seems strange to you, but you may a.s.sure yourself few wives would think it so extraordinary.”
By this time they had reached Ellen's dressing-room, where, having placed her on a sofa, and given her some restoratives, Lady Juliana said, ”But what is all this about--what offence have you committed?”
”Oh! madam, I know not; but it is too true, St. Aubyn has said such words to me, such words as I never thought to hear from him!”
”What is the meaning of all this?” said Lady Juliana, turning to Jane.
”Speak, girl, if you have not quite lost your senses, or do not wish that I should lose mine, and tell me where your lady has been, and what has happened.”
Jane, now, as well as the confusion she was in would let her, repeated the adventures of the morning to Lady Juliana, the visit to the officer's widow, and the old blind lady; and lastly, why they went to Mrs. Birtley's: ”And it was I,” she said, ”that persuaded her Ladys.h.i.+p to go to that disagreeable Mrs. Birtley's--out of pride, I own it--it was out of pride, that she might see what a grand place I had got, and that _my_ lady was not the sort of person that cross old woman fancied she was; and her Ladys.h.i.+p would not even have alighted or gone into her trumpery parlour, if the horses had not been so frightful, and the coachman said, says he, ”my Lady had better alight, for the horses--”
”Grant me patience!” said Lady Juliana: ”this girl's tongue is enough to distract me! Well, and when you were in her trumpery parlour, as you call it, what happened then? Was Lord St. Aubyn angry that you went there?”
”Oh! no, my Lady, not for that; but the instant after we went in, and while Mrs. Birtley was chattering about the book, and about her lodger (and to be sure there never was such another chattering woman in the world, and looking at my lady from head to foot, so saucy-like, I was quite in a pa.s.sion with her), I saw my lady turn pale, and thinking she was going to faint, I made Mrs. Birtley go for some water, for I knew well enough how your Ladys.h.i.+p would scold if _my_ Lady was to be ill, and so I told Mrs. Birtley.”
”Will this tale ever have an end?” cried the impatient Lady Juliana.
”Well, my Lady, and so just as Mrs. Birtley was gone for the water, and we were got up to go away, in came a young man: I believe, for my part, he was quite mad, not indeed that I am any particular judge of mad people, for I remember the first day your Ladys.h.i.+p came here I thought--but I believe I had better not tell _that_;--however, this young man _was_ mad for certain, for the moment he saw my Lady, he ran to her, and seemed as if he was going to catch her in his arms. I screamed, and when her Ladys.h.i.+p said she was terrified, he quite raved, and called her names, and said something about her shame, and her being ruined, and her jewels, last night, and I don't know what.”
”And who, for Heaven's sake, was this man?” asked the astonished Lady Juliana.
”Oh, it was Ross! Charles Ross!” sobbed Ellen; ”and St. Aubyn came in while he was speaking to me, and said I came there to meet him, to his very lodgings; and then I fainted quite away.”
”So, so, so!” repeated Lady Juliana; ”a pretty piece of work! I see what this mistake will end in! But stay; surely it is not too late: I will go to St. Aubyn.”
”Yes, go to him, Madam, for Heaven's sake go to him, and explain it to him. a.s.sure him I could not have an idea that Charles Ross lodged at Mrs. Birtley's. Oh! how cruel to be obliged to make this explanation: can St. Aubyn really think so ill of me? Yet, surely, surely he will be undeceived--this is only a momentary start of pa.s.sion!”
Lady Juliana shook her head, for she knew St. Aubyn's temper; and how hardly he would endure to hear even her on such a subject; yet, if he would but condescend to hear what the servants, who attended the Countess in this unfortunate excursion, what this Mrs. Birtley would say, their stories would doubtless confirm that of Ellen; for of the truth of that story Lady Juliana had not the smallest doubt; but she knew how St. Aubyn's pride would revolt, and his delicacy be hurt, by the necessity of interrogating such people on the conduct of his wife.
She felt herself indeed angry with Ellen for the childish impatience which had taken her out in the morning, after the fright of the night before had rendered repose so desirable, and for going to Mrs.
Birtley's at all; but she could easily forgive a folly apparently of so little importance, since it was quite impossible for Ellen to have foreseen the chain of circ.u.mstances which followed, and involved her in so much distress.
How St. Aubyn happened to go to the same place, no one could guess; it appeared, indeed, extremely unlikely that he should have done so; but, as singular coincidences no less singular do sometimes occur, though their rarity makes us call them improbable, unless they arise within our own immediate knowledge.
The real truth was this: St. Aubyn, recollecting that Charles Ross had said the night before, ”_the woman where you lodged found you out_,” had determined to ascertain, from this woman herself, what she had told Ross, and how she had dared to speak of him and Ellen in such terms; and to explain who her Mr. and Mrs. Mordaunt really were, that no farther slander, even in Mrs. Birtley's narrow circle, might attach to the purity of Lady St. Aubyn's character, had walked thither from Sir Edward Leicester's, with whom he had sat some time, arranging the particulars of their intended meeting with Charles Ross the next morning; there, to his utter astonishment, he found Lady St. Aubyn's carriage in waiting; and inquiring of the servants where she was, was answered, in that house, meaning Mrs. Birtley's.
”And Miss Cecil?”