Part 33 (1/2)
In these delightful cogitations Mary remained till Lady Emily entered.
”How well you look this morning, my dear cousin,” said she, flying to her; ”you are much more like my Edward than you were last night. Ah! and you have got his smile too! You must let me see that very often.”
”I am sure I shall have cause,” said Mary, returning her cousin's affectionate embrace; ”but at present I feel anxious about my mother and sister. The agitation of our meeting, and my weakness, I fear it has been too much for them;” and she looked earnest in Lady Emily's face for a confirmation of her fears.
”Indeed, you need be under no uneasiness on their account,” returned her cousin, with her usual bluntness; ”their feelings are not so easily disturbed; you will see them both at breakfast, so come along.”
The room was empty; and again Mary's sensitive heart trembled for the welfare of those already so dear to her; but Lady Emily did not appear to understand the nature of her feelings.
”Have a little patience, my dear!” said she, with something of an impatient tone, as she rang for breakfast; ”they will be here at their usual time. n.o.body in this house is a slave to hours, or _gene _with each other's society. Liberty is the motto here; everybody breakfasts when and where they please. Lady Juliana, I believe, frequently takes hers in her dressing-room; Papa never is visible till two or three o'clock; and Adelaide is always late.”
”What a selfish cold-hearted thing is grandeur!” thought Mary, as Lady Emily and she sat like two specks in the splendid saloon, surrounded by all that wealth could purchase or luxury invent; and her thoughts reverted to the pious thanksgiving and affectionate meeting that graced their social meal in the sweet sunny parlour at Lochmarlie.
Some of those airy nothings, without a local habitation, who are always to be found flitting about the mansions of the great, now lounged into the room; and soon after Adelaide made her _entree._ Mary, trembling violently, was ready to fall upon her sister's neck, but Adelaide seemed prepared to repel everything like a _scence _for, with a cold, but sweet, ”I hope you are better this morning?” she seated herself at the opposite side of the table. Mary's blood rushed back to her heart; her eyes filled with tears, she knew not why; for she could not a.n.a.lyse the feelings that swelled in her bosom. She would have shuddered to _think_ her sister unkind, but she _felt_ she was so.
”It can only be the difference of our manners,” sighed she to herself; ”I am sure my sister loves me, though she does not show it in the same way I should have done;” and she gazed with the purest admiration and tenderness on the matchless beauty of her face and form. Never had she beheld anything so exquisitely beautiful; and she longed to throw herself into her sister's arms and tell her how she loved her. But Adelaide seemed to think the present company wholly unworthy of her regard; for, after having received the adulation of the gentlemen, as they severally paid her a profusion of compliments upon her appearance, ”Desire Tomkins,” said she to a footman, ”to ask Lady Juliana for the 'Morning Post,' and the second volume of 'Le----,' of the French novel I am reading; and say she shall have it again when I have finished it.”
”In what different terms people may express the same meaning,” thought Mary; ”had I been sending a message to my mother, I should have expressed myself quite differently; but no doubt my sister's meaning is the same, though she may not use the same words.”
The servant returned with the newspaper, and the novel would be sent when it could be found.
”Lady Juliana never reads like anybody else,” said her daughter; ”she is for ever mislaying books. She has lost the first volumes of the two last novels that came from town before I had even seen then.”
This was uttered in the softest, sweetest tone imaginable, and as if she had been p.r.o.nouncing a panegyric.
Mary was more and more puzzled.
”'What can be my sister's meaning here?” thought she. ”The words seemed almost to imply censure; but that voice and smile speak the sweetest praise. How truly Mrs. Douglas warned me never to judge of people by their words.”
At that moment the door opened, and three or four dogs rushed in, followed by Lady Juliana, with a volume of a novel in her hand. Again Mary found herself a.s.sailed by a variety of powerful emotions. She attempted to rise; but, pale and breathless, she sank back in her chair.
Her agitation was unmarked by her mother, who did not even appear to be sensible of her presence; for, with a graceful bend of her head to the company in general, she approached Adelaide, and putting her lips to her forehead, ”How do you do, love? I'm afraid you are very angry with me about that teazing La---I can't conceive where it can be; but here is the third volume, which is much prettier than the second.”
”I certainly shall not read the third volume before the second,” said Adelaide with her usual serenity.
”Then I shall order another copy from town, my love; or I daresay I could tell you the story of the second volume: it is not at all interesting, I a.s.sure you. Hermilisde, you know--but I forget where the first volume left off.”--Then directing her eyes to Mary, who had summoned strength to rise, and was slowly venturing to approach her, she extended a finger towards her. Mary eagerly seized her mother's hand, and pressed it with fervour to her lips; then hid her face on her shoulder to conceal the tears that burst from her eyes.
”Absurd, my dear!” said her Ladys.h.i.+p in a peevish tone, as she disengaged herself from her daughter; ”you must really get the better of this foolish weakness; these _scenes_ are too much for me. I was most excessively shocked last night, I a.s.sure you, and you ought not to have quitted your room to-day.”
Poor Mary's tears congealed in her eyes at this tender salutation, and she raised her head, as if to as certain whether it really proceeded from her mother; but instead of the angelic vision she had pictured to herself, she beheld a face which, though once handsome, now conveyed no pleasurable feeling to the heart.
Late hours, bad temper, and rouge had done much to impair Lady Juliana's beauty. There still remained enough to dazzle a superficial observer; but not to satisfy the eye used to the expression of all the best affections of the soul. Mary almost shrank from the peevish inanity portrayed on her mother's visage, as a glance of the mind contrasted it with the mild eloquence of Mrs. Douglas's countenance; and, abashed and disappointed, she remained mournfully silent.
”Where is Dr. Redgill?” demanded Lady Juliana of the company in general.
”He has got scent of a turtle at Admiral Yellowchops,” answered Mr. P.
”How vastly provoking,” rejoined her Ladys.h.i.+p, ”that he should be out of the way the only time I have wished to see him since he came to the house!”
”Who is this favoured individual whose absence you are so pathetically lamenting, Julia?” asked Lord Courtland, as he indolently sauntered into the room.