Chapter IV: My Lady Ingram

"She had the low voice of your English dames,
Unused, it seems, to need rise half a note
To catch attention,--and their quiet mood,
As if they lived too high above the earth
For that to put them out in anything:
So gentle, because verily so proud;
So wary and afraid of hurting you,
By no means that you are not really vile,
But that they would not touch you with their foot
To push you to your place; so self-possessed,
Yet gracious and conciliating, it takes
An effort in their presence to speak truth:
You know the sort of woman,--brilliant stuff,
And out of nature."
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

The Tories were in power in the winter of 1711-12. The Duke of Marlborough's credit at home had long been sinking, and he was now almost at the lowest point in the Queen's favor. On that very New Year's Day of which I have spoken, for the first time in the annals of England, a Ministry had endeavored to swamp the House of Lords by a wholesale creation of Peers. Politically speaking, Squire Passmore was anything but happy, for he was a fervent Whig. He sat in the parlor that morning, inveighing angrily against the Earl of Oxford and all who followed or agreed with him--the Queen herself of course excepted--for the edification of Madam Passmore--who was calmly knotting--Isabella, and Celia.

"'Tis pity, John," said Madam Passmore, quietly, "that you have no Tories to list you."

"I wish I had--the scoundrels!" exclaimed the Squire.

"O Mother!" cried Isabella, rising hurriedly from her seat in the window, "sure here is some visitor of quality. There is a carriage at the front door with arms on the panels."

"What arms?" asked her father.

"I don't understand anything about arms," said Isabella, "and one of the coats I cannot see rightly. The one nearer here is all cut up into little squares, and in one part there is a dog on his hind legs, and in another a pair of yellow balls."

The Squire came to the window to see for himself. "Dog! balls!" cried he. "A lion rampant and bezants--the goose!"

"Well, Father, I told you I did not understand it!" remonstrated Isabella, in an injured tone.

"Madam, my Lady Ingram!" announced Robert, in a voice of great importance.

The Squire turned round directly, and offered his hand to conduct the visitor to a seat, like a well-bred gentleman of his day,--Madam Passmore rising to receive her, and her daughters of course following her example.

The stranger was a tall, commanding woman, with great stateliness of carriage, and much languor of manner. She had evidently been very handsome, but was now just past her prime. Her eyes and hair were dark, her voice low and languishing. Altogether it struck Celia that she was very like what Isabella would be in a few years, allowing for the differences in color. She took the chair to which the Squire led her, and addressed herself to Madam Passmore. There was a little peculiarity of distinctness in her pronunciation.

"You wonder to see me, Madam," she began.

"Madam, I am honored by your Ladyship's visit."

"I am the widow of Sir Edward Ingram, who held a commission under His Majesty King James. I come to speak with you on business."

"With _me_?" asked Madam Passmore, a little surprised.

"You are Madam Passmore, of Ashcliffe Hall?--Yes."

"Pray continue, Madam."

"Your daughters, Madam?" inquired the visitor, with a languid wave of her hand towards the young ladies.

"Yes; does your Ladyship wish to see me without them?"

"Not at all--oh! not at all. Which is Mademoiselle Celia?"

"The woman's French!" exclaimed the Squire, under his breath.

Celia's blood rushed to her face and neck, and then ebbed, leaving her white and faint, as she rose and came slowly forward. "Is this my mother?" she was asking herself, in a mental tumult.

"Ah! that is you? Stand a little farther, if you please. I wish to look at you."

"No; this is not my mother!" said Celia, to her own heart.

"Not by the half so tall as I should like--quite _petite_!" said Lady Ingram, scanning Celia with a depreciatory air. "And so brown! You cannot bridle--you have no complexion. Eh! _ma foi!_ what an English-looking girl!"

The Squire had almost arrived at the end of his patience. Madam Passmore said quietly, "I ask your Ladyship's pardon, but perhaps you will tell me why you make these remarks on my daughter?"

"I beg yours," said Lady Ingram, languidly. "I thought I had told you. She is a foundling?--Exactly. _Et bien_, she is my daughter--that is, my husband's daughter."

"Thank Heaven, not yours!" growled the Squire, heard only by Isabella.

"My husband was married twice," pursued the visitor, unconscious of his rising anger. "His first wife was an Englishwoman--short, I suppose, and brown, like this girl. I am the second wife, _née_ Mademoiselle de La Croix, daughter of Monsieur the Marquis de La Croix. _Tu peux m'embrasser ma fille_."

Celia would have obeyed somewhat reluctantly, had she understood her step-mother. She stood still, unaware that she had been addressed at all, since she had never learned the language in which Lady Ingram had spoken to her.

"Well, you will not?"

"I beg your pardon, Madam," answered Celia, speaking for the first time, and in a very tremulous voice. "I did not understand what you said."

"You speak French?"

"No, Madam."

"_Possible!_" exclaimed Lady Ingram. "You have never taught her to speak French? She speaks only English? _Ma foi, quelle famille!_"

"I could scarce teach her what I knew not," replied Madam Passmore, with quiet dignity.

"_C'est incroyable!_" drawled Lady Ingram, "Well, child, come here and kiss me. How awkwardly you stoop! Your carriage is bad--very bad. Ah, well! I shall see to all that. You will be ready to return with me on Thursday?"

This was only Tuesday. Celia heard the question put with a sinking of dismay. How should she go? yet how should she refuse?

"My Lady Ingram," said Squire Passmore, coming forward at last, "if you were this child's own mother, or if her father were yet alive, I could not of course set myself against your taking her away. But you tell us that you are only her step-mother, and that her father is dead. It seems to me, therefore, that she is at least as much our child as yours--rather more, indeed, seeing that we have brought her up from her cradle, and you have never cared to see her until this day. Moreover, I hope your Ladyship will not take it ill of me, if I ask you for some proof that you really are the child's step-mother."

"What proof shall I give you, Mr. Passmore?" asked Lady Ingram, quietly. "I have every wish to satisfy you. If you desire to see proofs that I am really Lady Ingram, ask the servants my name, or look here"--

She drew a letter from her pocket, and held it out to the Squire. The direction was--"To my Lady Ingram."

"Madam," said the Squire, returning the letter with a bow, "I do not in the least doubt that I have the honor of addressing my Lady Ingram. But can you satisfy me that you are Celia's step-mother?"

"If my word is not enough to satisfy you, Mr. Passmore," answered Lady Ingram, not at all annoyed, "I know of nothing that will do it. The marriage-registers of Celia's parents, or my own, would give you no information concerning her: and she has no register of baptism. I believe, however, that her name was written on a paper left with her, in Sir Edward's hand. If you will produce that paper, I will show you more of his writing, which you can compare with it. I think the fact of my knowledge on the subject ought to prove to you that I am the person whom I represent myself to be."

The writing on the two papers, when compared, tallied; and Squire Passmore felt that Lady Ingram was right, and that she could not produce any proof of her relationship so strong as the mere fact of her knowledge of Celia's name and origin. If she really were Celia's step-mother, he had no wish to prevent his adopted daughter from making acquaintance with her own family: and he saw nothing for it but to take Lady Ingram at her word.

"I am satisfied, Madam, that you have some relation to Celia," said he. "And as to her visiting you--for I cannot consent to her being taken entirely away--let the child choose for herself. Sure she is old enough."

"Ah!" said Lady Ingram, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "Very well. You shall decide, _chère_ Celia. At the least you will visit me?"

"I will visit you, Madam, with pleasure," answered Celia, a little to the damage of truth; "but these dear friends, who have had a care of me from my childhood, I could not leave them entirely, Madam." The sentence ended in tears.

"I am not an officer of justice, _ma belle_!" said Lady Ingram, laughing faintly. "Ah, well! a visit let it be. You will come with me--for a visit--on Thursday?"

"I will attend your Ladyship."

"You live near, Madam?" asked Madam Passmore, wondering whether she could live so far away as the next county.

"I live in France," was the unconcerned answer,--"in Paris in the winter, and not far thence in the summer."

The Squire almost gasped for breath. "And where is your summer dwelling, Madam? I think, if you please, that I have a right to ask."

"Oh! certainly. At St. Germain-en-Laye."

"St. fiddlesticks-and-fiddlestrings!" roared the Squire.

"Sir!" observed Lady Ingram, apparently a little startled at last.

"Pope, Pretender, and Devil!" thundered the exasperated Whig.

"Ah! I only know one of the three," said Lady Ingram, subsiding.

"And pray which is that, Madam?" grimly inquired he.

"_Le Roi Jacques_--you call the Pretender," said she calmly, drawing on her glove.

"If you please, Madam," asked Celia, with an effort, "do you know what was my mother's name?"

"White, Black--some color--I know not whether Red, Green, or Blue. She was a nobody--a mere nobody," replied her successor, dismissing Celia's insignificant mother with a graceful wave of her hands.

"Have I any brothers or sisters, Madam?"

"Sisters! no. Two brothers--one son of your mother, and one of mine."

"They live with you, Madam?"

"My son Philip does," said the Baronet's widow. "Your brother--Sir Edward now--is away on his travels, the saints know where. But he talked to me much about you before he went, and Philip teased me about you--so I came."

"Celia!" said the Squire, sternly, "this woman is an alien, a Tory, and a Papist. Will you still go?"

"Ought I not, Father?" she asked, in a low tone.

"Judge for yourself, child," he answered, kindly.

"I think I ought to go," said Celia, faintly.

"I am a Catholic, Mr. Passmore, it is true," remarked Lady Ingram, quietly; "yet you need not fear me. Sir Edward, my husband, was Protestant, and so is his son Edward: and I do not interfere. We are all surely going to heaven, and what matter for the different roads?"

"I think I ought to go," repeated Celia, but Madam Passmore thought, still more faintly than before.

"On Thursday, then," answered Lady Ingram, touching Celia's cheek with her lips. "Ah! _ma chère_, how I will improve you when I have you to myself!--how I will form you! That _bon ton_, that _aisance_, that _maintien!_--you have them not. You shall soon! Adieu!"

"Well, sure, 'tis sore to lose you, Mrs. Celia, my dear!" observed Cicely Aggett, as she sat sewing; "but more particular to a stranger--among them dreadful Papists--and such a way off, too! Why, 'tis nigh a hundred mile from here to Paris, ben't it?"

"I don't know how far it is," said Celia, honestly; "but I am sure 'tis a very long way."

"Well, anyhow, you'll not forget us, dear heart?"

"I shall never do that, Cicely. But don't talk as if I were going away altogether. 'Tis only a visit. I shall soon come back--in a year, at the longest."

"Maybe, my dear," answered Cicely, quietly; "and maybe not, Mrs. Celia. A year is a long time, and we none of us know what the Lord may have for us afore then. Not one of us a-going along with you! Well, you'll have Him with you, and He'll see to you a deal better than we could. But to think of you going among them wicked, cruel Papists! Don't have no more to do with none of them than you can help--don't, my dear! Depend upon it, Mrs. Celia, they ben't a bit better now than they was a hundred and fifty years ago, when they burned and tormented poor folks all over the country, as my grandmother used to tell me."

"What did she tell you about it, Cicely?"

"She were to Exeter,[1a] Mrs. Celia, and she lived till I was a matter of fifteen; and many a tale she's told me of their doings in them old times. But the one I always liked best was one her mother had told her. Her mother had been a young maid when the burnings was a-going on; she were to London,[1b] and was woman to a lady, one of them as was burnt."

"Tell me about it, Cicely," requested Celia, with feelings of curiosity and horror struggling for precedence.

"I'll tell you all I know about it, my dear. There! your ruffles is done. I'll take Mrs. Bell's next. Well, Mrs. Celia, her name, my great-grandmother's mistress, was Kyme; she was to Lincolnshire, leastwise her husband, for she was a London lady herself. An old family them Kymes be; they've dwelt in Lincolnshire ever since Moses, for aught I know. Mrs. Anne--that was her name--was a sweet, gentle lady; but her husband, Mr. Kyme, wasn't so likely: he'd a cruel rare temper, I've heard my grandmother say. Well, and after a while Mr. Kyme he came to use Mrs. Anne so hard, she couldn't live with him no longer, and she came back to her father and mother. She never went back to Lincolnshire; she took back her own name, and everybody called her Mrs. Anne Askew, instead of Madam Kyme. I never understood quite the rights of it, and I'm not sure my grandmother did herself; but however, some way Mrs. Anne she got hold of a Bible, and she fell a-reading it. And of course she couldn't but see with half an eye, when she come to read, that all them Papishes had taught her was all wrong, when she didn't find not one of their foolishnesses set down in the book. And by and by the priests came to hear of it. I don't just know how that were; I think somebody betrayed her, but I can't tell who: not my great-grandmother, I'm sure, for she held her lady dear. Ay, but there was a scrimmage when they knowed! Poor young lady! all turned against her, her own father and mother and all and the priests had their wicked will. They took her to Newgate, and tried first to talk her over; but when they found their talk was no good, but Mrs. Anne she held fast by what God had taught her, they had her into the torture-chamber."

Celia drew a long breath.

"Ah!" said old Cicely, slowly shaking her white head, "'tis easy to say 'God forgive them!' but truly I misdoubt whether God _can_ forgive them that tear the flesh and rent the hearts of His saints! What they did to that poor young thing in that torture-chamber, God knoweth. I make no doubt 'tis all writ down in His book. But Mrs. Anne she stood firm, and not one word could they get out of her; and my Lord Chancellor, who was there, he was so mad angry with her, that he throwed off his gown and pulled the rack with his own hands. At last the doctors said--for they had doctors there, the devils! to tell them how much the poor wretches could bear--the doctors said that if Mrs. Anne had any more, she would be like to die under it. So then they took her down; but afore they let her be, they kept her two hours longer a-sitting on the bare floor, and my Lord Chancellor a-talking at her all that ever he could. Then at last, when they found her too much for them, they took her away and laid her to bed. 'As weary and painful bones,' quoth she to my great-grandmother, 'had I as ever had patient Job. I thank my Lord God therefor!'[2] And if that warn't a good Christian saying, my dear, I'd like to hear one. Well, for some months after that she laid in prison; the wicked priests for ever at her, wearying her life out with talk and such. So at the end of all, when they saw it was no good, they carried her out to Smithfield, there to die.

"They carried her out, really; for every bone in her was broken, and if she had lived fifty years after, she could never have set her foot to the ground again. But Mrs. Anne she went smiling, and they said which saw her, as joyful as if she were going to her bridal. There, at the stake, with the faggots round, they offered her, last thing, a pardon if she would come round to their evil ways. Ah! they knew not the strength within her! they saw not the angels waiting round, when that poor broken body should be ashes, to take up the glad soul to the Lord's rest. What was pardon to her, poor crushed thing? She had seen too much of the glory of the Lord to set any price on their pardons. So when they could do nought more with her, they burned her to ashes at the stake."

Old Cicely added no comment. Was any needed? But if she had known the words spoken at one such holocaust by the mother of the martyr, she might fitly have ended her tale with them:

"BLESSED BE JESUS CHRIST, AND HIS WITNESSES!"

"_Bon jour, ma chère_. You look a little better this morning--not quite so English. _Et bien!_ you are ready to come?"

Celia had never felt so English as at that moment. She forced back the tears, which felt as if they would work their way out in spite of her, and said, in a very low voice, "I am ready, Madam."

"Let us lose no time, then," said Lady Ingram, rising, and allowing her hoop to spread itself out to its full width. "I wish you a _very_ good morning, Madam."

She swept slowly and statelily across the room, leaving Celia to exchange passionate kisses with all the members of the family, and then, almost blinded by the tears which would come at last, to make her way to the coach which was standing at the door.

"There, there, my dear!" said Lady Ingram, a little querulously, when the coach had been travelling about five minutes; "that is quite enough. You will make your eyes red. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, so unbecoming as the red eyes. These people are not your family--not at all so good. I do not see anything to cry about."

"She does not mean to be unkind," thought Celia to herself. "She is only heartless."

True--but what an _only_!

Lady Ingram, having done her duty to her step-daughter, leaned back in the coach and closed her eyes. She opened them again for a moment, and said, "We arrive on Tuesday in London, I start for Paris not until the next Tuesday." Then the dark languishing eyes shut again, rather to Celia's relief. The ponderous vehicle worked its way slowly along the muddy roads. Celia sat by her step-mother, and opposite was Lady Ingram's maid, a dark-browed Frenchwoman; both were remarkably silent. Lady Ingram went to sleep, and the maid sat upright, stony, and passive, frequently scanning the young stranger with her black eyes, but never uttering a word. That evening the coach clattered into Chard, where they slept. The Friday saw them at Shaftesbury, the Saturday night at Andover, where they put up for the Sunday. On the Monday evening they reached Bagshot, Lady Ingram declaring that she must have the morning to pass Bagshot Heath, and adding a few anecdotes of her past troubles with highwaymen which terrified Celia. Two men travelling on horseback, who were staying at the inn, joined their forces to the carriage, and the heath was passed without any attack from the highwaymen. About ten o'clock, when they were a little past the heath, Lady Ingram desired Celia to keep her eyes open. "We are just entering Windsor," she said; "and though I have not time to stop and let you see the Castle, yet you may perhaps get a glimpse of it as we pass." They passed the Castle, and drove down the park. Suddenly the coach came to a full stop.

"The stupid man!" exclaimed Lady Ingram. "What does he?"

The question was very soon answered, for William, the footman, sprang from his perch, and presented himself at the carriage-window. Lady Ingram let down the glass.

"What is the matter?" she asked, testily.

"If you please, Madam," was the answer, "there is a coach coming with gentlemen on horseback, and two running footmen in attendance; and Shale thinks it must be the Queen's."

"Draw to one side immediately," commanded Lady Ingram, "and then open the door and we will alight."

All alighted except the coachman, and Lady Ingram took Celia's hand, and stood with her just in front of her carriage. The running footmen passed them first, carrying long wands, and dressed in scarlet and gold livery. Lady Ingram's practised eye detected at once that the liveries were royal. Then came three gentlemen, two riding in front, the third behind. The coach, a large, handsome, but very unwieldly vehicle, lumbered slowly after them. In it were seated three ladies--one alone facing the horses, the others on the opposite seat.

"Which is the Queen, Madam?" asked Celia, excitedly.

"The Princess Anne will sit alone, facing the horses," replied her step-mother.

The lady who occupied the seat of honor, and whom alone Celia noticed, was the fattest woman she had ever seen. She had a fat, round face, and ruddy complexion, dark chestnut hair, and regular features. Her eyes were gray, and the expression of her face, though kindly, was not indicative of either liveliness or intellect. She wore a black dress trimmed with ermine, and a long black hood lined with the same fur. Not until the Queen had become invisible to her did Celia notice her ladies on the opposite seat. One of them was remarkable for a nose not extremely beautiful, and abundance of curls of a dusky red streamed over her shoulders. Celia glanced at the other, and came to the conclusion that there was nothing particular about her.

"So that is Abigail Hill!"[3] said Lady Ingram, in a peculiar tone, when the coach had driven past. "I thought she had had more in her--at least to look at."

"Is that the lady with the red hair, Madam?"

"No, my dear--the other. The red-haired one is the Duchess of Somerset."[4]

Lady Ingram still stood looking after the royal carriage with a meditative air.

"I should like to see Abigail Hill," she said, as if to herself. "I cannot tell how to do it. But we must not delay, even for that. Get in, my dear."

Celia got into the coach, wondering what reason her step-mother could have for wishing to see Lady Masham, and also why she did not give her the benefit of her title. Lady Ingram resumed her own seat in silence, and leaned back in the carriage, apparently cogitating deeply. Mile after mile the travellers journeyed on, until the dusk fell, and at the little inn at Bedfont the coach pulled up. William appeared at the window.

"Please your Ladyship, we can cross the heath to-night," he said. "There's a regiment of Colonel Churchill's just before: the host says they haven't been gone five minutes."

"Then bid Shale hasten on, without stopping to bait," answered his mistress. "We must overtake them, for I do not mean to stop on the road another night, unless it cannot be helped."

The horses were urged on as fast as they could go, and in about a quarter of an hour they came up with the regiment, under whose guardianship they crossed the dreaded Hounslow Heath without fear of molestation. At Hammersmith the coach stopped again. After a little parley between William and the innkeeper, four men came out of the inn with torches in their hands. Two of them placed themselves on each side of the coach, and they slowly journeyed on again. It was quite dark now. Gradually the road became busier and more noisy, and houses appeared lining it at intervals. At length they had fairly entered the metropolis. The coach worked its way slowly along the muddy streets, for it had been raining since they left Staines, and the shouts of the linkmen were almost deafening. As they proceeded, another coach suddenly appeared and attempted to pass them. This could not be permitted. The coachman whipped his horses, the linkmen screamed, the great coach swayed to and fro with the unusual pace. Lady Ingram opened the window and looked out, while the maid clasped her hands and shrieked in her own tongue that she was killed.

"Not at all, _ma bonne_," was the calm response of the mistress. Then turning to Celia, she asked, "You are not afraid?"

"Not unless you tell me there is something to fear, Madam," answered Celia, in the quiescence rather of ignorance than of courage.

"Ah! I like that answer," replied Lady Ingram, smiling her approval, and patting Celia's cheek. "There is good metal in you, _ma chére_; it is only the work that asks the polishing."

Celia wondered what the process of polishing would be, and into what kind of creature she would find herself transmuted when it was finished.

"William," said Lady Ingram, putting her head out of the window, "whose coach is that other?"

"Sir John Scoresby's, Madam."

"A baronet of three years later," observed Lady Ingram, quietly sinking back into her seat; "it is impossible to give way."

"Ah, Madame!" faltered the _bonne_, in a shrill key. "Madame will renounce her right? We shall be over! We shall be dead!"

"Impossible, my good Thérèse," was the placid answer. "I know what is due to myself and to others. To a baronet of one day earlier I should of course give place without a word; but to one of a day later--impossible!" replied Lady Ingram, waving her hands with an air of utter finality.

"But if we are all killed?" faintly shrieked Thérèse.

"Absurd!" said Lady Ingram. "But if I were, Thérèse, know that I should have the consolation of dying in the discharge of my duty. No soldier can do more."

"Ah! Madame is so high and philosophical!" lamented Thérèse. "Madame has the grand thoughts! _C'est magnifique_! But we others, who are but little people, and cannot console ourselves--hélas!"

Meanwhile the battle was raging outside the coach. Shouts of "Scoresby!" and "Ingram!" violent lashings of the struggling horses, oaths and execrations, at last the flashing of daggers. When things arrived at this point, Lady Ingram again let down the glass, which she had drawn up, and Celia, like a coward, shut her eyes and put her hands over her ears. Thérèse was screaming hysterically.

"Ah!" remarked the Baronet's widow, in a tone of satisfaction, replacing the window, "we shall get on now--William has stabbed the other coachman. Thérèse, give over screaming in that way--so very unnecessary! and Celia, my dear, do not put yourself in that absurd position--it is like a coward!"

"But the man, Madam!--the poor coachman!--is he killed?" questioned Celia, in a tone of horror.

"My dear, what does that signify?" said Lady Ingram. "A mere coachman--what can it matter?"

"But will you not ask, Madam?" pursued Celia, in a very pained voice.

"Impossible, my dear!" replied Lady Ingram. "I could not demean myself by such a question, nor must you. Really, Celia, your manners are so wanting in repose! You must learn not to put yourself into a fever in this way for every little thing that happens. Imagine! I, Lady Ingram, stopping my coach, and yielding precedence to this upstart Scoresby, to inquire whether this person--a man of no family whatever--has had a little more or less blood let out by my footman's thrust! Ridiculous!" And Lady Ingram spread out her dress.

Celia shrank back as far as she could into the corner of the coach, and spoke, not in words, to the only Friend she had present with her. "Oh! send me back to Ashcliffe!" was the strong cry of her heart. "This woman has no feelings whatever. Unless there be some very necessary work for me to do in Paris, send me back home!"

But there was very necessary work to be done before she could go home.

After another quarter of a mile spent in struggling through the mud, the coach drew up at the door of a large house. William, who seemed none the worse for his battle, opened the door, and held out his arm to assist his ladies in alighting. Lady Ingram motioned to Thérèse to go first, and the maid laid her hand on the arm of her fellow-servant.

"Ah, bah!" exclaimed she, as she reached the ground. "Why you not wipe de blood from de sleeve? You spoil my cloak--faugh!"

"You had better not use your dagger, William," observed Lady Ingram, as she stepped out, "unless it be necessary. It frightens Madam Celia." And with a peculiar smile she looked back at her step-daughter.

Celia followed Lady Ingram into a lighted hall, where servants in blue and gold liveries stood round, holding tapers in silver candlesticks. They seemed to recognize Lady Ingram, though Celia noticed that William's livery was different from theirs, and therefore imagined that the house she was entering must be that of a stranger. Lady Ingram walked forward in her usual stately manner until she reached the head of the staircase, closely followed by Celia and Thérèse. On the second step from the top stood a gentleman in full dress, blue and gold. A conversation ensued between him and Lady Ingram, accompanied by a great deal of bowing and courtesying, flourishing of hands and shaking of heads, which, being in French, was of course lost upon Celia; but could she have understood it, this was what she would have heard.

"You do me such honor, Monsieur?"

"It is due to you, Madame."

"The second stair, Monsieur! I am entitled only to the head of the staircase."

"Madame will permit me to express my sense of her distinction."

"You overwhelm me, Monsieur!"

"Pray let Madame proceed."

"Not until Monsieur has done so."

"Precedence to the ladies!"

"By no means before His Majesty's Consul!"

Here, then, appeared likely to be an obstacle to farther progress: but after a good deal more palaver, the grave point of precedence, which each was courteously striving to yield to the other, was settled by Lady Ingram and the Consul each setting a foot upon the top stair at the same moment. They then passed forward, hand in hand, Celia as before following her step-mother. The three entered a large, handsome drawing-room, where a further series of bowing and courtesying ensued before Lady Ingram would sit down. Celia supposed that she might follow her example, and being very tired, she seated herself at the same time as her step-mother; for which act she was rewarded with a glance of disapprobation from Lady Ingram's dark eyes. She sprang up again, feeling puzzled and fluttered, whereupon the Consul advanced to her, and addressed her in French with a series of low bows. Celia could only courtesy to him, and look helplessly at her step-mother. Lady Ingram uttered a few languid words in French, and then said in English to Celia, "Pray sit down. You have to be told everything."

So she sat, silent and wearied, until after a time the door flew open, and half a dozen servants entered bearing trays, which they presented first to Lady Ingram and then to Celia. The first tray contained cups of coffee, the second preserved fruits, the third custards, the fourth various kinds of sweetmeats. Celia mentally wondered whether the French supped on sugar-plums; but the fifth tray containing cakes, she succeeded in finding something edible. Lady Ingram, she noticed, after a cup of coffee and one or two cakes, devoted her attention to the sugar-plums.

"You are tired?" asked Lady Ingram, turning to Celia. "Very well, you shall go to bed. I will leave the forming of your manners at present; by and by I shall have something to say to you. Thérèse will dress your hair in the morning. Adieu! come and embrace me."

Thérèse appeared at the door, and after giving her some directions in French, her mistress desired Celia to courtesy to the Consul and follow Thérèse. The maid led Celia into a tolerably large room, with a French bed, which Thérèse informed her that she would have to herself.

"Ah! dat you have de hair beautifuls!" said Thérèse, as she combed it out. "I arrange it to-morrow. Mademoiselle like Madame?"

Celia liked no part of this speech. She knew that her hair was not beautiful, and felt that Thérèse was flattering her; while whatever might be her feelings on the subject of Lady Ingram, she had no intention of communicating them to her Ladyship's maid. Her answer was distant and evasive.

"Aha!" said Thérèse, with a soft laugh to herself. "Perhaps Mademoiselle shall like Monsieur Philippe. Monsieur Philippe love to hear of Mademoiselle."

Celia's heart warmed in a moment to her unknown brother. "How old is he?" she asked.

"Nineteen," said Thérèse.

"And my eldest brother, how old is he?"

"Sir Edward?" asked the French maid. "Ah! I see him very little. He is two, tree, five year older as Monsieur Philippe. He come never."

Celia resolved to question Thérèse no further, and the latter continued brushing her hair in silence.

"That will do, Thérèse," she said, when this process was completed. "I will not keep you any longer," she explained, seeing that the French girl looked puzzled.

"Mademoiselle undress herself?" asked Thérèse, with open eyes.

"Yes, thank you--I like it better. I wish to read a little first."

"De great ladies read never," laughed Thérèse. "Mademoiselle leave de book in Englands. Madame not like de read."

"I will never leave you in England," whispered Celia to her little Bible, resting her cheek upon it, when Thérèse was gone. "But oh! how shall I follow your teaching here? I know so little, and have so little strength!"

And a low soft whisper came into her heart,--"Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."[5]

"When Mademoiselle is ready, Madame wish speak with her at her dressing-chamber."

This message was brought to Celia by Thérèse the next morning. She was already dressed and reading.

"Ah! dat Mademoiselle is early!" exclaimed Thérèse, lifting her eyebrows. "Mademoiselle read always."

There was a concealed sarcasm about everything this woman said to her, which was particularly distasteful to Celia. She rose and closed her book, only replying, "I will come to my Lady now."

Thérèse led her along the passage into a handsomely-furnished room, where, robed in a blue cashmere dressing-gown, Lady Ingram sat, with her long dark hair down upon her shoulders.

"Ah! good morning. Early!" was her short greeting to Celia, who bent down and kissed her.

"Now, my dear," pursued Lady Ingram, "please to sit down on that chair facing me. I have two or three remarks to make. You shall have your first lesson in the polishing you need so much."

Celia took the seat indicated with some trepidation, but more curiosity.

"Very well," said her step-mother. "Now, first, about blushing. You _must_ get rid of that habit of blushing. There--you are at it now. Look in the mirror, and see if it does not spoil your complexion. A woman of the world, Celia, never blushes. It is quite old-fashioned and obsolete. So much for that."

"But, Madam,"--Celia began, and hesitated.

"Go on, my dear," said Lady Ingram. "You are not putting enough powder on the left side, Thérèse."

"If you please, Madam, I cannot stop blushing," pleaded Celia, doing it very much. "It depends upon my feelings."

"Well, it looks as if you could not," answered Lady Ingram, with a short, hard laugh. "But, my dear, you _must_. And as to feelings, Celia, a modish woman never has any feelings. Feeling is the one thing absolutely forbidden by the mode. Laugh as much as you please, but mind how you feel merry; and as to crying, that is not allowable except in particular circumstances. It looks well to see a girl weep for the death of her father or mother, and, within reasonable limits, for a brother or sister. But if you are ever left a widow, you must be very careful not to weep for the loss of your husband: that would stamp you instantly. And it is not _bien séant_ for a mother to cry much over her children--certainly not unless they are quite babies. A few tears--just a few--may be very well in that case, if you have a laced handkerchief at hand. But you must never look astonished, no matter what happens to you. And, Celia, last night, when the Consul spoke to you, you absolutely looked perplexed."

"I felt so, Madam," said Celia.

"Is not that just what I am telling you?" replied Lady Ingram, with that graceful wave of her hands which Celia had seen before. "My dear, you must not feel. Feeling is the one thing which the mode cannot permit."

"Pardon me, Madam," answered Celia, looking perplexed now; "but it seems to me that you are trying to make me into a statue."

"Exactly so, my dear Celia--that is just it. A modish woman is a piece of live marble: she eats, she drinks, elegantly and in small quantities--she sleeps, taking care not to lie ungracefully--she walks, glidingly and smoothly--she converses, but must be careful not to mean too much--she distributes her smiles at pleasure, but never shows real interest in any person. My dear, a heart is absolute ruin to a modish woman! She may do anything she likes but feel. Now look at me. Have you seen any exhibition of feeling in me since you have known me?"

Celia felt herself quite safe in acquitting Lady Ingram on that count.

"No, of course not," continued her step-mother; "I hope I know myself and the mode too well. Now, as to walking, what do you think the Consul said to me last night when you left the room?"

Celia confessed her inability to guess it.

"He said, 'What a pity that young lady cannot walk!'"

Celia's eyes opened rather widely.

"It is quite true, you absolutely cannot walk. You have no idea of walking but to go backwards or forwards. A walk should be a graceful, gliding motion, only just not dancing. There--that will do for this morning. As to walking, you shall have dancing lessons; but remember the other things I tell you. You must not blush, nor weep, nor eat more than you can help--in public, of course, I mean; you can eat an ox in your own chamber, if you please--and above everything else, you must give over feeling. You can go now if you wish it."

"Madam, you order impossibilities!" said Celia, with tears in her eyes. "I will eat as little as you please, if it keep me alive; and I will do my best to walk in any manner you wish me. I will try to give over blushing, if I can, though really I do not know how to set about it; but to give over feeling--Madam, I cannot do it. I do not think I ought to do it, even at your command. I must weep when I am sorrowful--I must laugh when I am diverted. I will not do it more than I can help, but I cannot make any promise beyond that."

"Ah! there you are!" said Lady Ingram, laughing. "You island English, with your hearts and your consciences, every man of you a Pope to himself! Well, I will not be too hard upon you at first, _ma belle_. That will do for the present. By and by I shall exact more."

Celia had a request to prefer before she went.

"Madam," she asked, trembling very much, "if it pleased you, and you had no desire that I should do otherwise, would you give me leave to hear Dr. Sacheverell preach on Sunday?"

"_Ma chère!_" said Lady Ingram, "how can I, a Catholic, choose between your Protestant teachers? You shall go where you like. The Consul has been so good as to place one of his carriages at my disposal, and as I shall remain here all the day, I place it at yours. I will bid William ask where your great Doctor preaches."

Celia went slowly back to her own room, feeling very strange, very lonely, and very miserable, though she hardly knew why. As soon as she reached it, she proceeded to contravene all Lady Ingram's orders by a good cry. She felt all the better for it; and having bathed her eyes, and comforted herself with a few words out of her Book, she was ready when Thérèse came to summon her to go down to breakfast with her step-mother. They breakfasted in a room down-stairs, the Consul and his wife being present; the latter a voluble French woman, who talked very fast to Lady Ingram. The days passed drearily to Celia; but she kept looking forward to the Sunday, on which she hoped to hear a sermon different from Dr. Braithwaite's. When the Sunday arrived, the carriage came round after breakfast to take Celia to hear Dr. Sacheverell, who, William had learned, was to preach at St. Andrew's that morning. To Holborn, therefore, the coach drove; and Celia entered St. Andrew's Church alone. She was put into a great pew, presently filled with other ladies; and the service was conducted by a young clergyman in a fair wig, who seemed more desirous to impress his hearers with himself than with his subject. Then the pulpit was mounted by a stout man in a dark wig, who preached very fluently, very energetically, and very dogmatically, a discourse in which there were more politics than religion, and very much more of Henry Sacheverell than of Jesus Christ.

All the attention which Celia could spare from the service and the preacher was concentrated in amazement on her fellow-worshippers. They were tolerably attentive to the sermon, but on the prayers they bestowed no notice whatever. All were dressed in the height of the fashion, and all carried fans and snuff-boxes. The former they flourished, handled, unfurled, discharged, grounded, recovered, and fluttered all through the service.[6] Whenever the fans were still for a moment, the snuff-boxes came into requisition, and the amount of snuff consumed by these fashionable ladies astonished Celia. They talked in loud whispers, with utter disregard to the sanctity of place and circumstances; and the tone of their conversation was another source of surprise to their hearer.

"Do you see Sir Thomas?"

"I am sure he is looking this way."

"There is Lady Betty--no, on your left."

"Lady Diana has not come this morning."

"How modishly she dresses!"

"Look at the Duchess--what a handsome brocade!"

"That lace cost five guineas the yard, I am certain."

Then came a fresh flourishing of fans, varied by the occasional rising and courtesying of one of the ladies, as she recognized an acquaintance in the fashionable crowd. Did these women really believe themselves in the special presence of God? thought Celia. Surely they never could! There was one point of the service at which all their remarks were hushed, their fans still, and their attention concentrated. This was during the singing. Celia found that no member of the congregation thought of joining the psalmody, which was left to a choir located in the gallery. At the close of each chant, audible comments were whispered round.

"How exceeding sweet!"

"What a divine voice she hath!"

"Beautiful, that E-la!"

And when the prayers followed, the snuff-boxes and fans began figuring again.

On the whole, Celia was glad when this service was over. Even Dr. Braithwaite was better than this. And then she thought of her friends at Ashcliffe, and how they would be rumbling home in the old family-coach, as she stepped in her loneliness into the Consul's splendid carriage. Did they miss her, she wondered, and were they thinking of her then, while her heart was dwelling sadly and longingly upon them? She doubted not that they did both.

"_Et bien?_" said Lady Ingram, interrogatively, when she met Celia after dinner. "Did you like your great preacher?"

"Not at all, Madam."

"Not at all? Then I wonder why you went. You look disappointed, _ma belle_. You must not look disappointed--It gives awkward lines to the face. Here--take some of this cake to console you; it is particularly good."

Celia took the cake, but not the consolation.

"At eleven o'clock on Tuesday, my child, we depart for Paris. Do not give yourself any trouble. Thérèse will do all your packing. Only you must not walk in Paris, until you have some clothes fit to be seen. I will order stuffs sent in at once when we arrive, and set the women to work for you."

"Do you know, Madam, if you please"--Celia hesitated, and seemed a little uncomfortable.

"Go on, child," said Lady Ingram. "Never stop in the middle of a sentence, unless you choose to affect the pretty-innocence style. Well?"

"Do you know, Madam, whether there be any Protestant service in Paris?"

"I imagine there is a Huguenot _prêche_ somewhere--or was one. I am not sure if I heard not something about His Majesty having stopped them. Do not put your Protestantism too much forward there--the Court do not like it."

"I have nothing to do with the Court, Madam," said Celia, with sudden firmness; "and I am a Protestant, and I cannot disguise my religion."

"Oh dear! your Protestant consciences!" murmured Lady Ingram. "But you have to do with the Court, my friend; it is to the Court that I am taking you. Do you suppose that I live in the atmosphere of a recluse? When I am an old woman of eighty, _ma chère_, very likely I shall repair to a convent to make my salvation; but not just now, if you please."

"I am not an old woman--" Celia was beginning, but Lady Ingram interrupted her.

"Precisely, _ma belle_. The very reason why it is so absurd of you to make a recluse of yourself, as I see you would like to do,--unless, indeed, you had a vocation. But, so far as I know, Protestants never have such things."

"What things, Madam?"

"Vocations, my dear--calls to the religious life."

"Madam!" exclaimed Celia, very much astonished, "ought we not all to lead religious lives?"

"You are so absurd!" laughed Lady Ingram. "You absolutely do not understand what is meant by the religious life. My dear child (for a child you are indeed), the life which we all lead is the secular: we eat, drink, talk, sleep, dance, game and marry. These are the seculars who do these things. The religious are those who, having a call from Heaven, consecrate themselves entirely to God, and deny themselves all pleasures whatever, and so much of necessaries as is consistent with the preservation of life. Their mortification is accepted by Heaven, when extreme, not only for their own sins, but for the sins of any secular friend to whom they may desire to apply the merit of it. Now do you understand? _Ma foi!_ what a grave, saint-like conversation you provoke!"

"Not at all, Madam."

"Let me hear your views then."

Had Celia been left free to choose, Lady Ingram was about the last person in her little world to whom she would have wished to give a reason for the hope that was in her. But she felt that there was no choice, and she must make the effort, though not in her own strength. She lifted up her heart to God for wisdom, and then spoke with a quiet decision which surprised her step-mother.

"Madam, I believe all persons to be religious who love God, and whom God loves. Because God loved us, He gave His Son to die for us, that we who believe in Him might have eternal life. It is He who saves us, not we who make our own salvation; and it is because we love God that we wish to serve Him."

"Well, my dear," answered Lady Ingram, slowly, as if considering Celia's speech, "I can see very little difference between us, except that you would have all men hermits and friars instead of some. We both believe in Jesus Christ, of course; and no doubt there is a certain sense in which the religious feel love to God, and this love inclines them to the cloister. I do not therefore see wherein we differ except on a few unimportant points."

Celia saw an immense distance between them, on points neither few nor unimportant; but the courage which had risen to a high tide was ebbing away, and her heart failed her.

"Well, this will do for to-day, my fair divine," said Lady Ingram, with a smile. "Now bring me my silk-winders, and hold that skein of red silk while I wind it--or stay, is that a matter of conscience, my little votaress?"

"On the Lord's Day, Madam, it is, if you please."

"Very well, let the silk alone; I can wind it to-morrow just as well. Would it be breaking the Sabbath for you to tell Thérèse that I wish to speak with her? Pray don't if you feel at all uncomfortable."

Celia gave the message to Thérèse, and then locked herself into her own room, and relieved her feelings by another fit of crying.

[1a][1b] A Devonshire phrase, as well as an American one, signifying, in the former case, "she belonged to, or lived at," the place.

[2] Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," ed. Townsend, 1846, vol. v., p. 550.

[3] Abigail Hill was a cousin and dependent of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, and supplanted her in the Queen's favor. She was a violent Tory. She married Samuel Masham, one of the Queen's pages, created Baron Masham, December 13, 1711.

[4] Elizabeth Percy, only child of Josceline Earl of Northumberland, and Elizabeth Wriothesley: born 1665-6; married (1) 1679, Henry Cavendish, Lord Ogle, (2) 1681, Thomas Thynne Esq., (3) 1682, Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset; she died December 1722, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. The Duchess of Somerset succeeded the Duchess of Marlborough in the office of Mistress of the Robes to Queen Anne.

[5] Matt. xxviii. 20.

[6] For the meaning of these technical phrases in "the exercise of the fan," see the _Spectator_ of June 27, 1711.