Chapter IV: How Mrs. Vyner Was Beneficent

One morning while Cecil was in his studio, smoking a cigar and contemplating the sketch of his picture on the easel, with the air of a man who profoundly meditates on the details of a great conception, Blanche was in her room at Notting-hill, making the essence of coffee with a French machine, which they had purchased (unable to drink the incomprehensible mixture Mrs. Tring set before them) when a carriage drove up to the door. Blanche did not hear it, as her room was situated at the back. It was with great surprise, therefore, that she saw her mother and Rose rush into the room, and bound into her arms.

After the first hearty embraces and inquiries were over, Blanche became aware of the condition in which she was found, and blushed. It was not that she herself felt ashamed of her poverty, but she was hurt at the reflections which must necessarily arise in their minds respecting the folly of her marriage; so she hastened, in rather a precipitate and clumsy manner, to assure them how exquisitely happy she was.

"Thank God for that!" exclaimed Mrs. Meredith Vyner. "Then I have nothing to reproach myself with for not having interfered--for not putting a stop to Cecil's attentions--which I very early noticed, let me tell you. The only thing I now desire is to bring your papa round; but he is so obstinate! I do my utmost--but I almost begin to fear that my intercession only makes him more resolved; and I suspect if we were never to mention the subject to him, he would relent very speedily. But depend upon me, my dear, for looking after your interests."

"Dearest mama!" said Blanche, gratefully kissing her.

"As soon as I see him relenting, I will contrive to throw him in your way--and you can then manage him yourself--but do not attempt to see him till I give you the word."

"I will be guided by you."

Rose was unusually grave and silent. Blanche noticed it, and noticed also that she looked ill.

"I have been unwell," Rose said; "but I am getting better now. A slight fever, that is all."

"And how is Marmaduke Ashley?" asked Blanche.

"Very well; we saw him yesterday; in fact we see him very often now," Mrs. Vyner answered; "somehow or other he has always some commission to execute for one of us, and as he is an agreeable companion, we make much of him."

"And how gets on the flirtation with Violet?"

"Why--pretty much as usual. I suspect it is only a flirtation just yet; or else he is kept at a respectful distance, for you know dear Violet is not the most affable of beauties."

"And Julius, Rose, how is he?"

"Indeed, I cannot tell you," quietly answered Rose.

"You can't! What! do you mean to say, Rose, that----."

"He is in Italy, I believe," she said, interrupting her sister, but showing no more emotion on her face than if she were speaking of the most indifferent person.

Blanche was not deceived, however; she knew her sister's love for Julius, and divined a quarrel.

"That is the slight fever!" she mentally exclaimed; and then comparing her lot with that of her two sisters, felt it was infinitely preferable.

After a two hours' chat, they rose to depart. The real purpose of Mrs. Vyner's visit was to give Blanche fifty pounds, which her father had sent her, in accordance with the arranged plan that she was to suppose it came from her mother.

"And now before I go, dear Blanche," said Mrs. Vyner, "I have to give you an earnest of your not being forgotten by me, however your father may act. Money from him, he vows, is out of the question; he will not give a sixpence. But out of my own privy purse, I shall from time to time take care of you. There, dear girl, take that;

The gift is sma', but love is a'.

I have set aside this fifty pounds----"

She was interrupted by Blanche throwing her arms round her neck, and hugging her tightly, while tears of gratitude stood in her eyes, and she murmured "Dearest, kindest, mama!"

Rose, who was equally taken by surprise at this _coup-de-theatre_, also sprang up and kissed her mother, exclaiming,--

"Oh! I wish Violet were here!"

Mrs. Vyner understood the wish, and looked delighted.

"One day," she said, with the meekness of a martyr, "she will learn to know me."

It was an exciting scene. Blanche and Rose were affected, as kind hearts always are at any action which bears the stamp of kindness; and Mrs. Vyner was affected, as most people are when they have done a generous action, with a certain inward glow of noble pleasure.

For do not suppose that she remembered at this moment whence the money actually came. Not she. In her excitable mind, the means were lost in the end. She had given the money, she had aroused the gratitude of the two girls, and as far as her feeling of the matter went, she felt just as if the money had been hers. Indeed, so truly was she possessed with this idea, so actually generous did she feel in that moment of excitement, that on opening her purse to take out the notes, she found another ten-pound note beside it, really her own, and taking it also out she said as she presented it,--

"There, you may as well have that too--you will find plenty of use for it--and I shall not miss it. There. Only be happy, and trust in me."

The sudden impulse which led her to do this--to complete as it were the action which she had begun with such applause--to redouble the effect of what had already been created--will be understood by all who have known, and knowing have analyzed, such characters as Mrs. Vyner; to others it will appear a gross inconsistency.