CHAPTER XXXI

A CHARIOT DRIVE

'Madam! the chariot is at the door.'

'Bless me! not dressed. I ordered it for three o'clock.'

'It is now on the stroke,' said Jesse.

'Dear, dear! the clock has stopped. Jesse, you forgot to wind it up last week.'

'I did not know it was my duty, mother.'

'It is always your duty when I forget to do it. I shall be ready instantly. Winefred――I understand that is your Christian name, and a very charming name it is――we will drop formality, and no more call you Miss Holwood――I will show you Bath, or the Bath, as it was wont to be called.'

'And the chemist's where the celebrated pill was compounded?' asked Jesse.

'My dear'――Mrs. Tomkin-Jones rose to her full height――'I hate profanity. Remember that your father wrote out the prescription, if you desire that your days may be long in the land. Now, Winefred, put on your things. Sylvana, are you coming?'

'No, mamma, not if I am to sit with my back to the horses.'

'You forget your breeding, child. A visitor, of course, sits beside me.'

'I know that, mamma, therefore I decline.'

'You will come, Jesse?'

'As you wish, mamma, and show to the admiring visitor the City of Bladud, Beau Nash, and of Tomkin-Jones.'

'My dear, eschew flippancy.'

In a quarter of an hour the ladies were ready, and descended to the carriage.

This was a somewhat battered conveyance, let by the hour, drawn by a horse that had known better days, as had the chariot and the driver. The steed leaned forward, so that but for the counterpoise of the carriage he would have fallen headlong on his nose.

Thinking that the general aspect of the conveyance, driver, and steed, left something to be desired, Mrs. Tomkin-Jones said in her grandest manner, 'Everything may not be quite as might be desiderated, but I study safety above all else. It is my first consideration, and one is compelled to sacrifice appearances to that!'――she shrugged her shoulders――'I can rely on this chariot. The horse I have known never to fall, though it sometimes coughs. The coachman I knew by long acquaintance――I mean employment――as one who does not drink. One cannot be too cautious. An inebriate driver, even with the most sober horse, may do terrible things. Moreover, Baker is attached to the family by cords of gratitude, as he was attended in a case of considerable internal complication by my dear husband. The horse has good blood in him. Observe the nose and the hanging underlip――it was a characteristic of Charles the Fifth. Will you favour me by stepping in? The cushions and lining have a smell――a mouldy, damp, strange savour――but it is wholesome, and was particularly recommended by the dear doctor in cases of hay fever――from which I suffer.'

Winefred had never sat in any other carriage than a carrier's van or a mail-coach, and she was in no mood to note the defects in that she now entered.

Her heart swelled with pride. She was made much of, was indulged, treated with some deference. She had passed into a new world in which the atmosphere was new. She was away from the suspicion, the slander of Axmouth. She would not have been a woman and young not to have felt elated at the thought that she was rich, and on account of her riches was respected. Yet withal she was uneasy at her surroundings, so different from any wherewith she had been acquainted, and she was afraid of exposing her ignorance.

Her mother had so often and so earnestly commented to her on lack of social culture as having been the cause of her own undoing, as having blasted her entire life, that Winefred, standing at the threshold of a new career in which this desideratum was to be acquired, felt timorous, lest she should make some great mistake, commit some solecism at the outstart.

'Hah!' said Mrs. Tomkin-Jones, throwing herself back in the chariot, 'there passed my Lady Vire de Vétte. How unfortunate that she was looking in the wrong direction and did not catch my eye and my greeting.'

'Mamma,' said Jesse, 'there is Aunt Jose on the footway, shall we take her up?'

Mrs. Tomkin-Jones did not hear her. She was studying the chimney tops of the houses on the opposite side of the street, and so failed to see Mrs. Jose.

'Baker!' said the lady, 'drive to Miss Prance, the milliner.' Then half to Jesse, half to Winefred, 'It is essential that we get our dear child equipped properly. Then we will go on to the mercer's.'

Winefred looked from side to side with undisguised admiration. She saw Mrs. Jose, caught her eye, and smiled and signed to her. So also Jesse, who kissed her hand.

'The Abbey,' said Mrs. Jones. 'My dear doctor, of whom I am the relict, lies there. He has a suitable, elegant monument. So also does Captain Shadrach Jones, his father――also with a neat memorial. Perhaps you would like to see them. Baker!'

'No, mamma,' said Jesse, 'it is the possessed with devils who frequent tombs.'

'My dear, don't be irreverent.' But she did not insist on dismounting at the Abbey. Presently the widow said, 'I presume that the creature chose those dresses for you.'

'What creature?'

'The woman, you know.'

'What woman? Do you mean Mrs. Jose?'

'Mrs. Jose! Oh, dear no. She is not a creature or a woman, but a distant relative――very distant――of ours. I mean that individual, person, nurse――whatever she was, who looked after you in your childhood.'

'Oh! My mother!'

'Well, yes, that worthy being whom you have been accustomed to so designate. Ancient domestics of that description are estimable, and, up to a certain point, useful; but beyond that point are liable to become insufferable nuisances. It is so difficult to get them to realise what is their proper place. They want the delicacy of intuition which should show them when to fall into the rear because no longer wanted. They are given to presume and become intolerable. It was high time for you to dissociate yourself from an individual of this description. You must excuse my frankness, but association with such a _personale_ has already infected your intonation. In a few years it would have been hopeless to have attempted to eradicate it. Happily, at your years, the vocal organs are still flexible and the ear has not been deformed. Yet dialect is not to be got rid of as easily as an unbecoming and unfashionable suit of clothes. We shall have to exert every effort on our part, meeting with response from you, to master this defect. What was the name of that woman?'

Winefred's face became crimson. She moved uneasily on the seat. All her pleasure in the drive and at the novelty of the scenes was gone. Jesse, sitting opposite, misinterpreted her distress and attributed it to the references made by her mother to Winefred's provincial dialect and unfashionable gown. But such reflections in no way wounded the girl. That which troubled her was the slighting reference to her mother. She would have burst forth in vindication of one who was inexpressibly dear to her, but was restrained by recollection of the urgency of her mother, and of Mrs. Jose, not to allow herself to be drawn into a revelation of the true connection that existed between them. She was quite aware of the delicacy and difficulty of her situation. She passed under one name, her mother under another, and the circumstances were too obscure for her to be able to explain how this was.

Happily the current of Mrs. Tomkin-Jones's thoughts was diverted. She turned to Winefred and said with solemnity, 'We are now approaching――look on the right. You will see a chemist's establishment with the Royal arms above the shop window, and the inscription accompanying it, "By Royal Appointment." It was there that the celebrated pill――――'

'I thought as much,' said Jesse, interrupting her mother, 'the bread pills were certain to be rolled forth.'

'_Bread_ pills, my dear!' exclaimed Mrs. Jones indignantly; 'your lamented father was not the man to prescribe bread to Royalty. I do not relish this tone. Had it not been for professional rivalry, your father would have had a baronetcy conferred on him, and I should have been Lady Tomkin-Jones. The pills did it.'

'Rather, they did not do it,' asserted the irrepressible Jesse.

Mrs. Tomkin-Jones drew her lips together as though about to whistle. This was expressive of indignation. She said no more on the matter, but sighed.

The lady was wont to sigh when her mental corns were trodden on.

She had stiffened her back in pride as she approached the chemist's shop. It became stiffer with indignation at her daughter's levity and lack of reverence. But the shop passed, she relaxed, and sank back into a dignified position, and said, 'Ah! by the way, what is her name?'

'Whose name?'

'That of the domestic.'

'Do you mean, ma'am, my――――'

'For heaven's sake, do not address me as ma'am.'

'What shall I say――Mrs. Tomkin-Jones?'

'That is almost worse; it stamps a person at once. Only servants of lodging-house type address one thus. Neither, if you please.'

'I will try to recollect.'

'What was the name of the nurse?'

'Marley――Mrs. Marley.'

'And, I presume, you have fallen into the habit of calling her mother or mamma?'

'I did not fall into it, I grew up with it.'

'Most reprehensible, but under the circumstances explicable and excusable. That sort of female is given to presume and push, and requires to be taught its place. I have little doubt she did her utmost to spoil you.'

Winefred was choking; anger, resentment swelled her heart.

'That sort of female,' said Winefred in a quivering voice, 'is one to love and reverence.'

Jesse saw that something had gone wrong. She touched her mother with her foot and shook her head.

'Well, it is flattering to the self-esteem of individuals of an inferior order to have a child of good blood and name in their charge and to be able to attach it to them. But you ought to have called her Marley, or nurse――no more.'

The tears filled the girl's eyes, the colour rose and fell in her cheeks as mercury in a barometer before a hurricane.

Jesse, who saw her distress, and was vexed with her mother, said, so as to produce a diversion, 'Now, mother, the story of the pills――anything but this Catechism on your Duty to your Inferiors.'

'No, my dear, I will not tell the story of the pills, as you so pertly call it. The narrative touches the Crown, and whatever touches the Crown should be treated with respect, even if its association with the name of your august father did not exact that it should be approached with decorum. Oh! there is Frank Wardroper! Here! Baker! stay! I wish to speak with a gentleman.'

Then signing to a young man irreproachably dressed, she turned to Winefred, and said in a low tone, 'Son of Sir Barnaby Wardroper, you know. I will introduce him. An eligible acquaintance.'

The chariot was arrested, and to the signalling of the gloved hand and bobbing head, the youth approached with raised hat and graceful bow.

After the usual salutations had been interchanged, with remarks on the weather and inquiries that were mutual as to health――

'Allow me, my dear Mr. Frank, to introduce you to a charming friend from the green lanes of old England, a flower from its most rural nooks. Mr. Wardroper, my dear Miss Holwood, Mr. Frank Wardroper; she belongs, you know, to that delightful family, the Finnboroughs――allied that is. So unfortunate that the Viscount has left Bath; he and Lady Finnborough would have been so charmed, you know. My dear Mr. Frank'――aside into his ear, but audible to Winefred――'an heiress, daughter――sole child of the Governor-General of――I forget――one of our most vast and important of our Colonial possessions――a veritable gold mine.'

Then she pursed up her lips, winked and nodded, and made symbolic gestures with her hands and parasol, as though unfurling something――the rent-roll of Winefred, and pouring forth something, the plunder of the Colony of Tierra del Fuego.

'By the way, Mr. Frank Wardroper, you are a man of exquisite taste, you know, and, I wonder, I wonder now, whether you could be induced by any poor words of mine to take a seat in our equipage, beside Jesse, and accompany us. In fact, positively we are going to the milliner's and dressmaker's to rehabilitate my dear little country friend here, and you are such a judge, have so fine a perception in colour and cut, such tact as to fit, that I feel we should acquire an incalculable advantage could we secure your opinion.'

'Delighted!' said Mr. Wardroper.

The steps were let down, and the young exquisite, who was such a connoisseur in dress, was admitted to the carriage.

'Between you, me, and the post,' said Mrs. Tomkin-Jones, setting up the stick of her parasol beside her mouth, 'my country friend here has been allowed to run wild in the hedges like a rose of June. Her distinguished father is a widower, involved in diplomacy and all that, you know, and quite unable to attend to her education. She has been left too much in the hands of vulgar domestics, and――well, you know the result. Des lacunes, comprenez vous――soyez l'aimable et n'y prenez attention――cependant elle est charmante.'

Winefred turned hot and cold.

She knew that she was being discussed in a language she did not understand; above all――what she suspected was that some disparaging remark had been made relative to her mother.

She was already beginning to feel that her new position would be one of discomfort out of all proportion to its advantages.

But suddenly, with a start, she put up her hand and exclaimed――'Oh!'