by Fanny Burney
CHAPTER IV
The good understanding with which the eagerness of curiosity on oneside, and the subjection of caution on the other, made the travellersbegin their journey, was of too frail a nature to be of long endurance.'Tis only what is natural that flows without some stimulus; what isfactitious prospers but while freshly supplied with such materials asgave it existence. Mrs Ireton, when she found that neither questions,insinuations, nor petty artifices to surprise confessions, succeeded indrawing any forth, cast off a character of softness that so little paidthe violence which its assumption did her humour; while the stranger,fatigued by finding that not one particle of benevolence, was mixed withthe avidity for amusement which had given her a place in the chaise,ceased all efforts to please, and bestowed no further attentions, thansuch as were indispensably due to the mistress of the vehicle in whichshe travelled.
At a little distance from Rochester, the chaise broke down. No one washurt; but Mrs Ireton deemed the mere alarm an evil of the firstmagnitude; remarking that this event might have brought on her death;and remarking it with the resentment of one who had never yet consideredherself as amenable to the payment of that general, though dread debt tonature. She sent on a man and horse for another carriage, and was forcedto accept the arm of the stranger, to support her till it arrived. Butso deeply was she impressed with her own ideas of the hardships that sheendured, that she put up at the first inn, went to bed, sent for anapothecary, and held it to be an indispensable tribute to the delicacyof her constitution, to take it for granted that she could not beremoved for some days, without the most imminent hazard to her life.
Having now no other resource, she hung for comfort, as well as forassistance, upon her fellow-traveller, to whom she gave the interestingpost of being the repository of all her complaints, whether againstnature, for constructing her frame with such exquisite daintiness, oragainst fate, for its total insensibility to the tenderness which thatframe required. And though, from recently quitting objects of sorrow,and scenes of woe, in the dreadful apparel of awful reality, theIncognita had no superfluous pity in store for the distresses ofoffended self-importance, she yet felt relief from experiencing milderusage, and spared no assiduity that might purchase its continuance.
It was some days before Mrs Ireton thought that she might venture totravel, without appearing too robust. And, in this period, one onlycircumstance called forth, with any acrimony, the ill humour of herdisposition. This was a manifest alteration in the complexion of herattendant, which, from a regular and equally dark hue, appeared, on thesecond morning, to be smeared and streaked; and, on the third, to be ofa dusky white. This failed not to produce sundry inquisitive comments;but they never succeeded in obtaining any explanatory replies. When,however, on the fourth day, the shutters of the chamber, which, to giveit a more sickly character, had hitherto been closed, were suffered toadmit the sun-beams of a cheerful winter's morning, Mrs Ireton wasdirected, by their rays, to a full and marvellous view, of a skinchanged from a tint nearly black, to the brightest, whitest, and mostdazzling fairness. The band upon the forehead, and the patch upon thecheek, were all that remained of the original appearance.
The first stare at this unexpected metamorphosis, was of unmingledamazement; but it was soon succeeded by an expression of somethingbetween mockery and anger, evinced, without ceremony or reserve, by thefollowing speech: 'Upon my word, Ma'am, you are a very complete figure!Beyond what I could have conjectured! I own that! I can't but own that.I was quite too stupid to surmize so miraculous a change. And pray,Ma'am, if I may take the liberty to enquire,--who are you?'
The stranger looked down.
'Nay, I ought not to ask, I confess. It's very indelicate, I own; veryrude, I acknowledge; but, I should imagine, it can hardly be the firsttime that you have been so good as to pardon a little rudeness. I don'tknow, I may be mistaken, to be sure, but I should imagine so.'
The Incognita now raised her eyes. A sense of ill treatment seemed toendue her with courage; but her displeasure, which, though not uttered,was not disguised, no sooner reached the observation of Mrs Ireton, thanshe conceived it to be an insolence to justify redoubling her own.
'You are affronted, I hope, Ma'am? Nay, you have reason enough, Iacknowledge; I can't but acknowledge that! to see me impressed with solittle awe by your wonderful powers; for 'twas but an hour or two since,that you were the blackest, dirtiest, raggedest wretch I ever beheld;and now--you are turned into an amazing beauty! Your cheeks are allbedaubed with _rouge_, and you are quite a belle! and wondering, Isuppose, that I don't beseech you to sit on the sofa by my side! And, tobe sure, it's very ill bred of me: I can't deny that; only as it is oneof the rudenesses that I conceive you to have had the goodness to submitto before, I hope you'll forgive it.'
The young woman begged leave to retire, till she should be called forthe journey.
'O! what, you have some other metamorphosis to prepare, perhaps? Thosebandages and patches are to be converted into something else? And pray,if it will not be too great a liberty to enquire, what are they toexhibit? The order of Maria Theresa? or of the Empress of all theRussias? If I did not fear being impertinent, I should be tempted to askhow many coats of white and red you were obliged to lay on, before youcould cover over all that black.'
The stranger, offended and tired, without deigning to make any answer,walked back to the chamber which she had just quitted.
The astonished Mrs Ireton was in speechless rage at this unbiddenretreat; yet anger was so inherently a part of her composition, that thesight she saw with the most lively sensation was whatever authorized itsvent. She speedily, therefore, dispatched a messenger, to say that shewas taken dangerously ill, and to desire that the young woman wouldreturn.
The Incognita, helpless for seeking any more genial mode of travelling,obeyed the call, but had scarcely entered the apartment, when MrsIreton, starting, and forgetting her new illness, exclaimed, in apowerful voice, 'Why, what is become of your black patch?'
The young woman, hastily putting her hand to her cheek, blushedextremely, while she answered, 'Bless me, it must have dropt off!--Iwill run and look for it.'
Mrs Ireton peremptorily forbade her to move; and, staring at her with amixture of curiosity and harshness, ordered her to draw away her hand.She resisted for some time, but, overpowered by authoritative commands,was reduced, at length, to submit; and Mrs Ireton then perceived, thatneither wound, scar, nor injury of any sort, had occasioned the patch tohave been worn.
The excess of her surprize at this discovery, led her to apprehend someserious imposition. She fearfully, therefore, rose, to ring the bell,still fixing her eyes upon the face of the young woman, who, in herconfusion, accidentally touching the bandage which crossed her forehead,displaced it, and shewed that feature, also, as free from any cause forhaving been bound up, as the cheek.
It was now rather consternation than amazement with which Mrs Ireton wasseized, till the augmenting disorder, and increasing colour of her newattendant, changed all fear of any trick into personal pique at havingbeen duped; and she protested that if such beggar-stratagems were playedupon her any more, she would turn over the impostor to the master of theinn.
The paleness of terror with which this menace overspread the complexionof the stranger, forced a certain, however unwilling conviction upon themind of Mrs Ireton, that _rouge_, at least, was not amongst theartifices of which she had to complain. But, though relieved from herown alarm, by the alarm which she inspired, she was rather irritatedthan appeased in finding something less to detect, and, scoffinglyperusing her face, 'You are a surprising person, indeed!' she cried, 'assurprising a person as ever I had the honour to see! So you haddisfigured yourself in that horrid manner, only to extort money from usupon false pretences? Very ingenious, indeed! mighty ingenious, Iconfess! Why that new skin must have cost you more than your new gown.Pray which did you get the best bargain?'
The stranger did not dare risk any sort of reply.
'O, you don't chuse to tel
l me? But how could I be so indiscreet as toask such a thing? Will it be impertinent, too, if I enquire whether youalways travel with that collection of bandages and patches? and of blackand white outsides? or whether you sometimes change them for wooden legsand broken arms?'
Not a word of answer was returned.
'So you won't tell me that, neither? Nay, you are in the right, I own.What business is it of mine to confine your genius to only one or twomethods of maiming or defacing yourself? as if you did not find it moreamusing to be one day lame, and another blind; and, to-day, it shouldseem, dumb? The round must be entertaining enough. Pray do you make itmethodically? or just as the humour strikes you?'
A fixed silence still resisted all attack.
'O, I am diving too deeply into the secrets of your trade, am I? Nay, Iought to be contented, I own, with the specimens with which I havealready been indulged. You have not been niggardly in varying them. Youhave been bruised and beaten; and dirty and clean; and ragged and whole;and wounded and healed; and a European and a Creole, in less than aweek. I suppose, next, you will dwindle into a dwarf; and then, perhaps,find some surprising contrivance to shoot up into a giantess. There isnothing that can be too much to expect from so great an adept inmetamorphoses.'
The pleasure of giving vent to spleen, disguised from Mrs Ireton, thatby rendering its malignancy so obvious, she blunted its effect. Shecontinued, therefore, her interrogatories a considerable time, beforeshe discovered, that the stillness with which they were heard wasproduced by resolution, not awe. Almost intolerably offended when asuspicion of this truth occurred, she assumed a tone yet more imperious.'So I am not worth an answer? You hold it beneath you to waste yourbreath upon me? And do you know whom it is you dare treat in thismanner? Do you imagine that I am a fellow-adventurer?'
The hand of the young woman was now upon the lock of the door, butthere, trembling, it stopt, withheld by a thousand terrors fromfollowing its first impulse; and the entrance of a waiter, withinformation that a chaise was at the door, interrupted any furtherdiscourse. The journey was resumed, and the rest of the way was onlyrendered supportable to the stranger, from the prospect that itsconclusion would terminate all intercourse with one who, so wilfully andso wantonly, seemed to revel in her powers of mockery and derision.