by Fanny Burney
CHAPTER IX
Mrs Maple was of opinion, that every woman ought to live with a needleand thread in her hand; the stranger, therefore, had now ampleoccupation; but as labour, in common with all other evils, is relative,she submitted cheerfully to any manual toil, that could rescue her fromthe mental burthen of exciting ill will and reproach.
Two days afterwards, Elinor came to summon her to the drawing-room. Theywere all assembled, she said, to a rehearsal, and in the utmostconfusion for want of a prompter, not a soul, except Miss Arbe, knowinga word, or a cue, of any part but his own; and Miss Arbe, who took uponher to regulate every thing, protested that she could not consent to goon any longer in so slovenly a manner.
In this dilemma it had occurred to Elinor to have recourse to thestranger; but the stranger desired to be excused: Mrs Maple seemed nowto be softened in her favour; and it would be both imprudent andimproper to risk provoking fresh irritation, by coming forward in anenterprise that was a known subject of dissention.
Elinor, when she had formed a wish, never listened to an objection.'What an old fashioned style you prose in!' she cried; 'who couldbelieve you came so lately from France? But example has no more forcewithout sympathy, than precept had without opinion! However, I'll getyou a licence from Aunt Maple in a minute.'
She went down stairs, and, returning almost immediately, cried, 'AuntMaple is quite contented. I told her I was going to send for Mr Creek, ahorrible little pettifogging wretch, who lives in this neighbourhood,and whom she particularly detests, to be our prompter; and this sowoefully tormented her, that she proposed you herself. I have amplebusiness upon my hands, between my companions of the buskin, and thispragmatical old aunt; for Harleigh himself refused to act against herapprobation, till I threatened to make over Lord Townly to Sir LyellSycamore, a smart beau at Brighthelmstone, that all the mammas and auntsare afraid of. And then poor aunty was fain, herself, to requestHarleigh to take the part. I could manage matters no other way.'
Personal remonstrances were vain, and the stranger was forced downstairs to the theatrical group.
All that was known of her situation having been sketched by Elinor, anddetailed by Selina, the mixt party there assembled, was prepared tosurvey her with a curiosity which she found extremely abashing. Sherequested to have the book of the play; but Elinor, engaged in arrangingthe entrances and exits, did not heed her. Harleigh, however,comprehending the relief which any occupation for the eyes and handsmight afford her, presented it to her himself.
It preserved her not, nevertheless, from a volley of questions, withwhich she was instantly assailed from various quarters. 'I find Ma'am,you are lately come from abroad,' said Mr Scope, a gentleman self-dubbeda deep politician, and who, in the most sententious manner, uttered themost trivial observations: 'I have no very high notion, I own, of themorals of those foreigners at this period. A man's wife and daughtersbelong to any man who has a taste to them, as I am informed. Nothing isvery strict. Mr Robertspierre, as I am told, is not very exact in hisdealings.'
'But I should like to know,' cried Gooch, the young farmer, 'whether itbe true, of a reality, that they've got such numbers and numbers, andmillions and millions of red-coats there, all made into generals, in thetwinkling, as one may say, of an eye?'
'Money must be a vast scarce commodity there,' said Mr Stubbs, thesteward: 'did you ever happen to hear, Ma'am, how they go to work to getin their rents?'
Before the stranger could attempt any reply to these several addresses,Miss Arbe, who was the principal person of the party, seating herself inthe chair of honour, desired her to advance, saying, 'I understand yousing and play amazingly well. Pray who were your masters?'
While the Incognita hesitated, Miss Bydel, a collateral and uneducatedsuccessor to a large and unexpected fortune, said, 'Pray, first of all,young woman, what took you over to foreign parts? I should like to knowthat.'
Elinor, now, being ready, cut short all further investigation bybeginning the rehearsal.
During the first scenes, the voice of the Incognita was hardly audible.The constraint of her forced attendance, and the insurmountableawkwardness of her situation, made all exertion difficult, and her toneswere so languid, and her pronunciation was so inarticulate, that Elinorbegan seriously to believe that she must still have recourse to MrCreek. But Harleigh, who reflected how much the faculties depend uponthe mind's being disengaged, saw that she was too little at her ease tobe yet judged.
Every one else, absorbed in his part and himself, in the hope of beingbest, or the shame of being worst; in the fear of being out, or theconfusion of not understanding what next was to be done, was regardlessof all else but his own fancied reputation of the hour.
Harleigh, however, as the play proceeded, and the inaccuracy of theperformers demanded greater aid, found the patience of his judgmentrecompensed, and its appreciation of her talents just. Her voice, fromseeming feeble and monotonous, became clear and penetrating: it wasvaried, with the nicest discrimination, for the expression of everycharacter, changing its modulation from tones of softest sensibility, tothose of archest humour; and from reasoning severity, to those ofuncultured rusticity.
When the rehearsal was over, Miss Bydel, who had no other idea of theuse of speech than that of asking questions, said, 'I should be glad,before you go, to say a few words to you, young woman, myself.'
The stranger stood still.
'In the first place, tell me, if you please, what's your name?'
The Incognita coloured at this abrupt demand, but remained silent.
'Nay,' said Miss Bydel, 'your name, at least, can be no such greatsecret, for you must be called something or other.'
Ireton, who had hitherto appeared decided not to take any notice of her,now exclaimed, with a laugh, 'I will tell you what her name is, MissBydel; 'tis L.S.'
The stranger dropt her eyes, but Miss Bydel, not comprehending thatIreton meant two initial letters, said. 'Elless? Well I see no reasonwhy any body should be ashamed to own their name is Elless.'
Selina, tittering, would have cleared up the mistake; but Ireton,laughing yet more heartily, made her a sign to let it pass.
Miss Bydel continued: 'I don't want to ask any of your secrets, as Isay, Mrs Elless, for I understand you don't like to tell them; but itwill be discovering no great matter, to let me know whether your friendsare abroad, or in England? and what way you were maintained before yougot your passage over in Mrs Maple's boat.'
'Don't let that young person go,' cried Miss Arbe, who had now finishedthe labours of her theatrical presidency, 'till I have heard her playand sing. If she is so clever, as you describe her, she shall performbetween the acts.'
The stranger declared her utter inability to comply with such a request.
'When I believed myself unheard,' she cried, 'musick, I imagined, mightmake me, for a few moments, forget my distresses: but an expectedperformance--a prepared exhibition!--pardon me!--I have neither spiritsnor powers for such an attempt!'
Her voice spoke grief, her look, apprehension; yet her manner socompletely announced decision, that, unopposed even by a word, shere-mounted the stairs to her chamber.
She was, there, surprised by the sight of a sealed packet upon hertable, directed, 'For L.S. at her leisure.'
She opened it, and found ten bank notes, of ten pounds each.
A momentary hope which she had indulged, that this letter, by someaccidental conveyance, had reached her from abroad, was now changed intothe most unpleasant perplexity: such a donation could not come from anyof the females of the family; Mrs Maple was miserly, and her enemy; andthe Miss Joddrels knew, by experience, that she would not refuse theiropen assistance: Mr Harleigh, therefore, or Mr Ireton, must haveconveyed this to her room.
If it were Mr Ireton, she concluded he meant to ensnare her distressinto an unguarded acceptance, for some latent purpose of mischief; if itwere Mr Harleigh, his whole behaviour inclined her to believe, that hewas capable of such an action from motives of pure benevolence: but
shecould by no means accept pecuniary aid from either, and determined tokeep the packet always ready for delivery, when she could discover towhom it belonged.
She was surprised, soon afterwards, by the sight of Selina. 'I would notlet Mr Ireton hinder me from coming to you this once,' she cried, 'dowhat he could; for we are all in such a fidget, that there's only you, Ireally believe, can help us. Poor Miss Arbe, while she was teaching usall what we have to do, put her part into her muff, and her favouritelittle dog, that she doats upon, not knowing it was there, poor thing,poked his nose into the muff to warm himself; and when Miss Arbe cameto take her part, she found he had sucked it, and gnawed it, and nibbledit, all to tatters! And she says she can't write it out again if she wasto have a diamond a word for it; and as to us, we have all of us gotsuch immensities to do for ourselves, that you are the only person; forI dare say you know how to write. So will you, now, Ellis? for they haveall settled, below, that your real name is Ellis.'
The stranger answered that she should gladly be useful in any way thatcould be proposed. The book, therefore, was brought to her, with writingimplements, and she dedicated herself so diligently to copying, that thefollowing morning, when Miss Arbe was expected, the part was prepared.
Miss Arbe, however, came not; a note arrived in her stead, stating thatshe had been so exceedingly fatigued the preceding day, in giving somany directions, that she begged they would let somebody read her part,and rehearse without her; and she hoped that she should find them moreadvanced when she joined them on Monday.
The stranger was now summoned not only as prompter, but to read the partof Lady Townly. She could not refuse, but her compliance was without anysort of exertion, from a desire to avoid, not promote similar calls forexhibition.
Elinor remarked to Harleigh, how inadequate were her talents to such acharacter. Harleigh acquiesced in the remark; yet his good opinion, inanother point of view, was as much heightened, as in this it waslowered: he saw the part which she had copied for Miss Arbe; and thebeautiful clearness of the hand-writing, and the correctness of thepunctuation and orthography, convinced him that her education had beenas successfully cultivated for intellectual improvement, as for elegantaccomplishments.
Elinor herself, now, would only call the stranger Miss Ellis, a namewhich, she said, she verily believed that Miss Bydel, with all herstupidity, had hit upon, and which therefore, henceforth, should beadopted.