Miss or Mrs.?

by Wilkie Collins

  SEVENTH SCENE.

  The Evening Party.

  ---------------------------------------------------- MR. TURLINGTON,

  LADY WINWOOD At Home.

  Wednesday, December 15th.--Ten o'clock.----------------------------------------------------

  "Dearest Natalie--As the brute insists, the brute must have theinvitation which I inclose. Never mind, my child. You and Launce arecoming to dinner, and I will see that you have your little privateopportunities of retirement afterward. All I expect of you in return is,_not_ to look (when you come back) as if your husband had been kissingyou. You will certainly let out the secret of those stolen kisses, ifyou don't take care. At mamma's dinner yesterday, your color (when youcame out of the conservatory) was a sight to see. Even your shoulderswere red! They are charming shoulders, I know, and men take thestrangest fancies sometimes. But, my dear, suppose you wear a chemisettenext time, if you haven't authority enough over him to prevent his doingit again!

  "Your affectionate LOUISA."

  The private history of the days that had passed since the marriage waswritten in that letter. An additional chapter--of some importance in itsbearing on the future--was contributed by the progress of events at LadyWinwood's party.

  By previous arrangement with Natalie, the Graybrookes (invited todinner) arrived early. Leaving her husband and her stepdaughters toentertain Sir Joseph and Miss Lavinia, Lady Winwood took Natalie intoher own boudoir, which communicated by a curtained opening with thedrawing-room.

  "My dear, you are looking positively haggard this evening. Has anythinghappened?"

  "I am nearly worn out, Louisa. The life I am leading is so unendurablethat, if Launce pressed me, I believe I should consent to run away withhim when we leave your house tonight."

  "You will do nothing of the sort, if you please. Wait till you aresixteen. I delight in novelty, but the novelty of appearing at the OldBailey is beyond my ambition. Is the brute coming to-night?"

  "Of course. He insists on following me wherever I go. He lunched atMuswell Hill today. More complaints of my incomprehensible coldness tohim. Another scolding from papa. A furious letter from Launce. If Ilet Richard kiss my hand again in his presence, Launce warns me he willknock him down. Oh, the meanness and the guiltiness of the life I amleading now! I am in the falsest of all false positions, Louisa, and youencouraged me to do it. I believe Richard Turlington suspects us. Thelast two times Launce and I tried to get a minute together at my aunt's,he contrived to put himself in our way. There he was, my dear, withhis scowling face, looking as if he longed to kill Launce. Can you doanything for us tonight? Not on my account. But Launce is so impatient.If he can't say two words to me alone this evening, he declares he willcome to Muswell Hill, and catch me in the garden tomorrow."

  "Compose yourself, my dear; he shall say his two words to-night."

  "How?"

  Lady Winwood pointed through the curtained entrance of the boudoir tothe door of the drawing-room. Beyond the door was the staircase landing.And beyond the landing was a second drawing-room, the smaller of thetwo.

  "There are only three or four people coming to dinner," her ladyshipproceeded; "and a few more in the evening. Being a small party, thesmall drawing-room will do for us. This drawing-room will not belighted, and there will be only my reading-lamp here in the boudoir. Ishall give the signal for leaving the dining-room earlier than usual.Launce will join us before the evening party begins. The moment heappears, send him in here--boldly before your aunt and all of us."

  "For what?"

  "For your fan. Leave it there under the sofa-cushion before we go downto dinner. You will sit next to Launce, and you will give him privateinstructions not to find the fan. You will get impatient--you will go tofind it yourself--and there you are. Take care of your shoulders, Mrs.Linzie! I have nothing more to say."

  The guests asked to dinner began to arrive. Lady Winwood was recalled toher duties as mistress of the house.

  It was a pleasant little dinner--with one drawback. It began too late.The ladies only reached the small drawing-room at ten minutes to ten.Launce was only able to join them as the clock struck.

  "Too late!" whispered Natalie. "He will be here directly."

  "Nobody comes punctually to an evening party," said Launce. "Don't letus lose a moment. Send me for your fan."

  Natalie opened her lips to say the necessary words. Before she couldspeak, the servant announced--"Mr. Turlington."

  He came in, with his stiffly-upright shirt collar and hisloosely-fitting glossy black clothes. He made his sullen and clumsybow to Lady Winwood. And then he did, what he had done dozens of timesalready--he caught Natalie, with her eyes still bright and her facestill animated (after talking to Launce)--a striking contrast to thecold and unimpulsive young lady whom he was accustomed to see whileNatalie was talking to _him_.

  Lord Winwood's daughters were persons of some celebrity in the world ofamateur music. Noticing the look that Turlington cast at Launce, LadyWinwood whispered to Miss Lavinia--who instantly asked the young ladiesto sing. Launce, in obedience to a sign from Natalie, volunteered tofind the music-books. It is needless to add that he pitched on the wrongvolume at starting. As he lifted it from the piano to take it back tothe stand, there dropped out from between the leaves a printed letter,looking like a circular. One of the young ladies took it up, and ran hereye over it, with a start.

  "The Sacred Concerts!" she exclaimed.

  Her two sisters, standing by, looked at each other guiltily: "What willthe Committee say to us? We entirely forgot the meeting last month."

  "Is there a meeting this month?"

  They all looked anxiously at the printed letter.

  "Yes! The twenty-third of December. Put it down in your book, Amelia."Amelia, then and there, put it down among the engagements for the latterend of the month. And Natalie's unacknowledged husband placidly lookedon.

  So did the merciless irony of circumstances make Launce the innocentmeans of exposing his own secret to discovery. Thanks to his successin laying his hand on the wrong music-book, there would now be ameeting--two good days before the elopement could take place--betweenthe lord's daughters and the rector's wife!

  The guests of the evening began to appear by twos and threes. Thegentlemen below stairs left the dinner-table, and joined them.

  The small drawing-room was pleasantly filled, and no more. Sir JosephGraybrooke, taking Turlington's hand, led him eagerly to their host.The talk in the dining-room had turned on finance. Lord Winwood was notquite satisfied with some of his foreign investments; and Sir Joseph's"dear Richard" was the very man to give him a little sound advice. Thethree laid their heads together in a corner. Launce (watching them)slyly pressed Natalie's hand. A renowned "virtuoso" had arrived, andwas thundering on the piano. The attention of the guests generally wasabsorbed in the performance. A fairer chance of sending Launce forthe fan could not possibly have offered itself. While the financialdiscussion was still proceeding, the married lovers were ensconcedtogether alone in the boudoir.

  Lady Winwood (privately observant of their absence) kept her eye on thecorner, watching Richard Turlington.

  He was talking earnestly--with his back toward the company. He neithermoved nor looked round. It came to Lord Winwood's turn to speak.He preserved the same position, listening. Sir Joseph took up theconversation next. Then his attention wandered--he knew beforehand whatSir Joseph would say. His eyes turned anxiously toward the place inwhich he had left Natalie. Lord Winwood said a word. His head turnedback again toward the corner. Sir Joseph put an objection. He glancedonce more over his shoulder--this time at the place in which Launce hadbeen standing. The next moment his host recalled his attention, and madeit impossible for him to continue his scrutiny of the room. At the sametimes two among the evening guests, bound for another party, approachedto take leave of the lady of the house. Lady Winwood was obliged torise, and attend to them. They had something to say to her before theyleft, and they said it at terrible length, s
tanding so as to intercepther view of the proceedings of the enemy. When she had got rid of themat last, she looked--and behold Lord Winwood and Sir Joseph were theonly occupants of the corner!

  Delaying one moment, to set the "virtuoso" thundering once more, LadyWinwood slipped out of the room and crossed the landing. At theentrance to the empty drawing-room she heard Turlington's voice, low andthreatening, in the boudoir. Jealousy has a Second Sight of its own.He had looked in the right place at starting--and, oh heavens! he hadcaught them.

  Her ladyship's courage was beyond dispute; but she turned pale as sheapproached the entrance to the boudoir.

  There stood Natalie--at once angry and afraid--between the man towhom she was ostensibly engaged, and the man to whom she was actuallymarried. Turlington's rugged face expressed a martyrdom of suppressedfury. Launce--in the act of offering Natalie her fan--smiled, with thecool superiority of a man who knew that he had won his advantage, andwho triumphed in knowing it.

  "I forbid you to take your fan from that man's hands," said Turlington,speaking to Natalie, and pointing to Launce.

  "Isn't it rather too soon to begin 'forbidding'?" asked Lady Winwood,good-humoredly.

  "Exactly what I say!" exclaimed Launce. "It seems necessary to remindMr. Turlington that he is not married to Natalie yet!"

  Those last words were spoken in a tone which made both the women trembleinwardly for results. Lady Winwood took the fan from Launce with onehand, and took Natalie's arm with the other.

  "There is your fan, my dear," she said, in her easy off-hand manner."Why do you allow these two barbarous men to keep you here while thegreat Bootmann is playing the Nightmare Sonata in the next room? Launce!Mr. Turlington! follow me, and learn to be musical directly! You haveonly to shut your eyes, and you will fancy you hear four modern Germancomposers playing, instead of one, and not the ghost of a melody amongall the four." She led the way out with Natalie, and whispered, "Did hecatch you?" Natalie whispered back, "I heard him in time. He only caughtus looking for the fan." The two men waited behind to have two wordstogether alone in the boudoir.

  "This doesn't end here, Mr. Linzie!"

  Launce smiled satirically. "For once I agree with you," he answered. "Itdoesn't end here, as you say."

  Lady Winwood stopped, and looked back at them from the drawing-roomdoor. They were keeping her waiting--they had no choice but to followthe mistress of the house.

  Arrived in the next room, both Turlington and Launce resumed theirplaces among the guests with the same object in view. As a necessaryresult of the scene in the boudoir, each had his own specialremonstrance to address to Sir Joseph. Even here, Launce was beforehandwith Turlington. He was the first to get possession of Sir Joseph'sprivate ear. His complaint took the form of a protest againstTurlington's jealousy, and an appeal for a reconsideration of thesentence which excluded him from Muswell Hill. Watching them froma distance, Turlington's suspicious eye detected the appearance ofsomething unduly confidential in the colloquy between the two. Undercover of the company, he stole behind them and listened.

  The great Bootmann had arrived at that part of the Nightmare Sonata inwhich musical sound, produced principally with the left hand, is made todescribe, beyond all possibility of mistake, the rising of the moon in acountry church-yard and a dance of Vampires round a maiden's grave. SirJoseph, having no chance against the Vampires in a whisper, was obligedto raise his voice to make himself audible in answering and comfortingLaunce. "I sincerely sympathize with you," Turlington heard him say;"and Natalie feels about it as I do. But Richard is an obstacle in ourway. We must look to the consequences, my dear boy, supposing Richardfound us out." He nodded kindly to his nephew; and, declining to pursuethe subject, moved away to another part of the room.

  Turlington's jealous distrust, wrought to the highest pitch ofirritability for weeks past, instantly associated the words he had justheard with the words spoken by Launce in the boudoir, which had remindedhim that he was not married to Natalie yet. Was there treachery at workunder the surface? and was the object to persuade weak Sir Joseph toreconsider his daughter's contemplated marriage in a sense favorableto Launce? Turlington's blind suspicion overleaped at a bound all themanifest improbabilities which forbade such a conclusion as this. Afteran instant's consideration with himself, he decided on keeping his owncounsel, and on putting Sir Joseph's good faith then and there to a testwhich he could rely on as certain to take Natalie's father by surprise.

  "Graybrooke!"

  Sir Joseph started at the sight of his future son-in-law's face.

  "My dear Richard, you are looking very strangely! Is the heat of theroom too much for you?"

  "Never mind the heat! I have seen enough to-night to justify me ininsisting that your daughter and Launcelot Linzie shall meet no morebetween this and the day of my marriage." Sir Joseph attempted to speak.Turlington declined to give him the opportunity. "Yes! yes! your opinionof Linzie isn't mine, I know. I saw you as thick as thieves togetherjust now." Sir Joseph once more attempted to make himself heard. Weariedby Turlington's perpetual complaints of his daughter and his nephew, hewas sufficiently irritated by this time to have reported what Launce hadactually said to him if he had been allowed the chance. But Turlingtonpersisted in going on. "I cannot prevent Linzie from being received inthis house, and at your sister's," he said; "but I can keep him out of_my_ house in the country, and to the country let us go. I propose achange in the arrangements. Have you any engagement for the Christmasholidays?"

  He paused, and fixed his eyes attentively on Sir Joseph. Sir Joseph,looking a little surprised, replied briefly that he had no engagement.

  "In that case," resumed Turlington, "I invite you all to Somersetshire,and I propose that the marriage shall take place from my house, and notfrom yours. Do you refuse?"

  "It is contrary to the usual course of proceeding in such cases,Richard," Sir Joseph began.

  "Do you refuse?" reiterated Turlington. "I tell you plainly, I shallplace a construction of my own upon your motive if you do."

  "No, Richard," said Sir Joseph, quietly, "I accept."

  Turlington drew back a step in silence. Sir Joseph had turned the tableson him, and had taken _him_ by surprise.

  "It will upset several plans, and be strongly objected to by theladies," proceeded the old gentleman. "But if nothing less will satisfyyou, I say, Yes! I shall have occasion, when we meet to-morrow atMuswell Hill, to appeal to your indulgence under circumstances which maygreatly astonish you. The least I can do, in the meantime, is to set anexample of friendly sympathy and forbearance on my side. No more now,Richard. Hush! the music!"

  It was impossible to make him explain himself further that night.Turlington was left to interpret Sir Joseph's mysterious communicationwith such doubtful aid to success as his own unassisted ingenuity mightafford.

  The meeting of the next day at Muswell Hill had for its object--asTurlington had already been informed--the drawing of Natalie'smarriage-settlement. Was the question of money at the bottom of SirJoseph's contemplated appeal to his indulgence? He thought of hiscommercial position. The depression in the Levant trade still continued.Never had his business at any previous time required such constantattention, and repaid that attention with so little profit. The Billsof Lading had been already used by the firm, in the ordinary course oftrade, to obtain possession of the goods. The duplicates in the handsof Bulpit Brothers were literally waste paper. Repayment of the loanof forty thousand pounds (with interest) was due in less than amonth's time. There was his commercial position! Was it possible thatmoney-loving Sir Joseph had any modification to propose in the matterof his daughter's dowry? The bare dread that it might be so struck himcold. He quitted the house--and forgot to wish Natalie goodnight.

  Meanwhile, Launce had left the evening party before him--and Launcealso found matter for serious reflection presented to his mind before heslept that night. In other words, he found, on reaching his lodgings,a letter from his brother marked "private." Had the inquiry into thesecret
s of Turlington's early life--now prolonged over some weeks--ledto positive results at last? Launce eagerly opened the letter. Itcontained a Report and a Summary. He passed at once to the Summary, andread these words:

  "If you only want moral evidence to satisfy your own mind, your end isgained. There is, morally, no doubt that Turlington and the sea-captainwho cast the foreign sailor overboard to drown are on e and the sameman. Legally, the matter is beset by difficulties, Turlington havingdestroyed all provable connection between his present self and his pastlife. There is only one chance for us. A sailor on board the ship (whowas in his master's secrets) is supposed to be still living (under hismaster's protection). All the black deeds of Turlington's early life areknown to this man. He can prove the facts, if we can find him, and makeit worth his while to speak. Under what alias he is hidden we do notknow. His own name is Thomas Wildfang. If we are to make the attempt tofind him, not a moment is to be lost. The expenses may be serious. Letme know whether we are to go on, or whether enough has been done toattain the end you have in view."

  Enough had been done--not only to satisfy Launce, but to produce theright effect on Sir Joseph's mind if Sir Joseph proved obdurate when thesecret of the marriage was revealed. Launce wrote a line directing thestoppage of the proceedings at the point which they had now reached."Here is a reason for her not marrying Turlington," he said to himself,as he placed the papers under lock and key. "And if she doesn't marryTurlington," he added, with a lover's logic, "why shouldn't she marryMe?"