Delphi Collected Works of Marie Corelli

by Marie Corelli

  And they quivered and snorted and tittered with rage. They would never have the chance Jane had; for though they assumed to be somebodies at Ashleigh-in-the-Dell, they were nobodies in London, and they knew it. It is a knowledge that is frequently pressed home with convincing force to the souls of country squires and their families.

  The expected evening came at last, and Jane, in a gentle flutter of loyal excitement and anxiety, went to take a last look round her rooms now that all was in readiness for the reception of her ‘royal’ guests. Everything was arranged with taste and luxury; no expense had been spared; and the supper-room, with its palms and flowers and separate little tables lit by the electric light, was a scene of fairy-like splendour. The members of a renowned French orchestra were stationed in the conservatory, ready to begin at the signal of Mrs. Maddenham, and Mrs. Maddenham herself, gorgeously attired and ornamented after the style of a jeweller’s window with diamonds, was giving her final instructions to the powdered flunkeys and their attendants. Seeing Jane suddenly appear beside her, she frowned.

  “Oh, do go away, my dear,” she said, querulously. “There is no reason for you to be down here. I can tell the servants all they have to do. Your place is in the drawingroom. You must receive the people as they arrive, you know.”

  Jane hesitated, her fine, worn face growing somewhat pale, and Mrs. Maddenham, looking at her, felt a sudden twinge of shame and remorse pricking her soul, for Jane’s ‘grand manner’ had never been so much in evidence as it was that night. The dress she wore enhanced it, being of rich lilac satin showered with old lace, — and the way in which she had arranged her hair, lifting its soft grey waves slightly off her forehead, gave her an expression of dignity and grace which caused Mrs. Maddenham to seem beside her, notwithstanding her diamonds, a mere artificial female humbug.

  “What are you waiting for?” said Mrs. Maddenham, almost sharply. “Why don’t you go into the drawing-room?”

  “I wished to see if everything was all right,” responded Jane mildly. “After all, I am responsible for the affair; I am the mistress of my own house. And I hope you will come with me into the drawing-room to help me receive, because you know the people you have asked, and I do not.”

  “You know some of them,” said Mrs. Maddenham. “It is only the Royal ‘set’ you are not in with — but I will try and get you in if I can; only you know it is rather difficult—”

  “Difficult!” echoed Jane, with a great surprise reflected in her placid face. “But they are coming here to see me, are they not?”

  Mrs. Maddenham grew suddenly red in the face and was troubled with a tickling in her throat which caused her to cough considerably. What a fool Jane was, to be sure, she mentally considered! The idea of her expecting that the Royal ‘set’ were actually coming to see her. It was enough to make ‘swagger’ persons laugh themselves into convulsion-fits!

  But it was no use saying anything to Jane; Jane would never comprehend that she ought to be greatly honoured to have her house turned into a kind of restaurant for the entertainment of ‘great’ people, and that she ought to be proud and glad if the said ‘great’ people ate and drank of what she provided without either a ‘How d’y do’ or ‘Thank you’ to their hostess. She would never understand; ‘swagger’ society and its ways were altogether beyond Jane.

  Between ten and eleven o’clock the company began to arrive, and Jane, standing with Mrs. Maddenham at the head of her stately staircase, which was decorated for the occasion with the rarest palms and exotics, awaited with a somewhat beating heart the approach of ‘the’ guests of the evening. They were late in coming; but to make amends for their delay the ‘select’ company invited to meet them flocked into the rooms in a crowd, laughing and talking together and spreading themselves in loose and familiar fashion all over the place, as if it belonged to them, and paying very little heed to either Jane or Mrs. Maddenham. Lovely countesses, duchesses, and ‘great’ ladies of title and no title came attended by their various adorers and admirers, and flung themselves about on sofas and in arm-chairs, making cosy corners for conversation and the planning of fresh intrigues, — and though the first arrivals (who happened, by the excellent management of Mrs. Maddenham, to be certain respectable old fogies who had met Jane before) greeted their hostess with the usual conventional manner and courtesy, yet when the crush grew denser and people became wedged en masse on the stairs, unable to move backward or forward, it was hardly possible to distinguish Jane in the general press, much less greet her as the mistress of the house and giver of the evening’s hospitality.

  “They will never get into the supper-room,” said Jane anxiously, as she gazed at the increasing stream. “My dear Mrs. Maddenham, I am sure you have asked too many people!”

  “Not a bit of it,” retorted Mrs. Maddenham. “The more we can keep them squeezed up here, the less chance they will have of disturbing their Highnesses in the supper-room. Supper is only for the ‘royal’ set.”

  This was a staggerer for Jane, and she was about to enter a protest against such an unequal arrangement, when there was a sudden stir, — a swaying movement in the crowd on the stairs, — and two broadly-smiling gentlemen entered, followed by two other somewhat serious gentlemen, all of whom blandly shook hands with Mrs. Maddenham, who, in her turn, bobbed demurely up and down to the two smiling gentlemen and nodded familiarly to the two serious gentlemen and then piloted them over to a certain portion of the room where a bevy of the ‘ripping’ ladies elsewhere alluded to awaited their coming.

  Jane looked about her bewilderedly. It was beginning to be like the luncheon party at Henley; there seemed to be no room for her at all. Had ‘Royalty’ arrived? Were those two broadly-smiling gentlemen ‘the’ great ones? and the two serious gentlemen the equerries in attendance? They had all passed her, — they had not noticed her; Mrs. Maddenham had borne them away — afar, but whither? Putting on her gold-rimmed glasses, Jane peered into every corner and found no sign of either the broadly-smiling or the serious gentlemen at all; as a matter of fact, they had passed out through the opposite door with the ladies they had selected as their companions, and were gone down to supper. The band played gay music, — the noise of tongues and the swish of silk dresses became confusing, — the scent of flowers, mingling with the sicklier odour of artificial perfumes, assailed Jane’s nose and irritated it, — and a sudden wrath began to kindle in her usually peaceable mind. Was it possible — could it be likely that Mrs. Madden ham had gone down to supper without presenting her, the actual hostess of the occasion, to Royalty at all? It seemed like it, — it really seemed very like it! Jane waited a few moments on her own staircase like a belated stranger, in doubt and perplexity, — then, suddenly perceiving two of her flunkeys engaged in handing wine, coffee, ices, and other refreshments among the people who were crowded in the drawingroom, she beckoned one of them to come up to her. The man did so.

  “Have the ‘royal’ people come?” she asked him.

  “Oh, yes’m; They are in the supper-room.”

  “Is Mrs. Maddenham there?”

  “Yes’m. Mrs. Maddenham is at the royal table.”

  “Supper has commenced, then?”

  “Oh, yes’m! Supper’s well on now.”

  Jane asked no more questions.

  Pale and calm and full of her ‘grand manner,’ which gave her an almost regal air, she made her way slowly and with elaborate care and courtesy down the broad stairs, apologising sweetly if she chanced to brush against a dress or disturb a side flirtation, — and both men and women paused in their gabble to stare at her and say sotto voce, “Why, I believe that’s old Miss Belmont! ‘Pon my life, it’s the woman whose house we are in!”

  If ‘old Miss Belmont’ heard any of these comments she gave no sign, but pursued the — even — tenor of her — way — till, arriving at the bottom of the grand staircase, she paused, hesitating and looking about her. The doors of the diningroom, where the ‘Royal’ supper party was going on, were closed; but — on �
� the left-hand — side — of the — hall — the smoking-room — was open to view, and she saw that it was crowded with men. Led by — some — unaccountable — impulse, she moved thither, with a kind of idea that if she should happen to see any friend of her own among the party she would ask him to go in to Mrs. Maddenham and tell her gently that she had in the excitement of the occasion forgotten the — existence of — her hostess. As she approached the threshold, however, she caught some words rather loudly spoken which brought her to a sudden standstill and made the generous blood in her veins rush back to — her — heart — in a quick angry tide that blanched her cheeks — and — made — her tremble.

  “Who’s the woman that’s giving this — affair — to-night?” asked one man. “Do I know her?”

  “Of course you do!” said another. “Everybody knows the ubiquitous licker of ‘royal’ boots, Mrs. Maddenham.”

  “Oh, I don’t mean her!” said the first man, “I mean the creature behind her, — the woman who’s paying to get in with the ‘set.’”

  “Oh, that’s Miss Belmont, the old maid who came suddenly into a fortune the other day,” put in a third man. “Vapid, rapid Jane, as some people call her. She’s a pretty tough hen, you know, — over fifty by her own account. But she’s coming out with a vengeance. Shouldn’t wonder if she married a duke, in the end. She’s got the dibs to do it.”

  “What does she look like?” inquired another man.

  “Oh, not half bad. I wouldn’t mind marrying her myself, providing she let me have my own way afterwards.” A laugh went round the room, followed by a moment’s silence.

  “Are these Jane’s cigars?” said another languid, drawling voice presently. “If so, she knows how to choose a good brand! Wonder if she smokes?”

  They laughed again.

  “I suppose she’s in with the ‘Royalties’ at supper?” was the next remark.

  “Not a bit of it!” eagerly exclaimed the first man who had spoken. “Little Maddenham knows better than that. The ‘Royalties’ don’t know her any more than Adam, — why should they? What on earth should ‘royalty’ want with Jane?”

  The laughter this time was prolonged and boisterous.

  “Rum old girl she must be,” said another of the speakers at last, ‘‘But she’s got a first-class establishment. Rather tempting to me, don’cher-know; I could do with it very comfortably. ‘Pon my word, I think I’ll have a try for Jane. I should like to see her first, though.”

  At that very moment Jane, pale, composed, and queenly in her demeanour, appeared in the doorway.

  “You see her now, sir,” she said quietly, “I am Miss Belmont.” There was a sudden pause, — a horrified pause, in which each man in the smoking-room looked painfully conscious of feeling more or less of a fool.

  “I am Miss Belmont,” pursued Jane, speaking firmly and with most unruffled composure. “This house, the arrangements of which you are good enough to approve, is mine. And being mine I have to request you all to leave it.” The silence grew more deadly. The men hastily put down their half-smoked cigars and stared helplessly at one another. The ‘rum old girl’ was ‘rum’ indeed!

  “My dear Miss Belmont,” began one man feebly, “surely you are too sensible to take offence at a few words spoken hastily and without thought—”

  “I have not taken offence,’ sir,” said Jane calmly. “I have simply been under a misapprehension. I imagined I was entertaining gentlemen whose code of honour was such that nothing could have persuaded them to make vulgar jesting out of the name and fame of any woman in whose house they were being hospitably received. I have now perceived my error, I must therefore again request all of you to leave the premises.”

  “By Jove!” gasped one young man, turning quite pale in the extremity of his amazement, “she means it!”

  “But my dear Miss Belmont,” urged another man, in deepening consternation, “Mrs. Maddenham—”

  “Mrs. Maddenham is not mistress here,” said Jane. “I am. Have the goodness, if you please, to understand that I am in earnest. Go quietly, — and at once.”

  And turning to a staring flunkey, who stood listening agape in wonderment, and questioning within himself whether the heavens were not going to fall upon him and crush his pink-stockinged calves out of shape and existence, she said, —

  “Go into the supper-room and tell Mrs. Maddenham I must see her directly. If she will not come to me, say that I shall come to her and explain everything I have to say before their Royal Highnesses.”

  The flunkey departed in haste and agitation, and Jane stood calmly watching the proceedings, white some of her other men-servants assisted the discomfited ‘swells’ in the smoking-room to find their hats and coats and get rapidly ready for departure. In two or three minutes the Honourable Mrs. Maddenham, flushed with champagne-supper, appeared exclaiming, —

  “What’s the matter? What on earth is the matter? Why is anybody going away?”

  For all answer Jane took a firm hold of her arm, and with a dexterous movement gently hustled her into a small boudoir leading out of the hall and closed the door on them both.

  “Now,” said Jane, her eyes sparkling with unwonted excitement, “I don’t want to make a scene or a scandal, if I can help it, — but this supper-party must be cut short. You have invited snobs and ruffians here under the pretence of meeting Royalty — and as I do not like snobs and ruffians, they must go. This house must be cleared of your social riff-raff; do you understand? I give you half an hour to do it.”

  Mrs. Maddenham’s jaw almost dropped in the excess of her rage and amazement.

  “Have you gone mad, Jane?” she exclaimed. “What are you talking about? What do you mean?”

  “I mean what I say,” returned Jane imperturbably, “I am resolved to have no more of this. I thought you were inviting a ‘select’ party of the noblest and best-bred men and women in England to meet the Royal guests, — you have got together the choicest collection of vulgarians ever found out of Thackeray’s ‘Book of Snobs.’ I do not choose to entertain such persons a moment longer, — nor will I be treated as a stranger in my own household. I have let you have your full way because it amused me to do so; I wanted to see what sort of a woman you were, — what sort of a woman, in fact, is tolerated nowadays among the ‘upper ten’; and I wanted to find out for myself what ‘swagger’ society is like. I have learnt the lesson by heart, — and a very ugly lesson it is. As I have already said, this house must be cleared, and you must clear it. You brought Royalty here; you must take it away!”

  “Take it away!” almost shrieked Mrs. Maddenham, “Take Royalty away — take it—” Here her voice broke off in inarticulate gurglings.

  “Yes,” said Jane, “take it away! Represent to their Royal Highnesses that the mistress of this house is a very simple, old-fashioned woman who does not understand ‘good’ society, — who thought that they, in their exalted positions, would have invited, nay, commanded the presence of their hostess at supper, and that they would never have allowed themselves to be led into mistaking Mrs. Maddenham for Miss Belmont. Say to them that Miss Belmont had no desire to receive them here for the purpose of kneeling down wiping the dust off their illustrious boots, nor for any other cause partaking of servility, toadyism, or self-interest, — but merely to do them honour with the poor best her house afforded. But that finding Royalty does not even inquire as to whether she exists or no, and also that many of the persons invited to meet Royalty are of a kind she does not herself care to be acquainted with, she humbly requests that her house may be relieved from the honour which has fallen upon it, and she herself left to her ordinary peace and privacy. Tell them that,” concluded Jane triumphantly, with heaving breast and flashing eyes; “or if you won’t tell them, I will go and tell them myself!”

  She drew herself up with a proud gesture, and looked taller, younger, handsomer than ever she had seemed before; an inspiration was upon her which seemed to dilate her form and to add new dignity to her manner.

>   “Good Gracious!” and Mrs. Maddenham began fairly to whimper. “Whatever shall I do? Jane, Jane, you must be going perfectly crazy; you will be the laughing stock of the whole ‘set.’”

  “That will not hurt me,” said Jane. “And some of the laughter will certainly be on my side!”

  “But after supper I was going to present you!” wailed Mrs. Maddenham, pressing her handkerchief to her eyes, “I was really going to present you—”

  “Were you?” and Jane looked her straight in the face. “Well, you know best whether you were going to do so or not! At any rate, I have now no wish to be presented. I want the house cleared, — of Royalty and everything and everybody belonging to it, — and I leave you to do it. It must be done; and I advise you to do it quickly if you don’t want me to take matters into my own hands. I will, if you like.”

  “No, no, no!” cried Mrs. Maddenham desperately. “Oh, dear, dear me! Who would have thought of such a contretemps as this; who could have imagined you would turn so unreasonable, so cranky, so mad, so lost to every sense of decency! Whatever shall I do! Good gracious! This is the way one is always served — the more you work for a person’s good the more ungrateful that person is! I shall be disgraced! I shall never be able to lift up my head again! The royal people will never speak to me or look at me! Oh, dear, dear, what a terrible business! I wish I had never brought them here—”

  “I wish so too,” said Jane. “And if I had imagined it was a case of your bringing them, and not their own kindly desire to honour me that persuaded them to come, they would never have entered the house. Don’t lose any more time, please! It is getting late, and I want my rooms to myself.”

  In a state bordering on frenzy, Mrs. Maddenham re-entered the supper-room and began the difficult, complicated, and diplomatic task of getting the royal party to adjourn. It was very troublesome, for they were all exceedingly comfortable, and perfectly satisfied with their surroundings. But gradually, — whether through the indiscretion of a flunkey or the nervous excitement of Mrs. Maddenham herself, — it got whispered about that there had been a rumpus, — that some gentlemen had been actually turned out, and that ‘old Miss Belmont’ was giving the congé to a number of her guests; in fact, that she was bent, for some reason or other, on having the house ‘cleared.’