LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2343, 6 October 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE MARQUIS’ KING : A VERY OLD MAID’S STORY. “ Enormously rich, and looking out for a wife.” Those are the very words tho dean’s wife used in speaking of the marquD, It was at a dinner given at tho deanery, and wo found Mm extremely pLasact. After taat it was natural that he should call on mother, and we should make up a party to introduce him to the people of Wenton. Weston is where my mother and I have lived these many years, ever since Letty was married The great drawback to the place is that it is -quite close to a largo manufacturing town, and the wives and daughters of the manufac tutors are always trying to push themselves Into our set ; therefore wo have to bo very particular; at least we were; of late, indeed, things have altered. We, who live on the Roysl ore- cant, are looked upon as quite the aristocracy of the place; not but what there are some good families in the lower town, but they are not visited by the Poddl tons of Poddleton Hall or tho deanery people. Indeed it has been remarked that, for once the dean’s carriage is seen in the low ti-wn, ten would be nearer the mark on the hill. As tor the Poddletons, Lady (Augusta only calls * once a year ’ on the cre.-cent, Jtheu sends cards round with the governess, During the season there is a good deal of entertaining going on On the crescent we have, of course, the best company and tho moat elegant kind of parties—tea, music, cards, and light refreshments. We think suppers vulgar, and only fit for tho ‘traders,* I am sorry to say we are not so select as we were. People are aaked nowJ who weren’t known ten years ago ; but this is all since Mra Colonel Blackler came amongst ua. She is a regular democrat, and only wants to marry her seven daughters by hook or crook, and doesn’t care if it is a sweep, so long as ho has money enough. She has set the fashion of dances and suppe.-s, but I am glad to say she has it all to herself, tor in general our reunions are quite quiet and very exclusive. I only wish we could exclude tho Blacker girls, but of course we can’t, as they have tho middle house, and the largest one too, and have been on tho crescent since the colonel went on ‘ half pay ’ more than ten years ago. It is very annoy ingghaving such a regular out-and-out mauceuvrer as Mrs Blacker in the midst of us. * She swoops down,’ as Lady Tumbletowers says, * on a man as an eagle does on a bird, and never gives any girl but her own a chance of picking him.’ I may say here that I am not a girl, so to speak, I daresay Mrs Blacker would, and does, call me an old maid, but that’s one of her nasty ill-natured speeches J won’t sty how old I am. I don’t think it matters Everyone agrees now age is nothing ; it is looks and feeling that tell. Now the Marquis da I’Arriare was not young; he was decidedly middle-aged. Sophy Blacker said, in her pert Impudent way, that he was dyed and made up, but he looked to me a fresh well-looking man. I don’t mind looks, provided a man is Intelligent and well-educated, and the Marquis (was both, and a perfect gentleman. I always said that, and I always will say it. Thera was a good deal of excitement when it was known on the crescent that wa expected the Marquis at our ‘ Friday.’ I had wished to keep it private, but mother unfortunately let it out to Lady Tumbletowers, and than it was public property at once. In fact, it made quite a little stir In the place ; for Miss Withers told me, when I called in to hurry home my lace fichu and mother's new cap that she thought it must be one of the deanery nights, so many orders had come in quite suddenly. Everyone came very early—inconveniently so, indeed ; for 1 hao not quite finished decanting the wine with Jordan’s man. We have kept no regular butler since Letty’a marriage, and on ordinary occasions we do very well with the maid’s waiting, but this time we felt it only right to have in the head waiter from the Jordan Arms. The rooms soon got very full. The only people who did not appear were the Blacklers, which surprised me very much, and I began to hope they were not coming. There was an air of expectation over ns all, and we had to answer a great many questions ; for no one else had seen the marqnis, although a good deal of gossip had been collected about him by the gentlemen at thei- club, and it seemed very generally understood that he was very rich, and looking ont for a wife. When Colonel Jones said this, little Mias Jones squeezed my fingers, and I felt my face get hot; hut, all the same, I was glad my new fichu had come home, and 1 was not ill pleaded that we were to introduce the novelty. Just then Jordan threw open the door and an nonneed— * The Qais do I’Ar,’ which was his rendering of the Marqnis de I’Arriere. It was very provoking, and I was afraid the marquis would have been angry, but he didn’t seem to mind it in the least. Oer-

tainly foreigners have charming manners. He was quite at home in a few minutes with ua all, and laughing and talking as if we had known him a hundred years. Of course everyone wanted to bo introduced, and it was quite fnnny to hear tho attempts some people made at speaking French. He seemed to understand me the best, but I, of course, knew that he had an empresse manner. lam s re, however, Lady Tumbletowers and Mies Jones drew their own conclusions. By and-by I got him to the piano, and then he had a success. Whatever might be said of anything else, there was no doubt his playing was something beautiful, divine, angelio. I could have listened to him forever ; and to sit near him quietly drinking It in was to me enchanting, even after I knew his playing was not for me. but for another.

I remember quite well, ho was in the middle of Chopin’s “Impromptu,” when a rustling of silks was heard outside, nnd tho Biackers came in noisily, as they always do, Mrs Blacker talking in her high military voice, and Sophy and Bessie giggling. I heard Mrs Blacker eay to my mother, •We have come in force to night, but I thought you would be hurt if I didn’t bring her;” and then I saw Lady Dalrymple, She was the eldest and only married daughter, the widow of a Scotch baronet, an old man who had been caught somewhere abroad, and who had only lived two years after the marriage. There were some ngly stories floating of a will made at his deathbed, and of money and jewels diverted from the rightful heir; but there was no public csclandre, and Lady Dalrymple was well received in London, where she principally lived. I don’t think her money (if she had it) was of much use to her family. Sometimes she had one of tho girls to stay with her, and she came down to the crescent for A little while after the season ; hut she was evidently trying her chances again, and with very probable success. She was a handsome woman, or rather girl, of the slender, willowy type, her head well set, and with a cold, clear-out face and a fair complexion—a woman not much troubled with the finer feelings, bat calm, self-possessed, and always mistress of herself. She was looking particularly well, I thought, with a certain air of distinction which singled her out from the other women, and that undeniable oir of fashion which throws provincials like us Into the shade.

We all felt badly dressed, and as for Miss Wither’e fichu, it made me look positively vulgar ; her perfect fitting black satin, high to the throat, with only a frill of real lace, was ao much more elegant. I never did like those washerwomen handkerchiefs. Lady Dalrymple is musical. Weston is not strong in musicians, and amongst us she was always thought rather a light. The Blaoklers themselves consider her equal to Arabella Goddard. She makes quite a little scene before she begins to play. First she has to be entreated and persnaded ; then all the lights have to be moved, as the candles take away nerve ; after that comes the pulling off her gloves and the taking off her rings—beautiful rings they are, diamonds and emeralds, and old-fashioned curious ones. She puts them all in a heap on the piano, and then rubs her white slender fingers together as if she were glad to be rid of them. The whole thing is a piece of acting, and this night she -went (through the business for a new s .eotator—the Marquis. I saw bow he watched her as she glided past him, arching her neck like a swan, and soon he followed her, standing beside the piano while she played, in what sounded like a schoolgirl’s playing after hia, some namby-pamby airs and trickwater pieces. By-and-by I saw them talking, he bending towards her, more animated than ever—she calm, statuesque, but lending a well-pleased attention, I saw, too, Mrs Blacker, in the next room, crossquestioning mother, and picking her brains about the Marquis ; and I knew that, so far

as I was concerned, it mattered but little whether ho was a millionaire looking out for a wife or not. It is no disgrace to me to own I felt a little sore. It is hard to see all the good things in life slipping away fromone ; but it has always been my lot. so I resign; d myself. Trow this night a flirtation began between Lady Dalrymple and the Ma quis. "-To all taw it, and talked it over next day with Lady Tumbletowers at her five o'cloc k tea. Mrs Slacker had been down with her early to know if mother’s story was true, and ‘mark my words, they’ll snap him up. my lady will turn into a marquise.’ add-d the old dowager. She never liked the Blackers; and Miss Jones, coming in just then, brought the news that the ftlarquis web going into the Slackers’ with a roll of music under his arm. Miss Jones looked at me as she said this, and nodded her bead. iho good-natured little spinster would have wished, I well know, that it was to me, and n fc to the Slackers, that the good luck was coming. For several weeks the spectacle of the Marqnis and his roll of music was presented daily to the orescent. During these weeks we all grow to look upon the matter as settled, and that, by the end of Lady Dalrymple’a visit, a marriage would be duly announced. There was no mist-king the Marquis’s Intentions. Wherever wo went the vacant place next gnes Dahymple was-ocoupled by him; and if by chance, in his absence, any one else took it, it was immediately vacated on his arrival. By this time I had got over any little feeling of disappointment, and my friendliness for the Marquis increased the more I knew of him. He spent a great deal of his time with us ; so much so that little Miss Jones would sometimes—but that was nonsense. He made no secret of his adoration for ‘la hello statue,’ as he called Agnes, and he would talk for hours to mother and me shout his chsnoe of succeeding; for, strange to say, he seemed full of diffidence, and quite unconscious of the hunt the Blaokers were making after him. It put me sometimes out of all patience to hear him sighing and groaning over the uncertainty when I 1 new the Biaoktrs were ready to eat him up, marquisate and all. We never had ouch a gay time at Weston as d I ng these weeks ; every one wished to entertain the Marqni" ; and every one, even little Miss Jones, gave Then the lower town took It up, and l»i dinners and balls, to all of which the Marqnis went, ana after him the Blackers. By.and by the Poddlesoas came home, and somebody telling them of the Marquis, old Poddleton came down himself to call rponhim, and ashed him to dine at the hall. Of course not one of us was invited. We didn’t expect it; for uo one ever got inside the gates except at the summer gar len party, when we are [all asked en masse with the tradespeople. It is always a wonder to me why we go and stand that woman’s insolence. We all, therefore, thought it very significant of what was coming when Lady Dalrymple got a card for dinner the same day as the Marquis. All the sumo, I do think with Miss Jones, that it was rather undignified of her to go when her mother and sisters were left ont; but, as Lady Tnmbletowers said, she would have walked over their dead bodies to get into the hall. Mrs Blacker told us that Agnes knew Colonel Poddleton, the eldest son, intimately up in Loudon, and that was why she was asked ; but we all knew better, and agreed it was just because Lady Augusta wanted to amuse he;self with the flirtation. After this oiuuer we noticed that the Blackers wore not nearly so keen after the Marquis, Lady Tumbletowers thought they were holding back a little to draw him on ; but Mies Jones 1 thought they were trying for Colonel Poddleton. However that m ght he, it was ' certain that the Colonel was in the Blackers’ 1 house almost every day. A hideous little man ’ he was, no more to be compared to the Marqni i than a monkey to a man ; but then he was heir to the hall, well connected, and no doubt a good match for any one. Probably 1 Lady Dalrymple was playing one against the 1 other, and would be ready for either.

I think it was about this time that rumors began to get about against the marqnis. Whispers only at first, but growing, as such things do, gradually Into shape. I am almost sure it was Celonel Poddleton threw the first stone ; for I heard him say myself that there was no such title amongst the French nobility. And then people began to wonder what brought him to Weston, and how it was that, if ho had so much money, ho lodged over Skimps the grocer’s, and in place of a valet had only Skimps’ maid of-all-work to wait on him. He didn’t even have a boy to ran his messages. Mrs Blacker went so far as to say be hadn’t a sittingroom ; bat when It came to that I got quite vexed. I remember it was at Miss Jones’, and we were all dieju-aing it, and I own I grew a little hot; for Mrs Blacker seemed to make mother and me responsible for the whole thing ; and I conld only say that I was sure the dean’s wife would think it rather odd when she came home from Paris to find such stories going about of her friend. And then Mrs Blacker turned quite short on me.

* .Are you quite sure. Miss Baratowe, that there is no mistake—that the whole of this story of the dean’s wife is not a cock-and-bull of your mother’s ? Don’t you remember Sir Rose Price ?’ This was so like Mrs Blaoksr’s ill-nature, bringing up a long forgotten story against my sister Letty. Well, it was no disgrace to her or to us that we had been taken in by a charming Irish baronet, who passed himself off as an unmarried man, until his wife wrote to mother and told her. It wasn’t like scheming for an old man, as Agnes Dalrymple had done, and robbing his family. I was going to make some sharp retort, when Miss Jones, struck in : —‘The deanery people are coming back to-night,’ she said ; ■ I was just going by the Jordan Arms, and I called in to see Mrs J. and the baby ; and she told me tho carriage will be there at five this afternoon.’

‘ That’s something,’ C’ied Mrs Blacker; ‘ now we’ll know tho real thing ; I shall consider it my bu-inesa to make an early call at the deanery ; you may think it absurd being so particular ; but girls like mine, and especially a young widow, rich and beautiful, like ;ny Agnes, is a great charge ; it is well for you g-od people, who have no such reaponability.’ And with Fthis last thrust Mrs Blacker took herself away. When she was gone we all agreed she was in her most disagreeable temper, and certainly very excited. Whether it was about Colonel Poddletou or the Marquis we oould not agree. Miss Jones proposed that she and 1 thould go to the deanery next day; ‘ for. ’ said she, ‘ Mrs Blacker will be sure to be there, and theie’s no knowing the stories she will tell of you, and of all of us.’ So we settled then that we would share a carriage between ns and drive up. When wo sent down next morning to tho Jordan Arms for a fly, we fonnd half the town had ordered carriages for the deanery, so great was tho curiosity to find out something about the Marquis, which everyone expected to hear from the d an’s wife. When we found this we went an hour earlier to have a quist ohat, Brrly as it was, Mrs Blacker was before us. We met her driving out at the lodge gates. She stooped the carriage. ‘ Just as I supposed, Miss Baratowe,’ she cried out; ‘ a complete mistake ;’ and drove on, looking very spiteful and angry. I was astonished ; but my amazement was greater still when 1 found the dean’s wife repudiating all she had said, and declaring she knew nothing more of the Marquis than having met him at a friend’s house, ‘ I caenot imagine what induced you, dear Miss Barstowe, to set such a story going ; it might give rise to serious complications. Where there are young people one must be careful,’ &o. At this Miss Jones looked at me, and we both knew that Mrs Blacker had been talking. I said nothing; there was no nse defending and proving, as Miss Jones said, although I oonld have taken my oath in any court in the kingdom that the dean’s wife had used the words ‘‘enormously rich, and looking out for a wife.” ( To be continued.)