Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2030 page)

Horace
(
satirically
). Your views have the merit of novelty, ma’am, at any rate. Would you object to see them in the newspapers?

Lady J.
Don’t I live in the latter part of the nineteenth century? In the newspapers? In large type, Horace, if you love me! What were we talking of?

Horace.
Of me. Never mind that. I want to speak to you about Grace Roseberry.

Lady J.
And what has Grace Roseberry done?

Horace.
She persists in prolonging our engagement. Nothing will persuade her to fix the day for our marriage.

Lady J.
Why are you in such a hurry?

Horace.
Hurry? Why it’s four months since I first saw Grace, reckoning from our meeting in the French cottage. Ah! how that meeting dwelt on my memory afterwards! She was alone, Lady Janet, in a wretched little room, with a poor dead woman laid on the cottage bed. How nobly she behaved in the solitude and the peril! How beautiful she looked in her plain grey cloak! How kindly she welcomed me back to England, when I met her again, established in this house!

Lady J.
Pardon me for interrupting your raptures. What do you complain of?

Horace.
Grace has been engaged to me for at least six weeks, and I am not her husband yet. And when I complain of it, you say that I am in a hurry.

Lady J.
(
satirically
). I withdraw the assertion. I ought to have remembered that this is an age of progress. Everything is done in a hurry now.

Horace
(
pursuing his thoughts)
. Do you know, Lady Janet, I sometimes fancy Grace has a motive for deferring our marriage — a motive which she is afraid to confide to me.

Lady J.
(
anxiously
). What makes you think that?

Horace.
I have once or twice caught her in tears. Every now and then — sometimes when she is talking quite gaily — she suddenly changes colour and becomes silent and depressed. Only this morning, she looked at me in the strangest way — almost as if she was sorry for me. What do these things mean?

Lady J.
You foolish boy, the meaning is plain enough. Grace has been out of health for some time past. The doctor recommends change of air.

Horace.
If she wants change of air, let me take charge of her on our honeymoon trip. Do use your influence, Lady Janet. My mother and my sisters have written to Grace and have produced no effect. Help me to persuade her. Speak to her to-day.

Lady J.
(
relenting
). Must I?

Horace.
You have known me since I was a boy.

Lady J.
And you presume on it. Go to the smoking-room and cultivate the favourite vice of the nineteenth century. (
They both rise.
) Go and smoke! go and smoke!

(
She good-humouredly pushes
HORACE
out by the door on the right.
)

Lady J.
(
alone
). He is not very wise, though he does write in the newspapers. But on this occasion he is really right. He bears an excellent character; he possesses a handsome fortune; his mother is ready to receive anybody connected with my family. Why should they not be married? As to Grace — whether she really has a motive for hanging back, or whether she is only fretting because she doesn’t know her own mind — -is more than I can say. I don’t understand the young women of the present generation. In my time, when we were fond of a man, we were ready to marry him at a moment’s notice. And this is an age of progress! They ought to be readier still. (
She calls to
MERCY.) Grace!

(MERCY
enters from the conservatory
.)

Mercy
. You called me, Lady Janet?

Lady J.
(
leading her to a sofa on the left
). I want to speak to you. You are very pale this morning, my child.

Mercy
. I am not well. The slightest noises startle me. I feel tired if I only walk across the room.

Lady J.
We must try what a change of air will do for you. Which shall it be — the Continent or the seaside?

Mercy
. You are too kind to me, Lady Janet!

Lady J.
It is impossible to be too kind to you.

Mercy
(
eagerly
). Say that again!

Lady J.
(
surprised
). Say it again?

Mercy
. You will think me vain — I can’t hear you say too often that you have learnt to like me. Is it really a pleasure to you to have me in the house?

Lady J.
My dear child, do you remember what I said when you first came here? You offered me your poor father’s letter of introduction. I took one look at you and put the letter aside unopened. “Your face is your introduction” (those were my words); “your father can say nothing for you which you have not said already for yourself.” (MERCY
turns her head aside quickly so as to hide her face from
LADY JANET.) What is the matter?

Mercy
(
faintly
). Nothing! nothing! Have I always behaved well, Lady Janet, since I have been with you?

Lady J.
(
speaking earnestly
). I bless the day, Grace, when you first came to me. I don’t believe I could be prouder of you if you were my own daughter.

Mercy
(
kissing her hand
). Oh! how I like to hear you say that! (
repeating the words rapturously to herself
). “Your own daughter! your own daughter!”

Lady J.
(
aside
). Now is the time to say a word for Horace! (
To
MERCY.) What shall I do, Grace, when the day comes for parting with my adopted daughter?

Mercy
(
starting
). Why should I leave you?

Lady J.
Surely, you know?

Mercy
(
earnestly
). Indeed I don’t. Tell me why.

Lady J.
Ask Horace to tell you.

Mercy
(
understanding her, and suddenly relapsing into depression
). Ah!

Lady J.
(
surprised
). Grace!

Mercy
(
sadly
). Yes?

Lady J.
What does that sigh mean? You know your own heart? You have not engaged yourself to Horace Holmcroft without loving him?

Mercy
. Oh, no!

Lady J.
And yet —
 
— ?

Mercy
. Dear Lady Janet, I am in no hurry to be married. There will be plenty of time in the future to talk of that. You had something to say to me — what was it?

Lady J.
(
rising in astonishment, and taking a turn in the room
). She doesn’t even suspect that I want to speak to her about Horace! What are the young women of the present day made of? (
A man-servant enters on the left, with a letter.
) What do you want? I never rang for you.

The servant.
A letter, my lady. (LADY JANET
takes it.
) The messenger waits for an answer.

(
The Servant goes out on the left.
LADY JANET,
standing at some distance from
MERCY,
so as not to be overheard by her, opens the letter, and recognises the handwriting.
)

Lady J.
(
to herself
). From Julian Gray. (
She reads the letter in a low tone.
) “My dear aunt, — At last I have got back to London. May I follow my letter to Mablethorpe House? and may I present a lady to you — a perfect stranger — in whom I am interested? Send me a line by the bearer.” (
She looks up from the letter with a smile.
) A lady in whom he is interested! Is Julian really going to be married at last? (
She turns to
MERCY.) Grace, I have got a note to write to my nephew.

Mercy
. Your nephew? You never told me you had a nephew.

Lady J.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” my dear. My nephew has been away from London. However, you will make his acquaintance immediately. He is coming to see me to-day. Wait here till I return. I want to say something more to you about Horace.

(
She goes out on the left.
)

Mercy
(
alone
). She loves me like a daughter — she blesses the day when I first came to her! Could the true Grace Roseberry have earned sweeter praise than that, if the true Grace Roseberry had lived to enter this house? Oh, if I could but confess what I have done! if my good conduct would only plead my excuse! how I should enjoy this innocent life — what a grateful, happy woman I could be! (
She hides her face in her hands. There is a pause. She looks up again, struck by a sudden recollection.
) What did she say when she left me just now? (
She starts to her feet in alarm.
) She is coming back to speak to me about Horace! What, in God’s name, am I to do? I have been mad enough to love him. Can I be vile enough to let him drift blindfold into marriage with a woman like me? How am I to stop it? All his hopes are bound up in me. I shall break his heart, if I speak the cruel words that may part us for ever! I can’t speak them! I won’t speak them! The disgrace of it would kill me! Am I worse than another woman? Another woman might have married him for his money. Is that any excuse for me? Oh, that I had died before I came here! Oh, that I could die now! (
She returns to the sofa, and seats herself in dogged despair.
HORACE
softly opens the door on the right, and looks in.
)

Horace
(
to himself.
) Has Lady Janet spoken to her? Is she waiting to see me? (
He advances.
) Grace!

Mercy
(
starting
). I wish you wouldn’t startle me in that way. Any sudden alarm sets my heart beating as if it would choke me.

Horace.
I am very sorry — I didn’t mean to alarm you. (
He seats himself by her.
) Have you seen Lady Janet?

Mercy
(
impatiently
). Yes!

Horace.
Has she said anything to you —
 
— ?