‘Most romantic!’ said Antonia, driving the unseen dagger more deeply into her heart, after the fashion of her sex, but smiling and forcing a piteous and unreal gaiety; ‘and was she fair to look upon—a blonde or brunette? Mr. Baldacre, you were evidently in her confidence; you cannot escape a description.’
‘She was very good-looking indeed,’ said the ruthless Hardy, who had been struck with Augusta’s fresh complexion and insular manner. ‘She wore a gold eyeglass, which looked odd; but she was very clever, and all that kind of thing, as any one could see.’
‘Even Mr. Baldacre,’ said Antonia, with a sarcastic acknowledgment. ‘You must have had a delightful journey. You will tell me any other particulars that occur to you in the drawing-room. I feel quite interested.’
Here the faint signal passed which proclaims the withdrawal of the lady convives and the temporary separation of the sexes. What mysterious rites are celebrated above by the assembled maids and matrons, freed awhile from the disturbing influence of the male element? Does a wholly unaffected, perhaps unamused expression possess those lovely features, erst so full of every virtue showing forth in every look? Do they exchange confidences? Do they trust each other? Do they doff their uniforms, and appear unarmed, save with truth, innocence, simplicity? Quien sabe?
It may not have been apparent to the lady guests, to whose comfort and enlivenment Antonia was so assiduous, so delicately, yet so unfailingly attentive in her rôle of hostess, that Miss Frankston’s heart was beating, her head aching, her temples throbbing, her pulse quickened, to a degree which rendered the severest mental effort necessary to avoid collapse. They heeded not the faint smile, the piteous quivering lip, the sad eyes, while words of mirth, of compliment, of entreaty, flowed rapidly forth, as she played her part in the game we call society. But when the small pageant was over and the last carriage rolled away she threw her arms round old Paul’s neck, and resting her head upon that breast which had cherished her, with all a woman’s love, and but little short of a woman’s tenderness, since her baby days of broken doll and lost toy, she lay in his clasp and sobbed as if her heart—poor overburdened, loving, despairing heart—was in verity, then and there, about to break.
‘My darling, my darling! my own precious pet, Antonia!’ said the old man, kissing her forehead, and wiping the tears from her eyes, as he had done many a time and oft in the days of her childish grief. ‘I know your sorrow and its cause; but do not be too hasty. We do not know if this loose report be true. It is most unlikely and improbable to me; though, if it be true, Paul Frankston is not the man to suffer this wrong to lie a day without—without claiming his right. But do not take it for proved truth till further tidings come.’
‘It is true—it is true,’ moaned Antonia. ‘I had a foreboding. I have been so wretched of late—so unlike your daughter, my dearest father. How could Hardy Baldacre have invented such a story? Why did he not give his—his betrothed—our address, if he had no—no—reason to do otherwise?’ sobbed poor Antonia.
‘I can’t say—I don’t know—hang her and her eyeglass—and the day I first saw him enter this house! But, no, I cannot hate the boy, whose pleasant face so often made a second youth for me. I hate taking things for granted; I must have proof before I—and then—Go to bed, my darling, go to bed; I will tell you what I think in the morning.’
It was well for Miss Frankston, perhaps, that the intense pain towards which her headache had gradually culminated rendered her for a while unable to frame any mental processes. As she threw herself upon the couch she was conscious of a crushing feeling of utter darkness and blank despair, which simulated a swoon.
She awoke to a state of mind to her previously unknown. In her breast conflicting emotions passionately contended. Chief among them was the bitter disappointment, the indignant sense of slight and betrayal, endured by every woman who, conscious that each inmost sacred feeling of her heart has been given to the hero of her choice, has been deliberately forsaken for another.