The Argosy | Page 6

Agnes was not with her. The Major quickened his pace; I clung to his
hand, and felt without seeing that her ladyship's eyes were fixed upon
me severely.
"I have brought back your wandering princess," said the Major, in his
cheery way, as he lifted his hat. Then, as he took her proffered hand, "I
hope your ladyship is in perfect health."
"No princess, Major Strickland, but a base beggar brat," said Lady
Chillington, without heeding his last words. "From the first moment of
my seeing her I had a presentiment that she would cause me nothing
but trouble and annoyance. That presentiment has been borne out by
facts--by facts!" She nodded her head at the Major, and rubbed one lean
hand viciously within the other.
"Your ladyship forgets that the child herself is here. Pray consider her
feelings."
"Were my feelings considered by those who sent her to Deepley Walls?
I ought to have been consulted in the matter--to have had time given
me to make fresh arrangements. It was enough to be burdened with the
cost of her maintenance, without the added nuisance of having her
before me as a continual eyesore. But I have arranged. Next week she
leaves Deepley Walls for the Continent, and if I never see her face
again, so much the better for both of us."
"With all due respect to your ladyship, it seems to me that your tone is
far more bitter than the occasion demands. What may be the
relationship between Miss Hope and yourself it is quite impossible for
me to say; but that there is a tie of some sort between you I cannot for a
moment doubt."
"And pray, Major Strickland, what reason may you have for believing
that a tie of any kind exists between this young person and the mistress
of Deepley Walls?"

"I will take my stand on one point: on the extraordinary resemblance
which this child bears to--"
"To whom, Major Strickland?"
"To one who lies buried in Elvedon churchyard. You know whom I
mean. Such a likeness is far too remarkable to be the result of
accident."
"I deny the existence of any such likeness," said Lady Chillington,
vehemently. "I deny it utterly. You are the victim of your own
disordered imagination. Likeness, forsooth!" She laughed a bitter,
contemptuous laugh, and seemed to think that she had disposed of the
question for ever.
"Come here, child," said the Major, taking me kindly by the hand, and
leading me close up to her ladyship. "Look at her, Lady Chillington,"
he added; "scan her features thoroughly, and tell me then that the
likeness of which I speak is nothing more than a figment of my own
brain."
Lady Chillington drew herself up haughtily. "To please you in a whim,
Major Strickland, which I cannot characterise as anything but
ridiculous, I will try to discover this fancied resemblance." Speaking
thus, her ladyship carried her glass to her eye, and favoured me with a
cold, critical stare, under which I felt my blood boil with grief and
indignation.
"Pshaw! Major Strickland, you are growing old and foolish. I cannot
perceive the faintest trace of such a likeness as you mention. Besides, if
it really did exist it would prove nothing. It would merely serve to show
that there may be certain secrets within Deepley Walls which not even
Major Strickland's well-known acumen can fathom."
"After that, of course I can only bid your ladyship farewell," said the
offended Major, with a ceremonious bow. Then turning to me:
"Good-bye, my dear Miss Janet, for the present. Even at this, the
eleventh hour, I must intercede with Lady Chillington to grant you

permission to come and spend part of next week with us at Rose
Cottage."
"Oh! take her, and welcome; I have no wish to keep her here. But you
will stop to dinner, Major, when we will talk of these things further.
And now, Miss Pest, you had better run away. You have heard too
much already."
I was glad enough to get away; so after a hasty kiss to Major Strickland,
I hurried indoors; and once in my own bed-room, I burst into an
uncontrollable fit of crying. How cruel had been Lady Chillington's
words! and her looks had been more cruel than they.
I was still weeping when Sister Agnes came into the room. She had but
just returned from Eastbury. She knelt beside me, and took me in her
arms and kissed me, and wiped away my tears. "Why was I crying?"
she asked. I told her of all that Lady Chillington had said.
"Oh! cruel, cruel of her to treat you thus!" she said. "Can nothing move
her--nothing melt that heart of adamant? But, Janet, dear, you must not
let her sharp words wound