1 
 
 L I E) RAFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLI NOI5 
 
 8)^3
 
 57^
 
 JILL 
 
 BY 
 
 E. A. DILLWYN 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. L 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1884 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 Printed hy R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
 
 8^5 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FAGB 
 
 Jill introduces herself . . .1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Foreign Travel . . . . .16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 /4 A Widow's Manceuvres . . . .29 
 
 ^ CHAPTER IV. 
 
 '/ A Tight Curb . . . . .38 
 
 o 
 
 'J CHAPTER V. 
 
 y 
 
 ^ Breaking Loose ... .54 
 
 ^^ ^ 
 
 i CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ^. 
 
 A Photograph . . . . .71 
 
 ^. CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OfA FEW London Prices . . . .86
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Stkeet Incident . . . .104 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 A Nervous Lady . . . .113 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Change of Situation . . . .129 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 An Unwelcome Admirer . . . 147 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Photograph Again . . .166 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Lord Clement . . . . .178 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 At Ajaccio . . . . .194 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 A Driving Expedition through Corsica . 205 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Escaped Penitenciers . . . .221
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 JILL INTRODUCES HERSELF. 
 
 I HAVE heard people say tliat men are more apt 
 to be of an adventurous disposition than women ; 
 but that is an opinion from which I differ. I 
 suppose it has arisen because timidity and sensi- 
 tiveness are hostile to the spirit of enterprise, 
 checking its growth and development, and not 
 unfrequently proving altogether fatal to it ; and as 
 these qualities are especially characteristic of the 
 weaker sex, it follows naturally that noted female 
 adventurers are less common than male ones. 
 But that seems only to show that an unfavourable 
 soil has caused the plant to become blighted or 
 smothered, and is no conclusive proof that the 
 seed was never sown. It is my belief that the 
 aforesaid spirit is distributed by nature imparti- 
 ally throughout the human race, and that she 
 implants it as freely in the breast of the female as 
 in that of the male. Once let it be implanted, 
 and let it have fair play, untrammelled by nervous, 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 JILL. [chap. 
 
 hesitating, shrinking, home - clinging tendencies, 
 and it will infallibly lead its possessor to some 
 bold departure from the everyday routine of exist- 
 ence that satisfies mortals of a more hum-drum 
 temperament. A craving for continual change 
 and excitement is a thing that is sure to assert it- 
 self vigorously and insist on being gratified, pro- 
 vided its possessor has also plenty of health and 
 courage, and is unrestrained by the fetters formed 
 from strong domestic attachments or other affection. 
 Of people thus positively and negatively endowed 
 it may be confidently predicted — whether their 
 gender be masculine or feminine — that adventures 
 will bestrew their road plentifully, meeting them 
 at every turn, and seeming to seek them out and 
 be attracted to them even as flies unto honey. I 
 am myself an instance of this, as I can see plainly 
 enough in reviewing my past career. At an earlier 
 period I was less clear-sighted, and failed to per- 
 ceive the restless spirit that had taken possession of 
 me and become the constraining power of my life ; 
 but the lapse of a few years is a wonderful aid to 
 discerning the true motives of former actions, and 
 reminds me in this way of the dark blue spectacles 
 which the man in charge of a smelting furnace 
 puts on when he wants to see what is going on in 
 his furnace. Without them he can distinguish
 
 T.] JILL IXTEODUCES HERSELF. 3 
 
 nothing in the fiery interior; but the spectacles 
 have the effect of softening the fierce, blinding 
 glare, rendering visible what was before invisible, 
 and enabling him to watch the progress of the 
 red-hot seething masses of ore and metal under- 
 going fusion and transmutation under his care. 
 And in like manner does intervening time clear 
 the vision towards events, so that it is possible to 
 estimate them far more justly some while after 
 they have taken place, than it was at the moment 
 of their occurrence. A retrospect, therefore, gives 
 me a more correct notion of myself than I had 
 before. I see how often, when I imagined myself 
 to be solely impelled by some purely external 
 circumstance, I was, in reality, also obeying the 
 dictates of a longing for adventure and impatience 
 of sameness, which have always had a very strong 
 influence in determining my conduct. I detect 
 how love of variety manifested itself as the prin- 
 cipal cause of my actions, and made my course 
 deviate widely from that of other ladies in my 
 rank of life, and furnishes a reasonable explana- 
 tion for behaviour which would else seem un- 
 accountable. To a person of this disposition, 
 monotony, dulness, and boredom in every shape 
 are of course absolutely intolerable ; consequently 
 I do not believe that any position involving these
 
 4 JILL. [chap. 
 
 drawbacks will ever content me for long, even 
 though it may, in other respects, afford every 
 advantage that the heart of man (or woman) can 
 desire. And having supplied the reader with this 
 much clue to a comprehension of the character of 
 the individual whose story lies before him, I leave 
 all further judgment upon me to be pronounced 
 according to what is found in the pages of this 
 veracious history, wherein I purpose faithfully to 
 depict myself exactly as I appear in my own eyes, 
 and as my life shows me to be. 
 
 A person's identity is materially affected (as 
 regards both himself and others) by that of the 
 immediate ancestors without whom he or she 
 would not have existed at all; so the first step 
 towards my self-introduction must obviously be 
 to state my parentage. 
 
 My father, Sir Anthony Trecastle, a gentleman 
 of small fortune serving in the Life Guards, was 
 employed in London discharging the not very 
 onerous duties expected from an ofi&cer of Heavies 
 in time of peace, when he became acquainted and 
 enamoured with a daughter of Lord Gilbert's. Sir 
 Anthony's means w^re not sufficiently large for 
 him to be reckoned anything of a matrimonial 
 catch in that set of society to which both he and 
 the young lady he admired belonged. He had
 
 I.] JILL INTRODUCES HERSELF. 5 
 
 enough to live upon, however, besides being a 
 tenth baronet, rather good-looking, and the repre- 
 sentative of a family whose name was to be found 
 in the Domesday Book ; therefore her relations 
 and friends considered him to be a respectable 
 though not brilliant match, made no attempt to 
 interfere either for or against his suit, and left 
 her perfectly free to please herself as to the answer 
 it should receive. It was long before she could 
 make up her mind in the matter ; but, after con- 
 sidering it for more than a year, she at last deter- 
 mined to accept him. What may have moved her 
 to do this of course I cannot say ; but all I know of 
 her character makes me think it more likely for the 
 decision to have resulted from a reasonable and 
 deliberate consideration of matrimonial pros and 
 cons than from any love for her husband. Those 
 who knew her well believed her to be so singularly 
 cold and indifferent as never to have warmed into 
 real love for any living creature during her whole 
 life. And not only do my own recollections of her 
 corroborate this opinion, but also I may say that 
 I myself am a living argument to prove it true, 
 inasmuch as I, too, am unusually exempt from 
 the affectionate, tender emotions to which most 
 men and women are liable ; and it seems 
 reasonable to suppose that this extraordinary
 
 6 JILL. [chap. 
 
 cold-lieartedness of mine must have been in- 
 herited from her. 
 
 I am sure it is an inheritance for which I have 
 had much reason to be thankful ; for I have no 
 doubt it has saved me from many a folly that 
 I should otherwise have committed. A warm- 
 hearted, soft, affectionate disposition is a posses- 
 sion which I have never coveted. It has generally 
 seemed to me to be a cause of weakness rather 
 than of strength to its owner ; and besides, it is 
 very apt to hinder and stunt the development of 
 that source of dehght — the spirit of enterprise. 
 
 This, however, is somewhat of a digression, as 
 the extent to which my mother may have cared 
 for my father does not much concern this narrative; 
 at any rate she liked him sufficiently well to marry 
 him, and that is all with which we need trouble 
 ourselves here. He sold out of the army soon 
 afterwards, and took his bride to reside at Castle 
 Manor, as his country place was called ; there I, 
 their only child, was born. Had I been a boy 
 it was intended to call me Gilbert, in honour of 
 my maternal grandfather's title; as, however, I 
 was a girl, and as my parents still wished to adhere 
 as far as possible to their original intention of 
 naming their first-born after the Gilbert peerage, 
 the name was adapted to my sex by the addition
 
 I.] JILL INTRODUCES HERSELF. 7 
 
 of three letters, and thus I received at my christen- 
 ing the somewhat uncouth appellation of Gilbertina. 
 As this was obviously too much of a mouthful to be 
 convenient for common domestic use, an abbrevia- 
 tion was inevitable, and the first one bestowed upon 
 me was Jill. But this did not find favour with 
 my mother. She declared it was ugly, and objec- 
 tionably suggestive of low, republican ideas, such' 
 as carrying pails of water, rough tumbles, and 
 cracked crowns ; therefore Jill was condemned 
 and Ina substituted, as a more graceful and aristo- 
 cratic manner of shortening my name. 
 
 Though I allude to this small matter, because 
 Jill was the name to which I afterwards returned, 
 yet I do not purpose to dwell long upon the history 
 of my life up to the age of eighteen, at which 
 period I launched out boldly upon an independent 
 career. Still, however, the earlier stages cannot 
 be left altogether unnoticed, as the events which 
 took place then naturally have a bearing upon sub- 
 sequent ones, and also may be thought interesting 
 for the part they probably played in the moulding 
 of my character. 
 
 Was I born destitute of the ordinary instincts of 
 filial affection — in which case, be it observed, that 
 it would be most unjust to blame me for what was 
 simply a natural deficiency ? Or is the fault of
 
 8 JILL. [chap. 
 
 my defect in that way to be charged to my parents 
 for having done nothing to develop the above- 
 mentioned instinct? Anyhow, whatever the cause 
 may have been, certain it is that they and I were 
 mutually indifferent, and never saw more of one 
 another than we could possibly help. They went 
 their way, and I went mine, and the less we came 
 in contact the better was I pleased. I regarded 
 my mother as a sort of stranger whom the accident 
 of inhabiting the same house caused me to see 
 oftener than any other stranger, and who had an 
 authority over me and my affairs which was 
 decidedly irksome, because our opinions as to what 
 it was right and fitting that I should do or not do 
 were always at variance with one another. She 
 disliked untidiness, whereas I revelled in being in 
 a mess. Consequently she aggravated me con- 
 tinually by insisting on my going off to wash my 
 face and hands or have my clothes put tidy, when I 
 thought they did very well as they were, and would 
 have preferred staying where I was. Again, mud- 
 larking, and many other of my favourite occupa- 
 tions which brought about a torn and dirty state 
 of garments, were strictly forbidden by her, to my 
 great annoyance. Imagining the restriction to be 
 imposed solely in the interests of my clothes, I 
 well remember how rejoiced I was one day when
 
 I.] JILL INTRODUCES HERSELF. 9 
 
 T thought I had hit upon a plan for enjoying my- 
 self after my own fashion without offending against 
 her code, and how disappointed I was when my 
 scheme proved a failure. I was about ten years old 
 at the time, and was standing at the edge of a 
 small stream, longing with my whole heart to go and 
 paddle about in it, when it suddenly struck me 
 that, as the edict against mud-larking and similar 
 amusements was grounded upon the harm they 
 did to my apparel, there could certainly be no 
 objection to them provided nothing suffered except 
 my own skin — that being an article which was 
 surely of no consequence to any one but myself. 
 Inspired by this brilliant idea, I immediately took 
 off my shoes, stockings, gloves, and drawers, turned 
 my sleeves back to the shoulder, wound my petti- 
 coats round my waist, and plunged into the stream ; 
 there I waded about with the utmost satisfaction, 
 constructing mud -docks and sailing bark -boats 
 without in the least minding the cuts and bruises 
 inflicted on my bare feet by stones, or the numer- 
 ous scratches which my unprotected arms and 
 legs received from overhanging bushes and 
 brambles. What did that matter when I was 
 having such a glorious mud-lark? And I enjoyed 
 the fun all the more because I believed fondly that 
 I had a prospect of plenty more of the same kind
 
 10 JILL. [chap. 
 
 in the future, now that I had so cleverly discovered 
 the way to get over the objection that had hitherto 
 interfered with it. It must be clearly impossible 
 for any one to find fault with a proceeding which 
 exposed nothing but my own flesh to risks of rents 
 and dirt. 
 
 Alas ! however, I was destined speedily to be 
 undeceived. My mother, hearing how I had been 
 engaged, gave me a tremendous scolding, declaring 
 that she was quite shocked at me, and that if ever I 
 did such a thing again I should be punished. For 
 my part, I was perfectly amazed at this indignation, 
 which seemed to me totally unreasonable, as I 
 could not imagine what harm I had done. And 
 the incident, like all others connected with her, 
 strengthened the sulky injured feeling I had of 
 being always wrong in her eyes. No matter what 
 I might wish to do, she would forbid it, I thought. 
 
 I do not know that she was wilfully unkind to 
 me, perhaps ; but she certainly never was actively 
 kind ; and she stands out in my memory as a cold 
 hard figure with which I could not come in contact 
 without finding myself thwarted in some way or 
 other, and being deprived of some pleasure. " Don't 
 do that !" is a sentence odious in childish ears ; 
 and as that was the sentence that I heard oftener 
 than any other from her lips, I naturally got into
 
 I.] JILL IXTEODUCES HERSELF. 11 
 
 the habit of avoiding her company as mucli as 
 possible — which was all the easier to manage 
 because she had as little wish for my society as I 
 had for hers, and only endured me with her at all, 
 I think, out of regard to the convenances of English 
 life. Never once do I remember her to have taken 
 the trouble to supply me with any pleasures which 
 she approved of to replace those which she pro- 
 hibited ; nor did she ever bestow upon me presents, 
 indulgences, or marks of affection. Though she 
 never attempted to teach me anything herself, yet 
 she had me do lessons, and insisted on my learning 
 needlework, which was my especial aversion ; and 
 I knew she was the source for the tasks I hated, 
 even though she did not personally impose them 
 on me. 
 
 Such being the terms on which she and I stood 
 to one another, is it to be wondered at that I should 
 have feared and disliked her ? 
 
 I was about twelve years old when she died. 
 As I had by that time read with great interest 
 a large number of juvenile story-books of the 
 exaggerated sentimental and goody kind, I was 
 thoroughly well up in the behaviour to be expected 
 from any girl-heroine on the occurrence of such 
 an event. I knew that her father would at once 
 become the great object of her life, and that she
 
 12 JILL. [chap. 
 
 would devote herself utterly to the task of com- 
 forting him and endeavouring to replace Her (with 
 a capital H) who was gone. Though the girl 
 would of course be herself well-nigh crushed with 
 grief, and indulge in paroxysms of sobs and tears 
 whenever she was alone, yet she would heroically 
 repress any public manifestation of distress, lest 
 the knowledge and sight of it should increase that 
 of her surviving parent. Her zeal on his behalf 
 would know no bounds, and lead her to neglect 
 the most ordinary precautions against illness for 
 herself. This would appear in some absurd and 
 wholly uncalled for act of self-devotion — such as 
 sitting motionless for hours in a thorough draught 
 and wet through, lest the sound of her moving 
 might awake him as he slept in the next room, or 
 something equally ridiculous ; and by a few insane 
 performances of the same kind the way would easily 
 be paved for the invariably thrilling climax. A 
 pillow bedewed nightly with tears ; knife -like 
 stabs of pain returning with increasing frequency ; 
 blood -spitting neglected and kept secret; pangs 
 mental and bodily, concealed under a cheerful 
 exterior; there could be but one conclusion to 
 such symptoms as these. The overtaxed strengtli 
 would collapse suddenly; consumption, decline, 
 heart disease, or some other alarming illness, would
 
 I.] JILL INTRODUCES HERSELF. 13 
 
 ensue; and then there would be either a few 
 harrowing deathbed scenes, or else a miraculous 
 recovery and happy marriage of the heroine ; in this 
 last case her spouse would of course be some paragon 
 young man, who should be in every respect ideally 
 perfect, and thoroughly able to appreciate and do 
 justice to the treasure whom he had been so fortu- 
 nate as to win for a wife. 
 
 So invariably did this style of thing take place 
 whenever the heroine lost her mother in the books 
 which I had devoured greedily without perceiving 
 how morbid and exaggerated they were, and with- 
 out doubting their being faithful representations 
 of human nature, that I had a sort of hazy im- 
 pression of its being the inevitable accompaniment 
 of that loss, whatever might have been the terms 
 hitherto existing between the parties concerned. 
 The folly of supposing that I could feel deep 
 regret for a person whom I had always avoided as 
 much as possible 'never occurred to me, and I was 
 disposed to believe that what was described in the 
 stories was an indispensable sequence of events 
 that came after one another as naturally as spring 
 follows winter, and summer follows spring. In 
 that case, I too, must expect to undergo the regular 
 course of emotions like every one else. It would 
 be a decidedly novel and mysterious experience,
 
 14 JILL. [chap. 
 
 and one that I was by no means sure would be 
 pleasant, and I looked out anxiously for the first 
 indications of its approach as though it had been 
 some kind of sickness with which I was threatened. 
 A gush of poignant grief for my mother, an intense 
 yearning over and pity for my father, sleepless 
 nights and untasted meals, were, I knew, the cor- 
 rect preliminaries to the state of affairs that I was 
 anticipating. Two or three days passed, however, 
 and I found to my surprise that I had still no 
 inability to sleep and eat as usual ; no alteration 
 in my former feelings about my parents, either 
 living or deceased ; nor any other reason to think 
 I was about to behave in the same manner as those 
 sentimental young ladies about whom I had read. 
 Then I became perplexed as to the cause of this 
 difference between me and them. I had taken it 
 for granted that the stories showed exactly how 
 human beings in general thought, felt, and acted ; 
 but how came it then that I, who was unquestion- 
 ably a human being, should find my own experience 
 of a great occasion of this kind so different from 
 what the books depicted ? The only way of 
 accounting for it was by supposing either that 
 they were not as true to nature as I had believed, 
 or else that I must be unlike the rest of my 
 fellow-creatures ; and as it did not at all please
 
 I. J JILL INTRODUCES HERSELF. 15 
 
 me to consider myself an abnormal variety of the 
 human species, I adopted the former theory as the 
 probable explanation of what puzzled me. No 
 one, thought I, ever dreams of judging fairy-tales 
 by the standard of real life ; and no doubt those 
 stories that I fancied were true are in reality only 
 fairy-tales in disguise. The characters are not real 
 men and women, but only make-believe ones ; and 
 they are really just as impossible as if they were 
 called ogres, gnomes, elves, magicians, or something 
 of that kind. 
 
 It was a relief to me to arrive at this conclusion, 
 and realise that there was no likelihood of my 
 following in the steps of the afore -mentioned 
 fictitious damsels; for, however attractive their 
 experiences might be to read about, I had had 
 very considerable misgivings as to whether I 
 should find them equally pleasant to undergo in 
 my own person. I may add that I am sure my 
 incapacity for imitating them was a most fortunate 
 circumstance for my father ; he would, I am con- 
 vinced, have been at his wits ends to know what 
 to do with a daughter of the story-book stamp, and 
 would have been unutterably taken aback and 
 annoyed at any hysterical demonstrations of devo- 
 tion or attachment on my part.
 
 CHAPTEK 11. 
 
 FOREIGN TRAVEL. 
 
 It is time to say a few words as to what my father 
 was like. Intensely selfish, and hating trouble, 
 he w^as also extremely sociable, jovially disposed, 
 easily amused, and endowed with an enviable 
 facility for shaking off whatever was disagreeable. 
 He seemed to consider everything unpleasant, dull, 
 sad, or gloomy, as a sort of poisonous external 
 application which must be got rid of promptly, 
 lest it should get absorbed into the system. Con- 
 sequently he never allowed anything to make a 
 deeper impression on him than he could help. 
 And in order to escape at once from the depress- 
 ing influences of his wife's death he resolved to 
 go abroad immediately after the funeral, and stay 
 away for a good long time, wandering from place 
 to place where his fancy took him, so as to distract 
 his mind from all possibility of melancholy by a 
 complete change of scene and life. 
 
 As he did not see the use of keeping up an
 
 CHAP, il] foreign travel. 17 
 
 establishment in England during his absence, he 
 determined to let Castle Manor. Then came the 
 question of what was to be done with me under 
 these circumstances ? His relations assured him 
 that the best plan would be to send me to school 
 somewhere till he should again be settled in his 
 own home. After reflecting for a day on this 
 suggestion, he considerably astonished those who 
 had made it by announcing that he meant to take 
 me abroad with him. Such a determination was 
 certainly surprising on the part of one who could 
 not endure trouble, and had no affection for me. 
 But the. fact was that since his marriage he had 
 got so much accustomed to the feeling that there 
 was some one belonging to him always within 
 reach, that he did not now like to live quite alone 
 again ; and therefore he thought he might as 
 well have me handy as a last resource to fall back 
 upon for company when none other should be 
 attainable. Wherever he went, therefore, there I 
 went also ; and for that reason we were supposed 
 by many people to be wholly wrapped up in one 
 another, and a touching example of parental and 
 filial attachment. I accidentally overheard some 
 remarks to that effect made one day by a couple 
 of compatriots staying at the same hotel as our- 
 selves at Naples ; and, child as I was, I remember 
 VOL. L C
 
 18 JILL. [chap. 
 
 that I laughed cynically to think how wide of the 
 truth they were, and what fools people were to be 
 so ready to judge from appearances. For though 
 he chose to have me living under the same roof as 
 himself, yet he never had any wish for my society 
 if he could pick up any one else to talk to, and 
 walk, ride, drive, or make expeditions with ; and 
 as his sociability and geniality made it easy to 
 him to make acquaintance and fraternise with 
 strangers, he was not often dependent upon me 
 for companionship ; so that I was left very much 
 to myself, and spent the greater part of the time 
 in solitude, or with my attendant who was a sort 
 of cross between nursery-governess and maid. 
 
 We moved about from place to place for two 
 or three years, rarely staying long anywhere, and 
 not once returning to England. This roving exist- 
 ence had a great charm for me, notwithstanding its 
 frequent loneliness, and was infinitely more to m}^ 
 taste than would have been the orthodox school- 
 room routine that falls to the lot of most girls 
 between the ages of twelve and fifteen. Doubtless, 
 too, it had a good deal of influence on the forma- 
 tion of my character ; for the perpetual motion 
 and change of scene in which I delighted could 
 hardly fail to foster my inborn restlessness and 
 love of adventure, as well as to develop whatever
 
 II.] FOREIGN TEAYEL. 19 
 
 natural tendencies I possessed towards self-reliance, 
 independence, and intolerance of restraint, 
 
 Meanwliile my education, as may be supposed, 
 pursued a somewhat erratic course ; and my 
 standard of attainments would, I fear, have by 
 no means been considered satisfactory by Mrs. 
 Grundy. A life passed in hotels, pensions, and 
 lodgings is unfavourable to regular studies ; and, 
 besides that, there was no one, after my mother's 
 death, who cared sufficiently about my intellectual 
 or moral progress to take the trouble of insisting 
 on lessons being persevered with, whether I liked 
 them or not. Consequently I learnt anything 
 that took my fancy, and left alone everything else. 
 On some out-of-the-way subjects I was better 
 informed than the majority of my contemporaries ; 
 but then, on the other hand, I was ignorant of 
 much that every schoolgirl is exjDected to know. 
 My ideas, for instance, as to religious matters were 
 extremely vague. I was but slightly acquainted 
 with the contents of either the Bible or Prayer 
 Book ; never thought of religion as a thing with 
 which I, personally, had to do ; had not a notion 
 of what constituted the differences between one 
 form of religious belief and another; and never 
 attended any place of worship except when some 
 grand function was to come off. All I cared for
 
 20 JILL. [chap. 
 
 in such a place was to listen to the music, and 
 stare at the lights, vestments, decorations, cere- 
 monial, and crowd ; therefore I only went on 
 great festivals, or when some especially prized 
 relic was to be exhibited, or other unusual attrac- 
 tion offered ; and, of course, I became more familiar 
 with the interior of Eoman Catholic churches and 
 chapels than any other. 
 
 What accomplishments I possessed were such 
 as would have qualified me well enough for a 
 courier, and I think that I could have earned my 
 livelihood in that line of business without much 
 difficulty after I had been abroad for a while. 1 
 could speak several languages fluently, besides 
 liaving a smattering of a few more, and of two or 
 three patois ; I was well up in the relative values 
 of foreign coins, and capable of making a bargain 
 even with such slippery individuals as drivers, 
 jobmasters, laqicais-de-jylace, or boatmen. Besides 
 that, I was so thoroughly at home in railway 
 stations that I could find my way about in any 
 hitherto-unvisited one almost by instinct ; I could 
 usually tell, to within a few minutes, the exact 
 time when any rapide or grande-vitesse was due to 
 start from Paris for Spain, Germany, Italy, or the 
 Mediterranean ; when it ought to reach its destina- 
 tion ; and at about what hour it would be at the
 
 II.] FOREIGN TRAVEL. 21 
 
 more important towns on its route; and I had 
 quite mastered the intricacies of the English and 
 Foreign Bradshaiv, Livret-Chaix, and works of a 
 similarly perplexing kind, so as to be able to 
 discover easily whatever information they could 
 afford. M}^ expertness in this way was chiefly 
 owing to a happy thought that came into my head 
 at Bayonne one day when I happened to be left 
 alone for the afternoon with nothing to do, and no 
 book whatever available except a railway guide. 
 The prospect till night was not an exhilarating 
 one, and I was disconsolately wondering how to 
 get through the time, when it suddenly occurred 
 to me that I would play at being about to start 
 for St. Petersburg, or some other remote place, 
 and obliged to look out the best and fastest way 
 of getting there. I set to work accordingly with 
 the railway guide, and became so engrossed in the 
 game I had invented that I forgot all about the 
 passage of time, and was quite astonished to find 
 how quickly the afternoon slipped away whilst I 
 was settling various journeys to my satisfaction. 
 Such an easily -attainable means of amusement 
 was a glorious discover}^ to me, and one which I 
 commend to the notice of other travellers as a 
 resource for wet weather and dull moments. 
 Henceforth I had no dread of lacking amusement,
 
 22 JILL. [chap. 
 
 provided I had a time-table; and many a long hour 
 have I beguiled in planning skeleton tours to all 
 kinds of places — poring over the times of arrival 
 and departure of trains, diligences, steamers, and 
 other public conveyances, and weighing in my own 
 mind the prices and comparative merits of various 
 routes with every bit as much care and attention 
 as though the imaginary journey under considera- 
 tion were a reality, and I were the sole person 
 responsible to make arrangements for it. This 
 employment had for me something of the same 
 sort of fascination that working out a problem in 
 algebra has for some people — indeed I do not 
 think the two things are greatly unlike each other 
 in their natures. 
 
 Besides the accomplishments I have mentioned, 
 I had also some ideas as to foreign cookery, which 
 I picked up here and there on our travels — chiefly 
 on the rare occasions when we were in lodgings 
 anywhere. I do not think I ever met any mistress 
 of a lodging-house abroad who did not pride her- 
 self particularly upon her cooking of some one 
 dish (sometimes more than that, but at least one), 
 and who was not willing to initiate into its 
 mysteries any lodger who evinced a proper appre- 
 ciation of its excellence. There was an old woman 
 at Genoa, I remember, at whose house we stayed
 
 II.] FOREIGN TRAVEL. 23 
 
 for some weeks, who knew several delicious ways 
 of dressing maccaroni and vegetables, and who not 
 only allowed me to watch her whilst she cooked, 
 and gave me her favourite recipes, but even 
 stretched her good nature so far as to let me try 
 my own hand in the kitchen till I could join 
 practice to theory, and produce a tolerably success- 
 ful result for my labours. She was a kindly, 
 motherly old soul, who was impressed with the 
 notion that there was something peculiarly forlorn 
 and provocative of pity in my condition ; she 
 generally called me poverina (to my amusement), 
 and took me under her protection from an early 
 stage of our acquaintance. 
 
 " See, Signorina^' she said to me on the second 
 morning of our occupying her apartments, "you 
 will no doubt wish to buy velvet here — as all the 
 English do — and many other things also. But be 
 guided by me, and go not to buy alone, or you will 
 most certainly be cheated. No 1 when you see the 
 thing that you desire, come to me — take me to 
 where it is — point it out to me quietly. Then will 
 I go forward as though to buy it for myself, and 
 so shall you procure it at a reasonable price. You 
 who understand not the modes of our merchants, 
 would pay nearly, or perhaps even altogether — for 
 there is no saying how far the folly of an English
 
 24 JILL. [chap. 
 
 person may go ! — the amount that they demand 
 for their goods. But as for me ! — ah ! / know how 
 to arrange these people, and you shall see what I 
 will do ! I dare to flatter myself that there is not 
 a man or woman in the whole of Genoa who can 
 get the better of me in a bargain ! " 
 
 Experience soon showed me that this was no idle 
 vaunt. Though — to her great disappointment — I 
 declined to buy any velvet, yet I gladly availed 
 myself of her services for other purchases, and 
 never in my life, either before or since, have I met 
 with any one who was her match in bargaining. 
 She never bought anything at a shop or stall with- 
 out having taken a final farewell and departed 
 from it at least twice, and then suffered herself to 
 be brought back by the persuasions of the owner ; 
 I think she regarded this going away and return- 
 ing as quite a necessary part of the negotiation, 
 without which it could not possibly come to a 
 proper conclusion. At all events her efforts were 
 invariably successful, and she forced shopkeepers, 
 market-people, and sellers of every sort with wdiom 
 she had dealings, to accept reductions of price 
 which seemed to me almost incredible. Mean- 
 while I, in whose behalf she was exerting herself, 
 used merely to assist as a passive spectator, feeling 
 that my knowledge of mankind was being enlarged,
 
 ir.] - FOREIGN TRAVEL. 25 
 
 and that I was gaining a valuable insight into the 
 amount of dishonesty and cunning that was latent 
 in human beings in general, and Italians in par- 
 ticular. This was especially my feeling wlien, as 
 more than once happened, I perceived that my 
 friend herself was not altogether exempt from the 
 failings of her country-people ; and that, relying 
 on my knowledge of Italian being less than it really 
 was, she was making a little profit at my expense 
 out of the transaction she was conducting for me. 
 This was a fresh revelation of the depravity of 
 human nature, and impressed upon my youthful 
 mind the folly of trusting absolutely to any profes- 
 sions of friendship, however genuine they might 
 appear. But, after all, it was not to be expected 
 that she would take a great deal of trouble for 
 a stranger gratuitously and out of pure love ; 
 besides that, she allowed no one except herself to 
 cheat me, so that in the end my pocket was saved, 
 notwithstanding the commissions that she managed 
 adroitly to retain for her own benefit ; and as, 
 furthermore, I derived much instruction from her 
 in the art of barfraininsr, I saw that on the whole 
 I was a gainer by her help, and had nothing to 
 complain of So I let her act for me as before, 
 chuckling inwardly at her vehement denuncia- 
 tions of the roguery that surrounded us, and not
 
 26 JILL. [chap. 
 
 telling her of what I had discovered regarding her 
 own. 
 
 I remember but little of most of the innumer- 
 able people with whom my father was continually 
 making acquaintance ; they seemed to me to come 
 and go in endless succession, having to do with us 
 only for a few days or hours, and then vanishing 
 into space, with about as much likelihood of our 
 ever seeing them again as though we had all been 
 so many dead leaves whirled away by gales from 
 opposite directions. But there was one of these 
 stray acquaintances who made more impression 
 on me than the rest, and whom I mention here 
 because of the relations which she and I were 
 destined to have together in the future — little as 
 we then suspected it. 
 
 Kitty Mervyn, the individual in question, was 
 a girl of about a year older than myself, clever, 
 vivacious, and agreeable, and promising to be very 
 good-looking by the time she should be seventeen. 
 She and I were cousins in some far-off de<?ree, 
 because her father. Lord Mervyn, was a cousin 
 many times removed of my grandfather. Lord 
 Gilbert. The cousinship, however, was so remote 
 that we did not know of each other's existence ; and 
 my father and the Mervyns had never happened 
 to meet until they arrived one evening at the
 
 II.] FOKEIGN TEAVEL. 27 
 
 hotel at which we were staying at Lugano. Then 
 the distant connection served as an introduction 
 uetween us ; and as the next day was a dreary 
 wet Sunday, the feeling of ennui and desire to kill 
 time that was common to us all, led to our seeing 
 more of one another than we should probably have 
 done otherwise. Kitty and I paired off' together 
 naturally, as being nearly of the same age. As 
 far as I can recollect, we spent most of the day in 
 watching and laughing at the performances of 
 some embryo bicyclists, who were too enthusiastic 
 to be deterred by either rain or frequent tumbles, 
 and who went on grinding perseveringiy on their 
 bicycles up and down a bit of road in sight of 
 our windows which was their practice - ground. 
 We did not find it very lively, certainly ; but then 
 there was nothing else to do, unless we had struck 
 up a romantic friendship and exchanged senti- 
 mental confidences — as some girls thus situated 
 *.would have done — and neither she nor I were at 
 all disposed for that sort of thing. Our intercourse 
 lasted only for that one day, as next morning the 
 Mervyns departed south, whilst we went to Como. 
 But in the short time I had been with Kitty she 
 had somehow made a stronger impression than 
 usual on ray unimpressionable mind, and the 
 recollection of her lingered in my memory longer
 
 28 JILL. [chap. II. 
 
 than that of any one else whom we met. Her 
 good looks attracted me ; her cleverness and live- 
 liness made her very good company. Notwith- 
 standing an incipient haughtiness about her, which 
 might develop as she grew older, perhaps, she 
 seemed at present to have a decided capacity for 
 being what I called jolly; and, altogether, she 
 had given me the idea of being remarkably like- 
 able. I was sorry that the chances of travel made 
 us separate so soon, and wondered if she was at 
 all inclined to return the liking which I had 
 taken to her. But she passed out of my head after 
 a while ; and it was only now and then that I 
 recollected her existence, and thought how pleasant 
 it would be if we happened to meet again some 
 day.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 A widow's manceuyees. 
 
 The life of travelling companion to my father 
 being very much to my taste, I was naturally dis- 
 gusted at its coming to a conclusion. This happened 
 when I was about fifteen, and was caused by an 
 event to which I objected strongly, and which was 
 destined to have a most important effect on my 
 subsequent existence. 
 
 AYe were making a tour through Holland and 
 Friesland, and, when at Amsterdam, happened to 
 make acquaintance with a Mrs. Grove, a widow, 
 accompanied by two daughters, who were respect- 
 ively two and three years older than me. I did 
 not take to her at all, and thought she seemed a 
 flattering, lying, pushing, cringing, vulgar indi- 
 vidual ; but having carelessly thought that much 
 of her, I dismissed her from my mind as a person 
 with whom I had nothing to do, and whose character 
 was quite immaterial to me — little thinking what 
 a hetc noire she was to prove to me afterwards !
 
 30 JILL. [chap. 
 
 She was on the look-out for a successor for the 
 deceased Mr. Grove ; and as my father appeared 
 to her to be a very suitable person for the vacancy, 
 she began at once to lay siege to his affections. 
 She did not, however, wish to show her hand too 
 plainly at first, by attaching herself to us so openly 
 as to make it obvious that she meant to pursue 
 us from place to place. Therefore, the plan she 
 adopted was, to discover, by apparently careless 
 questioning, whither Sir Anthony's wayward fancy 
 was likely to take him next ; having done this, she 
 would direct her own course to the same district, 
 go to some principal town in it which we should 
 be pretty sure to visit sooner or later, wait for us 
 there, and then pretend to be greatly surprised 
 when we arrived, and to consider the meeting a 
 purely accidental one. For instance, my father 
 intended to go from Friesland to Mlinster, which 
 he considered would be good headquarters whence 
 to go to the neighbouring town of Soest, where he 
 wanted to see the Wiesen Kirche, and other speci- 
 mens of Gothic architecture. He had spoken of 
 this in Mrs. Grove's presence, so that she was quite 
 aware of his intentions in the matter. Conse- 
 quently there occurred what she called a curious 
 coincidence, as she also was moved by the self-same 
 thirst for archaeological studies at that particular
 
 III.] A widow's manceuvres. 31 
 
 time; and thus when we reached Miinster from 
 Winschoten, we foimd her already installed in the 
 former city before us. At Cassel and at Frankfort 
 did we again fall in with her ; and on the very first 
 night of our being at Heidelberg she and her 
 daughters joined us under the walls of the old 
 castle, as we sauntered about in the dark and 
 admired the brilliant fireflies. 
 
 Sir Anthony was too much a man of the world 
 to ascribe these perpetually recurring meetings 
 entirely to chance, and soon began to have a 
 shrewd suspicion of the widow's intentions. Then 
 he took to amusincj himself with her, withholding 
 information as to his movements when she cross- 
 questioned him about them, putting her on a 
 wrong scent, and otherwise baffling her curiosity. 
 Once or twice he joked about the matter with me 
 (towards whom she affected extreme friendliness), 
 and asked me whether I thought she wanted him 
 as a match for herself or for one of the daughters ? 
 This behaviour of his calmed the state of perturba- 
 tion into which I had been previously thrown ; 
 for I was most indignant at the notion of her 
 wanting to marry him, and was in a terrible fright 
 lest she should succeed. For one thing the mere 
 idea of a stepmother was repugnant to me — be she 
 who she might ; and besides that, I had not the
 
 32 JILL. [chap. 
 
 sliglitest confidence in the sincerity of Mrs. Grove's 
 demonstrations of affection for me, which were, I 
 felt sure, only assumed in order to ingratiate her- 
 self with my father; for I saw that she — like 
 every one else — was misled by appearances, and 
 took it for granted that a man who insisted on 
 taking his daughter with him wherever he went, 
 must be so devoted to her as to be certain to 
 entertain kindly feelings towards any one who 
 should appear fond of her. But my anxiety was 
 relieved when I found that he was by no means 
 blind to her designs, and was quite ready to laugh 
 at them openly, and to take a mischievous pleasure 
 in teasing her. That reassured me, and made me 
 feel satisfied that her labours were in vain, and 
 that I had nothing to apprehend from them. 
 
 This easy tranquillisation of my fears just 
 showed my youth and inexperience. Had I been 
 somewhat older I should have known what irre- 
 sistible power over men almost all widows possess 
 — which is the natural result of the insight into 
 man's nature that they have acquired already, 
 during their first matrimonial experiences. Mrs. 
 Grove was no exception to the rule, and was as 
 dangerous a widow as need be — having a thorough 
 knowledge of the weaknesses of the male character 
 and of the way to humour them, and understand-
 
 III.] A widow's maxceuyres. 33 
 
 ing perfectly how to make herself agreeable to any 
 lord of creation whom fortune might throw in her 
 way. 
 
 It was no part of her tactics to leave Sir Anthony 
 long in doubt that it was for herself, and not for 
 either of her daughters, that she desired to capti- 
 vate his affections. She was certainly vulgar ; but 
 as, also, she was a comely, well-preserved woman 
 of little more than forty, who looked rather less 
 than her age, it tickled his vanity pleasantly to 
 find himself attractive to her ; and notwithstand- 
 ing his having ridiculed her for setting her cap at 
 him, he did not, nevertheless, altogether dislike it 
 in the bottom of his heart. It was true that he 
 had not previously contemplated marrying again ; 
 but then that was only because he had not yet 
 met any particular person to suggest the thought 
 to him since my mother's death ; and he had been 
 sufficiently occupied and amused with his travels 
 for the notion not to have occurred to him of itself. 
 Xow, however, that the idea was thus put into his 
 head, he began to reflect upon the matter seriously ; 
 the more he considered it — being all the while 
 insensibly influenced in its favour by the flattering 
 attentions and blandishments of the widow — the 
 more favourably did he regard it, and presently 
 came to the conclusion that a wife was really 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 JILL. [chap. 
 
 almost indispensable to his comfort. He could 
 forgive a little vulgarity provided she had money 
 to gild it ; and, feeling that Mrs. Grove's pecuniary 
 circumstances had become suddenly interesting to 
 him, he began putting out feelers on the subject 
 when talking to her. He imagined himself to be 
 going to ^York most diplomatically, and to have 
 artfully concealed the true motive of his questions 
 and remarks ; but the widow was more than a 
 match for him. She at once detected liis curiosity, 
 and guessed the reason for it ; and managed 
 cleverly to impress him with tlie idea that her 
 jointure and settlements were considerably larger 
 than was the actual case. Whether or not she 
 would have accomplished her purpose without 
 this stratagem, it is impossible to say ; but, at any 
 rate, it did what she intended it to do, and brouglit 
 matters to a climax. The belief that a rich wife 
 was to be had, and that it would be foolish of him 
 to miss such an opportunity, put an end to his 
 irresolution. He proposed, and was accepted ; 
 and within two months from the time that they 
 were introduced to each other at Amsterdam, she 
 succeeded in attainini]: what she desired, and 
 became Lady Trecastle. 
 
 Her ladyship, being a thorough John Bull at 
 heart, had no great fondness for foreign places and
 
 III.] A widow's manceuyees. 35 
 
 people. She liad come to the continent because 
 she believed it to be a likely hunting-ground 
 whereon to find a husband ; and as soon as she 
 had secured her prey she did not care about stay- 
 ing abroad any longer. Another thing that made 
 her wish to return to her native land was, that she 
 was extremely proud of the newly- acquired handle 
 to her name, and was burning to air it amongst 
 those who would properly appreciate it ; for what 
 country is there in Europe, Asia, or Africa (about 
 America I say nothing), where a title produces so 
 much effect, and is so bowed down to and wor- 
 shipped as in that abode of snobs — England ? 
 Therefore, as soon as she was en^a^ed to Sir 
 Anthony, she determined to endeavour to make 
 him give up his nomadic existence, return home, 
 and settle there. By way of paving the way in 
 this direction she would reproach him, half in jest 
 and half in earnest, for being an absentee, and 
 having no proper patriotic spirit ; or else she 
 would deliver a harangue upon the roguery of 
 most agents, and the folly of leaving property to 
 be managed by them instead of looking after it in 
 person ; and with these and similar observations, 
 she sought to bring him to wish himself to do the 
 thing that she desired should be done. Finding 
 him more inclined to listen to her than she had
 
 36 JILL. [chap. 
 
 expected, she grew bolder, and passed from hints 
 to a more direct expression of her desires. He 
 was evidently not greatly averse to discontinue 
 his foreign rambles, as I perceived with sorrow. 
 The fact was that he had only gone abroad because 
 my mother's death gave him gloomy and disagree- 
 able associations with his house, and on that 
 account he had taken a temporary dislike to it ; 
 but his facility for getting rid of whatever was 
 unpleasant had made him quite shake off that 
 feeling of dislike by now. Before long Mrs. Grove 
 had worked upon him so far that he began even 
 to feel eager to return home, and to look forward 
 with pleasurable anticipation to the idea of show- 
 ing the place to its new mistress, and introducing 
 her to the society of the neighbourhood. 
 
 I said what I could to oppose going back to 
 England whenever I had an opportunity ; but 
 alas ! what chance had I against the influence of 
 the widow ? Of course she carried her point with- 
 out difficulty ; and, to my great grief, notice to 
 quit was sent to the tenants of Castle Manor. It so 
 happened that there were accidental circumstances' 
 which made it convenient to the tenants to leave 
 at once, without waiting for the expiration of the 
 term of the notice, and thus the house was vacated 
 at an unexpectedly early date. No sooner was
 
 III.] A widow's manoeuvres. 37 
 
 this the case than Sir Anthony and Lady Trecastle 
 returned home and established themselves there, 
 accompanied by their joint families, which con- 
 sisted of Margaret Grove, aged eighteen; Jane 
 Grove, aged seventeen; and myself, aged rather 
 more than fifteen.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 A TIGHT CUKB. 
 
 When an indolent, easy-going, trouble -hating 
 man, such as my father, marries an energetic, 
 bustling, authority-loving woman, such as Mrs. 
 Grove, it is not hard to foresee which of the two 
 will bear rule in the establishment. A very brief 
 acquaintance with Sir Anthony sufficed to show 
 the widow that, with a little management on her 
 part, she would be able to govern the household as 
 she liked ; that as long as he was kept amused he 
 would not bother himself to interfere with her 
 arrangements ; and that all she need do in order 
 to keep the reins entirely in her own hands, was 
 to take care that her way and his were identical 
 in whatever affected his personal comfort — she 
 would then be free to please herself as far as all 
 other things were concerned. She was not, at 
 first, altogether easy in her mind as to how he 
 would bear the discovery of what the real state of 
 her money matters was ; which discovery, as she
 
 CHAP. IV.] A TIGHT CURB. 39 
 
 knew, he must inevitably make soon, and might 
 possibly cause him to be seriously angry with her. 
 But she need not have feared this with a man of 
 his disposition, who never worried himself about 
 anything that could not be helped. Though he 
 was, undoubtedly, much annoyed to find how 
 much poorer she was than he had supposed, yet 
 he reflected, with his usual philosophy, that it was 
 no use making a fuss about it, now that he had 
 married her, and that what could not be altered 
 had better be made the best of. So he gulped 
 down the disappointment with a wry face or two, 
 and did not attempt to make her suffer for her 
 deceitfulness as she deserved. 
 
 As soon as she was satisfied on this head, and 
 felt that she was established in her seat securely, 
 she turned her attention to me — who would 
 infinitely have preferred being let alone. I had 
 never trusted to the sincerity of the professions of 
 affection she had lavished on me in the early 
 stages of our acquaintance, when she had imagined 
 me to be my father's especial pet ; and it speedily 
 became evident that this distrust of mine had 
 been well founded. She thought it quite worth 
 while taking trouble to keep the master of the 
 house in good humour, and would study and 
 humour his likes and dislikes in the most amiable
 
 40 JILL. [chap. 
 
 manner possible. But slie saw no reason for 
 extending the same consideration to a mere insig- 
 nificant nobody ; and when she had discovered 
 how little he cared for me, and that she might do 
 as she pleased regarding me and my affairs with- 
 out danger of interference from him, she proceeded 
 to take my education in hand, and conduct it 
 according to her own notions. As her ideas on 
 the subject and mine were entirely different, and 
 as the more she and I saw of one another the 
 more we disliked each other, the result of this 
 meddling of hers was fatal to my comfort. And 
 the two or three years following my father's second 
 marriage were so horribly dull and tedious to me 
 that I cannot recall them without a shudder. 
 
 Everything seemed to go against me from the 
 time of that wedding. In the first place, I resented 
 having a stepmother, and finding myself forced 
 suddenly into terms of intimacy with the three 
 strangers (her and her two daughters) who had 
 all at once become part of my family. Then came 
 the termination of the foreign wanderings that I 
 had found so pleasant. And now came the cul- 
 minating misery of being under the commands of 
 a selfish, vulgar, lying, bullying, stiugy, preten- 
 tious, plausible, tyrannical woman, whom I could 
 not endure, and who fully returned my dislike.
 
 lY.] A TIGHT CURB. 41 
 
 I had an unlucky knack of perpetually irritating 
 her, and was ahvays sure to be in the wrong in 
 her eyes. Either I said or did something that 
 was contrary to her notions of what I ought to 
 have said or done ; or I scandalised her by dis- 
 playing grievous ignorance of some subject which 
 she deemed an essential branch of knowledge ; or 
 else I shocked her prejudices in some other w-ay. 
 She was not the woman to put up quietly with 
 offences of this kind in her own household, and 
 proceeded without delay to attempt to remedy my 
 deficiencies. Accordingly she informed my father 
 that she considered my mental condition to have 
 been neglected terribly ; that I had been allowed 
 to run wild till I was very nearly ruined ; and 
 that she saw no chance of my ever becoming a 
 properly behaved young lady and decent member 
 of society unless a governess were procured for 
 me immediately, and I were kept strictly to the 
 schoolroom until such time as I should come out. 
 Should she, therefore, engage a governess? My 
 father, as usual, made no objection to a proposal 
 which would in no way interfere with his own 
 comfort. All he said was that she could do just 
 as she thought best about it ; that he did not 
 himself see much to complain of in me, and had 
 thought I was not at all bad company, considering
 
 42 JILL. [chap. 
 
 my youth ; but that he had no doubt she under- 
 stood better than him what was necessary for girls, 
 and that whatever she did was sure to be right. 
 
 Armed with this permission, she at once took 
 steps to carry out her intention, and a few days 
 afterwards announced to me the contemplated 
 innovation. 
 
 " Your father and I have agreed, Ina," she said, 
 " that it is high time to make a change in your 
 present mode of life — you need to be put into 
 harness for a bit and broken in. Therefore, I have 
 engaged a governess for you, and she will be here 
 next week. What I wish to impress uj)on you 
 now is, that when she comes you must do what 
 she tells you, and that I shall expect you to pass 
 your time with her. I do not approve of your 
 fondness for sitting in your own room ; nor yet ot 
 your habit of appearing continually amongst us 
 elders when there are visitors here, just as if you 
 were grown up and already introduced into society ! 
 The drawing-room is not the proper place for a 
 girl of your age. Eemember that in future you 
 are to remain always in the schoolroom when 
 indoors ; and that, when not at lessons, you must 
 employ yourself there in some quiet and ladylike 
 pursuit — needlework perhaps, or something of 
 that kind. And when you go out you will walk
 
 IV.] A TIGHT CURB. 43 
 
 with your governess, and not go climbing trees, or 
 digging out rabbits, or racing all over the place 
 like a w^ild thing, as you generally do." 
 
 The idea of being thus hampered and restrained 
 filled me with dismay ; and in my despair I 
 appealed to my father, in hopes that he would 
 protect my cherished liberty of action. 
 
 "Why should I have a governess at all?" I 
 exclaimed to him ; " I'm sure I've got on very 
 well without, for ever so long ! But even if I mn 
 to have one, surely I may be free of the hateful 
 thing out of lesson-time, mayn't I? Just think 
 how horrid it would be to be obliged to be always 
 with her — sitting in the room with her all day, 
 and only going for stupid, straight-on-end grinds 
 along the hard high road with her when I go out ! 
 Do say that I'm not to be condemned to that, at 
 all events !" 
 
 No doubt I was a fool for my pains, and ought 
 to have known better than to suppose that I could 
 move him to oppose his wife on my behalf. So 
 the event proved, for he declined to interfere in 
 the matter ; and the only effect produced by my 
 appeal was to strengthen Lady Trecastle's hands by 
 increasing her conviction of the extreme unlikeli- 
 hood of my father's ever paying attention to any 
 complaint that I might make to him. From that
 
 44 JILL. [chap. 
 
 time forth, therefore, she felt more secure than 
 ever in her authority over me, and her tyranny 
 increased accordingly. When the governess arrived 
 I was kept immured in the schoolroom the greater 
 part of each day, and was surrounded by a variety 
 of petty restraints and restrictions which were 
 enough to have worried any girl, and were especi- 
 ally vexatious and irksome to one who had had 
 the unusual amount of independence which I had 
 been enjoying of recent years. I found myself 
 deprived of freedom ; always under surveillance ; 
 obliged to learn uninteresting lessons ; bored ; 
 and constantly tacked on to the petticoats of an 
 individual whose office of governess made her 
 necessarily hateful in my eyes, however charming 
 — even angelic — she might really be. Of course 
 such an existence was perfectly odious to me, and 
 I do not think that I could have anyhow managed 
 to endure it as long as I did, if I had not fortun- 
 ately hit upon a means whereby I could to some 
 extent relieve its dreary monotony. This resource 
 consisted in victimising, to the extent of my power, 
 any rash female who had undertaken to instruct 
 me, playing off upon her ill-natured pranks of all 
 kinds, and leavinGj no stone unturned to make her 
 life a burden to her till I had fairly driven her out 
 of the house.
 
 IV.] A TIGHT CUEB. 45 
 
 What a dreadful confession of unamiability ! 
 some reader may, perhaps, here exclaim. Well — I 
 do not deny it. Be it remembered that the purpose 
 of this narrative is, not to set forth an imaginary 
 picture of virtue and excellence, but simply an 
 accurate likeness of myself ; and I should evidently 
 fail of accomplishing that purpose if I were to con- 
 ceal or gloss over those sentiments which I really 
 entertained and acted upon. But even if my 
 behaviour does lay me open to the charge of un- 
 amiability, I do not think that that need be 
 wondered at, when the peculiarities of my natural 
 disposition, of my bringing-up, and of my whole 
 circumstances, are taken into consideration. 
 
 The occupation of bullying and annoying my 
 governesses to the utmost possible extent had a 
 double recommendation in my eyes. Not only did 
 it supply an ample field for my ingenuity, and give 
 me something amusing to think about in the dreary 
 walks and long hours spent in the schoolroom, but 
 also it afforded me the satisfaction of retaliation. 
 I had a savage joy in knowing that I was able to 
 pay off my companion for some of the vexations 
 that she was the 'means of inflicting on me ; and 
 I relished the thought that even if I did have a 
 rough time myself, yet at all events I did not 
 suffer alone. Endless, therefore, were the tricks
 
 46 JILL. [chap. 
 
 and practical jokes wliicli I used to devise and 
 execute for the aggravation of whatever unlucky 
 individual happened to have taken charge of my 
 education ; and so skilful was I in my operations 
 that it was but seldom any piece of mischief could 
 be traced home to me, however greatly I might be 
 suspected of its authorship. I was an adept, too, 
 at the art of being extremely insulting and pro- 
 voking without saying anything that would seem 
 a just cause of irritation if repeated to a third 
 person. I knew how to speak w^ith an offensive- 
 ness of voice and manner which gave an injurious 
 significance to words that were in themselves inno- 
 cent ; and by this method I have often succeeded 
 in making a governess wiklly angry, although I 
 had given her nothing tangible that could be taken 
 hold of and brought against me to substantiate a 
 charge of rudeness. If she complained that I had 
 been impertinent, I assumed an air of injured 
 innocence, repeated exactly what I had said, asked 
 wdiat harm there was in that ? and declared that 
 it was very unfair to blame me because Miss so- 
 and-so had chosen to fly into a passion about 
 nothing. In fact I was aggravating enough to 
 have provoked the patient Grizzel herself; and 
 as governesses are not much apt to be patient 
 Grizzels in their relations to their pupils (how-
 
 IV.] A TIGHT CURB. 47 
 
 ever gentle and long-suffering they may make 
 themselves appear to the heads of the establish- 
 ment), our schoolroom was in a constant state of 
 turmoil and ferment, and there was a remarkable 
 difficulty in getting governesses to stay at Castle 
 Manor. About a month or six weeks was gener- 
 ally enough to disgust them with the situation, 
 and they rarely failed to give notice at the end of 
 that time. This was an event that always gave 
 me a sensation of unmixed satisfaction ; as, for 
 one thing, I then felt that I had scored a fresh 
 victory and routed another enemy, and also, I 
 knew that the arrival of her successor could not 
 fail to bring some small amount of variety into 
 the monotonous routine of existence of which I 
 was so deadly tired. 
 
 But this constant change of governesses over 
 which I rejoiced, and which was chiefly my doing, 
 was by no means equally agreeable to Lady Tre- 
 castle. When an instructress went, it was she 
 who had to procure a successor ; and she did not 
 find it at all amusing to be incessantly answering 
 advertisements, writing for characters, and that 
 sort of thing. And as, notwithstanding the diffi- 
 culty of ever actually j9?'om?zv7 a misdemeanour 
 against me, she had strong doubts of my innocence, 
 therefore she considered me responsible for the
 
 48 JILL. [chap. 
 
 bother she continually had about governesses, 
 and regarded me with increased disfavour on that 
 account. She had the sense to suspect that there 
 would not be such endless storms in the school- 
 room if the pupil were not unusually unmanageable 
 and turbulent; and, acting on that opinion, she 
 made several efforts to induce me to be more 
 tractable, in order that thereby she might be saved 
 the trouble that my conduct entailed upon her. 
 
 At one time she tried the effect of addressing 
 serious rebukes and admonitions to me ; but I 
 cared not one straw for them. Then she increased 
 the strictness of my confinement, and ordained 
 that every disturbance should always be followed 
 by the loss of the next half- holiday or other 
 pleasure of which I might have a chance ; but 
 still I remained unsubdued. Then a third method 
 of overcoming me suddenly struck her, and she 
 one day wound up a lengthy scolding by declaring 
 that her patience was at an end, that she would 
 not stand the perpetual commotions I caused 
 any longer, and that the very next time one 
 occurred I should be packed off to some school at 
 once. 
 
 Now it was all very well for her to talk big of 
 sending me to school ; but in point of fact I felt 
 pretty sure that she would do nothing of the kind,
 
 ly.] A TIGHT CURB. 49 
 
 because it was very convenient to lier to have a 
 governess in the house on account of her own two 
 daughters, for whom she did not want to go to the 
 expense of masters, and who often needed assist- 
 ance in the various accomplishments she wished 
 them to acquire. This assistance they were in 
 the habit of receiving from whoever happened to 
 be in charge of me, though they were too old to 
 be regularly in the schoolroom ; and as my going 
 to school would remove the ostensible reason for 
 having a governess at Castle Manor, it was not at 
 all likely that she meant to do what she said. 
 
 But though she knew the threat to be an empty 
 one, that did not at all hinder her from uttering 
 it. Being at her wits' end for something to hold 
 over me in terrorem, it suddenly occurred to her 
 that a girl who had always lived with her own be- 
 longings, as I had done, would probably dread the 
 notion of being sent away alone amongst strangers, 
 and that therefore the school project stood a very 
 good chance of awing me into submission. 
 
 Instead of that, however, I evinced such delight 
 at the prospect as took the wind out of her sails 
 completely. I had not in reality the slightest 
 objection to school, because it would be a change, 
 and anything in the shape of a change would be 
 welcome. And of course my manifestations of 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 JILL. [chap. 
 
 delight were all the more exaggerated as I per- 
 ceived her annoyance at finding me look forward 
 joyfully to tlie thing she hoped I should have 
 feared. Thus she was thoroughly discomfited ; 
 and never again did I hear her say I was to go to 
 school, though I several times returned to the sub- 
 ject of myself, asking to know when I was going, 
 saying I hoped it would be soon, etc. etc. I must 
 say that I greatly enjoyed having triumphed over 
 her so completely ; and I reflected with malicious 
 pleasure on the vexation and humiliation it must 
 be to her to know that I had detected the empti- 
 ness of her threat, and could henceforth look down 
 upon her with all the contempt which an utterer 
 of such threats is sure to inspire. 
 
 But though I did what I could to procure a 
 little change and excitement by making myself 
 disagreeable, and plaguing my stepmother and 
 teachers, yet the tedium of my life was so great 
 as to be almost unendurable ; and aojain and again 
 did I consider the expediency of putting an end 
 to it by running away from home, and trusting to 
 my own resources for getting a livelihood. I used 
 to meditate seriously on how the thing was to be 
 done, arranging ever}^ detail, foreseeing and meeting 
 probable obstacles, providing for possible contin- 
 gencies, and working the whole scheme out from
 
 IT.] A TIGHT CURB. 51 
 
 beginning to end in my own mind. It seemed to 
 me quite feasible ; and as I was not a bit afraid 
 of failure, or of what might happen to me when 
 cast upon the world by myself, I should certainly 
 have put my idea into practice if there had not 
 been one consideration which deterred me and 
 kept me where I was. This was the thought that 
 I was very nearly seventeen. At that age I was 
 convinced that girls invariably came out, and 
 therefore took it for granted that I should do so 
 also. And as the yoke under which I groaned 
 would be broken before long in the natural course 
 of events, it seemed better to resign myself for the 
 short space during which I should still be subject 
 to it, rather than to anticipate the day of emancipa- 
 tion by so desperate a measure as running away 
 from home. 
 
 But in my calculations as to the time of my 
 being brought out, I had quite omitted one most 
 important factor, viz. what might be my step- 
 mother's wishes in regjard to that matter. These, 
 as it happened, were diametrically opposed to mine. 
 She had no fancy to go about with three young 
 ladies in tow, nor did she feel inclined to risk 
 spoiling the matrimonial chances of Margaret or 
 Jane by leaving either of them at home, and taking 
 me out with her instead. Therefore she intended 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY.
 
 52 JILL. [chap. 
 
 to keep me back in a state of pupilage as long as 
 possible, and to endeavour to get one or both of 
 her own daughters married out of the way before 
 I should make my appearance in society. In con- 
 sequence of this private scheme of hers, the attain- 
 ment of the age of seventeen, from which I had 
 hoped such great things, produced no amelioration 
 in my condition. I was astonished and disgusted 
 to find that the days and weeks dragged heavily 
 on at lessons as before, and brought no indications 
 of the approach of that liberty to which I had 
 looked forward confidently. Of course, I was not 
 going to stand this without complaining, so I 
 remonstrated with Lady Trecastle, declaring that 
 I was being treated very unfairly, that every girl 
 came out at seventeen, and that I ought now to 
 be let to share equally with my step -sisters in 
 whatever invitations for balls, dinners, or other 
 gaieties might arrive at Castle Manor. Mj com- 
 plaints were unheeded, however, and my grievance 
 remained unredressed. I was not fit to go into 
 society, she said ; I was so untrained, stupid, dis- 
 agreeable, and bad-tempered, that she would be 
 ashamed to take me out, and I must positively 
 remain in the schoolroom till my manners and 
 temper should be improved. Chafing and fretting 
 under repeated disappointments, I managed to get
 
 IV.] A TIGHT CUEB. 53 
 
 through another dreary year of monotony; but 
 when my eighteenth birthday arrived and found 
 me still a prisoner in the schoolroom, I resolved 
 not to stand this treatment any longer. It became 
 evident to me that her ladyship destined me to 
 play the part of Cinderella. As I had no fancy 
 for that role, and as I had not a fairy godmother 
 to come to my assistance, I must take the matter 
 into my own hands and act fairy godmother for 
 myself. Therefore I determined to execute the 
 plan which I had already reflected upon so often, 
 and to run away from home and take my chance 
 of what mi"ht afterwards befall me.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 BKEAKING LOOSE. 
 
 Had running away from home been a brand new 
 idea that had never before occurred to me, I dare- 
 say I should have had to postpone carrying it out 
 till I had had time to mature the design and con- 
 sider how it was to be accomplished. As it was, 
 however, there was no need for delay on that 
 account, for I had pondered on the subject often 
 enough to be thoroughly familiar with it, and to 
 have discovered a variety of methods for executing 
 the project. In all these schemes there was one 
 point which I had always kept steadily in view, 
 and that was the importance of so arranging my 
 flight as to secure myself a long start before my 
 absence should be discovered. I had but little 
 fear of managing to evade pursuit, if only I could 
 get a good way ahead of it at first. I saw that 
 the best means of ensuring this would be to have 
 the coast clear of authorities when I took myself 
 off. Therefore I determined to put off my depart-
 
 CHAP, v.] BREAKING LOOSE. 55 
 
 lire for a few days longer, in order to avail myself 
 of a particularly favourable opportunity which 
 would then occur, as my father, step-mother, and 
 two step-sisters would be going to stay away for 
 a ball and other gaieties at a friend's house. 
 When once they were out of the way, there would 
 be no one to interfere with me except my gover- 
 ness, Miss Smith, and I thought it would be odd 
 indeed if I could not manage to get rid of her also 
 somehow or other. Several expedients whereby 
 this might be effected soon suggested themselves 
 to me, and after a little consideration T made up 
 my mind to try to impose upon her with a sham 
 telegram. She was a somewhat colourless indi- 
 vidual, much given to writing letters and reading 
 novels, nervous, easily fussed, sentimental, and 
 possessing a sister named Alice who kept a school 
 at Carlisle, and to whom it was evident that she 
 was very much attached. Now I felt certain that 
 if she believed this beloved sister to be in need of 
 her, nothing would induce her to stay away, and 
 that a telegraphic summons from Miss Alice Smith 
 would cause my Miss Smith to rush off to Carlisle 
 as fast as trains would take her there. Such a 
 summons, therefore, I must contrive that she should 
 receive. The only difficulty about forging the 
 telegram I required for my purpose was that I
 
 56 JILL. [chap. 
 
 had not the proper paper or envelope ; the latter 
 I might possibly contrive to do without, if neces- 
 sary, but the former was absolutely indispensable, 
 and if I could not get hold of a piece of it, I 
 should have to relinquish the telegram scheme 
 altogether and substitute some other. 
 
 In order to procure what I wanted I pretended 
 to be in need of stamps, and upon that pretext 
 went to the post-office at Greenlea, as our village 
 was called. The post-office was also a telegraph- 
 office and sort of general emporium, and was kept 
 by an old man named Jones, who had been there 
 for years, and was certain not to dream it possible 
 that one of the ladies from Castle Manor should 
 have nefarious designs upon any of the stores over 
 which he presided. Having bought my stamps, 
 and made one or two friendly remarks to the pro- 
 prietor, I affected a sudden interest in the working 
 of the telegraph, and was, as I expected, promptly 
 invited behind the counter to inspect the machine 
 more closely. The blank forms and envelopes 
 requisite for sending out messages were lying close 
 by amongst some other papers, and somehow I 
 was awkward enough to upset the whole lot of 
 papers together on the ground. " Oh how very 
 stupid of me!" I exclaimed, penitently, kneeling 
 down as I spoke, and beginning to collect the
 
 v.] BREAKING LOOSE. 67 
 
 scattered papers ; " I'll pick them up again in a 
 moment, Jones ; don't you trouble !" What with 
 old age and rheumatism, Jones' joints were some- 
 what stiff, and he was not sorry to be saved from 
 the necessity of stooping down in the rather con- 
 fined space behind the counter. 
 
 " Well, indeed, 'tis a shame for you to be doing 
 that, Miss, and me looking on idle," he replied ; 
 " but I'm much obliged to you, too, and I won't 
 say no to a good offer. We old folks ben't quite 
 so flippant to move ourselves up and down as you 
 young 'uns be ; and it be a bit narrer in here 
 atween the wall and the counter, you see." So 
 he complacently received the papers from me and 
 restored them to their places as I handed them 
 up in instalments ; and he never missed the 
 telegraph form and envelope which I slipped 
 swiftly into my pocket whilst his eyes were turned 
 in another direction. I left his shop in triumph, 
 having thus supplied myself with the means to 
 which I trusted for removing Miss Smith off the 
 premises ; and I was now all ready to commence 
 operations as soon as m}^ stepmother and her 
 husband and daughters should take themselves 
 off upon their intended visit. 
 
 The eventful day arrived, and I stood looking 
 at them drive away from the house with a curious
 
 58 JILL. [chap. 
 
 mixture of feelings — partly gloomy and partly 
 cheerful. There went these people who constituted 
 my family, and I meant never to set eyes on them 
 again if I could help it. They were going to lark 
 about, dance, be jolly, and amuse themselves in 
 all kinds of ways, and it was a horrid shame that 
 I was not going too. I should have been, only that 
 Lady Trecastle would not let me have fair play, 
 and had chosen to spite me and to treat me like 
 a child when I was not one. I considered that she 
 had behaved infamously to me. Other young 
 people of my age and position could go to balls, 
 enjoy themselves, have lots of fun, and frolic to 
 their heart's content, and it was grossly unjust to 
 debar me from doing the same. I was an op- 
 pressed and harshly-treated victim. I was being 
 defrauded of my rights and ousted from my proper 
 place through the enmity of a malevolent step- 
 mother and the negligence of a father, who was 
 too selfish and indolent to care what became of 
 me, or any one else, as long as he was himself 
 happy. 
 
 As I stood at the window watching the depart- 
 imr carriacje, and meditatinc: on the wronc^s that 
 had rankled long in my breast, and had now at 
 last reached their culminating point, I felt a single 
 burning tear gather slowly in each eye and brim
 
 v.] BREAKING LOOSE. 59 
 
 over on tlie clieek beneath. Weeping is not a 
 weakness to wliicli I am given, for I am, as a rule, 
 one of the least tearful of mortals. But that tear 
 was an exceptional one, and was drawn from me 
 solely "by a feeling of bitter resentment for past 
 injuries, not by any foolish regrets or sentimental- 
 ity relating to my approaching separation from 
 both home and family. 
 
 Mingled with these disaiireeable thouf^hts, how- 
 ever, there was also present in my mind an ex- 
 hilarating idea, which soon dispelled the unpleasant 
 ones even as the sun disperses cloud. How could 
 I mind anything now that liberty was so close at 
 hand ? What did it matter that Lady Trecastle 
 had been able to convert my home into a hateful 
 prison, now that I was about to break my bonds 
 and cut myself adrift from it ? Those people 
 whose departure I had just watched sliould find 
 a little surprise awaiting them on their return, in 
 the shape of my disappearance ! Freedom, novelty, 
 and adventures lay before me. Without these 
 things life was not worth having, and I was on 
 the brink of enjoying them. Hurrah ! The wide 
 world was going to be open to me, and I was 
 about to enter on an unknown future, wherein 
 everything would be different from the past. The 
 thought of all this made my pulses throb with
 
 60 JILL. [chap. 
 
 excitement, and filled me with wild eagerness for 
 the first taste of the anticipated joys. 
 
 I did not mean to deliver the forged telegram 
 to Miss Smith till it should be nearly time for the 
 train, by which I expected that she would go to 
 Carlisle, to leave Sparkton — that being the name 
 of our nearest town. As that train did not start 
 till past four o'clock in the afternoon, and as Sir 
 Anthony and Lady Trecastle and her daughters 
 had left home in the morning, I had to control 
 my impatience for some hours longer. Part of 
 this time I employed in preparing the telegram. 
 Upon the blank form I scrawled in a feigned hand 
 as follows — " Alice Smith, Carlisle, to Miss Smith, 
 Castle Manor, Greenlea, Sparkton. Come ivitliout 
 losing a moment. I need your help immediately T 
 Having enclosed this in the proper envelope of 
 thin yellow paper, and directed it to Miss Smith, 
 I did not neglect also to fill in the blank spaces 
 on the outside with the requisite information as 
 to the time when the message was sent out, when 
 handed in, etc. I knew that she would probably 
 be far too much perturbed by the telegram to 
 notice any little irregularity about its appearance, 
 but, for all that, I meant to be on the safe side, 
 and to have everything in order, so that there 
 might be no possible ground for suspicion.
 
 v.] BREAKIXG LOOSE. 61 
 
 AVlieu tlie due time had arrived for me to 
 spring the mine that I had prej^ared for her I be- 
 took myself to the schooh^oom, \Yhere she was 
 engaged as usual in inditing epistles to some of 
 her numerous correspondents. The precious tele- 
 gram was in my hand, and I proceeded to deliver 
 it to her, and also to account for the unusual cir- 
 cumstance of its being brought by me instead of 
 by a servant, according to the ordinary course of 
 things. 
 
 " Here's something for you," I said ; " I went 
 out to pick some flowers just now, and as I was 
 coming back towards the house I overtook a child 
 from Greenlea with this in its hand. Of course 
 I saw at a f^lance that it was a telegram — one can't 
 mistake the appearance of the article — and I asked 
 which of the household it was for. Its for you ; 
 and as I was comin<;^ strais^ht in then I thouoht I 
 would bring it myself, and save the child having 
 to come any farther." 
 
 The mere sight of the telegram sufficed to 
 flutter Miss Smith's nerves, and her fingers shook 
 visibly as she opened it. The instant she had 
 perused its contents she jumped up in a tremend- 
 ous state of agitation, and exclaimed : '' Good 
 gracious ! it's from my sister Alice ! She wants 
 me immediately, but doesn't say what's the matter.
 
 62 JILL. [chap. 
 
 What can have happened ? Perhaps she's ill ! I 
 must go to her at once. What trains are there ? 
 Isn't there a Bradshaw somewhere ? That's not 
 it, nor that, nor that !'' 
 
 As she spoke she hurriedly took up one after 
 another of the books lying near, and examined 
 their titles to see if either of them was a B7^adshaiu, 
 although there was nothing in the room that bore 
 any resemblance whatever to the well-known work. 
 But she was a great deal too much upset to notice 
 that. I, however, needed no Bradshaio to enable 
 me to give her the information she wanted, as I 
 had already ascertained exactly the starting-time 
 of the next train that w^ould suit her, and had it 
 at the tip of my tongue. 
 
 " The last train to the North from Sparkton 
 starts at 4.20 in the afternoon, I know," I answered; 
 " that's the one for you to go b}^ and if you go at 
 once you'll just have time to catch it. Better go 
 and get ready as fast as you can, and I'll order 
 the carriage to take you to the station." 
 
 "Yes, yes, that'll be the way; thank you so 
 much," she returned, beginning to hasten towards 
 the door. Before she had quite reached it a 
 sudden thought struck her, and she turned round 
 with a look of consternation, exclaiming, " Oh 
 dear ! I quite forgot that you'll be all alone ! I'm
 
 v.] BREAKING LOOSE. 63 
 
 afraid Lady Trecastle won't like it. How unlucky 
 for her just to have gone away ! But really what 
 can I do ? Eead the telegram yourself, Ina ; 
 you'll see it's absolutely imimxttive I should go at 
 once. My poor, dear Alice ! I'm sure something 
 quite dreadful must have happened to make her 
 send for me like this. It can't be any trifle, I 
 know, for she is one of the calmest, least excitable 
 mortals on the face of the earth 1" 
 
 She's not much like you, then, was my inward 
 reflection, as I looked at the spectacle of pitiable 
 nervousness presented by my governess, with her 
 fingers twitching aimlessly to and fro, and her 
 face expressing feeble and helpless apprehension 
 of evil Indeed, I was not altogether free from a 
 feeling of compunction for being the means of 
 throwing her into such a state of distress, which 
 must continue, as I knew, till she should reach 
 Carlisle, and discover that the telegram had been 
 a sham. But then she had to be got out of the 
 way somehow or other, and it would never do 
 for a young woman who meant to make her own 
 way in tlie world, as I did, to be squeamish about 
 inflicting pain on other people if necessary ; and 
 after all it was partly her own fault for having 
 become the governess of a person who did not want 
 one at all. Besides that, the more miserable she
 
 64 JILL. [chap. 
 
 was now, the greater would be lier joy and relief 
 when she should learn that her fears were un- 
 founded. Eeally the bliss of that moment would 
 be so exquisite that I quite looked forward to it 
 on her account ! 
 
 When she handed me the telegram I of course 
 affected to have no previous knowledge of its con- 
 tents, and even made believe to have a difficulty 
 in making out one or two of the words. Having 
 read it through, I said, '' Oh certainly, you're 
 bound to go at once; there can't be a doubt of 
 that. Don't bother yourself about Lady Trecastle ; 
 I'll tell her exactly how the matter was. You 
 know she and my father will be back in a couple 
 of days, and I shall be all right till their return. 
 But you'll lose your train if you don't look sharp 
 now." 
 
 Eeassured by this speech, she hurried off to get 
 ready, whilst I rang the bell to order the carriage. 
 It was an object to me to have her out of the room 
 when I did this, as her absence enabled me at the 
 same time that I ordered the carriage to send word 
 to the cook that no dinner would be wanted that 
 night. Miss Smith, I said, had been called away 
 suddenly, and I meant to travel with her a short 
 distance, to the house of one of my aunt's, with 
 whom I should stay until Sir Anthony and Lady
 
 v.] BEEAKING LOOSE. 65 
 
 Trecastle returned. There Avas nothing unlikely 
 about my paying a visit to my aunt when left 
 alone unexpectedly; and I made this announce- 
 ment to prevent the servants from becoming 
 alarmed at my disappearance, and bringing about 
 a premature discovery of my flight by communi- 
 cating at once with my father. 
 
 I next went to Miss Smith to tell her that I 
 was coming with her as far as the station to see 
 her off ; I said that I knew my father wanted to 
 have some things mended at a shop in Sparkton, 
 and that I thought I might as well avail myself of 
 this opportunity of taking them to the town, now 
 that the carriage w^as going there with her. Of 
 course the discrepancy between this statement and 
 the one which I had just made for the benefit of 
 the household w^ould become apparent, and put 
 me into an awkward position, if she and the ser- 
 vants should happen to compare notes as to what 
 I had been saying. But I felt I could reckon 
 confidently that no such comparison would take 
 place ; as, for one thing, my governess was a deal 
 too much flurried and taken up with her own 
 affairs to think of anything else ; and, for another 
 thing, my precaution of not delivering the tele- 
 gram till there was only just time to catch the 
 train, prevented her from having time for idle 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 JILL. [chap. 
 
 conversation, even if she had happened to feel dis- 
 posed for such a thing. 
 
 I had had considerable dififi.culty in making up 
 my mind what to do about luggage. If I did not 
 take any, that would look odd to the servants, who 
 believed me to be going to stay with my aunt ; 
 but then Miss Smith, on the other hand, who 
 fancied that I was merely going to drive into 
 Sparkton to see her off, would be astonished at 
 any appearance of boxes, bags, or portmanteaux 
 that indicated an intended absence from home. 
 Besides that, it would not suit my plan of action 
 to be encumbered with anything that I could not 
 manage easily to carry through the streets with 
 my own hands. 
 
 I had considered this knotty point for some 
 time before I could determine how to settle it. 
 What I finally resolved upon was to take a small 
 hand-bag which was just large enough to hold suffi- 
 cient wearing apparel for a two night's visit (so as to 
 impose upon the servants), and which was yet not 
 too large for me to be able to carry about easily. 
 Then, if my governess should make any remarks 
 about its presence in the carriage, and wonder 
 what I wanted it for, I could tell her that it con- 
 tained the things for my father that were going to 
 be mended. Into this hand-bag I had already
 
 v.] BREAKING LOOSE. 67 
 
 packed all the jewellery I possessed, and as many 
 clothes and other articles likely to come useful as 
 there was room for. Thus all my preparations 
 were completed, and I was ready for a start. 
 
 I did not wish to go away without bidding adieu 
 to Lady Trecastle, so I had written her a farewell 
 letter ; and whilst Miss Smith was putting on her 
 things, I placed it where my stepmother would be 
 certain to find it on her return. It ran thus — 
 
 ''Lady Trecastle — In my opinion it is high 
 time for me to see the world and enjoy myself 
 like other people, and as you seem resolved that 
 I shall do nothing of the kind, I am going to 
 settle the matter without asking your leave. I 
 have timed my departure to suit the sailing of a 
 vessel which is going where I wish to go, and by 
 the time you receive this I shall be out of England 
 and far away. You and I have hit it off together 
 so badly, that I have no doubt you will regard 
 my leaving as a subject for sincere congratulations 
 — which permit me to offer to you. I fear that 
 you will not receive them from any one else, on 
 account of the hypocritical appearance of grief 
 under which you are sure to think it necessary to 
 conceal your real joy. I foresee also that you 
 will affect the utmost anxiety to recover me ; this
 
 68 JILL. [chap. 
 
 will, of course, involve a considerable amount of 
 expense, since you will find it difficult to satisfy 
 Mrs. Grundy of the sincerity of your protestations, 
 unless you employ detectives, and send out far and 
 wide in search of me. I reflect on all this with 
 pleasure, for I know well how you will grudge 
 every penny that is spent on so unworthy an object 
 as myself; and as I have no fear of being found, I 
 am sure that the money will be spent in vain. 
 Think of that, Lady Trecastle, you who hate waste 
 — think of all that you'll have to throw away 
 on my account ! Sincerely trusting that you and 
 I may never meet again, and that Margaret and 
 Jane may be able to continue their studies without 
 the assistance which they have hitherto received 
 from the governesses w^ho were supposed to be 
 engaged for my sole benefit — Believe me to remain, 
 yours in no sense at all, Ina Tkecastle." 
 
 It is not to be supposed from this letter that I 
 had any idea of going straight abroad ; on the 
 contrary, I had made up my mind to get to London 
 as quickly as possible, and there to hide myself, 
 and be lost to pursuit by the time that my flight 
 should be known. But I put in the bit about 
 leaving England on the chance of Lady Trecastle's 
 believing it to be my real intention, and being
 
 v.] BREAKING LOOSE. 69 
 
 thereby thrown on the wrong track, and caused 
 extra worry and expense. She being my especial 
 enemy, I wanted to annoy her as much as I could ; 
 and as my father always managed to slip out of 
 whatever was troublesome, I knew that all the 
 bother of the search after me would certainly fall 
 upon her shoulders, and that the more troublesome 
 and costly it was, the more my longing for revenge 
 would be gratified. 
 
 It cost me nothing to leave my father. Since 
 his second marriage he and I had seen but little 
 of each other — I having been kept closely in the 
 schoolroom, and he not having troubled himself to 
 alter whatever arrancrements his wife thoucrht fit 
 
 o o 
 
 to make. Whether I were at home or not would 
 make no difference to him I knew. I cared for 
 no one, and no one cared for me, exactly describes 
 the condition in which I was on that afternoon 
 when I drove off from Castle Manor wdth my 
 tearful and apprehensive governess, to catch the 
 4.20 train at Sparkton. I was leaving a home 
 wherein, was no person or thing that was dear to 
 me, where there was nothing for me to regret, to 
 w^hich I was bound by no sw^eet or tender associa- 
 tions, and which had no kind of hold over me. 
 And I was about to exchange dulness and dreary 
 monotony for action, adventures, excitement, and
 
 70 JILL. [chap. v. 
 
 an unknown state of existence, where I must be 
 always on the alert, ready for everything, and 
 trust to no one except myself. To all this I 
 looked forward with a delight that was not marred 
 by the faintest tinge of timidity, anxiety, or fear 
 of failing in what I had set myself to accomplish. 
 No wonder that I was radiant with joy, and found 
 some difficulty in preserving my usual demeanour 
 sufficiently not to arouse Miss Smith's suspicions.
 
 CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 A PHOTOGEAPH. 
 
 There are two railway stations in Sparkton, which 
 is a town of sufficient size and importance to have 
 two different railway companies competing for its 
 patronage ; and this circumstance rendered it all 
 the easier for me to escape without leaving traces 
 for any pursuers to follow. The train by which I 
 intended to go to London would not leave until 
 about two hours later than Miss Smith's train to 
 the north, and did not start from the same station. 
 What, therefore, I meant to do was to dismiss the 
 coachman, John, and send him home under the 
 impression that I had gone away with my gover- 
 ness, according to the announcement of my plans 
 which I had made to our Castle Manor household. 
 Then, as soon as I had seen Miss Smith safely off, 
 I intended to take my bag in my hand, and proceed 
 on foot to the other station, there to await the 
 departure of the London train. 
 
 It would, of course, never do for Miss Smith to
 
 / 2 JILL. [chap. 
 
 see the carriage, wMch she imagined was going to 
 take me home again, drive straight away directly 
 that it had deposited us at the station ; so, when 
 we got out, I told John to wait a minute, and then 
 accompanied her to the ticket-office. Some other 
 travellers who had arrived before us were blocking 
 up the entrance, and she had to wait her turn to 
 take her ticket. This delay greatly increased her 
 nervousness, and she began to be in a desperate 
 fidget lest she should be too late. I showed her, 
 by the station-clock overhead, that she had fully 
 ten minutes to spare, but she was too much upset 
 to be calmed by reason. Pulling out her purse 
 she commenced fumbling at it hurriedly, and was 
 dismayed to find that she could not open it. " Oh, 
 Ina!" she exclaimed, helplessly, "what am I to 
 do ? Something has happened to my purse, and I 
 can't get it open ! Dear ! dear 1 I know I shall be 
 too late ! Can you lend me some money ? " 
 
 The purse would not open for the very excellent 
 reason that she was tugging at the hinges instead 
 of at the clasp ; I doubt whether she would ever 
 have found this out for herself in the condition in 
 which slie then was ; but I quickly saw what w^as 
 the matter, and rectified it for her. As soon as I 
 had done so, I said, " By the by, there's a parcel 
 to be called for at a shop in the next street, which
 
 VI.] A PHOTOGEAPH. 73 
 
 John will have plenty of time to go and fetch whilst 
 I'm waiting to see you off. I forgot to tell him of 
 it before I left the carriage, so I'm just going to 
 send him there. I won't be a minute, and shall 
 be back before you've got your ticket." 
 
 The poor woman looked at me with a bewildered 
 air at first, as though she had hardly understood 
 what I said to her, and felt only alarmed at the idea 
 of being left alone in the crowded station. Then, 
 seeming to realise the position of affairs all of a 
 sudden, she answered quickly, " Oh, but I forgot, 
 hadn't you better go and do your shopping at once 
 without waiting for me to start? I'm afraid if 
 the horses were to catch cold or anything, Lady 
 Trecastle would be very much vexed ; and, per- 
 haps, she might think it was my fault. ]^ot that 
 I want to lose your help, only I shouldn't like to 
 make her angry. If these people in front will 
 only be quick, I mai/ still be able to catch the 
 train perhaps !" 
 
 "Don't be afraid — you've heaps of time," I 
 returned ; " and I'm sure there's no chance of the 
 horses taking cold ; besides, they'll be kept moving 
 by going on this errand that I'm going to send 
 them off for. I mean to stay and see the last of 
 you, put you comfortably into your carriage, get 
 you some papers to amuse yourself with on the
 
 74 JILL. [chap. 
 
 journey, and see that you don't forget anything at 
 the last moment." 
 
 In her then condition of mental disorganisation 
 on account of her anxiety about her sister, she 
 was really hardly capable of looking after herself. 
 She seemed to be vaguely aware of this, and to 
 regard me as a sort of tower of strength which she 
 could rely upon, and her face brightened percept- 
 ibly at the assurance that she would have the 
 benefit of my protecting presence until she was 
 fairly under weigh. 
 
 "Thank you, dear Ina," she said, gratefully. 
 " I'm so much obliged. I can't tell you how kind 
 and good I think it of you to give yourself so 
 much trouble about me." 
 
 " Oh, it's no trouble," I replied, repressing with 
 difficulty an inclination to laugh at the thorough- 
 ness with which she was being humbugged. So 
 saying I left her, and hurried away to give John 
 his instructions. Thoudi the situation struck me 
 as being ludicrous, yet I had an uncomfortable 
 sense of being in a false position, and did not feel 
 particularly anxious to listen to her expressions of 
 earnest gratitude. I had, for my own purposes, 
 deliberately thrown her into a state of serious 
 distress caused by what was absolutely false, and 
 I was now staying with her merely because it
 
 VI.] A PHOTOGRAPH. 75 
 
 suited me to do so, and not at all out of regard to 
 her necessities ; considering all this, it did seem a 
 little strong for me to be posing in the character 
 of her especial friend, and receiving thanks as 
 though I were remaining to see her off out of pure 
 good nature ! Yet, after all, I could not help 
 acting as I had done. I was bound to clear the 
 course for myself somehow or other ; and if the 
 process of being swept aside happened to be 
 unpleasant to any obstacle, why, that was.imfor- 
 tunate for the obstacle, but no reason why the 
 sweeping aside should be given up. 
 
 Having told John that he need not wait any 
 longer, I watched him drive away, and then re- 
 turned to my governess, who was, by that time, 
 again in need of assistance. She had paid for 
 her ticket with a £5 note, and received a consider- 
 able amount of change, which she had managed to 
 let slip through her trembling fingers as she was 
 transferring it to her purse, and it had rolled 
 hither and thither on the floor. Firmly convinced 
 that the train was on the very point of starting, 
 she Avas, when I arrived, just about to hurry off 
 and take her seat, and abandon the money to its 
 fate, though she could but ill have afforded to lose 
 it. Luckily I was in time to stop this folly, and 
 persuaded her to stay and join me in picking up
 
 76 JILL. [chap. 
 
 the scattered coins, which we soon accomplished. 
 Whilst thus employed, I could not help reflecting 
 on how differently she and I were constituted, and 
 on how much the most fit I was to look after 
 myself. 
 
 It must be a queer sensation, thought I, to 
 care for any one to such a pitch as she does. 
 jFancy being in such a state of mind as she is at 
 the mere idea of some other person's being ill, or 
 in trouble of some kind or other ! Well, I thank 
 my stars I am somewhat tougher than that, and 
 not quite such a softy. Precious little chance I 
 should have, else, of shifting for myself, and fight- 
 ing my own way in the world, as I mean to do ! 
 
 It was with a sense of pity, wherein (as is often 
 the case) there was a strong admixture of con- 
 tempt, that I escorted her to the train, found her 
 the right carriage, established her in it with such 
 travelling comforts as were to be had, repeated 
 over and over the names of the places where she 
 would have to change before reaching Carlisle, 
 for fear of her forgetting them, and paid her what- 
 ever other little attentions I could think of. She, 
 poor woman, was quite overwhelmed at such 
 thoughtful politeness on my part, and received it 
 with the utmost gratitude, without dreaming for 
 an instant of the desire to make some kind of
 
 VI.] A PHOTOGRAPH. 77 
 
 amends for the anxiety I had brought upon her, 
 which was the real motive of my unwontedly civil 
 behaviour. 
 
 I tried hard to raise her spirits, and when the 
 train began to move I walked beside it for a step 
 or two saying cheerful parting words to her. 
 Faster and faster did the long line of carriages slip 
 along by the platform, and I stood still, watching 
 her wave me a farewell with her tear-besprinkled 
 handkerchief. In a minute more she had passed 
 out of sight, and I felt, that now the last link of 
 my chain was indeed broken, that I had got rid 
 of all the authorities whom I detested, and that I 
 was in very truth my own mistress. 
 
 The first thing for me to do now was to make 
 my way to the other station, and there await the 
 starting of my train for London. In order to 
 avoid the risk of being recognised by any one 
 in traversing the town, I had, before leaving home, 
 put into my pocket a thick veil ; this I now 
 donned, and then, with my bag in my hand, issued 
 out into the streets. Here I soon had cause to 
 congratulate myself on having taken the precau- 
 tion to wear a veil, for, on turning a corner, I 
 suddenly found myself confronted by our own 
 carriage, with John on the box, drawn up close 
 to the pavement. John was profiting by the
 
 78 JILL. [chap. 
 
 absence of his master's family to do some shopping 
 on his own account, and also to enjoy the society 
 of a female acquaintance, who was perched np 
 on the seat beside him, displaying manifold and 
 gaudy ribbons from that point of vantage with an. 
 air of immense complacency. Though he glanced 
 at me as I passed, he did not recognise me through 
 my thick veil, and I reached my destination in 
 safety, without meeting any one else whom I knew. 
 
 The train by which I was going was not due 
 to start for some time to come, and I could not 
 take a ticket for it yet. As I was anxious not to 
 attract observation by being seen hanging about 
 the station, I withdrew into the waiting-room with 
 a book in my hand, and settled myself there quietly, 
 as if to pass the time in reading. I was, in truth, 
 too much excited to fix my attention on my book, 
 but I wished to ap]oear to be engrossed in it all 
 the same; and as it is obviously impossible to 
 read much through a thick veil, I threw mine 
 back when I began to pretend to study the volume 
 which I held. 
 
 I was undisturbed in my seclusion for a con- 
 siderable while ; but just as I was beginning to 
 think that it was getting near time for the train 
 to start, and that the ticket-office would soon be 
 open, two ladies entered the room, attended by a
 
 VI.] A PHOTOGRAPH. 79 
 
 footman laden with their rugs, bags, and etceteras. 
 These he deposited on the table and then retired, 
 touching his hat respectfully, and saying that the 
 tickets would not be given out for another five 
 minutes. 
 
 The lady nearest me was a middle-aged person. 
 I saw at a glance, as she entered the room, that 
 she was a complete stranger to me, and I looked 
 at her carelessly, without at first noticing her 
 younger companion. I had, for the moment, for- 
 gotten that my veil was up ; but then, suddenly 
 remembering it, and also the expediency of con- 
 cealing my face before going to take my ticket, I 
 was just about to lower the odious stifling mass 
 of thick gauze, when the younger lady moved 
 towards the table to take something out of her 
 travelling-bag. She looked at me in passing, and 
 as our eyes met I felt a thrill of alarm, and a con- 
 viction that she was some one I had met before, 
 though I coukl not recollect where or how, or 
 what her name was. Luckily she had evidently 
 no recollection of me, but passed on without a 
 gleam of recognition in her face, got what she 
 wanted out of the bag, and returned to her seat. 
 None the less, I was perfectly certain I knew her, 
 and all at once it flashed across me who she was. 
 She must be Kitty Mervyn, the girl whom I had
 
 80 JILL, [chap. 
 
 met and taken a strong fancy to at Lugano fonr 
 years ago. Since tlien we had both of ns grown 
 and altered considerably in appearance, and she 
 had developed into a tall, handsome, stately-looking 
 young woman. But it was so uncommon an event 
 for any one to make any great impression on me, 
 that I was not likely to forget whoever had been able 
 to work that miracle, and I felt positive that I could 
 not now be mistaken as to Kitty's identity. I per- 
 ceived, also, that she had no idea whatever of who 
 I was, which was most fortunate for me, as it would 
 have greatly interfered with my plans to be seen 
 there by any one who knew me. I was quite 
 aware of this, and rejoiced at my good luck ; and 
 yet' — strange creatures that we are ! — even whilst 
 I rejoiced, I suffered a pang of keen mortification. 
 Hardly ever in my life had I felt disposed to honour 
 one of my fellow-creatures with any especial degree 
 of liking or approval ; and when, for once, I had 
 been moved to do so, it seemed as if the individual 
 thus distinguished ought certainly to have felt 
 some corresponding amount of inclination for me. 
 Yet this had not been the case, since Kitty Mervyn 
 had forgotten me, though I had not forgotten her. 
 And therefore I had a sense of annoyance and 
 humiliation at this forgetfulness, notwithstanding 
 its opportuneness, and the inconvenience that it
 
 VI.] A PHOTOGEAPH. 81 
 
 ^yollld have been to me to be recognised just then, 
 when it was my great object to leave no trace 
 that could show wliat had become of me after the 
 time that I had parted from Miss Smith. 
 
 As soon as the ticket-office was open, the foot- 
 man returned to inform the ladies of that fact ; 
 then they left the waiting-room attended by the 
 man carrying their impedimenta for them as before. 
 Having stayed a minute longer to let them get out 
 of the way, I was on the point of following them, 
 when I noticed a small article lying under the 
 table, and picked it up. It was one of those purses 
 that are purse and pocket-book combined, and I 
 guessed that it had probably fallen out of Miss 
 Mervyn's bag when she had opened it just now 
 to take out something else. What should I do 
 with the purse ? I had little doubt of who the 
 rightful owner was, and could easily restore it to 
 her if I chose. Only the question was whether I 
 did choose, for there was no one near to see me 
 find it, and I was free to do as I pleased. At 
 some other time I might, perhaps, have followed 
 the dictates of honesty, but at the present moment 
 I was out of charity with Kitty. I had not for- 
 given her for the wound which she had uncon- 
 sciously inflicted on my self-esteem, and was much 
 more inclined to spite her, if I had a chance, than 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 JILL. [chap. 
 
 to do her a good turn ; therefore, after hesitating 
 for a few moments, I pocketed what I had found, 
 postponing the examination of its contents to the 
 first opportunity when I should be at leisure and 
 unobserved. 
 
 Now that I was going to trust to my own 
 resources for a livelihood, money was a most im- 
 portant object to me, and as I had no intention of 
 wasting it in needless luxury, I contented myself 
 with a humble third-class ticket. Having secured 
 this, I took my seat in the London train, and was, 
 in due course of time, whirled away from Sparkton 
 towards the metropolis, where I meant to seek my 
 fortune. At starting there were two or three other 
 passengers in the carriage with me, but they got 
 out at the first few stations where we stopped, and 
 when I found myself alone I thought I might as 
 well take that opportunity of seeing what Miss 
 Mervyn's purse contained. 
 
 I was glad to find in it several pounds in gold 
 and silver. Some extra cash would be extremely 
 handy to me in present circumstances, and would 
 no doubt be far more useful to me than to her, I 
 thought. Then I turned to the pocket-book half 
 of the purse, and began to explore that also. Here 
 there were some postage stamps, a set of directions 
 for some kind of fancy-work that was just then
 
 VI.] A PHOTOGRAPH. 83 
 
 all the fashion, and a letter addressed to the Hon. 
 Katherine Mervyn — which last was a conclusive 
 proof that my conjecture as to the ownership of 
 the purse was right. I took the liberty of unfold- 
 ing and reading the letter, which was a heavy hill 
 for gloves and fans. The largeness of the amount 
 caused me a surprise, which was soon changed into 
 envy as I reflected that I, too, might have been in 
 a state to require a similar profusion of these 
 articles, if my step-mother had not unjustly shut 
 me off from the privileges of my age and rank in 
 life. It was strange how the perusal of that bill, 
 and the thought that it had been incurred by a 
 girl no older than myself, irritated me afresh 
 against Lady Trecastle, and increased my former 
 sense of being a much injured and aggrieved 
 mortal ! 
 
 The bill, stamps, and work directions appeared 
 at first sight to comprise the whole contents of the 
 pocket-book; I was about to shut it up under that 
 impression, when I bethought me that I was in 
 want of a new purse, as mine was a good deal worn, 
 and that if Kitty's was in good condition I had 
 better substitute it for my own. This idea made 
 me take up again the one I had found, and look 
 it over carefully. The close inspection revealed 
 an inner pocket underneath the flap of the other,
 
 84 ' JILL. [chap. 
 
 and ingeniously contrived so as not to attract 
 notice. Within this sly hiding-place was a piece 
 of cardboard wrapped in silver paper, which, on 
 being opened, disclosed the photograph of a very 
 good-looking young man in military uniform. My 
 curiosity was aroused as to who the original might 
 be, and I turned it round and round in hopes of 
 discovering some name or initial ; there was, how- 
 ever, nothing of the kind except the name of the 
 photographer to be found, and so my curiosity 
 remained unsatisfied. 
 
 Whoever could that young man be ? I wondered, 
 and why was he so interesting to Kitty that she 
 carried his picture about with her, done up and 
 concealed with such care ? It was not a brother, 
 as I knew that she had none. Was she engaged 
 to be married, and was it the likeness of her future 
 husband ? Only in that case the portrait would 
 be more likely to be carried openly than to be 
 thus hidden away in the inmost recess of her purse, 
 as if it were a thing to be ashamed of. 
 
 As I mused over it, and over the desire for 
 secrecy that seemed to be conveyed by the place 
 where I had found it, the thought crossed my mind 
 whether it could be some unacknowledged lover, 
 whose addresses were being paid against the wishes 
 of her parents. Yet somehow I could hardly fancy
 
 VI.] A PHOTOGEAPH. 85 
 
 that to be very probable either. There was a 
 stateliness and haughtiness about her that gave the 
 impression of a person who would be most unlikely 
 ever to condescend to anything so mean and under- 
 hand as a clandestine love affair ; she would have 
 too much self-respect and sense of dignity. Well ! 
 be the young man who he might, I had no clue to 
 his identity or to his connection with her, and it 
 w^as no use my bothering myself with vain specu- 
 lations on the subject. At all events, she would 
 have to get a new copy of his photograph, as I had 
 no intention of returning the one that had fallen 
 into my hands. And with that reflection I dis- 
 missed the matter from my mind, and applied 
 myself to the more practical consideration of what 
 my immediate future was to be.
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 A FEW LONDON PRICES. 
 
 I HAVE not, as yet, said anything about what I 
 meant to do on reaching London, and how I 
 intended to support myself; but it must not, 
 therefore, be supposed that I had not carefully 
 considered, and fully made up my mind upon 
 that important matter. Various ways by which 
 a young woman in my position might earn her 
 livelihood had suggested themselves to me ; and, 
 after mature deliberation, I had selected the avoca- 
 tions of daily-governess, shop-assistant, or travel- 
 ling-maid, as being those in which I was most 
 likely to succeed. 
 
 This reduced the limits of my choice to three. 
 For awhile I remained uncertain to which of the 
 three I should give the preference, but finally 
 came to the conclusion that the latter was the 
 one for which I was best fitted by my gifts — both 
 natural and acquired. Lack of training would, of 
 course, make it foolish for me to think of under-
 
 CHAP. VII.] A FEW LONDON PRICES. 87 
 
 taking the place of an ordinary stay-at-home 
 lady's-maid ; but that training was by no means 
 so essential for a travelling Abigail. What would 
 be chiefly wanted for such a situation was, a 
 knowledge of languages, a good head, a capacity 
 for looking after luggage, and such abilities as 
 would enable the maid to supply the place of 
 courier whenever necessary ; and in all these 
 respects I had little fear of being capable of giving 
 satisfaction to any employer. As far as needle- 
 work was concerned, I could do plain sewing well 
 enough ; and though I did not know how to 
 make dresses, yet I anticipated no difficulty on 
 that score, because, as it w^ould evidently be un- 
 reasonable to expect a servant to have cultivated 
 both brains and fingers alike, therefore proficiency 
 in an inferior art, like dressmaking, was not to 
 be looked for in a person who had studied the 
 far higher branch of knowledge — languages. 
 And, besides that, people did not generally want 
 to have clothes made when they wer6 on their 
 travels. 
 
 There was another part of a lady's-maid's 
 business which was much more likely to be 
 required, and of which, also, I was at present 
 ignorant; and that was hairdressing. But that 
 was a deficiency w^hicli could easily be remedied
 
 »8 JILL. [chap. 
 
 by some lessons from a good hairdresser ; and the 
 first thing that I meant to do in London was to 
 inquire for an artist of this kind, and become his 
 pupil until I had learnt from him enough of the 
 art to fit me for a maid's place. Of course, paying 
 for the lessons, and finding myself meanwhile 
 in board and lodging, would cost money — and 
 expense was a consideration that was on no 
 account to be overlooked. But I was prepared 
 to practise strict economy; and, what with the 
 contents of Kitty Mervyn's purse and my own, I 
 had enough to live upon for some weeks at least, 
 and did not doubt that my resources would hold 
 out till I should have learnt sufficient hairdress- 
 ing for my purpose. Altogether I believed that I 
 should make a capital travelling -maid; and it 
 was an occupation especially attractive to me, 
 because well adapted to gratify my taste for 
 much change and amusement. 
 
 One thing which I did during the journey to 
 London was to effect a considerable change in my 
 appearance. The more I could make myself look 
 unlike what I had been when I left home, the 
 greater would be my security against pursuit, and 
 I did not neglect the opportunity for doing this 
 which was afforded by the solitude of the railway 
 carriage. I had not got the materials for a com-
 
 vii.] A FEW LOXDON PRICES. 89 
 
 plete disguise, but a good deal may be done with 
 a different neck - wrap and pair of gloves, and a 
 brush, comb, needle and thread. These things I 
 had stowed away in my bag, and by their aid I 
 soon contrived sufficiently to alter my exterior to 
 make it unlikely that I should be identified as 
 corresponding to any description that might be 
 given of the Gilbertina Trecastle who had seen off 
 her governess at Sparkton Station. 
 
 By the time we reached London night had set 
 in. As we steamed slowly into the spacious and 
 brilliantly lit-up terminus, the bustling, animated 
 scene which I beheld gave me a thrill of delight, 
 and a pleasant sense of having undoubtedly got 
 away from the tranquil duck-pond where I had 
 been vegetating, and having entered the rushing 
 stream of life — a stream which tolerates none of 
 the slimy scum and weed that are apt to accumu- 
 late on the surface of stagnation, but speedily 
 washes away every vestige of them. 
 
 I saw railway officials of various grades hurry- 
 ing to and fro, and all intent on some business or 
 other. Loud shouts for hansoms and fourwheelers 
 besjan to echo through the glazed walls of the 
 great station even before the train had stopped. 
 Porters swarmed at the windows of carriages still 
 in motion, jumped on to the steps, opened the
 
 90 JILL. [chap. 
 
 doors, commenced taking out hand-bags, wraps, 
 umbrellas, and similar small articles, reiterated 
 eager exclamations of " Cab, sir ? Cab, mum ? 
 Any luggage ? Where from ?" etc., and vied with 
 one another in pressing their services upon all 
 passengers from whom a tip was likely to be 
 expected. Under this head the occupants of third- 
 class carriages were evidently not included, and 
 not one of the offers of assistance that were being 
 lavished so freely in other directions fell to my 
 share, as I emerged from my compartment with 
 the bag that contained all my goods in my hand. 
 It was a neglect, however, which I certainly did 
 not wish altered under the circumstances, as the 
 less notice I attracted, the better was my chance 
 of evading any enquiries that might subsequently 
 be made about me. 
 
 It was too late that night to set about hunting 
 for a lodging, but as hotels are usually to be found 
 in close proximity to railway stations, I had no 
 fear of having to go far for a bed. I was not mis- 
 taken in this confidence. No sooner had I got 
 into the street than I saw just before me an im- 
 mense building with the words Eailway Hotel 
 flaring in large coloured letters upon a gas trans- 
 parency over the door; and underneath this 
 inscription was another, in smaller sized letters,
 
 VII.] A FEW LOXDOX PRICES. 91 
 
 statin^f that within this mao^mficeDt hotel travellers 
 of all classes were supplied with every comfort 
 and luxury at extremely moderate prices. 
 
 Turning my steps thither, I entered through the 
 open doors into a large, softly-carpeted, handsomely- 
 furnished hall, where a porter in a gorgeous livery 
 and sundry waiters were lounging about and talk- 
 ing. To one of these I addressed myself, requesting 
 to be sliown a room for the night, and adding that 
 I wished it to be as inexpensive a one as possible. 
 My request was referred to the presiding genius 
 in the hall, who was an elegantly attired young 
 lady, with the most nonchalant expression of coun- 
 tenance that it was ever my fortune to behold. 
 She was deeply engaged in a book ; but on being 
 spoken to she put it down, glanced at a list of 
 rooms, rang a bell, uttered oracularly the single 
 word " 18," then resumed her volume, and at once 
 became as deeply absorbed in it again as tliough 
 her studies had never been interrupted at all. 
 
 Meanwhile, one of her satellites conducted me 
 up innumerable stairs to the chamber assigned to 
 me — lowness of price and of situation being in the 
 usual inverse proportions. At last we arrived at 
 No. 18, which proved to be a room small enough 
 to have done duty as a convent cell, and scantily 
 furnished with a table, a chair, a cracked and fly-
 
 92 JILL. [chap. 
 
 spotted little looking-glass, a washing-stand, a tiny 
 chest of drawers, and a short narrow bedstead, 
 whereon was an abominably hard and fusty-smell- 
 ing mattress. 
 
 The charge for one night's occupation of this 
 palatial apartment was 5s., and for that sum one 
 would have supposed that a little civility from the 
 hotel servants might well have been thrown into 
 the bargain, without there being any danger of the 
 visitor's receiving an unfair amount of return for 
 the money spent. Such, however, was by no 
 means the opinion of the waiters and chamber- 
 maids, who were at no pains to hide the supreme 
 scorn with which they were inspired by the spec- 
 tacle of a traveller attempting to combine hotel- 
 life with economy. To their minds the two things 
 evidently were, and ought to be, absolutely incom- 
 patible ; and I am inclined to think that they 
 deemed it one of the objects for which they had 
 been put into the world, to make that incompati- 
 bility as plainly apparent as possible. 
 
 Fortunately for me, I was as little affected by 
 their contempt as I was by the indifferent quality 
 of the accommodation provided. Neither the 
 nasty smell of my couch nor its hardness, nor yet 
 the sense of being an object of scorn to a pack of 
 waiters and chambermaids, had power to interfere
 
 Vii.] A FEW LONDON PRICES. 93 
 
 with my repose ; for I slept soundly all night, and 
 awoke in the morning as much refreshed as though 
 I had tenanted the most luxurious room imagin- 
 able. Observing a tariff of hotel prices hanging 
 up over the washing-stand, I proceeded to read it 
 as soon as I was dressed. From this document I 
 learnt that a single cup of tea or coffee was to be 
 had for 6d. (would that include milk and sugar ? I 
 wondered), and that the cost of a breakfast, con- 
 sisting of tea or coffee and bread and butter, was 
 Is. 6d. Not bad that, thought I, for a place which 
 professes to supply every comfort and luxury at 
 extremely moderate prices ! I should rather like 
 to know what is the landlord's idea of ^moderate 
 ones. 
 
 Paying for food at this rate was not exactly 
 consistent with the rigid economy which my cir- 
 cumstances imposed upon me, so I sallied forth to 
 procure breakfast elsewhere. This was not difiicult 
 to accomplish, as there was a tidy little restaurant 
 only two doors off, where, for the sum of 6d., 
 I was supplied with coffee, a good-sized roll, and 
 a pat of butter — all of excellent quality. The 
 small round table on which the food was served 
 was destitute of a cloth, but quite clean ; and I 
 ate my meal with as hearty a relish, and enjoyed it 
 every bit as much, as though it had cost 150 per
 
 94 JILL. [chap. 
 
 cent more, and been consumed in the sumptuous 
 coffee-room of the hotel. 
 
 The proprietor of the restaurant was an Italian. 
 I was, just then, his sole customer, and, as he did 
 not seem particularly busy, I spoke to him in his 
 own language when I went to the counter to pay 
 for my breakfast, and asked him if he happened 
 to know of any one who gave lessons in hairdress- 
 ing. The chance of a conversation in his native 
 tongue appeared to please him ; for he became so 
 communicative that I think it would have needed 
 but little encouragement on my part to draw from 
 him, there and then, the whole history of his life. 
 With some difficulty, however, I managed to check 
 his confidences, and to keep him to the point on 
 which I required information. 
 
 Did he know any one to teach hairdressing ? 
 He must consider a moment. Yes, to be sure ! 
 there was his friend. Monsieur Candot, a French 
 parrucchiere, who could do hair, make frisettes, 
 plaits, puffs, curls, wigs, everything. He was not 
 certain that Monsieur Candot gave lessons ; but 
 thought it highly probable. 
 
 Had Monsieur Candot much practice ? I asked ; 
 because otherwise he would not suit me, as I 
 wished only to learn of a really high-class and 
 fashionable hairdresser. Then, seeing the Italian's
 
 Yil.] A FEW LONDON PRICES. 95 
 
 face clouding over at the idea of my venturing to 
 doubt the superior talent of a man whom he 
 recommended and called his friend, I hastened 
 to smooth down his ruffled feelings by adding that 
 I felt sure he would excuse my asking the question, 
 because — as he well knew — there were wigs and 
 wigs, and the mere fact of making them did not 
 necessarily imply that they were made well ; that, 
 in short, if it were permissible to take liberties 
 with Giusti's epigram about bookmaking, one 
 might say — 
 
 " II far' nil' parriicca e nieno che niente, 
 Se parriicca fatta non piace la geiite." 
 
 This pacified the Italian's rising ire. There could 
 be no possible doubt, he said, of his friend's 
 wonderful talent. Monsieur Candot was a genuine 
 artist, who never executed any work of art that 
 was not first-rate, because, if it fell short of the 
 perfection at which he aimed, he would destroy it 
 unhesitatingly, and make another and more suc- 
 cessful one in its place. His merit was appreciated 
 everywhere ; he was in request in the very highest 
 circles, and made wigs " anche per le duchesses 
 
 There was no resisting such a recommendation 
 as this, so T procured Monsieur Candot's address, 
 and set off to find him. He resided in a small
 
 96 JILL. [chap. 
 
 street near Edgeware Eoad, and when I got to his 
 abode I was fortunate enough to find him disen- 
 gaged, and to be admitted without delay to his 
 presence. I told him I was a maid who was 
 anxious to learn hairdressing, and asked if he gave 
 lessons in that art. He replied in the affirmative, 
 saying also that he was constantly having applica- 
 tions like mine, and that he had no doubt of being 
 able to make an expert coiffeiise of me in about a 
 month — however ignorant of the matter I might 
 now be. Was I going to take the lessons on my own 
 account, or was it by the wish of my mistress ? 
 
 At the time I could not conceive what was the 
 motive of this question ; but I subsequently dis- 
 covered it to be, that his price for lessons given to 
 a maid at her mistress's expense was nearly double 
 what it was when the maid paid for them out of 
 her own pocket. I, in my present state of life, 
 highly approved of this practice ; and, as my 
 answer showed me to be entitled to the benefit of 
 the lower rate of payment, our terms were soon 
 arranged, and the interview came to a satisfactory 
 termination. 
 
 So far, so good ; and now to find myself a cheap 
 habitation not far from Monsieur Candot's resi- 
 dence. After wandering about for some time in the 
 neighbouring streets, I discovered a lodging that
 
 vil] a few loxdox ppjces. 97 
 
 seemed likely to be suitable. The landlady, how- 
 ever — either because a long experience of lodgers 
 had made her distrust them as a body, or else 
 because there was something she objected to in my 
 appearance — did not evince much eagerness to let 
 her room. She hesitated and eyed me doubtfully, 
 demanding what was my name and occupation, 
 and whether I could pay a week in advance — i.e. 
 fifteen shillings. 
 
 I had already determined that, whenever I 
 should be asked for my name, I w^ould adopt the 
 abbreviation that had been bestowed upon me in 
 my earliest years ; so I replied that I was a lady's- 
 maid called Caroline Jill ; that I had recently left 
 a situation ; and that I did not intend looking out 
 for another until I had had some hairdressinf? 
 lessons. And, as I spoke, I laid upon the table 
 the rent in advance which she had asked for. 
 
 There was nothing at all improbable in my 
 story, and the sight of the money gave her con- 
 fidence, so she consented to receive me as a lodger. 
 I then bethought me that she would be almost sure 
 to expect a lady's-maid to be accompanied by at 
 least one big box, and that her distrust might very 
 likely be reawakened at sight of the extremely 
 modest amount of luggage which I had to bring ; 
 so I mentioned, casually, that I had left almost all 
 
 VOL, I. H
 
 98 JILL. [chap. 
 
 my goods at home in the country, and had only a 
 very small bag with me, as it was so inconvenient 
 to be moving about with a lot of heavy things. 
 And having thus prepared her mind for the 
 diminutive size of my bag, I set off to fetch it 
 from the hotel. 
 
 The hairdressing lessons were not to take place 
 till the evenings, or late in the afternoons, so that 
 I should be idle during the greater part of each 
 day ; and, as I returned to the hotel, I began con- 
 sidering how to employ profitably all the spare 
 time that I should have on my hands. Evidently 
 the thing to suit me would be a temporary engage- 
 ment as daily -governess, as I should then be 
 adding to my slender stock of money even whilst 
 paying for Candot's instructions. I would endea- 
 vour to get such an engagement as soon as possible; 
 and, in order to lose no time about it, I would go 
 straight to the hotel reading-room, where I should 
 be sure to find the day's newspapers, wherein I 
 might perhaps meet with some advertisements 
 that it would be worth my while to answer. 
 
 On reaching the hotel, therefore, I turned along 
 a passage over which was a notice to the effect 
 that it led to the reading-room. A waiter outside 
 stared at me with wrathful surprise, as if he 
 thought that the luxuries of that apartment were
 
 Yii.] A FEW LOXDOX PRICES. 99 
 
 unlawful for any one badly off for money, and 
 that it was the height of presumption for so 
 humble a person as myself to attempt to enjoy 
 them. But I knew well that whoever stays at a 
 hotel has a right to profit by its reading-room ; so 
 I Avalked calmly in, without heeding his indignant 
 looks. Daily and weekly newspapers, journals, 
 and periodicals of various kinds, were spread on 
 the table, and T proceeded diligently to study the 
 advertisements for daily governesses which they 
 contained. It was not every such place which 
 would do for me, as I wanted one situated in 
 London, and where only morning work was 
 required ; therefore I had some difficulty in dis- 
 covering an advertisement that was at all likely 
 to suit. At last, however, I hit upon a couple in 
 the Morninrj Post that seemed tolerably promising ; 
 and as it Avas too late to think of going to apply 
 for them on that day, I copied the addresses for 
 use on the morrow, and then left the room. 
 
 As I entered the hall on my way upstairs a 
 gentleman who had come to call upon some one 
 staying at the hotel was in the act of leaving his 
 card. It was a strange coincidence that that 
 particular individual should have happened to be 
 there at the very moment when I was passing 
 through ; for I immediately saw that he was the
 
 100 JILL. [chap. 
 
 original of the mysterious photograph which had 
 beeu put away so snugly in Miss Mervyn's purse, 
 and as to which I had felt inquisitive. Surely 
 now I should be able to gratify my curiosity so 
 far as to find out his name, I thought ; and, so 
 thinking, lingered in the hall in hopes of an 
 opportunity for attaining that object. 
 
 jSTot far from the door there were a lot of 
 pigeon-holes for the purpose of receiving any 
 letters and cards that might arrive for visitors at 
 the hotel; and in one of these receptacles the 
 gentleman's card was deposited by the servant to 
 whom he gave it. This afforded me the chance I 
 wanted. Pretending that 1 thought there might 
 be a letter for me, I went to the pigeon-holes and 
 inspected the bit of pasteboard just placed there, 
 and thus learnt that its owner's name was Edward 
 Norroy, and that he was a captain in the Fusiliers. 
 
 Well, that was something to have discovered 
 about him, certainly, but not very much; I had 
 never heard the name before, and was still as far 
 off as ever from knowing what he and Kitty had to 
 do with one another, and why she should care to 
 carry his picture about in her pocket. It was no 
 business of mine, of course, as I very well knew. 
 Yet the singular attractiveness which she had for 
 me made me feel more interest in her concerns
 
 VII.] A FEW LOXDOX PRICES. 101 
 
 than in those of the generality of human-kind. It 
 was strange, too, considering that I had seen her 
 but twice in my life, and was by no means of an 
 impressionable nature, nor yet particularly in- 
 quisitive. But that did not prevent me from 
 speculating about her to an extent at which I 
 myself was astonished ; I had an idea that I should 
 like to be able to observe her, and study her 
 character. 
 
 Eeflecting how queer it was to take so much 
 interest in the affairs of a person with whom I had 
 absolutely nothing to do, and wondering whether 
 it did not show a tendency to reprehensible weak- 
 mindedness, I left the hall, and climbed up to my 
 bedroom. I had very little packing-up to get 
 through, so I was soon ready to depart, and then 
 I rang the bell and asked for my bill. 
 
 It might, not unreasonably, have been supposed 
 that the 5s. which was the price of the room I had 
 occupied would have fully paid for all that I had 
 had from the hotel, and left a pretty fair margin 
 for profit as well. Not so, however, was the 
 opinion of the manager ; for a tiny foot-tub and 
 jug of water which I had used to wash myself in 
 on rising were dignified in the bill by the name 
 of "bath ;" and for that, and for " attendance," an 
 extra half-crown was tacked on to my expenses.
 
 102 JILL. [chap. 
 
 I had had quite enough experience of hotel bills 
 to know that " attendance " was an inevitable item 
 on them, and that it was no use grumbling at the 
 charge. Still, I had found the article so unusually 
 conspicuous by its absence in the present instance, 
 that I could not resist the desire I felt to give a 
 little bit of my mind on the subject to the chamber- 
 maid who had brought me the bill, and was now 
 waiting for its payment. 
 
 "What an odd thing it is," said I, gravely, 
 " that attendance and nothing should be two words 
 that have precisely the same meaning. Don't you 
 think so?" 
 
 I spoke with tlie utmost seriousness, and I think 
 that she imagined I Av^as going to dispute the bill. 
 
 " Do I think what ? " she returned, pertly ; " I 
 don't know what you're talking about." 
 
 " Why," replied I, " if you look at this bill, you 
 will see that attendance is charged just as if it were 
 something extra which had really been supplied 
 to me ; that is not the case, as you are perfectly 
 well aware, so the natural inference is that the 
 word must mean nothing, you see. Otherwise one 
 would be obliged to suppose that those three 
 syllables had some special privilege attached to 
 them to enable hotelkeepers to rob people openly 
 and with impunity ; for there certainly isn't any
 
 VII.] A FEW LONDON PEICES. 103 
 
 other article — such as dinner, wine, drawing-room, 
 etc. — which a visitor can be made to pay for if he 
 hasn't had it. I thought you might have been 
 struck by the' singularity of this circumstance, 
 but probably you are too much accustomed to it to 
 think it odd. Here's the money ; I wish to have 
 the receipt as soon as possible, if you please." 
 
 The woman coloured angrily, and looked as if 
 she had an uncivil reply at the tip of her tongue. 
 Just as I finished speaking, however, a bell rang 
 which she was called to go and answer; so she 
 was compelled to deny herself the pleasure of a 
 retort. She hurried away, muttering something 
 about having no time to waste in listening to all 
 the rubbish that fools found time to talk ; and the 
 receipted bill was presently brought to me by 
 another of the servants. 
 
 Taking my little bag in my hand, I descended 
 the stairs and bade adieu to the grand Eailway 
 Hotel, without feeling the very slightest inclination 
 ever again to make proof of the accommodation 
 which it offered '' at extremely moderate prices " 
 to " travellers of all classes." Yet I myself told 
 lies unhesitatingly whenever I found them con- 
 venient ; so what right had I to complain of other 
 people for doing the same ?
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 A STREET INCIDENT. 
 
 Before going to bed that night I wished to 
 arrange my plans for the next day, and to make 
 up my mind which of the two daily-governess 
 situations that I had in view I would apply for 
 first. For this purpose I carefully compared the 
 advertisements together to see if either one con- 
 tained anything that made it seem likely to be 
 preferable to the other. As, however, there did 
 not appear to be a pin's point to choose between 
 them, I left the selection to chance, and settled 
 the question by tossing. The result of this appeal 
 to hazard was to decide me to try first for the 
 place of A. G., who required personal application 
 to be made between noon and two o'clock in the 
 afternoon, at a given address somewhere in the 
 Bayswater district. 
 
 It was no use going there before the hour 
 specified, and I did not feel in the humour to 
 settle down to any steady occupation till it was
 
 CHAP. VIII.] A STREET INCIDENT. 105 
 
 time to start, so I spent most of the following 
 morning in watcliinor what went on in the street 
 below my window, and making guesses as to 
 the characters and employments of the various 
 passers-by. Amongst these there was one to whom 
 my attention was particularly attracted. This 
 was a little girl of about nine or ten years old, 
 with a basket containing some bunches of common 
 flowers for sale. It was quite early in the morning 
 when first I noticed her, and afterwards I saw her 
 pass my window again and again ; for though, at 
 intervals, she made excursions into other neigh- 
 bouring streets, yet after each of these excursions 
 she returned to the one wherein my lodging was 
 situated. At first she looked tolerably bright and 
 smiling as she ran here and there, making assiduous 
 efforts to dispose of her stock in trade. But she 
 was not in luck's way, and failed to sell a single 
 bunch; and she evidently took this ill -success 
 greatly to heart, for all the smiles and cheerfulness 
 gradually died away from her face, and she looked 
 increasingly sad and melancholy each time that I 
 saw her pass. 
 
 Presently a big coarse-looking woman, who was 
 also selling flowers, came into the street. She and 
 the child met, and stopped to talk, just opposite 
 my window ; and though I could not hear what
 
 106 JILL. [chap. 
 
 they said, yet tlieir looks and gestures enabled me 
 to make a very fair guess at wliat they were talk- 
 ing about. The little girl, I could see, was timidly 
 asking some favour which the woman refused. The 
 child, though apparently much in awe of the other, 
 yet seemed to screw up her courage to urge the 
 petition ; evidently she desired very much to have 
 it granted, as I could see by the pitifully earnest 
 wistfulness expressed in her countenance, as she 
 looked up with quivering lips, and eyes brimful 
 of tears. Whatever her request was, however, the 
 woman had no mind to grant it ; and, seeming to 
 become impatient at the child's persistency, pushed 
 her away roughly and left the street. For a 
 minute or so after her departure the little girl 
 stood sobbing, and looking a picture of disappoint- 
 ment and misery. Then, using the corner of her 
 shawl as a pocket-handkerchief, she dried her eyes, 
 blew her nose, and mournfully resumed her former 
 occupation. 
 
 She did not again come in sight of my window, 
 so I saw no more of her till it was time for me to 
 start on my situation-hunting expedition. 
 
 I was walking down towards Oxford Street, 
 with my head full of my own affairs, when I heard 
 a shrill, quavering, little voice pipe out close at my 
 elbow : " Flowers, lady ! bootifle fresh flowers.
 
 Yiii.] A STliEET IXCIDEXT. 107 
 
 AVon't you please buy a buucli ?" Looking clown, 
 I saw beside me the same little girl whom I had 
 previously been watching. The contents of her 
 basket were still undiminished, and she was sitting 
 wearily on a door-step, but now started up to offer 
 me her wares, and try to induce me to become a 
 customer. Though I could do very well without 
 flowers, yet I liked them, and thought they w^ould 
 be a considerable improvement to my dingy little 
 lodging ; besides, I pitied the child for the bad 
 luck she had hitherto had that morning ; so alto- 
 gether I had half a mind to buy of her. But then 
 the warning voice of prudence interfered, saying 
 that I had no money to waste on vanities like 
 flowers, and that the more I departed from my 
 strict rule of denying myself every superfluity, the 
 more irksome it would be to keep to it at all. I 
 thought prudence was perfectly right, so I foUow^ed 
 her counsel, and replied to the little flower-seller ; 
 " Xo, thank you ; I don't want any." 
 
 She, how^ever, was unwilling to take a refusal, 
 and exclaimed ; " Oh, but do 2>lease 'ave some, dear 
 lady. Sitcli bootifle flowers, they be ! Jest one 
 bunch !" 
 
 I was not going to offend my inward monitor 
 by disregarding her advice, so I merely shook my 
 head, and w^alked on.
 
 108 JILL. [chap. 
 
 For a few steps the cliild trotted beside me, 
 continuing lier importunities, but desisted when 
 she found I was not to be moved. I looked back 
 to see what she was doing when I reached the 
 corner of the street, and saw that she had buried 
 her face in her shawl, and was crying bitterly. 
 
 I was provoked at such a very unpractical pro- 
 ceeding ; and, thinking that at all events a word 
 of good advice would cost me nothing to give, and 
 that perhaps she might be the better for it, I 
 returned to her, and said : " Now, you know, its 
 excessively silly of you to behave like that, and 
 you'd much better dry your eyes. You're just as 
 likely as not to be losing a chance of a customer 
 while you're crying; and you don't want to do 
 that, do you?" 
 
 " Oh, indeed but I can't 'elp crying," she replied, 
 between her violent sobs ; " its cos I'se so 'ungry — 
 so dreffle 'ungry." 
 
 " What makes you so hungry ? " said I. " Didn't 
 you have enough breakfast ? " 
 
 " I 'asn't 'ad none at all," she returned. " When 
 mother sent me out this mornin', she said as I 
 shouldn't 'ave no brexshus till I'd got the money 
 for it with these 'ere flowers ; and she telled me 
 the same a bit ago, when I met 'er and axed 'er to 
 let me 'ave a penny to buy suthun to eat, cos no
 
 VIII.] A STREET IXCTDEXT. 109 
 
 one wouldn't buy none of the flowers, and I was 
 jest starved. She sez as its all my fault for not 
 sellin' of 'em, and that if I wasn't idle, I could get 
 rid of 'em fast enuff. But that's not true, for I'se 
 done my best — indeed I 'as !" 
 
 It really did seem a hard case. I knew, from 
 personal observation, that the charge of idleness 
 was undeserved ; and it was very unfair to make 
 the poor little thing suffer for a slackness of trade 
 which she could not help. To keep a growing 
 child running about all the morning in the open 
 air without giving it a morsel of food to appease 
 its hunger till nearly twelve o'clock, was a piece 
 of barbarity that quite shocked me. For, however 
 hard I may be by nature, and however apt to 
 drive my own barrow through the world without 
 troubling myself about the toes that happen to be 
 in the way and to get pinched, yet I do not think 
 I have ever been guilty of gratuitous cruelty to 
 either man or beast ; indeed, the mere sight of it 
 always fills me with disgust. 
 
 The mention of breakfast gave me a sudden 
 bright idea of how to assist the child without 
 laying myself open to the reproaches of prudence. 
 Had I not saved a shilling the day before by 
 breakfasting at the restaurant instead of at the 
 hotel ? and was not a penny saved a penny gained?
 
 110 JILL. [chap. 
 
 I liad never calculated on beii]g able to begin 
 gaining anything as yet, so that that shilling was 
 an addition to my funds which I had not reckoned 
 upon, and which I was clearly entitled to regard 
 as an extra — a thing that I could throw away or 
 do what I pleased with — an accidental item which 
 need not be entered on my receipts at all, so that 
 prudence had no right to expect to be consulted 
 as to what was done with it. And, feeling quite 
 certain of the soundness of this argument, I did 
 not wait to hear whether prudence took the same 
 view of the matter or not, but instantly presented 
 the coin to the child, recommending her to spend 
 part of it now in getting breakfast, and to reserve 
 the remainder against some future emergency. 
 
 The sight and feel of the shilling checked her 
 tears with surprising quickness, and her wan, 
 melancholy, little physiognomy brightened up 
 wonderfully. Holding her basket towards me, she 
 offered either to let me pick out the best flowers for 
 myself, or else to do it for me if I liked ; adding, 
 with a slight hesitation, that perhaps there might 
 be one or two old flowers since yesterday that had 
 G;ot mixed amonc; this mornin(:j's lot, and if so, 
 she would be more likely to know the fresh ones 
 than I should. The touch of confusion with which 
 this was said, made me suspect that the contents
 
 VIII.] A STEEET I^X'IDENT. 111 
 
 of her basket were by no means so fresli as she 
 professed them to be, and that she, being well 
 aware of that fact, was moved by an im^^ulse of 
 gratitude to proffer her services as chooser in order 
 that I might not be cheated. 
 
 Evidently it would be prudent to accept her 
 offer if I wanted to have anything out of her 
 basket. But that was just what I felt rather 
 doubtful about doing. I had intended the shilling 
 as a free gift, and had had no idea of receiving 
 anything in return ; besides that, it would be a 
 nuisance to have a handful of flowers to carry 
 about with me, and they would probably have 
 begun to fade by the time I got home ; so, alto- 
 oether, I at first thouQ-ht I would refuse them. 
 On second thoughts, however, I changed my mind. 
 The flowers would certainly brighten up my room, 
 and I knew^ that I should like them if I could 
 have them transported there without trouble ; and, 
 after all, it was just as well to have some value 
 for one's money; and as she took it for granted 
 that I should do so, there would be no disap- 
 pointment to her in my having tliem. I said 
 therefore — 
 
 " Will you pick me out a couple of good, fresh 
 bunches, take them to a house that is not far off, 
 and leave them there, with a message that Miss
 
 112 JILL. [chap. yiii. 
 
 Caroline Jill wishes to have them put in water 
 till she comes back ? " 
 
 " 'Iss, lady," she answered ; " I'll pick you the 
 werry bestest and freshest as I 'as — and thank 
 you kindly for what you've give me. What's the 
 'ouse as I'm to take 'em to ?" 
 
 I gave her the address of my lodging, and then 
 we separated ; she disappearing into the nearest 
 baker's shop, and I continuing my way to A. G. 
 My experience of life had not given me enough 
 confidence in human nature to make me think it 
 very likely that a street child was to be relied upon 
 to keep a promise ; and consequently I thought it 
 highly problematical that I should find any flowers 
 awaiting me on my return. But yet I did not the 
 least regret the shilling I had thrown away upon 
 her. It was a satisfaction to think that her hunger 
 was being appeased, at any rate ; indeed, if I had 
 not known that that had been done, I should have 
 exposed myself to the risk of feeling uncomfortable 
 whenever I thought of her ravenous condition all 
 day. So I had evidently acted for my own interest 
 as well as hers.
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 A NERVOUS LADY. 
 
 One of the numerous omnibuses running down 
 Oxford Street deposited me pretty near where I 
 wanted to go; and, after alighting, I had no difficulty 
 in finding some one to direct me to the address I 
 was in search of. This proved, to my surprise, to 
 be a small greengrocer's shop, where one would 
 certainly not expect that there would be any 
 demand for a governess. However, it was unmis- 
 takably the address that had been given in the 
 advertisement, so I edged my way in, past the 
 piles of earthy baskets by which the entrance 
 was almost choked, and spoke to the owner of 
 the shop — a jolly -looking, burly, middle-aged 
 man. 
 
 " Excuse my troubling you," said I, politely ; 
 "but IVe called in consequence of an advertise- 
 ment for a daily governess by A. G. in yesterday's 
 Morning Post. Is this the right place ?" And as 
 I spoke it flashed across my mind whether perhaps 
 
 VOL. L I
 
 114 JILL. [chap. 
 
 the initials in the advertisement represented the 
 words " a greengrocer." 
 
 As soon as the man heard the object of my 
 visit, his face twinkled with amusement in a way 
 that seemed to imply there must be some capital 
 joke connected with the affair. " Oh yes, Miss,"' 
 he answered, " this be the right place, sure enough! 
 P'raps you b'ain't used to greengrocers as rekvires 
 daily -guvnesses vere you comes from — be you 
 now?" 
 
 The man looked so perfectly good-tempered 
 that it was impossible to take offence at his en- 
 joyment of the unknown joke, and I laughed as I 
 replied, "No, I can't say that we do often have 
 that happen." 
 
 " Ah, well, so I thought," he returned, chuckling. 
 " And that just brings us to the werry pint as 'as 
 to be considered in this 'ere bizness. That is — 
 no offence my askin' — but vere do you come 
 from, Miss?" 
 
 I told him the address of my lodging. 
 '"Ealthy districk, Miss, is it?" he enquired. 
 
 "Yes, as far as I know," replied I, feeling 
 rather astonished at the question, and reflecting 
 that my assertion was a perfectly safe one, seeing 
 that I knew nothing whatever about the matter. 
 
 " Any illness in the 'ouse, Miss ^" he continued.
 
 IX.] A XERYOUS LADY. 115 
 
 holding up liis fingers and checking off on them 
 the name of each successive disease as he enumer- 
 ated it ; " any fivver, diptheery, coleera, measles, 
 mumps, small-pox, chicking-pox,'oopin'-corf, nettle- 
 rash — that's only nine ; there's a tenth as I was 
 to ax about, I Ivuows ; what the juice w^as it now ? 
 Oh yes ! the one as is a flower and a colour — yaller- 
 rose — rose-yaller ! Dashed if I can say it right." 
 
 " Is roseola the word you want ?" I suggested. 
 
 "That's it, Miss, thanky!" he exclaimed joy- 
 fully, but without venturing on a second attempt 
 at pronouncing the word ; "now, be there any of 
 these 'ere as I've mentioned at the 'ouse vere 
 you're livin' ? or any other infexshus complaint as 
 I 'aven't mentioned, as p'raps may be some bran 
 new invention of the doctors since the old list was 
 made out ?" 
 
 I had never thought of making any inquiries 
 of the kind at my lodging, so I answered " no " 
 boldly. Even if there were any illness, at all 
 events I did not know of it, so my negative was 
 obviously not to be considered as wilfully mislead- 
 ing, whatever the state of sanitary affairs might 
 be. " Werry good," he returned ; " then if you'll 
 be so good as go round the corner of the street 
 over the vay, you'll find yourself in Fairy Avenue, 
 and at Xo. 114 you'll find A. Gr., that's to say.
 
 116 JILL. [chap. 
 
 Mrs. Green. You see she's mortial afeard of what 
 she calls jurms, and 's allers thinking as strange 
 people 's sure to have 'em in their pockets or their 
 clothes, or some-veres about 'em, ready to turn 
 loose on whoever they meets. So when she adwer- 
 tizes for a guvness or a servant, she mostly axes 
 me to let 'em come 'ere fust, that I may make sure 
 as they don't come from no infexshus place afore 
 they goes to 'er 'ouse. Did you ever 'ear of sitch 
 a ridiklus fancy 'afore in all your born days ? It 
 makes me fit to split with larfin sometimes. But 
 there ! it ain't but werry little trouble to me, and 
 I don't mind oblidgin' a good customer like 'er, as 
 takes a sight of wedgebuttles and fruits and sitcli 
 things. ' I considers 'em pertickler 'olesome 
 artikles of dite,' sez slie to me often. ' So do I 
 too, mum,' sez I back to 'er. And good reason 
 vy I should inkcourage the notion, seein' as she 
 buys 'em all from me ! " 
 
 Thanking the man for his information, and 
 feeling that I had gained an insight into Mrs. 
 Green's character which might come useful to me 
 in my dealings wdth her, I proceeded to 114 Fairy 
 Avenue. On ringing the bell and saying that I 
 had come about the governess' situation, I was 
 requested to wait in the hall, whilst the servant 
 went to see if Mrs. Green w^as disenoacred.
 
 IX.] A NERVOUS LADY. 117 
 
 It was very evident that that lady took care no 
 one should enter her doors without undergoing 
 some amount of fumigation, as in the middle of 
 the hall there stood a sort of small brazier, wherein 
 some kind of disinfecting compound was smoulder- 
 ing, and sending out light curls of smoke which 
 impregnated the air with a sickly smell. By the 
 odour of this smoke, combined with that of carbolic 
 acid, the whole house was pervaded, as the floors 
 were scrubbed with carbolic soap twice a week 
 regularly, and carbolic acid was freely applied to 
 whatever incoming thing could, by any stretch of 
 imagination, be regarded as a possible medium for 
 the introduction of those " germs of disease " which 
 Mrs. Green held in horror. In the efhcacy of any 
 inodorous disinfectant she had no belief at all. 
 How, she would say, could stuff that was not strong 
 enough to be perceptible to the nose be strong 
 enough to be relied on to purify the atmosphere, 
 and affect any germs that might be floating about 
 in it ? Don't tell her to use a thing like Condy's 
 fluid, that had not any smell at all ! No, give her 
 carbolic acid or chloride of lime, which made 
 difference enough in the air for one's nose to take 
 cognisance of — then there could be no mistake 
 about their presence, and one could feel satisfied. 
 
 She did not admit me to her room till she had
 
 118 JILL. [chap. 
 
 sent the servant back to inquire whether I had 
 been to the greengrocer's and been forwarded to 
 her by him. My answer being satisfactory, I was 
 ushered into her sitting-room and invited to take 
 a seat near the door, and a good way off from her- 
 self. We then proceeded to talk business, and I 
 found that she wanted a governess to come every 
 morning to instruct and take charge of her little 
 girl of ten years old, and that the amount of know- 
 ledge necessary to satisfy her demands was not 
 beyond the limits of my acquirements. Having 
 discovered this much I lost no time in asking 
 what salary she gave, for I did not want lier to 
 anticipate this question by asking me how much 
 I expected to receive, as the fact was that I had 
 not an idea of what daily governesses were gener- 
 ally paid, and feared exposing my ignorance. The 
 terms she offered were so far beyond what I had 
 thought likely, that I was delighted, and at once 
 determined not to let slip the situation if I could 
 help it. Consequently I became very anxious to 
 ingratiate myself with her, and looked out for an 
 oj)portunity of doing so by manifesting sympathy 
 with the dread of infection which I knew to be a 
 weak point of hers. For if people have any 
 specially absurd craze, they are sure to regard an 
 indication of the same mania on the part of another
 
 IX.] A NERVOUS LADY. 119 
 
 person as a strong recommendation and reason for 
 thinking well of that person. I had not long to 
 wait for the opportunity I desired, as she said ; 
 " There is one thing I must tell you, Miss Jill, and 
 that is, that I insist upon every member of my 
 establishment, without exception, conforming to 
 the regulations I make in order to guard against 
 the introduction of infection to the house. Shoukl 
 you be prepared to do this?" 
 
 " Most certainly," I replied ; though in truth 
 I had no intention of troubling my head about the 
 matter more than I had done heretofore — that is 
 to say, not at all. " I shall be only too glad to do 
 so. For I must confess that on that point I am 
 what some people call quite foolishly nervous." 
 
 " It is imj^ossihle to be too nervous about it," 
 she returned, " and I am glad to find that you have 
 a proper appreciation of the necessity of a careful- 
 ness which is a duty no less to society than to 
 one's self and one's family. A fresh case of illness 
 means the setting up of a fresh manufactory of 
 horrible, insidious, deadly germs of disease, which, 
 once set going in the world, cannot be recalled, 
 and can only with difficulty be destroyed. How 
 many deaths might not be caused by germs made 
 in and issuing from this house, if we were to have 
 some infectious illness here ? And if the illness
 
 120 JILL. [chap. 
 
 had been admitted througli any negligence of 
 mine, should not I be responsible for all of those 
 deaths?" 
 
 "Quite true/' answered 1, gravely. "I never 
 was struck by that before, but I see how un- 
 answerably correct your reasoning is. How I 
 wish that every one else had an equally sensitive 
 conscience!" 
 
 " Yes, it is indeed sad," she replied, sighing, " to 
 see what an amount of culpable carelessness and 
 foolhardiness exists in the world ! I do my best 
 to make these things appear in their true light, 
 but it is not often that I can succeed in inspiring 
 my own spirit of prudence into any one else. I 
 assure you that I have even heard of my pre- 
 cautions being laughed at and called ridiculous." 
 
 I kept my countenance heroically ; and as she 
 paused, as though expecting me to make some 
 remark, I exclaimed, "It seems hardly credible!" 
 
 " So one would have thought," she returned 
 sadly, " and especially in the face of the outbreak 
 of scarlet fever which has recently occurred in so 
 many parts of London, and which every one must 
 have read of in the papers. However, to return 
 to business. Will you kindly let me have the 
 address of your last situation ? Should the answer 
 to my inquiries there prove satisfactory, I shall be
 
 IX.] A KERVOUS LADY. 121 
 
 olacl to euo-acre you, as, from what I have seen of 
 you, I have every reason to think you will suit me." 
 
 Now, of course, I had foreseen that no one would 
 be likely to engage me without knowing (or sup- 
 posing themselves to know, \\liich would come to 
 the same thing) something about who I was, and 
 I foresaw also that it might be against me not to 
 be able to give the name of any one who could be 
 inquired of about me, either personally or by letter. 
 To meet this difficulty I had concocted a story 
 which would, I hoped, be accepted as a sufficient 
 explanation of the matter. But I had never 
 dreamt of any one's being so absurdly afraid of 
 infection as Mrs. Green w^as ; and the discovery 
 of her foible inspired me with the brilliant idea of 
 offering her a personal reference which she would 
 be certain not to avail herself of. 
 
 I replied, therefore, that as I had been a little 
 out of sorts I had been living quietly at home for 
 the last six months, in order to regain my health, 
 and that I had been previously teaching in the 
 family of Mr. Thomson — mentioning the name of 
 a clergyman in the east of London whose parish 
 I remembered having read about not long before 
 in a newspaper as being pretty nearly decimated 
 by scarlet fever. This gentleman, I said, had been 
 most kind to me, having not only given me a
 
 1 22 JILL. [chap. 
 
 written testimonial to character, but also promised 
 that he would at any time write to, or see, any 
 person on my behalf. I only hoped, I put in 
 parenthetically, that he was not overworking him- 
 self in the terrible visitation of scarlet fever that 
 had lately come upon his parish ; but he was such 
 an excellent man, and so indefatigable in his 
 labours amongst the poor, that I feared it was but 
 too likely he would sacrifice himself to them. If 
 anything should ha]3pen to him I should feel I had 
 lost one of my best friends. But, however busy 
 he miglit be, I felt sure he would keep his promise, 
 and would certainly find time to answer any 
 inquiries that Mrs. Green might wish to make 
 about me, whether in person or by post. 
 
 She, however, would as soon have thought of 
 walkins]^ into a blazing- furnace as into Mr. Thorn- 
 son's parish in its then condition, and, as I expected, 
 thought epistolary communication with him was 
 but little less perilous, 
 
 "Ahem!" she answered, "I am afraid Mr. 
 Thomson is not a very easy person to refer to just 
 at present, and I do not quite see how it is to be 
 managed. I could not thinh of going to see him, 
 and I am doubtful that it would be prudent to 
 write to him either, especially since he is so 
 devoted to his parishioners, as you say. Men of
 
 IX.] A NERVOUS LADY. 123 
 
 that kind are almost invariably careless about 
 proper precautions. Perhaps he would write me 
 an answer when actually in a sick-room ; and then 
 imagine how that letter, full of contagion, would 
 be mixed in the post with other letters, impart to 
 them its fatal properties, and thus scatter sickness 
 and, perhaps, death far and wide ! No, never will 
 / wilfully run the risk of causing disasters in this 
 way, whatever other people may do." 
 
 " I have the testimonial he wrote me at the 
 time I discontinued teaching in his family, if you 
 would think that sufficient, madam," I replied, 
 beginning to fumble in my pocket as though in 
 search of the document in question. Of course I 
 had no such thing about me in reality, but I knew 
 that I could easily pretend to have forgotten it, 
 and then write a sham one and send it by post. 
 
 She raised her hand hastily to check my pro- 
 ducing the paper. " Wait one moment," she cried, 
 looking somewhat uneasy. " How long is it since 
 the testimonial was written?" 
 
 " Just six months ago," answered I. 
 
 "Was there any fever or infectious illness in 
 the parish at that time?" she inquired. 
 
 " Not that I am aware of," I returned, 
 
 " Still it might have been there without your 
 knowledge, might it not?" she continued.
 
 124 JILL. [chap. 
 
 I allowed that this was not impossible, but 
 added that I did not believe the district to have 
 been at all unhealthy then. 
 
 " What makes me anxious for certainty about 
 this," she said, " is, that supposing Mr. Thomson 
 had visited some sick person just before writing 
 your testimonial, he would have probably had 
 germs of disease clinging to him ; and those germs, 
 being communicated to the writing-paper, would 
 be lingering there still, and be a source of peril to 
 whoever comes in contact with that piece of paper. 
 Possibly, however, you have taken the precaution 
 of disinfecting it by fumigation, or in some other 
 way ?" 
 
 " ISTo, I have not," I answered ; " I am ashamed 
 to say that I did not think of it — a most repre- 
 hensible omission on my part ! " 
 
 " Ah, well," she replied, with an air of indul- 
 gence, " it was an oversight, no doubt ; but then 
 you are still very young, and one can hardly 
 expect young people to be as thoughtful as old 
 ones. But we will remedy the omission at once. 
 There is some disinfecting powder in that square 
 box on the table beside you. I shall be obliged 
 if you will sprinkle it thoroughly over the paper 
 before oivin<^ it me to read." 
 
 I recommenced feeling in my pocket, and then
 
 IX.] A NERVOUS LADY. 125 
 
 exclaimed, " Oli how very stupid of nie ! I made 
 sure that I had brought that testimonial with me, 
 but I must have left it on my table, as I find I 
 have not got it after alL Will you allow me to 
 post it to you as soon as I get home ? Should you 
 think it satisfactory, and write me word when 
 you wish me to commence my duties, I will come 
 at whatever time you appoint." 
 
 The look of relief that came over her face on 
 hearing that I had not got the testimonial showed 
 me that she regarded it with considerable distrust, 
 and was not greatly desirous of touching it. 
 
 " Yes, you can post it to me as you propose," 
 she said ; " and I will let you know my decision 
 by letter also. Of course you will disinfect the 
 paper carefully before sending it. I shall be glad 
 if you will take some of this powder for the pur- 
 pose, as it is a disinfectant on which I can rely 
 thoroughly, and has so strong a smell that if you 
 were to forget to use it, my nose would immedi- 
 ately inform me of that fact, and I should be thus 
 warned against opening the paper. By the by, 
 in the event of my engaging you, should you be 
 likely to continue the engagement for any length 
 of time? or to break it off again shortly? My 
 reason for asking is, that I am most averse to 
 constant changes in my establishment, because
 
 126 JILL. [chap. 
 
 that means constant fresh risk of infection from 
 strangers ; and therefore I prefer not entering 
 into an engagement with any one who likes to be 
 perpetually moving about from place to place." 
 
 It will be remembered that my intention was 
 merely to take a governess's place temporarily, to 
 eke out my means till I had learnt hairdressiug 
 and could get a travellinsr-maid's situation. But 
 I really did not see that she had a right to expect 
 me to confide all my private little schemes to her, 
 so I said nothing about this, and only assured her 
 that I had a horror of perpetual changes, and that 
 a permanent situation was exactly what I was 
 hoping to find. 
 
 "There is one thing more that I forgot to 
 mention," she continued. "I should object to 
 your making use of an omnibus or tram-car in 
 coming to give my daughter her daily lessons. 
 I consider public conveyances of that kind most 
 unsafe, on account of their liability to contain 
 germs of disease left by some one or other of 
 the great variety of passengers who travel in 
 them." 
 
 " I quite agree with you," I answered, " and 
 hardly ever go in one of those conveyances on 
 that account. I should hope to come here on 
 foot as a rule ; and if the weather should make
 
 IX.] A NERVOUS LADY. 127 
 
 that impossible, I should take a hansom, as being 
 the least dangerous vehicle available." 
 
 I felt I was pretty safe in making this promise, 
 though I meant to come by omnibus all the same. 
 There was not much chance of her inspecting the 
 passengers in the numerous omnibuses running 
 down Oxford Street and the Bayswater Eoad ; and 
 they did not pass up Fairy Avenue, so I should 
 have no choice about walking the last part of my 
 journey. Thus she would see me arrive daily on 
 foot ; her mind would be at ease ; I should be 
 perfectly free to use the convenient omnibus as 
 much as I chose ; and so Ave should both be 
 happy. 
 
 Everything being settled, I took leave of her, 
 and had reached the door of the room to 2;o, when 
 she spoke again. " On the whole, ^liss Jill," sbe 
 said, " I do not think I need trouble you to send 
 me that testimonial. From what I have seen of 
 you, I have very little doubt that we shall suit 
 each other ; and I feel satisfied to engage you at 
 once, as the peculiar circumstances of the case 
 render it impossible to hold any communication 
 with the person who is your reference. Can you 
 begin the lessons to-morrow morning at nine 
 o'clock ? " 
 
 " Certainly, madam," I replied ; " you may
 
 128 JILL. [chap. IX. 
 
 depend upon my being here then, and I am much 
 obliged to you." 
 
 Who would have thought that a letter six months 
 old could have inspired her with so much fear as 
 to induce her to dispense with every shadow of 
 precaution about ascertaining the character of an 
 individual to whose care she was willin^^ to com- 
 mit her child ? 
 
 Marvelling greatly at her folly, and congratulat- 
 ing myself on my success, I returned to my lodging, 
 where I found that the little c^irl of whom I had 
 bought the floAvers, had duly left them for me. 
 It was more than I had expected her to do, 
 certainly ; and the only way I could account for 
 such astonishing honesty was by supposing that 
 no one else had wanted to buy them, so that there 
 had been no temptation to her to break her promise 
 and defraud me of my nosegay. But I believe I 
 judged her with too much cynicism ; for, long 
 afterwards, she proved that she had been really 
 grateful for the breakfast I had given her, and 
 was anxious to show her gratitude in deeds.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 CHANGE OF SITUATION. 
 
 1 WAS naturally rather curious to know how my 
 family would take the discovery of my flight, and 
 for some time afterwards I used to look in the 
 newspapers with a half - expectation of seeing a 
 paragraph headed " Mysterious disappearance of a 
 young lady ;" or else an offer of a reward for in- 
 formation concerning me; or else, perhaps (but 
 this I considered as being merely possible, and not 
 at all likely), an entreaty to me to return, and 
 all should be forgiven. As nothing of the kind 
 appeared, however, I perceived that my relatives 
 had the good sense to understand the wisdom of 
 washing their dirty clothes at home, and that they 
 did not intend to draw a needless amount of atten- 
 tion to^ the fact that I had run away from them. 
 It was inevitable that my having done so would 
 be a nine day's wonder and topic of gossip in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of Castle Manor ; but it 
 did not follow that our domestic want of harmony 
 VOL. I. IC
 
 130 JILL. [chap. 
 
 need be proclaimed to all the world and his wife 
 also ; and so the matter was not published in the 
 papers. 
 
 Mrs. Green's little girl Fanny, to w^hom I was 
 engaged to give instruction, was heavy and uninter- 
 esting enough to have driven well-nigh distracted 
 any governess who cared about shoving on her 
 pupils, and deriving credit from them ; so it was 
 lucky that I was less energetic and devoted to my 
 work. As it was for only a very brief period that 
 I meant to superintend Fanny's studies, it was 
 perfectly immaterial to me whether she progressed 
 in them or not ; and I did not attempt to teach her 
 anything beyond what was to be got into her head 
 without much trouble — which limitation reduced 
 our educational labours to a surprisingly small 
 compass. Her stupidity did not prevent us from 
 getting on together most harmoniously ; for though 
 I did not do much towards increasing her stock of 
 knowledge, yet I atoned for that deficiency by 
 opening her mind with an amount of general and 
 varied entertainment with which no previous 
 governess had ever provided her. Sometimes I 
 told her any marvellous stories that I knew, adding 
 touches, as I went on, to heighten the interest of 
 whatever parts seemed to astonish her especially. 
 Or else I would say or do something extravagantly
 
 X.] CHANGE OF SITUATION. 131 
 
 absurd, just as gravely as though it were the most 
 ruatter-of-fact speech or action possible, and amuse 
 myself by watching the look of absolute bewilder- 
 ment that would come over her face at first, and 
 speculating on how long an interval would elapse 
 before it would be followed by the succeeding grin 
 which betokened that her slowly -working brain 
 had at last awakened to the fact of there being a 
 joke afoot. By such methods as these I contrived 
 to find amusement for both myself and her, and I 
 have very little doubt that she approved of me 
 highly, and regarded me as being far and away the 
 pleasantest teacher she had ever had to do with. 
 
 That portion of my time which was not occupied 
 either in giving or receiving lessons I spent chiefly 
 in attending to the necessities of my wardrobe, 
 loafing about in the parks and streets, and doing 
 whatever sight-seeing was to be had gratuitously. 
 I did not indulge in any amusement costing money, 
 except theatres, to which I allowed myself a few 
 visits as a treat and reward for my self-denial in 
 other respects — theatrical performances being a 
 form of entertainment to which I have always been 
 particularly partial. 
 
 Thus three or four weeks passed quickly away, 
 and by the end of that time I had mastered the 
 art of hairdressing sufficiently to enable me to
 
 132 JILL. [chap. 
 
 undertake the duties of a lady's-maid ; for I was 
 far more industrious in the capacity of pupil than 
 in that of teacher, and laboured a great deal more 
 zealously to profit by M. Candot's instructions 
 than I did to make Fanny Green profit by mine. 
 It is wonderful how much easier it is to take 
 trouble when one wishes to secure value for money 
 spent, than it is when the object of one's exertions is 
 merely to give an equivalent for money received ! 
 Having qualified myself for the calling I meant 
 to adopt, the next thing was to take steps to hear 
 of a situation ; and to that end I put an advertise- 
 ment in the Times, Morning Post, and Guardian, 
 offering C. J.'s services to any lady going abroad 
 who required a thoroughly efficient maid, capable 
 of acting as courier if necessary. This notice 
 bore fruit speedily in the shape of a note ad- 
 dressed to C. J., which I found awaiting me on 
 my return from Mrs. Green's one afternoon, and 
 which ran as follows : — 
 
 "2000 Eaton Square, Tlmrsday. 
 
 " Lady Mervyn writes in answer to C. J.'s adver- 
 tisement, as she wishes to meet with a good 
 travelling-maid. Lady Mervyn will be glad if C. 
 J. will call at her house to-morrow evening at 5.30 
 punctually!'
 
 X.] CHANGE OF SITUATION. 133 
 
 How strange that my notice should happen to 
 have been seen and answered by Lady Mervyn — 
 a person between whom and myself there was a 
 remote connection, and whom I had met years ago 
 when I was a child ! Would it be safe for me to 
 enter her service ? or should I be running too great 
 a risk of recognition ? No, I did not think I 
 need be afraid. Kitty was the only one of the 
 family who was at all likely to remember me, as 
 I had been much more in her company than in 
 theirs on the occasion of our previous meeting at 
 Lugano. And that she had no recollection of me 
 I had already proved at Sparkton Station ; which 
 forgetfulness on her part, by the by, I did not 
 now feel the least bit inclined to resent, having 
 quite got over the little soreness and irritation 
 which it had caused me at the moment. 
 
 Yes ; I believed I should be as safe from dis- 
 covery at Lady Mervyn's as anywhere else, and 
 determined that I would take the situation. I was 
 pleased with the idea of being under the same roof 
 as Kitty Mervyn, on account of the opportunities 
 which I should then have of observing this girl, 
 whose character had interested me and excited my 
 curiosity. And then, too, I might reasonably look 
 forward to discovering some explanation of her 
 having chosen to keep Captain Edward Norroy's
 
 134 JILL. [chap. 
 
 photograph hidden away in her purse as she had 
 done. A carte-de-visite is ordinarily stuck into an 
 album, and I wanted to know why she should 
 have treated this particular carte differently to that 
 of any other acquaintance. 
 
 These anticipations were checked by the sudden 
 recollection that I was counting my chickens before 
 they were hatched ; that I had not yet got the 
 place I was looking forward to ; and that perhaps 
 Lady Mervyn might not think fit to engage me after 
 all. When did she say I was to go there ? Look- 
 ing again at the note I saw that it was dated the 
 day before. Yesterday was Thursday, and to-day 
 Friday, so I must wait upon her ladyship this very 
 same afternoon, and had no time to lose in provid- 
 ing myself with that necessary article — a character. 
 
 About two months before there had died a 
 certain Lady Brown, who was rather a well-known 
 person on account of her having lived much abroad 
 and published a large number of books containing 
 her experiences of the Eiviera, the Dolomites, the 
 Alps, the Ehine, and other foreign places. Her 
 husband, Sir Bartholomew Brown, had gone to the 
 East since her death, and was supposed to be 
 wandering about somewhere in Persia at the 
 present moment. As, therefore, no reference was 
 possible to either the deceased Lady Brown or her
 
 X.] CHANGE OF SITUATION. 135 
 
 husband, and as they had been childless, it occurred 
 to me that if I asserted myself to have been her 
 maid up to the time of her death, there was no one 
 to disprove the statement. Accordingly, I indited 
 a character purporting to be written by Sir 
 Bartholomew, wherein it was set forth that Caroline 
 JiU had been for two years in his late wife's service; 
 had only left an account of that lady's death ; had 
 given entire satisfaction during the whole time of 
 her service ; was a first-rate traveller ; and was a 
 trustworthy, sober, steady, exemplary, and in-all- 
 ways-to-be-recommended-maid. 
 
 I wasted several sheets of paper over this com- 
 position before I could please myself ; and when 
 I had succeeded in getting it to my mind I copied 
 it out in a feigned hand — bold, rather scrawling, 
 legible, and masculine -looking. Of course there 
 was a danger of the forgery being detected, if Lady 
 Mervyn should happen to be acquainted with Sir 
 Bartholomew's handwriting. But then it was 
 quite likely that she was not ; and I would try 
 to find out if she knew him before I produced the 
 character ; and, even if the worst came to the 
 worst, the chances were that she would not take 
 the trouble to prosecute me, and I should have 
 just as good a prospect as before of obtaining a 
 situation with some one else.
 
 136 JILL. [chap. 
 
 By tlie time my preparations were completed 
 it was later than I thought, and as the underlining 
 of the word "punctually" in the note made me 
 think it important not to be late, I started ofif 
 in such a hurry that I tumbled downstairs and 
 bruised myself unpleasantly. However, I did not 
 stay to doctor my hurts then, but hurried on, and 
 arrived at my destination just as the Eaton Square 
 Church clock was striking half-past five. 
 
 It then appeared that my fear of being late 
 had been quite uncalled-for, and that I might have 
 spared myself the bruises which my haste had 
 caused me, for Lady Mervyn had not yet returned 
 from driving. The fact was she had followed the 
 usual plan of fashionable ladies and gentlemen, 
 who, when they make an appointment with an 
 inferior, take care that they themselves shall not 
 be kept waiting, but do not the least object to 
 inflicting that annoyance on the other party. No 
 doubt such people consider that the time of a 
 servant, tradesman, farmer, or poor person is much 
 less valuable than their own, and a thing of so 
 little importance that it may be wasted at pleasure. 
 
 On stating the object of my visit, and that Lady 
 Mervyn had directed me to call at that time, I was 
 told to sit down and wait till she came in. It was 
 past 6 o'clock when she returned, and even then
 
 X.] CHANGE OF SITUATION. 137 
 
 she did not send for me immediately, but delayed 
 doing so till she had leisurely examined the cards 
 that had been left for her whilst she was out, 
 refreshed herself with a cup of tea, and written 
 a couple of notes. Having accomplished these 
 tilings, she at last gave orders for me to be shown 
 into her presence. 
 
 She was about middle height, slightly made, 
 and aristocratic looking. As she was rather short- 
 sighted she wore a 2^'i^nce-nez, and this she put up, 
 and coolly stared at me through, as soon as I 
 entered the room. After a prolonged survey she 
 dropped it, but had recourse to it again several 
 times during the interview, always putting it up 
 with an air of having suddenly bethought her of 
 some feature, limb, or other part of me which she 
 had hitherto omitted to study sufiiciently, and at 
 which she wanted to have another good look. I 
 must say I thought that she used the pince-nez 
 in a manner which would have been considered 
 intolerably rude if it had been directed at any 
 one in her own rank of life ; but then she regarded 
 a servant as being a different sort of animal from 
 herself, and would have laughed at the idea of 
 a maid's not liking to be stared at as if she were 
 made of wood or stone, instead of flesh and blood. 
 
 She began by inquiring my name and age ; to
 
 138 JILL. [chap. 
 
 wMch I replied that I was called Caroline Jill* 
 and that I was just twenty-two. For, though my 
 real age was eighteen, yet I thought that that 
 seemed rather too young for a person representing 
 herself as having been a lady's-maid for the last 
 two years, and that therefore I had better give 
 myself credit for a few more years than I was 
 actually entitled to. 
 
 "Twenty-two !" she repeated; "you don't look 
 your age. I should not have thought you so old 
 as that. How long were you in your last situa- 
 tion ? and what was the cause of your leaving ?" 
 
 " I was there two years, and I only left on 
 account of the lady's death," I replied. " Did your 
 ladyship know the late Lady Brown ?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "Perhaps your ladyship may have heard of her," 
 I continued; "she was the wife of Sir Bartholo- 
 mew Brown, and used to write books sometimes ?" 
 
 " Oh yes ; I did not know her, but I know 
 who you mean now," answered Lady Mervyn ; 
 " was her's your last place ? " 
 
 "Yes," I replied, feeling that the ground was 
 safe, and that I might produce my false testimonial. 
 " Ever since her death, two months ago, Sir Bar- 
 tholomew has been away from England; but, 
 before going, he kindly gave me a character, for
 
 X.] CHANGE OF SITUATION. 139 
 
 fear of my having any difficulty about getting 
 another situation through there being no one from 
 my last place for me to refer to. Here is what 
 he wrote. He was good enough to tell me, when 
 last I saw him, that he considered me to be the 
 best maid his wife had ever had to travel with, 
 and that I did just as well as a courier." • 
 
 So saying I handed over my forgery to Lady 
 Mervyn, who perused it carefully, and then re- 
 turned it to me. 
 
 " I always prefer a personal reference if pos- 
 sible," she said ; " but perhaps I might consent 
 to dispense with it for once, in an exceptional 
 case like this, where it evidently cannot be had. 
 Certainly Sir Bartholomew speaks of you in very 
 high terms. I do not want you for myself, but 
 for one of my daughters, who is going abroad with 
 my sister, Mrs. Eollin. You would have to attend 
 partly on Mrs. Eollin also ; but she will not want 
 much done for her, as she does not care about a 
 maid's assistance in most things. As they do not 
 intend taking a courier, they must have a really 
 efficient travelling -maid, who can see to their 
 luggage, take tickets, and all that sort of thing. 
 I suppose you have had plenty of experience in 
 that way with Lady Brown ? Can you talk French 
 and German pretty easily ?"
 
 140 JILL. [chap. 
 
 I replied in the affirmative, that I also knew 
 Italian, Spanish, a little Dutch, and a few words of 
 Greek, and that I could keep accounts in some 
 foreign coins. 
 
 " En verite, vous ne vous vantez pas mal !" she 
 returned, looking insultingly sceptical as to my 
 accomplishments being as extensive as I claimed 
 them to be. " Voyons d'abord pour le fran^ais." 
 And she then continued the conversation in French, 
 whilst I replied in the same tongue. The question 
 of wages was propounded next. I had no inten- 
 tion of depreciating my value by demanding too 
 little for my services, and I knew that courier- 
 maids were always paid very high, so I said that 
 I should not like to take less than what I had 
 received from Lady Brown, which was £35 and all 
 found. That was very high Lady Mervyn said ; 
 still, she would not object to give it to a maid who 
 was really worth it. After a few more questions 
 she observed that my French was satisfactory, at 
 all events ; and that, as she was not herself a 
 very good German scholar, she would get her 
 eldest daughter to test my proficiency in that 
 line. Einging the bell she told the footman, who 
 answered it, to request Miss Mervyn to come to 
 her. When that young lady arrived her mother 
 desired her to find out how I talked German. As
 
 X.] CHA2^GE or SITUATION. 141 
 
 I came triumphantly out of her examination, and 
 also translated accurately an Italian quotation 
 which happened to be in one of the newspapers 
 lying on the table, Lady Mervyn's incredulity as 
 to my accomplishments evidently diminished. I 
 could see that she began to think my pretensions 
 to knowledge were better founded than she had at 
 first supposed them to be, and that she was now 
 inclined to take upon trust the skill in foreign 
 moneys, and in Spanish, Dutch, and Greek, to 
 which I laid claim. 
 
 She hesitated, considered and reconsidered, and 
 scrutinised me through the 2J'^'^ce-nez for some time 
 before she could make up her mind whether to 
 engage me or not, and finally decided to do so. 
 Mrs. Eollin and Miss Mervyn were going abroad 
 in another ten days, she said, and as it would be 
 well for them and me to have a few days at home 
 in which to get used to one another before starting 
 on our travels, she wished me to return to her 
 house and begin my engagement on that day 
 week. This I was quite ready to do, as I had no 
 doubt of quickly getting free from Mrs. Green 
 whenever I chose. 
 
 One thing which I had evolved during the con- 
 versation with Lady Mervyn was a grievous dis- 
 appointment to me ; and that was, that I was not
 
 142 JILL. [chap. 
 
 — at all events for a while — to become a member 
 of her own establishment. I had been confidently 
 reckoning on being brought near Kitty ; but it 
 appeared that this was not to be my destiny after 
 all, unless, by some piece of luck, she should 
 chance to be the daughter who was to accompany 
 Mrs. Eollin, and whose especial attendant I was 
 to be. My mind was set at rest on this point 
 before I left Lady Mervyn's room, for, just as I 
 was about to depart, she exclaimed, "Wait a 
 moment ! I forgot that the young lady whom you 
 will wait on may like to see you if she is at home. 
 Perhaps, however, she is not, as she was to dine 
 out early to-night before going to the theatre. 
 Has Kitty started yet, do you know?" she con- 
 tinued, turning to the daughter who had been 
 experimenting on my German. 
 
 " Yes," was the answer ; " she went ten minutes 
 ago, just before I came to you." 
 
 " Ah, never mind then, Jill ; you can go now," 
 returned Lady Mervyn. Whereupon I took myself 
 off, mightly pleased at having discovered that the 
 Miss Mervyn whom I was to serve was just the 
 one whom I wanted it to be. 
 
 The next thing was to terminate my engage- 
 ment with Mrs. Green, and I meant to make her do 
 this herself For this purpose I informed her next
 
 X.] CHANGE OF SITUATION. 143 
 
 morning that I was sorry to say tliat I found the 
 daily walk to her house was more than I could 
 manage, therefore I must ask her to permit me to 
 come by omnibus in future. 
 
 She replied (as I had felt very sure she would 
 do) that she could not on any account consent to 
 expose herself and her household to such a risk of 
 infection. Could I not change my residence, and 
 come to live nearer her house ? I answered that 
 I did not wish to do that, as I was quite comfort- 
 able in my lodging, and should probably have a 
 difficulty in finding another to suit me equally 
 well. 
 
 She returned that it was most annoying, and 
 that in that case there was no choice but to con- 
 clude our connection together. That would neces- 
 sitate her looking out for another governess, which 
 she greatly disliked doing because there was always 
 some danger of infection from strangers coming to 
 the premises, notwithstanding all the precautions 
 she could take. She would never have engaged 
 me if she had thought there was a chance of the 
 engagement lasting so short a time; but I had 
 seemed so anxious for a permanent place that she 
 thought I was as averse to constant changes as 
 she was herself. However, there was no help for 
 it if I declined to change my abode, for it was
 
 144 JILL. [chap. 
 
 out of the question for her to allow any one coming 
 daily to her house to make use of an omnibus. 
 
 Poor woman ! I think she would have had a fit 
 if she had known that I had done that very thing 
 day after day since I had been teaching her child ; 
 and she was certainly an excellent illustration of 
 the truth of the old proverb, " Where ignorance is 
 bliss 'tis folly to be wise." Yet I don't think she 
 was very singular in this after all. How many of 
 us are there — especially of those who are heads of 
 houses — whose peace of mind might not be con- 
 siderably disturbed if we did but know the extent 
 to which other people are in the habit of setting 
 at nought and ignoring some particular pet pre- 
 judice of our own ? 
 
 It amused me to affect deep sympathy with a 
 piece of folly which I was laughing at in my 
 sleeve all the time ; so I replied that I fully recog- 
 nised the truth of what she said, and that I was 
 truly grieved to be the means of exposing her to 
 fresh peril from germs of disease clinging to the 
 clothes of applicants for my situation ; but that 
 since she objected to my coming by a 'bus, and / 
 objected to leave my present lodging, there was 
 unfortunately no option about my ceasing to 
 instruct Fanny. 
 
 She sighed, and answered that she was afraid
 
 X.] CHANGE OF SITUATION. 145 
 
 that was true. At the same time, she could not 
 in justice omit to say that she considered me to 
 have behaved very well in at once telling her 
 honestly of my inability to continue to attend to 
 my duties without travelling by that dangerous 
 conveyance which she had expressly prohibited 
 me from using. She feared there were some 
 people who would have been less straightforward, 
 and who would, in such a case, have slily dis- 
 obeyed her, and endeavoured to conceal from her 
 what they were doing. But then no one was 
 likely to be guilty of such unprincipled conduct 
 as that whose views were as sound as she knew 
 mine to be on the subject of infection ! Could I 
 go on coming to her house as before for a few days 
 longer? If so she would be very glad, as, per- 
 haps, by then she might be able to hear of a 
 successor for me. But if the walk was too far for 
 me to manage, why, of course, the engagement 
 must come to an end at once, as she could not 
 consent to my coming by omnibus for even one 
 single day. 
 
 To this I made answer, with perfect truth, 
 that I should be most happy to go on coming 
 in the same way as I had hitherto done till the 
 following Thursday. After that, however, I could 
 undertake it no longer, and supposed, therefore, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 JILL. [chap. X. 
 
 that she would wish our engagement to conclude 
 then. 
 
 She assented to this, and we parted on the best 
 of terms with one another. 
 
 Perhaps it may be thought odd that I did not 
 pursue the ordinary method of simply giving notice, 
 and taking myself off, when I wanted to go to 
 another situation. Of course I could easily have 
 done so if I had liked ; but in that case I should 
 have lost all the fun that I got out of the matter 
 by the other plan. It amused me to make her act 
 as I chose, and herself dismiss me when I wished 
 her to do so ; and I enjoyed feeling that her weak 
 point rendered her in my hands an unsuspecting 
 puppet, that would kick or not, according to how 
 I chose to pull the strings. Be it remembered 
 that love of fun has always been a much stronger 
 element in my character than amiability.
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 AN UNWELCOME ADMIREK. 
 
 So now I was going to be a lady's-maid. I knew 
 that the customs, ideas, traditions, and general 
 mode of thought prevailing in the rank of life I 
 was about to enter, would be likely to differ in 
 many ways from those to which I had hitherto 
 been accustomed ; and this knowledge naturally 
 made me rather anxious as to how easy I might 
 find it to adapt myself to my novel position, and 
 to the people with whom I should have to asso- 
 ciate. I felt that I was on the brink of a completely 
 new experience, and looked forward with more 
 trepidation than I had expected to my initiation 
 therein on joining Lord Mervyn's household as a 
 servant. Under these circumstances I laid down 
 two rules for my guidance, to which I determined 
 to adhere as far as possible : these were — first, 
 carefully to avoid making enemies amongst my 
 fellow-domestics ; and secondly, to try and discover 
 and conform to whatever unwritten laws of eti-
 
 U8 JILL. [chap. 
 
 quette might be generally established amongst 
 them. And in accordance with the second of these 
 rules, I determined that on the day when I was 
 due at 2000 Eaton Square, I would not make my 
 appearance there till towards supper time ; for I 
 had often noticed at home that whenever a new 
 servant was coming, he or she was sure not to turn 
 up till as late in the day as possible ; and from 
 this I inferred that to arrive early at a new place 
 was probably not considered the right thing. 
 
 It was, therefore, quite late in the evening when 
 I drove up to Lord Mervyn's door. The various 
 articles I had had to purchase in order to equip 
 myself properly, had caused my possessions to out- 
 grow the modest little bag that had sufficed to 
 contain them when I came to London a few weeks 
 before ; and so I was now accompanied by a box 
 large enough to make a respectable show as it 
 stood on the roof of the cab which brought me. 
 
 That cab, by the by, is always a sore recollection 
 to me ; for I cannot forget that it was the means, 
 indirectly, of my vanity receiving a sharp blow. 
 The way of it was this. 
 
 As I knew that Lady Mervyn would defray my 
 expenses in getting to her house, of course I did 
 not hesitate about cominc^ in a cab ; and of course 
 
 CD 7 
 
 also, in charging the fare to her, I put it down as
 
 XI.] AN UNWELCOME ADMIRER. 149 
 
 being just double what I had really paid. When 
 she came to settle her accounts with me she de- 
 murred to this item, saying thr.t the charge was 
 far beyond what it ought to have been for the 
 distance from my lodging to Eaton Square. I 
 replied innocently that I had thought it seemed a 
 good deal, and had said so to the cabman at the 
 time ; but that as he had declared it was not a 
 penny more than he was entitled to, and as I had 
 supposed he must know the proper fare better 
 than I did, I had given him what he asked. 
 
 Lady Mervyn accepted the explanation as satis- 
 factory, and passed on to the next item without 
 further question. But, when paying me, she re- 
 marked contemptuously that T must be uncom- 
 monly silly to let myself be cheated so easily, and 
 that in future she advised me to remember that 
 the word of a London cabman was not alivays to 
 be relied on implicitly. 
 
 As if / needed any advice of that kind ! Was 
 it possible to hear myself credited with such folly, 
 and yet not refute the insulting accusation in- 
 stantly? /to be considered such a greenhorn — / 
 who prided myself on being anything but soft and 
 easy to take in ! 
 
 Stung to the quick by her scornful words, my 
 self-esteem would hardly consent to submit to the
 
 160 JILL. [chap. 
 
 affront in silence. It urged me to remind her of 
 the fact that there could, in any case, be no ques- 
 tion of my having let myself be cheated, since it 
 was not / who was the person by whom the fare 
 was eventually to^be paid. But such a retort, 
 though gratifying to my injured feelings, would 
 have evidently been to the last degree unbecoming 
 to my position as lady's - maid. Luckily my 
 sense of this sufficed to keep me from answering 
 her as I longed to do, and I managed to listen 
 humbly to the unmerited reproach of gullibility, 
 just as though I acquiesced in the justice of it. 
 But it was only by a desperate effort that I could 
 thus control myself, for I was w^ounded in a point 
 where I was peculiarly sensitive. The thought of 
 the slur that had been cast on my knowledge of 
 the world and hard-headedness rankled in my 
 breast for long afterwards, irritating me to such 
 an extent that I could not help feeling that my 
 dishonesty in overcharging Lady Mervyn was 
 punished after all, and that I had only come off 
 second best in the affair. For the amount of 
 pecuniary profit I gained by it was absolutely in- 
 significant, and certainly inadequate to counter- 
 balance the mortification which it entailed upon 
 my pride. 
 
 The thought of this annoyance has led me away
 
 XI.] AX UNWELCOME ADMIEEI;. 151 
 
 from the proper course of my narrative. I apolo- 
 gise for the digression, and return to the evening 
 when I and my chattels were deposited by the cab 
 at 2000 Eaton Square. 
 
 The dignity of the post I was to fill exonerated 
 rae from having to join the common herd who 
 supped in the servants' hall, and gave me standing 
 in the higher and more select society occupying 
 the housekeeper's room. Here we fared most 
 sumptuously, for Lady Mervyn had had a small 
 dinner-party that night, and on these occasions it 
 was customary for the servants to finish up the 
 relics of the feast if they ca^*^d to do so. Bearing 
 this in mind, the cook never omitted to make the 
 dishes of a liberal size, or to concoct a sufficient 
 amount of whatever sauce was required for the 
 various <?7i^r^e5, puddings, etc., to be able to keep back 
 some of it when they were sent up to the dining- 
 room. By this means it was easy afterw ards to 
 renovate most of them for downstairs ust, even 
 though the sauce might have been popular with 
 the gentry, and wholly consumed upstairs — at 
 least, as much of it as ever went there. Our meal, 
 therefore, was little inferior to, and almost identical 
 with, that which had been set before the guests 
 overhead. It terminated with some capital ice- 
 pudding and dessert ices, of which there was an
 
 152 JILL. [chap. 
 
 ample supply, in well frozen condition; — this was 
 thanks to the care of the butler, who had helped 
 the ladies and gentlemen with a very sparing hand, 
 and then at once sent the remainder to be pre- 
 served for us in the refrigerator. 
 
 My companions seemed so well inclined to be 
 civil and to welcome me amongst them, that I 
 began to sliake off my nervousness, and to think 
 that I was going to get on swimmingly. It was 
 evidently considered that in the presence of a new- 
 comer like me, the first appropriate topic of conver- 
 sation to bring forward was the character of our 
 employers ; and as every one in the room delivered 
 his or her opinion on the subject with perfect free- 
 dom, I soon picked up a good deal of highly inter- 
 esting information. 
 
 Lady Mervyn was described as being "reg'lar 
 out and out worldly, a good bit more of a Turlv 
 than you would think from the quiet looks of her; 
 a bit mean, too, and one of those ladies who go 
 poking their noses into a larder to see what's there 
 pretty near every morning." I could see that the 
 cook considered the last mentioned custom to be 
 highly objectionable, and an amount of sur- 
 veillance which was both uncalled for and 
 aggravating. 
 
 The verdict on the eldest daughter was that
 
 XI.] AN UNWELCOME ADMIRER. 153 
 
 she was "not much to look at, and a bit of a screw, 
 but better tempered than Lady M." 
 
 The most popular member of the family was 
 evidently Kitty, who was pronounced to be 
 " 'andsome, merry, spirity, and pleasant-spoken to 
 both 'igh and low. For all that, though, you can 
 see that she'll never be satisfied without being first 
 fiddle, or pretty near it, wherever she is, and that 
 in 'er 'art she likes 'igh folk and swells better than 
 them as isn't. She don't show 'er pride on the 
 outside, p'raps, so much as some do ; but it's there 
 all the same, and you won't often find an 'ortier 
 young lady, go where you will. She's 'er ma's 
 favourite, she is, and bound to marry a top-sawyer 
 some day — she'd never be 'appy with any one as 
 wasn't." 
 
 I took the opportunity of enquiring whether 
 there was supposed to be any particular individual 
 in the wind, and I half expected that in the answer 
 I should hear something about Captain Norroy. 
 This, however, was not the case, nor was his name 
 ever once mentioned during the whole conversa- 
 tion. I evolved that she had plenty of admirers, 
 and was very gracious to them all, just as she was 
 to every one else ; but that whenever any of them 
 had been cheated by her amiable manner into the 
 belief that he had a chance of becomin<:j her
 
 154 JILL. [chap. 
 
 husband, lie had speedily been undeceived, and 
 learnt, to his cost, that her readiness to be great 
 friends with him was no indication of a disposition 
 to be anything more. The most desirable of her 
 many admirers was, in the opinion of my infor- 
 mants, a certain Lord Clement, who was clearly at 
 her disposal if she chose to have him, but whose 
 affection she showed no signs of reciprocating. 
 
 Her obduracy in this matter was quite inexplic- 
 able, I was told, he being a rich young earl not 
 more than eight years her senior, of good family 
 and irreproachable character, an excellent match 
 in every respect, and whose wife's rank and posi- 
 tion would be high enough to content any reason- 
 able woman. There was no doubt that her family 
 approved cordially of his suit, and that his rela- 
 tions, also, had no objection to it. One would 
 have thought that any girl would have been glad 
 to get such a husband, and more particularly a 
 girl like her who set store on being a nob. Yet, 
 for some reason or other, she seemed not to know 
 he had any attractions at all to offer, and turned 
 up her nose at him as if she didn't care a straw 
 about such things. Not that she was what you 
 could call uncivil to him, — oh no, it was not her 
 nature to be that to any one, — but she certainly 
 contrived to give him more cold shoulder than en-
 
 XI.] AX UNWELCOME ADMIRER. 155 
 
 couragement. Whether or not he had ever ven- 
 tured to declare himself to her, in spite of this, was 
 a matter as to which opinions varied. The house- 
 keeper did not believe he had proposed ; whereas 
 the butler took a contrary view in consequence of 
 what he had heard from a waiter friend of his who 
 liad had opportunities of observing his lordship 
 and Miss Kitty together at several parties. But 
 it was mere conjecture, and every one agreed that 
 there was no certainty about the matter either one 
 way or other. 
 
 It can easily be imagined that gossip of this 
 kind was extremely interesting to a person in my 
 position, anxious to learn all I could regarding the 
 lay of the land which I had come to inhabit. The 
 communicativeness of my new associates, and the 
 facility with which I was getting on with them at 
 starting, reassured me greatly. I began to wonder 
 at my former qualms, lest in descending to a lower 
 social grade 1 should find things to put up with 
 that were distasteful and unpleasant. Entering 
 service was, after all, no such formidable ordeal as 
 1 had imagined ; there was nothing that I should 
 not quickly grow accustomed to in my unfamiliar 
 surroundings ; nothing to shock the prejudices 
 or fastidiousness of any reasonable person ; no 
 reason whatever why I should not be able to
 
 1 56 JILL. [chap. 
 
 fraternise, and make myself at home, just as well 
 in that class of life as in any other. Alas for 
 these couleiir de rose anticipations of mine ! They 
 were destined to be of but very brief duration, 
 and were soon ruthlessly destroyed by the follow- 
 ing most vexatious occurrence. 
 
 As there is no accounting for tastes, and as 
 even the ugliest of women need not despair of 
 meeting with some man in whose eyes she will 
 appear beautiful, or nice-looking at the very least, 
 therefore I might obviously have foreseen the 
 possibility of my encountering some male fellow- 
 servant or other who would consider me sufficiently 
 attractive to flirt with. Of course, I ought to 
 have taken this into my calculations when I was 
 contemplating the various chances and events to 
 which I should be liable on entering service. But 
 it was a contingency which, somehow or other, 
 never once occurred to me ; I suppose I was too 
 destitute of vanity about my own charms to think 
 of it. 
 
 Now amongst my new companions was Lord 
 Mervyn's valet, Perkins, a pale-faced, sandy-haired, 
 thick-lipped, abominably-scented man, who wore 
 flowing whiskers of inordinate length which he 
 greatly cherished; who believed himself to be 
 universally acceptable to the weaker sex, and
 
 xr.] AX UNWELCOME ADMIKEK. 157 
 
 who was conceited, cowardly, and revengeful. 
 As bad luck would have it, I happened to take 
 liis fancy at first sight; and it all of a sudden 
 dawned upon me, to my amazement and dismay, 
 that he was actually making me the object of very 
 marked and unmistakable attentions. 
 
 Scandalised at the notion of a man-servant 
 taking the liberty to raise his eyes to a lady, I 
 could hardly trust to the evidence of my own 
 senses at first. But then the matter seemed less 
 unlikely when I remembered that he had not a 
 suspicion of there being any inequality of rank 
 between him and me ; and that, as far as that 
 went, I was in his eyes just the same as any other 
 maid in the house. 
 
 What he should find to admire in me, who had 
 certainly done nothing to attract him, was beyond 
 my power to imagine ; but that did not alter the 
 very unpleasant fact that he did regard me with 
 favour, for he made it too plain for there to be a 
 doubt about the matter. I shuddered to think 
 that I must endure being made love to by a valet: 
 it was an odious and degrading idea. Had I 
 realised the possibility of it beforehand, I hardly 
 knew whether I should ever have placed myself 
 where I should be exposed to the risk of anything 
 so disagreeable. Disgusted and angry at the
 
 158 JILL. [chap. 
 
 admiration which I deemed an insult, and was 
 yet powerless to resent, I endeavoured to nip it in 
 the bud by energetic snubbing. Alas ! he only 
 thought that I was affecting coyness in order to 
 draw him on, and persisted in his objectionable 
 attentions all the more. 
 
 To add to my annoyance, I perceived that I 
 was meanwhile incurring the bitter enmity of 
 Lady Mervyn's maid, Kobinson, to whom Perkins 
 had, before my coming, devoted himself chiefly, 
 and who strongly objected to any transfer of his 
 affections. Too much blinded by jealousy to see 
 how unwelcome his vulgar compliments were to 
 me, she attributed the fickle conduct of her swain 
 entirely to my wiles, and thought that I alone was 
 to blame for his deserting: her. 
 
 Unluckily the man had a smattering of French, 
 and though his accent was as bad as a Corsican's 
 (which is saying a grcoi deal), he was immensely 
 proud of his acquirements as a linguist, and aired 
 them on every possible opportunity. Knowing 
 that I, too, was supposed to be accomplished in 
 this line, he kept on addressing me in the one 
 foreign tongue which he believed himself to know, 
 whenever he could recollect enouq-h of it to trans- 
 late any remark that he wanted to make. By 
 this proceeding the flames of Robinson's wrath
 
 XI.] AN UNWELCOME ADMIRER. 159 
 
 were constantly being fanned higher and higher ; 
 for she — understanding not a word of any language 
 except her own — ^jumped to the conclusion that 
 whatever French observation he addressed to me 
 must necessarily be something of an extra-tender 
 description, which would be unsuited to the ears 
 of the general public. 
 
 I — anxious not to quarrel with her, and recoil- 
 ing \\'ith horror from the idea that any one could 
 possibly suspect me of having the faintest approach 
 to a private understanding with Perkins — invari- 
 ably answered his speeches in English. But my 
 efforts to undeceive her were in vain, and by the 
 time we retired to bed she had begun to express 
 her hostility in various unmistakable ways — such 
 as darting angry glances in my direction, giving 
 vent to frequent sniffs betokening great mental 
 irritation, and making half-audible observations 
 as to the rudeness of talking secrets in company, 
 and the intense objection she had to meddlesome 
 strangers who intruded and made mischief amongst 
 friends. 
 
 A nice kettle of "fish this is ! thought I, in 
 reviewing the events of the day before I w^ent to 
 sleep. I certainly do not see how I am to keep to 
 my intention of not making enemies at this rate. 
 And just when I was beginning to feel sure that
 
 160 JILL. [chap. 
 
 everything was going to be so comfortable, too ! 
 Why could not that wretch Perkins have let me 
 alone, I wonder ? ^Faugh ! The idea of supposing 
 that I could be pleased with what he considers 
 pretty speeches. I think it's a great pity that there 
 are any men at all in the world, — or, anyhow, any 
 except gentlemen. 
 
 There was something worse than mere pretty 
 speeches in store for me. On the day after my 
 arrival I was going upstairs from dinner when I 
 suddenly saw Perkins coming towards me. No 
 one else was in sight, and he evidently thought it 
 a good opportunity for prosecuting his courtship 
 vigorously. 
 
 " Miss Jill, my dear," whispered he, leering at 
 me detestably ; " I'm dying for a kiss from them 
 sweet lips of yours. Do give me one now — 
 there's no one to see." 
 
 I was too much taken aback to be able to think 
 of any answer which would adequately express 
 the intense horror and indignation with which his 
 insolent speech inspired me, so I pretended not to 
 have heard what he said. But I suspect that my 
 face showed something of what I felt, for he was 
 not deceived by my affectation of deafness, and 
 continued, with a conceited snigger, whilst he 
 stroked his beloved whiskers complacently :
 
 XI.] AN UNWELCOME ADMIRER. 161 
 
 " Wh at — not j ust yet, my little partridge ! Tray 
 Hang ! This evening, or to-morrow, then, eh ? 
 Only I reelly can't wait long, mind ; and if you go 
 on being 'ard-'arted, I shall take that kiss without 
 asking leave. That's just what you want, I dessay. 
 Bless you ! / know the way to please the ladies. 
 You're all the same — lono^inf? to be courted and 
 kissed, and yet making believe that you can't 
 abide nothing of the kind, all the time." 
 
 I reached my room in a state of fury that was 
 mixed with alarm, lest he should attempt to 
 execute his threat. Being stronger than me, 
 there was a chance that he might succeed in spite 
 of all I could do to prevent it. And since it made 
 me frantic merely to think of such a humiliation, 
 what should I do supposing the monster actually 
 did manage to profane my face with his lips ? 
 Should I kill him on the spot, or should I expire 
 from sheer disgust ? How unutterably horrible it 
 was to have to associate with a creature who had 
 such coarse, boorish ideas of what was the proper 
 way for a man to make himself agreeable to a 
 woman ! This, verily, was a degradation for which 
 I had not bargained. It was a comfort that I was 
 going abroad so soon ; if I could escape for a few 
 days more, I should be out of reach of the danger. 
 And with this reflection I consoled myself as well 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 JILL. [chap. 
 
 as I could, determining to be constantly on my 
 guard as long as I was in that house, lest the 
 dreaded and hateful salute should come upon me 
 unawares, from some obscure corner or lurking- 
 place. 
 
 My apprehensions were but too well-founded, 
 as I experienced on the following evening. It was 
 after dark, and I was proceeding along the passage 
 near the pantry, with a lighted candle in my hand, 
 when my enemy suddenly sprung out from some 
 recess where he had been lying in ambush. He 
 endeavoured to throw his arms around me, exclaim- 
 ing, as he did so : " Now's our time, my pet ! I 
 can't possibly wait no longer ; and no one's looking, 
 so you needn't purtend not to like it." 
 
 Moved by rage and fright to defend myself at 
 all hazards, I had recourse to the only weapon 
 available ; and against the odious face and lips 
 that were approaching mine I thrust the candle 
 that I carried. He tried to avoid the impending 
 peril by blowing out the light ; but either he was 
 too much confused, or else I was too quick for him, 
 and he failed to extinguish it. In another instant 
 there was a strong smell of burning hair, and one 
 of his cherished whiskers was on fire. He let go 
 of me with an oath, and an exclamation of pain 
 and fear — for he was a shocking coward ; and I
 
 XI.] AI^ UNWELCOME ADMIRER. 163 
 
 passed on, quivering with excitement, and divided 
 between exultation at my escape and self-hatred 
 for having subjected myself to the disgrace of 
 being thus forced into a sort of romping struggle 
 with a valet. 
 
 When next I saw him he bore considerable 
 traces of the contest. The hairy appendages to 
 his face, in which he delighted, were gone ; for the 
 whisker I had set on fire had been so much 
 destroyed that it had had to be shaved off, and 
 then of course its companion had been obliged to 
 follow suit. And besides this, there were on his 
 lips and cheek sundry inflamed and angry-looking 
 burns and blisters, which I regarded with vindictive 
 satisfaction. 
 
 AVlien the other servants commented on the 
 change in his appearance, and inquired into the 
 cause thereof, he accounted for it by a story — 
 which I did not trouble myself to contradict — 
 about his having had an accident with an unusually 
 explosive match, the head of which had flown off 
 and burnt him. There was nothing so abominably 
 dangerous, he said, with savage emphasis, as an 
 ill-made thin"; like that, "'oinCT off all of a sudden, 
 and flaring and skipping about like mad, when it 
 looked as safe and quiet as possible. Regular 
 man traps, he considered them to be ; and if he
 
 164 JILL. [chap. 
 
 could have his way, they should be burnt, or got 
 rid of somehow, every one of them. 
 
 As he spoke he cast a malignant glance at me, 
 which convinced me that I had incurred his 
 undying resentment, and that in his abuse of the 
 imaginary match he was conveying his opinion 
 about my deserts. 
 
 To that, however, I was indifferent ; for in my 
 eyes his hatred was infinitely preferable to his 
 love ; I did not at all suppose he could do me any 
 harm, and only rejoiced to find what a wholesome 
 effect my violence had produced. He could by 
 no means forgive the loss of his whiskers and 
 disfigurement which I had inflicted on him ; and 
 after the encounter above recorded he took no 
 notice of me, except when he thought he saw an 
 opening for saying or doing anything likely to 
 annoy me — of which he always availed himself. 
 
 Some of the ways by which he tried to show 
 his spite were highly ludicrous, and all the more 
 so because they failed completely of having the 
 effect he desired. For instance, in helping the 
 vegetables he would omit to supply my wants in 
 the proper order of precedence belonging to my 
 position, and would serve some inferior domestic 
 with potatoes before me. This, as I subsequently 
 learnt, was intended as a mortal offence, which
 
 XI.] AN UNWELCOME ADMIRER. 165 
 
 ought to have wounded my feelings desperately. 
 But I was happily ignorant of it at the time, and 
 had no suspicion of the intended insult. As long 
 as I had enough potatoes, it was all the same to 
 me whether I had them first or last ; and when 
 at dinner, he passed over me, and handed the dish 
 to the second housemaid before me, I was all 
 unconscious of the affront that was being offered, 
 so that my peace of mind was in no wise affected 
 by it. 
 
 But though, since he had given up making love 
 to me, I was impervious to most of his methods 
 of annoyance, none the less did I find the prevail- 
 ing state of things uncomfortable in 2000 Eaton 
 Square ; and it was with sincere joy that I found 
 myself at last fairly off from London, and accom- 
 panying Mrs. Eollin and Kitty to the Continent. 
 T hoped that I had seen the last of Perkins ; or 
 that, at all events, if he and I should be destined 
 to inhabit the same house again when I returned 
 from abroad, he would have got over his present 
 bad temper sufficiently to keep the peace with me. 
 Certainly T never suspected the implacable enmity 
 of which — as I was to find by experience — he 
 was capable.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPH AGAIN. 
 
 When fingers are set to work for the first time 
 at dressing and undressing any one else than their 
 natural owner, they are apt to feel uncommonly 
 as if they were all thumbs ; such, at least, was the 
 conclusion I came to at the outset of my career as 
 lady's-maid. But a very little practice sufficed to 
 make the awkward sensation wear ofi'; and, after 
 that, I was able easily to fulfil the duties of my 
 post. To these duties I had no dislike, and much 
 preferred being engaged in performing them to 
 spending my time amongst other domestics ; for 
 I could wait on two ladies without shocking my 
 self-respect in any way, whereas I felt ashamed 
 and degraded at the mere idea of being liable to 
 be persecuted by a man like Perkins. I tried 
 hard to conquer this squeamishness, telling my- 
 self that it was ridiculous and inconsistent for a 
 woman like me to be so particular, after having 
 deliberately elected to knock about in the world,
 
 CHAF. XII.] THE PHOTOGKAPH AGAIN. 167 
 
 and take what came. But my endeavours to 
 reason myself into a sensible view of the 
 matter were in vain, and completely failed to 
 uproot the feeling that to be taken liberties 
 with by a man-servant was a humiliation not to 
 bo endured. 
 
 The Perkins incident having put me out of 
 charity with the whole class — females and males 
 alike — to which he belonged, it was a satisfaction 
 to me that I was to be the sole attendant accom- 
 panying Mrs. Eollin and Kitty Mervyn abroad. 
 This obviated all danger, at all events for the 
 present, of my having to associate with obnoxious 
 comrades. On the score of being dull for want of 
 company I felt no uneasiness, for I knew by ex- 
 perience that I could amuse myself perfectly well 
 when left to my own devices. Besides — had I 
 not now the opportunity which I had desired for 
 observing Kitty Mervyn, and trying to make out 
 her character ? I habitually regarded every one 
 with indifference ; but she had for me a strange 
 fascination, which was strong enough to overcome 
 that indifference, and I was quite astonished at 
 the extent to which she interested me. Let me 
 enumerate some of the attractions and qualities, 
 both bodily and mental, of this young lady, who 
 was at once my mistress, and also — though she
 
 168 JILL. [chap. 
 
 would have been very greatly surprised to be told 
 so — my connection. 
 
 In appearance she was tall, handsome, and im- 
 perial-looking, with a bright and open expression 
 of countenance. Her disposition was upright, 
 proud, honourable, and averse to everything mean. 
 In conversation she was clever, quick-witted, 
 lively, and pleasant. And as, furthermore, she was 
 endowed with great social talent and a remarkable 
 knack of pleasing all with whom she came in con- 
 tact, she won hearts right and left, and was con- 
 sidered charming wherever she went. She was, 
 however, far from faultless. The germ of worldli- 
 ness, which inevitably creeps into an education 
 amongst fashionable people, had begun to develop 
 itself, and to taint her nature ; and the conclave 
 in her father's housekeeper's room had certainly 
 not erred in attributing to her pride and ambition. 
 So marked was her inclination to haughtiness that, 
 when first I knew her, it sometimes puzzled me 
 why she should take the trouble she did to make 
 herself universally agreeable — even to people for 
 whom she did not care, from whom there was 
 nothino- to be gained in return, and who were 
 nobodies in her estimation. As, however, I came 
 to understand her better, I discovered the key to 
 this enigma, and perceived tliat she was actuated
 
 XII.] THE PHOTOGRAPH AGAIN. 169 
 
 — whether consciously or only instinctively I do 
 not know — -by a strong desire for two things which 
 seemed almost as indispensable to her as the air 
 she breathed. These two things were popularity 
 and power, and without them she was never 
 really happy. 
 
 Her frank genial manner was well adapted to 
 make people believe her to be an unreserved, easily- 
 read individual ; but the more attentively I studied 
 her, the less inclined did I feel to think that im- 
 pression a correct one. I had doubts whether she 
 ever showed much of her real self; whether there 
 were not recesses, of unsuspected depth, hidden 
 within her where no mortal eye could penetrate ; 
 and whether she did not often make use of un- 
 reserve as a mask to conceal its opposite. The 
 possibility of this made her all the more attractive 
 to me. Curiosity as to what might lie beneath 
 the surface she presented to the world, served to 
 increase the drawing towards her that I had always 
 felt ; and had I been so placed as to have a chance 
 of making friends with her, I should certainly have 
 tried to do so. But it was, as I well knew, hope- 
 less to attempt such a thing in my present position ; 
 for she w^as not the sort of girl to condescend to 
 familiar intercourse with social inferiors, and in 
 her eyes I was simply a maid. Under the circum-
 
 170 JILL. [chap. 
 
 stances, it would obviously be ridiculous if I were to 
 let myself become fond of her, and I resolved firmly 
 not to be guilty of any sentimental folly of the 
 kind. Yet, in spite of this prudent resolution, I 
 must confess that I sometimes had hard work not 
 to yield to the indefinable charm which she had 
 for me ; and had she vouchsafed me any special 
 marks of favour, I am afraid I should inevitably 
 have made a fool of myself, and become romantic- 
 ally devoted to her. As, however, I had no par- 
 ticular attraction for her, such as she had for me, 
 that fact contributed greatly to restrain my liking 
 within reasonable limits. To indulge in an un- 
 requited attachment had always seemed to me 
 decidedly weak and contemptible (notwithstanding 
 that such a man as the author of the Vita Nuova 
 had done it) ; and it would have discomposed me 
 immensely to detect in myself any symptoms of 
 being capable of that weakness. 
 
 In short, I was sufficiently smitten with Kitty to 
 have cast prudence to the winds, and let my whole 
 heart go out to her, if she had held up her finger 
 to me. But that little word " if" made just all the 
 difference. My sense of dignity might safely be 
 reckoned on to assist reason and prudence in fight- 
 ing against an infatuation for any person who did 
 not care for me in return.
 
 XII.] THE PHOTOGRAPH AGAIN. 171 
 
 From London we proceeded to Paris ; thence 
 we travelled slowly across France, stopping at 
 various places of interest, and presently reached 
 Cannes, where my two ladies meant to make a stay 
 of a week or so before journeying on into Italy. 
 
 So far, I had seen and heard nothing to confirm 
 the gossip about Lord Clement's admiration for 
 Kitty, which had been communicated to me by 
 the servants. But I received ample proof of its 
 trath on the day after our arrival at Cannes ; and 
 this happened in the following manner :— 
 
 I was engaged in brushing the dust off a dress 
 which Kitty had been wearing, when I found in 
 the pocket a letter which she had received that 
 morning from England. I did not hesitate to read 
 it. When letters have secrets in them, people do 
 not leave them about, thought I ; so, since Kitty 
 has not troubled to take this one out of her pocket, 
 of course there are no private matters in it, and 
 there is no reason why I should not see if the con- 
 tents are amusing. 
 
 The epistle was from Lady Mer^^'n, and the 
 portion of it which most interested me ran thus : 
 
 " Lord Clement told me last w^eek that he 
 thought he should go yachting to the Eiviera at 
 once, and as I have little doubt what is the attrac- 
 tion that takes him there, I daresay you will see
 
 172 JILL. ' [chap. 
 
 something of him before long. I do hope, dearest 
 Kitty, that you will not set yourself against him, 
 and that you will try and reconsider the answer 
 you gave him before. I am, as you know, the last 
 person to try to over-persuade you into a marriage 
 against your own inclinations; but yet I cannot 
 resist putting in a good word for him, for it touches 
 me to see how truly he loves you, and how con- 
 stant to you he is, in spite of your refusal. Besides 
 that, he really is a man in a thousand, and one to 
 whom any mother would trust her daughter joy- 
 fully. Not only has he the recommendations of 
 rank and wealth, but moreover he is unusually 
 amiable, high-minded, conscientious, steady, and 
 superior to the temptations to folly and extrava- 
 gance to which young men in his position are so 
 peculiarly open. With the exception of yourself, 
 I doubt there being a single girl in London — or in 
 England either — who would not accept him gladly, 
 if only he asked her. And I'm sure one can't 
 wonder at his being so run-after as he is, when 
 one remembers what his money and position are, 
 what immense influence they give him, what an 
 excellent character he bears, and how thoroughly 
 good he is in every way. However, you know 
 already how high he stands in my good graces, and 
 I had better drop the subject for fear of boring you
 
 XII.] THE PHOTOGKAPH AGAIN. 173 
 
 by going over the same old tale again. Only do 
 remember, my darling, that it is only the earnest 
 wish I have to secure your happiness which makes 
 me so anxious for you not to dismiss him without 
 well considering what you do. Otherwise you may, 
 perhaps, some day find yourself repenting your 
 past decision, and regretting that you were so per- 
 sistent in rejecting one of the few men of whom it 
 may truly be said, that he is all that a husband 
 should be." 
 
 Xot badly done, my lady, thought I, as I re- 
 folded the letter, and restored it to its place. You 
 knew what a tempting bait power is to Kitty when 
 you put in that bit about the influence which the 
 young man's position gives him. And you under- 
 stood who you were writing to when you reminded 
 her of his attractiveness to other people — she's 
 likely enough to value goods at the price the rest 
 of the world put upon them. Evidently you, like 
 the servants, are puzzled to account for her indis- 
 position to receive the proposals of this rich, titled, 
 desirable, and altogether delightful suitor. Well ! 
 it rather puzzles me too. Can it be that she pre- 
 fers some one else ? No one seems to suspect such 
 a thing; but yet it might be true for all that. 
 What if that photograph I found in her purse 
 were the explanation of the mystery? There is
 
 174 JILL. [chap. 
 
 no impossibility in the idea of a tendresse existing 
 between her and Captain Norroy, which they have 
 hitherto managed to conceal from other people. I 
 wish I could see them together, and then I should 
 have some chance of discovering whether this con- 
 jecture of mine is right or not. 
 
 Whilst speculating thus, a brilliant idea sud- 
 denly flashed into my mind. This was, that I 
 might avail myself of the surreptitiously-obtained 
 carte-de-visite (which I had carefully preserved), 
 in order to find out what I wanted to know. I 
 would produce it unexpectedly, when there was no 
 chance of Kitty's being particularly on guard, and 
 watch for any signs of emotion that she might show 
 on seeing it. 
 
 Wrapped up exactly as it had been when in her 
 purse, and even in the self- same bit of paper, I put 
 it into a blank envelope, which I presented next 
 time I went to wait on her. 
 
 " I picked this up on the floor, just outside," 
 said I. " I was going to take it to the landlord ; 
 but then I thought perhaps it might be something 
 of yours, as I found it close to the door of your 
 room, so I had better ask you about it first." 
 
 The envelope was not fastened, as I had feared 
 that if it were closed she would scruple to open it, 
 which would be fatal to the success of my stratagem.
 
 XII.] THE PHOTOGEAPH AGAIN. 175 
 
 " Thank you," she answered, taking it from me 
 carelessly. '' I don't think it helongs to me, but 
 I can soon see." 
 
 I was doing her hair at the time, and commanded 
 an excellent view of her face reflected in the look- 
 ing-glass opposite which she sat. Her expression 
 of insouciance vanished like magic when she had 
 undone the paper and seen what it contained. 
 The colour rushed into her face, which softened 
 for a moment in a way I had never before seen it 
 do ; then came a stern, rigid, haughty, resolute 
 look, as though she would defy the whole world 
 to discover whatever secret she chose to conceal. 
 
 She did not speak at first, but turned round the 
 photograph again and again, examining both it 
 and the paper in w^hich it had been wrapped. 
 
 At last she said : " This certainly is my property ; 
 but I can't imagine how it came to be where you 
 found it. I fully believed it to have been lost 
 some time ago." 
 
 "Don't you think," I suggested, "that when 
 you thought you had lost it, you had perhaps 
 really only slipped it into your writing-case, or 
 into some book or papers which you haven't hap- 
 pened to open since then until now ? Then it fell 
 out without your noticing it, and either you were 
 at that time at the place where I picked it up, or
 
 176 JILL. [chap. 
 
 else some one's dress may have swept it there 
 from your room. It was very near to the door." 
 
 " That is possible, no doubt," she returned, 
 thoughtfully. " Yet still, I can hardly believe it to 
 have happened so. I felt as positive as one can 
 be about anything, that it was not in an envelope 
 at all, and that I had put it" — she hesitated a 
 moment, and then finished, " somewhere else." 
 
 As she did not seem inclined to mention where 
 she really had put it, I thought I had better pre- 
 tend to suppose that its destination had been a 
 photograph-album. 
 
 " It would be very easy to be mistaken about 
 what you had done with it, though," said I. 
 "Probably when it was given you it was in an 
 envelope, and then you were interrupted just as 
 you were going to stick it into your book, 'and 
 after that you forgot all about it, and it got 
 mislaid." 
 
 "Well, you may be right," she replied. ''In- 
 deed I don't see any other way of accounting for 
 the matter. But it is odd how I can have been 
 so completely wrong in the impression I had as to 
 what I had done with it." 
 
 The theory I had propounded seemed sufficiently 
 plausible to content her, and she did not again 
 allude to the affair. But I had little doubt that
 
 XII.] THE PHOTOGRAPH AGAIN. 177 
 
 she tliouglit about it a good deal for all that, 
 because of a new look which I noticed in her face 
 occasionally during the next day or two, and which 
 was different from any other that I had seen there 
 hitherto. A f^leam of soft lidit would flash out 
 from her eyes, accompanied by an expression of 
 countenance which was curious, half- ashamed, 
 tender, and wistful, and gave the impression rather 
 of unhappiness than of the joy a girl would be 
 likely to feel when thinking of her lover. This 
 look of sadness would last perhaps for a minute, 
 and then invariably be succeeded by one that M'as 
 scornful, hard, and impenetrable. 
 
 It was "beyond me to interpret these signs 
 satisfactorily. That Captain Norroy had power to 
 excite emotions of some kind in her breast I felt 
 sure ; but whether these emotions were pleasurable 
 or the reverse, I was unable to make out. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 LORD CLEMENT. 
 
 Lady Mervyn's prediction regarding Lord Cle- 
 ment's movements proved to be correct. His 
 yacht, La Catalina, arrived at Cannes two or 
 three days after we did, and that event was 
 speedily followed by the appearance of her noble 
 owner at the hotel where we were staying. 
 
 The interest with which Kitty's affairs inspired 
 me had led to my speculating a good deal on the 
 subject of this young lord ; and I had made up 
 my mind that he was almost sure to have some- 
 thing or other disagreeable about him which would 
 counterbalance his many charms, and afford some 
 explanation of her unwillingness to accept him. 
 No doubt, thought I, he is loutish, silly, ugly, 
 untidy, bad mannered, eccentric, or in some other 
 way objectionable. This anticipation, however, 
 turned out to be wrong, and I soon perceived that 
 he had none of the defects with which my lively 
 imagination had credited him.
 
 CHAP. XIII.] LORD CLEMEXT. 179 
 
 He was rather below middle height, dressed 
 well and quietly, and could never by any accident 
 be mistaken for anything but a gentleman — which, 
 indeed, he certainly was in every respect. Neither 
 handsome nor ugly, his face was amiable and mild, 
 but possessed no other very marked expression of 
 any kind. One would not suppose him to be 
 powerful or weak, distinguished or insignificant, a 
 genius or a fool. If there was nothing specially 
 attractive about his appearance, neither was there 
 the reverse. 
 
 His intellect was not in any way brilliant, but 
 he had good sense and fair average abilities, was 
 eminently painstaking, and would work as labori- 
 ously at whatever he thought it his duty to do as 
 though his livelihood had depended on his exer- 
 tions. In short, I think that the most appropriate 
 description of him is mediocrity, in respect of 
 everything except moral qualities ; but where these 
 were concerned he was by no means mediocre, 
 being far more conscientious and anxious to do 
 right than are the majority of rich young men who 
 have the world at their feet. 
 
 The most trying thing about him was a tendency 
 to make a fuss about trifles, and to attach a need- 
 less importance to all the minor proprieties of life, 
 which was sometimes rather irritatiniz. But, after
 
 180 JILL. [chap. 
 
 all, fidgettiness and extra deference to Mrs. Grundy 
 are only very small defects in the eyes of most 
 people. I could understand that Kitty might 
 occasionally be aggravated by these failings, yet 
 they alone were not, in my opinion, sufficient to 
 account for his being refused by a girl who was 
 ambitious, and who had enough perspicacity and 
 worldly wisdom to appreciate what an excellent 
 match he was, and what an opening for ambition 
 would be afforded by the position of his wife. 
 
 I was curious to know how Kitty treated him, 
 and profited by every opportunity I had of watch- 
 ing them together. From these observations I 
 came to the conclusion that he had inspired her 
 neither with affection nor aversion, and that she 
 was struggling to bring lierself to accept him. 1 
 thought that her reason and judgment were plead- 
 ing for him, and expatiating on his attractions, as 
 her mother had done, and that she was lending a 
 willing ear to these advocates, and doing all she 
 could to let herself be convinced by their argu- 
 ments. Yet I had a great idea, too, that the effort 
 went against the grain with her, and that she often 
 could not help keeping him at arm's length, even 
 in spite of her own wish. It was as if she had 
 been conscious of the grasp of an invisible hand, 
 from which she could not wrench herself free, and
 
 xni.] LORD CLEMEXT. 181 
 
 \vhich constantly drew her back when she strove 
 to approach nearer to her suitor. 
 
 Is it Captain ISTorroy's hand that restrains her ? 
 I asked myself, as I pondered over this result of 
 my observations. Yet, if so, it seems very odd 
 that no one except me should have discovered 
 their attachment for one another. From all that 
 I have seen and heard I should have thought that a 
 young couple in society would never have managed 
 to become spoons to any serious degree without 
 giving rise to some amount of suspicion as to the 
 true state of affairs between them. How ever can 
 these two have contrived to deceive the lynx eyes 
 of gossip-loving servants, and to hoodwink the 
 worldly and wide-awake Lady Mervyn, whose 
 heart is set on securing a brilliant match for her 
 favourite daughter ? 
 
 o 
 
 Lord Clement's behaviour towards Kitty after his 
 arrival at Cannes seemed to me that of a man who 
 felt himself to be on trial — was nervous lest she 
 should think him over eac^er in his addresses, and 
 objected to getting himself talked about with a girl 
 who perhaps would not marry him after all. His 
 first proceeding was to get introduced to Mrs. 
 Rollin, who had till then been a stranger to him. 
 The introduction was easily effected, and after that 
 he had no lack of opportunities of meeting the object
 
 182 JILL. [chap. 
 
 of his affections ; for Mrs. KoUin responded cordi- 
 ally to his advances, inviting him to join in all the 
 excursions to neighbouring lions which she and 
 Kitty made, and letting it be apparent that he 
 was most welcome whenever he chose to pay them 
 a visit, and to accompany them anywhere. 
 
 I have no doubt that this civility of hers re- 
 sulted, in the first instance, from something said 
 by Lady Mervyn as to his admiration for Kitty, 
 and the desirability of encouraging him as much 
 as possible. But though this may have been the 
 original motive of the empressement with which 
 Mrs. Rollin received him, there was no fear of her 
 not welcoming him for his own sake when once 
 she had made acquaintance with him and dis- 
 covered what he was like. For she was a person 
 who held that the most important matter in life 
 was to stand well in the world's opinion, and con- 
 sequently she was quite charmed with his scrupu- 
 lous regard for convenances and extreme horror of 
 doing anything that could shock Mrs. Grundy. 
 
 "There's nothing of more consequence," Mrs. 
 Eollin would declare, '' than to keep up appear- 
 ances, because, provided one does that, one is quite 
 safe to be thought perfect. And that's what 
 every one wishes to be thought, or, if they don't, 
 they ought to. I call it quite wicked of any one
 
 Xiii.] LORD CLEMENT. 183 
 
 to pretend that it doesn't matter what the world's 
 opinion about them is. Depend upon it, that 
 whatever the whole world thinks cant be wrong ; 
 and that if a person is generally condemned or 
 praised, there's always some good reason for the 
 blame or the approval." 
 
 Keeping up appearances in the eyes of the world 
 was, therefore, her standard of perfection ; and she 
 strove zealously never to fall short of that standard, 
 and always to fulfil its requirements punctiliously. 
 Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to deduce from 
 this that she was such an abject slave of the 
 world's opinion as to let herself be governed by 
 it in things which it did not see. On the contrary, 
 she drew a line between her public and private 
 actions, and did not allow it to interfere at all 
 with the latter. If she had tastes and inclinations 
 to which it objected, she did not, on that account, 
 sacrifice them, if it was possible that they could 
 be indulged in secret. How she would act, under 
 such circumstances, was illustrated by her be- 
 haviour regarding French novels. These she pre- 
 ferred to any other kind of reading, and greedily 
 devoured as many as she could lay hold of. But 
 as she knew that the world sometimes thinks fit 
 to frown at an indiscriminate study of these books 
 (who shall say whether that disapprobation is real
 
 184 JILL. [chap. 
 
 or feigned ?), therefore she was careful not to 
 reveal her partiality for them. Yet she did not 
 rush to the opposite extreme and disclaim any 
 acquaintance whatsoever with that class of litera- 
 ture. She had no idea of hiding her light under 
 a bushel, and not being duly credited with as 
 many accomjDlishments as she possessed, and 
 therefore liked to have it known that she under- 
 stood a foreign language well enough to read and 
 enjoy works written in it. So what she did was, 
 to profess to read French novels solely with the 
 laudable object of keeping up her French ; while, 
 at the same time, she was most cautious in talking 
 about them in public, and never betrayed the 
 slightest knowledge of the contents of any that 
 were not fairly decorous and proper. 
 
 But / knew better than that. It was a matter 
 in which her maid could not be deceived as easily 
 as the rest of the world. 
 
 Boheraianism being an open setting-at-defiance 
 of the world's opinion, was quite detestable to her, 
 with all that savoured thereof; and the very 
 correct Lord Clement was, of course, a man after 
 her own heart. There was, however, a wide differ- 
 ence between the respective ways in which he 
 and she regarded Mrs. Grundy. For while the 
 gentleman had a genuine esteem for that great
 
 xiir.] LORD CLEMENT. 185 
 
 social authority, and paid her homage in all 
 sincerity, Mrs. Rollin did it only in appearance, 
 and was moved thereto chiefly by fear. 
 
 The room in which I slept was immediately 
 over Mrs. Eollin's sitting-room ; and by sitting at 
 the open window in my room I could hear — when 
 the weather was calm — most things that were said 
 by people on the balcony beneath. Thus I over- 
 heard an interesting conversation as to plans 
 which took place after we had been at Cannes for 
 about as long a time as my two ladies intended to 
 stay there. Where to go next, was the question 
 they were debatiug. And as Lord Clement hap- 
 pened to call just then, Mrs. Rollin appealed to 
 him to assist them with his advice in the matter. 
 
 His manner of complying with this request 
 was eminently characteristic of him. Kitty's 
 society was the object of his keenest desires at 
 that moment, and he w^as averse to the idea of any 
 movement that would involve his being separated 
 from her. Under these circumstances, and con- 
 sidering the amount of encouragement he had 
 received — especially from the young lady's chape- 
 rone — some men would have taken it for granted 
 that their companionship was acceptable, and that 
 it was a matter of course for them to accompany 
 the two ladies to their next destination. Not so,
 
 1S6 JILL. [chap. 
 
 however, would Lord Clement behave. Thus 
 openly to attach himself to them as a travelling 
 companion would inevitably give rise to gossip ; 
 and to do anything likely to be talked about as 
 unusual was quite contrary to his ideas of pro- 
 priety. Though the real object of his visit to the 
 Mediterranean might have been Kitty, yet the 
 ostensible reason had been yachting ; and this 
 pretext he had no intention of renouncing by 
 leaving his vessel. In taking part in the discus- 
 sion as to what our future movements were to be, 
 he gave no indication of being personally interested 
 in the matter in any way, and assumed the air of 
 a strictly impartial adviser. At the same time, 
 however, his oj)inion as to the desirability of 
 J)] aces was in such remarkably exact proportion 
 to their availability from the sea, that I listened 
 with much amusement, and thought that the 
 disinterestedness of his counsels might very fairly 
 be doubted. 
 
 Various localities had been suggested and talked 
 over without any determination being arrived at, 
 when Kitty observed, "Now I've quite a new 
 place to propose ; and that's Corsica. I saw it 
 looking just like a purple cloud resting on the sea 
 the other day, and I have a great fancy to go and 
 see it close. For one thing, there's no railway
 
 xiii.] LORD CLEMENT. 187 
 
 there yet ; and I should like, for once in my life, 
 to feel that I was in a land through which loco- 
 motives have never puffed. It would be an 
 absolutely new sensation to me, and one which 
 the present rate of civilisation will soon render 
 unattainable, I expect ; so I vote we experience it 
 while we can. Besides, I'm sure it would be a good 
 place for sketching. What do you say, Aunt Geor- 
 gina ? Don't you think it '11 be pleasant to get away 
 from this cockney old Eiviera, and go a little bit out 
 of the regular beaten track where every one goes ?" 
 
 "Kitty, Kitty!" remonstrated her aunt, "it 
 quite distresses me to hear you talk like that ! 
 You really shouldn't speak contemptuously of the 
 beaten track, and be so anxious to get away from 
 it. Eemember that the fact of its being worn by 
 many feet is also a sure proof of its being smoother, 
 pleasanter, and in every way preferable to other 
 tracks." 
 
 " All right, aunty," laughed Kitty ; " I won't 
 abuse your favourite walk since it vexes you ! 
 But doesn't it strike you that I should appreciate 
 its merits all the more if I were to see with my 
 own eyes — ^just for once you know — how horrid 
 some other route can be ? And isn't that a good 
 reason for going to Corsica ? Do let's go there ; 
 I've quite set my heart on it."
 
 188 JILL. [chap. 
 
 Kitty rarely failed to get her own way with 
 Mrs. Eollin, who was as susceptible as the rest of 
 the world to the girl's powers of fascination. But 
 the hesitating, reluctant tone in which the elder 
 lady answered, showed me that she had no great 
 fancy for this Corsican visit. "Well, I hardly 
 know what to say," she returned slowly ; " to 
 begin with, How does one get there ? and in the 
 next place, What's it like when one is there ? I 
 think I've heard you say you were there once, 
 Lord Clement ; do help me to make up my mind 
 about this, and advise me whether or not to do 
 what this rash niece of mine wishes." 
 
 Corsica naturally found favour in the young 
 man's eyes as being convenient for yachting pur- 
 poses. " Oh, if you ask me, I decidedly advise 
 you to go," he replied ; " it's really a pretty sort 
 of country, besides being interesting as the birth- 
 place of Napoleon. By the by you should read 
 Boswell's tour if you go. As for getting there, you 
 could go by steamer either from Marseilles to 
 Ajaccio, or else from Leghorn or Genoa to Bastia. 
 But I hope that you will allow me the pleasure 
 of taking you over in La Catalina, which you'll 
 find far more comfortable than either of the regular 
 steamers — they're all nasty, dirty, uneasy little 
 boats, I believe."
 
 an.] LORD CLEMENT. 189 
 
 " I'm sure we are greatly obliged to you for so 
 jood an offer," answered Mrs. Rollin, " and I think 
 we should gladly avail ourselves of it if we were 
 :o decide upon going. But I fancy I've heard it 
 said that one can't get anything to eat there — 
 which wouldn't suit me at all. And then, too, 
 there are the dangers from vendettas and banditti 
 to be taken into consideration." 
 
 " Oh now, don't go being a perverse aunty, and 
 making difficulties out of nothing!" exclaimed 
 Kitty. "How could the natives exist if there 
 wasn't somethinff to eat? And a vendetta is a 
 
 o 
 
 strictly private family affair, which doesn't affect 
 strangers one atom. And as for banditti, its not 
 Corsica but Sicily that is full of them ; my belief 
 is that you've gone and mixed the two islands 
 together in your head. The Corsicans are always 
 supposed to be a particularly amiable and friendly 
 set of peoj^le as far as ever / heard. Except, of 
 course, when there's a vendetta to excite them, 
 and that wouldn't matter to outsiders like you 
 md me." 
 
 " I assure you that that is true, Mrs. Eollin," 
 added Lord Clement, "and that you have really 
 no cause of apprehension from robbers. The only 
 ianger of that kind which I ever heard mentioned 
 luring my stay there was from escaped convicts.
 
 190 JILL. [chap. 
 
 Now and then a few manage to get out of the 
 prison', I believe, and support themselves a la 
 brigand on the mountains, till they are either 
 retaken or else contrive to get across to Sardinia 
 tof join some of the banditti there. But that only 
 happens so very seldom that it really is not worth 
 taking into consideration." 
 
 " How about the hotels?" inquired Mrs. Eollin ; 
 "are there any good ones to be met with?" 
 
 " Oh, they are not at all bad at the two chief 
 seaports — Ajaccio and Bastia," he replied, "and 
 there would not be any necessity for you to sleep 
 anywhere else. I could take you from the one 
 town to the other in my yacht, and from those 
 places you could make inland expeditions within 
 the limits of a day, which would enable you to see 
 a great deal of the country without having to 
 rough it at all, I can't say much for the hotel 
 accommodation anywhere except at the two chief 
 towns, and shouldn't recommend you to go travel- 
 ling about in the interior. But of course you 
 would not care to visit the more wild and out-of- 
 the-way parts." 
 
 "You mustn't be too sure of that," said Kitty, 
 laughing. " Whatever a place may be, it's attract- 
 ive to me if it's different from any other that I've 
 ever seen before. And Aunt Georgina isn't qidU
 
 XIII.] LORD CLEMENT. 191 
 
 SO miserable when beyond reach of luxuries as 
 you might think to hear her talk. I've even 
 known her go without five o'clock tea and yet be 
 happy ! For my part I begin to feel an intense 
 desire arising in my breast to hunt up an escaped 
 convict and fraternise with him, or at least to go 
 and inspect his lair. "What a novel subject for a 
 sketch it would be ! And I'm sure that you'll like 
 to do whatever pleases me, aunty, for you always 
 do. Xow isn't that true?" 
 
 " Well, well, perhaps I do my dear, but only 
 within reasonable limits, please to remember," 
 returned her aunt, who was considerably influenced 
 by Lord Clement's support of the Corsican scheme. 
 " People of my age don't regard ' roughing it ' with 
 the same enthusiasm as some of the young ones, 
 who don't really know what that process implies, 
 and for whom it has all the charm of novelty. I 
 should certainly draw the line a long way before 
 the escaped convict you wish to meet. However, 
 joking apart, from what Lord Clement says, there 
 does not seem to be anv reason acjainst runninoj 
 over to the island and gratifying your whim to 
 have a peep at it, though I quite agree with him 
 as to its being undesirable to penetrate into any 
 remote and inaccessible parts, where neither plea- 
 sure nor advantaize are to be fjained. I never can
 
 1 92 JILL. [chap. 
 
 see the good of going to places where no one else 
 goes. There's no one one knows there ; and besides 
 that, as no one knows anything about them, there's 
 no chance of finding them necessary, or even use- 
 ful, as topics of conversation in society. So that 
 visiting such places is mere waste of time and 
 money in my opinion !" 
 
 " Well, then we may consider Corsica to be our 
 next destination anyhow," said Kitty triumphantly. 
 " That's the first thing to settle, and there is no 
 need to make up our minds as to anything further 
 just yet. Time enough for that by and by, when 
 we get there." 
 
 After a little more discussion it was decided 
 that w^e should be conveyed to Ajaccio in La Cata- 
 lina ; which vessel, though not containing berths 
 enough for us to have slept a night on board, was 
 yet quite capable of accommodating us very com- 
 fortably for the time requisite to perform the 
 passage between Cannes and Ajaccio. What our 
 plans should be after reaching the island was left 
 quite uncertain ; for though Mrs. Eollin was w^ell 
 inclined to stay only at the two chief towns and 
 move from one to the other in the yacht, as Lord 
 Clement had proposed, yet Kitty was not to be 
 induced to conmiit herself to any definite approval 
 of this scheme, and without her approval it was
 
 XIII.] LOED CLEMENT. 193 
 
 impossible to feel sure of its being carried out, for 
 she generally got her own way about things she 
 cared for. All she ^vould say was, that perhaps 
 it might be a good plan and perhaps not, and that 
 there was not the least need to settle the matter 
 positively yet. 
 
 Lord Clement was evidently happy to have had 
 his offer of the yacht accepted — for the voyage 
 across at all events. But I think that his satis- 
 faction w^as somewhat marred by a dread of Kitty's 
 takin^ij the bit between her teeth when once she 
 should be at Corsica, running away wdth her aunt 
 all over the island, and o-ettinsj out of his reach 
 from the sea ; if the whim to do it came to her, 
 there was but small probability that she would not 
 accomplish her purpose. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 . AT AJACCIO. 
 
 The inevitable Mediterranean roll was in less force 
 than usual when we crossed to Corsica, and as we 
 were all pretty fair sailors we had a pleasant 
 passage, notwithstanding the anticipations to the 
 contrary of our especial waiter at the Cannes 
 hotel. He was a brisk, cheery little fellow, with 
 such a power of sympathising with other people 
 that he always identified himself with those guests 
 who were under his particular care, and took their 
 affairs to heart almost as though they were his 
 own. Going to sea and being sea -sick meant 
 precisely the same thing to him ; consequently, 
 from the moment he heard of our contemplated 
 trip he became full of compassion for the suffer- 
 ings we must undergo, and was good-naturedly 
 eager to think of, and suggest, every possible 
 alleviation for the misery which he confidently 
 predicted for us. As we departed from the hotel 
 his final words were to impress upon my two
 
 CHAP. XIV.] AT AJACCIO. 195 
 
 ladies that, last thing before going to sea, one 
 should always eat a hearty meal, because, " (^a- 
 facilite — et sans 9a, c'est si fatigante." I am sorry 
 to have to add, however, that this well-intentioned 
 speech was received in by no means as friendly a 
 spirit as that in which it w^as offered. For it was 
 quite contrary to Mrs. Eollin's notions of propriety 
 that one who was a man, and an inferior, should 
 presume publicly to give her advice as to the 
 management of her interior ; so, instead of making 
 the amicable response that was evidently expected, 
 she swept past him wdth a freezing look and an 
 audible remark to Kitty about the atrocious 
 vulgarity of foreign servants wdio had never been 
 taught to know their place. 
 
 A\nien we arrived at Ajaccio we separated from 
 Lord Clement, he remaining on board La Catalina, 
 whilst w^e proceeded to a hotel. During the voj^age 
 Kitty had been more civil to him than usual, — 
 perhaps as a reward for his assistance in persuading 
 her aunt to come to Corsica, — and this favourable 
 humour still continued on reaching terra firma. A 
 question hazarded by him as w^e left the yacht, as 
 to what should be done next day, was replied to by 
 her with a graciousness which made it apparent that 
 his company would be acceptable, if he chose to join 
 her and her aunt in whatever they might be doing.
 
 196 JILL. [chap. 
 
 Accordingly, I was not surprised to see liim 
 appear at our hotel first thing next morning. 
 Shortly afterwards they all three sallied forth to 
 see the pictures at the College Fesch ; then they 
 ordered a basket to be packed with provisions, 
 and, the w^eather being splendid, hired a carriage 
 and drove off for a day's onting beyond Pisciatella. 
 The special object of the two younger people was 
 sketching, to which Kitty was greatly addicted, 
 and for which she had a decided talent. Lord 
 Clement, on the contrary, had no natural gift in 
 that line ; but, none the less, he strove laboriously 
 to acquire the art, because he regarded drawing 
 as a highly moral, elevating, correct, and unexcep- 
 tionable amusement, and therefore one to be culti- 
 vated and encouraged as much as possible. As 
 for Mrs. EoUin, she had a French novel in her 
 pocket, and would be perfectly happy to bask in 
 the sun and read whilst her companions sketched 
 or flirted, as might seem good in their own eyes. 
 
 My employers being thus disposed of for the 
 day, I was left alone with nothing particular to 
 do. The streets w^ere too filthy to be very inviting, 
 so, being a good walker, I went for a stretch along 
 the road towards the Isles Sanguinaires. It was 
 a lovely day, and I thoroughly enjoyed the beauty 
 of the walk, and the contrast between winter.
 
 XI v.] AT AJACCIO. 197 
 
 represented by snow -covered ^lonte Oro in the 
 distance, and summer, felt in the hot sunshine 
 that warmed me through and through, and sparkled 
 on the brilliant blue sea beside the road. And 
 when I got beyond the limits of the town there 
 were wild hillsides rising on my right, all covered 
 with low bushes of some kind of cistus, which, 
 though now brown and scrubby-looking, would be 
 beautiful, I thought, when in full bloom. 
 
 But I must not expatiate on the scenery, as 
 that has nothing to do with my story. What I 
 saw in the course of that walk, to which I now 
 wish particularly to call attention, is this : Xear 
 the outskirts of the town I came to a number of 
 small houses standing pretty close together on one 
 side of the road. Each was in the middle of a 
 little plot of ground, which was surrounded either 
 by a wall, or else by strong iron railings ; and 
 this enclosure was only to be entered by a gate, 
 whence a short drive led to the door of the house 
 within. Some, but not all, had a family name 
 stuck up at the entrance ; and some of the plots 
 of ground were merely turfed over, whilst others 
 were nicely laid out in flower-beds and borders. 
 
 One would naturally have concluded these 
 buildinsjs to be villas, if it had not been for the 
 curious fact of their beinc,^ destitute of windows.
 
 198 JILL. [chap. 
 
 This puzzled Die ; for I did not suppose that 
 Corsicans could be different from the rest of the 
 world in disliking to live in windowless habitations. 
 
 Whilst I was staring at these mysterious houses, 
 and wondering what they were for, a funeral came 
 along the main road, and turned into the gate of 
 the outer enclosure of one of them. This excited 
 my curiosity still more, so I addressed myself to a 
 respectable looking passer-by, and asked him what 
 those little villas were, and to whom they belonged. 
 He replied that they were " chapelles mortuaires," 
 or, in other words, private burialplaces, and that 
 each one belonged to a different family. On 
 questioning further, I learnt that these " chapelles 
 mortuaires" were by no means peculiar to the 
 neighbourhood of towns, but were found in remote 
 parts of the island also, as the possession of them 
 was quite customary amongst all Corsicans. 
 
 I thanked the man for his information, and 
 continued my walk. I thought it seemed a quaint 
 idea to build villa residences for the dead, and 
 then dismissed the subject from my mind. Cer- 
 tainly it never entered my head that I myself was 
 destined before long to make acquaintance with 
 the interior of one. 
 
 That evening I discovered that Kitty had a 
 new scheme in her head. What instiojated her to
 
 XIV.] AT AJACCIO. 199 
 
 it I cannot say. It may have been the spirit of 
 perversity, or else a guide-book which she had 
 been studying diligently; or else, perhaps, that 
 she was tired of being civil to Lord Clement, and 
 wanted to escape from him for a while. But any- 
 how, for some reason or other, it had been borne 
 in upon her that it would be the most delightful 
 thing possible to make a fortnight's driving-tour 
 through tlie island for the purpose of seeing the 
 country and sketching. Knowing that she would 
 probably have a difficulty in getting her aunt to 
 consent to this scheme, she did not intend to pro- 
 pound it until she had first ascertained that it 
 was really feasible, and also found out whatever 
 information might be requisite for its execution. 
 
 Her first step, therefore, was to impart the 
 project to me, telling me that she wished me to 
 make inquiries as to various matters connected 
 with it — such as what sort of inns were to be found 
 at the small inland towns ; whether the roads 
 were in good condition for travelling on ; whether 
 they were likely to be blocked by snow in the 
 mountainous districts ; what it would cost to hire 
 a carriage ; who was the best jobmaster in Ajaccio, 
 etc. 
 
 I was charmed at a plan which harmonised so 
 well with my own love of change and adventure,
 
 200 JILL. [chap. 
 
 and entered into it readily. Being curious to know 
 whether slie contemplated being accompanied by 
 Lord Clement or not, I put a fishing question to 
 that effect. "What sized carriage am I to ask 
 about ?" said I ; " how many must it hold ?" 
 
 " Why, my aunt and I, and you, of course" she 
 answered rather sharply, as if not well pleased at 
 my having entertained a doubt on the subject. 
 '' I should have thought you might have known 
 that yourself. We should only take a couple of 
 carpet bags with us, and leave the heavy luggage 
 behind, so as to travel as light as possible ; there- 
 fore we shouldn't want at all a big carriage. It 
 should be an open one, and have a hood to put up 
 in case of rain." 
 
 Oh, thought I, on hearing this, evidently then 
 my lord is meant to be left to himself; his fair 
 weather has not lasted long after all. I suppose 
 that she has been putting a strain on herself to 
 be civil to him, that now comes the reaction, and 
 that she is going to fly off at a tangent from the 
 line of conduct which was dictated by worldly 
 policy, and not by natural inclination. Well, it 
 does not matter to me whether she marries him or 
 not, so I do not want to interfere one way or other ; 
 I have only to look on at the play and be amused. 
 I hope she will be able to carry out this driving-tour
 
 XIV.] AT AJACCIO. 201 
 
 scheme anyhow ; for it is just the sort of thing I 
 should like myself. 
 
 I lost no time in performing her commission 
 to the best of my ability. Entering into casual 
 conversations with sundry natives — waiters, for 
 instance, a couple of talkative shopkeepers, and 
 the driver of a fiacre who was sunning himself on 
 the steps of his vehicle — I cautiously led up to 
 the topics which I had been told to find out about, 
 knowing that a stranger was more likely to arrive 
 at an honest opinion in this indirect w^ay than by 
 blunt, straightforward inquiries. By means of 
 questions that were apparently purposeless, I 
 elicited a good deal of information as to the rela- 
 tive merits of different hostelries and individuals, 
 which might very likely have been withheld if I 
 had let it be seen that I had any especial reason 
 for wishing to know. Thus I learnt too who was 
 reputed the best jpatron cles voitures, and how much 
 would be the probable difference between what he 
 would ask and what he would take for the hire of 
 a carriage ; this difference being a sum of from 8 
 to 12 francs a day, according to the opinion he 
 happened to form of the hard-headedness and 
 determination not to be cheated of whoever ensjao-ed 
 him. 
 
 Having found out as much as I could, I passed
 
 202 JILL. [chap. 
 
 it all on to Kitty, who, armed with this knowledge, 
 took the opportunity of hair -brushing time that 
 same evening to suggest the driving-tour to Mrs. 
 EolKn. That lady at once pronounced the scheme 
 wild and impracticable. On being asked why, 
 she brought forward all the objections she could 
 think of, every one of which was met and answered 
 by Kitty with a readiness that quite staggered her 
 aunt. Mrs. Eollin had been far too much engrossed 
 in one of Zola's novels to notice the attention 
 with which her niece had recently been perusing 
 books of Corsican travel ; and the unexpected and 
 intimate acquaintance with the subject suddenly 
 displayed by Kitty almost took away the aunt's 
 breath. Evidently it had never occurred to her 
 that there was a possibility of Kitty's thus making 
 up her mind, and finding out all requisite particu- 
 lars, without having given a single hint of what 
 she was thinking of. Yet here was the plan, all 
 cut and dried and ready, with every detail gone 
 into. 
 
 Certainly the girl made the most of what she 
 had read and heard ; and no one, to hear her talk, 
 would have believed that this was her first visit 
 to the island. She discoursed learnedly about 
 where the best scenery was ; what towns had 
 good accommodation ; what were the names of
 
 XIV.] AT AJACCIO. 203 
 
 tlie various inns ; and what the cost of living and 
 of the carriage would be. She had got up her 
 subject thoroughly ; had an answer ready for all 
 difficulties that it was possible to suggest ; made 
 everything look couletcr- de-rose ; and quoted, as a 
 precedent for what she wanted to do, which would 
 have weight with her hearer, the example of an 
 English lady of rank and fashion, who had been 
 travelling about in Corsica a few years before, and 
 of whom she had just ha]Dpened to hear. Kitty's 
 energy, skill in pleading her cause, and powers of 
 persuasion, were more than her admiring and less 
 strong-willed relative could resist. The scheme, 
 as thus set forth, appeared quite delightful ; Lord 
 Clement was on board his yacht, beyond reach of 
 being taken into consultation ; and so the end of 
 the matter was, that Mrs. Eollin assented to all 
 that Kitty wished, and that I consequently received 
 orders to go out the first thing next morning and 
 arrange for hiring a carriage. 
 
 This I accordingly did ; and as I passed through 
 the streets towards the residence of the patron des 
 voitures, I met Lord Clement on his way to the 
 hotel, looking just as usual — that is to say, the 
 essence of propriety, clean, well-dressed, placid, 
 gentlemanlike, English, and (to my mind,) unin- 
 teresting. I did not dislike him, but his intense
 
 204 JILL. [chap. XIV. 
 
 love of respectability and correctness aggravated 
 me ; and I thought, maliciously, that his present 
 placid satisfaction would be ruffled by the news 
 of the contemplated expedition, and that I should 
 like to see his face when he heard of it. For it 
 could hardly be expected that a man who had 
 brought the object of his affections to a place where 
 he hoped to be able to be with her daily, would 
 relish the sudden discovery that she was going to 
 leave him in the lurch, and take herself off out of 
 his reach for a fortnight at least, if not longer.
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 A DRIVING EXPEDITION IN COESICA. 
 
 My position as a servant gave me no opportunity 
 of kno^ving whether or not Lord Clement made 
 any attempt to oppose the projected driving-tour. 
 If he did, however, his interference certainly pro- 
 duced no effect; for the orders I had received 
 were not countermanded, and on the following 
 day we three unprotected females departed from 
 Ajaccio, and set out upon our travels into the 
 interior of the island. Our conveyance was a light 
 open carriage, with a head that could be raised or 
 lowered at pleasure. As the trap only held two 
 people comfortably inside, I sat on the box by 
 the driver; and the very moderate amount of 
 luggage that accompanied us was fastened securely 
 at the back of the vehicle. 
 
 It was a beautiful morning, and everything 
 seemed to promise well for our expedition. Driv- 
 ing in an open carriage was a thing which Mrs. 
 Piollin greatly affectioned, and always declared it
 
 206 JILL. [chap. 
 
 to be impossible for her ever to tire of; and 
 as she was rendered additionally complacent by- 
 having been able to procure a sufficient stock of 
 French novels to obviate all risk of duhiess, she 
 was in a happy and contented frame of mind, 
 which Kitty and I — ourselves in the highest 
 spirits, and ready to make the best of everything 
 — were most anxious she should retain. 
 
 The scenery was much admired, especially the 
 lovely views that were to be had, looking back 
 over Ajaccio and the blue waters of its bay. The 
 small, jet-black, silky-looking sheep were noticed 
 and commented on; so were the vineyards which 
 we passed; the chestnut, fig, almond, and olive 
 trees ; and, beyond everything, the arbutus bushes, 
 which called forth many exclamations of admiration 
 and delight. ISTo wonder ; for it really was a sight 
 to see acres and acres of them growing wild in 
 luxuriant profusion, and covered with magnificent 
 luscious-looking fruit, w^hose size and brilliancy of 
 colouring far exceeded that of any arbutus berries 
 which I have ever seen elsewhere. 
 
 A drive of about three hours brought us to 
 Cauro, where there was some idea that we should 
 sleep that night, if the inn looked inviting ; if not, 
 we were to go on to St. Marie Sicche. Corsican 
 inns are generally extremely clean, and the one at
 
 XT.] A DRIVING EXPEDITION IN CORSICA. 207 
 
 Cauro was no exception to the rule. But alas ! it 
 could supply neither milk nor butter, and nothing 
 in the shape of meat except " merles." 
 
 I was not at all astonished at this, because I 
 had already been told in Ajaccio that travellers 
 in the island could not rely on finding meat 
 everywhere, and that at the present time of 
 winter butter and milk would certainly be un- 
 attainable, except at one or two of the very largest 
 towns. This piece of information had been duly 
 communicated by me to Kitty ; but somehow or 
 other it had not reached the ears of her aunt, and 
 that good lady w^as disagreeably surprised at a 
 scarcity of luxuries for w^iich Kitty and I were 
 quite prepared. She at once voted for not sleep- 
 in 2; at Cauro, but croinc^ on to St. Marie Sicche, 
 where she had no doubt there would be a better 
 stock of provisions. Of course Kitty and I were 
 not equally sanguine as to this ; but we did not 
 tell her that fact, as she would find out the state of 
 affairs quite soon enough for herself, and there was 
 obviously no use in damping her spirits just at 
 the outset of the expedition. Accordingly, we 
 refreshed ourselves with coffee, eggs, bread, and 
 fruit, and then continued our journey as soon as 
 the horses were baited. 
 
 In crossing the Col de San Giorgio there were
 
 208 JILL. [chap. 
 
 fine views over the surrounding country which 
 excited Kitty's artistic instincts ; so the carriage 
 was stopped for her to make a sketch, and mean- 
 while Mrs. Eollin buried herself in one of her 
 beloved novels, and I beguiled the time by talking 
 to the driver, and drawing out his notions as to 
 things in general connected with his country. I 
 found that he was a pleasant, conversational indivi- 
 dual, who avowed his mercenariness with unblush- 
 ing frankness, and laughed at the idea of being 
 expected to entertain any political opinions of his 
 own. " Celui qui donne le pain a un Corse, c'est 
 son pere," said he ; '' that's one of our proverbs. 
 I'm imperialist, royalist, republican, or anything 
 else, according to who my employer is. Just now 
 I'm whatever pleases your two ladies, as it is they 
 who pay me." Perceiving that he carried pistols, 
 I asked him if he did so because of a vendetta — 
 thinking that in that case it might be a little 
 awkward for us if he should happen to fall in with 
 an enemy whilst he was in our service ; and that 
 it was as well to know wliat one had to expect. 
 However, the unmistakable sincerity with which 
 he disclaimed anything of the kind put me quite 
 at my ease again. "A vendetta !" he exclaimed ; 
 " no indeed ! neither I nor my family have a quarrel 
 with any living creature. For all that, I never go
 
 XV.] A DRIVING EXPEDITION IN CORSICA. 209 
 
 unarmed on this sort of expedition because of the 
 penitenciers, who manage to get out of prison now 
 and then." 
 
 'Toor wretches," said I; "I should have thought 
 that they'd be more afraid of you than you of 
 them. Did they ever do you any harm ?" 
 
 " Xo," he answered; "I've never had any trouble 
 with them myself, but they have been known to 
 attack carriages, and to be very awkward customers, 
 too ; and as I like to be on the safe side, I always 
 take arms with me, as you see." 
 
 " Why, one might think these escaped prisoners 
 were regular banditti to hear you talk," I returned, 
 rather scornfully ; for I did not believe in there 
 being any real ground for alarm on account of 
 jpenitenciers. 
 
 " Well, and so they are," he replied ; " there's 
 plenty of room for any number of people to hide 
 amongst the various kinds of bushes — mag_uis as we 
 call them — which grow wild over the hills and large 
 tracts of uninhabited waste land. They form almost 
 impenetrable thickets, where d^ penitencier has little 
 trouble in keeping out of the way ; there he lives 
 as best he can, subsisting chiefly on the quails and 
 woodcocks, of which the maqiois is full, and helping 
 himself to the property of other people whenever he 
 gets a chance. For he is sure to be a vaurienr 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 210 JILL. [chap. 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders, thinking it would 
 be a long while before / should take the trouble 
 to carry arms for fear of some Mrs. Harris of 
 a penitencier, who probably had no existence 
 save in the imaginations of the timid and the 
 credulous. Our conversation ended there, as Kitty 
 had completed her sketch, and we resumed our 
 course. That evening I told her of the driver's 
 absurd precautions, and found she was as much 
 amused at the idea as I was, and we had a good 
 laugh at the man's excessive prudence. It was, 
 however, a joke which was not imparted to Mrs. 
 Eollin, as she, being somewhat inclined to be nerv- 
 ous, might possibly not have regarded the matter 
 in the same light that we did ; and the knowledge 
 of the driver's thinking it necessary to carry pistols 
 would perhaps have put uncomfortable notions 
 into her head. Of course anything likely to do 
 that was to be avoided most carefully ; as, if she 
 became alarmed or disgusted in any way, she might 
 insist on cutting short the expedition, and return- 
 ing at once to more civilised places, which would 
 have been a great bore. I was far more afraid of 
 this happening than of any perils imm. penitenciers ; 
 and I eagerly seconded Kitty's efforts to make 
 everything smooth and pleasant, and to keep her 
 aunt contented.
 
 XV.] A DRIVING EXPEDITION IN CORSICA. 211 
 
 I began to foresee, however, that there would 
 be some difficulty in doing this for long ; and I 
 felt considerable misgivings as to whether Mrs. 
 Eollin would be induced to carry out the driving- 
 tour programme in its entirety. The good humour 
 in which she had started in the morning already 
 showed signs of diminishing. In spite of the 
 cleanliness of the inns, they were a good deal 
 rougher than she liked ; and though at the hostelry 
 at St. Marie Sicche there was fortunately some 
 meat, yet she was again obliged to put up with 
 milkless coffee and butterless bread. It was the 
 latter of these two grievances to which she especi- 
 ally objected. 
 
 " Though I like caf6 cm lait best myself," she 
 said, " still I don't so much mind drinking black 
 coffee, because that is quite correct, and a thing 
 that numbers of people do — especially after dinner. 
 But as for dry bread ! — why, that's what paupers 
 in the workhouse have to eat ! I do hope, Kitty, 
 that you won't mention to our friends at home that 
 we had to put up with such mean food ; I shouldn't 
 like it to be said that I went travelling in places 
 where the people were so poor or so stingy as not 
 even to afford themselves butter !" 
 
 We both did what we could to pacify her ; Kitty 
 by promising inviolable secrecy, and I by making
 
 212 JILL. [chap. 
 
 the landlord rummage out some confitures, which, 
 though but indifferent, would at all events save 
 her from the reproach of having had to breakfast 
 on dry bread, whether she liked it or no. This 
 appeased her partially; but still I saw that her 
 wonted serenity was not altogether restored. 
 
 Up to this point we had been travelling along 
 the highroad used by the diligences, the route 
 nationale, royale, or imperiale, as it is called, 
 according to which party happens to be in power. 
 But we turned off from it next day, on leaving St. 
 Marie Sicche, and took to smaller and inferior 
 roads by which we ascended to higher ground, 
 until we reached the town of Zicavo, perched on 
 the side of a steep hill and surrounded by chest- 
 nut trees. 
 
 Unluckily the picturesqueness of its situation 
 did not suffice to reconcile Mrs. Eollin to its 
 deficiency of milk and butter, or to the roughness 
 of its inn, and she expressed much astonishment 
 that a town of its importance did not provide 
 better accommodation for travellers. Another 
 thing that was beginning to .annoy her was the 
 republican equality and disregard for class dis- 
 tinctions which she found prevailing everywhere, 
 and which were by no means to her taste. The 
 Corsicans, though perfectly civil and well behaved.
 
 XV.] A DRIVIXG EXPEDITION IN CORSICA. 213 
 
 were no respecters of rank, and each one seemed 
 to consider himself quite as good as any one else. 
 AYhen the driver came in the evening to ask for 
 his orders for next day, he sat down while talking 
 to the ladies, as a matter of course ; and the land- 
 lords of the inns took the same liberty in their 
 presence, all of which was much to Mrs. Eollin's 
 disgust. Then, too, she had to do without a private 
 sitting-room, for the inns had only one room that 
 was not a bedroom, and that one was a big public 
 room, which served as sitting-room and dining- 
 room to all classes alike ; so that she was obliged 
 either to stay altogether in her sleeping apartment, 
 or else to condescend to sit at the same table with 
 the landlord, his family, the driver, me, and any 
 coinmis-voyageur, shopkeeper, peasant, or other 
 person who might happen to come in. Besides 
 this, the inquisitiveness which is characteristic of 
 Corsicans offended her. She could not bear the 
 freedom with which people whom she considered 
 inferiors would cross-examine herself and Kitty 
 as to their age; whether they were married; if 
 not, why not ; what they did with themselves ; 
 what relatives they had ; where they were going ; 
 and similar personal matters. And as I perceived 
 her growing irritation at these various petty 
 annoyances, I became more and more doubtful
 
 214 JILL. [chap. 
 
 whether we should be able to reconcile her to them 
 sufficiently to induce her to put up with them for 
 a whole fortnight. 
 
 One of the reasons which had brought us to 
 Zicavo was the fact that it was only five or six 
 kilometers from the baths of Guitera, where there 
 are warm sulphurous springs. Mrs. Eollin, who 
 never willingly lost an opportunity of bathing in 
 mineral waters, was very anxious to see what the 
 Guitera baths were like ; and if they proved satis- 
 factory, we should probably remain for a few days 
 a;t Zicavo, whence she could drive over and have 
 a daily bathe. Accordingly, on the day after we 
 got to Zicavo, she and Kitty went to inspect the 
 bathing establishment at Guitera. However, they 
 found it so wretched looking a little place, and of 
 so uninviting an exterior, that she at once declared 
 nothing would induce her to set foot inside it, and 
 that, as there was nothing to stay for at Zicavo, 
 we had better go on again immediately in hopes 
 of finding better quarters elsewhere. It was 
 decided, therefore, that we should next day pro- 
 ceed across the Serra Scopomeno to St. Lucia di 
 Tallano. We must allow plenty of time for the 
 journey, we were told, as the roads were heavy, 
 and it was not impossible we might be hindered 
 by snow. Consequently my mistresses deter-
 
 XV.] A DPJVIXG EXPEDITIOX IN COESICA. 215 
 
 mined to get off early in the morning, in order to 
 have the whole day before them. And after giv- 
 ing directions to that effect, Mrs. Eollin secluded 
 herself and Kitty in their own bedrooms, and 
 remained there for the rest of the evening, beyond 
 reach of contamination from the company in the 
 public room. 
 
 I, however, was less particular, and sat there 
 till I went to bed, fraternising with the landlord's 
 wife, watching all that went on, and enjoying the 
 opportunity of seeing a little of the manner of life 
 of a foreign race. It was a novel experience, and 
 that is a thing that I always like. 
 
 What made it still more interesting was that 
 the landlord was also maire of the commune, and 
 as he used the public room as his hicreaic in which 
 to carry on official transactions, I heard all that 
 went on between him and the different people who 
 came to see him on business. He seemed to be a 
 good sort of fellow enough, only with rather an 
 excessive estimate of his own importance and 
 omniscience. Just as one of the visitors was going 
 away, he suddenly bethought him of something 
 that had hitherto slipped his memory, and turned 
 back at the door. 
 
 " By the by," said he to the maire, " some one 
 said yesterday that they heard there were one or
 
 216 JILL. [chap. 
 
 two escaped penitenciers about again somewhere 
 or other. Have yon heard anything about it, and 
 do you suppose it's true ?" 
 
 " True/' repeated the inaire ; " of course not ! 
 People are always setting about some foolish 
 report in order to have something to talk about, 
 and so pretend that they know more than others ! 
 No — Fve not heard of it, because it's well known 
 that I make it a rule to pay no attention to absurd 
 tales unsupported by reliable evidence, and that 
 makes the tattlers somewhat shy of bringing their 
 stories to mc. A pretty state the country would 
 come to if the important officials were to believe 
 all they're told, and go disturbing themselves 
 about every idle rumour I" 
 
 I was amused at the maire's evident annoyance 
 at some one else's having heard this piece of gossip 
 a whole day sooner than he had. Otherwise I 
 paid no attention to the matter, as I was not 
 in the least degree apprehensive of penitenciers. 
 When a danger occurs but rarely, the chances are 
 so great against its occurring to any given person 
 that one is apt to regard it as non-existent. 
 
 Before going to bed that night I repeated the 
 orders that had been given to have breakfast, our 
 bill, and the carriage, in readiness for an early 
 start next day, and took care to make sure that
 
 XV.] A DRIVING EXPEDITION IN CORSICA. 217 
 
 they had been thoroughly understood. Conse- 
 quently I was provoked to find, when I left my 
 room in the morning, that the whole household 
 had overslept itself, and there was no sign of pre- 
 paration for our departure. 
 
 It was not to be endured that I should incur 
 the stigma of being a neglectful or incompetent 
 travelling maid — I, who prided myself on my 
 talents as a courier ! so I instantly set to work to 
 arouse the establishment from its sloth. Hunting 
 about till I discovered where a servant slept, I 
 dragged her forcibly out of bed, and set her to light 
 the kitchen fire and prepare food. Then I woke 
 the driver, and insisted on his beginning at once 
 to get ready the horses and carriage. In short, 
 I flew hither and thither, helping, hustling, and 
 exclaiming "Depeche!" with such vigour that I 
 managed fairly to startle the leisurely Corsicans 
 into a little activity, and to procure breakfast for 
 the two ladies, and get under weigh only half an 
 hour later than had been originally intended. 
 The poor driver was quite alarmed at my unex- 
 pected display of energy ; he did not even venture 
 to wait to break his fast before starting, but hastily 
 crammed some food into his pocket for consump- 
 tion on the road. I am sure it was a relief to 
 him to find that my severity relaxed when once
 
 218 JILL. [chap. 
 
 we were off, and that in order for him to eat his 
 breakfast in comfort, I w^as even willing to take the 
 reins and drive, as I sat beside him on the box. 
 
 The weather was still propitious. Enough 
 snow had fallen in the night to whiten the tops of 
 the hills surrounding Zicavo, but now the sun was 
 shining, and warming the keen, delicious mountain 
 air as we drove down the valley. 
 
 We had not gone far before we met a funeral, 
 which was so perfectly simple, matter-of-fact, and 
 devoid of anything ostentatious or needless, that I 
 thought it a model worthy of imitation in less 
 primitive places. Two mules drew a rough cart, in 
 which lay the corpse, uncofhned, and covered over 
 wdth a gaudy-coloured shawl, wliich allowed the 
 outlines of the human form beneath to be plainly 
 visible. After the cart walked a dozen or so of 
 people, betraying no emotion, but looking serious 
 and stolid. No vestige of black was to be seen. 
 They were dressed in their ordinary everyday 
 garments, carrying the bright -hued umbrellas 
 which are popular in the island, and the men 
 having the customary wine -gourds slung round 
 their bodies. About the whole thing there was an 
 absence of fuss, ceremony, and demonstrativeness, 
 combined with perfect gravity and propriety of 
 demeanour, which made me wish that all arrangers
 
 XV.] A DRIVING EXPEDITION IN CORSICA. 219 
 
 of funerals would come and take a lesson at 
 Zicavo. 
 
 The only stop we made during the morning 
 was at a tiny little village, where we waited a few 
 minutes for the horses to be watered. Whilst this 
 was done, the two ladies and I did not get out of 
 the carriage, but sat where we were, drawn up 
 outside a miserable tumble-down sort of hovel that 
 did duty as an inn. The loungers of the hamlet 
 soon gathered round to stare at us, and were joined 
 by two men who issued from the house. They 
 both had guns, as I saw ; but there was nothing in 
 the least remarkable about that, because a Corsican 
 almost always carries a gun or an umbrella, and 
 sometimes both, so that their being armed did not 
 at all astonish me. Nor did I think it in any way 
 peculiar when I heard them ask our driver who we 
 were, and where we were going. For I had by 
 this time seen enough of Corsican inquisitiveness 
 to regard such inquiries as a mere matter of 
 course, and demonstrations of curiosity seemed 
 to me more natural than their absence. 
 
 The two men left the inn almost immediately 
 after their questions had been answered. I saw 
 them leave the village, and a little way farther on 
 I caught a glimpse of them again turning off the 
 road, and plunging into the thick bushes on either
 
 220 JILL. . [chap. XV. 
 
 side. I concluded that they were a couple of 
 "chasseurs," such as one sees perpetually in 
 Corsica, and then thought no more about them. 
 
 Our course at this period of the journey was 
 very tortuous and indirect, in consequence of 
 numerous narrow valleys which were too steep for 
 anything on wheels to cross in a straight line. 
 Therefore the road often had to go round for miles, 
 in order to get from one side to another of a valley 
 which was, perhaps, not a mile broad ; and the 
 distance from point to point that had to be traversed 
 by whoever kept to the road was generally many 
 times more than it would have been to the pro- 
 verbial crow. Hence it evidently followed that 
 a pedestrian, climbing straight up and down the 
 precipitous hillsides would be able to get over 
 the ground as quickly as a carriage could do. And 
 if this is borne in mind, it will assist the reader 
 in comprehending the events which I have now 
 to relate.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 
 
 The horses were to be taken out of the carriage to 
 have a thorough rest, once in the course of the day, 
 so we halted for that purpose between twelve and 
 one o'clock. We were then exactly at the head 
 of one of the long narrow valleys I have already 
 mentioned. It was a Avild desolate spot, where 
 not a habitation was to be seen, nor any human 
 being except ourselves. The view before us con- 
 sisted of the sky overhead, and of two steep hill- 
 sides — at some places appearing to be barely a gun- 
 shot apart — which converged from the entrance 
 of the valley to the point where we were. These 
 were clothed from top to bottom with a dense 
 mass of trees and maquis, whose sobre green tints, 
 were only broken by a sharply-cut, thin, yellowish 
 line, which marked, on one hand, the road we had 
 just traversed, and, on the other, that by which we 
 shoald presently continue the journey. The sun 
 had quite sufficient power to make shade accept-
 
 222 JILL. [chap. 
 
 able, so we seated ourselves under an ilex by the 
 side of a clear bubbling spring of water, and ate the 
 lunch that we had brought with us from Zicavo. 
 
 We were not long over the meal, and as soon 
 as it was finished the driver was asked when he 
 would be ready to resume the journey. He 
 answered that the horses ought to have more than 
 an hour longer of rest, and that then they would 
 go on quite fresh to the end of the day. On hear- 
 ing this Mrs. Eollin sent me to the carriage to fetch 
 a couple of cushions, with which she established 
 herself comfortably on the ground, and then opened 
 one of Xavier de Montepin's novels. Meanwhile 
 Kitty had got out her drawing materials. 
 
 " I think that I'll walk on, and see if I can't 
 find a sketch somewhere," she said. " As there's 
 only one road, I can't possibly lose my way ; then 
 you can pick me up when you overtake me in 
 the carriage." But her aunt was not prepared to 
 assent readily to this proposal. 
 
 " Oh, you'd better not go on all by yourself, my 
 dear," she said uneasily. " Do try and find some- 
 thing to draw near here — a cloud or a tree, or a 
 bit of the road, .or something. It's not the thing 
 for a girl of your age to be seen walking about 
 the roads alone, you know." 
 
 "I don't think that need trouble us in these
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 223 
 
 solitudes," answered Kitty laughing. "There's 
 nothing except kites and crows to see what I do, 
 and I don't imagine that tlicy will be much shocked 
 at my proceedings." 
 
 "Don't you be too sure of there being only 
 kites and^ crows," returned Mrs. Eollin ; "people 
 often turn up so unexpectedly ! There might be 
 some acquaintance of ours travelling here now; 
 and if so, he or she would be sure to meet us just 
 when we didn't want to be met, and then go home 
 and say that I let you go about alone just as you 
 pleased, and that I took no care whatever of you ! 
 Besides, supposing your sketching w^ere to take 
 you off the road, perhaps we should not see where 
 you were, and go past without knowing it, I 
 should be in such a fidget for fear of that happen- 
 ing, that I know I shouldn't enjoy the drive a hit 
 till I had you all safe with me again." 
 
 "You needn't be uneasy on that score," said 
 Kitty, looking at her watch ; " the jingling of the 
 horses' bells could hardly fail to inform me of your 
 approach ; but I won't trust only to that. I'll 
 keep an eye on the time, and as I can reckon cer- 
 tainly on your not leaving here for another hour, 
 I can calculate when to return to the road if I 
 sliould turn off' it anywhere. I assure you I haven't 
 the least intention of doing anything so silly as to
 
 224 JILL. [chap. 
 
 let myself be left behind, so you can drive along 
 with a perfectly tranquil mind, and an absolute 
 certainty that I am somewhere on ahead, until 
 you see me waiting for you." 
 
 Here I took the liberty of joining in their con- 
 versation. Having been sitting still and cramped 
 up on the box for some time, I felt much disposed 
 to stretch my legs ; so I said, 
 
 "I shall be very glad to accompany Miss Mervyn 
 if she has no objection. Then I could stay on the 
 road near where she is, if she happens to leave it ; 
 and that would make it quite impossible for the 
 carriage to go past her by mistake." 
 
 " Of course, that's the way to manage it," ex- 
 claimed Mrs. EoUin ; " how stupid of me not to 
 have thought of it at first ! Yes, Kitty — you take 
 Jill with you ; it will look so much better than for 
 you to be wandering on by yourself; and then my 
 mind will be quite easy about not passing you by 
 accident." 
 
 " Very well," returned Kitty ; " I'm afraid it'll 
 be rather dull for her dawdling about at my heels 
 — only I daresay it won't be very lively to stay 
 here with nothing to do either ; so she may as 
 well come. We'll start at once, Jill, please ; for I 
 want to have as much time as possible for sketch- 
 ing before the carriage overtakes us."
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PEXITENCIERS. 225 
 
 Accordingly she and I walked off briskly along 
 the road which led towards our destination, leaving 
 Mrs. EoUin, the driver, and carriage, to follow in 
 course of time when the horses should be suffi- 
 ciently refreshed. We must have tramped, I 
 should think, about two miles before Kitty came 
 to a place which inspired her with a desire to 
 make a sketch. Of course the next thing to be 
 done was to discover the most satisfactory point 
 of view from which the sketch was to be taken. 
 After a little reconnoitring she found a spot that 
 was to her mind. It was a short distance below 
 the road, and in order to get to it we had to 
 scramble down through a mass of arbutus, and of 
 an immense kind of heath, growing taller than our 
 heads — which two shrubs constituted the chief 
 part of the scrub (or maquis) at that place. 
 
 Having accompanied Kitty to the spot she had 
 selected, and seen her comfortably settled down to 
 her drawing, I looked at my watch. This showed 
 me that there was still a long while to elapse before 
 the carriage would be in motion again, and that, 
 therefore, there was no need for me to be in a 
 hurry about getting back to the road yet. Watch- 
 ing Kitty sketch was not particularly amusing, so 
 I left her and wandered off through the bushes. 
 About fifty yards from where she was I came to 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 JILL. [chap. 
 
 a bit of broken rocky ground, somewhat resembling 
 a tiny quarry, and completely overgrown by arbutus. 
 Here I tucked myself away snugly into a corner 
 under one of these bushes, and lay lazily contem- 
 plating its splendid red and yellow berries, which 
 were as big as good-sized plums. They looked 
 most delicious ; and as I knew the arbutus is 
 not poisonous, I gathered a berry to ascertain 
 whether the taste at all corresponded to the 
 appearance ; I was disappointed to find, however, 
 that this was not the case, as the flavour, though 
 rather sweet, was insipid, watery, and vapid. 
 
 My curiosity respecting arbutus fruit being 
 thus satisfied, and I having nothing particular to 
 do, I next began amusing myself by endeavouring 
 to work out a rule-of-three sum in my head. But 
 before my calculations had advanced far they were 
 interrupted by a crackling rustling noise that 
 issued from the bushes growing above, between 
 me and the road. It sounded as if some heavy 
 body were making its way through them ; and 
 the noise approached nearer and nearer, till it 
 reached quite close to the recess in which I was en- 
 sconced. Then the crackling ceased, and I heard 
 a male voice speaking in low and cautious tones. 
 A bit of rock, on which grew the bush under 
 which I was seated, intervened between me and
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 227 
 
 the speaker, so that I could not see him ; but 
 he was near enough for every one of his words to 
 be distinctly audible to me. He spoke in Italian 
 — that being the language which the people of the 
 country almost always use amongst themselves 
 when they do not talk Corsican, though French is 
 the official tongue, and the one generally employed 
 in communications with foreigners. 
 
 '' But where are they, Cesar?" said the voice, 
 with a somewhat impatient accent. "You say 
 that from the top of the hill you plainly saw two 
 of them who left the carriage to repose itself, and 
 went on alone. Is it not droll how those English 
 always desire to walk ? In that case they ought 
 to be somewhere about here now, yet we have 
 looked both up and down the road, and they are 
 not there. What then has become of them ? 
 May be that they have turned and gone back 
 again." 
 
 " Diavolo ! that would be too provoking," 
 answered Cesar. " It was unlucky that I lost 
 sight of them as I descended the hill, Ijut it could 
 not possibly be helped, for the bushes were too 
 thick to see through." 
 
 " Well, there is sure to be fine spoil to be had 
 out of these rich English," said the first speaker, 
 " and we must try to get hold of it somehow. If
 
 228 JILL. [chap. 
 
 we fail to find these two by themselves, I suppose 
 we must do what we thought of at first — manage 
 to upset the carriage at that sharp corner of the 
 road further on, and attack when all is in con- 
 fusion." 
 
 "But what if the carriage should not upset 
 after all ?" objected Cesar ; " or what if the driver 
 should carry arms and show fight ? Then perhaps 
 we should be wounded, captured, and shut up 
 again in prison. Bah ! I hate that prison ! Have 
 we not been used like dogs there, and compelled 
 to beat the maquis near Chiavari for sangliers, 
 when some English milord wanted a chasse ? And 
 is it not an altogether detestable place ? Truly I 
 have no fancy to go there again, and I much 
 prefer this second plan to the first one that we 
 thought of. We shall have no danger to fear in 
 dealing with only two women. Let us on no 
 account be foolhardy, Napoleon." 
 
 " Certainly not," answered Napoleon ; " I have 
 no more wish than you have either to go back to 
 prison or to encounter needless peril ! Still, it 
 will be a pity if we cannot secure the golden prize 
 that destiny throws in our way. Those two imist 
 be somewhere not far off at this very moment, 
 unless by bad luck they should have turned back 
 just after you first saw them. Do you think they
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 229 
 
 can have gone off from the road?" "It is pos- 
 sible," returned Cesar ; " anyhow, it is too soon 
 yet to despair of finding them. Do you. Napoleon, 
 go and watch on the road, whilst I search the 
 inaquis on each side, first below and then above. 
 Whichever of us discovers them can summon the 
 other by a whistle." 
 
 '^G-ood," replied Napoleon. And with that 
 the two men separated and went off in different 
 directions, as I knew by the rustling of the bushes. 
 
 Here, then, w^ere two villains in search of Kitty 
 and me, with evil intentions towards us, and we 
 were quite defenceless. Truly, a pleasant predica- 
 ment to be in ! What was I to do now ? 
 
 Had I been able to reason out at leisure what 
 course a person ought to pursue in such a situa- 
 tion, I feel sure that my answer to the above 
 question would have been : Take care of your own 
 safety, keep out of the men's clutches the best 
 way you can, and do not bother yourself about any 
 one else. But when the situation actually occurred, 
 I acted on the impulse of the moment, because 
 there was no time to think the matter over care- 
 fully, and take counsel wdth reason. And the 
 consequence of being in such a hurry was, that I 
 did not behave with that prudent regard to my 
 own interests which was generally characteristic
 
 230 JILL. [chap. 
 
 of me. I was friglitened I must candidly confess, 
 and I desired ardently to be anywhere in security, 
 and to avoid meeting either Napoleon or Cesar. 
 Yet, strange to say, I was influenced at that 
 moment by something else than care for myself. 
 My predominant anxiety — the one object on 
 which my mind was fixed — was, to get to Kitty 
 as quickly as possible, to warn her of the danger, 
 to stand by her, to try to save her. It was cer- 
 tainly very unlike me to have felt like that, and 
 I do not know what occasioned so extraordinary 
 a departure from my usual sentiments. However, 
 there the feeling was, and " c'etait plus fort que 
 moi" Consequently, I only waited where I was 
 till the men were far enough off for me to leave 
 my hiding-place without danger of being dis- 
 covered, and then instantly set out to rejoin her. 
 Taking the utmost pains to move quietly, lest the 
 shaking of the bushes should betray my presence, 
 I crept through the maqicis. Meanwhile I men- 
 tally reviewed the situation, and considered how^ 
 we could extricate ourselves from it. 
 
 I inferred, from what the men had said, that 
 they were not particularly brave, and would prob- 
 ably not venture to attack the carriage if they 
 found its occupants prepared to receive them. 
 Therefore, if we could get safely back to our
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 231 
 
 driver and put liim on his guard, there would not 
 be much to fear from the rascals. But then the 
 question was, could we get back safely ? could we, 
 by crawling through bushes, dodging behind trees, 
 and keeping out of sight as much as possible, 
 retrace our steps to the carriage unperceived ? 
 On the whole, I thought it was to be managed — 
 provided, of course, that I could reach Kitty and 
 get her away before either of our enemies had 
 found her. As they did not know that they were 
 detected, they would expect to meet us going 
 about carelessly and openly, without the least 
 attempt at concealment. This was all in our 
 favour, as it would prevent them from looking for 
 us as closely as they would otherwise have done. 
 Besides, if they did not find us in that immediate 
 neighbourhood, they would discontinue the search, 
 under the impression that we must have returned 
 to the carriage almost directly after leaving it. 
 Therefore it would be only necessary for us to 
 keep in hiding till we had got some distance from 
 where we then were ; after that, we could leave 
 the maquis, and take to the road, where we should 
 be able to run along at full speed, without troubling 
 to keep out of sight. 
 
 As I thought of all this, it seemed to me that 
 we had a very reasonable prospect of escape —
 
 232 JILL. [chap. 
 
 unless, by bad luck, I should fail to get to Kitty 
 before one of the men had found her — everything 
 appeared to me to depend upon that. 
 
 I had left her on a small open space which 
 jutted out a little from the hillside, so as to form 
 a sort of diminutive plateau. Great was my relief, 
 when I came to the edge of this place, to see her 
 still sketching happily, and evidently without a 
 suspicion of danger. She glanced towards me for 
 an instant, and then at once resumed her work, 
 thinking that I was come to fetch her away, and 
 that she must make the most of every remaining 
 moment. Thus her eyes were upon the drawing, 
 and so she did not see the gesture which I made to 
 her to be silent, lest an enemy should be within 
 hearing. 
 
 " Is it time to go, already ?" she said, speaking 
 out loud, as it was natural she should do. " Isn't 
 your watch " 
 
 By that time I was within reach of her, and 
 stopped further utterance forcibly by covering her 
 mouth with my hand. Looking up in surprise and 
 wTath at so unceremonious a proceeding on the 
 part of her maid, she saw by my face that there 
 was something seriously amiss. I began to tell 
 her in a whisper, as fast as I could, what was the 
 state of affairs.
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PEXITENCIERS. 233 
 
 Unluckily the few words she had spoken had 
 wrought the mischief I feared, and showed our 
 whereabouts to one of the villains who were hunt- 
 ing for us. Consequently, I had hardly commenced 
 my hurried communication in her ear, when a low 
 whistle sounded close by, and next moment a man 
 with a gun in his hand stepped out of the bushes, 
 and on to the little plateau where we were. This, 
 then, was no doubt the rogue named Cesar, whom 
 I had heard undertake to explore the maquis for 
 us. As I looked at him, I recognised him to be 
 one of the two men whom I had noticed inquiring 
 about us two or three hours before, at the inn 
 where the horses had been watered. That at once 
 made the whole matter clear to me. 
 
 I have already mentioned that the nature of 
 the ground was such as to enable a pedestrian to 
 travel from point to point as fast as a carriage could 
 do. Knowing this, Cesar and his companion must 
 have made up their minds to hurry on in front, 
 and lie in wait for us at some spot which we had 
 not yet reached, and which they deemed especially 
 favourable for an attack on the carriage. But on 
 their way to the place that they had chosen for an 
 ambush, they had evidently caught sight of Kitty 
 and me leaving the carriage, and been diverted 
 from their first scheme by the hope of securing the
 
 234 JILL. [chap. 
 
 coveted booty in a less hazardous manner than the 
 one they had originally contemplated. It was all 
 as plain as a pike-staff to me now. 
 
 Cesar accosted us in French, saying, in the regu- 
 lar beggar's whine, " Will the ladies have the good- 
 ness to give something to a poor man?" 
 
 Though I had not had time fully to explain 
 things to Kitty, she had picked up enough to know 
 that we were in danger from two escaped peni- 
 teneiers, and when she saw Cesar she guessed that 
 he was one of them. 
 
 This sudden confronting with peril, however, 
 produced in her no trepidation, sign of cowardice, 
 or inclination to quail. She was too proud for 
 that. Her compressed lips, flashing eyes, and hard, 
 resolute, disdainful, undaunted expression, showed 
 a nature that would set its back to the wall (not 
 that there was one handy on the present occasion, 
 however), and fight to the last gasp, but would 
 never flinch an atom, come what might. 
 
 " I have nothing for you," she replied, speaking 
 as haughtily as though we had been in no way in 
 the man's power. 
 
 " But I feel sure that Madame deceives herself," 
 insisted Cesar, who apparently did not wish to 
 proceed to extremities till the arrival of his com- 
 rade Napoleon ; " if she will have the complaisance
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIEES. 235 
 
 to seek, she will without doubt discover money, 
 a watch, rings, brooches, chains, or some such little 
 thing that would keep a poor man from dying of 
 hunger." 
 
 At this point in the conversation, it occurred 
 to me that a good loud scream for help might be 
 introduced with singular appropriateness ; and I 
 proceeded to put my idea into execution. Cesar, 
 however, was of a different opinion, and evidently 
 considered the interruption an untimely one ; for 
 no sooner did I uplift my voice, than he aimed his 
 gun at me, exclaiming savagely, " Silence at once, 
 or I'll kill you!" 
 
 I had no option about obeying this order, 
 because just at that moment, Napoleon — who was 
 hastening up in obedience to his companion's 
 summons — came through the bushes behind where 
 I stood, and clapped his hand roughly over my 
 mouth. 
 
 Cesar grinned mockingly when he saw me thus 
 reduced to silence, and lowered his gun again. 
 
 " That was an atrocious noise ! " he remarked. 
 "Permit me to inform you, madame — first, that 
 screams cannot assist you, since there is no one 
 but us within hearing; secondly, that my friend 
 and myself have inconceivably tender hearts and 
 sensitive nerves. Consequently we cannot endure
 
 236 JILL. [chap. 
 
 the least sound of distress ; and if you should utter 
 another cry in our presence, we should be com- 
 pelled, most reluctantly, to cut your throat in 
 order to spare the exquisite sensibility of our 
 natures. And having given you this caution, let 
 us return to the more pleasing subject of the little 
 souvenirs which you generous ladies are going to 
 bestow upon us. Will you like us to save you 
 trouble by helping ourselves to them?" 
 
 Kitty was as composed as though she had been 
 seated in her father's drawing-room in Eaton 
 Square, and now said to me in English : 
 
 " I'm afraid he's rioht about there beingj no one 
 in hearing to help us, Jill, so it's no good scream- 
 ing. As resistance is useless, we may as well give 
 up our purses and trinkets quietly." Then she 
 continued in French, replying to what the man 
 had said last : " No — you need not help yourselves. 
 We will hand over to you all we have." 
 
 Accordingly we pulled out our money, and took 
 off the few things of any value we happened to be 
 wearing — such as watches, chains, and collar and 
 sleeve studs. These, however, were worth but 
 little, all put together. People do not take valu- 
 able jewellery with them on a rough driving-tour ; 
 and as Mrs. EoUin was our treasurer, Kitty and I 
 had barely ten francs between us in our purses.
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 237 
 
 The two robbers, therefore, who had been reckoning 
 confidently on making a large haul, were greatly 
 dissatisfied and disappointed at the insignificance 
 of the booty they had secured. 
 
 " This won't do at all" grumbled Cesar ; " the 
 idea of capturing a couple of the rich English, and 
 then not getting more than this out of them ! It 
 is ridiculous ! Let us see what is to be done — only 
 first they must be kept from running away." 
 
 And then, after making fast our hands and feet, 
 they drew a few steps aside, and proceeded to con- 
 fer together in a low voice. 
 
 Though they had spoken to us in French, yet 
 in their communications to one another they used 
 Italian. Xoticing this, it occurred to me that if 
 they were to suppose us both to be ignorant of 
 that tongue, they would probably talk more freely 
 before us than they would do if they thought we 
 understood what was said ; in this way we might, 
 perhaps, pick up valuable information ; or at least 
 T might — for Kitty's knowledge of Italian was 
 very limited. I at once imparted my idea to her, 
 and suggested we should pretend that we under- 
 stood only French. I expected she would assent 
 to this as a matter of course ; but, to my surprise, 
 she hesitated, and her face showed that the propo- 
 sition was distasteful to her.
 
 238 JILL. [chap. 
 
 " Well — I don't know," she replied, after a 
 minute's consideration, " I can't allow a couple of 
 scamps to make me degrade myself by telling a 
 lie. If tliey ask me whether I understand them 
 or not, I shall most certainly tell them the truth." 
 
 I was dismayed at this clinging to principles 
 of scrupulous honour in dealing with the two 
 rogues who had us in their power. Her sentiments 
 were very chivalrous and noble, no doubt; but 
 they appeared to me both uncalled-for and out of 
 place at the present moment, and I endeavoured 
 to combat them. " Surely," I said, " you don't 
 deny the truth of the old saying that all is fair in 
 love and war?" 
 
 Her lip curled scornfully as she replied, " That 
 has nothing to do with it. To my mind a lie 
 would be none the less mean because it might be 
 fair. I should lose my self-respect if I were to 
 tell one." 
 
 Even whilst smarting at the reproof which was 
 thus conveyed to me for having advocated lying, 
 I could not help admiring the indomitable pride 
 which was unaffected by considerations of expedi- 
 ency, and would under no circumstances consent 
 to do what was contrary to its sense of dignity. 
 The hankering after her good opinion which I 
 always felt made me wonder uneasily what she
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PEXITENCIEES. 239 
 
 would think of me if she knew how many untruths 
 my self-respect had managed to put up with during 
 my existence. And then I felt half- disgusted 
 with my past conduct, and it flashed upon me that 
 I had a great mind to turn over a new leaf in the 
 matter in future, and behave more according to 
 the principles which she approved of and practised. 
 That, however, should be reserved for further con- 
 sideration, as the present was obviously not a 
 favourable occasion for inaugurating any reform 
 of the kind. Havins^ arrived at which conclusion, 
 I silently resolved to carry out my plan for de- 
 ceiving our captors, if possible, in spite of her 
 objection. Consequently, when one of them, speak- 
 ing in Italian, asked which of us two ladies w^as 
 the most important one, I affected to be utterly 
 unconscious of having been addressed. Kitty, 
 fortunately, was seated farther off from the man 
 than I was, and did not hear what he said, or 
 discover that he w^as not still continuing the con- 
 versation with his comrade. 
 
 The man repeated his question a second time 
 in Italian. Finding that we both remained mute, 
 he asked in French how long it would be before 
 he had an answer. I hastened to reply to this, 
 speaking quickly and in a low tone, lest Kitty 
 should hear what I said, and be prompted by her
 
 240 JILL. [chap. 
 
 inconveniently high-flown sentiments to contradict 
 me flatly. I made believe to be quite astonished 
 to find he had been speaking to us, and most 
 anxious to deprecate his wrath — assuring him that 
 we neither of us understood Italian, and begging 
 him to excuse us, therefore, for the involuntary 
 rudeness of which we had been guilty in not 
 responding to his question. Luckily my precau- 
 tion of speaking, indistinctly, and the fact of 
 Kitty's being a few yards off, prevented her from 
 catching what passed between me and my inter- 
 locutor. The two men then came and stood in 
 front of us, and ISTapoleon said in French, "We 
 want to know which of you two ladies is of the 
 most importance — the chief one ?" 
 
 " I am," answered Kitty. 
 
 " Good," he returned ; " then it is to you that I 
 will speak. We know that you cannot be travel- 
 ling about with no more money than 10 francs, 
 and that you English are always rolling in gold. 
 It follows, therefore, that your riches must be in 
 the keeping of that other lady who stayed with 
 the carriage. Now, those riches we must and will 
 have, and we propose that you shall earn your 
 liberty by helping us to get them. Will you 
 do this?" 
 
 "Tell me what you want me to do, first," answered
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 241 
 
 Kitty ; " then I will tell you whether I will do it 
 or not." 
 
 " Very reasonable !" replied Napoleon. "Our 
 plan is this. You must write to your friend in 
 the carriage such a note as will induce her to 
 follow the bearer at once, in order to join you. 
 The note will be entirely in French, and contain 
 not a word of English, so as to make sure that you 
 say nothing in it that we do not approve of. One 
 of us will take it to her ; then he will conduct her 
 to a safe spot, and relieve her of the money and 
 trinkets that she has. Should the worth of these 
 be sufficient to satisfy our just expectations, you 
 will none of you be detained any longer." 
 
 " And supposing the spoil is less than you anti- 
 cipate," inquired Kitty, "what then?" 
 
 "Ah — but that cannot be, I feel sure!" he 
 returned ; " our expectations are most moderate ; 
 it cannot be that three ladies would travel about 
 so far from their own country without having 
 with them as much money as would satisfy us !" 
 
 " Still — I repeat my question," she said ; " what 
 would you do if not ? And, in any case, what 
 certainty have I that you would keep your word 
 and release us afterwards ?" 
 
 " If madame will not rely on our word of 
 honour," answered he, smiling disagreeably, " I 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 JILL. [chap. 
 
 fear she will have to content herself without that 
 certainty which she desires. She is hardly in the 
 position to enforce any other guarantee of good 
 faith ; and ive shall not insult ourselves by assum- 
 ing such a thing to be necessary. And as for the 
 quite unlikely event of your friend's purse being 
 insufficient to meet our wants — why — ahem ! when 
 the case arises, it will be then ample time to settle 
 what is to be done. Here are paper and a pencil. 
 There is no time to lose. Will madame be so 
 good as to write?" 
 
 Kitty looked at him steadily, without attempting 
 to take the writing materials he proffered. " And 
 do you suppose, then," she said, " that I shall con- 
 sent to bait a trap to bring my aunt to be robbed ? 
 If so, you are very greatly mistaken. And what 
 inducement have you to offer that should make 
 me do so vile a thing? The mere chance that 
 your thirst for plunder might then be satiated, 
 and that you might think fit to set us free ! I 
 do not trust to your honour, nor will I do what 
 you wish. I believe that the plan is merely a 
 ruse to enable you to secure a fresh victim, and 
 that if you could get my aunt also into your 
 hands, you would keep us all three prisoners." 
 
 This accusation was met with vehement denials ; 
 and our captors again endeavoured to persuade her
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIERS. 243 
 
 to assist them by assuring lier it would be to her 
 advantage to do so, and threatening her with evil 
 consequences if she persisted in her refusal. Find- 
 ing, however, that she remained unmoved by what- 
 ever they said, they bethought them that perhaps 
 I might be made to write such a letter as they 
 required, and applied to me accordingly. Kitty, 
 on this, gave me peremptory orders that I was on 
 no account to comply with their request ; and I 
 obeyed her in the matter all the more willingly 
 because I had very little doubt that her surmise 
 was correct as to the treachery which the scoundrels 
 had in contemplation. 
 
 But however much Mrs. Eollin might benefit 
 from our refusal to lend ourselves to their designs, 
 it certainly did not help us in any way. The two 
 men had made up their minds that they were 
 going to get enormous spoils out of "these rich 
 English," and had no idea of resigning their hopes 
 merely because Kitty and I would not aid them 
 to execute their first scheme. Therefore, when 
 they saw they had no chance of carrying their 
 point about that, they determined to adopt another 
 line of action, which was announced to us by 
 Cesar. 
 
 People so unaccommodating and perverse as 
 we were, he said angrily, deserved to be got rid
 
 244 JILL. [chap. 
 
 of altogether; and in sucli a case as this, most 
 gentlemen of the road would not be troubled with 
 ns any longer, but cut our throats without ceremony, 
 and so make an end of the business at once. He 
 and his friend, however, being of so gentle a dis- 
 position as never to resort to violence if it could he 
 hel;ped, would give us a chance of escape. It was 
 their intention to communicate with our friends, 
 and offer to restore us uninjured on payment of a 
 specified sum, which would have to be handed 
 over with such precautions as would ensure the 
 safety of the recipients. Till that was received 
 we should reside under their care in the hills. 
 " But," added the ruffian menacingly, and address- 
 ing himself especially to Kitty, " we cannot wait 
 for ever for the answer, you know; so we shall 
 tell your friends that if the ransom is not forth- 
 coming pretty quickly, we shall try to hasten its 
 arrival by sending some little reminder, such as 
 an ear, a nose, a hand, or a foot; and of course 
 these souvenirs would, in the first place, be furnished 
 by you, since you are of more consequence than 
 your companion. Hers would come later." 
 
 When I heard this I could not repress a shudder 
 at the peril awaiting my cherished members — 
 though, as those of Kitty were destined to be 
 sacrificed first, the danger to mine was only a
 
 XVI.] ESCAPED PENITENCIEES. 245 
 
 reversionary one. She, however, who was more 
 immediately threatened than I was, neither 
 trembled, changed colour, nor gave any other 
 indication of emotion, but remained as unmoved 
 and haughtily composed as before. 
 
 I did not forget that she had been affected by 
 some feeling too strong to be concealed when I 
 had suddenly showed her the photograph of Captain 
 Xorroy. And the difference between her demean- 
 our then and now made me wonder more than 
 ever what the feeling could have been which had 
 had power to upset the self-command of a person 
 so high-couraged, strong, and proudly imperturb- 
 able as she most certainly was. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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