A Laodicean

Chapter 7

When he awoke the next morning at the Lord-Quantock-Arms Hotel

Somerset felt quite morbid on recalling the intelligence he

had received from Mrs. Camperton. But as the day for serious

practical consultation about the castle works, to which Paula

had playfully alluded, was now close at hand, he determined to

banish sentimental reflections on the frailties that were

besieging her nature, by active preparation for his

professional undertaking. To be her high-priest in art, to

elaborate a structure whose cunning workmanship would be

meeting her eye every day till the end of her natural life,

and saying to her, 'He invented it,' with all the eloquence of

an inanimate thing long regarded--this was no mean

satisfaction, come what else would.

He returned to town the next day to set matters there in such

trim that no inconvenience should result from his prolonged

absence at the castle; for having no other commission he

determined (with an eye rather to heart-interests than to

increasing his professional practice) to make, as before, the

castle itself his office, studio, and chief abiding-place till

the works were fairly in progress.

On the tenth he reappeared at Markton. Passing through the

town, on the road to Stancy Castle, his eyes were again

arrested by the notice-board which had conveyed such startling

information to him on the night of the ball. The small bills

now appeared thereon; but when he anxiously looked them over

to learn how the parts were to be allotted, he found that

intelligence still withheld. Yet they told enough; the list

of lady-players was given, and Miss Power's name was one.

That a young lady who, six months ago, would scarcely join for

conscientious reasons in a simple dance on her own lawn,

should now be willing to exhibit herself on a public stage,

simulating love-passages with a stranger, argued a rate of

development which under any circumstances would have surprised

him, but which, with the particular addition, as leading

colleague, of Captain De Stancy, inflamed him almost to anger.

What clandestine arrangements had been going on in his absence

to produce such a full-blown intention it were futile to

guess. Paula's course was a race rather than a march, and

each successive heat was startling in its eclipse of that

which went before.

Somerset was, however, introspective enough to know that his

morals would have taken no such virtuous alarm had he been the

chief male player instead of Captain De Stancy.

He passed under the castle-arch and entered. There seemed a

little turn in the tide of affairs when it was announced to

him that Miss Power expected him, and was alone.

The well-known ante-chambers through which he walked, filled

with twilight, draughts, and thin echoes that seemed to

reverberate from two hundred years ago, did not delay his eye

as they had done when he had been ignorant that his destiny

lay beyond; and he followed on through all this ancientness to

where the modern Paula sat to receive him.

He forgot everything in the pleasure of being alone in a room

with her. She met his eye with that in her own which cheered

him. It was a light expressing that something was understood

between them. She said quietly in two or three words that she

had expected him in the forenoon.

Somerset explained that he had come only that morning from

London.

After a little more talk, in which she said that her aunt

would join them in a few minutes, and Miss De Stancy was still

indisposed at her father's house, she rang for tea and sat

down beside a little table.

'Shall we proceed to business at once?' she asked him.

'I suppose so.'

'First then, when will the working drawings be ready, which I

think you said must be made out before the work could begin?'

While Somerset informed her on this and other matters, Mrs.

Goodman entered and joined in the discussion, after which they

found it would be necessary to adjourn to the room where the

plans were hanging. On their walk thither Paula asked if he

stayed late at the ball.

'I left soon after you.'

'That was very early, seeing how late you arrived.'

'Yes. . . . I did not dance.'

'What did you do then?'

'I moped, and walked to the door; and saw an announcement.'

'I know--the play that is to be performed.'

'In which you are to be the Princess.'

'That's not settled,--I have not agreed yet. I shall not play

the Princess of France unless Mr. Mild plays the King of

Navarre.'

This sounded rather well. The Princess was the lady beloved

by the King; and Mr. Mild, the young lieutenant of artillery,

was a diffident, inexperienced, rather plain-looking fellow,

whose sole interest in theatricals lay in the consideration of

his costume and the sound of his own voice in the ears of the

audience. With such an unobjectionable person to enact the

part of lover, the prominent character of leading young lady

or heroine, which Paula was to personate, was really the most

satisfactory in the whole list for her. For although she was

to be wooed hard, there was just as much love-making among the

remaining personages; while, as Somerset had understood the

play, there could occur no flingings of her person upon her

lover's neck, or agonized downfalls upon the stage, in her

whole performance, as there were in the parts chosen by Mrs.

Camperton, the major's wife, and some of the other ladies.

'Why do you play at all!' he murmured.

'What a question! How could I refuse for such an excellent

purpose? They say that my taking a part will be worth a

hundred pounds to the charity. My father always supported the

hospital, which is quite undenominational; and he said I was

to do the same.'

'Do you think the peculiar means you have adopted for

supporting it entered into his view?' inquired Somerset,

regarding her with critical dryness. 'For my part I don't.'

'It is an interesting way,' she returned persuasively, though

apparently in a state of mental equipoise on the point raised

by his question. 'And I shall not play the Princess, as I

said, to any other than that quiet young man. Now I assure

you of this, so don't be angry and absurd! Besides, the King

doesn't marry me at the end of the play, as in Shakespeare's

other comedies. And if Miss De Stancy continues seriously

unwell I shall not play at all.'

The young man pressed her hand, but she gently slipped it

away.

'Are we not engaged, Paula!' he asked. She evasively shook

her head.

'Come--yes we are! Shall we tell your aunt?' he continued.

Unluckily at that moment Mrs. Goodman, who had followed them

to the studio at a slower pace, appeared round the doorway.

'No,--to the last,' replied Paula hastily. Then her aunt

entered, and the conversation was no longer personal.

Somerset took his departure in a serener mood though not

completely assured.