1. AUGUST THE FOURTH. TILL FOUR O'CLOCK
732 Words
1. AUGUST THE FOURTH. TILL FOUR
O'CLOCKThe early part of the next week brought an answer to Cytherea's
last note of hope in the way of advertisement—not from a distance
of hundreds of miles, London, Scotland, Ireland, the Continent—as
Cytherea seemed to think it must, to be in keeping with the means
adopted for obtaining it, but from a place in the neighbourhood of
that in which she was living—a country mansion not twenty miles
off. The reply ran thus:—
KNAPWATER HOUSE,
August 3, 1864.
'Miss Aldclyffe is in want of a young person as lady's-maid. The
duties of the place are light. Miss Aldclyffe will be in Budmouth
on Thursday, when (should G. still not have heard of a place) she
would like to see her at the Belvedere Hotel, Esplanade, at four
o'clock. No answer need be returned to this note.'
A little earlier than the time named, Cytherea, clothed in a
modest bonnet, and a black silk jacket, turned down to the hotel.
Expectation, the fresh air from the water, the bright,
far-extending outlook, raised the most delicate of pink colours to
her cheeks, and restored to her tread a portion of that elasticity
which her past troubles, and thoughts of Edward, had well-nigh
taken away.
She entered the vestibule, and went to the window of the
bar.
'Is Miss Aldclyffe here?' she said to a nicely-dressed barmaid
in the foreground, who was talking to a landlady covered with
chains, knobs, and clamps of gold, in the background.
'No, she isn't,' said the barmaid, not very civilly. Cytherea
looked a shade too pretty for a plain dresser.
'Miss Aldclyffe is expected here,' the landlady said to a third
person, out of sight, in the tone of one who had known for several
days the fact newly discovered from Cytherea. 'Get ready her
room—be quick.' From the alacrity with which the order was given
and taken, it seemed to Cytherea that Miss Aldclyffe must be a
woman of considerable importance.
'You are to have an interview with Miss Aldclyffe here?' the
landlady inquired.
'Yes.'
'The young person had better wait,' continued the landlady. With
a money-taker's intuition she had rightly divined that Cytherea
would bring no profit to the house.
Cytherea was shown into a nondescript chamber, on the shady side
of the building, which appeared to be either bedroom or dayroom, as
occasion necessitated, and was one of a suite at the end of the
first-floor corridor. The prevailing colour of the walls, curtains,
carpet, and coverings of furniture, was more or less blue, to which
the cold light coming from the north easterly sky, and falling on a
wide roof of new slates—the only object the small window
commanded—imparted a more striking paleness. But underneath the
door, communicating with the next room of the suite, gleamed an
infinitesimally small, yet very powerful, fraction of contrast—a
very thin line of ruddy light, showing that the sun beamed strongly
into this room adjoining. The line of radiance was the only
cheering thing visible in the place.
People give way to very infantine thoughts and actions when they
wait; the battle-field of life is temporarily fenced off by a hard
and fast line—the interview. Cytherea fixed her eyes idly upon the
streak, and began picturing a wonderful paradise on the other side
as the source of such a beam—reminding her of the well-known good
deed in a naughty world.
Whilst she watched the particles of dust floating before the
brilliant c***k she heard a carriage and horses stop opposite the
front of the house. Afterwards came the rustle of a lady's skirts
down the corridor, and into the room communicating with the one
Cytherea occupied.
The golden line vanished in parts like the phosphorescent streak
caused by the striking of a match; there was the fall of a light
footstep on the floor just behind it: then a pause. Then the foot
tapped impatiently, and 'There's no one here!' was spoken
imperiously by a lady's tongue.
'No, madam; in the next room. I am going to fetch her,' said the
attendant.
'That will do—or you needn't go in; I will call her.'
Cytherea had risen, and she advanced to the middle door with the
chink under it as the servant retired. She had just laid her hand
on the knob, when it slipped round within her fingers, and the door
was pulled open from the other side.
- Writer
