“Well, it isn’t any use at all, and never was,” said Jenny. “Not that one can wonder at his lordship’s ripping up at her, for gentlemen don’t like scenes, except when they create ’em themselves, like Papa, when the meat’s not dressed right. The thing is, what’s to be done now?”
“I can’t think!” said Lady Oversley. “I am being driven distracted! Oversley is saying that if Julia can’t conduct herself with propriety she had best retire to a convent, which is quite absurd, for if she retired anywhere it would be to Old Lady Oversley, but I don’t wish her to! Here she is, in her second season, and how, I ask you, is she to be creditably married, when her father talks such nonsense, and she will do nothing but — Oh, dear, how awkward this is! I shouldn’t be talking about it to you at all, which just shows how much my nerves are overset!”
“There’s no need for anyone to be in a worry over me,” replied Jenny stolidly. “No need for any flummery between us either, ma’am. No one thinks Adam married me for love. Only it’s a pity that everyone should know it was Julia he wanted, and she him.” She paused, frowning. “There’s plenty of people who fall in love, and then fall out of it again, so I daresay it doesn’t signify, however many of her friends Julia took into her confidence. But it won’t do, will it, for her to be showing everyone that she’s wearing the willow for him?”
“No, it will not do!” agreed her ladyship, with feeling. “And so disagreeable to you, too, which, I assure you, I perfectly understand!”
“That don’t signify. It’s Adam I’m thinking about — and you too, ma’am, for you’ve been very kind to me.”
“I shall have to keep Julia out of his way. And how I am to do it, unless I send her back to Tunbridge Wells — ”
“Well, you can’t, of course, and to my way of thinking it wouldn’t answer. Sooner or later they’ll be bound to meet, and ten to one we’d be regularly in for it again, because the sight of him would be bound to bring it all back to her. And it won’t do to avoid us, because you’ve always been very friendly with the Deverils, by what Lydia’s told me, and so that would set people talking. So what I came to say to you, ma’am, was that the best thing is to let the quizzes see that we’re all very good friends. There’s no sense in putting Julia in Adam’s way more than’s needful, but if she visits me, and goes out with me now and then, she will meet him, and — and grow accustomed to it.”
Lady Oversley, who was regarding her in a good deal of astonishment, said: “But Jenny, surely you cannot wish — I mean, is it wise?”
Jenny was silent for a moment. “Well, I’ve been wondering that myself. Of course, the best would be if they were never to meet at all, but since that can’t be it seems to me better they should meet often enough for it to get to be an ordinary thing than to meet only by accident.”
“If only I had known!” exclaimed Lady Oversley, dissolving into tears. “I ought never to have allowed it, but it seemed so suitable! Oh dear, who could have guessed it would end in my cherished Julia breaking her heart? Though of course I should have guessed she would, because she always said he was like Sir Galahad, which I’m sure he is — if Sir Galahad was the one I think he was — Or don’t you think so?” she asked, perceiving that Jenny’s eyes had narrowed in sudden laughter.
“Well, I don’t know, but I shouldn’t have thought so. But I was never one for reading those old romances and legends that Julia dotes on,” said Jenny apologetically. “I do know that he likes his eggs boiled for four minutes exactly, and won’t touch muffins.”
“Won’t touch muffins?” faltered Lady Oversley.
“Can’t abide them! And there’s nothing frets him more than having his things out of order. He says it comes from living in tents, when there’s no bearing it if you don’t keep everything just so. I’ve been obliged to tell my housekeeper that if she can’t keep the maids from rearranging the things on his dressing-table she’ll have to leave at the term. Mind, for anything I know Sir Galahad may have been pernickety too — though I’d wager you an egg at Easter, as Papa says, that that’s not what Julia thinks!”
“No,” said Lady Oversley faintly. “No, indeed!”
“So, if you’re agreeable, ma’am, I’ll try if I can’t coax Julia to drive with me in the Park tomorrow. And if you and my lord would bring her to dine with us next week, when Adam’s mother and Lydia will be with us, we should be very happy. It would be a natural thing for you to do, wouldn’t it, with Lady Lynton going off to Bath, as she is, and spending a couple of nights in Grosvenor Street? It won’t be a regular party, though I mean to invite Lord Brough as well.”
“Oh, but Julia would never — Oh, dear, I don’t know what to say! Of course it would make an excellent impression, if it were known that we had all dined informally with you, but I’m afraid Julia would shrink from such a scheme!”
“I don’t doubt she will, but there’s no saying but what I may be able to bring her round my thumb. I’ll go up to her, if I may.”
Startled, Lady Oversley said: “No no! I mean she is so much overpowered — She won’t wish to see you, Jenny!”
“Very likely not, but she won’t have any choice. Now don’t be in the fidgets, ma’am! There’ll be no harm done, I promise you!”
With these words she got up, and walked briskly out of the room, leaving Lady Oversley feeling helpless and extremely apprehensive.
Chapter XI
The light in Julia’s room was dim, the blinds having been drawn across the windows. Shutting the door, Jenny said cheerfully: “May I come in? Though that’s a silly thing to say when I’m in already!”
She could just perceive Julia, lost in the middle of the large bed. The fair head turned on the pillow. “You!” Julia uttered.
“That’s right,” said Jenny. “I came to see how you did. You won’t mind if I draw the blinds back: I shall be blundering into the furniture if we don’t have a bit more light.”
“Have you come to reproach me?” Julia demanded. “You need not!”
The sunlight flooded the room; Jenny trod over to the bed, saying: “Now, when did I ever do so, goose?” She bent over Julia and kissed her cheek. “Stop fretting yourself to flinders, love!”
Julia shrank, turning her face away. “I wish you hadn’t come! You mean to be kind, I collect, but you don’t understand! If you had sensibility — ”
“Well, I haven’t, so there’s no sense expecting me to behave as if I had. And just as well for Adam I haven’t,” Jenny added, “for if I were to carry on as you do, Julia, he’d be driven demented between the pair of us!”
Julia pulled herself up. “I would not have spoken his name to you, or have uttered a word of what lies between us, if you had but refrained!”
“No, I daresay you wouldn’t,” agreed Jenny, shaking up her pillows. “So I haven’t refrained. Not that it’s an easy thing to talk about, but it makes for awkwardness if we must never mention it. I don’t know how to hide my teeth, either, so you say what you wish, and don’t fear to offend me, because you won’t do it.”
The huge eyes gazed wonderingly at her. “How strange you are!” Julia said. “I suppose I never understood you. But I thought I did! When they told me — showed me the notice in the Gazette — I wouldn’t believe it! You were my friend! You knew, but you stole Adam from me! How could you?”