There and Back | Page 6

as another undertake his reform: some
one must! and married him. She had not much of a trousseau, but was
gorgeously attired for the wedding. It is true she had to return to the
earl three-fourths of the jewels she wore; but they were family jewels,
and why should she not have some good of them? She started with fifty
pounds of her own in her pocket, and a demeanour in her person equal
to fifty millions. When they arrived at Mortgrange, the moon was
indeed still in the sky, but the honey-pot, to judge by the appearance of
the twain, was empty: twain they were, and twain would be. The man
wore a look of careless all-rightness, tinged with an expression of
indifferent triumph: he had what he wanted; what his lady might think
of her side of the bargain, he neither thought nor cared. As to the

woman, let her reflections be what they might, not a soul would come
to the knowledge of them. Whatever it was to others, her pale,
handsome face was never false to herself, never betrayed what she was
thinking, never broke the shallow surface of its frozen dignity. Will any
man ever know how a woman of ordinary decency feels after selling
herself? I find the thing hardly safe to ponder. No trace, no shadow of
disappointment clouded the countenance of lady Ann that sultry
summer afternoon as she drove up the treeless avenue. The education
she had received--and education in the worst sense it was! for it had
brought out the worst in her--had rendered her less than human. The
form of her earthly presence had been trained to a fashionable
perfection; her nature had not been left unaided in its reversion toward
the vague animal type from which it was developed: in the curve of her
thin lips as they prepared to smile, one could discern the veiled snarl
and bite. Her eyes were grey, her eyebrows dark; her complexion was a
clear fair, her nose perfect, except for a sharp pinch at the end of the
bone; her nostrils were thin but motionless; her chin was defective, and
her throat as slender as her horrible waist; her hands and feet were large
even for "her tall personage."
After his lady had had a cup of tea, sir Wilton, for something to do,
proposed taking her over the house, which was old, and worthy of
inspection. In their progress they came to a door at the end of a long
and rather tortuous passage. Sir Wilton did not know how the room was
occupied, or he would doubtless have passed it by; but as its windows
gave a fine view of the park, he opened the door, and lady Ann entered.
Sudden displeasure shortened her first step; pride or something worse
lengthened the next, as she bore down on a woman too much occupied
with a child on her knee to look up at the sound of her entrance. When,
a moment after, she did look up, the dreaded stepmother was looking
straight down on her baby. Their eyes encountered. Jane met an icy
stare, and lady Ann a gaze of defiance--an expression by this time
almost fixed on the face of the nurse, for in her spirit she heard every
unspoken remark on her child. Not a word did the lady utter, but to
Jane, her eyes, her very breath seemed to say with scorn, "Is that the
heir?" Sir Wilton did not venture a single look: he was ashamed of his
son, and already a little afraid of his wife, whom he had once seen close
her rather large teeth in a notable way. As she turned toward the

window, however, he stole a glance at his offspring: the creature was
not quite so ugly as before--not quite so repulsive as he had pictured
him! But, good heavens! he was on the lap of the same woman whose
fierceness had upset him almost as much as his child's ugliness! He
walked to the window after his wife. She gazed for a moment, turned
with indifference, and left the room. Her husband followed her. A
glance of fear, dislike, and defiance, went after them from Jane.
Stronger contrast than those two women it would be hard to find. Jane's
countenance was almost coarse, but its rugged outline was almost
grand. Her hair grew low down on her forehead, and she had deep-set
eyes. Her complexion was rough, her nose large and thick. Her mouth
was large also, but, when unaffected by her now almost habitual
antagonism, the curve of her lip was sweet, and occasionally humorous.
Her chin was strong, and the total of her face what we call masculine;
but when she silently regarded her child, it grew beautiful with