Books: Janice Meredith

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Neither the protests nor prayers of the baronet, however,
served to gain Mrs. Meredith's consent that her daughter
should enter what she called "The Devil's Pit," but what he
could not bring to pass the commissary did.

"I have bespoke a box for the first performance at the
theatre," Lord Clowes announced at dinner one evening,
"and bid ye all as my guests."

"'T is a sinful place, to which I will never lend my countenance,"
said Mrs. Meredith, with such promptness as to
suggest a forestalling of her husband and daughter.

The commissary bowed his head in apparent acquiescence,
but when he and the squire were left to their wine he recurred
to the matter.

"I look to ye, Meredith," he said, "to overcome your
wife's absurd whimsey."

"'T is useless to argue with Matilda when her mind 's made
up," answered the husband, dejectedly. "That I have learned
time and again."

"And so 't is with all women, if a man 's so foolish as to
argue. Didst ever hear of ignorance paying heed to reason?
There's but one way to deal with the sex: 'Do this, do that;
ye shall, ye sha'n't,' is all the vocabulary a man needs to make
matrimony agreeable. Put your foot down, and, mark me,
she'll come to heel like a spaniel. But go ye must, for Sir
William makes it a positive point that all of prominence attend
the theatre and assembly, that the public may learn that
the gentry are with us."

"They brought no clothes for such occasions," objected the
squire, falling back on a new line of defence.

"Take fifty pounds more from me; 't will be money well
spent."

"I like not to increase my borrowings, and especially for
female fallals and furbelows."

"Nonsense, man; don't shy at a few hundred pounds. Ye
know one year of order and rents will pay all ye owe me twice
over. Ye must not displeasure Sir William for such a sum."

So it came to pass that the squire, when they rejoined the
ladies, emboldened by his wine, promptly let fall the observation
that he had decided they were all to go to the
theatre.

"Thou heardst me say that I am principled against it,"
dissented Mrs. Meredith.

"Tush, Matilda! I gave in to your Presbyterian swaddling
clothes and lacing-strings at Greenwood, but now ye must do
as I say. So get ye to a mercer's to-morrow, and set to on
proper clothes."

"Dost wish to see thy wife and daughter damned,
Lambert?"

"Ay, if that 's to be my fate, and so should ye. Go I shall
to the theatre, and so shall Janice. If ye prefer salvation to
our company, stay at home."

"Oh, mommy, please, please go," eagerly implored Janice.
"Captain Andre assures me that 't is not in the least evil."

With tears in her eyes, Mrs. Meredith rose. "'T is not
right; but if sin thou must, I too will eat of the fruit, rather
than be parted from thee." She kissed both Mr. Meredith
and Janice with an almost savage tenderness, and passed
hurriedly from the room, leaving a very astounded husband
and a very delighted daughter.

The girl's delight was not lessened the next day when they
went a-shopping, and with the purchases a sudden end was
put to her help of the theatricals, and even, temporarily, to
the French and painting lessons. If ever maid was grateful
for the weary hours of training in fine sewing and embroidery,
Janice was, as she toiled, with cheeks made hectic by excitement,
over the frock in which her waking thoughts were
centred. When finally the day came for the trying on, and it
fulfilled her highest expectation, her ecstasy, unable to contain
itself, was forced to find expression, and she poured the rapture
out in a letter to Tabitha, though knowing full well that
only by the luckiest chance could it ever be sent.

"Only to think of it, Tibbie!" she wrote. "We are to have
plays given by the officers, and weekly dancing assemblies, and
darling dadda says I am to go to both; and all my gowns being
monstrous nugging and frumpish, he told mommy to see that I
had a new one, though where the money came from (for though
I did every stitch myself, it cost a pretty penny--no less than
seventeen pounds and eight shillings, Tibbie!) I have puzzled
not a little to fancy. I fear me I cannot describe it justly to
you, but I will do my endeavour. 'T is a black velvet with pink
satin sleeves and stomacher, and a pink satin petticoat, over
which is a fall of white crape; the sides open in front, spotted
all over with gray embroidery, and the edge of the coat and
skirt trimmed with gray fur. Oh, Tibbie, 't is the most elegant
and dashy robing that ever was! Pray Heaven I don't dirt it
for it is to serve for the whole winter! Peggy has three new
frocks, and Margaret Shippen four, but mine is the prettiest,
and by tight lacing (though no tighter than theirs) I make my
waist an ell smaller than either. In addition, I have a nabob
of gray tabby silk trimmed with the same fur, which has such
a sweet and modish air that I could cry at having to remove it
but for what it would conceal. I intend to ask Peggy if 't would
be citified and a la mode to keep it on for a little while after
entering the box by the plea that the playhouse is cold. The
high mode now is to dress the hair enormous tall--a good
eight inches, Tibbie--over a steel frame, powdered mighty
white, and to stick a mouchet or two on the face. It seems to
me I cannot wait for the night, yet my teeth rattle and my hands
tremble and I am all in a shake whenever I think of it; if I
can but keep from being mute as a stock-fish, and gawkish, for
I am all alive with fear that I shall be both, and shame us all!
Peggy has taught me the minuet glide and curtsey and languish,
and I am to step it at the first Assembly with Captain Andre,--
such a pretty, engaging fellow, Tibbie, who will never swing for
want of tongue; and Lord Rawdon has bespoke my hand for
the quadrille,--a stern, frowning man, who frights me greatly,
but 't is a monstrous distinction I need scarce say to be asked
by one who will some day be an earl, Tibbie--and I dance the
Sir Roger de Coverley with Sir Frederick Mobray, who is delightsome,
too, by his rallying, performs most entrancingly on
the flute, and is one of the best bowlers in the weekly cricket
matches, but who is said to play very deep at Pharaoh in the
club the officers have established; and to keep a great number
of fighting cocks on which he wagers vast sums--if rumour
speaks true, as high as a hundred guineas on a single main,
Tibbie--at the cock-pit they have set up. A great crowd assembled
yesterday to see him and Major Tarleton ride their
chargers from Sixth Street to the river on a bet, and he lost
because a little girl toddled out from the sidewalk and he pulled
up, while the major, who is a wonderful horseman, spurred
and leaped over her. But he was blamed for taking the risk,
for his horse might not have risen, so Colonel Harcourt told
Nancy Bond. 'T was Major Tarleton, I daresay you recollect;
who was at our house when General Lee was captivated; and
P. Hennion then told me he was considered the most reckless
and dare-devil officer in the cavalry, but a cruel man. 'Mr.
Lee,' as they all term him, here,--for they will not give the
Whigs any titles,--has just been brought to Philadelphia and
is at large on parole, pending an exchange, which has been delayed
because 't is feared by the British that any convention may
be taken as a recognition of the rebels, and be so considered by
France and Spain.

"So much has happened," the letter-writer continued a week
later, "I scarce know where to begin, Tibbie, nor how to convey
to you the wondrous occurrences. Oh, Tibbie, Tibbie, plays
are the most amazing and marvellous things in the world! Not
a one of the officers could I recognise, so changed they were, and
they did us females to the life. 'T was so enchanting that at
times I found myself gasping through very forgetfulness to breathe,
and I was dreadfully rallied and quizzed because I burst into
tears when the poor minor seemed to have lost both his love and his
property. But how can I touch off my feelings, when, in the
fourth act; the villain was detected; and all ended as it should!
And, oh! Tibbie, mommy enjoyed it nearly as much as I,
though the farce at the end vastly shocked her--and, indeed,
Tibbie, 't was most indelicate, and made me blush a scarlet, and
all the more that Sir William whispered that he enjoyed the
broad parts through my cheeks--and she says if dadda insists,
we'll go again, though not to stay to the farce. We had to sit
in Lord Clowes' box--which sadly affronted Captain Andre
--and Sir William, who has hitherto kept himself muck secluded;
made his first appearance in public, and, as you wilt
have inferred, visited our box during a part of the performance,
drawing all eyes upon us, which agitated me greatly. Dadda
told him I was learning to sketch, and nothing would do but I
must give him an example, so on the back of the play-bill I
made a caricature of General Lee, which was extravagantly
praised, and was passed from hand to hand all over the house,
and excited a titter wherever it went, for the general was in attendance;
but judge of my feelings, Tibbie, when an officer
passed it to Lee himself! He fell into a mighty rage, and demanded
aloud to know who had thus insulted him, and but for
Lord Clowes and Sir William preventing me, I'd have fled
from the place, I was in such a panic. Pray Heaven he never
learn! I dare not repeat to thee half the civil things which
were said of this 'sweet creature,' as they styled me, for fear
thou'lt think me vain. 'As thee is, I doubt not,' I hear thee
say. Saucy Tibbie Drinker!"

At the very time that this account was being penned, some
twenty miles away, a man was also writing, and a paragraph in
his letter read:--

"Our going into winter quarters, instead of keeping the field,
can have been reprobated only by those gentlemen who think
soldiers are made of stocks and stones and equally insensible to
frost and snow; and, moreover, who conceived it easily practicable
for an inferior army, under the disadvantages we are
known to labour under, to confine a superior one, in all respects
well appointed and provided for a winter's campaign, within
the city of Philadelphia, and to cover from depredation and
waste the States of Pennsylvania and Jersey. But what makes
this matter still more extraordinary in my eye is that those very
gentlemen--who well know that the path of this army from
Whitemarsh to Valley Forge might have been tracked by the
blood of footprints, and that not a boot or shoe had since been
issued by the commissaries: who are well apprised of the
nakedness of the troops from ocular demonstration; whom I
myself informed of the fact that some brigades had been four
days without meat, and were unsupplied with the very straw to
save them from sleeping on the bare earth floors of the huts, so
that one-third of this army should be in hospitals, if hospitals
there were, and that even the common soldiers had been forced
to come to my quarters to make known their wants and suffering
--should think a winter's campaign and the covering of
these States from the invasion of an enemy so easy and practical
a business. I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much
easier and less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a
comfortable room by a good fireside than to keep a cold, bleak
hill and sleep under frost and snow without clothes or blankets.
However, although they seem to have little feeling for the naked
and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and
from my soul I pity those miseries which it is neither in my
power to relieve nor prevent.

"It is for these reasons that I dwelt upon the subject to Congress;
and it adds not a little to my other difficulties and distress
to find that much more is expected of me than it is possible
to perform, the more that upon the ground of safety and policy
I am obliged to conceal the true state of this army from public
view, and thereby expose myself to detraction and calumny."

The letter completed, the man took up the tallow dip, and
passed from the cramped, chilly room in which he had sat to
a still more cold and contracted hallway. Tiptoeing up a
stairway, he paused a moment to listen at a door, then
entered.

"I heard your voice, Brereton, so knew you were waking.
Well, Billy, how does the patient?"

"Pohly, massa, pohly. De doctor say de ku'nel 'ud do
fus-class ef he only would n't wherrit so, but he do nothin'
but toss an' act rambunctious, an' dat keep de wound fretted
an' him feverish."

"And fret I will," came a voice from the bed, "till I've
done with this feather-bed coddling and am allowed to take
my share of the work and privation."

"Nay, my boy," said Washington, coming to the bedside
and laying his hand kindly on Jack's shoulder; "there is
naught to be done, and you are well out of it. Give the
wound its chance to heal."

Brereton gave a flounce. "Do, in the name of mercy, Billy,
get me a glass of water," he begged querulously. Then, after
the black had departed, he asked: "What has Congress
done?"

"They have voted Gates president of the Board of War,
with almost plenary powers."

"A fit reward for his holding back until too late the troops
that would have put us, and not the British, in Philadelphia
this winter. You won't let their ill-treatment force you into a
resignation, sir?"

"I have put my hand to the plough and shall ne'er turn
back. If I leave the cause, it will be by their act and not
mine.

"Congress may hamper and slight you, sir, but will not
dare to supersede you, for very fear of their own constituents.
The people trust you, if the politicians don't."

"Set your mind on more quieting things, Brereton," advised
Washington, taking the young fellow's hand affectionately.
"May you have a restful night."

"One favour before you go, your Excellency," exclaimed
Jack, as the general turned. "I--Could n't--Does McLane
still get his spies into the city?"

"Almost daily."

"Could he--Wilt ask him--to--to make inquiry--if
possible--of one--concerning Miss Janice Meredith, and
let me know how she fares?"

The general pressed the aide's hand, and was opening his
lips, when a figure, covered by a negligee night-gown of green
silk, appeared at the door.

"I've heard thee exciting John for the last half-hour, Mr.
Washington," she said upbraidingly. "I am amazed at thy
thoughtlessness."

"Nay, Patsy, I but stopped in to ask how he did and to
bid him a good-night," replied Washington, gently.

"A half-hour," reiterated Mrs. Washington, sternly, "and
now you still tarry."

"Only because you block the doorway, my dear," said the
husband, equably. "If I delayed at all, 't was because Brereton
wished to set in train an inquiry concerning his sweetheart."

"His what?" exclaimed the dame. "Let me pass in, Mr.
Washington. John must tell me all about her this moment."

"You said he should sleep, Patsy," replied the general,
smiling. "Come to our room, my dear, and I'll tell you
somewhat of her."

But however much may have been told in the privacy of
the connubial chamber, one fact was not stated: That far
back in the bottom drawer of the bureau in which Janice
kept her clothes lay a half-finished silk purse, to which not
a stitch bad been added since the day that the muttering
of the guns of Brandywine had sounded through the streets
of Philadelphia.

XLII
BARTER AND SALE

The first check to Janice's full enjoyment of the
novel and delightful world into which she had
plunged so eagerly came early in March.
"I have ill news for thee, my child," Mr. Meredith
apprised her, as he entered the room where she was sitting.
"I just parted from Mr. Loring, the Commissary of Prisoners,
and he asked if Philemon Hennion were not a friend of ours,
and then told me that the deputy-commissary at Morristown
writ him last week that the lad had died of the putrid fever."

"I am very sorry," the girl said, with a genuine regret in
her voice. "He--I wish--I can't but feel that 't is something
for which I am to blame."

"Nay, don't lay reproach on yeself, Jan," advised the
father, little recking of what was in his daughter's mind. "If
we go to blaming ourselves for the results of well-considered
conduct, there is no end to sorrow. But I fear me his death
will bring us a fresh difficulty. We'll say nothing of the news
to Lord Clowes, and trust that he hear not of it; for once
known, he'll probably begin teasing us to let him wed ye."

"Dadda!" cried Janice, "you never would--would give
him encouragement? Oh, no, you--you love me too much."

"Ye know I love ye, Jan, and that whatever I do, I try to
do my best for ye. But--"

"Then don't give him any hope. Oh, dadda, if you knew
how I--"

"He 's not the man I'd pick for ye, Jan, that I grant.
Clowes is--"

"He beguiled me shamefully--and he broke his parole--
and he takes mean advantage whene'er he can--and he
crawls half the time and bullies the rest--and when he's
polite he makes me shudder or grow cold--and when
he's--"

"Now, don't fly into a flounce or a ferment till ye've listened
to what I have to say, child. 'T is--"

"Oh, dadda, no! Don't--"

"Hark to me, Janice, and then ye shall have all the speech
ye wish. By this time, lass, ye are old enough to know that
life is not made up of doing what one wishes, but doing what
one can or must. The future for us is far blacker than I
have chosen to paint to ye. Many of the British officers
themselves now concede that the subduing of the rebels will
be a matter of years, and that ere it is accomplished, the
English people may tire of it; and though I'll ne'er believe
that our good king will abandon to the rule and vengeance of
the Whigs those who have remained loyal to him, yet the outlook
for the moment is darkened by the probability that
France will come to the assistance of the rebels. The Pennsylvania
Assembly has before it an act of attainder and forfeiture
which will drive from the colony all those who have held
by the king, and take from them their lands; and as soon as
the Jersey Assembly meets, it will no doubt do the same, and
vote us into exile and poverty. Even if my having taken no
active part should save me from this fate, the future is scarce
bettered, for 't will take years for the country to recover from
this war, and rents will remain unpaid. Nor is this the depth
of our difficulties. Already I am a debtor to the tune of nigh
four hundred pounds to Lord Clowes--"

"Dadda, no!" cried the girl. "Don't say it!"

"Ay. Where didst thou suppose the money came from on
which I lived in New York and all of us here? Didst think
thy gown came from heaven?"

"I'd have died sooner than owe it to him," moaned Janice.
"How could you let me go to the expense?"

"'T was not to be avoided, Jan. As Sir William's wish
was that we should lend our countenance to the festivities,
't would not have done to displeasure him, and since I was to
be debtor to Lord Clowes, another fifty pounds was not worth
balking at. More still I'll have to ask from him, I fear, ere
we are safe out of this wretched coil."

"Oh, prithee, dadda," implored the girl, "do not take
another shilling. I'll work my fingers to the bone--do anything
--rather than be indebted to him!"

"'T is not to be helped, child. Think ye work is to be
obtained at such a time, with hundreds in the city out of
employment and at the point of starvation? Thank your
stars, rather, that we have a friend who not merely gives us a
shelter and food, but advances us cash enough to make us
easy. Dost think I have not tried for employment myself?
I've been to merchant after merchant to beg even smouting
work, and done the same to the quartermaster's and commissary's
departments, but nothing wage-earning is to be had."

"'T is horrible!" despairingly wailed Janice.

"That it might be blacker can at least be said, and that is
why I wish thee not to let thy feelings set too strongly against
Lord Clowes. Here 's a peer of England, Jan, with wealth as
well, eager to wed thee. He is not what I would have him,
but it would be a load off my mind and off thy mother's to
feel that thy future at least is made safe and--"

"I'd die sooner than live such a future," cried the girl.
"I could not live with him!"

"Yet ye ran off with this man."

"But then I did not know him as I know him now. You
won't force me, will you, dadda?"

"That I'll not; but act not impulsively, lass. Talk with
thy mother, and view it from all sides. And meantime, we'll
hope he'll not hear of the poor lad's death."

Left alone by her father to digest this advice, Janice lapsed
into a despondent attitude, while remarking: "'T is horrible,
and never could I bring myself to it. Starvation would be
easier." She sat a little time pondering; then, getting her
cloak, calash, and pattens, she set forth, the look of thought
displaced by one of determination. A hurried walk of a few
squares brought her to the Franklin house, where she asked
for Andre.

"Miss Meredith," cried the captain, as he appeared at the
door, "this is indeed an honour! But why tarry you
outside?"

"I fear me, Captain Andre, that I am doing a monstrous
bold thing, and therefore will not enter, but beg of you instead
that you walk with me a little distance, for I am in a real
difficulty and would ask your help."

The officer caught up his hat and sword, and in a moment
they were walking down Second Street. Several times Janice
unsuccessfully sought to begin her tale, but Andre finally had
to come to her assistance.

"You surely do not fear to trust me, Miss Meredith, and
you cannot doubt the surety of assistance, if it be within my
power?"

For a moment the girl's lips trembled; then she said," Dost
truly think the miniature frame I showed thee is worth as much
as five hundred pounds?"

"I think 't is, beyond doubt."

"And dost thou think that thee couldst obtain four hundred
pounds for it?"

"Of that I can scarce give assurance, for 't is a question
whether a purchaser can be found for it. Yet I make small
doubt, Miss Meredith," he added, "that if you will leave
your portrait in it, one man there is in Philadelphia will
gladly buy it at that price, though he run in debt to do it.
If you desire to sell it, why do you not offer it to Mobray?"

The girl had coloured with Andre's first remark, and ere he
had completed his speech, her cheeks were all aglow. "I--
I could not offer it to him. Surely you can understand that
't would be impossible?" she stammered.

"I suppose I am dull-witted not to know it," said Andre,
hurriedly, in evident desire to lessen her embarrassment.
"However, 't was but a suggestion, and if you desire to sell,
I will gladly undertake to negotiate it for you."

"Oh, will you?" cried the girl, eagerly. "'T will so
greatly service me."

Without more ado, she held out her hand, which contained
the miniature, and after a second outburst of thanks, quite
unconscious of the fact that she was leaving him abruptly,
she hurried away, not homeward, but in a direction which
presently brought her to a house before which a sentry paced,
where she stopped.

"Is Sir William within?" she asked of the uniformed
servant who answered her knock; and when told that he was,
added: "Wilt say that Miss Meredith begs speech with him?"

The servant showed her into the parlour, then passed into
the room back of it, and Janice heard the murmur of his
words as he delivered her message.

"Miss Meredith," cried a woman's voice. "What does
that puss want with you, Sir William?"

The bass of a masculine reply came to the visitor's ears,
though pitched too low for her to distinguish words.

"I know better than to take any man's oath concerning
that," retorted the feminine speaker; and on the last word
the door was flung wider open, and a woman of full figure and
of very pronounced beauty burst into the room where the girl
sat, closely followed, if not in fact pursued, by the British
commander-in-chief. "What do you want with Sir William?"
she demanded.

Janice had risen, half in fright and half in courtesy; but
the cry she uttered, even as the inquiry was put, was significant
of something more than either.

"Well," went on the questioner, "art struck with a syncope
that thou dost nothing but gape and stare at me?"

"I beg your pardon," faltered the girl. "I recognised--
that is--I mean, 't was thy painting that--"

"Malapert!" shrieked the woman. "How dare you say
I paint! Dost have the vanity to think thou 'rt the only one
with a red and white skin?"

"Oh, indeed, madam," gasped Janice, "I alluded not to
thy painting and powdering, but to the miniature that--"

"Sir William," screamed the dame, too furious even to
heed the attempted explanation, "how can you stand there
and hear this hussy thus insult me?"

"Then in Heaven's name get back to the room from which
you should ne'er have come," muttered Howe, crossly.

"And leave you to the tete-a-tete you wish with this bold
minx."

"Ay, leave me to learn why Miss Meredith honours me with
this visit."

"You need not my absence, if that is all you wish to know.
'T would be highly wrong to leave a miss, however artful,
unmatronised. Here I stay till I see cause to change my
mind."